Down an Unfamiliar Road

I once read this brain teaser: “A man stands on one side of a river, his dog on the other. The man calls his dog, who immediately crosses the river without getting wet and without using a bridge or a boat. How did the dog do it?” Immediately my mind began the arduous task of trying to figure out how this canine could get across the river without getting wet.

My search for an answer was complicated and seemed like an impossibility. Human logic and the information given me just would not cooperate in finding a solution to the question. Many times in life, and especially in spiritual matters, we face the same riddles. What we often see and hear just doesn’t make sense with what we know.

That’s because we often live in a mental box where we eliminate creative thinking or hypothesis in our intellectual assessment of such a puzzle. The reason why is because we are so afraid to use these options because we don’t want to be found out later as being in error when the facts are revealed. But that is exactly how clues to mysteries are often discovered. Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t know the answer, but I’m going to trust my instincts?”

Let me ask those of you who have been married at least 10 years. Did you ever speculate in the beginning that your marriage and life with your spouse would turn out the way it has? I’m sure you were hoping things would stay as exciting as they were on the honeymoon. But now that you can look back, how close are you to what you were dreaming? Is is better, or is it worse, or have you simply grown accustomed to what it is?

The same is true of our relationship with Christ. When we were first born again, did we ever imagine all the things that have happened to us since then? And if we knew they were coming, would we have been able to predict that we would be what we are today? I wonder? That’s why if we may not know the answer we must believe there is an answer when confronted with enigmas like this brain teaser.

Many times I’ve had to deal with situations for which I had no logical answer. But I knew someone who did, and His name is Jesus. So even though I wasn’t sure how I was going to get from where I was to where I needed to be, or wanted to be, I did know that if I grabbed hold of His hand He would lead me to where He wanted me to be. And that was because He turned my circumstance from a stumbling block into a stepping stone. So not only was my predicament transformed, but so was I. And each time this happened, I learned to trust Him more and more.

By the way, the dog was able to make it to the other side of the river without getting wet because the river was frozen. – Dr. Robert R. Seyda

Yesterday we were privileged to celebrate one of the most wonderful and marvelous events in world history, and we owe it all to the love God had for this pitiful world.

If He had not sent His Son to earth to be born of a precious virgin named Mary, there would be no such thing as Christmas.  We wouldn’t have the joy of gift giving, special dinners at home with family and friends, and a holiday that is celebrated around the world.

If Jesus had not been born in the small town of Bethlehem, and the angels did not sing to shepherds out watching their sheep by night, we’d have no Christmas carols to sing such as “Joy to the World”, “Silent Night”, or even songs like “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”, or “I’ll Be Home For Christmas”, because there would be no such time of year.

Bethlehem would be a forgotten village, Joseph and Mary would just be two common names among the Jewish people, and the New Testament would have never been written from which we learn that His coming was necessary to give hope and promise to millions of people who otherwise would have continued to live in heathenism and darkness.

There would be no Christmas lights on houses, and lighted Christmas trees with stars on top standing in living rooms under which lay dozens of presents as a way  of honoring the One who was born to bring God’s gift of eternal life to all those who believe that Jesus was sent to be our Lord and Savior.

Christmas candy canes, Christmas cookies, and even Santa Claus would not be seen at every shopping center, even in nations that do not call themselves Christian.  And people would not be clapping their hands to such tunes as “Jingle Bells” and “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”.

So why then do the politically correct insist on saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas.  Don’t they know that the word “Holiday” comes from “Holy Day.”  And don’t they realize that by insisting that we take Christ out of Christmas and yet celebrate the yuletide spirit, is like denying that a certain person was ever born and yet wanting to offer Him well-wishes and send Him a Happy Birthday Card.  How silly is that!

But worst of all, they are so grinchy, that they want to prevent those who do believe from having the freedom of wishing each other a Merry Christmas out in public or over the air waves.  All I can say is what my Savior had to say: “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”

JOY TO THE WORLD, THE LORD HAS COME!

To all my irreplaceable family and friends, I pray that as you commemorate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, that the love He came to bring into the world will be poured out into your heart so fully that it can flow to all those around you.

It is also my prayer that He will bless you with special gift.  And that gift would be an unquenchable thirst and constant hunger for His Word, so that you can get to know Him better.

God bless you!

Dr. Robert and Aurora Seyda

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

We’ve just completed our study of the Gospel according to Matthew, Chapter 7, with some groundbreaking discoveries in what Jesus was really saying.

Jesus explained how giving dogs something that was sacred was a reference to sacrifices meant for the Temple, but did not qualify, were still of some use and should not be fed to the dogs.  And the pearls that must not be thrown to pigs was a reference to words of wisdom that should not be wasted on people who continue to wallow in their own foolishness.

Also that asking seeking and knocking are in the continuous tense, so we should never give up on our quest for more wisdom and understanding of God’s plan for our lives.  There are many walking a broad way to destruction who are not willing to get rid of their long standing attitudes and biases, but there are those who are ready to give God whatever He desires in order to walk on the narrow way to the destiny He has chosen for them.

Then we saw that both the wise builder and foolish builder may have used the same floor plan and architecture, but it was where they laid the foundation for their house that determined whether it would stand or fall when the winds, rains and floods came.

Now in Chapter 8, we will find how Jesus goes from His monologue in preaching to a dialogue in teaching new truths and insights about faith and faithfulness.  I can hardly wait to share with you what has been discovered in examining these scriptures in their contextual setting.

But that will start that study after we take our Christmas/New Year’s break so that you can enjoy this time of year in celebrating the arrival of God’s Son in the form of man on this earth so that He could become our Redeemer, Savior and Lord.

So celebrate this season of joy, and I’ll see you back here on Monday, January  4, 2016.  God bless you for your continued love and reverence for His holy Word. – Dr. Robert R. Seyda

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER SEVEN

Part V (con’t)

NOTE: Since we’ve had this lengthy narrative on the teachings of Jesus, at this point let’s look at the teachings of Judaism. In general, these represent the beliefs of the disciples before Jesus called them and revealed to them the entire Godhead, and explained to them more fully God’s message to the world brought by His Son. This may help you see where there are similarities and differences by examining the writings of an astute Jewish Scholar:

Now, the Jewish belief contains thirteen articles which are, in short, as they are found in their prayers and prayer books:

1. I believe, with true and perfect belief, that God is creator, governor, and keeper of all creatures; that He has created everything, is still creating, and will create forever.

2. I believe with perfect belief that there is but one God the Creator, and that so such unity may be found elsewhere save in Him, who alone was our God, is still, and will be forever.

3. I believe with perfect belief that God the Creator is not corporeal, nor does He have any corporeal characteristics, and that no corporeal being may be compared to Him.

4. I believe with perfect belief that God the Creator is the first and the last, and that there was nothing before Him, and that He will be the last one to remain forever.

5. I believe with perfect belief that He alone may be prayed to, and that no one beside Him may be prayed to.

6. I believe with perfect belief that everything the prophets have taught and spoken is the absolute truth.

7. I believe with perfect belief that the teaching and prophecy of Moses is true; and that he was father and chief of all wise men who lived in his time, who lived before him, and who will live after him in the future.

8. I believe with perfect belief that the entire Law as we find it in our hands today, was given to Moses by God Himself.

9. I believe with perfect belief that this Law will never be changed, and no other law should be, or will be, given to us by our God.

10. I believe with perfect belief that God knows and understands all the deeds and thoughts of men, as it is written in the Prophet: “He examines all their hearts, and takes notice of all their deeds.”¹

11. I believe with perfect belief that God will repay and reward those who obey His commands and will punish all who transgress His commands.

12. I believe with perfect belief that the Messiah will yet come, and even if he delays for a long time, all the same I will hope and I will listen out for him, and wait every day until he comes.

13. I believe with perfect belief that there will be an awakening of the dead at that time which will please God the Creator, may His name be blessed and highly extolled forever.²

The writer concludes with this: “This is the essence of the thirteen articles of the Jewish belief as they are set forth in their daily prayer books in a short and summary form. In them the poor blind Jews die and waste away wretchedly with great sighing, fear, doubt, and howling.”³

As we can see, everything the Jewish people believe is commensurate with what Christians believe, except for number 12. The Jews are still waiting, the Christians are already rejoicing in knowing and serving the Messiah who came into the world as a son of Israel and the Son of God. Therefore, the belief expressed in number 13 is already in the Christian believer’s possession. The sad thing is that many Jews believe they have to throw away all those beliefs contained in numbers 1 through 11 in order to become a Christian. But the truth is, that all of what God intended through Moses is fulfilled completely in Jesus the Christ.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER SEVEN

Part V

Verses 24-27: “Whoever hears these teachings of mine and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on rock. It rained hard, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house. But it did not fall because it was built on rock. Whoever hears these teachings of mine and does not obey them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. It rained hard, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house. And it fell with a loud crash.”

One will notice immediately that both men referred to here are building houses; in fact they may be using the same architecture, floor plan and materials. The major difference is where they build their houses; one chooses to erect his on solid rock above the shoreline, while the other builds his down on the beach. Here the choice of furniture, color of the siding and decorum became less important than the location. Jesus wanted His listeners to ask themselves: “Are you planning to build?” Second question, “On what do you plan to build?”

We cannot afford to miss the spiritual implications here in this illustration. While Jesus was talking about a literal house, He was no doubt using it as a metaphor for one’s plans and goals in life. Just like a house is where you plan to live, so your goals and plans for life are where you expect to spend most of your time building your future. It doesn’t take a herculean leap of wisdom to relate this same concept to your spiritual life. In this case, it is easy to see the sand as being man’s perceptions and philosophy of life while the rock is emblematic of the Word of God. The outcome is the same: that which is built upon the Rock will be the house that endures the storm and survives.

Why? Not because the house is so strong, but that the Rock is so solid. King Solomon touched on this same principle when he wrote: “The wise accept instruction, but fools argue and bring trouble on themselves.”¹ Solomon repeats himself in a different way, “Wisdom lets smart people know what they are doing, but stupid people only think they know.”² Some people today have a convoluted perception of wisdom. They think that by refusing help and advice and figuring things out on their own, that is wisdom. When in fact, asking for all the help and advice one can get is truly wise. How much more then, when it involves the spiritual life we are building.

Chrysostom has an interesting comment here. He relates: “In referring to rain, floods and winds Jesus is speaking about all those human circumstances and misfortunes, such as false accusations, plots, bereavements, deaths, loss of family members, insults from others, and all the horrid things in life about which one could speak. Jesus says that a soul that pursues the way of excellence does not give in to any of these potential disasters. And the cause of this is that this soul has been founded upon the rock.”³ Some would say that these storms and elements were directed at this man’s house because he built it on solid rock. But those same things came against the man who built his house on the sand. So there must be another purpose these storms serve in Christ’s teaching what He wanted His listeners to learn.

This seems clear enough in Chrysostom’s mind when he writes: “Now ‘rock’ refers to the reliability of Jesus’ teaching. For His commands are stronger than any rock. They establish a person high above all the human waves of life. For the one who guards these commands with care will excel not only over human beings when treated maliciously but even over the demons themselves in their plots.” In other words, having Jesus in your life and following His teachings and guidance will insure that your “house” or “life” will prove fully able to survive the storms that circumstances in life often bring to bear on everyone.

Ezekiel had an interesting take on this idea of building without the right advice, “Again and again those false prophets lied to my people. They said there would be peace, but there is no peace. The people need to fix the walls and prepare for war. But they only slap a thin coat of plaster over the broken walls. Tell them that I will send hail and a strong rain. The wind will blow hard, and a tornado will come. Then the wall will fall down. When the wall falls down, the people will ask the prophets, ‘What happened to the plaster you put on the wall?’”⁴

Solomon touched on this aspect of why some homes fall and some stand: “A wise woman makes her home what it should be, but the home of a foolish woman is destroyed by her own actions.”⁵ Jeremiah saw how embarrassing it was for those who built their houses on the sand, “You keep saying, ‘We have the Lord’s teachings. We are so smart!’ But this is not true, because the scribes have lied with their pens. These ‘smart people’ refused to listen to the Lord’s teachings. So they are not really smart at all. These ‘smart people’ then felt trapped. They became dismayed and ashamed.”⁶ Someone once said that a wise person is someone who learns from their mistakes. But then another person said that a really wise person is someone who learns from other people’s mistakes so they won’t have to repeat them.

Rabbi Eleazar ben Azariah, a descendant of Ezra the Scribe and a committed scholar of the Mishnah, as well as a contemporary of Jesus, used similar illustrations. He used to say: “What is the man like whose wisdom exceeds his accomplishments? Like a tree whose branches are many, but whose roots are few; and the wind comes and plucks it up, and knocks it over on its face, as it is said, ‘And he will be like a lonely juniper tree in the desert, that cannot take advantage of good opportunities; but will live out its life in parched places in the wilderness, a barren land that’s not inhabited.’⁷ But he whose accomplishments exceed his wisdom, what is he like? To a tree whose branches are few, but whose roots are many, so that though all the winds in the world come and blow on it, they cannot stir it from its place, as it is said, ‘And he shall be as a tree planted by the waters; and that spreads out its roots by the river and will not bothered when heat comes, but his leaf will be green; and will not be damaged in the year of drought, neither will he cease from producing fruit.’⁸”⁹

But the one that comes closest is the Rabbi who said, “One in whom there are good works, who has studied much Torah, to what may he be likened? To a person who builds first with gravel and afterward with bricks: even when much water comes and collects by their side, it does not dislodge them. But one in whom there are no good works, though he studied Torah, to what may he be likened? To a person who builds first with bricks and afterward with gravel, even when a little water gathers, it overthrows them immediately.”¹⁰

Early church theologian Origen, who was also a well-known world traveler had this to say about what one faces in this life as a believer. He says: “For neither death nor life nor angels nor other things can separate us from the love of Christ.¹¹ Neither can the flooding of rivers, as in the lands of Egypt and Assyria, do harm. Only those are harmed who build on sand, who practice the wisdom of the world.” For Origen, the rivers of Egypt and Assyria symbolize the wisdom of the world, an enemy of Christ. The sons of Abraham who build precariously on the sand are the Jews, based on the connection of the sand in Matthew 7:26 to the sand in Genesis 22:17; the descendants of Abraham would be as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore.

Origen goes on to say: “The winds that blow are like the false prophets. All these, coming together in one place, ‘beat upon’ the house. If it is founded on rock, they do no harm. ‘The way of a snake upon a rock’ is not to be found’.¹² But in the form of temptations and persecutions, which may mount into a flood, they beat upon even the one who seems to be well-founded. The house falls if it does not have Christ as its basis and foundation. But the truly wise person builds one’s house ‘upon a rock.’ This is the way the Lord builds his church—upon the rock, with steadfastness and strength. This is why “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”¹³ All the persecutions that fall upon that house accomplish nothing. The house is founded upon the rock.”¹⁴

Verses 28-29: When Jesus finished speaking, the people were amazed at His teaching. He did not teach like their teachers of the law. He taught like someone who knew what he was talking about.

Christ’s authority in this case was more than simply having been commissioned to speak. He was there when the world was formed; He appeared to the patriarchs; He was present when the Law was written; He stood by the prophets as they spoke. Christ did not speak as the scribes who exhorted about incidents in the past tense, to which they were not eye witnesses. When Jesus spoke of the Word, He spoke of Himself for He is the Word.

I wonder if anyone in the crowd remembers what Moses said about a promise God made to him on behalf of the children of Israel, “The Lord your God will send to you a prophet. This prophet will come from among your own people, and he will be like me. You must listen to him. God will send you this prophet because that is what you asked him to do. When you were gathered together at Mount Horeb, you became frightened and said, ‘Don’t let us hear the voice of the Lord our God again! Don’t let us see that great fire or we will die!’ The Lord said to me, ‘What they ask for is good. I will send them a prophet like you. This prophet will be one of their own people. I will tell him what he must say, and he will tell the people everything I command. This prophet will speak for Me, and I will punish anyone who refuses to listen to My commands.’”¹⁵

The reason Jesus spoke with such authority can be noted in these words of the Preacher in the Old Testament: “He has the authority to give commands, and no one can tell him what to do. People will be safe if they obey his command.”¹⁶ But what they didn’t know was what Isaiah had to say that also applied to this Teacher, “The Lord God gave me the ability to teach, so now I teach these sad people. Every morning He wakes me and teaches me like a student. The Lord God helps me learn, and I have not turned against Him. I will not stop following Him. I will let those people beat me and pull the hair from my beard. I will not hide my face when they say bad things to me and spit at me. The Lord God will help me, so the bad things they say will not hurt me. I will be strong. I know I will not be disappointed.”¹⁷

No wonder Jesus Himself would open the scroll of Isaiah and read to the crowd in Nazareth, “The Spirit of the Lord God is on me. The Lord has chosen me to tell good news to the poor and to comfort those who are sad. He sent me to tell the captives and prisoners that they have been set free. He sent me to announce that the time has come for the Lord to show his kindness, when our God will also punish evil people. He has sent me to comfort those who are sad, those in Zion who mourn. I will take away the ashes on their head, and I will give them a crown. I will take away their sadness, and I will give them the oil of happiness. I will take away their sorrow, and I will give them celebration clothes.”¹⁸ One unique factor that proved Jesus to be the true Messiah is the fact that when people asked Him to prove His authenticity by providing them with miracles He did not comply, but when people believed in Him as being the Messiah because of His words, He provided miracles on His own accord.

In this parable Chrysostom sees a combination of love and authority. He writes: “Surely it was logical that they were in pain over the heavy weight of what He had said. They were stunned by the soaring level of the requirements that He had made. But now the strength of the one teaching was so great that He seized many of them and threw them into great amazement. Because of their pleasure in what He said, Jesus finally persuaded them not to leave as He finished speaking. For not even after He went down from the mountain did the hearers leave, but even then the whole audience followed Him because of the great love that was shown in what He had said. But most of all they were astounded at His authority. For when He said these things, He did not refer to another, as even the prophet Moses did, but everywhere He showed that He himself was the One who had the authority to decide. For even when He was establishing laws Jesus continually added, ‘But I say to you.’¹⁹ And when He was reminding them of the final day of judgment, He showed that He Himself is the One who will bring justice, both through the punishments and through the honors. This is what caused such a commotion among them.”²⁰

One of the fascinating things about the ministry of Christ is that He drew crowds when they found out He was speaking, and once they came they didn’t want to leave. That is, until He said something that really spoiled their day or tested their loyalty.²¹ I am of the persuasion that the ones who stayed are those who were listening with their hearts, not just their ears. Strange how sometimes when people are speaking to us, we are in constant editing mode, rearranging things that they say so that it fits our way of thinking. But when Jesus spoke, His authority and assertiveness was such that the people who really revered Him hung onto every word and always wanted to hear more.

That was my prayer when I finally accepted God’s call for me to go preach the Gospel. I asked Him to give me such a desire for His word that no matter how often I studied it, I would always reluctantly close its pages because I had to go to work or get some sleep. I wanted to have the desire to read on and on. That same strong desire is still with me today. But it is not a gift from God exclusive to me, it can belong to anyone who diligently seeks to know more about God. Because by becoming more acquainted with the Father, we become more knowledgeable about the Son and the Holy Spirit.

I once read this brain teaser: A farmer has five haystacks in one field and four haystacks in another. How many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in one field? Needless to say, I instantly came up with 9! That’s because of simple math.

But I soon learned that what seemed simple at first, may have tricked my mind because I didn’t think the whole process through. How often that happens to us when we make a quick decision without examining all the facets and variables. That may be because we want quick answers.

How many times have you seen a game on TV where a contestant is asked to use words or pantomime to describe a hidden word, they are shown on a card, to another person so they can guess what the word is? Many times the contestant will see the word and quickly say “Pass,” because nothing immediately comes to mind.

When I first began to study for the ministry, I read many classic books that contained English and Latin words that I was not familiar with. My first instinct was to pass over them and hope that somehow from the context I could discover what the writer was explaining. But I soon learned I was cheating myself out of growing my vocabulary and understanding. So I started writing those words down on a pad, then looking them up in the dictionary and putting down a synonym or short definition. It wasn’t long before I didn’t need to look at my pad any more when I came to those words because they were already part of my vocabulary.

The Psalmist David no doubt had the same idea when it came to God’s Word. In Psalm 1 he says that if a person wants to be significant in this world, let them avoid taking someone else’s advice without first considering the consequences of how it will affect their lives, but to search God’s Word and think about what they’ve read all day long.

Then we have the very smart young man who wrote Psalm 119 describing his life’s story, and how he was often criticized and made fun of because of his unwavering faith. But he says that the one thing that kept him on the right track was that he had studied God’s Word to the point that it became part of his thinking.¹ In other words, he didn’t turn to the Word of God only when he was in trouble, but he made it a daily part of his life.

By the way, if a farmer has five haystacks in one field and four in another and combines them all in one field, he’ll then only have one haystack. By the same token, if we take all the wisdom and knowledge that comes from God’s Word and combine them in our hearts, then we will be of one mind and one accord with the Spirit and with each other. – Dr. Robert R. Seyda

Very soon all around the world Christians will gather to celebrate the birth of Jesus. No doubt many classic Christmas carols and hymns will be sung. However, I doubt that this song will be one of them. It is the oldest known Christmas carol written in Latin circa 405 AD by Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, born in Spain in 348 AD. Prudentius was trained as a lawyer and rose to high office in the State, “holding the reins of power over famous cities,” serving as a judge. He was later called to the court of Theodosius I.

But he was equally well-known as the writer of Christian poems because of devotion to his faith and love for God. Although he gave so much time to expressing the goodness of Christ, when he reached the age of 57, he was still not satisfied that he had done enough. So he wrote: “Now very close to the end of life, may my soul stop its foolishness; and if by deeds it cannot, yet, at least, by words give praise to God, join day to day by constant hymns, fail not each night in songs to celebrate the Lord.”

Among those many poems he penned a number for the Christmas season. One of them was titled, “Of the Father’s Love Begotten.” With all the emphasis on various elements of Christmas today that have little if anything to do with our Lord’s sacred birth, let the lyrics of this ancient hymn remind us of how the early Christians commemorated Christ’s birth.

1. Of the Father’s love begotten,
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore!

2. O that birth forever blessed,
When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bare the Savior of our race;
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face,
Evermore and evermore!

3. This is He Whom seers in old time
Chanted of with one accord;
Whom the voices of the prophets
Promised in their faithful word;
Now He shines, the long expected,
Let creation praise its Lord,
Evermore and evermore!

4. O ye heights of heaven adore Him;
Angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him,
And extol our God and King!
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert sing,
Evermore and evermore!

5. Thee let old men, thee let young men,
Thee let boys in chorus sing;
Matrons, virgins, little maidens,
With glad voices answering:
Let their guileless songs re-echo,
And the heart its music bring,
Evermore and evermore!

6. Christ, to Thee with God the Father,
And, O Holy Ghost, to Thee,
Hymn and chant with high thanksgiving,
And unwearied praises be:
Honor, glory, and dominion,
And eternal victory,
Evermore and evermore!

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER SEVEN

Part IV (con’t)

Verse 21: Not everyone who calls me LORD will enter God’s kingdom. The only people who will enter are those who do what My Father in heaven wants.

Now Jesus segues into explaining why those who claim a relationship with Him will not be successful in fooling Him as they did others. The Greek word used here for “LORD” is kurios. In the Greek Septuagint version, kurios is the most common rendering for the Hebrew YaHWeH. Jesus could have used the term Lord that means “master,” but He chose the term that refers to Yahweh, which many Jewish translations render: “ADONAI.” It is not enough to claim a relationship with Christ in order to enter the kingdom of God. You must be invited. Only God the Father sends out the invitations which are delivered by the Holy Spirit. The invitation is to meet Jesus Christ personally, the only One qualified to vouch for you before the Father as having accepted Him as your Lord and Savior. There is no other way.

God gave the prophet Hosea a chilling warning about those making false claims: “Put the trumpet to your lips and give the warning. Be like an eagle over the Lord’s house. The Israelites have broken my agreement. They have not obeyed My law. Yet they yell out at Me, ‘My God, we in Israel know You!’ But Israel refused the good things, so the enemy chases him. The Israelites chose their kings, but they didn’t come to Me for advice. They chose leaders, but they didn’t choose men I knew. The Israelites used their silver and gold to make idols for themselves, so they will be destroyed.”¹ If this was important to God’s people back then, should it not be important to them today?

The prophet Malachi was given the criteria by which God’s own would be identified, “Then the Lord’s followers spoke with each other, and the Lord listened to them. There is a book in front of Him. In that book are the names of His followers. They are the people who honor the Lord’s name. The Lord said, ‘They belong to Me. I will be kind to them. Parents are very kind to their children who obey them. In the same way I will be kind to My followers. You people will come back to Me, and you will learn the difference between good and evil. You will learn the difference between someone who follows God and someone who does not.’”² Israel was also a nation, and therefore it is critical that God’s people be careful in who they choose to lead them as as part of their nation.

The prophet Daniel had a similar scene,³ and we find this scene replicated in John’s Apocalypse.⁴ But this is not a guest book which visitors sign in, they are written there by God’s personal scribe.⁵ The prophet Jeremiah faced a similar situation, and God spoke to him, “I saw the prophets of Samaria doing wrong things. I saw them prophesy in the name of the false god Baal. They led the people of Israel away from Me. I have even seen the prophets of Jerusalem doing sinful things. They are committing adultery and living a life of lies. They support their fellow prophets and never stop doing evil. They have become like Sodom; they are all like Gomorrah.”⁶ But it wasn’t that any miracles or signs and wonders were wrong in themselves, but it was the fact that none of them were done according to God’s will and at His command.

Jeremiah goes on to point this out, “Some of the people hate the real messages from the Lord, so the prophets give them a different message. They say, ‘You will have peace.’ Some of the people are very stubborn. They do only what they want to do. So the prophets say,‘Nothing bad will happen to you!’ But none of these prophets has stood in the heavenly council. None of them has seen or heard the message from the Lord. None of them has paid close attention to His message.”⁷ But even more telling, is that God told Jeremiah, “I did not send those prophets, but they ran to tell their messages. I did not speak to them, but they spoke in My name. If they had stood in my heavenly council, then they would have given My messages to the people of Judah. They would have stopped the people from doing bad things. They would have stopped them from doing evil.”⁸

And finally God says, “I am against the false prophets. They use their own words and pretend that it is a message from Me. I am against the false prophets who share false visions. This message is from the Lord. They mislead my people with their lies and false teachings. I did not send them to teach the people. I never commanded them to do anything for Me. They cannot help the people of Judah at all.”⁹ When Jesus spoke of the last days and the sifting out the good from the bad, this was not new to His Jewish listeners. They knew that such a day of reckoning was coming. How much more should we who are getting closer to that day reverence and pay our respects to what God has to say.

Early church preacher Chrysostom points out an interesting fact in this text. He writes: “Jesus said ‘whoever does the will of My Father’ will enter, not whoever does My will. Why? Nothing is insufficient if they do the will of the Father. What He did say was itself a very difficult thing to accept in view of their weakness. He implied that to do His Father’s will is to do His will. There is no other willing of the Son than the will of the Father. This may apply in particular to those who commit themselves in detail to Law yet take little thought for the actual personification of their better intentions. Elsewhere Paul confronts them directly when he says, ‘What about you? You say you are a Jew. You trust in the law and proudly claim to be close to God,’¹⁰ but in all this you derive no benefit as long as the actual fruit of good living is not present.”¹¹ Today God’s will is represented in His Word, therefore anyone who says they are doing the will of Jesus, but that will does not conform to the will of the Father in the Scriptures is deceiving those who listen.

Verse 22: On that last Day many will call me Lord. They will say, ‘Lord, Lord, by the power of Your name we spoke for God. And by Your name we forced out demons and did many miracles.

In the Jewish teaching on the judgment, especially concerning those of the generation of Noah. One Rabbi had an interesting comment about those who refused to enter Noah’s ark. He said: “Moreover, you will be considered a curse for all future generations, as it is written, their portion is a curse on the earth. You did not follow the way of escape provided:’ this teaches that you did not look for a way out. So they said to Him, if a person posses the power to escape, what prevents him for using it?’ — God replied. ‘I have chosen One dear to Me to lead you out.’”¹² Jewish commentators add this about that dear One as being: “One righteous man who must first die, so that he may not end up with your punishment.”¹³ In this we can clearly see a comparison between Noah and Jesus, both of whom God chose to provide an escape from death and annihilation. In Noah’s case it was the flood; in Jesus’ case it is the fire of Gehenna.

Perhaps this Rabbi’s listeners were thinking of someone such as Methuselah, but the Holy Spirit gave this utterance in reference to someone else. Also, in a copy of the earliest version of the verbal traditions we find this interesting discussion about standing trial before the LORD: “Ordinarily someone who knows he is on trial wears black and wraps himself in black and lets his beard grow, since he does not know how his trial will turn out. But that is not how it is with Israel. Rather, on the day of their trial they wear white and wrap themselves in white and shave their bears and eat, drink, and rejoice, for they know that the Holy One blessed be He does miracles for them.”¹⁴ To paraphrase this with New Testament insight, when you show up before the Lord, He will know right away you don’t belong to Him because the robe you wear is still black with sin’s stains, not white like those of the redeemed that have had their robes washed in the cleansing blood of the Lamb.

Verse 23: Jesus then tells His followers that based on this, Then I will tell those people clearly, “Get away from me, you people who do wrong. I never claimed you as being Mine.”

The Aramaic Version reads: “And then I will profess to them that from everlasting I have not known you.” Today we might word it, “I didn’t authorize what you did from the very start.” It is used in this same sense in the Babylonian Talmud where a Rabbis were in dispute over how a person is reprimanded for saying or doing something wrong. So one of the Rabbis told another Rabbi to take it to their leader Rabbi Judah. But this Rabbi was not too happy. He said, “‘And what, may I ask, can Rabbi Judah have to say on this?’ So he went and repeated what he was told to do to his father, but his father did not know what to tell him. So when this Rabbi presented himself before Rabbi Judah, Judah said to him: ‘Shimon son of Kappara, I never knew you!’”¹⁵

Commentators tell us that the literal interpretation of this phrase I never knew you was: “I don’t (want to) know you, stay away from me, or I have never been able to understand your attitude towards me.”¹⁶ This same Rabbi clashed with Rabbis on several occasions. The cause, it seems, was not personal, but rather due to the different schools to which they each belonged. So here, Christ declares, He knew them not; that is, He did not recognize their teachings as His. Therefore, He would not admit them into His presence and kingdom.

How many today claim to be doing the works Christ encouraged them to do, yet they have never gotten to know the Master Himself personally? There is a way of “knowing” Him intellectually simply by being cognizant of His existence. But there is another way of “knowing” Him by a personal and individual encounter, and that is by having Him live in our hearts. Today we would call these people “party crashers.” They are not on the invitation list and they are neither friends or relatives of the host.

Those of you who are interested in European and Near East history know that when one royal family deposed the ruling royal family, they either incarcerated or killed off any remaining children or relatives of the former monarch. I saw a documentary on television about the story of one such deposed family whose only remaining child was a young lad in his teens. He was imprisoned and treated horribly. But then he suddenly disappeared and no one seemed to know where he went. Many years later a man living in Canada claimed to be this young man. He told the story of how he escaped and how he was able to resettle with the help of some supporters. He produced documents and personal accounts that led to his being accepted as the only survivor of this royal family. He even wrote a book on the subject and was accepted everywhere as this exiled prince. But modern science was able to extract some DNA from that royal family, and when his was tested it proved not to be a match. That’s when the man confessed that he made it all up.

Jesus is saying here, that unless His spiritual DNA can be found in those who claim to be His followers, He will expose them and send them off into oblivion. David attested to this when he wrote, “God, you don’t want evil people near You. They cannot stay in Your presence. Fools cannot come near You. You hate those who do evil. You destroy those who tell lies. Lord, you hate those who make secret plans to hurt others.”¹⁷ In case anyone was not getting the point He was making, our Lord will offer another illustration to make it even clearer.

The Early Church apologist from Alexandria in Egypt had something to say about such a dismissal from the presence of Christ. He writes: “There may be some who, in the beginning, believed correctly and diligently labored at moral excellence. They may have even worked miracles and prophesied and cast out demons. And yet later they are found turning aside to evil, to self-assertive deception and desire. Of these Jesus remarks that He “never knew them.” He ranks them as equivalent to those who were never known by Him at all. Even if they at the outset had lived virtuously, they ended up condemned. God knows those whom He loves, and He loves those who single-mindedly believe in Him and do the things that please Him.”¹⁸ If that’s what the Church preached back in 380 AD, they should preach the same today.

While Bishop Cyril gives us the conventional interpretation of what Jesus meant when He said, “I never knew you,” there is another factor that we should consider. First of all, it is incompatible to suggest that the all-knowing Son of God did not recognize them or knew who they were or where they were from. So we must look more closely at the word “knew.” In some cases it certainly reflects the presence of sufficient information to have perceived or to understand. It also allows for the understanding of having been acquainted or familiar with a person, place or thing. On some occasions it is employed as a way of saying that a man was intimate with his wife.

So out of these it appears that Jesus certainly could have been saying, that when such people claim an association with Him in their effort to carry out His will in their ministry, He has the right to say: “I don’t recognize you as one of those whom I authorized or approved as a representative of My Kingdom.” This is why it was so important for our Lord after His ascension in to heaven to request the Father send the Holy Spirit as an insignia upon the soul of every believer who was truly authorized to carry out the mission He left for His church to finish so it would allow Him to return and set up His kingdom here on earth.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

CHAPTER SEVEN

Part IV

The prophet Micah encountered some false teachers that sound very much like what we have today. He writes: “Some false prophets are telling the LORD’S people lies. This is what the Lord says this about them: ‘These prophets are led by their stomachs. They promise peace for those who give them food, but they promise war to those who do not give them food.”¹ In our modern era it would be easy to substitute food for financial support in order to identify such false prophets today.

Then the prophet Isaiah also points out another problem that plagues the church to this day. “The watchmen are all blind. They don’t know what they are doing. They are like dogs that will not bark. They lie on the ground and sleep.”² Ezekiel had an even more graphic description, “The prophets in Jerusalem are making evil plans. They are like a lion—it roars when it begins to eat the animal it caught.”³ So what does this say to Christians today. If a watch dog doesn’t bark when trouble draws near, it becomes nothing more than a pet. And if a lion roars before it begins to consume its prey, it is their way of showing that they should be feared and not taken lightly.

Also, when the prophet Zephaniah looked around, he saw a similar scene. “Jerusalem’s leaders are like roaring lions. Her judges are like hungry wolves that come in the evening to attack the sheep—and in the morning nothing is left. Her prophets are always making secret plans to get more and more. Her priests have treated holy things as if they were not holy. They have done bad things to God’s teachings.”⁴ In other words, these type of people are only out to destroy, not to build; to tear apart, not to bring together.

It was Jewish historian Josephus who reminded his fellow Jews of these omens when he said: “And who is there that does not know what the writings of the ancient prophets contain in them – and particularly that oracle which is just now going to be fulfilled upon this miserable city? For they foretold that this city should be then taken when somebody shall begin the slaughter of his own countrymen. And are not both the city and the entire temple now full of the dead bodies of your countrymen? It is God, therefore, it is God Himself who is bringing on this fire, to purge that city and temple by means of the Romans, and is going to pluck up this city, which is full of your pollution.”⁵ This was the scene after the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD because of the siege by Roman General Titus.

This made our Lord’s warning in these verses so important to the Early Church, that in their teachings they included this alert: “For in the last days the number of false prophets and corrupt teachers will grow and the sheep will be turned into wolves, and love will be turned into hate; for when lawlessness increases, they will hate and persecute and betray one another, and then will appear the world-deceiver as a Son of God, and will perform signs and wonders, and the earth will be delivered into his hands, and he will do ungodly things which have never been done since the beginning.”⁶

While some preachers and teachers of questionable doctrines may not as futile or fatal as what John saw in his revelation, there is another disturbing factor in our church pulpits today. That is those who misuse and misinterpret the Word of God to make a philosophical point that is not found in the text. For instance, describing the cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 12:1 as a group of departed saints who are looking down from heaven much like a crowd in a stadium watching a game, instead of pointing out that the cloud the writer referred to were those in Chapter 11.

Also, Paul’s statement in Romans 8:1 about condemnation being used as a reward for being morally good rather than acknowledging that the word translated as “condemnation” in the original Greek is a judicial phrase that refers to the death sentence all sinners live under until they are redeemed and saved from punishment. As well as the statement by the apostle Paul who said: “I can do all things through Him who gives me strength,”⁷ as a mantra or magical phrase Christians can use in overcoming any problem, rather than noting that Paul was pointing back to all that he’d suffered through and yet survived.

There are other examples of such encouragement when Paul tells the Romans: “We know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose,”⁸ as a proclamation of assurance to any believer in any situation, rather than a comment by Paul on life in the Spirit and the suffering that comes from living that life for God.⁹ These may all seem as minor errors in interpretation, but just like a measurement being taken that is one sixteenth of an inch offline at the beginning can end up missing its target by feet and then yards the longer it goes uncorrected.

Verse 16b: People don’t go out to gather grapes from thornbushes, or figs from barbed weeds.

Our Lord understood the intellectual level of His audience, so He uses illustrations to help them comprehend the meaning of His teachings. He knew that by pointing out the obvious through a story would help get His point across a lot clearer. This is a longstanding tool speakers and teachers have employed when wanting to prove a point that may not be so easily discerned on the surface. It’s almost like using a level to indicate how off kilter a door post maybe, or a ruler to show how crooked a line is.

For instance, on one occasion Rabbis were discussing when boys become men. They told the story of Abaye and Raba when they were boys and were sitting in the presence of Rabbah bar Avuha, who was asking them some questions. They were so good that Rabbah said that both of them would become Rabbis. So the commentators concluded: “This accords with the popular saying: pumpkins can be identified just from the stalk.”¹⁰ In other words, sometimes you do not need to see the fruit before knowing what will be produced. For most of us, a stalk standing in a field would be enough for us to know that long before it starts producing the ears, it is corn. The same with tomato and grape vines. Knowing the source of one’s fruit is also explored in this discussion.

According to another tradition, Rabbis were talking about when a person should be held responsible for why they misled others. Said Rabbi Judah: “Even if a person went to pick figs but picked grapes, or intended grapes but picked figs, or white grapes but picks black ones, or black and he picked white ones, Rabbi Eliezer declares him liable.”¹¹ In other words, it’s like a Sunday school teacher telling students that they got their information from the Bible when in fact it came from a commentary. Or when preachers hold up their Bibles and say: “Let me tell you what God’s Word says,” and then propagates some personally conceived concept or calculation.

In one case, the Rabbis were comparing the marrying of a priest’s daughter to a scholar, to that of a Priest’s daughter marrying someone who is called an ignoramus. Said the Rabbis: “This may be compared to grafting a grape vine into a thorn bush in order to grow berries, which is a repulsive.”¹² So it was that Jesus did not hesitate telling His listeners whether what He was saying came from the Torah or the prophets, or that it was given to Him by His Father in heaven.

Verses 17-18: Jesus no doubt did this so that by not having to decipher His metaphor, they were then able to add the rest of what He was about to say without a struggle. In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, and bad trees produce bad fruit. A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.

Our Lord now offers more spiritual insight by using another illustration on what happens when a father gives his son a stone instead of bread, when people do not treat others the same way they wish to be treated, and when wolves come disguised as sheep in order to carry them off to their den of false doctrine. As in previous illustrations, Jesus said that we can identify them by watching what they do. This was the method David and the prophets used.¹³ In both cases, it depends on the soil in which they are planted and the nutrition that they receive.

But the prophet Isaiah shares God’s disappointment when trees planted and watered correctly do not bear good fruit, “What more could I do for my vineyard? I did everything I could. I hoped for good grapes to grow, but there were only rotten ones. Why did that happen?”¹⁴ Then the Lord goes on to say what will happen to these producers of rotten grapes, “Now I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will pull up the thornbushes that protect it, and I will burn them. I will break down the stone wall and use the stones for a walkway. I will turn My vineyard into useless land. No one will care for the plants or work in the field. Weeds and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”¹⁵

The prophet continues with what Jesus echoes here, “The vines will become dry, and the branches will break off. Women will use them for firewood.”¹⁶ And the prophet Ezekiel gives and even more graphic description, “People will throw such wood into the fire. The ends burn, and the middle is scorched. If you cannot make anything from that wood before it is burned, you surely cannot make anything from that wood after it is burned! So people throw the pieces of wood from a grapevine into the fire. It is just like wood from any other tree in the forest.”¹⁷ Also in one apocryphal Gospel we find a rendering of our text: “Jesus said, ‘Grapes are not harvested from thorn trees, nor are figs gathered from thistles, for they yield no fruit. Good persons produce good from what they’ve stored up; bad persons produce evil from the wickedness they’ve stored up in their hearts, and say evil things. For from the overflow of the heart they produce evil’.”¹⁸

One Jewish scholar did a study on the Jewish Commentary of Ruth and found some similarities between it and views expressed in the Gospels. One of those was this: “In this world one who is small can become great and he who is great can become small, but in the world to come one who is small can not become great and he who is great can not become small.”¹⁹ In other words, there is still time to change for the best or the least while here on earth, but one we are ushered into the next world, there will be no change; you will be for eternity what you were when you entered. How much more should this motivate us to be all we can be through Christ here and now, so we can spend eternity worshiping Him as an overcomer.

The preacher Chrysostom had this to say: “Even though Jesus seems to make virtually the same point a second time, it is hardly redundant. For in the second time around he prevents anyone from concluding, ‘The evil tree bears evil fruit, but it also bears good fruit, so as to make it difficult to recognize an evil tree, because the crop is of two kinds.’ No. Jesus says, ‘This is not so. For the evil tree bears only evil fruits and would never bear good fruits. So also it is the same way with the opposite kind of tree.’ What then? Is there no such thing as a good person who becomes corrupt? Or a corrupt person who becomes good? Isn’t life full of many examples of such reversals? But the Messiah is not saying that the evil person is incapable of changing or that the good person will never fail in anything. But he is saying that so long as a person is living in a degenerate way, he will not be able to generate good fruit. For he may indeed change to virtue, being evil, but while continuing in wickedness, he will not bear good fruit.”²⁰

Chrysostom goes on: “What then? Did not David, even though good, bear evil fruit? No, because he did not bear evil fruit while remaining good but while being changed. For if indeed he had remained continually good as he had been, he would not have produced the bad fruit. For it surely was not while abiding in the habits of excellence that he had the audacity to do the very things that he had the audacity to do. Jesus also said these things to shut the mouths of those who say nothing but slander and to reign in the lips of those who speak maliciously. For many are suspicious of good people because so many others are evil, but Jesus by this saying has deprived them of all excuse. For on this premise one would not even be able to say, ‘I am deceived and was misled.’ For he has provided you a rule by which accurately to identify the frauds by their deeds. He has also commanded you to proceed on the basis of practices and not to mix up all cases at random.”²¹

Verses 19-20: Every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. You will know these false people by the fruit they produce.

At this point, it would be good to untangle the literal meaning Jesus intended here about throwing this useless wood into the fire, and the spiritual meaning often applied of saying that such people will end up in hell. It is true that Jesus was comparing these people who pretend to be part of a congregation of believers but become known for the false doctrines they spread and the disharmony they bring, first as wolves camouflaged by sheep’s wool, and second to trees or vines that instead of bearing the good fruit like all those around them, produce inedible fruit that cannot be used. As wolves they are quickly identified and told to leave because they have no place in that body of believers. And as trees or vines, they are rooted up and hauled out of the field or orchard, and used for fire wood.

In the case of the wolves, their end is to be exposed so that they may either repent, return and reconcile with the congregation and become strong supporters of the church’s mission and faithful servants to the church’s cause. But as trees, there is no regret, no restitution, and no rescue. They are to be used for some other cause in the secular sector of society. So in a way, Jesus was saying that while the way of the impostors is correctable, the way of the bitter fruit tree has no redeeming value for the body of Christ. The judgment will be held for those who completely and unequivocally denounce and deny Jesus Christ as the Savior and will have nothing to do with Him. But people whose actions and attitudes are at odds with the mission of any person or group of believers, will be judged on a different criteria. It you want a good example, just look at Saul of Tarsus who became the apostle Paul. What he did to the church and against Christianity in the beginning was more like the bitter fruit tree, not the masked wolf. Yet Jesus was able to turn him around and use him in a marvelous way. Jesus will get to those who deserve nothing but hell fire.

Some of the most tragic ending to those who’ve been led astray by false prophets are those of Jim Jones that began in 1956 in Indianapolis, Indiana and ended in mass suicide in Jamestown, Guyana in 1978, David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas who willingly allowed themselves to be burned to death in 1993, and a group known as Heaven’s Gate founded by Marshall Herff Applewhite in California and their mass suicide in 1997. The sad part were those who were led astray and suffered so enormously because they had been deceived. Threat of punishment does not seem to work on such deceivers. Only the truth can set their captives free, and there is but one Truth and His name is Jesus.