Pharisees

Dining at the Table with Jesus

“Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.’” – Luke 15:1,2 Last month I did a sermon on Jesus’ Eating Ministry. Today, I want to explore that further. Did you know that Jesus was less fond of religious people than He was those who lived completely immoral lives? In fact, He preached more often to the pastors of His day (aka the Pharisees) about hell and condemnation than He ever did to the sinners. Our Lord loves the broken, downtrodden, and the hurting. He wants to show them what it looks like to live in His Kingdom. One of the boldest things Jesus ever did was to sit down and eat with tax collectors and sinners, because in His day, to eat with a person was to

June 13, 2022 No Comments

A Visionless Church

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.” – Colossians 2:8 Yesterday, I told you about my uber-religious elementary school teacher who instilled major fear in me and my fellow classmates. By reinforcing the idea that we should live with constant anxiety about going to hell so that we continually confess our sins, she introduced a toxic theology that was focused exclusively on what you can’t do. Unfortunately, she was not alone in her dogmatic and fear-based beliefs — such thinking has pervaded many sectors of the church for generations. The major problem with this kind of dogma is that it stifles our souls. When we’re constantly fixated on giving things up without having a greater reason, we become joyless and lackluster. If we need proof of

June 10, 2021 No Comments

The Harm in Hypocrisy

“The Lord answered him, ‘You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?’” – Luke 13:15,16 Something we should be careful of whenever we hold someone else to a rigid standard is a lurking evil called hypocrisy. Unfortunately, the church is no stranger to this contradiction of word and deed, and it’s been prevalent in religion since the beginning of time. However, Christ had authority to call it out, because He alone could read the thoughts and intentions of human hearts. In fact, He had no qualms about speaking boldly to the Pharisees when they made a villain out of Him for healing a demon-possessed

May 16, 2021 No Comments

Love is Greater Than the Law

“On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, ‘Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.’” – Luke 13:10-12 We’ve been examining the idea that having the right vision for our lives and leadership empowers us to “break the rules” in order to put people first. Today, I want to look at how Jesus modeled this behavior for us, and what it teaches us about living as His disciples in the modern world. Much to the chagrin of the Pharisees and teachers of the law, our Savior constantly set aside the mandates of religion to give priority to loving people. One of the most famous examples of this is

May 15, 2021 No Comments

Dining at the Table with Jesus

A Visionless Church

The Harm in Hypocrisy

Love is Greater Than the Law

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