Bible Text: Luke 11:45-57 | Preacher: G.F. | Series: The Disease of Hypocrisy

Luke 11:45-54
“One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying these things you insult us also.” And he said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch the burdens with one of your fingers.
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, lying in wait for him, to catch him in something he might say.”
Have you ever heard the expression “face the music”? Here’s how that phrase came about.

Many years ago, a man wanted to play in the Imperial Orchestra, but he couldn’t play a note. Since he was a person of great wealth and influence, however, he demanded to be allowed to join the orchestra so that he could perform in front of the king. The conductor agreed to let him sit in the second row of the orchestra. Even though he couldn’t read music, he was given a flute, and when a concert would begin, he would raise his instrument, pucker his lips, and move his fingers. He went through all the motions of playing, but he never made a sound. 

This deception went on for two years. Then one day a new conductor took over the Imperial Orchestra. He told the orchestra that he wanted to personally audition all the players to see how well they could play. The audition would weed out all those who did not meet his standards, and he would dismiss them from the orchestra. 

One by one the players performed in his presence. Frantic with worry when it was his turn, the phony flutist pretended to be sick. The doctor who was ordered to examine him, however, declared that he was perfectly well. The conductor insisted that the man appear and demonstrate his skill. 

Shamefacedly, the man had to confess that he was a fake. That was the day he had to “face the music.”

Many people go through the motions of the Christian life. They attend church or youth group, recite Bible verses, and say all the right things. In reality, though, they are fakes. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day were spiritual fakes. They had substituted true godliness with spiritual hypocrisy. In this passage Jesus speaks strongly against their spiritual hypocrisy.

A time is coming when everyone will be called to stand before the Judge of Heaven and earth and “face the music.” No one will be able to hide in the crowd. The phonies will be separated from the true players, the goats from the sheep.

So how about you? Are you a person who can really say, “I know my sins,” and deal with those sins not by excusing them, not by diminishing them, not by denying them, not by trying to cover them up, not by doing ritual ceremonies, but deal with those sins in the only way that they can be dealt with and that is fleeing to the cross and saying, “Lord, I am unclean. I am sinful and I can’t clean myself up. Only You can clean the inside of me and You can do that in Your Son who is my only hope”? May the Lord help us to see ourselves and see the Saviour.