Church Evangelism, The Pharisees and Sadducees, and Division

I will begin today’s post with a commentary on the statement I posted to my facebook page earlier today.  This statement may have some controversial implications, but there is a point to be made nevertheless.

  We must GO OUT into the world to evangelize, not expect sinners COME INTO the church to be evangelized.  I know this statement disagrees with virtually all of modern Christendom, and thus it seems rather blunt and arrogant of me to say it. But nevertheless I will ask the reader to excuse my apparent bluntness for a moment and consider what I have to say.

   Jesus commanded His disciples to ‘go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Notice that He tells them to go out into the world, not to pragmatically make their churches cool enough to inspire sinners to come and check out Jesus. 

  It is very comfortable of us to let our Church do the evangelizing.  I’m not saying all evangelism inside the church is wrong, but I am saying that it is not the primary duty of your local church to make itself appealing enough to sinners that they will consider coming to sit on your pews for a service, and hopefully receive Christ as a result.

  I arguably sound very arrogant in contradicting most of modern Christendom,  but let me be clear that it is not my aim to throw another rock into the midst of all the turmoil that the Church already faces. 

   Having said that, I am about to venture back into a topic I have unsuccessfully spoke on before – division.  The amount of conflict within the Christian Church (never mind the world) is simply sickening.  Conservatives bicker over every jot and tittle of the Word, whilst liberals deny the word of God to the point of nonsense.  Those who do either are not doing much for the help of God’s Church – both are equally wrong.

   Consider, for example, the Pharisees and Sadducees. The Pharisees debated every jot and tittle of the law to microscopic shreds, while the Sadducees denied the word of God and rejected a large portion of God’s revelation to man.

   Jesus had something to say to both – and what he said there is of direct relevance to us today.

  To the Pharisees He said: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. “ – Matthew 23:23-28

   Allow me to say that what Jesus said to the radical conservatives of the day applies directly and painfully to the conundrum of the Church today.  To illustrate the point, I will tell you something.  Once, I was reading an internet message board in which King James Onlyists argued with Modern Version advocates.  Both sides involved in this argument  seemingly had a high regard for God’s Word, but it was one of the most ugly disagreements I had ever seen among Christians.  They were openly calling each other servants of Satan, and other unspeakable insults which shall not be named here.  I was saddened to see it. This debate was unprofitable to them.  Whether they were using the KJV or NIV – it was of no relevance to them, for they were not living out the truth of God contained in either of the translations.

  It is this attitude which Jesus rebukes the Pharisees of.  They strained at a gnat, and swallowed a camel.  While they openly appeared so holy and righteous with their strict adherence to the smallest jots and tittles of the law, they unwittingly omitted the more important things – the things which matter far more to God than the observances of minor jots and tittles.  They disobeyed the greatest commandments of the law while straining to obey the least of them.  Thus they were seen by the Lord as wicked. They were true hypocrites who looked down on everyone for not so perfectly obeying the law to the letter.

   This is an attitude which has overtaken many today .  Those of us who identify as ‘conservative’, who strain and struggle to have all the right theology and keep our theological fly swatter ready to crack down on any theology we deem bad, just because we feel like it, are guilty of this error.  I am not saying that discernment doesn’t have its place – but when all we care about is having the right theology, and making sure everyone else has it as well, and we forget what is important, we are doing no better than the Pharisees of old.  Faith and mercy, as well as a heart fully surrendered to God’s will, is far more valuable in the sight of God than having all the correct theology rightly figured out.  Now we ought not to leave the other undone – theology is indeed important, but the Kingdom of God is about so much more than correct theology.

  Having said that, let us see what Jesus said to the Sadducees.  He gave them a mere sentence of rebuke for their utter disregard for the word of God. “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.”  - Matthew 22:29

  The Sadducees were the extreme opposite of the Pharisees.  They adhered to only the Torah, disregarding any other part of the revelation of God.  Any doctrines not found in the Torah they rejected, including the resurrection from the dead.  They held to a very humanistic worldview, denying the afterlife altogether.  For such the Lord rebuked them, saying they knew neither the scriptures nor the power of God.

  Those who deny the Word of God are, in a sense, denying Him who is the Word.  Hence, they do not really know his power. There are a good many people who profess to adhere to the teachings of our Lord, but they regard the Word of God as an imperfect work of man.  Such pick and choose whatever part of the Word they like but reject the rest.

   Why is such a view convenient? It is convenient because it seemingly solves a lot of problems that conservatives deal with.  For if we choose to disregard disputed passages of scripture, we have nothing to argue about, right?

   The liberal errs in this regard greatly, denying the scriptures and power of God.  By trampling underfoot the given revelation of God and teaching others to do the same, he is blaspheming our Lord.  Furthermore, when one denies the Word of God in such a manner, he gives himself an excuse to act contrary to God’s will, for he now has no objective truth to submit to.

   What did the Pharisees and Sadducees have in common? Both, although they agreed on little else, wanted Jesus dead.  He had no place in their dead religion.  Let it not be like that for us – let Jesus be the center of all that we do.

   The world today is a mess – not simply on political and economic terms, but also on spiritual terms.  Satan has created a web of lies, lies, and more lies destined to keep as many in darkness as possible.  The truth is suppressed in unrighteousness, and even those who profess to hold to the doctrine of Christ are so utterly divided that it seems there is no hope of anyone actually finding pure, undefiled truth.

  I tell you, if I did not have faith in God, I would probably have renounced anything to do with the doctrine of Christ by now – it seems that those who hold to it are in as much confusion as those in the world.  But I know that my Redeemer liveth, as Job said, and I know that He is still at work.  He has not left us to our own devices, but we have rather leaned on our own understanding and erred from complete obedience to the Word.

   I could say ten thousand words about this (so far I have said 1, 207 J ),but I see no need.  I cannot fix the Church, nor can I fix the world’s problems.  I cannot even fix myself – that is the Lord’s work.

  Humanism is not the solution to the Church’s ills, nor is someone’s idea of correct theology (for even if someone in the church holds to correct theology, there will be ten thousand who disagree with him).  We must each repent and look at our own hearts.

    We will not get anywhere by trying to sort out all our problems.  What we need to do is repent.  When 81% of supposedly born-again Christians in America think that ‘God helps them that help themselves’ is a Bible verse … we need to get on our knees.