Kingdom Parables, Part 7
Matthew 13:31-33
There are two parables in these two verses. We began by looking at the first one last time. We'll look at the second one tonight but we need to tie them together because they deal with the same theme.
Now, both of these parables speak to the same theme. They speak about influence. They speak about small beginnings with great conclusions.
That’s the point Jesus is making. Something may start very small but end very large. And that’s the way it will be with the kingdom of God. It will start small but ultimately its influence will be global.
It’s kind of exciting to think about that! We live in the time when that is going on. Never in the history of the world has Christianity had the global influence that it has today. It is staggering to think about it.
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And we saw that illustrated last week in the first parable. From a small beginning like a mustard seed, it will become a massive tree. From the littlest seed it becomes the biggest bush.
Now in the second one, we see the illustration changes but the point He’s making doesn’t.
Verse 33
A tiny little piece of leaven, hidden in a massive pile of dough, permeates and influences the whole.
And as I pointed out last week, these two parables are designed to encourage this little group of believers. In fact, they are an encouragement to any Christian in any age. We can always look around and find reason to be discouraged.
Evil always appears to be winning. The church is never what it ought to be. Seventy-five percent of the soil doesn’t receive the seed. The tares are overrunning the crop.
But the message of these two little nuggets is of hope. In spite of all that is going on, the kingdom's going to grow, and finally, it's going to fill the earth.
In fact, with verses 31 and 32 we are ushered right into the millennial kingdom when Jesus returns to rule and reign over the entirety of the earth. That’s when the mustard bush is at its largest and the tree is filled with birds. That’s when the loaf is entirely permeated.
Now this parable of the leaven in often misunderstood and mistaught, and I’m really concerned that its teaching be made clear. So let's look at it.
Now keep in mind the umbrella under which we are gathering. We learned three lessons from the mustard seed last week. The kingdom will start small, it will become large and the nations will ultimately enjoy its benefits.
The lesson from the parable is very similar.
Now, as always, our Lord picks His parables out of common life. As a boy growing up, He must have seen His mother make bread many times. This was a common occurrence in the home. By the way, it’s one of my favorite things to do. I love home-made bread and hot rolls. Nuthin better!!
You take a new batch of dough to which has been added a leavening agent such as yeast or baking powder, and it will ferment and bubble and expand and permeate until that dough rises and readies for baking.
Now, the point is the leaven is a very small ingredient that is added to three measures of meal. Now, that is a massive amount of dough. You want to know how much? Three measures of meal is the equivalent of an ephah. That helps a lot doesn’t it? So how much is an ephah? Well that’s about a tenth of a homer.
Actually three measures of meal is a little over a bushel. That means she is making a massive amount of bread. And by the way, it was not uncommon for them to prepare that much bread because it was the staple of life and the families were large and the servants in the house and everybody and so they made great amounts of bread.
Just as a footnote, when the Lord and two angels in Genesis 18 visited Sarah and Abraham, Sarah made bread. You know how much she used? Three measures of meal. And then I went into Judges chapter 6, verse 19, and I found in the case of Gideon that bread was prepared using three measures of meal, or one ephah. So, this must have been the common recipe.
I mean, if that's the way Sarah made bread for God, it must be right!
So once again we are seeing the contrast. Jesus isn’t exaggerating. He’s just using a common illustration from every-day life to make the point.
The large amount of meal just amplifies the enormous task that is accomplished by a little bit of leaven or yeast.
There is a little side note here also. Leavened bread is far superior to unleavened bread. Would you agree to that? Which do you prefer, hot, fresh dinner rolls or communion bread?
That is a companion truth found in the parable. Not only does the leaven influence a a massive amount of dough, but the influence that it has is positive.
The leaven makes it better.
Another thing we see here is that Jesus said she hid the leaven in the dough.
The leaven has to be inserted; it can't sit on the counter and yell at the bread. God doesn’t accomplish his work on earth by having angels shout down from heaven the good news. His influence is done through his leavening agents, the church, coming in contact with the dough of the world.
So actually, it’s a very simple story with very simple lessons and yet, this parable has more confusion and misunderstanding than any of the others.
In fact, I would guess that if I didn't tell you what the alternative view was to what I'm going to give you and you had never heard it, I don't believe you'd ever guess it. It's that unimaginable.
So lets just look at the lessons.
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The Power of the Kingdom is Great
That's the lesson. The power of the kingdom is great. A little tiny bit of leaven influences the whole mass of dough. The fact that the kingdom begins small doesn’t mean it doesn’t have the power to influence.
Therefore, the leaven represents the good influence of Christ, His kingdom, His gospel, His subjects in the world.
Now here is where the confusion enters. Some people think the leaven means evil and that what the parable is teaching is that evil is going to be in the kingdom permeating the kingdom. And the reason they believe that is because in other places leaven references evil.
But if that is what Jesus is teaching then we have some problems to deal with.
First of all, it doesn't fit the layout of the parables. Jesus dealt with the evil in the world in the first two parables. Now he’s dealing with the power of the kingdom to overcome that. So, it's inconsistent with our Lord's pattern.
Secondly, the verse says this, "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven." Now if I just asked you plain and simple what the leaven refers to based on that statement, what would you say?
The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, therefore the leaven refers to the kingdom of heaven. And you really don't have to be valedictorian to figure that out. It seems to be pretty obvious that the kingdom of heaven is like leaven which means that the leaven refers to the kingdom of heaven.
And in that sense He is seeing the kingdom of heaven in its good sense. The kingdom of heaven is good and its influence is that which makes what it influences better as leaven does with bread.
Now keep in mind, those who make leaven evil do so because everywhere else in the New Testament leaven always refers to evil. Therefore here there must be consistency. And they will say that Jesus even uses it to refer to evil.
I want to take issue with that. Leaven inherently never refers to evil. That is not its intention. Someone says, “What about Luke 12:1, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy."
The leaven is not so much the hypocrisy itself as the influence that it has. Leaven is only an analogy that illustrates the ability to permeate and influence. The leaven is neutral. It can illustrate good or evil. It’s just a picture of permeating influence.
So the point of using the leaven to describe the hypocrisy of the Pharisees was that the hypocrisy of the Pharisees effects them the way leaven effects bread, it permeates everything they do. That's very important.
And if you take leaven any further than that, you've destroyed its analogy. It’s not an analogy of evil.
You never find the Bible saying, “Evil is like leaven.”
When the Bible wants to talk about something that's evil it calls it darkness, or blackness.
But when the Bible needs to illustrate the power of influence of the ability to permeate it uses leaven,
And in that regard, the Lord uses it to illustrate a good, positive thing here in Matthew 13. He’s talking about the power of the Kingdom.
Here’s the second lesson.
2. The Influence of the Kingdom Comes from Within
God has to plant His leaven inside the world. The reason He lets the two grow together is so that we can influence. This is the time for men to be saved. This is the time for Christianity to do its work.
I think about that little tiny piece of leaven that was planted in the incarnation, that little babe in Bethlehem, that little piece of leaven plunged into the world and ultimately will dominate the world, ultimately every knee will bow and here we are extensions of that same eternal life.
Christ dwells in me. The life of Christ in me is in the world leavening and leavening and leavening and the influence moves and moves and moves. It's incredible!
We don't need political position to do it. We don't have to be the President of the United States.
We don't have to have the organization of the government to do it. We don't have to have laws and guns and soldiers and march and dominate the world with Christianity. We don’t have to occupy Wall Street. We can just begin to move from a small beginning.
It's incredible, isn't it, how Christianity moves in its influence?
You know, before the Lord returns, it says in Matthew 24:14, this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world. It's going to extend, it's going to go and permeate everything. And then, finally, our Lord will come and set up His kingdom.
Let me close with these thoughts. This is tremendous. Do you know where Christianity has gone from its little tiny beginnings?
Now I realize that not everybody who names the name of Christ is a Christian, but did you realize that 2.1 billion people in the world identify themselves as Christian? That’s 1/3 of the world’s population. That’s more than half a billion more than Muslims.
And whether people realize it or not, they are blessed by the presence of Christianity in the world. They're nesting in its branches somewhere. They are made better by the presence of the leaven. Think in terms of schools and hospitals and relief organizations and resources. The influence is just incredible.
And I know it's distorted here and there, but nonetheless the kingdom has moved through the world. And our Lord's word is true.
The estimates are that there may be as many as 150 million Christians in China. It’s amazing what’s happening there. There may be as many as 1,600 new church starts a week taking place in China.
Do you realize that when the church met in Jerusalem, it took them seven years before they established the first mission church in Antioch? And now 1600 hundred a week in one country alone.
Ninety-five percent of the population of the world has all or part of the Bible in their own language. And ninety percent of all the tribes on the face of the earth have had the opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Isn't that amazing? The influence of Christianity.
So, in spite of the weeds, in spite of the birds that snatch the seed, in spite of scorching sun, of persecution, there's some good soil. In spite of the tares that have been oversown, the wheat is going.
And with all this evil opposition, the mustard seed grows and the leaven influences.
It sums up really what our Lord said in Matthew 16:18, He said this, "I will build My church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it."
Isn't that exciting? Christ is building His kingdom. And the day will come when it all climaxes and as we are told in the Revelations, "And the seventh angel sounded and there were great voices in heaven saying, "The kingdom of this world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever."
That's where it's going ultimately. Christianity will win, Jesus will reign, evil will be destroyed, evil men will be sent to eternal hell and the kingdom will come in its eternal fullness. What a hopeful, hopeful parable. Next time, we're going to find out how you and I appropriate personally the kingdom in our lives.
Bow with me in prayer.
