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Nobleton Community Church
29084 Sentinel Street PO Box 224
Nobleton, Florida 34661
Rev. Paul V. Lehmann, Pastor
813-389-8683
Nobletoncommunitychurch.org
info@nobletoncommunitychurch.org
OUR VISION IS:
To experience SPIRIT-FILLED WORSHIP AND PRAYER
To be involved in EVANGELISM, DISCIPLINING AND TRAINING PEOPLE
To use our SPIRITUAL GIFTS
To SERVE AND REACH PEOPLE FOR CHRIST, BOTH
“ACROSS THE STREET AND ACROSS THE WORLD”
Nobleton Community Church
Date March 8, 2026
Text Matthew 23:1-39
Pastor Paul Lehmann
The evidence of holiness is not in how you dress or how you look; the evidence of holiness is in how you treat others. This principle is repeated throughout the gospel of Matthew: every time you interact with another person, you have the opportunity to practice holiness.
A holy person reads the Bible, a holy person prays, a holy person goes to church —We all know that these things actually almost go without saying, but there’s much, much more to it than that. What we learn from the life and teachings of Jesus is that a holy person, first and foremost, loves.
A person’s holiness is best seen in the way he or she treats other people.
That’s why Jesus was so sharp in his rebuke of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a religious group of people who kept all the religious laws to unbelievable extremes — but they did not have love.
WE MUST BE CAREFUL NOT TO HAVE A PHARISAIC SPIRIT OR ATTITUDE
In Matthew 23 Jesus spoke the harshest words of his entire ministry, and they were directed at the Pharisees. Listen to what William Barclay said (slightly edited)…
“If a man or woman is characteristically irritable and given to uncontrolled outbursts, his anger is neither effective nor impressive. Nobody pays attention to the anger of a bad-tempered man. But when a person who is characteristically gentle and loving suddenly erupts into blazing wrath, even the most thoughtless person is shocked into taking thought.” [The Gospel of Matthew Volume 2, William Barclay, page 281]
We need to let the words of Jesus in Matthew 23 shock us into taking thought…into taking stock of our lives and our actions and our attitudes so that we can avoid making the same disastrous mistakes that the Pharisees made. Jesus didn’t speak his harshest words to prostitutes or prisoners or demon-possessed people; he spoke his harshest words to the religious people of his day because they had made a mockery of the spiritual life. They had squeezed out all of the joy that comes from a relationship with God and had reduced religion to a long list of impossible rules and regulations. What they had created in the name of religion was light-years away from the life of love that God had originally intended for his people to exemplify.
THE RELIGION OF THE PHARISEES WAS:
STRICT, STERN, AND JOYLESS.
The sad thing is that today, more than 2000 years later, there are some who take the liberating message of the gospel and try their best to squeeze the life out of it, as well. If Jesus were here with us today as he was then, I’m sure his message would be the same: Woe to you, hypocrites.
I’m sure we would all agree that we don’t want that message to be directed at us. We don’t want to fall into the same trap that the Pharisees fell into. We don’t want to be religious hypocrites. So how do we avoid it?
SIGNS OF PHARISAIC ATTITUDES
Today, we’ll look at three things we can do to help us move away from HYPOCRISY toward a life of HOLINESS. If you want to have holiness without hypocrisy, the first thing you need to do is…
- Let go of your ego.
If the primary function that your “religion” performs in your life is to reinforce the notion that you’re better than other people, then you are missing the point. That’s not what a relationship with God is about. However, it’s what the Pharisees had made their religion into. The apostle Paul said: “…Consider others, better than yourselves.” The Pharisees’ version of Judaism was nothing short of showmanship, and their main objective was, seemingly, to impress other people. Listen to what Jesus said about them…
Verse 5 “Everything they do is done for men to see. They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on the garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.'”
Phylacteries and tassels were religious ornaments. Jesus is not condemning them specifically; he’s condemning the way the Pharisees used them to further their holier-than-thou image. Jesus didn’t condemn them for being devout; he condemned them for using the “devoutness” in a condescending, contemptuous way.
There’s a principle that Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17-26) that we need to remember:
Contempt is a sin. Condescension is a sin. Thinking you’re better than someone else is a sin. Posturing as if you’re better than someone else is a sin. Elitism is a sin. Class snobbery is a sin. Exalting yourself is a sin. (For those of you who say I don’t preach against sin enough, here are more than half-a-dozen to chew on.)
Today, no one wears phylacteries and tassels, but let’s talk about a couple of ways we let our ego get in the way of our holiness.
Dropping Names. Have you ever met anyone who does this…anyone who tries to impress you by casually mentioning the important people they’re “good friends” with? It’s a subtle way of exalting yourself, a subtle way of saying, “I’m somebody.”
Another way we let our ego get in the way of our holiness is…
An Attachment to Titles. Jesus refers to the Pharisees who love to be called “Rabbi.” We have the same tendency. Some ministers insist on being called “Dr.” or “Reverend.” Sometimes, this is just a subtle way of saying, “I’m a step higher on the ladder than you are.” When interviewing job applicants, some will ask, “What will my responsibilities be?” and others will ask, “What will my title be?” Guess which group tends to be better employees?
We have to be wary of pretentiousness. We have to be wary of those little habits and attitudes we sometimes adopt that are designed to exalt ourselves and/or put down others. Don’t try to impress people. Don’t let your ego get in the way of your holiness; it opens the door to hypocrisy in your life.
Striving for holiness without hypocrisy also means that we…
- Focus on what really matters.
Last week, we read in Matthew 22 where Jesus said that our top priorities are to love God with all of our heart, soul, and mind, and to love others as we love ourselves. He said these are the most important commandments in the law. In today’s text, he said to the Pharisees…
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.
Jesus is saying that while tithing is good, there are more important aspects of the law that we should tend to — specifically: justice, mercy and faithfulness.
The Old Testament teaches that the concept of tithing. This includes income as well as produce from your crops.
A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord. (Leviticus 27:30)
The Pharisees were meticulous about tithing. Jesus mentions that they tithe “mint, dill and cummin.” These weren’t income producing crops, they were the kinds of plants a family would grow in their kitchen garden, so the crops would be quite small. Yet, the Pharisees insisted that even this small amount — even if it was just one plant — must be tithed to the Lord.
That’s not the bad part. The bad part is that they were meticulous about tithing, but completely careless about the more important matters of the law. Jesus said…
24 You strain out a gnat, but swallow a camel.
He’s referring to the Pharisees’ custom of pouring wine through a strainer to prevent accidentally swallowing a gnat. Their motive for doing this was different than ours would be. We would want to strain out gnats because we think that swallowing insects is repulsive. Their motive wasn’t sanitation as much as it was religious. Gnats are “unclean” according to the Old Testament dietary laws, and they didn’t want to accidentally eat anything that is Biblically unclean. Camels are also unclean animals, and the point Jesus is making is that while you go to great lengths to be faithful in little areas, you’re completely missing the mark in the big areas.
Jesus said we should focus on justice, mercy and faithfulness. Usually when we talk about justice, we’re talking about bad people getting what they’ve got coming to them.
The New Testament use of the word is more about the idea that innocent people shouldn’t be mistreated, and helpless people shouldn’t be taken advantage of. The New Testament concept of justice can be seen in the book of James.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress…(James 1:27)
Tithing is good — it’s part of living a holy life — but justice, mercy and faithfulness are more important. Tithing is fairly easy; it’s simply a matter of mathematics. 10% is 10%, but Paul encourages us not to give begrudgingly.
But also, Justice, mercy, and faithfulness, however, are heart issues. They’re driven by love for others. You can’t go through the motions in these matters; you can’t fake compassion.
This is the crucial distinction: justice, mercy and faithfulness are actions motivated by love for others — much more so than tithing. Jesus is saying to the Pharisees: if you really want to be holy, then start loving other people. He’s saying the same thing to us today: Do you want to be holy? Then focus on what’s really important. Love people. Treat them with justice, mercy and faithfulness.
Thirdly, if you want to be holy and not hypocritical, you need to…
- Start with your heart.
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. Blind Pharisee! First, clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will be clean.
Jesus is referring to the ceremonial cleansing of dishes before using them. He’s not condemning the custom; he’s saying that it is pointless to perform religious rituals when your heart is far from God. It’s pointless to perform religious rituals when your life is filled with greed and self-indulgence.
Greed and self-indulgence. What do these have in common? Me. Me. Me. I want more things so that I can have more pleasure. I want more money so that I can spend it on myself. I want more so that I can have more.
Who is absent from this picture? Other people. If you are consumed with greed and self-indulgence, you are not focusing on others, are you? Greed and self-indulgence are the antithesis of justice, mercy, and faithfulness. Greed and self-indulgence are all about “me”; justice, mercy, and faithfulness are all about “you”.
The difference between being self-focused or being others-focused is determined by who rules the kingdom of your heart. Who is the center of your universe?
If you want to be holy, you have to begin with your heart. You have to be cleansed from the inside out. That’s something you can’t do for yourself; it takes a miracle from God. The good news is that God performs miracles — especially this one. In Ezekiel, God says…
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. “(Ezekiel 36:26)
That’s what we need. That’s where holiness begins, and hypocrisy ends — with a new heart. We need to approach life with the understanding that the outer shell of life — the external appearances — is a secondary issue to God. The primary issue, as far as God is concerned, is what we are underneath the shell. What is the state of your heart? If we’re not willing to be given a new heart — a heart that is turned toward God — the rest of our religious activity is a waste of time.
Do you want to be holy and not hypocritical? Begin with your heart. Cry out to God — plead with him, beg him — to change you from the inside out.
What we’ve seen in today’s passage is what we see throughout the gospel of Matthew: Being spiritual, or being holy, is a matter of having a heart for God and a heart for others. The evidence of holiness is discovered in how you treat others.