Text: Mathew 23:13-23
Intro:
- At this time in the Lord Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry, he is in Jerusalem, and this is only a short time before his crucifixion.
- In chapter 22, the Lord Jesus had the Herodians, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees all ask him questions in an attempt to trick him into saying something that they could use against him and turn the hearts of the people away from him.
- The Lord Jesus answered their questions and even presented the Pharisees with a question that they could not answer for fear of the people.
- As we come to chapter 23, the Lord Jesus Christ begins to expose these religious leaders as hypocrites who put on a great religious show but are really living for themselves rather than to please God.
- We will break the chapter down into the following divisions:
– Hypocritical Holiness Exposed (Vs 1 – 12)
– Hypocritical Service Reproved (Vs 13 – 23)
– Hypocritical Sanctification Rebuked (Vs 24 – 33)
– Hypocritical Religion Judged (Vs 34-39)
I. The Hypocrisy of Fake Concern (Vs 24-26)
- The folly of blind guides (Vs 24)
a. We all understand that following a blind man isn’t going to get you far. The blind man doesn’t know where he is going, and you are better off finding you own way than following a blind man who is trying to find his way.
b. Mathew 15:12-14 “Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying? But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.”
– If you wouldn’t let a blind man lead you in material things, why would you allow a blind man to lead you in spiritual things?
c. These blind guides were very careful about the particulars of the law while ignoring the overarching principles.
– The gnat and the camel are used here to describe the way these Jewish leaders were so careful and strict in the minute particulars of the law while overlooking the greater principles.
– The picture given is of someone who looks intently at their plate of food to ensure they pick out the little gnat, meanwhile they swallow a whole camel without blinking an eye. - The folly of filthy vessels (Vs 25-26)
a. If you went to a restaurant and all the dishes were dirty, would you be ok with that? What if the waiter told you he had wiped the outside of all the dishes?
b. On the inside, they were full of extortion and excess.
– Extortion refers to spoiling and ravening. They extorted money from others, while pretending to be clean and spiritual. - The solution was to get the heart right inside, before cleaning up the outside.
II. The Hypocrisy of Polished Externals (Vs 27-28)
- The corruption under polished sepulchres
a. The polished white gravestone may look nice but marks the place of a body in which life used to reside.
– The spiritual application is that false religion is no better than a polished gravestone. It is a pretty façade but the spiritually dead reside there.
b. Many churches are full of false converts. They have a lovely building all polished on the outside, but they are full of the spiritually dead.
c. They appeared to be righteous men but were actually wicked.
– They were not fit for the work of God because they dealt only in temporal thing and had no vision for the spiritual and eternal things of God.
III. The Hypocrisy of Self-Exoneration
- The feigned reverence for tombs
a. It seems that where they knew a prophet was buried, they would build a tomb there, or if a tomb was already in place they would spend money to beautify it.
b. These religious leaders acknowledge that it was their fathers who had killed the prophets of days gone by, but they refused to see that they were just a wicked as their fathers.
– They looked down in judgement on their forefathers who had slain the prophets, and they boasted that they were more holy than their fathers and that, if they had been alive in their father’s day, they never would have killed the prophets. - The Lord Jesus called them out on their hypocrisy by pointing ahead to his own death and the death of the martyrs following Him.
a. To fill up the measure of their fathers means to continue to walk in their way and to accomplish the same evil purposes as them.
b. They were not only as wicked as their fathers, but they were worse than their fathers because they would kill the King of Glory, the Son of God Himself for no crime other than the fact that he had exposed their wicked hypocrisy.
– The Lord Jesus told them they would not escape judgement. They may have thought they were getting away with their wicked behaviour, but the day of judgement was coming in which they would be cast into Hell fire to receive the just punishment for their wickedness.
Conclusion:
- Are you a clean vessel that can be used by the Saviour, or is your life full of iniquity and hypocrisy and you just polish up the outside of the vessel to make it appealing to others?
- Are you spiritually alive and seeking to live a righteous and holy life, or are you a whitened sepulcher that looks nice on the outside but inside is full of dead bones?