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Pharisaism is not Dead
Intro.
A. Only about 5,000 Pharisees in the time of Christ, but seems that the gospel could have hardly been written without them! WHO were they? WHY did Jesus condemn them? WHAT specific characteristics brought them into such conflict?
B. Pharisee - means separated one; but scholars are divided over whether it was a religio-political schism from Hellenists, or a religious emphasis on purity. Probably both were involved.
C. The roots of the movement began as early as the Babylonian captivity; grew in second century B.C. in a group called Hasidim (pious ones).
1. They were devoted to preserving the old paths - against cultural changes brought about through interaction with others.
2. Some Jews were living little differently from their Gentile neighbors.
Body:
A. The INTENT of the Pharisee:
1. Their ideal was Ezra (7:10 “prepared his heart to seek the law of God, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments”).
a. Their attempt was to bring every area of life into subjection to God’s law.
b. They were not trying to develop human doctrines to be enforced upon others - but to interpret and apply the real meaning of the law to situations.
c. In spite of their intention - the name Pharisee became a synonym for hypocrite and Pharisaic to formalism and self-righteousness.
d. They were the “conservatives” (Acts 26:5 - “the strictest sect of our religion”)
2. Were many of them hypocrites? (Mt. 23)
a. Jacob Neusner: “The Pharisee was assuredly not a conscious hypocrite. In the Pharisees there is not to be found any conscious contradiction between doctrine and life. The Pharisees consciously condemn hypocrisy as the basest sin.”
b. They believed their interpretations and applications were right - or the safe course.
c. Could WE be guilty of the same attitude?
B. Their great mistake - traditionalism (binding their fences):
1. They had a good idea that went bad - their intent was to build a hedge around the commandments of God so men would not violate God’s will - but made their interpretations THE LAW.
2. Phil Roberts: “Their hedge was no longer just a hedge. It was law, and they would condemn any who broke it. They even began to claim that their oral traditions had been delivered at Mt. Sinai right along with the written law. The lesson for us is obvious” (Plano Provoker, 7-7-77).
3. Dan King: “When a religious idea was discovered in the Bible and presented by a true teacher, it was like a revelation from God. After all, it came from the Word of God, deduced from it by one of the masters. All were thus obligated to learn it and guard it” (Westminister Theological Journal, 1983).
4. These interpretations were handed down orally until about 200 A.D. - then written in the Mishnah. In fourth century, Jewish Talmud written to further explain traditions; then sixth century The Babylonian Talmud, a longer commentary.
5. Application:
a. They used their interpretations like some use “the safe course” - meaning that it may not be what God requires, but if you do it you will be safe - and wrong if don’t!
b. The “safe course” - Biblically is that if you have doubts - follow way that you know is right - but Paul did not teach the Corinthians not to eat meats (which some believed to be sinful) - just to be safe.
C. Some traditions that became law:
1. No work (Ex. 20:8-10) - but to be safe, must know exactly when an act was work.
2. A tailor - Mishnah said “should not go out with his needle close to nightfall” (on Friday) -
it was safe – meaning it’s the rule!
3. A scribe - not go out with pen on him on Sabbath, or near it - those were tools of trade and someone may get the impression that you were going to use them - so be safe!
4. A schoolteacher - “may look in where children are reading but he himself must not read” - that may be work (preparing lesson).
5. Extinguishing fire - “If one extinguish the light for fear of non-Jews, or of robbers, or of melanchologia (depression), or to enable a sick person to sleep, he is absolved. But if his intention is to spare the lamp, or to save the oil, or to preserve the wick, he is guilty.”
If house was on fire - could not put it out, ask a Gentile to do so, nor forbid him!
6. Removing fingernails - with his teeth, and similarly, also the hair of his head, or likewise, too his moustache, and so, also his beard; and also if a woman dressed her hair, or painted her eyelids - some said all were wrong, others that if used hand only and no tool it was right.
7. Closing the door - “If a deer came into a house, and someone shut it in, the is culpable; but if two shut it in, they are exempt (because neither completed the whole act by himself).”
The next rule said if anyone not big enough to block the door and another came and completed it, he was guilty - because the animal was captured by his act.
D. Interpretations and applications are not wrong (law is useless unless applied):
1. Jesus interpreted and applied Scripture (Mt. 4: quoted Dt. 8:3; 6:13,16). Some handle the Bible like the devil did - example Acts 16:31 and 22:16.
a. Rejecting human applications as equal with God’s law does not justify rejecting law!
b. Jesus always respected God’s law - and so should we.
c. It is not true - just because it is new! Some think they are not honest unless they chang their minds regularly.
2. What is modest? (1 Tim. 2:9; 1 Pet. 3:3).
a. That must be interpreted and applied - what is too short, too low, too tight?
b. Some are saying that if cannot say exactly where to draw the line (build the fence) - cannot say anything violates it! (If can’t say exactly when an act is work....!)
c. Gen. 3:7,21 - the garden tunics - Gesenius: “a tunic...generally with sleeves, coming down to the knees, rarely to the ankles.” Josephus: “tunic descending to the ankles, enveloping the body and with long sleeves.” The I.S.B.E. says: “reaching below the knee always, and in case it was designed for dress occasions, reaching almost to the ground” (p. 877 on dress).
d. The word is a general word - like “dress” - My grandmother ordered a dress from Sears; how long was it? Nobody knows.
e. The priest’s underwear (Ex. 28:42,43).
1) The passage says “to the thigh” - a commentator said: “from the waist to the knee”
So that is God’s rule and if you violate it, you are naked.
2) The passage does not say - to the bottom, middle or top of thighs.
f. Same word in: Gen. 32:25 - “Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip (thigh); and the socket of Jacob’s hip (thigh) was out of joint as He wrestled with him.” v. 32 - “Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip (thigh) socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip (thigh) in the muscle that shrank.” Ex. 1:5 “All who were descendants (came out of the loins, KJV) of Jacob were seventy persons...”
g. Problems with binding specific garments:
1) We do not know how long the garment was that God made for Adam and Eve.
2) If we could determine the exact length of the priests’ underwear - should we bring that over to the N.T.?
3) Some clothing is too high, too low and too tight - but God didn’t give specifics. “If God told us to dress in modest apparel” - would He not tell us exactly what that is? If He told us to give “as prospered” - would He tell us exactly what percentage? (“If you can’t say exactly, you can’t say anything is too little!”)
4) The passage is talking too much gold, hair braiding and apparel. If we must know exactly how much is skimpy - exactly how much is too much?
4. Order of worship (1 Cor. 14:40)
a. Nothing wrong with closing prayer; nor closing song (man began praying - not dismised until you pray). (Mt. 26:30 - the disciples sang a hymn and went out!)
b. Lord’s supper before the sermon, or after? (“We always had it before the sermon.”
5. Announcements (Heb. 10:24)
a. Can announce births, deaths, sickness, broken legs, etc. - but “after the closing prayer, we have one more announcement.” See importance of the closing prayer!
b. Announcements are not worship - most are for individual activities - can be overdone, but they are simply to encourage brethren to fulfill their responsibilities.
6. Communion cloth (1 Cor. 11:26)
a. Covered the bread and fruit of the vine - to keep flies away.
b. Some thought part of the Lord’s supper, or “table.” (Some criticize “sitting on the Lord’s table” - just where you put the Lord’s supper.)
7. Movies, TV (1 Jn. 2:15)
a. Preachers opposed - because were worldly - I would not go to a movie (in theater), but
watch them on side of a building!
b. TV’s “you know they have that devil’s box, see his tail sticking through the roof!”
Concl.
A. Pharisaism began with a commitment to be separate from pagan world, degenerated into set of legalistic regulations mindlessly followed - without understanding principles.
B. “While most Christians abhor the name Pharisee, in essence they want very much what the fraternity had to offer. They want someone to build fences so they will know exactly where to stop” (William Coleman, “The Pharisees’ Guide to Total Holiness”).
C. Difference between putting on religion and putting it in (the heart).
Intro.
A. Only about 5,000 Pharisees in the time of Christ, but seems that the gospel could have hardly been written without them! WHO were they? WHY did Jesus condemn them? WHAT specific characteristics brought them into such conflict?
B. Pharisee - means separated one; but scholars are divided over whether it was a religio-political schism from Hellenists, or a religious emphasis on purity. Probably both were involved.
C. The roots of the movement began as early as the Babylonian captivity; grew in second century B.C. in a group called Hasidim (pious ones).
1. They were devoted to preserving the old paths - against cultural changes brought about through interaction with others.
2. Some Jews were living little differently from their Gentile neighbors.
Body:
A. The INTENT of the Pharisee:
1. Their ideal was Ezra (7:10 “prepared his heart to seek the law of God, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments”).
a. Their attempt was to bring every area of life into subjection to God’s law.
b. They were not trying to develop human doctrines to be enforced upon others - but to interpret and apply the real meaning of the law to situations.
c. In spite of their intention - the name Pharisee became a synonym for hypocrite and Pharisaic to formalism and self-righteousness.
d. They were the “conservatives” (Acts 26:5 - “the strictest sect of our religion”)
2. Were many of them hypocrites? (Mt. 23)
a. Jacob Neusner: “The Pharisee was assuredly not a conscious hypocrite. In the Pharisees there is not to be found any conscious contradiction between doctrine and life. The Pharisees consciously condemn hypocrisy as the basest sin.”
b. They believed their interpretations and applications were right - or the safe course.
c. Could WE be guilty of the same attitude?
B. Their great mistake - traditionalism (binding their fences):
1. They had a good idea that went bad - their intent was to build a hedge around the commandments of God so men would not violate God’s will - but made their interpretations THE LAW.
2. Phil Roberts: “Their hedge was no longer just a hedge. It was law, and they would condemn any who broke it. They even began to claim that their oral traditions had been delivered at Mt. Sinai right along with the written law. The lesson for us is obvious” (Plano Provoker, 7-7-77).
3. Dan King: “When a religious idea was discovered in the Bible and presented by a true teacher, it was like a revelation from God. After all, it came from the Word of God, deduced from it by one of the masters. All were thus obligated to learn it and guard it” (Westminister Theological Journal, 1983).
4. These interpretations were handed down orally until about 200 A.D. - then written in the Mishnah. In fourth century, Jewish Talmud written to further explain traditions; then sixth century The Babylonian Talmud, a longer commentary.
5. Application:
a. They used their interpretations like some use “the safe course” - meaning that it may not be what God requires, but if you do it you will be safe - and wrong if don’t!
b. The “safe course” - Biblically is that if you have doubts - follow way that you know is right - but Paul did not teach the Corinthians not to eat meats (which some believed to be sinful) - just to be safe.
C. Some traditions that became law:
1. No work (Ex. 20:8-10) - but to be safe, must know exactly when an act was work.
2. A tailor - Mishnah said “should not go out with his needle close to nightfall” (on Friday) -
it was safe – meaning it’s the rule!
3. A scribe - not go out with pen on him on Sabbath, or near it - those were tools of trade and someone may get the impression that you were going to use them - so be safe!
4. A schoolteacher - “may look in where children are reading but he himself must not read” - that may be work (preparing lesson).
5. Extinguishing fire - “If one extinguish the light for fear of non-Jews, or of robbers, or of melanchologia (depression), or to enable a sick person to sleep, he is absolved. But if his intention is to spare the lamp, or to save the oil, or to preserve the wick, he is guilty.”
If house was on fire - could not put it out, ask a Gentile to do so, nor forbid him!
6. Removing fingernails - with his teeth, and similarly, also the hair of his head, or likewise, too his moustache, and so, also his beard; and also if a woman dressed her hair, or painted her eyelids - some said all were wrong, others that if used hand only and no tool it was right.
7. Closing the door - “If a deer came into a house, and someone shut it in, the is culpable; but if two shut it in, they are exempt (because neither completed the whole act by himself).”
The next rule said if anyone not big enough to block the door and another came and completed it, he was guilty - because the animal was captured by his act.
D. Interpretations and applications are not wrong (law is useless unless applied):
1. Jesus interpreted and applied Scripture (Mt. 4: quoted Dt. 8:3; 6:13,16). Some handle the Bible like the devil did - example Acts 16:31 and 22:16.
a. Rejecting human applications as equal with God’s law does not justify rejecting law!
b. Jesus always respected God’s law - and so should we.
c. It is not true - just because it is new! Some think they are not honest unless they chang their minds regularly.
2. What is modest? (1 Tim. 2:9; 1 Pet. 3:3).
a. That must be interpreted and applied - what is too short, too low, too tight?
b. Some are saying that if cannot say exactly where to draw the line (build the fence) - cannot say anything violates it! (If can’t say exactly when an act is work....!)
c. Gen. 3:7,21 - the garden tunics - Gesenius: “a tunic...generally with sleeves, coming down to the knees, rarely to the ankles.” Josephus: “tunic descending to the ankles, enveloping the body and with long sleeves.” The I.S.B.E. says: “reaching below the knee always, and in case it was designed for dress occasions, reaching almost to the ground” (p. 877 on dress).
d. The word is a general word - like “dress” - My grandmother ordered a dress from Sears; how long was it? Nobody knows.
e. The priest’s underwear (Ex. 28:42,43).
1) The passage says “to the thigh” - a commentator said: “from the waist to the knee”
So that is God’s rule and if you violate it, you are naked.
2) The passage does not say - to the bottom, middle or top of thighs.
f. Same word in: Gen. 32:25 - “Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip (thigh); and the socket of Jacob’s hip (thigh) was out of joint as He wrestled with him.” v. 32 - “Therefore to this day the children of Israel do not eat the muscle that shrank, which is on the hip (thigh) socket, because He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip (thigh) in the muscle that shrank.” Ex. 1:5 “All who were descendants (came out of the loins, KJV) of Jacob were seventy persons...”
g. Problems with binding specific garments:
1) We do not know how long the garment was that God made for Adam and Eve.
2) If we could determine the exact length of the priests’ underwear - should we bring that over to the N.T.?
3) Some clothing is too high, too low and too tight - but God didn’t give specifics. “If God told us to dress in modest apparel” - would He not tell us exactly what that is? If He told us to give “as prospered” - would He tell us exactly what percentage? (“If you can’t say exactly, you can’t say anything is too little!”)
4) The passage is talking too much gold, hair braiding and apparel. If we must know exactly how much is skimpy - exactly how much is too much?
4. Order of worship (1 Cor. 14:40)
a. Nothing wrong with closing prayer; nor closing song (man began praying - not dismised until you pray). (Mt. 26:30 - the disciples sang a hymn and went out!)
b. Lord’s supper before the sermon, or after? (“We always had it before the sermon.”
5. Announcements (Heb. 10:24)
a. Can announce births, deaths, sickness, broken legs, etc. - but “after the closing prayer, we have one more announcement.” See importance of the closing prayer!
b. Announcements are not worship - most are for individual activities - can be overdone, but they are simply to encourage brethren to fulfill their responsibilities.
6. Communion cloth (1 Cor. 11:26)
a. Covered the bread and fruit of the vine - to keep flies away.
b. Some thought part of the Lord’s supper, or “table.” (Some criticize “sitting on the Lord’s table” - just where you put the Lord’s supper.)
7. Movies, TV (1 Jn. 2:15)
a. Preachers opposed - because were worldly - I would not go to a movie (in theater), but
watch them on side of a building!
b. TV’s “you know they have that devil’s box, see his tail sticking through the roof!”
Concl.
A. Pharisaism began with a commitment to be separate from pagan world, degenerated into set of legalistic regulations mindlessly followed - without understanding principles.
B. “While most Christians abhor the name Pharisee, in essence they want very much what the fraternity had to offer. They want someone to build fences so they will know exactly where to stop” (William Coleman, “The Pharisees’ Guide to Total Holiness”).
C. Difference between putting on religion and putting it in (the heart).