Speaker 1: 0:00

Well, welcome to Madison Church. I'm Stephen Feith, lead pastor, and it has been five weeks since you have heard me up here. Now I'm just going to try to be normal, but you know I mean five weeks got a lot of energy put into this and, as I mentioned before we got going with the camera that we've been planning this series for about six months. I think it's going to be a good one, and I want to begin by asking a question that I think all of us could potentially raise our hands for. Have you ever done the right thing for the wrong reasons? Yeah, you can raise your hand. Okay, look around the room. These are the truth tellers. These are the truth tellers. Have you ever done the right thing for the wrong reasons? I mean, I do it all the time. Ever done the right thing for the wrong reasons? I mean I do it all the time. Maybe it's at home and I apologize, not because I thought I was wrong, not because I'm admitting really that I was wrong, but I just kind of want the fight to be over with. So I say, oh yeah, I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that, but deep down I'm like I'm not sorry at all. I just want to move on to the next thing.

Speaker 1: 1:03

Maybe you're at work and you have another gear. You work really, really hard. When your boss is around, you notice them and you're like I've got to step it up. You do it not because you're a person of great integrity, but you do it because you're a person who has great means. You need more money, okay. Or perhaps in your neighborhood you help someone out and it's not really out of love, but you hope that when we get piled on with two feet of snow this winter, they will come over and help you shovel your driveway out. You know you're banking future favors by helping.

Speaker 1: 1:39

But if we're honest, it doesn't just happen to places we work, where we live. It happens here at church too. I mean not just someone else's church, not just another denomination. It happens right here at Madison Church. We volunteer, sometimes not because God has led us to or we feel like we want to, but we serve because we feel obligated. We heard that there was a need in the Kidman area, and so we're going to step up to volunteer.

Speaker 1: 2:09

We show up to this gathering and we sing the words. We even know the right places to put our hands up never during verse 1, but always during the bridge. But our hearts are bitter, distracted or even numb. The thing is, as I prepared for this series and this message and thinking about it, I know most of you in here and I don't know a lot of you watching or listening online, but I know that most of the people in the room we want to follow Jesus and we want to follow Jesus well, we want to live faithfully. I know our motives are good, but along the way to live faithfully, I know our motives are good, but along the way. It's common happens to me, it does happen to you that we focus more on looking right. Looking right rather than being transformed. Rather than being transformed, we settle for good appearances instead of authenticity, and that's the why behind this series.

Speaker 1: 3:07

The Pharisees were deeply religious. They believed in the scripture, they believed in a coming Messiah and they believed in a resurrection. These people didn't just have the right beliefs, they were respected leaders committed to holiness. They didn't just believe the right things. Oftentimes, the Pharisees were doing the right things, and yet we can't help but notice that when Jesus, the person that they believed all the things about, the person they did all the things for, when he was right in front of them, they didn't recognize him at all. They didn't recognize him at all. They missed him completely. They tried to live righteously, but they missed grace. They performed publicly, but they didn't surrender privately. They would judge harshly, but they didn't show mercy. And yes, they followed the rules, but they lost the relationship so much that they couldn't recognize God in front of them.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Now, this six-week series isn't about judging them. It's actually about examining us. It's about holding up the mirror and saying there is a Pharisee in me. And saying there is a Pharisee in me Because if I'm trying to believe the right things and if I'm trying to do the right things, then there is a Pharisee in me. Today we begin with the question I know the right things, but do I live them? I know the right things, but do I live them out? And so we're going to Matthew 23, if you want to follow along. And again, this message, these messages that are forthcoming, aren't to shame us, but they are to invite us back and invite us closer to God's heart. And so we're in Matthew, chapter 23, starting with verse 1. We're going to read through verse 3.

Speaker 1: 5:05

Jesus says to the crowds and to his disciples, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but do not follow their example, for they do not practice what they teach. He tells his followers and even the crowds. Okay, so there's still people who are kind of following around Jesus. They're not sure what to think yet. Is he the Messiah? Is he not the Messiah? Is he a rabbi? Like? What is Jesus? They don't know what to think. And Jesus says these Pharisees and these scribes, practice. If they tell you to do something, do something, obey. They know what they're talking about. He says, but don't live like them. I mean like, do not live like them at all. This would have been kind of like shocking a little bit If you didn't know.

Speaker 1: 5:57

There are two different groups here. There are the scribes and there are the Pharisees, and I expect that none of you would know the difference unless you went to seminary. So I'll just briefly cover what they are. The scribes are scholars and experts in the written law. Okay, so think of them as the ones who are like biblical scholars. They're studying this stuff. This is what Moses wrote, this is what Jeremiah wrote, this is it? This is what it is, and the Pharisees are more like theologians. So once the scribe said, no, this is it, this is sound, the Pharisees then take it and interpret it. Here's how we should live this out. So you have your scholars and you have your theologians, and these guys are tied together.

Speaker 1: 6:40

They form a spiritual and cultural leadership that was deeply respected in Jerusalem. It was rigorous and deeply committed to faithfulness Not just faithfulness of the text, but faithfulness of practice, and this is what makes Jesus' critique of them so pointed. They were not a people who rejected God. They did not reject God, but they were. I mean, these were the guys who were most passionate and cared the most about getting their beliefs right, and I know a lot of us in the room can relate to that. I mean, none of us in here want to believe the wrong things. We don't want to be ignorant, whether willfully or just unknowingly, like we don't want that. But somewhere along the way the Pharisees they stopped reflecting this heart of God that they claimed to serve. Do what they say Jesus says, but not what they do. Their words are correct, but their lives are out of sync. They are religious, they are not righteous, and that same danger exists today.

Speaker 1: 7:48

I mean, I can't tell you how much Christian, biblical, theological content I see on a daily, even hourly, basis. There are podcasts, there are YouTube channels, there are reels, sermons, books, blogs. Something else I'm sure exists that I don't know about yet. You name it. There is Christian content out there for it. If you want to take on a passage or a theological argument, a spiritual perspective, you will find someone out there who supports you. Well, and not only that, but you can find the version that fits you. You can find the theology you want, packaged the way you want it your preferences, your politics, your personality Check, check, check. What's your preferred method to consume this content?

Speaker 1: 8:38

The problem for us today in Madison, wisconsin, in 2025, isn't a lack of information. It is not a lack of information. It is not a lack of information. It's that knowing more doesn't make you more like Jesus. Knowing more doesn't necessarily make us more like Jesus. Neil Cole was a professor of mine at Wheaton and he once said in a book but he said it often in class we are educated beyond our obedience. In a book, but he said it often in class we are educated beyond our obedience. We know more about God and Jesus and the kingdom and the scriptures than we could possibly ever obey. Let's start doing more. Let's start doing it. It's entirely possible, as we look in the mirror today, to be saturated in spiritual content and still untouched by spiritual formation. We can be consumed with content and not growing spiritually.

Speaker 1: 9:38

Then, a few verses down, in verse 5, jesus says everything that they do is for show. On their arms, they wear extra wide prayer boxes with scripture verses inside and they wear robes with extra long tassels and they love to sit at the head table at banquets and the seats of honor in the synagogues. They love to receive respectful greetings as they walk in marketplaces and to be called rabbi. This is a very detailed critique. I mean. Jesus is tearing them apart, literally head to toe. Here. He says these people, these Pharisees and these scribes, they want to project spiritual authority. He accuses them not just being inconsistent between what they believe and how they practice, but he says they're performing righteous, they're acting holy for the sake of visibility and for status. They're not doing these things necessarily for God, but they're doing it because they love the attention that they get.

Speaker 1: 10:37

Jesus was exposing a religious culture, this image that had replaced integrity. Jesus isn't rejecting tradition, though he's not rejecting the tradition. He was warning about misusing tradition, the traditions that the Pharisees and scribes had. They weren't necessarily the problem, but the problem was that the tradition had become a tool of self-promotion rather than spiritual formation. It was look at me rather than spiritual formation. It was look at me, not look at God.

Speaker 1: 11:11

And so for us today, it's not just that we have all of this information at our fingertips, in our pockets, but we also know how to look the part, don't we? If we've been going to church for some time, we've been part of spiritual communities. We know how to speak the language of faith. We know how to quote the right scriptures, post the right verse, wear the right shirt real and raw stuff We've even packaged real and raw. We do this. We show up to church with a smile, but not too big of a smile, right, we got to gauge it. We don't want to be too big, because then it's fake and people will know I'm fake. I mentioned we lift our hands. We know the right spots to do it. We nod in our small groups and still keep the deepest parts of ourselves hidden and untouched from the community that we are a part of.

Speaker 1: 11:58

I don't want to make the argument. It's possible in today's Christian culture. It's entirely possible to curate an image of deep faith without actually cultivating any faith. We perform holiness while quietly protecting our pride, our preferences and our need to be in control. And when enough of us do this together if I were to back the mirror and say look at everybody when enough of us do this together, we start forming communities that look spiritually alive for an hour on Sunday but lack the power to transform lives. Between that gathering time, we miss the heart of God and we go down to verse 23.

Speaker 1: 12:44

Jesus says what sorrows await you, teachers of religious law, and you Pharisees, hypocrites, for you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more tithe, even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law justice, mercy, faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things Blind guides, you strain your water so you won't accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel In this passage. We talked about it in Luke a couple months ago, but we're revisiting it again in Matthew, as we see a greater context here of Jesus talking to Pharisees. Now, tithing was a command under the law, but it applied to grains, wine and oil. And that's what the scribes would say. They would say, as we study this passage, it's grains, wine and oil. And then the Pharisees, who are putting this theology in practice, pull out a principle no, we are to tithe and give everything back to God. So we're going to do even the tiniest garden herbs, mint and dill and cumin as a demonstration of not just regular obedience but meticulous obedience. Yeah, they just tithe the normal stuff, but we are above and beyond. But then Jesus says they neglect weightier matters of law, justice, mercy and faithfulness. These are not just side issues to God. It's not like just if you write the check, you're good to go. But he says there's more going on outside of that. Jesus doesn't reject the tithing, he actually affirms it. But he condemns their priorities. They're obsessing over religious details while ignoring relational integrity and the image here. If you don't get it, if they were to swallow a gnat, they would have been unclean. You're not allowed to eat bugs, so you strain the water so that way you don't swallow the gnat. But then Jesus says you're actually swallowing the camel, which is another ceremonially unclean animal. That's way more than a gnat. It's huge and it's not hard to see how that still happens today. I asked Kyle this morning during our prayer time to lead us in Lectio Divina and he did, and he chose this verse that we're doing right now. And when you're doing Lectio, you're kind of opening yourself up and you want to hear from God. And the weirdest image came to mind. That's not in my notes.

Speaker 1: 15:07

I don't have to stand by the computer, but did anyone play Pokemon on the Game Boy growing up? Anyone. As I'm sitting there in prayer, I think of Bulbasaur and Charmander and Squirtle and Pokemon Red and my game boy, and I remember the first time I played through I would get so annoyed when you're going through tall grass and a Pokemon pops up and I was like I'd run away every time. I don't want to deal with this, I don't have time for this pops up and I was like I'd run away every time. I don't want to deal with this, I don't have time for this. And then I go to this guy battles me and then like I don't want to battle all of these guys. I got all these people so I got real good at walking in between the guys, so I never had to fight them. And then what happened was I got to the very first gym and I got my teeth kicked in, real bad, because I still had like a Charmander who was level six, and that very first gym master had like an Onyx that was level 28.

Speaker 1: 16:00

I wasn't prepared, I skipped all this stuff and I was thinking this is exactly what Jesus is talking about, or it's like it, in this passage. These issues of justice are absolutely critical, mercy is absolutely critical, faith is absolutely critical. But he's saying if you haven't developed generosity, it's not going to happen. And honestly, as I begin to think about justice and the lack of it, and mercy and the lack of it and faith and the lack of it, I wonder if what Jesus is saying here is let's go back a step to level one, go back to the tall weeds, go back to those battles you wanted to skip, and if you would develop generosity, we can move on to the next step. I wonder if the reason we don't see more justice and mercy and faith in the world is because us as a church have not developed generosity. We want to skip level one and go to level five and then we get frustrated when we get our teeth kicked in.

Speaker 1: 17:00

Jesus isn't saying don't tithe, don't give, just focus over here. He's saying this is step one of a really long path that will eventually lead to justice and mercy and faith. So the Pharisees, they got stuck on one, remember. They believe right things, they practiced the right things. What he's calling them out is that they stayed there, that they didn't move. And so, as we look inward to ourselves, are we on step one or are we before that?

Speaker 1: 17:32

It's not hard to see how what Jesus is calling out applies to us. Today. We serve, perhaps we give, we show up and we stay involved just enough to appear spiritually healthy. Or maybe we find ourselves we're like we're at a good spiritual pace here. We got cruise control turned on. We check the right boxes that signal maturity to those around us, we have the right titles, we have the right degrees.

Speaker 1: 17:53

Whatever it might be, it's not that we're inactive, but our activity becomes a substitute for intimacy with God. I know in my role I got to be cautious of that, because otherwise the only time I'm praying is when I'm praying for people or with people. I know in my own life I got to be careful of that because perhaps the only time I read the Bible is when I'm prepping for my talk on Sunday. I got to be careful of that and I imagine that you do too. We've got to grow beyond learning how to do just enough, just the minimum, to keep the image, while avoiding the hard and vulnerable work of surrender. The danger is if we start to believe that outside alignment, outside alignment means inward transformation, we're just managing appearances. We're just managing appearances, and you can do that here at Madison Church. You become a member, you get baptized, you join the small group, you give check, check, check, check. You can do that here. We're not immune to it is what I'm trying to say. I'm not, and we're not as a community.

Speaker 1: 19:02

When we jump down to now, verse 27, when Jesus he says to them what sorrow awaits you, teachers of religious law, and you Pharisees, hypocrites. For you are like whitewashed tombs beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people's bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness. This is an analogy that is kind of gross, and that's Jesus's point. He wants to give everyone listening the ick, as the kids say today, or, as I understand the kids say today, according to Jewish law, to contact a tomb, even even accidentally, rendered you unclean for seven days. That makes sense, right? I mean, dead bodies have germs and other things going on and even the space around them could carry bacteria and things. So don't touch it because you will be unclean.

Speaker 1: 20:02

And to prevent this, because if you're going to the Passover and you were traveling, you might not know that this is a tomb right here. You've never been here before. They didn't have Google Maps. It wasn't like watch out, so you'd whitewash them. So you're walking with your family and you see, oh gosh, that's white. People are buried there. So I'm not going to touch that. We're going to avoid that because we don't want to ruin our Passover experience. And Jesus is saying you're just like that. You're whitewashed on the outside so everybody walking by can see you oh, there you are, but on the inside you're dead and rotting. Jesus wasn't just accusing them of a spiritual deadness. He was also saying that you're contaminating others while appearing holy, get it. It wasn't just that you look good, but if you touch the tomb you are ceremonially unclean. And he's saying in the same way Pharisees and scribes, when people interact with you, they become unclean because of what's going on inside you.

Speaker 1: 21:01

We see how easy it is to construct a version of faith that checks all the visible boxes. We know the right theology, we know how to look the part, we know how to sound spiritual, we know how to act committed. And we often do enough to just appear faithful on the outside. But God isn't fooled. God sees our hearts, god knows us, he sees what's going on beneath the surface. And the warning for us is if I'm so focused on the outside but I'm dead and rotting on the inside, I might not just be hurting myself, but those closest to me my partner, my best friend, my kids, my coworkers. You think about the person or the people closest to you. They're probably the people you like and love the most. And Jesus' warning is if we're so focused on outside-in transformation rather than inside-out transformation, we will contaminate those around us.

Speaker 1: 21:57

He says what sorrow awaits. Can you feel the heartbreak? He's not yelling at them. He can see something that's about to happen. How sad is it when you hurt the people you love the most. How heartbreaking is it when you're the reason that they go through pain and suffering we run the risk of, while we're maintaining our appearance, of harming those around us.

Speaker 1: 22:30

Now a message like this. It's difficult. We can start to feel convicted and maybe perhaps we're like well, convicted is a bad feeling. I shouldn't feel any of these bad feelings. I want to kind of comment on that. Sometimes we got to look inside and we got to deal with some yucky stuff, and that's okay. I'm not trying to make you feel guilty or ashamed.

Speaker 1: 22:50

This morning and as a matter of fact, jesus wasn't trying to make the Pharisees feel guilty or ashamed we read his lament in verse 37. Oh Jerusalem, jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God's messengers. How often I've wanted to gather your children together as a hand protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn't let me. And now look, your house is abandoned and desolate.

Speaker 1: 23:18

After a chapter filled with public rebukes, the tone shifts. Jesus isn't a critic anymore, but a grieving lover of his people. He names the tragedy. You kill your prophets, you stone those sent to you. That is the pattern we have seen for hundreds and thousands of years. God sends messengers in mercy and you reject them every time.

Speaker 1: 23:44

And then Jesus talks personally. He says how often have I longed. Jesus is like I wake up thinking about this, I go to bed thinking about this, I dream about this. This is what causes me anxiety, this is what makes me depressed. And his longing, did you hear it? It wasn't to punish them, but to gather them.

Speaker 1: 24:05

He offers a picture of anything that's harsh a hen gathering her chicks and, as a bonus sidebar, this is one of a few different times where Jesus or New Testament writers will use maternal language to describe God. It was almost like Father God, warrior God wasn't the right image. It was Mother God, mother God who looks after her kids, who gathers them up. Mother God, that God, our God protective and intimate. Jesus doesn't rebuke them again to shame them, but he rebukes them and us to awaken us. Sometimes we need to get shook a little bit. And he says and as he weeps, he says you were not willing, you were not willing, and this is the danger of a life built on appearances, performance and control.

Speaker 1: 25:03

Eventually, we're not just avoiding change, we're resisting love. We're not just avoiding change, but we're resisting love. We miss the invitation hiding beneath the confrontation. Again, jesus doesn't want to shame us, but he does want to free us. He wants something more for us than we want for ourselves. He wants us to move beyond managing an image or holding onto some sort of spiritual control. What he wants with us is a relationship that's open and honest. He's not looking for polished white tombs. He's just looking for people who come to him as they are so he can make them new.

Speaker 1: 25:38

And when we do, when we look at the mirror, when we have the courage, the strength, the boldness and the trust in God to look in the mirror, when we drop the act, when we let go of the need to be right or the need to look impressive, what you're going to find is not judgment there, not from God. You're going to find Jesus, arms wide open, heartbroken, but still willing to gather us. I know roles and rituals have changed. We live on the other side of Jesus's life, death and resurrection, but I know that the pull toward appearances over authenticity is still with us. There's a temptation to perform faith rather than live it out.

Speaker 1: 26:22

The late Brennan Manning, a former priest, recovering alcoholic, who wrote honestly about grace and his own failures, once said the greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable. Jesus' harshest words in Matthew 23 weren't for people on the outside looking in, those who didn't believe, those who weren't sure. His harshest words were for us, those here today. They're for us, people who think or feel like we figured it all out, or we figured some of it out, or more than another person. And today I want you to reflect on the question am I performing my faith or being transformed by it?

Speaker 1: 27:17

If you're somebody who's exploring faith, wrestling with disbelief, all you got to do is start with honesty. Jesus doesn't need you to pretend. He invites you Questions, doubts and all, because being real is the first step to being known. And so this week, just try praying honestly. God, if you are real, show me who you are. God, if you're real, show me who you are.

Speaker 1: 27:43

If you're kind of newer to following Jesus, you're kind of coming back to following Jesus. We run the risk of trying to fix everything in a weekend. We're going to come, we're going to leave church today and boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. My schedule's going to change, my checkbook is going to change, my circle of friends is going to change. All of this and you're going to burn yourself out and you're going to be exactly where you were before you came here today.

Speaker 1: 28:11

Part of your life, just one, your schedule, relationships, priorities and ask does this reflect the heart of Jesus? Does this reflect the heart of Jesus? And as you invite him in, you'll begin to notice real change. And for those of us today, you might find yourself in leadership at Madison Church or not in leadership at Madison Church, but you're a mature follower of Jesus. You have been for a while. The practicalities of what to do become a little harder. But how about this week? There's a reflection. Where has spiritual performance in your life replaced spiritual intimacy? Where has performance replaced intimacy? Where have you gotten comfortable looking godly instead of becoming more like Christ? And as you engage God with those questions, he will show you there's more for you. He will show you there's more depth, more freedom and more joy on the other side of surrender.

Speaker 1: 29:11

The Pharisees studied Scripture. They followed the rules, but when Jesus stood right in front of them, they missed Him, not because they lacked knowledge, but because their hearts resisted transformation. Let that not ever be said of us here at Madison Church. Let us not study the scriptures and know how to do all the right things, but if Jesus were to walk through that door right now, we wouldn't recognize him. Jesus isn't asking us to perform. He calls us to surrender. And that brings us to the table.

Speaker 1: 29:44

Each week, at Madison Church, we take communion to remember what Jesus has done for us His body broken, his blood poured out. And so today, as the band comes forward and leads us in this final song, let's remember Jesus didn't die so we could learn the correct answers. He died to give us new hearts At the cross. Jesus didn't perform, he surrendered. He didn't perform, he surrendered. He didn't protect his image. He poured out his life. Through his resurrection, he invites us into something better than empty religion. It's a life of humility, mercy and deep, authentic faith. So today, as we take the bread and we take the cup, don't just remember what Jesus did. Let it reshape who you are. Let it be a response to the invitation we've been talking about today, the one that Jesus is offering you now, not just to know him, but to become like him.