Sermon Tone Analysis

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

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,

Matthew

Lets look at the next section, there is 2 “Woes” in this one

The

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

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.

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.

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-

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-

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