INVINCIBLE CHURCH 1-7-24

Invincible Church Sermon Notes
1/7/2024
True Spiritual Leaders - Part 2
Matthew 23:1-39
It’s a New Year and as a follower of Jesus, it’s important that we remind ourselves every day the real or true reason we exist. We only have life because God created us and made us in His image to be a part of His master plan, which is all for His glory and it’s based on relationships!
Most importantly for us is our relationship with Him through Jesus. Then our relationship with others through Him. By God’s design, relationships are only authentic and valid when actions toward one another by both parties in the relationship are grounded in true unconditional love. He also allows us to be part of…
… the process for working out His master plan. The process has responsibilities that apply to all of us, which are general, fundamental and foundational. Then He has unique, specific and special operative responsibilities inside the process for each one of us!
Also, by His design, we’re triune beings. So, we operate in a physical realm, which is our body, driven by our brain… and emotional realm which is our soul, driven by our mind… and a supernatural realm, which is our spirit, driven by our connection to (or separation from) God!
We can only be connected to God through the power of the Holy Spirit… and we’re only indwelled by the Holy Spirit if we’re in a true love, salvation relationship with Jesus. Since relationships are only valid when both parties take actions based on true, unconditional love, then…
… it’s our choice whether we want to take the action to be in a true love, salvation relationship with Jesus. He’s already done His part in the relationship process by being obedient to God’s command to come and sacrifice His perfect life on our behalf, which paid the price for our sins!
So now it’s up to us to do our part in the relationship by taking the action of submitting to Jesus as our Lord and Savior! When we make this conscious decision, then we’re connected to God through the Holy Spirit and we start the process of showing Him we love Him by being obedient to His instructions.
It’s called the sanctification process! We work to know God better by learning His Word, discerning what’s true and right – and putting our faith into action! The goal is to continually become more like Jesus so that we’re true spiritual leaders for God’s Kingdom.
I know this already seems like a lot of truth to digest, but it really is simple. The Bible says the truth of the Gospel is simple enough for a child to understand. You either love Jesus or you don’t! You’re either in a relationship with Jesus or you’re not! There’s no middle ground!
Understanding the supernatural realm is the challenge. We operate in the physical realm right now, so the only power we have as a human is natural. But as part of God’s creation, we’re in a supernatural battle against the dark spiritual authorities, powers and forces of evil!
It’s literally supernatural battles of good vs evil… right vs wrong… truth vs lies… pure vs perverted… integrity vs corruption… generosity vs greed… selfless vs hedonistic… and holy vs pagan! The Good News is, when we decide to follow Jesus, we’re indwelled by the Holy Spirit. So, we have something that the enemy doesn’t… and it’s access to God’s supernatural power! Now, in this life of spiritual battles, there are true spiritual leaders and false spiritual leaders.
Being able to identify a false spiritual leader is a valuable skill in our role of being a true spiritual leader because sometimes it’s hard to tell if a person is a false spiritual leader! They can be religious extremists who say a lot of right things…
… but they’re the wolves in sheep’s clothing that Jesus warns us about! Their deception might be intentional or ignorance… it could be aggressive legalism or passive tolerance! Whatever evil attempt at manipulation or influence it is, Jesus wants us to recognize it!
So, last week we started…
Matthew 23:1-12 NIV - Then Jesus said to the crowds and to His disciples … 2 “The teachers of The Law and The Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 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. 5 “Everything they do is done for people to see … They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by others. 8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and He Is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, The Messiah. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted!
Jesus gives us…
6 Ways to Identify True vs False Spiritual Leaders
1) Spiritually Authentic – True spiritual leaders are called by God… false spiritual leaders are not!
2) Spiritually Simple – True spiritual leaders are only committed to and bound by the parameters of the revealed Word of the Living God… false spiritual leaders add various human requirements to the faith that are not from God!
3) Spiritual Integrity – True spiritual leaders live what they preach and profess to believe… false spiritual leaders may say the right things, but they don’t do the right things.
4) Spiritually Sympathetic – True spiritual leaders patiently witness to and serve lost people in both word and deed… false spiritual leaders load people up with unnecessary burdens.
5) True Spirituality – A true spiritual leader’s heart is controlled by the Spirit of God… false spiritual leaders primarily do things for their own external show!
6) Spiritually Humble – True spiritual leaders have an outward spiritual strength with an internal spirit of meekness that is evident in their words and actions… everything a false spiritual leader does focuses and centers on them.
Then in (vs 13) Jesus changes gears… from this point in the passage on, Jesus isn’t talking about the character of these false spiritual leaders but their condemnation. He knows the judgment that’s going to come down on them if they don’t change their ways. So, in…
Matthew 23:13-31 NIV - 13 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. [14] Some manuscripts include words here that are similar to Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47 which reads ... 47 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.” 15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. 16 “Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ 17 You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred? 18 You also say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.’ 19 You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 Therefore, anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And anyone who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it. 22 And anyone who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the one who sits on it. 23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. 25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. 29 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. 30 And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ 31 So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
8 Sins that False Spiritual Leaders are Judged On
1) Exclusion (vs 13) – They keep people out of the kingdom of heaven by misleading them.
This is a direct contradiction in spiritual work that Jesus commands us to do! We’re supposed to lead people into God’s Kingdom by speaking the truth of the Gospel!
2) Exploitation – (vs 14) – They take advantage of poor, lonely, hurting people who’re in desperate need of spiritual truth!
They mislead people who’re in all kinds of vulnerable situations with manipulative messages of false hope!
3) Perversion – (vs 15) – They mislead and corrupt everybody who comes to them for spiritual truth with the false spiritual counsel of the devil!
People who’re broken, hurting, suffering, questioning, doubting, weak-willed, panicked and are struggling with all kinds of problems are looking for answers and hope. So, they’re easy targets for false teachers, so they manipulate them into corruption and perversion.
It’s how a person searching for spiritual truth ends up becoming like a child of hell, which is a person whose character and deeds cause them to deserve eternity in hell! Our job as ambassadors for Jesus is to get the Gospel of Truth to them before the enemy gets his hooks in!
4) Subversion – (vs 16) – They undermine God’s truth by developing a worldly system that allows them to live in sin and theoretically not violate their own falsely define moral code.
This basically means they want to lie but they know that God hates a liar. So, they develop a subversive system of lying based on oaths and they’ve got the audacity to think that by design of their own subversive system, these lies don’t count against them somehow.
It’s like when a little kid tells a friend that he promises he’ll do something that he knows he’s not going to do! Then, when the friend calls him on it, he says, I really didn’t have to do it because I had my fingers crossed behind my back! It’s that kind of system… sound familiar?
5) Inversion – (vs 23-24) – They ignore God’s command for justice, mercy and faithfulness while insisting people adhere to manmade rituals, customs, ceremonies and rites!
They neglect the things that really matter to God and only pay attention to the things that are important to them! The Bible tells us that in the process of God’s plan, these little manmade things don’t really matter at all!
6) Extortion – (vs 25-26) – They abuse their false religious authority for the purpose of self-gain!
On the outside, they appear highly religious to the world, but on the inside, they’re full of self-indulgence and robbery! The Greek word is even more severe because it means pillaging, raping, plundering!
7) Deception – (vs 27-28) – They deceive people in words and actions with false gospel, hypocrisy, legalism and fake news!
The parallel here it’s Passover and if a Jew touches a tomb (even accidentally) they become ceremonially unclean! So, beforehand, they’d go through the city and whitewash all the tombs so visitors could see them. But there was nothing in scripture that mandated this.
They just wanted everything on the outside to look like they had all their manmade religious priorities in order for visitors. But the reality was that on the inside, they were guilty of exclusion, exploitation, perversion, subversion, inversion, extortion and …
😎 Pretension - (vs 29-31) – They pretend to be holy, righteous, sanctimonious and better than everybody else!
Paul points this out to Timothy when he says, “Evil men will grow worse and worse!” Paul knew it in his soul! They pretty much admitted that they were worse than their forefathers without even realizing it!
And the reality is, their forefathers killed a lot of the servants of God but these guys were about to kill the Son of God! To tie this all together, when we think about our ministry as a follower of Jesus, we have to address things from a positive perspective…
Even things that’re negative like the dangers of people being misled by false spiritual leaders! We have to spend more time focusing on being a true spiritual leader and speaking the truth about Jesus than we spend complaining and criticizing what others are doing wrong!
The instructions Jesus gave us are to carry out God’s plan and are really simple to do… and will transform us into true spiritual leaders if we’ll do it: love, pray and be thankful for everything… to go, make and teach disciples… and to ask, seek and knock!
The world's plan tells us we have to get educated, established and pursue a career first to be successful… which eventually leads to stress, worry, anger, depression, addiction, etc. God’s plan calls for us to pursue Jesus, which leads to peace, joy and glorifies God!
While we’re pursuing Jesus, we discern from God through prayer what He would have our career to be! Because this life isn’t about pursuing comfort, convenience, ease or a high-class lifestyle. If we’re blessed by God to have those things, then praise Jesus!
Our primary goal in this life is to pursue Jesus and follow His plan for winning spiritual battels in everything He calls us to do! If we’re faithful and diligent in that pursuit, we’ll become the spiritual leaders we’re called to be. So, I’ll close with this…
We’ll never be able to lead people to Jesus unless we’re pursuing Him ourselves! And we don’t have to be in a full-blown sprint because it’s not a race, but it is a marathon. So, we do need to be in steady run for what’s right, which will be obvious to people around us.
In the course of a battle, it’s always beneficial for a follower of Jesus to know where we stand with God as an individual, family, church, community and nation. The Bible gives us examples in all cases! So, next week we’re going to look at what the Old Testament book of Amos tells us about the current spiritual condition of our nation and us!
We want to be successful in advancing God’s Kingdom in 2024. So, let’s be diligent in praying that God will help us be wise in recognizing what’s false and be faithful in respecting what’s true, so we CAN be the true spiritual leader He’s called us to be!