Preached by Gregory W. Lee
10 June 2007
I. Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to Matthew 23
-- this morning, we are finishing up our series on "How to be a Bad Christian" -- so far, we have looked at six ways to be a bad Christian:
1. Make Christianity a burden on others
2. Serve in order to be seen
3. Shut the door of grace to other people and prevent them from entering in
4. Follow the letter of the law and not the spirit or meaning of the law
5. Make a big deal out of small things and pay little attention to the truly important things
6. Become a true hypocrite -- believe that by being holy on the outside you can make up for internal failings and hidden sins
-- the last way to be a bad Christian is to condemn sins in others that we ourselves are committing
-- in this passage, Jesus issues His final "woe" to the Pharisees and the teachers of the law as He condemns them for doing just that
-- so, if you would, look down at verse 29 and let's hear Christ's final words of warning to the Pharisees
29. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.
30. And you say, `If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'
31. So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
32. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!
II. Scripture Lesson
-- on January 15, 1929, one of the most influential and well-known leaders of the 20th century was born -- and to this day we celebrate his name and his actions every year
-- as of 2006, 730 cities had streets named in his honor -- in 1986, a county in Washington state rededicated itself in his memory and placed a likeness of his face on their official seal -- and the city hall in Harrisburg, PA, was renamed in his memory
-- he has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and numerous honorary doctorates
-- a Gallup poll found that he was the second most admired person in the 20th Century -- he was listed as the 6th most admired person in the world in this century by Time magazine -- and was elected the third greatest American of all time in a contest hosted by the Discovery Channel and AOL
-- I imagine that if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was alive today, he would be greatly surprised at his popularity in the United States today
-- during his entire participation in the Civil Rights Movement and his attempts to remove the Jim Crow laws that authorized segregation of the races and that effectively discriminated against blacks and other minorities in the United States, Dr. King was harassed and persecuted -- both verbally and physically -- by enemies on all sides
-- the federal government -- especially the FBI -- investigated Dr. King and placed bugs and tracking devices in his homes and on his person
-- other, more violent opponents physically beat him and bombed his house
-- even all of the major media turned against him when he gave a speech against U.S. participation in Vietnam and calling for our immediate evacuation -- Time Magazine called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi" -- and The Washington Post declared that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, and his people"
-- and of course, we all know that the opposition to him reached its climax in 1968, when he was killed by James Earl Ray in Memphis, Tennessee
-- now, 40 years later, we hear Dr. King -- his words and his message and his vision -- lifted up and promoted by some of the people who were his most ardent enemies when he was alive -- everyone applauds him and no one admits opposing him
-- and many people my age and younger -- those who were either very young when Dr. King was alive or who were born after Dr. King died -- look back at that time and at the persecution that Dr. King faced and say, "If I had been alive back then, I would never have done that -- I would have stood with Dr. King against the injustice of Jim Crow and for equal rights for minorities"
-- isn't it amazing how we can so easily condemn others for their sins when we have yet to walk in their shoes? -- and isn't it amazing how we can so easily condemn others for their sins when we are committing the same types of sins in our lives today?
-- this is exactly what is going on in this passage -- the Pharisees were looking back at the sins their ancestors had committed and were saying to themselves, "Why, we'd never have done that if we were around back then -- we're much too holy to have done that"
-- look back at verse 29
29. "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.
-- once again -- for the seventh time in this chapter -- we see Jesus saying to these men -- "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees -- you hypocrites"
-- what were they doing that was so bad? -- all they were doing was building tombs and decorating the graves of the prophets and the righteous men of old -- recognizing and honoring their memory and their service and dedication to the Lord -- what could be wrong with that?
-- in essence, they were saying, "We respect the teachings of the old prophets and teachers" -- so how were they being hypocritical?
-- verse 30
30. And you say, `If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'
-- Jesus called the teachers of the law and the Pharisees hypocrites for two reasons
-- first, because all the while they were honoring the memory and teachings of the old prophets and righteous men of the past, they were actively opposing and persecuting God's righteous prophets and teachers in their own day -- most notably John the Baptist and Jesus Himself
-- by building tombs and synagogues and monuments in their honor -- by decorating and calling attention to their graves -- the Pharisees were trying to claim kinship with the old prophets and teachers -- they were trying to prove they were holy -- just like those great men -- because they took the time and effort to remember them and their teachings
-- but whitewashing tombs and erecting monuments to great men of God could not hide the fact that they themselves were guilty
-- the second reason Jesus calls them hypocrites is because they condemned the sins of their forefathers while following in their footsteps -- as they decorated the graves and built monuments to the memory of the prophets and teachers, the Pharisees would tell themselves, "We are not like our forefathers -- we would have followed the teachings of the prophets and not done them any harm"
-- as one commentator put it, "They imagined themselves much better than their ancestors" -- but Jesus, who knew what they were going to do, uncovered their heart and showed them that they were about to be so much more evil than all who had come before
-- their forefathers had killed God's prophets and teachers -- but the Pharisees were about to kill God's only Son
-- and even while they were plotting against Jesus -- even while their hearts were turned against Him -- they still considered themselves holy and righteous even though they were serving Satan and not the God they professed
-- in Luke 6:41-42, Jesus taught, "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? -- How can you say to your brother, `Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,' when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
-- the Pharisees saw the sin of their ancestors and condemned them for it -- but their ancestor's sins were but a speck compared to the log in the eye and heart of the Pharisees
-- verse 31
31. So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
-- Jesus declared that their own hearts testified that they were the children of those who had persecuted the prophets and teachers -- not only were they related through blood -- but they were related in spirit -- the same evil spirit that led their forefathers to persecute the prophets and teachers was living in them and driving them to betray Jesus to the cross
-- there's one truth that always comes out when dealing with hypocrisy -- the works of your heart speak greater than your words -- the work of the heart is the bane of the hypocrite
-- you can fool people through your words -- you can even fool people by pretending to be holy and honor prophets and teachers by building tombs and decorating their graves -- but, in the end, the truth will be told when your the work of your heart betrays who you really are
-- Jesus says here that they "testified against themselves" -- it was an appeal to their conscience -- Jesus was telling them that in spite of all their pretence to piety -- that both He and they knew in their hearts and in their consciences who they really were -- hypocrites with a capital "H"
-- and even though they pretended that they hated what they forefathers had done, they really approved of their conduct because their hearts were the same
-- Jesus was trying to call the Pharisees to repentance -- to give them a final chance to turn around and to start living righteously from the heart and not just with their words and external acts of piety
-- verse 32
32. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!
-- during the meal on the last night Jesus spent with His disciples, He turned to Judas and told him, "What you are about to do, do quickly" -- at that moment, Satan entered Judas and he left to meet with the High Priest to betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver
-- in this verse, Jesus is basically telling the Pharisees the same thing -- "what you are about to do, do quickly" -- in other words, "if you want to follow the paths of your ancestors and truly be their descendants, then go ahead and do what it is that you are planning to do"
-- there comes a time when God quits calling you to repentance -- there comes a time when you have refused Him time and time again and you have made your decision to not come to Him -- and He lets you go your way -- in Romans 1 we read of how the people continually turned away from God and refused to respond to His call for forgiveness and holiness -- and Paul says that God eventually "gave them over" to their shameful lusts and desires
-- in this verse, Jesus is giving the Pharisees and the teachers of the law over to their hypocrisy and hatred and eventual persecution of Himself
-- they were going to fulfill the desires of their evil hearts and were going to make their sins complete -- as one commentator put it, by slaying Jesus, they were going to fill up and complete what was lacking in the sins of their fathers -- their fathers had only killed the prophets and the teachers -- the Pharisees were going to kill God
-- and just a few days after Jesus uttered these words, the Pharisees had Pilate crucify Jesus on the cross at Calvary
-- if you want to be a bad Christian, condemn the sin in others that you are condoning in your own life
III. Closing
-- so, what does this mean to us? -- well, it's a warning from Jesus to search our hearts and to examine our ways -- it's so easy for us to look at others and see the sin in their lives while missing the very same sin in our own -- it's so easy for us to look back at those who came before and condemn them for their actions when we are doing the same thing in our own day
-- think about this -- how many times have you read the stories of the disciples and the Pharisees and thought to yourself, "I just don't understand how they couldn't have known that Jesus was the Messiah -- that He was God -- if I had been alive then, I would have followed Jesus"
-- how many times have you condemned them for not recognizing Jesus when He was in their midst while at the same time you have not seen His hand in your life or in the life of others around you?
-- how many times do you think bad thoughts of others because of something they are doing in their life even though you do the same thing yourself? -- have you ever thought, "I can't believe that so-and-so skipped out on Bible study last week" when you yourself miss Bible study from time to time? -- why do we hold others to a higher standard than we hold ourselves?
-- I remember when I worked in Tennessee -- our plant was operated by contractors with Government oversight -- and every single Government worker was convinced that the contractors spent all their time goofing off and not working -- I distinctly remember us talking about that while we were sitting around drinking coffee together during work hours -- oh, the specks that we so easily see in others and the logs that we so often miss in our own lives
-- how many times have you looked down on someone for not paying attention in a worship service or for not being more committed or for not tithing on their income -- when we ourselves were failing in similar ways?
-- the Pharisees lived that way, and Jesus condemned them as hypocrites for it -- the sad thing is, they never even realized it, even though Jesus pointed it out numerous times and called them to repentance and faith in Him
-- Barclay says, "The only prophets they admired were dead prophets -- when they met a living one, they tried to kill Him -- they honored the dead prophets with tombs and memorials -- but they dishonored the living ones with persecution and death"
-- the Pharisees had fooled themselves -- they didn't think of themselves as hypocrites -- they didn't think of themselves as prophet-killers
-- and if we are not careful, we can fool ourselves, too -- as one blogger put it, "Religionists don't see themselves as the God-rejecting people they are" [http://comelordj.blogspot.com/]
-- Jesus is calling us today to examine our hearts and our actions to make sure that we are living holy and righteous lives in Him -- to make sure that we are not rejecting Him by claiming to be more holy than we are -- or more holy than those around us
-- Jesus is calling us to be real in our worship and our evaluation of ourselves and our lives and our relationship with Him
-- as I close this morning, I am going to invite you to make just such an evaluation -- an examination -- of conscience in your life -- I want to encourage you to truly and honestly examine your life and your heart and your relationships with God and with your neighbors -- and to respond to God's word as you feel led
-- let us pray
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