My wife and I have a bread maker. It is quite possibly the most amazing device we have ever owned. All of the science, skill, mystery and knowhow required to bake bread are condensed down to add the ingredients and press the start button.

I find myself staring through the window on top in total fascination as this compact machine mixes, kneads, and bakes a complete loaf of bread on its own. The smell of fresh baked bread fills the entire house with the same hunger-inducing power as that of cooking bacon. If you own a bread maker, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Jesus spoke of bread a couple of times in scripture. Jewish tradition and Mosaic Law use bread to represent spiritual things. The bread used in these examples all had one thing in common–a complete lack of yeast or leaven. Unleavened bread is flat, dense, and can be cracker-like.

Crackers are okay, but personally, I love sour dough breads, yeast dinner rolls, and even plain ol white bread. Yeast is what causes bread to rise and be fluffy. Just a tiny amount of yeast will cause the entire loaf to transform into fluffy bread. It takes such a small amount, that bakers often go for years without having to purchase new yeast. If you’ve ever wondered why a baker’s dozen is actually 13 instead of 12, it’s because bakers save the 13th roll and add it to the next batch of dough. The yeast living in that 13th roll is transferred just by contact into the new dough and continues on from batch to batch, multiplying each time.

With an understanding of how just a little bit of yeast can go a long way, let’s consider what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 16:5-12. Jesus wasn’t warning the disciples about poisoned pastries or griping because they forgot to pack lunch… again. Jesus was warning them of poisoned religion. The best lie is 99% truth, and just like yeast in the dough, it only takes a tiny little lie to turn the entire truth of the Gospel into something completely wrong.

Today, we most certainly need to heed the warning Jesus gave. In American Christianity the leaven takes on many different forms, but there is one that is very consistent and persistent–the leaven of self. Adding just a little “self” into the Gospel turns the message from God-focused to self-focused. Instead of seeking God’s Will for our lives, we begin looking at the Gospel for how we can use God to accomplish our own will, and it quickly spreads throughout our entire way of thinking. In a very short time we end up with churches full of men and women who believe in God, but only want to seek Him for what He can do for them, how He can fix their problems, and how He can make their lives more comfortable. They will help those who are like-minded all the while “praying” for and condemning those who disagree with them or cause them to consider their own shortcomings. They’re quick to point fingers at the sins of others, then hide behind misquoted scripture, eisegeted understandings, or just ignore the evidence of a completely different truth from the lies that they so desperately cling to. They blame the world for its condition instead of realizing that they are called to change it. They live their isolated lives “just waiting on God” to do something about the state of the world.

In short they have reduced the Gospel to a religion of self gratification, self justification, and self righteousness.

There is no way to remove leaven once it’s in. The only solution is to throw the entire batch away, clean the work area, and start over with extreme care to not reintroduce leaven into the new batch.

So, let’s start over in our understanding of the Gospel, and this time be very careful to focus on the Truth, not our own selfish desires.

The Truth, whose name is Jesus, said very clearly in Matthew 16:24-26, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?”

Do you hear the truth here?? We must deny ourselves, pick up the very thing that we are to crucify ourselves on, and follow Jesus! The cross that we carry is the Truth. The Truth is God’s Love. When we take up the Love of God for all mankind, we see the world and our lives the way God does, and seeing it in Truth we are faced with the burden that Love brings. We obediently follow Him, losing our lives to save the lives of the lost. We crucify our own selfish desires and pursuits so that we may live to reach the lost.

With the leaven gone, we see and understand the promises of God and their purpose. Jesus didn’t promise to take care of us and grant our requests so we could pursue our selfish desires. Jesus promised to take care of us and grant our requests so we can reach the lost. Look now at the commands and promises in the word, and see them in truth.

Matthew 28:16-20
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

John 14:12-14
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

John 14:15-21
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”