A FRAUD IN THE FLOCK

Introduction

-We have all heard the stories either in real life or in fairy tales of something or someone that is wrong or evil masking themselves to look like something or someone that is good and right.

~For example, the wolf disguised himself to look just like Red Riding Hood’s grandmother—only with bigger ears, eyes, and mouth.

~Or the wicked queen stepmother who disguised herself as a kindly old seller of produce who gave the poison apple to Snow White.

-Of course, the real-life examples are much more despicable—like those who disguise themselves as ministers of God only to abuse the vulnerable.

-We all know of Jesus’ warning of the wolf in sheep’s clothing, that there would be false teachers who rise up within or among the church to lead them astray from right teaching and doctrine—sweeping them away in the flood of their damnable heresies.

-And, for the most part, I think that those who would consider themselves Bible-believing Christians are on high alert for that and know to be on the lookout for the false teachers.

-However, there are things that are a little more subtle that we might not really be on alert about. And it’s easy for Christians to jump on certain bandwagons without being discerning about the motive or means behind what is going on because they disguise themselves as Christian or seem to agree with Christian principles. But when you look a little more closely, their values are not in alignment with Christ or the Bible.

-What I refer to might include cultural movements and ideas and principles that claim to give the answers to all the world’s ills, and they seem to be righteous and just. But when you take a good look under the hood (so to speak) you find that they are often based on secular (often time Marxist/Communist) worldviews rather than Christian worldviews.

~You see, a Christian worldview (one that is based on the Bible) recognizes that Scripture is at the center of what we do and believe, and it recognizes that no real change can or will come unless Jesus Christ and the gospel are at the center of it all.

~Only Jesus and the gospel can change hearts, and only Jesus and the gospel can bring about any real religious, cultural, and personal transformation.

-There might be a movement or idea or principle that sounds good and right and even sounds Christian, but pulls people away from Jesus and the gospel. We have to be very careful about that. Anything that does not have Christ at the center is not Christian no matter how pretty it looks.

~This is true of teachers and their teachings, preachers and their preachings, and movements and their movings.

-What we find in our passage is that Judas had all the outward appearance of a true disciple, and yet he never really did follow, believe, and receive Jesus as Jesus had revealed Himself. He looked like the real deal, but he was a fraud.

-I want us to just consider that not everything that wears the label of Christian or righteousness or justice is actually biblical or of the Lord. Thereby, I want to lead us to be more discerning of our beliefs and actions and approaches so that we may evaluate and consider whether or not they are truly biblical and Christian.

John 13:18–30 ESV

18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’ 19 I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he. 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.” 21 After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit, and testified, “Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me.” 22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he spoke. 23 One of his disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining at table at Jesus’ side, 24 so Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25 So that disciple, leaning back against Jesus, said to him, “Lord, who is it?” 26 Jesus answered, “It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.” So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” 28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. 29 Some thought that, because Judas had the moneybag, Jesus was telling him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or that he should give something to the poor. 30 So, after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.

-3 lessons I want us to consider today

I) Ungodly worldviews may disguise themselves in Christian attire

-To give some context, Jesus had just performed the washing of the feet during the Passover meal, and He had given the significance of not only the service that He demonstrated, but the spiritual significance that people need to be spiritually cleansed of their sin by Jesus.

-Then He makes the statement that not all of the disciples whose feet He washed are truly clean and truly chosen. There is a betrayer among them.

-When Jesus mentions the betrayer, the rest of the apostles have no idea who Jesus is talking about because all 12 of them acted like they were genuine disciples.

~In v. 22 it says they just looked around at one another because they had no idea who it could have been—all of them lived and talked and acted like the real deal.

-When we think of Judas, usually we think of some slick, oily, nasty, no-good troublemaker or something like that. But there was nothing about Judas’ appearance, speech, actions, or demeanor that made him stick out immediately as a fraud.

~And something I thought about last week when studying this is that: the gospels tells us of times that Jesus sent out the disciples into villages by pairs to preach and minister and prepare them for Jesus’ visits. And when they did, they performed miracles and demonstrated powers that Jesus had bestowed upon them.

~That means that Judas himself healed people and cast out demons and did everything all the other disciples could. It wasn’t like Judas stuck out as the powerless one. It’s not like the other 11 could do these things but Judas couldn’t. Judas looked the part in every way.

-And now there are teachers and movements and ideas that are roaming around our culture and our world and in the church that seem to cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s and yet are not closer to being Christian than Judas was.

~This is why biblical knowledge and Holy Spirit discernment are so important.

~We’re told that Satan and his minions can disguise themselves as messengers of light. The threat is real.

-So, in our day and age, there’s a slang term that started out meaning one thing but has been hijacked to mean a million other things. The term “woke” originally meant that you were aware of social justice issues, more specifically racial injustices that have gone on. That’s all fine and good so far, but secular/Marxist ideologies twisted the term. And then Christendom hijacked the term (still in its secular context) and used it to describe WOKE Christians, which they took to mean people who were closer to Christ, but only if you believed the following:

~Homosexuality is not a sin, but a legitimate lifestyle…

~God did not create men and women to fulfill different roles and functions, therefore it is completely legitimate for a woman to be a pastor (and even a preaching pastor) at a church…

-And if you do not agree with their wokeness, then you are a bigot and are not really a Christian. If you call homosexuality a sin, then you are homophobic. If you say that men and women are equal but you still claim that a woman cannot be a pastor, then you are sexist.

~So, you have what puts itself in the guise of Christianity, and claims a form of godliness, but you notice that in their advocacy they toss the Bible and the gospel and Jesus to the side.

~The way that they tackle these issues has nothing to do with a Christian worldview—they have more in common with secularism than they do with Christianity.

-But sometimes the rhetoric is even more subtle than that—where people advocate for a right thing, but they do it in the wrong way:

~Obviously, right now, there is an emphasis on racial justice and reconciliation. That is a good and right thing. There have been wrongs that need to be righted, and we support our brothers and sisters in Christ in their striving for their rights and justice.

~But there are Christian ways to do it, and then there are the other ways of doing it that may seem righteous, but they are not biblical.

-For example, there was a tweet that made its way around social media from some lady (no one any of us knows) that claims to be a Christian, but this is what it said:

Christians: Do not treat the protests as a new mission field. Do not go to “love on people” or lead people in prayer. Do not go to “be a Christian voice in the crowd” or to share God’s love or to witness to people. Go to fight systemic racism and racial violence. The end.

-At first glance that may seem all well and good. I mean obviously we need to fight systemic racism and racial violence. But it’s the way she says to do it that is the problem.

-You notice that what she is saying is cast Jesus and the Holy Spirit and the Bible and the gospel and evangelism to the side. But if you do that, it is no longer Christian. You can’t have a Christian response to something without Christ. This is secular answers, not Christian answers.

-It looks and sounds all churchy and Christiany and all that—but it is a fraud in the flock. Judas looked the part and played the part, but he was a fraud. We need to look out for the frauds. So:

II) Jesus ought to determine the method and the message

-In v. 20 Jesus says that He is sending out messengers with a message, and that message points to Jesus Himself. And when you receive the messenger with that message, you are receiving Jesus. And when you receive Jesus you receive God.

-So, herein lies the problem with 21st century WOKE Christianity. Woke Christianity says that the message that Jesus sent out into the world was one of accepting people for who they think they are (even if it means accepting an adult guy claiming he’s a young girl), it is 1 of environmentalism, & 1 of fighting class warfare.

-That is the message that is being passed down as the supposedly Christian message. And it sounds so good and righteous and just and loving. But let me ask you, is there anywhere in the Bible where Jesus or the apostles say that this is the message?

-I hear Jesus saying:

John 11:25 (ESV)

25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,

John 12:46 (ESV)

46 I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.

Luke 5:32 (ESV)

32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

-And Paul:

1 Corinthians 2:2 (ESV)

2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

-And you ask: But what about Jesus healing people and casting out demons—that’s social justice! No, that’s Jesus having compassion on people and it is Jesus authenticating His message—that He is the Messiah of God who came to take away the sins of the world. That is the Christian message and sets the tone on how we are to go about doing things.

-We are sent out to be His messengers, and the message is Jesus Himself. Anything less than that is not a Christian message and does not come from a Christian worldview no matter how high and lofty it sounds.

-You see, without people being reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, they will never be reconciled with one another. Without there being a regeneration of the heart, there will never be a reformation of the culture.

-If we are going to do things as Christians, we don’t follow the fakes and the frauds, we do Christ’s work in Christ’s way

III) We have the chance and choice to follow God or the culture

-We see in our passage that Peter hints at John to ask Jesus who it is. Jesus says that it’s the one that He gives the piece of bread to, and then He gives it to Judas.

-Jesus gives Judas this piece of bread and tells Judas to do quickly what he had planned to do. Now, Judas is at a turning point. He had already set the wheels in motion for the betrayal. But now it’s as if Jesus gave Judas a choice—Judas had one last chance to change his mind. Judas easily could have just stayed there and say NO, I’M GOOD. Or Judas could go on with the betrayal.

-The text says that Satan entered Judas. It’s not saying that Judas was an unwilling participant and the devil made him do it. He already had prepared the betrayal—and now, with his hard heart, he made himself even more vulnerable to Satanic influence, and so the devil obliged him.

-Judas, in his heart, probably had a million excuses as to why his actions were justified. He had a million reasons why he thought he was right in doing what he was doing. There was some goal that he was working toward that he thought was noble and just. But whatever he may have wanted to call it, it was a betrayal.

-He may have had a good end in mind, and so these were the means by which he chose to do them. However, the ends never justify the means. And that is the lie perpetuated by so many within the realm of Christendom (woke or not)—they justify themselves by saying that the ends will justify the means. {The next time you think that, think of Judas.}

-We are to work toward godly goals through godly means. We work toward righteous ends through biblical methods. We don’t cast aside Christ and the gospel and the Bible for expediency. Anything that portrays itself as Christian that casts these things aside are nothing but frauds and fakes.

-And so, we have a choice: we can do God’s work in God’s way, or we can give ourselves over to the secular thinking of the rest of the world. It doesn’t matter how much it is sugar coated—the Bible clearly has one central message for the world, and to reject the message is to reject the messenger. To reject the messenger is to reject Christ, and to reject Christ is to reject God.

~That is where WOKE Christianity or WOKE culture or any other fraud will lead you. A Christ-less, gospel-less, Bible-less goal that is reached by any means necessary.

-Christian, I just ask that you would read your Bible and be discerning of all things that label themselves Christian—including my sermons. Be like the Bereans, take everything back to the Scripture to see if they are so. Don’t be led astray by the frauds.

~I also ask that you commit yourself to do God’s work in God’s way. Where Christ is concerned, the means are as important as the ends.

-But if you are not a Christian, let me tell you of the beauty of Christ’s message. You were so loved that God gave His Son to die in your place as a lawbreaker. The only One who knew no sin became your sin and died on the cross as your substitute so you could be reconciled to God. Without Jesus you will always be separated from God’s love….