Synoptics - Matthew 23:1-9

Matthew 23 and the Woes Against Religious Hypocrisy

The difficult and strong words that are used here just for sake of context let's Back up and and get the context. Beginning of verse 1. Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples saying. The scribes and the Pharisees that see themselves a chair of Moses therefore all that they tell you do and observe.

But do not do according to their deeds for they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders. But they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.

But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by men.

But do not be called rabbi for one is your teacher and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father for one is your father who is in heaven. Do not be called leaders for one is your leader that is Christ.

But the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself Shall be exalted. And you have the woes but woe to you scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people for you do not enter in yourselves.

Nor do you allow those who are entering to go in? Textual variant of verse 14. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because you devour widows houses and For a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you receive greater condemnation.

Woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte and when he becomes one You make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. We probably won't get any farther than that.

The Externalism of the Pharisees and the Danger of Religious Hypocrisy

So that will give us appropriate context last time we had gotten into the Externalism of the Pharisee ism of Jesus's day and we had noted last time that Pharisee ism has started with appropriate and proper concerns.

Most Religious movements have some kind of positive impulse at first. But the tendency over time is almost never toward the truth. It's almost always away from the truth. I was reminded interestingly enough last night of something similar to this.

I Don't know if any of you are familiar I'm sure many of you are familiar with Francis Schaeffer and his writings, but you might not be as familiar with his son Frankie Schaeffer Who evidently has decided to make his fame by Skewering the memory and The memory of his of his parents he's written a number of books Attacking them and talking about their family life and stuff like that.

Just just an amazing thing and I tweeted last night a little comment Frankie Schaeffer colon proof that regeneration is not hereditary. The idea being that you know Very very quickly there can be a movement if there is not a Work of the Spirit of God in a religious movement.

It can very quickly become externalized and very quickly become focused upon Something other than what its founders intended now, of course, we also know in church history there have been many times when someone has said something or taught something and Later generations have Taken that and and twisted it into something completely foreign to what was originally intended as well.

So You know you we can look back and say this may have been a movement that started with with positive positive impulses, but we have here an entire chapter of the strongest language on the part of the Lord Jesus Concerning The dangers of religious hypocrisy and I think we need to listen very carefully.

It's very easy To get into our minds a picture of some well the picture of what we saw in The the Mel Gibson's movie remember how they dressed up the Jewish leaders and they were wearing these Ostentatious robes and and the headdresses were just way too big and stuff.

Well that's actually what was going on and it's very easy for us to get that kind of a picture and Say well Jesus is just talking about people like that. We don't wear that kind of stuff anymore. We don't how can we how can we?

For example broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. We don't have any tassels. We don't have any phylacteries and Yet obviously I think if we're careful and thinking about these things While we don't wear the robes Are there ways we could do the same thing.

How would you broaden your phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of your garments well That can be done by the way, we speak that can be done by the way we act that can be done by letting everybody know of our our Calvinistic bona fides.

You know that's that's my scroll shelf over there and that whole wall is my Puritan collection and You know, there's this there's ways that we could we can we can broaden our phylacteries. There's there's always Anyone who thinks that?

Well, my religious tradition couldn't do what this religious tradition did and therefore got itself in trouble. Yeah, you're you are in trouble at that very point if you don't think that this kind of attitude can seep in and in fact can be Just as reprehensible before God.

And so I think we need to be very very careful. There's nothing wrong in having shelves full of Puritan works, but when that becomes Wow, this is this is my demonstration before others. Oh, you don't.

You don't have the complete set of Owen on Hebrews. Oh, you only have electronically you poor thing, you know something like that. We've got to be careful because again The drumbeat of condemnation in this chapter just it gets it louder and louder and louder and leads directly into what a discussion of the destruction of Jerusalem itself and That would indicate to us That this is very very serious from God's part very very serious for us to consider I think we We really need to be Aware of the dangers of Pharisee ism.

Religious Authority, Honor, and the Desire for Followers

Now, of course anything can be abused and On the other side the and this has been going on in the blogosphere for the past week and a half now Someone dared raise an issue of how to live in a Inappropriate and Christian way and as soon as that grenade gets tossed into the room.

You see this polarization and on the one side you have People that that would say if if you do any of these things then I'm going to separate from you and I'm you know I'm over here amongst all the holy people now on the other side.

You you've got the automatic knee-jerk reaction of legalist Pharisee you're you're trying to bind rules on me that God's ever bound on me and and Normally what ends up happening is there's two bewildered people in the middle and there's everybody else is on the far side lobbing, you know bombs at each other and the idea of balance In this type of discussion immediately goes out the door.

Unfortunately, that's been my experience anyways. And if you are in the middle, then you're taking it taking fire from both sides. Which I figure if you're taking fire from both sides that probably is a good indication that you you are someplace In the middle, but anyway, we need to take very seriously the concern here.

They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces. These are all external things, but they are external things that create artificial divisions.

I We cannot underestimate the desire Even amongst Christians of Creating priest classes of creating Divisions and orders and Religious leaders outside of what is specifically laid out in the text of Scripture.

There is There is just this desire on the part of man to be able to pass off your responsibilities. On to somebody else who says I'll be happy to take your responsibilities I'll be happy to tell you what to believe and why to believe it and how to believe and how to act and There are people that it's real easy to recognize.

The people that are in it for the money you know, I am I've been very consistent over the years and being very careful and when I talk about this, for example I I never mentioned the television station between 20 and 22 and and You know just very careful about things like that and and you know, you can turn that on any time of the day and and there are these people and they're just Prattling on about you know, Psalm 69 and here's this promise if you give sixty nine dollars and because it's found in Psalm 69 and and and there are people walking up there there on it.

There's you know. That's easy to recognize. It's all over the place is reprehensible, but it's it's pretty easy to recognize, you know, it's it's out there. But there are people you know, it's one thing.

Okay, they want to do it for the money. Okay, that's yeah, that's been in every single generation but Sometimes because we see that so clearly if we see someone who has Seemingly has no interest in money at all.

They're self-sacrificing. They they they live modestly and and and they're not trying to take people's money and all the rest that stuff. We make the mistake of assuming well. Must indicate someone who's very much must have something on the ball there.

Don't underestimate the desire that certain people have for followers Religious authority over other people and don't underestimate how much they will give up. To obtain that kind of power and authority over other people.

That's what I see all the time I encounter folks who are willing to sacrifice greatly. If that will but give them. That they want to be the person that you go to. They want to be the person who? Who is in?

May not have even clear overt control. Though it certainly can come to that but. What means the most for them is? Is when they see someone doing something because they in essence told them to do it and of course the more subtle that control is the the better for that person and so positions of religious authority might Involve money frequently did amongst the Pharisees might not.

But notice what they love verse 6 they love. What's the motivation of the heart? What's the motivation of the heart they love it's the very first word in the sentence in the original language. That's the object of what they want and That's where their passion comes from and if if that's what your love is.

Then you'll give up all sorts of things. They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues. Now I don't think you know last time we sort of touched on this briefly. But I don't think that's quite the same as the fact that Reform Baptists have assigned seating.

You know we just we just don't tell anybody about it. You know I mean, I mean, let's face it how many times. Has a visitor come in and sat down there, and we're all like. Somebody's in charges seat. Where's George gonna sit the feng shui is shot.

You know I. You know it's just the way it is and when I walk in and I walk up the middle aisle Sunday morning I look for The light and dark part on the pew because that's brick spot for the morning. And I sit behind that so it's just you know there's a marker there.

We haven't had we haven't put plaques on they used to do that. I've been in churches where there would be plaques, and it wasn't just in memory of it was. This is so-and-so seat sit here and die. You know type of thing and and in fact a friend of mine friend of mine was visiting a church once in New York, and he just comes in and and he just sits down and and this fella comes up and he's.

He's clearly Challenged mentally and He just comes up, and he's rocking back and forth and he looks at my friend. He goes get up get up get up get up get up get up get up. And my you know my friends like and everyone else is everyone else knows what's going on, but him, and he's just like okay.

Okay, okay, and he just goes by this. And everything all is fine, so. That's the extreme part, but we all have a little bit of that in us. And and I don't really that's not that's not what's being discussed here.

It's not well it used to be we'd all have seats where we knew when we had the old Air conditioning going we knew where the coolest spots were you know? And the most of us look for the cooler spots. Roxy was in the hottest spot Of the room don't want any air moving on her so that that's not what's being being talked about here when you talk about The place of honor or the chief seats in the synagogues.

These were places of religious Authority and religious honor and It had gotten so bad that one of the things that you know it's funny. What sticks with you from seminary a lot of things that stuck with me from seminary were things that had to do with Historical backgrounds and stuff like that because I was already involved in apologetics and so I was the only one listening when the teacher was talking about those things everybody else is asleep or something, but I remember a discussion distinctly in in one class of the the writings of the Pharisees and the prayers the Pharisees that are Recorded for us and one of the one of the things that struck me was how and I've mentioned this to you before.

The the Pharisees had come to believe and sadly even many people in the In amongst the population had come to believe that the grace of God was not for the Amharites the people of the land the hoi polloi the You know the the average person on the street that Remember the economy of that day was not overly good.

I mean We don't have any problems in comparison to the fact that that and this is important to keep in mind when we talked about the poor in that day. The poor in that day were poor because the economy couldn't provide anything for them.

And there were many people who were on the bubble of survival just simply Calorically only taking in a minimum amount to sustain life during the day and So when you have people feasting while Lazarus sits at the gate.

It wasn't because Lazarus had blown his mind on meth. It wasn't because Lazarus had You know rotted his liver away on alcohol there were people that there was just you had 100 of people and The food supply was was good for 80.

Okay, and that means at that Barrier there that line there there are issues and That's what increased the sinfulness of the rich man is He has more than enough Knows that there are other people who for no evil of their own activity Do not have and doesn't care.

That's where the issue comes in comes in there but The people the land had become convinced by repetition and by example the grace of God is not for me. The grace of God's for those people who God has blessed remember the question that was asked even the disciples.

Who sinned this man or his parents? He should be born blind. If you've got worldly possessions and blessings Shows that you're in right with God. If you don't you're the AMHA audits here, you know, maybe I'm just the fringes of God's grace so you don't get any of God's grace at all and It's The real tragedy is.

There's two there's two tragedies that first tragedy is that these men actually believe that was true of themselves. Remember the prayer of the Pharisee and Luke 16. I I thank you God. I'm not like this publican back here.

In fact, I really wish he wasn't here. We shouldn't let these people in and They really believed and so they thought that The blessings that they would have that sign of God's grace. Wow those blessings disappeared.

Well, I don't have God's grace anymore. God's become very fickle all of a sudden. What an odd view of God they had. But then the other tragedy is the people the land. What motivation would they have? To even sing the songs in the Psalter.

That talked about God's promises because they had bought into the idea that. That's pretty much for somebody else other than me. It reminds me of the tragedy of every time you talk to one of Jehovah's Witnesses.

You know these people spend hours and hours Going door to door and I mean this time of year. That's not fun. It's you know, at least in December. It's a here. It's nice, but They're out there even now going door-to-door and and They study their Bibles and stuff like that.

But when you sit down and start talking to him you start talking to him about the grace of God the promises of Scripture. They've bought into the teaching that that that's for somebody else. That's that's not for me.

I'm not of the anointed class. That's can you imagine reading the Bible and going? Wow, that's that would be. I'll be wonderful to have the righteousness of Christ be united with him. But I can't have that.

I just have to look to those who do. Very similar situation to how the people of the land would would look at these these people and that's why the ministry of Jesus really Really caused some waves. Because the people of the land are like who is this man who's rebuking these but these are our religious issues.

These are these are the very men that embody the best of our religious tradition and so Jesus says their love is set in the wrong place. They love the place of honor. They love the chief seats. They love the religious power that is theirs.

Respectful greetings in the marketplaces. How many people I remember when was that 19 as before the turn of the century. But then it's gonna make it selling as long as before the century yeah, and a little gray here and reared and I was at I was at the Christian Booksellers Association convention for with Bethany house for one of my books and in fact, I remember I was Had they had scheduled me for an interview and once I saw it on my they give you this author sheet the things You're supposed to be doing when you're there once I saw it.

I was like, oh no Lord, please. I don't want to do this and It worked out that They had to bump me. Because this very very well-known big preacher and he's big and more than one way big preacher from, Texas.

Had to get his interview taken care of and So I got bumped and I went back to the Bethany houses folks. I do not want to do this. Oh, you just all you do is tell us we wouldn't want to put you and so I didn't end up doing it but I remember as I was I had actually gone to this to where the interviews are supposed to be done and They told me we've got somebody else coming in.

I even had the microphone on that's how that's how close it was and as I'm leaving Bursting through the door comes this guy and he has an entourage and it's just like, you know. The only feeling I got was, you know, this was like some big Hollywood movie star arriving on the set, you know.

And I need to get my makeup and stuff like that and and I just sort of got pushed out of the way. It's sort of like out of the way, you know. Mm-hmm. Okay, and I sort of sat in the back and sort of watched for a while and and just went.

Wow, okay. All right, that's I think I think that's Because because the way that he was treated by everybody else. I think was this respectful greetings in the marketplaces, you know. Make sure that everybody knows I'm coming.

No, but this man could not sneak through a room. Okay. Let me just put this way you could I can I can normally get through a room without anybody noticing but no. No, not not this guy and I didn't get the feeling that he wanted either.

And being called rabbi by men now rabbi. You can't read the Jewish sources without encountering that name over that title. I'm sorry over and over and over again and even by this point there had Begun the inevitable and we're all guilty of it to one extent or another the inevitable Exaltation Granting of inappropriate religious authority to figures of the past through the use of certain terminology and I think that every tradition.

Inevitably when we look back at when I look back at church history, I don't look at everybody equally in the sense that when I've Had an opportunity of examining someone's theology or someone's writings or something like that.

There are certain writers that I go like I was on the ball and there are others I go that guy was not on the ball and So certainly I have Writers the past I have much more respect for than than others.

That's I don't think that's the same thing. But I think there is a line when you start investing in a particular person a level of religious authority that that Makes them. That gives them an inordinate influence in your interpretation of scripture and in the living of your life.

Now if we're talking about somebody that lived You know almost 2 ,000 years ago Pretty difficult to know a whole lot about how they lived their personal life in the first place I mean you can you might have somebody who wrote a biography of them later.

But if they were admire how many times you've read a biography where you sort of went you just give you just tell. It's just sort of like I get the feeling this guy's sort of whitewashing a few things.

You know is you know it's he's there are certain biographies that are just Clearly not meant to be taken in an overly critical way, and they're just very very very positive. And then there are others.

They're just the opposite. I mean Take a look at the biographies that are written about Jonathan Edwards. On the one hand you'll have Edwards fans that just whoa You know and on the other hand you've got people that are so repulsed by his theology so repulsed by his puritanism that They just they just cannot handle the facts of his life in a fair manner at all.

You'll run into both and normally the truth is somewhere somewhere in between Rabbi had already become a Highly exalted term at this point when we look at the Mishnah and if it's been a little while since I've mentioned this but In light of what's coming up?

I might mention it again here. Just don't have to repeat it later, but The term Mishnah refers to a collection of Jewish theological and legal writings that is codified somewhere. There's there's different forms of it, but it's codified somewhere around 300 years after Christ.

Then you have a commentary on the Mishnah called the Gamara the words that develops over the next number of centuries and then you put these two together and What you end up with is the Talmud and again there are different collections of the Talmud Babylonian Talmud.

Being the most popular one. This Encino Talmud that I have is about 22 volumes long or something like that and it's based upon the Mishnah. It's it's it's basics text commentary from the Gamara resulting in the final editions of permutations of the Talmud and if we go back to the Mishnah.

Which I'm pretty certain yeah, I've got I've got here on this unit here you will find already and. And we have to be careful this might represent The way things were understood at this time in Jerusalem during the days of Jesus.

Might not there's development that takes place over the two or three hundred years. Sometimes we can find direct correlation the Mishnah talks about the Korban rule and Jesus talks about the Korban rule and he attacks the Korban rule.

In Tractate of both of the Talmud you have the that coming out of the Ancient literature and so you can find direct connections. Sometimes you can't so you have to be somewhat careful. You can't just assume that while I read it in the Mishnah therefore must have been going on the days of Jesus maybe maybe not you have to be very careful about that some odd ideas have developed from people who wouldn't take that and.

And be careful about it, but anyway we'll find in the Mishnah a lot of discussion of well rabbi so-and-so passed on to rabbi so-and-so who passed on to rabbi so-and-so this and We remember go back to Matthew's discussion in chapter 15.

Parallel. I believe in Mark 7 or Jesus goes after this idea and says You invalidate the scriptures the sake of your traditions and what had happened was I think it's vitally important. Do we see this so we can avoid it was this development of the idea that well, you know Moses had taught these things.

But it was passed down Orally through these great rabbis and come down to us today. Clearly The Pharisees of Jesus day felt that many of their teachings especially the ones that he himself identified as invalid.

Were in fact divine in origin via Moses via oral tradition, and so you can understand some of their Anger and some of their indignation at the teachings of Jesus and if they weren't angry and indignant Before Matthew 23, I can guarantee you they were after Matthew chapter 23 and.

The Rejection of Human Traditions and the Distinction Between Offices

So this use of rabbi had it had become. If it was in the traditions, this was someone who was given particular authority. And this happens in every tradition. Here is a warning against it. There is a line we dare not cross over but let's face it in our minds.

There are certain names you can quote that will have much more authority than others. I Mean if you say to me, well, you know Jacob Arminius said this. And you go that's nice. Great. Wonderful. Good to know wonderful.

But there are other people I'm gonna go. Oh, well take that into consideration. Part of that is just doing discernment. What you have here is the creation of a special religious class of the use of terminology and so the rabbi.

The rabbi has said this the rabbi has said that so Jesus says but do not be called rabbi a rob. The word rob actually is related to the term for Lord in the semitic roots. And So this is a this is a there is an authority in the rabbi's teaching which we see continued to this day in the various Jewish Expressions today.

I mean you've got massively liberal Judaism where the rabbi is barely a modern psychologist. But then in the much more Historical expressions of Judaism. You see the incredible respect shown to the rabbi.

Of course my favorite Jewish movie shows this. Greatly, and I I ran across the DVD of it last night. Just in fact, and I was saying, you know I got to watch this again. And I remember buying it because I had wanted summer to watch it so she could find it.

But I don't think she ever did. I'm gonna find out she did and challenge her once again to to watch it. But of course I'm speaking of that in-depth theological treatise called fiddler on the roof. Which actually if you If you're from if you've actually done some reading in Jewish sources.

It's interesting to see what survived over the centuries and what it morphed into over over time but if you have seen fiddler on the roof. Then you know that the rabbi. You know the Hanging on his every word, you know and That kind of religious authority I Think is what is in view in each one of these because when Jesus says for example Do not call anyone on earth your father I really don't think what he meant by that is no longer acknowledge your dad as your dad or come up with a new word.

When we talk about the terms here rabbi teacher father leaders. All of these are within a particular context and we're talking about a context in Amongst the faithful and what Jesus is doing here is he's undoing the distinctions that mankind Likes to create when it comes to religious authority and the divisions that he likes to create within the body of believers now the scriptures provide Very little distinction amongst believers.

There are offices their office holders. There are things that have to be done within the church. But when it comes to the standing of each and every believer before God There simply isn't anything in the New Testament to substantiate the kind of religiosity and religious pomp and circumstance That we see in so much of what calls itself Christianity today.

I was this morning listening to Michael Coran a Conservative Canadian commentator, but he's also a Roman Catholic and he has written a book called why Catholics are right and He defended that title. Look, I'm a Catholic.

If I didn't think we were right, I wouldn't be one. I don't have any problem with the title of the book. I just think you should step up and defend what he has to say in public debate against me next year in Canada.

Which would be sort of fun. But anyways, we're gonna try to actually actually arrange that but Bit as it may. He was talking about this issue and he was talking about. We've actually made the statement the Bible teaches us that it is not to be taken alone but it is to be taken as interpreted through the church and through the papacy and I'm just sitting here Banging my head on the desk, but this idea of creating a human Instrumentality that rules over functionally the scriptures which is exactly what you have in the Roman Catholic theory of the papacy and the and the magisterium of the Roman Church.

That is just a manifestation of an earlier impulse that created these things called priests. Now the biblical teaching is every believer is a priest for God a kingdom of priests. Not a kingdom that has priests there's a vast difference between those two phrases.

A kingdom that has priests shows distinction. A kingdom of priests does not show distinction because everyone in that kingdom is a priest and so the Old Testament priesthood there were all sorts of words that could have continued to function to point us to Priests in the New Testament, they're not used.

In fact, if you go back and listen to the debate that I did with Dr. Mitchell Pacwa a Jesuit priest on the subject of the priesthood. He admitted that historically the evolution was That you had different words in the New Testament that were used interchangeably for the elders in the church you had Episcopal and You had presbyter off now they're used interchangeably in The New Testament for one office, but what happened was that got lost instead of driving your ecclesiology and things from the scriptures you stop seeing those distinctions and You elevate one over the other and so the bishop becomes elevated over the elders and the presbyter off Over literally hundreds of years becomes twisted back into its old Covenant Counterpart the priest and That's where it came from and then once you have a priesthood Then you have the elevation of that priesthood the bishops above that the elevation of that and eventually you have what you have in Romanism because Rome is on sort of one side of this imaginary boundary and On the western side.

There is only one church has said we were founded by an apostle. That was Rome on The other side of that imaginary boundary you had a bunch of churches that said we were founded by Apostles Jerusalem and Antioch and Constantinople and all the rest that stuff and Well, they had any historical basis for that some of them did obviously Jerusalem clearly Antioch sure Alexandria.

You know, but they made the claim is that there were a bunch of very powerful Bishops on that side of the dividing line. It's not overly surprising that Eastern Orthodoxy today its method of church governance is is a number of patriarchates that Are Technically equal with one another Functionally is another issue as well.

But anyway. And so you had this this development over time and what did it where did it come from? It came from this? This unbiblical exaltation of particular people to the point where today the Roman Catholic priest when he is ordained in the ordination vows in the words that are the words of consecration is Identified as an altar Christos altar Christos another Christ and The whole in fact, I was listening to that.

I mentioned I again mentioned that that book. The argument is being made at that particular point in time the book was we can't have women priests because Jesus was a man and The priest functions in the place of Jesus the priest officiates and persona a Christi and That's why you can't have women priests Is because the priest is literally taking the place of Christ and functioning as Christ in administering the sacraments.

Yes. But that even symbolized Christ it is Christ. Yeah. They would say I think they would probably at that point point to the fact that Jesus in the book of Hebrews is both the offering and the offerer which is Why I wouldn't really go that direction actually is because that's true.

He is the one high priest and he's also the offering. So he offers himself, but you see that's what makes him unique and his own offering is a bloody offering. It's a one-time offering and the whole problem is in Rome.

You have a man who is an altar Christos who is Representing what's supposed to be a one-time finished sacrifice, but he's representing it over and over and over again. That's where the real issue with with Rome's doctrine at that point is that's probably how they respond.

Exalting the Humble Servant Instead of Religious Status

I'm afraid that we are at 1030. So I was just about to wrap up before the questions start. But we will we will pick up if you've got the question we can talk about after service, but we will pick up with verse 11.

If you want to put that down Oh great keeper of the notes and we will pick up with that Lord willing next Lord's Day. Let's close our time. I have the father would you thank you for this time and the warnings that your word gives to us?

We know Lord that even though we are not Living in Palestine and Jerusalem that the attitudes that we are warned against in your word can be ours even to this day. So help us to be diligent in examining ourselves in the light of Scripture.

May we be very careful to avoid those attitudes which are displeasing in your sight. Be with us now as we go into worship. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.