Am I A Pharisee? Part three. Hey, welcome to today's little lesson. Hopefully, once
again. This is part three of Am I A Pharisee? And we're looking at what Jesus said that
was very critical of the Pharisees, and looking at ourselves in light of what he said so that
we can see if maybe, even though we're not labeled Pharisees, maybe we're guilty in some
way of the things that Jesus condemned the Pharisees for.
And so on our last lesson, we were just reading in Matthew Chapter 23, a whole chapter where
Jesus denounced the Pharisees. And he told his followers and the crowd that gathered,
"Do what they tell you when they're reading from the Bible, but don't do what they do,
because they tell you to do things that they don't do themselves. Okay?"
And so there's the first thing that characterizes the Pharisee. He is, or she is, a hypocrite.
Telling other people to do what he or she is not practicing themselves, or a subtle
variation on that theme is leading people, trying to make people think you're more spiritual
than you actually are by your public persona.
All right. So let's move on, now, to Matthew chapter 23. In verse number four, Jesus said,
"They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling
to move them with so much as a finger." And so, boy, a lot said there. It's a continuation
of that same thing. They're telling other people to do things that they're not doing.
And Jesus says it's even worse than that, actually. They're tying up these heavy burdens.
That is, they're telling people not only to obey the word of God, but they've got their
extra baggage to lay on you, because they've got special insight or revelation.
And it always surprises me. I call them the Christian holiness police. As if there aren't
enough rules and regulations in the Bible already, they're inventing even more to lay
on people's shoulders. "Yeah, do what the Bible says, but also, let me lay this on you."
And they're always looking for those who aren't keeping their additional laws. And oh, my
goodness, that's rampant. And so, let's help ourselves here. If the Bible doesn't say it's
wrong, it's probably not wrong. Because the Bible is a pretty thick book, right? And God
covers a lot of stuff there. I don't know why Christians got to come up with stuff that's
not in the Bible.
And even if it is wrong, if it's not in the Bible, it must not be so bad as some people
are trying to lead us to believe. Because it wasn't as an important enough to God to
mention in those hundreds of pages, in the Old Testament law, the law of Moses, which
of course, we're not under the law of Moses, there's 600 and, I think, 13 laws, in the
law of Moses. Somebody counted them one time.
And if you read them and you read all of Jesus' commandments in the new covenant, there's
quite a few. And then all those things that God said, there's a lot of things that he
never mentioned that we hear people saying are wrong. And I don't get that. I honestly
get that. That's Pharisaic. You're adding even more burden to people than what's in
the word of God.
If it's not in the word of God telling you it's wrong, it's probably not wrong. And even
if it is wrong, it's obviously not so important to God, because he never thought to mention
it one time. Amen. Okay. Matthew 23 in verse number five. "But they do," now, here comes
the hard stuff, "They do all their deeds to be noticed by men." Yeah.
"For they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels on their garments." Now, a phylactery
is actually, it's kind of a neat ... This box that contained Bible verses. Tying it
around your head, and you even see Orthodox Jews doing that in their prayer times. And
so, obviously there's some symbolism there, because it's not going to help you at all
to put a box.
If I take the Bible right now and lay it on my head, that's not going to help me spiritually,
right? It doesn't impart God's word by osmosis. But tying a box on your head with the Scriptures
in it is symbolic, and a reminder to the person wearing the Scripture box, "I want my word
in your mind and ever before you." Okay.
And so, that's really what's important, so that you can obey and do God's word. But the
Pharisees are impressing people. "Well, I've got a phylactery. It's a full frontal forehead
phylactery, the triple F model, and man, we can fit a lot of Scripture in there. So when
you see me walking down the street with my phylactery on, oh, baby, do I ever appear
like I'm ultra, mega, uber spiritual to you?"
And it can be no different with Christians. You know what I mean? From the ridiculous
to the sublime, from the person who carries the monster Study Bible to church, just lugging
this enormous thing around to try to show people, "Look, yeah, I must be very studious,
because I got this monster Study Bible," to many other much more subtle things, the little
nuances where we're trying to show people how spiritual we are.
And Jesus said, "They lengthen the tassels in their garments." I wouldn't know where
to start with that one because I can imagine, I guess the tassels have some symbolic representation.
If you know what it is, put it in the comments so we can all see here. But lengthening the
tassels? Does that have really anything to do with true spirituality and godliness and
holiness?
Absolutely not. And so Pharisees focus on the things that are really not that significant.
And oh, my goodness, there is so much Pharisaism within the church world. And I certainly have
been guilty myself, and I'm probably still guilty to a degree, because we're blind, and
if you're blind, you're blind to what you're blind to.
Oh my goodness. People write questions to me, for example, sometimes, and I just think
to myself, these are big issues. They're legitimate questions, big issues in people's minds, and
within the wider church world. And whole sermons are given on some of these issues, and I just
think of myself, my first reaction is, "Oh, my goodness, half the world is waiting to
hear the name of Jesus for the first time."
Now, that might not be exactly accurate, but millions and millions of people have not had
a real encounter with the Gospel. And millions of people are living in abject poverty, and
the misery that encircles that, and we're talking about what amounts to prayer beads.
It just shows a Pharisaical mindset has crept in.
These little things that are so small, if even at all in the word of God, become the
monster, big important things. Okay. All right, so, we're out of time. But take a look at
yourself just like I'm taking a look at myself. Are the main things the main things, or have
the main things become the things that really shouldn't be the main things? See you next
time.