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HALLOWEEN ON SUNDAYS Luke 20:45–47

Good morning, church! Everybody good? Excellent!

One of my favorite days of the year as little kid, next to Christmas Day when I got whatever Santa had left, was Halloween. Next to Christmas, my favorite day of the year growing up was Halloween.

And listen: before you start going, “Oh my gosh, you celebrated Halloween? Don’t you know it’s demonic? Don’t you know historically it’s a pagan holiday?” Well, no…because I was four! Alright? And when you’re four, you love Halloween for two reasons: candy and costumes. Correct?

Like as a chubby little chocolate- and sugar-loving four-year-old, I just lived for going around from house to house to house knocking on random peoples’ doors and having them dump gobs of Starbursts and Sweet Tarts and M&Ms and Snickers bars and Reese’s Cups into my little bucket.

So, man, I was all in on candy. Still am! But I was also all-in on costumes! Anybody else? I don’t know. There was just something about getting dressed up as Superman or Wolverine—if you don’t know who I’m talking about, I apologize; Google it later—and for those couple of hours pretending that the costume convinced people that I actually was who I dressed up as!

So I’d just sprint down the street with my arms out and my cape flapping in the wind. And as a dumb little kid, I thought I was fooling everyone into thinking that I was actually Superman when, in reality, I just looked like ridiculous.

Or I’d show up at someone’s door dressed as Wolverine, and some sweet lady would be like, “Oh, who are you?” And I’d just start slashing at her with my foam claws going, “I’m Wolverine,” thinking that my costume convinced her that I was actually Wolverine, when in reality it just convinced her that I was a weird little kid who needed some counseling and a whooping.

So the incredible thing about Halloween for me was, yes, the candy. But it also was the fact that I actually thought, in my puny little four-year-old brain, that if I could do a legit enough job of pretending to be my favorite superhero—that if my costume looked enough like Superman or Wolverine, and if I acted enough like Superman or walked and talked enough like Wolverine—then I could actually convince people that I was Superman or Wolverine…despite the fact that, in reality, I was just a three-foot-tall four-year-old who could barely walk and hold my candy bucket at the same time.

What we’re going to see Jesus do in the Scriptures this morning is press on us—and maybe even expose in us—the uncomfortable reality that when it comes to our relationship with God, some of us are just playing dress-up on the weekends. Are you tracking? We’re just playing dress-up! That when we show up on Sunday mornings, we’re just playing pretend.

And that if we’re honest, for many of us, Halloween isn’t a day that rolls around once a year. For many of us, Halloween happens around every single Sunday. Halloween happens every Sunday morning that we show up pretending that we’re all put-together and trying to convince each other 2 that everything is fine, that nothing is wrong, we’re not hurting, nothing is busted up in our lives, when in reality the house is literally on flames behind us as we smile and wave at one another.

Jesus is going to have some hard things to say in this text about that kind of religious game-playing. He is going to have some difficult things to say about what happens to those who do Halloween on Sundays.

So although it’s going to be hard, we need to look at what Jesus has to say about what happens when we play religious games with God. And then I want us to ask the question, “So what do we do about it? How do we take steps toward being done with playing Halloween on Sundays and actually being honest about where we are?”

Let’s look at this. If you have your Bibles, grab them. Luke 20. We’ll pick it up in v. 45.

As you’re turning there, let me just take a second to say we’re glad you’re here this morning, whether you’re joining us here on campus or online. My name is Patrick. I’m one of pastors here. And, man, we’re excited that you’ve tuned in to worship with us. With that, let’s get to work.

Just to quickly give you some context, what we’re about to read takes place the Wednesday afternoon of what Christians just call Passion Week, the week leading up to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Today is Palm Sunday, which we covered a couple of weeks ago in Luke 19. At this point in the story, we’re less than 24 hours away from Jesus being arrested, less than 48 hours from Jesus being crucified.

Okay, let’s get to work… READ Luke 20:45–46a: While all the people were listening, [Jesus] said to his disciples, “Beware of the scribes, who want to go around in long robes…”

Now, we need to stop here, because Jesus just gave us our first glimpse into what it looks like when we do Halloween on Sundays. When we pretend to have a walk with the Lord that we don’t actually have.

He points to the scribes and Pharisees and says, “Here are some red flags that you’re drifting toward hypocrisy. Here’s what it looks like when you try to convince other people that you’re Superman by paper-clipping a washcloth around your neck.”

Here’s the first sign Jesus warns us about… • We have biblical knowledge without spiritual transformation. (v. 46a)

Now I don’t know what you know about the scribes and Pharisees, but the scribes and Pharisees were the religious leaders of Jesus’ day. They were experts in all-things-religion. They knew their Bibles backwards and forwards. They were who you went to with questions about the Scriptures and theology. When it comes to biblical knowledge, there wasn’t anyone around who knew more than they did! They were the living, breathing Wikipedia of all things Bible in their day.

And yet what we’re going to hear Jesus say about them in the next couple of verses is that they were some of the proudest, most self-centered, self-righteous, deceptive, graceless men there 3 were! Now, how does that happen? How can someone be an expert in what the Scriptures teach but live a life that looks nothing like what those Scriptures teach?

It’s actually incredibly easy. Isn’t it? And here’s how it happens: it happens when you have biblical knowledge without spiritual transformation. It happens when you know a lot about what the Bible says but have no interest in actually doing what it says!

In fact, in Matthew’s version of this story, this is exactly how Jesus describes the scribes and Pharisees he tells us not to be like. Matthew 23:3: “Do whatever [the scribes] tell you, and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because they don’t practice what they preach.” They were what James calls in James 1:22 “hearers of the word, but not doers.”

See, their problem wasn’t a lack of biblical knowledge; their heads were full of it. The problem was their hearts! That they had no real interest in following, obeying, and pursuing what’s actually in the Bible. They just wanted to play the religious game. To play spiritual dress up, despite the fact that their affections for God were completely divorced from what they knew about him.

But that’s what happens when you have biblical knowledge without spiritual transformation. And listen, there are few places where biblical knowledge without spiritual transformation is more evident than in the Bible belt South. Right? I mean it’s epidemic down here. It’s almost like a sport, or a way of life for us.

I’m just telling you, church, that down here in the Bible belt—in Tuscaloosa County, where there is literally a church every half-mile—look right at me: what we need isn’t more biblical information! That’s not what we need! What we need is spiritual transformation!

What we need is for the Scriptures, through the Holy Spirit, to begin to go to work on our hearts. To create in us a deeper affection for the Lord. A greater desire for godliness. A greater passion for the gospel. A greater hunger to see spiritual fruit in our lives. And a greater hatred for playing religious games on Sunday mornings!

Last month, I caught a stomach bug from Nora Lyn that woke me up around 1am on Friday morning vomiting, I swear to you, every 15 minutes for four solid hours. Like if you want clear evidence of the fall of humankind—that this world is broken and busted up and not what it should be—just get yourself a stomach bug. Alright?

I mean, it’s awful. It’s terrible. It’s miserable. But every 15 minutes, for four hours—I promise you I could have timed it: 1am, 1:15am, 1:30am—I just regurgitated everything I tried to eat or drink.

For some of us, your relationship with the Lord is like that. Sunday after Sunday after Sunday, you show up to sing some songs and hear biblical truth. And by lunchtime, it’s gone right through you. Yeah? It hasn’t encouraged you. It hasn’t challenged you. It hasn’t convicted you. It hasn’t changed you. It’s just more biblical information without spiritual transformation. Anybody been there?

So the first sign that we’re walking in hypocrisy—that we’re doing Halloween on Sundays—is biblical knowledge without spiritual transformation. But there are a couple of more we’ve got to see, so let’s keep reading… 4

READ Luke 20:46b: “Beware of the scribes, who want to go around in long robes and who love greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets.”

This is our second warning sign of hypocrisy, the second part of our Sunday Halloween costume: • We crave the approval of others rather than the approval of God. (v. 46b)

This piece about the scribes and Pharisees “loving greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats in the synagogues, the places of honor at banquets” is fundamentally about their love for being seen. For being recognized. For being noticed. For being validated. For applause and approval.

They love—and crave—the approval of others so much that they’re willing to walk in deliberate disobedience of Christ in the process, who over and over again tells us to walk in humility, to pray in private, to fast in secret, to direct attention away from ourselves and toward Christ.

I don’t think there is a clearer example of how this love for the approval of others plays out in our culture—and especially in our church culture—than in how we use—or get used—by social media. In what we do in the hours we spend scrolling and scrolling and scrolling Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Right?

Listen: nothing will feed your craving for the approval of others like your social media accounts. Did you hear me? Nothing will feed your craving to be noticed, validated, and approved of by people on the internet—most of whom you honestly don’t even know on any kind of deep, meaningful level—like your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter feeds.

So let me just say this to you, because I love you, and because I think social media is absolutely destroying a lot of us. Christian, believer in Christ, look right at me, because I want so badly for us to get this: the God of the universe sees you, knows you, pursues you, and loves you more deeply, more intimately, and more faithfully than anyone who follows you on social media.

Did you hear me? The God who created the universe—and who at this moment upholds galaxy upon galaxy upon galaxy in the palm of his hand—sees you, knows you, pursues you, loves you, and approves of you more intimately and more faithfully than anyone on Instagram or Snapchat.

And here’s what’s crazy: he loves and approves not of some future version of you! He loves and approves not the version of you that is filtered to kingdom come! Not the version of you that is all put-together, always happy, in the best shape of your life, with no weakness or shortcomings!

No, by the blood of Christ, he loves today’s version of you! The version of you that’s listening to this right now! The version of you that has struggles and shortcomings and failures. He loves that version of you! And that means—you’ve got to feel the weight of this—that means that we don’t really need the approval others, because we have in Christ the approval of the only one who’s opinion ultimately matters. We have the approval and acceptance and affection of God!

That’s what Christ is inviting us into. That’s the offer on the table. But that’s not how we operate when we settle for playing spiritual dress-up. When we settle for playing religious games, we seek the approval from others rather the approval of God. 5

There’s a third way we play Halloween on Sundays, so let’s look at it… READ Luke 20:47a: “They devour widows’ houses…”

Of all the commentaries I read on this, no one really seems to know exactly what Jesus means by this. But here’s one translation of this text that I think is helpful: “Beware the scribes and Pharisees, for they exploit the weak and helpless” (MSG).

In other words, when we’re walking in hypocrisy—when we pretend to have a love for Christ that we don’t actually have… • We receive grace but don’t extend it. (v. 47a)

Whatever else is this text is talking about, it’s pointing to the fact that the scribes and Pharisees— the religious experts—had the opportunity to extend grace and compassion to these widows—to the weakest and most helpless and easiest to take advantage of in their culture. But instead they chose to exploit them and cheat them out of their property and possessions to pad their own pockets.

Really, all this shows is that they didn’t understand grace! And here’s how we know: because grace shown is grace understood. Are you tracking with that? Grace shown is grace understood.

See, when you understand grace—that were it not for the grace and compassion of God, you would be headed for an eternity of wrath and condemnation and separation from God…

When you understand that everything you have has been given to you by the grace of God—your spouse, your kids, your house, your car, your job, your career, your degree, your influence, your friends, your money—all of it has been given to you by the grace of God. It wasn’t something you deserved. It wasn’t something you earned. It wasn’t something you were entitled to.

We don’t deserve anything! We’re not entitled to anything! We’re not owed anything! Everything we have, everything we are, has been given to us by the grace of God!

When we rightly understand the magnitude of the grace we’ve been shown in the gospel, we’ll be quick to extend it! When we aren’t—when the pattern of our life isn’t to be gracious and compassionate—that should be a red flag for us that we’re drifting toward hypocrisy.

So Halloween on Sundays—pretending to have a love for Jesus Christ that you don’t actually have—looks like biblical knowledge without spiritual transformation. It looks like seeking approval from others rather than from God. And it looks like receiving grace without extending it.

There’s one more I want to show you, so let’s finish out this passage… READ Luke 20:47b: “They devour widows’ houses and say long prayers just for show.”

In other words, here’s what hypocrisy looks like… • We want to appear godly without actually being godly. (v. 47b)

Honestly, this is one of the most confusing things that to me that I’ve seen in fifteen years of ministry. Like here’s how I’ve seen this play out hundreds of times in churches over the years. 6

You show up every Sunday morning in your best-pressed shirt and slacks—or what we just called when I was growing up “your Sunday best”—with every hair perfectly in place, smiling from ear to ear. Every interaction you have is, “How are you?” “Doing well, brother. Doing fine, sister! Blessed beyond what I deserve. Never been better. Excited for worship! Praise Jesus! Yes, Lord. Praise His name!”

When in reality you have no real affection for the Lord, no real love for the Scriptures, no real pursuit of him in discipleship, no real desire to worship or serve Christ through giving or missions.

And your marriage is a train-wreck, your kids can’t stand you, you’re being destroyed by addiction, you’re in debt that is strangling you, and you’re only here because you think that if you can rack up enough Sunday morning services to add to your religious resume, maybe—just maybe—that’ll be enough for God to let you eek into heaven.

God help us, if we could just be honest with one another—and I know this is church, so I’m not sure we can be—but if we could be honest with one another, many of us would say, “You know what, pastor, that’s exactly where I am. That’s exactly how I feel. That’s exactly where I have been for years and years and years.”

If we could be so bold as to be honest with each other, many of us would say that we’ve been playing spiritual dress-up. That when it comes to Sunday mornings, we’re just pretending to have a love for Christ that we just don’t have.

So if that’s you, let me ask you a question: how is that a win for you? How is that a win for anyone? I’ve honestly tried to understand it, but I just can’t. What do you think you’re gaining by trying to convince people that you love the Lord when you actually don’t? What are you gaining by doing your best to look godly when, in reality, you have no interest in actually pursuing godliness?

Honestly, how is that any different than me trying to convince the little old lady at the door on Halloween night that I’m Superman when, in the end, I’m just a goofy little four-year-old wearing tights and a fake cape?

We gain nothing by pretending to be serious about the things of God when we’re actually not. It’s not a win for anyone if you show up, Sunday after Sunday, doing your best to convince all of us that you love Christ when you don’t actually love Christ.

So how do we respond here? How do we take steps toward taking off the religious costume and being done with Halloween on Sundays?

How do we move toward being done with trying to convince each other that we’re someone we’re not, and instead just embracing the fact that all of us show up here, week in and week out, with hurts, wounds, anxieties, stresses, struggles, failures, weaknesses, shortcomings. And that despite all of that, because of the cross, Christ loves us all the same? How do we get there?

Let me give you two ways, and then we’ll be done. They’re both church words. You ready?

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The first is… • Confession.

There needs to be a confession out of your mouth to God that we’re tempted—all of us are tempted—to be game-players.

There needs to be a confession out of our mouth that for many of us, what we do is we come to church on the weekend, then the rest of the week we live life just however we want to live it.

There needs to be a confession that some of us were brought up in a church culture where blazers and pant-suits were welcomed, but honesty about our brokenness and pain sometimes weren’t. And that as a result we’ve come to feel bitter and frustrated and exhausted and out-of-place, because when we look around it seems like no one else has the same struggles and hang-ups and issues that we do!

So what do we do? We hide. We suppress. We shrink back. We shrivel up. We don’t confess where we’re struggling, because it seems that we’re the only ones struggling! We don’t confess when we’re exhausted, where we’re bitter, where we’re stressed and anxious and depressed, because it seems like nobody else is!

So rather than confess and be honest with the Lord and one another about where we are, we begin to play spiritual dress-up. We perfect our Sunday smile. We learn the churchy behavior. And we begin to play the religious game. We do Halloween on Sundays, while our soul suffocates and scratches and claws and screams for help, for hope, for healing!

The other thing I’ll say here about confession is this: yes, there needs to be confession before the Lord that we’re game-players. But there also needs be confession before one another in biblical community. In a community of brothers or sisters in the Lord that you meet with regularly for prayer, for encouragement, for accountability. Where there is a safe space for you to be brutally honest about where you are, where you’re struggling, where you need help.

Every Thursday night, barring some catastrophe, I get together with a group of three other guys for community group. And really the only rule for our time together, which we laid down in week one, is that we be honest with one another. Honest about where we are. Honest about where are hearts are. Honest about what we think is going on in our soul.

Some of the most encouraging, most life-giving moments in my walk with the Lord is when we’ve confessed areas where we’re struggling, prayed for God break through, and then watched the Lord begin to work and heal and redeem!

So let me just encourage you: if you’re not in a community group—if you don’t have a group of 3-5 people you meet with regularly for the sole purpose of discipleship, accountability, and prayer— please come talk to any of our pastors or staff. Email us. Call us. Text us. We’d love to get you connected!

So we confess. And then, second, we… • Repent. 8

What does “repent” mean? It just means making war against your sin. It’s making war against the beast of sin that rages inside you—the beast of hypocrisy, the beast of dishonesty, the beast of pride, the beast of self-righteousness, the beast of jealousy.

It means drawing a line in the sand and saying, “I’ve been playing religious games for 5, 10, 15, 30 years. And all it’s done is leave me exhausted, frustrated, angry, and bitter. And I’m done! I don’t want to play games anymore.”

And then just refusing to play religious dress-up! Refusing to do Halloween on Sundays!

Refusing to show up Sunday after Sunday after Sunday trying to convince everyone around you that your life is okay, when in reality it’s an absolute train-wreck.

Refusing to pretend, week after week after week, that you’re someone that you’re not.

Refusing to hide what’s going on in your life, but instead being ferociously committed to being open and honest about where you are.

Listen: it’s okay not to be okay. It’s okay not to be okay. It’s just not okay to stay there. And the good news of the gospel is that you don’t have to! You don’t have to settle for Halloween on Sundays!

Because by the blood of Christ you have been set free to be honest about where you are, and to make war against the wicked parts of your heart, in community with those who know you, who are for you, who will fight with you, and who love you.

Let’s ray.