Hypocrites and Spice Cabinets | Sunday, March 7, 2021

Hey, Cross Connection. Pastor Jason here, and we're going to be in Luke chapter 11, starting at verse 37, and then we'll begin the first part of Luke chapter 12. Let's start by reading through it, and then we will go through and see what we find.

Luke chapter 11, starting at verse 37, says, "These things you should have done without neglecting the others. Woe to you, Pharisees! You love the front seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplace. Woe to you! You are like unmarked graves, and the people who walk over them don't even know it."

One of the experts in the law answered him, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too." Then he said, "Woe to you also, experts in the law! You load people with burdens that are hard to carry, yet you yourselves don't touch these burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to you! You build tombs for the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Therefore, you are witnesses that you approve the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them and you built their monuments. Because of this, the wisdom of God said, 'I will send the prophets and the apostles; some of them they will kill and persecute, so that this generation may be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets since the foundation of the world.' From the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible. Woe to you, experts in the law! You have taken away the key to knowledge. You didn't go in yourselves, and you hindered those who were trying to go in."

Then he left there. The scribes and the Pharisees began to oppose him fiercely and to cross-examine him about many things. They were lying in wait for him to trap him in something he said.

Meanwhile, in chapter 12, verse 1, a crowd of many thousands came together so that they were trampling on one another. He began to say to his disciples first, "Be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy."

There is nothing covered which won't be uncovered, and nothing hidden that won't be made known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and whatever you have whispered in an ear in a private room will be proclaimed on the housetops. I say to you, my friends, don't fear those who kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. But I will show you the one to fear: fear Him who has authority to throw people into hell after death. Yes, I say to you, this is the one to fear.

Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, as we open Your Word today, I pray that You would speak to us and give us wisdom and understanding. Lord, give us the wherewithal to make that leap from understanding into obedience and actually living it out. Heavenly Father, help us not to get stuck on understanding and never make it to actually doing. So, Father God, we give this time to You, and we ask that You would work in us and work through us. We pray these things, Jesus, in Your name. Amen.

So, we're going to start off in the first couple of verses here. It says, as He was speaking, a Pharisee asked Him to dine with him. So He went in and reclined at the table. When the Pharisee saw this, he was amazed that He did not first perform the ritual washing before dinner. But the Lord said to him, "Now you Pharisees, you clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside, you're full of greed and evil."

Now, the first thing to realize here is that Jesus is teaching the crowd, and a Pharisee asks Him, "Hey, come to my house and eat with me." So Jesus goes in, doesn't wash His hands, and just sits down at the table. The Pharisee is kind of freaked out because, hey, we always wash before dinner.

Now, Jesus was not uncleanly or discourteous. He is poking at a spot that He wants to explore with this Pharisee. The focus for the Pharisee was cleaning the visible portion of the outside of the cup to make sure that everybody knew he had done the ritual washing and that his hands were clean. But Jesus points out, "Hey, your problem is not your cleanliness. Your problem is your inside." For this particular guy, He says, "You are full of greed and evil."

See, for the Pharisees, looking good was enough, but for Jesus, looking good is not the point. It's actually being good. When my sisters, well, all of us were a lot younger, there was a lady in our church who was one of the prototypical church ladies. She always had her makeup done, was an older lady, single, and always well-dressed.

Everything was put together, and so she invited my sisters over to her house for dinner. They were having a fancy dinner with chocolate-covered strawberries and elaborate foods—things you would not typically serve to normal guests. This was a very big deal for them to be invited.

After they had sat down and enjoyed their chocolate-covered strawberries and the fancy dinner, the lady took all of their dishes and set them on the floor. Her little dog came over and licked off all the plates, saucers, and cups. Then she picked up all those dishes and put them in her cupboard. My sisters were surprised, to say the least. The lady looked at them and said, "Well, a dog's mouth is cleaner than a human's."

While I've heard that before, I'm not sure it's true. I don't know what kind of empirical testing has been done on a dog's mouth versus a human's mouth, but we can agree that neither one is particularly clean. I don't want you licking my dinner plate, and you don't want me licking yours before you use it.

The point through all this is that godliness cleans from the inside out in a person, not from the outside in. Your plate may look clean when the dog is done licking it, but it is not, in fact, clean. Godliness cleans from the inside out. We are cleaned inside out, and this is the same for other people. They are also cleaned inside out. That's how God works.

This means that we need to extend grace to others in humility, not judge them by how they seem on the outside. If God is cleaning from the inside out, we need to give ourselves and others the room to improve rather than insist that they look good on the outside before we worry about the heart.

It's like asking someone, "Hey, do you want to come to my church?" They might respond, "Sure. What do I have to do?" You could say, "Oh, just show up." But instead, you might think, "Hey, you want to come to my church? Sure. What do I do? Well, let's go buy you a suit. Let's get your hair cut. You know what? We might even want to do some cosmetic surgery because our church looks good, and it's full of good-looking people. Maybe lose a few pounds, and then you can come to our church." That would be ridiculous. Nobody would do that.

When we worry about cleaning the outside of the cup before we focus on cleaning the inside, that's effectively what we're doing. We're saying that there is a visual standard that must be met before a spiritual standard, and that's exactly backwards. God cleans us from the inside out.

Jesus goes on in verse 40 and says, "Fools," because He is being kind.

He was very soft-spoken, like the pictures we have of Him where He looks emaciated and weak. He starts out by saying, "Fools, didn't He who made the outside make the inside too? But give from what is in the inside to the poor, and then everything is clean for you." It's what you do with the inside of you that counts. When you clean the inside by following Jesus, the outside will follow.

Probably like many of you, when I was saved, my outsides—the things that would come out of my mouth, the things that I wore on my body, the actions that I took—were not what they are now. A lot of things in my life did not change because I worked really hard at it; some things just evaporated. I used to have a terrible potty mouth. But after I got saved, I remember at one point my wife looked at me and said, "You know, you don't swear anymore." I kind of thought, "Huh, I don't swear anymore." Now, I occasionally slip up, especially when I'm working on the car, but that's still a work in progress. It wasn't like I had worked super hard on watching my mouth; it was one of those things that God just took away from me. I was amazed. As the inside of the cup gets clean, the outside will, by definition, follow.

Then He goes on in verse 42 to pronounce some woes. For us, "woe" is like "whoa," but here, "woe" means "you're in trouble." He says, "Woe to you Pharisees! You give a tenth of mint, rue, and every kind of herb, and you bypass justice and love for God. You do these things you should have done without neglecting the others."

So, He is saying that tithing here is good, but not at the expense of justice and love. The point being, busyness does not equal godliness. The Pharisees would tithe out of all their things, and Jesus points out the ridiculousness of tithing out of your mint and rue. Imagine spending your days making sure that you tithe out of each of your spices and herbs. Think about your spice cabinet. Picture all those jars. Imagine spending your days ensuring that you tithe out of each of your herbs and spices. Consider going to your spice cabinet and looking at all the different jars and bottles, with extracts and spices, and figuring out a way to select a tenth of each one of those.

So you're sitting there, and you're thinking, "I've got a tenth of this and a tenth of that." Do I go by weight, or do I go by volume? Does it matter which spice it is? Do I deduct the cost of the jars or the envelopes that I need in order to bring them to the temple? Is the system the same for both the mint and pepper, or do I have to do these things differently?

See how very easily this can become a complete part-time job? But imagine, if you will, the job satisfaction and the recognition when you bring your catalog spice envelopes out in front of everyone when you go to the temple. "Oh, here's the mint, and here's the rue, and here's the pepper, and here's the marjoram." You should probably get monogrammed envelopes at that point. That way, you can make sure that people can tell you're serious about the work for God.

What have we accomplished here? You see how this could very easily become a part-time job. But did any of this lead to a greater walk with God? Did it bring anyone else closer to God? All this did was make you busy and keep your pride occupied, all under the guise of, "I'm following God."

He goes on in verse 43 and says, "Woe to you, Pharisees." Again, he says, "You love the front seat in the synagogue, and you love greetings in the marketplaces. You love recognition over repentance. Woe to you; you're like unmarked graves, and the people who walk over them don't even know it."

Do you hear that? People are farther from God because they've interacted with you than if they hadn't. This is a bad sign, especially when talking to the Pharisees, because they are the religious authorities, the religious sticklers, the cream of the crop as far as Judaism was concerned at that time. But Jesus says, "No, people are more unclean having dealt with you than if they had never dealt with you in the first place."

So you see, Jesus is getting very heavy here with them. One of the experts, in verse 45, in case we were going to miss it, answered him and said, "Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too." It's like, "Hey there, buddy, you're getting pretty close to insulting us. That's pretty insensitive there, Jesus."

So Jesus, quick to apologize, says, "Woe to you, also you experts in the law. You load people with burdens that are hard to carry, and yet you yourselves don't even touch those burdens."

You teachers of the law make people carry burdens that they were never meant to bear, and then you don't even help them a bit. It's like they're struggling in life, and you're just there, saying, "Here, here's a brick." It's reminiscent of what Jim Gaffigan says about having a third child: it's like you're swimming and swimming, always drowning, and then somebody throws you a kid.

Jesus is not taking it easy on them. Instead, He says, "No, you guys are like this. You make life more difficult for people, and you don't even help." You give them these extra burdens and don't even bother to help them carry them.

I recently picked up a couple of small generators that we had repaired. I will say this: small generators are not a big problem, but large generators are extremely heavy. Even when it's in the back of my truck, it is not coming out without help. Sometimes, when we get a little pharisaical and become sticklers on the law, we forget that our job is to help people carry burdens.

Thank God I have some good friends. I was able to send a text out, asking, "Hey, is anybody around the shop today? I could use some help." I had three people immediately respond, "Yeah, we can help." We got the generator out of the truck, and everything was great. I couldn't have done that by myself. If someone had said, "Well, you have to take that generator out, and you also need a couple of bricks to put on top of that to really help you out," that would be in effect what they were doing.

Jesus goes on in verse 49, saying, "Because of this, the wisdom of God said, 'I will send them prophets and apostles, and some they will kill and persecute, so that this generation, the generation that Jesus was speaking to, may be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets since the foundation of the world—from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zachariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary.' Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible."

Remember, this is Jesus talking to them. He is saying, "You're going to be responsible for the blood of all the prophets," knowing that His blood is on that same list. He continues in verse 52, saying, "What are you, experts in the law? You have taken away the key to knowledge. You didn't go in yourselves, and you're hindering those who were trying to go in."

He points out that they had the key to knowledge. The law of God is the key to great knowledge, but instead of rightly applying it, they held that key back and made sure nobody else could enter either.

So not only did you not do what you were supposed to do, but you actively held back others who were pursuing God. Jesus here is being very hard on the experts in the law. Another point to remember is that knowledge does not equal godliness. See, modern-day herb tithing or becoming law experts often comes in the form of Bible studies where knowledge is increased, but there's no meaningful heart or life change. Just like cleaning the outside of the cup, we run that same risk.

It's very easy to look at the Pharisees and the teachers of the law and say, "Yeah, Jesus, you tell them," but He is talking to us as well. We run the same risk, and we can be just as blind. I've been to many men's groups or men's studies where the focus was Bible study, but it didn't produce more justice, as Jesus asked for here. It didn't produce more love for God; instead, it produced more pride and an excuse to keep busy and avoid the real needs that were at home, in the workplace, or in the rest of the world.

We have to be careful because sometimes we can substitute Bible study for doing what God has called us to do. Then we give ourselves that pat on the back and feel good about it when, in fact, we're not accomplishing anything; we're just puffing up our own knowledge.

In verse 53, it tells us that when He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to oppose Him fiercely and to cross-examine Him about many things. They were lying in wait for Him to trap Him in something He said. Rather than learn from their confrontation, rather than learn from Jesus challenging them and calling them to account point by point, they chose to be resentful and instead tried to attack Jesus. They were very conniving, trying to figure out what they could do to get this guy.

We need to be careful here as well because we can fall into that same trap. Sometimes when people challenge us, our response is anger. We might think, "Well, you..." Most of the time, in fact, I would say probably 99% of the time, the situation gets better and we grow closer to Jesus if we zip our lips and instead listen. We should ask ourselves, "What is this person saying to me? Is what they're saying to me valid?"

To sum it up, rather than learn from the painful confrontation, they choose to be resentful and attack. Chapter 12, verse 1 starts out with, "Meanwhile, a crowd of many thousands came together, so they were trampling on one another." We see Jesus here engaging in a bit of a beatdown fest with the Pharisees, which has attracted a huge crowd of people. People are excited; they are thinking, "Whoa, Jesus is really giving it to them. Let's go watch." There are so many people that they are trampling on each other. What He is saying to the Pharisees resonates so much with them that they are showing up in these massive crowds.

You can see the difference in the reaction. The religious leaders loaded burdens and made things harder than they needed to be, but Jesus offered rest and comfort while still calling people to repent, and people responded to that. It says He began to say to His disciples first. We need to remember that this is directed to His disciples first. This is not just thrown out to the crowd. Yes, the crowd was there, but He is speaking to His disciples. That should make us turn our ears on, as my wife says at home with my son, "Let's turn your ears on and pay attention." This should light bulbs go on and clue us in that He is speaking to us.

He says, "Be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing covered that won't be uncovered. There is nothing hidden that won't be made known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and whatever you have whispered in an ear in private rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops." The point here is not to identify the hypocrisy in others. Jesus is not telling them to examine the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. He is not saying, "Be on your guard because those guys are messed up." He says, "Be on your guard for the hypocrisy in your life."

We are not immune to hypocrisy. The antidote for us, the antidote to hypocrisy, is humility. We have all said things in the dark that we wouldn't want to be shattered in the light, and that should lead us to walk in humility. After all, we are just as broken as anyone else, and all of our righteousness, as it says in Isaiah, are like filthy rags anyway. This is not a call for our lives to exemplify perfection. We strive for perfection, but we know that we are not going to attain it on this earth. It is not a call to live a perfect life because that would be impossible, but it is a call to walk with humility and compassion. When we understand that we are just as big a screw-up as anybody else, when someone else screws up, we can look at that and say, "You know..."

What I could be very well doing is the same thing, or I did the very same thing, or I did something similar, or I did something just as bad in the eyes of God. So, I'm going to extend grace to you instead of looking down on you like a Pharisee.

He says in verse 4, "I say to you, my friends, don't fear those who kill the body, and after that, they can do nothing. But I will show you the one to fear. Fear him who has authority to throw people into hell after death. Yes, I say to you, this is the one to fear." The people were afraid of what could kill them. Does that sound familiar to any of us here, being afraid of what can kill us? Thanks, coronavirus. Their biggest fear was what could kill them, but their real concern, as Jesus points out, should have been in fearing God and honoring Him.

So, that needs to be our focus: "God, how can I honor You? What can I do, Jesus, to bring You glory?" To sum this up, what did God desire from His people? He said to clean your cup by doing things that bless others and help others to see Jesus, not just to look good on the outside. Instead of being busy sorting herbs for God, seek justice. Micah 6:8 says, "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

He also calls us to help people carry their burdens rather than heap burdens upon them. Galatians 6:2 says, "Carry one another's burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ." Isn't it interesting that in Galatians, he ties it back to the law of Christ when Christ was confronting the teachers of the law? Coincidence is not a kosher word; it's all there for a reason. Help people carry their burdens.

Also, we study the Word for action and not just to increase knowledge. We don't just want bigger brains. In 1 Peter 1:13, he says, "Therefore prepare your minds for action and be sober-minded; set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." We don't study just to increase knowledge; we study Scripture to produce action in our lives. Knowledge alone is not enough; it should produce action and good fruit in our lives. We should live in humility.

In 1 Peter 5:5, it says, "In the same way, you who are younger, be subject..."

To the elders and all of you, everybody, clothe yourselves with humility towards one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. So those are our marching orders this week. Clean your cup; clean our cup. All of us should be cleaning our cup from the inside out. We should be doing the works of repentance so other people see Jesus.

We shouldn't be busy sorting herbs for God. We shouldn't be busy doing meaningless tasks that make us look good. We should be seeking justice, and we should be seeking love. We should help others carry their burdens, and we should study the Word for action, not just to increase knowledge. Above all these things, we should be living in humility, because the Lord loves a humble spirit.

Let's pray. Jesus, as we head out into our week, Lord, for those of us that are watching Sunday morning, for those of us watching maybe midweek or at other times, Lord Jesus, as we head out from here and think about what You've called us to do, I pray that You would give us wisdom and discernment. Father God, help us to not be afraid to look at the things that are painful in our lives. Help us not to slip into that role of accidental Pharisee.

Lord, help us not to be like the keepers of the law, but instead, help us to be humble. Help us to look to learn from You, Jesus, and help us to truly, Lord, look for opportunities to bless the people around us. Jesus, thank You for Your grace, which we need every day. Help us to extend that same grace to others. We pray these things, Jesus, in Your name. Amen. God bless you guys.