Matthew 13:31-33 | Kingdom Now: The Mustard Seed & The Leaven

It's good to be back with you.

Last week, I had the privilege of speaking at Remedy Chapel, one of our church

plants in Fresno, for beginning their second year in ministry.

It was a great time.

David did a great job here, walking us through the second parable of Matthew 13.

There are seven parables total in that chapter, and so we're going to hit

numbers three and four today.

But let me ask you this right off the bat.

And you're not.

You're going to think what in the world just have to do with the Bible.

Here's a serious question.

How many of you have ever seen a Chihuahuan

chinchilla?

What's your size expectation of it?

Yeah. Little.

Right. What if you saw a huge one?

It'd be weird.

It wouldn't be at.

And so.

That look like a weird Chihuahuan.

Why does that look odd?

Bigger than expected.

Too fat.

Let me tell you why it looks odd.

Because it's DNA doesn't allow it to grow that way.

And so what we're seeing there is something that is contrary to its DNA.

Everything that God makes.

He designs with a DNA, if you will,

that determines everything about it,

especially at size.

For some reason, in America,

we are enamored with large.

And we assume that big is better.

It's not necessarily the case

because the issue is not size.

The issue is health.

If I like Chihuahuan, let me start there.

I would rather have a small

normal size, healthy Chihuahuan

than a big Great Dane size ill Chihuahuan.

Does that make sense?

Regarding church.

Drawing a crowd is easy, but purity is hard.

A healthy was better than a big Chihuahuan.

And so enter

the parables of Matthew 13, verses 31 through 33.

Matthew 13:31–33

Two parables. Let me read them for you.

You follow along.

He put together Jesus, put together, put another parable before them, saying,

the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took

and sowed in his field.

It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown,

it is larger than all the garden plants, and becomes a tree,

so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.

He told them another parable.

The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took

and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leaven.

These two parables present a

issue for us, because the first two parables, and David

did a great job last week in explaining what that parable was about.

And the reason we can explain with the first two parables are about

because Jesus tells us, he gives us the interpretation of them.

And so it's easy to read the parable.

And then a little bit later, Jesus says, let me tell you what I'm talking about.

These are the first two that Jesus.

Jesus tells the parable and doesn't give any explanation whatsoever.

He expects his hearers to understand what it is he's saying.

And so let me walk you through the different

two different opinions of these parables, especially of the mustard seed

in the first three centuries, the first church

for three centuries long understood

that these parables were a warning against evil

that would be mixed into the expanding kingdom of God.

It wasn't until the fourth and fifth centuries,

with theologians named John Chrysostom and Saint Augustine, that they changed

that interpretation to the interpretation.

This is really about the incredible kingdom expansion of God

through the world.

And then later in the 16th century, in the with the reformers,

Martin Luther and John Calvin morphed it even more so

to be about the pervasive influence and the growth of the kingdom,

and something that starts small and takes over the whole world.

And certainly it started small, started with Jesus, and it went to 12.

And then biblically, you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria,

the ends of the earth.

So it certainly has spread.

But but that idea has become the predominant understanding

of these parables.

But originally it was never understood that way.

And so we have to balance.

What, because Jesus didn't say this.

What I'm talking about, we have to balance both of those

because there's some truth in both of those ideas.

Certainly the kingdom start a small and spread

slowly, gradually, and then is exploded throughout the world.

Certainly.

But the second option is

what seems to fit the flow of the parables.

To watch for corruption

in the midst of the expanding kingdom.

And as the kingdom grows in my life,

be careful of corruption.

That second option

is where I land in the understanding of these two parables.

It's the historic option.

It's what the First Church understood about these two parables.

And the old saying goes, if it's new, it's not true.

And if it's true, it's not new.

And so we're going to go back to the original

understanding of the church and what these parables meant.

And so what we find in verses 31

through 33 is really Jesus's

diagnostic warning.

Churches are to produce disciples,

not just fans of a Sunday experience.

And so the first parable,

he put another parable for them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of

mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.

It's the smallest of all seeds, but when it is grown,

it's larger than all the garden plants.

It becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air

come and make nests in its branches.

Here's the big idea for this parable.

Just because it grows doesn't mean it's healthy.

Just because

it's big doesn't mean it's healthy.

That.

When Jesus says

a man took a mustard seed and soda in his field,

again, we go back to this idea of exegetical constancy.

I talked about that a couple of weeks ago. Remember that?

And you remember that.

Stay with me. Exegetical.

Okay. I'm going to give you a warning.

I'm asking you to say something out loud with your mouth open.

You ready?

Exegetical

constancy.

What?

That means a biblical interpretation kind of rule is that when something means

the first time and the second time around, it continues to mean that throughout.

Generally speaking.

So a farmer took a scene in planet in a field.

The field always means the world,

and especially in Jesus parables.

And he took the seed, planted it in the world.

And he says, this mustard seed was the smallest of all seeds.

It's tiny.

Now, let me just make a note here.

Some of you scientifically minded people say, well, it's not really

the smallest of all seeds.

There's a lot of seeds smaller. Well, duh.

Jesus is talking to farmers in that day in the herb

garden and of the seeds that they would plant.

It was the smallest of those that they would plant.

Do you see what I'm saying?

Like the Bible is designed to be a scientific book.

And so for his hearers, it was

the smallest seed that they would purposefully plant.

And he plants it.

Now a mustard seed produces.

What?

It doesn't produce mustard, that's the result of it.

But the mustard seed produces what?

It does not produce a mustard tree.

It doesn't.

It produces a mustard bush.

There are no mustard trees.

See, see, that's what I'm saying.

Like his people understood that we don't.

The DNA of a mustard seed produces a mustard bush.

A healthy mustard bush is about three feet tall.

But this doesn't become a bush.

It becomes what,

a tree?

It's not natural

to giant Chihuahuan.

And we think because it's big, it's better.

It's not that trees are evil, it's

just that this tree is unnatural

and it's so unnatural that what lives in it.

Birds make their nest.

They're at home in it. They're comfortable.

Again, exegetical constancy.

Birds.

Jesus first talked about birds.

And all through scripture, the vast majority of references to just birds

is evil.

Go back to verse four of this same chapter.

Jesus tells the parable of the farmer who scatters seed,

and what is it that comes and still seed before it can take root?

What is it? Birds.

They're evil.

And Jesus is saying what was planted

becomes something that maybe never was intended to be.

So much so that evil and deceit and corruption

are at home in it, oftentimes.

Do you follow?

Yes. So what is the saying

this kingdom of heaven is going to spread?

But be careful that you don't assume

in the context of the kingdom of God's expression in the world, i.e.

the church, that you don't assume that bigger is better.

Health is better than size.

I firmly believe that every church has a DNA

designed by God.

Every church is not supposed to be the same size.

Bigger churches aren't better than smaller churches, and smaller

churches aren't better than bigger churches.

What matters is, is their healthy.

And the way

a church is healthy is that the people are healthy. Why?

Because the people are the church.

Please never make the mistake to say that you go to flip side church

because if you're part of this body, you are flip side church,

flip side church.

This happens to meet at the Maywood Center.

Do you follow?

So the way the church is healthy is if you are healthy,

if I am healthy.

If the church ever has to feel like

it has to change or neglect the hard teaching of Scripture

because the old interpretation, the original interpretation,

doesn't fit our culture and it's too difficult for our society.

It's inviting corruption

and birds will be very comfortable

in its branches.

The plain Bible is enough.

In my coaching of of pastors and teachers.

I often tell people, listen,

don't be so concerned about your creativity and your soundbites,

because sometimes your creativity can be the poison of the pulpit.

When you try to make it so relatable and so comfortable

because at its core, it's offensive and you don't want to send people.

So you try to be creative with it and and produce these soundbites.

For social media.

It's the poison of the pulpit because the Bible plainly is enough.

We must be careful

that our success doesn't outpace our sanctification.

Sanctification means being holy.

What holy is as healthy?

I've talked about this many times before.

Some of you might remember.

You know the difference between a mule and a donkey.

Do you know the difference was the difference between a meal and a donkey?

The difference between a mule and donkey

is this a mule cannot reproduce.

A donkey can reproduce. Why?

Because a meal is a cross between a horse and a donkey.

And it's. Man. Put those two together.

It's a creation of man, and it lacks the ability to reproduce.

Did you know that a donkey is a creation of God and it can reproduce?

Okay.

So listen.

A mule is bigger, it looks more impressive.

It gets a lot more work done.

If anybody had to choose between a meal and a donkey.

Man, I want the big one. Give me the mule.

What's the problem?

The problem is it's a man made creation and will never reproduce.

There are some churches out there that are mules.

They're big.

They're impressive.

They carry a big load. Get a lot done.

But if they're not reproducing themselves, it's a man made creation.

Because everything that God makes originally with DNA is created to reproduce.

It's about health, not size.

Do you follow?

And so one of the things that I learned from

this is I must watch that we don't outgrow our obedience.

Some of us.

Have been around this a long time

and in this environment a long time.

And we're getting bigger and fatter and bigger and fatter

and bigger and fatter with our knowledge and understanding.

But we're outgrowing our obedience

because we're getting fatter and smarter,

and we're learning more, but we're not obeying more.

And some of us have been around this for so long, we know plenty,

but we're not obeying plenty.

We must be careful

that our success in knowledge doesn't out

pass our sanctification.

They don't grow our obedience.

You follow

parable number two.

He told them another parable.

The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took

and hid in three measures of flour till

it was all leavened.

Here's here's the big idea for this parable.

What remains will eventually rule, and what's allowed

eventually defines

what remains in me, eventually rules me,

and what I allow in me will define me like leaven does.

Dough,

leaven, or yeast consistently through Scripture is a symbol

and another reference to evil, corruption and sin.

And so you have this woman with dough that is unleavened.

You, Bible students, what is unleavened

dough represent in Scripture?

What's that? David?

The body of Christ.

That's why in the Passover meal, the thing that we celebrate in communion,

that's why that little wafer is just a flat, little wafer.

Because it's designed to be

without leaven, because leaven is a symbol of sin and corruption and evil.

And so the body of Christ, unleavened dough, the Passover bread,

unstained by sin, untainted by evil, not corrupted.

And so this dough starts pure

and unadulterated, sinless, uncorrupted.

And a woman does what to it

hides leaven in it.

That's not a positive thing.

The Bible doesn't say, sorry about that.

The Bible doesn't say that she put leaven in it.

The Bible says she.

What? Hit it?

Why does she hide it?

Because she doesn't want it to be discovered.

Because the moment she said, hey, guess what?

I'm going to put some leaven on this. No, you take that out.

Don't allow that to be in there.

Don't let it to live there.

It's going to corrupt everything.

You let it live there.

So she hides it.

It's hidden.

Hidden.

Leaven spreads and it slowly takes over.

This is one reason why we I.

Must.

And I will guard who teaches and who leads

and who influences.

Because not everyone who can grow a crowd should shape a church.

Stand.

And so this 11.

This is interesting.

Think about this leaven and a dough.

That which is hidden eventually spreads.

And whatever spreads shapes.

This hidden little, little,

little batch 11 hidden

spreads and shapes

the dough.

She hides it.

Bible says in Psalm 111,

I have hidden your word on my heart that I might not sin against you.

It doesn't mean I'm hiding.

I don't want anybody know I'm reading the Bible.

That that we're hidden means I've put it in my heart.

We have one of two options in our heart leaven or the word of God.

And the only thing that destroys and and

and kills and extracts leaven from my heart is the word of God.

The Bible says that the rule of the Holy Spirit is to sanctify us by the word.

To sanctify means to make holy.

It means to make healthy.

The only way I made healthy inside is by putting God's

Word inside that the Holy Spirit uses to sanctify me.

I cannot be healthy, righteous, and holy without the Word of God

infiltrating my heart.

Because if I don't do that, what is left in my heart?

Leaven.

And a little bit hidden will spread.

And what spreads will shape.

We talk a lot about these journals, and every once

in a while we make another little push because people forget.

Get lazy these journals all the time.

These journals.

This is what we use to help us take the Word of God

and put it in our heart, and we run it through these journals.

This is what it's called a flip journal.

Flip and I put together an infographic that Miranda designed

for us to help you understand how to do this.

So you read the Bible, some sticks you write down in your journal.

F this is what this is the verse that got me.

This is what I'm focusing on. Then you're right L.

This is why I learned about God. This is what I learned about me.

Then you write down, I internalize this is how it applies to me.

Then you write P.

This is my prayer based on what God showed me.

Flip. Flip. Focus on. Internalize. Pray.

You understand.

I got all kinds of these in my office that all filled up.

This is where I am currently in this one.

I just started a new one and all this.

And so this is the way I take God's word.

Run it through here.

Put up my heart. Why?

Because I don't want to sin

without this.

I'm a great sinner.

I've been practicing that a long time.

But God, I want him to sanctify me and get the 11 out of me.

And so please pick, pick up.

We got a bunch of these in the welcome Center for.

We got these infographics.

They're got the infographics in the in the journal.

If you just want the the form of the infographic, pick it up.

But unless you do this, this is the way Scripture is the way that the Holy Spirit

uses Scripture to sanctify us and make us holy and make us healthy.

Here's what I know.

Compromise never announces itself.

It just blends in.

That's why the woman had to hide it.

Because it wasn't announced.

And I will endeavor with every breath of my being to

never make the Bible more palatable, or

bend it to fit with the cultural drift.

Ever.

That flip side,

we value the infallible scriptures,

and we will never drift doctrinally.

We believe in what the Scripture says in second Timothy 316,

All Scripture is breathed out by God.

It is the breath of God and is profitable for teaching,

reproof, correction, and training for righteousness.

As we teach this

reproof, it means rebuke.

It's going to rebuke our error

so it can correct our life.

So that will be trained for righteousness.

The Spirit of God through the Word of God sanctifies us.

And that doesn't happen apart from His Word.

Here's what I know.

Most churches and most Christians.

We don't reject truth loudly.

We just dilute it slowly.

They'll compromise here.

A little compromise there.

Here's my reality.

Just peel back the curtain of my life a little bit for you.

Here's my reality sin.

Rarely in my life ever started big.

It started buried.

Buried in my heart.

And that's why Jesus says he begins his whole sermon in Matthew five.

You've heard it said, But I'm telling you, it starts

in your heart, Carl.

For me, the truth of my life

and the sin that I've struggled with in my life, it my sin.

It never needed permission.

It just needed access.

I think the same is true for you.

And so if you're like me,

repent early and often

and pray that the Holy Spirit gives you the desire

to live a holy life and be grateful

for God's mercy and grace.

Do you know why I and collaris tattooed on my arm?

It's the Greek word for mercy and grace tattooed into my skin.

Because I know without that, all I'm left with

is damnation because of my leavened.

And I am so grateful that God's mercy and grace

has not destroyed me

and has given me another chance to repent.

Understand?

What I know for me is what I hope you realize.

For you, what I tolerate internally will eventually define me externally.

If I don't repent and renounce it immediately,

that's leaven.

And so let me just ask you a few questions.

What kind of influence are you tolerating?

What's that little thing?

Those little things that you know, it's not part of God's kingdom,

but you tolerate it in your life.

You're very thankful for God's mercy and grace, which it should be, but

we use that as a license to tolerate stuff that should not be

a part of who we are.

What have I allowed in

that God never intended to be in?

Sin? Like leaven doesn't explode.

It seeps.

Until it takes over.

Hidden sin is never harmless.

And so, my dear friends, I.

What you're tolerating privately.

Bitterness.

Lust.

Pride,

compromise.

Lethargy.

Apathy about God and His kingdom.

You said your magic prayer.

You think you're good for heaven and you don't have to do anything about it

now. See, sin doesn't need momentum.

It just needs permission.

You and I don't need more.

We we don't need.

We don't need more of this.

We need more obedience.

See, because growth

without obedience is dangerous.

Do you understand?

That person?

You've not forgiven

their relationship.

You've not.

The commitment.

You've not fulfilled.

The sin that's become comfortable.

It's more of a pet than a problem.

You think?

I think what I'm saying, here's the negative thing of what I'm saying.

Don't outgrow your obedience.

Don't outgrow your obedience.

Most people know more than we obey.

Yeah.

That's a dangerous place to be.

So freaking dangerous.

Don't outgrow your obedience.

You end up looking like that big fat.

That's a dangerous, unhealthy place to be.

Holy living matters.

Whatever we feed on will fill us.

It'll permeate everything.

And so positively said. I say it like this.

Audit your inputs.

We become what we continually consume.

Audit your inputs.

Think of all the things we let in our before our eyes and our minds

and our hearts.

Audit your inputs,

The music on our radios.

Get in the car off some turns. You know this playlist.

Whatever your inputs,

what we're watching on our screens.

All that social media stuff.

Audit your inputs.

Your gravitation to porn, audit your inputs,

your greed,

your anger,

your unforgiveness.

Worry.

Should we become what we continually consume?

We gotta be.

We gotta understand that what's important for Flipside

Doctrine is protected.

Repentance is expected

and holiness is celebrated.

Ask yourself this question what have I allowed in

that I pretend isn't a problem?

What have I allowed in that I've just kind of said, well,

you know, I'm going to heaven when I die anyway.

You know, Jesus is my savior, but, you know, this little thing still exists.

That's.

Here's the danger of living.

You don't feel it happen. It doesn't shout.

It just seeps.

And you and I both know

that it seeps continually.

And all of a sudden we realize

that somehow our convictions are weaker,

our hunger for God is lower,

and our obedience is slower.

It's not because there's something wrong with God's Word.

It's not something that there's something wrong with God.

Is that I've let Levan live.

So finally,

what am I tolerating that Jesus is calling me to remove?

Quit playing with it.

Quit dating it,

quit flirting with sin and leaven.

No excuses.

Don't be soft.

Name it

and do what most won't

repent.

Our prayer has got to be

father.

That that is not who I am anymore.

I've let it stay in far too long.

No more.

And so I'm throwing it out of my life.

God, you have to change my heart.

Because left to myself, I will not change my heart.

So give me the power of your spirit to live without.

I'm done with it.

It's gotta be our prayer.

When we start understanding these parables.

We have the opportunity to move

from hearing about truth to being transformed by it,

and they start to develop discernment in us

regarding what's real and what's healthy.

So that our life begins

to be aligned with our faith.

Our heart gets right, our eyes get clear,

our priorities are aligned,

and our life starts to produce something of lasting value for the Kingdom of God.

But if

we're going to call ourselves disciples of Jesus,

we've got to do serious business with 11 that we have allowed me.

All of us have allowed to live in our hearts

without a radical.

Without a radical removal

by the Spirit of God, the scalpel of His word and repentance.

Do you understand?

These parables? Jesus?

They're not cute little fuzzy stories.

He's doing serious business with our souls.

And so I want to invite you in this moment

to do business with God.

See, father, I admit I'm a sinner.

I've allowed this thing in my life to be there

too long.

I've allowed this leaven

to start to seep into me and.

And Jesus.

I believe you died so I could be freed from it.

And that you rose

from the grave so I could live a holy, free

life, free from sin and free from the consequences of sin.

And so I commit to turn from my sin.

And I dedicate my life,

and I dedicate my allegiance to you

and you alone.

By your spirit, empower me

to love you with my whole heart

and my whole soul and my whole mind, and all the strength of my

being more than the leaven I've grown

comfortable with.

Give me the power of your spirit to live in obedient life,

a holy life, a righteous life, without delay

and without hesitation.

I am not capable of that on my own.

I need the power of your spirit to enable me to even desire to

want to live a holy life.

So give me your spirit.

Father, I pray over us

that by the power of your spirit.

You will give us the desire,

the growing desire.

To repent.

To live a holy life, a life of righteousness,

a life of obedience, a life of bold witness

that you would give us the growing desire

by the power of your spirit,

to carve out the leaven that still resides,

that we know is contrary to your word.

We know is contrary to the way of Jesus.

By your spirit gives the power

to get rid of that.

To be faithful in in your word.

Not so.

It would be good a little religious people,

but so that you can sanctify us through your word by your spirit.

Father, I pray that you would call us to repentance.

And in repentance give us all that you're graceful.

Allow.

Thank you for your mercy.

That's new every morning.

Thank you for the grace that doesn't destroys in the midst

of our sin,

in the midst of our disobedience.

Thank you for your grace.

Oh, God, would you call us to repentance and then give us all that your grace

would allow your undeserved and unmerited favor and blessing so good God.

In your name and pray.

Amen.

Listen, Matthew 13.

Proud of you.

Those aren't easy parables,

One more week we're going to go through parables five, six, seven next week.

And those parables are all about the treasure that God sees in us

in the field, and what he pays in order to

to get the treasure.

They're beautiful. They're beautiful parables.

And so this week, read all of Matthew 13, the whole thing over and over and over.

And as we've talked about it, let it live up inside of you.

The Spirit of God will use it to sanctify us

as we spend time in His Word.

Listen, some of you have made the prayer

of confession and repentance, and

some of you need prayer.

Either spiritually or physically.

Healing of your soul, healing of your body in some way.

And so some of my friends with little prayer

lands, they're not going to be in the.

So they're going to be right down front here

after they're just going to walk down while we're seeing it after we're done.

And if you just if you want to pray with somebody, just stay where you are

and people clear out, they'll be here.

Just just come forward and pray.

I love you, I'm proud of you. Let's see.