They Preach, But Do Not Practice

They Preach, But Do Not Practice

Matthew 23:1-12

Introduction

As we return to our study of Matthew’s gospel, it will be helpful to refresh our memories of where we in this book.

It is the week before the trial and crucifixion of Jesus, during which He entered the city and then proceeded to the Temple courts.

There Jesus had several encounters with the religious leaders who sought to trap Him in the things He said.

He responded with such wisdom and grace that these leaders were left silenced. 

It is following these encounters that Jesus now turns to the crowds and His disciples to provide a warning against falling into the pattern of the Pharisees and Scribes.

Chapter 23 is well-known for the seven “woes” that Jesus pronounces against these leaders. 

But as we see in this first part of the chapter, Jesus is addressing the disciples and crowds.

Here, He sets the stage for the seven woes.

And while they are against the Pharisees and Scribes, they are presented to the disciples and crowds that they may be wary of these leaders, but also that they would not fall into the same manner of self-righteousness and hypocrisy. 

So in that same sense, these words are relevant to each of us in our own day - and especially to the leaders of Christ’s church.

The party of the Pharisees emerged in what is known as the inter-testamental period - the 400 years between the close of the OT canon and the birth of Christ.

The culture in Israel had become increasingly secular during this time.

Because of this, there were devout leaders in Israel who emerged to form this party known as the Pharisees - which means set apart ones.

They began with the best of intentions - to explain the Law of God and thereby call the people to return to holy living.

But through time, their means became the end - a system of self-righteousness and hypocrisy.

There was an appearance of godliness and piety, but their hearts wandered far from loving God.

We have too many examples to count in our day, unfortunately, of those Christian leaders who have taught and preached and written exhaustively - and yet have fallen into grave sin.

This can happen to any of us - none of us are immune to temptation.

And so we do well to be on guard against saying we believe something, only to fail in practicing what we say we believe. 

Christians are often accused of hypocrisy - and there is ashamedly too many examples of this being the case.

But there is no sphere in our world in which hypocrites don’t exist.

Even among the most depraved pagans are those who say one thing and yet do another.

As believers, we are called to live honestly authentic lives because we have been delivered from sin and saved unto holiness. 

Therefore, we should examine carefully the words of our Savior here.

And as we hear Him speak, may we not only be on guard against false teachers, but also against our own waywardness - either toward strict legalism or lax sinfulness. 

The beauty of the Gospel is that our sins are forgiven, and we are given the Holy Spirit to live as kingdom of priests, holy unto the Lord. 

II.The Problem of Pharisaic Patterns (1-3)  

So let us begin by hearing the words of Jesus in our text today,” (1-2) Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat…

As we have noted, Jesus is here speaking to the crowds and the disciples about the Scribes and Pharisees.

The Pharisees were a party of the religious leaders, like the Sadducees.

The Scribes were the experts in the Law, sometimes referred to as lawyers.

Jesus begins by stating that they sit on Moses’ seat.

By this, He means that they are the ones who teach the Law of God.

In this period of history, teachers would often sit in a seat in the synagogue, and the hearers would stand or sit on the ground - literally at the feet of the teachers.

Although they were self-appointed - they did aim to represent what Moses taught - that was their original intent. 

But as we will see when Jesus describes their practices in verses 4-7, they had gotten way off track in this responsibility. 

Jesus continues in verse 3, “” …so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice.

This verse seems problematic because of what follows.

Why would Jesus say to observe their teaching when He later goes on to condemn their practice? 

Two suggestions emerge to answer this question:

(1)One is that Jesus was being ironic.  

(a)We have seen Jesus use irony in His teaching in other parts of Matthew’s gospel.

One example of this is when, in chapter 15, Jesus calls out the tradition of dedicating resources to God to avoid helping their parents. 

Another example is that of hyperbolic irony in chapter 7 when Jesus asks, “” (Matt 7:4) How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?

(b)It is possible that Jesus was here using irony to tell them to observe “whatever they tell you,” and then goes on to say, “for they preach, but do not practice.”  

(2)Another suggestion is that Jesus was implying that they should observe their teaching insofar as they were consistent to what Moses taught.

(a)The Pharisees had begun with the noble intention of teaching the Law of God to call the people to holy living.

(b)There were certainly some things that they taught that were still on target.  

(c)Further, not all Pharisees were hardened in their hearts toward God.

We may remember the one pharisee to whom Jesus said, “”You are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven. 

Or we might think of those who warned Jesus that Herod wanted to kill Him in Luke 13.

(3)Whatever the intent of these words were becomes clear in the following verses - the Law of God stands and is to obeyed, but false teachers are to be marked and avoided.  

We must understand that false teachers are not just those who teach wrong things - they are also those who preach truth and do not practice it themselves. 

This is the thrust of what Jesus is explaining to His disciples and those who were in the crowds that day.

It is a warning against those who do not do the works that they preach. 

In our current day, we must be on guard against the celebrity culture that exists in modern Christianity. 

We can appreciate preachers, teachers, and authors - but we must be careful not to elevate them on a pedestal in our own hearts.

To think that any person, no matter how gifted, can do no wrong is a foolish practice. 

For as Jesus will go on to say in verse 10, “” For you have one instructor, the Christ. 

One of the great beauties of God’s wisdom that we see displayed in his organizing the local church is that we all get to walk together.

When you put your hope in a public figure, who you only listen to in recordings or read their writings, you have no way to verify the authenticity of their lives.

But by joining in the local church wherever God plants you, you are able to walk with the shepherds God has place there.

You can see with your own eyes if the elders practice what we preach.

And you can experience their repentance when they fail.

So listen to and read gifted teachers and benefit from them - but do not forsake the gathering together and joining the local church - for that is where you will benefit in growing the most.

III.The Pharisaic Practices (4-7)

It is next to the nature of practices that Jesus moves on to expound His warning against the Pharisaic patterns of His day. In verse 4, we read, “” 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.

The picture Jesus paints here is that of beasts of burden who were loaded up to carry heavy things.

It was a normal, everyday sight of the people of his day.

And how these animals were loaded required skill.

(1)Too much, and the animal was easily worn out and unable to make the journey.

(2)Off balance, and the animal was weakened and limited in his movement.  

(3)Incorrect loading meant that the freight became a burden - it was hard to bear.

That is the image Jesus uses to first describe the practice of the Pharisees.

They took God’s good and perfect Law, but then added to it, twisted it’s meaning, omitted parts, and added inappropriate weights to other parts.

An example of this was in the use of oaths, which Jesus will directly address shortly when He pronounces the seven woes.

(1)We saw this same pattern when we studied the book of Jeremiah.

(2)People claimed that if they swore by the temple or the alter - it was nothing.

(3)But if they swore by the gold in the temple or the offering on the alter, then they had to tell the truth.

In other words, they twisted the law to allow themselves to lie - making false oaths depending upon what they swore by.

(1)They missed the weightier matter of the law that God desires us to be truth tellers.  

(2)He commands in the moral law that we not give false witness.

(3)But these so-called leaders created work-arounds.

It is in this way and others that Jesus says they burden the people with heavy loads but won’t even lift a finger to help with that load.

They are spiritually lazy and indifferent.

They are full of pride about their own actions - keeping score as it were - in their own game where they always win.

But self-righteousness is always a fool’s game, and it ends in destruction.

(1). (Prov 26:16) The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who can answer sensibly

(2). (Prov 30:12–14) There are those who are clean in their own eyes but are not washed of their filth. There are those—how lofty are their eyes, how high their eyelids lift! There are those whose teeth are swords, whose fangs are knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, the needy from among mankind

Next, Jesus explains in verses 5-7 how these men love the praise of others - in fact, that is why they put on the show of pious living. Jesus says, “” 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.

That they do everything to be seen explains the examples.

That pharisees and scribes wore phylacteries and fringes on their garments was not unusual in and of itself.

(1)Phylacteries were the result of interpreting literally what God said to Israel in Deuteronomy 6:4-9, “” Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

(2)Instead of understanding that these words meant that the Word of God was to guide their hands in all they do and to instruct their mind in all their thoughts - they literally built little boxes with tiny scrolls of Scripture inside of them that they would tie to their arms and their foreheads with leather straps.

(3)Evidently, by the time of Jesus, they kept making these objects larger and larger to be more easily noticed by others.

Fringes or tassels were a part of the garment commanded in Numbers 15.

(1)But again, what was instructed was to provide a reminder, “” (Num 15:39-40) And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, to do them, not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes, which you are inclined to whore after. So you shall remember and do all my commandments, and be holy to your God.

(2)The pharisees just kept making them bigger to be noticed, instead of remembering God’s command “” not to follow after your own heart.

To be noticed by these objects and clothing then made sure they were seen every where they went.

This was to get the seat of honor at feasts or other special events and especially in the synagogues.

It was to ensure someone called out, “Hey Teacher” so that everyone else around them who heard it would know, this is an important person.

The problem that Jesus is highlighting is not with the clothes they wore or even that people noticed them - it was that their motivation for what they called “holy living” was actually their own glory.

The catechism answers the question of what our chief end is with this: To glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

We were made to make much of God, not of ourselves. 

We were created to glorify Him, not us.

The way that we do this is not by pursing our own honor, but by serving in humility and giving thanks to God in all circumstances. 

We might think of sports players who do this - and that’s fine.

But most of us are not going to be on TV or before large crowds.

So lets realize this must start in our own lives at the ground level.

(1)In our homes and workplaces

(2)Among our friends and neighbors

(3)When we gather with extended family or at a class reunion

Do we continually try to one-up others or prove our success?

How about among other Christians?

(1)Do we humble brag about witnessing to someone?

(2)Do we toss in something about that financial gift we gave?

(3)Do we just happen to mention, “the other day when I was serving in the soup kitchen, a guy asked me…”

You see, the warning against the practice of being seen for our glory instead of living to give God glory is just as relevant for each of us today.

IV.The Call to Be Different in Christ (8-12)

From calling out their practices, Jesus then goes on to describe to the disciples and crowds what they should emulate, “” (8-10) 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.

Taking into context what Jesus has just said and what He is about to say, we can rule out proof texting this passage to mean we can never call a person a teacher or a father in the faith. 

This can be an easy mistake when we fail to read verses in Scripture apart from their context.

We must allow Scripture to interpret Scripture.

So when we come to passages in other parts of the Bible that affirm the spiritual gift of teaching, we understand the problem is not with the title itself.

Rather, it is against seeking the title and the honor that may go with it. 

We don’t make demands in our pride that other people only address according to any titles, for we are all brothers and sisters in the family of God.

Further, we don’t elevate certain teachers as infallible or in whom we refuse to find any fault. 

Paul spoke against this in 1 Corinthians 3, “” (1 Cor 3:4-9) For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not being merely human? What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

Paul also speaks of being a father to the Corinthians in that same letter he wrote, and in Acts 7, Stephen addressed the council, “Brothers and fathers…”

We are not forbidden to use such words in honoring others.

We are forbidden to seek such honor for ourself, and we should be wary of putting too great a trust in any person other than Christ.

He is our master or rabbi alone, He is our teacher alone, and is the One who has opened the doorway through which we can address God as Abba, our Father.

Jesus finishes by saying, “” (11-12) The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

This is a great distillation of what Christianity should look like, for it describes Jesus and His work on our behalf. 

He humbled Himself and took on a body like we have, to live as we live, but also to suffer and die in our place.

He laid down His life to pay for the sins that we could not atone for ourselves. 

And the Father then raised Him to life forever, and honored Him above all.

We are not called to simply model the life of Jesus, but to trust His sacrificial work for us.

We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone.

Yet as a saved people, we are transformed to live in a way that looks like Jesus, who humbled Himself for us.

Conclusion

A tendency for many of us when we come to a passage like this, is to immediately think of other people we believe need to hear this.

We think of others who are like the Pharisees.

We think of people who seek honor for themselves or are self-righteous. 

Maybe we even think we need to elbow the person next to us during a sermon like this.

But Scripture is the living and active Word of God given for us not to simply gouge others - that is exactly what the Pharisees did!

Instead, it is designed to pierce deep into our hearts and say directly to us - this is you, the is me!

I am the problem. 

I am the one full of pride - who wants honor and glory for myself.

So today, may we prayerfully hear and ask our God to speak to our own hearts instead of pointing fingers at another.

And as we ask Him to show us our own pride, may we also plead with Him to root it out.

Further, may we ask of our God to do in us what only He can do, that we would:. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight

May the Gospel of our Lord Jesus comfort us today that He has forgiven all our sins, including our pride - and may the same Gospel provoke us to holy lives, living as servants to all in humility.