Introduction
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Have you ever thought that posts on social media seem too good to be true? In some ways, social media has become a place where people post the best parts of their lives in the best possible light.
I’ve heard that people go into debt to stay in really nice places just to make social media posts.
Could you imagine going into debt to stay at the nicest hotels, eating at the finest restaurants, posting all those things online, then getting back to your rundown home without power for the month because you decided to sacrifice paying your electric bill so you could get some good photos for your social media?
It seems a little ridiculous doesn’t it?
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We all have a desire for things to be authentic. It’s annoying to find out that something we have appreciated or enjoyed has ended up being fake.
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Jesus addresses what it means to be authentic in Matt 23. This will be seen both in what we do and who we are. This will be seen in contrast with the hypocrisy of the scribes and pharisees.
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What Hypocrisy Does in vv. 1-7, and What Hypocrisy Becomes in vv. 8-12What Hypocrisy DoesMatthew 23:1–7ESV
1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. 5 They do all their deeds to be seen by others. For they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, 6 and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues 7 and greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by others.Revelation
Jesus opens up with a bit of biting irony, we may even call it sarcasm. He says that the scribes and Pharisees have sat on Moses’ seat. They have claimed his authority. And Jesus commands, “Do and observe whatever they tell you.”
But later he calls them, “blind guides” and critiques the very things they teach. It seems odd that he would tell people to do what they say and then critique what they say. Well there are two ways to look at this 1) either he is commended what they say as long as it accords with the law of Moses, or 2) he is speaking sarcastically.
The tone of the passage may truly be something like this:
“Oh, they’ve seated themselves in Moses’ seat? Then by all means, do whatever they tell you…”
The Gospel of Matthew1. Warning against the Scribes and Pharisees (23:1–12)
“Follow their teaching if you must, but be sure not to follow their example
The “real” point of the first three verses is not that the Pharisees are trustworthy teachers, but that they are false leaders who claim Moses’ authority while completely missing Moses’ intent. That point can be seen at the end of v. 3 when Jesus says, “They preach and do not practice.” Jesus’s main charge against the scribes and Pharisees is hypocrisy.
In vv. 4-7, Jesus gives two main ways that they are hypocrites.
v. 4 is the first reason and vv. 5-7 is the second.
The first reason is that they bind together heavy burdens that they are unwilling to help with. “Tying up” in v. 5 probably refers to the endless debates, textual study, and so on and so forth that they do in order to come up with more and more things to obey.
One commentator notes, “
MatthewExegesis
Some rabbis openly admitted their tendency to produce volumes of rulings from even the briefest and simplest Old Testament command.
So they bind up, more and more rules to follow, and when the poor person who cannot keep up with all the commands asks for help, the scribe and Pharisee responds with a nose in the air. In smugness they scorn anyone who would dare need help following these simple series of commands. They put on the appearance of doing all these things, but in reality, they don’t do them either.
In vv. 5-7, Jesus indicts the scribes and Pharisees because, “
The Gospel of Matthew1. Warning against the Scribes and Pharisees (23:1–12)
their religious practices were designed to win the approval of other people rather than that of God.
They’ve enlarged their phylacteries. These were small boxes worn on the arm and forehead containing Scripture. Wearing this little box was a misunderstanding of Moses in itself. But going beyond just misunderstanding, the scribes and Pharisees were making the phylacteries larger so they would be noticed by others for their piety.
It’s the same thing they would do with the fringes of their robes. They were required to wear four tassels on their cloaks according to Num. 15. Jesus also would be wearing these. However, the scribe and Pharisees made theirs extra long in order to be seen.
They also enjoyed the prestige in front of others when it came to their seating and greetings (you can see in vv. 6-7)
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The greeting for an ordinary man was simply, “Peace be unto you.” But the greeting for a rabbi was “Peace be unto you, my Master and Teacher”
Phylacteries, fringes, and front row seats all used to flaunt how righteous they are in front of other people. All the while they seem to not have one concern for what God thinks.
And that is why it is so ironic that they have taken Moses’s seat. Just like everything else they had done, sitting in Moses’s seat was a form of self-exaltation.
Moses had on all-consuming passion displayed when he said to God, “Show me your glory!”
Moses was passionate about the legal code because he was passionate about honoring God. The scribes and Pharisees are passionate about the legal code because they want to be honored.
This is what made the scribes and Pharisees so inauthentic, or hypocritical. They claimed Moses’ seat, and they claimed to live for God, all the while they were simply living for themselves.Relevance
Who do you want to be honored in your life? Yourself or God?
And I know many, many of you in here are in Christ. If you are a Christian, if you are in Christ, you know at the depths of your heart that you want God to be honored above all else.
Do you know what happened before Moses made that statement, “show me your glory”?
Moses had gone to be in God’s very presence while Israel committed one of its greatest idolatries. Israel by this point knew the commandments, they agreed to do every bit of it. And yet, they took some gold and fashioned it into a calf to worship. God responded by displaying his wrath. The people were punished. God showed his holiness by saying he would not dwell with this people. But when Moses interceded, God relented, showing his mercy. And it was at that moment Exodus 33:18 “18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”” And God responded Exodus 33:19 “19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.”
The scribes and Pharisees were really good at knowing the commandments. They wanted big phylacteries, long fringes, the best seats and the best titles. They were using the commandments to bring glory to themselves.
Moses, though, did not want to use the law to bring himself glory, he wanted God to be seen as glorious
So how do we live a life authentically?
The Scribes and Pharisees used Scripture to tie large burdens. They made God impossible to follow while pretending to do all the things they prescribed. They made a standard too high for anyone, and then pretended to attain it, thus exalting themselves.
It’s easy for us to do something similar. It’s easy to shred the Scriptures apart and make it a list of “do’s” and “don’t’s.” It’s also easy to pretend to hold to that morality on the outside while our heart on the inside lacks passion, love for God, has doubts, and maybe even some bitterness. Then that turns us to the comparison game: we compare how we are doing to other believers, in order to exalt ourselves and ensure that we are doing okay.
But Scripture is not merely a moral list. It is a radical story of how God made a way of salvation for humanity. We shouldn’t merely comb Scripture to find a list of rules, but to feed our souls, to get a better glimpse of who Christ is, so that we too might yearn for more, like Moses.
Second, the scribes and Pharisees did all the pious acts in order to be seen by others. That is hypocrisy, because pious acts should exalt God, but they twisted it into something to exalt self.
An authentic life does pious acts so that Christ would be seen by others. You know one of the greatest ways to help people in their struggles? It is to confess your own struggles and reveal how you repented and Christ brought you through. This too can easily turn into self-exaltation, it can become “who’s struggle is bigger.” But that shouldn’t be the point. The point of confession, and any act of piety should be to humble self and exalt Christ. Bridge
Right now, we’ve seen how the scribes and Pharisees lived for the praise of others. They used their actions—their obedience, their religious practices—to exalt themselves.
But Jesus is not finished.
Because the problem is not just what they do… it’s also how they think about themselves.
It’s not just their actions that are disordered— it’s their identity.
And that’s where Jesus turns next.What Hypocrisy BecomesMatthew 23:8–12ESV
8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.Revelation
Jesus continues to address his disciples while surrounded by the scribes and pharisees and the crowds he was teaching.
The scribes and Pharisees loved these titles such as “rabbi,” “father,” and “teacher.” and they used these titles to exalt themselves.
One second century rabbi told his disciples,
MatthewExegesis
“The reverence owing to your master should be like the awe owing to Heaven
The problem is not the title nor the position, but using the title or position to exalt self.
Jesus is not saying the use of titles is wrong, but the abuse of titles is wrong.
Jesus condemns using titles or status to rob God from the glory and honor he is due.
The scribes and Pharisees were so deceived that they actually thought they were due that glory. They believed the titles they gave themselves.
The point of all this is seen in vv. 11-12
The greatest is the servant, the one with the lowest status.
Then Jesus gives the warning in v. 12 that those who exalt themselves will be humbled.
And this is everything the scribes and pharisees were doing, exalting self to sit in Moses’s seat, exalting self with acts of piety, exalting self with their titles. Relevance
So what does this mean for us?
We may not go around asking people to call us “rabbi,” or “father,” or “teacher.” But that doesn’t mean we are free from what Jesus is addressing here.
Because the issue is not ultimately the title—it’s the heart behind it.
Why do titles matter? Why did the scribes and Pharisees love them so much?
Because titles give identity. They give recognition. They tell people who you are and where you stand.
And if we are honest, we are not all that different.
We may not seek a title, but we do want to be seen a certain way. We want to be known as the one who knows the Bible well. The one who is spiritually mature. The one who has it together.
And when that recognition does not come, something in us is bothered. When someone else is praised, and we are not, something in us compares. When we are overlooked, something in us wants to be noticed.
Jesus is pressing on that very thing.
Because He says—we already have an identity.
We are siblings. We have one Father in heaven. We have one Teacher—the Christ.
Which means we do not need to build a name for ourselves. we do not need to establish our own spiritual status.
So the question is not, “Do you have a title?” The question is:
Are we living out of the identity God has given us, or are we still trying to create one for ourselves?Bridge
And that is exactly where Jesus takes this.
Because once He strips away the titles, once He removes the categories we use to elevate ourselves, he gives us a completely different picture of what greatness actually is.
“The greatest among you shall be your servant.”
In other words the authentic life is not a life that is seen, it is a life that is lowered.
Not climbing upward, but willingly stepping downward.
Just like Jesus did for us.
And that sounds good when we say it, but it is much harder when we actually have to live it.
So how do we begin to do that?ApplicationSummary
The point of living a religious life is to exalt God. However, the scribes and Pharisees lives a religious life in order to exalt self. They wanted all the attention, the glory, the prestige. Jesus condemns them for it and warns that those who exalt themselves will be humbled. Tell
So, what should we do in light of this passage? What is something attainable? The goal of course is to ensure that every thing we do is exalting God and humbling self. But the danger is I give to broad of an application that it does not actually happen.
So, pick one act of piety that you regularly practice or pick one that you want to start this week. Maybe it’s scripture reading/study, prayer, confession to one another, gathering with the saints, generosity, fasting, whatever that act may be, just pick one.
Now that you have that one act of piety, we would call a spiritual discipline, now that you have that one in your mind, I want us to consider together, “when I do this, am I humbling self and exalting God?”
Every time this week you practice it, whichever one you picked, consider your motivations behind it. Look within your heart to see if you practice it authentically. If you do find yourself exalting God, say a word of praise and thanksgiving and continue to do so. If you find out that you have a tendency to exalt self, repent and turn to Christ. He is always a willing savior. Show
For me, I teach the Bible multiple times a week. It’s very easy to craft a sermon, or to be up here speaking and be concerned with myself, my wording, my presentation. I can easily allow a sermon to become a way I exalt self rather than God.
And so to avoid this danger the best I can, I have to step back and pray, “God may you be exalted. May I speak your words and not my opinions.” Then I have to engage honestly with the text. I have to ensure that what I am communicating through what I say is what God wants communicated through his word.
If the focus of my sermons ever becomes my delivery, my illustrations, my exegesis, etc., then I have failed at communicating God’s word.
And there have been times in my life when I have failed. There have been times when my main concern was being seen as relevant rather than communicating God’s word. But the point of the gospel is not that we are not allowed to fail. The point of the gospel, is that when we fail, we go to him. We seek his face. We confess our sin to him. We repent, and ask him for help. “Lord, help me exalt you and not myself.”Image
Jesus is a wholistic savior. Have you ever considered this? Sometime we allow hell to scare us so badly that we only think of Jesus saving our bodies in heaven. We only think of him saving us from a physical thing.
But Jesus saves all of us, and is saving all of us right now.
We are slowly but surely being conformed into the image of Christ, day by day,
And this includes our feelings, our beliefs, our desires. It also includes our motives.
We read a text that was heavily focused on peoples motives. And that can be scary because we only see people’s actions, we don’t always know people’s motives.
And sometimes, we can easily bury our motives.
The difference between the servant and servile is not seen in the actions, but in the motives.
But Jesus lived a life with perfect motives. He was the only real authentic life. He also died for our sinful motives, our mixed motives, our half-hearted motives.
And when we are honest, look inside and consider what motivates our action, we can bring that area under Christ’s dominion as well. We have the power by the Spirit to put to death wrong, sinful motives. And Christ gives us his power to replace those with righteous motives, so that we can live an authentic life, pleasing to him.Challenge
So take some time this week to examine those motives. What motivates your act of piety? Is it to exalt self or exalt God? If you discover any way that you are exalting self, don’t be afraid, don’t heap guilt upon yourself, don’t be sad, simply repent, ask the Lord to help you repent. Then turn to our good Savior who is motivated by his great love and mercy to redeem even our hidden motives.
In Christ, we can stop living to be seen, and start living to make him seen.
