GOSPEL PARABLES 10 THE LEAVEN OF THE KINGDOM

GOSPEL PARABLES 10 LEAVEN IN THE KINGDOM
We are continuing in the parables of the three loaves of bread and we saw recently that there were three stories that contain the phrase three loaves of bread. The Three loaves of bread symbolise the three Persons of the Trinity, The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. We also found that these stories revealed the nature of each of the Persons of the Trinity and how each one works within our spirit.
We've looked at the story of Abraham and the three loaves of bread and the judgement upon Sodom and Gomorrah, and we've also looked at the story of a woman being given eagles wings by God to escape the attack of Satan in the Book of Revelation. 
Today I'm again looking more fully at the parable of the woman hiding leaven in the bread, from Matthew chapter 13.33 – the Kingdom of heaven is like leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal (or three loaves of bread) till it was all leavened. Jesus uses the word egkrypto for hid instead of krypto - the only time egkrypto is ever used in the Bible - compelling us again to ask God what Jesus encrypted for us in the word leaven in this parable. 
The word leaven in the scriptures is given the meaning of corruption and sinfulness and hypocrisy, and as before we are letting Scripture interpret Scripture. Jesus said beware of the leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy, for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed nor hidden that will not be known. (Luke12). Jesus is saying that all the corruption and hypocrisy that seeks to stay hidden will in due course be exposed and judged, and we're seeing that happening before our own eyes in these days. 
Practically, and in a neutral sense, leaven works through fermentation, expanding and transforming bread, and once fermentation begins, it continues until ready for baking. 

So in letting Scripture interpret Scripture we go back to the first mention of leaven in Genesis and follow that word. We find it in Genesis 19 in the story of Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah, which is part of the earlier story of Abraham and the three loaves of bread that Sarah cooked for the three messengers that Abraham called ‘My Lord’ – Adonai. We saw how Abraham prayed to the Father to spare his cousin Lot’s family from judgement in Sodom, while the two other messengers as angels went down to Sodom. Lot’s family is spared the judgement of the city, and what we find in that story is that Lot prepares a meal of unleavened bread for the two visiting angels. In his urgent desire to escape and receive the supernatural deliverance of God Lot had no time to start doing any bread leavening process or baking – he wanted out of there!

And this sets the pattern for the next mention of unleavened bread which is in Exodus when Israel escapes from Pharaoh in Egypt. Moses told the Israelites to leave in haste because there was judgement coming upon all in Egypt and all Egypt’s first born were to be killed, but the Angel of death would pass over Israel because they had sprinkled the blood of a lamb upon the doorposts of each house, so they packed all their belongings and their food and they had no time to wait for bread to be leavened and baked.(Exodus 12:15). 
So from then on, Israel were to celebrate the feast of Passover each year with unleavened bread to remind them of the significance and urgency of that miraculous deliverance from the sin and judgement in Egypt. And what we then find everywhere in the Old Testament sacrifices is that God required that Israel only use unleavened bread in their sacrificial offerings. 

Paul brings the same message of the Passover Feast into the New Testament when he admonishes the Corinthian church for the immorality that they had let into the church, and he described that behaviour as leaven. He says ‘For Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed, let us therefore celebrate the communion feast not with the old leaven of malice and evil but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, and don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump. 
Paul is saying the unleavened bread at communion is a reminder of Christ's sinless sacrifice, and he tells the church to examine their hearts at Communion, and to remember his mercy and forgiveness and to remember God's miraculous work of salvation. Many Christians use unleavened bread at communion to symbolise that.
Leaven in the Old and New Testament does not seem to have gained a good reputation. 

So what does Jesus mean when he says that the Kingdom of God is like a woman (the Church) hiding leaven in three loaves of bread until the loaves are fully leavened? 
Why would Jesus say that sinfulness must grow to its fullest extent in the Kingdom of God? He’s not saying the world, he’s saying the Kingdom of God!
And how would this describe the expression of the Persons of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit working through the Church upon the spirit of Mankind? 
I had not seen or heard a satisfactory answer to this puzzle of leaven filling the Kingdom. Is there something good that reflects something of the nature of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit working upon the spirit of mankind? 
Is there something the Bible has to say about this?

Yes there is – Praise God – hiding in Leviticus 23:15. And in this Scripture it says that at the feast of Pentecost the loaves will be baked with leaven as a holy offering to the Lord, and the leaven here speaks of The Holy Spirit. Let me explain.
This is a departure from all the Old Testament sacrifices that had required that only unleavened bread was to be used with sacrificial offerings. But the significance of celebrating the harvest Festival of Pentecost gives special meaning to the leaven being used in the loaves.

In this Scripture Israel is told that they had to celebrate the Feast of Pentecost as a harvest Festival every year. In Israel the feast is called Shavuot, meaning ‘weeks’, referring to Pentecost as the feast that comes seven weeks and one day after the Feast of Passover – fifty days – and Pente is the Greek word for fifty. 
The Sunday that followed directly after the Passover Sabbath is our Resurrection Sunday, and Israel they were to wave the first sheaf of grain of the harvest as a grain offering to the Lord -and that offering was called the first fruits of the harvest. That is a remarkable prophetic statement about Jesus who as the first man to rise from the dead is called the first fruits of the Resurrection in the Bible (1 Corinthians15:51; 1 John 3:2). The Hebrew word for first fruits is bikkurim – which means ‘the promise to come’ because the harvest fully comes 50 days later on the day of Pentecost. Jesus told his disciples to wait for the ‘promise of the Father’ (bikkurim – the promise to come) saying  ‘John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit’ (Acts 1:8). 
On that day of Pentecost (Shavuot) Israel had to offer two loaves of bread, and those two loaves were to be baked with leaven. (Note – two loaves of bread – not three! – hold that thought)

The two loaves that were leavened in the Feasts of Pentecost every year have now become three loaves of bread, and the reason for having to wait for the two loaves to become three loaves is that right up until Jesus had died on the cross and risen from the dead and ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit, there were only two Persons (two loaves) operating in the earth upon the spirit of all of humanity - Jesus and the Father. The Holy Spirit had operated through prophets and kings and priests but was not being expressed into and through all of humanity until the Day of Pentecost.
On Pentecost Sunday in the book of Acts the Holy Spirit fell upon all flesh - all humanity, allowing the expression of the three Persons of the Trinity upon the spirit of all Mankind. Peter said in the Book of Acts ‘I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh’. (Acts 2.7). This is a startling example of God’s awesome attention to detail!
And in the parable that Jesus taught about the woman hiding the leaven in the bread, Jesus said that the leaven would grow to its full extent in the Kingdom of God – the leaven of the Holy Spirit – not the leaven of sin and corruption! 

Shavuot (Pentecost) was also a time for Israel to recommit to their covenant with God and to celebrate the giving of the Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, which amazingly also fell fifty days after the first Passover of Israel in Egypt. The Law once written on tablets of clay is now written upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit – a New Covenant – part of the Third loaf blessing of the Holy Spirit.

And that is the leaven that is going to fully expand the Kingdom of God for the end time expression of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit in the Church and to the world before the Lord returns. The new leaven of the Holy Spirit will fill the Church in greater measure than ever before, and we will see him expressed in greater measure than ever before - into the world, and not remaining hidden. He is the one who sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts – he is the one who leads us into all truth – he is the one who takes what Jesus says and interprets it to us in an amazingly personal and individual way for our instruction and guidance. The Bible says that on the day of Pentecost everybody heard the good things of God being spoken to them in their own language. The Holy Spirit is going to be speaking to people in the way that they understand him no matter what their cultural or religious background. The Bible says for us to ‘Be being filled’ as a continuous mindset and process of faith, and as we continue to keep on being filled, we can expect his grace for the flow of the Holy Spirit in us to be imparted to those in our world. Your Kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.