Malachi (2)

Below is the material I asked our small group to consider in Malachi Chapter Two. As I have likely pointed out previously, there is often a disconnect between the vividness of God in the Bible and the prim and proper way we engage the Bible on Sundays. Malachi 2:3 is an example of this, Sunday school texts and sermons would typically put a gloss on this verse, cleaning it up for Sunday consideration - but in doing so we lose the thrust of just how disgusting it is when priests, pastors, and teachers depart from the True and Living God and lead people astray - our Father and Lord Jesus do not want us to gloss over the heinousness of this sin - they want us to see it, taste it, smell it. 

Chapter Two is in two parts, the first part (verses 1 – 9) deals with the priests, the balance of the chapter deals with the nation as a whole in its outlook and practice of divorce – we'll work with the first section this week.  

Regarding the first part, verse 3 gives us a fine graphic – Yahweh is going to spread dung, poopy, intestinal product – on the faces of the priests! Can’t you hear the doorbell? “Avon calling!”

It didn’t take long after the city and Temple were rebuilt for the priests to revert to the very ways that contributed to the judgement of God and the destruction of the Temple and the Babylonian Captivity. Do we see a pattern here?

Are there any volunteers to reenact this on stage? Let’s draw straws.

What do you see in Malachi 2:1 – 9?

  

Please keep in mind that the false priests, ministers, pastors, and prophets and teachers that we read about in the Bible, both OT and NT, are often within the Church; in the NT this is nearly always the case. A Biblically illiterate church, such as we have in the West, contributes to this problem.

A lack of accountability within much of the professing-church also contributes to this problem. This lack of accountability can exist within congregations and also within denominations and associations.

When the church adopts what’s popular and trendy – it will nearly always start on a slippery slope and then at some point hit Mach 1 into false teaching. When Christ ceases to be our North Star, when He ceases to be our center of gravity, when we serve ourselves rather than Christ and others – we are on the slippery slope. When we no longer take up our cross daily and follow Christ, denying ourselves – we are on the slippery slope.

Please read Matthew 7:15 – 23; 2 Corinthians 11:13 – 15; 2 Timothy 3:1 – 7; 4:1 – 4 There is a lot more of this, a whole lot more, but you get the idea. We see false teaching and false teachers in most of the NT letters, in Acts, in the Gospels, and of course in Revelation.

When you are listening to a sermon or homily, or reading a book by a Christian teacher, pastor, or leader – how do you think about what you are hearing or reading?

How do you determine if what you are hearing or reading is true or false?

If you were mentoring a new Christian, what five things (or more) would you teach them to look for when hearing or reading “Christian” teaching, to determine whether it is true teaching or false teaching? Here is my own list:

1.    Christ is the center, the focal point

2.    Christ is the transforming agent – we only have lasting change in and through Jesus Christ.

3.    If a rabbi, a philosopher, or a motivational speaker could say essentially the same thing then it isn’t the Gospel and Christ-centered; Christian teaching is unambiguously centered on Christ, pointing to Christ, and calling for obedience to Christ.

4.    Is the teaching explicitly rooted in the Bible; does it appeal to the Bible as its foundation? Is the teaching within the framework of Mere Christianity? Mere Christianity are those truths which all Christians have held as central to our faith throughout all times and places.

5.  Does the teaching promote glory to Christ; encouragement, challenge, transformation and accountability in Christians; a call to the world to repent and follow Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?