The Sermon of Seven Woes
Matthew 23:1-39
CHCC: March 25, 2012
INTRODUCTION:
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Jesus himself stepped up to this pulpit to preach? Suppose Jesus watched the way you lived your life this past week, and then came to preach in this pulpit today. What kind of sermon do you think we’d hear? Would it be kind and encouraging? Would it be a fire and brimstone sermon?
Most of Jesus’ sermons were full of compassion and encouragement. But the sermon in Matthew 23 broke the mold! His most scathing sermon was directed at the most unlikely audience. Imagine Jesus stepping up to the pulpit and starting this way:
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! This was no typical 3-point sermon. Jesus gave not 1 … but 7 “woes” … and all of them were directed toward the most churchy of all church folks … the teachers and the Pharisees. It’s important for us to pay attention to this sermon because it shows what God cannot tolerate in His people! Today, we’re going to look at these WOES 2 by 2, starting in Matthew 23, verse 13.
Woe 1, 2 – Missionaries of Misery
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. Matthew 23:13-15
Wow! Jesus didn’t ease into this sermon with a nice illustration or preacher-joke! Keep in mind that these Pharisees weren’t evil, demonic guys. They were religious men with a passion for the Word of God. They attended synagogue regularly, they tithed, prayed, and worked hard to teach people the Law of God. They were greatly respected in the Jewish community. They were even evangelistic. But according to Jesus, these self-proclaimed MISISONARIES brought nothing but MISERY to their converts.
When the Pharisees evangelized, they weren’t looking for people who didn’t know God at all. They were looking for people to convert to their “brand” of religion. Each Rabbi had his own “pet” theories and he wanted people to follow his particular sect of Judaism.
This is one of the biggest problems in the church today. William Barclay wrote, “The greatest of all heresies is the sinful conviction that any church has a monopoly on God or His truth --- or that any church is the only gateway to God’s Kingdom.”
Most cults fall into this category. Beware of any church or teacher who thinks they have a corner on the truth. Watch out for churches who teach that they are the only ones who teach the truth. If you want to go to heaven, you’d better follow their rules. These types of false teachers will try to control every aspect of your life. The message is, “Do everything our way or else.” Some people seem to want this kind of church, but it’s not the pattern Jesus taught.
This is one thing I appreciate about our church. We’re part of what is called the Restoration Movement – which started in the 1800’s. The
Restoration Movement had this founding slogan, “We’re not the only Christians; but we’re Christians Only.”
That’s what I admire the most about the movement that gave birth to our church congregation. We are satisfied to be simply Christians. Not hyphenated Christians, or denominated Christians. And certainly not the ONLY Christians. We preach Christ and the Bible. That’s enough for me; how about you?
Woe 3, 4 – Majoring in Minors
In the next 2 WOES, that Jesus attacked the religious leaders as “blind guides” and as “hypocrites” because they were MAJORING in the MINORS.
There were 2 religious rituals that Jesus attacked here: Religious Oaths, and Tithes. He objected to Pharisaic Oaths because there were nothing more than legal loopholes. It was all about “collateral.” If you swore by the Temple, that wasn’t binding because you didn’t own the Temple. But, if you swore by the “gold in the Temple” that WAS binding because maybe you could own some of the gold in the Temple. If you swore by the altar, you could lie all you want. But if you swore by the carcass on the altar, you’d better be telling the truth. In other words, the whole religious oath thing was so you could defraud unsuspecting Gentiles.
The second ritual Jesus attacked was Tithing. The Jews had three purposes for Tithes. 1 – Tithes for the upkeep of the Temple. 2 – Tithes for the personal expenses of religious feasts and festivals. 3 – Tithes for helping the poor and needy. The Pharisees were super meticulous about giving an exact Tithe, but they had no compassion or true generosity.
Jesus summed up this kind of legalism in colorful terms. He said, You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. Matthew 23:24
That’s what it’s like to Major in the Minors. You see, what God really cares about is compassion and mercy. That’s why I love our motto: Passion for Christ, compassion for people. If we develop passion for Christ, we can’t help showing compassion for people … because Jesus CARES about people! Jesus cares about people MUCH more than he cares about our rules and procedures!
In the church we always have to be on guard against Legalism. Legalism always majors in the minors. It’s probably the most common trap Christians fall into. We get all caught up in our “churchy” procedures and rules, and we forget to have passion for Christ and compassion for people!
Legalism in a Christian will turn you into a petty person. A petty person will always strain at a gnat but swallow a camel. Petty people are constantly angry because someone didn’t do things their way. Petty people have their feelings hurt every time they turn around because someone didn’t say “hi” to them or someone looked at them wrong. Petty people are always criticizing the people around them because they have a trunk-load of pet peeves. Bottom line: don’t be petty. Pettiness is not a Fruit of the Spirit!
The next 2 Woes start with the same phrase: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! Jesus labels them “hypocrites” because these leaders looked great on the outside, but inside they were MASKING deadly MUCK.
Woe 5, 6 – Masking deadly Muck
Jesus could not have used a more incendiary word than HYPOCRITE. It was a highly OFFENSIVE word. In fact, there’s not even a word like it in the Hebrew or Aramaic languages. It was a term that referred to play actors in the Greek theater. To the Jews, professional actors were the bottom of the sinner barrel. Jesus was calling them “play actors” in a theater that was so evil they would never even set foot in it! You can bet that didn’t go over well. (But it strikes me as kind of funny.)
Back in 1960, my family moved from Ohio to Arizona. The first time we went to the Phoenix Airport, I was impressed by the beautiful orange trees that lined the drive. It was the first time this Ohio boy had ever seen citrus trees. The oranges were big as grapefruits. They looked so good! So we stopped the car and picked a couple. When we got home, we cut into them … and we found out why no one else had picked them. The meat was grainy and pulpy and full of seeds. The juice was … well, lemons may be sour, but they are sweet in comparison to these lip-puckerers. We found out they are called ornamental oranges. Pretty to look at, but worthless as food.
This is how it was for people who followed the Pharisee’s teachings. They thought they were getting something good, but when they bit into it, it was nasty and bitter. But Jesus didn’t use a nice little illustration like ornamental oranges.
Read verses 25 – 28 and you’ll see that Jesus compared the Pharisees to dirty dishes and tombstones. Jesus said, You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Then he said, You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. Matthew 23:25, 27
Remember this saying? Beauty is skin deep… but ugly goes clear to the bone! Well dead men's bones were considered highly defiling to the Jews. Each year before the pilgrims came to the feasts in Jerusalem, the locals painted the tombs white so no one would accidentally step on top of dead men's bones. Jesus accused the religious leaders of being like those white-washed tombs. Looking clean on the outside, but being full of deadly muck.
We see this all the time in our society today. All kinds of sins are cleaned up and made to look lovely on TV and in Movies. We see immorality dressed up to look appealing. Drug and alcohol use looks carefree and fun. Violence is cool. On the other hand, abstinence is made to look peculiar, purity looks prudish, and Christians are portrayed as just plain weird.
Just compare the way the media portrays two people who’ve been in the news lately … Whitney Houston, who was tragically addicted, but has been glorified in the media. And Tim Tebow who is upstanding in his morals and outspoken for his faith but has been consistently demonized in the media.
We need to look beyond appearances, in our culture, and in our own lives. The world looks from the outside in. But God looks at us from the inside out. What matters to God is purity of heart.
Woe 7 –Mausoleums built by Murderers
The seventh and last woe was actually prophetic because Jesus was prophesying his own death.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started! Matthew 23:29-32
The history of the Jews was a history of killing the representatives of God. Verse 35 mentions two of them, Abel (the first) and Zechariah (one of the last.) In other words Jesus was saying from A to Z – from beginning to end, they had killed the ones God sent to them.
The Pharisees built beautiful mausoleums to honor those Prophets. They declared that they would never have done such a thing. But Jesus knew they were secretly plotting to kill him. (At least, they THOUGHT it was a secret.) Jesus said, Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started! And just a short time later, that’s exactly what they did.
CONCLUSION:
Listen to how Jesus concluded this seven point sermon: “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Matthew 23:33
Jesus spoke with compassion to the worst of sinners. But he ripped into religious hypocrites. This calls for introspection in all of us.
• Do we call people to a relationship with God, or do we try to win them to our own brand of legalism?
• Do we focus on mercy and compassion or do we major in the minors and make a big deal of things that don’t really matter at all.
• Are we so busy trying to LOOK good that we forget to BE good?
God is never fooled by appearances. He sees our hearts.
