How to Lose Friends and Inflame Enemies
Series: One on One With the Master
February 28, 2010
Let me ask you a question. What do you think is the greatest threat to the church today? Persecution? Atheism? Materialism? No… Hypocrisy! Hypocrisy has done more to turn people away from God than all of those ‘isms’ put together! According to the dictionary, “Hypocrisy”, is “the act of playing a part; feigning to be what you’re not, or pretending to believe what you don’t believe; it’s a false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.” Hypocrisy is saying one thing and doing another. It’s telling your kids, “Do as I say, not as I do!”. Hypocrites live a double life… and they talk a double talk. Their unspoken rule is: “How things look is more important than what’s real”. Instead of getting their approval from God, a hypocrite gets their approval from how things appear to be with God. And so they work real hard at making things look gooooood.
It’s like the stressed-out woman who was tailgating someone on a busy street. As the light turned yellow just in front of him, he did the right thing and stopped at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light and accelerated through the intersection. The tailgating woman hit the roof, and the horn, screaming in frustration as she missed her chance to get through the intersection with him. As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer.
The officer ordered her to exit her car, cuffed her and took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted,
photographed, and placed in a cell. After a couple of hours, she was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects. He said, "I'm very sorry for this mistake. See, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping the guy off in front of you, and cussing a blue streak. Then, I noticed the 'What Would Jesus Do" bumper sticker, the 'Follow Me to Sunday School' bumper sticker and the chrome-plated’ fish emblem’ on the trunk. Naturally, I assumed you’d stolen the car."
Now, all of us fail to live up to who we say we are at one time or another… but it’s the failure to admit we failed, and then trying to cover it up, that makes me a true hypocrite. Because hypocrisy has the ability to destroy the integrity of the church more than any other thing, Jesus reserved His harshest words it. Now, the ‘poster boys’ for hypocrisy in Jesus’ day were the religious leaders of Israel. The main resistance to Christ’s ministry didn’t come from the criminal underworld, or secular Romans, it didn’t come from societies outcasts (tax-collectors, lowlifes, prostitutes, thieves)… no it came from the most self-righteous, sanctimonious, religious people in Israel… the legalistic Sadducees (and the even more strict) Pharisees!
These two groups proved over and over that they cared a lot more about their customs and their religious traditions than they cared about men…or even God! In the passage we’re going to look at this morning, Jesus calls them ‘hypocrite’ no less than 8 different times! That’s because every time they show up, they’re obsessed with keeping up appearances and holding onto their power. From the day Jesus started his public ministry until the day he was crucified, He waged a very aggressive, public battle with these two groups. In fact, the main reason they conspired to crucify him was because of their disagreements.
Now as we move towards the end of Jesus’ ministry in Mt.23, their attacks and confrontations get even more abusive and critical. Luke 20:20 tells us that... “Watching for their opportunity, the leaders sent secret agents pretending to be honest men. They tried to get Jesus to say something that could be reported to the Roman governor so he would arrest Jesus.” In otherwords, everywhere Jesus went, 24/7… these guys were watching Him, spying on him, testing him & challenging him. And Jesus never backed down from them. Thank you Jesus!
Mt. 23 is the record of 1 sermon. It’s the last public sermon Jesus ever preached. It’s Wednesday of His final week on earth. Vs. 1 tells us that he delivered His message “to the crowds and to his disciples”, but you can bet that the members of both religious parties were there too, mixing in with the crowds, trying to act like sympathetic followers…
Jesus wasn’t stupid… He knew it! And so He delivers a message NOT about salvation, or heaven… but a message against hypocrisy! He had just cleansed the temple for the 2nd time… and as a result the Pharisees, the chief priests and leading Sadducees… hated him all the more! After driving the money changers out of the temple… he moves out into the temple grounds and makes it his classroom. In fact, most of Mt.21-25, Mark11-13, Luke 19-21 and John 12 record what he taught, and the things that happened during that week.
As you listen to his sermon this morning, notice that there’s compromise with these guys… just confrontation, condemnation and curses! The expression WOE was a prophetic curse, and He pronounced it 8x’s on these characters! Now, that may sound harsh, but it’s really the most compassionate thing He could do. See, these men had rejected his message, and because of that, their hearts were hardened to the point that they were in danger of hells fire! Now in a passage like this, it’s all to easy to want to think about how it applies to someone other than yourself. But I want you to resist the temptation to point fingers at someone else today, and instead let God focus His laser like truth on your own heart.
Jesus starts out his message in vs.2, by mocking the religious rulers proud self-righteousness. He calls His followers to be as humble as the Pharasees are arrogant. Let’s listen in… 2 “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the Scriptures. 3 So practice and obey whatever they say to you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. –Matthew 23:1-36 Jesus wasn’t against what the Pharisees were telling people they should or shouldn’t do… He was against their failure to live up to their own teaching. That’s the root of what hypocrisy is! They were deeply concerned about what other people thought about them, but they weren’t concerned at all about what God thought about them! Jesus isn’t saying here that these are basically good guys…lets have a conversation with them… No! He says… “Keep your distance. Be on guard against their lifestyle and influence.” He’s holding them up as a model of what you DON’T want to be!
In fact, if you follow in their footsteps, then you’re headed for the same kind of condemnation they are! From their negative example, Jesus points at least 4 Characteristics of a Hypocrite…
1. Big on RULES… little on GODLINESS
“They crush you with impossible religious demands and never lift a finger to help ease the burden. -23:4
When Jesus talked about tying up heavy loads, everyone knew what He was referring to. Back then, people didn’t have Ford or Chevy trucks… they had donkeys! The primary function of a donkey was to carry things! Sometimes they would load the donkeys down with so much stuff, that it would lit. disappear! Jesus is saying… “You guys are like abusive donkey handlers! Loading people down with rules and regulations so heavy that no one can possibly live by them! And then instead of helping them… you’ve got your spiritual whips in hand, driving them forward”.
That’s what religion does! It loads people down under this burden of false guilt and religious performance… to the point that they feel trapped. Sometimes pastor’s will do that to their congregations. Sometimes parents do that to their kids. I remember the story of a mom who came to her pastor asking him to tell her teen-age son to listen to different music, and get different friends. At one point she blurted out…”I want you to get him to stand up for what he believes!” The pastor wisely responded, “He already IS standing up for what he believes! Now, if you want me to pray that God breaks his heart and gives him a new one… or if you want me to talk to him about his need for Jesus, I’ll do that. But I won’t pressure him to behave in a way that makes you look better, because all we’d have then… is a shined up Pharisee, going straight to hell!”
Many times we try and put rules or false guilt on people as a way to control them. But you know what I’ve found? God is totally capable of motivating people to live for Him. He doesn’t need my rules! See, my job as a pastor, and your job as a parent is to remove the load of external performance… and help people to discover the freedom that comes with following Christ! Besides, if the only thing that keeps you following God, are the rules…are you really following Him in the 1st place?
In a ‘burden-based’ religion you’re always trying to do a little more, be a little better, try a little harder… it’s performance driven, and eventually the load of ‘being good’ on your own is too heavy to carry. However, if your faith is “grace-based”… then you realize you can’t carry the load of your own sin by yourself. You need help! So God’s Spirit becomes your true source of life and power. The 2nd characteristic of a hypocrite that Jesus exposes is that they are…
2. Big on APPEARANCES …but little on REALITY
Jesus says in vs 5… See, with the hypocrite… image is everything! Jesus said that everything these people do is for show! The essence of their spiritual life was to look good. The Pharisees took a vs. out of Deut.6:5-8 and twisted it. Where it said to take God’s commands and tie them to your hands and wear them on your forehead… they took literally! They wrote the commands of Deut. on pieces of paper, and then placed them in little boxes and tied them to their wrists and foreheads! Then they made them extra wide, so that people would think that they’re super devoted to God! In their minds, the bigger the box… the bigger their love. But it was a hoax! They really didn’t love God with all their heart, they were just trying to look spiritual without really being spiritual. Have you ever been guilty of doing that? I have!
Christian hypocrites believe that it’s more important to “look” happy, than it actually is to “BE” happy. They’ve fallen into the trap of thinking that it’s more important to you to have a marriage that “looks” strong than it is to have one that actually “IS” strong! Let’s imagine that I’m a pastor who’s marriage is shaky. I thank God that mine isn’t, but I’ve known a lot of pastor’s whose are. I’m completely unhappy with my life and my relationship with God dried up months ago. But if I’m in a trap, where “how it looks” matters most… I can’t risk letting you find out about my bad marriage, because as a Christian leader, it wouldn’t “look” good. So… I fake it! My wife and I come through the door of the church hand in hand, slap on a happy face and worship with the rest of the church… but deep in our hearts, we know it’s a show! The thought of actually admitting it to all of you that our marriage is in trouble would be terrifying! I mean after all, all of you have “perfect” marriages! Right? But if I DIDN’T tell you, I’d be forced to live the life of a hypocrite. The real tragedy is that because I’m doing such a good job at hiding my problems, I never give God a chance of touching and healing my life.
Another sign that image has become everything is that you need to have your spiritual performance noticed by others. You begin to believe that if OTHERS think I’m spiritual… then maybe I am! Jesus warns his disciples in vs. 23:6 that
“…they love to sit at the head table at banquets and in the most prominent seats in the synagogue!” With the hypocrite, their service to God, isn’t really for God… it’s for THEM! Everything they do is to be noticed and honored. We hear all the time about people who give large amounts of money to some charity so they can be honored. It’s like the true story I heard about a philanthropist who gave 3 million to the N.Y. Central Park Zoo. But when he found out that the plaque they made to commemorate his giving was only 2.5 inches tall…he took it back! People like that need to have their name in lights, right over the PEACOCK CAGE!
It happens all the time in church!
It’s like the businessman who needed millions of dollars to clinch an important deal, so he went to church to pray for the money. By chance he knelt next to a man who was praying for $100 to pay an urgent debt. The businessman quickly took out his wallet and pressed a 100 dollar bill in his hand. The man was overjoyed and left. The businessman then closed his eyes and prayed… “God, now that I have your undivided attention …” Some people think that’s the way it works! Don’t misunderstand… there’s nothing wrong with giving credit to people for what they do… and we should honor each other for doing good… but if it becomes all about getting credit…then we’ve become a hypocrite. The fact is…more will get done for God and HIS glory when nobody cares who gets the credit!
Jesus points out that one of the ways you can spot a false religious system is when the leaders REQUIRE the place of honor. Listen to what Jesus says in vs.7-12…
Here’s the general rule… the less secure a leader is…the more important titles will be to them! You may have earned a title like “Doctor” or “Reverend”, and the issue isn’t whether you choose to use it or not… the real issue is do you NEED to use it to feel important! The Pharisees required it and Jesus pointed it out as a mark of a false spiritual leader.
• The term “Rabbi” was used to refer to a person who is a “source of knowledge”.
• To be a “Father” meant you were the “source of life”.
• The word “Master” meant that you were the “source of a authority” in people’s lives.
So Jesus is saying, “Don’t present yourself as the source of knowledge, life and authority” to anybody! Those are titles for God and God alone!” Jesus says that the greatest people aren’t the ones who flaunt their titles and credentials so they can ride rough-shod over people… the greatest people are the ones with a servant attitude in life. True servants don’t need titles because they’re not trying to control or impress anybody! True servant leaders will always point to Jesus as the source of all knowledge, authority and life! I like how the message version puts vs. 12… “Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.”
But then, there’s a 3rd characteristic of a hypocrite that we need to watch out for… being
3. Big on public COMMANDS…little on personal
OBEDIENCE
So after identifying the religious leaders as spiritual abusers who have a false base of authority, who live a double life of saying but not doing, who have this habit of laying heavy religious loads on people and lit. wear their religion on their sleeves… Jesus shifts his confrontation into an even higher gear! He’s doesn’t just identify the characteristics of a hypocrite, but He starts telling us how hypocrisy impacts peoples lives for eternity! READ vs.13. The NIV puts it this way… “You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces” The Greek lit. means, “To slam the door in the face of, and to make entry impossible”. Have you ever had a door slammed shut in your face? It’s not a very pleasant experience. When you think about shutting someone off from the salvation that God offers them… that’s pretty serious stuff!
I’ve seen it happen! People come into a church sincerely looking for God, for forgiveness of their sins, desperately seeking freedom from their addictions and hurts… only to run into people who are just going through the motions! They’re not serious or sincere at all! They’re not praying… they’re playing! In vs.15, He condemns the religious rulers for going to extreme measures to win a convert…but in the process they put them in greater danger. Yes, how terrible it will be for you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. For you cross land and sea to make one convert, and then you turn him into twice the son of hell as you yourselves are.
In my 1st church plant, I was in a community where people were told that as long as they abided by the church rules and traditions… they were guaranteed heaven. So they just did what the church told them to do, having a form of religion but there was no power in it! I’d knock on their door, and ask them about their relationship with Christ, they’d say, “I’m not interested… I’m Catholic”. Now they could have just as easily said, “I’m Baptist” or “I’m Presbyterian, Lutheran, Wesleyan… etc. The point is… they thought because they jumped through the right religious hoops… they were OK! The problem is…they were doubly deceived! Not only did they think that good works got them to heaven, but they thought doing the good works of their particular brand of Christianity got them saved. Listen… We make people twice a citizen of hell when we allow them to think they’re saved without any real repentance or love for God.
To further illustrate their total lack of personal obedience Jesus rails on them for their use of religious mumbo jumbo, or what I call… Double Talk. READ 16-22… The Jews had an almost superstitious fear of taking the Lords name in vain. They believed that the name of God (Yahweh) was too holy to pass through human lips, so they started substituting other terms in place of His name. The word ‘heaven’ became a common substitute. So instead of swearing by God’s name, they would swear by heaven. Since ‘heaven’ was merely a substitution for God… Jesus pointed out that swearing by “heaven” was actually the same as swearing by God’s name and therefore, they were violating the command.
What does it really mean when I say to you… “I swear it”. It basically means, “You can’t trust me” right? I can’t be trusted, so I try to get you to trust me based on the trustworthiness of something or someone else. Maybe the bible…”I swear to you on the bible!” Maybe something you know is important to me… “I swear on my mothers grave!” The Pharisees were “swearing by the temple” to get people to believe them, because they knew they weren’t believable. Have you ever dealt with somebody who wasn’t believable because they couldn’t answer a simple question? Politicians do that a lot. They rarely say what they mean. They may give you a ‘right’ answer, but they won’t give you a ‘real’ answer. It sound’s politically correct, but it doesn’t answer your question. Jesus is telling us that “If you’re real… if you’re truthful and you don’t need to swear by anything”. The integrity of your life should be proof enough. People who are always double talking and swearing by something, …always telling you what you want to hear instead of what you need to hear… can’t be trusted!
Because of their compromised values, hypocrites have an upside-down kind of spirituality… they take strong stands on issues that have little or no real significance and ignore the big issues. Jesus takes them to task for it in vs.23-24. The Pharisees took the command to tithe very seriously… to the point that If they purchased seeds for their herb gardens, they would meticulously count the grains in each packet and measure out a tithe! But they could care less about people’s real hurts and needs. To them, people were something to be manipulated and used. Jesus said, “It’s like straining out gnats and accidently swallowing a camel!”
Under Levitical law camels and gnats were considered unclean. Obviously it’s easy to avoid swallowing an unclean camel. If you swallow a camel, you tend to notice it! But gnats were a tougher matter. You had to work to avoid them, because they were everywhere, especially when you were making wine in the open. So when they were in public the Pharasees would slowly sift their wine through their teeth, picking them out with their fingers. The point is… they were putting incredible amounts of time and energy counting seeds and picking gnats out of their drinks… and missing the fact that they were swallowing a camel of immorality, injustice, lying and hypocrisy!
Do we do that today? Sure we do! It’s easy for a church to be more upset by the color of the carpet in the sanctuary than the fact that millions are dying and going to hell around them! It’s easy for us as parents to be so worried about our kids having the right type of phones and clothes that we totally miss the fact that they don’t care much about God.
We get our values upside down all the time! Jesus says, “That’s a form of hypocrisy!”
Then lastly, Jesus says, “You know you’re a hypocrite when you’re…
4. Big on EXTERNALS… little on internals
READ vs. 26
While a hypocrite is concerned with what the outside of the cup looks like…Jesus is more concerned with what’s going on INSIDE of your cup! Personally, I think that if we’d spend ½ the time working on our attitudes as we do on our appearance… we’d be spiritual giants! What we don’t realize is that eventually what’s hiding out on our insides will eventually explode and make a mess on the outside!
I’m reading a book right now by one of Matthew’s profs (Bill Giovannetti), it’s entitiled, “How to Keep Your Inner Mess from Trashing Your Outer World”… what a great title! In it he says, “Picture you inner life, your soul or personality – as a collection of passengers on a bus. They’re not all happy. Some of them resent having to ride a bus in the 1st place. Others worry about where the bus is headed. Many of the passengers don’t like each other. Sometimes it’s a tense, stress-filled bus. When the bus riders in your soul aren’t happy, you aren’t happy. Some of the riders on my bus are dedicated to doing what Jesus wouldn’t do. The reputable characters sit toward the front… courage, wisdom, generosity, humor, patience. They are good for your image. You actually want them to take turns at driving. But a host of unsavory characters have boarded the bus too. You work hard to keep them in the back seats. When these characters pop up, you cringe. Some are nasty like your inner pervert, braggart, liar, bum. A few are snooty, like your inner critic, judge, and church lady. A few may even be dangerous… like your inner thug or seductress. Lurking beneath your cool, calm exterior is a virtual mob scene. Just admit it… you have a creepy dark side that would give even Stephen King the willies!”
Jesus is in the business of exposing our dark sides! He tells them in 27-36…READ. In otherwords, He says, “You guys remind me of the gravestones that they whitewash on Passover to make them look all whitey- tidey… but if you dig 6 ft. under you find rotting bones and maggot eaten flesh!” The Pharasees were guilty of doing the same thing we do…trying to MASK our inner mess instead of MASTERING it. Is that you?
The simple truth is that Christianity is a relationship with God, and like all healthy relationships… it has to be based on truth and reality. So when the Pharisees excelled at containing their inner mess, but gave the impression that they were closer to God… and then they taught people to follow them in their charade… Jesus couldn’t stand it! He tore into them… trying to blow the lid off their pious exterior and get to the junk inside. Has He ever done that to you? He has to me! For instance, I thought I was perfect, and I did a pretty good job at convincing other people that I was… and then I got married and had kids! All the sudden, all the things that I thought I’d hidden pretty good came out into the open, and I had to deal with my mess! My anger issues, my pride, my impatience, my controlling nature… etc. Jesus has a way of exposing our inner mess! Listen as he strips these guys of their false spirituality!
READ 29-36. He’s telling the Pharisees and us… “You’re not fooling me! I know who you are! You’re killers at heart! You say you wouldn’t have killed the prophets, but the anger and rage you have in you right now is proof that you would have! When are we going to learn that we can’t fool God? The inner mess’s ability to pop out at the worst moments makes life nerve wracking. What if my friends see my dark side? What would people think of me if they knew I thought or felt, or believed, or did that? So instead of finding the life God wants me to have…my primary mission becomes trying to cover up the life I actually do have! Listen… THAT IS NOT TRUE CHRISTIANITY! Jesus wants you to throw aside the fake life and begin to live the real life He has for you. He wants you to admit that you have some bad ‘passengers on your bus’… because until you do… He can’t help you overcome them! It’s only when you & I really come clean that His power is available to help us!
Hypocrisy is one of those sins you don’t even realize you’re committing until you come face to face with Jesus. He’s the cure for the common disease of hypocrisy. So let me give you some pointers on how to avoid becoming what you hate…
1. REMEMBER God’s Grace
Don’t forget….we’re all sinners in desperate need of God’s saving grace. In Eph.2:8,9 the bible says… Everyday we need a big dose of God’s mercy! We can’t save ourselves and we don’t become godly on our own. The minute we start thinking it’s by our ‘good works’… is the minute we start making ourselves look better than we really are! And that’s where hypocrisy starts!
2. REMAIN Open to God’s Changes
None of us have arrived and we need to continue to open to God’s challenges in our lives. If I ever come to the point where I think I’ve gone as far as I need to go with God… that’s the point I become a hypocrite.
3rdly, if you want to avoid becoming a hypocrite…
3. RESPOND to God’s Word
The bible tells us in James 1:22… “And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to. If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking knowledge = maturity. Not true! Knowledge of the bible doesn’t = maturity. Knowledge + Application = maturity! There’s always a gap between “what I know to do”, and “what I do”. The bigger that gap becomes… the more of a hypocrite I become. The smaller the gap… the smaller the hypocrisy. I tell people that “if your Christianity doesn’t work at home… it doesn’t work… so don’t export it!” If you’re being a hypocrite at home, it causes your kids to reject your faith! So make sure you’re responding to God’s Word, doing what it says… not just listening!
Be careful! It’s so easy to become a hypocrite!
• When you want the recognition of being a Christian, without making the changes to become a Christian…you’re becoming a hypocrite!
• When you’d rather listen to a sermon than put one into practice… you’re becoming a hypocrite.
• When you’re looking around, always applying the bible to others but failing to apply it to yourself… you’re becoming a hypocrite!
