DON’T BE A PHARISEE!
Carey Madding
Today's Scripture: “But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David!’ they were indignant...” Matthew 21:15, ESV
Theme: We believers can be cynical and critical of any move of God, especially at church and especially as religious people.
JESUS PEOPLE
Recently, we watched the movie “Jesus Revolution,” which is basically the story of the hippies of the late 60s coming to faith in Jesus. At first, they are excluded from mainline Christian churches. They were smelly; they were trying to kick addictions; their dirty feet ruined the carpets! I’m old enough to remember the religious bias: “Don’t wear hippie beads.” “Don’t raise your hand in church in the ‘One Way’ symbol” (but we were allowed to do that at youth camp!). “Don’t sing the new ‘Jesus People’ worship music; hymns are what God really wants from us.” In so many ways, outward appearances and tradition mattered more than revival. And much of God’s church rejected and criticized it.
SEAT OF THE SCORNFUL
In religious circles, you often discuss new methods and try new ways to share Jesus. You may hear of things that are working across the country – or across town. It’s easy to belittle or criticize what others are doing. It’s easy to be skeptical that, say, rock music or dramas or free coffee could be a tool that could lead people to salvation. It’s easy to hear of an outpouring of the Spirit (say, at Asbury University) and begin to dissect it, looking for heresy, exaggeration, misuse of the gifts of the Spirit, or other issues. Though it is true we should test all teaching and hold each up to the Truth of the Bible, sometimes we are just cynics. The Bible is not silent on that count, either:
“Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers.” Psalm 1:1, ESV
The King James Version calls it the “seat of the scornful” and God tells us not to be sitting there! We are not the judge and jury of others’ spirituality. In fact, when the Pharisees judged Jesus’ actions in curing a boy of demon possession, attributing His ability to do so to Satan, Jesus rebuked them harshly! (See Matthew 12:22-32.) We must not judge, or we ourselves will be judged. Leave it to God to test others.
BE OPEN
In a recent staff meeting, we sang “Make Room” by Community Music. The stanza that pierced my heart was this: “Shake up the ground of all my tradition; Break down the walls of all my religion; Your way is better.” Tradition and religion can be beautiful and God-honoring. Yet if they cause us to miss something new that the Spirit is doing, they are idols that must be torn down. Jesus said, “No one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins” (Mark 2:22, ESV). I want to be open, excited, and ready to embrace the new thing that God is about to do, rather than focusing on and defending my old ways.
Make It Personal: If you have been a believer for a while now, or grew up in church, you have preferences. Decide today that you will hold all your cherished traditions, preferences, skepticism, and judgments up to God and to His Word. If the Scripture is unclear, withhold your judgment and leave that to God. Refrain from talking about, criticizing, or demeaning another move of the Spirit that you may not yet understand. In short, don’t be a Pharisee!
Pray: Lord, Thank You that You are still moving today in new and exciting ways. I am willing to be shaken. I am willing to try whatever method You are using today. I want to be in on the revival and part of the movement of God! In Your Name I pray. Amen.
Read: Acts 2:14-21; Mark 2:18-22; Matthew 11:18-19
Weekly Memory Verse: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6 (ESV)