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THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS:
MORE THAN ENOUGH
By Andrew Wilson Psalm 1: 1-6
March 1, 2015 Matthew 13: 31-33
“What’s the kingdom of God like?” Jesus asks. It’s like a tiny mustard seed that a man planted in
his garden, and that grew into a huge tree.
It’s like yeast that a woman mixed into sixty pounds of flour. It spread through the dough and
caused every loaf that was baked to rise.
These simple images reveal three vital truths about God’s kingdom.
First, they show that God uses small things to get big results. The mustard seed and the yeast
can be held in a small child’s hand. But when they’re put to their proper use, they yield huge
results.
Second, the images show that God uses people to set things in motion. Someone has to plant
the seed before the mustard tree will grow in the garden. Someone has to work the yeast into
the flower before it will cause the bread to rise.
Third, the images show that God’s kingdom is a place of growth and abundance. The tree in the
garden provides shelter for birds. It produces seeds that will grow into more trees. The fresh
loaves give nourishment and pleasure. And they provide a livelihood for the baker.
Today we’re going to look more closely at these three truths to see how they relate to our walk
with Jesus. You now know the entire outline of my message.
The seeds and the yeast are pretty amazing little things. Even in our scientific age, when
botanists and biologists can explain how they function (at least on a basic level), they still look
pretty marvelous to us. A pinhead-size mustard seed can grow into a tree that’s 8 or 9 feet tall.
How do the thousands of cells contained within the seed manage to do that? How do they
communicate with each other? What causes them to differentiate into root cells, and bark cells,
and branch cells, and leaf cells, and at just the right times and places? Most of those processes
are still a mystery to us.
Yeast is a far less complex organism. Yeast is a microscopic, unicellular fungus. But yeast
deserves at least as much respect from us as mustard seeds. Why? Because yeast is an essential
ingredient in three of the most sublime foods on earth: bread, wine and beer. Yeast cells that
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are deprived of air are able to transform sugars into carbon dioxide and alcohol. So praise God
for the lowly yeast fungus!
What does all of this tell us about God’s kingdom? I think it tells us that, even though God’s
kingdom is mostly hidden from sight, and of little account to the world’s power-brokers, it’s
actually teeming with potential. God has forces and processes at his disposal that are more
potent than any that oppose him. And he’s continually using them to bring about his good plan.
During a recent visit to the Door of Faith Orphanage in Baja California, the director, D.J. Schuetze
told our mission team a story that illustrates this principle.
The director of another large orphanage in Baja California was offered a working fire truck as a
gift from a friend in California. He and his kids were tremendously excited about riding around
their property in the vintage truck, but there were problems. Every time the donor tried to drive
the truck over the border, he was stopped by the Federales. First they wanted special papers.
Then they claimed it was illegal to import fire equipment.
The situation seemed hopeless, but the man decided to say a prayer and try to cross one last
time. Again he was turned away. Exasperated, and without any clear plan in mind, the man
backed up his fire truck and parked on the side of the freeway.
After some time – just as he was about to give up and drive home – the man heard sirens behind
him. A long line of fire trucks was screaming towards him. In accordance with cross-border
agreements, they were heading to a big fire in Tijuana. When he saw the border agents waving
them through, he started up his truck, pulled in behind the last truck, and never looked back.
Gracias, Senor! Dios es Bueno!
It’s sometimes hard for us to believe, as Jesus-followers, that God’s kingdom has any relevance
in our world, or that anything very good could come of it. But that’s because we’ve forgotten
the power of mustard seeds and the potency of yeast. In the world of nature and in the world of
the Spirit, God is constantly using small things to get big results.
In the parables, the sower and the baker also play important roles. God uses them to set things
in motion.
Some scholars suggest that the sower and baker represent God. They must represent God, they
insist, because God is the source of every blessing in his kingdom. This interpretation is
compelling because it confirms what many of us believe about ourselves: that our work doesn’t
matter to God – that God can get along just fine without us. But I think that view is too narrow.
More than that, I think it contradicts the teachings of Jesus. The sower and the baker could
represent God, but they could also represent anyone who is doing kingdom work. They could
represent many of you.
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This isn’t a trivial issue. What exactly is our role in the all-important matter of building God’s
kingdom?
Many of us have adopted a view of God’s providence and power that is compatible with the
abstract teachings of philosophers and theologians. We think that Almighty God is capable of
doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants, and that our feeble efforts to serve him don’t
add up to a hill of beans. We take the attitude that God could do a lot better job than we could
at the work he assigns to us, and that he only includes us in his plan because he knows we need
to feel needed.
In other words, we think that God treats us the same way that a parent treats a toddler who
wants to help with the dinner dishes. He, of course, could do the work better and faster by
himself. But he lets us help because he knows we enjoy helping, and he knows we’ll learn from
the experience.
That view of God is widespread, and deeply compelling. It stands to reason that the creator of
the universe is self-sufficient, and that he doesn’t need puny human beings to help him. The
problem, however, is that Jesus reveals a different reality. He tells us that the Father has actually
appointed his children to be partners with him bringing about his kingdom. He has set up the
universe so that Jesus followers have a vital part in its renewal.
It’s absolutely true that God didn’t have to include us in his work. He could have created a world
where our efforts on his behalf were unnecessary, and where he and he alone was responsible
for bringing about his plan. But he didn’t. He chose instead to create us in his own image. He
chose to establish a world where our prayers matter, where our faith is determinative, and
where we can actually make a difference.
Some of you are skeptical. I understand that. You agree that God has work for us to do. You
agree that we show our faith in God by obeying him. But it just doesn’t seem right to you to say
that God needs us. You think he uses us only so we can feel good about serving and we can grow
as servants.
If that’s where you are, I encourage you to meditate on these questions:
Why does Christ tell his disciples to pray for God’s kingdom to come, and his will to be done?
(Matthew 6:10). Isn’t it because the prayers of God’s people actually have an impact?
Why does Christ tell his disciples that the fields are ripe, but the workers are few? (Matthew
9:38). Isn’t it because God needs more field hands?
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And why does Paul ask the Thessalonians to pray that God’s word would spread rapidly? (2
Thessalonians 3:1). Isn’t it because the spreading of the Gospel depends, at least in part, on the
people that Jesus has commissioned to represent him?
Where do you stand? Do you feel at least some degree of responsibility to share the Good News
of God’s love? Or do you assume that’s the job of the Holy Spirit? Do you believe prayer is just a
form of therapy, and that your prayers don’t really matter to God? Or do you pray with the
attitude that your prayers actually matter to God, and actually have eternal consequences.
I love this statement by the pastor and author, E. M. Bounds. God’s kingdom needs more people
who live by these words:
God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world the better the
world will be, the mightier the forces against evil… The prayers of God’s saints are the
capital stock of heaven by which God carries on his great work upon earth. God
conditions the very life and prosperity of His cause on prayer.
God uses people to set things in motion. The sower plants the mustard seed; the baker works
the yeast into the dough; and we go about the tasks that the Lord has assigned to us with the
attitude that he’s counting on us.
The overwhelming message of the parables is that God’s kingdom is a place of growth and
abundance.
During our mission trip to the Dominican Republic last June, our daily readings and reflections
centered on the theme of abundance. At the beginning of the week I asked people to identify
passages in the New Testament that speak of God’s abundance. The ideas poured down like a
waterfall.
We talked about Jesus’ first miracle, when he turned 120 gallons of well water into the finest
wine that anyone has ever tasted.
We talked about the feeding of the 5000, where Jesus multiplied the five loaves and the two
fish, and there were baskets full of leftovers.
We talked about the disciples’ encounter with Jesus when they had been out all night and
hadn’t caught a thing. When they followed his advice to cast their nets on the other side of their
boat, their catch was so huge they had to drag the net to the shore.
We talked about the parable of the bags of gold, where a rich man goes on a journey and
entrusts each of his servants with riches. Success comes to the servants that take personal
responsibility for the money, and invest for their master. They multiply his wealth many times
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over, and are rewarded for their efforts. But the servants that bury the money in the ground are
cast into the outer darkness.
Two weeks ago we talked about the astonishing growth of the church over the past century. The
seeds that were planted by churches and missionaries from Europe and America in the 19th
century took root, sprouted leaves, and produced a magnificent harvest that’s growing even
today.
All of these passages and stories confirm the central message of the parables of the mustard
seed and the leaven. God’s kingdom is a place of bounty and blessing. It’s a world where all
good things expand and multiply, and nothing is ever wasted.
This message is easily misconstrued. It’s frequently twisted and manipulated by worldly people
for worldly purposes. They tell us that faithfulness to God will result in material prosperity. They
insist that people who follow Jesus are going to experience overwhelming blessings in this life as
well as the life to come.
You’re probably familiar with Joel Osteen. He’s probably the most popular preacher in America
today. Here’s what Joel Osteen wrote in his blockbuster book, Your Best Life Now:
Too many times we get in a rut thinking we’ve reached out limits. But God wants us to
constantly be increasing, to be rising to new heights. He wants to increase you in his
wisdom and help you make better decisions. God wants to increase you financially by
giving you promotions, fresh ideas, and creativity.
The basic problem with the Joel Osteen prosperity Gospel is that it blurs the distinctions
between the kingdom ruled by God and the kingdom ruled by money. It rightly affirms that God
wants to increase our virtue, and to use us to increase his blessings. But it wrongly supposes
that there’s no conflict between those goals our personal goal of becoming rich or powerful.
I like what Rick Warren had to say about the prosperity Gospel. In a 2006 interview with Time,
Warren was refreshingly blunt: “This idea that God wants everyone to be wealthy?” Warren
said,
There’s a word for that: baloney. It’s creating a false idol. You don’t measure your self-
worth by your net worth. I can show you millions of faithful followers of Christ who live
in poverty. Why isn’t everyone in the church a millionaire?
The prosperity Gospel is alive and well in the Church all over the world. In a recent survey of
American Christians, 66 percent of those who identified themselves as Pentecostals agreed with
the premise that “God grants believers wealth.” The responses from other American Christians,
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encompassing people of all races over a wide range of denominations, were nearly as alarming.
Forty-three percent of those surveyed concurred that the Almighty showers riches on believers.
These ideas are out of sync with Jesus’s teachings. The Lord does promise that God will fulfill the
basic material needs of his followers. But he also maintains a clear and uncompromising
distinction between the values of the world and the values of God’s kingdom. He tells us again
and again that we can’t serve God and mammon. He warns us that some who choose to follow
him are going to have to forgo worldly wealth and success.
Yet Christ’s promise of abundance is equally clear. If we’re truly committed to the things of God,
and to the advancement of his kingdom, we have every reason to expect a great harvest. God is
going to multiply our investments thirty-fold, sixty-fold, even a hundred-fold.
Because God uses small things to get big results.
He uses his faithful people to set things in motion.
And, contrary to what you might have heard from the world’s opinion-makers, God’s kingdom is
a place of astonishing growth and abundance.
Lord Jesus, it’s hard for us to believe in ourselves. It’s hard for us to believe that you’ve appointed
us to represent you, and to finish the work that you began.
Would you give us confidence in ourselves? Would you shine in our hearts, Lord, and take us to
those places where we can make a difference – where you need us to make a difference?
As we come to your table today, Holy God, we rededicate our lives, and we rededicate this
church to you. We’re your instruments. We’re your tools. And you’re more than enough for us.
Give us your Holy Spirit and put us to work.
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This theme of abundance, or productivity, is also one that we hear again and again in the Bible.
Think of the story of creation. God speaks into being a world of astonishing variety and beauty.
He tells humans to be fruitful and populate the earth. Then he charges them with the job of
tilling the earth and caring for every living thing. One of the main points of the story is that God
created and designed humans to be industrious. His plan for us is that we will imitate him his in
his productiveness.
Psalm 1 describes the blessings that will overflow for those who walk with God. “They are like a
tree planted by streams of water,” the psalmist writes – a tree “that yields its fruit in season and
whose leaf does not wither – whatever they do prospers” (Psalm 1:3). The main blessing of
faithfulness, according to the psalm, is fruitfulness.
Jesus also points to the startling abundance of God’s kingdom. He assures his followers that,
although we’ll have to suffer and make sacrifices, our lives will be productive and satisfying. He
repeats those themes again and again in his miracles, parables and teachings.
Think of the Feeding of the 5,000, where Jesus involves his disciples in the distribution and
multiplication of the bread and the fish. Or think of the parable where a woman transforms sixty
pounds of flour into useful dough by mixing in a tiny portion of yeast. Both the miracle and the
parable illustrate the way that God grows the kingdom. He gives to his followers something tiny
and apparently insignificant, and they use it to produce spectacular results.
Jesus not only announces the coming of God’s kingdom, he insists that it’s already busting loose,
and that it’s already producing abundant fruit. “Look around you,” Jesus tells his disciples. “The
harvest is ready; the grain in the fields is ripe and ready. The only thing that’s lacking are field
hands. If you’ll just get off the sidelines and follow my lead,” he assures them, “God will multiply
your work. He’ll make you fruitful. The investment you make in his kingdom will return thirty-
fold, sixty-fold, and in some cases, a hundred-fold.”
The main point is that Jesus is using old, familiar imagery to affirm an ancient truth. He’s saying
that God created us to be fruitful in the way that he is fruitful. But Jesus is adding something
that’s completely new, and absolutely crucial. He’s saying that he, Jesus, is the source of the life
that’s in the vine. He’s imploring his disciples, as he prepares for his departure, to stay connected
to him. If they will do that, Jesus says, his life will flow to them, and he’ll do his work through
them. He’ll cause them to produce harvest after harvest of sweet, delicious fruit.
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so that we can grow could easily have planted the seed and kneaded the bread on his own, but
he wanted to Most of you would agree that God uses people to set things in motion.
There isn’t any challenge that we face in our world that is too big for God. There isn’t any
problem that we face that ca
We all love to see a payoff from our work. There’s hardly anything more satisfying in life that
seeing big changes come from ourIt’s not very hard to find other examples in nature where
small thin
Jesus is a teacher like no other. Most religious teachers focus on how we should behave, or what
we should believe about God. They offer us ethical or theological ideas that we weigh in our
minds and either accept or reject.
But Jesus offers more than words. He offers himself. He is the ideal we should strive to imitate.
He is the truth that sets us free. He is the revelation of the Father that the ancient prophets
longed to see. Jesus is God’s Word, in the flesh.
That’s what Jesus means when he tells his disciples in John:
“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through
me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well.”
- John 14: 6-7
Obedience is the key to understanding Jesus. That’s why Lee and I started this series on the
teachings of Jesus last week with the theme of obedience. We only truly understand Jesus when
we begin to obey him. When it comes to Jesus’s teachings, in other words, faith leads to
obedience, and obedience leads to greater understanding.
That isn’t true of other religious teachers. You can understand the teachings of Martin Luther or
C. S. Lewis without actually obeying them. Any seminarian knows that. You can read their books
– you can listen to lectures explaining the themes in their writings – you can take written exams
about them and even pass those exams with flying colors without believing anything that’s
taught by Luther or Lewis, and without putting any of their ideas into practice.
The point is that we have a different kind of relationship with Jesus than we have with even our
most respected teachers. Since Jesus himself is the truth, it isn’t possible to hear and
understand him, and at the same time to disbelieve and disobey him. True understanding of
Jesus’s teachings always inspires obedience. And obedience to Jesus’s teachings always yields a
deeper, more intimate knowledge of God.
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That’s what the Apostle John means when he makes this uncompromising declaration to the
Church:
We know that we have come to know [Jesus] if we keep his commands. Those who say,
“I know him,” but do not do what he commands are liars, and the truth is not in them…
This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
- 1 John 2: 3-6
When we truly understand Jesus, we enter into a new kind of relationship with God. We open
our hearts to him, and welcome him in as our Lord and Savior. He takes away our sin. He plants
his eternal life in us. He begins to shape us into his character. And we become co-workers with
him in our Father’s heavenly kingdom.
This helps to illuminate one of the most confusing aspects of Jesus’s teachings. It helps us to see
why you can’t capture Jesus’s teachings in an over-arching theory, a set of doctrines, or a
Letterman-style top ten list. Christianity isn’t yet another theory or doctrine about God. Nor is it
a way of life that can be boiled down to set of rules. Instead, it’s new kind of relationship with
God, one that God himself has opened up by sending Jesus to us. As Jesus explains in John
chapter 12:
“Those who believe in me do not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When
they look at me, they see the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so
that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
- John 12: 44-46
If Jesus has a core message, it’s that God’s kingdom is at hand. He, Jesus, has been sent by the
Father to bring heaven to earth. Sin and death will be defeated; God’s truth will prevail; and the
earth, one day, will be transformed.
That message comes through loud and clear in Matthew, Mark and Luke. Matthew says that,
immediately after his forty day testing period with the devil in the wilderness, Jesus began to
preach about the coming of God’s kingdom. “Turn from your sin!” Jesus told the people.
“Salvation is coming! God is alive in the midst of his people!”
John’s Gospel is different. There, instead of talking about God’s kingdom, Jesus seems more
inclined to point to it. Every miracle that Jesus performs, whether it’s turning water into wine,
multiplying the loaves and the fish, or giving sight to the blind, is a sign of the change that God is
bringing about through Jesus. Yet the implicit message in John is consistent with that of the
other Gospels. God sent his Son to give new life to his people, and to bring them back into
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fellowship with himself. Will we believe in him, and be reconciled to God through him, and enter
the kingdom of heaven? Or will we reject Jesus, and cling to our sin, and forfeit God’s offer of
eternal life?
What’s the kingdom of God like? A large part of Jesus’s teachings focus our attention on that
question. Since the kingdom of God is mostly hidden from sight, Jesus relies on analogies to
inspire our imagination. He points to ordinary images and stories to give us imperfect glimpses
of a higher reality. Many of those images and stories are imbedded in parables.
Here’s the amazing thing about those images and stories of the kingdom. Here’s the thing I hope
that you’ll meditate on as we look at them now, and as you put your head on your pillow
tonight. Virtually every one of them speaks to us of the fruitfulness and beauty of God’s
kingdom. They point to the vastness of God’s riches, and the lavishness of his blessings. They tell
us that God is a God of astonishing abundance.
We’re going to spend some time looking at Jesus’s teaching about God’s kingdom, but I want to
you to notice
we can have only indirect knowledge of Jesus uses analogieswe can only understand Jesus has
to draw analogies between on images and stories from everyday life to
ohn introduces Jesus as the Word that was present at creation. In obedience to his Father’s
command, he takes on human flesh and comes to earth to live among us. His mission is to give
eternal life to all who believe in him. and came to earth so that wthat has been sent by the
Father to save now come to earth as a man to establish his Father comes now from the Father
to bring God’s kingdom to earth. Having taken on human flesh, Jesus is now being used by his
Father to bring his kingdom to earth. Yet, Jesus is the Word that was present at the creation of
the world that has now taken on human flesh. God is using him to re-create the world. Sin and
death still rule here below, but they will be overthrown. People are still lost in in darkness, but
God’s light has begun to shine. That’s how Jesus speaks of the coming of God’s kingdom in John.
has been born inthe Father is bringing about through the healing points to it. He points to the
signs and wondersThere Jesus doesn’t speak about God’s kingdom as consistently as he does in
the other three Gospels. He relies instead on the evidence of the signs and wonders that he,
Jesus, is doing to Instead, Jesus he points to the signs and wonders that he, Jesus, is doing, as
evidence of directly. Instead, Jesus identifies the signs that he is doing as evidence of the new
thing that the Father is doing in and through the Son.
the his Son, Jesus. New life that he, Jesus, brings to a dying world.
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that signal the new life that he, Jesus, speak of God’s kingdom, but instead of talking about
God’s kingdom, Jesus talks about his role new life that he gives, and that
He puts us to work in God’s kingdom. True understanding, therefore, leads us into a relationship
with Jesus that utterly transforms us. hose who truly understand his teachings receive him as
Lord and Savior. We showReceiving his teachings isn’t a matter of unmeans receiving him.
Rejecting his teachings
That’s why Jesus doesn’t offer us the usual menu items to contemplate, analyze, and accept or
reject
that God makes possible by breaking into that’s made possible by And it isn’t yet another set of
ethical guidelines. Other teachers offer theories, doctrines and lists.
Other teachers offer theories, doctrines and lists. They can be understood intellectually, Instead
of the usual menu items, Jesus offers himself. He is the truth that sets us free. He is the
revelation of the Father that the ancient prophets longed to see.
Theories, doctrines and top ten lists can be grasped by the mind, but rejected by the heart. Jesus
rules Jesus himself is the truth that he reveals. it’s so hard to capture Jesus’s teachings in
atheories, or in top ten lists. Of course that hasn’t doesn’t offer theories or doctrines about God,
and why he doesn’t offer
Because Jesus is the truth, you can’t understand what he teaches and yet fail to believe or to put
into practice what he teaches. Because Jesus is the truth incarnate – God in the flesh – we all
have a different relationship with Jesusyou will either hear and obey, or fail to hear and disobey.
The truth about God is revealed in him. He is the truth aboThe goal of most religious teaching is
to explain doctrines about God or to clarify how we
“What’s the kingdom of God like?” Jesus asks. It’s like a tiny mustard seed that a man planted in
his garden, and that grew into a huge tree.
It’s like yeast that a woman mixed into sixty pounds of flour. It spread through the dough and
caused every loaf that was baked to rise.
These simple images reveal three vital truths about God’s kingdom.
First, they show that God uses small things to get big results. The mustard seed and the yeast
can be held in a small child’s hand. But when they’re put to their proper use, they yield huge
results.
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Second, the images show that God uses people to set things in motion. Someone has to plant
the seed before the mustard tree will grow in the garden. Someone has to work the yeast into
the flower before it will cause the bread to rise.
Third, the images show that God’s kingdom is a place of growth and abundance. The tree in the
garden provides shelter for birds. It produces seeds that will grow into more trees. The fresh
loaves give nourishment and pleasure. And they provide a livelihood for the baker.
Jesus’s core message in Matthew, Mark and Luke is that the kingdom of God is at hand. He
fleshes out that message by But that message stands on a tripod of three truths. But what does
God do to These three truths, you could say, form the tripod on which that message stands. Our
goal is to see how Jesus fleshes out those truths in his wider teachings. That’s where we’re
headingAlong the way, we’ll be asking three questions:
How does God use small things to get big results?
How does God use people to set things in motion? And
What evidence is there that God’s kingdom is a place of growth and abundance?
What we’re going to find is that they’re And you don’t just find them in the parables of the
mustard seed and the leaven. You find them imbedded throughout the Gospels
I’ve just told you my three main points. We’re see how Jesus fleshes out these three truths
about God’s kingdom. Today we’re going to see how Jesus fleshes out these three truths about
God’s kingdom. .. We’re going to see how form the core, or the foundation for his teachings on a
wide variety of subjects. We’re going to see that they are foundational to many of his teachings
how they form the foundation for many of his teachingsTaking them one by one, we’re going to
see how Jesus explores these three truths again and again as he trains his disciples.
These foundational truths form the core of Jesus’s message about God’s kingdom. He returns to
them again and again, but each time he offers a new insight about them. esus teaches on a wide
variety of subjects, but the It should come as no surprise, therefore, that to his disciples.
These are the three truths we’re going to explore today. We’re going to see fleshes them out in
other To flesh them out we’re going to look at other teachings where they What we’re going to
find is that they are foundational for Jesus. These three truths aren’t found only in the parables
of the mustard seed and the yeast in the dough. Jesus elaborates on them, and shows how they
work on a very practical level, throughout the four Gospels. Today we’re goinghow Jesus truths
are fleshed out by Jesus as he teaches people about God’s kingdom.s teachings about God’s
kingdom
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These parables are foundational in Jesus’s teachings. Jesus’s main mission in Matthew, Mark
and Luke is introduce God’s kingdom, The truths that they illuminate – the three truths that we
just talked about – find their way into so much If we were to summarize the main theme of
Jesus’s teachings in Matthew, Mark and Luke, it would be: the kingdom of God is coming, and is
already here.
Our God isn’t stingy. He isn’t one to hold back. The universe he has created is distinguished by
fruitfulness and abundance.
We see it in the creation story in Genesis, where God calls for stars and planets, birds and fish,
plants and animals in numbers and varieties that boggle the mind. Life is so plentiful and varied
that even today we have only a vague notion of the number of species that share the planet.
The lowest estimate is around 3 million species.
That includes somewhere between 9,000 and 10,000 bird species.
Stars are so plentiful that Astronomers aren’t able to count them even with the aid of gigantic
telescopes and computers.
The best estimate is that there are 70 million million million stars out there.
(That’s a 7 followed by 22 zeroes.)
One astrophysicist estimates that the number of stars is approximately equal to ten
times the number of grains of sand in all the beaches of the world, though that’s not a
scientific number because it doesn’t account for the sand that people carry home with
them on their flip flops and towels.
God the Creator is preposterously prolific. He seems to like to do things in a big way. His
excessiveness is constantly on display.
We see it in the story of Jesus’ first miracle, when he turned 120 gallons of well water
into the finest wine that anyone has ever tasted.
We see it in the story of the feeding of the 5,000, when Jesus multiplied the loaves and
fishes, and everyone ate their fill and there were still bushels and bushels of leftovers.
We see it in the story of the birthday of the Church, when the disciples preached for the
first time and about 3,000 people were saved.
We can all agree: the Lord is wonderfully prolific. But what does all of this have to do with
money? How does this help us with the challenge of managing our financial resources?
Let’s return for a moment to the creation story in the first chapter of Genesis. On the sixth day
of creation, God creates man and woman in his own image. Then he blesses them and tells them
[BIBLE]:
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“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the
sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
- Genesis 1:28
God gives us the world, and all of the marvelous creatures that inhabit it, and commands us to
be abundantly productive in our use of it. In other words, he commands us to imitate him in his
fruitfulness.
The theme is repeated in many key passages of Scripture. The very first Psalm counsels us not to
follow in the paths of those who reject God, but instead to delight in God’s law. When we do so,
the Psalmist proclaims, we become “like trees planted by streams of water, which [yield] its fruit
in season…” (Psalm 1:1-3).
[SLIDE #2 – Photo of orange tree, “…every good tree…:]
The Sermon on the Mount is the most important body of teaching that Jesus offered. At the end
of the sermon, Jesus summarizes much of what he has said by essentially repeating God’s
commandment in Genesis, chapter one. He uses the simple image of a fruit tree to make the
point.
Speaking of his true disciples – those who are his authentic followers – Jesus said this [BIBLE]:
“By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs
from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit…”
- Matthew 7:16-17
Paul also picks up on the theme. He reminds us again and again that our purpose as Christ-
followers is to be productive for God. In this morning’s reading Paul tells the Colossians that his
heartfelt prayer for them is that they would bear fruit “in every good work” (Colossians 1:10).
Most teachers urge you to believe their words. Jesus challenges us to believe in him. That’s what
makes Jesus a teacher like no other. Instead of offering us ethical or theological ideas that we
can weigh in our minds and either accept or reject, Jesus offers himself. He is the truth that sets
us free. He is the revelation of the Father that the ancient prophets longed to see. As Jesus
explains in John chapter 12:
“Those who believe in me do not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When
they look at me, they see the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so
that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
- John 12: 44-46
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THE HUNDRED FOLD INCREASE
By Andrew Wilson Deuteronomy 28:9-14
June 6, 2010 Matthew 13:1-9
[SLIDE # 1 – Title slide, “The Hundred Fold Increase” – Graph of rising arrows]
If we’re faithful with the gifts the Lord has given us, he’ll multiply them and use us to make a
difference in his kingdom. If we seek God’s will and live according to his Word our lives will be
astonishingly productive. We will do work that pleases God – work that will make an impact that
will echo throughout eternity. God makes that promise clearly and consistently throughout the
Bible.
[Cindy] [Jim] just read for us that passage from the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy where Moses
describes the material riches that the people will enjoy if they obey the Lord and uphold the
covenant he has made with them [BIBLE]:
You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your
livestock…
Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed…
The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before
you….
- Deuteronomy 28:3-5, 7
[SLIDE # 2 – Photo of huge oak tree in grassy field]
Psalm 1 speaks of the blessings that flow out of our lives when we’re faithful. When we delight
in God’s law, and we refuse to go along with evil schemes, the psalmist says, we become “like a
tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not
wither” (Psalm 1:3-4).
Jesus also teaches that faithfulness leads to fruitfulness. The night of his betrayal, Jesus makes
this mind-blowing promise to his disciples [BIBLE]:
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be
done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you should bear much fruit, showing
yourselves to be my disciples.”
- John 15:7-8
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The story of the Feeding of the 5,000 is the only miracle story that is told in Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John. It’s also one of the few stories where the disciples assist in the miracle. God
empowers them to be a blessing as they respond to Jesus in faith.
A huge crowd has gathered in a remote area near the shore of the Sea of Galilee to hear Jesus
preach. As the day wears on, the people become hungry and begin to ask for food. The disciples
advise Jesus to send the people away, but Jesus instead instructs them to give them the tiny
portions of bread and fish they have available. And even though it’s the Lord who initiates the
miracle and is the force behind it, the bread and fish are multiplied in part through the disciples’
efforts, and as a result of their obedience.
In one of his most memorable parables, Jesus illustrates the power of faith to produce blessings
by pointing to a minuscule seed [BIBLE]:
“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, [he tells them,] you can say to this
mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible to
you.”
- Matthew 17:20-21
[SLIDE # 3 – Photo of man on combine harvesting field of wheat]
Jesus uses the seed image in other teachings. In the twelfth chapter of John, for example, a
planted seed becomes an image for a person who gives up a life of sin and gives his life to God.
Jesus says [BIBLE]:
“Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains
only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
- John 12:24
Like all the other passages I’ve cited, this one about the wheat kernel contains a promise of
productivity. If we will yield our life to God, we will become wonderfully fertile. Our one seed
will give rise to many.
No promise is quite as remarkable as the one contained in the parable that [Cindy] [Jim] just
read for us. In the parable a sower distributes seed on different kinds of soil, and the condition
of the soil determines whether or not the seed grows. Three weeks ago, the youth of our church
did a better job of explaining the symbolism than I can, so let me just summarize it for you. The
seed represents the Word of God, and the soil represents different kinds of people. For our
purposes, I’m interested in what happens to the seed that falls on the good soil.
Jesus explains the results in numerical terms. When God’s Word is planted in a faithful disciple,
he says, you can expect to see a hundred fold, a sixty fold, or a thirty fold increase.
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Let’s think about those returns for a minute in language we can all relate to. What would it
mean in terms of our investment portfolios if we were to receive 100, 60 or 30 fold returns? I
got out my calculator and ran some numbers.
I first asked the question: How long would it take to achieve those returns if we made the
assumption we would receive the historic return on stock investments? Bill Gross, the founder
of the gigantic investment house PIMCO, says that the actual, inflation-adjusted 100 year rate of
return for stocks has been about 6.7 % per year.
[SLIDE # 4 – Text: “30, 60 and 100 fold returns at 6.7 %...”]
I used that number in my calculations. And what I discovered is that…
when the annual rate of return is 6.7 %...
it takes 52 years to achieve a 30 fold return…
63 years to achieve a 60 fold return…
and 71 years to achieve a 100 fold return.
[SLIDE # 5 – Graphic of a man contemplating a declining graph]
Here’s another factoid that might helps to put things into perspective. At the end of the trading
day on Friday, the DOW Jones Industrial Average stood 9932, which is exactly 1791 points below
where it stood on January 14 of 2000.
That reinforces the lesson that, in the world of investing, the only constant is change.
You can’t assume that the trend will be up even over the course of a decade.
How long would it take to achieve the kinds of returns that Jesus speaks of in the parable, I
wondered, if we plugged in a supercharged rate of return? I ran the numbers assuming a 15 %
annual gain.
[SLIDE # 6 – Text: “30, 60 and 100 fold returns at 15 %...”]
It turns out that, even when we more than double the historic, inflation-adjusted rate…
it takes 24 years to achieve 30 fold returns…
29 years to achieve 60 fold returns…
and 33 years to achieve 100 fold returns.
This simple analysis underscores a mind-blowing spiritual truth. Jesus’ promise of 30, 60 or 100
fold returns on the investments we make in God’s kingdom is absolutely staggering. The only
people who make such promises in the world of finance are Ponzi schemers and politicians.
18
Jesus explains most of the symbolism in the Parable of the Sower, but he leaves one crucial
question unanswered. What does the bumper crop represent? In other words, what is it that’s
being multiplied a hundred or sixty or thirty times?
The answer is suggested to us, I think, elsewhere in Jesus’ teachings. The first disciples that Jesus
called remember were fishermen. Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee. He saw Peter and
his brother Andrew casting their net into the lake and he said to them, “Follow me…and I will
send you out to fish for people” (Matthew 4:19).
The bumper crop that’s produced by the good soil is people – good-hearted, salt-of-the-earth
people like Peter and Andrew – people who have surrendered their lives to the Lord, and are
sowing the seeds of the Gospel, and harvesting disciples who will do the same.
The imagery of seeds and crops come together in yet another teaching from Jesus, this one from
the ninth chapter of Matthew. In this teaching, however, it’s perfectly clear what the crops
represent. They represent the people God has chosen to be part of his kingdom. I’m reading
from Matthew chapter nine, starting at verse 36 [BIBLE]:
When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed
and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest
is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out
workers into his harvest field.”
- Matthew 9:36-38
There isn’t any question here about whether the disciples will be a success. Jesus assures them
they will reap a great harvest for God’s kingdom. The fields are ripe and ready. The hard work of
sowing and watering and weeding and growing has already been done. A bumper crop is
guaranteed. All the disciples have to do is get off the couch, roll up their sleeves, and obey the
word of their Master.
We’ve looked at a number of verses that talk about faithfulness and fruitfulness. We’ve seen
how various themes and ideas are repeated, especially in Jesus’ teachings. Now let’s see how all
of this applies to our daily life.
I’m not going to suggest to you a 5 step formula for productive living. But I do want to identify
for you what I believe are the key principles behind Jesus’ teachings. These 5 principles apply to
anyone who loves God, and wants to join in the kingdom-building work of his Son, Jesus.
[SLIDE # 7 – Text, point # 1, “God created us…”]
Principle number 1: God created us to be fruitful, just as he is fruitful.
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Our God isn’t stingy. He isn’t one to hold back. The universe he has created is distinguished by
fruitfulness and abundance.
We see it in the creation story in Genesis, where God calls for stars and planets, birds and fish,
plants and animals in numbers and varieties that boggle the mind.
Stars are so plentiful that Astronomers aren’t able to count them even with the aid of gigantic
telescopes and computers.
The best estimate is that there are 70 million million million stars out there.
(That’s a 7 followed by 22 zeroes.)
God the Creator is preposterously prolific. He likes to do things in a big way. His excessiveness is
constantly on display. And my point today is that he commands us to imitate him in his
fruitfulness.
Remember God’s words on the sixth day of creation. He said: “Be fruitful and increase in
number; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28).
[SLIDE # 8 – Text: “I chose you…” – Photo above of grape vine]
Remember Jesus’ words during the last supper he shared with his disciples before his crucifixion
[BIBLE]:
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and
bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will
give you.”
- John 15:16
God created us to be fruitful, just as he is fruitful.
[SLIDE # 9 – Text, points 1 and 2]
Principle number 2: Disciple-making is job # 1.
In our society it’s all about us. Success has to do with building a name for ourselves, and
increasing our power and wealth. Productivity has to do with being smarter, faster and more
efficient than the competition.
In God’s kingdom, it’s all about yielding our lives to God, and investing what we have in other
people. For the Jesus-follower, there’s nothing more important than helping those who can’t
help themselves, and introducing people to the Savior. That’s the only work that will last
forever. Every other work we do will fade and eventually be forgotten.
20
There are millions of people in the church who claim to love Jesus, but are doing nothing
whatsoever to spread the Gospel seeds that have been entrusted to them. And we wonder why
the church in America doesn’t grow. If we’re sincere about following the Lord, we’ll invest our
lives in others. We’ll focus our lives on helping people to develop their full potential as God’s
children.
Disciple-making is job # 1.
[SLIDE # 10 – Text, points # 1, 2 and 3]
Principle number 3: We must rely on God and not ourselves.
We want so badly to believe that the successes we enjoy in life are the result of our own efforts.
But as we yield our lives to the Lord, and we grow in our faith, we realize that we’re instruments
of God’s grace, and that every success actually comes through the Spirit at work in us.
He’s the one who plants the seeds of opportunity and causes them to sprout.
He’s the one who waters and weeds and causes things to grow.
And every now and then, he gives us the privilege of harvesting the grain.
It’s not up to us to save the world. It’s not up to us to awaken people’s souls and give them new
life. Only God can bring about the new creation. That revelation relieves us of the burden of
doing everything right, and being successful, and making a big splash in the world.
But that revelation also fills us with hope, and inspires us to let God go to work inside us.
Because when we rely on God, and we let him break loose in our lives, amazing things happen.
[SLIDE # 11 – Text, points # 1, 2, 3 and 4]
Principle number 4: Obedience is the key to success.
God is in charge, and all good things ultimately come from his hand. But God has chosen us and
empowered us to complete the good work he has started. Our prayers matter. Our outreach to
poor and lonely people matters. And our sometimes awkward and bumbling attempts to
introduce people to Jesus matter.
What God wants us to realize, every day of our lives, is that he has already prepared the harvest.
In other words, he has already created the conditions for us to be successful. The question is:
Will we step out in faith and believe his promises? Will we obey him?
[SLIDE # 12 – Text, points # 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5]
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Principle number 5: We advance by faith and not by sight.
There’s nothing more satisfying than working hard towards a goal and seeing it realized. That’s
why graduation ceremonies are so much fun. It’s tremendously fulfilling to work towards the
realization of a dream, and then to see it come true – to see it come to fruition.
Unfortunately, in this life we rarely get to see all of our hopes and dreams come about. What
happens, far more often, is that we invest ourselves in work that we didn’t start, and that
someone else is going to finish. Or we work hard at a project, but we never get to see the results
of it. We catch only a glimpse of the results, and of the contribution that we’ve made.
It’s easy, in a world that has lost it’s faith in God, to believe that the work we do for him is
inconsequential. But the Lord is reminding us today that he’s a God of abundance. He’s assuring
us that, when we participate in his work, and we do the simple tasks he assigns to us, his
kingdom grows, and lives are changed for eternity.
That’s why we train ourselves, as his disciples, to advance by faith and not by sight.
[SLIDE # 13 – Repeat of title slide, “The Hundred Fold Increase”]
LET US PRAY:
Lord Jesus, give us a burden today to bring others to you. Teach us to rely on you and not on
ourselves. We seek to be obedient even in those times when we can’t see your hand at work,
and it feels like we’re going no where. You’re a God of abundant grace. Multiply our gifts.
Multiply your great harvest. Amen.
9:30 – Lead Me To the Cross
11:15 – Hymn # 91 SEATED: Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts, vss 1 and 3
[SLIDE # 14 – Photo of grape vine, no text, for use during communion]
