“HYPOCRISCY” :53 – 12:12

INTRO:

A) How come nobody ever says Hugh Hefner is a hypocrite?

1) Hypocrisy requires a high standard to begin with

2) Is somebody who tries and fails a hypocrite?

B) Hypocrisy is an issue many people point to as the reason they don’t believe in God or belong to the church

1) The simplest answer is that we are embarrassed by the actions and representations of many Christians and the occasional blips on the screen in the history of the church, but we need not be ashamed or embarrassed by .

C) Today we’ll look at this one topic as addressed by Jesus

1) We’ll ask what “is” hypocrisy

2) How does it spread

3) What causes it

4) How can we guard against it?

5) The cure for hypocrisy

(I) THE CONTEXT FOR THE ACCOUNT WE ARE NOW LOOKING AT

A) Jesus had just spoken to the in some pretty sharp terms…

1) His sermon is known as the “Woes” (6 or 7 depending on how you count them)

2) He pointed out their inconsistencies and it really got them angry!

3) Actually they were sort of angry as a lifestyle

a) Religious people can be what we call good: “good and mean!”

4) Religious anger and zeal can be the worse…

a) We see this in the times of the , including with the apostle Paul, but usually not on our TV screens until recently…

b) Just because we have not seen these things does not mean that they have not been happening, they just have been quite rare in our culture, but common worldwide…

B) Let’s look at the language and context before Jesus speaks to His disciples about hypocrisy.

C) Look at the language concerning the attitude of the religious leaders in verses 11:53 – 54:

1) Not what one would initially expect of religious leaders

a) Opposed him fiercely

b) Besiege Him

c) Waiting to catch Him

2) They were enraged at Jesus

3) The core of the problem seemed to be that they were becoming increasingly unpopular over the years

a) Synagogue attendance at a real low

b) Devotion not peaking

c) JESUS IS VERY POPULAR

4) THEY WERE STEPPING ALL OVER EACH OTHER TO GET NEAR JESUS AND HEAR HIM (12:1)

5) The other accounts tell us they were envious of Jesus (Mt 27:18; Mark 15:10)

a) Even enemies & non-supporters knew this

D) THIS MEANT IT WAS INCREASINGLY DANGEROUS TO HANG OUT WITH OR CONFESS ALLEGIANCE TO JESUS

1) This is why He spoke about not denying Him

2) Open profession was dangerous…

a) Still is in many places.

E) Jesus recent encounter with the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day increased the tension

1) Look at verse 11:37… Jesus said these “Woes” at a dinner He was invited to.

2) Probably was a tough meal for His followers

3) Somebody said Tums and Rolaids were probably served for desert… Jesus really went for it!

F) Jesus encounter with them begs the question, “What does Jesus really care about?

1) Ritual, Religious Activities

2) Position, Tradition

3) Programs ----OR---

4) PEOPLE?

G) A great quote on leadership from Doug Murren "In a healthy church , leaders have the primary responsibility not of getting things done but maintaining a style of healthy relationships their congregation can duplicate."

a) Not just how they act among themselves ---that could be a clique

b) But how they act among the people

1) Humility

2) Conflict Resolution

3) Defending Themselves

(II) WHAT IS HYPOCRISCY?

A) Dictionary Definition:

1) The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.

2) An act or instance of such falseness.

3) from Late Latin hypocrisis, play-acting, pretense,

4) from Greek hupokrisis, to play a part, pretend :

B) It is a Character Sin, Not a defect, but a sin

1) Real hypocrisy as opposed to weakness is CONSCIOUS INSINCERITY

C) The truth is it comes quite natural for us

1) The guy with the borrowed car and great looking suit that takes the girl with the casual cut hairdo out that she can’t afford on a date

a) If they really fall for each other, the both will eventually be exposed

2) Arthur Conan Doyle tells a tale about a telegram playfully sent to twelve friends that said, “Fly at once. All has been discovered.” They all flew!!

a) We all have things we would rather others didn’t know and we’re wonderful at “masking” them and sometimes even creating elaborate schemes to hide our true self or some aspect of our past.

(1) Somebody said the really smart pastor reveals all his weaknesses and sins before somebody else exposes them!!!

b) Ritual and Worship by habit can be a great cover-up to these things….

D) Hypocrisy does to the ego what yeast does to bread… it puffs it up

1) Soon pride takes over and the person deteriorates rapidly

(III) HOW DOES HYPOCRISCY SPREAD?

A) Jesus tells us when he says in verse 1, “Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy.”

B) It’s like yeast…. although some of us have never really seen how yeast works…. we don’t bake our own bread…

C) It works slowly, but eventually works itself into the whole lump…

D) With us it starts small and with little things and next thing you know you’re in real deep…

E) Jesus saw how dangerous it was and warned us…

1) Hypocrisy is ultimately doomed because everything will be revealed

(IV) WHAT WERE THEIR PARTICULAR ISSUES?

A) They were present when Jesus addressed them. Very briefly they were:

1) 11:39 “Clean outside, but filthy inside”

2) 11:42 “Made sure they tithed 10% but forgot to love people and do the right thing.”

3) 11:43 “They loved position. Platform vs Service”

4) 11:44 “Being dangerous w/o looking dangerous”

5) 11:46 “Loading people down w/o helping them carry the load” Rules, Legalisms, Acts 15

6) Making it difficult for others to enter the kingdom vs 52

(V) WHAT CAUSES HYPOCRISCY?

A) Jesus seems to link our pretenses to our fears

1) Don’t be afraid. Do what’s right.

B) FEAR

1) Grieves the Father who cares for us (4-7)

2) Grieves the Son who died for us (8 – 9)

3) Grieves the Spirit who enables us (10 –12)

C) We all want to be accepted and will do just about anything to have it happen…

1) We try and impress in order to gain approval

2) If necessary we’ll even lie to get approval (Isn’t hiding something or pretending to be or not to be something a lie?)

3) many scribes and Pharisees were more concerned what people thought about them, than what God thought about them.

a) reputation above character

D) Either that or we sabotage relationships so they won’t fall apart if we should enter into one…

(VI) WHAT’S THE REMEDY FOR HYPOCRISCY? HOW DO WE GUARD AGAINST IT?

A) Jesus tells us. Fear God (vs 4)

1) A proper fear of God frees us from an improper fear of people

2) Jesus is our example. He wasn’t afraid of people and what they thought….

(a) He lived to please God alone!!

B) Know that God cares for us (vss 5-7)

1) Matthew tells us that sparrows were sold two for a penny, so if you bought four you must have got one free

a) Yet Jesus God even cares about the free or throw away sparrow.

b) Blonds 145,000 hairs Dark Hair 120,000 Red Hair 90,000

c) How much you were born with

d) How much you have now

e) How much will be left

f) Even I can count the hairs on some guys heads!!

g) He who spared not His own Son for you!!

C) If you want to keep hypocrisy out of our lives we have to avoid the first bit of leaven…

1) Once we start to pretend, the process goes quickly and the longer we wait the worse it gets.”

D) The fear of God is the fear that conquers all others

1) Forget about what people say!

2) All people can do is kill you!

3) The power people have over your life is only for this world

(VII) SINCERITY: THE CURE FOR HYPOCRISCY

A) The word in the Bible for sincerity really means without hypocrisy WITHOUT WAX

B) The Christian should be characterized by sincerity in love, Faith and wisdom

FINALLY: A) The true Christian confesses Christ

B) The Holy Spirit is our helper in this

C) Perhaps your work environment or your friends makes it difficult for you

1) Perhaps you’re embarrassed or dis-empowered

2) The Spirit wants to empower you!!!