“HYPOCRISY CONDEMNED”
LUKE 11:45-54

I. Introduction
Hypocrisy! Legalism! Personal pride! Last Sunday we saw Jesus hit these sins hard while He was having lunch in the home of a Pharisee. The one thing that came through loud and clear was that the Lord hates hypocrisy, legalism, and personal pride.

Sadly, even tragically, while these things can be found in people of every nationality, every personality, and every walk of life, they are particularly damaging and insidious in the life of a Christian or one who claims to be a Christian. Anyone who names the name of Christ, but lives a hypocritical, legalistic, and prideful life, can do untold damage to himself, other Christians, and the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That is because hypocrisy, legalism, and personal pride reflect the polar opposite of who Jesus Christ is.

First, He is the very opposite of a hypocrite. He never appears to be something He is not. Neither God’s love nor His wisdom are polluted by any form of hypocrisy.
Romans 12:9
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.

James 3:17
17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reason-able, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.

Second, Jesus’ offer of salvation is anything but that of a legalist. He offers salvation solely and exclusively by grace. No one has to (or can) work for his or her salvation.
Ephesians 2:8a-9a
8a For by grace you have been saved…
9a not as a result of works…

Isaiah 64:6b
6b …all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment…

Colossians 2:20-23
20 If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,
21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!”
22 (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using) – in accord-ance with the commandments and teachings of men?
23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.
Third, Jesus’ humility before God and man exposes personal pride for what it is – a clear picture of evil that resulted in Lucifer being cast out of heaven and eternally cursed.
Ezekiel 28:17, 19
17 “Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wis-dom by reason of your splendor. I cast you to the ground…”
19 “All who know you among the peoples are appalled at you; you have become terrified, and you will be no more…”

Hypocrisy, legalism, and personal pride are abominations before God. It’s easy to see why Jesus hates them so much. And it’s easy to see why, when they are found in a Christian, or one who claims to be a Christian, they are so tragic and destructive.
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II. Review
Earlier in Luke 11 Jesus had cast a demon out of a man. But some of those who were witness to this miracle of God hated Jesus so much that they accused Him of acting in the power of Satan. They literally stood before the Son of God and accused Him of being evil and satanic. In doing so they committed what Matthew called “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit,” the one sin that will “…not be forgiven either in this age, or in the age to come (Matthew 12:32).”

But these same people, having already said that Jesus worked in the power of Satan asked to see more of His signs and wonders, His “tricks.” However, the Lord told them there would be no more “tricks,” no more signs except one – “…the sign of Jonah (Luke 11:29).” As Jonah had spent three days and three nights in the belly of a great fish and was “resurrected,” so too Jesus would spend three days and three nights in the grave and be resurrected. That would be their only “sign!”

Then one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to lunch (and other Pharisees and scribes) in the Pharisee’s home. This invitation to lunch would have had little or nothing to do with courtesy and hospitality. On the contrary, it was probably meant to engage Jesus in a conversation in which they could find another reason to accuse Him of blasphemy.

No sooner had they all sat down to eat than Jesus was questioned because He did not observe the Pharisees’ tradition of the ceremonial washing of hands before meals. At that point the Lord proceeded to pronounce three “woes” on them.

He called them fools and told them that while they were concerned with making things look good on the outside, they were filled with evil and wickedness on the inside. In v. 42 Jesus exposed the Pharisees’ pretended humility and false piety as being nothing more than utter hypocrisy. They used these things to place impossible burdens on the people who looked to them for spiritual leadership and comfort.

In v. 43 Jesus exposed their personal pride which manifested itself in the Pharisee’s con-stant attempts at self-aggrandizement and self-glorification.
In v. 44 Jesus exposed the Pharisees’ false teaching, which was literally leading unsus-pecting followers into hell. You can almost feel the tension in the room, can’t you?

With each one of these expositions Jesus pronounced “woe” on the religious leaders. We defined “woe” last week, but let’s refresh your memory as to what Jesus was saying to them. The word is transliterated from the Greek “ŏuai.” It literally means “grief.”

“Ouai” carries with it the idea of misery, sorrow, and pain. It signifies a calamity, or a disaster. It’s onomatopoeia; a word that tries to imitate the sound it describes. Words like “bang,” “tick-tock,” or “moo” are onomatopoeias. In the face of disaster you and I might say, “Oh!” That’s woe – “ŏuai!” And that is the word Jesus uses to pronounce grief on these men. (syn. “anathema” – ant. “hosanna”)
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III. Text
Can you imagine the horror of the God of creation, who holds eternity in His hands, pro-nouncing misery, sorrow, pain, calamity, and disaster on the lost? I can’t. But this is what awaits unbelief at the final judgment. It is what the Lord Jesus Christ pronounces on the Pharisees – not once, but three times. And that brings us to this morning’s text.

*Luke 11:45-54 (Please stand with me in honor of reading God’s Word.)
45 And one of the lawyers said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too.”
46 But (Jesus) said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the bur-dens with one of your fingers.
47 “Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them.
48 “Consequently, you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs.
49 “For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them pro-phets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will perse-cute,
50 in order that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation,
51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’
52 “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”
53 And when He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects,
54 plotting against Him, to catch Him in something He might say.

You might think that Jesus would, for lack of a better term, “back off” after the scathing pronouncements He made against these Pharisees in vv. 39-44. You might think so, but you’d be wrong.

It’s almost as if He deliberately provokes them. Think about it. Jesus could heal disease and deformity any time, any place, and on any day of the week. But He often chose to do so in front of the Pharisees on the Sabbath. Here in Luke’s gospel, He could certainly have washed His hands in keeping with the Pharisees’ traditions, but He chose to openly violate their cherished laws. Well, at least He could have been polite when they asked Him about it, but He was not. He was anything but polite in their minds. Instead He hit them hard for their hypocrisy, their legalism, and their personal pride.

The Pharisees must have been stunned by all of this. After all, weren’t they being “nice” to Him? No, they were being hypocrites. Luke doesn’t record anything they said, but their “friends,” the scribes (the lawyers) in attendance tried to defend the Pharisees.
*Luke 11:45
45 And one of the lawyers said to Him in reply, “Teacher, when You say this, You insult us too.”

Immediately after Jesus’ three pronouncements of woe against the Pharisees, one of the scribes, these “experts” in the Jewish law, could no longer contain himself. Does he think this young rabbi fails to grasp the full implication of His words? Since the scribes, these experts in Jewish law, were virtually all members of the sect of the Pharisees them-selves, doesn’t Jesus know He is indicting them too?

Does Jesus apologize? Does He say, “Oh, forgive Me. You have graciously invited Me to lunch and here I am insulting you. I’m so sorry.” Of course not! Rather He turns His righteous indignation from the Pharisees to the scribes.

Let me make one point of clarification before we proceed. The three woes that Jesus has already pronounced were not aimed exclusively at the Pharisees any more than the three woes He is about to pronounce are aimed exclusively at the scribes. All six woes apply to both Pharisees and scribes. Later, when Jesus will speak of these things again in the temple in Jerusalem, He addresses all His comments to all of them (Matthew 23).

While they hold different offices in the Jewish hierarchy, they both live, function, and rule in the same hypocritical, legalistic, and prideful manner. Jesus’ words cut them all.
*Luke 11:46
46 But (Jesus) said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the bur-dens with one of your fingers.”

The legal experts (the scribes) are actually the ones who invented and developed the laws the religious experts (the Pharisees) taught and, to the degree that they could, enforced.
The scribes had taken the commands of Scripture and misread, misapplied, manipulated, and multiplied them. By the first century there were literally hundreds of such laws that all Jews were required to obey. These laws buried people under so many religious requirements and burdens that no one could hope to obey them all to the letter – which is, of course, precisely what was demanded of them.

I find it fascinating that the scribes also developed loopholes through which they could escape their own laws. This is typical of the hypocrisy of so many people in power. And it doesn’t seem to matter if that power resides in the church, or in the world of social interaction, or in the world of commerce and business, or in the world of civil govern-ment. With regard to government, does it sound as though first-century Jerusalem and twenty-first century Washington may have a few things in common? How many laws have been passed that we must obey but that exempt the politicians who passed them?

Jesus tells the scribes that they had mastered the art of avoiding their own laws. On a different occasion, but while addressing the same subject, He said this…
*Matthew 23:1-5a
1 Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples,
2 saying, “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses;
3 therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things, and do not do them.
4 “And they tie up heavy loads, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.
5a “But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men…”

Look again at v. 3. Jesus is saying to the people, “When the religious leaders tell you what God’s Law, the Mosaic Law is, obey it. But there is no need to obey THEIR laws.”
How does that apply to us today? Well, you need to know what Scripture says. If you cannot differentiate between what God says and what men say, you have a real problem. This is precisely why it is so important for every Christian to know his or her Bible, to believe it, and to obey it.

I tell you plainly – if you do not know God’s Word, you are ripe to be confused, conned, and controlled by any silver-tongued preacher who can convince you he speaks for God.

When Jesus spoke in Matthew 23:3, the Mosaic Law was still in effect, and He taught the people to obey God’s Law, but the scribes and Pharisees were adding the laws of men. Jesus has taught us to obey God’s Word, but there are those today who are both adding to and subtracting from it. What’s the point? “…do not do according to their deeds.”

Consider just a few of the so-called religious laws the scribes and Pharisees forced on the people. They could not pick grain on the Sabbath. It was work. Furthermore, if they had grain, they could not rub it in their hands to separate the wheat from the chaff.
It was work. It was said to be equivalent to reaping and threshing. Since reaping and threshing was work, it was unlawful for people to rub grain together in their hands.

Here are two other examples that serve to illustrate the utter absurdity of these man-made laws – all of which had to be obeyed to the letter.

On the Sabbath it was forbidden to travel more than a thousand yards from one’s home. It was work. But what if a person needed to go more than a thousand yards? Then a rope could taken with and tied across the road. Doing so extended the boundary of one’s home to the place where the rope was tied, and he could travel another thousand yards.

But there was a problem. You can tie a knot in a rope on the road so as to extend the boundary of your home, but on the Sabbath it was unlawful to tie a knot. It was work. Can you imagine trying to obey all of your religious laws and get around that?

While we’re still on the subject of knot tying, consider this: If a woman needed water from a well, it was unlawful for her to tie a rope to a bucket. But not to worry – it was lawful for a woman to tie a knot in her girdle. Therefore, she could tie a women’s girdle to the bucket and draw water that way. (William Barclay’s “The Gospel of Luke” p. 158)

What can we learn from these examples regarding Sabbath laws. The first thing we can see is how ridiculous and burdensome men’s laws can become. Yet many in the church still cling to remnants of pharisaical law without even being aware of it. When the church was born in Acts 2, Sunday, (the first day of the week) was the day God gave His people for worship and for rest from our weekly labors. It is a special day.

Yet some of us treat Sunday like any other day. We probably shouldn’t do that! On the other hand, some of us have a list detailing everything we can or cannot do on Sunday. We probably shouldn’t do that either! After all, aren’t both ways of viewing Sunday missing the point? Is Sunday just like any other day? I don’t think it is. On the other hand, must you have a list (written or unwritten) of all the things you can or cannot do on Sunday? I don’t think you do. The scribes and Pharisees were concerned about the former, about what we do. But Jesus was concerned about the latter, about what we are.

If you and I learn nothing else from Jesus’ dealings with the scribes and Pharisees, can we at least learn that He is far more concerned with the condition of our hearts than with something we may or may not do on Sunday, or any other day, for that matter? And if our hearts are submitted to Him and truly right before Him, then I would suggest to you the things we do or do not do will nearly always be right in God’s sight, won’t they?
1 John 5:1-3
1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.
2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. (emphasis on “His”)
3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. (back to Luke 11)

Jesus continues to bore in on the scribes.
*Luke 11:47-48
47 “Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and it was your fathers who killed them.
48 “Consequently, you are witnesses and approve the deeds of your fathers; because it was they who killed them, and you build their tombs.”

Just as the religious leaders honored God’s Law with their mouths but not with their hearts, so too did they honor the memory of the OT prophets, but not what the OT pro-phets taught. They built monuments to the prophets and pretended to honor them. They rebuilt and redecorated their tombs so that it appeared they honored their memory. But it was all for show. It was all hypocrisy.

It was like a President reverently laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day, but doing so while having nothing but contempt in his heart for our military and the sacrifices of those who have died to pre-serve our freedom and the American way of life.

In vv. 47-48 Jesus tells the scribes they are just like their ancestors who, rather than honored the prophets, murdered them. The very fact that these men have not condemned the actions of their forefathers speaks to their approval of what their forefathers did. And then they go and build monuments to the murdered prophets. The hypocrisy is stunning.
In short, they have not heeded the message; they have killed the messengers.
*Luke 11:49-51
49 “For this reason also the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send to them pro-phets and apostles, and some of them they will kill and some they will perse-cute,
50 in order that the blood of all the prophets, shed since the foundation of the world, may be charged against this generation,
51 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who perished between the altar and the house of God; yes, I tell you, it shall be charged against this generation.’”

“For this reason” in v. 49 links v. 48 with these three verses. Jesus is telling them that since their fathers killed the prophets, and these religious leaders are in complete agree-ment with their fathers, the blood of the prophets will be charged against them. Think of it! This must shake these men to their very core. But the truth is made clear.

He tells them that this generation will do the same thing to those who come after Jesus (the NT apostles) as their fathers did to those who came before Him (the OT prophets). It would not be long when they would crucify Jesus. But they were just getting started. Think of what they would to Stephen in Acts 7 – they would stone him to death. Think of what they would do to James in Acts 12 – they would murder him with the sword.
Think of what they would do to Paul and his companions and fellow-workers. They would be beaten, tortured, and persecuted without mercy by fellow Jews in Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Thessalonica, Berea, Corinth, Jerusalem and Caesarea.

In v. 51 Jesus specifically names Abel and Zechariah. Why? Chronologically, they were the first and last OT prophets to be murdered by those who hated God. In all that time, from the beginning through to Jesus’ day, Israel had not repented, but had murdered the other prophets as well.

So this was the generation that God would judge. And why not? This was the generation that had the full revelation of God in the Person of Jesus Christ. Not only would they reject Him, they would murder Him. Hardly forty years after Jesus’ death judgment did fall on Jerusalem as the Romans destroyed the city in 70 A.D. The surviving Jews were dispersed throughout the world, never again to return to Israel until 1948, and not to occupy their beloved city Jerusalem until 1967. But even now there’s no peace, is there?

Jesus charges the scribes and Pharisees with the blood of all the prophets, past and future, but still He is not finished with them.
*Luke 11:52
52 “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you did not enter in yourselves, and those who were entering in you hindered.”

“Ouai!” “Grief to you – misery, sorrow, pain, calamity, and disaster to you scribes and Pharisees!” The Lord is warning them in no uncertain terms – they have hidden the true light of God from the people and have turned a false and deceiving light upon them-selves. They have done everything they can to beat down the very people they should be introducing to the grace of God. They have crushed them under the weight of man-made religion, laws, and burdens that no one can bear. And they have done all this while glori-fying themselves with their hypocrisy, legalism, and personal pride.
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IV. Conclusion
What are we teaching our children and new believers? Are we teaching them that in order for God to love them and for us to accept them they must adhere to some standard of behavior and conduct that we find acceptable? If we are doing that we will eventually drive them from us. We will drive them from us because they will quickly see that we are just like the scribes and Pharisees. But far worse, we could drive them from God, His truth, and His matchless grace. We need to examine ourselves. Are we doing that?

Or are we teaching them about the grace of God and the example of Jesus? Are we teaching them that while there is true wisdom in doing certain things and avoiding certain things, the real issue before God and men is the condition and conduct of our hearts?
And are we teaching them and showing them by example that all forms of hypocrisy, legalism, and personal pride can do untold harm to the cause of Jesus Christ?

Now as we close I have not forgotten the last two verses of Luke 11. How do you think unbelief and hard-hearts of the scribes and Pharisees respond to Jesus’ words when they cut so deeply, when they, “…pierce as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart (Hebrews 4:12)”? In this case you already know, don’t you?
*Luke 11:53-54
53 And when He left there, the scribes and the Pharisees began to be very hostile and to question Him closely on many subjects,
54 plotting against Him, to catch Him in something He might say.

Obviously, Jesus’ words did not have the desired effect. Instead of being convicted of their sin, recognizing the true condition of their own hearts, and repenting, they turned on Jesus with a vengeance and hated Him even more than they had before.

In v. 53 we’re told that their efforts to ensnare Jesus and destroy Him will only increase. They will hunt Him down like a wild animal and they won’t rest until the ninth hour on what we have come to call “Good Friday.” He will be dead and they will have won.

Or so it will seem to them at the time. But we know better, don’t we?

~ Pray ~