It is not an easy task to stand up for true doctrine against a collective group of religious Pharisees. Jesus did it and they crucified Him.
This morning, instead of going to a church building, God wanted to lead me through the Bible to remind me of the times that He sent prophets and disciples to fight against a religious “culture”.
When I sat down at the table (at Dunkin Donuts), my Bible opened to the book of the prophet Isaiah. My eyes locked in on a passage, and I read it.
“Woe to those who go to great depths
to hide their plans from the Lord,
who do their work in darkness and think,
‘Who sees us? Who will know?’
You turn things upside down,
as if the potter were thought to be like the clay!
Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it,
‘You did not make me’?
Can the pot say to the potter,
‘You know nothing’?” (Isaiah 29:15-16 NIV)
After reading in Isaiah, the Lord, said “turn the pages”. Which I did, measured section by measured section until I arrived at the book of Acts. When I got to the place that God wanted to talk about, He said, “stop there, and turn one single page.” So, I did. My eyes locked on to a passage in Acts 10 about Cornelius (a Gentile) having a vision, followed by Peter’s vision that included words from the Lord.
“Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (Acts 10:15 NIV)
What the Lord pointed out to me was that both of those men were hearing God direct them away from a religious protocol. Peter points out that it was against the law of the Jews to associate with a Gentile, yet he went to the home of a Gentile because the Lord told him to. In the vision, Peter was told to eat unclean or impure food.
This text reminds me of when the prophet Ezekiel was told to cook his food in an “unclean” manner to symbolize God’s justice against Jerusalem (ref. Ezekiel 4:14). Both Ezekiel and Peter had such ingrained ideas of the laws of clean and unclean that they could not immediately obey God when this subject was introduced to them.
Do you remember the words about this from Jesus recorded in Matthew 15?
“Jesus called the crowd to him and said, ‘Listen and understand. What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.’ Then the disciples came to him and asked, ‘Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this?’ He replied, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots. Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.’ Peter said, ‘Explain the parable to us.’ ‘Are you still so dull?’ Jesus asked them. ‘Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” (Matthew 15:10-20 NIV)
Peter had already personally heard those words from the Lord before receiving the vision that emphasized the message “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.” (Acts 10:15 NIV)
Notice that God called the Pharisees “blind guides”? They were blind because they did not SEE the vision that God gave to Peter.
Let’s look at another passage on this same subject, where God calls the religious Pharisees “hypocritical liars”.
“The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Timothy 4:1-5 NIV)
You know that Paul, who was formerly a religious Pharisee, was told to accept the Gentile believers — the uncircumcised! (How dare God shake things up that way!)
“No, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a person’s praise is not from other people, but from God.” (Romans 2:29 NIV)
Just some things to think about when the religious Pharisees are refusing to accept God’s anointed women to lead in the church. Oh no, here I am, refusing to be silent and teaching and preaching without their permission. “God told me to” is all that I can say about that!
“Watch your life and doctrine closely” (1 Timothy 4:16 NIV)