The Yeast of Herod

INTRODUCTION / PASSAGE Good morning. My name is David Sorn, and I’m the Lead Pastor here at Renovation Church. Let’s say that tomorrow you accidentally stumble upon a time traveling machine, and you choose to time travel 20 years into the future. And to your surprise, America has become a significantly better place. There has been wonderful transformation. And so you start asking people, “What happened?” What do you think they’d say? Think about it for a moment. In your mind, what would have to happen? Your answer to that question is going to be really telling. Because it will reveal HOW you think change happens. And this is important to think about because for many of us our answer would actually be different than the one the Bible gives. And so as we look at God’s Word today, I want us to be open, to be humble, as we come to a very challenging passage for the time in which we live. Let’s open up the Bible and see what it has to say Mark 8:14 17 – NIV Page 688 We are spending 7 weeks in Mark Chapter 8 as a church, but we’ve slowed way down to spend two weeks primarily on verse 15. If you were here, 2 weeks ago, we studied the danger of the yeast of the Pharisees, of legalism (the false idea that we can earn our way to God) But today, we’re going to cover part 2 of Jesus’ warning…and that is: “The yeast of Herod” Let’s take a look (Mark 8:14 17) NIV 14 The disciples had forgotten to bring bread, except for one loaf they had with them in the boat. 15 “Be careful,” Jesus warned them. “Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” 16 They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.”
17 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?  (Title Slide) The disciples are worried about not having enough bread, but Jesus essentially says, “What you should actually be worried about is the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod” And we said in our first message that even if you put a little packet of activated yeast in your dough, it will begin to work itself all throughout the dough. And so Jesus is warning us that it only takes a very small amount of the yeast of the Pharisees (or of Herod), to work itself all the through your life But what is the yeast of Herod? Well, firstly, who was Herod? Herod Antipas was a part of a ruling family of Herods…and this particular Herod (who was ruling while Jesus was teaching) was in charge or ruling the region of Galilee (and more) for the Roman Empire. And so Herod (during Jesus’ teaching ministry)…was the person in power. But he was far from a Godly man. He even executed John the Baptist; and was part of one of the trials leading up to the execution of Jesus. But Herod was in power. And what many of Jesus’ followers wanted…was power (like Herod) And Jesus says, “Beware! Watch out for the yeast of Herod” Jesus is saying: “The Yeast of the Pharisees (the idea that you earn your way to God)…that’s not my kingdom!” And… The Yeast of Herod: The idea that what Christians really need is (political) power. ….like Herod had power… …Jesus is saying, “That’s not my Kingdom!” Be careful! Watch out for those tempting ideas. And so like week 1 of this passage, I want to give you some warning signs that the Yeast of Herod may be spreading in your life. #1: YOU BELIEVE CHANGE COMES FROM WITHOUT THE WARNING SIGNS THAT THE YEAST OF HEROD IS SPREADING IN YOUR LIFE #1: You believe change comes from the outside I’ve long taught and deeply believed that this is one of the biggest misunderstandings American Christians have today. We get confused by secular thinking, and we start believing that the way to change people and society is through the external (from the outside in) And we think if we could just have the right laws, and the right programs, and the right services, then we could create the society we dream of. But listen to one of the primary teachings of Jesus (Mark 7:20 23) NIV 20 He went on: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21 For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22 adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” The Bible says that what’s wrong with the world is our sinful hearts, not just that we don’t have the right laws and programs. And don’t hear me incorrectly. Laws are important. Let’s pass good laws. Society needs law, order, wisdom, justice. But laws and rules aren’t at the root of the problem. One of my favorite Martyn Lloyd Jones quotes ever explains it this way: “The terrible, tragic fallacy of the last hundred years has been to think that all man’s troubles are due to his environment, and that to change the man you have nothing to do but change his environment. That is a tragic fallacy. It overlooks the fact that it was in Paradise that man fell.” Martyn Lloyd Jones The original sin of Adam & Even occurred where? In the garden of Eden where ALL of the conditions were basically perfect. And yet their hearts still chose to sin. THE WARNING SIGNS THAT THE YEAST OF HEROD IS SPREADING IN YOUR LIFE #1: You believe change comes from without See a new law (even if it’s good) doesn’t actually deal with anyone’s internal nature or their ability to obey it. We can’t legislate changed hearts. You can make a law, and someone now might obey that law (because they don’t want to face the consequences of disobeying it)… and that’s good. That’s important for society. But laws cannot change anyone internally. And so therefore, evil and sin still lurks…and now it will just pop up some other way. And so trying to ultimately change a society by primarily focusing on getting all the right leaders who will pass all the right laws…is kind of like playing whac a mole. Sin is just going to keep popping up somewhere else because what’s ultimately broken is not the our laws, but our hearts. Jesus came to redeem us from the fundamental enemy of mankind, which was not a broken government, but sin. And so the yeast of Herod (the thinking of Herod) may be spreading in your life if your mind seems so focused on the idea that if we just changed this law…or the school would just changed this rule…or the… We must Biblically remember, that the Kingdom of God goes forth first and foremost through the Gospel…when people are changed from the inside out. OUR HEARTS BECOME CONSUMED WITH SOMETHING THAT IS SECONDARY, NOT PRIMARY And that leads me to a similar, but second warning sign THE WARNING SIGNS THAT THE YEAST OF HEROD IS SPREADING IN YOUR LIFE #1: You believe change comes from the outside #2: Your heart begins to become consumed with something that is secondary Let me explain it this way, and this may be hard to hear, but I urge you to think through this with me. The transformation of our society is not our primary goal as Christians. As Christians, our first objective is to glorify God, to worship Him, and to live firstly for Him. When we put that first, God will then conform and transform us to look like his Son Jesus. And one of the things that will change within us…is a desire (and an ability!) to impact the society around us. That is correct Biblical sequencing. However, if we get this backwards… And we instead first focus on our energy on transforming society…and only secondarily on turning our lives over to God… What almost always results is a disproportionate focus on earthly kingdoms. One way to see this is to study the PRIMARY focus of Jesus’ life Jesus was not first and foremost concerned with making sure that the city of Jerusalem passed good laws and had good leaders in office. Now, hopefully those things can be an outworking of a society when people are first letting God work through them. But they cannot be our primary focus And this ought to be a clear warning sign for so many of us that the yeast of Herod…of thinking what we primarily need is power…is spreading amongst our hearts. Because I believe Christians in America are immersing themselves in the world of politics in a way they almost never have before. So many Christians today are reading incessantly about politics, then they’re watching political TV, listening to political podcasts…watching political content on YouTube… LITERALLY hours & hours a day We spend very little time with God and his word, but hours a day consuming political content. And even in our hearts, many of us spend hours a week dreaming about what it will be like if our candidate wins… …but we don’t spend that same time dreaming about what it will be like if revival comes to our city. And that’s because we are letting the yeast of the Kingdom of Herod is choke out our heart for the Kingdom of God. This is a hard word, but for many of us, politics has become an idol. An idol is anything that has more of your affection or trust than God. And that idol for many of you (because it’s not life giving like your God) is consuming you. Your anxiety is up…way up. Your anger is up. I talk to many of you each weekend, and you are wound tight about what is happening in politics right now. And the great irony is many people literally spend 100 hours a month immersing ourselves in politics and 0 hours a month actually doing anything about it. You ever think about that? Of course we can vote for 10 minutes every year or 2, but that’s it. That’s all we do. And so don’t hear me wrong…don’t send me an email saying, “You said politics weren’t important.” I’m not saying that. I actually think they’re quite important. But they’re secondary. As a parallel example I’d say, “I believe serving the poor is very important” But if we make serving the poor our primary focus as Christians, we’re not reading the same Bible. And so yes, politics are important. The Gospel should affect every area of our lives… So, yes, vote. Stop just watching YouTube or Cable News and get out and run for the school board, or city council, or for office in MN. The danger isn’t politics in and of themselves, it’s that we as Christians are starting to make it the primary focus of our hearts. And so the next time you finding yourself listening to or reading the news, or watching a political video…and you’re getting all worked up Know that the yeast of Herod (that inward desire for your group to have power)…that is spreading into your heart. And my pastoral advice to you (unless you’re going to go run for the school board or something) is this: It may be time to put those things down…and seek Jesus afresh again. Remember Jesus’ words from the sermon on the mount (Matthew 6:33) – NIV But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. YOUR HEART WANTS THE SWORD AND NOT THE CROSS Let’s look at our 3rd warning sign THE WARNING SIGNS THAT THE YEAST OF HEROD IS SPREADING IN YOUR LIFE #1: You believe change comes from the outside #2: Your heart begins to become consumed with something that is secondary #3: Your heart wants the sword and not the cross What do I mean by that? When they came to arrest Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, look how Jesus’ disciples react when this amazing Kingdom they are helping to establish is threatened? (Luke 22:49) – NIV 49 When Jesus’ followers saw what was going to happen, they said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?”  When they feel threatened (hear me American Christians)… When they feel that everything they’ve worked for is going come crashing down, they become willing to use whatever means necessary (even the sword) if that’s what it takes to still give Jesus a shot at earthly power. (which is what they want) …but they are sharply rebuked by Jesus THE WARNING SIGNS THAT THE YEAST OF HEROD IS SPREADING IN YOUR LIFE #1: You believe change comes from the outside #2: Your heart begins to become consumed with something that is secondary #3: Your heart wants the sword and not the cross And truthfully, all throughout the gospels you see that the disciples are constantly tempted by the sword…by earthly power! Later in our chapter (Mark 8) Jesus says he’s going to have to die, and Peter takes him aside, and rebukes him! What?! Why would Peter do that? Because they don’t want Jesus to die, they want Jesus to be in power! And Jesus says to him (Mark 8:33b) – NIV “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Or look at what happens after Jesus feeds the 5,000! (John 6:14 15) – NIV 14 After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” 15 Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. They see that Jesus is dealing with all of their practical problems…solving their hunger. And he’s a miracle worker. He’s got power! And so they think, “YES! Finally what we want! This guy can give OUR GROUP political power over the Romans.” He can bring security! Safety! Yes! Praise God! But they don’t have in mind the concerns of God. Just their own concerns. And whose concerns do we have in mind? THE WARNING SIGNS THAT THE YEAST OF HEROD IS SPREADING IN YOUR LIFE #1: You believe change comes from the outside #2: Your heart begins to become consumed with something that is secondary #3: Your heart wants the sword and not the cross Listen, if we want to change the world God’s way, it’s not through the sword. It’s not through getting power over. We seem to lack the theological imagination in this country to believe that the Kingdom of God could still flourish even if Christians have little power By the way, you want to know where Christianity is exploding? In places where Christians have almost zero power…China…Pakistan…in African countries where Dictators hold the sword. Again, laws are great. Stand up for truth. Elect good leaders! Christian ones! I’m definitely not advocating for persecution or for anything to get worse. But we can’t usher in the Kingdom of God via the Sword of the State. To so many Christians right now, I want to say THINK BIGGER! THINK BIGGER! While the disciples are primarily concerned with setting up an earthly kingdom for Jesus, Jesus is thinking far bigger: He’s thinking about the KINGDOM OF GOD! Think of it this way: what if Jesus agrees with the disciples, and they all get out their swords, and Jesus calls down the angels and evaded arrest? Say he even became the next Roman Emperor (like everyone wanted), and then died of old age at 85. Would you even know his name? “If Jesus picked up a sword instead of a cross, what would His influence have been? Think bigger. The Biblical pathway to changing the world…it’s not through the sword, it’s through the Gospel message of the cross. #4: YOUR POLITICAL PASSION IS COMPROMISING YOUR CHRISTIAN WITNESS Okay, warning sign #4: THE WARNING SIGNS THAT THE YEAST OF HEROD IS SPREADING IN YOUR LIFE #1: You believe change comes from the outside #2: Your heart begins to become consumed with something that is secondary #3: Your heart wants the sword and not the cross #4: Your political passion is compromising your Christian witness I think one of the larger societal changes that has happened in the last 25 years is how much bolder the average person has become in speaking about politics I can’t tell you how many people I’ve met in the past year or two who started talking to me about politics within minutes of meeting them Whenever that happens, I always think, “If instead of spending 100 hours a month consuming political content, we spent those same 100 hours learning about and talking with Jesus… …we’d probably be talking about Jesus (not politics) within minutes of just meeting someone. (Luke 6:45b) – NIV the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. And the problem isn’t necessarily that we are talking about political issues, for a lot of us, it’s how we talk about them. Too many of us let our conversations, or even social media posts, be riddled with political hate, or anger, or belittling. And they start talking about how idiotic people are that think differently than them. And then, come springtime, we post, “I want to invite everyone to my church for Easter!!” And their friends are thinking, “Not in a million years” Again, I’m not saying we can’t talk about hard things, or even political things, but I am saying we need to abide by the wisdom and practice of Scripture Paul says it this way: (Colossians 4:5 6) – NIV 5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. THE WARNING SIGNS THAT THE YEAST OF HEROD IS SPREADING IN YOUR LIFE #1: You believe change comes from the outside #2: Your heart begins to become consumed with something that is secondary #3: Your heart wants the sword and not the cross #4: Your political passion is compromising your Christian witness When we don’t speak with grace, and kindness, and love…our witness is damaged. I’m fairly certain that one of the top 2 or 3 prayer requests we get here is for the lost young adult children of the people of this church. Many twentysomethings today would say the #1 reason that they no longer believe is because they feel that all Christians truly care about is politics. That’s what they see from so many us. And we may feel that that’s a gross misrepresentation… But that is how they feel. And I suspect that a large part of it, is not just that many of us have made it a primary issue instead of secondary… …it’s the way in which we talk about it. Many people are saying back to us, “Because of how you talk about politics, I don’t want to hear about your Jesus” And I pray that breaks your heart. So let us be careful and wise in how we act towards outsiders. Because this kind of carelessness and callousness in how we speak easily spreads. It’s kind of like Amish friendship bread The starter recipe has yeast in it… But as you pass the other bags to your friends, they don’t need to put in more yeast… …it’s already been baked in and worked throughout the dough… …and it will spread to the other person. And if we’re not careful…if we don’t “watch out for the yeast of Herod,” then I fear, in America… …we’re going to end up spreading an off putting Christianity where the Kingdom of Herod is primary, and Kingdom of God is only secondary. #5: YOU SEE ENEMIES TO OVERCOME, NOT SOULS TO BE SAVED Warning sign #5: THE WARNING SIGNS THAT THE YEAST OF HEROD IS SPREADING IN YOUR LIFE #1: You believe change comes from the outside #2: Your heart begins to become consumed with something that is secondary #3: Your heart wants the sword and not the cross #4: Your political passion is compromising your Christian witness #5: You see enemies to overcome, not souls to be saved When we let the yeast spread… …and we get so wrapped up in this world…and our hearts get so focused on it It will not only compromise your witness… …over time, the Yeast of Herod will spread deeper into your heart…to the point where it will change how you look at people. And my pastoral heart is so grieved by how I hear many Christians talking about other people nowadays. In many ways, I think this is perhaps the clearest indicator that we are bathing ourselves in the world of politics and only dabbling in Christianity Because of the polarization, because of the proliferation of technology and media… …every YouTube video, every article, every news report is meant to paint the other side as inferior, intellectually stunted, or even…as your enemy And so if that’s the world you read about, and watch, and listen to most often, soon enough, you’ll start seeing people through the eyes of Herod…through the eyes of power. And you’ll start to divide and categorize people as good guys and bad guys. You are the good guys, and the bad guys are those clueless woke liberals. Or you are the good guys, and the bad guys are those ignorant MAGA Republicans And when you start to notice that your heart usually thinks of people (real people) that way… …I want you to be warned that the yeast of Herod has you thinking more like the Kingdom of Herod than the Kingdom of God. Because the Word of God tells me… …that people…are created in the image of God. …that people…even my enemies…are people to be loved. …that people without the saving knowledge of Jesus will spend eternity in hell without Him. And if you look out at someone and see, not a soul that needs to be saved and be transformed by a loving relationship with Jesus… …but you see a stupid liberal. …or you see a transgender person (eye roll) …or a right wing bigot. Know that the yeast of Herod has blinded your heart from seeing the Kingdom of God. Church, let’s rip this yeast of Herod out of our hearts. Let’s come back to God’s Kingdom and His ways. The way to life…is the Gospel Come back to it.