What does First B Jackson teach about hypocrisy?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on hypocrisy starts with the word itself. Pastor Ray and others have returned to the Greek root repeatedly: the word means a stage actor, someone speaking from behind a mask, presenting a point of view that is not their own. Jesus reserved his harshest rebukes not for the openly lost but for religious people who had mastered the performance of faithfulness while something else entirely was happening on the inside. That pattern, the teachers here argue, is not a problem limited to first-century Pharisees. It is the ditch the church is most likely to fall into on any given Sunday morning.
The confrontations in Matthew 15 and Mark 7 gave Pastor Ray a close look at how hypocrisy actually works in practice. The Pharisees had built a body of tradition that looked like devotion but functioned as a way to avoid what God had actually commanded. The clearest example was Corban, a vow that let a person declare money set apart for God while keeping it in their own account, freeing them from caring for aging parents. Jesus called that a direct invalidation of the word of God, and he called it by its name. The Isaiah quotation he reached for was one the prophets had already been using for centuries: people honoring God with their lips while their hearts were somewhere else entirely. Pastor Nathan's sermon on the seven woes in Matthew 23 pressed the same point, noting that Jesus called the scribes and Pharisees hypocrites, meaning actors, six times in a row, because their outside presentation simply did not match what was inside.
What the teaching at First B Jackson keeps returning to is that the antidote to hypocrisy is not less religion but more honesty, starting with yourself. Pastor Ray drew on the Latin root of the word "sincere," meaning without wax, describing how a cracked pot could be rubbed with wax to hide the flaw and hold together until any real pressure or heat was applied. Real love and real faith, he said, cannot be patched over like that. He told a story about carrying a quiet grudge for years against a boy named Dennis who had bloodied his nose in school, all while telling the principal and his father that he had turned the other cheek. It was only when God pressed him to go find Dennis and confess that he had been holding hatred in his heart that the gap between his presentation and his interior life actually closed. That kind of honest reckoning, the teaching here suggests, is where unhypocritical love begins.
Taught from Romans 12:9-21 · Matthew 23 · Mark 7:1-23 · Isaiah 29:13 · Matthew 15:1-20
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 13
1 If I speak with the languages of men and of angels, but don’t have love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.
2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but don’t have love, I am nothing.
3 If I give away all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but don’t have love, it profits me nothing.
4 Love is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud,
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- May 26, 2024 The Love Without Hypocrisy Pastor Ray preaches from Romans 12 on sincere, unhypocritical love, exploring what it means to hate evil, cling to good, and forgive rather than seek revenge.
- May 26, 2024 Love Must Be Sincere Romans 12 calls believers to sincere, unhypocritical love. Pastor Ray walks through what that really demands, from honoring others to blessing enemies.
- November 26, 2023 Wonderful Words of Woe Jesus delivers seven warnings to religious leaders in Matthew 23. The pastor unpacks how hypocrisy, hollow zeal, and missed scripture still speak to us today.
- September 4, 2022 More Confrontation with the Pharisees Jesus confronts the Pharisees on hypocrisy, showing that outward religious rules matter less than what flows from the heart, where all true defilement begins.
- September 4, 2022 More Confrontation with the Pharisees Pastor Ray walks through Matthew and Mark's account of Jesus confronting the Pharisees, tracing how what truly defiles a person comes not from unwashed hands but from the heart.
Mentioned along the way
- November 12, 2023 You Are Greatly Mistaken Ray teaches from Matthew on Holy Week Tuesday: Jesus silences Sadducees on resurrection, names the greatest commandments, and warns against hypocrisy and pride.
- November 12, 2023 You Are Mistaken Ray walks through Holy Week's busiest day, as Jesus silences the Sadducees and Pharisees, and calls his followers to genuine humility, love, and faith.
- April 23, 2023 Eighteen Long Years A bent woman healed on the Sabbath exposes the difference between religious indignation and the humble, growing faith that actually transforms lives.
- April 23, 2023 Daughter of Abraham, Set Free A pastor wrestles with his own indignance while preaching on Luke 13, where Jesus heals a suffering woman on the Sabbath and the crowd rejoices.
- April 16, 2023 Repent or Perish: Five Warnings and Two Alternatives Five warnings from Luke 12 on hypocrisy, greed, worry, division and judgment, paired with Jesus's call to repentance and trust in a patient, providing God.
- April 16, 2023 Repent or Perish: Two Alternatives from Jesus Jesus warns His disciples about hypocrisy, greed, and unpreparedness, then closes with two stark alternatives: repent or perish. A close reading of Luke 12.
- March 26, 2023 Blessed Are Those Who Hear and Keep It The pastor walks through Luke 11, where Jesus confronts religious hypocrisy, calls people to hear and guard God's Word, and warns those who shut others out of the kingdom.
- March 26, 2023 Blessed Are Those Who Hear and Guard It Luke 11 sermon from First Baptist Jackson on hearing and guarding God's word, the sign of Jonah, and Jesus confronting hypocrisy with six woes to the Pharisees.
- April 24, 2022 Seek Me and You Will Live A verse-by-verse walk through the book of Amos, exploring God's judgment on social injustice, the call to seek Him above empty religion, and His promise of restoration.
- January 31, 2022 Monday Night @ Frist B Jan 30th Jesus confronts religious leaders focused on rituals while ignoring the heart. Pastor Mark explores what truly defiles us and how only Christ can transform us from within.
- January 16, 2022 To Be Noticed By Them Jesus calls His disciples to give, pray, and fast with pure motives, not to impress others. The pastor walks through Matthew 6 on what that looks like.
- January 16, 2022 Take Care Not to Practice Your Righteousness Jesus warns His disciples about doing good things for the wrong reasons, examining giving, prayer, and fasting done to impress people rather than to honor God.
- March 13, 2016 All Other Ground Is Sinking Sand Romans 2 lays out hard truth: God shows no partiality, and religious pride offers no cover. The pastor walks through the bad news that makes the gospel good news.
- April 19, 2015 Not Straightforward About the Truth of the Gospel Paul confronts Peter's fear-driven hypocrisy in Galatians 2, showing how the gospel breaks down every barrier between people and leaves no room for a works-based faith.
- July 14, 2013 Three Assaults of the Evil One Acts 6 reveals three schemes Satan uses against the church: persecution, hypocrisy, and murmuring. See how the early believers faced each one and how we can too.
- July 14, 2013 Three Assaults of the Evil One Three threats to the early church, persecution, hypocrisy, and murmuring, still attack believers today. Acts 6 shows how God's people can face each one with boldness.
- January 20, 2013 Attitude Is Everything John 8: a woman caught in adultery, a crowd ready to stone her, and Jesus responding with understanding, compassion, and forgiveness, plus a challenge that changes everything.