Between the Pharisees and the Sadducee

What our Lord Jesus face when He was on earth with the Pharisees and the Sadducee, and what we face today is largely similar. This makes His warning regarding the yeast of these two groups even more urgent.

Yeast is the external element that is added into a dough to make it lighter and more palatable. But we find that this is not God's idea for the church.

The yeast of the Pharisees points to those who seek to make a palatable religion with outward show. Inevitably this leads to legalism and hypocrisy.

The yeast of the Sadducee points to those who seek to make a palatable religion through human rationalisations. The Sadducee deny resurrection and other teachings from the word of God that does not fit into their limited minds, much like the liberal theologians of today.

What we see today is these two groups politicizing the message of Jesus Christ and the cross. On one hand we see the liberal theologians denying the clear message of the bible including denying the virgin birth, the centrality of the cross, and accepting all kinds of watered down, compromised and worldly teachings. Then on another side we see the so-called Christian right, trying to make political capital out of the Christian message, trying to impose Christian values on a unchristian world.

The central message of the gospel is not that we can change the world, but that we must not be of the world. Even Jesus said as recorded in John 17:9, "I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me;"

So as those given to Jesus Christ, we must keep ourselves clean from the yeast of the Pharisees and the Sadducee. We must be His little flock. Those whom can hear His voice directly and follow Him only.

This is the narrow path. There is no other way.