Lon Solomon Ministries
People Jesus Met Part 29
You know, a few years ago, a U.S. senator who was attending McLean Bible Church invited me down to Capitol Hill to have lunch with him. So as we were sitting in the Senate dining room eating, he said to me, he said, "Salan, he said, "Have you ever been inside the Senate chamber?" And I said, "No, I haven't. I've just, you know, seen you guys make speeches on C-SPAN." And so he said, "Well, right after lunch, let's go in." I said, "Okay, cool." So we went after lunch and walked down, took the quarter, and walked into the Senate chamber. And when we did, when I walked in the room, I received the shock of my life. Here was this senator standing in front of the chamber, speaking into this microphone, making an impassioned speech about some issue. But the problem was, when I looked around the room, other than a couple of administrative people, the room was absolutely empty. There wasn't one single senator anywhere in sight. And I knew where they were. They were all having lunch because I'd just seen them all. Now I need to tell you that lack of authenticity, I suddenly realized this is all staged. This is all make-believe, that lack of authenticity really bothered me. And you know, it still bothers me to this day. This is what we want to talk about this morning. We're returning to our series entitled People Jesus Met. And we want to talk about authenticity today, not as it applies to the U.S. Senate, but as it applies to you and me as Christians, and as it applies to the Church of Jesus Christ. And we're going to go back in time, 2000 years, and we're going to watch as the Lord Jesus Christ meets a group of rabbis whom he excoriates for their inauthentic behavior. And then we want to bring all of that forward and we want to talk about, well, what difference does that make for you and me? So we're in Luke chapter 11 and we begin at verse 37, here we go. The Bible says, "Now after Jesus had finished speaking, a rabbi asked Jesus to eat with him, so Jesus went into his house and reclined at table with him. And the rabbis there were surprised when they noticed that Jesus did not ceremonially wash his hands before the meal. If you ever go to Israel with me or if you've been, you know that when we go into kosher restaurants there, there are always a few sinks up near the front where pious Jews will come in and wash their hands before they eat. Well this practice goes all the way back to the time of Jesus as we see right here. In Jesus' day before eating, pious rabbis would do an elaborate hand washing. They'd start with their fingertips and then they'd wash their hands and then they'd wash up to their elbows, kind of like a doctor, you know, scrubbing for surgery. And friends, I'm all about good hygiene, believe me. And I'm all about hand washing, as a matter of fact, I am a fanatical hand washer. But the reason the rabbis were doing this had nothing to do with good hygiene. They were doing it as a religious ritual that was intended to send a message. And what message was this hand washing intended to send? Well the message was we rabbis are so clean and we are so righteous on the inside that we dare not let something dirty enter us from the outside and defile us. Now in response to this, look what Jesus said, verse 39, Luke 11. He said you rabbis clean the outside of the cup but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people didn't he who made the outside make the inside also. As a matter of fact, Jesus was constantly confronting the rabbis of his day on this kind of behavior, this kind of thinking, thinking and behavior that focused more on their outward image than on their inward reality. Listen to what he says to them in Matthew chapter 15 again, based around the issue of hand washing. He says, Matthew 1511, it is not what enters into a person's mouth that defiles them but what proceeds out of their mouth. For everything that goes into the mouth passes through the stomach and is eliminated. But the things that proceed out of the mouth, Jesus said, come from the heart, evil thoughts, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander, these are the things Jesus said that defile a person not eating with unwashed hands. The point here in Matthew 15 is clear, Jesus was saying, hey, if you rabbis were as obsessed about purifying the inside of you, your heart, your motives, your attitudes as you are about cleansing your hands on the outside, well, number one, you'd be better people and number two, you'd be better shepherds for the flock of Almighty God. Now you know when I was in seminary, I read the biography of Dwight L. Moody and one of the things that Moody, the great evangelist, used to always say is never preach against sin in the abstract, be specific. And so Jesus goes on after confronting the rabbis about their behavior to get very specific. Watch. He goes on to say, Luke chapter 11 verse 42, woe to you rabbis, for you pay ties of mint and rue and every kind of herb, but you disregard justice and the love of God. Jesus says, hey, on the outside, you rabbis act like God is number one in your life by giving him lots of money, but on the inside, the truth is God is not number one in your life because you will disregard justice and everything else that is right and precious to God just to get what you want. God's not number one in your life. You are. Jesus continues verse 43, woe to you rabbis, for you love the front seats in the synagogues and venerated greetings in the marketplace. You say, Lord, I don't get it. I mean, what's the big deal about the front seats in the synagogue? I mean, in church, nobody in general likes to sit in the front row. We may be a little bit of an exception, but generally you go to a church, there's nobody in the front row. Well, friends, we got to understand that synagogues run differently than churches. In fact, synagogues that may surprise you to know don't take offerings. The way they get the money to operate is they sell the seats in the auditorium for the year, you buy your seat for the year, and the closer the seat is to the front, the more it costs. The closer a person sits to the front, the more of a big shot they are. And this is what Jesus is talking about. He says, hey, you know what? On the outside, you rabbis act like you are humble servants of God. But the truth is, on the inside, you want fame, you want recognition, you want the preeminence, that's the reality of you guys. Jesus continues. Verse 47, woe to you, rabbis, for you build the tombs of the prophets, and yet it was your forefathers who killed them. Jesus said, on the outside, you act all pious and sanctimonious, and you build great monuments to the prophets of old who rebuked your forefathers for their sin. But Jesus said, the truth is that your forefathers were the very people who killed these prophets in the first place because they were rebuking them for their sin. And even as we stand here today, Jesus says to them, on the inside, you guys are plotting against me right now for that very same reason. And you guys are planning to kill me for the very same reason. I love in Matthew chapter 23 how Jesus sums all this up. He says there, Matthew 23 verse 27, he says, woe to you, rabbis, you hypocrites. You're like white wash tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but which on the inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So too outwardly you look righteous, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness verse 33, you snakes, Jesus says, you brood of vipers, Jesus says, how shall you escape the condemnation of hell. Now here we see a side of Jesus that people don't often talk about. Normally when we hear Jesus talked about people mention how nice he was and how kind he was and how gentle he was. But friends, please note how Jesus dealt with these inauthentic religious leaders among the Jewish people. Notice how he dealt with these people who pretended to be righteous and pretended to be pious and pretended to be godly on the outside, but who in reality were power hungry and ruthless and scheming and unjust and unkind and unmerciful. Jesus was not sweet to them. Jesus was not forgiving towards them. He was not soft towards them. He wasn't in Luke chapter 11, which we just read. He wasn't in Matthew 23 where we saw. He just called them whitewashed tombs, snakes and vipers and he wasn't in John chapter 2 when he ran these guys out of the courts of the temple with a whip because they were charging people outrageous interest on their money when they changed it. And why was Jesus so upset with these guys? Well folks, it wasn't simply because they were frauds. It wasn't simply because they were inauthentic. There was a much more serious reason why he was upset with them. And that was this, these people stood for God. These people represented God here on earth and thus their inauthentic behavior tainted God's reputation, their inauthentic behavior impugned God's character and worst of all, their inauthentic behavior got in the way of people believing in God. This is why Jesus was so upset with them. Now that's as far as we're going to go in our passage today because we're going to stop now and ask our most important question, and at Loudon and at Prince William and wherever are you are around the world, I want you to join us as we do this or are we ready? All right, here we go now, come on, one, two, three. Yeah, you say, Lauren, so what? Say, you know, I don't see what any of this has to do with me, and honestly, if you sold seeds here, I wouldn't buy one in the front anyway. So I don't understand what does this have to do with me? Well, I think it has a lot to do with us friends. Let me tell you how. There was a recent Gallup poll which asked this question of Americans. The question was, what class of professionals in America do you most trust? Now 50 years ago, the article said the number one answer, what do you think it was? Clergy men and women. That's right. Today, when they took this, guess what the number one answer was? Nurses. Yeah, that's right. Nurses. And guess what the number two answer was? Nurses. Yeah. You want to know where clergy finished? We finished number six, barely ahead of funeral directors. No, this is true. I'm not lying to you, barely ahead of funeral directors. And when I read this, I was, I mean, I was, I was disconcerted, I got to tell you. And I asked the question, well, why? I mean, why did clergy drop from number one to number six over the last 50 years? And folks, you know the answer to that. I don't have to tell you the answer. The answer, of course, is because over the past 50 years, people in America have seen case after case of inauthentic behavior on the part of Christian leaders, adultery, bezelmen, sexual abuse, unbridled arrogance, abuse of power, and this inauthentic behavior has cost us our credibility with many people in America. But you know, this is not a situation unique to Christian leaders. I mean, how many times have you tried to share Jesus Christ with people and the objection that's thrown back to you is, yeah, well, I once knew a Christian who, and then they go on to tell you about some ordinary, everyday Christian who's inauthentic behavior they're using to justify their spiritual unbelief. The point is, friends, when it comes to people justifying their cynicism about the Christian faith, yes, it's true. Many people will point to the inauthentic behavior of some Christian leader, but just as many people or more will point to the inauthentic behavior of simply a normal, everyday Christian they once knew, a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a neighbor, a relative, a coworker, a friend, or a youth group leader. In fact, I find, and I bet you do too, that the number one hindrance in America from people giving their life to Jesus Christ is the inauthentic behavior of some Christian that they once knew. And this is why, listen carefully, as the senior pastor of McLean Bible Church, the most important thing I can do for this church, the most important way that I can help this church make an impact on Washington, D.C. for Christ is for me to go out every day and to live an authentic Christian life every single place I go. And this is why the best thing that you could do as a member of McLean Bible Church for this church, the best way you can contribute to us making an impact for Christ in Washington, D.C., is for you to go out every single day, everywhere you go and live an authentic Christian life. This is what Peter said, 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 12, he said, "Live such authentic lives among unbelievers that they will see your right deeds and glorify God." Now, he said, "Well, look, you know what, I mean, I agree with you, I do, but how do you do this? How do you go out and live an authentic life in front of people in our world?" Well, let me give you three suggestions, and then we're done. Here's my first one. How do we live an authentic life as followers of Christ's suggestion number one is by committing ourselves to 100% biblical obedience in every part of our life? See, I have a premise. My premise is this that biblical obedience on the inside always results in authentic Christian behavior on the outside. Let me repeat that. Legal obedience on the inside always results in authentic Christian behavior on the outside. Friends, it cannot be any other way. This is what Jesus said, Matthew 23 verse 26. He said, "You blind rabbis, watch, first clean the inside of the cup, and then the outside will also become clean." Hey, think about it now. Authentic Christian living means that we live lives of full disclosure and honesty wherever we go. Right? Would you agree with that? Yes? Okay. Well, Ephesians 4.25 says, "Therefore, put aside all falsehood and speak truth to your neighbor. See if we are 100% committed to obeying this verse on the inside, full disclosure, and honesty with people on the outside must result." Hey, would you agree that authentic Christian living includes forgiving other people? Would you agree with that? Yes. Okay. Well, Ephesians 4.32 says, "Be kind and compassionate for giving each other just as in Christ God forgave you." Once again, if you and I are 100% committed to obeying this verse on the inside, friends forgiving other people who have heard this has to result on the outside. Hey, would you agree that authentic Christian living means controlling what comes out of our mouth? Would you agree with that? Yeah? Okay. Well, Ephesians 4.29 says, "Let no unwholesome word proceed out of your mouth, but only such words as are helpful for building other people up once again. May this verse on the inside and authentic Christian living must result on the outside." I think you get the point. The point is that authentic Christian behavior on the outside comes from a commitment to biblical obedience on the inside. It can never be any other way. And if you and I commit ourselves to 100% obedience to the Word of God in every area of life, we will live authentic lives. You can't do it otherwise. You know, a few years ago, a number of years ago, I went and got the mail one day and there was a check in the mail from the IRS. Now that's always wonderful, except I wasn't expecting a check from the IRS. I'd done my taxes that year myself. I knew what I should be getting and I knew I wasn't getting another check. And so I opened it up and it was for thousands and thousands of dollars, unbelievable. So, I called the IRS up and I said, "I think you made a mistake. I think you sent me this check that I'm not supposed to get." And I described it and the lady on the phone said, "Sir, we don't make those kinds of mistakes. Keep it. You did it." Well, I want to tell you, at that point in my life, I could have really, really used that check. And I began trying to figure out every way in my mind, I could justify to keep that check. I started going, "Well, Lord, you know, maybe she's right. Maybe I forgot to do something, but I knew I hadn't." And Lord, this is a gift from you. Thank you, Lord, from the U.S. government. And I'll give you 10 percent, Lord, honest I will. But you know there was a verse in the Bible that kept bothering me. Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 27 says, "Let him who stole, steal, no longer." And so, reluctantly, I sent the check back. You say, "Lon, you are such a wonderful person. No I'm not. No I'm not. Don't you kid yourself. I wanted to keep that money. I tried every way I could to figure out how to keep that money. There's only one reason I didn't keep that money. And that's because when I came to faith in Jesus Christ in 1971, I made a commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ that to the best of my ability I was going to obey every verse in the Word of God, 100 percent." That's the only reason I sent that money back, friends. Look, I don't deserve a round of applause, let me just tell you, I wanted to keep it. But here's my point, authentic behavior on the outside comes from a commitment to obedience on the inside. You understand what I'm saying? You want to live an authentic life. You obey the Word of God and it'll happen. You say, "But Lon, you know what? Even if I wanted to obey the Word of God, 100 percent, I got another problem which is that my sinful human nature is so strong that it often gets in the way and hinders me from doing that." Well, I understand. That's why I've got suggestion number two for you. And that is if you and I want to live an authentic Christian life, number two, we need to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to obey God instead of relying on our own power. Here's what Paul said, Romans 7, verse 18, he said, "I have the desire to do what is right, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do. No," he says, "the evil that I do not want to do. This is what I keep doing." Hey, I can relate to this. Can you relate to this? Now, Paul gives us the solution. He says in Galatians 5, verse 16, "So I say," Paul says, "walk in the Spirit, live by the power of the Holy Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh." One of the reasons God put the Holy Spirit inside of every follower of Christ is to give us the power that we need to obey God. But friends, we have to actively rely on the Holy Spirit's power every day. We've got to deliberately let the power of the Holy Spirit flow in our life every day, and I don't have time in this message to explain to you how to do that if you don't already know, but what I do have to offer you is a message where I do explain it. It's part 10 of our series entitled, "How Firm a Foundation," and you can get a CD in the bookstore, or we've moved it to the homepage on all of our church websites. You can go on there and listen to it or download it, and I urge you, if you don't know how to let the power of the Holy Spirit flow and dominate in your life, go listen to that message, and I'll give you the practical steps you need to know how to do that. You say, "But, Lon, no matter how committed I am to biblical obedience, and no matter how much I try to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit instead of my own power, I'm still sometimes going to fail." Right. You are. You are, which leads to my third and final suggestion, and that is the way we live an authentic life in front of people here on earth is by displaying humility when we fail. You know, as followers of Christ, when we fail to live authentically, admitting that we failed and asking humbly for forgiveness and trying to do everything we can to make it right, folks doing that will often communicate more authenticity to people than if we'd have gotten it right to start with. See, in order for our faith to be creditable with people, they don't expect us to be perfect, but they do expect us to be honest, honest enough to admit it when we were wrong and humble enough to go back and try to make it right. You know, I need to tell you that no matter who they play, no matter when they play, one team that I always root against is the Dallas Cowboys. Well, and let me tell you why. I have a very specific reason why, and the reason why is because I don't like their owner, Jerry Jones, and the reason I don't like this man is that I don't like the way he treated Tom Landry, who had coached the team for 32 straight years faithfully and humbly the way he treated this man, and in case you don't know what he did, is as soon as he took over the team 20 years ago, he fired Landry on national television without ever even telling Landry ahead of time that he was going to fire him. Landry saw it on television. That's how he found out he'd been fired. I don't like that. Now, what would Jerry Jones have to do to regain credibility in my eyes? Well, he'd have to do just what we're talking about. He'd first of all have to admit publicly that he mistreated Tom Landry, and then number two, he'd have to go and apologize to him in the very same venue where he embarrassed him. That is, he'd need to go on national TV and say something like, "I've wronged this man, and I'm here to ask him and all of you to forgive me for what I did to him." Now, if he did that, I might root for the cowboy sometime, and I might change my opinion of Jerry Jones. Listen, all of us who know what he did to Tom Landry know he was wrong. We're just waiting for him to be authentic enough to admit it, and folks, the same thing applies to you and me as followers of Christ. Listen, when we make a mistake, our children know it, our spouses know it, our friends know it, our co-workers know it. They don't expect us to be perfect, but they expect us to be authentic and honest enough to admit it when we made a mistake. We're not informing them of something they don't already know. What I've learned over my years of living is that when we've acted inauthentically, humility doesn't hurt our credibility, it helps it. And I suspect that there are some of us here today in light of what we've just said, who maybe might need to make a phone call to somebody this afternoon and admit that we acted in authentically in some area of our life and asked for their forgiveness and try to make it right. And some of us here may need to schedule a cup of coffee with somebody, and some of us here may need to take someone out for lunch and have a talk with them. Folks, people know when we're wrong. The fact that we're wrong doesn't cost us our credibility. The fact that we refuse to admit it and humbly deal with it is what costs us our credibility. So if you've done something inauthentic, hey, welcome to the human race. We all do it. But be authentic enough to go back and admit it and humble yourself and ask for forgiveness and try to make it right, that's how you keep yourself authentic in the eyes of people in our world. All right, let's conclude and say this. I don't ever want the Lord Jesus Christ to call me a snake. I don't ever want the Lord Jesus Christ to call me a viper. And I don't ever want the Lord Jesus Christ to call me a whitewashed tomb. I don't think you want the Lord Jesus to ever call you that either, do you? I would hope not. And friends, how do we avoid that? We avoid it by being passionately committed to personal authenticity in our life, to make the inside match with the outside. And how do we do that? Well, let's review number one, by being a hundred percent committed to biblical obedience in our life, number two, by actively relying on the Holy Spirit's power instead of our own to obey God. And number three, by showing genuine humility towards other people when we fail. It's simple, but it works, my friends. And these are the kind of people we need to be if we're going to impact Washington, D.C. for Christ. So my challenge to you, and my challenge to me, is let's be people who are zealous about our own personal authenticity. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, we have heard a hard message today, a challenging message because I can't help but believe that there are folks among us today who need to make a phone call or schedule a lunch or take someone out to coffee and need to recapture our personal credibility with somebody. Lord, give us the courage to do that if we need to do it. Help us to value our authenticity above our ego. Help us to value our authenticity above our image. Help us to value our authenticity above our pride. Lord, help us to be humble servants who seek with everything we've got to be on the inside what we say we are on the outside. Lord, challenge our lives today with your word. Give us the courage to do what we need to do and make us the kind of people that you can use in this town to make an impact for the Lord Jesus Christ. Change our lives because we were here today and sat under the teaching of the Word of God and we pray these things in Jesus' name. And what did God's people say? Amen. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]