Latest / Reformed Thinking / Condemning Hypocrisy, Commending Humility (Matthew 23:1–12)

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Condemning Hypocrisy, Commending Humility (Matthew 23:1–12) · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Imagine going to a medical clinic because you feel
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  terrible. You sit on the examination table
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  and the doctor walks in. He diagnosis you with a fatal
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  systemic disease. Right, a terrifying moment for
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  anyone. Yeah, and then he hands you a
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  clipboard and on it is an impossible, agonizing regimen of
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  treatments. We are talking brutal physical
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  routines, incredibly expensive medications and, you know, a
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  diet that just strips away all joy.
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  It sounds like a total nightmare.
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  It really is. You are terrified, so you ask
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  him a question about how to manage the pain.
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  He ignores you. You ask for financial assistance
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  to buy the medicine, and he turns his back.
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  He will not even hold the door open for you as you stumble out
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  of the clinic under the crushing weight of this new reality.
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  And the awful truth is, that person is not a doctor at all.
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  That person is a tyrant. Spot on.
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  Welcome to Reformed thinking. Today we are taking a deep dive
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  into the anatomy of spiritual tyrants.
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  We're doing a surgical examination of Matthew chapter
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  23 verses one through 12, and the mission for this deep dive
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  is to speak directly to you, the listener.
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  Yes, we really want to hold up a mirror to the human heart.
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  Today we want to ask you a very uncomfortable question.
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  Is your faith an authentic devotion to God?
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  Or is it, well, a carefully choreographed theatre production
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  for an audience of your peers? That tension between authentic
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  devotion and theatrical performance is the central
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  conflict of this entire passage. To really grasp the gravity of
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  what Jesus is saying, we have to drop ourselves right into the
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  historical and atmospheric reality of 1st century
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  Jerusalem. Absolutely.
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  We have to set the stage. It is Tuesday of Passion Week.
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  Jesus is standing in the temple courts.
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  In just a few days he will be crucified.
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  Shadow of the Cross is falling across every single syllable he
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  utters here. Setting the scene is crucial
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  because the atmosphere in those temple courts must have been
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  suffocating. The air is thick with dust, the
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  smell of animal sacrifices and, you know, incredible hostility.
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  Oh, the hostility was at a boiling point.
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  Right. If you look at the previous
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  chapter, Matthew 22, the whole thing reads like a coordinated
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  political assassination attempt on Jesus.
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  You have the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Rodians.
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  And we have to remember, those factions hated each other.
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  They were bitter rivals. Yeah, but they teamed up to form
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  a theological gauntlet. They threw everything they had
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  at him. They did, and they brought
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  highly sophisticated traps. I mean, these were not amateur
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  questions. The Herodians and Pharisees
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  tried to catch him on the issue of paying taxes to Caesar.
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  That is a classic. Trap it really is.
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  If Jesus says yes, he loses the crowds who hate the Roman
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  occupation. But if he says no, well, he gets
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  arrested for treason by the Romans.
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  So he is backed into a corner. Or so they thought.
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  Jesus asks for a denarius, points out Caesar's image, and
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  threads the needle perfectly with render to Caesar the things
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  that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are gods.
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  Amazing. And then the Sadducees step up.
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  Right, The Sadducees who did not believe in the afterlife, they
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  brought this absurd hypothetical about a woman who married seven
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  brothers. They were trying to make the
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  resurrection look ridiculous. Yeah, like a bizarre brain
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  teaser. What?
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  Precisely? And Jesus dismantles their
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  premise entirely. He tells them they know neither
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  the Scriptures nor the ability of God.
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  Finally, a lawyer tests his rabbinic credentials by asking
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  him to identify the greatest commandment in the law.
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  And Jesus answers Florida State again.
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  He does right in every single instance.
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  He leaves the intellectual elite of Israel completely speechless.
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  He shuts them down South thoroughly that the text
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  actually says no one dared ask him any more questions.
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  The intellectual heavyweight match is over.
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  Jesus is the undisputed victor. He is, and right at that moment
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  the literary flow of the gospel shifts dramatically.
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  Jesus stops debating the religious elite.
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  He turns his back to them, looks out at the massive crowds of
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  Passover pilgrims and his own disciples, and begins this
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  blistering public instruction. This is the overture to the
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  famous 7 woes. It is a massive pivot in the
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  text. But here's my question.
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  Why wait until Tuesday of Passion Week?
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  If these leaders have been corrupt this whole time?
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  Why does Jesus choose this highly volatile public moment
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  just days before his execution to unleash this critique?
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  Why not pull these leaders aside privately?
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  That is a great question. We have to view Jesus in this
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  moment as the greater Moses. He is legislating from the
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  temple courts. OK, legislating.
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  Right. The entire administration of the
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  old Covenant, which is represented by the scribes and
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  the Pharisees, is utterly bankrupt.
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  The system has failed. Jesus is trying to inaugurate a
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  new covenant in his own blood. So he is making a public
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  declaration of their failure. Yes, by speaking publicly to the
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  crowds right here, he is establishing the theological
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  rationale for the judgement that is about to fall on Jerusalem.
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  He is explaining in Plainview why the current leadership is
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  disqualified. That makes total sense.
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  At the same time he is preparing a new community, he is giving
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  his disciples the ethical blueprint for the new church so
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  they do not replicate the toxic, self-righteous culture of the
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  men who are orchestrating his death.
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  So he is tearing down the rotten scaffolding of the old house to
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  make room for the new one. But before he lists their
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  crimes, he starts with a surprising concession.
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  Let's look at verses one through 4.
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  OK? Let's look at the text.
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  He tells the crowds that the scribes and the Pharisees sit on
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  Moses's seat. Now, I have always assumed that
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  was a metaphor for authority. You know, like saying someone
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  holds the chair of a university department.
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  It carries that meaning, sure, but it was also a literal
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  physical object. We are a wheelchair.
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  Yeah, a wheelchair. In ancient synagogues, there is
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  a specific stone chair near the front of the room.
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  When a recognized teacher read the Torah, they would stand out
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  of reverence for the holy text. Because the text itself is holy.
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  Right, but when they prepared to explain and interpret the law,
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  they would physically sit down in that stone chair.
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  It was called the Cathedrus Melcios.
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  Sitting in Moses seat meant you were speaking with the derived
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  authority of the great Lawgiver. Wow.
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  That makes the command Jesus gives to the crowds incredibly
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  difficult to digest. He says do what they say but do
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  not do what they do. It is a heavy command.
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  He is telling the people to obey the hypocrites.
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  That feels counterintuitive. I mean, if someone is a known
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  fraud, our modern instinct is to reject everything they say.
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  We want the messenger to match the message.
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  It is a difficult instruction, but Jesus is drawing a razor
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  sharp line between legitimate, objective truth and the
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  hypocritical practice of the person delivering it.
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  He is teaching the crowds A vital lesson in discernment.
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  Discernment between the man and the Word, Yes.
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  The Greek phrase there is devastating when translated
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  literally. It says for they say and they do
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  not do. Jesus is telling the crowds that
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  truth remains accurate even when it comes out of a compromised
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  mouth. That is a hard pill to swallow
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  for us today. It is, but the validity of God's
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  Word does not depend on the moral purity of the person
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  reading it. When the Pharisees sit in that
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  seat and read the Torah accurately, they are speaking
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  God's truth. You are bound to obey the law,
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  not the hypocrite reading the law.
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  OK, I see the distinction. The office in the text are holy
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  even if the occupant is corrupt. But then Jesus moves from their
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  teaching to their actual practice.
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  He brings up this specific charge about binding heavy
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  burdens. Yes, the heavy burdens.
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  The phrase used there for Chia Barria paints a vivid picture of
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  a beast of burden being loaded down with an impossible amount
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  of physical weight. Like a donkey just staggering
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  under too many packs. Precisely, the Scribes and
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  Pharisees took the Law of Moses, which was already a
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  comprehensive standard of holiness, and they built a
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  massive, crushing structure of oral traditions around.
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  It I've heard that called building a fence around the
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  Torah. That is what they called it.
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  They loaded these oppressive, microscopic, legalistic demands
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  onto the shoulders of the common people.
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  They turned daily life cooking, cleaning and walking into a
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  minefield of potential violations.
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  They're regulating how far you could walk on a Saturday.
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  Yes, the Sabbath day's journey. And they had rules about tithing
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  tiny herbs from your garden like mint and dill and cumin, while
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  ignoring justice and mercy. And the tragic part of that
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  doctor analogy I used earlier comes into play right here.
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  Jesus says they are not willing to move those burdens with a
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  single finger. They offer no relief whatsoever.
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  They diagnose the failure, they demand the performance, but they
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  provide 0 grace. That is the tragedy of it.
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  They will not lift a finger to help.
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  Contrast that with Jesus who says, come to me, all who labor
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  and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, for my yoke is
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  easy and my burden is light. What a beautiful contrast.
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  The Pharisees offer a religion of sheer unassisted human
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  effort. We can easily connect this to
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  the tragedy of works based righteousness that plagues human
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  history. We see it everywhere.
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  We see it in medieval systems of penance, and we see it in modern
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  forms of legalism. Say and not do.
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  Religion is a system that demands flawless performance but
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  offers 0 grace to achieve it. It just gives people a list of
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  rules. Yes, it.
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  Gives rules without giving them a new heart to keep the rules.
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  The law is supposed to be a mirror that shows you your need
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  for a savior. The Pharisees turn the law into
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  a weapon for social control. That makes me wonder about the
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  psychology of it. If these oral traditions were so
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  heavy, and the Pharisees themselves were hypocrites who
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  didn't even want to keep them, well, why invent them?
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  It is about leverage. Why go through all the trouble
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  of enforcing these impossible standards?
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  It feels like there has to be a payoff.
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  I think about legalism like a spiritual smartwatch.
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  Oh, a smartwatch. I like that.
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  We love our fitness trackers because they give us a metric.
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  We would rather have an impossible daily step count that
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  we can measure, look at, and brag about, then rely on an
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  invisible concept like grace. That is so true.
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  Grace does not give you a score you can compare with your
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  neighbor. You cannot look at your wrist
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  and see how much grace you earn today.
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  That is a brilliant way to frame it.
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  Legalism provides a metric for comparison, and that brings us
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  directly to the internal desires of the heart.
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  Why do they do it? For the metric?
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  For the social score. Let's look at verses 5 through
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  7. Jesus exposes the controlling
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  motive behind the entire Pharisaical operating system.
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  It is all contained in a specific Greek phrase, prose to
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  the Ethani. Prose to Faith Ethani.
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  What does that mean? It translates to in order to be
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  seen. The theatre of the heart.
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  It is not about God at all. It is about the audience.
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  Right Hypocrisy is not just a casual inconsistency where you
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  accidentally fail to live up to your ideals.
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  Hypocrisy in this context is a calculated, deliberate
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  performance. You are playing a character for
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  public consumption. A spiritual actor.
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  Yes, and Jesus points out the physical props they used for
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  this theater. He talks about the broadening of
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  phalacteries and the lengthening of tassels.
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  To a 1st century Jew, this was an instantly recognizable
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  fashion statement. I need a visual on these
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  phalacteries. We do not see people wearing
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  leather boxes to the grocery store today.
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  What were these things and how did they become props for pride?
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  Phylacteries or T fillin were small cube shaped leather boxes.
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  Inside these boxes were tiny parchment scrolls containing
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  specific verses from Exodus and Deuteronomy.
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  OK, so scripture inside a leather box.
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  Yes, this practice came from a highly literalistic reading of
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  Deuteronomy chapter 6, where God tells Israel to bind his words
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  as a sign on their hand and as frontlets between their eyes.
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  So they. Took that command physically.
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  They did so. Jewish men would strap one
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  letterbox to their forehead and one to their left arm near the
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  heart during prayer. Originally, this was a
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  beautiful, private devotion. It was a physical reminder to
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  keep God's Word close to your thoughts and your actions.
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  But the Pharisees decided they needed to turn the volume up on
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  that devotion. They made the boxes broader.
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  They made the leather straps thicker and more noticeable.
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  They took a divine institution and turned it into an
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  advertising campaign for their own piety.
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  The bigger the box, the holier the man.
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  That was the idea. There is also an interesting
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  historical footnote here. In the broader Greco Roman
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  world, common people often viewed these oversized Jewish
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  phylacteries as magic amulets. Oh wow, magic amulets.
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  Yes, they thought these men possessed a special spiritual
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  clout, that they had a direct, almost magical line to the
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  divine. The Pharisees knew this, and
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  they manipulated those symbols to gain social leverage and
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  intimidate the common people. The manipulation of the sacred
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  for personal gain, That is just awful.
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  And Jesus mentions the tassels too.
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  Yes, the tassels. In Numbers chapter 15, God
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  commanded the Israelites to wear blue tassels on the corners of
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  their garments to remember the covenant.
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  It was a sign that they belong to Yahweh.
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  Another physical reminder. Right, but the Pharisees
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  manufactured garments with extraordinarily long tassels
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  that would drag visibly on the ground as they walk through the
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  dusty streets, the sweeping sound and the visual length
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  announced to everyone. Look how intensely I keep the
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  covenant. This sounds entirely driven by
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  the honor shame culture of 1st century Jerusalem.
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  Everyone was watching everyone. Else, the honor, shame, dynamic
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  governed everything. Your social standing determine
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  your economic survival, your business connections, and your
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  family's marriage prospects. So it's not just about feeling
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  good, it was about real world capital.
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  Absolutely. Social currency was the most
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  valuable asset you could acquire.
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  Jesus notes that they loved the best seats at feasts.
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  In that culture. Banquets were held at AU shaped
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  dining table called a triclinium.
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  A triclinium? How did that?
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  Work guests reclined on couches. The closer you were placed to
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  the host at the center of EU, the higher your social status.
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  The seating arrangement was a public ranking of your worth.
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  Like getting a table near the front at an exclusive
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  restaurant, but with massive social implication.
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  Exactly. Well, yes, that is it.
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  They also demanded the front seats in the synagogues, which
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  were benches that face the congregation.
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  They sat there so everyone could admire their pious expressions
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  while the scriptures were read. They wanted to face the
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  audience, not the Torah. That is the tragic irony.
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  And Jesus mentions the marketplace greetings.
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  They love to be called rabbi in public.
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  I imagine the marketplace in Jerusalem was chaotic, loud,
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  packed with vendors and animals. To have someone shout Rabbi over
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  the noise was a public declaration of superior value.
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  It fed their eco. But as we read this, we have to
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  bridge the gap to our own time. We do not wear literal leather
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  boxes on our foreheads. We do not walk around with
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  oversized blue tassels trailing behind us in the dirt.
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  No, we don't. So what does this look like
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  today? What are the modern equivalents
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  of lengthening our tassels to get noticed in the religious
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  marketplace? If we look closely at modern
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  religious culture, the parallels are staggering.
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  The props have changed, but the heart disease is identical.
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  Give me an example. Think about the celebrity pastor
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  culture. You have leaders whose images
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  are carefully curated, marketed and protected like a corporate
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  brand. Oh yeah, you have church growth
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  pragmatism where the sheer size of the crowd, the budget and the
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  square footage of the building are equated with the blessing of
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  God. That is a modern phylactery.
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  The pursuit of digital platforms is the most obvious one to me.
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  The obsessive checking of follower counts, podcast
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  downloads, book sales and social media engagement.
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  It is the exact same metric driven pride.
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  When a leader post a heavily filtered photo of themselves
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  holding an open Bible next to a cup of artisanal coffee with a
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  highly spiritual caption, we have to ask the hard question.
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  Is the goal to magnify the glory of God?
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  Or is the goal pros to theathani in order to be seen?
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  That is the modern marketplace. Greeting every like and share is
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  someone shouting rabbi in the digital square.
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  Hypocrisy is not a lack of intelligence, is a disordered
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  affection. It is the idolatry of
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  reputation. The idolatry of reputation?
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  That stings. A modern Pharisee might not
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  demand the front seat in a stone synagogue, but they will
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  absolutely demand the prime speaking slot at a major
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  conference. They will demand their academic
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  titles be displayed prominently on the book jacket.
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  They will ensure their name is in the largest font on the event
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  poster. It is the exact same pursuit of
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  social currency, just wearing modern clothing.
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  It is. That is a terrifying mirror to
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  look into because it is so easy to justify.
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  We tell ourselves we need a bigger platform to spread the
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  message, but really we just want the applause.
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  We can disguise our ambition with religious language very
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  easily. Having diagnosed this disease of
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  self exaltation, Jesus pivots. He introduces A radical
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  structural change for his followers.
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  Let's move to verses 8 through 10, where Jesus establishes the
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  brotherhood of the new community.
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  The shift in the text is marked by a sharp adversative pivot in
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  the Greek. But you Jesus turns entirely
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  away from the crowds and the Pharisees, and he looks directly
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  at his disciples. But you He's drawing a line in
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  the sand. He establishes a complete break
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  from the surrounding cultural norms.
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  He forbids them from adopting the titles Rabbi, Father, and
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  Master. Let's focus on that word master
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  in verse 10. The English translation feels a
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  bit vague to me. What is the specific Greek word
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  there? The word is Katha sheets.
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  It is extremely rare. In fact, it appears nowhere else
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  in the entire New Testament. Nowhere else.
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  Nowhere. A cathagetes denotes a singular
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  supreme guiding instructor. It implies a leader who demands
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  absolute, unquestioning allegiance from his followers.
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  Like a guru. Yes, very much like a guru.
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  Jesus looks at his disciples and says neither be called
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  instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ.
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  Jesus reserves the supreme role entirely for himself.
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  So he is claiming absolute authority.
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  He is. By forbidding these titles,
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  Jesus completely levels the playing field among his
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  followers. He strips away the human
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  hierarchy and establishes A genuine brotherhood of believers
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  who all sit under one Father in Heaven and one divine Teacher.
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  OK, I'm going to push back on this a little bit.
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  Let's play devil's advocate. Sir, go ahead.
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  If we take these verses strictly at face value in a wooden,
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  literal way, does this mean we eliminate all leadership roles?
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  Do we banish the word Father from the English vocabulary
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  entirely? Do we strip all order from the
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  local church, get rid of pastors, elders and teachers and
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  just sit in circles sharing opinions?
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  No, we cannot read this passage in a vacuum.
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  We have to read it in the context of the whole New
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  Testament. Because Scripture interprets
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  Scripture. Right.
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  The apostles themselves appointed elders and recognized
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  pastors and teachers. The Apostle Paul frequently
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  referred to himself as a spiritual father to the churches
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  he planted, like the Corinthians.
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  So Paul was not violating Jesus's command.
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  No, because Jesus is not abolishing ordered authority.
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  He is not saying the Church should be an anarchic free for
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  all. What he is destroying is
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  clericalism. He is dismantling any system
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  that attempts to insert a human mediator between the soul and
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  God. So it is about the posture of
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  the heart and the pride associated with the title, not
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  necessarily the existence of an office or a job description.
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  Correct. When Jesus forbids the title
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  Father in this context, he is striking at the rabbinic system
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  that elevated a human teacher to a place of supreme spiritual
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  authority over a person's conscience.
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  The Pharisees wanted people to rely on them for access to God.
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  They wanted to be the gatekeepers.
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  Yes, Jesus is affirming the priesthood of all believers.
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  Every Christian has direct, unhindered access to God the
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  Father through the finished work of Jesus Christ.
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  No more gatekeepers. None.
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  No pastor, no priest, no elder, and no podcast host stands
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  between you and the throne of grace.
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  Leadership in the new community is functional.
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  It is designed to equip the Saints.
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  It is not mediatorial. That is a massive paradigm
• 19:48
  shift. It completely undercuts the
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  human desire to climb a spiritual ladder.
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  If we are all brothers and no one is allowed to use religious
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  titles to gain leverage, how does the new community define
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  greatness? What does success actually look
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  like in this new Kingdom? This brings us to verses 11 and
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  12. The great reversal.
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  This is the climax of the passage.
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  Jesus completely upends the world's value system.
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  He says the greatest among you shall be your servant.
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  Servant. The word he uses is diaconose.
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  It refers to the person waiting tables, the lowest position in
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  the household. The one do the grunt work, yes.
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  He follows this with a divine maxim that echoes throughout the
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  rest of the New Testament. Whoever exalts himself will be
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  humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
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  Wait, so exalted and humbled aren't things we do to ourselves
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  in this text? The phrasing is interesting.
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  Will be humbled. Right, the Greek uses what
• 20:41
  theologians call the divine passive.
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  The divine passive. What does that signify?
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  The passive voice indicates that someone else is performing the
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  action upon the subject. In this case, it is God.
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  It is God who performs the humbling.
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  It is God who performs the exulting.
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  Oh, I see. If you spend your life exulting
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  yourself, marketing your own piety, and climbing over others
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  to reach the top, God will step in and personally humble you.
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  He will bring you low. That is a warning.
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  A severe warning, but if you willingly take the lowest place,
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  if you function as a diaconose for others, God himself will be
• 21:17
  the one to lift you up at the proper time.
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  The Great reversal The world operates on the logic of upward
• 21:22
  mobility. You promote yourself, you
• 21:24
  network, you curate your image. But the Kingdom of God operates
• 21:28
  on downward mobility. The way up is down.
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  Downward mobility is the essence of the gospel.
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  And when you look at the contrast and actions between the
• 21:36
  Pharisees and Jesus, it is staggering.
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  The Pharisees would not lift a single finger to help the
• 21:41
  burden. They refused to touch the
• 21:43
  crushing weight they placed on the people.
• 21:45
  They were completely detached from the suffering.
• 21:47
  Yet Christ used His own hands to be nailed to a rough wooden
• 21:51
  cross. He took the ultimate burden of
• 21:53
  divine wrath upon His own shoulders to secure salvation
• 21:57
  for His people. That is the core theological
• 22:00
  reality behind this entire text. Jesus is not just giving us a
• 22:03
  motivational speech on how to be humble, He is describing his own
• 22:08
  vision. He is walking the talk, if we.
• 22:10
  Look at Philippians chapter 2, the famous Carmen Christie or
• 22:13
  Hymn of Christ. We see the perfect historical
• 22:17
  embodiment of this text. What does Paul say in
• 22:19
  Philippians 2? The Apostle Paul writes that
• 22:21
  Christ, who existed in the very form of God, did not consider
• 22:25
  equality with God a thing to be grasped or exploited for his own
• 22:28
  advantage. Instead, he experienced kenosis.
• 22:31
  Kenosis, the emptying. He emptied himself, taking the
• 22:34
  form of a bondservant, and humbled himself to the point of
• 22:36
  death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God highly exalted
• 22:40
  him. There is the divine passive
• 22:42
  inaction. Right.
• 22:43
  Christ is the only human being who perfectly humbled Himself.
• 22:46
  He left the absolute glory of heaven to take the form of a
• 22:49
  slave and here is why this is vital for every person listening
• 22:53
  today. Why is it vital?
• 22:55
  His perfect life of humble submission to the Father's will,
• 22:58
  which we call His act of obedience, combined with His
• 23:01
  suffering on the cross. His passive obedience is the
• 23:04
  only righteousness that can stand before the Father on our
• 23:07
  behalf. It is his record, not ours.
• 23:10
  Yes, when we place our faith in Christ, His perfect record is
• 23:13
  imputed to us. So we do not just choose a lower
• 23:16
  status to somehow earn a higher one.
• 23:18
  It is not a transaction where we say I will act really humble
• 23:21
  right now so God will give me a promotion later, because that is
• 23:24
  just a more sophisticated, sneaky form of pride.
• 23:26
  That would absolutely be pride masquerading as humility.
• 23:29
  We take the lower place because we are following a king who took
• 23:32
  the lowest place as our substitute.
• 23:33
  We are united to him by faith. It flows from gratitude, not
• 23:37
  ambition. Our humility is a grateful
• 23:39
  response to his staggering ascension.
• 23:42
  We minister to others because he first ministered to us.
• 23:45
  So how do we take this text, spoken to 1st century crows in
• 23:49
  the dust of the temple courts and apply it to a 21st century
• 23:52
  life? We have to use this text as a
• 23:55
  mirror. We have to talk about mortifying
• 23:57
  pride in the modern era. That is the proper way to
• 24:00
  approach the Gospels. We often read these stories and
• 24:03
  immediately identify with Jesus or the disciples.
• 24:06
  Right. We always think we are the good
• 24:07
  guys. We assume the Pharisees are the
• 24:08
  bad guys out there somewhere, but the uncomfortable truth is
• 24:12
  that there is a Pharisee within every single one of us.
• 24:15
  The Pharisee within that is a great phrase.
• 24:17
  We all possess A sinful craving for the applause of men.
• 24:21
  This text forces us to look in the mirror and ask where am I
• 24:24
  performing? Is my prayer life, my financial
• 24:27
  giving? My church attendance?
• 24:29
  Just a stage play to impress my peers.
• 24:31
  And as we use this text as a mirror, we are engaging in what
• 24:35
  theologians call the third use of the law.
• 24:38
  Could you break that down for the listener?
• 24:39
  Sure, the first use restrains evil in society.
• 24:43
  The second use acts as a mirror to show us our sin and drive us
• 24:46
  to Christ. But the third use is for the
• 24:49
  believer. We use these commands not as a
• 24:52
  ladder to climb our way into heaven, but as a guide for
• 24:55
  grateful obedience. That is wonderfully stated.
• 24:58
  We are already saved by grace, and now this text shows us how
• 25:02
  to live in a way that honors the God who saved us.
• 25:05
  That is a crucial distinction, and this has massive
• 25:08
  implications for how we conduct ourselves in our local
• 25:11
  congregations. We look at the landscape of the
• 25:14
  modern church and we see so many models that run entirely
• 25:17
  contrary to the biblical brotherhood Jesus commands.
• 25:20
  Models that look more like a corporation than a family.
• 25:22
  We see the prosperity gospel, which turns God into a cosmic
• 25:26
  slot machine and leverages religious language for financial
• 25:29
  status. We see pragmatics seeker
• 25:31
  sensitive models that rely heavily on marketplace metrics,
• 25:34
  treating the congregation like consumers and treating the
• 25:37
  pastor like a celebrity CEO. And all of these systems feed
• 25:40
  the flesh. They feed the desire for titles
• 25:42
  and front seats. It is the exact opposite of the
• 25:44
  diaconose, the servant. But let's bring it down to the
• 25:47
  individual level. I want to ask a highly practical
• 25:49
  question. How does a person tell the
• 25:51
  difference between doing necessary good works that happen
• 25:55
  to be highly visible to others versus doing works purely pros
• 25:59
  to the Ethan I in order to be seen?
• 26:02
  Because let's face it, if you are teaching a Sunday school
• 26:04
  class or organizing a food drive or playing an instrument on
• 26:07
  Sunday morning, people are going to see you.
• 26:10
  Visibility is unavoidable. The answer lies entirely in the
• 26:14
  orientation of the heart, and there is a very reliable
• 26:17
  diagnostic test you can run on yourself.
• 26:19
  OK. What is the test?
• 26:20
  The true test of your motives is how you react when your labor
• 26:23
  goes completely unnoticed. The test of obscurity.
• 26:26
  Yes, obscurity. If you do something good, you
• 26:29
  organize the event, you clean up the mess, you provide the meal,
• 26:32
  and nobody says thank you, nobody notices your effort, and
• 26:36
  nobody gives you public credit. Are you devastated?
• 26:38
  Does it ruin your day? Right.
• 26:41
  Does resentment start to build up in your heart?
• 26:44
  If a lack of human applause makes you angry or makes you
• 26:47
  want to quit, it is a massive red flag.
• 26:50
  It reveals that your motive was pros to faith and I.
• 26:53
  You were doing it for the theater.
• 26:54
  You were doing it for the paycheck of human validation.
• 26:57
  Because if you were genuinely doing it for the Lord, his
• 27:00
  invisible approval would be sufficient.
• 27:02
  Right. And this is where we have to
• 27:03
  highlight the sheer freedom found in the gospel of
• 27:06
  justification by faith alone. When you trust in Christ, your
• 27:10
  identity is hidden with Him, and God the Father looks at you and
• 27:14
  declares you righteous, completely accepted and fully
• 27:17
  beloved in the Son. You possess the approval of the
• 27:20
  only audience that actually matters.
• 27:22
  So you do not have to prove anything to anyone anymore.
• 27:25
  The exhausting labor of curating a spiritual reputation, of
• 27:29
  managing how spiritual everyone thinks you are, is entirely
• 27:32
  unnecessary. You can resign from the PR firm
• 27:34
  of your own ego. That is the liberation of the
• 27:36
  gospel. You are free to take the lowest
• 27:39
  seat. You are free to labor in total
• 27:42
  obscurity. You do not need to lengthen your
• 27:44
  tassels or broaden your phalacteries because the King of
• 27:47
  the Universe has already called you his child.
• 27:49
  That is a huge relief. That frees you to genuinely care
• 27:53
  for other people without demanding they stroke your ego
• 27:55
  in return. You can wash feet without
• 27:58
  needing someone to take a picture of it.
• 28:00
  That completely alters how we view our daily interactions.
• 28:03
  We are shifting from the heavy theatrical religion of the
• 28:06
  Pharisees to the quiet, liberating discipleship under
• 28:10
  the One True Master. Let's recap the territory we
• 28:13
  have covered today. We covered a lot of ground.
• 28:15
  We started in the intense tension of the temple courts,
• 28:18
  watching Jesus dismantle the entire structure of hypocritical
• 28:21
  leadership. We saw the tragedy of dead
• 28:24
  orthodoxy, a religion that diagnoses the illness and binds
• 28:28
  heavy burdens but refuses to provide the grace to heal.
• 28:31
  We looked at the theater of the heart, the phylacteries,
• 28:34
  oversized tassels, the craving for the best seats, the
• 28:37
  triclinium and the titles in the marketplace.
• 28:39
  All the props of pride. Yes, we saw how easily that maps
• 28:43
  onto our modern obsession with digital platforms, follower
• 28:46
  counts, and public recognition. And we heard the clear call of
• 28:49
  Christ to reject that clerical hierarchy, to live as a true
• 28:53
  brotherhood under one Father and one divine Teacher.
• 28:56
  And we saw that the ultimate cure for our pride is the great
• 28:59
  reversal, the logic of downward mobility fulfilled perfectly in
• 29:04
  Jesus Christ, who experienced the ultimate humiliation on the
• 29:07
  cross to bear our burdens, proving that true greatness is
• 29:10
  found in humble submission to God's will.
• 29:12
  Which brings us to the end of our session today.
• 29:14
  The diagnosis of the heart is never comfortable, but it is
• 29:17
  necessary for spiritual health. It is.
• 29:20
  We always want to leave you, the listener, with a new thought to
• 29:23
  chew on, something that builds on what we discussed but pushes
• 29:26
  it a step further into your week.
• 29:29
  Consider this if the harshest, most blistering words Jesus ever
• 29:33
  spoke during his earthly ministry.
• 29:34
  We're not directed at pagans, not directed at the Roman
• 29:37
  occupiers, and not directed at the socially outcast sinners,
• 29:42
  but we're directed at the most respected, orthodox, religiously
• 29:45
  devoted leaders of his day. Wait, let me rephrase that.
• 29:49
  They were directed at the most respected leaders of his day.
• 29:52
  What does that mean for the institutions we build today?
• 29:55
  That is a sobering thought. Are the religious systems, the
• 29:57
  metrics, and the church cultures we consider healthy actually
• 30:00
  just well funded phylacteries? Are we building monuments to God
• 30:04
  or are we just lengthening our tassels?
• 30:07
  Thank you so much for joining us for this deep dive.
• 30:09
  We are grateful you gave us your time and your attention.
• 30:12
  Until next time, keep examining the text and keep examining your
• 30:15
  heart. Farewell.