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Matthew 23:13-39 the Messiah's Indictments Pt. 2 Good Morning

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Matthew 23:13-39 the Messiah's Indictments Pt. 2 Good Morning P a g e | 1 Matthew 23:13-39 The Messiah’s Indictments Pt. 2 Good morning church, glad you all could come out this morning. We are going to continue our study of the Gospel according to Matthew. Last week we looked at the first 12 verses of Matthew 23. This week we are going to finish that Chapter. If you remember Jesus has turned His attention from the rejecting scribes and Pharisees, who sit in Moses’ seat of authority. They have been shut down through a series of dialogues with Jesus. Jesus, at the rejection of these religious leaders turns His attention to the multitude of followers and His disciples. And He begins to rebuke the Pharisees and the scribes. P a g e | 2 Now, I do not believe Jesus begin a session of gossip, or talking behind the backs of the religious teachers. I see them still standing within ear shot of all of this. And as Jesus tells His followers to listen to what these men teach from the Word of God, but he instructs not to do not do as they do. As Jesus tells His followers how these men practice a religion for man’s eyes alone, how they love the titles given to them by the people. I see their heads and bodies have completely turned back to face Jesus. And in verses 8-12 right there in front of these offended men, Jesus tells the future leaders of His church the way His new movement will be lived out. Matt 23:8-12 But you, do not be called 'Rabbi'; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. 9 Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher, the Christ. 11 But he who is greatest among you shall be your P a g e | 3 servant. 12 And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Jesus tells His followers that His System will stand in direct contrast to that of the man exalting system set up by the Pharisees and scribes. And as Jesus exposed the heart of these religious men, I see them coming back here to vehemently defend themselves. But before they can get one word out, the Son of God will command authority over this scene. And Jesus, with the full attention of these scribes and Pharisees will now unleash a series of emotional indictments on these men. Some very smart scholars see this scene here with the scribes and Pharisees gone, and Jesus pronouncing these statements in their absence. But that is hard for me to accept, because when we see the statements, Jesus is talking directly too someone. P a g e | 4 He does not say Woe to THE scribes and Pharisees, But Woe to YOU. This is a face-to-face confrontation. And these men are silenced at the power and authority of these Judgments. The word Woe, is a very emotional word, Ouai in the Greek, speaks of Wrath and Grief both together. This is a very emotional Jesus we are seeing here, these men have rejected their Messiah, and Jesus in this rejection will let them know the reality of that choice. Maybe, some of you know the heartbreak of rejection, maybe you have loved someone so much, you have sacrificed so much, given so much to a person to reveal that love to them. Maybe after years of being married and putting your all into that person, you were rejected, and no matter how you would plead with that person to receive your love, they coldly rejected all of your tears and pleas. P a g e | 5 Now I believe that emotion right there is where Jesus is speaking from, a broken and angry heart. Ouai! speaks of a deep sorrow, and Jesus has been pushed by their stubborn human blindness. There is not only an air of savage denunciation; there is also an atmosphere of distressing tragedy. Barclay A. Plummer wrote about these Woes and said they are ‘like thunder in their unanswerable severity, and like lightening in their unsparing exposure… they illuminate while they strike.’ Let’s read the first of these eight Woes… 23:13 "But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Jesus, in His first Woe, calls these men hypocrites. This is the regular Greek word for actor in connection with the stage. It has a derogatory meaning of that of a pretender. P a g e | 6 These men live their lives acting as though they had a religion that earned them entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. With all of their elaborate phylacteries and enlarged tassels. With all of their meticulous observation of the law, they maintained a standard that kept people out of the Kingdom. Yet they failed to believe on the One who was the key to the Kingdom, they rejected Christ. They themselves have shut the door on themselves by trusting in a religion based on pride and arrogance. They obscured God’s Word with manmade traditions and ceremony; they denied the salvation that Jesus could offer. They held a position of authority, they had a God given obligation to truth, yet they chose instead to live for man and in their false pretenses, they influenced many and shut the door to the Kingdom. P a g e | 7 So we see here the severity that can come against someone who would create traditions of man, that obscure God’s Truths today. This here is a statement that should shake the very soul of the modern legalist. The person who would put tradition above Jesus, the person who keeps people out of church because of appearance or lack of Christian etiquette. Jesus tells these men, if they keep people from coming to Him, they will be kept out as well. The next Woe reads… 14 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. These men instead of truly mourning with the widows, offering true ministry to those who are hurting, they instead saw it as an opportunity in the name of religion and even using the guise of good stewardship, they P a g e | 8 took the widow’s houses for their own gain and prosperity. These men for a pretense or as part of their act, made long prayers to be heard by men and disregarded the God who they were supposedly speaking to altogether. Now I don’t know if you have ever been in a prayer meeting where a person is there that is praying a sermon for everyone in the room to hear, or praying for the praise and accolades of men. But it creates a weird and awkward atmosphere, and people pray these long drawn out prayers. There have been prayer meetings where two of these types have gone into competition and they go back and forth and try to one up each other, it seemingly kills all that the Holy Spirit is doing, and leaves people wondering when the meeting will be over. Jesus has strong words here for these Pharisees in this Woe, He declares they will receive a stricter condemnation. P a g e | 9 Now hell, eternal separation from God will be an awful experience for anyone, but we see evidence in the Bible in verses like this, that some will receive even greater punishment for eternity. You know the believer in Jesus will receive different rewards in heaven for the work done in Christ here on earth. It is not hard to imagine that reward system being reversed in Gehenna and those who were even more wicked in this life will receive greater condemnation. Remember Jesus said it would be better to have a millstone tied around your neck and tossed into the sea, then to go into eternity as one who has made of the little ones to stumble. Apart from grace, every wicked sin that is committed in this life will be judged accordingly with complete justice distributed out to each person. These men, had the responsibility to lead people to truth, and yet they kept people away from God, that P a g e | 10 seems to be one of the most severe of transgressions against God. Next Jesus says… 15 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Jesus speaks out against these sectarians who sacrifice so much to convert one person to their special belief. They are willing to travel land and sea to win one person over, and when the person is convinced the Pharisaic traditions are truth, they become an even more devoted follower. Jesus says they are sons of hell, or Satan’s offspring. I do not know if you know someone who is caught in this mindset that his or her personal belief of religion or even perhaps doctrine of Christianity is the only and right way to believe. They will exhaust all energy and efforts to win over adherents to their sect of religion, they spend most of P a g e | 11 their time trying to convert other Christians over to this special secret they have found, and they miss the true message of the Gospel.
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