The Leaven of The Pharisees

If you're acting like a Christian, you're probably a hypocrite. If so, you've built your life by eating the leaven of the Pharisees.

The leaven of the Pharisees. Jesus warned us about it. And in Luke 12:1-12, Jesus said it was hypocrisy. And that is usually all the further people take their understanding of the leaven of the Pharisees. “Don't be a hypocrite.” And they miss it.

Why?

Because “hypocrite” doesn't mean in the Bible what it means today. Everyone knows hypocrisy is saying one thing, then doing another. But that's not what it meant the way Jesus used it.

Mark 8:
11 And the Pharisees came forth, and began to question with him, seeking of him a sign from heaven, tempting him.
12 And he sighed deeply in his spirit, and saith, Why doth this generation seek after a sign? verily I say unto you, There shall no sign be given unto this generation.
13 And he left them, and entering into the ship again departed to the other side.
14 Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf.
15 And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.
17 And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened?
18 Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?
19 When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.
20 And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.
21 And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?

I chose this passage because it is the best illustrator. First, the real definition of hypocrisy, then another scripture.

What they called hypocrite, we call movie star. A hypocrite is someone who is playing a role, embellishing it with their interpretation and understanding of the character and the script. Making it believable to other people.

Jeremiah 31:
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.

This new covenant he speaks of is the church age (as is made apparent in Hebrews 8:13). This is the covenant Jesus brought.

Now, in order to understand Jesus comments on hypocrisy, let's look at a key phrase: “No more shall they teach every man his neighbor saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest.”

Jesus knew that under his covenant, NO ONE would need to be taught by another person. It was God's promise that God himself would teach them. This was what Jesus expected to happen, because that was God's word. And God cannot lie.

So, look again at the passage in Mark. The Pharisees were desiring a sign that Jesus was real. Well, knowing what Jesus knew, that was just plain stupid. Either they didn't hear the Father when he spoke to them, or they simply didn't believe Him when they did hear. Either way, there would be no sign given them.

But look at what he says to his disciples later, when they did not understand his parable about the leavening in bread. It is the same thing. Their hearts were not being taught by the Father. (Notice he did not explain it to them?)

So, why would Jesus respond to the Pharisees not hearing from the Father as being equivalent to how Herod ran his court? And why would he equate it to hypocrisy - to role playing – in Luke 12?

By casting the concept to Herod, he gives the whole game away. Herod was a political animal. And everyone understands political hypocrisy. One does and says what is politically expedient, NOT what they truly believe. To put it simply, everything was done in Herod's court, “Because Herod said so.”

And people translate this to religious things in the same way. “Because the Bible says so.” In short, Bible hypocrisy is “acting like a Christian.” That is what the Pharisees were doing. They were acting in form to what their sect taught about what Moses had said.

Any time you act upon a doctrine that was taught you by another person, you are a hypocrite.

You should only believe that which the Father has taught you by the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 16:
16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18 And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Here we see this principle in action. Jesus renamed Simon “Piece of Rock” (for that is what Peter means) and said that on this large rock – the rock of the Father revealing he is the Son of God to people – he would build his church.

You can see Jesus do this same thing in John 4:4-26. He did not say, I am the Son of God. He waited until the Father first revealed it to the woman, then confirmed it to her. It is why he spoke in parables.

Then why did God put teachers in the Church? So that you would have something to ask him about. If you go by, “Because the Pastor said so,” you are a hypocrite.

1 Corintians 11:
1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
2 Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you.
3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.

Philippians 3:
15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.

In 1 Corinthians, Paul states that, while its good they did everything he said, he was not their head: Jesus was. The only deviation from this principle is concerning a husband and a wife. And in Philippians, he just flat out says, “You keep doing what your doing until God reveals what I am talking about to you. I am only an example for God to use to teach you.”

Early on, I went through a process where God stripped from me every doctrine I had, then rebuilt me with doctrines HE taught me. That is Christianity.

Anyone can act like a Christian. But only a real Christian acts a certain way because they heard it from the Father.

So, your doctrines: did you get them from man, or did you hear them from the Father by the Holy Ghost?

As 1 John 2:27 says, “But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.”

Copyright © 2011 Burley Ward. All rights reserved