Jesus' Concept Of A Mustard Seed Faith

Jesus’Concept of A Mustard Seed Faith

Matthew 17:14-21

Mark 4:31-31

Matthew 13:31-32

Luke 13:19

Introduction:

Have you ever thought about your faith being a living, growing thing? Did you know that God has a destination for your faith? There is a kind of faith that God hates, and there is a kind of faith that God loves. Each of us has been given a measure of faith, and we must realize what we have done with it.

Matthew’s gospel holds a story of a situation where Jesus’disciples could not deliver a young boy from a demon spirit. Jesus called them faithless and perverse. He only gave one reason the boy had not been

delivered. It was not because of his parent’s sins, or the boy’s sins, but because of their unbelief.

When jumping off into space, a skydiver is not sure what branch he will land on. Once there was a squirrel, he got to risk it if they don’t want to spend their lives in one tree." --James S. Hewett

The problem with too many of us today is that we are afraid to try our faith. We try to play it safe and secure with someone else’s faith.

In our text today, here our faith is revealed like the mustard tree. Notice these powerful transformations:

I. The Mustard Seed Faith Begins as a Grain (20a)

A. Grain faith is small

-Every man is given a measure of faith.

-Mustard seeds are the smallest, even though mustard

trees are actually extinct now, according to the Jewish

encyclopedia.

B. Grain faith must be planted

-According to a diagram printed in an 1896 edition of a Jewish encyclopedia, mustard seeds were planted in

holes six inches deep and filled with water.

-72 hours later the water was gone; silt covered the seed and tiny green sprouts begin to appear.

handle a situation.

II. The Mustard Seed Faith Turns Into a Plant

Mark 4:31-31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.

A. Plant seed is greater than herbs

-Our faith should never be smaller than the day we are

born again.

-Do not discourage young Christians from using their

faith to move mountains.

B. Plant seed must be well rooted

-The root of the mustard plant grows three times faster than the stalk.

-Our faith must become rooted in God without seeing,

according to Christ’s example, at least three times as

much as what we can see

▀ Sweeping across Germany at the end of World War II, Allied forces searched farms and houses looking for snipers. At one abandoned house, almost a heap of rubble, searchers with flashlights found their way to the basement. There, on the crumbling wall, a victim of the Holocaust had scratched a Star of David. And beneath it, in rough lettering, the message:

I believe in the sun--even when it does not shine;

I believe in love--even when it is not shown;

I believe in God--even when he does not speak

Robert Schuller

--James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 186.

C. Plant seed must be growing

-Faith is designed by God to grow, but God hates little faith.

-Faith can only grow by continual use and expansion of

vision, which believes God for greater and greater

things.

III. The Mustard Seed Faith Turns Into a Tree

Matthew 13:31-32 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in

the branches thereof.

A. Tree faith must grow

-Mustard trees grow to a maximum height of 21 feet tall, which means the root is 63 feet in the ground, straight down.

-It becomes a tree with a destiny.

B. Tree faith must have branches

-While the tree is only 21 feet full grown, it is branches are 72 feet full grown.

-Our faith needs to spread out for others over three times as much as for ourselves according to this

example.

▀ One could not but be moved by the story of the soldier who asked his officer if he might go out into the "No Man’s Land" between the trenches in

World War I to bring in one of his comrades who lay grievously wounded. "You can go," said the officer, "but it’s not worth it. Your friend is probably killed, and you will throw your own life away." But the man went. Somehow he managed to get to his friend, hoist him onto his shoulder, and bring him