Beware Of The Yeast Of The Pharisees! Mark 8:16-21
A Sermon by Elise Beatrice

We’re reading Mark 8:14-21.

“14 But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. 15 As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”
16 At this, they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. 17 Jesus knew what they were saying, so He said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? 18 ‘You have eyes—can’t you see? You have ears—can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all? 19 When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?”
“Twelve,” they said.
20 “And when I fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, how many large baskets of leftovers did you pick up?”
“Seven,” they said.
21 “Don’t you understand yet?” He asked them.

So, what they were doing here is the same thing that we do today. All of us have seen the Lord’s miracles and experienced His wonders in our lives in any shape. Some might have seen many of His wonders, and others might have seen only a few. Still, everyone has heard of the Lord’s wonders. And hearing this, they still doubt and put the Lord to the test. This is what we tend to do even today. We are now in the broken generation, and after seeing what the Lord has done for all these generations, we read the Holy Bible and see all those miracles the Lord did then, and we also look around us today and see many wonders the Lord is still doing. I’m speaking here of the real miracles from the Lord. Every single thing the Lord does is good. But not everything called ’a miracle’ out there today is a miracle from God; it is not even a miracle. So, I’m speaking here about the wonders of God. Even in this broken generation filled with lies and corruption, there are still the wonders of God in every place, miracles of God in every place. Many have experienced them in their lives. But the sad thing we tend to do is that people see the Lord’s miracles today and forget them by tomorrow. They still doubt and ask questions they were not supposed to ask. They still argue over the things the Lord can take care of and the things the Lord has already dealt with. So we read this and should learn from them. They are here in the Holy Bible to remind us to examine ourselves to see if we’re reflecting some of those wrong things the Lord rebuked them for. Before the Holy Spirit came upon them later at the Pentecost, they were making mistakes just like any human. And that’s what we do. Without the help of the Holy Spirit of truth, we don’t know many things. So it is natural that they behaved like that. Though they walked with the Lord, it all came down to them hearing what the Lord said and remembering it, watching all the miracles He performed and learning from them. But when the evil one is continuously around putting things in our minds and causing us to forget things, people tend to forget even what they have just seen a few hours ago, especially when they are important things.  

By forgetting the ways of the Lord and the great things that the Lord does, we tend to believe the lies of the devil. If we are fully in the Lord with our minds on the Lord and our eyes fixed on the Lord, it is really hard for the devil to mislead us. But if we are distracted, preoccupied with other things, and not focused, that is when the devil strives to get somewhere when people let him. But in this situation here, we’re seeing that the Lord is rebuking them, and I can understand this clearly because by serving the Lord, we come to relate to the Lord and understand the Lord so well because when we preach the gospel, speaking about the wonders of the Lord, we continuously remind people to put their hope in the Lord, we bring to them the beauty of the Lord for them to see and, by the next day, they forget, and when they forget, they feel low again, depressed and sad. But when we remind them of the beauty and wonders of the Lord, they’re back again on the right track.
Yes, I can understand. The Lord means this, ‘You have seen all this; you have seen all the beautiful things I have done. Learn to see and remember, hear and not forget what you have heard. You have eyes, so see. You have ears, so hear. You have a heart, so feel.’ 

As soon as they entered the boat and began to ride, the Lord said to them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod!”
The Lord had seen beforehand they would argue. So He said that to remind them to be alert. I mean, they were not arguing when they entered the boat. But at that moment the Lord said that, they began to argue with each other because they had not brought any bread. The Lord saw beforehand they would argue, and to stop them, He said, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod!”
So, why did He say that to them? Because they were doing the same thing that the Pharisees in the previous scene had done to the Lord. We see here in Mark 8:11, it reads,
“When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with Him. Testing Him, they demanded that He show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove His authority. When the Lord heard this, He sighed deeply in His spirit and said, “Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth, I will not give this generation any such sign.” 

So these are the Pharisees who came there to test the Lord, demanding a sign when they had already seen many signs; they had seen the miraculous signs performed by the Lord Jesus; they had been following Christ all around; they heard of His many miracles from when He turned the water into wine, filled up the boat with fish. They had seen Him healing people and feeding the crowd with five loaves of bread and two fish. They had seen all these and more yet were still asking for a miraculous sign.  
This is sinful behaviour, coming there to test God. 
They have seen, yet it’s like they have not seen enough, and they still demand. The Lord then used that to rebuke His disciples, saying, “Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod!” 

So what was going on in the boat with the disciples of Christ was that after the conversation with the Pharisees when they demanded for a sign, which was a sinful thing they could only say with the help of demons, the disciples were evilly influenced by such negativity just by being there, for they were humans. The Lord Jesus cannot be evilly influenced by demons, for He is God. But humans are influenced by demons all the time, even without knowing. So, the disciples of Christ, being there, were negatively affected by the yeast of the Pharisees. So why does the Lord use the word yeast here? Because it symbolises sin in this context. It was the Pharisees’ sinful ways to use a moment the Lord Jesus was there to do good things for their evil purpose. They did not really want to see a miraculous sign; it was just their cover. They were hypocrites with many other sins, there to test the Lord for their gain, to find something they could use to arrest Him, and the Lord could see through them.” 

Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees! The yeast is what we put in the flour to raise it. One tablespoon of yeast in the flour expands it. That little yeast can increase the flour and feed twenty people with fresh bread. But the yeast of the Pharisees is a sin that expands and feeds many with sins like a spoonful of yeast enlarges the flour and feeds many. Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees means ‘Beware of the sinful ways of the Pharisees!’ Because if we don’t watch out for the yeast of the hypocrites, the yeast of the Pharisees, just like the yeast in the bread, it will spread; their sinful ways will spread and infect you. When they come there in such a dishonest manner and speak the way they do; they are spreading their sinful ways; they are spreading their yeast, and that yeast will infect about thirty people who are listening to them. So, after the discussion with the Pharisees, even the disciples who were with Christ did not even realize how they were affected negatively. So now, in the boat, they are arguing about the same things. 
The Pharisees have seen many signs, yet they are still demanding a miraculous sign for God to prove His authority. The disciples had also seen the Lord’s miracles but were now arguing right in front of Him because they forgot to bring food and had only ONE LOAF of bread, like they had not learned anything yet. So the Lord said to them, “Are your hearts too hard to take it in? You have eyes, can’t you see? You have ears, can’t you hear?  Don’t you remember anything at all? When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?” “Twelve.” And when He fed the 4,000 with seven loaves, they picked up  seven large baskets of leftovers?
‘So, if you’ve seen that, why are you still testing Me?’ That’s what the Lord means. ‘Why are you still testing Me? Why are you speaking as if you have not seen Me feeding many with only five loaves of bread? I will do the same thing I did with the five loaves of bread if you trust Me.  Even you, who are walking with Me, who are on my side, you still act like you have not heard, have not seen? Is that your way of demanding a miraculous sign? Why can’t you just trust Me? Why are you arguing you did not bring food when you are here walking alongside the Bread of Life?’ 
And we do the same thing even today. So, Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees: the yeast of the hypocrites, the yeast of false teachers,  the yeast of the Pharisees, the yeast of unbelief. If you let what they say affect you, just like the yeast can expand the flour, their sin will spread and contaminate many. So beware of that. Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees of the twenty-first century and the last days! 

This is a great lesson the Lord is teaching us. So we are blessed today because we have the Holy Bible, thanks to the Lord Jesus, who used His disciples to give us. At that moment, they did not yet have the Holy Spirit of God because the Lord Himself, who was God, was with them. So it was a matter of who listened and understood and remembered. 
When the Lord Jesus asked, “Wo do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. The Lord said to Him, “You are blessed, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood but by my Father in heaven.” So when the Lord is there, making things known to us, we must listen.’ They were walking with the Lord, and God was there to help them know the truth. The same way today, we are not seeing the Lord Jesus Christ face to face, but we have His Holy Spirit in us, especially those who are listening to Him. So, yes, they did not have God’s Holy Spirit, but they were in front of the Lord, who was teaching them every day, so they were not in danger. But later, at the Pentecost, when they received the Holy Spirit of God, and now, WOW, that truth has taken over them. Yes, the truth of the Lord has taken over them. Now, they could not argue over food like bread. Even so, because we have the Holy Spirit, we must still have to listen and understand, remember it, and act on what we know. Because, even with the Holy Spirit, if we grieve Him, and do not listen to Him; even if He has been with us before, He departs from us. So, the only way to keep nourishing the Holy Spirit of God is to listen to Christ. So, to keep the Holy Spirit of God with us until the Lord Comes Again, we should listen to God, and do the Lord’s will and remain truthful to His teachings. That way, we have His Holy Spirit with us forever. I pray that this will help you. 

Thank You, Lord Jesus. You are so merciful and forgiving. You rebuked Your Apostles, and they listened. They realised what they were doing wrong without knowing. 
We love Your correction, Lord, and Your discipline. They bring us back to Your truth and help us remain in Your love and the Light. 
We thank You for Your correction, Lord, and Your discipline. We thank You for Your teachings. 
We thank You for the truth, Your truth, Lord, You, the Truth who set us free from the darkness, from lies, continuously.  
Thank You so much, Lord God; You are our only Saviour. 
Thank You, Lord Jesus, for what You did on that Cross for us.  
We love You, God, Forever. Thank You for loving us forever, Lord. 
Thank You for everyone that You will bring to repentance. 
We bless You forever.
Thank You, Lord, for hearing my prayer. 
In Your Holy name, Lord Jesus, I pray. Amen.