Sermons
A Little Influence Can Do Wonders
Sun, Nov 03, 2019
Teacher: Tom Blackford Series: Sunday Sermons PM - 2019 Scripture: Luke 13:20-21
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A Little Influence Can Do Wonders
Luke 13:20-21
INTRO:
Good evening. We continue our look at the parables.
I read about a market research interviewer that was stopping people in a sports store after they picked up their items.
The interviewer approached one customer and asked him, "Sir, would you be willing to answer a couple of questions about your choice of trainers?"
The man responded, "Yes, I'd be happy to." "Thanks," the interviewer said, "the question I'd like to ask then is: Do you feel that your choice of trainers has been at all influenced by their company advertising program?"
The guy looked shocked and said, "Of course not. I'm not influenced by that sort of thing at all!" "Well then," said the interviewer. "Could you tell me just why did you choose Nike trainers?" "Of course, I can!" the man replied, "because I just wanted to.”
Tonight, we are going to look at “The parable of the Yeast,” which is found in Luke 13:20-21. Jesus is still teaching about the kingdom of God and in this parable, He shares a lesson from something He probably saw Mary doing time and time again. Bread was made at home in Palestine during this time and everywhere you went you would see women making bread. Everybody knew about the little piece of dough, which had been kept over from a previous baking. This “starter” as we call it today, contained some live yeast and was added to new dough where it would feed on the sugars, multiply and produce a gas which in turn would cause the dough to “rise”. This is a fermenting process which changes the flavor and texture of the baked bread.
Let’s look at some other things to set the scene and keep the parable in its proper context. In Luke 13:10 and following Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. Jesus saw her and called her forward and then healed her on the Sabbath. The ruler of the synagogue was not happy because Jesus had healed her on the Sabbath and Jesus rebukes him.
In Luke 13:18-19 Jesus compares the kingdom of God to the mustard seed, which we looked at before. In verse 18 of that parable Jesus says; “What is the kingdom of God like? And to what shall I compare it?” It’s in verse 20 where Jesus again asks, “To what shall I liken the kingdom of God?”
Let me ask you this question. Has anyone ever said anything to you which has highly offensive? A Scottish preacher related this incident. He said; “I was driving a couple of saints to a Bible study one evening, and while we were in route a car pulled out right in front of me and I said a word that highly offended my passengers.” He said he would not say what it was because those people found it offensive. But he said; “It was a word which Scottish people use all the time, but where he was in England it has a different meaning.” He apologized and said he never used that word anymore. He offended someone without realizing he was doing it.
When Jesus told this parable, it would have highly offended those who were listening. He says in Luke 13:21 – “It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.” We might be thinking well, what’s the big deal? He’s talking about yeast.
To understand why they were offended we need to enter the mind of the Jews again.
In Jewish thinking, yeast or leaven is almost always connected with an evil influence.
The Jews connected fermentation with deterioration and rottenness, and yeast stood for that which was evil.
For example, in Matthew 16:6, when Jesus is speaking to His disciples, He says to them, “Then Jesus said to them, "Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.''”
In 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 Paul says to the Corinthian Christians; “6. Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7. Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are unleavened. For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. 8. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
In Galatians 5:9 Paul says to the Galatian Christians about those who are distorting the truth; “A little leaven leavens the whole lump.” “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough."
In our own day we have similar sayings such as “one rotten apple spoils the whole basket”. Now we can understand why the Jews would struggle with this parable.
They would be thinking how the kingdom of God could be compared to yeast.
How can God’s kingdom be compared with evil?
Remember when God spoke to Moses and Aaron about what the Israelites were to do in preparation for the Passover? He told them in Exodus 12:8-10 – “8. 'Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9. 'Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire its head with its legs and its entrails. 10. 'You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire.”
To ensure that there was no chance of the bread picking up yeast, one of the ceremonies in preparation for the Passover feast was to remove every bit of starter or leavening from the house and burn it.
I suspect that Jesus chose this illustration of the kingdom deliberately. Imagine if you were a Jew and you were there listening to Jesus, there would be a certain shock in hearing that the kingdom of God is compared to leaven. That shock would arouse interest and get attention, as an illustration from an unusual and unexpected source always does.
It kind of reminds me of the story about a man named John, who was a fantastic salesman. John had a great job and made lots of money. How? By going door-to-door selling ready made signs. The sign he sold read, "No salespeople allowed." He had a job that everyone hates and turned it into something everyone wanted.
Jesus spoke of leaven in the good sense. He described the women using it for the purpose of making light and flavorful bread. Now that we understand the background to this parable, I would like to share with you 3 things about this parable of the leaven.
I. The first one I would suggest is that the leaven of Christ works from the inside out. Those of you who are bakers and make your own bread will know exactly what I’m talking about. When you are making bread, you know that yeast will not work well unless it is mixed through. Sprinkled on the surface does not work very well nor very quickly. It needs to be mixed in and it does its work from within. It must get mixed inside the dough to make the change into something good.
A. Christianity works the same way, doesn’t it? The influence that changes a person works within a person’s heart.
1. We are living in a very materialistic country and people are trying to change themselves all the time.
2. Some women go for surgery to improve their looks.
3. Some men go to the gym to work out to have a better-looking body.
4. What people fail to realize is that a new house, a new job, better material things only changes the surface. You can have a million dollars in your bank account, but you will still be the same person.
5. You can change the external things about your life, but your heart will still be the same.
B. When you look at some of the poverty-stricken countries, you can’t help but feel sad in your heart for them, and every now and then we will send them some money to help them out.
1. There are advertising campaigns on TV, where they say things like “$1:00 will feed this family for a week.”
2. Please don’t misunderstand me here, I’m not saying we shouldn’t help, we should.
3. What I am saying is that a poverty-stricken nation may receive food and clothing and better housing, but that nation will not really be changed until it is changes something within.
4. There is the adage if you give a man a fish, he will eat for a day but if you teach him to fish he will feed himself for a lifetime.
C. The task of Christianity is to make new men, not new things.
1. Jesus said in Mark 7:21-22 – “21. "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, 22. "thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.”
2. It’s not the outward things that are the root problem, folks. It is the condition of the human heart that is the problem. In other words, once new people are created, the new world will follow.
3. A person is not converted unless they are converted within. A person is not converted unless their heart is changed.
4. Christianity is like yeast. It’s not on the outside trying to get in but growing on the inside until it shows the goodness of God.
5. Proverbs 27:19 says; “As in water face reveals face, so a man's heart reveals the man.”
II. That brings me to my second point. There’s real quality in the transforming power of yeast. Did you know that when yeast is put into the baking meal, it changes the ingredients? It does. What happens is that the dough is turned into a bubbling, mass. Some of the sugars are consumed and C02 along with other substances that affect the flavor are added. The dough mass grows, it is stretched inside, filled with gas bubbles and its shape is forced to change.
A. When Christ and His kingdom are introduced to people, great changes take place. That’s because Christianity is a disturbing thing. It makes changes in people and that disturbs people.
1. Remember in Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were arrested for healing a slave girl who could predict the future? The Bible says in Acts 16:20-21 “20. And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, "These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; 21. "and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.''”
2. What is he telling us? The Gospel of Christ upsets people and some people don’t like it.
3. Again, in Acts 17 when Paul and Silas went to Thessalonica preaching Christ. In Acts 17:5-8 – “5. But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too. 7. "Jason has harbored them, and these are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying there is another king Jesus.'' 8. And they troubled the crowd and the rulers of the city when they heard these things.”
B. When Christians talk about the Gospel, sometimes people get very angry. Why do they get upset?
1. I think we find the answer in Hebrews 4:12 – “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
2. They get upset because God’s word exposes their sin. People like to think they are perfect in what they do. Everything they do is wonderful. In their hearts they know better. Sometimes you don’t even have to say a word about God but because they know you are a Christian, you’re exposing their darkness, and people don’t like being exposed.
3. John 3:20 – “For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”
4. Exposing someone’s errors makes them very uncomfortable. There have been exposés on TV over the years about this. I recall one, I believe on the BBC, called “Cowboy Builders”. The show sets up something like a sting operation, equipping a house with easily solved problems and hidden cameras. Contractors will be called in by the homeowner and some will easily and inexpensively fix the problem. Then there are some that, for example, may tell the homeowner with a toilet problem that their toilet needs to be replaced for $350 when the fix would only cost about $20.
5. What that program does is expose those workers who are con artists. People do not like to have their error exposed and some have reacted very badly.
C. But there is the sort of person that Christ can help, because when Christ comes into a person’s heart, that person becomes a new man or woman.
1. In Colossians 3:1-4 Paul says; “1. If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” Paul says when a Christian lets the leaven of Christ work in them and through them, they start to think differently about things. They think differently about themselves and the world they live in.
2. Jesus said to them in Matthew 20:25-28 – “25. But Jesus called them to Himself and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise authority over them. 26. "Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant. 27. "And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave 28. "just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.''”
3. What is Jesus saying? He’s saying that when you become a Christian your ideas change you get new ambitions about your work and service. Instead of trying to get to the top by worldly ideas, you understand what is important and what serving means.
D. The leaven of Christ is so powerful it can take a person like the apostle Paul who said that he was the worst of all sinners and turn his life around. He can take anyone, no matter where they are from or what they have done in the past, and He can take these people and totally transform their lives. How does He do that?
1. I would suggest we look at 2 Corinthians 5:14-17 – “14. For the love of Christ constrains us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; 15. and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. 16. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”
E. Christ changes us because His love compels us to change. He has told us that whoever becomes a Christian is a new creation. If you’re a new creation that means the old has gone.
1. When you allow Christ to influence your life with His words, you will be amazed at the results. Jesus Christ can change someone who is willing to allow Him to change them. What are the results of a changed and transformed life?
2. We had studied this in the a.m. sermons last June, Galatians 5:22-24 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.”
3. The leaven of Christ is powerful folks, there’s not a person on this planet that it cannot turn around. There’s nobody you have ever met or will ever meet who cannot be changed by the word of God.
F. Why do you suppose in preparation for the Passover one of the ceremonies was to remove all leaven from the house and burn it? Because yeast is aggressive. When yeast gets put into the mixture it doesn’t stop until it has spread through the whole mixture. Yeast left anywhere near dough being prepared it likely to find its way into the mix.
1. Jesus is comparing the kingdom of God to this leaven. That’s how the kingdom of God spreads. Think about Jesus’ first disciples, other people brought them to Him.
2. In John 1:40-45 John records that; “40. One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. 41. He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, "We have found the Messiah'' (which is translated, the Christ). 42. And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, "You are Simon the son of Jonah. You shall be called Cephas'' (which is translated, A Stone). 43. The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found Philip and said to him, "Follow Me.'' 44. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.''”
3. In other words, Andrew found Peter and Philip found Nathanael, and from then on, the number of disciples just grew and grew and grew. The early church followed in the same pattern and multiplied by leaps and bounds. When you think about the Lord’s church, it is very much in the soul winning business, or should be. We are reps for Jesus Christ and the only way the church can do its business is for every single member to be a soul winner for Christ too.
CONCLUSION:
We have seen this evening that yeast as used in the Scriptures for either good or bad.
A good example is contagious like yeast, but a bad example is also contagious.
In the news some years ago they were telling us about the super bug MRSA. (mersa)
Remember that? It is a type of staph bacteria which was spreading throughout hospitals but to a certain degree they managed to control it and keep it contained in the hospitals.
Jesus said that God’s kingdom is not like that. You cannot contain it.
As it grows and spreads like yeast and it cannot be contained because God’s people just can’t help but want to tell others the news concerning Jesus Christ.
Even today, just over 2000 years later people are still giving their lives to Christ and God’s kingdom continues to grow.
The question you need to ask yourself this evening is this: Is your influence contributing to that growth? As we have opportunity, I want to encourage everyone to ask people to join you in hearing a lesson. We are not responsible for them coming, but we are responsible for inviting.
It always comes back to your heart. God will not change a person’s heart, if that person’s heart doesn’t want to be changed. It doesn’t matter what is on the outside, it is the inside that counts. It’s the heart that matters.
1 Samuel 16:7 – “... For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
If your heart is not right with God, then today would be a good day to do away with that old creation and put on the new. As Paul says in Galatians 6:15 - “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is a new creation.”
If you are not a Christian, why not come to Christ and allow Him to begin to work in and through you today. If you are a Christian and something is holding you back take it to God and make it right with Him. If anyone has a need you are invited to come as we stand and sing the song of invitation.
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Reference Sermon
Mike Glover
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Chardon, Ohio 44024