Sermons

Well, good morning, Trinity Bible Church. My name is Adam Ashoff. I'm from Hickory, North Carolina, and pastor Hickory Bible Church up there, and it's been a joy to be with you the last week, and then this week, and then a few times prior to that. We're gonna pick up where we left off last week and Mark, or sorry, I had Mark on my mind, and Jesus blessing the children, but we're actually in Luke, so turn to Luke 13, and we'll be in verses 18 to 21, picking up where we left off last week.

For anybody that wasn't with us last week, we are in a section from actually chapter 9 to 19 called the Traveler's Log. It is Jesus on the journey to Jerusalem that runs that entire section where the ministry has moved from where He has found success and popularity early in the Gospel of Luke. The crowds are with Him and the naysayers aren't as loud. And now in that 9 to 19 section, you see the shift.

That which He is doing which is amazing and never been done before in teaching with authority and all the wonderful things Jesus did in essentially showing up and banishing illness, disease, exorcisms, all of the miracles He performed to show that He was the Son of God and then to teach in a way that people would say, wait, is this the kingdom we've been long waiting for?

All of that is now being met with mixed reviews and you saw that especially in chapter 11 and then into chapter 12 where He turns from scolding the Pharisees to talking to the crowds, particularly the disciples, about eternal life and what, what priorities we should have in pursuing eternal life, how quickly this life can be over. And then it led into last week, a synagogue scene, the last synagogue scene. Where we saw the principle that those who are low, those who are, the humble will be, what? Lifted up, and those who think of themselves as already lifted up, the proud, they will be lowered down.

A woman who has been over for 18 years instantaneously healed, and that miracle was twofold. It was both a spiritual deliverance, as we saw that she was stricken with some type of disabling spirit sent by Satan himself, showed, Jesus had power over the invisible.  And yet also because He did heal her, her back straightened and her body perfectly restored, He had power over the visible. The Son of God in His words and works could show both simultaneously, that there is something seen that He can prove right in front of their very eyes. That He is the King of kings and Lord of lords and the Son of God sent to save and something unseen that He could pronounce in delivering those from the oppression and the darkness and the sin that Satan brings.

Last week’s minor miracle, we'll call it that because it's a small one in the sense of the totality of the four gospels. It's only recorded here in Luke13 last week, as a glimpse of the King of kings at work ruling His kingdom, displaying His power and declaring the way that everyone must come in. Humble. Lowly. Not proud and exalted and spreading the leaven of this Pharisees religious hypocrisy, high on themselves like that prominent synagogue official whose immediate reaction displayed his heart.

It told you everything you needed to know about a religious hypocrite, about a Pharisee, about someone who trusted in their own righteousness when they see the work of God in front of their very eyes. Something as wonderful as taking a moment in the teaching in the synagogue on the Sabbath, yes, two of the most highly and wholly revered laws that were to be obeyed, to honor the Sabbath, to keep it set apart, and to do it in a synagogue, a place of teaching and order and instruction, exalting the Word of God, was the intention of it. But yet, Jesus could say, look, I am not going to what? Bury the love of God, the purpose for which we exist under human laws, added on, so we can keep ourselves what? Nice and protected. and clean in our own eyes by adding law upon law. And so that was what we saw last week, that's where we ended.

And it was important for us to understand that historical account, because when we look at today's parable, the explanation of today is served by the exclamation point that Jesus put on last week. The exclamation point when He is saying that “you hypocrites, you know how to care for your own, so think about God's own, this daughter of Abraham who's been bound by Satan and is now released. You can't get excited over that?” And they didn't. The crowds did, it said in 17, “they rejoiced over all the glorious things being done by Him.” So yes, there was a remnant of people even two years now into His ministry with all the opposition He's facing, there were those who did recognize God's kingdom was at work amongst them. But yet there were those who being humiliated in their obstinacy and resistance to the work of God, they were indignant like this synagogue official.

So, now today, we turn the corner, and building on that, we say, you know, this principle of the kingdom, that the low are lifted up and the high are brought down, you know, that just seems to go against our better judgment. It's not our better judgment, but it's that which we can see, which we don't always quite discern things properly. Because man sees the outward appearance, God sees the heart. And in trying to see something like, wait, this whole kingdom, it's built on this idea of the lowly and the humble and the broken and the meek versus what we think a kingdom is built on. I mean, when we look around the world today and the kingdoms of man are built on power and prestige and who's in charge.

How are we supposed to take heart?  How are we supposed to keep pressing forward when everything pressing around us works in the opposite direction? I mean, you just look around your own city. And how do we discern who's successful and who's powerful and who's on top? If we only see with our eyes, we think it's those that have the money, that have the influence, that are building their kingdoms down here. And we can just lose sight of how does it really happen, and that's what today's parables teach us, and it's this. This is the principle at work, building on the picture from last week. The kingdom of God has a visible advance we can see. It does have a visible advance we can see, but it's built on an invisible influence we can't see.

So, there is a visible advance to the kingdom of God that we can see, but it is always preceded by an invisible influence that we can't see. So, there's this working, an external, visible effect of God's kingdom in the world that is recognizable, but it's not going to look like the kingdoms we see man build. But only because we know there’s an internal, invisible cause that is powerful and permeating through the world, and here's how it is, and it's always been, and last week showed us it, one soul at a time.

That internal, invisible influence of the kingdom of God that is always at work from the time of the King's arrival back here in the gospels and to His second coming is always in an internal, invisible influence working one soul at a time. And that wouldn't seem to be the way that we would think massive kingdoms are built. But when you break down life in its component parts, it is true, isn't it?  

I mean, from any great, even institutional establishment, it usually starts with the idea of a single person who says, wait, we can accomplish this thing. And they have an idea, and they sell it to somebody else, and it builds. Or you think on the physical level, this building around you, look in the back, there’s a brick, and this building had to start with a single brick.  Insignificant at the beginning, people would probably drive by it and go, what's gonna go in that lot? And then now you look around in this room and you say, hey, it's not a bad place.

So, it is true, but we just tend to measure success by the end result. And we see how big something became, and we say, ah, that was successful. But yet you have to break it down to the beginning parts, and that's where we are today in this twin set of parables in Luke 13, 18 to 21.

Kingdom growth, our King's visible advancement, comes by way of invisible influence. So, follow along with me as I read it, because we need to understand in our day, as the disciples did in theirs, we're in the church age, the time between Christ's first coming and His second coming. What we should be looking for now, and yet what we're always looking to visible advancement come. So, follow with me as I read Luke 13, 18 to 21.

[Scripture] “So Jesus was saying, what is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches. And again, He said, to what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour, until it was all leavened.”

Pray with me.

[Prayer] Father, as was the case in the time of your Son teaching this lesson, we ask that we, like those who were hearers then, would have eyes to see and ears to hear, to listen up. And the fact, Father, that your Son had to repeat these parables, teach them in different places and times to drive it home shows that even those His true disciples, those who have been given ears to hear, we still can become dull. And so, help us to hear today, we pray, by your Spirit's work, amen. [End]

Question, have you ever anticipated something so much that when it actually arrived, you weren’t disappointed, but it lived up to and went beyond everything you hoped it would be. Not the over-promise and under-deliver, but the under-promise and over-deliver. So, I was thinking about that question, trying to understand what's happening in the gospel of Luke, and just thinking on a human level, an earthly level, up until recently, in these times I've had to fellowship with all y’all. I didn't mean to clear my throat there, but I'll take it.

Growing up a Yankee up in the Northeast and then moving to not quite the deep South, I have heard a lot of Texas talk, and it somewhat is, it's hype. I'm just saying like around the country because you hear things like, don't mess with Texas. And you hear people talk about Texas is just gonna become its own country. It's gonna secede from the union. Everything's bigger in Texas.  So, you hear a lot of hype and accents and attire and all of it, but it wasn't actually until this past Thursday that I became a believer. And it wasn't your boots. And it wasn't your barbecue. It was Buc-ees. I had heard tales of gas pumps innumerable as the stars of the heavens. In the promised land of brisket sandwiches and beaver nuggets, which sound gross anywhere else besides here. I was warned by an elder at my church, I won't leave Buc-ees without spending $100.

I was naive. We drove in, our family of seven, hungry. They had breakfast burritos. I left with Buc-ee's trademark Hawaiian-themed swim trunks. I don't know what happened, but I do believe that Jesus, as the master teacher, if He were teaching today and needed a parable, He would say, the kingdom of heaven is like a Buc-ee's which a man discovers on a highway and goes and spends all that he has in his wallet and buys the entire counter of $29.99 a pound beef jerky. Because the guy that was at that beef jerky counter stole my wallet. He did it right in front of my very eyes. That guy knew how to sell beef jerky.

And so, Buc-ee's is an example to me of an, I mean, it met all the hype. The kingdom of Buc-ee's did. I've never been to one, heard about them. Closest one to Hickory is like three hours away. And I was thinking about that over-hype under-deliver and I was thinking about where the disciples find themselves in Luke 13 in a different state of mind because they and all Israel have been hearing about the kingdom of God for two years. We looked last week. He has been proclaiming it.

Ever since chapter 4, when the ministry began. He's proclaiming the kingdom of God. And they're seeing it in power. And they're hearing it taught. But the one missing ingredient, if you will, that was under-delivering was that though there were massive crowds, they weren't what? True believers. They weren’t really committed. They were defectors. And then those who were in leadership in Israel, they weren't buying it. They weren't just defectors.  They were trying to defend their own and saying, this guy is from the devil, and we need to get rid of Him. From the beginning, you saw that. He goes into His own hometown synagogue and reads from the scroll and preaches, and they chased Him out to a cliff to get rid of Him.

So, this would have been the dissonance in the disciples' minds, and I think it carries over even to us today at times. When we don't know what to look for in the kingdom of God, and where is it, and what should it look like? For all the proclaiming of the kingdom, we ask the question, as they asked, where is its presence among the people? Where's the power, not the miraculous power that Jesus has, but when are we gonna get in on it? When are we gonna become this kingdom of God, this nation that's gonna take over, and we'll be on top? Would have been going through the disciples' minds. What could they see at this point in Jesus’ ministry on the journey to Jerusalem that would make them believe that the kingdom of God was truly among them?

Well, getting into our passage, what was common with Christ is He was perfect in His timing to find a teachable moment. And why I say that is because just look in verse 18 as we get into this, so He was saying, your version might say therefore, which I think is a better conjunction to use there. Luke puts this conjunction in here to show that there was a logical connection between the scene that just happened and now what He's going to teach. And this wasn’t the only time He used this parable. He speaks of it in Mark 4 in Matthew 13. Those writers putting it in parable sections. So, the power of this parable, this twin set, could be lost on us a little bit when you read them amidst all the other parables. But when you have this one coming right on the heels of this teachable moment, you connect the dots in a different way.

Just like as we try to do as teachers and coaches and parents and leaders is you see this example of something happening and go, you know what? Let's pull the car over here and let's talk about it. Let's figure out what just happened, and that's what Jesus is doing. He wants to teach them about His kingdom that is going to have a visible advance, and they might be looking at this last scenario going, Jesus, You just continue to push these leaders to the side. They’re being humiliated, and these crowds, yeah, they may rejoice right now, but are they really with You? So, He says, okay. Let me talk about what the kingdom's like.

And so, let's start with part one in 18 and 19. Let's talk about the easier thing to see, “the visible advance of the kingdom” that is evident around us. So, He was saying, what is the kingdom of God like and to what shall I compare it? He's trying to, again, bring back this central theme in His teaching, the kingdom of God, this present reality that's being mediated through His presence. His miracles and teachings are authoritative proofs of God's sovereign role in the present.  So much so that later in Luke 17:21, He could say, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. It's here with me. And everywhere my sphere of salvation touches a human life, the kingdom of God is spreading.

But He starts by giving them a physical comparison. It says in 19, it's like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches.  So, it's not fully realized yet. And Jesus used even this example you could see in your text. He is quoting from the Old Testament.  The birds of the air nested in its branches. He is alluding to some Old Testament promises of a coming messianic kingdom.  For us in the church age, we look forward to that still. They thought it was gonna happen right there in and amongst them because their King was there. He had all the power. He seemed to have the ability to do it, but where was the glory that was supposed to come with it? But we said, look, it's not gonna quite look like what you think, just like a mustard seed.

A known proverb in Judaism amongst rabbis for something remarkably small, invisible, or not invisible, but almost invisible to the naked eye, a mustard seed. A friend of mine sent me a text this morning just reminding me of the comparison of just how small this mustard seed is. This guy loves numbers, I guess. And he just reminded me the mustard seed diameter is .04 to .08 inches. Okay, I don't know, is that like a fingernail or something? While the full-grown plant can reach a height of almost 10 to 15 feet. A dramatic growth factor of 1,500 times in height. So, there's your mental picture, I guess, for the math people, but the nature of those proverbs is just to just kind of blow your mind with something extreme.

Not always trying to be precise in the sense of, well, because there's debates among theologians, well, was the mustard seed truly the smallest seed of them all?  And actually, in listening to one sermon on this, it's one of your own, a horticulturist over at SMU, it was like a master in studying the mustard seed and said technically no, but again, for the sake of a teaching lesson, yes, the exponential growth would be in a class of its own. So hopefully that now some of you can go to SMU's library and dig that up.

It reminds me of, I had a landlady out in Los Angeles when I was in seminary, Jerry from Jersey, and she was an older lady, and she had a proverbial saying.  I had a really thin roommate who would forget to eat, and she would bring over some food and say, hey, Adam, make sure you get Bo eating there. He's no bigger than a minute.  It's a good one, isn't it? He's no bigger than a minute.  And I didn't stop her and say, you know, a second is smaller.  You should really work on your proverbs, Jerry. So, I don't think we’re here to correct Jesus whether or not the mustard seed was the absolute smallest. In fact, in the Lucan account here, he doesn't even mention that, which is mentioned in Matthews.  

It's the smallest amongst them, because He's just trying to make  the extreme comparison a man takes it and throws it into his garden and there's no method behind this madness and he just goes, and look what happens even in the not focused on exactly where to plant this thing it grows and becomes a tree and it’s massive but here's the detail that Luke gives us here that talks not just about the extreme nature of the growth that's visible it's this nested in the branches it's this idea of habitation.  

This word nested is a word for a tent, an encampment, and I think that could be easily missed in this parable. What's the purpose of it? It's not just that the kingdom is going to grow exponentially, it's going to provide and protect. And that has some deep Old Testament roots, and I wanna show you some of them. So, let's go back and look. I mean, just talking about trees being known by those who would read their Old Testaments in the time of Jesus as places of protection and care. Something as simple as, you don't have to turn here, Psalm 104:17. “The trees of the Lord drink their fill, the cedars of Lebanon which He planted, where birds build their nests, and the stork whose home is in the trees.”

It was imagery in Old Testament language to see a tree as providing protection and provision for birds. But what's more important is how the prophets would take it and turn it into a way to teach about the coming millennial kingdom, the messianic kingdom. Isaiah 4, and the beginning of Isaiah is a mess. It's judgment upon the people of God for rejecting the Messiah and the kingdom and the vineyard that God had planted. Isaiah 3:13, “the Lord arises to contend and stands to judge the people. The Lord enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people. It is you who have devoured the vineyard, the plunder of the poor in your houses.”

He's upset with his people. They're proud, and so now I'm gonna lower you. Those who are exalted in chapter three are put down, but then he talks about a remnant in Isaiah 4. In the future, in the kingdom, in that day, and here is a reference to the Messiah used in the Old Testament, Isaiah 4:2, “in that day, that future kingdom, the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious.” And that title for branch you can jot down and look later is also in Jeremiah 23:5, Jeremiah 33:15, Zechariah 3:8, and it signifies that the branch of the Lord, this Messiah, the abiding life that people will find in Him.  What does that remind us of? Jesus’ teaching in John 15:1-11, I am the what? “Vine.”

He's alluding to Old Testament prophecy about himself being this branch, this vine, that vital life is only found in Him. Apart from me, you can do nothing. Isaiah 4:2, “in that day the branch of the Lord will be beautiful and glorious, visibly evident, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and adornment of the survivors of Israel.” There's a promise to God's chosen people Israel, found in Isaiah 4:2. “And it will come about that he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who is recorded for life in Jerusalem.”

So, there’s a simple end game to this. God's King will still set up a kingdom that will be a place of refuge and restoration for all His subjects, starting with Israel. And that did not happen in His first coming, because they rejected the branch of the Lord. They rejected the one Who said, I'm the vine. They wanted nothing to do with Him. They didn't see that their spiritual life was found in Him, not found in their man-made religious traditions.

Turn to Ezekiel 17:22-24, more language in the Old Testament that connects the Messiah as a branch of God's choosing.  This prophecy in Ezekiel 17:22-24 states that the Messiah will come as this mighty cedar over the chosen people Israel.  And though at first, He'll just appear like a little twig, a sprig, a tender one, if you will. And He'll become a massive cedar and rule His people, Israel restored and the nations blessed in Him.

Listen to Ezekiel 17:22-24. “Thus says the Lord God, I will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and set it out.  I will pluck from the topmost of its young twigs, a tender one, and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the high mountain of Israel, I will plant it that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit and become a stately cedar.” And here's the same language we're finding in our passage. “And birds of every kind will nest under it and they will nest in the shade of its branches.”  

Now listen to verse 24. Listen to the connection even to what we saw last week. The change in value system of the low becoming lifted and the lifted becoming low. Verse 24 in Ezekiel. “All the trees of the field will know that I am the Lord. I bring down the high tree and exalt the low tree.” So, these things that we're learning here in Luke go back to these Old Testament prophecies from Isaiah and Ezekiel. “I will dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.” Why? “I am the Lord. I have spoken. I will perform it.” And we saw that last week. Salvation was all of Christ. That deliverance in that moment of the synagogue was not built on that woman's desire or intention or her moving herself forward. It was of the Lord. I speak, she responded. She was broken; I healed her.  I will perform it. This is the way of our great God.

One last text in the Old Testament.  We'll look at Micah chapter 4. The first few verses, again, speak of the future millennial kingdom in the last days. The Messiah's return will lead to the restoration of an earthly kingdom of unparalleled peace in Israel. And this is language, though less about the tree, more about this time in which something that would be unheard of for us today as we see the ongoing unrest in the Middle East, how could it possibly be that the place that we would have to look at and say throughout history, from the forming of this nation until now has never experienced the rest that has been promised. It's constantly in battle; it’s constantly at war with its neighbors.

But listen to Micah 4:1-4.  “It'll come about in the last days that the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains.  It will be raised above the hills and the peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob that He may teach us about His ways and that we may walk in His paths.” Again, He came the first time to do it. He taught. He lived it, and yet people didn't receive it. They rejected it. “For from Zion will go forth the law, even the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and He will judge between many peoples, and He will render decisions for the mighty distant nations.” Just picture Christ making decisions, not just there, but for mighty and distant nations in the millennial kingdom. All the earth under His rule and reign, His perfect law being brought about to bring what upon the earth? Peace.

“People will hammer their swords into plowshares.” What a switch that people that think, I need the power and I need the protection for myself, and they willingly lay them down and say, I don't need them anymore.  “They will hammer their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they train for war.” Can you imagine that?  I mean, every new headline that we read each day of war throughout the world, “never again will they train for war.” Here's the peace and the prosperity that the Messiah will bring. “Each of them will sit under His vine and under His fig tree with no one to make them afraid.” What a beautiful picture of the rest and the restoration the Messiah will bring.

So, we come back to verse 19. And yes, there is an emphasis of the exponential growth of the kingdom, but part two of the verse, I think, puts the emphasis on what's the point of it? The point of it isn't this be some earthly power to hold other people down like every other man-made kingdom does. It's actually to lift people up, to provide, to care for, to bless. Now you, of course, think of Genesis 12. All the nations of the world will be blessed through Abraham's line when the Messiah comes. What an amazing thing.

So, the disciples are reminded here, and we are, that Christ's kingdom will have a visible appearance and a vital purpose that will far outgrow its humble beginnings. And those humble beginnings began, what? With Jesus arriving in the lowliest of places, a manger in a no-name town. He grows up. Isaiah says that there was nothing about His former appearance that was noticeable. But he did, say, grow up from the beginning in wisdom and in stature, and in favor with God and with man. He was different from the beginning.  But He didn't even start into His ministry until age 30, and then recorded, we have His perfect life of obedience to the Father’s will, and in the joy set before Him, He obeys all the way to the cross, dies as a ransom for all who would believe. Yet, even in that moment, in the eyes of the world, He was a failure.  Right?

When Pilate's looking at Him, saying, what kind of king are You? Don't You know I could release You? He says, you have no power to release me. I have a kingdom not of this world. Right down to the end, nobody really understands. I mean, they put a plaque above His name, this is the King of the Jews, to mock Him. Yet what He accomplished in His life and death is what gives the seed of the gospel message. It's what? It's power. It's power to save.

The kingdom of God appearing on earth in the person and work of Christ started then and continues now in every soul of every person who believes because the gospel is the power of God, the salvation. And it's the greatest power just wrapped in this small seed of truth that any one of us has the power to share with people. It's amazing to me. I mean, every single one of our lives is a story of salvation that far out distances any of our humble beginnings. Can you look back in your life to your salvation and think about, however accomplished you were in the world's eyes, meant nothing when God saved you.

Some of you, saved really young, you had nothing to accomplish yet. He saved you in those humble beginnings. Some of you had much you accomplished and He saved you and showed you that this doesn't really mean anything for eternity unless you know Him personally as Lord and Savior. And then you look at your life and you go how it's grown to provide a purpose that impacts people far beyond anything I could do. I think we can see it more easily, maybe, sometimes in older, more mature Christians' lives who have gone before us, an abundant fruit is visible.

I think about, my older brother works for Samaritan's Purse, a Christian humanitarian effort out of Boone, North Carolina. It's about an hour from where I live. And he's been working there for almost 20 years. It's a ministry of Franklin Graham, Billy Graham's son. He goes about doing disaster relief around the world because the goal of that ministry is for Christians to be the first ones on the scene, to get into these countries that normally Christians can't get into around the world because this ministry had built such a trust of showing up to make a difference in the worst and the hardest places.  

But I got an email just this past weekend of the tragedy down here in Texas, of the floods, and this is what it said. There’s a personal story of a woman named Lila Herrera. She awakened at 3:30 in the morning to the sound of a howling, horrible noise.  She opened her front door and was shocked to see the Guadalupe River flooding toward her home. Local officials reported it rose more than 25 feet in under an hour. She knew she had to escape with her husband, Joe, who has Parkinson's disease. They tried to flee to higher ground, but the water was running too fast for Joe to get through it. So, a neighbor appears, ties a toe strap around himself and Joe, and led the family to safety. Lila and Joe survived, but their home was gone, it was ruined.

Volunteers from Samaritan’s Purse spent two days working on their house to salvage what they could. And Lila says, it just meant so much for them to show up and be here to help us. And then listen to this, their hearts were fertile ground when the chaplains came to talk with them. They talked to her about repentance and faith and how to have peace with God. When she heard about a personal relationship with the Lord, she shouted, I want that. Tears of relief flowed from her eyes. Smiles spread across her face as she prayed to receive Christ as Lord and Savior. I'm so happy, she said. I want to follow Jesus the rest of my life.

In the midst of a tragedy, Christians show up in the name of the gospel of Jesus Christ for the goal of the gospel seed to be spread one soul at a time. And imagine this woman seeing everything she owned down here lost in a moment, other than her own life and her husband's, and to say, I wanna be born again, I wanna be saved. And in the midst of losing everything, I’m so happy because I've received eternal life. That's, friends, how the kingdom grows. One person at a time, part of a bigger plan of God, back in the time of Christ and now today towards a future kingdom where His perfect provision will protect us all in Christ. It has a visible advance that is evident in its appearance and purposeful in its provision.  That's part one of this.

Part two, “the invisible influence continually happening in and among us,” verse 20. We move from the visible advance that's evident in its appearance and purposes to the kingdom of God having an invisible influence happening in us and then around us. Verse 20, “and again, He said, to what shall I compare the kingdom of God?” And again, He uses a parable, as one theologian defines a parable, “an ingeniously simple word picture with a profound spiritual lesson.” Its glory is in its simplicity, and we see that because the rejecters of it would have been standing there like these synagogue officials, maybe with an earshot of this lesson going, like, what are we supposed to learn from You, Jesus? You're teaching about trees and seeds and leaven. Like give us something profound.  And yet you could imagine that woman who's been healed and stands straight, hanging on His every word. She has ears to hear now.

So, He says, “what shall I compare it? It's now like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.” And this again just speaks to this inward, invisible influence. The word leaven is for a word that meant to boil or to steam, a pervasive fermentation process ensuing. We know from back in Luke 12, one, we studied that back then, that He warned of the leaven of the Pharisees. He did that in Matthew 16 and Mark 8:15, connecting it to the Pharisaical corruption of false religion. But yet leaven isn't always a negative thing. Here in verse 21, it's a positive thing.

Those uses in those other passages show how hypocritical company can corrupt real disciples in the same way we might say bad company corrupts good morals. Lay down with dogs, wake up with fleas. Hang out with Pharisees, wake up as a hypocrite. But in this verse, Jesus uses leaven in a positive light to show the pervading internal influence of the kingdom of God. And this turns the tide from last week, the seemingly insignificant event of a woman being healed and rejoiced over against a proud leader being humiliated. These are the small spiritual victories that can seem so tiny. And yet, this is the leavening power of the seed of the Gospel of the Word of God about the Kingdom of God. How we can miss its influence if we're not looking for it in those small ways. Sure, the physical miracles can be seen, the healing of a woman, but what about the planting of the seed of the Word of God in a person's life that is going to do what leaven does? It's hidden inside these pecks of flower, and it permeates through the entire thing. You put these pictures together from 19 and 21, and the leaven explains that inward growth that must be there in order for the outward growth to happen. The tree.

That's the connection between the two. You don't get the former without the latter. As in, there is no kingdom sprouting and blooming and blossoming and growing so powerful for birds to rest in its branches if their first isn't this leavening power, moving unseen and invisible in the hearts and souls of man that changes them from the inside not the outside. That would be the opposite, to try to just change people from the outside.  Humanitarian efforts that have good intentions but have no gospel roots will bear no gospel fruits. They'll just be helping people, as some say, rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic. It's sinking, and yet to bring the gospel to bear, to be changed from the inside like leaven can do through this flour, brings spiritual life, abiding life. That's that picture in John 15 again. The spiritual life is inside the vine, and it goes into the branches, and it produces fruits 30, 60, and 100-fold.

So, I asked, what is the common link between these two that gives us something to walk away with today? What's the common principle in these parables? And it's this. It's the life that is inherent in both of them. The seed that grows to a tree, the leaven that permeates the dough. Both are living and moving and finding their being inherent in their property, which tells us that in the life of a true disciple, the kingdom of God is never dead. It's never retreating. It's always alive and active and advancing, even in the smallest, most imperceptible ways in the life of a true believer. It's always making progress because it’s living. It's living, it's alive. So, you have to ask yourself the question, is that life in me? Am I alive in Christ, abiding in Him? Has the seed of the Word of God made progress in your heart so as to make progress through your life?

Brothers and sisters, the gospel always makes progress in us in order to make progress through us, that's the point.  It has to start in here in order to work itself out there. One of the signs you may not have been transformed by the power of the gospel this morning is if something like this simple message and these simple truths, they don't land anywhere on your heart. You hear them and shrug. So, it was in the days of Christ.

And I can rest my head at night knowing that the power wasn’t, the power to change anyone in this room today who's not in Christ today was not resting on my skill. Never in any of the parables of the seed of the Word of God doing its work does Jesus highlight the skill of the sower. The parable of the four soils, the parable of the farmer who goes to sleep in Mark chapter four and it grows overnight, the parables here, the guy who takes mustard seed and just throws it into the garden, it's never explained by way of the skill of the sower. Because the power is in the seed. So, you're sitting here and you have to ask yourself, what is the Word of God doing to work on my heart right now? It's not in my ability to make it work for You, the power is in the word itself.

Has the word of God brought you from death to life? Has the power of the gospel saved you? A righteousness that is not of our own, Paul says. It's the righteousness that comes from God and Jesus Christ. Now, friend, if you are thinking, maybe I haven't been changed by it, but you find yourself interested today for the first time, that soil has been softened, you’re curious, you're wanting to learn more, what do you have to do? Call on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.

I mean, the kingdom is explained in Matthew 13. A man who is just wandering through a field and discovers a treasure and enjoy, and what he finds in that treasure goes and sells all he has to buy that field. It's a total exchange of all of you, whatever it is you want to offer to Christ this morning, your very life, your soul, your eternal life, to say, give me your righteousness so I can live forever. It's something that, again, it's, it's on the inside. It's invisible. It wouldn't make sense to the world, that kind of exchange. To sell everything you have for something you can’t, see?

I thought about that as I was in North Park Mall yesterday. I was walking through and everything in there has a price tag, as far as I can see. There might have been some shops that had the ropes in front of them, that with five kids towing along, they weren't getting us anywhere near those places. But I hear about those brand names, and I was just thinking of what that mall is worth. And everything is built on an exchange of, I'll give you this to get that. I did see one shop that was, there was nothing in it yet. They were probably gonna put something new in there.

And the thought came to my mind, what if Christ were here, and we wouldn't recognize Him as such. People would just walk by Him. But He opened a shop in that mall with all those other things, and He just had a sign above His door. And He had the little shop, like the Wetzel's pretzel-sized shop. And it was just completely empty, just Him standing in the midst of it. And the sign over the shop would say, “Eternal Life.” And maybe people would be curious, like, hey, this Eternal Life brand, it's kinda hip, let’s check it out. And it's so minimalistic, there's actually nothing in there.  It's just the white walls and this guy, so cool. So, you walk in and you say, hey, what are You selling? He says, well, Eternal Life, the kingdom of God. What's it cost? Everything you have. Everything you have. Empty your pockets right now, and you do that. He goes, oh no, give me your phone so I can take all the money from your bank account. You gotta sell it all to get it. I mean, the world, nobody would take that deal in the world.

But the moment you corrupt it and you say, hey, maybe what if He just put a few things up in the shop to kind of entice you? You know, if you, you know, buy eternal life, we'll throw in this pair of shoes or this nice handbag. You know, it made me think of how the gospel gets corrupted today. When churches think it's in the skill of the sower and something the church can do to lure people in to say, hey, come on, this church, it's really got everything going on for it.

I even know up in my neck of the woods, and there’s a false teacher up in Charlotte who they do giveaways.  You can get a ticket, and when you come, you might win some prize. I remember listening to the youth pastor once there at a big youth rally where every kid just for coming got $20 in an envelope. I mean, you could fill a room of teenagers just paying kids 20 bucks to come to hear a guy speak, but you've corrupted it, you've attached something to it, and that's not the way the kingdom of God is received in the parables. And the joy over what you find in eternal life, you sell all you have. So, friend, if you're here this morning, what I'm trying to get across to you is there's nothing you have to offer except everything, everything to say, Christ, all of me is yours, and I get your righteousness, and I get eternal life, of course I want that, but you call on Him from the heart this morning. Call on Him to be saved.

For believers in here, we might from time to time forget how powerful this seed is that grows in us. I mean, that what we're part of is way bigger than us. We're anything but ordinary.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, and talking about language of people sowing and watering and growing, we're God's fellow workers, we’re God's field, we're God's building. We've been saved by Christ, sealed by the Spirit. We are the most important people in the world. Why? Not because of our influence in this world, but our influence towards the next. We have the message of eternal life. We can tell people about the kingdom of God. That makes you the most important person in the world. I stole that line from John MacArthur.

I remember him saying it to a group of college kids at Masters University a couple years ago. He just looks at them and goes, you're the most important people in the world. Don't let anybody tell you anything else, why? Because you have the most important message. You have the gospel message. You can tell people about eternity.  You can tell people about what's gonna happen forever. That’s more important than any other information you could give someone.

It's fitting and right to honor John today. Many of you know of his passing this past week after 56 years of ministry at Grace Community Church. It's fitting for me to honor his life and legacy in the sense I'm a product of the seminary and this church is connected to it. And you think about his life.  I mean, you take this parable, but you move it down to just the level of one person and one, what the gospel did in one person’s life, it took root. It was leavened, it leavened his, filled his life and then used it to do what? To spread the seed of the gospel everywhere.

And you know, the parable of 30, 60, 90, not all of us are gonna have the same output. Think that keeps us humble, doesn't it? We're not into comparing.  I certainly can't be. My wife grew up at Grace Community Church, was under John's teaching her whole life till we got married at age 28, and then she was hitched to me, and now she's listened to my preaching for 14 years. That's not a fair fight. She'll be in the next service, so I can say it in this one. When we're riding home and she looks over and says, hey, that was good. I think I'm up to four times. But I'm like, yes! Because I know she's heard much better. What I'm saying is it's not on us to determine the output. Some of the trees are gonna grow bigger by God's design and more birds land in their branches and are provided for and protected. But we praise God that we just get to be part of it.

John would always say that to our seminary classes. Guys, it's just the opportunity you get to be on the team, that you get to wear the jersey, that you get to go out and play. And he would say that, I'm not the explanation for my ministry, God is. He's the one that made it grow. So don't look at me in any of this comparison stuff. Get to the work you have to do.  And I think about that for every believer in here. I mean, I watched a guy from your church last night at 10 p.m. leaving a birthday party, chasing a guy down in the parking lot to give him a track and share the gospel. He was the DJ. I mean, that comes from inside. That you just have a passion to pursue people with the gospel because you know the power of the seed is in it. And we all can be part of that.  I mean, that's what invigorates us when we think of a life like John’s. When we think of people around us and what they do, it's not to compare ourselves to feel worse about that we don't do as much. It's to say that in the end, friends, if we see the telos, the end game of all this, we win. We're part of it, we're part of the victory lap, but your part of it right here and now, inside of you, the kingdom of God has come into your life through the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ today.

“My Father is glorified by this,” John 15:8, in that passage on abiding, “that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” You know, one day the kingdom of our God and Savior Jesus Christ will take over the planet. We won’t be little saplings, but oaks of righteousness, Isaiah 61:3, of the planting of the Lord for His glory.

So how do we respond to this good news? Well, we're gonna take the Lord’s table together today. And I think as we come to the Lord’s table, you can take your juice and bread. We'll start with the bread. But as we come to the Lord’s table today, I think this time of remembrance, and it is a time to first and foremost remember what He accomplished for us in salvation, and what's been applied in our lives, adopted in the family of God as His beloved children. But there is a call to self-examination, a look at our sin, always important to know our hearts, but looking away from our sin, we look to who? We look to Christ today in His righteousness. Talk about not comparing ourselves. What would we have to compare with Christ? What filthy rags can we bring before Him today?  None. But He's clothed us in His what?  Perfectly pure righteousness. He's clothed us in His righteousness.  

And that's what we rejoice in and remember today as we take communion. We stand in His righteousness alone. I would say one other thought for us to contemplate is a small application of the text today as we examine our hearts is not just Christ's provision for your sin, brother and sister, but also His provision for your purpose today. I think in light of a passage like this to say, we have been saved to be set apart to be what? Messengers, ambassadors.

Second Corinthians 2:14, I'll leave you to think upon this. Take a few moments and then I'll pray and then we'll take this together.  Second Corinthians 2:14, “but thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ's and manifest through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.” How do we respond in heart today? Thanks be to God. How do we do it in action? Make Him known through your life.  Where we do it? In every place. Will we be victorious? Of course, because He always leads us to victory in Him. Take a few moments, bow your heads, and I'll pray, and then we'll take this together.

[Prayer] Heavenly Father, we thank You this morning that we are victorious in Your Son because of the victory that He won for us on the cross, defeating sin and death, removing its sting, so that we can be more than conquerors in Him. We thank You that as we remember His life, we remember His body broken for us, we remember His blood poured out, and that we will never suffer any of the punishment and wrath because He stood in our place. And that we only have eternal reward in heaven to look forward to in His wonderful kingdom when it comes again. Amen. [End]

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