I’ve never stood before a judge to hare him/her read their judgment of my case.
You’re probably glad to hear that about your pastor.
But I have to imagine that it’s pretty nerve-wracking to wait for a judge to render their ruling.
I can only imagine that it’s even worse to hear, “Woe to you!”
This is like basically saying, “I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes.”
This is the situation for the religious leaders as we see this morning that the
Title: The King Renders His Verdict.
We’ve got quite a few verses this morning.
While I prefer to read through our passage completely first, we’re going to read as we go this morning.
This will save us some time and not lose the forest for the trees.
The forest we need to see is Jesus’ judgment on those that had turned God’s worship into false religion.
The religious leaders had replaced God’s preparation for His Messiah into a system of self-righteousness.
I think that we can learn from Jesus’ example to –
POINT #1 - BE GRIEVED BY THE CONSEQUENCES OF FALSE RELIGION.
* 13 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.
Woes are like warnings of coming judgment.
And the coming judgment of God is the consequence of false religion as it distracts people from Him.
By saying woe to you, Jesus is saying, “I feel sorry for you because of the judgment that’s coming.”
He’s mourning over their future state.
Quote - John Walvoord – “Those woes… denounce false religion as utterly abhorrent to God and worthy of severe condemnation”
In six of the seven woes Jesus calls the religious leaders hypocrites
We’ve seen this before.
You might recall it’s a term that describes an actor that is playing a part - not truly themselves.
He’s telling the religious leaders they’re not being honest about who they really are.
They’ve built an outer façade for people to see that is not who they truly are.
The same way that an actor might say, “I was saying and doing those things because I was in character.”
The hypocrite does and says what they do and say to play a part rather than an expression of who they are.
v.13 - First woe is because of the EFFECTS of their teaching
The effects of their teaching is that they lock people out from salvation.
This is because they teach that we must earn our relationship with God through our righteousness
Illus – [shutting the door]
Jesus paints the picture of a teacher standing on the front stoop of God’s house.
He’s there saying, “If you want to know God and be saved, come listen to me.”
When a person believes them and joins them on the stoop, they shut the front door.
Then they say, “You hafta follow my teaching before God will have anything to do with you.”
v.15 lists Jesus’ second woe
* 15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
This Second woe is related to the MISPLACED ZEAL that the religious teachers worked from
Their zeal is dangerous rather than impressive because it’s leading people away from God not to Him.
Their teachings are actually sending people to hell even as they’re confident their first in line for heaven.
Misplaced “spirituality” is worse than useless.
It’s damning with a religious confidence.
Next, Jesus gives a sampling of the minutia of the teachings and how senseless they are.
* 16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’
* 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
Jesus’ 3rd woe targets the RELIGIOUS WORKAROUNDS the religious teachers had created.
These teachers had a whole system of what items a person might swear by that were binding.
This system justified whether a person needed to stand by their word or break a promise.
The religious leaders were prepared to give people excuses for their sinful treatment of each other.
In contrast, Jesus had taught, “Let your ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘no’ be ‘no’.”
True integrity doesn’t need a system for when a person needs to keep their word or not.
The fourth WOE that Jesus warns them with is in regard to them majoring on the minors
* 23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
The Fourth woe is over their MORAL RATIONALIZATIONS for why they focused on minute obedience than matters of their hearts.
They had systems that defined what were more and less meaningful commands.
While God emphasized the principles of justice, mercy, and faithfulness, the religious leaders emphasized minute details.
They were making sure they tithed from their herb gardens.
But they weren’t caring for the poor or those treated unjustly.
Jesus uses the example of how some unclean animals were strained out of drinks so that the person drinking it wouldn’t become unclean themselves.
One teacher taught that anything larger than a lentil should be strained out.
But others were overachievers and even strained out gnats.
Jesus paints the picture of them spooning out a gnat but leaving a camel in their drink.
Jesus uses hyperbole to point out that they focused on keeping clean in the most knit-picking ways while ignoring the way they treated one another.
Quote – BKC – “Being so busy with small details, they never dealt with the important matters.”
Pivot –
The last two woes focus on how the religious teachers focused on external appearances of righteousness rather focusing on the sinfulness of the heart and its need for repentance.
* 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
Jesus’ fifth WOE for these religious leaders is for their OUTWARD FOCUS instead of the heart
Our hearts are the source of our decisions and behavior.
Jesus used the example of a person cleaning the outside of a cup and ignoring the inside.
Would you want to drink from a cup at a restaurant that was dirty?
What if the waitress told you, “What’s the problem? The outside is clean.”
He uses this as an illustration of how the religious leaders focused on outward appearances rather than on the heart.
Focusing God’s work on the heart allows God to cleanse both a person’s desires and actions/the outside.
The priority that the religious leaders placed on appearances kept them from caring about the heart.
And their pride kept them from considering whether their hearts needed a good washing.
The next verse deals with a similar theme of focusing on what’s on the inside that matters.
* 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Here Jesus expresses His grief over the DEAD HEARTS of the religious leaders.
Touching a tomb was believed to make a person unclean for seven days – unable to come near to God in the temple.
This was because death is a result of sin.
And those tombs were obviously full of death & decay.
For this reason, the Jewish people would paint their tombs white so that pilgrims traveling in for feasts and festivals wouldn’t accidentally contaminate themselves as they passed through the land.
Jesus uses the tombs as illustrations of the religious teachers.
He told them they look clean and white on the outside.
But on the inside, they’re full of death and decay.
The death and decay on the inside is hypocrisy (acting like something they aren’t) and lawlessness (being against the law that they claim to uphold).
the last of Jesus’ grieving for these religious teachers has to do with their blindness to their similarity with their murderous forefathers.
* 29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30 saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.
Jesus’ final grieving is for their SAD DESTINY
They’re forefathers killed the prophets that God sent to His people to get them to repent.
These religious leaders might decorate the tombs of the prophets and eulogize them.
But Jesus tells them that they are on track to do just what their forefathers did.
In a matter of days, they will be talking the crowd into calling out for the Messiah to be crucified and laid in a tomb.
I remember a trip I took from South Dakota to Wisconsin during the a snowy winter.
I forgot my sunglasses and borrowed some from one my kids.
I had a headache for a few days after arriving.
The problem was that the sunglasses made my eyes feel better but they didn’t have UV protection.
Like those worse-than-useless sunglasses, false religions cause people to feel like they’re fine with God.
But the truth is that they need to hear, “Woe to you.” Or “I am glad I’m not in your shoes!”
I don’t usually throw shade so specifically.
But I believe that textbook Catholic and Orthodox Christianity is leading people to hell even though they call themselves Christians.
I don’t have the time here to explain.
But, suffice it to say, these are different religions that are regressed back into Jewish beliefs.
Their teaching have the same effects of shutting people out of salvation by faith alone.
They have similar workarounds that classify greater and lesser sins.
They too rationalize how a person can earn favor with God through regular sacraments.
They share an outward focus on works.
They do not make alive the heart that is dead with sin because they do not bring a person to a saving faith sealed with an indwelling Holy Spirit.
Now, I say the “textbook” versions because I realize there can be people in these religions that find Christ.
But the person that believes what they teach is following a false religion.
And, like Jesus, we should Be Grieved by the Consequences of False Religion.
From the next verses, I think that Jesus will convince you to -
POINT #2 - BE ASSURED OF GOD’S ABILITY TO BRING JUDGMENT.
* 33 You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? 34 Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town,
Like John the Baptist before Him, Jesus calls the religious teachers out for being sly & lethal snakes.
Rather than thinking on their reputations and political power, they needed to think on their eternal destiny.
Interestingly, God had sent prophets and teachers to Israel.
Here, the God-Man is telling the religious leaders that He would be sending His messengers to them.
Jesus is speaking of His disciples and the church that would follow His teaching.
* 35 so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.
To be liable for someone’s death is a serious thing to God.
According to Deut 21 and 32, He would hold entire towns accountable if someone was killed unjustly without proper investigation and consequences for the killer.
Here Jesus foretells that the Jewish leaders would kill Him and persecute His followers.
And that the guilt for doing so would fall on them.
* 36 Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
Jesus had made several warnings against this generation.
All of these were going to culminate in the destruction of Jerusalem less than 40 years later in AD 70.
Pivot – v. 37-39 will give more specifics on this coming judgment.
I’m down for any cop show that involves car chase footage.
Typically, the officer that’s leading the chase is relaying to dispatch everything the fleeing suspect does.
“Suspect blew a stop sign.”
“Suspect swerved into oncoming traffic.
“Suspect went through a redlight.”
The perp is just racking up moving violations that they’ll likely be charged with.
It should be a sobering thing for us that think of how the unredeemed person is racking up guilt.
People tend to like the idea of God being like Santa Claus.
But they don’t like the old school Santa that keeps a naughty list.
Truthfully, we all deserve to be on that list.
Our role should be much like Jesus here – “I’m grieved for you if you do not experience redemption…!”
Moving on, I hope that our last verses convince you to -
POINT #3 - APPRECIATE GOD’S INDWELLING PRESENCE.
* 37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
After this proclamation, Jesus would be leaving the Temple in Jerusalem.
And these were His last departing words before He would be there as a prisoner on trial.
It was common in the Old Testament for God to be described as a bird (hen/eagle) caring for His nation, Israel under His “wings.”
Here, Jesus describes Himself as being in this protecting role.
He’s saying “I wanted to protect you, but you wanted it not.”
Next week we’ll learn about what He wanted to protect them from.
* 38 See, your house is left to you desolate.
The house that Jesus is referring to is the Temple.
The temple represented Israel’s unique relationship with God
And the temple was the place He provided for them to meet with Him.
The term desolate means empty or abandoned.
Certainly, the idea of an abandoned house paints a picture of hard times.
But it’s apparent that Jesus is talking about the idea that God had abandoned the temple.
This was a common warning from God through His prophets – that His glory would leave His temple
* Ezekiel 11:22–23 23 And the glory of the Lord went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city.
* Jeremiah 12:7 7 “I have forsaken my house; I have abandoned my heritage; I have given the beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies.
Before the temple was destroyed by the Babylonians and destroyed again by the Romans, many of the Jewish people believed it couldn’t happen because it was “God’s house.”
But when God’s presence left His temple, it became just a building.
Do you know what makes a plane Air Force One?
Any Air Force aircraft can be Air Force One if the President is flying in it.
What made the Temple special is that it was the dwelling place of God.
We are God’s temple when we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us.
This is what were told in –
* 1 Corinthians 3:16 16 Do you not know that [y’all] are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
And this truth should have personal implications for how we should glorify God with our bodies.
* 1 Corinthians 6:18–19 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,
Peter tells us what a privilege it is to be special dwelling place together rather than it being a building –
* 1 Peter 2:4–5 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
If you know Christ as your Savior, I hope that you Appreciate God’s Indwelling Presence
If you don’t know Christ as your Savior, I hope you long for God’s indwelling presence and ask Him for it based on who Christ is and what He’s done in dying on a cross and rising again from the grave.
