“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” (Matthew 23:13 NIV)
Jesus has had it with the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, and in Matthew 23, He lets them know about it! He pronounces seven woes on them (see vv.13-39), but the one that stood out to me the most is the first one: “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.” Not only was it hypocritical that as religious leaders they kept others from knowing God through Jesus, but they actually didn’t know Him themselves!
I’m amazed by the amount of influence most people have to help others come to know Jesus yet they choose not to. When someone else tries, they don’t encourage it either. In the end, no one benefits because of someone’s selfishness, greed, jealousy and envy. Because that’s exactly what the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were – selfish, greedy, jealous and envious. They shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces – people who were actually trying to enter – when they should have left it open.
You don’t have to believe if you don’t want to but don’t get in the way of someone who is trying to.
Rising with the Son 