Pastor Jack Hibbs continues his enlightening series on the parables of Jesus, focusing on the powerful imagery of the mustard seed. These teachings reveal how faith operates in our lives and the church, emphasizing that even the smallest belief can lead to monumental growth. As Pastor Jack guides us through scriptural references and personal stories, listeners are called to reflect on their spiritual journey and the genuine essence of faith. Explore how small beginnings hold immense potential for change and transformation. This episode is a thoughtful reminder that in God’s kingdom, size does not restrict potential. Dive into these
The church will grow in unimaginable ways throughout the world. Has that not happened? Absolutely. In fact, the more you clamp down on the church, the more it grows. And by the way, by the way, if you want to, historically, if you want to really mess the church up, then legalize the church. Did you know that?
SPEAKER 01 :
This is Real Life. Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I’m David Jay, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God’s Word, the Bible.
SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 01 :
Sign up for free at reallifenetwork.com. That’s reallifenetwork.com. On today’s edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues his series now called The Parables of Jesus with his message titled Parable of the Mustard Seed. Now, whenever Jesus spoke to the masses, he often spoke in parables. And this parable, it’s pretty well known comparing the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed. Now, parables create a word picture, if you will. And Jesus taught this one by the beautiful shore of the Sea of Galilee in Israel. to encourage, to challenge, and to expose the condition of our hearts. So today, Pastor Jack teaches that as Christians, Jesus is telling us that the church will grow in unimaginable ways throughout the world. But we need to be careful that ministry growth is both biblical and fruitful, and that we stay in line with what God is doing. Now with his message called Parable of the Mustard Seed, here’s pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.
SPEAKER 02 :
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed. It’s very encouraging. In Matthew 17, 20, while we’re picking on this mustard seed concept, though this verse doesn’t exactly play into the parable for sure, but Matthew 17, 20, you all know this. You probably thought about it tonight. Jesus said, I say unto you, if you have the faith of a mustard seed, right? You can say to this or that. be moved or be cast into the sea, what is he saying? That within you, Christian, faith begins and the smallest amount of faith, and I like this, listen everybody, the smallest amount of faith, when it starts, please hear me, when it starts, it refuses to stay at that level of flame. Faith refuses to stay a spark. It may start as a spark, but faith, as it begins to consume, like any good fire does, the fuel around it, it demands more. That’s why those of you who have stepped out terrified, I understand that, knees shaking or, you know, your hands are shaking, your nerves are shaking, but you step out and you follow Jesus and you do that thing or you go that way or you whatever it is, but you take that step of faith and you’re terrified on the outside, but you know, I got to do this. And the moment you do that and you see God come in and take care of the situation or bear you up, or God uses you in that moment, you made yourself open, God uses you, and there’s an amazing thing, I’m sorry for this word I’m about to use because I can’t think of any other, but as soon as you get that rush, you have to have that fix more. You’re using drug terminology. I know I am. What the world is using drugs to try to achieve that Christian can have for free, and it never fades. He just winds up saying, come on, you want more of that? You want more of that? Okay, then you know what? Then go pray for that guy right there. You want more of that? You want more of me? Okay, then get up and tell that person about me. It is absolutely awesome. It’s terrifying. You get dry mouth. Your nerves are shaking and you step out. And I don’t know about you, but the more dry mouth you have and the more you’re shaking, the more you ought to expect God to be very big in that moment. Look, if you showed up and said, hey, I got it. I got it. Back off, everybody. Holy Spirit, you can take a seat. I got it. I got it. Here I go. And boom, you’re going down. Pride comes before fall. I’d rather be shaking in my boots and have the power of God than have some fleshly thing behind and say, I can do this. Man, that’s dangerous. Small beginnings. Don’t despise small beginnings. The Bible says in Zechariah 4.10, do not despise these small beginnings. Maybe you’re just venturing out in faith. You’re a brand new Christian. I talked to a guy last Sunday. He’s been a Christian for years, but he started coming to church and he said, I’ve heard more Bible in three weeks than I’ve had in the 30 years of the church I just came from. That’s scary, huh? And he’s so excited. Why is he excited? Bible. His soul is out of its coma and now it’s eating. Think about that. And what’s happening? What’s happening? He had a small beginning. Look, he had a small beginning, but watch now. Watch what happens in this person’s life. It’s amazing. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians start out on a venture of faith, and I don’t know, but if they might become disillusioned or they lose their motivation, I don’t know, but I want you to think about this for a moment. When we look at this as small beginnings, this little mustard seed beginning, Jesus is obviously speaking about the church, but the church is made up of people. It’s not a building. It’s the people, and listen, We can start out on a venture that requires faith. But we need to make sure that our motives are right. And that would be, first of all, to glorify God. I wanna glorify God in my life. I wanna see people strengthened for the kingdom’s sake. And if you keep that your focus, even through the small things, think about that. If your vision and purpose and desire which I hope it is, is to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, honor the word of God, and minister to his people. You know what? It literally will not matter if you’ve got 10 people under you or around you or 10,000 people. The number will never matter. But listen, when you lose that number, Jesus-centered ministry mind, you will despise the day of small things. You’ll be bummed, oh man, there’s only three people coming to this, that, or we called this meeting and only one person came, or whatever. Listen, God never, never starts out with big numbers. I’ve never seen God start out with big numbers in any capacity. War, spiritual things, he loves things. He loves the setting. Remember Gideon’s army? He had tens of thousands of guys. They show up for battle. God goes, okay, all right. Everyone’s like, you know, men do the war chant. We’re ready to kill. God goes, oh, stop. We’ve got a problem. We’ve got too many guys. Too many guys? We’re going to war. We need all the guys that we can get. Now, Gideon, you’ve got to send some of these guys home. Send them home. And he wound up having just a handful of guys, man, just a couple hundred people. What is that? And God says, okay, now, now I can use this. Translation, after these guys whip that big army over there, everybody, including those that got whipped, are going to know that there’s a God in heaven. And if your heart goes, yeah, that’s what I want. then you’ll be excited about the days of small things. Jesus says, the kingdom starts out like that. And maybe your faith is little tonight. It won’t stay little. If you’re a Christian tonight and you have faith in God tonight, I’m just gonna tell you, get a mouthpiece, put it in your mouth, get a helmet on, strap it on. You can bring elbow pads if you want. But Christianity’s radical. It’s awesome. Well, mine’s not. Well, you’re doing it wrong then. And it’s gonna be wild. That’s how God’s glorified. If it’s all predictable, if it’s all easy, if it’s all smooth, honestly, I love you, but God’s probably not in it. It’s a scary day when we begin to coast That would be momentum carrying us down the track rather than the power of the Holy Spirit. So you and I, in a sense, regarding this parable, we’re like it in miniature. And that is that we need to be growing. And so none of us tonight should have an excuse. Well, you know, I’m so small. I’m so insignificant. My faith is so little. No, don’t do that. In fact, listen to this. I love this verse. Mark it down. It removes all excuses from us. It’s great. 1 Corinthians 1.26 begins there when Paul says, for you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh. Isn’t that funny? God calls not many wise people. Not many mighty, not many noble, the word is blue bloods, not many kings and queens are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. That’s the definition of a Christian. What’s a Christian? A foolish thing in the world. And God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty. And the base things of the world and the things which are despised, God has chosen. You see, you and I have no excuse now. We qualify. And the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are. That no flesh should glory in his presence. Wow. I love it.
SPEAKER 01 :
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 jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. And for now, let’s get back to our teaching. Once again, here’s Pastor Jack.
SPEAKER 02 :
Next verse, Acts 1.8. We have no place to hide with our excuses. Why? Acts 1.8, just before Jesus went back to heaven, he told the disciples what was going to be the catalyst. Listen, can I put it this way? What would be the catalyst to the mustard seed? What would really cause it to grow? Well, it’s the Holy Spirit using the word of God in the life of a believer, okay? But what happens? Acts 1.8. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. Not in you. He’s already talking to believers. The Holy Spirit, who already dwells within them, will come upon them. Listen, some of you have come from other denominational persuasions. You’ve been told that the moment you accepted Christ, you received the Holy Spirit, which you did, and that’s it. But that’s not true. The Holy Spirit comes inside the believer at the moment of conversion. He comes inside you. The word in Greek is en. It means to come inside. Once and for all, he does that. Did you hear me, everybody? Some of you might be thinking, well, I accepted Christ last week, but I can’t wait for Sunday. I’m going to accept Christ again. You don’t need to do that. Okay, you may have had a rough week, and there’s things you need to repent of, but that’s between you and God. He’s in you. What you want now is epi, epi. You want the Holy Spirit as it’s referenced here to come upon you, completely different word. Use whatever terminology you want, I could care less. Come upon you, fill you up, baptize you in it, whatever, I don’t care, blah, blah, blah. It’s the power of God. Well, pastor, I keep falling into the same area of weakness to my flesh every day. You know, listen, and you will do that until you cry out to God and have the Holy Spirit’s power come upon you that the next time that temptation comes, you just punch it right in the nose and walk on with Jesus. The power of the Holy Spirit. is what brings you victory. So Jesus says, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes, epe, upon you, and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem. Notice how the, watch the mustard seed expand, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth. Just think about it. Right now tonight, 2,000 years since Jesus said this, the sun never sets on the church on the earth today. It’s everywhere. Point number two tonight is this regarding the mustard seed found in verse 32 is that it has a small beginning but a big ending. He says, but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree or resembles a tree. So watch this. Biblical scholars at this point argue from this moment on the meaning. And church, I’m gonna give you some views. I have my own view, but that doesn’t do you any good. You study this on your own. Some scholars say this, that what Jesus now is about to teach is that it is the expanse of the church and its influence in the world. It’s, so to speak, shining its light, right, and being salt, which is consistent with Scripture. And it influences in various ways and forms the world. The other group of scholars says, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It means that this is abnormal growth. This should not be happening. And what is going on here is that the growth is almost like a cancer or tumor and it leads to destruction if you keep reading the parable. And they have a good point there as well. And you’ll find very, very good teachers throughout history that are completely opposite on the conclusion of where this parable lands. Are you with me? She wasn’t right. Well, man, I hate to say this, but I think both sides are taking this to an extreme and missing the argument of the other side. Why? Because didn’t Jesus in previous parables say, the kingdom of heaven’s like this. A sower went out to sow seed, right? And some seed fell upon, and he gives the three soils that turned out to be not good. Remember? Thorns and cares of the world and hard, hard impacted soil, and it produced nothing. But the fourth one did. The parabolic teaching of contrast to where there’s good and bad. There’s encouragement and a warning. You with me? And in each of the parables, you’ll see that. What did we see last week? We saw the sower that went out to sow seed and he sowed wheat. But tares grew up among the wheats, remember? There’s the good and there’s the not good. I think with what is called expositional constancy, that is Jesus is on a roll here in the context, what fits? I think this fits. It is growth that is massive supernatural growth, but with growth, what do you experience with growth? You experience difficulties with growth. What’s one of the difficulties? We’re gonna be reading about birds that come and lodge in the branches. Do you remember, were you here for the previous studies? I hope you’re not missing any. Shame, shame, shame. Birds generically spoken of without being referenced specifically in the New Testament’s always a negative. Birds general, not good. Sparrows, good. He mentions the bird by type. When he doesn’t, generically, bad. Very interesting. So, as we read this, I think both camps are right, but they shouldn’t exclude either one. I think we’re seeing in consistency the challenge. So, Let’s look at it first of all as a word of encouragement. Big endings. The church will grow in unimaginable ways throughout the world. Has that not happened? Absolutely. In fact, the more you clamp down on the church, the more it grows. And by the way, by the way, if you want to, historically, if you want to really mess the church up, then legalize the church. Did you know that? Did you hear that? I’m dead serious. The greatest, in fact, the church has never fully recovered from this tactic of Satan’s. Constantine legalized Christianity in the 300s and declared it as Rome’s official religion. And the church became extremely weak, extremely diluted, and persecution ceased, and the church got very lazy, and it started to embrace other doctrines of Romanism, Babylonianism, and we’ve never fully recovered. If it wasn’t for revivals that God sprinkles throughout church history, well, I think revivals through the word of God is what keeps Jesus’ promise to all of us going, the gates of hell will not prevail. The church has grown. I’m not talking big seats. I’m not quite sure what that has ever accomplished. I’m talking about more and more people being converted to Jesus. And I’m happy, as you know, to report that in China and in the Islamic world, people are coming to Christianity, coming to Christ at breakneck speed and volume. It is awesome. It is absolutely awesome. It’s sad in the West, we’re seeing a decline, but hey, that’s okay. It’s okay with me. I happen to be an American, but not for long. I mean, I’m going to get, you know, raptured or die. And no one up there in heaven, you know, Peter’s not going to be at the gate saying, Jack, you know, got your passport? Is that your picture or what? Not going to be an issue. You and I are of the political or politic of heaven.
SPEAKER 01 :
pastor and Bible teacher, Jack Hibbs, here on Real Life Radio with his message called Parable of the Mustard Seed. Thanks for joining us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s new series called The Parables of Jesus. It’s a series that highlights the teachings of Jesus while he was here on this earth. And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio. So today, Pastor Jack in the studio with me talking about the book of the month. Pastor Jack, we’ve got an oldie but a goodie, don’t we?
SPEAKER 02 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 01 :
This is a good one.
SPEAKER 02 :
It’s not only a good one. You know, we had this book featured, honestly, maybe 15, 20 years ago. This has sold over a million copies. And this is Gene Edwards’ book, The Tale of Three Kings. And it is a book not only that every Christian should read because it’s a heart check.
SPEAKER 01 :
Huh.
SPEAKER 02 :
It enables you to look at your own self. But it’s a book that I think every ministry should read. And it’s a book that I think everyone as believers ought to read it to find out that they have the right kind of a heart in life, in business, in church. And the three kings is King David, right?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
Can’t mention kings without thinking about King David. But then Saul, King Saul. And then Absalom. Wow. What’s the deal here? Well, where is your heart when it comes to these three people who had access, the right to be king?
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
And the heart that governs is a heart that could be wonderful or not. So we need to be very, very careful.
SPEAKER 01 :
I really like that, well, the main theme is leadership. You know, not only congregation, but leadership in your family, your team maybe, the people you work with. What do you think is the biggest leadership challenge facing us in the church today? Yeah. And how might this book help?
SPEAKER 02 :
I mean, I hope I don’t sound too rough when I say I think there’s a leadership crisis within the church today, maybe more than ever. Yeah. Because there are those who are, I think, have in some ways become pulpiteers. In other words, that they’re more like performers. They come out, they do their thing, they leave. And on top of it, my goodness, how sad. You know, I just was at a conference recently where there was the pitch that you can now get a sermon with points and illustrations, a joke or two, and you can get it from AI in three minutes. Wow.
SPEAKER 01 :
No kidding.
SPEAKER 02 :
And when I hear such things like that, it actually physically makes me sick to my stomach that we’re trying to replace the Holy Spirit. Well, more than ever, it’s a time for leadership.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah.
SPEAKER 02 :
And that’s something that you’re not going to get out of AI. We need to be very careful about that. So when we talk about this book and this featured item, this resource, we’re talking about becoming introspective. Take a look at yourself. A lot of people are too cowardice to take a look at themselves. And that’s a sad, we live in a sad culture right now. that would you slow down enough, put your devices down to take a look on the inside? Are you actually being sincere about what you say you believe? Are you actually for real about what you’re doing? Or are you doing that for clicks? Are you doing it for likes? Why do you do what you do? This is a really good book to test our hearts.
SPEAKER 01 :
And you know what, Pastor Jack, I’ve dealt with some difficult folks in my life. A lot of us have.
SPEAKER 02 :
I’ve been that difficult person, it turns out, in other people’s lives.
SPEAKER 01 :
You know, it really does turn out that there’s no shortage of difficult people in this world. One of the great lessons in this book is how can we handle difficult people? For example, how David handled Saul’s attack, right? Yeah, I mean, come on. It boggles the mind. In that situation, I think that I might have acted quite a bit differently than David did.
SPEAKER 02 :
When David, imagine somebody cursing you, trying to kill you. Literally every day, the guy throws a spear. Can you imagine he throws a spear at your car or you open up your door at your house and there’s spears stuck in your door? Yeah. This is what Saul’s doing to David. And David winds up not only not attacking Saul back, David winds up protecting the office of king, even though he didn’t think much of Saul. But David was trying to win him over in love and by love. Tragically, ultimately, Saul… His heart? Well, read the book. You don’t want to have a heart like Saul. Yeah, this is a very, very important thing because in some ways it is putting your life under the microscope. But don’t worry. It’s you zooming in and zooming out. You can take a look at you against the scriptures and realize, what kind of a person am I? And you know, maybe people don’t want to get that personal with themselves. But if you’re serious about who you are and your relationship with others and with God, get a copy, A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards.
SPEAKER 01 :
A Tale of Three Kings by Gene Edwards. It’s available for a gift of any amount at jackhibbs.com slash real radio. That’s jackhibbs.com slash real radio. This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That’s jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in His Word. We’ll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.
