SABBATH

God's Gift to Us

Sermonette: The Leavening of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herod

#1537s-PM

Given 09-Apr-20; 21 minutes

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description: Ted Bowling, addressing the symbolic comparisons of leaven to sin, identifies (1.) the biological slow-working yeast which causes dough to inflate, (2.) the fast-working chemical leavening (sodium bicarbonate), which expels CO2 gasses, thereby creating expansion, and (3.) steam, which has the capability to increase water volume 1,500 times with almost explosive speed. Leaven resembles sin in that it puffs people up with pride and arrogance. Jesus warned of three varieties of leaven: (1.) The leaven of the Pharisees—the burdensome doctrines they added in man-made traditions (traditions which they did not even keep themselves; (2.) the leaven of the Sadducees, which consisted of doubt and disbelief; and (3.) the leaven of the Herodians, which manifested itself as the syncretizing of political power with religion, putting faith in man-made agendas over the power of God. As God's called-out ones, we must assiduously avoid all these deadly leavening agents, staying aware of the pitfalls that will pull us down.