In our day there are warning labels on everything. That’s because people have used items improperly and so as to not get sued, companies place warning labels on things. There’s a warning on wheelbarrows, that they are not intended for highway use. Or strollers that say, remove child before folding. Or how about the warning on irons, that tell you to take the shirt off before ironing. Or one of my favorites, Once you use a thermometer rectally, you shouldn’t use it orally.
These warning labels are placed on those items most likely because someone did it, and now we have the label. Throughout the Scriptures, God gives us warnings as well. So if we are going to use what he gives us right, we better understand and take seriously his warnings.
So it’s the warnings of God that bring us back to our Matthew series, where we’ll be looking at the whole of chapter 23. And as we open to Matthew 23:1, let's see where we are so far in the Gospel.
In the four previous weeks that we’ve been studying the last section of Matthew’s book, we have looked at what it means to follow Jesus’ authority. So far we have seen that following Jesus’ authority means that we are satisfied with what he gives us, we are seeking his will instead of our own, we’re acting upon his will which is our faith in action, and we are not trying to corner God into a box of our own making.
Jesus’ authority over our lives needs to be absolute, because when it’s not, it leads to us not experiencing God’s presence the way he intended.
In fact, we can see that kind of disciplinary action in Jesus’ words today. So let’s read together Matthew 23, starting in verse 1.
1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
5 “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.
13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. [14 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely (Not all manuscripts have this verse).]
15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.
16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ 17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’ 19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. 32 Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!
33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? 34 Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. 35 And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Chapter 23 is bookend with references to the seat of Moses and the desolation of a house. These two ideas brought together point to the reality of how Israel has lost its way through their leaders. The religious leaders place themselves in the role of Moses’ authority, thinking they have the correct reading or interpretation of the Scriptures, but if they did, they would have embraced Jesus as the Messiah. Yet, because they reject him, their house will become desolate because they are being judged by God.
Throughout the Old Testament, when God’s presence leaves the people of Israel because of their rebellion, God speaks of leaving both homes and the land desolate. Speaking in Isaiah 5:8 we read, “The Lord Almighty has declared in my hearing: ‘Surely the great houses will become desolate, the fine mansions left without occupants.’”
The prophet Jeremiah wrote that God said, “Take warning, Jerusalem, or I will turn away from you and make your land desolate so no one can live in it (6:8).”
The presence of God is walking with them at that very moment, calling his people to himself to turn away from sin, and to salvation. Yet because they have rejected him and sought to kill him, The presence of God is withdrawing from Israel and a new covenant will now be established with the nations through the cross and resurrection.
So Jesus’ words between the bookends are both a summary of God’s reason for the removal of his presence and a warning to his disciples. So let’s look at Jesus’ seven woes and see how each is a reason for judgment and a warning to the disciples.
In Jesus’ first woe he speaks of how the religious leaders cause barriers to the kingdom. They have become the guards to the Kingdom’s gates. They think that they have a right to decide who gets in, and who is left out. But we’re told by 1st John 2:1, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” It is not the religious leaders of Israel who decide which person enters the kingdom, its Jesus. And time and time again we have seen him call all people to himself.
This is a warning to Jesus’ disciples that we cannot be guards at God’s Kingdom gates. All who accept Jesus as Savior and Lord are welcome before the throne of God. The way a person smells, the way a person sings, the way a person acts, the way a person speaks, the wealth of a person, the clothes of a person, the skin color, none of those things are what separates us from God. And we who follow Jesus, must not put any stumbling block to salvation in front of people, except Jesus himself.
If people are not going to get in to God’s Kingdom, it’s going to be on the own personal rejection of Jesus’ message of unique access through him. It should not be because we have created theology or culture that is unbiblically closing the door for people to come to God.
The second woe speaks against the religious leaders that they seek disciples for themselves, not for the Kingdom. These religious leaders are building ministries where they are the focal point. Where they are more important to the spiritual lives of the people, than God himself. Paul corrects the Corinthian church when they tried to pull this idea of following humans instead of God. We read in 1st Corinthians 3:5-6, “5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.”
This is a warning to Jesus’ disciples to not seek to build our own little kingdoms within God’s. Jesus says that we shouldn’t be called Rabbi, or father, or instructors, because we have one Teacher, one Father, one Instructor. This is one of the reasons why I don’t like to be called pastor. As Jesus’ disciples, we are all on the same level, and we are all ministered by God himself. We might help each other in different ways, using the gifts God has given us, but we are to give glory back to God, both acknowledging his work and submitting to his authority in our lives.
In Jesus’ third woe, we see that the religious teachers are teaching people to trust in things and not God. They are teaching them to place their faith, not in the person of God, but in the gold. They are teaching the people to place their faith in their own acts of sacrifice, rather than God who forgives. This is why Paul says in 1st Corinthians 2:2 that, “For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
The warning to Jesus’ disciples is to not focus other’s faith into what we may have for them. No ministry, will save you. No project will bring about salvation. Faith in anything other than Jesus is no faith at all. No denomination, no global or local ministry confines God’s blessing. Only Christ is holds salvation, and we cannot point others to, anything other than Jesus, his sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead.
Following Jesus’ third woe, the fourth woe calls the religious leaders out on their desire to pick and choose what commands to obey from God. The religious leaders wanted people to obey what was the most profitable for them. Tithe’s, offerings, and other payments kept the money rolling in and helped the religious leaders live more than comfortable lives. But the poor were not being taken care of. The most vulnerable were left to the wayside. This is why in the opening to James’ letter, the first chapter ends with, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world (1:27).”
This is a warning to Jesus’ disciples to not seek after wealth. Too many people have a rightful problem with the modern Church, because there are too many millionaire pastors. Too many leaders of the Church who wear thousands of dollars worth of jewelry, or drive lavish vehicles. The world has a right to call us out, but Jesus did it first. We must seek to live as subtle lives as we can, especially us leaders. It’s one reason, I personally never took a raise, even going from youth pastor to leader pastor, because the church supplied my needs and there was no reason to add to it. It’s one reasons I was uncomfortable with the recent increase in my salary. If we are not taking care of the most vulnerable among us, while the least vulnerable have excess, then we are failing God’s call on the church.
Jesus’ next two woes parallel each other. Both deal with the religious leaders trying to look righteous on the outside, but embracing sin on the inside. The religious leaders had no problem talking the talk and walking the walk in front of others. Their facade of following God fooled everyone. Everyone, except God himself. Every generation thinks that if they put on a good outward look, then they’ll be fine, but just as God said to Samuel concerning David in 1st Samuel 16:7, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart…” God is speaking that to us today.
A disciple of Jesus needs to be seeking after God to clean up the inside, the place, as Jesus said early in Matthew (15:19), where evil comes out of. It’s good not to smoke, it’s good not to cuss, but those and so many other things are merely symptoms of deeper issues. Issues that God desires to deal with. But when we focus on the outward, without addressing the inward, we create legalistic communities, where everyone is trying to look good, but none are experiencing the grace of Jesus that transforms them.
The final woe deals with the thinking of the religious leaders believing they would have followed God in the past, if they were alive when the Old Testament prophets came. But they show they wouldn’t have followed then, because they aren’t following now. If they do not submit to God’s authority as he walks in front of them as Jesus, then they would never have followed the authority given to a human who spoke on behalf of God in the past. The Hebrew writer, in the opening to their letter writes, “1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. 4 So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs (1:1-4).” If a person cannot accept Jesus’ words on their own, then that person cannot accept anything else God has spoken. This is the epitome to why God’s presence was taken from Israel, they rejected not simply a Messiah, but God himself, come down to the earth.
Jesus is the full revelation of God, as disciples, we do not get to pick and choose what he says, as if he was a buffet for our liking. No, we are the children who’s parents place dinner in front of them that we must eat. To think we get to choose Jesus’ words, is to not seek the true and living God who provides salvation through none other than Jesus and his cross.
This chapter can feel like Jesus is really sticking it to the religious leaders of his day, but we see the same things that Jesus spoke against them, festering within the world wide Church today. We must take the woes against the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, and stand against what led to those woes. The Church will endure, the people of God always endure, but our witness has been tarnished again and again, and we have seen church bodies fold again and again because God has removed his presence from them.
The seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 is a cautionary example of God’s willingness to remove his witness from those body of believers that seek their own kingdom above his. So we must hold steadfast to seeking the will of God above our own. That we are seeking the work of the Holy Spirit to transform us into the image of Jesus. That we are good stewards of the blessings of God, seeking to both love him and the people around us. That we are not a clubhouse of people who look alike, but are a collection of flawed people seeking to share God’s grace with each other.
My challenge this week is to review the seven woes, asking God to reveal if you have succumbed or are succumbing to one or more of these warnings. Ask that the Holy Spirit both to cleanse you of it, and confess it to a fellow believer that they may pray for you. The only way that we will build each other up in the Lord, is to stand with each other in our problems and extend grace to one another.
Let us be people who are willing to be corrected by God, so that we may fully experience his presence as he created us to. Amen.
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