We started out tonight with a few "halves". We had half a cup, half a plate, half a fork...and asked the kids what those items were good to be used for. Obviously, a half of a cup will not hold anything to drink. Half of a plate may be good for fanning yourself with, but it's not much good to hold food. And half a fork...well, there's not much you can do with that!
Tonight we talked about the differences between the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Christians. The Pharisees believed in the law of Moses as the authority on how they should live. They worshiped God in flesh, but not spirit, did not believe in grace or mercy, and believed certain rituals and traditions needed to be upheld in order to be righteous and free from sin. They believed they were saved by their works and did not recognize Jesus as their Savior. They did believe in resurrection and angels and demons however.
The Sadducees believed in only the first five books of the Bible as the authority in their lives. They did not believe in angels or demons or the resurrection. Like the Pharisees, they worshiped God in flesh, but not in spirit and that they were saved by their works. They also did not recognize Jesus as Savior.
Christians, on the contrary to both the Pharisees and Sadducees, believe the entire Bible is the Word of God, truth, and the authority on how we should live our lives. We worship God in flesh and spirit. We believe in God's grace and mercy as well as His judgment, the resurrection, angels, and demons. We know that we are not saved by our works, but by faith and a repentance of our sins and a belief in Jesus as our Savior.
The problem was that both the Pharisees and the Sadducees only believed in partial truths. They chose what of God's Word they wanted to believe instead of believing in His whole Word. And some of His Word, they added to or twisted to make say what they wanted it to say for their gain. You can't have only part of the truth or a distortion of the truth. You need to have the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
We each wrote three truths and one lie on index cards about ourselves then. We read them out loud and tried to guess whose card was whose. In many instances, we needed the entire truth about an individual to know it was them. In the same way, you cannot really know Jesus without knowing the truth about him...his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, and his deity. And the only way to truly know Jesus is to be steeped in His Word. Then your plate will be whole, your fork will have a purpose, and your cup will overflow (Psalm 23:5).
TPCC Youth Group
