WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.840 Go to Matthew chapter 23. 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:04.400 Matthew chapter 23. 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:07.919 We've been away from Matthew for a little while. 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:13.439 We've had our Easter service a couple weeks ago, and last week we had our missions conference. 00:00:13.599 --> 00:00:17.359 And we've been going through the Gospel of Matthew, and we're back in Matthew chapter 23. 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:25.679 And if you have a pew Bible in front of you and would like to find that, you can find it on page 878, 878. 00:00:28.000 --> 00:00:35.520 Just a note, if you don't have a Bible and would like to have a Bible, please feel free to take one of the Bibles in the pew and just claim it as your own. 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:36.719 You can put your name in it. 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:38.719 It's yours as a gift from us. 00:00:44.159 --> 00:01:01.359 As I stated three weeks ago, the last time we were in this passage, we're in a section of the life of Jesus that we call the Passion Week, the last week of Christ's earthly ministry that starts with his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ends with his resurrection from the dead. 00:01:02.000 --> 00:01:14.319 We center in on Matthew chapter 23, which is wholly taken by Jesus talking about the failures of the religious establishment in Jerusalem during his day. 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:17.120 It can be broken down into two sections. 00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:25.840 The first section, verses 1 to 12, talk to us about Jesus speaking to the crowds about the religious establishment. 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:35.280 And then in verses 13 through the end of the chapter, Jesus speaks to that religious establishment through a series of woes. 00:01:36.079 --> 00:01:42.560 It'd be easy for us to listen to this chapter and feel removed from it. 00:01:43.439 --> 00:02:05.760 These are people that we will never have met in a time that we never can go back to, in a place that many of us will never visit, and to speak of forms of religious activity that most of us are probably unfamiliar with, a religious system that's outside of our knowledge. 00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:12.560 We may feel a world away from this chapter, but it has much to say to us. 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:26.240 When Jesus speaks to the crowds about the Pharisees, and when Jesus speaks to the Pharisees, he is calling us to a period of self-examination, of religious hypocrisy. 00:02:26.879 --> 00:02:46.000 These things that he warns about and casts woes upon are issues of the human heart that all of us can be tempted with, that every single one of us might drift this direction and find our lives caught up in the things that Jesus denounces. 00:02:46.319 --> 00:03:31.680 And so when Jesus speaks to the crowd about the Pharisees and their hypocrisy of the inconsistency of their life and their lips, as he speaks about them heaping religious burdens upon people without so much as lifting a finger to help, when he talks about their hungering for recognition as they love, honor, and applause, the Lord is teaching us that those temptations are not to be found among his people, that those kind of activities are meant to be completely cast aside and replaced with sincerity of worship and helpfulness of hand and heart, devoted to God's praise and not our own. 00:03:32.639 --> 00:03:40.639 Place where God's people prioritize humility and service rather than position and power. 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:48.639 Last time we were here, we started in on the seven woes that Jesus gives. 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:53.280 There's seven throughout the rest of the chapter, once we get from verse 13 onward. 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:59.759 And we said the last time that a woe was a mix of a compassion and condemnation. 00:04:00.000 --> 00:04:09.759 And it's hard for us to understand that because our world today is either filled with compassion or condemnation. 00:04:10.159 --> 00:04:13.199 And we don't easily mix the two. 00:04:14.159 --> 00:04:19.680 But Jesus is able and does very much so pull the two of these together. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:29.439 You can feel the compassion in these woes, and you can feel the condemnation in these woes. 00:04:29.839 --> 00:04:42.240 He bewails this miserable condition of the religious establishment, and yet at the same time pronounces their fate if they continue down that pathway. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:57.279 These woes are meant to be invitations to repentance, to seeking out a new way of life, to realize the dangers of continuing down a road to destruction. 00:04:58.639 --> 00:05:14.639 As we listen to these indictments, as we hear the compassion of our Savior, may it also be for us a halting warning sign if we continue to progress down the same road that these religious leaders were going down. 00:05:15.920 --> 00:05:27.439 May it be for us a time for self-examination, an exhortation against the sins that might gravitate in our hearts to overwhelm our life. 00:05:28.000 --> 00:05:37.839 And may we also find in this positive encouragement to walk with our Savior and to realize that his kingdom is not like the powers of this world. 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:50.639 We looked at the first four woes three weeks ago, and I just want to sort of highlight those and move deeper into the passage, and we'll get ourselves to the end of the chapter before we close off. 00:05:51.439 --> 00:06:02.240 The first woe that Jesus offers is found in verse 13, where he declares the woe to the scribes and Pharisees of shutting the door to God's rule. 00:06:02.959 --> 00:06:24.639 The religious leaders there assert their right to speak authoritatively about God, but Jesus says instead of welcoming in the Messiah themselves and directing people toward him, they are not only not entering in, they are also shutting the door so that others can't enter in as well. 00:06:25.839 --> 00:06:29.120 They're known for their religious zeal for God. 00:06:30.399 --> 00:06:38.399 But while they were working in full-time ministry, they were working in full-time opposition to God's kingdom. 00:06:39.600 --> 00:06:42.319 What a horrendous waste of life. 00:06:43.360 --> 00:07:02.399 And this teaches us of the importance of knowing God rightly, of knowing and aligning ourselves with Him and His purposes, and being an instrument by which we point people His direction, not our own. 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:05.279 This is exactly what the Pharisees were doing. 00:07:05.439 --> 00:07:13.279 They were calling attention to themselves and not wanting to point people to the Savior. 00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:25.040 Temptation is there in all of our hearts to want to be at the place and the center of all of the attention and of all the power and all the things that come with it. 00:07:25.680 --> 00:07:31.120 But Jesus here is calling out a woe against those who would do this. 00:07:32.639 --> 00:07:42.240 John the Baptist called out prior to Christ's coming, and he told people to repent, because the kingdom of heaven was at hand. 00:07:42.959 --> 00:07:53.920 But when Jesus came into the scene, his first words cried out, Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. 00:07:54.160 --> 00:07:59.519 He moved the attention off of himself toward Jesus Christ. 00:08:00.079 --> 00:08:03.920 And some of his own disciples were concerned about this. 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:11.279 And John said those famous words, He must increase, and I must decrease. 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:52.559 Paul said this. 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:09.200 For no one can lay any foundation other than what has been laid down. 00:09:09.600 --> 00:09:13.200 That foundation is Jesus Christ. 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:19.600 We have to ask ourselves: what kind of signpost are we? 00:09:20.559 --> 00:09:24.000 Are we a signpost of direction to the Savior? 00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:28.559 Or is it somehow just kind of trying to get people to focus in on ourselves? 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:32.320 Woe number two is akin to this. 00:09:32.720 --> 00:09:35.440 These people were zealous in their efforts. 00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:38.480 They were definitely focused on making converts. 00:09:38.559 --> 00:09:44.240 In verse 15, it tells us that they traveled over land and sea to make one convert. 00:09:44.639 --> 00:09:53.279 However, when they made one, Jesus said, You make them twice the child of hell as you are. 00:09:55.759 --> 00:10:06.000 Not only were they putting a do not enter sign in front of heaven, they were also putting a you turn only sign in front of heaven. 00:10:06.240 --> 00:10:16.799 And so people that might want to enter in, seeing the do not enter, are being told by the Pharisees to turn around and head directly to hell. 00:10:18.320 --> 00:10:28.480 They were enthusiastic about trying to get people to conform to their strict sectarian understanding of Judaism, contending that their way was the only way. 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:44.159 But they were actually influencing people even further away from God as those people listened to their voices and began to conform themselves to this self-righteous religious devotion that the Pharisees said they had to do. 00:11:09.840 --> 00:11:15.759 And then to find behind him 50 followers who are all going, I can wear camel hair too. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:24.159 I'm going to eat locust too, and try to conform themselves to the physical characteristics of John the Baptist. 00:11:24.240 --> 00:11:32.000 When John is saying he's the one you should be following, you don't need to look like me, you don't need to eat like me. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:35.039 You need to be yourself and a follower of Jesus. 00:11:35.200 --> 00:11:37.600 This is what John the Baptist would do. 00:11:38.639 --> 00:11:42.000 We are to ensure that we encourage people to be followers of him. 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:48.559 We need to understand the importance of our words and the eternal impact that they have. 00:11:50.399 --> 00:11:54.879 This isn't just they're defaulting from better things in this life. 00:11:55.120 --> 00:12:08.480 Jesus is saying by their influence and their words, they're actually condemning people to a greater degree of judgment than when they were going toward when they had before they had met these people. 00:12:09.600 --> 00:12:18.960 Imagine standing before the throne of God and being called to account for turning people away from God Himself. 00:12:21.519 --> 00:12:24.879 Woe is the only word that we can say. 00:12:30.399 --> 00:12:40.639 Woe to you, blind guides, who say, Whoever takes an oath by the temple, it means nothing, but whoever takes an oath by the gold of the temple is bound by his oath. 00:12:41.200 --> 00:12:46.799 These religious leaders were doing religious gameplaying with their words. 00:12:47.679 --> 00:12:58.960 So desirous to be the center of attention, so desirous to be the source of wisdom, people would come to them for counsel and ask, I've got an obligation. 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:03.120 Am I obliged to keep my promise here or not? 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:05.840 And they would go, well, let's talk about this. 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:14.720 Um when you made that promise, did you call an oath upon that? 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:17.360 Well, yes, I did. 00:13:18.480 --> 00:13:33.360 And when you made that oath of sort of substantiate your promise, did you call upon the temple as a justification and as it would rain down as a witness upon you? 00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:37.600 Yeah, I did. 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:42.159 Well, I've got some good news to share with you. 00:13:43.360 --> 00:13:50.799 If you'd given that promise by the gold of the temple, well, you'd still have to do this, but I've got some good news. 00:13:50.960 --> 00:13:53.279 You're you're really not obliged. 00:13:53.519 --> 00:13:56.320 You're not obliged at all to keep this promise. 00:13:56.720 --> 00:14:01.759 You only gave an oath against the temple, not the gold of the temple. 00:14:03.360 --> 00:14:06.159 And they'd be like, Oh, thank you, teacher. 00:14:06.480 --> 00:14:08.559 Thank you for that counsel. 00:14:08.879 --> 00:14:11.039 Oh, my heart is so much lighter. 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:24.720 I can walk away without having to take care of my parents, or to pay my bill, or to go on a workday next Thursday, or whatever it was. 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:56.799 And the next time, teacher, I made an oath, and they would make themselves the arbitrator of what people ought to do, whether or not they were bound by their word, and whatever foolish little scheme they dreamt up became the means by which people's lives were changed, whether they kept their word or not. 00:14:57.759 --> 00:15:04.159 And Jesus cuts through all of this and just shows it for it to be the silliness that it actually is. 00:15:06.000 --> 00:15:20.879 And what Jesus is telling us here, we don't we're not to sell out our character or sell out our integrity with this sort of slippery slope formulas to release ourselves or people from promises that they've made. 00:15:22.159 --> 00:15:29.519 And we're also to be very careful about the wisdom we share with others, because it will affect people's lives. 00:15:30.000 --> 00:15:39.039 It will matter what you say, and they will go one way or the other, depending on what kind of advice you give. 00:15:41.039 --> 00:15:48.799 Rather, as believers, we should listen to what James did when he heard the words of the Savior here and in the Sermon on the Mount. 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:53.519 And he said, Let your yes be yes, and your no me no. 00:15:54.159 --> 00:15:56.080 Be a person of integrity. 00:15:56.320 --> 00:15:59.840 Don't play the game, just do what you say. 00:16:01.759 --> 00:16:05.519 My son came to me one day with a big concern. 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:11.600 He had said that he was going to work at the junior high uh work day. 00:16:11.759 --> 00:16:13.440 It was gonna mean a whole day of work. 00:16:13.519 --> 00:16:15.679 It was gonna be hot, sweaty work. 00:16:16.480 --> 00:16:22.159 And a few friends of his, a little later in the week, had asked him to come with them on a fun outing. 00:16:22.240 --> 00:16:24.240 I can't even remember what it was at the time. 00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:26.960 And he's like, Dad, what do I do? 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:30.960 I said, Well, I'm not gonna tell you what to do. 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:36.960 But why don't you go read Psalm 15 and tell me what it says? 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:42.080 He comes back and he says, Okay, I've made my decision. 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:49.519 Because in Psalm chapter 15, it says that a person who loves the Lord keeps his word no matter the cost. 00:16:50.720 --> 00:16:53.600 And my son said, That's what I need to do. 00:16:54.240 --> 00:16:58.080 It was a little episode in the life of me and my son. 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:00.000 But you know what? 00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:05.759 My son, 20 years later, is still talking about that little moment. 00:17:07.279 --> 00:17:08.880 And I thank God. 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:21.279 Well, for one, he had a heart to listen, but I thank God I I had the wisdom to give him God's word instead of my, like, hey, well, you know, there'll be another work day. 00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:34.160 It could have been easy just as a dad to pass off that that obligation and look at the the joy that my son would have in meeting his friends and going out and doing stuff. 00:17:34.799 --> 00:17:39.839 It wasn't easy for me to say, you really need to keep your word. 00:17:41.839 --> 00:17:43.039 But it was that important. 00:17:43.200 --> 00:17:45.759 20 years later, he's still talking about it. 00:17:48.079 --> 00:18:08.079 These woes call these religious leaders to account for the way that they're blocking people from God as they're making them actually deeper liable to judgment, and as they're releasing them from obligations by the whimsical fascination of their minds. 00:18:09.599 --> 00:18:31.279 In verse the next woe, he again brings up this idea, and he tells them in verse 23 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you pay a tenth of mint and dill and cumin, and yet you've neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. 00:18:31.519 --> 00:18:34.559 These things should have been done without neglecting the others. 00:18:34.880 --> 00:18:36.160 Blind guides. 00:18:36.799 --> 00:18:39.920 You strain out a gnat but gulp down a camel. 00:18:40.720 --> 00:19:05.519 The picture here of Jesus gives these unbalanced religious leaders straining out their wine by pouring it through a thin cloth so that a little gnat might be caught up in the cloth and wouldn't be contaminating their wine, and yet turn around the second time and just open their gullet to a whole camel and throw it down without a thought. 00:19:07.440 --> 00:19:21.359 In their scrupulous attention to ceremonial detail, they're so consumed in their time and their attention on these little things that they've forgotten, neglected, ignored. 00:19:22.160 --> 00:19:29.039 Their obligations as leaders to talk about justice and mercy and faithfulness. 00:19:30.799 --> 00:19:37.759 They had missed the obvious by fixating on the minutiae. 00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:48.720 These religious leaders sought to be precise in their actions, but lost the meaning and the real purpose of their responsibilities to God. 00:19:51.519 --> 00:20:09.680 It tells us just how easy it is for us to get caught up in little details, to lose sight of the real purposes for what we're here for, to even interact with each other as the body of Christ, and to get entrenched in things that really don't matter at all. 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:23.839 How many times has a church business meeting been captured by an endless conversation of things that don't mean anything on an eternal perspective? 00:20:25.200 --> 00:20:30.720 Church splitting over whether or not they're going to have green or orange carpeting. 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:39.680 A church broken by whether or not they were going to have a glass or a plexiglass or a wood pulpit. 00:20:41.279 --> 00:20:42.960 Like it would matter. 00:20:57.920 --> 00:21:00.319 Love God, love your neighbor. 00:21:00.480 --> 00:21:02.000 That's the focus. 00:21:02.160 --> 00:21:06.160 That is the weightier matters of the word of God. 00:21:07.920 --> 00:21:18.480 Now, if you want to have orange carpeting and you want to do retro 70s paneling on the walls, we'll talk about it. 00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:22.160 I mean, it just makes my skin crawl. 00:21:22.240 --> 00:21:24.160 I grew up in that stuff. 00:21:24.720 --> 00:21:30.960 However, we'll do so cordially, lovingly, kindly. 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:37.119 We'll interact on a way that love matters, right? 00:21:37.759 --> 00:21:40.720 Where caring for each other is important. 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:46.720 And if you guys win the vote on the paneling, that's okay too. 00:21:46.799 --> 00:21:47.839 I don't care. 00:21:49.759 --> 00:21:53.200 The fifth woe is found in verse 25. 00:21:55.039 --> 00:21:58.079 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. 00:21:58.400 --> 00:22:05.279 You clean the outside of the Cup and dish, but inside are you there full of greed and self-indulgence. 00:22:05.920 --> 00:22:12.319 Blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup so that the outside of it might also become clean. 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:26.079 Imagine taking a half an hour to clean a cup, and then you pour into it a cup of soup that's been sitting in your fridge for four hours and has mold forming on the top of it. 00:22:27.920 --> 00:22:29.759 What good did that do? 00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:31.200 None. 00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:35.680 All your cleaning of that made no effect. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:42.720 And here Jesus in the first four woes is speaking predominantly about what the religious leaders are doing. 00:22:43.279 --> 00:22:49.279 And these last three woes, he now moves to the inside of these men. 00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:58.960 He moves into who they are within their souls, with the penetrating light of what only God could see. 00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:07.119 He looks at them and he says, You're clean on the outside, but the inside is broken. 00:23:07.839 --> 00:23:10.559 Your inside is unclean. 00:23:11.920 --> 00:23:21.759 And they had committed themselves to a whole form of actions, of purity laws, and external ceremonies and requirements of purification. 00:23:22.160 --> 00:23:25.359 They looked and they sounded pious. 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:32.400 They were all correct in their forms, strict in their principles. 00:23:33.119 --> 00:23:42.079 They were careful about their associations, scrupulous about their dietary laws and their associations with people. 00:23:44.160 --> 00:24:01.200 Time and again they would criticize Jesus for eating with those who were not ceremonially clean, or his disciples eating things that they thought they shouldn't do, or doing things on a day they felt ought to be dealt with differently. 00:24:02.799 --> 00:24:11.680 But Jesus is saying, your heart the whole time is dirty. 00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:27.680 What good is it to be outwardly pure, to have this barrier separation from unclean people, while your heart all the while is full of greed and self-indulgence and lusting for religious pride. 00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:38.480 In order for them to be truly pure, they needed heart change, not just a change of clothes, not just a washing of hands. 00:24:39.680 --> 00:24:46.960 And the only way that they can have a changed heart is through the power of the kingdom of heaven that comes through Jesus Christ. 00:24:47.279 --> 00:24:54.720 Because Jesus said in Matthew 5, your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. 00:24:54.960 --> 00:24:56.640 Where does that come from? 00:24:57.119 --> 00:25:00.880 Only from God's transforming work by his spirit and word. 00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:11.519 But by rejecting the operation of Christ in his kingdom, they decided to leave the inside of themselves undone. 00:25:13.519 --> 00:25:23.839 They spent all their times examining the actions and associations of others, but gave no thought to letting the light of God's word come into their own. 00:25:26.720 --> 00:25:29.839 We have to ask the question, where are our eyes pointed? 00:25:30.000 --> 00:25:32.480 Are they pointed on what other people are doing? 00:25:32.720 --> 00:25:36.160 Or are they turned inward and examining our heart? 00:25:36.559 --> 00:25:44.720 The psalmist said, Search me, O God! Search me, find if there be any wicked way within me. 00:25:48.240 --> 00:25:51.359 Tells us about the damaging effects of legalism. 00:25:52.240 --> 00:26:16.160 When I was converted at the age of 21 in the military, one of the guys who was discipling me, along with teaching me how to read the Bible and how to pray and to love the church and to love the gospel and to share my resources with others by word and faithfulness and other ways, also taught me different things that I just took on board. 00:26:16.319 --> 00:26:19.920 This is what it means to be a Christian. 00:26:21.519 --> 00:26:27.759 And so I took on those things and even became a proponent of them for a while. 00:26:28.000 --> 00:26:33.519 And after a couple years, God began to crack the fissures of legalism in my heart. 00:26:33.759 --> 00:26:38.400 But it left me wondering and adrift, what does it truly mean to be spiritual? 00:26:39.839 --> 00:26:42.480 And God gave me a lesson. 00:26:43.200 --> 00:26:57.119 I was in England, and the daughter of my senior pastor and her husband were stationed in England, and we went to visit them and went to their church service one day, and they had a guest preacher there. 00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:07.599 And this his passage was this clap your hands, stamp your feet, and cry aloud over the evil and detestable practices of the house of Israel. 00:27:07.759 --> 00:27:10.079 So this guy took that passage very literally. 00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:18.480 He clapped his hands and he stomped his feet and he cried out aloud the sins of everybody but the people in that room. 00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:25.359 And I began to realize just how starkly wrong legalism was. 00:27:26.079 --> 00:27:28.400 Here was a military base. 00:27:28.720 --> 00:27:34.400 Everybody has a military haircut, and this guy's crying out about men having long hair. 00:27:34.640 --> 00:27:37.039 And all the people are like, amen, amen. 00:27:37.359 --> 00:27:41.200 They're waving their ham handkerchiefs and they're just like whooping it up. 00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:45.680 And I'm looking around, there's there's like white walls over every guy's ears, right? 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:47.680 Everybody's got a short haircut. 00:27:48.960 --> 00:27:50.720 Women shouldn't be wearing pants. 00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:52.319 Amen for sure. 00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:55.039 Screaming, hollering, yelling. 00:27:57.200 --> 00:28:02.640 There's no lady there wearing pants, so there was nobody in the middle of all of this. 00:28:02.880 --> 00:28:14.319 And it just went on with all of these external regulations and rules of what it meant, he thought, to be faithful to God. 00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:18.559 And the crowd was brought to this frothing fervor. 00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:30.400 I'm sh, and the next day I was outside um the home of our friends, and a guy came to me afterward, came up to them to visit, and he said, What did you think of that preaching last night? 00:28:31.359 --> 00:28:34.559 And this is what I said, and this is when it dawned on me. 00:28:35.039 --> 00:28:45.200 I said, I wonder if he had spent time talking about pride or greed or envy or gossip or inappropriate lust. 00:28:46.160 --> 00:28:48.400 I wonder how many amens he would have gotten. 00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:57.599 And I realized then, in a very stark, strong way, that this guy was just playing the crowd for emotional fervor. 00:28:57.680 --> 00:29:08.640 He wasn't giving them anything that would speak to their hearts about giving themselves to God and the influence of the power of the Spirit. 00:29:09.759 --> 00:29:14.480 Because anybody can cut their hair, anybody can change their wardrobe. 00:29:14.720 --> 00:29:17.759 Anybody could grab a King James Version and pick it up. 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:21.839 Anybody could join a Baptist church rather than another one. 00:29:22.960 --> 00:29:28.640 But we can't get rid of covetousness apart from the Spirit of God. 00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:40.880 These men had clean cups but dirty souls. 00:29:42.319 --> 00:29:46.960 Woe number six, another one very much like this in verse 27. 00:29:47.519 --> 00:29:58.559 Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you're like whitewashed tombs which appear beautiful on the outside, but are inside full of dead, full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. 00:29:59.759 --> 00:30:06.720 In the same way, on the outside, you seem righteous to people, but inside you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 00:30:07.440 --> 00:30:10.319 It's easy to play the game, Jesus is saying. 00:30:10.480 --> 00:30:13.920 It's easy to look the look, talk the talk. 00:30:14.720 --> 00:30:18.799 It's easy to make people think you're something you're not. 00:30:21.759 --> 00:30:25.359 He said, You're just like those whitewashed tombs. 00:30:27.119 --> 00:30:41.839 During the times of festivals, people would come into Jerusalem, and in order to, they would mark the tombs by whitewashing them so that visitors coming into Jerusalem would see them and move around them so they wouldn't become ritually impure themselves. 00:30:42.160 --> 00:30:48.400 And of course, it made it all look better, but it didn't change what was on the inside at all. 00:30:49.200 --> 00:30:55.519 And external standards of righteousness, external practices are not heart-affecting. 00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:00.960 There's nothing inside but impure death, he's telling them. 00:31:02.720 --> 00:31:12.000 We have to watch out that we don't get caught up by images, but rather substance, the Spirit of God working within our hearts. 00:31:12.640 --> 00:31:25.359 Watch out that we are neglecting internal holiness and replacing it with the simplicity and the air of outward appearances of righteousness. 00:31:27.839 --> 00:31:31.920 Woe number seven, verse 29. 00:31:32.559 --> 00:31:38.480 Woe, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:45.279 And you say, if we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we wouldn't have taken part with them in shedding the prophets' blood. 00:31:47.599 --> 00:31:49.440 And they did just that. 00:31:49.839 --> 00:31:59.119 But Jesus is speaking to people who at this very moment are conspirat in order to bring Jesus to death. 00:32:03.200 --> 00:32:05.200 They want him executed. 00:32:07.279 --> 00:32:22.400 And so Jesus lifts up the lid on the hearts of these men, cries out against their practices, but drives home deep into their soul the realities of who they really were. 00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:26.640 What a horrible thing this is. 00:32:27.519 --> 00:32:37.599 That we can be so duplicitous as people that we can present ourselves as one thing and be exactly the opposite on the inside. 00:32:39.200 --> 00:32:42.000 Now tell me that's not a universal problem. 00:32:43.279 --> 00:32:44.720 It certainly is. 00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:53.680 So may we never, never come into this passage and go, oh, look at those people, look what they did. 00:32:54.400 --> 00:33:18.640 How bad of them, without letting the searchlight of God's word come upon our hearts in order to seek out those things that still need remedied by God's gracious activity of sanctification, of leading us to renewal of life and transformation of our behavior from the inside out. 00:33:21.759 --> 00:33:29.839 Jesus finishes this off with a statement of invective and a and a crying, crying lament. 00:33:31.359 --> 00:33:36.960 He talks to these people and speaks to them of the judgment that's coming upon them. 00:33:37.359 --> 00:33:41.039 Judgment because of their rejection of the messengers. 00:33:41.599 --> 00:33:52.720 He said, I'm sending to you prophets and wise men and teachers, and some of them you'll kill and crucify, and others of them you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 00:33:54.000 --> 00:34:00.880 It's remarkable the earnestness of God's calling these men to repentance. 00:34:01.440 --> 00:34:14.559 These men who had were conspiring to kill Jesus at that very moment, those men who would be successful in their counsel together, who would literally put Jesus on the cross in a matter of days. 00:34:14.639 --> 00:34:19.599 And yet Jesus says, I'm going to continue to send you more messengers. 00:34:19.760 --> 00:34:22.239 I'm going to continue to send you more prophets. 00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:29.440 I'm going to continue to send you more people who are going to call out to your soul, believe, repent. 00:34:32.960 --> 00:34:37.039 We take it as a judgment, but hear the mercy in this. 00:34:42.480 --> 00:34:44.159 Beyond the grave. 00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:23.519 What we call 2 Chronicles. 00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:31.760 And Zechariah, the last one murdered, made this proclamation in 2 Chronicles 24. 00:35:32.320 --> 00:35:36.639 He stood above the people and said, This is what God says. 00:35:37.280 --> 00:35:41.679 Why are you transgressing the Lord's commands so that you do not prosper? 00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:45.440 Because you've abandoned the Lord, he's abandoned you. 00:35:45.840 --> 00:35:51.840 But they conspired against him and stoned him at the king's command in the courtyard of the Lord's temple. 00:35:52.079 --> 00:35:59.760 King Joash did not remember the kindness that Zechariah's father Jehoiada had extended to him, but killed his son. 00:36:00.960 --> 00:36:07.360 And while he was dying, he said, May the Lord see and demand an account. 00:36:08.639 --> 00:36:25.679 When Jesus said that the blood of Zechariah was coming upon them, these men who knew their Old Testament would have heard ringing in their ear the condemnation of you have rejected the Lord, and so he's rejecting you. 00:36:28.800 --> 00:36:36.719 Even though he had kindly sent his son, and you killed his son. 00:36:39.840 --> 00:36:51.440 This is why in verse 37 Jesus says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who killed the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. 00:36:51.840 --> 00:37:00.800 How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. 00:37:03.440 --> 00:37:06.079 See, your house has left you desolate. 00:37:06.559 --> 00:37:13.599 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 00:37:14.800 --> 00:37:31.280 He who is Emmanuel, who is God with us, is speaking to the violent reactions and rejections of Jerusalem, to God's agents of change, the people who spoke the word of God. 00:37:32.320 --> 00:37:43.760 And he's lamenting over them and showing them all that they had lost, just as Zechariah said, You had rejected the Lord so that you would not prosper. 00:37:44.320 --> 00:37:50.400 And they were rejecting the Lord who was among them, and they would not prosper. 00:37:51.039 --> 00:38:06.719 He would be for them a protector, a sustainer, a guard, and a guide, and a nourisher, just like a mother would her children, just like a mother hen would do her chicks, even, but they would not. 00:38:08.079 --> 00:38:15.440 And he's willing, he says, to shelter under his wings these children of Jerusalem. 00:38:15.760 --> 00:38:18.400 Jerusalem, the torturer of God's servants. 00:38:18.559 --> 00:38:22.559 Jerusalem, the city that would cry out, crucify him, crucify him. 00:38:22.800 --> 00:38:26.320 And he says, I would, I would take you under my wing. 00:38:28.400 --> 00:38:35.760 And what we have here is the heart of Christ's compassion, showing his longing for these people. 00:38:37.280 --> 00:38:42.800 Calvin said, This is an amazing and unparalleled instance of love. 00:38:46.960 --> 00:38:57.840 And though he addresses Jerusalem with such tender images, he knows that Jerusalem will not allow that intimacy. 00:39:01.199 --> 00:39:03.519 Your house is left desolate. 00:39:04.079 --> 00:39:11.760 In the next two chapters, he's going to talk about the desolation of that temple, that house. 00:39:18.639 --> 00:39:31.360 Jesus exhorts us to be people of humility and service, teaching us to focus our attention on the Lord's glory and not our own. 00:39:32.880 --> 00:39:47.519 When we're given places of responsibility, not to do it with selfish arrogance, but rather to avoid a quest for status and to leave off public approval. 00:39:48.239 --> 00:39:53.039 To point people to the kingdom and open up the door so that they can enter in. 00:39:53.360 --> 00:39:59.280 To be careful not to be so zealous for converts that we turn them into our converts and not the Lord's. 00:39:59.760 --> 00:40:09.119 Instead of helping people avoid the responsibilities to encourage them to see God is there in all things and that integrity and character and promise-keeping are important. 00:40:10.239 --> 00:40:28.400 Instead of being so focused on the minutiae of details of even Christian doctrine in some areas, are denominational distinctives, majoring on the minors, that we lose off the most important matters of justice and mercy and love and faithfulness. 00:40:31.599 --> 00:40:36.800 This passage teaches us that the heart of the matter is the main matter. 00:40:38.800 --> 00:40:46.960 That cleaning up our outward act only ministers us toward more pride and arrogance rather than inward godliness. 00:40:48.000 --> 00:40:52.639 That we must guard our attitude to the word of God and those who speak it to us. 00:40:54.159 --> 00:40:56.000 But there's something else here. 00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:31.360 To listen, to listen to the longings and the pleadings of God, as He is here in flesh, pleading for hard-hearted souls to let go of their sin, as He's sending in the face of a crucifixion more servants, more prophets, more messengers, to the very people that had put him to death. 00:41:35.280 --> 00:41:41.280 And ask ourselves, am I responding to the voice of God and his invitations? 00:41:43.440 --> 00:41:50.559 Am I willing to say yes to God's call to my heart to believe the gospel and repent? 00:41:53.199 --> 00:42:02.480 Or will it be said of me on the judgment day, your house has been left desolate, because you would not? 00:42:06.239 --> 00:42:37.679 This passage also teaches us the importance of caring for others, being a signpost, directing them to heaven, helping them to be promised keepers, not breakers, of showing them what purity is like on the inside, not just the outside, of being a messenger of the Word of God, even when it's difficult to say, to be willing to suffer the hardships of truth in a generation that's full of lies. 00:42:38.639 --> 00:42:40.480 This passage has a lot for us. 00:42:40.719 --> 00:42:47.440 It's not just a historical document of a day in the life of Jesus right before he died. 00:42:47.599 --> 00:42:53.599 It's not just a call to a people long gone with practices long spent. 00:42:54.000 --> 00:42:56.800 It's a message of the living God to us. 00:42:57.440 --> 00:42:59.039 May we hear it well. 00:42:59.280 --> 00:43:00.480 Let's pray. 00:43:05.840 --> 00:43:08.320 Father, thank you for your word. 00:43:09.920 --> 00:43:15.599 Lord, we know that not all things that are necessary and important for us are pleasant. 00:43:16.719 --> 00:43:23.599 And it's so easy in our generation to try to skirt around those things that are uncomfortable. 00:43:25.280 --> 00:43:28.880 We're so full of convenience and comfort. 00:43:29.199 --> 00:43:35.599 We get upset if the parking space is ten spaces away from where we'd like to park. 00:43:37.119 --> 00:43:39.760 Father, thank you for your word. 00:43:40.719 --> 00:43:46.159 As challenging and as difficult as it is, we recognize its importance. 00:43:47.360 --> 00:43:50.880 And Father, we want to receive all that it has for us. 00:43:52.239 --> 00:43:54.960 We want to submit ourselves to your word. 00:43:56.000 --> 00:43:59.599 We ask, Lord, that you might work within us. 00:44:00.159 --> 00:44:31.519 Those things that will glorify you most, that we would give attention to those matters that reflect you, that we as your people would be centered on the things that matter the most to you, and that, Father, we would be there with Christ, urging, pleading, and calling, even at the cost of our comfort, and perhaps as much as our very lives, as we speak the word of Christ. 00:44:33.360 --> 00:44:37.119 Lord, we pray this so that you might be glorified in us. 00:44:38.559 --> 00:44:40.159 I pray this in Christ's name. 00:44:40.480 --> 00:44:41.119 Amen.