Listening to the Wrong Teachers
Matthew 16:5-12
January 21, 2007
I’ve mentioned in the past that I didn’t grow up in a Bible-believing home.
We didn’t read the Bible, never had a Bible study, and didn’t have Sunday School.
My main exposure to the Bible growing up came during the summers when I was in elementary school.
We lived in Pine Ridge, SD, and we’d go to Vacation Bible School at a little church across the Nebraska border in White Clay.
I still remember getting pumped about making crafts and about lunch, because my brother and sister and I brought our lunch in one of those cool black lunch boxes with the Thermos in the lid.
Those were the days…
The bottom-line is that growing up I had an incomplete and inadequate idea of who Jesus was and my need for Him.
That continued all the way through high school, and into college, when I finally found Jesus for real.
So what made the difference? What was it that caused me to finally recognize who Jesus really was so I could respond to His offer of forgiveness and a home in heaven?
Folks, it was when I quit listening to the wrong people and started listening to the right people, and started reading the Bible for myself.
All my life I had been listening to people who had unbiblical ideas of Jesus. I grew up thinking that sure, Jesus died for my sins and rose again, but that that wasn’t good enough.
According to these people I had to jump through a whole bunch of other hoops if I wanted any chance.
Apparently His death and resurrection only counted if I “performed” just right.
I hadn’t heard that nothing I could do could get me to heaven. I hadn’t heard that all I could do was take what Jesus did for me.
Well, I can guarantee that I’m not alone in that, am I?
Many of you grew up in God-fearing, Bible-believing, Jesus-loving homes. And I hope you thank God for that.
But others here didn’t have that.
Even if we did have that, all of us are constantly exposed to erroneous teachings about Jesus.
And if we’re not careful, these teachings about Jesus can invade us as individuals and even invade the church.
So my goal today is to help us see the danger of this, and also give you some ammo to help fight the spread of the wrong teachings about Jesus in the lives of those we love.
Matthew 16:5-12 (p. 694) –
5 When they went across the lake, the disciples forgot to take bread. 6 "Be careful," Jesus said to them. "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."
7 They discussed this among themselves and said, "It is because we didn’t bring any bread."
8 Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked, "You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no bread? 9 Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 10 Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many basketfuls you gathered? 11 How is it you don’t understand that I was not talking to you about bread? But be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees." 12 Then they understood that he was not telling them to guard against the yeast used in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Jesus is like, “Hello! I’m not talking about the bread you eat! I can make all of that that we need. Remember the huge picnics we just had? C’mon, guys, get a clue!”
I can just imagine Jesus rolling His eyes at the disciples here.
But you know, I have to admit that I would have been one of the guys wondering what these guys were wondering. The only difference is that I probably wouldn’t have had the guts to actually admit it.
We’ve talked about yeast before. Jesus usually used yeast to discuss sin and how it infects the whole person just like yeast affects the whole loaf of bread.
At least one time Jesus used yeast to demonstrate how the kingdom of God can spread.
But here He’s using it to describe how the error of the religious leaders was affecting the entire nation of Israel, particularly in regard to the Messiah.
They were expecting a Warrior-Messiah who would push the Romans out and restore Israel’s national glory.
They didn’t see the role of the Messiah to bring forgiveness of sins and peace with God through His blood.
Centuries of oppression by foreign powers had served to cause them to put their hope in a national deliverer rather than a spiritual deliverer.
They were mistaken about who the Messiah was and what He was to accomplish. And since they didn’t have it right, they were leading the rest of the nation astray.
And just like back then, there are erroneous ideas of Jesus floating around today.
For instance, all the cults deny that Jesus is God. To them, He is only a perfect or “god-like” human, and He may have had a bit of divinity in Him, but He most certainly not God.
This was one of the premises of The Da Vinci Code.
Others believe that Jesus was a nice teacher or enlightened guru of sorts who gave spiritual guidance.
PETA believes Jesus was a vegetarian (conveniently forgetting that He ate fish on at least 3 occasions that we know of…).
Others believe that Jesus blew it on earth, so another messiah had to come and get it right.
Mass-murderer Charles Manson convinced his followers that he was Jesus.
But you know what’s even more dangerous, in my opinion?
It’s the idea that Jesus doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.
We should be focusing on things like war and global warming, and if you can squeeze in a bit of religion in the meantime, then that’s okay, as long as you don’t get too hung up on Jesus.
Or the idea that Jesus is loving, so everyone gets to go to heaven, because Jesus wouldn’t let anyone go to hell.
Why is this kind of attitude so dangerous?
Because it denies the words of Jesus Himself – that those who believe in Him have eternal life and those who don’t are condemned.
And I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to call Jesus a liar, are you?
But some people have found a way around that as well.
There is a group called The Jesus Seminar. This is a group of “scholars” who got together to examine the Scriptures and other documents to try and determine the “historical” Jesus.
One of the ugliest tasks these people took on themselves was to determine what Jesus actually said and what He didn’t say. In other words, they tried to determine what in the Bible are actually the words of Jesus and what were just made up by the authors of the gospel.
So they would come to these words of Jesus and discuss them, and after the discussion, they would have a vote to determine if they felt Jesus actually said these words.
If the majority of the group felt Jesus wouldn’t have said them, then they would declare them void.
According to them, Jesus probably didn’t say about 80% of what we find in Scripture as direct quotes.
I can just see it going something like this… (examples of how they determined stuff)
Folks, when we decide how God should look or how He should talk or how He should act, then that’s making God in our image, and that’s idolatry folks, and God has a few choice words about that!
But can you imagine how many people around the world these people have poisoned?
The yeast of the Jesus Seminar has infected the known world, giving countless numbers of people an excuse for dismissing Jesus as the only way to heaven.
There are people who call themselves “pastor” and “reverend” and they stand on platforms like this and behind pulpits like this and they deny the Jesus they claim to believe in and follow.
But the Jesus they’re following is not the Jesus of Scripture. And their yeast is infecting vulnerable people who don’t know better and don’t know that the truth is outside of what they’re hearing.
People are getting their information about Jesus from the world, not the Word of God.
False ideas and teachings about Jesus are all over the place, and they’re spreading through the world like yeast spreads through bread dough.
It wasn’t just an issue between Jesus and the Pharisees. It’s an issue here and now.
It’s been said that what you don’t know won’t hurt you.
Folks, nothing could further from the truth. Ignorance about Jesus has eternal consequences.
You simply cannot afford to be ignorant about Jesus and what He says about getting to heaven.
So what can we do to prevent ourselves from being infected by the yeast?
What can we do to not only arm ourselves against deception, but also help others who are in error about Jesus?
Well, you have to go to the primary source of information about Jesus. In other words…
To get the truth about Jesus, go to the Word, not the world.
The Bible is the primary source of information about Jesus. The gospels were written by eyewitnesses and those who interviewed eyewitnesses.
You simply cannot get a more accurate source of information about Christ than what we have in the gospels.
We’re all familiar with rumor, aren’t we? Maybe you’ve been the subject of a rumor. And you find yourself thinking, “If only they would come to me, they’d find out the truth. They could hear it from me and find out for sure.”
But because they won’t come to you, they continue to flounder in their ignorance of the truth.
That’s how most people operate when it comes to Jesus.
They think they know about Jesus, but they won’t find out for themselves what Jesus really said about stuff, because quite frankly, it’s a lot more comfortable to live in ignorance.
There’s no fear when you don’t really know what Jesus said about repentance and believing and living for Him.
So they continue to live with the world’s ideas of Jesus instead of coming to the Word of God.
But folks, to get the truth about Jesus, go to the Word, not the world.
One of my hopes for this congregation is that we would be seen as a group of people who are serious about not being Biblically ignorant.
That we’d be seen as a group, who although not perfect, are at least serious about finding out what the Bible says about stuff and living it out in our everyday lives.
That we’d be seen as a people not afraid to check out what the pastor says to make sure he was right and not teaching error.
That we’re a people who won’t be led around blindly by whoever happens to claim to speak for God and end up like those who followed Jim Jones to an early grave or like any number of people who follow cult leaders.
That we’re a people who won’t allow the yeast of error to infect our congregation, and that we want to stop it from infecting Aberdeen and Brown County.
That we’re a people who rejoice when truth is brought, no matter what church is bringing it.
Because folks, when correct information about Jesus is brought, God can do amazing things in people who otherwise wouldn’t have a chance for heaven.
And He can do amazing things in and through the people that bring that truth.
So avoid the yeast of the world. And eat of the bread of life – the Jesus of the Bible.
Let’s pray.
