Tag Archives: Pharisee

MORE REFLECTIONS ON THE OLYMPIC “EXPOSURE”

Christian Life, ,

It was heartening to see many thousands of believers expressing their loyalty to Jesus in public worship after the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. What an amazing expression of their love for Him and their willingness to stand up and be counted!

This response has shown the world that Jesus’ followers are everywhere. They will not bow to Baal under any circumstances or hide their light when they need to shine in deepest darkness.

This massed choir didn’t condemn the wrong doers or threaten vengeance as some do when their gods are insulted; they celebrated the Saviour of sinners in a beautiful and public way.

This response turned out to be a shock for the organisers, an unexpected exposure of their wicked agenda. Even unbelievers were outraged at what they had done.

However, there is another side to the Christian response to the opening ceremony in Paris, 2024.

There is a response to a debacle like this that can expose in us an attitude that Jesus condemned.

Luke 18:9-14 NLT
[9] “Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: [10] “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. [11] The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! [12] I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’ [13] “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ [14] I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Can this be a commentary on the attitude some of us who inadvertently display towards those who vehemently defend their gender status? Are we saying, in our outrage towards their behaviour, that we are better than they? “I would never do that!” Are we telling them, without words, that they are wicked but we are not, that they are going to hell but we are not? Are we standing over them as self-appointed judges?

Jesus didn’t mince matters about people’s sin. When He was told of the tragic deaths of worshippers murdered at the hands of Pilate, He responded with a blunt statement…

Luke 13:1-5 NLT
[1] About this time Jesus was informed that Pilate had murdered some people from Galilee as they were offering sacrifices at the Temple. [2] “Do you think those Galileans were worse sinners than all the other people from Galilee?” Jesus asked. “Is that why they suffered? [3] Not at all! And YOU WILL PERISH, TOO, UNLESS YOU REPENT OF YOUR SINS AND TURN TO GOD . [4] And what about the eighteen people who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them? Were they the worst sinners in Jerusalem? [5] No, and I tell you again that unless you repent, you will perish, too.”

All humans stand on level ground before God because…

Romans 3:23 NLT
[23] “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”

Apart from God’s grace, everyone, gay or straight, is guilty before God and everyone faces the same judgment for sin.

“I am not gay,” but I tell lies, I am bitter, resentful, unforgiving, vengeful, complaining, discontented, fearful… or whatever is in my heart that displays my own unbelief.

Therefore, we must be careful to guard our hearts against the self-righteousness of the Pharisees. Since we are not gay, we are okay. Since we are outraged by those who openly defend the alternative lifestyle, we are on God’s side. Really?

God actively takes a stand against those who present their self-righteousness as a reason for His favour.

James 4:6 NLT
[6] “And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

God’s grace means that He empowers those who know who they are without Him, nothing but condemned sinners like everyone else, especially those we despise.

How can we diagnose this insidious disease? Watch out for contempt! In our words, in our tone, even in our body language, we display the symptoms of self-righteousness. We need the same grace, the same mercy that those need who stand condemned in our eyes.

How can we escape this trap? Look at others through Jesus’ heart. Replace contempt with compassion. Without His grace, we are where they are. Apart from Him, we are lost.

Romans 11:32 NLT
[32] “For God has imprisoned everyone in disobedience so he could have mercy on everyone.”

Jew or Gentile, gay or straight, Jesus is the only one who can rescue us from hell.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – STUPID PHARISEES

Bible Study, ,

STUPID PHARISEES

“When He had finished this talk, a Pharisee asked Him to dinner. He entered the house and sat down at the table. The Pharisee was shocked and somewhat offended when he saw that Jesus didn’t wash up before dinner. But the Master said to him, ‘I know you Pharisees burnish the surface of your cups and plates so that they sparkle in the sun, but I also know your insides are maggoty with greed and secret evil. Stupid Pharisees! Didn’t the One who made the outside also make the inside? Turn both your pockets and your hearts inside out and give generously to the poor, then your lives will be clean, not just your dishes and your hands,'” Luke 11:37-41.

Every religion has a standard of right and wrong. The religion of the Pharisees was no different. Although they believed that they were worshipping and serving the God of Israel, there had been a slow and subtle change in their understanding of who He was and what He wanted.

From the earliest time of their history, God had revealed to them the nature of His righteousness – doing what is right because of who He is. He is ‘gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and full of love and faithfulness’ – Exodus 34:6. His laws reflected His nature. He expected them to treat each other the way He treated them.

Because of their refusal to obey His laws, over time they were punished again and again for their idolatry and injustice by war and exile. They came to believe that God was only pleased when they obeyed the many petty and trivial laws that were formulated to ‘protect’ His Law. The heart of their religion became legalistic and God was reduced to the level of ‘rule-keeping’ as the standard of righteousness.

Jesus came to reveal the heart of the Father and hence He clashed with religious leaders because, like all religions, its devotees were ruled by fear. ‘Break the rules and you fall foul of the god whom you are supposed to be appeasing by keeping them.’   

Does it really matter to God whether we wash our hands before meals? For hygienic reasons, yes, but it makes no difference to the state of our hearts. What is it that really exposes what is in our hearts? Strangely enough, according to Jesus, it’s what we do with our money. Since money is the power that drives the world, who owns our money and our attitude to it reveals what is really in our hearts.

Jesus insisted that we cannot serve two masters. It is either God or money that is in the control centre of our lives. The love of money drives our selfishness, greed and attitude to other people. If money is our master, we will go to whatever lengths necessary to get it even at the cost of lives. If Jesus is our Master, money will be one of the currencies we use to make other people’s lives better.

Isn’t rule-keeping often a cover-up for wickedness in our hearts? Just like the Pharisees, we meticulously observe rules and rituals to appear ‘righteous’ but inside the ‘cup’ is the filth of greed we cannot hide from God. How do we break its power? Jesus said, ‘Be a giver, and you’ll become generous, like your heavenly Father.’ Generosity will not save us, but it will go a long way to setting us free from the ‘evil eye’ that rules the world.

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE – EXPOSED!

Bible Study, ,

EXPOSED!

“One of the Pharisees asked Him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee’s house and sat down at the dinner table. Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood as His feet, weeping, raining tears on His feet. Letting her hair down, she dried His feet, kissed them, and anointed them with perfume.

“When the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he said to himself, ‘If this man was the prophet I thought He was, He would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over Him.'” Luke 7:36-39.

Talk about a hypocrite! Why on earth did this nameless Pharisee ever invite Jesus for a meal?

To share a meal in Jesus’ day and still today in some cultures, was much more than a gesture of hospitality. There was a great deal of symbolism in eating together.

The Hebrew word for a meal is shul, and for a table is shulkan. However, the word shulkan can also mean reconciliation or a lamb skin. What’s the connection? A lamb skin was sometimes used as a kind of picnic blanket where there was no table. The meaning becomes clearer when we go back to the first Passover in Egypt.

Before the children of Israel left Egypt, they were to eat the Passover meal which included the lamb they had killed for the blood which they painted onto the door frames of their houses. The blood was the symbol of reconciliation between themselves and God and between one another. They could not travel together on their long journey through the wilderness if they were at loggerheads with one another. The lamb was sacrificed and the skin used as a table for the meal they were to eat in haste before leaving.

Eating a meal together was a witness that they had no issues with one another. They would not sit down at the table if they had anything against each other. The Passover lamb was sacrificed on God’s instruction and the meal eaten in His presence because He wanted them to know that He had no issues with them. He had taken them as His people, and the blood of the lamb which foretold the sacrifice of Jesus, had reconciled them with Him.

Then why did this Pharisee invite Jesus to dinner? He was obviously putting on a show until something happened that made his unresolved antagonism rise to the surface. He was outraged when the prostitute showed up at his dinner party and washed and anointed Jesus’ feet. The same old holier-than-thou arrogance surfaced in his thoughts as was the attitude of all the Pharisees.

How dare she gate-crash his house during a meal and then actually touch this Jewish man, this prophet who was supposed to be aware of who she was! So much for Jesus, the prophet! But this was all going on in his thoughts while on the outside he was smiling and eating with Jesus.

Reconciled? No way! He was just as hostile to Him as all the other Pharisees. This dinner deal was nothing but a show, as was the rest of his empty behaviour for the benefit of the people he was trying to impress.

Knowing the Pharisees, why did Jesus ever agree to accept his invitation? Once again we see the Father mirrored in the Son. Jesus had no animosity towards anyone, not even towards the Pharisees who were out to kill Him. He was willing to “smoke the peace pipe” with anyone who sincerely came to Him. Did He know what was in the heart of this Pharisee? He certainly did when the woman showed up and did what she did.

If there are any issues between you and Jesus, they are on your side, not His. His invitation still stands: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20 (NIV).

THE BOOKOF ACTS – DEAD ACCURATE!

Bible Study, ,

CHAPTER 26

DEAD ACCURATE!

“Agrippa spoke directly to Paul: ‘Go ahead — tell us about yourself.’

“Paul took the stand and told his story: ‘I can’t think of anyone, King Agrippa, before whom I’d rather be answering all these Jewish accusations than you, knowing how well you are acquainted with Jewish ways and all our family quarrels.

“‘From the time of my youth, my life has been lived among my own people in Jerusalem. Practically every Jew in town who watched me grow up — and if they were willing to stick their necks out they would tell you in person — knows that I Iived as a strict Pharisee, the most demanding branch of our religion. It’s because I believed it and took it seriously, committed myself heart and soul to what God promised my ancestors — the identical hope, mind you, that that the twelve tribes have lived for night and day all these centuries — it’s because I held on to this tested and tried hope that I’m being called on the carpet by the Jews. They should be the one’s standing trial here, not me! For the life of me I can’t see why it’s a criminal offense to believe that God raises the dead.'” Acts 26:1-8 (The Message).

Paul was smart! Here was a golden opportunity to tell his story to the king himself and he grabbed it with both hands. Many years before, it had been prophesied that he would testify before kings. Did he recall those words at this moment when he stood in the dock before Agrippa? Did he recognise that this was not so much about defending himself against Jewish religious bigotry as it was about bearing witness to Jesus before an auspicious audience?

How attentively Agrippa, and Festus, must have listened to Paul’s story, hoping for a loophole or a slip of the tongue that they could latch onto for a legitimate case against him as the reason for sending him to Rome.

This moment had eternal significance for all who were present in the Great Hall that day. Before Paul stood before them, many of them were ignorant of the truth about Jesus, but once his story had been told, everyone, including the governor and the king, was faced with a choice. This is the real issue regarding the “good news”. Truth always demands a response. Every time Paul opened his mouth to inform his hearers about Jesus, they stood in the dock because even if they ignored the truth, it was a decision and made them guilty and culpable.

Jesus put it this way: “‘As for the person who hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge him. For I did not come to judge the world but to save it. There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; that very word which I spoke will condemn him at the last day.'” John 12:47-48 (NIV).

Every lie about Jesus spoken by men in their rejection of Him will collapse like a house of cards. God has spoken! He has appointed Jesus to be the sovereign and supreme ruler over all His creation. Through His obedience, Jesus earned the right to be exalted to the highest place and given a name that is above every name, “Lord”; — the name Satan so desperately covets and deceives people into believing that it belongs to him!

All the exalted claims that humans may make in the name of religion will be exposed at the judgment seat of Christ, and only the truth will remain, for truth alone can never be destroyed because it the very essence of the living God. All the lofty claims in the name of a god, whatever that god or gods be called, will vanish like vapour in the brilliant light and searing heat of Jesus, the King of kings.

Little did these men with such lofty opinions of themselves know that this was the moment of their trial. In Paul’s testimony he was echoing the words of Moses: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.” Deuteronomy 30:19 (NIV).

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, actually 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. He 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.

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