Matthew 23:1-39

 

Years ago, I read about a poverty-stricken city in South America that desperately wanted to change their image. The local politicians were able to get gallons upon gallons of whitewash to cover the front of the buildings. For a short time, they all looked better. But underneath they were still the same run-down tenement buildings that they were before.

 

Jesus used a similar illustration in this chapter regarding the Pharisees. He pronounced seven woes on them and called them hypocrites seven different times. He revealed how they whitewashed their sin-stained lives, and in the process he gave his disciples a serious warning, one that stretches across the ages to us.

 

The warning stretches across the ages to us because Phariseeism wasn’t just a problem in the first century. It is a problem in every century including our own. In the same way, Phariseeism isn’t a problem just for other people. All of us, if we look in the spiritual mirror of God’s Word, will find more than a bit of the Pharisee in ourselves, as well.

 

In this passage of seven woes on the Pharisees, Jesus zooms in on their hypocrisy. We have seen previously that the word for hypocrisy comes from Greek theater where one actor or actress would play many parts, each part distinguished by a different mask.

 

John Blanchard describes hypocrisy as “holiness that is only skin deep.” The Pharisees prided themselves for being holy. After all, as verse 2 says, The Pharisees sat “in Moses’ seat”.  They were the teachers of Israel, which they took great pride in. At times they taught correctly, as verse 3 acknowledges, but most of the time their teaching was anything but correct. And at the root of their sin problem was deep-seated hypocrisy. 

 

Jesus gives two examples of their hypocrisy in verse 5: “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long...” Phylacteries were, as the footnote says, boxes containing Scripture verses worn on the forehead and arm. There were passages from Exodus and Deuteronomy in those boxes, and the Pharisees would make the boxes as large as they could so that everyone would be impressed by how spiritual they were.

 

It is a little hard for us to come up with a contemporary example, but imagine if when I make a hospital call, I would wear the most elaborate clerical gown, complete with clerical collar and little cap, and then carry this heavy Pulpit Bible, which is two feet high, and about six inches thick, to read from. It was that type of showy hypocrisy the Pharisees were into.  

 

Likewise, verse 5 tells how they wore their tassels long. The Israelites were commanded to wear tassels on their garments. In Numbers 15 we read how the LORD said to Moses: “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by going after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes.’” (Num. 15:37-39)

 

Since that was the law, the Pharisees outdid each other in having the longest tassels. They thought that by having extra-long tassels people would look at them and say, “Look how holy the Pharisees are. Look at the length of their tassels!” We may find that sadly comical, but the people of that day respected the Pharisees. They were the teachers of the law, and they were looked up to by most people. Most people truly were impressed by their lengthy tassels and wide phylacteries.

 

As Jesus continued to pronounce woes against them, he compared them to a cup or a dish that is clean on the outside and filthy on the inside. Have you ever reached into the cupboard in the morning, for that first cup of coffee, grabbed a mug and are ready to fill it with coffee when you see, in the blur of the morning, the circle inside on the bottom where the dishwasher never cleaned the cup? It’s a tough way to wake up! But it’s even worse if you miss the glob of dirt in the bottom of the cup and don’t notice it until you go back for the second cup of coffee. You get that queasy feeling as you think, “I drank from that!”

 

The Lord points out that hypocrisy is like that cup. It looks great on the outside, but inside it is a revolting mess. And God is never fooled by what is inside. He knows the inside as well as the outside. In 1 Samuel 16:7, as Samuel was sent to anoint David, he was initially impressed with David’s brother, Eliab. But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

 

Jesus used another example of hypocrisy in verse 27 and 28 with the whitewashed tombs. It was a common Jewish practice to put whitewash on tombs - on gravestones - during Adar, which was the month before Passover. The reason for whitewashing the tombstones was so that they would be easily visible, especially at night. That way, people coming to Jerusalem for the Passover wouldn’t inadvertently step on a tombstone and become ceremonially unclean.

 

But Jesus pointed out, in verses 27 and 28: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”

 

Some of their specific acts of hypocrisy and wickedness are listed in this chapter, including that the Pharisees were meticulous in tithing (v. 23) but neglected the greater matters of the law – “justice, mercy and faithfulness.” They also made foolish excuses concerning their oaths, so that they could get out of doing what they had promised. They would say, “I swore that I would help you out, but I swore by the temple and not by the gold in the temple so I’m not bound by what I said, even though I said it on oath.” Because of that duplicity, Jesus had taught earlier, in the Sermon on the Mount, not to take oaths as the Pharisees did, but “Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes’ and your ‘No’ be ‘No.’” (Matt. 5:37)

 

 

Among the other woes that Jesus pronounced on the Pharisees was the warning against pride. That warning is woven throughout the chapter, as is the warning against hypocrisy. For instance, in verses 6 and 7 Jesus described how the Pharisees “love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’” “Rabbi” was the title for a teacher and carried esteem and honor with it.

 

That is one reason why in our churches we don’t use titles of great reverence for our ministers. We don’t call ministers, “Your excellency,” or “Your holiness.”  Nor do we put a series of adjectives before a minister’s name, as some churches do, such as “The Most Right Reverend So and So…”  The Pharisees loved those types of descriptions for themselves, but we do well to avoid them.

 

Ministers are to be servants, following in the footsteps of Christ who “did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28). As Jesus pointed out in verse 11 and 12 of this chapter: “The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

 

One of the reasons that the Bible repeatedly warns us against sinful pride is because it is the sin of the devil. Ezekiel 28:17 describes why Satan, the most beautiful of angels, fell: “Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.”

 

The warning against pride, along with all the warnings and commandments that God gives us, is given for our good.  Proverbs 16:18 warns us: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” And 1 Corinthians 10:12 warns: “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!”

 

History is replete with examples of those who fell because of their pride: Consider Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, basking in his glory on the palace roof. Looking over the city of Babylon he boasted: “Is not this the great Babylon I have built as the royal residence, by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty.”

 

Or consider King Herod. Acts 12:21-24 describes how “On the appointed day Herod, wearing his royal robes, sat on his throne and delivered a public address to the people. They shouted, ‘This is the voice of a god, not of a man.’ Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down, and he was eaten by worms and died. But the word of God continued to increase and spread.”

 

Likewise, pride led to the demise of Absolom. He was so proud of that head of hair, yet it led to his death as his head was caught in a tree and Joab took full advantage of the situation. 2 Samuel 18:14: “He (Joab) took three javelins in his hand and plunged them into Absalom's heart while Absalom was still alive in the oak tree.”

 

But it is not just the proud rulers who were destroyed by their pride. Even the disciples, arguing among themselves who was the greatest, had to be rebuked by Jesus. This chapter isn’t recorded just so that we say, “Wow, look at the sin of the Pharisees!” The chapter is recorded so that by God’s grace and convicting power we see our own sinful pride, our own hypocrisy, and call out for forgiveness and sanctification.

 

 

A third warning which spans across the ages to us is the warning in verse 13 to 15 about false teaching. Verse 13 describes how the Pharisees blocked others from entering the kingdom. And then in verse 15 Jesus describes how through their evangelistic efforts they made their converts “twice the son of hell” as they were.

 

In addition to false teachers who infiltrate faithful churches, we might picture, as contemporary examples, the evangelistic efforts of the cults, of groups like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons. False teaching, whether in a cult or in a church that had once been faithful, blocks many from the kingdom of heaven.

 

J. C. Ryle pointed out that “a false teacher resembles an unskillful pilot; he does not perish alone.” There are whole congregations, indeed, whole denominations that are led astray by false teaching. They are led astray by 21st century Pharisees who have the outward appearance of holiness. They are like the cup that looks so clean and like the whitewashed tombstone. Yet inside, their motive is to destroy the very Word they are supposed to preach. 

 

Already in 1924 over one thousand ministers – 1,274 to be exact – in the large Presbyterian Church signed the Auburn Affirmation. By doing so they publicly denied the virgin birth of Jesus, his substitutionary atonement, his resurrection from the dead, the reality of his miracles, and the inerrancy of Scripture.     

 

Signing the Auburn Affirmation led to the formation of both Westminster Seminary, which split away from Princeton Seminary, and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) which separated from the liberal Presbyterian Church, known today as the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA).

 

But the truths of God’s Word are still being denied, not only in pulpits but in many seminaries. How many seminary professors in liberal seminaries earn their salary by planting seeds of doubt in the minds of their students, so that future pastors enter the pulpit not in the boldness of Christ but in the spirit of weakness and doubt?

 

Here again, this chapter is not just an expose of the sins of Pharisees in the first century. It reaches across the ages to you and to me with serious warnings. It teaches us that we must look in God’s Word just like we look in the mirror. And when we see the warts of pride and hypocrisy we need to repent. We need to look at our life and see whether by our actions we lead others astray and make them “twice the son of hell” as Jesus puts it.

 

 

How else do we apply this passage?  One over-riding application, drawn from all 39 verses, is that Jesus spoke the truth in love, and we are to do the same (Eph. 4:15). This stinging, blunt, and straightforward denunciation of the Pharisees wasn’t done because Jesus lost his temper. You and I might do that, but not Jesus. 

 

The Pharisees had been trying to test him and trap him, trying to find fault with him through a series of devious questions. But Jesus didn’t respond with retaliation. Rather, the closing verses of the chapter show his great love, so great that in Luke 19:41 he is described as weeping over Jerusalem.

 

From the blunt words of Jesus, spoken in love, we can learn much about honesty in witnessing to others. From his words we see that a blunt assessment of sin produces, by God’s grace and convicting power, salvation for many whom we might not expect to be saved. 

 

These Pharisees were among those who crucified Jesus. Jesus alludes to that in verses 31 and 32: “So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!” Not only would the Pharisees be the motivating force behind the crucifixion of Jesus, but they would also martyr many of the faithful prophets and teachers whom the Lord would send them, including Stephen as recorded in Acts 7.

 

Jesus foretold this in verses 33 and 34: “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.” And he warned them that the blood of those whom they persecute will come upon them. 

 

These of whom Jesus spoke were truly evil people and Jesus did not hold back the warnings against them. You cannot find any sugar-coating in this chapter, or any other chapter of Scripture. Rather, the message of Scripture is the blunt message that we are sinners, and unless we repent and by God's grace have saving faith in Christ alone, we will be eternally damned.

 

We have seen that truth throughout our study of Matthew. We saw it already with the message of John the Baptist. In Matthew 3:2, he declared: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”  In the very next chapter, in Mathew 4:17, we read how Jesus brought the same message: “Jesus began to preach, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.’”

 

That same message was carried on by the apostles. Take, for example, Peter’s speech at Pentecost, where we are told in Acts 2:37 that the people “were cut to the heart” as Peter confronted them with how they crucified Jesus. Peter told the people how Jesus “was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross.”

 

They cried out, “What shall we do?” And Peter’s message was the same as the message of John the Baptist, the message of Jesus, the message of the Bible: You must repent of your sins.

 

More than a few commentators point out that among that crowd at Pentecost were undoubtedly many of the Pharisees who Jesus denounced. By God’s grace, through the conviction of sin brought by the Holy Spirit, even Pharisees were saved. We see that in a spectacular way in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus; he was transformed into a new creation in Christ as the Apostle Paul.

 

“The truth hurts,” people say, and it does. But the Scripture also says, in Proverbs 27:6: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” If we truly love others we won’t bring the popular message of evangelicals today: “God loves you. He is knocking on the door of your heart. Won’t you open the door and invite him in?” 

 

Instead, we will do as Jesus did, as the Apostles did, as all Christians must do: Speak the truth in love, even when it hurts. We do so because only when people are cut by the conviction of sin will they, by God’s grace through the Holy Spirit’s conviction and regeneration, repent and believe with true saving faith in Christ alone for salvation. 

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The Pharisees tried to whitewash their lives. They did not want to admit their hypocrisy, sinful pride and destructive teaching. May we learn from their negative example and confess the Phariseeism that resides in each one of us, all the while speaking the truth in love, for our own good, the good of our neighbor, and for the glory of our God who calls all people everywhere to repent and believe in his Son, Jesus Christ, with true saving faith for salvation. Amen.

 

 

bulletin outline:

 

 

                                          Matthew 23:1-39

 

I. In this passage Jesus pronounces seven “woes” on the Pharisees,

    thereby warning us, among other things, of:

    1) The evil of hypocrisy (3, 5, 13-32)

 

 

 

 

 

 

    2) The peril of pride (6-7, 11-12)

 

 

 

 

 

 

    3) The danger of following false teaching (13-15)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 II. Application: Jesus spoke the truth in love (37-39); we are to do the

      same (Ephesians 4:15)