Chapel 9/8
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We’ve talked about this before, so you should know the answer to this question; Who is Matthew writing his gospel to, who is his main audience? The Jews
God’s chosen people who have known God, His commandments, who have a history with experiencing God, His deliverance, His chosen vessels like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, King David, the judges, the prophets and so on.
God has always desired relationship with His people, for them to know and love Him and for Him to care for and protect them, but the Jews had turned what started out as a relationship with God living among them, into a religious system empty of relationship, do and don’ts.
Religion for the most part is a man made system of things you must do and things you must not do, in order to make yourselves right with god, or to become better and even in some systems, to become a god. But this is never what the God of Israel desired.
So as he starts this section and as Jesus is preaching and teaching the people, He is blowing up the religious establishment and their lack of understanding for who they are and their history of rejecting God.
He lists 7 Woes or reasons for Judgement against them
So lets look at each briefly
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.
Matthew 23:1-12
Do what I say not what I do, what do we call that? Hypocrisy!!
Not only do they not do what they teach, but they make things too difficult on people, harder than it needs to be and they won’t help.
They love to be seen by people, long impressive robes with tassels, getting seating in the place of honor at dinners, people thinking they owe it to them or they deserve it because they are so holy.
To be addressed as teacher or Holy Father, but they are not true teachers, for the people then it was Jesus and God is our true Father.
They elevate themselves, but Jesus says,
The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
Matthew
Lets look at the next section, there is 2 “Woes” in this one
The
“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.
Matthew 23:
The teaching and efforts of the scribes and Pharisees are keeping people out of the kingdom, of course if they are not in the kingdom, how can they help others get in.
In fact they go to such great lengths to make people like themselves and unfortunately these people become worse than them. Jesus says twice as much a child of hell as they are.
Hell is a future place but also a current reality, existence outside the presence and ways of God. Hell on earth exists, murder, sex slave trafficking, those people are living in hell on earth.
So these Pharisees and their converts are perpetuating and creating more hell on earth
“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? 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.
Matthew 23:16-
To swear or to make an oath, the idea here is these people are using God to make themselves look better, we do that, we place God on our side as we testify to what happened or are trying to convince someone of something.
They made rules as to what they could or couldn’t swear by, it’s all nonsense tho. Be a man of your word and you don’t need to swear, let your yes be a yes and your no be a no.
“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!
Matthew 23:23-
These hypocrites are so focused on small matters of the law, not bad things, but not the most important things. They were neglecting Justice, mercy and faithfulness to the underprivileged and those who needed it.
Love God and love others, the greatest commandment, they were failing miserably at this.
“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.
Matthew 23:25-
Jesus here is describing how these hypocrites care more about how they appear or look on the outside rather than how “clean” they are on the inside.
They are full of greed and self-indulgence, Jesus says inwardly they are full of dead bones and uncleanness, full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. These teachers of the law are full of lawlessness themselves.
Matthew 23:29-
“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.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
They believe they would not have killed the prophets as their ancestors did, but at the same time they are plotting the capture and murder of Jesus.
Not only will they murder Jesus, but they will kill, crucify, flog and persecute from town to town the disciples and the followers of Jesus.
They are their ancestors, they will repeat the sins of their fathers and are guilty along with their fathers for the murders of God’s messengers throughout their history.
:37-
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’ ”
Relationship
And yet, the heart of Jesus, the heart of God is to love His people.
He desires to gather, to protect, to provide for those He loves and who love Him, but the Jews of His day were not willing.
They will reject Jesus as their long awaited Messiah and will have to wait for His second coming.
We see in this passage religion gone bad and its consequences.
True biblical Christianity is not what we must do to make ourselves right with God but what God has done to make us right.
Jesus fulfilled all the obligations and requirements of God, for us now salvation is by faith in HIs completed work, His perfect life and sacrificial death, by faith in belief in that we are brought back into right relationship with God.
Let me pray
