Mustard Seed and Yeast

Matt 13:31-33

 

 1. The Kingdom of God is the central teaching of Jesus. He came to the world to establish this spiritual and universal Kingdom for which we are called to serve as its citizen, soldier, and co-heir. Salvation is the participation in the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom of God begins from our soul, when the Word of God, the gospel of the Kingdom falls and grows in our soul of good soil. Last Sunday, I preached how your soul could be a good soil to grow the seed of the Word and bear the fruits.

 2. Once the seed is well sown on good soil, it grows wonderfully because the seed of the Word is powerful and explosive. In the parable of the mustard seed, Jesus said that “the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.”(31) When I visited Israel, I saw the mustard tree in the southern Israel. Besides the trees, mustard seed was sold to tourists. It was really tiny. Jesus said that “it is the smallest of all your seeds.”(32) But the tree was big and tall, a rich tree of 5 meters tall. This parable teaches that the Kingdom of God is small in its beginning but it grows fast and magnificent to the size that we cannot imagine from the seed. The fantastic growing power is inside of the seed of the Word of the Kingdom. The big tree is simply a development of the seed.

 3. The Kingdom of God started from one person, Jesus Christ. He made 12 disciples, and it grew 120 people when Jesus left the world. On the Pentecost it had grown to 3000 people. After 2000 years later, it has grown to 2 billion people in every nation of the world. It is exactly what the vision of statue in Daniel 2 prophesized. Where was this wonderful growing power? The Holy Spirit helped for this, and the sacrificial obedience of the Christians was crucial. But, the power itself was in the seed itself. The Word of God, the Word of the Kingdom is the living and powerful Word. It changes the heart and life of people and the world. Without it, if Christianity is simply an organized effort of human idea or human origin, it could grow for some purpose but it will perish sooner or later. But the Christianity is fundamentally different and uniquely special. Christianity is the only religion and only community that grows continuously and globally. There is a temporary and regional decrease, but it will be recovered soon. Chinese Church was endangered by communist revolution, but now it is reviving as one of the largest Christian countries in the world. Chinese Church declared the Jerusalem project to finish the evangelization of the world with 100,000 missionaries.

 4. In 1885 two American missionaries came to Korea with the Gospel of the Kingdom. After a century, two people have grown to almost 10 million people. It is the power of the Word. So, the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. When we obey to sow the seed, it grows so surprisingly. If we don’t obey, it does not grow well, because we oppress the power of the seed to grow. If the seed is bad, even if we diligently sow and plant, it does not grow powerfully nor bears wonderful fruits. But for us, not the seed but our disobedience is the problem. Suppose that 20 obedient Christians started a congregation with a dedication that each member will make one convert a year and make him or her a obedient Christian with the same dedication. Then, what happens? At the end of the first year, the church will grow to 40, 5^th year to 640, 10^th year to 20 thousands, 20^th year to 20 millions, and 25^th year to 1.3 billion members. Our church has 24 years of history, and several people became Christians through our church. However, it is far short to say that we have been obedient to the evangelistic command of our Lord. If our church is a dedicated and obedient church to evangelism, 24 years is enough time to change the whole Kalamazoo.

 5. The Kingdom of God does not simply grow but also its benefits expand in every aspects of life in the world. Jesus said that when the mustard seed grows and becomes a big tree, “the birds of the air come and perch in its branches.”(32) Suppose that there has been no Korean church here in Kalamazoo. What is the difference that our church has made by existence and ministry? Jesus invited troubled humans to Him: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”(Matt 11.28) Lonely and spiritually empty Koreans who are weary and burdened in the hard immigrant life came to our church and found spiritual rest and eternal salvation. They found a Christian community of love and care, though sometimes we troubled them. Here, they found the true purpose and meaning of life and how to live our life and the opportunity to worship God together.

 6. Also, “the Kingdom of heaven is like yeast.”(33) When small amount of yeast is “mixed into a large amount of flour”, it makes a gradual and silent influence to the whole. The teaching of Jesus is so powerful and a small number of people who has the yeast, they make a silent influence. Jesus said to us that you are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. When a member of family becomes a Christian, he or she changes the whole family sooner or later. When a Christian moves to a community, he or she changes the community sooner or later. When our church was established, it has changed and will change the Korean community here in Kalamazoo. When a missionary enters a country, it will be changed sooner or later. When Jesus entered the world, the world had the destiny to be changed sooner or later. The Kingdom of God is arrived and the power of Satan is fallen. We should not forget that we are the power group. If we simply obey, we can make a great change! The power of the yeast slowly but powerfully worked through the human history. The gospel of reconciliation and unity worked and changed the human society of endless division and discrimination under the power of sin and Satan, and made king and people, lord and slaves, adult and children, old and young, man and woman, race and race, people and people, rich and poor, powerful and non-powerful, high and low, educated and ignorant equal before the Creator and Savior. In this Kingdom of God, we are all equal children of God, and brothers and sisters of one family. As the Kingdom expands, the power of division and hate is overcome by the Holy Spirit of reconciliation and love. Of course, it is not perfect now. It is in the progress. It is on the way to perfection which will be realized in the end.

 7. When a mustard seed is grown to a big tree, it will provide a perch for many outsiders. It is good to provide a perch to fellow Koreans, but we need to expand it to non-Koreans too in this land of many people. Church as the Kingdom of God has no choice but to expand our perch. CRC was organized as Dutch immigrant church and they celebrate 150 years in 2007. Now, they help many non-Dutch churches including Korean churches. They expanded their perch. Who will find their perch in the tree of Kalamazoo Korean Church? We are not a big church, but even a small mustard seed can grow to a big tree which can provide enough perch to many birds.