Leaven of the Pharisees

I wanted to try to cover something today that's, in a sense, it's clearly related to the days of Unleavened Bread. And I hope it would be beneficial to us because during these days, God asks us to observe something that, for the most part, most people are not really thinking about. They're not thinking about whether something is leavened or whether it is unleavened. Unfortunately, the customary symbols that you see around churchianity today are bunnies and eggs, which make no sense at all to me.

You know, I think it's clearly not connected to the purpose for which we observe the Passover and celebrate the days of Unleavened Bread. But the symbols, see, God uses symbols that make sense. The lamb, that clearly makes sense.

The bread and the wine, those both make a great deal of sense in connection with Christ's sacrifice. And then ultimately, as we go into keeping the feast of Unleavened Bread, we put leaven out of our home, and we do that for seven days. And I assume most of you have done that for probably quite some time. And you're somewhat used to that. You know that that can be relatively easy to do. I mean, you can get the leaven together. You can put things aside. You can identify the baking soda and the baking powder.

You can get those out of your house. And you can do cleaning. I'm not advocating just totally unearthing everything. I think we need to find what we know is leaven and clean as we're able. And yet, really, the main focus that God gives is more so on our lives than simply on the physical signs that we are observing. And it's amazing how that when you're thinking about it, and I have not been driving through McDonald's this week. I know that's a hazard. And I also, well, actually, I got Kentucky Fried Chicken the other night.

And we actually were, Pat and I were only going to, we just got the chicken from there and didn't get anything else because we're going to have the rest at home. And sure enough, got home. There's a big biscuit right in the middle of it. I didn't order that. I didn't want that. But that was there.

And I was just noticing on my way down here today, I pulled out my briefcase that I carry with me almost everywhere. I find candy bars in there. Now, it wasn't a leaven candy bar. But nonetheless, I thought, I forgot I left this in here. So things can be unsuspecting to us. And yet, the symbols that God uses whenever he uses leaven as an example or a symbol that can identify sin, identify being puffed up, and then unleaven clearly indicating the type of life that we want to live, the type of life that Jesus lived and that he is able to live in us.

And so I'd like for us to think as we go through these days of unleavened bread of ways that we can grow, not just dealing with leaven or unleavened because we are unleavened and we are observing.

Pretty much we've got Mexican type stuff today that those are unleavened products. And that's what we're going to be eating. But even more important than that, God wants us to think about how we can grow spiritually. And we have a period of time here. We've got three more days today in the next two days to be able to grow spiritually. I'd like for us to look at Luke 12 because Luke 12 identifies a specific area where Jesus gave a warning.

He says, I want you to get away from this. I want you to be aware of it. I want you to know what it is. And then I want you to make progress. Make progress in moving away from what he's identifying here in Luke 12. He says in verse 1, Meanwhile, when the crowd gathered by the thousands so that they trampled one another, he began to speak first to his disciples. So a good number of people were there, and he gave a warning. A warning to his disciples, a warning to all the people within hearing range.

He said, Beware of the leaven, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees. And so here in this case, you know, Jesus gives a very clear statement. He makes a, he gives us a guide. He actually gives us a caution. I want you to be aware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and he goes ahead to say in this particular verse, which is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy. He goes ahead to describe nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, nothing secret that will not become known. And of course, he's going to discuss this leaven of the Pharisees. He's going to give a little insight into the fact that even though the Pharisees were commonly viewed as religious people, they were the people who were in the suits.

You know, they had the ties on. I mean, they had the robes on. They had the garb. They had the religious garb, as you know, we know that certainly some folks do wear that type of thing. We normally wear just, you know, regular business clothes as far as suits and ties and dresses or women dressing up for a church service. And yet the Pharisees were viewed in a positive light in many ways, at least within that culture. And yet Jesus took exception. He says, beware of the way they are, beware of what they do, because they're hypocrites.

They are not really truly representing me. And so I'd like for us to back up a few chapters, a few paragraphs here, and go back into chapter 11 and see what it was that he pointed out that he thought he said the Pharisees are wrong in. And this can give us some insight into how it is that we can either identify and get rid of any hypocrisy that may be in our lives.

So here in chapter 11, verse 37, while he was speaking, a Pharisee invited him to dine with him. And so he went and took his place at the table. Now this was, I don't know that this was an uncommon occurrence. You have two or three different occasions here in the Bible where Jesus was invited to dine with the Pharisees. And of course he ate with the tax collectors and the sinners.

And he was willing to go and talk with and be with virtually anyone. And this would indicate he was somewhat of a popular dinner guest or whatever they were eating there, they were dining. He was sought after because not only could he do some pretty remarkable things, and he might heal someone, he might say some remarkable thing. In this case, I don't know how popular he was after he said what he did, but he told the Pharisee something that they really didn't want to hear.

Now the Pharisees were a group of people, they were religious leaders, who were very orthodox in their activity. They observed the law of God very strictly. They observed everything kind of overly strictly because they had not only the law of God, but they had additional traditions or additional information that they added. And another focus that they had was really on ritual purity, on being pure. So I'm going to assume that they probably thought that they were pretty much the purest folks around because they were tremendously washed.

They were tremendously clean. And so we see in verse 38 a problem. The Pharisees were amazed, or the Pharisee apparently he was dining with, was amazed to see that Jesus did not wash before dinner. Oh, what? What a calamity! You know, terrible! He forgot to wash his hands, or he probably didn't do it on purpose, knowing that they would require it, knowing that that would be something they would be interested in, knowing how much that was an obsession. And I guess in many ways you'd have to say they were quite obsessive with the things that they required and that they not only required, but that they wanted other people to do as well.

And so we see in verse 39, the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you're full of greed and wickedness. He told them, we see in chapter 12, you're hypocrites.

You are hypocritical by the way you live and by the way that you act. He went on to say, you fools! Did not the one make the outside make the inside as well? What you should do is give your alms, give alms from the heart. Give alms from those things that are within and see everything will be clean for you. What he told them was, you're missing the point altogether. You're missing the point of what I would like for you to do and what my father would like for you to do.

So he says, woe to you Pharisees, in verse 42, For you tithe of mint and rue and herbs of all kind, and yet you neglect something. You're meticulous in your tithing and in the extent to which you tithe. And of course, he's not condemning that in any way. He's actually saying that that's something that should be done. He goes on to say, it is these things that you ought to practice without neglecting the others. So he was saying that tithing certainly is the right principle. He was supporting that. But he was saying, you're missing the point where you neglect justice. You neglect justice, and you neglect the love of God.

And so he says, woe to you. You love to have the seats of honor in the synagogue be greeted with respect in the marketplace. You're like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without realizing it. Here he actually gives just a few of his indictments against the Pharisees. He doesn't go into, and actually I will be talking about on Monday, the ones he goes into in Matthew 23, which includes several of these, but there are also some other specific things that he tells them were wrong.

And he actually goes on here in verse 45. He says also to the lawyers when they asked him, or one of the lawyers answered him and said, teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too. And I'm sure that didn't come as a shock to Jesus. I'm sure he realized. Yeah, I know. I'm talking about you as well, because the lawyers were those who were possibly of the Pharisees or of the Sadducees, but who had devoted their life to studying the Bible, studying the Old Testament, writing about it.

They were considered to be the scribes or the lawyers or the teachers of the law. They were considered to be experts on the law. And of course, he was having something to say about them. Well, also to you lawyers, for you loathe people with burdens, hard to bear, you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them. He says you have some of the same type of problems. You're also overly strict with the traditions of the elders. That's something that you pass on quite easily. And yet, you burden people down with this, and this is not necessary.

He goes on down in verse 52, You've taken away the key of knowledge. You do not enter yourself, and you hinder others from entering, talking about the kingdom of God. And I think the key of knowledge, certainly one of the things that could be referred to here, would be a real correct understanding of the Word of God, and clearly understanding of Jesus Christ. He was telling them, you're missing the point altogether.

You're not accepting me. You don't believe, even though you believe a Messiah is coming, because they did think that a Messiah was going to come, they did not want to accept who Jesus was as the Son of God. So, these indictments he gives, and of course he brings this down into chapter 12, saying this is the leaven of the Pharisees.

And we actually see this more graphically described over here in Matthew chapter 15. So I want to go to Matthew 15 and point out, again, what it is that Jesus is saying about the hypocritical attitude of the Pharisees. The Pharisees, verse 1, in Scribes came to Jesus. Why do your disciples break the traditions of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat. Same type of problem, you know, the type of ritual, the type of purity that they they come on and complain about.

Jesus answered and said, well, why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition? And again, he points out something that, well, your traditions and maintaining those traditions do not help people focus on the commands of God. And he says in verse 6, for the sake of your tradition, you make void the Word of God. You hypocrites. And so again, he pointed out to them how it was they were hypocritical. He says, and as Isaiah points out in Isaiah 29, this people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, teaching the precepts of men as what's really important. And so he clearly was able to point out to the Pharisee and to the lawyer, you know, that what's really wrong is your heart. What's really wrong? And I think that's what we want to learn as we are observing the days of unleavened bread, as we are eating unleavened bread. We want to recall what it is that is represented by unleavened bread. So here in verse 10, he called the crowd to him and said, well, listen and understand.

So he didn't direct this directly at the Pharisees, but he called the others around him. And he said, it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person. So this is still in connection with the fact that he didn't wash his hands and he might have had some dirt on his hands. He might have got it on whenever he was eating. He says it's not what goes into the mouth that goes into a person, or it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles the person, but it is what that comes out of the mouth that defiles.

And so here he's going to give them a very, very clear explanation of what really defiles someone. It's not a matter of a little dirt, not a matter of something that would be considered unclean. It's a matter of how it is, you know, that our mouth reveals things that defile us. The disciples said, well, do you know that the Pharisees are offended by what you said? And he said, well, every plant that my father has not planted will be uprooted.

Let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. And if one person guides a blind person, guides another, both will fall into the ditch. And Peter said, well, please explain this parable for us. And he said, well, are you without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters his stomach and it goes out into the sewer? You know, the food that we eat, you know, we ultimately digest. You know, we gain some nutrition from it and we eliminate it. We expel it. And he said, that's it. But he says in verse 18, what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart.

And this is what defiles. And so this is why he was saying 11 of the Pharisees should be avoided. It should be caution because they are hypocritical. Their heart is wrong. And he says, you know, what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart. And this is what defiles. We're out of the heart, out of the innermost being of any person. Out of the heart comes evil intention.

And murder or adultery and fornication and theft and false witness and slander. And other accounts of this same thing talk about jealousy. They talk about deceit. See, these are things that defile us, brethren. This is what defiles us. And of course, he goes on to say, these are what defiles the person to eat with unwashed hands does not defy.

He had a very clear concept of what needed to be done. And see, what really needed to be done was that the attitudes needed to completely change. And so what the Pharisees clearly needed was a heart transplant. What they clearly needed, what we clearly need, is a heart transplant. What we need, as it says back in Psalm 51, we need a clean heart.

We need to have a clean heart. David said in Psalm 51 10, Create in me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit within me. These were things that David was recognizing as he saw his sins, as he saw his lust, as he saw his greed for control, as he saw his intents of killing Uriah. He ultimately set that up where Uriah was going to die. He was trying to cover up.

He was trying to deceive. He was trying to make it appear that he wasn't quite as bad as he realized and knew he was in that case. And yet what he says in verse 10 is very, very insightful because he's asking God to create in me a clean heart. He wasn't really saying, I need to clean up my heart. Sometimes we can get the impression that we need to get rid of all of our sins.

Well, we do need to come out of sin. We do need, if we're doing something that we clearly identify as sin, we need to work on that, try to stop doing that.

But ultimately, if we're going to have a clean heart, we need to ask God to give us that clean heart. And so I'd like for us to look at Psalm 139. Psalm 139 is another psalm of David. And yet it's one that I think can be very instructive to us during the Days of Unleavened Bread because, you know, we are thinking about our spiritual lives. We have just observed an occasion that reminds us of the depth of love that God has for us in Jesus Christ offering Himself as a sacrifice for our sins.

And then He allows us to celebrate for seven days a festival that's focused on seeing sin, seeing things. And of course, according to the Pharisees, as hypocrites as they were, you know, the real intents and problems that they had were of the heart. Those were what defiled them, and that, of course, is what defiles us as well. Actions could defile us, but attitudes of the heart, we need to have that clean heart. And David talks about that here in Psalm 139. He says, Oh, Lord, You have searched me and known me. You actually know when I sit down and when I get up.

You discern my thoughts from far away. Now, this is scary. Not just a matter that God might see what we do. He knows what's going on in our head. He knows our thoughts. He goes on to say, You search out my path and my lying down. You're acquainted with my ways. Even before the word is on my tongue, oh, Lord, You know it completely. You know, that's pretty close awareness of each of us. David was saying, I know. You knew. Maybe I didn't think about it whenever I was considering the options of adultery.

Maybe I didn't think about it whenever I was scheming and plotting, dealing with Uriah. Maybe I wasn't really, but you knew all along. You knew what was going through my head. You knew what was in my heart. You knew I needed a clean heart. I needed a right spirit, and that's what he, of course, asked for. But here he's elaborating on the fact that, you know, Father, you know, you know my action. That should be a deterrent even in itself, to a degree.

You know my thoughts. He says in verse 7, Where can I go? Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I send to heaven, you're there. If I go down to hell, I go to the grave. You're there. If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there, your hand shall live. And your right hand shall hold me fast. Down in verse 13, it was you who formed my inward part.

You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. My frame in verse 15 was not hidden from you. When I was being made in secret, intricately woven the depths of the earth, your eyes beheld my unformed substance. And in your book were written all the days that were formed for me when none of them had yet existed.

To God has a purpose for our salvation. He has a purpose for each of us. He wants us, certainly, to have salvation. He wants us to have eternal life. He wants us to become like Him. Being transformed and taking on the divine nature requires a transformation of the heart. It requires us to pull back from the leaven of the Pharisees, of the hypocritical attitudes that were so rampant. Clearly, they would plot and they would plan to try to, as they went along, further try to destroy Jesus, try to get rid of Him. They would ask Him questions to try to trick Him. They would later discuss, well, that didn't work. Now let's see what else we can do to try to kill Him. You know, they had malicious intent toward Him. To the malice and the wickedness that we see where to be away from, clearly exemplified by what the Pharisees did. And here, you know, David is just simply asking. We drop on down to verse 23.

He says, I hate those who hate you with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies. You know, I would guess that David was probably still yet to come to understand more about the fact that even though he was fighting enemies, you know, he really didn't need to hate them. He says he hated them because, you know, he knew they were opposing to God. But what Jesus was later going to say was that, well, you need to love your enemies as well.

You need to learn to have, as I have, a love even for those who will totally oppose you because that's my whole mission. That's my whole purpose. I came to save people who hate me. And that's what he is doing. As he extends his forgiveness and mercy and his encouragement and love to us. Then David goes on in verse 23 and 24 to, I think, kind of give us a plan.

Give us a plan for the days of Unleavened Bread. See, as we understand that only God can give us a clean heart, only God can change the attitudes of heart that are identified as being wrong. It says in verse 23, search me. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and test me and know my thoughts, know my anxieties, know my frustrations, know my downfall, know my limitations. So search me, know my heart, try me, and know my thoughts, and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in your way everlasting. See, that was David's prayer.

That was his request. He said, I can't get away from you. You know everything about me. You know everything about my actions. You know everything about my thoughts. You know everything about my heart. But he was saying, I'd like for you to search me. And in a sense, he was saying, know me and show me and then lead me in your way. He wanted to understand what was wrong. He wanted to learn how it was he could be pleasing to God. So I think that during the days of Unleavened Bread, and during the time when we're eating unleavened bread and actually reminding ourselves of the unleavened life that God wants us to live, that we're reminded of how much we need God's help, how much we need his encouragement, how much we need his direction and his assistance in being able to have the clean heart that he wants us to have.

And in essence, what he's going to want us to do, and I think perhaps we can do during these days, is to ask God to know me and to show me and to lead me in your way. That's what we want to ask. We want to ask for the leading of the Holy Spirit, for the guidance. And so as we observe these days of Unleavened Bread, and I know we've got, you know, less than half left here. We've got today, tomorrow, Monday.

As we do that, perhaps we can focus on asking God to show us if there is any way such as this, as we're describing. See, hypocrisy can be very deceitful. You know, I know I'm hypocritical sometimes. I don't want to be, but I am. That's because my heart isn't completely transformed yet. I know I can do things that are deceitful. I don't like to get in trouble. So sometimes I might do something that's deceitful.

Those are the things that we want to identify and again ask God to show us, but then also to lead us. And then certainly as He does that, to ask Him to cleanse our hearts of any of the leaven of the Pharisees, of any of the hypocrisy that could be hidden in our heart. And as we do so, then the symbols. The symbols that God has us observe, the symbols that He allows us to enjoy, really take on significant meaning, have much more significance than any of the other things that you find that might be used as a religious symbol.

So I encourage you during the days of Unleavened Bread to keep that in mind and certainly keep Jesus' caution in mind to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees.