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Notices
A HEART THAT IS POWERFUL
MATTHEW 23.23-28
We hear a lot today about heart disease. In fact it is the single biggest killer in Northern Ireland. Many of us have to take medication to keep our hearts beating at the right speed etc. Our hearts are important to our physical health but what about our spiritual health? This morning we are going to begin a series of sermons which are going to examine our hearts. The purpose of these sermons is to encourage and challenge us to do a spiritual check-up on our hearts and to change where necessary for our spiritual health. This first sermon is the rational behind the series.
Turn with me to Matthew 23 and verses 23-28. I want to concentrate on these verses this morning. Matthew's gospel is the most Jewish of the four. He deals a lot with the Christology of Christ and the Law, the Jewish leaders and the disciples understanding of Christ. Matthew groups his teaching in fives and sevens, a very Judaic way of teaching. If you look at chapter 23 as a whole you will see that it contains seven woes.
This sermon will have three simple points (or principles that you need to take on board):
YOUR INSIDE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR OUTSIDE!
TO CHANGE YOUR OUTSIDE WORK ON YOUR INSIDE!
WHAT'S ON THE INSIDE ALWAYS COMES OUT!
YOUR INSIDE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR OUTSIDE!
We live in a world dominated and consumed by image. Everything is sold on image today. Coffee is no longer sold as a coffee but as an 'experience' - you don't believe me take a look at Starbucks. We say we like good coffee but we are prepared to drink it out of a cardboard cup? Everything has its name and its image, even the church has bought into 'image.' Now it is not all bad but we know that image is not everything. For example you can have a car that looks amazing on the outside but the engine is dead. The inside matters in a car, far more than the outside????
Look for a moment at verses 27-28 of Matthew 23. Jesus is being very frank and honest with these men. I don't think they would fail to understand what he was saying to them. I mean when someone calls you a 'hypocrite' they are not complimenting you. No one likes hypocrites and no one likes to be called a hypocrite.
Jesus goes on to call them 'whitewashed tombs.' Let me set the context of what Jesus is saying here to the Pharisees who were the religious leaders of the day. During the month of Adar, which led to Passover, the tombs along the pilgrim paths to Jerusalem were whitewashed so that no pilgrim would accidentally touch them and become defiled an unable to celebrate the Passover. Jesus is not exactly being polite about these religious leaders. To call someone a whitewashed tomb was not exactly a compliment. Tombs can be whitewashed to look gleaming in the sunlight but the reality is that on the inside they contain a decaying corpse and anyone who touches them becomes contaminated by them. Think for a moment exactly what Jesus is saying to these men. You look good, your image is beautiful but you are full of death, rotten and corrupt and anyone you touch becomes defiled. In essence Jesus is saying 'your inside is more important than your outside!' Christ challenges these religious leaders, who were morally upright, ceremonially clean, ritually observant and legally obedient to examine their hearts because their outside image had no inner reality. The inside is more important than the outside - I Samuel 16 verse 7.
TO CHANGE YOUR OUTSIDE WORK ON YOUR INSIDE!
Or to put it another way - growing your character is more important than growing your reputation. Let me explain that to you. Your reputation is what other people think of you. Your character is who you really are. Your reputation is what is seen on the outside but your character is what you are truly like on the inside.
To most people their reputation is their most valued possession. A good reputation is important but sometimes your reputation is not true. We often hear in the media about some celebrity, politician or sports star whose reputation has just been dented by some expose. Let me ask you: Do you know what your reputation is? More importantly: Is your reputation accurate? You see reputations can be accurate or false. Until recently banks had a reputation of being wise with money? Their reputation proved not to be accurate. Turn with to verses 25 and 26 of the passage we read from Matthew's gospel. Read the verses for a moment. Do you understand what Jesus is saying to the religious leaders?
Once again he calls them hypocrites. Here he is pointing out to them that they concern themselves with their reputations but their character remains unchanged. You can have cups sitting on the shelf that shine on the outside but lift them down and you wouldn't dream of drinking from them because the inside is filthy. How many lives are like that? It was not different in the day of Christ. They were religious people who had reputations for being God-fearing, obedient, morally upright, and religiously observant but their character was a completely different matter.
You see you and I cannot control our reputation. You can try and manage it (you can employ a Max Clifford if you wish) but you have no control over what other people say about you or how they judge you. Your character however you have complete control over and you can decide the outcome of your character. You can work on your character and that is exactly what Christ was saying here. If you want the outside to change (to permanently change) you need to work on your character. Why? Why does character matter in a world where image or reputation is all that matters? The answer is because God is concerned with your character (who you really are) and not your reputation which can be true or false. After all Jesus had a reputation as being a friend of sinners and someone who drank too much wine - that was his reputation but we know that his character was sinless and pure.
Your character determines your behaviour and your life choices. Your character comes to the fore when you are under pressure. Your character comes through when the times are tough. If there is no underlying change in character you will revert back to old patterns of behaviour in difficult times. Friends, I don't have to go into illustrations for many of you this morning to know that is true. For some of you this morning this is the reason you repeat past sins and fall into repetitive patterns of sinful behaviour because you have never worked on the changing of your character.
You can whitewash the tombs all you like but they dead will remain inside. The corpse will continue to decay, to rot and to corrupt all it comes into contact with. If you want to change the outside you have to work on the inside. If you want to change your behaviour then work on your character.
WHAT'S ON THE INSIDE ALWAYS COMES OUT!
Let me read a verse to you - Numbers 32 verse 23. Why will the inside of our lives always come out? The answer is because God wants it to happen and, this might surprise you this morning, satan wants it to happen. They want what is on the inside to come out for different purposes. God wants it to come out so that you can become more Christlike in your character. Satan wants it to come out because he wants to beat you down, to embarrass you and to lead you into further sin. If you are a 'whitewashed tomb' (Christian on the outside but no living reality on the inside) then satan will want it to come out at the right moment to cause maximum damage to your credibility because in that way maximum damage can be done to the gospel's credibility. Do you really think it is just a coincidence when someone is exposed in their Christian life? Friends I have been involved in some sort of public Christian ministry for almost 25 years, 16 of those as a pastor and in that time I have lost count of the damage done to the gospel when someone's lifestyle was exposed as being incompatible with the gospel. I don't mind telling you I have cried sore some nights over the damage done in lives because someone people admired, respected and looked up to was shown to be a hypocrite. The Pharisees were admired by the people of Jesus' day. The people respected them, followed their example and their teaching but Christ comes and exposes the hypocrisy of it all.
Look at verses 23-24. They tithed even their spices. They measured out a tenth of all that they owned for the Lord God. Let me say to you Christ is not here condemning tithing - we would do well to begin there with our own giving. Yet look at what he says next to them - you neglect justice, mercy and faithfulness. They neglected the core issues of the Law but were pedantic about the small things. Friends don't lose sight of the main things in Scripture because your focus is on the small issues. You can get caught up in music, liturgy, meetings, finance and lose focus on the main issue - following Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. The Pharisees were exposed. What was on the inside came out when Christ decided to expose it. What is on the inside in your life? God or satan will expose it - for different reasons and with different purposes in mind.
If you are interested in how these three principles are worked out in your life then this sermon series is for you - we will be looking at a prayerful heart, a passionate heart, a pure heart, a positive heart and a heart that is pumping. The purpose is to work on your character and not your reputation because what is on the inside eventually comes out. This sermon series we pray will encourage you to work on your character by allowing Christ through the Holy Spirit to bring to your attention the areas of your life that need repentance, healing and restoration. This is for us all, no matter where you see yourself spiritually - this is for us all.
Amen.
