Woe to You Hypocrites

 Matthew 23:1-39
 

Today we continue our series in Matthew titled Jesus King of Kings. As John, Tim and Carl have stated Jesus is in the last week before His Crucifixion. Last week Carl explained the difference of the Herodians and the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
 
As I prepared for today’s message I wondered “What the difference between the teachers of the law, the scribes, and the Rabbi’s were and how they and Synagogues and the Sanhedrin originated?”. So, today’s message is going to touch on the answer to this question. Before we get into that let us pray and ask the Lord to open our hearts to what He wants us to learn and apply from His word in these passages from Matthew chapter 23.

Now King Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon’s temple in586 B.C. and deported most of the inhabitants from Palestine to Babylon. Deprived of their traditional assembly place, they also grew ignorant of the Torah, so local centers of worship called synagogues arose. The Hebrew word for synagogue denotes a gathering of persons for worship in order to study the O.T. during the week; or for funerals, political gatherings, administration of justice, or for the education of Jewish boys The term later came to refer simply to the building in which the meetings were held. During the Exile the Jews may have assembled in homes. However, returning from exile, they not only rebuilt the temple in Jerusalem, but also erected religious assembly halls called synagogues. Feast days were observed in these synagogues outside of Jerusalem, but no animal sacrifices were offered in them. At first the synagogue was an adjunct of the temple, but with the study of the Torah localized in the synagogues, the importance of offering animal and other sacrifices in the temple seem to decrease. In time the rabbis became increasingly more important than the priests. At least ten Jewish men were necessary to establish a new synagogue. A council of elders supervised the local synagogue, which became a popular place of convocation for the scribes to vent their opinions.
 
Synagogues had no resident priest or rabbi. A priest, in reading or interpreting Scripture, was only a teacher and was not looked upon as fulfilling a priestly function. There were only two permanent officials: “the first was the ruler of the synagogue”, and the second was the synagogue attendant. The ruler of the synagogue presided over meetings, supervised the buildings, introduced strangers, and selected those responsible for reading the Scripture lessons and participating in the service. The attendant of the synagogue announced the Sabbath by blowing the trumpet three times at sunset on Friday. Also, he lit the lamps, transported the scrolls to and from the ark, cleaned the synagogue, taught in the synagogue school, flogged criminals condemned by the council, and insured correct pronunciation and reading of the scrolls as he stood by the readers on the platform.
 
Speakers stood to read from the O.T. and sat down to preach, and everyone stood to pray. Anyone, particularly competent visitors, might be called upon or allowed to lead the recitations, to translate, or to comment on the Scriptures. Services were opened with the recitation of the Judaism’s confession of faith; followed by prayer, or “the lifting of hands”; continued with the singing of psalms without accompaniment; followed by readings from the Mosaic Law and the Prophets, interpreted through exposition if a capable person were present; and concluded by a pronouncement of the benediction by a priest or a layman with the congregation joining in the “Amen.”
 
With this back drop about the origin of the synagogues we can understand a little more of what happened after Jesus was tempted in wilderness by Satan and returned to Galilee to begin His ministry.
 
Beginning in the Gospel of Luke starting in chapter 4 verse 14 we read:
 
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
  because he has anointed me
  to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
  and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
  to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” – Luke 4:14-21
 
Note here that Jesus sat down to preach after reading from the prophet Isaiah. This was probably the seat called Moses” seat. Jesus will reference this seat later in today’s passage from Matthew chapter 23.
 
Now Jewish tradition maintains that Ezra established a synod of teachers called the Knesset Hagedolah (also known as the Great Assembly), which functioned to adapt and develop the oral tradition to meet contemporary needs. They constituted the channel through which the knowledge of the Torah was transmitted. When the Great Assembly ceased sometime in the third century B.C., the Sanhedrin arose to deliberate community concerns in Judea.
 
According to the historian Josephus, it was known as the “Council,” during the Seleucid period from 198 to167 B.C. It was later known as the Sanhedrin, “Court,” during the Roman occupation. It consisted of 71 members, including the acting high priest, who presided over the other 70 members from two parties, the Sadducees and Pharisees. Now former high priests, the acting high priest, scribes, possibly members of the more privileged families from which the high priests were selected, and the elders also served. During the Roman period, many local courts existed because the Romans permitted the Jews to handle many of their own domestic and religious matters. At least three judges made up the local courts which convened on the second and third days of the week. Courts in large towns had 23 members, the number needed to decide cases of capital punishment. A number of Sanhedrins existed in several communities of Judea during the rule of the Roman procurators (A.D. 6-66). The Sanhedrin in Jerusalem constituted the Jewish Supreme Court and met in the temple area each day, except on holy days and on Sabbaths. The Jerusalem Sanhedrin Court, however, exercised considerable authority, which varied with different monarchs. Herod the Great tried to limit its powers, but under the Roman procurators its powers extended to free regulation of religious matters and controlled regulation of civil matters. Beginning with the rule of Archelaus (4 B.C.-A.D. 6), the powers of the Sanhedrin were evidently limited to Judea, since it could not exercise authority over Jesus when He was in Galilee. After the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, the Jewish Sanhedrin Court was abolished and as Carl mentioned last week it also marked the end of the group called the Sadducees but the synagogues remained and they still exist to this day. Now during its existence, the Jewish Sanhedrin Court had direct authority over its own police force and could order arrests, and in capital cases had the power of life and death, provided that the Roman governor gave his consent.
 
The Roman governor’s judgment, however, usually complied with the Jewish Sanhedrin’s Court demands. The Jewish Sanhedrin Court also heard charges of blasphemy, transgression of the Law of Moses, and false doctrine. Members sat facing one another in a semicircle. Two clerks of the court, one at each end, stood to record votes of condemnation and of acquittal. Condemnation required a two-thirds majority; but an acquittal only required a simple majority. In cases involving capital punishment, arguments for acquittal were presented first, then those for condemnation. Acquittal could be declared on the day of the trial, but condemnation had to wait until following day. This background info may help you understand what took place the night Jesus was betrayed but first we will look at today’s passage. Starting in verse 1 of Matthew chapter 23 we read:
 
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. – Matthew 23:1-2
 
As I mentioned earlier Jesus probably sat down in this seat after he read from the book of Isaiah. Since the teachers of the law and the Pharisees were sitting in Moses’ seat each week Jesus said:
 
So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; – Matthew 23:3-5
 
The Greek word for, “scribes,”, was neither a political party nor a religious sect, but a professional group. In the N.T. the term scribes is synonymous with “lawyers”, “teachers of the law”, and “rabbis” (Matthew 23:7, 8). The scribes, according to tradition, originated in postexilic times with Ezra (458-445 B.C.), who is called a “skilled scribe” in the Law of Moses (2 Chr 34:13; Ezra 7:6). Their roots lay in the Babylonian captivity, when the Jews, possessing the Law of Moses and certain of the Psalms and prophetic writings, sought informed students of the Torah to act as teachers. scribes were not mere writers or copyists. They attempted to interpret and apply the Torah to every circumstance of life. In Ezra’s day, however, the term scribes did not denote concern with the minutiae of interpretation, as the term “scribes” did in Jesus’ day. At first the occupation of scribe belonged to priests. Ezra is called both priest and scribe (Ezra 7:11, 12, 21; Neh 8:9; 12:26).
 
As the priestly activity increased with the growth of the second temple and as the priests participated more in politics, the scribal office became more specialized and scholarly, ultimately being distinguished from that of the priest. By the first century A.D., most of the influential scribes were laymen and were members of the Pharisaic party. Scribes and Pharisees are often bracketed together in the N.T., even though all Pharisees were not competent theological experts. Because of Hellenization, the priests became particularly corrupt during the period between 198 B.C. and 167 B.C period. and the subsequent Roman domination in 63 B.C. and following. As a result, the scribes came to exercise spiritual authority over the people. Scribes transmitted unwritten legal decisions and developed the law theoretically, eventually claiming the superiority of the oral law to the Mosaic Law they taught the law to students by repetition, so that it could be transmitted without variation from one generation to another; and they administered the law in the Sanhedrin by legislating on interpretive questions regarding the O.T. Law and daily matters.
 
For the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, their pretense had overcome the real original devotion to the law.
 
Their Phylacteries were small leather containers worn around the head and around the left arm near the heart. The phylacteries contained segments of the Torah. The phylacteries, eventually became small containers enclosing parchment on which the words of Ex 13:14-16, Deut 6:4-9, and 11:13-21 were written. These containers were then bound on the forehead and left wrist. What do the words of these three segments of the Torah in these little leather containers say?
Well Exodus 13:14-16 says:
 
“In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’ And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his mighty hand.” – Exodus 13:14-16
 
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 says:
 
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. – Deuteronomy 6:4-9
 
And Deuteronomy 11:13-21 says:
 
So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul—then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the LORD’S anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you. Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth. – Deuteronomy 11:13-21
 
So these passages are what the teachers of the law and the Pharisees had written on theses parchments in the phylacteries but that was the extent of their commitment to obeying Moses’s commands that were written there.
 
May be when this practice originated the wearers did keep these passages on their minds and hearts but over the years and through each succeeding generation it just became an ornament and they thought less and less about what was written on the parchments in them. Until finally they did not think about what was written on them at all.
 
For example, they had forgotten that the first born of every womb in Israel belong to the Lord and that every one of the people of Israel were to Love Him and serve Him with their whole heart and with all their soul and all of their strength.
 
A modern-day example of this might be the WWJD? Bracelet Fad. Where the WWJD? stood for What WOULD JESUS DO?. There was a time when many Christians wore these bracelets on their wrist. They were originally meant to remind the wearer to ask the question what does the Lord want me to do in each situation that presents itself to me throughout the day. After a while, these bracelets lost their original significance. Today very few people still wear them, and I think that most but not all of those that do, only wear them out of habit rather than out of heart felt desire to be Jesus’ hands and feet in their everyday circumstances.
 
Jesus goes on to say in today’s passage:
 
They love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; – Matthew 23:6
 
Now the chief furnishing of the synagogue was the “ark,” which contained the sacred scrolls of the O.T. Law and Prophets. Both the prayer leader and the reader of the Scriptures stood on a raised platform located near the “ark.” The “best seats in the synagogues”, sought by the Pharisees and Scribes, were those one or two rows of benches in front of the platform and facing the congregation.
 
Jesus goes on to say of them:
 
they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master (now the word Master here in the NIV is translated as Teacher in the NASB) and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and He is in heaven. – Matthew 23:7-9
 
The Aramaic word abba, “father,” was not used by orthodox Jews to refer to God because the designation was too familiar that is to say too intimate. However, here and other places Jesus taught His disciples to use it as a form of addressing God.
 
Now the authorized Catholic version of the Bible copyright 1987 reads: “Call no one on earth your father.”. Yet the Catholic church continues to use this title to address their priest, Bishops, Cardinals, and Pope. I am not sure how they justify the use of this intimate title, but they are not the only ones that have chosen titles that should be avoided. Many denominational groups refer to their clergy leader as Reverend which is by definition a person worthy of reverence honor or respect felt or shown. Not so among you here at Clemson Community Church. Carl, John, and I don’t want you to address us as Reverend and because we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, we would prefer that you address us by our first names i.e., Carl, John, or Fred as applicable. The term pastor is more of a function than a title. e.g., you would not refer to your plumber whose name is John as plumber John when you are speaking to him or your mailman whose name is Joe for example as mailman Joe when you are speaking to him. So why would you refer to me as pastor Fred when you are speaking to me. My siblings do not address me as pastor Fred. Now the term pastor means performing the function of overseer and I do use it at the closing of official letters to convey that thought. In both the church and the agricultural setting, it means one who watches over a herd or a flock to protect them from danger. Now while I am on the subject of titles the term elder is more of a state of being older spiritually than a title to address us as. In the same way it is uncomfortably inappropriate to say Elder Fred could I talk to you? Sort of like addressing your dad by saying for example “Excuse me Old man can I borrow the car?”. I would prefer that you just address me as Fred and say, “Fred could I talk to you?”. I realize that parents have taught their children to address me as Mr. Custer and to address John as Mr. Farmer and Carl as Doctor Baum and that is Ok but once they are adults and they feel comfortable addressing me as Fred I am Ok with that. I believe John and Carl feel the same way.
 
Now regarding titles Jesus goes on to say in today’s passage to say about titles:
 
Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. – Matthew 23:10
 
Now this is the reason why we put in the weekly bulletin the term “messenger” beside the person that is giving the message that particular week. It is not his message it is God’s message. The person delivering it is simply the messenger who is bringing God’s message to the church body that day. Sort of like the mailman in general is not responsible for creating the letters that he or she delivers. He or She is only a servant of the Federal Government responsible only for delivering the letters created by someone else. Jesus goes on to say in regards to servants in today’s passage:
 
The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. – Matthew 23:11-12
 
This should be our goal i.e., being a servant to all because that is what Jesus was and we should want to be like Him in every way possible.
 
Next Jesus recites what has become known as the “Eight Woes”

The entire passage verses 13 through verse 36 contain the “woes” against the religious leaders and represents the plainest speech of Jesus that is recorded in the Gospels. Equally clear is His disdain for the hypocritical religionist who made his faith nothing more than a burdensome profession. “Hypocrite” is a compound Greek word bringing together hupo, meaning “under,” and krites, indicating “judgment,” hence “to judge under.”
 
Originally the word was used for an actor in the Greek theater. One actor might appear in the same production several times with his true identity disguised by various masks. To determine his/her true identity, one would have to “judge beneath the mask.” Thus, the word had become synonymous with insincerity and mere pretense.
 
Jesus addresses these eight woes toward the teachers of the law and the Pharisees: The phrase “Woe to you” in the following verses is translated “You’re hopeless” in Message translation of the Bible. Now all the phrases “teachers of the law” translated here in the NIV are translated as the word “scribes” in the KJV
 
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Therefore you will be punished more severely.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
“Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! (now the phrase teachers of the law here is also translated as the word “scribes” in the NASB) You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
“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.
The outward, and often ornate, beauty of tombs concealed the rottenness of decaying flesh within. Jesus contends that Pharisaic legalism is an outwardly ornate display which merely conceals the decadence of the heart.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 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! “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
The verbal chastisement concludes with the frank evaluation that the Pharisees are a generation of poisonous snakes incapable of avoiding the pangs of eternal 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 so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate.
When Jesus considers the impact of the Pharisees upon Jerusalem, together with the city’s determined waywardness, He is moved by compassion to lament over the city. He reflects upon His own willingness to gather and lovingly shelter a confused Jerusalem. Jerusalem’s rebellion, however, leaves her house desolate of genuine spiritual health.
For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’” – Matthew 23:13-39
 
The Lord’s final prophecy warned that Israel should not see Him again until the pressures of the Great Tribulation caused them to welcome Him as the Blessed One who comes in the name of the Lord. He quotes this from what the people were crying out on Palm Sunday during His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. They were quoting it from Psalm 118: verse 26 that reads:
 
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you.” – Psalm 118:26
 
Now as I said earlier after the destruction of the temple in A.D. 70 the Sanhedrin was abolished but the synagogues remained. The Sadducees who were the upper wealthy ruling class and the priest became irrelevant because they lost everything and were mostly wiped out. The synagogues then became the chief means of perpetuating Pharisaic Judaism, which exalted it as the principal means for worshipping YAHWEH and discovering His will through study of the Mosaic Law. The Pharisees were more prepared to be deprived of the temple because of the adaptability of a religion which had begun in the Babylonian exile and continued in post exile times. With such adaptability, the synagogues grew in strength and by A.D. 90 the rabbis, as leaders of the Pharisees, excluded the Hebrew Christians from the synagogues.
 
So what are the takeaways from today’s message?
 
1.Avoid Hypocrisy practice what you preach i.e., be genuine.
2. Don’t desire a title. Desire to be a servant to all.
 
Remember God knows your motives and what is on your heart.
 
Let’s pray.