Superficial Christianity

Introduction

Opening Illustration: All growing up I played soccer. At the start of our senior year of high school, our team was quite good. Most of the guys had all grown up playing together in one way or another. There was one player who at the start of practice on our first day of senior year, lined up five soccer balls on the half way line, and proceeded to kick them one at a time over the goal at the end of field, as he were kicking field goals. This was pretty impressive. Burt could kick the ball really far. Here’s the problem. Being able to kick the ball really far, is not all that important of a skill in soccer. But every day, we’d get there, and Burt seemed to have very little interest in quickly working the ball through the midfield, or properly defending against a three on two attack. He wanted to major on kicking the ball really far. Burt did not find a place on that team. He went on to be the kicker on the football team, but the soccer field was not his place.

Personal: In the Christian faith, it is quite possible to suddenly find that you have majored on all the things that look outwardly impressive to bystanders, but that really aren’t essential parts of the faith at the end of the day. I think for us today, I want to us really ask the question of ourselves, “Does our life really reflect the time of life Jesus was trying to form in us.” If Jesus were to follow you around for a week, what would he say at the end of the week? Would he say “Well done, that’s what I was after.” Or would he say, “How did you get that from what I said?”

Context: In our passage today, Jesus confronts two groups of religious leaders on their hypocrisy, on their majoring on the minors at the expense missing the mark on the main things were supposed to excel in. The first few verses give us the entire setup for where Jesus goes in this passage. We read,

Luke 11:37–41 “While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined at table. The Pharisee was astonished to see that he did not first wash before dinner. And the Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! Did not he who made the outside make the inside also? But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you.”

Main Idea: And the main premise of Christ’s rebuke is that these religious leaders are overly focused on outward religion while neglecting a truly transformed heart before God. In other words, they prioritized religious show over religious dough. Their faith was more about looking the part in front of others than it was about truly knowing God in their heart. And today we want to examine ourselves and make sure that we are not accidentally slipping into this Pharisaical way of living out our faith. The main idea might be summarized this way: Authentic faith must be more than outward religious show.

Luke 11:47–53 “Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets whom your fathers killed. So you are witnesses and you consent to the deeds of your fathers, for they killed them, and you build their tombs. Therefore also the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and persecute,’ so that the blood of all the prophets, shed from the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this generation. Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.” As he went away from there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard and to provoke him to speak about many things,”

No one ever had cleaner hands than Jesus!

Woe is the strongest form of judgment he can give a person. He pronounces a judgment on his hosts.

Meaning & Application

Six times we see Jesus use the word “Woe”. That word essentially “I rebuke you.” It means “This behavior of yours has caused me deep displeasure.” Today we will consider all six “woes” and what they signal to us about authentic faith.

I AUTHENTIC FAITH GENUINELY CARES FOR THE VULNERABLE

The first woe and first lesson for us is that ‘Authentic faith pursues biblical justice.’

Luke 11:42 ““But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.”

The Text: It is an interesting comparison Jesus draws with this first woe. He’s comparing the overly excessive focus on tithing every detail, to the overly deficient way they pursue the deeper matters of the law like biblical justice.

Tithe: In the law of God, God’s people were instructed to tithe, that meant to take 10% of their overall income and to give it back to God in the form offerings to the priests. That money was used for all kinds of purposes. It maintained the work of the temple. And it maintained social care for the vulnerable in the community. The tithe was very important. What had happened over time was the Pharisees became incredibly scrupulous about tithing. You see Jesus says, “You tithe mint an drue and every herb.” Down to the herbs loaned to them by a neighbor, they gave a tenth back to God in order to follow that law.

Biblical Justice: The problem of course was that they were missing the forest through the trees. Jesus affirms their tithing was good. But he says, “That’s elementary. That’s the easy stuff. “These you should have done.” But he points to their failure to care deeply about biblical justice, and the needs and concerns of the vulnerable around them.

Hosea 6:6 “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

Why Do That: Why would somebody follow the tithing law scrupulously, but go easy on the justice laws? I’ll give you a few answers for that.

Biblical Justice is Messy: First, biblical justice is messy. Think of the most broken situation you know around you. And then think of the mess you would bring into your life if you jumped fully in and tried to help sort through it. Carving out 10% of a check is a whole lot easier.

Biblical Justice Takes Time: Second, biblical justice takes time. Have you ever truly tried to love somebody that was down and out. Get in their lives, know their story, coach them up, set them up for success. That’s months of time. Throwing some money in the plate takes no time at all.

Biblical Justice Requires a Genuine Love for Others: Third and most importantly, biblical justice over the long haul requires a genuine love for others, and a genuine concern for other’s well being. It’s one thing to do a good deed for someone from time to time. But to see a human being being unjustly treated, and to love them enough, to see them through, you got to have a real love of people. These Pharisees were missing that.

The Principle: Authentic faith pursues biblical justice. To be a Christian is to sign up for a messy, slower, life. Christians are intentional with others, and they place a priority on the vulnerable around them because Jesus taught us to do so. Remember Christ’s teaching.

Isaiah 1:16–17 “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.”

Experiential: Let me push on us uncomfortably here, as I had a chance to do quite deeply over the summer as we studied the minor prophets. If your faith is not driving you to care for the vulnerable in a way that stretches you, that makes you a bit uncomfortable, that messes with your schedule a bit, you may be kicking field goals with a soccer ball. This principle is central to the Christian faith. The Old Testament and New Testament are consistent that this is a sign

II AUTHENTIC FAITH GENUINELY SEEKS TO PLEASE GOD ALONE

Second, authentic faith always has an audience of one. Jesus says

Luke 11:43 “Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces.”

The image here is one that we all know too well. These religious leaders are more concerned with what others think about them, and with being seen by others, than they are with what God thinks about them and being content to be seen by God. This can be as small as trying get a center table at the church potluck, to something as big as trying get an important seat on a board. The issue is the desire of the heart, the desire that wants to be seen and approved, and even considered impressive, by others as someone religiously important.

Very Dangerous: Oh this is a very dangerous sin. I call this sin glory-snatching because the person who is guilty of this sin is trying to use Jesus, and use Christianity, to gain glory for themselves. They want to be seen as religious, seen as knowledgable and things relating to holiness, seen as a example of spiritual leadership. Why? Well because they really love the approval of men.

Friendly Fire: As a pastor I am deeply familiar with the sin of seeking men’s approval. Over the years, I have learned the very hard way, that if you make seeking the approval the men a goal, you’ll never go anywhere. The reality is that for every big step of faith that leads you to maturity you will make somebody upset somewhere. Unfortunately, in today’s Christian landscape, very often its friendly fire. It’s other Christians saying, “Oh… maybe a little too much.”

Spurgeon: I was reading Charles Spurgeon recently and he was giving advice on making decisions. And he said something so counter-cultural, “You know the main thing people need to stop doing when making decisions, is getting everyone else’s opinion. Just get God’s opinion and then move forward.” What he was saying was, sometimes people spend so much time getting other people’s opinion on issues simply so that when they finally make a decision, the decision they make will appeal to the most amount of people. That is not how you will please God.

Hebrewes 11: Look at the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11.

Do you think Abel was concerned with what his brother Cain thought when he brought his sacrifice to God.

Do you think Noah was concerned with what his neighbors thought, when he started building an ark in the middle of a field.?

Do you think Abraham cared with his family thought, when he listened ot the voice of God and left Ur of the Chaldeans and moved to an entirely new land where he was an outsider?

Do you think Moses took a poll of people’s opinion before he spoke to Pharaoh. No, the people kept complaining as the process moved forward.

Experiential: In our Christian, we need to have an audience of one, Christ. Here’s a few questions to help you process whether this applies to you?

Are you joyfully content to be hidden in your service and love of others?

Are you joyfully content to let others get the credit, even when you’ve participated in seeing something done.

Do you primarily seek God in prayer when making big decisions, or primarily seek counsel from others?

Are you willing…

Authentic faith always has an audience of one.

III AUTHENTIC FAITH DEVELOPS SPIRITUAL MATURITY IN OTHERS

Third, authentic faith develops spiritual maturity in others. This one is a little harder to see in the text. But it is in verse 44. We read,

Luke 11:44 “Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.””

This is quite a stinging rebuke of these Pharisees. He calls them unmarked graves. It’s a bit of a gruesome thought, but imagine that there was a grave with a dead body in the middle of a field. Because it was unmarked, people over the course of the day accidentally fell into that unmarked grave. Jesus is saying that these pharisees are supposed to be religious leaders guiding people towards life, towards spiritual maturity. But in fact their just a pile of dead bones, and when people come in contact them, they become more dead. They get tainted by their deadness. Far from building people up in faith, their just multiplying their own deadness.

Nearly the Same: Jesus nearly repeats this same thing in verse 52 with his sixth and final woe. He says,

Luke 11:52 “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge. You did not enter yourselves, and you hindered those who were entering.””

The Principle: The principle here is that Authentic faith develops spiritual maturity in others.

IV AUTHENTIC FAITH IS BOTH HUMBLE AND SERVANT-HEARTED

V AUTHENTIC FAITH IS OFTEN CONVICTED TO CHANGE BY GOD’S WORD