“THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS LIKE…”
LUKE 13:18-21

I. Introduction
Throw a stone into a pond, see it splash, and then watch as the ripples fan out in every direction until they have rolled through the whole pond. That’s an image you can see very clearly in your mind’s eye, isn’t it? Keep that image in mind this morning as we look at two of Jesus’ parables from Luke’s gospel.

Both parables will illustrate the growth of the Kingdom of God from what at first appears to be a small and insignificant beginning to what develops and expands into the greatest and most important event in human history. As we look at these two short parables, we will see two very similar, but also very distinct things about the kingdom.

First, we’ll see the external aspect of the Kingdom of God as it will eventually embrace every nation on the face of the earth. Second, we’ll see the internal aspect of the King-dom of God as it will eventually transform every individual man, woman, and child it touches. And in the process, we’ll see something else. We’ll see how Jesus can say and teach so much in so few words.

But before we look at the parables themselves, we need to lay some groundwork and de-fine some terms. The term, “The Kingdom of God,” has been a source of some confusion among Christians because it is defined differently by different theological camps.

In the simplest possible terms, a kingdom can be defined as a realm over which a king exerts his rule. So since God is absolutely sovereign over His creation, there is a very real sense in which the Kingdom of God can be said to be both universal and eternal.
Psalm 103:19
19 The LORD has established His throne in the heavens; and His sovereignty rules over all.

However, the reality of this universal sovereignty is not what Jesus is talking about in the parables of the mustard seed and the leaven in today’s study. Now to be sure, there is no denying God’s universal kingship, but that isn’t Jesus’ subject of these parables. The term “The Kingdom of God,” as it is used in the gospels, speaks of something much more specific than God’s universal kingship. It speaks about God’s rule through His Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Those who believe His gospel and receive His salvation enter into the Kingdom of God. Jesus speaks of the ultimate reality of this in the Olivet Discourse where He teaches about His Second Coming.
*Matthew 25:31-34, 41, 46
31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.
32 “And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats;
33 and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and His angels…’
46 “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Clearly, Jesus is teaching that the lost will not inherit the kingdom. This is because the kingdom of which He speaks is exclusively for believers from all the ages. This includes the OT saints, the church, and those who will come to saving faith during the tribulation.

But now, during the “Church Age,” as Christians, we enter into the Kingdom of God in a spiritual sense the very moment that we are born again – saved – justified by faith. At that moment we become part of God’s kingdom for all eternity. Then when we pass from this life, we enter into His kingdom in a material sense.

So the Kingdom of God, as Jesus will speak of it in today in Luke, isn’t about God’s uni-versal and eternal kingship over all His creation; rather it’s about God’s rule as it’s found in His Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords. It’s about those people who have be-lieved the gospel, have received Christ, and have been spiritually born into His kingdom.

There is something else about this kingdom that is important to understand. Actually, we’ve already touched on it, but let me expand on it just a bit. The Kingdom of God has both a present and a future reality.

In its present reality the Kingdom of God is invisible. That is to say that its start, growth, and development during the church age are hidden from and unseen by the lost world. Christ’s rule as King is effective among Christians, those whom God has already saved.
Colossians 1:13 (speaking to Christians at Colossae)
13 For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.

Therefore, believers are included in the Kingdom of God right now, but the lost world neither sees nor understands it. It is in that respect, that the kingdom is invisible.

But in its future reality the Kingdom of God will be visible to all. And that will begin with the Second Coming.
Revelation 1:7a
7a Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him…”
Jesus’ Second Coming will mark the end of the tribulation and the reign of the Antichrist, and the start of Christ’s thousand year reign on earth. This is what Israel was looking for when Jesus came the first time. But since they didn’t understand God’s plan for the ages, when Jesus didn’t bring in the kingdom, they assumed He was a fraud, refused to believe Him, and had Him crucified. It was the visible kingdom that Israel wanted to see two thousand years ago, and it is the visible kingdom that the true church longs for today.

On Jesus’ last visit to Jerusalem His disciples were still thinking that He was about to establish His kingdom and they wondered what would be in it for them.
Luke 19:11b
11b He went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.

He told them the Parable of the Ten Minas. Jesus answered the disciples’ question like this: (let me paraphrase) “Whether I establish My kingdom today, tomorrow, or two thou-sand years from now, your job is to be loyal and faithful to Me. If you will be diligent in doing the work I have given you to do, then I will take care of your reward.”

But that was a lesson it took Jesus’ disciples some time to learn. In fact, the very last question they asked Him before His ascension was about the Kingdom of God.
Acts 1:6-7
6 And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, “Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority…

What can we learn from the Parable of the Minas and Jesus’ last words to His disciples? I believe it’s this. It may be a while before He comes back to establish the visible King-dom of God on this earth, but it doesn’t matter how long it takes. Regardless of how long we wait for His return, we are called to be loyal and faithful.

Before we go to the text I need to say one more thing about the Kingdom of God. There is some confusion about the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. Are they one and the same, or are they two different things?

Some dispensational teachers argue that they are in fact two different things. They say that while the Kingdom of God only refers to God’s universal and eternal kingship, the Kingdom of Heaven speaks exclusively of the coming Millennial Kingdom. That might make some sense until you consider the fact that Jesus used the terms interchangeably.
Matthew 19:23-24
23 And Jesus said to His disciples, “Truly I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
24 And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
I hope this preface helps as we listen to Jesus’ words about what the Kingdom of God is like. Remember, Jesus will not be talking about the universal and eternal kingdom. He will be talking about God’s rule in this age as it’s found in His Son, the King of kings.

He’ll be talking about the kingdom’s effect on this world and on God’s own, those people who have believed the gospel, have received Christ, and have been spiritually born into His kingdom – those whom, “He delivered…from the domain of darkness, and trans-ferred…to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Colossians 1:13).”
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II. Review
Does this morning’s text connect to last week’s? It does. We know it does because it begins with the word “therefore.” Jesus was teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath when a woman, crippled for eighteen years, came into the room and sat down. Jesus had compassion on her, cast out the demon that had caused her malady, and healed her.

In so doing He demonstrated yet again that the Kingdom of God had come in the Person of the Son of Man. He had proclaimed this truth time and time again, but the religious leaders continued to reject Him. They were so concerned about Jesus’ breaking their pre-cious traditions and man-made religious laws that they actually had the nerve to “scold” Him for healing on the Sabbath day. Jesus called them hypocrites and embarrassed them in front of their own congregation.

As a result of this latest confrontation with such blatant and hostile unbelief, Jesus will offer insight into the nature of the Kingdom of God in two parables, neither of which the spiritually blind religious leaders will be able to comprehend.
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III. Text
The lost won’t “get it,” but those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, those whom the Holy Spirit of God has enlightened, they will understand.
*Luke 13:18-21 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
18 Therefore (Jesus) was saying, “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it?
19 “It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own gar-den; and it grew and became a tree; and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”
20 And again He said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?
21 “It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of meal, until it was all leavened.”

Why are these few verses about the Kingdom of God so important? They are important because the NT puts so great an emphasis on the kingdom. When the angel Gabriel visited Mary with the news that she would bear God’s Son, he told her Jesus would reign over Israel forever and, “…His kingdom will have no end (Luke 1:33b).”
When John the Baptist was preaching in the wilderness of Judea, he knew that Jesus’ ministry would soon begin. So John’s message was simple and to the point. He said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matthew 3:2).”

Then when Jesus began to preach the gospel, He repeatedly spoke about the kingdom. It was one of the major subjects of His teaching from the very beginning.
Mark 1:14-15
14 And after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God,
15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Preaching about the Kingdom of God is one of Luke’s recurring themes.
Luke 4:43; 6:20; 8:1; 11:20; 17:20-21
43 (in Capernaum) He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.”

6:20 And turning His gaze on His disciples, He began to say, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.”

8:1 …He began going about from one city and village to another, proclaiming and preaching the kingdom of God…

11:20 “…if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

17:20 Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, (Jesus) answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; (it’s “invisible”)
17:21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.” (“I am the King and I am here!”)

In John 3 Jesus’ told Nicodemus about the necessity of the new birth. Jesus told him that if he was not born again, he would never become part of God’s kingdom.
John 3:3-5
3 Jesus answered (Nicodemus) and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

Jesus makes it so clear. We can neither see nor enter the kingdom in our natural and unrepentant condition. So how will we see the kingdom, how will we go into it? Spiritu-ally, all true Christians are already there; but materially, physically, we are not there yet. These sinful and dying bodies cannot go there. But Paul tells us how we can.
We will both see the kingdom and enter into it when Jesus comes for us. He will take us individually when we pass from this life at death, and He will take the church corporately at the Rapture. Either way, every true Christian will be there.
*1 Corinthians 15:50-55 (speaking specifically of the Rapture of the church)
50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit (become a par-taker in) the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable (old nature and body) inherit (or share in) the imperishable (new nature and body).
51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep (those who are raptured will not die physically), but we shall all be changed,
52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable (new immortal nature and body), and we shall be changed.
53 For this perishable (part of us) must put on the imperishable, and this mor-tal (part of us) must put on immortality.
54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mor-tal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. (Death itself will perish!)
55 “O death, where is your victory (now)? O death, where is your sting (now)?”

At one of the Lord’s mock trials the night before He was crucified, Pilate asked Him if He was the King of the Jews.
John 18:36
36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.”

Jesus’ kingdom, the Kingdom of God, will become “fully visible” when He returns in power and glory to take His rightful place on David’s throne in Jerusalem. It is from there that He will rule and reign over this earth for a thousand years.

But today’s text in Luke will address the Kingdom of God as it exists today, during the church age. In the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of the Leaven, Jesus will tell us what the present invisible kingdom really looks like and how it functions.
*Luke 13:18-19
18 Therefore (Jesus) was saying, “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it?
19 “It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own gar-den; and it grew and became a tree; and the birds of the air nested in its branches.”

I began with the illustration of throwing a stone into a pond, seeing it splash, and then watching as the ripples fan out until they have gone through the whole pond.
The idea symbolizes the Kingdom of God as it is working in this world today.

The mustard seed was the smallest of the common food-producing seeds in the Middle East. But this seemingly insignificant seed produced a tree that would routinely grow to a height of fifteen feet or more. It was large enough for birds to build permanent nests in it. We know that because the word “nested” is translated from a Greek word meaning to move in, to settle in indefinitely.

The point is this: The kingdom of God on earth began small and without much fanfare. In human terms Jesus was just a simple man from a remote village in a remote corner of the Roman Empire. His followers were just as insignificant and unimpressive as He was. They were plain and simple men with little or no formal education and no particular status or standing in the communities from which they came.

So from a worldly perspective, their stone didn’t exactly cause a tidal wave when it splashed into the pond. Besides, there were only a few followers of Jesus, and those who began making some noise about Him, those who tried to stir up the water, very quickly paid for it with their lives. (think Stephan and James) Thus the kingdom was obscure at best. It displayed no particular power, had no majesty, and seemed to possess virtually no influence on the world around it, but the ripples were starting to fan out.

Think of the pond as a symbol of the whole earth. Just as the ripples spread out in all directions from that spot where the stone sinks into the water, so too has the Kingdom of God spread out around the world. Just as the ripples from a stone thrown into a pond will pass through the entire pond and will eventually touch every spot on the shore, so too will the gospel reach into every corner of the world. And isn’t that happening even now? Of course, it is! It must do so because Jesus said it would.
Matthew 24:14
14 “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come.”

Can you see how world-wide evangelism is one of the indicators that the Second Coming is at hand? This aspect of the kingdom as described by the mustard seed in Luke 13:19 is external in the sense that it will eventually embrace all tongues, tribes, nations, and peo-ple. It will be complete when its last ripple reaches the last shore and the gospel has per-meated the whole pond. Then, as Jesus said, “…the end shall come.” But in this case, the end is the beginning, because it will take place at the Second Coming.
Revelation 19:11, 16 (John’s vision of Christ’s return)
11 And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war.
16 And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”
Revelation 11:15b
15b “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.” (Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus)

From humble beginnings in first-century Israel to its spreading throughout the entire world and eventually ruling over it – such is the Kingdom of God as illustrated by the Parable of the Mustard Seed. But Jesus has something else to say about the kingdom.
*Luke 13:20-21
20 And again He said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?
21 “It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of meal, until it was all leavened.”

Let us return to the stone in the pond one more time. Only this time the whole world isn’t in view. This time the individual man, woman, or child is the focus of the analogy. This time think of the pond as the individual Christian. Where the mustard seed expanded and grew outward to encompass and embrace the world, the leaven will also expand inward to encompass and embrace the whole Christian.

What begins as a small spark of new life the moment we receive Christ grows and per-meates our entire being. It works its way into every part of our life and being until we’re fully sanctified. This is the aspect of the Kingdom of God as it is described by the leaven in Luke 13:21.

Unlike the analogy of the mustard seed which externally fills the whole world with the good news of the kingdom, the analogy of the leaven is internal in the sense that it even-tually fills each believer to capacity. The ripples will touch every part of our being as we become more and more like Christ.

By the way, don’t be confused by Jesus’ use of the word leaven. The Bible often uses leaven as a synonym for sin, but that’s not what’s going on here. The leaven here is the agent that spreads through us and is a picture of our sanctification.

So Jesus uses leaven to illustrate the believer’s filling. Spiritually speaking we swell up, bubble up, and expand to become more like Christ. And isn’t that precisely what hap-pens to us as we grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus?

You say, “I wish I would grow a little faster.” I wish I would grow a little faster too! But the dictionary’s definition of leaven helps me to understand that good growth takes time. Webster’s New World Dictionary defines leaven as, “…a small piece of fermenting dough…to spread through causing a gradual change.” I like that. It helps. And it also shows us how Jesus used just the right word. He’s gradually transforming us every day.
Romans 8:29a
29a For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son…
Do you know that you are being conformed even now as you feed upon His word?
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IV. Conclusion
To summarize: The Kingdom of God is at work right now, but the world neither sees nor comprehends it. The Parable of the Mustard Seed helps us to see how the Kingdom of God is spreading out into the world and reaching into every corner of it just like the rip-ples on a pond eventually touch every shore.

At the same time the Parable of the Leaven helps us to see how the Kingdom of God is expanding in and through all believers and will finally touch every part of their being.

Thus the Kingdom of God will spread and permeate those it touches until it is complete and Jesus, the King of kings, returns with all the angels of heaven, not in the nearly invis-ible way He came the first time, but in a most visible and spectacular way. Then the Kingdom of God will be here in all its glory. “Behold, He is coming in with the clouds, and every eye will see Him… (Revelation 1:7a).”

But in the meantime, if you find yourself discouraged by the state of affairs in this world today, and particularly by the state of our nation and the condition of so much of the church that calls itself “Christian,” but lives like the world, you aren’t alone.

So I want to close on a high note. Turn with me to the Book of Daniel. We will read just two verses.
*Daniel 7:13-14
13 “I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him.
14 And to Him was given dominion, glory and a kingdom, that all the peo-ples, nations, and men of every language might serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away; and His kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.

Are you a Christian today? Yes? Then welcome to the Kingdom of God!

~ Pray ~