4/30/2023 "Divine Authority: Woe #2" [The Sermon of Seven Woes - Matthew 23:15]

Jesus’ second Woe should guard the church against mistaking missionary and evangelism zeal with divine truth. This WOE is valuable to us to hear because we the Evangelical Church are tempted to look at missionary outreach and church growth as signs of God’s blessing. We mistakenly embrace large movements of evangelism and missions as validation that God loves us because of our dedication to spreading HIS gospel message. This was the mistake of these scribes and Pharisees. But what Jesus speaks to those false teachers is that truth and lies often share a remarkable missionary zeal. Guilt is as strong a motivator as gratitude. False teachers use guilt to motivate obedience [to their teaching … the burden of extrabiblical traditions]. Genuine teachers know that gratitude is the genuine motivator of the sinner toward Christ the only savior that we have.