Jesus Hates Hypocrisy
Even More Than You Do!
Part 4 – Majoring on the Minors
Matthew 23:23-24
January 18, 2009
NOTE: THE ME/WE/GOD/YOU/WE FORMAT IS FROM ANDY STANLEY’S BOOK, "COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE."
Me/We:
How many in here today are detail-oriented? It’s okay, nothing to be ashamed of…
I am generally not detail-oriented.
I’ve got my issues with details, and I’ll tell you about one of those later in the message, but you’ll find very few people who think I’m detail oriented.
Detail-oriented people are good for me, because, as I mentioned, I’m not detail oriented, and if I’m not careful, things slip through the cracks.
Detail-oriented people have saved my bacon on more than one occasion.
As I just mentioned, detail oriented people have a good purpose.
But just like I can let things fall through the cracks if I’m not careful, detail-oriented people, if they’re not careful, can get so caught up in the minutia that they don’t see the bigger picture, and can actually halt the progress necessary for things to happen in any organization, whether it’s a family, a church, or a multi-national corporation.
So is there a balance? You’d better believe there is, and we find it in the passage of Scripture we’re looking at today.
God: Matthew 23:23-24 (p. 700) –
23 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”
The religious leaders had become experts at micromanaging life. Their own and everybody else’s.
These guys had rules upon rules and rules about the rules.
And they were the experts at being detailed.
These guys would scare an IRS auditor with their detail. They’d end up showing the auditor how to do his job even better.
One of the big deals in the Law of Moses was that certain animals were considered unclean, and were not to be eaten.
This included certain insects.
Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve never been a fan of eating insects of any kind, whether they’d be considered clean or unclean, you know what I mean?
Last summer, my daughter, Olivia, and I were on our father/daughter trip to Minnesota, to catch the Minnesota Zoo and a couple Twins games.
We stopped at a little town to have a picnic lunch. I think the town we stopped at was called Olivia, wasn’t it, Baby Girl?
Anyway, here we are, minding my own business, eating our bologna sandwiches when I look down at my sandwich and see half a wasp right where I had just taken a bite.
Man, you can bet that I was spitting and sputtering like maybe never before.
Olivia thought it was funny – and she still does… (And I don’t know if wasps are clean or not)
Anyway, the point here is that certain animals and insects were unclean, including gnats.
And so, because they wanted to make sure they didn’t accidentally ingest a gnat, would strain their drinks through a cloth.
That just kinda makes sense, especially if you’re not a big fan of eating bugs.
These guys were meticulous about the details of ceremonial cleanliness (symbolized by the gnat), but they had lost their perspective on the matters of justice, mercy, and faithfulness (symbolized by the camel).
And Jesus uses that as an object lesson about what really matters in the kingdom of God.
As the Pharisees took great care of the smallest details in order to remain pure, they had become unclean in the most important areas. They were ceremonially clean on the outside, but they had corrupt hearts. (LACNTC)
They had lost sight that the real purpose of their responsibilities to God is to bring about righteousness in this world, not simply perpetuate religious activity and burdens.
This may be the clearest example of the kind of hypocrisy that demonstrates inconsistency in their personal behavior. They display partial obedience alongside of partial obedience.
Now before we get into what I want us to focus on for the rest of the message, I want to point out something from this passage.
Look back to the phrase in verse 23 where He says –
You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
In other words, Go ahead and tithe your spices and such, since the laws of the Pharisees say you should, but don’t neglect these other things. It’s not ‘either/or;’ do them both.
He’s saying, “While you’re doing these things, make sure you don’t lose the right perspective on the kingdom.”
“Do what you’re supposed to do in the small areas. But don’t sacrifice the big picture to focus on the small stuff.”
I think He said that to guys like me, who are “detail-challenge.” You think?
So He has something to say here for all of us, not just the detail-oriented people.
By the way, when someone tells me that giving 10% of your income – tithing – isn’t a New Testament concept, I point them to this passage.
Jesus says, “Keep tithing. And grab the bigger perspective of the kingdom.
So what is the point Jesus is trying to make here?
You: Major on the majors.
In other words, focus on the things that are most important, not the trivial things.
As some say, “make the main thing the main thing.”
We’re going to talk about what the majors are in just a moment, but let me say a couple things real quick, and give you a couple questions you can ask yourself to help you with avoiding the error of majoring on the minors.
One of the problems that the religious leaders of Jesus’ time had, and one that continues to be an issue today is letting religious activity be a substitute for good works.
They could tithe, but they’re not willing to lend a hand when someone needs help.
They could come to church, but never get involved in seeing the Kingdom of God grow.
Or they might do things like be an usher or count the offering, or mow the lawn. They do the “stuff” but they’re not ready to really get involved with the important work of the kingdom – helping people live for God so others can know about Him.
Ask yourself:
Is what I’m doing important for God’s kingdom or is it just some religious-looking “filler”?
Is what I’m doing furthering the important matters of the Kingdom or am I just focusing on the small stuff?
For those of you who are really organized, this might be kind of tough.
You want to make sure the details are taken care of, and that’s not a bad thing – unless it keeps you from getting involved in the things that really matter.
Let me give you an example:
Each Sunday I’m in here arranging the chairs. I’ve got them set in such a way that they’re all the same distance from the walls, and all have the same angle, and all that.
This is one of the few things that I am detail-oriented about.
But what if during my chair arranging, someone said they needed to talk to me because they were going through something tough, or they had questions about the Bible or they weren’t sure if they would go to heaven when they died.
Am I willing to stop, and maybe risk having the chairs be a bit messy for the sake of helping someone?
Of course not! “You’re just gonna have to wait. The angle of the chairs is more important than you.”
I think you know me better than that. I’d stop or find someone else to arrange the chairs. At least I hope I’d do that!
Are the chairs important? Sure they are. Not having them orderly can tell others that we’re a sloppy bunch that doesn’t care how we come across to others.
But arranging chairs is a detail. It’s a minor compared to the people sitting in them, wouldn’t you agree?
So what are the majors that we should be majoring in?
* Bringing pleasure to God.
This is called “Worship.”
And I’m not just talking about getting together on Sunday mornings.
Worship isn’t an event. Worship is a lifestyle.
We bring pleasure to God by loving Him above everyone and everything else.
We bring pleasure to God when we trust Him to take care of us in every situation, no matter how it looks from our perspective.
We bring pleasure to God when we obey Him, even in the face of inconvenience or hardship, and no matter what others think.
We please God when we praise Him and give thanks to Him for all the blessings in your life.
We please God when we use the abilities He gave us to provide for ourselves and others.
The bottom line is that we please God when we surrender our lives to Him – letting Him run the show.
Bringing pleasure to God is a “major.” The second ‘major’ is…
* Participating in the family.
When a person puts their faith in Jesus, they become a part of the family of God.
And the local church is the main expression of God’s family.
Being a part of the family and getting involved in the lives of its members is called “Fellowship.”
It means gathering together to look at God’s Word and to encourage each other or to minister to each other when necessary.
God made us to need other people. We’re social creatures. And when we decide that we don’t need the church and that we can live for Jesus on our own, we miss out of all the blessings that come with being around other believers.
And we miss out on some things that can only come be being involved.
We prayed for some people today. Those are people who are part of our family.
In churches all around the city and county and around the world, people are meeting together to worship and to encourage one another toward love and good deeds, as the Scripture says we’re to do.
So if you’ve been holding back on getting involved, let me encourage you to find out more about becoming involved in the family life of the church.
The third “major” is…
* Becoming more like Jesus.
We allow God to change our lives by getting into the Bible and applying it to our everyday living.
We learn how to please God, we learn what He said and did, and what His priorities are, and we ask God to help us make those priorities our own.
We call this “Discipleship.”
It’s the process that God uses in helping us be people who more accurately reflect Jesus to those around us and to the world at large.
Now this is a very important major.
Discipleship is what gives you validity when you’re telling people about Jesus because they see you’re serious enough to let it affect every area of your life.
Discipleship means becoming an authentic follower of Jesus.
You can’t be authentic and be a hypocrite.
Hypocrites have no credibility when it comes to helping people find Jesus and live for Him.
Hypocrites do major damage to the cause of Christ and His Kingdom.
Discipleship is meant to help us avoid the trap of hypocrisy.
Here’s the fourth “major:”
* Serving the Kingdom.
What I mean here is primarily serving the needs of the family of God, but it also means extending the love of Christ to those who don’t yet know Him.
The word we have for this is “Ministry.”
It means that we’re involved to the point of meeting a need of someone.
It goes beyond fellowship in that while fellowship is great for encouragement and accountability, ministry is there to help fill a need.
That need might be anything from financial to prayer, to a job reference, to painting someone’s house, mowing their lawn, or shoveling their sidewalk.
Sometimes it just means going up to someone who is hurting and saying, “I’ve been there. I’ll call you later and we can pray together.”
Sometimes it means telling someone who’s screwed up, “I forgive you.”
It could mean volunteering at the Salvation Army.
It could mean commiserating with your pastor when the Twins miss the playoffs.
It could mean helping with our Sunday School or Wednesday night ministries, or it could mean being the first person someone new sees when they walk in the door – and they see a smile and get a welcoming handshake.
It could mean any number of things that touch the life of another person.
In my opinion, this probably the area that most encompasses the issues of justice, mercy, and faithfulness that Jesus discusses in our passage.
The fifth “major” is…
* Helping people find Jesus.
This means giving people the information they need to make an informed, God-aided decision to believe in Him.
Any guesses as to what we call this? Evangelism.
I say, “God-aided decision” because Scripture tells us that the faith a person needs to believe in Jesus is a gift from God.
I learned a long time ago that there is no “arguing” someone into the Kingdom of God.
So all I can do is tell them what it means to believe in Jesus and how to find Him, asking God to do His thing in the life of that person.
I can answer their questions as best as I know how, and get resources for them to answer their questions, I can challenge their thinking and their assumptions regarding why they don’t need to follow Jesus, but in the end, it’s when the Holy Spirit convinces a person to open their lives to Christ that a person really finds Him.
Part of our job as believers in Jesus is to help other people become believers of Jesus by telling them how to do that and by modeling it in our lives.
(Pause)
The front of your bulletin gives you what we believe is the major mission of this church.
Restoring Relationships with God through Christ
By helping people find Jesus and live for Him, we’re fulfilling that mission.
“But wait a minute, Pastor Brian. This passage doesn’t mention these five things or the statement on the front of the bulletin. It says that the ‘majors’ are justice, mercy, and faithfulness. What’s the scoop?”
The scoop is that if a person lives out these 5 areas of purpose, then justice, mercy, faithfulness, and other things will become part of his or her character, because these five purposes are designed to help us be more like Jesus, obviously cared about justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
So what should you do?
Become a Pentagon.
Become a person who has all five of these majors working.
It takes work, because no one is automatically great at any of these things, believe me.
I am generally strong in the evangelism and discipleship areas, but not so strong in the ministry and fellowship categories.
Over time, God is helping me become stronger in those areas.
And in some ways that means becoming more detail-oriented than I am. (Shudder)
What’s the next step?
Identify your strongest and weakest areas, then work through your strongest while working on your weakest, asking God to help you.
Another step is to talk to me, because I’d love to do all I can to help you become a person who has all five of these areas working in your life.
We: Folks, we live in a time where Christians are not looked on with a lot of favor, because there are plenty of Christians who are more like the Pharisees than they are like Jesus.
So let’s buck the trend.
Let’s become people who are serious about the kingdom – serious about things like justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
Serious about helping others see that the words of Jesus mean something to those who claim to be believers and follower of His.
Serious about reflecting Jesus and His priorities so people can see that the weirdos and whackos they read about and maybe see on TV aren’t all there is to Christianity. That it’s so much more, and so much better.
May they see it in you. And may they see it in this part of the family of God.
Let’s pray.
