Pitfalls of Religion

Please open up your Bibles to Matthew chapter 23.

Matthew 23 · chapter mention

For those of you who are new,

this is a very hard-hitting passage.

I didn't just decide one day, you know,

I really want to preach this passage to my church.

We've been going through,

although it has great things in there for us,

we go through the entire book of Matthew.

We've been going through it in order.

And this is where we are.

And we do it that way because

I believe, we believe as an eldership

that God knows better than we do what we need to hear.

So we don't skip passages, we go through the whole thing.

And we're in chapter 23, verses 1 to 36.

Let me pray

for the reading and preaching of God's word.

Heavenly Father,

even when it comes to following you,

worshiping you, obeying you,

left to our own devices,

we turn our obedience

into idolatry,

self-worship,

self-promotion,

self-advancement.

And we need your grace.

we need Christ

and your spirit

to renew us

and transform us

from the inside out

so we can offer you true worship.

So we ask for your help this morning.

Turn all,

everyone here

who finds

your commands

burdensome.

Everyone here

who has been religious

without

the freeing power

of the Holy Spirit

that you would make this a day

when it changes for them,

a turning point

where they live

in light of the power

of the gospel,

in the freedom

of the spirit.

Meet with us,

we ask in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Please stand,

if you are able,

to honor God

as we read from his word.

Matthew chapter 23,

Matthew 23:1–36

verses 1 to 36.

Then Jesus said

to the crowds

and to his disciples,

the scribes and the Pharisees

sit on Moses' seat.

So do and observe

whatever they tell you,

but not the works they do,

for they preach

but do not practice.

They tie up heavy burdens,

hard to bear,

and lay them on people's shoulders.

But they themselves

are not willing

to move them

with their finger.

They do all their deeds

to be seen by others,

for they make

their phylacteries broad

and their fringes long.

And they love

the place of honor

at feasts

and the best seats

in the synagogues

and greetings

in the marketplaces

and being called

rabbi by others.

But you are not

to be called rabbi,

for you have

one teacher,

and you are all brothers.

And call no man

your father on earth,

for you have one father

who is in heaven.

Neither be called instructors,

for you have one instructor,

the Christ.

The greatest among you

shall be your servant.

Whoever exalts himself

will be humbled,

and whoever humbles himself

will be exalted.

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.

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.

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.

You blind fools,

for which is greater,

the gold or the temple

that has made

the gold sacred?

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.

You blind men,

for which is greater,

the gift or the altar

that makes the gift sacred.

So whoever swears

by the altar,

swears by it

and by everything on it.

And whoever swears

by the temple,

swears by it

and by him

who dwells in it.

And whoever swears

by heaven,

swears by the throne of God

and by him

who sits upon it.

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.

You blind guides,

straining out a gnat

and swallowing a camel.

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.

You blind Pharisee,

first clean the inside

of the cup

and the plate,

then that outside

also may be clean.

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.

So you also

outwardly appear

righteous to others,

but within you

are full of hypocrisy

and lawlessness.

Woe to you,

scribes and Pharisees,

hypocrites,

for you build

the tombs of the prophets

and decorate the monuments

of the righteous,

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.

Thus you witness

against yourselves

that you are sons

of those who murder

the prophets.

Fill up, then,

the measure

of your fathers.

You serpents,

you brood of vipers,

how are you to escape

being sentenced to hell?

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,

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 Berechiah,

whom you murdered

between the sanctuary

and the altar.

Truly,

I say to you,

all these things

will come upon

this generation.

This is God's holy

and authoritative word.

Please be seated.

I'm sure you've heard

the critics of religion

say that religion

makes people

insufferably overbearing,

self-righteous,

legalistic,

sectarian,

persecutory,

to the point

of religious violence.

Think of the Crusades

or the Islamic terrorism.

Of course,

they're wrong

in thinking that

religion

is the root issue.

Think of the aggressively

atheistic

Khmer Rouge regime

that caused

the Cambodian genocide,

killing up to

three million people.

Humans of all stripes,

regardless of religion,

are capable

of such atrocities.

And that's because

at the core,

at the root,

in our hearts,

we are sinners.

However,

what these critics

do get right

is that sometimes

when people

are fully convinced

of the absolute

truth claims

of religion,

they do become

sometimes

insufferably

overbearing,

self-righteous,

legalistic,

sectarian,

and persecutory

to the point

of religious violence.

Jesus says

to himself

in this very passage,

and sometimes

this charge

is true

even of

self-professing

Christians.

But shouldn't

religion

and Christianity

in particular,

whose greatest

commandment,

as we talked

about last week,

is to love God

with all our hearts

and to love our

neighbors as ourselves,

shouldn't that

make us more humble

and more loving people?

Yes,

of course,

it should.

The problem

is not

that these

professing Christians

are too religious

or too Christian.

The problem

is that they

are not religious

enough,

not Christian

enough.

They emulate

Christ's authority,

but not his

humility.

They emulate

Christ's zeal,

but not his

compassion

and forgiveness.

They are

halfway Christians.

They're not

Christian enough.

religion without

Christ

leads to

hypocrisy

because only

Christ has

the power

to give us

new hearts

and transform

us from the

inside out.

This passage

contains Jesus'

most severe

critique and

denunciation of

the Jewish

religious leaders

of his day

and it warns

us against

the pitfalls

of religion

where religions

without Christ

inevitably end up.

So first

we're going to

talk about

blindness,

spiritual blindness,

then about

legalism,

hypocrisy,

hubris,

and finally

bloodshed.

What an

exciting slate

of main points

here.

Dreadful,

really,

but may the

spirit convict

us.

Throughout

chapter 22,

Jesus passed

all the tests

of the Sadducees,

Pharisees,

and scribes

with flying colors

and the

conclusion of

it was in

chapter 22

verse 46,

no one was

able to answer

Jesus a word

nor from that

day did anyone

dare to ask him

any more questions.

Here in

chapter 23,

Jesus turns the

tables on his

interrogators

and then he

shares his

unflinching critique

of them.

In verses 1 to

12, Jesus says

to the crowds

and his disciples,

he warns the

crowds and the

disciples about

the various vices

of these scribes

and the Pharisees

and then in

verses 13 to

36, he pivots

to addressing

the scribes

and the Pharisees

directly and

denouncing them

by pronouncing

seven woes

against them

with specific

examples of

the vices that

he summarized

to the crowds

and the disciples

in verses 1 to

12.

The main theme

is the Pharisees'

pride, self-exaltation

and hypocrisy

but before he

launches into his

rebuke of the

scribes and the

Pharisees, Jesus

affirms their

teaching authority

in verses 2 to

3, which

is odd but

important.

He says,

the scribes and

the Pharisees sit

on Moses' seat,

so do and observe

whatever they tell

you, but not the

works they do, for

they preach but do

not practice.

In light of the

rest of the chapter

that we just read,

it's really shocking

that Jesus says this

at the onset of

this chapter.

The scribes and

the Pharisees are

guilty as charged

of overweening pride

and spiritual

blindness and

back-breaking

legalism and

two-faced hypocrisy

and murder.

And yet, Jesus

affirms their

teaching authority.

They sit on

Moses' seat.

People in those

days usually sat

down to teach.

Sometimes when I go

along, I think it'd

be nice to switch

that, bring that

back, right?

Jesus does this.

He sits down to

teach.

And so a seat

came to represent

teaching authority

or teaching office.

And this is true

in our day,

department heads

of various higher

education institutions

are called what?

They're called

chairs.

It's a vestige of

medieval times when

the universities,

the lecturers,

actually taught from

an elevated chair.

That's how they

came to be known

as chairs.

The chair represents

the authoritative

teaching office.

And it's an example

of a figure of

speech called

metonymy where a

closely related object

or a concept is

used to represent

something.

The idea of

Moses' seat functions

in the same way.

Ever since Moses

received the law of

God from the Lord

and then related to

the people of Israel,

it says in

Nehemiah 8.8

that there were

people who read

from the law of

God clearly and

gave the sense so

that people understood

the reading.

In every generation

of God's people,

there have been

people who read

the law of God

to his people and

explained and gave

the sense so people

understood it.

And the scribes

and the Pharisees

occupied that

teaching office.

For this reason,

despite their rampant

hypocrisy, Jesus

says, do and

observe whatever

they tell you,

but not the works

they do, for they

preach but do not

practice.

Do as they say,

not as they do.

Don't follow their

example because they

don't practice what

they preach.

Jesus is showing

remarkable restraint

here by expressing

deference to their

teaching authority.

It's an extension of

the principle that

Jesus taught earlier

in Matthew 22,

Matthew 22:21

verse 21.

Therefore, render to

Caesar the things

that are Caesar's

and to God the

things that are

God's.

Why?

Because there is no

authority except from

God and those that

exist, the authorities

that exist have been

instituted by God.

So God's word teaches

us to be subject to

our human governing

authorities even when

they are unjust and

hypocritical.

That's why in 1 Samuel

24 to 26, David

refuses to kill King

Saul who's a murderer

after him, trying to

kill him because he

says, I will not

raise my hand up

against the Lord's

anointed.

In 1 Peter 2.13,

Apostle Peter tells

Christians to be

subject for the Lord's

sake to every human

institution including

even to a corrupt

emperor like Nero who

was reigning at the

time the letter was

written.

Jesus is not dismissive

of the Pharisees'

teaching office and we

should learn from his

example.

Jesus' acknowledgement

here that there are

people who do the

wrong things and yet

teach the right things

is helpful for us.

Maybe you've learned

valuable truths from a

pastor or a teacher

who is now disgraced

or disqualified from

ministry because of

some glaring sin.

It probably would be

wise for you to

double check what you

learned from that

person and their

hypocrisy probably did

color their perspective

and created some

distorted emphasis so

you should double

check that.

But don't dismiss

everything they taught

you outright because

sometimes people do the

wrong things but still

say the right things.

If God can speak through

Balaam's donkey then he

can speak even through

hypocrites.

Likewise if we are

teachers if any of you

aspire to be teachers

then this is a

solitary warning.

Just because you teach

God's word correctly

does not mean that you

are living your life

rightly.

The fact that you are

acclaimed as a preacher

or a teacher does not

necessarily mean that

you are approved by

God.

That's why 1 Timothy 4

16 says keep a close

watch on yourself and

on the teaching.

Persist in this for by

so doing you will save

both yourself and your

hearers.

It's possible for those

who preach to others to

themselves be disqualified.

The scribes and the

Pharisees were just such

people.

They did not keep a close

watch on themselves and

for that reason they fail

to save both themselves and

their hearers.

Notwithstanding their office

and authority and status

the scribes and the

Pharisees were spiritually

blind.

They were armchair

quarterbacks or backseat

drivers who judged and

offered much advice and

much critique to the people

of God and yet had never

actually done the thing.

They didn't have any real

life experience because

they didn't practice what

they preached.

In one of his sermons

18th century American

pastor Jonathan Edwards

talks about the difference

between knowing rationally

that honey is sweet and

having an actual sense of

honey sweetness.

That explosion of sweetness

that coats your tongue with

its viscosity and leaves

floral notes of lavender and

earthly molasses.

If you've tasted it you

know it.

There's a big difference

between knowing that honey

is sweet and having tasted

its sweetness.

Likewise there's a big

difference between knowing

that God is holy in your head

and having an actual sense of

the holiness of God so you

fear him and tremble before

him.

These scribes and the

Pharisees were theorists not

practitioners.

They did not practice what

they preached.

19th century Spurgeon,

Charles Spurgeon,

pastor,

compares such religious leaders

to a blind man elected to a

profession of optics.

philosophizing upon light and

vision,

distinguishing to others the

nice shades and delicate

blending of the prismatic

colors while he himself is in

absolute darkness.

He is a dumb man elevated to

the chair of music,

a deaf man fluent upon

symphonies and harmonies.

But you see,

it's much easier to learn

optometry and philosophize

about light and vision than

than to make people see.

Because only God can open the

eyes of the blind.

That's why religion without

Christ leads to hypocrisy.

The first pair of woes that

Jesus promises in verses 13

to 15 are related to this,

the spiritual blindness.

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.

The word woe is an

interjection of pain,

of grief,

and displeasure.

It means something like,

how dreadful,

how unfortunate,

how dreadful for you,

scribes and Pharisees,

that you shut the kingdom of

heaven in people's faces.

They didn't do this

intentionally.

They didn't do this because

they're selfish and want to

keep the kingdom of heaven to

themselves.

Jesus tells us why they shut

the doors to the kingdom of

heaven in people's faces.

For,

because,

you neither enter yourselves

nor allow those who would

enter to go in.

They shut the door on people's

faces because they themselves

don't know how to get in.

They've never been there.

They don't know the way to the

kingdom of heaven.

The second woe is similar.

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.

In their zeal,

they're not lacking in zeal.

In their zeal,

they'll go as cross-cultural

missionaries.

They'll go and travel across

sea and land to make one

single proselyte.

They'll dedicate their life

journey and go through those

arduous journeys to make one

proselyte.

Proselyte.

And when they get one convert,

that convert does not become a

child of heaven.

Alas,

they make him twice as much a

child of hell as themselves.

Why do they do that?

Because they themselves are

children of hell.

Jesus says later in verse 33,

you serpents,

you brood of vipers,

how are you to escape being

sentenced to hell?

That's what child of hell means.

Someone who is sentenced to

hell, destined for hell.

They are children of the

serpent, Satan,

rather than children of God.

Brood of vipers.

It's harsh language, right?

How many times have you heard

me call people that?

How many of you guys have

called people that?

Brood of vipers.

But it's not unduly harsh.

Why?

Because the scribes and

Pharisees are leaders.

And their spiritual blindness

is leading people who follow

them to the doorsteps of hell.

Jesus said of the Pharisees early

in Matthew 15, 14,

they are blind guides.

And if the blind lead the blind,

both will fall into the pit.

And these scribes and Pharisees

were literally leading people

to the pit of hell.

No wonder Jesus is upset.

The level of Jesus' righteous

indignation toward the scribes

and the Pharisees is directly

proportional to the depth

of Jesus' love and compassion

for the people that they are

leading astray.

Throughout the Gospels,

Jesus reserves his severest

rebukes for the leaders

among the people

because of their outsized

influence on the eternal fate

of people.

As an old proverb says,

a fish rots from the head down.

I think technically they start

rotting from the gut,

but you don't see that first.

The first rotting you see

is the eyes, the gills.

That's when you first,

the stink comes out of it.

The cloudy, sunken eyes,

discolored gills of the fish.

The fish rots from the head down.

Similarly, unsaved,

graceless leaders

produce an unsaved

and graceless people.

This is what Jeremiah 5.31 observed.

The prophets prophesy falsely

and the priests rule

at their direction

and my people love to have it so.

False prophets lead to false priests

to lead them in the wrong direction

and the people gladly follow them.

Spiritual corruption trickles downward.

This is why God warns us

in James 3 verse 1,

James 3:1

not many of you should become teachers

for you know that we who teach

will be judged with greater strictness.

It's a fearful thing

to teach the people of God.

If you teach or disciple anyone,

whether you're a parent

with young kids

or a children's ministry volunteer

or a Sunday school teacher

or if you're on the pastoral staff

in our church

or you're a lay member

discipling a fellow member,

ask yourself,

am I a child of heaven?

a true Christian?

Am I speaking of God

in the abstract,

in theory?

Or do I actually know him personally?

Do I have a sense,

a taste of his holiness,

his love,

his grace,

his mercy?

If your children followed

your priorities in life,

would they turn out

to be children of heaven?

If people in the church

studied scripture

the way you do,

would they know God better

or worse than they do now?

If people in the church

pray the way you do,

would they have a deeper

or shallower relationship

with God

than they do now?

The second thing

that Jesus denounces

the scribes and Pharisees for

is their legalism.

He says in verse 4,

they tie up heavy burdens,

hard to bear,

and lay them on people's shoulders,

but they themselves

are not willing

to move them

with their finger.

One of the clearest

instances of this

was their Sabbath regulations

that I've talked about

in the past.

Exodus 28, 10

commands us

to observe the Sabbath,

remember the Sabbath day,

and to keep it holy.

Work six days,

rest on the Sabbath day.

But the scribes

and the Pharisees

took this simple command

and then attached

dozens of other

prickly rules to it.

For example,

on the Sabbath,

they said,

if you carry your pack

in your hand,

if you have a bag,

a handbag,

a backpack,

you carry it in your hand

on the Sabbath day,

then you've broken

the Sabbath.

But if you carry your pack

on the back of your hand

or on your elbow,

you did not violate

the Sabbath.

You can literally find that

in the Mishnah,

in the rabbinical commentary

on the Torah.

And remember the fuss

that the Jewish leaders

made in chapter 12.

When they saw Jesus' disciples

picking heads of grain

as they were walking

through a grain field

and they started eating it,

they're just poor

itinerant preachers.

They're not farmers

coming with a sickle

and trying to steal people's

or work on the Sabbath day

for some extra income.

They're hungry.

They're just taking

a few grains

and eating them

on the Sabbath.

And they're like,

oh, you picked the grain.

You're reaping.

And then they'd rub the grain

to get the chaff up

so they could eat the grain.

They're like,

oh, I saw you doing that.

You're threshing.

You're harvesting.

That's forbidden.

It was harvest,

the reaping,

and threshing

were two of the 39

forbidden activities

on the Sabbath.

But how is that,

I mean,

eating that on the,

how does that constitute

harvesting?

That's like accusing

a person who picked up

a lost penny

from the ground

of stealing.

Jesus' disciples

were not breaking

the Sabbath.

moreover,

Deuteronomy 23

specified

that poor people

are allowed

to eat grains

from other people's fields

as long as they're not

putting a sickle to it.

That's why Jesus

cited the example

of David,

King David,

when he was fleeing

from King Saul

who was trying to kill him,

entered the tabernacle

and ate

the bread of presence,

not the current,

the fresh one,

but the used one

that was moved

out of the table.

But only priests

were allowed

to eat that.

But an exception

was made

for David

and his men

because of their

dire,

extraordinary circumstances

and their hunger.

And Jesus,

basically,

Charles describes

the Pharisees

of being legalistic

and too rigoristic,

and so he rebuked them

saying,

if you had known

what this means,

I desire mercy

and not sacrifice,

you would not have

condemned the guiltless.

These leaders forgot

that the Sabbath

was made for man,

not man for the Sabbath.

They turned a commandment

that was intended

to give people

rest and refreshment

and turned it

into a most onerous

and heavy

and burdensome commandment.

They cared more

about external conformity

to the law

than about internal transformation.

They cared more

about the letter

of the law

than the spirit

of the law,

so they tied up

heavy burdens,

hard to bear,

and then they lay them

on people's shoulders

while they would not

lift a finger

to help them.

The Greek word

behind that word,

burden,

only occurs twice

in all of Matthew.

You can probably guess

the other time

it was used.

Matthew 11,

28 to 30,

where Jesus says,

come to me,

all who labor

and are heavy laden,

and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you

and learn from me,

for I am gentle

and lowly in heart,

and you will find rest

for your souls,

for my yoke is easy

and my burden

is light.

Jesus is the compassionate

teacher and master

who assigns to people

a light burden

because he himself

carries the heavy burden

of the law

that we can never bear

by dying on the cross

for our sins.

But these scribes

and the Pharisees

are not willing

to lift the finger

to help people

carry their heavy burdens

that they themselves

have tied upon

their shoulders.

Jesus provides

specific examples

of this in the third

and fourth woes

in verses 16 to 22.

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.

You blind fools,

for which is greater,

the gold or the temple

that has made

the gold sacred?

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.

You blind men,

for which is greater,

the gift or the altar

that makes the gift sacred?

So whoever swears

by the altar,

swears by it

and by everything on it.

And whoever swears

by the temple,

swears by it

and by him

who dwells in it.

And whoever swears

by heaven,

swears by the throne of God

and by him

who sits upon it.

Jesus addressed

this issue of oaths

earlier in chapter 5

in the Sermon on the Mount.

And because the Jews

rightly took taking oaths

very seriously

because they didn't want

to take God's name in vain,

invoke God's name

and swear by God,

his name,

they were very hesitant

to do that.

However,

they wrongly believed

that by taking oaths

of sacred things

that are not quiet,

the same as the name

of God himself,

that they could get themselves

off the hook

without consequences

of breaking the oaths

they've made.

They would say,

I swear by heaven

that I did not steal

your fattened cow

and slaughter it

for my birthday

the other week.

I swear to heaven.

And then,

they'll be caught later,

be exposed

that they did indeed

steal that neighbor's

fattened calf

and slaughtered it

for his birthday.

And then they'll say,

you swore to God.

God's gonna hold you

to account for that.

You swore to God

that you didn't do that.

Oh, no, no.

I never swore to God.

I swore to heaven.

That's very different.

That's the dwelling place

of God.

That's not God.

It's legalistic

casuistry.

And it's specious,

deceptive,

over-subtle reasoning.

Whoever swears by heaven

swears by the throne of God

and by him who sits upon it.

The other two examples

are like further downstream

from that,

in chapter 23.

They would swear by the temple

and then circumstances

would change

and it would be

no longer advantageous

for them to keep

the oaths that they made.

And then they would say,

oh, you know,

if you swear by the temple,

it doesn't really work.

If you swear by the gold

that's in the temple,

then you're bound by your oath

and I didn't do that.

That's ridiculous.

Why is the gold

inside the temple sacred?

Because of the temple.

The temple is sacred

because,

and why is the temple sacred?

Because it's the dwelling place

of God.

And why were the scribes

and the Pharisees

engaging in this kind of

over-subtle reasoning?

If you've ever played

tag with kids,

you know exactly

what I'm talking about.

They have a tendency

to modify the rules

on the fly.

I've done this.

I've heard this

from kids in our church.

I'll be chasing them

for tag

and then they'll say,

oh, this is my home base.

You can't tag me

while I'm here.

They'll say it,

of course,

they'll say it

right after I tag them.

And then after patient waiting,

when they finally come out

of their home base

and I'm about to tag them again,

they'll say,

time out.

If I do time out,

you can't tag me.

They keep changing

the rules of the game

to ensure that they always win

and you always lose.

That's essentially

how the Pharisees

and the scribes

were gaming

the system of oaths.

Much like the social swearing

of our day

where people say,

I swear to God,

I saw a UFO.

Why do people say that?

Because they want you

to really believe them

that they saw a UFO.

It's a form of manipulation

to enhance their credibility

and to make their claims

more believable.

But when time comes

for people

to cash their checks

and the checks bounce,

then they would use

this kind of

over-subtle specification

to free themselves

from the oath.

Oh, I swore by the altar

but I didn't swear

by the gift

that's on the altar

so this is,

no, it doesn't work.

It's nothing.

Oaths in the Old Testament

used to be simple.

You'd make an oath

by the name of God,

you'd make a vow to God

and then you'd have to keep it.

But now,

because of the legalism

of the scribes

and the Pharisees,

every time people

wanted to make an oath,

they had to consult

a long oath-making handbook.

What was I supposed

to swear by again?

Oh, here we go,

page 92.

I can't swear by God.

It's by God's temple.

Oh, no, no,

that's not,

the altar within the temple,

no, no, no,

that's not,

that was 10 years ago.

Oh, now you have to swear

by the gift

that's on top of the altar

that's inside the temple

where God dwells in.

Whew,

I almost got that wrong again.

Contrast this superficial teaching

of the scribes and the Pharisees

with the substantive teaching

of Jesus early in Matthew 5,

34 to 37.

But I say to you,

do not take an oath at all,

either by heaven,

for it is the throne of God,

or by the earth,

for it is his footstool,

or by Jerusalem,

for it is the city

of the great king.

And do not take an oath

by your head,

for you cannot make

one hair white or black.

Let what you say

be simply yes or no,

anything more than this

comes from evil.

Vows and oaths

are concessions

to the hardness

of the human heart.

There are ways

to mitigate and contain

human evil

and wickedness

and lies,

deception.

If all of humanity

practiced complete transparency

and honesty

in all their speech,

then vows and oaths

would become

immediately unnecessary.

That is God's ideal,

ultimate standard.

Christians ought to be known

for their integrity

and honesty

so that people believe them

when they say something

without having to resort

to oaths.

Weighty words

that land with an oomph

like heavy dumbbells

instead of flighty,

fleety words

like feathers.

But you see,

that requires a heart

that fears God.

And cultivating a heart

that fears God

is way harder

than making

a hundred page

oath making handbook.

Because only God

can give us new hearts

and transform us

from the inside out.

And this is why

religion without Christ

leads to hypocrisy.

You can't change the heart,

so you focus on changing

what you can change,

external behavior.

And that always leads

to a really long list

of do's and don'ts.

And when the rule book

gets too long,

it inevitably leads

to imbalances

and disproportionate emphases.

Jesus pronounces

the fourth woe

in verse 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.

Following the Old Testament law,

the Pharisees gave

a tenth of all

their material possessions

to God

to be used for the worship

of God

and the ministry

of God's people.

However,

as they did

to everything else,

they took this

to the nth degree,

to the extreme.

They would measure

and cut

an exact tenth

of the smallest herbs

like mint and dill.

Have you used dill before?

You see how small that is?

They'd count

every tiny seed

of cumin

to tie the exact amount

to the decimal point,

the last penny.

But even as they

obeyed this commandment

to the minutest detail,

they neglected

the weightier matters

of the law,

justice and mercy

and faithfulness.

It's essentially

the great command.

Love God,

love your neighbor.

Jesus says in verse 24,

you blind guides

straining out a gnat

and swallowing a camel.

A gnat is the smallest

of unclean insects

that cause ceremonial uncleanness

in the Old Testament

and a camel

is the largest

animal

that causes

uncleanness

in the Bible

that was readily available

in Palestine.

So Jesus is using

a humorous illustration

to drive home his point,

not that they were

actually swallowing a camel.

Imagine the Pharisees

and the scribes

using a fine sieve

to filter out

a gnat from their water

because they,

oh,

that's unclean animal,

we can't have that.

Use a sieve

to filter out the gnat.

Only to realize

that their next course,

their main meal

is a camel.

Eating the whole camel.

The biggest unclean animal.

Tidying mint and dill

and cumin is easy.

It's doable.

It's manageable.

It's a smart goal.

S-M-A-R-T.

You guys have heard that before?

Yeah.

Specific,

measurable,

achievable,

relevant,

and time-bound.

Your work managers

would be proud.

But what about

justice and mercy

and faithfulness?

Jesus,

that's so broad.

That's a sprawling,

unmeasurable,

comprehensive,

unachievable,

and not time-bound

standard.

When can you ever say

of yourself,

let's look at,

catalog my date today,

justice and mercy

and faithfulness.

Oh,

I did that.

Check.

Finished.

You can now see

the appeal of legalism.

It's measurable.

It's manageable.

It's easier

to evaluate

the performance

and assign grades.

No wonder

the scribes

and the Pharisees

loved it.

Tithing 10%

to church

is easy.

It's measurable

and manageable.

But making sure

that everything

you do

and every penny

you spend

is for the love

of God

and for the love

of neighbor,

for justice

and mercy

and faithfulness,

that's hard.

That requires

total,

comprehensive,

never-ending

commitment.

Don't neglect

tithing,

knowledge,

but don't

reduce your

stewardship

to that

by-size law

either.

Make sure

that you're

loving God

with all

that you have.

Perhaps you're

extremely concerned

with theological

minutiae

or overly eager

to point out

people's sins

and in the name

of theological

precision

and holiness

you sinfully

judge

and tear down

your brother

or sister

in Christ.

Don't neglect

knowledge.

Fine-tune

your theology

about the nature

of God.

Get the details

right,

but don't

stop there.

Make sure

that you

love God

with all

your heart

and soul

and mind.

Make sure

that you

love your

neighbor

as yourself

and make

sure that

that love

is communicated

when you

bring any

kind of

correction.

Getting the

theology

right in

your head

is way

easier than

getting the

theology

right in

your heart.

And it's

impossible

to get it

right in

your heart

unless God

makes you

a new

creation

in Christ

Jesus.

That's why

religion without

Christ leads

to hypocrisy.

The scribes

and the Pharisees

spiritual blindness

and legalism,

their focus

on outward

conformity

rather than

inward

transformation

naturally

produced

hypocrisy

and produced

imposters.

Jesus says

in verse 5,

they do all

their deeds

to be seen

by others

for they

make their

philacteries

broad

and their

fringes

long.

They are

true hypocrites

which comes

from the

Greek word

for actors.

Actors

only act

like they

do when

they are

on the

screen,

when they

know people

are watching

them.

They pretend

to be

something that

they are

not in

real life.

Jesus

detailed what

hypocrites are

like in the

Sermon on the

Mount in

chapter 6.

They're the

ones who

give to

the poor

but only

when they're

sure that

their charitable

giving will

be noticed

by others.

They don't

care a whit

about the

poor.

They care

only about

being thought

of by others

as being

charitable.

The hypocrites

are those who

go to prayer

meetings and

say long

pretentious

prayers when

people are

watching but

people who

never pray in

secret when

no one is

watching.

They couldn't

care less

about praying

to God.

They only

care that

other people

think that

they pray

and that

they are

pious.

This is why

they make

their phylacteries

broad and

their fringes

long.

I mentioned

to you guys

the phylacteries

are these

leather boxes

that the Jews

wear with a

band around

their forehead

on their

arm.

It contained

the Shema

Deuteronomy

6, 4-8.

Hear, O

Israel, the

Lord our

God, the

Lord is

one.

Love the

Lord your

God with

all your

heart and

soul and

strength.

One of the

most important

passages for

Jews, they

tied it.

Even though

the original

command in

Deuteronomy

6-8 was

figurative.

It means

keep the

word of

God always

with you.

Keep the

commandments of

God always

with you.

But they

took it

literally and

put on

parchment the

command and

literally wore

it on their

forehead and

arms.

Likewise, the

tassels, the

fringes, it

refers to these

tassels that

are commanded

in Numbers 15,

38-39.

On the four

corners of their

garments they

would wear these

tassels and

they would attach

these blue

cords to it.

And the

intention was