13 “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. 15 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.
16 “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.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 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.’ 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
23 “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. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
25 “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. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
27 “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. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 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.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 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, 35 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. 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. 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! 38 See, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” Matthew 23: 13-39 ESV
Matthew 23: 13-36 Woes
You neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in - Christ has just condemned the Pharisees for not only being hearers of the word in verses 1-12, but also taking for themselves the title of teachers of the word, getting up and exhorting the people, but not practicing what the Word of God says. Most of the evangelical church today would avoid a confrontational message like this, it's not "seeker" friendly, it drives some away, it doesn't hand everyone a trophy, but this is because, like the Pharisees, they have invented another gospel, their own religion, drawing men to themselves. Listen, if the Pharisees aren't willing to go in on God's terms and you are following them, well they aren't leading you to the narrow gate. They are doing everything in their power to distract you, and it is no different today when men get up in pulpits, or more like stages today, and they refuse to give the whole counsel of God. Read this chapter, and tell me, can anyone accuse Jesus of tickling their ears?
…2Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and encourage with every form of patient instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not tolerate sound doctrine, but with itching ears they will gather around themselves teachers to suit their own desires. 4So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.… 2 Timothy 4: 2-4
…11Woe to them! They have traveled the path of Cain; they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam; they have perished in Korah’s rebellion. 12These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted. 13They are wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars, for whom blackest darkness has been reserved forever.… Jude 1: 11-13
To make a single proselyte - They would do anything to increase the number of their followers. Rabbis had students that followed them, and imagine their envy, well, you won't have to imagine, they will make it clear, but Jesus had multitudes show up to hear Him teach, yet His preaching was sound and so it would drive the majority away. Now Jesus is cursing these false teachers, and exposing them, so in their minds this is hurting their side hustle, cutting into their profits, they don't want to teach like Him, but they want followers. They didn't want men to look to God, for they are rejecting God in Jesus Who is standing before them. Their religion was about themselves, not about God, about their works, not about Christ, about their prestige, not about God's glory.
…14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming. 15Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Christ Himself, who is the head. 16From Him the whole body, fitted and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love through the work of each individual part.… Ephesians 4: 14-16
…17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by My Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”… Matthew 16: 17-19
The gold or the temple that made the gold sacred - The temple was the house of God, a shadow representation of His redemptive plan to which the reality now stood before them in Christ Jesus. It is where God made His presence known amongst His people. They put more upon the gold that was brought into the temple than the temple which sanctified the gold, which represented eternal salvation. Again they led men astray with their teachings, and yet Christ is condemning them in their upside down view, that they not only take God's purpose lightly, they pervert it, and they lead others to do the same. Apply it to the church today, are we not supposed to be the guardians of the gospel truth, or do we take these same liberties of the Pharisees and make a gospel more suited to the masses? Did Jesus have to die for our sins, was that the only way, or do you offer another? Do you have some special knowledge that allows you to set aside God's intent, to take the focus off the cross, to snub the repentance that Jesus preached? Who do you say Jesus is, and is God's word the authority or your private interpretation?
…28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”… Hebrews 10: 28-30
You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel - A gnat was the smallest of the unclean animals, and a camel would be one of the larger. They weren't even directed to count mustard and dill seeds, but they thought it made them seem more holy like the sages and the ascetics. They took great care to do that, but swallowed a camel when it came to neglecting their duties to widows, to brotherly love, to compassion, to the fatherless, to justice, and keeping sacred the things of God.
You clean the outside of the cup - Where does God look? Yes, at the heart, at who you and I really are, and it will never matter what we have convinced others to believe about us. You won't stand before those who think you are a good person here, before those to who's organization you donated to, nope, we will all stand totally stripped to our bare souls before a Holy and Just God. You will need some clothes to stand here, just like Adam and Eve, you will need to be clothed in the innocence of Someone else.
…5You welcome those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. Surely You were angry, for we sinned. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins? 6Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind. 7No one calls on Your name or strives to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.… Isaiah 64: 5-7
…3Now Joshua was dressed in filthy garments as he stood before the angel. 4So the angel said to those standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes!” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have removed your iniquity, and I will clothe you with splendid robes.” 5Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So a clean turban was placed on his head, and they clothed him, as the angel of the LORD stood by.… Zechariah 3: 3-5
…13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14Instead, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh. Romans 13: 13-14
First clean the inside of the cup and plate - They need renewed minds, changed minds, to repent which is to turn in the complete opposite direction.
…9Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. 10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me.… Psalm 51: 9-11
If we had lived in the days of our fathers - They decorated tombs, knew the prophets to be the spokesmen of God, they admit that, but they think they wouldn't have killed them like their fathers did. So twisted are they, that Jesus, the very fulfillment of those prophets, the very hope of their call to repentance, is now standing before them and they want to kill Him. And now I hear people say they are Christians today, but when we discuss the Jesus of the Bible, the Word dwelling among us, God the Son, the One to Whom God has turned over all judgment, the One Who didn't come to destroy the law or the prophets but to fulfill, the Biblical Jesus. When we talk about Him, go through passages like this, it becomes clear that the Jesus preaching this sermon in Matthew 23 is not the One they believe in, and deny it up and down, but if this Jesus stood before you, you would request the nails and plead for a hammer. You would not only condone His crucifixion but participate, because you hate His message and His messengers. There was a time I would of, when I went around talking about another Jesus, wanting a God made in my own image, a genie that jumped when I called. I have heard people speak against the evils of the past, how they would never have gone along with the Nazis, the Marxist like Stalin and Mao, who massacred over a hundred million, or the Inquisitionist, or the KKK, yet you are silent on abortion, and you probably don't even see the connection. Would you have killed Jesus? "Oh, I don't know, are we talking inside the womb or outside the womb?"
You serpents, you brood of vipers - That's not very nice, todays churches would say that Jesus wasn't very Christ like, nothing like the god they believe in. A serpent was an unclean animal, a viper was one with venom, not highly esteemed by the Jews.
How are you to escape being sentenced to hell - You can't get more direct than that, and if we were smart we would see it as a kindness, as fair warning, more than fair, what He is talking about is not temporary hurt feelings, who cares? He is talking about things that bare eternal ramifications, your feelings are so temporal and overrated. Jesus would be a monster if He told them, "keep up the good work guys, I know you mean well in your hypocrisy, and I am going to skip telling you what's really going to happen because then you would hate me and want to kill me." This is the sermon of someone walking in the shadow of the cross and glaring back at it; Jesus has stared it down, these men are incensed, they probably can't see straight at this point.
Some of whom you will kill and crucify - The poor disciples, their eyes have to be as big as saucers now, "is He talking about us?"
…37They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they were put to death by the sword. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, oppressed, and mistreated. 38The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and hid in caves and holes in the ground. 39These were all commended for their faith, yet they did not receive what was promised.… Hebrews 11: 37-29
So that on you may come all the righteous blood - Killing Jesus will fill the measure of their fathers, if their fathers killed the ones He sent, the ones who foretold of His coming, then they would finish it in Him. They would see themselves as just in this and Him cursed, but to everyone who believes in Him, He becomes the curse on our behalf, to all who believe on His name.
…12The law, however, is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.” 13Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” 14He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.… Galatians 3: 12-14
As a hen gathers her brood - There is the righteous anger of God, yet also, even in justice, there is His compassion. Men love to see themselves as their own, yet in the face of all the evidence of Messiah, they prefer their own way. To choose, they say, let it be my choice, but they are slaves to sin, and in that, even in the face of the Truth, they will not recognize it and turn away. Jesus has on more than one occasion sorrowed over their unbelief. I use to think God was unfair in this, that some come to believe, and I use to think it unfair that there were some that did not hear, but fair would send us all to hell, for that is the wages of sin. And, as I thought some more, I realized that those who hate God would not choose God, the idea of an eternity with God would not appeal to them, so they will always choose something else, an idol of the heart or the hands, but not the Holy Creator. Those who do come to believe, I am certain that is a work of the Holy Spirit, for those dead in their trespasses and sins do not have the power to raise themselves. Faith itself is a gift, and it is God Who has gifted men in His mercy, to want Him. The one who comes to want God gets what he wants, eternity with God, and the one who remains at enmity with God, gets what he wants, which is to not be reconciled. The thought of salvation should leave us in humble awe, and it should make every sin against us, in such a finite place as this, easy to forgive, and our hearts should break over the lost.
…25O LORD, save us, we pray. We beseech You, O LORD, cause us to prosper! 26Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you. 27The LORD is God; He has made His light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.… Psalm 118: 25-27
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