WORD
- Not all Pharisees are hypocrites.
- Hypocrites are those who profess to Christians but in their heart and conduct are not. They have the form of godliness but deny the power of Christ.
- Hypocrites profane the name of God.
Matthew 22:15-46
FOUR QUESTIONS
1. Taxes
2. Marriage, Resurrection, and Life
3. Greatest Commandment
4. Messiah
FOUR INQUIRERS
1. Herodians (statesmen, pro-Romans)
2. Sadducees (law teachers, only the Pentateuch)
3. Pharisees (religious leaders)
4. Jesus
- Traps go without warning. It is designed to catch people off-guard.
- The art of flattery is designed to lower down a person’s guard.
- Deceitful people conceal their questions in a different form.
- Tax collector in this time betray his nation to gain money.
- There will be people that elevate themselves as god.
- To confess Jesus as your Lord in this time is to court death.
- Some people approach others wonderfully but their intentions are evil.
- Render to your Owner what is due Him.
- Jesus did not fight the government but created a line to distinguish between what provides social welfare and development and what leads people to God.
- Respect the people in the state government. They are responsible for the protection of the nation.
- A Christian should not allow the world to claim what belongs to God.
- There are limits and jurisdictions between state and the church.
1 Peter 2:17
Acts 23:8
- Sadducees are like liberal theologians today, imputing their reality on the Scripture, not the other way round.
- Sadducees don’t believe in heavenly things.
- Some people ask absurd questions just for the sake of trapping another person.
- How would people know the power of God if they don’t understand the Scripture.
- If the promise of heaven is earthly and you desire it, then truly you are carnal. But the promise of heaven is truly heavenly. Some people tend to deceive others by making heaven appeal to the earthly desires of men.
2 Timothy 1:13
- If you do not believe in God, how can you believe the other heavenly things?
Mark 12:24
Mark 12:13
- Sincere and seeking Pharisees are not far from the kingdom of God and if they will continue, they will eventually enter.
- We can communicate knowledge but only God can enlighten a man.
- To love God with all your heart is to love Him more than anything else.
- While we are here on earth, let us fix our eyes on Jesus.
- To love God with all your soul means to love Him with all your life.
- To love God with all your mind means to love God’s instructions more than your own knowledge.
- Cling to the instructions of God.
- To love God with all your strength is to toil and labor for His glory.
- We are made to glorify God and to serve others. We ought to glorify Him in little things.
- Corrupt love is a selfish love. It always destroys.
- Extend the love of God to others.
- Without love of God, all the things we do are meaningless.
- It is not a burden to do good things for the one you love.
- Jesus, though in lineage of David in the flesh, is the Son of God. David addressed the coming Son as his Lord so that Jesus is greater than David. For Jesus displayed both His humanity and divinity.
- Now that they cannot trap Jesus, they resorted to violence.
- We continue in Christ because of our hope in Him and the resurrection.
