Yeast, Pride, and Unleavened Bread

Thank you very much to the octet. Beautiful music, beautiful words, and very appropriate in this Passover and Unleavened Bread season. Thank you very much to the octet, and also the special music from Louise to the guitar instrumental.

So thank you very much. How much do you think about yourself? Are you always on your mind? Do you ever find yourself getting a little puffed up? Or do you mostly think about the needs of other people? Today we're going to talk about pride. But first, let's talk about yeast. After all, these are the days of unleavened bread. Yeast is something that's commonly associated with bread and baking. However, there are surprisingly many other ways you can use yeast. And I'm going to list a few for you. Please note, most of these are not leavening agents, but these are ways yeast is used, of course, to brew beer and wine.

We know that. To make chocolate. There is yeast in chocolate when the cocoa is being fermented. To treat your hair. To deal with hair loss or add extra shine, there are yeast-based treatments to apply directly to your hair. To add protein to your diet. Two tablespoons of nutritional yeast, you know, not baker's yeast, can offer the same amount of protein as a cup of milk or an ounce of beef.

As a skin moisturizer, yeast can work with collagen to help fight wrinkles and is in several types of skin moisturizers to fortify nails. Brewer's yeast is rich in vitamin B, which can help make chipped nails become stronger. And as a parmesan replacement, it's becoming more common to see yeast on restaurant menus now. You may have seen it. It can be used as a topping or parmesan replacement in a form similar to grated cheese, on foods like salad, pizza, pasta.

It can be added to popcorn or used as a top of a pasta. And yeast can be used as a symbol of sin and pride. It is multifunctional. Yeast are single-celled microorganisms, single-celled, classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and 1,500 species are currently identified. And by fermentation, the yeast species, Saccharomsis cerevisiae, don't have to remember that. They all do try and do that with their fingers either.

This particular yeast converts carbohydrates to carbon dioxide and alcohols. That's the one that's used in bread. For thousands of years, the carbon dioxide has been used in baking and the alcohol and alcoholic beverages. The word yeast actually comes from the old English word gist, G-I-S-T. And from the Indo-European root Y-E-S, or yeast, meaning boil, foam, or bubble. And yeast microbes are probably one of the earliest domesticated organisms. Archaeologists digging in Egyptian ruins found early grinding stones and baking chambers for yeast-raised bread, as well as drawings of 4,000-year-old bakeries and breweries. But other species of yeasts, such as Candida, are opportunistic pathogens and can cause infections in humans. And yeasts have recently been used to generate electricity in microbial fuel cells and produce ethanol for the biofuel industry.

So, what about yeast? And what about pride? What about the symbolism of these days of unleavened bread that we're now observing? I've titled today's message, Yeast, Pride, and Unleavened Bread. I've divided it up into five main sections. The first section I've simply called the analogy of leaven. The analogy of leaven. As I mentioned a moment ago, there's a yeast species, Sakhromsies servicei, used in baking goods, right? Don't have to remember that, but there's also Candida and 1,498 others. But they're kind of the main ones we know. Think of leavening as an analogy of disease cells or Candida in the body that must be killed or removed when it comes to picturing sin.

If you get to it quickly, then you can prevent further damage. But unchecked, the infection grows out of control and can lead to our spiritual death. During these days of unleavened bread, leavening has the analogy of sin in Scripture, just for one week a year. Pride also puffs up. And this is a vital lesson of leavening that we are all familiar with. We talk about people having a big head, thinking they're big stuff. Vanity and arrogance truly are dangerous to our spiritual health. They can lead us to cut ourselves off from God, leading to a spiritual death.

But the puffed up stage of leavening is not immediate. It takes time for tiny yeast microorganisms to multiply and spread, for that carbon dioxide to bubble up. And then, by the time swelling comes, the process, the infection, is well along. Let's turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 5, if you would, here on this holiday. 1 Corinthians 5, and we'll read verses 6 through 8. 1 Corinthians 5 verse 6. Paul tells the Corinthian brethren, your glorying is not good. Sounds like they had the big head.

Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven, eventually leavens the whole lump? This little carbon dioxide bubble starts to multiply. He says, therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are in leavened.

For indeed Christ had passed over what was sacrificed for us. And so, as we remembered on the Passover, Jesus Christ sacrificed does make us clean again, when we repent. Verse 8, therefore, let us keep the feast. He was talking about these days. Not with old leaven, nor the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

So Paul said, do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? And the congregation at the time was exposing themselves to infection, to sin, instead of, if you know the story, quarantining or excommunicating the one who was spreading the sin and wrong attitudes. Have you ever taken a quiz to see how much pride you have? There are a lot of them online, and there's one that Terry forwarded to me. I don't know why she wanted me to take this quiz, but...

It was simply titled, Am I Prideful? And you can go to beliefnet.com and find it. And I've got the full link if you want it afterwards, at beliefnet.com. But here are the 12 questions you get asked. And there are three multiple-choice answers to choose from with each question. But here are the questions. Number one, when talking to others, how often do you talk about yourself?

Number two, why do you do good things? Number three, how often do you think about yourself? Number four, do you do your work to further your own situation or to help others? Number five, when you go to the store, the first thing you look for is... Number six, how often do you find yourself discussing others' faults? Number seven, when bad things happen, your first response is to... When someone criticizes me, my first reaction is...

How often do you talk about what you're doing on social media? How often are you wrong? Do you hold grudges? And how do you react when someone disagrees with you? So I took the test. My result was just a little prideful. Just a little. And it said, you are struggling with pride, but you're trying. Pray to God to help you out. Okay. So, perhaps telling you my result was a little prideful. But let's continue this analysis of the analogy of unleavened bread, yeast and pride.

And just think about yourself throughout this. Think of those questions. Think about what your reaction would be. Because it's actually a spiritual battle that we're involved in. A spiritual battle. And that leads me to the second point. The first one being just the analogy of leaven. The second point is biological and chemical warfare. Biological and chemical warfare. For a week each year, we can think of leavening as a weapon of Satan. The leavening we avoid comes in two types. Biological, which is the yeast, and chemical, which is like baking powder or baking soda. That's a chemical. So you've got the biological weapon, you've got the chemical weapon. And biological and chemical weapons are among the most feared types of warfare today.

And so their spiritual counterpart should be also dangerous to us, to the Christian. And some of the gases that have been used in chemical warfare can incapacitate a man in concentrations as little as one part in 10 million. And so we say, how much sin can I touch and say, that won't hurt me?

The only true protection is to get away from the cause.

Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of chemical substances as weapons. And this type of warfare is distinct from nuclear warfare and biological warfare, but all three are considered weapons of mass destruction, aren't they? WMDs.

And in practice, WMDs are able to cause much suffering, as most victims are defenseless civilians, and many nations possess vast stockpiles of weaponized agents in preparation for wartime use. And so, by analogy, Satan the Devil has immense stockpiles of WMDs, including biological and chemical living agents ready to launch upon us, by analogy.

Therefore, God gives us the power through his Holy Spirit to address the cause of the infection, the sin, the leaven, the pride, and get it out of our life.

Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 10, if you would. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verses 4 and 5.

2 Corinthians 10 verse 4.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're not physical. They're not of this world. But mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.

Casting down arguments in every high thing that exalts itself, like pride, against the knowledge of God.

Bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

So, talking about a spiritual warfare going on here, and making sure that our thoughts are always in consideration to the obedience of Christ. The old leaven must be put out and replaced by God's Holy Spirit. You can't get rid of poisoned air in your lungs without taking in good air to replace it.

To get rid of the biological toxin, you have to input the Holy Spirit.

If a new man is not created, after the old man is put away in baptism, the old man simply lives to rise again.

You've got to change.

Sin is a dangerous infection to be avoided at all costs.

So, as you set aside the bread, the croutons, the leavening this week, think about putting out the infection of sin, the biological and chemical weapon of Satan in this analogy.

Just a tiny bit will get you.

And as we eat the unleavened bread each day this week, we can be reminded we're not just putting sin out, but God is putting His nature in.

We're taking in the mind and body of Christ, as was said at the Passover service. It's a spiritual battle with biological and chemical warfare. My third point, titled Puffed Up With Pride.

Pride is an intimately directed emotion.

Pride can refer to a foolish and irrational sense of one's personal value, one's personal status or accomplishments. And when viewed as a vice, it's often known as vanity or vainglory. You know, the King James says vainglory.

Look at 1 Corinthians 5 again, but this time verse 2. 1 Corinthians 5 and verse 2.

Paul says, You are puffed up, and have not rather mourned that he who has done this deed might be taken away from you.

Here Paul tells the church in Corinth, You are puffed up. Puffed up is used as a vivid description of a person who is proud and vain, who wants to make themselves appear or seem bigger and better than they are.

Or as they say, you're full of themselves.

C.S. Lewis, in mere Christianity chapter 8, which was titled The Great Sin, wrote, It was through pride that the devil became the devil. Pride leads to every other vice. It is a complete anti-God state of mind.

If we read Ezekiel or Isaiah about Lucifer, what was his problem?

He said he was as good as God. He was lifted up in pride. So C.S. Lewis nails it, it was through pride that the devil became the devil. There are many biblical examples of pride and its consequences. One of the more notable examples from the Old Testament is that of Uzziah. Let's go to 2 Chronicles chapter 26 and read this one. 2 Chronicles chapter 26, because there's quite a lesson for us in here as well. When Uzziah became king of Judah at age 16, he set his heart to seek God and put himself under the spiritual mentorship of Zechariah. And as long as he sought God, he prospered. As a result, he acquired wealth and also became politically and militarily powerful. 2 Chronicles chapter 26, verse 1.

Now all the people of Judah took Uzziah, who was 16 years old, and made him king instead of his father Amaziah.

In verse 3, 2 Chronicles 26, 3, Uzziah was 16 years old when he became king, and he reigned 52 years in Jerusalem. 52 years. His mother's name was Jekaliiah of Jerusalem. And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. And he sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God. And as long as he sought the Lord God, God made him prosper.

Now listen to this list of accomplishments I'll read down for you from verses 6 through 15. They went out, made war against the Philistines, and broke down the wall of Gath, the wall of Jabner, the wall of Ashtod. He built cities around Ashtod, and among the Philistines. God helped him against the Philistines, against the Arabians who lived in Gurbal, and against the Mihonites.

Also the Ammonites brought tribute to Jekaliiah. His fame spread as far as the entrance of Egypt, for he became exceedingly strong. Verse 9, Jekaliiah built towers in Jerusalem at the corner gate, at the valley gate, and at the corner buttress of the wall. Then he fortified them, and he built towers in the desert. He dug many wells, for he had much livestock, both in the low lands and in the plains. He also had farmers and vine-dresses in the mountains and in Carmel, for he loved the soil. Moreover, Yeziah had an army of fighting men who went out to war by companies. According to the number on their rollers prepared by jail, the scribe and Messiah the officer, under the hand of Hananiah, one of the king's captains. Verse 12, the total number of chief officers of the mighty men of Valor was two thousand six hundred. But under their authority was an army of three hundred and seven thousand five hundred, that made war with mighty power to help the king against the enemy. The Yeziah prepared for them, for the entire army, shields, spears, helmets, body armor, bows, and slings, to cast stones. And he made devices in Jerusalem, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and large stones. So his fame spread far and wide, for he was marvelously helped till he became strong.

Then things changed.

What happened?

Well, he obviously stopped seeking God.

And now look at the lesson as we read the last few verses of 2nd Chronicles 26. 26 verse 16. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction.

For he transgressed against the Lord his God by entering the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense, which was something only the priests were allowed to do, right?

But if you say, hey, I'm important, I'm the king, I can do whatever I want.

So as a writer, the priest went in after him, and with him were eighty priests of the Lord, valiant men. Verse 18. They withstood King Uzziah and said to him, it is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who were consecrated to burn incense. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have trespassed. You shall have no honor from the Lord God.

Look at verse 19. Then Uzziah became furious.

You know, at that point you'd think, well, maybe I should say, I'm sorry. I messed up. I'm getting out of here. Sorry. Repent, right? Oh no, he became furious. He had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and he was angry with the priests.

Leprosy broke out on his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord beside the incense altar. And Azariah, the chief priest, and all the priests looked at him, and there on his forehead, he was leprous. So they thrust him out of that place. Indeed, he also then hurried to get out, because the Lord had struck him.

King Uzziah was a leper until the day of his death. He dwelt in an isolated house.

He was cut off from the house of the Lord. And then Jotham, his son, was over the king's house judging the people of the land. And then verse 22. Now the rest of the acts of Uzziah, from first to last, the prophet Isaiah, the son of Amos, wrote, So Uzziah rested with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the field of burial, which belonged to the kings, for they said, He is a leper.

And then Jotham, his son, reigned in his place.

It's kind of a sad story.

You can show what can happen when that leavening gets ahold of you, when you get puffed up with pride. And it's easy for pride to increase as we become stronger, more successful, more prosperous, more recognized in the community for all of our endeavors.

In fact, anything, real or imagined, that elevates us above others can be a platform for pride.

And ironically, this is true even when these things come as a result of God's blessings. Uzziah was blessed because he followed God.

So you can be doing the right thing, living the right way. And then think us all because of you.

So as a result of all his blessings, Uzziah, rather than humbling himself in thanksgiving to God, began to think more highly of himself than he should have, and developed an exaggerated sense of his own importance and abilities.

And this pride of heart led to the presumption before God and brought very serious consequences upon him.

Remember, pride goes before destruction. If you want to make a note of it, Proverbs 11.2. Proverbs 11.2 says, When pride comes, then comes shame.

In Proverbs 16.18, pride goes before destruction.

Pride goes before a fall, some say. So watch out about being puffed up with pride. The stories of Haman in Esther, chapters 3-7, and Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel chapter 4, also are other good examples of pride and well worth reading this week.

As a warning to each of us, the story of Haman in the book of Esther is a remarkable study in pride. As you will recall, Haman hatched a plan to murder all the Jews and even constructed gallows upon which to kill Mordecai.

But in the end, the gallows were used on him.

Pride turns everything into a means to an end, to get respect and approval. We want people to respect us.

We're always adding things up, comparing.

We're always asking, am I getting the thanks I deserve?

Am I getting appreciated here?

How am I being regarded?

With a prideful person, it starts to become all about me.

Pride is a concentration on self-absorption. There are two forms of pride.

On the one hand, you've got the superiority form of pride, which is easily recognized by most people.

And they're always thinking, how do I look? Am I being appreciated? Of course, Haman felt underappreciated. But there's another form of pride, and it's the inferiority form.

This is when you're down on yourself, and you don't like yourself. You don't like how you look. You're very self-conscious. You're always beating yourself up.

But you're actually just as self-absorbed.

You don't see you doing all the same comparisons as in the superiority form. A moment ago, we read where Paul uses the phrase, you are puffed up in 1 Corinthians 5, verse 2. And then that makes a connection for us between a person who is puffed up with pride and the way a batch of dough gets puffed up when a small amount of leaven is put into the batch. And we read those verses. Before long, the leaven, the yeast, spreads everywhere, fermenting and leaving hundreds of little bubbles of carbon dioxide in the dough, causing it to be puffed up. And it's the same way with pride.

Same way with vanity and other evils that grow and spread, when at first just a little bit is present.

Pride is an evil attitude that often leads to other more serious and specific sins.

A proud person is full of spiritual bubbles. Lots of visible surface area, but nothing inside but gas.

And it's a great word picture that would have been immediately understandable to most people until perhaps our century.

Because now we get a lab read at the supermarket, at the store. We have little experience in preparing the dough and a little bit of dough. And a loaf of bread for the oven.

We don't have to insert the leavening agent, like yeast. We don't have to allow the bread to rise and expand with air before we bake it. We just go down to the supermarket now. So the analogy gets lost on us a little bit.

That's probably why most modern translations like the NIV or the NLT tend to translate puffed up. When Paul wrote, you are puffed up. They translate it simply as pride.

Which is a reasonable translation of the underlying Greek word fusio. But it doesn't capture the imagination in the same way as the phrase puffed up does.

Having the big head. And as a result, it's harder for modern people like us to catch the contrast Paul is making between the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth and people who are puffed up with pride. Like a loaf of leavened bread.

And of course, also in that chapter, we mustn't forget that Paul was teaching gentiles to observe the feats of unleavened bread as well in that chapter. Not just the Jewish observance. These are the feats of the Lord for everyone.

And so that's the section puffed up with pride. This in this fourth section, look at the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. You'll recall in Exodus chapter 12 where God initiated this holiday season to begin with. When Israelites came out of Egypt, right? He said, for seven days you shall eat unleavened bread as a part of this festival unto me. Exodus chapter 12. That's an interesting analogy, too, because Egypt in Scripture is also a type of sin.

11 is a type of sin and Egypt pictured sin as well. Look at Matthew chapter 16. Let's go to Matthew 16. Because Christ talked about the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

And, of course, their false doctrine. He said to avoid that. So leaven is a type of sin that can puff one up with pride, with vanity. And for this seven-day festival, God says, eat the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth and get out of Egypt.

Matthew 16 verse 5.

When his disciples had come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. Jesus said to them, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

And, of course, the disciples reasoned among themselves, saying, I guess he said we forgot to bring the bread.

Jesus, being aware of that, said, oh, you have little faith. Why do you reason among yourselves? Because you've brought no bread. Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand? How many baskets you took up? Well, the seven loaves of the four thousand, how many large baskets you took up? You're saying, you know, I could have made some more bread if you forgot the bread.

But how is it you don't understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread, but to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees? So then, verse 12, they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

False doctrine, false teachings, false examples of righteousness being puffed up, filled with pride in their beliefs.

A flat piece of bread, not puffed up with yeast or any other leavening agent that causes it to rise.

A flat piece of bread is a type of bread God uses to teach us a lesson to put sin out of our life.

He wants us to flatten ourselves in relationship to him, to humble ourselves in relationship to him.

To learn humility, to learn service. We are to represent Jesus Christ, now living in us through the bread of life that he is. And that's what unleavened bread is all about this week. It's a symbol of sin that helps us understand something very important in God's plan.

There's another pride test that I found from a radio interview from a website called ReviveOurHearts.com. I went ahead and kind of took a few off of here and added a few of my own.

And think to yourself as go through this particular pride test and some of these questions, am I being a Pharisee? Am I one of the Pharisees or Sadducees with any of these questions?

You look down on those who are less educated, less affluent, less refined, or less successful than yourself. Do you think of yourself as more spiritual than your mate, or people in your church, or people in your workplace? Do you give undue time or attention to your appearance? Are you proud of the schedule you keep? How disciplined you are? How much you're able to accomplish?

Are you driven to receive approval from others? Do you have to have the last word? Do you generally think that your way is the right way or the best way?

Do you get your feelings hurt easily? Are you guilty of trying to leave a better impression of yourself than is honestly true? Especially on Facebook, right?

Do you have a hard time admitting when you're wrong?

Do you have a hard time confessing your sin to God or to others? Are you excessively worried about what other people think about you?

Do you become defensive when you're criticized or corrected? Is your pride hurt?

Are you a perfectionist? Do you get impatient and irked with people who aren't?

Do you tend to be controlling or manipulate the people around you?

Do you frequently interrupt people when they're speaking? Do you often complain about the weather, your health, your circumstances, your job, the church? Do you think you deserve better? It shouldn't be happening to you.

Do you talk about yourself too much?

Do you overly worry about what others think of you, about your reputation or your family's reputation?

Do you get hurt if your accomplishments or your acts of service are not recognized or rewarded? Do you get hurt if your opinions are not considered when someone makes a decision and you're not informed about the changes? It kind of hurts, doesn't it?

Do you react to rules? Do you have a hard time being told what to do?

So maybe you're thinking, none of these apply to me.

Thankfully, I'm not proud. I don't have anything to be proud about. I don't have any special gifts. I'm not beautiful. I don't have any achievements to be proud of.

Or maybe that's a kind of subtle form of pride too.

Are you uncomfortable inviting people to your home because you don't think it's nice enough?

Is it hard for others to let you know when... is it hard for you to let others know when you need help?

And when is the last time you said, I was wrong? Will you please forgive me? So you may be sitting here thinking, how many of these questions apply to someone else here in the room? Someone else you know, right?

You're feeling pretty good that most of these things I listed don't really apply to you.

And now you want to get a tape of this sermon.

And had it out to about a dozen people that you know. And tell them to listen to the list.

So be careful. That could be an indicator of pride.

Let's look at one more. Number five, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18, the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

Because in this parable, there is a warning to us once again. Be very careful about exalting yourself.

Luke 18 verse 9.

So Jesus spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Kind of interesting way to put, trusted in themselves that they were righteous.

Two men went up to the temple to pray. One a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.

God, I thank you that I'm not like the other men.

They're always on Facebook thinking about themselves. Extortion is unjust, adulterous, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. Maybe three times. I give tithes of all that I possess. You know, extra offerings.

But the tax collector standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but be his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. And Jesus then said, I tell you, this man, the despised tax collector, went down to his house justified rather than the other.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.

And he who humbles himself will be exalted.

And so we learn a lot from this parable about our heart towards God. Here are just three observations about the Pharisee who exalted himself before God.

So check yourself against this list.

The Pharisee felt overly confident in front of God.

He was praying to God and was very overly confident.

Secondly, the Pharisee defined righteousness by how others perceived him rather than how he looked before God. Rather than how he looked before God.

So he made a big show of his prayer, didn't he?

And the Pharisee demonstrated his view of himself by how he mistreated others.

So he put the tax collector down to make himself feel better.

By acknowledging our sinfulness, just as the tax collector did, and crying out for God's help, we can then be exalted before God. Humility involves assessing ourselves honestly before God.

During these days of unleavened bread, we must realize our utter sinfulness in comparison to Jesus Christ, who was perfect. And accept the help that God has provided to us through Jesus Christ. And by sacrifice. Accept the help. And be humble about it.

Sin is a dangerous infection to be avoided at all costs.

It's a WMD.

And as you set aside the bread, the croutons, the leavening this week, think about the infection of sin.

As we eat the unleavened bread, the unleavened bread, we can be reminded we're not just putting sin up, but God is putting His nature in as we take in Jesus Christ, who is the bread of life.

And that's what unleavened bread is all about. Leavening is a symbol of sin this week, for just one week a year, that helps us to understand something very important in God's plan.

And that is yeast, and pride, and unleavened bread.