Grace Bible Church Expository Sermon Notes

Jesus Rebukes Religious Hypocrisy - Part III

cf. Matt. 23:13-15 The Lord’s Day 9/14/97 AM

No other sermon offers such an explosive warning of impending judgment, than Jesus’ rebuke of religious hypocrisy in Matthew 23. Eight woes or pronouncements of judgment are pronounced upon the scribes and Pharisees and in this lesson we want to focus on the first three of these terrible words of Jesus' judgment: for Shutting up the Kingdom, for Devouring Widows Houses, and for Making Converts of Hell.

Judgment is Coming on You Because You

Close the Kingdom to Others

Matthew 23:13 But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for ye neither go in yourselves, neither permit them that are entering to go in.

When Jesus began by saying "woe unto you," He was not simply trying to arouse their attention. The Greek term ouai, translated woe refers to God's pronouncement of unfortunate, which results in a miserable life and damnation in the future. Jesus was pronouncing a sentence of unfortunate upon these hypocrites, or phony religious leaders. And then He gives the reason, i.e., "for you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men." What did Jesus mean? The scribes and Pharisees, through their false doctrine and hypocritical lives, keep others from entering the kingdom of God. That is, they acted as the human instruments to block the true way to heaven. As Luke's account states, "Woe unto you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered." (cf. Luke 11:52) The sense is, that the "scribes and Pharisees" contradicted the teaching and preaching ministry of the gospel and acted as Satan's "ministers of righteousness," substituting an understanding of the law for living a righteous life; they challenged Jesus' teaching at every turn, and held to man made traditions. Some years later the Apostle Paul commended the Thessalonian believers for suffering for Christ, through Gentile citizens of Thessalonica. This, he says is similar to the Jews in Judea...

That is, the wrath of God, which was presently being unleashed in the land of Judea, by the various famines taking place and early persecutions of the Romans, was God's vindication for the Jews resistance that the Gospel be preached to the Gentiles. It was the scribes and Pharisees who primarily led the crusade against the preaching of the Gospel and confused people by their teachings and kept people from surrendering to God! We see this early in the Book of Acts, when the religious Sanhedrin of the Jews "commanded [Peter and John] not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus." (cf. Acts 4:18) And because of this, these religious hypocrites fell under the pronouncement of God's judgment of eternal damnation. Matthew's Gospel then records a second woe pronounced upon by Jesus...

Judgment is Coming on You Because You

Extort Money from Widows

Matthew 23:14 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye devour widows houses, and for a pretense make long prayers; therefore, ye shall receive the greater damnation.

Although in some of the early Greek manuscripts this verse is absent, because Mark and Luke retain it, we are confident that the Lord said these words. Jesus was here indicting the scribes and Pharisees for extorting from widows, while justifying their obvious evil by the pretense of long prayers. cf. Isa. 1:17 and 23; 10:1-2; Jer. 7:5-6; 22:3; Zech. 7:10; Mal. 3:5, etc. In NT times Josephus complained about some scribes and Pharisees (he himself was a Pharisee) who taught that financially providing for a teacher of the law would result in being greatly blessed of God. These religious charlatans would make merchandise of gullible people, especially women and widows. cf. 2 Peter. 2:1-3 and 2 Tim. 3:1-7. The long prayers of pretense, was the cloak of religious piety that would appeal to such gullible widows, as if a profound public prayer somehow validates the genuineness of the scribe or Pharisee. Such extortion results in a greater judgment, as if to point out the severity will be greater than on those who may reject Christ but do not rob widows. Rather, prayers should be private before God and we are to honor widows, plead for their cause and not extort from them! cf. Exod. 22:22-24; Job 22:9-10; Psalm 68:5; Isa. 10:1-4; 1 Tim. 5:3ff. and Js. 1:27. Then Jesus pronounces His third woe…

Judgment is Coming on You Because You

Convert Others into Children of Hell

Matthew 23:15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.

This statement opens a window into the missionary or evangelistic outreach of the scribes and Pharisees. Sometimes we get the idea that they were a closed group, without a concern for those outside the nation, but this isn't the case. Some at least, were very evangelistic, but unfortunately, because a hypocrite will reproduce a bigger hypocrite, the scribes and Pharisees simply produced others worse than themselves! During NT times a Jewish "proselyte" was usually a Gentile who wanted to be saved. Some Gentiles would become "a proselyte of the gate" who attached themselves loosely to Jewish religion, but made no real steps to become a Jew. In the Book of Acts these men are known as "Godfearing" or "a worshiper of God." But in order to receive salvation he had to become a Jew and become a "proselyte of righteousness." That is, he or she had to accept all the legalistic practices of Judaism. This involved a long process which resulted in circumcision, if he was a man, a special sacrifice to be made and then he had to be baptized by immersion. By his or her baptism, they renounced their old Gentile life and symbolically turned their back on their heritage to start anew, as a member of God's covenant community. And the scribes and Pharisees would no doubt be actively involved in winning these Gentiles converts, throughout the world. Jesus was not rebuking their evangelistic emphasis, but rebuking their fruits. A universal law, built into creation itself, is that we reproduce after "our own kind." cf. Matt. 7:16-20; 12:33-35; Luke 6:43-46; James 3:6-12. And these religious phonies, multiplied hypocrites by converting Gentiles. And because of this they fell under the sentence of God's pronounced judgment, through the lips of Jesus Christ! cf. 2 Peter 2:10-19; Jude 10-13. Question: Are you opening the door of salvation to men and women, or are you blocking the doorway to salvation to men and women? That is, are you following the scribes and Pharisees, the NT models of hypocrisy or are you following the Lord Jesus Christ, the NT model of integrity? The scribes and Pharisees shut up the kingdom of heaven to men and when they did make converts of Gentile proselytes, the results were a person characterized by hell itself. These are the three results of religious hypocrisy as related to outreach: first, hypocrites keep others from the true path of salvation; second, hypocrites use others for their own selfish gain; and third, hypocrites influence others to a false empty salvation.