Sermon on August 14 by Pastor Roland Eskinazi

Scripture:  Luke 13 : 18-21

We like to be impressed with the impressive. Often churches are tempted to put style above content. But how does God’s kingdom grow from small beginnings to world –wide impact?
When small seems normal :

1. DON’T PANIC – BIG OFTEN BEGINS WITH SMALL!

• God’s kingdom will flourish and not fail     

‘It is like a mustard seed …’ (v19a)

Jesus was far from impressive in his birth, life and death. The gospel spreads through what seems weak and foolish to men.

‘Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles’
(1 Cor.1:22-23)

• Nothing tiny is ever trivial     

‘which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree …’ (v19b)

Every humble beginning in God’s kingdom has within it the power for something much greater.
Do you despise the day of small beginnings and faithful obedience?
Billy Graham was used mightily of God because a humble Sunday school teacher Edward Kimball sowed a seed in DL Moody’s life years before!

2. BE PATIENT – A LITTLE SPREADS A LONG WAY!

• God’s kingdom will pervade the world, powerfully

‘It is like leaven that a woman took and mixed …’ (v21a)

History shows us that any moral and social good began with an individual who was mixed into his society.
The church is not called to retreat from society – nor to be involved in political reform. Preach and live the gospel out and Christ’s transforming power will do the rest.

• What is hidden will win the day

We often see what seems to contradict God’s love and power.
But all that we are and all that we have in Christ are like the seed within the ground and the leaven within the dough. Unseen but powerful.

‘We pray for Japan, that the great idols of gold and silver and material success would fall before the blood of this family. That these five, even these three little ones, who have now grown to the fullness of their glory and the perfection of beauty, not through the trials of three score and ten, but in the twinkling of an eye — that these all — all five — might be found among the champions of the victory of the gospel in Japan.’
(John Piper: funeral prayer for the Pals family, killed by a negligent driver in an accident, while preparing for the mission-field)

Remember! A seed grows into a large tree. A little leaven works through the whole dough. Are you a citizen of God’s kingdom, an athlete in the ultimate race, a soldier in Christ’s army?

‘From victory unto victory, His army He shall lead; Till every foe is vanquished and Christ is Lord indeed.’

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