Northside Church - Sydney
Kingdom of Heaven 2011 Week 2: Like Cooking With Yeast
He was listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Like, it's so like, he was like, yeah, I was so like, it's going to be the most central word in a teenage girl's vocabulary. He was like, yeah. And this funny little word has incredible power depending on the efficacy of the words that follow it. I don't know about you, but if you've never had the opportunity to go to a certain place, I didn't as a kid, I didn't get to go to the Gold Coast. My brothers and sisters did, they got to go to Movie World, they got to go to Dream World, and the first question that I asked when they came back was, what was it? Like, and you know how it is when you have to explain, you're not worried about the peripherals, you're not worried about colors, you're worried about communicating into central nature. Most importantly, you want to hear from someone that's been there. Christianity is unique in the sense if there is anyone that's ever been there. If you've ever asked yourself deep down the question, what is heaven like? If there is anyone that has ever been there, if there is ever the uniqueness of Christianity, Christianity says, in the beginning that the word was with God and the word was God, Christianity says even Jesus himself says, "Father, I want to give them the glory that I had with you before the world began." If ever there was a person in this entire world that had an understanding of what heaven was like because he's been there, it's Jesus, and it's that person, not a teenage girl, but others, the words like. The kingdom of heaven is like. And in his sheer brilliance that preaches young and old, I could learn a few lessons. In his ability, in his wonder, as the smartest guy that ever lived, he's able to take one of the most abstract, unimaginable, unknowable concepts in religions around the world and bring it down to that it's like yeast. When you say like, you want to get across the essential nature, you don't want to worry about the peripherals. What Jesus is saying, tell us this morning, is that the kingdom of heaven is like a hidden organic power. How do we get it? What does it do to us? Well, first of all, what we see from this passage is that you need to receive the yeast. The kingdom of heaven is a power, and that's the context of how it started. Jesus was teaching. He had some great teachers, had some great words. A crowd's are beginning to follow him, but as the crowds gathered around him, he begins to do some incredible things. He starts healing people. He starts casting out demons. That's what throws the crowd into a spin, because they say, "How can this guy do this?" He's casting out demons. Is it from God? Is it from Satan? He talks about a kingdom divided. Jesus might have had teachings, but what got these people was the fact that he had power. Jesus came with teaching, but he came with power. You see what the greatest barrier to us is Christians in receiving this power is cross the entity. I'm not talking about the New Zealand church. What I'm talking about is a Christianity that goes like, "This may be you've experienced it as well." People that say, "Look, Christianity is a nice set of ideas, and I know how that can work, and we go to Bible study, and we get this bit, and we like that bit, and we build up this spiritual exoskeleton of right words, and right doctrine, and right sayings." Sir Paul in 1 Corinthians 4, 20 says, "The kingdom of God is not in word, but in power." You see, what he's saying is it's possible for you to accept Christianity as an idea. It's possible for you to accept Christianity as a religion. It's possible for you to accept Christianity as wonderful ideas and beliefs. You can even defend it. You can accept it intellectually, but you can't accept it as a power. That's what he's saying. You receive it as a great idea, and it is an incredible idea that God himself would break into the world to redeem it, to restore it to how it was meant to be. That is an incredible story that movies are made out of, but it's an expression of power. Now there's a power. You're saying, "What do you mean?" Here's a question. Do you ever look back at your life? Those of you that call yourself a Christian and say, "There are things that have happened to me in my life." There are ways that I've acted. There are things that have happened. There is no way that I can explain that in the natural realm. Is that true of your life? Can you look at your life and say, "How can that be?" In spite of natural forces, you've received the power. What is this power? It's a power from outside. It's not only a power, but it's from outside. You've received it. The power, the kingdom of heaven, and the message of Jesus saying, "You must have received this power. This new life from outside." That's the way the Bible describes it. First Peter, chapter 1, verse 3 says, "In his great new mercy, great mercy has given us a new birth into an inheritance that never fade, spoil, or perish." Then, of course, Jesus' discussion with Nicodemus in John chapter 3, he says, "You must be born again. You must be." Only one of the few must that Jesus ever says in the Bible, and we hear that. We say, "You must be born again." That sounds exclusive. That sounds judgmental. Jesus wasn't being judgmental, he's just being real. He's saying, "You either have got this power, this new life, or you don't." Jesus was explaining to this learned intellectual, the one who knew the right words and the right doctrine, that the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, is a spiritual reality, and you must be born again from it. You must receive this new life from outside of you, and the same way, it's the difference between leavened and unleavened bread, that's bread with yeast or out yeast. I mean, you can talk to the doe that doesn't have any yeast in it, and it might have great desires to rise, but you must have yeast in it if you wish to rise. Jesus is saying the same sort of thing, what he's saying is one will grow, and in comparison, the other one is essentially dead. He might still have the right nutrients, the organics, but it's essentially dead. See, he's the problem for professional Christians, and I'm not talking about ministers. I'm talking about Christians that say they're a Christian. It's that the message of the gospel, the kingdom, there's nothing we can do in and of ourselves to get this power. In other words, there's no self-raising Christians. Even Jesus couldn't do that, he was in the two for three days, couldn't pick himself up. God, the power of the kingdom came from outside him and resurrected him. You get on what I'm saying? It's a power from the outside. No matter how much you want to say, the kingdom of heaven, it's not in word, but in power. Self-raising Christians. What it means is you don't take Christianity up, Christianity takes you up. There's a new life, a hidden power from the outside, and so if it's from the outside, my question this morning, first of all, is, are you seeing this in your life? Do you have this power? Do you want this power in your life? How do you get it? Well, you've got to bust the crust. That's what you've got to do. The greatest barrier to receiving it, essentially, in the heart of Christianity, is human pride. We've all got to deal with it, we've all got to go through it. There has to be a softening, there's got to be a process, there's got to be a receptability to the yeast that comes into the dough. Human heart says, "I'm okay, yep, I got it. I know what you're talking about." Even if you're a Christian, you heard this one, now you've got to have that malleability of Christians, not someone that has this self-prescribed set of teachings. They're a person who has received a hidden power from the outside into the very center of who they are. So you've got to receive the yeast, and that's available to you this morning. The second one is you've got to believe the yeast. The irony here is that Jesus' audience didn't know the specifics, that yeast was little microorganisms, and I could do some real hermeneunical damage by trying to draw these analogies about little microorganisms in the dough, and that's not what we're going to go this morning. What we want to see is what Jesus was trying to get across here is, first of all, that when you introduce this agent for change, they expected hidden growth. Woman takes the yeast out of one batch of dough, and you have to keep the dough over there on the side of the house. She did it into the unleavened dough and the entry expected growth, and so we don't know how to explain it. It's a mystery, the growth's a mystery, but it happens, and so it is with Christian growth. I always say to the guys, it's a Pantene Pro-V principle. It won't happen overnight, but it will happen. So what we see is that Christianity is a growing power. It's a hidden power. It's a growing power. Now, it's not an explosive power. Look at seeds and yeast. They don't explode. They dribble. They percolate. They permeate. They work. They take time. They're a living power. They're organic. They're a living thing. If you take the seed, for example, and I'm going to still grow and start off the next week, but go and throw a seed against a slaver cement. It's not going to fare pretty well. But any of you that own a house, go and chuck one for a gum tree underneath your driveway and give it a bit of water and see what it does to that slaver cement 20 years later. The thing's going to push up. It's going to crack. It's going to send that slab into mayhem. See the power of the growth? That's the power of gradual growth. Seeds and yeast are organic and they bring out life and the slabs are inorganic. So sometimes we approach Christianity like that, particularly as young guys. We want to get a Christianity where like cement and life's problems are just going to come and hit us and crack off us and we'll be supermen. One of the great benefits of being in an intergenerational church like this is you see many mature Christians and the hardships that they've had in life. In a way that's affected them and hurt them but there's an organic growth. The problems don't smash. There's a power from within them that eventually overcomes them. That's what I love about it. You see instead we've got a hidden power inside of us of this inevitable and this gradual and this secret growth. Christianity is a growing power. So believing the yeast means you expect gradual growth but here's the other thing. The gradual growth. It doesn't destroy the flower. It doesn't destroy the dough, it transforms it. It transforms it into its nature and so it is with God's purpose for your life when you come to believe in Him through faith in Jesus Christ. And so yeast is exactly that principle that comes into the dough and it begins to work from the very inside out from the very inner parts of it to the very edges and in the same way God's new life comes into you that way. That's the promise of what God of what Jesus is saying through this passage. What he's saying is that Christianity is not something that replaces your personality. You don't have to come in and start smiling widely and using funny words when you first believe. No, this hidden growth is injected into you and so you still have your personality. You still have your little nuances. You still have the way that you get angry at certain things, like the way the toothpaste is on the left, not the right hand side of the bathroom when I go to brush my teeth but that doesn't matter. You see what I'm saying? When this growth comes into you it means that it begins to transform you from the inside out. So you become not a different type of human but you become more human than you ever have been before. Wow. And so the attributes of God's his holiness and his love and his strength and his courage become ever more real to you in the mature Christian. Things he never cried about you cry over. Things he never laughed about you laugh harder. That was a life of Jesus, fully God but fully man, emotional living, breathing. So that's a goal of growth, that we'd be in his likeness and that the goal of growth is that God's desire is that we desire what he desires. And you hear that and you say, well that's acting like a spiritual dictator. You must believe. You must do what I want, I'm telling you to do. Now let me put it this way. If you had a kid that was using a knife as a slippery dip, wouldn't you want to just put your arms around your beloved child and say, "Honey, you can't use a knife that way." If you've got to use it for its right purpose, God says to you this morning, "I'm not trying to be a spiritual dictator. I'm just trying to show you how to use your life in a way that's not going to hurt you." God's purpose of Christ-like transformation is to demonstrate how we're really meant to live. Dallas Willard puts it this way, "To lose our will in God's will is not to have no will of our own. Instead, it's for the first time to have a will that is fully functional, not a war with itself, incapable of directing all of the parts of the self in harmony with one another under the direction of God." It's not a spiritual dictator. You're just showing how life is meant to live. If you don't get, the transformation is a central part of believe post-salvation, that that is the purpose of the Christian life, then we're in trouble. You see, if you just see Christianity as forgiveness for your sins, and that's true. That's what it's about. If you just see it as getting a golden ticket to the Willy Wonka factory when you die, then if you see it like everyone else, then it's just about the love of God and how he forgives, which is all true and it's wonderful. But if you see it that way, if that's all you have, if that's who Christianity is all that you really have there, the God is going to forgive you, then Jesus becomes your worst possible nightmare, merely an example. You see, because you look at his life, and you look at the Beatitudes, and you look at blessing the neighbor that is the person that's persecuting, trying to love the neighbor as yourself, and you think, "There's no way I can do that." Jesus becomes an impossible example to achieve, but if this growth is God's power, God's life in you, the Holy Spirit, the Christ power that comes into you, then you're a Christian. What's transformation? And transformation's like, unlike any other religion in the world, where our leader and our figurehead is not just an example, but the very power of the transformation himself. Wow. And so he's also the model that we're changed into, not destroyed by his power through his spirit working in us. How does that happen? Not overnight, but it will happen. You see, it's mixed all the way through the day. What this parable is saying to us is, "This kingdom life, it's mixed all the way through, and it's not a passive power." If I go and chuck yeast onto a concrete slab, but nothing's going to happen, just there's a unique symbiotic relationship between the Christian and his spirit that begins this process of active partnership in the kingdom life. It's not something you just say, "Hey, I believe," and nothing happens. You actively step into the kingdom life, you engage it. How one of the obvious things to do is you draw certain key portions of scripture into your mind. That's just a start, just an example. If you went on that in the greatness and the beauty of God, watch how that begins to change your thought life in the way you think, in the way you live, in the way you breathe. What I'm trying to say, if you've received the yeast, don't know what to do next. Well, essentially, you've got to know that the dough can grow. And if you don't know that there's the purpose of the Christian life, then I want to give that to you this morning. The kingdom of heaven is like a hidden power that transforms us from the inside out. So finally, there's actually two meanings to this parable, two for the price of one. It's a hurt parable, shampoo and conditioner. In an amazing twist, an amazing twist, Jesus is saying not only this hidden power enters your life, but you are a hidden power in the world. Look at the imagery, the woman entering a yeast into a large mix of dough. When you look at it, it was about 22 liters of dough. I'm thinking she must have had a huge family. I would have been like 30 loaves of bread. I guess the principle that he was trying to say here is that even the smallest amount of this change agent into its surrounding environment can have a positive effect in the long run. It means that the kingdom message is going to gradually permeate the world. That's what happens in Acts chapter 1. Remember Jesus resurrected Jesus, comes back, talks with his disciples. He's got 12 little clumps of yeast around for 40 days. Was he teaching you about? Is teaching you about church planting strategies? Is he teaching him how to politically overthrow the Romans? No, it says that he was teaching him about the nature of the kingdom of God. Look at how central this was to Jesus' ministry. I'm thinking if I came back from the dead, and I had just a couple of more days with the boys, I'd really want to get the key message across. His message was clear, repent. Think about your thinking, think about your life direction for the kingdom of heaven. Is it hand? He's broken it into the world. That's what happens. And he sends them out into the world, these little pockets of yeast, and that's what we are. That's what I was thinking, because I love making bread. I thought, that's how it all works. And so I realized, what are we doing here on a Sunday? We're going to come to realize that the church is not a bread maker. It's not something where we come here, we add all the ingredients in, and we get cooked up when we develop our own little crust of how we do church, and how we do community, and how we think, and how we act, and just getting all our five little bits of theology happening. The last thing that we want to do as a church is turning to cross the entity. So the church is not a bread maker, it's a yeast factory. And Jesus didn't have the sort of benefit of low-end, whole-food yeast back in his days. He couldn't hold that in the container, instead he just had to keep introducing sloppy little bits of dough all around the place. But it had the change agent with inside it, and so there you go, Phil, you can have a bit there, mate. That's what you can be doing this week. Hold all that for me, that's a great OH in this. I'll clean it up, I'll ring, I swear, I swear. We're not a bread maker, we're a yeast factory, we're not here to put people into certain molds, is what I'm trying to say. We're here to build a culture and create a culture that's going to transform our culture. Means the church, like every other good bread machine, is a proving house. You have to wait for ages and ages for allow this yeast to work itself through the dough and for it to rise and be ready before it's baked. It's a place of storage, this for this little yeast factory. So we may be introduced to the world around us, the unleavened culture around us. How does that happen? We're going to start firing little rockets of yeast out into the world and that sort of stuff. No, it already is happening. Take a look at this picture up here on the slides. What's that? Oh, there's little green dots. That's our church. Every dot represents you or one of our families. We've seen the center of Sydney there and also our community church doesn't reside on the corner of Paul Lane and Oxley Street, there's little bits of yeast all through this city. The message of Jesus Christ in his kingdom is that Sydney can be turned upside down by a few amount of people that simply want to partner with the kingdom of God and do life his way. Where do you sit in that? And that's what I ask you this morning. See, there's yeast in Waverton, there's yeast in Northmead, there's yeast in Marubra, there's yeast in Potts Point, there's yeast in Belres, there's yeast everywhere in our church. More sites, not a bread maker, we're a yeast factory and now God's purpose is to place us in our surrounding culture. Why? Revelation 22 verse 5 says, "There will be no more night, there will be no need of the light or a lamp or the light of the sun for the Lord God will give them light and they will reign forever and ever." Not just a spiritual exercise, this kingdom of God stuff. Now that's saying, it's saying one day this reign of God, the kingdom, life his way, how it's meant to be, true humanity, gospelized humanity, rescued humanity. One day won't just be little patches from Parramatta to Penrith, Waverton through to Wild Beach, life as it's meant to be, true humanity will be everywhere, there will be a day in which God's reign is everywhere. And so simply for you and I, we're simply just to be agents in partnership with God for the redemption of the world back to how it was meant to be. Moving the kingdoms here, the kingdoms coming, you can be part of it. The kingdom of heaven is like a hidden power that transforms the world. So I'm going to challenge to you this morning, what's the yeast you can do? Now that is, guys, you've seen the picture, you've seen it there, you understand what the true nature of our church is, and what way this way through one example, invite a neighbor around for dinner, maybe scrap your point with your Christian friend and hang out with your non-Christian friend. Your workplace. I don't know, I'll let all these scriptures reveal that to you. There is one thing that you can do, to actively partner with the kingdom that is already present, the God that is already working in this world, to invite people into a life of how it's meant to be. The kingdom of heaven in 2011, you know what's really funny, it's the same kingdom of heaven in the year 11, or 111, or 111, and it'll be the same kingdom in 2011, and 4,011. You see, the kingdom of God is from everlasting to everlasting. It's always been, it always will be, it's the eternal rule or reign of God. And through that person of Jesus, he breaks into a fallen humanity, a world that's not quite yet what he wants it to be. But the only one that's ever been there, the only one that's ever been on the other side, the only one that's ever got the authority and the experience to say it says the kingdom of heaven is like, it's like yeast, an unstoppable hidden power that penetrates you so you can penetrate the world, the kingdom of God is a hidden power, is that true of your life this morning? Do you have that hidden power? Is it true? Is it a reality for you? You see, you can walk in here without it, or you can walk out of here within it. And I offer that invitation to you, just as Jesus said, this kingdom is right in front of your face this morning, through faith in Jesus, you can receive this power into your life. You can be changed, so you're never the same again. What do you need to do, bust the crust, know the dough can grow, and simply be the yeast. The kingdom of heaven is like, that's prime. [BLANK_AUDIO]