How Do I Stop My Hypocrisy? | Matthew 23:1-12
Series: All!
Jesus has all authority,
So that all nations
Might pledge all allegiance to him.
Title: “How do I stop my hypocrisy?“
Scripture: Matthew 23:1-12
Bottom line: Jesus says the antidote to hypocrisy, pride and sin is to humble yourself and serve one another.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
SERMON OUTLINE & NOTES
MAIN REFERENCES USED
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Discussion questions for group and personal study. Reflect and Discuss:
1. Even for unbelievers, hypocrisy is despised. Why do you think this is? Define hypocrisy.
2. Why is it not enough simply to be sincere in what you believe? How does this passage serve as a warning in this regard?
3. Compare Matthew 23 to the teaching about faith and works in James 2:14-26 and the necessity of righteousness in 1 John 3:4-10.
4. What is the difference between strong, biblical leadership and leadership that is self-promoting? How might these principles apply to Christians who aren't spiritual leaders?
5. What other sins does pride lead to? How can you fight against a proud heart? Can you think of any relevant biblical passages?
6. What does it mean to neglect the "more important matters of the law" (v. 23)?
7. If purity begins in the heart, then what should our fight against sin look like?
8. In what ways do you see yourself in Jesus' indictment of the Pharisees? Be specific.
9. What counsel would you offer to someone who is not sure whether his faith is genuine?
10. How can we be diligent about holiness without being overly introspective and without expecting perfection?
Final Questions (optional or in place of above)
What is God saying to you right now?
What are you going to do about it?
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Q. What do I want them to know?
A. That Jesus warns us about hypocrisy (in us and others) and gives us the antidote.
Q. Why do I want them to know it?
A. To become more self-aware about how insidious hypocrisy, pride and sin really are.
Q. What do I want them to do about it?
A. Humble themselves before the Lord and each other through repentance, faith, and serving one another instead of pursuing greatness as the world defines it.
Q. Why do I want them to do it?
A. Because God will humble those who exalt themselves, but he will exalt those who humble themselves.
Q. How can they begin to do this?
A. They
Confess their own hypocrisy, pride and sinful attitudes, words, and actions.
Repent of this sin and turn back to Jesus for forgiveness and restoration.
Humble themselves further by making it a priority to serve others where they live, work, learn and play.
Lead others to do the same.
OUTLINE & NOTES
Introduction
Today we will answer the question: How do I stop my hypocrisy?
Story/Illustration
CS Lewis describes how insidious competition can be as seen in how competitive we are and why:
In his well-known book Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis devotes an entire chapter to pride. He calls pride, or self-conceit, "the great sin." Lewis says, "If you think you are not conceited, it means you are very conceited indeed" (Lewis, Mere Christianity, 114). He then provides the remedy for pride: "If anyone would like to acquire humility, I can, I think, tell him the first step. The first step is to realise that one is proud" (Lewis, 114). Finally, it is relevant for our purposes to see how Lewis links pride with competition:
Now what you want to get clear is that pride is essentially competitive is competitive by its very nature. ... Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If every one else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. (Lewis, 110)
This terrifies me when I think about how competitive I can be. It explains why competition feels so personal too.
Think about how we pull for our favorite school or team in athletics or anything really. We don’t just want our team to win. We want to bask in the glow of that victory in front of others (as if we did anything to make it happen).
Think about winning a board game. If you win, you did better than everyone else around the table. Your level of how much you care about that speaks to your level of pride. Because does it really matter whether you stomp somebody at a hand of Uno or not? Really!
Pride leads us to do more terrible things than that. It leads to thinks like hypocrisy. To pretend to be someone we’re not. Because we’re competing with others to be seen as relevant, popular, respectable, successful, etc. This is pride at work. And we’re all poisoned by it. The question is are we taking the antidote? Are we applying the best medicine we can to overcome it?
Hypocrisy is pretending to be someone you’re not. It originally referred to actors on a stage wearing masks in a play. It has taken on the additional meaning of people who do this in real life. Most often, it’s used in the negative sense to refer to people who are pretending to be someone better than they believe they so that people will accept them more readily.
Jesus warns the crowds and the disciples of this disease called hypocrisy for at least two reasons:
Because their religious leaders were extremely hypocritical and unaware of it’s sinfulness.
Because they (we) are all infected by this very same disease/poison.
So, how do we stop our hypocrisy?
Outline
I. What’s the disease? 23:1-10
A. Who’s this to? Crowds and his disciples.
B. Who’s this about? Teachers of the Law and Pharisees.
C. What’s this about? Their hypocrisy as seen in…
Their big mouths (2-4)
Good: They teach the word of God, which we all should hear and obey.
Bad: They take away from the word by not obeying what they teach. (Hypocrisy)
Bad: They add to the word their own rules and refs further burdening already burdened people without helping them deal with it.
Their big heads (5-7): Pride on display: Everything they do is to be seen.
They proudly display their obedience for all to see.
Phylacteries
Tassels
They love
Place of honor at banquets/parties
Best seat in synagogue
Greeted with respect in public
Titles can make us look more godly
Titles can make others look less equal
There’s just one teacher and head—Jesus Christ
II. What’s the remedy? 23: 11-12
A. Humble yourself and serve one another…(11-12)
1 Principle: “The greatest among you will be your servant.”
2 Motives:
“For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and…”
“…those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
3 Steps:
Confess their own hypocrisy, pride and sinful attitudes, words, and actions.
Repent of this sin and turn back to Jesus for forgiveness and restoration.
Humble themselves further by making it a priority to serve others where they live, work, learn and play.
4th Step: How do we keep from relapsing?
Lead others to do the same (steps 1-3)
Conclusion
Bottom line: Jesus says the antidote to hypocrisy, pride and sin is to humble yourself and serve one another.
I saw a tweet last week that showed me both sides of this pride/humility dynamic.
The first picture is of a line of 900 people hiking along a ridge to summit Mt. Everest. Most paying $50k to have a Sherpa (a Himalayan with exceptional mountaineering expertise and skill often hired to help others summit Mt Everest) personally help them succeed. Many doing this for personal glory (competition/pride). The comment by the tweeter was that the huge numbers put more people at risk to death than ever before.
The second picture is of Gelje Sherpa leading his client towards the top when he comes across someone laying on the ground dying. He’s only 500 yards from the summit. This Sherpa, on a job helping his client survive the same climb, runs over, wraps the man in a sleeping mattress, gives him oxygen (of which his client might need), put him on his back, and then hiked him down the mountain, a trip that took 6 hours.
The first picture is one of pride. The second, one of humility. We don’t know how many people walked past the guy on the ground. And I’m guessing few of those people could have carried anyone down with the incredible challenge that it is just to summit and descend Mt Everest without dying yourself. But to add the weight of a full grown man to your load…
I think of the parable of the Good Samaritan. Who didn’t walk past the dying man on the road but instead, at great personal cost and risk of life, helped this man recover. He saw this man and humbly saw his neighbor in need and helped him.
What about us?
What is God saying to you?
What are you going to do about it?
Write it down right now.
Pray
MAIN REFERENCES USED
“Preaching the Word” Commentary, Douglas Sean O’Donnell, Edited by Kent Hughes
“Matthew” by RC Sproul
“The Bible Knowledge Commentary” by Walvoord, Zuck (BKC)
“The Bible Exposition Commentary” by Warren Wiersbe (BEC)
“Exalting Jesus in Matthew” by David Platt (CCE)
Outline Bible, D Willmington
NIV Study Bible (NIVSB)
ESV Study Bible (ESVSB)