Northside Church - Sydney
Did Jesus Really Say That? Pearls Before Swine
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. You know, friends, judgmentalism in its many forms, it may not be negative or harsh. Sometimes it can be just purely on the basis of naivety and ignorance. Like the time I had a terribly embarrassing judgmental experience. I've shared it with you, some of you privately, in light of the theme, it's time to share it openly. And that was many years ago, I was introduced to a couple after a big event, which I had compared. And as Michael and others who do speaking will tell you, when you get off a stage, often the adrenaline is pumping and it's probably not a good time to exercise sound judgment. Because your mind is really racing you with me, Michael. And this friend said, "Hey, Graham, come meet these friends of mine. "I've got to go here from work tonight. Come on, I want you to meet him." So I'm walking in the order couple, the guys in his early 40s. And he's a good-looking guy, got a big head of hair, beautiful complexion, a good-looking... I wasn't distracted at all, but just a good-looking, blokey guy, you know? And next to him was a much shorter woman with gray hair, a little bit stooped, I remember that. So I went up and with great commoners, they'd say, "G'day, Dave, great to meet you, and this must be mum." And he said, actually, this is my wife Anne, and they've been sickness and I'm not even going to try to explain it. You know, I know. The groans are getting loud even worse on the first set of the show. "Oh, God, get him out of here." Now, look, you know, like, you're thinking, "Well, has this guy been suitably punished?" Well, I have, because in recent years, when Bevaniah introduced, "Hi, this is Ben, and this must be Dad." So, you know, it comes full circle, you know? So, don't worry. I've been adequately placed. We went to... We used to go to a coffee shop in Chatswood, where the guy would always say that. He'd say, "What would you have now, and what's Dad going to have?" For reasons that you can probably see already, we don't go to that coffee shop anymore. Like, the first couple of times, yeah, after that, like, it kind of wears a bit thin. I mean, Bevan loved it, but I hated it. Now, look, guys, it raises the question, like, how many times have you been misjudged in a certain situation? You've received wind of people saying things that you know weren't true, but the word is out. People are saying things, misjudging something you've said or done. Have you been unfairly criticized by people who haven't even met you? I'm getting some nods over here. I mean, this is one of the realities of life as a pastor, as a leader, and many of you in leadership roles where you maybe got a bit of a public profile, you know what this is like, where you get feedback. And I've had this all my ministry. Feedback about me personally, about my church, about how the churches run. And I get this feedback from people who never even met me, never even had the courtesy to ring up and ask if what they're hearing is true. I had a guy in my church in back in Adelaide who said to me, Graham, my family and I want to come into membership and so we went through all that. And he said, "You know, I really feel for you." He said, "When I told my pastor we were going to your church," he laughed. He said, "Oh, Mr. Slick's church." And I laughed. I thought it was pretty funny, you know, and he said, "You find that funny." I said, "Well, yeah, isn't it funny?" He said, "I thought you'd really demonstrate about that." I said, "No, I've had worse than that." But that's how that particular minister perceived my job, "Oh, Mr. Slick's church," you know, because everything, because we try to do things well because we're doing it for the Lord, you know. So that's it. I mean, Judge Medley, you know, I've always felt for Lindy Chamberlain, you know, accused and found guilty of killing her baby Azaria, sent to prison, released after a certain time, and then as recently as last June, inquest number one, two, three, four, inquest number four. And as a result of that, finally, on the death certificate of Azaria are these words taken by a dingo that's on the death certificate. And of course, the whole nation was involved in this exercise of extreme judge-medalism. And some today still believe she's guilty. It might have been some people here. It was interesting that people were talking about it over the coffee break between services. It must be unbelievably heart-rending to know you're innocent but not to have anybody believe you. I can't begin to imagine what something as severe as Lindy's situation must have been like. Well, friends, look, it's clear from our reading today that Jesus felt very strongly, very strongly about people who judge, and let's face it, that's all of us from time to time. That's all of us. We're all in this. And here again, he's very firm and he's very unequivocal words. Let me read him again. Here they are from Matthew chapter 7. Do not judge others so that God will not judge you. For God will judge you in the same way you judge others and he will apply to you the same rules you apply to others. Now, I don't know about you, but if that's true and it is, I'm in trouble. There are times in my life when I'm in a little bit of trouble. If God's going to apply to me, the same kind of rules and guidelines that I apply to others in terms of my judgments, then I'm in for a rough ride. I mean, it doesn't even sound like God, does it? It sounds more like us. If you're going to judge me, I'm going to judge you. I mean, it just doesn't sound like God. Well, here's the thing. We've got to unpack these words a little bit. We've got to remember that Jesus was preaching and teaching against the backdrop of religious judgmentalism that had reached plague proportions it really had. I mean, the Pharisees had made an art form of judgmentalism and they spent a lot of their time discussing who was in, who was out, who was worthy, who was unworthy. That's what they did in terms of their, in fulfilling their religious duties. Quick example, Luke chapter 7. Jesus goes to the home of Simon the Pharisee. You remember this? And in the course of the events, a prostitute comes and sits at the feet of Jesus and wants to wash his hair with her tears, dry them with her hair, wash his feet with her tears. Yep. And of course, Simon the Pharisee, he's off on the side and he's thinking, he doesn't realize Jesus knows what he's thinking. He's going, Messiah, right, if he knew the kind of person she is, he'd have nothing to do with her. And Jesus picks up on it. He's all knowing and he has a very, very interesting dialogue with Simon in that Luke 7 passage. You see, he was a guy totally bound up, totally bound up in a smug sense of self-righteousness. And it wasn't as though God didn't want to minister to him. He wanted to minister to him, but God couldn't get through, even God couldn't get through the hardened outer shell that this guy had built around him as he wanted to play God. He wanted to play God. And so here's the first major point out of this passage and there are several, first one is judgmentalism in that negative holier than their way is spiritually unhealthy. That's the best way I can put it. It's just spiritually unhealthy. It's not so much because God is intentionally withholding his grace and forgiveness, but our hardened attitude prevents his grace and forgiveness from breaking through. It's not this similar to, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Now, does that mean Jesus, well, God doesn't forgive us until we forgive others? I hope not. No, that's not the gospel. But what it does mean is this, if I maintain an unforgiving spirit towards somebody, if I refuse to let go and surrender my deep-seated resentment, then I am constructing a little barrier over my life, a little spiritual barrier, which prevents God's love and forgiveness breaking through. It's like the analogy I've used before of a plant. You can plant a little shrub and nothing will stop the rain and the sun and all the things that that plant needs to grow. Nothing will stop those things happening. God's giving all that out into course. But if you put a little roof over that plant, it's not going to receive that, which is being provided. Now, friends, a judgmental spirit trying to usurp the position of God that'll do that to us, that very same little construction right over there and preventing what God wants to do. Remember when Samuel, the prophet, was seeking out the king of Israel, he reminded the people, man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart. And here's the thing, he's the only one who can. He's the only one who can. Here's something else that comes through strongly in these words of Jesus. Beware of the obsessively judgmental person. And be sure that be careful you yourself aren't becoming such a person. Here's Jesus verses three and five. This is a tough part. Look at this. Why then do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, pay no attention to the log in your own eye? How dare you say to your brother, please, let me take that speck out of your eye when you have a log in your own eye. This is Jesus attempt to stand up him, by the way, like we're not rolling in the aisles, but like they would have been in his day because this was without his funny stuff. You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, then you'll be able to see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. Oh, friends, haven't we had some incredibly high profile international examples of this in the Church of Jesus Christ? Painful. How many of you old enough to remember the tear-filled, blubbering apology by Jimmy Swaggart? Google it if you're a young person, have a look at it in terms of what to avoid in your life. He was a man, I used to watch him occasionally because I kind of liked his music. But I always wondered, why is this man so obsessed with sex? That's pretty much all he preached on. And particularly directing his comments to prostitution. He would hit that subject, seem like about three out of five. Jimmy Swaggart's downfall. He was found with the prostitute. Destroyed his entire ministry. Actually, not entirely. Jim's back in television in America, if you're in the right city, on late night television, he's rebuilding a church over there, has been for many years. And then there's Jim Baker. And of course, Jim built his whole ministry on family life and family values and giving all to the big whatever that land was. He had Bible land or something. Hadn't a fair. And probably the most notable and most hurtful of all in terms of like just the impact on his family. Ted Haggard, a few years ago, the leader of the Evangelical Association of the United States encompassing all the churches that had the Evangelical brand. And I remember watching a documentary on his church. And his big issue was homosexuality. And he would hit that real hard. And they took some cameras from the BBC in and he had some scathing things to say about the gay lifestyle and the gay community. Really, I mean, thinking, wow, this guy's a minister? Fan with a gay prostitute. Like unbelievable stuff. And so Jesus is saying, be aware of the person who is so intent on putting everyone else right that they completely fail to see the problems, the sin, the failure in their own lives. But Jesus wasn't just talking about Jimmy Swaggard and Jim Baker and Ted Haggard. He was talking about Graham Haggard. He's talking about you. He's talking about all of us because we all have the propensity to judge others at times far more harshly than we'd ever judge ourselves. You see, of us, we say, well, I'm very resolute in my ideas. The other person is pigheaded and dogmatic. Or, well, let's just say I've reconsidered my position. The other person is so unreliable because they're always changing their mind. You don't know where they are. See, we make these sort of value judgments all the time. We had an incident in between services. This really appealed to me. We were talking about cars out there with a couple of my friends. And we're going back into some of them. And one of the guys said, I used to own a Simka. I said, a Simka. Man, they were shocking. He said, actually, mum is a very good car. Did you listen to anything you said, Graham? Oh, sorry. Sorry. I mean, this is something so so so naturally, you know. Well, we're all involved in this. It's like the parable in Luke 18, where the Pharisee goes to the temple to pray. And the Bible says he's off to one side praying by himself. And his prayer, it's so pretentious and so self-righteous. He says, I thank you, God, that I'm not greedy. I'm not dishonest. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not like this. This guy over here is trying to connect with you, Lord. What hope has he got? I mean, it's a very, very graphic scene there in that parable. And Jesus, you know, bam, bam, plank alert right there in the eye, you know. So here's the thing. Jesus, here's the thing. Jesus knew ever so well and deep down, we know it too. While ever we spend time pointing the finger at other people's sins and short comings, our attention is conveniently taken off our own problems and our own failings and our own shortcomings. Psychologists would tell us one of the reasons we do it to kind of minimize, you know, if you can keep finding fault in others, it's going to help you feel a little bit better. Well, the Bible teaches we're all sinners. And the only sins over which we have control and influence are our own sins. And the power of the Holy Spirit, we can do that. For the rest, we need to hand the work of judgment over to God. Now, having said that, some of you are thinking, "Mm, hang on, is this that whole story?" There is more. Having said that, there's an aspect to this passage which has been very misunderstood and frequently used by people as a cop-out, as a way of avoiding being called to account. I mean, how many times have you heard someone say in the face of being found out or caught out or whatever, "Ah, judge not, you know, you don't know why I did it in my circumstances. Judge not, lest you be judged." I mean, kids do all the time. I've raised two teenagers. I know about this. Well, here's the thing. Some attitudes, some behavior and activity need to be judged. And we can't get away from that. And this verse, do not judge this statement of Jesus Christ. It's not meant as a flimsy, insipid defense against Godless behavior. Oh, judge not, no, no. I mean, child abuse in whatever form is wrong. It has to be called to account. People got to be judged for that. And people who wreak havoc in the life of the Church of Jesus Christ, and I've seen that on a few occasions over the years. That's wrong. It's got to be called to account. That's got to be judged in a certain way. Paul's writings are full of ways of handling church discipline, church conflict. Individuals who intentionally and willfully cause harm and misery and pain and grief to others have to be judged. They have to be made responsible for their actions. They have to be made aware of the consequences of their actions. This week, we had a rather sickening attempt to base the fence on the judge night. I don't know if you saw it. I'm a great news watcher. I watched the news. Sanders here this morning, SBS, absolutely 10.30. Most nights, great news service. And there it was on that service and others as well. That guy, Ariel Castro, did you see that? The man convicted of abducting, which seemed to be conveniently forgotten in his defense, abducting imprisoning and torturing three women over a 10-year period. In that particular state, as a shock to me, not only do they take a victim statement, but they take a perpetrator statement. And it seems like it's pretty much a free for all. And that man in his little 10-minute rant was essentially saying, "Hey, don't judge me. I'm not a monster. I'm just a sick man. I'm just like an alcoholic. I've just got certain things I'm just struggling with." And besides, those girls were asking for it. It was not easy to watch. You see, friends, some actions and some people need to be judged. But there is a difference between judgmentalism and sound judgment. Jesus said some very strong things against that pious, holier-than-now Pharisee, or form of judgmentalism. But he does require his followers to make judgments about certain things. So that raises the obvious question. Well, how do you know the difference? How can you know the difference between judgmentalism and making sound judgments? Well, this Matthew 7, Tassie, has the answer. It holds the answer. You see, here it is. The answer is discernment. Discernment arising out of spiritual maturity is what distinguishes between judgmentalism and making sound judgments. Discernment. In my view, discernment is one of the most treasured of all spiritual gifts. If you meet people with discernment, and we've got stacks of them in this church, we call seven of melders, it's a beautiful gift to have. It generally comes, it's at nothing to do with age. It generally only comes after somebody's been on the journey of life for a little while, after they've seen a fair bit of life, after they've come to appreciate the complexities of life, the wide range of factors that contribute to things being as they are, discernment. It's a beautiful gift. That's when you get to the point of moving away from harsh simplistic judgments, and you find you're stronger on compassion than you are on condemnation. It's just a stage of spiritual maturity that I find attractive in people, and that I praise God, we have many examples of in this church. Something else happens during the week. When you're looking at a theme, and I knew this was the theme, you tend to see things in light of the theme. Something else happened this week. Again, on SBS, Pope Francis. That was an interesting man. I'm kind of warming to him. I'm not about to go over, but I can appreciate that although we're in those robes. I really love that. Saves on suits and shirts and stuff, you know, just get out the old robes. Pope Francis had a little informal chat with the press in the Pope plane on the way between Rio going back to Rome. It was very informal. He just had the mic. It was kind of like verbal karaoke. He was having a little chat. It was great. He got talking about a question was asked about the gays, about the gay people of our society. He said something I've never heard a Pope say in my life. I've never heard a bishop say this. He said this, and I quote this is off Google word for word. It says this. He said, "If they accept the Lord and have goodwill, who am I to judge them?" He said, "They shouldn't be marginalised." And then went on further. When I made a gay person, when I meet a gay person, I have to distinguish between there being gay and part of a lobby group. In other words, I've got to see them as individuals like Jesus did. He says, "The tendency to order homosexuality is not the problem. They're our brothers." I've got to work on this together. Now, look, friends, he wasn't in any way condoning the lifestyle. That was quite clear. But as one secular reporter put it, "His tone focused on God's mercy for sinners rather than on the sin." "Do not judge others," said Jesus, "so that God will not judge you," which brings us to the last verse in this reading. Did Jesus really say that? And it's the most puzzling of all, and I'm going to disappoint you because I'm not going to have to pack it in any kind of detail. We've run out of time. But when we think of it in terms of discernment, that which is appropriate, that which is inappropriate, that which is helpful for the gospel, that which is hurtful for the gospel, when we see this verse in that light that makes a little bit more sense. Here's the verse you read it earlier. "Do not give what is holy to dogs, they'll only turn and attack you. Do not throw your pearls in front of pigs. They will only trample them under foot." Now friends, the simplest message, so that verse, and you'll need to look it up further if you want more information, is simply this. Be discerning. Be discerning in how you handle the treasured gospel message of Jesus. This is not an excuse to stop evangelizing. No way. There's nothing in that. Nothing in this verse that says that. But it's merely a word of caution, not to let the precious message of Jesus be corrupted by people whose primary objective is to rip it to pieces and bring it into disrepute. Every time we get to talk about examples, media examples, things you see on television, films that have been produced over the years, you know, like just be real careful the extent to which we will expose the gospel to somebody who just wants to rip it to pieces. And there's no intention of having a reasonable argument. You might know even people like that. There's that confronting verse. Another tough thing Jesus said, "If a town refuses to listen to you, then, you know, shake the dust off your shoes." And there are certain sects around the place actually do that. If they get it in your street and there's not much of a receptivity, you'll see them taking their shoes. I haven't seen it, but I know it's part of some of the cults will do that. Well, that's a big, there's a lot in that verse, but against the backdrop of what we've been saying, you can see how it's about discernment, making careful decisions. But here's something that is we do need to drop onto as the last point today on the steam of judgmentalism. Isn't it amazing? Isn't it fantastic that Jesus Christ, who had such strong views on people passing judgment on others, allowed himself to be judged wrongly? That's the gospel. Jesus Christ, who had a lot to say about not judging, he just passively allowed people to pass a shocking judgment on him. He allowed himself to be sentenced. He willingly took the rap that should have been yours and mine because of our sin and our separation from God. What's Peter 1st, Peter 2, 24, Christ Himself carried our sins in His body to the cross. He took the judgment we were deserving of so that we can leave the judging to him. And, Francis, there's great freedom in that. It's great freedom in leaving the judging to go, "Oh, look, we'll all get caught up in it. Of course, we're human, we're mortal." But overall, to leave the judging to God, there's freedom in that. There's liberation in that. I know pastors over the years who get hung up about when they do a funeral, is this person a believer or not? Well, only God knows. I've always found great freedom in funeral. When you know, like a Dorothy Murray, you can sound the trumpets and really go for the resurrection. But with people you don't know, we don't have a right to say, "Well, of course, we all know where Freddie's going." He never came to church. I can just say that. The thief was dying on the cross and people wagged their heads and wagged their fingers, "Gosh, what hope is that guy God?" In the closing moments of his life, he was making peace with God and being ushered into his eternal reward. I mean, we just don't know. It's a liberating thing. I've never been able to fully identify with that harsh judgmentalism that comes out of various forms of Christianity where everybody's got to know exactly who's going where. And nobody feels any kind of relaxation or peace until we figure out who is going. Of course, there are two ways. Of course, only in Jesus, do we have life. And of course, our task is to press that message and pre-step measures as hard as we can. But ultimately, only he knows. And there are so many other biblical passages we could bring to bear. You know, when did we say you were, when did we present you in Brisbane? When did we do all these wonderful things you're telling us about? And those who thought they were in weren't. It's a big issue. Well, he took the judgment that we were deserving of. Hey, friends, look, here's my final word. Hey, pray for discernment. If you've never thought of that gift as being a gift for you, pray for discernment because you need it to avoid judgmentalism and you need it to make the sound judgments required as a follower of Jesus Christ in a very, very murky world with lots of issues to unravel the sermon. That's what this passage is about. Let's