Fruity Prophets

Matthew 7:15–20 False prophets are among us, disguised well as fellow brothers and sisters in Jesus. We are to bring judgment as fruit inspectors inside the church, to recognze bad trees by their bad fruit. We train our senses to know good from evil (Heb 5:14). This is the heart of covenant community, we give each other permission to see and speak into our lives… so that we can be SUPER FRUITY!

Act Like You Belong

Apparently with a clipboard and high visibility vest you can go just about anywhere and do just about anything… and people will assume you are there for a reason.

Or a team jersey.

Dion Rich - World’s Greatest Gate Crasher

Dion Rich, also known as the “Godfather of Gatecrashing,” has achieved the impressive feat of sneaking into 35 Super Bowls. He has become a master of disguise, using a closetful of costumes, forged passes, and false identities to get past security. Rich’s exploits have been well-documented, with stories of him climbing onto the podium with NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle and Vince Lombardi during the awards ceremony.

This picture is one of the best, he climbs onto the podium with the NFL commissioner and Vince Lombardi.

He didn’t play the game. He just showed up like “I’m one of you.” Even with his picture on the wall and guard instructed to look out for him… he keeps getting away with it!

Jesus tells us to be on the lookout for people sneaking in. Not harmlessly, to be a part of things… but people who are looking to do harm.

Beware

Matthew 7:15 ESV

15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

This comes hard on Jesus talking about the broad, easy path to destruction verse the narrow gate and narrow road.

After this he will explicitly point out some folks who claim to be Christians but aren’t at all. People who make the right noises, but don’t live the right life.

Fake disciples. Fake Christians.

Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

“Is anyone here a real sheep?”

Here, in between, more folks who pretend to be Christian. Who pretend to be sheep of the shepherd. And this is the origin of the phrase “wolf in sheeps clothing.” Jesus made that up.

How many of these are there?

These particular impostors are “false prophets” or “Pseudo prophets.” A prophet is one who hears what God says to say and says it. They speak the Words of God to people. They reveal who God is and what He has to say.

There are true prophets, that’s an underlying assumption of Jesus’ words here, Jesus himself is certainly a true prophet, though not just a prophet. Prophets abound in the early church, and we are counseled to earnestly desire prophecy. We believe it happens on the regular, and we make time for it every week here.

I believe when we are sharing, or speaking from God’s word, God can, will, does speak through us to encourage and equip His church. That is true prophecy.

But there are wolves. False prophets who claim to speak for and of God but they speak lies. They are false. They are wolves who desire to eat the real believers. That’s the implication of “wolf” right?

I wish Jesus unpacked this, but we have lots of examples of false prophets Old Testament and New. They may have financial gain, they may do it for political power, they may gain local notoriety, they may do it to impress, they may say what the King or the People want to hear...

But the good ones, they look and sound and seem legit.

I’m not talking about the crazy ones that will never fool you. The David Koresh’s, the Jim Jones (aka Kool-Aid man). The ones you laugh at that any one else would ever believe that.

Mother of God, aka Amy Carlson, reincarnated Jesus AND Joan of Arc AND Marilyn Monroe.

I would love to just tell those stories. I’ve watched a few of these documentaries with KK, it’s hard to believe that anyone follows them into the madness, into the crazy. But they do.

Jesus says “Beware” of the ones that look like sheep to you!

How will we recognize the wolves? They look just like sheep!

It’s interesting that Jesus doesn’t talk about looking really closely, or using deeper discernment, or true prophets to call out false prophets.

It’s simpler than that, but also less direct.

Look at the fruit.

Fruit Inspectors

Matthew 7:16–20 ESV

16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.

A second powerful analogy. Grapes come from grape fines. Figs come from fig trees. It’s simple… but it isn’t necessarily fast.

A tree might have to grow to see what fruit it has. You might have to wait for fruit in its season.

Jesus loves this metaphor:

Elsewhere in Scripture

A dozen times Jesus uses this “fruit” metaphor. This is one of Jesus’ major metaphors.

Earlier in Matthew 3:8-10, fruit in keeping with repentance and the axe is laid to the root of the tree.

In John 15, the vine and the branches, branches that don’t bear fruit get pruned.

In Mark 11:14 he literally curses a fig tree for not producing fruit, even though it wasn’t fig season… a living metaphor.

So… what are the fruit we look for?

There’s a couple different ways to look at this.

I heard this captured as Character, Creeds, and Converts. They all start with ‘C’ so you know a preacher came up with that. We will see all of those for sure.

Here are the ones I see called out in Scripture.

Who is Jesus?

How are we saved?

Look at the sheep?

Who is Jesus?

Your words are a fruit. What you condemn and what you teach. That’s part of it.

In Matthew 12 he gets personal with some folks:

They attack him and say he is only casting out demons

Matthew 12:24 ESV

24 But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.”

And he picks up this fruit metaphor:

Matthew 12:33–34 ESV

“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.

Matthew 12:35–37 ESV

35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

So, this is them confidently declaring what is happening in the spiritual realm. And because they are teachers of the law, they claim to be experts on God, whose authority are they at least implicitly leveraging to give credence to their claims? God’s.

Here is Jesus, judging their fruit. In this case, their words.

What is coming out is accusation against the work of the Holy Spirit, what he calls above “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit...” and it’s not good.

Pro tip: don’t oppose the work of the Holy Spirit. ESPECIALLY don’t call what God is up to, what Jesus is up to, evil.

So, fruit, in particular, what do they say about Jesus and the work of the Holy Spirit?

How are we saved?

Or… what is the gospel of Jesus Christ?

We talked about false prophets in the early church. The Judaizers came to Galatia, in modern Turkey, and they are preaching a new gospel. It is in response to them Paul writes:

Galatians 5:1–2 ESV

1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you.

Because they are preaching a new gospel, Jesus AND something else. Adding to the gospel.

No, we have incredible, radical freedom in the gospel. Not license to sin, but freedom to walk the road of righteousness in step with the Holy Spirit.

Instead, walk by the Spirit and you will bear good fruit. Led by the Spirit, you aren’t under law, the flesh leads to:

Galatians 5:19–21 ESV

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Some of those things sound like emotions that the person is feeling… but in the context, these are all things that the person is doing. Things that the person is being.

These are elements of character and action emerging in the person’s life as naturally as a healthy apple tree bringing forth apples. Not performative. Not for the cameras. Not to astound and amaze. Flowering forth as a work of the Holy Spirit in your life.

Not as acts of earning salvation but an OUTCOME of the gospel, the righteousness of Jesus, the Holy Spirit at work within you.

Paul presents the fruit in the context of rebuking false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing.

So - who do they say Jesus is?

How then are we saved?

Look at the sheep!

Last sign of a false profit

I’ve heard “Character, Creed, and Converts”

Certainly we see character in the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

We see “Creed” in what is said and taught about Jesus and Salvation in Him alone.

Here we look at the sheep. If sheep keep getting eaten… you might have a wolf among you!

Paul warns Timothy:

1 Timothy 6:3–5 ESV

3 If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, 4 he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, 5 and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.

There’s some “creed” there in the start,

But that last bit. What’s the outcome of the teaching? Where is this leader leading?

Envy, dissension, slander, suspicions, constant friction, godliness as a means of gain… It goes on to point to the famous “love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.”

What happens among the followers? Are those some healthy growing sheep chasing after the shepherd? Or are they dying?

False Prophets and Anti-Christ

There’s one last lens. The other phrase Scripture gives us for “false prophets.” This one’s my favorite, and you’ve heard it lots before.

1 John 4:1–3 ESV

1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

You hear the “right confession,” the creed in there.

But see it connect “false prophet” with the Spirit of the Antichrist? That’s what we are dealing with here, ultimately.

Someone who is opposed to Jesus. Lying about Jesus. Leading away from Jesus. If you want to eat the sheep, you have to get them away from the shepherd.

So the ultimate, the absolute, the best possible antidote to false prophets and anti-christs!

Jesus.

The whole prior bit about Jesus, the gate, the road, Jesus is the shepherd. We read John 10 where Jesus calls himself the door and the shepherd. The sheep know the shepherd’s voice...

John 10:14 ESV

14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,

Know Jesus.

Federal agents don’t learn to spot counterfeit money by studying the counterfeits. They study genuine bills until they master the look of the real thing. Then when they see the bogus money they recognize it.

- John MacArthur

They touch the money, they tilt it to see the holograms, they look through the money to see the light shining through it… they spend so much time beholding the real thing… they know a counterfeit when they see it.

If someone walked up to you pretending to be your Mom, you aren’t worried about being fooled. You know your Mom. You know your kid.

Behold Jesus.

That’s what we are doing here, by the way. Behold Jesus. Look at his wonderful face. Listen to his True Words. Soak in His presence.

This is tilting the real money in every which way, learning to know Him, learning to hear and recognize His voice.

Learning and celebrating His salvation.

Experiencing His Holy Spirit and learning to walk in it.

Wolves beware! These sheep know his voice.