Allen Jackson - Lions and Lambs - Part 1
In his farewell to the Ephesian elders, Paul warns of savage wolves who will ravage the flock with false gospels even from within, urging vigilance since the church is bought by Christ's blood; today we face the same distortions, but God is preparing a discerning people amid growing deception.
Introduction to Lions & Lambs
I want to begin a new study with you under the title of “Lions & Lambs.” Two very different positions on the food chain, but they impact our lives in some dramatic ways. It will take us a few sessions, God willing, I think, to walk through it. At the heart of it are the realities, the spiritual forces, that shape our days and our destiny. And I think we have lived in, if not ignorance, indifference to those things for far too long.
Paul’s Warning in Acts 20
But I will start in Acts chapter 20. It is a part of Paul’s message to the leaders in the church at Ephesus. He had spent a great deal of time there and he has a passing visit with them and he is actually saying goodbye to them and he gives them a message, a parting message. But it is really wrapped up in this notion that there are false gospels that ravage the body of Christ.
It was true in the 1st century, and I assure you it is true in the 21st century. I do not say that to frighten you because I do not think it need be frightening. I say that so that we are aware. Every building that has a label that says church does not honor Jesus of Nazareth as Lord and embrace a biblical worldview.
Every group of people that say a prayer or sing a chorus that you may recognize as Christian music do not honor Jesus of Nazareth as Lord and Christ. That landscape has changed dramatically and it has changed more dramatically in the last few years than I have ever seen it in my lifetime.
An Opportunity, Not Fear
I do not think that is frightening. I think it is an opportunity. God is moving in the earth. He is preparing a people for himself. I want to be a part of that. But we are going to have to be better informed. We are going to have to be more aware. We cannot simply choose labels any longer; we will have to pay attention.
So Acts chapter 20 and verse 28, the instructions that were given to a church: “Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.” That is the essence, right? It is through the blood of Jesus that we are included in the kingdom of God.
It is not because we joined the right denomination or we have the right worship style or music style or communion date or color for our communion juice or translation of the Bible. It is through the blood of Jesus. If you imagine something other than the blood of Jesus nominated you to the kingdom of God, you are deceived.
It is a simple reminder, but do not lose sight of it. It will help you in the seasons ahead. “Which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number, men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard!
Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.” Not the happiest of passages, but it is important. A group of people that Paul has helped shepherd into the kingdom of God, a community that he has been very instrumental in seeing form, and he says, “I am not going to see you again, and I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.”
It is not hypothetical; it is a statement of certainty. By this point in his journey, he has a good bit of experience. And he is giving them—it is, I suppose you could call it a prophetic statement, but do not make it mystical. He is telling them what their future is going to be, and he said, “Even from your own number, from those whose names you know, whose tables you have shared, whose children you have interacted with, from that community, men will arise and distort the truth with an objective.
They want to pull away followers for themselves. They will practice deception and distortion. They will bring disruption.” And this is his counsel: “So be on your guard. I have never stopped warning you day and night.” We are going to have to be more astute consumers, folks.
Facing Reality in the Church
“Well, I do not know why everybody in the body of Christ cannot just be nice.” Well, I mean, I suppose I could say because the devil exists. But perhaps it is just simpler to say we have been cautioned in scripture that that is not the truth. Jesus was tortured to death in Jerusalem, the city from which he will rule and reign in the earth.
So why would we imagine that everybody that sits in a Christian church or carries a Bible or uses Christian language will treat you with integrity? It is a myth. “Well, it is so disappointing.” Okay, so you are disappointed. Can we move on now? “Well, I do not like it.” Okay, noted.
I do not like the fact that Oreos make me fat. You know, I wish some credible health organization would come up with some amazing discovery that Oreos, chased by a pint of ice cream, would cause muscle growth. But absent that, I will eat chicken and broccoli.
And sometimes we spend way too much energy lamenting, and we allow it to blunt our momentum. We get discouraged or disappointed or we get our feelings hurt or something and so we sideline ourselves. I am imploring you not to do that. Savage wolves are a part of the journey.
Warnings Across the New Testament
It is in the book! I could take you to many places. It is not some isolated thing. By the time Paul gets to the end of the journey in the New Testament, he is locked in a Roman prison, and the churches he spent his life establishing, they are all hanging by a thread.
But it is the thread of the Holy Spirit. And we are two millennia on the other side and the empire that was putting so much pressure on him is gone and the church is still flourishing. But it should inform our own journey. We are going to face some challenges, some threats, some predatory behavior.
Galatians chapter 1, another church that Paul was very instrumental in fashioning. He said, “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all.
Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ.” Is that not what it sounds like he said was going to happen to the Ephesian believers? “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!”
“Well, Paul is not being polite. He is very unkind.” If someone preaches a gospel other than the one I gave to you, I hope he is condemned forever. “Kumbaya my Lord.” It is not unique there. In 2 Corinthians, another church Paul has been very instrumental in.
“If someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.” There is a group rolled into Corinth and they have labeled themselves super apostles.
You know, Paul, he is just an old ordinary apostle. But they have a new version, upgraded, new and improved, 2.0 apostles, super apostles. It is in the text. I mean, a little bit embellished, but it is in the text. And Paul said, you know, excuse me, I did not come with the super apostle stamp.
And you tolerate the deception easily enough. Take a moment with it because we are living in a time when there are many versions of the gospel that are flourishing amongst us. I do not mean just in our community, but I mean broadly around us. It does not take much discernment. There is a great deal of disorientation.
Modern False Gospels
I hear people say, “Well, you know, I do not read the Old Testament. God is so harsh.” What, do you think he got therapy after Malachi? Did you pay attention to the Gospels and what was required of Jesus in order for you and me to make our way into the kingdom? It makes the Old Testament look rather light.
Have you read the book of Revelation? That is our Lord and King coming back in there as a triumphant king leading the armies of the angels. There is a lot of versions of the gospel around these days, kind of a social gospel that we want to be social reformers, social justice. We do not like to talk about sin, so off-putting.
You know, we just, we are going to love everybody. We do not want to be judgy. Well, that is odd because our Lord is the judge of all the earth and he tells us we will all give an account to him, that we will stand before him as judge. You are not a very good friend if you do not help those that you care about and interact with to be prepared to stand before the judge. Like, you are no friend at all.
That gospel is very prevalent. There is the gospel of comfort and convenience. Ah, this one is fashionable too. You know, we need our faith to make our lives easier, the labels in our clothing better, to upgrade our vehicle, get our kids in a better school. I am not opposed to any of those things.
But I do not believe that was the purpose of the redemptive work of Jesus. And I am quite certain you cannot evaluate spirituality based on balance sheets. I am quite certain there are some very godly people in Ukraine today separated from their homes and what their families may have spent generations protecting. And it is not unique to Ukraine. It is all over the world.
There is another gospel that has taken root. It has flourished in American academia. It has been there for decades. When I was in theology school, it was very prominent, very prevalent. It was so bizarre, I thought it will never influence culture, and now it has become one of the defining voices of just secular culture.
It really started with a liberation theology, or a Marxist gospel. Not just socialist; Marxist. They replaced Jesus with equity and all sorts of good-meaning things, but they deny that every human life needs transformed. Folks, we are not inherently good.
We do not have to have classes in school to teach our kids how to lie, cheat, and steal. They can arrive at that. Come on, I did not just call your little Johnny. I will get to it, but I did not do it yet. We have to be transformed and that takes the power of a living Christ.
And the only group prepared to deliver that message to humanity is the church. And it requires us to have a clarity and an understanding to invest the energy and the time and the awareness to understand what not only the scripture has said, but what is happening in the culture around us.
Cultural Examples of Deception
And I am not talking about this congregation, but under what we think of as the institutional church. We can see it in many ways. We just watched a video. There is a war in Ukraine which was preventable. It was not a necessity. It has cost more than a million lives and untold suffering.
Civilians and civilian population centers have consistently been the targets of attack. Our current administration is working, searching for a conclusion. But if you are not paying much attention, the legacy media and political opponents are feverishly seeking to discredit any attempt to bring a resolution to the conflict.
The church has a role to play. We are advocates for the Prince of Peace. We do not stop there. For many years in this nation we have endured an open border policy with millions of people flooding into our country illegally, while those in authority have repeatedly told us without shame or embarrassment or flinching that our border is secure.
Do not believe your lying eyes. And now there are attempts being made to remove people who are here illegally who are criminals. Not just because of their border crossing; because they have broken our laws. And that effort is being widely resisted, placing our communities and our law enforcement personnel in tremendous danger. And we stay quiet. It is just easier not to notice.
Different gospels are almost everywhere. The NFL, a very powerful institution in our nation, most powerful of the professional sports franchises. One of their teams, the Minnesota Vikings, have selected this year male cheerleaders to perform the same dance moves as the women.
Not just men to lead cheers, but to do the same things the women are doing. And if we missed that, if we were looking past it, they are posting promotional videos of that group in a women’s restroom with both the female and male cheerleaders.
That would be the National Football League using their multi-billion dollar platform to try to dictate social behavior. I do not know if you are paying attention or not, but Washington, DC, has gone 7 days without a murder. That is a celebratory event.
But rather than celebrate the restoration of order, many voices complain that the president is trying to take over. I visit DC from time to time, a city that has lived with too much chaos and violence. Acknowledges that they have reclassified crimes to make them seem less violent.
They have underreported violent crimes to pretend the city was safe. And rather than say thank you, they prefer political rhetoric and personal attacks.
The False Gospel in Culture
I think this is relevant to us and it is on point with this notion of the gospel and lions and lambs because under the guise of Christianity, a false gospel has flourished. You see, Jesus or a biblical worldview have been frequently unwelcome or pointedly removed.
And I trust that you understand the gospel, a message of good news, absent of Jesus of Nazareth, and a biblical worldview is, by definition, a false gospel. Messages of compassion and inclusivity have emerged as essential messages from pulpits, from Christian schools, from universities, from theological centers as well as corporate boardrooms, from our civic organizations, from our own government, from professional sports leagues; it has been a cultural tsunami.
I would remind you that advocacy and institutional support for DEI, diversity equity inclusion, or insistence on normalizing the LGBTQ2I community have been presented to us as expressions of compassion and kindness. We are told we should express tolerance for sexual immorality; in biblical language: adultery and fornication.
They are so widespread amongst those who imagine themselves Christians that it is hardly noticeable anymore. We are told that it is Christian charity for us to welcome illegal aliens in our nation. That we should come alongside the immoral or the lawless.
The Christians are much less frequently reminded of their responsibility to transform culture and to not be transformed by the spirit of this age. We are not here to be passive and gather in our buildings and sing our choruses. We are here to impact culture with the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I would submit to you that it is not compassion to encourage people to pursue pathways that are illegal or ungodly. God is merciful and just. That is true, but to promote ungodliness by refusing to tell the truth to those practicing rebellion against God is to abandon others to destruction, and we are not given that license.
If in seeking to avoid the awkward conversations that could emerge or to forfeit social opportunity or because of a fear of diminished profits, because we would limit potential customers, we remain silent. Do you know the outcome of that? Then we receive the judgment of the ungodly.
Our Calling as Followers
Leading godly lives is not easy. It includes more than attendance at religious services or participation in a Christian school. We do not step into our Christian role for appointed times and then out of our Christian persona at others. There is no such thing.
To be a Christ follower is a yielding and an acceptance of an assignment of reconciliation in whatever generation God calls us to. God is moving in the earth. I have never seen the hunger for the truth that I witness these days and weeks.
At the same time, I have never seen more widespread deception and manipulation under the umbrellas of faith. One of the presentations that scripture gives us is the true and false will flourish together. Do you remember the parable that Jesus told about the wheat and the tares?
A field that was planted intentionally with wheat and when the crop came up, there was also amongst the wheat, something unintentional. And it was weeds, tares, in the field and the servants came and said, “Should we pull them up?” And the master said, “No, we will do that at the harvest,” and Jesus interpreted it for us.
He did not leave it to our imagination. He said the field is the world and it is the end of the age, and that the angels will do the harvesting and they will separate the wheat from the tares, that the same climactic conditions that allow the wheat to ripen allow the weeds to ripen.
So that what we should anticipate is both at the same time; true and false are going to flourish. The biblical presentation provides some clarity for us. It helps us interpret what we see.
The Roaring Lion and Vigilance
I brought you some samples on this topic because we cannot just peel a verse out. We need a bit more of a broader perspective. In 1 Peter 5 in verse 8, Peter writes, “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
One of the images attached to Satan is he is a roaring lion, or he is like a roaring lion, and then Peter gives us a battle plan; he says, “Resist him, stand firm in the faith. You know that your brothers throughout the world undergo the same kind of suffering.”
You know, you know the difference in minor surgery and major surgery? If it is on me, it is major; if it is on you, it is minor. Well, the same is true with suffering of about any description. If it is my suffering, this is a deal. And if it is your suffering, why do you not just suck it up and move along?
And Peter is reminding his audience and us that throughout the world, there is discomfort and suffering so that we do not capitulate to the self-pity, that we do not sideline ourselves because of the obstacles. That we determine to persevere, to overcome, to be triumphant in the name of our Lord.
And then in verse 10, he said, “The God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast.”
God’s Restoration
Now, when you restore something you typically make it better than the original. I have some friends that restored an old home, historic home. They took Kathy and me for a visit when they purchased it, prior to the restoration. It took enormous faith. Piles of cash and enormous faith.
The flooring was rotten. The plumbing and the electrical that had been a part of the home was no longer adequate. It needed a 21st century makeover and it got it. Complete with central heat and air. Whole new plumbing systems, an updated kitchen.
Everything about the home was better than the original version. It was not just the house that was there; it was the house that was there plus all the advantages that technology and modern convenience can bring to our homes.
But when I read that passage in 1 Peter 5, it says that God will make us, he will restore us and make us strong, firm, and steadfast. We will be stronger. We will be better for the experience. We will have more compassion.
We will have trust in a God in an area where we have walked through and we have seen his power demonstrated on our behalf. But you know, if I get to tell you the truth, I am not looking for, like, some opportunity. I just would like my way now.
But God in his mercy and his grace allows us a journey where we walk through places where we have to learn to trust him. But the warning there, if you will remember, is you have got to be sober and alert. You have got to be vigilant because we have an adversary that prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.
But that is not the only lion message you need.
The Lion of Judah
In Revelation chapter 5, John has this majestic vision of heaven and the throne room of God. And he said, “I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll.” There is a scroll that has the story of the end of the age.
And John understands he has been given the opportunity to see this narrative, but now the scroll has been presented, but there is no one in all of heaven deemed worthy to open it and John begins to weep, thinking he is going to fail on the assignment. He is not going to get to hear the narrative.
“Then one of the elders said, ‘Do not weep! See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed. And he is able to open the scroll and its seven seals.’ And then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing in the center of the throne.” Who did he see? Jesus, the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
That is Revelation chapter 5. For those of you who are just casual readers of the scripture, that is the last book of the New Testament. And in the last book of the New Testament, our Lord and King Jesus of Nazareth is identified as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.
He has not been separated from those roots. In fact, when the new Jerusalem is established and we visit that city, which we will, you will pass through the gates of that city which will have inscribed above them the names of a Hebrew man and at the center of that city will be a throne and seated on it is an observant Jewish Rabbi, one Jesus of Nazareth.
It will be an awkward place if you hate the Jews.