OPEN: There’s a story about a student from MIT who spent an entire summer going to the Harvard football field every day wearing a black and white striped shirt walking up and down the field for ten or fifteen minutes throwing birdseed and blowing a whistle. Then he would walk off the field.
At the end of the summer, it came time for the first Harvard home football game. As the game was about ot begin, the referee walked onto the field and blew the whistle... (pause).
The game had to be delayed for a half hour to wait for the birds to get off of the field. The student from MIT wrote his thesis on this, and graduated.
APPLY: Now, had you been watching this student throughout the summer - walking up and down Harvard’s football field - you probably wouldn’t have understood his objective. But once football season began, his purpose would been very, very clear.
This young man did all that he did that summer in order to accomplish two goals:
1st He wanted to write a powerful thesis on “conditioned response” to graduate from MIT.
AND 2nd he wanted to irritate the students at Harvard University.
And he did both with the power of a little seed.
Here in this parable we’ve read this morning, Jesus is telling us that God has a purpose in mind for the seed that He plants in the field.
In the previous 2 parables, Jesus talks about a farmer who sows seed in his field.
In the 1st parable, the seed is the Word of God (the Scriptures) and when the pure word of God is sown in the hearts of the people who are prepared to hear it – it produces a wonderful and bountiful harvest.
In the 2nd parable, the seeds represent the “sons of Righteousness”
In other words, God sows US into the world to change the world. And to make people know what He can do in their lives - as He has in ours
Now, in this 3rd parable, the seed in the story seems to represent the church. And the focus of the parable seems to be the effect the church will have on the world.
As I was studying this passage I asked myself a question that shaped the rest of what I’m going to tell you today: What was the farmer’s goal in planting this mustard seed?
As in the previous parables, the farmer was God.
In this parable, God plants a seed, and then we’re told the results of the farmer’s actions. But Jesus doesn’t focus on the harvest that a NORMAL farmer would get from that tree.
Jesus doesn’t dwell on the value of the mustard seed.
For the purposes of His parable, it doesn’t matter that mustard is one of the oldest condiments in history. It doesn’t matter that mustard had been found in Egyptian tombs, or that Romans of His day enjoyed it’s flavor on their foods.
No… the FRUIT of the mustard TREE doesn’t seem to concern Him at all.
Instead, Jesus focuses on 2 things:
1st He tells us that this small mustard seed produces a big tree.
And 2ndly - the branches of that tree becomes a shelter for the birds of the air.
Now, just like the actions of the student from MIT… that doesn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. Why would a farmer plant a seed and not be concerned with the crop?
(pause…)
UNLESS…
Unless the purpose of planting the tree was to provide shelter for those birds.
Normally farmers don’t want birds near their garden.
Why? (They eat the seeds and pick at the crop)
So what do farmers usually put in their gardens to deal with that? (Scare Crows)
But the farmer in Jesus’ parable seems to plant the tree to get the birds to come. That’s not a normal goal for a farmer… but then, God’s not your normal run of the mill farmer anyway. His goals aren’t going to be like those of a mortal farmer.
You see, I believe the birds in this parable represent the lost...
… the people in this world that are without shelter and hope.
… the people who are seeking protection from despair and frustration.
And that’s why God created the church.
The church was not created for good people.
It was created for sinners.
Jesus said: "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners." Mark 2:17
Isaiah said it this way:
“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
God doesn’t think like we do.
His ways and his thoughts have an entirely different motivation than ours.
God has a goal in mind:
He wants to draw in every bird in the air to give them shelter. He wants to draw in the wicked people… and the evil people…
He wants to give them mercy.
He wants to give them pardon.
But first they must forsake their wicked ways and their evil thoughts.
So what is it about the church that would draw these kinds of people to the church?
For one thing: It’s the influence of our lives.
We are called to be the light of the world… the salt of the earth.
When we live our lives the way we ought other people in this world WILL begin to pay attention.
ILLUS: Years ago, my mom and dad went to visit with a friends of theirs. These folks weren’t church-goers, but as they sat down to the dinner table the husband asked my dad to pray: “I know you’re a praying man,” his friend said.
Partly because of the influence of my folks, it wasn’t long after that these people started going to church and were baptized into Christ. But one of the things that caught my parents off guard at the time, was the fact that their friends knew how much Jesus meant to them. They hadn’t tried to witness to their friends before this (other than asking them to go to church). But somehow, the man knew dad was a “praying man”. Something about dad’s life shone more than his words ever could.
We are to asked by Jesus to shine like lights in their world.
And we asked by Jesus to be like salt in our world… to make our lives taste good.
That idea of “tasting good” is part of the reason I believe that the next parable in Matthew 13 talks about a woman who took some yeast and mixed it into a large amount of dough and she leaves it there until the whole batch is leavened.
Why do we put yeast into bread?
It makes it rise and fluff out… and it helps to make it taste good.
If you went down to the bread store and had a choice between buying crackers, or buying bread – which would you buy most often (they have essentially the same ingredients in them, except the yeast)? We’d buy the bread wouldn’t we. The yeast adds a subtle and pleasing flavor to the bread.
In the same way, God puts His church into the world so that people. can sense how good it tastes to belong to God.
Isaiah declared: “Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” Isaiah 55:1-2
That’s why God created the church – to make people eager to taste that which is good.
Another reason the lost seek out the church is because it offers them shelter from the pain of life.
ILLUS: I was just talking with a couple this past week, and the husband was telling me about the terrible life he had had. He spoke of the nightmares that he’d had in the past. The nightmares came because of He described his harsh child hood and because of his experiences in the military.
He called us to find out about church because, when he had lived in Colorado, he had attended a congregation there. He liked their fellowship and their friendliness. And he noticed that – as he went to church - his nightmares began to go away.
Why?
Because while he was in church, he was listening to God’s Word.
He was surrounded by God’s people.
He was probably even the subject of some their prayers while he was there.
He was finding shelter in the branches of God’s tree.
He was being exposed to the hope and protection that God wanted to offer him.
And that’s the value of God’s church to people who are often on the outside looking in.
Now, I want to focus on another aspect of this parable.
Jesus said “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and BECOMES A TREE, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”
Matthew13:31-32
Now, when I study to prepare for Sunday sermons, a lot of times I’ll look for oddities in text. Something that makes me say “I wonder why God said it this way?” or “I wonder why this or that happened in people’s lives?”
As I prepared for today’s sermon, I found an oddity in this text that has disturbed Christian scholars for years: Mustard seeds don’t ever seem to produce trees.
Now, it’s always possible that there was a tree in that day that was called a mustard tree that modern day scholars don’t know about, but for all intents and purposes, most commentators are disturbed by this discrepancy.
Personally, I don’t know why they’d be disturbed.
Jesus is telling a PARABLE.
His objective is to make a point… not necessarily to be botanically correct.
If there actually wasn’t anything like a mustard tree… his audience would have known that.
Jesus would have known that.
It would be common knowledge that mustard seeds didn’t produce trees.
BUT this mustard seed (the one in His parable) produces a tree.
Why?
One man’s sermon I read stated that Jesus’ point in this parable was:
“God causes the smallest, most insignificant seed to grow into something that is the biggest and greatest tree. There is no limit with God. This plant doesn’t stay a plant - it becomes a tree.”
(Tim Barrett, Sermoncentral.com, from his sermon “Mustard Seed”)
Normally, mustard seeds grow into shrubs BUT this one grows into a large tree.
That’s not normal… but then, what God intended to do with the Church wasn’t normal either.
On the day of Pentecost, 12 men stood in a plaza in Jerusalem and the Spirit of God descended on them in the shape of tongues of fire. And they spoke in languages they had never learned so that the Jews in the crowd from other nations all could understand
Then Peter stood up in front of the crowd and preached to them about Jesus.
And Peter’s sermon was so powerful, that “… they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’” Acts 2:37
And Peter replied: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Acts 2:38
And Acts 2:41 says that “Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
Can you picture that?
12 men stand before a huge crowd
And in a single sermon… a congregation of 12 men explodes into a mega-church of 3000.
And it keeps growing and growing amd growing - as more and more people are baptized into Christ.
It started with a small seed, and grew phenomenally into something nobody would have expected. Well, nobody except God.
In Isaiah, God said this was going to happen:
In Isaiah 54:2-3 prophesied about the church saying:
"Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.” Isaiah 54:2-3
In fact, it’s interesting that the church began on Pentecost.
The other name for Pentecost was “The Feast of the First Fruits”
During this feast, farmers would bring in the first cuttings (or first fruits) of their harvest to offer to God.
Thus, on Pentecost, the church offered up its first fruits to God.
These 3000 baptized believers were the first fruits - the 1st Christians.
They were the beginning of God’s vast and wondrous tree called the church.
From that day on, the seed God planted became a tall and powerful tree. And the power of that seed comes from the blood of Jesus. It’s the power to offer each of us shelter and protection we desperately need.
CLOSE:
John Wesley was a popular evangelist in early America who often rode from one church to another to preach. On one such journey, outside of Hounslow Heath, he was stopped by a thief who shouted, "Halt, your money or your life."
Wesley got down from his horse, emptied his pockets to reveal only a handful of coins. He even invited the robber to search his saddlebags in which he carried his books. In disgust, the thief was turning away when John Wesley cried
"Stop, I have something more to give you."
Puzzled, the robber turned back.
Wesley then leaned bent over towards him and said:
"My friend, you may live to regret this sort of life in which you are engaged. If you ever do, I beseech you to remember this: ’The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s son, cleanses us from all sin.’"
The robber hurried silently away.
Years later, at the close of a Sunday evening service, a stranger stepped forward and earnestly begged to speak with him. Wesley recognized him as the robber who had accosted him so long before but now he was a well to do tradesman and better still, a child of God.
Raising Wesley’s hand to his lips he affectionately kissed it and sad in deep emotion, "To you, dear sir, I owe it all."
Wesley replied softly, "Nay, nay, my friend, not to me, but to the precious blood of Christ which cleanses us from all sin."
