Bible Text: Luke 11:37-54 | Preacher: G.F. | Series: The Disease of Hypocrisy

“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. “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. Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seat in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplaces. Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, and people walk over them without knowing it.” 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.”              – Luke 11:37-54
This text contains Jesus’ most direct rebuke of the Jewish religious leadership, the Pharisees and lawyers. Would you know a Pharisee if you met one? As we know not all scripture was written to us, but it is certainly written for us. Pharisee-ism still exist today, maybe not in an official office, but certainly in our sinful hearts.

What are the marks of a Pharisee? How would you know if your own heart has given into some of the temptations of a Pharisee?

In this passage, Jesus gives us a picture of the marks of the Pharisees, the symptoms of the Pharisees that we all need to be on the lookout for.

A synonym for Pharisee-ism is hypocrisy. Hypocrisy may be defined as “the practice of professing standards, beliefs, etc., contrary to one’s real character or actual behavior.” It’s hypocritical to call someone a Christian when he or she is in fact a spiritual fraud. The religious leaders of Jesus’ day had substituted true godliness with spiritual hypocrisy.

If you’re a hypocrite, you’re incapable of helping other people to real holiness. And if you are corrupt and hypocritical, no matter what you try and do in other people’s lives, it will produce corruption and hypocrisy.  More dangerous than this, is your own self deception, trying to convince yourself that you are right with God, when in fact you are heading straight for hell.

There’s only one remedy and that is the Gospel. The only remedy to Pharisee-ism is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you have the righteousness of Christ in your life or has it been substituted with the righteousness of self?