“CHRIST THE GOOD FRUIT”
Saint Matthew 7: 15-23
8th Sunday after Trinity: 7 August Anno Domini 2022
Fr Jay Watson, SSP
The Lord has given you, but more importantly His Church, a warning. It is an alarm but not a call for retreat. Be alert. Be ready for action. Or, as the times draw late—be IN action. But don’t despair. You have been given all the weapons you need for in this war. It is a war against sin. It is battle after battle against the world. It is bloody combat against your own “old Adam.” It is defending your own—family—friends—fellow parishioners—against the false prophets.
To be sure, Christ Himself has fought the war and all the battles against sin, death, and Satan. He triumphed on Calvary and began His victory parade, not VE-Day or VJ-Day (WW II references) but Easter Day, on the 3rd Morning. The War is over in that sense. Jesus lives the Victory’s won; death no longer can appal you. But, you’re still here in His troop. You’re still here in the battlefield of the cross. You still fight the mop-up operations of living as Light in a Dark valley, salt in a perverted landscape, Christian Soldiers in a dying world. You will be injured and you will lose loved ones (temporarily). You will bury family members and fellow Saints. You will age, and hurt, and suffer. You will probably die…or not…The “Captain” of the Heavenly Host may return today with Saint Michael and all of Sabaoth. But until then. You must—
Beware of false prophets.
Prophets are God-Talkers, those who profess to preach, teach, and lead you in matters Biblical, Spiritual, Metaphysical, and Practical. Prophets are those who “stand-in” for The Lord and shepherd His people. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Samuel, Elias, Elisha, Esaias, Jeremias, Daniel, and many (many) others were Hebrew Prophets. John the Baptist was our New Testament Greek Prophet par excellence! But the Prophetic office did not end when John was beheaded by Herod. To speak for God was the gift The Lord gave to His Church when Christ (God in The Flesh) gave His authority to the “12.” Those Disciples became Jesus’ Apostles—His “sent ones,” His Royal Ambassadors. And not just Peter, John, and James and the rest…but all of their successors in “Christ’s Holy Office of The Ministry”: Paul, Silas, Barnabus, Timothy, Mark, Titus, and a long 2,000-year list bringing us all up to this very morning.
Now there are those, maybe the majority of people claiming to be “Christian” who don’t believe this. They are either “worshipping” at non-denominational meeting halls, main-stream Protestant buildings, or simply relaxing at home every Sunday with their coffee and goofy piety that there “all-right with the big-man” because they mentally consent to some principles. No.
There are prophets today, we call them pastors, priests, presbyters, Fathers, who speak on behalf of Christ to His Sheep. They are to proclaim Jesus’ Word in its purity: Law and Gospel. They are to slay and destroy the sin in you and your consciences by preaching the Commandments which you daily break. They are to vivify you, raise you “from the dead” by slathering the oil of gladness and the water of life into your ears and on your ears, and on your head, and in/on your souls & spirits, in The Good News of Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. Crucified? Yes, for that is the stumbling stone of all false prophets. The death of God on the Cross for the forgiveness of your sins! That’s a scandal to those wolves who either seek a “sign” or who demand the “world’s wisdom.”
Please note: false prophets are usually not politicians or leaders (elected or usurping offices they were not legitimately elected to). The false prophets are not Rep. Sharice Davis or Nancy Pelosi, or Chuck Shumer. There are other names and pejoratives for them. Also, for you—The One, True, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, Jewish Rabbis, Muslim Imams and Ayatollahs are not prophets. They are simple pagans that we pray for.
And yes, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, Joyce Meyers, John Hagee, Joel Osteen, are most certainly slobbering, vicious, and evil wolves…they’re only problematic to you if you listen to them. If there are true Christians found amongst their slaughter-houses, the Lord will nonetheless use His Holy Word to rescue His own.
If Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever [He. 13.8], then He’s true and accurate today (and tomorrow, Monday). Beware of false prophets you members of Augsburg and fellow LCMS parishioners amongst the synod. How so? It is pastors within our own midst, be they parish pastors or district officials, or professional synodocrats in St. Louis, that you need to be on guard against. Whether they’re anti-nomians and preach no law just lukewarm “gospel” (Jesus loves you however you were made; those mean words in the Bible were contextually only a social construct for way-back then) they need to be resisted and removed. Whether they’re overly pious and zealous pro-nomians who preach only law—and rules, regulations, curfews, and lists of things you can’t drink, without ever preaching Christ Crucified—The Jesus Who has fulfilled the Law to set you free to be His IN LOVE and now delighting in doing good works; they too need to be resisted and removed.
And, if you’ve got the sad and sorry “goof-ball” boomer (regardless of their age) mindset-modern LCMS pastor who jettisons the Church’s ancient and Evangel-drenched Historic liturgy for big-screens, church-growth consumer driven drivel, contemporary worship (well, contemporary if you’re 10 years behind the curve and think Sandi Patti and Tyla Paris music of the ‘80’s along with your own like of Barry Manilow, Lionel Ritchie, or the Eagles should be the accompaniment to The Transcendent and Immanent God of God Who comes in His very Body and Blood to redeem and save vile sinners); well, heck, the list goes on and on. One can, should, and must condemn the recent blasphemy which was the National Youth Gathering down in Houston. Sure. But one must beware of similar Armenian and Charismatic nonsense in our own little parishes in Nebraska, the Dakotas, Kansas, and other states. Our fault, our fault, our most grievous fault!
I too should be judged by the most stringent and uncompromising standards. Not as a sinner but as a prophet. And how shall I be judged? By you! Not by your silly and non-biblical “votes” at some “made-up” congregational voter’s assembly, but by your Confession of Faith and by your own good works. You are my fruit. Not my personal Jay Watson fruit, but my fruit in The Holy Spirit preached Gospel of Jesus for you and in you. You are the fruit of He who birthed you in Water and The Word and Who now feeds you in The Word via His precious Body and true Blood.
Jesus, for you, IS The Good Fruit. God in the flesh, Immanuel, has obeyed the Commandments for you and has planted His obedience in you in + Baptism. Jesus the good fruit, the true vine, the Rose of Sharon, the succulent Olive, the goodly Cedar of Lebanon, has died for you on the corrupt tree, the crucifix, for all your sins. But Christ The Good Tree and Good Fruit has risen again—the Lilly of The Valley—no longer the valley of death—to feed all of you this joyous morn on The Good Fruit of Life, of Him.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of The Holy Ghost
Email the webmaster.Contact Augsburg Lutheran Church: (913) 403-6194