Kingdom
of Tiny “Prince of Peace”
Permeates
Peoples of All Nations
LUKE
13:18-21
(See
also Matthew 13:31-33)
Luke
13:18 Then said he, Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I
resemble it?
Susie: Jesus
introduces a parable or actually, an analogy, for the kingdom of God by asking
what it is like and what it resembles.
Luke
13:19 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.
Susie: The
mustard seed you may have in a spice jar does not grow into a tree. However,
when my 2nd grade students asked me to plant one, I discovered that
mustard plants are extremely invasive. If allowed to go to seed, one mustard
plant will quickly produce and entire field of mustard plants! I uprooted our
plant and had it for dinner before that happened. The member of the mustard
family to which Jesus most like referred grows in Israel and does become a
shrub.
Susie: Basically,
Jesus is comparing God’s kingdom to a seed the size of a pin head growing into
an oversized mustard tree in which birds can build their nests.
Susan: Jesus’s
following seemed small at the time. God’s kingdom movement began with one baby
lying in a manger who grew up to draw twelve men to Himself. They were joined
by others, and in an upper room after Jesus returned to Heaven, we see 120
followers gathered for prayer:
Acts
1:15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said,
(the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
Susan: Then,
on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit infused them with power enabling them
to speak in foreign languages they had never before known. Peter preached, and
the Kingdom of God grew larger still:
Acts
2:41 Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day
there were added unto them about three thousand souls.
Susie: The
people listening to Jesus tell about the fig tree could not have imagined how
the Gospel message would spread. After His death, burial, and resurrection, it
spread like wildfire!
Susan: Imagine
the humility and gratitude Peter must have felt on that day of Pentecost to
have been used so mightily of God after all he had walked through denying Jesus
and then being forgiven and restored by the Master Himself.
Susie: As the
fig tree became a place where birds of all kinds could nest, the kingdom that
was growing from the spread of the gospel would become a safe place to rest for
people of all nations, not just Israel.
Susan: Through
one tiny “Prince of Peace” born in a stable, the blessing of becoming a child
of the kingdom of God would be offered to all the peoples of the world. This is
a fulfillment of the Abrahamic Covenant:
Genesis
26:4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give
unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the
earth be blessed;
Luke
13:20 And again he said, Whereunto shall I liken the kingdom of God?
Susie: Jesus
had another illustration to share with the crowd.
Luke
13:21 It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal,
till the whole was leavened.
Susie: When I
bake bread, I use about four and a half teaspoons of yeast to eight cups of
flour. As I knead the dough, the yeast permeates it. In a short time, the dough
has doubled. Then I divide it into two loaves which double in size again. A
tiny amount of leaven permeates a large amount of grain. In this illustration,
the woman is baking a huge batch of bread but the principle is the same: a
little leaven goes a long way.
Susan: The
apostles and the early church spread the Gospel throughout Israel and beyond as
God infused them with the leaven of the Holy Spirit.
But
ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye
shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in
Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
Susie: When
Jesus told the crowds this parable and again, before His ascension when He told
His followers they would be His witnesses, they could not have envisioned how
this would be accomplished. There were no cars, let alone airplanes. There were
no telegraphs, telephones, or televisions, let alone the internet! Today, we
are on the verge of reaching all peoples with the Good News of Jesus Christ.
His message is indeed permeating the entire world!
Ponder
this and Apply it: God’s kingdom will spread on this earth. As Jesus’s followers, we have the
privilege of participating in that growth. Have you experienced the joy of
sharing Jesus with someone and seeing God totally change his/her life? The seed
you plant in someone’s life may be small, but you can count on the Holy Spirit
to multiply your testimony and build upon it to reach many people. The man who
shared the Lord with D.L. Moody was a shoe salesman who taught Sunday School.
D.L. Moody became an evangelist used mightily to spread the Good News. Billy
Graham traced his spiritual heritage to D.L. Moody and thus, to that shoe
salesman. You may not know until you are with the Lord in Heaven how much He
has multiplied your witness. Be faithful to share the love of Jesus!
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