The Danger of Not Seeing The Messiah, Part 2

Matthew chapter 23 verses 23 through 39 to use scribes and Pharisees Hippocrates. You tithe mint and Dill, and cumin and have neglected, the weightier matters of the law, Justice, 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 Hippocrates, for you clean the outside of the cup and the plate. But the inside But inside, they're full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee. First clean the inside of the cup and the plate that the outside may also be clean woe to you scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites. For you are like the whitewashed tombs which outwardly appear beautiful. But within are full of dead people's bones and uncleanliness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness you scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites. For you. Build the tombs of the profits and decorate, the monuments of the righteous saying if we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken the part taken part with them in the shedding of the blood of the prophets. Those you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets fill up, then the measure of your father's. You serpents, you brood of vipers. How are how are you to escape being sentenced to Hell. Therefore I send you profit there for 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 made all the righteous blood shed on Earth from the blood of the ratchet from the blood of righteous able to the blood of Zechariah, son of bar, akaya between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you all these things will come upon this generation o Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills prophets and Stones, those who are sent to it. How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings and you were not willing? See your house is Left To You desolate for. I tell you you will not see me again until you say. Blessed, is he who comes in the name of the Lord?

Good morning again, Church. Today, we are continuing part, two of the woes that Jesus gives to the scribes and Pharisees. And as we noticed last week and read this week, it's pretty big stuff. So we are going to dive into the, the the heavy water is here this morning. And what we're going to notice is similar to last week. There's a lot of comments about being Hypocrites, but hypocrisies takes on a lot of different. And so, we're going to look at today, specifically how these particular woes applied to them. And then also looking at what should, or could happen instead, I say shorter could because it should happen for those of us who are Christians and it could happen to anyone who comes to Christ and sees him as the Messiah. As the one that was promised to come and save. So we go into this. Let's pray and ask the Lord's help and go from there. Heavenly father, I thank you this morning that you have given us your word. I think you that it is. Hard at times to hear. And yet, good for us to hear it is hard at times to live out, but good for us to live out. And so we pray. Lord that you would help with the things that we need help with this morning, and terms of hearing and living it out. And Lord that you would help us leave here with a deeper appreciation for our Salvation in Christ and pray these things in your name or Jesus in them.

Here we start off again with another. What were the scribes and Pharisees again, they are hypocrites. Why? This time? What is it that Jesus wants them to understand about their behavior in this way? Well, They're having a problem figuring out. What's the most important thing to remember, a few weeks ago. Someone it said came to Jesus as a as a lawyer and they tested him, what, what's the most important law? What's the most important commandment? In Jesus says, the most important commandment is still love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. And the second is like it to love your neighbor as yourself. So it would seem that things that help us love the Lord and love others should be primary. And other things should become secondary. Well, here is their problem. They wanted to make sure that they were keeping the law. Exactly. And so, if you're supposed to give 10%, then they wanted to give 10% of everything. Not just the the green we grew or something like that. We're going to go through our spice rack and we are going to make sure that we have allotted 10% of everything there to the Lord. Is that wrong to want to make sure that there's not an area of your life that you haven't given to the Lord? Know, that's crazy. The problem was, they weren't doing it because they wanted to let the Lord into every area of their lives. They were doing it cuz they wanted to have a select set of stuff that they could look at on the checklist and say we did this. And in the process, they were forgetting about the bigger things. The more important things of primary things they needed to do.

What were the primary things? Justice, mercy and faithfulness, these are folks that would have been ruling over. The people that would have been issuing an understanding of how things were to be done within the people of God's, justice, and mercy would have been very big things for them to deal out and they were not being just and they were not being merciful. Man, they made sure they gave 10% of the deal.

Faithfulness. If you are one of the leaders of God's people, your faithfulness to him and threw him to other should be a parent.

And they weren't. But God got his mint.

This reveals a level of spiritual blindness that we can suffer from its Linus to the essence of the command and the, the Heart of Jesus Ministry for the sake of Looking like we're doing what God wants us to do.

The Pharisees were in a sense being legalistic, but we need to understand what that term means to really understand what what they're getting us. Hear the term legalism gets thrown around a lot, right? It could be you're being legalistic cuz you have a rule about something, we should understand. Legalism correctly, somebody to listen Is the attempt to use the law to be right with God, okay? So if we are trying to use the law to make ourselves right with God, that is legalism So are they guilty of that? Well, yes, cuz they're trying to use the tithing law to make God happy with them. Now, it doesn't mean that every time we obey Allah that we are somehow legalists, no, because we're not trying to earn our Salvation or not, trying to earn favor with God, by what we're doing, cuz it's Christians. We understand, we are saved by grace through faith. There's nothing in it that allows us to do something that would make. God love us. More or less. He loves you fully in Christ, when you became a Christian, when you said Jesus Christ, you are my Lord and my savior and you started down that path with Christ and dwelling you through the Holy Spirit. You do a lot of things in response to what God has done for you, but nothing you do changes your status with God. You are his always and forever. Flare legalist in the sense that they are trying to use the law to get right with God. But it's not just about that.

It is about focusing on. The small things that the trivial things. To the neglect of the bigger things. Notice? What Jesus says here, he doesn't say your auto focused on Justice, mercy and faithfulness and forgotten about your spices. And he doesn't say that he says these. You ought to have done without neglecting the others. So he's saying it's okay to do the little things and it's me grow as a Christian. There's little things that we do that honor God that we didn't do when we first became a Christian and those are fine, you know. You're a Christian. When you come to Christ, you're not a Christian because you read your Bible everyday. But it's a good thing for you to read your Bible everyday. Yeah, great help. You learn more about who God is and what he wants from you and how to live in light of the history that he's laying out for us. Can a Christian woman Christ and dwelt you in Repentance and Faith? You came to him? You don't become a Christian because you're in church this morning. Is it good that you're in church this morning? Yeah, it's great. We're told not to neglect assembling together. In Hebrews. It's a it's a good thing. But we can't separate the big thing from the little thing, and assume that the little thing is, okay, in and of itself, it's okay for you to read your Bible. It's good. It's okay for you to be in church, it's good. It's okay for you to do a whole lot of things in life that help you grow in. Jesus, we don't have the disciples path board out there for nothing, right? We want to intentionally grow to be more like Jesus. Why? Because Jesus is saved us already, right? We're growing because of a response to what he has done. We're not trying to grow so that Jesus will love us. They were getting that part confused and since they were putting the cart before the horse,

what we really desire as Christians is not so much to do things a certain way cuz God likes it. But to be so transformed by God that what we want to do are the things that God wants us to do. Do you see the difference there? One is, is saying if I do the things then somehow that will make me different. And the other says, I am being made different. So therefore, I will want to do different things. What this prevents in the Christian Life, is the ability to put on a show. Did to do all the little things that everybody expects from you and to just focus on, am I being transformed and and and am I using my gifts to be part of the transformation that God is doing in other people. It completely changes. Our focus and makes us more god-centered and less us centered.

Now. It would be. good, if Jesus response was

so, going into these sort of things in and learn

But it's really good, that Jesus responded the way he does. First 24, you blind guides training on a gnat and swallowing a camel. This idea of you made sure that no little thing was in the way. And in the process, the big thing got you This is a great warning to all of us, there may be areas in your life that you don't see coming. That are camels that needing to be dealt with. And instead, you're so busy focusing on making sure the Nets are taken care of that, you're not ready for it. We need to realize that. When the big things come we should be in place already to deal with them with Jesus. As he brings them to mind, as he recalls them to your heart deal with them right away.

Swallowing camels is not good for your health.

Then he continues. Another woah. You clean the outside of the cup and plate, but inside they're full of greed and Indulgence. And then he continues in the next while you're like whitewashed, tombs, outwardly appearing beautiful, but within dead people's phones and uncleanness Jesus is comparing their religious leadership to cleaning the outside of a cop or that's the back end of the plate or the outside of the bowl or making sure that the tomb looks good. But forgetting, what a tomb is. It's a place to put dead bones. The struggle here is a course that that ability to put on an appearance while what's really going on is disgusting. It's the ability to hide one's sin. Well.

if we wore the effects of our inner life when it is sinful on the outside of our bodies, we would probably look similar to many of the characters that have been drawn in horror movies. Cocina's ugly. It's disgusting. So what do we do? We tried to hide it. We try to put on something nice on the outside now.

I don't like to admit this, but I'll tell you, I sometimes will forget this day I have put coffee into a thermos and drank it but forgot to wash it out. And I forget for a while. And when you open that thing up, there is a smell to it. There is a pasty this to it and it's no longer a matter of hey, let's just rinse this thing out and go know. It's where is the antibacterial stuff? Power wash it. I don't know what I need to do with something's got to happen before I'm ever going to use this thing again. That's the image Jesus is trying to percent in terms of this washing, the outside and leaving the inside dirty.

The longer we leave it dirty the worse. It gets

There is a danger in a in valuing appearance over authenticity. Now, does that mean every time, anything little sin pops into your mind. You need to just Call your friends and tell them. I just had a bad thoughts. Now, I'm not saying that If you can deal with it with Christ in Repentance right away, by all means deal with it.

But if you can't deal with it yourself, don't hide it, get help.

Whitewashed tombs disguise. Something there. A facade out in front.

if you put all your work, Into trying to look like what people expect you to look like, you are putting your work in the wrong place. If the structure inside is not strong, no matter how nice it looks outside, it's going to fail.

Do you remember back in 2021? I know that seems like a long time ago. Really wasn't that long ago. Surfside Florida, beautiful, condominium. This Tower had been built and lots of people who live there. Spend lots of money to buy one of these condos. What happened when they built it, it wasn't structurally sound. So it looks nice and he see pictures of it before it fell down. It's beautiful. You see the pictures of it after it fell down? It's not nearly so pretty anymore. People lost their lives there. Why? Because the inside was not right, the engineering was not right, the foundation was not right there. Were problems with how the building was structured. That made all the beautiful things on the outside, and even the beautiful furniture and countertops and everything that people would put inside worthless.

We need to understand something from this example that Jesus is laying out here for us with the Pharisees. It's not just that it's not as good if you don't have a strong inside and and have a better outside. It's it's not just that it's not great. Harmful. Amanda. It's deadly. The building will fall down mean. Yes, we, we have people to go visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa, because it's pretty amazing to see a building. That's tilted, right? What great. But why is it tilted? Because someone messed up in the beginning, the foundation wasn't firms in the whole thing started to go.

We need to be clear. That it is not about looking good.

Is about being changed into a faithful follower of Jesus Christ.

We say, we are intentionally growing to be made more like Jesus. Imagine for a moment, if you will growth, that starts to happen, the growth of a building to use the buildings are example. It's, it's growing up from its foundation and it's starting to look good and then it just sort of gets stuck. What happens when the building is uninhabitable because until you finish it you can't really move into it, so it's not done yet. But the other problem is, sometimes we stopped building what's healthy and we start building, whatever else the world tells us, we should build and now we have the problem of we started off well, but this thing is a mess. What do you have to do? When the first few floors are? Good of the skyscraper but all the stuff above it isn't working.

Death countdown. You have to demolish it and start again. Now when you knock it all down, you can't just throw the whole concept out. It's not as if we give up on Jesus, and and deconstruct, our faith. The point where Jesus isn't a factor anymore. Nope, Jesus is the Cornerstone. He is the Firm Foundation. He's the thing that stays sports, but we might have to rebuild differently on top of it in ways that are actually healthy. And it is okay. No, it is good. If you've discovered an area of your life that has grown in an unhealthy way,

hear it out and ask the Lord to help you replace it with something good and healthy and right.

Do not allow outward Conformity to hide, inner decay.

A genuine Faith, emerges from sincerity. It emerges true that emerges from aligning your inner self with Christ.

I don't hear me wrong. I'm not saying Don't spend all your energy working on the outside. Just spend all your energy working on the inside. Why? Because you don't have the energy to do either one? Well, I hate to tell you this but we're not good Engineers of our own life. What you need is to say Christ, build me. I'm willing to do whatever you say. I'm, I'm I'm up a good construction, worker. If you say, well, this being here attached that board there, I will do it. But you planted, you tell me how it's supposed to be built and you make sure that vertical is vertical and so forth. You are the one who determines, what this structure should look like. And here's the amazing thing because we give it all over to Christ to build the insides of it. He also is an amazing person in terms of building the outside, he builds it to match, he doesn't build this amazing structure of our lives and then go doesn't really matter what you look like on the outside. You can do whatever you want. As long as the insides good call, addresses this in Roman, shall we sin that Grace May abound by no means, right? We we don't act a fool just because well, you know, the insides are good, doesn't matter what the outside looks like. The goal is to have them. The goal is to be built up in Christ so that who we are and what we do match each other.

if you find, That you have built a facade. If you find, you are wearing masks. Let It Go. Take it off. It'll hurt a little bit at first, but in the end, it'll be way better for you.

Then he finishes up. These woes to them. First 29. Woe to you scrubs and Pharisees hypocrites.

You build the tombs of the prophets and decorate, the monuments of the righteous saying if we lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in the shedding of the blood of the prophets. All right. So so what's the weather here?

They made it seem like they were better than the people that had come before them, right? We build monuments to Prophet those guys killed them. They somehow thought they didn't have the same nature as their ancestors had, it it somehow, because of their Pious nastase their Holiness, they're willing to do things that made it look good. That they weren't built to the same stuff that their ancestors were who had killed the prophets. It's just not true in. Jesus calls them out for it. He says, first of all, you're witnessing against yourself that you are the sons of the murderers of the prophets. You you know that they're your father's.

And so you're going to do what they're going to do, fill up, then the measure of your father's. And then again, we get this very strong statement from Jesus, usurping, you brood of vipers. How are you to escape from being sentenced to help? What you getting at here? They did not want to acknowledge their connections with the sins of the past that they are built of the same stuff and because of their proclaimed self-righteousness.

There's nothing they can do to keep themselves out of hell at that. Well, that's a big thing, right? If if self-righteousness can keep you from being able to get into heaven, and and sentence you to hell, that's a pretty serious issue.

Why? Yeah. Okay. So they didn't acknowledge the fact that. Yeah, if we had been there we would have done it to. That's worthy of hell. We're not the question, we would tend to ask ourselves, right? Like it, it just seems like maybe the punishment isn't quite fitting the crime here. But here's the issue.

Jesus saves sinners. He doesn't save people who have no problems. And so if you cannot admit that, you have a sin nature that needs to be transformed, you will not be able to submit to Christ and be saved. the problem with self-righteousness isn't it thinks we're good enough on our own to get to God and we're not There is no level of stuff. You can do. That will get you there. Does that mean we shouldn't try it off? No we should try and response to the work that God is doing in us. But we should never seek to do it on our own without Christ's work. In order for Christ to work as our savior, we need to acknowledge that we need to be saved. Now, perhaps at this point, you're thinking, oh, okay, so so when I come to Christ first, and I acknowledge that I'm a sinner, and I need to be safe, baby, love with you in the prayer. I prayed when I was sitting, in church, sometime a long time ago and I said, Lord, I know. I'm a sinner the need to be saved. I put my trust in you. I pray this prayer, right. Therefore, I'm done with that. Well, here's the problem. I know it's true in my life and because you are human beings, I know it's true in your life just because you became a Christian does not mean it's in one away. And so it is not as if we needed to acknowledge our sinfulness to get saved and now we're saved and we never need to worry about Sin again. It's that we needed to start a knowledge in our sinfulness in our Salvation start. And we need to keep and knowledge in our sinfulness in our ongoing salvation.

As some might say, well, this sounds pretty unhappy like my whole life is one of repentance. Yes, and it's a joyful thing is so good. Every time that you see in there is salvation in Christ, that can be called upon. There is forgiveness for that sin, you never reach a point where Jesus is just like, I'm done with forgiveness. I've done it too many times you lost your last chance. No. there is always Grace available for the one who is willing to admit, they need it

The problem with the scribes and the Pharisees is that they did not think they needed help.

This flies in the face of a lot of the conventions we have in life, right? When were sick, we go to the hospital. But when were not sick, we don't usually think about what we need to do is put the reality of it is our bodies always need care. And so whether we are currently sick or not, currently sick caring for our physical bodies is helpful, Hey, hey, you can be perfectly healthy if you go out right now and you just eat Twinkies for the next month, every meal, every day you are going to be sick, right? It's just not nutritious for you in any way. Apply that to your spiritual life. Is church, something like a hospital that you only come to when you're sick? Or is it something that because you know you need to care for your spiritual life? All the time, you participate in the body life of the church as part of the way to keep yourself growing spiritually. There's a massive difference there. And sadly for many church can become just that place we go to when something goes wrong.

He goes on to describe the fact that they are going to do in the future, what their fathers did in the past. Jesus going to send prophets wiseman's scribes. Some of whom they will kill and crucify many, not only Jesus, but many of the apostles were crucified as well. Samuel. Flogging your synagogues and persecute from town to town boy. That sounds an awful lot. Like Paul's Ministry.

Why? So they're on you may come the righteous blood shed on Earth. From hell of an English. How this works out able to Zechariah for Maiden Z? It's been done and now you're just going to involve yourself in that.

The persecution that happens within the church is just a reflection of the ongoing persecution that has happened to the people God has spent throughout history.

There is not really a difference between those who persecute the church now and the scribes and Pharisees fathers, who had persecuted the prophets and the scribes in Pharisees themselves, it would see to it. That Jesus was put to death. Why? Cuz it all Springs from the same place. Satan has always been at work. Here's the amazing thing. He never wins. Even when they killed the prophets, Jesus still came, even when they killed Jesus, his church still survive. Even when the apostles were martyred, the church grew. Even when the church is persecuted, today, it's still is expanding. Until the point comes where every tribe and Nation. People are gathered before the Lord. And he needs to hear every voice. Sing, praise to him.

I think Paul is a really good example. Here of someone who went from persecution to praise He went from someone who held robes for people, as they stoned Stephen. To being one who was willing to offer his life, for the sake of the Gospel, wherever it took him.

I point him out because Jesus is Calling them to something innate in heat. He specifically pointed out in terms of not just the leadership, but the generation in Jerusalem. Look, if you will it versus 36 and following here. Truly, I say to you all these things will come upon this generation, Jerusalem, Jerusalem. The city that kills prophets and Stones. Those who are sent to it. How would Jesus respond is it that Jesus would say you killed the prophets you stoned those who are sent to it? There is no hope for you know he says how often I would have gathered you like children together as a hen gathers The Brood under her wings. It is not that his heart is not for his people. They were not willing, he was willing.

You will not see me again. Verse 39, until you say blessed, is he who comes in the name of the Lord?

There is an importance. I've acknowledged in and accepting Jesus, for who he truly is.

If you don't make that acknowledgment, if you don't come to the point where you acknowledge Christ as Savior and Lord, You are willingly moving away, from the one who is moving to you.

Here's the amazing thing. Because Jesus wants to gather his people together. Salvation is always on the table. There is never a time while you are alive. This salvation is not available to you. Why? Because the one who offers it is permanently alive and so he keeps offering it and offering it and offering it. So they she is not only possible. Jesus wants it for his people.

Christian, I want to speak to you for a second.

Is it not a choice in our lives to know that she's has wanted to save us? and there are so many times when we can feel unwanted and unloved on useful, and sometimes we feel like why would Jesus want me? I can't necessarily answer that question other than to just say because he does because he does want you. It is an amazing thing.

The one who is deaf in the beginning when creation was spoke it into existence, the Eternal Word made flesh.

How can we not Place him? How can we sit there silently and go? You know, I'm a Christian but no save by Christ himself.

To those of you who might be here, who are not currently Christians.

I want to say to you, there is a joy to be had, there is a Love to be experienced. There is a freedom from the bonds of sin to be lived in.

Do you have not yet experienced but you can

Christ salvation is for his people, he wants to save his people.

So if you feel the desire to come to Christ and submit to him and live under him to, to allow him to be both Savior and Lord, the great news is all that Joy is for you. All that freedom is for you all that love is for you. That's the very thing I was just talking about about knowing that you are wanted and loved by the creator of the universe is yours. And I will say on behalf of all of us here, who are Christians, if you're not one, we really want that for you. We really wanted because we've experienced the joy and we don't want to be the only ones.

But there are many people who do not know Christ that are not sitting here this morning. And so, someone needs to go tell them. Someone needs to share that Joy with them. When we talked about what it means to be eventual list, stick in your mind set in your heart set, what we're talkin about is someone who is so understanding of the amazing thing that Christ has done for them that they want to go tell someone else to see if Christ might save them too.

find courage, you

Don't keep your joy inside. Share it. Don't just go from persecutor to passive, persecutor to pray it all the way to the point, where it's something that marks who you are and how you live life. So, We go to prayer. There's a couple things I want us to to ask ourselves if we do this. First of all. Go back to the camel issue for a second. Feel free. A floor? Are there bigger spiritual issues in my life? That I'm ignoring are there areas of growth it that I'm just forgetting about camels that I need to address before they get lodged in my throat?

I ask this not because I assume everyone has one. Because I know everyone could. I'm not perfect yet, there might very well be areas. We need to grow in. And the amazing thing is, as we grow in maturity, we begin to see that some things that we thought were Knights were really Campbell's. Another words, we realize that small sins that we thought that's not a big deal. Now, that's something that needs to be dealt with one of those things that I need to deal with. In my life, I can wait in line at the facades that we can put on in what ways are you valuing appearance over authenticity in what ways are you trying to look good rather than trying to be transformed?

the thing here is that I think for every single one of us, there's probably some truth to this

Varying levels, I'm sure.

But it is much too easy in our current culture to say. I need to look good. I need to make everybody think it's okay.

I've even caught myself this week, doing that, when people ask me how I am and like, all good, then I realize what. Actually, there's some things going on that aren't that great right now, but probably shouldn't just say I'm good.

Where is it? That we can be more authentic. And lastly, in terms of going from persecution to praise Are there areas in your life where you are resisting Christ, rather than praising him. Because the problem here can be when we resist him, when there's an area, we don't want to let him into when we want to make sure that he can have all of us but this We are diminishing the number of things that we can praise God. For think, back to a second, if you've been a Christian wild, think back to earlier in your Christian Life, when there were some things that were in your life than that aren't in your life now, If you had not let God into those areas, then you could not Praise Him for them now.

If that was true, then it's still true now. So areas that we are resisting him in our just areas we are denying ourselves. The joy of praising him for

So pray about that, ask him where are the things that I need to stop fighting and start praising you for the work that you're doing. I will be up front here to pray. Pastor Donald The Upfront here to pray. If anybody would like to pray with us for a few minutes, you can always let us know during the week. If something comes up on the, let's go to the Lord in prayer for a few minutes.