On this edition of the Evangelist Podcast, we're thinking about the hot topic of hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_00The Evangelist Podcast from Revival. Find out what's new in telling people the good news about God, the world, and you with Andy Brinkley and Glenn Scrivener.
SPEAKER_03Welcome back to the Evangelist Podcast. This time we're looking at uh hot topics, we're looking at hypocrisy in particular. So do you often get this question, Glenn?
SPEAKER_01About hypocrisy, my goodness, yeah, all the time, all the time. Um, how can anyone join the church with all its hate and hypocrisy? All Christians are hypocrites. Um that gets wheeled out really surprisingly quickly.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01In fact, I've got a friend, uh, Michael Lutz, he's a great evangelist, lives in Bournemouth, and he tells this story about uh meeting up with a non-Christian for for lunch. And as they're eating together, Motzi asks this friend, so why aren't you a Christian? What's stopping you from becoming a Christian? And he said, Well, to be honest, it's it's the hypocrisy in the church, really. And so Mozzie just uh had some brilliant questions. He just said, Oh, okay. Um so your wife who you're married to, she's a Christian. He said, Yeah. Is she a hypocrite? Well, no, obviously, she's she's not. And then uh then Michael said, and um, I'm a Christian. Um am I a hypocrite? He said, No, no, you're you you're you're you're fine. And then Michael said, and and um those guys we play uh football with on on a Friday night, um, you know, a handful of those are Christians. Are any of those guys hypocrites? He said, No, those are some of the nicest guys I've ever met. I was like, okay. Now, do you know anyone, do you know any Christian at all who you would describe as a hypocrite? And he sat back and he thought, actually, no. And then so the question is, like, where where does this come from? You know, that this sort of it's it's just out there in the ether. Christians are hypocrites. And it's a it's it can be a very convenient kind of objection to pull down from the shelf and say, this is why I'm not a Christian. That's one that's one reason why people often bring up hypocrisy. They they haven't really thought about it much, it's just in the atmosphere that Christians are hypocrites. But there are people for whom this is very much a principled objection. They've had either a bad experience in church or bad experience with with Christians, um, or they've they've looked at sort of certain historical things like the Crusades or the Inquisitions or that kind of thing, and and they've sort of decided that the church is not a force for good in the world. But to be honest, I I find that third category to be much more rare. The second category, people who ha have had a bad experience, that that is a very live issue for some people, and that takes very careful talking through. Um but in large part I think it's a knee-jerk reaction, and people haven't done that much thinking about it.
SPEAKER_03Okay, well we'll uh we'll go on to talk some more about that. Uh but before we go on, I just want to tell you about our free daily prayer bulletin. It's a small twenty-four-page booklet that tells thirty-one stories of what God is doing around the world. You can find out how a Muslim sought Allah but found Jesus, that babies are born with a moral sense, or that God is at work despite persecution in North Korea. You can get it via print or email. Just go to revivalmedia.org slash bulletin. So let's define hypocrisy, Glenn. Hmm. What exactly do we mean?
SPEAKER_01Well, it's funny, I th I I don't think people very much know what they mean by hypocrisy. I think it's it's come to have such a different meaning for it from its original intention, the way that Jesus coined the term. You know, a couple of examples in in the last couple of months, just last week, in fact, a f a friend told me that he didn't want to take communion because he felt like he'd be a hypocrite because of the sin in his life. And and that's that was sort of interesting because actually, you know, his his understanding was that in order to be a Christian you have to be perfect. And to have sin in your life means if you put your hand up and say that you're a Christian, you're actually you are buying into hypocrisy because you're saying you're perfect. You know, and so he had that understanding of what hypocrisy sort of was, that no one could ever be a sinner and be a Christian, and if you're a sinner and a Christian, you're a hypocrite. But I think I think that's uh that's behind a lot of unthinking objections to Christianity. I think people kind of think, oh, call yourself a Christian. You know, I'm sure everyone, everyone listening to this, you've messed up in some way in front of non-Christians.
SPEAKER_03Which is is where when you talk about 321 and explain about uh you know sin and everyone's need, people sort of would have an understanding that Christians would probably be the last people to say that they're perfect.
SPEAKER_01Well, exactly, yeah, yeah. Yeah, so that when you put your hand up as a Christian, you are putting your hand up as a sinner, of course. And as you go up to communion, what are you saying? Well, this man eats with sinners. That's what they said about Jesus. So anyone who shows up at the dinner table of Jesus is claiming to be a sinner. They're not claiming to be a hypocrite at all. It's those who think they're too good for the meal. Those could be the hypocrites. So people have different meanings, different understandings of hypocrites. Um, like an uh an another friend of mine said over Christmas break, he was talking about whether he was going to sort of reunite with a family member, they'd been estranged. And I was sort of I was sort of encouraging him to maybe maybe you know bury the hatchet and reconcile with this family member. And he said, Um, I could do that, but I don't want to be a hypocrite. And what he meant by that was was, well, you know, in my heart I still hate the guy. And I don't want to act lovingly towards him because that's just hypocrisy. So he wanted to be r really um, you know, authentically spiteful. So there are different understandings of hypocrisy, and it it really gets misunderstood. Uh let's let's just work with a definition of hypocrisy that just says hypocrisy is pretending righteousness while concealing your sin. Pretending to be righteous while concealing your sin. Um and you know, that that that seems to be what Jesus means by hypocrisy. And and he ought to know, he kind of coined the term for us hypocrisy. Yeah, and I think the original The original. So let's language. Yeah, so the original Greek word for hypocrisy is just a word for a masked actor. Right. And so it so the word was in in existence, but what it meant prior to Jesus was just an actor. You're an actor. And um and in in sort of Greek tragedy and and comedy, you know, if you come onto stage with a big smiley face as the mask, you know, you're a happy character, or if you come with a big frown, then you're a sad character. You're a hypocrite. You're a h yeah, well these you're a hypocrite. Right. Underneath, we don't know what the ma what the actor's doing, but the mask is there in place. And what was fascinating is Jesus comes onto the stage and he looks around at the most holy looking people you've ever seen in your life. The people who are just, you know, y uh model citizens. And he just says, Yeah, actors. It's all a big act, don't you see? It's all a big act. So this is this is what's great in evangelism. When when somebody says I'm against hypocrisy, you say, Well, you're in good company. I mean, in in my Bible, in uh Matthew chapter 23, the heading in the NIV says a warning against hypocrisy. Dive in at verse five, for instance. He's talking about these religious leaders. He says, Everything they do is done for people to see. Everything you do is done to be seen, and to be seen as being good and righteous and that kind of thing. Um He goes on to verse uh thirteen. He says, Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You shut the door of the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. Woe to you, blind guides, you say, if anyone swears by the temple it means nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple is he is bound by the oath. You blind fools. You like this language. Blind fools, verse 19, blind men, he talks about. Verse 23, woe to you, teachers of law and the Pharisees. Verse 24, you blind guides. Imagine your tour guide. You you you've got a tour guide around Rome or something, you know, and they they they can't see anything. That's that's what these teachers of the law, these religious teachers are, they are they are hypocrites. And then verse 27, that's that's sort of the image that I'd love us to think about. You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside. But the on on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. And verse twenty eight here explains that in the same way on the outside you appear to people as righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. So anyone who says I'm against hypocrisy, what do we say? You're in good company. This is what Jesus is also against.
SPEAKER_03So we're looking at uh three, two, one and sort of relating this to hypocrisy, how does our hatred of hypocrisy fit with the Trinity in three?
SPEAKER_01Three, two, and one. So three, two, and one is the story of God, the world, and you. So three is the truth about about God. God is three persons united in love. So what three is saying is that that God is truth. God is light, God is love. So only if you've got a God of light and love and truth can you have this diversion from that called hypocrisy. You know, you need to have a belief that there is such a thing as authenticity and truthfulness in order to have a thing called hypocrisy. And and so actually our hatred of hypocrisy shows us what we really want to be true, and what we r what we really want to be true and authentic about life. What we want there to be is there to be transparency, people not to wear masks, for there not to be show, f for for there not to be uh whitewash on the outside, but you push beneath the whitewash and it's all death. Um we want that to be true about reality, and and the good news of three is Jesus reveals to us a God who is open. A God who has his arms nailed open on the cross. Like like it's like this science experiment where you dissect the you know, you dissect the frog in order to to get a really good look inside the frog. You know, when you when Jesus Christ is pinned back on that cross, we get a really good look at God and we don't see hypocrisy at all. But actually what we see is you know Jesus had taught his followers love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, and then as they are pinning him to that cross, what does he pray?
SPEAKER_03Father forgive them.
SPEAKER_01Father forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Now there is authenticity, there is integrity, you know. So actually, our hatred of hypocrisy points to our love of authenticity and openness, but you won't get that anywhere else. Actually, it's the God of Jesus, the God who is the Father revealed in the Son and by the Spirit. You get this God who is open to us, who's not a closed book. Um and and so the God of Jesus is is good news for those who hate hypocrites.
SPEAKER_03So what about uh things like the Crusades, the Inquisitions, I mean even child sex abuse. Yeah. Um you know, people say the church that you know this happens in the church.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And yet uh you see the church campaigning against this and campaigning against that at the same time, and and trying to be the sort of the upholder of morals in society, and yet at times there can be scandals, like the child sex abuse scandal, like uh, you know, Yong Yi Cho, the leader of the the the largest church in the world, has been convicted of of embezzlement. Yeah, what about what what about all these expressions? I think at that point you say, yes, that is hypocrisy. It absolutely is. And you know, any any church that stands up and and tries to lecture when at the same time is trying to cover up its abuse, for instance. I mean that is that is horrendous. And it is utterly anti-Christian. You know, th this is not you know, the Crusades and the Inquisition and child sex abuse are not authentic expressions of Jesus at all. And we need to have a category for the fact that all of us are fallen and failures. But when we when we admit to failure we're not automatically admitting to being a hypocrite. When we admit to failure, we're just admitting to failure. If if we claim to be squeaky clean and perfect and then it's revealed that you know there's this uh sin. At that point, absolutely we are hypocrites. And and I guess Christians are not saying that that uh Christians are never hypocrites, sometimes we are. We are saying that Christ isn't a hypocrite. Um and we are saying here is a way to help you with your hypocrisy. The way to help you with your hypocrisy is a drop the mask, admit that you're a sinner, and b, realize that Jesus loves you anyway. And when you realize that behind the mask and without the mask, Jesus already loves you, your capacity for hypocrisy should diminish. We've got good news for hypocrites, but the good news says first of all, admit that you are, then realize that there's a God who loves you b beyond the mask, and then that might help you not to be the hypocrite that that that all of us are deep down.
SPEAKER_03So this is this is like uh we're going into two of three, two, one. We're all hypocrites. Yeah. And in Adam. In Adam, you know, it's just normal, natural. Yeah. That is Adam's Well think about what what did Adam do when he sinned? He hid.
SPEAKER_01He hid. Exactly. And then they they got together the um the fig leaves. Yeah. Sewed together fig leaves. Sounds like a mask to me, isn't it? You know, they're naked, they feel ashamed. What do they want to do? They don't want to appear before one another as naked. They don't want to appear before the Lord as naked. So they want to, you know, they want to put the mask on. They want to sew together these these fig leaves. And actually, ever since then, the children of Adam have always been into fig leaves. We've always been into wearing masks. And actually the yeah, it's just a part of the human condition to justify ourselves and try to appear better than we do. Such that, you know, when when Jesus Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, the trouble with the hypocrites is that they do things in order to be seen by others. And and he says, you know, our default setting is we always want to minimize the sense in which we're seen as sinners, and we want to maximize the sense in which we're seen as righteous. That's that's just and that's just what we all do. We all want to minimize our blemishes and we all want to maximize, you know, our good sides. And actually what Jesus does when he comes, the second Adam comes and he encourages us to do the exact opposite. Admit it, drop the mask, confess, confess to one another, to God before the world, that we're sinners and then we find a different kind of covering, the covering of his own righteousness. But actually Jesus reverses the way of Adam. Instead of minimizing our sin and maximizing the way that we appear righteous, actually we should drop the act, drop the mask, be a sinner, and realise that Jesus' forgiveness and his righteousness is enough.
SPEAKER_03So it's his it's Jesus' work in us. Uh it's not so much that we just sort of clean ourselves up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03But we need Jesus.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Totally, cuz like, if somebody just tells you, I don't like hypocrisy, you shouldn't be a hypocrite, what are you gonna do at that stage? You're gonna have to hide your hypocrisy. What do you call that? Hypocrisy, right? Like if we all are hypocrites, I th and in in evangelism, let's let's be convicting people and saying, Come on, you know what hypocrisy is. Think about the last time you lied. Why did you lie? Was it not to minimize the you know the way in which you might have you know look like an idiot to the world and maximize the way in which you you might look like a together kind of a person? Of course it is. Aren't you a hypocrite? I'm a hypocrite, you're a hypocrite, we're all hypo hypocrites. The way to deal with hypocrisy is not to tell the world stop being hypocrites because if if that's all that you say to the world, then you're you're just gonna have to hide your hypocrisy under a different kind of mask. Then you have a mask behind a mask. That's no help. Jesus actually shows us a way out of hypocrisy. And the way out of hypocrisy is dropping the mask, admitting to your sin, and finding a covering in Christ. That's the only way out.
SPEAKER_03And uh P Peter denied the Lord, and he tried to cover up his his knowledge of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, interesting, isn't it? Peter was was really heading the way of hypocrisy, wasn't he, the night before Jesus died. He was standing up in the upper room and just saying, you know, I will never disown you, Jesus. I'll fight to the death, I'm ironed for you, Jesus. And within a matter of hours, you know, he's he's an idiot, you know, he's just denying Jesus even to the servant girl. But you just see that wonderful restoration, don't you, uh, in John chapter twenty-one. Um and Jesus even does it around the fire. So aro around exactly the same kind of fire around which Peter had denied Jesus. Jesus kind of takes him back, kind of strips him bare at that stage. Drop the drop the act, drop the m drop the mask, Peter. I know what you did around the fire. Okay? Now let's reverse this. In t instead of three denials, you know, what about three uh act you know, professions of love? But that's that's what Jesus does with all that hypocrisy. You know, he he kind of in a sense he takes us down a peg or two and just says, Look, all your boasts um, they don't really work. Drop the act, drop the masks. And in that in you know, in in that sort of naked state, we find the love of Jesus. And that's that's what's going to empower us to move on and to to care less about the masks. Hopefully, church is a place that cares less about masks. It is a great tragedy when churches are a place that cares more about masks, and there are churches out there who care more about masks th than the world does, and that is a tragedy. In those churches, they are they are like the the hypocrites that that Jesus you know is warning us about in Matthew twenty-three. They are the whitewash tombs, and they and they think that being a Christian is about you know double coating with the whitewash. Wherever hypocrisy lies, it is a failure to appreciate the gospel. So when you see hypocrisy, don't run from the gospel. Run run from hypocritical Christians, but run to gospel Christians and run to the gospel where you find the one answer to hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_03So this is kind of going into one now that uh we are one with Jesus or Adam, you know, we're sort of a hypocrite under under um Adam and covering up our sin, or we're uncovering our sin in Jesus, letting ourselves bare and letting Jesus accept us.
SPEAKER_01And I think and it's that that sense of being both. Because we are, and and you know, unt until I die, I've been born once in Adam, I've been born again in Christ, and I am a mixture. So there will there will be times when I cover up and do the whole hypocrisy thing, and that's terrible. But hopefully, as I understand my union with Jesus more and more, I understand that without the mask and beyond the mask and underneath the mask, Jesus loves me. And he even he even loves me in spite of my hypocrisy. You know, it's because it's very it's very easy, isn't it, to be a hypocrite about hypocrisy? And and and to be a Pharisee about Pharisees, and just to say, Oh, I hate those Pharisees, oh they're so self-righteous. What's that? Being a Pharisee about the Pharisees, thank God that Jesus loves us even in spite of our own hypocrisy, um, that he loves even hypocrites, but his love, in union with Jesus, his love is our one hope for actually being transformed out of hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So what if uh people are listening and and think, oh no, I could never join a church, they're full of hypocrites. How would you deal with it? What would you say to them?
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, we've been thinking about um the prodigal son. Um we we thought about that last episode, Luke chapter fifteen, and we actually got a a a really chilling picture of a hypocrite there. What we saw at the end is parable of the prodigal son, there's the there's the bad boy, the younger brother, goes off, squanders the wealth, comes home, enjoys the family feast. The family feast is a picture of heaven. The older brother doesn't want to come inside, and it's a picture of hell. He's outside in the outer darkness. And the father is saying, Come in, come in, come in. But this this older son refuses to pull up a chair alongside the fallen son. He refuses to identify as a sinner. And actually, he's he's claiming to be too good for this feast, too good for this mercy meal. And I would just gently encourage anyone who says I could never join in with all those hypocrites in church. I would just gently encourage them and ask, are you being hypocritical about hypocrisy? And are you saying it's only a problem for people over there? Because I'll I'll be the first to admit I'm a hypocrite and I I struggle with hypocrisy, and I'm a sinner, and I'm fallen, and and and I've come home to this mercy meal, and I'm in I'm in on the feast, and I'm just saying to you outside the feast, don't be too good for the feast. Don't be too good to identify along with all the other failures like Christians are. I completely understand. If you if you think that the Christian feast is just people who are squeaky clean and who are claiming that they've got everything, you know, together, I completely understand you not wanting to join that feast. But I've got good news for you. That's not actually what heaven is. That's not actually the feast Jesus invites us to. Jesus invites us to a feast where we all admit that we're failures. Don't be too good for that feast. Don't refuse to pull up a chair next to sinners like us. Sometimes people people say when non-Christians ask them, you know, is is your church full of hypocrites? Sometimes church leaders say, Oh yeah, but there's always room for one more. And there's a there's a right way and a wrong way to mean that. But I think the the right way to mean that is, yeah, we're all sinners. Yeah. But there's always room for one more. Come on home.
SPEAKER_03Okay, well we're we've got to leave it on that note. That's a very good, helpful understanding of this particular hot topic. And we're gonna go on and look at some more hot topics next time.
SPEAKER_01Uh so things like other faiths and things like science and things like oh, there's about four others that we're gonna cover.
SPEAKER_03Okay, sounds good. Well, thanks for listening to the Evangelist Podcast. If you like listening each week, we'd really appreciate a rating and review on iTunes or on Stitcher. It helps us to get seen by more people. It's very easy, just go to revivalmedia.org slash iTunes or revivalmedia.org slash stitcher. That should take you directly to the podcast page where you can leave a rating and review. We'd be very happy if you could do that for us. Revivalmedia.org slash tepfifty four. And on there you can find the links to the download, to the sharing, and also to sign up via email. So we'll see you next time. See ya later.