SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/16/2022 9:38 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
PT-3 “The Parable of the Leaven”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matthew 13:33
Message of the verse: “33 He spoke
another parable to them, "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a
woman took, and hid in three pecks of meal, until it was all leavened.’”
As
one looks at the Exodus found in the book of Exodus they will see that it
becomes clear that after the seven restricted days, that the children of Israel
were once again allowed to make leavened bread—however not from Egyptian
leaven. MacArthur adds “At the Feast of
Pentecost, in fact, the bread offered to the Lord had to be ‘baked with leaven’
(Lev. 23:17), which He would hardly have required had leaven intrinsically
represented evil. Otherwise that feast
would have been a perpetual reminder of God’s tolerance of evil rather than of
His holiness and goodness (v 21).” “17 ‘You
shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave
offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine
flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the LORD.” 21 ‘On this same day you shall make a
proclamation as well; you are to have a holy convocation. You shall do no laborious
work. It is to be a perpetual statute in all your dwelling places throughout
your generations” (Lev. 23:17, 21).
Now the term leaven can incidentally represent
something that is good, evil, or morally and spiritually neutral, and this
depends on how it is used. However the primary analogy
pertains to pervasive influence, which is leaven’s most obvious and
distinctive characteristic.
Now
we move into the third lesson found from this parable and that is that the
positive influence of the kingdom comes from within. The leaven has to be hid in order to have any
impact. MacArthur adds “The idea here is
not that of hiding so as not to be seen but rather of hiding in the sense of
penetrating deeply, completely permeating the world as leaven completely
permeates the dough. Christians are not
to be of the world, but we are to be in the world, because that is the only way
the gospel can reach and affect the world (John 17:14-16). Christ sends His people into the world just
as the Father sent Him into the world (v. 18).
The supreme purpose of the church is to ‘go into all the world and
preach the gospel to all creation’ (Mark 16:15).” “14 “I have given them Your word; and the
world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of
the world. 15 “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them
from the evil one. 16 “They are not of the world, even as I am not of
the world.” “18 “As You sent Me into the
world, I also have sent them into the world” (John 17:14-16, 18).
MacArthur
continues “When the kingdom of heaven is faithfully reflected in the lives of
believers, its influence in the world is both pervasive and positive. The life of Christ within believers is
spiritual and moral leavening in the world.
A Christian does not have to be a national leader, a famous entertainer,
or a sports figure to influence the world for his Lord. It is the power of God’s kingdom within a
believer that makes his witness effective, and that is the influence on the
world that Christians should seek to have.”
As I read this quotation it makes me think of the fact that Christianity
has influenced billions of people around the world, and not just those who have
become true born-again believers, but also those who live in places of the
world where the gospel is freely spread.
As one thinks about our own country and think about its beginnings we
can see how much the gospel of Jesus Christ has influenced it. Our laws use to be based on the Ten
Commandments which made this country a wonderful place to live. I realize that as we come closer to the time
when Jesus Christ will rapture His Church out of the world that things are
going to become much darker as the world is being prepared for the seven year
tribulation period headed up by the unholy trinity of Satan, the Antichrist,
and the false prophet, but right now because of the effectiveness of the gospel
and the true church which has the Holy Spirit in it there is a great influence
for good, but once the true church is removed then that influence will be gone
because it is my belief that those believers who will come during the
tribulation period will not have the Holy Spirit in the way the Church has it,
as these last seven years of earth will be like the Old Testament times as seen
in Daniel’s prophecy from the ninth chapter of his book. With all of this said it is a good time, a
very good time to pray for a Holy Spirit revival to come upon the believers of
this world to bring about the last believers who will come into the true Church
before it is taken out at the rapture.
Now
as we have been looking at these parables in the 13th chapter of
Matthew’s gospel we see that as we move through it that the disciples will
asked Jesus the meaning of certain parables, something we will begin to look at
in our next SD, but they did not ask about the meaning of the parable of the
mustard seed or the parable of the leaven, so perhaps we can assume that they
understood those. Now the obvious
purpose of the mustard seed and leaven parables was to encourage the disciples
and all subsequent believers. I know
that they have been a great encouragement to me.
In
his commentary MacArthur speaks about the influence of the gospel in China even
though worship of the Lord has to be done in secret. As I think about evangelism I can’t help but think
about a new program that Baptist Mid Missions of Cleveland, Ohio has going on
which is called “Pray 938” and the reason for the title is what we find in
Matthew 9:38 “"Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers
into His harvest.’” BMM is a mission
agency that just celebrated its 100 year anniversary in 2020, and the reason
that I am so familiar with it is because many of the people who work there go
to our church. It is a very wonderful,
and a powerful work for our Lord. If you
desire to go through this 30 days of prayer for sending more people into
missionary work. You can search out BMM
on Google and then in the search part of their website you can then search for
Pray938 and begin to pray that the Lord of the Harvest will send workers into
the field.
We
have to remember that when our Lord went back to heaven as seen in the first
chapter of Acts that there were only 120 believers in the upper room, and they
must have wondered how the message of the gospel would begin to spread, but
through the power of the Holy Spirit when we come to the end of the book of
Acts we see that the gospel had spread throughout the Roman Empire. The book of Acts is sometimes called the word
of the Holy Spirit, and it still is going on today.
MacArthur
concludes this section by writing “But Jesus’s purpose in these two parables,
as in many other teachings, was to assure the apostles, the early church, and
every believer in every age that ultimately His kingdom not only would not fail
but would prosper and grow. Christianity
will win, evil will be destroyed, and Jesus will reign. Christ Himself is building His church and the
very ‘gates of Hades [death itself] shall not overpower it’ (Matt. 16:18).”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: I am thankful for the great encouragement that
the parables found in the 13th chapter of Matthew has truly blessed
my heart, and am happy that I can share it with all those who have the
opportunity to read about it on my blog as each day there are somewhere around
150 views from people around the world, something that I praise the Lord for.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust the Lord to use the things that I
have learned from my study of the Word of God to be used by Him to bring glory
to His Son, my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
4/16/2022 10:38 AM
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