Woe There (Matthew 23) | Louis Azuma

Speaker: all right, Matthew chapter 23, we're gonna be looking at one of the,

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

one of the wildest passages in the Bible.

Um, we're gonna be looking at, at the finale of Jesus verses the Pharisees.

So remember in Matthew chapter 21 and 22, we were looking at, um, Jesus going

Matthew 21 · chapter mention

back and forth with the Pharisees.

And now in chapter 23, it, it kind of comes, comes to a climax here.

So Matthew, chapter 23, we're gonna see Jesus get really, really, really.

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

Emotional, and that's something you might not have noticed about Jesus, but

I want you to think what's the, what's the, like, what are the peak emotional

moments you've had in your life?

Like maybe what's the saddest you've ever been in your life, or what's the

happiest you've ever been in your life?

Or what's the angriest you've ever been in your life?

The, the, just the most emotion you've ever seen from yourself.

Someone did something to you and you got so angry, or someone said

something about you, or something happened and you were so happy, or

something happened, you were so sad.

Think about what.

Makes you the most emotional usually is what matters the most to you.

And so when we see in this passage of scripture, when we see Jesus being,

saying really strong things to people and getting really sad about something

and getting really even seemingly upset about something that's, that

means it's really important to Jesus.

And what's really important to Jesus should be really important.

To us, your strongest emotions reveal what you care most about.

And what does Jesus care most about?

Well, we'll see in Matthew chapter 23, Jesus really cares about your heart.

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

What gets Jesus the, the most worked up, the most sad, the most

angry, the most happy is your heart, the state of your heart.

How you feel about him, the desires you have, the values you have,

they're all coming from your heart and that's what Jesus cares most about.

So look with me in your Bibles at Matthew chapter 23.

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

We're gonna start with the first 12 verses, Matthew chapter 23, 1 to 12.

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

And make sure you're bringing your Bibles to true north.

Every week.

We, we love the Bible here.

Bible is our middle name here at Compass Bible Church.

And so we wanna make sure that we're using God's word.

Um, not just seeing it on a screen, but learning how to use it for ourselves.

So Matthew, through chapter 23, so Jesus, he just finished

talking to the Pharisees, right?

They had their back and forth battle in the temple that Pharisees tried to trick

him, and he answered all their questions.

And now chapter 23, Jesus then spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, and

he says something about the Pharisees.

He says that they're in Moses' seat.

And what that means is that the Pharisees, they're in charge of the Jews.

They're the religious leaders.

They have authority.

They're, they're teaching the law.

They're the ones that, that say, okay, here's what the Bible says.

They're the pastors, they're the, the seminary professors.

They're the religious leaders of the day.

And so he says, verse three.

Therefore, do what they tell you to do.

Do the things that they say about God and about his word, but

don't do the things that they do.

Don't be like them.

They know the right things.

They say the right things, but don't be like them.

Why?

Because they say things and don't do them.

They don't do what they say.

They just, they, they say something and they do the opposite.

Verse four, they tie up heavy burdens and lay them on people's shoulders,

but they're unwilling to even help them move them with a finger.

So they're, they're making all these rules for people.

They're saying, here's what God says to do.

Here's what we say you have to do, and we're not even gonna help you do it.

We're just gonna come with all these rules for you to do.

But verse five, that's what I want you to focus on here.

Verse five.

They do all their deeds to be seen by others.

All the religious things they do, all their, their Bible reading, they're

praying, they're fasting, they're tithing.

Everything they do is to be seen.

They're trying to get noticed.

They want attention from people and then this, this word you probably

have never seen before in your life, for they make their phylacteries

broad and their fringes long.

What?

What in the world is a fractory?

Imagine if I said, Hey, draw Flac on the plate, on your head.

What a fractory is, or a fringe.

So a fractory, if you remember from Deuteronomy chapter six, remember,

love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, your

mind, all your strength, right?

And then Moses goes on to talk about having God's word before your eyes.

Put it as a front lit for your eyes put.

So it was this box that the Jews would use to, to live out this verse.

They would, they would have something to do with the Bible

verse and put it either on their head or on their arms or somewhere

to help them remember God's word.

And what the Pharisees would do is they would like, right, I'm, you know, I'm

super, I'm a super godly Pharisee, so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get the

biggest box and I'm gonna have the biggest reminder of God's word to show you that.

That's how committed I am.

It's a holiness.

It'd be like if you, like, let's say you wanted to show everyone how awesome of

a Christian you are, and so you brought this like massive Bible to true north.

You know, like the, the biggest Bible you could ever find.

You brought that to true North.

Or like you, you came to school and you like made sure I'm just gonna

carry my Bible around in the hallway just so people know I'm a Christian,

or, oh, I'm gonna wear Christian shirts only for the rest of my life.

Like, that's what the Pharisees are doing.

They're saying, look at me.

I'm such a good follower of the law.

So that's what they do with these things.

And then verse six, they love the place of honor at Feast.

They love the attention that comes from being a religious leader,

and they love getting the best seats at in the synagogues, right?

At church, they, they sit in the front row, they put their

hands up in worship, right?

They're doing it so that people see them.

They want people to notice them.

They're like, oh, look at us.

We're so holy.

And then they get greeted.

They get called rabbi, teacher by others.

So the Pharisees, they're doing all this stuff to get attention from people.

But Jesus, he contrasts that in, in verses eight to 10, he, he tells

his followers something interesting.

He says, he says something about titles.

He says, don't, don't be called these titles like Rabbi or teacher or

Father, but instead you should remember that God is those things for you.

You're not to elevate yourself of above people.

But you're supposed to remember that you know what God is, is

really the the one who's holy.

God is really the one who is in charge.

And then he goes on to say something that we've heard before.

Probably if you've been following along with us in Matthew, the greatest

among you shall be your servant.

Whoever, exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles

himself will be exalted, right?

The person who is, who is humble, who's focused on other people, who's not

worried about what other people think, who's not trying to get attention.

But who's trying to love people?

That person, that's a truly great person.

This is the question, none of you guys could get in jeopardy last week, right?

What's the greatest human quality that, that Jesus says humility, humility's the

greatest thing that, that you could have.

And so what he's doing is he's, he's setting up this contrast.

He's saying the Pharisees are like this, but you guys, I want you to be like this.

If you're gonna be my follower, I want you to be humble.

I want you to use your, your religion, your, your good deeds to serve people.

To love people, not to draw attention to yourself.

Don't be like a Pharisee and do all these things to gain attention, to

look good, to get people to notice you don't use it to get things.

Use it to give things to love to people.

So 0.1

tonight, use your religion, your good deeds, your your religious activity.

Use it to serve people, not to impress them.

Use your, your religion, your religious activity, right, your, your church

going, your Bible, reading your worship, singing your small group participation.

Use it to serve people, not to impress people.

Jesus says that the opposite of the Pharisees is a servant, someone who's

doing things for, for the good of others, not for the attention of others.

And when I was thinking about this passage, someone that I, I

thought of was actually my brother.

My brother, because my brother, the way he played soccer,

reminded me of this passage.

See, my brother, he played center defense, center back.

And so if, if you're an athlete, that's like playing o line in football, that's

like playing catcher and baseball.

No one's gonna notice you until you mess up.

No one's gonna notice until you, until you let that guy through for

a goal or if you give the ball away.

But my brother.

Was actually really, really good.

But see, my brother, he was good at soccer.

He was good at the things that made people actually want to play with him, right?

I really didn't care how many juggles he could do.

He didn't care how many fancy tricks he could do.

He didn't care if he could hit the crossbar, you know, crossbar challenge.

He didn't care about all the cool stuff that all the, all the, the

fancy soccer players cared about.

He didn't have the Ronaldo cleats or the messy cleats, or

the namar cleats or whatever.

He, he just was really good at soccer.

And you know what?

Everyone wanted to play with my brother.

Everyone was like, I want that guy on my team.

One.

'cause no one wants to play defense.

So everyone wants a defender on their team.

But also because everyone's like, you know what?

That guy's actually good for our team, the things that that guy does, right?

That guy, he guards people.

He runs, he gets loose balls, he takes he, he makes good passes.

He doesn't hog the ball.

The things that my brother does are actually good for everyone.

The things that my brother does as a soccer player are good for the team.

The things that maybe other soccer players do, right?

They, they try to do fancy tricks.

They, they're like, oh, I'm, I can do a hundred juggles without

letting the ball touch the ground.

My brother would look at those people and be like, all right,

you're not gonna drill past me.

I don't care how many juggles you can do.

It doesn't matter, right?

You're not gonna be able to actually do anything helpful on the field.

He didn't use his skills to draw attention.

He used his skills to actually help the team and to play better.

See, as Christians sometimes.

Or maybe even as someone who's not a Christian and just at church,

you can do all your religious things and not really help people.

You can do all your religious things and just for you, just

'cause you want attention.

You are like, oh, well I'm so good at reading my Bible.

I, I feel so good about, about my, my Bible reading streak.

Or, I read my Bible every day or whatever.

But if you're not actually loving people with what you've heard from God's word

and putting it into practice and, and serving people and caring about them,

that's not really doing you any good.

You just have this, this good feeling, oh, I did my Bible reading.

I I'm a good Christian.

So it's really about you.

It's not about God, it's not about other people.

So I want you, you to think about why do you do the good things you do?

When I say religion, why do you do the, the good religious

church things that you do?

Do you do them for you or do you do them for, for God?

Do you do them to impress people or because you love people?

So think about maybe your, your prayer.

When you pray, are you praying just to make your parents happy or are you

praying 'cause you actually wanna pray for people, you actually want to grow, you

actually love God and want to talk to 'em.

Or maybe when you serve at church, maybe you serve in kids' ministry on Sundays

or maybe you, you want serve on, in, in the worship team, or maybe you want

to serve VBS or maybe you, you want to help out at the, the church in some way.

Is that for you to say, oh, look at me, I, I get to do all

these cool things at church.

I'm so good.

I can play this instrument really well.

Or, or I can, I'm so good with these kids.

Or look how involved I am.

Or Oh, you can tell your college, on your college app, you can be like, oh, I look

how many community service hours I did.

Or Are you doing it 'cause you actually love the church and you

care about people and you're saying, I, I'm here to serve these kids.

I'm here 'cause I love these kids and I want to teach them and

help them learn from God's word.

Or I wanna really help people worship and sing.

And that's why I play my instrument is to, to help people sing to the Lord.

Or maybe it's your, your talents, right?

The talents that God's given you, the instrument you play, or the sport you're

good at, or the, maybe you do speech and debate, or maybe you have all these,

these, these talents and maybe you're doing them just so people can look at you.

Or are you using your talents as a way to bless people?

So that's, I know that's not a church activity, but that's still a

religious activity because if you're doing it for the Lord, it should

be a, it's, it's religious, right?

It's a good thing that you're doing.

So, who are you using your good deeds for?

Are they about you or are they about others?

Because Jesus would say if they're about you, if they're trying to

impress people and, and gain favor and, and attention from people,

then you're just like the Pharisee.

But if you're someone who's, who's following Jesus, you should be doing

them humbly out of love for others.

I I'm not gonna try to draw attention to myself.

I don't even care if people notice me.

I don't care if people know how many times I serve.

I don't care if people, people can tell how good I am at my instrument

or, or how much I read the Bible.

I just gonna do it because I love God and I love people.

So I want you to think about what would it look like to do those things for others?

Maybe what would it look like to come to True North, to love people?

Maybe you come to your small group instead of coming to your small group

saying, I, I'm here to, to have fun and to make people laugh and to get attention.

Or, I'm coming here to show off my Bible knowledge or show how good of a

Christian I am, or impress my leader.

Maybe you should come thinking about how can I love my friend and my small

group who's, who's having a hard time?

Or how can I be a good example to people who, who don't

follow Jesus in my small group?

Or how can I encourage my leader and, and bless her?

Rather than try to just draw attention to myself with, with how good of a Christian

I am or, or how dramatic my problems are.

So think about when I come to True North, what, what would that

look like to come to love people and not to be noticed by people?

And maybe some of you, you, you've never even thought of that before.

You've never thought about how on the way to True North,

how can I love someone today?

Maybe that's a really good place for you to start in the

car on the way to true North.

Maybe even ask your parents, Hey, hey mom.

Hey dad.

I, I want to think about my small group on the way to true North.

Can we stop and pray on the way to small group and, and on the way to true

north or on the way to church on Sunday?

And just pray.

God, please help me to focus on other people and not on myself.

That would be such a good place for you to start applying this point, and

maybe you're thinking, okay, well, doing good things for the wrong reasons.

That can't be as bad as, as other sins, right?

Maybe you're thinking, well, I, I, I know that maybe I'm prideful.

Maybe I do some, some church things for, for myself and draw attention,

but it can't be that bad, right?

Like, there's, there's people out there that are doing, they're

not even coming to church Lewis.

They're doing terrible things.

You should see what those people at school say.

You should see what, what those, those people on my sports team say, you should

see what they do, what they talk about.

They're, they're not as bad as me.

I'm at least at church.

Well, I want you to see what Jesus says.

About those type of people.

So let's keep going in Matthew Chapter 23.

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

All right, look back on your Bibles.

This section right here, um, there's this word that's gonna come up a lot.

It's the word woe.

WOEI always think of that scene from ice age.

I don't even know which one, where they come up to the, I think it's

ice age three, with the dinosaurs, where they come through these plates

and they're the plates of woe, and everyone's like, whoa, not that

type of woe, woe in, in the Bible.

When you see WOE, it's the opposite of blessing.

So when, like, remember the beatitudes, Jesus was like,

blessed are the porn spirit.

Blessed are the meek, and it's this like, blessed means happy.

Blessed means joy.

Blessed is good.

Blessed is, this is awesome.

Woe is the opposite, right?

Cursed, or sometimes even worse, right?

This is God's instead of God's happiness and God's favor, this

is gonna be God's judgment.

These people are on the, the wrong end of God.

They're not gonna get anything good from God.

That's what woe means.

Okay, so in this section there's, I'm not gonna be able to read all of it,

but there's, there's these, Jesus says, woe to you, Pharisees, woe to you.

He says it a bunch of times here in this, in this section, and

then he calls them this word.

He says, scribes and pharisees.

Hypocrites.

Hypocrites.

What does that word hypocrite mean?

Well, what it means is it comes from this idea of someone

who's like an actor in a play.

Someone who's putting on a face like a hypocrite.

So you think of someone who's putting on a mask, pretending

to be something they're not.

They're just playing a game.

And so Jesus is getting really upset and, and really intense about

these Pharisees being hypocrites.

He really cares about, about the fact that they're trying to, to

put up an, a face or an image.

They're, they're trying to look one way, but really they're living another way.

This is one example of that right here.

Woe to you, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites for you are like

whitewashed tombs, right?

There's dead people inside, but they look really pretty on the outside.

So they're, they're unclean, right?

They're gross.

You don't want to go in there.

They're, they're dead inside, but outside they look great.

And that's what he says in verse 28.

Outwardly, you appear righteous.

To others, but within, you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

So even though you think you're keeping the law, you're really not.

You're really not.

Even though you're putting on this face of, look at all the good things I'm doing.

Look at all the, the Bible verses I've memorized.

Look at all the good deeds that do.

Look at all the tithing I do.

That's what the Pharisees were saying.

He says, really?

You're not even keeping the law.

You're, you're full of lawlessness inside.

And what does he say that's gonna happen to these people?

This is what he says in verse 33, you serpents.

That's not a, that's not a compliment.

Us serpents, you brew to vipers.

Remember John the Baptist said that in Matthew three, you brood to vipers.

How are you two?

Escape being sentenced to hell?

Jesus is intense.

Jesus cares a lot and he's, he's warning them because he cares.

He's not warning them because he doesn't like them.

He's warning them because he, he loves them.

He cares about them.

And he's, he's giving the warning, look, guys, you are, you're on the receiving

end of, of God's judgment right now.

If you keep playing this game, putting up this face, living one way with the

appearance of one thing, and really on the inside being the other way,

this is where that's gonna take you.

Jesus is serious and he's intense about it, and that's because he cares.

He, he loves hypocrites enough to warn them.

And he might be warning some of us tonight.

So point number two, beware the judgment for religious hypocrites.

Beware, right?

Be careful.

It's scary.

You should be afraid of the judgment for religious hypocrites.

So maybe you are that person who's saying, well, you should see

what, what the other people do.

I'm here at church.

I'm a good kid, even though I'm maybe living for the approval of others.

But you should see what those people do.

Jesus says, you are still gonna be on the receiving end of God's judgment.

I was thinking about hypocrisy and I, I saw this article and it was an

article about people, it was a bunch of college students, and they were

complaining that their professors were using AI to teach the class.

And I thought that was, I was like, that's really funny.

'cause you hear about all like, oh students, you know, don't use

chat GBT to do your homework.

Don't write your paper with ai.

Don't do this.

Right.

You hear all that, don't let AI do your schoolwork for you.

And then these college students were like, wait, my professor's

using ai that's not okay.

And they like, were trying to get their money back from the school.

They were like, we paid, you know, $65,000 to go to this school for one year.

And now my professor's not even teaching me.

He's using AI to, to write his lecture and his presentation, and they wanted

their money back 'cause they felt like their professor was being a hypocrite.

Right?

The professor, like, you told me not to use ai and now you're using ai, right?

Imagine if you found out that your math teacher or your English teacher used

AI to like write all their lectures.

They had done anything all year.

All they had done was just read their like AI classroom plan for, for the year.

You'd be like, are you serious?

What are you doing?

Like, do you do anything all day?

Like, what are you supposed to do?

You, you would be like, like you sense something's totally wrong with that.

Like, you're telling me not to use AI and you're using ai.

That's not cool.

That's not okay.

You'd be so upset.

Now think about just the, the hypocrisy that you might have in your own life.

You might be just like that professor if, if you claim to be a Christian or you at

least claim to be a be a good church kid, you might be just like that professor.

So I wanna ask you, are you a hypocrite?

Am I a hypocrite?

That's the, that's what Jesus is putting before us right here, because

remember who he started talking to at the beginning of this passage?

He started talking to the crowds and the disciples.

He didn't start talking to the Pharisees.

He said, you guys disciples, you guys crowds watch out for this.

So let's look at one of these other woes here in Matthew 23.

He says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.

For you, and here's what he, he says, you tithe mint and dill and cumin,

so some spices and have neglected the weightier, the maybe even

more important matters of the law, justice and mercy and faithfulness.

These things like the, the tithing, tithing, the, the

small, tiny spices, right?

No one cares if you're like, are you tithing your cinnamon at

home under your spice cabinet?

You're like, well, I gotta give 10% of my pepper to the Lord today.

You're not doing that right.

But the Pharisees did that.

They were like, I wanna make sure I give 10% of everything to God.

So they're like, imagine that you scoop like everything out

of your like spice cabinet.

You got like your, your teaspoon thing and you're like putting it out.

All right, 10%, this is for God.

This is for God.

You'd never do that, right?

You'd be like, that's crazy.

Well, they're doing that 'cause they're saying, this is how much I love God.

He's saying, you're doing that, but you missed the point.

Right?

You're not loving people, you're not compassionate, you're not faithful.

You don't trust God.

He said, you should have done the small things, but you shouldn't

have neglected the big things.

You guys are blind guides, and I love this picture straining out a

gnat and swallowing a camel, right?

You're, you're like, oh, did I imagine you're like eating,

uh, this isn't gonna work.

But imagine you're like eating your cereal and there's this little tiny

bug in it, and you're trying to get the bug out and the whole cereal's rotten.

Why do you care about the bug?

The whole cereal's rotten.

Maybe, maybe that's you.

Maybe you're looking down on that person.

You're like, oh, I can't believe they make those jokes.

I can't believe they say those words.

And in your heart, you're so prideful about it.

That's being a hypocrite.

That's the type of person Jesus is talking about.

Or maybe you're saying, oh, well, you know that person.

You know, they, they don't, they go to that church, they go to that

youth group, and that church is.

But then you're the one who's looking down on them.

You're the one talking bad about them.

You're the one gossiping about them, or, oh, this person, you know, they,

they, they, they play these video games and in your head, you actually

wish you could play those video games.

That's being a hypocrite.

You're the people that Jesus is talking about.

So I wanna ask, all of us are, are you a hypocrite?

There's, there's things in this passion that Jesus points out about

being a hypocrite, one in them.

Right here, we see that hypocrites, they, they do the external things right?

The things that people see.

They do those things right, but their motives are all wrong.

Maybe you do all the church things, right?

If, if, if we ask your parents or your small group leader, oh, do are,

do they follow the rules at church?

Do they do the good things at home?

Do they, are they a polite person?

Are they, are they doing the things you ask them to do?

They'd say, yeah.

But in your heart, you're bitter, you're resentful, you're anxious,

you're angry, you're prideful.

You're being a hypocrite.

Also, what we see as passage is that the Pharisees or Hypocrites,

they look down on people.

Instead of loving them,

they're saying, oh, why that person does that, and they don't love that person.

If they see someone sinning, they're like, oh man, I'm so

glad I'm better than that person.

I'm so glad that person exists 'cause they make me feel better.

Maybe you don't say it like that.

Maybe that's how you really feel like, well, you know, I, I'm

not like those other people.

I'm not like those people at school or on my team, so I must

be, I must be good with God.

That heart posture is exactly what Jesus is talking about.

There's other things in this passage that we could talk about.

Hypocrites are, are people who cover sin instead of confessing and repenting.

The Pharisees, we talked about them being like whitewashed tombs or

people who earlier in the passage, people who clean the outside of the

cup, but the inside is all gross.

They're covering the sin.

They wanna look like they don't have sin, but they're not doing anything

about it 'cause they wanna keep it.

So maybe you're in small groups and you're saying, well, you know, I,

I, yeah, I don't have any struggles.

I'm not really struggling with this.

I don't have this issue.

You don't tell anyone your issues, but on the inside you love them.

And the reason you're not telling people is 'cause you wanna keep 'em.

You don't wanna bring 'em to the light 'cause you don't wanna get rid of them.

That's being a hypocrite.

Another thing that, that this passage will say about being a hypocrite

is that hypocrites care more about their group than about God.

They care more about being part of the right group.

Than about being right with God.

Like, oh, well I'm part of this church so I must be good.

Or, I'm part of, I'm friends with these people, so I must be good.

Or My parents are, are this way, so I must be good with God.

Hypocrites also make their rules more important than God.

Right?

Well, I, you know, I don't, I don't do these five things, so I must be

a good person or a good Christian, but really on the, you're, you're

also sitting in these other big ways.

Hypocrites also come up with their own righteous reasons to disobey God.

Maybe, maybe that's you, you, you know that you sin in certain ways, but

you're like, well, actually, you know, it's not that bad because X, Y, and Z.

It's not that bad that I do this because, well, you know, it's okay for me to,

to, to be with these bad friends because I'm really trying to to love them, and

you've never said anything about, they don't even know you're a Christian.

Or maybe you're saying, oh, well it's okay for me to be mean to my

brother because he's just annoying.

Or all he needs to grow up, so I'm gonna be mean to him or my sister.

You're being a hypocrite.

You're justifying your sin.

And lastly, we we'd say hypocrites are are people who are blind to their own sin.

That's what verses 29 to 31 are about.

Hypocrites are people who are blind to their own sin.

The Pharisees were like, look, if the prophets, you know, if Isaiah and

Jeremiah and all those people were alive today, we would've listened to them.

We, we would've listened to 'em.

And we love Isaiah, we love Jeremiah, we love Ezekiel, we

love Hosea, and Joel and Amos.

We love all these prophets.

And then Jesus comes saying the same thing the prophet said,

and they're like, we hate Jesus.

And maybe that's you.

You're like, you know what?

If Jesus came back today, if I saw Jesus, I would become a Christian.

But you don't love the Bible.

You don't love his people.

You don't wanna pray to him.

You don't wanna hear from him.

So what makes you think you'd love Jesus if you saw him?

If you don't love what he says in his word, he's not gonna be any different.

So hypocrites are usually blind to their own sin, and Jesus is

giving these strong warnings.

And maybe you're like, man, Lewis, this is my first week at your north.

What's happening?

Why, why is this so aggressive?

Because Jesus wants you to see that your sin is gonna lead you to destruction.

It's gonna lead you to death.

And he loves you too much to let you keep going that way.

And so he says some strong words to grab your attention and, and, and shake

you awake and say, I love you too much.

To let you keep doing that.

I love you too much to let you keep passing over your sin and ignoring

it and sweeping it under the rug and pretending like it's not there

or it doesn't matter, or you can hide it or you can get away with it.

Jesus loves you too much to do that, and so he's gonna tell you,

Hey, there's a big problem here.

'cause I love you.

And that's what we'll see here.

Even though Jesus is extremely, he's coming down really hard on the Pharisees.

He's not like, oh, I'm so glad I get to put these Pharisees in their place.

So let's look at this last section here, Matthew 2337 to 39 in the Gospel of Luke.

Uh, Luke says that Jesus is weeping in this section.

And so he says in, in verses 37, 39, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

the city that kills the prophet.

And stones, those who are sent to it.

So that's what Jerusalem's known for.

Jerusalem is known for rejecting God, for rejecting his word

and for killing his messengers.

He's saying that that type of city, right, the, if you think about it, these are

some, these are the worst people, right?

There's they, they hear God's word and they say, we don't want it.

We're actually gonna kill the people who say it.

Then here's what Jesus says about them.

How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen,

gathers her bro under her wings.

He's like, I, I wish you guys could come to me.

I would love to embrace you.

I would love for you to follow me, to love me, to have a relationship with me.

I would love that.

That's how much he cares.

And but you were not willing, you didn't want it.

I would.

I, I'm standing here with open arms inviting you to come to

me and you're just like, no.

I don't want to.

And then he, he, he pronounces some judgment.

Verse 38.

See your house, your, your, you know, your, your legacy is left to you desolate.

It's gone.

It's gonna be destroyed for I tell you, you will not see me again.

This is your last chance, Jerusalem.

I tell you, you won't see me again until you say blessed is

he who comes in the name of the Lord until Jesus second coming.

Right?

We, people said that at his first when he walked into Jerusalem

on, um, in, in chapter 21.

When, when Jesus.

Comes or chapter 19 when he comes into Jerusalem.

Um, and now he's saying, this is it.

You're not like, this is your last chance, Jerusalem.

There's, there's judgment coming and I would love for

you to repent, but you won't.

And that's our third point here.

Respond to the plea of the compassionate judge.

See, Jesus is, is the judge.

He will come back to these Jews who've rejected him.

He will tell them, I never knew you, right.

Depart from me.

But he's not doing it like, oh, he's not excited to send people to hell.

And maybe that's your impression of God.

Maybe you've been like, oh, well God is just, he's just mad at all the

sinners and he wants 'em to go away.

That's not the Jesus of the Bible.

That's not the God of the Bible.

The God of the Bible isn't like.

Trying to get rid of all the sinners.

'cause he can't, he just doesn't want anything to do with them.

He's, he gives them more than enough to come to him, but they were not willing.

See that picture of like a, of a bird and, and her gathering her chicks

maybe you like, are like, what?

What in the world?

Like why would you pick that?

Jesus.

I never would've pictured Jesus as a chicken, so I

wanted to give you a picture.

Jesus is not a chicken in that sense.

He's not a scaredy chicken, but this is what it's like.

See, look at that.

Look how cute these little birds are.

That's the picture, right?

Jesus wants you to be one of these people.

Jesus wants.

Jesus wants to be this for you.

That's what he's saying And what's the point, right?

Why do these little cute birds come under here for protection, right?

This, this, this.

Mama chicken cares a lot about these birds, right?

This, this chicken would die for these birds, these little chicks.

In fact, I found a news story that was actually really hilarious.

So this goose, someone set fire to like this area.

Apparently on purpose and she would not leave her eggs like geese are mean.

Geese like try to kill me when I go to the lake with my food.

Geese are mean, but they, they love their babies.

They will die for their babies.

Jesus is saying, I'm like that.

Or rather those things, those birds are like me.

He made the, he made mama birds to help you see how much

he cares about his people.

Jesus loves his people.

He wants his people.

He puts himself out there for his people.

He came and lived a, a regular life.

He left heaven and came and lived a regular life so that

people could come to him.

And then he, he died on the cross.

He, he endured rejection and, and shame.

And punishment and the wrath of God because he loves people and

he wants people to come to him.

That's the picture that Jesus is painting.

He has this intense love.

Yes, he has holy, fierce justice.

He will judge sin.

He will come again and there, there won't be a, a second chance at that

moment, but at the same time he is, is he deeply cares about you.

He wants you to come to him.

I had another picture about a mama animal, but really I just wanted to

show you guys these cute puppies, right?

Aren't these, don't you wanna be one of these puppies?

You could be right.

No, but that's the point, is they, they care so much about they're

young and if, if an animal right, if an animal can care that much.

Imagine how much Jesus cares about you.

Jesus wants everyone to come to him.

Even the people who have been rejecting him.

Maybe you're thinking, well, I've rejected Jesus my whole life, or you

don't know how big of a hypocrite I am.

You don't know what sin I've been hiding.

Lewis, you don't know what, what I've been thinking in my head.

You don't know what I've said in my heart.

You don't know what I've said out loud.

You don't know what I've texted.

You don't know what I've.

Thought, you don't know what I've clicked.

You don't know what I've watched.

Maybe that's what you're saying.

You're saying you don't know.

If you found out who I really was, you wouldn't want me.

Jesus wouldn't want me.

And what Jesus is saying is, is the, the only thing that's stopping you is you.

He's there.

He's ready.

The only thing that's preventing you from coming to him is you.

Either you're hardhearted and you're saying, I don't need Jesus.

I wanna do things on my own.

I wanna live my own way because I know better.

Or you're saying, I'm too dirty, I'm too sinful.

I can't come.

The only thing that's that's stopping you is you.

So Jesus will come again to judge and he will get rid of sin.

And if you are not covered by Jesus blood.

You will be sentenced to forever apart from him in hell, but you don't have to.

Jesus is ready and willing to save and he, he desperately loves his

people and wants them to come to him.

So let's pray and we'll go to small groups.

God, we're so grateful that you love us.

We're thankful that it's your idea to save us.

We are so unworthy to be loved by you, but we're so grateful that you

don't love us because we deserve it.

You don't love us because we're, we earn it from you.

We don't, you don't love us because we love you a certain amount,

and then you start loving us.

You love us because you decided to, because you are a loving God.

And so I pray that for anyone in this room who feels unlovable by you, maybe they're

a Christian and they just feel like, uh, as a Christian, they've sinned so much.

I pray that you would encourage them with your love, that you are compassionate.

God, if there's anyone here who feels like they can't become a

Christian because you wouldn't want them, I pray that you help 'em.

See just how much you love them and how much you, you care about them,

and how ready you are to forgive them no matter what they've done.

Help us to have a good time.

Small groups help us to focus, um, and, and be a blessing

to the people in our group.

In Jesus name.

Amen.