Symptoms of Hypocrisy

Bunch of Hypocrites

If I walked into your house this afternoon and started rearranging your furniture, cleaning out your refrigerator, and reorganizing your closets, I would imagine some of you would probably stop me and ask me, “who do you think you are?”

Now some of you would let me keep going, but you would at least want to make me aware that you are going to ultimately decide what goes where, right?

It would be a question of authority. Who gets to make the decisions and give the directions.

This is what is happening in our passages today.

We are only a week away from Jesus’s crucifixion and He and His disciples have entered Jerusalem.

Jesus went to the Temple and begins to rearrange the furniture and reorganize the people who had set up shot there.

His loud entrance into Jerusalem gets the attention of the religious authorities, who come calling in our passage today.

This is the beginning of a 3 chapter long section where Jesus clashes with the religious elites in Jerusalem, revealing and finally calling them out for their hypocrisy.

Today we are going to look at 3 parables Jesus tells the chief priests and elders, revealing the heart symptoms behind their hypocrisy.

Then there are a number of questions they ask Jesus in order to try to cause Him to stumble so they can discredit Him.

We will deal with the Questions from Hypocrites over 2 weeks.

Then, in chapter 23, Jesus finally boldly and unrelentingly calls them out for their hypocrisy.

Let’s get into the text today.

Matthew 21:23–27 CSB

23 When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching and said, “By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority?” 24 Jesus answered them, “I will also ask you one question, and if you answer it for me, then I will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25 Did John’s baptism come from heaven, or was it of human origin?” They discussed it among themselves, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Then why didn’t you believe him?’ 26 But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we’re afraid of the crowd, because everyone considers John to be a prophet.” 27 So they answered Jesus, “We don’t know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

John the Baptist was Jesus’s cousin, who the Jews in Jerusalem would have known well.

He had preached and baptized many people in preparation for the coming Messiah, calling people to repent (meaning turn from their sins) and believe (trust in God for salvation).

Some of the Jews Jesus is speaking to may have been baptized by John.

Their question really isn’t a bad question. They want to know why Jesus believes He has authority to say and do they things He has been doing.

But they are not willing to accept Jesus’s answer, hence why He responds the way He does.

Even in their answer, we see their hearts aren’t searching for what is true, but what keeps them safe and satisfies the opinions of the people watching them.

Jesus isn’t going to fall into their trap.

But Jesus does seize the opportunity to point out the inconsistencies in their belief and practices, and the corruption of their hearts.

And He does this through parables, 3 of them.

Each revealing the symptoms of hypocrisy.

Matthew 21:28–32 (CSB)

28 “What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go work in the vineyard today.’

29 “He answered, ‘I don’t want to,’ but later he changed his mind and went. 30 Then the man went to the other and said the same thing. ‘I will, sir,’ he answered, but he didn’t go. 31 Which of the two did his father’s will?” They said, “The first.”

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. 32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him. Tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; but you, when you saw it, didn’t even change your minds then and believe him.

1) Hypocrites SPEAK it, but the don’t LIVE it.

You will notice that all three of these parables are straightforward. They aren’t difficult to understand.

This first parable is a scenario that might happen in your home this week.

A dad tells his first son to go work in the field and his son says “no”, and yet, after coming to his senses, he goes and does what his father asked.

Dad then went to his other son and says the same. Yet this son tells his father “I go, sir” and yet he never leaves the coach.

Which son did the will of their father? Even though the first son was a bit of a turd about it, he was the one that ultimately did what the father asked.

It is easy to see that the father in the story represents God and the sons represent people God calls to follow Him.

Jesus even tells us that the first son in the story are the tax collectors and prostitutes who believed what John and He preached, and who had repented and trusted in Him.

And they, the religious leaders, are the second brother.

They know all the right answers, say all the right words, show up at all the right events, and seem to be the ones “obeying the father.”

But there is little about their lives that shows any sign of real repentance and the fruit of genuine faith in God.

This is a powerful and convicting illustration that ought to cause us all to pause.

These guys would have been the ones at church every Sunday, taking up the offering, serving in the kitchen, maybe even leading a Sunday school class.

They seemed to be the ones that were the most devoted, and yet

they were the ones who judged people unjustly,

took advantage of the weak and needy,

were greedy and selfish with their money.

They talked a good game, but they didn’t live out what they said they believed.

Like these religious leaders:

We come to church on Sunday mornings and present ourselves as righteous and holy people.

But who are we when we go to work on Monday morning.

Who are we when we're alone and no one's watching.

Who are we when we're figuring out how we're going to treat someone who is different than us.

How we going to act when things aren't going our way.

We aren’t going to be perfect, but what effect is our relationship with Jesus having on our everyday lives.

James says it clearly

James 2:14–18 CSB

14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can such faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothes and lacks daily food 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, stay warm, and be well fed,” but you don’t give them what the body needs, what good is it? 17 In the same way faith, if it does not have works, is dead by itself. 18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works.

Don't be people that just say it.

Let's be people who live what we say.

Matthew 21:33–46 (CSB)

33 “Listen to another parable: There was a landowner, who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. He leased it to tenant farmers and went away. 34 When the time came to harvest fruit, he sent his servants to the farmers to collect his fruit. 35 The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. 36 Again, he sent other servants, more than the first group, and they did the same to them. 37 Finally, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.

38 “But when the tenant farmers saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?”

41 “He will completely destroy those terrible men,” they told him, “and lease his vineyard to other farmers who will give him his fruit at the harvest.”

42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

This is what the Lord has done and it is wonderful in our eyes?

43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit. 44 Whoever falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will shatter him.”

45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they knew he was speaking about them. 46 Although they were looking for a way to arrest him, they feared the crowds, because the people regarded him as a prophet.

2) Hypocrites REJECT what challenges their POSITION.

The vineyard owner in the story is God, the tenants he rents to are the Jewish leaders whom God had made a covenant with as far back as Abraham, and the vineyard is God’s Kingdom, His present, power, and provision for His people.

The owner had rented the vineyard under an agreement that a portion of the harvested fruit would be be his at the end of the season.

And yet, when he sends his servants to collect, they are beaten and killed.

It seems the tenants had decided that instead of following through with their contract, they wanted the vineyard for themselves.

They liked the benefits of living and working in the vineyard and being their own bosses.

If they had given the servants what they were expected to, they would be giving up the position they had assumed for themselves in the vineyard.

The Jews Jesus is speaking to were the one’s God had chosen and blessed long before as those that were to represent Him to the people.

But they began to see themselves in a much higher and more prominent position than just servants. They were ones who should be served.

The servants sent by the vineyard owner are the prophets God had sent to His people to call them to repentance and renewed obedience to Him.

And, like John the Baptist, rejected them, beat them, and killed them.

Then Jesus foretells the end of the story.

Like the vineyard owner, God sent His Son. And like the tenants in the parable, the people God sent His son to were the very ones who would unjustly murder Him in less than a week.

The tenants killed those the owner sent because they wanted the vineyard to be theirs and not the owner's.

Each visitor was a threat to the position they wanted or believed they had.

The message of the bible is a threat to your personal autonomy. Your personal authority in your life to make your own decisions and live the way you want.

Hypocrites want the benefits of being being in God’s family without having to give up their lives to follow Him.

They like how going to church makes them feel, the idea of eternal life, the possible blessings that might come from being a good person.

But they want all those things without having to surrender their whole lives to Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:2–5 ESV

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Don’t be those people.

Matthew 22:1–14 (CSB)

1 Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to summon those invited to the banquet, but they didn’t want to come. 4 Again, he sent out other servants and said, ‘Tell those who are invited: See, I’ve prepared my dinner; my oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

5 “But they paid no attention and went away, one to his own farm, another to his business, 6 while the rest seized his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. 7 The king was enraged, and he sent out his troops, killed those murderers, and burned down their city.

8 “Then he told his servants, ‘The banquet is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy. 9 Go then to where the roads exit the city and invite everyone you find to the banquet.’ 10 So those servants went out on the roads and gathered everyone they found, both evil and good. The wedding banquet was filled with guests. 11 When the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who was not dressed for a wedding. 12 So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

3) Hypocrites REFUSE to CONFORM.

2 parts of the parable.

a) An invitation is sent. Some ignore it and others are hostile to it.

Jesus is still talking to the Jewish leaders who either ignore all the signs that Jesus is the Messiah or they become hostile toward Him because He threatens their lifestyles and positions of authority.

God the father is the King in the story, inviting and punishing all those who refuse his invitation.

Then the attendants go into the streets and the invite everyone they see to come, both good and bad, and the hall is filled to the max.

The parable could end here, like the very similar parable in the Gospel of Luke...But it doesn't

b) The King meets one guest, a man that isn't dressed in the wedding garments that are expected at the party.

The King is flabbergasted and asked the man "How did you get in without the right clothes."

Jesus isn't making a point about how we should dress when we come to church, but about what happens to someone with true faith in Jesus.

The king was inviting people that couldn't afford their own wedding clothing, so it was common practice in those times for the rich party host to provide the clothing for his guests.

The man refused to take the wedding garment.

The man wanted to come to the party but he didn't want to change his clothes.

Maybe he thought is was too out of date

Too restrictive

Caused him too much discomfort.

Jesus seems to be talking to a broader audience here, including the believing Jews and even his disciples.

When someone comes to Jesus you can't stay the same.

You get new "clothes".

God no longer sees your sin and rebellion, He sees the righteousness of Christ given to you through Christ's death.

And you are clothed with the sprirt, meaning God's Spirit comes to live in us, helping us to walk in the way of Jesus.

And we are clothed with a new heart, new power, new joy, and new way of living.

Colossians 3:12–14 CSB

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and dearly loved, put on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a grievance against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you are also to forgive. 14 Above all, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

This is what Jesus means with his last words.

Few will be chosen isn't the same as Paul means on Eph 1, Jesus is talking about those who respond to Jesus’s calling.

We can't come to the party and stay the same!

Don't be a hypocrite!

Live the faith you confess

Surrender your whole self to Jesus

Receive God's glorious invitation

And let Him transform your heart that you might be clothed with righteousness and conformed to holiness.