14The 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.”
16They discussed this with one another and said, “It is because we have no bread.” 

17Aware 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? 18Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember? 19When 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.”

21He said to them, “Do you still not understand?” Mark 8:

I read that this morning and suddenly got a revelation which I have never seen before in this passage.

Jesus talked about the yeast of the pharisees and Herod. What does yeast do? It expands into the dough, making the dough expand to many many many times its original size.

What did Jesus do with the five loaves and the seven loaves? He made them expand while being passed out to many many many times their original size.

It was an illustration of how the thinking and teaching of one person or one small group can easily expand to reach many many people. 

Once you put yeast into dough it’s almost unstoppable. Once you put false teaching out there, it’s almost unstoppable too.

Jesus is saying “Watch out, false teaching will expand beyond your wildest imaginations. Watch for it, spot it early and stop it spreading!”

You know what false teaching is out there today and how quickly it spreads, how people flock to it. We must speak out against it to stop people being led astray or like the 5 loaves or the 7 loaves it will feed more people than we would ever dream possible.

In other thoughts this Sunday, I installed Windows 7 beta this week on an old laptop. It’s actually OK. The laptop is way below its minimum specs but everything seems to work and is pretty quick. If they don’t foul it up for the release version, it’s going to be tempting to upgrade from Vista!