Click here to download in pdf format.
Sermon Notes of Rev.Dr.Ivor J.W.Oakley (9-7-2000
Guisborough Evangelical Church)
(Additional Reading Matthew 23:23-39)
Jesus so far has described the
character of the Christian and his influence, as salt and light, which he ought
to make. We come now to a section which goes into more detail about the
Christian life. To make his teaching stand out and to sharpen the focus, Jesus
draws a sharp distinction between his requirements and those of the Scribes and
Pharisees with whom people were familiar and to whom they looked up. They saw
them as paragons of virtue, for they were so holy and commendable. Jesus
suddenly shatters their illusions. He says these people they look up to have got
it all wrong, and they must not take their lead from them. Jesus had something
entirely different in mind. Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the
Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom
of heaven.
This entirely different kind of righteousness, which Jesus requires, is one which they would have to humble themselves to receive from God’s grace.
The Scribes were the professional students of Jewish
Law. They spent their lives in explaining, studying and teaching Law. Therefore
they were looked up to, admired and respected. The Pharisees were the group of
Jews who followed and obeyed the teachings of the Scribes. They were the
“puritans” among the Jews. The word “Pharisee” means “separated
one”. They set themselves apart and devoted themselves to keeping Jewish Law
as carefully as they could. They went the second mile. The Old Testament
instructed the Jews to fast once a year – the Pharisees fasted twice a week
(Luke 18:12). They despised common people who had neither the time nor the
inclination to keep the Law as strictly as they did. They dismissed them as
“sinners”. Tragedy of situation – they misunderstood the Law. They were
astray themselves, and they led others astray.
They were not content with the
Old Testament. They developed an enormous body of Law – oral tradition or
scribal law to explain the Old Testament. The Old Testament, especially the Ten
Commandments, contain few rules. They are rather broad general principles to be
applied to individual situations in life. The Scribes wanted more than general
principles. They wanted detailed rules for every man in every situation.
The Sabbath was an obvious case.
Two Rabbis worked out 1521 regulations defining Sabbath observance. The Sabbath
was to kept holy, no work. But what is work? Carrying a burden. So what is a
burden? Burden is food equal in weight to a dried fig, milk enough for one
swallow, oil enough to put on one small part of body, ink enough to write two
letters of the Hebrew alphabet. They spent endless hours arguing whether a man
could lift a lamp from one part of the house to another, whether a tailor sinned
if he went out with a needle in his robe, whether or not a woman could wear a
brooch, whether or not a man could wear an artificial limb on the Sabbath. These
things were the essence of their religion and service of God. They said healing
was allowed on the Sabbath, but only if life was in danger, and only to stop
patient from getting worse. A plain bandage could be applied to a wound to stop
the situation getting worse, but no healing ointment was to be applied. If a
chicken laid an egg on the Sabbath, that egg could only be eaten if they
intended to kill chicken anyway.
These issues were no laughing
matter to Jews – even if humorous to us. Salvation depended on these things.
All rules were handed down for generations without being written down. Mid third
century these rules were summarised and codified in the Mishnah of 800 pages.
Then there were commentaries on the Mishnah, called the Talmud (which had many
volumes). In the days of Jesus, to the strict Jew, the service of God was
observing this mass of legalistic rules and regulations, which were literally
matters of life, death and eternal destiny.
Jesus did not recognise these
rules. He repeatedly broke them e.g. healing on the Sabbath. According to Jesus,
this was not one of the Laws which will never pass away (Matthew 24:35).
His view of the Law which would never pass away was the Ten Commandments,
summarized as love to God and man. What was wrong with these laws, apart from
the fact that these were human traditions and not God’s Law of the Old
Testament? The problem was they were all about external righteousness, things
that were to be seen by other people - fasting twice a week, tithing even their
garden herbs, carefully washing after returning from market in case of
defilement through contact with Gentiles. Such law keeping was all external and
formal. It was not the religion of the heart. They were careful about the
outside, but neglected the inside. Real defilement is inward, said Jesus, and he
quoted from Isaiah: People honour me with their lips but their hearts are far
from me (Matthew 15:8). Like whitewashed tombs which look beautiful on
the outside, but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything
unclean (Matthew 23:27). Outwardly righteous, but inwardly all is hypocrisy
and iniquity.
The Kingdom of God is concerned
with the heart, not with externals. The Pharisees neglected the really important
commandments because of their obsession with trifles. For example, there was the
Corban incident, in Mark 7:11, where money was given to the Temple instead of to
parents for whom it was originally intended. So they broke the fifth commandment
by their traditions. You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cumin
– but you have neglected the more important matters of the law – judgement,
mercy and faithfulness (Matthew 23:23).
The righteousness of the Scribes
and Pharisees was a self-centred righteousness concerned with self and
salvation. They sought to glorify self and not God. They were smug and proud,
and despised others. “I thank you I am not like other men” (Luke
18:11). They had plenty of righteousness on the surface, but inwardly they were
self-centred and not God-centred. They were self-righteous, proud of their own
goodness.
How different from Christian character – poor in spirit, meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, humble and aware of deficiencies, need and weakness. For all their religion and morality, it was all on the surface, for the Pharisees had lost sight of the important things. They neglected the heart and neglected God’s glory. They were over-concerned with actions rather than motives, with doing rather than being. And worst of all, they were blind to all of this. They were hypocrites, but unconscious and not deliberate hypocrites. They did not think they were wrong; they were sincere – but sincerely wrong! A terrible danger for us all.
Except your righteousness
surpasses that of the Scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus is not saying
that he requires the same things as the Pharisees did, but more. He is not
saying – if they fasted twice a week, you must do it four times, if they
washed hands coming from the market, you must have a bath. He was really
requiring an entirely different kind of righteousness – and it is one which
men cannot produce. It is theirs only when God, by grace, works in their lives.
The righteousness Jesus is talking about is way beyond any human achievement.
The righteousness Christ is
concerned with is not one that we and others see. It concerns the heart
– what we are within – motives and desires, not actions. Jesus puts what we are
before what we do. Out of the heart (Matthew 15:19) come all
our troubles and sins. The heart needs to be dealt with. Man looks at the
outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). This is
why, later in the sermon, Jesus is going to explain that it is not just adultery
but lust, not just murder but hatred. The Lord goes beyond the external to the
man himself. This is the greater and deeper righteousness with which the Lord is
concerned.
Someone once said “Religion is
what man does with his solitude” i.e. if you want to know what you really are,
you find the answer in your thoughts, desires and imaginations when you are
alone. What we say to ourselves, and not what we say to others (about which we
are very careful). What we do with our solitude is what ultimately counts. The
things we hide from the outside world because we are often ashamed of them –
these things proclaim what we really are.
The moment we say this, we see
at once how beside the point the behaviour of the Scribes and the Pharisees was.
They missed the point. And this is so true with many who boast of goodness
today: “I’m as good as the next man, I reckon God ought to accept me, I do
this and that, I would give away my last penny”. But Jesus is concerned with
heart, motives, desires, the real you. At once, we realize the impossibility of
saving ourselves, of commending ourselves to God, of winning his approval. Where
are we in the sight of God who looks on the heart? Everything false and spurious
about us is fully exposed in his sight. Smugness and self-satisfaction soon
disappear. We realize we have had it, not a leg to stand on, quite bankrupt. If
God does not work in our lives, what hope have we got?
“Thou must save, and thou alone” (Toplady)
First of all we need forgiveness
for the very stained past which causes us to feel so ashamed and condemned and
embarrassed. How good to read at the beginning of Matthew the meaning of the
name Jesus: he will save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21). How
heart-warming to read at the end of Matthew that his blood was poured out for
many for the forgiveness of sins (Matthew 26:28). We need a Saviour, we need
forgiveness.
Secondly we need to go to him
humbly. Poor in spirit, I have nothing of myself. Ashamed. All arrogance is
gone. I do need you. I am finished if you do not do something. I hunger and
thirst for righteousness which you alone can give me. I have not got it and
never will have. My hope is in you. I submit, and totally look to you.
God in kingly rule brings
salvation. When he takes control, his power begins to work within us. The
righteousness he requires is a righteousness which only he imparts and gives us
as he rules in the life. Heart righteousness is God’s gift, not man’s
achievement. God gives what he demands. Only the heart filled with God’s grace
can live as God requires. Only those knowing this God-created righteousness can
enter his kingdom of righteousness in the future. This righteousness which meets
God’s standards and is the result of God’s grace and power is Bible religion
from beginning to end.
