Woe Upon Woe

Terry Siverd
05/23/21 - Sun AM

Link to sermon video: Woe Upon Woe - T Siverd

WOE UPON WOE

Sermon By Terry Siverd / May 23, 2021 / Cortland  Church of Christ

Next Sunday we will provide an overview of Matthew chapter twenty-four.  Please read that chapter carefully this week.

In the lead-up to His crucifixion, Jesus returned one final time to the city of Jerusalem.  Mt.21:1-11 begins rather joyfully - - in a section of Scripture often labeled, “the triumphal entry”.  The crowd witnesses Jesus riding a donkey - -the fulfillment of a prophecy recorded  in Zech.9:9 - - Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!  Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!  Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.   Mt.21:9 notes, the multitudes going before Him, and those who followed after were crying out, saying,  'Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.' 

 But this triumphal entry soon takes a ominous turn.  For a second time, Jesus engages in the cleansing of he temple - - foreshadowing a soon-coming judgment.  Despite the exultations of the crowd, Jesus knew that Jerusalem was about to cross the Rubicon.  Upon hearing the shouts of Hosanna, Mt.21:15 notes the response of the Jewish leaders - - they became indignant.

This cleansing of the temple is followed by the cursing of the fig tree.  Here again, the actions of Jesus predict the inevitable.  The nation of Israel and the city of Jerusalem were often symbolized by a verdant fig tree (Lk.13:6-9).  However, as this incident reveals, the tree was engaging in false advertising.  In this case the attractive leaves of the fig tree were but for show - - the fig tree was void of fruit.  Thus, with a second symbolic act of judgment Jesus cursed the tree, declaring (Mt.21:19) - - 'No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.'  And at once the fig tree withered.

Jesus then speaks three parables - - all of them pointing to the hard-heartedness of the Jewish leaders.  Read from Mt.22:1ff (the parable of the marriage feast).  Note Mt.22:7 - - the king was enraged and sent his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and set their city on fire.  All of these sidebars are focused on GOD'S JUDGMENT UPON THE JERUSALEM OF OLD.  We will never fully comprehend Jesus' Olivet Discourse in Mt.24 if we fail to recognize its focus.

This morning I want us to review the happenings of Mt.23, which also serves as a preview for Mt.24.  

Mt.23 is the ultimate fulfillment of Leviticus 26.  Read from Lev.26:14-18 - - If you do not obey Me and do not carry out all these commandments, if instead, you reject My statutes, and if your soul abhors My ordinances so as to not carry out all My commandments, and so break My covenant, I, in turn, will do this to you:  I will appoint over you a sudden terror, consumption and fever that shall waste away the eyes and cause the soul to pine away; also you shall sow your seed uselessly, for your enemies shall eat it up. And I will set My face against you so that you shall be struck down before your enemies; and those who hate you shall rule over you, and you shall flee when no one is pursuing you.  If also after these things,you do not obey Me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins.   Initially I considered entitling my sermon, The Sevenfold Wrath Of The Covenant.  In Lev.26 we read repeatedly of this sevenfold wrath (vss.18, 21, 24 & 28).

Mt.23 contains the severest and sternest words ever spoken by Jesus.  God is long-suffering and forgiving but the leaders of Judaism had proven to be continually defiant and disobedient.  The opening verses of Mt.23  testify as to their pride, arrogance and hypocrisy - - three dispositions that God hates.

Mt.23 speaks of SEVEN WOES.

These 7 woes are directed at the scribes and Pharisees (the leaders of first-century Judaism).  cf. Mt.23:1b / Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, HYPOCRITES.

First Woe – Mt.23:13-14

you shut off the kingdom of heaven to men … you devour widows' houses

Second Woe – Mt.23:15 

you travel about on land and sea to make one proselyte … you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves

Third Woe – Mt.23:16-22

you blind guides

Fourth Woe – Mt.23:23-24

you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the Law...you strain out a gnat and swallow a camel

Fifth Woe – Mt.23:25-26

you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence

Sixth Woe – Mt.23:27-28

you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones & uncleanness

Seventh Woe – Mt.23:29f

you say, 'if we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with (evil)'...you serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell

Summary / Mt.23:34-38

Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.  Truly I say to you, all these things shall come upon this generation.  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her!  How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gather her chicks under her wings, and YOU WERE UNWILLING.  Behold YOU HOUSE IS BEING LEFT TO YOU DESOLATE!

As first-century Judaism witnessed the arrival of Jesus nothing was as it should have been.

The temple had become a den of thieves.  The fig tree had become a thicket of lies.  The teachers of the Law of God had become lawless, or stated another way:  a law unto themselves.  Those who should have ministered with the prophets were murdering the prophets.  Leaders who should have been pure and trustworthy had become outright hypocrites...self-indulgent snakes.  Ones who should have led the way and opened doors become blind guides blocking entry ways to God's kingdom.  The heir is put to death by the tenants.  cf. Jesus' parable in Mt.21:33f, especially vss.38-39 & 43.