INTRODUCTION:

1. Luke 11:37 says, "And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him..."
2. H.A. Ironside said, "Luke frequently tells of the Saviour’s being invited out to dinner and his participation at the table with various groups of people...There is no place nor circumstance which draws a man out and shows what he really is more than the dinner-table, when surrounded either by friends with whom he may have fellowship, or in the midst of enemies who are ready to find fault with him...On every such occasion His words are most faithful. Our Lord Jesus was always honest with people; He never flattered them; He never pretended to be what He was not; He never endorsed anything which was wrong; nevertheless He was never rude nor offensive, but faithful and true in all circumstances" (Luke).
3. There were other Pharisees there, and the host noticed that when our Lord sat down to eat He did not go through the elaborate cleansing ritual that was customary among the Pharisees. "And when the Pharisee saw it, he marvelled..." (11:38).
4. This "certain Pharisee" was amazed because it was unusual, and in his opinion very improper.
5. This had nothing to do with hygiene, and everything to do with ritual. Mark 7:3, 4 says, "For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market, except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be, which they have received to hold, as the washing of cups, and pots, brasen vessels, and of tables."
6. The Pharisees assumed that these elaborate rituals made them clean before God, despite the fact that their hearts were dirty and wicked.
7. That is why our Lord said in Matthew 23:27, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness."

 

I. OUR LORD CONDEMNED THEIR EXTERNALISM

1. Religious externalism is similar to ritualism and formalism. Spurgeon said, "We fall into their error when we confound ritual and spirituality."
2. The Pharisees put all their emphasis on the outward appearance (Luke 11:39, 40). Their rituals were man-made and were not taught in the Bible.
3. Our Lord called them "fools" (11:40), because it is foolish to be scrupulous about keeping cups and platters immaculately clean while the inner man is filthy and polluted.
4. Our Lord rebuked them in Matthew 23:28, "Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity."
5. Ironside said, "Our Lord Jesus Christ insisted that though these religious zealots laid great stress upon the externals of piety, they neglected the internal realities that should have meant so much more to them."
6. Unfortunately, sometimes Christians put too much emphasis on externals and they neglect the inner man -- "the inward part" (Luke 11:39). Strong standards cannot produce Biblical holiness.
7. When pastors and churches slip into externalism, and overlook genuine godliness and holiness, the church becomes full of members who look right but are deficient in true Christian character.
8. Oftentimes there is rampant immorality and scandals in these churches.
9. External dress standards are a poor substitute for purity, godliness, and humility. Mormons and Orthodox Jews dress modestly but they are not saved. According to John 3:18 they are condemned.
10. It is rather easy to put on a good front, but it is what's on the inside that is important. Cleaning up the outside while the inside is corrupt is like cleaning the outside of a cup and plate while the inside is dirty (11:39).
11. A preacher friend told a story about how he often preached in a nursing home. A professed Christian always shouted "Amen" and "Praise God" when he preached. But when that man died and they cleaned up his room they found filthy pornographic literature.

 

II. OUR LORD CONDEMNED THEIR LACK OF GIVING

1. Luke 16:14 says the Pharisees "were covetous." Covetous people are not good givers because covetous people are greedy and selfish.
2. In Luke 11:39, our Lord rebuked the Pharisees and said, "Your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness." The word "ravening" refers to their greed.
3. The same Greek word translated "ravening" is translated "extortion" in Matthew 23:25 -- "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess."
4. The cure for the sin of covetousness is generosity, so our Lord said, "But rather give alms of such things as ye have..." (11:41).
5. Luke 11:42 informs us that the Pharisees practiced tithing (cf. Luke 18:12). And yet our Lord said they were "full of ravening" (11:39), that is greed.
6. Therefore, a person can tithe and still be greedy and covetous. That is why the Bible tells us to give both tithes and offerings.
7. "Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings" (Malachi 3:8).
8. From Luke 11:42 (and Matthew 23:23) we learn that the Pharisees tithed even down to the smallest herbs -- "for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs."
9. But unfortunately they passed over judgment (justice) and the love of God (11:42).
10. In Matthew 23:23, our Lord said, "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone."

 

III. OUR LORD CONDEMNED THEIR HYPOCRISY (11:43, 44).

1. Religious hypocrites like to look good in front of others (11:43, 44). They like being in the spotlight.
2. They enjoy having people recognize them and flatter them (cf. Matthew 6:1-5; 23:1-12; Luke 11:43).
3. Hypocrisy was the crowning sin of the Pharisees (11:44). They pretended to be very pious and holy, but they were actually very corrupt and wicked.
4. Our Lord said to associate with them was like coming into contact with dead men's bones and being defiled, though the defiled know it not. The defiled are like men unknowingly being defiled by walking over an unmarked grave (11:44).
5. The Pharisees had defiled Judaism, and so our Lord confronted the hypocritical Pharisees. They hated Him and were determined to have Him killed. Luke 22:2 says, "The chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him."
6. The lawyers (teachers of the Mosaic law) were also hypocritical (11:45-52), and they realized our Lord's stinging rebuke applied to them (11:45).
7. The religious leaders in Israel held that they were honoring the prophets by building splendid sepulchres for them, but our Lord told them that they approved the deeds of their fathers. Their fathers killed the prophets, and now they built sepulchres for them.
8. Luke 11:49 is the only place in the New Testament where the Wisdom of God is personified. In the book of Proverbs, Wisdom is personified in the Lord Jesus Christ (cf. Proverbs 8:22-36; 30:4).
9. In Proverbs chapter 8, Wisdom warns men of the danger of insincerity and sinful folly. Here in Luke 11:49-51, the Wisdom of God warned the religious leaders of Israel of the judgment that will come upon the religious hypocrites of that generation.
10. God held the religious hypocrites of His generation accountable for all the innocent blood that had been "shed from the foundation of the world" (11:50).
11. Our Lord was predicting the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. Their ultimate crime was rejecting Christ and having Him crucified (cf. 11:53, 54).
12. The Pulpit Commentary says our Lord, "looked on to his own bloody death; to the day of the last witness of Stephen and of James; to the long series of persecutions which his servants would ceaselessly suffer at the hands of the Jews;—he looked on to the state of Israel growing worse and worse, till the day when the storm of Divine anger at last burst over Jerusalem, and overwhelmed the city and the temple and the nation. That terrible day came in less than forty years."

 

IV. OUR LORD CONDEMNED THEM BECAUSE THEY HINDERED OTHERS FROM GETTING SAVED (11:52).

1. They had "taken away the key of knowledge" (11:52). The key was looked upon as the symbol of knowledge.
2. Here, the "key" represents the entrance to learning the true way of salvation. That is what Jesus meant when He said to Peter, "And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 16:19).
3. This does not mean St. Peter stands at the entrance to heaven. It means Peter and the other apostles were responsible for preaching the Gospel to sinners.
4. Today this is our responsibility.
5. Instead of unlocking the treasures of Scripture, and pointing sinners to heaven, the religious hypocrites in Israel were keeping people away from Christ.
6. Our Lord said in Matthew 23:13-15, "But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves."
7. Unregenerate religious leaders today do the same thing. For example, Roman Catholic priests discourage Catholics from reading Scripture or attending services in non-Catholic churches, etc.
8. The priests tell their parishioners that the Bible is "hard to understand," and only the priests of Rome can properly teach them, etc.

 

CONCLUSION:

1. Referring to Luke 11:49, A. T. Robertson said the lawyers "refused to go into the house of knowledge (beautiful figure) and learn. They then locked the door and hid the key to the house of knowledge and hindered those who were trying to enter. It is the most pitiful picture imaginable of blind ecclesiastics trying to keep others as blind as they were, blind leaders of the blind, both falling into the pit" (Word Pictures in the New Testament).
2. We are either directing people to Christ or hindering them from getting saved (cf. Luke 11:23).