Getting the Kingdom, 11: The Mustard Seed & the Yeast Matthew 13:31-33

* - Do you ever find yourself complaining about how bad this world is getting?

- Today in North America, many Christians believe that things are going from bad to worse.

- Many Christians do not hold much hope for the growth of the kingdom of God in North America.

- We tend to focus on the negative, but these two short parables of Jesus remind us of the growing power of God's kingdom.

- Jesus is still telling his people that the kingdom of God will grow.

- Because God chooses to restart or reboot his kingdom through one obedient, humble person, Jesus, God's kingdom will grow & grow & grow until it fills the whole world.

- Jesus described how God's kingdom would grow by first comparing it to a mustard seed.

- A mustard seed is quite small. It was probably the smallest seed known to the people of the Holy Land 2000 years ago.

- But while a mustard seed is so small, after it is planted it grows so quickly, & becomes so large that it takes over the garden.

- In one growing season, it becomes a large bush the size of a small tree.

*- Check out the picture on the wall behind me. That's a small stand of mustard.

- No wonder ancient people avoided planting mustard in their gardens, the mustard plants took up way too much space.

- If you planted mustard in your garden you risked the mustard taking over.

- The simple tiny mustard seed shows how God's kingdom had tiny beginnings in the person of Jesus.

- Global researchers report that today there are over 2 billion (w/ a B) Christians on the planet: 2,000,000,000

- & every day more & more people are coming into the kingdom of God.

- Even if things don't look the tops, God's kingdom is growing; it never stops.

- It's pretty obvious that these plants are large enough for birds find shelter in them & build their nests among them.

- But why would Jesus mention that? Why did Matthew report Jesus describing the birds of the air nesting & sheltering in mustard plants?

- Well, Matthew's gospel points out that the good news about Jesus is not just for the Jews, but for Gentiles, the whole world.

- The birds of the air represent the good news being for the whole world & Jesus' mission is for God's kingdom to reach the non-Jewish world outside the Holy Land.

- Now, let's spend a little bit of time looking at the parable of the yeast.

- This little parable is making the same point as the parable of the mustard seed.

- Yeast is a very tiny thing. In fact, taken alone, they are microscopic. You cannot see them with the naked eye.

- If you've ever made bread at home from scratch, then what you see when you're preparing the yeast is a colony of many.

* - Here's a picture of yeast magnified 2,000 times.

- Yeast is a single celled fungus that multiplies quickly. A small amount of yeast goes a long way.

- That's the point of Jesus second parable about the yeast.

- God's kingdom is like yeast that a woman took & mixed into three measures of flour until it multiplied & mixed to affect the whole batch of dough.

* - Now there's something odd about this little parable. Can anyone guess what the odd thing is?

* - The odd thing in this little parable is the amount of flour the woman used.

* - Three measures or 3 epha's of flour were about 40 Litres, that's 50-60 pounds.

- So the amount of flour is not for everyday, ordinary use. That much flour could be used to feed between 100 to150 people.

- 40 Litres of flour would have been enough for a banquet.

- Jesus is saying that a small amount of yeast in the dough would be enough for an entire village.

- So that's the odd thing about this parable, but there's also a shocking thing in this little parable.

* - Can anyone tell me what the shocking thing is in this little parable?

* - The shocking thing is that Jesus uses yeast to describe the spread of God's kingdom.

* - Why is that shocking? Well, it's shocking because in the Old Testament yeast is almost always used to describe the spread of sin.

- Something that the Jews always understood as negative, Jesus turned upside down & used to describe something positive.

- Why did Jesus do that; why did he take yeast & use it to describe something as wonderful as the growth of the kingdom of God, when everyone was used to yeast describing something as negative as sin?

- Jesus used yeast to represent God's kingdom because in the Old Testament, God's feast celebrating the harvest was the feast of weeks AKA Pentecost.

* - Listen to what Leviticus says: "You shall bring from your dwelling places two loaves of bread to be waved, made of two tenths of an ephah. They shall be of fine flour, & they shall be baked with leaven, as firstfruits to the Lord." Lev 23:17 (ESV)

- So the grain offering of bread brought to the Lord for the feast of Pentecost was leavened; it was made with yeast.

* - Why is Pentecost important to the church?

* - Pentecost is important to the church because it is on Pentecost, that God poured out the Holy Spirit & the growth of God's kingdom began anew.

- No wonder Jesus tells us about a woman who uses enough flour for a banquet. He was thinking about the yeast-raised-bread eaten to celebrate God providing a plentiful harvest at the feast of Pentecost.

- Jesus was pointing to the Feast of Pentecost as the new beginning of the growth of the kingdom of God.

- Before God's Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost, there were only 12 apostles & 500 eyewitnesses to the resurrection of Jesus.

- But on the day of Pentecost after Peter preached, 3000 people were added to the church.

-  & today remember, there are more than 2 billion (w/ a B; 2,000,000,000) people who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.

- Even if things don't look the tops, God's kingdom is growing; it never stops.

- To close the message this morning, I want to conduct a little experiment that shows us what the growth of God's kingdom is like.

- First, we're going to take 4 ounces of hydrogen peroxide & 2 ounces of ordinary dish soap & put them in a pop bottle.

- Now we are going to take 1 teaspoon of yeast that's been soaking in warm water for about 5 min.

- & we' re going to add that yeast to the peroxide & dish soap & watch & see what happens.

- This experiment is in rapid decomposition of hydrogen peroxide aka elephant toothpaste; you can watch one on Youtube.

- Even if things don't look the tops, God's kingdom is growing; it never stops.