Are You A Pharisee?
A Sermon delivered by Carl Davenport
Inspired by God
Spiritual Forces Ministry, April 2008

Why do you think the Pharisees come under condemnation from Jesus? And, most importantly, how can you see that you do the same, and what can you learn to repent  from the same unrighteous example of righteousness? What can you learn from them so that you will stop living and behaving just as they did.

Let’s go over the history of the Pharisees and their origins. They began in Nehemiah 8. Many historians document that this passage in Nehemiah Chapter 8 is the beginning of the sect of the Pharisees.

Neh 8:1  And all the people gathered themselues together, as one man, into the street that was before the water gate, and they spake vnto Ezra the scribe, to bring the booke of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel.

Neh 8:2  And Ezra the priest brought the Law before the Congregation, both of men and women, and all that could heare with vnderstanding, vpon the first day of the seuenth moneth.

Neh 8:3  And hee read therein before the street that was before the water gate, from the morning vntill midday, before the men and the women, and those that could vnderstand: And the eares of all the people were attentiue vnto the booke of the law.

Neh 8:4  And Ezra the scribe, stood vpon a pulpit of wood, which they had made for the purpose, and beside him stood Mattithiah, and Shema, and Anaiah, and Urijah, and Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, on his right hand: and on his left hand, Pedaiah, and Mishael, and Malchiah, and Hashum, and Hashbadana, Zechariah, and Meshullam.

Neh 8:5  And Ezra opened the booke in the sight of all the people (for hee was aboue al the people) and when he opened it, all the people stood vp:

Neh 8:6  And Ezra blessed the Lord the great God: and al the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting vp their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the Lord, with their faces to the ground.

Neh 8:7  Also Ieshua and Bani, and Sherebiah, Iamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Iozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Leuites, caused the people to vnderstand the law: and the people stood in their place.

Neh 8:8  So they read in the booke, in the Law of God distinctly, and gaue the sense, and caused them to vnderstand the reading.

This is the beginning of a new governing people during the time of Ezra, after the return from Babylon. The Jews, after seventy years of captivity, were eager to learn about and obey what God commanded in the Law and to have people explain it to them—interpret it for them.

And so, from this descended both the Scribes, which Ezra was. They were teachers of the Law—interpreters of the Law—helping the people to get the understanding of what the Law was trying to say. Also the people themselves that were part of this group and wanted this to take place, were the Hasidim. That name has come on down to today in the Hasidic Jews. They are the more orthodox and pious of the Jews, because that is what the name Hasidim means—the pious ones.

This group of ‘teachers of the law’ started innocently and sincerely. These people were very zealous for the Law and really wanted to learn. You can see that they were very respectful of the Law. When Ezra got up to read the Word, they stood up. And they stood up the whole time that it was being read.

They learned much that they had not known or had forgotten through the seventy years that they had been captive in Babylon. So, it started out in a very Godly manner, especially under Ezra. Ezra was the one whom God used for this very purpose, to get the people back to understanding the right way to live.

The people decide after a short while that they are going to make a covenant to bind themselves to this very thing.

The Covenent
Neh 10:28  And the rest of the people, the priests, the Levites, the porters, the singers, the Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God, their wives, their sons, and their daughters, every one having knowledge, and having understanding;

Neh 10:29  They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God's law, which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the LORD our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes;

Neh 10:30  And that we would not give our daughters unto the people of the land, nor take their daughters for our sons:

Neh 10:31  And if the people of the land bring ware or any victuals on the sabbath day to sell, that we would not buy it of them on the sabbath, or on the holy day: and that we would leave the seventh year, and the exaction of every debt.

Neh 10:32  Also we made ordinances for us, to charge ourselves yearly with the third part of a shekel for the service of the house of our God;

Neh 10:33  For the shewbread, and for the continual meat offering, and for the continual burnt offering, of the sabbaths, of the new moons, for the set feasts, and for the holy things, and for the sin offerings to make an atonement for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God.

Neh 10:34  And we cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood offering, to bring it into the house of our God, after the houses of our fathers, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the law:

Neh 10:35  And to bring the firstfruits of our ground, and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, unto the house of the LORD:

Neh 10:36  Also the firstborn of our sons, and of our cattle, as it is written in the law, and the firstlings of our herds and of our flocks, to bring to the house of our God, unto the priests that minister in the house of our God:

Neh 10:37  And that we should bring the firstfruits of our dough, and our offerings, and the fruit of all manner of trees, of wine and of oil, unto the priests, to the chambers of the house of our God; and the tithes of our ground unto the Levites, that the same Levites might have the tithes in all the cities of our tillage.

Neh 10:38  And the priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes unto the house of our God, to the chambers, into the treasure house.

Neh 10:39  For the children of Israel and the children of Levi shall bring the offering of the corn, of the new wine, and the oil, unto the chambers, where are the vessels of the sanctuary, and the priests that minister, and the porters, and the singers: and we will not forsake the house of our God.

The most important thing about this whole section is in the very first verse where it said, "that they separated themselves from the peoples of the land to the Law of God."

This is the key to the Pharisees. This is their beginning. This is the actual beginning of the Hasidim—the pious ones mentioned before—but the Pharisees use the idea of separated. Not this Hebrew word, but another, Pharishim, I believe. And it is from this Hebrew word that the Greek word, and therefore English word Pharisee comes from.

Pharisee means, "separated ones." They separated themselves from the people. Is that familiar to you?

When involving the Word of God, or His commands, much is left open to interpretation because there are so many various ideas of what a word can mean. The group decided what separated came to mean here.  But, it has become apparent that there is really only one meaning to it, and that is that they are separated from the people to the Law.

It does not mean that they were separated from other people, although that is how it came to be looked upon later. It started out very well, that they separated themselves as holy to God and the Law. This was their goal, that they would be a unique people unto God. They did become unique to God. They killed His Son.

Like I said, it started out all very sincerely, and very innocently. People wanted to do what was right, and they originally called themselves the Hasidim, the pious ones; and over time they took the name (or it was given to them), the Pharisees—the separated ones, because they separated themselves to this noble goal to follow the law of God. Nothing was wrong with that.

So, originally it had a very flattering meaning because it was a mark of devotion to God and the Law.

If you would look in Malachi 3:16, some believe that those people that got together in the fear of God to discuss things with one another were these very people who are commended very highly there in verses 16 and 17.

But, over time as the Pharisees began to take on their historical traits, the ones that we know them for, this word "Pharisee" devolved into a critical one that we might also use today, "Separatists" or "Elitists". Not only did they become separated to the Law, they separated themselves from the rest of the people. They began to think of themselves very highly as more holy and righteous than anyone else, and it went to their head. You might want to compare yourself to them. How holy have you become?

Now, we have seen here in Nehemiah 10 the specific parts of the law that they dedicated themselves to. I will give them to you in four very simple categories.

The First category is found in verses 28-30 in different forms, which is that they separated themselves away from foreigners, heretics and from the base of the people.

It says here that they separated themselves away from the peoples of the lands.

Now remember when Israel was taken in to captivity that the Assyrians brought in people from Babylon and elsewhere to their land. These became the Samaritans over time. They mingled those who were left in the land after the Babylonian captivity.

And so "the people of the land" came to mean all these people who were not set apart to God. They were non-Israelites living in the land. Foreigners, of course, were Gentiles straight up.  What do you think of people who you believe are not set apart to God? Have you separated yourself from them? Are you supposed to?

Heretics they would not touch because they were unclean. They were doing things against the law of God.

And the Base, are those who are seen as beneath them, who worked in unclean activities, like the tanner that Peter went to in Joppa. Tanning was not an activity that a Pharisee would take because he had to deal with dead bodies of animals all the time—tanning skins of animals, making leather. And so, he would be unclean all the time.

And so, this person—a tanner—would be avoided by the Pharisee because he would make him unclean. Do you avoid people because you think they will make you unclean? When someone mentions any particular group, do you become determined to tell them this group is not of God, and they ought to steer clear of them, even if you know nothing about them but are going on a whim inside your gut because they do not govern themselves the way you think they should? Are you right or are you just being judgmental?

The Second category is taken from verse 31 and is the strict observance of the Sabbath, and everything having to do with it. Of course, they got to the point where they had 1500 or so regulations just having to do with the Sabbath alone. How many regulations do you have? They became very meticulous about keeping the Sabbath. They could only walk a "Sabbath day's journey." They could not carry a needle and thread both at the same time on the Sabbath; or they could only carry so much weight on them equal to only so many grains of barley. They could do no work. They could only rest and worship. It became the rule over everything. Jsus later asked them if their ox fell in a pit on the Sabbath, if they got it out. What are your regulations about Sabbath. Do you badger those who have to work to sustain an income. To you badger them about going to church, when its their decision to go or not? Are they not set aside if they don’t see Sabbath just as you do?

They got down to the most minute details about keeping the Sabbath day. Do you keep score for people who go to church on Sunday? Is it ok with you if they go to church on Monday or Thursday instead of Sunday?

The Pharisees followed this religious piety very strictly. But, only the most pious of them were ever able to do most of them. They had gotten it down to such detail that even they could not keep their own regulations. Where are you with keeping the regulations you set for others? Are you a Pharisee or are you a Christian? Do you try to control others with your regulations, or are you live and let live? Do you set rules based on your religious piety, and everyone else who does not regard them as important are not of God like you are?

The Third category, which begins in verse 32, is the support of the Temple and its services and rituals. This included anything which had to do with anything clean and unclean, not just meats, but vessels and other things; all the washings that they did to make sure that they were always ceremonially clean; and any other ritual of the Old Testament. This includes the phylacteries, tassels on the edges of the garments and other such things. Is there anyone in your life that you believe to be unclean? Ask yourself why they are unclean. Is it because they have violated one of your religious pieties?

The Fourth category, which is the remainder of the chapter, is the strict observance of the tithing laws. They were very strict with these laws to the point that Jesus said that they tithed of mint, anise, and cumin—their kitchen herbs and vegetables—which is fine if they wanted to do it, but do not forget the weightier matters of the law. Do you constantly talk about someone tithing? Do you tell them it is between them and God when they don’t tithe to your liking, or don’t tithe at all?

To recap, A Pharisee has separation from foreigners, or those who don’t act and look like him, heretics, those who will not let him force his religion on them, and base peoples; those who the Pahrisee thinks is less intelligent than he is. The Pharisee has strict observance of the Sabbath; to the point where if someone violateds his religious policies on the Sabbath, he will believe they are not of God.  Last, the Pharisee will become resentful toward the person who does not provide support of the Temple and its services and rituals, including the holy and unholy laws as he thinks they should. He himself does not support the temple like he demands of others. The paharisee also has a strict observance of the tithing laws for others but not himself.

These were the four mainstays of their teaching and their observance.

What developed from their interpretation of these laws and these other things was a huge compendium of laws—minutiae. This turned out, when it was all finished, to be more than 50 volumes of laws that had to do with regulations that tried to cover every situation so that a person could not break God's law even ignorantly. Everything was supposedly taken care of.

We call this today the oral law. Supposedly this law was handed down from Moses to the prophets and eventually down to the Great Synagogue. Most of it, as Jesus confirmed, though, was simply the traditions of men. We will get to that a little later. It was not the law of God or Moses, but their own interpretations.

Jesus and the Pharisees clashed over this quite a bit.

Still regarding their history, the Pharisees as a party became distinct from the Hasidim during the revolt against Antiochus Epiphanes after about 165 BC. I believe the revolt ended in 164 BC when they were given their independence.

They began to become more important as a political party after this time.

Now we think of the Pharisees as being a big group; that they must have been the majority of the people. But this is not true.

Josephus says that at most, at any one time, there were only 6000 Pharisees in all the land of Israel.

Now think about this. It becomes clear that he was right. How many people do you think—if we could picture the population of Pensacola, FL or Panama City representing the people of Palestine—how many would separate themselves to follow God's Law to this extent—to its minutia—for the rest of their lives? How many people would have what it takes to devote themselves that much to something that was so picky and so fine, in terms of particular?

Now, I think that in an area like this where there is a couple million people that probably you would get maybe 10,000. But, probably not even that many who would devote themselves to this task.

The Jews were no different than any group of people. There were only a few among them that would actually do this.

But, this 6000 people began very quickly after about 165 to rise to prominence and great power within the nation. This was because, just like in the United States with a different group (the liberals), the Pharisees were the teachers of the land, especially the religious teachers. The Scribes were foremost among them.

Now, I have to mention here that the Scribes and Pharisees were not the same. The Scribes were the teachers and interpreters of the law. Some of the Scribes were Pharisees. But, not all.

But normally the Scribes and Pharisees ended up doing things together. They agreed a great deal. It was from the Scribes' interpretations of the law that the Pharisees got the fodder for what they did.

So, the Pharisees were in the main very devout and pious laymen. It was the Scribes that had an ordination of some sort. But, they worked together. They were allied in most cases. And that is why throughout the Gospels you find Jesus addressing Scribes and Pharisees together because their views were very similar if not the same.

Because they were the teachers in the land and the influential people of the land as these devout laymen, they had the support of most of the population of Judea.

Rulers, then, were forced by threat of popular uprising to consider what the Pharisees wanted them to do. The Pharisees held this serious threat of popular revolt over every ruler's head. "If you do not comply with what we do, we will go out into the marketplace and into the synagogue and we will tell them that you are not treating them fairly, and we will riot, or revolt."

And so, this reached as high as the Sadducees, the priests, and the High Priest. They had to toe the line with the Pharisees because they held so much power.

That is why you see the Sadducees working together with the Pharisees at times. There was a political element involved so that the Pharisees and the Sadducees had to unite on certain issues so that the people would not revolt against them.

So, that gives you a little idea of what was going on there; why they held so much power.

Now, as often happens, as a group's political power rises, their righteousness wanes! You might say that it became tainted, because now they had a vested interest in all sorts of matters. They wanted to keep their power. They were fearful of losing their power and influence over the people and over the whole country.

They were important men. They had to keep up appearances. They had to dress the dress, walk the walk and talk the talk. They could not be seen as anything else but the image that they had built up.

And as so often occurs, the corruption of power began to take place.

By the time Jesus appears on the scene, 150 years or so later, they had, in many ways, already become the caricature that we see in the New Testament.

William Barclay summarizes the Pharisees in this way: First of all, they were dedicated legalists. If you want to say anything about the Pharisees, this would have to be the first thing to say; they were dedicated legalists.

And then he goes on from there. Secondly, though zealous, and desperately earnest about their religion, they became one of two things: they became either, what he calls a desiccated (dried up—emotionless and without intellectual vigor), or arrogant legalist; or on the other hand they were sincerely devout believer—still a legalist, though.

OK. The Talmud basically agrees with this assessment. But, they split it out into seven types of Pharisee. Most Pharisees fell into one of these seven categories of people.

I do not want you to think of this just in terms of Pharisees, think about this in terms of yourself, because you may mirror these same types of people. Its better to fix yourself now than on the great judgment day.

The first is the Shoulder Pharisee.

This type of Pharisee wore his good deeds on his shoulder like a medal. He was the kind of person mentioned in Matthew 6:2 who trumpeted out his alms-giving in the street. "Look how good I am! I just gave this guy $50 and he only asked for 25 cents. What a wonderful person I am!"

The second is the Wait-a-Little-Bit Pharisee.

This kind of Pharisee always had a good excuse to put off a good deed. "Let us wait a minute. Let us see what happens first."or let me pray on it and we’ll see. He agrees in principle with what Pharisees taught, and believed, but his practice always fell a little bit short because he was never quite sure that he would be able to do anything; never quite sure if he wanted to. He had intellectual agreement, but there was very little practice.

The third is the Bruised and Bleeding Pharisee.

This Pharisee suffered constant injury because of his meticulous avoidance of bumping into or speaking to a woman on the street. Women, in Pharisaic doctrine were bad, because they might be having their menstrual period. Though it was a natural thing, if you touched a bleeding woman, you would be unclean. And besides, were not they second class citizens anyway? This attitude worked out in many cases of divorces without a cause because women were nothing; they were pretty much chattel to them.

So, to avoid looking at, bumping into, or speaking to a woman, they would close their eyes, and trip, hit the wall, hit the floor, and end up being bruised and bleeding because they did not want to come in contact with these awful people.

If you look in John 4:27 you will find the same thing, that the disciples were surprised that Jesus was talking to a woman at the well. He was very amicable. He might have even touched her! Who knows! They were shocked! "Jesus is talking to a woman and she is a Samaritan, too! And you know what, the man she is living with is not her husband. She is a prostitute—an adulterous woman!" Like many, she just does not cut the muster.

The fourth type of Pharisee is the Humped-back Pharisee.

In public, he was always bowed over in feigned humility, which in reality was just self-advertising ostentation. So, he walked around with his head bowed. Like the Shoulder Pharisee, he wanted to be seen of men as humble. He probably got a few bumps and bruises himself also by always having his eyes looking down to the ground. There was a symbolic humped back Pharisee too. He is always talking his talk to make people think he is more Godly than he really is.

The fifth one is the Ever-Reckoning Pharisee.

This was the "accountant" among the sect. He kept a balance sheet of his good deeds. "One for me, one for me, one for me, one for me? God why have you not blessed me? Where is the one for You?" You see, according to his balance sheet with all his good deeds on it God was in his debt. He had done so much for these people, he had done so much to keep His law, he had done some much to fulfill everything that God wanted him to do, God had to give him the things that he wanted. He was the "God, You-Owe-Me-One Pharisee." Every time he did something good, God sunk further and further into his debt.

The sixth Pharisees is the Timid Pharisee.

This one you could feel a bit of pity for. This Pharisee lived in absolute dread of Divine Punishment. He was always searching the skies for lightning bolts. He thought that every miss-step that he did, every time he did not keep the law perfectly, something bad was going to happen. I think that this is probably where the "Jewish Angst" came from. "Oh no! Something is going to happen! We did not light the Sabbath candle! I cannot believe it! How could we do something so stupid? And now God is going to curse us for this!"

This kind of person believed religion was essentially judgment. They were synonymous. And so life, which God wants to be abundant life, becomes just an attempt to evade certain condemnation in any way that he could. Life was just a dodge to him, trying somehow to not be the target of that lightning bolt. He was quite meticulous, maybe the most meticulous of all the Pharisees because he was afraid that the other shoe would drop, always looking over his shoulder for the death angel.

And lastly, the seventh type of Pharisee, the best one of all, is the God-Fearing Pharisee.

This was a truly righteous person. Probably a lot like Nicodemus in John 3 who sincerely loved God, and delighted in obedience; had a humble way about him; always seeking to know what God's will was, and trying his very best to follow it.

Now, is it not interesting that this is the Jew's own reckoning of the Pharisees. And, what is so ironic is that Rabbinic Judaism that is practiced today is Pharisaic. It is the descendant of the Pharisaic Judaism with changes due to the Diaspora. But, it is basically the same thing. They get their laws and restrictions from the same source.

And even they consider the Pharisees to have been six times more likely to be frauds and hypocrites than truly righteous people. That is their own assessment, six to one.

Now Jesus had many confrontations with the Pharisees. The Pharisees considered Him a flaming Liberal in His teaching and his practice, because he opened up all kinds of things to normal use a practice that they condemned. Just look into Matthew 12 where the disciples went out into the fields on the Sabbath and took a few heads of grain and winnowed them and popped them into their mouth. This broke all kinds of laws according to the Pharisees! They should not have even been near those fields. They had been walking too far on the Sabbath. They were not allowed to reap. They were not allowed to winnow. They were not allowed to eat of them.

And Jesus said, "You have got to be kidding! If you really knew the law, you would know that God said that He wants mercy and not sacrifice! If you had understood what this meant, you would be joining Me! You would have real understanding."

These confrontations happened all throughout the gospels. And, it is very interesting what they questioned Him about. They questioned Him about the Sabbath, just mentioned; they questioned Him about paying tithes, and taxes; "Should we pay taxes to Caesar?" Money was on their minds almost all the time. They questioned Him about failing to wash properly before eating. They questioned Him about consorting with Samaritans, prostitutes, tax-collectors and various other low-class sinful types.

Think about this: Sabbath, tithes and taxes, failing to wash and consorting with sinners.

What are these four things?

The exact same four things we saw listed in Nehemiah 10. They dedicated themselves to separation from other people who were not law keepers, the Sabbath, the Temple and its rituals and to keeping the tithes.

Now, they questioned Him about other things, but these were the four main areas that they really honed in on.

Healing for instance. They did not have a problem with Him healing, but they did have a problem with Him healing on the Sabbath.

So, these were the things that they really watched Him for. They wanted to catch Him break things in the law so that they could condemn Him. And they even said there in John that He breaks the Sabbath, which just shows that they did not understand it. He said in Mark 2:27-28 that He was the Lord of the Sabbath. He was not going to break it. As the Lord of the Sabbath, He could do whatever He pleased because He set the rules. It was His work going on, and He could do it. Of course, they did not believe who He was either. We will see that in a moment.

But, these are the things that they tried to catch Him on.

Matthew 12:38-42
Mat 12:38  Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.

Mat 12:39  But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

Mat 12:40  For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Mat 12:41  The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

Mat 12:42  The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

Matthew 16:1-4
Mat 16:1  The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.

Mat 16:2  He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

Mat 16:3  And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

Mat 16:4  A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed..

Now we know that the Pharisees were famous for asking for signs. Paul even mentions this in I Corinthians 1:22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: And, the Jews were primarily of the Pharisaic persuasion, if they were not Pharisees themselves. And they asked for this sign in order to prove Messianic claims.

Now in this case Jesus nails them. He does not even give them a chance to respond. Here especially in chapter 12, when he says, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign," He just hits them right between the eyes.

Now, evil and adulterous gives us a kind of sexual idea. But, a better word here than adulterous is unfaithful; "An evil and unfaithful generation seeks after a sign." They din  not believe. It could have been a spiritually adulterous generation. He is calling them apostates. They were unfaithful to the very law that they said that they were trying to uphold with others. Doesn’t that sound identical to what you do?

Now, why do I say this?

Well, for starters, the very law that they knew so well, you also know well, specifically Deuteronomy 13, says very clearly that a person who does a sign is not necessarily from God. A sign means very little. Demons can do signs. They can make things seem miraculous. The same goes with a person who says he does God’s will. He is not doing God’s will, none of us are doing God’s will well enough to put another down or to tell another how to do God’s will. 

What did God say through Moses was the way we are supposed to prove or determine whether a prophet is true or false?

By what he taught and, the fruits of his deeds. Do they match? Are they preaching one and doing the other? That, my friend is a hypocrite, not a Godly person. This person may be religious, but he’s not Godly. Remember in Deuteronomy 13 it mentions that if he tells people how to worship the living God god, but worships himself, money, electronics, power or anything else of this world more than God, he is a false teacher, whether he does a sign or not, it does not matter. Pray for him..

And so the Pharisees asking for a sign were showing zero faith. That is why He calls them an evil and adulterous generation. They were showing no faithfulness to God's law.

God's law said that the way that you check out a prophet is to listen to his teachings, and if they are what God teaches in the Old Testament, then this is a person you should listen to. Whether he does a sign, or not, does not matter.

John the Baptist did no miracles. But, he was certainly a great prophet by the things that he preached. He preached repentance. And he pointed people toward the Christ.

So, Jesus sent them back to their scriptures for their sign. He said, "If you do not get this, if you do not understand what I mean, by an evil and adulterous generation seeking after a sign, I am going to give you one! And that sign was given 800 years ago in the book of Jonah. If you will not believe Jonah, you have condemned yourself."

That was the only sign that He ever gave them—out of the Old Testament.

Now, He did give His disciples a sign later at the Mount of the Transfiguration. And they saw! But, it is very interesting that He did this after they showed Him that they were faithful to God's way of Life, and God's word. We will get to that in a little bit.

So, He basically says here, and in chapter 16 that the Pharisees were unfaithful to the very thing that they claimed devotion to—God's law. There’s a lot of Christians out there like this. Especially preachers. When one becomes a preacher, if he is not careful, he will soon be a know it all. The only one who will not see this clearly will be the one infected.

The wickedness of the Pharisees then, exposed itself to their inability to recognize Jesus as the Prophet of Deuteronomy 18. Because they were looking for this miracle, they could not see that Jesus' teaching was exactly what God had given to Moses and the Prophets. They were blind to it. And, of course, the miracle always came out in their constant attempt to derail Him and trip him up.

As we go through some of these confrontations, actually all of them that we get to, I am going to ask you a question to apply this personally. Here they are for this section.

Question: Are you looking for signs and miracles from God? Or, do you really believe His word? You might say, "Do I need a miracle to make me believe? Or is God's word enough?"

It was not enough for the Pharisee. But for us, it should be.

All right. Just a couple of pages over here, Matthew 15, we will read the first nine verses. I could spend an entire sermon on this one chapter, the first 20 verses; but we will read just the first nine:

Mat 15:1  Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,

Mat 15:2  Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.

Mat 15:3  But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

Mat 15:4  For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.

Mat 15:5  But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;

Mat 15:6  And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

Mat 15:7  Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,

Mat 15:8  This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

Mat 15:9  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Now, this is a rather similar confrontation to the one that we just read. They criticized Him and His disciples for failing to keep the Oral Law, which they called the Traditions of the Elders, which included very strict guidelines on various washings of both the self, and various vessels.

Now, I would like to read a little bit from William Barclay about some of these guidelines, just a short paragraph, just to give you some of the flavor of the strictness of these guidelines. Reading here from page 295 of the Matthew Volume, William Barclay's Daily Study Bible Series he writes:

"An earthen vessel, which is hollow, becomes unclean only on the inside and not on the outside. And, it can be cleansed only by being broken?"

Then it is useless.

The following cannot become unclean at all: A flat plate without a rim; an open coal shovel; a gridiron with holes in for parching grains of wheat. On the other hand a plate with a rim, or an earthen spice box, or a writing case can become unclean. A flat vessel made of leather, bone, wood, or glass do not become unclean. Deep ones do. If they are broken, they become clean. Any metal vessel which at once is smooth and hollow can become unclean, but a door, a bolt, a lock, a hinge, or a knocker cannot become unclean. If a thing is made of wood, and metal, then the wood can become unclean, but the metal cannot?"

That is just a little bit of these regulations that they had dedicated themselves—separated themselves—to follow. They had to keep this all in their head so that at any time that they came into contact with anything, they had to make a determination whether touching it would make them unclean or not.

There was a problem if one did not know the history of such an object because if touching it whether clean or not might make the person unclean because he did not know! And so they had to keep all these things straight in their minds.

Now, this idea of clean and unclean has almost nothing to do with hygiene. There was certainly a little bit in there.

I mean, it is a good idea to wash your hands after you have touched the dog and been outside before you eat your dinner. That is just common sense.

But, this ritual of clean and unclean washings, and whatnot, had really very little to do with their own cleanliness. It had everything to do with ritual cleanliness and purity—whether they were holy enough to use this certain thing, or whether they were holy enough after using it—to worship God, because if they were ceremonially unclean, then they could not do their prayers properly. They could not go into the Temple.

So, then they had to go through all the washings in order to become clean again, but it did not take effect until the evening.

So, there were a lot of these little things that they had to know.

Hag 2:10  In the four and twentieth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,

Hag 2:11  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ask now the priests concerning the law, saying,

Hag 2:12  If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priests answered and said, No.

Hag 2:13  Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priests answered and said, It shall be unclean.

Hag 2:14  Then answered Haggai, and said, So is this people, and so is this nation before me, saith the LORD; and so is every work of their hands; and that which they offer there is unclea

Now, Haggai 2:10-14, it asks a question about something touching a clean thing and something touching an unclean thing. What comes out of that small section is this: Uncleanness could be transferred from vessel to person or garment to person, etc., but holiness could not.

So, a thing that was unclean had to be broken, or somehow made clean, including one's person. Then, if you touched any of these unclean things, you would be unclean, and it would keep you from worshipping God. Now, if you think about it, in the land at that time it would be almost impossible not to become defiled, especially when they thought that even the dust that was touched by a Gentile foot rendered the dust unclean!

And so, if you were walking through the streets of a Judean town, and a Gentile just happened to be going through, and you were on the same street with him, and he was ahead of you, and your poor little toes were peeking out of your sandals, and they just happened to touch the dust of the ground, you were now ceremonially unclean!

So, what did they do? Well, the ritual washings came into effect.

Let me read a bit more from Barclay about that. This is from the same commentary, page 114, where he talks about these ritual washings which were vitally important—they were life and death—to these superstitious Pharisees.

"To combat uncleanness an elaborate system of washings was worked out?"

Notice. This is not in the Bible. This was worked out by the Pharisees for the Pharisees.

These washings became ever more elaborate. At first there was a hand washing upon rising in the morning. [You just never know where your hands were during the night!] Then, there grew up an elaborate system of hand washing whose use was at first confined to the priests in the Temple before they ate that part of the sacrifice which was their perquisite. Later, these complicated washings came to be demanded by the strictest of the Orthodox Jews for themselves, and for all who claimed to be truly righteous.

"Eberscheim, in the "Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, outlines the most elaborate of these washings: 'Water jars were kept ready to be used before a meal. The minimum amount of water to be used was a quarter of a log which is defined as enough to fill one and one-half eggshells. [6-7 eggs make a cup. This was about ¼ cup.] The water was first poured on both hands which were held with the fingers pointed upward, and must run up the arm [which is actually downward] toward the elbow at least as far as the wrist. [So you had to keep it so that it would run down the hand only as far as the wrist.] It must drop off from the wrist for the water itself was now unclean having touched the unclean hands, and if it ran back across the fingers again, it would render them unclean again! [So do not let your hands drop! Make sure the water dropped off your wrist!] The process was repeated with the hands held in the opposite direction with the fingers pointing down. Finally each hand was cleansed by being rubbed with the fist of the other. A really strict Jew would do all this not only before a meal, but also between each of the courses!

Could you imagine doing all that?

This was the sort of thing that Jesus was combating. And Jesus replied to them about these ritual washings, "Why do you break God's Law to keep your silly man-made regulations?"

That is basically what He said, "Why do you transgress the commandment of God because of your traditions?"

He is saying, "What is the source for those stupid things you tell my disciples they need to do? Where did you get those rules you adhere to and expect others to adhere to? Why are they so much more important than My Law?"

And then He gives this example of what Mark calls Corban. Here, Matthew does not use the term. But, what He says is that because of their stupid regulations they had basically allowed the people under this situation to break the Fifth Commandment with impunity. Exo 20:12  Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

In modern language it would be, "Sorry Mom, and Dad. I have got no money for your old age. I have put it in mutual funds. Too bad. This money has been dedicated to the mutual funds and so can be used for you. Sorry. You guys have to go live in the street."

Where is honoring one's father and mother?

Jesus said that by doing this, they basically were cursing their parents.

In this case, it was the religious leaders saying that the money that you dedicated to the Temple becomes Corban—it is cursed or dedicated—it cannot be used for anything else, even helping your own.

So, people could dedicate this money to the Temple and basically give their parents the shaft. And they were guiltless in the Pharisaic system. This is a terrible thing. But, they were allowed to do this.

So, the practice of their traditions have basically made the word of God ineffectual.

As He said there in Mat 15:9  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

That is what he tells them. "In vain do they worship Me?" because they are not really worshipping Him. What are they worshipping? They are worshipping themselves, or their ideals; their elders, you might say, a kind of ancestor worship where they put the elders above even God; and their traditions. They are not worshipping God.

Now, Jesus goes on to explain there in 10 through 20 that their sin was in their self-righteous externalism which failed to do anything about their internal sinfulness. All they were worried about was the outside only…their appearance of holiness when it did not exist on the inside. An outward display.

If you were a Pharisee in today’s time, your little eggshell and a half of water would not clean you either. It would just look like you were clean. And, because you have sanctified your little ritual, you only felt like you are clean. You are not. and, Jesus tells you, with signs, that you were not clean, because inside you is nothing but evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness and blasphemies. These are the things on the inside that were never touched by your water wash. But, you will convince yourself that your little rituals justify you. Not only the water wash, but don’t you do other rituals that make you fell holy. I am here to tell you that you are deceiving yourself.—You have not been made clean by ritual or by practice of anything. You cannot be righteous by trying to force someone else to believe as you do. Your policy of belief will not make you or them clean, and able to approach God. All it did was get your hands wet.

Beyond this, all their teaching of this blather, this drivel to the people was very sinful.

Matthew 5:19-20
Mat 5:19  Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 5:20  For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Are the things that you were teaching, or trying to force others to believe driving those who listen to them to disaster. And the things that we need to learn, that you should have been teaching, are not being taught. You are teaching all externalism and never getting to where the defilement really was. It is inside in the character. But, you just hypocritically ignore this and fell justified because you took such care to wash your bowls, and your hands.

So the question for you is; are you wearing your obedience like a medal? Like that shoulder Pharisee?

Or are you considering yourself pure, holier or more intelligent than others?

Are you looking at the external problems in others, like these Pharisees were doing to Jesus and the disciples, rather than concentrating on your own internal sins? Mr. Pharisee, that is the question! Are you separating yourself from your own sin, or are you trying to ram your kind of religion down someone else’s throat?  Because they don’t think as you think, do you harbor resentments toward them? When did you last have to over think, or over power someone  who didn’t agree with your opinions on the subject being discussed? Did you set them ‘straight?’