Tag: pharisee

The Spirit and the scattering

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed – Chapter 12 – Launching the church

The Spirit and the Scattering

[Bible references: Acts 5:12-16; 6:1-15; 7:1-60; 8:1-3, 14-24; 10; 9:1-19; 13:16-47; 17:16-31]

Since Jesus focused his effort almost exclusively on the Jewish population, it was natural that in the early years of the church, nearly all the believers were Jewish. It also happened that the apostles started off by focusing on the area around Jerusalem. So, while the believers were Jewish, the opposition to the believers was primarily Jewish as well; particularly, the Sanhedrin which was heavily controlled by the non-resurrection-believing Sadducees. It was difficult for the Sanhedrin to control the apostles because their miraculous healings made them exceedingly popular among the people. Even the deacon, Stephen, who was performing signs and wonders was creating a problem for the Sadducees. So some men created a conspiracy against Stephen, creating lies that resulted in Stephen becoming the first recorded martyr for the faith. Stephen was quite eloquent in defending the faith before the Sanhedrin, laying out the history of Israel and then accusing the Sanhedrin of continuing the persecution of God’s prophets. This enraged the Sanhedrin so much, that even after Stephen was put to death, the persecution of the church began in earnest, causing the first scattering of the church, although the apostles remained in Jerusalem.

With the scattering came new opportunities and challenges. When it was discovered that the Samaritans had received the gospel, the apostles gladly received the news. But when some of the Samaritans received the Holy Spirit, there were some kinds of signs (we aren’t told what they were) that excited a magician, who was one of the ones who received Christ. The magician then offered money to the apostles so that he could get the power to lay his hands on people and give them the Holy Spirit. The apostles had to strongly rebuke him. He repented – but this was a sign of how things could go astray.

After sending the gospel to the Samaritans, the next step was to reach out to the Gentiles. This step was initiated by God who first worked with the apostle Peter and a devout Gentile man named Cornelius. God had given visions to both Cornelius and Peter to create a reason for them to meet. When Cornelius visibly received the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter was convinced that the gospel was meant for the Gentiles as well.

To further spread the gospel among the Gentiles, God called Saul, a well-educated man who was familiar not only with the Jews but also with the Gentiles. Saul was a zealous Pharisee, whose zeal originally caused him to participate in the persecution of the church, but God used that same zeal to make Saul (also called Paul) not only one of the primary missionaries to the Gentiles but also a writer of half of the documents that comprise the New Testament. Even though Saul became converted after the ascension of Jesus, it was Jesus himself who encountered Saul who was on his way to persecute the Christians, making Saul a direct witness to the ministry of Jesus.

Whether the gospel was shared with the Jews or with the Gentiles there was a story to tell. The Jews needed to understand how the story of Jesus fit into their history – their story – and the Gentiles needed to know how it fit into their story. We all have a worldview – a story of the world that we use to interpret the world around us – and the gospel is most effectively shared when there’s a way to reach inside the others’ worldview.

Observe

Read Acts 13:1647; 17:16-31. What was the difference between how Paul told the gospel to people in the synagogue vs. the people in the Athens marketplace?

Pharisees

Dancing in the Kingdom- Table of Contents

Dancing In the Kingdom – Part 2 – The Kingdom Revealed– Chapter 10 – The Class of Apparitions

Pharisees

[Bible references: Matthew 5:20; Luke 13:31’ John 3:1-15]

The Pharisees developed out of the scribes who were copying the writings of Moses and, in doing so, were concerned with knowledge of the law, as well the writing of the prophets who came after Moses and the traditions of elders (rabbis). They were also concerned with how to interpret the law to make applicable to everyday life and there were many teachers of the law who wrote commentaries on the law, and the Pharisees also studied these commentaries. The people identified as rabbis came from this group.

The Pharisees became more identified with the everyday people, as opposed to the Sadducees who were identified with the wealthy ruling class. It is not known exactly when the Pharisees were identified as a group but may have happened as their opposition to the teachings of the Sadducees developed.

Jesus had a lot of interactions with the Pharisees. Most of what is recorded in scripture is confrontational, but the dynamics were more nuanced and could be misunderstood. By the times of Jesus, there were two main schools of rabbinic thought: the rigorist school of thought, led by Shammai the Elder, insisted on getting every detail right, particularly in the area of cleanliness, and was beyond the possibility of normal Jews to live out; the humanist school of thought, led by Hillel, was more intent on getting the spirit of the law right and was therefore within the realm of normal Jews.[1]

Another nuance had to do with the normal culture of conflict within Judaism (after all, ‘Israel’ means ‘wrestles with God’). It would have been normal for the scribes and Pharisees to question this new teacher, Jesus, and test his knowledge to see if he knew what he was talking about, although there may be a question about their motives – was the testing done to gain understanding or was the testing done to try to discredit Jesus. We shouldn’t forget the time that some Pharisees warned Jesus about Herod’s plot to kill him.

[1] Johnson, Paul. “A History of the Jews” Harper Perennial 1987 (p 127)

Observe

Read John 3:1-15. A closer reading of scripture shows that Jesus did not just have a confrontational relationship with the Pharisees but had a more nuanced relationship. This can be particularly seen with Jesus’ interaction with Nicodemus. Describe the type of interaction between Nicodemus and Jesus.