HOW CAN YOU
JUSTIFY THAT?
In a day filled with bizarre examples
of religious excess, we sometimes want to cry out, “How in the name of God do
you justify what you are doing?” It may
be the radical actions of militant Hindus in India, or the extremist Muslims
committing atrocious acts of terrorism.
Or it may the inconceivable arrogance and defiance of Christian leaders
who manipulate others spiritual hunger for their own personal gain (whether for
power, money or fleshly indulgence).
We find that there are too many who are glad
to accept their claim to the title of religious leader who have little or no
interest in taking anyone toward God.
They are more interested in taking them in by deception and preying on
their willingness to do and believe what they are told.
Jesus had seen
enough of such things and now in His last public address goes after those who
were guilty of perpetuating these abuses.
THESIS: Jesus will not tolerate the heartless ceremonial
religion of those who pretend to know the way to God but do not know Him
themselves and cannot show anyone else how to find Him.
In the first
part of Matthew 23, Jesus sets the stage for what He is about to say by
pointing out that…
I. ILLEGITIMATE RELIGIOUS LEADERS CANNOT HELP OTHERS COME TO KNOW
GOD.
--Jesus confronts the illegitimacy of the religious
leadership of the scribes and the Pharisees pointing out that they have no
capacity to help others come to know the God they obviously do not know
themselves!
A. NO AUTHORITY
(23:2)
B. NO
CREDIBILITY (23:3)
C. NO
COMPASSION (23:4)
D. NO
HUMILITY (23:5-7)
--Their reputation as religious leaders could not withstand
careful examination because they were totally lacking any valid support for
their claims to such leadership.
--Now He gets down to specifics and speaks very
directly!
II. INCOMPETENT RELIGIOUS LEADERS CANNOT SHOW ANYONE ELSE HOW TO FIND
GOD.
--What follows is a blistering denunciation of the
incompetence, hypocrisy and blindness of these “guides” of Israel as Jesus
pronounces His verdict of “woe” upon the scribes and Pharisees.
--Today we will begin by looking at the first three of seven
woes Jesus declares in an effort to expose the character of these men—sometimes
as unscrupulous obstructionists and sometimes as uninformed traditionalists—but
in every case incompetent to show the way for others seeking to find the Lord.
Woe—Expresses both wrath and sorrow, anger and pity; a grieving
denunciation that speaks of the threat of dangerous consequences to come if
there is no repentance and reversal of course.
--In these first three pronouncements of “woe” by Jesus, we
find that there is no attempt on His part to soften the blow by trying to find
a “nice way” to say what had to be said.
--Sometimes in our effort to avoid confrontation, to keep
from coming across as judgmental, we tolerate too much that offends the Lord
and defies His Word.
--Jesus obviously had tried to lead these religious leaders
to the truth but they have stubbornly rejected all that He has said and refused
to accept all that He had done.
--In this last public sermon, Jesus speaks one more time to
these lost souls in order to give them one more chance to turn from their
rejection of the truth and embrace the life of forgiveness and freedom He
offered in His name.
--In the first two of these three denunciations, Jesus calls
them “hypocrites” and in the third, “blind guides.”
A. BUILDLING ROADBLOCKS TO REDEMPTION: KEEPING PEOPLE OUT OF THE KINGDOM
Matt. 23:13
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the
kingdom of heaven from men; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you
allow those who are entering to go in.”
--Not only were these leaders intent on rejecting God’s plan
of salvation, but they were determined to make sure that no one else could
enter in.
--It is a sad occasion when anyone refuses to believe that
Jesus is the only Lord and Savior, but how much worse when they make it their
goal to prevent others from believing!
Examples: Pastors who take it upon themselves to deny the authority of
Scripture and to deceive their people by undermining the gospel of God’s grace
in Christ by claiming more understanding than the Bible, by dismissing the
exclusive claims of Christ regarding salvation, and by substituting a religion
of good works for the good news of grace through Christ
.
Professors
who love to take the podium and mock and destroy the faith of young college
students by rejecting the Word of God and replacing the God of Scripture with
the vain deity of human imagination (if they allow the existence of any God at
all).
Popular
Media who take delight in making fun of Christians and what we believe
by presenting us as foolish hypocrites with no redeeming qualities and who
should be ignored at best and despised at worst (recent movie, “Saved,” as a
teen flick designed to make people think that Christians are mean-spirited and
deluded).
Parents
who try to downplay their religious beliefs thinking that they do not want to
force their beliefs on their children…but in doing this communicate that they
do not value their own beliefs enough to pass them on, hence erecting an
unintentional roadblock—apathetic indifference.
--Jesus pronounces woe on those who not only refuse to
believe but who stand in the way, blocking the entrance, and keep others away
by every conceivable means.
--Some will actually think that they are doing what is right
in keeping others from what they think is wrong thinking, and act out of a
delusion that what they are doing is somehow noble.
John 16:2-3
“They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for
everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. 3 And these things they will do,
because they have not known the Father, or Me.”
--Others just have no other agenda but to make sure that
what they do not have themselves, no one should have either!
B. FANNING FLAMES OF FANATICISM:
MAKING RELIGION RADICAL INSTEAD OF TRANSFORMATIONAL
Matt. 23:15
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel about on sea
and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as
much a son of hell as yourselves.”
--For all the talk these days about religious proselytizing
being an intolerable, unacceptable practice, most religions are committed to
convincing others of the superiority of their way of believing and actively
pursue those who would come over to their way.
--Jesus speaks to that practice among the scribes and
Pharisees and then goes on to point out the extreme results—fanaticism among
the new proselytes, untempered zeal in those whose initial introduction to
their “new way” results in radical ideas and behaviors seldom seen in the
veterans of their religion.
We need only look to the current practices among
Islamic extremists to note that the suicide bombers are not their older, more
seasoned leaders. They recruit and
proselytize among the zealous younger members and send them out having “made
them twice as much a son of hell” as themselves.
Even among some churches and
Christian ministries, new converts are the ones who often get the most radical
assignments, the most aggressive roles.
Are we not guilty ourselves of asking the young among us to do our
“dirty work” while the older among us sit in ivory towers far removed from the
front lines?
Jesus pronounces woe upon those who
aggressively pursue converts to a radical and extreme way of religious practice
which is not consistent with any legitimate understanding of genuine faith as
it is believed and lived through the grace of Jesus Christ.
C. ADVOCATING RULES FOR ACCOMMODATION: JUSTIFYING BEHAVIOR OF AN UNGODLY CHARACTER
--Jesus devotes just a word in one verse each to the
hypocrisy in the first two woes, but in the third He addresses the scribes and
Pharisees in a different way—blind guides.
--He then takes several verses to speak to the problem with
what they were doing.
Matt. 23:16-22
“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, that is
nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ 17 You fools and blind men; which
is more important, the gold, or the temple that sanctified the gold? 18 And, ‘Whoever swears by the
altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering upon it, he is
obligated.’ 19 You blind
men, which is more important, the offering or the altar that sanctifies the
offering? 20 Therefore he
who swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. 21 And he who swears by the
temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it. 22 And he who swears by heaven,
swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.”
--The essence of His objection is that these leaders were do
blinded by their own selfishness and their own importance that they had taken
the values of God and made them inferior to the things they valued more.
1. You have made it acceptable to lie by
setting up your own upside-down value system.
2. You have set up a deceptive scheme in which
you can appear to be religious while swearing falsely to get and do what you
want.
--Here is the logic of His objections and the flow of His
words of denunciation:
Pharisees say: “Swearing by the temple is not binding, but
swearing by the gold in the temple is.”
Jesus says: “You fools and blind men! The temple is more sacred than the gold in
it. You are using word games to do what
you want!”
Pharisees say: “Swearing by the altar does not oblige you
to keep your word, but swearing by the offering on the altar does.”
Jesus
says: “That kind of thinking represents sheer nonsense as
anyone who is not blind can clearly see.
It is only the altar that gives the offering any value so any word sworn
by the altar should be valued even more!”
--Jesus denounces such foolishness and goes back to the most
basic issue, and that is that swearing at all by the holy things of the
temple—gold, offerings, altars, the temple itself—all these represent the Lord
who sits upon His throne of glory in heaven.
--By excusing your ungodly behavior—in this case lying—by
using the holy things of God to justify that behavior is inexcusable.
--Woe to
anyone who would use holy things to manipulate and twist things in order to
accommodate their own self-seeking ways.
Twisting the Bible around to get what we want is not
a new practice as Jesus proves in these verses. Today we see people who are willing to exploit others by trying
to use what the Bible says to justify their abuse of others and their disregard
for the Lord’s will.
Men sometimes try to make the Bible
their excuse for acting as if women were inferior to them and giving them the
right to subjugate them because of their perverted sense of what it means to
submit—an act of humility on the part of a wife to her husband, not of women to
men in general.
Leaders try to use their positions
of authority to dictate what others must do instead of showing them, teaching
them and serving them by modeling what should be done.
Health and wealth teaching tries to
promote prosperity as a greater value than honesty, integrity, contentment and
humility. By twisting things a little,
they can justify false business dealings, misplaced priorities and selfish
ambitions and try to make it appear that they are just following the Bible.
There is a danger whenever we look
to the Bible to try to justify some attitude or action which contradicts true
godliness and violates the character of Christ. Turning things upside down and valuing them in a backward way
from the biblical intent brings the swift and firm denunciation of our Lord
Jesus!
--Whenever we advocate a course of action or endorse a way
of thinking that accommodates what Christ condemns, we invite both His wrath
and pity and justify His pronouncement of woe over us!
Jesus will not put up with us just because He is thrilled
that we put on the outward show of religious fervor and make the sounds of
serious seekers. He wants it to be
perfectly clear that His verdict will stand without challenge or appeal. Only what honors Him and His Word will
receive His approval and blessing.
As will become more apparent in the
following passages, there are many who have learned how to fake it. But there are few who listen to His voice
and follow Him in His way!
Hypocrisy does not stand a chance in His
presence. Willfully choosing to choose
darkness and blindness when the light of glory is freely offered cannot be
condoned.
Therefore, we hear His words
denouncing the proud arrogance of ceremonial religion and His pronouncements of
woe on those who refuse to walk in His way.
Will we also heed His words to live all that behind us and come follow
Him—in spirit and in truth?
Providence
Baptist Church
© David
Horner 2004
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