OPEN: A great scholar was once asked about a young man who was in his class. The person said, "So and so tells me that he was one of your students." The scholar just smiled sadly and said, "Well, he may have attended my lectures, but he was not one of my students.”
What was that scholar saying? He was saying this young man showed up for class… but he wasn’t really THERE! He didn’t really take the teacher’s teachings seriously. He wasn’t there to learn – he was there to get a passing grade.
Jesus said: “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Luke 6:40
In other words a TRUE disciple isn’t someone who shows up for class. They’re not there just to put in their time. A true disciple is someone who wants to be LIKE their teacher. They are people who soak up everything they can learn because they want to please that instructor.
In fact, a true disciple is someone we might call “the teacher’s pet”. I looked up the term “Teacher’s Pet” online and this is one of the definitions I found: A Teacher’s pet is “a student in a class who is liked best by the teacher and therefore treated better than the other students.” (Cambridge Dictionary - https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/teacher-s-pet)
(PAUSE)
I want to be Jesus’ “teacher’s pet.”
I want Him to like me BEST.
In fact, God says He’s looking for folks like that. One of my favorite passages is in 2 Chronicles 16:9 NKJV and it says “the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him….”
God isn’t looking for the smartest kid in class. He’s looking for those who want to be His teacher’s pets, for men and women whose hearts are loyal to Him. And when He finds them He’s gonna SHOW Himself STRONG on their behalf.
Yes sir… I want to be Jesus’ teacher’s pet! And in this passage Jesus is telling us HOW to do that. There are a few things here we need to learn if we’re going to please Jesus.
And the first thing is this: "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned…” Luke 6:37
There’s a lot of people out there who THINK that Jesus is saying something here that He’s not saying. These are folks who are often involved with a lifestyle that is condemned in Scripture, and they know it. They’ll get drunk down at the bar; they’ll be sleeping with their girlfriend; they’ll be involved with homosexuality; they’ll curse like sailors; and (if you question what they’re doing) they’ll tell you “Jesus said ‘Judge not lest you be judged.’”
On the internet there’s a popular meme that says: “Don’t Judge. You’re not perfect!” In other words – I’ll live as I please and you have no right to tell me I’m wrong because you’re not perfect either.”
Now, I know it sounds kind of harsh – and I hesitate to say it this way – but I’m going to say it anyway: most of these people are hypocrites.
1st – they’re saying you shouldn’t pass judgment on them… but they’ve just passed judgment on YOU by saying that you’re not perfect! Of course, they’re right, but that’s a topic for another sermon. They point to your imperfection to get a pass on their own blatant sin and thus they judge you.
2nd – these folks will often judge others and avoid people who do things that upset them. Many Christians refer to this practice as “church discipline”, “excommunication” or “shunning”. You know what shunning is don’t you? It’s when a Christian confronts the sin in another Christian by refusing to eat with them or be in any kind of fellowship with them.
ILLUS: I have a relative that argued with me about that some time back. She was highly offended by this “shunning” that would take place in a church. She complained that churches were supposed to be a place love and acceptance and it was hypocritical for Christians to shut people off like that. Well, eventually that discussion ended… and about ½ an hour later she’s telling me all about someone that she disliked so much she wasn’t going to let that person back in her house EVER! What was she doing? Shunning.
3rd – these folks will quote Jesus, but they really don’t care much about anything else Jesus says. They don’t want to live the way Jesus would want them to, they just want to live the way they want to live and they don’t want Jesus (or you) telling them it’s wrong.
When Jesus talked about passing judgment He wasn’t saying that YOU SHOULDN’T SAY something is wrong. In fact, in John 7:24 Jesus said: “Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” You see… everybody makes “judgments” every day. Everybody has standards of morality and they make decisions repeatedly about what they will accept and what they won't accept. They repeatedly decide what is right and wrong for them, just like we do!
And Christians are COMMANDED to make those judgments. As a Christian I need to know what I SHOULDN’T BE doing!!! In Ephesians 4:17-19 God tells us “you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.”
You see, you have to make judgments all the time about what is right and what is wrong so that you don’t do that the bad stuff that God hates.
On top of that… how much do you have to hate someone to NOT tell them when you know their lifestyle is going to hurt them, or destroy them… or send them to hell? It would be immoral for us not to tell them that.
So, what was Jesus talking about - when He said not to judge or condemn others?
Well (Pause) He’s telling us that we’re not God. (Pause) You did know that didn’t you?
It’s one thing to stand against evil and oppose that which is wrong. It’s one thing to tell someone that their lifestyle is wrong and to boldly declare: This Isn’t Right! (Which we should do) To oppose same-sex marriage, abortion, transgenderism and such.
It’s one thing to stand against evil, but it’s quite another thing to DESPISE people who do those things. To cast them into outer darkness and to be glad they’re going to hell.
ILLUS: I did that recently. I was up at a local event uptown last week and I saw a man there that made me uneasy. At least I think he was a man – he had a beard (but nowadays you can’t even be sure about that). But it obvious he was intent on dressing like a woman – he had a pretty floral shorts outfit on. And I thought to myself – I don’t want have anything to do with a guy/girl like that. I judged him. I condemned him. I decided he wasn’t worth my time. I played God.
But Jesus said to avoid that mindset. Why? Well, people who live like that aren’t DEAD yet! They still have a chance to change their lives. They might just repent of their sins… and that’s what we want.
ILLUS: Commenting on this, Max Lucado says “Be careful. The Simon Peter who denies Jesus at tonight’s fire may proclaim him with fire at tomorrow’s Pentecost. The Samson who is blind and weak today may use his final strength to level the pillars of godlessness. The stuttering shepherd in this generation might be the mighty Moses of the next.” (Max Lucado from his book “In The Grip of Grace”)
These people aren’t dead yet! They still have a chance to change!!
So Jesus says – don’t condemn lest you be condemned. And then He says – “…forgive, and you will be forgiven” Luke 6:37
Now notice how absolute that statement is - “if you want to be forgiven – forgive”. Your forgiveness is tied to how you forgive others. In Matthew (Sermon on the Mount) Jesus taught His disciples to pray
“Pray like this: ‘Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom and the power and glory forever. Amen’” Matthew 6:9-13
Did you notice how Jesus expected us to ask the Father to “forgive us our debts?” That right – in the same was “we forgive our debtors.” But just in case you missed the connection, Jesus completes His teaching on how to pray with these words: “IF you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, BUT IF you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14-15
If we want to be like Jesus… we gotta learn to forgive. Otherwise – we will not be forgiven!!!
But why is that so important to Jesus? Why should He stress this so heavily? Because He wants us to be like Him… and this is what He did for us. He gave His life to forgive us all our sins. In fact, do you remember one of the last phrases Jesus said from the cross? “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Luke 23:34
So don’t condemn. Do forgive. And then Jesus said - learn to GIVE.
Luke 6:38 “give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Now, who am I supposed to be giving stuff to? A lot of people think this is talking about giving your gifts to God, but I’m convinced that this is NOT what Jesus is talking about.
You see, this whole section is talking about how we should deal with people we don’t like. DON’T judge/condemn; DO Forgive; and then – without taking a breath Jesus says GIVE!
But give to who?? Well - give to the people you don’t like. In fact, earlier in His sermon Jesus said: “… love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” Luke 6:35
What was He saying? He was saying GIVE things to your enemies.
Last Sunday we talked about the reason Jesus emphasized this idea of loving and giving to our enemies. We discussed the fact that God loved us even when we were His enemies (we were still dead in our trespasses) and He GAVE us His son. And now that we’ve become children of God, God expects us to love OUR enemies and to give things to them.
But I don’t want to. (long pause) I don’t want to give things to my enemies. I don’t like them. I don’t even want to be in the same room with them. AND I certainly don’t want to share anything with them. I mean – why waste good stuff on bad people!!!
But here Jesus is saying – you ain’t wasting anything. In fact – if you “give (to your enemy) it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38
ILLUS: Have you ever shaken a can of pop and then opened the lid on it? (Many people nodded their heads). It fizzes all over the place and you get all wet sticky! But – aside from the wet and sticky part – this is exactly what God says will happen for us if honor God in reaching out to our enemies to do things for them. God is essentially saying that if we do this for Him, He will make your cup run over.
ILLUS: Last week we talked about Romans 12:20 which told us to give food to your enemies. One of our visitors that Sunday was convicted about that. She wrote to us: “I have a coworker and we were friends. And then, for whatever reason, something happened and she was mad at me, and there was tension for the past couple of weeks. No clue still as to what happened, but I used what your preacher said in church the other day and “fed her”. Today is her birthday and I brought in a small plant and donuts! She was so happy and thankful that I thought of her!”
It works! Maybe not always that well, but eventually it makes a difference in our enemies.
SO Jesus said: DON’T judge. DON’T condemn. But DO forgive. And DO give
Then He sums it all up by saying: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
"For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:41-45
You see, what Jesus is saying is this: If you sit around complaining about how others have mistreated you then you’ll REACT to that person by being all mad and spiteful toward ‘em. You’ll start talking mean about them. And IF that’s how you’re going to act… then you need to understand “no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”
ILLUS: Last week I had Ralph (one of our church members) come out to my house to help me with my flower bed. I needed him to help me tell the difference between the weeds and plants. Yeah, seriously. I can’t tell the difference between good stuff and bad and I’d hate to pull up the good stuff. Anyway, there was this vine that had overgrown much of the garden. And this vine was covered with thorns and would yield a really useless berry. I asked Ralph if this was a good plant. Nope, he said. So we took a shovel to its roots and dug it out.
It’s that kind of thorny, worthless vine that we can become like if we allow ourselves to dwell on our enemies. And Jesus is saying here that if you’re gonna be as rotten as your enemy is INSIDE… then you’ll end up bearing the same kind of fruit they do. Out of the abundance of hate/anger/bitterness that’s in your heart (that’s the “treasure you’ve stored up” in your heart) your mouth will end up speaking bad stuff and you’ll prove you’ve become a BADDDDD TREE.
Jesus says: Don’t do that!!! Don’t go there!!! QUIT IT!!!
ILLUS: Then he tells us the way to stop doing that. He tells us to become the grownups in the room. He speaks of taking the log out of your eye before trying to remove the speck in theirs. Someone once explained this to me in a way I could understand. They said: when there’s a conflict between yourself and someone else you tend to see the problem as 95% THEIR fault and 5% yours (after all, you would never do anything like they have). But they tend to see the problem as being 95% YOUR fault and 5% theirs. They see the log in your eye as you try to get them see the speck in theirs. Thus, until you remove the log from your own eye (as they perceive it) they’re not going to listen to you. Thus Jesus calls us to be the grownups in the room. To do what needs done to remove the log from our eye so we can deal with the problem we see in their other person’s eye.
How do we do that? We go ask their forgiveness for having offended them (I picked a person in the audience out to do that). Notice, I didn’t tell them I was sorry… because if I simply said I was sorry they didn’t need to respond. But when I asked them to forgive me, they had to do something. They could either say “yes” or “no” or “I’ll think it over.” But at that point, the burden now lays with them.
And if I remove the log from my eye, I’m not in a better position to solve the problem that has hurt us… that has turned this person into my enemy… that has caused me to condemn them and not forgive them.
CLOSE: There’s a book, “An Invitation to Healing” by Lynda Elliott and in that book Lynda writes this:
When I was in my twenties I was badly hurt by a neighbor. For months, I replayed the hurtful scene in my mind, talking about it often with a friend. As I expressed my feelings over and over, my pain became deeper and more invasive. It was becoming a part of me.
But one day as I was reliving the scene again, my friend asked “Do you know we become like the people we think about most?”
Lynda said the Lord used that question as a wakeup call. She said, “I had a choice to make. If I choose to behold Jesus, to focus on Him, I could be transformed into His image (to become like our teacher). Likewise, if I continued to behold the image of my neighbor, I could be transformed into her image.”
INVITATION
