LifeLink Devotional

Monday, September 21, 2020

This is our last week of study on the Last Days, and it our focus will be on the words of Jesus as He speaks to His disciples about His return to earth at the end of the age. In Matthew 24, the disciples sit down with Jesus in private and ask Him, ”What will be the signs of your coming and of the end of the age?”

As Jesus explains to them some of the things that will happen, He turns His attention on the disciples to challenge them to be faithful. Jesus says,

 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.” Matthew 24:45-47

On the surface, this may not seem like a “WOW!” moment. But that’s exactly what it is to me. The Scriptures constantly call each one of us to be faithful servants of Jesus Christ and wise messengers of the Gospel. Some of us have been specifically called to be in charge of feeding Christ’s household, the church. The reward for faithfully feeding the church with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a place of continuing service in the coming Kingdom of Christ.

I am one of those servants, and it’s feeding time. Here’s your Monday meal of spiritual nourishment. These words come from Jesus as a contrast between faithful and wicked servants. It serves as a warning to us that there are false teachers who are abusing their positions of spiritual leadership for personal gain.

Matthew 24:48-51 “But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ and begins to beat his fellow servants and eats and drinks with drunkards, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

As one of Christ’s servants, charged with feeding His household, I want to warn you to beware of false teachers who will seek to lead you astray. The Apostle Peter says that they will be identified by their denial of Jesus as Christ, by their sensuality, and by their greed.

2 Peter 2:1-3 “But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.”

My fellow servants of Jesus Christ, beware of preachers, teachers, pastors, and spiritual leaders who disguise the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ in humanistic, self-serving, and self-gratifying promises. Do not be led astray by teaching that satisfies emotional and material needs. Be on the alert for subtle ways that the Gospel is twisted to gratify the need for self-worth and self-fulfillment. BEWARE! Jesus said there is destruction coming for all who teach a false Gospel and also for all who follow such teachers.

My prayer is that you will have the discernment of the Holy Spirit to recognize false teaching, and the strength of the Holy Spirit to endure in the Gospel until Jesus returns.

Pastor John