Today’s Podcast
Today’s Bible reading plan:
Read it in a year – Acts 19-20
see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)
Today’s Devotional
Luke 13:18-21
Jesus (explaining): Do you want to understand the kingdom of God? Do you want Me to tell you what it’s like? It’s like a single mustard seed that someone took and planted in his garden. That tiny seed grew and became a tree so large that the birds could fly in and make their nests in its branches.
Do you want Me to tell you what the kingdom of God is like? It’s like some yeast which a woman hid within a huge quantity of flour; soon the whole batch of dough was rising.
What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?
We don’t talk about heaven and the kingdom in our churches much these days. We hear a lot of sermons about ethics and moral values. We hear a lot of sermons about how we should behave and how we should improve our relationships with each other. We hear a lot of sermons about the state of the world today and how we should work to improve the nature of things around us. We hear a lot of sermons about the latest topic in the news and how it affects us spiritually and how to guard against it. But we don’t hear many sermons anymore about heaven or hell.
So it’s good to stop and think about Jesus’ words today and just ponder what He says about heaven and the kingdom of God. Most of the time when we think about heaven we think about the way it looks, the streets of gold, the mansions being built for us, the brilliance of the light, the music sung by choirs of angels, the indescribable beauty of the place we hope to spend eternity. But these words give us a very different picture of the kingdom of God. It doesn’t talk about the beauty or streets or even the kind of people who will populate heaven. Jesus gives a different description for us to think about and the description involves us.
He says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed or some yeast, so what does that mean to us? We are getting to know more about yeast as more people begin to enjoy baking as a hobby. We still do more purchasing of baked goods than actually baking today, but the hobby is growing and you can find lots of people who bake bread, rolls, cookies, pies and cakes, etc. And in a lot of those things that need a dough in their preparation, they also need yeast to make the dough rise. So many today understand yeast, but not nearly as many as did in Jesus’ day.
Not so many understand Jesus’ comparison of the mustard seed with the kingdom of heaven because most of us haven’t seen the results of planting mustard seeds. Around the area where Jesus spoke, mustard plants grew wild and in fact were sometimes considered a nuisance plant. Just that tiny seed the size of a pin head grew into a bush fifteen to twenty feet tall, tree size with branches sturdy enough to hold birds’ nests.
So we aren’t quite so familiar with these illustrations today. The point I think Jesus wants to get across is that the kingdom of heaven, like that mustard seed starts small, but grows as we let God work through us and spread the good news He gives us. Others hear His word and accept Him as Lord and the kingdom grows more. Those share the message and the kingdom continues to expand. Then like those mustard seeds that grow into tree-sized bushes, they produce more seeds that are scattered across the land and more mustard plants take root and grow. The kingdom expands throughout the area as we let God use us and work through us to do His will.
Or the kingdom is like yeast when we let God work through us. He places us in a community to do His will in that community and like yeast, the good things we do for others spreads throughout the community. Others see us and watch the transformation in our lives because of His spirit in us. They hear the message He has for them and His resurrection power changes them, too. The good news spreads throughout the community and cannot be stopped just as yeast spreads throughout the dough when it is kneaded. And what does the yeast do to the dough? It makes the dough double or triple or quadruple in size, just as the good news causes God’s kingdom to expand exponentially through those that hear it.
Today Jesus might use one of those room fresheners you plug into the wall as an illustration. The odor starts at the wall when you plug it in, but soon the smell reaches every corner of the room. Or maybe he would like the kingdom to the foam insulation that goes in the walls of new homes. A five gallon canister of liquid is shot into the space between the walls of the house and that small five gallon canister is enough as it expands to fill all the outer walls of an average house with foam.
Whatever example Jesus or you might use to explain the growth of God’s kingdom, it still in part depends on one Christian, transformed by the power of God’s spirit in you, sharing the good news of what He has done with another person. Then that person sharing with one more and so on until the kingdom continues to grow at an exponential rate.
Are you doing your part to grow the kingdom?
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