THE JESUS I DIDN’T KNOW: THE BRIGHTENER

September 29, 2012 at 4:18 PM (Life of Christ, The Jesus I Didn't Know)
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How well do you know Jesus? We all like to think we know Jesus pretty well. I’ve had close to fifty years of wonderful, sweet communion with Jesus. I’ve devoted over forty years of my life to studying and teaching His Word. I’m talking about going back to the original languages and learning as much as I can about Jewish culture, institutions, and beliefs. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a Know-It-All. And you can ask my kids: I’m not inerrant or infallible. But still, knowing what I know, I’d like to think I know Jesus pretty good. To my pleasant surprise, however, I don’t know Jesus as good as I think I do. To this day, He still shows me more about Himself. Here, let me give you some snippets of the Jesus I never knew.

THE BRIGHTENER

Hello there. I’m one of the many nameless folks in Scripture and you probably wouldn’t know me even if I told you my name. So instead of giving you my name I’ll just tell you who I am. I’m the widow of Nain. Everybody knows me by that. You’ll find my story in Luke Chapter 7. But, if you don’t mind, I’d like to tell you the story myself.

My husband died a few years back and that was a real blow to me. I didn’t know how I was going to make it without him. When you lose the love of your life it’s like you’ve lost yourself. You’ve lost your life. Many of you know what I’m talking about, so you’ll identify with the load of grief I carried. Before he left he gave me a son and my boy became my world, my life, my source of hope and joy in a world of grief and sorrow.

Life was difficult for a widow in my day. You’ve got to remember we didn’t have Social Security, Welfare, Food Stamps, Public Housing, or Financial Assistance. We lived off of the charity of relatives, friends, and neighbors. My son was growing up and, until he could get a job, we lived from day to day as best we could. We had each other and that was the only consolation we had in life.

Things took an unimaginably terrible turn for the worse when my son got sick. I prayed. I asked God to heal him. I gave him what meager medical care I could afford and get my hands on. But in spite of my frantic efforts and pleas, nothing worked. My son died. And with him, my faith, my laughter, my joy. God had taken everything near and dear from me. I couldn’t understand why. It seemed like such a cruel thing for a widow who’s already suffered enough to experience the added loss of an only son. Life was just so unfair!

As we set out to go to the cemetery to bury the light and joy of my life, I was going there to bury all my hopes and dreams, my faith in God, my joy and peace, my very being. When my son died I died with him. I knew there was no more living left for me to live. Honesty, I didn’t want to live at all. What was there to live for? Even God had turned His back on me. Life just seemed so pointless. God, so useless.

As we neared the cemetery outside town we were met by a huge crowd. A Man in particular, at the head of the crowd, came closer and closer until He stood right in front of me. I didn’t know Him from Adam. But there was something definitely different about His demeanor that arrested my attention. The funeral procession came to a standstill and the mournful dirges were silenced, as if on cue.

The Stranger told me not to weep. Easy for Him to say! He’s not the one who’s lost an only son. I stared at Him in sheer disbelief. I found myself starting to get really pissed.

He probably sensed what was coming from me next. So, before I had the chance to blow up in His face He stepped away from me, touched the bier, and commanded my dead son to get up.

Before I knew what was happening, my son—my dead and only son—sat up and started talking! I couldn’t believe it! In a moment, my anger towards the Stranger was turned to praise and adoration! No one in Israel had been raised from the dead for 900 years. Only the prophets Elijah and Elisha performed this awesome feat. And, in a totally unexpected moment, a Stranger raised my son back to life! We all knew right then and there that He was a Prophet and we hailed Him so.

Amidst all the hoopla and shouting, my tears of sorrow were turned into tears of joy as I hugged my son and held him close to me. I couldn’t stop crying! And I wasn’t about ready to let him go. Suddenly, life seemed good again. I thought God had forsaken me. And, in my heart, I knew I was forsaking Him too. But as unworthy and undeserving as I was, God, for some inexplicable reason, had mercy on me and gave me back my boy. And in doing so, He restored my faith, my joy, my laughter, my peace. He brought my son back to life and brought me back too. The gloomy, laughless future that I faced was suddenly brightened by a Stranger they called Jesus. I call Him Brightener because that’s what He was to me.

The thing that really amazed me about the Brightener was that I was a total stranger to Him. He didn’t know me. We’d never met before. But in the moment that He stood before me He knew everything about me. Everything I’d gone through. And He cared for me! Why should He care? Who was I to Him?

When He told me to stop crying, I thought He was cruel and heartless. But, in hindsight, He said it because of what He was about ready to do. He was about ready to bring my son back to life.

So take it from me. WHEN GOD TELLS YOU TO STOP CRYING, OR DON’T BE AFRAID, OR DON’T WORRY; IT’S BECAUSE HE’S ABOUT READY TO DO SOMETHING BIG, SOMETHING MIRACULOUS, IN YOUR LIFE. HE’S ABOUT TO BRIGHTEN YOUR DARKENED LIFE AND FUTURE IN WAYS YOU NEVER DREAMED POSSIBLE.

Like me, some of you are heading out to the cemetery to bury your son. I’m talking in a manner of speaking. Bad things have happened to you. You’ve made mistakes in life. You’ve made some wrong choices. And, as a consequence, your life is all messed up now. You don’t see any way the future is going to improve. You don’t see any hope of change or of a better day coming. Like me, you’re heading out to the cemetery to bury your hopes, your dreams and aspirations, your joys and laughter, your peace of mind, your faith in God, your sanity, your very life. You’ve consigned yourself to a hopeless, laughless, depressing today because that’s what all your tomorrows look like.

Friends, instead of going to the cemetery you need to go to God! Bring Him your bier of broken hopes and dreams. God is the Mender of the past, the present, and the future. He can restore what’s been lost or taken from you. He can give you a future and a hope. He can resurrect your dreams. Revive your laughter and joy. Resuscitate your peace. Restore your faith. And breathe the spirit of hope into your darkened soul and make you live again. Don’t resign yourself to a life of depression, despair, and death! You don’t have to live that way! Not with the loving, caring, powerful God that you have.

I thought I had God all figured out. I thought He’d forsaken me. Didn’t love me. Didn’t care about me. Wasn’t interested the least bit in me. Wow! Was I ever wrong! To this day I can’t believe how much He loved Me that He would come from afar to give me and my son life.

The present and the future doesn’t have to be dark and bleak. Jesus is the Brightener. Let Him do what He does best for you. He really does love you! He wants the light of His love to brighten up your day and all your tomorrows. Look! He’s heading your way! Turn to Him. Cry out to Him. The Brightener wants you to live, and love, and laugh again!

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JUDGE NOT PART 6

September 22, 2012 at 11:56 AM (Ethics, Judge Not)
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INTRODUCTION

As we saw in my earlier post from John 7:24, there are times when it isn’t wrong for us to judge one another (JUDGE NOT PART 2). Having said this, the prohibition against judging in Matthew 7:1 tells us that there are times when it is indeed wrong for us to judge people. Let’s look at a fourth instance when judging is inappropriate and is an act of disobedience to God.

IT’S WRONG FOR US TO BE UNMERCIFUL WHEN WE JUDGE

There are a lot of things wrong with a critical, judgmental person. (1) He’s hypocritical and self-righteous as we saw in the previous posts. (2) He’s partial and preferential. He’s unfair and unjust because he judges people by one standard but doesn’t judge himself by the same standard. (3) He’s critical in the sense that he’s focused solely on what’s wrong with people. And (4) a critical, judgmental person is a really harsh, unmerciful person. He’s got no mercy. No compassion. No understanding. No sympathy. No second chances. No chances to get it right. No forgiveness. No love or prayers for people who have problems.

A critic and a judge live by law: “you did this, you deserve this.” That’s all good and fine on the day of judgment or in a time of incurable hardening and unrepentance. But THE LORD DOESN’T LIVE EACH DAY IN JUDGMENT MODE. If He did, none of us would live another day. The Psalmist says it well in Psalm 130:3, If thou, O Lord, should mark iniquity, O Lord, who shall stand? The idea here is, if all the Lord ever did was make a record of our sins—gathering all the evidence needed to condemn us—who could ever live? If God lived this way there is no life after sin and judgment!

But the Psalmist goes on and gives us the hope of life: But with You there is forgiveness, that You may be feared, Psalm 130:4. The Judge could live every day in judgment mode if He wanted to. But He doesn’t! He made us! He loves us! Do you think He wants to kill and damn us? You’ve got God figured out wrong if you think so. Christ and Calvary are the proof of that and they are a resounding testimony of God’s love and desire to forgive and save, not record, remember, and damn. THE JUDGE LIVES EACH DAY IN FORGIVENESS MODE. He offers forgiveness and pardon so that we can live. God is not willing that any should be damned, but that all should come to repentance, forgiveness, and life (2 Peter 3:9). This is the heart of God and it’s the very heart that’s lacking in every critic. That’s every critic without exception.

A CRITICAL, JUDGMENTAL PERSON HAS A COLD, UNCARING, UNMERCIFUL, UNFORGIVING HEART. HE OR SHE IS INTERESTED IN KILLING PEOPLE INSTEAD OF MINISTERING LIFE AND HOPE TO THEM.

In Luke 6:36-37 Jesus links judgment with mercy and forgiveness. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.  (37)  Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven.

A judge is given to the punishment of wrong: he condemns the people who are guilty and ministers death to them. But Jesus doesn’t want us to be like this. He wants us to be merciful and forgiving.

Now this is very instructive and enlightening. We are an imperfect people. We’ve got problems. We’ve got things that are wrong with us. We make mistakes. Critics use our imperfections against us to condemn and contemn us; to discourage and dishearten us; to make us miserable and mad.

But Jesus commands us to be merciful and forgiving! JESUS KNOWS THERE ARE THINGS WRONG WITH US. HE COULD CONDEMN AND BAD-MOUTH US. BUT INSTEAD OF MINISTERING DEATH, JESUS FORGIVES. HE’S SET THE EXAMPLE FOR US TO FOLLOW AND HE PLAINLY COMMANDS US TO BE MERCIFUL AND FORGIVING.

To me, the best example of a person who doesn’t have any heart or mercy is the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:23-35. You know the story. A servant owes his master a big sum of money. The master threatens to sell the slave’s family and possessions to recoup his loss. But the slave begs for mercy and patience. And the master ends up not following through on his threat because he’s got a merciful heart. This same slave, now forgiven, went out and found a fellow slave who owed him a tiny bit of money. The fellow slave begs for mercy and patience. But the forgiven slave refuses to show mercy and throws his fellow indebted slave into debtor’s prison.

Do you get the point of the parable? Jesus was real merciful with us as sinners. He forgave us and saved us. He wants us to be like Him, follow His lead, and be forgiving and merciful with people who have wronged us. And if we’re not, we’ll end up where the unmerciful, forgiven-but-unforgiving servant ended up: tormented.

Friends, IF YOU LIVE WITHOUT MERCY YOU’LL DIE WITHOUT MERCY. IF YOU’RE HARD AND UNFORGIVING TOWARDS PEOPLE GOD WILL BE HARD AND UNFORGIVING TOWARDS YOU! For he shall have judgment without mercy that  have shown no mercy, James 2:13.

A critic forgets how God has been so merciful, forgiving, patient and kind towards him. HE’S ALLOWED HATE TO FILL HIS HEART. AND HATRED ALWAYS LEADS TO DEATH. IT MINISTERS DEATH. 1 John 3:15 warns us that whosoever hates his brother is a murderer. A critic is harsh and hard on people because he’s got no heart for people. He may never admit it, but the truth is he hates the person he’s critical of.

A critic will likely never admit to wanting to kill a person. She won’t take a knife or gun in hand and kill the person she’s critical about. But HAVING A CRITICAL MINDSET AND TONGUE IS ALL THE SAME AS WIELDING THE INSTRUMENTS OF MURDER AND DEATH! God doesn’t see any difference between a critical mind and a gun, between a critical tongue and a knife, because they both produce the same result—death, if not of the body, then certainly of the spirit. The depression, discouragement, anger, feelings of resentment, rejection, unworthiness, and more; all the feelings and emotions that come with being criticized and condemned kill the soul. They sap the life out of a person. IN GOD’S EYES THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A CRITIC AND A MURDERER. Now I’m really getting ahead of myself. More on this in my next blog.

Coming Up On My Next Post, Part 7. The final post in this series looks at God’s attitude towards a critic. And, as you would expect, He’s got some rather harsh words to say to the harsh. If you’re a judge drop by for your trial and sentencing before the Judge. You’ll get a taste of your poison and we’ll see how you like it.  

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JUDGE NOT PART 5

September 15, 2012 at 10:45 AM (Ethics, Judge Not)
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Jesus admonished us in Matthew 7:1, Judge not, that ye be not judged.  This is one of the most recited verses in all of Scripture. Yet it’s one of the most misunderstood, misapplied, and abused. The verse is most-commonly evoked in cases of sin, doctrinal error, or morality. And it is thus quoted to authoritatively and unequivocally declare that Christians have no right to judge others—including other Christians—who are involved in sin or error. It is perhaps a well-intentioned plea for Christians to just shut up, leave people alone, and let God do the judging.

I am not an advocate for judgmentalism. I detest that spirit and the aura of self-righteousness that goes with it when I see it manifest in Christians.

Christ prohibits us from judging other people and I believe we all need to give heed to our Lord and quit judging people. Let God do the judging and let us do the praying. We serve the cause of Christ best by befriending people and extending a helping hand instead of cutting them down and making them feel like dirt. The Word of God that we share in kindness and love, and the Spirit of Christ that we manifest with all meekness and gentleness, will minister conviction, life, and the hope of change. Judging them will not.

What I am against, however, is the thoughtless or flagrant use of Matthew 7:1 that produces a silence about sin where there ought to be none; and the use of our Lord’s prohibition to foster the accommodation, tolerance, and acceptance of sin among God’s people. Sin’s killing us. And our silence has resulted in a tragic and lamentable lowering of the righteous morality that Christ wants His followers to have.

What I’d like to do in these blog posts is provide balance to the prohibition by bringing out the whole counsel of Scripture.

The prohibition against judging in Matthew 7:1 tells us that there are times when it is indeed wrong for us to judge others. In my last blog post in this series we saw that it’s wrong for us to judge self-righteously and hypocritically. Let’s look at a third instance where it would be inappropriate and wrong for us to judge others.

IT’S WRONG FOR US TO BE CRITICAL WHEN WE JUDGE

The word judge, in and of itself, is not a bad word or thing. It comes from the Greek word krino and the word means to separate or distinguish.

Think of it as going to the vegetable section of your supermarket. When you’re buying bananas you look over the selection of bananas and you pick out the bunch that looks the nicest to you. You do the same thing with lettuce. You seldom just glance down and pick up the first head that your hand touches. No, you look at several heads of lettuce and you get the one that looks the nicest to you; you reject the one that’s starting to turn brown. THAT’S WHAT JUDGING IS: YOU’RE LOOKING AT EVERYTHING AND YOU’RE SEPARATING THE GOOD FROM THE BAD; YOU’RE PICKING OUT THE GOOD FROM THE NOT-AS-GOOD.

A critic and criticism are the same way. Criticism is the act of looking closely at a person, thing, or issue and evaluating its merits or faults. A critic in the true sense of the term looks for the good, as well as the bad.

Now when he finds the bad it’s because the thing is bad. The critic doesn’t make it bad—he just finds it and singles it out and tells people “this is bad or faulty; there’s something wrong with this one.”

Consumer Reports is an organization that’s dedicated to trying out all sorts of products and name brands, testing them, and seeing which one of them works best and which ones don’t work as good. We deem their work to be very good, informational, and beneficial.

So judging and criticizing are not necessarily bad or wrong in and of themselves. When the Bible speaks of not judging, it’s not telling us to quit discerning or quit being on the lookout for something or someone that’s bad.

Unfortunately, judging and criticizing, or being discerning, have gotten a bad rap and are viewed with disdain because of the bad or wrong that they end up finding a lot of times. Because we’re all imperfect, there’ll always be something bad or wrong about each one of us. That’s just the hard fact of life and that’s the way it is.

In this sense, if we talk about a critic in the bad sense of the word, A CRITIC IS SOMEONE WHO SPENDS HIS OR HER TIME LOOKING FOR WHAT’S WRONG WITH PEOPLE. A critic doesn’t look for what’s good in a person. A critic doesn’t encourage or commend a person for his/her good qualities or achievements. HE doesn’t talk about what’s good about a person or thing. A CRITIC IS OUT TO LOOK FOR WHAT’S WRONG. TO BE CRITICAL IS TO LOOK WITH THE SOLE INTENT AND PURPOSE OF FINDING SOMETHING WRONG. A CRITIC IS A FAULT-FINDER.

  • When he finds what’s wrong, a critic is pretty loud or vocal about what he’s found. He’s a pretty negative person because all he talks about is what’s wrong with everyone and everything.
  • When a critic finds what’s wrong, the judge in him steps out and judges, or condemns, the wrong or bad. So criticism and judgmentalism go hand in hand. A CRITICAL PERSON LOOKS FOR WHAT’S WRONG. AND A JUDGMENTAL PERSON CONDEMNS THE PERSON WHO’S WRONG.
  • If a critic doesn’t find anything wrong at first glance, he doesn’t give up looking. He digs deeper and continues to dig until he finds what’s wrong. A CRITIC IS A DIRT-DIGGER. HE’S GOOD AT DIGGING UP DIRT and making people’s lives miserable.
  • HE’S ALSO A NIT-PICKER. He looks at every little thing and magnifies it so that it looks really really big when, in all actuality, it’s really not that big of a deal.  He makes mountains out of molehills. Stuff that isn’t really important is made  all too important.

Look at Matthew 7:3. A critic looks at a mote in a person’s eye. A mote is a small thing and a lot of us don’t notice when a person has a mote. We’re too busy looking at the person that we don’t notice a tiny mote.

When we think of a mote in terms of a splinter, which is what a mote was in Jesus’ day, not too many of us can see a tiny splinter in a person’s eye if we’re standing at least an arm’s length from that person. We’d really have to be up close to the person, in his face, and sometimes with a magnifying glass, before we can see the tiny piece of grass, hair, or dust that’s in a person’s eye. The point is, we just don’t see a splinter or mote under normal circumstances.

But a critic notices it right off because he gets up close, in your face even if you don’t ask him, and he sees it. He sees it because he’s looking for it.

Now when Jesus commands us in Matthew 7:1, Judge not, lest ye be judged, the implication is He’s commanding us not to judge because He knows we’re going to be critical when we judge. It’s like when you tell your kids not to play in the dirt. You tell them that because you know they’re probably going to do it and you want to stop them from doing it. Jesus is the same way about judging. He knows we’re going to look for people’s faults and be critical of them; and He wants us to stop it.

Like we said in the previous posts, Jesus in John 7:24 wants us to judge. To judge righteous judgment and not judge by appearance. He wants us to judge, but not judge in a way that we’re critical.

How can you know or tell if you’re being critical? If you’re looking at people with the purpose and intent of finding out what’s wrong with them, if the reason you’re looking is to find fault with them, if all you see and think and talk about is what’s wrong with people and things; if you’re condemning of others; you’re critical.

So when Jesus commands us not to judge, He’s telling us HE DOESN’T WANT US TO JUDGE WITH A CRITICAL, FAULT-FINDING, DIRT-DIGGING, NIT-PICKING, PEOPLE-CONDEMNING, LIFE-SNUFFING, SPIRIT. HE DOESN’T WANT US TO BE PREOCCUPIED WITH, AND FOCUSED ON, PEOPLE’S FAULTS.

Within the framework of Jesus’ Law, be it the Law of Love,IF YOU’RE CRITICAL YOU’RE NOT ONE TO JUDGE. YOU ARE NOT QUALIFIED OR AUTHORIZED TO JUDGE. YOU ARE INCAPABLE OF RENDERING JUST JUDGMENT. YOU CANNOT HELP PEOPLE OR MINISTER TO THEM IF YOU’RE CRITICAL OF THEM.

Coming up on my next blog post in this series, Part 6 looks at another reason why Jesus doesn’t want us to judge. We’re so busy looking at what’s wrong with people, but God’s going to continue telling us in these posts what’s wrong with us when we’re judging people. Still think you’re right? Wanna bet?

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BEST DECISION EVER: BARNEY’S GAMBLE

September 9, 2012 at 1:38 PM (Best Decision Ever, Christian Living)
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In the course of a twenty-four hour period we make gobs of decisions. Some of these we make with a serious amount of forethought and prayer. Others we make spontaneously with little or no thought as to the consequences or impact our decisions will have—not only for ourselves, but for the many others whose lives are intertwined with ours.

Have you ever thought much about how a single decision can change your life forever? For better or worse?

In these blog posts I’d like to look at the one good decision that some people in the Bible made that changed the course of their life for the better. By looking at ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word I hope we’ll all take comfort, courage, and hope in the fact that, despite the mess we’re presently faced with, we can still turn things around. A lousy past or dismal present doesn’t have to give us the same future. By God’s grace, our future and life can be changed for the better…if we only make the right decision today. May God help us do that on a daily basis!

BARNEY’S GAMBLE

Who of us have not heard of the apostle Paul? From his zealous persecution of Christ’s followers, to his dramatic conversion on the Damascus Road, to his tireless work in spreading the Gospel that he once sought to destroy; to his many letters which were later included in the canon of sacred, inspired Scripture; the apostle Paul almost singlehandedly changed the world of his day and made Christ known to a world who knew Him not. Christianity today is largely the religion that it is because Paul stood fast on the conviction that Christ was for everyone—not just for the Jews, but for the Gentiles too. And through his tireless missionary efforts and undaunted zeal in the face of horrendous pains and persecutions; his courageous stance against those who wanted to keep Christianity Jewish; Christianity grew beyond the bounds of a peculiar religion of one race of people, the Jews, and became a worldwide religion with followers from every nation and tongue. Through him, this Apostle to the Gentiles brought to fulfillment the promise God made centuries earlier to Abraham that through him all the nations of the earth would be blest (Genesis 22:18). If you stop and think about it, Paul changed the world of his day and his profound influence continues to be felt in our world thousands of years after his death.

What many of you may not know is that all this would not have happened the way it did had it not been for one man. Barnabas was his name. Now Barnabas was an influential leader in the early church. He wasn’t an apostle like one of the twelve, but he was well respected throughout the church and the apostles used him quite a bit in the work of the Gospel.

Anyways, Paul, who was at that early time known as Saul, was dramatically converted to Christ on the Damascus Road (Acts 9). Christ personally appeared to him in a vision and that was the end of Saul the antichristian persecutor of the church. (Just goes to show you’re bound to change when you meet the Lord!)

Paul continued the rest of his trip to Damascus as a changed man. Shortly thereafter he went into seclusion in Arabia. We don’t know exactly how long he was in Arabia. But we surmise with good reason that it was during these solitary times in Arabia where the Lord taught him and convinced him of the truths of the Gospel (Galatians 1:15-17). From there, Paul returned to Damascus and began to preach with boldness and conviction the truths that he was now fully persuaded of.

Three years later, after his conversion, his time in Arabia, and his evangelistic ministry in Damascus, Paul returned to Jerusalem (Galatians 1:18). He sought to meet with the believers there, including most especially the twelve apostles. But, wonder of all wonders, the Christians in Jerusalem wouldn’t have anything to do with him! Acts 9:26 tells the story. After Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples. But everyone was afraid of him. They wouldn’t believe that he was a disciple.

He’d been saved for 3 years. He spent the last 3 years ministering for the Lord in Damascus. His was a courageous stance. His life was on the line. In fact, the reason why he came to Jerusalem was because of a Jewish attempt to assassinate him in Damascus (Acts 9:23-25).

Didn’t the apostles and church in Jerusalem hear about his miraculous encounter with the Lord and his subsequent conversion? Didn’t any of them bother to go to Damascus and check out this sensational story of the church’s chief persecutor? Apparently not.

They wouldn’t believe that Paul was saved. They didn’t believe he was a changed man. Like many of us, they probably thought this was Paul’s ploy to discover who Christ’s followers were in Jerusalem and where their meetings were at so that he could have them all arrested. It made perfect sense to the Christians and the apostles. Their lives and the well-being of their families were on the line. They would do the safest and sensiblest thing: they would refuse to have anything to do with Paul.

But Barnabas wasn’t similarly inclined. He contravened the apostolic stance, took his life in his hands, took a risk and a gamble, and went to see Paul. Didn’t it occur to him that the apostles and the entire church were right? Mightn’t this be Paul’s ploy to discover, arrest, and wipe out the entire Jerusalem church? Did Barnabas seriously think that he was right and the apostles and everyone else was wrong about Paul? What made Barnabas want to see Paul anyway? The Spirit? Curiosity? The principle of fairness and giving a guy a chance to speak for himself instead of letting his past, his reputation, and everybody else speak for him?

I don’t know what went through Barnabas’ mind. I’m sure, being human like all of us, he struggled with the fears and doubts that plagued the rest of the church. But when it was all said and done, Barnabas mustered the courage to seek Paul out and give him a chance to tell his story. Turned out, after he heard Paul’s testimony, Barnabas was convinced that Paul was indeed a changed man, a believer, and a God-called minister or apostle.

With this firm conviction in hand, Barnabas risked incurring apostolic censure and discipline, he risked the criticism and wrath of the Christians in Jerusalem; by courageously bringing Paul before the apostles. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus (Acts 9:27).

As it turned out, there were only 2 apostles in Jerusalem at the time, or perhaps only 2 apostles who succumbed to Barnabas’ persuasions and agreed to meet with Paul. They were Peter and James (Galatians 1:17-19). When the four of them met together, it was Barnabas who started out doing the talking. The apostles trusted and respected Barnabas. On Barnabas’ words, they let Paul speak for himself. And when Paul was done speaking, Peter and James were convinced that Paul was indeed a changed man. They extended the right hand of fellowship to him and told the rest of the church that it was safe to let Paul in. Paul got to meet the Christians in Jerusalem. He testified of Christ throughout the city. And the rest, as you know, is history.

History all because Barnabas rose above his doubts and fears, did the right thing, sought Paul out, and gave him a chance to tell his story, believed him, defended him, and advocated for him. It was Barney’s best decision ever! How different Christianity would have been if it hadn’t been for Barnabas! Isn’t it amazing how one decision to go and talk to Paul changed the course of history!? Think about it. If it wasn’t for Barnabas the apostles wouldn’t have seen, believed, or received Paul. They believed Paul because they believed Barnabas. If it wasn’t for Barnabas we wouldn’t have the Paul of Acts and the Epistles. We are where we are today because of Barnabas. And the Christian world owes him a debt of gratitude that can never be fully paid. Thank you, Barnabas!

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A MAN OF WAR TEACHES US ABOUT PEACE

September 1, 2012 at 11:34 AM (Ethics, Peaceableness)
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You’re probably well familiar with the Roman centurion who came to Jesus asking Him to heal his beloved slave (Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:11-10). When we think about this centurion we’re prone to think about his faith, his understanding of authority, and Jesus’ miraculous power to heal the most impossible of sicknesses and diseases. If you haven’t read the story recently I’d encourage you to read it right now. It’ll help you understand what I’m about to tell you.

As I was preparing to teach a lesson on the Roman Centurion the Lord arrested my attention and pointed out a different picture of the centurion that I had not seen before. To my pleasant surprise, tucked away in a passage of Scripture where faith is everywhere apparent, a man of war had a lot to teach me about living peaceably with people who are very hard to get along with. Let me share with you what the Lord showed me.

THE PALESTINE OF YESTERYEAR

Take a trip with me back in time. Place yourself in the sandals of this Roman centurion. You’re currently stationed in Spain, France, Britain, or Rome itself. Your tour of duty is just about up and you’re expecting your next deployment order to come anytime soon. It comes as expected. Your next deployment will be to Palestine.

Of all the places in the Roman Empire, Palestine is the most difficult. The Jews are unrelentingly fanatical about their religion and their God. For them there is no compromise, no toleration, or moderation. They will fight and die for their beliefs, And, indeed, they have. Freedom fighters are aplenty and the entire region is a seedbed, or rather, a hotbed, of revolt and rebellion. The land is drenched in blood, both Jewish and Roman. If blood were water, the Palestine desert would be an oasis.

You are going to a land where you are not wanted or welcome. You are their enemy. You are a candidate for assassination. The unseen enemy is everywhere, dressed every bit as a civilian, and you don’t know who’s armed and hostile. Yes, with Rome’s might behind you, you can crush the Jews’ doomed revolts. But how do you crush a fanaticism and a spirit that will not die? How do you intend to live and survive in an environment of hatred and death?

BEING DIFFERENT

The Roman army—both its soldiers and its officers—are militant. They are a world power. Their numbers and their armament cannot be matched. They are, for all practical purposes, invincible. They will triumph in the end.

Knowing this, the army cares nothing about religion and people. They are concerned only to do the will of Caesar and enforce the rule of Roman law. There is no pity or compassion;  no deference, no backing down, no bowing down to the will of a conquered people or nation.

But this particular Roman centurion is different. (1) He loves his slave and treats him as his son (Matthew 8:6 where servant could be translated son). Slaves are not “people” to the Romans. They are things. Like iPods, cars, and cell phones are today. They are possessions. They weren’t treated like human beings. But this centurion is different. His slave is dying (Luke 7:2). And the centurion cares enough about him to seek Jesus out and ask Him to spare his beloved slave’s life. He’s a decent human being with a care and regard for people that didn’t exist all that much in Roman society. The guy’s got heart. He isn’t cold, uncaring, or ruthless.

The Romans hated the Jews as much as the Jews hated them. The Jews not only resorted to violence against the Roman presence in Palestine, but they also made full use of the power of petition or appeal. They would go to the highest Roman authorities in the land—the Army Tribune in town, the Roman Governor in Caesarea and Syria, the Roman Senate, and even the Emperor in Rome—if they had any gripes against Rome’s ruling representatives in Palestine.  

This, you will remember, is what finally forced a reluctant Pilate to succumb to the people’s wishes and have Christ crucified: the Jews were threatening to go to Caesar and accuse Pilate of treason for letting a rival King go scot free (John 19:12-13).

Not too infrequently, Caesar would remove these representatives from office in Palestine as a gesture of peace and good-will to the Jews. So the Roman rulers in Palestine knew their jobs were on the line and they despised the Jews for the political threat that they were.

But this centurion is different. (2) He loves the Jews (Luke 7:5). He finds a way to make peace with the local Jewish rulers in Capernaum. He extends some kind of olive branch to them and wins their acceptance and respect. He puts his money where his mouth is and spends a portion of his own personal wealth to build the Capernaumites a synagogue. Think of how much money it would take to build any kind of building today and you’ll get a fair idea of how much money this centurion dished out for the Jews. He was enabling their worship of a God that Rome didn’t believe or worship! Instead of being a traditional Roman and mocking the religious beliefs, convictions, and practices of the Jews, this centurion respects Jewish religion to such an extent as to spend a small fortune to build them a synagogue. And a synagogue wasn’t just a house of worship. It was a school. A community center. So the centurion’s goodwill gesture was a benefit to the people of the local community. The centurion wasn’t just winning the hearts of the Jewish leaders: he was winning the hearts of the Jewish people in the community.

The thing that’s so astounding about this is, ordinarily, the Jews wouldn’t have anything to do with Roman money. Rome kept them subjected. Taxed. Humiliated. A lot of Jews wouldn’t have accepted Roman money. But these Capernaumites received this Roman centurion into their midst, made peace with him, allowed him to build them a synagogue, and allied themselves with him to a point where they were willing to petition Jesus on his behalf. Somehow, the enemy centurion  found a way to change the enemy Jews and make them his friends.

Roman rulers and officers, as you would expect, are mightily proud. Jews were nothing to them and they used every opportunity to make the locals feel like dirt. They like to rubbed their power in their face and remind them they were a subjected people. Losers. Powerless against the might of the Worldwide Roman Empire.

But this centurion’s different.  (3) He’s humble—at least in the presence of his superiors or greatness (Luke 7:6-7). Jesus is a Rabbi. He’s no army man. He wields no political power. He’s vastly popular with the people. But He’s got no army! There no earthly reason why Rome would fear a fellow without an army. But the centurion knows something diffent about this Rabbi because he lives and works in the same city where this Rabbi lives and works. The Rabbi has power of a different sort. At His command, demons go. Diseases are healed. The sick are restored. The centurion recognizes authority when he sees it and he stands in enough respect for the Jewish Rabbi to place unbridled, undiminished faith and hope in Him to heal a dying slave. The centurion’s humble enough that he considers himself unworthy to have such a guest—a Jewish guest—in his home.

So what am I saying? I’m saying this Roman centurion was different. He was unlike most Roman rulers and officers. He was a decent human being. He had a heart. He was loving. Compassionate. Caring. Respectful. Considerate. Humble. Peaceable. Generous. An Ambassador of Goodwill. In a land of war and enmity, hatred and death, the centurion found a way to make peace and win the hearts of his enemies.

THE PALESTINE THAT IS AMERICA TODAY

That was back then in Jesus’ time. Now let’s fast forward to our time and the  real world in which we live today. Like the centurion, we live in a world that hates, despises, and persecutes us. We’re the enemy. We’re unwanted and unloved because of the Jesus we follow and the Bible we believe. Take a public, vocal stand on abortion, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, prayer and Bibles in our schools, praying to Jesus in the public square, the Ten Commandments, need I say more?, and you will know the hatred and slander of those who oppose our Savior and our God.

Come into the workplace and, like the centurion, you step into an office or a factory where people hate your guts. They just don’t like you and they use every opportunity and tactic to let you know that. Take a wider step into the community and it’s like everybody’s against you. They’re not nice or respectful to you. They’re not decent by any means. Some would even kill you if they could.

Like the centurion, you’re faced with a quandary and a dilemma. How do you make peace with the enemy? How do you reach out to those who don’t like you  and who don’t want you to be around them? How do you get the enemy  to accept you or at least be nice to you? How do you be peaceable in an unpeaceable world?

The centurion was not like most of the Romans of his day. He was different. He was a man and a breed apart. TO WIN THE HEARTS OF PEOPLE—maybe not everyone, but at least the locals where you’re at, the Capernaumites of your office, factory, family, or community; YOU’VE GOT TO BE A DIFFERENT SORT OF CHRISTIAN.

Your enemies know Christians to be heathens like them. Unscrupulous. Unethical. Thieves. Crooks. Gossipers. Back biters. Hypocrites. Liars. Drunks. Fornicators. Pornos. Gamblers. Carnal. Selfish. Ad infinitum.  Thanks to the unchurched, untaught, uncrucified Christians-so-called, Christians have a black eye in the world and people just don’t have a whole lot of respect for Christians.

YOU’VE GOT TO PROVE TO THEM YOU’RE DIFFERENT. YOU’VE GOT TO SHOW THEM YOU’RE DIFFERENT. LET THE LIFE, LIGHT, AND LOVE OF CHRIST SHINE THROUGH YOU. IN TIME THEY’LL SEE THAT YOU’RE A DIFFERENT KIND OF CHRISTIAN THAN THE CHRISTIANS THEY’RE USED TO  SEEING. In time they’ll come to admire and respect you. YOU’LL CHANGE THEM WHEN YOU CHANGE YOURSELF. OR CHANGE THEIR PERSPECTIVE OF WHAT A TRUE CHRISTIAN’S REALLY LIKE.

To get the centurion’s results you’ve got to be like the centurion. Be a decent human being. Quit being selfish or self-centered. Quit thinking about yourself all the time. Have  a heart for people. Be loving. Compassionate. Caring. Respectful. Considerate. Humble. Peaceable. Don’t treat people like dirt. Don’t make sinners feel like dirt. Don’t rub it in their face. Show them the love of Christ. Show them there’s hope of a new life in Christ. Be an Ambassador of Goodwill. Go out of your way for people. Put your money where your heart and mouth are. Be generous and kind. Give. Help. Bless. Watch your mouth, your temper, and your thoughts. Overcome evil with good. Pray for them. Ask God for wisdom and He will show you how to tear down walls and build bridges. In Jesus’ words in the sermon on the mount, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you (Matthew 5:44). And in Romans 12:21, Overcome evil with good.

You’re not going to win everyone. We live in a hostile world and there’ll always be people who aren’t going to like you. But, like the centurion, if you persist in goodness and look for ways to win the hearts of people, God will give you grace and favor and you will win the hearts of those whom God intends for you to touch and change through His Spirit, power, and love working in and through you. God bless you and make you a modern day centurion, a man of peace, in the unpeaceable Palestine that is America today.

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THE JESUS I DIDN’T KNOW: JESUS & THE BLIND MURDERER

August 26, 2012 at 8:25 PM (Life of Christ, The Jesus I Didn't Know)
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How well do you know Jesus? We all like to think we know Jesus pretty well. I’ve had close to fifty years of wonderful, sweet communion with Jesus. I’ve devoted over forty years of my life to studying and teaching His Word. I’m talking about going back to the original languages and learning as much as I can about Jewish culture, institutions, and beliefs. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a Know-It-All. And you can ask my kids: I’m not inerrant or infallible. But still, knowing what I know, I’d like to think I know Jesus pretty good. To my pleasant surprise, however, I don’t know Jesus as good as I think I do. To this day, He still shows me more about Himself. Here, let me give you some snippets of the Jesus I never knew.

JESUS AND THE BLIND MURDERER

Howdy do, y’all. My name is Simon Zelotes and I’s one of Jesus’ apostles. You probly didn’t know dat Jesus had a blind murderer for an apostle, but dat’s exactly what I wuz in a manner of speakin’. Here, set yourself down and let me tell you my story.

‘Fores Jesus called and chose me, I wuz a Zealot. “A what?,” you ask. Well, us Zealots disappeared from off da face of da earth when da Romans crushed da Jewish Revolt in 70 AD. Soon after dat, we all fell at Masada and that wuz da end of us. But back in da day, us Zealots wuz Jewish freedom fighters. We hated da Romans cuz they wuz runnin’ us. Do you know how humiliatin’ it is for proud folks like us to be pushed around and treated like dirt? It’s mighty tough, I do declare!

Some of us guys decides we wuzn’t gonna take it no more. We wuz all so zealous for a free and independent Jewish state dat we wuz known as Zealots. We wuz aimin’ to kick the Roman devils out of our land. You heard of stealth planes dat can’t be seen on radar. Well, dat’s what we wuz on land. We wuz the unseen enemy—attackin’ and killin’ da infidels, den disappearin’ without a trace. We got to be so good at it dat da devils decides they wuz gonna take us on and whup us. “You go ahaid and try,” we all said. We knowed we wuz whuppin’ em good. You can’t imagine how proud we wuz to be fightin’ da world’s most powerful army and causin’ em untold grief.

Somewheres ins between da fightin’ I come across Jesus. You know hows when a purdy gal lays eyes on a guy der ain’t no lettin’ go, right? Dat’s what Jesus’ sermonizin’ done to me. I got hooked. Next thing I knowed, I wuzn’t fightin’ no more. I wuz followin’ Jesus. And dat’s how I wuz called to be an apostle.

Anyways, one day Jesus wuz goin’ ‘bout His way when a Roman centurion comes up to Him and asked Him to heal his servant (Matthew 8:5-6). I wuz livid at da sight of da devil dat I just about got my dagger out to kill da varmint. You see, I wuz blind with hate. Alls I seen wuz a  Roman devil. He wuz da enemy. And as an army officer he wuz definitely nears da top of my death list. Golly, I really wanted to kill da varmint! But somewhere inside me I just froze up. Guess it wuz da hand of God stoppin’ me from doin’ a fool thing.

I just stood there dumbfounded cuz Jesus and I clearly wuzn’t seein’ da same guy. I seen a Roman. He seen a lover of us Jews (Luke 7:5). I seen a devil. Jesus seen a decent man. I seen an enemy destroyin’ our nation. Jesus seen a Jew-lover buildin’ us a synagogue. I seen a heathen. Jesus seen a believer. Imagine dat! Confound it, da devil had the most faith of any guy that Jesus ever met. Jesus Hisself said so (Luke 7:9). I wuz plump dumbfounded! We wuz both lookin’ at da same devil and we wuz both seein’ a totly diffrent fella.

How could I be so blind and wrong? It wuz hate doin’ dat to me. Dat’s how I wuz blind and a murderer (1 John 3:15). It wuz all cuz of hate. I couldn’t see what Jesus wuz seein’ cuz He seen with eyes of love. And when you sees with eyes of love you sees people diffrently dan with eyes of hate. When Jesus done healed da devil’s servant, He done healed me too. He took da hate out of my eyes, put love in my heart, and now I ain’t da rascal that I once wuz. I’m a totly diffrent fella cuz of Jesus and love.

You see, I didn’t knowed Jesus da way He really wuz cuz my eyes wuz all messed up with hate. But when I seen Him with eyes of love, den I seen Him as Love Incarnate. And dat’s when I started seein’ people diffrent too. Cuz of Jesus and love, I ain’t no blind, murderin’ fool no more. Yeah, ole Newton sure got it right: “I once wuz blind, but now I see.” Tank God Almighty I can see. Dat’s my story and nows you know.

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JUDGE NOT PART 4

August 20, 2012 at 1:45 PM (Ethics, Judge Not)
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Jesus admonished us in Matthew 7:1, Judge not, that ye be not judged.  This is one of the most recited verses in all of Scripture. Yet it’s one of the most misunderstood, misapplied, and abused. The verse is most-commonly evoked in cases of sin, doctrinal error, or morality. And it is thus quoted to authoritatively and unequivocally declare that Christians have no right to judge others—including other Christians—who are involved in sin or error. It is perhaps a well-intentioned plea for Christians to just shut up, leave people alone, and let God do the judging.

I am not an advocate for judgmentalism. I detest that spirit and the aura of self-righteousness that goes with it when I see it manifest in Christians.

Christ prohibits us from judging other people and I believe we all need to give heed to our Lord and quit judging people. Let God do the judging and let us do the praying. We serve the cause of Christ best by befriending people and extending a helping hand instead of cutting them down and making them feel like dirt. The Word of God that we share in kindness and love, and the Spirit of Christ that we manifest with all meekness and gentleness, will minister conviction, life, and the hope of change. Judging them will not.

What I am against, however, is the thoughtless or flagrant use of Matthew 7:1 that produces a silence about sin where there ought to be none; and the use of our Lord’s prohibition to foster the accommodation, tolerance, and acceptance of sin among God’s people. Sin’s killing us. And our silence has resulted in a tragic and lamentable lowering of the righteous morality that Christ wants His followers to have.

What I’d like to do in these blog posts is provide balance to the prohibition by bringing out the whole counsel of Scripture.

The prohibition against judging in Matthew 7:1 tells us that there are times when it is indeed wrong for us to judge others. In my last blog post in this series we saw that it’s wrong for us to judge unrighteously or unfairly. Let’s look at a second instance where it would be inappropriate and wrong for us to judge others.

IT’S WRONG FOR US TO BE SELF-RIGHTEOUS AND HYPOCRITICAL WHEN WE JUDGE

In Matthew 7:1-2 Jesus tells us not to judge anyone. If we insist on doing it anyway, He will judge us in the same way that we judge others.

Jesus then goes on to tell us why we’re not qualified to judge others. Here’s what He says in verses 3-5, And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?  (4)  Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?  (5)  Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.

You look at a person and see a mote in their eye. A mote is a tiny splinter or speck. It’s like the dust that gets in your eye when you’re cutting wood or mowing the lawn. You see a tiny splinter in a person’s eye, but there’s a beam in yours. A beam is a humongous log that’s used as the main pillars or rafters of a barn. You’ve seen these beams. They’re like 10” – 12” square and 20’ long. Now here’s a paradox. You see a tiny splinter in your brother’s eye, but you’ve got this humongous piece of lumber sticking out of your eye! It’s so big that it’s a marvel—not, it’s a miracle—that you can even see anything, much less a tiny splinter in another person’s eye.

EVERYBODY MAKES MISTAKES. NOBODY’S PERFECT. WE ALL MESS UP AT SOME TIME OR ANOTHER. No one of us is sinless. That’s just the facts of life.

1. SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS BLINDS US.  We’re so prone to see everyone’s faults or problems, but not our own. That, I believe, is the first lesson Jesus wants to teach us in relation to judging others. We’re quick to judge because we see what’s wrong with others. But the problem is we don’t see what’s wrong with us.

Note Jesus’ words in verse 3, But you don’t consider the beam that’s in your eye. To consider means to take note or notice of; being oblivious, unmindful, or forgetful; you just don’t see what’s wrong with yourself. You’re so good at noticing what’s wrong with others, but you yourself forget that there’s something wrong with you. As far as you’re concerned there’s nothing wrong with you. And that’s the problem. There is something very wrong with you, but you just don’t see it. In Jesus’ words, you don’t consider the fact that you’ve also got something in your eye.

Self-righteousness blinds you from seeing the true state of things. It blinds you from seeing things clearly or as truly as they are. You think you’re okay, you’re alright, you’re sinless, innocent, perfect, and righteous. You haven’t done anything wrong. What you don’t know is, you’re none of the above. You’re blind to your own faults. You’re not considering that you too have got a problem in your eye.

2. WE’VE GOT THE BIGGER, MORE SERIOUS, PROBLEM.  Even though we’re not apt to see it or admit it, both we and the person we’re judging have the same problem. We both have something in our eye.

Note that a splinter and a beam are made of the same material. They’re both a piece of wood. The only difference between them is size.

Both you and the person you’re judging have a piece of wood in your eyes. Both of you have the same problem. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN YOU AND THE PERSON YOU’RE JUDGING IS YOU’VE GOT THE BIGGER PROBLEM! Your brother has a splinter in his eye, but you’ve got a massive piece of lumber in yours! Your problem is a whole lot bigger. And the very size of your problem renders you unable to see clearly. YOU CAN’T JUDGE FAIRLY WHEN YOU CAN’T SEE CLEARLY.

3. OUR HYPOCRISY MAKES US WRONG AND UNQUALIFIED TO JUDGE. When we have something majorly massive in our eye, and yet quibble about the splinter in people’s eye, the very act of quibbling, fault-finding, criticizing, judging, and condemning makes us hypocrites. That’s what Jesus calls us in Matthew 7:5. Hypocrites.

Why are we hypocrites? Because we’re judging a person who has something in his eye when we ourselves have the same thing in our eye, except much bigger. We judge a person for a sin she’s committed when we ourselves have committed the same sin. We’re guilty of doing the same thing that we condemn others for doing.

Romans 2:1-3 speaks along this same line of hypocrisy. No matter who you are, if you judge anyone, you have no excuse. When you judge another person, you condemn yourself, since you, the judge, do the same things.  (2)  We know that God’s judgment is right when he condemns people for doing these things.  (3)  When you judge people for doing these things but then do them yourself, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?

The principle is this. IF YOU’RE GUILTY, OR HAVE EVER BEEN GUILTY, OF DOING WHAT YOU’RE JUDGING OTHER PEOPLE FOR DOING, THEN YOU’RE REALLY IN NO POSITION TO JUDGE. You’re judging self-righteously and hypocritically. You’re a hypocrite. And a hypocrite isn’t a judge. A hypocrite is disqualified from being a judge.

You see, both you and the person you’re judging have done the same thing. Both of you have the same piece of wood in your eye. You judge others but not yourself. You condemn others but not yourself. You publicize other people’s sins, but not your own. YOU’RE PARTIAL AND PREFERENTIAL IN YOUR JUDGMENT AND THIS IS WHAT DISQUALIFIES YOU FROM BEING A JUDGE. A judge who’s partial is no judge.  

You’re not only partial and preferential in your judgment, but YOU’RE ALSO UNJUST AND UNFAIR. You’re judging by different standards. You’ve got one standard of judgment, guilt, and death for others and another standard of innocence, forgiveness, and life for yourself. Instead of everybody getting judged by the one and the same law, there are different laws, standards, and judgments for different persons. And that’s not justice!

We’re all agreed. A PARTIAL, UNFAIR, AND UNJUST JUDGE SHOULDN’T BE A JUDGE. He should be removed from the bench. That’s why we shouldn’t judge anyone. We’re partial, unfair, and unjust. We may not consider it. We may not admit it. But we are. That’s why we shouldn’t judge period.

Coming up on my next blog post in this series, a third kind of judging that God doesn’t want us to do. It’s an eye-opener and you really don’t want to miss it if you want to see clearly.

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JUDGE NOT PART 3

August 11, 2012 at 4:10 PM (Ethics, Judge Not)
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Jesus admonished us in Matthew 7:1, Judge not, that ye be not judged.  This is one of the most recited verses in all of Scripture. Yet it’s one of the most misunderstood, misapplied, and abused. The verse is most-commonly evoked in cases of sin, doctrinal error, or morality. And it is thus quoted to authoritatively and unequivocally declare that Christians have no right to judge others—including other Christians—who are involved in sin or error. It is perhaps a well-intentioned plea for Christians to just shut up, leave people alone, and let God do the judging.

I am not an advocate for judgmentalism. I detest that spirit and the aura of self-righteousness that goes with it when I see it manifest in Christians.

Christ prohibits us from judging other people and I believe we all need to give heed to our Lord and quit judging people. Let God do the judging and let us do the praying. We serve the cause of Christ best by befriending people and extending a helping hand instead of cutting them down and making them feel like dirt. The Word of God that we share in kindness and love, and the Spirit of Christ that we manifest with all meekness and gentleness, will minister conviction, life, and the hope of change. Judging them will not.

What I am against, however, is the thoughtless or flagrant use of Matthew 7:1 that produces a silence about sin where there ought to be none; and the use of our Lord’s prohibition to foster the accommodation, tolerance, and acceptance of sin among God’s people. Sin’s killing us. And our silence has resulted in a tragic and lamentable lowering of the righteous morality that Christ wants His followers to have.

What I’d like to do in these blog posts is provide balance to the prohibition by bringing out the whole counsel of Scripture.

In my last blog post in this series we saw that there are times when it isn’t wrong for us to judge one another. This said, the prohibition against judging in Matthew 7:1 tells us that there are times when it is indeed wrong for us to judge others. Let’s look at one of these times when judging is inappropriate and is an act of disobedience to God.

IT’S WRONG FOR US TO JUDGE UNRIGHTEOUSLY OR UNFAIRLY

Jesus commanded us in John 7:24, Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. Jesus plainly tells us here that THE PROHIBITION AGAINST JUDGING IS NOT A PROHIBITION AGAINST JUDGING PERIOD, BUT A PROHIBITION AGAINST JUDGING A PERSON OUTWARDLY.

Now the word appearance  means what you can see outwardly, what you see with your eyes, what’s visible and seen to the naked eye. When you look at a person based on their stature or body size, their skin color, their clothes, their looks, their tats and piercings, their facial expressions or body language; when you make conclusions about them based on what you see or observe about them, you’re making a judgment, you’re passing judgment based on appearance, and this is the kind of judgment that God forbids.

What does it mean to judge outwardly or by appearance? It means that you’re judging by the facts and evidence that you have; you’re judging what you’ve seen or what others told you they saw. Your judgment is based strictly and entirely on what you heard and saw or on what the eyewitnesses told you they heard and saw.

But the thing that Jesus wants so desperately to warn us about is APPEARANCES CAN BE MISLEADING AND DECEIVING. THEY CAN FOOL YOU. The facts or the evidence, the hard cold proof, are true. They’re real. The gun in the guy’s hand, the sister walking out of the bar, the pastor seen with a hooker on Hooker Street; are all real. They’re true. BUT THE CONCLUSIONS THAT YOU DRAW BASED ON WHAT YOU SAW CAN BE MISLEADING. YOUR THINKING OR JUDGMENT BASED ON WHAT YOU HEARD CAN BE FALSE AND WRONG.

  • The guy with the gun in his hand picked it up after the real murderer ran past him and dropped it. And he dropped it just so that the innocent bystander will pick it up and people will think he was the murderer.
  • The sister who walked out of the bar went in there to call her husband and tell him the car broke down. The choice of using the bar’s telephone to make the call can be questioned. But if it was the closest business to the car, if it was the “safest” place for her to be in and not as dangerous as on the street, then that was her call. But the fact is, yes, she was in the bar. But your conclusion and accusation that she’s a drinker, she’s been drinking, she’s a drunk, is plainly wrong. What you saw was true. What you thought or decided wasn’t. The facts are true. The judgments or interpretations of the fact are what can be wrong.
  • The same thing can be said about the pastor with the hooker. In our day and age, yes, it’s possible that the pastor was playing spiritual hooky with the hooker. But, it’s just as possible he was witnessing to her. He wasn’t out looking for sex: he was looking for lost sheep. So before you pass judgment on what you saw, you’ve got to get the facts straight and get the whole truth.

WHEN YOU’RE JUDGING BY APPEARANCES YOU’RE JUDGING WITHOUT HAVING ALL THE FACTS. You’re not hearing both sides of the story. You’re not giving the accused or the defendant the chance to speak for herself; you’re judging the brother and condemning him without giving him an opportunity to explain or defend himself.

THERE’S A REASON OR EXPLANATION FOR EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS, FOR EVERYTHING A PERSON DOES. You saw what happened; you saw what she did; you heard what she said. And what you saw and heard was real and true. But what you don’t know is why she did that or said that. There are other factors, reasons, or motivations involved that you don’t know about and these are the details, facts, or necessary pieces of information that you need in order to judge righteous judgment.

APPEARANCES CAN FOOL YOU. THEY CAN LOOK RIGHT, UNMISTAKABLE, AND TRUE TO YOU. THE FACTS MAY BE TRUE, BUT IT’S YOUR CONCLUSIONS OR JUDGMENTS THAT MAY NOT BE.  Judgment based on appearances is bound to be wrong and that’s why God doesn’t want you to judge like that. If you’re going to judge, then judge righteously or not at all.

How do you judge righteously? TO JUDGE RIGHTEOUS JUDGMENT YOU’VE GOT TO HAVE ALL THE FACTS, NOT JUST SOME OF THE FACTS. We often make the mistake of thinking we have all the facts. We hear one side of the story and we think we know it all, we have it all. But a part of the story is just that—a part. It’s never the whole story. Unless you talk to the actual person involved, you don’t have all the facts. And NOT HAVING ALL THE FACTS IS WHAT DISQUALIFIES YOU FROM JUDGING. IT’S WHAT PREVENTS YOU FROM JUDGING RIGHTEOUSLY. And this is the kind of judgment that God forbids.

Coming up in my next blog post in this series, a second kind of judging that God doesn’t want us to do. It’s a real eye-opener. So if you want to see clearly, drop on by and let the Master Ophthalmologist fix you right up.

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SCARIEST WORDS EVER

August 6, 2012 at 10:55 AM (Life of Christ, Teachings)
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We all like to hear good things said to us or about us. The positive words of encouragement do us a world of good.

I know the words that I’d like to hear God say to me when I stand, or rather, lie prostrate, before Him at the judgment seat. I’m hoping He’ll say Well done, thou good and faithful servant!  These have got to be the sweetest words I’ll ever hear God say and I’m really hoping I’ll hear Him say them to me one day.

Unfortunately, God doesn’t only say good things all the time. He’s got some harsh words to say too. And the scariest of these words that I definitely don’t want to hear Him say to me are, I never knew you. Depart from me, you worker of iniquity! Friends, when you hear God say that to you, you’re as good as toast!

These words of our Lord are taken from His sermon on the mount. Here’s the fuller version of what He said: Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.  (22)  Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?  (23)  And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity, Matthew 7:21-23.

These 3 verses, in my opinion, are the scariest verses for a Christian because they tell us that many professing Christians who believe they’ll go to Heaven when they die will have a rude awakening and the shock of their life when our Lord sends them to hell instead.

Why will the Lord send these Christians to hell? (1) Because they’ve not done the will of God. They lived their lives in disobedience to God and neglected, or refused, to do His will; and (2) they worked iniquity, that is, they continued to live a life of sin, continued to live like the heathen. Instead of quitting sinning, they persisted in sin.

FRIENDS, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO EXPECT GOD TO OPEN HEAVEN’S GATES TO YOU IF YOU LIVE IN DISOBEDIENCE TO GOD AND CONTINUE TO SIN AND DO THOSE THINGS THAT DISHONOR AND DISPLEASE OUR LORD.

Two things shock and frighten me about the Christians who God will send to hell. (1) These unwary, unsuspecting hell-bound Christians called and considered Jesus their Lord; they worked for the Lord, engaged in Christian ministry or leadership; they prophesied and preached the word of the Lord; they cast out devils; and they did many wonderful works—not just a few or a handful, but many—they performed lots of signs and wonders; they did miracles of healing, deliverance, and who knows what else.

Jesus didn’t deny that they did these things. So what these Christians said and did were true. They did all these things that they said they did. So they were very effective in Christian ministry and many people were saved, healed, and delivered through them.

Most frightening perhaps is the fact that these people did way more for God than most of us have done to date. They did many things that most of us have not done even once as far as healing or casting out demons is concerned. These hell-bound Christians put us to shame by how much they did and how successful they were in their witness and ministry.

Yet, in spite of all they accomplished, they find themselves barred from Heaven because they lived a double life. They worked for the Lord and continued to sin on the side. They professed to be Christians, yet continued to live and act like heathens.

(2) The second thing that really frightens me about these hell-bound Christians is the fact that they are not a handful or an insignificant minority. They are not a few among many. They are not the oddballs or the exceptions to the rule. Jesus said many shall say unto Me. Brethren, there are many among us who will not step on streets of gold, who will not live in heavenly mansions, who will not spend eternity in Heaven.

And if there are many among us, then we must ask ourselves, “Am I one of the many Christians who will end up in hell?” That is truly a scary thought and it ought to motivate us to do everything in our power to make sure we are not one of the many who will be barred from Heaven, but one of the few who find, and walk, the strait and narrow. Jesus said in Matthew 7:14, Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, that leadeth to life; and few there be that find it.

THE FACT THAT GOD SENDS THESE DISOBEDIENT CHRISTIANS TO HELL TELLS US THAT NOT EVERYONE WHO PROFESSES TO BE A CHRISTIAN WILL GO TO HEAVEN.

This stands in stark contrast to the only condition that many Christians believe is the only thing you need to do to be saved and go to Heaven, and that is, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved (Acts 16:31); whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13); and  whosoever believeth on Jesus shall not perish but shall have life everlasting (John 3:16).

Of course, all these verses are true. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ will get you saved.

But God couldn’t say everything at one time or in one verse. Believing and receiving Jesus into your heart and life is just the beginning. Salvation isn’t just an act or a conversion experience. It’s a life. And it’s a life that’s lived in obedience to God’s will. These verses that we just read in Matthew 7 bear this truth out.

Here are some of the things God wants all of us to do. These are the things that will get us to Heaven. And failing or refusing to do them will imperil our soul and cause God to utter the scariest words that none of us want to hear God to say to us.

  • Do the will of God. Matthew 7:21, Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
  • Abstain from sin and iniquity. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10,  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,  (10)  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
  • Walk the strait and narrow. Matthew 7:13-14, Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:  (14)  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
  • Don’t believe wrong doctrine. 1 Timothy 4:1, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.
  • Live a holy life. Hebrews 12:14, Follow peace, and holiness, with all men; without which no man shall see the Lord.
  • Confess the Lord before men and not deny Him. Matthew 10:32-33, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.  (33)  But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
  • Live the crucified life. Luke 14:27, And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple. Galatians 6:7-8,  Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  (8)  For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
  • Be spiritually fruitful. John 15:2, Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
  • Persevere or endure to the very end. Matthew 10:22, He that endureth to the end shall be saved.

The point is, many people limit salvation to believing on Christ. And since that’s all they need to do to be saved, then there’s nothing else they need to do to be saved. They’re saved already. They’re going to Heaven. So now they can relax, breathe a sigh of relief that they’ve escaped the fires of hell, then go back to living the heathen lifestyle that they’ve always lived.

Jesus is here correcting this mistaken notion of salvation and He’s telling us as clearly as He can that, yes, salvation and Heaven begin with believing. But it doesn’t stop there. You need to mix actions with your faith. You need to act like you believe. You need to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. You need to live your life in obedience to God and do His will.

DISOBEDIENCE IS DAMNABLE.  One act of disobedience may not necessarily be damnable. Just because you sinned once doesn’t mean you’re going to hell. Repentance and forgiveness are God’s provision to save you from hell and avert the hellish consequences of sin and disobedience.

But one continuing act of disobedience—if you spend the rest of your life disobeying God; then that life of disobedience is certainly damnable. And the only thing that will save you from hell—the only life-saving thing you can do for yourself—is give that sin up, turn away from it, then spend the rest of your life in obedience and holiness unto God.

IF YOU PERSIST IN SIN, THAT SIN WILL KILL YOU. And the fact that you consider yourself a believer, the fact that you’re a minister, or a successful Christian worker or an effective witness or evangelist; the fact that you call Jesus your Lord and consider yourself a Christian; the fact that you fully expect to go to Heaven when you die; will not save you from hell. Sin will send you to hell and the only way it won’t is if you give it up, quit doing it, and start obeying God. Sinning might be cool with the crowd you hang around with. But, believe me, you’ll be hot as hell itself when payday comes, as it surely will. YOU JUST CAN’T SPEND YOUR LIFE DISOBEYING GOD AND EXPECT HIM TO BE NICE TO YOU ON JUDGMENT DAY!

So do you want God to say to you on Judgment Day Depart from me, you worker of iniquity? These are definitely the scariest of words to hear when hell is only a judgment sentence of God away. If you don’t want to hear God send you to hell with these words, then do the smart thing and quit sinning. Spend your life serving and obeying God and you’ll definitely not hear God say these scariest words to you on Judgment Day.

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THE JESUS I DIDN’T KNOW: THE GUY WITH A BIG MOUTH

July 24, 2012 at 7:17 PM (Life of Christ, The Jesus I Didn't Know)

How well do you know Jesus? We all like to think we know Jesus pretty well. I’ve had close to fifty years of wonderful, sweet communion with Jesus. I’ve devoted over forty years of my life to studying and teaching His Word. I’m talking about going back to the original languages and learning as much as I can about Jewish culture, institutions, and beliefs. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a Know-It-All. And you can ask my kids: I’m not inerrant or infallible. But still, knowing what I know, I’d like to think I know Jesus pretty good. To my pleasant surprise, however, I don’t know Jesus as good as I think I do. To this day, He still shows me more about Himself. Here, let me give you some snippets of the Jesus I never knew.

THE TROUBLE MAKER WITH A BIG MOUTH

Hi guys. My name is John. I’m the writer of the Gospel According to John. If you think you have Jesus all figured out, let me be the one to tell you, you’re all wet. I know. I was once like you. I had my own ideas of what Jesus was like, or what He should have been like.  Then Jesus comes along and shatters the fancy notion I had of Him. Here’s a good example.

As I was writing the Gospel I remembered the time when Jesus caused a big ruckus in the Temple. You may remember my previous blog on The Mad Man In The Temple. Anyways, when Jesus came to Jerusalem the first time (after He started His ministry) He cleared out the Temple and got the priests hopping mad. Well, several months later, Jesus came back a second time and, wouldn’t you know it, He got the religious cops hopping mad again!

He’d gone to the Pool of Bethesda and healed a man whose legs had been crippled for 38 years (John 5). He told the guy to get up, carry his bed, and walk. The guy did as he was told and, to everyone’s amazement, the guy’s legs were instantaneously healed! You should have seen the guy tearing through the Temple, yelling and screaming to high Heaven.

Well, this all happened on a Sabbath. And when the cops saw this fellow carrying his bed they pulled him over for questioning. Don’t you know it’s against the law to be carrying your bed on the Sabbath?, they asked. Sorry, sirs, the guy replied. He was so happy to be healed and walking again that he’d forgotten it was Sabbath. The Guy who healed me told me to carry my bed, he remembered and said. Who told you to carry your bed?, they asked. Well, the guy didn’t know Jesus from Adam. So he rightly couldn’t give them a name. So the cops gave him a warning and let him go. Course, the guy had to leave his bed right there on the spot and come back after Sabbath to pick it up.

Shortly after this, Jesus came to the Temple and found the guy that had been healed. After exchanging names and pleasantries, Jesus told the guy to Go and sin no more, lest something worse happens to you.

I’m not exactly sure what was running through that guy’s fool head. Maybe he wanted to score some brownie points with the cops. Anyways, he ran down to the station and ratted on the Lord. It was Jesus who healed me and told me to carry my bed!, he says. He even told them where Jesus was! What a rat!

Well, the cops caught up with Jesus and the Master was in big trouble. Not only did He break the Sabbath by healing the crippled guy, but He also encouraged the fellow to break the Sabbath too by telling him to carry his bed.

Now if it was up to me, I’d have kept my mouth shut and go along my merry way. But Jesus did something that made me pop my mouth in sheer disbelief. He talked to the cops (John 5:17-30)! And talked. And kept on talking. The Guy had a big mouth. And the more He talked, the more trouble He got Himself into. He told them that God was His Father. His Father worked on the Sabbath, so that’s why He worked too. Then He told them that God gave Him the power to raise the dead and judge all men. In other words, Jesus was telling them He was God! The cops were so incensed by His talk that they tried to kill Him!

Now you’d think that Jesus would high tail it out of there and save Himself before He got Himself killed. Well, He didn’t. He just stood there calm as a lark and talked some more! This time, He really got to meddling (John 5:31-47). He told them that they didn’t believe God. Or Moses. Or the Scriptures! The Guy had nerve! He clearly wasn’t afraid to call a spade a spade. As you can imagine, the cops were so humiliated in front of the people right there in the Temple. They were so hopping mad that they tried to get their hands on Jesus. But Jesus beat it out of there and got on the next train to Galilee.

This wasn’t the only time Jesus sparred with the powers. If you read the 8th chapter of my Gospel you’ll see that Jesus got into another verbal scuffling match with the powers. He told them they were damned (John 8:21,24); they weren’t Abraham’s children (John 8:39); their father was the devil (John 8:44); then He repeated His claim to be God (John 8:58). The priests were so intoxicated with anger that they tried to stone Jesus right there in the Temple (John 8:59)!

I mean to tell you, when you pushed Jesus’ button He really got going. He even called these cops names! He called them hypocrites (Matthew 16:3); a wicked and adulterous generation (Matthew 16:4); blind fools (Matthew 23:17,19); blind guides (Matthew 15:14, 23:24); serpents (Matthew 23:33); vipers (Matthew12:34, 23:33); children of murderers (Matthew 23:31). They weren’t saved (Matthew 23:13). They were proselytizers of hell (Matthew 23:15).

Now you know me as the apostle of love. I’m all for being peaceable. Humble. Loving. Kind. Considerate. Respectful. Conciliatory. Friendly. Not a trouble maker. Or a sower of discord and strife.  Not being offensive. Provocative. Critical. Judgmental. Antagonistic. Alienating. This was the Jesus I thought I was following.

But if you’d been with us for those 3½ years  you’d have seen a Jesus who was divisive. Confrontational. A trouble maker. The cops saw Him as a blasphemer (John 10:33, Matthew 26:65). Arrogant. Presumptuous. A Samaritan (John 8:48). A deceiver (Matthew 27:63, John 7:12). A devil (Matthew 10:25, Luke 11:15). Like I told you earlier, Jesus got the cops so mad at Him that, when their conversations were over, they wanted to, no, strike that, they tried to, kill Him. He definitely knew how to bring the hate and murder out of them!

No, Jesus wasn’t like this all the time. He was different with everyone else. He loved people, He reached out to them, and helped them. That’s why He was so popular in Israel and that’s what kept Him from getting crucified or killed before His time.

But when it came to the self-righteous religious folks, Jesus was definitely different. He wasn’t easy with them. And He didn’t go easy on them. He pulled out all the stops, loaded both barrels, fired away, and kept on firing, until the poor priests and Pharisees couldn’t take it any longer and tried to lynch Him on the spot.

Listen, Jesus is going to speak the truth no matter what. He isn’t going to sugar coat the truth. He’s not going to mislead you and make you think you’re alright if you’re not. If you’re wrong, He’ll tell you to your face. He’s out to help you. Save you. Change you. And He can’t do that by hiding the truth from you. He may be hard on you at times, but it’s because He loves you and it’s for your own good. He’s trying to keep you out of hell.

But, like these priests and Pharisees, if you show yourself an inveterate critic and enemy, if you insist on fighting Jesus all the way; He’ll fight you back. Let me tell you right now, that’s one fight you’re never ever going to win. He isn’t going to hold back any punches. He’ll knock the living daylights out of you. You’re going down! And there ain’t no mistaking that.

Don’t let the fact that Jesus is Love fool you into thinking He won’t damn you. He’s the Judge. And if you insist on going to hell, not even Jesus’ Love is going to stop you from going there. Think about it. Jesus has a big mouth and His mouth can send you to hell. This was the Jesus I didn’t know. But now I know. And the sooner you know it the better off you’ll be.

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