HYPOCRISY. Text: Matthew 23:1-11. Introduction: Discussion: I. What Hypocrisy is and what it is not.

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1 Text: Matthew 23:1-11 HYPOCRISY Introduction: 1. Do you recognize this man? If you don t recognize his picture, I m sure you know his story. 2. His name is Donald Sterling. In recent weeks his ugly racist rant secretly recorded by his girl friend has put his picture in the headlines. 3. He was quickly fined $2.5 million and banned from the NBA for life. 4. But what shocked me even more that this ugly rant was the fact that even though he paid a $2.725 million settlement in a housing discrimination suit that alleged that he discriminated against African Americans and Hispanics he had been given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Los Angeles Branch of the NAACP in 2009 and about to receive his second award this month on the 100 th anniversary of the chapter Since the controversy erupted the president of the Los Angeles branch has been replaced the the money donated by Sterling is to be returned. 6. So what do you call donating money to the NAACP while practicing housing discrimination? 7. What do you call receiving granting an award to a racist because he donated money to your organization? 8. Hypocrisy 9. Billionaires are not the only people guilty of Hypocrisy. It s in the church. 10. Sooner or later those who invite their friends to church will hear the come-back, There are too many hypocrites in the church. 11. There are lots of comebacks to that. Like: 1) That s OK. There s always room for one more. 2) Or, well you can spend some time with a few Hypocrites now or you can spend eternity with all of them. 12. But in reality the problem deserves a more serious answer 13. We all hate Hypocrisy, but the truth is that most people don t really know what Hypocrisy is. 14. It seems like Christians and not Christians alike hate hypocrisy. 15. We re all disgusted by people saying one thing and living something that s completely opposite. 16. So What is Hypocrisy and how does it effect me? Discussion: I. What Hypocrisy is and what it is not. A. According to the dictionary a hypocrite is: 1. a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, especially a person whose actions belie stated beliefs. 2. a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, especially one whose private life, opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements. 3 B. Word translated Hypocrite in the Bible is a little more interesting than that. C. As used in the Bible, the term comes from ancient Greek theater, where one actor would often or two actors would play many parts by merely changing masks

2 Hypocrisy 2 D. A good actor could imitate the speech, mannerisms, and conduct of the character he was portraying. The word literally means, One who hides behind a mask. E. Illustration: II. One hot day when the family had invited guests for dinner. The mother asked her fiveyear-old boy named Johnny to say the blessing for the meal. Johnny didn t really want to and complained, Mom, I don t know what to say! The mother sweetly replied, in front of her guests, Oh, just say what you hear me say. Obediently, Johnny bowed his head and mumbled, Oh Lord, why did I invite these people over on such a hot day? F. When we examine the way scripture uses the word, Hypocrite, we discover that he has two meanings. G. One is the English dictionary idea of a phony; someone who pretends to be someone in public that he is not in private or in his heart. H. The second is one who condemns others for sins he is committing. Or who hold others up to a higher standard than he does himself. Hypocrites in the church? A. There have always been hypocrites in the church. B. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus sternly denounced the sin of hypocrisy. C. He reserved his harshest criticism for those who are hypocrites. D. If you re bothered by spiritual counterfeits, you have some good company. Jesus lashed out at mask-wearers 20 different times in the Gospels. Listen Matthew 6:2 2 Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. Matthew 6:5 5 And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. Matthew 6:16 16 And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. Matthew 7:5 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother s eye. E. This is the second definition, is one who condemns others for sins he is committing. Or who hold others up to a higher standard than he does himself. Matthew 15:7-8 7 You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: 8 This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; F. Some of the harshest words Jesus ever spoke were directed toward professional religious pretenders. In just one speech, in Matthew 23, He called them: 1. Hypocrites (7 times) 2. Fools (2 times) 3. Blind Guides (5 times) 4. Serpents and Brood of Vipers (1 time) G. In Matthew 23:23-28, Jesus deals with: 1. disease of deceit, 2. Cures for counterfeits. 3. Hope to hypocrites. 4. Let s look at the two cures.

3 Hypocrisy 3 III. The cure for counterfeits A. First Get your priorities right. Matthew 23: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 24 You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! 1. The word woe can be translated cursed be and is the exact opposite of what we read in the Beatitudes, Blessed be 2. Jesus curses counterfeits. These religious actors were obsessed with the trivial. 3. We could say that they majored on the minors. 4. The Old Testament Law did not explicitly require a tithe on spices, even though the Pharisees spent in inordinate amount of time debating among themselves whether to give 10% of their cumin to the Lord. 5. Because they were so focused on the smaller things, Jesus points out that they neglected that which was most important a. justice, mercy, and faithfulness. 6. It reminds me of Micah 6:8 8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? 7. I love the imagery Jesus uses to show them how blind they are. Wanting to avoid the impurity caused by a dead insect in their drink, they would strain out a bug before it would die in order to avoid being declared unclean. Interestingly, many people considered gnats exempt from causing impurity, but the Pharisees didn t want to take any chances. Jesus charges that they would put a camel, which was the largest land animal in Palestine and ritually unclean, in a cup and gulp him down. 8. Their attention to detail was fine but they had missed the main point. 9. If you want to avoid being a hypocrite, guard yourself against majoring on the minors. Implement the important. Don t get so caught up in the minutia that you miss the majestic. B. Second work from the inside out. Matthew 23: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and selfindulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. C. In this section Jesus speaks about the danger of externalizing religion. It s so easy to focus on religious routines that we forget the necessity of cultivating a love relationship with Jesus. D. Instead of intensifying the internal, some of us only express the external. E. The Pharisees were like a cup that looked really clean on the outside but on the inside it was full of greed and self-indulgence. F. Have you ever picked up a cup that was clean on the outside and when you got to the bottom of it wasn t clean? Matthew 15: Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? 18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a

4 Hypocrisy 4 IV. person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone. riend, if you want to be cured from living a counterfeit life, then start on the inside. G. Keep your insides clean. Focus more on the internal than the external. In order to make sure He made His point, Jesus uses one more image that is one of the strongest He ever used. Matthew 23: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. H. The Feast of Passover was just around the corner. In order to spruce up the city, all the gravestones and tombs were painted white. This wasn t just to make thing look nice, it had a much deeper significance. The Pharisees knew that nothing spread ritual impurity as severely as a corpse. Numbers 19:11 says that anyone who touched a dead body was unclean for a week. The Pharisees believed that one could be rendered religiously dirty and thus ostracized from the Passover celebration if even one s shadow would touch a tombstone. That s why they were painted white so they could avoid them. Hope for the Hypocrite A. Fellow hypocrite, do you want some hope today? Do you want to change? Do you want to insulate yourself from the tendency to focus only on the external? B. Do you want to do a better job of guarding against judging and criticizing others? C. Are you ready to take off your mask and be authentic, perhaps for the first time? Then, implement the important and work from the inside out. Psalm 139: Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! D. Are you playing spiritual charades? Stop it right now. You re not fooling anyone. People can see your hypocrisy and they re turned off by it. E. There may be some non-christians who have written off the church and God because of the way you ve been acting. It s time to come clean, Christian. It s time to walk the talk and to live what you say you believe. The way you live your life is important. F. If you re investigating Christianity, and you see imperfect Christians, I encourage you not to make a decision on the basis of the unfinished product -- make your decision on the basis of the person of Christ. G. I ve heard people say that they d be more interested in following Christ if there weren t so many hypocrites. They don t seem to realize that if a hypocrite is standing between them and God, then the hypocrite is closer to God than they are! H. I wonder if you re wearing a mask this morning. Are you trying to pretend that you have it all together, when deep inside you know you can t keep up the act much longer? The cure for hypocrisy is not to change anything on the outside. It s not a matter of doing more things, of trying to get more religious. That just perpetuates the wearing of masks. If you want to change, if you want to truly become someone you ve never been before, the change has to take place on the inside. 1 John 1: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. I. Jesus says, Take off the mask. Own up for your rebellion. If you do, I will forgive you.

5 Hypocrisy 5 Sermon History: AM. Waterfordcoc.org David E. Parks Sources: Why are there So Many Hypocrites? By Brian Bill