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Pastor Lars Larson, PhD                                                                                                   FBC Sermon #625
First Baptist Church, Leominster, MA                                                                                August 21, 2011
Words for children: father, woe, judgment                                                                          Text: Matthew 23:1-39

The Gospel of Matthew (89)
Seven Woes against Israel’s Leaders

Our current progress through Matthew:

I.  Prologue (chs. 1, 2)
II.  The Kingdom Comes (chs. 3-7)
III.  The Works of the Kingdom (chs. 8-10)
IV.  The Nature of the Kingdom (chs. 11-13)
V.  The Authority of the Kingdom (chs. 14-18)
VI.  Kingdom Blessings and Kingdom Judgments (chs. 19-25)
            A.  From Galilee to Jerusalem (chs. 19, 20)
            B.  The King enters Jerusalem (chs. 21-23)
                        1.  Triumphal Entry and Cleansing the Temple (21:1-22)
                        2.  Parables of Resistance to the King (21:23-22:14)
                        3.  Conflict with the Pharisees and Sadducees (22:15-23:39)

*****************

        Today we will consider further this section of Matthew’s Gospel in which we read of great conflict between our Lord and the Jewish leaders of Jerusalem.  As we stated last Lord’s Day, these are the last public words of our Lord in His earthly ministry.  He would afterwards instruct His disciples only.  But the next occasion that He would be with these men, whom He confronted with their hypocricy, they would be trying Him and accusing Him falsely of crimes punishable by death.

        E.  Our Lord’s pronouncement of Judgment upon the Jewish leaders (23:1-39)

        The passage before us is a lengthy one.  It is set forth as a prophetic declaration of judgment reminiscent of Old Testament announcements of God’s judgment upon impenitent sinners. Here is Matthew 23:1-39:

        1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples, 2“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, 3so practice and observe whatever they tell you--but not what they do.  For they preach, but do not practice.  4They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.  5They do all their deeds to be seen by others.  For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.  8But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.  9And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.  10Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.  11The greatest among you shall be your servant.  12Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
        13“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces.  For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.  14
        15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
        16“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’  17You blind fools!  For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?  18And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’  19You blind men!  For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?  20So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.  21And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.  22And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.
        23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.  These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.  24You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
        25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  26You blind Pharisee!  First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
        27“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.  28So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
        29“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’
        31“Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.  32Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.  33You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?  34Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35so that on you may come all the righteous bloodshed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.  36Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation.
        37“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!  38See, your house is left to you desolate.  39For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

        Before we begin to consider the details of our passage, it would be good if we first examined…

        1.  Several preliminary matters regarding our passage.

       From time to time in our study of Matthew’s Gospel we have stated the opinion of Matthean scholars that Matthew organized His Gospel around five major discourses, or teaching sessions, of our Lord.(1)  Some believe that what we have before us in Matthew 23 should also be regarded as a separate discourse of our Lord, making the total of six rather than five.  Those who would say this is not to be regarded as a separate discourse would argue that it belongs with the Olivet Discourse that is contained in Matthew 24 and 25.  But that passage seems to be distinct from this passage in that the discourse of Matthew 24 and 25 is a different subject--the impending destruction of Jerusalem, that our Lord addressed in a different setting--on the Mount of Olives, and it was a directed to a different audience--His disciples only.  Also it may be argued that each of the other discourses of our Lord in Matthew’s Gospel end with the words, “when Jesus finished these sayings”, or words similar to these, but Matthew 23 does not end in this manner.(2) 

       One more important matter to which we may give our attention is the text itself, particularly the presence or absence of verse 14.  In our English Standard Version (ESV) verse 14 does not exist.  Commonly the King James Version and the New King James Version will have words or verses that are unique to them, but are not found in the newer translations such as the New American Standard Version (NASV), the New International Version (NIV), and the English Standard Version (ESV).  But in this instance the ESV and the NIV only do not include verse 14.  The other translations read as follows:

KJV:  “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  for ye devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation.”

NKJV:  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers.  Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

NASV:  “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, even while for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you shall receive greater condemnation.”

       How do we make sense of this?  Allow me to explain.  There are over 5,000 Greek manuscripts or fragments of the New Testament that have been recovered over the centuries.  No two manuscripts are identical.  Scribes copied these texts by hand before the printing press was not invented until the 15th century.  Some scribes were very careful to make an identical copy to the master that was before them.  Other scribes were not very careful.  Some scribes made mistakes when either they misread a text when copying or they mistakenly copied a variant from their original when they heard it being read before them.  Some scribes made intentional changes.  This was not because they were intentionally trying to corrupt the text, but they made intentional changes in their mind to “correct” the text.
       Now scholars have classified these many manuscripts into four different “families” of texts, grouped according to the similarity of the various readings.(3) These “families” are labeled according to the region where the family of texts was located.  There are generally four families of texts that scholars have proposed--the Alexandrian, the “Western”, the Caesarean, and the Byzantine.(4)  When scholars make a determination between variant readings as to which most likely was in the original New Testament document, they consider first this external evidence of which family of texts the reading may be classified.  This is an effort to assess the quality of the manuscript in which the reading is found.  Scholars generally prefer a reading of the Alexandrian family of texts to the others.  However, when considering the variant readings of the Gospels, scholars tend to prefer textual readings from the Caesarean family of texts.  They regard readings from the “Western” family of texts as some of the oldest manuscripts, but also the most “peculiar.”  They regard the readings of the Byzantine family of texts as the “least valuable”, for they are much later than the others.  This is the text type from which the King James and the New King James versions are based.
        After initially preferring a reading on its external evidence, scholars consider secondly the internal evidence, in other words, they consider the reading itself and attempt to determine which reading was probably the original based on certain established criteria.  Some of these include the following:

(1)  The shorter reading is to be preferred to a longer reading.  This assumes that a scribe when copying a manuscript would tend to expand a text rather than shorten it, for purposes of clarification.

(2)  The more “difficult” reading at first glance is to be preferred to the more easily understood reading.  This assumes that a scribe would tend to make things more clear rather than more obscure.

(3)  The reading is preferred which best fits the author’s context and purpose.  This is the most subjective of the criteria.

(4)  The reading that best explains the origin of the others is to be preferred.  In other words, one might see how variant “A” could lead to reading “B” or “C”, but one could not readily get from “B” or “C’ to come up with reading “A”.

       In my opinion, I give very little credibility to a preferred reading based on external evidence, the “family” of the text in which a manuscript is found.  The classification of “family texts” is beset with difficulty.  Ultimately, the last criteria of internal evidence is the final determiner, in my opinion this should be weighed the foremost: which reading best explains the origin of the others.

       In the variant reading before us in Matthew 23:14, we have two possibilities, either it is included or it is excluded.  In this instance it is more likely that a scribe intentionally included the reading rather than intentionally leaving it out.  And so, the text without the verse best explains the origin of the presence of the verse.  In other words, it is most likely that verse 14 was not penned originally by Matthew.
       Now in the variant readings of the Gospels, particularly the parallel Gospels of the Synoptics--Matthew, Mark, and Luke--we have the advantage of comparing the Gospels with one another.  It was a common practice of some scribes when making a copy of a Gospel, intentionally harmonize his copy with the other Gospels.  This is probably how Matthew 23:14 was first included.  Because verse 14 is not found in the earliest manuscripts, and because verse 14 in some manuscripts is placed before verse 13 or in other places, and because verse 14 is found in the parallel accounts in Mark and Luke’s Gospels(5), it is clear that a scribe at some point intentionally included verse 14 in order to harmonize Matthew’s account with Mark and Luke.  It is very probable that Matthew’s original Gospel did not have verse 14 in the text.
       I have a commentary of the New Testament variant readings in which the editors of the modern Greek text of the New Testament explain why they chose one reading over another.  Regarding this reading of Matthew 23:14, they wrote:

That ver. 14 is an interpolation derived from the parallel in Mk 12:40 or Lk 20:47 is clear (a) from its absence in the earliest and best authorities of the Alexandrian, the Western, and the Caesarean types of text, and (b) from the fact that the witnesses which include the passage have it in different places, either after ver. 13 (so the Textus Receptus) or before ver. 13.(6)

The conclusion of the whole matter is this: Matthew 23:14 is a true statement, but it is because it was originally penned by Mark and Luke, for it was not originally in Matthew’s Gospel.

          One might ask, “Why did the pastor go through so much detail about this matter?”  For several reasons: first, I think we should be very grateful to God for His providence in raising up scribes and scholars over the centuries that have faithfully delivered accurate and faithful copies of the original inspired writings of the Bible.  Second, I hope that through an exposure to these matters we might better understand statements in our study Bibles and commentaries when they argue things like, “this reading is not in the earliest or best manuscripts.”  The process of making determinations is very carefully followed with much care and precision.  Third, there are churches that advocate only the King James Version is the legitimate Bible translation through which God has preserved His Word through the centuries.  These folks are uniformed about the nature and history of the manuscript tradition and the fact that these decisions between readings need to be made even in the Byzantine family of texts which stands behind the KJV.

        2.  The order and organization of the passage.

        The words of our Lord recorded in Matthew 23 is in the form of a prophetic pronouncement, similar to Old Testament pronouncements of judgment that God delivered to Israel through His prophets.  After an initial warning to His hearers not to elevate their human leaders to an ungodly level (23:1-12), the Lord pronounced judgment upon those leaders (23:13-29).  He gave forth a series of seven “woes”: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” (vs. 13, 14, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29).  He pronounced judgment upon them by declaring that the accumulation of guilt of all the persecutors of the prophets would come this generation of Jewish leaders (vs. 31-36).  He concluded this pronouncement of judgment by declaring that the “house” of Jerusalem would be destroyed through the judgment of God and that the Jewish people would remain in their cursed condition until such time that they acknowledged that Jesus was indeed the promised Christ (23:37f).

        3.  Understanding the details of the passage.

(1)  Our Lord initially warns the crowds and His disciples of their teachers. (23:1-3)

        1Then Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples, 2“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, 3so practice and observe whatever they tell you--but not what they do.  For they preach, but do not practice.”

        Our Lord acknowledged that these scribes and Pharisees had legitimate authority to teach and lead the people in the Word of God.  They sat “on Moses’ seat”, that is to say, they had the privilege and responsibility to teach the Word of God, with particular view to the covenant requirements that were before them as the people of God.  But they were guilty.  Their fault was not only in what they taught, but also in how they lived.  They were hypocrites.  They served no good example to the people to whom they brought the Word of God.  They failed to practice what they preached.  “In the first paragraph Jesus tells His audience that these law-experts and their adherents fall short in three respects: they lack sincerity, sympathy, and humility.”(7)
        These hypocrites were also legalistic, binding men’s consciences and lives to conform to standards that God Himself had never imposed upon His people.  We read in verse 4: “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.”  Through their preaching, the people were laden with heavy guilt.  They preached the law of God, but they failed to proclaim the grace of God.  They used their authority to oppress people. They bound people to keep rules and laws that were not taught in the Scriptures.  They exercised control over every aspect of life.  They afflicted mens’ consciences.  They were able to convince men of sin, but they failed to convince men of God’s forgiveness of sin.
        These legalistic hypocrites were also man-pleasers.  They desired the praise of men.  Verses 5 through 7:

5They do all their deeds to be seen by others.  For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.

        The men would dress in a manner to display their religiosity before others.  They wore phylacteries, which were small leather boxes into which they put written verses of Scripture.  One of these was commonly dangled upon the forehead, another on the left arm near the heart.  By making their phylacteries “broad” they were making the bands that fastened their phylacteries very visible to others.  They wanted to be seen and congratulated for their strict and devout attention to the law.  They scrambled for attention and recognition, desiring the praise of men.   They loved titles, such as “rabbi”, and insisted that they were addressed by them.
        Our Lord then instructed His disciples regarding these matters.  Verses 8 through 12:

8But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers.  9And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.  10Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.  11The greatest among you shall be your servant.  12Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

Of course this is no prohibition to referring to one’s earthly dad as father.  We are to honor our father and mother.  Moreover, this instruction of our Lord is not to be viewed as wholly dismissing the role of leaders and teachers in the churches, for clearly the Word of God calls for leaders and teachers, and that the people of God are to respect and honor them as such.(8)  What our Lord was forbidding was the desire for attention and the honor of men.  No one should aspire to have superiority over others.  No one in the Christian realm should make such claims of superiority or privilege.  To put it another way, our Lord was discrediting the idea that we should view Christians in a two-tiered manner—clergy and laity.  The New Testament teaches the priesthood of all true believers.  There is equality of persons in the kingdom, each one being equally redeemed through Jesus Christ alone.  Granted, God has gifted His people differently and they serve in various capacities in the church, but Christians are not to maintain a hierarchy of rank in the church.  We are all one in Christ Jesus.
        Our Lord gave the principle of humility that should characterize all of the Lord’s people.  Verses 11 and 12 read, “The greatest among you shall be your servant.  Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”  

(2)  Our Lord begins to pronounce God’s judgment upon the Jewish leaders (23:13-36)

       The use of the word, “woe”, is the declaration of God’s curse upon a people.  They are damned, being under the condemnation of God.  The first woe addresses the lack of concern for the people over which the Jewish leaders were to be guides and helpers to their salvation.  Verse 13, “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces.  For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in.”  These Jewish leaders had resisted and withstood Jesus when He was teaching the people.  They had failed to respond to Him and they did all they could do so that others would not respond to Him either. 

       The second woe pronounces God’s curse upon these Jewish leaders because although they were claiming to be converting people to the kingdom, even going to great expense and effort to do so, they were actually only making more hypocrites of people through their witness.  Verse 15, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”  They did mission work, but they had the wrong message.  They were making proselytes, but no converts.

       The third woe addresses their error and inconsistency and their silly beliefs and practices.

       16“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’  17You blind fools!  For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred?  18And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’  19You blind men!  For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred?  20So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.  21And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by Him who dwells in it.  22And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it. (Matt. 23:16-22)

The Scriptures speak of occasions when legitimate oaths may be taken.  We may call God to witness our words and our commitments to others.  This is what we do when we rehearse the wedding vows.  But our oaths are to be based upon our sincere commitment to follow Him and serve Him, coming forth from our hearts that are characterized by integrity and solid character.  We should not have to call upon something of greater value in order for us to be true to our Word.  Our yes is to be yes and our no is to be no, anything more than this is sin (cf. Matt. 5:37). 

        The fourth woe speaks of their legalism and their neglect of true righteousness.  

            23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.  These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.  24You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! (Matt. 23:23f)

Our Lord affirms that they were right in tithing of all they had.  Their problem is that they had failed to do what was most important.  They were in a legalistic manner requiring the smallest detail of life to be conformed to their rules, but they neglected the major themes and ideals of the kingdom.

        The fifth woe was upon the Jewish leaders for their superficial and shallow legalism that is also characterized by self-righteousness.

        25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  26You blind Pharisee!  First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. (Matt. 23:25f)

        The sixth woe addresses God’s condemnation upon the Jewish leaders for their self-righteousness and their focus on externals rather than on matters of the heart.

        27“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness.  28So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matt. 23:27f)

        The seventh woe condemns the Pharisees and scribes because they were guilty of having rejected the Lord’s prophets who had been sent to the nation over many years.

        29“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, 30saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ (Matt. 23:29f)

The Jewish leaders had been intractable in their resistance to the Word of God and to God’s spokesmen.

(3)  Our Lord’s final pronouncement of God’s judgment upon Jerusalem (23:13-36)

         31“Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets.  32Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers.  33You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?  34Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, 35so that on you may come all the righteous bloodshed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Barachiah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar.  36Truly, I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation. (Matt. 23:31-36)

The generation of Jewish people whom our Lord addressed would be judged for the accumulation of guilt through the centuries.  They had come under God’s curse.  They would come to ruin.  This occurred through the Lord’s instrument of the Roman armies after they had laid siege to the city and captured it in AD 70.

        4.  Some lessons from our passage

            (1)  Let us be on guard against legalism. 

        Legalism is a common error among religionists.  Everyone is religious.  But not everyone manifests his religion in the same way.  Actually, there are, broadly speaking, 3 ways in which ones religion may be governed.  First, there is the way of grace.  In which we humbly look to the Word of God and Christ our Lord to govern our lives as we look to Him in faith who alone can enable us to perform His will.  This is the way the Scriptures.  And it is the only way which is approved of God.  This is to be the way of the Christian.
        Second, there is the way of licentiousness.  Generally, this is a perversion of grace.  Jude 3 and4 speaks of this way of living.  These people reason in this fashion:  “Since I am saved by grace through faith alone apart from my works (which is true); therefore, I am free to live any way I desire without eternal consequences (which is terrible error).”  This was the religion of the Gentile.
        And then, third, there is the way of legalism.  This way of religion assumes that one’s way of living “merits” God’s blessing.  This way of religion assumes that one is able through his own inherent goodness and his own effort apart from grace to attain to God’s standards.  This way of religion has a set of rules or laws which are not sanctioned in Scripture but which he observes and would impose on others to observe as well.

        All legalists have some common characteristics.  (1) A legalist focuses on outward conformity to a legal standard.  Years ago I ran in legalistic circles of American fundamentalism.  I can say that our focus was on things outside--Issues of appearance, outward behavior--but wicked attitudes were largely unaddressed.  (2) A legalist is little concerned about inward righteousness.  Appearances are most important.  If things appear okay on the outside, he is quite content.  He is unaware and unconcerned about the condition of his heart.  He can get all worked up about the sin out there, the sin in society, but he isn’t too concerned about the sin in here.  (3) a legalist is ignorant and void of true righteousness.  Christianity is a heart religion.  For this is the arena in which God works.  If we only lament over our actions and not our nature which leads to the action, there is something terribly defective about our faith.  I am greatly encouraged when I hear of one who is troubled about his thoughts and his attitudes.  These are the things which the Spirit of God addresses and convicts a man.  The Lord Jesus tells him to focus on having the heart purified, and it will render outside ritualistic cleansing as superfluous.  (4) A legalist is actually only concerned about himself and has little love for others.  He is unmoved by the injustice that others encounter.  He lacks love for his neighbor.  But he is meticulously observant about the minutest details of his life.  (5) A legalist loves recognition, desiring foremost to have the esteem of others.  He is ultimately more concerned what men think of him than what God might think of him.  Or worse, he assumes if man will recognize his worth and value, it only reflects what God must think of him as well.  He will judge according to outward standards of morality only and assume that God does too.  (6)  Legalists corrupts all that they influence.  They neither have true religion themselves, nor can they produce it in others.  They are void of spiritual life.  They are as defiling tombs which, in those days, would cause uncleanness if contact was made.  But take note, this ability to corrupt is not recognized by most.  People come into contact with these legalists and their way of thinking and is defiled or affected by them without being aware they had been corrupted.  (7) A legalist imposes rules on others that he does not observe himself and he has no desire or means to help them under his load.  They add to the Word of God; but they exempt themselves.  This is one matter that causes many U.S. citizens to be outraged about their Congress.  Over the years Congress passed laws passed which were imposed on the citizens such as labor laws, civil rights laws, affirmative action with respect to hiring, tax laws, but Congress itself, and congressmen, wrote into the laws that they were exempt.  This same thing is what Jesus condemned in these religious leaders.  They were quick to impose the hard laws, and they did so without consideration of how oppressive the rules would be.  But they themselves, were exempt.  I heard a  story from a friend.  He had retired from the U.S. Air force after 25 years and then went to a fundamentalist Bible college.  The school placed off-limits a bookstore which concentrated upon Calvinistic literature.  My friend, however, being in his 40’s refused to have such a thing dictated to him so he went to the store.  And there he ran into the dean of students buying some books.  He justified his purchase by saying that he could handle the material whereas his students could not.  (8)  A legalist prevents others from seeing truth for they themselves are strangers to it.  These men were so blind they did not recognize the Savior.   Why?  Because in their own eyes they did not really need a Saviour.  They were living before God based on the merit of their works and they thought God had accepted them because of their works.  (9) A legalist will persecute the people of God.  The history of the Church is a history of legalism in the guise of Christianity persecuting the true people of God.  Read Foxes Book of Martyrs.  Read any church history and you will observe this is true. (10) The legalist will suffer the judgment of God.  The collective guilt of the entire Jewish people was to be visited upon this generation.  And it was when God destroyed them by His instrument of Rome in A.D. 70.

            (2)  Let us be courageous for the truth of God and speak out against sin and corruption. 

        Our Lord spoke very clearly and forthrightly before these people about the danger these legalistic hypocrites posed to them.  The Lord did not seem to be overly concerned about offending people.  He spoke the truth in just as clear and direct terms as anybody could.  Yes, He was gentle to the humble and taught with patience and tenderness those who were puzzled or distressed.  But on the other hand, if he saw hypocrisy, false religion, errant belief and practice, he did not back off, but declared it in a straightforward manner.  We should not do less.

            (3)  Be on guard against religious tyrants who are legalistic, self-serving, demand respect, seek notoriety, and who want you to believe that you have to go through them to get right with God.

       Our Lord said, “And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.  Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.”  What our Lord was forbidding was the claim of some that they have the authority to give you access to God and His grace.  They are “gatekeepers.”  They claim that they only have the true way of salvation.  You have to bow to them and kiss their ring in order for God to receive you among His own.

       One can understand how the Protestant Reformers withstood Rome with these words of our Lord.  How can Rome, or the Church of England, for that matter, expect and demand that their clergy be regarded and called by the name “father”, when the Lord strictly forbid such a thing?  How can Rome, in the light of these words of our Lord, refer to the head of their church as “pope”, meaning “father”?  And how can he receive in a clear conscience the title and description of “Holy Father.”  Our Lord Jesus said, “You have one Father, who is in heaven.”  He is not seated in Rome. 
       Someone once gave me a book that was “authored” by Pope John Paul.(9)  It was a recorded interview of a catholic journalist with the pope.  His first question was to the point.  It read something like this: “In the light of the Scriptures and the direct words of our Lord, by which He said, ‘Call no man your father on earth’, what do you say to those who call you by that title?”  The pope responded in this way:

       Returning to your question, I would like to recall the words of Christ together with my first words in St, Peter’s square: “Be not afraid.”  Have no fear when people call me “The Vicar of Christ,” when they say to me “Holy Father,” or “Your holiness,” or use titles similar to these, which seem to be inimical (i.e. opposed, or contrary) to the Gospel.  Christ himself declared: “Call no one on earth your father; for you have but one Father in heaven.  Do not be called ‘Master’; you have but one master, the Messiah” (mt. 23:9-10).  These expressions, nevertheless, have evolved out of a long tradition, becoming part of common usage.  One must not be afraid of these words either.(10)

His answer, therefore, was this:  “Even though Jesus Christ forbid you to call me or any other religious man on earth your father, do not be afraid to do so with respect to me.”  We conclude with our pondering of this explanation and its implications.

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Footnotes