This was written by Wayne Jackson and appeared in the May 1982 edition of the Christian Courier. It was published by the East Main Street Church of Christ in Stockton, California and was edited by Jackson. I have broken this down into two installments for the sake of convenience.
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches." (Matthew 13:31-32)
In the foregoing parable, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of the commencement and growth of that kingdom He was planning to establish. The master Teacher, employing the tiny mustard seed as an object lesson, suggested that His kingdom would start in a small, relatively obscure fashion. This little prophetic parable implied however, that from that seemingly insignificant beginning a great movement would develop and such would be a source of blessing to many. History has wonderfully demonstrated the fulfillment of the Savior's words.
The Kingdom's Founder - From the very beginning, as the natural eye would evaluate things, it must have appeared that the Christian movement was destined for failure. For the fact of the matter is, Jesus Christ, its founder had none of those qualities that are normally associated with the establishment of great empires. But this of course, was by divine design. The prophet Isaiah had foretold that Christ would grow up, "as a root out of dry ground" (Isaiah 53:2). How unlikely it is that a "tender plant" could even survive in "dry ground" yet, the Lord not only survived, He shook this planet to its very core. Let us observe how the odds so to speak, were stacked against Christ.
First, contrary to the usual Jewish expectation, Jesus came to the earth as a baby. Many Jews expected the Messiah to be a valient conqueror on a prancing charger, violently overthrowing the pagan Romans (and that sect known as the Zealots sought to implement that concept) but contrary to such crude expectations, God sent forth His Son, "born of a woman" (Galatians 4:4). The poet George MacDonald captures this truth beautifully.
"They all were looking for a king
To slay their foes and lift them high;
Thou cam'st, a little baby thing
That made a woman cry."
Secondly, from the very beginning evil men attempted to kill the Lord. Matthew dramatically reveals how Herod the Great "inquired" (the imperfect tense stresses his repeated investigation) where the Christ should be born (Matthew 2:3). He ultimately murdered all the male babes of Bethlehem in hopes of eliminating the Savior (Matthew 2:16). Thirdly, Jesus was reared in the despised Nazareth; not exactly an enhancement to his reputation (cf. Matthew 2:23; John 1:46; 7:52).
Fourthly, the Lord had no formal rabbinical training. The Jews once said, "How does this Man know letters, having never studied?" (John 7:15) They were amazed at His knowledge in view of the fact that He had not been trained at the feet of some prominent rabbi. Fifthly, he had no vast financial resources with which to found His kingdom. The Scripture plainly affirms that He was "poor" (II Corinthians 8:9) and the Greek term means, "to be poor as a beggar" (W. E. Vine, Expository Dictionary, III, p. 192). Christ acknowleged that He had no place to lay His head (Luke 9:57). Finally, Jesus certainly had no political machine nor even any worldly fame (secular history virtually ignored Him) by which to launch a world wide movement. In fact, initially even His own kinsmen were unimpressed with His exalted claims (cf. John 7:5).
In short, it would appear that Christ possessed all of those elements which from the human point of view, would absolutely spell disaster! How could He possibly succeed? Add to this the fact that He was killed in the prime of His life and one wonders how could His movement survive, let alone accomplish anything significant? Yet here it is, Christianity, the most dominant force in civilization!
The Kingdom's Ambassadors - The apostles of the Lord's certainly were not endowed with any natural qualities which would on that basis alone, explain the phenomenal expansion of the church of Christ. They were, as a matter of fact, very ordinary men. Several of them were mere humble fishermen who would have been forever lost in the obscurity of anitquity had it not been for their involvement with Jesus. By their contemporaries, the apostles were assessed as "unlearned and ignorant men" (Acts 4:13) and this expression really denotes those who lack rabbinic training; those who are not expert or skilled.
There were also within the apostolic band, those potentially explosive components which had it not been for the guiding hand of the divine Master, could easily have destroyed the infant movement. For example, there was Matthew, a tax collector who had been in the employ of the Roman government (cf. Matthew 9:9). As a publican, Matthew was from a hated class of men. But the Lord called him to, "Follow me." Yet along with him came Simon who is called "Zelotes" (Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13) and that means he had been a member of the Zealot sect. Now Zealots were haters. They hated Romans and they especially hated Jews who "sold out" to the Romans by cooperating with them. Under any other circumstances, Simon would have killed Matthew in a moment! But Christ brought them together! How did this group, so different in many ways, launch the mightly kingdom of Christ into the ancient world?
Further, it should be noted that the apostles were not men of great wealth for they forsook their businesses to follow Jesus (cf. Mark 1:18; Luke 5:28). On their preaching tours, the apostles' provisions were quite meager (Matthew 10:9-10) so that Peter could honestly say when solicited by a beggar, "Silver and gold have I none" (Acts 3:6).
And so, the establishment and expansion of the kingdom of Christ cannot be explained on any natural basis and yet grow it did. The word "grow" is almost too mild. Really, it exploded!
The unprecedented growth of God's divine kingdom was clearly foretold by the prophets of the Old Testament era. For example, Isaiah declared that when Jehovah's house was established, "all nations shall flow into it" (2:2). Again, of the glorious gospel age the prophet announced, "for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea" (Isaiah 11:9). This is not a prophecy of some future millennial reign of Christ on earth, for Isaiah 11:10 to quoted by Paul in Romans 15:12 of the Gentile influx into the church (cf. Ezekiel 47:1ff). The rapid growth of the early church therefore, was to be expected.
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