Strathalbyn Church of Christ

Matthew 7:1-12. Attitude. Sermon by Pastor David Williams.

Strathalbyn Church of Christ. 12 Mar 2023.

I rang my friend. She said, Did you hear that Harry wants to be reincarnated as an elephant? What foolishness! But I don’t need religion, she said, I’m a contented atheist. How can I reply? Should I just give up on her? Maybe I should pray, but I really don’t expect God to do anything. Oh, and what did she say about trouble with a neighbour. Maybe I should ring back and offer to help. But I haven’t got time to get involved.

Today’s message is all about attitudes – our poor attitudes to God and others. And just like my conversation, it picks up four themes:

1. Don’t judge.

2. Discern

3. Ask

4. Love.

1. Don’t judge!

7 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Clearly, Jesus is not against making judgments, because in the next verses he teaches us to be discerning of people he calls pigs, dogs and false prophets. Judging is bad, discerning is good. We need to discern the difference. It is one thing to say – you are wrong. Your words or your actions are wrong. That may be ok, even helpful. But judging then takes it a step further and says, I condemn you. Judging is the attitude that says, not just that you are wrong, but I condemn you. Condemning others, playing the judge, is a serious sin. Consider why.

- We devalue others.

Our fellow humans are made in God’s image. When we despise them for who they are, we are rubbishing God’s creation.

- We devalue God.

God alone is judge. We are not.

- We devalue the cross.

God, in his Son, paid the judgment for the sins of the whole world. When we try and judge, we are saying – the cross wasn’t good enough. So, I need to go and deal with the sins of others.

- We exalt ourselves.

Adam & Eve’s sin was wanting to be God – knowing good and evil. Playing the judge. It is the ultimate sin of pride to play the judge.

We all want to see justice done. It’s part of our DNA. We are unhappy when we see wicked people getting off scot-free.

We are often judgemental without realising it. Now this may seem trivial, but I have to confess to falling foul of this next example. Any story on Harry and Meghan will get lots of attention. And if we’re honest, often it is not for healthy reasons. Many have passed judgment that they are disloyal or hypocritical or greedy. And with that sense of justice we have, we want to see them get their just deserts. But what is behind all of this? Does it boil down to this? We don’t trust God as Judge of all the earth to sort it out in his good time but want to see it sorted out now according to our own idea of justice?

Don’t be a hypocrite!

3 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?

It requires steady hands and good eyesight to get a little speck out of another’s eye. Have you ever been in a dust storm and had to help a child while at the same time being bothered with the grit in your own eye. Imagine doing it with a whacking great plank sticking out of your eye. Jesus sure had a sense of the ridiculous!

When we try and correct others, we face several problems:

We are fallible. We don’t know what is in the mind of another. We haven’t walked in their shoes.

We are fallen. We are blinded by our own sins – we cannot make right judgments. CS Lewis said that what irritates us most about others is the very sin that we struggle with ourselves.

We are being hypocritical. We are pretending to help another with their little sins and get the kudos for our kindness while neglecting our own far greater faults.

Be a brother!

So, what do we do then? When others go astray, the answer is not – mind our own business. Rather, correct our own faults that we may then help others.

… first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

True, we must not be judgmental or hypocritical. But we are told to correct those who go astray – in their words and their actions. Jesus taught,

If your brother sins, go and point out their fault … Mt 18:15.

If we see a speck – a sinful behaviour – in our brother’s eye, it is not loving to leave it there. What doctor would see a malignant mole and say nothing to his patient? In dealing with others, we are not play the judge or the hypocrite, but the brother or sister. Tough love sometimes calls for tough words. This can provoke two reactions. As Proverbs says,

Reprove a wise man and he will love you

But it also says

Do not reprove a scoffer or he will hate you, Prov 9:8.

This leads to Jesus next teaching:

2. Discerning when to withdraw

6 “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.

What is holy? The person of God, his son Jesus and his work of salvation on the cross. I suspect a lot of the things we prize as holy are not. This church building is not holy.

But when should we withdraw? When should we hold back from telling the good news? This word from Jesus is not an excuse to say silent at the first sign of disinterest or opposition. Rather this word is for the one who shows a hardened contempt for God. Jesus – ever the realist – said there is a limit. Jesus taught that some would reject his kingdom and advised:

If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet, Mt 10:14 (cf., Acts 13:44-51, 18:5, 6; 28:17-28).

This advice is for extreme situations. It is easy for us to react and get angry on social media to criticisms of Christians. Frankly, we often deserve some of it. We all too quickly write off our opponents as beyond all hope.

Jesus could be brutal in his language. But we should be very slow to think of anyone as pigs or dogs. The evangelist John Stott had thousands of conversations with unbelievers but could recall only one or two cases where he thought it right to stop the conversation. Our normal duty is to be patient and to turn the other cheek in the face of ridicule and slander. We should always seek opportunities to share the words of eternal life to those living in death, ignorance, and darkness. Don’t be put off too easily. Remember what is at stake. Recall Paul’s advice to Timothy:

Preach the word. Be urgent, whether the time is favourable or not. Convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching, 2 Tim 4:2.

3. Ask boldly.

What should we do then, with family and friends who are utterly closed to the gospel? Ignore them? Give up on them? No way. Ask and ask boldly!

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Jesus tells us to ask with great confidence. He gives us 4 incentives to do so

1. How should we ask? Boldly!

Don’t be tentative. Don’t think of prayer as wishful thinking. Rather, approach prayer like a child. A child who wants something and knows where to get it. She has no doubt about it – no hesitation at all. Remember when you were fast asleep and the silence of the night was shattered with – Dad, I’m thirsty! You turn over and pretend you didn’t hear. Asking didn’t work so the seeking starts. At the door, Dad are you in there? I’m thirsty! You answer, Go back to bed, it’s the middle of the night! Asking and seeking didn’t work but she has another weapon in her arsenal, so the knocking starts. Dad, wake up, I’m thirsty!

That is how we should approach prayer, like a child who knows where to get help and doesn’t get put off.

2. Who should ask? Everybody!

God will respond to the prayers of all his children. Jesus doesn’t say, only those who are really good will receive. He’s not some Santa Claus. No,

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you… 8 For everyone who asks receives,

You don’t have to be super spiritual. God doesn’t play favourites. God has promised to respond to everyone who asks. God will answer your prayer.

3. Why should we ask?

God is able and willing to meet our needs. He is able. For we pray to our Father in heaven. He is the all-powerful God. Nothing is too hard for him.

And he is willing. For we pray to _Abba Father. _We have thousands of examples of Jewish prayers from ancient times. But only Jesus prayed to God using this intimate family term, Abba, meaning Daddy.

Jesus spoke also of earthly fathers.

9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?

Some fathers do appalling things to their children. Some do trick them by giving a stone dressed up as bread or harm them with a serpent instead of a fish. And some cannot hear the word “Father” without hateful distressing memories. But whatever your experience, don’t ever make the mistake of imagining God in the image of your own father. If you want to know the true Father, then look to his split image – the Son. Jesus said, If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. We can only know the Father by knowing the Son.

Earthy fathers – all of us - are a mix of good and evil. Jesus knew that we are evil by nature – that is from birth we are selfish and rebellious. But even the worst of us can do good.

11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

How much more – it is a common argument Jesus uses. If selfish, forgetful and irrational dads give good gifts, how much more your heavenly Father – who is kind, loving and perfect. When we pray then, we should come boldly and confidently like a little child, with complete trust that our kind and capable Father will provide.

But! With prayer, there are many buts.

1. But God knows?

But why bother asking God when he already knows what we need? Jesus said so in the last chapter:

Don’t heap up empty phrases like the Gentiles … for your Father knows what you need before you ask him, Mt 6:7-8.

True, God does know. A parent usually knows what their child needs before they ask. God doesn’t spoil his children. He doesn’t shower his gifts on us whether we want them or not. Rather, he wants us to trust him, to learn to depend on him. Prayer is not so much trying to make God listen as preparing ourselves to receive – learning to wait on him patiently, trusting him to provide the things we truly need.

2. But why bother?

But why bother praying when people get what they need anyway. True, most people get what they need without prayer. Our pagan neighbours get an income and medical care without praying. So why bother? We need to understand the difference between God’s common grace – the gifts he gives to all his creatures like the sun and rain; and God’s saving grace – his forgiveness and salvation. As his children, it is good to depend on God for both sorts of grace, really for everything – for our daily bread as well as his forgiveness. But when it comes to God’s saving grace, prayer is a vital part of God’s plan. It is the way he has arranged things. Jesus called us to pray to the Lord of the harvest. Paul tells us everyone who calls upon the Lord will be saved, Rom 10:12, 13. God requires us to pray so that people will be saved.

3. But God doesn’t answer.

But what about when God doesn’t answer prayer. Again, it is true. Sometimes we ask and it is not given. And the problem is not lack of faith. The prosperity gospel teaches that if you have faith, whatever you ask for will be given. They are false prophets and false apostles who abuse God’s word. They blame the sick for their failure to be healed. They say, God hasn’t healed you because you don’t have enough faith. It is your fault.

Noone could say Jesus or Paul lacked faith. Yet both experienced God’s refusal. Three times Jesus pleaded “Father take this cup from me”. Three times Paul pleaded for his thorn to be removed. Yet both prayers were refused.

God does not promise to give us the answers we want – God is not an obedient genie in a bottle who will supply our every wish. And what a good thing it is too. Think of all the fairy tales about getting your wishes granted. They never turned out well. Remember the one about King Midas – foolishly he wished that whatever he touched would turn to gold? We don’t know what to ask for, but it is well that our Father knows how to

give good things to those who ask him.

We can trust God to always answer our prayers of faith, but we cannot predict what his answers will look like. We can pray with great confidence, knowing Father is good and gives good gifts. There is great freedom in this for we don’t have to worry about asking for the wrong thing, for Father will always give us the right thing.

4. Generous love

In praying, we need to pray according to God’s will. How do we know what God’s will is? The next verse sums it up.

12 Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.

Earlier teachers had taught something similar – although it was the flip side of this – stated in the negative:

Don’t do to others what you would not wish done to yourself.

Confucius, the Stoics and Jewish teachers all taught in this way. But Jesus was far more demanding.

`12 Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you.

Take positive action! Go and treat others as you yourself would like to be treated. Put yourself in their shoes. Ask, how would I like to be treated? And act accordingly.

This rule, the Golden rule, is so simple. And because it is so simple we can miss how far reaching and challenging it is. If a society lived by this one rule, we could dispense with almost every other rule and law. All the lawyers would be out of a job. No wonder Jesus concluded:

for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

The Law – as far as it relates to our fellow humans – is truly summed up in this one rule. It is challenging too, for love is challenging. How do I know what my neighbour needs? It takes imagination and understanding – getting into another’s shoes. It takes work. It means being available and flexible and putting your time, resources and energies at his disposal. A principal of a Bible college, a very busy man, would often approach someone who looked downcast, and say simply, Hello, can I help you in any way? That is risky. Some might even say foolish. But it looks a lot like what Jesus was teaching here.

Summary

- Do not judge but be discerning.

- Pray boldly.

- And live the Golden rule.

Source:

· Stott J. R. W. (2020). The message of the Sermon on the Mount: Christian Counter-Culture (Revised). IVP Academic

Series: Matthew

Topics: #Matthew , #Judging , #Discernment , #Prayer , #Love