How Do You See Jesus Christ? Series

How Do You See Jesus Christ?

The Gospel of Matthew

Matthew 23:37-39

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared February 15, 2023)

BACKGROUND:

*Please open your Bibles to Matthew 23. For the last 11 sermons we have been focused on a single day in the life of Jesus Christ. It was the Tuesday before the Lord died on the cross for our sins. Matthew 21 tells us that on that Tuesday morning, Jesus and His disciples were headed back to Jerusalem. That's when the Lord cursed an unfruitful fig tree and taught His disciples about the power of godly faith.

*After they got to Jerusalem, Jesus and His disciples went back into the temple. There in one of the large courtyards, Jesus preached to a crowd of people gathered for Passover. Jesus also faced a series of tricks and hostile confrontations from the local rulers. They were trying to trap Jesus into speaking against the Roman Caesar and against God's Word. Of course, Jesus easily overcame every effort of His enemies to trick Him. Those evil Herodians, chief priests, elders, scribes, and Pharisees didn't stand a chance against the Lord God Almighty!

*Jesus was still in the temple in Matthew 23. And here we heard the strongest words of condemnation Jesus ever spoke during His earthly ministry. Eight times Jesus called those scribes and Pharisees "hypocrites." A. T. Robertson explained that "this hardest word from the lips of Jesus fell on those who were the religious leaders of the Jews. The Lord's verbal thunderbolts of wrath were deserved by the scribes and Pharisees, because of their vicious, hateful rejection of Christ, their corrupt distortions of God's Law, and the abuse of the people who suffered under their rule." (1)

*In the same verses, Jesus pronounced 8 "woes" of judgment on their souls. Our English word "woe" is a strong exclamation of grief that comes from a serious affliction or misfortune. But William Barclay said that "the original word for 'woe' here included both wrath and sorrow. There is righteous anger in the Lord's voice in this Scripture, but it is the anger of a loving heart that was broken by the stubborn blindness of these evil leaders." These scribes and Pharisees brought the Lord's condemnation down on their own heads. And we need to be as far away from their hard-hearted ways as we can possibly be. (2)

*Now in the closing verses of this chapter, Jesus was about to leave the temple, and as He was about to depart, He pronounced a wider judgment that foresaw the coming destruction of the city and the scattering of the Jews for the next two thousand years. Why did this happen? Because most of the Jews had rejected their true Messiah King who had come to save His people from their sins.

*But in the Lord's brokenhearted words, there is hope for anyone who will see Jesus as He really is. Please think about how you see Jesus, as we read Matthew 23:37-39.

MESSAGE:

*How do you see Jesus Christ? Our popular culture certainly sees Him in a warped way. Their Jesus was on an episode of "The Simpsons." He often appeared on "South Park" doing battle with Satan. In the movie, "Talladega Nights," actor Will Farrell played a NASCAR driver who liked to pray to an 8-pound, 6-ounce baby Jesus wearing a golden-fleece diaper. (3)

*That's how much of our mocking media elite sees Jesus. How do you see the Lord? Mark Driscoll tells us that: "Jehovah's Witnesses say Jesus was merely Michael the archangel, a created being who became a man. Mormonism teaches that Jesus was not God but only a man who became one of many gods. Mormonism also teaches that Jesus was a polygamist and a half-brother of Lucifer.

*Universalism teaches that Jesus was not God, but rather that he was a great man to be respected solely for his teaching and love. Muslims think Jesus was a prophet, but one who was inferior to Mohammed." (4)

*These are the ways much of the world sees Jesus. But let's look into God's Word to see the real Jesus.

1. FIRST: WE SHOULD SEE JESUS SEEKING TO SAVE OUR SOULS.

*In the Lord's closing words to the hard-hearted, Christ-rejecting scribes and Pharisees, Jesus gives us a picture of our seeking Savior. It's in vs. 37, where the Lord cried out, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings. . ."

*The Lord God gives us a picture of a hen gathering her scattered chicks under her wings. And it is a picture of Him constantly seeking people, to save their souls, to give them eternal life, and to bring them into close fellowship with Him.