Main Idea: I want us to understand that God’s rule starts small but doesn’t stop until it controls everything.

As we begin this morning we cannot help but remember the millions of people who have been affected by Hurricane Katrina. Today there are persons in our community who are new friends to us who have been displaced by this horrific and catastrophic storm. There are personal family members whose lives have been redirected as a result of this natural disaster. Our minds have been numbed by the shear power of destruction and devastation. Today our hearts join with you and others as we hear from the heart of God today.

Today I want to talk with you about the truth that "God Rules!" In spite of what has been lost or has changed there is one unshakable truth and that is that God rules over this earth, this tragedy and our individual lives. As our minds have been witness once again to the awesome power of nature we still confess that there is no power greater than God’s power. Yet where and how that power is demonstrated is something that begins in insignificant ways but doesn’t stop until it controls everything!

This morning I want to talk to you about the kingdom of God. It is something about which I have seldom preached. I use as the basis for my message the one sentence parable called the parable of the leaven. It simply reads, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast used by a woman making bread. Even though she used a large amount of flour, the yeast permeated every part of the dough." (Matt. 13:33) This one sentence parable is one of my favorites of our Lord’s parables because of its simplicity, power and scope all contained in only a few words. What it says is this: God’s rule may start small but doesn’t stop until it controls everything.

You and I are people uncomfortable with the terms of a monarchy. Kings, queens, princes, princesses, kingdoms and realms like "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy are all fairy tale phrases to our mind. We are intrigued by the affairs (literal and figurative) of the British Royal family and find it strange for there to be such interest in an institution that no longer has any true power or authority. So when we come to the Bible and we read or hear the words about the kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven it leaves us unimpressed.

While our American 21^st century minds struggle to identify the New Testament shows us that the idea of the kingdom of God was at the very heart of the teaching of Jesus. This expression is found in sixty-one separate sayings in Matthew. John the Baptist proclaimed it, "Turn from your sins and turn to God, because the Kingdom of Heaven is near." (Matt. 3:2); Jesus’ earliest announcement, "The time has come… The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" (Mark 1:15); the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, "your kingdom come" (Matt. 6:10); in the Beatitudes, "for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:3,10); at the Last Supper, "I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God" (Mark 14:25) and in many of Jesus’ parables (Matt. 13:24, 44, 45, 47; Mark 4:26, 30; Luke 19:11).

If this was so important to Jesus why does it not mean more to us? Or better, what does it mean to us? That is what I hope to answer today as we discover three key principles about God’s rule. This verse tells us that God’s rule conquers without our control, belongs where it isn’t wanted and continues until it conquers completely.

The first thing that we see is that God’s rule conquers without our control. Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast…" (Matt. 13:33a) The first thing we need to understand is what Jesus talking about when he says, "The kingdom of heaven". Quite simply it means the rule of God. We might say God’s kingly rule or sovereignty. The kingdom of God was the central focus in Jesus’ preaching and his ministry. In His parables Jesus spoke of the kingdom in many different ways. What did Jesus mean when he spoke of the kingdom of God? He meant, quite simply, the rule of God. The kingdom of God is the reign of God. He did not mean a geographical area such as the Holy Land or the Temple or a political entity such as the nation of Israel. He was not even speaking of a group of people such as His disciples or the church. Rather, the kingdom of God is God’s ruling. It is the sovereign reign of God.

Now one of the hard things to understand about the kingdom of God is exactly where it is and when it is going to happen. Jesus speaks of the kingdom as being within those who followed him and he also described it as something that was yet to be established in an outward, literal sense. What we must understand is that for Jesus the rule of God was both something already done but not yet realized. It is in one way already here, for God’s rule has been set up in human hearts wherever there are Christians, it has been set up in the church, and it is seen in different pockets of our world where the gospel has transformed a people’s way of life. On the other hand, it’s obvious that God’s rule hasn’t been completed because there are still places where the lives of people are yet to be transformed by God’s power. It’s already here but not yet!

God’s rule is just like that. It is already completed but not yet realized. That’s why Jesus describes it so simply by saying it is like leaven or yeast. He is referring to the fungus used to make bread. It’s the powder that comes in that packet from the grocery store or the "starter" that a friend gives you to use to make sourdough bread. The yeast or leaven has a power of its own. When you place it in the flour along with the other ingredients it begins to do what it is supposed to do without your control or mine. It seems insignificant, yet it makes a world of difference. It works silently, invisibly, contagiously and totally.

The force of Hurricane Katrina boggles the mind. The power of nature to undo in moments what took years for humans to design, plan and construct is humbling. The levee system around the city of New Orleans is such an example. The system was designed to withstand a Level 3 hurricane. It took years of human power to create and construct. It took moments for level 4 Hurricane Katrina to destroy. It was a power that we could not control.

The natural force of a hurricane is still nothing compared to the power of God! What Jesus says to us is that God’s rule conquers without our control. God’s plan to conquer this rebellious world, our very human church and our own sinful lives is ultimately something out of our hands. Our planet can resist His rule but He will still conquer. The church of Jesus Christ may be seen as weak and inept but God’s rule will prevail. The individual Christian falters and fails to be all that we want to be but His rule over, in, and through our lives still conquers. It is already now but not yet. Regardless of what we see or say God’s rule conquers without our control.

Now having said that God’s rule conquers without our control, this verse shows us that God’s rule belongs where it isn’t recognized, wanted or realized. "Even though she used a large amount of flour, the yeast permeated every part of the dough." (Matt. 13:33b). That’s a pretty simple analogy. The image Jesus gives is of a Galilean woman who puts the yeast in the equivalent of about a bushel of meal. That amount was all that a woman could knead and the bread that resulted would feed about a hundred people. What you see is that the yeast is placed in a larger mass of material and because of its pervasive, penetrating, permeating power the meal is transformed into dough to make bread. Notice, though, that the substance—yeast—which has a power all its own, is placed by someone else into a substance that needs transformation!

You can understand how yeast changes flour into dough physically but where does this transformation begin spiritually? It begins when individuals respond to the rule of God in their own life. When you responded to the gospel, which is the message of God’s rule, you were transformed. Paul said in II Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold new things have come." We are changed people because we have surrendered our life to the lordship or rule of Jesus Christ. Then we become ourselves like yeast or leaven sharing that transforming power with those who have yet to be changed by it. Those transformed people gather into groups that we call churches and those churches begin to transform their places in the world. Soon, because of that transformation, a place untouched by God’s rule becomes the center of the rule of God!

In Jesus’ day there was no other power greater than that of Rome. Its influence reached to the farthest shores of the British Isles to near the borders of India. It controlled all of Northern Africa and vast portions of northern and central Europe. Yet when a baby was born to a Galilean peasant woman named Mary, whose husband was Joseph, in a stable in a forgotten village called Bethlehem, that empire’s transformation was a certainty. Where armies of men could not conquer the power of the cross of Jesus Christ would, for in less than 300 years Christianity ruled where once Caesar’s emblem controlled.

In spite of the horrible tragedy of Hurricane Katrina our minds have been reminded of the basic depravity of humanity. The looting that has occurred on the streets of New Orleans and other Gulf Coast cities has been sickening and terrifying. Some is understood but other instances is nothing but shear lawlessness and greed. The chaos has exposed the rebellious sinfulness of mankind on a scale that grips our soul. Law and order will be restored but still the truth of what our culture is really like has now been revealed.

While those scenes shake up our quite lives we need to see that as a picture of how God saw the world as he sent Jesus into it. We think of our selves as just nice people that Jesus came to make better. Instead we were lawless criminals to the rule of God. It was into this world that Jesus came to save and redeem, a world that resisted and rejected his presence to the point that it crucified him. Yet into that world he came and through his coming and his presence our lives are transformed. It is into that world that we are called to establish the kingdom of God. Jesus said in Luke 5:31-32, "Healthy people don't need a doctor—sick people do. I have come to call sinners to turn from their sins, not to spend my time with those who think they are already good enough."

You see, God’s rule belongs where it has yet to be recognized, wanted or realized. The transforming truth of the rule of God is to be taken to the very places we think it is least likely to be found. That means in the heart of a person in our neighborhood, the streets of a city in the United Stated or elsewhere or in a village in a Third World country. The rule of God is to be taken, told and used to transform.

We have said God’s rule is not something we control; yet it is something we are called to share. There is one more truth I find here and that is that God’s rule continues its transforming power until it rules completely: "the yeast permeated every part of the dough." (Matthew 13:33c). The amazing power of yeast is that it works its way throughout the flour until it completely changes the flour. That is what Jesus says that God’s kingdom, God’s rule, does—it doesn’t stop until it rules all! Again it is obvious that this is not yet true. There are places, people and powers that have yet to submit to His rule. It doesn’t matter, they will. Paul described it in I Corinthians 15:20-28 as an event at the end of human history that Jesus Christ will bring all things under the rule of God. He said, "For He has put all things in subjection under His feet…that God may be all in all" (I Corinthians 15:27-28).

It means that the rule of God will continue until He determines that the world has heard the story. Jesus said, "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14). I am thankful for the mission trips that I have been a part of serving. I have been to several Latin American countries as well as places in Europe. Our church has sponsored trips to several nations as well. Yet the crying need from missionaries is not for more volunteers to go on trips but for more men and women to plant their life in a place and establish the rule of God where that rule has never been planted! We cannot stop taking this gospel until the whole world has heard.

It means the rule of God will continue in the church until she is transformed completely by its power. Paul would write in Ephesians 5:27: "…that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless." John writes of this ultimate transformation in Revelations 19:7 as the church is at least ready for the final union with her Lord: "Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready." We as a people will be changed so fully that we will be all that Christ has determined we will be.

It means for you and me that the rule of God will continue to transform us until nothing is left that doesn’t look like Jesus! Paul would say in Romans 8:29, "For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren." John would write in I John 3:2: "Dear Friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." He is not satisfied until every part of us is transformed by all of Him. Ultimately, our Lord gets what He wants—all! All the world, all the church and all of me! He will not stop, God’s rule continues until it conquers completely.

God’s rule begins small but it doesn’t stop until it conquers all. That rule of God is out of our control, belongs where it is resisted, unwanted or unrecognized and continues until it rules completely. So what do we need to do?

• We need to stand in awe of such power!
• We need to see places His rule is needed!
• We need to stop resisting His control! He’s going to win!

Chris Rice has written a song about God’s rule that says:

It's the song of the redeemed
Rising from the African plain
It's the song of the forgiven
Drowning out the Amazon rain
The song of Asian believers
Filled with God's holy fire
It's every tribe, every tongue, every nation
A love song born of a grateful choir

It's all God's children singing
Glory, glory, hallelujah, He reigns
He reigns

Let it rise above the four winds
Caught up in the heavenly sound
Let praises echo from the towers of cathedrals
To the faithful gathered underground
Of all the songs sung from the dawn of creation
Some were meant to persist
Of all the bells rung from a thousand steeples
None rings truer than this

And all the powers of darkness
Tremble at what they've just heard
'Cause all the powers of darkness
Can't drown out a single word

When all God's children sing out
Glory, glory, hallelujah, He reigns
He reigns
All God's children sing out Glory, glory, hallelujah, He reigns"

That rule and reign starts with you and won’t stop until he is finished!

Sunday, September 4, 2005

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org