Why There is a Local Church - Part Four

Lat time, in talking about the makeup of the local church, we looked at the Parable of the Wheat and Tares in Matthew 13. We saw that while Jesus populates the local church with true, born-again believers, Satan populates the local church with make-believers - the tares. They look just like the genuine, but they aren't. They never bear fruit.

Today, we want to look at the second parable Jesus told. It is the Parable of the Mustard Seed in 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.

Jesus was talking about the church beginning small. It began with just 120 people praying in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, but the church would grow large and fill the earth. The mustard seed is a tiny seed, but the bush it grows into could reach fifteen feet high. That's plenty big enough for birds to roost in.

But what are the birds? That's the question. I've always learned that the immediate context helps us understand the meaning of any passage. So, does Jesus talk about birds anywhere else in the immediate context? Sure He does! He does so in the Parable of The Sower where a farmer goes out to sow seed in his field. In Matthew 13:4, it says: "And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured them." When Jesus explained the parable, He told us the seed was the Word of God and the one who snatched the seed away was the evil one - Satan. We see this in Matthew 13:18-19:

"Therefore hear the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside."

So, Satan is active in snatching away the Word of God from those who don't understand - like the unsaved tares. He accomplishes this within the church through his false teachers and false prophets who teach things contrary to sound doctrine. Where do you think so many silly doctrines come from? Certainly, they are not found in the Bible.

False teachers have been in the church from the beginning, and the tares are always ready to listen to them and believe them. The tares aren't saved, remember? They don't have the Holy Spirit within them to guide them to the truth. So false doctrines make sense to them. They seem appealing. They tickle their ears. And a battle over doctrine erupts within the church, maybe a split happens, and often a new denomination is started.