Prince
of Peace and Christ Our Savior Lutheran Churches November 2, 2003
Vicar
Ben Scherbarth Reformation
Sunday
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Mark
13:5-11
5
Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my
name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. 7 When you hear of wars and
rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is
still to come. 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.
There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the
beginning of birth pains.
9
“You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and
flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and
kings as witnesses to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all
nations. 11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry
beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for
it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.
We live in a country that boasts the largest economy in the history of the world. Along with the obvious benefits that come from an economy such as this, there also some serious problems: namely, fraud and deception. To combat these dangers we devised something called the Consumer Reports. Essentially, these reports are designed to make the consumers aware of the fraudulent practices of existing companies or serious flaws in their products.
Most of the time we think we don’t need a report to tell us that a product isn’t what it claims to be, and especially when it’s being sold in an infomercial. However, sometimes when we watch the enthusiastic host and his throng of seemingly satisfied customers, we can’t help but wonder, “What if it’s true? What if this is the one product out there that actually works?”
Well, much to my embarrassment I found myself in a situation like this just a few years ago. The product that pulled the wool over my eyes was something called the Abzapper. The idea was that you could watch TV, play a video game, or order a cheese pizza while the Abzapper did all the work. Use it for 30 minutes a day for a few weeks and you will accomplish the equivalent of thousands of sit-ups. Imagine that. Rock hard abs without the hassle of an ounce of physical labor.
By the end of the commercial I was hooked. Mildly skeptical but nonetheless enthralled with the idea of obtaining washboard abs while doing anything but actual sit-ups, I ordered it. I was excited when it came and put it on immediately. For days I had been eagerly anticipating its arrival as well as the much-needed results. But to make a long story short, Calvin Klein won’t be seeking my presence in an ad campaign any time soon. I had been thoroughly deceived. Fortunately, I was able to return it and get my money back. Nonetheless, I was still a bit disappointed that I had been so easily tricked. If I had done some research I wouldn’t have been swindled. Had I taken the time to check Consumer Reports I would have seen that many had been fooled before me. Unfortunately, since I was too lazy to check it out and partly because I wanted to believe this approach would work, I fell victim to the Abzapper scam.
In
our lesson for today Jesus cautions his disciples not to be deceived. He warns them that danger surrounds them and
tells them it will come in two forms: danger from the outside as well as danger
from within.
First
he speaks of external threat. He tells
them to “Watch out that no one deceives
you. Many will come in my name,
claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.” Today we think…So what? I
know enough to know that if David Koresh or his type come to me claiming to be
Jesus they’re lying. However, at that
time, the letters of the New Testament were yet to be written. And while people knew both of Jesus and that
he would be returning, they did not know what form his return would take. This
reality made them susceptible to pretend Christs, who would surely lead them to
eternal damnation.
Today
the threat to us lies not so much in people claiming that they are the Son of
God (though on some levels this threat still exists), but rather in the
misrepresentation of God’s Word. Many
religions today both believe and teach that we are all worshiping the same
God. We just call him by different
names, Allah, Lord, Buddha, Vishnu.
They think it is ok to worship with those who don’t believe that Christ
is their Savior. God’s Word is like the
spiritual consumer’s report. Reading it
learning it and understanding this report will expose the flaws of false
teachers. In Isaiah it is written, “This is what the LORD says – Israel’s King
and Redeemer, the LORD Almighty: I am
the first and last; apart from me there is no God. (Is 44:6)” and when
speaking about Christ in Acts it was written “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under
heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)”
When you hear people saying things about God that aren’t true, do you
know what to say? Would you have been
able to respond to this question of all God’s being the same, or others like
it? Do you ever wonder if what they are saying is true or not. Do you ever think it doesn’t matter how much
of God’s Word you know just so long as you know a little? God commands us to watch out. When we can’t because we don’t know for sure
what to watch out for, we sin by disobeying God and putting ourselves in
eternal danger.
Christ,
having warned his disciples about the external threat of deception, goes on to
give them a second warning, “You must be
on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the
synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as
witnesses to them.” The NIV
translates this first part “you must be on your guard.” A literal translation of the original Greek
would be “you guard yourself.” The
thought being…watch your own actions and the words that come out of your
mouth.
As
witnesses to the truth of Christ the disciples would be brought before rulers
and kings to explain themselves. On
account of their confession they would be beaten, flogged and even stoned. If the disciples didn't remain vigilant in
monitoring their own words and actions the temptation to reject Christ in the
face of such physical danger would be too much for them.
Today
when we witness to Christ the threat is not so much physical as mental and
emotional. The fear of being socially
ostracized for wearing your faith on your sleeve is a fear that we all face at
one time or another. Perhaps you know
someone who is living with their boyfriend of girlfriend or has a problem with
alcohol or foul language. Often it is
much easier to ignore what is going on than to address the problem. In my own experience I know that I have
failed when met with this challenge.
The mother of a girl I once dated used to frequently invoke the name of
God in a manner other than which he intended.
Her automatic response to any number of trivial encounters was to
exclaim the Lord’s name. In spite of the
fact that this gross misuse truly bothered me I never said anything out of fear
of her reaction.
The
temptation in these situations is to not “watch ourselves” and instead to focus
on the social consequences while ignoring the opportunity. By behaving this way we fail God’s test. The next time you find yourself faced with
one of those situations ask yourself, “Where would we be if Paul or Stephen or
any of the disciples failed this test?”
Or if 500 years ago Martin Luther had failed to stand with God when he
was called to account for his teachings.
How many people would never have heard the great message of the Gospel
if they hadn’t watched themselves? Yes,
the benefits that come from seizing these opportunities can be great. Yet what happens to your faith and the faith
of others if you don’t?
We
are more easily deceived and fall prey to these temptations when the study of
God’s Word is a low priority and thusly we are not prepared to face them. Every time we succumb to the Devil's bait we
deserve the punishment for being deceived.
We earn God's eternal wrath with every moral challenge that we shrink
from; every Christian opportunity we ignore and every danger from which we run
scared.
Here
the words of Jesus sound harsh and unforgiving, but this is not the case at
all. They are a warning given in
love. Christ says “watch out” not to
frighten and condemn but to save us from deception and the resulting
danger. He does this, much the same way
a parent warns their 8-year-old to look both ways when they cross the street. But the reality is we have ignored his
warnings of love and have committed many sins; each worthy of eternal
damnation.
But
in the Gospel we hear about Christ. We know that he came down from heaven and
while on earth he was the perfect witness for God. We know he died on the cross for all the times we weren’t good
witnesses and all the times we were deceived by the temptations around us. This is wonderful news. And what makes this so amazing is that God
didn’t have to do this. When I returned
the Abzapper the company had to give me my money back, they owed me. But when we sinned God didn’t owe us
anything. He did this purely out of
love. Now because of the love he showed
us we will get to spend eternity in heaven with him and nothing is going to
change that for God tells us in Romans, “that neither death nor life,
neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any
powers, 39 neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)”
As
we rejoice in the fact that our salvation is guaranteed, and heaven is ours,
God commands that we spread the news of what he has done for us to all
people. Jesus supplied the disciples
with the courage to do this when he said, “Just
say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy
Spirit.” This promise of direct
inspiration doubtlessly served as a great comfort to them.
God
has not given us the promise of direct inspiration today. But He does tell us that he will be with us
in his Word when we give witness. When
we speak his words, we make use of the power of God. God makes this promise when he says, “My word will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Is. 55:11)” Therefore we should study God’s Word
diligently so that when it is needed we are properly equipped to use it.
Just
as the disciples were great witnesses for Christ, when speaking in front of the
rulers and kings, so long ago…let us also be great witnesses today. Love for
Christ is our motivation to go out and share this news with others. God has given us his word and tells us that
he will be there….so when we study the word we equip ourselves to face each
threat and to witness about Christ and his love.
Christ tells us that the end
is coming. He warns us of the danger of
false teachers and of letting our sinful nature dominate. It is in God’s word, the spiritual consumer
report, that we find the knowledge and the courage to combat these
enemies. So study his word that the
scriptures may fill you with the knowledge and courage to look past the danger
and seize the opportunities that God supplies us with every day. That we may hold to the Word and share his
message with all people until that final day when all the earthquakes and wars
cease and the Lord comes again.