The Kingdom of God- 6

Subtitle:  Serving a Crucified King

1 Corinthians 1:18-31.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Resurrection Sunday, April 20, 2025.

We have been talking about the Kingdom of God.  It is important to see the events of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as foundational to all that we believe as Christians, but particularly about the Kingdom of God.

There would be no Kingdom without the appearance of King Messiah.  Yet, when he comes, his foundational act to set up his kingdom is dying and rising again.  This would have been very perplexing to a Jew of the first century.  This strange kingdom that is now, but not yet fully, was always God’s plan A.  It is not a plan B.  God is trying to teach us something through the way that Messiah Jesus fulfills the Kingdom of God.

Therefore, we are citizens of a kingdom created by a crucified Lord.  It is not easy serving a crucified king because you are misjudged, maligned, and rejected by a world that is not looking for a crucified savior.

If you are going to serve Jesus, then you will have to swallow your pride, let go of the accolades of this world, and pick up your cross and follow him.

Let’s look at our passage.

The message of the cross (v. 18-24)

We need to keep in mind as we go through this that Paul is writing to Christians in Corinth about their penchant to operate with the wisdom and power of this world.  They had grown up in a world of Greek wisdom and Greek power.  Of course, it doesn’t matter what nation or part of the earth people are from.  All of these things are worldly wisdom and worldly power.  Essentially he is trying to convince them to embrace the wisdom and power of God.  Jesus is the very Wisdom and Power of God.

Of course, the believers of Corinth had believed in Jesus.  They were Christians.  However, their choices and actions were contradicting their professed faith in Jesus.  They were mixing God’s word with their own culture, and not in a good way.  Paul goes back to the fundamental issue of how God had provided salvation through Jesus, and why He did it that way.  He is also making it clear that you cannot follow a crucified Lord with the thinking of this world.  They are antithetical to one another.

Verse 18 talks about the “word of the cross.”  This is similar to the way we might say that we want to “have a word with someone.”  It is more than one word.  It refers to a main message that the cross is intended to represent to us.  It speaks volumes about the purpose and intent of God’s plan of salvation.

The cross was necessary to remove sins and provide a covering for them.  We should pay attention to this.  Why did it have to be this way?  Essentially, the cross shows us just how bad sin is.  It is so bad that it requires God to become a man and die on our behalf.  It also shows us what it takes to please God.  A person who believes God will not retreat in the face of laying down their mortal life.  A person who retreats from faith under threat to their life cannot please God.  Jesus was pleasing to God.  Not because of his horrible suffering, but because of his unflinching faith in the face of the horrible persecution of the wicked.  Like Noah (much greater than Noah), Jesus found grace in the eyes of God the Father.  He offers up his sinless life as an offering for humanity, and God the Father puts him in authority over the universe, heaven and earth.

The devil counts on you balking on following Jesus because you are so afraid of losing something, even your life.  Yet, if the Christian dies, God has not failed us because the resurrection of the righteous was always His plan.  He is fulfilling His promises, not just to you, but to all humanity.

When we look at the message of the cross, Paul says that it is foolishness to those who are perishing, but the power of God to those who are being saved.  Of course, those who are being saved used to be those who were perishing.  The message of Jesus and the cross is part of God’s way to break through to a person’s heart and mind.

We can understand why the cross would be a shock to people who were from other nations and followed other religions.  Yet, the cross was a shock even to Israel.  Yet, in that shock, they would have to embrace the message of a crucified lord (savior) over the top of their impression that it was weak and foolish.  Of course, we could not do this without the help of the Holy Spirit.  Yet, a person must make a real choice.  This was hard for religious Jews, just as it was for Gentiles (religious or otherwise).  No one has it easy.

To believe in Jesus and to live as he commanded us is simultaneously to become a fool to the world around you.  No one likes being labeled a fool by others.  However, God didn’t desire only to save us.  He has a purpose in this.

Verse 19 goes to the heart of why God requires us to embrace a crucified savior.  God doesn’t only want to save us, but He also wants to destroy the wisdom of the wise in the way that He saves us.  Paul quotes from Isaiah 29.  This passage is not written about Gentiles.  Rather, God is chastising Israel for her unbelief.  They had given lip-service to God, but had developed a system by their own wisdom that was contrary to God.  What God intended for good, they had turned into a system of harm.  Doing God’s things with our wisdom is a common tendency for humanity.

Their wisdom had so perverted the things of God that He was intent on destroying their wisdom and cleverness.  He would save humanity in such a way that it would make a spectacle of their wisdom.

The same mechanism works in the political realm.  No matter how good t he principles of a society are, if we only give lip-service to God (as we use our own wisdom), then we will pervert that system and use it for our own gain, for our own ends.  This is the basis of all human wisdom and power.  It takes the things of God (He created all things), and it twists those things to the “satisfaction” of ourselves, regardless of God’s purpose in it.

In verse 20, Paul tells them that this is what they were seeing in their day.  The great wise men of Israel and the great wise men of the Gentile world, the scribes and debaters of the world, were not used by God to save humanity.  They were woefully ignorant of what was happening.  And, they were even used by God in their ignorance to bring about salvation by crucifying Jesus.  They don’t get credit for it because Christ’s death saves in spite of what they were trying to accomplish.  I mean, they weren’t trying to cooperate with God.  They were trying to do the opposite.

Is that any different than our day?  Can we not see that the wisdom of this world, whether religious or not, is still dismissive of what God is doing?  The cross begs the question, “Whose side are you on?”  Even some within the Church today have continued down the same path that these Corinthians were following in the first century, and the same path that the Sanhedrin was following back then.

We can say that we believe in Jesus as the Christ, but are we following him with the wisdom of our modern age?  Are we “following him” by employing his things with the power of man?

In verses 22-23, Paul recognizes that the false wisdom of Jewish people was for different reasons than the false wisdom of the Gentiles.  Jews want a powerful sign from God.  Whereas, the Gentiles want something that sounds wise to them.  Yet, God gave them both a crucified Messiah, which was a stumbling block to those who want powerful signs and foolishness to those who want something that sounds wise to them.

In order to embrace the cross, a person has to die to their own wisdom and power, and the wisdom and power of this world.  This is the only way to salvation.  You can ignore it and walk on by Jesus because it looks foolish and weak.  However, he is the wisdom and power of God displayed for all to see.

The wisdom of God versus the “wisdom” of men (v. 25-31)

Paul then takes some time to explain the wisdom of God compared to the wisdom of man.  Another way to look at this is the wisdom that comes from God (from above) versus the wisdom that is not from God (within us, down here, even from hell).

James 3:14-15 says it this way.  “But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth.  This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.”  Notice those last descriptions of the false wisdom.  It is of this world, of our own flesh, even of the devil.  This is the same enemies that I pointed out several sermons ago.  It is a wisdom that comes from our enemies to separate us from God.

We must always ask ourselves, “What is the source of my wisdom?”  If it is not sourced in God, then know this.  God is determined to destroy any wisdom that is not rooted in Jesus, and him crucified.  However, the good news is that you don’t have to be destroyed with your bad “wisdom.”  You can let go of it.  You can let go of the world’s wisdom, the devil’s wisdom, and even your own self-made wisdom, in order to receive Jesus, the wisdom of God that comes from above..

In verse 25, Paul is not saying that God sometimes actually does foolish things and other times actually does wise things.  The same is true of the “weakness of God.”  Everything that God does is absolutely wise and powerful.  However, Paul is talking about our impression of what God does.  Our judgment of what God is doing is sometimes impressed with what God does, and other times it is not impressed.  We declare it to be foolish and weak. 

Yet, the way that Paul states this slams the point home powerfully.  The things that God does that seem foolish to us are actually greater than our greatest “wisdom”- remember it is we who call our thoughts wise.  Also, the things that God does that seem weak to us are actually stronger than our greatest “strength.”  If we reject His wisdom and power for something else that we think is wiser and stronger, then we will be just like the Corinthians: worthy of rebuke from our Lord!

In verse 26, Paul reminds them of how they believed in Jesus and the kinds of people who were being saved in Corinth.  What kind of person let’s go of the wisdom and power of this world in order to embrace God’s “foolish and weak” salvation?  In general, it wasn’t the wise, powerful, and nobles who were believing.  It is easier for me to let go of the wisdom of Plato than it is for Plato to let go of the wisdom of Plato.  It is easier for me to let go of the power of the United States of America than it is for the powerful people in our Republic.  In truth, it is hard for us all, but not impossible.

If God asks you to give something up, it is so that He can give you something better.  However, sometimes, He asks us to give something so that He can teach us how to receive it back in the right way.  God is concerned with dethroning the idols of our heart that are revealed in this way of salvation.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with being educated and having power in this life.  But, we can let those things divert us from the wisdom and power of God.  We must submit all things that we have to God and let them take their proper place in our life submitted to the wisdom and power of God.

In verse 27, Paul talks about God choosing the “foolish” to shame the “wise”, choosing the “weak” to shame the “strong.”  Everyone who puts their faith in Jesus steps out of the “wise and powerful” class and steps into the “foolish and weak” class (that is, according to the world). 

God knew that this would be the case.  In eternity past, He saw this and chose to help those who would become foolish and weak in order to shame the wise and powerful.  Of course, shame is not the end of the world.  In our shame, we can see our need of Christ and His wisdom.  The grace of God is present when sinful things are brought to the surface.  In our shame, we can finally die to the things that are pulling us down into destruction.   It is in truly seeing our shame that we are enabled to embrace the message of the cross.  God does not call us to stay in our shame, but following Him will cause you to carry the stigma of shame because of the world’s judgment of you.

Paul then ends this section with an anthem to Jesus.  Jesus is the wisdom of God, the righteousness of God, the Holiness of God, and the Redemption of God (v. 30).  There is no hope for these things outside of Jesus and his “foolish and weak” way.

We should boast in no man, but the LORD Jesus!  This is not to put anyone down, but rather, to put Jesus up above in the place that he deserves.  Yet, today, the Church has become full of men and women that we boast in.  We are like the foolish Corinthians and in need of deep repentance.

The message is the same to us as it is to the world.  Humble yourself.  Divest yourself of the wisdom of the world and worldly Christians.  Refuse to follow the path of power developed by the strong.  Pick up your cross and follow Jesus, regardless of what others say.  And, may the Holy Spirit show us all the ways we must die to ourselves, die to the world, and die to the devil, in order to bring forth the power and salvation of God!  This is what it means to serve a crucified Lord.  It means being a crucified servant.

Serving a Crucified King audio

The Sermon on the Mount XX

Subtitle:  Conclusion-Build on the Rock

Matthew 7:24-27.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, May 5, 2024.

Today, we will finish the Sermon on the Mount, particularly the concluding warnings that Jesus gives.

He first warned us about the difficulty of following him into the Kingdom of Heaven.  It is difficult to follow Jesus, and they would be tempted (we are tempted) to quit the way of life and go down the easy road that leads to destruction.

He then warned about deceivers that we would have to avoid in order to remain with him in the Kingdom.  They may have a powerful appearance, but they can be known by the fruit of their life.  This is one of the difficulties that we will face on this path to eternal life.

This last warning has to do with how we live our life.  This will be tested and proven, one way or another.

Let’s look at our passage.

The person who does what Jesus says (v. 24-25)

We must be careful how we live our life because decisions and actions have consequences.  Jesus has put a way of life in front of us through this sermon, but we have a decision to make.  He calls us to join him in being salt, light, and a city on a hill that is visible to all in our communities.  Believers in Jesus are meant to be visible to all.

This sermon had three main points.  First, he tells us that we can join him in fulfilling the law.  He would teach us to see and live out the Father’s heart that is behind all that the law says.  Second, he tells us that we can live out true righteousness, instead of the false piety of the hypocrites.  They look good on the outward, but the do not care for the Father’s heart, nor do they seek to please Him.  Third, he showed us how we could avoid the pitfalls of becoming hypocrites ourselves.

Verse 24 gives us the final “therefore” of this sermon.  It ends with a tension that we find in the book of Proverbs.  Who is the wise man, and who is the foolish man?  Who is on the path of wisdom and who is on the path of folly?  You may remember wisdom and folly personified as a woman on a hill calling for people to enter their houses (Proverbs 8 and 9).  The emphasis is that wisdom leads to life and folly leads to death.   They same is presented here.

Every person had a decision before them that day.  The choice involved wisdom versus folly, but another way to view it is that is involved following the Spirit of God versus following your own fleshly desires.  The Bible tells us that our flesh is hostile to the Spirit of God and the Word of God because it too is spiritual (of the Spirit).  This is important because it means that our flesh is hostile to the things that lead to eternal life, but like the things that lead to destruction.  The choice in the moment is always this.  What will you do about Jesus now?

However, even when we choose to follow Jesus, we have an ongoing choice, day by day, that continues to ask.  Will you continue to live by the wisdom and commands of the LORD Jesus?  Thus, it is not enough to begin well, enter the narrow gate, but then fall away. 

Regardless of where you are today, you are able to turn towards Christ and believe.  We can’t change the past, but we can change the power that the past has upon our present.  In fact, if you know God, you will understand that you don’t need to change the past.  The bad things in your life that you have complained and grumbled about can all become blessings in disguise when you put your hand in the hand of Jesus.

The devil uses hurts, wounds, fear, anger, and anything else to keep us stuck in a decision to neglect the words of Jesus.  He wants to discourage you.  But always remember this.  If it was easy to become like God, then everyone would be doing it.  It is precisely because it is hard that most walk away.  Yet, God is committed to you.  Jesus told us in Matthew 5:48, “You shall be perfect , just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”  Yes, this is a challenge, but it is just as much a promise.  He who has begun a good work in you will be faithful to complete it.  Do not lose faith because He will make sure that you are perfect before Him before it is all done.

Jesus first state the positive side, i.e., what we should do.  He emphasizes that it is not enough to only hear his words (or read them on a page).  One must also do them. Hearing must be followed up with exercising our faith in Christ by doing the things that he says.  Just think of all the bright, enlightened men and women who have read the words of Jesus.  Many of them felt that there was a little bit of good in his teachings, but that they were mired in first century Judaism.  They hear, but then walk on by.

Here are some scriptures to ponder.

Romans 10:17.  “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  If people have never heard the Gospel of Jesus, then they don’t know what they should believe in.  Therefore, people need us to tell them the good news about Jesus.  Yet, that hearing in and of itself is not enough.  It must lead to actions of faith. 

James 1:22.  “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”  He pictures a person looking in the mirror, recognizing that they need to make some improvements (comb your hair, wash your face) and yet, continuing on without doing anything.  This is not God’s intention for us.

I should mention dead works here.  Dead works are the actions of the religious who are hypocrites.  They are merely actions of the flesh trying to obtain fleshly things.  God is opposed to dead works, but not the works of faith, works that are born out of a desire to please God.  The works of true righteousness are those who put their faith completely in Jesus and learn to obey his commands by the help of the Holy Spirit.

Though we can use the term commands because Jesus did, the picture of a Father that we were made to image is not so much about commands and obedience.  These are the things for children.  But, as we grow in spiritual maturity, our hearts change and begin to desire the same things that God desires.  We begin to see the wisdom behind His instructions to us.

Always remember that two people can do the exact same thing (give money to the poor, pray, and fast), but for one it may be a dead work, and for the other, it may be an act of faith, true righteousness.  It all comes down to the motivation of our heart.

Jesus gives us a metaphor of a man who is building a house.  Those who hear the words of Jesus and do them are like a wise man who builds on a rock.  You will notice that this picture has nothing to do with people thinking you are wise.  Let me tell you a secret.  The truly wise are not generally recognized by those who are not wise.  Without the Holy Spirit, it would be impossible to find wisdom, and then become wise by learning from it.  Who are the wise of this age?  It is those who are bringing their gifts and laying them at the feet of Jesus in worship.  Many people sound wise, but they will not stand with the wise at the side of Jesus in eternity.  That is what this is about.

The rock is using foundation terminology.  It represents a sturdy, trustworthy surface that will not allow the building to sink.  The rock represents Jesus himself, and the teaching that he has given to us.  If you live your life by the wisdom of Jesus and by the help of the Holy Spirit, then your life will be upheld by the Truth, by reality itself.  Those who follow a different “wisdom” are actually building on a false truth.  It has no true substance.  Though it may have an outward form of truth, it is incapable of really, truly, holding up the weight a person’s choices place on it.

Jesus is the rock; He is the very Word of God.  He is the First Light that dawned in the void and brought forth all that has been created.  Yet, he has laid himself down as a sacrifice, as a foundation for us.  He is the absolute unifying Truth that lays at the foundation of all that you see.  Nothing has any being or substance, but through him.  Thus, even millions of people in the wilderness could not overcome the Truth that God wanted Israel to live and not die.  The waters that came out of the Rock to keep them alive are a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.  His being struck at the cross produces for life for all who will drink.

Thus, building here represents the way that you live: the principles you use to determine the actions you will take.  This leads to consequences.  Jesus is saying that the consequences of living your life by his words is eternal life, not just quantity, but even more, quality.

This should teach us to be humble.  Have you ever heard of unintended consequences?  Almost nobody says that they want to fall and fall greatly.  Instead, they believe they are wise.  Jesus warns us to live our lives by following him, if we want to have life.

All buildings are tested by the world around them.  It would be nice if our building, our life, was never tested.  Jesus points to the threat to natural buildings, storms.  Storms bring wind and excessive rains, which bring floods.  Of course, Jesus is making a spiritual point.  The storms are all the ways in which our faith in Jesus (or whatever else we put our faith in) is tested.  The floods represent the sea of people around us who are tossed to and fro by the winds and by the lusts of their own flesh.  These same lusts can seep into our house and life if we are not careful.  The winds represent the ideas, false religions, false teachings and philosophies of this world.  Ephesians 4:15 puts it this way.  “We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine [teaching], by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting.

False teaching is not the only storm.  The disciples were tested in the garden when they let sleepiness get in the way of prayer (lust of the flesh versus spiritual preparation).  They were all tested when they were threatened with imprisonment, beatings and death.  We are tested when people say all manner of evil things about us.  We can cave in under the pressure and seek an easier way.

We should also recognize that there are teachings of demons that promote false teachings through other willing humans.  Without Jesus, you will be tossed about like little children by the winds of life.

Jesus then tells us that the wise man’s house will not fall during the test.  It was tough and difficult, but the house was on a strong foundation, so it did not fall.  Those who put their faith in Jesus will not be taken out by these storms of life that test us along the way.  Yet, the greatest test will be the test of death.

The approach of death proves the foundation of many a person.  When we stand before God and give account for our life, it won’t matter how good things looked.  Christ will know exactly the motivations of your heart and what you were building upon.  We do not want to fall in that judgment, but instead, we want Jesus to welcome us and enable us to stand.  And, he will!  We don’t have to live in fear because He can be trusted.  Yet, we must not fool ourselves that He knows the truth.

The person who does not do what Jesus says (v. 26-27)

Of course, many who hear his words will not build on them.  They do not do what he says.  This can be in an irreligious way.  They can completely walk away from God and live for themselves and a different “wisdom.”  Or, we can reject Jesus in a religious way.  Many would follow the religious leaders of Jesus day and use the fact that he was executed as proof that they were right.  We can also live a religious looking life, but internally be as atheistic as the irreligious man.

The man who hears and doesn’t do what Jesus says is being foolish and walking down a path of folly.  Proverbs 12:15 says, “The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he who heeds counsel is wise.”  Whose wise counsel do we need to heed?  The counsel of Jesus! 

Jesus pictures this as building upon the sand.  Sand is simply disintegrated rock.  We can use our human wisdom to cherry pick the words of Jesus, those we like versus those we don’t.  Yet, the wisdom of Christ is not disintegrated.  It is an absolute whole.  If you reject his wisdom in one place, then you are also rejecting the parts that you think you accept.  An eclectic picking and choosing may feel like you are gaining wisdom.  However, think about who is doing the choosing.  How can I be obtaining wisdom by being the one to pick and choose?  Have I not made my foolish self a wisdom unto myself?  Like crossing a creek on stepping stones, we can do quite well for a while.  We can develop principles like never using wet rocks.  Yet, you will eventually reach that large rock that is dry and looks substantial, but when you jump to it, it wobbles and you fall into the water.  Not all such falls lead to the end of our life.  In such a case, we have the grace of recognizing that our wisdom can’t always determine the best course forward.  We need One who has gone there before us, and that is Jesus.

Notice that the foolish man’s house is tested by the same tests of life as the wise man’s house.  The blessing of the storms of life along the way is that we have rebukes that warn us that we are not building on the rock.  We can then choose wisdom.  Of course, it will not be a download of all wisdom in an instant.  The situation may have been bad, but it will bring forth good, if I will place my failure on the altar of God and ask for His help.

We can move from the storm imagery to the imagery of melting down ore.  When the heat is turned up on our lives, we may pray for God to take it away.  Then, we see ourselves melting and falling apart.  We then desperate cry for God to save us from melting.  Yet, God uses it to bring impurities to the surface.  If we will listen to Him, He will help us to scrape them off and be cast into a new mold.

Regardless, all lives are tested, both in the now, and later at the throne of God.  This is what makes the foolish man foolish.  Somehow, he believes that he can cut corners and that his building will be good enough.  He believes that he can disregard God’s Word and still build something substantial.  That is the folly of it.  You were warned and have countless examples around you everyday.  Yet, you persist in following the lusts of your flesh, the lusts of your eyes and the pride of life.

Sometimes the tests of life come in the form of a loved one who dies early.  God why did you let that happen?  It can come through persecution, deception, even a loved one who walks away from Christ.  Regardless, we will all be tested.  Have you built your life on the words of Jesus, or followed the hypocrites and only made it look like you were following him?

A fool’s life may even look like it has held together quite nicely all the way to death.  Yet, God is not mocked, and He is never fooled.  Do you remember the story of the Rich Man and Poor Lazarus?  The rich man looked righteous, but he ended up in torments in the grave.  Lazarus looked abandoned by God in this life, but when he died, he ended up in the paradise of Abraham’s Bosom.  The greatest test of death is faced by all.  A foolish man goes into eternity betting that he will not be held accountable to these words of Jesus, but he will.

We cannot imagine the magnitude of stepping into eternity and being found as wise or foolish.  The best thing that can happen to a person building on sand is that their house can collapse before death.  At least then, they have a wake up call and can choose to build properly.  The thief on the cross was in such a moment.  He didn’t have much time to build, but he took his stand upon the Rock, the Lord Jesus, and it was enough. 

Jesus says that the foolish man’s house will fall, and great will be its fall.  The fall of national Israel in the first century was a great fall because the leadership refused to build upon Messiah, Jesus, the Rock.  Down through history, individuals, empires and nations have continued to walk this same path of choices.

America also faces this today.  We have been building on sand for a very long time, and we are seeing our building fall apart all around us.  This is the grace of God.  Even now, God is pleading with us.  Why will you die?  Choose life!  May God help us to be a witness, a light, salt and a city on the hill to our own people.  Forget about America being a city on a hill for the world.  We need Christians who will stand up and be a city on the hill to our own republic!  This is the only truly wise thing that we can do.  May the Lord Jesus help us to build on the Rock!

Build on the Rock audio

The Sermon on the Mount XVI

Subtitle:  Revealing Areas that are Pitfalls for Hypocrisy III

Matthew 7:1-6.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on April 7, 2024.

We are going to look at the second area that is a pitfall for hypocrisy in our life today.  It is in the area of relationships with other people, particularly difficult people. 

Even when we hold people in higher esteem than things (see the last two sermons in this series), there are certain people that we have trouble loving, or even getting along with them.  This area of how we deal with difficult people in our life can set us up for becoming hypocritical.

Let’s look at our passage.

In our relationship with people (v. 1-6)

Most people in the world are very familiar with the first two words of Matthew 7:1.  They can quote these two words far quicker than John 3:16.  “Judge not!”  Or, a loose paraphrase, “Don’t be judging me!”  Of course, this is not the whole sentence, and the sentence separated from the context can be misleading.

Think about when you were a kid.  If you selectively picked words out of what your parents said, and pretended like that is what they said, would they be happy with that?  Parent:  “Son, under no circumstances are you to go to the party at Bobby’s house.  I know that his parents are gone for the weekend.”  Son thinks to himself.  “hmm.  Dad said “go to the party at Bobby’s house!”  No parent is going to accept that kind of selective hearing.  The son will be in trouble.  This is what many do with the Bible when they take those first two words as a shield for all manner of sins.  “Don’t judge me!”

However, this is not exactly what Jesus is getting at, and the rest of the verses make this abundantly clear.  Jesus gives us a maxim, or pithy saying, that is very general, but it gets you thinking.  Notice that the rest of the verse says, “Judge not…that you be not judged.”    There is a connection here between the first judgment and a second judgment that will come later.  The emphasis is not on a blanket statement of never making a judgment.  Rather, it is an emphasis your judgment being directly connected to a judgment that will come later.   It is better to see this as a strong warning that cannot be separated from the consequence of being judged yourself.  It calls for us to look down the road at how my current judgment of a person could affect my own judgment.

It's purpose is not to create a world where we never make judgments, but rather a world in which we are all very careful in the judgments that we do make.  It is sort of like a sign that says, “Road closed, bridge out ahead.”  Many people who take the time to read that sign will go a different route and save themselves a lot of time.  However, another person may read that sign and drive on by it, not because they ignored the sign, but because they considered it and recognized that their house is on this side of the bridge.  It is okay for them to drive by the sign.  Yet, notice that they will have taken the time to consider the sign and the warning it was giving.

Verse 2 drives home this point of a consequential judgment, which is what Jesus is really getting at.  Essentially, he tells us that we will receive back the kind of judgment and the measure of judgment that we give to others.  Thus, if you are tough in your judgments of others and you do it a lot, then expect a lot of tough judgments coming back your way.

This begs the question.  Just who is this future judge that Jesus has in mind?  We might imagine that he is simply saying that we should be judgmental to others so that they will not be judgmental towards us.  However, our life experience tells us that this is not how it generally works.  No matter how well you do something, there will be people who like it and people who don’t like it.   People’s judgments of you often have nothing to do with how you have judged them or others. 

Jesus is talking about God judging us, whether His temporal judgments during our life, or His eternal judgment at the end of our life.  Be careful how you judge people because you are going to receive from God the same kind of judgment, and in the same measures, that you gave to others.  Can you survive that?

This does not mean that we can cause God to judge that our sin is okay by not judging the sin of others in our life.  However, this ties to his statement, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.”  He doesn’t mean from others, but from God.  Of course, cursed are the unmerciful for they shall not receive mercy.

So he is concerned with how we judge and our quickness to do so.  We are not being wise and are not carefully thinking through what God might think about this.

In verses 3 to 5, we see that Jesus does not intend for us never to judge the actions of a person.  He is rather concerned with our hypocritical tendency never to judge ourselves the way we judge others.

I have actually had a co-worker come up to me and ask me to get a wood chip out of their eye.  He was working with a chainsaw, and a chip landed between his eyelid and eyeball.  There was no damage, but the eye was extremely aggravated, and he had been trying to remove it by himself for a while.   It was large enough that I was able to sweep it out with my finger.  I still remember his sigh of relief when I got it out.

This illustration of specks and planks that Jesus gives are actually about sins and faults that we may see in one another.  They are not good (literally or metaphorically), and life is better when they are removed.  Yet, we can be guilty of having great mercy, and seeing the best motivations, in all that we do, and then having no mercy for others (at least for certain others that we don’t like).

You may be correct in your judgment that they have a fault, or a sin, in their eye.  However, you could be overlooking the fact that you have something much worse going on in  your own eye (life).  This does present a comical image of a guy who has a board sticking out of his eye and telling his brother that he has a speck in his eye.  “Hey, let me fix that speck for you!”

Jesus speaks about our motivation.  “Why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?”  What is going on in your heart and life that you spend a lot of your time judging the condition of others, but you don’t even take a second to consider bigger issues in your own life?  If we took just one second to consider our own faults and sins, it might make us a different person.

He also touches on the audacity of it.  “Or how can  you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?”  Yeah, just how are you able to justify such hypocrisy?  Don’t you know that God sees your poor job of acting righteous?

Only a person who has cleared their own eye (or asked another to help them do it) can help another person clear theirs.  First of all, you can’t see clearly to fix someone’s speck when  you have a plank in your own eye.  Even if you genuinely wanted to help, you would only make things worse.  The power of having dealt with your own sin is that it helps you to be far more sensitive and careful towards others, instead of harsh and uncaring.

Jesus is not leading up to saying that we should never judge.  He is actually leading up to saying that we should spend time on fixing ourselves first, and then we will be able to rightly help our brother.  That will end up being a way that pleases God instead of bringing down His judgment upon us.

Verse 6 may look like it is unrelated, if you don’t look closely.  Even when you clear your own eye so that you can help your neighbor, you still need wisdom.  You may have a perfectly clear eye, have helped a thousand people clear their eyes.  You may even be a professional doctor of getting specks out of eyes.  But, the other person may not be interested in you removing their speck.  In fact, they may not agree that they have a speck.  Perhaps, they simply don’t like you and don’t want you poking and prodding in their eye.  We need the wisdom of God that is supplied by the Holy Spirit in our life.

Jesus uses the images of dogs and  swine.  Dogs represented people who had given themselves over to wickedness.  They are people who give no thought to God and His ways.  Instead, they love to do the opposite.  Swine were connected to Gentiles who were separated from God.  These are both pictures of the spiritual state of individuals who surely have many specks and planks in their eye.  Yes, they need them removed.  However, they won’t take kindly to it.  They will end up trampling you if you aren’t careful.  If a person is not ready to be helped, whether that is a lost person hearing the gospel, or a Christian brother who is offended and doesn’t want our help, then we should back off and pray for them.

Notice that he pictures it as throwing holy things to dogs.  The holy thing is helping a brother or sister remove moral specks or even character specks in their life.  Holy places require special caution.  When you are going to meddle in the spiritual life of a person, always remember that this is a place that God is working on them.  You represent a holy God who is wanting to help them become holy.  It is a holy work.  You may want to remove your shoes and tread lightly.  This is God’s work and you can help him only by being sensitive to that.

A follower of Christ should be able to help others because they have been working on themselves, and they are being careful to be led by God.

Let me close by dealing with Jesus referring to some people as dogs and swine.  We can be quick to be offended, but he is not saying that people are born dogs/swine, and will always be such.  Similar to the parable of the soils, the point is not that we are stuck in categories.  Rather, that people may be ready, they may not be ready.  They may be repentant, or they may be given over to sin at the moment.  There is a timing of God that all people who want to help others would do good to heed.  Wait for it.  Pray for it.  In fact, you may not be the one who God uses to help them remove the speck.  However, you have still helped them by being a person who prayed for them, and were careful not to injure them through insensitivity to your own sin and insensitivity to their readiness to receive help.

May God help us to judge carefully and have His heart of love for others.

Pitfalls for Hypocrisy audio

Father, Turn Our Hearts

Luke 1:11-17.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on June 20, 2021, Father’s Day.

We are celebrating Father’s Day.  It is easy in life to let your heart turn towards the things that it wants to turn towards.  It doesn’t help when you have a society that elevates following the heart over doing what is right and pleasing God.

Don’t get me wrong.  Sometimes, God puts things in our hearts, but the follower of Jesus will wrestle with those things, seeking to be intellectually honest before God.  They desire more to follow him than to follow their own heart.

Today, we will look at a man who was grieved by the fact that he and his wife couldn’t have any children, and through his interaction with an angel, we are reminded of God the Father’s heart for us.

Let’s look at our passage.

The Father’s impact

In this passage, we are not told whether Zacharias was praying for a child that day in the temple.  He was a priest who had been picked by lot to offer the incense in the Holy Place before the veil, and the Presence of God.  We are told that he and his wife were “well advanced in years.”  This probably means that his years of praying for a child had long since ceased, and his hopes for such had long since died.

God the Father chose a particular day, when it looked like there was no hope, and in fact he wasn’t even looking to see if there was hope anymore.  It was at that moment that He sent an angel to give Zacharias the good news.  God had a present for him, a large measure of grace; he was going to have a son!  As exciting as this news was to Zacharias, notice that this grace is not all about him and his wife.  It is also about the nation of Israel and its need to turn back to God.  We must always remember that the grace of God in our life is a present from a loving Father, but it is also intended to bless more than just me.  It is our natural tendency to be short-sided in regard to the grace of God in our life.

This is probably the first time that Zacharias has seen an angel.  Though we are not given a description in Luke, the angel explains that he is Gabriel who stands in the presence of God.  This angel called Gabriel also interacted with Daniel in Daniel chapters 8 and 9.  There he is described as looking like a man (no wings).   So, it is most likely not what Gabriel looks like that startles Zacharias, but the fact that no one is supposed to be in the Holy Place at that time, but him.

There are things that can make men afraid.  Zacharias is a righteous man who has been serving God “blamelessly.”  It would be easy to say that a righteous man shouldn’t fear anything, even that we shouldn’t fear God; He is on our side!  However, God still does things, or allows things, in our life that we can’t control, and that we weren’t expecting.  Fear is a natural response in these times.

Many fathers try to look like they aren’t afraid, but if we don’t keep our heart and eyes turned towards God, we can become entangled in a web of fears.  You can spend your life trying to become greater than your fears, or you can turn to the One who is greater than all that you fear.  In fact, when we are not living right before God, we often fear things that we shouldn’t.  Proverbs 28:1 says, “The wicked flee when no man pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion.”  We can become trapped by a mixture of real things and figments of our warped imagination.

The real problem in life is not that we fear, but that we are truly bad at fearing the right things.  There are many fathers today who are not afraid to abandon their children, or they are not afraid to help a girl abort their baby.  They aren’t afraid to abuse the woman that they are with.  Really, they don’t fear God who has warned those who do such things of the consequences of the things they are doing.  We are not afraid to play God in our labs, businesses, and government buildings.  We are not afraid of throwing off the time-proven wisdom of the past for the seduction of a future that we think we can control.  Yes, the real problem is that we aren’t afraid of running off the cliff with all the other lemmings.

In the end, God is not a danger to those who serve Him in love.  I should add a caveat to this.  It all comes down to the definition of “danger.”  Jesus served the Father faithfully in love, but he died on a cross.  Yet, God is showing us through the resurrection of Jesus that any danger He purposefully brings before us, or even allows to come before us, has a way through it that brings us to the good things that He intends for us on the other side.

In truth, He is a danger to our flesh, but He is Eternal Life, Peace, and Joy to our soul, and to our future.  He really does love you, and will bless you if you will turn to Him in faithful love.  Like Zacharias, we must be those ones who are rare in a land of men who have turned away from God.  We must pass that reality on to the next generation, both with our natural children and with the spiritual children that God brings into our lives.

The Father’s desire

As the angel describes God’s purpose for the child that Zacharias will have, we see the desire of our heavenly Father’s heart, and the things that were keeping Israel in bondage.

The term “children of Israel” is used in this context as a reference to generation, and not as a reference to age.  It is not talking about everyone under the age of 12, but of the current generation who had been birthed by the generation before.  It pictures each generation as Israel giving birth to the next generation of Israel.  The nation of Israel, both young and old, were the children of Israel, just as we today are the children of the United States of America. 

The problem with any nation is that our hearts get turned away from God the Father.  No matter how good our beginning may have been, all nations run into peril as more and more of their people turn their hearts away from God.  The Father’s desire was that the hearts of that generation be turned back towards Him.

We must not see God as a Father who is hurt and mad that His children don’t love Him.  Instead, we must see the reality of what happens to children who turn away from loving parents, and cast off their godly instruction.  Such children turn towards foolish things, and the path of folly always brings ruin to a person and to a nation.  God’s heart breaks over the folly that is taking over, not just our land, but all of the nations on this earth.  With a Father’s heart, He cries out, “Why will you die?  Choose Life, and turn back to Me!”

He also desires to turn the hearts of the fathers towards their children.  When our hearts are turned towards God, He teaches us to have our hearts turned towards each other in the right way.  There is a plague of fatherless children across our land.  Too many fathers have rejected the heavenly Father and His desire to turn their heart towards their wives and children.  This is not just a problem for fathers.  Mothers and children have the same problems too.

However, men, we must be bold as lions and care for the people that God has put in our lives.  Regardless of how they respond, we must love them and seek God’s best for them, by showing them what a righteous man looks like, and how he lives.  This world successfully seduces our hearts away from what really matters because it first seduced our heart away from God.  This is how Satan plunders us from the goodness and inheritance of God.

Ultimately, the Father desires to turn the disobedient towards the wisdom of the righteous.  Israel had become disobedient children.  They were fathers who were disobedient to the heaven Father, and children who were disobedient to earthly fathers.  They refused to hear the words of wisdom spoken through the righteous men of the past, and written down in the Bible.  In short, to turn is to repent.  There is a lot of turning going on in this world.  People turn from one thing to the next seeking their own happiness.  However, it is not good enough to repent of one fleshly pursuit to go after another.  The only repentance that will actually do you any good, and even do good for the people around you, is the repentance that turns all the way around back towards God.  Finally, when we are truly oriented towards Him, He is able to turn us back around to the people and things in our life in wisdom and righteousness, in a way that gives life, and not death.  May God help us to cast aside disobedience, hear the heart of a loving Father, and turn into the path of life!