The puzzling character of these parables is no more evident than in the Mustard "Tree." Despite the well-meaning Bible dictionaries that attempt to link this parable to various vegetation in the Middle East, the common mustard plant grows as a small bush, and is hardly the haven for birds.
Furthermore, the identity of the birds have already been revealed in; Matthew 13:19; “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one (Satan) comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.” The ministers of the "Wicked One!" This seems to portray a view in which the church will grow into something never intended, a monstrosity in which the very ministers of the wicked one (Satan) will find refuge in its branches! (Doesn't that sound descriptive of some of the activities of the present day? Should we be surprised?)
John 15:5; “I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” In this verse Jesus made it very clear that the branches are the church and unless we abide in Him, we can do nothing. The church, however, is going to grow so large to the point where Satan will find refuge in the church and bring in false doctrine, which if you are aware of what is taking place in the denominational churches today, you can see exactly what this is referring to.
Matthew 13:31-32; “Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “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.”
When the Christian church began back on Pentecost, it started out very small and comparable to a mustard seed in the scope of things. But over time the church began to grow substantially until it grew to the size it is today. But over time, the Christian churches started to allow false doctrine to creep into their sect of Christianity. There was a time when Satan tried to defeat the church head on, but at some point he realized he could not take down the church so because of his infinite wisdom, he decided to join the church. You know the old saying, “If you can’t beat them, join them” Through time, as the church grew, so did all the false teaching that we hear today.
Let me share another metaphor with you. “A little leaven, leavens the whole lump” is a metaphor that the apostle Paul used to compare the effects of false teaching in the church to the results of yeast in bread dough. Galatians 5:9; “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” Just as a small amount of yeast will make a whole loaf of bread rise, a little bit of legalistic teaching (leaven) will quickly spread, infiltrating the hearts and minds of individual believers until the entire church is contaminated, which it is now. It doesn’t matter what denomination that you belong too, you are being taught a lot of false doctrine. Compliments of Satan, which the church has welcomed in. Leaven is any substance (like yeast) used to produce fermentation in dough. It is the main ingredient that causes bread to rise in preparation for baking. The “whole lump” in Galatians 5:9 refers to an entire batch of dough and in Paul’s analogy denotes the whole congregation of believers. Over time using this same analogy, Satan pumped into the church more and more leaven (false doctrine) to the point where we are today. The start of "A little bit of leaven definitely leavened the whole lump.” Todays churches are so full of false doctrine that very few people are being taught the true Gospel of salvation and other teachings that are very important, especially in the days in which we now live.
This is why it is so important to read the Bible and hear the truth from the Holy Spirit and not some person that went through a seminary that learned tradition and not the true Word of God. Pastors and Priests for the most part, teach religion, not the Bible. Remember, Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with Jesus. Jesus didn’t go to a seminary; he just taught the Word of God. As a matter of fact, Jesus rebuked the teachings of the most religious people of that day. He never taught religion. A lot of Jesus’s teaching came straight from the Old Testament.
This parable might help you understand more about birds as being evil.
“The Parable of the Sower”
Matthew 13:1-9; “On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying:
“Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him here!”
Throughout the scriptures, birds are always symbolic of evil. So, right off the bat we have to take notice that those that nest in the branches are birds, or evil personalities of some kind.. Regardless of what idiom you use, those that nest in the branches are evil. The Bible uses Exposition Constancy throughout the scriptures. (Expositional constancy is the suggestion that symbols and idioms in the Bible are used consistently, that they represent the same thing whenever they are used. )
Notice we also read in the following verse, Ephesians 2:2; “In which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, (Satan) of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” Notice the parable mentions the birds of the air. (Satan is referred to as the “prince of the power of the air” as we read in the previous verse.
So the point that I need to make is this, Why would God use birds as something good in thsi parable, when the rest of the Bible He describes birds as evil? He wouldn’t, so we can be sure that the birds in the parable are the evil ones, demons and principalities.
Now, most of your herb plants are very small. You know, you grow them in little boxes in your windowsill. But of all the herb plants, the mustard is the biggest. And of course mustard plants can get as high as the a church pulpit. It's the biggest of the herbs that you grow.
But Jesus said concerning this particular mustard seed, that it became a tree, [now that's an abnormality] so that the birds of the air (the evil ones) come to lodge in the branches thereof.
There are those expositors who say that this is a parable that is illustrating how that the kingdom of heaven will have a small beginning and grow into a huge following. They take the idiom of birds and apply them as if they are Chrstians. If thats the case, then these Chrsitians on the branches are evil. Jesus is going to start with His twelve disciples, but as they have preached the gospel, the influence of the gospel is going to spread, until it is a great tree, and then the birds of the air will come and nest in it. So that glorious influence of the gospel as it gradually spreads from just a very small humble beginning, eventually grew into the size of a great tree. At one time, the true Gospel was being taught throughout the world, until Satan entered in.
In expositional constancy like I mentioned above, what are the birds? They are the evil ones in the parable of the Sower who came and plucked up the seed (The Word of God) so it could not take root, it could not grow. From this expositional constancy birds are always used in a bad sense in our analogies in the Bible. So inasmuch as in the previous parable (The Parable of the Sower) God pointed out, that there were going to be tares (Evil Ones) that are going to be growing along with the wheat (Righteous Ones) in the kingdom of believers, He is only further illustrating the same thing, as the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, but somehow it has abnormal growth. It grew bigger than what it really was intended to be.
Well let me just say this, I believe that the World Council of Churches are representative of the wild mustard seed that is growing abnormally and out of proportion. It is a monstrosity, and every bird of heaven lodges in its branches. But I believe that that's exactly what Jesus is warning us about. That there will be this abnormal forced thing of man, not representative of the true righteous kingdom of heaven, and it will become a shelter for all kinds of evil purposes, as the church has been used today as a shelter for all kinds of evil purposes.
Now let me put this in terms that you can understand. Right now there are three groups of People in our world. Jews, the Church and the Gentiles. This parable is describing the church and how it started out small, but grew quite large over the years. But then, throughout years and years of watering down the Gospel, it has turned into what we call today as Seeker Sensitive teaching and Prosperity teaching. This group of what is referred to as the church is growing in leaps and bounds because of the false teaching that has taken over the church. Remember what Jesus said in the following Bible verse:
Matthew 7:14; “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
If the parable of the Mustard seed is describing the church as a whole entering heaven, the message in Matthew 7:14, would be false.
Here is what is going to happen to all those churches that allow birds (False Teaching) to lodge in the branches of their churches as described in this parable. Matthew 7: 13b; “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”
There is a reason why Jesus spoke to His disciples in parables. Let me share with you why.
Matthew 13:10-16; “And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you (The Believers) to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them (The Unbelievers) it has not been given. For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.’
Jesus is saying that only those that receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and have become born again into the Holy Spirit are capable of understanding the parables. And because most of todays churches that claim to be Christian, do not teach that one must be born again, they cannot understand the scriptures as they are meant to be understood. Like Jesus said, the parables are a mystery that are being revealed for the first time. They have never been taught in the Old Testament because the parables are written to the Born Again believers. The true church did not exist in the Old Testament.
Now, let me share another very important teaching that applies to today like never before.
2 Timothy 4:3-4; “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will gather up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.”
What is happening in our world, especially in America, is fulfillment of the parable of the Mustard Seed.
The mustard seed was the beginning of the church age, when very few were part of it. This was when the church age began at Pentecost. As the years went by, the church began to grow to the point that we are today. But here is the issue, the church fell away from the true doctrine of the scriptures and started building churches on lies and deceit. Today, we have what we call MEGA churches. This is not the same acronym that Donald Trump uses where he uses this acronym to mean (Make America Great Again) MEGA church are huge churches that built their following on lies and deceit, therefore tickling the ears of those that do not want to hear the truth. These churches are what we refer to as Prosperity and Seeker Sensitive churches. Its all about the money and they will tell their followers anything they can to fill their plates every Sunday or whatever day they gather on. These pastors are driving the most expensive cars available and many of them own jets. I always say, follow the money if you want to know who these pastors are. They are huge, which once again tells us that they are not the true church of God. They are deceiving millions of people, and they will be held accountable for every soul that they destroyed. Not only will the pastors of these churches perish, so will all those that followed their teaching. Sad consequences, but they have the choice as to who they want to follow.
Now, when we read; Matthew 7:14; “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.” This is describing those that have become born again which in retrospect of the world population, is very few. Let me give you an example of what I mean. There are approximately 2.6 billion so-called Christians in the world. Of those 2.6 billion people, it is said that only 6% of those are true born again Bible believing Christians. That would equate to 156,000,000. That is a few in comparison to the world population.
Just a quick note, all the parables are written for only the true believe to understand. They are about the body of Christ and His bride. All those that are not born again, will not be able to understand the parables, therefore they will allegorize them to mean something totally different that what is written.
The parables are always written in reference to the church, but only those that are born-again, will get the full depth of what they are truly teaching, therefore, that is the main reason why there is so much confusion in the denominational churches of today. They don’t line up their teaching with what the Bible teaches. Let me share this last verse that describes the denominational churches of today. The last four verses explain what will happen to all those churches that add to or take away from the Words of this book.
Revelation 22:18-22; “I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this scroll: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to that person the plagues described in this scroll. And if anyone takes words away from this scroll of prophecy, God will take away from that person any share in the tree of life and in the Holy City, which are described in this scroll. He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people. Amen.
Every organized religion is guilty of both of these offences, some, much more than others. Those who follow these teachings will also be held accountable for these offences. This, I believe is why, “Few will be that find the Way”
Gods Word means exactly what it says, and it can’t be altered in any way.
I’ll end with this verse: Hebrews 13:8-9; “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Do not be carried about with various and strange doctrines. For it is good that the heart be established by grace, not with foods which have not profited those who have been occupied with them.”
There are those that are trying to re-write the Bible to pacify their desires. Stay faithful to the true Word of God and know that you will be with Him forever in the most unbelievable paradise, one that can’t even enter our minds.
1 Corinthians 2:9-11; “However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”, the things God has prepared for those who love him, these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.”
Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
The grass withers, the flower fades, But the Word of our God stands forever.”
God bless you all!
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