Chapter 23

Religion is a Satanic counterfeit of the truth. Everything that God has originated in His plan Satan seeks to counterfeit in one way or another. So we have now come to that part of the temple discourse where we have the condemnation of religion. In verse 1-12 we have the condemnation given to the crowd: in verses 13-33, the seven woes of religion; in verses 34-39, the condemnation of a religious city (Jerusalem).

Verse 1-12, the condemnation of religion.

Verse 1 — the audience. “Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples.”

Verse 2 — “Saying.” Up to this point Jesus has been speaking to the scribes, the Sadducees, the Pharisees, Herodians and the chief priests. He has refuted their position and condemned them and He now gives a declaration of religion to the crowd. He no longer speaks to these religious leaders. The word “multitudes” in the Greek is in the dative case, which means advantage. It was to their advantage to learn of the danger of religion. One of the most deceptive things in the world today is the problem of religion. It is the greatest enemy of the Christian, of Bible doctrine and the truth, and in fact is the worst thing that ever happened to this world.

The subject of the condemnation is given in verse 2. “The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat.” The scribes refer to the theologians and the teachers of the Mosaic law; the Pharisees are the people taken from the scribes to sit on the Sanhedrin. They are religious, they have taken the Mosaic law and distorted it into a system of legalism. “Moses’ seat” refers to the chair of theology in the field of the Mosaic law. We would say, They sit in the professorship of Judaism.

Verse 3 — the incompetence of the scribes. Corrected translation: “All things whatsoever they tell you, do and keep; but according to the norm or standard of their works, stop doing, for they say and do not do.” In other words, they command to observe and to do [in connection with the Mosaic law] and when they are strictly teaching the law, just mentioning it, the commandments of the Mosaic law are correct. But then they take these commandments and they distort them into a system of human works, a system of religion, and a system of legalism, which is wrong. So when it is strictly the Word of God it should be obeyed, but the Word of God in distortion should not be obeyed. We have the same problem to day.

Eight points in connection with this verse

1. The works and production of the scribes and the Pharisees will be described in this context — chapter 23.

2. By way of summary they include three things: legalism, religionism, externalism (ritual without meaning).

3. These professors of theology had authority but this authority was accompanied by incompetence. They could not handle their subject, the Mosaic law.

4. The only way to obey the Mosaic law is to start with the cross. This can be seen from an analysis of the three parts of the law — Codex #1, Codex #2, Codex #3.

5. When the unbeliever or the legalist teaches the law he simply distorts it into a system of religion and ritualism. This in turn causes hypocrisy.

6. These religious distortions of the Mosaic law do not provide an excuse to ignore or reject the law. It isn’t the law that is wrong, it is the legalist trying to interpret the law that is bad.

7. While Jesus does not condone the legalistic perversions of the Pharisees He does demand an observance of the law in its true Biblical perspective. (Remember that Jesus lived in the age of the law. Matthew 23 is not the dispensation of the Church, it is the Age of the Jews which is the dispensation of the law)

8. The scribes distorted the law into a system of salvation and spirituality by works, rather than putting the true emphasis on the law, i.e. man is spiritually bankrupt, only Christ can save.

Verse 4 — the hypocrisy of Judaism. “For they bind heavy burdens and grievous (the words “to be borne” are not found in the original), and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.”

When it says “they bind heavy burdens” this means that they add to the Mosaic law a lot of taboos. We call these extra-biblical taboos. In other words, the scribes and the Pharisees are being compared to the Egyptian taskmasters; “grievous to be born” means that the requirements of religion constitute an impossible burden, just as religion does today; “lay them on men’s shoulders” — they require everyone to observe the taboos. To them the law was simply a springboard to launch into legalism and from the Mosaic law they designed all of these taboos.

Verse 5 — “But all their works they do for to be seen of men.” The Pharisees and their phoney facade were motivated by three lust patterns: in this verse 5, the lust to excel. “all their works.” They had to be better than anyone else, and they did it in front of people. When they prayed they prayed in front of people, when they gave they did it while everyone was watching, and so on. The words “to be seen,” qeatron, in the Greek, mean to be seen in public. They were legalistic exhibitionists.

“they make broad their phylacteries” — a phylactery is a pouch with some paper in it on which some scriptures are written. They carried these around for good luck, or that is what it amounted to. Actually they had four pieces of paper. On the first paper was written Exodus 13:1-10; on the second was written the words of Exodus 13:11-16; the third one had Deuteronomy 6:4-9; and the fourth one had Deuteronomy 11:13-21. These were written in very fine handwriting. They carried these scriptures around like a good luck charm, like today wearing crosses or something else for good luck. So their religion involved a lot of superstition.

It is also interesting where they put these phylacteries. They strapped them on their heads. That was as close as they could get to putting the scriptures in the frontal lobe! They also strapped them on the wrists. They were strapped with seven straps. Seven is the perfect number in the Bible so the seven straps showed reverence toward perfection. The Pharisees failed to see that knowing and believing the scripture was the thing that counted, not wearing it, and the larger the phylactery the more spiritual you were supposed to be. So they wore their scripture instead of knowing it. There is a principle behind this: crosses and idols and amulets and religious paraphernalia are no substitutes for regeneration and spirituality. They emphasised the external, they wore these things, but that isn’t all. It says they “enlarge the borders of their garments.” The border here is the Greek word for the hem of a robe. The Pharisees had a wide gold band around their garment. Coming down from this band they had gold knots and these were like some kind of a merit badge, each one representing so many hours of prayer, so many hours in the temple, etc. So it could be seen by everyone how far along they were by these fringes that hung from the hem of their robes. They eventually had to make wider hems until they were up around the knees and they had fringes all the way down. This is what is meant by enlarging their borders. However, spirituality is not based on what one wears; spirituality is not an external; spirituality isn’t an expression.

Verse 6 — we have a second lust: approbation lust. “And love the uppermost rooms at the feasts” .They had these big parties which were really mutual admiration societies and they all liked to sit in the “VIP-rooms” where they could look down at the second class citizens below them. The table was elevated; “the chief seats,” i.e. the best seats in the best tables. They desired prominence. Prominence can make you religious but it doesn’t make you spiritual.

Verse 7 — the third lust: the lust for power. “And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi [Professor, Professor].” They liked to be recognised in public places, this was quite a status symbol. The word Rabbi is simply an academic title for someone who graduated from one of the two theological seminaries and received a degree.

Verses 8-10 is an aside and should have a parenthesis around it. Jesus is going to give some advice now to the disciples.

Verse 8 — “But be ye not called Rabbi: for one is your Master, Christ; and all ye are brethren.” The word Rabbi carried the authority of a teacher, the one who had the final authority, and Jesus Christ Himself has the final authority. This was said by Jesus when He was on the earth. Jesus is now absent and yet He has left behind His mind as the final authority — 1 Corinthians 2:12, the Bible is the mind of Christ. The final authority today is the Word of God; “and ye are all brethren.” The word “brethren” is used collectively for believers.

Verse 9 — “And call no one your father upon the earth.” This does not mean that you cannot address your legal parent as father, this means with a religious person. A religious leader should never be called Father; “for one is your Father, which is in heaven.” God the Father is the author of the divine plan (grace) and no one has the right to be addressed as father. “Father” carries the concept of absolute authority and God the first person has the absolute authority over His plan.

Verse 10 — “Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.” The word for “master” is a Greek word for professor, kaqhghthj, and this is the only time this is used in the New Testament. It is used only of Jesus Christ. This isn’t the same word used as “master” before anywhere in the scripture. This word is taken from a verb which means to guide according to a norm or a standard. The only one who can guide according to a norm or a standard is Jesus Christ when he was on earth, and now that He is gone it is the Word of God which is the guide.

Verses 11-12, the perspective of grace.

Verse 11 — “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.” “He that is greatest” is a present active participle and it means the one who constantly holds the position of spiritual leadership. When he holds this position he becomes a servant. The word for servant is where we get our English word “deacon,” diakonoj. It connotes one who functions administratively to provide relief and comfort. Hence it is a servant in the sense of functioning in the realm of doctrine to provide comfort. The word “greatest” here means he who has the final authority; “shall be your comforter.” The comfort must come from the Word. No preacher has the ability to comfort in all sorts of difficulties, the way to provide comfort is through the Word of God.

Verse 12 — “And whosoever shall exalt himself.” This refers to the religious hierarchy (he that is greatest refers to true spiritual leadership). It also has to do with any future religious hierarchy, anyone who seeks the office of leadership to fulfil power, praise or approbation lust; “shall be abased,” i.e. depressed in the sense of disappointment. In other words, they will be frustrated. The lust pattern cannot provide satisfaction.

“and he that shall humble himself” — this is the principle of operation grace, orientation to the plan of God, utilisation of divine operating assets; “shall be exalted.” The exaltation refers to reward. The believer who operates on grace will be rewarded. Humbling means knowing how to be filled with the Spirit, and when you are filled with the Spirit you produce and what you produce is rewardable.

Verse 13-33, the seven woes of religion.

Verse 13 — the first woe. (The second woe is found in verse 15, verse 14 is not found in the original) “But woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!” Both groups are religious leaders and they are called hypocrites. The Greek word for hypocrite means someone who speaks from behind a wax face. In Greek drama actors spoke from behind wax masks.

“ye shut up” — present active indicative, you keep on doing this, it is a habit; “the kingdom of heaven,” referring to the kingdom of born again persons; “against men,” literally, from the presence of men. Legalism, salvation by works, obscures grace and therefore they closed the door to the kingdom of heaven from the presence of men; “neither go ye in yourselves.” They do not believe in Christ and they will not permit them that are entering to go in; “them who are entering.” These words refer to a person who at the point of God consciousness went on positive signals and religion comes in between in order to hinder this. This is the story of Saul of Tarsus. He got caught up in the religious trap to the extent that he became totally opposed to the believers in the early church. Religion finally cut off the positive volition and so Jesus Christ had to personally give Paul the gospel and a further manifestation of positive volition resulted in faith in Christ. So “those who are entering” refers to anyone who at the point of God consciousness has gone onto positive volition, they desire a relationship with God. And anyone who is in that category must hear the gospel sooner or later and will respond, except in cases where their frontal lobes have been hardened by religion. So religion then obscures the way of salvation. Religion always appeals to human good, it always teaches a system of salvation by works, and so they take these people as they move toward the cross and they throw these works at them. They persuade them to accept a works system — keeping the law, and so on.

Verse 14 — This verse is not found in the original.

Verse 15 — the second woe. “Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees , hypocrites!” With the exception of the third woe we have this same phrase every time; “for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte.” The word “compass” means to traverse, to go up and down, to go into dangerous situations in order to gain converts. Religion is filled with a tremendous amount of zeal strongly motivated through works in the field of human good. A “proselyte” is always used for a Gentile who becomes a Jew through circumcision; “and when he becomes [a proselyte] ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.” The twofold refers to the fact that the converts to Judaism are twice as zealous as their leaders.

Verses 16-22, the third woe.

Verse 16 — The vocative of address is different from the others. “Woe unto you, ye blind guides.” This is addressed to the Pharisees as the religious leaders. “Woe” is an interjection of calamity, “unto you” is a dative of disadvantage. It is to their disadvantage to be religious. Seven times in this passage we have the phrase, “Woe unto you,” and every time it is dative of disadvantage and the principle each time: no one has any advantage by being religious. It is more difficult for a religious man to be saved than any other kind and hell will be thickly populated with religious people.

In Matthew 15:14 Jesus has already called the Pharisees blind guides, so this is simply a repetition of that castigation. This time the words “scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites” is omitted and the reason is because the third woe emphasises the influence of these religious leaders on their proselytes in the folly of their leadership. So this particular omission of “scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites” has the purpose of emphasising that there is only one thing worse than religious people and that is religious leaders. To have a guide who is blind is the epitome of stupidity and so Jesus is using some sanctified sarcasm in saying to these people in effect, the worst thing you can do is have a guide who is blind. The principle is: if you have eye sight and you select a blind guide there has to be something wrong with you.

“which say” — they keep on contending this; “Whosoever shall swear by the temple.” At this particular point we have the word “swear” time after time after time. It doesn’t mean to swear in the sense of using profanity, it means to take an oath in the name of God, in the name of the temple, in the name of the altar. The Jews could take an oath under three particular concepts. If you were going to take an oath it was called a solemn oath and this was as strong as you could make it. They could take an oath in the name of God and if they did they did so as a believer and they were saying, If I am telling a lie then God should strike me dead or discipline me (which, of course, He would). The second was an oath in the name of the temple, and when this started out it was a very good oath in the sense that you were saying in effect that you were taking an oath in the name of Jesus Christ (because the temple speaks of the person of Christ) and that if what you said was not true and if you did not fulfil your obligation then Jesus Christ should put you under tremendous discipline, which of course He would. And then there was the third oath which you could take and this was in the name of the altar. The altar speaks of Christ with emphasis on His work, the cross. This was all a bona fide way of making a solemn promise. The point is that this is taking an oath in the name of someone who could punish you if you were not telling the truth, and it was used in the law courts of Israel, and for other things such as entering into some kind of a business arrangement. But once religion came along there was a big change. What does religion want more than anything else? Money. Religion is always looking for money, religion is always out of money, religion is always trying to find some way to fleece the population. So they say it isn’t enough to make an oath, you have to put down some money. In other words, you have to put down a bond. This was basis of the religious practice which we have in focus in the third woe.

“by the temple is nothing” — they say an oath by the temple is nothing; “but whosoever shall swear by the gold of the temple, he has incurred a debt!” This is the religious practice of taking an oath and paying money for it. Religion attaches more importance to the gold than they actually did to the temple, so we have the principle of double legalism. The first part of double legalism: it is legalistic to take a vow or take an oath by a sacred building; the second part is to pay money for the oath. When the Pharisees say that he is a debtor it means that he incurs a debt, By this declaration Judaism is contending that gold is greater than the temple. Religion, of course, always places great emphasis on money and religion always gives you the concept that you can buy your way into blessing, that you can buy your way into heaven.

Verse 17 — Jesus calls a spade a spade when He is dealing with religion and He says to the religious leaders: “Ye fools” — but He doesn’t say it that way. The word “Ye” isn’t there, He says, “Fools,” but the Greek says, “Morons,” moroj. We would say today, Idiots. He called the religious hierarchy idiots! Remember that in Matthew 5:22 Jesus warned against calling a person a fool and this is the same word. It must be understood exactly what Jesus had in mind. By comparing Matthew 5:22 with this particular verse we discover that the passage in Matthew 5 indicates that it is not the word that you call them, it is the mental attitude you have when you call them that. If you call a person an idiot without malice, without anger, that’s all right. But in Matthew chapter 5 the idea is that these people were calling them idiots and they were angry, and so it is the mental attitude of anger which Jesus was criticising. But Jesus isn’t angry at these people, He loves them dearly and He is about to go to the cross and die for all of them. But He calls them exactly what they are, idiots, not to insult them but to awaken them to their true condition. So the emphasis is on the mental attitude.

“for whether [which] is greater, the gold, or the temple that sanctifies the gold?” Remember that the temple speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and when any money is brought into the temple that money should be dedicated to the Lord’s purpose. Religion does just the opposite. They use the temple as a place to get anyone’s money for any situation whatever.

Verse 18 — Jesus begins to explain. “And, whosoever shall swear by the altar,” this is what they say, “it is nothing; but whosoever sweareth by the gift that it upon it, he is guilty [becomes a debtor].” Jesus repeats to show exactly what He means. The Pharisees were saying that swearing an oath by the altar didn’t mean a thing, you had to put some money on the altar before the oath was accepted. So they were using the temple as a system of business transaction.

Principles

1. To make a vow or to take an oath by offering money is tantamount to posting bond that you will keep your word.

2. For the religious leaders making an oath or taking a vow on the altar is not as strong as forfeiting money.

3. In other words, the money on the altar was of more value than the significance of the altar.

4. The gold that you brought to the temple was more important than the temple.

5. The religious crowd always emphasises money; it emphasises the materialistic rather than the spiritual.

6. Religion is characterised by emphasis on money and materialistic things rather than doctrine.

Verse 19 — the word “fools” is not found in the original. It starts out, “Ey blind: which is greater, the gift, or the altar that sanctifies the gift?” Religion cannot see life from the divine viewpoint, hence religion has to emphasise what it can see. Religion can see money, it knows the power of money, it has some concept of the value of money and, therefore, religion can only deal with things that it can see. They see an altar but an altar doesn’t mean anything, to them the altar doesn’t speak of Christ. They see money on the altar and the money means something. Today we have the Bible and religion looks at the Bible and the Bible doesn’t mean anything; religion looks at money and that means something.

The sanctification of a gift means that the gift must be given by one who is a believer, a believer in fellowship, and therefore given under proper motivation.

Principles

1. No one can gain the approbation of God by the use of their money.

2. Neither salvation nor spiritual blessing can be purchased.

3. This is contrary to the principle of grace.

4. In salvation Christ paid for our sins, in phase two God provides blessing on the basis of what He gives, on the basis of who and what He is.

5. So it is contrary to the perfect essence of God to receive bribes or to be pressurised by mankind.

6. Man can only enter into relationship with God on the basis of grace, on the basis of who God is, on the basis of what He does, never on the basis of what we do.

7. Legalism thinks of God as a genie and that He exists to satisfy our whims and our desires.

Verse 20 — “Whosoever therefore shall make an oath by the altar, makes an oath by it, and by all things thereon.” It wasn’t necessary to execute a vow or take an oath by trying to bribe God with some gift of money. To make a vow by the altar and all the altar stands for is much stronger than making a vow by a stipulated sum of money.

Verse 21 — “And whosoever shall swear by the temple, sweareth by it, and by him that dwelleth therein,” reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. Habakkuk 2:20; Psalm 11:4, Jesus Christ is the one who dwells in the temple.

Principle

1. To make the Lord one’s witness is to swear the most solemn oath but to make money one’s witness is meaningless.

2. The worst penalty in making money one’s witness is the forfeiture of the money.

3. To make the Lord one’s witness is to commit perjury and the Lord Himself will punish.

Verse 23 — “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe [habitually and continually].” Tithing is authorised by the Mosaic law, Deuteronomy 14; Leviticus 27; Malachi 3. There were three kinds of tithes authorised by the law and the Jew did not pay ten per cent of his income per annum, he paid twenty per cent. He paid 10 per cent for the maintenance of the Levites — Numbers 18:21,24; he paid another 10 per cent per annum for the feasts and sacrifices — Deuteronomy 14:22-24. On the third year he paid 30 per cent; three tithes, and the third one was for the poor of the land — Deuteronomy 14:28,29. The basic principle of giving is not tithing, it wasn’t in the Old Testament and it isn’t now. In the Old Testament the basic principle of giving is found in Proverbs 11:24,25; in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 16:2; 2 Corinthians 9:7. Tithing was taxation, not spiritual giving. Israel was a theocracy, later on a monarchy, based upon spiritual principles and spiritual heritage.

“of mint and anise and cummin” — they had an agricultural economy so they not only tithed money but they tithed everything they had. They had various little seeds, for example, and these are mentioned. “Anise” is a dill, so they had dill seed, this was their aspirin. “Cummin” is another medicine, and all these were tithed. When the Pharisees came round and collected ten per cent of the money they also collected ten per cent of the seed — “and have omitted the weightier matters of the law [the Old Testament scriptures, the Word of God].”

“judgement” — the Pharisees were those scribes who sat on the supreme court of the land, the Sanhedrin. So every Pharisee was a ruler of the Jews in the sense that he was a supreme court judge. They should have been handling the cases which involved law, and so on. The second word here is “mercy", and mercy is grace in action. The Pharisees were also theologians, they were scribes, and therefore they ought to be taking the Sabbath and instead of their taboos they ought to be teaching grace. In other words, they ought to say to their people on the Sabbath: “On six days you work, and that working represents what God has done for you. God does the work under grace. On the seventh day you cool your heels for one reason: to sit and remember that you can do nothing for your salvation, you can do nothing for blessing, you can do nothing for approbation from God, God has provided everything. Therefore you rest every Sabbath to remind yourselves that you live by grace.”

That is what the Pharisees should have been teaching, but instead they had all of these wild taboos that were a burden. They should have been teaching the true purpose of the Sabbath, i.e. when you do nothing on the Sabbath it reminds you that you can do nothing for salvation. The Sabbath was a memorial to the grace of God.

The third thing they should have been teaching: “faith.” The means of salvation, faith-rest as the means of peace and victory and happiness in the life; “these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” Because they fail in this Jesus uses an analogy in verse 24.

Verse 24 — “Ey blind guides, you strain out [not “at”] a gnat,” and present it to the people. The people want to move, so what do you give them to ride? A gnat, a flea; “and swallow a camel.” That means they hide the bona fide means of travel. The gnat is this tithing emphasis; the camel refers to the weightier matters of the law, their responsibility as members of the supreme court of the land, their responsibility as scribes in teaching God’s grace and declaring the gospel and faith in Christ, in declaring the faith-rest technique as the solution to problems in phase two. So religion ignores the spiritual and emphasises the material and temporal. And there is a perfect modern illustration: the social gospel. Religion in that day put the emphasis in the material and the temporal, and today it is the social gospel.

Verse 25 — “Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.” First of all, a “platter” is not a platter, it is a serving dish. In the ancient world these serving dishes apparently had high sides with a big handle on each side and it usually had a very narrow entrance, the idea being to keep food warm. This, of course, makes sense as an analogy.

“For ye make clean the outside”

1. The Pharisees emphasised the externals and ignored the internal condition of the individual.

2. The word “within”: The religious crowd were great on taboos and outward morality but inside were filled with horrible sins. (The Pharisees should teach two great lessons as far as the outside and the inside are concerned. In the first place morality is not spirituality. In the second place an exterior system of morality is no good without the interior support of mental attitude. Furthermore, there are no dynamics in morality) These horrible sins fall into two categories. Inside they had mental attitude sins — envy, jealousy, pride, hatred, implacability, bitterness, the sins which express hostility and hatred, and so on; and motivation sins — approbation lust, power lust, materialism lust, etc.

3. The inner sins of the life make external righteousness a sham.

4. The outside of the serving dish being clean is analogous to morality, taboos, and so on.

5. The inside of the cup or the platter is filthy and this refers to the two types of sin (Point 2), mental attitude sins and motivation sins.

6. The religious always avoid the obvious overt immorality while nursing and catering to inner sins.

7. Religion always emphasises the exterior and ignores the mental and the motivator.

The word “extortion” is interesting because it means to pillage, to plunder. It is interesting because you don’t have to actually plunder or pillage, you can do it mentally. “Excess” means lustfulness: power lust, approbation lust, materialism lust, etc.

Verse 26 — “Thou blind Pharisee,” anyone who emphasises the external to the exclusion of the internal is blind. Religion is blind, legalism is blind, pseudo-spirituality is blind. And they are blind to this principle: grace=God doing the doing; man does the receiving. They are legalistic and/or religious in which man does the doing and God is supposed to do the receiving of what man does. Under grace God gets the glory; under legalism or religion man gets the glory.

“cleanse first that which within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.” Here is a principle which applied to the Pharisees and had to do with salvation, but it is a principle which applies to believers as well. To cleans the outside for the Pharisee who is an unbeliever means to believe in Christ. So cleansing the inside refers first of all to the unbeliever facing the cross. The Pharisee sees his human good (which was rejected at the cross) as his way of salvation. How can the Pharisee fulfil the principle here which is mentioned by the word “cleanse” ? — an aorist active imperative. The aorist tense refers to a point of time in which the individual believes in Christ; the active voice: the individual has faith, he does the believing himself; the imperative mood: this is an order. But to a believer — and Jesus wasn’t talking to believers here but the principle applies to believers as well — it means you are outside of the bottom circle, the place of the filling of the Holy Spirit, and the cleansing on the inside is rebound (1 John 1:9). Jesus is paving the way for two concepts when He says, Cleanse that within: permanent cleansing, accomplished by faith in Christ; temporal cleaning, accomplished by rebound — 1 John 1:9.

Verses 27,28 — the sixth woe.

Verse 27 — “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres.” The word “whited” is a perfect passive participle from the verb to whitewash, Being whitewashed graves, literally.

“Whitewashed tombstones”

1. A whitewashed tombstone is the grave of a poor person which is whitewashed before the Passover so that travellers might see and avoid the grave. If you walk over a grave you are ceremonially unclean and cannot participate in the Passover. This complied with Numbers 19:16.

2. In Acts 23:3 Paul calls the high priest a whited wall. This was actually one of the greatest insults you could give a person and only a Jew knew how horrible it was. In other words, the high priest was standing up before Paul in the Sanhedrin as Paul’s judge and he was judging Paul without a trial. A whited wall means simply: You are full of dead men’s bones even though you have a nice suit on!

3. Jesus implies that religion is constantly in the process of whitewashing the worst kind of evil.

On the outside they were self-righteous but this was just to cover the dead men’s bones of their inner sins — “which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness”

Verse 28 — “Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but inside ye are full of hypocrisy [mental attitude sins] and iniquity [motivation sins].”

Verses 29-35, the seventh woe.

Verse 29 — “Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish [decorate] to sepulchres of the righteous.” In other words, all of these men who were martyred in the past by their forebears they have now turned into heroes, and they put a wreath on the grave periodically. They build great memorials to people like Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc. and these are the people who were martyred, massacred, assassinated, in the past. In other words, the religious crowd admired the greatness of these men without understanding why they were great. Grace made them great. And yet while they were putting decorations on these graves of the great martyrs of the past they have in themselves the same anti-doctrine, the same hateful attitude, whereby they killed the Lord Jesus Christ who in His humanity was the greatest of all prophets.

Verse 30 — “And say.” When they stand before the tombs of these people they have a little self-righteous speech: Oh, we wouldn’t do a thing like that! “If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.” Actually, they would have, but this is the phoney thing they say. And the people who said that were the ones who killed the Lord Jesus Christ. They killed the greatest of all. The Sanhedrin, the ones who killed the Lord Jesus Christ, were the ones who would take wreath to the tomb of Isaiah, to the tomb of Jeremiah, to the monument of Zechariah, and they would place it on the tomb and say, If we had been living then, God is our witness, we would have never done this horrible thing. And yet they were the ones who killed the Lord of glory.

Verse 31 — “Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them who killed the prophets.” The point is that religion hates the truth. These prophets all stood for the truth and religion hates the truth, and these Pharisees are religious and so are the adult sons [one who of his own volition would do the same thing] of them who killed the prophets. The scribes and the Pharisees are of the same stripes.

Verse 32 — “Fill ye up then the measure [glass or goblet] of your fathers.” What does this mean? The killing of Isaiah was a little in the glass, the killing of Jeremiah, the killing of Zechariah is a little in the glass. But to fill it up to the top is the killing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was prophesying something which would happen within a week. The Pharisees lust to kill because they are filled with mental attitude sins: they envied Him, they were jealous of Him, they are full of pride and implacability and vindictiveness. They lust to kill Him and they will express it through their area of weakness eventually when they get the chance.

“fill ye up” — an aorist active imperative, and it should be translated, fill it up.

Verse 33 — “Ey serpents, ye generation of vipers [poisonous snakes], how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” Once a snake is aroused it keeps on striking repeatedly until it is either dead or until it is no longer cornered. And these Pharisees will keep on striking until they kill Him. The only way they will escape the damnation [judgement] of hell is to believe in Christ.

Verses 34-39, Jesus condemns a religious city.

Verse 34 — “Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes.” These have been sent in the past and they will keep on being sent. The word “prophets” here is the New Testament prophet, the one who has the gift of prophecy; the wise man is the one who teaches the Word; the scribe is the theologian of the Church; “and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them ye shall scourge.” Paul was scourged three times; “in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city” — a prophecy with regard to the apostle Paul.

Verse 35 — “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel.” Abel was the first martyr in human history and he was killed by Cain who was religious. The first murderer was a religious man and the first martyr was a grace man; “unto the blood of Zacharias.” The words “son of Barachias” should not be there, it was added by a scribe. This is not referring to Zechariah the son of Barachias who wrote the book of Zechariah but this refers to Zechariah the high priest, the son of Jehoiada who was slain in the temple itself. Jesus makes a comparison between the first martyr, Abel, and Zechariah the son of Jehoiada who was the high priest and was slain in the temple right were they were standing now — 2 Chronicles 24:20-22. He is mentioned because he was actually killed in the temple. (Zechariah was killed in 836 BC. Zechariah the son of Barachiah who wrote the book of Zechariah lived around 520 BC).

Verse 36 — the first declaration of judgement to the city of Jerusalem. “Verily I say unto you, “All these things shall come upon this generation,” that is, all of the discipline shall come. They themselves will murder the Lord, they will kill some of the apostles, they will kill many believers, and on that generation will come the judgement — 5th cycle of discipline.

Verse 37 — “O Jerusalem.” In other words, He never pronounces a judgement without offering grace. Grace always precedes judgement; “Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,” present linear aktionsart, always killing them; “and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children.” “Would I” declares divine sovereignty. He would have gathered them; “together, even as a hen gathers a chicken gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.” Notice these two phrases: “How often I would", expressing divine will; “Ey would not” — negative volition locks God out.

Verse 38 — “Behold, your house [this beautiful temple which had just been completed a short time before] is left unto desolate.” The second declaration of judgement, the fifth cycle of discipline. This is 30 AD and in forty years, 70 AD, the temple will be destroyed.

Verse 39 — “For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord,” quotation from Psalm 118:26. This was the very phrase that started the temple discourse on Palm Sunday. Now He explains. The whole temple discourse explains that there are two advents, not one. You said Hosanna, and you left out something. The first advent is to provide salvation — grace; the second advent is to provide deliverance for Jerusalem, deliverance for the Jews, the end of the fifth cycle of discipline.

There is no chapter break here, the concept really goes right on. The end of the chapter should be between verses 2 and 3 of the next chapter because the temple discourse is now terminated.

Chapter 24, verse 1 — “And Jesus went out.” As soon as He said they would not see Him again He turned around and walked out on them. Notice the principle: Jesus walked out on them, He walked out on religion. He separated Himself from them after He squared them away and made the issue clear. He would not in any way be identified with religion; “and departed from the temple.” He phased them out. He kept walking and walking until He was out of the temple. He was in this great hall and when He was through He turned around and walked out on them, and as He walked through the temple everything that could be seen in the temple spoke of Him: the table of shewbread, the candlestick, the laver, the altar, all spoke of Christ. As He walked by there was a dramatic picture: here was the one represented by these things. Christ is the Bread of life, Christ is the Light of the world, Christ died on the cross [brazen altar], Christ is the cleanser of the believer [brazen laver]. The one who was depicted by all of these sacred articles was walking out on religion.

“and his disciples came to him [they came behind Him] for to shew him the buildings of the temple” — when He was outside they all come pouring out of the temple. They are trying to cover this up, they are embarrassed, so they decided to show Him the buildings of the temple. They are impressed with these buildings and they start to talk them up to Him.

Verse 2 — “And Jesus said unto them, “See ye not all these things [do not look at them].” “See ye not” is present active imperative and whenever you have the present tense plus the imperative mood plus the negative it means, Stop looking at them. That is exactly what He told them. In other words, Get your eyes off them. They had their eyes on the buildings, they were impressed with them. Jesus has just walked out on religion and His disciples are impressed with it.

“verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” That was quite a statement because these buildings were all made out of great blocks of marble and they were made to last forever.

Verse 3 — Jesus kept right on walking right up to the mount of Olives. “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives.” This is where we get the Olivet discourse. Jesus is going to give the next two chapters while He is sitting on the mount of Olives and looking over Jerusalem; “the disciples came to him privately.” That isn’t quite true. The came to Him on the sly, they tiptoed up to Him, looking to the right and to the left to see if anyone was looking. They didn’t want anyone to know that they were associated with Him; already they are ashamed of Him — “saying [kept on saying],” present linear aktionsart. We now have three questions. “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the age [not “world”]?”

“these things” refers to the stones being torn down one from the other. The first question is not answered in this context. It is answered in Luke 21:20-24. Luke gives an expanded version of the Olivet discourse and he gives some thing’s that are not given by Matthew, and visa versa.

Luke 21

Verse 20 — “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies.” These are the armies under Vespasian and later under Titus; “then know that the desolation is nigh.” The desolation is the fifth cycle of discipline. Verse 21 — “Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains.” The command to born again Jews in 70 AD; “and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them which are in the counties [not countries] enter thereinto.” In other words, if you live outside of Jerusalem don’t go in.

Verse 22 — “For these be the days of vengeance [God’s judgement], that all things which are written may be fulfilled.” This is the fulfilment of Leviticus 26:27ff.

Verse 23 — “But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people” — 5th cycle of discipline.

Verse 24 — “And they shall fall by the edge of the sword,” nearly two million people were killed in Jerusalem in 70 AD, “and shall be led away captive into all nations,” 100,000 people were led away captive; “and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.” The time of the Gentiles will be fulfilled at the second advent of Christ when the fifth cycle of discipline will be removed. This briefly is the answer to the first question.

The second question: Matthew 24:3 — “what shall be the sign of thy coming?” This question is answered in Matthew 24:27-51. The disciples asked this question first. Why is it answered last? Because “the signs of thy coming” refers to the characteristics of the second advent.

The third question: “what shall be the sign of the end of the age?” The end of the age is the Tribulation and the Tribulation comes before the second advent. So question number three is answered first in verses 9-26.

In the second question the word “sign” is used and this word is used specifically for the nation Israel — 1 Corinthians 1:22. God never gives signs to the Church. This passage does not deal with the Church, it deals with the Tribulation. The Age of Israel was discontinued at the cross and then resumed after the Rapture of the Church with the Tribulation. During the fifth cycle of discipline we have the Church Age — the Church takes the place of Israel — and then the Church is removed. Once the Church is removed the last seven years of the Age of Israel is begun. So the third question was: what were the signs of the end of the age? and the Tribulation is the end of the Jewish age, not the end of the “world.” Jesus answers this first; He answers chronologically. First of all He takes up the characteristics of the Tribulation, and secondly He takes up the characteristics of the second advent: Tribulation, verses 9-26; second advent, verses 27-51. In verses 4-8 we have some false signs of the Tribulation.