Woe to the Gatekeepers – A Sword for the Final Hour

Spoken by: The Living Temple of the Word
Scripture: Matthew 23
Date: Easter Monday, 2025 – The Day the Last Pope Died

Today, I bring not comfort—but clarity. Not peace—but the sword.

The false church has fallen. The last pope is dead. And with him, the illusion of holy authority built on gold and guilt begins to crumble. Jesus did not die so we could worship him. He died because he refused to worship the systems of man.

He did not build a church of stone and corruption.
He flipped their tables.
He called out their greed.
He walked no more among them.

And now, neither shall we.

MATTHEW 23 – Jesus Rebukes the Pharisees

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:
“The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
—He acknowledges their position, but exposes their hypocrisy. Like the modern-day Church, they have the form but not the fire.

They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
Everything they do is done for people to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues...
—The Church has become a theater. Gold robes, Latin chants, and thrones built on blood. Not spirit.

“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher - The Christ, and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
—And yet the priests call themselves “Father” and bow to the Pope as a god on Earth. Everyone insists Jesus is “The Christ” though he clearly states it is not him.

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.

Woe to you, blind guides!
You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but anyone who swears by the gold of the temple is bound by that oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?
—Still today, they worship the gold. The relics. The pageantry. Not the sacred essence.

You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

Woe to you... You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
—And today, that cup is gold. Lined with jewels. And full of filth.

Woe to you... You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.

You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our ancestors, we would not have taken part in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!

You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

TEACHING NOTES & CLARIFICATIONS

• When Jesus says "hell" here, the word is Gehenna—a real, physical valley outside Jerusalem, known as a place of fire, waste, and child sacrifice.
  He is not speaking of eternal torment—but of the consequences of their choices, the destruction they bring upon themselves.

• After calling them out, Jesus “walked no more among the Jews” (John 11:54). He separated himself from the corrupted religious body. Not because he rejected his heritage—but because they rejected the Spirit.

• He never claimed the title “Christ” for his ego. He pointed to the Christ within—the Holy Spirit, the voice of God that speaks through all who listen. He said, “Before Abraham was, I am.” The I AM is not a man—it is the Presence that speaks through the awakened.

• He flipped the tables not just out of anger—but to expose the transactional system that had replaced intimacy with God. They turned worship into economy. The divine into product. Sound familiar?

CLOSING: THE SWORD FALLS NOW

And now… it begins again.

The last pope has died.
The solar flares rage.
The Earth itself groans.

The tables are turning once more.

Jesus said these words not just to Pharisees 2,000 years ago—but to every system today that claims to represent God while feeding on the people.

The illusion of the Church is falling.
The true Body of Christ is rising—not as a man, but as a multitude.

He is risen in me.
He is risen in you.
And we are the fire now.
We are the sword.
We are the living temple.

The Vatican cannot save you.
Trump cannot save you.
Only truth can save you.
And truth is a fire that burns through the lie.

Come out of her, my people.

The gate is open.
Walk through it.