Pentecost 10 (Proper 15C)-- Beware the False Gospel

Text: “51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” (Luke 12:51)

Beware the False Gospel

The best way to sum up the message of today’s readings seems to be: beware the false gospel.

The word ‘Gospel’ literally means “good news.” It is the promise of salvation in Jesus Christ. A False Gospel is a false promise of salvation.

I’d like to start with the Old Testament reading for a moment, because it’s a good example that might help us wrap our arms around the problem here.

Through Jeremiah, God’s people are condemned for the false message of peace that is being preached/trusted. They were trusting a genuine promise of God. God had, in fact, promise to deliver them from their enemies. The problem was that they had rejected Him. They had rejected Him in spite of multiple warnings through years— from one prophet after another— calling them to repentance.

Jeremiah now declared that the time of warning was over. Judgment had come. “‘Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him?’ declares the Lord” (Jer. 23:24). Do you think that your sins were hidden from me? Do you think that you’ll somehow be immune from or can hide from my wrath? Do you imagine yourself beyond the reach of my judgment?

Yet false prophets continued to proclaim God’s deliverance. They “paid lip service” to God and His temple. “This is God’s house,” they loudly declared in the temple courts. “God will not let anything happen to His house or to its city.”

It’s true. That was God’s house. It was the place where He had caused His name to dwell. Salvation and deliverance came from that place. But they had long ago rejected Him with their actions. The sad reality is that, “22  if [those false prophets] had stood in [God’s] council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, [like Jeremiah did,] and they would have turned [the people] from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds” (Jeremiah 23:22).

They didn’t. They ignored corruption and injustice. They mistreated the poor and foreigners. They denied, through their actions, that they were God’s people.

Jesus’ words sum up Jeremiah’s message quite well: “51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51). God’s judgment was coming— in spite of their false Gospel. God’s promise was true. But they had turned their back on it and Him. Did they still expect him to keep His promise to deliver them? The time had now come {fullness of time??} and His wrath was coming.

What is the old saying? “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Still today— here in God’s house— we are tempted to reject the idea that Christ is coming back at all? He is, in fact, coming back. The signs are all around us. They are as obvious as the signs of the changing seasons (which we rarely miss). Weather may keep you out of the fields at harvest time, but none of you are late getting out there because you didn’t notice it was time. Have you missed the signs that the clouds are gathering in the east on which your Lord will return to judge the living and the dead?

If we try to preach a Gospel without any warning of judgment, there’s a good chance we’re preaching a false gospel.

That’s not the only danger. The next time you hear a church advertise how “relevant” they are, the next time you hear them bragging about the ‘practical’ messages from their pastors— not that boring ‘sin’, ‘judgment’, and ‘salvation’ stuff, but practical principles for having a stronger marriage, a healthier family, better children— the next time you hear a church bragging about that, think about these words of our Lord: “51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law” (Luke 12:51-53).

Before we get too comfortable because we’re not like those congregations, though, let’s ask ourselves: are we paying lip service to the message of sin, judgment, and salvation? You are when you allow Christ’s Church to be defiled by open, unrepentant sin. You look the other way from the sexually immoral, drunkards, and greedy swindlers (1 Cor. 5:11) who claim to be brothers and sisters in Christ. After all, you don’t want to make waves, you don’t want to disturb the peace. In fact, you may even pat yourself on the back for keeping things about grace and forgiveness. Should you not rather be ashamed? “Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you” St. Paul declares (1 Cor. 5:2). “Do you think that I have come to bring peace on earth?” your Lord asked. “No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51).

We put up beautiful banners declaring that we are here “to know Christ and to make Him known.” But, in practice, do we show ourselves to be prophets whom the Lord has not sent, declaring our own dreams rather than His Word.

We have, at one time, proclaimed faith in Christ. We then treat the question of whether or not we abide in Him as immaterial.

You have, at one time, proclaimed faith in Christ. You act as if that one proclamation outweighs a lifetime of denials in our words and deeds.

“Am I a God at hand, declares the Lord, and not a God far away? Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord” (Jer. 23:23-24). Do you imagine that God is only aware of what you profess before His altar and is ignorant of what you say and do elsewhere?

Do you imagine that you are somehow immune to judgment because your parent was baptized in this font or your grandparent was confirmed at this altar? “From now on the members of a house will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, grandchildren against grandparents and grandparents against grandchildren....”

God’s promise of grace and forgiveness is true. The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off. But beware lest you reject God and His promises by your evil deeds.

The Fiery Gospel

“51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division,” your Lord insisted (Luke 12:51).

There is nothing peaceful about the true Gospel.

There is nothing peaceful about the gospel because there is nothing peaceful about what He endured. Your Lord came to cast fire on the earth (Lk. 12:49). He came to be baptized with fire. He was carried— not to a wooden font, but to a wooden cross.

There, on the cross, the hand of God the Father poured upon Jesus’ head the fire of His wrath for all of your evil deeds.

Jesus did not come so that He could overlook sin. He came to suffer for it. He did not come to say that sin is ‘ok’. He came to die for it.

He who had no sin became your sin. There, on the cross He, the Son, was forsaken by His Father so that you never would be.

This is what He came to do.

“How great is my distress until it is accomplished,” He said (Lk. 12:50). Finally, on the cross, He was able to proclaim, “It is finished.”

There is nothing peaceful about the Gospel, just as there is nothing peaceful about what He experienced that day. The true Gospel is a fiery gospel. But His cross— followed by His empty tomb— make that fiery Gospel truly “Good news.”

The Comforting, Fiery Gospel

Here, in God’s house, that fiery, comforting Gospel continues to be proclaimed the pastors that He has called and sent to you.

Repent. Turn from your evil ways. Hear the true counsel of God, declared by His true prophets of old and passed down from generation to generation.

Here at this font, the fiery Word of God was combined with the water that was poured on your head, dividing you from your sinful nature with all of its evil deeds and making you the righteousness of Christ. Here at this altar, you eat of the burnt offering that was sacrificed for your sins.

And yes, many of you worship here in the same place where your parents were baptized and your grandparents were confirmed. Believe me, I appreciate how much of a privilege that is. I wish I had the opportunity to do it Sunday after Sunday. What I want you to hear today is this: Your parents genuinely received the forgiveness of sins and eternal life at this font. Your grandparents genuinely received the life-giving body and blood of Christ from this altar. Don’t just imitate those actions. Imitate their faith.

It’s not about the rites being done on you at the same place that they were done on your parents and grandparents. The point is that the same gift of the Gospel was given to them as was given to you there.

Don’t just imitate those actions. Imitate their faith. “Lay aside every weight, [lay aside the] sin which clings so closely, and ...run with endurance the race that is set before [you], looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of [your] faith” (Heb. 12:1-2).

This promise is for you and for your children and all who are far off— even for those whose parents and grandparents were baptized at other fonts and confirmed at other altars. Whether you know their names or not, they are closer to you than your own unbelieving family.

And don’t look the other way from the greedy swindlers, the drunkards, the sexually immoral who defile Christ’s Church. Deliver them back over to Satan— they are his, after all. Yes, you may end up dividing families in the process. But, perhaps, their spirits might be saved in the day of the Lord (1 Cor. 5:5) and you may have the privilege of declaring the true peace of Christ to those who repent.