Tag Archives: a Pharisee

GLIMPSES OF PAUL – 1

Bible Study, ,

SAUL – THE PHARISEE…

… Such a prominent character in the New Testament, yet we know very little about him, Saul who became Paul, the man. Now and again, he reveals titbits about his early life, but only as they relate to his ministry as an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Take, for example, his pre-Christian history. We know that he was a native of Tarsus, a city outside of Israel. This meant that he was raised as a Jew in a Gentile community.

What impression did this environment make on him as a young Jew? Did his Gentile associations give him a better understanding of their culture and lifestyle, or did he develop a deep prejudice towards them for their pagan and idolatrous ways?

It seems that his parents must have been devout Jews because Saul grew up strictly Jewish and even studied in Jerusalem under Gamaliel to be a Jewish rabbi.

In his defense before the Jewish leaders and people in Jerusalem, he told them…

Acts of the Apostles 22:3 NLT
[3] “Then Paul said, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, and I was brought up and educated here in Jerusalem under Gamaliel. As his student, I was carefully trained in our Jewish laws and customs. I became very zealous to honor God in everything I did, just like all of you today.”

How did Paul’s education and training influence his understanding of the gospel? We must never dismiss this part of Paul’s early life as irrelevent, even detrimental to his grasp of the message he was to take to the world. Without his thorough knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures, the Tanach, the gospel would have had no solid foundation in the history of the Jews or in the prophetic preparation in the Tanach for the coming of Messiah.

It took the divine intervention of Jesus on the Damascus outskirts and Paul’s spiritual transformation from a fanatical Pharisee to a humble servant of the Lord, to enable him to understand what he already knew. Paul had the foundation of truth firmly embedded in his mind from early days. The Holy Spirit brought this knowledge to life in him as the supreme Teacher taught him the truth of the gospel.

If Paul spent his youth in Jerusalem under Gamaliel’s tutelage, he must have either encountered or heard of Jesus and His teaching and works. His initial reaction was just like the reaction of his fellow Pharisees. They were enraged by a mere human claiming to be God. Worse than that, He did things impossible to explain, like raising a dead man after four days in the grave!

Saul may not have been present in the crowd who yelled for Jesus’ death, but he certainly approved of the unjust condemnation and execution of Stephen, the first martyr to die for Jesus.

Acts of the Apostles 8:1 NLT
[1] “Saul was one of the witnesses, and he agreed completely with the killing of Stephen….”

So, despite his violent opposition to Jesus, and his hatred for Christians since they represented the opposite of what he was taught and believed, God thoroughly prepared this man for His calling to take the gospel to the Gentiles.

So, we leave Saul, the Pharisee, the hater and persecutor of Jesus’ followers, to follow his chosen path with vigour and fervour, not knowing what lay just around the corner for him…

JUDGED OR JUSTIFIED?

Christian Life, ,

JUDGED OR JUSTIFIED?

Jesus did not only teach His disciples that they must pray, but He also had things to say about their attitudes to God when they prayed. Once again the Pharisees provided a poor model for right attitudes in prayer. How must we approach the Father?

Humility

Another parable did well to illustrate wrong and right attitudes.

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. (Luke 18: 9-10)

Jesus could not have chosen two more opposite characters for His story – a Pharisee and a tax collector. Who were these “some”? The same ones who prayed in public to get attention – the hypocrites – the Pharisees. They were the “Noddy-badge” types who had to pat themselves on the back in case no one else did it for them. Of what was this Pharisee proud?

The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ (Luke 18: 11-12)

Wait a bit! Have you forgotten something, Mr Pharisee? Thanksgiving is about who God is, not about who you are? What about your heart? Jesus hit the nail on the head:

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. (Matt. 23: 25)

What was the problem with this man? He was so full of his own “righteousness” that he had no sense of need. I wrote this in the margin of my Bible years ago – a truth which has come back to me again and again:

“Religion is the most difficult disease to cure because it infects with such self-righteousness that no sense of need remains.”

Self-righteous people are self-sufficient. They are self-made people who worship their creator. They need nothing from God and they receive nothing from Him but condemnation.

But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ (Luke 18: 13)

Did you catch that? The tax collector touched the one thing that is weightiest in God – His kabot – His glory – His mercy. When he cried to God out of his deep need for mercy, he received mercy. Jesus concluded His story with the most heartening words a sinner can ever hear:

I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and everyone who humbles himself will be exalted. (Luke 18: 14)

Judged or justified? The Pharisee had already judged himself and, although he found himself not guilty, unfortunately for him, he used the wrong standard. He was his own measure of righteousness, but it fell far short of God’s measure of perfection. He judged his life by the rules he followed, not by the heart of the Father, and fell far short of God’s measure. He had no idea that the mirror of the Law into which he gazed, showed up the filth in his life but had no power to make him clean. He rejected the only one who could declare him not guilty because He had paid his debt. The Pharisee thought he could go it alone.

Justified! What does that mean? Not guilty. No penalty for sin hanging over the tax collector’s head any longer. He never again had to feel terrified of the future because of what he had done. He had the priceless gift of peace reigning in his heart. Why? Because he came to God with the attitude of reality. “I am a sinner and I need mercy.”

It is humility, not self-congratulation that opens God’s heart to His mercy. Attitude number one is humility which acknowledges that I have no hope outside of God. When I come to Him, I must take my rightful place before Him, remembering who He is and who I am. Whatever I have become that is good – functional – is because of His grace. I can claim nothing for myself which He has not given to me.

But He gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.’ Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you. (James 4: 6-8a)

Scripture is taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.