https://www.bible.com/events/49585583
Church of the Nazarene – East Rockingham Campus
Encounters Part 1
The Pharisee’s
Today we begin our Easter teaching series called Encounters. Throughout this series we will be looking at encounters that Jesus had with people to see how it changed their lives and what we can learn for our lives today.
Our series begins today with Jesus encountering the Pharisee’s in Matthew 23. This particular encounter we are looking at today, happens on Tuesday of passion week.
Throughout the gospel accounts you will read of different encounters with the Pharisee’s and legal experts.
The Pharisee’s were a group of Jewish religious folks who had completely separated their lives from normal activity to dedicate themselves to the strict observing of the law of Moses. They were the best of the best as far as being religious goes.
The Legal experts or scribes (depending on your translation) that are also mentioned here in the text- They were professional religious intellectuals. They were highly trained in the law of Moses, they were often asked to teach and give rulings when there was a dispute.
After multiple failed attempts to trap Jesus in his words, Jesus turns his attention to the crowds of people in the temple and addresses them. That’s where we pick up in Matthew 23
Matthew 23:1-7
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. “Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others.
Jesus reveals that most of what these Pharisee’s were doing, was for show, was to impress other people- Jesus says “don’t do that”
After speaking to the crowds, he then turns his attention directly to the Pharisee’s and legal experts and begins to reveal what’s really behind all of their religious practices.
Matthew 23:13-14
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.
The word hypocrite here means to be a play actor, a pretender. A person who does right things for the wrong reasons. A person who says one thing and does another.
Jesus calls the Pharisee’s and legal experts hypocrites because all of their religious rules and activities actually prevent people from finding God- and they themselves don’t even have a relationship with him. They are pretending.
Matthew 23:15-22
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that 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 anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.
Here Jesus seems to be calling out a convoluted system of swearing oaths- by the temple, by things inside of it- they had a whole system established for how serious something needed to be sworn in.
For Jesus, he says let your yes be yes and your no be no.
Matthew 23:23-24
“You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?
The Pharisee’s were so attune to religious details, they would tithe on their spices and seasonings. That itself wasn’t the problem.
They were hypocrites because they took tithing to that level of detail, but they failed to look after the major things like justice, peace, and faith.
Matthew 23:25-28
“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 the bones of the dead 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 Pharisee’s and scribes had a beautiful exterior of religious ceremony and piety- but inside it was gross, full of violence and pleasure seeking.
What was on the outside, did not match the inside, and that’s a brig problem for Jesus.
Matthew 23:29-32
“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 ancestors, 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. Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!
Today as we read about the encounter with Jesus and Pharisee’s we should be careful not to miss the real encounter that matters the most for us today. And that’s Jesus encounter with hypocrisy.
The real enemy of this passage is not the pharisee’s or the legal experts. It’s not the Law or the Jewish people. It’s the hypocrisy of people claiming the name of God and not living his life.
And friends that is an enemy that crosses generations, cultures, and all sorts of experience. Right into my life and yours.
This is not about being mad at the Pharisee’s, or hypocrites in our world today- it’s about taking an honest look in the mirror and asking: Lord, is there hypocrisy in me?
The danger of hypocrisy is that it can cause us not to enter the kingdom of heaven.Both to miss the fullness of Christ now, and after we die, that we might miss eternity in heaven.
And the other danger of hypocrisy in our life, is that it might cause OTHERS to miss the kingdom of God.
Author Brennen Manning says: “The single greatest cause of atheism in the world today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.”
That’s the twin danger of hypocrisy.
Today we seek the Lord in dealing with hypocrisy in our life. We ask him to search our hearts, to reveal to us the places of our own hypocrisy, and to lead us to repentance.