Confronting Hypocrisy (don’t say initially)
Galatians Series
CCCAG 5-12-24
Scripture Galatians 2:11-14
Introduction:
This morning we are going to dive into a subject that will be challenging for many people.
I'm going to start out with a couple of stories that will introduce the subject this morning and be illustrations for us.
The first one
There was a church with a vibrant community of believers. Among them was a man named Joe. Joe was well-respected in the church for his devoutness and generosity. He volunteered for various church activities, always had a smile on his face, and seemed to have it all together.
To his friends and his family, Joe seemed to be a model of Christianity. He even started a man's group to teach other men how to be good and godly role models to their families and their community.
However, what no one knew, is behind the scenes, when he was alone in his office at home, Joe was struggling with addiction to internet pornography.
The second illustration
A powerful storm was coming towards a large city. Floodwaters had already destroyed large sections of the city, and they did not have enough available shelters to help everyone. However, there is a mega church in this city that has both the transportation needs and the space to temporarily house thousands of people and protect them from the powerful storm is ravaging their community.
However the media reported that the pastor refused to open the doors because he doesn't want any damage to the inside of the church, and he just had the carpets cleaned.
A third example,
There is a gathering of some people who would be considered to be elite in our society. A comic who is there to entertain them tells some off color and very pointed jokes that exposes the evil that exists within their ranks. There are several moments of silence in the crowd as people sit there with their hands ready to clap at the joke but they're looking around to see what others are going to do.
What common thread are in all three of these stories?
They all deal with some form of hypocrisy.
Confronting hypocrisy is the title and subject of today’s message.
I used these stories to show us that sometimes people or organizations do not live up to the principles they are supposed to be defending.
In the case of Joe- he is trying to teach men to be Godly while hiding a very dangerous addiction.
In the case of the church- their leader is a multimillionaire who preaches a message of self help and helping others, but when it came time for him and his church to live their best life and help others.
Crickets. At least until the negative publicity changed his mind.
In the 3rd story, Hollywood elites being called out by Ricky Gervais about being antigun, antimisogynistic, and faking support of the Me-to movement
All while making violent movies with guns, forcing actresses into revealing their bodies on camera so men will want to see the movie, and then propping up sex criminals like Harvey Weinstein in their midst.
These stories are not meant to point a finger or embarrass anyone. They are meant to illustrate how easy it is to fall into the trap of hypocrisy.
This isn’t a new thing. It happened even in the leadership of the early church.
In Galatians 2:11-14, we will see that example
Paul is relating an incident that happened among the leadership in the early church. He had to confront a fellow leader about his hypocrisy.
Let’s read about it here.
Gal 2:11-14
But when Cephas (Simon Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned. (12) For he regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. However, when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, because he feared those from the circumcision party (Jewish People). (13) Then the rest of the Jews joined his hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. (14) But when I saw that they were deviating from the truth of the gospel, I told Cephas in front of everyone, “If you, who are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel Gentiles to live like Jews?”
Prayer
After giving those three examples, and then reading in the bible about Peter acting hypocritical, I think we should pause and admit something to ourselves-
We are all hypocrites.
In fact, if we should treat this morning like an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and saying, “My name is John, and I’m a hypocrite.
None of us, 100% of the time, live up to the things we would normally say are very important.
I want to establish that before we go any further because human nature is to look around at others and how they might be hypocritical, but that’s not the mission of the bible. The bible is not a telescope to look closely at others, but a microscope to look closely at ourselves.
The bible gives us these examples so that God the Holy Spirit can root out those same issues within ourselves.
Let’s get into some of the lessons from this scripture-
There is something about hypocrisy that is a real gut punch when we see it, especially in someone we admire.
The word for hypocrite in the Greek language really means actor- a person playing a part that is not representative of who they really are.
So this morning we are going to look at a few of the ways that we can show hypocrisy or put on an act.
WE will begin by looking at the context of what Paul was describing here.
I. The Context of the Incident (Galatians 2:11) We saw hypocrisy illustrated here in THE leader of the early church- the Apostle Peter.
When he was in Antioch, he would hang out with his non-Jewish, or Gentile friends. He was eating ham and lobster (both of those would be unclean to a Jewish person), but when the Jewish people showed up in town, he’d stop even talking to the Gentiles.
This is what Paul was confronting- Peter, who once freely ate with Gentile believers, suddenly withdrew and separated himself from them, fearing the judgment of the Jewish Christians. His actions were driven by fear and a desire to please others rather than by conviction.
A lot of us can fall into this trap- adapting to fit your surroundings.
Illustration:
I listen to a lot of sermons online or on the radio. Shortly after I was called to the ministry, a friend of mine emailed me a link to an online sermon because he wanted my opinion on it. The message was centered on which “hat” you were wearing, and how you needed to adapt to whatever situation you were in and try to show Jesus in that way.
In other words- if you work around cussing, loud, prideful people you should act the same way so people are comfortable around you so that they will accept you as one of their own, and then you open a door for a conversation about spiritual matters.
Obviously, I don’t agree with that. I believe to avoid hypocrisy we need to live authentically. Show people who you really are, and then they can see how Christ is working in your life. If you are putting on an act to limit conflict, it may seem a wise thing to do, but then you are living a lie- hiding who you really are, then the fruit of that will be rotten as well.
I listened to that message and rejected the concept, but then the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, “Son, you do the same thing you are criticizing here.”
And what God showed me is that who I was at work isn’t the same person as I was at home or at church.
In my early years of being a Christian, Paramedic John and Real John were two different people. At that time in my life, I wasn’t showing my spiritual side much.
Paramedic John was cold, calm, and unemotional, just like all of my coworkers. In emergency medicine, emotion was frowned upon as it clouded judgment. I was polite, fairly professional, but not particularly kind, and not showing any of the love of Christ to my patient’s or coworkers.
Because that is what was expected of me.
But when I got home and hung out with Christians, I was more myself.
I use this personal illustration to show that it’s just not me banging a bible to condemn anyone, but to show you we all can struggle with this.
So I’ll ask you
Application: Reflect on areas in your life where you might be tempted to act differently depending on who is watching. Are there situations where you compromise your convictions to gain approval from others or simply to fit in?
The second way we can be hypocritical is by
II. The Hypocrisy of Playing to the crowd (Galatians 2:12)
Paul confronts Peter's hypocrisy, highlighting the inconsistency in his behavior. Peter's actions implied that Gentile believers were somehow inferior to Jewish believers, simply because of their ethnicity. This hypocrisy contradicted the very essence of the Gospel, which teaches that in Christ, there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile (Galatians 3:28).
Illustration:
Have you ever known a person who had what I call a chameleon personality?
Let me explain what I mean about that-
Tammie and I visited the NewPort Aquarium while we were on vacation, and they had an area devoted to lizards, and one of those lizards was a chameleon. When you walked up to the cage, it was very difficult to spot because chameleons can change their color to match their surroundings.
So when I say a person has a chameleon personality, it’s a person that changes to match the mood, behavior, and attitude of those around them.
However, when the room changes, or they get around a new group of people, they will match that group instead of simply being authentically who they are.
I had a boss once that had that kind of chameleon personality.
If he was hanging out with lower ranking employees, he’d join them in griping about the other managers, or other employees, and take in and spread the latest gossip.
However, when he was around his shift managers, he would largely ignore the previous group, and try to be more professional.
When his boss showed up, we didn’t even recognize the guy. He sounded like he was in a corporate board room- Mr Professional in every way and he had no time for the “little people” anymore as he tried to impress his boss.
Again, if we are honest with ourselves, we all do this to a point.
Application: The challenge for us this morning- Be who God made you.
God did not place you were you are in your life by accident
You are fearfully and wonderfully made in HIS Image, and created for such a time as this, for the life you are living, and for the areas you are exposed to every single day. And sometimes, as HIS Spirit is making you more like Jesus, that will rub people the wrong way.
I thought of a great t-shirt when we were on vacation-
“Warning, the Spirit within me might irritate the demons within you”
Embrace that and thank God that HE Is forming the imago Dei within you.
It’s important that we learn to live authentically, because if we don’t, there is a negative impact not only to our lives, but to the lives of those around us.
That brings us to-
III. The Impact of Hypocrisy (Galatians 2:13-14) Peter's hypocrisy didn't go unnoticed. Even Barnabas, a respected leader in the church, was influenced by Peter's behavior. The division caused by Peter's actions threatened the unity of the church and hindered the Gospel message.
Hypocrisy has that ripple effect. When one member of the body of Christ behaves hypocritically, it affects the entire community. Others may follow suit, and the witness of the church is compromised.
Illustration: Consider a youth group where a leader, known for his strong stance for sexual purity, suddenly has to step down because his girlfriend is now pregnant.
The youth, who once looked up to him, now struggle to reconcile his actions with his teachings, causing confusion and doubt.
We have talked about leaders a lot in this message, but I don’t want you to limit this issue to only those in leadership.
You might be the only Christian in your workplace, or classroom, or peer group. Whether you know it or not, that places you in a position of leadership to that group, and even if you don’t accept it, they have expectations of what that means.
True, some of those expectations might be extreme or off the wall. I’ve had people criticize me for wearing sweatpants to get the mail saying that a pastor should never been seen in public in anything other than a suit.
Just ignore that junk.
That is why God calls all of us is to be and trust in who he created you to be and live authentically. Part of that is to be willing to own it when you mess up.
Let me illustrate this with a personally embarrassing story-
Over 20 years ago, I was on an ambulance call in the middle of a blizzard. The patient was the mother of one of the local volunteers first responders, so emotions were much higher than normal. We were 20 minutes from the hospital on dry roads in the daytime, but now it’s 3am in a blizzard so it’s pretty rough going. I was doing a procedure in the back of an ambulance that I thought was successful. I turned to do something else and a crew member pointed out swelling around the site, meaning the procedure had failed, and in that moment I said a word I can’t repeat here, but because everyone on that truck knew I was a pastor, everyone froze staring at me in horror.
I owned it, and apologized right there and kept got the team back to working on our patient.
But it was the talk of the station for the rest of the week, but I took it in good humor.
But it’s a good lesson for us today-
Application: Reflect on how your actions might influence others, both in the world, and in the body of Christ. Ask yourself- Are you setting a positive example and letting your light shine, or are you hiding your light?
That story leads us to our next point-
IV. Confronting Hypocrisy with Integrity (Galatians 2:14) Paul didn't shy away from addressing Peter's hypocrisy. He confronted Peter openly, calling him out on his inconsistency.
However, and this is the important point for all of us to see-
Paul's approach was not to condemn but to correct, seeking restoration rather than punishment.
Illustration: this is incredibly important, and is ALWAYS THE HEART OF GOD WHEN DEALING WITH US!!!
That should always be the heart of anyone who has to confront a fellow believer about their sin or hypocrisy.
Application: We have a tendency in life to immediately jump into the punitive way of addressing mistakes, character flaws, and sin.
That’s not the bible way, and it’s certainly not God’s way of dealing with us or we would have all be made piles of ash years ago. How many years did it take for God to remove your secret sin? How many of us still have something we struggle with that we’d be ashamed for other people to know about?
If you see hypocrisy in yourself or others, don't ignore it. Approach the situation with humility and love, seeking to restore rather than condemn.
The last thing I want to say on this subject this morning has been touched on several times, but it bears repeating-
V. The Call to Authenticity (Galatians 2:20) In verse 20, Paul reminds believers of their identity in Christ. We are crucified with Christ, and it is no longer we who live, but Christ who lives in us. This profound truth calls us to live authentically, rooted in our identity as children of God, rather than conforming to the expectations of others or the world.
Application: Are you living authentically, or are you trying to be someone you're not?
Embrace your identity in Christ and let His truth guide your actions.
Conclusion:
All rise
Let us examine our hearts and lives, asking God to reveal any areas of hypocrisy. May we strive to live authentically, rooted in our identity in Christ, and may the grace of God empower us to overcome hypocrisy and be a shining light in a world in desperate need of authenticity and truth.
Closing Prayer:
