Gospel of Matthew Chapter 23 -- John Karmelich

1. There was a famous bible teacher, a generation back named Walter Martin.

a) One of Walter’s more famous lines concerning telling people about Jesus is as follows:

b) “If they won’t listen to Jesus, give them Moses!”

c) What he meant by that is if people aren’t willing to hear the good news of the Gospel, then tell them the bad news about eternal damnation.

d) “Give them Moses” is to tell people about the law, God’s requirements for perfection and how people can’t those requirements based on their efforts.

2. Which leads us to Chapter 23 of the Gospel of Matthew.

a) This is Jesus’ final public speech.

b) It is a great speech to be read in contrast to the Sermon on the Mount.

i) The Sermon on the Mount was one speech given by Jesus in Chapters 5-7.

ii) It was the first public sermon recorded by Jesus in this Gospel.

c) I’ve nicknamed this speech the “anti-Sermon on the Mount”

i) The Sermon on the Mount is all about changing your life on the inside, and that in turn, will change your behavior on the outside.

ii) This speech in Chapter 23 is all about what happens to you when you fail to change your behavior on the inside.

a) It is mostly about trying to do “good things” on the outside when you fail to deal with your internal attitudes.

b) It is a lot like trying to kill a weed. If you just mow-over the surface area, the weed will grow back. You have to kill the root. That is the idea behind the Sermon on the Mount. It is about “killing the evil roots” inside of you.

c) Jesus focuses this speech on those “mowing over the weeds” as opposed to dealing with our internal nature.

3. Chapter 23 is a speech given by Jesus.

a) It is addressed to both those who follow Jesus and those who don’t.

b) Remember that Jesus is a matter of days away from the cross and He knew it.

c) He was aware that many in this crowd wanted Jesus dead.

d) He uses this opportunity to warn those who don’t get the fact that Jesus is the Messiah of the condemnation to come.

e) That’s why I compare this speech to the line: “Give them Moses”. “Moses” in this context refers to the law (i.e., the Old Testament commandments). It is about judgment.

f) It is a direct warning, even a pleading of those who don’t want to accept Jesus to change.

4. The most common word used in this chapter is the word “woe”.

a) Seven or eight times, depending upon your bible, Jesus says, “Woe to you Pharisees”.

b) “Woe” in the original Greek language, has both a condemnation and sorrowful tone.

c) You should not read this speech as an angry-Jesus being mad at those who condemn him.

d) Instead, you have to see the tone as a combination of “righteous anger” and pity.

i) It is “righteous anger” in that Jesus is a like a judge who pronounces a guilty verdict on those who deserve a guilty verdict.

ii) At the same time, Jesus understands the eternity of hell. Therefore, it is also given as a sorrowful warning of what they have done.

5. This speech is primarily for the Jewish reader, but there are also things for us to learn as well.

a) Remember Matthew’s fundamental purpose was to convince a Jewish reader that Jesus is their promised Messiah.

b) This whole speech is only given in Matthew’s Gospel. It is “very Jewish” in nature in that it focuses on how Judaism operated at that time and its faults.

c) Yet, even within it, there are a few tidbits that we non-Jewish Christians can learn from.

d) While the religious sect of the Pharisees does not exist today, the attitude of the Pharisees is a common problem throughout human history.

i) What we can draw from this speech is a “checklist” for us to watch out for in our behavior as to what Jesus expects us as a Christian.

e) This speech is not just, “You Pharisees fail to recognize me Jesus as the Messiah and now you are in big trouble”.

i) If it were that simple, the speech would only be one sentence and not a whole chapter. Jesus does give details as to why they are guilty before God.

ii) The fact the speech goes on for a whole chapter indicates there are details and life lessons designed for believers as well as non-believers.

6. Verse 1: Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:

a) Notice who Jesus is speaking to in this chapter: “The crowds and his disciples”.

i) Jesus is in “earshot” of the Pharisees, but as I said in the introduction, the speech is not just given as a warning to non-believers, but has lessons for the believers.

b) Remember in Chapter 22, Jesus played “question and answer” with the audience.

i) Jesus silenced his critics with his answers.

ii) That same audience is still right here. They are simply standing there grumbling that Jesus answered their questions in a way that they could not respond to.

iii) Jesus is still in command and still talking.

iv) Now in Verse 1, Jesus uses this opportunity to make one last public speech.

7. Verse 2: "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.

a) The term “Moses-seat” refers to the religious leaders in Jerusalem.

i) The term specifically refers to the head rabbi’s who’s job it was to properly interpret the Old Testament to the crowd.

ii) Remember that people didn’t own bibles. They learned their Hebrew Scriptures by attending synagogues and listening to the rabbi’s preach.

iii) These guys were given the responsibility of properly interpreting the law, and thus the title “Moses-seat”.

b) Remember that the “teachers of the law” and the Pharisees are distinct groups.

i) The “teachers” are those who went to the equivalent of “Hebrew seminary”.

a) They spent their life studying their bible and the commentaries.

b) By this time, the Jews had thousands of pages of official commentary on their bible, collectively called the Talmud and the Mishna. It was written over the centuries on how to interpret the Old Testament.

ii) The Pharisees were a religious sect within Judaism.

a) They were not necessarily rabbi’s.

b) Pharisee Judaism is a “way of life”. It was to take the Old Testament, and estimate the strictest interpretation even at the point of being ridiculous.

(1) For example, there was one subgroup that was worried that looking at any women other than their wife could lead to temptation. They would walk around with their heads down to avoid temptation. They were called the “bloody Pharisees” because they had all sorts of bumps and bruises from walking around with their heads down.

c) Even the Talmud itself has some condemnation against some of the Pharisees sub-groups for being external-only in their practice and not living up to their own rules.

d) Modern Orthodox Judaism is based on the teachings of the Pharisees.

e) So why would somebody want to be a Pharisee?

(1) It appeals to the ego. “I am more holy than you and I am going to have great heavenly rewards based because I live my life in strict observance of the law”.

(2) To “be a better person” through self-discipline has appeal. We all want to be pleasing to God. Their heart was in the right place, but the mistake was trying to please God through their efforts.

8. Verse 3: 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.

a) The first sentence gets me: “So you must obey them and do everything they tell you”

i) What did Jesus mean by that? Are we to obey all aspects of the law?

ii) First of all, Jesus is talking about the Old Testament itself and the reading of such.

b) Remember that the Old Testament is still binding upon us.

i) The difference is Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the law so we don’t have to. Out of gratitude for what Jesus did, we then let God work through us to “obey the law”. God wants to rule through you to change you from the inside out.

ii) The sacrificial aspects of the law are all taken care of in Jesus. The practical aspects of the law are things God expects of us and are things we can do if and only if we let God rule in our hearts so He can work through us.

c) Let’s get back to that idea of “you must obey them”.

i) Jesus is saying in effect, “Look, just because the preacher is a hypocrite and doesn’t practice what he preaches does not mean the bible is a bad book. The speaker may be bad, but truth is truth no matter who says it.”

ii) The other concept being taught is “whoever is in authority must be obeyed.”

a) It does not mean to obey them to a point of denying Jesus.

b) This is not about violating biblical principals.

c) It is about respecting those of authority, whether we like it or not.

d) Here is another verse I discussed in the last lesson: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established.” (Rom. 13:1, NIV)

e) It is the idea that leaders are God-appointed, and we must be good-witnesses to them while they are in power.

(1) If our leaders are corrupt or wicked, it is also ok, to vote them out or pray for God to raise up good leaders.

9. Verse 4: 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.

a) For a large part of this chapter, we are going to read how the religious leaders were hypocrites. The word “hypocrites” is where we get our word “actor”. It is one who is acting differently in one setting than he or she is in real life.

b) In summary, Jesus is saying they don’t practice what they preach.

10. Verse 5: "Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; ⁶ they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; ⁷ they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them `Rabbi.'

a) The first sentence of Verse 5 summarizes much of the chapter:

i) “Everything they do is done for men to see”.

ii) Compare that statement with one Jesus said from the Sermon on the Mount: “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. (Matthew 6:5, NIV)

iii) The point is that this is not a condemnation of religious acts, it is a condemnation of motivation. It is a good idea every know and then, especially in church to check yourself and ask, “why am I doing this? Is it to be seen by people, or am I doing this because I am grateful for what Jesus did for me?

iv) Remember the whole point of the Sermon on the Mount is about keeping God on the throne of your heart. Chapter 6 of that speech is mostly about our religious acts. It is as if our ego’s are saying, “Well, if I can’t be in charge in Chapter 5, let me at least be in charge of the religious stuff in Chapter 6. If I (our ego) can’t rule in our relationship with God and others, let me still rule in religious efforts.”

v) It comes back to “killing the weed-roots” growing inside of us.

b) Let’s take on the specific examples in the rest of these verses.

i) Phylacteries are leather boxes containing 4 scriptures.

a) Three times in the Scriptures (Exodus 13:18, Deuteronomy 6:8, 11:18) God says about his law that you shall keep them “as frontlets between your eyes” (NKJV). The idea is to keep your eyes focused upon God.

b) Well, the Pharisees took this literal. They wore leather boxes containing a handful of scriptures dangling from their foreheads.

ii) Notice Jesus’ condemnation is not against having phylacteries.

a) Having symbolic things to keep our focus on God is not a problem in itself.

b) Jesus condemns “making them wide” in Verse 6.

c) Jesus point is they made these boxes big so others can see them.

iii) The tassels are a similar concept.

a) In Numbers 15:38, God commands the Israelites to make blue tassels to hang from their garments. The “blue” is a word-picture for a blue sky.
It is a reminder to keep our lives heavenly-focused.

b) The condemnation was about making their tassels long.

c) Again, it is about doing “religious stuff” to be seen by men.

c) The last two examples are also about ego.

i) Jesus condemns the fact they desire “the best seats in the house” and the fact they loved the people to call them “Rabbi”. It is an exalted term meaning teacher.

a) The modern example might be the church with the “big fancy” seats for the church leaders. This is un-biblical. The word “minister” means servant. A minister is never to be superior to the congregation in status.

11. Verse 8: "But you are not to be called `Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. <sup>9</sup> And do not call anyone on earth `father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. ¹⁰ Nor are you to be called `teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ.

a) There is a classical debate within Christianity on how literal to take these verses.

i) Are we never to call anyone “Teacher” (which is Rabbi in Hebrew) or Father?

ii) Some churches argue that way. There is a denomination called “The Brethren” where everyone in the church is greeted as “Brother or Sister” with no exceptions.

iii) The not-so-literal argument is that Jesus is teaching on stature and not titles.

iv) This argument is that Jesus is arguing against “not letting a title go to your head”.

v) Many Protestant groups resent calling Catholic priests “Father” for this reason.

b) I don’t think Jesus is being so literal as we should not call our paternal fathers “Father”.

i) I do take the view it is about letting a ministerial title go to your head.

ii) If this is a problem for you, just refer to your pastor as “Mr….”

iii) Many protestant groups use titles like “brother Bob” or “Minister Tom” in order to avoid the words “Father” or “Teacher”. We have to be careful and people tend to put professional ministers on pedestals no matter what the title.

c) Bible ministers and teachers are simply ones who are given the spiritual gift to teach God’s word. They are no more, nor any less important than any other Christian. They should be treated as such. They have no special stature with God nor are their prayers “more special” than the laymen of the church.

i) They are given more responsibility and with that comes more accountability.

d) Next, notice Jesus’ statement, “You have one Teacher, the Christ.”

i) Notice Jesus doesn’t add “and that’s me”. Jesus wants us to come to that conclusion on our own without him having to say so.

ii) Jesus is not only our Lord and Savior, but also our teacher. We look to his words for instruction on how to live our lives.

12. Verse 11: “The greatest among you will be your servant. ¹² For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

a) Jesus said we should take our church organizational chart and turn it upside down.

i) The top guys are the servants of all.

ii) The “bottom rung” is who we serve.

b) It does not mean that in our hour-of-need we shouldn’t turn to others for help. There is the balance between carrying your weight and turning to others in times of crisis.

c) Heavenly rewards require humble attitudes. As I stated earlier, the word “minister” literally means servant.

i) Personally I don’t like the term “professional minister”. I think we are all in the full-time ministry in whatever we do in life.

ii) Humility is to put others needs above your own. That is what biblical “love” is all about. Jesus is teaching this in contrast to those who do religious acts for the purpose of building their own ego.

13. Verse 13: "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.

a) Here comes the woe’s. J From Verse 13-32 are eight “woe’s”
(Possibly seven, as discussed in Verse 14).

b) In these verses Jesus is specifically condemning the law-teachers and the Pharisees for their actions. As I stated, it is a combination of a judge pronouncing sentence and sorrow.

c) So what did Jesus mean by “shutting the kingdom in men’s faces?”

i) These leaders not only denied Jesus, but did so publicly.

ii) We know of at least one account where a believer was ex-communicated from the synagogue because he choose to follow Jesus. (See John 9:34).

a) Don’t take that lightly. Imagine being kicked out of your church for being a “bad person”. That is the price to be paid for following Jesus.

iii) Jesus point in this verse is that not only were these specific teachers and Pharisees not going to heaven, but they were working to prevent others to do the same.

14. Verse 14: “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.

a) This verse is controversial in that many of the early manuscripts does not have it.

b) Some bibles have Verse 14 in the text, others just in the footnotes.

c) The point is we don’t know whether or not this verse is in the original text.

i) I happen to believe it is part of the original, but it is just my opinion.

ii) This text is too historical, too “unique” to be added, say by a writer centuries later.

d) Let me explain “devouring widow’s houses”

i) Imagine a religious leader walking up to the house of a widow: “Oh ma’am, we are so sorry about the loss of your husband. He was a good man. He is in heaven right now. But you know, we are concerned about you. This can be a great opportunity to show how much you love God. Sign over your house to the church and you will have great eternal blessings. Show God, now in this moment of your pain, how much you trust him and are willing to give your house to his glory.”

ii) In all of this “religious talk”, they took over a widow’s home.

iii) It sounds preposterous, but you would be surprised how many “religious people” prey upon elderly widows. They go after the guilt for financial rewards.

e) The last part of this verse is about “lengthy prayers”.

i) This goes back to my quote earlier of Matthew 6:5 when Jesus said, “they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men”

15. Verse 15: "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.

a) In our day and age, we don’t see a lot of Jewish Evangelism.

i) Jews don’t spend a lot of time trying to convert outsiders to Judaism.

ii) Some of that existed in Jesus’ day, a practice going back a few centuries earlier.

b) A person who is a recent convert to anything usually has a lot of zeal.

i) The point is that these non-believers in Jesus go through incredible lengths and trouble in order to win over a convert, and that person also denies Jesus.

ii) I believe the term “twice as much the son of hell” is because this new convert now is zealous in their anti-Jesus attitudes.

iii) We read some of this in the Book of Acts. The Jews who don’t believe Paul as he travels around work hard at teaching others that Jesus is not the Messiah. These others then become zealous to work against Paul and his efforts.

16. Verse 16: "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.' <sup>17</sup> You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? <sup>18</sup> 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.' ¹⁹ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? ²⁰ Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. ²¹ And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. ²² And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.

a) I can summarize this paragraph with this comment: “There are no loopholes with God”.

i) Religious Jews of that day had a whole elaborate system of taking oaths.

ii) It is based on part of the 10 commandments that says in effect, “you shall not take God’s name in vain” (Exodus 20:7).

iii) Their commentaries on how to take oaths had all sorts of do’s and don’ts.

a) For example, their commentary says that, “Swearing by heaven and earth was not binding, nor was swearing by Jerusalem, though swearing toward Jerusalem was.” Expositor’s Bible Encyclopedia on Matthew 5:33)

iv) Jesus is getting back to the idea of “religious loopholes”. The religious Jews of that day thought that making oaths in one way was not binding, but in other ways were b