He wanted to refute error. I mentioned a few moments ago that many of His friends and disciples wanted Him to establish an earthly kingdom complete with the overthrow of the oppressive government upon them. They desired the elevation of the nation of Israel above all other nations.

Yet after two years of preaching, they still didn’t understand the kingdom. He had gone throughout Judea, Samaria, and Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom. But, they still didn’t understand. He wanted them to see the Kingdom of God in its reality, not according to their dreams, hopes, and illusions.

He wanted to reinforce to them the truth about His Kingdom and about Himself as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He wanted to comfort and encourage His disciples who were following Him, that they might grasp onto the truth.

What conclusions can we draw from this parable?

This parable authenticates the nature and character of God, and it identifies the culmination of His promises, prophecies, and covenants in the person of Jesus Christ.

You will recall that we have examined a number of studies starting in Genesis, looking at creation, Adam and Eve, Noah, and some of the early characters described for us in Genesis. As we examined creation we saw that when God made the earth, He made it perfect, without sin. No sin inhabited the garden when He created Adam and Eve and assigned them the task to monitor, to keep, and to care for the garden.

Adam and Eve, however, sinned when tempted by the serpent. They disobeyed God’s command and sin entered the garden. God had not made any promises to them as to what He would do if they disobeyed him. Yet, when they disobeyed Him, He promised to them a champion, a Savior. One would come and crush the head of the serpent. He described him as the seed of the woman who would come and crush the head of the serpent so that mankind, through the Savior, would find relief from sin.

Throughout the Old Testament God promised this Savior. Many prophecies described the Savior, and God even made covenants throughout history as recorded in the Old Testament. He made a covenant with them in which He agreed to send them a Savior.

In this parable of the leaven and the flour, Jesus confirmed to His disciples and authenticated to them that God had kept His word. In faithfulness to His word and in grace God culminated His promises, covenants, and prophesies in the person of Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus wanted his friends and the people of Israel to understand that He, the Son of God, came and fulfilled the covenant and would establish a new covenant which the Old Testament predicted would come. Jesus wanted them to see the truth and reality of the kingdom.

What difference do these truths make?

Do they make any difference to you and to me, 2,000 years later, after Jesus gave this parable? The same reasons that Jesus gave the parable in the first place fit our day as well. The realities that this parable reveals to us in picture form refute fallacies in our minds as well. We misunderstand Him. We mischaracterize Him. We view Him only as a good man, a prophet, a misguided political leader, not the King of Kings, God’s Son, whom the father sent to fulfill His promises. Just because we live 2,000 years away from the events doesn’t mean we don’t have fallacies about Christ, because we do.

Along with that, He can reveal to us the truth concerning Himself and His Father, the trustworthy one. We can trust His declarations recorded in Scripture.

Jesus called upon His followers to believe Him. “Trust me, the Son of God, Whom God has sent. Listen to me, follow me, obey me. I have the words of life.” He repeated it over and over again, wanting to draw people to Himself, to discover in Him the reality and the fulfillment of God’s promises.

How then should we live?

We have a duty, as God’s creation, to honor our Creator: to worship Him, to obey Him, to heed His warnings, to listen to His declarations and teachings recorded for us in His word, and to trust Him. It can follow somewhat the following pattern.

Jesus called mankind to repent and believe the gospel. We repent and turn from our helplessness. We turn from our unbelief about God, His Son, and our sinfulness which He has made known to us. We don’t like to view that aspect of ourselves. We don’t like to examine ourselves in that fashion.

We like to view ourselves, in fact, as pretty good. Yet the declarations of God, as given to us in His word, contradict that conclusion. He describes the reality of our condition: sinful creatures helpless to satisfy God, our Creator. We can’t fulfill it on our own.

We need supernatural help. We need help from God, and He has declared to us that He would provide that help. That help has arrived, Christ Jesus, His Son. Jesus came and said, “the kingdom of God is at hand.” Jesus provides the ultimate fulfillment of God’s revelation to mankind. We now cast our trust and confidence upon Him.

This trust doesn’t say, “I believe that Jesus lived.” It goes beyond that. It even goes beyond simply believing His good character. He showed Himself as more than a good man. He lived a sinless life.

It goes beyond that to the fact that He became the Substitute, the sacrifice on the cross on behalf of sinners like you and me. So, you and I, in faith and confidence upon Jesus Christ, can now come to the Father through a substitute, Jesus, His Son. Through the sacrifice that He made on behalf of people like you and me we can satisfy the Father.

No solution other than Jesus Christ exists. I call upon you to trust God’s provision today. When you do, you will find relief from your guilt, freedom from sin, and reconciliation with God the Father.

I pray that the Holy Spirit will take the truths of this simple parable, the woman who took a lump of leaven and put it into a batch of flour, and apply them to your life. The expression of that leaven throughout all of the flour describes for us how the kingdom of God operates. It describes for us how the Holy Spirit puts in us a new life that grows, and penetrates our thoughts, and our imaginations, until it captivates the totality of our being.