Naylor community christian church
naylor, georgia
I. Introduction
-- turn in
Bibles to Matthew 13:31-33
Matthew 13:31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom
of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32
Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of
garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its
branches.”
33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of
heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds[a] of
flour until it worked all through the dough.”
-- in
December 2022, people in Slovenia were shocked when they read of the arrest of a
young Argentinian couple in their community
-- “Maria Rosa Mayer Muños ran an
online art gallery, telling acquaintances she’d left Argentina after being
robbed in Buenos Aires by an armed gang at a red light.
-- “Her husband, Ludwig Gisch, ran
an IT startup. Described by neighbors in their middle-class district of Črnuče
as “normal” and “quiet,” the husband and wife appeared to be global citizens:
switching from English and German with friends to accentless Spanish with their
son and daughter, who attended the British International School.
-- however,
it turns out they were anything but normal and quiet immigrants to Slovenia --
they were actually senior officers in the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence
service -- conducting espionage and sharing misinformation and propaganda as
“deep-penetration” agents hidden in plain sight
--
following their arrest, several other suspected Russian spies in various
countries around the world fled their fake lives and headed back to Moscow --
obviously, in fear that their names and locations would be exposed as part of
the investigation against Maria and Ludwig
-- spies
like Maria and Ludwig are more common that we would think, with some even here
in the U.S. -- as the FBI noted in the Wall Street Journal article, “The
Russian Spies Next Door,” -- “Russian illegals spent years establishing a
seemingly normal existence in the U.S.: They married, bought homes, raised
families, and integrated into American society.”
-- for all
intents and purposes, they were honest and loyal citizens of the country --
indistinguishable from any other citizen -- all while harboring a secret
identity and seeking to complete the goals and missions of their agencies1
-- and the
thing I want you to keep in mind this morning is that actors and spies like
this aren’t just embedded in our communities for political purposes -- they are
also very present in the church
II. Why Parables?
-- this
morning, we are continuing our teaching series on the parables of Jesus -- we
began this series by looking at why Jesus taught in parables -- as we learned,
teaching in parables served two purposes:
first, Jesus used parables to teach
spiritual truths to His disciples and those seeking Him with open hearts and
open minds and open ears in a way that would grant them greater understanding
-- the same way a good story or illustration can help someone grasp the truth
of a message
-- for
those who were open to the guidance and teaching of the Holy Spirit -- who were
spiritually sensitive -- the meaning of the parables was clear and revealed new
spiritual truths and insights
-- the
second reason Jesus taught in parables was as an act of grace to protect those
in the crowd from responding to His messages based on emotion or pretense and
not because of a true desire for a relationship with Him -- in other words, the
people who were not following Him because they were convicted of their
sinfulness and wanted to repent of their sins and put their faith and trust in
Jesus, but who were just following the crowd
-- the
people who responded like this to Jesus’ messages were the ones Jesus portrayed
in the parable of the sower as the seed that fell on the hard path and were
eaten by birds and as the seed that fell in the shallow soil, where it quickly
germinated and sprang up, but withered away because it had no root
-- in our
day, we would make the parallel to people who respond emotionally in the moment
to an evangelistic message or who fly to the cross in the midst of a terrible
circumstance in their life -- those who pray the sinner’s prayer and get up
from the altar, assuming that they have punched their ticket to heaven --
without really surrendering their life to Christ -- without realizing the true
cost that comes with following Christ -- these are the ones who seek salvation
without repentance and rewards without discipleship or sacrifice -- and those
who respond for other reasons, but their response is not real
[Give
Kairos Salvation Example]
-- by using
parables to express the spiritual truths of the kingdom of heaven, Jesus was
keeping these people whose hearts were far from Him -- whose ears were closed
to the truth of God -- from responding in lip-service only and assuming they
had received salvation simply by following a religious ritual
-- He was
protecting them from false assurances of salvation until they reached the point
where they were spiritually ready to hear and see the truth of the gospel and
to respond to Him in faith and trust
-- it was
also a way to keep His true messages hidden from the Pharisees and others who
came only because they were seeking evidence to support their goal of killing
Him
-- last
week, we talked about the true meaning of the parables of the treasure hidden
in the field and the pearl of great price -- and how these parables are
pictures of the incarnation -- of why Jesus came to earth -- of how His love
for us and His desire for us caused Him to lay aside the trappings and glory of
His deity so that He might become one of us -- giving all that He had -- even
His very life on the cross of Calvary -- that He might secure for us victory
over sin and death and eternal life with Him -- that we were the treasure that
He came to find and give His life for
III. Scripture
Lesson -- Matthew 13:31-33
-- this
morning, we are again looking at two of Jesus’ parables that are closely
related -- the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the yeast
-- once
again, let me caution you as we look at these together to consider them within
the entire context of Matthew Chapter 13, which concerns the reason why Jesus
taught in parables, as we just discussed
-- as we study them together, keep
in mind that there were two different audiences that were present when Jesus
preached and taught -- you had His disciples and the true seekers, those who
were open to the teaching of the Holy Spirit and who were responding to Jesus’
teaching in faith and trust and obedience
-- and you had the crowd -- the
unbelievers -- the Pharisees and the others who were coming but who had no
intent on following Jesus -- these are the ones that Jesus describes in Matthew
13:15 as having calloused hearts that is keeping them from hearing with their
ears and seeing with their eyes and responding in faith to His words
-- these
next two parables are warnings to Jesus’ disciples to be on their guard against
those who sought to be part of their fellowship, but who were not truly part of
the church
-- John described these people in
his first epistle as he warned about the presence of many antichrists -- 1 John
2:19 -- “They went out from us” -- that is, they were part of the fellowship of
believers -- members of the church -- but they fell away and left the church
-- “They went out from us, but they
did not really belong to us. For if they
had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed
that none of them belonged to us”
-- in other words, there were some
people who were members of the early church -- people who looked like
Christians and talked like Christians and attended all the religious meetings
and fellowship gatherings just like the other Christians -- but who were not
really believers in their hearts -- they did not have a true relationship with
Christ -- and so when persecution or hardship happened -- or when they had
gathered the information they were seeking -- they abandoned their pretense of
faith and left
-- these are the ones John calls
“antichrists” in his epistle -- and these are the ones Jesus warns about in
these parables -- we know that based on the context and background of Matthew
Chapter 13 and what Jesus tells His disciples about the reason why He teaches
in parables
-- you’ve probably heard these
parables taught with a different meaning than the one I am going to give you
this morning -- but read these parables in context -- don’t take them out and
try to discern their meaning by looking at them by themselves, in isolation --
read them and interpret them within the whole scope of what Jesus is teaching
here in Matthew 13 -- and feel free to reach out to me if you want to discuss
this some more
-- with that long introduction,
let’s look now at the next two parables in our series from Matthew 13:31-33 -- the
parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the yeast
-- verse 31
Matthew 13:31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom
of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32
Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of
garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its
branches.”
-- I know that most of you have
heard this parable taught before -- and, more than likely, this parable was offered
as an example of church growth and how the influence of the church spreads and
grows in our communities and in the world today
-- the
common interpretation is that what Jesus is teaching here is that the church starts
like a mustard seed, the smallest seed in the garden -- but over time, this
small seed grows bigger and bigger until it becomes the largest of all the garden
plants -- even becoming a tree that is so large that even birds can come and
perch in its branches
-- what
this means, they say, is that the church may start out small, but it is going
to grow and keep on growing until it becomes the biggest plant of all
-- but there’s a couple concerns with this
interpretation
-- first, there’s
something odd about Jesus’ description of what happens to the mustard seed --
it is true that the mustard seed is the smallest of all the seeds -- but
mustard plants don’t grow into trees
-- I grew up farming -- we used to
grow mustard -- they don’t get that big, despite what you might read online or
hear taught by others -- mustard plants will never grow big enough for birds to
roost in their branches -- and I guarantee you that all the disciples who heard
Jesus say this knew that mustard plants don’t get that big
-- so, what
Jesus is describing here is not a normal mustard plant -- what He is describing
is unnatural -- a plant that has grown into something it should not be -- a
plant that has grown into a tree
-- remember the context -- where
these verses fit into the whole of Matthew Chapter 13 -- this is not a
proclamation of the kingdom of God growing here -- this is a warning from Jesus
to His disciples about those who would come and seek to join them but who were
really hypocrites and false believers and not true members of the kingdom of
heaven
-- so, this is not a parable about
God's kingdom growing bigger and bigger, but a parable about what happens when
hypocrites and fake believers take root in the kingdom -- it's a parable about
how evil and hypocrisy corrupts and expands even within the church and turns it
into something it was never created to be
-- we have
seen this happen throughout history -- it happened when Constantine made
Christianity the official religion of his empire and the church traded the
truth of God’s word for political power and prestige
-- we’re
even seeing it today with this Christian Nationalist movement, as people seek
to marry the church to the Government for political power and gain -- making it
into something it was never meant to be
-- and
we’re going to see it when the one-world religion takes over during the reign
of the Antichrist during the Tribulation Period
-- this is
exactly what Jesus is warning against here in this parable
-- which brings up the second problem
with the common interpretation of this parable -- Jesus says here that birds
will come and perch in the branches of this unnatural plant
-- when birds are mentioned in
Scripture, they are generally symbolic of evil -- they are representatives of
Satan's activity -- think of the birds who took the seed sown by the farmer in
Jesus' other parable -- Jesus said those birds represented the evil one who
took away the word of God from the people who desired it
-- some
translations emphasizes that Jesus called these birds, “the birds of the air”
-- in Ephesians 2:2, we are told that Satan is the prince of the power of the
air -- Jesus is trying to make a connection here for us -- these are unnatural
birds on an unnatural plant -- as Adrian Rogers said, "these are Satan's
dirty birds"
-- what
Jesus is describing here in this parable is what happens when evil and
hypocrisy and religion goes unchecked in the house of God -- it becomes a
roosting place for evil
-- verse 33
Matthew 13:33 He told them still another parable: “The
kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty
pounds[a] of flour until it worked all through the dough.”
-- we find yeast
referred to 98 times in the Bible, and every time it is used, it represents sin
or evil -- I find it hard to believe that in this one instance, Jesus is using
yeast in a good way to represent His desire for the church -- I believe He is
using yeast to symbolize evil just as it is used the other 97 times throughout
scripture
-- the
presence of yeast is not a good thing -- it represents that which is evil or
unclean -- that which does not belong in the church
-- along
those lines, Jesus makes the point that it is a woman who took the yeast and
put it in the dough -- many times in scripture we see false religion portrayed
as a woman -- as some commentators have pointed out, the feminine in Hebrew
writing is used to symbolize false religion or false prophets
-- that’s what we see in Revelation
as Jezebel is named in Revelation 2:20 as a false prophetess and the leader of
a false religion opposed to the true religion of God -- and we read of a woman
dressed in purple and scarlet riding on the scarlet beast in Revelation 17 who
represents the false one-world religion in the Antichrist’s reign
-- so, once
again, this is not a parable about church growth or the influence of
Christianity -- this is not a parable about God's word permeating all of the
culture but a parable warning against the yeast of sin and evil -- the yeast of
the Pharisees and hypocrites -- the yeast of false religion -- permeating the
kingdom of God
-- in Luke
12:1, Jesus warned His disciples to be on their guard against the yeast of the
Pharisees, which He said was hypocrisy -- that’s what He’s doing here in this
parable -- He’s warning His disciples to be on their guard against the yeast
that will try to come into the church
-- these
parables were given by Jesus to His disciples to warn them to be cautious of
those who might pretend to be part of them while they are secretly sowing seeds
of destruction in their midst
-- we can take that same warning to
heart today -- just because someone is in the church doesn't mean they have
God's interests in mind -- just because someone claims the name of Christ
doesn't mean they are Christians -- and just like one bad apple spoils a
barrel, one bad person pretending to be a Christian can spoil a whole church
-- we have
to be on our guard against those who oppose Jesus -- who work against the
mission of the church, even if their actions are unintentional -- and we have
to especially be on our guard against those who are actively seeking to halt
Jesus' ministry and the Kingdom of God through their rules and their action (or
inaction) -- we have to be on our guard to make sure it’s not us, too
-- Jesus'
point here is that we need to be aware of the presence of others in our midst
-- and if we don't root out the evil and false religion, it will continue to
grow and influence the whole church
IV. Closing
-- let me
close by sharing with you an example from history
-- in the winter of 1944, World War
II was rapidly coming to an end -- the German army was in retreat, but had one
desperate battle strategy left -- they planned a surprise attack on the morning
of 16 December 1944 in the densely forested Ardennes region between Belgium and
Luxembourg -- an attack which became known as the Battle of the Bulge
-- a key part of the German’s
strategy was to disrupt and misdirect reinforcement troops from the Americans to
keep them away from the actual battlelines -- German commandos, dressed in US
military uniforms, infiltrated the American line -- they positioned road blocks
and directed military units the wrong way -- they changed road signs so that
American troops couldn’t find their way -- they did whatever they could to keep
the Americans from reinforcing the troops at the frontline
-- a total of 44 German soldiers
wearing U.S. uniforms successfully infiltrated the U.S. Army line -- but when
the Americans discovered what was going on, the plan quickly broke down and the
majority of the Germans fled back to the German forces
-- but the damage was done -- no
one knew who they could trust and who they couldn’t -- soldiers became
suspicious of everyone else -- “As a result, U.S. troops began asking other
soldiers questions that they felt only Americans would know the answers to in
order to flush out the German infiltrators, which included naming certain
states' capitals, sports and trivia questions related to the U.S”2, 3
-- some
American members, including senior leaders like Brigadier General Bruce Clark,
were held at gunpoint for a brief period until their identification could be
confirmed -- some Americans were actually killed because of misidentification
-- this
true story illustrates the point that Jesus is making in these parables --
infiltrators can cause great damage in the church -- they can even take control
of a church and lead it in directions it should not go
-- we need
to be aware that Satan’s dirty birds and filthy yeast can infiltrate God’s
church today -- we need to make sure that we are standing true to God’s word --
that our focus is on His kingdom and His glory and that we are true
representatives of the gospel in our communities
-- we need
to be well-versed in God’s word and disciplined in our lives so that we can
stand against any evil that might come and that we can be faithful stewards of
all that God has given us
-- let us
pray
-------------------------------
1 The Russian Spies Next Door, The Wall Street Journal, June
17, 2024, By Georgi Kantchev, Joe Parkinson, and Silvina Frydlewsky [https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/the-russian-spies-next-door-bd7c7312]
2 Illustration modified from Paul Barreca’s sermon, “Contend
for the Faith”
3 Wikipedia Article, “Operation Greif,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Greif
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