Leading The Way

Guest (Female): Dr. Michael Youssef offers you a practical biblical look into the Kingdom of God. Next, on Leading The Way.

Dr. Michael Youssef: In spite of its humble beginning, the Kingdom of God will be enlarged to become a mighty force. And remember, in the end, God will establish His Son as the King of Kings and the Lord of all Lords. It will shatter the nations. His rule will shatter the nations, and He will rule over them with a rod of iron. His righteous reign will flourish, and there will be true peace.

Guest (Female): Thank you for joining Bible teacher Dr. Michael Youssef today as he takes you right into the words of Jesus that reveal insights into the Kingdom of God. This is just one episode in Dr. Youssef's popular series called Enduring Wisdom.

We welcome you to Leading The Way with cultural expert and international Bible teacher Dr. Michael Youssef. Please do keep in mind that Leading The Way is completely listener-supported, meaning that Dr. Youssef and the team rely on God's provision through God's people to maintain and grow the Gospel ministry of Leading The Way across six continents and in 28 different languages.

Won't you consider partnering in prayer and generosity? Give us a call at 866-626-4356 and online, we're at LTW.org. Right now, listen with me as Dr. Michael Youssef begins today's practical message.

Dr. Michael Youssef: The theme of the Kingdom of God is the theme that our Lord Jesus Christ constantly, constantly, constantly talked about. In fact, Mark tells us in chapter one verse 15 that when He began His ministry, Jesus said, "The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel."

In every miracle that our Lord Jesus performed, at every occasion that He had to teach and to preach, in every demonstration of His supernatural power, He clearly explained and talked about the Kingdom of God. A lot of people are confused about the Kingdom of God.

People say, "Well, the Kingdom of God is coming. It's coming. It's not now, it's coming." No, that's half right. The Kingdom of God is here and yet to come. It is both and. The Kingdom of God, the rule of God is in the heart of His children, is in the heart of the elect of God, in the heart of all the church of Jesus Christ, made of every nation, tribe, and language.

That is the rule of God, the Kingdom of God, but it will be fulfilled completely, fully with our own eyes, we'll see it when He returns to rule and reign in His kingdom. Amen. Now, we're going to see this very clearly in today's message. And so turn please to Luke chapter 13. We're going to go from verses 10 to 21.

In the context of this Jesus teaching on the Kingdom of God, it was the healing of this woman on the Sabbath day. This woman who needed, desperately needed healing. And what Jesus is saying to His hearers, and indeed He's saying to every one of us who are listening. He's saying that we must enter into the Kingdom of God. Now.

How? By turning away from false religion and false belief system and yielding to the Holy Spirit. By rejecting the kingdoms of the world and embracing His kingdom, His rule over us, by stopping to live by our rules and obeying His. Look with me at the text please.

This dear woman who is bent over in pain. Now you've probably seen people like that. You don't see them much in the United States but you see them a great deal overseas. They're literally bent over and they cannot even turn around unless their whole body turns around to see. She was doubled over.

That's Exhibit A. It was Exhibit A of the vital importance of being set free by Jesus, spiritually. Set free from the slavery of sin and Satan into the freedom of the Son of God. Hear me right please. Worse than her physical affliction was her social stigma.

Because you remember in the last message, we saw how the Pharisees, the Jews in the time of Jesus, had a faulty belief system. They believed that every physical infirmity, that every disease, that every sickness, every suffering is a result of sin. And therefore it is the consequences of their sin. And they presumed that all suffering is the basically bring about the judgment of God.

And therefore, a person's physical suffering made them to be an outcast. Because these pompous, arrogant, self-righteous people, when they did not experience suffering, they looked at people and said, "Ah, ah, ah, they're sinners. I'm not."

And that is why Jesus needed to deal with that false belief system. She was an outcast. Listen to me. When everyone gave this woman a wide berth, Jesus welcomed her. While everyone avoided her, Jesus loved her.

When everyone would have been embarrassed to be associated with her, Jesus laid His hands on her and healed her. While people rejected her, Jesus broke the evil spirit's hold over her. She became completely and totally healed.

Ah, then came the rulers of the synagogue. Look at verse 14. With no gratitude to God, and praise to God, and thanksgiving to God for His supernatural healing and miracle, they attacked Jesus for healing on the Sabbath.

But they were too cowardly to confront Jesus face to face, so they were talking to the people, "Oh, look at him. Look at him. Couldn't he do that all week long? Why does he have to do it on the Sabbath?" These synagogue leaders instead of praising God, glorifying God because of this miracle, they criticized Jesus.

These legalistic Pharisees, instead of thanking God for His mercy, and thanking God for His grace, and thanking God for His goodness for a desperately needy woman. They became, here's the word, literal, the word indignant. In other words, they were furious with Jesus for the miracle.

Why? He broke, listen carefully, the man-made rule. The man-made rule. This is not the Word of God, this is not the Old Testament, this is not the commandment. It's so incredible when you think about it. Because these Jewish leaders did not deny the miracle. They did not deny, they actually confirmed the supernatural work of Jesus. But instead of them believing in Jesus, their hearts were hardened.

You hypocrites. Verse 15. You hypocrites, why? Because even their own rabbinic interpretation of the commandments, this is not the commandments, is their own interpretation of the commandments in a book called the Mishnah. It's not authoritative Word of God, although so many of them put it as equal to the Word of God. This is dangerous, brethren, listen to me.

Even their own interpretation of the commandment said that you can take an animal on a Sabbath for feeding and drinking. Even so, the animal can carry the load as long as they themselves don't carry it on the Sabbath. The animals can. And here's what Jesus saying, you see the frustration in our Lord. He's saying, "If this is your interpretation about the Sabbath, regarding animals, that you can feed them and you can give them a drink on the Sabbath, how much more this Jewish woman, the daughter of the covenant? How much more this daughter of Abraham, and her desperate need?

What better day to free her from the load of pain and guilt and suffering than the Sabbath? What better day to set her free than the Sabbath? What better day to receive forgiveness and healing and restoration than the Sabbath? What better day to give her eternal rest on the day of rest?"

This confrontation with the Jewish leaders revealed how heartless legalism is. It's heartless. How hypocritical, ritualistic religion is. How unreasonable false religion is. Listen to me. Those people in our culture today and our society today who follow the wok religion. Make no mistake about it, it is a religion. Wok is a religion.

If they can get rid of Christianity, they think, I'm telling you exactly what they believe. They say if they can get rid of Christianity, they would have a utopia in society. I have news for them. Now whether they know it or not, if Christianity is not in our society, this will be hell on Earth. The source of all true love. You notice I said true love, not the mushy stuff that they talk about. The source of all true love is Christianity. The source of all true compassion is Christianity. The source of all true wisdom is Christianity. The source of all true blessings for our society is Christianity.

And when the church is taken out of here, God have mercy on them. Listen, I'm telling you, I mean, just all you need to do, and the young people particularly, just start studying history correctly, you'll discover that Christians started all the healing movement, all the hospital movements, all the orphanage movements, all the education movements, all started by Christians.

And it was a Bible-believing Christian who for 23 years became alienated from his family, became alienated from his friends and colleagues and parliament in England. But for 23 years, because of his biblical conviction, he did away with the horror of slave trading and his name is William Wilberforce.

Audience: (Applause)

Dr. Michael Youssef: The problem is they don't want to face reality. Now, beloved, this woman's healing is analogous of God's sovereign work of salvation in every one of our lives. And for those whom He's trying to reach with His love of salvation and with the word, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a metaphor of what Jesus came to do for Israel, because the Bible said He came to His own, but His own received Him not, but then to everyone who have received Him, He gave them the power to be called the children of God.

He will bypass all the self-righteous arrogant people and He'll become so close to the humble and broken of heart. Those who are burdened by sin and they know it and they want to repent of their sins. He bypasses those who think that they can save themselves and that they have the power to do that. And He reaches to those who confess their helplessness in saving themselves.

He bypasses all those who think that their freedom is a way to be free from God and from His Word. And He reaches down to a repentant, humble broken spirit. Immediately after this Jesus after healing this woman, look at verse 18 with me, please, Luke 13. He immediately goes into the Kingdom of God because it's relevant here.

What is the Kingdom of God like? Indeed, He was asking, what is the future rule of God in the hearts of men and women 2,000 years from now, when He was speaking? What is the rule of God in the hearts of men and women, boys and girls going to be like 2,000 years from now? In a sense, what is the future of the true church of Jesus Christ?

Those who will accept Jesus for hope and healing. What will the 21st century church be like? You see, many of the Jewish people in the time of Jesus, they thought that He came in order to deliver them from the yoke of Rome, from servitude to Rome.

But when He failed to do so, when He did not do what they wanted Him to do, when their expectations were not met, what they wanted. When they discovered that Jesus's kingdom is a spiritual kingdom, that Jesus's kingdom is an eternal kingdom, they rejected Him. They rejected Him. Except for a handful of disciples.

That's the mustard seed. That's the mustard seed. Even after the resurrection, there were 500 eyewitnesses to the resurrection, 500. And on the Day of Pentecost, there were only 120 people there. Think about this with me, 120 people, very tiny.

From a human perspective, it's a very pathetic number. It's not much to show for three years plus of ministry of Jesus. His closest followers, His inner circle. There were only 12, one of them actually was a traitor. Far from being an inspiring movement, a big crowd in a stadium shouting the praise of Jesus.

It's a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny beginning. Even that handful of disciples, they did not anticipate the Kingdom of God to be a spiritual kingdom. They thought it was still going to be earthly kingdom with power and authority. Splendor. They did not comprehend what the Kingdom of God is all about, even the disciples.

Like all their other countrymen, the disciples expected external kingdom, power, trappings of power. In fact, you remember the mother of James and John when she came to Jesus and said, "Hey, my boys are really good boys. They got your back. Put one on the right, one on the left." Huh? He said, "Are you going to be baptized with the baptism I'm going to be baptized with?"

See, they thought it was splendor, power, authority. They're going to rule. Verse 18, He asked the question, "What is the Kingdom of God like?" Verse 19, He gives us the answer, a mustard seed. The tiny, tiny, tiny seed. He chose that instead of a grain or barley or any other. It's the smallest.

The small seed grows into the largest garden plant. The smallest seed grows sometimes up to 15 feet high, but what's really more important, that smallest seed grows to give shelter to many birds so they can nest in it. That is the Kingdom of God where you and I belong to.

Jesus wanted His disciples to understand that His kingdom viewed from an an external and visible perspective is so small. But eventually it will expand to include every language, every tribe, and every nation. His kingdom, not very impressive at all in the beginning. And yet, the time is coming when hundreds of millions will follow Jesus.

This handful of disciples, they were so insignificant, and yet it was said of them, they've turned Rome upside down. The obscure beginning of His kingdom gave way to a global force for God and for good. The not so distinguished by power and majesty and splendor and public display of glory. It is now global.

You would not even imagine back then that millions of people would be glad to die for Jesus. I've met some of them. Every time the persecution heats up in China, the numbers of Christians multiplies. The more persecution in many a country, the more the numbers of the believers multiply. This is a prophecy by our Lord here, that the rule in the hearts of men and women will grow and grow and grow and grow and grow out of all proportion to its beginning.

So much so, that when the Lord returns in glory, the Bible said He'll return with multitudes, un-numbered numbers. For the Bible said, "The kingdom of this world become forever the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever and ever." In spite of its humble beginning, the Kingdom of God will be enlarged to become a mighty force. A mighty force, just as the prophets have prophesied and envisioned. And remember, in the end, God will establish His Son as the King of Kings and the Lord of all Lords. It will shatter the nations. His rule will shatter the nations, and He will rule over them with a rod of iron. His righteous reign will flourish, and there will be true peace.

Dr. Michael Youssef: I don't know about you, I can't wait.

Audience: (Applause)

Dr. Michael Youssef: Isaiah predicted in Isaiah 53, his reign will spread abroad. Look at verses 20 and 21 with me, please, Luke 13. And again, Jesus said, "What shall I compare the Kingdom of God? It's like a leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all leavened." I've seen that with my eyes when my mother puts that little leaven inside the dough, small dough, the next morning it's way, way overflowing in the jar.

Now while the previous parable that Jesus gives us about the mustard seed emphasized the external growth of the kingdom, this parable of the leaven emphasized the internal influence of the Kingdom of God. This tells me, no matter how powerful the influence of evil may appear now, no matter how visible the influence of evil may appear now, no matter how mighty the influence of evil appears now, no matter how daunting the influence of evil appear now, the positive influence of the Kingdom of God is much greater.

Audience: (Applause)

Dr. Michael Youssef: It may not be apparent, it may not be visible, it may not be clear to some. It may not grab the headline news. Even it may be mocked and scorned, it may be rejected and attacked, it may be falsely accused and and named names. But make no mistake about it, soon you will see with your eyes.