33 He spoke another parable to them, "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened."
34 All these things Jesus spoke to the crowds in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable. 35 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: "I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world."
Good Morning my beloved,
When we as Christians live in obedience to God's Word, build our values, morals and relationships on His teaching, we can have a positive influence in the lives of those around us as well as a benefit to the rest of society; unconditional, sacrificial love, honoring all people regardless of race, gender, social or economic standing, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness in marriage and family, protection of children, as well as other such higher standards. And when we do not, we misrepresent Christ and have a negative impact on the way the world sees the truthfulness and integrity of God's Word.
When God’s Spirit moves in the world, it is often, slow, almost imperceptible. Other times, things are happening around us so quickly, we can wind up feeling dizzy. More often than not, it doesn't look like what we're expecting. Once thing is for certain, when God moves it's always in the right direction. I believe God here today even in the midst of all this mess. God is growing His Kingdom, and He isn’t finished yet. How is God moving in your life to serve Him well?
Let us pray
Heavenly Father,
Father, thank You for Your Word, making the Truth available to us, for the increasing illumination of spiritual truth to help us understand. Lord, refresh our commitment and faithfulness to You, Your Word and to the Great Commission to make disciples. We pray that You might plants us who are small where we might flourish, grow and produce much fruit, sharing the Gospel the world to bring about a bountiful harvest. Let us be about Your Kingdom business as we anticipate Your glorious return. Thank You for that hope. We pray that no one will leave here today who has not embraced Jesus as Lord and Savior. May they then witness to others the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in their own life. All for Your glory and increase in the Kingdom.
In Christ's name we ask and pray.
Today's Message: Small Beginnings
Biblical scholars and theologians may argue over the interpretation, but the Kingdom of heaven is not to be perceived as a kingdom as men understand it. In His own words, Jesus told Pilate in John 18 that His Kingdom is not of this world. "For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice." Pilate didn't understand what Jesus meant when He spoke of the truth. Jesus was born a direct descendant of David, He came into the world to inherit David's throne, to be a King. And when the time is right, He will reveal Himself to the world as the King of Kings.
In Luke 17 "Now having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst." The kingdom is in their midst, but they couldn't perceive it. It isn’t discerned by human perception, it's a kingdom from within the heart. In the future, He will establish an earthly kingdom, and He will do so through conquest.
Open your Bibles with me to the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew 13:33-35.
I invite you to follow along with me as I read them.
Let us open our hearts for what the Spirit of God has to say to each of
us.
Here in chapter 13, Jesus gives us seven parables to describe the nature of the kingdom. In the first two, He describes how good and evil will co-exist, those who reject the kingdom and those who receive the kingdom should grow together until the final judgment. Then discusses the power of the kingdom, like a mustard seed, God's kingdom will start out small and grow to become a massive kingdom that's going to fill the earth. In our text today, Jesus similarly uses another parable to make the same point, the parable of the leaven. Again, He chooses a parable that would commonly understood by the hearer, a part of every day life, in this instance baking bread. Because bread was a staple, since families were typically large, they made large amounts of bread. Baking bread was a common occurrence in the home.
For those of you who have never baked bread, leaven is an agent, such as yeast, that causes dough to rise, ultimately extending its impact and affect to produce a massive amount of dough. They would take small remnant of dough from the preceding baking that had fermented, placing it in the middle of the mass of newly prepared dough, kneaded and ready for baking, which would act as yeast, permeating the new dough causing it to rise. It was a very small piece of leaven, hidden in three measures of meal. I won't belabor the point to emphasize something more than necessary, but a very small piece of leaven positively influences a massive amount of dough. This would have been very simple to understand.
I want to point out the opposing view that some have concluded. They think the leaven represents evil and what the parable is teaching is that evil is going to be in the kingdom permeating the kingdom. The basis of their logic comes from Luke 12, when Jesus said to His disciples "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." The Pharisees were permeated with hypocrisy. He was using the analogy describe the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, warning His disciples to beware of hypocrisy's effects. Hypocrisy effects everything they do. That was the issue.
Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like leaven. To think that the leaven represents evil would be inconsistent with the layout of the parables. Their argument is that everywhere else in the New Testament leaven always refers to evil, so to say that Jesus is referring to the kingdom would be inconsistent. However, leaven inherently never refers to evil. Therefore, I believe that since the kingdom of heaven is good, it influences the world for good as leaven does with bread. Leaven representing the kingdom, a positive influence on the world rather than evil influence in the kingdom best fits the pattern. Historically,
when the Bible uses leaven as an illustration, it is being used as an illustration of permeation. I believe that it's a wonderful analogy, a beautiful illustration.
It only take a little influence to mess up a whole lot. Besides, its the only analogy that makes sense. In contrast, when Scripture refers to evil it's described as darkness, or the absence of light. I hasten to say, you cannot take an analogy intended for illustration purposes and just apply theological terms to it. You must instead look at it for what it is, the usefulness of the analogy. Otherwise, if leaven was always represents sin, you're going to wind up in trouble.
The grain offerings and the bread on the altar in the Old Testament were
part of the covenant symbols between God and the Israelites. First let's look at Genesis 18. "Now the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day. When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth, and said, “My Lord, if now I have found favor in Your sight, please do not pass Your servant by. Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree; and I will bring a piece of bread, that you may refresh yourselves; after that you may go on, since you have visited your servant." And they said, "So do, as you have said." So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, "Quickly, prepare three measures of fine flour, knead it and make bread cakes." Abraham also ran to the herd, and took a tender and choice calf and gave it to the servant, and he hurried to prepare it. He took curds and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and placed it before them; and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate."
Leviticus 23, "You shall also count
for yourselves from the day after the sabbath, from the day when you
brought in the sheaf of the wave offering; there shall be seven complete
sabbaths. You shall count fifty days to the day after the seventh sabbath; then you shall present a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord."
And in Leviticus 24, Then you shall take fine flour and bake twelve cakes with it; two-tenths of an ephah shall be in each cake.You shall set them in two rows, six to a row, on the pure gold table before the Lord. You shall put pure frankincense on each row that it may be a memorial portion for the bread, even an offering by fire to the Lord. Every sabbath day he shall set it in order before the Lord continually; it is an everlasting covenant for the sons of Israel. It shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place; for it is most holy to him from the Lord’s offerings by fire, his portion forever."
Because I am sure you were curious, as I was, I wanted to find out what three measures was. Guess what I found out? I found out that three measures of flour is the equivalent of an ephah. An ephah is ancient Hebrew unit of dry measure, equal to a tenth of a homer. One homer is equal to 10 baths, or what was also equivalent
to 30 seahs; each seah being the equivalent in volume to six kabs, and
each kab equivalent in volume to 24 medium-sized eggs. By the way, the Hebrew dry measure is supposed to be equal to two pecks. And equal to the liquid measure which is called a bath. Just to enlighten you a bit further, the Hebrew word homer comes from the word for an "ass." In other words, it's one ass-load. Folks, that is a massive amount of dough! Now, aren't you glad I checked that out? If you're saying they were offering evil to God, that becomes an issue. As a footnote, unleavened bread was a symbol of the Jews disconnection from Egypt.
If we view that symbolism in terms of our salvation, when we come to Christ, we’ve
been delivered from out of our old life into a new life. We become a new
creation in Christ, former things have passed away, right? In essence,
you're a new batch of dough. You don't bring any of that leaven, or old way of life with you. Otherwise, we influence our new present life with the leaven of the past. Leaven refers to that permeating influence.
So obviously, the point He's making is the fact that the kingdom was starting out very small is inconsequential, it has nothing to do with the significance of it's impact. It could be anything that influences, it's an illustration of that which permeates. The kingdom, when placed in the middle of the world, has the supernatural power to have a massive influence on everything in the world. That's the only way to see it. Furthermore, I believe that Jesus wants us to understand, that when the Gospel is proclaimed something special, something very significant occurs, there is a massive explosion of the kingdom of God.
We have in our hands the Word of God, the treasure the kingdom of heaven. Just one person who is faithful in proclaiming the Gospel can be greatly used by God to impact the kingdom of heaven. When we live by faith, in obedience to His Word as we should, how permeating is the good influence of God's people in the world of evil. That's why our presence disturbs them, in fact, our godly influence has been troubling the world for two thousand years. In a very real sense, God has planted His leaven inside the world. A small amount of faith placed in the right vessel can have a significant impact.
That brings us to verse 35, "This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet: "I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world." Matthew is pointing us to the fact that it was prophesied that Jesus had
secrets about the kingdom of heaven to tell us; secrets that had been
kept secret since the foundation of the world. That's from Psalm 78, the prophet Asaph predicted that the Messiah would have to speak in parables as an act of judgment. He would reveal a secret kept from the foundation of the world to His own. He knew they would reject Him, even before the foundation of the world, truth is only available to those who believe. The secret is out; Jesus saves sinners!
In Closing..
Today, the gates to the kingdom of heaven are open, Jesus is inviting all people, from every nation, tongue, and tribe to come to Him in repentance and the forgiveness of sin. Have you R.S.V.P.'d to your invitation, and reserved your place in the kingdom of heaven? Have you invited your child, your family members, your friends and co-workers to join you? If not, I would like to encourage you to take some time, think about your eternal future. I want you to understand that every person who has or ever will live on this planet will spend eternity somewhere, either in the kingdom of heaven or in the Lake of Fire reserved for Satan and those who follow him.
God is not making alterations to His invitations, you have to accept it on His terms. God is patient and long suffering that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. But His Spirit will not contend with man forever. If you hear Him calling out to you, I pray that you will respond while you can still hear Him.
May it be so..
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen