Well, post the death and resurrection of Jesus the Apostle Paul would say this about the powerful effect of the Kingdom of Heaven in us…
Romans 8:11 says;
“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.”
- In other words we have a powerful agent of change in us!
- The same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead now lives in us giving us life!
- So today we are going to look at how the good news of the kingdom changes us, how the gospel that lives in us changes us.
- How the work of Jesus and his Spirit is powerful to transform our very lives!
Hey, just a quick recap… we are doing a series on the parables of Jesus in which he uses simple stories to explain the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven!
- Remember, we have been saying that the coming Kingdom of Heaven was Jesus main message.
- He has come to redeem and transform our lives and world by establishing the reign of Heaven here on earth.
- So we’ve seen how valuable it is to find the Kingdom
- We’ve seen how it grows in good soil
- We’ve seen how it is multiplied by its citizens using what is entrusted to them
- And we’ve seen that it is a Kingdom of Mercy… to us (prodigal son) and through us (the Good Samaritan)…
So today… how the Kingdom of Heaven as it comes to live in us, transforms us…
- (And I am going to keep saying this) It is a powerful agent for change…
- So one of the shortest parables is found in Luke 13:21.
- It comes after another short parable, the mustard seed which is about how the Kingdom grows from a small seed into a great tree…
- So if that is the external effect of the Kingdom… many come to find a home in it.
- Then today, the internal effect of the Kingdom in us!
In Luke 13:21 Again he (that is Jesus) asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to?” It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.
Old Joke about heaven and hell with Europeans…
HEAVEN is where: The police are British, the chefs Italian, the mechanics are German, the lovers are French and it’s all organised by the Swiss
HELL is where: The police are German, the chefs are British, the mechanics are French, the lovers are Swiss and it’s all organised by the Italians!
- My office in London… stereotypes are kind of true! (explain them all)…
- Undoubtedly the nationalities that we come from shape who we are…
- We are going to have traits develop in us because of the different kingdoms and cultures that we come from…
So firstly, the Yeast
Well, Jesus, says the Kingdom is within you… a citizenship not of this world… but of heaven…
- Clearly Jesus came to establish a new nation of people that transcended the usual ethnic, gender and economic divisions…
- It was God coming to rule through his son…
- So, as we have been saying, Jesus inaugurates it though his ministry – demonstrates a kingdom of compassion and power and grace and truth!
- Jesus called people to align their lives with this new kingdom… come and be a citizen of heaven on earth!
- Well, this kingdom (say Jesus) is like yeast that works through dough…
- A powerful agent that transforms us from within.
The picture Jesus uses is from a simple domestic scene where a woman mixes some yeast into flour and eventually the whole dough is transformed.
- This little but powerful agent yeast is like the Kingdom, in that it completely transforms what it gets into…
- Does that make sense? Maybe there aren’t a lot of bakers here today?
- So just like being a citizen of Australia shapes who we are
- In a much more powerful way… our allegiance to Jesus, deeply transforms us
Bread was a staple of their diet and they knew a little yeast gets in the dough and causes change. The dough rises… the outcome with and without yeast is very different.
- Now this parable comes just after Jesus has taught the ethics of the Kingdom in the sermon on the mount
- It comes after multiple healings and deliverance from evil…
- And it comes after the sending out of his disciples to preach the kingdom and demonstrate its power.
- He is saying the kingdom is a powerful agent for change…
So what does Jesus transform? Yell out? Oooo interactive… what areas of our lives?
- Ideas: Money (finances), sex (faithfulness), power (serve), speech (gossip)
- Compassion (mercy for neighbour), friendship…
Well, what can people tell about you by the message of the Kingdom that has gone into you?
- How have these things been transformed?
- After all, if you are anything like me you have been taking a bit of Jesus every Sunday and hopefully throughout the week, for quite a while now…
- The Gospel – the kingdom of God should spread through us and do its thing…
- Now yeast takes time… but it does its work!
- So what would these things we have written up look like transformed?
- Remember what it says in Romans 8: The same powered that raised Jesus from the dead now lives in you!
Now here is my question – why is that so hard?
Author Ron Sider; “By their daily activity, most ‘Christians’ regularly commit treason. With their mouths they claim that Jesus is Lord, but with their actions they demonstrate allegiance to money, sex and self fulfilment.”
- In other words the yeast has not affected the dough.
- Right? After all Jesus said a tree is recognised by its fruit?
- A question then is, is the kingdom shaping us, or are we shaping the kingdom to fit in around our lives…
So secondly, the culture we are in
One of the things that obviously makes this a challenge is the prevailing culture we find ourselves in
- If you’ve done some studies, you’ve probably heard of Post-modernity – the idea being that in our culture everything is relative, ethics are situational, truth is defined by the individual
- There is no meta-narrative… no grand story to which we are a part of…
- Jordan Peterson talks about the erosion of the meta-narrative substructure in our lives/culture
- Jonathan Haidt – Anome (no normal)
So when it comes to our beliefs and values we can pick and choose what works for us…
- And that affects the church and us Christians too… we end up with muddled thinking and thus messy lives…
- ICMS students: what is the spirituality, values and stories that guide you… silence!
- Power of attraction… wishy washy version of Karma…
- But basically what that means is you make your values, worldview up as you go along…
Maybe this is never seen more dramatically than when it comes to the old trio of money, sex and power!
- If money is to be used ethically and generously, we find ourselves building bigger barns and cutting corners to get there…
- If sex is to be enjoyed in faithful marriages between men and women, we find ourselves having had multiple partners, prone to unfaithfulness and having no limits to what is regarded as normative these days…
- And if in the Kingdom power is to be used by serving and being just and compassionate, we find ourselves in a culture of toxic relationships, control and abuse!
- But in a post-modern, post-Christian world anything now goes…. It’s anome!
- Oscar Wilde ‘the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it.’
- So what is shaping us? The kingdom at work within us, or the culture around us?
So what is the issue? Is it with the yeast or the dough? With God, or with us?
- When our lives don’t work out the way we hoped, what is going on?
- I want to suggest the yeast, that is the kingdom is not the issue… it leads to freedom, to abundant life, to whole relationships…. Gotta be convicted of that!
- It is us the dough… and not inviting the kingdom to do its work inside of us!
- You cant expect the benefits of following Jesus if you are living in blatant disobedience to his truth.
So maybe the key focus becomes the prayer Jesus taught us, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done”.
- “Kingdom of God come like yeast in dough and transform me.”
- What we are asked to do by Jesus is to recognise and line up with the values and way of the Kingdom.
- More of your kingdom God… coming in our lives
- More of your character…. More of your heart… compassion, wisdom, justice, grace…
- More of the truth shaping how I live and treat other people
- More of the same power that raised Jesus, living in me!
My professor Darrel Johnson has this wonderful phrase – Gospelised humanity
- He was describing a life for which the Gospel has run deep and what that will start to look like and do in you. Does that sound good?
- It was Darrel’s life – deeply good man and transformed and people flocked to him.
- So you hear the good news and it takes a hold of your life! It consumes who you are!
- He was talking about what a human life and human community look like when they come under the rule of God.
- You meet these people right – I wish we met more!
- All flawed but gosh we need to surround ourselves with yeasty dough!
See when the gospel gets hold it is not necessarily about trying hard to be good and nice…
- You know… argh… change, change, change…
- It is about following Christ and allowing him to be in control of your life…
- How often do you actually stop and consider your actions or thoughts, and whether they align with the kingdom?
So at work you are asked to do something unethical… what kind of a citizen of heaven are you? You can say, that ain’t me!
- Or people are gossiping and slandering colleagues… remove yourself, or stand up to it…
- You are married or in a relationship… and someone begins to flirt with you…
- A bonus arrives… you can buy a better car or give some away generously…
- You are at a dinner party and the conversation gets a bit sexist or racist or dirty… change the subject…
- It is letting the message and life of Christ to get in you and spread all around
- All of a sudden there is something new in you and it is changing your very fabric…
That is why Jesus will say the kingdom of God is within you!
- Other kingdoms, cultures are applied externally – these are the rules and regulations and expectations for fitting in…
- But Jesus’ kingdom is not forced upon you, but invited to work within…
- This is what we see in the Gospels when people encounter Jesus.
- In other words… the change will occur not because you are externally forced to do something…
- But because of a change of heart! Not conscripted into an army…
- Indeed it is going to be the Holy Spirit, God’s presence in you that brings change!
I guess that is what I like about Zacchaeus story – he has a deep ingrained selfishness and greed that runs deep through him… you know it?
Luke 17… the tax collector who climbs a tree to see Jesus… hated as a traitor by his countrymen…
- Zacchaeus encounters Jesus and transfers what is in control over him… over to a new Lord…
- Look Lord… he says… and the very next thing is he pledges to give away his excess wealth and repay those he has robbed
- I wonder how many people would have tried to shame him into changing…
- How many times had Zacchaeus tried to change his life… (argh – change!!!)
He is not forced or told to change his life… but through being loved, through encountering Jesus, a change of heart leads to a change of life!
- That is why the Apostle Paul will say; “God has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves.”
- Zaccheaus is under new management… the yeast, the kingdom, Jesus has got in. Christ now lives in him.
Well just as I finish… how does the yeast work?
Becoming a Christian can feel like unscrambling an egg… welcome to Manly!
- Indeed Manly is the home of the scrambled egg…
- Often by the time people come to follow Christ, or to follow him seriously…. There is a lot that is out of alignment with the Kingdom!
- But Jesus is going to take the messed up bits and if we allow him to have control – put us back together again.
You see, the opposite of being transformed by Jesus is a broken, selfish life???
The life that Jesus lived and calls us into also has an antithesis…
- The opposite of forgiveness is a life of bitterness and anger
- The opposite of a life of generosity is a life of selfishness and greed
- The opposite of a life of hospitality and community is a life of loneliness…
- The opposite of sexual faithfulness is…
- You get what I am saying right…
So we want to change, not just because the Christ like life is good, but because the Christ-less life is terrible! We want the yeast of the kingdom to come into our lives and work though every part!
- Meet way too many people who the only thing I would wish upon them was a whole lot of Jesus
- Have to have the conviction: Sin holds us captive, Jesus sets us free…
How do we get the yeast to do its thing? The old phrase for this used to be Spiritual Formation!
Word in you… (Eat this book)
- bible in a year,
- Life Groups…
- devotionals…
- college…
- church…
Spirit in you…
- conviction
- empowerment…
Action… discipleship happens along the way!
- Start giving…
- or start showing mercy…
- or start changing your speech…
- encouragement not tear down…
Community… this is blessed!
- You got to be in the church!