“When the disciples went to the other side, they forgot to take bread. ‘Watch out,’ Jesus said to them, ‘beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees.’ So, they began to discuss this among themselves, saying, ‘It is because we brought no bread.’ When Jesus learned of this, he said, ‘You who have such little faith! Why are you arguing among yourselves about having no bread? Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand and how many baskets you took up? How could you not understand that I was not speaking to you about bread? But beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees!’ Then they understood that he had not told them to be on guard against the yeast in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” [1]
A Nova Scotia man received a “pardon” from the Fairmont Empress for his lifetime ban from the iconic Victoria hotel after he inadvertently trashed one of their rooms with a pack of pepperoni and a flock of seagulls.
It all happened seventeen years ago when Nick Burchill booked a room at the Empress for a work conference. Burchill was also in the Canadian Naval Reserve and his Navy buddies asked that he bring some Brother’s pepperoni, a Halifax delicacy.
“Because this was the Navy we were talking about, I brought enough for a ship,” Burchill wrote in a March 28, 2018 Facebook post about the ordeal, which has gone viral.
His pepperoni-packed suitcase was misplaced by the airline, so it arrived in Victoria a day late.
Burchill knew the pepperoni was likely still edible, but he thought the most food-safe thing to do would be to keep it cool until he turned over the goods.
His fourth-floor room facing the Inner Harbour was large but lacking a refrigerator.
“It was April, the air was chilly. An easy way to keep all of this food cool would be just to keep it next to an open window,” Burchill wrote.
He spread the packages of pepperoni out on a table and along the window sill, then went for a leisurely four or five-hour walk.
“I remember walking down the long hall and opening the door to my room to find an entire flock of seagulls in my room,” Burchill wrote. “I didn’t have time to count, but there must have been forty of them and they had been in my room, eating pepperoni for a long time.”
Burchill discovered that spicy pepperoni does not agree with a seagull’s digestive system. The room was covered in guano.
Burchill’s unexpected entry startled the birds.
“They immediately started flying around and crashing into things as they desperately tried to leave the room through the small opening by which they had entered,” he wrote. “Less composed seagulls are attempting to leave through the other closed windows. The result was a tornado of seagull excrement, feathers, pepperoni chunks and fairly large birds whipping around the room.”
Lamps tumbled to the floor, the curtains were trashed, the coffee tray was disgusting.
Burchill waded through the flock and opened the remaining windows to let the gulls escape. “One tried to re-enter the room to grab another piece of pepperoni and in my agitated state, I took off one of my shoes and threw it at him,” he said.
Burchill then chased the last gull hopping through the room as it held a “big hunk of pepperoni in its gob.” He grabbed a towel, captured the bird and in his haste, threw the package out the window, too.
Unbeknownst to Burchill, the shoe and the towel-trapped seagull had plummeted to the Empress’s front lawn, striking a group of tourists who were walking toward the tea room.
Back in the room, Burchill was surveying the damage and also trying to make it on time to an important work dinner. Then he realized one half of his only pair of shoes was on the hotel’s front lawn. He recovered the shoe which was a bit wet from landing in a patch of soil.
Burchill tried to dry the shoe with a hairdryer, and when his phone rang, distraction caused the hairdryer to plunge into a sink filled with water. “I don’t know how much of the hotel’s power I knocked-out, but at that point I decided I needed help,” Burchill wrote.
Finally, he called the front desk to fess up to what happened.
“I can still remember the look on the lady’s face when she opened the door,” he said.
He left the dismayed cleaning lady and went to his work dinner. When Burchill returned, his items were moved to a smaller room and eventually his company received a letter banning him from the Empress.
In his mea culpa letter to the hotel, Burchill writes “I have matured and I admit responsibility for my actions. I come to you, hat-in-hand to apologize for the damage I had indirectly come to cause and to ask you reconsider my lifetime ban from the property. I hope that you will see fit to either grant me a pardon, or consider my eighteen years away from the empress as ‘time served.’”
Tracey Drake, the hotel’s director of public relations said as wild as it sounds, the story is true. Drake initially thought it was an April Fool’s joke, but long-term staff confirmed the tale. [2]
Little acts have great consequences. Small choices result in major ramifications. We wouldn’t normally think that putting pepperoni on a window ledge to cool would result in an eighteen-year ban from a luxury hotel. We wouldn’t think that a choice of where to attend church would have an impact on the future of our children, and perhaps on our own destiny.
The criteria for choosing where one attends church, even whether one attends church, varies according to any number of factors. People determine where they will attend church on the basis of how well the preacher can keep their attention, on how good they feel about themselves after attending a service, on whether a children’s service is provided, on whether their friends attend that church and even on how attendance at that particular church will advance their social standing in the eyes of business colleagues or their peers. All these criteria could be considered essential; however, they fail dramatically when measured by Jesus’ standard.
Jesus warned disciples against approving of religion just because it was religious? He warned, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees” [MATTHEW 16:6 ISV]. Obtuse as they were, the disciples at last “understood that [Jesus] had not told them to be on guard against the yeast in bread, but against the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees” [MATTHEW 16:12 NET]. Don’t allow seagulls to invade and destroy your life.
THE TEACHING OF THE PHARISEES AND THE SADDUCEES — Jesus warned against “the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” [see MATTHEW 16:6]. His warning precipitated rather vigorous questioning among the disciples. Matthew wrote, “[The disciples] began discussing [what Jesus said] among themselves, saying, ‘We brought no bread’” [MATTHEW 16:7].
Jesus, aware of their questions, was compelled to speak quite pointedly. “O you of little faith, why are you discussing among yourselves the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive? Do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand, and how many baskets you gathered? How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees” [MATTHEW 16:8-11].
Like us, those first disciples were bounded by physical parameters. When Jesus spoke of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees, they assumed he was speaking about bread. They did not think back to what had just taken place. Let’s go back a bit and see what was happening so that we don’t make the same mistake these first disciples made.
Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, until He came to a mountain where He seated Himself. As was often the case, great crowds came to Him after He was seated. They brought with them many people who were injured and tormented, people in need of mercy. Matthew notes, “Great crowds came to him, bringing with them the lame, the blind, the crippled, the mute, and many others, and they put them at his feet, and he healed them, so that the crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel” [MATTHEW 15:30-31]. Jesus revealed His mercy and His power by healing those who were brought to Him. When they saw the transformation of wounded humanity, people glorified the Living God.
However, Jesus wasn’t done with revealing His kindness toward the thronging mass surrounding Him. He called His disciples and said, “I have compassion on the crowd because they have been with me now three days and have nothing to eat. And I am unwilling to send them away hungry, lest they faint on the way” [MATTHEW 15:32].
The disciples, being somewhat dense, responded to His implication, “Where are we to get enough bread in such a desolate place to feed so great a crowd” [MATTHEW 15:33]? They were totally unconscious about what they had just witnessed! Only a short while before this, Jesus had fed a crowd of about five thousand men, women and children with five loaves of bread and two fish [see MATTHEW 14:14-21]. It was almost as though they had never been present when He provided food for thousands. Faced with another crowd, this time a crowd of about four thousand people, they had no idea how to meet their needs.
Patiently, Jesus asked them what provisions they had. This time they answered that they had seven loaves of pita and a few small fish. Well, let’s see. If five loaves and two fish will feed five thousand, then seven loaves and a few small fish should suffice for four thousand, wouldn’t you think? So, Jesus directs the crowd to be seated on the ground. Then, “He took the seven loaves and the fish, and having given thanks He broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied” [MATTHEW 15:36-37a]. It is important to note that those who ate were satisfied. When Jesus feeds us, there is no lingering hunger. When Jesus blesses, there is no gnawing desire for something more. When the Lord provides, we will be content. Mark the individual that is never satisfied, and you witness someone who has not tasted the goodness of the Lord. Mark the church that always looks for something more, and you will witness an unspiritual congregation.
After He had fed this crowd, we read that “they took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces left over. Those who ate were four thousand men, besides women and children” [MATTHEW 15:37b-38].
Immediately after this, “The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven” [MATTHEW 16:1]. One gets the impression they had been hanging out on the fringes of the crowd. Perhaps they had even eaten some of the bread and fish, though it does stretch credulity to think that they would allow themselves to even taste what Jesus provided. They seem to be professional doubters. They had just witnessed a miracle, and they have the audacity to ask Jesus “to show them a sign from heaven.”
This appears to have been a common request from this crowd. On another occasion, when Jesus had cast a demon out of a man oppressed and rendered blind and mute, the Pharisees began to grumble, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons” [MATTHEW 12:24].
Knowing what they were thinking, and thus aware of their attempt to turn people away from what He was teaching, Jesus cautioned them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand. And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand? And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore, they will be your judges. But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. Therefore, I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” [MATTHEW 12:25-32].
Then, because those to whom He was speaking were obtuse, willingly blind to what was going on, dense, Jesus spoke pointedly, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” [MATTHEW 12:33-37].
Seriously! Could even a Pharisee miss the burn that was just delivered? However, listen to what happened next. “Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, ‘Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you’” [MATTHEW 12:38]. They had just witnessed Jesus exercising authority over a demon. They could see the man who had been blind and mute now speaking and seeing. And, yet, they wanted some kind of sign to authenticate Jesus as possessing authority. Truthfully, no sign would ever suffice for those who wish to be blind!
On the day of which we are reading in our text, the Pharisees and Sadducees demanded a sign, and Jesus refused to concede to their foolish request. “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah” [MATTHEW 16:2-4]. You can bet that answer got them talking! They would spend days trying to decide what the sign of Jonah might be.
With that, Jesus and the disciples left. It was when they reached the other side of the lake that he cautioned them about the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees. The disciples weren’t too much brighter than the religious leaders, but they finally understood that Jesus was cautioning them that what was taught was important. If they held wrong doctrine, they would act in an ungodly manner. What you believe dictates how you live.
Well, what was the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees? Let’s deal with the Sadducees first. The Sadducees were the equivalent of modernists in this day. We are told by Dr. Luke, “The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit” [ACTS 23:8a]. These are the people who adhere to ritual, even while denying that the rituals have any meaning. For the Sadducees, the Scriptures were a fairy tale, a mouldy list of ancient rules that meant nothing in the first place. Heaven and hell were whatever you made of your life now—this was all there is, and there was no worry about what was coming. There was no God, and thus, there was no salvation, no accountability beyond accountability to the moment. For them, life was defined as “Grab all the gusto you can. You only go around once.”
Jesus refuted the Sadducees when they attempted to trip Him up with an old saw. The Master’s response to their silly question was prefaced with what was obvious to conscientious worshippers of the Living God. “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God” [MATTHEW 22:29]. Sadducees, Modernists, Liberals are wrong because they are ignorant both of Scripture and of the power of God.
The Pharisees were the fundamentalists of that day. In the passage referred to a moment ago, Luke contrasts the Pharisees with the Sadducees, “The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, nor angel, nor spirit, but the Pharisees acknowledge them all” [ACTS 23:8]. For the Pharisees, Scripture was authoritative—it meant what it said and said what it meant. However, they had slipped into mindlessly splitting theological hairs so that they always came out ahead. Jesus told the crowds who followed Him, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice” [MATTHEW 23:1-3].
For one entire chapter of this first Gospel account [MATTHEW 23:1-36], the Master exposed the Pharisees and their scribes as fraudulent. They had rules, and if there wasn’t a rule to distinguish them from others, they would invent one. They exalted themselves rather than exalting God. They made proselytes rather than making converts. They exalted the Temple even while debasing the God supposedly worshipped in the Temple. They were experts at religious minutiae even as they ignored the great tenets of the Faith. They were concerned with the external appearance of righteousness, and unconcerned with the need for transformation. They were prepared to destroy those who didn’t agree with them and tolerated wickedness as long as those performing the evil deeds agreed with them.
THE TEACHING WE RECEIVE DETERMINES HOW WE LIVE — It is impossible to anticipate the negative impact of errant teaching on one’s life. If we are considering only contemporary education, we must be astonished at the inability of children to read a clock today. It is reported that schools in Great Britain have removed analog clocks from the classroom because the children cannot read the clocks. [3] Rather than teaching the children how to tell time, teachers have conceded the effort too difficult, and perhaps useless, thus removing the clocks.
If the situation for graduates of our secondary schools is dreadful, imagine what has been taking place in our colleges and universities. When a university degree becomes a requirement to get a job as a senior clerk in a retail store, something dreadful has happened in the field of education! Think of the necessity of providing remedial reading instruction for youth entering college in this day. Grammar has become a study that is foreign to many contemporary universities. Some institutions of higher learning(?) today are teaching Ebonics, street language, rather than teaching English. College graduates are often unable to balance a chequebook!
The dearth of instruction provided in public education in matters required for daily living is magnified among the churches. Pastoral training frequently includes psychology, sociology and various forms of counselling, but those preparing for pastoral ministries are untaught in the original languages and unaware of current trends in theology. Many of those entering into pastoral ministries have no theology, being at the mercy of the moment whenever they stand to preach. They are well equipped to fan the flames of whatever current social dynamic is raging in the nation, but they are unaware of what is written in the Word of God!
The quality of biblical instruction in many contemporary churches is a source of deep disgrace. Few congregants within contemporary churches seem to know what they believe, though most have a vague sense of what they would like to believe. Professed followers of the Son of God have seemingly adopted a lasses-faire view of the Faith. “You’re Okay; I’m Okay” has become popular as a defining attitude of modern theology. However, this popular philosophy fails the test of pleasing God, if what is written in the Word means anything.
Almost unconsciously, we adopt the view that being present at a church service is more important than what may be taught from the pulpit. This particular idea arises from having placed the individual at the centre of life. Rather than seeing the church as the Body of Christ and the members as those joined in union with the other members, we think of the congregation as an organisation which we join at our discretion. Consequently, because we join as individuals we can leave whenever we like. So, the assembly has become another organisation, differing from other civic organisations only in the emphasis on religious themes.
This attitude of individualism infiltrates all of modern life. We discount that impact of violent video games on our youth. Seeing a few thousand violent deaths, participating in most of them vicariously, won’t influence our children to be violent, we are assured. Listening to misogynistic lyrics won’t make me despise women or degrade them as mere objects to be used and abused by men, is the argument advanced by those selling the records and videos that disparage women. Desensitization is discounted, as though it doesn’t count; yet, intuitively, we know that people are desensitized to violence, misogyny and a myriad of dishonourable attitudes.
If we recognise that we, and our families, are desensitised through watching violent and misogynistic shows or listening to lyrics that glorify sex and violence, why would we think that sitting under the preaching of error would be neutral? If I consistently hear a message that portrays God other than the manner in which He presents Himself, isn’t it apparent that I will at the least begin to question His self-revelation? If the holiness of the Living God is dismissed, then I will shortly conclude that I have no need to be godly.
Let’s acknowledge that our world is broken. It doesn’t take much to convince us that this is the case. All one need do is watch the evening news or read what took place in the world during the day. Then, attend a church service in the typical Canadian city, comparing what is taught with what is written in the Word. The concerns addressed from the typical pulpit speak of how to feel good about ourselves, how to be a success at whatever we aspire to do and how “nice” people can be “nicer” still. Okay, I’m somewhat cynical, but I’m not far off the mark.
Compare the message that is generally heard with what Jesus taught, and note the difference. Jesus called people to a radical life. Think about that. A rich man came to Jesus avowing that he wanted to follow him. Jesus advised him to sell everything he had and give the proceeds to the poor. One can almost see the shocked look on the Apostles’ faces. I can almost see Peter waving his hands wildly and shaking his head as though to indicate to the Master, “Don’t say that! You’ll run that man away!”
Three men came to Jesus, each wanting to follow him. The first said he wanted to go where Jesus went, and Jesus responded, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” [LUKE 9:58]. The Master said, “It is fine to follow Me, but you will be homeless.” That is not the way to attract people to your cause.
A second man was called to follow Jesus, but he asked permission to go bury his father. Jesus spoke pointedly to this man, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God” [LUKE 9:60]. Don’t waste your time burying your family; you are to go now and proclaim the kingdom of God!
The third man professed willingness to follow Jesus, but he wanted to say “Good-bye” to his family. Jesus was not impressed by this request; He said, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” [LUKE 9:62]. You don’t have time to engage in family matters. The kingdom of God is waiting.
The message of the Master was demanding; it left no room for personal comfort. Candidly, Jesus’ message was designed to drive away the casual Looky Lou, and He was eminently successful in this! After three and one-half years of proclaiming the kingdom of God, Jesus had managed to attract and keep twelve men—and one of them was a failure! Jesus called that one “a devil” [see JOHN 6:70]. Though multitudes had followed Him, seeming to hang onto every word He spoke, in the end it came down to eleven men who would hang tough and stay true to the Master. Following Jesus was easy, as long as there were no excessive demands placed on those who heard Him.
Think about this incident that is recorded of a point near the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Jesus taught the people, saying, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day” [JOHN 6:35-40].
This teaching precipitated tremendous pushback. The religious leaders began to grumble. Knowing their censorial attitude, Jesus addressed their bitterness when He said, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” [JOHN 6:43-51].
The complaining intensified, until at last “many of His disciples” began to complain: “This teaching is hard. Who can accept it” [JOHN 6:60 CSB]? There is a modern response to hard teaching! If I can’t stomach it, reject it! If it demands too much of us, we demand a safe space. We don’t want our feelings hurt, so we won’t listen to what is hard to take.
Jesus knew that many of His disciples were complaining; therefore, He confronted their grumbling, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to observe the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? The Spirit is the one who gives life. The flesh doesn’t help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some among you who don’t believe” [JOHN 6:61-64a CSB].
The sad aspect of this account is recorded in a verse that follows: “After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him” [JOHN 6:66].
If there is confusion among followers of the Christ, it would seem that it arises from confusion among those who profess to lead the churches of the Risen Saviour. I wonder if the confusion witnessed in contemporary Christendom doesn’t arise from timidity in the pulpit? Without question, we preachers love those we pastor—I do not doubt that this is true for the vast majority of pastors. Pastors don’t enjoy saying or doing things that hurt those they pastor. Consequently, we no longer lead our churches in administering discipline to wayward saints. We are hesitant to declare truths that may make those we love uncomfortable. As a result, we who shepherd the congregations are prone to declare a partial gospel that calls people to believe in Christ, but we fail to inform them how to live as those who are born from above.
Almost unconsciously, preachers in contemporary churches have transformed the Gospel from a message glorifying the Living God into a message that places man at the centre of the message. It is not that we preachers deliberately determined to make this transition, but we nevertheless allowed culture to infiltrate our churches. Consequently, we preachers have unconsciously confused Christ with culture.
In the modern church, we preachers exalt our comfortable situation, excusing the professed people of God from serving Him with their whole heart. Among contemporary congregations, it is more important to have the correct style of music than it is to meet the Risen Son of God. It is more important to ensure that we have comfortable seating than it is to ensure that we have an accurate message. Our buildings became more important than our message; our signage took on exaggerated importance while what was incorporated into the sermons was of secondary importance.
In the conduct of the worship service itself, the choir assumed exaggerated importance as we began to speak of singing as worship and relegated preaching to an optional exercise. It became more important to have vibrant programmes than to have challenging, insightful messages that likely make us just a little uncomfortable. We want to ensure that our children are entertained, and it doesn’t hurt if we are entertained, though in-depth insight into the Word is a bit too much for us to stomach. Is it really necessary for us to tolerate a sermon that goes beyond twenty minutes? The congregation dictates the message, and the messengers agree to the demands. It is mute, though effective, evidence that we preachers are hired and not appointed.
Consider another transformation of the message we received from the Lord of Glory. Search the New Testament ever so diligently, you will do so in vain if you are seeking to find a command to invest in ornate buildings. I don’t have a problem with comfort when we gather to worship. Comfortable seating is not a sin and attractive buildings are not a source of dishonour to the Saviour. However, many times our worship centres were demanded by our discipleship model rather than being designed to accommodate biblical teaching.
This is what I mean. Christ commanded us to go, discipling those whom we meet as we go. Jesus commanded, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” [MATTHEW 28:19-20]. Discipleship is the responsibility of each Christian; and the discipleship we are commanded to seek takes place as followers of the Master are going.
As much as I love proclaiming the Word, and I do love preaching, I am convinced that discipleship is not calling people to meet in one location to hear a lecture. Discipleship results as individuals invest their lives in other individuals. Our culture has subtly changed the biblical message, necessitating a change in structure to accommodate our new discipleship methods.
Too often, we cannot be said to hunger and thirst after righteousness. We crave acceptance by those identified with this dying world, those we associate with power and stature in the world. We want people to acknowledge our impact on the world, but we would be disappointed if that impact was viewed in a negative light. The early disciples were accused of being “men who have turned the world upside down” [ACTS 17:6]. The presence of the disciples disturbed those identified with the world. The disciples gained this reputation in the eyes of the world because they had spent time in the presence of the Saviour, and the world recognised them because of where they had been and because of the One with whom they had been.
When Peter and John were hauled before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Council was astonished at the testimony of the disciples. We read in Doctor Luke’s account, “When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus” [ACTS 4:13]. The Council was astonished because of the boldness and the authenticity witnessed in these two men!
Disciples that have spent time in the presence of Jesus are inevitably distinguished from earth dwellers. We cannot spend time in His presence without being transformed. In fact, we need to remember that throughout the days of our earthly journey, we are being changed. This transformative experience is the focus of Paul’s command to disciples delivered in the Letter to Roman Christians. There, Paul writes, “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” [ROMANS 12:1-2].
This process of transformation is taking place even as we serve the Master now. This transformation now taking place is moving inexorably toward a grand conclusion that will be unveiled at the return of the Lord Jesus. Scripture informs us, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself” [PHILIPPIANS 3:20-21]. Thus, it is not only our outlook on life, our life view that is being transformed, even our body is destined to be transformed so that ultimately, we receive a body like the Master’s!
This is the meaning of John’s assertion when he wrote, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” [1 JOHN 3:1-3].
THE TRANSFORMATION ARISING FROM SOUND TEACHING — In Christ, we gain a new perspective. The Bible speaks of us as having a different worldview when the Apostle writes, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. ‘For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ” [1 CORINTHIANS 2:14-16].
To be certain, the Spirit who lives within us is teaching us. Jesus promised, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak” [JOHN 16:13a]. Because the Spirit lives in us, John writes, “The anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about everything, and is true, and is no lie—just as it has taught you, abide in him” [1 JOHN 2:27].
Paul’s observation of the transformation that has taken place, as recorded in his Second Corinthian Letter, is rich encouragement for the child of God. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” [2 CORINTHIANS 5:17].
This transformation, this new creation, is what we confessed in our baptism. Listen once again to what should be familiar ground for each of us. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So, you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” [ROMANS 6:4-11]. This is the reason we do not perform a ritual on our infants, calling it baptism. Our baptism is a confession of a new life, confession that a transformation has been produced by God’s power!
Failure to watch what we are taught is like cooling pepperoni where the seagulls can find it. Tolerating poor teaching is like inviting destruction into your hotel room; it is an invitation to ruin. You should look carefully at what your church believes and what your teachers are teaching. Failure to be cautious can result in serious failure in your life, and even exclusion from God’s salvation for some who have yet to believe. For the sake of your own family, watch what you allow them to be taught.
This raises the essential question for you: Have you been transformed? Are you born from above? Have you believed in the Son of God? The Word teaches us that Jesus died because of our sin and was raised for our justification. Therefore, we are called to believe Him, to look to Him as Master over life. Have you trusted Him and been born from above?
This is the Word of God declared to all who will receive it. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.” That promise concludes by inviting all who hear to believe the message when Paul writes, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved” [ROMANS 10:9-10, 13]. Believe Him now. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Katie Derosa, “Lifetime ban from Victoria’s Fairmont Empress for pepperoni seagull fiasco lifted after 17 years,” Victoria Times Colonist, April 2, 2018, http://www.canada.com/news/local+news/lifetime+from+victoria+fairmont+empress+pepperoni+seagull/17241004/story.html, accessed 2 April 2018
[3] Char Adams, People, May 3, 2018, https://people.com/human-interest/british-schools-analog-clock-kids-cant-read/, accessed 17 May 2018
*The finalized PDF version of this message will be available at http://newbeginningsbaptist.ca/category/sermon-archives/ after Sunday, 5 August 2018.
