Sermon Tone Analysis

We are in the last week of Jesus’ life here on earth before he goes to the cross.

In Matthew 21 we saw that he entered Jerusalem, the place in which he would be crucified to shouts of HOSANNA!

Matthew 21 also showed us Jesus cleansing the temple because is was being used for the wrong reason.

He said the temple was designed to be a House of Prayer.

His authority was questioned by the chief priests and the authorities and also in Matthew 21 and teh beginning of Matthew 22 Jesus tells three parables showing there there will be some who follow and some who will not.

Some will reject Him and some will follow Him.

But by rejecting Him, they are rejecting God and on teh last day God will reject them.

Last week in Chapter 22 we saw the Pharisees, the Herodians, the Sadduccess and the Sanhedrin all asking he questions to test him.

To try to bring a charge to get rid of him.

He knew what they were trying to do, so he didn’t directly answer their questions.

It is clear that these religious leaders are trying to silence Jesus.

They don’t recognize that he is the Messiah.

The one that has been prophesied in their own Scriptures.

Instead they are wanting their own way, their own individual beliefs, and their own exaltation of themselves.

But Jesus calls them out on their on hypocrisy.

And that is what we are going to see today.

But his words to the Pharisees then are the same things we should consider today.

But before we open our Bibles, lets stand and proclaim what we believe about God’s Word.

***CBC CREED***

Open your Bibles to Matthew 23

Jesus pronounces “woes” on the Pharisees.

A “woe” is a word that point to condemnation, damnation, or judgement on someone.

Jesus used this as a warning because of their hypocrisy.

To be a hypocrite is to say you are one thing, but you are really a different thing.

If I were say I am the best footballer at A Place of Hope, better than any of you boys, maybe if I kept saying it over and over you may believe me, until I walked out onto the pitch, then you would see I am not a good footballer.

These Pharisees raised themself up as being the highest religious leaders.

People would look at them and marvel at how religious they were.

But it was only when the only perfect person, Jesus, God, pointed out their hypocrisy that their true self was shown.

As we look at what Jesus says to these hypocrites this morning, we need to examine ourselves and see if we are doing the same thing they were doing.

We need to ask ourselves HAVE WE MISSED IT? ARE WE BEING DECEIVED?

ARE WE HOLDING OURSELVES AS RELIGIOUS BY OUR OWN STANDARDS or BY GOD’S STANDARDS?

But here is a very real question we all need to consider this morning?

It is possible for you and me to believe genuinely that we are doing God’s work, obeying God’s Word, and accomplishing God’s will, yet to be deceived and to experience eternal damnation.

The Scribes and the Pharisees believed they were actually following the Law of God, yet even in everything they did…they were deceived.

Before Jesus pronounces the first woe on the Pharisees we need to ask ourselves the first question.

Do we fail to practice what we preach?

Jesus said they were sitting on the seat of Moses which means they were teaching the Law of Moses.

That wasn’t a bad thing.

In fact he said obey what they are teaching....BUT he said do not do the works they do.

They were saying one thing, which was good, but they were living another way.

They were putting burdens on the people that the Law did not require.

They were making up their own traditions and setting it beside the Law of Moses and saying it was from God.

That is why Jesus said Matthew 11:30

The Pharisees were placing more on the people that the Law of God required.

They were not practicing what they preached!

They preached but they were not living it out.

Let me ask you… as we are sitting here today, and you read the words of Scripture, and you say, I believe it.

Do you practice it when you go out?

Do you practice it at school, on the road, among your friends?

We need to ask ourselves, is there a consistency in what you believe and how you live?

2. Are we happy with the approval of God in our lives?

Matthew 23:5–7 (ESV)

5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others.

For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

First I want you to see the two words: phylacteries and fringes.

(PHIL LACK TOR-EES) These were small boxes that they wore on their heads and arms during prayer.

Inside the boxes were written Scriptures from Pentateuch (First 5 of the OT)

This is something that Jesus said about that Pharisees all the time… they were always doing things to be seen by others.

They would place themselves in the highest seats at places, even in the temple, and loved to be recognized by other people in the marketplace.

Do you remember what Jesus said to his disciples on the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 6:1–4 (ESV)

1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others.

Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.

3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret.

And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.

These Pharisees were only concerned with how they were seen in other peoples eyes.

Now wearing these phylacteries wasn’t bad, but Jesus said they had been doing it so that they would been seen as regarded higher that the other people.

What would be more important for you?

The approval of ONLY GOD and not people, or ONLY PEOPLE and not God?

It is a deadly thing to desire the applause of men, for once you receive it your flesh enjoys it, and you want it more and more.

As a result, you become less and less content with the approval of God.

3. Do we see ourselves as higher than others?

Because you may believe and others do not, in your minds do you place yourself higher than the unbeliever?

That’s what these Pharisees were doing, looking down on others because of their religion.

The basis for this was pride.

A Man named C.S. Lewis one said this.

Pride is the “great sin.” “If you think you are not conceited, it means that you are vey conceited indeed.”

In other words if you don’t think you are better than other people, you probably think you are better than people.

We need to be careful not to place ourselves as higher than other people.

When we do that, we will have a false perspective.

We will not see the world as Jesus saw the world…everyone is equal before God, and everyone should hear the true gospel.

He alone is superior.

So this third question about placing ourselves higher than others brings the fourth...

4. Do we humbly serve others or are we focused only on ourselves?

Jesus has expressed this idea many times in Matthew’s gospel.

The first shall be last, serving one another, the meek will inherit the Kingdom of God.

This humility is expressed in the way we serve others.

As John writes his gospel he includes the humility of Jesus and his example of washing their feet.

After he did this he said,

Humble service is the way to Christ.

Does this discribe you?

Now Jesus goes from talking ABOUT the Pharisees to talking TO the Pharisees.

Matthew 23:15 (ESV)

15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

That word proselyte would have been an unbeliever.

So Jesus was saying that they go and and bring someone from unbelief in the Jehovah God, now to a believer.

But in doing this, then they became to put all of these rules and regulations on them that they were never meant to carry.

5. Are we hindering people’s salvation?

Do we tell people about the true Jesus?