Trinity 8 [Matthew 7:15-23] (21-Jul-2013)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (11am) and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Bairnsdale (3pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text: (Matthew 7:15-23)

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

 

Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. 

In the Lord’s Prayer, after we call upon our Father in heaven, the first thing that Christians have continually prayed for since Jesus taught this wonderful prayer to his disciples is: Hallowed be your name.

This is such a wonderful prayer, and these four little word “hallowed be your name” are probably the most difficult for people to grasp what they really mean. The word “hallowed” means “to keep something holy”, so we’re asking in the Lord’s Prayer: Our Father in heaven, we want to keep your name holy, let your name be holy.

Luther puts it so well in the Small Catechism: God’s name is certainly holy in itself, but we pray in this petition that it may be kept holy among us also. God doesn’t need us for his name to be holy. His name is already holy. But we are the ones who use God’s name, and we are the ones who call upon it. Are we going to use his name in holy way, or in an unholy way?

So Luther says: How is God’s name kept holy? God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father!

This explanation is so rich. It says: God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity. First of all, listen to what it says about God’s word: it has its own truth and purity. We don’t need to add our own truth and purity to God’s Word to make it true and pure. God’s word has its own truth and its own purity. And so it’s the duty of pastors and churches to teach God’s word in its truth and purity. So it says: God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Teaching comes first, life comes second. We can’t live a Christian life unless we’re taught the Christian life first. No-one will believe that Jesus died for their sins unless they are taught this. No-one will live a holy life unless they are taught what a holy and godly life looks like.

Psalm 119 says: Your word is a lamp to my feet and light to my path. 2 Peter 1 says: We have the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place.

Today, we need to hang on to God’s Word, and savour it, and learn it, and study it like never before, otherwise it will all be taken away from us.

Teaching comes first, life comes second. There’s no Christian life without Christian teaching. And it’s not easy to teach God’s word, and to read it clearly, because we have so many barriers in our thinking, in our conscience, in our hearts and minds which prevent us from hearing God’s word clearly. When we think God’s word is not clear, the problem’s not with the bible, the problem is with us.

And it’s not easy to live a holy life. So often we think we’re doing the right thing, and our lives make complete sense, until the Holy Spirit comes and crushes our false righteousness to bits. Isaiah says: All our righteousnesses are as a filthy rag.

And so we read: God’s name is kept holy when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven! (We need help! We so desperately need to pray for the Holy Spirit to help us teach God’s word and to lead holy lives! Help us to do this!) But anyone who teaches or lives contrary to God’s Word profanes the name of God among us. Protect us from this, heavenly Father!

Do you see there in the catechism these prayers of desperation! We so desperately need to hear the word of God preached in its truth and purity, but the only people who will do this are sinful pastors! We all so desperately need to lead holy lives according to God’s Word, but the only thing we see in ourselves is our sin, how much we fail at living a holy life! (At least, if we’re honest, this is all we see!) Prayer, prayer, prayer! Hallowed be your name! Help us, heavenly Father! Have mercy on the pastors of your church! Have mercy on the people of your church! Lord Jesus, do not leave us alone, but stay with us to the close of the age, just as you have promised!

You see – in the church, there will always be someone preaching something. There will be people living some kind of life. But will the preaching be true and pure? Will the peoples’ lives be holy?

This is exactly what Jesus wants to teach us about in our reading today. He says: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

Jesus teaches us very clearly that in the church there will be true prophets and there will be false ones. And Jesus calls you to beware of the false ones.

You see, the Gospel brings so much peace to people. It really is a wonderful privilege to be a pastor. There are very few other people who can walk into people’s homes to be with them at a time of death or a time of tragedy and people will actually listen. There’s a certain respect that people show pastors. And then there’s a temptation for us pastors to rest on that instead of actually ministering to people with God’s word.

And so, there are also other people who don’t want to shepherd people with God’s word, but want the benefits, the trappings, the honour, the respect. In Acts chapter 8, there’s a man called Simon who asks that he might buy from Peter the power to give people the Holy Spirit. But this is not how it works.

When God’s Word is not taught, people have to teach something, they don’t teach nothing. If they don’t teach God’s word, they always, always teach a pretend, counterfeit, false word which they pass off as God’s word.

So Jesus says: Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

So you can see, that false prophets make an effort. They dress up in disguise. They make a show. They realise if they want to be respected, and respectable, they have to look like real prophets. They have to be dressed in sheep’s clothing.

Some pastors and some churches are particularly obvious and crass about this. They realise that the presence of the living and resurrected Jesus brings with it a certain atmosphere. They realise that when they walk into a real church where the word of God is taught that the people behave differently because they know they are in a holy place in the presence of a holy God. But if they don’t teach this, then they have to replicate the atmosphere: some churches will even put in flashy lights to give people the impression they’re in a night club or something. They know that Christians sing: and instead of singing texts which are full of God’s word, they sing empty repetitions that could mean anything. There are some Christian songs which are almost the same as popular love songs where you can basically take the word “baby” out and put in the word “Jesus”.

False prophet are always mimics. They want to pretend that they are a real church. They want to create the atmosphere of Jesus’ presence, they want to replicate the power that comes with God’s word, they want to replicate the energy that comes with singing the words of the Holy Spirit, but it’s always a fake atmosphere.

Now, it can be so easy to point the fingers at other churches, and other denominations. Many of us will have good friends who are members of other churches that don’t teach God’s word properly, and nevertheless despite their churches, they are faithful Christians, and people who are a pleasure to talk to about our common faith. But no church is immune from false prophets. Sometimes it seems as though some Lutheran pastors haven’t read the bible since seminary, if they ever did.

People often thank pastors for sermons they like – and it’s nice when people do. But with this then comes the temptation not to preach about subjects that people might not like. But the glory doesn’t belong to pastors, it belongs to God. It’s not the pastor’s words that people enjoy, but it’s God’s word they enjoy. We pastors can so easily forget that we must decrease and Jesus must increase, and then pastors want to take the credit for God’s word.

And so, Jesus says: Beware of false prophets, who comes to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognise them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognise them by their fruits.

Such an obvious fruit of true prophets is that they teach God’s word in its truth and purity. And in our church, this is our continual prayer, that we have these wonderful gifts at hand: God’s Word, and the Holy Sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

It’s amazing how a false prophet will want to convince you that we are all basically saying the same thing. They want to give the appearance of being a good tree, whereas in actual fact they are a rotten tree. They want to give the appearance of being a grapevine, but in actual fact, they are a thornbush.

For example, Jehovah’s Witnesses, who are an obvious example of false prophets, want to say to Christians that we believe the same thing. “You believe that Jesus is true God, but we believe that he’s God’s first creation. But let’s not fight over words!” We don’t believe the same thing! Either Jesus is true God or he’s not. If he’s not, then his blood is of no use, his death is of no use, and his prayers are of no use. We need to listen to people, what they say: are they pretending that we agree when we really don’t?

For example, often people attack Baptism in this way: They say, “You baptise babies and we don’t. But we all believe the same thing.” No we don’t. We baptise babies, because we believe that baptism is God’s work. It says so in Titus 3 and Ephesians 5, when it says, “God saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.” Jesus said: “Let the little children come to me and do not stop them.” We believe that “baptism saves us” because 1 Peter says “Baptism now saves you.” Finished. If you don’t believe that baptism gives salvation, if you don’t believe that baptism is God’s work not a human work, then your argument is with Jesus and his apostles, not with us.

People often attack the Lord’s Supper in this way when they say that it’s not Christ’s body and blood. Well, Jesus said, “This is my body, this is my blood”. You’re argument is with Jesus if you don’t believe that.

Then the false prophets take away the great comfort and the great riches that come with baptism and the Lord’s Supper and preaching, and they say: You don’t need this stuff. You need something extra that only I can give you. You need to come to our revival meetings, you need to come to receive the Holy Spirit from us, and only from us. These people don’t believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son, they believe that the Holy Spirit proceeds from them!

They say: “You don’t need God’s Word. You need to listen to our own prophet! Our preacher, our prophet is the only one who’s got it right! He will cast out demons. He will do many mighty works! You don’t need baptism, the Lord’s Supper, you don’t pastors, or the bible or the creed or the liturgy”, they say.

Don’t listen to people who talk like this! They are false prophets! They want to devour you like wolves! There seems to be some new crazy church starting up every month in Traralgon. Jesus says: Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?” And then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.”

Jesus says: You will recognise them from their fruits. It’s difficult to recognise a false prophet from their life, whether it is holy or not, because every preacher is a sinner, even if some would like to pretend that they’re not. But you need to listen to their words, their preaching, their doctrine. Holy teaching comes before a holy life. This holy preaching, the teaching of the Word of God in its truth and purity is the will of our Father in heaven.

Jesus says: Not everyone will enter heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Teaching God’s word, and praying to God from his word.

Even St Paul says: Even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

And so Jesus says to us: Beware! Beware of the false prophets. Don’t be sucked in! The Holy Spirit only proceeds from the Father and the Son, so if you want to receive the Holy Spirit you can only receive him from the words of the Father and the Son, and from no-one else’s words. If the words comes from someone else, they are the words of a false prophet.

Amen.

Lord God, heavenly Father, how desperately we need your help! Our pastors need your help so that they would teach us God’s word in its truth and purity. Parents need your help that they can teach their children. And all of us need your help so that we would live according to your word. Send us the Holy Spirit, our helper, and our Comforter, in the name of Jesus, our living and resurrected Lord. Amen.