What is Your Party (Elder Joe Story, 09/03/22)

I mentioned the title of this sermon where it says,

What is your party?

When Jesus walked this earth, there were political parties.

Were you aware of that? It's nothing new.

They didn't call them Republicans or Democrats.

They didn't call them liberals or conservatives.

They called them, well, Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians.

There were Essenes, although the Bible doesn't mention them.

They weren't so much involved politically as they were kind of off in the desert.

We probably wouldn't know much about them if it weren't for the Dead Sea Scrolls.

But Jesus had to deal with the political parties when he was here in doing his ministry

because the political parties dealt with him and later on with his followers.

They weren't just political parties. They were religious parties.

And you've heard of them. They all have a bad name today amongst Christian circles

because they didn't get along with Jesus real well.

You understand what I'm saying, right?

We especially read about Pharisees and Sadducees.

Sadducees, let me give you just a little history.

After the Persian period, during the Greek period, the Israelites,

well, basically the Jews and the tribe of Benjamin,

and a few remnants of the other ten tribes that were left,

had their go-around with the Greek king, with Antiochus and the various,

well, especially Antiochus IV.

And it was a priest, man of the priestly family, who led the revolt against the Greeks.

And so the priests became, and this was in accordance with the prophecy of Zechariah,

the priests became kings as well as priests.

And out of this were two parties.

We don't know the exact history, for instance, of the Pharisees.

We know that the name Pharisee is related to the name of Persia.

And if you were to go to Persia today, especially northeast Persia,

or to northwest Pakistan, you would find that people there speak a language

that is basically old Persian, and it's called Farsi.

It doesn't sound that very much different from Farsi.

And it comes from the same root.

They were very extremely, well, how should I say it?

The apostle Paul said they were the strictest of the sects,

because they were also a sect.

They were religious as well as political.

And as I said, they tended to be conservative,

and I think many of us would not have too much trouble relating to them,

at least along the line somewhere, because they took the Bible very seriously.

We'll say more about them later.

The Sadducees were the priestly party, or they became the priestly party,

and they were very much into political power.

Don't get me wrong, the Pharisees weren't against political power either.

But they did believe in the Bible, or so they said.

They were looking forward to the Messiah.

It is no accident on the night when Jesus was arrested,

when he and the other disciples left the upper room,

they sang a hymn and went out.

It's thought that hymn was Psalm 117,

which was known amongst the Jewish people as the Great Hillel.

It was basically a chorus,

and they sang it at the Passover time every year,

and it was praising God, and I believe Hillel was a Pharisee.

So many of the Pharisees were into Scripture,

and they took it very, very seriously.

Unfortunately, as time went on, they got into casuistry.

Now, that's a big word, but it's fairly short meaning.

You take a rule, a law, and by the way,

this is very popular amongst some Christians as well,

especially in Catholic legal circles.

They will take a law and say, well, with the Jews,

they would ask a question, what is it lawful to do on the Sabbath,

because they wanted to keep the Sabbath properly.

Is that a good idea or not?

Do you want to keep the Sabbath?

Well, when I was growing up, there was a lot of casuistry amongst Adventists.

What is it proper to do on the Sabbath?

Is it okay to go swimming? No.

Is it okay to wade? Yes.

Some of you remember those times, yes.

And if we kids were wading, we'd usually manage to fall,

and well, you know how it is.

The Pharisees were into that, and you've heard it.

Mainly, we're acquainted with some of their Sabbath rules,

and they were honest, I believe, in this.

They would ask questions like, is it,

what is it lawful to do on the Sabbath?

Is it lawful to spit?

Well, yes, if you do it on the pavement,

but if you do it on the ground, you may water a plant,

irrigate a plant, that would be work,

and that's forbidden in the commandment.

Casuistry gets you into things like that.

Is it okay to walk any distance on the Sabbath?

Yes, of course it is.

You can go a Sabbath day's journey,

and so if they knew they had to make a journey longer than that on the Sabbath,

they would place a lunch the day before at the stopping point.

So if you stopped and ate lunch,

then you could take another Sabbath day's journey,

and you follow what this would lead to?

Some of you are smiling and shaking your heads,

and I understand, my wife and I were in, during Celebration 88,

we were in Minneapolis, and my Jewish friend that I'd gone to school with

came over to visit us.

We were staying on the 14th floor.

He walked up all 14 flights of steps to knock on our door.

Now, I asked him, I said, there's an elevator.

He says, oh, we don't do that on the Sabbath.

That would be completing a circuit,

and that's akin to lighting a fire,

and we don't do those things on the Sabbath.

So we got down to the bottom, and he remembered that he had left his,

was it his Bible or his Old Testament scriptures in the room,

and he's thinking 14 flights of stairs to go up and get it.

I said, you can't take the elevator, right?

He says, well, I can't operate an elevator.

I said, can I? Yeah, you can do it.

So we did.

But this sort of approach to keeping the law is called casuistry,

and it came from the Pharisees.

They were certainly following the law or trying to,

and you have to admit they were probably very honest in doing it.

Many of them were very godly people.

The Sadducees believed, according to Matthew and according to Paul,

they only believed in the five books of Moses.

Now, why they didn't believe in Job, which was also written by Moses,

I don't know, but they didn't.

They believed in only the five books,

and so they didn't believe in a resurrection,

because that's not spelled out in Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, or Deuteronomy, right?

You can find the resurrection very strongly in Job, Chapter 14, Chapter 19.

Job 14 · chapter mention

Job was very clear about the resurrection, but see, they didn't accept that,

so they didn't believe in a resurrection.

They didn't believe in angels or spirits.

And you know, you've heard the old saying that came from HMS Richard Sr.

They didn't believe in a resurrection, so they were sad, you see.

And that's been around in Adventism, and I think there's a lot of truth in it.

But they were definitely into power,

because the high priesthood had become a high political position.

You could be appointed to that.

And we know that, oh, in 78 A.D., the king who was priest and king,

Alexander Geneas was, well, he was high priest, he was also king,

and he had a lot of, he was very unpopular with the Jewish people.

He had offered sacrifices at one point.

I don't remember if it was Passover or not,

but he was wearing his armor from battle, offering sacrifices.

That didn't go over well, and the crowd that was there pelted him with citrons,

sort of like grapefruit or something they were throwing at him.

I don't remember how that all turned out.

But when he died in 78 A.D., his last words to his wife,

who was going to be taking charge of the throne, was,

make peace with the Pharisees.

She hated the Pharisees, but she made peace with them and followed their advice.

During that period, Judah went through a time of prosperity

such as they had never seen before.

So the Pharisees did do some good things.

The Sadducees were often arrayed against the Pharisees,

and of course, they were educated men.

They knew those five books of Moses well, and they liked to bring up,

they loved to get into arguments, theological arguments with the Pharisees.

It's kind of fun to get into Matthew,

where they actually bring up against Jesus,

because he talked about things like the resurrection.

So you know the story.

In Matthew, they come, and by the way, Mark and Luke also tell the story,

where they come to Jesus, and they say,

please tell us, I think that's in Matthew 22,

well before the resurrection, there's a man who had a wife,

and he died childless, and so his brother took her,

that's according to the Levitical law,

and the brother took her, and he died childless.

And so the next brother in line took her, and he died childless.

And so on, through all seven brothers,

and the last one died, and they were still childless,

and last of all, the woman died.

Whose wife shall she be in the resurrection?

Boy, had they put Pharisees over the barrel on that one,

and they thought they had him.

Just try putting Jesus over the barrel.

You can't do it.

And they sure found out.

He said, well, you do greatly err not knowing the scriptures

or the power of God.

And then he said very simply, in the resurrection,

there is no marrying or giving in marriage.

They shall be like the angels, those who attain to the resurrection.

And of course, many of us today, we say, well, what's that going to be like?

We don't know.

But he did.

And suddenly, the Sadducees were over a barrel.

And it's kind of interesting, he went on to tell them about,

he told them about the scriptures and the power of God,

and they were kind of standing there with their lips flapping in the breeze.

They didn't know what to do.

He had beaten them.

You can't put God over a barrel.

You just can't do that.

Actually, both parties, we could say,

we could easily label the Sadducees the liberals of their day,

because they thought it was okay to try to get along with the Romans and the Greeks

and whoever else, as long as they were in power.

The Pharisees were not necessarily, well,

they were very much into what was right and wrong, as we've already discussed.

And they had a problem, both parties had a problem with Jesus.

They managed to get together to crucify Jesus.

Wasn't that something?

It actually started back in the beginning of his ministry.

You can read about it in Matthew, I think it's chapter, oh, let's see.

Matthew, chapter, I keep wanting to say two, that doesn't sound right, probably three.

Malachi, Matthew.

Jesus appeared in the temple.

And there were some things going on in the temple that were not right.

You know about this.

Jesus appears in the temple, and he appears as the Son of God in human flesh.

His eyes are drawn to him, and they see the divinity flashing through humanity.

Those who are there on improper missions, such as selling cattle, doves, sheep,

those who are there changing the money to the temple coinage.

By the way, these were very lucrative businesses, you know?

I mean, after all, why would you allow them in the temple?

And guess who's getting their cut?

The Sadducees.

And maybe some of the Pharisees, I don't know.

But what I do know is that Jesus appears with, actually this is in John, chapter two.

He appears, and these men who are doing these things can't wait to get out of his sight.

We're told that Jesus was knotting a little whip of cords.

I don't know that he doesn't say he used it, but boy, they were on the run, those guys.

And afterwards, I'm sure these same men sat down, I mean, we're talking Sadducees,

people who are wealthy and powerful, and they said, why did we run from him?

We don't know.

We won't ever let that happen again.

And then Matthew tells us how at the end of his ministry, he shows up and does the same thing,

and the same guys run.

They can't wait to get out of his sight.

And according to Matthew, then they all got together, the priests and the Pharisees,

the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and they decide they need to get rid of this guy.

Yeah, they start deciding how are we going to kill him, and they start laying their plans.

Now, I've got so many texts here about Pharisees and Sadducees, John 2, 14 to 17,

and then you have Matthew and Mark and Luke that tell about the cleansing of the temple

at the last week of his life there.

There are so many things about these people, how the Pharisees, although they claim to be

looking forward to the Messiah when he showed up, he and they were not on the same page.

They just weren't.

I know people today who are just like the Sadducees, and I know some who are like the Pharisees.

I remember early in my ministry, we had a doctor coming to our church who pulled me aside one day

and told me, he said, you should be a Democrat, because Democrats care about people.

Oh, I thought that was interesting.

Then I remember another person back, I was an academy student.

This guy had graduated from our academy three or four years before I had,

but he was there maybe for alumni, I don't remember, and he was talking with some other guys

about a militia group down in Kansas City, Missouri, and he was telling them,

these people are right about politics just like Adventists are about religion.

I thought, hmm, that's kind of a sour note.

I don't, in fact, later on, we had a church where one of our church members was actually

the head of the Republican party in that county, and she would tell me,

you better hope the Republicans get back in charge.

I always, my dad wasn't a Christian, but I remember him telling me, son,

you don't have to belong to a political party to vote for the right person.

And check him out carefully, okay, that was good advice, dad, thank you.

And just like in Jesus' day, there are people who think that somehow we can end the church,

by the way, who think we can solve the world's problems politically.

I don't know, maybe you're one of them.

But I have noticed, well, I remember, was it in the 80s or the 90s when the Republicans took control

of the House, and I remember thinking, well, maybe we won't have so many scandals, but we did.

It didn't seem to make any difference which party was in power.

And I have thought about it, in Jesus' day, of course, there were other parties, there were the Herodians.

In fact, one of the few political statements Jesus made in his ministry, I believe, was to the Herodians,

and Luke, no, John, Acts, June, John.

They came to him, they came to Jesus, and they said, you need to get out of here, Herod wants to kill you.

Anybody remember how he replied?

He said, go tell that fox.

And he went on to make a prophecy about his death and resurrection after three days.

Now, that's just a powerful little response, but it's about as political as he ever got.

And then, of course, according to Luke, the night before his, well, the night that he was arrested,

he was talking to his disciples in the upper room, and he told them, do you remember when I sent you out

without purse or bag, extra clothes, did you lack anything?

No, we didn't.

He said, now the time has come to buy your extra sandals and take your money with you,

and if you don't have a sword to buy one.

Remember that?

And somebody said, here's two swords.

That'd be today like somebody said, oh, we got a couple of pistols here, we're in good shape.

Jesus said, that's enough.

Do you remember in the garden how he handled the mob they came,

and the disciples were saying, shall we strike with the sword, shall we strike with the sword?

And Peter, without waiting for an answer, was off sides, and he comes out with his sword,

and off goes the high priest's servant's ear.

Remember that little story?

And Jesus says, put your sword up.

Don't you know I could call on my father, and he would send 12 legions of angels in Sabbath school.

We saw how many were in a legion, 6,038 people or something like that.

And he could call 12 times that, and God would have sent them.

And yes, there are people who think there is salvation in politics,

there is salvation in carrying guns, in doing all kinds of things,

and I want to make it very, very clear, my friends, there are other political parties.

Yes, there's Democrats, there's Republicans.

We don't have Herodians today, there's Libertarians, Constitutional Party,

and we could go on, and some of them even think they're going to bring about some sort of nirvana

or utopia or something else, but I want to make it very, very clear.

As followers of Jesus Christ, there is a party to which, by God's grace, I belong.

Jesus, in talking with Pilate, talked about his followers as if they were a political party.

He said, my kingdom is not of this world, or else my servants would what? Fight.

We, with Abraham, look for a city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

And I'm not saying don't vote, but I would say be very careful who you vote for.

Check out their policies and that sort of thing.

But I would like to point to you that both the liberals and the conservatives stood in Pilate's court and cried,

crucify him, crucify him.

And we are in a time when the conservatives are looking for a return to, not of Christ,

although some of them may be, I'm not going to judge other people,

but they're making a lot of political noise about establishing a Christian democracy,

some kind of a Christian government, which would lead sooner or later to the enforcement of Arrest Day,

and not likely to be the Sabbath.

And did you know the liberals today are pushing for a Earthrest Day as part of the climate control issues?

Did you know that? It's part of the Paris Accords.

And it's very interesting to see how both sides are pushing towards the same goal by different means and in different words,

but they're all going the same direction. Isn't that interesting?

And for those who think that we are in a time when politics can save the nation and save us,

I would suggest there is another party, and Jesus called them his followers.

He prayed that they might be one, as he and his father are one, and that they might be one with him and his father.

Now, that's a concept that in many churches is very foreign.

It's a political party, but it's a godly political party.

And believe me, dictators of foreign countries are well aware of the politics involved in people following a king that they cannot touch.

Did you know that if you live in North Korea and you are a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, or any kind of Christian for that matter,

there is no issue as to whether you will be martyred or not. The issue is when. When will it happen in your life?

Because dictators see Jesus as competition.

It was true under Mao as it is in North Korea. It's true in other places in the world.

And yet for all of their violence towards the followers of Jesus, in the words of Tertullian,

the great Christian lawyer in North Africa, back around 250 AD, the blood of the martyrs is seed.

Because we have a head of the Christian party who not only knows how to handle life, but he knows how to handle death.

He's been there when the mob shouted, crucify him.

He was also there when the Roman soldiers were making sure that his body wasn't stolen.

And one angel struck them all down as dead men.

The only human witnesses to Jesus' resurrection, Roman soldiers. Isn't that amazing?

And so we are still in a time when Pharisees, you don't hear them talked about anymore.

There are traditions of the elders in Judaism. Sadducees have gone the way of the dinosaur.

But there is still Jesus. His party still reigns. It isn't just a national party.

It's an international party. And it's backed up with the armies of heaven, more than 12 legions of angels.

And God can still handle life, and he can still handle death. And he can bring death and make it into life.

What party do you belong to? Where is your hope?

I would like to suggest that as Americans, we are very fortunate, we can belong to Jesus' party without persecution at this point.

There are lots of places in the world where you can't. So what party do you belong to?

In one of these days, Jesus is coming back. He promised he would.

And we are told in Daniel 11 that a man of sin will try to cut off God's people from the rest of the earth.

We are told that in Revelation 13. And we are also told in Revelation 14 that Jesus is going to come for his people.

We are told that actually all through the New Testament.

And the real question at that point is not who are you voting for, but who votes for you.

How about it?