Exposing Pharisaism

Matthew 23:1-12

a. Pharisees love honor (23:1-7)

b. Pharisees hate humility (23:8-12)

1. INTRODUCTION

2. BODY

a. Pharisees love honor (23:1-7)

i. Chapter 23 opens with Jesus now speaking to the crowds and to His disciples. Jesus had just finished speaking with the Sadducees in 22:23-33, then the Pharisees in 22:34-46. Now Jesus turns His attention to His disciples. Jesus is still in the temple teaching, most likely in the courtyard based on 21:23. When He entered the temple, the chief priests and elders came to question His authority. Well, this section is still the same from this ongoing conversation they were having.

ii. So in verse 2, Jesus says that the scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. What does this mean that they have seated themselves in the seat of Moses? Well, the seat of Moses speaks about authority derived from Moses. Moses was the one who received the Law from God in Exodus 31:18, where God gives the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, then proceeds to explain all the Laws on top of the 10 Commandments completing on Exodus 31:18 where God provides Moses with two tablets of stone that was written by God.

iii. So when we think about the seat of Moses, it goes back to Exodus 21:23 where the scribes and the priests ask Jesus, by what authority do you teach these things? Afterall, the scribes and the Pharisees had full authority over the people because they taught the Law. They were the primary teachers and implementers of the Law.

iv. So what does Jesus say about them? Verse 3, after stating that the scribes and the Pharisees had seated themselves in the chair of Moses, do all they tell you. Do it and observe the things in which they tell you. What’s interesting is Jesus doesn’t say don’t do these things. Everything that they are teaching in regards to the Law, do those things. But, don’t do according to their deeds. For they say things and don’t do them. So do all the things that they call you to do because those are good things, but don’t imitate them, because although they teach these things, they don’t even do the things they teach.

v. Follow their teaching if you must but be sure not to follow their example. Imagine if that’s how we think about our leaders? What credibility would there be by the teachers? Although Jesus says calls for the people to follow their teaching, His second statement tells us that by their lives, they have canceled their own authority.

vi. Verse 4, The scribes and Pharisees tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. The scribes and Pharisees will tell people what they are supposed to do in obedience, and yet, they would be unwilling to do the very thing they teach. The contrast founded in Matthew 11:28, if you go to Christ, His burden is light, while here, in contrast, the burden is heavy.

vii. What I see so commonly among pastors who have good intentions is this exact example. In striving for holiness, which is good, they add their own bias and thoughts as to what holiness is in their perception, and burden people. The second part here is important. They themselves being unwilling to move them with so much a finger explains that if people listen to what they say and are struggling, they are unwilling to extend help or grace to offer help to the people who are struggling because of their insistence of the Law.

viii. The second charge against the Pharisees is revealed in verse 5. Not only are they unwilling to do the things they teach, they do all their deeds to be noticed by men. They broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. I didn’t know what this meant until I did some research. Broadening their phylacteries goes back to the Shema in Deuteronomy.

ix. Phylacteries (known in Judaism as tefillin) are small leather boxes containing scripture verses that observant Jewish men bind to their foreheads and arms during morning prayers, serving as physical reminders to keep God's laws. The passages were Exodus 13:1–10; 11–16; Deuteronomy 6:4–9; and 11:13–21. The Deuteronomy 6:4–9 passage contains the “Shema”—the confession of God being one Lord. All four passages contain the idea that God is commanding the people to bind his ordinances and commandments upon their hands and have them as “frontlets” between their eyes. So when Jesus says this here in verse 5, Jesus didn’t say this in the positive sense. He wasn’t complementing them for their love for Scripture. They did this for public show—using an oversized religious symbol to project an inflated sense of holiness and piety to those around them. Apparently, the broad phylactery would impress others with how religious the wearer was. It was evidence of pride, pretense, and hypocrisy in religion.

x. But not only that, to lengthen the tassels of their garments speaks of spoken of in Numbers 15:38-39; Deuteronomy 22:12. It was spoken to all the sons of Israel in Numbers so that they would look and remember all the commandments of the Lord so they would not follow their own heart, but follow God. Yet, the tassels at the end of the cloak were intended as spiritual visual aids and the longer they were, caused people to pay attention to their piety.

xi. In today’s context, it could be the way we understand college or high school graduation. We have tassels on our caps, and when we graduate, they tell the graduates to move the tassels from one side to the other. We also have honor cords, that people wear which signify honors Cum Laude or magma Cum Laude or Summa Cum Laude. All of these cords are great, but like the tassels, they signify piety or caused others to think about their piety. The longer the tassel, the greater the piety.

xii. Jesus expands by this idea here in verse 6. They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues. Not only do they love the honor at banquets, the best seats in the house, they want to be respected in market places, and being called Rabbi. They want others to elevate them. They demand that from others.

xiii. One of the things that I’ve learned from the ministry is that demanding this is not helpful. We’ve always learned that respect is earned. We earn our respect by the way we serve and love our people. We should not demand respect because the office, our own title already calls for respect. Ministry leaders should understand that if our title already calls for respect, we must work hard to earn that respect. I am all for people respecting us and calling us pastor. But it should mean something to the person and cause us to live a certain way. This is what Jesus was condemning. They want the title but they don’t feel like they need to earn it. They must respect me because I have went to seminary, I went to rabbinic school and I put in all this effort. I disagree with this approach. I am truly appreciative when people do give me the respect and honor of the title, but I also want the people to know how much I love them and care for them.

b. Pharisees hate humility (23:8-12)

i. So verse 8, Jesus says don’t be called Rabbi, because there is only one teacher and the rest of you are brothers. Don’t be people who crave public respect. Be people who are equal with others. Nobody is better than you or smarter than you. You are all the same in Christ. Even if someone has more education than you, it doesn’t mean anything. Some of the greatest saints in the world have been people who never went to college. Faithfulness is not attached to education. We should not be attracted to people who know a lot. We should be attracted to people who strive to be holy, to be more like Jesus every day.

ii. Verse 9, do not call anyone your father, for One is your Father in heaven. This goes back to the usage of brother and father. Jesus uses familial terms to make the point that Father here is not referring to our own dad, but referring to the Fathers. It is in context of teaching. Don’t call anyone your Father, as in the one who you listen to for everything. Don’t let this person be your source of authority. This doesn’t mean that you don’t appreciate and ask for their input. You should absolutely confide and ask people for their opinions and thoughts. But you should never just listen to these people because of a title. Again, respect should be earned. Just because someone has the title of pastor doesn’t mean that they deserve the respect of being a pastor. A pastor is not just a teacher of the Bible. A pastor is a person who deeply cares about the person, not for his own gain, but cares deeply for what is best for the person. It is a person who cares for the persons soul rather than for my gain.

iii. Verse 10 is difficult because Jesus says, don’t be called leaders, for there is one leader, who is Christ. Don’t consider yourself a leader apart from Christ. Again, this is not saying you shouldn’t be a leader or there are no leaders. No, there are some that God has appointed to be leaders in the Church. But who are they pointing to? Are they pointing at their own gain? No, these leaders should always point you to Jesus. That should be the first person and only person they are leading you to.

iv. Then Jesus says in verse 11 what He has been teaching throughout His ministry. This is the greatest issue with the Pharisees and scribes. They could not understand what it meant to be the least. They hate humility. They hate not being recognized. They hate the idea of being lowly. They don’t want to be considered last. I think about this often as I have taken on ministry and sometimes it is hard and difficult to think about failure in ministry. I look at other churches and hear of the ministry that God is doing there, and when you go through difficulty in the church, and you see the church being stagnant, you are discouraged. And as I have gone through this thought process, it’s because of this exact statement. We hate to be last. We hate to be small. We think that big is successful. We think that abundance is a sign of God’s grace.

v. No, the sign of God’s grace is faithfulness in understanding where God has put us and put me. It’s helping me to see that God works through humility. Maybe my ministry will never be big and maybe it might never grow. But what God calls me to do is to be thankful and to love the people that God has put in my life. God doesn’t expect me to build an empire. That’s what I want. That’s my flesh. That’s my heart. But what God wants from me is to point others to Jesus and to put my desires out of it. God wants me to be faithful and to be thankful for the ministry that He has provided.

3. CONCLUSION