OPEN: Jesse James was one of the most famous men of the West.
For a period of about 15 years, Jesse James and his gang committed 26 holdups where they made off with approximately $200,000 and killed at least 17 men (many by Jesse’s own hand). Jesse James was one of the West’s most notorious outlaws.
And yet, very few people know that Jesse James was a very devout churchgoer. Why, shortly after he killed one man in a bank robbery James was baptized in the Kearney Baptist Church in Kearney, Missouri. Then he killed another man, a bank cashier, and joined the church choir and taught hymn-singing.
He loved to go to church but he couldn’t always show up on Sundays. On 2 Sundays he had to work.
He had a couple of trains to catch.
APPLY: If you didn’t know any better, you’d think Jesse James was a very good church member. I mean – he was baptized, sang in the choir, taught hymn-singing and was fairly regular in church attendance.
But, of course, he was also a thief and a murderer.
He had all the right moves… but all the wrong motives.
That happens a lot in church.
Usually it’s not quite that obvious as it was in Jesse James’ life but there are many church goers who say one thing and do another. What does the world call folks like that?
(those who say they’re Christians but don’t act like it).
Hypocrites.
* A recent survey listed the top 10 reasons why people didn’t go to church.
Can you guess what the top reason was?
Hypocrisy
(ON Mission, July/Aug 2001, p. 46-48)
* One of the top 5 topics Jesus addressed in His ministry was hypocrisy (73 vss).
* And in a survey taken several years ago where people “ranked” the seriousness of sins, hypocrisy was in the top 20. It was regarded as more “serious” than homosexuality, living together, and abortion. (“People” Magazine as a result of a lengthy questionnaire on Jan. 13, 1986).
When it comes to sin… hypocrisy is hated by just about everybody.
But now, the thing about hypocrisy is that most hypocrites don’t know they’re hypocrites.
If you’d have asked Jesse James, he would have had explanations for why he behaved as he did. He probably wouldn’t think of himself as a hypocrite
And in the days of Jesus, the Pharisees were condemned by both John the Baptist and Jesus, but if you’d asked them, they would deny that they were hypocrites.
And in the church at Corinth that we’re reading about this morning, there were hypocrites who didn’t think they were.
So why wouldn’t a hypocrite think they were a hypocrite?
Well… hypocrites often do all the right things.
They tithe. They go to church regularly. They may even teach Sunday school.
They have all the right moves.
Corinth had all the makings of a great church.
The church began with powerful Revival meetings held by Paul that led to many conversions. And Paul stayed with them longer than any church plant he’d ever began… nearly a year. Then he left the church in the capable hands of Aquila and Priscilla. And Aquila and Priscilla stayed and helped build up that congregation and were so successful, they won over a powerful speaker named Apollos who became a force for the cause of Jesus in that area.
Also, when Paul wrote his first letter to this church we find they are very anxious to know God’s will for their lives, because part of Paul’s letter is concerned with answering questions they had about what God wanted from them.
AND Corinth was a very spiritual gifted congregation (prophecy, healing, tongues, etc.) and they apparently used their gifts to worship and serve their God.
Corinth was a church that had all the right moves.
But they also are a church that apparently had many wrong motives.
1. They had potluck dinners where they didn’t share food with each other.
2. They took each other to court over trivial matters.
3. They had allowed sexual immorality to go unpunished in the church.
4. And they argued a lot.
They argued over who was baptized by whom
And they quarreled over who had the best spiritual gifts (prophecy or tongues)
Now, to be fair, this was a very young church and they were still experiencing growing pains. But already they were in danger of having all the right moves… but all the wrong motives. They were on the verge of being nothing but a congregation of hypocrites… and they didn’t even know it.
So, Paul addresses one of the major conflicts in the church and he gives them the cure to their growing hypocrisy. From chapters 12 thru 14 (nearly 20% of the book) Paul focuses on the principal argument the Christians had in this church:
Some had the gifts of prophecy, others of healing, others could do miracles, and others could speak in tongues – languages they had never learned. And they quarreled over which was the best gift.
So Paul begins by explaining that all of their gifts enabled them to function as different parts of the body of Christ, and that each gift had its place. But then Paul told them that – in the grand scheme of things - those gifts didn’t matter.
In I Corinthians 12:29-31 Paul asked:
”Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret?”
Answer – of course not.
And (Paul’s saying) IF these gifts were really all that important, everybody would have them. But they weren’t all that important… because not everyone did have them.
But then Paul writes:
“But eagerly desire the greater gifts. And now I will show you the most excellent way.”
In other words: Let me tell you about the gifts that are really worth having.
Then he starts talking about “the right moves”.
The showy and impressive actions the Corinthians had been so moved by.
The behaviors these Corinthians would be really impressed with.
The qualities they would expect to see in TRULY “Spiritual” people.
The actions that were seen by them as being “gas gauges”
ILLUS: You know what a gas gauge is, don’t you? Every car has one. If the needle points to E it means your running on empty. If it points to the F, it means you have plenty of fuel. The behaviors and qualities Paul described were gas gauges. The more a person could do these things, the more Spiritual they MUST be.
I. So Paul starts out with one of the most "showy" behaviors in the Corinthian church and says:
Oh, you can speak in tongues? That’s nice.
I can speak in tongues too. (In fact he said that he could speak in tongues more than all of them - I Corinthians 14:18)
But you really think your specific gift makes you sound great in God’s presence?
Well, let me tell you something, even if I could speak in the tongues of men… and EVEN of angels… but if I lacked love I’d be nothing more than a religious noisemaker.
You sound like someone beating on a gong, or clanging cymbals together.
ILLUS: In an orchestra there are many instruments – including gongs and cymbal. When a quality orchestra performs the works of Bach or Beethoven, there are times when those instruments are used to complete the performance of those works.
But let’s say you’ve gone to a concert that features the works of the great artists like Mozart or Mendelssohn and you listen to the various movements as the orchestra interprets their masterpieces. Then in the middle of that concert they play a 15-minute composition that consists of nothing but a man holding a mallet beating on a gong. Followed by another work that has nothing but a group of people clanging cymbals together.
No matter what you may think of classical music… that would be annoying.
And if all the early church was able to do was speak in tongues but had no love for others… that’s the way it would sound to God.
Annoying.
ILLUS: Years ago, there was a powerful preacher named Jimmy Swaggert on TV. My dad loved this guy. Every Sunday when Swaggert’s TV program came on dad would tune in to watch this man as sang and preached about Christ.
One Sunday I was watching this show along with dad – Swaggert (who was an evangelist for a Charismatic denomination) began talking about “tongues”.
Now for those who don’t understand what I’m talking about, let me take a couple of minutes to explain what the Bible meant by that gift. In the early church there were people to whom God gave the ability to speak in languages they’d never learned (called tongues). They would be able to use these languages to talk to others about Christ.
For example, in Logansport we have many Hispanics, and if the gift of tongues existed today, you’d be able to talk to them in their own language about your love for God and how to become a Christian. Now we, in this church, do not believe that the gift of tongues exists today – but that’s not something I’m going to address in this sermon.
Getting back to Swaggert’s sermon - he said that not everybody could have the “gift of tongues”
BUT everybody could “pray in tongues”. (Some Charismatics teach that this prayer language allows them to speak “in code” to God in a way that Satan can’t listen in – it’s not a Biblical idea, but some teach it nonetheless).
Then Swaggert explained that you didn’t have to pray in tongues in order to be a Christian, but praying in tongues reflected spiritual maturity. Praying in tongues was a mark that you had “grown up” in your faith.
I was appalled!
Even IF I believed that the gift of tongues existed today… that’s a bogus teaching.
The Bible NO WHERE teaches that false concept.
But, even worse than that, Swaggert’s teaching on tongues reflected the same mindset that was tripping up the Corinthians – who did have that gift. It was a mark of a spiritual arrogance/ of a self-righteous. An elevation of one Christian above another based upon a supposed spiritual ability.
In Corinth, tongues had become a tool some Christians used for spiritual one-up-manship:
“I’m more important to God because I can do THIS… and you can’t”
And Paul was teaching the Corinthians – Quit that!”
Quit using your gift as a way of measuring your spirituality against someone else’s .
If you do stuff like that – you’re showing that really don’t love anyone but yourself.
Glorying in tongues was a “self-love thing”… it was the seed of hypocrisy.
II. Having addressed the topic of tongues, Paul moved on to the folks who took pride in their gift of prophecy.
Oh, you can prophesy? That’s nice. But now, let me tell you something:
· Let’s say you can prophesy,
· and you can explain all the mysteries of the universe to me.
· And that you EVEN have so much faith that you can literally move mountains
If you can do all that - but you don’t show love to others in the church… you’re nothing.
You might think you’re know something special. But if you place yourself above others… you don’t know nothing.
ILLUS: Back in the 1600’s a man named Roger Williams who left England and came over to join the Puritans. He was a very gifted preacher and many churches asked him to come fill their pulpits. But Williams had one major flaw - an overwhelming desire to have purist doctrine he could manage.
One writer said that “William’s insistence upon absolute purity in the Church, beyond all normal extremes, grew out of his own personal obsession with having to be right – in doctrine, in conduct, in church associations – in short, in every area of life. This need to be right colored everything he did or thought; indeed it drove him into one untenable position after another…”
Eventually this passion made him believe the Puritans weren’t pure enough for him.
So he moved down to Plymouth to join the Pilgrims – believers who referred to themselves as Separatists. And for a while he was welcomed amongst them. But after a while, the Separatists weren’t separated enough for him. His obsession with purity caused him to separate himself from more and more people until the only person he deemed fit to take Communion with him was his wife, and one historian says that even she was finally found to be “impure.” (gleaned from “The Light and the Glory” by Peter Marshall, David Manuel, p. 192 ff)
Now, here’s the deal:
It’s possible to know all kinds of things out of the Bible
It’s possible to have the purist doctrine and the most righteous stands.
BUT if those “insights” into Scripture make you and I feel that we’re above others…
… if it makes us feel that we’re so righteous and pure that others aren’t worthy to be around us
… then, we’ve fallen into the same trap the Corinthians were falling into.
Peter wrote: “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8). What Peter was saying was – the person sitting next to you in your pew isn’t perfect. They may not believe that… but it’s true.
All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Even them. Even me. Even the Elders. Even your Sunday School teachers. There isn’t one of us that’s “got it all together”. And you might find that annoying on occasion. But that’s alright. You need to love them anyway.
Because if we love them the way we ought to love them, we’ll overlook a multitude of sins and shortcomings.
It’s that love for each other that forms the bond that holds this church (and others) together. Without that love, no church will succeed for very long.
III. So Paul spent his time addressing those could speak in tongues and prophesy… and lastly, Paul told the Corinthians:
So, you’re a generous and self-sacrificing Christian? That’s nice. But let me tell you something:
Even if you gave away everything you owned to the poor and were martyred for your faith in Christ - you could do all that and more - but if you didn’t love God’s people… it would be all for nothing.
ILLUS: It’s possible to give money to the poor without loving them.
It’s possible to be martyred for your faith in Christ without caring about the people Jesus came to die for.
It’s nice to give money to the poor, it’s noble to die for your faith
But if you don’t love others, you’ve wasted your money and squandered your life.
It’s all worthless if you don’t understand that Jesus is less impressed with WHAT you do than he is with WHY you do it!
If you don’t love others
If you don’t care about what happens to them.
If you’re not willing to help them in their daily struggles…
If you don’t care if they go to hell or not
And you don’t care whether they are able to get closer to Jesus in their lives… you’ve missed the point.
You can have all the right MOVES and end up with nothing
Because it’s having all the right MOTIVES (love for others) that really impresses God.
And it impresses God because that’s kind of Christianity that changes the world.
CLOSE: Doug Nichols went to India to be a missionary. But while he was just starting to study the language he became infected with tuberculosis and was placed in a local sanitarium til he could be healed.
It was not a very good place to be. It was not very clean and conditions were difficult because there were so many sick people there. But Doug decided to do the best he could in that situation.
So he took a bunch of Christian books and tracts and tried to witness to the other patients. But when he tried to pass out tracts, they were rejected - no one wanted them. He tried to hand out books, but no one would take them. He tried to witness, but he couldn’t speak their language.
He became frustrated and discouraged.
Here he was trapped in a sanitarium, and no one would listen to him.
Because of his tuberculosis, every night at about 2 o’clock he would wake up with chronic coughing. Then one night when he awoke he noticed across the aisle an old man trying to get out of bed. He said the man would roll himself up into a little ball and teeter back and forth trying to get up the momentum to get up and stand on his feet. But he just couldn’t do it. He was too weak. Finally, after several attempts the old man laid back and wept.
The next morning Doug understood why the man was weeping.
He was trying to get up to go to the bathroom but didn’t have enough strength to do that. So his bed was a mess and there was a smell in the air.
The other patients made fun of the old man.
The nurses came to clean up his bed and they weren’t kind to him, either.
In fact, one of them even slapped him in the face.
Doug said that the old man just laid there and cried.
Doug said, "That next night about 2 o’clock I started coughing again. I looked across the way and there was the old man trying to get out of bed once more. I really didn’t want to do it, but somehow I managed to get up and I walked across the aisle and I helped the old man stand up."
But he was too weak to walk, so, "I took him in my arms and carried him like a baby. He was so light that it wasn’t a difficult task. I took him into the bathroom, which was nothing more than a dirty hole in the floor, and I stood behind him and cradled him in my arms as he took care of himself. Then I carried him back to his bed and laid him down. As I turned to leave he reached up and grabbed my face and pulled me close and kissed me on the cheek and said what I think was `Thank you.’"
Doug said, "The next morning there were patients waiting when I awoke and they asked if they could read some of the books and tracts that I had brought. Others had questions about the God I worshiped and His only begotten Son who came into the world to die for their sins."
He said that in the next few weeks he gave out all the literature that he had brought, and many of the doctors and nurses and patients in that sanitarium became Christians.
He said, "Now what did I do? I didn’t preach a sermon. I couldn’t even communicate in their language. I didn’t have a great lesson to teach them. I didn’t have wonderful things to offer.
All I did was take an old man to the bathroom..."
(Doug Nichols, Bothell, WA Leadership, Vol. 15, no. 2.)
All he did was love someone as Jesus had loved him.
It’s not about WHAT you can do
It’s not about HOW MUCH you know
It’s not about how generous and self-sacrificing you can be
It’s about whether or not you’ve learned to love others as Jesus has loved you.
