Troublemakers in the Church by Mark Atteberry

Author:Mark Atteberry
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian culture, Christian ministry, church community, church culture, dealing with difficult people, toxic people
ISBN: 9781496471574
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
Published: 2022-02-25T18:16:56+00:00

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NOTES

[15] “Why Church Leaders are Vulnerable to Infidelity and Por­nography (& What to Do about It),” Only You Forever, https://www.onlyyouforever.com/why-church-leaders-are-vulnerable-to-infidelity-pornography/.

[16]Jon Acuff, “Church Is the Best Place to Meet Dates,” Stuff Christians Like, September 25, 2010, https://stuffchristianslike.net/2010/09/25

/church-is-the-best-place-to-meet-dates/.

#7

The Pharisee

I was a preacher for forty-six years, and I honestly don’t know what I would have done without the Pharisees we meet in the Gospels. Their words and actions (and Jesus’ scuffles with them) provided me with mountains of sermon ideas and illustrations galore. Anytime I needed a good example of how religious people should not behave, I could count on the Pharisees to provide one on a silver platter.

I quickly learned, however, that Pharisees are much more tolerable on the written page than they are in real life. When a phari­saical person shows up in your church, you’re going to have headaches, hurt feelings, and probably some casualties. In Scripture, there are four qualities in particular for which Pharisees are known that make them bad news for any church today.

First, the Pharisees were self-righteous. They simply thought they were better than everybody else. Jesus talked about one Pharisee who prayed, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people” (Luke 18:11). This religious leader wasn’t referring to having different political views or interests or hobbies. He was referring to himself as living on an entirely different plane, being more knowledgeable, more spiritual, more connected to God.

Second, the Pharisees were extremely judgmental. They were so into judging people that they actually went around trying to catch people in some egregious sin so they could make a big to-do about it. A case in point would be the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1–11). Typically, when people commit acts that could get them executed (and, yes, adultery was a capital offense at that time), they go to great lengths to keep their actions a secret. But somehow the Pharisees caught her in the act. Did they set a trap for her? Did they know she was attracted to a certain man and decided to follow her wherever she went until they caught her? And how did they get an eyewitness? Was someone hiding in the bedroom closet, or did someone burst through the door at just the right moment? And where was the guy? Why didn’t they frog-march him out of the room too? Such questions are almost too creepy to contemplate, but they were perfectly in character for the Pharisees.

Third, the Pharisees were notoriously closed-minded. The main reason they rejected Jesus was because he didn’t fit the reinforced concrete structure of their theology. They were expecting someone like themselves, but Jesus showed up looking and acting like a servant. They were expecting a fire-breathing politician who would take on Rome, but Jesus showed up caring a whole lot more about ordinary people than about overthrowing Rome. Even in spite of all the miracles Jesus did, which attested so clearly to his messiahship, the Pharisees rejected him because he just didn’t fit their preconceived theological notions.

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