Pray for Your Church: Impact (3)
Another parable He spoke to them: “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till it was all leavened.” Matthew 13.33
Inherent transforming power
Baking day is a delight. For me, anyway. I don’t have to do all the work. I just enjoy watching the process, smelling the aroma of bread baking, and chowing down a slice of the new loaf.
The process fascinates me. Susie mixes various flours, water, and some other stuff to make a kind of blah mass. A bit like playdough. You couldn’t eat that, not even if you baked it. It just wouldn’t be palatable. Two more steps are required.
First, you have to add some yeast—leaven. Then, you wait. You’re waiting for the yeast to do its work. And that work is to transform something altogether unpalatable into something risen and ready for baking. Apply heat for a while, and there you have it.
Leaven has transforming power. To me it’s a mystery, although I’m sure Susie could explain how it works. But you have to get the yeast to pervade the whole loaf. You can’t just pour it on top or slather it all around. The leaven must get into and throughout the loaf—to be hidden in it, as our text has it. Once there it can exert its transforming power.
Jesus said the Kingdom of God is like that. Once it gets into something and begins to spread around and settle, it starts to change things according to its own character. Where spiritual darkness, the lusts of the eyes, the desires of the flesh, and the pride of life once prevailed, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit begin to be more pronounced.
And that something the leaven of the Kingdom gets into is you, me, our fellow church members, and the whole community throughout which we are dispersed during the week.
What is to be leavened
The Kingdom of God is about transformation. It’s about increasing in the character, condition, and consequence of the Kingdom and becoming increasingly committed to its progress on earth as in heaven. The Good News of the Kingdom works with transforming power in all who believe in Jesus. It nurtures in them a new vision of life and re-orders their desires and priorities so that they seek that vision above all else. It changes what they think about, long for, and value, so that righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit become the defining virtues and goals of everything they do. The Good News of the Kingdom transforms all who believe into the very likeness of Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 3.12-18).
Add some Kingdom-leavened people to a local church and, after a while, the church begins to rise and be made ready for greater advances of the Kingdom of God. So many leavened people worshiping, witnessing, and sharing together become a sign that the leaven of the Kingdom is working to pervade and transform the church. And that transformed church becomes an outpost from which the Kingdom advances into the world.
As these Kingdom-leavened people, baked together as a glorious Kingdom loaf by their worship and lives together in church, disperse throughout their Personal Mission Fields and their community, the reality and aroma and transforming power of the Kingdom goes with them. And if they wait long enough and allow the Kingdom leaven to do its work, their community will begin to show the effects of its being leavened by the transforming power of God’s Word.
Twice in Ephesians Paul charged us with thinking about the local church as a vessel through which the Presence of Jesus and His Kingdom pervades and transforms the world: “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Eph. 1.22, 23). And “to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says:
“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.”
(Now this, “He ascended”—what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) (Eph. 4.7-10)
It’s pretty clear that God intends the local church to be the vehicle through which a community—“all in all” and “all things”—becomes leavened with Jesus and His Kingdom. But that’s not likely to happen until this image of a leavening substance become our vision and purpose for our church.
Pray for leavening power
And, like everything else, that must start with and be sustained by prayer.
Do we believe our churches can be transforming agents in our community? Do we long to be transformed and are we willing to work for the leavening of our community with the grace and Kingdom of God?
Then we’ll need to pray. Here’s a prayer you might use:
Lord, let Your Kingdom come in me,
and let it leaven and transform
every aspect and facet of my life.
And let our church be leavened
with the Kingdom of God as well.
Let our worship be focused on
Christ and His Kingdom.
Let all our equipping and sharing
and fellowshipping together
fit us for seeking and advancing Your Kingdom.
And let us as a church
become more of a leavening presence
in the neighborhoods, schools,
workplaces, and marketplaces
of our community,
to the praise of King Jesus.
For reflection or discussion
1. In what ways is the Kingdom at work leavening your life?2. How would you know when your church was being leavened by the Kingdom?3. What are some of the keys to being leaven in your community, so that, increasingly, Jesus fills all things?
Next steps—Transformation: Put on the Kingdom and righteousness of Jesus each day, and work to fill all things in your life with the Presence of the Lord.
T. M. Moore
Give thanks
If you have found this meditation helpful, take a moment and give thanks to God. Then share what you learned with a friend. This is how the grace of God spreads (2 Cor. 4.15).
Other columns of interest this week: Our Read Moore podcast is concentrating on praying the psalms to seek revival—why we should and what we might expect. In our twice-weekly Crosfigell column we have begun a new series on Brendan, called “The Navigator.” Why was he called that? Join us and find out. Our current ReVision series, “Pray for Your Church”, enters the home stretch now by leading us to pray for our church’s impact. And new in our bookstore, our book, The Ongoing Work of Christ shows us how the book of Acts provides a template and footprint for all who take up the work of building Jesus’ Church.
Thank you.
Many of you are faithful and generous in praying for and supporting Crosfigell and The Fellowship of Ailbe. Thank you. I encourage all our readers to seek the Lord about becoming a supporter of The Fellowship of Ailbe. It’s easy to give to The Fellowship of Ailbe, and all gifts are, of course, tax-deductible. You can click here to donate online through credit card or PayPal or Anedot, or send your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, P. O. Box 8213, Essex, VT 05451.
Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
