"Seven Woes" Matthew 23 Feb 16 2025

Intro

Good morning

We have come to Matthew 23

Chapters 23 - 25 contain a long and final discourse from Jesus

Chapter 23 is the beginning of that discourse

Red letter Bibles: almost all red - next three chapters

My sermon is called, “Seven Woes”

In this chapter, Jesus is calling out the scribes and the Pharisees by using the word, “woe”

Jesus is denouncing the Pharisees

Here is my warning to all of us:

That we read this chapter carefully

Don’t just cross your arms and declare yourself immune to any of this rebuke by Jesus

Let us not assume that since we’re not Pharisees that nothing is here for us

And I include myself in this

Allow any and all of this to be for self-examination

You and I may not be Pharisees - but it’s not impossible to carry their attitudes

In my translation, there are seven woes

Most modern Bibles do not have Matt 23:14 - this is because most early, reliable manuscripts do not have that verse

The KJV has this eighth “woe to you” verse

It’s not a bad thing if your bible doesn’t have it

In fact, the wording from verse 14 is already found in Mark and Luke

Verse 14 doesn’t add any new information

It doesn’t change our theology at all

I would never want to take away from the Bible - but I would also never like to add to the Bible

It’s not a reliable verse - therefore it is not in most modern translations

That’s why we have seven woes, not eight

Six times, Jesus uses the phrase, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!”

This is the exact phrase he repeats six times

On one occasion (v.16), he says, “Woe to you, blind guides”

Before he gets into his series of “woes,” Jesus gives an introduction

I want to read that section first, then we’ll get into the rest

I want us to take on the whole chapter today

Here is the intro to the chapter - the first 12 verses -

Matthew 23:1–12 ESV

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

(Pray…)

The Prologue

It’s hard for us to imagine the impact Jesus’ words would had on his listeners back then

Christians today easily associate the word “Pharisees” with hypocrisy

Back then, his words might have sounded very harsh

After-all, the Pharisees were the religious experts

I want to give a quick outline to this prologue Jesus gives us in these first 12 verses

Notice that in verse 1, Jesus is addressing his words to the “crowds and to his disciples”

Here’s an outline

2-3 Follow their teachings, not what they practice

4 They give heavy burdens to others, but do nothing themselves

5-7 They do everything for show to look important

Verses 8-12 are lessons from the Pharisees for Jesus’ listeners:

8-10 Don’t demand to be called a certain title (as they demand)

11-12 The greatest among you shall be your servant - self-promotion results in being humbled, while humbling yourself will result in being exalted

Before Jesus gives his seven “woes,” he gives an application to his listeners in these last five verses I just mentioned

Jesus gives us a model of a good sermon -

He gives his listeners a lesson on how to act

He provides an application for his sermon

He does this by providing the wrong examples the Pharisees gave

In short, do the opposite of what the Pharisees are doing

This is a literary device known as an “antithesis” - literally, an anti-thesis

Jesus takes the examples and the lives of the scribes and Pharisees and bases his teachings as completely opposite based on everything they stand for

Jesus is giving bad examples from the Pharisees and tells his listeners to essentially do the opposite

Don’t demand to be called an empty title, like they did

And then he teaches the crowds a lesson on humility

This goes back to chapters 18 & 19 - we learned about

Humility

The first shall be the last - the last shall be first

And we can go back earlier to Matt 16:24 where Jesus says, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

The Pharisees were far from denying themselves and far from following Jesus

And now we come to the seven “woes”

What do we mean by the word “woe?”

It’s sort of an old-fashioned word

Today, we barely use that word

“Woe is me”

“Woe to the wicked”

The Greek word for “woe” means a strong interjection of grief or condemnation

Jesus is giving a strong condemnation against the scribes and Pharisees

Before we dive into this, a question -

Who were the scribes?

In simple terms, they were officially known as what we would call as clerks - they were the ones who carefully wrote scripture onto scrolls

But they were also considered to be experts in the law - and the scribes Jesus was talking about were allies with the Pharisees

They were part of the same hypocrisy that advanced strict legalism

They advanced a strict legalistic adherence to the law which God never intended

The scribes often made rulings on how the law should be interpreted and many scribes were Pharisees themselves

Verse 13 -

Matt 23:13-17

Matthew 23:13–17 ESV

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. 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. “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?

Instead of guiding people into the kingdom of heaven, the scribes and Pharisees block them from entering

They work to gain converts, but they don’t know how to properly disciple them into the true knowledge of God

Jesus calls them blind guides! Not only are they blind guides but they misunderstand the purpose of the temple

Verse 18 -

Matthew 23:18–22 ESV

And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

Again, he is saying they’ve missed the point about the altar - this time calling them blind men

I believe that Jesus is referring to the fact that the Pharisees were misusing the Temple and the altar in a dishonest way - for them, it was about strict legalism

They held more value in the gold and the things in the temple, rather than what the Temple truly represented

And they were making meaningless oaths

Verse 23 -

Matthew 23:23–24 ESV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

So proud of themselves were the Pharisees that they could hold to the Law in minutiae

To the point that they would adhere to strict tithing - including spices

But despite all of this, they ignored the important things

By doing this, they destroyed the main message God had given to them

They ignored passages like this

Micah 6:8 NLT

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.

Verse 25 -

Matthew 23:25–30 ESV

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’

Imagine going to a restaurant and being served a meal where the outside of your plate and the outside of your cup was sparkling clean -

But you can clearly tell that the insides have been used by someone else - and the insides were never cleaned

The part where your food and drink is sitting in - is sitting on top of old food from another customer

This is the height of hypocrisy - where someone only cares about their outward appearance -

But they could care less about how selfish, how devious, and how rotten they are on the inside

It’s all about appearances

And Jesus called them out for this

Imagine being called a “whitewashed tomb,” referring to fact that your outward appearance is shiny, and clean, and sparkly -

But the real you is bad, like old bones and rotting bodies

Jesus goes on

He calls them the sons of those who murdered the Prophets, rather than the sons of the Prophets

And by the way, who are they about to kill very soon in this timeline?

He calls then serpents and brood of vipers and wonders how they will ever escape hell

He also talks about the horrible persecution that the men of God had endured

All of this is an indictment to the scribes and the Pharisees

This whole section leads up to the crucifixion of Christ

And in a bigger sense, this leads us into future prophesy which Jesus will give us beginning in Chapter 24

Close

I could go on in detail, but let me wrap this up

The Pharisees missed who God is

They were shrouded in legalism - they ultimately saw themselves as the answer

The outwardly was all they cared about

They were like beautiful fig trees with beautiful leaves - but when you got closer to them, they had no fruit

Not only did they miss who God is, but they had the very Son of God in their presence - and they missed that

They were like the Rich Young Man - they were only concerned what things they should do to be accepted by God

But when Jesus told that man to put all of his faith in him and follow him, he ran off

Here are two lessons from all of this

Christianity is unlike any other man-made religion

All other religions are man-made. How do I know that?

I know that’s true because in all other religions, the Pharisees would fit in

Experts in the law, following the rules, down to the last detail - making others do the same

The actions of the Pharisees would be perfect for all other false religions

Perfect Mormons, perfect Jehovah’s Witness’, Perfect Muslims

But there’s no room for that in Christianity

Christ came along and did it all for us - because we were incapable

He lived the Law perfectly, and hung on a cross, and rose from the dead

Christ did it all, not the Pharisees

Don’t make the mistake they did - don’t miss who Jesus is

Don’t ignore what he did for you

Jesus did it all for you

Place your faith in him - thank him and praise him

It’s not about God making you a better person - it’s about surrendering to him so he can make you a new person

(Pray...)

Communion

(Pick one…)

Matthew 26:26–28 ESV

Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Luke 22:19–20 ESV

And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 ESV

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.