In June we were visited by Michael and Steph Baldwin, our
UFM mission partners In Eurasia.
Here is a summary of the sermon Michael preached, ‘The
glory of the ordinary’ which fits well with the theme of this
magazine.
Do you find it hard to see how the mundane
things in life contribute to the kingdom of God –
the rule of God that broke in when Jesus arrived?
In Luke 13:18-21 he told 2 parables, the mustard
seed and the yeast, which tells us:
- The kingdom has a beginning more ordinary
than you expected
It won’t arrive with a mighty army – it’s more like a
tiny mustard seed hidden in the ground, or a
small amount of yeast hidden in a batch of dough.
The people of the kingdom are very ordinary – but
worshipping an extraordinary King. We expect
Jesus to be born in a palace but he’s born in a
feeding trough; we expect him to ride into
Jerusalem on a war horse, but he arrives on a
donkey; we expect him to vanquish Israel’s
enemies, but he allows them to vanquish him on
the cross.
Do you feel your ordinary life can’t possibly serve
God’s kingdom? Jesus spent years in obscurity, so
there is infinite worth in our obscurity for his glory;
Jesus was a carpenter, so there is infinite worth in
your everyday work for his glory. Learn to glory in
the ordinary, by doing it for our extraordinary
King! God chooses to grow his kingdom through
ordinary people doing ordinary things.
- The kingdom has a middle more delayed
than you desired
The Jews were expecting a complete and
instantaneous coming of the kingdom, but Jesus
said there was going to be a gap between his first
coming and his return as Judge. There is a ‘delay’
from when the mustard seed is put in the ground
to when it appears, from when the yeast is put
in the dough to when it rises. Jesus ushers in
the kingdom but it won’t be completed until
he returns.
Our daily lives often have ‘delays’, seasons of
waiting – but with these parables Jesus
prepares us. In God’s kingdom things often
take longer than we expect but don’t despair –
the mustard seed is growing, the yeast is
spreading!
- The kingdom has an ending more glorious
than you ever dreamed
The tiny mustard seed grows to a glorious tree!
We see the kingdom growing now – a little hint
of the glorious ending. The ‘birds of the air
perching in its branches’ is a reference (Ezekiel
31:6) to the nations coming into the kingdom.
It’s not just for Wilmslow, not just for people like
us, it is for all the nations of the earth, so
welcome the nations God is bringing to us here
in the UK. One day God’s kingdom will be
glorious – a wedding banquet where Jesus is
the groom, and the church is his bride, and on
that day it will be all worth it! Do the ordinary
things for God’s glory, and let the delays teach
you hope, because one day the ending will be
more glorious than you ever dreamed.