A Dog and a Pig

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Service 2: Baby Dedication

Let’s Jump into today’s message.

If you are new to our church today, it would be helpful for you to know that we practice a form of preaching called “Expository Preaching”.

What that means, is we believe the Bible is best taught by taking books of the Bible and then breaking them down from beginning to end, chapter by chapter, verse by verse. Our goal, to better understand not only what God’s Word says, but what it means in our lives today.

We are currently walking through the NT book of Matthew.

We have been going through a really long section of Matthew known as the Sermon on the Mount.

Last week we jumped into Chapter 7 with a message on

verses 1-5

Matthew 7:1–5 CSB

1 “Do not judge, so that you won’t be judged. 2 For you will be judged by the same standard with which you judge others, and you will be measured by the same measure you use. 3 Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.

Last week I got really passionate in second service and I had several people reach out to me asking if they were being targeted.

While I want to say I did not intentionally target anyone specifically, I struggle to. There were several in the room who have made Judgments against fellow Christians and I think it kind of got to me.

Pastoring is hard. People look at us and feel a since of freedom to say what ever they want without stopping to realize we are humans too. With all the human stuff and sometimes that human stuff be comes to much to hold in.

Especially when you know that families are walking out the doors every Sunday and heading home to eat you and everything they believe you said wrong for lunch.

You see the issue is not judgement.

The Bible is full of calls for Judgement.

What Jesus is against is this idea of Personal Judgements.

The problem with Personal Judgements is they become religiocentric beliefs that take hold of our identity.

Rabbi Feldman often says that in the Seventies the used to say all the time that Jesus saves us from our Identity Crisis.

The Negative Other.

Jesus Came to get rid of the negative other.

You can’t love others if your only thinking about or protecting yourself or your ideas.

The only way for Judgements to be done properly is if they are done Judicially.

Judicial judgement finds it’s authority in the Word of God.

None of the Gospel writers ever contradict Jesus.

So if your interpretation Contradicts Jesus and how he dealt with people it is the wrong interpretation.

Now let’s move on to the next verse.

Matthew 7:6 CSB

6 Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them under their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces.

This has been one of the most difficult studies of scripture I have ever gone through.

I looked at 5 different commentaries and 1 other sermon and all of them had a different interpretation.

However, the all of them agree on what it is not speaking.

Don’t cast what is holy before someone who will reject it.

This idea that we are supposed to withhold the Gospel from certain people that we perceive before hand that will reject it.

This contradicts

Matthew 28:19–20 CSB

19 Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Or how Jesus told the disciples to handle rejection.

Luke 9:5 CSB

5 If they do not welcome you, when you leave that town, shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”

So now that that is cleared up lets look at the 5 different view points.

Herbert Basser pointed me towards

Proverbs 11:22 CSB

22 A beautiful woman who rejects good sense is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout.

He disagrees with the transation of the Arabic word quadashin as Holy things and believes the better translation is Gold rings.

So his interpretation involved not casting wisdom to a believer who accept good sense.

Boy do I understand that one.

Dr Arnold Fruchtenbaum: referred to the Jesus basically telling the Disciples to not expect the Pharisees to accept these truth.

A Jab at the overly religious.

In a beautiful and well thought out sermon Steven Armstrong likens Casting Pearls before swine and holy thing before dogs to extending morality to pagans without first sharing the Gospel and salvation message with them.

Cohabitators

Rabbi Barney Kasdan

Again Points to Proverbs 11:22

Proverbs 11:22 CSB

22 A beautiful woman who rejects good sense is like a gold ring in a pig’s snout.

Matthew Presents Yeshua, King Messiah (A Messianic Commentary) Rendering Judgment 7:1–6

In another strikingly humorous statement, Yeshua notes that we are not to throw our pearls to the pigs. The vision of this unkosher animal sporting a valuable necklace would surely stir up some laughs in that crowd (cf. Prov. 11:22). However, in the spiritual realm, the metaphor becomes quite serious. The same pigs will not only trample the jewelry under their feet but will also then turn and attack you. The lesson is clear. Those who have no discernment about the distinction between the holy and the profane will have no appreciation for the spiritual riches of Yeshua. In fact, some will become downright antagonistic! If a person is so turned off by the treasures of the New Covenant, then it is better not to confront them further. There are many people even in our day who are seeking and hungry for what Yeshua offers. Our time is better spent with those who want to dialogue in a respectful manner.

So which is it.

Once again I was perplexed and somewhat frustrated so I turned to Rabbi Feldman.

He pointed me towards a really good Article by Colby Martin.

He started out the article by saying

“One of the rookie mistakes I made in my early preaching days was to assume that each passage of the Bible has one-and only one meaning.”

He likened the Word of God to a diamond.

He stated that one thing that Christianity has lost form Judiasm is that the sacred text has many meanings.

Diamond.

At first glance we see surface level stuff at another glance it goes deeper.

Then he flipped the script

Budda

Pearl irritation and Gold is dirt

What if my pearl or Gold ring is an irritation to those around me and my view of them as dogs or swine is not actually their problem but mine.

The problem with identity is it leads to judgement in order to protect it.

How is it that we want mercy for ourselves and judgement for others.

You want to know if you are judgmental. Ask yourself if you are frustrated or offended right now.

I leave you today with one statement and a question.

The Statement: The number one characteristic of a disciple is the desire to be corrected by the one who is discipling them.

The Question: How are we going to continue to let Jesus redefine and establish our identity in contradiction to what we believe our identity is?

Let’s Pray