Matthew chapter 13 and look at
verse 31. Matthew chapter 13 and verse
31. It's the Lord Jesus Christ that's
speaking here, and we're told by Matthew, "'Another parable
put he forth unto them, saying, "'The kingdom of heaven is like
to a grain of mustard seed, "'which a man took and sowed in his field,
"'which indeed is the least of all seeds. But when it is grown,
it is the greatest among herbs and becometh a tree, so that
the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. Another parable speak he unto
them, the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman
took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. Amen. May God bless to us this
short passage from his word. Now, some of you will remember
that a couple of weeks ago we spoke about the sower and how
the sower went out into his field and he carried some seed with
him and he sowed that seed in his fields. Perhaps if you have
a good memory, you will remember that we spoke about the different
kinds of ground that the seed fell in, that there was only
some of the seed fell into good ground and grew fruitfully. And we learned from that parable
that when the gospel is preached, only those whose hearts have
been properly prepared as good soil by the sower or by the farmer
will receive that seed and be fruitful. So of all the seed
that is sown when the gospel is preached, only that which
falls into the good ground will be profitable. And then last
week we learned that even within the church, and if that good
soil is a picture of the church and those that grow up in the
church, even within the church, sometimes an enemy will come
and they will sow tears amongst the good seed. So that we don't
always know, just because a person makes a profession of faith,
that they are truly the Lord's and that it is the Lord's work,
in the end, to separate out those that are His from those who are
not. And I wondered if perhaps you
might be thinking to yourself, really, that's quite discouraging. That here we are only a little
bit of the seed, only a proportion, only a fraction of the seed falls
in good ground. And even that sometimes isn't
true, fruitful growth that comes up. And I think that perhaps
the disciples of the Lord, as they listened to these parables,
might have been thinking to themselves, well, we've been called to preach,
but really that's quite a difficult task that the Lord Jesus is giving
us. because it seems as though growth
and the well-being of the church is actually quite a rare and
elusive thing. If you think about those first
disciples, how small and insignificant they must have felt in the face
of both the religious and the political powers that surrounded
them. You remember that there was the
temple and there was the synagogues and there were the Pharisees
and the scribes and then there was the Romans. And there was
Herod and Pilate and these men and all this religious grouping
of people, they were not sympathetic in any way towards the gospel. And if the disciples did preach
the gospel, they were always being contradicted. They were
always being opposed. And sometimes they were even
beaten up and thrown in prison. Peter. spent time in prison. Stephen, one of those earliest
preachers of the gospel, was stoned to death. James, the brother
of John, was put to the sword. That means he was killed with
a sword. Paul, often writes about the fact that he was all alone
and that there were no others with him in times of difficulty
and trouble. He knew what it was to feel forsaken
of all men and John, the brother of James, he was exiled to an
island, he was sent away to an island, away from his friends,
away from all of his contacts. And I wonder if it went through
the minds of those men. This preaching, is it really
worth it? This calling that we have to
go out there into the world and carry this message about the
Lord Jesus Christ, is it really worth it? When we think of all
the things that we have to suffer, it seems a very small return,
a very little bit of growth for all the trouble that we have
to face. So I think that just in case
the disciples were ever tempted to feel like that, the Lord gave
us these two parables as well. I think this was the way of the
Lord encouraging his disciples to see that although the preaching
of the gospel is a hard and difficult task, there would be fruit for
their labours. And here he's speaking a parable
that shows the real value of ministry and what it is worth
He speaks of a mustard seed and he speaks of some leaven. Now a mustard seed is a very
small seed. And what the Lord tells us in
this parable is that despite it being a very small seed, it
grows into a great tree. It grows into a mighty plant. It begins very small, and yet
over time it develops. It begins hardly noticeable,
almost secretly, but year on year, season on season, it turns
into a mighty tree. And the birds of the air, says
the Lord, come and they find protection and they find food
in the branches of that tree. And I think that what the Lord
is telling his disciples is that when a gospel seed is planted,
though it be ever so small, though it appear ever so insignificant, that seed will grow and it will
be nurtured and it will be protected and it will develop into something
very significant. Maybe when we think about church
and we think about our little fellowship here, we think, you
know, there really isn't very much happening amongst us. There really isn't very much
going on. We don't get many visitors. We
don't get many new people. We don't seem to be making very
great inroads into our society with this gospel that we preach. And yet the Lord makes that tree
to grow. Yet the Lord is desirous of having
that seed sown and nurturing his people and developing them
and making them to flourish. And the Lord says that in time,
the very birds of the air will come and they will find nourishment
there in the branches of that work which he is pleased to honour
and uphold. And similarly with the leaven,
or yeast, Now, I don't do an awful lot of baking, but I understand
that when you're making bread, it's important to have leaven
in it if it's going to rise, and that you get a softer, you
get a fluffier, you get a more appetizing bread with the use
of leaven. And we find here that there is
a picture of a lady who takes this leaven and she hides it. She rolls it up inside her flour
and her dough. And at the beginning when she
takes the leaven or the yeast and puts it into the dough, you
can't tell that it's there. You can't see it. It's hidden
in the dough. You can't see that there's anything
different from looking at it to say whether that leaven is
present or whether it is not. And yet, right at the very moment
that she adds it to that dough, that leaven begins to work. It begins to work to improve
the dough. It begins to sweeten the bread. It enhances the bread. You can't
see how it works. You can't look at it and know
that it is working. but it soon goes into the whole
lump and that little amount of leaving affects the whole amount
of the dough. So here are two parables that
the Lord gives us. What do these parables mean to
us? What's the lesson for us in these
parables? Well, there might be several
lessons. One lesson might be that we ought
not to judge by appearances. That would be a good lesson to
learn for all of us. Or maybe a good lesson is that
we ought not to despise small things. That's a good lesson
too. Or don't be discouraged. with an apparent lack of results. You don't know what's happening
behind the scenes. You don't get to be informed
about everything that the Lord is doing. And all those things
are true, and all those things are valuable lessons for us.
So we'll note them. But I think that the greatest
lesson in these parables for us is this. that the church,
which is pictured in this little phrase, the kingdom of God, the
church, the Lord's people, are the Lord's work. They're His
business. Not your business and not my
business. The church is the Lord's. This
is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't think that Peter, who
was in prison, or James that was killed, or John, or Paul,
could have had any idea about what would happen as a result
of their ministry when they went out and faithfully did what the
Lord had commanded them to do. I don't know whether they appreciated
what would happen in the years and in the centuries and in the
millennia that would follow. How could these men have begun
to understand how in many years' time That message which they
took first to Jerusalem and to Galilee and to Judea and then
to the uttermost parts of the world would go out in the way
that it did or have the effects to the ends of the earth that
it has had. Do you think that Paul knew anything
about Great Falls, Montana? Nor a thing. nor a thing. And yet here we are. Here we
are. How is that? Because this is
God's church, not Paul's church, not Peter's church. This is God's
church and God is working these things to accomplish his purpose. And that leaving, that leaving
that seems so small and ordinary, it will change everything. Once the gospel is hidden in
a sinner's heart, once that little seed, that little mustard seed,
that little piece of leaven, once that has become embedded
in someone's heart and is hidden away there, we might not see
the results. But the Lord has promised that
he has begun a good work and he will not let that work go
to waste. Once the gospel is hidden in
a sinner's heart by God the Holy Spirit, nothing is ever the same
again, because a saint, a holy one, has been produced by the
work of God. The single little mustard seed
that grows, what a blessing in time it becomes to others. We preach the gospel in this
place, and it's a delight to see the older folk here, and
it's a delight to see the younger people here. And who knows, but
that amongst these younger people, there might be a preacher in
a day to come that will take up the baton of this message
and carry it forward to a new generation. These things are
in God's hands and we simply are called to be faithful with
the things that he has granted to us. A little shoot, a little
sapling, blown there in the winds of trouble and trial and the
vagaries of this life, fit to break and yet preserved, it becomes
a mighty tree and it is in time a blessing to many. An individual
believer may seem weak and full of trouble. The church appears
to be very fragile and our labour together meagre and without much
effect. Our gospel seems very foolish
to the world and it is a source of mockery from men, but it is
the power of God unto salvation. We are the kingdom of God upon
earth. We are the kingdom of God upon
earth. We are the bride of Christ. God is building his church and
do you know what he says? The gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. We might be small like a mustard
seed or hidden like leaven. but our gospel is God's word
to a sinful world. And he says of that word, so
shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not
return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please. and it shall prosper in the thing
whereto I sent it. Let us believe these words and
trust our God for the accomplishment of his purpose and his will. Amen.