Shutting The Door

Matthew 23:13

"But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! 

for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: 

for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer 

ye them that are entering to go in"  

 

    Here Jesus directs a series of seven woes against the Scribes and Pharisees. They all began with these words: "Woe to you!" it is hard to translate for it includes not only wrath, but also sorrow. There is righteous anger here, but it is the anger of the heart of love, broken by the stubborn blindness of men. a pretender, one who acts a part, one who wears a mask to cover his true feelings, one who puts on an external show while inwardly his thoughts and feelings are very different. To Jesus the Scribes and Pharisees were men who were acting a part. What he meant was this. Their whole idea of religion consisted in outward observances, Still so much like ours today. To Jesus these Scribes and Pharisees were men who, under a mask of elaborate godliness, concealed hearts in which the most godless feelings and emotions were held. And that accusation holds "TRUE" in greater or lesser degree of any man who lives life on the assumption that religion consists in external observances and external acts! There is an unwritten saying of Jesus which says, "The key of the Kingdom they hid." His condemnation of these Scribes and Pharisees is that they are not only failing to enter the Kingdom themselves, they shut the door on the faces of those who seek to enter. What did he mean by this accusation? 

   The Pharisees preferred their ideas of religion to God's idea of religion. They had forgotten the basic truth that, if a man would teach others, he must himself first listen to God. The gravest danger which any teacher or preacher encounters is that he should erect his own prejudices into universal principles and substitute his own ideas for the truth of God. When he does that he is not a guide, but a barrier, to the Kingdom, for, misled himself, he misleads others. 

Amen! 

Reading: Matt. 23:13-26

Ref: HG SB; BSB

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross life Ministry