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May 17, 2015
*Intro *– (Read Lu 12:1-3).
A mother was irate to find her daughter playing doctor with the neighbor boy one day.
The boy’s mother advised, “Oh, don’t take it so seriously.
It’s only natural for children to want to satisfy their curiosity.”
The girl’s mother fumed, “Curiosity?
Curiosity, my foot.
He removed her appendix!”
The moral to the story?
Playacting is destructive.
That’s the moral to that story and it’s the theme of Lu 12:1-12.
Jesus’ lunch with a Pharisee was a disaster from the start when He failed the man-made ritual of ceremonial washing.
Jesus literally lit up his host and the others present over their hypocritical lifestyles.
Now with lunch over, Lu 12:1, “In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another.”
The crowd has gathered for teaching.
But first, Jesus, interestingly, began to say to his disciples first.
What was so urgent that it could not wait?
Hypocrisy!
Hypocrisy was still on Jesus’ mind.
He’s concerned that those who will eventually found the first church, write the NT, take the gospel to the far corners of the known world not become infected with the Pharisees’ disease – hypocrisy!
So, He treats the issue of hypocrisy to His followers in 2 sections – a Warning Against (vv.
1-3) and a Way to Avoid (4-12).
This morning -- the Warning.
Someone has said “Many a man’s reputation would not know his character if they met on the street.”
That must not be true of Jesus’ followers.
Playacting destroys.
What we do must be consistent with who we are in Christ.
So let’s look at the falseness, folly and the future of hypocrisy.
*I.
The Falseness of Hypocrisy (1)*
V. 1, “Beware (look out.
This happened to those Pharisees you revered all your life, and it could happen to you!) Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.”
In ancient Greek theater, an actor would often wear a large, grinning mask in front of his face as he left his audience roaring with laughter at his comedy lines.
But the same actor would soon appear onstage with a large frowning mask as he performed a tragic scene.
Know what he was called?
A hypocrite – one who wears a mask.
A play actor.
You never know what’s going on behind the mask.
That’s a hypocrite.
He only shows you what he wants you to see.
That was the Pharisees.
They looked super spiritual – giving with great ceremony while robbing from their parents, fasting with faces painted white to look tired, praying ostentatiously on the street corners.
But inside, loving neither God nor man.
Hypocrisy is a disconnect between the inward reality and the outward show.
Hypocrites are to a degree out of touch with reality.
Showing themselves to be something they are not.
Scribes and Pharisees convinced people they were spiritual when in reality they were spiritually dead.
Fake reality.
But in the end, they most deceived – themselves!
Like the little girl -- always the butt of her brother’s practical jokes.
She came crying to Dad and he suggested that perhaps she could get back at him.
“Tell him there’s an elephant in the backyard,” he said.
Off she ran toward her brother’s room happily calling out, “Michael!
Michael.”
But suddenly she stopped, turned around, grabbed Dad and pulled him toward the window.
“I want to see him first,” she cried.
And that’s just hypocrisy works.
It deceives the deceiver most of all.
The leaven of deceit spreads everywhere.
The Pharisees should have known their traditions were inconsistent with God’s Law.
They could have discerned they loved men’s approval.
They should have seen their hearts were not right.
But they had long ago decided what they did outwardly was the only thing that mattered.
They had destroyed themselves.
And in Mt 23:15 Jesus says not only were they children of hell, but they were taking others with them.
Jesus is warning His disciples, “Don’t go there!
It can happen to you, too!”
There is a little hypocrisy in all of us.
Sometimes church encourages it when we look down on those experiencing doubt, depression, despair, or emotional trauma.
We encourage each other to act spiritual rather than be spiritual.
This is why the first of Luther’s 95 Theses argued that the Christian life is a “life of repentance” – not a one-time event.
Rather than mask our failures, we face reality.
That clears the way to grow so our conduct matches our calling.
Outward deeds count, but only as they reflect a heart that loves God.
In the OT Israel clambered for a king “like the other nations”.
God gave them one to their specifications!
I Sam 9:2, “There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he.
From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people.”
Saul looked the part.
Steven Dempster points out in Dominion and Dynasty there is a play on Hebrew words with Saul.
He comes from Gibeah (hill or elevation).
He is tall or gigantic (geboha).
But alas, Saul is all show.
He fails God’s obedience test and eventually, the giant (geboha) from the town (Gibeah) dies on the mountain (Gilboa).
His “tallness” was outward, God only saw small.
Saul’s tallness was his downfall because it was all outward.
Outward greatness; inward poverty.
God tells him in I Sam 13:14, “But now your kingdom shall not continue.
The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart.”
Saul was all outward – a man after his own heart.
David, failure and all, was a man after God’s own heart – grounded in reality.
Like him, we must exhibit outward greatness driven by “a broken and contrite heart” (Ps 51:7).
*II.
The Folly of Hypocrisy (2)*
What is the first reaction when we do something wrong?
Cover up.
It comes as naturally to us as eating.
It’s part of who we are – inherited from the Garden of Eden.
It’s one of the signs that God exists and created us.
We feel shame.
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