Matthew 23:11-15

Here are several illustrations of hypocrites in the New Testament Church, people who had an appearance of virtue or religion.

·             Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-10).

·             Simon Magus (Acts 8:18-23).

·             Peter and other Christians including Barnabas at Antioch (Gal. 2:11-14).

·             The Judaizing Christians in Galatia (Gal. 6:13).

·             The false teachers at Ephesus (Rev. 2:2).

What underlies this hypocrisy?  Is it the lust of the flesh, where we appear to suffer because pain is the mark of holiness?  Maybe.  Is it the lust of the eyes, the desire for money and things?  No!  In every case it is the pride of life!  People want to be well thought of by people around them.  They are men-pleasers!

Jesus set the stage for judging hypocrites by clarifying the path to greatness (23:11-12). God is the One who exalts the humble.  The key is not pleasing men but God who knows the heart.  What did Jesus see that was hypocritical?

Ø The hypocrisy of their preaching, 23:13.

They preached righteousness by the works of the Law which sounds holy and pious and even logical to most people.  But it is a deadly message; it actually shuts people out of the kingdom.  This message is the stumbling stone and rock of offense prophesied by Isaiah and referred to by Jesus (Matt. 21:42) and Paul (Rom. 9:30-33).  You will remember the religious leaders kicked people out of the synagogue if they spoke well of Jesus (e.g. John 9:22,34).

Ø The hypocrisy of their praying, 23:14. (Omitted from some translations.)

We will discuss devouring widow’s houses later.  Here it is related to the long prayers of the hypocrites.  Long prayers are assumed to exhibit holiness.  Yet when they were not praying they violated the law by taking advantage of the weak (e.g. Ex. 22:22-24).  The hypocrisy of coming to God when you regard iniquity in your heart (Ps. 66:18) means God will not hear you.  The LORD is far from the wicked; but He hears the prayer of the righteous (Pr. 15:29).

Ø The hypocrisy of their proselytizing, 23:15.

They were great evangelizers it seemed.  The term proselyte means to come over.  In other words they were calling people to repentance.  But in fact their ministry kept people out of heaven (v13) and increased people’s sin and rebellion (v15).  What they called people to come to was to the Pharisaic religion which we have noted was a false gospel.  They did not call people to worship Christ!

We will continue this tomorrow.  But don’t fail now to think about Jesus indictment of these religious zealots.  Jesus, the Head of the Church, will use the same standard of judgment for hypocrisy wherever He finds it.