The Eight Woes Part II

Matthew 23:23–39 NASB95

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ “So you testify against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? “Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. “Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! “For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ ”

Tell Them What You are Going to Tell Them

Introduction

Bid Idea

We are Gods representatives , when we don't represent him well there are consequences. To represent God well we have to do good , not look good.

Main Points

Recap of the first 4 Woes

Blocking the Kingdom of Heaven

Lack of Compassion and Greed

Misleading Converts

Not knowing what is important

The next 4 Woes

Keeping up appearances, that one is following the letter of the law, while ignoring the spirit of the law.

Keeping up appearances that one is clean, while ignoring what is necessary to be clean.

Keeping up appearances that one is righteous, but not trying to be righteous.

Keeping up appearances that one is better than those from the past, while being just as bad, if not worse.

Tell Them

We are Gods representatives , when we don't represent him well there are consequences. To represent God well we have to do good , not look good.

The fact is that when we represent God there will be times when we don't look good . Often the church is counter to the culture and so doing the right thing , doing the thing that god would have us to do sometimes means that in the eyes of the greater culture we are not going to look good but as God's representatives in order to represent God well , we have to do what is right , sometimes we have to do what is hard , we have to do good, not look good

Keeping up appearances, that one is following the letter of the law, while ignoring the spirit of the law.

Matthew 23:23–24 NASB95

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

(speak to the humor of v24)

The letter of the law said that you should give a tithe to the temple , but the spirit of the law was that the reason that that tithe was given to the temple is that the temple was supposed to be caring for the people in need .

Application

We should follow the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. Just as the text was telling the scribes and the Pharisees they should have been offering the tithe to the temple , but they also should have been, But they also should have been seeking justice and mercy, and seeking to live a life of faith. We should follow the letter of the law, but when the letter of the law is not in line with the spirit of the law we should honor the spirit of the law.

Keeping up appearances that one is clean, while ignoring what is necessary to be clean.

Matthew 23:25–26 (NASB95)

25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence.

26 “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.

I remember a time when the boys were younger we asked for them to clean their room . When we walked into the room it looked immaculate, the floor was swept carpets were down . Then we went and lifted up the mattresses to their beds and lo and behold underneath their beds looked like a junkyard . Basically what they had done was taken everything that was on the floor and simply swept it under their bed . The room looked clean but it really wasn't clean.

Application

This is another text that Jesus gives us the application right in the text. Make sure the inside is clean , and you will eventually get to the outside . Start with the floor underneath the bed is clean and and you will eventually clean the entire floor is clean. Make sure that we are focusing on what is important rather than what is superficial.

Keeping up appearances that one is righteous, but not trying to be righteous.

Matthew 23:27–28 (NASB95)

27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness.

28 “So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

We see examples of this type of keeping up appearance all around us. Much of what we see of many people's lives is curated and placed on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok . We see the perfect life , the perfect family , the perfect ministry. What we must understand is that anytime we see perfection we are not seeing A complete picture. The Pharisees showed A life of righteousness . They looked well polished, dignified, they were the religious leaders , the men of God and they looked the part , but deep down inside there was rot and corruption.

Application

Don't spend a lot of time trying to curate your life , trying to make it look perfect to others . None of us is perfect , we are all striving towards perfection in Christ , so the focus should be on making sure the heart is right, making sure what is inside is the best that it can be . If we take care of the inside the rest will be fine.

Keeping up appearances that one is better than those from the past, while being just as bad, if not worse.

Matthew 23:29–36 (NASB95)

29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous,

30 and say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

31 “So you testify against yourselves, that you are 1sons of those who murdered the prophets.

32 “Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers.

33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?

34 “Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and dpersecute from city to city,

35 so that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

36 “Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.

People will often look at people from the past and pass judgment on them. They will wonder how they could have been so foolish , or stupid, or insensitive . The assumption is always that we in the modern times are better than those in the past , and had we lived in the past we would have made better choices .The problem with that thinking is that history has a tendency to repeat itself . My grandfather used to tell me stories about how when he grew up there were certain train cars that he wasn't allowed to ride in because he was black, he had to drink from a different water fountain , and there were certain things that he just couldn't participate in that his white counterparts could . Fast forward to the fact that we are now in the 21st century we have outgrown such discrimination and prejudice,But have we? all throughout history there have always been the in groups and the out groups . Our Methodist brothers and sisters just endured a massive split within their denomination. One gentleman that I spoke with talks about how former friends won't talk to him because he decided that it was best for him to leave the denomination . There is a conflict taking place in Gaza between Israel and the Palestinians . This conflict is taking place thousands of miles away yet right here in the united states there have been Palestinians that have been attacked . There have been jewish people who have been attacked for no other reason other than the fact that they are palestinian or jewish . Have we really outgrown the past ? Are we really that much better then our forefathers? As we go into this political season there are people in communities that are coming to blows over the fact that they don't see the world the same politically . There are people that are ostracizing their own relatives because they aren't going to be voting for the same person for president . Have we really become that much more sophisticated then our forefathers or has the scenery just changed a little bit ?

Application

The scribes and the Pharisees claimed that they would not have killed the prophets of old , but they failed to see that they were killing the prophets of the present day . We think that we are so enlightened that we would have been so much better were we living in the past and we can't see how similar to the people of the past we truly are .

Don't judge yourself against the people of the past . The people of the past were flawed , they were imperfect . Just as we are flawed an imperfect . Judge yourself against the word of God and strive to live in a way that would allow for God to one day say to you well done my good and faithful servant. Understand that in your flaws and in your imperfections you are striving toward perfection . It is a perfection that you will not reach in this lifetime, but in striving for that perfection we each get better , we each get closer to God. It is also important for us to understand that in our flawed and imperfect state we can only get better we can only improve through the power of the Holy Spirit . This is not a journey that we can undertake on our own , it is a journey that must be undertaken with God.

A Lament over Jerusalem

37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.

38 “Behold, your house is being left to you desolate!

39 “For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me until you say, ‘BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!’ ”

As we come to the end of the seven woes Jesus laments over Jerusalem. He says that he wanted to protect them but they were unwilling to be protected . We have several people in the congregation who deal with chickens When a hen has several chicks and she senses danger she will call to those checks and all of the chicks will rush to their mother and hide underneath their mother's wings in other words their mother is protecting them from danger this is what Jesus is saying he wanted to do for Israel but Israel was being a stubborn chick it didn't want to run to the protection of its mother's wings and because they were unwilling then they would pay a price . That price would eventually be the destruction of Jerusalem time of the destruction of the temple , and the scattering of the people. As I look at that I wonder how often does Jesus lament for us how often are we just like Israel Jesus wants to cover us and protect us but we're unwilling , and because we're unwilling their consequences . Because we choose not to represent God in the way that we should there are consequences . Because we worry more about appearance then about our actions there are consequences . Jesus tales the Jewish leaders of the time that their house the temple will be desolate and he tells them that from now on they will not See him until they say blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord . None of us so truly see him , none of us will truly know him until we are able to say , and truly mean blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Tell Them What You Told Them

We are Gods representatives , when we don't represent him well there are consequences. To represent God well we have to do good , not look good. Sometimes doing what is good is not going to look good To the world , but we represent God , we are god's people.

Follow the letter of the law as well as the spirit of the law and when did the letter of the law conflicts with the spirit of the law then we should submit to the spirit of the law .

Make sure that we are paying attention to the inside and making sure that that is clean rather than focusing on the outside . Make sure that we are focusing on that which is important rather than that which is superficial

Don't waste time trying to curate your life , and make it look perfect to others . We are all striving towards perfection in Christ . Focus on making sure the heart is right and the rest will be taken care

of.

Don't pick yourself to be better windows in the past . The people of the past were flawed, they were imperfect , just as we are flawed , and imperfect . Don't judge yourself against other people past, or present, judge yourself against the Word of God and strive to live as it calls us to live.

Remember that Jesus wants to cover us and protect us but we can be stubborn and unwilling, because we're unwilling their consequences. When we don’t represent God in the way that we should there are consequences . Because we worry more about appearance then about our actions there are consequences . Don't be afraid to run to the protection of God , don't be afraid to find security underneath his wings .

Remember that all believers are Gods representatives , when we don't represent him well there are consequences. Lets strive to represent him and the kingdom well. To represent God well we have to do good , not look good. Lets focus on what we do. Let you and I be the people that God wants us to be. Lets do go even if we don’t look good.