Substitutes

When I was a boy my mom would buy our back to school clothes mostly from the Sears catalog. I was allowed to have some choice in what she ordered. I remember one particular outfit modeled by a boy about my age that I thought was so trendy for the time and I really wanted it. I convinced my mom to order it for me and I waited for it to arrive very excited that I would go back to school in the fall looking cool. When it arrived and was opened, the first thing I noticed was the color of the pants wasn’t exactly the same as in the catalog. Still I thought I’ll look great anyway. I went to the bathroom where there was a long mirror to try the outfit on. Well, disappointment came in the large economy size that day.  I looked nothing like the hip young model with the hair down to his collar, the wide belt and the zip up boots. I looked like the country bumpkin I was, in someone else’s clothes, standing in the bathroom barefoot. My dreams of walking into the school looking stylish and having the girls swoon over me dehydrated instantly. I might as well have worn plaid golf knickers and bowling shoes. It was humiliating. I didn’t want to come out of the bathroom for my mom to see me dressed like that. But, though I wanted to send it back, it was too close to the start of school. knew I was stuck with it. I had to accept the substitute outfit. As soon as I started buying my own clothes I never bought clothes from a catalog again. That was one of my hard life lessons.

 There is an old slogan in advertising that I heard a lot on tv as a kid; it is “accept no substitutes”. The implication is that other, similar  products are inferior to the one being advertised. Now, let me point out one important area of life where I feel many people are accepting substitutes that will have unwanted consequences. Each of us has free choice. I know by experience that some choices I made, thinking I was doing what was best turned out poorly. I have no one to blame but myself for those decisions and I had to endure the outcomes even when I felt like I didn’t deserve them. You will also have to live with your choices.

Yeshua made several statements about himself that bear repeating. 

To the Samaritan woman at the well,

The woman said, “I know that messiah is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.” Yeshua answered, I who speak to you am he.”

To a group of Jewish leaders,

John 10:22Then came the feast of the Dedication in Jerusalem. 23 It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple area in Solomon’s Portico. 24 The Jewish leaders surrounded him and asked, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” 25 Jesus replied, “I told you and you do not believe. The deeds I do in my Father’s name testify about me. 26 But you refuse to believe because you are not my sheep. 27 My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand.

To a blind man he had healed,

John 9:36 He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? 37 And Jesus said unto him, You have both seen him, and it is he that talks with you.

Yeshua made it clear that he was the long awaited Messiah, the prophet of Deuteronomy 18:15-19. And that he is the sole teacher.

Matthew 23:8 But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. 10 Neither be called instructors, for you have one instructor, the Christ. 

Yeshua warned us that false teachers would arise and lead many astray.

Matthew 24:23 Then if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. 24 For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. 25 Behold, I have told you before. 26 Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. 27 For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. This indicates a universal return seen by all, not a private return seen by one or a few.

Yeshua made it very clear that we are to obey his words. That he alone is our sole teacher and that false teachers would come and deceive many. Here are His final words to the eleven Apostles.

Matthew 28:16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.

Notice He said for them to teach people to observe all that He (Yeshua) had commanded them. In my opinion this rules out someone else coming along and teaching anything different. Many have done just that and Christianity today bears little in common with Yeshua’s teachings. Yeshua taught that If one wanted to be saved He had to repent of his sins and do their best not to sin again. He taught that one must obey the commandments. Yeshua was an observant Jew. He was the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy and cannot be fully understood outside that context.

Even before the death of the Apostles, false prophets and false teachers had begun to teach a different Gospel than the one received by the Apostles from Yeshua. There has been a steady stream of them ever since. From the prosperity preachers of our day to Reverend Sun Myung Moon, to Joseph Smith who claimed to have met the angel Moroni and later with Yeshua in the woods of western New York and subsequently declared himself a prophet. First and formost was Saul of Tarsus (Paul) who likewise saw a great light and heard a voice that he instantly accepted as Yeshua while in the wilderness on the road to Damascus. He subsequently proclaimed himself an Apostle and began to teach his own gospel. All of these men have one thing in common. They substituted their own teachings for our sole teacher Yeshua’s teachings. He said this,

Matthew 7:24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” 

Build your house on the rock that is the teachings of Yeshua. Accept no substitutes.