Allen Jackson - Great Ambition - Part 2
Most of us, if you, particularly if you’ve lived in the South, you’ve had enough exposure to Christianity that you’ve heard the notion of the sinner’s prayer or being born again or being… I believe in that, folks, with all of my heart. But if your notion of the kingdom of God stops at that point, and you think you’ve signed the contract and therefore you’re free to do whatever you want to with the rest of your life, you’ve been misinformed.
Jesus is talking to a group of people who have a covenant with him. They’re the covenant people of God, the chosen people of God. They’re the creme de la creme. They’re at the center of God’s purposes, and the group he’s talking to are the leaders of the covenant people of God. They fast on a regular basis. They tithe of the spices they buy in the marketplace. They are rule keepers. Everybody looks at them and go, «Wow, they’re the ones». And Jesus is about to speak to them. It’s Matthew 23 and verse 11. We’re just gonna tag these seven woes really quickly. I’m not gonna stay long. «The greatest among you will be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted».
There again is that pattern to greatness. Serving, humility. And can we talk, you know, God will give some of you, he will give you significant assignments. God gave Moses a pretty significant assignment. Can we agree? To walk into Pharaoh’s palace and say, «Let these people go. And I’m gonna keep rocking your world until you do». I mean, it’s a very assertive confrontational kind of a dialogue. And Egypt’s decimated, and now there’s hundreds of thousands of people who’ve been slaves their whole lives, and Moses says, «Walk this way. This is the way we’re going». That takes some chutzpah. It’d be much easier to go, «Well, you know, just follow peace».
And he led them right to the Red Sea where they got trapped. God parts the Red Sea and 3 days later, Moses led them to Mara. Mara in Hebrew means bitter. They couldn’t drink the water. They’re gonna die of thirst and the people start to grumble, and they said, «We don’t like your leadership. You’re 0 for 2, big guy». It took some courage and determination. So humility in a servant’s heart does not mean you are absent initiative. Moses couldn’t feed those people. Moses couldn’t provide enough water for all those people. Moses couldn’t part the Red Sea. But nevertheless, God said, «I need you to do this,» and God will put you in places to do things where you can’t deliver the outcome. And it isn’t humility. «Well, you know, God just will be God, and I don’t…» Yeah, you gotta be willing to say, «I believe God can do anything».
This isn’t a call to passivity. Jesus said, «The greatest among you will be your servant». I pray you have a desire to be significant in the kingdom of God. I pray your desire to be significant in the kingdom of God is greater than any athlete stepping towards anything this year, or any professional person stepping towards anything or any ambition in the heart of any student that’s graduating. Surely those of us that imagine there is an almighty God, a creator of heaven and earth, have a desire to give him our very best. Surely we can do that.
Then in verse 13: «Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you’re hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You don’t enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying». That says so you shut the kingdom in the faces of people. You are an obstructionist. Not only do you choose not to enter, you resist those who would enter. None of us want to be in that place. Verse 15: «Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you’re hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are».
For all of you who say that Jesus was all about love, I would submit this is the example of tough love. The description Jesus gives here is someone who makes great effort, expends tremendous efforts to convince others to be like you. That’s what he’s saying. You’ll travel over land and sea to recruit somebody to behave as you behave. You’ll make extraordinary efforts to get people to reject the truth. And you will work with diligence to encourage others to do likewise. We see that on steroids around us. People that go to extraordinary efforts to deny there is a God or biblical principles, and they’ll wrap it in all kinds of religious language and contemporary chic labels. They’ve rejected God for themselves, but they will work hard to get other people to reject God. And Jesus is saying there is judgment coming for you.
Verse 16: «Woe to you, blind guides! You say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it doesn’t mean anything; but if they swear by the gold of the temple, ah, you’re bound by that oath.' You also say, 'If they swear by the altar, it doesn’t mean anything; but if they swear by the gift on the altar, ah-hah.' You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it». Jesus said, «You blind guides, you pervert the truth. You promote deception for selfish gain. You want the resources, you want the gifts, you want the gold, you want the profit, so you distort people’s imaginations. You are deceptive». And he says, «Woe to you means there’s judgment coming for you. You promote deception for selfish gain».
Don’t do that. That’s not just a religious practice, folks. It doesn’t make you clever if you can deceive people for profit. Makes you wicked. We’ve got to redefine some things. Jesus says, «If that is your practice, you’re a blind fool». Oh! He didn’t say you might not be prosperous. He’s talking to very powerful people. They live in the finest homes in Jerusalem. They’re given all sorts of expressions of respect in public. The people consider them to be the leaders. They’ve got political clout and financial importance, and Jesus said, «You’re a bunch of blind fools».
Remember the parable of the rich fool, the man who made so much, and year after year he outsmarted the markets and he was ahead of the curve, and I mean, he did all the things, and he had all of the things. And he finally said, «I’ve got more than I could ever possibly consider. I think I’m just gonna take life easy». And it says that God said of him, «You’re a fool». Jesus is implying a very similar parallel here. He said, «You’re a bunch of blind fools». In verse 23, this is the fourth one: «Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you’re hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices — mint, dill, and cummin. 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’re blind guides! You strain out a gnat but you swallow a camel».
Plain language, he said you’re experts in minutia. He said, «Oh, you cross every T and dot every I, but your hearts are a long way away from pleasing God». He said, «You are masters of the insignificant». I’m concerned. I spent my adult life, my professional life in church world, and there is a degree to which we can be masters of the insignificant. We all know what should happen at church and what shouldn’t. I mean, we have pretty good clarity. Five minutes on social media, that’s really clear. People who never go to church know what should happen at church; I mean, we got that. We imagine when we leave here, it doesn’t really matter anymore. Folks, we’re the church. The Spirit of God doesn’t dwell in a building built with human hands. He dwells in here…
Verse 25: «Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you’re hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside they’re full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will also be clean». I have a question. Do you think by the time he gets to the end of these seven woes, they’re gonna invite him out to dinner? Yeah, me either. He said you have an external focus. You clean the outside of the cup. The world I grew up in, you’re just show ponies. You’ve got no heart, you got a big hat but no cattle. And then he said, not only that, not only are you all about pretense, he said, your motives are all wrong, you’re full of greed and self-indulgence.
You know, motives matter. Motives matter. Sometimes we act like they really don’t. We’ve got to guard our hearts. We’re told in multiple places to have an attitude that reflects the attitude that Jesus had. It’s not just being caught in the right place, it’s being caught with the right attitude. God knows. We don’t want to be labeled as blind Pharisees. Jesus said, first, clean the inside. Address the internal. The transformation of our faith is from the inside out. It’s about our thoughts, our attitudes. It’s why repentance is such an important component of our lives. Repentance is the catalyst for faith. I know you feed it on the Word of God, but repentance is what ignites that process.
Repentance says: «I have thought wrong thoughts that led me to practice wrong behaviors. And now I’m willing to say that my behavior was wrong because my thinking was wrong and I’m gonna change how I think so that I can behave in a new way». You see, when we do that, we open the opportunity for God to bring transformation to our lives from the inside out. Well, how did we used to behave? Well, I used to think wrong. And that’s not just about sinners repenting to become Christ followers. It’s about Christ followers growing up. These are the covenant people of God Jesus is speaking to. See, the outcome of inward change is external transformation. Our change comes from the inside out.
Look at verse 27: «Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you’re hypocrites! You’re like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside you’re full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you’re full of hypocrisy and wickedness». Similar to the outside of the cup and the inside, but different. He said you look wonderful, whitewashed too. People come by and comment, «Amazing». But you’re full of death. Everything unclean, for an observant Jewish person to come in contact with bones makes them unclean. They can’t go to the temple. They can’t be a part of sacrifice. He said, «You look amazing, but you’re filled with death. You’re whitewashed tombs, you look beautiful, but you’re filled with decay. You’re appearance-focused, but you’re inwardly corrupt. You’re full of hypocrisy and wickedness».
Folks, this deception is so rampant in our culture. And it’s chic. We’ve capitulated to it so we could be accepted and applauded and cheered for. Things like DEI where we judge people based on how they look. It’s wicked. I’ve heard too many pulpits try to wrap it in, it isn’t godly. CRT, SEL, social emotional learning, it’s disrupting our children. Jesus told us to discipline the children, not to take them for therapy. Now there’s times and places where therapy is helpful, but it begins with discipline. Jesus isn’t done.
Verse 29, this is a big love lesson. «Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you’re hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and you decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'» You can see them bobbing their heads, «That’s right, not us». «So you testify against yourselves that you’re the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers! You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell»? Do you think they understand that Jesus is not pleased with them? Do you think? Snakes! Brood of snakes! What makes you think you’re going to escape hell?
«Therefore I’m sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you’ll flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. I tell you the truth, all of this will come upon this generation». Jesus expands it a bit here. It’s a generational hypocrisy now. He identifies the failures of previous generations, but he said, «But you continue in the rebellion against God». And then he closes it in a unique way.
Verse 37: «Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I’ve longed to gather your children together, as the hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you’ll not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'»
It’s very clear Jesus has a great love for the inhabitants of the city. There’s a brokenness in what he’s saying. You know, as much as the pandemic was the beginning of a season of shakings, we’ve had various episodes of shaking, aftershocks or further tremors, however, whichever language you prefer, and I think one of those was October 7th with the Hamas attack on Israel, but I think it exposed something that I wasn’t prepared for. I wasn’t prepared for the depth of the antisemitism in our nation. I wasn’t prepared for the depth of the hatred. It’s irrational and it’s illogical, but it’s there. It’s been protected and it’s been promoted. It’s been taught. It’s been taught for far too long at some of our most celebrated institutions and I would just plant a seed: Our support for the Jewish people is not primarily political.
It’s not even primarily about a nation state. It is really disconnected from the hearts of the Jewish people. It’s in response to the directions of scripture. And we’ll do some more with this in the next session, but I brought you one passage. It’s Romans chapter 9. Paul is writing. And I would remind you, he’s a Pharisee. He said, «I was the Pharisee of the Pharisees». He said, «I have great sorrow and increasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel». He said, «I grieve for my people».
His assignment is to the non-Jews, the Gentiles. In the New Testament, there’s two groups of people: the Gentiles and the Jews. And the Jews, you understand, and the Gentiles are everybody else. And Paul’s assignment is to everybody but the Jews. You have to smile at God’s… Paul is trained in… the Pharisee of the Pharisees. He checked all the boxes in Judaism. He was a rising star. You know, he won «Who’s Got Talent» and he won all the shows. And then God put his face in the dust and said, «Yeah, but now I need you to go talk to the non-Jews». But then he gives us the perspective. He said, «The people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised»!
You know, he’s pointing out the debt we have to the Jewish people. Without them, we have no story, we have no faith, we have no understanding of the character of God. We have no presentation, we have no prophets, we have no Messiah. See, we have nothing to tell. We’re not something original. In his language in Romans, he said, «We’ve been grafted into the tree». He said, «Our nourishment comes from the roots that preceded us».
What we have to remember, I would submit, is that our respect and concern for the Jewish people is not based upon their perfection or their holiness. They’re as broken, as flawed, as we are. And Christians get this wrong, and they think if they land at the airport in Israel, they should hear the flutter of angels' wings. Probably not. We are indebted to the Jewish people. They are a party to a covenant with Almighty God. And in Christ, and only in Christ, we have been included in this covenant. Therefore, we are beneficiaries of their journey through many, many centuries. We arrived late at the party.
Remember the parable that Jesus told about the man who hired workers and they agreed to amount, and some worked all day and some came in at the end of the day. We came in at the end of the day. We haven’t been hunted from pillar to post. We haven’t been sought after and persecuted and humiliated, not in the same way. We were invited late to the party. And we’re called to extend to them a blessing, to extend to them compassion, because they’ve borne the brunt of hatred that is a spiritual motivation that transcends empires or nations or ideologies, because the history of antisemitism transcends all of those things. From the babies that were murdered in Egypt to the babies that were murdered in Bethlehem, to the children that died in the Holocaust, there’s a spirit that links all of those things; not a nation or an ideology. And that same spirit is the spirit of Antichrist; it hates you.
So I would encourage you to cultivate the practice of blessing the Jewish people. Antisemitism is exploding around us. When Jewish people do bad things, it does not give you permission to curse them. You can tell the truth about the bad things that are done, but guard your heart. That spirit is prevalent. And it’s very sophisticated and wants to pretend it’s wrapped in sophistication. It’s not. It’s distilled from the pits of hell. And it’s not new. Fills the pages of Shakespeare. It’s a part of our story. But it’s defeated. I brought you a closing proclamation. I thought it was one we could say for ourselves. And I think it’s one we can say for the inhabitants of the land of Israel. It’s one of the most frequently repeated blessings in all of scripture. It’s the blessing that God instructed Moses to give to Aaron to bless the people.
So it became a part of their liturgy, it came a part of their formal practice of worship. You know, those things that are typically repeated as a part of worship is because they are of primary importance. I’ll read it to you and then we’ll read a portion. It says: «The Lord said to Moses, 'Tell Aaron and his sons, „This is how you are to bless the Israelites“.'» They’re so important, God said, «Give them this blessing». «'"'The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.'"'» And this is what he said the outcome would be. Moses said, «If you’ll do this, this is the outcome». «They’ll put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them».
Folks, I believe God is raising up a generation of people to lead in his kingdom. And my prayer is that you’ll begin to say to the Lord, «I want a place of significance». It doesn’t mean it has to be a great place. It doesn’t mean I have to be an influencer. Remember the greatest amongst us starts at the back. And if we’re not willing to do that, I don’t think we have a great future. But it begins by blessing those that God has told us to bless. So why don’t we stand. That portion that’s in bold in your notes, can we say that together, as a blessing over one another, and over the inhabitants of the land? You know, your words have spiritual authority. Thank you for that enthusiastic response. I’m glad you agree. Let’s say this together:
The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace, in Jesus name, amen.