2010-08-22 -- Influence

Influence is ever-present in our daily lives; sometimes good, sometimes bad, but always present. For instance, the media, colleagues, school mates, pastors, bosses, spouses, parents, and kids are all sources of influence. For some, outside influence directly dictates a person’s actions, e.g. politicians. As Christians, we should all be aware of the external influences in our lives and respond appropriately to each.

In Matthew 5:5-12, Christ warns the disciples to, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” In this warning Christ was not referring to the physical yeast that is used in dough to make leaven bread as the disciples first thought He was, rather He was speaking about the influence that the Pharisees and Sadducees had on the community.

Christ made this warning because the Pharisees’ doctrine was dangerous for the reason that they founded their authority upon oral law or human traditions and as a result were legalistic, self-righteous and formalistic. The Pharisees believed that in addition to the written law there was also an authoritative oral law passed down through history by various leaders, prophets and rabbis. While they formally accepted the authority of the Old Testament, their traditions in practice were more important than the Bible because they were used to interpret the Scriptures. As a result they held to a number of heresies.

Furthermore, Christ warned the disciples about the Sadducees since their doctrine was also dangerous because of their willingness to subject the Bible to finite reason, pragmatism and skepticism. While the Pharisees added to God’s word, the Sadducees detracted from it. They were the modernists of their day. The Sadducees did not place the Old Testament historical and prophetic books on the same level with the five books of Moses. They did not believe in the resurrection of the body, in the existence of angelic beings, or even that man had a soul or spirit.

But why did Christ reference the yeast? What is it about yeast that makes it the appropriate word to describe what false doctrines can do to a person, a church, or a community? Yeast does two things that make it the perfect choice to describe how false teaching operates. First, yeast works insidiously. Its influence on the lump of dough is subtle. It works quietly as it penetrates the whole loaf. Second, yeast’s nature is to grow and spread. Once it is introduced into the lump of dough, if left alone, it will change the character of the whole lump. These aspects of yeast as descriptions of how false doctrine operates are true in individuals and especially in corporate bodies such as individual churches or denominations.

I believe this same analogy works well for the influences that we often face in our daily lives. If we do not continuously fight off the negative, anti-God influences, like the yeast taking over the bread, we a doomed to be taken over by the influence; we must continually be on our guard.

The aforementioned scripture and topic will be the subject of this week’s sermon. I am much honored to have the opportunity to bring the message to both services. Furthermore, I am thankful and honored to have a good friend and mentor, Sherrie Randall, assisting me in fulfilling the pastoral roles in worship this coming week.

Josh