Get Real!

Rev Gideon Lee

I want to continue from the book of Matthew. 

Matthew 23:1-12

​1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. 3 So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.

5 “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 6 they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues; 7 they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them ‘Rabbi.’

8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

The world on Friday just celebrated Halloween. To me that is one great pretend. There is a song called The Great Pretender. How many of you are young enough to know the song or is it a group? I don't know why they want to be like Dracula or Ghouls. Halloween used to be called All Saints' Day or Allhallows Eve. The saints in the past were not pretenders. They suffered for their faith. 

Sometimes we come to church and put on many many masks. And the world call these people hypocrites. The church has often been bombarded by this. They said the church don't practice what they preach. Hypocrites are described in today's term as actors. In the past, in plays they don't have an actor for all parts. So some actors play many parts. They had many characters. So they would change in between their characters and used masks so that they don't confuse the audience. The word hypocrite comes from that. What you see is not what you get. And Jesus is saying this of the Pharisees. 

Jesus said this, that the people must do what the Pharisees told the people. Jesus recognised the authority of the Pharisees. Follow what they tell you but do not do what they do because they do not practice what they preach. 

Sometimes we see something that is so nice but once in our hands it does not seems what we thought it was. We have to get real. Because the world is looking at us. Many do not want to come to church because they think we are hypocrites. That we are actors. They say one thing and do the other. That in church and at home or at work we are different. 

At the Hokkien service, they say I look like an actor. Alex Mun. I told them I'm not an actor and that I hope what you see is what you get. Pastors too are not perfect. But I will want to be real. 

Jesus demonstrated who he was by coming to earth. In the book of Philippians he humbled himself and came even to the point of death. He was as real as what he says. We can count on what Jesus says. The Holy Spirit is real. He is not an actor. He is not someone who only says but not do it. 

When Jesus was breaking bread with his disciples before he went to the cross, he washed the disciples' feet including who? Judas. We often do not see the significance of washing feet. We don't always practice this in church but it has great significance. 

In bible school I washed my leader's feet. I washed the youth leader's feet. They were young, like Alicia. I did not tell them except my key leader as I needed someone to prepare the water. They were wondering what I was going to do. I then told them I wanted to wash their feet. Some were glad and quickly took off their socks and shoes and I almost fainted. 

But my key leader didn't want me to wash her feet as she saw me as her pastor. She was like Peter. You cannot stand to wash someone's feet. You have to go down on your knees. In church we seldom see people kneeling down. You see that in temples where some were even lie prostrate. In bible school we God cushions in prayer room for people to kneel down. 

I got down on my knees and went to all my leaders and washed their feet. I had to put their feet on my thighs. Dipped the towels in the water and washed their feet. Some of them was crying while some were emotionless. I told them I had to do that because I came to serve them. And I told them they also need to do that to others. We have to practice what we preach. 

How many of you want a leader who tells you to do this and do that but never do it himself? People in the community can smell you whether you are real or not. We got to be real. And Jesus was as real as can be because he demonstrated it. We cannot afford not to be real. Nothing kills a ministry faster than being a hypocrite. 

When people see us and say cannot be trusted one. Cannot believe. Talk is cheap. That is why Jesus can say follow me. And Paul can say follow me as I follow Christ. We gotta get real. There is no place for hypocrites.

Remember I told you about Kampung Sampah. Where drug addicts are at the landfills and scavenged to recycle and sell. The question is where are we as a church? We say we love them as God say he does not want any to perish. Let's get real. Let's get our hands dirty. Let's lead by example. That I will not only say but back up my words with action. 

5 “Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries wide and the tassels on their garments long; 

They must make sure that anything they want to do there must be witnesses that applauds them. They want to be the main actor, the star. They won't do it behind the scene. But we know we do it for the father to see. 

Phylacteries are things the Jews wear as its a leather box with the bible in there. And they made it extra wide so that people can see. They made their tassels extra long. They want to make sure that you see it. They do all this not because of the father but because they can receive praises from men. 

Here's the remedy. How many of you like the solution?

8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. 11 The greatest among you will be your servant. 12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted."

Jesus said the remedy to be real is to be a servant. Jesus said he will exalt you. Jesus humbled himself. The remedy for hypocrisy is to humble yourself. Jesus did that and he was given a name above every other name. That every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. 

It is easy to get caught up with all the outside trappings. I find it difficult when a person gets a honorary doctorate and he goes around being called a doctor. Didn't put in the work but want the fame. To be great we have to be a servant leader. Servant style. 

This morning I pray we get real. There was a time I decided to be in full time ministry but I had problems with the church as I felt there were so many hypocrites. But God spoke to me and said that if I look to men I will be disappointed because men will fail but God will not. 

Let's get real. Let's not put on masks. Sometimes we put on so many masks we forget who we are. 

I am going to close with this. A real story. You know what is humility? The dictionary says the quality of having a modest or low view of one's importance.

A good example is how our Lord did it by even washing the disciples' feet. There is in scripture Jesus calls a spade a spade. We do not judge but we must judge rightly. If a brother sins we need to call a spade a spade. But we got to do it in love. In the right manner and spirit. That we will say what is right. What is black is black and what is white is white. 

Pastor John Ortberg tells a wonderful story about Clarence Jordan, best known for his Cotton Patch Gospels. Jordon went one time to do revival services at a church in the Deep South. This was more than fifty years ago, when segregation was the norm in the South. Clarence Jordan got up to preach, and he realized that the congregation was not segregated at all.

There were black folks and white folks all together. After the service, he asked the pastor, an old hillbilly preacher: “How did your church get this way?”

The old hillbilly preacher said: “What way?”

Clarence Jordan said: “Well, black and white folks all together. Integrated. Is that because of the Supreme Court decision?”

The preacher answered: “Supreme Court! Why would Christians need the Supreme Court to tell us that black folks and white folks ought to be all together?

Jordan asked: “Well how did it happen? What’s the history?”

This old preacher said: “Well, there used to be about twenty people in this church . . . When the old preacher died, they couldn't get no one to preach . . . So after about two months, I told the deacons I’d preach. They couldn't get anybody else, so they said, ‘Yes.’ I got up the next Sunday, opened the Bible, put my finger down on that verse that says:

‘In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, but all are one in Christ Jesus’ (Colossians 3:11). 

So I preached on that. I told them how Jesus makes all kinds of people one. When I finished, the deacons said they wanted to talk to me in the back room. When they got there, they told me they didn't want to hear that kind of preachin’ no more.”

Clarence asked: “What'd you do?”

The old preacher said: “I fired them deacons! If a man’s not gonna’ ‘deac,’ he oughta be fired!”

Clarence Jordan was amazed. “Why didn't they fire you?” he asked.

“They didn't hire me,” said the hillbilly preacher, “so they couldn't fire me! You know, once I found out what bothered those people, I gave it to them week after week. I put the knife in the same place Sunday after Sunday.”

Jordan was stunned. “And they put up with it?” he asked.

“Not really,” said the old preacher. “I preached that church down to four people. Sometimes revival happens not when people come in, but when people go out. If people were going to stand in the way of the moving of the Spirit of God, it’s better they be gone. After that, we decided that we were going to build the church on people who were actually serious about following Jesus. And that’s when it started to grow.”

That night Clarence Jordan stayed at the home of a member of that church, a graduate of Yale, a college professor, who had a PhD in English Literature. He drove seventy miles each week to go to this church. Clarence asked that brilliant young professor: “Why do you go to that church to hear an old hillbilly preach? You have a PhD from Yale. He can't utter a single grammatical sentence?”

The young man said: “Sir, I go to that church, because that man preaches the Gospel.”

Let's get real and do not put on a mask. The key to being great is first to be humble. Let's serve with humility.