BEWARE OF THE YEAST OF PHARISEES AND SADDUCEES (Wrong teaching) 1

TEXT: MATTHEW 16:5-7, 11-12

5 When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. 6 “Be careful,” Jesus said to them. “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 7 They discussed this among themselves and said, “It is because we didn’t bring any bread.” 11 How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” 12 Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”

Who are the Pharisees and the Sadducees? The Pharisees are the members of an ancient Jewish sect distinguished by strict observance of the traditional and written law and commonly held to have pretension to have superior sanctity. They are self-righteous and hypocritical people, they were bitter about Jesus; they became his opponent and hated his messages. They preached but they don’t do what they preach. They were operating from the Law of Moses, they believed strongly in the Law of Moses, and they were not ready to accept the teaching of our lord Jesus. The Pharisees were traditionalist. They attach more importance to tradition of men than the inspired writings of the Old Testament. They attached much value to washings and ceremonial purifying of the body. They made an extreme deal about the external parts of the religion; they put away scripture and subjected it under their own teaching of tradition and religion. “Yeast” in this context can be referred to as wrong teaching or belief.

A little of the teaching of the Pharisees will affect everything about you. In this present age the Pharisees are no more in existence, but traces of their doctrine still exist. Many preachers are like the Pharisees, they teach what they believe is right in their own eyes. They live under the law, they preach their own believe; and once you don’t live like them and follow their teaching, to them you are not born again. The Pharisee preachers are narrow minded religious extremist. They believe they are better and more righteous than any other person that is not behaving like them.  They are of the belief that if you believe and behave like them, you are saved but if your belief and behaviour is different from theirs, you are condemned. The Pharisee preachers believe that there is a particular way you need to look for you to be accepted into the Christian fold. They believe in outward transformation (appearance) with less concern about the inward being.

As long as your outward appearance is in line with their doctrine, all is well with them.  Even though your inward being is as dangerous as the serpent, so far you are in line with their “accepted norm” outwardly; to them you are a genuine child of God. These religion conscious preachers are so concerned about outward appearance that they have forgotten about the main commission (to preach the gospel of our lord Jesus). They only preach “Do not wear trouser, thou shall not put on earrings, thou shall not leave your hair open, thou shall not make up, thou and thou and thou… These things mentioned above are not what will cause you to go to hell; neither will you make heaven by abstaining from them. If you dress like a Nun and your inward being is not renewed in tune with God, hell is sure! The scripture says we should do everything decently and in order, therefore let your dressing and appearance glorify God. The mistake these Pharisee preachers are making is that outward appearance is not an assurance of one’s salvation. Some people can dress to deceive; they use their outward appearance as camouflage to deceive people to see them as “born again”, and once the pastors sees them in their “dress up” they won’t bother to preach the gospel to them anymore because they believe that they are on their way to heaven. Playing religion cannot take you to heaven, Jesus said “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20). The teaching or the doctrine of the Pharisee and Sadducee you listen to would have negative change in your life. That is why you need to be very careful of the message you listen to.

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