Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say

Sermon Transcript

I wonder if you’ve ever had the experience where you find out a friend of yours has been dating someone for many months, but they never told you or anyone else close to them. Today’s sermon isn’t about dating, but suffice it to say for now that I would strongly advise you to not take that approach to dating. Nonetheless, I know people who have, and it could be for a variety of reasons: They don’t want to have to answer questions about it, they don’t want to get their friends’ hopes up, they don’t want to hurt a friend they know also liked that person. But in some cases, they hide their relationship from others because they’re ashamed to be associated with such a person. It would be fair to call that hypocritical dating–on the one hand, you want to date the person, while on the other, you don’t want to be seen as someone dating them. You’re doing one thing in private with one person, but presenting something different in public to another group of people.

 

As we get into Luke today, we will see Jesus is concerned about hypocrisy in his followers. At this point in Luke’s Gospel, tensions are heightening between Jesus and the Pharisees, a sect of Jews who emphasized external conformity to the tradition, but who inside were full of greed and wickedness. Jesus exposed their hypocrisy in the passage just before this one, and at the end of it, they dug their heels in further and began scheming against Jesus. In this passage, though, Jesus turns to his disciples, and warns them of the danger of hypocrisy. He is especially concerned that they not try to act like his disciples when they’re with him, while then hiding that, or even denying it, when around others. Jesus knows how prone we are to crave the approval of man, and to fear their rejection. But in this passage he wants to reorient us to reality, a reality in which we will not be ultimately judged by man, but by him. So speak of Jesus as those who will be judged by Jesus, and this passage gives us three reasons to do so: Your words will be judged, your fears can be defeated, and your profession will be reciprocated.

 

Your words will be judged (1-3)

 

Our passage today begins with the words “in the meantime,” as in while the scribes and Pharisees were scheming against Jesus, crowds were gathering around him, so much so that they began to trample one another to get close to him. Rather than addressing the crowds, though, we read that he began to speak to his disciples first. Notice again that his disciples were publicly identifiable; they could be distinguished from the crowds. 

 

When he speaks to them, he tells them first to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Leaven is small, but it quickly spreads through the dough, and once it does, it leavens the whole loaf of bread. Jesus says hypocrisy is dangerous like that. It’s tempting to hear Jesus thunder his woes at the Pharisees and to simply cheer him on–”Go get them! Hypocrites are terrible!” After all, almost no one thinks of themselves as a hypocrite, and almost no one aspires to be a hypocrite. But that’s part of why it’s so dangerous: We find it so objectionable that we don’t think we’re in danger of it. Jesus says otherwise here: He says hypocrisy is easy to slide into, as easy as it is for leaven to spread through dough. Why? Because every human being, even disciples of Jesus to some extent, has sinful desires alongside a desire to please people, whether religious or irreligious people. How can you feed your sinful desires and still please everyone, though? Hypocrisy. Indulge the sinful desires in secret, observe enough of the law outwardly that you please religious people, but not so much of it that you begin to displease irreligious people. It starts small–a chat you know you shouldn’t engage in, but then again no one will see it, you tell yourself. A sin you know you should confess, but you choose to hide it instead. An opportunity to identify with Christ at work, but no Christians are there to see if you don’t–and the leaven spreads.

 

But here’s why Jesus says that’s a fool’s errand, verse 2: Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Did you catch that? Nothing is covered up, that will not be revealed. The things you say and do when you think no one is looking, the thoughts and desires of your heart–none of it will remain hidden forever. Jesus is alluding here to the final day, the day he returns, which 1 Corinthians 4:5 describes as the day when Jesus “will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.” It’s hard to know exactly what that will look like; if you try to put together a composite of all the different ways the Bible describes the final judgment so as to form a kind of play-by-play chronology of what will happen, it’s very hard to do. But as usual, the main things are the plain things, and what is plain is that nothing we do, think, or desire in secret will remain a secret. 

 

But yet another reason we must beware the leaven of hypocrisy is because today we have so many more ways to kid ourselves into thinking that we can keep it a secret! The thoughts and desires of the heart were always invisible to other people, but now we have so many more ways we can hide our actions. Like if you want to engage in sexual immorality, now you can do so by looking at sexually explicit images in private. Even that, the older generation tells us, used to be more risky, when you had to go to certain stores and run the risk of being seen. Now it’s a click away. In the ancient world, wealth was also more visible, such that if you didn’t give according to your means, people could tell more easily. If you were wealthy, you probably had a lot of land or animals or other things people could see. Now you could have millions in your 401(k) while giving 10 $/month to your church, and no human would see the disparity. Advances in technology make hypocrisy easier in some ways, and therefore all the more dangerous.

 

Especially in view here, though, is what we say in secret, as verse 3 goes on to say: Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops. Imagine that: That slanderous comment you made about someone behind their back when you’re really nice to their face will one day be proclaimed on the housetops for all to hear. And again, we have so many more ways to delude ourselves into thinking no one hears the words we say: We can have a secure phone call we think only one other person is hearing, we can send a text message we think only the other person is reading. We can even chat with an AI bot and so think not a single other human will see the message! (I hope you all know that those chats could be seen by a human if they really wanted to.) But the Lord sees all, the Lord hears all, and the day is coming when the Lord will bring all that was done or said in the dark into the light. In fact, technology means not only that it’s easier for us to be hypocritical now; there are also other ways it makes it easier for us to get caught. Now we can uncover video evidence of things someone thought they were doing in secret. Now that text message you sent can be saved and used against you, all of which is yet another reason to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

 

How, then, might you guard yourself against the leaven of hypocrisy? First let me say what you shouldn’t do: You shouldn’t think things like, “Well since I don’t feel like praying, I better not pray.” Choosing to pray when you don’t feel like it isn’t necessarily hypocritical. If you aren’t a Christian, but you pray prayers only Christians can really pray, like calling God your Father, yes that’s hypocritical, but the way to solve that is to become a Christian by repenting and believing in Jesus, so that then you can pray with sincerity. If you are a Christian, though, you have always two sets of desires, not just one: Some part of you, even if on a certain day it’s just .1%, does desire to pray, because the Spirit of Christ is in you, by whom we cry, “Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15). So even on the day when 99.9% of you doesn’t want to pray, you still have a choice as to which part of you to feed, and when you choose to pray, you’re feeding the .1% in such a way that it may grow to .2%. The Bible calls that “sowing to the Spirit” (Gal 6:8), and not only is it not hypocrisy; it’s exactly what you should do when you don’t feel like praying or going to church or whatever else you know God commands you to do.

 

So that’s not how to guard yourself against hypocrisy; how then could you? A couple thoughts: First, on the note of prayer, develop the discipline of private prayer. If you spend significant time praying non-scripted prayers to God, pouring out your heart before him, and really letting him in when no one else is looking, you’re much less likely to go out and fake it in the world. Within the discipline of prayer, especially develop the discipline of confession of sin. When you confess sin, you aren’t acting on or validating a sinful desire, but neither are you hiding it like a hypocrite. You’re both exposing it and calling it evil. You’re fighting the desire to sin, and, if you confess to other people, the desire to be approved of by others, the big checkboxes hypocrisy fills. Recall that when Jesus taught us to pray at the beginning of chapter 11, the model prayer he gave us included the words “Forgive us our sins.” Pray that prayer, confess your specific sins specifically to the Lord, pray the prayers of confession we pray together as a church, and, if you really want to fight hypocrisy, pick 1-3 other same-gender members of your church to confess your specific sins to. If there’s a besetting sin in your life, resolve that within 24 hours of anytime you commit it, you will not only confess to the Lord, but to at least one other same-gender member of your church. Sometimes our Citygroups will split up men and women to do just that, because we want to help one another fight hypocrisy.

 

On that note, another way to fight hypocrisy is to seek to know, and let yourself be known, by other members of your church. I say other members of your church specifically because as wonderful as friendships outside your church can be or even as helpful as a therapist might be to you, if you only let yourself be known by people who aren’t here or who you pay to meet with you for an hour a week and who are required by law to keep what you tell them confidential, it’s too easy for you to only let them see what you want to let them see, which again, makes hypocrisy easier. It’s also only other church members who can give you formal accountability through church discipline if you begin to walk in serious, observable, unrepentant sin. Church discipline is a gift, because it exposes your sin now to a smaller group of people who love you while you still have time to repent, before the final judgment when it will be exposed anyway to everyone, but you won’t have any chance to repent. And it’s a gift because if someone refuses to repent, it removes the leaven of hypocrisy from the church before it spreads through the whole church (cf. 1 Cor 5:4-6).  

 

So if you really want to fight hypocrisy, grab 1-3 same-gender members of your church, tell them what sins you’re struggling with, and ask them to pray for you and ask you how you’re doing with it next week. Get software that will send them a report of the material you view on your devices. Show them your bank statements from the last 3 months and ask them if they see anything you seem to be spending an inordinate amount on, or if they think your giving is sufficiently generous. And don’t make it easy for others to hide. If all we talk about with one another is work, grandpa’s surgery, and the Eagles, that’s fertile ground for hypocrisy to grow. Certainly we’re glad to talk about those things, but something I love about this church is how you all also ask heart-oriented questions: “What are you praying for these days?” “What are you learning from the word?” “What’s hard right now?” “What were you wanting in that situation?” “What’s a way you’re hoping to become more like Jesus in the coming months?” As Pastor Matt Smethurst has said, “The church is where ‘none of your business’ goes to die.” And in a church like that, the leaven of hypocrisy has a much harder time spreading.

 

And yet, all these strategies will be for naught if what still rules your heart is pleasing people. The Bible calls that the “fear of man,” but, good news: Your fears can be defeated. So let’s look next at that.

 

Your fears can be defeated (4-7)

 

Jesus knows hypocrisy is driven by the fear of man, so he says next in verse 4, speaking still to his disciples, who he here calls friends or “beloved,” “Do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do.” Jesus clearly assumes here what the Bible elsewhere makes explicit, and what most humans have believed throughout history: Humans are more than just bodies. Rather, humans are body-soul composites, and when the body dies, the soul lives on. And here’s the thing about bodies: They all die! So yes, other people can kill the body, but that was going to die anyway, and generally in a very unpleasant way. Execution is just one more way to add to a very long list. So, Jesus says, don’t get all worried about that.

 

That’s worth thinking about when you notice yourself being really controlled by pleasing someone. Stop and ask–what can they really do to me? By mentioning here the ability of other humans to kill our bodies, Jesus intentionally chose the most extreme, the worst thing they could do to you, to encompass all the lesser things they could do to you as well. If you should not fear those who kill the body, and after that have nothing more that they can do, then certainly you should not fear those who can take your job or ruin your reputation. Whatever a person can do to you, even if it seems worse to you than death itself, it still only pertains to this life. After that they have nothing more that they can do, and “after that” is far longer than the few decades you’ll be alive. I’m already 39; where’d those years go? 23-39 especially were a blur. And if in the Lord’s kindness he gives me another 39, they’ll go by in a blink too. Even just compared to the years since Jesus walked the earth, if I live to be 100, I’ll have been alive for 5% of them, and eternity is unimaginably longer than that. Your life is “a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes,” James tells us (James 4:14). So why fear people, who can only do anything to you in that incredibly tiny window of time?

 

Instead, here’s who to fear, Jesus says in verse 5: Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him! God is the one who determines what happens with your soul after death, and he has the authority to cast it into hell. So Hebrews 9:27 tells us, “it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment.” There is a judgment for each man after death, that comes before the final judgment when what you have whispered in private will be shouted from the housetops, and it results in your soul either being sent to heaven or hell, while your body remains buried or cremated or whatever else might happen to your corpse. Hell is worth fearing because it is a place of conscious torment. We’ll learn more about this in chapter 16 of Luke, where we read a story of man in hell, who says, “I am in anguish in this flame” (Luke 16:24). It’s also worth fearing because it is eternal. Revelation 20:10 tells us of those who are cast into it that “they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” And finally, it’s worth fearing because it will be crowded. Jesus said elsewhere that “the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many” (Matt 7:13). In other words, no one should assume “Oh I don’t need to fear that because surely God would never send a nice person like me there.”

 

The reality of hell is sobering, no doubt, and painful even to imagine. So what do many do with it, myself included at times, I regret to say? We just try not to think about it, which does no one any good. In historian David McCullough’s 1776, he writes of General George Washington that “Seeing things as they were, and not as he wished them to be, was one of his salient strengths.” So we also must see hell as it is, and not as we might wish it to be, and when we do, it turns out to be surprisingly liberating. Because, as Jesus shows us here, when we fear the God who has the authority to cast us into hell, it frees us from the fear of man.

 

The way out of the fear of man is not to cultivate greater self-esteem. The way out of the fear of man is the fear of God. If you’re in a room with a kinda strong-looking guy who’s mad at you, you might feel a bit afraid. You know he could probably take you in a fight. But what if you add to the room a Navy SEAL holding a fully loaded machine gun? Your fear of the other guy is going to decrease, because you know the Navy SEAL is the far bigger threat.

 

And here’s the good news for Jesus’ disciples: That God who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell, hasn’t cast us into hell! Instead, he has saved us from hell! Though we are guilty of sin and therefore deserving of hell, and though he has all the authority he needs to send us there, instead he sent his son Jesus to earth, to become human, to be killed, and to suffer the torments of hell on our behalf! The reason hell is a place of conscious torment is because those who are there are under the wrath of God, and it was that wrath that was poured out on Jesus on the cross for the sins of Jesus’ disciples! And because that wrath was poured out on Jesus, it will never be poured out on his disciples. 

 

The kind of fear we should have of God here, then, is not one that causes us to run from him. It’s one that causes us to run to him, through Jesus Christ, for he who has the authority to cast us into hell is the only one who can save us from hell. So think of it like this: You’re in the room with the Navy SEAL and the guy who’s mad at you–what should fearing the SEAL above the other guy cause you to do? It should cause you to do whatever you can to get on the SEAL’s side, to ensure that he’s fighting with you against the other guy. What you certainly wouldn’t want to do is try to win the angry guy’s favor at the expense of the SEAL’s. 

 

So also, Jesus is saying here, don’t try to win the favor of people at the expense of God’s. All they can do is kill you, while he can cast you into hell forever. And you don’t even have to win his favor! He is already a favorable being, rich in grace and mercy, and out of the richness of his grace, he has already provided the savior you need! The price has been paid, and all he requires of you now is that you turn from your sins and receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation. That’s how someone becomes a disciple Jesus; that’s how you’d become a disciple of Jesus if you’re here today and you aren’t yet. But since Jesus is addressing his disciples in this passage, look at what he says to them next in verses 6-7:

“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God. Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”

 

The God who has the authority to cast people into hell is also the God who cares for the sparrows. In speaking here of the sparrows, Jesus reached for the most seemingly insignificant thing of which he could think. Five of them were sold for two pennies, and we don’t even manufacture pennies anymore! Of course, neither did they, but it gets translated this way because the Greek word behind it, the assarion, was a small copper coin like our penny, and it also was not worth very much. Perhaps to get a better grasp of Jesus’ statement here in today’s terms we could just note that there are estimated to be 1.6 billion sparrows on the planet today. And yet, Jesus says not one of them is forgotten before God. He cares for each one.

 

But then what about Jesus’ disciples? He goes on to say that even the hairs of their head are numbered by God! The average human head has 100,000 hair follicles! His care for us is down to that intimate level of detail, brothers and sisters. So Jesus tells us to fear not, because we are of more value than many sparrows. And how do we know we are of such value to him? Look at what he gave up for us: He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things (Rom 8:32)? The most powerful being in every room, more powerful than the Navy SEAL with the assault rifle, the one who, after he kills, has authority to throw us into hell, instead of throwing us into hell, cares for each of the hairs on our heads. He’s with you, and he’s for you, if you are a disciple of Jesus.

 

And if that’s the case, your fears can be defeated. Fear God above all else, and the fear of people will get pushed out. Receive his favor through faith in Christ, and cast all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you (1 Peter 5:7). If Jesus saved you from hell, and you had nothing left to fear, do you see what you could then do? You could then speak of him boldly. Speak of Jesus as those who will be judged by Jesus because your fears can be defeated, and, lastly, because your profession will be reciprocated.

 

Your profession will be reciprocated (8-12)

 

So Jesus, after showing us the path out of the fear of man, talks to us about how we speak of him beginning in verse 8. He says everyone who acknowledges him before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God, but the one who denies him before men will be denied before the angels of God. He’s referring to himself by the title “Son of Man” as he so often does, and that is one of his distinctive titles because the son of man is the one given unique authority from God. Recall that in Luke 5:24 Jesus said that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. The title comes originally from Daniel 7:13-14, where we read that “with the clouds of heaven

there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed.” It’s envisioning this son of man appearing before God, and being given dominion, which includes the authority to forgive sin, and to cast into hell. That’s why Jesus speaks of this happening before the angels, who would be there in the heavenly courts, in the presence of the Ancient of Days. So Jesus is saying here that when he appears before God in the presence of the angels, whatever we profess of him with our words before men is what he will profess of us with his words before angels. Our profession of him will be reciprocated, and therefore we should speak of Jesus as those who will be judged by Jesus.

 

And now we can see why Jesus warned us that what we whisper in private rooms will be shouted from housetops–if we acknowledge him before men, even in the smallest ways, that will be made known loudly, and he will acknowledge us. But if we deny him before men, even via a whisper in a private room, that will be made known loudly, and he will deny us. Jesus doesn’t allow the option of being a covert Christian. That’s hypocrisy–to say and act like you’re a Christian when you’re around Christians, but then to deny Christ when you’re at work, or with your family, or in any context in which you sense it might cost you the approval of people.

 

Now, that doesn’t mean that if you’ve ever missed an opportunity to speak up for Christ, he will deny you on the last day and send you to hell. By that standard, every disciple of Jesus would be headed for hell. I was with a group of unbelieving friends a few weeks ago, and afterwards I looked back on three different conversations in which I had opportunities to ask an extra question, or say something true about Jesus, and I didn’t. I’m ashamed to admit that; I say it to you as a confession, not a boast or an excuse. I have no good excuse; we should be ready on all occasions to acknowledge Jesus before men, and I wasn’t. I feared the people I was with’s reaction, and my mind was on other things I wanted to talk to them about, things of undoubtedly less significance. Missed opportunities like those are the common lament of just about every Christian I know, and I will be pleasantly surprised if the Lord enables me to never miss another opportunity in my life going forward. 

 

We know failing to acknowledge Christ before men, and even denying him before men, is not the unforgivable sin, not only because of what Jesus says in verse 10, but because one of Jesus’ disciples, Peter, denies Jesus three times in this very manner, simply because he feared the people asking him, and yet he was forgiven upon his repentance. Nonetheless, it is sin! We should notice here how seriously Jesus takes the words we say about him before men, because he knows what he said earlier in Luke 6:45 – “out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Our words reveal our hearts, and someone who refuses to acknowledge Christ with his words before men, or even denies Christ with his words before men, reveals a heart that fears people more than he fears God, and anyone who persists in that should not expect to be saved in the end, however they act when around Christians.

 

Everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, Jesus says in verse 10, like Peter was forgiven, though he denied the Son of Man three times. But then Jesus does tell us that there is an unforgivable sin: The one who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. Now I’ll just tell you that this is one of the hardest concepts in the Bible to understand, but it is clearly in the Bible, so I’ll do my best to explain it. First, we can just notice that blasphemy is a sin of speech, and so that is what is most likely in view here. When we do see the sin actually being committed in the other Gospels, it’s when people see Jesus casting out demons by the power of the Spirit, and still call it the work of Satan (Matt 12:22-32). People spoke words against the Son of Man sometimes because they didn’t realize who he really was: After all, he looked like a normal human (cf. Luke 22:65). But for someone to see the Holy Spirit clearly at work, know that it is the Holy Spirit, and then to not only remain in unbelief, but to verbally call the work the work of the devil, is only possible if that person’s heart is hardened to the point that they will never repent. Later scripture speaks of those who have tasted of the Holy Spirit, but who then fall away, and says it will be impossible to restore them to repentance (Heb 6:4-6), and John tells us of a sin that leads to death, such that we are not even commanded to pray for a person who commits it (1 John 5:16). These all seem to be referring to the same phenomenon–a willful, verbal renunciation of the Holy Spirit’s work when that work has been clearly known and experienced.

 

Now, in rare cases people hear this and start to worry that maybe they’ve blasphemed the Holy Spirit and are therefore now unable to be forgiven, but scripture never allows anyone to conclude for themselves that they are beyond forgiveness. Jesus’ promise is that whoever comes to him, he will never cast out (John 6:37). The biblical promise is that “everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43), so if you believe in him, if you come to him seeking forgiveness, it proves you haven’t committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, because if you did, you wouldn’t be coming to him for forgiveness! 

 

And yet, this warning is here so that we don’t allow ourselves to reach that point. Many of you in the room today are Christians; most are members of this church, and if you are a Christian, that means you have tasted of the Holy Spirit! Deep down you know that Jesus is the Son of Man, you know that he’s truly God, you know he died for our sins and rose from the dead, and you know that whoever believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. Don’t let your heart drift from him, or it will harden to the point that you renounce him entirely. Beware the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Hold fast your profession of faith in Christ, even before men who will hate you for it.

 

I remember a pastor telling a story of a time he was in North Philly and a Muslim guy held a gun to his head and asked him if he was a Christian. He said yes, and thankfully the man didn’t pull the trigger. But I remember thinking to myself, “Man, what would I have said in that situation?” Perhaps you’re wondering that now too. Granted, that’s unlikely to happen to you, but we do have brothers and sisters throughout the world for whom that is much more of an imminent threat, and we’ve already gestured at all the smaller, less formal ways in which we are tempted to dial back our allegiance to Jesus to avoid the harm people can do to us in this life. So what would you say in those situations?

 

Well, Jesus tells you not to waste your time thinking about that. Our passage concludes with him telling his disciples that even when they bring them before rulers, authorities, and the synagogue, they should not be anxious about how to defend themselves or what they will say, because the Holy Spirit will teach them in that very hour what to say. In the book of Acts, we see Peter, Stephen, and Paul appearing before synagogue, rulers, and authorities, to give an account of their relationship to Christ, and in each case, they give unrehearsed speeches that testify to the glory of Christ. Certainly it’s appropriate to give thought to how you share the gospel or the story of how you personally came to faith in Christ, but our hope is never in our preparation, and we shouldn’t try to plan for every possible eventuality in which we may be asked to speak for Christ. Isn’t this why we sometimes don’t acknowledge Christ before men, because we’re afraid we won’t know what to say? Well, there is a real Holy Spirit who dwells in each of Jesus’ disciples, and you can trust him to supply what you need to say anytime you have opportunities to acknowledge Christ before men.

 

So speak of Jesus as those who will be judged by Jesus, no matter how small or private the context may seem. Every word you speak will be judged by him in the end. And what good reason do you have to deny him? Because of what people can do to you?! People, who can only do things to you that pertain to this life? Let the fear of God drive the fear of man far from you, and let it drive you closer to him, because he really does care for you. He cared for you enough to send his son to save you from hell, though he had the authority to cast you into it, he cares for each of the 100,000 hairs on your head, and he cares for you enough to give you his Holy Spirit, who will teach you what you ought to say whenever opportunities come to speak of Christ. So acknowledge him before men, and he will acknowledge you before the angels of God.