UNMASKING THE BELIEVER
A rather well-built young man saw an advertisement for a job at the zoo. When he went there, he was horrified to find that the only job they had open was for somebody to play the part of a gorilla. A lot of children were coming in the next few days, and the zoo, having no gorilla, needed someone to impersonate one. Since money was tight, the man decided he would take the job. He arrived before sunrise, got into the gorilla outfit, and slipped into his cage. Finally, day dawned, and the children came. All he had to do was pensively pace the floor, look rather adept at swinging between trees, and eat the peanuts and bananas whenever they were fed to him. After eight or ten hours, he became thoroughly exhausted. The bananas were getting the better of him. As he swung from one tree to another, rather nauseated, he slipped and fell into the lion’s den next door. He shouted, "Help! Help!" The lion leaned over and said, "If you don’t shut up, we’ll both lose our jobs."
What is the moral of the story? Just because it looks like a gorilla and swings like a gorilla doesn’t necessarily mean that it is one. The same applies in the church. It may look like a Christian and sound like a Christian but that does not necessarily mean that it is one. Too often people wear masks which conceal their true identity. Jesus had very little tolerance for this.
Matt. 23:1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 "Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’
Theologian Karl Rahner once said: "The number one cause of atheism is Christians. Those who proclaim God with their mouths and deny Him with their lifestyles. That is what an unbelieving world finds simply unbelievable." The Pharisees looked very much like men who honored God but their behavior showed that this was just a mask. Jesus points to 3 things which revealed their true identity.
1. Hypocrisy (vs. 3) – do not practice what they preach
1 Tim 4:16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.
It is not enough to simply know and preach the truth, you must live it as well. The word hypocrisy comes from the Greek word HUPOKRITES which means an actor on a stage. It means saying one thing but really living another. It is looking like an angel in church on Sunday but living like the devil the rest of the week. Hypocrisy does not mean struggling with sin. It is saying you don’t. If a person does not pretend to be perfect then they are not a hypocrite when they are not. It is when we put on a righteous act for others to see in public but then do the opposite in secret.
A woman got on an elevator in an office building. There was just one other person in the elevator, a handsome man. She pushed the button for her floor and then casually looked over at the man and suddenly had one of those moments of recognition shock. Could it be? The man looked exactly like Robert Redford, the movie star. Her gaze was almost involuntarily riveted on him. Finally, she blurted out, "Are you the real Robert Redford?" He smiled and said, "Only when I’m alone!" Who are you when you are alone?
Do you practice what you preach? Does your life and doctrine line up? Remember that you are an ambassador of Jesus Christ – you represent the one you serve. That means people will evaluate Jesus by our behavior. I once did counseling with a woman in Kuwait. The first things she said to me is “I hate Canadians”. She had met someone once and now judged the entire nation of Canada by the single person. If you call yourself a Christian then remember that you represent the person by whose name you are called – Jesus Christ.
A Christian baroness, living Kenya, told of a young national who was employed as her houseboy. After three months he asked the baroness to give him a letter of reference to a friendly sheik some miles away. She didn’t want the houseboy to leave just when he had learned the routine of the household, and offered to increase his pay. Money was not the issue. He had decided he would become either a Christian or a Muslim. He had worked for a Christian for three months and now wanted to work for a Muslim. Then he would decide which way of life he would follow. The baroness was stunned as she recalled her many blemishes in her dealings with the houseboy. She could only exclaim, ‘Why didn’t you tell me at the beginning’!
This is a thought that should scare us all. Our sin does not simply effect us, it hurts those around us. When Jonah ran he did not simply endanger his own life but put everyone on the ship in danger.
Years ago in Germany there was a young Jewish boy who had a profound sense of admiration for his father. The life of the family centered on the acts of piety and devotion prescribed by their religion. The father was zealous in attending worship and instruction and demanded the same from his children. While the boy was a teenager the family was forced to move to another town in Germany. In the new location there was no synagogue, and the business leaders of the community all belonged to the Lutheran church. Suddenly the father announced to the family that they were all going to abandon their Jewish traditions and join the Lutheran church. When the stunned family asked why, the father explained that it was necessary to help his business. The youngster was bewildered and confused. His deep disappointment gave way to anger and an intense bitterness that lasted throughout his life. He left Germany and went to England to study. There he wrote a book and conceived of a movement that was designed to change the world. In the book he described religion as an "opiate for the masses" that could be explained totally in terms of economics. Millions of people still under the system invented by this embittered man. His name was Karl Marx. The influence of this father’s hypocrisy is still being keenly felt around the world.
2. Elitism (vs. 4) – tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders
Gal 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
The Christian life is about freedom, not bondage. In Christ we have been set free from the law so that we may follow Christ. Elitism occurs when a person takes their own personal standards of discipline and practice and then places that as a standard for all others. The Pharisees had placed heavy burdens of spirituality on people which could not be carried. Originally the laws were created for the priesthood but soon everybody had to follow them.
Each of us must strive to know Christ and to grow in Him. What works for us might not work for another person. That does not mean that any one is better than the other. Yes, we can make suggestions about what works for us, but as soon as we begin to judge others by our standards and declare it to be the norm than we run into trouble.
Here is a little rule I have come to believe: the more dramatic and pious we become about our faith, the more likely it is that we are trying to please the gods of this earth--sometimes disguised in religious robes--rather than the one true and holy God. Jesus couldn’t stomach publicly sanctimonious displays of religiosity. He preferred those whose actions spoke for their faith. That is a thought that should scare us all into judgment. I have long believed that our checkbook will say more about our true commitment than all the pious words we utter. -- G. Timothy Johnson
Maybe you are here today and you are thinking that this does not apply to you but I want to tell you that we all do this. We judge others based on our own spiritual heritage and think that everyone should do things just like us. It is one thing to practice elitism as an individual but are there areas that we are doing this as a church?
3. Judging by Externals (vs. 5-7) – done for men to see
Matt 23:27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.
Judging a person’s heart by their exterior is wrong and foolish. Have you ever been judged wrongly because of your looks? E.g. going to the revival tent meeting in my grass cutting clothes. I looked like a non-Christian so I was treated like one.
The same can apply in reverse. Just because you look like a Christian does not mean that you are one. God is not as concerned with the hands as the heart. In our Christian life attitude comes first and then actions because actions flow out of attitude. This is seen in Paul’s letters.
Sometimes we judge not just according to looks but also by actions. Have you ever been judged wrongly because of something that you did or perceived to have done?
A young pastor went to visit a member of the congregation. He rang the doorbell and was waiting but no one came to the door. He knew that someone was at home, but repeated ringing of the bell brought no response. As a final departing act he wrote Revelation 3:20 on the back of one of his calling cards and stuck it under the door: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in." Two days later the pastor received his calling card back in an envelope with a brief note attached that simply contained the text from Genesis 3:10: "I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself."
One area I have seen people judging others is in the area of worship. One of the things I loved about Kuwait was the worship. There were people from all over the world worshipping in different ways all together in the same place. The Africans would dance and the Filipinos would clap and the Brits would just stand there looking very reflective. The Americans would sing too loud. Everyone worshipped in their own way. It was a taste of heaven.
Matt Redmond wrote a powerful song called the Heart of Worship. The song dates back to the late 1990s, born from a period of apathy within Matt’s home church, Soul Survivor, in Watford, England. Despite the country’s overall contribution to the current worship revival, Redman’s congregation was struggling to find meaning in its musical outpouring at the time. “There was a dynamic missing, so the pastor did a pretty brave thing,” he recalls. “He decided to get rid of the sound system and band for a season, and we gathered together with just our voices. His point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip everything away.”
Reminding his church family to be producers in worship, not just consumers, the pastor, Mike Pilavachi, asked, “When you come through the doors on a Sunday, what are you bringing as your offering to God?” Matt says the question initially led to some embarrassing silence, but eventually people broke into a cappella songs and heartfelt prayers, encountering God in a fresh way. Before long they reintroduced the musicians and sound system, and they had gained a new perspective that worship is all about Jesus, and He commands a response in the depths of our souls no matter what the circumstance and setting.
When the music fades, and all is stripped away, and I simply come. Longing just to bring something that’s of worth that will bless your heart… I’m coming back to the heart of worship, and it’s all about You ,it’s all about you Jesus.
Judging by externals is dangerous because we do not have all the facts. Sometimes something may look very much like one thing but be something totally else when more carefully examined.
The Queen Mary was the largest ship to cross the oceans when it was launched in 1936. Through four decades and a World War she served until she was retired as a floating hotel and museum in Long Beach, California. During the conversion, her three massive smoke-stacks were taken off to be scraped down and repainted. But on the dock they crumbled. Nothing was left of the 3/4-inch steel plate from which the stacks had been formed. All that remained were more than thirty coats of paint that had been applied over the years. The steel had rusted away.
