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The pictures and stories of a mission trip inspire our faith. The testimonies of how God provided what was needed at just the right moment and watching followers of Jesus put their faith into action to help others can draw people to God and it helps all of us grow deeper in our faith. What we say and do makes a difference and can help people believe and trust in Jesus, but the opposite is also true. People can be turned off and doubt the very existence of God because of what they see and hear from people who say they are a Christian but then fail to look anything like Jesus
We are in a series called Doubting God and one of the big reasons people doubt God and turn away from Jesus has nothing to do with what they believe about God or Jesus, it has to do with what they see in people who claim to believe in God and follow Jesus but then don’t look anything like Jesus Himself. When we see people posting Bible verses on social media but then hear or see them doing things that go against those very verses - we not only doubt the authenticity of their faith but it can turn people off from wanting to follow God at all. It’s like getting flipped off by a driver on the highway only to have them pull in front of you and you see a bumper sticker that says “I love Jesus”. When the world sees people who say they follow Jesus act in ways that don’t reflect Jesus, it has the power to turn them away from Jesus.
And let’s not forget that the scandals, abuse, corruption, and hate that has come from different churches for hundreds of years doesn’t only turn people away from the church, but from the One the church says they love and follow - Jesus.
Author Brennan Manning said: The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians: who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
For many people, this is why they don’t want to be part of any church or seek to develop any kind of a relationship with God.
As a new pastor, I had the son of a church member, a man about my age who didn’t attend worship and was not active in his faith, make an appointment to come and see me. As we talked, he shared with me that when he was a youth, a youth leader at the church had touched him and some other boys inappropriately. This was years before all the abuse and scandals of the church were making the news and he didn’t want me to do anything about it, he just wanted me to know. The deep hurt and disillusionment of this teenager caused him to leave the church as an adult and have deep doubts about God. If God is so good and loving, how could His people do this and how could God let it happen?
Not long after that, a colleague of mine, a pastor who had become a friend and mentor, admitted to having an affair with a young woman in his church. I was devastated and hurt by his actions. The depth of hypocrisy I saw in him was hard to process. It was a difficult time for me personally and for his congregation. I ended up listening to several people from his church who were having a hard time believing and trusting God because of his actions.
I remember sitting in one of my first seminary classes and the professor said, as a pastor, you have the power to…. He paused. I thought he was going to say help people or change the world. He said… hurt people. We can hurt people physically and emotionally but also spiritually. Our actions can cause people to doubt and turn away from God.
If you have been hurt by someone who claimed to have loved God and followed Jesus but whose actions caused you pain or harm, I’m sorry. I’m sorry that you had to go through what you did. I’m sorry the church didn’t do more to protect and care for you. If you have been hurt, I pray you will find healing and hope and that if you need guidance in how to find this in Jesus that you will give us a chance to offer you help. I also pray that you would not let the actions of those who have hurt you keep you from the love God has for you and from the healing and new life that can be found in Jesus. God won’t let you down and Jesus will not fail you.
If this kind of hypocrisy disturbs and angers you, you are not alone. It disturbed and angered Jesus. While we know Jesus was full of love and grace, He also had very harsh and critical words for those who said one thing about their faith and yet did something else.
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. Matthew 23:27-28
What’s interesting is that Jesus is not calling out their sinful behaviors, He is calling out their show. They are making themselves look good and righteous, but they know that they are not living the life of faith that God has laid out for His people. They are wearing a mask and acting a part and that is the original meaning of the word hypocrite.
The word hypocrite comes from the Greek word hypokrites which means an actor, or a stage player. In the ancient Greek theater, actors would wear a mask to portray different characters. One actor could take on different roles because they could wear different masks. Up until the time of Jesus, the word hypocrite was only used in the context of the theater. Jesus is the one who began to use the word to mean something different.
17 times the word hypocrite is found in the Bible and each time it comes from the mouth of Jesus, and each time He uses it, Jesus is calling out the behavior of people who are showing the world that they are living faithfully for God, but who are actually living a very different life. They are whitewashed tombs - they look beautiful on the outside, they appear loving and faithful, but inside they are filled with decaying corpses. They are filled with sin and pride and greed and they don’t want to change.
While there is no excuse for this kind of hypocrisy and we need to guard against it in our lives, it’s also helpful for us to think about why people act this way. It might help us have compassion for those who do say one thing but do something else, but it also might help us not turn from God when we see this kind of hypocrisy around us. Here are three reasons people might say one thing about their faith and yet do something very different.
1. Some claim to be Christian, but they don’t belong to Jesus.
This is nothing new. The Apostle Paul wrote to his companion Titus who was leading a new church. This is what he said about people INSIDE the church. They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good. Titus 1:16
While it’s not our place to judge the heart of anyone, we need to remember that just because someone goes to church doesn’t make them a true follower of Jesus. Believing in God doesn’t make someone a follower of Jesus. Some people will let us down because while they say they follow Jesus, they simply have not acknowledged and repented of their sin. They have not asked Jesus to forgive them. They have not asked the power of God to change them or the Holy Spirit to lead them into a new life. They claim to be Christian, but they don’t really belong to Jesus.
2. Some are Christians but they are not mature.
The author of Hebrews said, Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 5:13-14
When we first become followers of Jesus we are not perfected in a moment. At the beginning of our faith, we don’t know all the teachings that lead us to a righteous life. We don’t know how to act or what to say so that we are honoring God and being a reflection of Jesus. Even when we learn them, it takes a while for us to make these new ways of living a part of our life. So we often see actions that don’t reflect Jesus when people are new in their faith.
Again, when I was a pastor in Altoona there was a family that started attending our worship. They had never been part of a church before and let’s just say that their actions reflected it. They were very rough around the edges, but they were learning about Jesus and what it means to follow Him. One day someone told me that they saw this family at a gas station and waved to them, the mother waved back but with just one finger raised.
The person who shared this with me wasn’t offended and we talked about how following Jesus was new for them and they were still maturing and growing. While it’s hard to not be offended when we see hypocrisy like this, it’s also important to be patient and gracious like Jesus was in dealing with people. My hope is that we all see our own need to grow and mature which will give us patience when we see it in others.
The third reason we see hypocrisy in the church is this:
3. Some are Christians, and maturing, and still mess up.
Just because we follow Jesus doesn’t mean we won’t sin. We can love Jesus and still find ourselves caught up in our own lies. We can love Jesus and still find ourselves short tempered and critical. We can love Jesus and still find ourselves giving in to temptation, being filled with pride and longing for all the things of this world. This is not an excuse to keep on sinning. We can’t say, well I’m always going to be a sinner so there is nothing I can do. No, we need to constantly grow and mature in our relationship with God and daily we need to ask Jesus to be part of our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we might encourage people to believe instead of causing them to doubt.
The reality is we are and always will be sinners. We may deeply love Jesus but will still miss the mark. If you think you are not prone to this kind of sin and hypocrisy, if you think you are above temptation, then let me tell you that you are one of the most vulnerable. The Bible says that pride comes before a fall and pride is one of the easiest ways for us to miss the mark and it is often the pride of Christians that drives people away from God.
For those of us in the church, we need to recognize that how we live out our faith impacts the faith of others. Our hypocrisy can cause others to doubt. Our failures can cause others to leave the church and turn away from their faith. While we can’t be perfect, when we make mistakes, miss the mark, and do things that don’t line up with the example of Jesus, we need to admit our mistakes, take ownership of our failures, and ask for forgiveness from those we have hurt. Living this way in itself makes a difference. When the world around us says, never admit to a mistake and never tell people you are wrong, when we own up to our failures and ask for forgiveness, we show the world what faith and trust in Jesus really looks like.
We need to remember that while Jesus had zero tolerance for hypocrisy, He had unlimited grace for sinners in need of forgiveness. There might be times God will call out our hypocrisy, or point out the ways that our attitudes, words, and actions might be driving others away from God - in those moments we need to seek forgiveness and commit to learning how to change with the help of the Holy Spirit. We can’t be perfect, we will make mistakes, we just need to be honest and humble and ask God for His help and mercy.
Now to those who have been let down, disappointed, and even deeply hurt by people who claim to follow Jesus but whose words and actions don’t reflect it, again, let me say I’m sorry. Please don’t let a few people keep you from knowing the love of God and the healing power of Jesus. While our faith is often shaped by the people around us, our faith can never be in those people. People will let us down, people will get it wrong, but Jesus won’t. Jesus won’t let us down so instead of looking to people, let us look to Jesus.
The author of Hebrews gives us a list of people who were amazing examples of faith. He talks about Noah, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. He mentions Rahab the prostitute, Samuel and David and all the prophets. He talks about all the amazing people who help us believe in God but then he says this…
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Hebrews 12:1-2
While he points out amazing people of faith, he doesn’t tell us to fix our eyes on them. He tells us to look to Jesus. Jesus alone is the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Jesus alone is the one who will lead us deeper into a relationship with God. While people can be a support and witness, there will be a time when they will fail and disappoint us. Each person listed in Hebrews failed and let others down - but Jesus did not. If we lose faith in God because of people, then maybe our faith was never in God but only in people. If that has happened, then fix your eyes on Jesus and allow Him to give new life to your faith.
One final word, if you have been hurt or disappointed by people here at Faith Church - I’m sorry. We don’t always get it right. I don’t always get it right. We often miss the mark of what it means to follow Jesus and at times we end up doing things that let people down and saying things that might end up turning people away from God. We have, and will mess up, and I’m sorry. While we strive to be a reflection of Jesus in our love, our words and actions might betray that love. Please don’t put your faith and trust in us - if you do, you will be disappointed. Put your faith in Jesus. Fix your eyes on Him. Let the living God reveal to you who He is and how His love and grace can change your life. Fix your eyes on Jesus and let Him be the author of your faith.
Next Steps
Doubting God - Doubting Others
When has a follower of Jesus disappointed you and caused you to struggle in your faith? When have you been hurt by other Christians or the church?
● If you need to talk about this with someone, seek out a trusted friend or counselor to find help and healing.
● How can you learn to forgive and find a renewal of your faith and trust in God?
When have you failed to live out your faith and perhaps caused people to doubt the goodness and love of God?
● Have you asked God, and others, to forgive you?
● Is that something you need to do this week?
The word hypocrite comes from the Greek theater and means an actor or stage performer. How did Jesus change the meaning of this world?
Read Matthew 23:1-36. What are the 7 woes listed here?
Why do you think Jesus spoke so harshly against religious leaders that He saw as hypocrites?
Three reasons we often see people say one thing and yet do something else in their faith.
● Some claim to be Christian, but they don’t belong to Jesus. See Titus 1:16
● Some are Christians but they are not mature. See Hebrews 5:13-14
● Some are Christians, and maturing, and still mess up. See Romans 7:21-25
How can you make sure you are continuing to grow in your faith? Consider joining a small group, learning how to read the Bible, or attend the Design class that starts tonight.
