Pastor Sullivan's Blog

In the Name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. While most people wouldn’t rebuke the false beliefs and selfishness of their dinner hosts, Jesus isn’t most people. He is God in human flesh. He’s come to bring sinners to repentance, even these Pharisees . The Pharisees misunderstand the purpose of God’s Law. They assume God’s Law is the way they show God how righteous they are. If they do the things God requires, God sees how good they are and rewards them. Because they view God’s Law like this, they are proud, selfish, and contemptuous of others. There just happens to be a man afflicted with dropsy at this meal. Perhaps it was a set up. The Pharisees were fond of putting Jesus in tight spots to see if He would break God’s Law and teach others to do so. They present Him with a third commandment conundrum. The third commandment is: “ Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.   Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabb...

Grace and peace be unto you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. 1)         “ Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted .” These words are the summary of what Jesus has just taught the Pharisees. Christ “ went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath .” On this occasion, as they gather to dine together, they watch Him closely, for the Pharisees are always looking for an opportunity to entrap Jesus and discredit Him. They want to catch Him in His words and deeds to prove that He is not the Christ. To that end, they bring in a man who is terribly afflicted with dropsy, what we call edema today. The man is in a painful condition, retaining fluid in his body. The Pharisee had placed the man at his table, not to honor him, but to see what Jesus would do. They don’t bring this man to Jesus because they love him and want Jesus to heal him. The Pharisees...