Luke 13:18-19

THE GOSPEL IN THE WORLD

‘Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed.’

Luke 13:18

The parable of the mustard seed is intended to show the progress of the Gospel in the world.

I. The beginnings of the Gospel were exceedingly small.—It was like ‘the grain of seed cast into the garden.’ If ever there was religion which was a little grain of seed at its beginning, that religion was the Gospel.

II. But the progress of the Gospel, after the seed was once cast into the earth, was great, steady, and continuous.—The grain of mustard seed ‘grew and waxed a great tree.’ In spite of persecution, opposition, and violence, Christianity gradually spread and increased. Year after year its adherents became more numerous. Year after year idolatry withered away before it. The prophetic words of the parable before us were literally fulfilled: the grain of mustard seed ‘waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it.’ The Lord Jesus said it would be so. And so it came to pass.

III. Let us learn from this parable never to despair of any work for Christ, because its first beginnings are feeble and small.