Be Not Deceived

In a world filled with noise and deception, Jesus calls us to watch, stand firm, and endure. This message challenges us to know the Word, walk by the Spirit, and trust God no matter what comes.

Transcript

Jesus, we thank you for this time, this message, for this day. Would you speak to us? We come for you. We sang about it. Come, Jesus, come have your way.

We pray. Amen and you may be seated. This is the first message in several months. This has not been a parable. We are still journeying with Jesus to Jerusalem.

But today it's not a parable. Today he seems to have shifted and this is a little bit more serious. I want to remind you, as he starts talking, they're looking at the temple. They call it the Olivet discourse. There they're sitting in the Mount of Olives and the disciples are looking at the temple and thinking about its beauty.

And he says these words that there's coming a day where not one stone will be left upon another. I like to remind myself of the history you go all the way back to the Old Testament. God told Moses to build a sanctuary, a portable tabernacle where they could meet with him. It was important. Then later Solomon remember, he built a permanent dwelling.

It was destroyed by the Babylonians in 5 BC. Sixty years later, Emperor Cyrus he allowed those Jews to return to go rebuild what we call the second Temple. Zerubbabel led the Jews and rebuilt the walls and began laying that foundation. So we sometimes call it Zerubbabel's Temple. It was rededicated in 515, but by Herod's time, the temple was nearly 500 years old.

He decided to expound became known as a Temple Mount Temple complex. Can I tell you it took at least 18,000 workers. It covered 40 acres, the Temple Mount. It was one of the most magnificent buildings and of its day. You can look up pictures.

Can I tell you, pictures could not do it justice. It was beautiful. The historian Josephus documented. He said the temple was covered with gold plates and when the sun hit the gold, it was blinding to look at. In the places it didn't have gold, there were blocks of pure white marble.

So from the distance it looked like snow had fallen on the Temple Mount. It was beautiful. It was stunning. And it became an idol to many Jews of that day. You can imagine you're going to worship at a place that beautiful.

It would take your attention maybe from the one that it should have had your attention. They're talking about the beauty of the temple. And he says the days are coming where not one step stone will be left on another. The disciples say, when Jesus, when will this happen? Which I think is a great question.

Had I been there, I might would have asked Jesus, when will this happen? But these disciples Are extra. Anybody else in here extra? They don't only say when. Jesus.

Did you notice that? They said when? Plus what's going to be the sign that it's about to happen? It would be as if my son said, mom, what time is dinner? And what is a sign that dinner is coming soon?

You see what I mean? It's extra. They go a little bit farther. To which maybe I would have been annoyed if he had asked all that before I even have a chance to respond. But I do understand the disciples hearing of this and feeling an urgency to prepare.

Almost as if you hear the news and you begin to panic. Almost as if you hear something negative and you go into fight or flight. It could be that they really just want to be prepared. It could be that they have a lot of angst and they would like a little bit more control. Can you hear sometimes when you're praying and you ask when Jesus and what is the sign that it is coming soon?

You can hear it in our prayers. As we go further with Jesus response, it's important for us to understand that, yes, Jesus was talking about the destruction of Jerusalem and the ultimate end. He was talking about both. The destruction of Jerusalem was soon to come. That was A.D. 70.

So approximately 35 years from the time Jesus said this to the time that destruction would actually occur. And we're still waiting on the end. The tribulation, the glorious return of Jesus, the discussion of both simultaneously. You see, in biblical prophecy, it's often referred to as the principle of double reference. He's talking about both at the same time.

And just for those of you that who love history and love to know about biblical prophecy, the prophecy did come true with Jerusalem in AD 70 when it was destroyed. Josephus, he talked about that they were fighting and they believe a Roman soldier took a torch and threw it to the temple. The temple caught on fire and the people kept fighting and the fire spread. You can imagine all of that gold begins to melt the temple when it's destroyed. They sent the people in to take anything they could out and try to get what gold remained.

And not one stone was left. Upon another, the very words of Jesus did come true. Now I want us to focus for just a few minutes on how Jesus responds to their question. You see, we can learn much from what Jesus chooses to teach us and what he chooses not to say. It's a reminder to us that you may be praying about something and you can hear clearly one thing and maybe you're not hearing exactly something else.

Everything Jesus does is for A purpose. His response to their question is of greater importance than than what their actual question was. Jesus response is where I feel he wants us to concentrate today. Jesus responds to them and he says, beware that you are not led astray. The NIV says, watch out that you are not deceived.

When we first hear the question, when Jesus we wonder, Jesus, did you hear the question? When he responds with beware. But his response was of greater importance. You see, when the disciples were asking the question, their almost automatic response is that fight or flight. And Jesus knows us and he knows how quickly when we hear or see news, it affects us and it grabs our attention.

And Jesus says, watch out, church beware. This warning is for harvest point today. This warning is for the church today. It is just as true for us as it was for his disciples. Then.

When I was preparing the message for today, I felt in my spirit, this is a warning for the people of God. This is a warning for the people of. Of God. Jesus says, don't be led astray. Many will come.

Many will say, I am he, follow me. Do not be deceived. Webster's definition of deceive is to cause, to accept as true or valid what is false or invalid. Think about this. Jesus is speaking to disciples.

He is speaking to followers of Jesus. He is speaking to those who love him. Do you mean that as Jesus followers, we could be led astray and deceived? Absolutely. Absolutely.

And this is where Jesus heart is for us today. He says, beware. This is for the people of God. Remember at the very beginning in Genesis, Adam and Eve are walking in communion with God, in fellowship with God. And Satan brings temptation and deception into Paradise.

In Genesis 3, it records the serpent asking Eve, did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden he plants this little seed of you know, what is God holding out on you? And Eve later confesses to God and she says, the serpent deceived me and I ate. Deception is the oldest trick that Satan uses. Jesus says of Satan in John 8:44, when he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Satan is the deceiver of the whole world.

That's what the book of Revelation says. Deceiving is what he does best. And can I tell you that he is very skilled at twisting the truth. He is a master manipulator. And I can tell you this is not just a oh, that's Satan.

He tries to deceive us. This is not a big deal. Can I tell you he wants to destroy you and your family.

Satan wants to destroy your reputation. He wants to destroy your ministry. Satan wants to ruin you. He wants your marriage. He wants your children, he wants your grandchildren.

His primary goal in deception is to lead us away from truth that leads us astray and calls us to fall into sin and darkness. And this is what happens when you're led away from the light. He wants us to accept lies as truth and to believe truth is a lie. Paul speaks of the church at Corinth, and it sounds very much like the warning of Jesus. 2nd Corinthians 11 says, But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the spirit you received, or a different Gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough. Help us, Jesus. Could that be said of the church today? Verse 13. For such people are false prophets.

Prophets, deceitful workers masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, their end will be what their actions deserve. Satan masquerades as an angel of light. Don't be deceived.

Deceived. Brothers and sister, Jesus says, many will come in my name and say, I am He. The time is near. Do not go after them. Before we proceed, let's be clear.

We are living in a time with much deception. And there are many false teachers. Can I tell you that technology expedites deceit. It spreads quickly. Over and over in history, people have said, this is when the Lord is going to return.

This is when the Rapture is going to happen. Just September this happened. A South African pastor posted, the Rapture would occur on 923 or 9 24. In 1840s, there was a felon by the name of William Miller. He prophesied that the end would occur in 1843.

He was from the U.S. hundreds of thousands in the U.S. were convinced that Jesus would return in 1843. And when the year passed, it was known as the Great Disappointment. Many, they believed one thing and when it turns out it wasn't true, they were disappointed and they turned away.

The Seventh Day Adventists come from Miller's legacy, actually. And do you remember Y2K? Y' all remember that? Marshall? I don't Know if he.

If he was there. But we gathered at a person's house and were singing karaoke that night when we come into the New Year. And we didn't know what was going to happen. And many thought, this is when the Rapture is going to happen. Can you receive this warning from Jesus?

Don't be deceived.

Beware. So what can you do so that you're not deceived by false teachers? Quickly. There are three things. One is know the Word of God.

We must be students of the Word. We have to study the Word. This is the truth of God. It is his love letter to us. It is where we learn about his very nature.

John 14:6. I am the Way, the Truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. We learn who is Truth by studying the Word of God. We learn who we are by learning who he is.

It is a reflection church. We can't be lazy. You have the very Word of God at your fingertips. When we stand before God, what will we say if he asks, why didn't you read my words? As my instruction, we need to be learning the Scripture.

There was a Chinese boy who wanted to learn about jade. He wanted to learn about it. So he went to a talented old teacher. The teacher put a piece of jade stone in his hand and said, hold on tight to this. And then he began to talk about philosophy.

Men, women, the sun, everything under the sun. He talked for about an hour. He took the jade back and dismissed the young boy. Week after week, the same thing happened. Finally, the little boy was like, when do I get to learn about jade?

He was too polite to ask the question of the teacher. But one day the old man put a stone into his hand and the boy cried out instinctively, that's not jade. We know truth by spending time with Truth. We learn about him through his word. 2nd Timothy do your best to present yourself to God as one approved.

A worker who has no need to be ashamed. Rightly handling the word of truth. Know the Word of God. Number two. Be filled with the Spirit.

Filled with him. God Himself. The Spirit is our advocate, our Teacher and our guide. The pathway to being filled is salvation. Daily dying to self, choosing daily to walk in obedience to the Spirit's leading, heeding his instructions.

If I am being led by the Spirit of God, then I will not be led astray. If my eyes are on the Master, I'm not falling for the false teachers. I know the real stone.

Number three. Community matters. You want to know the Word of God? You want to be Filled with the spirit and community matters. You need at least one godly individual who has permission to speak into your life.

You need one person that you were honest with and that you share with and they can speak into you. Accountability partner, your small group leader, your pastor, your spouse, your best friend, someone actively involved in your life. You can, I tell you, Satan, the master manipulator is good at deceiving. And you can choose to disobey the spirit of God as a guardrail. Have someone in your life that can speak into you and sees when your eyes are turning away and can speak into that.

So Jesus warns, beware, do not be deceived. Then he gives two specific instructions. If you're a note taker, beware that you're not deceived. Then two instructions. Do not follow them, the false teachers, and do not be afraid.

Do not follow them and do not be afraid. Now, in order to not follow the false teachers, you have to be able to distinguish what is false and what is true. And we just spoke about how to do that. And then he says, don't be afraid. Verse 9 of our passage in Luke.

He says, you going to hear of wars and uprising. And Jesus knows that when we hear this, our flesh is going to want to thank the worst. He says, let me put your mind at ease. This is what's going to happen. And don't be afraid.

For the end is still to come. It's not going to happen right away, so don't think the sign is the end is imminent. Keep looking at me. Trust me. There is going to be a lot of noise in 2025 and 2026.

There is going to be a lot of noise. Keep your eyes on me. Don't be afraid. When you hear of the wars, when you hear the rumor, don't be afraid. The still small voice is what we need.

We are living in a time with a lot of noise. And I hear Jesus saying, you know what? There's a lot you don't know. And there's a lot you're not going to know. But fear not the one who holds the earth in his hands, the Alpha and the Omega.

The one who does know knows you and will take care of you. Jesus starts with a warning, don't be deceived. He gives two instructions, do not follow the false teachers. Do not be afraid. And then he ends with what you can do now?

He says, determine to trust me. Make up your mind.

Verse 12. Persecution is going to come and don't you love. Jesus says, this is an opportunity. This is an opportunity. The persecution is going to lead to an opportunity to testify of who I am.

Make up your mind Now. This is what you get to do now. Now determine you will trust me as your savior no matter what. Determine it.

You don't have to prepare a speech or a testimony. I will provide the words and I will give the wisdom. Don't you love that? You don't have to prepare your words and I'm going to give you wisdom.

I call that the double W. Words and wisdom. When I was at Wesley College, I had to take a speech class. Nobody wants to take speech class. I had to have the speech class for my major. My future husband was in the class with me.

We weren't dating at the time. He was a few rows back, but I knew exactly where he was sitting. Anyways, I was in speech class, and Ms. Germany, she taught us. She said, before you prepare your speech, I want you to be prepared. I want you to stand in front of a mirror and watch yourself give your speech.

And she said, I want you to record and put a timer so you know exactly how long your speech is. So I would prepare and I would have my timer because I wanted to do this right. Can I tell you, there was a gentleman in the class, a good friend of mine, who never prepared for his speech. Now, he was already preaching at the time. Gifted individual.

He is still preaching. He was so gifted. And he could walk up and just start eloquently speaking. And it was so charming. And then he'd go, sit down.

No words, no preparation. And I was so annoyed by him. Was so annoyed by him. And I would watch him and I would be like, albert, how do you do this? And he just laugh and smile.

Never prepared. Well, one class, you had to have a prop. Most people had posters. There were individuals that were preparing cakes and had cake mix and eggs. And they're talking and doing all the.

Here comes Albert. And I'm like, he has no poster. This is when she's going to get him. So he starts giving his speech, and he realizes I have no problem. I can almost see it in his face while he is teaching.

And he reaches in his pocket, pocket, and he pulls out his keys and he said, the key is. And he shook his little keys, and I went.

And I looked at Miss Germany, and Miss Germany had the biggest smile on her face. And she shook her head no. And in that moment. And can I tell you that as easy as it was, Albert did not get the Public Speaking Award.

So as I'm preparing, as I was Preparing this message. I said, Jesus, this is so opposite of what Ms. Germany said. Ms. Germany says to be prepared. Ms. Germany, before you give your speech, you need to practice. And this is like the opposite.

And you know what the Holy Spirit said? He said, no, no, it's not lack of preparation. It is the opposite. This is so knowing me, so trusting me that I can speak to you in the moment. And you know my voice.

It is not lack of preparation. It is a trusting and walking with me. You have been preparing for years. When you pray and you listen to my voice, you are preparing. I reached out to Albert this past week and said, by the way, thinking of you and here's what is.

And he voice texts me back. And just eloquently, just. He still has the gift. He said, no, no, no, I agree with you. It's not the absence of preparation.

It's the abundance of preparation and maturation. Oh, he's still got it. He still got it. That moment of, you know how grandma could make dressing? My sweet grandma went to meet Jesus and year after year I would help her with the dressing.

And I said, grandma, there's going to come a time when I'm going to need to know how to dressing the recipe. And she could not write it down. She couldn't write it down because she just knew it. You have a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit. We need to know Jesus so well that he can spontaneously speak into our spirit.

There's a familiarity determine in your heart. Take know him now, trust him now. We see it over and over in Scripture. You see Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, they were given boldness. They said, we don't know if he will, but we know he can with boldness.

You see this in the book of Acts. Remember, Peter and John are walking up and there's a lame man. And he says, silver and gold we have not, but what we have, we give. You get up and walk. And the man does he healed.

And the people are amazed. And Peter looks at them and he says, why are you me? Like it was my power. It is by Jesus the one you disowned that he was healed. Fearless Peter.

The same Peter that couldn't stand up to the young girl when she said, don't you know who God is? But now this is a different Peter. And Peter speaks with boldness. The priest, the temple guard, they come, they put them in jail. Persecution comes, they're brought before the high priest.

Exactly what Jesus is saying in Luke is going to happen is happening. And in Acts 4, verse 8, it says, Then Peter filled with the Holy Spirit. Watch out now. Once you get someone filled with the Holy Spirit, this is not the same Peter. This is a spirit filled Peter.

A Peter that is relying on the Spirit of God that is surrendered to the Spirit of God. He says, it is by Jesus whom you crucified. Salvation is found in no one else. Verse 13. When they saw the courage of Peter and John and they realized they were unschooled ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note.

Of what? That these men had been with Jesus. Hallelujah. They could recognize that these men knew Jesus. The Spirit of God is giving opportunity for God's witness.

I tell you what, every one of us, we have the same spirit of God that filled Peter that statement. Then Peter filled with the spirit. What if it said, then Megan filled with the spirit, then Jack filled with the spirit. Spirit, he says, don't be deceived. Many will come.

Don't follow them. Know the truth. Study the word. Walk in the spirit. Stay connected with community.

He says, don't fear. There's going to be a lot of noise. Keep listening to me. Keep your eyes on me. He says, determine to trust me now before the storm rises.

Put your trust in me. Practice hearing and trusting. This very next week when things happen and you think to yourself, well, I can just answer that text, or I could just respond to my wife, or I could just. No, no, no. Take a moment and ask Jesus.

Learn to listen to his voice. The more frequently you hear his voice, the more ready you're going to be to hear him and know Him. And the last thing he gives a promise, he ends with a promise. Death isn't the end. Don't be deceived.

Don't follow the false teachers. Don't fear. Determine to trust Me now. And death is not the end. He says in verse 18, not a hair of your head will perish.

By your endurance, you will gain your souls. He just said you'll be persecuted. He just said some will die. And yet he says, not a hair of your head will perish. Can I tell you this world is not our home?

This world, this isn't it for us. All of eternity is before us, brothers and sisters. This is not the end.

Death is not the end. Death is not the end. When situations arise, keep our eyes on Jesus. All of this is temporal, but your soul is eternal. And he tells us, as his followers, keep going, keep going.

Endure, endure. Abide, remain. The best is yet to come. The best is yet to come. Remember his promise.

Death isn't the end. Endure and you will be saved. In the name of the Almighty Father, the Messiah, his Son, and the Holy Spirit, our Teacher and our advocate. To him be all glory forever and ever. Amen.