Sermon for November 1, 2020 15 Minutes

This morning I'll be reading Matthew chapter 23 verses 1 through 12.

And I'll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Matthew 23:1-12

In chapter 22,,, Jesus has just silenced the religious leaders and in this chapter,,, He is continuing His talk to the crowds and to His disciples.

Matthew 23:1–12

1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples: 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees are seated in the chair of Moses. 3 Therefore do whatever they tell you, and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because they don’t practice what they teach. 4 They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 They do everything to be observed by others: They enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6 They love the place of honor at banquets, the front seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by people. 8 “But as for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi,’ because you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 Do not call anyone on earth your father, because you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 And do not be called masters either, because you have one Master, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord,,, as we begin this morning,,, with everyone here today and all that are listening and watching by video,,, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.

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In the verses just before this,,, as I said at the beginning,,, Jesus has just silenced the religious leaders and they never question Him again,,, because they realized that they couldn't ask Him anything and trap Him the way that they wanted.

In these verses,,, Jesus speaks to the crowds and to His disciples to help show them the way that they should present themselves to everyone in contrast to the way that the scribes and Pharisees were doing.

Hopefully these verses will help us to see that we need to show Jesus' love as it shines through us,,, as it should do,,, and not just as show to make us look good.

So lets look at these verses,,, and see how they can help us,,, as we continue our walk with God this week.

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Verses 1 through 3 say: 1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples: 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees are seated in the chair of Moses. 3 Therefore do whatever they tell you, and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because they don’t practice what they teach.

Jesus has begun to teach the people and His disciples who had been present while the religious leaders were trying to trick Him.

He warns them to obey the authority of the religious leaders since they are seated in Moses' chair.

Their teachings on the law was correct and something that should be listened to.

Jesus was trying to tell them to listen to them because they are teaching many things that are right even if their hearts were in the wrong place!

Of course,,, they might have said the right things,,, but they usually did so many of them for the wrong reasons,,, as we see in the next few verses.

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Verse 4 says: 4 They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift a finger to move them.

This verse refers to the actions of the elders,,, not the law itself.

The law was good,,, but the extra burdens that was placed on the people were the problem,,, and it was especially evident that the elders didn't follow through in all of the examples that they set.

And we see why from the next few verses.

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Verses 5 through 7 say: 5 They do everything to be observed by others: They enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6 They love the place of honor at banquets, the front seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by people.

Jesus explains that the reasons that they do what they do is because they want to be seen and known as being religious,,, rather than really wanting to "be" religious!

He goes on to explain some ways that they do this.

By enlarging their phylacteries,,, Jesus is talking about the small boxes containing Scripture passages that Jews wore on their foreheads or arms.

The scribes and Pharisees apparently enlarged these boxes to make them more visible. (see Exodus 13:9; Deuteronomy 6:8; 11:18).

The lengthening of tassels would refer to the tassels on outer garments or prayer shawls (see Numbers 15:37–39; Deuteronomy 22:12).

The tassels reminded people to obey the commandments,,, and,,, the more visible the tassel,,, the more devout one appeared.

And of course,,, they loved to be seen by everyone and be sure that everyone knew that they were always sitting in a place of honor and always being recognized.

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Verse 8 says: 8 “But as for you, do not be called ‘Rabbi,’ because you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers.

Jesus is warning them,,, and of course us today,,, about thinking too highly of ourselves.

This was what the religious leaders loved to do.

They were interested in the way that they looked instead of whether they were truly helping anyone!

They were insistent on everyone knowing who they were and how important they were.

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Verse 9 says: 9 Do not call anyone on earth your father, because you have one Father, who is in heaven.

This was a common name for teachers at that time apparently,,, either way,,, Jesus wasn't talking about our earthly fathers but about those in authority,,, and when it comes to authority,,, we should only refer to God,,, which is our heavenly authority.

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Verses 10 through 12 say: 10 And do not be called masters either, because you have one Master, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted

One of my commentaries says that the Jews would sometimes us all three words,,, father,,, rabbi,,, and master all together by repeating each word in succession.

This was used as a flattering title to someone that they wished to show honor to.

As an example,,, they say, “When King Jehoshaphat saw a disciple of the wise men,,, he rose up out of his throne, and embraced him and said, Abbi, Abbi! Rabbi, Rabbi! Mori, Mori!

Which meant my Father, my Father! My Master, my Master! My Teacher, my Teacher!”

Here,,, Jesus is again warning of being sure that we don't think too highly of ourselves.

Any time that Jesus got a chance,,, He was always reminding the disciples to always be sure that they were thinking of others before themselves.

This was something that Jesus modeled the whole time that He was here on earth.

Remember,,, in a way that we cannot understand,,, or explain really,,, Jesus gave up His place in heaven,,, came to earth as a little baby,,, born in a manger instead of a castle like we would imagine our Savior would have been born in,,, then spent His life taking care of the needs of others,,, again the opposite of what you would think would happen if you really thought about it,,, all to save us from our own sins!

And we know from scriptures that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God,,, because He was obedient and humbled Himself,,, as He tells us to do repeatedly,,, so this is something that we should pay attention to.

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As we come to the end of these scriptures,,, we need to be sure that we do remember what Jesus is trying to teach the crowds and disciples.

Jesus spent His life,,, teaching the disciples and His followers and us today,,, that being humble,,, thinking of others before ourselves,,, helping others,,, doing everything that we can to keep from thinking more of ourselves than we should,,, all of these things,,, were so important to Him.

We know from scripture that the time is coming for each of us that we must answer for the things that we do while we are here on earth.

We also know that some will here the words from Jesus,,, found in Matthew 7:21-23,,, 21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’ 23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’

As we live our life today we must be sure that we are doing things for the right reasons and not just doing them for show.

We should want to help others,,, not because we think that it makes us look good,,, but to lift them up.

We do this because Jesus Christ has done so much for us when we did "not" deserve it!

We were living in sin when we realized that we needed to change,,, and yet,,, God loved us,,, even while we were sinners!

So how can we do any less than what Jesus ask us to do!

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We don't want to hear the words of Jesus: ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers!’

Especially since He spent so much of His time showing us,,, by His words and the way that He lived His life,,, all as an example for us to follow!

In these verses this morning,,, we have examples of the wrong way to live our life.

We need to be sure that we heed this warning,,, and live our life in a way,,, that brings glory to His name as we have been commanded to do!

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