The Disciple's Relationship

Introduction

How many of you have thought about how your friendships began?

How many of them have been intentional? I mean you saw someone and began the process of getting to know them better.

How many of your friendship have grown accidentally? It began at work, at a coffee shop, maybe over an accident, however the case. What makes your friendship grow?

How many have a friendship that has lasted most of your life? There are some of my friends that I went to church with as a child, that I am still connected with them on Facebook. There is one who’s family, was a key part of my childhood church and we are still in touch. I wouldn’t say they are close, but they are still friends.

What about those deep friendships. Those ones who you have that you long to see them again, and when you do, the time quickly passes and you have to depart.

Maybe your sitting here this morning and you are lonely. The friendships I have been describing are not within your grasp. It doesn’t matter how long you have been in one place or another, friendship are key in a disciple’s life.

I am hoping you are beginning to understand and recite the definition we have been working through. A definition that should motivate you to as a disciple of Christ.

We have been learning that a disciple is one

who is seeking to know God, while being transformed into the image of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, in the context of community.

Are you on that journey? Are you seeking to know God, and then know him more?

Is your life one described as being transformed into the image of Christ.

Speaking of transformation, we often look at pictures of before and after when we think of transformation.

In one house that Heather and I bought in Ontario, it needed a transformation.

The day we received the keys, our stuff, was placed into the garage, and the basement and the upstairs went through a transformation, while we moved into a temporary house.

It began by tearing out the old.

I recall one day, Heather came in to see and she expected progress. But every time she came, one more layer was removed. The kitchen had to be stripped back to the rough in order for the transformation to happen.

As a disciple being transformed into the image of Christ, takes on various stages in the transformation.

Today’s scripture is one of the scriptures that takes about stripping out the old in preparation for being new into the image of Christ.

Let’s read today’s scripture passage in its entirety

Scripture

Matthew 7:1–11 ESV

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 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? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, 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. “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. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 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!

Let’s pray

Judge Not

Speaking of relationships, have you ever lost a relationship?

Sometimes in the midst of the context of community, there are problems. Our human nature slips in and there develops a conflict. When not resolved, they often end up broken, bruised and damaged.

Jesus recognized that in his disciples and began to speak to them about their relationships with one another.

Matthew 7:1 ESV

“Judge not, that you be not judged.

I wonder what one would think if they one day opened up the Bible for the first time and did one of those,

“Let’s see what God is going to tell me today”

and they opened up their bible to this passage.

Judge not.

Is this an absolute statement, absolute for all cases in our relationship with one another.

I was listening this week to the radio and Phil Calaway was speaking and he relaid a story of a women in Florida who made a judgement call.

As the story goes, she was walking out of the grocery story with her arms full of groceries and her purse. Upon approaching her car, she noticed that here were four young men in her car.

She quickly jumped into action, dropping her groceries, pulling her gun out of her purse and ran to the car.

She began waving her hand with the gun yelling, get out of my car, I have a gun and I am not afraid to use it.

The four young men wasted no time an quickly fled the scene.

Shaking, she gathered her groceries, returned to the car, and sat down in the car.

She then noticed a basketball, gym bag, and a case of pop in the back seat.

She quickly realized that she was in the wrong car.

The story doesn’t end there. She gathered her belongings, found her car and drove directly to the police station to report her crime.

The officer upon hearing her story began to chuckle to himself and quickly pointed to the bench in the office where four men were sitting shaking describing to another officer that there was a crazy lady out there shaking a gun.

Judgement. We have all leaped to judgments. Some Good, some bad.

I want to let you know that this judgement described in verse one is the type of judgement used in a court of law.

It is final. Unchangeable.

If you take the verse alone with out other references, you would build your relationship without any chance to challenge one another.

We must take this verse in the context of the whole.

I have met people over the years that will not speak to anyone about a wrong that has been done to them.

You may have heard, “it’s not my place to judge”

This is not the full implication of these verses.

The Message of the Sermon on the Mount a. The Christian Is Not to Be a Judge (1, 2)

Next, our Lord’s injunction to ‘judge not’ cannot be understood as a command to suspend our critical faculties in relation to other people, to turn a blind eye to their faults (pretending not to notice them), to eschew all criticism and to refuse to discern between truth and error, goodness and evil.

When we live in the context of community, there is a time when sharpening one another requires that we challenge each other.

that’s mot judgement

Later in the verse Jesus describes, “When you do. When you talk with another” it requires action.

The judgement is one of contempt.

Jesus makes this statement then goes on to defend and show us how we are to interact with one another.

He is talking about Contempt for another. It is the idea of passing a judgement and holding them in contempt for their actions.

Folks this can be hard. Has someone failed you. I mean a real failure.

In one form or another they have done something that requires a judgement.

Judge not

They have broken your trust to the point of no return.

Judge not

There are consequences to these actions, but Jesus is telling his disciples not to pass final judgement.

This is where it is hard. IT has hurt, it was painful. It cost our friendship

Judge not,

But why?

Jesus goes on to say why

Are we able to pass a clear judgement.

Think about that for a moment. Have you broken any of God’s laws. Are we perfectly innocent in God’s eyes.

Jesus said

Matthew 7:2 ESV

For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

I don’t know fully about you, I can only image, but for me, left to myself, I have pretty high standards as how others should act.

Have I taken those standards and applied them to my life? Can I fulfill the expectations I have towards others and have them apply to me?\

Jesus warns us not to do it.

He is warning us not to be a judge of people’s motives and actions.

one author puts it this way

The Message of the Sermon on the Mount a. The Christian Is Not to Be a Judge (1, 2)

The censorious critic is a fault-finder who is negative and destructive towards other people and enjoys actively seeking out their failings. He puts the worst possible construction on their motives, pours cold water on their schemes and is ungenerous towards their mistakes.

The Message of the Sermon on the Mount a. The Christian Is Not to Be a Judge (1, 2)

To sum up, the command to judge not is not a requirement to be blind, but rather a plea to be generous. Jesus does not tell us to cease to be men (by suspending our critical powers which help to distinguish us from animals) but to renounce the presumptuous ambition to be God (by setting ourselves up as judges).

b. The Christian is not to be a hypocrite (3, 4)

Matthew 7:3–4 ESV

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? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye?

I read a book in college by Elton trueblood called the humour of Christ.

If you begin to read through the gospels you will see various passages showing the humor of Christ as he talked with his disciples.

This is one of those passages.

I was searching the internet for a picture that displays the humor in this passage. I found one, but could not find it’s owner as it is copyrighted.

But I must tell you about the picture.

There is a man standing pointing at another while he has a beam coming out of his eye. Makes sense according to this verse; however, the cartoonist ads another man pointing at the man and saying,

Look man you have a log in your eye, meanwhile, he has a full tree growing out of his.

Not only is it a log, but it is taking root.

Folks it is honestly quite simple, easy, and often the case, to find fault in others.

I am afraid to say, we sometimes look for the specks.

Jesus is once again reminding us to look inward first.

Do you wake up in the morning, or look inward at night for the various specks of sin that we have in our lives. Are we spending time on our knees before God asking that he show us those things in our lives that need washing from God’s power.

Jesus said, when we do this, then and only then, are we able to see clearly to comment on the other’s problems.

It will honestly put our viewpoint in perspective.

Notice that Jesus didn’t stop at the speck in our eye. He encourages us to help each other removal of our specs.

but Removal requires a clear view.

Removal requires an understanding of what is the cost of the removal because we ourselves have gone through the process of cleaning our own life.

If there wasn’t removal happening, we would all be walking around with large growths coming out of our eyes.

Not owning up to the sin in our lives, and pointing fingers of the tremendous growth in each others with very little life to show for it.

As disciples of Christ, let’s begin with a fresh cleansing of our eyes and the sin in our lives so that we can help each other.

Later in the service we will be celebrating and remembering the Lords work in this world for our sin.

We will be taking part in an act of remembrance of the sacrifice Jesus did for us.

His body was broken for us, he shed his blood for us as a way to bring about peace with God.

1 Corinthians 11:28–29 ESV

Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

Paul reminded the believers in Corinth of Christ’s words in Matt 7

Self examination.

As we will enter that time, will you take a moment and listen to God speaking to you about the specks in your eyes. Confess them to God and allow him to remove them from your life

then we can come to his table with one another with a clear perspective

Jesus then moves on to another example of the disciple’s relationships

Matthew 7:6 ESV

“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.

Understanding the people and the right message

To fully understand this verse, take a leap back to early Palestine and understand what a dog and pig was in that culture.

To the people listening, the dog was not the family pet as is our world today. For those of you who are dog owners, the pet has become one of the family, but for the people listening to Jesus that day, this was not the case.

The dog was considered a fierce and dangerous half-wild animal. It roamed through the streets for food.

The Pig on the other had was considered unclean and outside of their world.

Jesus uses these two terms in ways in which we are to handle the truth of his word in our relationships with one another and people in the world.

It doesn’t mean that we are not ignore these folks, rather Jesus points out that it is how we interact with people it must be appropriate.

People are different. We are to share the truth of God in various fashions.

Jesus exampled this in his own ministry as he talked with Nicodemus, the Samaritan women, the pharisees,

let’s not forget the women caught in sin. His message to her was simple. go and sin no more.

So there are various ways to approach these words from Jesus.

We must first recognize there are different types of people

People come in all types and are all on different journeys. Some are seeking, others are not seeking but are needing to hear the truth.

There are many ways of sharing the salvation message to people.

we sometimes believe their is only one way.

There has been many ways to share. A popular method was the bridge illustration, four spiritual laws. and some were used and promoted as the only way to share one’s faith.

We felt justified if we shared this method, we can even feel self-righteous when we give the message but Jesus is reminding us that giving something that is meaningless to someone will be treated as such.

Jones writes,

We must surely agree that we often fall into this trap with regard to witnessing. It tends to be mechanical, and it may even be that we're almost pleased when with something does behave with us in the manner of a dog and they were swine for then we feel we have been persecuted for Christ sake when in reality is not that at all but simply that we have not known our scriptures and have not witnessed in the right way.

Once we understand there are different types of people we move to the second point found in these verses.

We must understand what to give to each type of people

When we remove the speck out of our own eye we will see clearly the needs of the people and what they are searching for

Jesus told his disciples when he called them,

Come and I will make you fishers of men.

It is been said then a good fisherman knows the bait needed to catch a certain type of fish. A worm for every fish may not do work for all.

This is true of this passage

Read through the scriptures and see how the Gospel, the good news was presented in different ways for different people.

Given the wrong way will only be trampled on like pigs to pearls.

The next part is that we need to know this

We must be aware of the various ways to present the truth

Various jobs that God has provided for me were in the area of sales.

It is one thing to know the product (the message) you have to know the people (the buyer) and get to know their needs and then present it in a way that fulfills their needs.

I have learned that selling a product to a person who doesn’t really need it, it soon will be discarded and often leave a bad taste regarding the experience.

Presenting the truth of God, the gospel, must be presented in a way that will apply to the persons life and situations.

Yes, it is the spirit that convicts and moves in the lives of the listener, but if our words, methods, and actions may repel, it is harder for the spirit to work.

Thank goodness that God is in at work among us despite our failings.

Finally, the forth point

We must present the truth of salvation

It is not what we do that makes us a believer and follower of God, no it is rather what God has done in our lives that makes us a follower of Christ.

We set the person on the path of seeking to know God, to becoming transformed into the image of Christ.

Heavy deep discussion of major doctrinal issues, will not go far with a new believer who is needing the message of salvation.

These words of Jesus is not telling us to stop sharing his message, rather understand the people, get to know their needs and share Jesus’s truth with them.

The final part of the passage for today, Jesus turns from the area of Judgement to the area of our relationship with him. Mainly asking

Matthew 7:7 ESV

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Ask and it will be given

I hope this is the greatest news you will hear today.

I cannot imagine a better more cheering or a more comforting statement with which to face all of uncertainties and hazards of your life in this world of time that contains in verse 7-11. It is one of these greatest comprehensive and graces promises which are to be found only in the Bible. There's nothing that can be more encouraging as we face life with all its uncertainties and possibilities our future. All unknown in such a situation this is the essence of the biblical message from beginning to end this is the promise that comes to us

Ask

This is the biblical view of the Disciple’s life, the Christian world view.

Jesus utters these words just after explaining how we are to live with one another.

We are not to judge one another, we are not to quickly and willy nilly give o his message, and now we wonder

how can we ever achieve this great task.

It is only by the power of God at work within us.

We only need to ask.

Matthew 7:8 ESV

For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

This is a promise from God that his truth, this grace is there for the taking. He will give us our grace freely

Lately I have been listening to a collection of songs produced by Cityalight.

If you have the chance my I encourage you to look them up

But one of the songs lyrics have really hit home for me as I have been working through these messages.

It is in alignment with the Sermon on the mount for modern times.

They have entitled it

Grace

Your grace that leads this sinner home From death to life forever And sings the song of righteousness By blood and not by merit

Your grace that reaches far and wide To every tribe and nation Has called my heart to enter in The joy of Your salvation

By grace I am redeemed By grace I am restored And now I freely walk Into the arms of Christ my Lord

Your grace that I cannot explain Not by my earthly wisdom The Prince of life, without a stain Was traded for this sinner

By grace I am redeemed By grace I am restored And now I freely walk Into the arms of Christ my Lord

Let praise rise up and overflow My song resound forever For grace will see me welcomed home To walk beside my Saviour

By grace I am redeemed By grace I am restored And now I freely walk Into the arms of Christ my Lord

Our God that we serve has given of his abundance for us. But Jesus reminds us that we need to ask. We need to seek, and we will find.

We will find the salvation of God

We will find the peace of God

We will find comfort in know we serve a God who give us grace for no other reason in that we love him.

Communion