Matthew 23
McGeeCHAPTER 23THEME: Jesus warns the multitude against the scribes and Pharisees; pronounces woes upon the scribes and Pharisees; weeps over JerusalemThis chapter concludes the clash between the Lord Jesus and the religious rulers. He warns the multitudes about them and then denounces the religious rulers in unmistakable terms. No words that ever fell from the lips of our Lord were more scathing. It is a merciless condemnation. If you read this chapter carefully, it will blanch your own soul.
Matthew 23:1
JESUS WARNS AGAINST THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEESJesus’ public denunciation of the Pharisees took place at the temple, the stronghold of His enemies. These religious rulers were in the place of authority, and they controlled the Old Testament Scriptures. They usurped that which they had no right to usurp. They occupied very much the same position that church leaders occupy today. People looked to them for the interpretation of the truth.
Matthew 23:3
That is, do as the Scriptures teach, but don’t follow the works of scribes and Pharisees because they are not following the Word of God. Listen to His sad commentary upon the religious rulers
Matthew 23:4
These men liked to have titles. These men liked to be recognized. They liked to wear certain religious garments and habits which set them apart from other people and drew attention to their high position. Our Lord is condemning all of this.
Matthew 23:8
“Be not ye called Rabbi"meaning teacher. And in the church certain respect and honor belongs to a pastor, but he is no different from anyone else. He is just one of your brothers.
Matthew 23:9
A “father” is a life-giver. To call a man a “father” in spiritual matters is to put him in the place of God as the one who gives spiritual life. This is blasphemous. Only God the Father gives life. A “master” is one in a position of authority. Christ is the One in the position of authority as the head of the church today.
Matthew 23:11
If you want to be the greatest, then become the servant of all.
Matthew 23:13
WOES PRONOUNCED AGAINST THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEESHere we see the gentle Jesus using the harshest language that is in the entire Word of God. No prophet of the Old Testament denounced sin as the Lord Jesus denounces it. Here in Southern California this section was called to the attention of a liberal preacher. He didn’t even know it was in the Biblehe had never read the Bible! In our day there is a misunderstanding of who the Lord Jesus really is. Liberalism gives the impression that all He ever talked about was love. One of the banners that was carried about in a protest march in Berkeley a number of years ago bore the slogan “Jesus Yes, Church No.” A senator from Oregon made a great deal of that, maintaining that the church is giving the wrong impression, that this generation wants Jesus, but that they don’t want the church as it is. Well, I agree that the church in general is giving the wrong impression, but the main problem is that they have really misunderstood who Jesus is.
He is not the “lovechild” that the liberal thinks He is. Certainly it is true that He loves sinners and died for sinners, but also He is going to judge sinners. We need to have a correct perspective of Him. Therefore, He is the One who is misunderstood in our day. The average conception of the Lord Jesus is not even biblical. For example, I asked a liberal preacher this: “Was the Jesus in whom you believe virgin born?” He said, “No.” “Did He die on the cross for the sins of the world?” “No.” “Did He rise bodily from the grave?” “No!” “Well, I’d like to know where that Jesus ever originated. There are no documents which give any information about that Jesus living in the first century. The only documents we have tell of One who was virgin born, who performed miracles, who died for the sins of the world, who rose from the dead, who ascended into heaven, and who is returning to this earth as the Judge.” My friend, this Jesus is not generally known today, and yet He is the only Jesus Christ who has ever lived. The other one is a figment of the imagination. Listen to Him now as He pronounces woes upon the scribes and Pharisees. This is strong language. The Lord uses the term woe eight times in this section and calls scribes and Pharisees hypocrites seven times. He accuses them of blocking the way to heaven by their false leadership.
Matthew 23:14
In other words, these men made long prayers, but they were heartless and crooked in their business dealings.
Matthew 23:15
Oh, they were great at going out and witnessing, but they were not bringing anyone to God. None of their converts were actually born again.
Matthew 23:16
“He is a debtor!“that is, his oath is binding.
Matthew 23:17
That is, he is guilty if he fails to carry out his oath.
Matthew 23:19
The Pharisees were teaching that if you swore by the temple or the altar, you were not bound to keep your oath. But if you swore by the gold of the temple or by the gift on the altar, the oath was binding. They were splitting hairs, of course, and they were placing the emphasis on material things rather than upon the spiritual purpose for which they were to be used. Now listen to our Lord’s strong denunciation
Matthew 23:23
They were very meticulous in tithing their little plants which produce condiments like mint, anise, and cummin. For instance, when I was a boy, my mother always grew a little patch of mint out in the backyard to put in iced tea in the summertime. Can you imagine one of these religious rulers measuring off a little patch of mint and taking a tenth of it to give to the Lord? Oh, they were so strict about those little matters! But our Lord says, “You have forgotten about the weightier matters of the law.” And those weightier matters would have brought these men to the person of Christ.
Matthew 23:24
Do you think this verse is humorous? I do, and if I had been present when Jesus said this, I would have laughedunless, of course, I had been a Pharisee or a scribe. The Lord said this in a serious vein, but I am sure many in the crowd laughed, especially those who knew the old religious rulers. There are a lot of folk who make so much of little things. I remember a dear lady who used to argue about the use of lipstick. She thought it was awful, and yet she had the meanest tongue of any person I know. She didn’t think that was bad, but lipstick was terrible. Frankly, the paint of gossip on the end of the tongueespecially when it is used to blacken somebody’s reputationis lots worse than a little paint on the lips. It is amazing how people can strain at a gnat and swallow a camel!
Matthew 23:25
This fifth woe pictures the Pharisees with their emphasis on the externals. This is a picture of the average church today that is so busy making the outside of the cup and platter clean. They go through all the ceremonies. They want to have the best equipment. They talk so nice and piously on the outside, but inside they do not deal with sin. In most cases, they do not even like the word sin. But all of the external ceremonies cannot clean up their inner corruption. The Pharisees substituted ritual for reality, formality for faith, and liturgy for God.
Matthew 23:26
Don’t misunderstand Him. He is not saying that the outside should not be clean. But you give a wrong impression when the inside is dirty and the outside is not. The place to start is on the inside.
Matthew 23:27
To me this is the most frightening figure of speech which our Lord used. As I said previously, the cup and platter (saucer), clean on the outside and dirty on the inside, picture the average church in our day. But I am afraid that this simile of the tomb pictures the average church-goerbeautiful on the outside, but on the inside they are dead in trespasses and sins. They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power of it to make them new creations in Christ. My friend, until that happens to you, your church membership is null and void; it is nothing but hypocrisy. When I read that over half the population of the United States are church members, I wonder why in public places I see ninety-nine percent of the crowd drinking cocktails, using profanity, and telling dirty stories. We have a whole lot of marble tombs walking around, spiritual zombies, dead in trespasses and sins.
Matthew 23:28
Oh, how He is denouncing religious leaders! And they should be denounced above everyone else. My friend, if you have a Bible-teaching church in your community and a preacher who believes the Book and is trying to teach it, for God’s sake stand with him in these days. He needs you, and you need him. Oh, how we need men who believe the Word of Godand live it!
Matthew 23:29
And we are doing the same thing in our day. Great men of God, preachers, evangelists, missionaries, were denounced and ridiculed by their generations, but they are honored today. That was true of Spurgeon, Moody, Torrey, and many others. Our Lord sure did know human nature, and it has not changed. “You build the tombs to commemorate the prophets after they are gone, and you decorate the graves of the righteous!” “Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.” These same religious leaders, who were honoring the prophets of the past, would soon force Rome to crucify the Son of God who was speaking to them. Now this is something that will blanch your soul
Matthew 23:33
Can you imagine stronger language than that? What does He mean by calling them a generation of vipers? He means that they are the offspring of snakes! This is devastating to that damnable doctrine of the universal brotherhood of man and the universal Fatherhood of God. God does not claim you if you have rejected Jesus Christ. The only way to become a child of God is to receive Christ. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power [the right] to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name” (Joh_1:12). The Lord is speaking in harsh terms in these verses in Matthew. He is serving a cup of tea that is a little too strong for a great many of the liberal-minded folk of this present hour. Jesus Christ was no love child. He came to earth to die for your sins because He loved you, but if you reject Him, He becomes your Judge.
Matthew 23:34
Apparently the slaying of Zacharias was an incident which had taken place recently. Our Lord starts at the beginning with the murder of Abel and brings them down to the present hour. He makes it very clear that God will judge Israel for destroying the righteous. He is certainly contradicting our current philosophy that everyone will ultimately be saved. He says that they will not be saved.
Matthew 23:36
He is predicting the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. What does He do next? The One who made this strong denunciation will now weep over Jerusalem.
Matthew 23:37
JESUS WEEPS OVER JERUSALEMJerusalem rejected Him in His so-called triumphal entry, and He has rejected Jerusalem, but now He weeps over this city. Yes, He denounced them, but He does love them. And knowing the judgment which must come, He weeps. The statement was made in Dwight L. Moody’s day that he was the only man living who should preach on hell because he did it with such compassion. And certainly our Lord pronounced these woes with a heart that was breaking. You remember that some of the people thought he was Jeremiah because, although Jeremiah gave the strongest denunciation in the Old Testament, he wept over it. I am of the opinion that we today should not make denunciations unless we are personally moved by them.
Matthew 23:39
Not only were the religious rulers in shock, but His apostles were in shock, also. This seemed to them a strange turn of events. They expected Him to establish the Kingdom, with Jerusalem as the capital. But now He says that their house is to be left desolate and that they will not see Him again until they say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.” You see, although He is on His way to the Cross at this time, He gives them the assurance that He will returnand that will be His triumphal entry! Obviously, the Kingdom is going to be postponed. There are many who object to that teaching, but to do that, they must object to the language of our Lord. He tells His disciples that He will not establish the kingdom on earth at this time but that He will come again to establish it. That means that the Kingdom is postponed, doesn’t it? The apostles were surprised and disappointed at the idea of a postponement; so they come to Him with three questions, which we will see in the following chapter.