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LESSONS FROM FIRST CENTURY PHARISEES

By Roger Hornbeck

How do you "bag" yourself a Christian? You can always use the ever-popular 12 gauge shotgun, loaded with accusations of hypocrisy. If you don't want to kill him, a smaller gauge loaded with allegations of being unbiblical, a secular humanist, or lukewarm should effectively stop him in his tracks for a short while. When hunting the big game, consider pulling out the big guns, sure to fell even the strongest Christian: level the accusation of Parseeism against him. This lethal weapon goes straight for the heart and guarantees that he will not get up. We recommend that you use one of these against anyone who threatens your comfort zone and challenges you to change spiritually.

This may seem a little tongue-in-cheek, but it states my fear in approaching the questions of what is a Pharisee, and can the Church today stumble into the same ditch as the First Century Pharisees. It is not my desire to use a study of the Pharisees as a sword to neutralize those I dislike, but on the other hand I also do not think that we can afford to avoid considering those issues.

The Pharisees were the religious leaders in the time of Christ. They were not pagan in belief or practice, but were committed to the beliefs, ethics and ceremonies given to Moses by God and handed down through the centuries with great reverence. These leaders knew it was because of forsaking the Law for other gods that Israel had experienced many judgments, and they were determined not to repeat the same mistake as they faced the paganism which surrounded them. During the First Century, which was dominated by Hellenism and the pagan beliefs and practices of the Roman Empire, the Pharisees were committed to protecting their God-given traditions. Why, then, was Jesus so angry with them, and how could they miss God when He came and lived with them? More importantly, can we stumble into their ditch and miss our God who promised to be with us unto the end? As we open this can of worms, let's address the following questions:

What is revealed about Pharisees in Jesus' numerous challenges to their system?
How could Paul be right in charging that the Jews had a righteousness of their own making when they based their beliefs, ethics and ceremonies on the Old Testament Law?
Did the Pharisees miss the boat only on the issue of how a person was to be saved, or did their system also miss the target and tools for daily living?
And, as we look at the flaws in the Pharisee system, let's ask the question of whether a Christian could make the same mistakes?

Whitewashed Sepulchers-- Matt 23:27-28
(Or, the Substitution of belief, ethics and ceremony for the changing Heart)

Jesus criticized the Pharisees for emphasizing appearance over heart condition, which they maintained by the beliefs, ethics and ceremonies they derived from the Old Testament. It is at this point that we normally try to show how the Pharisees' doctrine, practices and ceremonies were wrong, but that was not Jesus' response. Rather, He confronted their denial of the condition of their hearts. He taught that the Law was good, that it would be fulfilled, and that He was that fulfillment, but He refused to allow His first century audience to use the Law to hide from the condition of their hearts. For Jesus, the condition of the heart was of supreme importance, and He would not settle simply for outwardly impressive practices. Jesus knew that externals could be used by the fallen self to hide the reality of the heart.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus directed His listeners to their hearts. Adultery can happen in the heart even if it does not happen physically. Murder begins in the heart, and God holds the individual responsible for the intentions of their hearts. This concept did not originate in the New Testament; throughout the Old Testament God revealed this truth. In Deuteronomy, God called the people of Israel to love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul and body. David, in his confession and repentance, knew that God wanted more than affirmations and ceremonies: God wanted truth in the heart and would never reject the broken and contrite heart. In Isaiah, the prophet confronted the nation of Israel for offering religious activities to God when He wanted righteousness that flowed from the righteous heart. This brings us to the question of how the Pharisees found themselves defending their God-given heritage, and yet missing the God who gave it when He came to earth.

Two Strategic Mistakes Made by Pharisees

First, the Pharisees aimed for the wrong target. The Pharisee went for beliefs, ethics and ceremonies, and trusted that the heart was affected in the process. Just as the Old Testament prophets had confronted the people and leaders of their times, Jesus confronted the Pharisees for missing the condition of the hearts. In fact, they avoided the condition of their hearts completely by focusing on their outward appearance. Jesus refused to validate the Pharisees simply on their claim to be righteous because they had not committed the acts of adultery and murder; He judged them guilty if their hearts lusted, hated or branded someone as useless (Matt. 5:21-48).

Secondly, the Pharisees used the wrong tools for change. They trusted in their own abilities to understand the Law and then to obey its demands. Jesus told them, while He was on the earth and through the writers of the New Testament, that they needed new hearts, and that the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit was not only the creator of this new heart, but its source of empowerment. In warning Timothy of what would characterize the end times, Paul identifies one of the traits that will be found in the latter days, that of having a form of godliness while denying the power of God.

Unfaithful Stewards-- Matthew 21:33-46
(The Pharisees missed the purposes and the goals of the Kingdom of God; they missed the heart of God.)

The Pharisees treated the vineyard they were responsible for as an opportunity for the advancement of their personal interests. This gave great power to their pride. Pride seeks power, and continues to grow in strength and arrogance as it gains more power. Their protection of their position lies in sharp contrast to John the Baptist. John had the heart of God, and therefore when the anointed of God came and John's ministry was over, John accepted that he was now to decrease so that Jesus could increase. The Pharisees could not have been more different in their response to Jesus. Even when confronted by healings and deliverances, they refused to come to Him, but rather acted to protect their place of power, influence and authority. They were described centuries earlier by the prophet Ezekiel. This is probably the most common and persistent trap threatening the Christian. We must constantly be alert to our hearts' fallen desire to take even the good gifts of God and use them for our purposes. The children of Israel were given the riches of Egypt to build the Tabernacle for God and not tents for themselves!

Did the Pharisee only miss the way to Salvation?
(Paul's Battle with Christian Pharisees)

When we normally discuss the mistakes of the Pharisees of the New Testament, it is to identify how they missed God's plan for Salvation. They taught that the individual was to keep the Old Testament Law, and in so doing would please God and find personal salvation. However, Jesus confronted them with their need to be born again, and not just reformed. This theme was picked up by Paul when he identifies the Jew's zeal for God as not being according to truth because they substituted a righteousness of their own making for that of God's which comes only through Jesus.

It is easy to miss the fact that the New Testament also challenges and rejects the Pharisee's understanding of how to daily live pleasing God. Paul commits a major portion of Romans (Chapters 6-8) and the Book of Galatians to address this very issue. Paul reveals that the same principle of faith and Holy Spirit empowerment, which saves us, is the principle by which we are to live our daily lives: In addition and even more critical is the fact that the Christian is commanded to live at the deepest levels of his being, allowing God to transform his mind through the Holy Spirit, and to be conformed to the image of the Son.

Can Believers be Pharisees?

The Christian can adopt a Pharisee approach to life even though he has accepted God's gracious gift of Salvation through the atonement of Jesus. We can, as Pharisees, target beliefs, ethics and ceremonies while missing the condition of our hearts. We also can fall into the trap of self-effort after being saved by God's power. The message of the New Testament is singular in focus: God has saved us by His kind intentions and through the Blood and Jesus which released the power of the Holy Spirit. The born again children of God, because they are now alive and empowered, can target with confidence holiness of life. Praise His Name!

The Pharisee Issue and Christian Parenting

In the light of current concerns about the nature of Christian parenting, I want us to think about how this applies to children in the Christian home. I think that it has always been easy to see the New Testament process of Salvation as it applies to adult nonbelievers. They have come out of a life of sin, and they are clearly dead in their sin. Only the Holy Spirit can breathe life into them again. But, what about children? Can we expect them to live by Christian moral standards before personally responding to Christ and being born again by the Holy Spirit? If they can be trained to believe in Christian truth, practice Christian ethics, and perform Christian ceremonies, then why do they need to have any real born-again experience? This has been a problem throughout the history of the Church.

One example of this is seen in the early history of our country. It was a common belief that if you had been raised in the church and gone through confirmation, then you were considered a member. Within a generation, the Church of New England found itself unregenerate, and in need of spiritual revival. This and many other examples from church history underscore the danger of not keeping the need for personal regeneration in the forefront of our parenting goals. God's goal for our children is that they would come to personally acknowledge their need for Him and accept His free gift though Jesus; He wants more than ethically good children. Any program for parenting which does not clearly present the truths of spiritual death and rebirth, and the Spirit-directed and empowered life, is not Christian and is contrary to the faith.

We must know the proper place of belief, ethics and ceremony in the Christian's life, and then how to relate that to our children both before they are believers and after they accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. This begins with understanding God's purpose for giving the Law. We are told by Paul that the Law is to bring us to a knowledge of our sinfulness, and thus our need for the atonement of Jesus. The Law reflects the heart and character of God; man was never expected to keep its moral imperatives apart from the regenerative and empowering work of God. In the New Testament, we are told that the agent of this work is the Holy Spirit.

When we teach that we are capable of obeying the moral imperatives of the Scriptures through personal ability and will power, we set the stage for a Pharisee lifestyle in our children. That is, they will expend all their energies on producing moral behavior that will make them look like what we want, while missing the condition of their hearts, which may remain unchanged. They may hide their hearts from you so as to stay pleasing to you, or even worse, they may become oblivious to their hearts because we have not taught them to discern their heart condition.

Because the essence of being a Christian is turning to the living God from dead idols and powerless works, we need to do all we can to model through the Holy Spirit the character and works of God to our children. For example, God motivates through love rather than fear. Paul tells us that because Jesus had loved him and given His life to pay for his sins, Paul gave his whole life to please, follow and work for Him. Parenting which seeks to motivate by love will make a distinction between punishment and discipline. Punishment requires an individual to pay for their sins, while discipline takes failure and turns it into a teachable moment. When we discipline our children, we show them the principle of cause and effect. We walk alongside of them, teaching them the importance of confession and repentance, as well as how to draw on the power of the Holy Spirit to replace sinful failure with regenerated obedience. Romans 8:1 tells us that through Jesus Christ there is no punishment for sin. Hebrews 12 comforts us with the fact that God disciplines His children because He loves us. Are we teaching our children that when we forgive them for their sins, it is not because they have paid for them, but because Jesus has? As they grow, we explain that our forgiveness of their sins is possible because Jesus paid for them. They must come to an understanding that love of the offending person is not enough to forgive their sins; it required that the sin be paid for, and only the death of Jesus could pay for their sins. In teaching our children the basics of the Christian life in the context of their lives, we prepare them to understand when the Holy Spirit invites them to accept and follow Jesus.

The Christian paradigm, with its central truth about the inherent helplessness of man from birth to the grave, demands the Christian parent to humbly admit that as important as teaching and modeling are, alone they are not enough to ensure that his child will become a Christian. This truth should drive every believing parent to their knees interceding for their children's salvation and daily spiritual needs.

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