Today we will look at two parables. The first parable reveals that the Kingdom of Heaven started small but will grow to become massive. The second parable illustrates the ability of the Kingdom to penetrate cultures as people live their faith within their families and cultures.
The Scope of the Kingdom
In Matthew 13:31-35 NLT Jesus told the parable of the Mustard Seed. The parable reads, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed planted in a field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants; it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches.”
As mentioned in a previous post, the Kingdom of Heaven started with the advent of the King, Jesus. He was born in a shepherd’s manger with humble beginnings. As he began His ministry at about 30 years of age, he chose twelve men to be His disciples. Reading the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, we see that many more people were identified as His followers. However, these twelve, minus Judas who would betray Him, were the first people who would be the ministers of His kingdom.
In Acts Chapter 1, we read that there are about one hundred twenty people in an upper room. They gathered to replace Judas as one of the twelve apostles. They selected Matthias as the one to fill that vacancy.
Acts Chapter 2 reveals that when the Day of Pentecost came, the disciples were all together. The Holy Spirit descended on them with tongues of fire, and they were all filled with the Spirit. Pentecost was a national celebration, and Jerusalem was filled with people from all over the Empire. These visitors heard those who had been filled with the Spirit speaking in languages they did not know but were native to those from other regions. Peter stood up to explain and when he finished speaking, several thousand people believed and were baptized (vs. 41 NIV). By the end of Chapter 2, people converted to Christ every day (vss. 41-47 NIV).
The message of the salvation through faith in Jesus spread and we read in Acts 2 – 6, about how the early church grew in Jerusalem. As the church grew, the apostles appointed others to help with the daily administration of the believers. As more Jews converted to faith in Christ, the apostles came under increased scrutiny from the Jewish leaders.
One of the men appointed by the apostles was named Stehpen. He was brought before the Sanhedrin, the highest religious and non-Roman political body in Jerusalem. Acts Chapter 7 details Stephan’s testimony before the Jewish leaders and his subsequent martyrdom. After the death of Stephen in Acts Chapter 7, persecution broke out in Jerusalem and many of the believers fled to safer regions in the Roman Empire.
Because of the persecution, many disciples left Jerusalem and took this new faith with them. They spread the word throughout Judea and the surrounding areas. The apostles too, went to different areas outside of Jerusalem. Peter and John traveled to Samaria to assist Philip in Acts 8:14-25. After this event, Philip testified in many cities and to an Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8:26-40).
A young pharisee named Saul became the church’s most zealous persecutor. He was present when Stephen was killed (Acts 8:1). The risen Jesus confronted Saul while he was on his way to Damascus to persecute the believers there. He was dramatically converted to faith in Christ and immediately began to preach about his newfound faith, Acts 9:1-25.
Once Saul was converted to faith in Christ, the church had rest from persecution. The good seed of the Gospel spread and took root in the hearts of people from diverse cultures. In Acts 10, we read that Peter went to the home of a Roman centurion in Caesarea and witnessed that the Holy Spirit fell on Gentile believers as fully as He had the Jewish believers.
Beginning in Acts 13 through the end of the book, we read about that apostle Paul’s three missionary journeys and his imprisonments for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the King of the Kingdom of Heaven. As a Jew, Paul used his Hebrew name, Saul. As an apostle to the Gentile world, he used his Greek name, Paul. Paul took the Gospel to much of the known Roman Empire. Most scholars believe that Paul was released from prison during Nero’s reign in A.D. 62. Many also believe that Paul fulfilled his desire to travel to Spain and preach the Gospel there, Romans 15:24 NKJV.
A brief look at the spread of the biblical message of Jesus as the Messiah through history shows that the Gospel spread well beyond the Roman Empire. Today, in 2025, there are believers in Jesus on every continent and nearly every culture on earth. International organizations regularly report conversions in countries controlled by governments and cultures openly hostile to the biblical message of the divine life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
Every Home for Christ founded by Dick Eastman as the Change the World School of Prayer in 1976, is one of many interdenominational, international organizations impacting our world with the Gospel. They annually produce a world prayer map showing every nation in the world and the estimated number of Christians in many nations. 1 Some data is not published to protect believers and workers in sensitive situations. They are a part of the spearhead for fulfilling the Great Commission of Jesus to go into all the world and make disciples.
Jesus’ parable of the Mustard Seed is being fulfilled. The seed of the Gospel that began 2,000 years ago with twelve men, has reached billions of individuals. According to Pew Research, in 2010, there were approximately 2.18 billion people alive who claimed to believe in Jesus Christ. 2 The message of the Kingdom of Heaven is being dispersed throughout the world.
Every day, thousands of people around the world are turning to the message of faith in Jesus Christ and finding a new strength for living today and a hope for eternity with God. The phrase from the parable, “it grows into a tree, and birds come and make nests in its branches,” is fulfilled whenever a person turns to Jesus. People all over the world are finding spiritual fulfillment and a new power to live life through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ. These new believers are the birds that find rest in the branches of the mustard plant that Jesus described in His parable.
Penetration of the Gospel of Jesus
Jesus told another parable in Matthew 13:33 that reveals an additional truth about the Kingdom of Heaven. In this passage, Jesus states that, “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” NIV. In this parable, Jesus reveals that the Kingdom of Heaven not only spreads to the ends of the earth, but it permeates nations and cultures. Like yeast in dough, it ignites a reaction in cultures that impacts the whole batch of dough, which is the entire world.
From the earliest records in the Book of Acts, we see the message of Jesus penetrating diverse cultures. Jesus ministered across cultural lines and broke down national and gender barriers. He healed a servant of a Roman centurion in Matthew 8:5-9. Not only was this man a Gentile, but he was an officer in the oppressive, occupying, Roman army from which devout Jews were expecting Messiah to bring them deliverance.
In John 4:1-26, not only did Jesus cross cultural barriers, but he violated gender boundaries when He ministered to a Samaritan woman in John 4:1-26. Devout Jews, especially rabbis, considered Samaritans to be a lesser people and looked down on them. For a devout Jew, talking with a Samaritan, let alone a woman, was seen as a violation of social norms. Yet in doing these things, the Kingdom of Heaven was permeating different cultures and challenging different belief systems.
As the yeast of the Gospel message has spread across cultural barriers into all the world, it has permeated deeply within cultures resistant to different beliefs. As yeast worked into dough impacts the whole lump, so the Gospel message is working to influence individuals, families, cultures, and nations around the world. Its simple message of faith in Jesus continues to bring hope to the hopeless, strength to the broken, and light to those lost in spiritual darkness.
As the Gospel spread through the Roman Empire in the first three centuries after Jesus’ death and resurrection, it permeated society. By 326 A.D., the faith had so worked its way into Roman culture that emperor Constantine followed the Christian faith and outlawed many pagan practices that were historically celebrated by the emperors.
From the time of Constantine to modern times, Christianity has been intricately woven into the fabric of many Western cultures. Christian beliefs have helped shape cultural norms, systems of laws and justice, standards of morality, and even trade practices in commerce. Christian values played a large part in the formation of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights in the United States. In the last two hundred years, Western culture has seen a migration toward secularism. Consequently, church attendance in the United States has been in decline since World War II.
Still, even in cultures and societies that were largely Christian for centuries, we see the message of faith in Jesus maintaining a level of influence in all areas of society. The message of the Kingdom of Heaven which Jesus began to teach, is now impacting nearly every nation on earth and is within the reach of the ears and hearts of over eight billion souls. Humanity is racing for the fulfillment of the great Commission of Jesus in Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The message of the Kingdom of Heaven is both broadening its scope and deepening its penetration within the human family and will do so until the mission is completed.
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- https://everyhome.org/global-map/
- https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2011/12/19/global-christianity-exec/