The Parable of the Yeast

AI is all the rage these days. While some people are scared of it, others are excited about what it can and do for humanity, and most everyone believes that it will eventually destroy the world as we know it.

But I’ve had the chance to mess around with Google’s version of AI lately, named Gemini. Gemini can be helpful. And while my time was short this week, I thought…hey I wonder if Gemini can write a sermon on the parable of the yeast. Hey, Gemini can!

Gemini’s Sermon

Brothers and Sisters in Faith,

Gather close today, for Jesus offers us a parable whispered on the wind, a story about the smallest of things that holds the greatest power: the parable of the yeast.

Imagine, if you will, a simple kitchen. A woman, with hands practiced and wise, holds a tiny packet of yeast. It seems insignificant, a mere speck compared to the large bowl of flour before her. Yet, within that packet lies a hidden potential, a silent promise of transformation.

With a gentle touch, she mixes the yeast into the flour. We see nothing happen at first. But beneath the surface, a quiet magic unfolds. The yeast, unseen and seemingly powerless, begins to work its wonder. It ferments, it bubbles, it awakens the dough to new life.

Slowly, steadily, the dough begins to rise. It expands, filling the bowl, becoming something more than just flour and water. It becomes filled with possibility, ready to be baked into something nourishing and good.

This, my friends, is the Kingdom of Heaven. It is not a grand spectacle, a thundering voice, or a dazzling display of power. It is like the yeast – unseen, yet undeniable in its effect.

The Kingdom of Heaven works in the quiet corners of our lives. It is present in the small acts of kindness, the whispered words of comfort, the helping hand extended to a stranger. It is the love that grows between family and friends, the forgiveness offered, the hope that endures through hardship.

Like the yeast, the Kingdom of Heaven may seem insignificant at first. We may doubt its power to change the world. But just as the tiny seed grows into a mighty tree, so too can our small acts of faith blossom and spread.

Let us be the yeast in this world. Let us allow the love of God to work through us, transforming the world one kind deed, one act of compassion at a time. Remember, even the smallest amount of yeast can eventually leaven the entire loaf.

So, go forth from this place, carrying the spirit of the yeast within your hearts. Be the change you wish to see. Let your love rise, unseen but potent, transforming the world around you.

May God bless you on this journey.

Well, I guess I’m out of a job…or am I?

I mean, that’s the meaning of this parable that I’ve heard most of my Christian life and this computer program literally wrote that sermon in .5 seconds, when it takes me sometimes close to 20-25 hours each week in prayer, research and preparation.

I guess I’ll have a lot more free time from now on…

In fact, I heard a powerful teaching and podcast this week from our denomination. In it, the presenter said. Why do people come to our churches anymore? I mean, they can get better quality music on a device in their pocket. They can get a much better quality preaching and teaching, and they can do it all from the comfort of their home. So what are we really doing here after all?

Well I believe that there is something that brings us all here on these Sunday’s, and likely at other points throughout the week, and I’m not naive enough to believe it’s because of my preaching…

But I do believe that AI and Online services are not the end of church. NOPE, NOT AT ALL!

Why you might ask…

Well everything about that sermon that Gemini wrote is wrong. It may sound good, but I promise you…it’s not what Jesus was trying to teach us about the story of the yeast.

Gemini said that “the yeast” is the kingdom of heaven. The message of the gospel.

Gemini also compared us, “the church” to the woman who mixed the yeast into the flour… saying that as we participate in the church we will make an impact on this world in a big way.

Well I have to ask us…after 2,000 years, if the gospel is the yeast and the church is the woman… how come we don’t experience heaven on earth?

That’s because I do not believe that was Jesus’ message in any way shape or form. If the yeast is the gospel and the church is the woman, then boy has this parable of Jesus’ failed.

And so…I’m not out of a job just yet!

Matthew 13:33 NIV

33 He told them still another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.”

The Three Measures of Flour:

- Remember the audience. These Jews would have the understanding of what Jesus was saying. The three measures of flour, another way to say this would be three measures of meal.

Well how much flour is 3 seah’s? it’s = 1 ephah… Ok, so that doesn’t mean anything to us, but 1 seah, or 1 measure of flour was a little over 21 pounds of flour.

So 3 measures of flour…or 3 measures of meal was a little over 63 pounds of flour. Imagine baking that much bread? I mean…that’s a lot of flour.

They would have known the stories. They heard the phrase 3 measures of flour, or 3 measures of meal and they The would have understood the meaning and the importance of the meal and just how to prepare it.

In their minds they would have went right away to Genesis 18. It is in Genesis 18 where Abraham was in his tent by the oaks of Mamre one day and he looked out the door and saw three strangers approaching. He went to meet them, for strangers were an uncommon sight in those days and anyone passing by was offered hospitality. He welcomed them and offered them, according to the Scripture (Genesis 18:6-7), three measures of flour baked into bread which Sarah made in the tent while they were fellowshipping together out under the trees. During their conversation it suddenly broke upon Abraham's astonished intelligence that God himself was visiting him, accompanied by two angels. That was the beginning of the use of the three measures of flour or meal as a symbol.

Three measures of flour or meal became a symbol of the fellowship of God with his people and their fellowship with one another.

And it’s not stretching the symbol to far to look at flour as a beautiful image of fellowship and the life that the people of God should have with their Creator. See just like flour or meal, we are all individual grains that share similar characteristics and qualities. And therefore we can blend together and make something truly valuable. So early on in jewish life and culture, 3 measures of flour or meal became this image of sharing in fellowship with one another and fellowship with God almighty.

There are also 2 other scriptures that speak to the fellowship of God and the offering of 3 measures of flour.

The first is found in the book of Judges…

In Judges 6:16-24

The Lord said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.”

17 Gideon replied, “If you are truly going to help me, show me a sign to prove that it is really the Lord speaking to me. 18 Don’t go away until I come back and bring my offering to you.”

He answered, “I will stay here until you return.”

19 Gideon hurried home. He cooked a young goat, and with a basket[a] of flour he baked some bread without yeast. Then, carrying the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, he brought them out and presented them to the angel, who was under the great tree.

20 The angel of God said to him, “Place the meat and the unleavened bread on this rock, and pour the broth over it.” And Gideon did as he was told. 21 Then the angel of the Lord touched the meat and bread with the tip of the staff in his hand, and fire flamed up from the rock and consumed all he had brought. And the angel of the Lord disappeared.

22 When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the Lord, he cried out, “Oh, Sovereign Lord, I’m doomed! I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face!”

23 “It is all right,” the Lord replied. “Do not be afraid. You will not die.” 24 And Gideon built an altar to the Lord there and named it Yahweh-Shalom

1 Samuel 1:24,

When Hannah, the mother of Samuel, went to worship God in the temple she took with her an offering of three measures of meal, unleavened.

So this is a common symbol throughout the Old Testament and it was familiar to these Jews to whom Jesus spoke. They knew instantly what he meant. It is we who tend to impose some artificial and foreign meaning upon this. But they instantly understood that Jesus was talking about the fellowship of God with his people, a precious thing in the sight of the Lord, and about their oneness with each other as well.

The meaning of the 3 measures of flour is a fellowship with God and one another.

Paul, when he opens his letter to the church in Corinth brings this to the readers attention as the key thing about their lives as Christians and outlines his entire letter writing…

God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:9 NIV

That is the key to that great letter. That is what Christianity is all about. It is the sharing of the life of Jesus, together. We share his life and all that he is. It’s why we gather on a Sunday morning. So that we may fellowship with on another as well as our Father in Heaven. This is so vital to us as a church we have it in our mission statement. We are taking flight to encounter an extraordinary God. We…the people of God are called to collectively share in the fellowship of God and one another.

And when John opens his first letter he says,

We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.- 1 John 1:3 NLT

So there is the meaning of the three measures of meal, the unleavened bread of sincerity, honesty, and truth. It is very precious to God that his people become honest and open and accepting toward one another, with nothing hidden between them. They are to understand one another, bear one another's burdens, uphold one another, and share together the life of God in their midst, the life of a living Lord. That is what our Lord introduced into the world by bringing the gospel, this marvelous seed dropped into the heart of humanity which produces a willingness to be open and to stop hiding behind facades and to be honest in sharing the forgiving grace of Jesus Christ.

The Yeast:

Now let's look at the YEAST, or the leaven.

The disciples would quickly recognize its meaning. It is used all through the Old Testament and it is always used the same way. Never once is yeast ever used as a symbol of anything good. Everyone in this crowd knew that this woman had no business putting leaven into these three measures of meal. That was to destroy the very meaning of this significant offering, for Scripture had taught them that the three measures of meal were to be unleavened.

You remember that in Egypt, before the Jews ate the first Passover, God sent them all through their houses with candles and lamps looking for leaven. They were to clear every bit of it out of the house lest any of it get into the three measures of meal, or the Passover feast, and destroy the beauty of the symbolism. They were to search meticulously, to look in corners, on shelves, and back in the closets. Imagine, digging through your house with young kids and try and get every cheerio out of your couch cushions. Imagine trying to get all the bread crumbs out of your pantry.

But this was the meaning of the leaven. Feast of Unleavened Bread which begins on Erev Passover, is a week of sanctification, being especially set apart for G-d, to be holy as he is holy. It is a time for putting away yeast, or leaven and keeping it out of lives.

So leaven is a representation of sin in our lives, and we are to take action to get rid of it. To discard it…

The New Testament gives us 5 different types of yeast that we need to watch out for. That we need to be on our guard against.

Jesus spoke of the first one in Matthew

Luke 12:1- The Yeast of the Pharisees: Hypocrisy

“…Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees—their hypocrisy.”

Being pretentious…Putting on a religious mask… you know…pretending to be something you are not, pretending to have a status before God which you don't actually possess,

being phony, putting on an outward garb of religiosity but inwardly still having the same old evil thoughts and angry moods and bitter attitudes. That is the yeast of the Pharisees -- hypocrisy.

Matthew 16:6-12- The Yeast of the Sadducees: Rationalism

“ Then at last they understood that he wasn’t speaking about the yeast in bread, but about the deceptive teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

The yeast of the Sadducees was their teaching and believing in rationalism. the idea that life consists only of what you can taste and see and touch and smell and hear and think about, that there is nothing beyond that, That what you see is what you get. There is no supernatural work of God. There is no resurrection of the dead, no life after death. That is the yeast of the Sadducees -- rationalism.

Mark 8-15- The Yeast of the Herodians: Political Power, Materialism

“As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”

The Yeast of Sexual Immorality: Selfishness

1 Corinthians 6:6-8

The Yeast of Legalism: Self-Righteousness

Galatians 5:4,9

Jesus’ point was that just a little bit. Just a tiny little compromise here, a pinch of pornography here or a dash of legalism there has the ability to destroy the entire meal. Our fellowship is dependent upon unpretentious, spiritual, honest and vulnerable relationships that are pure and selfless. And dependent completely upon the finished work of Christ.

The Woman:

A few Interpretations…

Jesus could have been talking about a particular woman that the book of Revelation brings to light. A woman by the name of Jezebel who was active in the church of Thyatryra

Revelation 2:20…and some believe that this isn’t just a woman in that church, but rather a demonic spirit who’s purpose is to derail the fellowship of the church that we have with God and one another.

The second interpretation could be that the woman Jesus was referring to is Babylon, in Revelation 17 during the 7 bowls of judgement during the end times. These seven bowls of God's wrath are poured out on the wicked and the followers of the Antichrist after the sounding of the seven trumpets.

Revelation 17:1-6

One of the seven angels who had poured out the seven bowls came over and spoke to me. “Come with me,” he said, “and I will show you the judgment that is going to come on the great prostitute, who rules over many waters. 2 The kings of the world have committed adultery with her, and the people who belong to this world have been made drunk by the wine of her immorality.”

3 So the angel took me in the Spirit[a] into the wilderness. There I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that had seven heads and ten horns, and blasphemies against God were written all over it. 4 The woman wore purple and scarlet clothing and beautiful jewelry made of gold and precious gems and pearls. In her hand she held a gold goblet full of obscenities and the impurities of her immorality. 5 A mysterious name was written on her forehead: “Babylon the Great, Mother of All Prostitutes and Obscenities in the World.” 6 I could see that she was drunk—drunk with the blood of God’s holy people who were witnesses for Jesus. I stared at her in complete amazement.

And while it could be either one of those, I am more inclined to look at the parable closely…and find the hidden meaning of the woman from the simple story that Jesus told.

See this is the first parable that Jesus shares in which there is a woman who is the main character instead of a man.

And in that culture and during that time, the woman’s role and authority was the home. So here we have a woman who is doing what she should be doing, at that time…

And while she was in her place of authority…she did something sneaky. Something wrong. She hid the yeast int the bread.

She allowed something that should not have been to take place.

She hid the yeast. She allowed it to take place.

If we look at the church, who sits in the place of authority here that is responsible for our fellowship and held accountable for our people and their fellowship with God.

Well here in our fellowship that is me and the elders.

We are the ones who are held responsible for the fellowship of God in this place. We are the ones who will have to give an account to God for what we have taught, and what we have allowed to transpire in our church.

So lets bring the whole picture together.

Our Lord Jesus was looking over the course of the centuries to follow and he sees this thing that is most precious to God and us…the work to which he began himself…a fellowship between God and man. A relationship that is so beautiful and precious, that it was worth his sacrifice on the cross to purchase it. This fellowship with God and his people…this sharing of life with each other and with our Creator that leads to unity and maturity in Christ. This life that is open and honest, where iron is sharpening iron and we are bearing one another burdens, and into this beautiful fellowship, these false and evil principles are introduced. These distractions and sin come in and secretly work at destroying what God has for his people, and what is worse is that often times it is introduced by the very people that are are supposed to be protecting the fellowship. The people who have the authority to do something about it. If I were to write my own version of this parable it would be…

Jesus also used this illustration: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the sin that the church leaders left unaddressed in their church. Even though there was just a tiny bit of hypocrisy, rationalism, materialism, sexual immorality, and legalism it undermined and destroyed the fellowship that the church had with one another and with their Father in Heaven.

And remember how at the beginning I talked about how you can get all this stuff online better anyways, so why come.

In fact, I heard a powerful teaching and podcast this week from our denomination. In it, the presenter said. Why do people come to our churches anymore? I mean, they can get better quality music on a device in their pocket. They can get a much better quality preaching and teaching, and they can do it all from the comfort of their home. So what are we really doing here after all?

Well I believe that there is something that brings us all here on these Sunday mornings, and likely at other points throughout the week, and I’m not naive enough to believe it’s because of my preaching…

Well that’s because you are called into fellowship with God and one another…and that is the one thing you cannot do at home.

You cannot share in fellowship the way God intends through a screen. Through an app.