No Deceptions

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

NO DECEPTIONS

Matt 24:3-8

3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" 4 Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5 For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. 6 You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are the beginning of birth pains.

NIV

This question of the disciples asked Jesus might well have been just about all the stones not being one on another or it could also include all those woes he spoke to the teachers of the law and Pharisees. Yet it could have included just about all that Jesus spoke about. Certainly by now they were aware of his coming to the end of this phase of things and something different is going to happen. By their question about what the signs would be of his coming they had some understanding he was going back to heaven and that he would return. He had told them most of all that, even if it was not in plain words. Nevertheless his response contains much information and we need take a little of it at a time in order to examine how we can garner the truth for our lives. The first thing he warns them of is to be watchful that no one deceives them. This is spoken to all of us as well. He told them that many would come in his name, claiming, “I am the Christ” and they will deceive many. It might be interesting the Greek word translated Christ means anointed. It has for the most part been used as Messiah or of the Christ. But in the sense Jesus is using it here, it might just mean anointed. There will be many who come in the name of Jesus saying they are anointed, but they are not, and they will deceive many. It is doubtful any actually claimed they were Jesus Christ, but simply the Christ, the anointed one of God. The one with the truth of God. Of course they have been and even in our lifetime men who have said Jesus did not fulfilled his task on earth and they are the anointed one to complete it. The Unificationist church believe Jesus only redeemed the spiritual aspect of man, but failed to redeem the physical aspect of man. The Lord of the Second Advent ( Rev.Moon) will complete this. Jesus was supposed to marry and bear a generation of new perfected mankind. Moon is about doing all this and he has deceived many. But there are also many who come in the name of Jesus and deceive way too many people with a false truth. Jesus will talk more about false prophets later in his discourse. We should also consider his remarks about hearing of wars and rumors of wars. Notice he says all that will happen but the end is not yet. Nations rising up against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms has been happening for centuries, right up to the present time. He could have been making the point in the nation against nation to earthly wars and kingdom against kingdom to heavenly war. This would be the kingdom of Satan rising up against the kingdom of God. Both of them have always been and will continue to be until the end of this age. There will never be “World peace” no matter how many Miss America’s claim that is their goal. There is no doubt we have seen famines in various places around the world throughout the history of mankind. Even here in our country during the great depression, many people stood in soup lines and survived on very little. We have magnificent photographic images of famine conditions in America at that time. There have been and will continue to be earthquakes all over the world. According to the United State Geological Society several million earthquake happen each year. Many are small and some go undetected because of being in such remote locations. So we should not make too much about earthquakes of this type, except to say that Jesus knew all about them and was telling us it does not have anything to do with the end of the world. The wars and earthquakes are just birth pains. What we do not know is how long this labor is going to be before the end of the age is born. We are going to see Jesus tell them and us to stand firm until the end. There is so many who come in his name claiming to know the signs. It is interesting that one television Evangelist actually stated the reason he built his great empire complex was because this is where the Lord told him he would return to rule and reign with Jesus for the thousand years. How bizarre is that? But what is worse is that he has many followers, all deceived. How believers can be deceived is beyond our understanding when we all have the word of God, and we all have the Spirit guiding us into all truth. Yet so many have fallen prey to someone coming in the name of Jesus, claiming they are anointed. No, we will not be among the deceived. We will keep our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. We will not be fooled by silver tongues with their fine sounding words or phony smiles. We have the words of God, the Holy Scriptures and we have the Holy Spirit revealing the truth in our hearts. Sure we should not forfeit fellowship with other believer. Yes, there are many people, pastors who speak the truth of God correctly and are not deceivers. This is why the Spirit has gifted people with discernment, so we can discern the truth from lies when we hear them. This is standing firm in our faith, not being deceived by either men or events.