BEMA Episode Link: 80: Silent Years — Pharisees
Episode Length: 24:37
Published Date: Thu, 02 Aug 2018 01:00:00 -0700
Session 3
About this episode:

Marty Solomon and Brent Billings, with special guest Megan Gambino, near the end of our journey through the silent years and the context of Jesus’s ministry, examining the Pharisees.

Silent Years — Pharisees Presentation (PDF)

Addendum to BEMA 80 — Marty Solomon, YouTube

Discussion Video for BEMA 80

Megan Gambino on Instagram

Megan’s Website [no longer available]

BEMA 74: Silent Years — Synagogue

Transcript for BEMA 80

Notes

*Note: The following notes are handwritten by me, Adam, and I reserve the right to be wrong.

Hasidim (ha-SEE-dim)

  • Two groups that moved north toward Galilee: Zealots and the Pharisees.
  • The Pharisees would settle in “The Triangle” that was made up of the three cities of Corazin, Capernaum, and Bethsaida.
    • Some would also include Geneseret and Magada.
  • The Pharisee takes the same zeal the Zealot channels into militancy toward Rome and instead directs it toward devotion to obedience.
  • What do you do about Rome?
    • Sadducee: “We partner with them. We line our pockets with them.”
    • Herodians: “We get in bed with them. We love them.”
    • Essenes: “Run away. Get away. Rome? What Rome?”
    • Zealots: “Kill them.”
    • Pharisees: “You’re asking the wrong question. Let God deal with Rome. What we have to focus on is absolute devotion and obedience to his commandments. When we are finally the people God asks us to be, then God will rescue us.”
  • When we understand the Pharisaical world view, we begin to understand why the Pharisees are so hard on the sinner and the tax collector. “If we would just be obedient enough, God would come and save us.”
  • Matthew 11:21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.”
    • Jesus criticizes the Pharisees of The Triangle for their arrogance. Tyre and Sidon show up in Isaiah and is referred to as Satan falling from Heaven and it speaks of arrogance… Jesus says they will rise up ahead of you because you’re even MORE arrogant than they are.
    • The last group Jesus refers to is Sodom who is known for their lack of hospitality and for not protecting the marginalized. Jesus criticizes them for not having compassion which is the last piece they’re going to need to do the work Jesus wants them to do.
  • We the church struggle most with is that we are cultural herodians and religious pharisees.
    • We want to consume everything and live in all of the luxury.
    • We also lack all compassion when it comes to our religion.
    • I have everything else but I lack compassion for those that God cares about most.

Discussion

  • Remember
  • Head
    • Dig into the addendum video and lead a discussion about how we talk about pharisees and what that means historically.
  • Heart
    • What is your reaction to Marty’s statement that we are “the worst parts of the Herodians and Pharisees – that we’re cultural Herodians and religious Pharisees?”
    • Where have you experienced a more Pharisee-like worldview in the christian church?
    • What do the Pharisees look like?
    • What does it look like to incur the wrath of a more modern day Pharisaical worldview?
    • Do we associate as much with the Pharisees on a spiritual level as we do with the Herodians on a cultural level?
  • Hands
    • Are we associating with the Pharisees enough when we read the Gospels and the stories of Jesus and his disciples?
    • Do we read the Pharisees as another group of people or do we realize that the Pharisees are a group of people that we are supposed to associate with?
    • What happens when we get tied up enough in a faith expression that we claim to start acting like God’s gatekeepers?
    • When we’re reading the Bible and we notice the Pharisees, is it our knee-jerk reaction to ask ourselves what can we learn about what Jesus is trying to invite the Pharisees to see and to then to critique the Pharisee’s worldview?

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