Luke's Gospel

The readings, Luke chapter 11, starting at verse 37, which is on page 1 0 4 3 of the church Bible. When Jesus had finished speaking, a pharisee invited him to eat with him, so he went in and reclined at the table. But the pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal. Then the Lord said to him, Now then, you pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish. But inside, you are full of greed and wickedness You foolish people.

Did not the 1 who made the outside make the inside also. But now as for what is inside you, be generous to the poor, and everything will be clean for you. Woe to you, pharisees. Because you give god a tenth of your mint, rue, and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of god. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

Woe to you pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces woe to you because you are like unmarked graves, which people walk over without knowing it. 1 of the experts in the law answered him, teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also. Jesus replied, and you, experts in the law, woe to you, Because you load people down with burdens, they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift 1 finger to help them. Woe to you because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them. So you testified that you approve of what your ancestors did.

They killed the prophets and you build their tombs. Because of this, god in his wisdom said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others they will persecute. Therefore, this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the beginning of the world, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes. I tell you this generation will be held responsible for it all.

Woe to you experts in the law because you have taken away the key to knowledge, you yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering. When Jesus went outside, The pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to besiege him with questions, waiting to catch him in something he might say. Thank you, Keri. Good evening. My name's Chris Tilly, for anyone in here who doesn't know me.

I'm 1 of the members here. It started off so well this morning, didn't it? We had a really nice uplifting service. It was all quite positive for the beginning of the new academic year. And now we come to the end of Luke chapter 11.

So, I I I'm not gonna make any apologies for god's word. Because it's here and we need to hear it and we're hearing it tonight for a reason. So we need to listen to it, so I'm gonna pray, and ask for god's help. Father, please do help us to examine our hearts. Please help us to open our ears.

Help us to make honest assessments. Help us to really hear what Jesus has to say through his word to us tonight. Don't think for a moment that I'm really like any of the characters I've played. I'm not That's why it's called acting. Guess you said that.

Anyone has the guess? No. Leonardo Dicaprio. Nice try them. That's Leonardo Decapra talking about what it is to act.

To act, you take off your yourself and you put on a totally different character. You then get up on stage for everyone to see and you show them what you wanna show them. Then when you get off the stage at the end of the show, when no one's looking, when you're no longer in the limelight, and you become the real you again. It happens almost in maintaneously for for an actor. Christian Bale, Batman, puts it like this.

If I can manage to do a character without showing anything of myself, that's the ultimate goal for me. No leakage. No leakage. Nothing from the inside. Nothing from the rule you should come out in your acts.

That's the pinnacle. That's the ultimate goal for and bail. But the problem is, is that there is leakage sometimes, isn't there? And I'm not talking just 1 way when actors show themselves in their character. I'm talking about also the other way when An actor's character starts to leak back into them.

You hear of actors getting so into their role that they actually can't come out character that easily. Heath Ledger playing the Joker. Famous example, some people say contributed to his death perhaps. Daniel Day Lewis, notorious. For for his method acting.

When he was playing a disabled man, he made people carry him around because he refused to walk. He would not come out of character. They didn't leak so much into their characters, but their characters began to to leak in them a little bit. They they started to become more and more like their characters. And it further hides and screams the real person behind that character, doesn't it?

Dean Coons, an American author puts it like this. He says acting is a marvelous profession. If you can spend enough time playing other people, You don't have to think too much about your own character and motivations. Why? Because you're just concerned with the act.

Keeping up appearances. It starts to matter less and less what you are actually like because you're focusing on the character that you're portraying. The front that you're putting up, that you want everyone to see. And the thing is to 1 degree or another, we're all actors. All of us are actors.

We all act in some way or another. Final quote, Marlon Brando, the godfather. Whenever we want something from somebody or when we wanna hide something or pretend, We're acting. Most of us do it all day long. We're just actors in the theater of life is what he's saying.

When we want something from someone, we, we act up, don't we? We we want their love or their affections, then we can act up some of play the comedian and the clown, and and we want them to like us. So we try and get them to laugh. Others might use tragedy and drama call it attention seeking. We all act.

It's just some of us get filmed while we do it and call actors and pay vast sums of money. But when I don't want you to see the real me, when I don't want you to know my weaknesses, the things I'm ashamed about The things that make me feel guilty, the things that are painful about my life, I act. I pretend I'm something I'm not, and I show you that instead. That fake me. I guess the bottom line is if if if if you all knew me as well as I know myself, you probably wouldn't listen to what I'm gonna say tonight.

And if we all knew each other as well as we know ourselves, then we wouldn't be able to look each other in the eye. And so to some degree, we kind of have to act a little bit, don't we? Because that we just can't reveal everything to each other all the time. It would be it would be a nightmare. But Jesus sees all of our acting, and he sees straight through it.

He's not fooled for a second. And he doesn't like it. He doesn't like our act. He doesn't like our acting at all. In fact, he hates it.

So he calls it out. In the strongest terms possible, he calls it out for what it is, and that's why we're talking about acting. That's why all of this talk about acting at the beginning. If if you if you read a little bit ahead, if you look at the beginning of chapter 12, in in Luke. He calls the pharisees hippocress.

Now, I'm gonna try not to tread on Tom's toes because he's preaching this next week, but He calls the pharisees hippocrits beware the the yeast of the pharisees, be on your guard against the yeast of the pharisees, which is hypocrisy. He says. And this is directly after the confrontation that we've just read about in tonight's passage. HIPocrit means actor. It's the Greek word for actor or stage player.

So he's really saying beware the yeast of the pharisees which is an act. It's acting. It's all a massive sham. You've gotta beware of that because it's fake. It's not the real thing.

What they're showing you is an act. Be aware of that. Hypocrisy means to act, hypocrite, actor. We don't put the 2 words together so much nowadays because Jesus did such a job on the word using it for religious, religious types like the pharisees that now when we say hip hypocrite, we don't think, well, we don't watch a film ago. What an amazing hypocrite Well, a fantastic piece of hypocrisy that guy just delivered on the screen.

We we don't do it because Jesus used the word so well, when when describing this this type of thing. Why does he call these pharisees actors? Because they're all about the outward and not the inward. They're just acting a religious theater for everyone to see how holy they are, but privately inwardly, they're dead to god. And it's not that their kind of hypocrisy is the normal kind.

They're not just acting for people's entertainment. This is a religious hypocrisy and act which says, we're better than you. Look at how good we are. Look at how much God must love us. Because of all the amazing things we do and how amazing we are.

And it's for this type of religious hypocrisy that Jesus delivers his most biting and brutal m remarks all the way throughout the gospels. He he pretty much reserves his harshest remarks for this kind of act. Now, the pharisees, you've got to remember, cared, deeply about religion. Probably more deeply than anybody else did about keeping the rules about holiness, about purity. It's it's just that they got it all wrong.

And for them, it it it had actually just become an act. They were just going through the motions, week in, week out, Saturday off the Sabbath Day, they were at everything. Any synagogue event, they were there. 5 service a day. No problem.

Why don't we do 10? Giving. Always spot on if anything more than they needed to. They were the model for all Jews to aspire to. The model senior synagogue members, you would want these guys in your congregation.

Absolutely. No questions asked. They were the they were the target to aim at. And this is where we have to be a little bit careful because we could easily point the finger at these pharisees and judge their religious acting, couldn't we? Without examining ourselves at all.

And in doing so, we become a pharisee, pointing the finger. Looking down on them. Because it's entirely possible that we could appear to be model church members and yet the whole thing is an act. The whole thing could be a sham. And so Jesus engineers, this whole situation, so that he can address this issue, so that he can draw the poison of this pharisaical hypocrisy to the surface where it can then be exposed for what it is and dealt with.

So let's look at what happens. So leading on, if you remember Gavin was preaching to us, last week where Jesus was dealing with this wicked generation. They were asking for a sign. They wanted more of a sign for Jesus to prove who he was. And Jesus was saying, what you what more do you want?

I've done a ton of signs. No. You won't get any more signs. When Jonah went to nineveh, they're not even from Israel. They took him at his word.

When the queen of Sheba, she wasn't from Israel came to King Solomon, she took him at his word. You people have seen tons of signs And I'm the son of god, and you're not gonna take me at my word. No. You wicker generation. You will not get any more signs.

And at the beginning of our chapter tonight in verse 37, when Jesus had finished speaking, a pharisee invited him to eat with him. So you can just imagine that this pharisee has been listening to this exchange between Jesus and the people and has been going, yes, totally agree with everything you're saying Jesus horrible wicked generation. Why don't you come into better companies step out of the darkness out here and into the light with us? And enjoy some enjoy some more agreeable company. Why don't you come around for lunch?

And Jesus goes, you know what? I will. That's that's that sounds like a fantastic idea. And things very quickly take an unexpected turn for the pharisee, don't they? And you can already see their act beginning.

They're already in character. Jesus walks in sits down at the table to eat and begins. You can hear the gas go around the room. The pharisees are shocked what the heck does he think he's doing? He hasn't washed his hands.

What what on earth is going on? Why would he not wash his hands? You know, they're they're almost into a panic. He's ruined the whole meal. Everything's unclean.

We can't eat anything. Oh my goodness. I'm out to go and buy more food. This is an absolute nightmare, and they're judging him. They're absolutely judging him.

Now what you need to know is that the pharisees were obsessed with keeping themselves clean. I mean, to to be a pharisee, OCD is a is an absolute requirement. If you have if you're not OCD, you can't be a pharisee. It just wouldn't work on on any level whatsoever, but they're obsessed. I'm not just talking in the the the sense of like having a shower once or twice a day.

I'm talking about being clean from the world around them that makes them unclean, this sinful world that they're that they're in. For example, In Jewish law, there's any number of things that if you come into contact with them, they'll make you impure unclean. You can read all about it in leviticus. Dead bodies, women on periods, all kinds of illnesses, molds, fungi, non Jewish people. So basically, it was totally impossible to stay pure and clean as you went about your normal daily business.

And to counter this, they had built up ritual upon ritual to cleanse themselves before they touched any food because you touch any food while you're still unclean, then the food becomes unclean. Which would then go inside of them and make the inside of them unclean. You with me? So they washed before meals to purify themselves. So so that the food would stay pure, and they wouldn't become unclean on the inside.

Now, to give you a bit of a flavor about where this went and what they ended up doing the sort of religious acrobatics they had to perform in the end. I'm gonna read you an excerpt from the Mishnah, which is the Jewish rulebook. And you'll be you just listen. I mean, okay. Right.

So the hands are susceptible to uncleanness, the hands. And they're rendered clean by the pouring of water over them up the wrist. Thus, if a man poured the first water up to the wrist and the second water beyond the wrist, and the water flow back to the hand, the hand becomes clean. Got 1 clean hand. But if he poured both the first water, and the second water beyond the wrist and the water flow back to the hand, the hand remains unclean.

No explanation to why it just does. If he pulls the first water over the 1 hand alone, say this 1, and then without thinking, poured the second water over the other hand, His 1 hand alone is clean, but this one's not which seems a little bit inconsistent to me, but there's no explanation. If though, if he had poured the water over the 1 hand and rubbed it on the other, it becomes unclean. So now you're back with 2 unclean hands. You you've you follow.

But if he had rubbed it on his head or on the wall, It remains green. Why? This is what Jesus is dealing with. It's nonsense. It's a farce.

It's a comedy show. They're working so incredibly hard. To show people how good they are and how clean they are, but what they're doing is totally meaningless and ridiculous. And they can't see it. You foolish people Jesus says in verse 39.

You clean the outside of the cup, but inside, you are full of wickedness and greed. They go to great lengths to clean the outside of the cup. It's sparkling. I could come and do all my cups any day. But inside, cups have never been cleaned.

You look in there and it's growing mold and all sorts stuff. It's like it's like, the mugs that used to inhabit my room before I got married. It actually Rory's room as well, and now I saw him in there. You leave the dregs of a coffee or a tea, you go in there 3 months later and you find it behind the bed somewhere, and it's actually alive. It's almost it's almost walking.

I I mean, any mothers in here with teenage sons will probably know what I'm talking about. You you can't drink out of that. You come on. Only a fool would say that you can drink out of that. It has to be thoroughly cleaned from the inside out.

Before it's fit for purpose. It's what comes out of a person. Not what goes in that makes them impure Jesus says elsewhere. And as for what should come out of you pharisees, he says, be generous to the poor. Now it sounds like he's just giving them more religious works to do, doesn't it?

Go and be generous to the poor and all will go well with you. But that's not what he's saying here. What he's doing is he's talking to them in a language that they will hopefully understand because you go back into the old testament and be generous to the poor is like an old testament standard of godliness and righteousness. In other words, It shows something of god's nature. If you've got a heart for the poor, if you've got a heart for the oppressed, If you've got a heart that wants to reach out and help them, then you bear some of the family traits.

He's using old testament language because these guys are dealing in old testament laws and things like that. He's trying to reach to them. Inside resembled god is what he's saying. Inside. Don't worry about the outside so much now.

We can deal with that, but inside. You need to resemble god. If you don't, resemble god inside in some way, then you're not his. Simple. And you can't just act this out.

You could try. You might even fool the people around you for a time, but you can't fool god. And in the end, the only person being fooled is yourself. You become the fool in this comedy that turns into a tragedy. Who are you kidding says Jesus.

And so he reaches out to the pharisees. He does actually reach out to the pharisees here. By pronouncing these 6 woes on them. By pronouncing 6 woes condemning and exposing their acting, their hypocrisy in the strongest terms possible, but also offering them an opportunity to acknowledge and turn away from it. It gives them the opportunity, doesn't it?

They've at least got that opportunity. Now it's been made clear, you can deal with it guys. This is a kindness. This is act act of love, but my goodness. It's gonna wound some pride, isn't it?

To hear these things? These woes expose our hypocrisy, not just the pharisees. They expose our acting So we need to have a very careful look at these things and think about them very carefully, which is what we're going to spend the rest of our time on. Tonight. So 6 woes.

6 woes, 3 to the pharisees to begin with. Woe to you pharisees because you give a tenth of your mint, rue, and all other kinds of herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of god, you should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone. You see, the the pharisees were perfect givers in in many senses of the word. They were perfect. Always tithing 10 percent in line with old testament law, every tenth leaf of mint, rue, or all other kinds of herbs will for god.

9 for me. 1 for god. 9 for me. 1 for god. 9 for me.

They were fastidious about making sure that they got that right. And they would set it aside, give it to the temple priests. But they also went above and beyond. They were even giving herbs that they weren't required to give So Roo, if you look in in their rule book, you don't have to give Roo. Oh, that's fine.

We'll give it anyway because it makes us look even greater. Look. We're we're so good. We're even giving you stuff that we don't need to give. Fantastic.

Aren't we? Now, this is a strange rebuke. To us. A strange rebuke to us. Because even though they are actors on a stage playing out a part, They are better givers than many of us who've actually been saved.

Think about that for a second. They're acting a part and yet they're acting it better often than we do it in reality. It's peculiar, isn't it? What a strange thing? You would think that if you're living the real deal, that if you're taken up with god, that if you're in love with Jesus the son, you would be willingly giving as much as possible.

Like the the direction of travel should be like Can I give more? Can I do more? What what else can I do? How else can I give? What else can I sacrifice?

Where can I go with this? And of course, you know, that should be in line with new testament principles of doing it joyfully and proportionately and generously and sacrificially But look, that's not the real problem. That's not the real problem that Jesus is addressing. The real issue is that for all of their outward giving, which is good. It's okay.

Inwardly, the pharisees neglect justice and the love of god. See what he says. They neglect justice and the love of god. Jesus says, you should do both. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.

That's what you should do. Now you know from other parts of the gospel that the pharisees were into some pretty dubious financial practices. So they were in the practice of devouring widows houses. So widows who were left destitute after the deaths of their husbands, the pharisees would engineer situations where they got into so much debt with them. The only way that these women could get out of that situation is by saying, okay.

Fine. Take my house. Farisees. Yeah. Fine.

Brilliant. I'll take your house and I'll sell it on for a tidy profit. Thank you very much. It's despicable. They have no justice.

They neglect justice. They don't have the love of god. Would they reach out to prostitutes? No. Not in a million years.

Would they think about going there? They're the most unclean people we can think of. They would never want to see prostitutes saved. They would never get their hands dirty to reach out to them. And try and show them some love and security.

That's why things like beside are such good ministries. The homeless and the poor, Well, they probably put themselves there, didn't they? They probably drank themselves into homelessness. They wouldn't want to get their hands dirty with those kinds of people. They're obviously not good enough.

They have no justice or love of god. That's why things like grace advocacy are such good ministries. But the problem is. Here's the problem. I could personally happily stand here and say, I'm I'm happy with my giving.

My conscience is clear on it. It's about 10 percent or whatever. I don't really know exact what percentage it is. It's about in the right ballpark. It's proportionate.

We notice it. We could have done stuff if we weren't giving and all that. And I can feel pretty good about myself. But do I always stop when I see the homeless guy on the street in Kingston? Do I?

No, I'll tell you what I've done. I've seen him a hundred yards ahead, and I've crossed over the other side of the road. I've done that. Do I have justice or love of god in me? My goodness.

There's an act going on. Isn't there? What a hypocrisy on living? I would love you to think that I'm a great person. I love to feel good about myself because I'm giving, because I'm serving.

And yet I can so easily overlook those weakest in society. You could be the best giver in all of Cornerstone, and it wouldn't make blindest bit of difference. It's easily possible to be a giver and not a lover. Easily possible. But if you're a lover, then you should be a giver by nature.

You need to sort the inside out first. Woe to you pharisees because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplace. Oh, he doesn't. I mean, pharisees love to be adored wherever they go. It's all part of the acts.

They love being sent stage spotlight on them for everyone to marvel at at how good they are. And I'm gonna say this very aware that there is actually a spotlight on me at the minute. What a what a strange thing. They love the most important seats in the synagogue. They would they would go what they would do is they would sit behind the rabbi a in a semicircle facing the crowd while he's teaching.

Like, and like a hypocrite so they can wear the appropriate mask like a Greek actor a word at the appropriate time. So so the rabbi's teaching on, on, on, judgment and Babylon and, you know, there's there's the coming judgment put on the sad face. Preaching on the coming of the king and the messiah is going to return. Put on the happy face. Brilliant.

And everyone can see them do this. They are, look at how engaged they are with god's word. They love god's word. Look at those guys. They get it.

They know what this talking about. Everyone can see them center stage. And they love being greeted with the respect that their position deserves for all degree, to, to see in the public sphere. They love that. They love just walking around the marketplace and people coming up to them and going, oh, you great pharisee.

I wish I was more like you. Aren't you such a great example to us all. Now, again, you it's easy to think for us, not like me. I'm not like that. But isn't there a part of you that kind of loves to be greeted with respect?

Isn't there isn't there a part of you that would love to be singled out and recognized in the in the crowd and have honor pay to you for all to see. When when you like that, and sometimes it's right that we do that. Like this morning, it was a good example of when it's right to to say, look, these are these are guys that we want to commission to do this work and we're gonna get them up the front, and we're gonna hear back from them about all kinds of different things. That's totally right. But that's not what not what I'm talking about.

That's not what Jesus is talking about here. This is something that makes you look amazing just for the sake of looking amazing. Maybe let's try and put it in different terms. Don't you love that everyone sees you at the morning and the evening service and that it's noticed that you're at the prayer meeting and every single home group and your attendance is pretty much a hundred percent. Doesn't doesn't that feel good?

Don't you don't you love it when someone notices that you're serving in some way and go Wow, Chris is doing 5 ministries. That's amazing. It makes you feel good, doesn't it? It makes you feel good. What great Christians they must be?

Look how much they're doing. Look how much they're giving. This can be really subtle, can't it? There's subtleties to our nature, to our sin, that Jesus pronounces these woes to expose, and we can fall for our own acts so much for no leakage. Right?

Way to you pharisees because you're like our mark graves, which people walk over without knowing it. So graves, dead bodies, they're 1 of the things that if you came into contact with them, they would make you unclean. So the graves were regularly whitewashed so that you wouldn't accidentally walk over 1 and become unclean by mistake. That would be a disaster. So they whitewashed them so you knew where to where to avoid.

So to call these pharisees unmarked graves, it is to say to them you're a death trap for others. That's what you guys are like. You're like a massive hole that's been covered over and guys are just walking into it. The pit of spikes at the bottom, like some sort of weird booby trap. The way the pharisees are going about things All shiny on the outside.

They appear to be fine. To all intensive purposes, they look okay. If anything they look Good. Better than fine. Who wouldn't want to be like them?

Why would you not want to be like them? They they pretty much got it down. They're perfect. But the problem is the message they preach. Even if they say it out loud by their actions, it's a gospel of religious works.

Absolute of god's love. No upholding of justice. It's a fake theatrical act. It's a farce, a phony. It's a sham.

And you come into contact with these guys, they're only gonna make you spiritually unclean. They're gonna lead you down the garden path. They'll never lead you to god. They're never gonna show you what real love is They're never gonna help you grow in generosity, in kindness, in patience, or any of the other fruits of the spirit. They're gonna lead you to the grave.

In some ways, I think this is actually the scariest of the woes because The implication here is that not only can we fool ourselves with our acting, but we can fool other people And in doing so, we can stop them from coming to know god. And we can divert them onto some kind of weird religious duty if we're not careful. It could be very easy for someone to come in, for example, if we're not careful with the language we use and how we say it. That that it could come away thinking you must attend regularly. That's important.

You must sort your giving out. That's important. You must be serving in some way. That's important. Is that the first thing they hear?

Is the first thing they hear? You need the love of god in your life? You need to know god's justice in your life. You need to know about your sin. I really I I I think it is and I hope it is.

For the main part, but my goodness, we've got to be so careful, haven't we? I mean, those things, the the the attendance whatever. They're all good things, but without genuine love of god, people are nothing. These things are nothing but religious nonsense. Nothing but religious nonsense.

And people may believe that that's how you obtain God's favor and salvation. God doesn't care about those things. If on the inside, you're still filthy. It could care less about those things if the inside's dirty and filthy and needs to be cleaned We've got to be clean from the inside out, or we are not fit for purpose. Now, it's at this point in the the the proceedings that the, the pharisee, is is is reeling, I would imagine, thinking what on earth was I doing, inviting this maniac for lunch?

And it's now that 1 of the teachers in the law, and in the pharisees thinking, thank you brother. Pipes up. And, and why is beyond me? This doesn't seem like a very good moment to me to be sticking your head above the parapet. Jesus is in absolutely full swing.

I would be running for cover if I was them. But this guy, like any lawyer, just can't let it slide. He has to have his word in. He has to stick the boot in. And his pride has been hurt by Jesus' opening salvo.

So he pops up, teach up when you say these things, You insult us also. Be careful, Jesus. You're taking on the law here. And we might just take you to court over this. You're on dodgy ground here, mate.

You need to think about it. To which Jesus goes Brilliant. And as for you teachers in the law, I was just about to come on to you anyway, woe to you as well. My goodness. What have I done?

So who are these teachers in the, teachers of the law? Well, if the pharisees were the ones who were supposed to keep all the laws, then the teachers are the ones who make all the laws, and then are supposed to teach the people what on earth they mean. You see, not being content with the laws is laid out moses in the old testament, they then have to take those laws and add a bunch of other laws to them. Now let's be clear, god's law god's law as given is not the problem. The Bible lays out god's law in very clear terms, which are then to be applied So all kinds of different situations by the principle of what the law is teaching.

And you see this throughout scripture principles of God's grace, which are then applied to all different kinds of areas of life. So for example, I remember being at at at at dinner once. I won't say it's not with anyone from here. And, this this girl was talking and saying, I just don't know what what god's calling for me is. I don't know what god's plan in my life is.

Should I go to Mozambique, or should I do this? Should I go here or should I do nothing? And I know I I was sat there thinking, what the heck are you talking about? What on earth is so difficult about understanding this? Are you serving in your church?

Oh, no. No. No. I barely even go to local church. I would want to get stuck in there.

Well, I would suggest that's probably god's plan for your life at this particular moment. Are you with your church family? Are you getting stuck into his word? Are you seeking to love other people? Principles, principles, glorify god's name, build his kingdom.

The job you go for, the university you go whatever you end up doing in life. Fine. The bible doesn't really have an awful lot to say specifically about whether you should go for that job or not, whether you should go here or not, whether you go to this university or this university, it gives you principles that you then apply to any of those situations And I guess then you just have to figure out the rest as you go and write a list of pros and cons or whatever. But you've got the principles and the principles are good. However, the teachers of the law were not satisfied with principles.

They're too fuzzy for them. They're a bit too gray. They want clear cut. They want they want it black and white. Yes and no.

And so they become law adders. Poison little vipers adding to god's law is what they become. And that's always dangerous territory. Always dangerous territory to venture into because you just end up in this weird world of legalism. Where your rules in the end are only gonna restrict you and tie you up in knots.

And in other words, they're just gonna stop you getting on with gospel ministry. And loving people and declaring the glories of the living god and his son Jesus. And you're gonna find yourself doing the most ridiculous things because that is what the law says. Even though no 1 can remember who came up with the stupid law in the first place or why? What we have to do at this particular moment in time.

Take the hand washing earlier as a as a case in point. So if the pharisees or the actors in this fast, then the teachers of the Laura, the screen writers, the script writers. And Jesus says, wait to you because you load people down with burdens that they can hardly carry, and you will not lift a finger to help them. You gotta think about it. The average Jewish person struggling to keep up with the law as it was is now being burdened with a ton of other unnecessary things that they then have to try and puzzle their way through in in the course of a normal day.

They've got jobs to do. They've got families to support. Haven't got time to go reading through this prescriptive list of of of thousands of little laws that are nothing to do with god. But because they come from the teachers of the law and they're taught with authority, they don't really have a choice. They have to kind of make an effort to get on with them.

Otherwise, they risk being judged and ostracized and all kinds of stuff. They're crushed by this burden and worse to teach of the law, like all lawyers seem to know about the loopholes, know how to rig it out of these things. Don't they? A lawyer always knows about a loophole. And if they don't know about a loophole, they'll just make 1 up.

They'll just make a new law. It's easy enough to do that, isn't it? So you can end up I mean, they they really did get ridiculous. I mean, just a quick example, You end up with things like, you can't carry anything on the Sabbath. Holy day.

Must't carry anything. But if you carry it on the back of your hand, and it's okay because that's not the normal way of carrying. It's for those in the know, isn't it? It's for those in the know. Is anyone gonna know that?

I mean, it's like you have time to read the flipping law. No one's got time to do that. It's ridiculous. What's it got to do with anything? But we can, like, let's give it an update, a modern day thing.

You can't play sports on a Sunday. You can't watch those movies. Can't listen to that type of music, you can't wear that type of clothes. We've gotta be so careful that we don't become poisonous little adders to god's law. And so burden people down, it kills joy.

It distracts away from the message, from the gospel, from the lord Jesus Christ. And we get taken up with ridiculousness. And it all seems to largely be about matters of style anyway. Thomas Jefferson, third US president said, in matters of style, swim with the currents, in matters of principle, stand like a rock. Way to you because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them.

You kill them, Wilburyam, is the sense in which Jesus is talking about here. They weren't building the tombs out of respect for the prophets. They were building the tombs, almost as a stunt. Look at how brilliant we are. We're building wonderful fancy tombs for the prophets of old.

Aren't we fantastic? And g's says, no. No. No. No.

No. All you're really doing is completing the work your ancestors began. You're you're ratifying the murders and saying, actually, yeah, we're kind of in agreement with that. You see, throughout their history, whenever god had sent Israel prophets and apostles, What did they do? What did they do?

Almost to a man. Did they honor them? No. They killed them. They shut them up and they killed them.

And the killing was led by the religious authorities of the day, the the pharisees, the teachers of the law, the ones who were supposed to be in the know about these kinds of things. They should have understood that the prophets were sent to turn them away from this type of religious cents from rule keeping from outside cup washing, foolish acting. They should have understood that the prophets have come to witness to them about the coming sire, the 1 who's gonna redeem his people, would buy them back, would die for them, the righteous, for the unrighteous. The whole of scripture says so. That's what the whole thing's about, isn't it?

Beginning with Abel all the way to Zechariah? So all the prophets is what Jesus is saying. Everything points to this coming messiah. And the reason the law was only ever given to you was to show you that your law breakers. Not so you can be law adders.

It's to show you that your sinful people who have turned away from god and you need someone to come and save you. You can't keep the law as it was simply and originally given to you, and you wanna add more? You didn't listen to the profit. And then you compound it by shutting up any voices that tell you to repent and turn away from your religious nonsense and back to god and get ready for his son to come. So they killed him.

They hadn't listened, not 1 word of it. God reached out time and time again. And now face to face with the Messiah who they've apparently been waiting for, and they're still not willing to listen. And they're gonna shut him up. Aren't they?

God's chosen 1. They're gonna kill him. Woe to you teachers of the law. Woe to you pharisees. The payment that you've brought to bear is that the generation of Israel, this generation of Israel is going to be held responsible For all the blood of all the prophets, because you killed God's son.

If you know anything about the the the preceding events for that generation of Israel, then you'll know something of the immediate judgment that came. The thing is, and it's the same for this generation. It's the same for our generation. If you're not gonna listen to the prophets and to god's son, Jesus, then you are an accomplice in their murders. You've silenced them.

You may as well have done it yourself. You're saying I have proven a test. You've their blood is on your hands. And our religious acting leads us there. And we all know we do it.

And we need to address that. That's why these woes are drawing the poison out, bringing it to the surface so we can see it. And finally, wait to you experts in the law because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering. It's a bit like the final 1 to the pharisees in many ways.

You've missed the point of scripture. You've lost the key to understanding it. You can't get through the door anymore. Not only have you managed to not open the door, but you stopped everybody else from entering as well. What's the key?

But it's Jesus, of course, isn't it? You cannot understand scripture. I mean, if you're reading scripture, and not seeing that it's about Jesus, then you've got it wrong. Pearly and simply. If you are not seeing it point to Christ in some way or other, Then you've you've missed you've missed it.

You've lost the key. And you get all kinds of weird stuff coming out. Don't you? There's all kinds of things out there that says Oh, well, this in the old testament obviously means this. And if you add it to this, and then if you add it to these number of years and blah blah blah blah blah blah, it's just nonsense.

It's total nonsense. It's absolutely ridiculous. Keep it simple. It's about Jesus. The law was given to show them that they were law breakers.

And they got it wrong. They took the law and added to it. Made life impossible for other people and hid the key to understanding the principles of the law to show them that they are there there is a gulf between them, between them and a perfect holy and pure god. And sinful, poor, unrighteous people who are just keeping up this act. And Jesus, the ultimate, ultimate law keeper, the 1 that we can look at and say, He's the 1 that can do all the things I can't.

I can't keep the law. No matter how hard I try, but he can. He's the 1 I need to follow. He's the key to understanding all of this mess. I don't need to act.

I can drop the act. I don't need to keep up appearances. He sees straight through me, and he takes me anyway. He sees all the horror show, and he died on a cross for me. He didn't come to abolish the law.

He fulfilled the law so that we can say, yeah. That's my king. And I'm gonna follow him. I'm gonna I'm not gonna follow myself anymore. I'm not gonna keep up this act.

I'm not gonna keep on trying to do this on my own steam. And the teachers of the law missed, lost, and hid away this truth. And they made it all about themselves. And none of it about Jesus. I mean, it's not really a more an uplift the end of this, I'll be honest.

It's it's fairly heavy, isn't it? These woes are pretty, pretty heavy. They weigh heavily on us. But for a reason, to get us to really take a deep, long, hard look inside. And identify some of these things because Jesus isn't concerned with the act.

He's concerned with the person behind it all. He's trying to reach deep down for the person that's the real person that's there. So let's just be honest with ourselves about it, because the response of the pharisees and the teachers of the law was instant anger and hatred. So, you know, if they're angry and they're hating him, well, hey, look, you can feel like that if you want. I'd I'd suggest it's not going to get you too far, though.

But at least it's some sort of response. I would suggest our response needs to be take a really good long hard look and assess these things. Apply these scriptures not just to these pharisees and teachers of the law, but apply these woes to our own hearts. And then we can begin to deal with them. Let me pray.

Finally, we thank you that, you You don't pull punches. And we thank you that you don't leave us in our sin. And we thank you that you don't just look at us and go, oh my goodness. These awful, awful people. I don't want anything to do with them.

But thank you that you you you show us, you tell us, you highlight to us, our errors are where we're going wrong, where we're we're we're just completely making a mess of it and call us to come back to the simple truth. That you sent your son to do these things for us so that we can be cleaned on the inside. And then we can start to deal with the external stuff. Thank you so much for the lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for not leaving us where we're at.

Thank you for taking us and transforming us and changing us into something altogether front. We pray that we would be rubbing these things home throughout the rest of this week.