"Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away." ( Luke 8:18 )
This verse is in the context of Jesus teaching the great crowds that gathered around him, people from town after town came to him. ( Luke 8:4 ) His twelve were with him, and also some women, including Mary called Magdalene from whom seven demons had gone out of the Scriptures tell us. ( Luke 8:2-3 )
Jesus is performing signs and wonders, healing and delivering as he preaches words that captivate the crowds, nothing the likes of have ever been seen or heard before. These things really happened. Jesus is fulfilling the Old Testament prophecies and quoting them as he goes along the ancient, dusty roads. John is clear in his gospel that these miracles were done to authenticate Jesus's ministry and to prove that he was in fact the Son of God - the Christ. The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. ( John 7:46, 20:31 )
"believe on account of the works themselves." ( John 14:11 )
Jesus said this again as he taught the disciples and confronted their doubts. "Greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father." ( John 14:12 ) He explained this truth to them as we see in the following chapters, how he would send the Holy Spirit to teach them and guide them and be with them ( and us!) forever. This would empower his Church to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth where Jesus taught only within Judea. His body would be his hands and feet and his voice in the Great Commission, impacting and reaching the world he created. Jesus said that apart from him we can do nothing, but praise God he has equipped his Church. ( John 15, 16, 17 )
Many say that this means we can do the miracles Jesus did. But no one is doing or has ever done the miracles Jesus performed, not even his apostles and prophets who were gifted to kick start his Church and lay the foundation. No one is walking on water or turning it into wine. No one is multiplying bread and fish, opening blind eyes and deaf ears and cleansing lepers as he did or calling linen wrapped corpses out of the grave. And last, but certainly not least, no one has ever raised themselves from the dead. Only Jesus.
All of these miracles are multi-layered as they point to the people Christ came to save, feeding them the Bread from Heaven, washing away their sins, bringing them from death to life, giving them sight and hearing to understand the kingdom of God, his perfect will, and the Good News as we see on display all throughout the four gospel accounts in the New Testament.
And Jesus warned us to "take care then how you hear." We must be careful how we hear God's Word. We must hear the whole counsel taught in context under sound pastors and teachers. Ephesians tells us that pastors and teachers are Christ's gift to the Church, along with the apostles, prophets, and evangelists, to help equip her and build her up.
But Jesus warns that there will also be many false teachers and prophets who in the last days will tickle ears and lead people astray. Many will lead many astray. And many will say to him on the last day, "Lord, Lord," and he will say that he never knew them. ( Ephesians 4:1-16, Matthew 7:15-23 )
So be careful how we hear. Let's be like the noble Bereans and examine all that we hear against the Scriptures. They fact checked the Apostle Paul, and he commended them for it! ( Acts 17:10-11 )
"Even what he thinks that he has will be taken away." (Luke 8:18 )
"what he thinks he has"
"There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." Proverbs 14:12
My ESV commentary says concerning this verse: "The one who has a knowledge of God's Word will understand it better (more will be given ), whereas the one who does not listen carefully ( has not ) will lose even what he has heard."
This is why I speak here and on my Instagram account so candidly about the false teachings of our day. First, I was caught in the same snare for many years, so I know what it is like to be deceived. When you are in these false movements, they seem "right" - they have a Christian veneer. But you can't see it. If the devil came dressed as Dracula, we would run for our lives, but he's slicker than that. He comes as an angel of light. ( 2 Corinthians 4:4, 11:12-14 )
"Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness." False teachers are Satan's servants, wolves in sheep's clothing, because Jesus is clear that we either serve God or Satan; it's one or the other. It can't be both. With God, it's all or nothing. ( Matthew 6:24 )
The Word of Faith movement has taken the world by storm since the 1960s because it is clothed in sheep's wool and appeals to our sinful nature, promising health, wealth, success in every area of life, speaking into existence your heart's desires with the same creative force as God because they teach we are ourselves little gods.
Word of Faith overlaps with the New Apostolic Reformation, health-wealth and self-esteem gospel, and even the progressive movement, all of which pollute the pure milk of God's Word by only focusing on certain verses which are plucked out of their context and twisted, separated from their original meaning.
We must take care how we hear.
Or what we think is true of God's Word, but is actually false teaching, because even that will be taken from us.
At the end of the age, it won't be atheists who are floored that Jesus denies them, no, it is people who are in the church, going to church each Sunday, performing what they think are mighty works, using the Bible to fit their own theology instead of reading the entirety of it with care and integrity, allowing the hard parts to stick and wrestling with the passages in context, dividing it rightly, handling it with fear and trembling.
Word of Faith followers do not remember that God says, possibly in a sarcastic tone, "You thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you." ( Psalm 50:21 )
The ESV footnote says that "I" in this verse is translated "I AM." I think of Kenneth Copeland saying that he is "I AM" just like God and teaching such blasphemy to others. Paul says in Romans 3:8 that their condemnation is just. God is in a category of One, dare we ever forget this truth and fall like a lightening bolt as did Satan from heaven when he forgot.
Understanding and unpacking the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, that we are the sinners and He is the hero of His own story, the One and only, the true Messiah, rescuing us from death and bringing us to life through his sacrifice for us, forgiving our sins, clothing us in His righteousness, is the only way to eternal life, brought about by the greatest miracle in our lives of the Holy Spirit regenerating our sinful hearts.
At the farm one of my sweetest things to watch is when a goose hatches a gosling. It happened just this past week. No matter which goose hatches the baby, all of the geese, male and female, surround the baby constantly feeding it and protecting it as a flock during the day, and at night the mother covers it with her soft body to keep it warm in the chilly, spring air. In the morning when the gosling comes out from under the mother and into the new day, the geese encircle the baby once again providing for the young one until nightfall.
This is a beautiful picture of how we are called as seasoned saints to act toward new, vulnerable, Christians, encouraging them and surrounding them, protecting them from the wolves in sheep's clothing and making sure they are fed sound biblical truth.
I've tried to walk away from writing and warning people, but my conscience will not allow it because I know the pitfalls that so many new believers can fall into, including myself at one time, and what easy prey we can be as we begin our new life in Christ and because "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, 'Lord Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many might works in your name? And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'"
Jesus doesn't acknowledge that these false converts were performing authentic works.
I recently realized this as I studied Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. I realized also that humble pastors and teachers who are teaching sound biblical doctrine to all generations in the church are growing in grace and knowledge and reaching their congregations and the world with many mighty works, sometimes miracles, but mostly through God's providence and the mundane and ordinary means of grace. I love this.
Ministries that falsely teach we should always be looking for miracles have missed the glory and joy of knowing Christ. They've exchanged the truth for a lie. They've traded the life-giving, transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ for personal encounters, entertainment, and signs and wonders, caught in the trap of a self-centered gospel that can never deliver.
No one thinks that they are in that lawless group. I didn't.
Please.
"Take care then how you hear,"
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