The Parable of the Mustard Seed

In this part of the sermon: Martin sets the scene on the Sea of Galilee and highlights Jesus' unique introductory questions, "How shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or in what parable shall we set it forth?"…

Martin uses the analogy of bringing 'springtime, summer, and harvest' into the assembly during winter to describe the delight of preaching on growth-related parables, setting a positive tone for the sermon.

Now, last Lord's Day, as we began our study of verses 26 through 29 in this fourth chapter of Mark, I had occasion to remark in your hearing that it was a great delight as a preacher to be able to bring springtime, summer, and harvest, this time, into the assembly of God's people at a time when the earth outside of us was covered with snow and when all of us are yet very conscious that we are held in the icy grip of this rather lengthy and severe winter. Well, I have a similar privilege this morning for once again the matters of sowing seed and the growth of that seed continuing on into the su...

3:08 - 4:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The questions underscore two issues: the central concern of the parable is the 'kingdom of God,' not a technical botanical lecture, and Jesus' genuine desire to engage the minds…

Martin uses the example of asking children how they would describe their love for their parents to illustrate how questions engage the mind and make listeners think actively.

For example, For example, if I were to say, now children, how can we describe, what can we use that is a picture of the love that you have to your mommy and daddy?

13:46 - 13:58 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The questions underscore two issues: the central concern of the parable is the 'kingdom of God,' not a technical botanical lecture, and Jesus' genuine desire to engage the minds…

He further illustrates the function of a question by asking children how they feel when a pet dies, showing how it prompts immediate mental engagement and reflection.

Well, if you're listening to me, you're thinking, well, how can I say, my love to mommy and daddy is like what? You see, if I ask you a question, that makes the wheels of your mind start turning faster. Or if I were to say, now, you children that have a pet, a pet bird, a pet dog, a pet cat, a pet cockroach, a pet something. How do you feel? How can you describe what you feel when your pet dies?

14:01 - 14:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Jesus is not making a text, ethnical, botanical, or horticultural statement. And anyone who treats the word of God that way deserves to be given up to blindness.

Martin uses the proverbial expression 'no bigger than a minute' to describe something tiny, drawing a parallel to how the mustard seed was used in Jesus' day to denote smallness.

What he is saying to his listeners is this, in the realm of your experience, you know that for most of you the smallest seed you ever handle is the seed that comes from your herbal plant, your mustard seed. Now that this, this was true is underscored in other passages of scripture. When you wanted to speak proverbially about something being tiny, we say of someone, well that little kid, he is no bigger than a minute. We use that term as a proverbial expression to speak of someone very small.

19:08 - 19:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Jesus is not making a text, ethnical, botanical, or horticultural statement. And anyone who treats the word of God that way deserves to be given up to blindness.

He compares the mustard seed to lettuce and carrot seeds, which are the smallest seeds in the average home gardener's experience, to help the audience grasp the mustard seed's perceived insignificance.

It's my conclusion, and he's confirmed me in this, that most of us who've had any experience in home gardening, for us, the smallest seeds we see are lettuce seeds and carrot seeds with carrot probably winning the day. Just a little bit smaller than the lettuce seeds. So, if I were speaking to you in terms of your garden experience, I would say, for most of us, the lettuce seed or the carrot seed is the smallest seed upon the earth. That is the smallest seed with which we have any practical dealings.

20:38 - 21:13 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider the application of the parable to our Lord Himself, understanding His humble beginnings and ultimate triumph.

Martin uses the metaphor of God 'burying the mustard seed in Mary's womb' to vividly describe the humble and hidden beginning of Jesus' incarnation, emphasizing its initial insignificance.

And surely it is. We read this morning that though there was a heavenly announcement, to a little group of humble shepherds on the Galilean hillside, on the Judean hillside, there was not at the birth of our Lord any trumpets announcing to the world His coming. He was not manifested in His incarnation found in the royal crib of some great place of influence. God, as it were, buried the mustard seed in Mary's womb for nine months and allowed His only begotten Son to pass through every stage of prenatal development. I know a few thoughts that cause my own mind to stagger and feel as though it wi...

29:56 - 31:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Consider the application of the parable to our Lord Himself, understanding His humble beginnings and ultimate triumph.

He describes Mary's pregnancy as outwardly ordinary, without a 'halo around the front of her maternity dress,' to underscore the hiddenness and lack of outward impressiveness of Christ's beginning.

His life of obedience and die upon the cross. The formation of that human soul in all of its mystery. Here God buried the seed, as it were, in Mary's womb, so that as she passed into the stage where it became evident to all that she was pregnant, I don't mean to be irreverent. There was not a halo around the front of her maternity dress.

31:23 - 31:48 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin applies the parable's principle to Jesus Himself, whose birth in obscurity, ordinary appearance, and ignominious death on a cross were like the buried mustard seed. Yet…

Martin uses the vivid, unromanticized description of a stable's smell to emphasize the humble and unglamorous circumstances of Jesus' birth, reinforcing the 'mustard seed' image.

When he was born, he was born in a context in which very quickly his swaddling cloths were impregnated with the smell of stale urine and the awful of a cow barn. Don't romanticize the stable. Even the lovely, pretty mechanized ones that I've been in still stink. Of stale urine and the dung of the fruit beast.

32:53 - 33:23 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You're going to start a world-wide religion with that?

He asks, 'Where did you ever see people draw an ugly Christ?' to challenge the common misconception of a strikingly handsome Christ, aligning with the prophet's description of His ordinary appearance.

Where did you ever see people draw an ugly Christ?

34:19 - 34:22 Read in full sermon

The point: Flee to Jesus for refuge from an accusing conscience and the wrath of God, recognizing that the expanded church makes unbelief more inexcusable.

Martin poses the question, 'You're going to start a world-wide religion with that?' after describing Jesus' ignominious death, highlighting the human impossibility of the kingdom's growth from such a beginning.

You're going to start a world-wide religion with that?

35:21 - 35:23 Read in full sermon

The point: Flee to Jesus for refuge from an accusing conscience and the wrath of God, recognizing that the expanded church makes unbelief more inexcusable.

He describes looking at his globe and seeing the 'little speck of light' of Jesus and His followers grow into a 'mighty mighty mustard tree' across every continent, illustrating the global expansion of the kingdom.

so that this very day and I thrilled to take my globe down and in preparation I sat and looked at it again in the early hours of this morning that now where once there in the middle of the Middle East a little speck of light this little mustard seed of Jesus and his little handful of followers a hundred and twenty of them left in the upper room when he went back to his father from that little mustard seed what is grown? A mighty mighty mustard tree and all over the face of the middle east of the earth in every continent untold millions are bound to him in this very hour in bonds of faith and l...

37:34 - 39:03 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The parable functions as both a prophecy and a promise for the kingdom's growth, assuring the disciples that their worldwide mission would not be in vain despite their small…

The conversion of Saul of Tarsus, God's 'most bitter enemy' turned 'most honored saint' and 'greatest cultivator' of the church, is used as an example of God's ironic power to grow the kingdom through unexpected means.

to keep lopping and lopping and lopping until I get the main trunk, and I want this tree destroyed. It says he was making havoc of the church, the church which at that time had only grown into those immediate areas around Palestine. So what did God do? God takes his most bitter enemy, and he turns him into his most honored saint. And then before he died, he could say, I have no more parts here. And he writes to the church at Rome and says, I hope to use you as my base to push back a new frontier into Spain. All of this area of the Roman Empire, the gospel has been fully preached. He did not me...

45:19 - 46:19 Read in full sermon

The point: Be steadfast, unmovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain.

Martin uses the analogy of burying a carrot seed in a backyard, which yields only a carrot, to contrast with the mustard seed's disproportionate growth, emphasizing that human efforts often seem insignificant.

between steadfastness, immovableness, abounding, and the confidence that we're not on a fool's errand. Knowing that your labor is not in vain, well, how can I know that my labors are not in vain? Many times they seem no more significant to me than if I buried a carrot seed in my backyard. What can come from a carrot seed? You see, nothing but a carrot and a little fringe on the ground. That's where the carrot seed, you see, analogy doesn't hold. But from that little mustard seed, small as a carrot seed, grows something so large you can call it a tree. From the less to the greater. You and I, a...

47:27 - 48:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Don't torture yourself over imperfect witness; God uses 'stumbling efforts' and 'feeble endeavor' to bring forth repentance and faith.

He refers to the testimonies of new converts in the church, noting that few were won by eloquent presentations, but rather by 'stumbling efforts' or 'feeble endeavor,' illustrating God's use of small, imperfect means.

My friend, listen, don't torture yourself like that. Just, if only you could sit with us as elders and listen to the testimony of the people whom God brings into this fellowship. Very few of them were one to Christ. By an eloquent, forceful, perfectly logical presentation of the Gospel, God took the mustard seed of someone's altered life, of someone's stumbling efforts to speak of Christ, of someone's feeble endeavor to stretch forth a hand and a heart of kindness and compassion in the name of Christ. And whereas perhaps they had heard sermons all their life, what did God do? God took the most...

48:48 - 49:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Take hope from this parable in corporate endeavors, believing that from little and insignificant beginnings, God brings unexpected and great results.

The small, unheralded church plant by brother Jeff Lee in Savannah, with a 'handful of a dozen people,' is presented as a contemporary 'mustard seed' with the potential to shake the city.

O' dear people of God, take hope from this parable. The great principle of God's kingdom is, from the little and the insignificant comes the unexpected and theị. great. What is true in our individual witness is true in our corporate endeavors. What joy I've had this week meditating on this parable as I think of our brother Jeff Lee down in Savannah. The mayor didn't come out and greet him when he came there with his family. There was no official welcoming committee from the great ones of that historic city, and this morning there's a little handful of a dozen people meeting. Of what significan...

49:48 - 50:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Take hope from this parable in corporate endeavors, believing that from little and insignificant beginnings, God brings unexpected and great results.

The twenty-one years of labor by Pastor Ritter in Sweden, resulting in a small congregation of twenty-five, is used as another example of a 'mustard seed' ministry that, despite its apparent smallness, is part of God's kingdom growth.

will shake that city to its very foundations. That's what God can do. Take the mustard seed of a man of God whose heart is full of the burden of the Lord, who's determined to preach and be faithful in labor. From it, God can bring something totally disproportionate to the seed. Think of our dear brother and faithful witness for twenty years. He's been a pastor for twenty-one years in Sweden, Pastor Ritter, meeting today with twenty-five people. All he has to show for twenty-one years of labor, twenty-five people. Yes, hundreds of thousands of pages of literature that have scattered all over Sw...

50:34 - 51:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Be encouraged as the Lord's saints, remembering the principle of the kingdom: when buried, it sprouts up and becomes a great tree.

Martin recounts the humble beginnings of Trinity Baptist Church, meeting in a women's club after a denominational split, to illustrate how their own history exemplifies the mustard seed principle of growth from small, uncertain beginnings.

Think back over the years. It hardly seems 18 years ago, when hardly knowing what we'd do, we staggered as it were under the disillusionment of the high-handed treatment of the denomination to go out and meet we knew not where.

53:02 - 53:20 Read in full sermon

The point: Never despise any movement or instrumentality in the church of Christ because at first it is weak and small; remember Bethlehem.

A quotation from Bishop Ryle's commentary on the parable is used to summarize the sermon's main application: never to despise any movement or instrumentality in the church that starts weak and small.

The application to our Lord Himself, the application to the growth of His kingdom, and the application to ourselves and our labors. But now listen to the old bishop as he brings his summary paragraph commenting on this parable and his expository thoughts on the gospel. Let us leave the parable with a resolution, never to despise any movement or instrumentality in the church of Christ, because at first it is weak and small. Let us remember the manger of Bethlehem, and learn wisdom.

54:36 - 55:13 Read in full sermon