Sermon Tone Analysis

Last week we looked at a hard text.

Jesus is speaking to a group of Pharisees and experts in the Law, and he accuses them of hypocrisy.

It’s a hard text because all of us, at some point or another, are guilty of the same things.

So if you left last week feeling a bit heavy, that’s good: that’s what that text is designed to do.

Last week we looked at a hard text.

Jesus is speaking to a group of Pharisees and experts in the Law, and he accuses them of hypocrisy.

These men give every impression of being very religious and very holy: they show extravagant generosity, they obey the Law of Moses to the letter, they interpret the Law for others.

But inside, Jesus says in 11.39, you are full of greed and wickedness.

They give the false impression that they love God and follow him faithfully, when in fact they pursue the details while they entirely miss the point.

v. 4-5: Dealing with threats

So he brutally levels this charge of hypocrisy against them, saying that they are pretending to be perfect, when they are far from it.

That’s why I’m happy to announce today that if last week’s discussion on hypocrisy was hard for you, we’re not done yet!

Jesus is going to come back to the subject of hypocrisy, this time with his own disciples, and this time, he’s going to take it even further, by putting it in an entirely different context and applying it in a different way.

So rather than spend time on a long introduction, let’s jump right back in.

Jesus has just finished criticizing the Pharisees and the scribes at their dinner party, and they stay behind, plotting on how to catch Jesus in the act of doing something that will turn the people against him.

In the meantime, when Jesus comes back to where he was before, the crowd of people is still there, and it’s getting bigger and bigger.

But rather than standing up to preach to the crowd again, Jesus gathers his disciples around to do a kind of debriefing of his dinner with the Pharisees.

This passage, verses 1 to 12, is an encouragement to Jesus’s disciples to not be afraid to live the life he is calling them to live, no matter what it may cost.

And he gives us five reasons why we shouldn’t be afraid.

We find the first reason in v. 1-3:

Let’s start reading at 12.1.

It Will Come Out Eventually (v.

1-3)

1 In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Just a reminder of last week: these men, the Pharisees and the experts in the Law, give every impression of being very religious and very holy: they show extravagant generosity, they obey the Law of Moses to the letter, they interpret the Law for others.

But inside, Jesus says in 11.39, you are full of greed and wickedness.

They give the false impression that they love God and follow him faithfully, when in fact they pursue the details while they entirely miss the point.

So Jesus warns his disciples to watch out for “the leaven of the Pharisees.”

This is a strange image, but if you know how leaven works, it makes sense.

If you put just a little leaven in a lump of dough, it will spread to every part of that dough, making it rise.

It doesn’t take a lot.

In the same way, the Pharisees’ hypocrisy infiltrates every aspect of their life and practice: their hypocrisy in one area drives them to act hypocritical in other areas, for as we saw last week, the motivation for hypocrisy is always the same: What would people think if they knew what I was REALLY like?

Anon, 2016.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

So Jesus says (end of v. 1):

“Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

2 Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

3 Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

It’s a sobering reality that everything we do will one day be made known.

Whatever we’re trying to hide will eventually come to light.

We’ll slip up and accidentally reveal something about ourselves we didn’t want to reveal.

Someone will catch us in the act of doing something we don’t want them to see.

The Holy Spirit will convict us to the point where we won’t be able to sleep until we confess it.

Or, last but certainly not least, God will reveal all of our works at the judgment (cf.

).

Anon, 2016.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Nothing remains hidden forever.

Whatever we’re trying to get away with, we won’t.

So Jesus says, as he said to the Pharisees, don’t try to hide it.

Be real.

If there is sin in your life, confess that sin to others.

Don’t pretend to be better than you are.

This is what we saw these last two weeks: the Christian life that the Bible commands us to live is one of repentance and growth in holiness.

If we confess our sins, we have the assurance that God is faithful to forgive us (), because Jesus paid for those sins on the cross.

If we understand and accept in his forgiveness, we will rejoice in it, and we will want to be like him.

If we want to be like him, we will make every effort to grow into his likeness, through the Holy Spirit.

We will be made holy.

The first step in that process is being open about the fact that we are sinners in need of a Savior.

Jesus is encouraging his disciples here to not be like the Pharisees and settle for superficial, merely external holiness; but to dig deep, to grow in real holiness.

And growing in real holiness begins by admitting how unholy we actually are.

Here’s the rub: if the disciples do this, it will cause trouble for them, because they will necessarily reject the so-called holiness of the Pharisees, and live lives that are wildly different from their fellow Jews…and in so doing, they will paint a target on their backs.

Living this way will open them up to ridicule and persecution they can barely even fathom now—persecution which may well end in your violent and painful deaths.

(Which actually happened for all but one of the disciples…and he was boiled alive, so he didn’t get off easy.)

What Jesus says here is actually deeper than we initially thought.

It’s not just about sin.

He said to the Pharisees, Don’t pretend to be perfect, when in fact, you’re not.

That’s true for the disciples too.

But to his disciples, he’s also saying, Don’t pretend you don’t follow me, when in fact, you do.

Typically we use these verses to talk about sin: no sin will remain hidden forever.

That’s not untrue—Jesus will say something very similar, which goes in this direction, in the gospel of John.

But that’s not what he’s saying here.

He’s taking the idea of hypocrisy and applying it to an entirely different area: that of the disciples’ own faith.

If last week his message to the Pharisees was, Don’t pretend to be perfect, when in fact, you’re not, his message to his disciples here is, Don’t pretend you don’t follow me, when in fact, you do.

If your faith is real, it will come out eventually.

If your faith is real, people are going to notice it.

Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.

Whatever you have said in the dark, in the privacy of your community group, shall be heard in the light.

What you have whispered in prayer meetings or worship services shall be proclaimed on the housetops.

You see what I’m getting at.

It is so tempting for a Christian, particularly in our secular society, to want to live a “normal life.”

It is tempting for us to want to act like everyone else and dress like everyone else and talk like everyone else and act like everyone else, because if we don’t, people will keep us at arm’s length.

They’ll send subtle jabs at us in team meetings at work.

They’ll be awkward and uncomfortable around us, because they won’t know how to speak to someone who has ideas as backward and old-fashioned as ours.

We’ll be rejected by friends we hold dear; we’ll even be rejected by our family members who want nothing to do with our faith.

So faced with this impending rejection, many of us prefer to try to blend in, to not say anything which will make people uncomfortable, to laugh at the jokes everyone else laughs at, to keep up with our friends when they’re seeing just how much they can drink tonight.

I’m sorry, but this is hypocrisy too, and while the temptation is natural, attempting to blend in and hide our faith is utterly pointless, because if our faith is real, it will show itself eventually.

f we try to hide our faith, it’s going to come out eventually anyway.

Nothing is covered up that won’t be revealed.

We’ll slip up and accidentally let slip that we go to church on Sunday.

Someone will catch us with a Bible in our bags, or reading it on our phone.

The Holy Spirit will convict us to the point where we won’t be able to sleep until we finally tell our closest colleagues the most important thing about us.

This passage, verses 1 to 12, is an encouragement to Jesus’s disciples to not be afraid to live the life he is calling them to live, no matter what it may cost.

And he gives us five reasons why we shouldn’t be afraid.

The first reason, we’ve already seen: if we try to hide our faith, it’s going to come out eventually anyway.

Nothing is covered up that won’t be revealed.

So Jesus encourages his disciples: Don’t be afraid.

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Live the life I’m calling you to live, no matter the threat—you wouldn’t be able to hide it even if you tried.

The second reason we shouldn’t be afraid to live this life is because God is the one whom we should fear.

Here’s the second reason he encourages us to live this life without fear: because—