The Leaven of Pharisees

Posted on Mar 31, 2020 in Devotional |

Matthew 16:6-12 says, “Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.”

Matthew 23:13-33 says, “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Woe unto you, ye blind guides, which say, Whosoever shall swear by the temple, it is nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he is a debtor! Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifieth the gold? And, Whosoever shall swear by the altar, it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that is upon it, he is guilty. Ye fools and blind: for whether is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift? Whoso therefore shall swear by the altar, sweareth by it, and by all things thereon. And whoso shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein. And he that shall swear by heaven, sweareth by the throne of God, and by him that sitteth thereon. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?”

As we continue in this year of purging, we must understand that there are various forms of leaven that can be formed in a child of God’s life, and we must beware of it. Again, leaven takes time to form, and if we give the devil an inch in our churches and lives, he will take a mile. Leaven causes confusion, division and separation from God, and this leaven must be purged if we want to be pleasing to God. He is not coming back for a building drunken by religion and sin, but a spotless bride who reflects His glory everywhere she goes! So, we must examine our lives to make sure there is no leaven so that we can commune with Jesus Christ and grow closer in our relationship with Him!

There are fives kinds of leaven that we are warned about in the New Testament, and the first kind is that of the Pharisees, which is their doctrine. The leaven of the Pharisees was everything that is considered phony in religion, in which they didn’t have a deep commitment in their heart for the love and glory of God! They were about an outward appearance of religion, and they performed the law so their self-righteousness would be glorified by men. (Matt 5:20) They burdened many different people by insisting that the Law was observed according to their concepts and traditions of the Law. (Matt 23:4) Jesus clashed with Pharisees on the observance of the Sabbath, the adherence to tradition, and association with sinners, tax collectors, and other unsavory characters. (Mk 7:3-9; Matt 16:11)* These Pharisees were hypocritical, shutting people away from the kingdom of God, keeping themselves from the kingdom They make long prayers to be heard, yet devour widows’ homes. They seek to make proselytes, converts to a religious sect rather than God. They made false vows, They make an outward show of religion through tithes and apparel, yet they missed the basic principles of God’s Word in the topics of judgment, mercy and faith. They are cleaned up on the outside, but inside are full of extortion and excess. Their self-righteousness has made them as “white sepulchers filled with dead men’s bones.” They boast and are filled with self-conceit, yet were the main ones that persecuted the Christian people.

The leaven of the Pharisees still exists today. Today’s version of the leaven of the Pharisees is:

1) self-proclaimed prophets on TV who will pray for us as long as we continue to send them money
2) volumes of preaching followed by voids of action
3) great swelling words that lack anointing power
4) false images of God*

Let me break it down for you: we must beware of crooked and hypocritical ministers, and people creating false images of God’s identity. These are seen in many ways in our churches today. From time to time, especially on the television, you run into prideful and arrogant ministers who magnify themselves rather than their God. It does not take long to discern who these men and women are. If it is all about money or business and never about souls, then we have missed it all, and you should avoid this leaven. Also, in many churches, the leaven of the Pharisees have formed judgmental attitudes, where it is all about the appearance of a person rather than the condition of the heart. People make Christianity much harder to live out than God does! God is the God of all grace and mercy, and we should demonstrate that very love to those surrounding us, not hate and prejudice. People think they have it all figured out because men wear their long-sleeved buttoned up shirts and shave their beards or women wear their long skirts with their hair coming down to their waist, but if this is your idea of God, you have missed it. Because that is how you were raised and that is how your culture is does not mean that it is automatically right. Even visiting different cultures in America, you discover that cultures are run differently, and culture does not determine salvation, but lifestyle does. We must think outside the box and realize that salvation is not a dress code, but being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, our LORD and Savior.

Our modern-day Pharisees only seek to “manufacture” and “market” the anointing, or, in other words, put God in a box. It has to be done this way or no other way. Let me give a couple of examples. In one church service, “Give Me Faith” might be the song sung for 20 minutes that just ushers in the glory of God, but that does not mean that it will work in every service for the next 3 months. God anointed that song for that particular moment. The song was not the magic formula, but it was obedience to the drawing of God that worked everything out. Another example is people genres of music. Some people are so strict on the style of Southern Gospel that they believe any other music is of the devil. I guess they think that “Gaither and the Angel Vocal Band” will be leading the worship as the pearly gates open when they sing, “He Touched Me.” They might be shocked if they walk in and hear TobyMac singing, “Riding on the J Train”, “Love is in the House and the House is Packed,” or “This is the Slam”. The point is that the leaven of the Pharisees will abuse the anointing and the truth, and it will put God and His Word in a box. We must purge out the leaven of the Pharisees so we can lead people to be shut in with God instead of being shut out from Him. “God is challenging us to exchange the leaven of the Pharisees for the love of the good Samaritan.”*

*Preparing for the Glory: Living Leaven Free, by Rod Parsley, pp. 29-48, ISBN# 1-880244-84-5