There is an unseen odorless threat to families in our city.
It's called carbon monoxide.
Carbon monoxide is a gas produced by fossil fuels, burning fossil fuels,
whether that's a car or a kerosene heater or your gas grill.
If you've got a furnace or a boiler in your basement that uses natural gas,
it produces carbon monoxide.
And what you need to know about carbon monoxide is if a furnace or a boiler isn't vented right,
the carbon monoxide gas can build up in your home, it can make you sick, it can even kill you.
And so they've invented these carbon monoxide alarms.
There is another unseen odorless threat to your family and to our church family.
It's called hypocrisy.
In 1995, DC Talk, they were around back then.
DC Talk released Jesus Freak.
And on the fourth track of that album is a song called What If I Stumble.
And it starts with the recording of Brennan Manning saying this.
The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today are Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips,
but walk out the door and deny him with their lifestyle.
He goes on to say,
that's what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
But it's just not those...
Our children find our hypocrisy unbelievable.
Study after study has recently documented young people who have grown up in the church,
churches which profess Jesus as the risen Christ,
churches that hold to the authority of the Bible,
churches,
children from these churches who are leaving the churches in droves.
The question is,
why?
Why are we losing our children?
Well, one Christian sociologist has made this convincing argument that young people are leaving
because they're being taught a different version of Christianity than what the Bible teaches.
And he calls it moralistic,
therapeutic deism.
What that means is,
be good,
be happy,
make sure you pray before your meals.
And what it does is,
it empties Christianity of the risen Christ.
And so for us,
it's hypocritical to profess Jesus as the risen king,
and then to functionally practice some other version of that.
Be good,
be happy,
just make sure you pray before you eat.
The scribes and the Pharisees of Jesus' day
were professing one thing
and then practicing another thing.
Their unacknowledged,
unrepentant,
hypocrisy,
misled people
and it resulted in their judgment.
And that's what we're reading in Matthew 23.
Matthew 23,
the whole chapter,
is like this giant carbon monoxide detector for your soul.
It sounds an alarm.
Matthew 23
could very well sound an alarm in your heart this morning.
It's detecting hypocrisy in you.
And if it does,
if the Holy Spirit should use His word
to expose hypocrisy in your heart,
that's a good thing.
That's God's kindness to you.
That's to help you see something
so that you can turn to God in humility.
God wants to remove hypocrisy
and build in us
an integrity
between our profession
and our practice.
So this morning,
I'm guessing you may walk away
feeling sobered,
but you're willing to be humble.
When we come through Matthew 23,
be sobered,
but be willing to humble yourself.
Matthew 23 can be divided into three sections.
Jesus makes a contrast
between the hypocrites and the humble
in verses 1-12.
And then Jesus drops a bunch of woes
on the hypocrites.
He condemns them in 13-36.
Seven woes.
And then at the close of the chapter,
in verses 37-39,
Jesus speaks this compassionate lament.
Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem.
This morning, I'm guessing
you're going to be sobered
by your own hypocrisy.
But you should be willing
to come under your wonderful Savior.
He delivers us from our own hypocrisy.
If you would open up your Bibles now
to Matthew 23,
I want to point out some things
in verses 1-12.
Then Jesus said to the crowds
and to his disciples,
The scribes and the Pharisees
sit on Moses' seat,
so practice and observe
whatever they tell you,
but not what they do.
For they preach,
but do not practice.
They tie up heavy burdens,
hard to bear,
and they lay them on people's shoulders,
but they themselves
are not willing to move them
with their finger.
They do all their deeds
to be seen by others,
for they make their phylacteries
broad and their fringes long,
and they love their place
of honor at feasts
and best seats in the synagogues
and greetings in the marketplaces
and being called rabbi by others.
But you are not to be called rabbi,
for you have one teacher,
and you are all brothers.
And call no man your father on earth,
for you have one father
who is in heaven.
Neither be called instructors,
for you have one instructor,
the Christ.
The greatest among you
shall be your servant,
whoever exalts himself
and will be humbled
will be humbled,
and whoever humbles himself
will be exalted.
In this passage,
in these 12 verses,
Jesus makes a distinction
between the hypocrites
and the humble.
And notice who he starts talking to.
So remember,
he is in the temple right now.
This is Passion Week.
He's a couple days out
from being crucified.
And so God incarnate
is in the temple,
and he's speaking words
of judgment.
And so he says to these crowds
and his disciples,
there are two groups of people.
There are the hypocrites,
and then there are the humble.
And what characterizes
the hypocrites
is if you look at verse 3
at the end,
for they preach
but do not practice.
Have you ever heard
the expression,
do what I say,
not as I do?
Have you ever heard that?
That's what the Pharisees
were doing.
Hey, do as I say,
just don't do what I do.
And Jesus is saying,
hey, insofar as they preach
God's word,
hey, observe it,
just don't do what they say.
Don't do what they're doing.
There's a huge credibility
gap with that.
And so he points out
these hypocrites,
the scribes and the Pharisees,
and then he talks about
this other group,
the humble,
and we see that in verse 8.
But you,
he's speaking to his disciples,
but you are not
to be called rabbi.
And what marks
these disciples
are in verse 11,
that the greatest
among you
shall be your servant.
And then in verse 12,
whoever humbles himself
will be exalted.
Followers of Jesus
are marked by humility.
And so he distinguishes
between two groups
of people,
the hypocrites
and the humble.
Now there's a couple things
I want to draw
to your attention.
Things that Jesus says here
that kind of
heighten the contrast.
What makes them different?
And so the first thing
I want you to notice
is attention.
Verse 5,
the hypocrites,
they do all their deeds
to be seen by others.
They want to be seen.
Phylacteries
were these little boxes
with scripture in it
that they would tie
on their heads
and they made big ones.
These fringes,
these tassels,
they wore on their robes,
they were really long
to get your attention.
They wanted the best seats
at the feasts
and in the synagogues
because they wanted
to be seen.
They want to be said,
greeted as rabbi.
In Hebrew,
rabbi means great one.
Rabbi means my great one.
They wanted to be known
in the most basic sense
as great,
impressive,
seen,
larger than life.
Wanted to be known.
Not so the humble.
The humble,
man,
they're servants.
They lower themselves.
They don't want
to be seen.
They want to be
in the background.
They want to help
other people out.
The Pharisees
were tying up burdens
and not lifting
a little pinky
to help.
Servants don't operate
that way.
Servants bear burdens.
They release burdens
just like the servant said.
Come to me,
all you are weary
and heavy laden.
I'll give you rest.
He bears our burdens.
And so,
there's a distinction,
a contrast here
of visibility.
And just to press
that home
a little bit more,
I want you to look
at verse 8
and 9 and 10.
But you are not
to be called rabbi
for you have one teacher
and you are all brothers.
So,
this is what Jesus does.
Hey, disciples,
don't consider yourself
a great one.
You've got one teacher.
And he draws their attention
to the teacher.
Don't call someone father
for you have one father.
He draws our attention
to the one father
who is in heaven.
He says,
don't be called instructor
for you have one instructor,
the Christ.
And so,
he draws our gaze
to the one instructor,
the Christ.
And so,
our attention goes
from being on ourselves
to being on the one.
See those repeated ones?
One teacher,
one father,
one instructor,
the Christ.
You know the difference
between a hypocrite
and a humble person is?
You're focused.
Hypocrites say,
look at me.
Humble people say,
look at my God.
There's also another
difference here
in terms of the contrast,
a contrast of authority.
The scribes
and the Pharisees
sit in Moses' seat.
It's a position of authority.
It's like,
it's like the chair
of the English department
over at Carthage
or the chair
of the biology department
over at Parkside.
It's distinguished positions
of influence.
They want the chair
of Moses.
They want to be the ones
who speak authoritatively.
They want to be the ones
who are saying
what matters.
Servants,
they are saying,
the humble say,
no,
it's not what
someone says,
it's what my teacher,
my one teacher says,
my one father,
my one instructor,
the Christ.
So,
what the Pharisees
were saying,
hey,
we're the authorities
on here.
What the humble,
the followers of Jesus say,
is like,
Jesus,
you are our authority.
Our one authority.
We're all brothers
and sisters.
He is our authority.
We go on to see
a contrast
in greatness.
In verse 11,
Jesus says,
the greatest among you
shall be your servant.
And what we get a sense
from these hypocrites
is they consider greatness
in terms of
lording it over others.
what other people
think about them.
There's a huge difference
there in terms of
what greatness is.
God's kingdom
values a different
kind of greatness
than the world's kingdom.
Kingdom greatness
is in servanthood.
It's not lording it
over others,
it's coming under
others to serve them.
And so where the hypocrites
were very interested
in position
and what people
said of them
and being recognized
and having the authoritative word,
those who are humble,
they're like,
it doesn't matter,
that stuff doesn't matter
to me
because my king
has the greatest position,
Jesus.
He is my authority.
It's his place
that I come under
ultimately.
And it's just not a contrast
in terms of
greatness.
If you look at verse 12,
there's a contrast
in terms of outcome.
Whoever exalts himself
will be humbled
and whoever humbles himself
will be exalted.
Those hypocrites
who exalt themselves now
will be humbled then.
And those who are humble,
who bring themselves low,
now they'll be exalted then.
And so what we see
going on here
in verses 1 through 12
is Jesus saying,
hey, there are two groups
of people.
There are hypocrites
and then there are humble
and there are some
significant consequences
for who you are.
And what we see happening
in verses 13 through 35
is Jesus says,
now here's what's going
to happen to these hypocrites.
So we've looked at
the contrast
between the hypocrites
and the humble
in verses 1 through 12.
Let's turn our attention
now to this large section
in verses 13 through 35
where Jesus speaks
seven woes
on these scribes
and Pharisees.
He is condemning them.
Have you heard
the word hangry yet?
I'm so hangry right now.
It's a combination
of you're hungry
and you're angry
at the same time.
It's one of these
loaded words
that you're like,
yeah, I get that.
The word woe
that Jesus repeats
seven times here,
it's a loaded word.
It carries the sense
of regret,
it carries the sense
of sorrow,
and it carries
the sense of judgment.
And so what you need
to understand
is that when Jesus
speaks these woes,
he's not like,
and I'm giving it to you
and he's got a smile
on his face.
You take that
and you take that
and you take that.
This is grieving him.
And we see that
come out more fully
in the lament
he speaks
in verses 37 through 39.
But what I want you
to see is he speaks
seven woes
upon these scribes
and Pharisees.
We see it
in verse 13,
but it's Total
and Pharisees
hypocrites.
We see it
in verse 15,
woe to you
scribes
and Pharisees
hypocrites.
We see it
in 16,
woe to you
blind guides.
Woe to you.
Verse 23,
woe to you
scribes
and Pharisees
hypocrites.
Verse 25,
woe to you
scribes
and Pharisees
hypocrites.
Verse 27,
woe to you
scribes
and Pharisees
hypocrites.
Verse 29,
the last woe.
Woe to you
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.
He's speaking this woe on the leaders of the Jewish people who were
teaching the people. And he's calling them hypocrites.
Those people who make a profession
and then their practice doesn't match up.
These seven woes
can be paired together.
Woes one and two have a common theme.
Woes three and four have a common theme.
Woes five and six have a common theme.
And then woe seven stands all alone
because it's to stand all alone.
So let's walk through these woes
so you get a sense of what Jesus is saying to these hypocrites.
And I'm going to try to bring it to bear on our lives today.
Woe number one in verses 13 and 14.
But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces,
for you neither enter yourself nor allow those who would enter to go in.
And then woe two is woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
for you travel across the sea and land to make a single proselyte, a convert.
And when he becomes a convert,
you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
How are these scribes and Pharisees
shutting the door of the kingdom on people's faces?
Verse 13 and 14.
Here's how they're doing it.
They are denying that Jesus is the Christ.
That's how they're doing it.
Remember, the kingdom of heaven is God's saving reign.
To enter the kingdom of heaven is to be saved, to be rescued,
to come under God's gracious reign.
And what these scribes and Pharisees were doing was
they were shutting the door of the kingdom on people's faces
because they were denying Jesus as the Christ.
They're false teachers in that sense.
And the hypocrisy of it is
they actually think that they're teaching the kingdom of heaven.
They think they have the right teaching.
And Jesus says,
No, you're misleading people.
It's like this.
Could you imagine walking up to a house
and Jesus, it's dark outside
and Jesus, the door's open
and there's this glass door
and Jesus is standing there
with this kind of warm glow behind him
and you're walking up and like,
Man, I want that guy.
And as you're walking up to the door,
this Pharisee walks in front of you,
reaches inside and closes the door
and say, No, Jesus for you.
Slamming the door of the kingdom on people's faces.
Woe to.
They go to extreme measures to make a convert.
And what they're converting them to
is not the true meaning of the Old Testament,
but their Pharisaical version of it.
Pharisaical version that denies
the true fulfillment of it
that's found in Christ.
And so they pile up burdens on people
and they do nothing to help them.
They were making converts
to their version of Judaism
and as a result,
they're making their converts
twice the sons of hell as themselves.
They're teaching people
how to shut the door of the kingdom
on other people.
Both woes are hypocrisy.
And what it is,
is it is the hypocrisy
of leading people,
and you're supposed to be leading them
to the truth,
but you're leading them somewhere else.
Beware, brothers and sisters.
This destructive effect of hypocrisy
is not limited to the first century.
It's a 21st century problem.
It's a 21st century parenting problem.
Why our children walk away from the church?
Could it be that Christian parents
are professing Jesus as Lord with their lips,
but Monday through Saturday
they're denying Him by their lifestyle?
So mom and dad,
I've got a question for you.
What version of Christianity
are you teaching your children?
What are you calling your children to?
Are you actually calling them to Christ?
Or are you calling them
to a Christless version of Christianity?
Are you just calling them
to live up to a certain way of being?
Or are you calling them
to the living Jesus,
who alone can change them?
We don't want to be training our children
in a moralistic, therapeutic deism
because we're going to slam the door
of the kingdom on their faces.
But do you know what's even worse
than people, children,
leaving our churches?
It's if what we model to our children
actually,
which is some kind of version of Christianity,
they actually buy into it
and then propagate it.
And it's not true biblical Christianity.
We don't want any of that.
We don't want our children
holding on to this Christless tradition
of religion.
We want to call our children
to the living Christ.
So woe to the scribes and Pharisees
for the destructive effect
of their hypocrisy on others.
And we must be aware
of the effect of our hypocrisy
on our children.
And you know what the solution is to that?
We enamor ourselves
with Jesus.
We deny ourselves
and follow the living Christ ourselves.
He is our all in all.
And when that happens,
you have a parent
who's generally trying to follow Jesus
living out in front of their children
and it actually adorns the gospel.
It's like, okay,
they may not be perfect,
but they're trying.
They talk a lot about Jesus
and it drives me nuts,
but I'll tell you what,
they're legit.
We want to avoid the whole
to do as I say
but not as I do business.
We want to humble ourselves
in front of our children
and live out the faith.
You know what that becomes?
A living apologetic
to our children.
Jesus is really changing us.
Woes 3 and 4
focus on another effect of hypocrisy.
We see that played out
in verses 16 through 22.
Woe 3 that is.
Jesus is exposing
a majoring on the minors
to the neglect of what matters most.
It's classic hypocrisy.
I'm going to major on the minors
for my personal interest.
I'm going to bring in
what's on the peripheral
and make it central
because that's my thing.
It's majoring on the minors
and Jesus exposes it.
In the first woe,
as you will see,
he's talking about
swearing and taking oaths.
Woe to you blind guides
who say if anyone swears
by the temple,
it's nothing,
but if anyone swears
by the gold of the temple,
he's bound by his oath.
So here's what Jesus
is doing here.
The Pharisees were teaching
the people about the difference
between binding oaths
and non-binding oaths.
A binding oath is an oath
that you swear
that you've got to follow through on.
A non-binding oath
is an oath that you say,
but it's not really,
you know, important
that you follow through so much.
And what Jesus says
in this section
is what determines
whether an oath
was binding or not
is how you worded it.
So if you swore
by the temple,
non-binding,
but if you swore
by the gold of the temple,
binding.
If you swore
by the altar in the temple,
not binding,
but if you swore
by the gift
on the altar,
that's binding.
You feel the load
that would have been
building the pile up
happening.
If you're carrying
a backpack,
you're just getting
dropped rocks in it.
The hypocrisy
is that the Pharisees
were actually training
God's people
not how to be truthful,
but how not to be truthful.
How not to follow through
on your word.
That's the hypocrisy on it.
And what God wants
of his people
is that they do
what they say.
They're faithful
to their words.
They're true
to their words.
And so the whole point
Jesus makes early
in the gospel is,
hey, if you speak truthfully
and follow through on it,
you don't need
to speak oaths.
So what the Pharisees
have done is
they built this
elaborate scaffolding
around God's law,
which they end up
serving instead
of God's law.
And they lose
the whole side
of being truthful.
So they neglect
the weightier matters
of the law,
truthfulness,
because they're trying
to get into
the minute details
of making sure
you're saying
the right thing.
Jesus says,
just be truthful.
In verses 23 and 24,
we see woe for.
And just like giving oaths
had all this detail to it,
the issue in woe for
was tithing.
The Old Testament
required God's people
to give 10%
of all their income,
which would include
the produce of their farms.
So what we see
the Pharisees doing
in verses 23 through 24
is that they are
tithing off the smallest
of items.
For you tithe mint
and dill and cumin
and have neglected
the weightier matters
of the law.
Does anybody have
a basil plant
in their yard?
Basil plant?
I see that hand.
Could you imagine
when harvest time
comes for your basil plant,
you collect all the leaves
off it,
and you've got
1,200 leaves.
And so what you would do
in keeping with the Pharisees
is you would want
to make sure
you get 10%
of those 1,200 basil leaves
and then give it
unto the Lord.
So that would be
120 leaves
for just your basil plant.
And so what
the Pharisees were doing
is they were so
preoccupied with
getting down to
the very nitty-gritty
of their areas
and applying the tithe
to it,
they were totally
neglecting the
weightier matters
of the law
is what Jesus said.
Justice,
mercy,
and faithfulness.
Those are all
outworkings
of loving your neighbor
as yourself.
They were missing it.
They were so
detailed
on making sure
they got their
tithe right,
they were neglecting
their neighbor
who needed
justice
and mercy
and faithfulness.
What Jesus
is saying here
is that,
hey,
I desire you
to show mercy
and justice
and faithfulness
love your neighbor
more than you
tithe your basil plant.
Tithe away,
but not at the
expense of the
bigger stuff.
And so,
here's what
these two woes
come,
they are neglecting
the major things
for being
preoccupied
on the minor
things.
They are
majoring on
the minors
at the expense
of what matters
most.
That's what
these woes are.
That's what
these hypocrites
were doing.
And that's how
they're misleading
the people.
They're training
God's people
to do the same.
And Jesus
is saying,
no.
Now,
there's a warning
for us here.
We can become
preoccupied with
matters of
secondary importance
too.
We can take
things on the
peripheral and
try to make
them central.
We major
on the
minors.
We can
insist on
finer points
of doctrine
to be
necessary for
someone to
be a
Christian.
I remember
this one time
a Christian
sister came
up and we
met for the
first time.
She found
out I was a
pastor and
she was like,
so what do
you think
about the
rapture?
You know
what was
behind that?
Are you
in or not?
Where do you
come down on
this?
Maybe you
know people
who adhere
to a KJV
only-ism
that the
King James
version is
the only
inspired
English version
of the
Bible.
And within
minutes of
meeting them
they're looking
at the spine
of your
Bible to
see what
kind of
version you're
reading out of.
Does it
matter about
final things?
Oh yeah,
it does.
Does it
matter what
version of
the Bible
you read?
Yeah,
it's important.
Is it of
first importance?
No.
Those things
aren't first
important.
Here's some
other things
that we can
bring in
from the
periphery.
We can
make first
importance
matters out
of how
you educate
your children.
Whether they
are homeschooled
or whether
they are
publicly
educated
or they
go to
a Christian
private
school.
That can
become a
lightning rod
between
Christians
and we
put a
lot in
on it.
Here's
another
thing.
Your
entertainment
choices,
your
vacation
destinations,
your car
purchases,
what you
wear,
how you
worship.
All these
things can
come in
and we
can make
fights out
of them
while
neglecting
the bigger
things.
Justice,
mercy,
and faithfulness,
loving your
neighbor as
yourself.
And Jesus
says,
woe to the
scribes and
Pharisees for
the neglect
of what
matters most.
It costs
them the
kingdom.
them.
And may it
be a warning
to us to
steer clear
from making
mountains out
of mole
hills.
You want to
know how to
do it?
How to
keep from
making something
minor,
major?
You keep
the major
things major.
And you
know what the
major-est thing
of all is?
Jesus.
Jesus is the
main thing.
And what we're
going to do as
a church is
keep Jesus in
all of his
glory at the
center of all
that we do.
He is our
engine.
And we're not
going to let
anything vie for
that.
When you keep
Jesus at the
center of all
things, you're
enamored by
him and you
die to
yourself.
to follow
him, including
your pet
projects.
Woes 5 and
6 focus on
yet another
effect of
hypocrisy.
It's the
effect of
prioritizing the
external to
the neglect of
the internal.
And we see
that in verses
25 through
26 and
then 27
through 28.
In both
situations, what
you see is
this.
there is this
external value
at the cost of
what's internal.
It's a putting
the external
first and the
internal second.
And so in
Woe 5, in
verse 25 and
26, Jesus
compares the
Pharisee to
dishware.
Just as a
cup has an
outside and an
inside, a
Pharisee has an
outside and an
inside.
And the
Pharisees spent a
lot of energy
making sure their
outsides were
squeaky clean.
But what Jesus
says here is so
important.
He says, you
blind Pharisee,
verse 26, first
clean the inside of
the cup and the
plate that the
outside also might
be clean.
Who likes chili?
I like chili.
Let's say you
come over to our
house for chili
this afternoon.
Our dishwasher is
busted, so we
wash it.
And what we do,
we wash just out
the outside of our
chili bowls and
then we put these
chili bowls back up
in our cupboard.
In a week, what's
going to happen?
It's going to be
stinky.
And if I serve you
chili out of that
messy chili bowl
next Sunday, you'd be
like, I don't want
this chili.
Okay.
Jesus says, hey, start
with what's inside and
then the outside will
follow suit.
Jesus' point, we start
with the heart.
Gospel ministry starts
with the heart.
You change the heart
change will follow
through with life
change.
What controls your
heart controls your
life.
But only God can
change your heart.
Woe 6, Jesus
compares the Pharisees
to whitewashed
tombs that had this
outward beauty.
Here's the story
behind that.
Remember, this is
taking place during
Passover week.
And so you'd have
all these Jews
coming to Jerusalem
to observe Passover
together.
And so what would
happen a month
before is that
people would go out
and whitewash the
tombs surrounding
the city of Jerusalem.
Do you know why?
So that those people
who were not familiar
with the city, they
would be able to see
tombs and avoid them
because if a Jew had
contact with a tomb
or with a dead body,
they would be unclean
for seven days and they
would be out of the
partay happening in the
city.
And so what the
practice is, is they
would whitewash these
tombs so that people
could see it to avoid
it.
And the whitewash
was a really nice
whitewash.
You could see them
from the distance.
It was just a really
quality whitewash
being used.
And Jesus' biting
irony here is that
they are whitewashed
monuments to dead
people.
It's beautiful on the
outside, but on the
inside, it's rotting
death.
It's rotting death.
Jesus is saying that
these Pharisees, hey,
you guys look great on
the outside, but inside,
you see what he says
there?
Here's what he says.
So you, verse 28, so
you also outward appear
righteous to others, but
within you are full of
hypocrisy and lawlessness.
You're full of deadness.
And when a Pharisee would
have heard a criticism
for being lawless,
that's like chief
offense.
Jesus is saying, hey,
you think you're
observing the law, but
your observance of the
law is actually lawlessness,
you hypocrite.
You're like a whitewashed
tomb, dead inside.
Biting irony.
They were blind to this.
So the hypocrisy of
thinking themselves clean
and alive when actually
they were internally
unclean and dead is what
Jesus is exposing.
And then calling people to
not pay attention to the
sin within them.
It costs them the kingdom
and it cautions us.
What Jesus is emphasizing,
what he emphasizes over and
over again throughout his
teaching, we see it very
much in the Sermon on the
Mount, is what matters is
your internal posture
towards God.
The real aim of the law
is to expose our hearts
and to aim our hearts
at God to show us our
need to be cleansed of
our greed and our
self-indulgence and to
reveal our internal
deadness to God.
We're all dead to God.
But here's what God has
done.
By his grace, he offers
spiritual life to the
spiritually dead through
the risen Jesus.
At the heart of
Christianity is a living
Christ who gives new life
to dead hearts.
And so woe to these
leaders for their
hypocritical focusing on
the external at the cost
of the internal.
These blind guides were
training their people in
moralism, in behavioralism.
Behavioralism.
And they lost the
kingdom as a result.
And we're cautioned to
say, hey, let's pay
attention to what's going
on inside.
And we cry out to our God
to change us from the
inside out.
The seventh parable, the
seventh woe, excuse me,
the seventh woe is unpaired
with another.
It stands out and it's
meant to stand out.
Let me just read it for
you.
Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites, for
you build the tombs of the
prophets and decorate the
monuments of the
righteous, saying, if we
had lived in the days of
our fathers, we would not
have taken part with them
in the shedding of the
blood of the prophets.
Thus you witness against
yourselves that you are
sons of those who
murdered the prophets.
Fill up then the measure
of your fathers.
You serpents, you brood of
vipers, how are you to
escape being sentenced to
hell?
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, so
that on you may come all
the righteous blood shed
on earth, from the blood
of innocent Abel to the
blood of Zechariah, the
son of Barakiah, whom you
murdered between the
sanctuary, the altar.
Truly I say to you, all
these things will come
upon this generation.
This is the climactic
woe.
This is Jesus' last
sentence to statement to
these Pharisees.
And what he's basically
doing is this.
He's saying, you think
you are not murderers
because you're fixing up
the tombs of the
prophets that your
fathers killed, but you
are murderers not all the
same.
You are serpents.
You are brood of vipers.
How will you escape the
judgment to come?
That line is almost
identical to what John the
Baptist says to them in
Matthew 3, 7.
Now it's Jesus saying it to
them.
And what he's saying is,
you hypocrites, you don't
think you're prophet killers,
but you are.
He says in verse 32, fill up
what your fathers began.
Finish what your fathers
started.
So when Jesus talks about
in verse 35, this blood of
the righteous Abel to the
blood of Zechariah, he's
talking about the first man
that was killed, Abel in
Genesis, to the last man that
was killed, Zechariah, and
that's found in 2 Chronicles.
But in the Hebrew Bible,
that's the last book of
their Bible.
And so it's from cover to
cover, first to last.
All this blood that's shed,
it's on your head.
And not only their blood,
it's these prophets and
scribes and godly people
that I send to you, their
blood's on your head too.
See what Jesus is doing?
He's putting on them.
Fill up the measure of your
fathers.
Finish what you're doing.
Ultimately, this is going to
result in Jesus' death.
In Matthew 21, Jesus speaks
the parable of the tenants.
The vineyard owner sends his
servants to these wicked
tenants to gather the harvest,
but they would kill servant
after servant.
And then that owner sends
his son because he thinks
surely they'll respect my son,
and then he killed the son.
Here, Jesus is at the vineyard
speaking to the wicked tenants,
and they are about to kill him.
And Jesus says in verse 36,
truly I say to you, all these
things will come upon this
generation.
All of it's going to happen.
All of it.
Truly, truly.
This last woe is such an
indictment, and it's got this
promised punishment.
And these scribes and
Pharisees, they will not have
any of it.
They're not going to respond.
They're not sobered by it, nor are
they willing to humble themselves
in hearing this.
These seven woes of regret and
sorrow and judgment.
There's this finality.
God incarnate is declaring this
judgment upon the leaders of
Judaism at the time, and they
don't respond.
And so in verses 37, we read,
Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city
that kills the prophets and
stones, 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 would have not.
There's a play on words here.
Jesus was willing.
He was willing to gather the
children to Jerusalem to
himself.
He was wanting that, but they
were not willing.
They were not willing.
He sent prophet after prophet,
godly person after godly person,
righteous person after righteous
person.
Every time was his invitation to
say, come and I'll gather you to
myself.
I'll bring you under my reign.
I'll show you my goodness.
But after time and again, they would
not have it.
They were unwilling for it.
Verse 38.
They would not, excuse me, seven.
You would not.
What strikes me about this
compassionate lament here is that
Jesus likens himself to a hen.
He's in the midst of judgment, and he
compares himself to a hen.
He's gentle.
He's willing.
Even speaking to those who
rejected him.
So here in this lament, even in
judgment, we see a compassionate
lamenting Jesus.
Saying, only if you would have
allowed me to gather you to me, but
you wouldn't.
And as a result, verse 38, he says,
your house is left to you desolate.
I am abandoning you.
And in verse 1 of chapter 4, he
walks out of the temple.
God has left the temple.
And he's left it abandoned, and it
will be destroyed.
We've covered a lot of ground this
morning.
We've seen the contrast between the
hypocrites and the humble.
We've seen Jesus bring down woes on
the hypocrites, and we've spent a
brief time on this lament in verses
37 to 39.
Jesus' compassion on display.
How does this find you?
Does it sober you?
It should sober you.
But it should also have the
opposite effect on these scribes
and Pharisees.
They were unwilling to humble
themselves.
But you must be willing to come
under his gracious reign.
There's more that can be said, but
let's leave it at this.
Let's not be a people who say, do
as I say, not as I do.
Let's be a people who say, come.
Come with me to a willing, living
Christ who will change your life
forever.
Let's pray.
God in heaven, we see a passage like
this, and we are sobered by it.
God, we thank you for work you're doing
in exposing our own hypocrisy.
God, we are not unrepentant and
unwilling to admit that.
We acknowledge that there's a gap
between our profession and our
practice.
God, would you fill the gap by your
grace?
Would you conform us to the image of
Jesus?
Would you help us to bear witness to
those around us that, yes, Jesus, you
are real and that you're changing our
lives?
God, would you help us to be
forewarned by this and to move forward
in humble faith in you?
Pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.