The Kingdom of God is Like a Mustard Seed and Yeast in Dough

Introduction – 'from little things big things grow' Kev Carmody and Paul Kelly – an Australian classic that tells the story of the birth of the Aboriginal land rights movement in Australia… but that won't have quite the same emotional resonances here, so perhaps better that we start with Rosa Parks – do you know the story of Rosa Parks? She was the woman who kicked off the human rights movement in the US. Famously on 1st Dec 1955 in Montgomery Alabama she, a black woman, refused to stand up and give her seat on the bus to a white passenger. For that she was arrested, imprisoned and fined… seems incredible now doesn't it? - she was punished for refusing to stand and give her seat to a white man. But that one simple act of defiance kicked off a year long boycott of busses in Montgomery and introduced a young black pastor by the name of Martin Luther King Jr to the political scene and started a civil rights movement that went right to the supreme court and brought an end to segregation laws in the United States… and we might say that movement has continued right through to the present day and the installation of Barak Obama as the first black President of the United States. All she did was remain seated and she started a revolution in race relations in America. From little things, big things grow; from little things, big things grow.

And that's the message that Jesus brings us today in our passage – from little things, big things grow.

Specifically from a tiny seed grows a large plant; from a little yeast grows a whole batch of dough; and from a small start grows the one Kingdom that will rule over all and will last into eternity – the Kingdom of God. Jesus makes the point with two very similar illustrations, so we're going to follow his example with two points this morning:

– first the Kingdom of God starts small but grows large; and
– second, the Kingdom of God looks like nothing, but it's influence will spread everywhere.

1. The Kingdom of God Starts Small but Grows Large.

This is verses 18-19 – the mustard seed.

Then Jesus asked, "What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air perched in its branches.

It's a pretty straight forward image isn't it? Not tricky at all: the mustard seed is small, tiny; but it grows big.

From little things, big things grow.

There's also a hint that the influence of this tree grows wide – because the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.

Jesus is saying that the Kingdom of God is like this – it starts off small, just a tiny seed, the sort of thing you could look right past if you didn't know it was there, the sort of thing that just doesn't seem like anything worth noticing at all. And that's what the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law and the Synagogue ruler saw when they looked at Jesus – nothing important, nothing at all. If you were here last week you will remember they were outraged by Jesus healing a woman on the Sabbath in the synagogue, so outraged that the Synagogue ruler told Jesus and the woman off. Do you see what he's saying? – he's saying that he's the important man in that place, he rules the synagogue, he speaks and Jesus and everyone else, should listen. Never mind that when Jesus speaks illness listens and becomes wholeness… never mind that when Jesus speaks demons cower and submit. Never mind that when Jesus speaks God speaks. The religious leaders looked right past that, they thought this Jesus movement was a sham and it wouldn't last, they had the real power. It's crazy isn't it? 2000 years later the name of Jesus is known around the world, but this synagogue ruler lives on only here, he's been forgotten for about 2000 years.

But this points to something important about God's plans and purposes in the world. God doesn't always work through the big and impressive things. God's work is more subtle and more mysterious than we would like. God is like a man planting a seed, just a seed, just a tiny thing… and waiting for that seed to do its work. Don't miss that in Jesus story – the seed doesn't plant itself, there's a man who plants the seed – this man points to God at work in this Kingdom, it's not coincidence or accident; there is a deliberate agency at work, God is working in the little movement that is gathering around the provincial carpenter in rural Galilee.

And think about that seed. A seed contains within it the potential for the life of the plant. On the shelf, in the mustard pot it looks dead, dry and lifeless. But put it in the ground, give it water and warmth and whatever else makes seeds grow and a miraculous thing happens – the seed germinates, and it's alive, a tiny microcosm of the tree pushes it's way out of the seed and then up out of the ground and it grows into something immensely larger than a seed. But somehow the information, the dynamic for growth, the energy was all there in potential in that tiny seed.

So it is with Jesus, he doesn't look much, but he is soon to be buried in the soil and to germinate a whole kingdom of God – and the whole programme of the Kingdom is already present in potential in him. (John 12.24 makes this imagery explicit – Jesus says to his disciples – unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.' He's talking about his death – he is a seed, falling to the ground, only to germinate into a plant that produces many seeds, a Kingdom that gives life!)

Do you see Jesus' point? The Kingdom of God doesn't look like much as Jesus preaches in their synagogues, it certainly doesn't fit their expectation of what it will look like when God comes to meet with them and sets all things to rights (perhaps a quote from one of Isaiah or Ezekiel or such like that sets their expectations up in terms of the big and spectacular rule of God would suit here) – but it's apparent insignificance hides it's inherent power and majesty. It looks like nothing, but it's going to grow to eclipse everything else.

This is the dynamic of the gospel. Remember 1 Corinthians 1.18-25 the weakness of God is greater than man's strength, the foolishness of God is greater than our wisdom, the hidden power of God is tied up in the apparent weakness and meekness of the Lord Jesus. This is the dynamic of the cross – the very moment when he's hung up and killed as a criminal on a cross, the moment when his enemies gather to mock and laugh and witness his disgrace – that is the moment of his triumph, that is the moment when he does away with sin and death, the moment he buys freedom for the captives. His apparent failure and weakness and death results in spectacular success.

Paradox of the Kingdom – God comes, but not as a prince, not as a powerful angel or a frightening super man, but as an everyman, a tradesman, a work-a-day bloke… and as a humble servant, even humbling himself to die. And that deliberate humility will give way to glorious honour when he takes his place at the right hand of the Father in heaven, an event that has already taken place, and that will be seen by all in due time – when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Until then we don't see the tree, only the seed, we don't see the dough transformed, only the yeast…

And this gospel dynamic remains at work in our world today. In a very similar way God works in the world through things that are weak and unimpressive, he works through you and me, and through our small little acts of obedience and faith. Consider Dr Sasa – came to visit us five years ago as a recent graduate of medical school – and he spoke of his home land as a place with no external threats where the government spends 80% of its income on weapons to use against it's own people, where people regularly go missing and are never heard of again, and a place where he personally was regarded as an enemy of the state for the crime of leaving the country to seek education.

And he said that he intended to go back to that place and defy government orders and face possible 'disappearing' in order to help his people.

And well might we have said to him 'that's just crazy, you're a fool – what can you possibly do to help millions who are starving and without medical aid and who the government wants to keep that way'.

And what could one man possibly hope to achieve in remote jungles with powerful enemies? – surely he would do better to stay here and make a name for himself and apply political pressure, or do just about anything other than go back to that land where he wasn't wanted, in danger and extremely unlikely to make any difference whatsoever.

We might well have said that, or at least thought it. But that is to consider the situation without reference to God. God's power isn't limited by government officials or lack of food or money or power or influence. And so it's turned out - what a difference God has made through Dr Sasa, and in such a short period of time. Each year as he's returned to visit we've been amazed at the things that the Lord has done. And each year it seems that Dr Sasa's vision for what can be done grows exponentially larger. And we think how can he imagine that he could do that? Yet God has been at work in a way I've never seen before, and amazing things have happened and are happening as Dr Sasa faithfully works for God's glory in those jungles on the Burma/India border. From little things, big things grow.

And it has ever been thus for God's work in the world. Come in the evenings as we explore the lives of the great heroes of faith in the Old Testament. Week by week we're seeing the faith of God's people stretched as God promises amazing things will come through rag tag family of misfits and outsiders, strangers in their own land, but promised the whole world.

So let me ask you – are you like me? Do you struggle to see the strength and power of the Kingdom of God? It's hard for us to see but God is working even though it looks to us like God's Kingdom is small and unimpressive.

But from little things big things grow is the story of the Kingdom of God, and it is also the story of how the Kingdom grows today. The tree will be revealed in all it's glory on the day of judgement, and until that day God's work is most often cloaked in apparent failure, in the appearance of insignificance – it looks small and pathetic. Thank God he does raise up the occasional Dr Sasa, or a Billy Graham. But know that he also works through our day to day too.

Moment by moment you and I face choices – choices either to trust God and be faithful, or trust in ourselves and the things we can see. And those moments are significant in the eyes of God. Moment by moment, day by day God works to grow his kingdom through us – through how we spend our money, how we talk in the office or at school, who we choose to spend time with, how we love others, serve others, how we resist temptation… a thousand little things a day – and by those things God grows fruit in us of righteousness, faith, hope and love. From little thing big things grow. And as he changes us into the likeness of the Lord Jesus so we become better and better advertisements for his glory and so we become better fit for use to bring others into the Kingdom. So from little things big things grow.

But Jesus has another nuance to add to this, so let's turn to point two:

2. The Kingdom of God Looks Like Nothing, but Changes Everything
This is verses 20 and 21:

Again he asked, "What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.

There's not a lot of difference between this illustration and the tiny mustard seed growing into a tree is there? All of the main elements are still there – the outside agent who makes things happen, the potency or growth dynamic that is hidden within a seemingly dead object, and the growth that follows from the small to large. But where in Jesus' first illustration the emphasis was on the contrast in size – from tiny seed to large tree; here the emphasis is on the spread, on the influence that the introduced yeast has over the whole amount of dough.

Jesus' focus is on the way in which the yeast works through all of the dough. Picture it - a small amount of yeast is added to a large amount of flour. In the original Jesus specifies a lot of flour, literally three measures of flour, which translates to about 35 litres – that's the size of a small kitchen bin – that is a big amount of dough, industrial quantities. But how much yeast does she add – well not a lot, less than a handful. So it's still a little thing growing into a large thing … but Jesus draws our attention to the way the yeast works through the whole batch – the woman takes this little thing and joins it to the big mass of flour, but the little bit of yeast isn't just swallowed up and lost, it has an influence that far exceeds its physical size, and in fact it transforms the flour into a living dough. You've all seen Bake off so you know what happens when that dough is activated don't you – it rises, the whole think literally grows, becomes alive.

And Jesus point is that the Kingdom of God is like that – it doesn't look like it's going to do anything, in fact it looks pretty hopeless; but the Kingdom of God has a power that will overwhelm the kingdoms of this world and transform them. Think about it. Jesus said this to the guys who were lining up an execution for him. He's about to be swallowed up in a political and religious power play. Just one man he confronts the Kingdoms of this world – the Mighty Roman Empire, and the subservient Jewish state – and they sense the threat, and in their might they're going to do away with the little pest before the threat can turn into anything actual.

Done deal. No matter how influential or popular or even powerful Jesus might appear to his little provincial followers, he has no power to challenge the national order, let alone the international order.

But Oh yes he does. The Kingdom of God confronts the kingdoms of men and it doesn't look like a fair fight at all – the kingdom of God looks hopelessly outgunned. But the influence of the Lord Jesus will spread and spread and spread until it takes over the Kingdoms of the world from the inside out. Rome fell, every power from then till now has fallen or will yet fall before him. And his influence grows into every corner of the earth, Revelation tells us there will be no kingdom, no language, nation, people or tribe unrepresented in his kingdom.

In fact the very world itself, the great universe will be re-shaped around his rule, his people transformed into his likeness, his power will bend all enemies to his almighty will.

And think about that dough again – once it's mixed with yeast the dough can't do anything to stop it's influence. It will spread and the dough will be changed. Likewise there is nothing we can do in this world to overcome the power and influence of the living one who was dead, but is alive again. If even death can't stop Jesus, there is no force that can stop him.

We know how influence spreads don't we. We see it everyday on twitter and facebook, in the news and in our friends and neighbours. And this morning we remember those who gave their lives in battle to overcome the influence of some very wicked men. Hitler is a supreme example of a man who wielded terrible influence over others. He spoke horrible things, and he swept a whole nation into unspeakable atrocities. Ordinary people, people like you and me, joined in to make the holocaust possible, to make the 3rd Reich glorious. His influence was wicked, and so it's spread was terrible, but it illustrates how influence spreads and takes over a whole batch, a whole society or nation.

We know the power of influence that spreads through a society like yeast through the dough. But again we can easily miss that influence that Jesus wields in our world.

We can easily imagine that the real power mongers are the people like Hitler and Churchill, and the people with the armies and the tanks; or big corporations and the lobby groups, or the people who manipulate the markets or spread new ideas. But Jesus' power and influence are harder to see. But like yeast his influence spreads and spreads and spreads and takes over the lot.

So if we want to have true power and influence – it doesn't come through politics, or the market, or education and the media… but by Prayer, and by faithful, humble living by faith in Jesus and his gospel.

Giving to church, coming to a prayer meeting or a bible study, standing up for the name of Jesus in our little corners, living for God's glory and not for your own comfort – these might be little acts of faith and obedience, they may make no visible difference in your world. But the influence of the Kingdom spreads through just such faith and obedience as that, because from little things big things grow.

So do you want to make a difference in the world? Do you want to live lives of real significance? Do you want to be remembered in years to come? Do you want to be great? Then be a servant and be faithful in the little things – moment by moment, hour by hour act as if God is really in charge and what he says really counts and nothing else does. Act as if Jesus kingdom is the only one that lasts, and Jesus approval is the only thing that counts. And watch and wait for the Lord to work. Because From little things big things grow.

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