Living in a Sadducee World

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:17
I want to invite you to take out your Bibles, if you have them, and turn to Acts chapter 23.
00:27
Acts chapter 23, and we're going to read verse 8.
00:32
Only one verse this morning.
00:37
I can see it really is a sunrise service.
00:39
If you guys want to move your chairs over here, it will not hurt my feelings.
00:44
It's sunrise right in your eyes.
00:48
Well, as we go further down, it's going to start coming that way, so hopefully everything will be okay.
00:57
Acts 23, verse 8.
01:02
For the Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all.
01:20
This morning, our message is entitled, Living in a Sadducee World.
01:30
Living in a Sadducee World.
01:34
The entire ministry of Jesus Christ was marked by opposition.
01:42
When we examine the Gospel record, we see three groups which were always at odds with Jesus.
01:51
The scribes.
01:53
The scribes were the lawyers.
01:56
They were the experts in the law.
01:59
The Pharisees.
02:01
They were the religious men.
02:03
They were dedicated to their religious exhibitions.
02:08
They were dedicated to putting themselves on display.
02:12
They were the hypocrites, Jesus said.
02:15
They did everything they did as a show.
02:18
But then there was the lesser known group.
02:22
The group which many people have said, but not many people know about.
02:27
And that is the Sadducees.
02:30
The Sadducees are not mentioned in every Gospel.
02:33
In fact, the Gospel of John does not mention them at all.
02:37
The Gospel of Mark and Luke only mention them once each.
02:43
But the Gospel of Matthew is where we find out most about this group.
02:49
None of their writings have survived.
02:52
All we know about them is what is written in Scripture and what is written in a few extra historical sources.
03:01
Even their origin is a mystery.
03:04
Some believe they come from the priest Zadok, who was priest under Solomon.
03:10
Others think their name was associated with Tesodok, which is the Hebrew word for righteous.
03:16
They were established about 200 B.C.
03:19
And they went out of existence in the fall of Jerusalem in A.D.
03:24
70.
03:25
They existed for less than 300 years.
03:28
But right in the middle of their existence, they were there where Jesus Christ walked the earth.
03:34
We know very little about them, but what we do know is this.
03:38
The Sadducees were primarily associated with the temple.
03:42
They dominated the priesthood.
03:44
They held the highest seats in the Sanhedrin.
03:48
They were the people of great importance.
03:50
They were wealthy.
03:52
They were aristocratic.
03:54
They were landowners.
03:56
They were somebody in the first century.
04:00
They were also known for being more political than they were religious.
04:05
They were essentially a political body.
04:09
And most notable about the Sadducees is what we read this morning.
04:13
They were what we might call naturalists.
04:17
If you've never heard the term naturalist before, what it basically means is this.
04:21
They denied the supernatural.
04:24
And they believed only in the natural.
04:28
They denied the amazing.
04:30
They believed only in the mundane.
04:32
That which is normal.
04:33
That which we see every day.
04:35
The text tells us in verse 8, they denied the resurrection.
04:39
They did not believe in the resurrection.
04:41
So they would have said that this life is all there is.
04:45
They denied angels.
04:47
They would have said this realm is all there is.
04:51
They denied the spirit.
04:54
They would have said this body is all there is.
04:57
They were proto-naturalists.
05:01
Now the Pharisees were different.
05:03
The Pharisees acknowledged all these things.
05:05
They acknowledged the resurrection.
05:06
They acknowledged spirits.
05:08
They acknowledged angels.
05:09
So as a youth, I remember being taught, how do you remember the Sadducees? Well, the Sadducees don't believe in the resurrection, so they're sad.
05:18
You see? But I want to say something this morning.
05:26
Even though that's a good way to remember, I don't think they were a sad lot.
05:32
At least not from the world's perspective.
05:35
They were politically powerful.
05:37
They were economically wealthy.
05:39
They were religiously respected.
05:41
From a worldly perspective, they had everything that one could want.
05:47
From a worldly perspective, they had everything the flesh would desire.
05:54
But for our time today, I do want to focus on what they did not have.
05:58
Because yes, they had the world's goods.
06:01
Yes, they had the world's pleasures.
06:03
Yes, they had the world's wares.
06:05
But they did not have a worldview big enough to encompass the supernatural.
06:12
They did not have a worldview big enough for a big God.
06:17
And beloved, we live in a world filled with Sadducees this morning.
06:23
We are surrounded by people who have bought into the lie of naturalism.
06:29
They believe everything can be explained by natural means.
06:32
They believe the universe came into existence without a creator.
06:37
They believe that life arose out of the sea without a designer.
06:42
They believe the human race evolved into what it is today without a maker.
06:48
Therefore, they have no need for God.
06:51
At least the Sadducees didn't make it that far.
06:53
At least the Sadducees believed in God.
06:57
But many people today don't even do that.
07:01
Instead, they shout against God.
07:03
They're so committed to being opposed to the supernatural, they've actually become anti-supernaturalists.
07:11
They deny even the possibility of anything beyond the natural.
07:14
Christopher Hitchens, an atheist who died just a few years ago, but he was very famous, he said this, I think there is no spiritual or supernatural dimension.
07:24
The natural world is quite wonderful enough.
07:29
Richard Dawkins, famous atheist and biologist, said this, he said, I'm not attacking any particular version of God, I'm attacking all gods.
07:38
Anything and everything is supernatural.
07:43
You see, in a way, the modern naturalist is the offspring of the Sadducee.
07:51
The modern naturalist is simply fulfilling the ideas of the Sadducee.
07:57
And beloved, the world is filled with Sadducees.
08:02
And unfortunately, there are Sadducees even in the church.
08:10
So this morning, I want to give you three ways to avoid becoming a Sadducee.
08:19
Three ways to avoid being a Sadducee.
08:25
Number one, how do we avoid becoming a Sadducee? First, receive the Scripture wholly.
08:35
And by wholly, I mean W-H-O-L-L-Y, because I know when you say the word holy in church, you're often thinking H-O-L-Y.
08:43
Wholly, completely.
08:45
Receive the Scripture completely.
08:48
You see, the Sadducees were willing to accept some of the Bible, just not all of the Bible.
08:54
They believed in the Law of Moses.
08:56
In fact, they were more strict regarding the Law of Moses than even the Pharisees.
09:01
They had elevated that portion of the Bible above all the rest.
09:06
They were willing to deny the supernatural claims in Scripture, and by that, they were limited by their own blindness.
09:15
They were blinded by their own limitation.
09:18
Understand this, and if you don't understand this this morning, understand this now, as a Christian, if you claim to be a Christian this morning, you are a supernaturalist.
09:29
The Scripture is a supernatural book.
09:33
It makes supernatural claims.
09:36
God Himself is transcendent.
09:37
That means He is above nature.
09:40
The Bible makes incredible claims about an incredible God.
09:45
God is able to break the bounds of the natural world.
09:49
He is able to flood the world, and yet maintain a ship full of animals and eight people.
09:54
He is able to part the sea, and cause the water to stand as a heap on either side.
10:00
He is able to rain down fire and brimstone on a wicked city, and He is able to turn a woman from flesh into salt.
10:09
He is able to feed His people with bread from heaven and water from a rock.
10:13
He is able to level plague after plague after plague upon His enemies.
10:17
He is able to show Himself in the Shekinah glory as a cloud at night, and a pillar of fire during the day.
10:26
He is able to predict the future through His prophets.
10:30
Actually, He proclaims the future through His prophets, and He is able to maintain a remnant of His people throughout history.
10:37
It is very popular among people today to reject portions of the Bible.
10:45
And sadly, this is not something new.
10:48
The Sadducees took what they wanted, and they threw away the rest.
10:52
They took the meat, and they spit out the bones as it were.
10:55
They felt like much of Scripture was just bones to be spit out.
10:59
In the early church, there was a man by the name of Marcion.
11:02
He was one of the first false teachers in the church.
11:06
We would label as a heretic.
11:08
And what was his heresy? He took out the whole Old Testament.
11:11
I don't like that God.
11:13
He took out every New Testament reference to the Old Testament God, because he didn't like that God.
11:18
He wanted only the God that made him happy.
11:20
He wanted only the God that agreed with him.
11:23
Therefore, he was his own God, because he was willing to take away the parts of Scripture that he did not like.
11:29
And he ended up with a Bible that was just really a few short pieces of a few of the books of the New Testament.
11:36
Marcion was false.
11:39
The Sadducees were false.
11:40
But they were false because they were not willing to take the whole Bible.
11:46
They were not willing to receive Scripture wholly.
11:51
So my first admonition to you this morning, to avoid being a Pharisee, receive Scripture wholly.
11:57
Number two, reject self-righteousness fully.
12:04
You want to avoid being a Sadducee, you need to reject self-righteousness.
12:12
Both the Pharisees and the Sadducees saw themselves as righteous, but when they went to see John the Baptist who was baptizing, what did John the Baptist call them? You brood of vipers! By the way, political correctness did not exist in the mind of John the Baptist.
12:30
He saw them and he said what was true.
12:33
If a man believes himself to be righteous, he will never understand the Gospel.
12:40
Hear that again.
12:41
If a man believes himself to be righteous in and of himself, he will never understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
12:50
The Gospel is for sinners.
12:54
In fact, listen to this.
12:55
The only prerequisite to salvation is understanding that you are a sinner.
13:01
The only prerequisite to coming to Christ is to understand how desperate you are for Him.
13:08
You cannot work your way to heaven, you cannot work your way to being righteous.
13:13
All you can do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and have righteous declared to you.
13:18
You are declared righteous by the work of Jesus Christ.
13:23
Jesus said, I have not come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners.
13:27
And people always say, well does that mean there are people who are righteous? No, that's Jesus' way of saying, I've come to call every man.
13:34
And if you think that you're righteous, guess what? You're not.
13:39
I've not come to call the righteous because there aren't any.
13:44
Sinners are called to repentance.
13:46
The Bible says, the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ.
13:52
And until we reject our own self-righteousness and understand ourselves as sinners, and that we deserve death, the wages of sin is death, until we understand that, we will not receive the gospel.
14:08
Do you understand that this morning? Do you understand that even if you're holding to only a thread of your own self-righteousness, you're not holding on to Christ? You're reaching for your own garment, for the hem of your own garment, not His.
14:25
You're trying to find a thread of righteousness in yourself, not His.
14:31
And in that, you will remain lost.
14:37
So the first thing again, receive the scripture wholly, and reject self-righteousness fully.
14:46
Third and finally, respond to Christ faithfully.
14:53
Remember the Sadducees rejected Christ.
14:56
Of all their failures, that was the worst.
15:00
Of all their failures, that was the one that was the most deadly.
15:05
They came face to face with God in the flesh.
15:07
They came face to face with the God in man.
15:10
And they rejected Him.
15:12
They feared Him politically.
15:14
They denied Him religiously.
15:16
And in the end, they were part of the mob that led Him to the slaughter.
15:24
And remember, they rejected the supernatural, so it's natural they would reject Jesus.
15:28
Because His whole life was supernatural.
15:30
He's born of a virgin.
15:31
He lived a sinless life.
15:32
That by itself is unnatural.
15:35
That's supernatural, that He lived a sinless life.
15:39
He went to the cross.
15:41
He died a perpetuatory death.
15:42
He stayed dead for three days, and on the third day He arose.
15:45
His whole life was supernatural.
15:49
And the most amazing supernatural event in history is the raising of the Lord Jesus Christ.
15:55
No moment before, no moment after can compare in magnitude.
16:00
Not the flood, not the parting of the Red Sea, not the burning bush.
16:06
Nothing compares to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
16:10
He arose.
16:11
He arose.
16:12
Hallelujah, He arose.
16:16
And His life forces us to a verdict.
16:23
He claims to be Lord, and the question becomes, is He your Lord? The Sadducees refused to respond in faith.
16:39
Instead, they responded in rejection.
16:42
This morning on your way here, you know doubtedly passed a myriad of cars still sitting in their driveway.
16:52
You say, well Pastor, it was early this morning.
16:54
They're just late risers.
16:58
Understand this, most of them are not going to leave the house this morning.
17:03
Unless they're going to brunch, or to Grandma's house.
17:07
They're not going to darken the house of worship with their shadow.
17:12
They will not be among God's people celebrating the resurrection.
17:17
Perhaps like the Sadducees, they simply deny the resurrection ever happened.
17:23
Maybe they believe the resurrection was a hoax.
17:26
Maybe they believe Jesus was a myth.
17:28
Maybe they bought into the lie of the naturalist which says it's all natural and there's nothing supernatural.
17:34
And that's sad that we passed so many cars this morning.
17:39
But for the last few minutes, I want to focus on you.
17:44
Because you are here this morning.
17:46
You rose early.
17:47
You dressed nicely.
17:49
You got into your car and you drove hastily to get here on time.
17:55
But keep in mind this, the Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection, but they were very religious.
18:02
They were the first in position within the temple.
18:10
They were first in line for the traditional feasts.
18:15
They were first in prominence among the pious.
18:21
They were very religious.
18:24
Yet in their religion, their faith was worthless.
18:32
Jesus said of them, they know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God.
18:42
On the outside, they were very religious.
18:45
They did all the religious things.
18:48
They were zealous for the law of Moses.
18:51
They were more stringent even than the Pharisees when it came to the application of the law.
18:57
But they were lost.
19:04
When it came to exercising genuine faith, they were stuck in the trap of naturalism.
19:15
So where are you this morning? You live in a world filled with Sadducees, religious people who are not saved.
19:25
Are you among them? Do you have an outward religious attitude that would get you up at sunrise, but possess a heart that refuses to believe in the supernatural works of an Almighty God? I would call you this morning away from the life of the Sadducee and toward a life of following Christ.
19:54
Receive the Scripture wholly.
19:57
Reject self-righteousness fully.
20:01
Respond to Christ faithfully.
20:06
May we pray.
20:10
Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
20:15
Lord, as we consider the amazing reality of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, our hearts are stirred.
20:23
And yet, Lord, when we think about the amazing reality of those who rejected that reality, the Sadducees who knew not Christ and knew not life, and yet, Lord, at death learned what they had rejected.
20:42
Father, we do not want to wait until death to learn what has been rejected.
20:48
Lord, stir our hearts today.
20:50
If there are those under the sound of my voice that can hear my voice, let them hear the cry, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
21:00
Repent of your sins and trust in Him.
21:03
Follow Him with all your heart.
21:05
Lean not on your own understanding.
21:07
In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths.
21:11
Lord, let it be that these words call out to our hearts, that these words point us toward the wondrous cross, that these words would not reach us in vain, but that we would, by the power of the Holy Spirit, respond in faith.
21:30
Lord, we pray all these things in Jesus' name and for His sake.
21:35
Amen.