Pharisees and reformers

If you're a reformer for longer than 5 minutes, you've heard this term slung at you.  Pharisee!!!  Our message in John this week was on John 1:24-28.  In verse 24 John tells us that the Levites and Priests harassing John the Baptist were "sent by the Pharisees".  Considering we're a 'Reformed Baptist' church and we've been called "Pharisees", it seemed appropriate to dig in and find out more about these Pharisees.

Surprisingly, there isn't a ton of information that is considered reliable about this group of Jewish leaders.  We have the bible, and we have some outside sources from the historian Josephus and a couple of other minor sources, but overall we don't know a whole lot about them.  They may have started from the Hasideans that were opposed to the Hellenization policies of Antiochus Epiphanes.  The Hasideans were the "pious" ones, that fought to maintain the Jewish religion and laws in the Holy Land.  By the time of Christ, there were three major groups of Jewish sects (aside from your everyday Jew that didn't really consider themselves in any of these groups.)  The Pharisees (or "separate ones") were experts in Jewish law and were considered the religious elite.  The Sadducess made up the majority of the Jewish religious governing body called the Sanhedrin (Pharisees were the minority).  The Sadducees were less worried about the Hellenization policies of the time, and worried predominantly about the temple and issues regarding it.  The Sadducees and Pharisees were not friendly to one another.  The Essenes were the third group and predominantly separated themselves from society (similar to the modern day Hutterites although more ascetic in nature).

The Pharisess were a group that started out with apparently good intentions.  Under that changing society and the liberties of the governing body (Romans), the Pharisees were instrumental in keeping the Jewish laws and life as biblical as possible.  They originally cared deeply for the Word of God and the adherence to the Word.  Sounds great doesn't it?  So what happened?  If we read Matt. 23:23-24 it appears the number one problem with the Pharisees wasn't so much their zeal for God's Laws, but the lack of the Spirit of the Law.  They were hypocrites of the worst kind.  They knew themselves to be the religious elite, they looked down their noses at those that weren't Pharisees, were divisive in nature, and showed no love to the poor and needy.  They could quote entire books of the bible, they knew (academically) the scriptures inside and out.  The problem was that they hated anyone who was not them, and they thought very highly of themselves.

Does this sound like reformers to you?  Maybe don't answer that...

As said, our church has been called Pharisees and legalists by those that aren't reformed.  I would argue we haven't been around long enough to earn that kind of reputation yet.  Do we want to know our scriptures?  Yes.  Do we love the Word of God?  Yes.  Do we tend to stand for the Word of God and the application of the Word?  Again, guilty.  But aren't we called to do this?  Jesus says in Matt. 23:3-4 essentially "do as they say, not as they do."  We are to be zealous for the gospel, zealous for the Word, defenders of the faith, so we make no apologies for that.  Where we want to make sure we don't go is to forget the more important issues of loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Far too many of our churches today preach more about the works of man and the love we need for one another, but neglect the first commandment which says "Love God with ALL of your heart, soul, MIND and strength."  The Pharisees were deceivers and hypocrites, for they "loved" the word (but loved themselves more), but didn't love those made in His image.  I cannot speak for other reformers, but this reformed church desperately wants to balance both the love of God and the love of people.  You cannot do one and ignore the other, for to do so is to put you and your church in peril.  Just look at the warning to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2 if you don't believe me.

Tuesday night is community group.  If you would like information, please email us at hillcountryreformed@gmail.com.