October 18th, 2020 Study Guide
Sprirtual Dullness - Mark 8:14-21
A WORD ABOUT LEAVEN: Yeast is the secret to making bread rise. When added to a lump of bread dough, the yeast ferments the starches in the dough and causes the dough to increase in size. Without yeast to leaven the dough, the loaf that comes out of the oven is flat. Remarkably, it takes little yeast to make the dough rise. A small amount is sufficient to leaven dough thoroughly.
In todays passage, Jesus alludes to this phenomenon of yeasts making dough rise in order to teach a spiritual lesson. It is a natural image to use because our Lord has just fed four thousand people with seven loaves of bread, and the disciples are noting how they forgot to bring enough bread for a meal with them in the boat (Mark 8:1to10, 14 to15). Jesus issues this warning: Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
Since it only takes a small amount of yeast or other leavening agents to transform an entire lump of dough, Jesus must mean that it takes only a little bit of what the Pharisees and Herod have to offer to ruin a person. We say ruin because Christ is giving a warning statement and because leaven almost always represents sin in the New Testament.
Just a smidgen of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod suffices to transform what is good and useful into something bad and useless.
THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES AND THE LEAVEN OF THE HEROD (Mark 8:14-15).
14 Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15 And he cautioned them, saying, Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
Q. What does the leaven of the Pharisees signify (Mark 8:15)?
A1: Doctrinal error (resurrection of the body and immortality of the soul) and personal hypocrisy (willingness to use the temple to exploit people financially) - (Luke 12:1).
A2: System of works righteousness and superficial externalism that produced spiritual frauds that looked good on the outside but left a person dead on the inside (Matthew 23:27).
Q: What does the leaven of the Herod signify (Mark 8:15)?
A1: The leaven of Herod refers to the depraved, immoral behavior that characterized Herod Antipas and all who imitated him (Mark 6:21-28).
A2: The Herodians welcomed the immoral influences of Roman culture. They lived for comfort and luxury. They loved status, prestige, and the favor of people. They had their ear to the ground to be able to manipulate and maneuver politically and thus to advance themselves.
Q. What does the leaven of the Sadducees refer to?
A1: Though this group is not talked about in today’s passage, the leaven of the Sadducees refers to rationalism.
A2: The Sadducees denied the supernatural. They felt that everything could be explained by what one can see, taste, touch, smell, and feel. They believed that there is no power beyond man and that man is sufficient to himself
APPLICATION: Is there any leaven in your life that you need to rid yourself of?
THE DISCIPLES HARDNESS (Mark 8:16-21).
16 And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? They said to him, Twelve. 20 And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, Seven. 21 And he said to them, Do you not yet understand?
Q: What are the dangers of allowing leaven to work in us?
A1: Leaven can blind and deaf to the life-giving Word.
A2: It can cause us to take our relationship with Christ for granted.
A3: It can deceive us into thinking we are immune to the destructive effects of sin simply because we go to church regularly or because we have professed faith in Christ for many years.
A4: Just because we know Christ does not make us resistant to sin if we do not understand and apply what He has revealed.
Q: Why did Jesus chide the disciples for getting caught up in their concern regarding their lack of bread?
A: Because such worry and prolonged discussion over the matter (see vv. 14, 16) was possible only because the disciples still lacked the kind of faith that characterized those who are fully committed to Jesus. After all, if they had understood His identity, they would have just asked Him to meet their need for bread. They had seen Him feed thousand people with only a meager amount of food on two occasions already, and that is what made their shortsightedness so frustrating to our Lord (vv. 19–21; see 6:30–43; 8:1–10).
FURTHER QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
Q: Does leaven always equal legalism?
A: No. Leaven can refer to any distorted doctrine that is attached to the Gospel. We must be careful as we follow and listen to religious leaders who are great communicators or creative in their presentations. They might be fun to listen to, and they may speak bits of truth once in a while; but if there is a leaven of bad doctrine in their message, it can hinder us from obeying the truth of the Gospel as it creeps into every corner of thought and life. We are no better than the disciples who Jesus warned of this or the churches in Galatia and Corinth, who were warned by Paul. So, we must always be on guard as we listen to and follow religious leaders and communicators.
APPLICATION: Are there any clever communicators that you need to stop reading and listening to?
Q: How are leaven and self-sufficiency connected?
A: Self-sufficiency is a universal tendency. Our children often say, Mother, please, I'd rather do it myself! We don't want any help. We don't even want to tell people our problems, to let them know that we are not sufficient in ourselves. We all have this tendency within us to want to protect our images and to look as if we've got it made and don't need help. If someone makes us mad by offering aid, we tell them to: Get lost! Drop dead! I don't need you! That is leaven. It can take all kinds of forms.
APPLICATION: Are you pretending that you are in control and are self-sufficient?
In Luke 12:1, Jesus said, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Another word for hypocrisy is pretending. We do a lot of this. We pretend we don't have any problems when we do. We pretend we're spiritual when we're not. We pretend we're joyful when we're unhappy and filled with misery. We pretending we tell the truth when we don't. All of this is hypocrisy, leaven, which comes from this detestable aversion to admitting that we need help.
APPLICATION: Where are you pretending?
Q: How do we purge leaven from our lives?
A: To purge the leaven means we must remove every vestige of sin from our lives. We must search it out and ruthlessly dispose of it. No sin, however small, should be allowed to remain. It’s very clear-cut with no grey areas or excuses. It is a process that should continue forever.
The fact that God called an annual feast was a reminder to His people to repeat the process. It’s not a one-time thing. It’s ongoing. We are reminded that sin sneaks back in, often under the guise of something useful or desirable, and we need to constantly eradicate it.
Is there “leaven” spreading in your life?
In todays passage, Jesus alludes to this phenomenon of yeasts making dough rise in order to teach a spiritual lesson. It is a natural image to use because our Lord has just fed four thousand people with seven loaves of bread, and the disciples are noting how they forgot to bring enough bread for a meal with them in the boat (Mark 8:1to10, 14 to15). Jesus issues this warning: Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
Since it only takes a small amount of yeast or other leavening agents to transform an entire lump of dough, Jesus must mean that it takes only a little bit of what the Pharisees and Herod have to offer to ruin a person. We say ruin because Christ is giving a warning statement and because leaven almost always represents sin in the New Testament.
Just a smidgen of the leaven of the Pharisees and Herod suffices to transform what is good and useful into something bad and useless.
THE LEAVEN OF THE PHARISEES AND THE LEAVEN OF THE HEROD (Mark 8:14-15).
14 Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15 And he cautioned them, saying, Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.
Q. What does the leaven of the Pharisees signify (Mark 8:15)?
A1: Doctrinal error (resurrection of the body and immortality of the soul) and personal hypocrisy (willingness to use the temple to exploit people financially) - (Luke 12:1).
A2: System of works righteousness and superficial externalism that produced spiritual frauds that looked good on the outside but left a person dead on the inside (Matthew 23:27).
Q: What does the leaven of the Herod signify (Mark 8:15)?
A1: The leaven of Herod refers to the depraved, immoral behavior that characterized Herod Antipas and all who imitated him (Mark 6:21-28).
A2: The Herodians welcomed the immoral influences of Roman culture. They lived for comfort and luxury. They loved status, prestige, and the favor of people. They had their ear to the ground to be able to manipulate and maneuver politically and thus to advance themselves.
Q. What does the leaven of the Sadducees refer to?
A1: Though this group is not talked about in today’s passage, the leaven of the Sadducees refers to rationalism.
A2: The Sadducees denied the supernatural. They felt that everything could be explained by what one can see, taste, touch, smell, and feel. They believed that there is no power beyond man and that man is sufficient to himself
APPLICATION: Is there any leaven in your life that you need to rid yourself of?
THE DISCIPLES HARDNESS (Mark 8:16-21).
16 And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread. 17 And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? They said to him, Twelve. 20 And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up? And they said to him, Seven. 21 And he said to them, Do you not yet understand?
Q: What are the dangers of allowing leaven to work in us?
A1: Leaven can blind and deaf to the life-giving Word.
A2: It can cause us to take our relationship with Christ for granted.
A3: It can deceive us into thinking we are immune to the destructive effects of sin simply because we go to church regularly or because we have professed faith in Christ for many years.
A4: Just because we know Christ does not make us resistant to sin if we do not understand and apply what He has revealed.
Q: Why did Jesus chide the disciples for getting caught up in their concern regarding their lack of bread?
A: Because such worry and prolonged discussion over the matter (see vv. 14, 16) was possible only because the disciples still lacked the kind of faith that characterized those who are fully committed to Jesus. After all, if they had understood His identity, they would have just asked Him to meet their need for bread. They had seen Him feed thousand people with only a meager amount of food on two occasions already, and that is what made their shortsightedness so frustrating to our Lord (vv. 19–21; see 6:30–43; 8:1–10).
FURTHER QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:
Q: Does leaven always equal legalism?
A: No. Leaven can refer to any distorted doctrine that is attached to the Gospel. We must be careful as we follow and listen to religious leaders who are great communicators or creative in their presentations. They might be fun to listen to, and they may speak bits of truth once in a while; but if there is a leaven of bad doctrine in their message, it can hinder us from obeying the truth of the Gospel as it creeps into every corner of thought and life. We are no better than the disciples who Jesus warned of this or the churches in Galatia and Corinth, who were warned by Paul. So, we must always be on guard as we listen to and follow religious leaders and communicators.
APPLICATION: Are there any clever communicators that you need to stop reading and listening to?
Q: How are leaven and self-sufficiency connected?
A: Self-sufficiency is a universal tendency. Our children often say, Mother, please, I'd rather do it myself! We don't want any help. We don't even want to tell people our problems, to let them know that we are not sufficient in ourselves. We all have this tendency within us to want to protect our images and to look as if we've got it made and don't need help. If someone makes us mad by offering aid, we tell them to: Get lost! Drop dead! I don't need you! That is leaven. It can take all kinds of forms.
APPLICATION: Are you pretending that you are in control and are self-sufficient?
In Luke 12:1, Jesus said, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Another word for hypocrisy is pretending. We do a lot of this. We pretend we don't have any problems when we do. We pretend we're spiritual when we're not. We pretend we're joyful when we're unhappy and filled with misery. We pretending we tell the truth when we don't. All of this is hypocrisy, leaven, which comes from this detestable aversion to admitting that we need help.
APPLICATION: Where are you pretending?
Q: How do we purge leaven from our lives?
A: To purge the leaven means we must remove every vestige of sin from our lives. We must search it out and ruthlessly dispose of it. No sin, however small, should be allowed to remain. It’s very clear-cut with no grey areas or excuses. It is a process that should continue forever.
The fact that God called an annual feast was a reminder to His people to repeat the process. It’s not a one-time thing. It’s ongoing. We are reminded that sin sneaks back in, often under the guise of something useful or desirable, and we need to constantly eradicate it.
Is there “leaven” spreading in your life?
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