Pharisaical Warnings from Jesus

April 4, 2012

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, "The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don't follow their example. For they don't practice what they teach. -- Matthew 23: 1-3 (NLT)

Before heading to the Last Supper and the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus took time to go into great detail about the false teachers of His day. Knowing He was just days away from the cross, Jesus still wanted to make sure we knew what to be wary of in the leaders we follow in the church. Within these 39 verses of Chapter 23 in the Gospel of Matthew, we see Jesus warn us of the following:

Verses 5-12 - They possess a very showy spirit in all they do and lack the humility a true servant should have. They teach me-centricity in their actions instead of a God-focus.

Verses 13-15 -- They are more concerned with the outward appearance of conversion (altar call numbers) rather than true regeneration of the heart (true discipleship and turning from sin).

Verses 16-22 -- They place more value on the things of this world such as money than on the sacredness of the house of God and holiness of the altar.

Verses 23-24 -- They place more emphasis on the smallest details of the law but do it without a Christ-like spirit.

Verses 25-28 -- They are more concerned with appearances than substance. Pretty and pleasing to the eye and ear but filthy in motives, their treatment of others and what they do in private. In other words -- they talk the talk but do not walk the walk.

Verses 29-33 -- They will come against anyone who dares to bring the legitimate Word of God and expose them for what they are.  

I know that the buzzword in modern Christianity is unity but that unity needs to be rooted in Christ and Him crucified. The reality is the Bible speaks about the importance of testing everything, which is actually described as "God's will for us in Christ Jesus." The Bereans were renowned for their steadfastness in testing everything they heard against Scripture. We need to be just as cautious because these 39 verses outline for us the central problem is that we may very well hear the Word of God being preached correctly. That does not mean however that the source is following God. Realize that the Pharisees were not some rag tag gang of false teachers. They were the mega-church pastors of their day. They were the purpose driven Pharisees. They were the seeker-friendly Pharisees. Our job is not to sit in a pew and blindly accept what is being preached but to be discerners of the Word and the spirits. Let us be vigilant today as Jesus warned us to be.