This last week I received a text message. Let me tell you what it says:
NHS: You are eligible to apply for a COVID pass, provided you've been vaccinated against COVID-19. You can apply for this here...
And then there's a web link.
Now, most of you—hopefully all of you—will recognise immediately that there is nothing to be gained by clicking on that web link. It is a scam, a spam, a fake text message. I don't know what happens if you click on the link—I didn't try. I had a look this morning. Whoever hosted that particular web page has taken it down. I suspect they would have charged you £19.99—something that is free and doesn't actually exist anyway.
I suspect we've become more aware, have we not, over the past few years of the dangers of fakes of lots of kinds? About three years ago, fake news became something that was talked about a lot, and now, every time you get a link to any news story on Facebook or whatever, you get told a little bit about the provenance—the website that you're about to click through to—and there are lots of fact-checking websites out there to help you spot fake news.
Or there's the text message telling you that there is a surcharge to be paid for a delivery company. Only, of course, there is no such thing to pay.
One of the long-read stories on the BBC News website is the tragic tale of a British man who moved to live in the Ukraine and then thought he was going to be marrying a Ukrainian bride. The whole thing was extremely elaborate—two or three years in the building, with genuine friendship and affection built up over those years. Turned out the entire thing was a fake.
In parts of South Africa in the past couple of months, there's been a bit of a diamond rush. Word got out that, in a particular area, diamonds were able to be found fairly shallow beneath the surface. Not unreasonable, actually—parts of South Africa are very rich in diamonds. South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana—these are some of the most luscious areas for diamonds in the world.
But people were digging up areas of ground and uprooting vegetation, causing enormous environmental damage, to get their hands on what turned out to be crystals. Of course, plenty of fakes doing the rounds.
Two things contribute to how dangerous a fake is. The first thing is that the more valuable the real thing, the more dangerous the fake. Because the more valuable the real thing, the more likely you are to invest significant time and effort—maybe spend genuine finance, maybe expose yourself to other risks or other lost opportunities—to obtain this thing of great value, and therefore the bigger the let-down if, having had that outlay, you discover that you actually have nothing to show for your efforts and your expense.
And then the other thing that contributes to how dangerous a fake is, is how convincing the fake is. The more easily you can confuse the fake with the original, the more likely you are to be taken in, and so the more dangerous.
So you could draw a kind of little graph, couldn't you? You could have along the horizontal line, How valuable is the real thing? and on the vertical, How likely are you to be fooled? And you could plot different fakes on that graph.
That NHS COVID certificate scam—that's probably pretty much in the bottom corner, to be honest. It's not terribly plausible—maybe a little bit—and the chances are the amount you lose would be quite small.
Well, we're going to be thinking today about the fact that there are fakes out there of Christianity—fake versions of Jesus. And fake Jesus goes right up in the top right-hand corner—the most dangerous fake of all—because the real thing could not be more valuable.
Last week we talked about the fact that Jesus purchased the Church with his blood, and I quoted from the document that came out of the Synod of Dort, which says that the blood of Jesus is of infinite worth. That's what was paid to secure us.
Jesus is the eternal Son of God. To know him is eternal life. It's knowing the God who made you. He is the difference between an eternity enjoying God's new perfect world and an eternity suffering the judgement of God in hell. The real thing could not be more valuable.
And yet, as I'm about to show you, the fakes are extremely convincing. And that makes fake versions of Jesus really, really dangerous—right up in that top right-hand corner of that graph.
Let me just recap for you where we are in the Bible. We're in Acts chapter 20, which tells the story of Paul's second visit to the city of Ephesus. And Acts 20 records his goodbye speech. He knows he's not going to see them again, and so he delivers this speech to say farewell to the leaders of the Church and to send them off in the right direction, as they sail under their own steam without his day-to-day involvement.
And Luke, when he put the book of Acts together, recorded this speech so that we might know what Paul said every time it was time for him to say goodbye to a church and to leave that church to go in the right direction. He recorded this because we need to know what Paul says here. This is what every church needs to know.
And last time, Paul told the church leaders in Ephesus to keep watch over themselves and over the flock. And I said last time that they are to guard and protect the Church from two specific dangers.
And today, we come to danger number one. Danger number two will come next week.
Danger number 1: Fake Jesus and False Teachers
And danger number one that they need to guard and protect the Church from is fake Christianity—a fake Jesus—from false teachers.
Now, you might at this point be beginning to think, Is this really necessary? Do we really have to have this conversation? It's all starting to feel slightly negative.
Paul thought this conversation mattered
Well, apart from the fact that we've already said just how dangerous this is, Paul thought it was necessary to have this conversation. Here's verse 31. He says:
"Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears."
Let's just slow down a moment in that verse and pull it apart a little.
So, for three years, Paul was in Ephesus. For three years. So he didn't just mention this now on the beach as an afterthought when he comes to say, Oh, better just tell you... No—this was something he taught over a three-year period.
Next little detail—warning you night and day. Remember in Ephesus, Paul taught both in public lectures and one-to-one in people's homes. And Paul, as he taught every day—both in public and in smaller settings—part of his message would always be: And watch out for the fake copies of what I'm telling you. Every time: Watch out for the fakes. Watch out for the fakes. Watch out for the fakes. Every time.
But then it says he warned each of you. That's a nice pithy English phrase, isn't it—each of you? If you have a look at the Greek for that—which I wouldn't recommend—it's really clumsy. The language is kind of falling over itself rather awkwardly. It's kind of—the best translation—kind of each and every one of you, but it's kind of—there are more words than it needs. It really was every single person, every single group, Paul would say it.
And warning them with tears. These not the fake crocodile tears of a politician who feels they ought to look emotional. This was real tears. This was—Paul cared deeply about this. He felt deeply. Which means this warning was not something that was just an afterthought that Paul reluctantly mentioned. This was part of his daily teaching, delivered with deep feelings.
So actually, if you think, Oh, come on, do we have to have a talk on false teachers? That's a bit negative—let me just suggest that a talk... you got off lightly. If Paul was in Ephesus three years, night and day, I make that at least two thousand times he gave a talk on this topic. So once—we can cope with, can't we?
And I mentioned a few weeks ago how my style of preaching, that I'm deeply convinced is healthy for a church, is what we call expository preaching, where what we're doing is we're just taking a bit of the Bible each week and trying to open it up and, as transparently as possible, let it speak for itself—so that what it says is what I say.
Which means that, over the years I've been here, I have mentioned false teaching. I've mentioned it whenever it comes up in the Bible passage we're looking at—not more than that, but not less than that.
And it's there today. So we're going to have to look at it today.
And from what Paul says here, from his warning, I've got four characteristics for you of false teachers. We're going to look at their nature, at their identity, at their method, and at their aim.
1. Their nature: Savage wolves
So, number one: Their nature. They are savage wolves. Verse 29:
"I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock."
The previous verse—the end of last week's reading—told them to keep watch over—sorry, yeah, no, verse 28:
"Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the Church of God."
So the job of these church leaders is to be shepherds of God's flock—his sheep, his people. Being a shepherd is the picture. And every shepherd's worst nightmare in the Middle East in the first century would be for a pack of wolves to come in in the night, to scatter and terrify the sheep, to pick off the weak and the young, to kill and to devour.
Now, you might think that's a bit strong language for false teaching—savage wolves. Remember, as Paul said this, he didn't have a twinkle in his eye. He had tears in his eyes. So he didn't use this language lightly.
But guess where he got the language from. He got it from Jesus. Here's Matthew chapter 7, verse 15. Jesus says:
"Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves."
This is Jesus's language. So if you've got a problem with the language, take it up with him.
But Jesus, the way Jesus tells it, adds a couple of extra little details to this — a couple of extra thoughts.
The first thing we notice is that "savage wolves" is not how they look. So they don't look like wolves — they look like sheep. Now, at this point, you need to try really, really hard to forget Little Red Riding Hood, okay? Because the way Little Red Riding Hood works is, it's called irony. The audience can all see that what you have is a wolf dressed in a grandmother's outfit, and the only person who can't see that is the little girl in the red costume. And that's part of the joke and part of what makes the story fun.
Okay, these are not wolves wearing comedy sheep's outfits. These are — genuinely do look and bleat like sheep. The point is that "savage wolves" is what they are, not necessarily at all the way that they appear. They don't come with a label saying — or a t-shirt saying — "false teacher, stay away, danger!" Okay? Not at all. If they come with a label at all, it says things like "Reverend", "Vicar", "Pastor", "Bishop". Okay? They appear to be people who are charming, caring, wise, and informed — people that you feel you can trust.
"Savage wolves" is what they are — not the way they look.
But secondly, from the way Jesus tells it, it's not — also not — how they feel. So I highly doubt they get out of bed in the morning and they say to themselves, "I know, today I'm going to be a false teacher. I'm going to go and tell them a load of stuff about Jesus that I know isn't true because it'd be really fun to hurt them." That's not what they're doing. They genuinely think they are good and caring shepherds.
But the reality is — "after I come, savage — after I leave, savage wolves will come among you and will not spare the flock." That's their nature — savage.
2. Their identity: Some of you
Second, their identity. Their identity is "some of you". Here's verse 30: "Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth."
We need to feel the shock of this, okay? Paul is talking to the elders of the church in Ephesus — people he appointed. Last week, we even added the thought that the Holy Spirit made them overseers. Some of these hand-picked leaders by Paul will turn and become false teachers — or, more likely, will drift slowly and imperceptibly into being false teachers.
Which means that the danger for us is not just out there. Yes, the danger is out there — there are people out there who teach a fake Jesus. Sure there are. But if we think the danger is just out there, we are missing the shock here, and we're missing the sharpness of Paul's warning. False teachers — wolves — may well include people you know and trust. "Some of your own" could include people I have appointed to positions of leadership and responsibility, signalling that I trust them to be faithful. Could include people that the bishop has given a piece of paper to, saying that they are to be trusted. People who don't start out as wolves and mean any harm, but who drift and become teachers of a fake Jesus.
So that's their nature — savage wolves.
Their identity — some of you.
3. Their method: Distort the truth
Third, their method — is to distort the truth.
Verse 30: "Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth." So we've been talking about how convincing the fake is, okay? They look like real sheep. They include people you know and trust.
Now we can add — they use language you recognise. So they don't come and teach something so totally different that it's obviously wrong. They're not going to turn up here one Sunday and start telling you to worship Allah and Vishnu — the gods of Islam and Hinduism. They distort. So they will talk about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit — although for some reason, they're reticent to talk about God the Father. They will talk about the love of God, of God the Son rising from the dead, of the power of the Holy Spirit. They will quote the Bible. This will sound and smell and feel like real Christianity — but with subtle distortions that mean it is significantly different.
Imagine you pop into a second-hand bookshop and you pick up a little book. On the cover it tells you that it's a novella by the author Charles Dickens, and it has the title A Christmas Carol. You think, "Oh, this sounds fun." So you start reading. And you discover it's set in Victorian England, at a time when there was great poverty. You read of some of the characters. You meet people like Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchit. And you're enjoying this engrossing novel.
You then meet somebody called Ebenezer Scrooge. Ebenezer Scrooge is the hero of the piece. Right from the first page of the book, he's known for his philanthropy. He's virtually eliminated poverty in London by giving away his significant wealth to those most in need, to ensure that all — rich or poor — can have a good time.
Now, by this point you're beginning to suspect that the book you've picked up might not actually be Dickens’s novel A Christmas Carol. There's something that doesn't quite ring true about it. You see, what you've got is a novel that shares the title of Dickens’s novel — it's called A Christmas Carol. It has the same cast. It has characters with the same names. But all it has in common is the title. And all the characters have in common is their names. They're actually completely different people — and it's a completely different story.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul says this: "If someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached..." So it would appear in Corinth, false teachers are in town. They're preaching about someone called Jesus — but he's not the same Jesus as the one that Paul preached. He's not the same Jesus as the one we worship. He's not the same Jesus as the one we read about in the pages of the Bible. He's not the same Jesus as the one who walked through Judea and Galilee.
In short — he's not the same Jesus as the real Jesus. He's a fake Jesus. But he's still called Jesus.
Distort the truth. Similar enough to be mistakable for the real thing — but different enough to be dangerous. Different enough to be another religion with the same name.
That's their method — they distort the truth.
4. Their aim: People to follow them
And fourth, their aim. Their aim is for people to follow them. "Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them."
Last week we talked about how the church is the church of God. It's his church. And it's really dangerous when human leaders treat the church like it's theirs. A lot of the problems in this world can be traced back to the lust for power, for influence, for control. It drives so, so many negative things — people wanting to be in a position where they are influential in some way.
And it's what drives these teachers. They want people to think that they are marvellous. They want a little circle of acolytes around them who hang on their every word, who are greatly loyal to them. Their aim is for people to follow them.
Conclusion
Paul's farewell message includes a reminder that false teachers will quickly appear after he's gone. They are savage wolves who look like sheep. They include some from our own ranks. They will subtly distort the truth to gain a following and influence for themselves.
Paul had prepared them for this. He prepared them by teaching the whole will of God, by not being selective, and by warning them night and day with tears.
And now, as he prepares to leave, he reminds them — and so I must remind you. People will distort. People will give you a Christianity without the truth that God made us male and female and gave us the gift of marriage, whereby one man and one woman enter into a partnership exclusively intended to be for life.
This last week, we've watched our whole denomination publicly and officially deny that.
People will give you a Christianity without the truth that Jesus took the penalty for sin when he died on the cross. I heard this story from somebody who had spoken directly to the hymn author concerned about it — so this is not some kind of tenth-hand story.
About five years ago, some people organising a large Christian conference wrote a letter to the hymn composer and author Stuart Townend. They said to Stuart: "We would like to have your hymn In Christ Alone at our conference. But we are uncomfortable with the line that says, 'For on the cross as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied.' Please could we have your permission to change that line so it reads, 'The love of God was satisfied'?"
Stuart wrote back: "The wrath of God is an essential part of the Christian gospel. You may not change the hymn."
People will give you a Christianity without the message that God calls us to repent of our sin. Somehow Jesus's call for deep, whole-life change disappears.
People will give you a Christianity without the sober truth that there is a judgement and a hell to follow this life.
People will give you a Christianity without the clarity that Jesus rose really, truly, and bodily from the dead.
And so I could go on. Those are simply some of the common fakes that are doing the rounds today.
Like Paul, I would urge you: be on your guard. Be on your guard. The real Jesus is simply too wonderful to risk you trading him in for a fake imitation. And the real Jesus is simply too wonderful to risk others in Kensington Woodlands having their view of the real Jesus eclipsed by a fake.