Worldly Minded
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· 3 viewsThis sermon looks at why Jesus was warning his disciples not to listen to the teachings of the Pharisees and the Sadducee's. Further, it examines how we as Christians today should respond to Jesus warnings in our day and age.
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If you are a parent, you know how frustrating things can be when you ask your child to do something and instead of doing it, they have to interrogate you on the merits of why they should do the job and why that job might be better suited for someone else. If you aren’t a parent, you have potentially thought to yourself, when/if I have kids, they will never do that. They will love me so much that they will skip joyfully into the task they have been assigned. Now lets imagine, hypothetically, you have told your child something over and over. Maybe you have told your sibling or co-worker something over and over, but they simply are not getting it. You show them the proper way to do the task, but instead of completing the job properly, they do it kind of halfway. Let's say, for example, you tell this child to take out the garbage, so they proceed by pulling the bag out of the garbage can, walking outside, opening up the outside garbage, and then throwing the bag in the garbage. Then they walk inside and assume all is well. But the completion of the task is in the minor details. This child, when they pulled the bag out of the indoor garbage can, never tied the bag shut. They then walked outside, removed the lid from the exterior garbage can and put the bag in that can, failing to put the lid back on the can, once inside they declared job as done! Forgetting to put a new garbage bag in the can. They did some of the job but not all of the job. So the next morning, you go to put something in the indoor garbage before you head off to work, and you realize you need to put a bag in the garbage can. That is one inconvenience. Then, with your coffee in hand, you head out the door to see some scavenger creatures scurry away (maybe a raccoon or a skunk) curiously, you proceed towards your vehicle, and that's when you notice the garbage can knocked over with garbage strewn all over the place.
hat is frustrating is you know you have shown and explained the importance of every step of taking the Garbage out. You have told this child what would happen if they skipped a step, but as you have told them time in and time out about tying the bag closed, about closing the lid of the garbage can, and how if you don’t tie the bags closed or don’t close the lid to the outside garbage you can attract unwanted animals. The whole time you spent explaining this, the child looked at you, and you know they were thinking, “That's not true.” Even more simply, they are hearing what the adults would say in all the Charlie Brown movies: “Wah Wah, Wah Wah, Wah Wah.” But here you are, looking at the consequences of that child’s actions.
Before you get thinking that I am complaining about one of my children. I am not; that little story is actually about me and how I just wouldn’t listen to my parents on the steps I should follow because I didn’t believe them about the consequences of my actions. I would always hear how animals; like coyotes, raccoons, and skunks, would be attracted to open garbage cans. However, since I had never seen anything like that, I thought it a nuisance to take the steps to avoid the consequences. Instead, I would think I haven’t seen the proof; I have only heard of it, but I have never seen an animal tearing apart our garbage. So, in my haste, I would just go halfway. I did the bare minimum, and eventually, my mum woke me up one morning because I had to go and deal with the consequences of my actions.
Sometimes, when there is overwhelming news, accounts, and stories that something has happened, it is good to heed the warning before it is too late. If you have seen it happen to others, you don’t need to wait for that same thing to happen to you before you believe.
This week, we are going to start where we left off last week. We are going to see how there were some teachers who saw Jesus perform miracles on others, but since those miracles were not performed on them, they are hard-pressed to believe Jesus’ legitimacy. — So let’s catch up to where we left off beginning in Matthew 16.
The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.
But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’
“And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?
“An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.
The Pharisees and the Sadducees know that something was up; they have heard about this Jesus. They have heard about the signs and have even seen the signs he has displayed. So they sent a contingency, a few select men, to go and test Jesus. Even though most of them have witnessed the signs and miracles already. They want to see a sign for themselves. We read that a Pharisee named Nicodemus confirms that the Pharisees believe Jesus is from God, which all happens in John 3:1-2
Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
To be able to understand what is going on, we need to remember that Jesus has had a few run-ins with the Pharisees and the Sadducees, so neither side is happy with him. In fact, for the Pharisees and the Sadducees to even be working together is a marvel in itself because they traditionally opposed each other theologically. We see this in Acts 23:8 “The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, and that there are neither angels nor spirits, but the Pharisees believe all these things.” Ultimately, the Pharisees and the Sadducees were both religious sects within Judaism during the time of Christ. They both honoured Moses and the Law, and they both had a measure of political power. The Sanhedrin, the 70-member supreme court of ancient Israel, had members from both the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
The differences between the Pharisees and the Sadducees are that the Sadducees were more conservative in only one specific doctrinal area: they insisted on a literal interpretation of the text of Scripture and as mentioned in Acts 23:8 The Sadducees denied the afterlife, holding that the soul perished at death, but the Pharisees believed in an afterlife and in an appropriate reward and punishment for individuals. The Sadducees rejected the idea of an unseen, spiritual world, but the Pharisees taught the existence of angels and demons in a spiritual realm. If the Sadducees couldn’t find a command in the Tanakh (the Jewish Scriptures comprising the books of law, the prophets, and other collected writings), they dismissed it as manmade. While the Pharisees gave oral tradition equal authority to the written word of God. Sadducees tended to be wealthy and held more powerful positions than the Pharisees. The Sadducees were typically chief priests and high priests, and they held the majority of seats in the Sanhedrin. The Pharisees were more representative of the common working people. The Sadducees controlled the power in the temple, while the Pharisees controlled the synagogues. The Sadducees were friendlier with Roman laws; the Pharisees weren’t. The Pharisees resisted Hellenization, but the Sadducees welcomed it. They were so at odds with each other that it wasn’t uncommon for them to physically fight each other, and wise men like Paul used this against them (but that's another sermon for another time).
More commonly, we see the Pharisees and the Sadducees as the really well-educated religious leaders of their time. They had a lot of head knowledge about the scriptures but not a lot of heart knowledge. It is because of this unbalanced knowledge and the fact that they had so much political power, that abuse of that knowledge and power, to their advantage, was not unheard of. So, most people tended to steer clear of them and leave them alone. The Pharisees and the Sadducees would even steer clear of each other. As a result, one group controlled the Temple, while the other controlled the Synaguge. Initially, the Sadducees were not very concerned about Jesus because he mostly interacted with the Pharisees and everyday people. The Pharisees especially would challenge Jesus with their oral tradition when they encountered him, I imagine would often leave him feeling slighted. Jesus wouldn’t really hold back when it came to them either.
In Matthew 23, we see Jesus' relationship with Pharisees on full display, Jesus does not hold back. As to not take from when we will get there later in our sermon series, I will just share the words Jesus uses to describe the Pharisees. He calls them hypocrites multiple times, he calls them blind guides, and he calls them fools. He describes the Pharisees as whitewashed tombstones full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. He calls them snakes and a generation of vipers.
Those last words “snakes, a generation of vipers” potentially would have struck a cord because they would have remembered hearing John the Baptist say the same thing to them in Matthew 3:7
But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Finally, in Luke 11:44 we see Jesus say to them, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them.”
These are not the only run-ins that Jesus has with the Pharisees or the Sadducees either. Jesus wasn’t scared of having these very direct confrontations because he knew these men were leading others dangerously away from where they should be going. The Pharisees and Sadducees were calling the people to submit to themselves, while Jesus was calling people to submit to God. To change the posture of their hearts and follow him to everlasting life. We see this play out in real-time in John 11:45-53:
Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him.
But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done.
Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs.
“If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”
But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all,
nor do you take into account that it is expedient for you that one man die for the people, and that the whole nation not perish.”
Now he did not say this on his own initiative, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus was going to die for the nation,
and not for the nation only, but in order that He might also gather together into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
So from that day on they planned together to kill Him.
Jesus, knowing the dangers of following “blind guides” through a perilous life, knew he needed to warn his followers of following such people and so we see Jesus warn his disciples back where we left off in Matthew 16:5-12
And the disciples came to the other side of the sea, but they had forgotten to bring any bread.
And Jesus said to them, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
They began to discuss this among themselves, saying, “He said that because we did not bring any bread.”
But Jesus, aware of this, said, “You men of little faith, why do you discuss among yourselves that you have no bread?
“Do you not yet understand or remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets full you picked up?
“Or the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many large baskets full you picked up?
“How is it that you do not understand that I did not speak to you concerning bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.”
Then they understood that He did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
One of the things I love about Jesus and the Bible is that ultimately things are made clear. What is clear to me is the Pharisees and Sadducees were concerned about earthly ways. They were more concerned about controlling people so that the Romans wouldn’t come and take away both their temple and their nation. There is a spoiler a couple of verses down in verse 23 where we see Jesus say to someone “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.” Jesus described those who are more concerned with the ways of humans as leaven. He warned his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
Paul grabs onto this teaching, and we see Paul warn people about how a little yeast can ruin the whole batch of dough. In 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 we see a snippet of Paul addressing the leaven (or yeast) of people around us when he says:
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?
Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
Therefore let us celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
When the Pharisees and the Sadducees looked at Jesus and requested a sign, Jesus knew that they were so tainted by the ways of man that they could only understand what a red sky in the evening meant, and what a red sky in the morning meant. He knew that these men were so tainted by the world that they could not discern the signs of the times. So the only sign he gave them was that of Jonah. Those at that time might have been confused but we have the luxury to know Jesus was saying that after he was crucified on the cross for our sins, like Jonah on the third day He would be redeemed and would rise from the dead.
Jesus' invitation for us is that we don’t boast in ourselves, we don’t become so distracted by the ways of men that we miss the clear instructions of the word of God to posture our hearts after Jesus.
Jesus' invitation for us is to not become so worldly-minded that we become no heavenly good because the ways of this world are not the ways of God.
Lets Pray