Kingdom of the Pharisees or the Kingdom of God 1981

One verse from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, verse 20, Jesus speaking, For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus spoke those words, first of all, because the scribes and Pharisees appeared to themselves and to the world to be very righteous men.

He also spoke those words because there would be a temptation in the hearts of Jesus' followers down through the centuries to develop a righteousness just like that of the scribes and Pharisees. The fact that the Pharisees and their ways appear so prominently featured in the Gospels is not an accident, it's a warning. It's a warning to the Pharisee who lives in each of our hearts.

Example, 14th chapter of Luke begins with Jesus having dinner at the home of a Pharisee. It's the Sabbath day. Somewhere in the room there is a man who has dropsy.

Is it lawful to heal on a Sabbath day, Jesus asks. Stony silence. According to the legalism of the Pharisees, of course it's not lawful to heal on the Sabbath day.

But what if you have an ox or an ass that falls into a pit? Won't you pull it out on the Sabbath day? He heals the man. And before they've recovered from this insult, Jesus adds another one. Now he told a parable to those who were invited when he marked how they chose the places of honor.

Saying to them, when you are invited by anyone to a marriage feast, do not sit down in a place of honor lest a more eminent man than you be invited by him. And he who invited you both will come and say to him, give this man a place. And then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place.

But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place. So that when your host comes, he may say to you, friend, go up higher. Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you.

For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted. Well, that didn't go down too well.

Jesus isn't exactly following Dale Carnegie here. He looks around the room, and he notices that they're very homogeneous. We read in the newspaper just last week, one of the ways to achieve numerical success in a church is to be homogeneous.

Well, these guys had that. That's why they were numerically successful. Of course, they had free food, too.

But anyway, he looks out and sees everybody looks alike. They're all Pharisees. And so now he turns to the host who invited him for this meal.

And he says to this man, when you give a dinner for a banker, don't invite your friends, your brothers, or your kinsmen, or your rich neighbors, lest they invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed because they cannot repay you.

You will be repaid at the resurrection of the just. By this time, you can imagine these guys are really steaming. But Jesus is not through with them.

He's got one more point to make. Now, when he gets through with this final parable, it's as if Jesus turns from the Pharisees and leaves them to themselves. And from this point on, in the book of Luke and in his ministry, he spends very little time.

There's very little contact between Jesus and the Pharisees, none of it pleasant. And he goes on to the tax collectors and sinners. So he says, after one of them who's sitting there says, blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.

Come on, let's talk about spiritual things. But he said to him, a man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet, he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, come, for all is now ready.

But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, I bought a field and I must go out and see it. I pray you have me excused.

Another said, I bought five yoke of oxen and I go to examine them. I pray you have me excused. Another said, I've married a wife.

Therefore, I cannot come. So the servant came and reported this to his master. Then the householder, in anger, said to his servant, go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in the poor and the maimed and blind and lame.

And the servant said, sir, what you commanded has been done and still there is room. And the master said to the servant, go out into the highways and hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste of my banquet.

His pharisees weren't dumb. They knew that this parable was being directed at them. They were the invited guests.

And they were coming up with their excuses all the time when it came to the real issues of the kingdom. And so now they were going to be bypassed for the off-scouring of Israel. From this point on, Jesus is going to be surrounded not by pharisees at the dinner table, but by publicans, tax collectors, and sinners.

Of course, the pharisees are going to be around yet. They're going to be challenging him and criticizing and picking at him, but they aren't going to have him for dinner anymore. So who are those pharisees? We often, as we read the Gospels, miss the impact because we tend to think of the pharisees as bad guys.

We have to see that these pharisees were deeply religious people. They were truly seeking the kingdom of God as far as they could tell, at least as far as they would be honest with themselves. And they had this question in their mind about whether or not perhaps Jesus, maybe he is the Messiah.

Nicodemus was a pharisee. The apostle Paul was a pharisee. Their view was very, very close to our own.

They believed in the resurrection of the dead. They were waiting for the Messiah to come and vindicate the name of Adonai, the God of Israel. What happened to these pharisees is what has been happening to many of us.

They began their search for the kingdom with a brilliant vision of that kingdom. And they responded with a radical commitment of their lives to the kingdom. They really wanted to serve God.

They wanted to be close to God. They wanted to please God. But now, already they're getting comfortable in their little religious routine.

And they're rather pleased with their spiritual achievements. And they're now satisfied that their righteousness is vastly superior to that of any other Israelite. Well, what happens now? They're so sure.

And now they begin to experience a distance from God. They began on the right track. They really wanted to do the Lord's will.

But see, now they're being sidetracked. The thing that sidetracks them is threefold. Jesus calls it the leaven of the pharisees.

See, they start out right. They're really seeking. But three things happen to these pharisees which gets them off that track.

First, they begin to trust in themselves that they are righteous and despise others. Now, they look around and they see these other Israelites. And they see their own righteousness as vastly superior.

Second thing that happens to the pharisees is that they begin to spend more and more and more time with each other and less and less time with anybody else. Their world begins to close in of their own volition. They form a really tight-knit group here.

Now they're living in a pharisee world, a little righteous world of their own. And they're losing contact with the outside world. And their religious snobbery has increased.

Third thing that happens to these pharisees is that they begin to fall in love with money. On the surface, it appears all God. God's kingdom, God's righteousness, God's law.

But in their hearts, it's all money. Until Jesus comes along and begins to nail them with parable after parable. What we now have to see is that every single time Jesus nails those pharisees, He is nailing us.

For we, too, begin our journey with a brilliant vision of God's kingdom. We want to serve God. We want to be there when the roll is called up yonder.

But there is working in our hearts, a leaven, which is putting us in exactly the same jeopardy as the pharisees of old. In the meantime, from Luke 12, in the meantime, when so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they trod upon one another, He began to say to His disciples first, Beware of the leaven of the pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

Whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops. Beware of the leaven of the pharisees, which is hypocrisy. He said that to His disciples then, and He says that to His disciples now.

Hypocrisy, covering things up, living behind a pretense. When we allow our hearts to be corrupted by this leaven, and we start covering things up, we cover things up not only to deceive other people, but also to deceive ourselves. And pretty soon, we really believe that we are what we are pretending to be.

The leaven of the pharisees causes us to trust in ourselves that we are righteous, and despise others. Two men went up into the temple to pray. One a pharisee, the other a tax collector.

The pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I get.

But the tax collector, standing afar off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

God, I thank Thee that I am not a phony. God, I thank Thee that I'm not a liberal. God, I thank Thee that I'm not in the moral majority.

Beware of the leaven of the pharisees. The only cure for this leaven is to admit the truth of what we are as far as we can tell, and let God show us as much as we can stand. He's very merciful.

If He showed us the whole thing, we'd lose our minds. But He shows us enough, and so we admit that, and we confess that. And then we turn, repent, and cry out to Him for mercy and for help, and He gives it to us.

The leaven of the pharisees will also cause us to spend more and more and more time with each other, and less and less time with people outside the faith, people who are different, people who are often very obnoxious. And so soon we're narrowed into our own little righteous world. Well, aren't we supposed to get fellowship? We can't survive without fellowship, can we? Of course not.

We are to get fellowship, and we are not to neglect the assembling of ourselves together. True. But if all we ever do is assemble together, and we never go out, truly mingle with people beyond what we think of as the kingdom, then our gathering together is going to become very sick.

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the lame, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed because they cannot repay you. You'll be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Then the householder, in anger, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor, and the lame, the blind, and the lame.

The servant said, Sir, what you've commanded has been done. Still there is room. The master said to the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled, for I tell you that none of those men who are invited shall taste of my banquet.

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. The cure here, obviously, is to go out among people who are different from what we think we are. People around whom we really don't feel too comfortable.

People who have nothing to offer us, not even gratitude. Many times we'll land in a lot of people who will say thank you and fall on their face in front of us. That's worth more than money.

But what happens is when we start, you know, when we really help everybody out, we find out that nobody says thanks, we get kicked in the teeth, nobody's grateful, everybody's hard-hearted, we get really embittered and cynical. That's exactly where the Lord sends us out. Among people in what we call the world.

And it's a thing that really clears our heads and keeps our feet on the ground to be among people who don't appreciate us and don't really understand us and aren't going to clap every time we do something which we feel is really sacrificial. We need that. They need our gospel, but we need their reality.

We need that cold water, we need that slap in the face when we're going to get out there to wake us up and make us see how things really are. The leaven of the Pharisees will also cause us, we may not want to admit this, but it will, it will cause us to become lovers of money. And we can go along living on nothing but Rice Krispies for 10 years and then this can happen to us.

From Luke 16. He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. And he who is dishonest in very little is dishonest also in much.

If then you have not been found faithful in the unrighteous mammon, money, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful in that which is in others, who will give you that which is your own? No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this and they scoffed at it.

But Jesus said to them, You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts, for what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Think of just that statement. What is exalted among men, money, power, whatever, is an abomination in the sight of God.

It's a very subtle leaven. We may feel it's God, number one. We're really trying to serve God and seek his kingdom.

That's what we're looking for. But then when the call comes for action, come, for all things are now ready. I'm sorry, I just bought a field.

I have to check it out. I got these five yoke of oxen. I have to see how they work.

Now there's nothing wrong with buying a field and there's nothing wrong with owning 500 yoke of oxen. But if the field, the oxen, or anything else take priority over God's kingdom, then we are in fact, and we know it, serving mammoth. And the cure, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, is to admit that and start simplifying our lives again and dumping off the excess baggage.

And if we have to do it a thousand times a day, committing ourselves and all that we have back into his hands, and when he starts putting his finger on things and calling for action, to act. As long as we are in these bodies of flesh and blood, we're going to have to continue to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. We're going to have to keep leaving the kingdom of the Pharisees and going back into the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus left the kingdom of the Pharisees to follow Jesus. Paul left the kingdom of the Pharisees to follow Jesus. And you and I, every day, sometimes a thousand times a day, have to continuously leave the kingdom of the Pharisees to follow Jesus again.

God will help us. If we'll turn from ourselves and from our own righteousness and keep opening these hearts to him. Let's just wait upon him now.

We're just asking, Lord, that you would really help us to know at least one thing in our lives right now that's holding us back and blurring our vision and confusing our mind. And as you put your finger on it, specifically in our life, just give us the help we need to cut it loose and let it drift off. We're just praying today, Lord, that you would give us freedom, set us free from these things that have confused our minds and have encumbered our walk and cluttered our vision of you.

Lord God, we desire that you just enable us to be free and joyful and unafraid and undivided as we follow you. This day.