The Ugliness of False Religion Part II Matthew 23:1-39

The Pharisees’ False Religion in Matthew 23

Last week, we looked at the first five verses of Matthew 23. In chapter 22, Jesus had just finished answering the questions of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And each time, He silenced them. Now in chapter 23, He is taking His aim at the unhealthy conservatives of His day.

These were the Pharisees. What we learn in verse 1 of chapter 23 is that after this conversation with the Pharisees and Sadducees in chapter 22, He is now addressing the crowds and His disciples. And this probably isn't just the twelve.

This is probably other followers who had followed Him during His ministry. What Jesus wants to get across to the crowds and His disciples is to condemn false teaching. False religion. And this is our big idea as we go through chapter 23.

The big idea is once again this, and you can see this in your bulletins. You are to understand that counterfeit religion always receives condemnation from Jesus. You are to understand that counterfeit religion always receives condemnation from Jesus.

In my study, I see ten ways how counterfeit religion will always receive this condemnation in chapter 23 as we go through it. And last week we saw the first two ways how. We saw this in the first five verses.

The first is through promoting burdensome rules while neglecting true godliness. And the second way how is through living differently in public than in private. The Pharisees were masters at these two ways how.

The Pharisees did these two religious practices that will receive condemnation at the judgment. And this morning we are going to see three more ways how in verses 6 through 13. So if you haven't already, please turn in a Bible with me to Matthew chapter 23.

And I think in your red Bibles it's on page 984. And we will begin by reading these verses. Matthew 23 verses 6 through 13. And they love, the Pharisees, they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

For 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. And here's our big idea. Counterfeit religion always receives condemnation from Jesus. And here's the third way how. Through finding identity in their personal status in society.

Finding identity from their personal status in society. We're going to see this in verses 6 and 7. In verses 6 and 7, Jesus highlights this. He says they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces and being called a rabbi by others.

Just as the Pharisees love for people to see their public works and love to see what they wear. Remember last week, the phylacteries. They love this box that had the law in it that was on their foreheads.

They loved it when people saw them for how holy they were. And they loved when people saw the robes that they wear. These long robes that would stand out to anyone who saw it. They not only love that, they love the places of honor.

They love the titles that are next to their name. When the Pharisaical teachers of the law went to a feast, they would sit at the place of honor. And when they went to the synagogue, there were places reserved for them.

And these were the best seats. They were the stars. They would walk in. Everyone would notice them. And they loved the prestige that came with their position. In our day, when you go to a sporting event, we have VIP sections.

VIP stands for Very Important People. When the president goes to a baseball game, he doesn't go and sit in the nosebleed section, does he? With the other fans. No, this is a special place for him. And any high-up official, there's a special place for these people when they go to these events.

They sit in the best seats, and you can see how this can get to someone's head. The rest of the people have to walk over each other as they get to their seat, but important officials in society do not.

I remember one time I went to a Twins game, and my friend was walking down the narrow aisle. This was at the Metrodome. You remember those seats? And he tripped over something, and he dropped his soda on the guy in front of him.

That doesn't happen with people who sit in the VIP section, right? They're in a different place, in a prestigious place. In the first century, the Pharisees received special treatment, and they didn't say in humility, we're really not more important than anyone else, but we get this honor because of this position we hold in society.

They didn't say that. They thought they were special. They loved the special places reserved for them because of the office that they held. They thought they were superior to the common people. Not only did they love special places, but they also loved the titles that they received, and that title, among others, would have been Rabbi.

What John 1 .38 tells us is that the word Rabbi means my teacher. There was prestige and honor that came with this title. The law was central to Jewish life, and these were believed to be the experts of the law.

As those who were given the responsibility to be proclaimers and guardians of the law, they were given honor. When common people talked to these scribes, they would address them as Rabbi. It isn't bad to call people by their titles.

We do it all the time in our world. It's in fact a good thing. In the military, a lower-ranking serviceman will address a higher-ranking officer with honor, and it doesn't go the other way. There is a distinction between the two.

In schools, the students call their teacher Mr., Mrs., or Ms., and then their last name. This is to show that this teacher has authority over the students, and the students need to respect that authority.

In churches, people called their lead shepherd, Pastor, and if they have multiple on staff, they call those shepherds with that same title also. Titles are not bad in themselves because a hierarchy of authority comes from God, and titles recognize that God-given authority.

So titles are not the problem. So what is the problem? It is a problem when one craves a title and one finds identity in that title. This was the problem with the teachers of the law among the Pharisees.

They loved to hear their name with a title next to it. They loved to be called Rabbi. They craved it. They found their identity in it. If someone didn't call them by their title, they would be offended.

They would say, do you know who I am? This is when you know if someone finds their identity in their title. Do they crave hearing the title next to their name? And when it isn't spoken, are they offended?

In our day, there are lots of titles out there. Doctor, General, Captain, President, Vice President, CEO, CFO, Senator, Congressman, Assemblyman or Assemblywoman, Judge, Officer, Pastor, Reverend, Mr., Mrs., Coach,.

And there are more.

Lots of titles. But one should not crave these titles. When I was in college, I had a wonderful cross-country and track coach. I remember he told our team when he first met us, don't call me Coach Peterson.

Call me Rick. In my case, if you think it's appropriate to call me Pastor, that's fine. But if you don't, I'm not going to say you need to call me Pastor. Technically, because I'm ordained, I also hold the title Reverend.

And when I became ordained, people asked me if they should call me Reverend, and I said no. I said no because it sounded too impersonal, and it seems just like everybody with the name Reverend is a heretic.

So maybe it's not a great name in 2022. So you can call me Pastor or Seth, whichever you want. It's not that important. I mean, if you call me Seth, I'm not going to say, okay, you need to call me Pastor.

No, you don't. That's fine. And pray that I never crave to have a title next to my name, and I pray the same for you, if you have a title. We don't want that to get to our heads. There are people in this room who have titles next to your name.

A title doesn't make you more important than someone else. And don't find your identity in it. This is a position that God has given you, and people should have a healthy level of respect, but don't let it get to your head.

But the Pharisees were those who were full of pride. They found their identity in their position and place of honor, but Christians are never to find their identity in those places. Your identity is in Christ.

Galatians chapter four, verses four through six, describes your adoption in Christ. God sent forth his son born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. That is your identity.

You're a child of God. And you're only a child of God if you have a relationship with Jesus Christ. Sometimes you hear people say that everybody's a child of God.

Wrong.

The only people who are children of God are those who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. And if that describes you, that is your identity. Not your title. You belong to God.

You are in his family. That's what matters. It doesn't ultimately matter what position you hold in society. What matters is your position with God. And if you belong to him, you are an heir of Almighty God, and you will live with him forever in glory.

Jesus hated that the Pharisees found identity in their personal status. And so we should make it our aim to please him by refusing to find identity in the wrong places, but rather find it in him. This is the third way how counterfeit religion always receives condemnation from Jesus.

Through finding identity in their personal status in society. The fourth way how counterfeit religion always receives condemnation from Jesus is through elevating themselves above God. And we see this in verses 8 -12.

Let me read that again. 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. Now in verse 8, Jesus tells the crowd and the disciples who are listening that you are not to be called rabbi.

He also says you're not to be called father, and you're not to be called instructors in these verses that we just read. He tells the reason why in the second half of each of these verses. In the second half of verse 8, he says for you have one teacher and you are all brothers.

In the second half of verse 9, he says you are not to call any man on earth your father, because you have one father who is in heaven. Finally, in the second half of verse 10, he told the crowd and his disciples that they are not to be called instructors, because you have one instructor, the Christ.

Now as Jesus makes this address about the Pharisees, we are right to assume that not just men are present,.

But women.

So what he's saying here, when he says brothers, is he's not just talking to men, he's talking to men and women. He's addressing them with the general term brothers. What Jesus is addressing is a problem with men being called by the titles rabbis, father, and instructors.

Because these were the positions that men held. The men were the rabbis. The men were called fathers. The men were called instructors. Because this was their religious position. And this point is related to our previous point about the potential problem with titles.

In first century Judaism, these were the spiritual leaders. These were the titles by which they were called and these titles got out of hand. Now as I just mentioned, titles in themselves are not bad, but when one is put in too high a place, that's when problems come.

In verse two, we saw that the Pharisees placed themselves on Moses' seat. They did this in their pride, desiring to have spiritual authority. In reality, what is taking place is that they desired to be worshiped.

The desire for creatures to be worshiped goes way back to the beginning, to the Garden of Eden. Satan was not content with his lot as the highest ranking angel. So it's even before the Garden of Eden, when he was in heaven, he had the position as the highest angel in heaven.

Wasn't good enough. He wanted to be God. He wanted to be worshiped and he rebelled. And when Satan tempted Adam and Eve in Genesis three, he said, for God knows that when you eat of it, the fruit, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil.

Do you see what Satan just did? He tempted them by saying, you will be like God. The desire to be like God is the desire to be worshiped. This only belongs to the Creator and yet creatures can desire the honor that only belongs to the Creator.

As the Pharisees had this very high view of themselves, they pushed forth their own traditions. What they did is they established their own religion. And when one invents his own religion, you decide what is truth and what is error.

You decide what course someone should go. You put yourself in a position of authority that you don't belong in. This past week, I don't know if you noticed the Jehovah Witnesses over the overlook. That's a religion that is man-made.

They made up all the materials that they produced, the watchtower. It's a religion that's been debunked, but it keeps going because Satan keeps it going. When one creates one's own religion, one puts himself above God.

We talked about what the Pharisees did with their religion last week. They taught some things correctly, yes. They sat on Moses' seat. They put themselves there, yes. But some of the things that they taught were correct.

But then they taught things that God never taught. They claimed that the people had to follow what they said in order to earn their own way to heaven. You can see how religious leaders can hold this over people.

You must do what I say, and if you don't do it, you're not going to heaven. That's what they did. They thought with their titles, Rabbi, Father, Instructor, they should not be questioned. What they say goes.

There's no room for debate. That's when you know you're in trouble. When people say, it must be this way. And then people see holes in their thinking. Nope, don't question me. These Pharisees who put themselves in this place of spiritual authority established a rabbinical tradition that was out of step with the Word of God.

As we have seen, Jesus never went through the rabbinical school because he knew it was corrupt. When Jesus spoke, he spoke as the God-man. He spoke the very words of God. This is why Jesus says in verse eight, you are not to be called a rabbi, for you have one teacher.

There's only one teacher that all the truth of God's Word comes from. As Jesus was on the scene in the first century, he was that teacher and he still is and always will be that teacher. Any teaching that departs from him must be rejected.

The truth of God comes from the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Spirit. And when Jesus speaks, the Father and the Spirit agree with him. When a prophet in the Old Testament or an apostle in the New wrote or spoke the Word of God, they were teaching on behalf of the Trinity.

Father, Son, and Spirit. The one teacher is God and from God comes one teaching. All other teachings must be rejected. In our day, it sounds narrow. But truth is always narrow. Two plus two, what does that equal?

Four?

That's not controversial, right? But when we start talking about the heart, when we start talking about how one has to live, somehow truth is no longer narrow, right? Because people don't want it to be narrow.

They want to live how they want.

And if Christianity is true, that's a problem for sinners. That's a problem for people who want to keep sinning. Everyone who is a true teacher understands where all truth comes from and where the true authority is.

This is why every pastor should be humbled and should tremble to do the job that God has called that person to do. You don't have authority in yourself. Your authority comes because you are his servant.

He puts a shepherd in that position to carry out his purposes. As a pastor, if I stray from the Word of God, my authority goes away. The only authority I have is given me from the Bible. And if I stray from that in an obvious way, then no one should listen to me.

This runs our church, by the way. This runs our church. The Bible does. This goes for every pastor. What Jesus says is you have one teacher. And in the second half of verse eight, he's saying under that teaching, you are all brothers.

The people of God follow God through his Word. He is the source of truth and he is the ultimate authority. Spiritual leaders are not to crave praise and people are not to give them the honor that only belongs to God.

You see this. People worship spiritual leaders. That should never happen. Now it's good to appreciate your leaders. 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 12 and 13. Now Paul wrote, we ask you brothers to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

That's healthy. So showing respect and honor to spiritual leaders is a good thing, but it goes bad when a spiritual leader craves honor and when people give him the honor that only belongs to God. When this happens, an egregious sin is taking place.

This is precisely what the Pharisees did. They were prideful. They said they worshiped God, but they were really worshiping themselves. They treated themselves as the proclaimers of truth even though they would have said they were speaking on behalf of God.

You can see how they were so flippant in making man-made rules with this inflated view of themselves thinking they had the authority to do so. We see this in our day with the Pope. Let me just say this, in mainstream evangelicalism, it's a no-no to call out Roman Catholicism.

We don't want to offend anybody, right? If you want to understand mainstream evangelicalism in a nutshell, let's not offend anybody. That's what they're trying to do. I was listening to a guy this week.

He could not call Joe Osteen a false teacher. Like, what are you doing teaching them? I mean, yes, you're probably going to drive people away if you're too firm, but you're not too firm. You're just doing what you're supposed to be doing.

So let me say this about the Roman Catholic Church, and I'm not helping you if I dodge this. That's why I'm doing it. That's why I do it. We see this in our day with the Pope, the undue authority that has been given.

The Roman Catholic Church teaches that the Pope is the vicar of Christ on earth. Another way to say this is that he is Christ's spokesman as he sits in Peter's seat, who according to Catholic tradition was the head apostle and the first Pope.

The Pope is called father and priests are called father as well. The very thing Jesus condemns, they do, because you only have one father in a spiritual sense, and he is our father in heaven. We all have biological fathers, of course, but that is not what Jesus is talking about.

He's talking about this spiritual abuse where people give themselves these titles and positions and status that only belongs to God. What happened is that down through history, the leaders of the Roman Catholic Church elevated tradition above Scripture.

They say that all of their traditions are in line with Scripture, but that's not true. For example, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that one is saved by grace through faith plus works. But the Bible teaches that you are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Christ's finished work at the cross and his resurrection is what saves you and it's humanity's responsibility to believe in him, to pay the full penalty for your sins. There's no purgatory. There's no continual sacrifice that needs to take place.

Read the book of Hebrews. It makes clear he died once for all, but the Pope's teaching is you are saved by grace through faith plus works. How does the Bible get contradicted so easily down through history?

This happens because spiritual leaders elevate themselves above God. What they say goes, not what God says. With ungodly spiritual authority, they don't carefully look at what the Bible says. They make arbitrary rules and doctrines that are out of step with the true teaching of God's Word.

Now, they would not say they are doing this, of course. They say they are speaking on behalf of God as if God has given them some ability to make their own pronouncements. But Jesus says this is precisely what these ungodly spiritual leaders are doing.

But this is not what godly leaders are to do. Godly leaders are to humble themselves before Him, as Jesus says in verses 11 and 12. He says this. "'The greatest among you shall be your servant. "'Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, "'and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.'".

Earlier in Matthew, the disciples talked about who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Remember, they're having that conversation. Who's going to be the greatest? And Jesus says to them in Matthew 18, "'Unless you turn and become like children, "'you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.'".

And then He says at the end, "'Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, "'and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.'". The Jewish teachers in the first century exalted themselves above God. And the person who does this will be humbled.

A prideful person will have trouble in the future. Bad days are coming for the prideful person because destruction is coming. This is what Proverbs 16, 18 says. "'Pride goes before destruction, "'and a haughty spirit before a fall.'".

Jesus says that. Whoever is prideful will be humbled. They'll be humiliated in the future. As the Pharisaical leadership went down this path, things were not going to end well for them. At the final judgment, God would give them what they deserved.

They would be under His condemnation forever. But whoever humbles himself will have the opposite experience. Now in these verses, Jesus is talking about spiritual leaders. But this is true of every follower of Christ.

We need to live lives of humility. When we realize how big God is and how small we are, what comes is humility. When we realize that apart from the grace of God in Christ, we deserve hell, humility comes.

And Jesus says this to the one who is faithful, who humbles himself in service to Him. In Matthew 25, 23, He says, His Master said to Him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little.

I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your Master. Isn't it amazing that when God forgives us, it's not just that we're forgiven and we don't have to face punishment. He actually rewards us for being in His service, for living lives of faithfulness to Him.

Well done, good and faithful servant. And the Bible talks about rewards. The more faithful you are in this life, the more you will be rewarded in the next. Isn't that incredible? Think about how gracious God is to His people.

When someone gets let out of prison, it's not like everything is great. You get rewarded. Things are hard for the person who leaves prison once their sentence is done. But for the Christian, when you believe, your penalty is fully paid and He will save you as you walk with Him.

Well done, good and faithful servant. He promises heaven to His people. And those who are most tempted with this pride are spiritual leaders. And Jesus tells the Christian leaders of our day, don't be like the Pharisees who crave the honor that only belongs to God.

So understand that counterfeit religion always receives condemnation from Jesus. And the fourth way how is through elevating themselves above God. And here's the fifth way how, the final point we're gonna look at today.

False Religion and the Claim to Be Heaven-Bound

So the fifth way how, you are to understand that counterfeit religion always receives condemnation from Jesus is through believing mistakenly that they are heaven bound people. Believing mistakenly that they are heaven bound people.

Verse 13, Jesus says, 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. What Jesus says here is what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 10 verses two through four.

He says, I bear them witness. He's talking about the Jewish leadership of his day. I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God. But not according to knowledge. Not according to wisdom. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. Jesus says, woe to the Jewish leadership for doing this. They have established a righteousness of their own. They have established their own religion and it's gonna do them no good.

It doesn't care how big the box is on their forehead, how long their robes are, how impressive works are in public, how fancy of a title they have, how many rituals they do. None of these things are gonna do them any good.

When one leaves the narrow path of God's Word, you enter the wide path. You enter the same path that all those pagans are on who want nothing to do with God, who wear sin on their sleeves. When I drive by those Jehovah Witnesses, they're on the wide path.

Just like those people at the bar who would never step in church.

Think about that.

It's so easy to go down the wide path. Now I've shared this story to the group on Wednesday night, but I'll share it with you. My brother and I are slowly hiking up the Superior Trail. We started at Jay Cooke State Park, which is south of Duluth, and we're going all the way to Canada.

And we made it about 70 miles so far. Couple of years ago, we were walking down the trail and there was this really wide path we were on. And we were deep in conversation and we kept walking and we realized we think we got off the path.

So we kept going. And we went at least a half mile before we finally said, okay, we got to turn around here. So we turned around, we made our way back, and we see this little path. It had this little sign, Superior Hiking Trail, arrow this way.

We got back on the path and it was narrow. And I'm thinking, what a great illustration for life. The wide path, everybody's going down. That's where people go. That's where secular people go. That's where religious people go.

Many religious people. It's frightening to think about. In the first century, and in our day, there's so much religion out there that steers away from the narrow path. This is the only authority there is.

When religion steers away from the narrow path, it's always the same thing at its most basic level. How do you know you've encountered a false religion? In a false religion, you have to earn your own way to heaven.

It's up to you. You're told to do something that you can never do. Men establish their own religion and leave the truth of God's Word. Christianity, biblical Christianity, is the only religion in the world that says you can't earn your own way to heaven.

Only Christ can earn it for you through His finished work at the cross. First century Judaism left sound Old Testament teaching, which taught the same thing. It teaches what the New Testament teaches.

You're saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. That's what the Bible says from beginning to end. But they made their own religion. And the religious go down this wide path.

Along with the irreligious.

Hell's going to be a place where many religious people are. Jesus is saying to the crowd and to His disciples that the religion of the Pharisees, the religion that they were very accustomed to, it's going to lead you to hell.

That's what He's telling them here. It's the wide path. Jesus tells them in verse 13, you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.

These scribes and Pharisees think they are those who are going to heaven. They think they are on the narrow path. And they think they are leading many of the Jewish people down the path to heaven. That's what they think.

But you know what Jesus calls them? He called them this in Matthew 15, 14. They are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit. I remember when I was in college, I was driving and there were many cars in a line.

And the first car stopped to turn and the car behind it went around on the shoulder. And guess what I did? I followed that car. I went around on the shoulder too. Police car, sirens go off, pulls me over, didn't pull over the guy in front of me, but pulled me over.

And you know what he said to me? Because I was making excuses. I was just following the guy in front of me. He said, would you follow him if you were driving off a cliff? No, he gave me a warning, so that was good.

But still, he was making the point that when someone is doing something wrong, you don't follow him. In the first century, the Pharisees were doing the worst thing of all. They rejected God and they made their own religion and many right in line, lockstep, followed them.

They followed their extra biblical teaching and what was taking place was the blind leading the blind. They told people that they were leading them to the kingdom of heaven, but in reality, what Jesus said is they were shutting the kingdom of heaven in people's faces.

On this path, the leaders will not enter nor will their followers. And this is a warning that Jesus is giving as he preaches to the crowd and his disciples. He tells them, if you follow them, you will go to hell.

This is a warning in our day. Do not leave the truth and pursue false religion that leads you to this place of destruction. Most people through their default mode will think they are good enough to go to heaven.

They think God wouldn't send me there. People say I'm religious. I'm a law abiding citizen. I do good things. People like me, but there's an old saying, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

If you go down the wrong path, you will not finish on the right path. Anyone who relies on their own merit to inherit eternal life will be in for the greatest shock of their existence. Jesus says in Matthew 7, 23, I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. You people who thought you could earn your own way. The pagan will hear that because they're workers of lawlessness. And so will the religious person who thought he or she could earn his own way to God as every false religion teaches.

And that's what the first century Judaism taught that many followed. And Jesus is telling them, don't do it. And he's telling everyone here, don't follow their teaching. Follow the narrow path. The only ones who enter the kingdom of heaven are those who did not establish a righteousness of their own, but trusted in the righteousness of Christ alone.

The only way you're gonna go to heaven is through an alien righteousness. A righteousness not your own. It's the only way. And all you need to do is believe. Understand that counterfeit religion always receives condemnation from Jesus.

This is the fifth way how. Is through mistakenly believing that they are heaven-bound people. And how many make that mistake in our day? Now next Sunday, by the way, when we make plans, we're always saying, Lord willing, right?

Who knows, Christ could rapture us this week or anyone in this room could die this week. But if we all make it back next week, we are gonna see three more points, verses six, seven, and eight, or point six, seven, and eight.