Mark’s Good News about Jesus – Yeast or Unleavened
Yeast or Unleavened
Exodus 12:14-20 - New International Version (NIV)
14 “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come
you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a
lasting ordinance. 15 For seven days you are to eat bread made
without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your houses, for whoever
eats anything with yeast in it from the first day through the seventh must be
cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day hold a sacred
assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days,
except to prepare food for everyone to eat; that is all you may do.
17 “Celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread, because it was on
this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as
a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the
first month you are to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the
fourteenth day until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For
seven days no yeast is to be found in your houses. And anyone, whether
foreigner or native-born, who eats anything with yeast in it must be cut off
from the community of Israel. 20 Eat nothing made with yeast.
Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened bread.”
How are the generations to come to celebrate this day (verse 14)?
What are they to do for seven days (verse 15)?
Who “must be cut off from Israel” (verse 15)?
In your opinion, why is the only work that can be done on the first and seventh day the preparation of food (verse 16)?
Why are the Israelites to “celebrate the Festival of Unleavened Bread” (verse 17)?
When are they
to celebrate this Festival (verse 18)?
What is to
happen to anyone who eats yeast (verse 19)?
Where is
unleavened bread to be eaten (verse 20)?
In your
opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
Mark 8:14-21 - New
International Version (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? 18 Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but
fail to hear? And don’t you remember? 19 When I broke the five
loaves for the five thousand, how many basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
“Twelve,” they replied.
20 “And when I broke the seven loaves for the four thousand, how many
basketfuls of pieces did you pick up?”
They answered, “Seven.”
21 He said to them, “Do you still not understand?”
How many
loaves of bread had the disciples brought (verse 14)?
What did Jesus
warn them to watch out for (verse 15)?
Why did the
disciples think Jesus gave them this warning (verse 16)?
In your
opinion, why would Jesus think that the disciple’s hearts were hardened (verse 17)?
What does
Jesus think their eyes fail to do (verse 18)?
How many
basketfuls of pieces did the disciples pick up when Jesus broke the five loaves
for the five thousand (verse 19)?
How many
basketfuls of pieces did the disciples pick up when Jesus broke the seven
loaves for the four thousand (verse 20)?
What did Jesus
ask them (verse 21)?
In your opinion, how does knowing that the
celebration of the Lord bringing the Israelite “divisions out of Egypt” and
their slavery in Exodus 12:14-20 help in understanding what Jesus meant in Mark
8:14-21 when He said “watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of
Herod”?
1It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged
to the church, intending to persecute them. 2 He had James, the brother of
John, put to death with the sword. 3 When he saw that this met
with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened
during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. 4 After arresting him, he put
him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers
each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.
Who did Herod arrest (verse 1)?
What did he intend (verse
1)?
How was James put to death (verse 2)?
Why did he “seize Peter also” (verse 3)?
When did he have Peter seized (verse 3)?
How was Peter to be guarded (verse 4)?
When was Peter to be tried (verse 4)?
In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what significance is there that Herod took
Peter captive in Acts 12:1-4, during the festival when the Israelites
celebrated the Lord removing them from Egypt He’d instructed them in Exodus
12:14-20?
In your opinion, what do Herod’s actions in Acts 12:1-4 reveal
about the “yeast” of Herod that Jesus had warned about in Mark 8:14-21?
1It is
actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that
even pagans do not tolerate: A man is sleeping with his father’s wife. 2 And
you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have gone into mourning and have put out of
your fellowship the man who has been doing this? 3 For my part,
even though I am not physically present, I am with you in spirit. As one who is
present with you in this way, I have already passed judgment in the name of our
Lord Jesus on the one who has been doing this. 4 So when you
are assembled and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is
present, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of
the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast
leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Get rid of the old yeast,
so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Christ, our
Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Therefore let us keep the
Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with
the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
What kind of sexual immorality that “even the
pagans do not tolerate” had Paul heard was among the Corinthian Christians (verse 1)?
How did the
Corinthian Christians feel about this sexual immorality (verse 2)?
How does Paul
say they should have reacted (verse 2)?
How does Paul
say that he is with them (verse 3)?
What has Paul
already done (verse 3)?
Who and what
will be with the Corinthian Christians when they assemble (verse 4)?
Why are they
to “hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh” (verse
5)?
In your
opinion, what does Paul mean by “don’t you know that a little yeast leavens
the whole batch of dough” (verse 6)?
Why are the
Corinthian Christians to “get rid of the old yeast” (verse 7)?
How does Paul
say that they should “keep the Festival” (verse 8)?
In your
opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?
In your opinion, what do Herod and the Pharisees who Jesus
warns the disciples about in Mark 8:14-21 and the man sleeping with his
father’s wife in 1 Corinthians 5:1-8 have in common?
In your
opinion, how might the Christians in Jerusalem be changed by Herod having Peter
arrested in Acts 12:1-4? In what way might
the Christians in Corinth be changed by the man sleeping with his father’s wife
in 1 Corinthians 5:1-8? How might the
changes be similar? How might the
changes be different?
In your
opinion, what yeast do these passages from Exodus, Mark, Acts and 1 Corinthians
teach us to “watch out for” today?
In your
opinion, how, in the midst of a world that wants to modify the way Christians
think and act today, can we live “with the unleavened bread of sincerity and
truth”?
One of the interesting things I’ve
observed as I travel is coming upon a driver obviously going slower than I, who
as soon as I pull out to pass, speeds up and pulls ahead of me. I then am forced to pull back in behind them,
and soon we repeat the process again and again.
I’ve finally realized that these people
are allowing me to set the speed at which they travel. Without me they would be moving at a slower
speed, but because of me they speed up and move faster. They have not decided how fast they want to
travel and then stuck to it, but are reacting to me.
As Christians we have to be very careful
that we too don’t react to the world around us instead of deciding what we
believe and then consciously “sticking to it” in spite of what’s going on
around us.
In the Scriptures we’ve just studied, we learn
that we are called to be the People of God not a people who only claim to be of
God letting the world “set our speed”.
In
Exodus 12:14-20 the people of Israel are called to commemorate the time when
God brought them out of the slavery in Egypt by eating nothing with yeast in it
for a week. If someone violated this by
eating the yeast then they were cut off from the community of Israel.
In
Mark 8:14-21 Jesus warned the disciples to “watch out for the yeast of the
Pharisees and that of Herod” but they did not understand what this meant.
In
Acts 12:1-4 Herod demonstrated what this meant by killing James, which “met
with approval among the Jews” so he imprisoned Peter. Herod and the Pharisees were attempting to
change the behavior of the early Christians who were doing things differently
than Herod and the Pharisees. Instead of
accepting the difference they decided to try and change the Christians, but
those early Christians were careful to avoid the yeast of the Pharisees and of
Herod by maintaining their difference from the world.
Unfortunately,
in 1 Corinthians 5:1-8 we see that the world managed to insert yeast into the
Christian bread. The Church in Corinth was
in a community that valued freedom from certain God given restraints and the
yeast had leavened the Church until they became proud of a behavior that Paul
said even the pagans would not tolerate.
For the people there I am sure that it was a slow rise, but they ultimately
allowed the community around them to change their behavior. Paul calls for them to get rid of the yeast
and to celebrate “with the unleavened bread of
sincerity and truth”, because Christ, the Passover Lamb, has been
sacrificed.
Today, the call to us is the same.
We, as Christians, have been freed from
slavery to sin and are called live with the yeast of the world changing us from
being the people Jesus called.
Jesus warning to the disciples has become His
warning to us, to watch out for the yeast of the world.
The world today is just as intent, by
force or “wisdom” or other means, to changing us as Herod and the Pharisees
were to change the first Christians. We
need to be just as alert and steadfast ass they were.
But, unfortunately, sometimes we are like
the Corinthian Christians and we become proud of enlightened behavior. At that moment we need to listen to Paul and
get rid of the yeast of the world and to celebrate “with the unleavened
bread of sincerity and truth”, because Christ, the Passover Lamb, has been
sacrificed.
So, when the car pulls out to pass us we
don’t change our speed, because we are too busy celebrating to let them set our
speed.
Let us decide who we are, and what we
believe, and then live what we have decided.
(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)
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