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.”
There is no authentic relationship with God and no attempt at a relationship.
They just did things for people to see.
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Jesus pointed out in Luke 14:7
They love the places of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues.”
When they enter the arena they want everyone to know it.
They smile the biggest.
They greet the loudest.
They hug the longest.
They try to sit in the best seat in the house.
Jesus told His disciples in verse 11 “They are to be different. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”
Yet, the hypocrite gets all caught up in these self-important titles, and the best seats
—to try to impress people.
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The number one excuse for not coming to church is there are too many hypocrites in the church.
In the end, here is the worse characteristic: They prevent others from entering the Kingdom.
“Woe to you, teachers of the Law, Pharisees, you hypocrites!
You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces.
You, yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”
Anybody who imagines that Jesus just tolerated everything,
And that Jesus just smiled and talked about love
and He never rebuked anyone harshly, never read this passage.
Jesus was full of love and full of mercy.
Jesus reached out to the worst sinners:
the adulterous woman,
the greedy, rich young ruler,
the sneaky tax collector,
and the woman who had been married five times.
He was full of love and full or mercy
but clearly taught spoke out against real life every day issues and problems that people faced.
He uses some terms that if I used from the pulpit you would say are offensive.
He calls them fools…, hypocrites…, snakes…, blind guides…, filthy cups…, hardened killers…, sons of hell, white-washed tombs.
If I talked to you like that, you would get up and walk out and say, “I am going to go someplace else.”
When you read Jesus’ stern rebuke, keep in mind several things.
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This is a rebuke to religious people.
These were the experts in the Law.
This is a rebuke to religious people.
They are supposed to be the spiritually mature people.
If a lifeguard, who is swimming out to save a drowning man,
and that drowning man panics and fights against the lifeguard,
the lifeguard might smack him in the face or even punch him and knock him unconscious.
If that is all you saw, you would think that that was the cruelest thing you ever saw,
but, actually, it would be an act of love.
Sometimes it is hard for us to see the love in the message for people to repent and believe the Gospel.
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His words in the end of the chapter, verse 37 reveals His soft heart.
“Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you.
How often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings,
but you were not willing.”
Strong words of strong warning from Jesus.
Yet gentle to his children and loving with his arms.
So, like a tearful parent rebuking a wayward child, he takes extreme measures to bring them back to Himself
or to prevent others from being influenced by them.
Ok, there is another verse in the Bible that says, “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.”
Learn this Lesson: on Casting the first stone.
The Day of Judgment is coming…
But the one who is to do the judging is not us.
It is important for us to understand that Jesus is saying there will be a day of judgment,
BUT What he is saying…, is that is the one…, who is to do the judging…, is not us.
What He was saying is simply this: “Let the sinless one cast stone #1.”
You see, after the first stone is thrown…, the crowd is more likely to join in on casting more stones…
Why is it so difficult for us to understand and practice the concept of Grace?
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Matthew 7, verses 3-5: “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first, take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
Now, he doesn’t say, “Get the log out of your own eye and then leave your brother alone.”
No, He says, “You first remove the problem from your eye,
then you will see clearly so you can help your brother who is really hurting.”
There is mandate here.
There is a responsibility you have.
NOT TO JUDGE AND CONDEMN
But to forgive and restore.
That is why King David in murderous and adulterous affair with Bathsheba wrote:
“Search me, O God, and know my heart.
See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting.”
It is not easy to live in such a clean and pure way that we that we have the right to approach someone else
And talk to them about their sin.
Yet that is what Jesus tells us each and everyone to do.
No mask. No pretense. No faking it. No hierocracy. No phony.
I have got to tell you, as a preacher—as one who likes to please people—I have to fight that all the time.
I have to say, “Hey God, help me to be real.
Not to pretend.
Not to just go around saying: ‘Hey, I will be praying for you’ if I’m not going to pray for them.
What if somebody comes to me saying, “Thanks for praying for my mother in law; she got better.”
I need to say, “Oh, I am so thankful that she got better. But, you know, I forgot to pray for her.”
There is one of two things going to happen.
Either you are going to say, oh, I understand you have hundreds of prayer requests.
And it is easy to sometimes forget.
Or you are going to say, how dare you, I don’t understand. You should never forget a prayer request.
One says, I know you are human and subject to faults and frailties just like everyone else.
The other says, you are supposed to superhuman and never make a mistake and never let anyone down.
Where is the speck and where is the log?
Let’s say you get your feeling hurt.
What does the bible say we are to do?
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Matthew 18:15 reads, “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault,
just between the two of you.
If he listens to you, you have won your brother over,
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but if he will not listen,
take one or two others along so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
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If he refuses to listen to them, then tell it to the church.
If he refuses to listen even to the church,
then treat him as you would a pagan or tax collector.”
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Step 1. The first step is to go to the person directly and try to resolve the problem between you and them.
This can be a little tricky because when I am upset and angry
I am probably not as calm as I think I am.
So, the best way is to make an appointment at a time when you are not so excited rather than rush in.
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If that does not work
Step 2. The second step is to try to get another person be your witness.
People we say and do things in private that they would not say and do with another witness.
That is the two masks, that’s the hypocracy.
So, it is easier to work through conflict when you have one or two other neutral people to referee.
You know what is sad. Is in my experience few people actually follow through with how Jesus tells us to do.
Sadly most often people just get mad and leave and never try to resolve or work through conflict.
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Step 3. If that doesn’t work you start reaching out to the larger community of the church.
Not as a way to embarrass them.
Or to start getting people to join you and take your side.
It is meant to be a way to reach out to someone in the community of faith who already has a closer, stronger relationship with them. Who maybe can talk to them when you can’t.
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Step 4. Then finally if that doesn’t work treat them the same way you would a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.
This is the exact opposite of alienation or some call it shunning.
As Christians we don’t alienate or shun the pagan or unchristian.
We do the exact opposite.
We love on them.
We welcome them.
We reach out to them.
We do everything we can to try to show Christ in us.
It is strange to me that over the years,
I have had people who for one reason or other disagree with me.
Then to run into them at a restaurant or a meeting.
They want give me eye contact.
Or they will walk around the other side of the room to avoid contact.
That is exactly the opposite of what Jesus is teaching.
We don’t avoid people we disagree with.
We embrace them with the love of God.
Wouldn’t it be great.
If when people in the church have conflict.
If we worked it out like Jesus would want us to work it out?
You see, that is where Jesus was warning against hypocrisy.
So many times those who are the most seasoned refuse to follow the steps Jesus outline for us to live together.
The Christian goal is restoration.
If people repent, then we are to be eager to forgive and we have won them over as our friend.
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That is what God wants from you and me.
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No masks.
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No pretense.
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No phony.
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But a pure heart,
One who seeks the truth.
We have all slipped into some kind of hypocrisy.
That is why God, in His love, sent Jesus Christ to die for us.
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
I invite you today in a very authentic way, to come humbly before Him to be real and say, “I am a sinner.
I need forgiveness. I accept Jesus as my Savior.”
If you want to do that, we invite you to walk forward, or if you want to come and move your membership to this church, would you join us down here in front as we stand and sing?
