Determined to Remove the Yeast of the Pharisees and Hate What Jesus Hates

This year, the theme of our church’s 40-Day Fasting and Prayer is to remove the yeast of the Pharisees from our lives! The Holy Spirit has been leading us to deeply reflect on our lives by addressing our doubts, lack of love, rigid adherence to tradition, self-exaltation, self-righteousness, and hypocrisy.

Jesus continually reminded His disciples to beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, publicly rebuking them in the Sermon on the Mount: “For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20) Jesus even told the Pharisees, “I never knew you,” and in Matthew 23, He enumerated the sins of the scribes and Pharisees, for their patterns, attitudes, and acts were all that Jesus hated.

The Pharisees clung to tradition to maintain their status and satisfy their desire for self-exaltation and self-righteousness. Everyone likes to be respected and praised, but we must humble ourselves. For example, when chatting, people often love to talk about what they want to say, but can we engage with others’ topics and become good listeners? Everyone has the yeast in life, but without the Holy Spirit of truth, it is difficult for us to see the problems in our lives.

Eben is one of the preachers on the “Removing the Yeast of the Pharisees” series. He reflects on his role as a Levite and has found that as he needs to continuously disciple and preach God’s word, if his life is not aligned and falls into the yeast of self-righteousness and tradition, then the life he brings forth will reflect that. Therefore, he must continuously deal with his own life. Boaz has been familiar with the parable of the 99 sheep since childhood in Sunday school, but he never truly understood it until he became a father, which helped him grasp the heart of our Heavenly Father. In the process of removing the yeast, we need the continual illumination of the Holy Spirit before we can understand the true heart of Jesus.

Dear brothers and sisters, in the 40-Day Fasting and Prayer, we need to understand the heart of Jesus from the Bible, truly face our lives, repent from acts that lead to death, hate what Jesus hates and be determined to remove the yeast, so as to live out the life of Christ and have our share in the planting of Trees of Life everywhere.■【2024.09.29】