Luke 13:18-30

Our enemy, Satan, despises growth, and is always looking for ways to pollute it. Not all growth is good, not all who call themselves Christians are born again, and not all servants of God, are true servants.

God is saying to you today,
“In case no one told you today: You are beautiful. You are loved. You are stronger than you think. Your life is valuable. You have so much
ahead of you. You are not amistake. You are important. I am with you always.”

We are in my goodness, a message this morning that is powerful.
What Jesus has to say is strong.
It will cause us to have to search our hearts and it will cause us to have to rethink a lot of what we estimate as success.
What do we think about and how does success look like when it comes to spiritual things, when it comes to a church?
And when it comes to the Kingdom of God, this morning’s message is entitled a mega warning and it comes from Jesus himself.
Luke chapter 13. Now beginning at verse 18, down to verse 30.
Then he Jesus said, what is the Kingdom of God like? And what shall I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed which a man took and put in his garden and it grew and became a large tree and the birds of the air nested in its branches.
And again, he said verse 20 what shall I like in the Kingdom of God?
It is like Levi which a woman took and he hid in three measures of meal till it was all.
And he went through the cities and the towns teaching and journeying or traveling along towards Jerusalem.
Then one said to him, Lord are there few who are saved.
And he said to them strive to enter through the narrow gate.
For many I say to you will uh will seek to enter and will not be able when once the master of the house has risen up and shut the door and you begin to stand outside, listen church and knock at the door saying Lord Lord open for us and he will answer and say to you, I do not know you or where you’re from.
Then you will begin to say we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets.
But he will say, I tell you, I do not know you or where you’re from. Depart from me.
All you workers of iniquity. Verse 28 there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
When you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God and you yourselves thrust out, they will come from the east and from the west and from the north and from the south and sit down in the Kingdom of God.
And indeed there are the last who will be first and the first who will be last.
What on earth is he talking about? What is going on? Strong statements. Number one church, write it down.
You’re going to want to write this down in your introduction. Who was Jesus speaking to stop right there.
Do you remember our study last week? Do you remember when Jesus touched that woman and made her whole?
And that scribe, remember the pharisee the leader of the synagogue said what? He protested?
Remember he said, come on back on any other day of the week.
But this is the Sabbath day and you’re not to work on the Sabbath day. Remember what that meant? Translated?
Hey, Jesus, get out of here. If you’re going to heal people, remember how crippled that woman was? Remember?
Do the rest of us remember she was all bent over and she stands up straight.
She begins to glorify God. Everybody’s praising the Lord.
But there’s this synagogue ruler and his little bunch of groupies and they were all upset about that and Jesus began to rebuke them.
And so from that teaching, uh scholars do not know exactly how fast or how quickly did this teaching take place?
Some say it happened just outside the doors of that, that gathering. It’s very possible.
Some say it happened as he began to go.
Some say that it happened uh quite a distance away from the northern area of Israel as Jesus now is making his way south.
What’s very interesting? And we want to keep this in mind by looking at this is what Jesus is teaching on is resulting in us to have to search our hearts 2000 years later because his words are eternal and he’s going to be talking about the fact that listen, the gospel influence will begin to wane over time.
That comes as a shock to us because many people believe that if the gospel is preached, it’s gonna fill the whole earth change.
All the governments of the world make a utopia and then Jesus can come back.
No, the Bible doesn’t say that anywhere Jesus begins to teach us some very challenging things regarding the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven.
What are those terms? Meaning it is God’s Kingdom, the gospel work in the earth.
And those two statements are interchangeable.
The Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of God are the same thing before we get into this study, jot this verse down it is necessary.
Second Thessalonians chapter two verse one says now brethren concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and are gathering together to him.
We ask you not to be soon shaken in your mind or troubled either by spirit or by word or by letter as if from us as though the day of Christ had come.
Let no one deceive you by any means for that day will not come here.
It is unless the falling away or the apostasy comes first and then the man of sin, the antichrist will be revealed.
The son of tradition. Jesus warned that as the time advances, there will be a misrepresentation of the Gospel, there will be people leaving the Gospel.
There will be people having a hunger for religion but no stomach for the gospel.
And Jesus warned that there would be a great time of departure.
Paul the Apostle warned that people would live in an age where they would depart from the gospel.
And in Luke 18 eight, Jesus said, when the son of man returns, will he find faith on the earth?
So our first point that we look at this morning is this in verses 18 to 21 regarding this mega warning, it is this, it’s a mega warning about appearances, about appearances.
How so number one is this? What something looks like can be, I underline can be good.
It can be good. Jesus is saying, the Kingdom of God is gonna grow, it’s gonna look good and it can be good.
Hear me out on this. He said in verse 18, what is the Kingdom of God like into?
What shall I compare it to? What shall I liken it to? He says in verse 19 something radical church.
He says, it’s like a mustard seed which a man took and put in his garden and it grew Jesus, no doubt right there is speaking about the amazing growth of the church and how it would engulf the earth as it grew over time.
We have accounts in the Bible, remarkable accounts and think about this, by the way, Jesus was a pastor, right?
Of a church of how many people?
12 you say, well, didn’t Jesus have a bigger church that, oh yes, he would eventually have a bigger church than that.
But Jesus pastored a church of 12.
Now check this out inside that church of 12. 1 of them went by the name of Judas.
Isn’t that weird? Remember? They trusted him, the disciples, trust, trusted Judas so much that what did he get to do?
He was the treasurer. He got to hold the money back. They trusted him so much Judas.
Yet the Bible tells us that Judas was possessed by Satan. Is that radical?
Think about that the church, Jesus pastored of 12 out of a group of 12, 1 of them was possessed by the devil.
One of them never really believed.
Hey, listen to this did not all 12 when they were sent out to do miracles and preach the gospel.
The Bible says that they all preached the gospel and did miracles including Judas.
Does that make you a little nervous? Is that amazing? Judas was in the group of just 12 preaching?
But what happened as the word went out, we see in the day of Pentecost, the church explodes as 100 and 20 believers are there and they’re filled with the holy spirit.
And what do we see? Just a short time after that?
Peter, given his first sermon on the southern steps there of the temple mount 3000 people get saved in one sermon.
Man. That would be awesome. I think that’s, that’s growing pains.
Church 3, 3000 people are saved and then we hear a few days later, 5000 people more are saved.
The church is expanding until the Bible tells us that the gospel was preached in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria.
And then to the outmost parts of the earth, all the way out to Chino Hills or wherever you heard the gospel.
Think of that, by the way, this week, I was so blessed on my email.
I’ve got two awesome letters that I’m going to save. One of them is from a soldier in Mosul Iraq.
And he said we get together, we turn on our computers and we listen to the Sunday and Wednesday sermons at Chino Hills on our podcasting and they, you pastor Jack and you know, we’re hearing this, tell the body there at Chino Hills.
We’re grateful for allowing the word of God to come to us.
The Bible is going all around the world over and over again. That’s a good thing. Church.
That’s a great thing. I got a letter this week from a town.
I can’t pronounce it, but it’s in Norway and there’s a man there that listens to our Bible studies in Norway.
The Bible is going out around the world. That’s a good thing. And you would say yes. Isn’t that wonderful?
Of course, it’s wonderful. But Jesus is warning that as the word goes out, it’s like a mustard seed, one of the smallest seeds that you can ever ever detect mustard seed.
One of the smallest, now look honestly, a mustard seed in the Middle East can grow, can grow not always, but it can grow into a bush which is the size of a tree.
A small tree, 9 to 12 ft tall.
That doesn’t always happen, but it can happen and it’s got really droopy or, or, uh, you know, really weak branches so that if a bird lands in its branches, it kind of just sags, you know, like this.
But it is possible it does happen. I want you to keep that in mind.
Uh, he’s going to speak to us on that. Why?
Because in verse 19, the latter half of verse 19 regarding mega warnings on and uh, appearances about church growth.
Uh, it’s, it, it can be good and I thank God, this church has grown from six people to, I don’t know how many thousands and thousands of adults that we have here at this church.
We only count adults and I know you’re gonna tell me but youth are people too.
I know that and our little kids are people too.
I know that, but we just count Sunday morning only and we only count adults.
But there are thousands and thousands of people who go here and I’m grateful and Jesus spoke that that’s what would happen.
And so that’s a good thing. But it can also be a bad thing.
Look at verse 19 and it became a large tree. That’s a warning. That’s not always good.
And the birds of the air nested in its branches. That is not a good thing you see.
Well, Pastor, I love large trees and I love birds.
I do too, but that’s not what Jesus is speaking about.
And listen, you need to put on your Jewish mind as you’re hearing in the audience of when he’s speaking, Jesus is speaking to the Jewish people who are coming to faith and or are still following him and listening.
And there are two things here that are synonymous in the Jewish thinking mind.
Number one, a tree is not always a good thing in the Jewish mind.
When it’s spoken generically, we know this from Daniel chapter four verse 20 to 22 a great tree spoke about the Babylonian Empire covering the earth.
That’s not a good thing to the Jewish mind.
Now, when it speaks of a tree, specifically a sycamore tree, an olive tree that’s different.
But when it’s a generic reference in the Bible about a tree, it’s not always good.
And so the Jewish mind would have heard Jesus say that and, and realize, oh, oh a must should see it grew into a great tree.
Well, that’s weird, Jesus, that’s what they would conclude.
Secondly, the birds of the air lodge in its branches, the birds again, whenever the Bible speaks about a specific bird, be it an eagle or a sparrow.
It’s often in the context of something good example, I will bear you up on birds wings. Exactly.
Eagle wings. Jesus says your father in heaven cares about the bird that falls to the ground or a what sparrow.
Now, when Jesus is the birds, the Jewish audience would have went yikes. Not a good thing.
Birds are generic. When they’re presented in Bible, understanding something’s wrong here.
And so when we look at growth, even though it’s mega growth, it can be good and we thank God for that, but it can also be bad and not good.
Matthew 13 31 says another parable.
Jesus spoke of them saying the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed which grew and a man took and sowed in this field, which indeed is the least of all seeds.
But when it grew, it grew into a great uh herb and became a tree that’s freaky church.
That’s abnormal growth. An herb does not grow into a tree that’s something wrong.
And the bear, birds of the air came and nested in its branches.
Jesus gave that teaching in Matthew 13 in Luke chapter eight verse five, Jesus tells us their birds are bad.
A sower went forth to sow seed and he sowed some seed among the wayside where the seeds fell and they were trampled down and the birds of the air came and devoured the word, the word or the seed.
The seed was the word of God.
In Luke eight Jesus said there the birds are in a type, a symbol of the emissaries of Satan.
Jesus is not discouraging church growth. Church don’t, don’t think of that. He’s warning us that growth can cause problems.
You’re listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs.
You know, to hear more episodes and maybe catch up in the series. Just go to Jack Hibbs dot com.
That’s Jack Hibbs dot com. And for now let’s get back to our teaching.
Once again, here’s pastor Jack, listen, a big church has big problems.
You guys, when we were little, we knew everybody and listen, when some, when we were little in the house, in the living room of the house or when we were in our old building, we were little and listen, we knew everybody, we knew everybody by name and when we saw somebody new or different or whatever, we’d go meet them.
You couldn’t hide in a small church. Ok?
Just a couple of months after we moved into this building, we had a lady uh come here and she said, oh, look, I fell, I hurt my leg.
Uh I, I, I need medical treatment.
Well, listen, when that happens, we immediately called our insurance company and you know what churches these days have to have malpractice insurance.
Did you know that we turned that lady’s complaint or her situation over to our insurance company, which is the nation’s largest church protection agency.
And they began to meet with her question with her and you know what, they found out that we were the fourth church that she tried to scam.
She had robbed three previous churches in court. And thank God Almighty, our investigators.
Well, the, the insurance investigators found out that she was scamming us and she got in big trouble.
She wound up. Yeah. Well, amen to that, huh? And, uh, and, and see why do you bring that up?
Because when church grows big, big church, big problems, you want to know what our light bill is in the summer, our power bill in the summer ranges anywhere from 18 to $21,000 a month.
Just the light, the power bill. Thank God for the winter months. Think about it.
I can’t believe that brother. It’s the way that it is amazing. How do things get done around here?
God does them, how do things get paid around here? God does them?
Listen, I have been the number one opponent to church growth right here in this place all along the way.
I’ve tried to talk people out of coming here.
When somebody asked me, somebody asked me, well, what do you do? And, and, oh, you’re a pastor.
What do you pastor a church? Well, what church, at least he goes.
Why don’t you just tell them because you know what?
I just don’t wanna, I don’t want God to bring people here. If God brings them here, it’s safe.
You know, if they wanna come here for some other reasons. Oh Lord, please protect us.
You say, how can you say that?
You’re so unloving because listen, Jesus warned that when the church got big, not everybody in its, of the church, not everybody is coming here for the same reason.
You’ve come here. It’s amazing. You see.
Well, pastor, that’s why I go to a little church and that’s not growing or doing anything.
That’s not good either. Now watch, I’m going somewhere with this. You say, well, ok.
All right. Well, then that’s why I go to a real big church so I can hide in there and nobody will ask me to do anything.
And I don’t feel like I have to get involved. That’s not good either.
You said, well, which one is it? Pick it? Will you big church, small church. Here’s the answer.
Are you ready? You got to go to a church that’s growing while preaching the pure unchangeable word of God.
Listen, big difference. Go to a church that’s growing because it’s preaching the word of God, unadulterated chapter by chapter, verse by verse, book by book, the whole Council of God.
Very important. Why? Because as it grows, listen, as it grows, it’s going to be under attack just because the church is small, doesn’t mean it’s under attack.
OK? It can be under attack just because the church is big, doesn’t mean, it’s not gonna be a, it’s gonna be attack.
But if you want to be a church that’s approving of God, then you want to have the word of God going out without apology.
And here’s the growth. God will send people to that work. It will grow.
But all the while there’s gonna be troubles. Have you ever been to a perfect church?
No, because the day you walked in there it became imperfect. I mean, think about it.
Well, the last church I came from was all messed up. Listen, watch out.
This is the truth where God is moving. Satan’s gonna attack and he uses people. Is that offensive?
I came this early to be offended like that. No.
Listen, this is very serious because we will really grow strong if we pay close attention to what Jesus is telling us here.
And so the right place to be is a church that’s growing and true to the word.
It’s where God’s people are coming together and growing and hearing his voice.
It’s a church that’s growing with good numbers, but it’s also a church that recognizes that Satan in the Bible is known to sow seeds among the good.
This is the life of the Kingdom of God or in the church. Constant growth. That’s good Christians becoming real.
That’s great and servants serving God in each of those areas, there can be counterfeits and there can be disruptions and it’s going to be like that.
Let’s take a reality pill. It’s going to be like that and every work of God everywhere in the world can you handle that?
That’s why we need to be on our toes spiritually.
And I wrote a few things down that are dear to me.
You may not think so, but it’s important to me.
That’s why churches in this day and age, like never before need real ordained called spirit filled.
Knowledgeable in the word of God.
Pastors, not pastors who want to play golf all week long or go to the potlucks or picnics and shirk their study time and their prayer time and their fasting time seeking God.
Now listen, pastors are the ones God calls to protect the church, you say, well, I got a problem because I don’t like pastors.
I don’t like pastors either. You get together with a bunch of pastors.
All they want to talk about is the size of their church as though that’s a mark of success.
It is not. What’s a mark of success is, are you preaching the clear, unadulterated word of God?
And is your church growing? Are you with me? You hear that?
Because God’s people will hear the word of God and flock to the word of God.
But as a pastor and as pastors in this day and age, we need to be.
And by the way, the word pastor means shepherd, tender or feeder, a pastors to feed or tend or shepherd the flock.
That means that God’s pastors are they cooks, we cook up the word of God and serve it for you.
We’re nurses, we comfort you when you need comforting. We’re coaches were to be coaches or to be doctors.
Tell you where there’s a sickness, tell you where there’s a disease in the life. A trainer.
We’re to be friends and listen, we are to be foes. What do you mean foes?
We are to tell you when things are wrong. We are to hound you.
We are to come after you in all of course, in love.
But we’re to come after you and say where you’ve been? Where have you been?
How are you growing? Well, we don’t go to the church anymore. OK. Fine. This is my pat.
If you know me, this is my pet response. Where are you going? Do they teach the word of God?
Yes, they do. Praise the Lord. That’s all I care about.
You understand that you say pastor, are you just saying that? Do you really believe? I believe it?
You wanna know why? I can hardly take care of my own family.
How can I take care of the church? I’m always crying out to God, God, they’re your people.
You died for them. I do, I do the Moses thing, God, they’re your people.
You died for them, you talk to them, you show them.
I think that’s the same thing Mos is a smart guy, pastor and bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life radio with his message called a mega warning part one.
You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Gospel of Luke.
It’s a series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
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Wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word, we’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.