I invite you to turn as we come back after some time through the Christmas season to our study in Matthew and if you'll remember we ended with these really these arguments against Jesus and then Jesus's question to them and you'll remember they had been attacking Jesus with all that they had to try to undermine him and we know that they will deliver him over to be crucified. And now we have Jesus turning now as a prophet of judgment on the nation of Israel for these things. And there's much to learn here as we will be looking at the whole of Matthew 23 today, really verses 1 through 36, the focus, and then come back and next time look at Matthew 24 with the destruction of the temple and the signs of the end of the age let's give our attention uh this morning to matthew 23 verse 1 then jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples the scribes and the pharisees sit on moses's seat so do and observe whatever they tell you but not the works they do for they preach but they 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 the place of honor at the feasts and the 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 will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted but woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces for you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte and when he becomes a proselyte you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves woe to you blind guides who say if anyone swears by the temple it is nothing but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple he's bound by his oath you blind fools for which is greater the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred and you say if anyone swears by the altar it is nothing but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar he is bound by his oath you blind men for which is greater the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred so whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it and whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it and whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of god and by him who sits upon it woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you tithe mint and dill and cumin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law justice and mercy and faithfulness these you ought to have done without neglecting the others you blind guide straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you clean clean the outside of the cup and the plate but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence you blind pharisee first clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside also may be clean woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites for you are like whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness so you also outwardly appear righteous to others but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness 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 shedding 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 righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Berechiah whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar truly I say to you all these things will come upon this generation oh Jerusalem Jerusalem the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it how often i would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing see your house is left to you desolate for i tell you you will not see me again until you say blessed is he who comes in the name of the lord may the lord bless the hearing of his word well i'm pretty sure that you look at this passage in an entirely wrong way i'm pretty sure of it because i did you need this passage i need this passage it's a amazing display of a true leader it's an amazing display of someone with real backbone it's an amazing display of someone who actually leads in the kingdom of god someone who leads in the church someone who defends his family he is a divine warrior this is a true man it's not the american jesus that we have all in our conception of course you'll notice that as we read it it's not the jesus you've often been accustomed to and people told you about so that you built a whole wrong conception of who Jesus is it's not him you've probably been exposed to a lot of false Christs in his name believing that he's only love and not judgment we think he is only love and never condemns anything that is not deep Christianity that is not anything that really knows anyone who knows the scriptures here we have something very powerful this morning. And the question is, why does he condemn with great judgment what we just read? Why is he leveling a judgment like this? What is the reason for that? What does he condemn and why? That's what I want us to think about. What does he condemn and why? It seems very important to answer that. And if we can answer this and ask this and come to a conclusion on this, You're really going to see how comforting a text this is for the church. How could you put comfort with what I just read? Absolutely. You'll see why I trust as we work through this. What we have before us this morning is Jesus defending his flock. Jesus defending his church. We have a mighty warrior rising up, delivering his sheep. That's why I made a big to-do of Psalm 79. Come and save us from this. they've killed the servants. They've made us mourn. They've harmed your holy land. They've hurt your people. Come and deliver us. And what does that look like? Well, here you go. Here you go. I might ask the question, what if Jesus didn't care about this? What if Jesus didn't care about this? And I'm still going to answer what the this is. What is the one thing that we have been most troubled about in Christianity that numerous people use as an excuse not to even come to church? I think you know what it is. It's hypocrisy. It is hypocrisy. I'm not really describing here the kind of hypocrisy that the Christian experiences in some way. All of us have a measure of hypocrisy. It's not what I'm going after today, nor is what Matthew is addressing today. All of us have a measure of it. I'm talking about the kind of hypocrisy, the level of hypocrisy that destroys the whole intention of Christian ministry and the ministry itself and the message and that Jesus sees is satanic, satanic. what we're studying this morning is all of the hallmarks of false religion and false teachers and this is exactly what matthew has been exposing for us the whole way through this should not be a shock by now the sermon on the mount combated so much of it and it's been hugely detrimental to the whole program of the gospel and here we have jesus giving a full speech on the whole thing a judgment oracle on the whole thing seven of them seven woes which are really what is given in this passage and i trust that by in the few moments that we have in considering this i want to do as much justice to it as i can it's obviously a huge section that you're going to deeply appreciate why jesus is doing this and to know that it has the effect of protecting you that is what he is promoting that is what he is after and that he is after a religion of a cleansed heart that worships god matthew 15 and truly that what is on the outside is reflective of what's on the inside and that's what jesus is after that's the whole issue that matthew has been addressing about the false religion on the inside what has been the problem in our study of matthew it has been the false religion of israel itself what happened in israel what it became in israel when jesus comes here on the scene and jesus comes to israel and we have this exactly kind of corrupted religion everything contrary to what the gospel ministry was designed to accomplish that's why this is so important the big picture here is he has come as the prophet you've heard in isaiah and your study in isaiah the prophecies foretold of the righteous judgment of the lord on israel for unbelief he has come and he is tearing all this down and that's why the temple becomes the major focal point of the next chapter to tear down the temple forecasting a.d. 70 so that we would understand here the righteous judgment of jesus that he would open the way for the gospel to go to the nations and this is what has to be addressed the structure here is fascinating in matthew chapter 23 what we have are a series of introductory comments by our lord that summarize the seven woes that follow. And that's what these introductory comments give us, certain themes, and then the woes follow in light of those themes to explain why the judgment has come upon the nation of Israel. Each of these woes can be tied to these introductory statements. So as I looked at this out of the intro comments in verses one through 12, there are three themes that arise of the false religion that Jesus is going after here and the false religion that has corrupted the entire design of ministry. And that is exactly this. The first theme is really the corrupted mission that Jesus captures by the scribes and the Pharisees. And then the hypocritical life that he describes of these pastors. And then he directly ties it to a satanic service as he calls them serpents directly which we'll see if i had time i'd show you the last section there the last woe is a giant lo and behold chiasm where that is at the middle of jesus calling them as serving satan well in verse one we read a verse one that then jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples that's important there's the aim here there's who he wants to primarily initially protect he has said Matthew has already told us programmatically you'll remember back in chapter 9 and and through 11 there are those important sections that he had compassion on the crowds he had compassion on the crowds because these sheep were harassed and they were without a shepherd because these shepherds of israel were not recovering the sheep they were serving themselves and so matthew has already made this case of how jesus looked at the crowds he would put his arms out to them and call them to come to him you'll notice here the disciples are also mentioned in this their training is not done he wants to set apart in front of the crowds his disciples as what he is after in servants and pastors this is jesus going after them this is jesus of ezekiel coming to reclaim the lost sheep of the house of israel this is jesus setting people free this is what it looks like when it comes to the judgments of our lord we never find him thundering down hard judgments on the bruised reeds and the smoldering wicks you know who that is those broken those who are coming to him for eternal life he doesn't thunder down on these people the broken over sin he wants to remind the people of this and he wants to remind the people of the purpose of the disciples in this ministry as for his disciples how they are offset from what he is about to describe so this is so important for us i i have to say and it hasn't been neglect i've just this you know you'd rather go to the john 3 16 passage wouldn't you of course you just don't say you know today i feel like preaching matthew 23 i haven't done it in 20 years of ministry you know this is the first time i've preached this and it's not because i said i don't want to preach it it's because this is the kind of passage that's challenging and hard and it's good to see it in the series. This is important. Notice how he offsets his disciples. In verse 11, the greatest of you shall be your servants. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Now that should ring like a bell for us by now. That was a whole section in Matthew uh in Matthew chapter 18 really through 20 of Jesus saying these same words and I've come to the conclusion they must have been his favorite see I have my favorites but I think Jesus had favorites and I think this was it whoever humbles himself will be exalted and whoever humbles himself will be exalted whoever exalts himself will be humbled and and remember what he had as the chief concern in Matthew 18. His disciples came to him and said, who's the greatest in the kingdom? And you see, he had to root out of them. He was so focused on this. Rooting out of them their desire for greatness, their desire for position, their desire for power. Jesus went after it and preached the cross to them. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. That's your mission, to give your life in the message and the laying down your life, to give people this truth. It was not a ministry about them. That's why he brought up the little child. And remember, he said, the little child. And he said, whoever's greatest in the kingdom, here's a little child, must become like this. That meant that servants have to be faithful. And to be that, they have to be just that, servants who are serving others and caring for others and are not about their own greatness and their own status. And I think if you have any conception in the history of the church of this problem, all the way we could trace in the history of the church the rise of bishops and what it became and then the papacy and what the pope became six hundred thousand dollar rings robes mobiles a new name papa everything's contrary to it everything's contrary to it this is how true servants are radically offset so that's the heart in verse 11 and here you'll notice that jesus is after with the multitudes and the crowds. Now in verse 2, we come to the lead statement to all of this that describes the exact opposite. So if you ever wanted a test case for discernment in our day, discernment is a word we have to recapture and think about. Sheep need to be so discerning of what is true and what is false. This is what the whole scriptures call us to. Matthew 23 is a great section to help us with that. and this lead statement helps us immediately now sets it off to describe these principles that are given that lead to the woes and so you'll notice here the exact opposite is described the scribes sit on moses's seat there was a a large seat that was put in front of all these synagogues you remember in regions they would have synagogues and this is where primarily they couldn't all come to the temple so synagogue worship became the norm and that's where jesus went around teaching they would put big stone seats in front of the the synagogues and it's a similar sort of thought that we have today when we say in a college or a university such and such a person has been given a chair the stripes would come and they would dress in long robes and they would have great tassels and in great pomp they would come and they would make their way to the chair and all the people would gather around them in the front of the synagogue so it was quite a sight to behold i was um reading one author said something interesting about this that just struck me that we never think about but he said this one of the things that i've learned from being in Cambridge, is that intelligence and a good education does not help people to know how to live better. Life is a struggle, no less a struggle for the well-trained than it is for those with fewer formal qualifications. This difficulty of living it, living what we preach is a difficulty across the board. Tassels don't make it easier. Now, they would then sit in the seat they would expound moses it's important there's a reason john would say the law came through moses but grace and truth came through jesus christ jesus says observe what they say but do not do what they do what do they do they preach and jesus wants to spotlight how we know they're false and here's the first theme corrupted mission they tie up heavy burdens hard to bear and lay them on people's shoulders and they themselves don't do what they require there you go what we've seen is that jesus was very concerned the whole way through with the mission and the message that was going out and here is what had become false religion in israel and here's the hallmark of it there was a reason jesus held out his arms now it should you should feel the effect of this when he held out his arms and he said come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden and i will give you rest for your weary souls your souls are weary for my burden is easy and my yoke is light that has a huge backdrop and context to it we've been studying this in matthew they finally and scrupulously dissected the law and then they built an entire tradition over the law a fence around the law and super added to the law and these became heavy yokes that they laid on the people. Now I want you to notice at the heart of the concern here is what religion becomes. This is what false religion does. It builds a ministry making it seem that God is a God that is just concerned with doing all that we can to be right with Him by more and more scrupulous observance and what does that really say about those who brought a ministry like that it's about them it's about power it's about control you know this there are certain people who are just sort of authoritarians and take a leader what is the goal of a leader for you what should be the goal of the ministry for you the goal is to set you free to set you free or is that goal to control you through observance i want to say this doesn't um this doesn't abrogate the law of god jesus is not throwing out the law of god that's how people some people would like to hear this the question that jesus is concerned about is where the ministry was leading people and the first three woes build on this corrupted mission a woe is a deep lament it is a wailing judgment on people and he gives seven of them here now think of corrupted mission in this regard verse 13 for you shut up the kingdom of heaven in people's faces for you neither enter yourselves nor you allow those who would enter to go in when jesus gave the keys of the kingdom we've always struggled with discipline you ever thought about what discipline is trying to accomplish in the life of the church bringing people back in think of our heidelberg on this point how is the kingdom of heaven opened and shut by the preaching of the holy gospel when according to the command of christ it's declared and publicly testified to all that every believer whenever now notice what we're proclaiming whenever they receive the promise of the gospel by true faith listen to what we're announcing. All your sins are really forgiven by God. We want that for you. I want that for everyone sitting in this room today. For the sake of Christ's merits, on the contrary, when it is declared and testified to all unbelievers and such as do not sincerely repent that they stand exposed to the wrath of god and eternal condemnation so long as they are unconverted according to which testimony of the gospel god will judge them both in this and in the life of the come the whole ministry is trying to prevent that that's that's a true heart of a servant they don't want that their ministry had no aim for this here's the true key of a false religion they actually stand in the way of opening the kingdom of heaven to people remember in the sermon on the mount jesus described the false teachers as standing in front of the wide gate and leading people into it? Perfect examples like maybe we could think about the Sabbath. It was a day meant to rest and worship and we give the sincere call. You most certainly should honor the fourth commandment. And why do we want that honored? Well, it glorifies God, but it's good for you. You're worshiping God. You're receiving the means of grace. you're receiving the sacrament you're receiving help you're receiving the opening of the kingdom through the preaching of the gospel well remember what they did they said things like well if you walk a certain amount of steps you're a sabbath breaker and if you spit on the ground as long as it doesn't roll you're okay because you haven't plowed we laugh at that i do too but people think these are teachers sent by god you see and you have to think about what giving the conception that god is just a heavy-handed tyrant who's ready to strike your every move what that does to people it shuts them out and that leads the progression to the next woe woe to you scribes and pharisees you travel land and sea to make a single proselyte and you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves what he's saying is these guys had great evangelistic zeal they'll travel land and sea to go get a proselyte they'll go get someone the fruit of it was this the kind of converts they produced they were worse than them it's chain reaction false teachers actually create a chain of worse disciples than themselves full of hypocrisy the fruits are terrible and the third road the third woe demonstrates this too 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 an oath you blind fools who is greater the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred he gives a similar example here with the altar what he's saying is this they are lawless in their teaching of the law they always find a way out to not keep it to avoid the clear teachings of the law. They're the true antinomians, the legalists. Woe to those a thousand times over who do not preach the gospel of the remission of sins, you could say, or honor the law themselves in their lives. And the point is, these three woes capture how they shut up the kingdom of heaven. And Jesus is thundering judgment on that. Why? I'll close with that. Second major emphasis is a hypocritical life. Their whole religion was done for them to be seen as great. Remember verse 11? I don't want my disciples. That's not your pursuit. Verse 5, they do all their deeds to be seen by others. There's the thematic statement. And Jesus says they wear long robes and they have phylacteries. And these phylacteries are huge. And he says in verse 6, they love the places of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues. And when they walked on the street, they loved everyone to say, wow, you are so great. I think we know this well. A whole different kind of religion is being described here. That's what you have to see. It's what I said earlier. It's the kind of religion that's completely phony. It's all about appearance. And the second series of woes zero in on this, don't they? Second three woes. Verse 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, for you tithe mint and dill and cumin, but have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Blind guides, you strain out gnats and swallow camels. That is a great line. What he is saying is, their life was lived in such scrupulous observance of the minutia. They always focused on that. But they had no ability to distinguish between weightier matters. Justice. Mercy in people's lives. faithfulness to God. That's a warped religion that could say, tithe this, give this, do this, and show no mercy to people. They found a way out of the fifth commandment, remember in Matthew 15, that when they were supposed to, commanded to help their parents, they would say, oh no, it's a gift devoted to God. We don't have to help them. See, it's that kind of stuff. And the fifth woe is all about self-indulgence. verse 25 woe to you scribes and pharisees hypocrites you clean the outside of the cup and plate but inside you're full of greed and indulgence jesus says clean the inside in other words what good is a religion that puts on a show for everyone to see what good is that and then lives a total lie completely contrary to what you've presented on the outside right the sixth woe follows your whitewashed tombs outwardly appearing beautiful but within you you're full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness so you appear righteous but within you you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness that that's the height of it whitewashed tombs you look good you look holy but you're dead on the inside all kinds of sins you're living in you're serving lawlessness just characterizes life and now you can relate to this how many people think today beloved that religion is just about maintaining an appearance right we know this problem that you can have a religion where you go to church and you talk nice and you be nice and you make sure people think you're a good person and that you're serving in some way so that people see that and think you're really devoted you dress well so the people think you have it together but is it not a fair question to ask is that true on the inside if you could be an entirely different person you may put on the sunday show but at home you're a jerk to those you love you live in sin you're dishonest in your work you're caught in something that if people knew you'd be done and so on and on and on you see what jesus is going after right you see why this is so necessary because of the whole history of problems of this and and i ask this imagine if this is what the ministry became what if we had nothing of jesus on this and this is what ministry became see what he's guarding i mean i just saw last week that the great writer who wrote i don't know how many books i mean how many millions philip yancey was caught and confessed to as he was writing all these books an eight-year affair eight years yeah jesus expects pastors to practice what they preach and they do that by his mercies but scandal after scandal we're acting so shocked by it all today and i want to say this it's not the ministry's fault. It's not that every pastor's like this, but there is a fundamental difference between Jesus going after an external righteousness devoid of a genuine regenerated heart. You see, what I'm describing here, beloved, is not you struggling against sin. Do you understand that? I'm not describing even you stumbling into sin. What I'm describing is a complete outward show of religion when nothing is genuine on the inside. There's been no repentance or faith. That's what this is describing. And the evidence of this, listen, it's a ministry that doesn't take serious leading people to repentance and a ministry that seeks to control people to keep them under their control and that's the final emphasis today verse 8 i don't want you to be called instructors for you have one instructor the christ call no man on earth your father you have one father who is in heaven neither be called instructor right for you have one the christ he says these things don't call people your teacher there's one that's me i'm i'm the only mediator is what he's saying between god and man and that reserves the last woe that's offset that is a giant what we call chiasm it says here they join in the long train of those who martyred all the prophets and they would continue to do so that these teachers exalted themselves in the place of god that's the whole theme of antichrist activity to receive the glory that is his and they hated those who preached truth they hated those who brought the message of the truth who were genuine so they they put them out because that light and darkness collided and they wanted their glory to shine and you notice at the middle of this last section jesus says they're serpents they're serving the serpent. Woe to you, brood of vipers. Now I want to return to my initial thought to close this out today. Jesus had no time for this. The problem is, beloved, as I've said through the whole series, it's the religion of a natural man's heart that he's going after, and this is the best it produces. That's what we see in Israel, and what Jesus is after in his kingdom are servants who humble themselves and serve you in the gospel. He wants a ministry in place for you. So this is the beauty of this today. I know it's a heavy passage. You didn't expect this today, but it's important. He wants a ministry for you so that you and your children would be led to eternal life and that heaven would be open to you. You see that? See what he's after? See why he's rendering a righteous judgment on this? The whole section here is the precursor to the religion that Jesus is announcing in judgment, the religion that Jesus would tear down. And today it's a reminder to us, why are we doing this? Well, it's because you, beloved, need Jesus as a Savior. And He's willing to go to bat and remove anything that stands in the way of that for you. He loves you that much. See this? He knows your sheep. He knows you need the Good Shepherd. And the ministry is designed to turn your hearts to Him, that you might come to Him, that He will wash you and cleanse you and give you new hearts. That's what He wants for you. That's the ministry He desires for you. That's why He came and He cares a whole lot that you would be reconciled with God and have peace. He cares this much to fight off all wolves and to send you servants who care to bring you to the feet of the Savior. There's the test. Those who comes, he said, I will by no means cast out any who come to me. What a promise. And you see the heart today of Jesus as this passage closes out. As he looks over Jerusalem and he weeps over it. How long, I long to gather you together. As a hen gathers her chicks, but you were not willing. So your house is left to you desolate. You see, he's weeping over this. He's weeping over this. And I suppose to say in closing, there's the character of a true prophet. Oh yeah, we can point out lots of wrongs and lots of evil. But have we ever wept over it? And that's our Lord. He is willing to defend His flock. He is willing to preserve you and keep you. And today, He still cares about that for you. And so how wonderful a Savior we have. I hope you've seen something into the character of your Lord. Remember what I said at the beginning, you need this? He's defending you. And He's ensuring that you receive a ministry of peace and that the kingdom of heaven is open to you, that when you come in faith and you believe in Jesus Christ, you are justified and you are his children and he will have nobody stand in the way of delivering you. He'll put him in hell for it. How wonderful he is. So praise him today for his love and respond. Respond to him in faith and thank him that he cares this much for you. You ever stop and think how good he's been to you? Where do you even begin to count all those blessings of his goodness? Here it is today. He has said, when you believe him and trust him and come to him in true faith, depending on believing the gospel, you are saved. And nothing will stand in the way of that for you. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for being our defense. Thank you for being our deliverer. Thank you for defending your flock and answering the cry of Psalm 79. May we be a people, O Lord, set free in your love, who love your will, and who are truly cleansed on the inside, that we might be a people who worship you in true faith. Thank you, O Lord, for being our rock, our warrior, our defender. We pray that we would glorify you in our lives, keep us from this kind of hypocrisy, and let us be a people of truth on the inward parts, as David said, which you love. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.