“Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders and the vice of many angels, numbering myriads and myriads and thousands and thousands, saying with a loud voice, ‘Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!’  And I heard every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, ‘To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’  And the four living creatures said, ‘Amen!’ and the elders fell down and worshiped” (Revelation 5:11-14).

“ransomed for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth” (v. 9).

“True and meaningful unity must of necessity begin with God and not with men – even those who are redeemed.  So much fragmentation has been caused and so many attempts at reunion have floundered because that order has been reversed.  The unity of the church, as much as any other aspect of its life, comes under the sovereign lordship of the Triune God. 

"The ultimate purpose of God the Father, the ultimate achievement of God the Son and the end-point of God the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work is that in the corporate life of God’s people they shall be perfectly one. 

"Despite all the failures, frustrations and disappointments we experience in this world and in this present age, the future oneness of the church is guaranteed by divine decree and accomplishment.  But insofar as the church is comprised of those who ‘have tasted…the powers of the age to come’ (Heb. 6:4-5), that future certainty only becomes present possibility and reality the more we look to God. 

By making God, as opposed to unity, our focus, we are not only encouraged in the face of what appears to be the impossible, we are also impelled, in dependence upon Christ and his Spirit and obedience to God and his command, to pursue this enriching fellowship of the saints which is bound up with the very essence of salvation.  The God to whom we look and upon whom e depend will then lead us by the means he has provided to make that union and communion an experimental reality in the life of the church.” 

“Too many disputes and differences have been left unresolved on the pretext of there being ‘nothing we can do about it’.  Such excuses simply do not hold water in the sight of God and he will hold us accountable for our unwillingness – as opposed to inability – to do what he expects of us.” 

1  Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of hisdisciples came to him and said, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."  2  Jesus said, "This is how you should pray: "Father, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon.  3  Give us each day the food we need, 4 and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And don't let us yield to temptation."

“I thank thee, Jehovah my God, that thou hast assigned my lot with those who sit in the house of learning, and not with those who sit at street corners. For I rise early and they rise early: I rise early to study the words of the Torah, and they rise early to attend to things of noimportance. I weary myself and they weary themselves: I weary myself and gain thereby, while they weary themselves without gaining anything. I run and they run: I run toward the life of the age to come,while they run toward the pit of destruction” (William Hendrickson, Luke, p.820). 

“I thank Thee, O Lord my God and God of my fathers, that Thou hast cast my lot among those who frequent the schools and synagogues,and not among those who attend the theatre and the circus. For, both I and they work and watch – I to inherit eternal life, they for theirdestruction” (Alfred Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life, p. 32). 

• The Pharisee's fasting: the normal fast was refraining from food and drink for 24 hours, from sundown to sundown. It was often accompanied by refraining from sex and from wearing leathershoes. (Dictionary of Judaism, Neusner, “fasting” on p. 224). Jews only required to fast once a year according to Leviticus 16:29. This Pharisee fasts twice a week. Probably on a Monday and Thursday, which just so happened to be the very same days in which most people would go to the market to shop! Any coincidence there? Absolutely not. Jesus told us in Matthew 6 that the Pharisees pray and fast for one purpose: to be seen by other people.
• The Pharisee's giving:  Jews required to tithe only certain kinds of income. He tithed from all of his income, including vegetables, fruits, and yes, even herbs and spices. (See Deut. 14:22,23; Luke11:42)  Some went so far as to not even eat with other non-Pharisees for fear that they might be eating from food that had not been tithed (Edersheim, Life and Times, 2:291)  James Hastings (Dictionary of Christ and Gospels, 2:356) writes, “In Luke 18:12 [Jesus] illustrates how compliance with external requirements,especially when these are exceeded, as in the case of the Pharisees, and dissociated from the corresponding state of heart,breeds a culpable and overwhelming self-righteousness.”