LEADERSHIP SERIES - HYPOCRISY
- Pastor Raymond Grant
- Feb 5, 2014
- 7 min read
Reality Check!
Hey! How are you today? Great, I hope. If not, cheer up. God is a God of change who never changes. You can rely on God so, expect a change for the better to come your way, soon. Today's Leadership Series blog is going to change your life. So, buckle up and get ready as we serve up a little dose of reality.
The Hypocrite:
Matthew 21-22 contains 92 verses between them. Out of the 92 verses, 69 focus on the hypocrites who ruled the Temple, the synagogues and the political councils. Chapter 23 has 38 verses and 100% of them deal with the hypocrites and those affected by them. In total, 107 verses or 79% of the content of Matthew 21-23 are consumed with the subject of the hypocrite, Christ's response to them and our response to them.
Matthew 23:1-3 (NKJV) 1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples, 2 saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. 3 Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do.
Definition:
Eight times are the Pharisees, scribes, doctors of the Law and Saducees lumped together and called hypocrites. They are defined by Jesus as those who speak the word but who do not keep the word. By implication, they use their position and authority to exempt themselves from accountability to a higher authority (in this case - God) and from being an example to those they lead or influence. Historically, the Pharisees sat in Moses' seat (with the authority and responsibility to teach the people the Law) and this is what they did - they taught the common man the Law.
However, they themselves kept not the Law they commanded others to follow. They had the gall to dictate but no integrity to obey. Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary has a two word definition for a hypocrite - "an actor." An actor is one who acts a false part or who makes false professions. They say, but do not do!
Reality Check:
It goes without saying, yet I say it here - leaders should be an example in word and deed. This is ideal. This the standard. Nothing else should do, but these leaders were not examples of what was right. They were examples in what was wrong, for they would say and not do. I like Jesus. He was and remains a realist. What happens when a man or woman of influence does not meet the standard while remaining in Moses' seat or in a position of authority? How does one deal with that reality?
Jesus said that we should do as they say but not as they do! Read it for yourself! They say but do not do, but, when they say, do what they say or do what they will not do. Stop and think! Doesn't this go against pretty much everything you have ever been taught about leaders and leadership in general? I wonder why Jesus addresses this so emphatically to the crowds and his disciples?
Well, things are not always perfect. There is no utopia here. We have reality and the wise deal with reality. They stop cursing the day they were born because they are disappointed with a particular reality on a given day. They get over it and get going and overcome it. How do we overcome the hypocrite who leads us from the pulpit, sitting in Moses' seat, so to speak; who tells us what to do but who does not follow as he leads? We separate his lifestyle from God's word.
Psalm 19:7 (NKJV) 7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
God's Law Is Perfect:
God's law is perfect - no matter who teaches it. It is reliable no matter whose lifestyle contradicts it. It is not the lifestyle of the preacher that converts the soul. It is the law of the Lord. The simple are not made wise by having supper with the preacher, or playing golf with the preacher, or fishing in a lake with the pastor. He is made wise by the Lord's testimony. A donkey can bring the word of God and the word will save a fallen preacher's life! We need to get over some things and cut the fat from the meat and the meat from the bones. Love the word of God! Be humble enough to receive it from anyone - a donkey, Jonah or even a man of unclean lips like Isaiah. God's word, his law and his testimonies are perfect and reliable. So, if you cannot trust the man, trust the word anyway. God cannot lie to you!
Illustration:
1 Kings 13:1-34 tells the story of a prophet who was instructed by the word from the Lord's mouth to prophesy against Jerobaom and the altar at which he worshipped. Verses 1-10 describe his message and Jeroboam's response. Jeroboam ordered that the prophet be arrested. While pointing at the prophet, his outstretched arm became paralyzed. A miracle of judgement took place as the altar was torn down and the ashes poured out at its side. Jeroboam pleaded for the restoration of his arm and God performed a miracle of mercy and healed Jeroboam. Jeroboam offered the prophet his hospitality and a reward, but the prophet refused. His instructions were clear.
1 Kings 13:8-10 (ESV) 8 And the man of God said to the king, “If you give me half your house, I will not go in with you. And I will not eat bread or drink water in this place, 9 for so was it commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, ‘You shall neither eat bread nor drink water nor return by the way that you came.’” 10 So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.
God's word was performed by a good man who obeyed God to a point. The rest of the story is tragic. He journeys to a place where he is confronted by an old prophet who deceives him with lying words and convinces him that the word of an angel supercedes the word of God. The good man remains in that place overnight and receives the hospitality of his host. While eating with the old prophet who deceived him, God opens the mouth of the old man who says:
1 Kings 13:20-22 (ESV) 20 And as they sat at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back. 21 And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD and have not kept the command that the LORD your God commanded you, 22 but have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, “Eat no bread and drink no water,” your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.’”
God's word has now come forth by the mouths of two different men. One has good intentions but fails to follow through with good deeds. The old man has bad intentions and follows through with his bad deeds and causes the younger prophet to stumble. In either case - God's word did not fail to come to pass. The young prophet dies the next day by the side of the road. He dies in disobedience that day. Would to God he had died the day before, for he was righteous the day before. But on this day, he was lost and the old prophet mourned him and buried him and said this in his memorial:
1 Kings 13:30-32 (ESV) 30 And he laid the body in his own grave. And they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” 31 And after he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the saying that he called out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass.”
Did Josiah come as the young man prophesied? He most certainly did and did Josiah do what was spoken of him as the young prophet said? Absolutely, yes.
2 Kings 23:15-18 (ASV) 15 Moreover the altar that was at Beth-el, and the high place which Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, had made, even that altar and the high place he brake down; and he burned the high place and beat it to dust, and burned the Asherah. 16 And as Josiah turned himself, he spied the sepulchres that were there in the mount; and he sent, and took the bones out of the sepulchres, and burned them upon the altar, and defiled it, according to the word of Jehovah which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things. 17 Then he said, What monument is that which I see? And the men of the city told him, It is the sepulchre of the man of God, who came from Judah, and proclaimed these things that thou hast done against the altar of Beth-el. 18 And he said, Let him be; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria.
Point? Do not let men get in the way of a perfectly good word from the Lord. Trust the word of the Lord and trust God enough that you are receptive to that which he says, no matter who he chooses to use. It is his choice to choose you or to choose Judas. His word is his word and should not be prejudiced by our ideals or by another person's character. Separate lifestyle from the word and you will be saved by that word, even if the preacher who spoke that word, loses his own soul. This may not be ideal, but it is reality and that's why Jesus gave us a reality check.
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