Now, I imagine that there are not many occasions that preachers ask congregations to turn to Matthew 23.
! And that's partly because as it was read, I don't know whether you picked it up, it is a blistering passage.
It is one of those times in the Gospels where Jesus speaks in an extraordinarily fiery way.
And there are words at which you and I can't hide from them this morning.
And we don't come to Matthew 23 with a sense of eagerness.
Oh, I love this passage. This is one that really warms the heart.
Because these words burn and they scorch.
And as we saw last week at the start of chapter 23, they're particularly aimed at religious leaders.
Religious leaders.
And you'll notice how in verse 27, Jesus describes that religion.
Can you just look down there with me?
What's their religion like?
He says, your religion is like a tomb full of dead men's bones.
But dead religion is a perennial problem and it's always a problem.
It's got a long history throughout the whole history of the Christian church.
And dead religion reappears in different forms.
And so if I say dead religion, what do you think of?
You probably think of, going to a church like this, a high degree of ceremonial.
A really detailed liturgical correctness.
Maybe you think of those words, liberal theology.
Ethically careless.
But the Pharisees remind us that it is possible to be full of zeal.
Full of enthusiasm.
To be a stickler for moral correctness.
To be an orthodox believer.
And yet still to represent dead religion.
Because dead religion is not a matter of the clothing that it wears.
So it may well be high and ceremonial.
It may be smells of bells.
It may be very trendy.
It might be real.
It may be emotionally supercharged.
It may be lively.
It may be right-wing.
It might be left-wing.
It might be evangelical and orthodox.
But actually, if it's a dead body, it doesn't matter what it's dressed up on.
I think it's it.
Because if it's a dead body, no matter whether it's in a tracksuit or whether it's in a three-piece suit,
it's still a court.
Heretical or orthodox.
And dead religion may have many forms.
It may have a form of godliness.
But the New Testament tells us that it denies the power of that godliness.
Dead religion may defend the deity of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
But it never displays the glory and the beauty and the attractiveness of Jesus Christ.
Dead religion may speak the loaves of the Holy Spirit.
But it never displays the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
And in this chapter, which as I've said is a burning and blistering chapter,
Jesus rails against the Pharisees.
He treats dead religion with great seriousness.
He exposes it openly.
And you can't ignore it.
His language is that of a funeral lament.
Do you notice that word that came up sometimes?
Woe.
Woe to you.
And they kind of introduce what Jesus is saying.
It's a word that expresses a kind of mourning for the dead.
One scholar has said there's a mix of compassion and condemnation as Jesus says it.
And here it is probably Jesus pronouncing impending judgment.
Judgment is coming woe on you.
And the word occurs seven times.
But there are five, I think, identifiable emphasis that Jesus makes.
Where Jesus focuses on areas where dead religion shows itself.
That I think is helpful for us.
So let me touch on them.
First of all, in verse 13.
It focuses on the influence of this dead religion on the lives of others.
Dead religion on the lives of others.
In verse 13.
Jesus is speaking about first of all.
What is the influence of dead religion on the lives of others?
That spiritual influence.
That spiritual impact upon the lives of other people.
These Pharisees, they are representatives of this dead religion.
What is the effect that it has on other people?
And so what he's saying here is that they are a hindrance, not a help.
He's saying that these people, they are very, very eager.
They're very religious.
And yet they have no spiritual experience themselves.
Because they never truly entered the kingdom of heaven.
And you notice how he says it.
You've never entered the kingdom yourselves.
And you get in the way of those who want to get in.
And it couldn't be more serious.
So let's look.
Let's see how they've done it.
Let's go to Matthew chapter 12.
And we've been there, remember?
Matthew chapter 12.
And look at verse 22.
And you notice you get this great illustration of what Jesus is talking about.
And it's these very Pharisees who stand in the doorway and they block people from entering in.
So Matthew 22.
And verse 12.
No.
Matthew 22.
That is right, isn't it?
Yeah.
And I'm looking at Matthew chapter 23.
So that's not very helpful, is it?
But it's Matthew chapter 22.
And verse 12.
Is that right?
I've got two different verses written down here.
That's very helpful, isn't it?
Here we go.
It's 22.
That's right the first time.
Matthew 12, 22.
You all there?
Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and made to us brought him and Jesus healed him.
So the man spoke and saw.
All the people were amazed and said, can this be the son of David?
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, it is only by Beelzebul.
It's only by the devil.
The prince of demons.
That this man casts out demons.
Do you notice something that has awakened these people?
They're pressing towards Christ.
They're asking, is this the Messiah?
Should we not be going to him?
Isn't this the man we've been expecting?
And notice what happens.
They say, no, he's done it by the devil.
In other words, they stand in the door and they say, no, you will not come to Christ.
These people are beginning to wonder and ask, could this be the Messiah in front of them, as it were?
And the Pharisees slam the door in their face.
Because dead religion has a terrible influence on those who are genuinely seeking Christ.
Here's the second thing.
The second thing is, it focuses on the effect of these people's witness.
Just look at verse 15 of Matthew chapter 23.
Matthew chapter 15.
Look at what it says.
It says, and woe to you.
Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.
Because you travel across sea and land to make a single proserite.
And when he becomes a proserite, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourself.
It's incredible, isn't it?
It's so strong.
And you have to tend to ask, what on earth can these people who've got dead religion, what can they witness to?
What can they speak about?
Surely, these dead religion people, they have got no evangelistic zeal.
But they do.
And these people are so eager to recruit, they travel over land and sea for a single convict.
But of course, what do they want to win them to?
What they want to win them to is a dead religion like their own.
They do not make them Christians, followers of the Lord Jesus.
They make them Pharisees.
And what often happens is that when people are won over to something, they become even more zealous, don't they?
None so zealous as a convert.
And when these people are won over to the Pharisees, they become more pharisaical than the Pharisees themselves.
You make them twice as much a son of hell, Jesus says.
And so here's a lesson, and we can't avoid it.
That if today you are a half-hearted Christian,
if you're a Christian who lives with one foot in the world,
with one foot in the kingdom of God, as it were,
what you bear witness to is compromised Christianity.
If you've got reservations of the authority of the Bible,
and your influence is brought to bear on other people who are seeking to know God,
what you will do is you will make people like yourself.
We really hate to talk about this.
But it's so true, isn't it?
It's a law written into nature.
The Bible teaches about it,
right from the very start of the Bible,
in the book of Genesis.
It's carried right the way through.
You might not have spotted it.
There's a law written into nature,
and it's this.
It's called the bringing forth law.
Do you know that law?
So you go to Genesis 1 and 2,
and you'll see that written into creation,
is this.
They brought forth everyone after its kind.
That's how it reads.
And if you go through Genesis 1 and 2,
do it this afternoon.
Look at it.
It reads again and again.
They brought forth after their kind.
So you see it in nature.
Humans bring forth...
Humans.
Animals bring forth...
Animals.
Apple trees bring forth...
Apple trees.
It's one of the great illustrations Jesus uses,
doesn't he?
He says,
when does a man...
When he says,
does a man gather figs from...
grapes?
Of course he doesn't.
You don't go to a grape tree...
and get figs, do you?
You don't go to your apple tree
and pick off a pear.
You've got to your apple tree,
you get an apple.
And Jesus is saying,
everyone brings forth after its kind.
And that's really,
really important.
And if we wanted to,
we could go over the recent history
of this country,
and we could see,
what does dead religion bring forth?
It brings forth dead religion.
Dead religion produces specimen of itself.
Half-hearted Christianity produces what?
Half-hearted Christianity.
And the principle applies in all sorts of ways.
The third area that Jesus concentrates on
is the result of their teaching,
the influence of their lives,
the effect of their witness,
and the third area that Jesus
is the result of their teaching.
So that's in verses 16 to 22.
Can you see it?
The paragraph begins,
woe to you blind guides.
It's first of five times in the chapter
that Jesus speaks about the Pharisees being blind.
And the serious thing about what Jesus is talking about
is not their blindness itself.
The serious issue is
that these people
are religious guides for other people.
You can imagine it, can't you?
You want someone to guide you somewhere,
and yet they're blind.
They're unable to see.
It's so dangerous, isn't it?
It's like getting into the car
and somebody was blind and saying,
could you direct me the way to your house?
There's no people that tell you, eh?
It's exactly Jesus' point.
In verses 13 and again in 15,
they're described not as Pharisees there,
but as teachers of the law.
Woe to you, verse 13, teachers of the law.
15, woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees.
And Jesus identifies a mark
in verses 16 to 22 of dead religion.
And it's simply this.
It avoids the implications of the truth.
The implications of the truth.
And more than once,
you've come across it.
The Pharisees played a game.
And it was a dreadful and disastrous game.
It was a game with words.
You can see it in our passage.
Where they would enter into an oath,
kind of serious pledge, a promise.
And they would say, I swear.
And you find out what we can swear by.
So that what we swear by,
we're not held to.
So they worked out a whole lot of things.
And they said, we swear by the temple.
But if we swear by the temple,
it doesn't bind us.
To keep true and keep faith.
With what we promised.
We don't have to keep it.
But if on the other hand,
we swear by the gold on the temple,
well that does bind us.
And you think to yourself,
as I said this week,
this is madness.
It's ludicrous.
We laugh at it, don't we?
How ridiculous this is.
It's in verse 18.
They say, if anyone swears by the altar,
he is nothing.
But if anyone swears by the gift
that is on the altar,
he is bound by his oath.
And she says, you blind men.
Because the whole point of it
was to avoid the implications
of the truth and truth-telling.
And they used to teach this.
And we said, how ridiculous.
But then let me ask you,
are there plain teachings of the Bible?
And the implications of which
you are determinedly avoiding
in your life?
Are there plain truths in the Bible?
The implications of which
you are declining to take seriously?
And by your word,
and by your example,
you teach other people the same.
Because a mark of dead religion
is that it seeks to avoid
the implications of the truth.
And that is, isn't it,
enormously solemn?
Because the blind guy who does that,
Jesus elsewhere says,
he will land in a ditch
along with those who he leads.
And it would be worthwhile,
I think, spending a little time
on this this week.
Because this is not some exercise
that we're following
that ends when we go through
those doors.
It would be worth our while
this week pausing
and saying to ourselves,
before God,
are there implications
of the teaching of the Bible
which I'm deliberately avoiding?
And I'm avoiding them
not because the Bible
doesn't teach them,
but because of cultural pressure.
Or because I just
don't want to obey them.
It's a mark of dead religion.
Here's the fourth thing.
It's the focus of their interests.
Look at verses 23 to 28.
And you notice there's two things
that mark their religious hypocrisy.
Number one,
they major on minors.
They major on minors.
Or to put it another way,
they magnify,
they magnify the insignificant
and they minimize the essential.
Do you notice that in verse 23?
Wote you scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites,
for you tithe mint
and dill
and cumin.
And yet you've neglected
the weightier matters
of the law.
Justice,
mercy
and faithfulness.
You know about
I'm tithing
in the Old Testament
where you give a tenth
of what you have.
And I've been willing
to tithe
all their possessions
as part of their obligation.
And she says to them,
how
how much
do spices
take up of your life?
How much
part of your life
do spices
occupy?
What part of your wealth
consists of spices?
Unless you're really unusual.
Spices don't play
a major part in my life
and even yours.
But they were meticulous,
these guys.
They were meticulous
about mint
and dill
and cumin.
She says,
but you've neglected
the weightier matters
of the law.
Justice,
mercy,
faithfulness.
And you should have
practiced the latter
without neglecting
the former.
You blind guides.
You strain on a gnat.
A little gnat.
But you swallow
a massive camel.
And again,
it's Jesus'
ridiculous illustration,
isn't it?
And it tells you
that Jesus has a sense
of the ridiculous
in his teaching.
You strain up a gnat,
which is a tiny insect.
You swallow a camel.
You incline to major
on minors
to magnify the insignificant
and minimize the essential.
It's a mark of dead religion.
But you notice
what Jesus
speaks about.
And we come to practicality.
Here we come to the bread and butter.
Verses 25 to 28.
They emphasize the external
but they're careless
about the hidden
world of the heart.
Woe to you,
teachers of the law,
verse 25,
for you clean the outside
of the cup
and the plate,
but inside
they're full of greed
and self-indulgence.
You blind Pharisee,
first clean the inside
of the cup
and the plate
and then the outside
also may be clean.
Jesus uses this word
so often,
doesn't he?
Hypocrite.
So many times.
Hypocrite is just an actor
who played a part.
That's what it meant
in Jesus' day.
It was somebody
who pretended
to be somebody
who he was not.
Nobody was expecting
him to be the person
he was pretending to be.
You go and see a play
and you go round
the back of the stage
afterwards
and speak to the actor,
you don't expect him
to still be playing
the role he was playing
on stage to you.
That would be ridiculous.
You know very well
it's not Hamlet
who you've gone to see.
It's Joe Glott.
But he was pretending
to be someone
wasn't he on stage
and the better
his performance was
the better hypocrite he was.
That's the sense.
And it's a mark
of your dead religion
when your outward image
is something different
from what's underneath.
And God knows
how much I need
to apply this
to my soul.
When your outward image
bears no relation
to your inward states
then you're spiritually dead.
That's what Jesus is saying.
Ten religion
has one more thing.
So we've seen
the influence
of their lives,
the effect of their witness,
the result of their teaching,
the focus of their interest
and lastly
the illusion
of their self-assessment.
Let me verse 29 to 36.
He says
woe to you teachers
of the law.
You say
if we lived
in the days
of our fathers
we would not have
taken part with them
and shed in the blood
of the prophets.
They look at the tombs
of the old prophets
of the past
the godly men
of the past
in the Old Testament
whom God has sent
and they say
this is dreadful.
If we'd lived
in their time
we would have never done
what people did
then.
And they were
pretending themselves.
They were so
self-deluded
weren't they?
Because we know
through reading
Matthew's Gospel
that actually
at this point
they were plotting
and planning
the death
of the one
who was the
greatest prophet
of all.
They were self-deluded.
And do you remember
what we saw last week
that really important
point that hypocrisy
it begins by deceiving
others
but it ends
with us deceiving
ourselves.
And here is
an example of it.
They deluded
themselves.
And dead religion
hypocrisy produces
not just blindness
in other spheres
but it produces
blindness in how
we view ourselves.
And Jesus points
that out
doesn't he
in verse 34
he says
therefore I send
you prophets
and wise men
as scribes
some of whom
you will kill
and crucify
some of which
you will flog
in your synagogues
and pierce
from town to town.
And you read
the book of Acts
and you see
that's exactly
what happened.
What were they doing?
They were doing
exactly what
their forefathers
were doing
which was a mark
of dead religion
in most generations.
It's very simple
isn't it?
You can tell me
they're trying
to silence God.
That's what
they were doing.
And so there
is dead religion
so how will
Jesus respond
to it?
By flaying
them with words?
Well
not really
ultimately.
There's that
word woe
isn't there?
A sense of
infinite sadness
but it's
crystallised
in verse 37
look at Jesus
response
in verse 37.
He says
O Jerusalem
Jerusalem
the city
that has killed
the prophets
and stoned
those who sent
to it.
And here it is
he says
how often
will I have
gathered your
children together
as a hen
gathers her brood
under her wings
but you
were not willing.
That's all
for the first time
this week.
The repetition
there.
Can you see it?
Verse 37.
O Jerusalem
Jerusalem
And you've
heard that
repetition
before haven't
you?
I've
heard it
in some
of your
homes
and at
your
families
in times
of heartbreak
and you
could see
some family
and something
has happened
and they
say don't
they
O
whatever
the name
is
O
whatever
the name
is
and they
repeat the
name
and they
say what
have you
done?
Jesus used
that again
and again
to me
he said
O
Martha
he said
O
Simon
and the
risen
glorified
Christ
says
O
Saul
and maybe
this morning
in verse 37
you need to put
your own name
in there
and maybe
you need to put
your name
in there
and Jesus
says how
often
would I
have gathered
you
but you
were not
willing
and so
by God's
grace
and the
Lord Jesus
outstretched
arms
that great
cry of his
soul
intends that
this morning
you should lay
aside all your
unwillingness
and all your
stubbornness
and all your
hypocrisy
and let him
gather you
under the
shadow of his
wings
and find
reality
not deadness
there
let's pray
a