If you would, please stand as we say together our memory Scripture for this quarter:
Matthew 6:31-33
“Do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
And our memory refresher Scripture is …
Isaiah 40:28
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom.”
Please open your Bibles to Matthew 22:23-33
Do you know that we now have 31 memory Scriptures each of which we have spent three months memorizing? Thirty-one! That’s amazing.
Two of our memory Scriptures have to do with knowing Scripture and the benefits that come from knowing the Scriptures!
2 Timothy 2:15 (quote)
And 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (quote)
Why did you we choose those Scriptures for memorization?
They were chosen because they help us to understand that the instruction found in the Scriptures is vital to our eternal destiny!
If we don’t know what the Bible teaches we will most likely believe whatever we THINK is right! Right?
If we don’t know what the Bible teaches we may very well find ourselves believing whatever our culture thinks is relevant.
Suppose you were driving for your first time and you came up to a traffic control light and suppose no one had ever told you what the green, amber and red lights mean.
You might have thought, “I’ll just try it on my own. I think I can figure out what I should do. It will be OK!” Well, it might very well NOT be OK. Right?
Many people are just like that with their eternal destiny; just trying to figure it out on their own and that is eternally dangerous.
With that in mind let’s go ahead and read Matthew 22:23-33
Now, the Pharisees and the Saducees were both highly knowledgeable in the Scriptures and they were also highly knowledgeable in 613 laws that the Pharisees had created.
Matthew 22:29-33 NIV
29 Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. 30 At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. 31 But about the resurrection of the dead - have you not read what God said to you, 32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”
33 When the crowds heard this, they were astonished at His teaching.
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OK. So, here is what Jesus said to a group of people who had been studying the Torah their entire lives …
“You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”
These are Saducees who have devoted themselves to knowing the Law of Moses, the first five books of the Bible. Most of them probably had all five of the books memorized but somehow they had reached the conclusion that there were no such things as angels or spirits and that there was no resurrection of the dead.
So, Jesus quotes to them from their very own Scriptures Exodus 3:6 where it says,
“I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.”
Jesus does not say, “I was …” but “I Am …”
That is a serious error. Why had they made this error when the answer was right there in front of them?
Was it ignorance of the Scriptures? Yes and no.
Was it doubting the power of God? Hmmm….
While the Saducees held fast to the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, they may have given less emphasis to the books of the prophets. Perhaps this is why they did not believe in an unseen spirit realm or the resurrection from the dead.
Whatever the case, Jesus is showing us here that ignorance of the Scriptures can bring some very wrong conclusions with horrible eternal consequences.
Let’s look at another case where ignorance of the Scriptures could lead to an incorrect conclusion.
Now, in this very same text we can see where someone who does not have a grasp on the Bible could possibly get confused …
In Matthew 22:30 it says, “At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”
Some people take this to mean that we become angels after we die.
It’s as if they are reading a verse that says, “At the resurrection people … will be like angels in heaven.” Crazy isn’t it how Scripture can be misquoted and twisted?
You may have heard someone say to a person who just lost a loved one that, “The Lord needed another angel so He called so-and-so home” or something to that effect.
In the 1700’s there was a man named Emmanuel Swedenborg who taught just such a concept.
“In 1741, at 53, [Swedenborg] entered into a spiritual phase in which he began to experience dreams and visions, beginning on Easter Weekend, on 6 April 1744. It culminated in a 'spiritual awakening' in which he received a revelation that he was appointed by the Lord Jesus Christ to write “The Heavenly Doctrine” to reform Christianity. According to “The Heavenly Doctrine”, the Lord had opened Swedenborg's spiritual eyes so that from then on, he could freely visit heaven and hell and talk with angels, demons and other spirits and the Last Judgment had already occurred the year before, in 1757.”
In this Swedenborg claimed that he was appointed to “reform Christianity.”
Anyway, back to a misreading of Matthew 22:30 where it says …
“At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.”
What is the context of this passage? The context is whether or not there is a resurrection and Jesus’ response to the Saducees’ challenge about marriage at the resurrection.
The discussion in no way involves the nature of humanity after death.
In addition to that, the verse does not say that the resurrected will become angels it merely states with regard to marriage neither resurrected humans nor angels will be marrying or giving in marriage.
Here is a question that was sent into a Christian question and answer website in the 1990’s.
Question: Suddenly there seems to be a new fad: angel worship. Many books are being written about this growing fascination with angels, telling how to have a guardian angel, how to see and speak with angels and how even to command angels to help or do one’s bidding. Could you address this topic?
When it comes to angels this is the message we get from the Bible.
Angels are servants of the Most High God!
Angels protected Israel when the Assyrians attacked.
2 Kings 19:35
“That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning - there were all the dead bodies!”
Angels protected Israel by standing guard when the Arameans were planning an attack.
2 Kings 6:17
“And Elisha prayed, ‘Open his eyes, Lord, so that he may see.’ Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”
Angels brought messages to Zechariah, Mary and Joseph when Jesus was born.
Angels are servants of the Most High God and when we see them interacting with humanity we must understand that the glory does not go to the angel or angels but to the Lord God whom they serve as we do.
We also see that angels do not obey humans; angels do not do our bidding but God’s.
We know this how?
We know this because we read the whole Bible and not just one or a few texts.
So the Saducees did not understand and believe the resurrection in spite of the Scriptures and others have grossly misinterpreted other verses about angels.
What might be another misinterpretation of Scripture that we might run into?
Let’s go back to the judgment Jesus made regarding the Saducees …
Matthew 22:29 NIV
“Jesus replied, ‘You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.’”
Another error that is popular in our society is one regarding Biblical truth about God.
Who is God or What is God like?
(Show video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWWb6rdDzvc )
There was one person who had a Biblical perspective on who God is, right?
And, you would expect that anyone who had a thorough Biblical knowledge would have the same perspective, right?
There was a man, a famous preacher, who was one of the early inventors of the “word of faith” movement. His name was Norman Vincent Peale.
One of his most famous books was the power of positive thinking. He started out as a Christian preacher but ended up like most of the people in the video.
“As a Christian minister [Peale] denied that God was a being, saying “Who is God? Some theological being? He is so much greater than theology. God is vitality. God is life. God is energy. As you breathe God in, as you visualize His energy, you will be reenergized!” (Plus: The Magazine of Positive Thinking). As a Christian minister he told Phil Donahue, “It’s not necessary to be born again. You have your way to God, I have mine. I found eternal peace in a Shinto shrine … I’ve been to Shinto shrines and God is everywhere. … Christ is one of the ways! God is everywhere.” Peale denied the very heart of the Christian faith and replaced it with his doctrine of positive thinking.
Does the Bible back up Mr. Peale’s beliefs?
Deuteronomy 6:4 NIV
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.”
John 3:18
“Whoever believes in [Jesus] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.”
Someone might say, “OK, I believe in Jesus but I believe in Buddha, too.”
Exodus 20:3 AMPC
“You shall have no other gods before or besides Me.”
John 14:6 NIV
“Jesus said, ‘I Am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.’”
Acts 4:12 NIV
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
Just in this little sampling of Scriptures we have seen the Saducees misinterpreting Scripture and reaching the wrong conclusion about the resurrection from the dead.
We have seen how Scripture can be misused to promote misleading beliefs about angels.
And, we have seen how Scripture can be totally ignored in order to promote universalism.
We simply have no idea how much heresy is floating around out there like a worm on a hooking, hoping to snare us and pull us away from truth.
When you come to church and hear me preach … don’t take everything at face value!
If you have doubts check it out!
Go home and check it out in your Bible. Dig into it until you know the truth.
Other options would be to bring it to my attention, or ask your SS teacher or small group leader to dig into the matter in a session or two.
Of course, I want you to believe what you hear in my sermons but I am not perfect and I will one day have to answer to the Lord for what I have taught from His Scriptures.
The same goes for when you hear preachers on the radio or on TV. Don’t believe them until you have verified what they are saying by comparing it to Scripture.
You don’t know how often I long to preach exciting, inspiring, entertaining messages.
So that when you leave here you are saying, “That was great! I can’t wait to come back next Sunday!”
But the truth is that we are in a battle for souls. This is serious business.
At the time we in The Church of The Nazarene are ordained part of this Scripture is used as a charge to be faithful to God’s Word.
2 Timothy 4:1-4 NIV
“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction.
“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”
Whenever I gather with the other pastors in our area I am asked how they can pray for our church and my response is always the same, that we would have a group of people who deeply love the Lord and His Holy Word, a people who love one another and who desperately want their unsaved family and friends and everyone else to come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
This is far more important than sickness and ailments and financial woes; this is a matter of eternal life or eternal death. God help us.
Final comments and prayer …
----- This material was not used in the sermon but could be added in different areas-----
So a person might ask, how is that different from the great Reformation that took place under the influence of Luther and others of that era?
Swedenborg was getting his information from outside the Biblical Scriptures and Luther was looking only to the Scriptures.
The Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses and others claim that they have post-Biblical revelations that supercede the established Scriptures.
Whenever you hear that, don’t take it with a grain of salt; instead take whatever they say with a boat load of Scripture!
2 Corinthians 11:13-15 NIV says,
“For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.”
