John Bevere - Discover the True Desires of Your Heart
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God hates it when we are deceptive, when we lie, when we give impressions to people that are not true. God doesn’t like this. Okay, guys, we have just finished reading chapter 12, and this one’s a doozy. We open up with Jesus talking to His disciples. First of all, there’s an innumerable company of people that come; I mean, the Bible says you can’t even number them. It was numbered when it was 5,000 who were fed and 4,000 men who were fed, and that was men only. This is a pretty massive crowd, and you know, most people would say if they’re in ministry, «Hey, guys, step aside; this is my hour. This is why I’m here. I’m going to preach to these guys.»
Jesus doesn’t do this. He first turns to His disciples and says, «I am going to take an opportunity to show you something that will illustrate the way I want you to live for Me.» In the meantime, here we are: Luke 12:1-2. When an innumerable multitude of people had gathered together so that they trampled one another, He began to say to His disciples, «First of all, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy; for there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, and there is nothing hidden that will not be made known.» Now, what He’s talking about is motives. There is no motive, no intention that is not going to be revealed for all to see; that is essentially what Jesus is saying.
Now, there’s so much here. First of all, He says hypocrisy is like leaven. Now, what’s leaven? It’s yeast, and when you put a little bit of yeast in flour, it spreads through the whole batch of flour and causes the bread to rise. So yeast, in regard to bread, is a good thing; yeast, in regard to hypocrisy, yikes, that’s a bad thing. What He’s saying here is that hypocrisy is contagious.
Now, what is the Greek word for hypocrisy? It is hypokrisis, which means to give an impression of having certain purposes or motivations while, in reality, having quite different ones. He said that is dangerous, and He said, «Guys, I care about you. I care about teaching you. I will take care of the crowds here in a minute, but I’m going to show you how My deep love and desire to make you disciples is first and foremost on My heart.» I think that is quite amazing that He first turned to them and said, «I’m going to take this opportunity to teach them something.»
Okay, now what is the antidote? What keeps us free from hypocrisy? He then looks at them in the next verse and says, «My friends, don’t be afraid of those who can kill the body and afterward have nothing more that they can do, but I will show you whom you should fear: fear God, who after He has killed has the power to cast into hell. Yes, I say to you, fear Him.» First of all, He says fear God twice, and He says that the fear of God is going to keep you from living out of a hypocritical motive. What you don’t want to do—God hates it when we are deceptive, when we lie, when we give impressions to people that are not true. God doesn’t like this because God is truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. His disciples should be people of truth, people who love purity of heart. Purity of heart is exactly opposite of what a hypocritical person would do. Purity of heart says, «I am going to speak the truth. I am going to tell the truth. I am going to reveal the truth whether it’s to my advantage or whether it’s not to my advantage.»
Now, this is where the fear of God really comes into play. The fear of God will therefore keep you in touch with your motives and intentions, so it’s like this protective check in your heart that keeps you from drifting over to what other people easily drift over to, and that is the fear of man. That is when we’re not afraid of others; we want people to perceive something in us that is not really accurate because we care more about what they think than what God thinks. The fear of God protects you from that and keeps you in touch with your true heart motives.