60 23.13
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INTRODUCTION
A rather pompous-looking deacon was trying to impress a class of boys with the importance of living the Christian life. “Why do people call me a Christian?” the man asked. After a moment’s pause, one youngster said, “Maybe it’s because they don’t know you.”
During one of his political campaigns, a delegation called on Theodore Roosevelt at his home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. The President met them with his coat off and his sleeves rolled up. “Ah, gentlemen,” he said, “come down to the barn and we will talk while I do some work.”
At the barn, Roosevelt picked up a pitchfork and looked around for the hay. Then he called out, “John, where’s all the hay?” “Sorry, sir,” John called down from the hayloft. “I ain’t had time to toss it back down again after you pitched it up while the Iowa folks were here.”
Apparently, his so-called work was nothing but a put on, a big front, a big joke.
Robert Redford was walking one day through a hotel lobby. A woman saw him and followed him to the elevator. “Are you the real Robert Redford?” she asked him with great excitement. As the doors of the elevator closed, he replied, “Only when I am alone!”
I would say this is true for us all. The real you is when you are alone. The real you is what you are when you are all alone. What do you do when you are all alone? I really like myself a lot better when I am singing gospel hymns than when I’m watching some TV program. But what is the real me? What is the real you?
Mark Twain said, “We’re all like the moon, we have a dark side we don’t want anyone to see.” So true.
There was a preacher who was interviewing with a church search committee. An English teacher headed the committee, and was very concerned that the future preacher spoke properly. “When the hen is on the nest, does she sit or set?” he asked the candidate. The hopeful preacher was frustrated. He didn’t know what to say, and his career was on the line. Finally he replied, “It really doesn’t matter if she’s sitting or setting. What I want to know is this: when she cackles is she laying or lying?”
It really wasn’t important whether that preacher knew good grammar or not. The important issue should have been, did he live his faith?
In our passage today Jesus is going to criticize the religious leaders for not living the life they proudly professed to live. They were good at preaching, but poor at practicing. They put on a big show. They loved being greeted by important titles. Jesus said some pretty bad things about the Pharisees in this text, some of which could partially be applied to us.
SERMON
We are in Matthew 23 again this evening. We have a lot of verses to cover, but we’re going to finish the chapter this evening. These are the most discouraging verses in the book of Matthew so I don’t want to spend weeks covering them though we certainly could.
In opening verses of the chapter Jesus publicly condemned the Pharisees. In the remaining verses Jesus will personally condemn the Pharisees. In the first part Jesus spoke to the crowds about the Pharisees. Now Jesus is going to speak directly to the Pharisees. Jesus will pronounce a series of woes.
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SLIDE 1 Jesus condemned the teachers of the law and Pharisees. The application for us is the condemnation of any who would preach a false gospel and promote false doctrine.
Jesus repeats two words throughout these verses. The first is the word woe. Sometimes we use the word as an expression of wonder similar to “wow” But for the first century Jew the word was used to express grief, sorrow, or despair. Jesus does not pronounce these warnings with glee and excitement, but out of grief. When we read of this event in the other gospels we find that after giving them Jesus wept. He looks out over the city and cries because they were not responding to the message he brought them.
These religious leaders need to be warned about the future they faced if they continued the road they were traveling. Much like the spirits that visited Scrooge that Christmas Eve, the warning Jesus gave them was so they might repent and turn to him.
The second word Jesus repeated was “hypocrite.” Jesus has already used this word to describe them. You may remember that the Greek word came from the theater and referred to an actor wearing a mask and pretending to be someone else for the play. It came to refer to anyone who pretended to be something they were not. The teachers of the law and Pharisees were pretending they had it all together. They led people to believe they were living righteous lives and were in a good relationship with God. Jesus points out that they were not. It was all a pretense.
So what it the message Jesus has for the teachers of the law and Pharisees?
SLIDE 2 First, they refused to enter the kingdom and wouldn’t allow others to enter.
Every false religion, cult, and false philosophy that rejects Jesus as Savior, rejects the cross, rejects his sacrifice, and rejects grace sentences its followers to hell. That may seem strong, but that’s what Jesus said.
Some might counter with all the good the organizations do. They may do a great job feeding the poor, housing the homeless, providing clean fresh drinking water, education, and medical services. However, if they are not teaching Jesus these religious groups are doing more harm than good. We need to be doing those things: feeding the poor, housing the homeless, providing clean fresh drinking water, education, and medical services. But if we are not leading people to Jesus what eternal good are we doing? If a religion does not remove the stain of sin from the human heart and transform that heart into a heart that is acceptable to God what good is it?
You don’t find verse 14 in the several more contemporary translations because the majority of texts do not contain the verse. Since the translation of the King James Version archaeologists have found many more and much older Greek texts than were available in the 1600s. The majority of texts do not have verse 14 so most contemporary translations leave it out as well. However, the verse is found in Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47 so there’s good evidence that Jesus said it. Here’s how it reads in the New King James. SLIDE 3
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. (Matthew 23:14)
The religious leaders were manipulating widows. When a husband died the Pharisees would show up on the doorstep saying to the widow, “If you really want to honor your husband’s memory, make a donation to our ministry.” They were taking advantage of her in a moment of need. Jesus condemns them for the practice.
SLIDE 4 Second, they were converting people away from God to become like themselves.
Jesus says they traveled land and sea to win a convert. However, the convert wasn’t for God, but for themselves. They weren’t seeking to convert people from sin to righteousness or from being alienated from God to being reconciled to God. They were interested in converting people to their own legalistic, hypocritical system of law keeping. Jesus curses the religious leaders not only for keeping people out of heaven but for poisoning them with a false faith. It wasn’t a focus on the heart, but on external actions. The result was these new converts became even more legalistic. Are we winning people to Jesus or to our way of following Jesus? It’s always puzzled me how churches will require someone to be baptized to their congregation. We’re not baptized into a congregation, but into Christ.
SLIDE 5 Third, they were leading God’s people to follow human traditions instead of God’s word.
One of their traditions that Jesus points out had to do with the giving of oaths.
How many played the game crossing your fingers behind your back when you said something? It you crossed your fingers it didn’t count. Or maybe you said something like this to prove what you were saying was true:
Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.
When you say that, you’re giving the person permission to stick a needle in your eye if you are found to be telling a lie. I don’t think I’ve ever heard about anyone sticking a needle in anyone’s eye for not telling the truth.
That’s the kind of game the Pharisees were playing. If you swore by the temple it didn’t mean anything, but it did count if you swore by the gold on the temple. It didn’t count if you swore by the altar, but it did count if you swore by the sacrifice on the altar. Jesus pointed out how foolish that was.
Jesus accused them of being blind guides, pointing out their own lack of understanding of God’s nature and God’s standards. God is a God of truth. God doesn’t lie. Satan, on the other hand, is the Father of lies. The only reason you would need to use these oaths is because you’ve already told so many lies no one believes you anymore. The religious leaders considered themselves to be guides of the people and they were teaching the people how to lie.
Jesus says that a godly person will always tell the truth giving a simple yes or a simple no.
SLIDE 6 Fourth, they were exaggerating minor issues while ignoring major issues.
The law required the Jews tithe. The Pharisees took it too an extreme. Imagine having a few cherry tomato plants and giving ten percent of them to God. How many cherry tomatoes would each plant grow? How difficult would that be? Jesus said the Pharisees were tithing their spices – their mint, dill and cumin. They were making sure they gave God a tenth of even the smallest plants even though the law did not require tithes of dried green plants, spices, or medicinal herbs. Jesus accused them of worrying over little things that didn’t matter while ignoring the bigger things.
At this point Jesus used a play on words saying they were straining out gnat while swallowing camels. In Aramaic the word for gnats and camels sound very similar.
God prohibited the Jews from eating certain foods like pork. They were also not permitted to eat insects. To keep themselves from accidentally swallowing a gnat they would stain their drinks. But Jesus said they willingly swallowed camels, the largest animal in Judea – which were also ritually unclean. Jesus was referring to their neglect of justice, mercy, and faith. Was it wrong to pay attention to the details? No. The problem was their focus on the details led to abandonment of the weightier matters or more important matters like justice, mercy, and faith.
Why would the Pharisees pay such close attention to the counting of leaves but neglect the more important issues of how to treat people or what it means to have a right relationship with God? That’s because counting leaves is easier. It’s much harder to help the poor or make sure those in need receive mercy and justice. We can easily be caught up in the little things and forgotten treat people with respect or ignore what it means to be a true disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ.
SLIDE 7 Fifth, they were maintaining appearances while their private world was corrupt.
Jesus gave graphic illustration of cups and dishes. They made sure the outsides were clean and presentable while ignoring the insides. Can you imagine drinking from a cup that was growing mold from the remains of a drink left in it last week? It doesn’t matter how clean the outside of the cup is. In fact, the outside matter less than the inside. It’s possible to be clean on the outside, but defiled, dirty, and disgusting on the inside. The religious leaders paid close attention to ritual purity while ignoring inward righteousness.
Jesus accuses them of being full of extortion and self-indulgence. The word extortion means ‘robbery’. This is the kind of word you would use to describe a pirate not a priest. The word means to pillage—extort—plunder. The second word (akrasia) means a kind of basic self-indulgence or a lack of self-control. It is what babies do to satisfy themselves. False religious leaders squeeze one more love offering—one more special offering—they rob people they are supposed to be serving. Perhaps they were even charging for their teaching ministry. Charging people money to hear God’s Word was strictly forbidden.
Jesus then accuses them of being full of greed and self-indulgence. Those are not really good translations.
A better translation for full of greed, would be full of extortion or robbery. And self-indulgence is better translated as lacking in self-control. They pretended to be holy on the outside while inside they were full of evil they continued to deny. Jesus says they need to start on the inside. Change must begin in the heart. D.L. Moody put it this way:
If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself.
The Pharisees lived for reputation, not character.
SLIDE 8 Sixth, they acted spiritual to cover up sin.
This time Jesus compared them to a tomb that had been painted white. It looked good on the outside, but still contained a dead body.
Coming into contact with a dead body would make you ritually unclean for a week. The Pharisees believed that you would be unclean even if your shadow crossed over a corpse or a grave. Tombs or limestone ossuaries would be whitewashed each spring to warn the passerby to avoid the tomb and therefore avoid the impurity.
Jesus accuses them of hypocrisy and lawlessness. In the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:9) Jesus says “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.”
The religious leaders claimed to be peacemakers but they were peace-fakers! At that very moment—in their hearts they were plotting to kill Jesus! In their minds and hearts they imagined the Prince of Peace put away forever. The irony was not lost on Jesus. The religious leaders in just a few days are willing to incite the crowds to crucify Jesus—to kill an innocent man. They will refuse to enter Pilate’s judgment hall for fear of defiling themselves but are most willing to kill an innocent man.
The teachers of the law and Pharisees looked spiritual on the outside, but they were dead on the inside. They got upset about the sins of the others while ignoring their own sins. That’s because it’s easier to be annoyed or shocked by the sins of others than it is to see our own sins because we become comfortable with our own imperfections and sins.
SLIDE 9 Seventh, they pretended to learn from past history but their behavior betrayed them.
Their forefathers persecuted the prophets of the Old Testament. The Pharisees said they would have treated the prophets differently. They would have honored them. But all the while they were plotting to kill Jesus. Jesus understood that and challenges them to complete what their ancestors had started by doing it.
Likewise, it’s easy for us to say we would have treated Jesus differently if we had lived then. But if we have a hard time obeying Jesus now why do we think it would have been easier then?
After saying all of this about the religious leaders, Jesus then calls them snakes – worse, a brood of vipers. In case you’re wondering these are not terms of endearment. Satan was often referred to as a serpent. In Revelation he’s referred to as “that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan” (Revelation 20:2).
This is not the first time Jesus compared them to the devil. In John 8 Jesus said: SLIDE 10
You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. SLIDE 11 When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)
Jesus is saying these religious leaders have more in common with the devil than they do with God.
SLIDE 12 Verse 34 should probably start a new paragraph. After condemning them for their hypocrisy, he warns them. Jesus is going to send them prophets and teachers and they will be treated just like the prophets and teachers before them – they will be persecuted and killed.
The passage then ends with this lament:
37Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 38Look, your house is left to you desolate. (Matthew 23:37-38)
What we see in these words is that the prophecy Jesus has given was not given in a spirit of vindictiveness, but out of love. Jesus laments over Jerusalem. Jesus didn’t criticize them out of hate, but out of love and frustration. He wanted them to come to him. He wanted them to do right. But they refused. They refused to acknowledge their error which prevented them from being able to repent. Jesus says he would have loved to have gathered them to him as a hen gathers her chicks, but they were unwilling. It is a sad statement of judgment.
Then Jesus ends with these words:
39For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” (Matthew 23:39)
Jesus isn’t saying he’ll return if they will only call him Lord, but that when he returns that’s what they’ll do. That’s what Paul said in Philippians 2: SLIDE 13
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, SLIDE 14 11and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians 2:9-11)
Through the centuries there have been some who hated and persecuted the Jews for crucifying Jesus. That wasn’t the attitude of Jesus. He knew they were going to crucify him yet he continued to love them and warn them. He continued to give them opportunity to repent.
It’s easy to look at these pronouncements and think it only applies to the Pharisees. We need to be careful that we don’t fall into the same traps they did. It’s not that difficult to forget about the grace we have received and turn following Jesus into a list of rules.
SLIDE 15 There was a PBS documentary about Amish who had left the Amish community. The Amish are people who claim to follow Jesus. They believe Jesus died for our sins. One young woman said they were constantly told that they had to continue to live like they do and wear the clothes they do or they would lose their salvation. We can see how crazy that sounds. We aren’t saved because we don’t have zippers in our clothes or electricity in our homes. We are saved because of the grace of God who sent Jesus to die for our sins.
We often get it wrong. We often mess up. But God is patient with us even as he was with the teachers of the law and Pharisees. We must continue to cling to God’s grace.