Matthew 23

 

Is Christ Your Master?

Verses 1-12

 

In this passage, we learn a key part of Christian life and faith. This passage contains the last words that Christ spoke in the walls of the temple. Those words exposed the Scribes and Pharisees and a sharp rebuke concerning their doctrine and practices was given. Christ knew that His time on earth was soon to come to a close. He used this time to warn against the Scribes and Pharisees. This chapter is a signal example of boldness and faithfulness in speaking against error. It is proof that a loving heart and spirit will warn against error. The faithful people of God ought to be a beacon in a world full of error and wrong doctrine.

 

We also see in these verses the duty of the office of a teacher. We also see how to distinguish between that office and false teachers. The Scribes and Pharisees sat in Moses' seat. Right or wrong they occupied the position of teaching among the Jews. The office they held entitled them to respect. However, their lives, teachings, and examples were not to be followed. Their teachings were to be obeyed as long as it agreed with Holy Scripture. This can be said of us today in our society. Our society and government are not Christian at heart, but we ought to obey and respect the government as long as they don’t teach and force us to contradict the Word of God. False doctrine is to be rebuked as well as false practice.

 

We see in these verses what displeases Christ. The Pharisees are a good example of this. Christ said of these people that they say and do not. They expected others to do what they were not prepared to do themselves. They also did things to be seen by men. They desired others to see them as holy and better than others. The Pharisees loved to have “the chief seat” given to them with all the honour and titles simply to be seen by men. This behaviour and doctrine displeased Christ deeply. The Scribes and Pharisees thought they were honouring God, but in fact, they were a soul-ruining and sinful group.

 

The Pharisees are not the only people who impose spiritual poverty on others. Sadly, throughout church history, far too many Christians have walked in the way of the Scribes and Pharisees. Many Christian people have followed the Scribes and Pharisees.

 

In this portion of Matthew’s Gospel, we read that no man is to call another “Father.” We are forbidden to esteem teachers highly in love just because of the office and title they have. We are to honour teachers but not to put them in a place where they are beyond rebuke. They are at best just men like everyone else. Great men are just men, they are not infallible. Church leaders cannot atone for sin. They are not mediators between man and God. There is only one mediator, Christ Jesus the righteous. They are men with needs and sins like the rest of us. They have been set apart for a godly calling, but still, they are just men. Their role is not to rule but to serve the people of God. May we be an assembly of people that are clothed with humility (1 Peter 5:5). He that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

 

The Eight Woes of Christ

Verses 13-33

 

Here we have our Lord’s great condemnation of the Scribes and Pharisees. Jesus publicly denounces the errors and hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees. There is no other group in Scripture that Christ condemns more strongly than these. Eight times our Lord uses the words, “woe unto you” and seven times he calls them “hypocrites.” Twice He calls them “fools and blind”, once He calls them, “serpents and a generation of vipers.” This is strong language and a strong rebuke from our Lord. Let us mark this solemn lesson in our mind as it teaches us how abominable and wicked the spirit of the Scribes and Pharisees are in the sight of God.

 

Let us look at these eight woes of Christ and explain their meaning.

 

The first woe is the opposition of the Scribes and Pharisees to the preaching and progress of the kingdom. Our Lord said of them that they “shut up the kingdom of heaven.” They rejected the warnings of John the Baptist and rejected Jesus as Messiah. They rejected His message and did all they could to prevent others from believing the teachings of Christ. This was a great sin.

 

The second woe is against the covetousness of the Scribes and Pharisees. They devoured widow’s houses and for a pretense made long prayers. They imposed on weak and unprotected women. They did this to make money through their religion. This was a great sin.

 

The third woe is against the zeal of the scribes and Pharisees for making partisans, strong supporters of their cause. They “compassed sea and land to make one proselyte.” A proselyte is a person who is a Gentile and converted to Judaism. They laboured day and night to make men join their party and accept their views, doctrine, and way of life. They did this with the desire to strengthen their cause. This zeal came from sectarianism, which is an excessive attachment or loyalty to a sect or party. They had no real love for souls nor for God, all that mattered to them was furthering their cause. This was a great sin.

 

The fourth woe is against the doctrine of the Scribes and Pharisees about oaths. They drew subtle distinctions between one kind of oath and another. By doing so they brought the third commandment into contempt. They sought to advance their own interest. This was a great sin.

 

The fifth woe is against the Scribes and Pharisees' practice of exalting trifles in religion. They put the last things first and the first things last. They neglected great plain duties such as justice, love, and honesty. This was a great sin.

 

The sixth and seventh woe is against the general character of the religion of the Scribes. They set outward purity and decency above inward sanctification and purity of heart. They made their religion nothing more than outward appearance. They were full of hypocrisy and sin. 1 Samuel 16:7 teaches us a truth well worthy of our attention, “man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” They neglected their hearts and souls at the expense of looking good before others. This was a great sin.

 

The eighth and last woe of Christ is directed against the veneration of the memory of the dead by the Scribes and Pharisees. They built the “tombs of the prophets” and garnished “the sepulchres of the righteous.” They did this while in their own lives they “killed the prophets.” They preferred the dead of old to living souls that were entrusted to their care. The men who professed to honour dead prophets could see no beauty in the living Messiah. This was a great sin.

 

There is not a point in the character of the Scribes and Pharisees that God is pleased with. Let us learn from the whole passage how dangerous and unfaithful this group of people are. It is bad for us to be spiritually blind, but even worse to be a blind guide. Let not hypocrisy prevent our bold confession of Christ. May we say with the Psalmist David, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD my strength and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14).

 

Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord

Verses 34-39

 

Here is the conclusion of our Lord’s rebuke and address to the Scribes and Pharisees. They are the last words Christ spoke as a public teacher. The compassion of our Lord comes out in these closing verses. Even though Christ’s enemies were left in unbelief He showed them mercy and compassion to the end.

 

Firstly, we learn in these verses that God often takes great measures with the ungodly men and women. He sent the Jews, “prophets, and wise men, and scribes.” He gave them multiple warnings. He sent them message after message. He did not allow them to go on sinning without warning and rebuke. They could never say that they were not warned when they did wrong.

 

We are reminded here that this is how God deals with unconverted men and women. He does not cut off sinners without a call to repentance. He sends them messages and appeals to their consciences through sermons and the advice of friends. He sends sickness and afflictions as warnings of the frailty of life. The ungodly will see the hand of God during their life, alas and perhaps sometimes too late. They will learn that they like the Jews had prophets, wise men, teachers, and friends that God sent to them. The voice in every providence and dispensation of God is “turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die” Ezekiel 33:11.

 

Secondly, we learn how God’s messengers and ministers are received on earth and will one day judge those who mistreat them. The all-knowing God will not hold them guiltless. The Jews as a nation had often given the servants of God the most shameful treatment imaginable. The servants of the LORD were often dealt with like enemies on the account that they told them the truth. Some they persecuted, some they scourged, and some they even killed.

 

It is good for us to mark in our mind that God will not forget the wrongs done to His people. A thousand years are as one day in the sight of God. The events of many years ago are in the mind of God as if they were done this past hour. The blood of the martyrs at the time of the reformation will be accounted for. It is an old saying that “the millstones of God’s justice grinds slowly, but they grind very fine.” The world will see that there is a judge of the earth and that He is God (Psalm 58:11).

 

May those who persecute God’s people today be careful what they do. May they take heed of the warnings in Holy Scripture. Let those who injure, ridicule, mock, or slander men and women because they are Christian take heed; they commit a great sin. May the child of God continue to read the Bible, pray, and think about his soul in the knowledge that they are doing the right thing before God. In the last judgment God will be honoured and glorified, so let us keep right on to the end of the road.

 

The final thing we learn in these verses is that those who are lost are lost due to their own sin and fault. Christ says, “I would gather thy children together, and ye would not.” Christ has mercy and desires for souls to come to Him. Never forget that the Bible speaks of man as a responsible being and yet many times they resist the Holy Ghost (Acts 7:51).

 

Let this be settled in our mind that if a man is saved his salvation is a gift of God and wholly of God and if a man is lost it is wholly of himself. The evil and sin that is in a man is all his own and if there be good in him it is of God. The saved will bring glory to God and the lost will continue to destroy themselves.