Luke The Orderly Account of Truth - Inside Out - Luke 11:37-54

So if you are joining us for the first time, welcome,

And we are currently going through another book of the Bible.

Here on Sunday mornings. We're going through the Gospel of Luke.

We've named this series Luke, the Orderly Account of Truth.

Our hope is that in this series, as we carefully

or as we look at the carefully investigated and orderly

account of the life and ministry of our Lord Jesus,

that we would be built up in our face, that

we would be assured of the things that we believe

concerning Jesus. Now today, we actually have quite a bit

of text to go through. Like I said on Amend's

Ministry Nights, bite size today, not bite size, we're gonna

have that. We're gonna eat a few more bites today,

but it's gonna be delicious. So if you guys would

please turn with me to Luke chapter eleven, that's what

we're gonna be finding ourselves. Luke chapter eleven we're gonna

be looking at starting in verse thirty seven through fifty four.

If you do not have a Bible, we have them

available for you. Please go grab one so you can

follow along with us. It's important that you have God's

word in your hands. It will be your free gift.

Take it home with you. We wanna bless you in

that way. And honestly, it's God's words, and what more

could you want? So go grab that. It's gonna be

here on the screen. We're gonna read it, pray, break

it down together. Does it sound good?

Radical? Does this sound good? Yeah? Okay, all right, let's

get into it.

Starting in verse thirty seven, when Jesus had finished speaking,

a pharisee invited him to eat with him.

He went in and reclined at the table.

But the pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus

did not first wash before the meal. Then the Lord

said to him, Now, then, you pharisees, clean the outside

of the cup and dish, but inside you are full

of greed and wickedness. You foolish people. Did not the

one who made the outside make the inside also? But now,

as or what is inside, you be generous to the poor,

and everything will be clean for you. Woe to you, pharisees,

because you give God a tenth of your mint root

and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect

justice and the love of God, you should have practiced

the latter without leaving the former undone. Woe to you, Pharisees,

because you love the most important seats in the synagogues

and respectful greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you because

you are like unmarked graves which people walk over without

knowing it. One of the experts in the law answered him, Teacher,

when you say these things, you insult us. Also, Jesus replied,

and you experts in the law, Woe to you because

you load down with you load people down with burdens

they can hardly carry, and you yourselves.

Will not lift one finger to help them.

Woe to you because you build tombs for the prophets,

and was your ancestors who killed them. So you testify

that you approve of what your ancestors did the field

the prophets, and you build their tombs. Because of this,

God and his wisdom said, I will send them prophets

and apostles, some of whom they.

Will kill, and others they will persecute.

Therefore, this generation will be held responsible for the blood

of all the prophets that has been shed since the

beginning of the world, from the blood of able to

the blood of Zechariah who was killed between the altar

and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you this generation will

be held responsible for it. All. Woe to you experts

in the law, because you have taken away the key

to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have

hindered those who were entering. When Jesus went outside, the

Pharisees and the teachers of the Law began to oppose

him fiercely and to besiege him with many questions, waiting

to catch him in something He might say. This is

God's word. Let us pray, dear Lord, as we look

at this rebuke, as we examine the words that we

find here in scripture. We just asked that you've made

ready our heart to receive it, to respond to it

in such a way, Lord God, that we would not

be numbered among those being rebuked. As for today, if

there is a rebuke, that as we dig into your word,

if we're called out, we understand that we're not just

being called out to be judged, but being called out,

and it's the opportunity to get into alignment with you.

So I asked you would help our focus, that we

would hear your word, that you would remove scales from

our eyes and deafness from our ears, that we would

hear your words respond to it, that we'd love you,

that our affections for.

You would grow and be raised.

So we remember that you are our rock, our foundation,

what keeps us stable. So I just asked for God

that as we go through your word, that would not

be mine but yours for people made ready by you.

So we love you, we think you, and give you

glory and G's name. Everyone said a man, all right,

how many of you are coffee drinkers?

Any of you? Yeah, that says it should be.

Now, I'm not trying to out you in any kind

of way, but how about energy drinkers?

Anyone energy?

Yeah, you're like my wife doesn't want me raising my

handwritten No, Well, I like both. I've enjoyed my fair share.

I'm a big coffee drinker. Now I really try to

not drink as many energy drinks. But when I was

a teenager, I definitely did partake in a lot more

energy drinks, and I specifically was a monster drinker. You

know that was that was kind of my cup of tea.

If you will, So you have to understand that I

love coffee. Then I loved Monster then, and so you

gotta believe my excitement when they came out with the

Java Monsters. You know what I'm talking about. It was

coffee and Monster. It was a match made in heaven.

What could go wrong?

Right?

Well, in my teen years, I remember one summer, my

friends and I were running around town. We stop at

a gas station on this particularly hot day.

We're gonna get a beverage.

And to my delight, when I walked into this gas station,

I found one of those Java Monsters. It was an

Irish cream coffee one. Have you guys seen that one?

It's got a beautiful green color on the outside. I

loved it.

It was my favorite color is green.

So I was like this, it's Irish cream, it's Monster,

it's coffee, it's green. I love it all mine. Right,

So I was, yes, it was made for me. I

was very, very excited. It looked incredible. So we purchased drink.

Everyone else gets whatever they're getting. We go outside hanging out.

I open my drink, I take one mouthful, and I

immediately realized something was very wrong. So to confirm my suspicion,

I started dumping out my drink, which came out clumpy.

It confirmed my horrible, horrible suspicion that my drink had curdled.

Now I didn't finish my drink. I didn't go back

in and swap it out. I was not going to

chance it again. So I didn't get to enjoy my drink.

And now what's worse is I was left with this

bad taste of curdled milk in my mouth. Now, in

today's text, we're going to see Jesus address two of

the most common reasons that people have a bad taste

in their mouth when it comes to religion or when

it comes to the faith Christianity, and that is hypocrisy

and legalism that is appearing one way but being another

way on the inside.

Curdled, if you will, So.

We all know the type right legalism, those who set

up and prop up a bunch of extra rules, expect

you to follow those rules, not see those movies, not

partake of that type of food or drink. Hypocrisy someone

who's always calling you out for the wrong things you're doing,

and you look at their life and you're like, what,

we know the type, Maybe we've been the type sometimes

the reason we know the type of hypocrite is because

we have to stare at them in the mirror every

single morning. So Jesus and today's text is going to

be taking us through a rebuke.

And here's the deal.

I would apologize, but it's God's word right, and he

decides that as he would have it be. And this

is the week two of rebuke Week. Okay, So last

week we had people searching for a sign and Jesus

rebukes them for their wrongful intentions and rejecting the sign

that was Jesus in front of them. And today he's

going to rebuke the religious leaders of his day about

hypocrisy and legalism. So if you're taking notes with me today,

today's message is titled inside Out, inside Out. So, like

I said, last week, we saw Jesus rebuke the crowds

around him for seeking a sign, specifically because they were like,

Jesus had just got done doing signs, right, he just

got done healing it. He even possessed man, and they're like,

so what kind of sign are you going to do

to prove.

That you are who you say you are? He rebukes them.

Coming off the back of that, we see Jesus finish

his teaching and he gets invited to dinner or a meal.

He doesn't say dinner, so I can't.

Feel in good conscience about saying dinner or just has

a meal, so I don't know. But regardless doesn't matter.

He gets invited to a meal at a pharisee's house.

Let's look at that, Luke thirty seven. When Jesus had

finished speaking, a pharisee invited him to eat with him.

So we went in and reclined at the table. Now,

if you do not know, a pharisee was a Jew

that belonged to a very strict sect within Judaism, who

were thought of as the most strict and holy because

they were really really good at following the law. It

was kind of their thing, if you will. They were

trying to follow the law, and they were doing a

decent job outwardly of following that. So everyone could look

at their life and be like man like, those Pharisees

really got it all put together, They really got it

all figured out. So they were well regarded within the community,

and we're looked to as the example setters as it

regarded keeping the law. So now Jesus has gotten done teaching.

Jesus is now invited to one of these pharisees houses,

and there's kind of we don't know exactly the motive.

So worst case, he's inviting Jesus to set a trap,

as the Pharisees have been known to do. But we're

gonna say at the end of this text where that

gets heightened. Or maybe maybe he was just being nice.

He's like, Jesus seems like a cool guy. Everyone's following him.

Maybe I'll be the guy who hosts Jesus.

But either way, I'm sure that he didn't realize that

what he was really inviting was a metaphorical whooping via

Jesus's rebuke, And that's what we're gonna be looking at.

So this rebuke was not unprompted. We're going to look

at it verse thirty eight. But the Pharisee was surprised

when you noticed that Jesus did not first wash before

the meal. Have you ever been to someone's house and

realized they were clearly offended that you didn't take off

your shoes at the front door. They just keep looking

at you and your shoes, and you're like, well, here,

this was not the case, Jesus. It wasn't that Jesus

wasn't following house rules. And it wasn't that Jesus had

bad hygiene practices, right, because that's what it almost sounds like.

At first, he didn't wash, but this washing was actually

a ceremonial washing. This was part of the tradition that

the Jews followed. But here in lies the problem. It

was a made up tradition. It was just a tradition.

This was not something found in the Law of Moses,

but was an addition, a made up add on to

the law, and Jesus knew it wasn't necessary. And so

seeing clearly that the Pharisee was surprised or astonished, your

translation might say that Jesus did not follow up their

made up rules or follow their made up rules. Jesus

begins his rebuke, and if you're taking notes, this is

going to be our main point for the day, and

it's gonna be kind of what everything else that comes after.

It is addressing.

Give your whole self to God, both inside and out.

Give your whole self to God, both inside and out.

So Jesus takes issue with the fact that the Pharisees

have all these extra rules that make the pharisees look good,

that make them seem extra holy.

Oh you didn't second wash your hands.

But Jesus points out that they might seem like they're

extra holy, but it's really just a facade. That just

looking good on the outside is not the standard. And

Jesus is going to get to the heart of the

problem by addressing the problem of the heart. We're gonna

look at that starting in verse thirty nine. Then the

Lord said to him, Now, then, you, pharisees, clean the

outside of the cup and dish, but inside you were

full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people. Did not

the one who made the outside make the inside also.

But now as for what is inside, you be generous

to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.

So Jesus goes in.

He sees he's clearly offended, and he starts in on

the pharisees. Jesus, you clean the outside, but it's what's

on the inside that's the problem. It's not that you

shouldn't have an outward appearance of holiness. And we know

that as believers that every single day we strive to

obey our Lord, who calls us to be holy as

he is holy. But the problem is that they tried

to clean their outward appearance in practice, but left their

inside untouched. They weren't seeking to be wholly both inside

and out, but just on the outward appearance. Jesus, as

you clean the outside, but you're full of greed and wickedness.

That is inward, you're evil and self seeking. And he

rebukes them and calls them foolish, pointing out that God

didn't just make.

The outside, he made the inside also.

So if you're going to claim to belong to God

doing so outwardly, yet you don't give God your inner self.

Also, you're kidding yourself.

And really, the problem here is that those who seek

to appear outwardly holy and yet don't surrender their inner

self to God. Ultimately, it's because they just want praise

from people around them. They want to look good to

the others around them, because really, we can hide our inside,

we can hide our greed, we can hide our wickedness.

You tell me, I only have to go to church

for an hour and a half on Sunday. I think

I can keep it all together until then. Right now,

I can go home and I'll do whatever my heart desires.

So they want to look good with others around him.

We can hide our innerself from others. But Jesus is

reminding them that God made both inside and out.

Meaning what well he can see both.

So you might be able to fool other human beings,

but you can't fool God. In First Samuel sixteen seven,

it says, for the Lord sees not as man sees.

Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks

on the heart.

There's nothing you can hide from God.

Now you may appear holy to others because you have

a bunch of extra rules you follow, but God knows

your heart and Jesus he's calling it out here with

these pharisees. Now, Jesus says, for what's on the inside,

this is interesting. For what's on the inside, be generous

to the poor, and everything will be clear clean for

You're clean to you, clean to you, clean for you. Now,

I personally believe that this translation given by the NIV

misses the point of what Jesus was saying.

I actually really.

Struggled as I was trying to get I was like,

it feels like it should be right there.

I'm looking at this text. I'm like I feel like

it's staring me right in the face. But I don't.

That feels pretty simplistic, and I'm down to submit to

what the Lord has to say if that's if that

is exactly what it was meant there, And so I

had to do some digging. I was like, well, let's

look at what this word generous means.

Let's dig into it.

And I believe that the text in this translation in

the NIV does touch on the heart of what Jesus

is getting at, but it's not as clear as it

could be. So I want us to actually look at

it in the ESV. And I'm it's kind of put

this way in pretty much every other translation if we

look at it.

Luke eleven forty one. This is the ESV translation.

But give as alms those things that are within, and behold,

everything is clean for you. Now, alms were things that

were given to the poor. It was charity towards others.

But this verse says, give as alms those things that

are within, and everything is clean for you. Now.

This is why Bible study is very important.

It's also very helpful to read more than one translation,

especially if you don't understand a verse and what it means,

because do you see the subtle difference that makes clear

the point that Jesus is driving at that is.

They have the problem of only offering the outward.

They only offered the outword to God, but they were

neglecting to give those things that were within.

So they'd be like, look at me, I've devoted my

whole life to God. I'm at your every Sunday.

I wear the clothes, and I do the hand washings

and all the other things. They're fine to offer those things,

but they weren't offering their heart also in service to God.

And really that's what God wants. He wants both, and

he requires all of it. If you have an outward

appearance but you don't have the heart, you're missing it.

We are to be changed from the inside out. And

this is the resounding testimony of scripture that what God

wants is not part of us, but all of us.

God doesn't want just our outside appearance and actions.

He doesn't just want your heart and fruit. He wants both.

And Paul, when he writes to the Romans and specifically

referencing Jews at the time, he addresses and points out

this problem, or he actually kind of makes it clear

for us.

Let's look at it Romans two, twenty eight twenty nine.

A person is not a Jew who is won only outwardly,

nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a person

is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is

circumcision of the heart by the spirit, not by the

written code. So it's not only external, but it's also internal.

Such a person's praise is not from other people, but

from God.

This is really interesting.

It is someone who, from their hearts flowing to the

rest of their life, lives to serve and love God.

It is such a person that is not praised by man,

but by God. And I think that this actually ties

very very closely to what we're seeing here that Jesus

here is addressing those of outward appearance only it's literally

the Jews who are like, well, I'm a Jew because

look at me, Jesus says, but look at your heart.

And specifically, in this situation, we have people who were seeking.

Man's praise more than God's.

Now I think it's this would be a good place

to just hit the brakes and stop a little bit

and examine our own lives and ask ourselves do we

give God our outward actions only, but have yet to

surrender our heart. What I mean by heart is our affections,

our desires. We put our faith in what we seek

after as truly important. Examine yourself and pray to God,

and that prayer honestly might be thank you God, thank

you for having done that, thank you for having started that.

I mean, and I'm seeing you continue to move and

continue to work, and I.

Thank you so much.

Or you might go, oh, oh, don't like what I'm

seeing on the inside there, that's normally why I don't

like looking well. In that case, we get to ask

him to change our heart. Now, Jesus is gonna drive

this point even farther. Jesus is gonna pronounce six woes,

and those woes are a denunciation or a condemnation of

those around him for the behavior and wrong motives for

not giving God everything. To get a little bit more

into it, We're gonna see specifically three woes to the

Pharisees who were there, and then three woes directed at

the experts of the law who were also there. And

they were all buddies, the Pharisees and experts of the law,

and all of these, while closely related to each other,

I believe we're going to be pointing out the hypocrisy

and legalism. The first three more directly addressing hypocrisy in

the last three woes addressing legalism. For this next section,

if you're taking notes right, woe to the hypocrites and legalists.

So we're going through these six woes.

What I want us to see is how Jesus is

addressing the inconsistency of the outside and the inside of

these Pharisees. Let's look at our first three addresses to

the Pharisees, starting with our first one in verse forty two,

woe to Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of

your mental rue in all other kinds of garden herbs,

but you neglect justice in the love of God. You

should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

So Jesus.

Points out that they're really good, really, really really good

at giving a tenth of everything externally, giving a tenth

of everything that they owned, which was a commandment that

was a commandment found in the Law of Moses. It

was a commandment for the Jews at the time living

under the Law of Moses and the side note as

believers were not required to give any specific percentage or amount.

We're not to give under compulsion, but we're to give

generous from the heart, with the things that the Lord

has busted us with.

Just want to put that in there.

So Jesus says, you give a tenth, but those things

that come from within.

You neglect to give.

That is justice and kind of a big one, you'd think,

the love of God. He says, it's a good thing

that you tithe, but you shouldn't neglect the other important

things that God has called you too, showing once again

that God requires all of you. And this is why

the first three address the topic of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is

when you act or say one thing but do another.

Just kind of like a quick other summation of that,

the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs

to which one's own behavior does not conform. Now it

does seem like their behavior is conforming, but that's not

the issue. Is they would claim one thing but do another.

They would most likely claim to love God. But God

knows the heart and Jesus calls them out. That's the

one thing that they thought they were good hiding until

you invited Jesus to your dinner, in which case he's

gonna tell you like it is. That's where he goes

to the next woe, where he points out what's actually

on the inside, that is greed and wickedness, the things

they truly love.

Verse forty three. Woe to you, Pharisees, because you love

not God.

You love the most important seats in the synagogues and

respectful greetings in the marketplaces.

That's what they really loved.

What they truly loved was not God but the praise

of men. Their greed and wickedness had them not loving

the praise of God but those of those around them.

They loved getting the praise of the other humans around

them that would prop them up and give them feelings

of importance and maybe even superiority over others. What they

had on the inside had them caring about the wrong

things on the outside.

And Jesus tells them what they're truly like.

With the third woe, he says, woe to you, because

you are like unmarked graves which people walk over without

knowing it. Jesus says, you're like unmarked graves. Do you, guys,

know what a grave is, you guys know what that is?

Something that has a dead body inside of it. That's

what he just called them.

You're like a tomb.

You're something dead on the inside. What's he's saying, You're

dead on the inside. And what's worse is others are

walking by and don't even know it. You're dead on

the inside, and others walking around you don't even know it.

And to take it even deeper when I was reading

this was actually really fascinating. In Jewish culture, one of

the reasons you were supposed to mark graves is just

like we talked about, like having there were some rules

in the Law of Moses for keeping you ceremonially clean.

Now they added some, but there were some actual rules

to keep your ceremonial clean. One of those was don't

touch a grave or you're ceremonially unclean. Right, So well,

that required of the people, as they said, so tell

us where the.

Graves are at.

Make sure it's very obvious, so no one accidentally walks

by it and becomes unclean without knowing it. So when

Jesus is saying this, it can also be thought of

as saying you're dead on the inside. And are making

others unclean without them even knowing it. Right, they're viewed

as these people who are supposed to be the example setters, but.

Really they're hypocrites.

So they're leading people astray, They're leading people to love

the wrong things. It's calling them out here saying you

are not as you appear to be. They were being hypocrites,

appearing to be holy on the outside, yet dead and

corrupt on the inside, and what's worse, corrupting others as well.

Now this is all, I'm sure a very intense dinner.

You ever sat at one of those dinners, or maybe

over board games or over other things where people are

not vibing with each other. Well, Jesus is putting them

on full blast with the truth. And it's while he

seems to be still speaking or finishing up with the

Pharisees that one of the experts in the law thinks

it's a great idea to pipe in.

Let's look at it.

One of the experts in the law answered him, teacher,

when you say these things, you insult us.

Also, now here's the deal.

I don't know what the expert in the law thought

was going to happen by jumping into the middle of

Jesus letting the Pharisees have it. But it's clear that

everything that Jesus was calling out that regarded the Pharisees

apparently hit too close to home or struck a nerve

also with the experts of the law. So Jesus now

turns to them, and he's got some words for them,

Whereas every single time I kept picturing this all week

and just like watching Jesus kind of go in and

they're like, teacher Jesus, you're kind of insulting us too,

and he's like.

Yeah, and you, hey, I got words for you too.

That's how I picture it. There's probably like that.

So now he's gonna get to the and you part,

and he's gonna start addressing the experts of the law,

pointing out not just their hypocrisy, but now they're rampant

legalism and lack of heart, right once again doing all

these external things but having.

A problem on the inside. Let's look at it.

It's forty six, Jesus replied, And you experts in the law,

woe to you, because you load people down with burdens

they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift

one finger to help them.

You won't do that, he says, you've burdened people down.

And this was concerning also a lot of the extra

laws and commandment they had added to God's law. And

we've talked about this before earlier in the series, some

of the crazy ridiculous stuff because as an expert in

the law, when you read God's commandment to rest on

the Sabbath, part of your job is to go. Now,

what does that mean? We're not supposed to work? So

what qualifies as work? And then him and his buddies

get together and they try and figure out what is

real work, right, and so some of the things that

they would say, well, it says no work, so we

think carrying anything seems like work. Okay, So that means

you're not allowed to carry anything in your right hand

or your left hand or on his shoulder. That's how

they'd be like, so that if you carry anything left hand,

right hand, shoulder, that's work, can't do it.

You'd be breaking the law.

But also being the expert in the law, I don't

know if you guys, I have heard of warriors even

in today's day and age, they know loopholes, right, They

have an idea of like, well, you can't carry something

with the right he in your left hand or your shoulder,

But no one said anything about the back of your hand.

No one said anything about the top of your foot.

So they had all these loopholes, so they'd be telling

people like, oh, I'm sorry, dude, you don't even know

how to carry stuff. I'm sorry, dude, it looks like

you're not gonna be able to pick that up today. Well,

they're walking by with a stack of books on his hand, right,

Probably not, but they had these loopholes, right, So other

people are being burdened down. They're not even lifting a

finger to help those around him around them. They're adding

these extra stipulations on God's law.

They're missing the heart of God's law.

But instead of adding these burdens that are so burden

some and too hard and heavy to bear for the

Jewish people, they've turned this day of rest that God

gave for his people and now made it this cumbersome,

difficult day. So they have all of these extra outward regulations.

They themselves knew the loopholes of their own traditions and

yet didn't have the heart to help others. And this

is one of the problems with legalism. It has this

outward appearance of holiness and love for God, yet it's

truly cold and heartless. It makes you look good, but

really it's burdensome as your outward appearance trying to conform

to the law, and some some that you've added to that.

And yet while you're doing all these things externally, you

remain untouched on the inside. Legalism also makes rules that

are not required and then imposes them on others, so

that if others don't follow your made up rules, then

they just must not be as holy as you.

Huh.

They must not be as devoted or devout as you are.

But I'm really, really holy, so I follow rules on

the rules. So Jesus rightly calls them out for this

and then goes on to pronounce his next woe to

the experts, starting verse forty seven. Wote to you because

you build tombs for the profits. It was your ancestors

who killed them. This is how Jesus interprets that. So

you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did.

They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs Because

of this, God and his wisdom said I will send

them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill,

and others they will persecute. Therefore, this generation will be

held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that

has been shed since the beginning of the world, from

the blood of Able to the blood of Zechariah who

was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I

tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all.

That's heavy. Here.

Jesus points out that they build tombs for the prophets whom.

Their forefathers had killed.

That in the past God had sent prophets to his

people and most of the time they were not well received.

Most of the time they were run out of town

or killed.

And Jesus says, you are not any better. You would

do the same exact thing.

You're building the tombs, showing that you approve of what

your ancestors did. And we know that this is a

fair judgment because we know how the religious leaders of

Jesus' day treated prophets like John the Baptist, or more

even more so, how they have been and would go

on to treat Jesus, who is the prophet. He says,

it's for this reason that this generation last week we

saw him call it the wicked generation. This wicked generation.

We know exactly that this is what happened because God

brought judgment on his people in the destruction of that

generation on the destruction of Jerusalem in seventy AD. So

that happened. And a quick note about the prophet that's

that Jesus notes here.

He starts with.

Abel from all the way back in Genesis four, who

was murdered out of jealousy by his brother Kin for

being righteous before God. As I was going over my notes,

I was like, that's so interesting that the self righteous

people have this bad habit of hating and wanting to

murder those who are actually righteous before God.

So that's Abel killed by his brother Kin.

Let me get his name is Zachariah, who was killed

between the altar and the sanctuary. And there's a couple

of different possibilities of who Jesus is referencing here. I'm

sharing this just because we're also in our word, so

it's helpful to understand what is being talked about and

having context. Some think that it's the prophet Zechari, who

was one of the minor prophets in the Old Testament,

he's an old book named after him, and we're not

told how he died, so we'd have to assume that

that is how he died between the altar and the sanctuary.

The reason that some things that this is the Zechariah

that Jesus is talking about is because in a different gospel,

when Jesus mentioned Zechariah, he also mentions Zechariah's father, which

matches the Zecharia from the minor prophets. Now, there's another

possibility that it was the prophet Zechariah found in Second

Chronicles twenty four who dies who does die in the

temple courts? And the reason that this could be a

good fit is because the Jewish Old Testament has a

different book order than ours. They're the same books, but

they group them differently, and in the Jewish Bible they

start with Genesis and they end with Second Chronicles. So

this could have been Jesus simply saying that judgment will

be poured out on this generation for all the prophets

from the first to the last found in the Old Testament.

Now that's to explain all that Jesus was talking about

with that, But what I want to note is what

I believe Jesus is really getting at and saying all

of this. He's saying that you are no better than

your ancestors who killed the prophets, though you may outwardly

want to seem like you're better than them, because at

least you'll build the you'll build the tombs for them.

Oh maybe they were kind of God's prophets.

Ooh, but Jesus calls them on who they really are

legalists or hypocritical legalists. We're more worried about their outward

appearance and had no heart. Now Jesus gets to this

final woe, which I personally think is one of the

most damning of all of the woes. So in verse

fifty two, woe do you experts in the law because

you have taken away the key to knowledge that seems

like a problem you yourselves have not entered, and you

have hindered those who we're entering. He says, you, teachers

of the law, have taken away the key to knowledge

you haven't entered, and you now hinder those who are

trying to enter.

This is exactly what legalism does. Rule keeping.

Obeying made up rules does not save you thinking you

are righteous because of all the rules you follow is legalism.

If you teach that as the way of salvation, you

yourself is going to be led astray.

And whoever your teaching is going to be let astray,

because we know that that is not the way to

be made righteous. Jesus addresses this in John five thirty nine.

He says, you study the scripture's diligently.

Pause.

That's a great thing, right. We should study the scriptures

diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life.

These are the very scriptures that testify about me, Yet

you refuse to come to me to have life.

Keeping the rules does not save you. Is the law.

The scriptures reveals your sin and need for a savior.

Jesus is what all the scriptures are about. They are

what point us to Jesus in our need of him.

In them we find life not because of the letters,

but because of the person they reveal to us. It

is Jesus, or is in Jesus that we have forgiveness

of sins because of his death on the cross on

our behalf.

It's in Jesus that as.

He was raised to new life, so has our spiritually

dead self been raised to life, so that we who

once want in darkness and an opposition to the law,

now rejoice and live that we are now being made

holy by the spirit at work in us, given to

us by God the Father. Any fruit and good works

and law keeping now comes as the result of a

saved life. We don't earn our salvation. That's what hypocrisy

and legalism will have you thinking. There is nothing you

can do to earn your salvation. Left to yourself, left

to myself. We are all wretched, unbelieving, rebellious sinners. But

if God has shown his light on you and revealed

to you just how far you have fallen, how far

you fall short from the standard. The good news is

that if you've put your faith in Jesus, the perfect

life and death that Jesus lived and died will be

credited to your account as to set you free and

have you stand justified before the Holy and righteous God.

And this is good news. There's nothing you can do.

It's putting our faith in the one who did it all.

You can be made right, not because of your own

hard work, but because of the life Jesus gave for you.

So we should run to him. You should run to him.

You should believe because Jesus is better. See this, Matthew eleven.

What they were doing does not work. But what Jesus promises.

He says, Come to me, all you who are weary

and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my

yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am

gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest

for your souls. Learn from me, for I am gentle

and humble in heart. Jesus provides the true rest that

we need. From all our works. These religious leaders had

made it impossible via their own means and methods, for

anyone to enter. By the way they were doing things,

legalism and hypocrisy does nothing for you. It may have

the outward appearance of holiness, but it leaves you neglecting

what truly matters, and that is your heart.

Hypocrisy and legalism are always self seeking.

They seek your own glory and self righteousness on the outside,

but leave you dead on the inside. And Jesus is

the only one who can change that. Jesus is the

only one who offers a better way. And if we

are believers, we need this reminder to not seek our

own self interests, but to give it all to God,

both our inside and outside for God's purposes.

I need the band to come on, please and thank you.

The obedience that we have is not merely lip service

things that we say, but our hearts are not in it.

But it's obedience that stems from the depths of who

we are. When we're saved, we're saved from our sin,

and our hearts are changed to want to follow Him

with everything we have, both inside and out.

We see this Romans six seventeen.

But thanks be to God that though you used to

be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from

your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed

your allegiance. Now it's possible that after talking about all

of this, you might still be thinking. So you're saying,

even after I'm saved, there's still a need for obedience.

How is that any different or less burdensome than what

Jesus has been addressing. Well, that's actually one of the

miracles of the new heart, a washed inside, is that

now when your affections are right, there is a longing

to obey from the heart. There's a joy that comes

from obedience, and with that joy the light, yoke and

burden that Jesus has mentioned we see this in First

John one five or First Jown five to three. In fact,

this is love for God to keep his commands, and

his commands are not burdensome.

We are not saved by our obedience. We are saved.

But when we're saved, the natural overflow of our love

towards God will result in obedience to him.

It's just the fruit.

That when we love God from the inside out, it

changes the whole game field. It changes how we view

God's law, it changes how we respond to and view

his commandments. It is this love of God that starts

from within that puts everything into alignment. But if our

hearts and inner selves are void of this love and

are like that of the religious leaders, full of self seeking,

greed and wickedness, then any outward appearance is merely a

facade for us, and one day we will stand condemned.

So I pray this day that you see the life

of Christ and repent of your sin and come to

Him as the perfect savior he is.

And today is a tough message.

Jesus is calling out the hypocrites and legalists, and I

pray and hope that you hear this rebuke, and it

serves as a reminder of the need that we have

for Jesus as a savior, because we're going to fall

into that category. That we would hear the rebukes that

call us back to the amazing salvation that we have

in Him, that we don't get caught up or lost

in hypocrisy and legalism trying to take our way of

being right before God into.

Our own hands.

And I've been saying this a lot recently, just either

maybe to my wife and of my own repentance or

to friends who are going through it, and that is

that no one likes to be told that they're wrong.

People need to hear it, so we should do that

in love. But no one likes being told that they're wrong,

so we should. When you're addressing if you're gonna tell

someone that they's wrong, do it in love. Also, maybe

expect that you're gonna need a couple of days before

you hear a positive thing from them, because no one

likes to be told that they're wrong, Which brings us

to our last verse eleven fifty three fifty four, when

Jesus went outside the Pharisees and the teachers of law

began to oppose him fiercely, and to besiege him with questions,

waiting to catch him in something he might say.

They were so irate that Jesus called them on their flaws.

That now all they want to do is get him,

get him, point out his flaws, point him out. They

don't repent, they don't take you into account, but instead

they just start to oppose him even more fiercely.

They want to find fault in him.

And now I pray that today, as we've been convicted,

if we're feeling called out in these areas, that we

would not respond like that. No one likes to be

told they're wrong, but thank God for being at least

told we're wrong. And we're giving an opportunity in that

moment to respond properly, to respond in repentance, to respond

and humility and ask him to clean our heart, to

clean our inside because we realize that there's something going

on there. There should not be that way, So we

should respond in humility and repent and ask him to

clean us from the inside out.

Amen, would you guys please stand