Sermon # 40 - Beware Of Hypocrisy Series

Jesus’ words to his disciples in Luke 12:1, “Meanwhile the people had come streaming towards Him by tens of thousands, so that they were trampling one another under foot. And now He proceeded to say to His disciples first, "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees, that is to say, beware of hypocrisy.” (WNT)

It is vital for us to understand that there are no members in Christianity, but only disciples of Jesus Christ. We may be members of a local church, but primarily we are disciples of Jesus, and that’s precisely why Jesus called each one of us. Though there were huge crowds that followed after Jesus, it was only a small group of twelve who became His disciples. The Lord used these twelve to take the message of the gospel to the ends of the world. That is why though there were thousands of people who thronged Jesus, in the above mentioned verse, He chose to first address his own disciples.

The warning that Jesus gave His disciples, was that they should take heed against the yeast of the Pharisees, which He elucidated was hypocrisy. We will study on the basis of the word of God, as to why Jesus referred to hypocrisy as the yeast of the Pharisees, and how we can be set free from this bondage to living a life of duplicity.

We live in a day and age where there are more artificial things, than there are natural. There is such a resemblance between the two that people find it is almost impossible to point out the difference. There are artificial flowers, artificial leather, artificial silk, artificial flavors, artificial intelligence, most of which may not be harmful to us. However, what could be perilous is when human beings put on artificial smiles (smile with our lips, but are upset and angry on the inside) or artificial talk (say one thing and mean something else). Artificial and natural are in complete contrast, as they totally differ in their fundamental nature. Regrettably, we even have believers in the church who look genuine, but are not.

Though technology has advanced to make the artificial seem almost like the natural, yet one can easily decipher one from the other. For example, fragrance, growth and life of natural flowers can never be reproduced in artificial flowers. Unfortunately, this duplicity is affecting every aspect of our society. Many huge industries struggle to contest this kind of deceit, when other smaller companies use their brand names or packing styles, with minor changes, and fake them to appear a lot like the original brand.

So also in the church, we are encountered with two groups of people; ones who are genuinely following Jesus as His true disciples, and the other who are not. It is important that we search ourselves to comprehend, whether we are true disciples or false disciples of Jesus. Jesus said that in the last day everyone will have to stand before the judgement seat of Christ, and He would separate them into two groups, one group which comprises of those who sincerely followed Jesus, and reflected His character, the other group who followed Jesus with wrong motives, not caring to live in obedience to His teaching, a false copy of the real ones. Paul mentions in his letter in 2 Corinthians 11:26 that he was in danger from false brothers. That is why Jesus also warned his disciples, that they should watch out against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy, as among the group of followers of Jesus, there were those who were not genuine.

One of the major reasons why our country has not been reached with the gospel of Jesus is because, among so called believers of Jesus, those who are counterfeit, almost cancel out those who are genuine.

How can we be sure that the faith that is in us is genuine, and not fake? Here are three ways in which we can assess ourselves, to see if we are true disciples of Jesus Christ.

1. Mismatch between words and deeds

When Jesus talked about the yeast of the Pharisees, he was referring to hypocrisy. The reason for this is, if one would want to leaven a whole bowl of dough, a little yeast would do the job perfectly. If we pour a little curd culture into a bowl of milk, we can turn the whole bowl into curds. So also we must firstly realize, that it is when one slips in those little things that they one day mount up to become huge issues.

We read in Matthew 23:3, “So obey everything they teach you, but don't do as they do. After all, they say one thing and do something else.”

Here Jesus was telling his disciples about the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, how they would teach one thing, but do the exact opposite. He therefore cautioned them to follow what they taught, but to refrain from following their actions, which was completely contradictory to their teachings.