BEWARE THE LEAVEN

BEWARE THE LEAVEN Matthew 16:5-12 With grateful acknowledgement of these sources of inspiration and direction: Chris Thurman, The Lies We Believe; William Backus and Marie Chapian, Truth Talk; Rich Bersett, previous message "The Treachery of Leaven" (Mark 8:15), in Jan 31, 1999 Sept 1, 2002 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory I want to let you in on an incredible conspiracy. In literally millions of homes throughout the world right now there are living creatures growing and multiplying. The creatures are not human, nor are they exactly plant or animal. They are chemical and very much alive. And they are living, virtually unnoticed, in refrigerators! Secretly these living creatures are growing stronger by the minute. In their little bodies special bacteria and sugars are combining with the living substance known only as saccharomyces cervisiae. When this happens a sort of chemical fermentation takes place, creating emissions of carbon dioxide and ethanol. Don't worry, though, because these gases are trapped by the creatures themselves, creating tiny bubbles that cause them to grow at a rapid rate. Then it happens. A human co-conspirator in said household apprehends the organism and inserts it into the very food you eat! Other humans in the household are unaware. Not only do they not know what they have eaten, they are usually heard to compliment the coconspirator on the good taste of the dish! The coconspirator has also cut off a part of the organism and stuck it back in the refrigerator to grow again and feed you more of it! They've even been known to give whole living sections of it to neighbors, starting a new colony in their refrigerators. The conspiracy continues! Sourdough bread starts out as a little lump of dough that looks like a ball of mashed potatoes. It gets wrapped in plastic and is left in the corner of the shelf in the fridge. It looks inert, but it is very much alive. What makes it grow and change organically is its secret ingredient - yeast. Yeast (or leaven) interacts with the sugars in bread dough and cause it to rise. It is a most interesting process. In fact, I am just fascinated with the whole thing. One of the most fascinating things about it is how the yeast that is stuck into the lump of dough "creeps" all throughout the dough, evenly and thoroughly, over a short period of time. It doesn't just leaven a small portion of the lump, but it moves, leeching its way through every part of the bread dough, causing it all to rise uniformly. In the New Testament we encounter leaven used as a metaphor, almost always a negative one. For example, in 1 Corinthians 5, [webmasters note: verses 1-5] the apostle Paul exhorts the church to purify themselves from immorality. Someone in the church is involved in sexual sin and the church has not moved to correct the situation. In no uncertain terms the apostle commands the church to "expel" this immoral brother. And he adds this warning in verse 6, "Don't you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?" Ironically, in Galatians 5:6, Paul quotes the same proverb as he targets the problem of "legalism" in the church. False teachers had been trying to convince the believers in that church that their salvation depended not just on Jesus, but also on their good works. The Text - Matthew 16:5-12 One afternoon just after Jesus had driven a demon out of a young Canaanite girl and then fed 4,000 men and their families from seven little loaves of bread and a few fish, the religious skeptics came to Him and asked Him for a "sign from heaven", presumably as evidence of His divine power. He answers them with a tart response that basically accuses them of spiritual ignorance, then He says, "a wicked and adulterous generation looks for a miraculous sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah." (16:4)     Then He left and crossed the lake with His disciples. Picking up at verse 5 "When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. 'Be careful,' Jesus said to them, 'Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.' They discussed this among themselves and said, 'It is because we didn't bring any bread.' Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, 'You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don't you remember the five loaves for the five thousand and how many basketfuls you gathers? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? How is it you don't understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.' Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees." Jesus' correction of the disciples was basically to get them to stop thinking in earthly terms, but to start thinking in spiritual terms. Although Old Testament Law included some prohibitions against the use of leaven, Jesus told them He was not talking about real leaven and real bread. If He had been worried about not having bread He could have just created more for them to eat-He had already proven He could! So, He chastised them because they had missed the obvious. But then He nails His teaching about the "yeast" effect of the teaching of the Jewish religious leaders. He told them that, just like leaven, moving quietly through a lump of dough, so the wrong teaching of these leaders was a spiritually contaminating influence, and they should be very careful even listening to it. So, what was the leaven-like teaching that the disciples were to avoid? We're not expressly told, but the context (both here and in Mark 8 where the same teaching appears) gives us a strong clue. The teachers in question had just asked Jesus a question that basically exasperated Him. "Show us a sign from heaven…" Why was it exasperating? Jesus had just finished a weeklong campaign during which, in plain daylight He had healed a deaf-mute, cast a demon out of a young girl and fed 9,000 families with 12 loaves and a handful of blue gill. What exasperated Jesus? First, the religious elite wanted a Sign from heaven when they wanted it-it just wasn't enough that Jesus worked miracles; could He do it on command? Secondly, and closely related, they wanted to be in control, to make Jesus do their bidding. They didn't want another sign-they wanted work the strings of the marionette; they wanted the Lord to dance to their music, march to their cadence. It wasn't good enough for them to have just witnessed undeniable miracles, because they had not ordered them yet. Thirdly, the religious teachers wanted to analyze, critique and discuss the miracles-they weren't in the least interested in believing in Jesus. In fact, the text says they "tested him" (verse 1). Wrong teaching, false doctrine and untruthful ways of thinking begin with these kinds of dishonorable motives. And what is taught out of poor motives is always deceptive, and it acts likes leaven in a lump of dough. It gets in, then begins to spread evenly, pervasively, until the whole mind is affected (or the whole person, or the whole church, or the whole culture). The leaven-like false teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees, like the religious lies that are all around us today, tend to fall along these lines: 1. Ingratitude and self-centeredness: whatever God might have done for us is just not enough. Anytime we pitch a fit (and we do) because life isn't fair and it's all God's fault. We can so easily and so often regress into a kind of spiritual immaturity, and we act like ingrates and babies. 2. Idolatry: wanting to be God instead of wanting to obey God.  Anytime we find ourselves (and we do) demanding that we call the shots, we're wrong. When we find we are trying to make God in our image, like we want Him to be. If we did do that-guess what? He's no longer God! 3. Insistence on religion instead of relationship: getting to a place (and we do) where we prefer the comfort of meaningless traditions empty forms instead of a real and personal relationship with God. And it is tempting, isn't it? It's so much easier to "go to church" and "put in our time, and put in our dime, and everything's fine", than it is to cultivate the life of sincere devotion. Jesus will not be satisfied for us to remain deceived in anything less than a dynamic, fulfilling relationship with Him. He loves us too much to let that kind of religious game go on. When we fall into it, He comes to us and says, "You of little faith, be careful because you are being influenced with wrong ideas, bad teaching worldly philosophy that is not in line with the truth. These things are like yeast. Once you entertain them, once you let them into your mind, they grow and infest your thinking until, soon, you don't know right from wrong, you don't know God from a guru, you don't discern wise from foolish, and you will become satisfied with empty rituals and religious formulas. And I don't want that for you-I don't want that for us!" Exhortation I'd like for us to review a very fundamental truth before we go any further. Where does wrong thinking originate? Jesus talked about the source of deception. He called Him the Devil, Satan, the adversary, the tempter, the "Father of lies". The Devil is the primary source of lies and wrong thinking. He inspires and provokes unhealthy and untruthful ideas because his agenda is to pull our thoughts away from God and godly thinking. He does anything in his power to get you and me to think antithetically to God. Add to that the fact that we human beings are fallen creatures with a strong bent to evil and rebellion, and you have a serious combination. Our tendency is to think wrong thoughts and it's Satan's ability to deceive and ratify our wrong thinking. You see the "leaven" of wrong thinking is all around us, and even in us already. And the devil is doing his best to manipulate our thinking against God. The book of Ephesians says he will use "the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming" [webmasters note: Ephesians 4:14] to draw us down into deeper deception. This deception is made up of lies, and lies are beliefs and attitudes that don't fit the reality of truth. Truth is reality and anything short of it is a lie. God's way of thinking, His truth and His Word are the fountainhead of truth. The closer you are to God through Jesus Christ, and the more receptive to His Word, the more in touch with reality and truth you are. Think of your mind like a tape deck. It can record and it can play back, and it is always playing the tapes you put into it. Some of the tapes inside your brain are truthful and others you have let sneak in are lies. But because you play them over and over again you begin to think and act on them as if they were truth. That's when you get spiritually (and emotionally) sick. Lies bring misery and confusion. Truth brings wisdom, light and health. In a couple of recent teaching series we have encountered some lies of the enemy. Our goal was to clearly label them, using the truth of the scriptures, so that we could get rid of any such bad tapes we've been playing. We've dealt with some big spiritual teachings, doctrines. For instance: • "You are the product only of blind evolution, just another link in the chain." • "Sex outside of marriage is okay, because it is perfectly natural." • "It's only fetal tissue and an inconvenience-a quick medical procedure and you're rid of it. Those who say it's a baby are just religious fanatics." • "Marital monogamy is old-fashioned." • "Jesus Christ? Just another man, a great teacher, but hardly the Son of God!" The trouble with wrong teachings is not only that they are wrong, but they are like leaven, yeast. They get into your system, your tape deck, and they keep playing their lies in your mind and the lies grow bigger and more believable. Those lies and others like them are examples of the larger, doctrinal lies. But I want to take a few moments and consider some of the more personal, practical lies we often believe. These are the ideas we have about our lives, ourselves, and how we relate to others and to God. There are deceptive ideas all around us, masquerading as truth tapes. And the more you listen to the worldly ideas, without the corrective truth of the Word of God, the more vulnerable you are to more deception. These "little lies" can have a strong collective effect, because they act like leaven. Jesus warned His followers to beware the leaven of wrong teaching and ideas. When you hear these wrong ideas over and over you begin to think they don't sound so bad. Then you hear it repeatedly and it begins to feel comfortable and make sense to you. Play the tape a few more times and you believe a lie. The zebra is distinct from all other members of the horse family because of its startling striped color pattern and its resistance to being trained. Zebras are strong, fast and very fierce fighters. They are alert to their chief enemy and predator, the lion. But they will often underestimate the danger of an even more successful predator-the cape hunting dog. One cape hunting dog is not very large or strong-one could never bring down a zebra. But they travel in packs of twelve to twenty at a time. Their hunt begins with following the lead dog in single file, stalking a zebra. The zebra is not concerned, because what's a little dog? But when the file of dogs comes near a target zebra, the zebra begins to run and the cape dog pack chases it, running up to thirty miles an hour. The lead dog catches up to the zebra and locks its jaws into any flesh it can reach and with its strong bite, hangs on. The clinging predator cannot kill his prey, but he slows it down just enough for the rest of the pack to catch up. The others begin to bite any vulnerable spots they can reach. Soon the whole pack is on the zebra and it is brought down. The pack has already begun to feed on it and within thirty minutes the zebra is picked clean. The lead lies we believe are leaven, which set us up for worse deception. They act as leaven in our lives. Let's look at a few lies we often believe in our hearts that are destructive to us because they are wrong thinking and they lead us into anything but health. 1. "I must meet certain standards to feel good about myself" This false belief leads you into very unhealthy patterns of perfectionism, fear of failure, manipulating others so it at least looks like you are succeeding, even self-delusion to make yourself believer you're OK when you know you're not. God's Word makes it clear that you are (if you are a believer), or you can be (if you submit to Christ and trust Him) JUSTIFIED-put right with God. God has offered us forgiveness because of Jesus' sacrifice, and we are set free from ever having to "measure up". Because of what Jesus has done for us we can be fully pleasing to the Father. 2. "I must be accepted, or approved, by certain others to feel good about myself." This false belief will lead you inexorably to a fear of rejection, doing anything and everything to please others no matter the cost. You become overly sensitive to criticism, and even may withdraw from others in order to avoid criticism. But God's Word teaches that you can be RECONCILED. That means that, though you once were hostile toward God, and alienate from Him, you can now be forgiven and fully accepted by Him. The sacrifice of Jesus has made the way for you to be close to God again. 3. "Those who fail (especially myself) are unworthy of love and deserve only to be punished." This kind of thinking will cause you to be afraid of correction and punishment, to punish others and blame them for your personal failures, to withdraw from God and His people, to become a "driven" person (in an unhealthy sense). But God's Word says that you can have a sense of being loved and accepted-a sense of true belonging. By His death on the cross, Jesus satisfied God's rightful judgment of you, and you can be fully at peace in His love for you. 4. "I am what I am. I cannot change. I am hopeless." This lie will cause you to feel constantly shameful, inferior, hopeless, isolated. It leads to a loss of creativity and zest for life, further withdrawal from others and God. God's Word is true, though, and it tells you that you are (if you are a Christian), or can be (if you will become one) REGENERATED. Because of Jesus' sacrifice for you, you are a "new creature" in Him. All things are new. You are inhabited by God's Spirit and empowered by Him for new life. You can become all He intended for you to be. 5. "I must get what I want in order to be happy." That is Satan's lie to get you bound in materialism and worldly affections. God's Word teaches that true happiness comes from trusting and obeying Him first and foremost. "The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, but godliness with contentment is great gain." Come to Christ and let Him teach you contentment. 6. "It is terrible to have hurt feelings." Satan knocks people down with this one all the time. Somehow we fall victim to the thinking that tells us we deserve for everything to go right. If you think that way, of course you're going to be disappointed. Life is not fair--this world is at enmity with God. But the promise of God's Word is that God works all your experiences (the good, the bad and the ugly) out for your good. You can have His promise that no matter what happens to you, you will only turn out more like Christ. 7. A lie that uniquely attacks Christians - "I should always be happy or at least act happy in spite of any hardship that comes my way." What a devastating obligation to live up to. No matter what anybody told you like this, God says it's all right to admit when it's tough going for you. It's all right to seek out prayer and help and to admit you're not well. If you hurt, you hurt. And the worst thing you can do about it is go into some kind of denial about it, or pretend it doesn't hurt. God has called us to honesty, truth and love-not denial and deception. The answer to all our needs and the healthy correction to all our unhealthy lies is in Christ. He said, "I have come that they may have life-eternal and abundant". Give your life into His keeping by faith, and watch Him begin to change you into a being of truth.   Your Mental Tape Deck [Click Here To Open In a New Window For Printing] Are you wondering what your lies are? Take a minute to complete the following self-analysis questionnaire to find out. Read each statement and indicate your agreement/disagreement with it using the following scale: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Strongly Disagree Neutral Strongly Agree Do not spend too much time on any one statement, but give the answer that best describes how you really feel. Try to avoid using the neutral (#4) response. _____ 1. I must be perfect. _____ 2. I must have everyone's love and approval. _____ 3. It is easier to avoid problems than to face them. _____ 4. Things have to go my way for me to be happy. _____ 5. My unhappiness is externally caused. _____ 6. I can have it all. _____ 7. I am only as good as what I do. _____ 8. Life should be easy. _____ 9. Life should be fair. _____ 10. I shouldn't have to wait for what I want. _____ 11. People are basically good. _____ 12. My marriage problems are my spouse's fault. _____ 13. If my marriage takes hard work, my spouse and I must not be right for each other. _____ 14. My spouse should meet all my needs. _____ 15. My spouse owes me for what I have done for him/her. _____ 16. I shouldn't have to change who I am in order to make my marriage better. _____ 17. My spouse should be like me. _____ 18. I often make mountains out of molehills. _____ 19. I often take things personally. _____ 20. Things are black and white to me. _____ 21. I often miss the forest for the trees. _____ 22. The past predicts the future. _____ 23. I often reason things out with my feelings rather than the facts. _____ 24. God's love can be earned. _____ 25. God hates the sin and the sinner. _____ 26. Because I'm a Christian, God will protect me from pain and suffering. _____ 27. All of my problems are caused by my sins. _____ 28. It is my Christian duty to meet all the needs of others _____ 29. Painful emotions such as anger, depression and anxiety are signs that my faith in God is weak. _____ 30. God can't use me unless I am spiritually strong. Each of the statements in the list is a lie or a way that we lie to ourselves. Thus, the more you agreed with each statement, the more you are agreeing with a lie. Go back through your responses and put a check mark by any statement that you marked with a (5), (6) or (7). Those are the lies that you tend to believe the most and the ones you want to pay the most attention to. Here are my most serious lies:       [Back to Top]