Matthew Chapter 23 is one that is quite famous and well known. I think the reason for that is that hypocrisy is something that we all see and can identify, perhaps daily in our lives or the lives of the people or institutions around us. I think one of the other reasons that this passage is so famous is because there is a passion that comes through the text from the words of Jesus that stirs us. There is liberal use of exclamation points throughout this entire chapter. In my version there are, in fact, 12 exclamation points in this one chapter. Last time I talked about this topic we looked at the first twelve verses, which outline that the scribes and Pharisees were in a place of power, their rightful place, in fact, but they were more interested in the power and prestige that that place afforded than they were in actually performing the spiritual acts for themselves.
I want us to maybe look at this passage a little differently than you might have in the past. The passage in Matthew 23 starts out with Jesus speaking to the crowds and his disciples as stated in verse 1 of this chapter. Why does he start out like this? Why does he bring everyone in on the discussion if it is simply to criticize the religious leaders of the day? I think Jesus had purpose in this. When I think about the scribes and Pharisees I don’t often put myself in the viewpoint of the crowd. The truths that Jesus points out about the scribes and Pharisees show universal truths to the character of man. Pride, evasion of personal responsibility, indifference, self-glorification, in short – selfishness and sin. These are applicable for all people throughout any age. And although I wish this weren’t true, when I think about the scribes and Pharisees, I often, to my own dismay, see myself as being in their shoes. I want to think that I have things right, but often, I don’t. My spiritual life isn’t where I’d always like it to be. And yet I find myself here. I find myself speaking to you about the things that I learn about the scriptures, or what I believe about the scriptures. I understand why Jesus says “do as they say and not what they do” because, I know that my life doesn’t always match up to the things that I say. I’m trying, and I want to continually improve, but I think that means that I have to look at verses, like these ones in Matthew 23 and become a little uncomfortable with what I read, and so I am bringing my discomfort to you here this morning.
Before we go further though, let us pray.
There are three things that I think we can see in the next couple of verses. There is a LOT we can get out of these seven woes to the scribes and Pharisees and I will only be making it through two of them today, so be warned that you will be hearing more about them in future sermons of mine. But I think that these are important. I know that they are important to me, because I don’t want to be in their shoes.
The three things that I think we see here in verses 13-15 of Matthew 23.
- We see that the scribes and Pharisees will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
- We see that they are active in keeping others out of the kingdom.
- And we see that they make those people twice the child of hell that they are themselves.
With that in mind, let us read these verses.
Matthew 23:13-15
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.
The first thing that we see here is that…
They will not enter the kingdom.
Wow. Reflect on that for a minute. Think about who these people are. These people are the spiritual leaders of the nation. In the previous verses of the chapter we see that these people “sit in the seat of Moses” for the people. The meaning of that harkens back to the Old Testament. Moses used to sit and listen to the people and he would play the role of judge for them. And In Moses’ words, the people came to him “to seek God’s will.” This was the role that these scribes and Pharisees held in society, Jesus does not dispute their position, but He does challenge them on the way that they live their lives and do what is essentially their “job”. These people who are supposed to be seeking the will of God for others are not even going to enter the kingdom themselves! That is like someone going to a financial adviser who is bankrupt! Or going to a nutritionist that is morbidly obese.
I have a lot of interests. I love music for one. When I was in highschool I would always go to my friend Tyler Truesdell for advice on what music to listen to. Tyler was always “cool”. He always knew the “new and cool” bands. I knew his taste was good, or at least what I considered to be good at the time, and so I trusted him because he was experienced in this.
When I went to buy a car for the first time, I asked absolutely anyone I thought knew anything about vehicles. However, I especially relied on Gordon, because Gordon was a mechanic. He knows cars, literally from the inside out and he is therefore an expert and worthy of some respect in this field.
When I want to know about wiring up cables for computer networks or for telecommunication information I go to David, because he is an expert in this area.
By the way, no one ever comes to me about anything because I am not an expert in anything!
When we want to know something, we go to the expert. We go to people that knows something. The people of Israel went to the scribes and Pharisees assuming them to be experts on matters of spirituality. This should have been the case! And this is why Jesus is so upset! It is their place to understand and to help the people! Unfortunately, they didn’t understand or have a good enough relationship with God in order to save themselves, let alone to lead others into that knowledge.
They actively keep others from entering.
The second woe goes right along with the first. We see that these Pharisees and Scribes are not simply loosing out for themselves, but they are actively keeping others out. God longs for us to be with Him. He sent His one and only son to die a terrible death on the cross and here these people stand in the way! They can’t get to heaven by the way that they are living and so, like a child who, when they can’t have the toy they want, instead of sharing they break it so that no one can have it. The message is clear, the Pharisees can’t get it right, and so they stop everyone else from entering as well.
This set of verses uses the word “proselyte”. This word simply means to covert a person to a doctrine or religion. We are all commanded in Matthew 28:19 to “Go therefore and make disciples”. We should all be “proselytizing” to people we meet.
We all proselytize. We do it all the time. When we convert someone to our new fad diet. When we convince someone that they should really buy an IPS big screen over a plasma. When we convince someone that they should really use a Mac instead of Windows. Neither of these are right though, they should be using Linux of course. Anyone who gets that joke, see me later. We can chat. When we tell someone they should really root for Maroons instead of Blues in the State of Origin match. We all spread the news of things that we find interesting or important to us and naturally we want to share those things that we find most important with others. But more than that I think it is in the nature of each person for us to want to share that experience of something we love with someone else. Ideally, we would like for them to then share in that passion with us. So I guess we should wonder, have we done any proselytizing of our Christianity? If not…why? Is it not the passion that we think it is on our lives?
On an aside, I have a friend that lives in Brunei. He is a good friend who I talk to online and have spoke with for years. I find where he lives to be very interesting. One thing that I find a bit scary, however, is that Brunei, like Malaysia and Indonesia and many of the little islands north of Australia, is that it is a Muslim nation. Both in religious beliefs of the people, as well as through the laws of the land. Because Islam is the recognised and official religion, other religions are marginalized, by both the people and the legislation of the government. According to Wikipedia and as confirmed by this friend, some other religions are “allowed” but people of those other religions are not allowed to “proselytize”. Depending on the laws of the country, it differs between many of these island nations, the penalty for converting a Muslim to Christianity would be either imprisonment or death.
And yet, when I think about these Christians that live in these countries, I fear for them. Because when I look at Matthew 28, I think…we cannot truly be Christians without sharing our faith with others. These Jews, apparently felt the same way about Judaism. These scribes and Pharisees are active. We cannot think of them as people that Jesus is labelling as lazy because they do not live the way they are supposed to. No, they are active!
They are converting people outside of Judaism, and then taking away the kingdom from them as well. They are not merely standing passively in the way of people’s salvation, but they are actively converting and destroying the lives of people they meet. They actually then make them twice the child of hell that they are.
They make them twice the child of hell that they are.
In the book of Genesis we see the creation, the fall, and the eventual destruction of mankind. As part of those accounts we see the story of Cain and Abel. All of us here, I am sure, know the story. Abel presented a more pleasing sacrifice to God than Cain did. Cain was upset and he killed his brother. That is a gross over simplification, but that is the gist of the story. For whatever reason, Cain kills his brother and the Lord pronounces a judgement on Cain. Cain then, in Genesis 4:16 it says
Genesis 4:16 ESV
16 Then Cain went away from the presence of the Lord and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. Cain travelled away from the presence of the Lord. Now we know that God is omni-present, so this cannot mean that he actually got away from God. However, spiritually, and in Cain’s mind, by distance he moves himself and his family away from God. This is then continued on in his family line down to Lamech. Lamech is the first person recorded to have taken two wives. Up to this point, that wrong had not been committed. Lamech then goes on to brag in verse 23, which says.
Genesis 4:23 ESV
23 Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; you wives of Lamech, listen to what I say: I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. 24 If Cain’s revenge is sevenfold, then Lamech’s is seventy-sevenfold.”
We see the continuation of Cain’s line gets increasingly wicked. Whereas, we then have recorded the line of Seth. Adam and Eve’s son after the death of Abel.
Genesis 4:25-26
25 And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth, for she said, “God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.” 26 To Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord.
And later in Genesis chapter five we see the sons of Seth. These include such people as “Methuselah”, who walked with God and was no more. And in this line also comes Noah, who alone with his family were counted worthy of surviving the flood. The legacy that we leave behind has an impact beyond the here and now. In our families, and in fact in the people we come across as well. These scribes and Pharisees wrought a legacy that was not only bad for themselves, but had impacts to make the lives of future generations even more wicked than themselves.
So, what does all of this mean for our lives? How can we avoid the pitfalls that we see that the scribes and Pharisees fall into? Well, first of all we need to look at our own lives. This is something that the scribes and Pharisees lacked. They couldn’t help the people get into the kingdom because they weren’t getting in themselves.
So, how can we examine our lives? Well, we can, of course, read His Word.
Hebrews 4:11-16 ESV
11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We must draw near to God. We must be engaged in the Word of God because it is what cuts away the imperfections. It is what divides the good from the bad. Without the Word of God in our lives we will not draw near to Him who can give us the mercy and grace that we need.
Are you engaged with God in His word? Do you know Him personally through prayer? Do you know what He would say in each situation because you know the sound of His voice through the scriptures?
Secondly, we see that the scribes and Pharisees were active, but that because of their failure in the first way that they were not only ineffective, but were in fact a detriment to the kingdom. We need to be active, but we need to make sure that we are building up instead of tearing down. How can we do this? By being right with God in the first place. And by continually checking our progress against the fruit of the spirit. Are the actions you are taking producing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self control in your life? Are they helping to create these kinds of characteristics in the people you meet and interact with? Or are you causing negative reactions in the people you come into contact with? Are you spurring others on to do great things for God? Or are you dragging people down with you?
Lastly we see that the scribes and Pharisees are leaving a legacy of destruction behind themselves. We need to do the opposite. We will leave a legacy. Each one of us. What will that legacy be? Will we leave the world worse off, or will we improve the lives of the next generation. Will we leave behind such a strength of Christian character that it will last with our sons and daughters and their sons and daughters, and our friends, and their friends down through the ages? Live life as if it has a purpose that will outlast your lifetime, because it will. For better or for worse.
Let us do the opposite of the scribes and Pharisees. Let us find ourselves in the kingdom. Let us be active and effective in a positive manner. And let us leave behind a legacy of converts that are children of heaven, instead of hell.