3.12.17-Protection from Hypocrisy


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East Cooper Baptist Church March 12, 2017 Protection from Hypocrisy Luke 12:4-12 “I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do.  5 But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! 6 Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. 7Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows. 8  “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, 9 but the one who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God. 10And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.11 And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, 12 for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” The leaven of the Pharisees was hypocrisy; or the yearning to be applauded by men and admired for being men based only upon their external acts and not internal worship. Instead, we should live with honest simplicity before God (playing to an audience of One). The Pharisees had layered the Mosaic law with numerous teachings which had come to be viewed as binding and equal to God's Word. Jesus refers to them as “blind guides”, “whitewashed tombs” or those who “clean the outside of the cup but inside you are full of greed and wickedness”. (Luke 11:39) How to protect yourself from hypocrisy/ false religion? 1. Fear (filially), reverence, run to the embrace of Abba Father. (12:4-7) (This fear of God is in contrast to the fear of man). 2. Acknowledge the Son in word and deed. (12.8-9) “22 For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son,23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.” John 5:22-23 You are doing the works your father did.” They said to him, “We were not born of sexual immorality. We have one Father—even God.” 42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.” John 8:41-42 “41 

3. Welcome the Holy Spirit. (12:10-12) “Blasphemy of the Spirit is not so much an act of rejection as it is a persistent and decisive reaction of the Spirit’s message and work concerning Jesus. When a person obstinately rejects and fixedly refuses that message or evidence, that person is not forgiven.” Darrell Block, Baker Exegetical Commentary: Luke “The Father has planned redemption and the Son has accomplished redemption. This wonderful redemption is outside ourselves and available to us if we repent of our sin and turn back to Christ in faith. But it is the unique and special role of the Holy Spirit to apply the Father’s plan and the Son’s accomplishment of it to our hearts. It is the Spirit’s work to open our eyes, to grant repentance, and to make us beneficiaries of all that the Father has planned and all that Christ has done for us. If we blaspheme and reject the Father and the Son, there is little hope, for the Spirit may yet work within us to humble us and bring us to repentance. But if behind the Father and the Son we see and taste the power of the Holy Spirit and reject his work as no more precious than the work of Satan, we shut ourselves off from the only one who could ever bring us repentance. And so we shut ourselves off from forgiveness.” John Piper, Desiring God “Blasphemy is a state of willful and determined opposition to the present power of the Holy Spirit.” Henry Alford “Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity Questions for Discussion: 1. What is one accusation the Pharisees applied towards Jesus? (Matthew 12:24) 2. What did the extraordinary disturbance on the part of the Pharisees in Luke 11:38 reflect? How can we reflect this perturbed amazement in contemporary faith? (Hint: cultural sayings and norms become almost as important as Scripture). 3. Give some synonyms for “publicly acknowledge” (v.8). (Note Perpetua and Felicitas martyred in Carthage, North Africa in 202). 4. What is blaspheming the Holy Spirit? Why is it the unforgivable sin? 5. How do we welcome the Holy Spirit is such a way that He guards against hypocrisy?