Hypocrisy

Good morning, church. So I’m super grateful to be here with you guys today. As many of you know, we’ve been in a series called the Ministry of Jesus. And for those who are new, the Ministry of Jesus is we’re just walking through the Gospels right on the coattails of our Lord and just examining his life. We’re looking at what he said, we’re looking at the actions and the impact that he had here on earth while he was here. One of the things I love most about this series is that it’s been filled with grace and truth. It defines Jesus and it says that he came full of grace and truth. Now for me, I know when grace and Truth come into my life, I’m not always like, Oh, I’m so excited. Sometimes it comes and it rubs me the wrong way. But eventually, I start to love it and I’m grateful for it, and so on and so forth. But there are times when it rubs me the wrong way, and man, it just builds up this resentment sometimes or some anger or some bitterness. I know for some it could even come to hate. What I’m trying to do is it’s the preface for us today’s lesson because it’s going to require a lot of grace and truth.

I pray that I’m able to speak with a lot of grace and truth because no matter how we put this, it’s a difficult subject to talk about. It’s difficult, but this is the thing. We have to talk about it because Jesus absolutely hated it. He hated this. When it happens to us, we hate it as well. But the thing about this is that we’ve all succumbed to it. Another reason why we must talk about today’s subject is because it’s vital to our faith as Christians. This is something that has been destroying the community of believers from the inside out. It’s been an attack. And what I’m not talking about today is a political movement. I’m not talking about a social movement. I’m not talking about the world and our flesh and Satan and how it’s penetrating the Church. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about something that’s right underneath our noses. Today, we’re going to be talking about hypocrisy. Christianity has been polluted by false teachings, pride, emotions over obedience, conditional love, and the list goes on. The thing that has been killing our people again is not Satan or the world, but it’s the hearts of the men and women in the capital C Church.

Hearts of men and women who claim to follow Jesus but are just pretenders and fakes. It’s those who say, I love God, but they don’t act like it. It’s those who say, I believe, but don’t do what God says. It’s those who say, I have faith, but when you look at their life, they have no deeds. And Jesus wanted us to be ambassadors for Him. That’s what Jesus wanted. But instead, the world knows Christianity as a whole more for its hypocrisy than for its love at times. I’m not talking about the people that hate us or they think we’re judgmental when we come in grace and truth. I’m not talking about those people. But it could be even our coworkers, our neighbors, our family members, and our children who see us for what we really are when we’re not acting like Jesus. And so this is to the worldwide church. Of course, our church isn’t perfect, so maybe there’s some in here as well. But when I was writing this, man, I really felt this is something I’m so passionate about because this is not what God made or designed. It’s not in its entirety what it’s supposed to be like.

And not only are we missing out, but the world is missing out as well. So, church, this cannot be. Our faith as a whole cannot be known more for its hypocrisy than our love. The world can label us whatever they want. They can label us liars, we’re too strict, or we’re hypocrites. But let their lies stay lies. Let these negative labels just not be true. See, hypocrisy is when someone acts like there’s something that they’re not. I’m not talking to people who slip up once and you’re trying, right? Sanctification is definitely part of our faith. But I’m talking about the people who live in lies. They put up a persona of what they want viewers to see, but behind closed doors, they are not that way. In Christianity, hypocrisy boils down to this, people who say they follow Jesus, but they do not follow his word. I’m not saying I’m perfect, far from it. What I’m saying is that those who call themselves Christians should not continue to live this way. And if you don’t think you’re in this boat, this is a scripture from Isaiah, it’s the New King James, it says, Therefore, the Lord will have no joy in their young men nor have mercy on their fatherless and widows.

For everyone is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaks of folly. And so this was to Israel. But we can see ourselves in it as well because everyone in this room has lived like a hypocrite at some point in their life. And you may be thinking, This is harsh. These are some hard things. But this was in the mind and the heart of Jesus. So let’s go to Luke just to see what’s been going on in the ministry of Jesus. Right before this, Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray. He casts out a demon and he gets into some conflict with the crowd, and he preaches to them. And then he gets invited to a home of a Pharisee, and this is where we find Jesus. In Luke 11, verses 37 through 54. So it’s a little bit longer, so stick with me. But it’s a great passage. When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him. So he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee was surprised when he noticed that Jesus did not first wash his hands before the meal.

Then the Lord said to him, Now then, you Pharisees, clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You, foolish people, did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But now, as for what is inside you, be generous to the poor and everything will be cleaned for you. Woe to you, Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, root, and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone. Woe to you, Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and respectful greetings in the marketplace. Woe to you because you are like unmarked graves that people walk over without knowing it. One of the experts in the law answered him, Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us also. Jesus replied, And you experts in the law, woe to you because you load people down with burdens that they can hardly carry. You yourselves would not lift one finger to help them. Woe to you because you build tombs for the prophets.

And it was your ancestors who killed them. So you testify that you approve of what your ancestors did. They killed the prophets and you build their tombs. Because of this, God, in his wisdom, said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and others whom they will persecute. Therefore, this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets that have been shed since the beginning of the world. From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible for it all. Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered and you have hindered those who were entering. When Jesus went outside, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose him fiercely and to beseech him with questions, waiting to catch him in something that he might say. Now, it’s a lot. It’s a lot, but, this is Jesus. And these are the things that were in his heart at that time when he was talking with the Pharisees.

And so as Jesus sits down with them, he begins to call them out for who they really are. It all starts with this verse in verse 38, The Pharisees were surprised when they noticed that Jesus did not first wash before the meal. Now, Jesus not washing his hands was not by mistake. This was an intentional thing that he did. Jesus not washing before the meal was him actually taking a stand. He was taking a stand against hypocrisy. See, Jesus knew the inner disposition of his hosts. See, the Pharisees made their own traditions from the law. One of their traditions was that they should wash their hands before they eat. But this was a sign of purification. So they wash their hands and they’re saying, I’m pure, inside and out. I’m pure. So Jesus did not wash his hands to expose the fact that the Pharisees paid too much attention to the outward formalities. So Jesus did not wash his hands to expose the fact that the Pharisees paid too much attention to their outward formalities. They were more concerned with the things that they made up according to the law. They were more concerned with the things that they were thinking than what God called them to do.

And to really get a grasp of the context, you must understand who the Pharisees were. At that time in Judaism, there were these different parties and sects. And so the parties were distinguished by the philosophies and the methods were practiced based on the interpretation of the law. Can you hear me? Mic check? All right, cool. So yeah, these parties were distinguished by the philosophies and the methods that were practiced based on their interpretation of the law. So there was an early Church Father and his name was Josephus. And so some of you know Josephus, but he separated them this way. It was the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Saqqara who were associated with the Zealots, and we know who they are. But I’m not going to get into the detail of all of them. But the Pharisees had the largest influence among all the Jews. Many Jews looked to them for leadership in their faith. They trusted the Pharisees. They trusted the words they were preaching. They trusted that they were giving them the right direction to God and what he had in store for them. People believed that they were the real thing because they quoted Scripture and they looked like they were of holy status.

But the truth is that they were hypocrites. The law called them to wear tassels and bind the Word of God on their hands and write the Word of God on their door post. This is what it would look like. And so the very first thing is the Phylacteries. And if you were here with us in the last couple of weeks, we mentioned this. And then they had the tasks, which were these ties on the very end of their shirts. And there were supposed to be four on each corner. And then you had the Mezuzah and the Phylacteries. What they were were these small boxes that had scriptures in them. So the Phylacteries would go on their heads and then they would tie these wraps around their arms and it had a bunch of scripture. The tassels were supposed to remind them of scripture, of God. Then the Mezuzah, they were supposed to walk every day past this thing and it would remind them of God’s word. So the Pharisees, they did this, though. They followed this part of the law. And if you saw this on them in the streets as they were praying outside the synagogues or out trying to the Word, so on and so forth.

You would see them wearing these different things, or if you were in their home, you would see them have this on their doorposts. So they must have been walking by the Jews seeing their leaders looking like they were doing the right things. They looked like they were close to God. But all these things were just based on the outside. The only thing about this, though, is that Jesus knew the truth. See, Jesus knew the Pharisees more than they could even imagine. And so what he knew about them was this. Jesus knew that their actions were corrupt because their hearts were corrupt. The point of the tassels and the Phylacteries and the doorposts was to remind them of God’s Word. The mistake that was made by the Pharisees was that the Phylacteries and the tassels and the doorposts, those things that were supposed to remind them of God’s Word, weren’t just supposed to be on the outside. It was supposed to be written on their hearts. And there wasn’t. And Jesus knew that. Jesus knew that in their thoughts, their highest priority wasn’t God and his wings. It was their own. They were more concerned with what people saw.

They were more concerned with self-indulgence and self-image than what God was calling them to do. And this was all because where the root problem was, was because their hearts were far from God and their actions showed it. So Jesus knew, he knew that their actions were corrupted because their hearts were corrupted. Proverbs 27, verse 19 says this, As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart. So it’s easy to judge the Pharisees, right? But if your life doesn’t reflect what Jesus calls it to do, if our words, our actions, and our thoughts don’t reflect what Jesus calls us to do, then we are hypocrites as well. James puts it this way, Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the Scripture was fulfilled that says Abraham believed in God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. And he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.

So when we go back to Luke, we see this Scripture. And so it’s Luke 11, verse 39. It says Jesus is talking and he says, Now then, you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. I have a little illustration for us today. It’s supposed to be here. Piano. Which side? Man, it’s messing up my follow-up, man. Messing my flow up. All right, so we have a cup, right? And so Jesus is this illustration for the Pharisees. And so we could show the inside in a second. But yeah, Jesus uses this illustration for the Pharisees. And so I chose a white cup on purpose because on the outside it looks great. It looks super clean. But on the inside, man, that’s what it looked like. So when Jesus knew, it was actually even more important for him to be addressing what was inside the cup than to be addressing what was outside. Let me see. There you go. Yeah. So then better to be than when it’s inside it. Inside it’s black, it’s darkness.

Jesus didn’t want them to be living this way. But again, it’s easy to judge the Pharisees. So let’s use the illustration on ourselves. So on the outside, we can look like this. We’re smiling, sharing scriptures on the internet, and all that stuff. And you can go anywhere because remember, this is for Christianity everywhere. You can go anywhere, but Jesus knows. We could be walking in the church, but we’re really in sin. Maybe you’re watching porn, sleeping with your girlfriend, flirting with people you shouldn’t be doing that with, and playing games with God. But inside, when we don’t live righteously, we look like this. Now, this can be anyone, leaders, serving, and so on and so forth. Jesus is addressing leaders in this. But as Christians, we’re leaders in this world. When Jesus calls us to be light, it’s us as well. And so we have to be mindful. Do we look like this on the inside? Is this what we live like? And so look, Jesus hated hypocrisy. And if we go back to verse 40, I don’t know if I have it here, but it says, Jesus says this to them after he talks about the cup, You foolish people, did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?

But now, as for what is inside you, be generous to the poor and everything will be cleaned for you. See, Christ, wants the inside of our cups to be clean. Jesus doesn’t just call them to do a bunch of different things even. He calls them to actually change. Actually, change. He’s calling the Pharisees to repentance. And so I challenge you to do this same thing. Church, let’s be repenting of the different things that are inside of our cup. Let’s be confessing, let’s be praying, let’s be in the Word. But overall, I challenge you just to actually change, though. I’ve seen so many people do these things. They pray or they come sometimes, and they’re very nice smile, and all these things. They come and they talk and they’re like, Oh, yeah, I’m changing. I’m doing these little things. Again, that could be the start of something great. Just speaking from my experience, I’ve seen a lot of people do those little small things and then not change the real thing. The real thing. And you and God know exactly what that is. I don’t. And if you’re acting, you’re just acting like you’re going to change.

You’re fooling the people around you. Maybe you are. Maybe no one’s ever going to find out the different things that are going on. But the thing is that you’re not fooling God. The Pharisees were fooling the people around them, but they were not fooling Jesus. We cannot hide things from God. You can try to hide things from those around you, but God actually knows. He knows what’s really going on in our hearts. When he sees hypocrisy in our hearts, though, when he sees that we’re not actually living up to what he’s called us to do, do you know how this makes God feel? Do you know how it makes him feel? When we act like hypocrites, this hurts God. When Jesus is talking to the Pharisees, he uses the word woe. The word woe sometimes is explained as a feeling of dread, but it’s a lot deeper than that. The word has multiple emotions tied to it. Thank you. The word woe has multiple emotions tied to it. It’s like saying shame on you. But in 2023, we don’t really say shame on you when something goes wrong. It’s like the feeling of a curse word, but it’s not fully a curse word.

It’s like a parent telling a child, I’m disappointed in you and what you did. But it’s also the anger of someone who has been cheated on. But there’s a sadness tied to this as well. If someone close to you passed away or died, it’s a warning, but it’s also a judgment on where that person is at. So Jesus says, woe to you. But he’s also explaining the broken heart of God. And that broken heart is mixed with a bit of wrath. And to be honest, I feel this because I’m not Jesus, right? But I am a leader. And so I can relate to the mixed emotions of the Word. See, as a leader, you look at your people and you love them. You love them deeply. You sacrifice time, and so on, and so forth. But you look at them and there’s love in your heart for them. But there are times when you sit with people over and over, and there are times when people are in sin. Again, I’m not talking about the I’m actually working. I’m talking about you just keep on doing it. And it’s really deep, deep things. And your conversation starts to go from, man, this love and this grace, I’m with you.

Let’s do this too, man, are you just manipulating me? When you keep having those conversations, when I keep having those, sorry, I’ll say that when I keep having these conversations, man, it kills me inside. It doesn’t feel good at all. My biggest struggle in these moments is fighting off apathy. I sit with Tony and I’m getting advice from him and I’m like, man, I just don’t want to care. Because it feels like if I have hope again, or if I have compassion again, then only my heart is going to be broken. That’s it. So I’m not to be apathetic, right? Trying to fight so that I can have hope or give vision or preach something with joy, right? Or even go through my own days with some joy. But over and over again, hypocrisy can start to feel like a betrayal as well. It feels like we’re in a war and we’re in a bunker. And there are only a few of us in this bunker. And my job is to protect you, and your job is to protect me. And you’re going to hold down that side, and I’m going to hold down this side. And whatever it takes, we’re going to hold this down.

You and I look at each other and we agree. In our baptism, we agree. But then you get off and you run on. You get off and you run. Do you know? Man, you get off and you run. When you get off and you run, it hurts the people around you. And if you’ve been in the church for a while, then you know what it feels like when your friends years after years, just start leaving, doing whatever, and acting like it’s all good. Leaving, doing whatever. And then it starts to affect you. And in ways that you wouldn’t even know. And for those who are maybe in this, I’m going to let you on some insight. When you live in sin, it doesn’t just affect you. It affects those around you. It affects your brothers and sisters in Christ, whom you said, I’m with you, whom you said, I’m part of this body with you. If you leave, then I’m hurt. If I leave, then you’re hurt. That’s what we said when we died with Christ. But when we don’t live as Christ caused us to live, we’re hurting more than just ourselves. It’s beyond selfish because when you start to live that way and you want to leave and you want to give up, fine.

But just know it’s like a bullet towards the community of believers. There’s a spiritual fabric that is in all creation that functions off the decisions that we make, and we can’t see it, but we can see its effects. It’s like dominoes. It’s like the butterfly effect. Again, you think that this is just you doing something. But, man, it goes beyond that. There are some of you that have sins that are holding you back from leadership. There are some of you that have sins that are holding you back from where God wants you to be. And do you really think that just affects you? It affects the community and it’s painful. But the thing I love about Jesus is that he felt this pain, too. And so in my personal opinion, I don’t think, though, that Jesus ended up hating the Pharisees. I don’t think he hated the Pharisees. I actually think that Jesus had a vision for the Pharisees. When you’re a leader and you sit across from these people and they’re going through the things they’re going through, and of course, you’re going to stick it out with them the best that you can, so on and so forth, you still have this vision for them that if they stick and stayed faithful to God, they could do something very impactful.

Still, you don’t even want to feel that. But you’re like, man, only if they knew, only if they knew that Jesus had a vision for them. So I believe that Jesus had a vision for them because he saw the potential they had. Jesus saw that they knew the Word. Jesus saw that they were organized. Jesus saw that they were bold enough to ask hard questions. Jesus saw that they could teach the Word and that they had money. Jesus saw that they were influential. He knew that they could do amazing things from God. They could be preaching the truth in its entirety. They could be helping the poor. They could help the lost sheep of Israel find their shepherd. They could fund future missions and be on missions. They could train people to really be men and women of God. But instead of listening to Jesus and reaching their potential, they turn their back on the very God they claim to worship. But there’s good news. There’s great news. It was the Pharisees that fulfilled the vision that Jesus had for him. In Acts, Jesus says this to Ananias about Paul. He says, But the Lord said this to Ananias, Go, this man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.

I will show him how much he must suffer for my name. And if you know anything about Paul, then you know this is what happened. Jesus called him from being a murderer a blind guide, a Pharisee that was not abiding by the law, someone who was a hypocrite, to be one of, if not the greatest missionary to ever live. Amen, right? This is what God had envisioned for Paul. I just wonder sometimes what God has envisioned for you. See, this is what Paul had already going for him. He used his education to build the Kingdom of God. He used his citizenship. He used his entrepreneurial skills. He used the languages that he knew. He used his ability to speak. He used all that he had to build the Kingdom of God. Paul decided, Man, I’m going to clean my cup. Paul decided, I say I’m following God, so I’m actually going to do it. And Paul ended up doing something amazing for God. We’re still reading the letters today. And so even though Paul had that clean cup, there was a promise for him with that clean cup. And it was, I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.

See, Paul, he knew suffering. He knew what it meant to be shipwrecked. He knew what it meant to be homeless. He knew what it meant to be beaten, flogged, and even killed. But at the end of his life, the thing you couldn’t say about Paul was that he was a hypocrite. When Jesus rebukes the Pharisees, this is what he says to them. He says, You’re greedy, you’re wicked, you neglect the poor, you pay no attention to the justice and the love of God. You’re obsessed with your self-image. You’re not helping others. You kill those that God sends, and you hinder others from the Kingdom. But this is what Paul’s life ended up being. So this is the Pharisees he’s getting rebuked, and Paul literally is the exact opposite. He gives up all that he had for Jesus. He spends time with the poor and stood for justice and the love of God. He imitated Christ, served those around him, supported those who God sent, and proclaimed the Kingdom of God. Paul decided to change his life and give everything to Jesus. So I want to challenge us if there’s anything in our life that needs to change, that we give it up and we follow Jesus.

Man, I challenge everyone here today and everyone that listens to this. I challenge them to fulfill the vision that Jesus has for their lives. I challenge you to obey God. Give up your sin, confess your sin, be at church, love those around you, forgive who you must forgive, and so on and so forth. Read the Bible and do what it says. I challenge you to do whatever it takes to make sure that we’re being real Christians. Amen. So at this time, toward the end of our sermons, we decide to take part in Communion. And so Communion is for believers, for those who are following Jesus, to reflect on their spiritual life, to see where they’re at with God. It’s to reflect on the sacrifice that Jesus gave with his life. It also challenged us to be grateful to God for the community that we do have. At this time, we’re going to go ahead and pray, and then we’re going to have a time of Communion. But as we do, really reflect, on where are we and where we need to go so that we can be fulfilling the vision of Jesus. Amen.