Intro
- Does anyone recognize the quote that I’m using as my sermon title?
o It’s from a satirical British comedy sketch where a German SS officer comes to the
sudden realization that they just might be the bad guys.
o After all, what kind of people proudly use a human skull as their insignia?
▪ It’s played for laughs but makes a serious point that someone can get caught
up in one of the most evil groups in history & only later see the wickedness
that is glaringly obvious to others.
▪ This ridiculous sketch (and the many internet memes it has generated) has
become a way to suggest the need for serious self-examination…
▪ …the need to ask, “have I developed a huge blind spot where I’m missing
obvious indications that my life is aligned with some really bad stuff?” - For those of us who profess to be Christians, we must honestly and prayerfully keep watch
on ourselves as to whether we are truly living like followers of Jesus Christ.
o We see the need for this kind of vigilance about righteous living in the Old Testament
(Deuteronomy 4:9a, Psalm 139:23-24)…
o …and in the New Testament (1 Corinthians 13:11, 2 Corinthians 13:5a, 1 Timothy
4:16a, Revelation 2:5).
o Sometimes it’s a general admonition to not grow complacent, and sometimes it’s in
response to sinful actions & attitudes that are running rampant in a local church. - I chose this topic because for churches and professing Christians “in our circles” (including
ourselves) there is always a clear and present danger of becoming less like Jesus and more
like his religious enemies.
o The fact that we accept the Bible as God’s authoritative Word free from errors is not
enough to guarantee we are faithfully following Jesus.
o We can easily become like the scribes & Pharisees who knew Scripture very well but
whose attitudes, words, & actions make theme some of the main “baddies/bad
guys” of the Gospels.
o Today & next week we are going to look at a passage where Jesus strongly rebukes
the scribes and Pharisees who oppose him.
▪ Remember, these are respected religious leaders and scholars.
▪ Many (most?) people thought of them as being very knowledgeable about
Scripture (which they were) and very close to God (which they were not).
▪ Jesus pronounces woe upon them – He is distressed & they should be too
because they are living in a way that will bring God’s wrath upon them.
o I want us to look at this as a sort of anti-checklist
▪ We don’t want to check any of these seven boxes.
▪ if any of these things are true of me, I need to repent because I’m acting like
Jesus’ enemy, not his disciple. - Throughout this denunciation, Jesus repeatedly refers to these religious men as hypocrites.
o The word was originally used to describe Greek actors who used masks so that they
could appear to be different characters as the need arose.
o By Jesus’ day it was also used metaphorically in pretty much the same way we do:
▪ A hypocrite is someone whose words and actions are designed to give a
certain public appearance that doesn’t match who they really are.
▪ It is someone who uses religious language & behavior as a mask, hiding the
ungodly person that they actually are.
▪ Their religiosity is about playing an admirable role in public rather than about
loving God. - He also repeatedly refers to them as blind.
o They claim to know, teach, and follow the ways of God.
o In reality, they are unable to see what God truly requires and are unable/unwilling to
perceive how desperately far they are from it.
(13) Closing Heaven’s Doors - This is the “catch all” rebuke: a devastating summary of the woes that come after it.
o The way that they live is keeping other people out of heaven.
o The way that they live shows that they will not be entering heaven.
o I.e., when God’s kingdom comes in all its fullness, they will be excluded, & they will
be responsible for many others being excluded as well. - Far too often, when a person wants nothing to do with the things of God it is at least partly
because of something they have seen, heard, or experienced from a professing Christian.
o We’re not talking about someone who is offended by a clear teaching of Scripture
that is spoken in loving concern.
o This is the situation where they have been negatively impacted or led astray by
someone who claims to be a follower of Jesus but who engages in a hypocritical,
ungodly life …and God hates this.
▪ 2 Peter 2:2-3 warns those in teaching/leadership positions that bringing this
kind of disgrace on the way of truth will result in severe judgment.
▪ Matthew 18:6 – Jesus warns that those who cause children to stumble in
their faith are deserving of horrifying judgment.
o We never want to be guilty of being Satan’s tool to turn others away from Christ. - In Matthew 7:21-23, Jesus vividly warns that not everyone who claims him as Lord and does
things in his name belongs to him.
o There are people who know how to use the right lingo and do some great things…
▪ …but eventually (now or at the final judgment) their life shows that they do
not have a relationship with Jesus and are not actually doing the will of God.
▪ They missed the crucial part that underlies everything else in a godly life:
trusting in Jesus for that restored relationship with God out of which true
godliness flows (John 6:28-29).
o Jesus doesn’t give these kinds of warning so that he can gloat, but as a wakeup call.
▪ The idea is “There will be people like this…don’t let this be you!”
▪ Don’t be the person that has a godly mask but no real relationship with God.
o In the other six woes, Jesus will describe some of the things that characterize this
kind of person.
(15) Teaching Others to Sin (especially the sin of legalism) - These religious people are not lacking in zeal to spread their religion, but their religion is of
the kind that sends their converts to hell.
o Rather than saving their converts, they are bringing them further under God’s wrath.
o We see throughout the Gospels that Jesus’ religious opponents were all about
keeping rules and thinking that alone made them righteous.
o Their religiosity is best summed up by Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax
collector in Luke 18:10-14.
o Without faith in God’s gracious forgiveness through Jesus Christ, a religion of “follow
the rules” makes a person merely self-righteous rather than right with God.
▪ Trying to earn God’s favor through doing good is the sin of legalism.
▪ It is an easy sin to slip into, and one with destructive consequences for those
who embrace it. - Today, there are churches, ministries, and professing Christians whose religion boils down
to “follow this list of rules.”
o They may give lip service to grace and faith, but what they are truly relying on and
teaching others to rely on is a false Gospel of group conformity to a certain standard
of appearance & behavior.
▪ …a standard of appearance & behavior that often has as much to do with
cultural & traditional preferences as it does with actual biblical commands.
▪ Jesus repeatedly rebukes the Pharisees for this (e.g. Matthew 15:7-9).
▪ Converts are taught to look, act, and think like us in all matters rather than to
be transformed and guided by the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
▪ It’s about being “churchy” rather than being Christlike.
o It would probably never be stated so bluntly, but it shows itself in what people talk
about & get upset about as they are driven by pride, jealousy, or guilt:
▪ In a constantly critical and fault-finding spirit (what Jesus described as
regarding all others with contempt).
▪ In a quickness to assume the worst about others who do or say something
differently than how I would have said or done it (even if they are not
violating a direct command of Scripture).
▪ In a tendency to elevate the traditional & the cultural to the same level as the
biblical (to mistake nostalgia & familiarity for holiness & spiritual depth).
o Those who are taught to relate to God in this way are in serious danger of missing
the true Gospel of God’s grace as “churchianity” becomes all about performance.
▪ At the very least they will live in cringing fear rather than loving awe of God.
▪ They will have difficulty loving others whom they evaluate as undeserving
(much more on that when we get to the fourth woe next week).
(16-22) Finding Loopholes - These religious people were very good at finding ways to justify breaking God’s commands.
o …supposed loopholes where they could claim they weren’t technically sinning even
though their actions violated of a plain reading of God’s Word.
o In this instance, Jesus takes them to task for all their little rules, taught as
authoritative doctrine, about which oaths were binding, and which were not.
▪ “I swore by the temple, not the gold of the temple, so I don’t have to keep my
promise,” etc.
▪ It all seems like an elaborate system for saying “my fingers were crossed, so
it doesn’t count as a lie.”
▪ Jesus points out the clear foolishness of these kind of word games. If you
swore an oath by anything connected in any way with God, it is a valid oath.
o Elsewhere, Jesus (& the early church following his lead) taught that you shouldn’t
need to swear you are telling the truth anyway (Matthew 5:33-37, Jame 5:12).
▪ God calls for us to be truthful people who can be taken at our word.
▪ We must be honest and trustworthy in our speech and behavior, not hide
behind word games and technicalities. - The same is true of other areas of obedience to our Lord.
o Any disregard for God’s principles and commands excused by cute little verbal or
mental gymnastics is hypocrisy that dishonors God (cf. Mark 7:9).
o Most of us are really good at self-justification…and that’s a bad thing.
▪ It’s a twisted part of human nature that we see kicking in as soon as Adam
and Eve sinned for the first time, and it’s been with us ever since.
▪ It kicks in when we really want to do something that we know God has
forbidden or really don’t feel like doing something he has commanded.
o When following God’s Word and Jesus’ example is going to make our life more
difficult or get in the way of the way things have always been done, we start looking
for loopholes.
▪ We explain why this principle or command from God doesn’t apply to my
current situation.
▪ When we do this, we are no different than these men whom Jesus refers to
as spiritually blind fools. - Samples of when and how we do this:
o These lists are based on observation during 15 years of pastoral experience (plus
Bible college, seminary, and growing up in a ministry family).
▪ We’re not talking here about thinking through the details of “how do I apply
this” (because some of these can take wisdom in complex situations).
▪ I’m talking about these are the topics that when they come up in preaching,
teaching, counseling, & living the most common response is to try to define
their applicability so narrowly that we can ignore them when we please.
▪ Note: I have been connected with conservative Baptist and Nondenominational
churches, so the list reflects the kinds of things I’ve heard in
that kind of church (which includes us).
o This doesn’t apply to my situation…
▪ Helping the poor & the sojourner
▪ Forgiving an offense
▪ Refraining from gossip or insults
▪ Treating others with gentleness & respect
▪ Following the law as long as doing so won’t cause me to disobey God
▪ Blessing, praying for and doing good to my enemies
▪ Limiting sexual activity to marriage
o This doesn’t apply to my situation because…
▪ It would put me at a disadvantage
▪ It won’t work
▪ It would make me happy / unhappy
▪ They made me angry / frustrated
▪ They did it first
▪ Everyone else is doing it
▪ They are: - A child
- A criminal
- A Democrat
- Gay (or anything else in the ever-increasing LGBT+ category)
- Hispanic
- Muslim
- Not a Christian
- On welfare
- A single mother
- Whatever the justification or loophole, beware of the hypocritical thinking that claims to
trust and obey God but only does so when it’s convenient.
o If you find yourself saying “I’m not technically sinning…” you’re probably doing
exactly what Jesus is condemning in this passage.
o And the same is true if as soon as you hear a principle or command that makes you
uncomfortable your first train of thought is about all the times when it doesn’t apply.
▪ We can (and should) wrestle with “how do I apply this…”
▪ …but that shouldn’t look like “how do I avoid having to do this.” - Next week we will continue this thought as we pick up with the woe that really caught my
eye and first drew me to this passage, but some applications for now:
Conclusion & Applications - Make sure that you are in a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
o Are you relying on “being a good little Christian who does all the good churchy
things”…
o …or on “I am trusting Jesus to give me forgiveness of sins and a new life even though
I deserve nothing good from him”?
o Don’t be one of those people who at the final judgment says “Lord Jesus, I did all
this stuff for you!” only to hear him say “I never knew you. Depart from me.” - Ask God to help you see any areas of hypocrisy in your life. Areas where you are behaving
more like Jesus’ religious enemies than Jesus’ followers.
o Maybe it’s legalism where you trust in yourself to be righteous and look down on
others with judgmental contempt (Luke 18:9).
o Maybe it’s loopholes where you are so good at self-justification that you obey God
only when it’s convenient and feel barely a twinge of conscience (Mark 7:9).
o Let’s let Psalm 139:23-24 be our prayer this week.
▪ If you become aware of something, ask God’s forgiveness & repent, asking
him to help you remove that from your life and be renewed in mind & action.
▪ There are still 4 woes in the passage for next week…
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