A cowboy walked into a Texas bar, ordered three bottles of beer, and sat in the back room, drinking a sip out of each one in turn. When he finished them, he came back to the bar and ordered three more.
The bartender told the cowboy, "You know, a bottle goes flat after I open it. It would taste better if you bought one at a time."
The cowboy replied, "Well, you see, I have two brothers. One is in Australia, the other is in Dublin, and I'm in Texas. When we all left home, we promised we'd drink this way to remember the days we drank together, so I drink one for each of my brothers and one for myself."
The bartender admitted this was a nice custom and left it there.
The cowboy became a regular in the bar and always drank the same way. But one day, he ordered only two bottles. All the regulars took notice and fell silent. When he came back to the bar for the second round, the bartender said, "I don't want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss." The cowboy looked puzzled for a moment, then a light dawned and he laughed.
"Oh, no, everybody's just fine," he explained. "It's just that my wife and I joined the Baptist Church in Longview, and I had to quit drinking. It hasn't affected my brothers though." (Ed Rowell, Monument, Colorado; www.PreachingToday.com)
Who is he kidding? And yet that pictures a lot of church members who attempt the same thing. They pretend to be better than they are. It’s a problem as old as the first church in the First Century. We Christians have been practicing it for centuries.
If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Acts 5, Acts 5, where we what happened to the first hypocrites in the church
Acts 5:1-4 Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.” (ESV)
Ananias lied. His sin was not in holding back some of the money. It was his to do with as he wanted. Peter told him the money was “at your disposal.” Ananias’ sin was not in holding back. It was in hiding the truth.
He tried to make it look like he gave ALL his money to the church, when in fact he only gave MOST of it to the church. He tried to make himself look better than he really was. He tried to make himself look as magnanimous and generous as Joseph in the previous chapter.
At the end of chapter 4, Joseph sold a tract of land and brought ALL of the money to the church. The believers were so encouraged, they nicknamed him Barnabas, which means “Son of Encouragement.” “Oh Barnabas,” they said. “You’re such an encouragement.”
The whole church praised him, and I think Ananias wanted a little of that praise for himself. He wanted people to think he was wonderful too. So he devised a scheme to make it look like he was better than he really was. To put it plainly, He lied. And as a result, he died.
Acts 5:5-6 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. (ESV)
Ananias tries to make himself look better than he really is; and as a result, he ends up worse than he ever was. He lied, so he died. The same thing happened to his wife.
Acts 5:7-8 About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.” (ESV)
She lied, just like her husband. So
Acts 5:9-11 Peter said to her, “How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.” At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events. (ESV)
She lied, so she died as well. And the whole church learned an important lesson.
DON’T PRETEND TO BE BETTER THAN YOU REALLY ARE.
Don’t even try to fake it before God. Don’t build yourself up to be something you’re really not.
Keith Miller, in his book, The Taste of New Wine, says, “Our modern church is filled with many people who look pure, sound pure, and are inwardly sick of themselves, their weaknesses, their frustration, and the lack of reality around them in the church. Our non-Christian friends feel either ‘that bunch of nice untroubled people would never understand my problems;’ or the more perceptive pagans who know us socially or professionally feel that we Christians are either grossly protected and ignorant about the human situation or are out-and-out hypocrites who will not confess the sins and weakness our pagan friends know intuitively to be universal. (Keith Miller in The Taste of New Wine; Christianity Today, Vol. 31, no. 12)
In other words, we don’t fool anybody, so don’t even try. Don’t pretend to be better than you really are, because…
IT ONLY MAKES YOU WORSE THAN YOU EVER WERE.
It hurts rather than helps the cause of Christ. It hurts rather than helps the church. It hurts rather than helps you and me.
Turn with me, if you will, to 1 Corinthians 11, 1 Corinthians 11, where God spells this out in the context of Communion – a meal that speaks of our communion with Him and with each other.
1 Corinthians 11:27-30 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. (ESV)
That is, a number of you have died, physically died. Their bodies are asleep in the grave, while their souls are in heaven with Jesus. Why? Because God disciplines hypocrisy at the communion table.
1 Corinthians 11:31-32 But if we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment. When we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. (ESV)
If we judge ourselves, literally, if we are discriminating about ourselves, or honest about ourselves, then God won’t have to judge us. But when we lie to ourselves, or about ourselves, then God has to bring it to our attention.
In this context, when we’re OUT OF communion, but pretend to be IN communion, by TAKING Communion, then God communicates His displeasure in no uncertain terms. He makes pretenders sick, physically sick; and some, He takes home to glory.
But notice, He doesn’t condemn us with the world (verse 32). God still loves us, even when we pretend to be better than we really are. God still gives us the eternal life He promised when we trusted Jesus Christ His Son, but God disciplines us, as a loving father disciplines His own children.
So don’t pretend to be better than you really are. If you’re out of communion with another believer, don’t pretend to be in communion, by taking Communion. Because when we pretend to be better than we really are, we end up worse than we ever were.
God disciplines pretenders, not only at the communion table, but anywhere in the church. Turn with me, if you will, to 1 more passage that points this out: 1 John 5, 1 John 5. Here, the Apostle John is concluding his letter, and in his closing remarks, he encourages us to pray.
1 John 5:14-15 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. (ESV)
When we pray according to God’s will, we get what we pray for. The question is, What does God want us to pray for?
1 John 5:16 If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. (ESV)
God wants us to pray for each other especially when one of us is caught in a sin, but only if it’s a sin not leading to death (i.e., physical death).
What, then, is that sin leading to death? I believe it’s the sin of hypocrisy. It’s the sin of pretending to have no sin. 1 John 1 says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” But “if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (vs.8-9).
The only sin leading to physical death is unconfessed sin. It’s any sin that we commit, but refuse to admit. We refuse to admit it to ourselves. We refuse to admit it to God, and we refuse to admit it to others. The sin leading to death is any sin we cover up. It’s hypocrisy. It’s pretending to be better than we really are.
When Howard Carter and his team of archeologists found King Tutankhamun’s tomb, they were impressed, to say the least. The place spoke of immense wealth, with over 2,000 finely crafted objects, many of them made of pure gold or silver.
There was also a good sized casket. But when they opened it, they didn’t find the body of a great king. They found another casket, overlaid with gold leaf. They opened that casket and found a third casket. And when they opened that one up, would you believe, they found a fourth casket made of pure gold.
Finally, in that fourth casket, they found King Tut’s little body, wrapped in gold cloth with a gold face mask. He was no great king. He was just a boy king, made to look bigger than he really was.
How like so many of us. We wrap ourselves up with pious sounding phrases, with religious activity or showy good deeds to impress people, to make ourselves look bigger than we really are. We wrap ourselves up with gold caskets, and all it does is entomb us.
Please, don’t pretend to be better than you really are, because #1, it makes you worse than you ever were; it literally kills you in the end. And besides, #2…
YOU DON’T HAVE TO PRETEND.
You don’t have to fake it to make it with God. You don’t have to put on airs, because He accepts you just as you are.
That’s the point peter was trying to make with Ananias back in Acts 5:4. Peter told him, “The land and the money was yours to dispose of however you wanted. You didn’t need to lie. You could have kept part of it, and that would have been all right. Shoot, you could have kept ALL of it, and that too would have been all right. God doesn’t care.
He loves you whether you give money to the church or not. You don’t have to buy His favor. You don’t have to earn His love. He loves you, and we love you no matter what you do.”
Wayne Cordeiro talks about a time when his daughter, Amy, was 3-years-old and in preschool. They were putting on their annual Christmas concert in a filled, “tight-capacity room.” Every parent was there, equipped with a camera and the biggest flash it could bear. About 30 kids came out and filled up the risers, all tucked together. One willing-hearted teacher up front led them in “Joy to the World.” She had a nylon string guitar that probably hadn't been played since the Christmas program the year before, and that was probably the last time it was tuned as well.
Wayne Cordeiro says, “The kids were only three years old. They could barely speak in complete sentences, let alone sing full measures of music. Undaunted, the teacher began her solo—‘Joy to the world!’—but the kids were more interested in locating their parents: ‘Hi, Daddy! Hi, Mom!’ The teacher kept singing, ‘Joy to the world!’ Then Amy saw me,” Cordeiro says. “I took a picture of her. The teacher kept singing, ‘Joy to the world!’ Just then one of the boys in the back of the risers began to fall backwards. He bravely took four others with him. Bang! She kept singing, ‘Joy to the world!’”
It was absolute chaos, but when the song was done, Cordeiro says, he was the first to jump to his feet like pop corn. The parents gave the kids a standing ovation, and they all took pictures. It was like Halley's comet had just come through the room. They were all so proud.
After it was done, Cordeiro went outside to get some air. He was chuckling to himself as he thought, “We just gave a standing ovation to the worst concert we've ever heard. I just took pictures of the worst concert I've ever heard.” Then he thought, “But wasn't Amy good? She's cool.” (Wayne Cordeiro, "A Personal Relationship," Preaching Today audio #225; www.PreachingToday.com)
Why in the world did Wayne Cordeiro applaud? Why did any of the parents and grandparents applaud? Why do you applaud at your child or grandchild’s concerts or games? Is it because of their performance? NO! It’s because it’s your little girl. It’s your little boy up there. We applaud them not because of their performance, but because of our relationship.
That’s why God applauds those of us who have trusted His Son. It has NOTHING to do with our performance. It has EVERYTHING to do with the fact that we have a relationship with Him and we're His kids. God loves us, because we belong to Him, not because we’re better than anybody else.
So don’t pretend to be better than you really are. You could end up worse than you ever were; and besides, you don’t have to – God loves you just as you are.
I like the way Steve Brown put it once. He said, “It's worth noting that Jesus didn't condemn bad people. He condemned ‘stiff’ people. We condemn the bad ones and affirm the stiff ones. Whether it was a prostitute or a tax collector or an outcast ... Jesus reached out to them. It was a motley crew of riffraff that followed Him around, and it never embarrassed Him or made Him feel uncomfortable.” (Steve Brown in Key Life, Mar-Apr 1994, Christianity Today, Vol. 38, no. 9; www.PreachingToday.com)
If you’re not as generous as Joseph in Acts 4, if you’re not as pious as Peter in Acts 5, if you’re not as spiritual as Stephen in Acts 6, then don’t sweat it – Jesus doesn’t love you any less than they. You don’t have to fake it to make it with Jesus. Just admit your sin and trust Him to save you from it.
In his book, Grace, Max Lucado talks about his drinking days in high school, but since alcoholism is a problem in his family he gave it up at the age of 21. He has early memories of following his father through the halls of a rehab center to see his sister. Similar scenes repeated themselves with other relatives for decades. Lucado says, “Beer doesn't mix well with my family DNA. So at the age of twenty-one, I swore it off…”
Then a few years back something resurrected his cravings… Lucado writes, “At some point I reached for a can of brew instead of a can of soda, and as quick as you can pop the top, I was a beer fan again. A once-in-a-while … then once-a-week … then once-a-day beer fan.
“I kept my preference to myself”, he writes. “No beer at home, lest my daughters think less of me. No beer in public. Who knows who might see me? None at home, none in public leaves only one option: convenience-store parking lots. For about a week”, he says, “I was that guy in the car, drinking out of the brown paper bag.”
Then he was no his way to speak at a men's retreat, when he stopped for his daily purchase. He walked out of the convenience store with a beer pressed against his side, scurried to his car for fear of being seen, opened the door, climbed in, and opened the can.
Then it dawned on him. “I had become the very thing I hate,” he said, “a hypocrite. A pretender. Two-faced. Acting one way. Living another. I had written sermons about people like me –Christians who care more about appearance than integrity. It wasn't the beer but the cover-up that nauseated me.”
Lucado threw the can of beer in the trash. Next he sat in the car for a long time, praying. Then he scheduled a visit with his church elders. He didn't embellish or downplay his actions; he just confessed them. And they, in turn, pronounced forgiveness over me. Jim Potts, a dear, silver-haired saint, reached across the table and put his hand on Lucado’s shoulder and said something like this: "What you did was wrong. But what you are doing tonight is right. God's love is great enough to cover your sin. Trust his grace."
After talking to the elders, Max Lucado spoke to the church. At their midweek gathering he once again told the story. He apologized for his duplicity and requested the prayers of the congregation. What followed was a refreshing hour of confession in which other people did the same, and the church was strengthened, not weakened, by their honesty. (Max Lucado, Grace, Thomas Nelson, 2012, pp. 89-91; www.PreachingToday.com)
Do we want a strong church? Then let’s do the same. Let’s trust God’s grace and be honest about who we are.
