30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 15 1-7 To seek and to save the lost - part I The lost sheep 02 The danger of becoming pharisaic
📖 Luke 15:1-7
24Jan2020 - *The danger of becoming pharisaic* - _Luke 15:1-7_ - Bible reading: _Luke 15:29-30_
_Luke 15:1-2 Then all the tax collectors and the sinners drew near to Him to hear Him. (2) And the Pharisees and scribes complained, saying, "This Man receives sinners and eats with them."_
We began yesterday with our study of the 15th chapter of Luke and we have titled this chapter as *To seek and to save the lost*. This is the heart of God and this is how our heart needs to be. The Lord desires that we always remain in a state of surrender and dependence on Him. Whereas, man wants independence and man finds dependence on God, as a sign of weakness.
Let’s understand the mindset of the pharisees, so that we ensure that we don’t fall into their trap.
The attitude of the pharisees can be understood from the narrative of the elder brother in the story of the prodigal son. _Luke 15:29-30 So he answered and said to his father, 'Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. (30) But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.'_
To the elder brother, his younger brother needed to be considered wicked and hence to be cast out and not welcomed, which was what his father was doing. But the Father’s heart is to embrace the lost.
We see a similar example in _Luke 7:37-39 And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, (38) and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. (39) Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, "This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”_ In the mind of this pharisee, a prophet should not come close to a sinner but only mingle with the ‘so called’, good people of society.
Friends, we need to guard our hearts. Have we become pharisaical? Have we started looking down on those who are the ‘lost’ in society? Do we condemn them? Have we become those, who find it comfortable to only circulate with the ‘good’?
Let us ask the Lord to give us His heart, which is to seek and to save the lost.
*Thought to ponder*
```Unless, we recognise our own unworthiness and need for God, only then will we be able to connect with those, who are broken. If we don’t, our evangelism and our outreach will be ‘top-down’ ```