diff --git a/dev/run-tests.py b/dev/run-tests.py
index 90535fd3b7b03..237fb76c9b3d9 100755
--- a/dev/run-tests.py
+++ b/dev/run-tests.py
@@ -295,7 +295,8 @@ def build_spark_sbt(hadoop_version):
                  "assembly/assembly",
                  "streaming-kafka-assembly/assembly",
                  "streaming-flume-assembly/assembly",
-                 "streaming-mqtt-assembly/assembly"]
+                 "streaming-mqtt-assembly/assembly",
+                 "streaming-mqtt/test:assembly"]
     profiles_and_goals = build_profiles + sbt_goals
 
     print("[info] Building Spark (w/Hive 0.13.1) using SBT with these arguments: ",
diff --git a/external/mqtt-assembly/pom.xml b/external/mqtt-assembly/pom.xml
index 7c5ba7051ac15..e216a9676abcc 100644
--- a/external/mqtt-assembly/pom.xml
+++ b/external/mqtt-assembly/pom.xml
@@ -58,6 +58,7 @@
       <artifactId>maven-shade-plugin</artifactId>
       <configuration>
         <shadedArtifactAttached>false</shadedArtifactAttached>
+        <outputFile>${project.build.directory}/scala-${scala.binary.version}/spark-streaming-mqtt-assembly-${project.version}.jar</outputFile>
         <artifactSet>
           <includes>
             <include>*:*</include>
diff --git a/external/mqtt/pom.xml b/external/mqtt/pom.xml
index a28dd3603503a..0e41e5781784b 100644
--- a/external/mqtt/pom.xml
+++ b/external/mqtt/pom.xml
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@
       <groupId>org.apache.activemq</groupId>
       <artifactId>activemq-core</artifactId>
       <version>5.7.0</version>
+      <scope>test</scope>
     </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <build>
diff --git a/external/mqtt/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/mqtt/MQTTUtils.scala b/external/mqtt/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/mqtt/MQTTUtils.scala
index de8f5650fbe55..22dabb36efa11 100644
--- a/external/mqtt/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/mqtt/MQTTUtils.scala
+++ b/external/mqtt/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/mqtt/MQTTUtils.scala
@@ -87,12 +87,7 @@ private class MQTTUtilsPythonHelper {
       brokerUrl: String,
       topic: String,
       storageLevel: StorageLevel
-    ): JavaDStream[Array[Byte]] = {
-    val dstream = MQTTUtils.createStream(jssc, brokerUrl, topic, storageLevel)
-    dstream.map(new Function[String, Array[Byte]] {
-      override def call(data: String): Array[Byte] = {
-        data.getBytes("UTF-8")
-      }
-    })
+    ): JavaDStream[String] = {
+    MQTTUtils.createStream(jssc, brokerUrl, topic, storageLevel)
   }
 }
diff --git a/external/mqtt/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/mqtt/MQTTTestUtils.scala b/external/mqtt/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/mqtt/MQTTTestUtils.scala
similarity index 95%
rename from external/mqtt/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/mqtt/MQTTTestUtils.scala
rename to external/mqtt/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/mqtt/MQTTTestUtils.scala
index e5036fbc6d626..34e81b3f0f84f 100644
--- a/external/mqtt/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/mqtt/MQTTTestUtils.scala
+++ b/external/mqtt/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/streaming/mqtt/MQTTTestUtils.scala
@@ -18,7 +18,7 @@
 package org.apache.spark.streaming.mqtt
 
 import java.net.{ServerSocket, URI}
-import java.util.concurrent.{TimeUnit, CountDownLatch}
+import java.util.concurrent.{CountDownLatch, TimeUnit}
 
 import scala.language.postfixOps
 
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ import org.apache.commons.lang3.RandomUtils
 import org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3._
 import org.eclipse.paho.client.mqttv3.persist.MqttDefaultFilePersistence
 
-import org.apache.spark.streaming.{StreamingContext, Milliseconds}
+import org.apache.spark.streaming.StreamingContext
 import org.apache.spark.streaming.scheduler.StreamingListener
 import org.apache.spark.streaming.scheduler.StreamingListenerReceiverStarted
 import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ private class MQTTTestUtils extends Logging {
 
   private val persistenceDir = Utils.createTempDir()
   private val brokerHost = "localhost"
-  private var brokerPort = findFreePort()
+  private val brokerPort = findFreePort()
 
   private var broker: BrokerService = _
   private var connector: TransportConnector = _
diff --git a/python/pyspark/streaming/tests.py b/python/pyspark/streaming/tests.py
index 970594c7fa10c..d3592f0a1f7c2 100644
--- a/python/pyspark/streaming/tests.py
+++ b/python/pyspark/streaming/tests.py
@@ -850,28 +850,43 @@ def tearDown(self):
     def _randomTopic(self):
         return "topic-%d" % random.randint(0, 10000)
 
-    def _validateStreamResult(self, sendData, dstream):
+    def _startContext(self, topic):
+        # Start the StreamingContext and also collect the result
+        stream = MQTTUtils.createStream(self.ssc, "tcp://" + self._MQTTTestUtils.brokerUri(), topic)
         result = []
 
-        def get_output(_, rdd):
+        def getOutput(_, rdd):
             for data in rdd.collect():
                 result.append(data)
 
-        dstream.foreachRDD(get_output)
-        receiveData = ' '.join(result[0])
+        stream.foreachRDD(getOutput)
+        self.ssc.start()
+        return result
+
+    def _publishData(self, topic, data):
+        start_time = time.time()
+        while True:
+            try:
+                self._MQTTTestUtils.publishData(topic, data)
+                break
+            except:
+                if time.time() - start_time < self.timeout:
+                    time.sleep(0.01)
+                else:
+                    raise
+
+    def _validateStreamResult(self, sendData, result):
+        receiveData = ''.join(result[0])
         self.assertEqual(sendData, receiveData)
 
     def test_mqtt_stream(self):
         """Test the Python MQTT stream API."""
-        topic = self._randomTopic()
         sendData = "MQTT demo for spark streaming"
-        ssc = self.ssc
-
-        self._MQTTTestUtils.waitForReceiverToStart(ssc)
-        self._MQTTTestUtils.publishData(topic, sendData)
-
-        stream = MQTTUtils.createStream(ssc, "tcp://" + self._MQTTTestUtils.brokerUri(), topic)
-        self._validateStreamResult(sendData, stream)
+        topic = self._randomTopic()
+        result = self._startContext(topic)
+        self._publishData(topic, sendData)
+        self.wait_for(result, len(sendData))
+        self._validateStreamResult(sendData, result)
 
 
 def search_kafka_assembly_jar():
@@ -928,11 +943,29 @@ def search_mqtt_assembly_jar():
         return jars[0]
 
 
+def search_mqtt_test_jar():
+    SPARK_HOME = os.environ["SPARK_HOME"]
+    mqtt_test_dir = os.path.join(SPARK_HOME, "external/mqtt")
+    jars = glob.glob(
+        os.path.join(mqtt_test_dir, "target/scala-*/spark-streaming-mqtt-test-*.jar"))
+    if not jars:
+        raise Exception(
+            ("Failed to find Spark Streaming MQTT test jar in %s. " % mqtt_test_dir) +
+            "You need to build Spark with "
+            "'build/sbt assembly/assembly streaming-mqtt/test:assembly'")
+    elif len(jars) > 1:
+        raise Exception(("Found multiple Spark Streaming MQTT test JARs in %s; please "
+                         "remove all but one") % mqtt_test_dir)
+    else:
+        return jars[0]
+
 if __name__ == "__main__":
     kafka_assembly_jar = search_kafka_assembly_jar()
     flume_assembly_jar = search_flume_assembly_jar()
     mqtt_assembly_jar = search_mqtt_assembly_jar()
-    jars = "%s,%s,%s" % (kafka_assembly_jar, flume_assembly_jar, mqtt_assembly_jar)
+    mqtt_test_jar = search_mqtt_test_jar()
+    jars = "%s,%s,%s,%s" % (kafka_assembly_jar, flume_assembly_jar,
+                            mqtt_assembly_jar, mqtt_test_jar)
 
     os.environ["PYSPARK_SUBMIT_ARGS"] = "--jars %s pyspark-shell" % jars
     unittest.main()