WEBVTT 00:00:03.460 --> 00:00:09.900 Woes! W -O -E -S! That is the title of my sermon 00:00:09.900 --> 00:00:12.259 today, so I want to have a little fun with this. 00:00:12.359 --> 00:00:15.570 When... Do we either hear or when you hear that 00:00:15.570 --> 00:00:19.170 word woe, when do you use that maybe in your 00:00:19.170 --> 00:00:22.109 life? Maybe you don't use it a whole lot. Maybe 00:00:22.109 --> 00:00:26.329 you use it more in the W -O -A -H in your life. 00:00:26.350 --> 00:00:29.730 Woe that way. So let's have a little bit of a 00:00:29.730 --> 00:00:33.829 back and forth. So when do we use this woe or 00:00:33.829 --> 00:00:37.549 woes or woe? It all depends on your inflection. 00:00:37.969 --> 00:00:42.229 When do we use this kind of phrasing in our life? 00:00:43.969 --> 00:00:47.030 Woe is me. Absolutely, right? When we're feeling 00:00:47.030 --> 00:00:50.270 maybe down about ourself or a sad clown, you 00:00:50.270 --> 00:00:52.469 know, those kind of things, woe is me. Absolutely. 00:00:52.530 --> 00:00:58.670 When else? Yeah. When Larry gets too close to 00:00:58.670 --> 00:01:03.369 another car. All right. Well, that took a turn. 00:01:03.490 --> 00:01:09.609 No pun intended. All right. Yep. And he's not 00:01:09.609 --> 00:01:11.409 even here to defend himself. All right. Fair 00:01:11.409 --> 00:01:15.480 enough. Yeah. All right. When else? In the back. 00:01:20.500 --> 00:01:23.739 Oh, okay. So that's what I hear like with kids, 00:01:23.840 --> 00:01:26.040 right? Siblings, right? All of a sudden someone 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:28.760 does something, the other sibling goes, oh, you're 00:01:28.760 --> 00:01:31.480 in trouble. And they say it gleefully, which 00:01:31.480 --> 00:01:34.840 I think is very much Satan incarnate. Others. 00:01:35.719 --> 00:01:37.859 How many of you go straight to Uncle Jesse from 00:01:37.859 --> 00:01:40.379 Full House? That's where I go, right? I go to, 00:01:40.400 --> 00:01:43.140 whoa, right? Absolutely. Thank you, Lisa. Yep, 00:01:43.159 --> 00:01:45.579 at least one of you. Or maybe like, whoa, tomorrow 00:01:45.579 --> 00:01:50.879 I turn 40. You know, stuff like that. Those kind 00:01:50.879 --> 00:01:57.760 of woes. Where else? What? A big fish taking 00:01:57.760 --> 00:01:59.819 your drag. Okay, I don't even know what that 00:01:59.819 --> 00:02:03.900 means. But, yeah. A fish in a drag. Great. Taking 00:02:03.900 --> 00:02:05.900 it. Maybe that's a smoking thing. I have no idea. 00:02:06.079 --> 00:02:09.699 But fish taking a drag. Went out. I can envision 00:02:09.699 --> 00:02:13.740 myself in two years in the church parking lot 00:02:13.740 --> 00:02:16.699 with Joey learning to drive using this word a 00:02:16.699 --> 00:02:20.439 lot. Right? Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't worry 00:02:20.439 --> 00:02:22.860 about the graveyard. They're already dead. But 00:02:22.860 --> 00:02:27.280 understand that woe can be used for many different 00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:31.949 things. Jesus is going to use this very specifically. 00:02:32.949 --> 00:02:35.710 Because this pressure that he's going to bring, 00:02:35.909 --> 00:02:40.949 the woe is more of a warning. But these are warnings 00:02:40.949 --> 00:02:44.550 that are not new to the people of Israel. Because 00:02:44.550 --> 00:02:48.490 woes were used a ton in the Old Testament. This 00:02:48.490 --> 00:02:51.969 was one of the main jobs of the prophets, major 00:02:51.969 --> 00:02:54.449 and minor, right? That was one of their jobs, 00:02:54.449 --> 00:02:57.949 were to bring the woes. Which was God's like, 00:02:58.030 --> 00:03:01.969 be careful. You're about to do this or woe when 00:03:01.969 --> 00:03:05.610 you do this. God being all knowing, right? God 00:03:05.610 --> 00:03:08.009 seeing that, knowing what they are going to do. 00:03:08.110 --> 00:03:11.210 He warns them and he does the same thing today. 00:03:11.830 --> 00:03:15.189 And the pressure, this kind of particular pressure 00:03:15.189 --> 00:03:18.770 comes from, that we're going to talk about today, 00:03:18.849 --> 00:03:20.909 comes kind of something we bring upon ourselves. 00:03:21.810 --> 00:03:24.789 Because one of the woes we saw in the minor prophets. 00:03:25.280 --> 00:03:28.360 We saw that before Lent in that sermon series. 00:03:28.419 --> 00:03:31.800 We see now is when faith becomes a performance. 00:03:32.520 --> 00:03:34.599 That is what Jesus is going to call out today 00:03:34.599 --> 00:03:37.400 in a very specific way. We talked about that 00:03:37.400 --> 00:03:39.360 in one of the Minor Prophets, that when our faith 00:03:39.360 --> 00:03:42.120 becomes performative, when we feel like we're 00:03:42.120 --> 00:03:44.020 doing it for an audience or we're kind of getting 00:03:44.020 --> 00:03:47.500 into our faith character, or that alter ego where 00:03:47.500 --> 00:03:49.719 we have Monday through Saturday gym, but then 00:03:49.719 --> 00:03:52.719 Sunday gym is very different. When faith becomes 00:03:52.719 --> 00:03:56.469 a performance, this... brings a pressure. The 00:03:56.469 --> 00:04:01.289 pressure to look like everything is fine, okay, 00:04:01.449 --> 00:04:04.710 just right, whatever. Just enough for people 00:04:04.710 --> 00:04:07.169 to look for someone else to have an issue. The 00:04:07.169 --> 00:04:10.689 pressure to appear spiritual. High, lofty, that 00:04:10.689 --> 00:04:13.990 piety, false sense of piety. A pressure to maintain 00:04:13.990 --> 00:04:18.930 an image that we have it all together. The pressure 00:04:18.930 --> 00:04:21.910 for our online self and our real self to not 00:04:21.910 --> 00:04:25.589 be the same always. Right? We have that pressure. 00:04:26.230 --> 00:04:29.970 Sometimes the hardest place to be honest is the 00:04:29.970 --> 00:04:34.949 very place where honesty needs to be. That honesty 00:04:34.949 --> 00:04:38.870 in those moments should really be the first thing 00:04:38.870 --> 00:04:41.250 we walk through. And this is the tension that 00:04:41.250 --> 00:04:43.889 Jesus walks in in a very lengthy, there's a lot 00:04:43.889 --> 00:04:45.829 of scripture here this morning, in Luke chapter 00:04:45.829 --> 00:04:51.009 11. You see, a Pharisee invites Jesus to dinner. 00:04:51.649 --> 00:04:54.629 Now. I have a sermon series set for, I believe, 00:04:54.790 --> 00:04:58.529 fall of 28 called Dinner with Jesus that I'm 00:04:58.529 --> 00:05:00.730 really excited about. I may bring it in to even 00:05:00.730 --> 00:05:03.589 maybe this year, if not beginning of next year, 00:05:03.649 --> 00:05:05.610 where we're going to look at all the dinner passages 00:05:05.610 --> 00:05:07.389 that Jesus gets brought into because they're 00:05:07.389 --> 00:05:10.889 fascinating. On the surface, this seems like 00:05:10.889 --> 00:05:13.129 a polite conversation, though it's a weird ask, 00:05:13.290 --> 00:05:16.310 but Jesus goes. But under the surface, there's 00:05:16.310 --> 00:05:18.389 a pressure to this dinner. This is a pressure 00:05:18.389 --> 00:05:21.699 cooker. Because the Pharisees had mastered the 00:05:21.699 --> 00:05:25.639 art of religious appearance. Everything looks 00:05:25.639 --> 00:05:28.980 great. Right? We get the china out just for when 00:05:28.980 --> 00:05:31.899 the queen comes over. Said nobody ever. But we 00:05:31.899 --> 00:05:34.860 do it for appearances. There's no way they're 00:05:34.860 --> 00:05:36.899 going to eat on the paper plates when Jesus is 00:05:36.899 --> 00:05:40.339 around. They knew the rituals. The Pharisees 00:05:40.339 --> 00:05:43.079 knew the language. They could speak the Christianese 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:46.980 or the Templeese. They knew how to look faithful. 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:50.000 But they're literally trying to pull one over 00:05:50.000 --> 00:05:52.699 on the Son of Man. Something we learned about 00:05:52.699 --> 00:05:55.660 two weeks ago. At the dinner table, Jesus is 00:05:55.660 --> 00:05:58.899 going to do something shocking. He is going to 00:05:58.899 --> 00:06:04.160 warn them with woes. W -O -E -S. Not something 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:07.959 that usually is done at a dinner table. They're 00:06:07.959 --> 00:06:12.649 not curses. They're warnings. Grieving warnings 00:06:12.649 --> 00:06:16.430 spoken to people whose religion had become an 00:06:16.430 --> 00:06:19.970 empty practice. What does that mean today? When 00:06:19.970 --> 00:06:22.629 you go to church, yet there is nothing changing 00:06:22.629 --> 00:06:25.029 in your life. You're just going to stay status 00:06:25.029 --> 00:06:26.550 quo. You're going to come. You're going to serve. 00:06:26.670 --> 00:06:27.970 You're going to worship. You're going to do the 00:06:27.970 --> 00:06:29.629 nursery. You're going to do whatever. Nothing 00:06:29.629 --> 00:06:32.110 is making a difference because faith has become 00:06:32.110 --> 00:06:37.279 empty. Under this pressure, Jesus exposes. The 00:06:37.279 --> 00:06:40.439 most uncomfortable thing we can walk in in our 00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:46.060 lives. Hypocrisy. That hypocrisy plagues the 00:06:46.060 --> 00:06:49.480 church. Then, it plagues the church. Now, and 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:51.459 what we know from our study in Revelation a couple 00:06:51.459 --> 00:06:54.720 years ago, it will plague the church in the future. 00:06:54.879 --> 00:06:57.019 So let's dive in. Luke 11. Again, there's going 00:06:57.019 --> 00:06:59.120 to be a lot of scripture here. A lot of slides. 00:06:59.300 --> 00:07:01.600 We're going to start with verse 37 of Luke chapter 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:08.379 11. While Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee asked 00:07:08.379 --> 00:07:11.600 him to dine with him, so he went in and reclined 00:07:11.600 --> 00:07:15.439 at the table. The Pharisee was astonished to 00:07:15.439 --> 00:07:18.379 see that he did not first wash before dinner. 00:07:18.680 --> 00:07:22.639 And the Lord said to him, Now you Pharisees cleanse 00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:25.899 the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside 00:07:25.899 --> 00:07:29.759 you are full of greed and wickedness. You fools! 00:07:30.699 --> 00:07:34.360 Did not he who made the outside make the inside 00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:37.699 also? But give as an alms those things that are 00:07:37.699 --> 00:07:41.759 within, and behold, everything is clean for you. 00:07:42.180 --> 00:07:46.540 But woe to you, Pharisees, for you tithe mint 00:07:46.540 --> 00:07:50.000 and rue and every herb and neglect justice and 00:07:50.000 --> 00:07:54.779 the love of God. These you ought to have done 00:07:54.779 --> 00:07:58.519 without neglecting the others. Woe to you, Pharisees. 00:07:58.519 --> 00:08:01.709 That's second. For you love the best seat in 00:08:01.709 --> 00:08:03.810 the synagogues and greetings in the marketplace. 00:08:04.790 --> 00:08:08.889 Woe to you, for you are like unmarked graves 00:08:08.889 --> 00:08:12.269 and people walk over them without knowing it. 00:08:12.529 --> 00:08:15.149 One of the lawyers answered him, Teacher, in 00:08:15.149 --> 00:08:18.839 saying these things you insult us also. So he 00:08:18.839 --> 00:08:21.680 continues, he said, Woe to you lawyers also, 00:08:22.019 --> 00:08:25.180 sorry Garrett, for you load people with burdens 00:08:25.180 --> 00:08:28.620 hard to bear, and you yourselves do not touch 00:08:28.620 --> 00:08:32.700 the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe to 00:08:32.700 --> 00:08:35.820 you, for you have built tombs of the prophets 00:08:35.820 --> 00:08:39.059 whom your fathers killed. You are witnesses, 00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:42.679 and you consent to deeds of your fathers, for 00:08:42.679 --> 00:08:45.759 they killed them, and you build their tombs. 00:08:46.429 --> 00:08:49.730 Therefore also the wisdom of God said, I will 00:08:49.730 --> 00:08:53.409 send them prophets and apostles, some of whom 00:08:53.409 --> 00:08:56.730 they will kill and persecute, so that the blood 00:08:56.730 --> 00:08:58.929 of all the prophets shed from the foundation 00:08:58.929 --> 00:09:01.850 of the world may be charged against this generation, 00:09:02.129 --> 00:09:04.750 from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, 00:09:04.750 --> 00:09:07.809 who perished between the altar and the sanctuary. 00:09:08.230 --> 00:09:11.169 Yes, I tell you, it will be required of this 00:09:11.169 --> 00:09:14.389 generation. Woe to you, lawyers, for you have 00:09:14.389 --> 00:09:17.309 taken away the key of knowledge. You did not 00:09:17.309 --> 00:09:21.389 enter yourselves, and you hinder those who are 00:09:21.389 --> 00:09:25.289 entering. As he went away from there, the scribes 00:09:25.289 --> 00:09:27.909 and the Pharisees began to press him hard and 00:09:27.909 --> 00:09:31.330 to provoke him to speak about many things, lying 00:09:31.330 --> 00:09:34.370 in wait for him to catch him saying something 00:09:34.370 --> 00:09:40.190 he might say. In the meantime, when so many thousands 00:09:40.190 --> 00:09:42.570 of people had gathered together that they were 00:09:42.570 --> 00:09:45.350 trampling one another, he began to say to his 00:09:45.350 --> 00:09:48.250 disciples first, Beware of the leaven of the 00:09:48.250 --> 00:09:51.529 Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered 00:09:51.529 --> 00:09:53.929 up that will not be revealed, or hidden that 00:09:53.929 --> 00:09:57.940 will not be known. Therefore, whatever you have 00:09:57.940 --> 00:10:00.000 said in the dark shall be heard in the light, 00:10:00.100 --> 00:10:02.580 and whatever you have whispered in private rooms 00:10:02.580 --> 00:10:08.500 shall be proclaimed on the housetops. There's 00:10:08.500 --> 00:10:13.080 a lot there. A lot to that conversation. The 00:10:13.080 --> 00:10:16.220 first pressure point that Jesus enters right 00:10:16.220 --> 00:10:18.799 away and calls out is that external religion 00:10:18.799 --> 00:10:24.980 can hide an unchanged heart. Six, seven different 00:10:24.980 --> 00:10:29.159 woes in just that dinner conversation. That brings 00:10:29.159 --> 00:10:31.740 a lot more pressure than the Thanksgiving dinner 00:10:31.740 --> 00:10:34.379 that may turn political or when all of a sudden 00:10:34.379 --> 00:10:37.340 the black sheep of the family shows up and no 00:10:37.340 --> 00:10:39.299 one thought they were. There's tension to all 00:10:39.299 --> 00:10:41.879 of those conversations. Jesus is bringing it, 00:10:41.919 --> 00:10:45.559 it seems, upon himself. But Luke tells us that 00:10:45.559 --> 00:10:48.360 Jesus reclined at the Pharisees' table without 00:10:48.360 --> 00:10:52.259 performing the ceremonial washing expected before 00:10:52.259 --> 00:10:56.940 the meal. There's immediate tension. The Pharisees 00:10:56.940 --> 00:11:00.519 are shocked. Probably not really. Not because 00:11:00.519 --> 00:11:03.480 Jesus was unclean, but because Jesus ignored 00:11:03.480 --> 00:11:08.100 their tradition. And Jesus responds directly 00:11:08.100 --> 00:11:10.960 to it. He knows their hearts, right? Calls him 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:13.179 by name. We sang it, but he knows their hearts. 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:16.620 You Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup 00:11:16.620 --> 00:11:19.340 and the dish, but inside you are full of greed 00:11:19.340 --> 00:11:23.039 and wickedness. In other words, the outside looks 00:11:23.039 --> 00:11:26.159 clean, but Pharisees, Munster Church, Pastor 00:11:26.159 --> 00:11:32.019 Jim, the inside is not. Jesus is not condemning 00:11:32.019 --> 00:11:35.700 cleanliness, my friends. He is exposing the danger 00:11:35.700 --> 00:11:42.250 of external religion without internal. That's 00:11:42.250 --> 00:11:45.549 the first pressure. He is exposing. And none 00:11:45.549 --> 00:11:48.570 of us should be comfortable with that. We hide 00:11:48.570 --> 00:11:51.450 these sins, right? We keep them to ourselves. 00:11:51.529 --> 00:11:53.509 We hide them locked in some room in our soul. 00:11:53.690 --> 00:11:58.029 And what Jesus does, because he can, he exposes 00:11:58.029 --> 00:12:01.429 them. This is the pressure of appearances. We 00:12:01.429 --> 00:12:04.210 struggle with this in the church. We've struggled 00:12:04.210 --> 00:12:07.519 with this for centuries in the church. We learn 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:09.679 how to say the right things. We learn how to 00:12:09.679 --> 00:12:14.419 act the right way. But our hearts remain untouched. 00:12:15.840 --> 00:12:17.860 You know what I'm talking about. It's that group 00:12:17.860 --> 00:12:23.340 of boxes we check. Went to church, check. In 00:12:23.340 --> 00:12:25.539 our youth ministry, went to catechism, check. 00:12:25.700 --> 00:12:27.299 Went to Sunday school, check. Served on this 00:12:27.299 --> 00:12:29.519 committee, check. Had been an elder, check. Deacon, 00:12:29.600 --> 00:12:31.480 check. Did all the things, check, check, check. 00:12:31.840 --> 00:12:34.639 Jesus doesn't care about the checks. Jesus cares 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:37.620 about your heart. The Heidelberg Catechism reminds 00:12:37.620 --> 00:12:40.700 us in Lord's Day 2, from where do we know our 00:12:40.700 --> 00:12:45.080 sin and our misery? From the law. From God's 00:12:45.080 --> 00:12:48.080 word. God's law does not merely examine behavior. 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:51.580 It examines the heart. And when the heart is 00:12:51.580 --> 00:12:55.759 examined, appearances can no longer hide the 00:12:55.759 --> 00:12:59.539 truth. Now, if you're uncomfortable, I get it. 00:12:59.580 --> 00:13:02.220 I'm uncomfortable. Because when we talk about 00:13:02.220 --> 00:13:06.159 exposing things, especially in 2026, it is gotcha 00:13:06.159 --> 00:13:08.519 journalism all over the place. Everybody wants 00:13:08.519 --> 00:13:11.500 to, everyone wants to gotcha, wants that gotcha 00:13:11.500 --> 00:13:13.740 moment, right? Whether it's someone running for 00:13:13.740 --> 00:13:16.620 office or someone getting popular online, everybody 00:13:16.620 --> 00:13:19.399 wants to expose something they do just to knock 00:13:19.399 --> 00:13:23.279 them down in a place that absolutely none of 00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:27.649 us should take. We talk about it a lot in seminary 00:13:27.649 --> 00:13:29.850 that when you become a pastor, right, you live 00:13:29.850 --> 00:13:33.289 in a glass house. What does that mean? That means, 00:13:33.370 --> 00:13:35.090 well, you're in a job that for the most part 00:13:35.090 --> 00:13:38.509 is on 24 -7, 365, right? I know a lot of you 00:13:38.509 --> 00:13:40.529 think it's one day a week. That's fine. It's 00:13:40.529 --> 00:13:44.389 not. But understand that everything really can 00:13:44.389 --> 00:13:48.330 be exposed or seen for the most part. I don't 00:13:48.330 --> 00:13:50.730 fully agree with that because it's, you know, 00:13:50.750 --> 00:13:53.230 I don't know how many of you drive by our house 00:13:53.230 --> 00:13:55.320 just for the heck of it. You wouldn't raise your 00:13:55.320 --> 00:13:58.159 hand even if you wanted to. Thank you, Eli. That's 00:13:58.159 --> 00:14:01.820 weird. And so understand that, you know, it's 00:14:01.820 --> 00:14:04.000 not just pastors. It should be every believer, 00:14:04.120 --> 00:14:07.899 right? Every believer lives in glass houses, 00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:12.039 and when we want to stand in judgment and throw 00:14:12.039 --> 00:14:14.639 those stones out of our glass house, what we 00:14:14.639 --> 00:14:18.700 fail to realize is our windows break first. You 00:14:18.700 --> 00:14:20.559 go to the woman caught in the act of adultery. 00:14:20.620 --> 00:14:24.120 Though without sin, cast the first stone. Jesus 00:14:24.120 --> 00:14:26.879 is not calling it out to the regular people today, 00:14:26.919 --> 00:14:29.460 though he is for the sermon. He is calling out 00:14:29.460 --> 00:14:33.480 the religious ones. This was the religious elite, 00:14:33.700 --> 00:14:35.480 quote unquote, but he's really calling out the 00:14:35.480 --> 00:14:38.080 church. Pressure point two, religion without 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:42.580 mercy becomes oppression. Then Jesus goes on 00:14:42.580 --> 00:14:45.279 this dialogue, this monologue, if you will, of 00:14:45.279 --> 00:14:49.320 woes. Woe to you Pharisees. So let's break down 00:14:49.320 --> 00:14:53.259 this word woe. Woe, though we had a lot of fun 00:14:53.259 --> 00:14:56.620 with it in the beginning of the sermon, it's 00:14:56.620 --> 00:15:00.480 not simply anger, but there's grief to it. This 00:15:00.480 --> 00:15:04.419 is an emotive word. It is a cry of someone who 00:15:04.419 --> 00:15:10.129 sees destruction coming. Right? There's so many 00:15:10.129 --> 00:15:12.909 uses that we see in this word, but biblically 00:15:12.909 --> 00:15:16.250 what Jesus is talking about is he is seeing their 00:15:16.250 --> 00:15:19.789 destruction coming, and he's verbalizing it. 00:15:20.429 --> 00:15:23.450 Now, that's met with a mix of emotions. That 00:15:23.450 --> 00:15:26.450 could be met with, praise the Lord, I'm so glad. 00:15:26.490 --> 00:15:28.789 I needed that stop sign in my life. I needed 00:15:28.789 --> 00:15:30.850 that yield sign in my life. I needed that do 00:15:30.850 --> 00:15:33.649 not pass go, do not collect $200 in my life. 00:15:34.409 --> 00:15:38.580 But for some of us, we get angry. How dare you 00:15:38.580 --> 00:15:40.500 tell me what the future is going to hold? How 00:15:40.500 --> 00:15:43.980 dare you try to navigate my path? Though I pray 00:15:43.980 --> 00:15:45.820 to you for doing that, I don't really want you 00:15:45.820 --> 00:15:48.679 to because I want to guide my own path. I want 00:15:48.679 --> 00:15:51.779 to draw that own path for myself. Jesus points 00:15:51.779 --> 00:15:55.360 out the Pharisees' meticulous attention to the 00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:59.120 tiny little details. They tithe their herbs, 00:15:59.179 --> 00:16:04.179 their mint, but they neglect justice or the love 00:16:04.179 --> 00:16:07.059 of God. In other words, they observe the minor 00:16:07.059 --> 00:16:11.120 rules while ignoring the heart of God's law. 00:16:11.460 --> 00:16:14.759 And Jesus then addresses it in front of them. 00:16:15.000 --> 00:16:18.340 He addresses it to the lawyers, the experts of 00:16:18.340 --> 00:16:21.539 the law, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes. 00:16:21.539 --> 00:16:27.399 You load people with burdens hard to bear. The 00:16:27.399 --> 00:16:30.500 religion becomes too heavy. It gets corrupted. 00:16:31.159 --> 00:16:33.139 Instead of helping people walk with God, the 00:16:33.139 --> 00:16:37.279 leaders had created a system that actually crushes 00:16:37.279 --> 00:16:40.840 them. The Heidelberg Catechism reminds us in 00:16:40.840 --> 00:16:43.799 Lord's Day 44 that the law ultimately exposes 00:16:43.799 --> 00:16:46.840 our inability to keep it perfectly and should 00:16:46.840 --> 00:16:50.659 drive us to Christ. But what does Satan do? Satan 00:16:50.659 --> 00:16:53.519 uses that guilt to try to drive you away from 00:16:53.519 --> 00:16:58.320 Christ. And there's the tension. You see, the 00:16:58.320 --> 00:17:01.759 Pharisees have reversed the purpose. Hear this 00:17:01.759 --> 00:17:05.259 point. Instead of leading people to grace, they 00:17:05.259 --> 00:17:09.099 buried people under the rules. They couldn't 00:17:09.099 --> 00:17:11.619 receive it or keep it, so they sure were going 00:17:11.619 --> 00:17:13.480 to make other people not be able to receive it 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:16.119 or follow it. And that is the hypocrisy, and 00:17:16.119 --> 00:17:18.660 that's our third point. Hypocrisy resists the 00:17:18.660 --> 00:17:23.039 truth. Jesus continues his warnings by pointing 00:17:23.039 --> 00:17:25.849 out Israel's history. The prophets were rejected 00:17:25.849 --> 00:17:28.210 again and again. We know this. We've talked about 00:17:28.210 --> 00:17:31.009 this, Munster Church. And now the same pattern 00:17:31.009 --> 00:17:34.269 is happening. He sees it in the temple. The religious 00:17:34.269 --> 00:17:37.549 leaders claim to honor the prophets, but their 00:17:37.549 --> 00:17:42.009 batting average is very poor. The past does not 00:17:42.009 --> 00:17:45.410 support their present claims. They are plotting 00:17:45.410 --> 00:17:49.130 against the very one the prophets talked about. 00:17:49.289 --> 00:17:52.250 All the prophets were pointing to Jesus. And 00:17:52.250 --> 00:17:56.750 as we see, they were plotting to kill him. Because 00:17:56.750 --> 00:18:00.769 friends, the truth is hypocrisy will always resist 00:18:00.769 --> 00:18:06.349 truth. It feeds itself on lies. It feeds itself 00:18:06.349 --> 00:18:11.329 on the fake. That's how hypocrisy works. Truth 00:18:11.329 --> 00:18:14.690 exposes the heart. Luke tells us that from this 00:18:14.690 --> 00:18:17.910 moment forward, the leaders begin pressing Jesus 00:18:17.910 --> 00:18:22.549 hard. There's a turn in the narrative. It wasn't 00:18:22.549 --> 00:18:24.269 just, okay, let's see if this guy's going to 00:18:24.269 --> 00:18:26.369 be consistent in his answers. It's going to be, 00:18:26.390 --> 00:18:28.150 now we're going to put the pressure on to snuff 00:18:28.150 --> 00:18:30.750 him out. Right? The hits just keep on coming 00:18:30.750 --> 00:18:34.190 for Jesus. The pressure around Jesus intensifies, 00:18:34.250 --> 00:18:39.369 and the reason here is simple. Jesus' truth is 00:18:39.369 --> 00:18:44.130 threatening their way of life. So we can talk 00:18:44.130 --> 00:18:46.190 about the Pharisees and the pastors and all the 00:18:46.190 --> 00:18:47.930 religious elite, but let's talk about all of 00:18:47.930 --> 00:18:52.579 us now in 2026 who claim Jesus. The same holds 00:18:52.579 --> 00:18:55.960 true. I could be a great Christian for about 00:18:55.960 --> 00:18:59.319 95 minutes on a Sunday. But every other day, 00:18:59.359 --> 00:19:03.220 people wouldn't even know. Friend, that's hypocrisy. 00:19:04.779 --> 00:19:08.779 When we try to hide, that is showing what we 00:19:08.779 --> 00:19:12.660 actually believe about God. And at the end of 00:19:12.660 --> 00:19:15.670 the day, it's that he's not God. If we try to 00:19:15.670 --> 00:19:17.869 hide, if you try to play hide and seek with someone 00:19:17.869 --> 00:19:20.690 that's omniscient and omnipresent, it's not God 00:19:20.690 --> 00:19:24.109 who's the fool. It's us. And that's the fourth 00:19:24.109 --> 00:19:28.369 point, that nothing stays hidden forever. Jesus 00:19:28.369 --> 00:19:30.730 then turns to his disciples and says, Beware 00:19:30.730 --> 00:19:35.250 of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. 00:19:36.210 --> 00:19:42.549 Leaven spreads quietly. It starts small, but 00:19:42.549 --> 00:19:45.940 eventually takes over. How do I know? I have 00:19:45.940 --> 00:19:49.119 a very good friend who loves to bake, and I've 00:19:49.119 --> 00:19:53.920 learned so much from her outright anger about 00:19:53.920 --> 00:19:59.880 baking, right? I think she is at 74, right? 74, 00:20:00.019 --> 00:20:03.299 what are those called? Spatulas. She is broken 00:20:03.299 --> 00:20:06.220 because baking gets her. It's not Bethany. I 00:20:06.220 --> 00:20:08.220 won't tell you who it is. It's Cheyenne. But 00:20:08.220 --> 00:20:13.019 understand that she is such an intense baker. 00:20:14.160 --> 00:20:17.339 It is like spiritual for her, and I love watching 00:20:17.339 --> 00:20:20.500 it, right? Because A, the product is really tasty, 00:20:20.619 --> 00:20:22.660 right? It's really, really good. But there is 00:20:22.660 --> 00:20:25.940 a thing you have to kind of beat into submission 00:20:25.940 --> 00:20:28.400 when it comes to baking. My wife does it as well. 00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:31.440 My sons are learning it. Way not from me. Mine 00:20:31.440 --> 00:20:34.920 is called DoorDash. And so understand that there's 00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:38.400 an art to it, but leaven, if you don't handle 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:41.539 it the right way, much like yeast, it takes over. 00:20:42.299 --> 00:20:47.180 It starts small. Just like hypocrisy. Hypocrisy 00:20:47.180 --> 00:20:49.660 doesn't necessarily start in the grandstand. 00:20:49.700 --> 00:20:54.559 It starts with that still small lie. That little 00:20:54.559 --> 00:20:59.619 rumor. That misdirection. And it grows. Jesus 00:20:59.619 --> 00:21:01.660 warns that one day everything hidden will be 00:21:01.660 --> 00:21:03.960 revealed. Nothing is covered up that will not 00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:09.640 be revealed. Every mask eventually falls. Every 00:21:09.640 --> 00:21:12.799 hidden motive is exposed. The reality really 00:21:12.799 --> 00:21:15.339 should humble us, should terrify us, should make 00:21:15.339 --> 00:21:21.160 us cling to God more. Because, let's be honest, 00:21:21.279 --> 00:21:27.059 none of us are immune to hypocrisy. So if you're 00:21:27.059 --> 00:21:29.839 feeling that binding, if you're thinking, how 00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:33.059 in the world did Jim know my week? I don't, but 00:21:33.059 --> 00:21:38.539 I know mine, and I'm saying it to me first. I 00:21:38.539 --> 00:21:40.099 think it's a lot easier to live with the mask 00:21:40.099 --> 00:21:44.079 off, right? I say that knowing I don't always 00:21:44.079 --> 00:21:47.319 believe that. But when the mask falls off, something 00:21:47.319 --> 00:21:52.099 happens. There is good news in the woes. Yeah, 00:21:52.119 --> 00:21:54.380 the Pharisees we know won't get it, except for 00:21:54.380 --> 00:21:58.180 one, right? We get one in Nicodemus. He does 00:21:58.180 --> 00:21:59.859 get it. That's another rhyme for another time. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:02.559 But because if everything hidden will eventually 00:22:02.559 --> 00:22:06.920 be revealed, it could be terrifying. If there 00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:10.700 wasn't something, in good Reformed theology, 00:22:10.759 --> 00:22:14.599 we cling to this word. Does anyone know what 00:22:14.599 --> 00:22:17.940 it is? We sing about it. It's really amazing. 00:22:18.740 --> 00:22:24.539 Grace. Everything hidden will eventually be revealed, 00:22:24.700 --> 00:22:28.960 and it could be terrifying if there wasn't grace. 00:22:29.769 --> 00:22:32.410 And that is where the gospel enters. Lord's Day 00:22:32.410 --> 00:22:36.150 23. God grants and credits to me the perfect 00:22:36.150 --> 00:22:39.470 satisfaction, righteousness, and holiness of 00:22:39.470 --> 00:22:42.509 Christ. In other words, the gospel does not depend 00:22:42.509 --> 00:22:45.750 on our ability to maintain a perfect image. It 00:22:45.750 --> 00:22:50.869 depends on Christ's perfect righteousness. The 00:22:50.869 --> 00:22:53.549 gospel has never been about me. It has never 00:22:53.549 --> 00:22:55.869 been about you. It's never been about Munster 00:22:55.869 --> 00:23:01.549 Church. It should define who we are. Jesus exposes 00:23:01.549 --> 00:23:05.109 hypocrisy not to destroy sinners. And friends, 00:23:05.109 --> 00:23:07.950 let's be honest, he could. He could have left 00:23:07.950 --> 00:23:11.170 that, much like some movie I'm sure is out there. 00:23:11.289 --> 00:23:13.509 He could have just lit that match, everyone in 00:23:13.509 --> 00:23:16.190 that place dies, and he just goes out to really 00:23:16.190 --> 00:23:20.569 cool music. But he doesn't. Jesus exposes it 00:23:20.569 --> 00:23:25.049 so we recognize it, so we confess it and be rescued 00:23:25.049 --> 00:23:28.839 by him. The same Savior who confronted the Pharisees 00:23:28.839 --> 00:23:32.660 will soon carry their sin, our sin, the sins 00:23:32.660 --> 00:23:35.259 of the hypocrites, the rebels, and the failures 00:23:35.259 --> 00:23:40.039 on the cross. Which means the Christian life 00:23:40.039 --> 00:23:43.980 is not about pretending to be righteous. If you're 00:23:43.980 --> 00:23:46.380 here today and you love pretending to be righteous, 00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:52.099 I'm going to lovingly say, whoa! Stop. Let it 00:23:52.099 --> 00:23:57.059 go. Jesus wants you to be real with him. Why 00:23:57.059 --> 00:23:58.920 would he not want you to be real with others? 00:24:00.259 --> 00:24:03.019 If we can be a church, if we can be a people 00:24:03.019 --> 00:24:07.160 that lead with our limp, with where we fall short, 00:24:07.279 --> 00:24:11.160 where our need of grace is, I think that's the 00:24:11.160 --> 00:24:13.819 right thing. Because then, guess what? We just 00:24:13.819 --> 00:24:16.940 get to point to the cross. It's not me who built 00:24:16.940 --> 00:24:19.000 this. It's not you who built this. It's not me 00:24:19.000 --> 00:24:22.039 that sustains. I am nothing without the grace 00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:27.299 of Christ in my life. It's about trusting the 00:24:27.299 --> 00:24:31.859 one who is righteousness. Because friend, in 00:24:31.859 --> 00:24:35.779 Christ, so many good things come. And it usually 00:24:35.779 --> 00:24:38.740 starts with the mask falling off. Because grace 00:24:38.740 --> 00:24:42.740 is greater than all of our hidden and public 00:24:42.740 --> 00:24:49.069 sin. Right? We sing that great song. Grace, grace. 00:24:49.589 --> 00:24:54.269 God's grace. It is so amazing. That's why they 00:24:54.269 --> 00:24:56.809 wrote a song about it. So what does that mean 00:24:56.809 --> 00:24:58.509 for then and now? Like, what does that mean? 00:24:58.569 --> 00:25:01.730 How do we walk in this grace? Well, then the 00:25:01.730 --> 00:25:03.809 religious leaders trusted appearances and Jesus 00:25:03.809 --> 00:25:09.210 exposed the hearts. Now, we live in a world of 00:25:09.210 --> 00:25:12.690 curated images and spiritual performance. We 00:25:12.690 --> 00:25:16.390 see it all over the place. My Christianity just 00:25:16.390 --> 00:25:18.930 needs to be the 15 seconds on my Instagram or 00:25:18.930 --> 00:25:22.190 my TikTok or my social medias. We've learned 00:25:22.190 --> 00:25:24.170 how to actually connect with people so I can 00:25:24.170 --> 00:25:27.490 try to craft for them what I'm like. And then 00:25:27.490 --> 00:25:29.750 never really have anyone get to know me. How 00:25:29.750 --> 00:25:35.390 lonely that is. How fake that is. You want people 00:25:35.390 --> 00:25:38.329 to fall in love with a mask? Think of the hurt 00:25:38.329 --> 00:25:43.490 when the mask falls off. But Christ calls us 00:25:43.490 --> 00:25:47.250 to something different. I'm going to give a couple 00:25:47.250 --> 00:25:50.549 words. I'm giving to myself first, but I'm giving 00:25:50.549 --> 00:25:52.250 them for you as well, for us to walk through 00:25:52.250 --> 00:25:55.990 it together. What does he call us to? He calls 00:25:55.990 --> 00:26:01.710 us to honesty. He's calling us to repentance. 00:26:03.170 --> 00:26:08.430 He's calling us to faith. Really, it's the faith. 00:26:09.390 --> 00:26:12.170 Of our understanding of who Jesus is, of what 00:26:12.170 --> 00:26:16.289 Jesus has done for us, and how he should be the 00:26:16.289 --> 00:26:18.410 center of our lives in everything that we do. 00:26:19.750 --> 00:26:22.869 Because if we truly believe that, if we truly 00:26:22.869 --> 00:26:26.390 have that faith, Lord's Day 7, right, talks about 00:26:26.390 --> 00:26:29.710 this gut, this knowledge, but this conviction 00:26:29.710 --> 00:26:34.809 deep down in my gut that this is real. That Jesus 00:26:34.809 --> 00:26:37.490 is real and he's doing something about my life. 00:26:37.849 --> 00:26:41.089 and the people around me, the gospel should free 00:26:41.089 --> 00:26:47.049 us from the art of pretending. Because when your 00:26:47.049 --> 00:26:51.369 identity is about pretending, friend, that's 00:26:51.369 --> 00:26:55.069 not a real identity. That is a fake identity. 00:26:55.589 --> 00:26:58.650 Because our identity is not built on our performance. 00:26:59.630 --> 00:27:02.910 Never has been, never will be. Our identity should 00:27:02.910 --> 00:27:06.349 and solely be built on Christ's righteousness. 00:27:07.309 --> 00:27:09.970 That is how we walk out the life of a believer. 00:27:10.170 --> 00:27:13.470 That is how we can follow God's word even in 00:27:13.470 --> 00:27:16.490 the uncomfortability. Follow him through the 00:27:16.490 --> 00:27:22.490 woes and the stops. Follow him to the well done's. 00:27:22.930 --> 00:27:27.809 To the good and faithful servants. Because I'll 00:27:27.809 --> 00:27:34.089 close with this. This faith is real. It is. Jesus 00:27:34.089 --> 00:27:38.480 does not call us to perfect. appearance. Stop 00:27:38.480 --> 00:27:40.700 striving for perfection. That's never been the 00:27:40.700 --> 00:27:44.779 call. The call has been always will be holiness 00:27:44.779 --> 00:27:49.039 and an understanding of grace. He calls us to 00:27:49.039 --> 00:27:53.339 authentic faith. A faith that confesses sin. 00:27:53.619 --> 00:27:57.880 A faith that receives grace. A faith that trusts 00:27:57.880 --> 00:28:01.240 Christ more than our own reputation. More than 00:28:01.240 --> 00:28:04.289 our own successes. more than our own finances, 00:28:04.390 --> 00:28:06.650 more than our own potential building projects, 00:28:06.789 --> 00:28:10.029 more than all those things that, as he says in 00:28:10.029 --> 00:28:13.490 the book of Matthew, moth and rust will destroy. 00:28:15.069 --> 00:28:20.349 This faith recognizes we need grace for ourselves 00:28:20.349 --> 00:28:24.829 and to give it to others. Because when the pressure 00:28:24.829 --> 00:28:29.250 reveals our hearts, when that hypocrisy is exposed, 00:28:29.950 --> 00:28:34.460 guess what? Grace is right there to meet it. 00:28:35.460 --> 00:28:39.240 And the Savior who sees everything is the Savior 00:28:39.240 --> 00:28:45.160 that will forgive you everything. And I don't 00:28:45.160 --> 00:28:47.220 know about you, but that's the kind of person 00:28:47.220 --> 00:28:50.579 I want to be. I believe that's the kind of person 00:28:50.579 --> 00:28:55.599 we want to be. When we come in, we don't have 00:28:55.599 --> 00:28:57.400 a list of things you have to look like, smell 00:28:57.400 --> 00:28:59.380 like, act like in order to have a seat here. 00:29:00.900 --> 00:29:03.740 Because Jesus doesn't do that. Yeah, there's 00:29:03.740 --> 00:29:06.619 truth. We need to abide by this truth. I say 00:29:06.619 --> 00:29:08.119 it all the time. We can't say, I'm a follower 00:29:08.119 --> 00:29:10.839 of Jesus, but I murder a little. Right? It doesn't 00:29:10.839 --> 00:29:16.339 work. But church isn't about maintaining a list 00:29:16.339 --> 00:29:21.019 of rules. It's about receiving grace upon grace 00:29:21.019 --> 00:29:26.279 upon grace upon grace upon grace because I need 00:29:26.279 --> 00:29:29.920 it. Because you need it. And when we all can 00:29:29.920 --> 00:29:33.720 confess that together, guess what? It's level 00:29:33.720 --> 00:29:38.160 at the foot of the cross. And that is where Jesus 00:29:38.160 --> 00:29:42.980 really starts to work. So if you have a woe in 00:29:42.980 --> 00:29:50.220 your life, stop. Look. Listen. He's telling you 00:29:50.220 --> 00:29:54.339 that for a reason. Lean in and find out what 00:29:54.339 --> 00:29:55.460 it is. Let's pray.