Series: It’s Backwards
Go Against the Flow
Matthew 7:13-23
Residents of a small Australian town have been left speechless after fish began falling from the sky.
Hundreds of spangled perch bombarded the 650 residents of Lajamanu, shocking local Christine Balmer, who was walking home when the strange 'weather' started.
She said: 'These fish fell in their hundreds and hundreds all over the place. The locals were running around everywhere picking them up
The fish were all alive when they hit the ground so they would have been alive when they were up there flying around the sky.
'When I told my family, who live in another part of Australia, about the fish falling from the sky, they thought I'd lost my mind.
'But no, I haven't lost my marbles. All I can say is that I'm thankful that it didn't rain crocodiles!'
Meteorologists say the incident was probably caused by a tornado. It is common for tornados to suck up water and fish from rivers and drop them hundreds of miles away.
Mark Kersemakers from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said: 'Once they get up into the weather system, they are pretty much frozen and, after some time, they are released.'
Lajamanu is located half-way between Darwin and Alice Springs, on the edge of the Tanami Desert.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Live fish in the dessert falling from the sky? Stuff like that makes you wonder what God is doing doesn’t it? There are some strange miraculous events in the bible which were sometimes brought for the very reason of waking people up to something beyond their understanding. Fish flying in the desert? Fish still alive that far from water? Fish don’t do that on their own – they had to have some incredible help in order to accomplish that. Something like that is clearly not normal.
That word – normal – is an interesting one. If I were to ask you, “are you normal?” you might have to be given a little more information before you could answer. Normal is defined sometimes by your peer group, your country, or your family – and they can mean some very different things. Wanting to be “normal” is considered a healthy attitude but it isn’t helpful if “normal” is left for society to dictate what the definition is. We aren’t supposed to be normal in that way, we aren’t supposed to be a nameless cog in a group of nameless cogs. In fact God’s plan ultimately is to have his people so transformed into a new creature that they are shockingly out of place in whatever spot they occupy. They are meant to be out of place for the reason of pointing to him.
This week we begin a new series and new small group session called “It’s Backwards!” and it is all about how Jesus taught things which seemed to run counter-culture to what was going on during his day and run contrary to the popular opinions of our day. That’s one of the reasons for this week we are having our worship service backward. It is a little awkward on purpose. Don’t get comfortable today – being too comfortable shuts off your brain and God wants you engaged. This life is to be and adventure so let’s not keep it out of our worship time.
So let’s get to it – Jesus teaches us to go be different, to be awkwardly obvious, and to go against the flow – to be like fish falling out of the sky in the desert! He doesn’t want us to be like everyone else. First consider the….
I. Tyranny of the Majority.
A. In a world run by poll numbers and financial gains, the most popular ideas run the show.
1. Most popular cars, clothes, jobs, phones, toys – all are the ones which are mass produced and the more they are used and seen on TV the more people want to have one. When the products are cheap and useful that is great thing for everyone because it makes life a little easier to get through.
*I remember not long ago when AT&T came out with the IPhone combining an IPod with a touch screen phone and people lined up to be the first ones to purchase one. June 29th 2007 it was launched and people would plunk down $599 for one just to be the first to have it. And the more the IPhone sold the more it seemed to be in demand – some people who had no idea what and IPod was now wanted one because everyone else did! Even when something works really well it isn’t a good idea to just buy it because everyone else is.
2. And it happens that way in much of our life. The polls say a politician is pleasing he suddenly has power; a woman is seen as beautiful her clothes are copied; that thing is friendlier to the environment then it becomes standard. And the constant undercurrent is that since something is popular it must be the right way.
3. When a bad idea gets to be popular then it kind of has the same effect – people see other people doing something and because it seems prudent or fun or easier, they jump on the bandwagon. Then there comes an almost mocking attitude toward those who won’t join in with the majority. “Hey look at that guy he is still using that old one, what a loser. Doesn’t he know no one wears that anymore.” And we find ourselves going along in order to get along and not cause problems.
*On the other hand this is also why it is so hard to change things when they have been done a certain way for a long period of time. It becomes an assumption that since it was done that way and most of the people like it that makes it the right thing. Frequently during his sermon on the Mount Jesus would say this phrase “You have heard it said…” then he quoted a familiar belief that their society held. You have heard it said lover your neighbor and hate your enemy… you have heard it said do not commit adultery…. You have heard it said an eye for an eye…. And he took the common teaching and turned them to a deeper spiritual place.
13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
15"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
21"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' 23Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
4. So when the majority of people doing something a certain way or the weight of tradition seeming to say we have to do things a certain way creates this oppressive tyranny of the majority pushing everything in a common direction while Jesus is telling us not to just go along the easy way because it is easy.
*To the average person in ancient Jerusalem religious life was all about outward appearances and making sure they kept their actions within the law instead of actually caring whether or not they were pleasing God with their behaviors. Since everyone seemed to be doing it that way it became a cultural thing; now if you wanted to fit in you had to care about how you appeared to people and as long as that was okay then your spiritual life really didn’t matter. When Jesus spoke about how the spiritual life was suppose to matter much more and that instead of doing as much wrong as you could get away with just as long as you didn’t completely cross the line, he began to preach things which ran contrary to the popular mindset. He seemed to be instructing people backward by telling them to raise their standard to their inner life instead of measuring themselves by a minimum of requirements.
B. How do we see clearly what things is really right if neither popular opinion nor tradition can fully be trusted?
1. Jesus was giving us a clue. The narrow path wouldn’t be so obvious and would have to be actively pursued. And it would require energy to continue following that path.
2. To keep on it means continuing to question the world around you. We cannot copy and paste our life.
Isaiah 29:13 The Lord says: "These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men. Neither tradition nor majority opinion are good enough to guide our life. This is what Jesus is warning about when he talks about the wide road leading to destruction. This is the….
II. Caution of the Authority.
A. Jesus tells his followers to look closely to see reality.
1. He first cautions us to Find an uncommon way to live. It doesn’t mean you will be the only one living that way but it may mean you have stretches of your life where it will seem that way. No one likes to think they are alone in their beliefs or the only one trying to do the right thing, but going against the flow means that among your immediate group it will very often seem that way.
*I have occasionally had someone tell me “I am doing this because that person over there did it and they are okay. Why should I be the only one missing out when they get away with it and aren’t suffering?” This wouldn’t be so bad if it was an immature kid saying this because he was struggling to learn what it means to be an adult, but it more often comes from adults. One man a knew quite a few years ago had a pretty good upbringing in the church but decided to move out of his parents house to get away from what he perceived as his uptight parents. So he moved in with a girl, she became pregnant and they married. Then the marriage went south so he divorced her and married her best friend which meant the first wife was so angry she wouldn’t let him see his son. After having another son with the second wife they divorced and he moved back in to his parent’s house until he found another girl with whom he had a relationship with and she became pregnant. So after they broke it off he decided that he needed to find a woman who wasn’t interested in having children just interested in getting married. He found her moved in and got married. Until that marriage went south and then back he went to mom and dad’s. Now you probably don’t know this guy but I am betting you know someone with some of the same kind of very difficult problems. Neither he nor most of the other people who lock themselves into those situations would have told you early on they were planning to make things that bad; they just started doing what they thought everyone else was doing. Jesus doesn’t want us to be everyone else; he wants us to blaze a trail of individuality with so much less baggage and complicated pain.
2. Next he warns that There are going to be false prophets – There are people who will tell you that you can be a Christian and live exactly the same way as everyone else – just add a little Jesus. Sometimes people will mislead you for their own purposes and sometimes they will just send you down the wrong path because they assume it is the right way. Jesus said, “Watch Out!” and then he says you will be able to tell by the fruit of their lives.
*Now I asked a couple of my Biblical scholar friends this week their opinion of what they thought Jesus meant by the word “fruit.” My Professor-like friend Josh said he thought he was referring to the fruits of the Spirit Paul talked about – things like patience, kindness, self-control or they are caught up in the other stuff – sexual immorality, impurity, jealousy. A substitute professor-like fella named Jon said his thought was connected to that path concept; where staying on the path brings a clear result down the line. A graduate student type named Abi chimed in with, “The fruit is produced by a good tree just does so because that is what it does.” After consulting with them I have to agree that Jesus was talking about the obvious result of a life lived with God; a person might be able to hide their real intentions for a while but eventually the fruit they produce will show up very clearly; like grapes from grapevines, figs from fig trees. It isn’t something you manufacture – the wolves try to hide their true nature – but those who strive for a pure heart will naturally produce good stuff.
3. Then he alerts us to Pay attention to our inner life – he says that some who call him Lord won’t be included in the heavenly kingdom. Even Christians tend to measure our salvation by the number of good things we say and do while leaving our heart traveling along the road with the rest of the world. There is more to belonging to God and than just going through the motions – and even those who did amazing things in God’s name are necessarily going to be accepted into heaven. God isn’t fooled by the image we portray; the caution is to make sure we are letting the impact be inward and intentional.
III. Instructions of the Wise
A. When you agree with the majority of people it is likely you are heading in the wrong direction.
1. So as we train ourselves to think more like the way Jesus was thinking, it means looking at things in a backward manner.
*History bears this out over and over again. Hundreds of years ago people believed the earth was as flat as a table, and people like Christopher Columbus proved it wasn’t. They believed the Sun rotated around the earth until Copernicus proved the opposite was true. There was a point in the early 20th century where people believed that if a person on a train went over 55 miles an hour they would die. Today a majority of people believe man evolved from the primordial ooze into what we are today and think that scientist wouldn’t lie to them. Today the majority of people do not believe hell is a real place. Today the majority of people believe that their personal decisions do not really impact the world.
2. For the next few weeks we are going to look at some of the instructions Jesus gave which are full of spiritual wisdom but appear to be backward when it comes to living in the real world.
3. And it should be understood that to live them out means you are going to find yourself increasingly disagreeing with the general opinion of many.
It was what Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians 1:21 21For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Paul reinforces what Jesus said; a majority of people will hear what God says is true and wants from them and because it is different than what they see around them just consider it to be foolishness and useless and backward. Following the crowd is not the best policy and a real disciple of Jesus Christ has to be more thoughtful and wise when making everyday decisions.
B. Taking what Jesus tells us and accept the backward instructions.
1. You’ve heard how important it is to Question Authority? Jesus said it is more important that you Question the Majority. The crowd is always questioning God’s authority, just like Satan said to Eve in the garden of Eden, “Did God really say….?” Christians are the minority of people on earth and the majority seems to rule, we need to be more intentional in our living, more individually committed in our faith. Don’t be a mindless number, be God’s creation who walks with him no matter where anyone else is headed.
2. You’ve heard how the most important thing is to have Good Intentions? Jesus said it is more important to have Good Fruit. Things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and self-control – those things aren’t common, aren’t easy, and really aren’t appreciated. People will take all of that you offer and give none back because they are more interested in themselves like the rest of the crowd. The easy way is to just join them and take what you can – let someone else do the hard work. That has happed to long and why our churches and families are crumbling and weak. It is time to be fruitful, if not then go run with the crowd and quit wasting your time pretending you have good intentions. Jesus doesn’t want your good intentions, he doesn’t need them.
3. You’ve also heard how important it is to Believe in God? Jesus said it is more important to Obey God.
*The devil believes in God. James 2:18-19 18But someone will say, "You have faith; I have deeds." Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. 19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
*Jesus says that there are people who will call him Lord who will not be allowed into heaven. Does that make you nervous? It should. It should make you examine what is happening in your life right now. It should make your brain start to think about what you have been doing. This is exactly what Jesus was trying to do by saying things that seemed backward, break the spell of the world’s influence, get us to be honestly looking at the world without having the hype sway us to think that we can just keep going on like everything is fine. The world isn’t fine, it is broken. We can’t just keep going on as we are hoping those problems will eventually fix themselves. We can’t let our relationship to God be based on a guess or an opinion. We cannot look around u s and compare ourselves to someone worse than us – this is an individual challenge. Will you stand will Jesus and walk with him even if the whole world is headed in the opposite direction?
Can people tell that you are different, that your life is against the current? If not then you need to take the rest of this service and ask yourself why you are here. You need to think about if it is worth it to you to follow Jesus because if your heart is not in it then you are just pretending it is important.
