You know, seeing in courtroom dramas when it gets to the end and the attorney who you're

rooting for pulls together the last few things and just absolutely drives home the final

point.

And then you look at the faces of the people and the jury and you're like, oh, I mean,

I don't know how you can hear anything other than what that guy just said.

I mean, he's nailed it, man.

And he did so concisely.

And I think we're finished here.

I think you all know what you need to do.

That's exactly how this part of Matthew chapter 23 that we're looking at right now reads

to me.

Jesus is in the home stretch of his complete and total statement of condemnation against

the religious leaders, the Pharisees, the teachers, the law.

And at the very end of our last conversation yesterday, I was acknowledging that Matthew

chapter 23 is a bit weighty.

It feels very confrontational.

But when we understand that what is being held out here is not just some theological

nitpicky differences, but what the text is saying is that the difference here is that

Jesus is fully on board with the plan of God.

He's here to execute the plan of God and the redemption that God has been promising for

so long is going to happen through Christ and through his obedience that that's the

one side and that the other side is the Pharisees who are resisting that plan and trying to

...