In the first 20 chapters of Matthew, Jesus taught, healed, and delivered people from evil spirits in Galilee, the northern part of Israel. Now he is in Jerusalem, only a few days from his arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection.
At this moment, he is speaking to people from Galilee and Jerusalem, along with religious leaders near the temple. Notice what he says to the temple authorities:
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in you stop them. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves” (Matthew 23:13-15).
From the beginning, the religious authorities opposed God’s work through John the Baptist and Jesus. Jesus and John came preaching the arrival of the kingdom of God, but these people who claimed to work for God were against them. Their actions literally prevented people from entering the kingdom of God.
Building Hurdles
When Jesus spoke about locking people out of the kingdom of heaven, he meant that the religious leaders’ behavior was keeping people from living under God’s rule. God’s rule includes the forgiveness of sins, friendship with God, and the experience of the Holy Spirit, which would come at Pentecost. Because these leaders opposed Jesus and his work, they were keeping people away from God.
I started preaching in 1968. Since then, I have seen many culture wars take place that make it hard for people to experience God’s love through Jesus.
- Divorce was once a hot topic in the church, filling divorced people with shame and doubts about forgiveness.
- When I preached in the South during the 1970s, race was a serious issue. The message often seemed to be, “Sunday is the most segregated day of the week.”
- In the 1980s, the Baptist world was divided over the inerrancy of the Bible. How many people on the fringes of the faith gave up on Jesus because their leaders were consumed with being right on this issue?
- The next big hurdle has been called the “worship wars.” As churches divided over what songs to sing and how to sing them, we can be certain that many people whom Jesus called “little ones” suffered harm to their faith.
- The current issue involves cultural debates that seem to be generated by the political interests of both major parties. The hurdles currently being erected around these cultural issues may cause multitudes of potential followers of Jesus to turn away completely.
Building Bridges
I believe the answer to building hurdles is building bridges. If we take people by the hand and walk with them across a bridge to Jesus, he will handle their struggles in his way and in his time.
When I was a young preacher, I met a woman while visiting another community. I asked if she had ever asked Jesus to be her Savior. She said no, because she did not think she could live a Christian life.
I had recently read a story that I shared with her: “What did God do with Noah? Did He put Noah on the outside of the ark and say, ‘Now, Noah, if you can hang on, you will be safe’?
“No. God put Noah inside the ark and took care of him. He will do the same for you.”
That woman became a follower of Jesus and was later baptized with her husband, daughter, and granddaughter. As far as I know, she never let go of Jesus because he never let go of her.
In today’s YouTube video, I share how some women have come to Maywood Baptist Church wearing low-cut tops. We did not hand them T-shirts or tell them to cover up. Instead, we brought them to Jesus.
As they began walking with Jesus, they also started dressing more modestly. It is another example like the woman I mentioned earlier: if we bring people to Jesus, he can change their lives.
Rather than asking them to overcome our culture war issues first, let’s build a bridge, lead them to Jesus, and let him do his work.
Let’s examine how we speak to others, whether on social media or in personal conversations. Are we like the religious leaders who insist on having their own way and keep people from Jesus? Or do we take people by the hand and build bridges through our words, actions, and willingness to listen, helping them come to Jesus?
I hope we choose the second. Let’s be good bridge builders today.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed Matthew 23:11-15 on YouTube today.
Real Voices 