Confronting The Phony

Confronting the Phony

“Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 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. 4 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. Matthew 23:1-3

Intro: Do you know anyone who is Mr. Rogers at church but Mike Tyson during the week?

What do you do?

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It is the old story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

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The word “hypocrite” ?p????t?? comes from a Greek word

meaning actor—one who wears a mask, a pretender.

In the Greek theater, an actor might come on stage wearing a mask of comedy in one scene

and, minutes later, come on stage wearing a mask of tragedy.

In Greek theater if someone said, “You are a great hypocrite.”

It was a real compliment.

It was the same person, just two faces.

But we are not on the stage of Greek theater.

We are dealing with real life issues.

We are dealing with real people we work with, are at school with, run into at the store,

live in our family, and even go to church with.

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In this passage, Jesus underscores several characteristics of a phony.

“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 obey them and do everything they tell you,

but do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.’” Matthew 23:3

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First, a phony makes no attempt to practice what he or she preaches.

This is an important distinction:

from those who struggle with issues, a temptation and sin

as opposed to those who claim that they have no problem

or that what they are doing is not wrong.

There is a big difference.

Between people who are phony

and those who like all of us wrestle with problems and seek resolution

or as in the case with sin seek forgiveness.

The Pharisees kept preaching to others about keeping the commandments,

but in their hearts they were plotting murder against Jesus.

They preached to others about helping the poor,

but they did not even help their own parents who were living in poverty.

They insisted that everybody tithe,

but they omitted the weightier, more values of the law such as justice, mercy, and faith.

Hypocrites judged others by a standard they are not willing to live by themselves.

Hypocrites can put on an impressive show,

they are one way when they think the crowds are looking.

They are another way when they think they do not have witnesses.

They are much more concerned with what people think, than what God desires.

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Pastor’s are very susceptible to fall into the trap of hypocrisy.

Our livelihood or well-being depends on the approval of people.

So Pastors are often guilty of trying to please everyone.

Sometimes…, that can lead to being one way around one group of people

And another way around a different group of people.

Those who deals with the public…, who works with people

are often torn between two, three, four, or more opinions.

Ask ten people…, you will often get ten different opinions.

So how do you get the approval of ten different people?

Trying to please everyone…, makes one particularly vulnerable…, to hypocrisy.

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Galatians 1:10 asks, “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God?

Or am I trying to please people?

If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”

Paul does not apologize for his straight forward preaching.

Knowing that he could not serve Christ faithfully

and allow the Galatian Christians to remain on the wrong track.

Can we as Christi live with a clear conscience and do any different?

Yet even people who are regular church attenders are vulnerable to hypocrisy.

We know what our parents want.

We know what religious people expect.

We know they will be satisfied as long as we go to church,

and as long as on the outside, we do the right thing.

We can keep the externals, but in reality, it’s all smoke and mirrors.

There is no substance inside.

There is no heart for God.

That is why Jesus called the Pharisees “white-washed tombs.”

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Matthew 23:27

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!

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.”