The Pastor’s Pen

Often, it’s either our best or worst qualities which define us and get remembered. We humans are creatures of extremes, and its these extremes in character that make us aware of our need for Jesus Christ. Similarly, our extremes are often the very things God calls us to refine (sanctify) and use for His glory.

Little is known of Stephen in Scripture except that which is of greatest value. We are robbed of all but the absolute best information of this man’s life as God stamped Stephen’s character into biblical history. Acts 6:5 records that the Christian community considered Stephen to be a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit. The world could not help but notice Stephen’s love for the Lord Jesus. It was these obvious character traits which qualified Stephen to serve with what we assume to be the first group of deacons.

The Lord saw fit to enable him to be full of grace and power, doing great wonders and signs among the people (Acts 6:8). By worldly standards, Stephen was a contradiction. While used powerfully by the Lord, he was selected for serving the widows and the daily distribution of food to the needy (Acts 6:1). Take note, spiritual influence for God comes wrapped in humility and a servant heart.

As is always the case, it did not take the enemy long to recognise the Lord’s character in Stephen, and the attack began. Acts 6:9-15 details the public confrontation by evil religious fanatics’ intent on silencing Stephen. They disputed publicly with him, but they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking. Failing this, they conspired false accusations, supported by false witnesses, then they dragged Stephen into a cooked-up court. While they vented their hatred at him in court, all who sat in the council saw that his (Stephen’s) face was like the face of an angel (Acts 6:15). Praise God, Stephen did not respond in the expected way, despite the seriousness of the situation.

Acts 7:2-53 recounts Stephen’s defence speech, which turned out to be no defence at all. Instead, this courageous Christian retold Israel’s rebellious history. It was direct, and it was cutting as he confronted his opponents. You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit. As your fathers did, so do you (Acts 7:51). Grinding their teeth in rage, they noticed as Stephen full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ⁵⁶ And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:55-56).

Well, that was just too much for this idolatrous bunch. Blocking their ears, they cast him out of the city and stoned him (Acts 7:58). Interestingly, unsaved Saul, later to become the apostle Paul, was present and approving of this bogus execution (Acts 7:58; 8:1). As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” ⁶⁰ And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep (Acts 7:59-60). Faithfully gracious in the most extreme of sacrifices for Jesus, yet seeking forgiveness for his executioners, Stephen was ushered into the presence of His waiting Lord and Saviour.

By God’s grace, may our Saviour mould us to follow Stephen’s example of faithfulness and graciousness. May we set our minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (Colossians 3:2), as we speak well of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Possibly the most seductive weapons against Christians are their own desires for self and self-preservation. Desires to satisfy self is one thing, but when selfishness is protected and preserved, it becomes a weapon that delivers staggering damage to Christian values and priorities. Once a sense of entitlement is given to self-desires, the sinful flesh wars to retain that position of authority. Surrendering the inner ruling throne of self to Jesus Christ as Lord is often fought against vigorously. Consequently, the battle rages between submissive obedience to Christ as Lord, or, to only put on the appearance of submissive obedience.

Into this bloodthirsty battle for the heart steps the Bible’s example of the scribes and Pharisees. Woe 5 – Mat 23:25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.”
The public appearance of these religious leaders looked nice and righteous, but inside, they were evil. They looked religious and appeared to fear God because of their attention to detail. Yet, they were hypocrites because inside they were loaded with many sins of the heart that people could not see, but God saw it perfectly (1 Samuel 16:7).

In Matthew 23:25, Jesus identifies two prevailing sins. The first is obvious, their hypocrisy. Their double standards. Their untrustworthy two-faced character meant their outward living was just a mask covering their sinful hearts. Secondly, inside they were greedy and self-indulgent. Greed and self-indulgence are two expressions of the one sin – selfishness. These two sinful qualities work together to express the motives and desires of the heart that loves self-first.

Greed always looks for ways to get more for self. It makes no difference if it is looking for more attention from others, more freedoms, more authority, more possessions, or more money. Greed always demands more, often wanting what belongs to others, those things which it is not entitled to. Greed then creates ways of justifying and getting those things. Then, self-indulgence spends the things it accumulates on self. A self-indulgent heart has all its priorities upside down; it is always making excuses for neglecting others for the sake of self. Self comes first, and there is no room for anyone else, including God.

Jesus response is, “first clean the inside… that the outside also may be clean” (Matthew 23:26). Jesus’ point is this, right behaviour flows from a right heart. And only Jesus Christ can transform a sin-focused, self-preserving heart into one that desires to be ruled by Christ through righteous attitudes and behaviour. Only then, can the healthy heart produce healthy fruit.

Only Jesus Christ is able to save us from the many sins of self. Jesus saves us not because of works done by us in righteousness (self), but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Trusting that Jesus was loaded with our sin, and that He was judged and died in our place on the cross because of our sin, launches spiritual rebirth into a Christ-dominated life. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). This spiritual transformation enabled Paul to say, the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14), to me to live is Christ… (Philippians 1:21), and not self.

Only the Lord Jesus Christ can conquer and dethrone self with its recurring desire to rule your heart and behaviour. May we today, by faith, live Christ-dominated lives.

Selfishness has the ability to change masks quickly and without warning. But the one thing that remains common to all masks is the self-indulgent desires motivating the activity. When self-preservation and self-vindication are high priorities, we know there’s trouble brewing.

Woe 3 – Mat 23:16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, if anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.” The scribes and Pharisees were a creative bunch, using words to twist truth and confuse people into believing their lies. They justified lying in their own minds to remove accountability to others. They achieved this through a complex system of oaths and promises to one another which meant nothing.

It worked something like this. A person could lie as much as they wanted, just as long as they swore “by the temple” that they were telling the truth. A person was only held responsible to honour their oath if they swore “by the gold of the temple.” Listen to Jesus’ fierce response in Matthew 23:17, “you blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?” Even by earthly standards, the temple is far greater in significance than the gold within it. This double standard method of speaking meant that you could not trust anything spoken by the scribes and Pharisees.

Similarly, they were masters at turning God’s priorities upside down to suit their own ends. They would change God’s values to become back to front, exalting the minor things while devaluing the important things.

Woe 4 – Mat 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”
Mint, dill, and cumin were common garden herbs used as kitchen spices and were not considered to be farm produce. That’s important, because under the Old Testament law all farm produce was to have a tithe (10 percent) paid to the treasury of Israel (Leviticus 27:30). But the scribes and Pharisees stretched the tithe tax on farm produce to include the household garden herbs such as mint, dill, and cumin. So, when picking herbs from the garden, people were expected to count out the leaves and seeds. One in every ten had to be put aside for God. This was painfully slow and required a great deal of precision and patience, particularly when counting seeds.

These corrupt leaders placed great emphasis on the details of insignificant tasks, while they “neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness” (Matthew 23:23). People soon got the idea that according to their leaders, God was not interested in the big things such as moral issues and personal righteousness.  But He was interested in the tiny things which were of no real value.

Such devious forms of self-righteousness can become powerfully manipulative, particularly in our relationships, where self may seek to justify all kinds of distorted Christian behaviour. As with Lucifer, and as was true of the scribes and Pharisees, self requires monitoring for infection of heart desires. Paul presents a really good thermometer for our relationships, “let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding” (Romans 14:19). Christ is active when mutual upbuilding is purposed into relationships and activities. This, instead of self, is what makes for peace in our relationships.

To be continued…

From the very first sin, self has been in the heart desire and ambition. With ‘self’ being the idol of the heart, it strives to raise itself to the highest possible position in all areas of life. From religion to relationships, ‘self’ lurks as the internal resident, always looking for dominance.

Woe 2 – Matthew 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.” These fake religious leaders were self-righteous in their pursuit of reproducing error. Travelling long distances, they used their money, time, and energy to win others over to their false beliefs. While ‘self’ hijacks its own affections, it also looks to replicate its self-styled religious passion into others. ‘Self’ is evangelistic by nature, with the scribes and Pharisees providing a good example of the many ways it works.

But it all started with Lucifer in heaven. Even before his sinful intentions were exposed, the Lord had identified his core problem, your heart is proud, and you have said, ‘I am a god’… (Ezekiel 28:2). Pride and self-promotion as god were in Lucifer’s heart. Likewise, these crippling qualities exist in the heart of every sinner to this day.

Lucifer, not being content to suffer the consequences of his original sin alone, took a great number of other angels with him in his heavenly revolt (Rev 12:4). So, it comes as no surprize, that in the garden of Eden, Satan successfully got Eve to think of self as she considered the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate… (Genesis 3:6). Eve’s heart was won over by appealing to her self-desires, how she would benefit from eating the forbidden fruit. To this day, the seductive force of ‘self’ works powerfully in sinful humanity, always striving to concur within, then to concur others.

Realise that ‘self’ never affects only one person. It, by nature, must infect others. Everyone surrounding the self-orienteered person is impacted, no exceptions. What’s worse, is that the ‘self’ missionary wants its followers to cover it’s sinful dominance by lying, or even worse, by choosing silence on the subject as ‘self’ continues the conquest.

So, with such a determined enemy working within, Scripture speaks clearly on how ‘self’ should be dealt with in the church of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul, realising the deceitfulness of self, addressed it head on in Ephesians 4:22-24, where he gives pointed instruction. Put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, ²³ and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, ²⁴ and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

This is simply another way of explaining repentance, which reverses the thoughts and behaviour of ‘self’ by continually turning its focus onto Jesus Christ as Lord (Rom 10:9-10; Heb 3:1). Repentance begins by acknowledging the danger of ‘self,’ then, it takes action to change the desires and behaviours of the pre-salvation expressions of self. Why, because the believer understands that the old self only corrupts through deceitful desires. Now, the child of God chooses to put on the new self, which expresses God’s righteousness. In this, the missionary efforts of the old self are replaced with the new missionary efforts to replicate Christ in others instead.

To be continued…

Israel’s Pharisees developed the most elaborate works-based system imaginable. With over 600 laws requiring strict observance, they had finely tuned the machinery of self-righteousness for looking right on the outside while being wrong on the inside. As always, self-righteousness first blinded them to their own error, sin, and hypocrisy. While being pleased with their outward achievements of religious format and displays of piety, they were completely uninterested in heart sins and how their sin negatively impacted others.

Self-righteousness always self-vindicates, quickly justifying sin with blind determination. The ‘self’ person energetically pushes ahead to promote the virtues of ‘self,’ with the words ‘I, me, my, mine, and myself’ being the common giveaways in its speech. Whenever self comes first it blinds the mind and heart to its ‘self’ pursuit of establishing ‘self’ in a parallel position with God. This form of idolatry is happy to acknowledge God by focusing on detail which gives the appearance of devotion to God, but in so doing, the heart fortifies itself as an idolatrous sanctuary of self.

The Pharisee’s self-control was used for the appearance of obeying rules and regulations. The importance of right appearances driven by pride consumed them. In their lust for recognition, they moved their religious acts into public places to “do all their deeds to be seen by others…” (Matthew 23:5). The more they chased after religious law, the more blinded they became to God’s righteousness which was to be lived by faith (Habakkuk 2:4).

Pharisees provide us with many lessons on the ways in which ‘self’ hides the inner nightmare of sin, going to great lengths in appearing to be good, happy, and God focused. Religious formality often ranks high in the priorities of ‘self,’ giving much attention to observing the details required by religious format and liturgy.

Matthew 23 records Jesus’ final blistering condemnation of Israel’s false spiritual leaders, who had a strict set of rules for the people to obey, but for themselves, “they preach, but do not practice” (Matthew 23:3). Self-righteousness will always exempt you from submissive obedience to Jesus as Lord, always providing an excuse for disobedience. The Pharisees were not only happy living this lie themselves, but they actively deceived others into living the same lie.

Among the many corrections given by Jesus in this sermon, were 7 damning woes, which we shall briefly consider over the next few weeks.
Woe 1 – Matthew 23:13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”
The scribes and Pharisees boasted a fancy and unique way for people to earn entrance into God’s kingdom. But the ugly reality was that they were shutting themselves out of God’s kingdom by their self-righteous works. They effectively removed the truth of Old Testament scriptures from people so that they could not identify any other way to live for God. By design, the deception would increasingly take people further from seeking truth to seeking self-righteousness as the only way of earning entrance into God’s kingdom.

In Colossians 3:1-3, Paul calls us to guard against, and proactively do the opposite of such self-righteousness, “if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. ² Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. ³ For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” The life of faith begins with Jesus Christ as Lord, not self, and not religious format, but Christ alone.

To be continued…