Welcome to Episode #206 of the Way of the Bible podcast. This is our sixth of eight episodes in our Twenty-Sixth mini-series entitled Return to the Sermon on the Mount. We’ve been marching along instruction after instruction of this closing Chapter of Jesus’ sermon until last episode when we expanded upon the word “Enter” to make significant the otherwise impossible entrance into the throne room of God’s Grace.
Jesus, in these closing snippets of instruction, gave his disciples boardroom-type insights into the kingdom of heaven. In particular, keys to knowing God the Father through the Holy Spirit by knowing increasing in the knowledge of the Son of Man, Son of God, Jesus Christ our Lord. I have been trying for the past several days to find the words that would sufficiently describe the deep things God our Father delivers to us regarding Jesus through his Holy Spirit, but have not yet found them. So, let us just continue where we left off in the Sermon on the mount.
Matthew 7:15-20 – “Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. 16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
SIDEBAR: Jesus just dropped another huge block to discipleship and hearing from God. Who are you listening to? I pray you, as a listener, are like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 – Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. No matter what another person or I may say, always affirm your faith and what you hear by the Scriptures and affirmation by the Holy Spirit! False prophets are real and in our midst today, and God allows them to do exactly what he intends through them.
Let’s examine this sidebar. Prophets and their prophecies have been integral to the Biblical narrative since the very beginning of mankind on the earth. Prophets followed two specific paths, which sometimes merged in certain individuals. Some prophets revealed and explained the word of God already spoken and/or recorded to earlier generations to the people in their own day. Other prophets heard the Lord's word and instructions firsthand and either repeated them to the people through an oral tradition or recorded them in writing.
Peter tells us the work of the prophets who recorded what they heard from God in 2 Peter 1:20-21 – Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
This being carried along by the Holy Spirit was evident both in hearing the word of the Lord first-hand, in repeating the word of the Lord, and in giving the instructions of the Lord. The words and instructions from God entrusted to the prophets were both contemporary with the prophets and concerned people and events in the future that had not yet occurred. Isaiah provides one of the most telling of God’s prophetic statements in Isaiah 46:10 – I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, ‘My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.'
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