Tuesday-A Face-off With The Pharisees

I want to encourage you to open your Bible this evening to Mark chapter 12 where we will pick up where we left off last time. Let me bring you up to speed with where we are and what's happening. We are in the last week of our Lord's life. It is Tuesday of what is often called Passion Week. The last week of our Lord's life, the week of his suffering, the week of his giving of his life. It's on Tuesday. The teaching of the temple and a lot is recorded of what happens on Tuesday. Some of the days of the last week of our Lord's life are kind of sketchy. We don't have a lot of information. Tuesday has a lot of information because there's a lot of teaching that takes place in the temple and a lot of give and take with the Pharisees and other religious leaders. That's what we've been looking at. We've seen that Jesus had started teaching and was pretty quickly challenged by the scribes and the elders, the religious leaders about whether or not he had the authority to do that and what authority he claimed. He responded to that question and then they began to fire questions at him, different groups of people coming at him with different issues that they felt like he would not be able to answer or that he would give an unpopular answer or they would paint him into a corner and make him look unpopular or something. Of course, Jesus masterfully handled all those questions. He was asked the question about taxes. He was asked a question about the resurrection. And then the Pharisees put forward a scribe. Mark tells us that one of the teachers of the law came, Matthew tells us that the Pharisees had, he was representing the Pharisees. But really you've got two different things going on here. He is trying to tempt Jesus or test Jesus with a question. But there also seems to be some genuine interest on his part because he is impressed with the Lord's reply. The Lord tells him he is not far from the kingdom. And so that's kind of the way we're approaching this story. We talked last time about being near God's kingdom. This teacher of the law asked Jesus a question in Mark 12, verse 28 of all the commandments which is the most important. Jesus answers with that very familiar answer, summarizing really the Old Testament law into two commandments. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That's the first greatest commandment. Second was like it. Love your neighbor as yourself. And so he gives these two great commandments. And the man's response is very intriguing. In verse 32 he said, well said teacher. The next answer is the idea. You are right in saying that God is one. There's no other but him to love him with all your heart, understanding, strength, love your neighbors yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. And he puts his finger on really the essence of what Jesus is driving at. That it's not the external things that you do that make you right with God. It is what God is looking for is the heart commitment. This man seems to have somewhat of a grasp of that. And so Jesus says to him in verse 34, when Jesus saw that he'd answered wisely said you are not far from the kingdom of God. Now I think where we end the last time was the fact that Jesus had said you're close. You're not in the kingdom of God. You haven't made that personal commitment yet but you're near your close. And that indicates a couple of things. One that it is possible to be either far away from God or near him but not yet be saved. People come to Christ sometimes in stages. It's not that salvation happens in stages but they come to a greater understanding of their need or of the gospel in stages. And some people are far from God as far as their interest and understanding is concerned. Some people are nearer. They're closer to being saved. Now here's the danger. Or you tell me what is the danger in that? What is the danger in being close? You think you're there exactly. I mean it's possible because you have a grasp of some spiritual truth. You understand some things. You may know your Bible to a certain degree. It's possible to think I'm there. I'm okay. That must be pleasing to God. And it's an awful thing to be close but to still be excluded because the eternal destiny is the same for those who are far from God and those who are near. But not yet making that commitment to Christ. And so really what you have here is not a hopeful story as much as it is a warning. There's a warning in these words and the warning basically is it's possible to be within an inch of God's kingdom and still go to hell. It's possible to have a lot of head knowledge and be close and understanding and not be a believer. That's a real dangerous place to be. So Jesus says encouraging words to Him but also words of warning, aren't they? Now look at how verse 34 ends. It says from then on no one dared ask Him anymore questions. Okay. He has answered all of the questions that they threw at Him to try to trap Him so brilliantly He's actually turned the tables on them to where it's not Him that looks bad. It's them that looks bad. So He's kind of turned the tables on them. Now, nobody's going to ask Him anymore questions. They're done. Jesus is not done. Not by a long shot. Jesus is going to ask a question of His own and it is a fascinating question. It is a question that has lots of intricacies and layers to it. You understand what Jesus is doing here and what He's getting at. So I want to try to unpack some of that and help us to understand what Jesus is saying and what He's asking what He's getting at and why they could not answer Him. Why they dared not answer Him. So we'll entitled this being in God's kingdom because what Jesus does in verses 35 to 37 is He poses a question that really distinguishes the difference in being near and being in. And it has to do, first of all, with seeing who Christ is. Now watch what Jesus does. He's going to talk about really seeing who Christ is. In verse 35, while Jesus was teaching in the temple courts, He asked, why do the teachers of the law say that the Messiah is the Son of David? Now, when He said that, when He raised the question about Jesus being called the Son of David, there are no doubt with these well-versed Old Testament scholars, these scribes, these people who knew their Old Testament, there no doubt would be a number of passages that would come to mind. I'm going to suggest at least three that would have come to their mind that talk about Jesus or the Messiah, rather, being the Son of David or being of the line of David. First of all, in 2 Samuel, and I think we have these on the screen for you. 2 Samuel 7, the promise that God made to David about His kingdom, when your days are over, you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood, and I will establish His kingdom. Now, that specifically applied to Solomon, David's son, but then the text would go on to say, God promised David that His kingdom would last forever. And so there is a greater son of David that really is the ultimate fulfillment of that promise, and that is the Messiah. There are other passages that no doubt would come to mind. Isaiah 9, 7, speaking of the Messiah, this was a clear messianic prophecy of the greatness of His government, and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding with justice and righteousness, let time on and forever, the Lord will accomplish this. So he will reign on David's throne, the Messiah. Jeremiah is another passage that might come to their mind, Jeremiah 23, and verse 5, the days are coming to clear as the Lord, when I will raise up for David, a righteous branch, a king who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. So these Old Testament scholars would be familiar with a number of passages that would refer to Jesus or to the Messiah, I should say, the Christ, the Messiah, as one who would come from David. They knew from the Old Testament to expect that the Messiah would be the Son of David, one who would come from David, who would be descended from David. They understood that, but Jesus has something else in mind here. He's going to give them another verse that they may not have thought about. Look at verse 36, David himself, speaking by the Holy Spirit, declared, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet. David calls him, David himself calls him Lord, how then can he be his son? Now, the question that Jesus raises is, who is the Christ? Christ is the New Testament word for Messiah or anointed one. Christos means the anointed one. So Christ really is not a proper name for Jesus. Jesus was his proper name. Jesus is the Christ. He is the Messiah, the anointed one. So what Jesus is saying is, I want you to think about who is the Christ? And they would automatically think he's the son of David. The Messiah comes from David. He's the descendant of David. And so Jesus throws a little twist on it by raising a passage they hadn't thought about. And that's Psalm 110, verse 1. Psalm 110, 1 basically says, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. Clear, Messianic, Psalm, a Psalm that was a prophecy of the Messiah, talked about Jesus or the Messiah coming. And what Jesus does basically is he gives the answer to his question. Who is the Christ? The answer is Christ is both God and man. Now, he's going to drive at something with that. He's going to get at something with that. I want you to see this. When using Psalm 110, 1, he uses a passage where the Messiah is seen to be not David's son, not a descendant of David, but David's Lord. All the other passages they would have called the mind when Jesus said, why do the teachers of the law say the Messiah is the son of David? They would have called the mind of those passages. We looked at earlier that talked about the Messiah coming from David. He's the descendant of David. He is the son of David. But Jesus raises a passage where David calls the Messiah his Lord. Now, you see how it happens there and look at the verse in verse 36. David himself speaking by the Holy Spirit, and Jesus throws that in. By the way, there's a lot of good theology there. Jesus is ascribing inspiration to the Old Testament, to the Psalms. I'm saying that David was speaking by the Holy Spirit, but he's also making his point that you cannot deny that this is scripture in Psalm 110 where the Bible says, the Lord, Jehovah, that's God the Father, said to my Lord, David saying, Jehovah is saying to someone else who is my Lord, sit at my right hand till I put your enemies under your feet. And as Psalm 110 goes on to describe, that's a clear reference to the Messiah. So here's the point Jesus is making. God the Father says to the Messiah, David says he is, the Messiah is my Lord. So there are lots of passages that call the Messiah, David's son. This one calls the Messiah David's Lord. Now, Jesus' point is, why does the Old Testament call him David's son when David called him my Lord? What's the answer to that question? There's only one possible answer as to how he can be both David's son and David's Lord. What's the answer? Margaret, what did you say? He's both God and man. Someone else? I heard something else. He was in David's lineage, wasn't he? In his humanity, right? Okay? Someone over here had something. Is the Messiah? Yes. Right. It's the Bill. And the Bill is, as Margaret said, he is both God and man. He is David's son, that's his humanity. He is David's Lord, that means he must be God. And so what Jesus is driving at here is he's causing the Pharisees and the religious leaders to see from the Old Testament that the Old Testament talks about the Messiah's humanity and deity, that the Messiah must be both God and man. Okay? He is not just a man like them who is a ruler, a king, an overthrower of the Roman Empire, but he is both God and man. So he raises this in the form of a question. Okay? Why do the Old Testament passages speak of him as son of David when David calls him my Lord? He's basically saying to the Pharisees, how can this be? How can he be both? They know the answer, but they dare not answer that question. They dare not say what they know to be the only answer. The only way he can be both David's son and David's Lord is if he is both man and God. That's the only possible answer. They know that. They're smart enough to know that, but they can't say it. Because they're basically agreeing then as to who Jesus has claimed to be. If indeed he is the Messiah, he is both God and man. He has come from God and he has become a man and they will not admit that. Now, I think the crowd also understood what Jesus was getting at because look at what the passage says in the verse 37. The large crowd listened to him with delight. Now, I think what that means, what's going on here is that the crowd sees the religious leaders squarming, kind of looking at each other. What do we say? How do we answer this? And they're getting a kick out of it. They're loving this. That Jesus is turning their religious teachers whom they know as Jesus will shortly say they know that these religious leaders are a bunch of hypocrites. And they delight in hearing Jesus turn them into pretzels and just twist them into knots where they can't answer what he's saying. I think they they took the light in his masterful handling of the Old Testament. Yes, but also in the fact that he was putting to shame the hypocritical religious leaders. They could see that. So there there's a lot that Jesus is talking about here in in his description of who he is. Part of being in the kingdom of God is seeing who Christ is. He is both God and man. But there's more to Jesus answer than that. Being in the kingdom is not just seeing who Jesus is. You've got to take it a step further. It's embracing why Christ came. Now here's the beauty of what Jesus is driving at. What Jesus basically is describing is the plan of salvation. You see, we are all sinners. We must pay for our sin. The payment for our sin is death. That was clear throughout the Old Testament because of the animal sacrifices and so forth. It's clear that the payment for sin was death. Okay. The only way we can be saved is for someone who is perfect to pay for our sins. We can't pay for our own. We don't have enough righteousness to do that. And certainly if we die for our own sins, we don't die for anybody else's sins. So the only way our sins can be forgiven if God provides a perfect substitute. That was pictured over and over again in the Old Testament sacrifices, right? The Lamb had to be the best of the flock. No defects. Perfect sacrifice. The Lamb or the ox was a substitute for the sinner and the sinner would place his hand on the head of the Lamb before it was killed and symbolically transfer his sins to that substitute. Okay. So it was pictured all throughout the Old Testament. The only way your sins can be forgiven is for there to be a substitute. Now only God can save us, but only a man can die and be a substitute. So the perfect sacrifice has to be God in order to be perfect, sinless to die for our sins and not his own, but he also has to be a man in order to die to have a body that he can offer as that substitutionary sacrifice. So what Jesus is really driving at when he says the Messiah is both God and man is not just some nice little theological package of who Christ is. He's describing what it takes for salvation in order for your sins to be forgiven. You must have the God man give his life for you. Only God can save you, but only man can die for you. And so the perfect sacrifice for your sin had to be both God and man. I'm telling you, Jesus is saying the Old Testament says that's what the Messiah will be. He will be both God and man thus qualifying himself to be the perfect sacrifice for your sins. Now they knew enough of the Old Testament to know what he was getting at, but they dare not answer. They dare not answer and agree to what he has said. The crowd loves it. The crowd is delighted with his teaching. The Pharisees are humiliated no doubt. But once again, Jesus is not done with them, not by a long shot. We still have Matthew 23 to go, and that's what he launches into next. But before we jump to Matthew 23, any questions about what Jesus has just done in posing a question like this to them? Okay, let's look back at Matthew 23. The next event which takes place right on the heels of what we've just heard, still teaching in the temple, is described most fully in Matthew's gospel. There are a few verses in Mark and Luke that also described this, but Matthew has the full account. So we're going to take a look at it. We'll get started tonight. We'll finish it up in the fellowship hall next week. Jesus has been questioned by the religious leaders. They have thrown three questions at him, actually four, including the scribes question. And Jesus has silenced them and then posed to them a question they could not answer. And now he's going to take it a step further. What Jesus is going to do in chapter 23. And now that they are speechless, now that they will not dare ask him any more questions, what he's going to do is he's going to rip off their mask, the mask of their hypocrisy. And quite clearly that's what he's doing because in this passage he calls them hypocrites eight times, eight times in chapter 23 of Matthew. He calls them hypocrites. He calls them snakes and bifurs. He calls them blind leaders of the blind. I mean, Jesus takes the gloves off and really strips off their mask of hypocrisy. And by the way, the Greek word for hypocrisy, who pocritece literally means to put on a mask. It was the word for a Greek actor who would put on a mask to play a part. Jesus is going to call them Greek actors that have put on masks to play a part. They're not real. They're not genuine. They're just putting on a mask to play a part. They look religious. They look good, but they are dead and rotten on the inside. Jesus is going to break them over the coals. This is as hard as it gets in the gospels when he really just blasts them for their hypocrisy. This is this is as in your face as Jesus will ever get in the gospels when he describes to their face on Tuesday of the week he was going to die exactly who they are. Now they've tried to trapping. He silenced them. Now he's going to show how hypocritical they are. And it is excoriating. I mean, it is. He lays them bare in this passage. We're going to start into it tonight. Jesus, what he does basically is he nails down five marks of hypocrisy. He just lets them have it. He just says, this is who you are. I'm going to take your mask off and show everybody in the temple who you are. And he identifies five marks of hypocrisy. The first one is he unmasks their ambition. And verses five to twelve. Let's begin back in verse one though. We need to set the table for this. Then Jesus said to the crowds into his disciples, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat. Do you remember what Moses seat is? No, not quite. Close. Where was Moses seat? Holy of Holies, that's close also. Not quite. It is in a religious building, a building used for study of the scriptures. Not the temple though. No, not the tent. Where we're getting all around it. We're getting close. synagogue. Did I hear somebody say it synagogue? The seat of Moses was the seat that the teacher in the synagogue would sit in to teach the people on the Sabbath day. Jesus refers to it several times in the gospels. We know from archaeological records. In fact, the archaeologists have dug up the most complete synagogue in Israel is in Capernum. In Jesus' hometown, if you were, the town where he made his headquarters in Galilee. It's not really probably quite the same one he was in. It's from 400 or so BC or AD. It's a little later than Jesus' time, but it's on the same site as the synagogue where Jesus would have attended. We know from the architecture that archaeologists have been able to put together, there was a seat at the front. The teacher in the synagogue, the rabbi who was teaching, would not stand like we typically do. They would sit in a special seat which was designated as the seat that you would teach from. And you would teach the law of Moses, obviously. So it was called the seat of Moses. It was considered the authoritative teaching chair, if you will. And that was where the scribes and scribes and rabbis would teach in the synagogue. So he says, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. So, verse three, you must be careful to do everything they tell you. That sounds like almost a strange admission from our Lord, doesn't it? Do everything they tell you, why would he say that? What were they telling the people? When they sat in Moses' seat, they were teaching the Old Testament law. Now, he'll go on later to talk about all the traditions and stuff. They added on to that. But in so far as they were reading and explaining the law of Moses, do what they tell you, because that's God's word. But now, notice the rest of what he says. But do not do what they do. Be careful to do everything they tell you if they're teaching the law of Moses. But do not do what they do for they do not practice what they preach. This is where we get the old saying from. Do as I say, not as I do. You know, you've had people tell you that. Maybe your parents. I don't know. Do as I say, not as I do. Well, that's what Jesus is saying here. In so far as they teach the Bible, do what they say because that's the word of God. But don't look at their lives because they don't practice what they preach. They don't live what they tell you to do. And Jesus expands on that in verse four. He says, they tie up heavy cumbersome loads and put them on other people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. But just a way of saying in very graphic language, they will tell you how to live. They will tell you what the Bible says. They will tell you what the law of Moses says, but they don't care anything about living by it themselves. Now, what Jesus is going to get at is the rottenness of their hearts. And that while they may be very observant of the externals of the law, they are not living according to God's word from their hearts. And he's going to get to that as he gets on through this passage, but that kind of opens things up. You know, that's the introduction to this unmasking of their hypocrisy. And the first issue he really deals with is ambition. They're ambition. Now, is ambition bad? Ambition wrong? No? Is ambition bad? Then have to be right. It can be both good and bad, right? Jesus is going to talk about bad ambition here. The kind that really is just seeking recognition. That's what Jesus is driving at here. Ambition can be a good thing if your ambition is that which pleases God. If your ambition is to glorify him, to serve him with all your heart, give your whole life for him and his cause and his work, that's great ambition. You want to reach souls for Christ, living a way that pleases him and builds up other believers. That's great ambition. But Jesus is going to talk about the wrong kind of ambition. The wrong kind of ambition basically is ego driven and looks for attention, a desire for recognition. So he says in verse five, the first aspect of this kind of ambition is it's a love of attention. Love of attention. Look at verse five. Everything they do is done for people to see. They make their factories wide and the tassels on their garments long. Remember what factories are? Little boxes on the forehead or on the upper left arm. They would tie them on. And the factories were little boxes that contain passages of Scripture. And they got to do around me six, you know, where the law is supposed to be inscribed on their put them on your forehead and on your arm and on the outside of your house and so forth. Well, they they they don't only had factories. They had big factories. You know, and what does that communicate? I got a lot of Bible in there. I'm I'm I tell you my factories big and your factory. You know, I mean, that kind of thing. And then they they have. Tassels on their garments that are long. They may know what the tassels on the garments were for. It's a very obscure thing in the Old Testament, but there was a reason for that. If you if you will read numbers 15 and I know all of your familiar with that, you know, you probably were thinking of it as I was getting to it. Obviously, I have the privilege of being able to look all this up before I come in here. So this wouldn't have been on my mind either. But in numbers 15, the law of Moses prescribed that a Jewish garment had to have tassels on it. Typically, it would be the outer garment and the tassels would be not at the end of a long flowing road. But on the outer garment, probably around the waist or mid thigh, there would be tassels. And they were designed to be a certain color. They were to be threaded together. They would be woven together. But those moving tassels were designed to remind people of obedience to the law. Obedience to the covenant that God had made. That's what numbers 15 says. And you may be thinking, as I thought when I first read that, how would a tassel in my garment remind me to obey God's word? And most, most Bible scholars believe it's either because of the way they were woven together, which would remind them of the making of the covenant that God had made. That God had made a covenant with them, a putting of two things together. And they were to obey that covenant. Or some say that in most other countries in the world at that time, tassels would only be worn by the nobility. And God requiring every Jewish person to have tassels on their garments was basically saying to them, you are all my people. You are my people. You have a special relationship with Jehovah God. And they would be reminded of the covenant that God had made with them. And thus, remind them to obey that covenant to obey his word. So the very sight of those tassels was designed to remind them of obedience. Okay, now with that background in mind, here you have the Pharisees that think, I want to make real big tassels. I want to show you that I'm really excited about obeying God's word. I obey God's word, better than you. Because my tassels bigger in your tassel. You know, it's that type of thing that he's talking about. It's the love of attention. It's it's wanting people to notice how really serious I am about my spirituality. And so basically what it is is wearing your spirituality where everybody can see it, making sure they notice it and how pious and how spiritual you are doing things to make sure people see it. That's the idea. And Jesus says, I'm ripping your mask off. You hypocrites. If that's the way you live. If you have a longer tassel, a bigger phylacteria just to try to impress people that you're more spiritual than they are, you're just a big hypocrite. Now, what does it look like for us today? None of us wears tassels on our garments. You may have a scarf that hasn't tassel on it. I'm not referring to that. But we don't really wear tassels in the same way. We don't wear phylacteries. What does this ostentatious display of spirituality look like today? Okay. Interesting. Some of the stuff on Facebook, Lynn, that you're supposed to do if you're if you're a Christian. Some of the same stuff comes through emails. Right? You know, if you really are a believer, you'll do this or this. Yeah. Okay. That may be one way. What are some others that we may wear our spirituality on our sleeve for everybody to see. And that's our goal. Sure. Right. Yeah. Or I carry a big black Bible and it's a King James. I'm more spiritual than you. You know, I mean, and I'm being a little facetious. Please understand. I'm not integrating King James. I love the King James. But there are lots of ways that even today we can appear and promote ourselves as being more spiritual. And Kathy pointed out in the areas of Christian liberty or the opposite side of that legalism. I'm more spiritual than you because I don't do this or I don't dress this way or I don't, you know, or I do this or I'm look at me. That is very much a sign of hypocrisy. Now, please understand we're not talking about clear obedience to the word of God. That's not the issue. The issue is the heart that says, I want to promote myself. I want the attention of being more spiritual than anybody else. So I'm going to do things just to show how spiritual I really am or at least make people think that. That's the love of attention that that he's doing. It can be it can be showing off our knowledge of the Bible, right? Showing off our knowledge of the Bible so that people think we know more than we really do. That's that's easy to do. It can be a lot of things. Love of attention. But then notice verse six, he talks about love of position. That's a part of this ambition to love of position. He says they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues. The place of honor at a banquet was at the right hand of the host. If you sat on the right hand of the host, you were considered the honored guest. So people clamored to get that seat or as close to it as possible. Remember Jesus talked about that one time when he talked about the Pharisees and how they always look to get the best seats at the banquets. And he said don't look at the best seat. What if the host has to tell you you take another seat. I've got this reserved for someone else. Remember he talked about that. That's the setting there. And then the important seats in the synagogues again, the closer to the front you were, the more spiritual you were. Imagine that in a Baptist church. It's the opposite of a Baptist church. Close your eyes and more spiritual you are. But basically there were certain seats that you got up to where you could be seen by everybody. And you were one of the important people if you got one of those seats. It's not the idea of trying to be the first in line or anything like that. That's not necessarily the idea. But basically what it is is making it look like you are somebody important. So the love of being seen as important. Of being seen with the right people, of being seen in the right places, of being at the important functions so that people know I'm an important person. Now there's certainly nothing wrong with being at those functions or anything like that. But the question is, are you working an angle to try to promote yourself? And this happens in religious circles and in churches all the time. Are you trying to promote yourself as being someone who's kind of in the know who's really important? Well if that's the case, Jesus is saying that is the kind of ambition that really shows your hypocrite. You're not really concerned about the heart issue. You're just concerned about how you appeared out of people. And that you really want to be seen as someone important. That's hypocrisy. Now here's one and we'll get to this one before we close. A part of this hypocritical ambition is what Jesus calls what I'm going to call a love of titles. A love of titles versus seven through ten. Notice what he says. They love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called rabbi by others. Is there anything wrong with being called rabbi? Rabbi means teacher. My teacher. Anything necessarily wrong with being called rabbi? Jesus was called rabbi. Wasn't it? In fact, there were people who called Jesus rabbi and he didn't shy away from that. He didn't try to correct them. The key is they love to hear that. They love to be greeted with respect in the marketplace to be called rabbi. It's not necessarily being called teacher. It's the love of hearing that. Oh, just love being called rabbi. It does something to me when people greet me in the marketplace as rabbi. That's the point here. Now, Jesus goes on to really skin them on this one. Verse eight. But you are not to be called rabbi for you have one teacher and you are all brothers. Again, it's not that it's wrong to be called rabbi. He's getting their love of that title. The idea is why do you want to be called rabbi? Because you like to be seen as above others. Jesus is saying, listen, in the family of God, we're all brothers. And we have one teacher. That's God. That's Christ. That's the Holy Spirit. God is our teacher. Is it wrong for someone to be a teacher and a class or to be the pastor teacher of the flock? No, no. It's not what he's saying. The point is, is that what you love? Do you love that attention? Do you love the greeting that calls you rabbi? Listen, remember who you are. You're just one of the brothers and sisters. You're just one of the family of God. Our teacher is God Himself. That's the point. Then he goes on to say, boy, this one is amazing. Verse nine. And do not call anyone on earth father. Does that mean you shouldn't call your biological dad father? No, obviously not, right? He's speaking in terms of religious teachers here. Do not call anyone on earth father for you have one father and he is in heaven. Now, again, basically Jesus is saying you've got one authority over you to be called father indicates that somehow you're up here in a position of authority over other people. There's only one person in authority over us ultimately and that's God. And so that's why Jesus says don't take the name father in a spiritual sense. You know, in God's work. God is our father. And then he goes on to take it even further. Nor are you to be called instructors for you have one instructor, the Messiah or teacher, the Messiah. Again, is it wrong to be called a teacher? That's not the point. The point is those who love to be called teacher so that they can get the respect, the attention. It puts them on a different level. They are seen as an authority over others and that desire and that position of superiority and authority. Jesus says is not what my kingdom is about. Now, here's what he is looking for. Here's what he's looking for verse 11 and 12 and we'll close with this. The greatest among you will be your servant for those who exalt themselves. Okay, that's the point he's getting at. The exalt themselves. It's not that someone else calls you teacher. It's that you want to be called teacher. That's the idea. Those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humbled themselves will be exalted. So Jesus is basically saying don't go around looking for titles. You know, we're real big on titles even in spiritual things today in churches today, religious organizations and so forth. And I understand titles if you're trying to teach respect to a child. I understand that. But the idea of wanting to be called reverend. You know, as a person, Psalms, it says reverend is his name. That's God's name. And I understand the government, you know, understand the government deal with reverend, understand that. But the desire to be called reverend or most reverend or right reverend or bishop or doctor or whatever. It's not that any of those titles are wrong. The title pastor is a great title. But it's when you love hearing that. It's when you want people to say it so that it puffs you up and you think how important I am. That is hypocritical. And that's exactly what Jesus is saying. It's much better to be a servant of God just to be God's servant. Just to be a servant of other people and of God. Because in reality, we are all sinners saved by grace, right? And so there are no fathers, authority figures. I'm the teacher. I'm the reverend. I mean, if that's what somebody is looking for and that's what they love to hear, they want the attention of that, then that just masks a hollow heart that really doesn't understand anything about servanthood. So that's what Jesus is driving at. It's not using those terms out of respect, maybe teaching your children, you know, terms of respect. That's not the deal. The deal is the person who is called those things. What are they looking for? Is that what they want to be called? I mean, I know people who would get an honorary doctorate just so that they can be called that. And you can pay for those and get them. But they want to hear themselves called doctor. Jesus would rip our masks off today and say, you are hollow and superficial and hypocritical with that kind of stuff. So ambition, love of attention, love of position, love of titles, the love of being the center of everything and having everybody think I'm the person to look to that kind of thing. Jesus is saying, that's hypocritical. That's hypocritical. So man, he's tearing the masks off and he's got four more to go with these religious leaders. We have to save that for next time. Let's pray. Father, deliver us from the kind of pride and ambition that wants to be recognized, that loves to be the center of everything, the center of attention, that wants to be called things just so that we can hear ourselves called those things, that enjoys seeing our name and lights or in the paper, whatever. God, please deliver us from that kind of self-centered hypocritical ambition. And may we realize that we are just centers saved by grace, we are brothers and sisters in Christ. And if you've given us opportunity to have a place of ministry or service, help us to hold that very lightly and not to draw attention to ourselves because of that, oh God, help us to understand that the one who left Heaven's glory did not demand to be called by any title. But became a servant, died for us, helped us to live the kind of life he lived in Jesus' name, amen.