7 Woes On Religious Leaders (Matthew 23)

6. Hypocrisy & Lawlessness

Do we look good on the outside while inside is a dead person, every impurity, hypocrisy and lawlessness?

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27-28 HCSB)

7. Children of Murderers

Are we descended from those who murdered Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Anabaptists or other Christians in history?

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. (Matthew 23:29-31 KJV)

Do we have a spirit of murder, hating and falsely accusing those who believe differently from us on non-essentials of our common faith?

Fill up, then, the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You snakes, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell? Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will flog in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, so that upon you will fall the guilt of 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 temple and the altar. Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. (Matthew 23:32-36 NASB)

Why did Jesus grieve over Jerusalem?

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, 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.’ (Matthew 23:37-39 NIV)

We are all a prophet to somebody, even if only to our family and friends. Will we take these stern warnings from Jesus seriously, and examine our hearts lest we too fall short like the teachers of the law and Pharisees? You decide!