LUKE 11:37-44 WOE TO THE RELIGIOUS2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 11:37-44 Woe To The Religious

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012. Jesus says, woe to you Pharisees, here in this passage, several times. Woe to the Pharisees.

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The word woe is a pronouncement of judgment, but I would communicate it this way. It's a pronouncement of judgment with sadness. You know, sometimes people would pronounce judgment, but it's kind of with excitement. Like, man, you're going to get it, and I can't wait to watch you get what you deserve.

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There's that kind of, you know, joy of people getting paid back. But the word woe, it's a pronouncement of judgment, but it's with sadness. It's with sorrow. I'm saddened because you will experience the judgment of God. You will be saddened because you will experience the judgment of God. And this is the right way to announce or pronounce judgment.

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You are going to experience judgment. That part's clear, but I'm saddened by it. I sorrow over it, and I wish it were not the case. And so as Jesus is addressing the Pharisees here, he pronounces, whoa, you will experience God's judgment, but I'm saddened by it. Now as we look at the Pharisees today in this passage,

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The Pharisees serve for us as an example, really, that we could learn the dangers of religion. Jesus said, woe to you, Pharisees. This morning, I've titled the message, Woe to the Religious. The Pharisees represent for us

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Religion and those who are religious. It's something that you and I need to be aware of because we tend to get caught up in and practice religion.

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It creeps in many times in subtle ways in our lives where we begin to be involved in, well, by religion, what I'm talking about is the keeping of rituals and rules and laws and ceremonies. And it suddenly comes into our lives where we get caught up in, we begin to get involved in the keeping of laws and rules and rituals and get focused on that instead of what

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Christianity is really all about. We have a saying, I'm sure that you know it, that Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship. And that is a true saying. That really represents God's heart for the matter. That what he desires is a relationship with us and for us to really connect with him and to walk with him in

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And so it's not a religion, a list of do's and don'ts, rules and regulations, but it's a walk with Jesus. And so Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship. It's a true statement. But the question we need to ask and consider is, well, is that accurate and true of you and your Christianity?

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So yes, in general, that's what Christianity is. But does your life reflect that? Does your Christianity reflect that it's not a religion, but it's a relationship? The Pharisees were caught up in, they were focused on the keeping of rules and regulations and rituals and customs that had been established.

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Their rules and regulations were different than what we might, you know, live by today. But the principle is the same. And so we might come up with rules like, well, I don't watch these kinds of movies. I read my Bible this much and this many times a week. I go to church this many times. I'm there on time and that makes me more extra spiritual. I pay my tithes. And we have these lists of things that, all right, we got to make sure we do things because this is what...

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Christians do. And what we forget is that what pleases God is faith. Faith is what pleases God. Believing in Jesus Christ and receiving the finished and completed work that he accomplished for us at the cross. That's what pleases God. And by believing in Jesus Christ, well, you have the fullness of his pleasure. You have the fullness of his love. You can't be more pleasing to God than that.

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Now, as a result of our relationship with God, there are things that flow forth from that. And so we choose. We make decisions. Hey, I want to please God. I want to serve God. And I want to, well, I want to live this way. I want to act that way. I want to engage and participate in those types of things. But what tends to happen is because those things begin to be part of our overflow of our relationship with God, we can get distracted by the things that we do

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And get focused and consumed there. And forget about what started it all. That connection to the Lord. So this morning I want to encourage you and challenge you to guard against religion. Guard against the keeping of rituals and rules and laws and ceremonies. And we need to check our hearts. Why? Well, Jesus pronounces woe to the religious.

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And he gives us, well we can see here, four reasons why he pronounces this judgment with sadness. Four reasons and there's a warning sign with each one that I'll share with you to help us evaluate and consider whether or not we've been caught up in religion as we look at the example of the Pharisees. So let's pick it up now in verse 37 through 40. We have the first reason why Jesus pronounces woe against the religious.

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The first reason is that religion ignores the heart. Religion ignores the heart. Look at verse 37 and 38. It says,

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So the situation is, Jesus is there. He's teaching the people. He's been ministering. He's been healing. He's been correcting. And one of the Pharisees who were there, he says, hey Jesus, I'd love to have you over for lunch. Would you come over to my house? And Jesus says, sure, I'll be right there. Now the Pharisee is shocked because Jesus walks right in and he just sits at the table and he says, all right, let's eat. Now this was completely shocking to the Pharisee because

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That was not according to their custom. That was not according to their normal practice.

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The Pharisee here is not really concerned about hygiene. It's not that, you know, Jesus had dirty hands. You know, like when you're working on the car, you don't just like walk into the house and sit down and eat. You wash your hands first because you got grease and gunk all over your hands. That's not the concern. It's not about hygiene. It's about their ceremony. So it's not that Jesus's hands weren't clean. It's that he didn't go through the ceremony. He didn't go through the ritual cleansing that they were accustomed to.

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They had a very specific way that they would cleanse their hands before a meal. And there's a pattern of that that continues on today. And so I pulled off of YouTube an instructional video that's used to encourage and instruct the Jewish people how to prepare for a meal. So check it out. Here's how to wash your hands before eating bread. First, fill a large cup with water.

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Remove any rings from your fingers. Raise the cup with your right hand, then pass it to your left hand. Now pour water two times over your right hand, twice in succession. Make sure to wash your entire hand up to the wrist. Now pass the cup to your right hand and pour water two times over your left hand, twice in succession.

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Now raise your hands so that the water drips toward the wrist and recite the blessing. Then dry your hands on a towel. Now you're ready to say the blessing over the bread and eat, but be careful not to talk until you've done so.

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As you recite the blessing, hold the bread with all ten fingers and lift it slightly. Baruch atah Adonai Eloheinu melech haolam ha'motzi lechem min ha'aretz And now, it's Bon Appetit!

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So that may give you a little bit of an idea of the ceremony that I'm talking about here. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. I mean, that's just the practice that they have. It's the custom that they have. It's the process that they go through before they eat. And so Jesus walks into the house. The Pharisee is expecting, okay, he's going to go through this process. He's going to wash his hands in this way. He's going to follow this procedure. He's going to do this.

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it's not a procedure that is outlined biblically. It's, it's what they developed as their custom and as their tradition. But Jesus doesn't do that. He just walks in and sits right at the table and it says that the Pharisee marvels at this. Jesus did not practice. He didn't

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with their ceremony, with their rituals. Now, you and I as believers today, we may not have that kind of thing as far as washing our hands, but we do have our own ceremonies that we often engage in, specifically around food, right? Have you ever been that guy? You know, the one who walks in, grabs...

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Whatever it is that you're eating for dinner that day or for lunch that day and you take a bite and you're like, this is good. You're enjoying your first bite and then you have this awareness that people are looking at you and there's all your other Christian friends looking at you. You didn't pray. You didn't pray.

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You didn't pray before we ate. And you're kind of like, oh, I'm sorry. And then there's the rule, right? Hey, you ate first. That means you have to pray for everybody's meal, right? It's a ceremony that we go through. Now that's not commanded like, hey, thou shalt pray before you eat. It's a ceremony that we go through. And yet it's amazing how that ceremony can be used by us to judge whether or not someone is righteous or spiritual. Well, they didn't pray before they ate. They must not be very close with God, you know?

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It's not biblical. It's not something that's commanded, and yet we've built our traditions and our ceremonies upon it. And so just as we might be shocked when someone just digs in and begins to eat, this Pharisee is just blown away. It says that he marvels that he did not wash before the meal. Now Jesus will go on to use this as an illustration to deal with this issue of religion and

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And to illustrate that religion ignores the heart. Check out verse 39. It says, So Jesus now addresses the Pharisee. The guy's shocked. He's blown away. He didn't wash his hands. And so Jesus says,

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You make the outside of the cup and the dish clean. You Pharisees, you pay a lot of attention to the outside of things, but you don't deal with what's inside. Now Jesus is talking about dishes here. Now can you imagine if I invite you over for lunch and you come in and you just, you know, you don't wash your hands. You just come in and you begin to eat and then you discover that I only wash the outside of my dishes.

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the outside of the bowls, the outside of the glass. How excited would you be to have lunch together with me? It wouldn't be very exciting, right? I mean, that's, well, you're kind of missing the point. Hey, if you can only wash one part, wash the inside where the food goes because that's what I want to be clean. I don't want last week's food part of today's lunch. Jesus, Jesus is saying, you guys, you make the outside of the cup and dish clean, but inside,

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You are full of greed and wickedness. They were looking at the outside, but Jesus is saying the inside matters. And inside you have greed. So he's transitioning now. He's not talking about cups no more. He's talking about your heart. Within you, Pharisees, is greed. It's the idea of robbery, plundering. You're stealing from people. You're greedy. You're covetous. You're chasing after people.

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material things, monetary things. Not only that, but you're full of wickedness. Wickedness is the idea of maliciousness, being malicious. And so it's acted out and other people are affected because, well, within you are malicious. And so Jesus is addressing the tendency of the Pharisees. It was a big deal for him. He didn't wash your hands.

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Jesus says, look, you were faithful in washing your hands, but inside you are filthy. Inside you've got some serious issues. You pride yourself. You make sure that you clean the outside, but you're ignoring what's happening within. And so Jesus goes on. He's pretty, well, up front here. He's pretty confrontive. He says, foolish ones.

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The word foolish, it means to be without reason, to be senseless or stupid, to be without reflection or intelligence. Jesus says you're foolish. You're not thinking. You're senseless. What's wrong with you? Jesus is saying you are not thinking correctly. They're foolish.

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The Pharisees, they were the religious leaders. They had positions of prestige and honor within the Jewish culture and society. But Jesus says, you're fools. You're not thinking correctly. You're not thinking straight. Because you think that you can fool God. That's the real issue here. You think you can fool God. You can fool people. I think we're pretty well aware of that. People are able to be fooled.

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And you can wash the outside and not deal with the inside and put on a good show. And you can fool people. And they have no idea what you're really like or what's really going on within. You can even fool yourself. We do that all the time too. We kid ourselves. We fool ourselves. We deceive ourselves. We justify all kinds of issues in our lives. And we think, hey, it's okay. I'm fine. We fool ourselves. You can fool people. You can fool yourself. But you cannot fool God.

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God sees the heart. He sees the outside, but he also sees the inside. The Pharisees here, he says, are focusing on the outside, but they're ignoring what's happening within. But that's what God is most concerned with. And so Jesus goes on to say, did not he who made the outside make the inside also? He says, look, the reason why you're fools is because God made both. He made both.

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He made the outside of you and the inside of you. He created you. He knows how you work. He knows what's happening within. Adam Clark, the commentator, puts it this way. He says, how unthinking are you to imagine that God can be pleased with this outward purification when all within is unholy? How unthinking are you? You think, well, hey, I've washed my hands. I've

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participated in this ceremony. I've practiced this ritual, so I'm clean. God must be impressed or pleased because of what I've done. But all the while within, well, it's filthy. It's unholy. And the point Jesus is making here is that God cares about both.

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He wants both to be right. He wants both to be in order. The outside needs to be in order. It needs to be taken care of. But the inside needs to be taken care of and in order as well. It's a mistake to think, well, my heart might be wrong, but I'm living right. I'm doing all these things. I'm practicing all these things. So it's okay that my heart is not right. That's a mistake. That's a mistake.

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That's the issue that the Pharisees had. You can also look at the flip side of that and understand that's a mistake to say, well, my heart is right, but, you know, I just live wrong.

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I just, you know, practice these things. I live in sin and I, you know, practice immorality. But God knows my heart. And me and God, we're fine. You know, I'm okay with God. He's okay with me even though I practice these things. Both of those are mistakes. God cares about both the inside and the outside. Both of them need to be right. Both of them need to be in agreement with his instruction and his word.

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And so the Pharisees are fools because they think, well, as long as we keep the outside clean and we follow these rituals, we follow our religion, as long as we're very religious, then the inside doesn't matter. Jesus says, woe to the religious because religion ignores the heart. And so the question we'll keep asking this morning is, are you religious? Are you religious? Well,

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There's a warning sign I could share with you. It's an indication. It's a red flag, if you would, that should help you stop and give pause and consider, have I got caught up in religion? Have I become caught up in the practicing of ceremonies and rituals? And have I been distracted from what Christianity is really all about? Here's the warning sign. The warning sign is that you don't spend time cleansing your heart.

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How much time do you spend cleansing your heart? If I were to ask you, how much time do you spend cleansing your body? You would be able to kind of do some math real quick. Well, take about this long of a time in the shower and shower about once or twice a week. So you could do the math. You could say, well, I spend this amount of time. How much time do you spend a week cleansing your heart?

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How much time do you spend? You say, well, how do I cleanse my heart? Well, you're in luck. For $49.99, we have some heart brushes. No, I'm just kidding. How do you cleanse your heart? It's not something you have access to. It's something that you have to present to God and cry out to God and call out to Him and say, God, will you work in my heart? Will you cleanse my heart? How much time do you spend seeking God, beseeching God, asking God to cleanse your heart?

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The prophet Jeremiah, speaking on behalf of God in Jeremiah 17, 9 and 10, says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? He says, look, the heart is deceitful above all things. That means first and foremost, your heart, my heart is deceitful. The thing that your heart and my heart is best at is deceitfulness.

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That's what it does best. And on top of that, Jeremiah says, it's desperately wicked. So we have a serious condition with our own hearts. We have a serious issue that's happening within. And it needs to be addressed. It needs to be cleansed. It needs to be held accountable to the Word of God. It needs to be held accountable to God Himself. Because our heart will lead us astray.

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Our heart will lead us into the practicing of religion where we're working on the outside but ignoring what's happening within. God goes on to say in Jeremiah 17 10, I the Lord search the heart. I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. God says, I search the heart. Your heart deceives you. You're led astray. You're confused about what's going on really in your heart.

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You don't even have the full picture of how wicked and deceitful it is. But I see it, God says. And so we need to be seeking God, asking God. I can testify the truth of what God spoke there in Jeremiah. I've learned throughout my years that my heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. And I will walk away. I will be led astray unless God changes my heart.

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I will be deceived unless God changes and challenges and corrects and cleanses my heart. Does the condition of your heart concern you at all? How much time do you spend cleansing your heart? We can see this quite clearly in how we handle issues and situations in our life. So it's brought forth, it's understood, you have an issue with anger. How do you resolve that? How do you approach that?

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Very often our first tendency is, well, how can we set up some boundaries? How can we set up some regulations, some procedures, some rules to, well, to prevent this from happening, to keep this from going on? And while those things might be good and might be appropriate, our bigger concern needs to be, Lord, change my heart. We're very good at setting up rules. All right, you have an issue with pornography? All right, let me make some rules for you. Here's what you need to do.

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You have an issue with faithfulness. You have an issue with covetousness. Whatever the issue is. Alright, here's the rules. Here's the procedure. Here's the formula. We're real good at trying to fix the issue from the outside. But really we need to be, well, focused on it. Devastated over the condition of our heart. And crying out to God, God change my heart. You see, if God changes your heart, you don't need the rules.

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Because you're walking with God. You're walking with Him. But the rules are there because our heart's a mess. We need those things because our hearts are out of line. The Pharisees were focused on the outside. They were real good about keeping all the physical, the visible things in line. But they were completely ignoring the serious issues that were going on within their hearts. And so we must cry out to God to change our hearts.

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It needs to be regular. It needs to be constant because our hearts are deceitful and desperately wicked. Religion ignores the heart. So Jesus says, woe to the religious because religion ignores the heart. And secondly, as we go on now in verses 41 and 42, the reason why he pronounces woe to the religious is because religion neglects love and justice.

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Look at verse 41 and 42. It says, Jesus is giving a contrast here. He's saying, look, you Pharisees, you tithe mint and rue and all kinds of herbs.

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But there's people all around you who are in need, who are hurting. You have the resources, the means to meet those needs, but you're skipping over them. So you're ignoring those people right in front of you. Meanwhile, you're counting these little seeds that are before you to make sure that you tithe the appropriate amount. They're paying super close attention to what they're giving to God.

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while they're ignoring the people who are right in front of them. So Jesus says, woe to you Pharisees. Woe. Again, it's a pronouncement of judgment with sadness. Jesus declares, you will experience God's judgment. You will sorrow. Jesus says, I sorrow over this reality. Because, well, you skip over, you pass over justice and the love of God.

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While you're tithing of your mint and rue and all manner of herbs. They're paying attention to every detail. The Pharisees were notorious for that. Very strict in their keeping of the law. Very religious. And so they're tithing even of all their herbs. Not everybody did this in those days because it's a lot of work.

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For the first time this year, we had a little bit of a vegetable garden in our yard and we grew some tomatoes, we grew some zucchini, we tried to grow some peppers that didn't work out so good. But we grew these things. It was kind of the first time. It was a new experience.

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And we grew those little cherry tomatoes. I say we, but Kim did all the work, but I got the benefit of eating them. So we grew these little cherry tomatoes. And if you've ever grown those, you know, like it's just, they just explode. There's an abundance of them. There's really more than you're able to eat. So we gathered in about 712 tomatoes and we had to take some time to count out

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10% of them. One, two, three, four, five. Oh man, I lost count. One, two, three. Because we had to tithe those tomatoes, you know, and bring them to church and give them in the offering. You guys don't tithe your tomatoes? Get the baskets, guys. Let's take another offering. Do you tithe from your vegetable garden? That's what the Pharisees are doing here. That's what Jesus is saying. Look.

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The norm for the day was people would tithe from their crops, their abundance, but they had their little herb gardens. And so, you know, can you imagine like, okay, you got all these herbs. Now, how do you section out 10% of those and give those unto the Lord? They're paying close attention. They've got small seeds and they're trying to make sure, count out the right number of seeds. Have you ever tried counting seeds?

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I mean, they're paying very close attention. Make sure you get it precise. We got to get the exact 10% to tithe, to give those seeds to the Lord. They're very particular. They're meticulous about doing that. They're counting the seeds. But Jesus is saying, there's people right in front of you and you won't give alms. You won't give to those who are in need. You won't minister to them. You don't care about the people in need around you.

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And that's the contrast. That's the issue. They're being very particular to keep the external, to keep the law, but they're ignoring the people. And so he says, you tithe, mint, and rue, and all manner of herbs, but you pass by justice and the love of God. And so you're so busy counting your seeds so that you can make sure you give the exact number of seeds that you're supposed to give, that you're completely ignoring, that you're neglecting

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the people around you who are in need. I kind of picture it like Uncle Scrooge, right? So he's got the vault with all of his coins and he walks by all the people who are suffering and in need and he has the resources, he has the means, but he's like, hey, I'm not, I don't have time for you. I'm too busy for you. I got to go count how many coins are in my vault. I want to make sure it's an exact count. So he's consumed by that. The Pharisees in the same way, they're consumed by

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Well, they're keeping of the law, the counting of those things that they don't care for the people who are around them. And so he says, you pass by justice and the love of God. Now, justice was within their control because the religious leaders were leaders. They had authority. They often were making decisions and deciding cases. The Sanhedrin, which was the ruling body for Israel, was made up of the Pharisees.

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They were the leaders. They were the authority. And so justice was entrusted to them. But they were passing over. They weren't making sure that justice was brought forth. They weren't making sure that people weren't being taken advantage of. They weren't making sure of that because they were too busy keeping the external things, keeping the laws that they wanted to keep.

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So they pass over. They neglect justice and the love of God. Now, Jesus goes on to say, these you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. So Jesus is saying, it's not that you shouldn't or can't tithe from your herb garden. That's not the point. You should do that. But you should do that without leaving the other part undone. That is, you should do both.

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The external and the internal need to be in line. They need to be right. You need to follow what God has instructed, but you also need to care about the people who are right in front of you. And as we begin to try to grasp what Jesus is saying here, we should have this understanding that you cannot live the Christian life without an absolute dependence upon God.

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We like the outward things, the ritual things, the ceremony things. Yes, give me the list of stuff to do and then I'll keep those things and I'll walk in those ways. That's a lot easier than dealing with our own hearts, than facing what's really there. That's a lot easier than caring for people around us. But Jesus says you need to do both. You need to be living right and your heart needs to be right. You need to care for the people around you.

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So again this morning I would ask, are you religious? Are you religious? And is your religion causing you to neglect love and justice? Well here's the warning sign to know, to identify whether or not you might be religious. And that is, you don't give to people who are in need. It's a warning sign. If you don't give to people who are in need...

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You need to check your heart. You might be caught up in religion. You might be caught up in the keeping of the things that you have decided, well, these are the things that I need to do, that God wants me to do. And so you're focused on that, but you're neglecting people around you who are in need. The apostle John says something interesting in 1 John 4, verse 20. He says, if someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.

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John says something really challenging. Normally we would think it's easier to love God than it is to love someone right in front of me. Because the person right in front of me is annoying and irritating and they really bug me. And so it makes it hard to love them. But God doesn't bug me like they do. And so it's easier to love God. That's the way we would think. But John says no, no.

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That's backwards. You're deceiving yourself. Again, your heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. The reality is it's easier to love someone who's right in front of you than it is to love God. It's easier to love someone who's right in front of you. And so if you cannot love the person who's right in front of you, John says, you don't love God. It's just a matter of fact. If you don't love the person in front of you, you don't love God because it's easier to love the person who's in front of you.

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And so you might be going through rituals and you might be thinking, man, God is so pleased with me because I'm keeping all of these things that I've decided are really important to God. But if you can't care for and minister to people who are in need all around you, you don't love God. Do you care about people? Do you give to people in need? And, you know, it depends on your resources. So you might be giving time or attention or prayer or financially, but do you give?

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Now, God is not saying, Jesus is not saying that wealth is supposed to be distributed. We're all supposed to have the exact same amount. That's not what he's saying. What he is saying though is that we are supposed to be generous with what he has given to us. We are to be generous. And when we're not generous, there's an indication, it's a warning.

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When we're not generous with our time, when we're not generous with our attention, when we're not generous with our resources, it's a warning. It's an indication. Hey, you're getting caught up in religion. You're really focused on keeping these rituals, these rules, these ceremonies, but you don't really care for the people who are right in front of you. Religion neglects love and justice. So be warned. Watch out.

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Make sure that you're giving the proper care to the people around you. Woe to the religious, Jesus says, because religion ignores the heart. It neglects love and justice. The third reason why woe is pronounced, well, verse 43, religion builds pride. Religion builds pride. Look at verse 43. It says, "'Woe to you, Pharisees, for you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.'"

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He again pronounces woe to the Pharisees. It's a pronouncement of judgment with sadness. Pharisees, you're going to experience God's judgment. You will experience God's wrath. Why? Because you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. What's this all about?

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The best seats in the synagogues are not like maybe what we would consider the best seats today. You know, if you're going to a theater, the best seats are the seats where you can see the best from. Or you're going to a game, you know, you're entering into the stadium, you want to get the seats that, well, you can see the action. You can see what's going on. The best seats that we would normally think about are seats that you could see the best from.

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But the best seats of the synagogues were the other way around. Not where you could see the best, but where you could be seen the best. And so the synagogue would be set up a little bit like what we have today. There would be the chairs that were facing the stage area, the platform. But then there would also be chairs on the platform. That's why we have these up here today. And those chairs would be facing the congregation.

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The best seats in the synagogues, what Jesus is referring to is the seats that were on stage. And they were considered the best because everybody would look and see, oh wow, he gets to sit on stage. You could be seen the best in those seats. So you would be lifted up in people's opinions, in people's esteem. The best seats were on the platform facing the congregation so that you could be seen well.

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Now this is a little bit weird for us. As people were coming in today, all morning I've been trying, hey, we've saved seats up there on the stage for you. Go ahead and make your way up. And nobody's sitting here. I don't know what the problem is.

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It's weird for us because it's not our custom. It's not our normal practice. It is a normal practice in many churches. It's just not for us. So nobody wants to sit up here. In fact, when I told people, we've got you a seat up there, they look at me and go, you're joking. You must be joking. We don't do that. It's just not normal for us. Who would want to sit up there? Man, how awkward to have everybody looking at me during service. Like, if you look somewhere else, that's awkward. I don't want to be up there in front of everybody. But you know, if this became permanent,

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And we kept these seats up here. And we selected people to sit up here throughout, you know, our services and our times. We would get used to it. And it would become very easily something religious. Where it's like, wow, that's a place of esteem. Look, Javier gets to sit on the stage. Wow, he must be really holy. He must be really spiritual. Something amazing must be going on. That's what was going on with the best seats in the synagogues.

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The Pharisees love to sit there, have the people's eyes on them. Yes, I am holy. Yes, I am special. I am very close to God. Thank you for noticing. He says you love the best seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. So not only like where they got to sit was special, but as they're going about,

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In the marketplaces, people are running up to them. Hello, rabbi so-and-so, Pharisee so-and-so. Oh, so good to see you. Hey, what do you think about this? I was just considering this thought. I was just talking about, we're having this discussion. Well, you with your great wisdom, could you answer this discussion for us? Answer this debate for us? They would love these greetings where they were popular everywhere they went. People knew them. They were celebrities, highly esteemed, highly respected in the society.

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And so the greetings in the marketplaces. Well, here's the problem. The issue is not with the seats. There's nothing wrong with having seats there. The issue is not with greetings in the marketplaces. The issue was their love of these things. Jesus says, for you love the best seats in the synagogues. You love those things. That's your passion. You wake up and you're excited about, oh, today's synagogue.

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All right, make sure my tunic is all in place because I'm going to sit in front and people are going to be looking at me and I think I'll go to lunch afterwards. And I wonder what kind of greetings I'll get in the marketplace. Man, it's going to be a great day. They loved the greetings. They loved the places of honor. They loved those things. Their heart was in those things. They were passionate about. They were excited about. They were consumed with those things.

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David Guzik puts it this way. He said, they thought that it was no good to be walking right with God if others didn't know they were right with God. They're doing all these external things. They have these positions so that everybody knows, yes, I'm very spiritual. Yes, I am very holy. Religion builds pride. They're consumed with themselves, puffed up. Are you religious? And you say, well, I'm not sitting up there, Jerry. Obviously, I'm not religious. But this is in our custom.

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There's lots of ways that we, in our religion, get puffed up in pride. So here's a warning sign. Here's a way to kind of check your heart and say, maybe I need to consider if I'm getting caught up in religion. The warning sign is you care what others say about you. This is a warning sign. When you are concerned with, when you are consumed with, when it's really important to you what others say or think about you,

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It's an indication you need to check your heart. You're probably caught up in religion. As you're caught up with, as you're consumed with, as you're concerned about what others say. Whether it's good or bad. When you love the praise of people. When you think about, when you're excited about, when you arrange things so that people will praise you. There's an issue. There's a problem. Jesus says, woe to the religious because it builds pride.

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And when you're caught up and consumed with the praise of people, well, there's a real issue, a serious issue that needs to be addressed. It's an issue of pride. But it can also work the other way. When you are caught up and consumed with the opinions of people so that you become upset over what they say. When your life is torn apart because someone didn't agree or said something negative towards you or about you.

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the disapproval of people as well as the praise of people, when that matters so much to you, that's an indication you're caught up in religion. You're concerned with, you're consumed with what people think and not concerned enough with what God thinks. When you're concerned about the praise of people or the disapproval of people. It's amazing how we can get so suspicious. Hey, what'd you say about me? We try to track down all the rumors. Well, who told you that?

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I'll go set them straight because we're concerned with, we're consumed with, it's really important to us that you think what I want you to think about me. That you say what I want you to say about me. That's how the Pharisees were. They designed their life so that people would speak praise of them. It was very important to them. And so Jesus says, woe to you. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3 says something that we need to learn to say.

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He says, but with me, it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. Paul says, it's a very small thing that I should be judged by you. Not just a small thing. It's a very small thing. What you say or think about me, Paul says, that's a very small thing. It's not a big deal. Let it be a human court. Not a big deal.

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I don't even judge myself, Paul says. He goes on to say, it's the Lord who judges me. I stand before God. I'm concerned about what he says. His opinion is important to me. I'm not consumed with, Paul said, what other people say. You disapprove? Hey, I'm being faithful to God. That's who I'm trying to please. If I was trying to please men, he says in another part, I would not be a servant of God.

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But we can be warned. We can see indications that we're caught up in religion when we're concerned about pleasing others, pleasing men, when we're concerned about what they think, what they say about us. We saw earlier in Luke chapter 6, verse 26, Jesus says, Again, that announcement of judgment with sadness. Again,

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We work so hard for people to speak well of us. That's what the Pharisees did. But Jesus says, woe to you when everyone speaks well of you. And so when we work so hard for people to speak well of us, we're working really hard to bring judgment upon ourselves because we're seeking to please people and not God. We do things because people are watching. We say things because, well, we want people to hear it.

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We want them to respond the way that we want them to respond. We're seeking their attention, their praise. We're devastated when they don't give it because we're caught up in religion. Jesus says, woe to the religious because religion ignores the heart. It neglects love and justice. It builds pride. And finally, the fourth reason in verse 44, religion hides death.

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Religion hides death. Verse 44 says, Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like graves which are not seen, and the men who walk over them are not aware of them. Once again, Jesus says, Woe to you, this time he adds the scribes, scribes and Pharisees. He pronounces this judgment with sadness. It saddens me, it's sorrowful, but you will experience the judgment of God because you're hypocrites.

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The word hypocrite, it's what the Greeks would call the person who's on stage with a mask. It's an actor who's playing the part. So you think about Tom Cruise. That's who he is. But when he's in Mission Impossible, he's Ethan Hawke. And when he's Ethan Hawke, when he's on stage, he's got that persona. He's got that character, that nature. He's acting out that character.

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That's what the word hypocrite is describing. That's not really who he is. He's someone else entirely. But he's acting out this part. Jesus says, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, because you are hypocrites. That is, this is not who you really are.

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Really, you're somebody else entirely, but you have a mask on. And you're pretending to be so spiritual. You're pretending to be very religious. You're pretending to be right with God with all of these rituals, this elaborate system that you've established so that you can pretend to be something that you're not. And Jesus says, woe to you. I'm sad to tell you. You will experience God's judgment because you're pretending to be

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Right with God. You're pretending to be something that you're not. He compares it to graves which are not seen. This was a big deal for them. Because in Numbers chapter 19 verse 16, God declared, he wrote in the law, that you would be defiled, unclean for seven days if you came in contact with a person who was killed or with a human bone or if you came in contact with a grave.

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So if you came in contact with a grave, you would be ceremonially unclean according to the law. And that was a big deal because you'd have to be outside of the camp. You'd have to go through the process of cleansing for seven days. Then you could be brought back into the camp. God had given some specific instruction. It would be a difficult thing to constantly be unclean as a result of the grave. And so what they would do is they would clearly mark, this is a grave. This is a tomb.

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They wanted to make sure it was clear. Everybody knows this is marked. It's set apart. There's a grave here. So that you don't accidentally become unclean and defile yourself. Jesus says though, you guys are like graves which are not seen. So you're just like graves that look like everything else. So people don't know that they're coming in contact with a grave. They don't know that they're becoming unclean. And so they go about their way, but now they've been unclean, but they don't even realize it.

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They're defiled, but they don't know it. Jesus is saying, you Pharisees, you're hiding your corruption. So people are defiled by you, but they don't even know it. You're corrupting them. You're defiling them. You're affecting them, but they don't realize what's going on because religion hides death. The wages of sin is death, but religion hides that. So you can't see, you can't tell. There's really some sin issues.

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Because I've practiced these things. I'm very serious, very disciplined in my religion. So you can't tell that there's graves underneath. There's death below. Are you religious? Are you hiding what's really happening within? Here's the warning sign. You can know that you're religious, that you're hiding death, when others don't know about your struggles. When other people don't know...

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what's happening within. When other people don't know the sins that you're wrestling with, when they don't know that the struggles that you face, the temptations that you encounter, when other people don't know, it's an indication, it's a warning sign, you are getting caught up in religion. God has designed us as a body where you are dependent upon me, I'm dependent upon you, we're all dependent upon each other. We're not in this on our own. We're not by ourselves.

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He hasn't designed us to function that way in any part of our life, including our issues of sin. And when others don't know about your struggles, what's happening is you're putting on a good show. You're the star of Mission Impossible when you're around other people. You've got a good character. You've got it nailed. You can play the part really well so that people don't realize that that's not really who you are. Really, you're someone else altogether.

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There's something else completely going on within. People think you're a good Christian. People think you're close to God because you know how to play the part. You can say hallelujah. You can say praise the Lord. You can say I'll pray for you. You know the things to say. You know how to put on the show, to wear the mask. But nobody really knows what's happening within the issues, the struggles, the hurt, the pain. It's hypocrisy.

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James tells us in James 5 16, confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Are you religious or are you confessing your trespasses to one another? Are there people in your life who you've brought alongside to help you, to encourage you, to strengthen you, to hold you accountable?

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with those things that you struggle with, those issues that you have. You're not in this alone. And to try to be is hypocrisy. It's religion. And Jesus says, woe to the religious. Why? What's so bad about religion? It ignores the heart. It ignores what's really going on within. And there's some serious issues there. They need to be dealt with. You got to take it to God. You got to let God change your heart. You need to be concerned about what's going on in your heart.

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Because your heart affects everything else. And so if you're caught up in religion, the heart's being ignored and going along with that, you're going to be neglecting love and justice, not giving to people in need. Well, you might go through the outward motions of it, but your care and your concern is not genuine. It's just the practicing of a ritual, practicing of a rule. Religion builds pride and you get consumed with, what are people saying about me? What do they think about me? Good or bad?

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It causes you to be focused on pleasing people. The author of Proverbs says that the fear of man is a snare. It's a trap. When you fear people, when you're concerned with and consumed with what people say or think, it's a trap. It comes from religion and it hides death. It hides the destruction. It hides the corruption that is there. And so Jesus says, woe to the religious. Are you religious? It's time to repent.

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Seriously, you need to break out of that religion. You got to get back to what Christianity is all about. It's a right relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ. It's about loving God and walking with him. Sure, there's going to be things that you keep that flow forth from that. That's going to happen. And so you have to be on guard that those things that God instructs you to do, those things that the word instructs us to do, don't replace God.

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walking with God, having right relationship with him, approaching him by faith in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, I pray for our hearts now that you would break through the mask, the hypocrisy, break through the religious walls that we've established and set up. And Lord, I pray that you would expose our hearts. You search our hearts. You search the mind. Lord, we deceive ourselves.

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So Lord, I pray that you would reveal to us those issues where we've become consumed with and caught up with ceremonies and rituals and rules and we've been distracted from what's really going on and what you're really concerned about. I pray, God, that you would open our eyes and Lord, that you would help us to have the boldness to obey and respond as you bring these things to light. Lord, that we would break out of the mold of religion and that we would walk.

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in newness of life, in abundance of life that comes from knowing you and seeking to love you and honor you and please you through that relationship with you and the obedience that flows forth from it. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

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We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.