Tag Archives: hypocrites

Show grace or condemnation to those who wrong us, which will it be? (John 8:11), February 17, 2017

Today’s Podcast

Thanks for joining me today for “A Little Walk with God.” I’m your host Richard Agee.
We have a choice to condemn or show grace when someone wrongs us. Which will you do?
Scripture
1. John 8:11
2. Jesus: Well, I do not condemn you either; all I ask is that you go and from now on avoid the sins that plague you.
Devotional
1. The doctor asks, “Does it hurt when you move your arm like this?” You reply, “Yes, it does.” His expert treatment. “Then don’t move it that way.”
  1. We would think the doctor is a little crazy wouldn’t we?
  2. Sometimes he’s right.
  3. Humans are the only animal that do things the body isn’t built to do.
  4. Try to build safety gadgets instead.
  5. Bone structure built to withstand hitting something at the speed you can run
  6. Cheetah, dog, elephant, human
  7. We wear ride motorcycles at 90 mph and wear helmets and leather jackets for protection
2. Critics dismissed by asking the one without sin to cast the first stone.
  1. Caught in the act, witnesses to attest to crime
  2. The law said she should be stoned for her adulterous actions
  3. But wait, where was the guy?
  4. Doesn’t it take two?
  5. If she was caught in the act, wasn’t he caught in the act also?
  6. Didn’t the law apply to both? Why, yes it did!
3. Jesus wrote in the sand
  1. Wouldn’t it be nice to know what He wrote?
  2. Maybe a list of everyone’s secret sins
  3. Maybe He began to put names to the violations of God’s laws
  4. We’ll never know what Jesus wrote in the sand that day, but no one threw a stone
4. Then Jesus taught us something we should all remember
  1. He told us He came to extend grace and forgiveness to all those who believed in Him
  2. He also told us to show grace and forgiveness to those who wrong us
  3. He demonstrated it in more ways that we ever could
  4. Jesus gave His life as a demonstration of that grace and forgiveness
5. When I’m quick to judge or condemn others for their actions, maybe I need to stop and remember this scene in the streets of Jerusalem. Jesus didn’t condemn but asked that the woman caught in adultery avoid sinning again. He extend grace and forgiveness to her. I expect He changed her life forever just like He can change mine and yours. All we have to do is ask and then let Him empower us to live the way He wants us to live.
If you want to learn more about my church, you can find us at SAF.church. If you like the devotional, share it with someone. If you don’t, tell me. I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow for “A Little Walk with God.”

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved. In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Try on those new eyes (Luke 13:15-16) November 25, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Malachi

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Luke 13:15-16
Jesus: You religious leaders are such hypocrites! Every single one of you unties his ox or donkey from its manger every single Sabbath Day, and then you lead it out to get a drink of water, right? Do you care more about your farm animals than you care about this woman, one of Abraham’s daughters, oppressed by Satan for 18 years? Can’t we untie her from her oppression on the Sabbath?

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Jesus didn’t have much room for people like the hypocrites He spoke to in today’s scripture. It’s the problem that became very obvious across the country this year in all the political drama on both sides of the aisle. People saying one thing and doing another. People declaring they are one thing but living another. People saying they want all of us to abide by certain laws but then not living up to them themselves.

That became the major emphasis of both major presidential candidate’s campaigns this year, did you notice? Neither laid out a platform of how they would help the country recover from the degradation we have slid into over the last several decades. Neither had a plan to raise the moral and ethical state that has robbed us of our innocence and has caused our children to be sold into slavery to sex and drugs and immoral vices that only which a miracle from God can free them.

Both could only blast the other about how they broke the laws of the country and were themselves a blight on society and lied to the people about each others moral character and inability to lead the country. And probably at least half of all that was said is right. I’m not sure we saw any candidates in the long list of people who spent millions of dollars in campaign ads were morally and ethically worthy of our votes. Our country has really come to that point in its slide toward debachery, self-centeredness, and evil, I’m sorry to say.

All you need to do is look at the number of laws and programs that Congress imposes on us,the citizens of the country, but excludes them, the legislators, to understand how true Jesus words are today. Obamacare doesn’t apply to Congress or many other special interest groups. Many of the tax laws exclude our government representatives. Special traffic laws, parking permits, and housing rules apply to our government leaders for the purpose of their protection, but more often for the purpose of their indulgence if the truth were told. And the list goes on.

But frankly, those things have been around since way before our Constitution was formed, way before Jesus talked about it with those Pharisees, way before the Romans came into power. That hypocrisy has been around since Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden. Men and women have this selfish side to them that says I want something you have or I have something I don’t want you to have and I’ll do anything necessary to keep you from it. Even kill. And so this evil springs up and we see the difference in the haves and have-nots everywhere.

Socialism thought it could blot it out, but it couldn’t. The Soviet Union was that great social experiment and it lasted a whole 70 years before it collapsed on itself. People say China’s socialist society works, but it doesn’t. It’s really not very socialist. It still operates under the rules of the ancient dynasties more than it does socialism so you have the elites in halls of power and the peasants who feed everyone else.

The same is true in the church, unfortunately. We find those who would impose what they think is God’s will on others but will not follow the same course of action for themselves. They are fast to see the errors that others are making and are quick to declare God’s wrath on all who might disobey those rules laid down for others to follow, but don’t see the hypocrisy in their own actions by failing to show God’s mercy and grace when that’s what He extends to everyone who will come to Him with a repentant heart.

And too often in the church today, we are much like those political candidates. Instead of providing the answers to those who come to us in need of forgiveness for their sins, we only point out the darkness in their heart. We know the answers they seek. We know that Jesus can heal their brokenness and clean up their lives. But instead of providing the solutions to the problems they face, we only point out the ugliness we see. We only point out the past mistakes and dredge up every mistake we can find. We look hard to find the weakness and failure and sin when what we should see in others is what God sees…His image, potential, His creation, a child ready for adoption into His family and His kingdom.

Will we ever learn to see with Jesus’ eyes? We can. All we need to do is give ourselves to Him. Let Him be Master and Savior and Lord. When we do, we see things, and particularly people, in a whole new way. Try on those new eyes and see how different things can look.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Are you a Pharisee? (Matthew 23:23-33) May 27, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

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Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Jeremiah 47-52

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 23:23-33
Jesus: So woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees. You hypocrites! You tithe from your luxuries and your spices, giving away a tenth of your mint, your dill, and your cumin. But you have ignored the essentials of the law: justice, mercy, faithfulness. It is practice of the latter that makes sense of the former. You hypocritical, blind leaders. You spoon a fly from your soup and swallow a camel.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You remove fine layers of film and dust from the outside of a cup or bowl, but you leave the inside full of greed and covetousness and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee—can’t you see that if you clean the inside of the cup, the outside will be clean too?

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like a grave that has been whitewashed. You look beautiful on the outside, but on the inside you are full of moldering bones and decaying rot. You appear, at first blush, to be righteous, selfless, and pure; but on the inside you are polluted, sunk in hypocrisy and confusion and lawlessness.

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build monuments to your dead, you mouth pieties over the bodies of prophets, you decorate the graves of your righteous ancestors. And you say, “If we had lived when our forefathers lived, we would have known better—we would not have joined them when they rose up against the prophets.” Even when you are preening, you make plain that you descended from those who murdered our prophets. So why don’t you finish what your forefathers started? You are children of vipers, you belly-dragging snakes. You won’t escape the judgment of hell.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

Ouch! Jesus let those Pharisees have it! I’d sure hate to be in their shoes. But have I looked inside to make sure I’m not them? It’s easy for us to point fingers at those hypocrites and talk about how bad they were. But that’s exactly what they did, too. Remember Jesus’ words to them? “You say, ‘If we had lived when our forefathers lived, we would have know better…’” Isn’t that what we say about the Pharisees? If we lived when they lived, we would have known better. We would have followed Jesus. We would have obeyed Him. We would have believed everything He said. Really? Then why don’t we follow His commands now? Why do we have so much trouble listening to His voice now?

Are we so different from the Pharisees? If so, why do so many of us just play at worshiping God? We attend church on Sunday, but forget about Him the rest of the week and do whatever we feel like doing. We think God is pleased with us as long as we give Him that hour on Sunday every once in a while and we have our ticket to heaven. But that’s not what God wants. He wants our total devotion.

We can be such avid sports enthusiasts and build shrines to our favorite teams with rooms filled with paraphernalia. Banners hung on the walls, pillows and blankets and curtains with the team symbols everywhere. We can be such fans we have season tickets and never miss a game. Yet when it comes to God, we find it’s okay to skip devotions or skip church or forget prayers or set aside reading His word. God will understand, right?

Are we so different than those Pharisees? But take a look at the people Jesus criticized. These were the one who took a calculator with them to make sure they gave a tithe, a tenth, of everything to God. When they went to their garden and took out herbs for dinner they weighed them on the scale and set aside a tenth to take to the temple. When they plucked grapes off the vines, the first of every ten grapes when into a separate basket to go to the temple so God would get His tithe. These guys knew the law and lived it. If they accidentally took a wrong turn on the Sabbath and it caused them to approach the limit of their allotted distance for travel on the Sabbath, they would stop where they were and spend the rest of the day on that spot until the Sabbath concluded. Then they would complete their journey.

We might be avid sports fans, but these were avid law fans. They lived every jot and title. Yet Jesus told them they would not escape the judgment of hell. Why? Because they didn’t understand the kingdom of God is about living a relationship with the Almighty, not about keeping a long list of rules. God’s wants our love, and our love is shown through our obedience to His will. He will let us know our position with Him. Just ask Him. The Pharisees knew. Jesus made it pretty clear. If we ask He will let us know.

The question is, will we do something about it. The Pharisees thought they could fix their problem by destroying God’s Son. Of course, their solution didn’t work. The only solution is to come to Him in repentance. Confess who we are and who God is, then turn away from sin and toward Him. Follow the path He lays out for you. That’s the real solution. It works. We never need to hear the woes the Pharisees heard. It just takes listening and doing what God says.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.

Do what they say, not what they do (Matthew 23:2-12) May 25, 2016

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Today’s Podcast

Subscribe in: iTunes|Download

Today’s Bible reading plan:

Read it in a year – Psalms 60-62

see the whole year’s plan [here](http://www.bible-reading.com/bible-plan.pdf)

Today’s Devotional

Matthew 23:2-12
Jesus: The Pharisees and the scribes occupy the seat of Moses. So you should do the things they tell you to do—but don’t do the things they do. They heap heavy burdens upon their neighbors’ backs, and they prove unwilling to do anything to help shoulder the load. They are interested, above all, in presentation: they wrap their heads and arms in the accoutrements of prayer, they cloak themselves with flowing tasseled prayer garments, they covet the seats of honor at fine banquets and in the synagogue, and they love it when people recognize them in the marketplace, call them “Teacher,” and beam at them.

But you: do not let anyone call you “Rabbi,” that is, “Teacher.” For you are all brothers, and you have only one teacher, the Anointed One. Indeed, do not call anyone on earth “Father,” for you have only one father, and He is in heaven. Neither let anyone call you “leader,” for you have one leader—the Anointed One. If you are recognized at all, let it be for your service. Delight in the one who calls you servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.

What do Jesus’ words mean for us today?

It’s easy to play the church game. We can belong to the biggest, most popular church in the city. We can recite the Apostles’ Creed and the tenets of our doctrine. We can sing in the choir and teach a Bible class. We can be on the church board or council of elders. We can sing the right songs, pray what sounds like holy prayers. We can dress just like the preach and even fill in for him when he is absent. We can do all those things, but does that make us right with God?

Of course the answer is no. God doesn’t look at those things by themselves. He care less about the external trappings and actions that we do to impress others and looks at the inside as to why we do the things we do. Others will see all those things and might even view us as righteous, right with God, on the inside track with Him. But we and God know better. We know if we do those things to impress people or in service to God. We know if our actions please Him or us.

That’s what Jesus was talking about here. The Pharisees appeared to do all the right things. They prayed long prayers in the temple and synagogues. They wore robes that others thought showed their piety, maybe like the robes of the priests and pastors in some of our churches today. They wore headgear that showed the status of their position in the priestly hierarchy. They kept their solemn demeanor in the presence of their parishioners to let them know how serious they were about their faith. These Pharisees let people know they fasted at least twice a week instead of once a week. They let everyone know they prayed three times a day. They let everyone know all about their religious disciplines.

Everyone knew just how great these men were. Or at least they thought they knew. Then Jesus comes along and looks in their heart. He sees why they do the things they do and recognizes the paradox in their actions. None of their demands on the people fit the reasons carried out their own daily behaviors. They wanted others to act the same way they did. None of those actions were wrong. But the reasons were. The Pharisees did all those things to be noticed by men, not God. Jesus says, do them, but do them for God. Let go of the selfish desire to be recognized by others and just be good because God is good.

Jesus says to understand the meaning behind all those rules the Pharisees spout so eloquently. The meaning God intends is to love. Jesus shared the truth behind the rules. They are good, holy, God gave them, so they are right. But as Paul points out, we perverted the rules. We twisted them so that they only point out our sin. The rules can’t lead us to God, but rather, they drive us toward evil. But when we exercise faith in the truth of God’s word, He gives us deeper understanding that leads us to salvation.

God wants our heart. When we give it to Him completely, we will do the things the Pharisees say we should do. We will give. We will help the poor. We will pray. We will study God’s word. We will work tirelessly to build God’s kingdom. We will do all kinds of things willingly for the Creator of the universe. We will do it all with a smile on our face and joy in our heart. Why? Because of the grace He gives us and the grace He enables us to extend to others,

The Pharisees’ words were good, their displays were sometimes right. But their hearts centered on themselves and their satisfaction, not on God. So Jesus tells us don’t be like them. Do what they say, not what they do. Be real, act from your heart in service to God.

The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.
In accordance with the requirements for FTC full disclosure, I may have affiliate relationships with some or all of the producers of the items mentioned in this post who may provide a small commission to me when purchased through this site.