Today's Pharisees and Sadducees

Our pastor spoke this past Sunday on the doctrines of the “Pharisees and Sadducees” of our own day and time, as he took apart this section of scripture:

Mat 16:5 When the disciples reached the other side, they had forgotten to bring any bread.
Mat 16:6 Jesus said to them, "Watch and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
Mat 16:7 And they began discussing it among themselves, saying, "We brought no bread."
Mat 16:8 But Jesus, aware of this, said, "O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread?
Mat 16:9 Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?
Mat 16:10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered?
Mat 16:11 How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
Mat 16:12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

He provided this list of characteristics of our current day Pharisees and Sadducees, which I thought was well worth sharing:

1. They regularly sit among us and criticize the work of God, causing dissension and bitterness among God’s people
· Matt 23:33 "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?"


2. They are driven and motivated by pride

· Jesus told the parable of the Pharisee in Luke 18 who prayed in prominent places

3. They clearly see the sins of everyone else

· Luke 18: 11 "The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector."

4. They worship the author of tradition
· Matt. 15:2 "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?"

5. They burden God’s people with legalistic requirements
· Matt. 12:2 "You disciples do what is not lawful.”


6. They are concerned with their standing and position in the culture
· John 11:47 "Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, "What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. 48 "If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation."


7. They are well read theologians, but ignorant in the application of Truth
· Matt. 12:3, 5; 19:4 to the Pharisees


8. They believe they belong to God because their parents did
· Matt 3:9 and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham for our father'; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham.


9. They lead people away from the church and communion with saints
· Matt 23:13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in."


10. They love to talk theology but neglect to show mercy
· Matt 23:23 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. 24 "You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!"


11. They appear righteous but their hearts are hard
· Matt 23:25 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full 1of robbery and self-indulgence. 26 "You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. 27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. 28 "So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.