Welcome to our new site!

Sermon
The Gospel of Matthew

Don’t Underestimate Christ’s Kingdom

Listen on

November 2, 2025
Matthew 13:31-35
Steven Lee
Pastor for Preaching & Vision

The Sovereignty of God

The Gospel

Faith

Transcript

0:19Well this morning we reflect on God's heart for the nations. During the second Sunday of global Focus last week, John Riesner helped us understand that God is the one who gives growth to his kingdom. And today we resume Matthew's gospel to examine two of Jesus' parables on the kingdom of heaven. So would you join me as I pray and as we look to the Lord for help, father in heaven, this could just be another sermon. This could just be another Sunday. And now we pray that you would make it far much more than that. Come in the power of your Holy Spirit and give us eyes to see, and ears to hear so that we would be conformed to the image of your son and our hearts would delight all the more in what Jesus has done and is doing in this world for His glory.

1:22We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. It's very easy to look down on small beginnings. It's easy to look down on small beginnings for babies and toddlers. Their very first steps are often clumsy and unstable. Remember the very first drawing you ever did? It wasn't uh, fine work of art, but it was scribbles. Young people, maybe after you graduate college, it's easy to be discouraged that you're still working the part-time job at Starbucks or doing an unpaid internship trying to break into your career. I wonder if any of us can resonate with despising small beginnings. Maybe when you picked up an instrument for the first time you were making a lot of noise and not a lot of music.

2:17If any of you played violin, you should thank your parents for putting up with those early days. Remember the first day on your job you felt like an imposter because you knew how to do nothing or remember the amount on your very first paycheck and you thought the government takes that much or the modesty of your first apartment after you got married or maybe you started a company and it's a lot of hustle but not a lot of profit. Remember the very first time you contributed to a retirement account and you thought that is so small we grow easily discouraged by small beginnings. And this is precisely what Jesus addresses in our passage here in Matthew.

3:09So I'm gonna rewind a little bit and see if you can track with me Jesus train of thought. In Matthew chapter 13, he began with the parable of the seed, which reveals this mixed reception to the kingdom. Three of the four soils reject Jesus kingdom message. The second parable is the parable of the weeds. In other words, he's saying that the kingdom is gonna grow up with the wicked and the righteous. They're gonna persist in the world. Evil endures until final judgment. So we can sum up those two parables. As many will reject the kingdom and unbelief and evil will persist in the world. And if you're one of Jesus' disciples listening in on his teaching, this is not encouraging.

3:59This is not living up to your expectations of how the kingdom of heaven would unfold. Rejection and unbelief. That's not what the first century Jews were waiting for. God's kingdom was gonna break in. He was gonna ride in on a white horse and demolish all of his enemies. He was gonna come in as God's anointed king in acting justice and restoring Israel. And he would destroy all of his enemies and especially Rome. He would purge evil. They expected military and political power. They were expecting Jesus to make Israel great again, not rejection and unbelief. And so the unspoken question from the disciples is this, is this really the kingdom of heaven?

4:53Is this it? It looks so small, it's so insignificant. Jesus' ministry up to this point has attracted tax collectors and fishermen. Not exactly the best and brightest of society. In fact, the breast and brightest of society, the scribes and the Pharisees have thoroughly rejected Jesus' ministry up to this point. And the same question can be asked by us today, are we sure that the church is the means by which God will change the world? Have you seen the church lately? At times it looks pretty normal there. There's a bunch of people praying and singing and teaching and preaching. Last time I checked there's not a lot of billionaires or tech titans or political leaders within the church.

5:46Churches can struggle with really petty stuff fighting over the worship style or the color of the carpet division. Apathy, gossip, mission drift. And we wonder, is this it? Jesus, is this how you're going to grow your kingdom? And it's in response to this train of thought, these implicit questions that Jesus gives these two parables. And our main point is this. And despite rejection and unbelief, Christ's kingdom starts small, grows silently and will ultimately triumph over the entire world. Despite rejection and unbelief, Christ's kingdom will indeed start small. It will grow silently and it will ultimately triumph over all the earth.

6:37And in other words, don't despise the small beginnings. Don't look at how it starts and think that's doomed to fail. Don't look at how small and humble and insignificant Jesus kingdom is at that point and conclude that must not be the kingdom of heaven. So what we're gonna do is walk through our passage by looking at it in three parts, the mustard seed, the leave, and then the fulfillment of the Old Testament in verses 34 and 35. And then we'll move towards some application. So verses 31 and 32, here we get the parable of the mustard seed. Let me read it again for us. He put another parable before them saying The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.

7:25It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Uh, this parable is not interpreted for us, but it's rather straightforward. Mustard seeds are these small seeds. I brought one to show you but you won't be able to see it because it's that small. I could put it there. You still won't be able to see it. It's the size of a round sprinkle on a cupcake. So just imagine that one of the smallest seeds, but not the very smallest, it was kind of referred to proverbially to represent something very small, kinda like how we might say the smallest animal is an ant even though they're smaller things.

8:09And this mustard seed would grow into this tree or a large bush or shrub that was maybe 10 to 15 feet in size and it would do it in a single season. It's kind of like here in Minnesota, if you plant some sunflowers, you know from a little plant kind of late spring and by the time fall rolls around, you get maybe this 10 foot sunflower plant, right? And that's sort of the idea here. Jesus is emphasizing the kingdom's small and humble beginnings, small and humble beginnings. Now one of the questions that people, people often ask of this parable is, do the birds mean anything? 'cause often in the Old Testament, birds represent some of the gentiles and these great nations are or, or the kingdom of heaven is like this tree.

8:59Or perhaps if you look back to the very first parable, we saw birds there as well. And that was the devil who came and plucked out the seeds before they were able to take root. The Bible often uses a tree to represent these powerful kingdoms, but yet in this particular case, I think it's best to not allegorize Jesus parable. It means assigning to its specific meaning that Jesus doesn't give it rather I think it's just indicating the size of the tree that can withstand this bird's nest. So the emphasis of this parable and of the next is of the relatively small size of its beginnings. Jesus could have did the same illustration with a cedar of Lebanon.

9:41He didn't. And the reason is because everyone would've expected the kingdom of heaven to eventually grow big and large. But what he's trying to show us is that it starts really small. And that was contrary to expectations. This is the unexpected nature of Christ kingdom. It comes in and it's really unimpressive, no fanfare, no fireworks, no swift and powerful destruction of evil and of its enemies, but rather it's small, it's hidden, it's unnoticed and even invisible. So what's the point of the parable? Jesus warns his audience not to underestimate the kingdom of heaven. Don't underestimate what I have come to establish.

10:32And that is already here because the crowds are wondering is, is this it? This doesn't look all that impressive, just one guy doing some miracles teaching. That's it. This is the kingdom of heaven. Where are the legions of angels that come in and destroy and liberate us? They're waiting for something bigger. Splashier more impressive. When do you rule the nations with a rod of iron? And Jesus is saying it's coming. But the unexpected reality is that it starts small and insignificant. The kingdom of heaven has already arrived in Jesus despite rejection and even unbelief. So he's warning his disciples and the crowds don't scoff at small and unimpressive beginnings.

11:32You could sum up the point of the parable in this single sentence. Don't despise the day of small things. That's Zacharia four 10. Don't despise the day of small things. If in 1994 you came across this business that was started in a garage of a rented house and its biggest investors were the founder's parents, you might imagine this is not gonna amount to anything. And the founder had this dream to create this internet bookstore. And this was in 94 when the internet was just used for email. Those ugly geo cities websites like personal websites that people would put up and maybe some web forums for nerds, right?

12:17And yet that company with humble beginnings would grow to $638 billion, employ 1.5 million people and you probably use it every day. And that's none other than Amazon. You probably wish you would've invested in 94 at this moment in history, the kingdom of heaven did not match Jewish expectations. And in the same way, the advance of Christ's kingdom often doesn't match our expectations either.

12:49We think we want the kingdom, we want the church, we want the gospel to take root in every single mind and heart. We want God to bring about revival, to change our state, to change our cities, to change our country, to change the entire world. We want the swift destruction of evil. We want the church to grow. We want influential or powerful people in high places to get saved. We want the gospel to overcome Islam and transform Muslims to overcome postmodern secularism, to save unreached and unengaged peoples. And we pray that way and it's good we pray that way. And yet Christ's kingdom seemingly grows unnoticed and often without much fanfare.

13:39And Jesus tells us that this is by design, this is his intention. So Jesus' lesson is that the kingdom of heaven has arrived and it's slowly and it's steadily transforming hearts and minds. You can look at what goes on and scoff at it. And yet Jesus says some of the most profound things are taking place right now in my ministry. In the same way we could look at a, a gathering of the church and say, you know, a couple hundred pretty normal people gathered on a Sunday morning gonna have lunch afterwards, maybe catch a Vikings game just another Sunday. And yet God uses the preaching of his word to transform hearts and minds.

14:29And something profound takes place. Even in this gathering this morning, God's kingdom grows through very normal means. So the gospel looks simultaneously as foolish to those who are perishing. And it's the power of God unto salvation for those who are being saved. You. You could go to a Vikings game and you could see 60,000 people do that. You know, skull clap chant thing, right? And and that sounds pretty impressive. Or go to some K-pop concert or Taylor Swift concert and see thousands of people all singing in unison that seems more impressive than what takes place in the church. And yet God is at work through his church, through his people to advance his kingdom.

15:19And he says, don't despise the day of small beginnings. Don't mistake in big and flashy for significant and meaningful. So this leads us to the second parable. The parable of 11, verse 33. He told them another parable, the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman hid, excuse me, woman took and hid in three measures of flower till it was all 11. Again, this is a very simple and straightforward parable in Jesus' time. One would take old dough, already had yeast in it, mix it into new dough and then it would permeate all of the dough. How many of you make sourdough? You know exactly what I'm talking about.

16:03You got that little starter sitting there on your counter, looks kind of gross, but you mix that into the rest of the flour and then all of a sudden you get this delicious gluten rich bread, right? Except for the gluten allergy folks among us. And the noteworthy detail is the amount of flour. Three measures. This would've been about 50 pounds of flour. So it's not what you would make every day for a family, but a large celebration or gathering. And I think it's highlighting how small this little starter dough is and then how it permeates this massive amount of dough and lemons, all of it. And again, this parable pictures something small and insignificant and unobservable that undergoes this process.

16:51And in the same way the kingdom of heaven starts small, it's nearly invisible and yet it will result in leavening the entire whole. Now Jesus is not teaching universalism. That's how some people have interpreted this. So everyone's gonna get saved. Do we to? To disprove that? All you have to do is look at the previous two parables. That's clearly not what Jesus is teaching. Rather, the kingdom of God comes with a hidden invisible power that from the outside looking in, it doesn't look all that impressive. Like Jesus is using everyday normal people and the preaching of this really, really old book and he's gonna change the entire world.

17:40Yes, that's exactly how he transforms the world. Now some of us may wonder is is Jesus parable primarily negative because the Jews were to eat unleavened bread during Passover? Well, leaven itself is not negative because even in the Old Testament, people were to bring peace offerings or grain offerings. This is outlined in Leviticus seven and chapter 23, which consisted of leave bread leave was just used during the Passover to remember how suddenly God had led them out of the land of Egypt. So again, what's the point of the parable? Jesus warns his listeners not to look down on how insignificant his kingdom looks up to this point.

18:28Is this it? Jesus? Remember when John the Baptist came to Jesus? He says, are you the one or should we look for another? In other words, are you really the king who has come to liberate us? Because if you are, it would be really great if you started with me as I'm sitting in jail and as we'll read later, he's gonna be executed. The point is that Christ's kingdom has arrived already, but it's not yet been fully consummated. It's begun, it's having its intended effect, but it seems so slow, so small, so insignificant, and it even appears invisible at times. So despite rejection and unbelief, Christ's kingdom start small, grows silently and will ultimately triumph over all the earth.

19:21It will permeate every corner of this globe. The Bible tells us where all of human history is going. Habakkuk two 14, the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters cover the sea. How much water covers the sea, it covers all of the sea. How much glory will cover the earth. All of it or revelation tells us that in those last days there will be some gathered from every tribe, every language, every tongue, every nation. And they will be gathered around the throne of God and they will stand before him and they will sing his praises. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the lamb.

20:09That is where all of human history is headed. And Jesus says to his disciples, who see how small and insignificant it all looks, he says, don't judge this book by its cover. It's coming. It's coming. And it's already begun right now. Now look with me at verses 34 and 35, these parables fulfill what is prophesied in the Old Testament. Verse 40, verse 34 says all these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables. Indeed he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.

20:52Now I'm not gonna spend too much time here, but we, we saw something like this earlier, back in Matthew 13, 10 to 17 where he says the parables are to reveal as well as to conceal. Now what he does here is it says, he said nothing to them without a parable. Doesn't mean he only spoke in parables, but he spoke many things. But when he did speak, he always taught them with a parable. Now what's going on in Psalm 72, 8? 'cause he quotes Psalm 72, 8 to say what was being spoken by Jesus fulfills what was spoken by this prophet? Well, Psalm 72 is written by asap, who is called a prophet in the book of Chronicles.

21:36And Psalm 78 is a historical psalm. It's 72 verses, so I'm not gonna read it for us. But you can take the afternoon and read it. And essentially what it does is it recounts Israel's history, it cycles through all of these themes of Israel's unfaithfulness, God's judgment upon them. And then God's ultimately love and faithfulness. And it goes in this cycle. You guys didn't follow, didn't listen, didn't obey, and God judged you. But then he was kind and restored you once again and and so what ASAP does in Psalm 78 is he takes Israel's chaotic history to show that God has been unfolding his plan of redemption.

22:20He's saying it's not just chaos, God has actually been doing something in those cycles. Essentially what he does, he takes the puzzle pieces of Israel's history and he begins to construct the picture so they can see the big picture of what is going on in history. And in the same way Matthew says, Jesus speaks in parables to reveal what has been hidden from the foundation of the world and other things. Jesus parables also are like taking the puzzle pieces of history and he's putting them together so that we can see how God has been operating in redemptive history. For example, the long awaited Jewish Messiah, everyone expected him to come as the Davidic king like David who would come and rule and reign and established God's kingdom, this everlasting kingdom that would never end and it would be a perfect kingdom, it would be of righteousness and justice.

23:23And that's exactly what Jesus does. And yet Jesus reveals that that kingdom starts small and insignificant and actually that king is going to die in order to save his people like the suffering servant of Isaiah 53. And so all of those pictures come together in a clearer way. Jesus is revealing in his life, in his teaching, in his parables, these hidden realities that have been there from the very beginning. The sacrificial system, the Lamb of God, God, Jesus comes as the priest, but he's also the lamb who will be sacrificed. So ASAP explains Psalm 78, it's history, Israel's history that it's not chaotic, but it's God's unfolding plan of redemption.

24:12And in the same way Jesus explains in his parables that despite rejection and even unbelief, this is precisely how God has designed his unfolding kingdom to grow and expand. Now we've seen Christ's kingdom start small, grows silently and will ultimately triumph over all the earth. And the aim of this is don't underestimate the power, the influence, the growth of Christ's kingdom. Don't despise the day of small things, don't be a bandwagon fan and and see the failures, the rejection of Jesus and think this must not be the Messiah because the scribes and Pharisees don't believe in him. Jesus says this is precisely by design so that no man may boast, but God alone gets the glory.

25:13So I have three applications for us for this text in light of global focus. The first is pay careful attention to Jesus. Pay careful attention to Jesus. The purpose of these parables is to spur careful consideration of Jesus' teaching and of his words. He says two separate times in Matthew 13, he who has ears let him hear. And in Jesus' day, his ministry looked modest, his disciples looked pretty unimpressive. His influence seemed to be minimal and Jesus drew some large crowds. But chances are there were very few true believers in the midst of those large crowds. And Jesus warns us not to judge by appearances.

26:08And I think today for many unbelievers, they look at the church and they think, uh, are you sure that is the truth? Christianity seems too weak. Jesus was tortured and he died on a cross. How can you worship such a man as your Lord? The gospel seems foolish. The worldview seems prudish and backwards and old fashioned. You, you mean Christianity embraces suffering and persecution as a mark of true discipleship and and you think this is really marketable to the world.

26:48Jesus teaches holiness and righteousness over wealth and fame and comfort. And by human appearances, Christianity looks weak and insignificant and small. And yet Jesus says, don't scoff at what seems to be unimpressive. This is precisely by God's design. He says that only when a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, only then can it bear much good fruit. This is the counter-cultural way of Jesus. We are called to suffer and to die with Christ. This is the gospel. Only when the seed dies does he able, is he able to reap a global harvest? And so Jesus is revealing himself here in these parables as the trustworthy prophet of this age.

27:45And he's telling us, I'm the only one who can make sense of all the chaos of the world. I can put all the pieces together. This is the only explanation that makes sense of why the world continues to unfold. The way that it does is because the gospel continues to advance in hidden, small, insignificant ways. And he is bringing his kingdom to pass. So pay careful attention to Jesus and his words and teaching. That's the first application. Second savor Christ ever growing. Global kingdom savor Christ, ever growing kingdom. This is an application to encourage all the believers here in the room. The kingdom has grown and keeps growing.

28:40The gospel of the kingdom have of God has grown unfathomably large. Now think with me in Acts one, after Jesus' death, the disciples are gathered. How many people are in the upper room? 120 it. When Jesus rises from the dead, how many people did he appear to? One Corinthians 15 tells us over 500. So you could say there are may be 500 true disciples. By the time Jesus dies and rises again 500, that's it. That's less than the people here in this room.

29:22Christianity has grown to 2.3 billion Christians worldwide making 28.8% of the world's population. Throughout history, Christ's kingdom has leavened the whole loaf and it continues this leavening effect. The gospel has spread to every inhabited continent and has local church expressions in nearly every country around the world. The entire moral framework of the western world is rooted in Christianity. And Christianity has shaped nearly every single civilization for good. Just consider in education, one writer says Western missions birthed, financed and nurtured hundreds of universities, thousands of colleges, tens of thousands of schools, they educated millions and transformed nations.

30:15In healthcare, one researcher writes, missionaries typically open to the first hospitals and clinics and pioneered western medical education around the world informally. Many missionaries also taught hygiene and rudimentary medical knowledge and introduced new crops and livestock that improved the quality of local diets. Thus, the historical prevalence of Protestant missionaries is associated with longer life expectancies and lower infant mortality rates with women and children. Christians were the very first to oppose infanticide and abortion caring for unwanted infants and orphans. Christianity opposed the exploitation of women, particularly in prostitution, promoted equal dignity between men and women and began educating women and sought to outlaw practices like widow burning that took place in India or foot binding that took place in China.

31:11Today we oppose pornography that primarily exploits women in science. One author writes the pioneers of science believed that the material realm was real, not magical or enchanted or governed by spirits and demons. They assumed it was understandable because God created as rational, ordered and regulated by natural laws. These pioneers invested their time, effort, resources, and their lives studying the physical universe because they believed that God is the one who created it. Good. I share all of this, not so that we would just pat ourselves on the back, but instead we see that Jesus has been telling the truth.

31:56His kingdom started small, maybe about 500 people in the first century, and then at the first Pentecost 3000 and has only continued to grow and to grow and to grow and to shape the entire world as we know it. Christ kingdom will triumph over all of the earth, and his glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. And so if we believe this truth, we will be motivated to go out into this world and extend Christ's rule and reign. Amen. He will keep his promise. Sometimes we feel like the sky's falling. We may be discouraged by the state of our country or the state of our communities. And Jesus does not guarantee that his people will always triumph in every single place.

32:59But in the grand scheme of things, his kingdom will triumph over all the earth and his glory will extend to the very ends of the earth from every corner of the earth. And we read in revelation, we know how the story ends. There will be some gathered from every tribe, language, tongue and nation. And they will worship king Jesus. He sends us out all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make disciples. His victory is guaranteed. He ultimately wins. The third application is this labor for kingdom advance by faith in Jesus, labor for kingdom, advance by faith in Jesus.

33:49We saw last week, God is the one who gives the growth, and yet we're still called by God to plant and to water and to till the soil and to fight off the weevils and moles and rabbits. And in the same way, you have a part to play in the growth of God's kingdom. This is how God has designed it. Every single member of Christ's kingdom has a job to do. And your seemingly invisible acts behind closed doors play a part in reaping this global harvest. So we are called to take small, simple steps of faithfulness and obedience this morning, pray for the lost. Engage in spiritual conversation with someone who doesn't know Jesus.

34:40Serve one another, share the gospel, read the Bible with an unbeliever, show mercy to someone in need. God uses these seemingly insignificant, even small, even invisible acts of faithfulness and obedience to grow his kingdom. That's how he's always done it. Yes, we can sometimes see the Billy Grahams of the day and they have massive impact. But the vast majority of how people are going to hear the gospel is gonna be from one other person who prays for them and shares the gospel with them. That is how he's growing his kingdom. Don't underestimate the power of praying for our missionaries. Don't underestimate how your lavish generosity or yours, widows mights might enable ministry to happen here in the church and beyond.

35:30God uses your service in the nursery, in our children's ministry with our youth to shape souls for an eternity. There will be some on that final day who will finally look back and say, oh yeah, there was that one Sunday school teacher when I was in fourth grade that shared the gospel with me and changed my entire life. Trajectory, your labors at home as a mother and as a father, and as a grandparent. Changing diapers can reap a harvest. A hundred full, no labor done in faithful service to King Jesus will ever be in vain. Isn't that amazing that God gives us that promise? Be steadfast and movable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

36:24Nothing you do in obedience and in faithfulness to King Jesus will ever be in vain. So walk in those good works and we take small steps of faithfulness. And as we do that, as all of us do, that God is gonna call some of us and say, with your small steps of faithfulness here, your small steps of obedience here, I'm calling you to cross culture, cross an ocean, learn a different language, and to do it overseas. As a missionary. Would you join me in praying for God to raise up more laborers from his to raise up more laborers for his harvest because the harvest is plentiful and white.

37:14So this is God's mission He's sending us out. Don't underestimate the growth of Christ's kingdom because his glory will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Let's pray. Father, help us to see the wonder of what you are doing in our world right now. And then help us to participate in this glorious work with our small steps of faithfulness and obedience. Would you do far more than we can ask or imagine for your glory? And for your honor, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Jump to live

Jump to live

Sermon Text

Matthew 13:31-35

Previous
NEXT
Phone
(612) 455-0800
Email
info@thenorthchurch.com
Address
5151 Program Ave,
Mounds View, MN 55112
AboutI'm NewBeliefsLeadershipSundaysWednesdays
ConnectMinistriesEventsNorth UpdateGroup Finder
ResourcesBusiness DirectoryLibrarySeminars & ConferencesWeddings & FuneralsJob Opportunities
AccountHouseholdGroupsGivingLog Out
Copyright © 2026 The North Church. All rights reserved.
Staff LoginPrivacy PolicyTerms & ConditionsSite by Volente

Connect

Submit

Thank you!
Your submission has been received.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.