Jesus vs. The Pharisees (part 2)
Matthew 22:41 – 23:12 (23:4-12)
August 5, 2012
When last we met we saw Jesus
Begin to go on the offensive against the Pharisees.
And we said that the reason is because they had so mutilated His flock.
And we read about those pitiful shepherds in Ezekiel’s day
Who instead of feeding the flock had only fed themselves.
Ezekiel 34:3-4 “You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat sheep without feeding the flock. “Those who are sickly you have not strengthened, the diseased you have not healed, the broken you have not bound up, the scattered you have not brought back, nor have you sought for the lost; but with force and with severity you have dominated them.”
Well God had a response to those shepherds.
Ezekiel 34:10 “Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand My sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep. So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I will deliver My flock from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them.”‘”
God determined to remove these pitiful shepherds from over His flock.
The same is seen from the prophet Zechariah.
Zechariah 11 pictures a heavenly conversation
Between the Father and the Son before Christ was sent to earth.
Zechariah 11:4-8 “Thus says the LORD my God, “Pasture the flock doomed to slaughter. “Those who buy them slay them and go unpunished, and each of those who sell them says, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I have become rich!’ And their own shepherds have no pity on them. “For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of the land,” declares the LORD; “but behold, I will cause the men to fall, each into another’s power and into the power of his king; and they will strike the land, and I will not deliver them from their power.” So I pastured the flock doomed to slaughter, hence the afflicted of the flock. And I took for myself two staffs: the one I called Favor and the other I called Union; so I pastured the flock. Then I annihilated the three shepherds in one month, for my soul was impatient with them, and their soul also was weary of me.”
It pictures not only Christ’s willingness to shepherd the doomed flock,
But also to annihilate the shepherds who had had not protected them.
Truer words were never spoken than
“my soul was impatient with them, and their soul was weary of me.”
What a tremendous picture of the friction
Between Jesus and the religious leaders of His day.
He was put out with them, they were sick of Him.
And here on this Wednesday it has all come to a head.
Jesus had entered the temple and began to teach,
But they just couldn’t leave Him alone.
• They had to challenge Him.
• They attacked Him about taxes.
• They attacked Him about the resurrection.
• They even sent a lawyer to try and trap Him.
Of course He eluded their traps,
But it is as if they woke a sleeping giant.
For Jesus turned and went on the offensive.
We actually saw the first part of this text last week.
1) HE EMBARASSED THEM PUBLICLY
He asked them the most basic of questions regarding the Messiah.
Jesus just asked where He was from.
“What do you think about the Christ, who son is He?”
They answered quickly, “The Son of David”
But then Jesus blew their minds.
He quotes Psalms 110:1 where David calls the Messiah Lord and then asks, “If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?”
The answer of course is because the Messiah is more than a man,
He is also God, and this is how He could be
Both David’s Lord and David’s son.
The embarrassment came in because the Pharisees didn’t know that.
Here is one of the most basic truths about Messiah,
And these self-proclaimed experts didn’t know it.
Jesus silenced them.
They had been publicly humiliated and defeated and this opened the door
For Jesus to return to addressing the crowd.
And does He ever.
After embarrassing them publicly,
Jesus then moved into the second part of the sermon.
2) HE EXPOSED THEIR HYPOCRISY
And this comes in the form of 5 relentless shots
Aimed directly at the scribes and Pharisees.
And we saw the first two last week.
1) THEY WERE UNQUALIFIED PROFESSORS OF SCRIPTURE (1-2)
While it was true that they sat in the chair of Moses,
Which was a chair of authority.
It is also true that they seated themselves there.
They had no authority from God.
God did not put them there and this made them unqualified.
2) THEY WERE UNWORTHY PATTERNS OF SANCTIFICATION (3)
Without a doubt one of the purposes of a shepherd
Is not only to feed the flock, but to lead the flock.
Shepherds are supposed to be an example.
Peter said:
1 Peter 5:1-3 “Therefore, I exhort the elders among you, as your fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker also of the glory that is to be revealed, shepherd the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not for sordid gain, but with eagerness; nor yet as lording it over those allotted to your charge, but proving to be examples to the flock.”
A shepherd is supposed to be an example of godliness and sanctification
That his people can model.
How many times do we find Paul saying “follow my example”?
God’s children ought to be able to follow the example of their shepherd.
But that certainly wasn’t the case here.
The scribes and Pharisees talked a good game,
But that was the problem, they were all talk.
“they say things and do not do them.”
They were a model picture of people
Who hear the word but don’t do the word.
They were the type of people Paul warned Timothy about.
2 Timothy 3:5 “holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these.”
They were the type of people Paul warned Titus about.
Titus 1:16 “They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.”
That was these scribes and Pharisees.
And so they were pitiful examples of sanctification.
If you were to gain anything from them about the godly life
It would only come when they read the Law,
But you sure couldn’t learn anything about godliness from their lifestyle.
• They were unqualified professors of Scripture
• They were unworthy patterns of sanctification.
And that is where we left off last time.
Let’s go on as Jesus continues to expose the hypocrisy of these men.
3) THEY ARE UNWILLING PASTORS OF SHEEP (4)
In other words, they are cruel and unsympathetic.
They are like a man who puts an enormous load on the back of his animal
And then whips it when it stumbles
With no regard for the weight the animal is carrying.
• We have all seen horses pulling a buggy.
• We have all seen a donkey carrying a pack.
• We have all seen oxen hooked to a plow.
But how many have ever seen a sheep do those things?
Sheep weren’t designed to carry heavy burdens.
When you look at the artist pictures you occasionally find a picture of a shepherd carrying a sheep, but never of a sheep carrying a shepherd.
But these men didn’t hesitate
To put their sheep through the harshest of conditions.
“They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders”
In a spiritual sense they throw guilt and burden after burden
Forcing people into some sort of routine,
Using fear and intimidation with absolutely no regard for the person.
What a contrast they are to Jesus.
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Jesus offers to carry your burden, these men make you carry theirs.
Certainly the Pharisees did this
By enforcing every possible Law and oral tradition on the people.
Can you imagine living under the rules of a Pharisee and having to follow all of his commands in regard to working on the Sabbath or something like that?
• I mean they even refused sick people a healing on the Sabbath.
• They were angered because the disciples ate food on the Sabbath.
And then they hold that over your head as though you are now not pleasing to God because you broke one of their traditions?
They made the broken feel shame.
They made the hurting feel guilty.
They made the weak feel worthless.
Now, that is not all bad.
Shame, guilt, and worthlessness can at times be used to lead men to Christ.
There is nothing wrong with a person being broken, in fact it is necessary,
So laying a burden on a man can be helpful if it leads him to Christ.
But that was not the intent of these men.
“They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.”
To them people were just there to be used.
They were just a number in the game, a mark on a tally, a way to get ahead.
And this is not the attitude of a true pastor or shepherd.
A true shepherd is concerned for the sheep.
Luke 15:4 “What man among you, if he has a hundred sheep and has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go after the one which is lost until he finds it?”
John 10:11-13 “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. “He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. “He flees because he is a hired hand and is not concerned about the sheep.”
And it’s not hard to tell which ones these guys were.
• They weren’t pastoring the flock.
• They weren’t shepherding the sheep.
• They weren’t bearing their brother’s burdens.
They were heaping burden upon burden upon their brother
And refusing to help him carry it.
They were unwilling pastor’s of sheep
4) THEY WERE UNRELENTING PRETENDERS OF SPIRITUALITY (5)
Oh and don’t we love this one.
Talk about unrelenting.
“they do all their deeds to be noticed by men;”
• They don’t do anything for the glory of God.
• They don’t do anything for the good of a brother.
• Everything they do is only so they can be noticed for it.
We all remember the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 6:2 “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.”
Matthew 6:5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.”
Matthew 6:16 “Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.”
Here Jesus adds a couple more of their pathetic displays.
“for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments.”
We’ve talked about this before, but let me read to you what one commentator had to say about this, just to give you a better picture.
“Phylacteries were sometimes called tephillin, a name derived from the Hebrew word translated “frontals” in Deuteronomy 6:8…Phylacteries were small square boxes made of leather from a ceremonially clean animal. After being dyed black, the leather was sewn into a box using twelve stitches, each stitch representing one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Placed into each phylactery were copies of Exodus 13:1-10 and 13:11-16 and of Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21. The phylactery worn on the head had four compartments, each containing one of the texts on a small piece of parchment. The phylactery worn on the hand contained a single piece of parchment on which all four texts were written. The Hebrew letter shin (y) was inscribed on both sides of the box worn on the head, and the head strap was tied to form the letter daleth (d) and the hand strap to form the letter yodh (j). The three letters together formed Shaddai, one of the ancient names of God usually translated “Almighty”. Long leather straps were used to bind one box to the forehead and the other to the arm and left hand, because the left side was considered to be closer to the heart…Rather than wearing their phylacteries only at prayer time, as the custom was for most Jewish men, the Pharisees wore them continually as a sign of superior spirituality. They would also broaden their phylacteries, making them larger than normal to signify supposed greater devotion to God.” (pg. 364-365)
Is that not amazing?
I’m pretty sure that is not what God meant by “they shall be as frontals on your forehead”
God was merely saying “Keep this on your mind”
That is like me telling you to “Hide God’s word in your heart”
And you literally open up your chest and stick a bible in there.
And the Pharisees really got after it.
But it was pathetic.
And not only that, but they also “lengthen the tassels of their garments.”
Now this was in reference to command.
Numbers 15:38-40 “Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord of blue. “It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot, so that you may remember to do all My commandments and be holy to your God.”
That was a reminder, the Pharisees decided to go all out
And hang massive blue cords on their garments.
And Jesus says it is all for show.
It’s just so you will notice them.
Now a true believer does all that he does for the glory of God.
And what he does is not to be noticed by men, but by God.
In fact in response to their hypocritical giving, prayer and fasting
Jesus said:
Matthew 6:3-4 “But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
Matthew 6:6 “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
Matthew 6:17-18 “But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face so that your fasting will not be noticed by men, but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.”
And this goes for everything else in life.
Colossians 3:23-24 “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”
A true Christians concern in life is not what men think of him,
But what God thinks of him.
And the only person a Christian wants to glorify is Christ.
But not the Pharisees.
It was all about them, it was all for show, and they loved to be noticed.
They are Unqualified Professors of Scripture
They are Unworthy Patterns of Sanctification
They are Unwilling Pastors of Sheep
They are Unrelenting Pretenders of Spirituality
5) THEY ARE UNASHAMED PROMOTERS OF SELF (6-7)
Here comes another right hook.
• And this is why they seated themselves in the chair of Moses.
• And this is why they broaden those Phylacteries.
“They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.”
They love glory.
I mean you open up a banquet hall and they all run to the head table.
They wanted to be a preacher just so they could sit on the stage.
They went to Seminary just so you would be sure and call them “Dr.”
These men don’t ever mind promoting self.
What we have here is the most embarrassing form of idolatry there is.
There is no worse form of idolatry than love of self,
And that is what they had.
And with that Jesus fully exposes them.
All along these people thought they had good leaders, good shepherds,
Religious guides they could trust and Jesus proves just the opposite.
They are:
• Not called by God.
• Not examples for the flock.
• Don’t care about the sheep.
• Are purely external in their spiritual walk.
• And take every opportunity to steal God’s glory.
And Jesus just exposed them.
He Embarrassed them Publicly
He Exposed their Hypocrisy
#3 HE ENLIGHTENED THEIF FOLLOWERS
Matthew 23:8-12
Here Jesus is very matter of fact.
“do not be called Rabbi” (i.e. “Dr.” or teacher)
WHY?
“for One is your Teacher”
My dad told his Sunday school class, “If they ever do evaluations and ask what has Bryan taught you, tell them ‘Nothing, our teacher is the Holy Spirit.’”
John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
I’m not a teacher in the sense that you need to learn what I know.
My job is to share with you what the Teacher wants you to know.
There are those who are called to teach and those whom God gifts to teach, but they are not the supreme teacher.
Christ is.
“and you are all brothers.”
Furthermore it’s not like I’m on a higher plane than you.
We are all brothers. We are all believers.
• Did not both of us have sin we needed atoned for?
• Did not both of us have condemnation we needed removed?
Don’t come looking to me like I crafted the plan of salvation,
It wasn’t my idea.
I just tell you what the teacher told me about how to be saved.
And the only reason I teach is because God chose to give me this gift
So that I could edify the body, not because I’m better.
(9) “Do not call anyone on earth your father;”
That is to say the source of your spiritual nourishment.
You don’t get spiritual food or provision from me.
“for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.”
God is the source, not man.
In the model prayer Jesus taught us to say:
Matthew 6:9-13 “Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. ‘Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. ‘Give us this day our daily bread. ‘And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ‘And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil.[For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’]”
• Whose name is hallowed? The Father’s
• Whose kingdom should come? The Father’s
• Who gives daily bread? The Father
• Who gives forgiveness? The Father
• Whose is the kingdom and the power and the glory? The Father
The Father is the source.
Don’t call me your father, I can’t give you forgiveness, I can’t provide your bread, and it most certainly not my will that we are seeking.
(10) “Do not be called leaders;”
Meaning your guide in life.
I don’t guide your life.
“for One is your Leaders, that is, Christ.”
Jesus is your Lord, not me, and not anyone else.
And Jesus just delivered the knockout blow.
These guys are trying to take the place of God in your life.
• They want you coming to them and not God for insight.
• They want you coming to them and not God for spiritual nourishment.
• They want you coming to them and not God for spiritual guidance.
They are usurpers!
They are trying to take the place of God in your life.
Go to God for truth, not man.
Go to God for nourishment, not man.
Go to God for guidance, not man.
I received a phone call last week from a lady who gave me some specifics about a friends marital condition and the woman was curious about remarriage, and it really was one of those tricky situations.
But I simply told her, “Don’t try to tell her what to do, you and I are not the counselors, the Holy Spirit is the counselor. Our job is to help her hear what God is telling her and to encourage her to do that.”
But the Pharisees were trying to steal God’s role,
And Jesus exposed them.
(11) “But the greatest among you shall be your servant.”
If you want to be called something, be called “servant”
If you want to pursue something, pursue humility.
(12) “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”
And Jesus revealed where these guys are headed.
It is obvious that Jesus was not pleased
With the way these Pharisees were handling His sheep
And on this day Jesus went on the offensive.
• He Embarrassed them.
• He Exposed them.
• He Enlightened those who listen to them.
And the message to us is very sobering.
• Don’t play the game, be real.
• Watch out for false teachers who usurp God and slaughter the flock.
• And if you aspire to greatness, then aspire for servant hood for God exalts the humble.
Ezekiel 34:10 “Thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will demand My sheep from them and make them cease from feeding sheep. So the shepherds will not feed themselves anymore, but I will deliver My flock from their mouth, so that they will not be food for them.”‘”
