Woe to You: Jesus's Final Public Sermon

A Warning Against Spiritual Deception and False Teachers

We are studying the final words and actions of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, from Matthew 23. This is His last public sermon—a series of eight woes, divine judgments that stand in sharp contrast to the eight blessings He preached at the beginning of His ministry. His last words matter. When someone is on their deathbed, their words carry weight. We must lean into what Jesus says here.

The Lord stands in the temple complex, surrounded by thousands, having just defeated the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herodians in theological debate. Knowing He will be crucified in a few days, He does not use His final sermon to speak of love, blessing, or grace. Instead, like a father protecting his children, He warns the people of the danger ahead: ravenous wolves disguised as religious leaders.

Two Grievous Forces Against Followers of Christ

From my twenty-one years of walking with the Lord, I have seen two destructive forces at work against those who follow Christ and those seeking Him.

The first is spiritual warfare. We have a real enemy—Satan, that dragon who hates those who bear God's image. As long as we bear the name of Christ, we will face spiritual attacks: storms that rise without warning, betrayal, abandonment, sickness, affliction. This is why Paul taught us in Ephesians 6 about spiritual armor. There is no Christianity without a fight. There is no Christianity without warfare.

But the second force is far more destructive: spiritual deception. This is when the enemy works through false teachers with false teachings and false authority, luring people away from Christ, from the church, from God's Word, from truth. You can survive a spiritual battle and emerge with your faith intact. But people deceived by false doctrine often do not come out on the other side. They lose their faith. They lose their testimony.

Look around America. We see this everywhere. People who went to seminary now say, "I don't know if the Bible can be trusted." People who once were on fire for God grow distant. In community, people look left and right, and those who used to be on fire are no longer on fire.

They come into the church, and then they start reading things on the internet unrelated to God. They join social media groups that have nothing to do with God. They consume the "deep things of Satan" Jesus warned about in Revelation. Suddenly they've grown in self-righteousness, bitter toward pastors and the church, anti-community, anti-pastor, anti-Bible. They latch onto some new doctrine, some new-age apostle, some fake Facebook prophet with a 4 a.m. revelation that contradicts God's Word.

This is more damaging because millions of men and women—this close to salvation, on the doorstep of the kingdom—will be eternally separated from God because of false doctrine. Not because they were wicked, but because they were ignorant.

The Danger of Biblical Illiteracy

Because we don't read, because we're biblically illiterate, we believe everything preachers say. You should stop believing everything we say. You should check behind us and read the scriptures for yourself. The more truth you know, the easier it is to discern a lie. But for lack of biblical knowledge, right now as I'm talking to you, there are demons standing in pulpits all across America leading people astray. Right now, there are people on a fast track to eternal damnation.

Doctrine will put people in hell. The most dangerous threat to the body of Christ is not Satan himself, but the ambassadors he works through—those who come into churches, start unauthorized groups, and lead people out of the gathering, away from God, into an eternal fire.

The apostle warned us: as soon as we leave, ravenous wolves will come into the church, and they will not spare the flock. Guard your soul. Don't give access to your soul to everybody. You cheapen your soul when you give everyone access. Just because someone has a big Instagram, a platform, a conference, a book, or a podcast does not mean you owe them access to your soul.

You watch too much. You thumb too much. That's why you have strong thumbs and weak souls. We swipe and listen to too many false prophets. Your thumb is strong, and your soul is weak.

The First Woe: Shutting the Door of the Kingdom

Matthew 23:13 — "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in."

The word woe is a word of divine judgment and sorrow. The Lord is not just angry—His heart is broken. He calls them hypocrites, an ancient theater term. Actors wore masks and were one thing on the outside, another on the inside. Hypocrisy is living a duplicitous life: one thing externally, another internally. Inconsistency between what you say and how you live. Inconsistency between how you post and how you live.

When Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom in the first century, there was revival. People were coming to faith by the thousands. Great crowds followed Him everywhere He traveled as He preached, taught, and healed. The Pharisees saw this and had to make a choice: assist Him or attack Him. They chose to attack.

The Pharisees began discrediting His ministry, creating emotional conflict in people's hearts. People were torn: Should we listen to our spiritual teachers or to this man called the Christ? The conflict was real. And because people had affinity for the Pharisees, they sided with them instead of Christ. In doing so, they shut the door of the kingdom in people's faces.

Christ came preaching a message that led people into the kingdom, into eternity, into salvation, into life. The Pharisees preached against Him, leading people away from Christ, away from the Word, away from the kingdom into false religion. They inadvertently shut the kingdom.

This happens today. When God raises up a real man of God, a real woman of God with the message of the kingdom, there are heresy hunters and critics on YouTube and social media who don't like you—don't like your haircut, your dress, where you came from. They make comments, create content, produce videos about real men and women of God. You turn people away from that voice. And what you're inadvertently doing is shutting the doors of the kingdom. You're turning people away from gospel truth.

Do you want to be a door opener or a door closer? Because your personal life closes doors. Your witness closes doors. People are watching you all the time. You call yourself a Christian; they see how you live and turn away from God. You don't want anything to do with the God you serve. You're closing the doors of the kingdom.

We should be people who open the door, not people who shut it. We should do everything we can to spread truth, spread the gospel, make Christ known. The more we make Christ known in our lives, witness, posts, podcasts, sermons, and books, the more we open the doors of the kingdom for people to run in and be saved.

One of the best things you can do when you find yourself in a mess is get low. Don't parade sin all over social media when unbelievers are watching you. We're having gender reveals when we're not married, with "Christian" in our profile. We're turning people away from the God we serve, slamming the doors of the kingdom in their face.

Deal with your sin in private with your community group instead of parading it on social media. These Pharisees, through their false religion, were a hindrance to people being saved. We must stop slamming this door on the faces of people who are watching our lives and listening to our doctrine.

The Second Woe: Converting People to False Religion

Matthew 23:15 — "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves."

The Pharisees traveled far distances, went to great lengths, used every platform available—social media, conferences—to convert people to their false religion. And when they converted people, they made them twice the son of hell. Why? Because new converts often have more zeal than their teachers. Now they spread the lies more aggressively on social media.

It's one thing not to believe. It's another thing to convert others to false religion. This happened to Paul before he was saved. He was under Gamaliel, a Pharisee, and more zealous than his teacher. That's why he was killing Christians in the first century. He was twice the son of hell.

We need to pray for the millions in false religions who are spreading false doctrine in society. They show up at your door with bow ties and ties, trying to spread false religion. They're at the grocery store, the airport, the bus station with their magazines, trying to make people twice the son of hell. We need to pray for all these people in false religions, fake Christian religions, spreading false doctrine in society.

The Third Woe: Blind Guides

Matthew 23:16-22 — "Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing. But if anyone swears by the gold in the temple, he is bound by his oath.'"

Jesus calls them blind fools, blind men, blind guides. Because that's what false teachers are—blind guides leading people to hell.

The Pharisees had a law called Corban. To them, the things of God—the temple, the altar—meant nothing. The gold, the gift, the materialism—that meant something. They would bring those things to the temple and keep them for themselves.

In that time and culture, lying abounded. For people to have trust in what someone said, they made all these oaths. Jesus came along and said, "Family, stop making all these oaths. Stop swearing by your mama." In the South, we say, "I swear by my mama. I'm telling the truth." But Jesus said, "Don't swear by your mama or your father or anything. Let your character be so strong that when you speak, people believe what you say."

Let your yes be yes and your no be no. Strong character makes strong words. Weak character makes weak words. Why beg for trust when you're inconsistent? You cannot trust inconsistent people. Husbands, if you want your wife to trust you, be consistent. Ministers, if you want people to trust you, be consistent.

The Fourth Woe: Majoring on Minors

Matthew 23:23-24 — "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!"

Tithing was an Old Testament principle. In the law, God commanded His people to set aside 10% of the harvest to help the foreigner, to build the temple and the church. These Pharisees were so legalistic that they tithed from the seasonings in their cabinet—mint, dill, cumin—but neglected justice, mercy, and faithfulness.

You are majoring on minors and ignoring the more important things. You are fighting over tiny things while missing the weightier matters. This is like people who fight about the Sabbath. "Why are you worshiping? It's not the Sabbath." Every time we say we're going to take a Sabbath, people come and fight. "Sunday is not the Sabbath."

Yes, we know Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath. We worship Christ on Sunday because He was resurrected on Sunday. Instead of fighting us about the Sabbath, you should love people who may not agree with you. We must stop majoring on minors.

You can worship Jesus any day of the week. If He told us to enter into Him and He is our rest, He is a type of Sabbath for us. We worship on Tuesday at 3 p.m. in the park. This is why we give grace for non-essentials and go all-in for essentials. Let's talk about the deity of Christ? No grace. Let's talk about the triune God? No grace. Let's talk about the infallibility of God's Word? No grace. What day do I worship? Grace.

You're straining out a gnat—the smallest unclean creature in Israel—while swallowing a camel, the largest. You focus so much on the tiny thing but don't see all the false doctrine you're swallowing. You're fighting people about the Sabbath but don't love people in your heart. The Lord says do both: tithe and love. Tithe and care about people. Do both.

The Fifth Woe: Cleaning the Outside While Neglecting the Inside

Matthew 23:25-26 — "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean."

This is like going to someone's house and asking for water. They go to the sink, see dirty dishes, pull out a cup, wash only the outside, leave all the mildew on the inside, pour in water, and hand it to you. You're not going to drink from that cup.

But the Lord is saying we must stop purifying our external Christianity—fixing your clothes, fixing your hair, trying to look holy on the outside. You clean up everything externally, but you don't deal with the sinfulness of your heart.

You need to care about more than just coming to church or being on a team. You need to ring out the sin from your heart and deal with the inside. Every day except Friday, I pray over my family: "Lord, create in my family clean hearts. Create in my family pure hearts." I want you to have a desire for a consecrated interior life.

Jesus doesn't care about your books, your posts, your ministry, your conference when your inside is dark, nasty, and rotten. I'm talking to us American Christians. We spend all this time trying to look holy and pious on the outside and do nothing about the darkness of your heart on the inside. You need to shed tears and ring out the sin in your heart. We are racist. We are idolatrous. We treat our skin color like an idol. We have all this evil in our hearts and you're preaching, trying to be holy, saying, "Bless the Lord," but you've got all that nastiness in your heart.

You think a man in a suit is holy, but a dude with a chain around his neck is not? Get in your prayer room. Let's talk about who's doing the real work off the platform. You think a big following, a big Instagram, makes someone holy? You think people are holy because they have a big ministry or a big church or wear a suit every week? All that outside is clean while inside they're filthy and disgusting and nasty.

I keep telling you a hundred times a year: Be more impressed with character than oratory. Be more impressed with who someone is in private.

The Sixth Woe: Whitewashed Tombs

Matthew 23:27-28 — "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness."

During feasts like Passover in the first century, they had tombs outside. They would whitewash them to make them clean so no one would touch them and become unclean. But inside those tombs are corpses, dead bodies. Jesus is saying, "Why do you make the exterior clean while inside you are like a corpse?"

The Seventh Woe: Building Monuments While Murdering Prophets

Matthew 23:29-36 — "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, 'If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets."

They build tombs for the prophets and decorate monuments, saying, "If we had lived back then, we would never have done what they did." That's called self-righteousness. We do this now too. We say, "Man, if I was alive in the first century, I would have followed Jesus with my whole heart. I would have been eating breakfast with Jesus."

But you have Jesus right here, and you don't follow Him. You have Jesus in your heart through the Holy Spirit. You don't follow Him. You think if you had been with Him physically, you would have followed. No, you would have been with Him physically and still been disobedient. You have Christ right here. You have Christ from Genesis to Revelation. You have all of Christ right here, and you still don't listen. You still don't obey. You still argue and fight and push back.

But watch what Jesus says next. They testify against themselves. They decorate the tombs of prophets, yet before them stands the Son of God, and in just three days, they're going to plot His death. They're decorating the tombs of prophets while conspiring to murder the greatest prophet the world has ever known.

So Jesus tells them: "Fill up then the measure of your fathers." Go ahead and do what you plan to do. And the Lord says something that reveals His confidence and His power. Go ahead and take your best shot. Go ahead and engineer my death. I'm coming out anyway. I'm going to be raised in three days anyway. I'm coming out of that tomb anyway. Go ahead and do what you've got to do. Tell the devil to go ahead and take his best shot. I'm coming out anyway. Nothing's going to shut me up. Nothing's going to shut me down. Nothing's going to rob me of praise. I'm going to praise God no matter what shot you take.

The Final Judgment

Matthew 23:33-36 — "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth..."

Jesus closes His last sermon by calling them serpents and a brood of vipers. He's attaching them to the identity of Satan. He's condemning the whole order of the Pharisees. And He testifies to the existence of hell.

You don't want to believe in hell because you think God would never send anybody there. But hell is real. It's a prison cell like Riker's Island. People are there right now begging for water, begging for air, begging for sight, begging for life, begging for light. They'll get nothing until they're tossed into the lake of fire. There's no purgatory. There's no praying people out of hell. When you get clipped, wherever you stand with Jesus is where you end up for the rest of eternity.

That's why today is the day of salvation, not next week.

The Lord knew what they were about to do. He knew they would engineer His death. So in these last verses, He gives them final judgment. He uses the word therefore—a transition connecting everything He said before to everything He's about to say.

Because you have closed the door of the kingdom, because you have been My enemy, because you have turned people away, because you have lied, because you have false religion, because you have rejected the Messiah—therefore, I'm going to send you prophets, preachers, wise men, and scribes. Some of whom you will kill and crucify. Some you will flog in your synagogues and persecute from town to town.

But He's not sending these men to win them. He's sending them knowing they will reject them—to fill up the wrath of God against them. Every time you hear truth and reject it, you're filling up wrath for the day of judgment. How many conferences, how many books, how many sermons, how many Sunday mornings? You're just filling up wrath.

The Danger of Hearing Truth and Rejecting It

The more truth you know, the more you're responsible for. It would be better for you not to hear truth at all than to hear truth and reject it. There will be no excuses on the day of judgment.

On that day, many will come to Him saying, "Lord, Lord, did we not do all this stuff in Your name?" He will say, "Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you."

He's not talking to atheists. He's talking to people who think they're Christians. So hear this word today. Repent. Turn from false doctrine. Return to Christ. Because time is running out, and this is the hour to be serious about your walk with the Lord Jesus Christ.