Jesus confronts the Pharisees and scribes with five damning sins that would take them to eternal judgment, if not repented of. Check out those five sins and see if any of them are popping up in your life.
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The Damning Sins of Religious Hypocrites
Luke 11:37-54
This morning we are going to see Jesus Christ go toe to toe against the religious elite of his day. A Pharisee invited Jesus to have lunch with him (vs.37). At this stage in Christ’s ministry, the religious leaders were bent on destroying Christ. So, why would this Pharisee invite Jesus to lunch? If he was sincerely looking for truth, he would have come to Jesus privately. No doubt he was looking for an occasion to accuse Jesus, and now he thought he had it when Jesus did not wash his hands before the meal.
The Pharisees were the Jews who were most serious about keeping God’s Law. There were about 6,000 of them at this time. Their title means “separated one” and they took great pride in the fact that they were more righteous than others. The lawyers were the scribes, the experts in the law. They devoted their lives to studying God’s Law and coming up with rules of how it must be applied by the Jews. The lawyers made the rules and the Pharisees tried to keep them.
In this passage Jesus utters 6 “woes” against these religious leaders. The first three are leveled against the Pharisees, and the final three are uttered against the lawyers. Instead of translating this as “woe”, the NLT translates it as “what sorrow awaits you.” According to dictionary.com a woe is “an interjection of grief, distress, or lamentation.” Now, why would Jesus be uttering these interjections of grief, distress or lamentation? Why would He be continually telling them what sorrow awaits them? Well, I think the answer comes to us from the parallel passage in Matthew 23.
Mt. 23:14 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you will receive greater condemnation.”
Mt. 23:15 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”
Mt. 23:33 “You serpents, you brood of vipers, how will you escape the sentence of hell?”
Mt. 23:35 “upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.”
Why does Jesus continually pronounce woes against the Pharisees and lawyers? Because they are condemned, they are sons of hell, the are going to receive the sentence of hell, and they are guilty of all the righteous blood shed on earth. They are going to be eternally damned! That’s why Jesus so often laments, “what sorrow awaits you!” Jesus, knowing their eternal damnation is coming, pronounces these interjections of grief, distress and lamentation.
Now, in this passage, we are going to read of five sins that caused Jesus to express these woes. I’m going to call them “The Damning Sins of Religious Hypocrites.” Now, even if you are a saved child of God, you may find some of their sins lurking in your own heart. So, this morning, I want you to read of their sins not as some kind of history lesson. Read of their sins, while thinking of yourself, so that if you are guilty of the same sins, you may confess them and repent of them this morning.
1. They are Inwardly Corrupt (11:39-42)
11:38. The Pharisees were inwardly corrupt, even though they appeared to be outwardly pure. This Pharisee was surprised that Jesus had not first ceremonially washed before the meal. Now, this particular “law” had nothing to do with personal hygiene. It wasn’t like your Mom telling you to wash up before dinner. It had to do with being ritually clean. There was nothing about this in the Old Testament. Some lawyer, no doubt, had come up with this ritual, so that those devout Jews who practiced it could feel smug and superior and more clean than others. Although Jesus would join this Pharisee for lunch, He would not participate in this ritual with him. Why? Because God had never required it, and to do this ritual would perpetuate the myth that those who went through this ritual were somehow more holy than others.
11:39-41. The mention of this hand washing ritual caused Jesus to address their fixation on the external. He said they clean the outside of the cup and platter, but inside were full of robbery and wickedness. In other words, they were clean on the outside, but filthy on the inside. Mom, imagine your little boy takes the pot you have used to heat up spaghetti sauce and meatballs, and he takes it into his room and puts it under the bed. A few months later, he finds the pot, and pulls it out. Not only does it still have the food stuck to the inside of the pot, but now there is mold and bacteria, and insects crawling all over it. So, he brings the pot back into the kitchen and scrubs the outside of the pot until it is clean and shiny and says, “Mom, look, I cleaned the pot!” That’s a little like what these Pharisees and lawyers were doing. They were trying to clean up the outside of their lives, but they were leaving their hearts and affections and motives filthy before the Lord. Jesus says in vs. 41, “give that which is within as charity, and then all things are clean for you.” They had only cleaned up the outside. If they wanted all things to be clean, they would have to give that which is within as charity. What does that mean? Vs. 39 says they were full of robbery and wickedness. In Mt. 23: 14 Jesus says that they devoured widows’ houses. These religious leaders were using their position and authority in Israel to take advantage of the disenfranchised and vulnerable in the land. They were robbing others. So, Jesus tells them to give that which is within as charity. In other words, they needed a complete heart change. They needed to go from using others to benefit themselves, to giving to others from their hearts. However, if they would do that, they would be clean on the inside and the outside.
11:42. Jesus next uses their tithing as an example of how they cleaned up the outside while neglecting their hearts. In the Old Testament, the Lord required a tenth of the wine, grain, oil and flocks to be given for the support of the Levites. However, God never commanded them to give a tithe of these tiny herb seeds. They had gone overboard on performing the outward things, the things that others could see and applaud. They were fixated on the really little things, but all the while, they were neglecting the really big things in God’s eyes. The really big things to God were justice and the love of God. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself. Well, to love their neighbor as themselves was to pursue justice for their neighbor. Pursuing justice would mean they made sure that their neighbor was not being abused or mistreated. If they loved their neighbor they would want justice for their neighbor. It would mean making sure that widows and orphans were not being taken advantage of, but that they were loving them and meeting their needs. Loving God would mean that they are obeying Him from their heart, that their affections are set upon Him, that they are more concerned about His opinion than man’s opinion, and that they are concerned that they serve Him with right motives. However, these religious leaders weren’t pursuing any of this. They were simply pursuing a clean exterior, so that they could be admired as holy by others in their religious community.
Now, it’s time for us to ask whether we are guilty of this sin ourselves. Are we ever concerned only with being clean on the outside and neglecting our love for God and others. This is so easy to do, isn’t it?! We can so easily fall into the rut of going through the motions of our Christianity. We look good because we don’t drink, or smoke, or do drugs, or sleep around. Instead we go to church, continue to read the Bible and pray and live respectable outward lives. Yet, we can do all of that while neglecting our own relationship with the Lord! The secret to the Christian life is that all of life must be centered on God and lived for His pleasure. If we do the good things we do simply to appear righteous to others, or so that others will think well of us, or to check off the box so that we can do what we really want to do, this grieves God! This offends Him! God wants your hearts! In James 4:4-5 the Bible says, “You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: if you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to Him.” Our God is a jealous God. God could care less about all the things you do outwardly, if you have given your heart to the world! Don’t ever think that God is pleased with you if He doesn’t have your heart! That means that you find your joy and delight in your relationship with Him, not in the entertainments and trinkets of the world.
2. They Love The Praise Of Man (11:43-44)
11:43-44. Jesus said, “Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the respectful greetings in the market places. Woe to you! For you are like concealed tombs, and the people who walk over them are unaware of it.” Jesus said in Mt. 23:5 “they do all their deeds to be noticed by men.” In Mt. 6 Jesus said that the hypocrites give, and pray, and fast. However, the reason they give, and pray and fast is to be honored by men. They pray to be seen by men. They fast to be noticed by men. Everything they do is to elicit the praise and honor and admiration of men. In John 12:42-43 the Bible says, “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God.” That wrong motivation spoils and corrupts every good thing they do. It turns a good work into an evil work. And notice in verse 44, that because of this wrong motivation, it turns these Pharisees into concealed tombs. The people that come in contact with them are defiled and spiritually contaminated without knowing it. Their influence is evil. They spread this defiled motivation for holy living to others.
Friends, it doesn’t matter how many “good works” you do. If you are not doing them out of love for God and for His pleasure and glory, in His eyes they are not good. Would you take a moment right now and analyze why you do the good things you do? Why do you gather with the church on Sundays? Why do you attend the Men’s Study? Why do you read and pray on your own? Why do you serve in the church, by bringing food, or watching the children, or come early to set everything up, or serve in our radio ministry? Why do you go out and talk to people about Christ and the gospel? If you know deep down inside that it is either out of fear of man’s rejection or love of man’s praise, you need to do business with God. Ask Him to change your heart and motivations. Pray the prayer of the psalmist in Ps.19:14, “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.”
3. They Place Man Made Burdens on Others (11:45-46)
In verse 45, one of the lawyers, or experts in the Jewish Law spoke up and said that Jesus was insulting them too. You might think that Jesus would humbly apologize for offending them, and hurting their feelings, but He did nothing of the kind. Instead, he probed even deeper. He went on to tell them that they were weighing down the common people with burdens and were doing nothing to help them live for God. The scribes placed tremendous religious demands on the people. They kept adding law after law after law. They kept more and more demanding rules, so that they could feel holier than those who couldn’t keep them. These rules and regulations were literally crushing the people. Nobody could keep all these rules perfectly. Instead of helping the people draw close to God in joy, they were literally crushing the life right out of them.
And the worse thing about these rules is that they were not from God. I’m talking about extra-Biblical rules and regulations that the scribes put on the common person as a “fence” to keep them from breaking God’s Law. However, like lawyers in any age, they had come up with legal loopholes to enable them to skirt around these rules, while the average Jew was still burdened down with them. For example, the lawyers had determined that you couldn’t tie a knot on the Sabbath, because that was work. However, a woman could tie a knot in her girdle. So, if you needed to draw water out of a well, you couldn’t tie a rope to the bucket, but you could tie a woman’s girdle to the bucket! So, the lawyers had figured out a way that they could still get water on the Sabbath, while the ordinary Jew would have to go without. They were burdening down the people with their rules, but not lifting a single finger to help them.
Are we guilty of committing this same sin? Are we guilty of commanding people to do something God has not commanded, or commanding people to stop doing something which God has not forbidden? It might be requiring members to fast on certain days, or to give up certain things for Lent. It might be forbidding members to drink any alcohol or use any tobacco. It might be forbidding people to go to the movies, or to play cards, or to wear makeup. It might be insisting that men have short hair and women have long hair. It might be requiring women to wear dresses, instead of pants. It might be forbidding women to work outside the home. We need to be careful, because we are so prone to laying our rules and regulations on others, when Scripture doesn’t lay those rules on us! Take a moment and ask yourself if you have been burdening others with rules which God doesn’t lay on us in Scripture.
4. They Seek to Destroy Those Who Confront Them With the Truth (11:47-51)
In verses 47-51, Jesus builds a damning case against the religious leaders. They pretended to honor the memory of the prophets by building their tombs and monuments. However, Jesus said that when He sent prophets and apostles into the world, they would persecute them and kill them. Of course, the greatest crime that anyone could ever commit was the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Jesus came on the scene and confronted these religious leaders with the truth. Instead of humbling themselves, repenting, and changing their ways, they killed Him. Deicide – the killing of God! So, what was the result? Jesus said the guilt of all the execution of God’s prophets would be laid to the charge of His present generation. Why? Because they confirmed that they were of the same spirit as their fathers by killing Jesus, and then persecuting and killing His prophets and apostles.
Now, I wonder if we are ever guilty of this sin. When someone confronts you with God’s truth, what do you do? Of course, sometimes you are not sure whether this person is bringing God’s truth or not, so you need to take some time to think and pray about what someone has said to you. I think that is a good thing, as long as we are willing to let God convict us if we are in the wrong. However, when we are honest before God, and have to admit that what they are telling you is the truth, what do you do? How do you respond? I think usually that person is going to be your husband or wife or your Mom or Dad. Sometimes it might be your pastor or a friend. How do you respond? Well, if we were honest, I think most of us would say we don’t receive this very humbly or graciously. Something rises up within us, doesn’t it? What’s it called? P-R-I-D-E! Why does something automatically rise up in defiance when someone else confronts us or corrects us. It has got to be because of our inherent pride. God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. We need to constantly be on our guard, and pray and fight against our pride. When you see it start to rear its ugly head, take it to the cross, and crucify it!
5. They Hinder Others From Entering God’s Kingdom (11:52)
In verse 52 Jesus says, “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” So, what is the key of knowledge that unlocks all the Scriptures? The key is Jesus Himself. Jesus said in John 5:39-40, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.” After Jesus rose from the dead He was walking with two men to Emmaus, and Luke 24:27 says, “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.” Then in Luke 24:44 He told His disciples, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Over and over and over Jesus told His generation that He was the key that would unlock all of the Scriptures for them. However, the religious leaders refused to come to Christ. They didn’t want Christ themselves, and they didn’t want anyone else to come to Him either. When we take away that key, the Bible will never make sense. When we study theology apart from Christ, we just slip into spiritual darkness. The most important requirement for Bible study is a will submitted to and willing to obey Jesus Christ.
These religious leaders were actually hindering others from entering God’s kingdom! That’s pretty bad for a person whose one main job is to help people understand God’s Word. But because they would not submit to Christ, they were in spiritual darkness, and could not help anyone else to enter the kingdom. They were the blind leading the blind, and both of them would fall into the pit.
What about us? Have we ever been guilty of hindering others from entering the kingdom? Have we hindered others by showing others such a bad representation of Christianity that they didn’t want to have anything to do with it? Have we hindered them by teaching them all about abstract doctrine and theology instead of pointing them to Jesus Christ?
Conclusion
My friends, if the Holy Spirit has shot His arrow of conviction into your heart this morning, go to the Lord for cleansing. Thank God we have a living Savior whose blood was shed to wash us from our sins. If you are guilty of any of these sins this morning, go to Him, confess them, repent of them, and receive His cleansing and empowering not to walk in those sins in the future.
Let’s break up into small groups of no more than 3 people, and confess to one another which of these sins trips us up the most. Then let’s pray for one another for deliverance from these sins through our relationship with Jesus Christ.
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