sermonette: Dominion and Leaven (Part One)

Understanding the Kingdom of God
David C. Grabbe
Given 31-Mar-18; Sermon #1425s-PM; 17 minutes

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Within nominal Christianity, there is an idea, a movement, even as John was mentioning. Called Dominion Theology. The basic concept is that it is the responsibility of Christians to spread God's kingdom on earth, and then Jesus will return. In basic terms, the goal of this movement is political and religious domination of the world by those claiming to be Christian. As with many things in the world, this idea has also found its way in a form into the church. In some quarters, the focus has changed from the gospel of the kingdom that Christ will establish at his return to the urgent need to build an organization that is the kingdom of God and which will spread to all the world. Now some of the ideas that accompany this movement are quite bizarre, such as that Jesus will return but go away and then come back again in a series of dominions. Now these suppositions create a confusing rabbit hole, one which we will not try to straighten out. But in this onslaught of empire building, there have been some noteworthy casualties of understanding. Part of the collateral damage has been in some of Christ's parables. In particular, dominionists use the parable of the leaven to prop up their prophetic scenario. And that parable is our focus for today. In the parable of the leaven, Jesus states, the kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened. In this parable, the minionists see that the kingdom is mentioned, and they know that leaven spreads, and so to them this indicates that they should be spreading the kingdom and leavening as many people as possible until there is a suitable church kingdom for Christ to return to. And so today we are going to begin looking at this parable, which is only fitting for this week. As it turns out, we will not actually get to the leaven aspect until next Sabbath, but instead today we will focus on how Jesus speaks about the kingdom, and we will see that understanding the kingdom, as well as the setting, makes all the difference in comprehending this parable. There is only one Greek word for kingdom, and that is basilia. Its basic meaning is dominion, and so it's easy to see where dominion theology gets its name. However, the Bible does not always use the phrase kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven in the same way. Depending on the circumstance, it refers to different aspects of God's dominion. One usage of Basilia, God's dominion, is future oriented, and this is what we generally think of when we hear the phrase kingdom of God, and rightly so. The great hope of true Christians is that Jesus Christ will return to bear rule over the earth, and He will resurrect or change His saints so that we can inherit the kingdom and rule with Him. A second way the scriptures use Basilia is to is the present spiritual reality of God's rulership. God has translated us into the kingdom of His Son, even as we live out our lives in, but not of the world. The true church is an institution wherein God's dominion is evident, which makes the church a part of God's kingdom even now. But it is a present spiritual reality rather than a temporal civil or political power. A third usage of Basilia refers to Christ Himself, such as when he told the Pharisees that the kingdom of God was in their midst. We know that the head of state can represent a whole nation, and in the same way, Jesus is the king, and so wherever he is, the kingdom is. And there is another way that basilia is used, one that's often overlooked and yet critical for understanding a great deal of Christ's ministry. We can see this usage in the parable of the wicked vinedressers, which we find in Matthew 21, if you would turn there with me. Matthew chapter 21. The parable begins in verse 33, and I'll summarize it. It tells the story of a landowner who leases his vineyard to some vinedressers and then goes away to a far country. When vintage time comes, the landowner sends servants to receive the fruit from the vinedressers. But instead of recognizing the authority, the rightful ownership of the landowner, the vinedressers beat and even kill servant after servants. Finally, the landowner sends his son, but the vinedressers kill even the heir, and I will read Christ's conclusion in verses 43 to 45. Christ says, therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. Now when the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, plural, they perceived that he was speaking of them. Now this parable does not refer to the future establishment of the kingdom, nor does it refer to the church specifically. It's about a dominion that was already in existence and had been for a long time. The setting of this parable begins back in verse 23. This is one long teaching event, and verse 23 showed that Christ's audience was the chief priests and the elders of the people. Christ was speaking to the leadership of the nation, telling them what was going to happen. Coming back to verse 45, we see the reaction of the leaders. They could see that he was speaking about them, and it angered them enough that they were on the verge of violence. And so even though the chief priests and elders could not understand all the mysteries of the kingdom, they still knew that Christ aimed some of his teachings directly at them. Now the chapter break tends to obscure that Jesus continued speaking to the same leaders when he gave the parable of the wedding feast, which is in Matthew 22:1 through 14. That parable is also about the dominion of God, as it says in verse 2. In this one, the king sends out invitations in batches. Two sets of invitees decline this tremendous honor which describes the response of the physical nation of Israel. Verse 7 says that the king sent out his armies, destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. It's a foreshadowing of the destruction of Jerusalem 40 years after the gospel of the kingdom was rejected. And then a 3rd call went forth and some invitees finally accepted. This third group symbolizes those whom Christ would later give not only entrance to the wedding feast, but also authority. The apostle Peter was a representative of the spiritual nation to which God would give the kingdom. And Jesus told Peter, I will give you the keys of the kingdom. In other words, there would be a transfer of stewardship. In the parables of the wicked vinedressers in the wedding feast, we see another facet of God's dominion. Jesus considered the chief priests, the elders, and the Pharisees not only to be a part of the kingdom of God, but also that the kingdom in that usage was something that God would take away from them. They had a measure of responsibility over that national kingdom like tenant farmers because of their leadership positions within it. They wielded religious authority that Jesus openly acknowledged and that had its source in God. In the parable of the wicked vinedressers, the vineyard is the kingdom of God, and the vinedressers are those entrusted with its care. Jesus prophesized that there would be a transference of stewardship because the original caretakers were unfaithful. If you want to look these up later, Psalm 80:8-19 also shows the kingdom of Israel represented as a vineyard, as does Isaiah 5:1 through 7. These passages show that the kingdom of Israel was the kingdom of God at that time, though obviously not in its fullness. And similarly, the parable of the wedding thief evolve from a parable of the kingdom, and yet much of what it describes have to do with the house of Israel and specifically Judah. It's about the physical descendants of Abraham who are not acting like Abraham at all. But God told Israel even before she made the covenants. That you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. It was God's intent for Israel to be a kingdom from the beginning, and since it was under his dominion, it was his kingdom. There are numerous other examples that show that Israel was God's kingdom, and I'll mention just a few. When King David praised God in I Chronicles 29:11, he said, Yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head over all. And later, King Elijah refers to the house of David as the kingdom of the Lord. We sang Psalm 114 this morning. Thank you, Bill. And it says in verse 2 that Israel became God's dominion. From all this we can see that Israel was a substantial part of the kingdom of God. It was a kingdom that had its origin and authority in heaven. It was his dominion. At the time of Christ, the kingdom was still in existence, but it was in an unusual configuration. Its royal line was in the British Isles and its throne was not in Jerusalem. Some of its subjects were still living in the land, and they were looking for a savior, a son of David, someone of the royal line, to return the kingdom to its glory. And this is why after Christ's resurrection, the disciples asked, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? Today we tend to think of the kingdom primarily in terms of Christ's return, though we also know that the church is under God's dominion right now. And yet there were times when Christ referred to the kingdom in terms that were national, and so we must as well. With this understanding, we have a key to unlocking some of the parables that really make some things fit into place. This usage does not apply to all the parables, though we still must compare scripture with scripture to see where it fits and where it does not. Now remember our object here is the parable of the Len, which is in Matthew 13. If you would please turn there with me. Matthew 13 is an unbroken continuation of Matthew 12. We will not go through that, but the parables in chapter 13 come on the heels of a confrontation between Jesus and the Pharisees. It was the time when Jesus healed a demon possessed, blind mute, that's found in chapter 12, verse 22. The subsequent exchange of points and counterpoints between the Messiah and the malicious caretakers of the kingdom leads up to chapter 13. We'll start reading in verse one. It says on the same day, Jesus went out of the house, it's actually a synagogue, and sat by the sea. Notice this And great multitudes were gathered together to him so that he got into a boat and sat and the whole multitude sat on the shore. Then he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Now while it's easy to read over this introduction, it's vital for grasping Christ's message. There are 8 parables in this chapter, and these verses show that Jesus spoke the 1st 4 parables, including the one about the leaven, to great multitudes. And Matthew really seems to want to make this point clear because he repeats it. He underlines who Christ's audience is down in verses 34 to 36. Matthew 13:34, it says in all these things, the first four parables, Jesus spoke to the multitude, and without a parable, He did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world. Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house, the synagogue, and his disciples came to him, saying, Explain to us the parable of the terrors of the field. And so Matthew gives us a dividing line here. Christ spoke the first four parables to the multitudes, the physical kingdom, such as it was at that time. And then when he was alone with his disciples, he explained two of the parables, and he also gave 4 more parables to them. When he preached to a general audience, he was speaking to the remnant citizenry of the kingdom of God because his words were directly applicable to them. Christ was the perfect man, and he always spoke words that were fitting for the occasion. Even though the people could not grasp the full depth of what he was saying, he was still responding to and speaking about the state of the nation. You've especially speaking about their leadership, those continuing to reject the dominion of heaven. The divine landowner wanted his fruit, and he had sent his son to collect it, but the intractable vinedressers were resisting even the sun. Christ's teachings apply on multiple levels, and yet we must understand the primary meaning before seeking other applications. The complete scope of the kingdom was far greater than what the people of Galilee and Judea could grasp, and yet Christ was still speaking words that were relevant to them. The king had a message for the subjects of the physical kingdom. He was actually giving a testimony against them. The 1st 4 parables, including the Len, describe aspects of that kingdom which the Most High God would take away if there was not repentance. Each parable of the 1st 4 is a distressing commentary on the state of the kingdom. And so in the parable of the sower he speaks about the deplorable soil conditions he had encountered whilst while preaching. In 3 out of the 4 scenarios in that parable, nothing good was produced. The gospel was only sporadically taking root. In the next parable, he warns that even where there was growth, there were also foreign plants, terrors that looked like the true plants. He identified these impostors in verse 38. As it says, the sons of the wicked one. Now he used the same descriptor for the Pharisees. He said the devil was their father, which makes them the sons of the wicked one. Both Christ and John the Baptist called them the offspring of vipers, sons of the serpent, sons of the wicked one. And so he identified the terrors before the church even existed. Now we know that there certainly is an application of this for the church because the epistles warn about false prophets and false brethren. But Jesus was pointing out something for the multitudes to consider, because these things were happening right then. These 1st 4 parables of the kingdom exemplify what it says in John 1 that the Son of God came to His own and His own did not receive Him. They rejected what he had to say, and he instead focused on the budding spiritual nation, those the Father had called to him. That nation, our nation, has the same faith as Abraham rather than the same blood as Abraham. Jesus described that spiritual kingdom then in the last four parables when he spoke only to his disciples. And so the 1st 4 concern the kingdom as it was at that time, while the last 4 are about the spiritual kingdom into which God has translated us. As for the parable of the Levin, you can probably see where this is headed. The Word became flesh and dwelt among his people. And he saw and experienced the effects of leavening, corruption, sin everywhere that he went. That kingdom had become all leavent. God-willing, we will pick this up next Sabbath.