THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES

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Matthew 23:1-12

In the 23rd chapter of Matthew Jesus zeroes in on the pompous leadership of the Pharisees. I want to move through this chapter to get a feel for what displeased Jesus most about the religious of His day. These attitudes and actions pose the greatest threat to living out the Kingdom lifestyle of Jesus.

In this first section Jesus sort of introduces who He is going to discuss: The scribes and the Pharisees. 1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, 2 saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; 3 therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. 4 They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling, to move them with so much as a finger. 5 But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. 6 They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, 7 and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.

8 But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ. 11 But the greatest among you shall be your servant. 12 Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

Remember that Jesus grew up in the Pharisaical culture of Judaism. He knew it well and is here beginning to point out the distortions.

NOTE He says to do what these teachers say, but do not practice what they do. The Pharisees did three things that were a constant distortion of following the Christ.

1-They made religion a burden upon everyone! Their whole outlook on religion had one fundamental effect. It made it a thing of thousands upon thousands of rules and regulations; and therefore it made it an intolerable burden.

2-They made religion into a show! The religion of the Pharisees became almost inevitably a religion of ostentation. If religion consists in obeying countless rules and regulations, it becomes easy for a man to see to it that everyone is aware how well he fulfills the regulations and how perfect is his piety. Jesus selects certain actions and customs in which the Pharisees showed their ostentation.

3-They elevated one above another! They lifted up the "holy" ones who performed this externalism best. They graded totally on the curve. They loved the position and title of Rabbi.

However in the Kingdom Jesus makes it clear not to call anyone Rabbi or Teacher or leader. This is a tough word for those of us who have worked and trained to become the "leader" or the "teacher"-to serve in a position in the church.

Some take this to an extreme and glory in leaderless movements. God has never moved among His people without leadership. Here's the difference as I see it.

FIRST-A leader God raises up is usually an ordinary, uneducated person. He picks out a Gideon, the small boy with a lunch bag, the poor, young virgin to serve as the mother of the Messiah, the common stone-cutter to serve as the Messiah's earthly father, ordinary fishermen to launch a global movement, or the speaking donkey. And, in the weakness and brokenness of these chosen ones God does amazing things.

SECOND-A leader God raises up is equipped by God Himself to lead, no matter his giftedness.

THIRD-A leader God raises up doesn't think in terms of exalting himself, but views himself as a servant of God who is called by God to serve all who God brings his way.

FOURTH-A leader God raises up is a learner from all who are in fellowship together. He knows the Lord is in the process of teaching him lots through the others who are walking together.

FIFTH-A leader God raises up goes into gatherings with others expecting Jesus to show up and minister in a meaningful way among those gathered.

SIXTH-A leader God raises up is not all wound up with his own vision and mission, but waits and listens for Jesus to lead out with His opportunities and orders.

SEVENTH-A leader God raises up hangs on to the bottom-line theme of Jesus about humility and exaltation. Jesus' classic statement, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled; and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." is in the context of His teaching on leadership.

So, humble yourself and be exalted by God Himself or exalt yourself and be humbled by God Himself! YOU CHOOSE!

AN INVITATION TO DINNER

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Matthew 22:1-10

1Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2"The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

4"Then he sent some more servants and said, 'Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.'

5"But they paid no attention and went off-one to his field, another to his business. 6The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

8"Then he said to his servants, 'The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.' 10So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

The events of this parable are completely in accordance with normal Jewish customs. When the invitations to a great feast, like a wedding feast, were sent out, the time was not stated. And, when everything was ready the servants were sent out with a final summons to tell the guests to come. So then, the king in this parable sent out his invitations long ago, but it was not till everything was prepared that the final summons was issued-and insultingly refused. This parable has two meanings.

FIRST-It has a purely local meaning. Its local meaning was a driving home of what had already been said in the Parable of the Wicked Vine-Growers; once again it was an accusation of the Jewish leadership. The invited guests who when the time came refused to come, stand for the Jewish leadership. Ages ago they had been invited by God to be his chosen people; yet when God's son came into the world, and they were invited to follow Him they contemptuously refused. The result was that the invitation of God went out direct to the highways and the byways; and the people in the highways and the byways stand for the sinners and the Gentiles, who never expected an invitation into the Kingdom.

SECOND-This parable also has much to say on a much wider scale. One of the surprising things indicated here is that God's invitation is an invitation to joy and not gloom. I see three reminders:

It reminds us that the things which make men deaf to the invitation of Christ are not necessarily bad in themselves. One man went to his estate; the other to his business. These weren't bad things, but normal things. However, when the good gets in the way of the best, then you have a problem.

It also reminds us that the appeal of Christ is not so much to consider how we will be punished as it is to see what we will miss, if we do not take his way of things.

Finally, it reminds us that in the last analysis God's invitation is the invitation of grace. Those who were gathered in from the highways and the byways had no claim on the king and they could never by any stretch of imagination have expected an invitation to the wedding feast, much less could they ever have deserved it. It came to them from nothing other than the wide-armed, open-hearted, generous hospitality of the king. It was grace which offered the invitation and grace which gathered men in.

The only way anyone will get into the Kingdom is by the grace of God-unmerited favor from God, Himself!

FOLLOW-THROUGH & FRUITFULNESS

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Matthew 21:28-46

28"What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.' 29" 'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. 30"Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go. 31"Which of the two did what his father wanted?" "The first," they answered.

Jesus sets up two kinds of people: FIRST-The person who initially says that he will not, but then jumps in and works in the vineyard. Although the verbal response was negative, but the ultimate effect was that this person actually was a doer. NOTE this is the sinner, the non-religious.

SECOND-The person who initially says that he will yet does not go to work in the vineyard. This person quickly agrees to going along with the request of the father, but doesn't actually become a doer. NOTE this is the religious, the ones who you would expect to go to work in the vineyard.

Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him.

Jesus identifies the tax collectors and the prostitutes with the ones who initially aren't "naturally" with the Kingdom of God. Yet, because of their follow-through in actually doing the work of the father, they are getting into the Kingdom ahead of those you might think should be there already.

These same pseudo-righteous people are identified with tenants who were managing the landowner's land. See how He does this: 33"Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. 34When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.

35"The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. 37Last of all, he sent his son to them. 'They will respect my son,' he said.

38"But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him and take his inheritance.' 39So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.

40"Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?" 41"He will bring those wretches to a wretched end," they replied, "and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time."

42Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: "'The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes'? 43"Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. 44He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed."

45When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus' parables, they knew he was talking about them. 46They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.

This parable tracks with the history of the Jewish reaction to God's blessings. The owner of the vineyard is God who gave His blessings for the Jewish people to manage. Yet every representative He sent to them, they turned on them, persecuted and some they even killed. These were the Judges and Prophets.

Then God, the owner, sent His own Son. They did the same thing to Him, too. Then, as the story goes, the owner went to the field to throw out the tenants and kill them. And after this, He gave the vineyard to others. In other words, this parable tells the entire history of the children of Israel in relationship to their God-Jehovah.

NOTE that the difference between the two types of people comes down to who will follow-through and produce fruit. The ultimate proof of whether something is of God or not is the fruitfulness. The proof is in the fruit! Now, one more thing. Remember what you must do to produce fruit? Abide or remain in the vine or hang on to Jesus. He will produce fruit in and through us. So, we are to be faithful and He will make us fruitful. That's the Kingdom way.

NOT SITTING, BUT SERVING

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Matthew 20:20-28

20 Then the mother of Zebedee's sons came to Jesus with her sons and, kneeling down, asked a favor of him. 21 "What is it you want?" he asked. She said, "Grant that one of these two sons of mine may sit at your right and the other at your left in your kingdom." 22 "You don't know what you are asking," Jesus said to them. "Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?" "We can," they answered. 23 Jesus said to them, "You will indeed drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared by my Father."

24 When the ten heard about this, they were indignant with the two brothers. 25 Jesus called them together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. 26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave- 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

John Calvin calls ambition, "a concealed flame." It exists in each of us, striving for acclaim, power, position, and attention. The concealed flame of ambition can be easily fueled when losing sight of the cross for visions of personal glory. If those closest to Christ fell prey to ambition, then we too must guard against its grip on our lives.

In my experience it is not just ambition that is the problem. The most extensive problem seems to be an optical one-THE BIG "I". So far in recent days in Matthew we've seen a man whose wealth had become his god and therefore came between him and following Jesus. We now see 2 brothers desiring certain positions in the kingdom-on the right and on the left. When it's all about ME, then it just isn't about JESUS.

Without a doubt the greatest disappointment to me has been watching men and women be more concerned about themselves and their conveniences than about spreading the movement of Jesus and His kingdom. There is more interest in a certain musical bent, the dazzle of a beautiful facility, the promotion of another program, the crowd, all giving a false sense of spirituality to spectating rather than participating! My heart continues to be broken by good people who want to sit in comfortable positions such as James and John-good people with a twisted perspective on what's most important.

Jesus makes it absolutely clear that we are here, not to be served, but to serve. We are not here to seek a position in the Kingdom that allows us to be passive observers. To be great in the kingdom is to find your position as a servant-that's a participator, not a spectator! So, are you in the stands watching or on the field in the action?

WORKERS IN THE VINEYARD

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Matthew 20:1-16

Jesus goes into His typical formula of "the kingdom is like" to introduce this parable. Let's examine it to see what the Kingdom is like: 1 "For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3 "About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.' 5 So they went.

"He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, 'Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?'

7 " 'Because no one has hired us,' they answered. 
"He said to them, 'You also go and work in my vineyard.' 8 "When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his supervisor, 'Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.'

9 "The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 'These men who were hired last worked only one hour,' they said, 'and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.'

13 "But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn't you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?' 16 "So the last will be first, and the first will be last."

Nobody was cheated. No one was underpaid. In fact, some were overpaid. The complaint of the early workers offered no evidence of wrongdoing. Their complaint was based in jealousy and envy.

The landowner had the right to "overpay" the late workers. He said "whatever is right you will receive." He determined what was right, not based on ordinary human accounting, but grace. His overpayment of the late workers was his choice and nobody could argue he didn't have that right.

There are two basic points to this parable that come to mind. FIRST-What counts in the kingdom of God is not seniority or years of service, but a diligent heart.

SECOND-All people, no matter when they come into the Kingdom, are equally valuable to God.

NOTE that Jesus bookends this passage in an interesting way. In the last verse of Matthew 19 Jesus says, "But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first." Then, at the end of this section Jesus says, "So the last will be first and the first will be last."

In the Kingdom all moves to the beat of a different drummer and that drummer is Jesus. There are no positions or comparisons to be made in the Kingdom. Living in the Kingdom is all about your relationship with the King and doing what He calls you to do. He will reward you with His grace and acceptance. It's none of your business how He relates to others. You must focus on your personal relationship with Jesus as you wait for Him to lead out with orders and opportunities. He may call you into service all day or at the last minute. But when Jesus calls, be sure to DO WHAT HE SAYS to do.