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Intro The Pharisees were the most religious sect of the Jews and saw themselves as righteous protectors of Gods Law. Jesus had more issues...
- Intro The Pharisees were the most religious sect of the Jews and saw themselves as righteous protectors of Gods Law. Jesus had more issues with this type of people than anyone else. We are blessed by their presence in the New Testament because Jesus points to them as how not to act as Gods people. They also serve to point out important issues if we happen to miss it. For example, if the Pharisees are whining about something, we should pay attention to why.
- Matt 16:6-11 - Beware of their Leaven. Leaven is a corruption on its environment and it infects by swelling and puffing up. Hence it is a great example of the sin of the Pharisees because of their swelling pride.
- Strict observance of Law defined by Tradition
- Matt 12:2-8 - The Pharisees were upset because they had defined the boundaries for commands such as not working on Sabbath. But what is work? This was later defined in their oral tradition. And they held everyone to it with no exception. Regardless of priorities.
- Mark 7:3-8 The Pharisees were taking commands for their health (Leviticus 15:11) and formalized it to be a law or code.
- Avoiding the Law with the Traditions
- Mark 7:9-13 - Corban is the practice of dedicating a gift to God. In Leviticus, the Law suggests that if that happens the gift could not be used for any other purpose. Jesus points out their misuse of corban. The Jews had come to use corban as a sort of bank account. They could make their money a gift to the temple and it would stay there for safe keeping until their death and then it would revert into the treasury. Honoring the parents in this scripture is referring to financial support. The Jews were avoiding their financial responsibility to their parents by declaring their funds corban which meant that they could not use it for their parents.
- The signs are there, but will not be seen (satisfied in knowledge)
- Matt 12:38-45 - Have all the answers already? The Pharisees thought they did. Their minds were made up before meeting with Jesus. Any sign that he couldve given them would not have changed anything, because they were already missing the signs all around them. Even the evil Assyrians in Nineveh saw the signs presented them. Queen Sheba also saw the signs of wisdom and came to Jerusalem because of it. But no matter how many evil spirits left these Pharisees, they simply made room for more instead of filling that space with the truth.
- No Love for the Lost (just indignation)
- Luke 7:36-50 - The Pharisee saw the servant girl as unworthy. Instead of caring for her and helping her out of her situation, he looked at her with disdain.
- John 8:3-11 Again instead of reforming the lost, the so-called righteous people sought justice and judgment. James 2 says that mercy rejoiceth against judgment because we are all deserving of criminal justice. We have been given mercy and should give it in kind.
- Self-righteous
- John 9:39-41 - The blind who think they can see deceive themselves. Romans 3:23 says all have come short of His glory.
- Luke 16:14-15 - Justifying ourselves to men is an abomination to God.
- Luke 4:24-30 - Why were these Jews so enraged at the mention of Naaman and the woman of Sidon? Both were Gentiles. The suggestion was that these Gentiles were deserving of healing over the Jews because they opened their hearts to God. See Luke 18 where the Pharisee and Publican were praying.
- Stopping the Truth
- John 8:56-59 I am states that Jesus was the voice of the burning bush.
- John 19:19-22 - Pilate knew the Hebrews had a fascination with acrostics in their poetry and writings, meaning the first letter of each word spelled something else. Here Pilate writes, Jesus of Nazareth the King of the Jews which is Yeshua HaNazarei vMelech HaYehudim in Hebrew. The acrostic is YHVH which is the name of God.
- Acts 7:52-60 : Stephen causes them to stop their ears literally
- Enough is Enough
- Matthew 23
- 5-12 : self exaltation
- 16-22 : loop-holes
- 23-24 : splitting hairs and ignoring problems
- 25-28 : outward appearances / inward issues
- 29-36 : lying to themselves about their misplaced convictions
- Jesus even predicts a future slaying of a righteous man that happened many years later (Zacharias, see Josephus[Jewish War]
- Conclusion
- Jesus warned to beware of this leaven, but he also predicted by parable that it would exist in the kingdom (Matt 13:33). Most commentaries look at leaven in a good light here and how the church will be infectious in growth. They also say that the specific of there being 3 measures of meal is not significant. But it is significant because it was a fellowship offering of the Jews introduced by Abraham in Genesis 18. Leaven always refers to corruption and sin. Remember that Jesus audience were Jews who would know both of these. They more than likely gasped at his suggestion of leaven being placed in the fellowship offering. But it was prophetic of how a swelling and prideful sin would come into the fellowship of the church.
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