The American Church: Resisting The Nature Of The Pharisee
The Pharisees represent where our heart will always tend to go when we live a performance based lifestyle. Our physical bodies were born into a world that demands law, order and justice! It’s the way of the old man. And if we’re not careful, we can easily get sucked right back in to the way of living that Jesus died to save us from. The church is certainly struggling as a whole to evade legalism. But because you and I are the church, we (not the institution) need to evaluate the state in which we find our heart on a regular basis. If we don’t, we will remove ourselves from the atmosphere of grace, and fall into the trap of religion and false spirituality.
The Pharisees : Humanity Vs. Deity
The Pharisees were convinced that Jesus could not be God because He was too much like one of them. They wanted an immortal superstar to come and rescue them, but a Savior Who could die was out of the question. Today, we claim that we believe that Jesus was fully God and fully man, but we never acknowledge the “man-ness” of Christ, which is a huge mistake in a culture where strong Christian men have been hard to find. We don’t need to fight for Jesus’ Deity, He already won! He is God. Period. That will never change. But I can’t be God. I am a man, and Jesus was a pretty stinking awesome role model who took other men, and showed them how to live out relationship with God and bring that relationship into reality on the earth. When I do not recognize the humanity of Christ AS MUCH as the deity of Christ, I put all the responsibility on Him, and take none for myself. This is a shame, considering He placed His Spirit inside of us so that we could continue the work that He began.
The Pharisees : Control
There are not a ton of patterns for the people of God controlling everything in the Bible. In fact, God Himself is not in control. He is in charge, but not in control. If He were in control, the whole earth would be bowing down to Him. He is in charge though, and the twitching of His pinky could end everything. Maybe the church needs to realize that because our God is in charge, we being in control is not really necessary. Daniel seemed to have a pretty good grasp on that idea when He served in Babylon under a pretty horrible king named Nebuchadnezzar who eventually put His trust in Daniel’s God. Why? Because Daniel took over the job and asserted his god-given authority? No, because he served honestly and humbly, and relied on the Father to give him strength and wisdom to lead from the position he was in. He didn’t steal the king’s power, he stole his heart. My concern is that we live in a country where Christian’s work harder to remove a man from office, than to come alongside that man and lead the way Daniel did - and see dramatic physical, spiritual and economical change take place. God told Abraham that through him all nations would be blessed. I don’t think our current president would feel very “blessed” by the Christians in this nation…
The Pharisees : Passion For Holiness = Victimizing Others
Remember how Jesus said that the Pharisees were more concerned about the fine print in the law vs. simply obeying God from the heart? What happens when another Christian disagrees with you on an aspect of faith? There are absolutes in the Word of God that MUST be adhered to, but I’ve never seen a fight amongst Christians that was based on an absolute truth. Almost every church argument/split/etc., is relational (I don’t like you anymore) or political (how the church is run) or non-essentials (i.e., you believe in foot washing and I don’t!) What happens in these situations? How much honor is shown? One side gathers their troops who agree with them, and the other side gathers theirs, and pretty soon we have a house divided against itself, which (according to Jesus) cannot stand. I’ve been a part of these circumstances, and I hate to think of how I’ve played my part! We continue to stand one inch away from a painting that is thousands of feet wide, and argue with the person standing 50 feet away. You’re always going to see a different picture! But when we back up and look at the entire masterpiece, suddenly those non-essential details become less important. And even when we don’t agree, we realize that we share the common bond of faith in Christ’s redemptive work on the cross.
When Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker had their moral failures in the 1980's, the Christian world was hit hard. Here's the big clincher: ABC news did a huge story, and Peter Jennings made a profound statement. He said, "When we do a story, we work hard to gather information, do interviews, make phone calls, and research in order to bring you the full information. On this story, we did not have to do a single thing, or make one phone call; YOU called US." The point? The church, the Bride of Christ, His representatives on earth cannot WAIT to point the finger of blame, shame and vilification.
Does that mean we cannot correct and admonish one another? No, it means that we do it in the spirit of brotherhood, and not because we believe we are more passionate for holiness than the person we disagree with, or even than the person who messed up. I've been guilty of this, have you?
The Pharisees : Missing The Present While Praying For The Future
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Do you notice the similarities between the Pharisees who were waiting for a Savior to come the first time, and the Christians who are waiting for Him to come the second time? Both groups were missing out on the opportunities right in front of them. Jesus prayed 2,000 years ago “Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” We are still praying for heaven to come to earth, when it already has in the form of Jesus Christ. And while He went back up, He sent His Spirit back down. Do we long for the return of Christ? Yes! But Holy Spirit gives us the power to work while we wait. And the truth is, He may be coming back a lot farther from now than any of us would like to realize. Why? Because there is a huge world that is still waiting to hear about Him.
Here’s a scary thought - Jesus came while the Pharisees were praying for a Messiah. He was answering their prayers while they prayed, and they still missed it! Did you know that in other countries, Moslem’s, Hindu’s, Buddhists - many of these people of other religions are having dreams about Jesus coming to them, and presenting Himself as the Savior? In fact, one Christian man simply stands outside of mosques and waits for the Moslem’s to exit, asking only one question: “Have you seen the Man in white?” When someone says “yes” He is then able to share the Gospel.
Maybe we’d see the Kingdom come more quickly, and we’d see Jesus’ return more imminently, if we stopped praying for His coming to happen in our lifetime, and focused on those who are dying without the knowledge of Him in theirs.
