WOEFUL BEHAVIOR (PART 3)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“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.”

Matthew 23:15

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Jesus wasn’t happy with the Pharisees and scribes, two groups that made up part of the Jewish religious hierarchy. Several matters were at the heart of His displeasure.

First, it seemed that every time He was teaching and advancing the good news found in Him, good news initiated by God Himself, the Jewish religious authorities intentionally tried to oppose Him. Whether it was undermining Him, questioning His authority, or trying to lead people away from Him, there was a constant effort at work to eliminate Jesus who was seen as a legitimate threat to the work of the Jewish spiritual leaders.

Second, the Pharisees, scribes, and others Jewish leaders which included the teachers of the law, the elders, and the Sadducees among others, were hypocritical in the way they lived. On one hand, they held the people to the stringent standards of Mosaic law but on the other, they were not willing to apply the same standards to what they did.

Third, the Jewish religious authorities claimed to be special representatives of God but their actions indicated that they weren’t even consulting God before they made decisions or pondered matters needing their consideration. Point in case, Jesus invested a lot of time and effort telling the Pharisees, scribes, and others that He and God were one, that He as God’s Son had a special intimate connection with His Father.

So what did the Jewish leaders do?

They just accused Jesus of blasphemy, assuming He wasn’t being truthful when they would have received validation from God that He was in fact being one hundred percent honest if they would have just asked Him.

Finally, and this probably angered Jesus more than anything, the Pharisees, scribes, teachers of the law, Sadducees and others, strived to lead people away from the salvation Jesus offered. We looked at this specifically in the first message of this series and as we see, this issue is also touched on in our passage today as Jesus expresses the third woe on the Jewish religious authorities. Look again at His words here:

“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.” Matthew 23:15

Here we find Jesus acknowledging the lengths the Jewish religious leaders would go to try and bring people into Judaism. It’s obvious that they were very dedicated to the cause because they were willing to travel over land or sea or both to just get one person to cross over from being a Gentile to becoming a Jew.

Jesus also traveled extensively on sea and land with the intent of making disciples, followers who would become the first Christians in history. The conversion He offered was one that trumped anything the Jewish religious authorities set forth but still He always found Himself in competition with them and this created the problem highlighted in this verse.

Consider that those being converted to Judaism were Gentiles who worshiped multiple gods (small “g”). If they didn’t come to God (capital “G”), they were destined for hell but the conversion offered by the Pharisees and scribes was the wrong one. Jesus made it clear that He was the Way and the Truth and the Life, and no one could come to God the Father except through Him (John 14:6) but the Jewish religious authorities were leading people away from Him to join party with them. And they were also destined for hell because of their rejection of the Messiah the prophets had foretold, a Messiah who would bring deliverance and salvation.

This is why Jesus said the Jewish religious leaders were “making them twice a child of hell” as they were. Men God intended to lead the people toward being saved according to His plan were actually leading people away from eternal life with Him. This is why Jesus wished woe upon them.

They exhibited woeful behavior.

Today, people are still leading people away from Jesus in order to follow some other belief system or maybe to not believe anything at all. They, like the Pharisees and scribes, are guiding others down the road of destruction which culminates with a lifetime in the damnation of hell, the same road they are traveling. Jesus’ words of woe apply as much to these twenty-first century heretics as they did to those He addressed in the first century.

Then or now, the behavior is sinful and woeful. We can only pray for people to seek the Lord themselves, receiving the truth found in Him, a truth that will not allow them to be deceived and led astray toward the ultimate demise. For one thing is certain, the Lord God Almighty desires for everyone to find salvation through His Son so they might live with Him forever. Anyone who deliberately gets in the way of that is going to suffer the severest of consequences.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at woe number four.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

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