S7E28 - Luke 11:33 - 12:3 - The Hypocrisy Test

A missed handwashing ritual kicks off one of Jesus’ sharpest warnings about religious hypocrisy, and it lands uncomfortably close to home. We’re in Luke 11:33-54 and the opening of Luke 12, watching Jesus recline at a Pharisee’s table, read the room perfectly, and expose the gap between polished religious behavior and a heart still driven by greed, pride, and image management. 

We unpack the “woes” Jesus speaks to the Pharisees and why they still matter for Christians today: tithing tiny details while neglecting justice and the love of God, craving the best seats, and quietly becoming spiritual hazards to the people around them. Then the spotlight turns to the experts in the law, where legalism takes center stage. When leaders pile extra requirements onto faith, they don’t just burden people, they block the door, “taking away the key to knowledge” and discouraging those who are trying to draw near to God. 

Luke frames this whole confrontation with the language of light and darkness, and we lean into that tension. Jesus calls hypocrisy a kind of leaven that spreads, and He reminds us that what’s hidden will be revealed. We talk about confession, sanctification, and why real spiritual growth starts when we stop performing and start being honest with God. If you’ve ever felt crushed by religious pressure or convicted by your own blind spots, this Bible study conversation offers a clear path back to humility and grace. 

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Transcript

Summer Catch Up And Welcome

SPEAKER_02 0:15

What's up, Lifehouse family? Welcome back to the Life Talk podcast. We are in the dog days of summer. It is the middle of July. It is hot. It is sweaty time of year. But somebody has an anniversary, I'm told. Jeremy is what's this?

SPEAKER_01 0:33

I hear how many years? 25 years that Kathy has had to put up with me. So yeah, you should go give your condolences to her.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

If you guys were Catholic, she might be eligible for sainthood. But well, it's cool. We had birthdays, anniversaries, man. We got a crew with a lot of stuff going on. But Lifehouse family, we are again humbled that you would take the time with us each and every week just to listen as we go through God's word. We hope you have fun with this as well. But we already alluded. Jeremy's back with us. We got to get like the Cal Ripkin streak going on. I know Rico's feeling bad. You know, he's but we'll we'll keep the scoreboard going.

SPEAKER_01 1:11

Yeah, Rico's really hungry for it, but I'm just I'm trying to stay. I'm hanging in there.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

That's right. He's gunning for you. I like I saw him trying to trip you on the way out the door after the last episode. But Rico's back with us. Good to have you continuing through the summer. How's everything with you and the family?

SPEAKER_00 1:26

Outstanding. Just for the record, I'm not doing this to keep score. I want to make sure that the gift that God has given me is to him for him to get his grace. Although I almost tripped him last time, but that didn't go through. But I'm welcome. Thank you for having me back.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

We are going to talk about hypocrisy today. And Mitch Poe continues with us out of retirement. Man, you just like forsaking the retirement. You get a bad retirement advisor. That's all I can say. So they did not teach you how to do this. All good. Well, we are excited. We are continuing through Luke chapter 11 today. Jeremy took us a good part of the way through the chapter, digging into some really interesting teaching from Christ and a lot of areas, but we're going to turn to, as has alluded, just the idea of hypocrisy. We've seen uh the Pharisees and some opponents of Christ that we talked a little bit the last couple weeks, but not really showing up in a unique way that Jesus is going to confront. We'll we'll borrow Jeremy's point from last week of the confrontation. But we're we are going to alliterate this week, but not with the C. We'll

Why Hypocrisy Is Today’s Focus

SPEAKER_02 2:40

go with the H. But what's interesting, just kind of laying out what we're going to look at today. In chapter 11, starting in 33, uh, both of this is sandwiched. There's a few verses talking about the lamp of the body. And in the first part of chapter 12, Christ is going to talk about living in the light and that all will just be shown before the Father, that all is known, and we can't truly live in the darkness in any substantial way. But right in between that is this really significant interaction between Jesus and both the Pharisees and the lawyers. So if we start looking at in verse 37, we're going to see hollow hypocrisy instead of humility. We're going to see hindering helping or hindering heaping instead of helping. And then we're going to see healthy holiness that comes through Christ. And so initially in verse 37, a Pharisee asks Jesus to dine with him. So he Jesus went in and reclined at the table. And I think that's pretty important to note, just that Jesus dines with everybody. What's interesting, he doesn't in this passage say that he outwardly expresses this, but Jesus understands his heart and says, You Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are full of greed and evil. Fools, didn't he who made the outside make the inside too? But give from what is within to the poor, and then everything is clean for you. And then he goes on to express three woes to the Pharisees in verse forty-two. He calls them out for tithing, for doing these works, but not actually caring about people, bypassing justice and love for God. And then in 43 for loving themselves, loving titles, loving positions, wanting the front seat and the praise of man, and then for creating obstacles, unmarked graves. In that time, touching unclean bodies or graves was something that would make you unclean. But if it was unmarked, you didn't even know it, then you could, in an unintentional way, become unclean. And he's calling out the Pharisees for doing this to other people. So essentially, these three woes, Jesus is saying, like your hypocris hypocrisy makes you a hollow person. That really you don't care about other people, you care about yourself. And it should be about humility. It's not ritual,

Outside Clean And Inside Rotten

SPEAKER_02 5:30

but it's actually the purpose, it's the why behind this. And I think this is such a danger in religion. And that's what it was here. And it reminded me of a recent uh interaction I had. I was talking to a person of another faith and just talking about beliefs. And we were talking about, you know, like how would you, you know, go to heaven and these things. And it was interesting. He understood his need for salvation, but because he was in a works-based mindset, he said, I'm going to earn it. So I'm going to go do all of these good things. I'm going to go do these virtuous, you know, virtues were what he used in his faith. But what occurred to me is he didn't actually care about other people. He was trying to get something for himself. And so all of those quote unquote good works that he was going to do actually had nothing to do with helping other people, not from the inside out, but something for himself. And so I think that's what we see here with the Pharisees. They're doing these things to look good, to think that they're doing something to build themselves up. And so hypocrisy is so dangerous if we don't recognize it. We all have some level of this, but we need to really examine ourselves and be open and honest. So thoughts, things you guys have seen in terms of hypocrisy, what we see from the Pharisees here.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

So I'm reminded of this in my connect group, we finished up 1 Samuel a couple months ago now, but or actually Samuel's in general, first first and 2nd Samuel, but I'm reminded of 1 Samuel 16, where uh 16, 7, where the Lord sees not as man sees. Or the the man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. God cares more about who you are than what you appear to be. And the Pharisees had that all backwards. Like I need to appear put on this appearance of of holiness to be right. But like Jesus is coming in and bringing that upside down kingdom in and the you know, just exposing their their emptiness, the whitewashed tombs.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

This is a very good example of hypocrisy and it alludes to the heart versus the appearance and versus the posture.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

The heart, I like it, sticking with the H. Yes, I have to.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

I have to, yes. So the the heart is something that the I mean, even through scriptures we read, we we can tell that the most deceit the deceitful thing. And for for what the scripture says that even the Pharisees it's just like religion. Religion is the Pharisees worked so hard to create an impression that they serve the Lord, but it's a falsely serve, it's a falsy deed, is a recognition, it is a pride, it is a non-harp posture for him. So this explains very, very clearly when God knows their heart and foolish, so foolish that anything that can bypass what he already said, and not only when we get to this chapter, but we see that the same thing happened in previous chapters. I don't know if you heard the previous podcast that we had is is the piercing of the heart that the Lord always penetrates. And just to uh just to elaborate on that, on the Pharisees and how somebody that we again I already said I said this in previous uh podcasts, that we get to see the word, we can get to read the heart of the individual before the answer would be given there. So just imagine walking in something like that as we live by in this earth and acting that way, knowing that all the people can see through that.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Yeah, I love the fact that this starts out, and you kind of touched on it in verse 37. It says, When Jesus was speaking, while he was speaking, a Pharisee asked him to dine, asked to dine with him. And so he went and reclined at the table. I think it reiterates the point that Jesus will sit down and he'll spend time with just about anybody, whether you're a Pharisee, a lawyer, or somebody that's sincerely seeking him, he desires a relationship with us. And you know, we talked about this a couple weeks ago when we talked about prayer, but we're commanded to ask, to knock, and to seek the Lord and to do it persistently. And and Jesus will he'll talk to us. The way we with the way we dine with him today, as the Pharisees did back then, is through prayer and supplication. And he's willing to do that with anybody. And then the Pharisees, in typical Pharisee fashion, they start in verse 38, and he said they were astonished to see they did not wash his hands before dinner, basically. So they catch him on a technicality, is basically what this is. They're trying to, and they're trying to make a big deal out of basically, you know, uh uh nothing. And he calls them out on it. He said, you know, the inside, you have to worry about the inside, not just the outside. But I love what he he goes in verse 42. I love this section. He says, What are the Pharisees? For you tithe mint and you rue in every herb, and but you neglect justice and the love of God. He calls out two things specifically. Who are the who are the Pharisees? They were they were rule keepers, they knew the law, and we're gonna talk about a lawyer in a second. These were the people that knew justice, and that's what he calls them out on. He says, You neglect the very thing really you were supposed to be responsible for, but then you have to couple that justice with the love of God. There's two sides to this there's compassion, and then there's also compliance, if you will, because there's your alliteration for the day from me anyway. So the compliance to the law, and that's what they're doing. They're trying to get him on these all these technicalities, but he says you're neglecting the very things you're you're you're putting responsibility for, and that's keeping the law and teaching the law. You you're neglecting that, and you're certainly neglecting the love of God. You have to balance both compliance as well as compassion.

SPEAKER_02 11:41

Exactly. He's not saying don't tithe, right? But he's saying to think that that's the big deal, you know, that that's what's going to earn your way. It's the whole picture, you know. Like you say, it's it really has to be doing both. And why we do it? It's because of the love of God that we seek justice, that we do the good things that we do. So you always have to ask, you know, the things I do, and that's the beauty of the gospel. I don't have to do them. I get to do them. You know, I do them because I'm saved, not to be saved. So I actually, we, as believers, not just I, but all of us, we get to actually do good works because we're doing them to glorify God. We're doing them to help and show love, to show justice, to contribute, you know. So hypocrisy is the exact opposite. You're doing something for yourself, you're doing something to outwardly look good when really you're hollow inside.

SPEAKER_03 12:33

Yeah, and Jesus tied justice or the law really to love. He he linked the two. And the Pharisees were very quick to condemn, but they were very slow on showing love. And this passage just demonstrates exactly kind of what was in their heart. And this is you know where this section ends. I think it even says, yeah, that the what their motives is revealed in 53. It says that he went away from there, and the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him hard, provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait for him to catch him in something he might say. That was their intent. That's what's really on the inside. And he kind of calls them out on that. And they were looking at the letter of the law, trying to nail him on something, and he says, Your guys are responsible for this. You're neglecting it. And most importantly, you're neglecting the love of God.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

That's where humility is the opposite of the hypocrisy. A good thing.

Woes That Expose Self Love

SPEAKER_02 13:20

And humility is what I heard, it's it's not about thinking less of yourself, it's about thinking of yourself less. You're outwardly focused. Humility is truly caring about others more than yourself, is what the Bible tells us, caring about the things of God rather than the things of the world or the things of me. So he makes a good example here of the Pharisees, but then the lawyers, scribes, not to be outdone. One of the experts in the law in verse 45 said, Teacher, when you say these things, you insult us too. And what's Jesus say? Like, yep, you're right. Woe to you guys as well. He goes on to pronounce three woes against the lawyers because he calls them out for loading people with burdens that are hard to carry, and yet they themselves don't touch those burdens with one of their fingers. They're adding things up and putting things on people that they themselves don't do, and then calls them out. They build tombs for the prophets, but their fathers killed them. So they're sanctioning, you know, the works of their fathers. He said that they killed them and you built the monuments. Because of this, he says, I will send them wisdoms and prophets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and persecute, so that this generation will be held responsible for the blood of all the prophets shed since the foundation of the world, the rejection they had, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who published who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, this generation will be held responsible. Woe to you, experts in the law, you have taken away the key to knowledge. You didn't go in yourselves, and you hindered those who were trying to go in. So we see this with the experts of the law that they're adding on requirements, they're in opposition to everything that Christ is teaching. And so this has reminded me how frequently we see a legalistic mindset that wants to add to salvation. If you haven't heard the spiritual math, don't subtract from Christ and don't add to the gospel. You know, so adding requirements to the gospel, Jesus plus anything, is nothing. And that's what, especially the legal experts here trying to uh justify themselves and taking offense. And so I used to work for the government for a long time, so I just remember, you know, just this you know, process thing hanging up, like it just added layers and layers of things. We could never get anything done because there was all of these things that were uh just heaped onto just hindering from getting anywhere. And so that's what Jesus is really calling out these lawyers, these legal experts. And it was an illustration I'd heard um at one point that Francis Schaeffer made. He said, God doesn't necessarily need the law to to condemn us, he just can put a little tape recorder around our neck and just record everything we say about other people, all of these things we add up and judge, and then all he has to do is judge us by the standards that we threw out for others that we won't even live up to. And so I really see that in the lawyers. They're adding these things, but Jesus is calling them out like you don't even do these things yourself, but you want to add on. And so that's something that we also have to

Legal Experts Who Block The Door

SPEAKER_02 16:40

be very on guard from hindering. And and this is where we can be negative in terms of telling other people that these are things that are required when it's adding to the gospel and not being faithful in a serious way.

SPEAKER_03 16:53

Yeah, and the Pharisees and the the lawyers at the time, they had a responsibility to not just understand and know the law, but to teach it and to impart it. I'm reminded of the James three passage that says, James 3 1, it says, Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness, and we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man. And then he goes on for about 10 or 12 verses after this and talks about the thing that probably stumbles and tricks most of us up, and that's the tongue. It's exactly what you're saying, Nate. It's what we say. And that's in part what got the Pharisees here in trouble, you know, with Christ, because you know, they're calling out these things, and and those last couple of verses that I referenced earlier, they're just lying in wait, trying to catch him, trying to get him to talk so that they can trip them up in some kind of way. But, you know, they have a responsibility, and I think anybody who's in a position of spiritual leadership needs to understand that you know our words are heavy, and when we speak, you know, there's there's there's an accountability that we ultimately will have to God and a responsibility that we have to impart the word, you know, rightly and and rightly divide the the word of truth. I think that's incumbent on anyone who's in a position of spiritual leadership and has a microphone in any way.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

I I think that that I I echo uh what you said, Mitch. And that verse right there in 52, the third world, that that that's what hit everything, the main point uh, in my opinion, uh, for this verse. And with so much as we said, the lawyers that they had a responsibility. They know the scripture, they're supposed to take the scripture, they they guide these individuals to get closer to him. But as he mentioned here, you took the key of knowledge and you did not enter in yourself. That that that just put a pause right there. That that is it that strikes, and I I want us to examine it ourselves. A lot of us, I mean, we can read again, we can read, we can know, we can we want to be first, we want to, oh, I know that, let me go in first. Who wanna do this? I want to do that, but again, the pastor of the heart, right? Because it says that you hinder as they were entering, you hinder the people that's entering in the quote unquote knowledge of God. So I I think of myself here examining my heart and praying, you know, who who did I have the stewardship of the Lord to manifest his love to him, and potentially not fully put every emphasis of the gospel on that individual. And I just give my opinion, what I thought it was good, what I think I would do, except not saying what hey, this is what you need to do. Go ahead and do that. We're so easy to show our pride because of the knowledge. But just like you said, Mitch, not everybody's equipped to this, and we are going to be judged based on that. So that's that's that's amazing.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

Yeah, Nate, I like what you said earlier about the the the the math of the gospel, so to speak, you know. Like if you you know add to or subtract from, adding to the gospel creates this legalism and hypocrisy like you're talking about. You know, subtracting from is a whole nother thing. It's you get into like the idea of liberalism and and uh and such, but but these uh Pharisees and lawyers where they were heaping on these laws. I can't remember. I've I did a study on it uh a while ago, but like all like hundreds and hundreds of laws that extra things you can't you can only walk this far or you can only do this. You can't you know, women can't pluck a hair out because on a on the Sabbath because it would break it would be harvesting or something like that. Like, I mean it there are hundreds and hundreds of laws that are like taking people away from the kingdom and putting all these burdens on them. I mean, it's just it's just so telling here.

SPEAKER_02 21:17

So we see hypocrisy and hindering. But really, if we go back to verse 33 through verse 36 before this interaction, and then we also look at the first few uh verses of 12 for keeping the H train going, we see that a healthy heart is what is the key. This is the inside where you know, biblically speaking, we need to have the heart of flesh, we need to have the new heart, we need to be a new creation. And so in verse thirty-three, uh Jesus is saying that no one lights a lamp and puts it under a cellar or under a basket, but on a lampstand, so that those who come in may see its light. Your eye is the lamp of the body. When your eye is healthy, Related to your heart, your whole body is full of light. But when it's bad, your body is also full of darkness. Take care then that the light in you is not darkness. If therefore your whole body is full of light, no part of it is in darkness, it will be entirely illuminated as when a lamp shines its light in you. And in chapter twelve, verse one, this is after it, a crowd of many thousands came together so that they were trampling on one another, really people coming out to see Christ. And he began to say first to his disciples, though, be on your guard against the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing covered that won't be uncovered, nothing hidden

The Lamp Of The Body

SPEAKER_02 22:45

that won't be made known. Therefore, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have heard whispered in the ear of private rooms will be proclaimed from the housetops. So I think this is Jesus exhorting us to live an honest life, admit who we are, not be hypocrites. We all have sinned, we all have fallen short. We're seeking He is the light to be within us, to have that new heart. And that takes an honesty, that takes an openness, and that can be still challenging because I think, like you were pointing out, Jeremy, we can feel guilty, we can feel shameful about things. That's where it can be hindering to have even more laid on us. But a lot of times we don't want to be honest with ourselves about this. But the more honest we are, the more, another H for you, we heal. Christ can heal us the more honest we are when we lay our sin at his feet and allow that light to cleanse us. That's how we are changed and transformed through honest assessment and honest, sincere devotion to Christ.

SPEAKER_03 23:46

Yeah, I love how this kind of tying these two sections together. 53 of chapter 11 says, and he went away from there. But as he went away, the scribes and the Pharisees began to press him. So he's trying to get away from him. So they're pressing him hard, trying to provoke him to speak about many things, lying in wait, trying to catch him in in something he might say. So that's going on. And then verse chapter chapter 12. In the meantime, thousand people, many thousands of people, had come together, and they were they were trampling one another. So there's so many of them. They began to say to his disciples first, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. So while this is going on, Jesus is pulling away, he's trying to anyway, and they're trying to trip him up. The first thing he says is, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. He just called him out, which is hypocrisy. And then I love the contrast in verse three. He says, Therefore, whatever has been said in the dark shall be heard in the light, dark and light. Whatever you have whispered in a private room shall be proclaimed. Whispered, proclaimed, private room, and it will be proclaimed where on the house tops. I mean, it is so night and day, black and white, you know, contrasting elements here that he's he's pitching, and he's trying to cra contrast really his teachings against really what the Pharisees are teaching, and and he calls it leaven. And a little leaven, leaven the whole lump, and that's not in a good context when Jesus used that later.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Yeah, I was drawn to the the you know, the verse the verses in thirty-three through thirty-six, you know, and then just thinking about the light and Jesus being Jesus saying in John 8 12 that he's the light of the world. And then contrasting that with what's happening here in verse 53 of chapter 11, that Jesus is exposing Jesus, who is the light, is exposing hypocrisy, which is in the dark, and how the darkness number it can't abide the light, but it also hates the light, right? And so he's exposing prov hypocrisy, but as a result, provoking hypocrisy. And so they're they're coming after him more and more. But it's just, you know, because John 3 20 tells us that those who do evil hate the light.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

I think that's where when we poke the bear, where we get the most defensive is often the areas that need the most light in our life, very frequently, like you say.

SPEAKER_00 26:09

So I I think the you you mentioned that Jared, that's what I would go on. You stole my thunder at all. But but but but as we uh we look at this, light just like you mentioned, be the light of the world. And so many cases, so many examples, so many opportunities that we can be the light. There's no room for darkness. And and I think that we have to take that and consider the the again the pasture of the heart when we doing things for the Lord. And and we are here with a major, major command, right? Be the light of the world, go and ensuring that they know me. If they know who if they know me, they know it through you. Right. And as soon as we're not perfect, we're not perfect, but as soon as you you share the light, you can see how people gravitate to that. But as soon as pride comes in, we can see what happened to the Pharisees.

SPEAKER_01 27:16

You're starting to steal my thunder again because I was thinking about pride and how like humil hypocrisy compared to yeast, it grows slowly, it grows quietly, it grows subtly, right? And so and hypocrisy grows quietly when we become prideful, when we become when we can lean in our on our own understanding instead of trusting

Living Honestly In The Light

SPEAKER_01 27:40

in the Lord.

SPEAKER_03 27:41

I read something the other day, a great quote. I said, God did not call or God called us to be light, not to be liked, L-A-K-E-D. By nature, light itself causes darkness to disappear. And I guess the question is, you know, are we being the light of the world in those circles that we have direct influence over? Are we being you know good stewards of what God has entrusted us and opportunities that God puts in front of us to cast the light of the gospel or the light of sanctification if it's a brother or sister in Christ? What are we doing? We're not called to be light or liked, L-I-K-E-D. We're called to be light.

unknown 28:21

That's good.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

That is really good. And that's the the idea too, admitting being honest and being light, you know, that we can be honest about who we are. You know, the more I walk, the more I hate when I feel like a hypocrite when I start to have those Francis Schaefer recorders where I'm like seeing something, but it's like, no, I do that too, you know, and so just hating that hypocrisy and putting that before the Lord so that He can shine the light in those areas of our heart and continue to sanctify us. So Lev's family, don't be hypocrites, don't hinder, but seek to be healthy, seek to be in the light. That's where I think another thing that I say frequently is God can heal anything, but you have to put it in the light. You know, sin festers and and grows in the darkness. Anything you'll allow him to shine the light on, that's where healing comes in, and that's where health will come.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

I think the closer you get, uh my own experience, and I've told this to other people, the closer you get to the Lord, the more he's gonna reveal the things that are keeping you from the Lord. He's gonna reveal things in your heart. The closer you get to the light, the close the more the light is gonna expose. And and then you have a decision point. What are you gonna do with that information and with that reality? Are you gonna really push in and draw closer to the Lord and trust him? Or are you gonna retreat and go back to what you're comfortable with? And God's not called us to be comfortable comfortable, he's called us to be conquerors.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

So absolutely. Well, good stuff. And guys, thanks for journeying through these verses together and Lifehouse Family. We hope this again, every week, is helping you just stay closer to the Lord and your walk, to lean into God's word. And so as always, send us comments, questions, but we will look forward to you joining us next week as we continue through the dog days of summer. Thanks for tuning in to the Life Talk Podcast. If this episode encouraged you, please be sure to like, comment, subscribe, and leave a review so others can find this content as well. And we'll look forward to seeing you next Monday for another great episode.