Please remain standing for scripture reading. Let me invite you to take your Bibles and turn to our text in Matthew, Matthew chapter 23, and we'll be reading verses 1 through 12 together. Matthew 23, 1 through 12. And let's hear the word of the Lord. Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, the scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses. Therefore, all they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds, for they say things and do not do them. They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. They love the places of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplaces and being called rabbi by men. But do not be called rabbi for one is your teacher and you are all brothers. Do not call anyone on earth your father for one is your father who is in heaven. Do not be called leaders for one is your leader that is Christ. But the greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. May God bless his word. Please be seated. Would you bow with me as we ask the Lord to bless his word? Father, we thank you that you have spoken to us plainly and sufficiently in the pages of scripture. We thank you that we're able to read them and understand them. We thank you, Father, that they are true, always and forever. We thank you that they are all that we need, Lord, for life and godliness. And we thank you that you are a God who speaks through your word as it goes forth. And we ask that your Holy Spirit would come and apply it, Lord, to each one here in eternal ways, Father. That would change us, that would save, Lord, one, that would conform us more and more in the image of Christ. that would increase our hope and our joy and our confidence in Jesus. We pray this all in Jesus' name, amen. One of the things we know of Jesus is that he feared no man. Christ was never intimidated or nervous or afraid of anyone who ever approached him or threatened him. He never stuttered. He never halted in his speech. He never pulled his punches. He never ran away from a question. He never just shaved the truth a little bit. He told the most powerful man in Israel, that's Pilate, who was the governor of Israel, the Roman governor. He told Pilate straight up, you would have no power over me unless it had been granted to you from above. Jesus didn't fear any of the religious leaders in Israel either, no matter what their title was or what kind of fine robes that they had or schooling or degrees they carried with them. Christ was, he was absolutely God's man in every situation. You could say really the only thing Christ feared was the wrath of God. the wrath that would fall on him at Calvary. He feared in that moment his God and Father. He trembled under the wrath of God that was laid on him. And yet, he bore it all without giving up. So as we read the Gospels, we find a Jesus, a Jesus who cannot be bought. He cannot be bribed. He can't be frightened. He's never made to think twice about what might happen to him at the hands of sinful men if he says something or does something. And so, puny men in fancy clothes with fancy titles were just that. They were puny men in fancy clothes with fancy titles. They were but men before Christ. And so we see Jesus now in our text in Matthew 23 calling out the Jewish elites, the Pharisees and the scribes. And he's doing it before the crowds. It's a public thing. And also his disciples. This is an embarrassing time as we've seen for the religious leaders of Israel. They've been humiliated in their public accusations of Jesus and their questions. Every question they brought to Christ was meant to pull him down. But it's they who have fallen. All their false piety is being dragged out now into the light. They were ones that Jesus exposed us here who have hidden their sin behind great titles and robes and outward decorations. It's like they put a king's robe on a dead corpse. The people up till now seem to have been fooled about the Sadducees and the Pharisees and the scribes. They believe that they were somehow elevated. above them spiritually. They believe they were somehow closer to God, and yet now Jesus is coming, he's pulling back the curtain. And they get to see what's really there, and it's not very pretty. There's scabs, you could say, and festering sores. Christ takes it all very public here by calling them out in front of the crowds, and this hurts. You know this has to hurt the Pharisees and the scribes because they lived for the applause of the crowds. And now Jesus is putting it all up on the big screen, their sin, in their hypocrisy. Everyone now gets to see that they're frauds. The Jewish elites of the day had a certain appearance, you could say an appearance theology. They used the things of God to make themselves look good. They lived like it only mattered what was on the outside. It didn't really matter what was on the inside, but Jesus exposes it. They were in many ways sort of like the church at Laodicea that we read of in Revelation 3, where Christ comes to that church and he says to it, But you say, I am rich and I become wealthy and I have need of nothing. Sort of sounds like the Pharisees. And then he says, but you do not know that you are wretched and miserable, poor, blind and naked. I advise you, Jesus says, to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself. and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed, and I, Sab, do put on your eyes so you will see. Then Christ says, those whom I love I reprove and discipline. Therefore, he says, be zealous and repent. Christ says of the Pharisees here to the crowd that they've seated themselves in the chair of Moses. They have really chosen the seat of prominence And in a sense, all religious hypocrites become sort of self-appointed. They grab the seats of power. They aim to be noticed and powerful. We need to remember here that the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the scribes, these were not God-appointed positions in Israel. These weren't Old Testament offices that were there. These are just groups of men who somehow had risen up and appointed themselves. Many, many men go into ministry often in the same way, looking to be famous, looking to be the conference speaker or the bestselling author or the mega church pastor. But the truth is the true work of ministry is a work of the seldom noticed. It is. And that's by design. God has made it that way on purpose. The minister is one who's not to be noticed. It's Christ. We ought to ask, is this minister or that minister more famous than the Jesus that he proclaims? Do people speak more of him than the Christ that he preaches? Is he content to be as the old Moravian minister Count Zinzendorf, he said, preach the gospel, die and be forgotten. There are always, though, a few in the providence of God who are more well-known. There was Paul, there was Apollos, there was Peter, James. But there are also countless elders and deacons in Philippi and Galatia and Jerusalem and Antioch and Rome and Crete, whom we have no idea who they were. We know they were there, but we don't even know who they were. When you think of the men that Jesus chose to be his 12 disciples, there wasn't a Pharisee among them. It wasn't a Sadducee among them. It wasn't a scribe among them. In fact, they were fishermen and tax collectors. Mostly unknown men. Do you know that of the 12 disciples, we don't know much of over half of them. We almost only know their name and that's it. And yet they serve faithfully next to Christ as his chief men in this world, and yet the Bible barely mentions them. Most of the 12 didn't write scripture. Some of them, we don't even have any of their words really recorded for us in the Bible. Now God certainly gives gifts and talents as he pleases to men and to women, and he gives some more than others. But he never gives these gifts and abilities so that one would be more known as sort of an elite or super Christian above the others. He always gives more that there might be more done for his glory. Jesus said, to those who much is given, much will be required. To those who much is given, much will be required. That's an iron law of God's gifting to us in all that he gives. Whether it's in talents or time or health or strength or knowledge or finances or privileges. Beloved, there's no place in the Christian life for burying our gifts in the ground. or taking them off with us somewhere to live like a hermit. When God gives much to an individual, he is looking for a great harvest from that. This morning, what has God given you? What has the Almighty in his grace given you much of? Much of. at least perhaps more than some of your fellow believers. Time, money, skills, energy, health, opportunities. Then those are certainly yours to enjoy and delight in as God has given. but they are to be equally or even more so for the glory of God in the building up of the church. God gives gifts to bless his children, but he also gives his children gifts that they might bless his church. So Christian, don't be concerned to be noticed by men as we see here with the Pharisees, the scribes. That's a fool's road to travel and it always ends with great embarrassment, with our pride exposed and often even with some kind of moral failing that comes with it when we go there. To chase the applause of men is to do things that will not please God. and it will shame us. There's a book on my desk that I pulled out recently and looked at it, and it was written about 10 or 12 years ago. It was loaded with endorsements from other Christian leaders saying, oh, you need this book, and so on. Written by the endorsements by many well-known pastors As I look through it again, there were a number of those pastors in the last 10 to 12 years who have crashed and burned. Some moral failing, some being caught up in woke ideologies and drifting away from the gospel. Many of these men were concerned to be noticed, to have a brand, to have a following. They wanted to be seen. Beloved, know your God always sees, he always sees, and he doesn't forget the work you have done for the kingdom, no matter how small or insignificant it might seem to you in it. It might be the phone call you make or the card you send to a troubled believer to encourage them. prayers that you offer for the saints or for the preaching of the word. Maybe it's that item you purchased for the church or the bathrooms you clean. God sees it all and he particularly loves the work of the saint that is done without concern to be recognized or noticed. Oh, that a church would be filled with anonymous good deeds. Now, there's a real place for recognizing the work of our fellow believers. As we look on, we should be very good at noticing the labors of our fellow saints and thanking God for that. We see this in the scriptures, the Apostle Paul is good at continually thanking God for the labors of the saints. Often very specifically and by name he will mention them. But it's not ours to seek it out, but it's ours to notice in others and to thank God for. Beloved, your work may seem small to you, perhaps, but it's not small to your God. It's not. And our God puts believers in small places, because there's a lot of small places. But your God is not small in those places. That's something we need to keep in mind. God doesn't require great men and women in great places to advance the work of the gospel. And yes, he does have men and women in those places. But mostly, he puts men and women in small places. But he's not small in those places. As Charles Spurgeon has said, God has no small churches. I'd encourage you to think about that. Never speak of your church as a small church. And what Spurgeon meant was that what a church is able to do for the kingdom of God is never determined by its numbers, rather by the faith of the men and the women, their faith in their great God. We speak of Ely as the end of the road. But it's from here that God is reaching the ends of the earth. We've seen that. He's used us to reach an unreached tribe in northern Thailand from northern Minnesota. How much more could he do if we asked? He only often requires that we be bold enough to ask him to work and to move in our midst. Your work may seem small to you, but it's not small to your God, and God is not small, beloved, in your work. Well, Jesus, as he's addressing the Pharisees here, warns the people to do what they say, but not do what they do. Do what they say because they are indeed telling you what the law of Moses says you ought to do and that's good. But do not do what they do because they don't do what they tell you to do. They don't do what Moses says to do. It was gone to say they tie heavy burdens on men's shoulders. They lay the law there, and yet they give no help to the people to follow. In their minds, for the scribes and the Pharisees, the law was for little people, not for the elites, often like our politicians seem to pass laws for the little people, not themselves. So, too, the scribes and the Pharisees. Jesus says they won't lift a finger to help. They're not only crushing men with this burden, but giving no help. And they do it all to be noticed. They do it all to be seen. Verse five. That's the law of the hypocrite. They do not do the law, but look like they are doing the law. They look like it. Get yourself seen. Get yourself noticed. Let men think that you are a great man or woman of God. Let them believe that you're pious and holy. Let them think you have seldom a stray thought other than to Read your Bible and pray. Let them think you never have a disagreement or a spat with your spouse. Let them think that your children are always obedient the first time. Let them think that if you wanted, really if you wanted, you could probably walk on water, but you don't want to show off. That's the law of the hypocrite. They want to look good on the outside, but nothing's going on on the inside. And Jesus goes on to describe them as loving the places of honor. They do what they do for the applause and the trumpet blast. They love the respectful greetings. They love to be spoken of highly among the people. If they walk into the room, they want the heads to turn and say, oh, who's that? Or who's here? They love the titles. But Jesus warns them, warns the crowd, don't go for the titles. Don't call someone rabbi, the Hebrew word for teacher, because you have one, that's God, who is your teacher. Don't call anyone on earth your father, for your father is in heaven. Don't call them This elevated sense of leader, great leader. For one is your leader, and that is Christ. Truth is, great titles are for hypocrites, are they not? Great titles are for hypocrites. Men who long to be referred to with special titles. Beloved are men not to be trusted. Because they are those who love the sound of their own voice, the sight of their own names on the conference brochures perhaps. But Jesus said, godly men don't go by grand titles. And the reason Christ says to avoid this in verse eight is because you're all brothers. You're all brothers. There are no classes within the church. There's not some who are more elite or more royal and others less so. You're brothers. We're all common members of one family. The Common Slaves conference coming up and that group that titled themselves Common Slaves, it's a group of pastors and church leaders. that we have fellowship with around northern Minnesota. And the reason we've chosen that name is because we want to understand ourselves to be simple slaves of Christ. There's nothing special in that sense. We're not those. We're special titles and robes and crowns. But Christ puts us all on the same level as slaves of Christ. Christ goes on, though, to make the point that greatness in the church, greatness in the church is serving. Whoever among you, but the greatest among you shall be your servant, shall be your servant. Christ has earlier told his disciples that if they want to be great in the kingdom, they need to become like little children and they also need to be those who serve. Truth is godly men and women don't care to be noticed. They don't care to be noticed because they're doing what they're doing not for the applause of men but for the applause of heaven. They are those that know God sees everything that's being done and that when it's done for his glory he is well pleased. He is well pleased and he will not forget. Godly men and women, you could say don't put their pictures on their books. Or they're not the face of the church. Beloved, when you go to the Christian bookstore or you see a Christian book, if the picture on the front is of the author, you probably should pass it by. Jesus then goes on to set two life directions before us this morning in regards to his supremacy, really. Verse 12, whoever exalts himself will be humbled. He who humbles himself will be exalted. Two life directions. One is painful. The other is delightful. Both involve the words humble and exalted but in different orders and it makes all the difference. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. To be humbled by God in the first instance, exalting yourself and then humbled means you're humbled by God is gonna be very painful for us. That's something that no man or woman should want. It's always painful for God to humble us, to pull us down in our pride and it hurts. It hurts to get exposed in our self-centeredness. It's not fun. To exalt ourselves in the eyes of others means that we're on the road to being brought down in a humiliating fall. It's going to hurt. You will be humbled. But on the other hand, to humble yourself is a glorious thing. It's joyful to be humble. Because the humble man doesn't fall down in his pride but he has really, you could say, knelt down before his God. To be humble is a glorious thing, it's a joyful thing. There is no room though for the glory of man with the glory of God. And God promises here that the one who humbles himself before him, he will exalt. He will bless the man or the woman who seeks his glory and his honor. So you could say there's only two ways to approach God. One is painful. One's joyful. One is to be brought down in our pride and the other is to be lifted up by him in our humble service. And so godly men and women are servants of the church who don't care to be noticed. The hypocrite always lives to be noticed though. Beloved, my prayer for us as a church is that we would learn to outdo each other in showing love and good deeds without a concern for being noticed. My prayer is that there might be many things going on in the life of this church that at times might make people wonder, oh, I wonder who did that? I wonder who did that? Or even on a personal level, Who did this kind thing for me? Who gave me this money anonymously? Or this gift to the church anonymously? Or who wrote that anonymous note of encouragement to me? You ever wondered why perhaps critical notes or critical letters come anonymously? but often not notes of encouragement. Why is that? But be they known or be they anonymous, it seems we give out encouragements far too little within the body of Christ. And part of the reason, I think, is that it takes a humble servant of Christ to be an encourager. Because to encourage another saint means you need to look outside yourself. You need to look to their needs, not your own. If you're one of those whose life is centered around doing anonymous things for the body of Christ, or at least your heart's desire is to do things not to be noticed, You should know Jesus will exalt you. He will lift you up. He will, in fact, lift you all the way to his throne. He will not forget. This is God's way. Let's close with prayer. Father, we thank you for setting before us the bad examples of the Pharisees and the scribes, calling us away from that. Lord, we ask that you would work much here in this body in serving one another, in humbling ourselves before you and before each other, Lord, that you might lift us up. Grant, Father, that we would esteem one another as better than ourselves. Caring, Lord, for each other's needs, May we be full, Lord, of a desire to do things without being noticed. And yet, Lord, help us as other believers to notice much that our fellow believers are doing and encourage them in it. We ask all this in Christ's name and for your glory, amen. We invite you to stand as Aaron comes as he leads us as we sing in closing, Cornerstone.