INTRODUCTION
9 To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men–robbers, evildoers, adulterers–or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Luke 18:9-14 (NIV)
It is difficult to find anyone who has a kind word to say about hypocrites. Nobody likes a hypocrite; no one wants to be around one; and the last thing one would want to be called is a hypocrite! That’s probably one of the reasons why the Pharisees didn’t like Jesus too much. Both Matthew and Mark record 17 locations where the Pharisees and teachers of the law are either directly or indirectly called hypocrites by Christ.
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean.
Matthew 23:27 (NIV)
I guess that verse is a pretty good description of what a hypocrite is. How about these other definitions,
The story has been told of a woman who had acquired wealth and social prominence and decided to have a book written about her genealogy. The well-known author she engaged for the assignment discovered that one of her grandfathers was a murderer who had been electrocuted in Sing Sing. When he said this would have to be included in the book, the woman pleaded that he find a way of saying it that would hid the truth. When the book appeared, the incident read as follows: “One of her grandfathers occupied the chair of applied electricity in one of America’s best-known institutions. He was very much attached to his position and literally died in the harness.” (Autoillustrator.com, HYPOCRISY/DECEPTION)
A humorist told the story of a driver who put a note under the windshield wiper of a parked car. It read: “I have just smashed into your car. The people who saw the accident are watching me. They think I’m writing down my name and address. I’m not. Good luck.” (Autoillustrator.com, HYPOCRISY/DECEPTION)
The word “hypocrite” was originally a theatrical term, describing actors, who concealed their real countenances behind dramatic masks. What Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees about then is their “wearing of a mask”. They concealed their real selves behind a mask of “righteousness”. In fact Jesus makes this very clear in the following verses,
Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
Matthew 23:26 (NIV)
He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Mark 7:6 (NIV)
Hypocrites conceal sadness with a smile; they say they are happy to see you when they would rather have root canal work than to be in your presence; they give money to charities they do not truly support; they make speeches for causes they don’t care about; and they laugh at jokes they don’t find funny. In short, hypocrites wear masks, pretending to be who they are not.
There are really two kinds of hypocrites:
1. The hypocrite that does what he doesn’t believe or what he isn’t.
An example of this would be…
…a man who writes a book praising atheism and then prays that it will sell. (Leighton Ford)
2. The hypocrite that doesn’t do what he does believe or what he is.
A father complained about the amount of time his family spent in front of the television. His children watched cartoons and neglected schoolwork. His wife preferred soap operas to housework. His solution? “As soon as the baseball season’s over, I’m going to pull the plug.” (Autoillustrator.com, HYPOCRISY)
What these two statements really say is that, hypocrisy is like a pin. It is pointed in one direction, and yet is headed in another.
The worse of this breed, however are religious hypocrites. The specific problem with religious hypocrites is that they are not only “holier-than-thou”; they are also “holier-than-themselves.” They feign devotion, but it is mostly counterfeit. They’ll appear much different than they are. If we want to be hard on hypocrites – especially religious hypocrites – we seem to have a natural ally in Jesus. Whenever he got a card-carrying hypocrite in his sights, he pulled the rhetorical trigger. With rollicking humor, Jesus mocked hypocrites as the clowns of their own moral vaudeville show. As Jesus described them, hypocrites want the trumpeter to play “Hey Look Me Over” when they pull out their offering envelopes; they conduct prayer meetings at busy intersections during rush hour; and on fast days they put on a melancholy public face that makes them look for all the world like they have the flu. In short, they parade their deeds with a flourish before the admiring eyes of others. That’s what they want, and that’s what they get – indeed, the problem is that the adoration of the crowd is all they get. “Truly I tell you,” Jesus says, “they have received their reward.”
What we know is that Jesus did not tolerate the hypocrite and neither should we. But here we have the story that I read at the beginning of this message – the story of the tax collector and the Pharisee. And I want to ask you this morning, “Who do you think you are?” Are you wearing a mask? Are you the Pharisee or the tax collector?
PHARISEE
First, let’s look at the Pharisee. Pharisee is a word that means, “to separate”. And indeed that’s how they conducted themselves. They were separate from everybody else because they were so holy.
• They did not want to be infected by associating with the “wrong kind” of people
• They were conceited
• They were ignorant
• They were pompous
• They were selfish, and lovers of money
• They were judgmental
• They were legalistic
These guys were mean spiritual people and some of them even carried a sword by their side. If you disagreed with their spiritual doctrinal position, they would cut you to pieces, in love of course!
If you could imagine, the Pharisee is climbing the stairs to the synagogue. He’s swaggering back and forth down the center aisle, and he finds a perfect place where everyone can see him. So he puts on his bouncy peacock strut and he’s not going to pray a prayer to God, but he’s going to make a public announcement about his goodness. He said this, “Lord, I thank you that I’m not like the other men, extortionist, unjust, adulterers, or even, like this lonesome tax collector here!” Today we might laugh at people like that, but then again, we dare not, because we might be laughing at ourselves.
You see, I believe that in every church today, there are some Pharisees, there are people who separate themselves from “the wrong kind” of people because they consider themselves so spiritually elite from everyone else. They’re deep, real deep, they are so deep that they can’t understand where they are, and they can’t even fully understand what they believe. Let me tell you something, God called me to preach to His sheep (found and lost), not search for submarines, and if you’re in something so deep, that you can’t explain it then maybe you better think about coming back up to the surface and looking around a bit.
There are many types of Pharisees, I’m going to share two with you:
Racial Pharisees: these are people who don’t want to associate with another person because of the color of their skin. Now I really believe that we don’t have that kind of Pharisee present in HPC but nevertheless I think something still needs to be made clear. We are into saving people here not skins. There is not white church; no brown church; no black church; or not yellow church – there is only the blood-bought church of Jesus Christ, and if that doesn’t strike you just right then you’ve missed a fundamental truth of the gospel.
Social Pharisee: This Pharisee says, “If you live in the right neighborhood; if you drive the right kind of car; if you have the right kind of education; or if you have the right kind of clothes, we would love to associate with you, but if you don’t, we can’t.” Let me tell you something – I believe that stinks in the nostrils of God.
If someone came a church service, and sat down beside you in dirty blue jeans, and they reeked of alcohol, don’t you dare reject them, you treat them like a brother or sister because the Prince of Peace died for them too.
Now there are many other types of Pharisees in the world, and I’m not going to go through any more of them but I am going to give you eight ways to know if you have a Pharisee spirit:
You know you are a Pharisee when…
…you lack the ability to receive correction.
The scriptures clearly portray a wise man as one who is eager to receive correction.
As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17 (NIV)
However if you rebuke a person who has a religious spirit, or rebuke a Pharisee who’s saturated in his or her own ego, and the god of self, then he or she will get angry. They will become defensive; they will be resentful, and they will be rebellious. They may even say something like this, “I’m leaving this church, and I’m leaving right now.” Let me tell you something very important – when you get too big to receive correction, then you’ve become too big for God to use.
…you boast, “I only listen to God, never to man”
This is contrary to the teaching of the word of God. Certainly the voice of God is superior to the voice of man but that doesn’t mean God won’t speak through those in authority over us. When you open the scripture you find that the principal of spiritual authority is very clearly taught – in it we find the command to submit to one another.
Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.
Hebrews 13:17 (NIV)
Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
1 Peter 5:5 (NIV)
Pharisees hate spiritual authority; they don’t want to be accountable to anyone.
…you have an inclination to see the wrong in other people.
In the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector this inclination is very obvious. Let me tell you something – fault finding is not a fruit of the Holy Spirit!! It is a demon spirit from hell itself. After all satan himself is described as the accuser of the brethren in Revelations 12:10. The work of a Christian is not to find fault in others, the work of a believer in Christ is follow Christ and lead others to Him!!
The pattern of hell is to bring the criticism and shame of mistakes made in the past. If there is something that is within you that enjoys going back through someone’s past and rehearsing every bad thing they ever did, you are doing the work of the devil not the work of God! Think about that for a moment.
…you feel you’ve been appointed to fix others.
Jesus said,
41 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 42 How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Luke 6:41-42 (NIV)
Paul said,
Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. And he will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.
Romans 14:4 (NIV)
James said,
There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you–who are you to judge your neighbor?
James 4:12 (NIV)
When you stand before God on Judgment Day, you’re not going to answer for me, and I’m not going to answer for you. God is going to ask me about my life, and He’s going to ask you about yours.
A pastor was visiting one of his parishioners, and as they were talking the conversation began to lag. The lady of the house, wanting to pick up the conversation, pointed out her window to her neighbor’s back yard where the wash was hanging on the line. She said: “See that lady next door and the wash she hangs out, see how dirty it is, she never hangs out a clean wash.”
The pastor felt somewhat uncomfortable and tried to change the subject and quickly drew the visit to a close. As he was departing from the house the lady of the house walked out on the front porch with him and again the wash next door was clearly visible to them. They both realized at the same time that this wash was sparkling white, just as white as any wash could ever be. The truth began to dawn on them that it was not the neighbor’s wash which was dirty, rather it was the window through which they viewed the wash.
Now this doesn’t mean that we are not to help brothers and sisters who are caught in the traps of sin. But its always important that our intervention be directed by the Holy Spirit and His love. The pharisaical attitude always approaches sin with a “holier than thou” behavior and a feeling of superiority over the “sinner” rather than a genuine love for their well-being. The Christian approach to sin is always to work towards reconciliation rather than leave a person condemned.
…you feel you are closer to God than other people.
At the heart of this Pharisees prayer was, “Lord, I thank you that I’m not like other people”. That is demonic pride. That’s the spirit that was in Lucifer when he went before God, before the earth was created and said, “I will be like God, I will ascend the hill of God, I’m going to replace God.” And that’s when Lucifer became satan. That’s why a verse in proverbs says,
Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 16:18 (NIV)
This truly is then the foundation of every Pharisaical spirit – egotistical pride.
…your prayer life becomes mechanical.
The Pharisee’s prayer in this story was a performance. It was not an expression of passion but an act of performance. He sought the perfect place of prayer; he sought the perfect position of prayer and he made a proclamation of prayer which had nothing to do with God but everything to do with the Pharisees own “goodness”. Prayer is not telling God how to do your will, prayer is getting you ready to do God’s will. Prayer is not talking about what you’ve done for God it’s about seeking what God wants to do for and through you.
… you want recognition for what you do in the kingdom of God.
The Pharisee boasted, “I tithe, I fast and don’t you forget it” It’s the same attitude that leads to others with the same spirit saying, “I brought hotdogs and hamburgers to the church picnic, and you misspelled my name in the church newsletter…” I seem to recall reading somewhere that Jesus said,
But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Mark 10:31 (NIV)
… you are critical of the Holy Spirit and His manifestations.
Now I want to make it clear that the Bible does say to test the spirits. So it is important that we pray for discernment when there are manifestations so that we know which are of God and which are not. However it is also equally important to understand that God, the Holy Spirit cannot be put in a box.
Pharisees like to have a religion to control, the sad thing is that God will let you control your “religion” if you want to. However, God’s desire is that you give control over to Him and have a relationship. Pharisees have to get God in a box, and dare not let Him out of the box because He might want them to do something they have never done before. But when you have an experience with the Holy Spirit, driven by supernatural wind and fire, you will experience a passion that consumes your heart and soul. This passion drives corruption out your life and will lead to speech and actions that you’ve never done before. There will be a Holy passion within you that hell can’t put out, and that’s what God wants you to have!!!
TAX COLLECTOR
Now let’s meet the tax collector. Basically he’s a Jew who works for Rome on a commission. Historically when Rome wanted to collect a certain amount of taxes from a given district they would go to a man and make him a tax collector. They say to this man, we want this many dollars out of this district and anything you get over that is yours. Of course human nature being what it is the tax collector would most often take advantage of this opportunity and extort their own people to get rich. So tax collectors were seen as traitors to their own people – the worst of the worst. This is how bad they were viewed: If a Jewish man was walking down the street, and happened to touch a tax collector, he would do these three things immediately:
i. He would spit instantly, to express his disgust for touching him.
ii. Then he would go home and burn his clothes, everything that he had on when he touched that man.
iii. Then he would take a scalding hot bath; to purify himself, to get over the varmint he just touched.
Do you get the picture? Tax collectors weren’t liked very much!
Now I want you to notice this tax collector’s prayer; a man who would extort money from his fellow Jews; a man who worked for the enemy of the Jewish nation. The Bible says that he stood far off. This was not a show, this was between himself and God. It was not a performance, this was a gut wrenching confession of the sin that was in his life. Luke records that the man would not even lift his eyes to heaven, because he felt unworthy to look at God in the face. And then he said, “God have mercy on me a sinner” at least that’s how it reads in the NIV, however the Greek text actually reads, “God be merciful to me the sinner”. In other words the man was saying, “I’m not just any sinner; but I’m the worst of the worst”. Contrast this with the self-righteousness of the Pharisee!
And then the tax collector used the word translated here mercy. The greek word used here is actually only used twice in the New Testament. The other place where it is used is Hebrews 2:17 where it is used in connection with Jesus Christ being the High Priest making propitiation or atonement for the sins of the people. The greek word used for mercy in this passage is connected with a equivalent Hebrew word in the Old Testament which is used to describe the “mercy seat” and “a covering”. It is used in connection with the burnt offering (Lev. 1:4; Lev. 14:20; Lev. 16:24), the guilt offering (Lev. 5:16,18), the sin offering (Lev. 4:20, 26,31,35) and other respects. It is used of the ram offered at the consecration of the high priest (Exodus 29:33), and of the blood which God gave upon the altar to make “propitiation” or “atonement” for the souls of the people, and that because “the life of the flesh is in the blood,”(Lev. 17:11), and “it is the blood that maketh atonement by reason of the life.
Now what is significant here is that this man is pleading for the blood covering of the sacrifice over his sin. He’s praying for the High Priest to take the blood of the sacrificial goat, and sprinkle it over the gold covered mercy seat, of the Ark of Covenant which will make atonement for his sin.
Now follow me carefully – the Ark of the Covenant held the 10 commandments which represent the Law of God and it’s important to know that you can’t know the Love of God until you know the Mercy of God. Jesus said in Matthew 5:20,
For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:20 (NIV)
Jesus said something that is impossible for people to live up to. For the Pharisees were the most legalistic of legalistic people – they knew the law of God inside and out and had even added a few of their own. What Jesus was saying is impossible for any man to measure up to and yet it demonstrated the holiness of God and the totality of sin upon man. Simply put, man cannot satisfy the requirements of the law and because of that cannot draw close to God and in fact will pay the penalty of sin which is death. According to this law, this tax collector deserved death, BUT he was pleading for mercy. He was pleading for the atonement of the blood – something that he could not do but only God could provide. When the High Priest sprinkled the blood of the sacrificial goat on the Mercy Seat, God in Heaven looked down, and before He could see the Law that said death in the Ark, He had to look through the blood which said life, and it was by the shed blood that this person would receive mercy.
I’m saying to all of you this morning – you can’t know the love of God until you know the mercy of God. Until you realize you’re complete inability to work or earn or buy your way into the graces of God and the paradise of heaven you will be stuck in the deadly clutches of the law (as was the Pharisee). But at the moment you plead for the mercy of God, the blood of Calvary guarantees that God will be merciful. No matter what sin you’ve committed, no matter what past you have, no matter what position you have in life. He will forgive you; He will give you a new beginning; He will be your life, and He will give you a new name, written down in glory and a joy that will last forever and ever. For the blood of the sacrificial lamb, Jesus Christ has power to release life.
CONCLUSION
Finally and in closing, Jesus ended the story with a bit of an anomaly. He basically said that whoever humbles himself will be exalted or in other words, by lowing yourself, you rise to your highest potential. The Kingdom of God defies logic sometimes.
A city boy visited his cousin who lived on a farm in the country for the first time. The city boy had never seen wheat growing in a field. It was an impressive sight for him, the wheat golden brown and ready for harvesting. He noticed that some of the wheat stood tall in the field, whereas some of it was bent low, touching the ground. The city boy said to his cousin, “I bet the ones standing tall are the best ones, aren’t they?” His cousin smiled knowingly and reached over and plucked the head of one of the tall-standing wheat stalks and one that was bent to the ground. He rubbed each of them and the city boy saw that the tall one was almost empty of seeds. But the one bent to the ground was full of the promise of a rich harvest. (R. Curtis Fussel, Deadly Sins and Living Virutues, CSS Publishing Company, Inc, 1997)
You see, this kind of thinking does not compute in the mind of a Pharisee, in the mind of one who wears a mask. But it is nevertheless an important truth in the Kingdom of God. It goes against the logic of a world that says those who are first are best and those who are last are worst. The truth remains however that according to the way of Christ – through death comes life; by giving, you have great gain; through the cross, you gain the crown.
The Pharisee left the church that day a sinner, and the sinner left the church a saint, why? Because of the mercy and the forgiveness of God. And I ask you again this morning, where are you in this picture, are you off somewhere wearing your Pharisaical mask saying, “I thank you God that I’m not like the other people”, or are you on the other side saying, “God be merciful to me, the sinner”?
A martial arts student was meeting with his master and teacher at a table, having tea. The student said to his master, “I’ve learned all you have to teach me about defending myself. I want to learn one thing more now. Please teach me about the ways of God.”
The master took the teakettle and started pouring the student’s cup full of tea. Soon the cup was full and began to spill over onto the saucer. But the master continued to pour the tea until it spilled over the saucer and then onto the floor.
The student finally said, “Stop, stop, the tea is spilling over. The cup can’t take any more.” The master then looked at the student and said, “You are so full of yourself that there is no room in your life for God. It is not possible for you to learn the ways of God until you learn to empty yourself.”