The Weekend Word

Matthew 23:14-26

Where is v. 14? Some manuscripts = Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation

¹⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

• Jesus makes his followers the children of the Father in heaven.
• But look at his designation for the scribes and Pharisees – they produce only children of hell.

¹⁶ “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’

• They are deadly wrong about making oaths.

¹⁷ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?

• First they are blind guides and now they are blind fools.
• They have this thought that something is special on its own – not special because God made it special.

¹⁸ And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’

• What did Jesus say? Let your yes be yes and your no be no.
• Here they even make divisions on what constitutes a proper oath
• They are always picking at the smallest thing and this small thing keeps the people bound.

¹⁹ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?

• He will not give up on the point that they are blind men.

²⁰ So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

²¹ And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it.

²² And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.

• I don’t think we can go very far to try and figure out what all this means. Let’s just be satisfied that Jesus is justifiable upset with these Jewish leaders and he is taking them to task for binding people and keeping them away from God.

²³ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

• This is the 4^th
• You have figured out Righteousness – the smaller things but ignore the big weightier matters.
• Are we to do these things”
• Note it is law: Justice, Mercy and Faithfulness are law.
• How does Justice get handled? What is God’s justice?
• He will not allow Adam & Eve and their descendants to go to hell to be damned.
• Jesus will not allow Satan to be the God of this world – This is good news – amen?
• Jesus is the God of this world and he will come to proclaim his sinners, to redeem them, to reclaim them, to take them away from Satan.
• This is the justice – and how does this justice take place?
• He takes our sin in his body and gets damned with it – and he gives us for free his righteousness,
• How is Jesus on Mercy? Matt 9:13 – But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

²⁴ You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!

• Note the imagery – a great punctuation mark to V 23.

²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

• This is the human heart – full of greed and self indulgence – but we look like we are working for the good of mankind.

²⁶ You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

• Jesus is like a clear cup – you can see both the inside and outside at the same time.
• We are to be clean in the same way.