A Lesson on Leaven

Bible Passage: Mark 8:11-21

INTRO

“Soma Church exists to love the body of Christ and equip them to do the work of ministry here, near and far, all for the glory of God.”

I remember a few years when my oldest daughter Zoe was born I had 2 weeks off for paternity leave to help Jenna recover from a C-section and about 1 week in, I was going crazy.

As excited as I was to be a new father and enjoy the time with my little family. I can only be cooped up with little to no stimulation for so long.

So, I started looking into some hobbies that would help occupy the remaining week of my time away from work.

And the thing took over my obsessive compulsive attention for the week and a bit after that was making bread.

Bread Photos

Making bread is pretty incredible, because who doesn’t love eating and smelling freshly baked bread?! But also, because it is like doing a science experiment.

You mix water, salt, flour and yeast in a bowl, bake it and then out comes bread. I find that truly mind blowing.

One thing you will learn when you start baking (especially if you were into cooking first) is just how important each ingredient is as well as its measurement.

If you are just even the slightest bit off on your weights and measures, it can change the result drastically.

A great example of this is if you were to remove your yeast from your bread, your loaf will no longer be a loaf but closer to a cracker.

And it doesn’t take a lot of yeast to make the whole loaf of bread rise.

I am kicking off our study of Mark 8:11-21 with a lesson on bread because this is the illustration that Jesus uses today to teach His disciples a lesson on purity of faith.

Jesus was surrounded by people whose faith was not placed upon Him but what He was doing. People were more interested in the hype than the savior Himself.

And Jesus is going to show His disciples how this fraudulent faith can infiltrate our hearts and drastically change the outcome of our lives and eternities.

A Lesson on Leaven

BODY

We left off last week with Jesus feeding another group of thousands of people which tied a bow on top of Jesus’ ministry to the gentiles.

He is now back in Dalmanutha (Jewish territory) and is picking up where He left off… As are those who hate Him.

Mark 8:11–13 ESV

The Pharisees came and began to argue with him, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. And he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Truly, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” And he left them, got into the boat again, and went to the other side.

Jesus no more than steps out of the boat from His journey and is immediately bombarded yet again by the Pharisees.

And they are out to test Him (or maybe better said “discredit Him”) by asking Him for a sign.

This kinda reminds me of the kid from the Incredibles…

Except that kid genuinely wanted to see something mind blowing, the Pharisees just want a reason to get Jesus gone.

And full of Godly disappointment, Jesus sighs “deeply in his spirit” and assures them that they will receive no physical signs that they are looking for. Then He leaves.

Now, the question you might be wondering is “Why wouldn’t Jesus just give them what they are asking for and be done with them?”

And I think the reason why is because even if Jesus were to give them a miraculous display of His Godly power, it would not have changed their minds on who He is.

You see, the signs of Jesus are secondary to His ministry. Jesus is a Rabbi, a teacher. He has come to teach His followers about the good news of the Kingdom of God not to be a magician for lack of a better term.

Believing that God can do big powerful things is not what saves your soul. Believing the word of God, namely the gospel does.

This is what Jesus means when He quotes the book of Deuteronomy to the Devil when He is tempting Him in Matthew 4:4 “But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ””

The same is for us, that as we approach a relationship with God, our primary aim is to come to the one who has the ability to forgive sins. That is His greatest sign of love towards us.

Everything else is great but that is what saves your soul.

Mark 8:14–15 ESV

Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. And he cautioned them, saying, “Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.”

The disciples are in the boat with Jesus and discussing amongst themselves about whose dumb fault it was that they didn’t bring any bread. more on this in the verses to come.

Then Jesus comes over for a teaching moment with His disciples.

I assume that hearing them discuss their lack of bread, he decides to use a bread illustration to make His point because He begins to warn the disciples about the leaven of two peoples… Herod and the Pharisees.

The Gospel of Mark 14. The Failure to Understand. Ch. 8:14–21

In both Jewish and Hellenistic circles leaven was a common metaphor for corruption.

Jesus is warning His disciples of the type of faith that rots one from the inside out.

Just as the smallest amount of leaven permeates throughout the entire loaf of bread so does false faith infect the entirety of the human soul.

The reference to the Pharisees here seems rather obvious as they were just mentioned two verse earlier.

Their problem was demanding that Jesus who up in a way that they just could not accept or comprehend so they demanded more.

But Herod is interesting… It has been a minute since we have talked about Herod but if you remember back in Mark 6, there is a story about Herod when He killed John the Baptist. That is where we meet Herod.

But it almost seems as if Jesus is speaking prophetically to His disciples here because in Luke 23:8 Jesus is with Herod right before His death being put on trial and look what it says.

Luke 23:8 ESV

When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him.

Jesus is warning His disciples of a type of faith that desires to see God do what we want rather than give us what we need.

But they completely miss this while they are still hyperfocused on their lack of bread…

Mark 8:16–21 ESV

And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” They said to him, “Twelve.” “And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?” And they said to him, “Seven.” And he said to them, “Do you not yet understand?”

This is wild to me as a reader… It seems the disciples completely blow off what Jesus said which proves to be true based upon how they respond to Jesus’ questioning.

They are so focused upon the fact that they forgot bread that they aren't listening to Jesus speak at all.

In addition they show just how little they have paid attention to what jesus has been doing right in front of them which in turn shows them who He is.

They are worried about bread when Jesus has made bread appear out of thin air on two separate occasions now.

They are showing that they are currently infected with the leaven of unbelief.

CLOSING

Some of you are waiting for Jesus to do something amazing so you can then place your faith in Him but this morning I would like to tell you something… He has already done it!

He died for your sins and has invited you to come to Him and be your savior.

Some of you are so hyperfocused on what Jesus isn’t doing that you think He should be that you are failing to see all of the ways His hand is working all around you.

Even the smallest bit of leaven affects the entire loaf.

The antidote to this is through relationship with Jesus to be filled with His Spirit that He might illuminate to you the beauty and the work of Christ in your life.

Romans 8:9 ESV

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Be filled with the leaven of the Spirit, not the leaven of false faith.

PRAY