Jesus has shown in one way after another that he is exactly who he says he is.
He is the Savior and King and God of the universe.
He is the Messiah that God promised in the beginning.
He has God’s divine, kingly authority over all of creation.
And now he reveals one last form of divine, kingly authority, and that is that he has God’s divine authority as judge.
Jesus Is Our Judge
Jesus is the judge of all the Earth.
Jesus is the judge that the Old Testament is talking about.
There is this common myth that God the Father is angry and mean and judgmental, that God the Father is the stern judge over all the universe, but that Jesus is just kind of nice, kind of chill, kind of laid-back.
No.
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: three persons, one God.
Jesus himself is our judge just as much as the Father is our judge, just as much as the Spirit is our judge.
There is no separation between any of the persons of the Trinity.
The Father, Son, and Spirit agree about everything.
The Father, Son, and Spirit are in perfect harmony.
And that means that it is not that God the Father was angry and wrathful, but God the Son changed his mind by going to the cross.
No.
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit saw us in our sin and our condemnation, and they said, “We are going to redeem them. We are going to save them.”
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, all in unison and harmony, planned from the foundation of the world to redeem us and restore us through the cross.
God created us knowing that it would mean he would have to allow himself to be tortured, that he would have to allow himself to be humiliated and mocked, beaten to a bloody pulp, and then murdered in the most excruciating way possible in order to redeem us.
God is all-knowing.
He knew that in order to create you, he would have to subject himself to the cross.
But God said, “I am willing to suffer immensely in order to create you.”
That is the truth about God.
And that is the truth about you.
There is no separation in the persons of the Trinity.
They are in perfect harmony, perfect unison.
And so Jesus has God’s divine authority as judge.
He’s not just a Savior, not just a King.
He’s also a judge.
He’s not just a teacher.
He’s not just a prophet.
He’s also our judge.
And when Jesus judges, God judges.
When Jesus pronounces, God pronounces.
When Jesus speaks, God speaks.
And as we enter Matthew 23, Jesus starts pronouncing God’s divine judgment on these entrenched religious leaders in Israel.
He lays out four judgments.
Now, these apply specifically to the Pharisees and Sadducees, the entrenched religious authorities in Israel, but they apply in general to all of the Israelites who saw Jesus, recognized the signs, but refused to follow him because he wasn’t the kind of Messiah they wanted.
And so this applies to unbelieving Israel as a whole, but it applies especially to these Pharisees and Sadducees.
1. Their Religion Is About Power and Prestige, Not Serving the Lord
Number one, he says, “Your religion is all about power and prestige, not serving the Lord.”
He says, “Your religious leadership, your religious devotion, your religious practice is not about honoring and serving the God who brought you out of Egypt and made his covenant with you. Your religion is all about amassing power for yourself. It’s all about amassing status for yourself. It’s all about amassing prestige for yourself.”
He says, “You devour widows.”
How?
You turn them over and shake out their lunch money.
You’re draining them for the sake of building yourself up.
He says, “You are like whitewashed tombs. On the outside, you look pretty. On the inside, you are dead.”
He says, “You are like a cup that looks clean on the outside, but it’s filthy on the inside. You can’t drink the water out of it, and God is not going to drink the water out of you.”
What is he talking about?
A lot of people misapply this.
They say if you still struggle with sin, you’re a whitewashed tomb.
They say if you still struggle with sin, you’re a cup that’s clean on the outside but dirty on the inside.
But God is not talking about struggling with sin here.
He is talking about a form of religion that has nothing to do with serving the Lord, that has nothing to do with worshiping and obeying the Lord.
It has everything to do with climbing up the ranks of power.
It has everything to do with amassing power and prestige.
These entrenched religious leaders—it is important, we have to understand this—these entrenched religious leaders were not just people who misunderstood God’s Word.
These are not just people who misunderstood the signs.
These are not just people who had a difference of opinion with Jesus.
These are not just people who misunderstood what they were seeing and misunderstood the promise of the Messiah.
These are people who saw the Messiah, who saw the Lord in the flesh, and actively rejected him.
These are people who did not want to serve the Lord with a genuine and sincere heart.
These are people who wanted power, and religion was the pathway they chose to get it.
They wanted prestige, and religion was the pathway they chose to acquire it.
They wanted status.
They wanted to be exalted.
They wanted to be elevated above everybody else, and religion was the pathway they chose to do it.
These people are literally false teachers.
They are literally false worshipers.
This does not apply to someone who just struggles with sin, who just has a sin pattern they’ve struggled to put to death.
That is not what this is talking about.
This is talking about a person whose heart worships power, status, prestige, wealth, exaltation—not the Lord.
That’s number one.
He says their religion is about power and prestige, not serving the Lord.
2. They Actively Lead People Away From the Truth
Number two, he judges them because they actively lead people away from the truth.
He says, “You’re supposed to be the shepherds of Israel, but you are shepherding them away from the sheep pen. You are shepherding them away from the gate.”
He says, “You lock up the kingdom of heaven. You lock up the kingdom of God.”
He says, literally, they are blocking people from entering God’s kingdom because they are blocking people from truly following after him.
He says:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel around by sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much of a son of Gehenna as yourselves.”
—Matthew 23:15, WEB
They are actively, purposefully leading people astray.
Once again, a false teacher is not just someone who is wrong about something.
A false teacher is not someone who has just misinterpreted something.
It’s not just someone who misunderstood part of God’s Word and then accidentally taught people something that was incorrect.
Preachers and teachers throw the word “false teacher” around way too promiscuously.
A false teacher is someone who actively leads people away from the truth, purposefully and maliciously.
And these Pharisees and Sadducees, these entrenched religious leaders, are false teachers.
They are leading people away from the truth about God in order to empower and enrich themselves.
They are devouring widows’ houses.
That’s number two.
3. They Drown Out God’s Simple Will With Endless Rules and Debates
Number three, he says, “You drown out God’s simple will and calling with endless debates, endless rules and regulations that the Lord didn’t give.”
These entrenched religious leaders drowned out God’s voice speaking through the Old Testament, God’s voice speaking through the Mosaic law.
Remember, Jesus is not anti-law.
He is not against the Mosaic law.
He is not against the Old Testament law.
What Jesus is doing is he’s teaching us how to read the Old Testament law.
He’s teaching us how to understand the Old Testament law.
He is authoritatively teaching us what it truly means because Jesus is the lawgiver.
Jesus wrote the 613 laws that were given through Moses.
He knows what they’re for, and he knows what they mean.
And what they are for, what they mean, is very simple.
The Old Testament law was given to the Israelites to make them into a people of justice and mercy and faith.
The Old Testament law was given to the Israelites to craft them into a people who reflect God’s character.
The law was meant to turn Israel into a nation that reflects God’s goodness and God’s glory and God’s righteousness and God’s compassion and God’s beauty before a watching world.
When they looked in at Israel and they saw Israel following these 613 laws, it would turn Israel into a just nation.
It would turn Israel into a righteous nation.
It would turn Israel into a stable nation.
It would turn Israel into a nation where the people flourished instead of withering.
That is the point of the law.
The law is a blessing on God’s people, not a curse.
But the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the unbelieving Israelites, turned it into a curse.
They drowned out the very simple purpose of the law, God’s very clear and simple will and calling, with endless debates that totally distort the point of the commands.
Jesus uses a really funny example.
He says, “You have all these, frankly, stupid debates about oaths.”
He says:
“Woe to you, you blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obligated.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold? ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obligated.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?”
—Matthew 23:16–19, WEB
He says, “This is stupid.”
He says, “Shut up.”
He says, “Cut this crap out. Quit. What are you doing? Why are you turning this into a whole thing?”
It’s simple.
The point of all the rules in the Old Testament law about oaths and so forth is that you are meant to be an honest people.
You are meant to be a truthful people.
You are meant to be a people of radical honesty.
And when you do that, you reflect the God of radical honesty.
You reflect the God of truth.
He says the point of the law was to make you a people who reflect God’s character.
You’ve turned the law into something that crushes people’s spirits and paralyzes people and wrings people out and chews people up and spits them out and drowns them and bogs them down in endless, stupid debates.
He says, “You entrenched religious leaders have actively drowned out God’s voice. You were supposed to be helping people hear God’s voice.”
That’s number three.
4. They Are Actively Opposing God Himself
And number four, the climax, he says, “Now you are actively opposing God himself.”
He says, “Now the God of the universe is literally standing in front of you. The giver of the law that you claim to love so much is literally standing in front of you. The author of the Scriptures that you claim to love so much is literally standing in front of you. The King of the universe that you claim to serve is standing in front of you. The God of the universe that you claim to worship is standing in front of you, and yet you hate what you see. You resent what you see.”
“I don’t look like the God you envisioned in your head. I don’t look like the King you envisioned in your head. I don’t fit the definition that you created of what God must be like, of what the Messiah must be like, and so you want to arrest me and kill me.”
He says, “You are exactly like your ancestors who killed the prophets that I sent. You are exactly like the wicked kings of Israel who dragged it into idolatry. You are exactly like all those false prophets who deceived Israel through the years. You are exactly like the people who followed after Baal, who followed after Molech, who followed after Ashtoreth, all these false pagan gods, who killed the prophets, who dragged them out of their homes, who wore them down to the bone.”
He says, “You actively oppose the God of the universe and everyone who speaks for him. You actively oppose the God of the universe and all of his people.”
He says:
“Therefore behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth.”
—Matthew 23:34–35, WEB
He says:
“You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?”
—Matthew 23:33, WEB
He’s issuing God’s judgment on the entrenched religious leaders in Israel because their religion is about power and prestige, not serving the Lord; because they actively lead people away from the truth on purpose.
It’s not a mistake.
They’re not just misunderstanding.
They are false teachers because they drown out God’s simple will and calling with endless, pointless debates that completely distort the point of his commands and oaths that were meant to make us into a people of justice, mercy, and faith and reflect God’s character, and because now they actively are opposing God in the flesh and everyone who speaks for him, everyone he sends to them.
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem”
Because that is true, Jesus offers this famous lament.
He says:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem.”
—Matthew 23:37, WEB
He’s not just talking about the city of Jerusalem.
He’s talking about all of unbelieving Israel, the religious leaders, the Israelites who rejected him, and by extension, everyone who rejects and opposes the voice of the Spirit trying to lead us to Jesus.
He says:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”
—Matthew 23:37–39, WEB
Jesus is lamenting the way so many of the Israelites followed the example of these entrenched religious elites in Israel by rejecting and opposing him.
He says the consequence is that they will be made desolate.
They cannot be in God’s covenant.
They cannot inherit the promises to Abraham.
They cannot be redeemed and restored by the blood of Jesus because they reject that blood as they reject Jesus.
So their house will be left desolate unless—unless they say:
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
—Matthew 23:39, WEB
What does that mean?
That means unless they throw themselves on his mercy as their Savior, submit to him as their King, and worship him as their God.
Gathered Under the Wings of Jesus
All of these judgments that Jesus levies on the religious leaders and the unbelieving Israelites, they’re not final.
These are warnings.
He says, “It does not have to be this way because there is still time for you to respond to the Spirit’s convicting work and come to faith in me.”
He says everyone who responds with faith and repentance to Jesus will be gathered under his wings.
Everyone who responds to the convicting work of the Spirit by placing their faith in Jesus will be gathered under the wings of Jesus, no matter what they have done, no matter what their past is, no matter the ways that they’ve screwed up in the past.
He says:
“How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not!”
—Matthew 23:37, WEB
The one keeping the religious leaders out of God’s kingdom isn’t God.
It’s them.
The one keeping the unbelieving Israelites out of God’s kingdom isn’t God.
It’s them.
They are welcome.
They are invited.
All they have to do is come.
All they have to do is walk through the door.
The Spirit is actively doing surgery on their hearts to bring them to faith and repentance so that they will come and throw themselves on the mercy of Jesus as their Savior, submit to him as their King, and worship him as their God.
The one who’s blocking them is them.
But if they submit to the Spirit’s convicting work, if they allow him to create faith and repentance within them, then they will be gathered under the wings of Jesus like hens under the wings of a mother bird.
And that is what has happened to you.
That is what has happened to you and me.
You and I have been gathered under the wings of Jesus.
We have been made into his people and his family.
We have been brought into his kingdom.
We have been turned into his disciples, his fishers of people, his harvesters, his kingdom workers.
We’ve been redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
Now we are being restored by the Spirit.
And so, as you go throughout your day today, consciously remind yourself who you are in Christ:
“I am redeemed, and I am being restored under the wings of Jesus because the Holy Spirit broke through my walls, brought me to repentance, created faith within me, so that now I throw myself on Jesus’s mercy as my Savior, I submit to him as my King, and I worship him as my God.”
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