Matthew 23:13-33 13“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. 14“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. 15“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. 16“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged to perform it.’ 17“Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold? 18“And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gift that is on it, he is obliged to perform it.’ 19“Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that sanctifies the gift? 20“Therefore he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by all things on it. 21“He who swears by the temple, swears by it and by Him who dwells in it. 22“And he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits on it. 23“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. 24“Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! 25“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 26“Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. 27“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 28“Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. 29“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! Because you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, 30“and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ 31“Therefore you are witnesses against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. 32“Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers’ guilt. 33“Serpents, brood of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell?
What is the purpose of the Church? That should be an easy question but it seems as if we struggle in today’s world with the answer.
Is it for companionship? Hopefully you attend a church where everyone is friendly. A place where we come together as a congregation because we are accepted there, warts and all. We can find companionship in the body of Christ that we cannot find anywhere else. Companionship is a good thing, but is that our purpose?
Is it benevolence? Hopefully you attend a church that ministers to others, a place of prayer and compassion. A place that is not afraid to dig into its treasury when someone is struggling financially. A place that is not afraid to dig into any of the resources that it has to come alongside someone that is struggling. Benevolence is a good thing but is that our purpose?
How about worship? Is our purpose worship? Is our point of being part of the church simply so that we can praise God and sing His praises? Hopefully you belong to a church where you talk about how wonderful He is, a place where praise and thanksgiving come together and lift everyone up to the glory of the Son. I hope that you belong to a place where God is praised by the reading and teaching of His word. Worship is a wonderful thing but is that our purpose?
Would it surprise you if I told you that the answer to the above questions is “no”? All of these things are things the church is supposed to do and if a church isn’t doing them that probably is an evidence that they have some problems that they need to address. All of these things are good and fitting but they are not our purpose. The church exists for one reason and one reason only - to save souls. Look with me at the last words from Jesus in Matthew 28:
18And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20“teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.Its pretty clear from that passage what our purpose is. Go and gather the world together under the banner of Christ. The purpose of the church is to save souls.
If we are simply an organization that offers companionship, benevolence and well being than we are no different than any other organization that man has created. We have been called to something much higher than any of these things, we have been called to be the proclaimers of the gospel of God. The purpose of the church is to go out and tell men and women that there is hope, to let them know that they do not have to be lost in their sins.
The purpose of the church is to go and remind people that there is sin, that there is a heaven to gain and a hell to spurn. We are also to remember that anything that we do in the church that waters the gospel message down or hides it in any form is a sin. Anything that we do that just simply adds burdens to people with no talk of grace and mercy is a sin. Anything that we do that does not bring people closer to God is a sin. The purpose of the church is to save souls, the same purpose it has had since the beginning.
God called Abraham and told him that through him He would bless the entire world didn’t He? The temple was built with an area for the Gentiles to worship. God has always wanted all of mankind to respond to Him in faith; to look to Him for their meaning, to look to Him for their security, and to look to Him for their salvation.
The leaders in Jesus’ day had sorrowfully forgotten their mission - to tell people about God. we are going to be talking over the next couple of days about the purpose of the church, about how the Scribes and Pharisees (and perhaps ourselves) have lost their first love.
But before we begin in earnest, some definitions are in order.
The first word is hypocrite. Jesus uses that term several times in our passage to describe the leaders of the church. The word comes comes from a Greek word that originally meant actor. An actor portrays something that he isn’t. He learns lines and he’s very believable on stage, and the more believable he is in his role the more accolades he gets. Nine times out of ten he’s nothing like the character he portrays and that concept is the one that Jesus drives home. The idea of pretended goodness instead of actually being good.
The other word is woe. It comes from the Greek word ouai (Oo-ah’-ee ) and my commentary tells me that it is a word that describes the feeling it’s sound portrays. It sound as if you are suffering some kind of inward pain when the word is pronounced. It portrays the sound of anguish. When it’s used in New Testament writings it’s always used to talk about this idea of sorrow mingled with the idea of judgment. It’s a cry of anger and a cry of pain and when we keep that thought in mind it brings these passages home all the more. As you read these verses you hear the anguish and the anger that God had toward those that stood in His name and the way that they had forgotten their purpose. You can hear the Savior crying out to His people because they had fallen so far from Him.
We’ll start in earnest in our next post. Until then read these passages and reflect upon the purpose of the church.
Grace and peace to you all
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