The Catalytic Growth of the Kingdom of God

A catalyst is “a substance usually used in small amounts relative to its reactants that modifies or increases the rate of reaction without being consumed in the process.” Yeast fits the description of a catalyst. Jesus taught about yeast this way in Matthew 13:33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.” Jesus is describing a scene that every Galilean would recognize. Yeast (not the powdered kind, but a little piece of dough kept from the previous baking) was mixed into three pecks of flour (roughly a bushel) and the resulting bread fed 100 people! What looked like a very little “catalyst” had amazing power. While tiny in comparison to whole batch of dough, it changed it and multiplied it exponentially!

Many might expect that the Kingdom of heaven would come all at once with raw power. But like yeast, it has amazing power which might not be immediately observable. Instead it transforms people internally and then externally. The power of yeast is that once worked into the dough, it can’t be stopped! When God’s Kingdom comes in, the same is also true. Look at what is happening in the Global South:

In Africa, Christians were 3% of the population in 1911. Today they are 47%. In China today there are more Christians than Communist party members and the spread of the Kingdom is being led by young people 18 to 30 years old. In India, 2% were Christian in 2002. In less than 10 years India is at 10%. Each time a new disciple is formed by the Holy Spirit they take a “little piece of dough” with them to their family, village and region and the catalytic yeasty process continues. Altogether that has resulted in 500 million new believers within a century. That spread has happened because newly discipled believers believe that sharing what they have just learned is exactly what should be done.

Meanwhile, the fastest growing “religious” grouping in North America is labeled “unaffiliated”. Barna Associates report that in North America, 10% of any city is reached on average and 90% is unreached. In Luke 10:1-3 Jesus said “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.”

God’s Kingdom yeast is as powerful as ever! It starts seemingly small in the person of Jesus and in small groups where he is present (Matt 18:20) and becomes so shockingly big that that today over a billion people around the word identify themselves as His followers.

There is much to learn from the yeast of Kingdom growth in the Global South. Ying Kai, a Chinese American missionary to Asia suggests the following in order to get that yeast outside the walls of institutions. Some shifts in our thinking might be necessary. “Go, not come: The Great Commission says we are to go, not just invite people to come to us. We must go to where the lost are, training new believers to also go to the lost, into workplaces, homes, shops and neighborhoods. Everyone, not some: We must make disciples of all, not just a few. We typically choose whom we want to share the Gospel with, trying to pre-judge who might accept it. But God said to share with everyone. We cannot predict who will believe and whom God will use to birth a movement of Kingdom growth. Make disciples (trainers), not church members: We must not satisfy ourselves with making converts and church members. Jesus commanded much more. He wants true disciples.” And what do true disciples do? Matthew 28:20 “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” including going and making “disciples of all nations.”

You – your family – your churches are bears Kingdom yeast where God has placed you. Work it into the dough of your community and it will do its work of permeating and transforming people and culture through the power of the Spirit as believers carry little pieces of that “yeasty dough” with them everywhere they go. Like a catalyst, it will never be used up.