The mustard tree

Thoughts about where the mainstream churches are at - 18 November 2007 (John)

The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed…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. (Matt 13:31-32)

It’s been pointed out that there are some very odd things about this parable. First, a mustard bush does not grow into a tree. Second, earlier in the chapter the birds were identified as agents of the evil one. What was Jesus saying about the future of the church?

Let's look at the parable of the wheat and the tares for help:

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while he slept an enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. (Matt 13:24 – 25)

Does this indicate that perhaps the mustard “tree” speaks of excessive and unnatural growth? Perhaps a swelling of the visible kingdom on earth due to the presence of the tares?

And what about the birds lodging in the branches? Are these what II Peter 2 speaks of when it says that there will be “false teachers in the church”? Or what Paul refers to in Acts 20:29 in saying that “savage wolves will come in not sparing the flock”? It makes sense to me that these may well speak of the same phenomena; agents of the evil one nesting among the branches of the church? Of course, some people may be inclined to answer this in the manner of ‘yes, but not in our denomination’.

But it’s sobering if we stop and think about it. It suggests to us that we have to be careful; that not everyone who names the name of Jesus is a child of God (Matt 7,23), and that not everyone who preaches from the pulpit is appointed by God. Worse, it implies that Satan will typically do his best to infiltrate the church with people who probably believe themselves to be Christians, but are actually following the motivations of fleshly ambition and subtly preaching another Jesus (II Cor 11,4). How can we detect the difference? How can we take care not to be deceived? I believe that a good part of the answer lies in what Paul wrote to Timothy:

Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. And their message will spread like cancer… (II Tim 2:15-17)

I find myself confronted these days with a lot of preaching where I cannot say there is no truth or goodness in it, but in my spirit I am troubled and cast down, and all the more so when it’s presented with great hype. Am I just overly critical or is there something actually wrong? Because it’s hard to identify an exact problem I can easily feel like it’s just me being negative. I can think at times that the right thing to do is to sweep aside my inner discomfort with reminders of the good points. It was these kinds of mixed feelings that I felt during Rick Warren’s ’40 days of purpose’ program. To me the program felt empty and institutional and seemed slightly off track in some way. I didn’t dwell on it much at the time, but I recently came across these comments from John MacArthur:

The gospel is a message about redemption, not life’s purpose. The gospel according to Scripture deals with God's law, His grace, human depravity, redemption from sin, justification, sanctification, holiness, the nature of saving faith, and the lordship of Christ. And the true gospel's most essential features are the cross of Christ and the truth of the resurrection. None of those subjects is dealt with adequately or biblically in The Purpose-Driven Life by Rick Warren.

The truth of this really strikes me. It seems from a little digging that Rick Warren’s teaching stems more from analysing church growth strategy than from studying the word of God. The problem with focusing on growth strategy is that it subtly shifts the focus from preaching the gospel to growing the church. If preaching the gospel happens to grow the church, that’s fantastic, but I’d like to suggest that it’s not the right focus. Modern church growth strategies seem to promulgate the idea that bringing people into the church will bring them to salvation, and in some cases it may. However, if you look just a little further down the track you can imagine why it may not work out that way overall. Bringing a lot of unsaved people into the church can actually create a form of dialectic struggle between two opposites where the outcome is neither New Testament Christianity nor unbelief, but a synthesis; something new that has characteristics unlike either of the former things. This may be reminiscent of the “lukewarm” church of Laodicea (Rev 3:14-22), hot and cold mixed together to create not bits of hot alongside bits of cold, but a new overall state called “lukewarm”. There is real danger in focusing on church growth that the very character of what the church is could be undermined in quite a short timeframe. The emphasis in the New Testament suggests that churches are gatherings of believers, coming together to worship, fellowship, and be strengthened in the Lord. Evangelism on the other hand is something that happens as believers go out into the community around them, demonstrating love and the power of the Holy Spirit in their everyday lives (and sometimes in specific missions).

Consider what the second book of Timothy says about society in the last days:

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. (II Tim 3: Excerpts from verses 1-5)

From this we understand that the character of society in the last days will not be primarily atheistic, but that many people will have some weak form of religion. This could be what is known as ‘New Age’, but equally it could be a weakened form of Christianity. It may actually be New Age, Hinduism, Buddhism, liberal Islam, liberal Judaism, Catholicism, and a weak Christianity all mixed into a common soup where all agree that they “worship the same God”. (I use this statement purposely because it’s already being said in some circles, perhaps most famously by George Bush).

Although it may be hard to accept, it’s worth considering the possibility that the church in the west is in a downhill slide from which it may never recover. If this is the case it implies that very soon, if not now, some of our previous wisdom may need rethinking. In recent evangelical generations, meeting within the framework of a visible church has been wise, but in a new situation meeting with believers outside the framework of any visible church may become the new wisdom. In China Christians can either belong to the politically accepted ‘Three Self Church’, or they can meet together in home churches which are often persecuted. The Three Self Church preaches much truth, however because it is controlled by the government there are things it cannot do or preach. Brother Yun in ‘The Heavenly Man’ describes the difference between believers in the state controlled church and believers in the home churches as being like the difference between caged birds and free. In the west our evangelical churches are not state controlled, however they seem to be increasingly influenced, and almost systematically taken over by, globally promulgated systems and ideas, the origins of which are often quite suspect. (I won’t divert here, however New Age thinking and ideas from business “success” teaching have made a big impact). The difference for us though is that we don’t have a clearly defined alternative. We don’t really have a developed home church movement, and many of us (including myself) probably have feelings of awkwardness about it. Nevertheless, it is my belief that before long, those who still have an appreciation of what real Christianity is will be forced, almost against their will in some cases, to make a clear decision. This decision will be forced by the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is grieved in a situation of compromise. Of course, some individuals will hold out longer than others.

Nearly three years ago I was praying about going to Bible College and God clearly spoke to me that my work was ‘outside the church’ (as in the institutional church). At the time I understood this to apply in a rather personal way, but I’m now starting to wonder if this is his will for the direction of the testimony in general at this time. This is still somewhat new and unchartered territory that leaves me with many questions. You may also have questions, including perhaps the question of whether things are really so bad. Well, the degree of the problem that I allude to definitely varies from place to place and church to church, however it’s not the degree but the direction that I’m really trying to point out here. I’m challenging you to consider that whether it’s now, soon or a little later, this could well be the path that true believers will have to take. It’s not really a new path though; more like returning to an old well worn one that many of our spiritual forefathers have walked down. Evangelical tradition started with the New Testament church, which under the persecution of the Roman Empire remained very much a home church movement for the first few centuries. After the Constantinian change those groups most loyal to the New Testament church vision remained underground churches throughout the middle ages. Even after the reformation many of the groups who are forerunners of modern evangelical doctrine and practice were outside the establishment; considered over the top or even heretical by the mainstream. (e.g. Anabaptists). Nevertheless I understand that it is a path that for many of us lacks a sense of certainty. But I’d offer the thought that this is where faith comes in. I believe that there is spiritual benefit in embracing and accepting this uncertainty in faith. By way of conclusion, I leave you with the verse below, which to me speaks out against all the programs, consultants and accreditations of modern Christianity, and points towards a more pure and Holy Spirit led way.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)

Go to full blog list