Before I start my message this morning, I want to run something past y'all and see what you think. I'm thinking we could start a new type of ministry for our church. I'm thinking we could minister, as we do, to the poor, the addicted and the incarcerated but also add a new ministry to that. Tell me honestly what you think about this. We change our motto to, "We minister specifically to the poor, the addicted, the incarcerated...and the fisherman."
Now, hear me out on this. The church can buy a new bass boat. I'm thinking it needs to be something pretty nice so the fishermen will know we are serious. Probably something like a new Nitro Z-21 XL but there are other options. Now, yes, a new bass boat is pretty expensive but how much are souls worth, huh?
But the good news is that I am willing to pay my share in this. Especially since I'm the only one that's going to be driving it, I need to pay my part. And I will. I figure a new Nitro XL costs about $63,000 plus we need to add some state of the art fishfinders, trolling motor, a battery upgrade plus a few other minor add-ons for a total of about 70 grand. Now, I have been saving up and here is my part. I already have it. My financial part in this new God-glorifying ministry is this shiny new quarter. Yes, I'm giving all of it to this new ministry. This is how you get treasures in Heaven, right here. You can't out-give God, I always say.
So, what do you think? Are y'all in? The church will pay $69,999.75 and I will pay the rest -- 25 cents. That way we are all in this together. Where God guides, God provides. Amen? No? Why not? We could paint the church name and logo on the side. Maybe put John 3:16 on the trailer. Whatever y'all think. You're not going for it, huh? Well, just pray about it. We don't have to do it today.
That's pretty ridiculous, isn't it? You know what is even more ridiculous? Thinking that you are going to get to God's perfect Heaven by the sacrificial blood of Jesus... and a little bit of your good works. It's ridiculous to think that God is going to send His precious Son to die on the cross for your sins and all you have to do is...be a good person...or be baptized...or take the Lord's Supper...or keep most of the Commandments or anything else and then you and Jesus will get you to Heaven.
Do you know what it is called when you think you and Jesus will work together - pool your resources - and both get you into Heaven? It's called religion and religion is offensive to God. It's like telling God that you will pay your twenty-five cents and then Jesus will pay the rest and the two of you will get you into Heaven. You'll go in together on this deal.
Jesus is going to come down from Heaven, live a sinless life, be tortured and killed on a cross but you sell a few magazines and the two of you will get you into Heaven. Is that how this works? No man gets to the Father except by Jesus... and church membership? Do you see how offensive that must be to God? And all religion is just that. It is offensive when we think we can do something, even something small, to help earn our way to Heaven. Jesus said, "No man gets to the Father except through me." Period.
If you will turn in your Bibles to the Book of Matthew, you will see Jesus is offended here in chapter 23. He is offended that the scribes and Pharisees think that they are good enough to go to Heaven by LOOKING holy. These guys look pious and religious but inside their hearts are black and godless. They are all about religion but are not the least bit interested in knowing God or having a relationship with Him.
As you turn to Matthew 23, verses 1-12, remember that we are preparing ourselves for Easter by looking at what was going on that caused Jesus to be crucified and then rise again. I want to see what He was thinking as well as what the other people around him were thinking. What were the circumstances that led these people to murder an innocent man; a man who came to speak the truth to them and to show them the only way to get to Heaven?
We saw last week in Matthew 9 Jesus was just getting His ministry started and it didn't take long before He was already offending the religious people with the truth. Well, fast-forward a couple of years and Jesus has yet to start a "ministry of making friends" with these religious Pharisees and scribes.
So, picture the scene here. Jesus has been healing people and preaching mind-blowing truth for several years and everywhere He goes, the Pharisees especially are trying to trip Him up, asking Him trick questions and trying to find something they can accuse Him of so they can get rid of Him and take back some of the honor they feel He has taken from them. And at the end of the previous chapter, chapter 22, Jesus asks them a trick question and it says that they couldn't answer Him and then they decided they better just quit trying to answer Him or ask Him anything.
So, we start here in Matthew 23 with Jesus talking to the rest of the people around Him. I'm sure the Pharisees were off to the side listening but Jesus goes from talking to them to talking about them. And He is offended. Let's pick it up in Matthew 23.
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5 "Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called 'Rabbi' by others. 8 "But you are not to be called 'Rabbi,' for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth 'father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called teachers, for you have one Teacher, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
So, Jesus is not exactly trying to win friends here, is He? Now, if Jesus had just stopped with the first two sentences, He might have made some friends. Jesus said, these guys sit in the seat of Moses so do what they say. That had to make them feel good but just for a second. Now, if we read that in the original Greek, we could maybe see that Jesus was really saying that they sit themselves in the seat of Moses. They don't have the authority of Moses. But they wish they did. Then Jesus advises the people to do what the Pharisees tell them to do. Do what the Law says. Do what scripture says to do. Just don't do what the Pharisees actually do.
As we continue looking at what Jesus said about these false teachers of religion, I want you to realize that we are surrounded by false religions and false teachers even today. You may think you can't even name any false religion right now. You may not know of any false teachers off the top of your head but just keep listening to what Jesus said and I know you will start to see it.
He goes on to say that these false teachers -- these Pharisees -- tie up heavy loads and lay them on people's shoulders. It's the image of loading up a donkey with heavy boxes until they can barely move and then the owner of the donkey gets mad that the animal is too slow even though the owner is not carrying anything.
They piled up heavy loads of religious rules, rituals and regulations that are impossible to carry and when the people couldn't do it, they scolded them and added to their guilt. And that's exactly what happens when people try to get to Heaven by being good enough or doing good things. It makes sense to men that if your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds then you will go to Heaven but if you are honest in your assessment of yourself then you know you aren't going to make it that way.
Thankfully, that is not God's plan or His way but if you try it that way then don't be surprised when this religion stuff starts to be depressing and tiresome. But Jesus knew that the Pharisees couldn't be good enough either. They just looked like they were holy. They looked like they were perfect and the Pharisees thought that was all that mattered.
Today in some other denominations in the Christian faith the leaders are forbidden to marry. They teach abstinence from certain foods on certain days. Some teach that you have to take the Lord's Supper to be saved and you have to be baptized to be saved. Some believe that musical instruments in your worship will keep you from Heaven. And if you ever get divorced, then you can't come to their church. I've seen it and it's awful. But in these other religious churches you see the most beautiful clothes with the biggest hats and the gaudiest crosses around their necks and you also see the biggest problems with sex, money and power issues as well. Religion is all about rules and rituals and it always has been. It's like nothing has changed.
Jesus addresses the way these Pharisees look and act next. Four times in the first five books of the Bible, God tells the people that His Law is to be on their hands and foreheads. It was a symbolic way of saying that God's Law was to be the controlling factor in what they did and what they thought. Well, the Pharisees and some others decided they would look very pious and religious if they did that literally and so they made these phylacteries and put them on their forearms and on their foreheads. They were little leather boxes that contained scripture and made the wearer feel and look very spiritual, I'm sure. And, of course, the bigger the better, right? I can just picture some guy carrying around shoeboxes on his head and arm thinking he was all that.
Needless to say, Jesus wasn't a fan. He wasn't a fan of how the Pharisees looked or the pride they had in being thought of as holy and spiritual pillars of the community when their religion was all external. They were honored at parties and had their rings kissed in the marketplace. They loved titles and honor and who can blame them? We all enjoy recognition. We all want to be highly thought of.
I saw a story on social media this week about a lady that had just gotten her doctorate, a Ph.D, and she was demanding that everybody everywhere always address her as "Doctor." And I thought, "Bless her heart. That poor woman needs some attention." Not to mention she needs Jesus. But we all love attention. We all want to be honored. That's understandable. But if that is how you feel closer to God then you are deceived and your religion is false.
These Pharisees put way too much emphasis on their honor and no emphasis on their relationship with God. It was all external. It was how they looked and about what people thought of them instead of how their heart looked and how God thought of them.
Years ago, I worked with a guy who obviously worked out. He had huge arms and he loved to wear shirts that showed off his biceps and they were impressive. The guy was really built. And one day he happened to say something in passing about going to the gym after work and I said, "Oh, do you work out?" I didn't mean it sarcastically. I was just making conversation but it was the wrong thing to say and he let me know it.
That guy had worked hard most of his life and he had earned the right to wear tight shirts. If I was built like him, I wouldn't own a shirt. But the Pharisees had worked hard to make themselves look good another way. They wanted people to see them as spiritual and close to God but Jesus saw their hearts and, as God, He was offended.
Now, as we go through here and see the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and scribes, it's easy to think, "Those guys were horrible people. I can't stand those guys. Boo! Hiss! Pharisees!" But I want to warn all of us here today to be careful not to hiss and spit on our own reflection in the mirror. You say, "Oh, but Todd, I don't even own any phylacteries. The tassels on my garments are very short and nobody has ever called me Rabbi." I hear ya.
But let's all have a real good, hard look at our hearts this morning. I'm so thankful that I belong to a church that puts no emphasis on what you wear or how you look or what you drive on Sunday mornings. That's not what we are about at Christ Fellowship and I think that's good. But what about how you look on the inside?
1 Samuel 16 says, "man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." Jeremiah 17 says, "I, the Lord, search the heart." Psalm 44 says that God knows the secrets of the heart. That ought to bring you great comfort when you are hurting inside and nobody else knows. You know that God sees that grief and is right there with you and is wanting to comfort you and give you peace.
But that ought to scare you to death when your whole relationship with God and basis for going to Heaven is wrapped up in going to church ever so often. If you think coming to church is going to get you to Heaven, then you are a Pharisee. If you think God is so impressed by your fifty bucks or 50,000 bucks in the offering plate that He will surely overlook that alcohol problem that you have or that porn problem that you have, then you are a Pharisee. And if you think that surely God understands the mitigating circumstances that have led to those problems and He will overlook it and bless you, then you are a Pharisee.
Going to church, getting baptized, giving generously and taking the Lord's Supper are all things that Christians do and are supposed to and want to do but none of that makes you a Christian. None of that gets you to Heaven. Doing any of that plus Jesus dying on the cross does not get you to Heaven. It is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Period. And that is offensive today to people who can't believe it's that easy. But it is.
Jesus isn't impressed by people who look religious. Jesus is impressed by people who look like Him. And do you know what he looks like? He tells us at the end of this passage. Look again at verses 11-12. The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. Becoming a Christian is easy. Living like Jesus is impossible and we can only do it through Him who gives us strength. (Phil. 4:13)
It's easy to look like a Pharisee. It's easy to live like a Pharisee. And coming to church is the easiest way to do it. You look like a Christian. You sound like one. You may even walk, talk and smell like one (whatever that is) but in your heart, do you know that Jesus is your one and only Master and you are His slave? If the Bible says it, do you believe it? If God says to do it, do you do it immediately? When you don't obey Him, does it pain you and make you ask for forgiveness immediately? Are you growing in that relationship you have with Him? Does serving Him get sweeter the more you do it?
If you have doubts in your heart about any of the answers to those questions, let's make sure of it today. As I said, becoming a Christian is easy. All you have to do is believe that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and that nobody gets to the Father except through Him. But that belief will be lived out in your life as a changed life; a changed heart; a changed "wanter" as God's Spirit inside of you makes you into a new creation and starts to give you the desires of your heart and what you want starts to change.
Don't be a Pharisee. Ask God for forgiveness today of all your many sins. Confess those sins to Him and allow Him to change you. Then repent of that lifestyle. Turn away from the other Pharisees and the phony life you were living. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is now Lord and you will be saved. Do it right now as the music plays.
