Leaven of Sadducees

Then the high priest rose up, and all they that were with him, (which is the sect of the Sadducees,) and were filled with indignation, And laid their hands on the apostles, and put them in the common prison. (Acts 5: 17, 18)

I want us to look at the church of today and its most popular theology and doctrine. By church I am not talking about the church of Christ but the visible church, the institutional church. This is because the two are completely different entities in the scriptures.

I have been seeking to understand why the Gospel we so frequently proclaim does not have the transforming power we see when we read the Bible and look at our recent past. It has so disturbed me and I have been praying to understand why. Some of my recent posts have been posing the same question.

That is when God opened my eyes to the Sadducees. They exemplify the church and leadership of our day.

Who were the Sadducees? They were the spiritual and political leadership of the Jewish people during Christ’s time. They did not believe in the supernatural, were partial with the scriptures and had no problem with Romans. They occupied all the high ecclesiastical offices and had no problems bribing, even killing to have their way.

One thing you realise when you read the Bible is that every other group or class of people got saved after the resurrection; soldiers, publicans, harlots, Pharisees, scribes, Romans, etc. But have you ever realised that there is no record at all of a single Sadducee getting saved?

Yet they continued exercising spiritual authority over Israel. Until we get to the close of Acts we see them persecuting the church of Christ.

Jesus had no time for their depravity clothed in spirituality. Do you realise that He never argued with them? That his rebukes were directed at Pharisees and scribes?

It appears farfetched but is it possible that the Sadducees were beyond redemption?

Pharisees and scribes believed the scriptures and the God of the scriptures. Their problem was that Christ did not look or behave like the messiah they were expecting. Connecting Jesus to the scriptures was all they needed to believe in Him. Their theology was open to new revelation because they believed in God who was beyond comprehension.

Their theology had a ‘what if?’ clause concerning God. Remember Gamaliel resorting to it? And we also see them going back to it when Paul is being questioned after his first arrest.

But there was nothing like that with the Sadducees. From the history of the time between the testaments, we know that they would even kill to get or have one of their own becoming high priest. They went to great lengths to access the power that office offered. It is not surprising that we have a son in law inheriting his in law as high priest yet from the scriptures that position flowed from a father to his son. That is why during the time of Christ all the devout Levites were relegated to being scribes. Of course a Sadducee could not have touched that profession as they could not have taken such backbreaking and unrewarding responsibility just to obtain the favor of a God they only used to profit and access power.

They lived for the present. The correct word to describe them spiritually is eunuchs, meaning that eternal and spiritual fruit was to them as implausible as a child to a eunuch. Sin for them was subjective and only depended on their comfort. Remember they bribed the soldiers who witnessed the resurrection to hush their testimony? Remember them playing a political game on Pilate to ensure he kills Christ?

What is the preaching in vogue these days? Is it not bound in the here and now?

Let us look at the common preachers of today. Do you realize that there is very little of eternity in it, if it ever is? Do you realize that the more popular a preacher is, the less he mentions the need to convert from our pursuits to God’s revelation?

All the preaching these days is completely focused on the here and now. If eternity is ever mentioned, it is to stop people like me from asking uncomfortable questions to those peddlers of mammon.

According to this doctrine, a blessing is composed of 100% what happens here; what God must and will give us, how comfortable God will make us, etc.

They mention Job and Abraham without realizing that the makeup of their blessing was the trashing of the here and now for the joy of knowing and following God. As an example, Job was not cursed when he had lost everything, even his health. Yet we realize that after losing it all he fell down and worshipped. He spoke of seeing God even when his body wasted away. Remember him saying, ‘though He slay me, yet will I trust him’? Even Abraham’s life was one of giving up this or the other in his pursuit of God.

We are blessed ONLY because we have God as He is the source of all blessing. Things can never account for blessing, unless we are followers of the doctrine of the Sadducees. Otherwise tell me how blessed these rich men who have no shame making harlots of university students just because they have the money. Yet you will sadly find some very ‘successful’ pastors joining that throng. How blessed are those who sell their souls to the devil to become rich?

Yet that is what most pulpits are spewing all the time. Success is only defined using worldly standards. We do not seem to care that the world is rushing headlong to hell yet some are leaders of churches who have never heard of the invitation to repent and pursue the knowledge of God. They are oohing and aahing the fraudster thinking he is a pastor sent from God yet it is a Sadducee only interested in what they have to offer.

The sad thing is that very few can see the temporal, even folly of that doctrine.

We will not drive to heaven. In fact we will not even carry a handkerchief with us to heaven. And eternity is a very long time to regret. Look at what Jesus said.

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8: 36, 37)

Good health is good, and very enjoyable. But is that the definition of a blessing?

Jesus promised Peter that he will have health issues prior to his death. Paul found a great revelation as he sought to understand his health challenges. Does it mean that God hated them? Is it that they had sinned? Does it mean that they did not have requisite faith?

Psalm 73 was written by a believer who sought to understand the doctrine we are talking about. And he was able to see God’s reality because he had God as his reference. Do we question these peddlers of the doctrine of the Sadducees? Would we believe the devil if he came holding a Bible or quoting from it? Because that is the crux of the matter.

We can’t continue talking only about what God will do for us. Our responsibility is to know exactly what God expects from us because then it automatically opens God to do His part. And giving those con artists is not giving God because they are not taking you to heaven, because they are not going there. They are teaching you to maximize on this life as it is the only life they are pursuing. Eternity and its requirements are too faint a mirage that they just mention it in passing.

Read the Bible for yourself before you accuse me of touching your anointed. Because he just might be having your anointing and nothing of God’s.

I will probably build on this later. But in summary, be wary of preachers who do not preach against sin. Look out for preachers who are content with your spiritual immaturity. Avoid preachers who rarely, if ever mention heaven and hell as real destinations that we will go according to the way we live this life.

And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. (Jude 1: 22, 23)

Does you pastor paint such urgency for evangelism in his preaching?