Luke Bible Study, Day 16 Today’s passage: Luke 7:36–50 Focus verse:“Your faith has saved you; go in peace.” (Luke 7:50) Our next story opens with an interesting line. It says a Pharisee, named Simon, invites Jesus over for dinner. Don’t rush past this. Pharisees are religious insiders. They follow the law of Moses with much […]
Today’s passage: Matthew 21:28–46, Mark 12:12, and Luke 20:9–19 Focus verse: When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. (Matthew 21:45) Immediately after Jesus counters the religious leaders who challenge his authority, he shares some parables. With a crowd already gathered, it provides him with a […]
Today’s passage: John 12:37–50 Focus verse: Because of the Pharisees they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue. (John 12:42) At about this time in the book of John, we read of the Jews’ response to Jesus and the miracles he performed before them. We could […]
God Doesn’t Want Us to Study Him; He Wants Us to Know Him When people first learn that I have a PhD and where I did my postgrad work, they assume I’m into theology. Imagine their disappointment to find out I don’t care about the concept or want to pursue a right theology, that I […]
We Must Exercise Care with the Labels We Use for Our Spiritual Leaders Rabbi is a title I expected to find scattered throughout the Old Testament. It seems like a very Old Testament word. It’s not. It’s a New Testament word. Rabbi only appears in the Gospels and then just three of them: Matthew, Mark, […]
Doctor Luke records a curious line when writing about the early church. He says “…some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees…” That means some Christians were also Pharisees, a Pharisee Christian. How strange. Isn’t that a contradiction? Pharisees and the Sadducees Judaism at the time was comprised of two main […]
Disunity Today Hurts the Cause of Jesus In our consideration of words that appear only in the New Testament, we come across Pharisees and Sadducees. Two related words are Zealot and Nazarene, along with Essene. Pharisees Appearing ninety-nine times in the New Testament, the Pharisees receive the most attention. They were a righteous group of […]
Both Groups Commit Theological Errors We Must Avoid In Jesus’s lifetime, there were two major sects in Judaism: Pharisees and Sadducees. Both sects appear in the Bible, with Pharisee mentioned ninety-nine times and Sadducee occurring fifteen, all in the New Testament and mostly in the Gospels. Though Jesus extended love and acceptance to all people, […]
These Characteristics of Pharisee Thinking Jesus loves everyone. He accepts those on the fringe, the people who society dismiss. Jesus embraces people who do wrong and who live immoral lives. Yet there was one group he criticized, and he did so often: the Pharisees. Don’t be a Pharisee. Aren’t we glad we’re not Pharisees? We […]
A guy who ponders deep theological thoughts recently shared two concepts with me: intentional Protestantism and accidental Protestantism. Both relate to the Reformation of the Christian church, some five hundred years ago. What about accidental Christianity or intentional Christianity? Back then, a group of people saw problems in the church and broke from it, forming […]