Sermon Central
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Part 4 "The Leaven" Series
Contributed by John Mccaherty on Nov 19, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: part 4 of the series, power point available by email.
Mysteries of the Kingdom
Part 4
“The leaven”
Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.
Leaven?
There are a couple of philosophies out there.
One is that the leaven is the gospel, put into the world “hid in three measures of meal” by the church until the world is converted or “till the whole was leavened”
This goes against the symbolic meaning of leaven, including what Jesus said himself in Mt. 16:12 telling the disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
A converted world is a contradiction of what Jesus taught with the other parables, wheat and tares, and of the net.
Our Lord presents a picture of a partly converted kingdom in an unconverted world; of good fish and bad in the very kingdom-net itself.
Philosophy #2
The growth of the kingdom of God is by sowing of seed, not by the mixing of leaven.
Scofield notes that Leaven is the principle of corruption working subtly; is invariably used in a bad sense. and is defined by our Lord as evil doctrine
Meal, on the contrary, was used in one of the sweet- savors offerings. and was food for the priests
Interpreting the parable by these familiar symbols, it constitutes a warning that the true doctrine, given for nourishment of the children of the kingdom ; would be mingled with corrupt and corrupting false doctrine
The leaven of the world
The world would have us to believe
There is no God
There is no consequence
There is no sin or morals
All will be saved, God is a loving God that would never send someone to a place called hell (that doesn’t even exist)
The Bible is a good book, full of nice stories.
That leaven will corrupt the church!
The Pharisee’s – believed in externalism, as long as they looked the part it didn’t matter what else they did.
The Sadducee’s- were skepticism as to the supernatural power of God and of the scriptures
The Herodians- worldliness was the goal, as much as they could get.
Funny how things haven’t really changed!
Pharisee’s- all external with no internal commitment to God, big pretty church’s, nice looking people but no heart for God, no passion for people.
Sadducee’s- new age churches that reduce the word of God to just a book to get guidelines from, not life changing experiences, not life changing miracles.
Herodians- Eat, Drink and be merry. Get all we can get.
Old leaven or new lump!
Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us:
What you focus on in life will be what you become in life.
If you follow the world, you will become like the world. The leaven will leaven the whole lump.
1 peter 1:16“be ye holy for I am Holy” calls for separation from the leaven (world)
The true Doctrine
The true doctrine of the Bible is
The sinfulness of man
The holiness of God
The quest of a loving father looking to have a relationship with His children
The sacrifice made
The decision
The decision
Live in the world, as the world and die like the world
Live in Christ as Christ lives in you, and separate yourself from the sinfulness of the world.
The day will come when you and I will come to the end of this life, what would people say about you if that day were today, have you affected the world or has the world affected you.
