Matthew 13:31, 32 “He told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed a man took planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air, come and perch in its branches.”
Who would have believed that a small seed planted in an obscure village in Palestine 2000 years ago would emanate power that would begin to shake the world. Yet, that is exactly what has happened and is happening today when we look at the kingdom of heaven that is spreading.
A goal in these weekly letters is to trace this kingdom as it spreads from village to village, town to town, city to city, nation to nation from culture to culture until, like yeast, it permeates the whole world. We are now at the 21st century and I believe we have before us tremendous open doors to see great things accomplished for the glory of God.
Every generation seems to think that with all the problems that they face, evil spreading more quickly, natural disasters, etc. that it’s the end. As we go through history in these past 2000 years we will see that the kingdom of God was continually faced with formidable obstacles that it overcame. The kingdom of God is still moving on.
The battle of the ages is constantly raging behind the scenes of history. The scent of death is always in the air, but there are special times when the conflict is so hot that it polarizes the world with the obvious contrast for all to see. It is in these times that the church has excelled and God has been glorified.
God repeats the cultural mandate of Genesis 1:28 after the flood of Noah in Genesis 9 as well as in Psalm 8. We saw in the weekly letters from last year that the Old Testament laid the foundation for a man to be redeemed and brought back to the place where God’s mandate of Genesis 1: 28 could be carried out.
God wants to use the sons and daughters of Abraham to redeem the earth. Galatians 4:4 says, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under law.” Why did He come? “To redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons.”
After the temptation of Christ, when the tempter came and offered Jesus the kingdoms of this world and which He refused, Jesus started His preaching ministry with the words: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Or He preached that the kingdom is “at hand.” From the lowly start in an obscure village the kingdom of God began to move out.
The foundation for this series is based on three things.
1. God is reconciling the world to Himself. This is what the church is here for and we are told in 2 Corinthians 5:18: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”
2. God has clearly revealed to us His plan and His strategy and we need to follow His battle plan or as one great Indian evangelist said, “Get the heavenly plan.”
3. His strategy for victory, which consists of several things:
A. His plan is from the bottom up: generational, exponential, and internal to external.
B. To see the manifestation of the kingdom of God. To see pagan nations give up their pagan ways and embrace godly principles.
1. Transformation of individuals. Internal to external begins with the heart being transformed. We need to build ourselves into the saints of God.
2. Family dynasty; God has chosen to use families. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 7:9) Discipleship begins in the home.
3. Victory is what the church is here for; to overcome pagan ways and be an influence on others in the same way.
4. Civil government. If it gets out of control then it goes beyond its jurisdiction.
5. Common grace. Grace goes from those of us who receive grace from the Lord to those who have not experienced God’s grace.
It is with these principles that we have the spread of the kingdom of God throughout the centuries and even now in the 21st century.