Pastor Scott Andrews | February 1, 2026
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Luke 13:18-21
We are a good three years into Jesus’ ministry, and in real time, it’s quickly coming to a close. That itself is a bit surprising. His entire ministry only lasted three and a half years, if we count correctly. Really? Three and a half years – would that be considered a success by most measures?
Think about this: the average tenure of a senior pastor in an evangelical church, according to most studies, is about 5-7 years. Which, incidentally, I think is sad. For some, they go to a church knowing they will only shepherd these people for a few years until the next bigger opportunity presents itself. Think of it as climbing the corporate ladder. But yes, I also read an article on the Gospel Coalition website that suggests that’s not the typical reason pastors leave churches – that is, to go to the next big thing. They leave because the people don’t want to be pastored. What does that mean? Pastors are run out, sometimes for teaching biblical truth the church doesn’t want to hear. You know, if you go verse by verse through books in the Bible, you end up covering the difficult passages. I’m closing in on 29 years here – thank you for not running me out. But if the average pastor hits the upper end of that average, seven years, his ministry is twice as long as Jesus’ was. Was that successful?
That’s interesting. Was Jesus going to the next best thing? No, we know He falls into the other category of being run out – not just from the neighborhood, but from the planet – because people did not want to hear what He had to say. You see, we know well by now in our study of Luke He is on His way to Jerusalem, where He will be handed over to the elders, chief priests, and scribes. He told them that back in Luke 9 in Caesarea Philippi some weeks or months ago, again in real time. He will soon tell them, at least in the other gospels, these same religious leaders will hand Him over to the governmental authorities – namely the Romans – and He will be crucified, a gruesome, Roman form of execution.
Now, many of us have heard that two-thousand-year-old story many times – for some of us, all our lives. And most of us have experienced the results of Christ’s glorious cross-work. But for a few moments this morning, can we get in a mental time machine and transport ourselves back to when Jesus first walked the earth in human flesh. Everything about Him, from the circumstances of His birth, His life, and His death were not what you would expect of the God made flesh – of this King nor His kingdom. Of the divine plan of the ages to redeem humankind. Of the beginnings of the only true religion of the only true God. His story doesn’t fit the Greek mythological prototypes – not even modern Avengers. He did not come the way most then expected – and none of us would have expected it either – had we lived two thousand years ago.
We are often reminded of this during Christmas, when Jesus was born, to a poor, unwed young woman, betrothed to a poor, working-class man. Really – why not to a priest or a king? No, the couple was from the backwoods of Galilee – in a two-bit town never mentioned in the OT – called Nazareth. It wouldn’t even be on the map today if Jesus wasn’t raised there. So unimpressive was this nothing town that when Nathaniel heard the Christ might have come – Jesus of Nazareth – he responded, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? If you were looking for a successful launch of the true faith, this would not be it. If you were looking for maximum exposure, why not be born in Rome or Athens or Alexandria or Jerusalem. This is not what you would expect.
Sure, His birth was miraculous – yes, born to a young woman, but a virgin. His birth was announced and heralded by angels – to shepherds, totally disreputable, outside the little town of Bethlehem. Few knew it. Aside from His dedication at the Temple some 8 days later and subsequent flight to Egypt and return to Nazareth, we know almost nothing of His childhood. Except for that time at age 12, He stayed behind in Jerusalem after the Passover. What, did you not know I would be about My Father’s business? All of that is Luke 2.
This is not what you would have expected of the birth and boyhood of the Savior of the world. Give us a few legends – regale us with unbelievable tales of renown. But no – that’s it. The next time we see Him, He is thirty years old, Luke tells us. Later, in Mark’s gospel, we find a little about what He had done the past 18 years – He was a carpenter, just like His dad – well, actually, His mother’s husband. This is not the expected beginning of God made flesh, the Savior of the world, the King of His coming Kingdom.
But at least now He’s started His ministry. Baptized by John the Baptizer in the Jordan River. The Spirit of God descends upon Him in the form of a dove. The voice of the Father is heard from heaven, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” That’s more like it. We’re going somewhere now, right?
But then, then He’s driven to the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted by the devil. All alone – no crown, no fanfare, no lights, no parades, no worldwide announcement. Not even any followers yet. But think about that – followers. I mean, when He’s revealed and enters His public ministry, followers will flock to Him by hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands, yes. For a while. He did gain a following, centered on the Twelve – fishermen, tax collector, Zealot, Galileans – good grief, oh, and a thief. Soon, the entourage is completed with formerly sick people, formerly demon-possessed people, still poor people, hungry people, sinners, outcasts, lepers, women. Not really many religious people – I can think of a couple. Really – would you follow Him with this pedigree? Well, I suppose He had the beginnings of a movement.
But it didn’t take this itinerant rabbi long to grab the attention of the religious elite, led by the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the lawyers, the scribes. The Pharisees were the experts in the Law of Moses and legalists of the day. The Sadducees had a lock on the high priesthood and other Temple priests. In league with the Romans, I guess we could call them the priestly aristocracy. I said it didn’t take long to grab their attention – actually, that attention was framed in opposition. God in the flesh, Savior of the world, King of kings. Because, you know, He kept healing on the Sabbath, violating their rules. Why did He do that? This was not the way to begin a movement.
But He had some followers. He went about teaching, healing, exorcising demons, feeding them. They liked that, so the crowds grew – not so much for who He was nor what He said – but for what they could get out of Him. I mean, after He fed them once, they almost took Him by force to make Him king. Shortlived. By the time He gets to Jerusalem, we’ll find Him arrested and tried. Then, even those closest of followers – the Twelve, minus the one who betrayed Him – will desert Him and flee. Strike the Shepherd and the sheep will scatter. And they do.
He was found guilty of well, actually nothing. But the religious elite will get their way – He will be crucified – it’s what awaits Him in Jerusalem. A three-and-a-half-year ministry, His life ended on criminal’s cross; buried in a borrowed tomb. This would not be a religious success story by most measures. Remember, we’re back in time – we don’t know the rest of the story…yet.
His life ended in ignominy and agony. Followers deserted. Not many left. Just a few in the Upper Room, behind locked doors, fearing for their own lives, wondering what they would do now. But let’s go ahead and roll the clock forward three days. You know the story of Resurrection Sunday. As the women – the few left – went to anoint His body, they found the stone removed, angels declaring, He is not here, He has risen just as He said. They ran back to tell the very few dejected followers left, Peter and John running to the tomb, finding only the linen wrappings.
Mary Magdeline left alone, weeping over the loss now even of His body. She sees what she supposes is a gardener, woman, why are you weeping? Where have you taken Him? The gardener calls her by name, Mary. And she immediately realizes she is speaking with the resurrected Lord and Christ. The movement may not be over after all. She runs back and tells those few in the Upper Room, and the fledgling, seemingly insignificant movement continues.
What’s my point? This is not what anyone expected. Not of the God become flesh, the Savior of the world. Is this the way you would have done it? After the resurrection, He appeared it seems to only true followers – estimated at less than a thousand people. Three and half years – and that’s it? Is that a success? Many wondered. Of course, now, in our study of Luke, we are in the last few months of His life. The crowds are still present for what they can get, but not very many true followers. What are we to make of it? I want you to know something – everything unfolded exactly according to plan. None of this – to the present day, is plan B. He tells us so in our text today, Luke 13:18-21 – four short verses. Read it with me.
You say, we’re going to talk about a mustard seed and yeast – for a whole sermon? Yes, because by these two parables, Jesus tells us that not only did everything unfold according to plan, but it is still unfolding exactly according to plan. These two parables tell us, while the kingdom had small beginnings, unexpected meager beginnings, it will grow from that small beginning to be expansive, and it will grow to be penetrating. It’s a simple outline:
I. The Kingdom Parable of the Mustard Seed (18-19)
II. The Kingdom Parable of the Leaven (20-21)
Notice, Luke records these two parables with the words, “So He [Jesus] was saying…” Actually, the word so is the word therefore. It follows and is connected to the story we looked at two weeks ago. Jesus was teaching in the synagogue when a woman came who was bent double – remember, for 18 years. It was the Sabbath, but when Jesus saw her, He noticed her, spoke to her, touched her, and He healed her anyway. It was an amazing miracle. Nothing in the biblical law prohibited acts of mercy on the Sabbath. But, it irritated the synagogue ruler and his buddies anyway. So Jesus reprimanded them, you hypocrites. Again, while healing on the Sabbath may have violated their made-up Sabbath rules, it was not prohibited by the Word of God.
Anyway, it’s important we notice that this woman was bent double – disabled – by a spirit. Jesus even says, this woman was bound by Satan for 18 years. The point? That’s why the parables begin with the word, therefore: the kingdom of light was coming into battle with the kingdom of darkness – and guess who won? Over and over through the gospels, we find whenever Jesus was confronted by demonic spirits, He always drove them out and delivered those possessed or oppressed. The typically bow in His presence, because, He came to bring His kingdom and kick out the kingdom of Satan. He will do that finally and ultimately at His second coming when Satan himself will be bound and cast into the lake of fire.
The point is – the kingdom was here. Jesus came to bring it – it is here, it is among you. Not yet in its fullness – we still to deal with sin and brokenness and demonic activity. But the kingdom is here. And we await its future fullness. We are living in the already, but we await the not yet. I don’t know if there will be four seasons in the kingdom to come in its fulness in the new heaven and the new earth – but there won’t be any hurricanes or ice storms. The kingdom of the world will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.
But…right now, Jesus asks, what is the current kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? Two thousand years ago. It is like a mustard seed. Now, both the other Synoptic gospels, Matthew and Mark, make a big deal of the size of the mustard seed. Matthew says it is the smallest of all other seeds, referring to seeds that are typically sown. Mark says that it is smaller than all the seeds sown in the soil. I know, many point this out to suggest Jesus and the Bible are in error, that the mustard seed is not the smallest seed. Jesus was not making an absolute statement, but rather one regarding gardening. At this time, it was typically the smallest of garden seeds, and the small size of the mustard seed was proverbial.
But notice, Matthew, Mark and Luke talk about how the mustard seed – very small – grows to become a large plant or tree – larger than any other typically sown in a garden – between 10 and 25 feet tall, depending on the variety. From minute beginnings to expansive growth. It becomes large – almost miraculously so. So large, with such large branches which provide rest and shade, the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. That’s a quote of Ezekiel 17, which reads:
22 Thus says the Lord God, “I will also take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and set it out; I will pluck from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one and I will plant it on a high and lofty mountain.
23 “On the high mountain of Israel I will plant it, that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit and become a stately cedar. And birds of every kind will nest under it; they will nest in the shade of its branches.
Don’t miss that – birds of every kind will nest in the shade of its branches. Most agree this is talking about the expansion of the kingdom – that it will extend beyond the borders of Israel, and all the birds of every kind will come – that is, even the Gentiles will come and find rest in this kingdom tree. And then, Ezekiel 17:24 will come to pass,
24 “All the trees of the field will know that I am the Lord; I bring down the high tree, exalt the low tree, dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will perform it.”
That truth will become clearer next week when we see the first will be last, and the last, first. Again, Jesus says, our second point, to what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like leaven. Stop right there. Most of us know what leaven is. It’s yeast for most, but if you’re lucky, you’ve also had sourdough bread. Leaven at this time – two thousand years ago – was the latter. It was leavened or fermented dough. You would take a little scrap and add it to your flour. And what would happen? It would spread and leaven the whole lump of dough.
Now, this is interesting. Almost every reference to leaven in the Scripture is negative. It speaks of the leavening influence of evil. For example, during the feast of unleavened bread which immediately follows the Passover, the Jews were to remove all the leaven from their houses and only eat unleavened bread. Later, when they received the Levitical sacrificial system in Leviticus, if they were going to offer a grain offering, it was to only be unleavened. Paul would write to the church in Corinth, which was knowingly permitting sin in their camp – that a man was in an incestuous relationship with his stepmother. Paul instructs the church to discipline the man – to actually expel him. In 1 Corinthians 5, we read:
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
7 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
Do you see the connections there? Leaven is likened to sin – when left unchecked in the church, it will leaven the whole lump of dough – that is, the whole church. We’ve seen that, haven’t we, where entire churches and denominations have allowed sexual immorality to go unchecked, and now it is not only accepted but celebrated. No, Paul says, clean the old leaven – just as you are unleavened – that is, your sin has expiated, forgiven and removed. Why, how? Because Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. Just as post-Passover, the children of Israel were to eliminate leaven from their houses – it was a picture of how the people God are to eliminate sin from their houses – the church, because our Passover, Jesus, has been sacrificed. It’s a wonderful truth.
But here, Jesus is not talking about sin, but about how leaven in fact permeates the entire lump of dough. But He makes it huge. He says, “It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.” Several things to note about that:
First, notice how the first parable spoke of a man planting a mustard seed, the second spoke of a woman planting leaven in a bunch of flour. I don’t think that’s accidental or inconsequential. I think Jesus intentionally speaks of the kingdom of God being like a man planting a seed and a woman hiding leaven. The kingdom, and the work of the kingdom, is to be done by both men and women. Neither are inconsequential. I believe it to be subtle truth.
Second, notice of course how the leaven is used positively. Jesus isn’t negating the evil influence of sin – He is simply parabolically speaking of the penetrating and immersive nature of the kingdom. It will spread everywhere.
But third, notice how she hides the leaven in three pecks or measure of flour. That’s a huge measure. It constitutes about 50 pounds of flour – or ten of your five-pound bags of flour from the store. Most suggest that’s enough bread to feed one hundred to one hundred fifty people! She hides the leaven in it – that is, she worked it in – and it spread through fifty pounds of flour. This speaks of how penetrating the leaven is. It affects everything – it goes everywhere. The kingdom will be large, and those in the kingdom will see their lives influenced, changed by this gospel of the kingdom.
But, we have to transport ourselves back to this particular day when Jesus gave these parables. There were not many true disciples at this time. When He is arrested, the faithful will flee. There will only be a few hundred at the start. They wondered, we would have wondered – is this kingdom going to make it? Jesus says, yes. I will build My church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it. It may have very small, even minute beginnings. It may even be quite hidden at first. But it will grow, and the birds, even the Gentiles of the earth will find shade and rest in the kingdom. It’s interesting, the word nested speaks of building a home, a permanent residence there.
It will grow. While small and even a bit hidden, it will permeate the earth. Its effects will be felt around the world. That has been true, hasn’t it? We are living two thousand years later. The gospel is finding its way around the world. There are godly and faithful believers and churches around the world. Everywhere? No. Is the gospel work finished? No. Jesus said in Matthew 24, “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached as a testimony to all nations [or all people groups], and then the end will come.” I’ve said it this way – someday, the last people to be reached will be reached; the last person to be saved will be saved, and then the end will come. Jesus will come back. Hallelujah. Then the kingdom of this world will fully become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.
Let me close with this. You know, those original believers – the true disciples, the Twelve – were often confused. Like most Jews of that day, they were convinced when the Messiah showed up, He would make His way to the Roman garrison there in Jerusalem – in the Antonia Fortress, drive them out, and set up the kingdom. They kept expecting Him to set up the fullness of the kingdom. Even after the resurrection, when Jesus took them up to the Mount of Olives as He was about to ascend – to return to His Father, they asked Him, is it now Lord that You will restore the kingdom to Israel? Are you going to set up Your kingdom now?
They didn’t understand there would be two comings of the Messiah. The first to deal with the tyranny and enemy of sin, the second to deal with those opposing, the enemy of His kingdom. He will come again, and only those who know Him will enter His kingdom. We will talk about that next week.
But the question for you is, are you in the kingdom? And if you are, are you involved in the work of the kingdom, helping it to grow – to expand and permeate this world?