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False Prophets Today Text:
Matthew 7:15-23 The first ever “false prophet” was the devil as he appeared to Eve as a harmless talking snake and caused her to doubt God's Word and to believe his own false promises. Ever since then the cosmic battle, the true World War has raged between the forces of darkness and death, the true axis of evil, and the one and only Creator God Who out of love for His creation did not abandoned it but determined to redeem and save it. As all things were created out of nothing by the power of God's Word alone, so His triumph over the devil, salvation and the promise of the new creation has been accomplished by His Mighty Word. As light and sky and land and seas, stars and suns and moons, vegetation and animals were created simply because God said “let there be,” so salvation happens solely by God's Word when he declares sinners righteous simply for the sake of faith in Jesus Christ.
The issue was, is and always will be the Word of God. Oh, the inanimate elements the plants and animals do not “hear” the Word and God is not just talking to himself. It is because of his highest creation, mankind created to be in a cooperative, loving relationship with God that He communicates in words. In love for all mankind God chose certain men, every one of them reluctant, even against their own will and desire, to reveal Himself and his gracious will through them, through their words—Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and the prophets. Then, when the time was right, the Word of God took on our flesh, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. All the law and the prophets and the psalms point to Jesus. As the book of Hebrews said it, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” [Hebrews 1:1-3 (ESV)]. So also we have the God-breathed Word through the Evangelists and Apostles in the New Testament. All the words of the Bible find their unity and meaning in the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, in and through whom alone a person can know God and be known by Him.
When our Lord and Savior, then, in his Sermon on the Mount, said, “Beware of false prophets,” he acknowledged the chief deception of the devil, namely, to use (actually abuse) the very Word of God to steal people away from God. That is, if the devil would appear before us unveiled in all his anger and murderous madness, we could recognize him and flee from him. But the devil is more shrewd. He comes and claims to be a prophet and preacher. That's what Jesus means when he says they “come to you in sheep's clothing,” actually “sheep-skins.” The figure of sheep and shepherds refers to God's people and prophets throughout the Bible. The idea is so that you will think, “If he looks like a sheep, sounds like a sheep and smells like a sheep, he must be a sheep!” But if false prophets, who are inwardly ravenous wolves, are so well-disguised, how will we know one when we see one? Jesus says, “You will recognize them by their fruits.”
When Jesus says “you will recognize them by their fruits,” however, he means not so much the obviously rotten fruit or foreign fruit but rather the fruit that is missing! “Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” Of course not. In Matthew's Gospel the meaning of “fruits” begins with John the Baptist asking the Pharisees and Sadducees to produce fruits that show repentance. The “fruits,” therefore, are love of the neighbor, reconciliation with the enemy and good works. To limit “fruits” to mean only the mere restraint from evil and sin ends up with only the righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes. The false prophet, while he may not promote evil, still refuses to be reconciled and promote forgiveness and love of neighbor.
In the context of the Sermon Jesus has been emphasizing the central concern of the Christian life as that of forgiveness and reconciliation. The warning therefore is not so much against blatant false doctrine (which is bad enough, and ought to be easily recognized by Christians with their catechism in hand), but when the “one thing needful,” the central and most important part is missing that we are deceived. It's sneaky. And even otherwise qualified pastors can fall into the trap. It is like my visit to one of our congregations on the 4 th of July weekend when, for all the interesting information included in the sermon, Jesus ended up being mentioned only twice and quickly at the end. One could have easily come away from that sermon with the idea that God is an American as spiritual and patriotic themes were indiscriminately interwoven. Or it is like a funeral where the “message” ends up being all about the deceased person and little or nothing about the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ. When you listen to sermons ask yourself and actually count how many times the name “Jesus” is mentioned, and then ask whether Jesus is mentioned as the Savior or merely as an example.
Being that they hide in sheep's clothing the false prophets Jesus was speaking about would not be the scribes, Sadducees and Pharisees against whom Jesus clearly warned his followers. As we said, false prophets disguise themselves as legitimate bearers of the message of Jesus. He is primarily referring to those preachers who would come and go throughout the era of the Christian Church after Jesus' departure by his ascension.
Now we could (and maybe even should) spend a few moments identifying false prophets today. Better, however, is that we take Jesus at his word and trust his word that “by their fruits you will know them.” While recognizing, marking, identifying and avoiding false teachers and doctrine is important and necessary, more so is the goal of being about the work of reconciliation, of becoming a fruitful member of a community dedicated to faith in Christ, distributing and receiving his gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation that shows itself in lives of love toward the neighbor. The only way this happens is by remaining and abiding constantly in the Word of God. Get out your old catechism and review how God has given you to correctly understand the Ten Commandments, the Creed, how to pray, what baptism and the Lord's Supper are and their benefits. No one should rest secure or sleep because the devil never ceases to see if he can pry us away from the Word by insinuating new and strange things about baptism, the Lord's Supper or even about Christ himself, in order to confuse and lead people astray.
As we, this month, make preparations especially for our children going back to school, let us not neglect the importance, both for them and for ourselves, of continuing in God's Word through sending our children to Sunday School and our own growth in the Word in the various Bible study opportunities that are being planned. And may our constant prayer be that of the words of the hymn:
Lord, keep us steadfast in your Word; Curb those who by deceit or sword Would wrest the kingdom from your Son And bring to nought all he has done.____________________
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