The Influence of the Kingdom
November 10, 2024
Dr. Bradford Reaves
Crossway Christian Fellowship
Luke 13:18-21
We have been away from the parables for a few weeks as we looked at the issues of spiritual blindness. We only have a few more parables to go in our study. This week I want to invite you to turn into your Bibles to Luke chapter 13 and we're going to read verses 18 - 21.
He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.” 20 And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.” (Luke 13:18–21)
Among the many functions of Messiah Jesus while he was here on earth, perhaps one of the significant records is the preaching ministry of our Lord. The preaching ministry is one of great responsibility and was passed down from our Lord to the disciples and on through the ages.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew 4:17)
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)
“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel (Mark 16:15).
The Kingdom of God was central to the message of Jesus and his disciples. That was all he ever talked about. The Kingdom were those who were under the rule of God because they believed in faith. The Kingdom given to them because they repented and have been saved. That was the message of Jesus. That was the message of the apostles.
In the minds of the disciples, the Kingdom was more than internal; it was external. So they were questioning themselves as to where were the trumpets or the horses or the conquering armies. They were so eager about this, that they even asked Jesus about their positions in this kingdom that was coming.
Even at his trial, after all the things he had said, all the miracles he had performed, all the parables he had taught, Pilate could not understand the Truth that was standing right before him.
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.” (John 18:36)
There was nothing about Jesus that looked kingly, at least by worldly standards. There was nothing sovereign visible about him. He had no nation within the borders of this world. He was not a visible King with a visible Kingdom. The world didn't see Jesus through scriptural eyes. They didn't see Jesus through messianic prophecies. They didn't see the Kingdom then, and quite frankly, many can't see that today. So sadly many people turn away from preaching and churches that are centered around serving God's Kingdom and not the Kingdom of this world.
To help us understand that, Jesus gave us these parables that we just read. You say, “that doesn't really help they sound more like riddles to me.” The truth is these parables if they were to remain unexplained would continue to be a riddle. If you remember from our study, parables our visual illustrations cast alongside spiritual truths that reveal truths of the Kingdom that we would not be able to understand on their own.
What Jesus was saying to his disciples and what he is saying to us today is that he does not want us to be deceived. Do not be deceived about the power and the influence of the Kingdom. Do not be deceived about it providing you with a better position in your job, or power in this life. Rather, Jesus tells us to focus on the humility and meekness of our faith and its influence on others. Tiny things can have great endings. Just like the mustard seed or a little bit of leaven. The influence of the Kingdom of God can be hidden and working in the background.
When I first started working in Biombo, the spiritual darkness was obvious. The absence of the gospel and its influence made the presence of evil and the demonic overwhelming. In our interactions we came across demoniacs and there were those who were delivered. But the greatest influence in Biombo did not come from casting out demons. The greatest influence came from the small seeds that were planted in the lives of little children. Over the years, as those little lives have grown into young adults, the influence of the gospel in the village has made the greatest yet subtle change.
When talking about the mustard seed you will remember that I reminded you that there are a couple of sound interpretations that can be applied. One of the less popular and preaching circles, but the more sound doctrinally is the idea that Jesus was conveying an idea of purpose. We talked about this back in March and how birds in general are always a symbol in semantic teaching as representative of evil.
The purpose of the Christian is not to grow into a god. We are not here to satisfy our own needs, lusts, or desires. We are not here to satisfy our own sinful wants. We are here to be slaves of Christ. That is a humble position, not something grand or self-exalting.
But let's go back to this and look at it from another angle. You've probably heard the phrase, “mustard seed faith.”. It's a term that conveys that our faith, even as small as a grain of mustard seed, can produce great things in our lives. How true that is! The mustard seed, probably the smallest of all seeds known in the world during Jesus’s location and time, grow into a Bush 8 feet high and 15 feet in diameter. That's a big Bush! Of all the seeds used to produce food, the mustard seed was the smallest, but became the largest plant. Its branches were big enough and sturdy enough to house nests for the birds.
Think about a time when you planted a seed in your garden. You watered it, and for days, nothing happened. But under the surface, in the hidden soil, that seed was growing roots and preparing to push up towards the sun. Just like that seed, the kingdom of God sometimes works in our lives quietly and subtly. We may not see it right away, but it's influencing us deeply. It reminds us that God's work often happens behind the scenes, preparing us for future growth and blessings!
The point is about the external growth of the Kingdom of God. External is the operative word here. Let's talk about that for a minute. We're going to look at this starting at it's virtually invisible attributes. Going back to Jesus’s day, no one was looking from the outside at Jesus and his disciples in awe of their influence, Externally speaking. Sure they were performing miracles and had people following after them, but no one looked at him as a king with a Kingdom.
There was no pomp, no worldwide publicity, no real earthly power, no sovereignty, no resources, no money, no buildings or facilities. There was virtually nothing. To the natural man there is nothing to see. That was true then and on a certain level it is true today also. When Pilate put the sign over the cross of Jesus’s head he wrote on it in three languages, “Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.” It was a mockery and an absurdity. That however was the whole point of Jesus’s teaching.
Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, “The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, 21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Luke 17:20–21)
It is here. It is in your midst. It's the sphere of salvation. It's the redeemed who are living under the command of their king. You can't see it. There aren't going to be marching armies that you can see. That is why I preached 4 weeks on our awareness of spiritual blindness. There aren't going to be any trumpets blown until the trumpet sounds to call us home to the Kingdom. It is a small, tiny, little seed hidden that once you grasp in your life it will grow and grow and grow. The problem is we have many that are coming to church looking for something big, when the what they need to do is look within themselves, find the heart of repentance, and enter into the Kingdom of God.
Look at Israel. Israel was so obscure. It is this feeble little nation. It's been overrun, abused, scorned, attacked, threatened with annihilation, the Jews have been persecuted and persecuted to the point that they have been nearly wiped off the face of the earth. By all rights they should not be in existence, but yet they are. Not because they are a powerful nation in the world, but that they live under the blessing of God. And to that end it is a shrub so big that the birds of the air nest in its branches.
If a man should go about and utter wind and lies, saying, “I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,” he would be the preacher for this people! 12 I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob; I will gather the remnant of Israel; I will set them together like sheep in a fold, like a flock in its pasture, a noisy multitude of men. (Micah 2:11–12)
Get ready Israel. The one described in chapter 53, the suffering servant who dies and is risen again is going to come back and reign. Get ready to expand the kingdom. All Israel's going to be gathered.
It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and it shall be lifted up above the hills; and peoples shall flow to it, (Micah 4:1)
Chapter 5 of Micah, the same thing: He's coming from Bethlehem. He's coming, the One who is from eternity. He will arise and shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord His God. He's going to reach out to Assyria, the land of Nimrod. He's going to conquer our enemies. He's going to gather the remnant of Jacob like dew. He's going to destroy enemies.
They looked at the kingdom in that perspective and here is all of this? But Jesus says that's not how it starts. That's how it ends. The consummation of the kingdom will be amazingly out of proportion to the beginning. Dear friends, this is powerful prophecy by the way. This is powerful prophecy.
The foolish people who say, “Well Jesus' mission went astray, and He got killed for trying to be the Messiah, He made a noble attempt at it, but obviously He never was able to fulfill it,” have to explain the external development of Christianity to now being the largest religion on the planet. It's going to grow out of all proportion to its beginnings. He was saying to the disciples, guys you're just seeing the start of this. Think of the mustard seed. Think of how little it is. Think of it being hidden so nobody can see it.
Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15)
We can take this personally too. We apply our lives to the Kingdom of God and we expect right away for our enemies to be defeated, we expect that the sin will just fall off us. We expect that all the filthy habits and struggles will simply disappear. Sometimes they do. But Jesus is telling us to celebrate the small beginnings. We are to celebrate the small beginnings in our own lives but even more so celebrate the small beginnings in the lives of others. That's discipleship.
The problem arises when we start listening to people that tell us that the Kingdom of God will manifest in our lives with health and wealth. That the reason why we have problems is because we don't have enough faith. That's false teaching. Jesus says we need mustard seed faith. And the Kingdom will take root in us and begin to grow. Just like you don't put a mustard seed in the ground and the next morning you come outside and find a big Bush in your garden. So it is with the Kingdom of God. That seed needs to be nourished. That seed needs time to grow. That seed needs to be cultivated. And the more you allow God to cultivate that seed in your life the stronger your life in Christ will be rooted.
Instead most people get upset when the pastor says something that offends them and run to another church. Instead, people flee back to old destructive habits to cover up the pain and hurts that God want’s to root out. Instead, people don't invest time in their lives to cultivate that seed within them through Bible study, prayer and time in the word. Instead we put ourselves over our finances instead of putting God first.
That brings us to the leaven.
And again he said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, until it was all leavened.” 22 He went on his way through towns and villages, teaching and journeying toward Jerusalem. (Luke 13:20–22)
Bread was a nutritious staple today more so than today. Every child would spend their lives watching their mothers break bread every day. Scholars calculate that the measurements Jesus gives in this parable is about 50 lbs of dough. That is enough bread to feed 100 people at a meal. That would be bread to feed the family and the extended family and the servants. This would be a very typical scene. What was common in Jesus’s day was they made bread and they would set aside the dough as it fermented to create another loaf. We do this with sourdough bread. This fermentation would permeate through the whole batch of dough.
This time in the parable Jesus doesn't look at something outward growing. Jesus is looking at something inward influencing. In other words, don't underestimate the influence of the Kingdom to those around you, but it's going to take time.
What people are going to notice about you isn't the cross around your neck. They're not going to see a Halo over your head. They are going to see how you handle life. When the good times come how do you respond? When the struggles come how do you respond. They are going to see something different in you that the rest of the world does not possess. That's the leaven. That's the gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit in your life. And that gospel and work of the Holy Spirit is going to touch the lives of those around you.
The heart of Christianity isn't this big bush that's visible to the outside. The real deal is going to be what’s on the inside. Leaven is an influencer - it changes the dough. If you don't have that you're going to get flat, dry, unappetizing hard dough that you can't eat. I made bread one time in the bread machine and had it so nicely seasoned that I couldn't wait to eat the bread. However when we brought it out for dinner, it was nothing but a hard uneditable lump. I forgot to add the leaven.
The truth that Jesus is conveying here is: the power of the Kingdom is extensive. The influence of the Kingdom is extensive. The Kingdom is like a leavening agent. Sometimes the word “leaven”, is used in the Bible as a image of sin Because sin infects everything. Certainly, the Kingdom of God is not sinful. So the idea is that it is something that influences and permeates your life. The idea here is that everything in our lives will have positive or negative influence.
A little leaven leavens the whole lump. (Galatians 5:9)
There are times and places you might feel overwhelmed by the negativity around you, but remember that even a small light can dispel darkness. This week, look for ways to be that beacon in your community. Engage in conversations with people, showing genuine interest in their lives. Consider becoming an advocate for a cause that aligns with Christian values. Your actions can inspire others and bring hope to those who feel invisible.
