Two Guides
Matthew: Christ The Promised King • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 29:55
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· 8 viewsJesus warns us to watch out for false prophets (or guides) - and teaches us how to spot them: by looking for the fruit of a transformed heart in their lives
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Intro me
It’s summer so it’s time for a bit of a holiday story and it starts with what, I think, is almost certainly the most impressive parking I have done in my entire life. Last year we were visiting Athens as a family and, since we’re a reasonably sized family, we had a big van to drive around in. And as it turns out, Athens is really not designed for that sort of vehicle. We’d already been up to the famous acropolis on a previous day so we were hoping to visit the Agora, the marketplace where the ancient philosophers would debate. And we’d driven into Athens about as far as we were going to get when we spotted a parking garage. Only it turned out to be an underground warren of a place and absolutely not designed for vehicles of this size.
But - and I am rather impressed with myself for this - we managed to get parked in a space about two millimetres larger than the car. It’s not the point of my story. But I’m still impressed enough that I feel the need to share the evidence. See? How’s that for parking?!
Anyhow, here’s the thing: we obviously didn’t really know Athens as visitors and the Agora wasn’t that far away so we whipped out Google maps and asked for the best walking route available. And here’s what it says - it still says this by the way. A nice 25 min walk through Athens to get a feel for the place.
Only it turns out this walking route takes you through the most post-apocalyptic place I think I’ve ever been with my family. Here we are just casually walking along the street and things get seedier and seedier and seedier. There are people literally shooting drugs into their veins on the side of the road. People going to the toilet. It’s a scary, scary looking place. And we’re just trying to pay absolutely no attention to anything and stroll right through like it’s normal for us. And putting our phones out of sight. And putting our youngest in the middle of the group. And walking a little faster. And faster.
We survived! And then, just before we arrived, the Agora closed. So we walked back a different route you’ll be pleased to hear. Maybe one maybe two streets across - on a main street. Perfectly nice. All calm. Normal Athens. It’s still a bit scary to think about what I walked us into - just by following Google maps. What’s my point with all that?
Ever worried about whether you’re really being led in the right direction or not? Whether the guide you are following is actually taking you the right way?
What about when it comes to faith? How do you know who to listen to, who to follow, who to pay attention to? Just who’s popular? Who has the most followers already? Jesus has something for us on this topic today.
We’re coming to the close of Jesus’ famous block of teaching often called the Sermon on the Mount and we’ve been thinking about this whole thing as Jesus’ blueprint for his Kingdom of Transformed Hearts. Jesus closes out with a series of two-way divisions. Last week Pat helped us think about two paths - the narrow path and the wide path. And it’s critical you’re on the narrow path - because the other way leads to destruction. This week we’re going to be thinking about two guides before we come onto two followers and finally two builders.
Two paths, two guides. You need the right guide. Let’s listen to what Jesus has to say this morning. And Andrew’s reading for us this morning from Matthew chapter 7, verses 15 to 20. Matthew chapter 7 - big 7 - starting at verse 15 - tiny little fifteen. Page 972 in our blue bibles. Matthew 7:15-20
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
Thanks Andrew. Now as you might know, sometimes preachers like a bit of alliteration and this week I just - I don’t know - I was just on fire. So today we’re thinking about how: fruit flags false furries fancying feeding ferociously facing final fire. Rolls off the tongue.
Ok, we need to zoom in on a bunch of the key words, key terms here, so we can understand rightly what Jesus is telling us. And it’s important we get this - this is Jesus finishing up his key teaching moment. He’s not wasting words here, he’s giving us a critical warning. “Watch out” he says. “Watch out” - keep alert - be on your guard. We are to watch out - it’s a command, an imperative, not just a suggestion or an idea for us - but for what? and why? and how?
Let’s start with the what: these false prophets. We’re to keep on watching out for false prophets - but we need to unpack that a bit so we don’t miss the full breadth of Jesus’ warning. So what’s a prophet? Not a profit - ka-ching - but a prophet?
The word is most commonly used in Matthew’s gospel when our author demonstrates what had been foretold by prophets in the first part of the bible is actually happening in the story of Jesus. For example, in the opening chapter, Mt 1:22-23
All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).
That sort of phrase comes up lots in Matthew’s gospel. And this pattern of someone called a prophet telling the future continues into the life of the very earliest church as it’s recorded for us in the bible - for example, there’s a guy, a prophet called Agabus who you can read about in the book of Acts who tells people things that are going to happen in the future.
And it’s worth noticing that Jesus telling us we need to watch out for false prophets implies there are true ones too. Otherwise Jesus would have just told us to watch out for all prophets!
But before we conclude it’s just these foretelling sort of prophets that Jesus warns us to be on our guard around, we should notice that Jesus himself is called a prophet, and thought of as a prophet by the people - Mt 16:14
They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
In fact, this is how Jesus describes himself, too, when he’s reflecting on how his hometown reject him: Mt 13:57
And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his own town and in his own home.”
And when he’s arguing with Pharisees and Teachers of the Law, he positions himself as a prophet again - a prophet they’re going to kill like they killed the prophets who came before: Mt 23:31-32
So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Go ahead, then, and complete what your ancestors started!
So we have to stretch our understanding of what “prophet” means a bit. Fore-telling for sure. But the word can also mean Forth-telling - speaking for God, from God, on behalf of God, to his people.
Jesus warns his followers to be on the lookout for false prophets - False guides; people falsely claiming to speak on behalf of God. So that’s what we’re looking for. Next up, why?
Jesus’ answer is simple - they are ferocious wolves. He says “they come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” What does he mean by that? Well, sorry to any vegetarians and to the squeemish, but wolves aren’t trying to sneak in among the sheep for the melodious baa-ing or to keep warm on a chilly night. Wolves eat sheep. Without even bbqing them first. They consume them. To satisfy their desire, their hunger. They’d get fat off of them if they could.
If we’re thinking about false prophets, false guides, here, what could that picture look like in practice? Well, they’d be more interested in satisfying their own desires and hungers than the good of the people around them. In it for themselves.
Perhaps just desiring significance or popularity - using the crowd in order to be someone rather than no-one. To make a name for themselves. To get invited to the right conferences. To get their name on the cover of a book.
Perhaps desiring power: people who will listen to them, obey them. The ability to manipulate people around them, to control others. Think of some of the horrific abuse scandals within the church - and there’ll be so many stories that have simply never been told.
Perhaps just in it for the money. In the UK, church is rarely somewhere to get rich and all our numbers are public if you want to check that for yourself here - but that’s not true everywhere. Definitely there are pastors with private jets. Definitely there are pastors on the rich lists.
What’s the common factor here? Ferocious wolves - destroying the sheep to satisfy themselves. That’s why you should watch out: because these false prophets, these false guides, would gladly see you destroyed if that’s what it’ll take to fill their belly, to satisfy their desires.
With me so far? Watch out for false guides, Jesus says, they’ll lead you into destruction. And here’s the kicker - we need to watch out for them because they’re in disguise - in sheep’s clothing, as Jesus puts it. They look like they belong in the fold, in the flock, in the family.
Perhaps you’re picturing some Goldilocks fairytale kind of disguise in your mind here? When I try and picture a wolf in sheep’s clothing, it seems like it’d be pretty obvious, right? But Jesus’ teaching here on how we are to watch out for these false guides implies that it’s not going to be trivial to spot them. Not going to be simply a case of looking for the sheep that looks out of place because it’s got massive teeth and pointy ears. The fake you could spot a mile off.
And I think this is a bit of a problem for many of us, if we’re honest. We’d like to believe we really rather smart. Big brains. We know our stuff. We’re not about to get duped by a random text message about how we’ve inherited riches - they just need our account details to wire them over. So we’re not about to be taken in by a false prophet, or a false guide - because we’re not stupid - we know our stuff. We’d see them coming a mile off.
If you think this couldn’t possibly happen to you, that you’d never be taken in, then you’re exactly the person Jesus is talking to. Jesus’ warning to us is that we won’t be able to tell sheep from wolf with just a glance. That might feel worrying, that might make you anxious - perhaps you really could have been taken in. Perhaps that’s happening right now.
But Jesus doesn’t tell us this to make us anxious, to make us suspect every single sheep is a fake, to have us always worrying we’re going to get duped. In fact, this passage is full of confidence - twice Jesus tells us we will recognize them. The surprise is how. “By their fruit”. He says it twice to underline it. By their fruit.
Not by breaking their code and unmasking their clever disguise. He doesn’t say “just look closer - check the mouth - look at the ear shape”. Put every sheep through a wolf detector before they join the flock.
But by their fruit. Now here’s the thing about trees and fruit - where Jesus goes next - it’s a slower business. We’d like something quick, something instant - fruit’s a slower business. But it’s an absolutely sure business. That’s the point Jesus is making in Mt 7:18
A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
It can’t be mistaken - where, obviously, sheep-like outward appearance can be. Fruit can’t be hidden. The fruit that grows is an unavoidable consequence of the tree that grows it. But it takes time. The picture of fruit growing on a tree has that slower pace baked in. It takes time.
So watch out for what? false guides. Why? because they’ll lead you into destruction to satisfy their own desires. How? by their fruit - by what grows out of them. But again we need to do a bit of thinking here about what Jesus has in mind when he’s talking about their fruit.
And as I’ve read others’ thinking on this and reflected on it myself, there are a two big options we should consider. With fruit, Jesus could be referring to their words, or to their actions. Their words or their actions.
So, first option: false guides can be recognised because of their false words: false teaching or false direction they give. And over in Luke’s gospel - Luke 6:43-45 if you want to take a closer look at that later - you get a very similar picture of good and bad trees and fruit directly connected to speaking, “the mouth speaks what the heart is full of”, Jesus tells us there - words reveal what’s going on inside. And that comes sandwiched between teaching that looks a lot like what we find either side of the passage we’re looking at in Matthew so it’s a reasonable passage to connect.
I have a few issues with this, though. First, what do we make of the disguise being initially effective? Why this picture of delay, of it taking time for the revealing fruit to be produced? How would that work with false words? Maybe you could imagine they begin with true ones and gradually shift over into false ones over time? Or that on first glance, the words seem sound, and only as you take time to look closely and examine do you begin to see the error?
Now add in the kind of organic connection Jesus makes between tree and fruit - his statement that bad trees cannot bear good fruit. That’d be like saying that false guides simply cannot speak any true words. It’s not Jesus pictures some good fruit and some bad fruit mixed in, but all the fruit is bad because the tree is bad.
Third, Jesus isn’t the first one to use a picture of fruit and trees and cutting down and throwing into fire. He’s picking up the language and pictures John the Baptist used back in Mt 3:10 - and that referred to actions - actions that needed repentance - an urgent change of direction. It’s unlikely Jesus is using exactly the same picture for something quite different.
The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
So fruit here is unlikely to be words - it’s more likely to be actions. Actions which flow out of character, out of the heart. Actions which show whether it’s a twisted heart or a transformed one. This would stack up with the pile of teaching we’ve just worked through over these last months speaking about actions, the sort of life which is evidence of an increasingly transformed heart.
What’s good fruit? Actions which flow out of a heart which increasingly turns away from anger and hatred; from lust and envy; from lies and revenge; from hypocrisy and judgement. What’s bad fruit? When things flow in the opposite direction: anger and hatred slip out; lust and envy get their way; lies and revenge write the script; hypocrisy and judgementalism are the norm. Our guide by which we are to recognise the fruit is this teaching Jesus has just finished.
This also fits in with the idea of a disguise we can’t immediately see through - a wolf in sheep’s clothing - but one which over time will inevitably fail. Character always comes out in the end. The mask always drops in the end. By their fruit you will recognise them.
God isn’t fooled, Jesus says. Judgement lies ahead for these false guides - “cut down and thrown into the fire”. No middle ground, no “give it another year and let’s see if there are good apples not rotten ones this time”. And Jesus doesn’t want us to be fooled by them either - to go down with them - to be led by them into the broad path that Pat was talking about last week - the one that leads to destruction.
Our time is nearly gone - we have to ask the key question: so what?
Like ferocious wolves, false guides only seek to satisfy themselves - they don’t care if you’re destroyed in the process. Don’t be a fool and presume you’re safe, that you could spot them a mile off. Believe Jesus when he says their disguise could have you fooled. “watch out” isn’t a suggestion - Listen to Jesus’ command. You must protect yourself. You must protect the flock around you.
But also believe Jesus when he tells you that you can. Learn from him to look for fruit. It invariably comes. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit. Jesus is inviting you - commanding you - to test, to taste, to see what really grows out of their heart. To use that as a window into it - to see whether Jesus is transforming it.
So be wary when that’s simply not possible. The internet’s a bit of a wild-west so be cautious with what you find there - particularly if you’re looking for guide in your faith. Would you trust a message with no sender, no source? A post from a name you know nothing of is little better. When you can’t see the fruit, when there’s no way to run Jesus’ test, remember they could be a false guide.
And be wary when someone’s “too big a name” for you to really know them or have any real chance of seeing the fruit of their life. They could be a false guide. And be doubly wary if you come across someone who won’t let you get close enough to see. If someone only ever appears on a big stage, and rushes away when they’re done, how could you ever tell? How could you watch out, as Jesus commands us?
There’s one more thing to say here before we’re done: If you’re worried you’ve been led astray by a false guide, if you don’t know where to turn, there’s one place that’s always safe, always sure; one place we know we see this good fruit in abundance: look to Jesus, the true prophet, the true guide. Taste his fruit - follow through the story of his life told in the Bible. See his actions, see his love, see his heart. Find he is true, and trust he leads you into the right path. You can’t go wrong with Jesus.
Let me pray.