August 16, 2009

A police officer pulled a driver aside and asked for his license and registration.


"What's wrong, officer," the driver asked. "I didn't go through any red lights, and I certainly wasn't speeding."

"No, you weren't," said the officer, "but I saw you waving your fist as you swerved around the lady driving in the left lane, and I further observed your flushed and angry face as you shouted at the driver of the Hummer who cut you off, and how you pounded your steering wheel when the traffic came to a stop near the bridge."


"Is that a crime, officer?"


"No, but when I saw the ‘Jesus loves you and so do I’ bumper sticker on the car, I figured this car had to be stolen."


Ouch that hurts! It is never fun to get caught being a hypocrite.


A priest was coming back to his rectory one evening in the dark when he was accosted by a robber who pulled a gun on him and demanded, "Your money or your life!"


As the priest reached his hand into his coat pocket, the robber saw his Roman collar and said: "I see you're a priest. Never mind, you can go."


The priest, surprised at this unexpected show of piety, tried to reciprocate by offering the robber a candy bar that he remembered was in his pocket.


The robber replied, "No thank you, Father. I don't eat candy during Lent."


What are we talking about? We are talking about hypocrisy. One of the most commonly leveled objections to the Christian faith is that “All Christians Are Hypocrites” Gross generalizations like “Christians are all hypocrites” are rarely true. In this case, it is very close. As long as there has been faith there has been hypocrisy. That doesn’t make it right, but it makes it real – and a real problem.


Today I want to confront this ugly issue of hypocrisy. I want to show what causes it, why it is so harmful, and what can be done about it.

Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 23.

THE HEART OF HYPOCRISY, Vv. 1-10

A man, returning from a business trip, was met at the airport by his wife. They walked from the gate together and were standing waiting for the baggage to be unloaded. An extremely attractive stewardess walked by. Suddenly, the man came to life. Beaming, he said to the stewardess, "I hope we can fly together again, Miss Jones." His wife asked, "How come you knew the name of that stewardess?" The man replied smoothly, "Well dear, her name was posted up front in the plane, right under the names of the pilot and co-pilot." To which the wife replied, "Okay, so what were the names of the pilot and co-pilot?" BUSTED! The man’s hypocrisy was uncovered.


Hypocrisy can be illustrated by the way we clean house when company is coming - We shove our junk in the closet, stuff it under the bed, etc. where it can’t be seen. Out of sight it doesn’t exist at least to our guests. That is not a horrible way to clean house, but it is terrible way to deal with the spiritual junk in our lives. There is no value to hide our junk from people if God sees it. He is the
one we are to please.


Hypocrisy results from trying to hide our junk and keep it out of view so people won’t think we have junk. But bad things happen when we do that. First, we hide our junk from ourselves and don’t deal with it. Secondly, we have to keep people away from our junk room out of fear of being discovered. That can be a little hard on true relationships. Worst of all, we have to try to keep Jesus from our junk room because of all people, we don’t want Him to see our junk. So, we live guarded lives, never fully honest with ourselves or with others and not fully committed to God.


In these first 10 verses, Jesus points out the hypocrisy of the Religious Leaders of that day. In verse 5 He puts His finger on the heart of the problem, “Everything they do is done for men to see…”


The heart of hypocrisy is the desire to look good and be regarded as good without doing the hard work of becoming good. It is even worse than that because it takes what is supposed to bring glory to God and using it to glorify yourself.


“Hypocrisy” comes from a Greek word “hypokrisis” that referred to an actor playing a part. An actor pretends to be one thing when he is actually another. In the ancient theater the actors often played several characters each, so they would use masks. Whenever they needed to change characters they changed masks.


Are you wearing a mask today? What are you trying to hide?


Do you have a junk room in your heart? Is there some junk that you are hiding from God?
If you answered “yes” to any of those questions you are guilty of hypocrisy and it is only a matter of time until you are exposed.


THE HARM OF HYPOCRISY, Vv. 13-38

Some of the harshest words that Jesus ever spoke were directed at the professional religious leaders. In this portion of Scripture we see Him condemning them:

Seven Times He Calls Them Hypocrites
Two Times He Calls Them Fools
Five Times He Calls Them Blind Guides
He Even Called Them A Bunch of Snakes

John Stott said this about hypocrisy: “Hypocrisy is hideous. What cancer is to the body, hypocrisy is to the church. It is a killing agent. Unfortunately, hypocrisy is also addictive. And even though Jesus reserved His most severe words of condemnation for the hypocrite, we still seem to prefer that lifestyle to truth and authenticity.”

Hypocrisy will seriously harm the witness of a local church.


Hypocrisy wears down the workers in a church.


What a deal there is of going to meetings and getting blessed, and then going away and living just the same, until sometimes we, who are constantly engaged in trying to bring people nearer the heart of God, go away so discouraged that our hearts are almost broken. - Catherine Booth. "


Hypocrisy harms the worship in a church.


Hypocrisy harms the fellowship in a church.


Mark Twain once said, “A cat that sits on a hot stove would sit on a hot stove again. But neither will he sit on a cold one.” Once you get burned by hypocrisy, you will have a hard time being vulnerable within fellowship.


Hypocrisy harms the mission of the church. We are supposed to make it easier for people to believe in God, not harder. Which is true of your life?


THE HOPE FOR HYPOCRITES, Vv. 11-12, 25-28


"Luke warmness toward God is hypocrisy at its worst. If I truly believe He’s supreme, I must treat Him as such I must"


True Faith - Matthew 15:8, Jesus said, 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.’

In the chapter previous to this, Jesus had told the religious leaders that they should love God with all their heart and all their soul and all their mind……

Jesus says if you want to overcome hypocrisy, get your heart right!

And then He points to the evidence of a heart that is right – Vv. 11-12 – Humble Service.

True Focus – In Verses 25-28, Jesus tells us that we should focus on the inner man not the outer man……….

True Fruit – “But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” Galatians 5:22-25

You don’t have to fake it! You don’t have to be a phony. You can be free from hypocrisy. By the way, I want you to know that there is a difference between being a hypocrite and being inconsistent. Even when we are Spirit-filled and walking in obedience, our human weaknesses can cause us to be inconsistent. But we are not acting or pretending to be something we are not.


Do you have a junk room in your heart? Are you hiding some junk that you don’t want anyone to know about? Do you ever feel that if anyone found out the truth about you, you'd be finished? Do you go through life basically trying to convince others that you are something you're not—that you're cool when you know you're not, that you're confident or skillful or good-hearted when you know it's not so?


It began with mere barroom bravado; years later it got out of control. Werner "Jack" Genot wanted to be a hero. So, he concocted a story about serving with the Marines and being taken as a prisoner of war during a bloody Korean War battle.


Genot, now 71, is from the small Illinois town of Marengo, where he serves as an alderman. His story grew until the uniform he wore on special occasions became laden with fake medals he had ordered from a catalogue—a Bronze Star, a Silver Star, and two Purple Hearts. He would march in parades and talk to schoolchildren. He even got a special license plate reserved for wounded veterans by forging discharge papers.


However, a veteran's league eventually noticed a lack of records on file and numerous factual holes in Genot's military record. It began investigating his claims. For two years, Genot denied the accusations and excused his way around the questions. But he finally confessed his deception in an interview with a local newspaper, claiming that he couldn't stand the façade any longer.
"You can't imagine what I'm going through," he said. "I really didn't know how to shake this demon. But I went to bed with it every night, and I looked at it in the mirror every morning. I don't want to meet my Maker with this on my heart."

Why not come clean on that junk? Why not let God into that room and give Him your junk.


If you have been disillusioned by hypocrisy – look past men to see Christ.

If you struggle with your own tendency to hypocrisy – look past men to see Christ.

August 15, 2009

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8

Is there a more exciting Book in the New Testament than the Acts of the Apostles?

Why is it so exciting? Because it shows the Church at its best! It shows the potential of any group of believers who dare to get real with God. When even a small group of people empty themselves of sin and self-righteousness and allow God to fill them with His Spirit, amazing things can happen! Any church that unites to obey the Great Commission in the power of the Great Commandment will change its world!

Because the Church can be THAT good, hypocrisy is that BAD.

Here is the irony in this whole thing. Hypocrisy is when people who profess to be believers try to act godly. They strive to believe the right things and look the right way seeming to believe that godliness happens from the outside in. But they soon discover that being religious doesn't make you a Christian anymore than living in your garage will make you a car.

So in a very real way can say that hypocrisy is the Acts of the religious. Not a pretty picture. Acting doesn't cut it.

The REAL Acts had nothing to do with acting. This was the real deal. This was God living and loving through single-minded surrendered people. The REAL Acts had nothing to do with religion but had everything to do with relationship. The REAL Acts had nothing to do with self-righteousness and everything to do with Spirit-filled righteousness. The REAL Acts had nothing to do with their actions and everything to do with God acting through them.

Here's the bottom line with the hypocrisy issue - you can have acting OR you can have ACTS!

August 14, 2009

"Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Matthew 22:34-40

This is an amazing encounter between a man who was trying to look good and a Man Who WAS good. This Pharisee soon discovered he was out of his league. His lame question which was intended to trap Jesus allowed Jesus to turn the spotlight on their hypocrisy.

The Pharisess had taken the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses and had expanded them to 632 rules and regulations. Now, thanks to them, instead of being guilty of breaking 10 rules they could be guilty of breaking them by the hundreds. Hypocrisy was elevated to a whole new level.

Jesus got to the very heart of the hypocrisy problem which is, well........the heart. He says the solution to hypocrisy is to fully engage the heart and the mind.

Loving God with all your heart and all your mind solves the basic issues that lead to hypocrisy - double-mindedness and a divided heart. And when you love God with all your heart He will give you love for others. When you love others with a godly love you don't feel pressure to impress them.

Believing that they could keep ALL the commandments led to the hypocrisy of the religious leaders. Jesus was trying to simplify it for them. They only had to focus on two things - one thing, really. Just love God with all your heart and live in that relationship and He will do the rest. He will be your righteousness. He will love through you. His Spirit will lead you in truth.

Jesus has the cure for hypocrisy. Jesus IS the cure for hypocrisy. He will cure you from religion and bring you into relationship.

Are you tired of trying to impress God? Worn out by being religious? Exhausted by trying to achieve self-righteousness? Stop lying to yourself and start loving God. It is not about anything you can do - its about what He has done!

August 13, 2009

"Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, "Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands before they eat!" Jesus replied, "And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, 'Honor your father and mother' and 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.'But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God,' he is not to 'honor his father' with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:" 'These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.'" Matthew 15:1-9

I have to confess to a passionate love affair that has been happening in my life for a long time. I am madly in love with the local church. I have devoted my life to it. If I had a second life I would also devote that life. Healthy local churches are the hope of the world. If God is ever going to transform our world, it will happen through local churches. That is why I am still leading the charge in a local congregation after all these years.

However, true love never runs smoothly. The majority of heartbreaks I have experienced in my life have happened in the local church. I have seen it at its worst and grieved.

But, I have also seen it at its best and there is nothing like it! I have seen lives transformed through salvation, through being filled with the Spirit, and through miraculous healings and deliverance. When a church is unified and focused and Spirit-led, the gates of Hell cannot prevail against it.

What makes the difference?

Primarily, it is this issue of hypocrisy. That is why Jesus was so hard on the religious leaders of His day. He had a vision of what the Church would become and their attitudes and actions were destructive to that.

Jesus summarized the problem of hypocrisy this way, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."

That is the climate which breeds hypocrisy. Where rules and rituals are allowed to trump relationships, there is an unhealthy atmosphere of judgmentalism and a noticable lack of love. The church degenerates into an organization rather than a living, breathing organism. Playing the part without having the heart will kill you and harm the church where you belong. Saying the right sounding things without sincerely believing them confuses people and hinders true fellowship.

If healthy local churches are the hope of the world, as I believe. And if hypocrisy is an illness that infects a church and threatens its health. Then it is no wonder Jesus was so aggressive in attacking it. We should be, too.

Your local church is made up of people like you. If you want to improve the spiritual climate of your church stop giving lip service to your faith and give it life service. Surrender your heart to God and allow His Spirit to fill it. Seek Him passionately and serve Him humbly. When you do, suddenly relationships will be a priority and rules will become servants of love.

Hypocrisy is an issue of the heart. If you want to defeat hypocrisy, transplant your heart.

August 12, 2009

The great Zig Ziglar said, " A hypocrite is one who gripes and complains about all the sex, nudity and violence on his VCR."

While the technology may be a bit outdated, the point is not.

James tells us that "a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways."

A hypocrite is a person who says one thing but does another. It harms the faith and damages local churches. The Early Church was not exempt from this destructive behavior and God dealt with it severely. Here's the story:

"Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife's full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles' feet. Then Peter said, "Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn't it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn't the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God." When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him. About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, "Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?" "Yes," she said, "that is the price." Peter said to her, "How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also." At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events." Acts 5:1-11

Well, that's one way to solve the hypocrisy problem. But I fear that if God killed all the hypocrites who populate the Church of Jesus Christ, we wouldn't have many Christians left.

In yesterday's post I made the point that Cain and Abel both wanted to please God but only Abel did it on God's terms while Cain tried to please God on his own terms. In short, he was disobedient.

The story of Aninas and Sapphira shows us another ugly facet of hypocrisy, trying to impress men with how spiritual you are.

As the Church in Jerusalem was exploding with growth, the needs were incredible. So, these committed, Spirit-filled believers were selling off their possessions and giving the proceeds to the Apostles to distribute to those in need. They gave willingly and they gave as they saw fit. There was no pressure or force place upon them. THAT is true faith!

Enter Ananias, who with his wife, sold a piece of property and decided to give a portion of the profit to the Church and tuck part of it away for themselves. There was nothing wrong with that. They could have kept the whole amount or they could have given the whole amount. These were free-will gifts.

Their hypocrisy developed when they decided to misrepresent their gift. When they brought it to the Apostles they claimed that they were giving the entire amount of their sale. Why would they do that?

Only one reason. They wanted to look more generous than they were. They wanted the Apostles to praise them and shine the spotlight on them. They wanted the other believers to admire them. Not good.

In their desire for praise and attention, they succumbed to the temptation of being man-pleasers rather than God-pleasers.

It is always bad to lie. Lying to the Holy Spirit can be fatal. Ananias and Sapphira are living (er - dying) proof of that. While hypocrisy will not kill you on the spot, as it did them, it certainly kills your spirit, kills your witness and damages the health of your church. It is highly destructive.

Being respected and admired by men is a strong desire in the human spirit. Often it is even stronger than the desire to please God. That is the double-mindedness that James refers to that leads to unstable behavior.

Will you take a moment and ask God to search your spirit to see if your desire to please man is stronger than it should be? Will you commit to being single-minded in your pursuit of God?

August 11, 2009

"By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead." Hebrews 11:4

Here's what occurred to me this morning as I was meditating about this topic of hypocrisy - faith and hypocrisy are two sides of the same coin.

How does that hit you?

Where did I get that idea? From thinking about Cain and Abel. Follow me on this line of thinking, but first let's define trms.

The word hypocrisy comes from the Greek ὑπόκρισις (hypokrisis), which means "play-acting", "acting out", "feigning" or "dissembling". The word hypocrite is from the Greek word ὑποκρίτης (hypokrites), the agentive noun associated with υποκρίνομαι (hypokrinomai), i.e. "I play a part."

So, hypocrisy is "acting" like you have something that you don't or pretending to be someone you aren't. Actors in those days often wore masks to better portray their character or if an actor was playing several characters he would do so by changing masks.

But faith is also "acting out" ("Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see") Faith is behaving according to a standard to which you have not yet attained. So hypocrisy acts out and faith acts out, why is one honored and the other despised?

Both faith and hypocrisy derive from a desire to please God and both show a desire to regain a perfection that we have lost. So why is one honored and the other despised?

Faith grows out of a genuine relationship with God through Christ. Hypocrisy arises from religion and is an attempt to please God with our own efforts.

Abel is pointed to as the father of faith while Cain is the originator of religion. Abel pleased God but Cain didn't. Both wanted to please God but only one did.

Faith acts out what God has given but has not yet been seen in a desire to please God. Hypocrisy acts out of man's pride and wisdom in the belief he can please God.

Faith desires to impress the world with the power of God. Hyposcrisy wants to impress God with the power of man.

Faith springs out of the life of relationship with Christ. Hypocrisy crawls out of the dead works of religious performance and pretence.

Faith brings life while hypocrisy kills.

Faith and hypocrisy are two sides of the same coin. There is a Cain side and an Abel side. One side of the coin is genuine and the other side is counterfeit - and only God can flip the coin.

What say ye?

August 10, 2009

"How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye." Matthew 7:4-5

One of the biggest objections given to justify non-involvement in church is, "There are too many hypocrites in church."

Unfortunately, that may be true.

I read about a preacher who when he invited a man to church was given this excuse, "Preacher, I would come to church but there are too many hypocrites there already."

The preacher was undaunted, replying, "Well, you could come and sit in church with a few hypocrites or you could go to hell with all of them."

However, the same people would sit at FedEx Field watching the Redskins even though there are hypocrites at the game. Or they crown into Lane Stadium or Scott Stadium to cheer for their teams without concern for how many hypocrites might be seated with them.

They don't hesitate to take money when it is given to them despite the fact that there are millions of phony bills in circulation.

This week I will be dealing with this issue of hypocrisy. Sunday I will be preaching about it. It is deadly, It is prevalent, and it hard to overcome.

Jesus hated hypocrisy when He was here. He confronted it wherever he saw and ruthlessly condemned it.

In His Sermon on the Mount, from which these verses are taken, Jesus identified the two most damaging aspects of hypocrisy - condemning sin in others while condoning it in ourselves. Jesus hated those attitudes. They are doubly destructive.

Jesus also gives us some insight into how to deal with hypocrisy in our lives, deal with the sin in our lives. "Take the two-by-four out of your eye before you get concerned over the splinter in your brother's eye."

The hardest hypocrite to live with is yourself. If you really are bothered by hypocrites and if you really want to be something about it, start with yourself. Ask God to reveal it in you and remove it from you. Stop worrying about "those hypocrites" and eliminate "this one". The hypocrisy that bothers me the most is that which dwells in me.