The Church Season of Trinity - The 8th Sunday after Trinity

The Church Season of Trinity

The Eighth Sunday after Trinity

Our Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (July 29, 2012)

Readings:        Psalm 26

                        Jeremiah 23:16-23
                        Acts 20:27-38
                        Matthew 7:15-23

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The text for today is as recorded in the Gospel Lesson from the 7^th chapter of St. Matthew, especially the following verses:

Matthew 7:15–16, ESV

““Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?”

 Everything is not as it appears.  And we know that because the devil wants things about our lives to be confusing.  In fact, certainty finds you by the help of God.

This Gospel begins with a warning about false prophets. Some in Jesus’ day could relate to false prophets, they could recall the so called magicians who performed for Pharaoh.  And of course there were people who ran after each false prophet that came by, like the ones St. Paul met at the Acropolis, they had so many they even hedged their bets by making a statue to an unknown god. 

So how, with certainty, do you really know who is who?  Verse 20, “Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”   Okay so I can just look at someone, see what they’ve done and know then right?  NO.  St. Paul would be a good example, he was a tent maker, though well educated, but caused the murder of Christians, at face value would he be the one to impress you with certainty?  Probably not.

Bad people can do nice things. Good people can do evil things, at times. Someone can interact with life for a while, can have friends, and may not always act out their evil. So who is who?

Jesus says that we are to tell by their fruits. Since they seem all right and good and holy, it cannot be the outward stuff - it cannot be their works! What we need to be alert to is their doctrine. Jesus said just that, “Go …baptize, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”  Jesus did not say some of what I commanded you, He said all.  St. Paul says this too in his letter to the Romans “I appeal to you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you have been taught; avoid them.”

After all, what are the true fruits of teachers? Is it not their teachings? Apple trees produce apples. Corn plants produce corn. Teachers produce teachings! Doctrine!

Not every word spoken by a false teacher is false, all by itself. Some of it may sound pretty good! That is why you need to pay attention. Everything a teacher teaches must be compared to and tested against the Word of God. Jesus also said, "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What is Truth?”  When Jesus spoke He said, "every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit." A false teacher cannot hide from those who know, and those who test what they hear against the Scriptures. They can sound good for a time, but their errors and deliberate false teachings will come out, usually in rationalizations. They have to, “A bad tree cannot produce good fruit.” A sound teacher will teach sound doctrine, and will be measured not by political correctness nor democratic majority, but by scripture alone.  A false teacher will inevitably teach false doctrine, and lead you to destruction.

The fruit of a teacher might also be seen in their practice, since practice is nothing more than doctrine in action. I am not talking about what they do out on the street, of course, or at coffee, but what they do with worship. Some practices are faithful, and some are just plain wrong. If worship is changed so that the Gospel is hidden, and our works and efforts become the central thing, it is false. If the sacraments are missing, or robbed of their power or if they are done wrong - using something other than water in Baptism, or demanding that someone must be totally immersed for Baptism to be effective, or requiring adult Baptism or re-baptism, it is false. Using the wrong elements in the Lord's Supper, like milk and cookies, or making how we receive the Lord's Supper determine whether it is truly efficacious, meaning effect for forgiveness (for example, stating that you must cross yourself, or receive the elements without touching them with your hands, or only receiving one kind - the bread or the wine) that would make the Holy supper a false practice.

It helps to remember that one of the principal purposes of our faith is certainty - not doubt! There are so many ways worship can be twisted and falsified, too numerous to list them all, but what we do in worship inevitably flows out of what we believe, and so even false worship practices can reveal the fruit and therefore serve as the mark of a false teacher.

Jesus teaches using the example of natural things, like grapes and figs to make His point about where false teachings come from. You don't look for those fruits on thorns or thistles. You look for good fruit from good fruit plants, not from weeds and noxious plants. So, if you find a teacher that seems pretty okay, except for this or that thing - a significant thing - keep looking, because a false teacher does not produce truth any more than noxious weeds produce wholesome food.

But be sure that the thing that bugs you is bothering you because it is false, not scriptural, not because you happen to like some other idea.  If a person says something which is not faithful, first make sure that it wasn't that they simply miss-spoke. Even a faithful teacher can sometimes put his words together in the wrong way, unless and until he is shown his error. But the faithful teacher normally doesn't teach what he doesn't know, and when he confronts his own mistakes or errors, he will straighten them out, confess his error, and teach the truth all the more faithfully.

This is serious and Jesus states just how serious it is when He states to some in the end, “And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’”

These words not only apply to the false prophets, but to also to all those who follow them. Of course, it is the prophet that will prophesy. The prophets are the ones who will cast out demons and perform miracles. This tells us that the pretense of truthfulness and the appearance sound religion of the false teacher can be tremendously powerful, but it is still of no avail. Even miracles worked to deceive you are of no avail for them, and no proof for you. The only proof is whether or not it clearly agrees with God's word.

And God’s Word for you is that, “Your sins are forgiven, and salvation is God's free gift to you, by grace.”  Not by your works, but by the work of Jesus Christ.  That is the Gospel. That is our faith! And “faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see.”

So be comforted by Christ’s certainty, He  gives the true fruit, the fruit that gives life is given fit or you, is shed from the tree of the cross and given in bread which is His body and in the wine which is His blood given for you, for everlasting life.  It is that certainty which joins us to God and Him to us, and to open our eyes, our minds, our hearts to the Wisdom of God and our lips to glorify His Name forever.  Amen.

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