The Power and Influence of Christ's Kingdom, Part 2

Now in a spiritual sense, Christ is our Passover.

He has delivered us. And now that we've been delivered out of our old life into a new life, don't take any of that leaven with you. So leaven is not so much the definition of a sin as such, but of the permeating influences that come from our past life. Let's say you move to a new country. To thrive, you need to adapt to learn the language, learn the law of the land, and see how things are done. Well, when you become a Christian, your citizenship changes. Your primary allegiance is no longer to anything on this earth. So how do you adapt to a kingdom that's heavenly?

Whom do you learn from, and what can you study? As John MacArthur will show you today on Grace to You, in order to live in the kingdom, you need to obey the instructions of the king. And many of those instructions he gave in a series of simple but profound stories. Take a fresh look at those stories now in John's study titled, The Parables of the Kingdom. This is going to be like a Bible study lesson. And I'm going to take you into an interpretive situation that I think needs to be made clear. Because I believe that the parable we're to look at today, the parable of the leaven, has been greatly misunderstood.

Let's look at it. The parable of the leaven in verse 33. Now we've already looked at the parable of the mustard seed, and we've learned three lessons from it.

The kingdom will start small, it will become large, and the nations will ultimately enjoy its benefits. But now we're going to look at a very similar lesson in the parable of the leaven. Another parable spoke he unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. Now as always, our Lord picks his parables out of common life.

Very common life. As a boy growing up, he would have seen his mother do this many, many times. Make bread. And make bread using yeast, or leaven, or sour dough, as it's sometimes called. And this was a common occurrence in the home.

You take a new batch of dough, which is all prepared and kneaded and ready, and you take a piece of sour fermented dough from a former loaf, and you place it in that new loaf, and it foments and bubbles and permeates until it leavens the whole loaf and causes it to rise. And our Lord would have seen this as everyone would a myriad of times. This was something that every Jew would know, everyone would understand. It's not very difficult. What are the lessons? It's a very simple story with very simple lessons. And yet, I'm telling you, so far, of all the parables I've studied, people are more confused on this one than any other parable.

And it is so simple. 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. Well, I have several problems with that. Problem number one, it doesn't fit the layout of the parables. We've already dealt with the evil in the world in the first two parables.

Now we're 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 what? 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 what? Good class, the kingdom of heaven.

And you really don't have to be Phi Beta Kappa to figure that out. It seems to me patently obvious that the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which means that the leaven refers to the kingdom of heaven. And I have to believe that 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. At this point now, we want to keep in mind what is the major argument of those who make leaven be evil here. And this is their argument, that leaven everywhere else in the New Testament always refers to evil.

Therefore, here there must be consistency. And they will say, Jesus even uses it to refer to evil. Now, let me take issue with that. Hang on to your seat, those of you who have taught that way. Leaven inherently never refers to evil. That is not its intention.

You say, now wait a minute. It says in Luke 12, 1, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy. Listen, the leaven there is not so much the hypocrisy itself as the influence that it has. You see, leaven is only an analogy that is good when applied to permeating influence.

You understand? So the point of using the leaven to describe the hypocrisy of the Pharisees was that the hypocrisy of the Pharisees affects them the way leaven affects bread. It permeates everything they do. So that leaven is not an illustration of sin, it is an illustration of permeation.

That's very important. They were permeated with hypocrisy of which leaven is an apt analogy. So that the analogy is an analogy of permeation.

Now if you take leaven any further than that, you've destroyed its analogy. It is not simply an analogy of something evil. Now when the Bible wants to talk about something that's evil, it calls it darkness or blackness, right?

We see those terms for evil, the absence of light, because that's a sort of static definition of evil. But when the Bible uses leaven as an illustration, it's talking about something which permeates. That is the usefulness of that analogy. And I believe that's the way we have to see it here. It speaks of something that permeates.

Now may I add another footnote? And this is something you might, it might go right by some of you, but for some of you it'll be helpful. You don't take analogies and absolutize them into theological terms. In other words, leaven is only an illustration and does not have an absolute theological meaning.

You can't assign it an absolute theological meaning so that every time you have leaven you've got sin. I mean that's only an analogy. That's only an illustration. And you'll really have a lot of trouble when you get into the Old Testament and you get to the Feast of Pentecost and all the Jews are commanded by God to offer God leavened bread.

Now you've got a problem. Are they offering evil to God? You see, you can't do that with a simple analogy or illustration. So you've got to go beyond the term itself.

Its basic meaning is permeation. That is the analogy in its usefulness. And as you look in the New Testament, it's used several times. It's used of different sins, not just hypocrisy, but different things. It's used of legalism in Galatians 5, 9. It's used of immorality in 1 Corinthians 5. So it could be hypocrisy or legalism or immorality. It could be anything that influences, that permeates.

That's the reason leaven is used. It is only an illustration of that which permeates. So when you come here, you can't take leaven and give it an absolute theological meaning of evil. You have to use it as an analogy and it is an analogy of that which permeates. And there's just as much right to use it as an analogy of that which permeates for good as an analogy of that which permeates for evil, even though it may never have been used anywhere else in the New Testament as an analogy of that which is good. You understand what I'm saying? The Lord can still use it once for that. So you can't extrapolate off of the other uses.

Now let me give you another reason why. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 5. 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

And I'll just give you an insight that might help you to see this. Verse 6. Paul, in indicting the Corinthian church for their sin, uses the illustration here of leaven. He says, don't you know, verse 6, 1 Corinthians 5, that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. Now that is simply a proverbial statement. That's just a saying. It's a saying that's an excellent analogy.

You get a little bit of influence and it's going to mess up a whole lot of stuff. Now we have a very similar one that the Bible doesn't use. Our little analogy is one rotten apple what? It spoils the barrel. Only our analogy goes further because we've got what kind of an apple?

A rotten one. So it influences for evil. But leaven is neutral. It depends on how you want to apply it. Leaven really makes bread better. But it can be used to speak of anything that ultimately influences a large mass from a small beginning.

Permeating influence. But look at this. Now he applies this in verse 7. Here's how he uses the analogy. Purge out the old leaven that you may be a new lump. Now you've got a lump of dough, right?

Well what is he talking about? He's saying you're a Christian now. You're a new lump of dough, right? Don't put into that new lump leaven. Now where did that leaven come from? Come from an old loaf, right? So when you were baking bread back here, you took off a piece, put it aside and let it ferment and you stick it in that new one. You know what Paul is saying? You're a new creature in Christ.

Don't bring any of the stuff from that former life in to influence that new life. See what he's saying? It's a beautiful illustration. It's the illustration of continuity.

Cut off the continuity is what he's saying. Because when you bake bread, you bake this loaf, pull off a little piece, start the next. That's what's called, and people who bake bread talk about starters, don't they?

And you just keep one is coming from another. He says, cut it off right there and start here with a brand new loaf. In verse 7, rather, for Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, so let us keep the feast. Now he's talking in spiritual terms, not with old leaven, malice and wickedness, the stuff of our former life, but with unleavened bread. Now what is this all about? Boy, every Jew who read that would know. Christ is our Passover.

What does he talk about that for? Now listen very carefully. Back in Exodus chapter 12, don't look it up, just listen. God said you're going to leave Egypt. I'm going to take you out of Egypt, out of captivity, been here 400 years. And when you go, I want you to have a Passover feast.

Remember that? The angel of death will come by and the blood and the doorposts and so forth, you'll be safe. When the angel comes by and so forth, you'll be passed by, but I want you to keep a Passover feast to remember that the God of grace passed over you, spared you in mercy. Now, when you keep the Passover feast, use what kind of bread? Unleavened bread. And you keep that feast for seven days. Unleavened bread for seven days.

Why? Well, Exodus 12, 39 talks about the fact they had to leave in haste, but more than that, there was symbolism there as interpreted by 1 Corinthians chapter 5. What was the symbolism? You're leaving Egypt. Here's Egypt. You're leaving Egypt. You are a new people. You're going to a promised land. Don't make leavened bread.

Why? Because if you make leavened bread out here, where is your little lump of leaven going to come from? The bread you made where? In Egypt.

Cut off the cord. You see, the unleavened bread became a symbol of the disconnection from Egypt. Cut that off and after seven days, then you can begin again to make your leavened bread. And then in Leviticus it says, when you finally come to the time of the feast of Pentecost, Leviticus 23, then offer to me that leavened bread. Now if leaven was always sinful, there's no reason why God would have them offer it to him. And there's no reason why God would limit that unleavened bread thing to a seven day period. Because if leaven always meant evil, then they went through the rest of their life demonstrating God's tolerance for evil every time they made bread.

But you see, it was a point of continuity. And the reason that they were to cut off that leavening process was to symbolize that they were starting all over again with no Egyptian influence. They had a tough time letting go of Egypt, didn't they? They got out in the wilderness. They started complaining we want the leeks and the garlics and the onions and the... They must have smelled something awful with the stuff they ate in Egypt.

They wanted to go back and get all the stuff they had in Egypt. And the Lord wanted to cut that cord, you see. That was the whole point. Now when you come to 1 Corinthians 5, you understand what he's saying. Now in a spiritual sense, Christ is our Passover, right?

He has delivered us. And now that we've been delivered out of our old life into a new life, don't take any of that leaven with you. So leaven is not so much the definition of a sin as such, but of the permeating influences that come from our past life.

Don't influence your present life with the stuff from the past. So leaven speaks of that permeating influence. You know, the rabbis used to have sayings about that. The rabbis used to talk about the fact that leaven was not necessarily negative, but even positive. One rabbi said this, Great is peace in that peace is to the earth as leaven is to the dough.

See, they used it in a good sense. It was proverbial and could be used in any way. You might want to know another interesting little note. When a Jewish mother's daughter was getting married, the mother would give her gifts. And one of the gifts that a mother gave a Jewish girl was a little piece of leaven from the last dough made before the wedding.

And the girl was to start her first loaf in her new marriage with that starter from her mother. What did that symbolize? It symbolized that all the best, all the good, all the blessedness of that family was to be carried into the next family. And the passing of a righteous seed on to the next generation was symbolized in that very simple Jewish custom of passing on leaven to the daughter.

It speaks of continuity at that point. All I'm saying is that the way leaven is used in the Bible is very broad, and it is a very excellent analogy of permeating influence. And so we see that our Lord uses it, I believe, in that very same manner here.

Sure, it's used in the New Testament to speak of evil and its permeating influence, but are we saying that God can't use it also to speak of the influence of good, especially when He says the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, and especially when it's in a couplet of parables, which obviously are geared to show how the kingdom's power is extended as over against the influence of evil given in the first two parables? William Arnault has such a marvelous, insightful word on this. He said this, boldly, as a sovereign may, this teacher seizes a proverb which was current as an exponent of the adversary's successful strategies, and stamps the medal with the image and superscription of the rightful king. The evil spreads like leaven.

You tremble before its stealthy advance and relentless grasp. But be of good cheer, disciples of Jesus, greater is He that is for you than all that are against you. The word of life which has been hidden in the world, hidden in believing hearts, is leaven too. The unction of the Holy One is more subtle and penetrating and subduing than sin and Satan, where sin abounded, grace shall much more abound.

And what he's saying is so good. He's saying Jesus knew that they understood the analogy of leaven related to evil, and that they perceived the massive moving spread of evil. And what better thing to grasp that which they understood and say, and that's exactly how fast and how unstoppable and how penetrating will be the spread of the kingdom. A marvelous genius for imparting the truth of the spread of the kingdom. And so the leaven is the kingdom in the world. The mass of dough is the world, and from the inside it begins to bubble and boil. And you know, Christianity troubles the world in a sense, doesn't it?

It influences it for good, but it's sometimes painful for the world to endure it. I always think of what Ahab said when Elijah showed up and he saw him face to face and he said, is it you, you the troubler of Israel? And that's always the way the world reacts to the prophet of God. In Thessalonica they said these men that have turned the world upside down have come here also. And in Philippi they said these men are Jews and they are disturbing our city.

It's good. We've been disturbing people for 2,000 years. Isn't it incredible the results? You start out with 120 little disciples there, banded together in Jerusalem, and look today, millions across the face of the earth have been influenced by Christianity. Millions! To the point where all of the social advances, all of the legal and jurisprudence systems, all of welfare and education and art and music and everything reflects the influence of Christianity. All of the caring and the benevolent societies, all of those things that help the poor and give aid to those that are downtrodden and depressed and so forth, comes out of the Spirit of Christ put through the hearts of His people who are leavened in the world. If you don't think so, go to countries that have never known the touch of Christianity and see how they treat people. The world has been leavened.

It's been influenced dramatically, in an incredible way. What a hopeful, hopeful parable for the disciples so discouraged and distressed that the Lord wasn't bringing the kingdom in its fullness. What is going to happen with this little tiny group?

Ah yes, but He says you're like leaven. You're going to bubble and foment and boil and before it's over, you're going to permeate the whole thing. Second lesson, the positive influence of the kingdom comes from within. It 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. The world, and you don't think of it this way, but the world has been injected with eternal life.

And it's spreading. 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 I live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. I don't live, not I, but what? Christ living 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 from the inside. 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. No, no, we can just begin to move from a small beginning. I think about that first tape we ever made from one tape to another. Two little machines and make them one at a time.

It took the whole hour to make the tape. Each one. It's a small beginning. 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. So in spite of the weeds, in spite of the birds that snatched the seed, in spite of scorching sun, of persecution, of some good soil, in spite of the presence of the darnels over-sown, the wheat is going.

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 hold it in.

Isn't that a confident thing? Christ is building His kingdom. And the day will come when it all climaxes and it's indicated in Revelation and I read it to you. 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. This is Grace to You with John MacArthur.

Thanks for being with us. John's current study from Matthew 13 is looking at the parables of the kingdom. John, I was amazed at what you did in today's lesson.

Exploring the world of first century Israel and explaining all those cultural references in this passage, it takes a lot of homework to get all of that material down. And I know that's a process that you not only enjoy, but you believe that's necessary for anyone who wants to know exactly what the Bible means. Well, exactly what the Bible means is the whole point of the Bible. If you don't get what it means, you don't get the revelation from God.

Yeah, we say this frequently, but it needs to be said again. There is always an attempt among Bible teachers to bring the Bible into modern times. That's the opposite of what you want to do. You don't want to bring the Bible into modern times. You want to bring the modern reader back to Bible times. Because whatever it meant when God gave it, whatever it meant when he revealed it, when he inspired it, is what it means now. And in order to know what it meant then, you have to restructure the setting and the context. And so context is absolutely everything. That's what we call the science of hermeneutics, the principles of interpretation of Scripture.

Absolutely essential. So we take the time and make the effort to do that, not because it's particularly interesting, but because it's absolutely necessary to know what the Bible meant when it was originally revealed, because that's what it will mean forever. Its application obviously extends through all eternity.

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