Nesting in the Mustard Tree
by Pastor Jim May
God, in His great love and infinite mercy to fallen man, has given us a mustard seed of faith that is planted in us by hearing the Word of God. That faith gives us the ability to please God and to believe that He is God, and in turn to worship Him and to become a part of His Kingdom.
When Jesus died on the cross and resurrected from the dead, that little mustard seed of faith, was then broadcast, much like a farmer would broadcast, or spread his seed over the field. That little mustard seed of faith begins as a little glimmer of hope; the very smallest of ideas in your heart and mind. Yet it is an idea that takes root and begins to grow as fast as we will allow it to.
Whether that seed of faith begins to grow and develop into a greater faith, or whether it is destroyed and dies, depends upon only one thing.
It doesn’t depend upon the quality of the seed. The seed is perfect in every way. The seed is the same for every man, woman and child who is ever born. We read in Acts 10:34, "Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons…, and then we read in Romans 12:3 where Paul says that, “…God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Thus we see that an impartial God gives to every one of us the same small mustard seed of faith. Therefore the seed is perfect.
Secondly, the growth of the seed is not determined by the condition, or ability of the one who sows, or plants it. Who is the sower of the mustard seed of faith? That sower is God alone. Deuteronomy 32:4 says, speaking about our God, that, "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." James 1:17 tells us that, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." So then, the seed is perfect and the sower is perfect, so where is the variable that determines whether the seed will grow?
That variable is the “ground”, or the heart of the man who receives the seed of faith! This same allegory of the mustard seed of faith being sown in the heart of men is found in the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13:4-8, " …And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixty-fold, some thirty-fold."
I won’t deal with the various types of “ground” or heart of those who allow the mustard seed of faith to die in them. I don’t think that any of you in this room will fall into these categories and we have heard enough about those.
I want to talk about the mustard seed of faith that falls on the good ground. It’s the seed of faith that begins to germinate, to grow and then fill our lives with all things that pertain to the Kingdom of God.
Let’s look at two passages of scripture that both describe the same allegory in almost the same terminology. The first one is found in 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." The second passage is found in Luke 13:18-19, "Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it."
Two passages of scripture that describe the growth of faith, and the growth of all things that pertain to the Kingdom of God, in the heart of a man; and relate them to the mustard seed of faith growing into a tree with many branches, and leaves, a strong stem or trunk, and a large, nourishing root system to support it. That tree is rooted solid and will withstand the storms of life.
That little mustard seed of faith, which began in such a fragile condition that it would die quickly if not sown in good ground, can become an indestructible thing in the lives all of those who will dwell within its protection.
I was struck with the fact that Jesus compared us, who dwell in faith and choose to be a part of the Kingdom of God, as “fowls of the air” in Luke and as “birds” in Matthew. Then I thought that if Jesus compared us to birds who build a nest in faith, maybe it would be good for us to examine just how birds go about building a nest and where they build them. So I did a little research on bird nests and found out some interesting comparisons between the habits of birds and the growth of faith in the life of a Christian.
Let me begin by saying that the type of nest a bird builds depends upon the type of bird he is. Now as I go through these, see if you can determine what kind of “bird” you will relate to and why.
There are nests that are “Scrapes” that are nothing more than a shallow depression scratched into the ground or among the leaves.
A killdeer is a bird that builds this kind of nest. Just a few months ago there was a killdeer that built a scrape nest just inside the fence over on the side of the church. If you walked too close to the fence it wouldn’t be long until you could hear that bird screeching and trying to scare you away from her nest. That nest didn’t look like a nest at all but it was. She had moved the gravel around and made a bare spot in the dirt and that’s where she laid her eggs. I don’t know if the eggs ever hatched but the bird is gone now and so are the eggs so I can only guess that she made it.
What kind of Christian builds a “Scrape nest” in the mustard tree of faith? The answer is pretty obvious – this is the Christian who stays as close to the base of the tree as he can get. After all, you can’t build much of a scrape if there is nothing to scrape. His nest is built down where the roots come out of the ground and run along the top of the ground and every once in a while a branch will shoot out from the root and it’s there where his nest will be found.
This type of Christian doesn’t rise very high from his original point of salvation because he never gets committed enough to fly higher. He would rather scratch around in the ground all the time, “working out his own salvation” but never getting very far from his roots. He isn’t a backslider, but neither is he completely sold out to God. I guess you could say that he is a “carnally minded Christian”. Do you know any Christians who build a “Scrape Nest” in the tree of faith?
Now a Scrape Nest is often filled with rocks, sticks, dirt and dead leaves but the Christian who lives in that nest just gets used to them and makes himself at home with being uncomfortable in living for the Lord. They live their lives constantly bumping their heads against the rocks of life’s rough places, poking themselves with the sticks that tend to test their faith, dwelling upon the “dirt” of the worldly ways of people around them, and they never get comfortable with either the world beneath their feet or the Christians who are totally sold out. Their nest is all they want, all they desire, and you just can’t seem to get them to move on up the tree of faith any higher so you have to love them where they are and move on.
They will get to Heaven all right, but there won’t be many works of righteousness for Jesus to reward them for when they stand before Him.
Then there are the “Platform Nests” that some birds, like a hawk, would build in the tree tops. These “Hawk” Christians are just about the exact opposite of the “Scrape” Christians. Hawk Christians will get just as committed and dedicated to Jesus as they can. They will find the highest branch in the tree that they can find and still look for even higher places to build. They like the view from the top of the tree where they can see more of what the world, and what Heaven is really all about. They spare no effort to see that they are as safe from the worldly crowd as they can be and yet they never forget that they are a part of this world at the same time.
That “Platform Nest” is formed by twisting twigs and branches together to form a frame work and then the framework is lined with string, grass, leaves and sometimes even snake skins or spiders webs to make it soft and strong at the same time.
Can you see the comparison here to the Christians who build “Platform Nests”? Those who dwell in high places with God have learned to take the trials of the devil and allow them to strengthen their lives like the snake skin. They have allowed the dry places to yield the grass to make their lives better and they have allowed the frayed nerves and disappointing times in their lives to make their faith in God stronger just like putting string into their nest. In other words, they will take everything in life and use it to strengthen their faith in God. They will learn to use the "spider webs" of life to build their faith nest even stronger and more comfortable. They will do things that others won’t do, and believe God for greater things than most. We need a lot more “Platform Nest” Christians.
The last type of nest that I want to talk about is the “Cup Nest”. Cup nests are called such because they have the shape of a cup. They appear in various ways and can be subdivided into at least three other categories such as:
-“Adherent nests” that are made out of mud and plastered to a wall or some rocks, like those of a swallow.
-“Pensile nests” that are hung from the forks in the tree branches, and
-“Pendulous nests” that are suspended from the ends of branches in a precarious manner.
Time will not allow me to go into each type of cup nest very much but there are some things about the “Cup Nest” that I find pretty interesting when compared with the growth of the faith of a Christian.
When you think about the way that cup is built you notice that it has high sides and a sunken center. That speaks to me of the Christian who has learned to raise his guard against the attacks of the devil and the draw of the world that constantly threatens to pull him back into sin. The trials of life have taught him that there must be a separation from the world around him. He has learned that it is dangerous to always have his eyes on the things of the world, so he has built his faith walls high so that he must look up to see where he is going. He knows that his only answer is from God and not from the world. He will build his nest just about anywhere in the “Mustard faith tree”. The height of his nest is only determined by how high he wants to be above the world or how close he wants to be to God. The vast majority of Christians are “Cup Nest Christians” dwelling somewhere in the tree of faith.
If you think about it, cup nests come in many shapes and sizes and sometimes the opening of the nest becomes very small, just big enough for the bird to get through. That represents that fact that everyone one of the “Cup Nest Christians” have a different level of commitment and a different conviction on how much of the world they think is okay to be a part of. The more they get committed to Christ the narrower their view is of the world and the more wall of faith they build as an insulator against the sin around them. But the fact remains that they cannot completely close up the opening of the nest and there is always a chance that something of the world will enter in.
Lastly I want to look at some of the general characteristics of birds to show you why Jesus compared us to them.
Birds spend varying amounts of time and energy in constructing their nests. Some will spend days or even weeks while others take only about 5 minutes.
Does that sound like Christians in general? You see, each of us determines how big our faith will become and how much we will put into building our nest in the Kingdom of God. Some will spend hours studying and praying every week in an effort to get close to God while others only pray at meals and read during the preaching of the message when the church service is going on. Does the neglect of doing what we should do cause us to lose our soul? Well, if we neglect our salvation enough the answer would be yes, but most don’t neglect God or His Word to the point of backsliding. We just neglect it enough so that it effects our spiritual growth and our relationship with Jesus. Our nest is shallow but it’s still there and we are still in the Kingdom of God.
As our faith in God grows and the Mustard Seed Tree of our own life increases in size and strength, then perhaps our faith will influence other people around us, especially our children and family. At that point, we begin to see the fulfillment of the parable take place in our own lives. Other “Birds” come to dwell in our tree of faith as well as our faithfulness becomes a testimony to the faithfulness of God.
In closing let me ask you some questions – Is your nest comfortable? What kind of nest are you building right now?
What was once a very small mustard seed of faith has been planted in your heart, and it is still growing right now! That seed in you is being watered by the Word of God, fertilized by the power of the Holy Ghost and increased by the will of God.
How big is your nest going to be in the tree of faith? How high up the branches are you going to fly? Are you satisfied with the size of your nest of faith now, or do you have plans to add on and make it larger?
Jesus said that you were like a bird building a nest in the mustard seed tree of faith which is the Kingdom of God. Let’s keep building that nest and get as close to the Lord as we can. AMEN.
