It was the Pharisees, Priests, Levites, Sadducees and Scribes that persecuted Jesus. These were the religious rulers. The Pharisees and Sadducees were religious political leaders. The priests and Levites served in the temple, offering sacrifices. The scribes were those who copied scriptures as a life time profession. They were all heavily involved with scripture but were far from God (John 5:31-47).
There are two dangers we all face. The first one is obvious. We can be involved in religious activity and still not know God. The second is not so obvious. We can make the mistake of presuming all religious leaders have wrong attitudes and are hypocrites. When you are tempted to jump to this conclusion remember that Jesus was a Rabbi (religious teacher). The eleven disciples and Paul were religious leaders, without whom we would know nothing about Christ.
The point is not to avoid leaders (Hebrews 10:7-8, 17; Romans 13:17). The point is to make sure your heart is right with God.
