for it is the power of God unto salvation to
every one that believeth; to the Jew
first, and also to the Greek.
Romans 1:16
Somewhere along the line, so-called followers of Christ have gone sadly wrong! Followers of Christ in countries whose governments have openly declared war on "Christians" are less afraid and ashamed to let the world know they serve a risen Savior than we are here in America, "the land of the free"! Christianity, "being a Christian" has become a role we play, a political statement--a title we trot out when it's convenient for our personal gain.
Sunday faces: a role we play, at specific times we set. We'd better get something straight right now: being a follower of Christ, is not a "role to play"--it's the whole life we live, a full-time commitment to following Christ! We mistakenly think we can hide behind the church doors for a couple of hours on Sunday and live like the world the rest of the week. WRONG!
Our Lord gave it a name: whited sepulchres (Matthew 23:27). Let's realize the significance of what He was saying to the Pharisees, shall we? One of the most common places for tombs was by the wayside, on the sides of the roads. It had long ago (Numbers 19:16) been established in Jewish law that anyone who touched a dead body became unclean; it was vitally important that all the tombs "along the way" be whitewashed, especially before the time of traveling to observe Passover. (To be unclean meant one could not participate in Passover.) Therefore, travelers were met with all those glistening white tombs--yet full of dead mens bones within--that which would defile. That was exactly what Jesus said the Pharisees were: they "acted" like intensely religious men, but their inside (heart, innermost being) was putrid and foul with sin.
Well? Does that not describe a lot of "social Christians" today? Outwardly pious--got all the mannerisms of "high religion" down pat, but inwardly unrighteous. We may "think" we've got the world fooled; we'd better be anxious about what God sees: But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. I Samuel 16:7.
We don't think the teachings of Christ are for today? Let me tell you, there are many many "spiritual Pharisees" alive and well today! We have one set of standards for ourselves and our family, and another for the rest of the world! Matthew 23:4 tells us, "They load you with impossible demands that they themselves don't even try to keep." (The Living Bible) Does that cut a little close?
But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments. Matthew 24:5. "Phylacteries" are strips of leather attached to a small box which contains parchment copies of various scriptures (Exodus 13:2-10; Exodus 13:11-16; Deuteronomy 6:4-9, and Deuteronomy 11:13-21). These were worn around the arm and around the forehead. Now, understand: they didn't do what was written on those little pieces of parchment, they only wore the little boxes containing the words written on parchment! (Sound familiar? We don't live a CHRIST-like life, but we claim to be a "Christian".)
To make themselves appear even MORE "religious", they made the boxes larger than usual, and they did the same thing with the fringes on their garments, which God had instructed them to wear as a reminder that they were His peculiar people, set apart from the rest of the world. Notice this though: they didn't repent of their sins, they didn't change their hearts, they didn't show more compassion to the people--they didn't change anything INSIDE--just their outward appearance. Doesn't work that way, my friends. Not for them, nor for us!
The Pharisees were caught up in their sense of self-esteem: And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues. Matthew 23:6. They expected (demanded) to sit at the head table at banquets, and in the reserved pews in the synagogue. Now we may not have "reserved pews" in "our" churches of today (some do), but let someone else get our favorite spot and oh my! our "comfort zone" is disrupted, isn't it? We'd sure like to know who told them they could sit THERE !
And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. Matthew 23:7. Oh how they loved the importance, the deference of being addressed as "Rabbi" and "Master". We may not be called "Rabbi", but don't we sure like to be known as Saintly ? Yes, there are "saints" in the body of Christ, but it's a title earned because of the witness of their lives, not of flattery or self-elevation. If you know a true "saint of God", you will indeed know a humble, meak, loving, compassionate sold out to God SERVANT, not someone who merely wants the title, "Saint".
So what did Jesus say about calling someone "Rabbi" or "Master" or "FATHER"? But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. AND CALL NO MAN YOUR FATHER UPON THE EARTH: for ONE is your FATHER, which is IN HEAVEN. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. Matthew 23:8-10. So WHERE did we get that we are to bow and scrape and kiss the "ring" of some man and call him "Father"??? Hello? These words were out of the very mouth of Jesus Christ. Jesus, Himself, said, "Be not ye called Rabbi. Call NO MAN your father upon the earth: for ONE is your FATHER, which is IN HEAVEN." (Of course, to obey one's authority, one has to recognize that authority, Amen?) The "church world" certainly went awry, didn't it, doing the VERY things Jesus Christ said don't do. (That should not be suprising--we don't do the things He said for us to do!)
Matthew 23:11 tells us, But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. The Living Bible says, "The more lowly your service to others, the greater you are. To be the greatest, be a servant." We don't get "appoint yourself to be great" out of that, do we? As tall a man as he was, Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying, "I stand tallest when on my knees". Get it? Folks don't want to be servants--they want to be "MASTERS". Folks don't want to be mere employees, they want to be "Managers", and let's face it, most of the time, they don't have the training or the experience to have such a position of leadership. There is no greater service (or reward) than to be a faithful servant, my friends!
The very next verse there in Matthew 23 takes care of "self-esteem" -- "self-exaltation": And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted. Matthew 23:12. Believe me, this is the voice of experience speaking, it is much better to stay humble than have to get humbled. Doesn't mean we have to belittle ourselves, although some folks do it to "seem pious". True humility before God keeps our heart right with Him!
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. Matthew 23:13. Jesus said, "You hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You will not go in and you stop those who are trying to get in." Does that not sound like many today? We don't live as we should but we criticize others? We won't take the message of Christ to folks--all the while demanding that they meet certain man-made standards before we will "let them in" to our group?
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Matthew 23:14. He was talking about them pretending to be holy with long public prayers in the streets while evicting widows from their homes. The widows could not meet their demands for money, so they kicked them out of their homes, onto the streets. You think it's not done today? Wrong! And even of those who don't take a person's home, there are those who will kick people out of their congregations if they don't give a set amount of money to "the church". They are NOT interested in that person or that family's well-being: they want only money to use as they see fit, to build their own little kingdoms on earth!
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. Matthew 23:15. ("Proselyte": a convert to Judaism, bound to all the doctrines and precepts of the Jewish economy, and members of the synagogue in full communion.) Strong words from the pretty, "gentle-faced" Savior the artists have long depicted. Let me tell you, Our Lord and Savior was not some little weakling with His hands sweetly tucked into the folds of His garments, humbly traveling along chanting one soft passage after another! These folks had raised His ire, and He was telling it both straight and STRAIT!
We don't get that from the pulpits any more. Want to know why? Three main reasons: (1) Preachers don't want to live it, so they don't preach it; (2) Preachers are too worried about offending the deep pockets of the congregation; and (3) Preachers are too concerned about losing the numbers they report to "headquarters". Just like recruiters for churches do today--the Pharisees went about converting others to their "religion" and once they were recruited, they were worse than the recruiters! Good apples might turn rotten, but never will rotten apples turn good! The source had better be HOLY if you want holiness from it! It had better be GODLY if you want Godliness from it!
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables. II Timothy 4:3,4. If we were never there before, we are today! It's no longer "the time will come"--it's the time HAS come when people will not put up with preaching (or hearing preached) the truth of the Word of God. Following their own EVIL desires, they have gathered to themselves many, many teachers to say what they WANT to hear. They are turning away from listening to the truth--they are listening to myths. One of the main reasons so many are being led "down a blind alley" is because they refuse to study and learn the Word of God for themselves, so they swallow "whatever sounds" good, or whatever doesn't offend them.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Matthew 23:29,30. Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city: That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. Matthew 23:34,35.
There they were, an "improved lot" over their ancestors, eh? Wrong! Just as their forefathers had killed the prophets before them, they would again. Oh, they made a BIG show of building monuments and laying flowers on the graves of those killed by their own ancestors in times past--yet they were about to do the same thing again (this time WITHOUT the monuments and flowers), as recorded later in Acts. Today we say, "I could have been faithful to Christ if I had lived when He did." It's easy to say because it's impossible to prove. It's easy for me to say what I would do with a million dollars, because I've never had (nor expect to have) a million dollars. Today, we make a mockery of Christ, we give the world reason to blaspheme Him time and time again because of the NON-examples we are of Christ with our godless living, selfish-giving ways!
Instead of us being "spiritual Pharisees" and saying what we "would have done", why don't we set about to change what we ARE DOING? We must get rid of those Sunday Faces and put on the Nature of Christ, 24/7. Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. II Timothy 4:2. We are to live The Life at all times, not merely when it's convenient for us, not merely for our own personal gain at the moment! We are not all preachers, we are not all teachers, but each of us has the opportunity, time and time again, to say a word about Jesus Christ, to lift Him up in our conversations.
We'd better NOT be ashamed of Him! For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels. Luke 9:26. For I am NOT ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth... Romans 1:16. ...Nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I KNOW WHOM I have believed, and AM PERSUADED that HE IS ABLE to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. II Timothy 1:12.
Let's get rid of the Sunday Faces, my friends, and live the witness of Jesus Christ every day.
"Sunday Faces" Copyright © 2001 by Patricia Sikes.
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