Notes:
From Little Things, Big Things Grow See Session Slides Here
Mark 4:13. Jesus interpreted the first two parables, but not the last five. Why? Because the first two parables provide the key to interpreting the remaining five. The first parable shows how God introduces the Kingdom to earth. The second shows that this is met with opposition. So the parables illustrate the spiritual warfare that takes place over the Kingdom of God.
Mark 4:30-32. The mustard seed is a tiny, powder like seed. Jesus was illustrating the nature with which the kingdom would grow – from a tiny seed into a giant herb, like a tree. Great growth from small beginnings.
Trees grow slow; herbs grow abnormally fast, and living only long enough to develop flowers and seed to perpetuate themselves. The point is that its growth is very fast and out of proportion to the size of the seed.
The Kingdom of God is like this.
- Jesus was a lowly man who lived in a despised part of the Roman Empire, (Isa.53:2-3; John 1:46).
- He entrusted His kingdom to 11 untrained, unlearned men of lowly birth and status!
- And, the message He entrusted to them was a stumblingblock to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks.
- “Have any of the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him?” (John 7:47). “Concerning this sect, we know that it is spoken against everywhere” (Acts 28:22).
If anything had its beginning as a grain of mustard seed it was the kingdom of God. But its power is inherent. The mustard seed’s pungency depicts the quickening power of the gospel, Rom.1:16-17. It was surrounded by tares and corrupted by the leavening influence of false teaching. But it survived and prevailed.
It was met with terrible persecution from the world. But preacher after preacher rose up to proclaim it. Church after church was planted. City after city, nation after nation, fell to the gospel until, within 40 years the gospel had reached all the great centres of the Roman world. Nearly all of Europe, part of Asia and all of North Africa had fallen to the gospel. The flesh, the world and the Devil could not stop it.
See growth of Church in Acts 2:41,47; 4:4; 5:14; 9:35&42; 11:21,24; 14:1; 17:4; 18:8.
This parable would have been a great encouragement to the disciples after the first two. Three parts of the seed in the first parable were lost. In the second tares were mingled with wheat. But the seed contains life. It will grow and become a vast tree in which many weary, hungry souls will find refuge.
Mustard seed is mentioned 5 times in the New Testament, and always in reference to small beginnings or small faith. All that’s needed is small faith in a big God. In God’s kingdom nothing emerges full grown.
The message of this parable is don’t despise the day of small things. Don’t judge authenticity by size. Never despair of any work of God because of its feeble beginnings. You are a self-propagating seed. From one seed thousands may spring forth. Each seed possesses the power to become a great tree, (Isa.60:22).
How do I get free of my depression? How do I overcome my lust? If you ask God how does this happen, or how to do this or that, He probably won’t give you a “how” type answer. God doesn’t do “How to…” God’s not into “Seven steps to…” “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.”
The key is hidden in the seed. The Word of God, like the mustard seed is pungent and potent. You might never understand the how’s, but keep planting the seeds, and wait patiently, they will give you a harvest.
The seeds will change you from within, and release the power of God in everything God has called you to do. You won’t need the ‘how’s’ anymore. They become irrelevant. What’s important is that you are a part of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken. A kingdom that one day will fill the earth.
# Answers to this quiz are found in the notes above. Click on quiz to commence. Only correct spelling is recognised. A minimum 70% correct is required to advance to the next session.