Jesus versus Spiritual Leadership
I learned early on in my Christian life that there were some bad guys in New Testament, namely the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day, the worst being the Pharisees.
Today we can see God is currently confronting the hypocrisy of leaders in His Church. We can and should consider Jesus’ rebuke of the Jewish leadership of His day as a rebuke of Christian leadership today. They preached/taught one thing and did another. That is what has been/is being exposed in our hour as well. One thing God hates more than anything is hypocrisy, and especially hypocrisy in spiritual leaders’ lives. Jesus taught clearly that the spiritual influence of the Jewish leadership would be taken away. Of course, ultimately, their entire system was destroyed in AD70 with the destruction of the Jewish Temple and the end of a functioning priesthood as Jesus prophesied later that day to His disciples.
There are currently ministries whose influence is being taken away from them, much like it was being taken away from Judaism’s leaders in Jesus’ day. Ironically, some of these leaders/ministries do not yet realize it. They are doubling down. They are calling those who God has raised up to expose their sin as the “accusers of the brethren.” They are attempting to carry on. Getting back on the conference platform that was next up on their itinerary. They are putting out new prophetic words. And they think God is with them. What deception!
The Jewish leaders were convinced they were right and that they had God’s favor because they had their positions of power. They had the platforms and the influence. But because of Christ and the Kingdom movement He had started, they began losing their influence and ultimately lost it entirely several decades later.
A similar Kingdom movement is happening in our day. The cult of celebrity Christianity is under a similar type of judgment that the Jewish leadership was under (and would be under) in the 1st Century. And instead of agreeing with what God is doing, they would do almost anything to protect their “kingdoms” and maintain their places of influence.
And once again, I can reflect on the problems with OTHERS (whether that is the ancient Jewish leaders or the modern Christian ones), or I can ask the Holy Spirit to examine my own life. Where am I being a hypocrite? Where am I walking in pride? How well am I loving others? Have I done anything to anyone that could be considered "spiritually abusive"? Whereas it may not be millions of dollars being misused, am I in any way misusing Kingdom resources in my own life?
Being called a "Pharisee" is not something anybody wants to be called. In common Christian usage it is entirely derogatory with connotations of being judgmental, hypocritical and self-righteous.
As I grew a bit more, I realized that in many ways the Pharisees were the well-meaning conservatives. The Sadducees were more like liberals who compromised with the culture and didn't take the Bible nearly as seriously as the Pharisees.
I began to read the passages with the Pharisees a bit more carefully. I realized that as a conservative Christian, I was a lot more like the Pharisees than I had originally thought. And as I was involved (and still am involved) in Christian leadership, I should probably consider Jesus' interactions with them as important to the way He would interact with me!
In Romans 15:4, the Apostle Paul reminds us "that EVERYTHING that was written in the past was written to TEACH US."
Why did the Gospel writers include so many details about, and so many interactions with the Pharisees and the other Jewish leadership at that time? Taking Paul's admonition seriously, I must conclude that it was put there TO TEACH US...or more specifically TO TEACH ME!
Today is known as Holy Tuesday of Holy Week and on this day in history, Jesus interacted with the Jewish leadership in the Temple - He confronted them, He exposed them and a lot of the things we ended up thinking about the spiritual leadership in Judaism during Christ's life happened on Tuesday of Holy Week (see for example, Matthew 21 and 22).
Why did I entitle this blog post, "Jesus versus Spiritual Leadership"? For 2 reasons. First of all, if I had said, "Jewish Leadership", then like I did for a number of years as a young Christian, I would think it had nothing to do with me. "Spiritual Leadership" includes BOTH the Jewish leadership of Jesus' time AND the Christian leadership of our own.
Secondly, "versus" speaks of an opponent. It is Jesus on one side and someone else on the other. The leadership of Jesus' day all-to-often found themselves opposing Jesus and what He was teaching. Today, sadly, the same thing must be said about a lot of leadership in the Church today.
And I need to be careful here, because I can do with "them" what I did with the Pharisees. I can only too easily excuse myself from the following discussion. But at the end, I trust I will not.
Today we can see God is currently confronting the hypocrisy of leaders in His Church. We can and should consider Jesus’ rebuke of the Jewish leadership of His day as a rebuke of Christian leadership today. They preached/taught one thing and did another. That is what has been/is being exposed in our hour as well. One thing God hates more than anything is hypocrisy, and especially hypocrisy in spiritual leaders’ lives. Jesus taught clearly that the spiritual influence of the Jewish leadership would be taken away. Of course, ultimately, their entire system was destroyed in AD70 with the destruction of the Jewish Temple and the end of a functioning priesthood as Jesus prophesied later that day to His disciples.
There are currently ministries whose influence is being taken away from them, much like it was being taken away from Judaism’s leaders in Jesus’ day. Ironically, some of these leaders/ministries do not yet realize it. They are doubling down. They are calling those who God has raised up to expose their sin as the “accusers of the brethren.” They are attempting to carry on. Getting back on the conference platform that was next up on their itinerary. They are putting out new prophetic words. And they think God is with them. What deception!
The Jewish leaders were convinced they were right and that they had God’s favor because they had their positions of power. They had the platforms and the influence. But because of Christ and the Kingdom movement He had started, they began losing their influence and ultimately lost it entirely several decades later.
A similar Kingdom movement is happening in our day. The cult of celebrity Christianity is under a similar type of judgment that the Jewish leadership was under (and would be under) in the 1st Century. And instead of agreeing with what God is doing, they would do almost anything to protect their “kingdoms” and maintain their places of influence.
And once again, I can reflect on the problems with OTHERS (whether that is the ancient Jewish leaders or the modern Christian ones), or I can ask the Holy Spirit to examine my own life. Where am I being a hypocrite? Where am I walking in pride? How well am I loving others? Have I done anything to anyone that could be considered "spiritually abusive"? Whereas it may not be millions of dollars being misused, am I in any way misusing Kingdom resources in my own life?
If EVERYTHING that was written in the past was written to TEACH US, then I must allow the Lord to use it to TEACH ME...to rebuke me, to correct me.
To quote the words of a song we sang recently, “Lord, search me and see if there be ANY wicked way in me. Try my thoughts and know my heart. Jesus, you see right through me” (song: Fall on Your Mercy)
…and once again, Holy Tuesday, like Holy Monday, is all about HOLINESS. And yes, while it is about the holiness of others, I must never forget that it is mostly about my holiness.
To quote the words of a song we sang recently, “Lord, search me and see if there be ANY wicked way in me. Try my thoughts and know my heart. Jesus, you see right through me” (song: Fall on Your Mercy)
…and once again, Holy Tuesday, like Holy Monday, is all about HOLINESS. And yes, while it is about the holiness of others, I must never forget that it is mostly about my holiness.
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