Luke 12:1–12 A Biblical Antidote For Hypocrisy - Part 1

Intro: A beach near Perranporth, Cornwall in Great Britain is unlike any other stretch of coast in the world. It is not known for its breakers or sand, but for what washes up in the surf: Tens of thousands of toy Lego bricks.

Back in 1997, a wave hit a container ship called the Tokio Express, which had 62 containers on board. The ship sank, and as a result all 62 containers onboard the ship went overboard, and sank to the bottom of the ocean. One of those containers had nearly 4.8 million pieces of Lego bound for New York.

No one knows exactly what happened next, or even what was in the other 61 containers, but Lego pieces – and only Lego pieces – started washing up on both the north and south beaches of Cornwall. And in a quirky twist, many of the Lego items were nautical-themed, so locals and tourists alike have found miniature cutlasses, flippers, spear guns, sea grass, and scuba gear.

A U.S. oceanographer named Curtis Ebbesmeyer, who studies ocean currents and has been studying the story of the Lego pieces on the coast of Cornwall, offered a simple lesson. He said, “The most profound lesson I’ve learned from the Lego story is that things that go to the bottom of the sea don’t always stay there. They can be carried around the world, seemingly randomly, but subject to the planet’s currents and tides. The incident is a perfect example of how even when inside a steel container, sunken items don’t stay sunken.”

Certain things in our spiritual lives – especially our sins – don’t stay sunken or hidden forever. Like the Lego pieces, these spiritual realities will eventually rise to the surface. The question is what we will do when we come across signs of them in our lives, sticking up out of the sand?

Jesus routinely exposed sin in people’s lives. He even exposed hypocrisy in the lives of the Pharisees, the religious leaders of his day. Jesus had just had dinner at the home of a Pharisee and pronounced woes upon the Pharisees and lawyers. Jesus’ pronouncement made the Pharisees and lawyers so angry that they wanted to catch him in some mistake so that they could kill him. They were so angry, they accused Jesus of working in the power of Satan. Jesus defended his actions and words. He left them without excuse for their unbelief. Then Jesus told them they were under the judgment of God because they refused to believe on him. This is the context for Jesus’ warning about spiritual hypocrisy.

I want to take this passage and preach about A Biblical Antidote For Hypocrisy. This passage reminds us God knows our hearts. It also reminds us the things we think are hidden in our lives will be exposed. Let’s talk about An Antidote For Hypocrisy. Notice some lessons from this passage which expose hypocrisy and offers a cure for those who are wise enough to take the Lord’s medicine.

I. v. 1 HEAR A WORD OF CAUTION

Since it cannot offer the true knowledge of God, man, sin, and salvation, False religion does not provide the truth which is necessary to access the power for people to be saved by the grace of God. All false religious leaders claim to have the truth, but none of them do. Since they do not know the truth themselves, because they are empty hypocrites, they cannot lead others to the truth. They, along with their followers, they all perish and go to Hell.

The Greek word for “hypocrite” was a term which referred to an actor who played a role on stage. Greek actors held up masks to change their appearance on the stage. Actors commonly played multiple parts in ancient plays. They simply changed masks to assume a different role. The word “hypocrite” refers to those who “wear a mask.”

In the New Testament, the term “hypocrite” was upgraded, and it became a religious term. The word “hypocrite” is always used in the Bible in a negative sense. It speaks of one who claims to speak for God but does not. The original theatrical definition of “hypocrite” illustrates the nature of spiritual deceivers. An actor attempts to play a convincing role on the stage, pretending to be someone he is not. So do religious deceivers. Today, the words “hypocrite,” and “hypocrisy” almost always have religious overtones. While all hypocritical spiritual leaders cheat people out of their earthly possessions, the eternal consequences of their hypocritical deception are far more damaging. Although they pretend to speak for God, they are liars and deceivers. 1 Timothy 4:2 says, they speak “lies in hypocrisy.” Their lies cause people to lose their eternal souls. The Pharisees, who Jesus called hypocrites, made their followers “twofold more the child of hell,” than they were, Matthew 23:15.

The Bible reveals specific characteristics of hypocrites.

First, by pretending to be something they are not, they focus on outward appearance and hide the truth of who they really are. Jesus applied Isaiah’s condemnation of the hypocrites of his day to the scribes and Pharisees when “Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me,” Mark 7:6.

In a pompous, self-serving display of their supposed spirituality, the religious hypocrites of Jesus’ day sounded trumpets to call attention to their giving, Matthew 6:2. They prayed on the street corners for all to see, Matthew 6:5. They made it obvious they were fasting by having mournful expressions on their faces and neglecting their appearance, Matthew 6:16. They enlarged their phylacteries and the tassels on their garments, Matthew 23:5. They sought out the most important seats at banquets and in the synagogue, Matthew 23:6. They craved respectful public greetings and the honored title Rabbi, Matthew 23:7.

There were other issues as well.

The Jews claimed to know God and they way to God—but they killed God in the flesh. The Jews claimed to know the Law of God and how to comply—but they misunderstood the purpose of the law (to reveal sin), the point of the law (a cry for Jesus), and the limits of the law (its inability to remove sin). The Jews claimed contentment and blessing—yet they robbed those who came to worship God at the temple. The Jews claimed love and sexual purity—yet they readily divorced their wives for younger women. The Jews claimed worship of One God—yet they participated in and stole from pagan worship practices.

The same problems with hypocrisy still haunt us today. Viewing themselves as spiritually superior to the common people, hypocrites are quick to find fault with them. In a pointed and humorous image Jesus said of such people, “4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye? 5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye,” Matthew 7:4–5.

For hypocrites to criticize the faults of others is as absurd as someone with a gigantic log in his eye trying to remove a tiny splinter from someone else’s eye.

Second, hypocrites respond with malice to those who expose them. Desperately trying to trap Jesus into making an incriminating statement, the Jewish religious leaders asked him about the explosive issue of paying the poll tax required by the Romans. Perceiving both their malice, Matthew 22:18, and their hypocrisy, Mark 12:15, Jesus refuted their attempt to trap him. “19 Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny. 20 And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription? 21 They say unto him, Caesar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s,” Matthew 22:19–21.

Hypocrites lack discernment. In Luke 12:54–57 Jesus rebuked those who were able to look at certain indicators and predict the weather, verses 54–55, but were unable to recognize the obvious signs the Messiah, God in human flesh, was among them, verses 56–57.

Their contempt for those whom they regard as spiritually inferior causes hypocrites to lack compassion. Luke 13:11–13 describes Jesus healing a woman who had suffered from a crippling disease for eighteen years. Indignant at this blatant violation of the rabbinical Sabbath restrictions, a synagogue leader enjoined the people to seek healing on one of the other six days. Jesus’ stern rebuke exposed the man’s unfeeling hypocrisy: “15 The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? 16 And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?” (Luke 13:15–16)

This incident was only one of many when Jesus pronounced divine judgment on hypocrites. Seven times in Matthew 23 (vv. 13, 15, 16, 23, 25, 27, 29), the Lord addressed the scribes and Pharisees using the phrase, “Woe to you,” which is an expression of divine condemnation and judgment. Jesus concluded his parable of the faithful and unfaithful slaves by declaring that the disloyal slave would be assigned to hell with the hypocrites, Matthew 24:45–51. And in a shocking act of judgment, God took the lives of the two most notorious hypocrites in the early church, Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5:1–11. Not only does God judge unbelievers for their hypocrisy, he also warns believers to avoid it. “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy,” James 3:17.

Hypocrisy plagued Israel throughout her history. God said to Ezekiel regarding the Jewish people of his day, “31 And they come unto thee as the people cometh, and they sit before thee as my people, and they hear thy words, but they will not do them: for with their mouth they shew much love, but their heart goeth after their covetousness. 32 And, lo, thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear thy words, but they do them not,” Ezekiel 33:31-32.

Micah lamented how Israel’s “…teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us,” Micah 3:11.

Admonishing the survivors of Babylon’s destruction of Judah for their hypocrisy, Jeremiah said, “19 The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day. 20 For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it. 21 And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you. 22 Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn,” Jeremiah 42:19–22.

Psalm 78:36–37, Isaiah 29:13, and Romans 2:17–23 also describe Israel’s hypocrisy.

The New Testament also records instances of hypocrisy.

In addition to Ananias and Sapphira, Luke 20:20 describes “And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.” Paul encountered “…false brethren unawares brought in, who came in privily to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage,” Galatians 2:4. Even the apostle Peter temporarily fell into hypocrisy. “11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed. 12 For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision. 13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation. 14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?” (Galatians 2:11–14)

But among the worst of the hypocrites mentioned in the Bible were the scribes and Pharisees. They were the dominant force in the religious culture of first–century Israel. Over the course of his ministry, the Pharisees became increasingly angry over Jesus’ relentless exposure of their hypocrisy. Their opposition reached its peak when they tried to explain his miraculous powers by saying his power came from Satan, not God. In response, the Lord pronounced six curses on the scribes and Pharisees, Luke 11:42, 43, 44, 46, 47, 52.

As Luke 12 opens, the majority of the people, swayed to this blasphemous view, became fixed in their resentment, resistance, animosity, and rejection of Jesus. Gone was the sensibility, curiosity, enthusiasm, and excitement which marked the early years of his ministry; the people had indeed become “a wicked generation,” Luke 11:29. As a result, Jesus’ ministry was largely one of warning and judgment. These are the threatening themes of the discourse which begins in Luke 12:1 and runs through Luke 13:9.

The opening verse of Luke 12 sets the scene. Jesus gave this discourse during the same general period of time as the events recorded in Luke 11. An immense crowd of people had gathered together to witness the ongoing conflict between the Lord and the scribes and Pharisees. There were so many there the people were stepping on one another trying to get close enough to hear the dialogue between the Lord and his opponents. The result was a kind of mob scene.

Whatever dialogue may have been going on ended and Jesus turned to address the largely hostile crowd. Before he spoke to the people about hypocrisy, however, he directed his words to warn his disciples first of all to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Not all of the disciples had believed in Jesus, but unlike the majority of the crowd who had rejected him, they were at least still interested in him. Jesus warned them to “beware” or “give heed to, pay attention to, keep on the lookout for, guard against” the leaven of the Pharisees. They needed to avoid all the corrupting influence of apostate false teachers since, as Paul said, “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners,” 1 Corinthians 15:33. The attitude of the Pharisees is toxic to both individuals and churches. Bishop J. C. Ryle once described Pharisaism as “a leaven which once received into the heart infects the whole character of a man’s Christianity.” Once you adopt the attitude of a Pharisee, no one and no thing is ever good enough to you. You will stand in judgment upon all people and all actions. You, in essence, become a hypocrite because you judge others, but you never judge yourself. When you do this, you are a hypocrite.

The word “leaven” needs a bit of explanation and application.

You probably know this, but leaven is yeast. It works its way throughout a whole batch of dough. Leaven (or yeast) causes bread to rise. It describes something small which spreads silently, almost secretly, but ultimately pervasively.

Yeast are single-celled fungus. Yeast is a fungus and it is alive. There are many different types of yeast in the world, and while some of them make us sick and some cause food to spoil, others are put to use in bread, beer, and wine making.

When yeast metabolizes sugar for energy it creates two bi-products: carbon dioxide and alcohol. The carbon dioxide is useful in baking for leavening (making baked goods rise) while the alcohol adds flavor to baked goods.

Yeast needs 3 things to thrive: moisture, food (sugar), and warm temperatures. When yeast is hydrated and given something to feed on it begins growing. Yeast’s favorite food source is sugar in its various forms. Yeast doesn’t just feed on white sugar, but it can feed on carbohydrates in any form.

When yeast is hydrated and given some food it begins metabolizing the sugar producing carbon dioxide and alcohol. In baking, the carbon dioxide bubbles are trapped within the structure of the baked good, causing it to rise.

Yeast also thrives in warm temperatures. 95F (35C) is the temperature at which yeast most actively grows. Temperatures cooler than this will cause the yeast growth to slow down, and yeast cells will start to die at 135F (57F) and higher.

Hypocrisy has something in common with both theatrical masks and yeast. They all create false impressions: masks produce exterior appearances at variance from intrinsic characteristics, yeast activates a gaseous reaction which increases mass but not substance and weight, and hypocrisy does both.

The use of “yeast” as a metaphor of hypocrisy was not new to Jesus, for Jewish rabbis and Greek authors also used “yeast” as a metaphor of evil impulses within people, or of the art of pretense and deception. Hypocrisy was not unique to Pharisees. Nor was their hypocrisy greater in a degree not present in other people of faith. Hypocrisy is an ever-present danger in all religious traditions. It is perhaps most dangerous in a religion like Christianity, which calls for radical discipleship and transformation.

Like yeast, hypocrisy begins small and spreads until it has consumed and filled the whole of a person. The Lord’s warning to “beware” “hypocrisy” was not mere wasted words. Hypocrisy is perhaps the most danger out thing in there world.

Hypocrisy will:

Cause you to believe you are saved, when you are not. Cause you to think you are better than others. Cause you to think you have a right to judge the actions, motives, and live of others. Cause you to believe you have earned your place with God by your good life. Cause you to turn a deaf ear to any truth which attacks your hypocritical attitude.

Conc: What about us? We would not see ourselves as hypocrites, but think about this:

We say we know and worship Jesus—but many so-called Christians serve only themselves and reject following the Lord We say we value the word of God—but many so-called Christians rarely (if ever) read the word of God and truly know what it says. We say God is enough—but we spend all of our time, energy, and efforts trying to get as much from this physical life as possible. We say we value sexual purity—but we are addicted to porn/lust, divorce our spouses, engage in sex before (fornication) and outside (adultery) marriage, and debate whether homosexuality is really a sin in the Bible. We say we value the worship of God—but we are better fans of our sports teams and know more about our hobbies than God, spend gross amounts of money on ourselves while giving only pennies to God, and we hardly come to church.

The Pharisees imagined the privilege of election was due to some good within them. They thought the gift of Torah, or God’s Law, implied worthiness rather than responsibility. They believed they were better than others because they followed a higher path through life. Jesus saw through their deception, and he condemned them. Jesus condemned no sin more severely than he condemned hypocrisy. He taught, and he expected his disciples to demonstrate, the calling and election to salvation were not reasons for pride but admonitions to humility. “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more,” Luke 12:48.

This is why hypocrisy is to be avoided at all costs.

Hypocrisy always detracts from God’s glory and brings shame on his name. Hypocrisy is the worst behavior we can demonstrate to the world. It makes God unappealing. It implies God lacks beauty and integrity. It robs God of his glory It makes God look ineffective and weak.

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