The Pearl and the Pig
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Intro
Intro
“Seek first the Kingdom of God”
From the outset this portion of scripture seems to be very contradictory.
It seems like a comedy of errors, in fact Tim Keller will suggest it almost should be seen as a stand up comic piece because it is almost humorous.
1 “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. 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? 4 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? 5 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. 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.
Jesus goes after us today.
Relationships
How are relationships built in the kingdom of heaven?
What is the foundation they are built upon and what is it that strengthens them?
You were never meant to be the Judge
You were never meant to be the Judge
10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God;
God is the Judge, we are Not
We can’t be the judge because our laws won’t save us from ourselves.
There is no more terrifying place to be than in a court room when someone is being sentenced.
It is literally the place where a man can walk in free and leave in bondage.
The Judge holds all the power.
I had a friend who got charged in an armed robbery, he had just moved to town and got in with the wrong group and didn’t know it. One thing led to another and he ended up fleeing the scene of a crime and got caught. He had a sparkling clean record, with nothing on it.
17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
If we are not to judge in this way, how should we then behave, how should we think?
The Nature of the Kingdom of God
When you think of America what do you think of
Freedom, Liberty, Independence
The Nature of the Kingdom of God
Peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control.
19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.
The Nature of the Kingdom of God are all things I’m not very good at.
13 Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother.
Generous Judgment
We are called to “Generous Judgment”
We are supposed to make judgments, we are supposed to be discerning and even critical of things.
The text itself does this,
Think of what its saying, “Judge not lest you be judged......but isn’t that a judgment? Jesus you are going to say, don’t throw your pearls before swine....isn’t that a judgment, isn’t that a mean judgment as well.
When someone wrongs you, you first reaction should be grace, mercy, understanding, self-control.
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
HOPE
The goal of mercy and grace is hope.
Do you know how you can tell if you are someone who is a bit too judgmental.
You won’t have any more of those unrighteous people around.
You will be alone with those who are just like you.
So instead of having a vibrant, diverse and lively group of people who seeking after the Kingdom fo God and HIS Righteousness, you’ll be surrounded only by those who meet your standard of righteousness.
You and I don’t measure up
You and I don’t measure up
2 “For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.
2 God looks down from heaven on the children of man to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. 3 They have all fallen away; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not even one.
Your judgment will be your sentencing.
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.
The Geranium by Flannery O Conner (Written in 1946)
A story about old Mr. Dudley who moved from a small town in Georgia during the early 30’s to New York City in an apartment with his daughter. He was a crotchety old man who was an expert in his own mind in regards to others.
Every morning he would sit at his window and watch his neighbor put out a Geranium on his window sill and every morning he would critique and antagonize in his mind about how the man would put it too close to the edge and one day it would fall off and how a big city like this was no place for that Geranium and in fact he was going to get a Geranium one day and take even better care of it than the man across the way.
But the story develops when he finds out a black man moves in down the hallway. He sees him dressed up in his Sunday best and thinks surely this man is a servant. He knew a black guy in the south and he was a great servant. Sometimes he would catch him out fishing, but he wouldn’t say anything because Mr. Dudley liked him.
Mr Dudley is going to go to the third floor for his daughter to get something and as he passes by the unnamed black mans door he sees his wife wearing glasses and immediately begins to judge her and as he returns to the stairs after retrieving the package he can barely make it up the stairs. The black man comes up behind him and offers his arm in assistance. Dudley doesn’t know how to respond but he needs to get up the stairs so he takes the arm but doesn’t want to. the man has a very nice conversation with him and asks him about hunting and guns, two things Mr. Dudley loved back in Georgia. He talked to him like a person, not a servant.
His Judgment is at a level 10 and finally he makes it back to his apartment with the help of the man and he sits in his window to look at himself in the Geranium, only to find a man standing in the window sill across the street. He shreeks and yells out, “Where’s the Geranium!” The Geranium had fallen off the ledge and smashed on the street far below.
His judgment prevented him from gaining real relationships with real people.
Who is around you?
If you have people around you that only meet your standard of righteousness, your standard of morality. That group we be a very small group and they will all look and act just like you. But as time goes on, they will do things that will offend you and make you mad and you will isolate yourself from them more and more and the inevitable result will be like Mr. Dudley, a broken Geranium on the street missing real relationships because of our own prejudices and pride.
The Reality of Judgment is it put people around us that we can tolerate. It is based upon our control our knowledge. We prejudge people in order to protect ourselves our family and our way of life.
We all have a little bit of Mr. Dudley inside of us.
Flannery O Conner wants us to see that our judgments of people often times are flawed because we see them through a narrow lense instead of the lense God has given us.
We can be Piggish
We push to hard, we try to control someones fate or destiny because we think we know what they need.
The fundamental difference between pigs and persons.
Pigs don’t understand, they don’t see the value of things.
Mr. Dudley was piggish.
My brother got a new truck and it has the nice leather seats, it has a towing package and air conditioned seats. It has tons of room and looks great too.
You put a pig in there and it will root around, poop and pee on whatever it wants, tear it apart or maybe take a nap. It doesn’t matter because it doesn’t care. It would rather go back to mud. It wasn’t made for more.
Pigs were made for mud, but pearls were made for persons.
The Cross turns pigs into persons.
The Cross turns pigs into persons.
45 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, 46 who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
The merchant invests his entire life into the pearl, he puts everything he had and was into this one investment, it was go big or go home for him.
Mt 15 -
“Is it not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to dogs?”
her response - “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters table.”
“O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.”
Jesus doesn’t say, you filthy dog get away, I don’t want you tearing away at my feet.
The Prodigal Son
The son basically disowns the father, takes his fathers wealth and leaves, spending on foolish things and eventually pleasuring himself to nothing. He finds a job in a pigpen, where the pigs had it better than him.
The son wished he was a pig!
Jesus is saying we are all pigs, we are all dogs
Think about this text.
“DO not give to dogs what is holy, do not cast your pearls before swine”
The one question we cannot ask is “Who are the dogs?”
the only answer we can honestly give to that question is me.
If we say someone else, then that measure will be used against us.
Jesus has us in a corner. There is no other answer to give. Jesus has us trapped.
As soon as I look outwards, I realize the only thing I can do is look at myself.
JESUS WAS THE PEARL!
The Pearl was standing before the woman, the son, the crowd.
The Cross transforms us into who we were meant to be.
The cross has the power to transform our families, it has the power to change our community. It has the power to change us.
The Cross is hope.
It says, Micah you can’t live up to the measure required to be not guilt, but Jesus did.
You’re righteousness isn’t good enough, but his is.
While you were dead in your trespasses and sin, he made you alive.
English Standard Version Chapter 7
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.
Do you see your own piggish behavior? Do you realize that you need someone else to come in and make you holy? Do you realize that you’re not the pearl.
We judge because we want to be God. The reality is, we don’t measure up.