The Big Problem With The Pharisees, Sadducees, And Herodians

ACROSS THE BOARD: The Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians all get the same criticism.

- Matthew 16:11; Mark 8:15.

- In our passage we see the Pharisees and the Sadducees criticized. Let’s add another group before we move on.

- In Mark 8:15 we have a similar passage. This is after the feeding of the four thousand and here too there is a mention of Herod thrown in. If we take that to be focused on those who were Herod’s followers, we now have three groups.

- Let’s talk about these three groups in broad strokes and then see if we can find how this “yeast” criticism touches all three.

a. First, the Pharisees.

- This group gets the brunt of Jesus’ criticism throughout His ministry, but not all of it.

- For our purposes here, there is one important thing we need to bring out: they were religiously conservative. They took their book of faith seriously, they were restrictive in their interpretations, and they believed in morality.

b. Second, the Sadducees.

- This group gets some criticism from Jesus (perhaps most notably in response to the “seven brothers” question) but not as much as the Pharisees.

- For our purposes here, there is one important thing we need to bring out: they were religiously liberal. They didn’t believe in resurrection and they were more elite within the culture.

c. Third, the Herodians.

- This group of Jews decided to work with Herod and the Roman government. This led many of their fellow Jews to consider them traitors to the true faith but they felt like they were dealing with the real facts on the ground.

- For our purposes here, there is one important thing we need to bring out: they were religiously pragmatic. They believed you’ve got to look at what’s going on and do what has to be done.

- This leads us to an interesting quandary. We are trying to figure out what the “yeast” is but we have three disparate groups all accused of having the same problem. How is that possible?

- How could religious conservatives, religious liberals, and religious pragmatists all have the same issue?

- Additionally, often we consider ourselves one of those groups and presume that because we are in that group then we are golden. But here we are with Jesus criticizing all three groups.

“BE ON YOUR GUARD”: The “yeast” that Jesus spoke of here was hypocrisy.

- Matthew 16:11-12.

- Verse 11 has the mention of the “yeast.”

- Verse 12 identifies it as “the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” This doesn’t fully answer the question, though, because it leads us to ask: what specifically about that teaching. And it’s not an easy answer because the Pharisees and Sadducees were so different in their beliefs.

- Luke 12:1, though, provides us with the insight that we need. There is tells us that the “yeast” is hypocrisy. So that needs to be our focus in this passage.

- Let’s go back to the three groups from the last point.

- Apparently being a religious conservative isn’t enough (if that’s how you think of yourself). Hypocrisy can wipe that out.

- Apparently being a religious liberal isn’t enough (if that’s how you think of yourself). Hypocrisy can wipe that out.

- Apparently being a religious pragmatist isn’t enough (if that’s how you think of yourself). Hypocrisy can wipe that out.

- Jesus is going for something else.

“THE OUTSIDE OF THE CUP”: The focus is on the outside of the person.

- Matthew 6:2; Matthew 23:15; Matthew 23:25.

- Hypocrisy finds us putting our focus on what we appear to be.

- Let’s look at that in each of the three examples we’ve been using. In each, let’s look at a practical example from the gospels.

a. The Pharisees.

- Matthew 23:15.

- First, let’s find a passage that brings out an issue that is normative for conservatives.

- Matthew 23:15 gives us one: evangelism.

- Conservative Christians are known for their emphasis on evangelism. People need to know the Lord and that requires that we witness.

- What could be wrong with evangelism? Well, it’s not actually that there’s anything wrong with evangelism, but there is a problem when a hypocritical conservative believer evangelizes and Matthew 23:15 nails it.

- There is all that enthusiasm about evangelism – even to the point where a believer is willing to travel a long distance to win a single convert. What dedication! What passion! But when the convert comes into the fold and pursues what they’ve been taught with abandon, they become twice as much a son of hell as the first. If the person witnessing provides the model for the convert to follow and that model is badly broken by hypocrisy, then the end result is going to be bad.’