Beware of Yeast

Mark 8:14-21
Gregory Perry | Sunday, August 30, 2020
Copyright © 2020, Gregory Perry

Pastor Mathew has said to me and probably to many of you many times—I think I will hear this on my deathbed—“Don’t sleep through life, brother.” We cannot afford to sleep through life because we are in a spiritual war against very real spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms that are aimed at destroying us. In particular, there are evil, demon-inspired teachers, both in the church and in the world, who look to lead you astray along a broad road that leads to destruction—destruction both in this life and in the life to come.

After a series of miracles performed, including his most recent miracle of feeding the four thousand, Jesus uses the time alone on the boat with his disciples as an opportunity to give them and, by extension, us important instructions. In examining what Jesus instructs his disciples, we will look at the following three points: First, the warning of Jesus; second, the yeast of the Pharisees; and, third, the yeast of Herod.

The Warning of Jesus

In spite of having seven basketfuls of bread left over after feeding the four thousand with only seven loaves of bread, the disciples discover that they forgot to bring food for themselves, except for one loaf of bread. Jesus takes the occasion of his disciples’ forgetting to bring more food to warn them. He says, “Be careful. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”

Before we get into the specifics of what Jesus is warning them against, we first want to take note of the fact that Jesus is giving them a solemn warning. Both these imperatives in Greek (horate and blepete) have to do with seeing. They both can be translated as, “Be on the lookout,” or, more loosely, “Keep your eyes peeled.” Moreover, both of these imperatives are present imperatives, which indicates that Jesus is calling on us to be on the lookout continuously. It is not something we are to do once in a while, but it is something we are to do always.

The fact that he tells them to be careful and watch out reminds us that there are real active enemies opposing God’s people. Jesus said in John 10:10, speaking about the devil, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” First Peter 5:8 Peter says it this way: “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

There is a very real spiritual war going on over our souls, whether we choose to recognize it or not. Laying down our arms and refusing to fight will not inspire your enemy to stop fighting. A Christian fundamentally is someone who should always be on guard. We are not unaware of the devil’s schemes, so we have no excuses to be caught off guard. And yet so often we are.

Christ emphasizes throughout the gospels our need to be on the lookout for our enemies—the world, the flesh, and the devil. The enemies often come in the form of false teachers. So Jesus says in Matthew 7:15, “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Or in Matthew 24, he says, “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many” (Matt. 24:4–5). You see, “Watch out,” “Watch out.”

The enemy also comes in the form of personal temptations. In Luke 12:15, Jesus says again, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Or remember what he speaks to his disciples in the garden of Gethsemane: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (Matt. 26:41). You see this constant call to in the ministry of Christ to watch out; to be on the lookout.

Christians cannot afford to become like the unsuspecting men of Laish, lulled to sleep by our prosperity and feeling falsely secure against our enemies. No, we are to be on guard against the enemy as he tries to attack us, as he tries to attack our families, and as he tries to attack our fellow church members.

We need to be ever-vigilant and on guard against becoming complacent and hitting cruise control in our spiritual lives. Floating through life thoughtlessly and not looking out for the deadly and dangerous traps of the devil plays right into his handbook, and we will most surely fall if that is the approach that we take.

The only way to not fight is to throw down your God-given weapons of war and surrender to the enemy, and that is often what professing Christians do. Many prove to be second-soil hearers, who receive the word with joy; they take up a profession of faith. But when the enemy brings trouble or persecution, they quickly fall away.

But the true believer, the truly born-again fourth-soil hearer, is filled with the Holy Spirit and so is strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. He puts on the full armor of God and he takes his stand. Even when the day of evil comes, and the love of most others grows cold, the true believer will persevere and stand firm to the end and be saved. The true born-again child of God will be faithful even to the point of death, and the risen Lord will give him the crown of life.

So Jesus says here that we are to be careful, and we are to watch out. But what is Jesus here particularly warning us to guard against? That brings us to our second point: the yeast of the Pharisees.

The Yeast of the Pharisees

The first thing Jesus warns his disciples against is the yeast of the Pharisees. Notice, he is not warning them against the Pharisees themselves. The Pharisees were out to get him. The Pharisees wanted to get them arrested and put to death. But he did not say, “Beware of the Pharisees.” He says, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees.” In other words, there is something deeper going on here.

You see, by the time of Jesus, yeast had been used for centuries amongst the Jews and even the Gentiles as a symbol of spreading evil. He was speaking about the evil influence of the Pharisees. In other words, it was not, “Watch out for them hiding behind the corner trying to arrest you,” but it was, “Watch out for their influence” and how it can infect and spread evil in yourself, in your own heart.

Jesus uses yeast here especially to stand for wicked teaching which needs to be guarded against because it is potent, it operates invisibly, and it gradually spreads its evil influence. In warning against the yeast of the Pharisees and the Herodians, Jesus was warning against evil influences both in the sacred and secular spheres—the Pharisees standing for the religious leaders, and the Herodians representing the worldly powers.

Jesus first tells them to be careful of the yeast of the Pharisees. But who exactly are the Pharisees? We are used to looking down on the Pharisees because they are the main antagonists of Jesus in the New Testament gospel accounts. But we need to remember that, in their time, they were looked up to by most as the respectable religious leaders. They were widely perceived as being the most godly people in society. They were the holy ones who resisted the worldly influences that were seeping into Judaism during and after the war of the Maccabees in the second century BC. In fact, Pharisee literally means “one who is separated”; in other words, one who is holy. So a Pharisee was seen as a holy one.

But if they were so good, why did Jesus so earnestly oppose them and warn his disciples about them? Well, the Pharisees had a number of problems that Jesus highlighted throughout his ministry. And I will briefly give you just four of the most conspicuous faults that we need to guard against in ourselves. That is the point: we need to be careful that this does not influence us.

1. Legalism

The first Pharisaical fault that we see in the gospels is legalism. The Pharisees were experts in the law, and yet they tended to abuse and misuse the law of God. Contrary to what many antinomians say today, legalism is not the idea that a Christian is obligated to obey God’s law. The demand for obedience is not legalism, it is just clear teaching of the Bible. God repeatedly tells us in his word that those who love the Lord must and will obey his commands.

What, then, is legalism? The Pharisees were legalists in two ways. First, they self-righteously trusted in their own law-keeping to save them. To see yourself as faultless in legalistic righteousness, you have to severely dumb down your view of God’s law and make it superficial enough to say that you are able to keep it perfectly. Moreover, the Pharisees were legalists in the way they added their own rules and traditions to God’s law. In fact, Jesus accused them of putting their human traditions over the law of God. When the Pharisees rebuked Jesus for not washing his hands in accordance with their traditions, Jesus accusingly asked in reply, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?” (Matt. 15:3). We need to be careful that we do not fall into Pharisaic legalism by trusting in our imagined righteousness, or by nullifying the word of God for the sake of our own tradition.

2. Hypocrisy

The second fault of the Pharisees that Jesus highlights is hypocrisy. Jesus knows the hearts of all people. And he highlighted the religious hypocrisy of the Pharisees many times. He especially did so when he called down curses on them during his stinging rebuke of them in Matthew 23. In that chapter alone, he refers to them hypocrites seven times. He calls them hypocrites for many reasons, including in verse 4 of chapter 23, “They do not practice what they preach.” In verse 5 he says, “They act in order to be seen by men.” And in verse 23, he says, in essence, “Yes, you are precise in your religious duties like tithing. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness.” Then, of course, in verse 25, he says, “You clean the outside of your cup, and yet you are full of filth.” And he calls them whitewashed tombs that are filthy on the inside. In other words, they have external and outward religion, but it does not penetrate to the heart.

Recall that in Mark 7, Jesus highlighted the Pharisees’ hypocrisy when he applied to them the saying of Isaiah 29. He said, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” Where there is a clear disconnect between what we say and do, versus what is on the inside, there lies hypocrisy.

In Mark 12, the Pharisees approached Jesus and tried to flatter him by saying all kinds of nice things about him. They said that he was a man of integrity who taught the way of God in accordance with the truth. But their heart motive, the text says, was to catch him in his words. Jesus was not, and he never is fooled. We read in Mark 12:15, “But Jesus knew their hypocrisy.” And I say to you, he knows our hypocrisy also. We can cover it over and fool everyone else, but we can never fool the Lord Jesus Christ.

So before we cast our stones at the hypocritical Pharisees, it is important to remember that they certainly do not have a monopoly on the sin of hypocrisy. If we are honest, we must confess that we too are prone to clean zealously the outside of our cups while neglecting to deal with our filth within. We often fail to practice what we preach or claim to believe. And we frequently do our outward acts of religion in order to be seen by our fellow men. We must repent of all such hypocrisy.

The next two Pharisaical faults are most relevant to the immediate context of the passage. The third fault is arrogance.

3. Arrogance

The Pharisees were known for looking down on others. In their arrogance, they even tried to put themselves over the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is what we see in the immediate context here. Mark 8:11 says, “The Pharisees came and they began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven.” You see, in their demanding that Jesus prove himself by a sign, the Pharisees are asserting their own imagined authority over the Lord Jesus Christ. Whenever the Pharisees come to question and test Jesus, which they do frequently in the gospels, they are putting themselves over Jesus. They arrogantly refuse to come under the Lord of glory.

Jesus warned the Pharisees about their arrogance in his rebuke of them in Matthew 23. In verse 12 he says, “For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” So we must beware of becoming proud like the Pharisees. And whatever little success we have, or whatever little gift we display, we must keep our heads about us and give thanks to God, and confess that apart from God, we surely can do no good thing.

4. Unbelief

The final mark of the Pharisees is unbelief. This is the sin that their demand for a sign most obviously displayed. They were saying that they would not believe in Jesus without him showing them a miraculous sign, which of course he had just done in feeding the four thousand. Their unbelief was ironic because they were the people supposedly of faith. They were renowned for their theological acumen. Unlike their rivals, the priestly Sadducees, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection. They believed in immortality of the soul. They believed in the whole canon of the Hebrew Bible. They believed in the prophets, which the Sadducees rejected. They were not only outwardly moral, but they were doctrinally orthodox. They were very orthodox, except for the fact that they missed the coming of the long-awaited messianic Savior, the one prophesied throughout the Hebrew Bible. In all their great understanding, they missed the bull’s eye. They missed Christ.

Lest we smugly think that this has no application for us because we are Christians, I say that we too can easily miss Christ in all our understanding. This is a ditch especially of those who are churched commonly fall into. (GWP) I spoke about this last Sunday night, about being careful that we do not have a Christless Christianity, a Christianity in which we make all the right professions of faith and we even do the right duties, but we miss Christ in it all.

The Christian life, as Pastor has often said, is not mere moralism. And we are not to preach mere moralism, about what to do and how to live. We are to preach about Christ. And we are not just to become more disciplined people. We are not just to treat others better and to work harder. This can all be nothing more than an empty form of godliness. We can do all things and yet miss the one thing needful, the one person needful. We can fail to know Christ personally. We do not want to be the ones to come to God on that day and say, “Lord, Lord, did we not do all these things: we read your Bible; we went to church; we tithed. We did all these things in your name,” and yet hear from him, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!”

Remember how Jesus himself defined eternal life for us in John 17:3. He said, “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” To have eternal life is to know God personally, to know Christ personally. So then that brings us to the yeast of Herod.

The Yeast of Herod

Jesus warns against “the yeast of Herod,” or, as other translations say, “the yeast of the Herodians.” The interpretation of this is a bit more difficult than “the yeast of the Pharisees.” But the yeast of Herod is an unusual phrase because we do not think of Herod, or the Herodians, as being teachers who spread some malignant ideas.

Herod Antipas, whom Jesus called “the fox” in Luke 13, was the tetrarch of Galilee who ruled throughout the ministry of Jesus. But fundamentally the idea of Herod represents secularism and worldly power. Herod is the worldly ruler of the time. And so he is representative of all worldly powers.

The world is vehemently opposed to Christ and his kingdom. And the devil is behind the world’s opposition. After all, Jesus frequently referred to Satan as the prince of this world. And we know from 1 John 5:19 that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We need to be on guard against the devil, who looks to spread the yeast of Herod. He does so in individuals, he does so in homes, and he does so in the church. Worldliness can gradually creep in and take over. Worldly powers are always teaching and spreading their pernicious demonic influence.

The most obvious example of this in our day is our public schools and universities, which have become hotbeds for anti-Christian indoctrination. The state of California is mandating ethnic studies classes in public schools. There is a group—this is its actual name—called the Trans Queer Racial Educational Justice Coalition, that is now pushing for almost comically radical model curriculum for this ethnic studies class to be taught in public schools. It would be comical if it was not so tragic and true. At our local public high school, students can now take a “Race and Social Justice” class to fulfill their eleventh-grade history requirement. Therefore, students no longer have to take U.S. history. They want to get rid of our former heroes, like George Washington and Ulysses S. Grant, whose statues they want to tear down, and replace them with California heroes like the communist radical professor Angela Davis and the gay rights icon Harvey Milk. A current local public school teacher, who will go unnamed, put it this way: “What the children are exposed to is sickening. I would not recommend that anyone send their kids to public schools. Even good teachers and administrators are often, at best, small islands in a sea of foolishness, falsehood, and filth.”

To become like the world is a serious temptation for the church. The apostle Paul calls on us not to conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom. 12:2). We combat the temptation to think like the world by renewing our minds by the Holy Spirit through the word of God, and we are to cleanse our minds with the water of his word.

We can be tempted to become like the world in the following four ways.

1. Thinking Like the World

First of all, we can be tempted to think like the world. As regenerated Christians, we now have the mind of Christ, and we are to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ. We are to regard no one from a worldly point of view, it says in 2 Cor. 5:16. But if we are not careful, worldly ideas begin to creep into our minds. The Trans Queer Racial Educational Justice Coalition is pretty obvious. It is not so subtle, so it is pretty easy to oppose. But there are much more subtle worldly ways of thinking that creep into our minds. This happened even to the apostle Peter after he reprimanded Jesus for telling of his imminent death. Jesus sharply rebuked Peter, saying, “Get thee behind me, Satan! You do not have in mind the things of God but the things of men.”

There are many ways to think like the world. But one especially common way is to think that this world is all there is. And maybe you do not necessarily think it is all there is. That is not what you say you think, but that is how you operate. You operate with only the things of this world in mind.

We get all caught up in the here and now, and we have no eye to eternity. That is what Peter’s problem was, and that is what our problem often is. Peter could not imagine what good could possibly come from Jesus dying and leaving this world.

In Psalm 10, the psalmist says that in all the thoughts of the wicked, there is no room for God. That is especially worldly thinking. This is why God calls us in the New Testament to fix our eyes on Jesus, and to set our minds on things above, not on earthly things. That is what Paul says in Colossians 3:2. He not only says, “Set your minds on things above,” but he especially says, “not on earthly things.” That is worldly thinking. Foolishness is godlessness, and foolish thinking is thinking without God in mind. The rulers of this age, like Herod, think they are gods, so they do not think beyond themselves. But we need to take the reality of the true and living God into account in all our thinking and in all our reasoning.

2. Sinning Like the World

Second, we can become tempted to sin like the world. The Bible commands us as Christians to live a holy life—”to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:12). But the world seems to allow us to indulge our every lust. This is what attracts people to reject Christ. Make no mistake about it. They may come up with other fancy philosophical arguments that justify their abandoning of Christ. But it is all a smokescreen. What they really want is freedom to sin. You have heard our Pastor say many times that people leave the church for one reason: they want to sin.

The apostle John warns us in 1 John 2:15–16, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.” Those who are dead in their transgressions and sins follow the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. And they gratify the cravings of their sinful nature and follow its desires and thoughts (see Eph. 2:1–3).

But all this shows that they are by nature objects of wrath. If we want to sin like the world, then do not be fooled: we will suffer the same eternal judgment that awaits this fallen, condemned, sinful world.

The one who sins is a slave to sin. Sin is his master. The one who goes on sinning, who refuses to repent of sin in his life, is not born again. It is clearly stated in 1 John 3:9. That does not mean that we do not sin, but if you refuse to repent of sin, you are not born of God. God’s seed is not in you. And Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms that no one will see or enter the kingdom of God unless he is born again, born from above by the Spirit.

3. Seeking the Favor of the World

The third way that we can try to become like the world is that we are tempted by the favor of the world. Worldliness creeps in on us by creating a yearning in us to be praised, or at least accepted, by the world. Jesus warned us that all men will hate us because of him. He warned his disciples in John 15, starting in verse 19: “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also” (John 15:19–20).

Who wants to be despised and persecuted? No one likes to be hated. The temptation comes, “Hey, maybe if we just lay low, stay quiet, and fly under the radar, then we will not have to be reviled any longer.” We all have it in us to want to be loved by all. We would like the favor of the world especially because the favor of the world can also give us much desired influence in the world. But to actually gain that favor is going to require a serious compromise. The world loves its own. To be loved by the world you will have to become like the world. You have to love what they love; you have to hate what they hate.

The major problem is that the world fundamentally hates and rejects Jesus Christ. It is not just that the world hated and rejected him when he came. That is true. But it hates—present tense—and will always hate and reject Jesus Christ. He is the one you will have to sacrifice if you truly want to gain the favor of the world. We either please God, or we please people. We cannot please both. This is stated clearly in the Bible.  Remember Galatians 1:10, where Paul says, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God?” You see, he cannot have both. “Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” You see, men are not pleased by servants of Christ. In 1 Thessalonians 2:4 Paul says, “We speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts.”

Beware the yeast of Herod. Beware of the desire to be popular in this world. Our Lord plainly taught in Luke 16:15, “That which is highly esteemed among men,” that which is popular, “is abomination in the sight of God.”

4. Coveting the Things of The World

Finally, we are tempted to covet the things of this world. The spreading yeast of Herod can come in the form of a desire for the possession of this world, the stuff of the world. Remember that in the parable of the sower, the third soil hearer failed to persevere because “the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful” (Mark 4:19).

This is especially tends to come in the form of the love of money. Paul warns Timothy, “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs” (1 Tim. 6:9–10).

We see this many times throughout the history of the kings of Judah. Many became rich and powerful, and then they became proud. For example, King Uzziah became successful in battle, we are told. He gained riches. And his fame spread everywhere. And then we read in 2 Chronicles 26:16, “But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God.” Or remember the rich young ruler. He had some sort of yearning for eternal life; at least, he had had enough interest to come and ask Jesus what he must do to gain eternal life. But when Jesus told him to sell all and follow him, he could not do it. He went away sad because he loved his money. He loved his stuff. So the rich young ruler could not give up his hold on the world because the world had a hold on him.

Jesus has warned us in no uncertain terms in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” The yeast of Herod, the spread of evil influence of the world, must be resisted in the power of the Holy Spirit. We must submit ourselves to God and resist the worldly temptations that the devil tries to push on us. And then, and only then, will he flee from us.

Application

As a closing application, I want to point out the utter failure of the disciples to understand what Jesus was saying to them. He tries to warn them about the deadly influence of both sacred and secular powers. Yet they failed to grasp what he is saying because they are so caught up in thinking about bread.

So Jesus says to them, “Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?” (Mark 8:17–18). That is what Jesus says to them. You see, they still worry about bread, in spite of having twice seeing Jesus perform the miracle of multiplication. He fed five thousand with five loaves and four thousand with seven. Are they really worried that he cannot feed thirteen with one?

Jesus has to rebuke the disciples because they just are not on the same wavelength as him. We know that unbelievers are unable to understand, but that is not the problem here. These are not unbelievers. Unlike unbelievers, these disciples are alive in Christ – at least, all but Judas. But they misunderstand Jesus here because they do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men. It is like when Peter was trying to walk on water, and he sank as he began to look at the waves instead of fixing his eyes on Jesus.

The disciples worry and do not understand because they fail to fix their eyes on Jesus. Their thinking has become godless. Their reasoning does not take the reality of God into account. But we tragically miss the point if we just shake our heads condescendingly at the disciples and their little faith. Instead, we should examine ourselves and rebuke ourselves for our own lack of faith in spite of the many ways that God has revealed himself to us and delivered us from all our troubles and provided for us in every way. We must humble ourselves and confess to falling frequently into this same mindset. We tend to start thinking like a fool, not taking the reality of God into account. We begin to fret or we begin to rant on the pathetic state of national politics and the state politics and the instability of world affairs—there are all kinds of things that can cause you to fret or complain–but all the while forgetting about the Sovereign Lord, our Lord and Redeemer, who is in control of all things.

Whenever we worry and complain, we are ignoring what God has already done to show us his wisdom, power, and faithfulness. He is not going to abandon us. Things are not outside of his control. So we are called to rejoice in the Lord always, and that always especially means when times are difficult—when times are difficult nationally or when times are difficult personally. We are then especially to rejoice in the Lord and give him thanks.

So let us hear and heed the solemn warning of our Lord Jesus Christ: Be careful and watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod. Watch out for the evil influence both in the church and in the world. Filled with the Holy Spirit, we can and we must stand firm and let nothing move us. As we resolve in the power of the Holy Spirit to always give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord, knowing that our labor in the Lord is never in vain.