Missions Paul

When it all becomes too much. When it looks like the behaviour of your manager, parent, pastor or neighbour is not getting better but worse. It isn’t over.

“And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation. (Matthew 23 v 35-36)

Judgment will come to those narcissistic leaders who have abused their position by spiritually, physically, sexually, emotionally, mentally abusing those they were meant to Shepherd. It isn’t over. Their sin will get the better of them and will destroy them. Conflict resolution will not help them.

“You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell? Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. ” (Matthew 23 v 33-34)

Prophets, sages, teachers, killed, crucified, flogged and pursued by God’s leaders.

Ever been told which preacher/teacher not to listen to? Or which author not to read? Or even who not to have coffee with? Or which Church you should never go near?

If you have, the person who told you that, were they speaking of themselves or someone else?

There are other messengers.

There are other books.

There are other conversations.

There are other Churches experiencing God’s presence.

We are not the only ones.

Don’t let anyone narrow your experience of life.

When I was a young minister I would drive miles to the other end of the country if I heard that God was doing something. People would say to me that no one should have to do that. I was told that If God was wanting to do something He would do it right here without any need to travel. They were not generous to what He was doing. They had become cynical to His move.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!” (Matthew 23 v 29-32)

That generation were more responsible than all simply because the prophets all spoke of this moment when the Messiah would be standing in front of them. But they did not recognise Jesus and would be instrumental in his crucifixion. Further they had elaborate tombs for these prophets and yet do not speak about how those prophets were killed.

The prophet Zechariah was killed by stoning because he spoke against the rebellion of God’s people (2 Chronicles 24). Their ancestors did this. Zechariah not only prophesied Jesus would come but he even prophesied his betrayal by the 30 silver coins (Zechariah 11).

It is easy to be generous towards the past when the past has proven the prophet correct.

But when the prophet is moving in the present and speaking of the future then we are tempted to be less so. We can become sceptical and dismissive; if God was going to speak He would do it through a different person, through me, right?

I wonder how many messages we have missed and how many acts of power we have ignored simply because we were not generous to what He was doing right in front of our eyes.

The Law of Moses said that if anyone touched a grave in any way they were deemed ‘unclean’. The Pharisees would white wash tombs so that people could see them and not go anywhere near them. These tombs were beautifully ornate. Jesus uses the image in his continued warnings to the religious leaders:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.” (Matthew 23 v 27-28)

Every year in Britain women will spend on average £400 on cosmetics and they own 24 products. 48% of women take 15-30 minutes fixing their face in the morning with lipstick, foundation and mascara the most favourite products of which they own 24 of them at any one time. Men are actually on the rise in looking after their skin with £33.1 million spent each year on moisturiser. Looking good costs. However, in England alone 1 in 6 people will be battling mental health problems such as anxiety and depression in any one week, the pandemic has certainly heightened people’s anger. No amount of cosmetics can deal with the issues of the heart.

Walking through a cemetery and viewing the headstones, the family emblems and flowers laid it is obvious that each family are making a statement about their loved one. Yet for each family there is a story of pain and behind it all death and decay.

Jesus warns the religious leaders saying they are masking what is on the inside of their hearts. He looked very much like a Pharisee. He would talk about the Old Testament Prophets just like they did. He obeyed and taught the Law of Moses just like they did. However there was a huge difference. They were not the same.

What is that person like behind the make-up? This is the question and Jesus knows.

Office coffee cups, there’s nothing like them, right? In the cupboard they may sit there all looking nice with their designs and often funny captions. But pick one up and take a look inside and that’s a different story! A decision is then made whether you really want a coffee or not?!

 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.” (Matthew 23 v 25-26)

A hypocrite is a person who purposely deceives others. They appear right, all the while they hide or deflect the reality of their wrongness. They deny the invitation of grace because they deny their own sinfulness to either themselves or their world. The moment we deflect our own wrong in order to expose the wrong in others is when we become a hypocrite.
Your purity isn’t from performance but from His action on the cross. Your purity isn’t from you, it is from Him. Your purity isn’t announced by man but from Him. Your purity is not yours, it is His.

Jesus took our imperfections when he died on the cross. His broken and bleeding body bore our legalistic efforts and demands and judgments on others who don’t meet our standards. All our efforts now fall to the ground as we rest in His purity. Our obedience is not work to prove but love and joy. We live life knowing He makes all things beautiful, impure hearts pure and the inside of office coffee cups clean!

I was a Pastor for 21 years and led 2 churches. In all that time I never got involved in the banking of the church offerings except for one occasion in the early years when on one occasion the treasurer was unable to go because of illness. As I was depositing the money I noticed one of the cheques had a strange amount registered. It wasn’t the size of the amount that was of concern. It was how the amount was so exact. In fact all that is etched in my memory is that the cheque ended in .33 pence. This was a member’s tithe cheque and I was amazed that they had not thought of at least rounding it up or even down! It was so exact!

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.” (Matthew 23 v 23-24)

The outside can look perfect but inside your heart it can be tight, stingy and impoverished.

We need to learn to be generous in our hearts.

 The Pharisees were not even putting exactly .33 pence in terms of their dealings with people. They had no thoughts towards those who needed help, justice and love. If only they had given such meticulous attention to their cause never mind being like God who is lavish and extravagant.

Their hearts were not seeking justice and love for the people around them. Jesus would soon show that to carry justice and love in your heart is to suffer but is the pathway to resurrection and new life. The Pharisees had a word for this justice in their language, ‘tzedek’ it meant for right relationships with God, mankind, ourselves and the world they lived in. Jesus came to reconcile all 4 of those relationships where love and justice met on the cross.

TODAY let our hearts to be large and loud towards people and our relationships. Let us not be stingy or even exact but let us extravagantly, generously love and help people who are in need.

“Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’ You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it.” (Matthew 23 v 16-22)

The 3^rd warning to the leaders was about their ridiculous petty-games of swearing on oath and what they are bound to or not. Promises by the temple or the altar are not binding but if they promised on the gold of the temple or the gift on the altar they were bound to the oath.

Leaders can preach and boast how they may be in an accountability group. The box is ticked. They have an external form of accountability so they can be trusted. Yet their approach to that group could be artificial and they may never tell the truth to one another. So what good is it? It is an external form of accountability.

The lesson is this: stop pretending.

Focusing on details like the gold of the temple and the offering on the altar but missing the fact it is the Temple and the altar that makes them sacred is blinded.

Focusing on details like ‘look how accountable I am’ but not engaging in accountable conversations is useless.

I knew someone who would focus on finding one detail to prove his argument but missed the whole point of the argument.

You may have a detail but it can act as a pretence to the truth.

Stop pretending is the lesson.

“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 v 15)

The Pharisees had a hardened sectarian code of conduct.

They were evangelistic.

The problem was that their rules and their enthusiasm to make proselytes (converts to Judaism) became entwined.

Jesus calls it out. He could see how they would take their convert and then burden them down with such an amount of rules that the person became more trapped than they were before conversion.

Evangelism is the path towards freedom not captivity.

This is our gospel.

Instead of helping people into the kingdom these leaders were preventing them from doing so.

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (Matthew 23 v 13)

They create a false understanding of God and His kingdom, one that is based on performance. If you do more, work harder or please me then you will please God. “I am your gatekeeper”. If you come to Jesus through my ministry then you will have a good life.

They involve themselves with branding, marketing, image-based advertisements. They create a self-righteous kingdom based around their ministry.

Their understanding is to create more disciples of their own instead of Disciples of Christ.

Woe to them!

Over the next few days we will be reading about the warnings of Jesus regarding hypocritical religious leaders who sadly are still around us today. But first a story!

A young man had just lost his job. Desperate for a job, he looked at the newspapers, and he found an opening in a zoo. He went for the interview and the interviewer said, “Oh! Tragically, a gorilla had just died in our zoo. It was the most popular exhibit and we needed to keep that going. So we need to hire someone, to play the role of a gorilla.”
The young man, desperate for a job, says, “Alright, I’ll take it up.” So he was dressed like a gorilla and it was an easy job. All he needed to do was to pretend to be a gorilla. Walk around like a gorilla, sleep like a gorilla, eat bananas like a gorilla. But after a while, that job got rather boring. You could imagine just doing that every single day.
So he, being a very fit young man, he’s a gymnast in the past, began to explore the enclosure and began to swing from tree to tree. And people were amazed at his athleticism. They thought, “Wow! This gorilla – very active!” And he was so excited. But one time, he lost his balance, lost his grip and he fell into the lion’s den. He was obviously in panic mode and so he began to scream, “Help! Help!” To which the lion walked up to him and said, “Shut up, you fool! Or we will both lose our jobs.”

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!” (Matthew 23 v 13a)

Don’t be fooled, not everyone who appears to be something actually is!

A hypocrite is a person who purposely deceives others. They appear right, all the while they hide or deflect the reality of their wrongness. They deny the invitation of grace because they deny their own sinfulness to either themselves or their world. The moment we deflect our own wrong in order to expose the wrong in others is when we become a hypocrite.

A hypocrite only points fingers in one direction, away from their own heart.

So don’t be fooled, not every gorilla or lion that you meet today are the real deal.