Mar 8, 2011 The Mustard Seed
- Teaching 3.8.11
- Parable: a story with a meaning behind it
- Jesus is talking about the parables when He was bringing up the Kingdom of God
- People were all about Him when Jesus was doing the miracles
- But people did not care what His message was about
- Now Jesus switches from doing miracles to speaking in parables
- He did this to stir up some curiosity
- He made them think about the parables
- The Jews at the time were waiting for their Messiah
- They thought the Messiah would destroy Rome and take over the world
- But this has not happened yet
- They got Jesus who was not about destroying the world
- People did not like this because they
- 1 Corinthians 1:23-24
- “But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
- When Jesus was on the cross, they lost their hope
- “This is the Messiah?!”
- This was Jesus’ mission
- His goal was to die on the cross for us to pay for our sins
- “But we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
- Matthew 13:34-35
- “All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ‘I WILL OPEN MY MOUTH IN PARABLES; I WILL UTTER THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.’”
- In the Old Testament that this Messiah would come and speak in parables
- He would reveal God and His Kingdom
- “All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: ‘I WILL OPEN MY MOUTH IN PARABLES; I WILL UTTER THINGS HIDDEN SINCE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.’”
- Mark 4:30-34
- “And He said, ‘How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE.’ With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.”
- The Kingdom of God is the mustard seed
- A mustard seed is very small
- Size does not matter, but what is inside counts
- A mustard seed grows into a shrub not a tree
- The shrub has TONS of mustard seeds
- The Kingdom of God comes with Jesus
- The mustard seed
- Then you get hundreds and thousands of people
- And it keeps growing and growing to millions
- The branches and birds in the branches signifies a tree
- Birds of the air
- Birds are bad
- Demonic forces of the realm
- And here they are nesting in the branches
- There is a spiritual realm out there: good and evil
- Satan is overjoyed at the institutionalization of Christianity
- Constantine played a huge role in this
- Legalized Christianity and made it the main religion
- Gave it rules and rituals
- Constantine institutionalized Christianity
- Church is NOT a building
- Church is the group of people who get together to hear and spread the Good News
- “And He said, ‘How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE.’ With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.”
- 1 John 4:14-15
- “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”
- You ask God into your heart and you receive His grace
- You also accept Jesus Christ as your Savior
- The Holy Spirit comes into your heart and starts transforming you
- Your relationships in the Body of Christ grow stronger
- And you also learn how to fix your relationships outside of the Body of Christ
- “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.”
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