Sermon Tone Analysis

October 25, 2015

*Read Lu 13:18-21* – The enlisted guys won the annual softball game against the officers.

However, an officer made the official report: “The officers powered their way to a 2nd place finish while the noncoms came in next to last.”

Things are not always as they seem.

Remember the limerick?

“God’s plan made a hopeful beginning, / But man spoiled his chances by sinning.

/ We trust that the story / Will end in God’s glory, / But at present the other side’s winning.”

More and more that was looking like the case in the disciples’ world – and it sure looks like the case in our world, right?

That’s why Jesus gave these two little parables.

The disciples have just seen a bent and broken woman healed after 18 years of agony.

Now the religious leader is bent out of shape because it happened on the Sabbath.

He represents the growing opposition to Jesus’ ministry that will eventually lead to His death.

At that time, it will certainly appear that the other side’s winning.

But it will be an illusion.

The disciples need to know they are on the winning side.

We all need that reminder.

Faithfulness is driven by the assurance that in the end, God wins.

So Jesus teaches about the kingdom which has two realities – “already” and “not yet.”

In one sense the kingdom is “already” here and operating, appearances to the contrary.

But it is not in full bloom.

There is a “not yet” phase yet to be realized.

That’s what Jesus wants us to see.

So Jesus muses in v. 18: “He said therefore, “What is the kingdom of God like?

And to what shall I compare it?”

He answers with 2 parables which emphasize the “already” but “not yet” nature of God’s kingdom.

*I.

The Kingdom Starts Small (“Already”)*

Just a mustard seed – smallest of the food seeds in Palestine.

Just a pinch of leaven.

How God revels in using the weak things of the world to confound the strong.

Thus, it’s no surprise that King Jesus did not arrive on the scene to the crescendo of angelic trumpets and skies lit like neon to announce His kingdom.

Quite the opposite.

The “already” phase begins unimpressively.

The King is born in a manger, among the animals because the world has no place for Him.

He’s born in Palestine, insignificant backwater in the Roman Empire.

His home in Nazareth was the lowest of that nation.

He eventually drew huge crowds to His ministry, but they turned on Him and crucified Him for blasphemy.

The leaders He left behind were few, uneducated, fearful, slow to understand and hardly qualified for leadership.

Who would have ever signed on for that?

And yet.

“Already” had started in people’s hearts.

Within a few weeks of Jesus ascension, the little band of 120 followers had become thousands in Jerusalem alone.

Within the lifetime of the first generation of followers, the gospel had spread to the far corners of the civilized world.

Within 325 years, the Roman Empire itself had officially become Christian.

And today – 2,000 years later, 2.1 billion people claim to be Christian – almost 1/3 of the world’s population and the largest single block of any religious faith.

Small beginnings can lead to great advances.

Now, I am not suggesting all of those are genuine believers.

Far from it.

Nor am I suggesting that we are creating the kingdom or that what we see even remotely resembles the final state of the kingdom.

But even the current very imperfect state of affairs demonstrates what Paul said in I Cor 1:27-31: “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, . . .

31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”

We must never be fooled by appearances into thinking that the kingdom of God has become insignificant, passé, overwhelmed, outflanked or overrun.

Never.

Appearances to the contrary we are on the winning side!

And the “already” phase is operating when repentant hearts obey God by faith and not self.

Faith in God’s rule frees us, for example, to be forgiving instead of vengeful.

An example from II Kings 5:1 “Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Syria (Israel’s enemy), was a great man with his master and in high favor, because by him the LORD had given victory to Syria.

He was a mighty man of valor, but he was a leper. 2 Now the Syrians on one of their raids had carried off a little girl from the land of Israel, and she worked in the service of Naaman’s wife.

Those are the bare facts.

Here is what they mean.

God arranged for the Syrians to successfully raid Israel because His people were deep into idolatry.

In the process, this innocent little Israeli girl was captured.

This means at best her family was also taken captive and sold.

At worst they were killed before her very eyes.

Now, she’s at the very bottom of Syria’s social structure as a racial outsider, a slave, a woman and young (12-24).

Her life is utterly ruined.

And Field Marshal Naaman is responsible.

Natural reaction says, “Wallow in your pity.

Do the least you can get by with.

Rob them blind.

Break the nick nacks when you dust.

Spit in the soup.

And when you hear he has leprosy you should think, “Ha! Leprosy!

I can hardly wait for another finger to fall off.

I will dance on his grave.”

Who would have blamed her?

But look!

V. 3, “ She said to her mistress, “Would that my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria!

He would cure him of his leprosy.”

Who is this girl?

She’s a girl in whose heart God reigned!

This is kingdom living even before Christ.

What a girl!

Little action; big result.

Got her into the Bible!

SO what is it that Jesus is asking of you this morning.

What little thing done in faith that would show the kingdom – the rule of God in your heart instead of the rule of you.

What person do you need to forgive?

What covetousness do you need to let go?

Who do you hate?

What grudge against God for not giving you something you thought you deserved.

Do the little thing, Beloved.

The kingdom starts small.

*II.

The Kingdom Grows From the Inside*

Both the seed and the leaven work inside/out!

Once the seed is buried in the ground and the leaven in the bread dough they work invisibly but persistently to produce amazing results that will soon out.

That’s the “already” phase of God’s kingdom.

It is spiritually based.

It is internal.