16 August 2015
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 23:13 [Read Matthew 23:13]
Matthew 23:13
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do
not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to."
-- a few
years ago, Will Smith was in a movie called "The Pursuit of
Happyness"
-- the
true story about Chris Gardner, a bright and talented young man who was
desperately trying to make a living by selling high-end medical devices on his
own
-- as the
movie opens, things weren't going real well for Chris -- his business was not
doing well and he wasn't selling enough machines to pay the rent and the bills
-- his wife was taking double shifts down at her job just trying to help the
family survive
-- every
time Chris tried to get something going, it seemed like fate would just throw
it back in his face -- every time he tried to get someone to help, they
wouldn't -- his wife left him to raise his son on his own -- his friends
deserted him -- everyone told him to accept his fate in life and to just go on
-- it seemed like everything and everyone tried to hold him back -- to keep him
from reaching his dreams
-- but
Chris had hope -- he could see an open door in his future leading to financial
security -- and no one was going to hold him back and keep him from going
through that door -- at one point in the movie, as he huddled with his son in a
bathroom in a subway terminal to spend the night because they had lost their
apartment, Chris shared with him a great truth that we all need to hear
-- "Don't ever let somebody
tell you that you can't do something -- You got a dream, you gotta protect it
-- when people can't do something yourself, they're gonna tell you that you
can't do it -- if you want something, go get it. Period."
-- Chris
did make it, despite all the difficulties -- he didn't listen to those who told
him he wouldn't succeed -- he kept his eyes focused on his dream and he pulled
himself out of homelessness to become the CEO of his own stock brokerage firm
and a very popular motivational speaker
-- in a
very real sense, the story of Chris Gardner's struggles to succeed is a perfect
analogy of what was going on in Jesus' day in the church -- Jesus had been sent
to earth by the Father for one purpose -- to open the door to the kingdom of
heaven that had been barred shut since Adam and Eve's fall in the Garden of
Eden
-- when
Adam and Eve disobeyed God, they literally fell from grace -- because of their
action, sin had entered the world and the path to heaven was effectively
blocked -- there was no way for sinful man to come to God and there was no way
for sinful man to come into the presence of God in the kingdom of heaven
-- so God
promised to Adam and Eve that the Messiah would come -- the One who would
strike the head of the serpent and open the path for reconciliation with the
Father again -- and in the fullness of time, He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on
the cross for the forgiveness of our sins, effectively removing the barrier
between us and the Father -- opening the door to the kingdom of heaven and
making it possible for us to come into His presence again
-- since
the beginning of time, mankind had been looking for that door -- they had been
trying to find God -- they had been trying to find the path that would lead to
heaven through a variety of means -- works -- rituals -- sacrifices -- religion
-- in a nutshell, religion is nothing more than man's attempt to find God
-- over
time, men like the Pharisees had developed religion into an art form -- they
had taken the commandments of God that pointed to the coming Messiah and that
offered temporary cleansing of sin -- and they had come up with a list of
additional rituals and practices and acts that had to be performed in just the
right way in order to make it to heaven
-- it was
this legalism that Jesus had condemned the Pharisees for in verses 1-12 of this
chapter -- for making a burden out of religion and putting heaven out of the
grasp of the people
-- and in
the face of this extreme religiosity, Jesus has now come on the scene --
proclaiming the presence of the kingdom of God and telling the people how they
could succeed and how they could come to know God in their own lives by finding
their salvation through Him -- "I am the way and the truth and the
life," He said in John 14:6 -- "I am the narrow gate" -- "I
am the door to the sheepfold" -- "if you want to come into the
kingdom of heaven, you must come through me -- there is no other way -- you
can't work your way to heaven -- you can't be holy enough to get to heaven --
you can't even get there by following all of the rules of the Pharisees -- you can
only get there through me"
-- the
Pharisees didn't like this teaching of Jesus -- it was a challenge to their religiosity
-- to their orthodoxy -- to their basic religious beliefs -- look back at verse
13 again
Matthew 23:13
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you
hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do
not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
-- in the
first of seven "woes" to the Pharisees and scribes in this chapter,
Jesus calls them "hypocrites" -- men who pretended to know and teach
the way to heaven but who really didn't know the path themselves or, worse,
were trying to keep people from it
-- the
Pharisees and the scribes didn't believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah and
they certainly didn't believe that He was the path to heaven -- so they
wouldn't follow Him or abide by His teachings
-- and not
only were they refusing to enter in themselves, but they were actively trying
to keep the people away from Jesus, warning those who followed Him to turn away
from Jesus and casting some of His followers out of the synagogues
-- isn't
that the way of the world? -- we just don't like it when someone has something
that we don't have, so we condemn them and try to keep them from succeeding
-- it kind
of reminds me of the guy who bought a special hunting dog -- this dog could
actually walk on water -- he knew no one would believe him, so on the opening
day of duck season, he carried his dog with him to the blind where he met his hunting
buddy, just hoping to show him how remarkable this new dog was
-- they
hadn't been there very long when a brace of ducks flew by -- the hunters shot
and killed two of them and the man sent his new dog out to retrieve them --
and, sure enough, the dog just ran across the surface of the water and got the
ducks and came back and laid down like nothing had happened
-- the
other man never said a word -- so after a few hours, the dog's owner asked him
if he noticed anything unusual about his new dog -- the man said, "Yeah, I
noticed he can't swim"
-- that's
just like the Pharisees -- the Pharisees couldn't abide with someone trying to
escape from religion and make their way to heaven though Jesus -- and so when
they saw them headed down the narrow path -- when they saw them getting near
the open door -- they'd grab them and pull them back down and keep them in
bondage to the rules and regulations of the religion of their day
-- this is
the fourth way to be a bad Christian -- shut the door of grace to other people
and prevent them from entering in
-- you
know, I hate to say it, but we still do this in our churches today -- a lot of
us continue to shut the door of grace to other people and keep them from coming
to faith in Christ by the way we treat them and the way we act around them
-- the
first way we shut the door of grace to other people is by passing judgment on
them -- Josh McDowell of Campus Crusade for Christ has said the most common
argument he hears when he preaches at colleges and universities these days is
that he is judging others -- who is he to judge them? -- didn't Jesus say, "Judge not, lest ye
be judged?"
-- and
while we know what Jesus actually mean was to not condemn others for their
actions, that is exactly what we are being accused of doing -- maybe rightly so
-- because these claims against us are not coming out of a vacuum -- they are
based in some truth
-- just
like the Pharisees, we have judged others -- we have condemned them for not
living as God commands because we don't consider the truth that if they are
living apart from the grace of God, then they are bound by sin -- they don't
have the capability to not sin because they don't have the grace of God in
their lives
-- but yet
we hold them to a higher standard that they cannot meet -- and we look down on
them and condemn them for the lives they are living now and we don't offer them
the grace of Christ or we belittle their tiny steps of faith that they are
taking towards the cross
-- a few
years ago, I served on a team at the Walk to Emmaus -- there was a guy there
who gave his testimony at the closing ceremony -- he was a rough-looking dude
-- there's no other way to describe him -- he had tattoos all over his body --
he even had the teardrop tattoos that signify he was a killer -- he had scars
where he had been cut and stabbed -- he was not a guy you wanted to be around
or talk to -- one look at him, and you knew he was someone to avoid --
certainly not someone I was going to witness to or share the gospel with -- I was
scared of him and didn't think he could be saved
-- and,
after listening to his testimony, it turns out my assessment of him was right
-- he had been a dangerous man -- he had done time in prison -- he had hurt
other people -- he had been cold and uncaring and took advantage of others -- he
called himself "the bogey man," and said he was the type of person
parents warned their children about
-- but he
showed me something that weekend -- no one is outside the grace of God -- there
is no one who cannot enter into the door of salvation through Jesus -- and that
weekend, this man humbled himself and truly repented of his sins and became a
brother in Christ
-- we need
to make sure we aren't keeping people from Christ by shutting the door of grace
through our prejudicial judgment of them because of what they do or what they
look like -- everyone needs the grace of God, and the door is open to all
-- in his
testimony, Greg Laurie, a preacher in California -- talks about how Christians
treated him before he came to Christ -- Greg was a hippie back in the 60's --
long hair -- unkempt dress -- he says he had perfected a "tough guy"
persona to keep people away
-- from
time to time, Christians would come to the beach where Greg was, witnessing to
others and passing out tracts -- they'd take one look at Greg and throw a tract
at him and basically run away without saying a word -- Greg said he wished they
would speak to him and tell him about Jesus -- but their fear of someone who
was different than them kept the door of grace shut to him -- thankfully,
someone finally did witness to Greg and he was saved and called into the
ministry as an evangelist and pastor
-- if you
want to be a bad Christian, condemn people based on what they look like or what
they have done and assume that even Jesus can't save them
-- another
way we shut the door of grace to other people is to stop them from growing in
their Christian walk -- I had a
couple of friends up in Athens who were strong Christians but who went to
different churches -- one of these men had been a Christian for decades while
the other was a relatively new believer
-- the new
believer really was growing in grace -- studying the Bible and doing a lot for
the Lord -- so the deacons in his church asked him to become a deacon -- to
take on a leadership role in the church -- when he was asked, he went to my
other friend and asked him what he thought about it
-- this
guy, who had been a Christian for a long time, told the new believer that he
was not spiritually ready to be a leader in the church and that he should say
"no" -- you see, this guy was not a deacon himself, and he couldn't
stand the thought of a person younger in the faith than him being put in a
leadership role -- he was jealous, and in his jealousy, he discouraged my
friend from accepting the role of deacon and stopped him from growing in his
Christian walk
-- if you
want to be a bad Christian, keep those around you from growing in grace and
from growing more knowledgeable and more committed than you
-- I read
about this young marine during the Korean War -- a new Christian who was being
discipled by a group of Navigators -- he was taught the basics of Christianity
-- how to read and study the Bible -- how to pray -- how to share his faith --
over time, this marine showed great promise and it was obvious that he was
going to exceed his mentors in faith and in knowledge of spiritual issues
-- but
instead of holding him back and not letting him grow to his potential in
Christ, these men encouraged the marine to continue to follow Christ where He
would lead -- to step out in faith and to embrace the fullness of life with
Christ
-- in time,
this marine was called into the ministry -- and you can hear him preach on WAFT
every day -- his name is Chuck Swindoll -- how many lives would not have been
touched by Christ if these men had held Swindoll back and kept him from growing
in the grace and knowledge of Jesus?
-- the
final way we shut the door of grace to other people is by making church foreign
and hostile to people seeking the way to heaven -- and we do this in a variety
of ways
-- one way
we do this is by speaking "Christianese" -- Christian jargon and
slang that we understand but that those who visit might not -- when they come
to church, they think we're speaking a different language
-- what do
they mean by "born again?" -- what is "justification?" --
what is "sanctification?" -- I know they say that grace is amazing,
but what is so amazing about grace? -- what is grace?
-- for
someone seeking Christ, these words and actions can be confusing and can keep
the door of grace shut simply because they don't speak the language
-- another
way we do this is by making our worship services seem unfriendly to them -- and
that's a big problem we have to watch for in our small churches -- because we
are so small, we are like a family -- and when visitors show up, they can feel
like outsiders -- a lot of them won't come back because they don't think they
can ever fit in
-- sometimes
we keep the door to grace shut because we just make church and Jesus seem
boring -- others never see the Christ we are claiming is always with us -- and
we don't act like we are excited to be in the very presence of God when we
gather to worship and praise Him together
-- we need
to make sure that we are fully present at worship -- by this I don't mean just
showing up -- but showing up with a purpose -- showing up to actually worship
Christ and seek His face and His presence through the entire service -- not
letting our mind or our focus drift -- but concentrating on the One that we came
to worship and are seeking to introduce to our visitors and friends
-- sometimes
we just make church ineffective and non-relevant -- we become too much like the
Pharisees and the church becomes the means to the end -- in other words, we
come to church just to come to church -- we don't try to live it out in our
lives -- we don't act like church is relevant to our lives outside of these
walls -- we don't try to reach out to those around us -- we just make church
about us and those who have joined us and we leave it behind when we walk out
the door after the Sunday morning service
-- if you
want to be a bad Christian, make the church into an institution of rules and
regulations and with its own language and not into a community that welcomes
everyone who comes seeking the Father
-- Jesus
condemned and rebuked the Pharisees and the scribes for living hypocritical
lives -- for being "religious" to the point where they missed the
Messiah themselves and then actively kept others away from Him when He came
-- we have
to be careful to not follow their footsteps -- to always put others first and
to remember that we are all on this journey together as pilgrims headed for the
Promised Land -- it is our duty and our calling to reach out to those not on
the path -- to those who haven't received Jesus as their Lord and Savior -- and
to call them to join us on our journey
-- in the
same way, it is our duty and calling to help those with us on the path to reach
their potential in Christ -- to grow in grace and in the fullness of the
knowledge of Jesus -- even if that means that they know more about the Bible
than us -- even if that means that they are put in roles of leadership above us
even though we've been in the church longer or have known Jesus longer -- our
job and our duty is to always put others before us and to never bar the door
that Jesus opened with His body and His blood on the cross
-- let me
close by leaving you with this thought -- one of the games I like to play from
time to time is the "open the door" game -- I always try to open the
door for people that I see coming up behind me into a store or office or
business
-- but I
have learned that if I open the door while they're still a good ways away from
me -- say 25 feet or so -- they'll run -- or, at least, they'll pick up their
pace
-- so I sometimes
do this just to make people run -- which isn't really nice, but I think it's
funny
-- but,
anyway, here's what I want you to do this week
-- I want you to do that -- I want you to hold the door open for
people even when they're a long way away -- not the physical door going into a
store -- but the door that leads to Christ
-- open it
up -- hold it open -- encourage them to come -- and if they have to run to get
there, even better
-- the
point is: don't be a Pharisee and close
the door to Jesus in someone else's face, but hold it open and invite them in
-- let us
pray
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