WHAT IS SO BAD ABOUT HYPOCRISY? For the Christian, it’s the false security; for the non-Christian, it’s the disillusionment that happens when you look closely at Christians’ lives.
- Luke 12:1 – “hypocrisy.”
a. For the Christian, it’s the false security.
- Because hypocrisy, by its very definition, includes the appearance of religiosity, there is a grave danger of false security.
- We come to believe in our religious trappings. People presume we’re religious long enough that we come to totally believe it ourselves. Any doubts slowly shrink away as we are able to successfully maintain the appearance of being a “good Christian.”
- This is a dangerous place to be. In fact, we’d be better to be in obvious sin because at least then the likelihood of conviction is greater. Jesus spoke to how the religious leaders were less likely to come into the Kingdom than the prostitutes and tax collectors. A big reason was that the latter knew they needed to repent. The former were too convinced of their righteousness and religiousness.
b. For the non-Christian, it’s the disillusionment that happens when you look closely at Christians’ lives.
- Christian hypocrisy is damaging to non-believers as well. Perhaps they get interested enough to move a step or two toward God, only to be knocked backward by what they see.
- They get up the courage to actually come to church, only to find people wandering through pointless rituals.
- They start to pray, only to have the biggest “Christian” in their office do something unethical.
- They think about believing in God, only to find the preacher more interested in what they can give than in their soul.
- I have found through the process of doing the NewPoint church plant that the one of the biggest thing holding people back from pursuing God is Christians. Rarely do people bring up theology. Rarely do people express doubts in the truthfulness of the Bible. Rarely do people say they find Jesus’ life and resurrection implausible. Often, though, people will begin to tell you a story about Christians that they know.
- This is a major reason why we have so many of our young people walking away from their faith.
- They come while their parents make them in grade school, middle school, and high school. They often don’t feel like their opinions matter or aren’t able to fully articulate the inadequacies of what they see going on around them, but as they get older they come to see it as hypocrisy.
- They see that the preacher is saying Jesus is the most important thing in the world, but everyone is living for the American Dream.
- They see that the church says that God answers prayer, but they never try anything that requires Him to show up.
- They see that the sermons say that Jesus saves and changes lives, but everyone still looks the same as they did before.
- And, so, as soon as they can, they walk away.
- Undoubtedly, some would walk away no matter how on fire for God we might be. But just as certainly, many more would continue to walk with God if they’d see a passionate faith life modeled by us.
HOW BIG A PROBLEM IS HYPOCRISY TODAY? Hypocrisy is all about image over substance and we are the Facebook generation.
- Luke 12:1 – “yeast.”
- We are a generation and a society that is, perhaps more than ever before, focused on image.
- We have that luxury because Facebook, Twitter, and other online entities allow us the opportunities to shape our public image.
- It’s amazing how much positive stuff is, for instance, on Facebook and how little struggle, difficulty, and sinful habits.
- Jesus in v. 1 calls hypocrisy “the yeast of the Pharisees.” What does that mean? Well, yeast is what you put in the bread if you want it to rise. It puffs up what you’ve got and makes it bigger and fuller than what you had originally.
- That idea of “puffing up” is a pretty good analogy for the Facebook profiles that a lot of us have.
- I am aware of the limitations of Facebook and that it’s not necessarily a place that you’d want to air your dirty laundry, but many of us have come to think of how we present ourselves on Facebook as being more important than how we actually are.
- I thought it was telling a few years ago during Tiger Woods’ scandal that folks didn’t talk about him actually rebuilding his life. They talked about how the scandal would affect his image. It was as though the substance of the matter didn’t matter – the primary concern was the impact on his image.
- There is a danger of becoming more focused on looking like we’re living a good life than in actually living a good life. There is a danger of becoming more focused on how we present ourselves than in how we really are.
- We need to focus more on “what it is” and less on “what it looks like.”
- This should demand that when you find hypocrisy in your life that you deal with it.
- It’s so much easier to just ask whether the issue is going to affect your image. That’s not the main question.
- The main question is whether you are becoming who you need to be.
- One reason that hypocrisy is so prevalent is that it’s significantly easier to maintain an image than to actually change how you live.
- Don’t look away in that moment of truth.
- God will help you change things in your life. Sometimes we cover up because we’re sure that God will reject us if what we’re doing comes to light.
- God already knows about it. God is willing to forgive. God loves you as you are, but too much to leave you that way.
- Bring it to Him with a desire to change your life. He will eagerly meet you there. He wants that sin gone from your life too.
- Imagine a son caught in prescription drug addiction calling his father and saying, “Dad, I want to get clean. Will you help me?” What father isn’t going to eagerly jump at that opportunity?
- Is this a problem for the church in America? It’s a huge problem.
- If the American church is a powerless shell, it is in large part because we are hypocritical, God knows it, and He will not release His power on our behalf.
- We talk a lot about image and marketing and not much about prayer and fasting.
HOW TO AVOID HYPOCRISY IN YOUR LIFE:
- We’re not going to be able to comprehensively handle an issue as significant as hypocrisy in the few minutes we have today, but let’s look at four truths that this passage points us to about it.
1. Don’t judge your life solely on outward results.
- Luke 12:1 – “when a crowd of many thousands had gathered.”
- These words come in the midst of great outward success.
- Jesus is drawing massive crowds. Yet He is not impressed by them.
- He knows that the presence of the crowds does not indicate success, just as the eventual lack of crowds will not indicate failure.
- His goal is to remain obedient to His Father’s will, no matter what the outward results.
- It’s wonderful when things are going well. But that’s not always an ironclad proof that we’re where we need to be.
- We think it is because often we believe that God’s job in our lives is to make our lives easy and bless our socks off. It’s not. His goal is to make us like Christ.
- That is why sometimes the path He leads us down requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle. When those things happen, that’s not necessarily a sign that we’re off-track. We might be right in the center of God’s will.
- Live a life where the inside matches the outside. Live a life where the reality matches the perception.
2. Know that the road toward hypocrisy goes downhill.
- Luke 12:1 – “Be on your guard. . .”
- He tells us to “be on. . . guard” because the road to hypocrisy runs downhill. You don’t have to make a lot of extra efforts to get there. You want to get in shape? You’re going to have to make an extra effort for that to happen – it doesn’t happen by accident. You want to learn a new language? You’re going to have to make an extra effort for that to happen – it doesn’t happen by accident. But being hypocritical comes easily.
- How easy it is to end up on the road to hypocrisy is evident in how many go down that road. It’s a perennial problem. It has been a major issue throughout the history of the church. It was a big issue throughout the Old Testament as well.
- Compare the number of churches you know with devoted, passionate believers and the number of churches full of hypocrisy.
3. Hypocrisy thrives among the religious.
- Luke 12:1 – “yeast of the Pharisees”
- This was a problem that the religious people had (in this verse, the Pharisees are called out on it).
- If you claim to be a follower of God, this is something you have to watch out for.
- A danger here is that we often take our cues about what it means to follow God and what following God look like not from the Bible but from what we see around us.
- We see half-hearted devotion and we presume that’s all God expects. He doesn’t – He wants our whole heart.
- We see prayers that have no expectation of answers and we presume that’s all God expects. He doesn’t – He wants us to pray with an eye out for a move from the hand of God.
- We see no one eager to see their lives shaped into Christlikeness and we presume that God doesn’t expect more. He wants more – He wants to form us into Christlikeness.
- We have to look to the Bible to see what the vision is that God has for our lives. What does He intend and expect?
- Often hypocrisy thrives among the religious because we all collectively lower our standards and say that an image-based faith is all that we need to have.
4. Live as though everything is public, because it ultimately is.
- Luke 12:2-3.
- On the internet, most browsers have something called “Private Browsing.” This is another name for what could probably be more accurately known as “porn mode.” “Private Browsing” allows you to look up websites with no record in your browsing history of what sites you’ve been on. It’s the chance to go places and have no one know where you’ve been.
- We all have moments of our lives that we presume is being done in “Private Living.” We think things we shouldn’t think, but it’s ok because it’s done privately. We do things we shouldn’t do, but it’s ok because it’s done privately. We say things we shouldn’t say, but it’s ok because it’s done privately.
- For those of us (and that pretty much includes us all) who think, do, and say things that we’re presuming are going to remain private, verses 2-3 are horrifying.
- Everything that is concealed is going to be revealed (v. 2).
- Everything that is hidden will be made known (v. 2).
- Everything that was said under cover of darkness will see the light of day (v. 3).
- Everything that was whispered privately will be spoken publicly (v. 3).
- Those are horrifying thoughts for all of us (and I expect that’s all of us) who have done, said, and thought things that we presumed were private.
- What is this a reference to? Final Judgment.
- At Final Judgment, all that we’ve done will be out there for people to see.
- There was an interesting movie a while back called “The Truman Show.” The main character, played by Jim Carrey, was actually an unknowing subject of a 24/7 TV show. That meant that everything he said and did was known to all. Most of us would be horrified to think that our life had any similarities to that. Yet the Bible says they do.
- Live life as an open book.
