What Jesus Wouldn’t Tolerate – Part 3
Luke 11:37-54 (43-46)
June 16, 2019
As you know, we are currently looking at
A very direct and confrontational event in the life of Jesus.
• He preached a very penetrating sermon about being authentic or being real
• At the conclusion of that sermon a Pharisee invited Jesus over to eat.
What Jesus did there would be shocking to some.
Jesus picked a fight.
He intentionally passed up the water basin
And did not wash His hands before He ate.
(It’s not because Jesus was unaware of the custom, it’s because He was picking a fight)
Some would balk at the notion that Jesus would purposely be combative or confrontational or insulting, but that’s exactly what He was here.
WHY?
Because Jesus was confronting the greatest enemy
That His flock dealt with on a daily basis;
And that was the false religious leaders of the day.
We even saw in Zechariah 11 and Ezekiel 34
• How God had had enough of these false shepherds
• And that one of the reasons for sending His Son was to deliver His sheep from their destructive grasp.
So rest assured, when Jesus came
It was NOT to make friends with those who had been attacking His flock.
Jesus came to expose and remove them.
He may have been invited over to eat,
But He was in no way interested in friendship.
Jesus accepted this invitation for one reason
And that was to secure the opportunity to directly confront this Pharisee.
And so we have been discussing what Jesus clearly wouldn’t tolerate.
In this confrontation we learn that there are things that simply were not ok to Jesus.
There were things He would not let slide.
We saw the first 2 last time.
The first to problems the Pharisees had that Jesus wouldn’t tolerate.
#1 THEIR GREEDY HEARTS
Luke 11:39-41
Right off the bat Jesus exposed their hypocrisy by revealing that though they were clean and attractive on the outside, inside they were full of sin.
Jesus said they were full of “robbery and wickedness”
They were full of greed.
• They did what they did because they loved money.
• We even read stories about them devouring widow’s houses.
• We listened as they told us the most important thing was not to swear on the gold of the temple.
• We heard them teach others to give money to the synagogue instead of helping their own parents.
They were corrupt.
They had greedy hearts.
Jesus wouldn’t tolerate it.
We pointed out that Jesus has no tolerance for anyone
Who seeks to use the ministry to gain the world.
And in our world of prosperity preachers
Who seem to have made quite a racket off of the desperate
We might easily apply the words of the Psalmist:
Psalms 49:16-20 “Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, When the glory of his house is increased; For when he dies he will carry nothing away; His glory will not descend after him. Though while he lives he congratulates himself — And though men praise you when you do well for yourself — He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They will never see the light. Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, Is like the beasts that perish.”
Their moment of glory is but a flash in the pan.
Jesus does not tolerate those who use the ministry
As a means of gratifying a greedy heart.
We also saw a second reason last week as to why Jesus wouldn’t tolerate them.
#2 THEIR SUPERFICIAL RELIGION
Luke 11:42
Very simply put, they knew how to put on a show.
• A tithe was a tenth and they were meticulous to make sure that everyone saw them counting out even 1 out of every 10 seeds they harvested.
• It was quite impressive to see a Pharisee not overlook even the smallest seeds.
• It must have really caught the attention of the people.
The problem was that while they were meticulous in their giving
They greatly missed the point.
They had no “justice” and that had no “love” for God.
And since loving God is the greatest commandment,
It is indicative of religious leaders who totally missed the point.
The whole goal of this thing is loving God.
1 Timothy 1:5 “But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”
I mean, if you really want to reduce down
What we do in the ministry, it is to lead men to love God.
But here you have spiritual leaders that don’t even love Him.
And Jesus wouldn’t tolerate it.
And neither do we.
• We don’t tolerate those who substitute loving God for empty ordinance and routine traditions.
• That is not acceptable.
And we looked at those two last time.
Jesus called out the Pharisees because they had Greedy Hearts and because they had Superficial Religion.
This morning we move forward.
#3 THEIR LOVE OF GLORY
Luke 11:43
ONE MIGHT ASK,
Why someone would be in the ministry if they didn’t love God?
And the answer is obvious.
THEY LOVE GLORY.
“Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places.”
Matthew’s gospel would add “and being called Rabbi by men”
Very simply put they were in the ministry
Because they loved the accolades that they received from their ministry.
This is a very revealing truth regarding true or false ministers.
• You either are in ministry for God’s glory or your own.
• You either serve God’s agenda or your own
• You either seek God’s kingdom or your own
There is no middle ground here.
God is either using you to glorify Himself,
Or you are using God to glorify yourself.
And if you are familiar with the Pharisees
Then you know that they were ALL ABOUT THEIR OWN GLORY.
We read in Matthew
• How they loved to give with trumpets sounding.
• How they love to pray on the street corners.
• How they make sure everyone knows about their fasting.
• We’ve read about their long blue tassels and broadened phylacteries
It was all so they could receive the reward of human glory.
Here we read that they “love the chief seats in the synagogue and the respectful greetings in the market places.”
We found out in verse 42 that they DIDN’T LOVE GOD,
But we find out here that they DO LOVE GLORY.
This is important to understand.
EVERYONE HAS MOTIVES THAT DRIVE THEM.
True ministers have godly motives.
• Love of God
• Love of the lost
• Desire for God to be glorified
• Desire for Christ to be obeyed
False prophets also have motives that drive them.
Typically the Bible can put them in at least 1 of 3 categories.
• Sex
• Money
• Glory
That is why they do what they do.
And here Jesus calls them on their love of glory.
Now this is problematic on a number of levels.
Not the least of which is:
Isaiah 42:8 “I am the LORD, that is My name; I will not give My glory to another, Nor My praise to graven images.”
GOD DOESN’T SHARE GLORY
Anyone who then is in ministry for the glory they can receive
Is already putting themselves in direct competition with God
For the thing God refuses to share.
That’s a problem and Jesus wouldn’t tolerate it.
You don’t get to use service of God as a charade to serve yourself.
Yet that’s what the Pharisees did.
It was their means of glory.
And anyone who ever steps up on the stage in church
Had better be very guarded against this very thing.
I think it’s even more dangerous in our day of social media and internet where it is so easy to do as YouTube says and “Broadcast Yourself”
Now I’m NOT saying it’s wrong to broadcast a ministry.
• We are thankful for faithful preachers who do preach on television or the radio
or internet.
• We are grateful their ministries are broadcast.
• We post our sermons on our website and on Facebook.
I’m not saying that’s a sin, but it is imperative before you do post things like that that you ask WHY YOU ARE POSTING IT.
Is it for the glory of God or is it for your own glory?
Because one thing Jesus clearly didn’t tolerate
Was those who used ministry as a means of glorifying themselves.
And yet this is what the Pharisees did.
WHAT IS WORSE, because they were the spiritual leaders
Their example influenced their followers.
I told you in Luke 14 Jesus will eat with a Pharisee again.
Turn over there and look at the issue that emerges.
TURN TO: Luke 14
• We know He’s eating at the Pharisees house.
• In verses 1-6 He challenges them regarding healing on the Sabbath.
But then we learn that Jesus notices something.
(READ 7-14)
JESUS EXPOSED THE WHOLE CHARADE.
• You had people who had obviously learned from the Pharisees and were
fighting for the most glorious spots.
• And you have Pharisees who only invited the people that it would be
personally beneficial to invite.
That is ministry for your own glory, not God’s.
And Jesus wouldn’t tolerate it.
These are false prophets and false teachers
Who distort the truth, misrepresent God
And ultimately lead people into sin and destruction.
It was not acceptable and it still isn’t.
• We as the church stand against such corruption and hypocrisy.
• We draw the line here.
Jesus wouldn’t tolerate them, and we can’t either.
The Bible tells us a Christian why we serve:
Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves;”
I’ve always liked the quote:
“The donkey that carried Jesus at the triumphal entry, knew that the applause was not for him.”
It is just unthinkable that someone then would jump into the ministry
For the purpose of receiving the glory that only God deserves.
Jesus wouldn’t tolerate it.
So we see what it was about these religious leaders that Jesus wouldn’t tolerate:
Their Greedy Hearts, Their Superficial Religion, Their Love of Glory
#4 THEIR DEFILING INFLUENCE
Luke 11:44
We have again here Jesus pronouncing “Woe” on the Pharisees
And again we ask why He is so upset?
“For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.”
• This is a verse that may be a little bizarre in our culture.
• Some may think that Jesus is talking about not walking on a grave at the cemetery.
• But there is a much bigger issue at stake.
When you read the Old Testament Law it doesn’t take long
Before you come across the word “unclean”.
It carried the idea of being impure, defiled,
And worst of all, unfit to be in the presence of God.
So one who was “unclean” was commanded to go outside the camp.
God dwelled inside the camp, so the unclean had to go outside.
Some things carried with it pre-determined time periods
• Like if you had a baby a woman was unclean for 1 week if she had a boy and 2 weeks if she had a girl.
• And then she had to go through the ceremonial cleansing and was welcomed back into the camp.
Other issues of uncleanness were determined by the length of the uncleanness.
• For example a leper was unclean until his leprosy was gone.
• We know about the hemorrhaging woman who had been unclean for 10 years.
And in this state a person was considered defiled
And not able to draw near to the presence of God.
So mostly I just want you to understand that
BEING UNCLEAN WAS NOT A PREFERRED POSITION.
Now, regarding WHAT JESUS SAID HERE, all we have to do is read:
Numbers 19:16 “Also, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days.”
• So if you’re just walking through a field and stumble upon a dead body or
accidentally touch a bone or a grave you are automatically unclean.
• For this reason the Jews were very meticulous to clearly mark their graves.
• You didn’t want to accidentally touch a grave and then be unclean for 7 days
and off limits to the presence of God.
Now with that as a backdrop you understand the implication of Jesus.
He calls the Pharisees “concealed tombs”
That is to say that they are a defiling presence,
And one that has been concealed
To purposely catch people unaware and defile them.
In fact “people who walk over them are unaware of it.”
So that means the Pharisees are actually defiling people
And making them unacceptable to God
And the people don’t even know it.
To put it another way.
The Pharisees leave people in a worse condition before God than they were previously.
How dangerous is that!
That, by the way, is the same way Satan works.
2 Corinthians 11:12-15 “But what I am doing I will continue to do, so that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.”
And this has been the procedure of the false prophets from the beginning.
God spoke of them throughout the Old Testament.
Consider this warning from Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 13:8-16 “Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, “Because you have spoken falsehood and seen a lie, therefore behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord GOD. “So My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will have no place in the council of My people, nor will they be written down in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel, that you may know that I am the Lord GOD. “It is definitely because they have misled My people by saying, ‘Peace!’ when there is no peace. And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash; so tell those who plaster it over with whitewash, that it will fall. A flooding rain will come, and you, O hailstones, will fall; and a violent wind will break out. “Behold, when the wall has fallen, will you not be asked, ‘Where is the plaster with which you plastered it?'” Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD, “I will make a violent wind break out in My wrath. There will also be in My anger a flooding rain and hailstones to consume it in wrath. “So I will tear down the wall which you plastered over with whitewash and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation is laid bare; and when it falls, you will be consumed in its midst. And you will know that I am the LORD. “Thus I will spend My wrath on the wall and on those who have plastered it over with whitewash; and I will say to you, ‘The wall is gone and its plasterers are gone, along with the prophets of Israel who prophesy to Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her when there is no peace,’ declares the Lord GOD.”
There the prophets simply told people what they wanted to hear.
• They pretended to be servants of God,
• They downplayed the sin of the people,
• They told them God was not displeased.
The people went away happy and yet in worse condition before God.
That is what the Pharisees had done as well.
Through their legalism and superficial religion
And training people to love glory and money
And keep everything external they had also corrupted the people.
They assured people that God was pleased with them
When in fact God was angrier than ever.
That is the danger of a false religious leader.
Perhaps you remember that warning from Jesus about the wide and narrow roads.
Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
We hear there the very clear warning that
Not everyone who thinks they are going to heaven actually is.
In fact, most aren’t.
The road to destruction has many people on it.
It begs the question, why would anyone enter that wide road if they knew it was headed to destruction?
And the answer is, they don’t know it’s headed to destruction.
• Because there is a false prophet standing at the entrance of that wide road ushering people through assuring them that they’ll be fine.
That’s why Jesus says next:
Matthew 7:15 “Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Those are the false prophets that are convincing men
That they are acceptable to God when they are not.
THEY ARE FRAUDS AND PHONIES.
They look like shepherds, but they are really wolves.
Jesus wouldn’t tolerate these religious leaders
Because they assume the role of religious teacher
And assure men that they have the answers for eternity
But the reality is they do not.
• They actually defile men.
• They actually cause men to be in a worse condition.
• They actually lead men away from God, not to Him.
THEY DEFILED MEN
And I just can’t stress enough how much this irritates Jesus.
Matthew 18:6 “but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
You just don’t want to be the guy who leads someone into sin and defilement.
In fact, this will resonate with many of you.
• We’ve been studying the Psalms on Sunday nights
• Several of those have been what is known as “Imprecatory Psalms” or Psalms
that call down judgment on someone.
Do you remember the type of people mentioned in these Psalms?
It is those who stealthily lead others into defilement and ultimately destruction.
Remember?
Psalms 5:4-10 “For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness; No evil dwells with You. The boastful shall not stand before Your eyes; You hate all who do iniquity. You destroy those who speak falsehood; The LORD abhors the man of bloodshed and deceit. But as for me, by Your abundant lovingkindness I will enter Your house, At Your holy temple I will bow in reverence for You. O LORD, lead me in Your righteousness because of my foes; Make Your way straight before me. There is nothing reliable in what they say; Their inward part is destruction itself. Their throat is an open grave; They flatter with their tongue. Hold them guilty, O God; By their own devices let them fall! In the multitude of their transgressions thrust them out, For they are rebellious against You.”
Psalms 10:5-15 “His ways prosper at all times; Your judgments are on high, out of his sight; As for all his adversaries, he snorts at them. He says to himself, ” I will not be moved; Throughout all generations I will not be in adversity.” His mouth is full of curses and deceit and oppression; Under his tongue is mischief and wickedness. He sits in the lurking places of the villages; In the hiding places he kills the innocent; His eyes stealthily watch for the unfortunate. He lurks in a hiding place as a lion in his lair; He lurks to catch the afflicted; He catches the afflicted when he draws him into his net. He crouches, he bows down, And the unfortunate fall by his mighty ones. He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He has hidden His face; He will never see it.” Arise, O LORD; O God, lift up Your hand. Do not forget the afflicted. Why has the wicked spurned God? He has said to himself, “You will not require it.” You have seen it, for You have beheld mischief and vexation to take it into Your hand. The unfortunate commits himself to You; You have been the helper of the orphan. Break the arm of the wicked and the evildoer, Seek out his wickedness until You find none.”
These are sinful men who pretend to be righteous men
Who ultimately lead others into defilement.
Jesus described them as “concealed tombs”
Who lead people to judgment while they are “unaware of it.”
Do you see why Jesus wouldn’t tolerate them?
Do you see why Jesus felt compelled to walk around and point them out?
This is why we have no qualms whatsoever about talking about
The Joel Olsteens or Kenneth Copelands or Benny Hinns of this world.
Those are men who are concealed tombs.
They defile men without them knowing it.
Jesus would not tolerate it, and neither does His church.
He actually told the church at Ephesus:
Revelation 2:2-3 “I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary.”
And later:
Revelation 2:6 “Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”
Jesus wouldn’t tolerate the Pharisees because of:
Their Greedy Hearts, Their Superficial Religion, Their Love of Glory, Their Defiling Influence
#5 THEIR POWERLESS MESSAGE
Luke 11:45-46
I can’t help but chuckle every time I read this passage.
Jesus has just emptied both barrels directly at the Pharisees.
He has dressed that man down in harsh fashion.
And it is at this point that a Lawyer speaks up.
Now, when we say “lawyer” don’t think about lawyer in our day.
We aren’t talking about an ambulance chaser or that type of corruption.
A lawyer here was a supposed EXPERT IN THE LAW
This was a guy who took his copy of the Law
And not only taught it and explained it,
But relentlessly held people accountable to it.
He was the enforcer.
• He was the one who took not only what the Law said, but all those books of
Jewish interpretation
• And made judgments on people’s lives regarding if they were keeping it
accurately or not.
To a lawyer, nothing was more important than keeping the Law,
And his constant message was that
“The Law was the road to becoming pleasing to God.”
Well certainly this Lawyer thought that
If anyone in the room was pleasing to God, it would be him.
After all, who could be more acceptable to God than one who devoted his life to the proclamation and enforcement of God’s Law?
And so this lawyer pipes up in the midst of this rebuke by Jesus and says, (as if Jesus didn’t know), “Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too.”
• This lawyer felt like he’d been hit by friendly fire.
• Perhaps Jesus was unaware about His tone…
• Perhaps Jesus didn’t realize that the Pharisees and lawyers worked closely together…
Surely Jesus did not mean to offend them.
But we read:
(46) “But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.”
“Woe to you lawyers as well!”
• Do you see how direct and confrontational Jesus is?
• Do you see that He was well aware that He insulted them but He kept going anyway?
• Do you see that He had no intention of being their friend or ally?
These people had mutilated His flock, and He would not tolerate it.
And He explains why.
“For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.”
That’s not hard to understand.
These men had no problems piling requirement upon requirement On the backs of men under threat of displeasing God.
That is what Jesus means by “burdens”
• Do this or you can’t please God…
• Do that or you can’t please God…
• If you want God to be pleased do this and this and this and this…
One commentary put it like this:
“On the Sabbath, they taught, a man may not carry a burden “in his right hand or in his left hand, in his bosom, or on his shoulder.” But he may carry it “on the back of his hand, or with his foot or with his mouth or with his elbow, or in his ear or in his hair or in his wallet (carried) mouth downwards, or between his wallet and his shirt, or in the hem of his shirt, or in his shoe or in his sandal (Shabbat 10:3). Multiply this by all the regulations of the Law and ordinary people have a burden beyond bearing even to know what the might do and might not do. But there is also a multitude of loopholes for a lawyer who knew the traditions which enabled him to do pretty well what he wished.”
Sited In: (MacArthur, John [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Luke 11-17; Moody Publishers, Chicago, IL; 2013] pg. 104-105)
They put an unbearable burden on people.
It was the burden of pleasing God through your own adherence to His law.
It was a case of one not having a clue what the Law was for.
Paul told this to Timothy as he told him that there were some teachers who had to be stopped:
1 Timothy 1:6-11 “For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. But we know that the Law is good, if one uses it lawfully, realizing the fact that law is not made for a righteous person, but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted.”
• Paul’s point there is that the Law is extremely valuable.
• It is God’s ordained tool to expose sinners and bring them to conviction.
• But it is a terrible tool for making men righteous.
• In fact, it can’t.
We don’t have time this morning, but go read Romans 7.
That famous “I don’t do what I want to do” passage by Paul.
You know what you have there?
• You have a Pharisee who has been convicted of his sin in the Law.
• Specifically God showed Paul his sin of coveting.
What was Paul’s first response?
To try harder and do better.
He knew the Law was right, he knew it was good. He agreed with the Law,
The problem was, he couldn’t do keep it.
The Law could condemn him, but the Law could not justify him.
In fact Paul would go on to say:
Romans 8:3 “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,”
What the Law could not do was justify.
Galatians 2:16b “…since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”
The purpose of the Law was not to make man righteous,
It was to condemn men and ultimately drive them to Jesus
Who would impute His righteousness to them.
The Law (Paul says) is a tutor to lead us to Christ.
But that is not how these lawyers preached it.
They threw on men’s backs that
The only means of being pleasing to God was to flawlessly keep the Law.
Later, at the Jerusalem council, when certain Jews wanted Gentiles to come under the Law, Peter would address them like this:
Acts 15:10 “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?”
No one can be justified through the Law.
THAT IS A MESSAGE OF SALVATION WITH NO POWER.
Can you see what Jesus would not tolerate these lawyers?
His message was just the opposite:
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 came to bear our burden.
• Jesus came to be our righteousness.
• Jesus came to free us from sin.
These lawyers fought to keep men under it.
They were the direct enemies of the gospel Jesus was bringing.
And we see still see this in our world today.
We call it legalism.
I see people enforcing all sorts of religious actions and calling them requirements for salvation.
• Dietary restrictions…
• Worship in certain days…
• Certain levels of attendance…
• Certain religious ordinances…
Things that are held up as “musts” if you are to pleasing to God.
And yet, the true gospel says that Jesus alone makes us pleasing to God.
• He is our righteousness.
• In Him there is no condemnation.
• In Him the righteous requirement of the Law has been fulfilled.
That message of legalism was not tolerated by the Lord.
And incidentally it wasn’t tolerated by the apostles either.
• Just read Galatians some time and see how angry Paul is about it.
• Listen to his warning to the Colossians not to listen to those people.
And church we don’t tolerate it either.
As we said last week, we hold to SOLA GRATIA and SOLA FIDE and SOLUS CHRISTUS.
We believe salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone
And we protest anything that says otherwise.
These are non-negotiables.
Jesus would not tolerate them and we won’t either.
So Jesus wouldn’t tolerate these men because of:
• Their Greedy Hearts
• Their Superficial Religion
• Their Love of Glory
• Their Defiling Influence
• Their Powerless Message
There are 2 more which we’ll look at next time.
