Sitting in Moses' Seat - Part 4

/ Matthew 23:29-39

A Bloody Heritage

A Historic Claim - They built and decorated the tombs

An example of hubris - THEY wouldn’t have committed those sins

A call for introspection, and discernment

What was true about their heritage?

What was true about their hearts?

We are very much in the same position as these scribes and Pharisees. We sit today in Moses’ seat; being confessing children of God joined together as a church of The Lord Jesus. We stand in a long line, stretching back through 2 millenia of church history, back through the days of the Apostles, back through the nation of Israel, back to the first people of God whose names and deeds are in part recorded for us in the book of Genesis. We have that historic claim. We need to acknowledge their faults as well as claim their victories. We also need to ask God’s help to have the humility to learn from their failures rather than profess ourselves above them. We are not.

God’s Uncontested Providence

The many failed attempts from outsiders

All the ‘ites’ and ‘ines’ (Amelakites, Canaanites, Philistines, etc.)

Pharaoh and Herod both slaughtered innocent children

Hamaan, who attempted to annihilate the Jews in the OT

The 1st ce Jewish leaders who convinced the crowds and the Romans to crucify Jesus

Judas, the betrayer (both insider and outsider)

The consistent failure of His People

Adam, Israelites individually, Israel collectively, NT believers, NT Churches

Where does the cycle stop? It keeps going generationally

God’s steady and unchanged plan

How many of these events were beyond God’s control?

How many of these failures did God not allow (meaning He COULD HAVE intervened to stop it)

None of these historic events are outside God’s Providence. The most heinous sin ever committed was the murder of Jesus on Calvary’s cross. Peter tells us clearly that even this was a part of God’s Sovereign plan in his Pentecost sermon saying that Jesus was, “delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,” to be crucified.

Why should we ever think that lesser sins are not also part of God’s foreknown and foreordained plan?

In today’s text, Jesus connects not only what were historic events, but in continuing sin:

v32 - Jesus tell them to ‘fill up the measure of their fathers (language referencing God’s describing allowing OT nations to commit continued sin until a time of His choosing, like in God telling Abraham of his progeny’s future and said that the sins of the Amorites was not yet full in Gen 15:16) ; thus again demonstrating that He is Sovereign over all the affairs of mankind.

v34 He speaks of killing, indeed crucifying men sent from God; knowing His own necessary and planned end on Calvary.

Sinner, be assured that the wrath and judgment of God on sin and sinners is certain.

Child of God, be assured that all of His promises in this life and the next are rock solid.

May NO ONE miss this clear statement: GOD IS SOVEREIGN. HIS RULE IS UNCONTESTABLE.

Our Future

Read v37-39

When looking to the future for our generation, and those that have and will follow us, let us let these 5 things be brought to mind:

The seemingly inevitable cycles of history - #WeAreJudah / we have history to learn from

The failures of our forefathers - We are neither immune nor disconnected from the same

The sure return of Our Lord - There is a guarantee for our message and an urgency to our calling

The intent of a Gracious God -

Ezekiel 33:11 “Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?”

v37 - The Lord desired to gather and protect the religious leadership in the 1st ce from destruction

The opportunity is at hand

Having this text, this history before us

Having the knowledge of the grace of God before us

Church, will we choose humility and obedience? Will we listen to the warnings in scripture and from our own church history? Will we walk united with Christ and one another to accomplish the ministry to which we are called?

Sinner, will you respond even now to the invitation of God? Will you be saved and gathered under the protective wing of The Lord?

I say to both: The opportunity is now at hand.