13 September 2015
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
Matthew 23:29-32 (NIV)
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, almost 50 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
Matthew 23:29 (NIV)
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
Matthew 23:30 (NIV)
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 of similar atrocities
--
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
Matthew 23:31 (NIV)
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 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
Matthew 23:32 (NIV)
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 harboring
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?
--
it's kind of like my pet peeve -- people who drive along texting on their cell
phones and aren't paying attention to their driving -- just the other day, I
was driving to work, and I glanced over at the car next to me, and the guy was
driving along with one hand while texting with the other -- made me mad that he
would not put pay attention to what he was doing and concentrate on his driving
-- I got so irritated looking at him, he almost made me spill my coffee and
drop the bowl of eggs I was eating for breakfast -- 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
No comments:
Post a Comment