Luke 6:37-42

Those who follow Jesus are forgiven as they forgive others, perfectly trained to be like Him, fully liberated from being critical and judgmental of others.

Luke six verses 37 to 42.
When you get there, hold your finger right there in that portion of the Bible where we’re studying today.
And while you’re turning there, we’re looking at a message this morning entitled Those who follow Jesus, those who follow Jesus.
And this is vitally important because, you know, a couple of weeks ago that Jesus began to call out from the vast group of disciples, Jesus began to call out 12 whom he called apostles.
And in doing that, he began to change his teaching.
He introduces now to us parable teaching or what’s called parabolic teaching. Jesus introduces us strong words, challenging words.
So I’ve got to tell you this morning, this message is not for the recreational Christian today.
It’s not for those who are a faint heart regarding faith or what faith should be like in Jesus Christ.
Let me be the first one to tell you that this morning as we look to our study that Jesus doesn’t care about what feels good to us.
He cares about what translates into life for us.
Imagine right now if you were in the hospital and there were two doctors standing there and one doctor would say, well, let’s make them feel good.
Doctors have the capability of making you feel, you know, very well based upon whatever hallucinogenic or medication they give you.
Then there could be a doctor who says, you know what I’m all for making them feel well, but we need to get down to the basis as to why this person is doing so poorly now, right then and there you and I are faced with a dilemma.
Let’s be honest. Have you ever been in, by the way, a situation where you’re hurting very badly I have and you want immediate alleviation from the pain part of you says doctor drug me and drug me now and drug me big, put me out of my pain.
But you know that you can only live like that for a little bit of time.
You are gonna need help and you’re gonna need to get fixed.
Jesus is so dedicated and committed to you and I experiencing what we need for eternal life.
And until we go see the Lord having a life that’s effective that he will say things to us that at the front they don’t feel so good, but in the end, it’s exactly what we needed.
So for those of us who can receive this and hear this, it’s vital to us.
Those who follow Jesus, it’s a call to discipleship, it’s a call to following him.
And as your finger there is in Luke chapter six verse 37.
Follow along with me if you would, Jesus said, judge not and you shall not be judged condemn not and you shall not be condemned.
Forgive and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you.
Good measure pressed down, shaken together and running over will be put into your bosom for with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
Verse 39 he spoke. Then this parable unto them saying, can the blind lead the blind will they not both fall into a ditch?
A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.
And why do you look at the spec in your brother’s eye and yet do not perceive the plank that is in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother, brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye.
When you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye, hypocrite first remove the plank from your own eye, then you can see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
You know what this is very powerful stuff as you can tell.
And a lot of us who are of, you know, a gentile background, we kind of read this and we say, man, what kind of teaching is?
This is kind of sporadic and yet Jesus as I mentioned a moment ago is embarking upon a different style of teaching right now.
Yes, he’s gonna introduce a parable, but also he’s teaching a way that is very, very, uh known to the Hebrew mind and it will, I hopefully tie together in a moment when you’re teaching Children.
By the way. I remember pastor Chuck Smith saying to those who wanted to become pastor teachers at Calvary Chapel over 20 years ago, he said the greatest thing that all of you can do to find out if you’re called to the ministry is to go now to the children’s ministry and see if you can hold their attention for 15 minutes.
Isn’t that a great word?
He said, if you can teach a child for 15 minutes, then you can teach adults.
That’s a great word. And even in his challenge to go do that, that weeded out a lot of people because some guys had, had a high mindedness that well, doesn’t the world know how great of a teacher I am.
I’m not gonna go teach kids. I’m not gonna waste my time on kids.
That’s not how God looks at it, but the Hebrew way of teaching and Jesus begins to employ it here in this portion of scripture.
He gives these shotgun bits of information. That’s why it seems to you. And I disjointed.
See you and I are used to college or university lectures going for 55 minutes.
You and I are used to Bible teaching 55 minutes.
But in the Hebrew mind still to this day when they teach a child, it’s dynamic, it’s expressive.
It’s even exaggerated to bring illumination.
They’ll use parables or illustrations and they will do it in such a way that it’s very quick.
That’s why you have this style of teaching.
He mentions about judging, he mentions about condemning, he mentions about having a plank in your eye You’ll love uh either today or next Sunday about what did he mean about a plank?
It’s quite comical. The word Jesus used was pretty funny why?
Because it paints a huge picture of this scene that is somewhat impossible that a man could walk around with a telephone pole coming out of his eye.
And yet that’s exactly what the word means and he’s gonna turn and he’s gonna correct some guy that’s got a little tiny microscopic speck of sawdust in his eye.
Very, very technicolor in teaching. But listen, Jesus not only uses this style of teaching.
Are you with me here? He’s going to teach us something that we don’t want to hear.
I’ve looked at this message and between now and next Sunday, these two Sundays back to back, there’s enough in here that will offend each and every one of us.
And he said, well, pastor, can I leave now? If you’re a coward? Go ahead and leave now.
Run quick. But you know what if you want to live in reality and listen to the words of Jesus.
It’s gonna be good for you and I it’s gonna be good for us because he’s gonna say things that not only you and I need to do, but we need to have done to us as well before we get into this.
What Jesus is doing is quite precious because he has come from heaven to earth.
He’s calling out from the disciples, 12 apostles.
He’s going to school them and teach the ministry and the word of God, it is the master journeyman instructing the apprentice on what to do in the trade.
Jesus, by the way, had a trade. Anybody want to take a guess what it was.
What was his trade? He learned it in his father’s. He was a carpenter. Jesus had a trade.
He knew what it was like and how to be a carpenter.
What you may or may not be aware of is that his stepfather, Joseph was a journeyman carpenter, a master at carpentry.
Joseph would have taken Jesus as Jesus is growing up. Follow along with me, watch this carefully.
Joseph would have been doing the project.
Joseph would have been careful to watch the eyes of his son taking notice.
That would have been the time when Jesus would have walked up and been watching Joseph work at the shop or at the table when the journeyman sees that interest, that’s when he picks them up, sets them on the table watch.
And the journeyman master takes his hand and begins to work again on the project that he takes the apprentice’s hand and puts it on top of, on top of the journeyman’s hand and begins as it were to follow the movement or the motions of the trade.
Do you hear what I’m saying? At this moment in the instruction, the apprentice doesn’t touch the project.
He’d break it, he’d mess it up. He doesn’t know he’s doing it. He’s going to get hurt.
But over time he constantly now feels the movement of what is being done.
If it’s knocking in a wooden dow, if it’s sandy, if it’s chipping away something that apprentice feels because his hand is on top of the master’s work.
You see what I’m saying? You could almost close your eyes and see how that would work.
What comes to my mind’s eye is often a person that is blind themselves and they want to experience something.
What do they do? They touch it, don’t they?
Once they touch, they can see even though they may be blind. Do you remember when we were little?
And we wanted to copy something out of a magazine? What did we do? Anybody remember? Very good.
We would trace it. We’d lay paper over and trace it and then try to tell our friends we drew it.
Remember that we’d lie our full head off.
We would trace, we would copy the path of the master, the creator, the artist, we would only be tracing, they had done the work.
The master journeyman does the work and the apprentice so to speak, traces until the journeyman realizes that this apprentice has come to the place that now it’s time.
And the journeyman takes the hand of the apprentice and places it directly on the object.
The journeyman now puts his hand on top of the apprentice’s hand and they begin to go through the movement.
Why? Because now the apprentice is already keenly aware of the movements, but now the feel is altogether new, isn’t it?
And that apprentice does not become a journeyman until he’s got both the movement and the feel down and now he’s ready to go.
That’s exactly what Jesus is doing here.
He’s come from heaven to earth to expose to mankind the will of the Father, the heart of ministry.
What God’s mission to earth was all about.
And now Jesus is taking his apostles and he’s taking their hands and putting it upon his hands. Because why?
Because Jesus in a sense, had his hand put upon his father’s hand, didn’t he?
And Jesus said all those things that the father has given me to do. I’ve done.
You see that connection, keep that in mind as we look to following Jesus. What do we know?
Point number one in our study found in verses 37 38.
It is this those who follow Jesus Christians, we would say have been have been liberated.
The Christian, the follower of Jesus has been liberated, set free. How so liberated from being critical?
Oh, will you mark that down? Critical.
A critical spirit is one of the tell tale signs that there’s been no grace in someone’s heart, somebody who is pointing the finger.
And we’ve called them in this in our study before sin sniffers and fault finders.
They’re always pointing something out, everything’s wrong. You can’t be near them without hearing about something wrong.
You can mention a name and well, you know what? And it’s always critical.
Jesus says, the Bible teaches us that those who follow Christ have been liberated from that kind of bondage.
Always critiquing always critical verse 37 Jesus said, judge not and you shall not be judged condemn not and you shall not be condemned.
The word in the Greek by the way, for not, you gotta to circle that. It’s very important.
Judge not condemn, not the word in Greek is stop. It. Isn’t that interesting? Stop it, stop what? Stop judging.
And you won’t be judged.
Now, remember I told you how there’s something offensive in every one of these verses here.
This is one of them starting right here. You know what Jesus is saying?
Can you imagine Jesus is saying it’s human nature that comes out of us to judge one another.
I hope that doesn’t come to a shock to you. It’s true.
Just as it is natural for a human to lie.
From the earliest of ages, they learn how to lie cute little things, but they’re liars.
Did you break the vase? No.
What comes out of us also is a judgmental, critical spirit and it has to be dealt with.
Jesus says those who are following him, they are to stop it. He already confesses for us.
It’s in us. We need to say, Lord, it is in me and I’m asking you Lord to help me.
Lord, I agree with you. I want it stopped, see you and I are to present ourselves to Jesus and say, Lord, I want, I agree.
I want to stop that. We say, Lord take from me this judgmental spirit out of my life.
I don’t want to be critical about it. And he says, condemn that same word. Stop condemning.
What does it mean? Note takers bible students jot it down. Number one.
This judge not means this stop being quick, harsh and critical to judge someone.
It implies that it’s a private judgment and it’s in the same listen to this.
It’s in the same context of Jesus.
Speaking about the scribes and Pharisees these men that we know from our study.
They were always judging Jesus always condemning Jesus weren’t they?
We know that by now, Jesus says to the disciples and to the apostles, stop it.
It’s just like those guys. They don’t know God, they’re all religious.
They’re holier than thou pointing sin out and pointing what they think is sin. They’re judging people and condemning people.
Jesus said, that’s native to the human heart. Stop it. We say, I can’t stop it. I’m born with it.
Jesus says, give it to me and I’ll work on that right out of your life.
He said, well, how does that happen when we begin to find out that God through Christ, Jesus no longer is judging us.
In fact, the Bible says, for those of us who have come to Christ, the Bible says, we have passed from judgment into life.
God is judge, I’m not to judge anybody.
You see Jack, I thought the Bible says that we are to judge the the wolf in sheep’s clothing, judge doctrine.
Yes. But it’s a different word than what’s used here. This word is a quick harsh rash judgment.
It’s critical and it’s of that of the pharisee of the scribe’s mind to quickly come to a judgment on somebody without hearing the case without hearing as to why are you living this way or to why is this the situation in your life?
Then the word condemn Jesus said, stop it, stop condemning people.
He says, if you stop it, you shall not be condemned yourself.
This word condemned means a swift merciless, damning of someone. You know what it means.
It means that you stop, listen, it means to stop cutting people off. I don’t mean freeway.
I know we’re Californians, we immediately think of the car. That’s not what he’s talking about.
Stop cutting people off out of your life by doing that.
You’ve condemned them and Jesus said you do that. It’s gonna come on, you watch this.
I think all of you have gotten this picture in your mind already by now when you are so impressed with yourself and you are so holy, you are so mighty, you are so righteous that you are the ultimate judge over the lives of people.
Your decision to judge them is brought out of emotionalism.
Not fact, you hear someone say something and it fits you well, that’s what you want to do or what you want to exercise.
And so you judge someone. Jesus says, you’re gonna get that same judgment on you.
Oh not by people, but by God himself that leads to condemning them to condemn somebody according to this word is this way somebody confronts you or someone says something or it doesn’t have to be a confrontation and you according to this word, condemn them, the word again is to damn them.
You cut them off. And that person says, I’m sorry, you misunderstood me. I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant.
I’m sorry, that’s not what I said. No, it’s too late, too late and you cut them off.
Jesus said, if that’s the way you treat people, that’s the way God’s gonna treat you.
You say Jack, you know what this is pretty terrifying.
Jesus is speaking about those who are of the kingdom who follow Christ, they will quickly come before God and see to it.
Lord, I repent of this and I don’t want this in my life.
But if you live life, judging people and cutting them off, it’s proof that you are only a Christian entitled and not indeed that you’re not real, do you.
And I know people are we those kinds of people who cut others off and judge them, leave them bleeding along the road with no point to appeal, no grounds to appeal their case.
No, you know what? You hurt me once it’s over. I thank God he is not like that.
Ok. Have we not heard him? Have we not upset him?
And does he not accept us back when we repent? He’s so good to us. He’s so kind.
Judge not condemn not. We have a great picture of this in the Bible, by the way, in second Samuel 12 verses 5 to 7.
Actually, you can read the whole chapter. It’s quite vivid, you know, this story with David.
Remember David, I’ll give you a little background. Uh It’s spring time. It’s kind of funny.
It’s spring time when nations go to war, it says, hey, it’s spring. Can you smell the birds?
The flowers? Come on, let’s go to war. Let’s find some nation and go to war.
It’s the spring when nations go to war, it says in the Bible, David sends off his troops to war.
He stays home. Not only does he stay home, which was wrong. He sleeps in.
That’s always wrong to sleep in. You missed the day, man. David sleeping in gets up.
Can you see King David? He’s scratching his head. He got his cup of coffee.
They have great coffee in his room anyway, cup of coffee.
And he’s got his kingly robe on and steps on his porch and uh in the palace and he looks, and there’s this lady taking a bath and uh she’s naked, taking a bath.
Of course, she’s naked. She’s taking a bath on her roof.
David’s awning balcony above it and looks down there and says, wow, somebody get her for me.
Who is that? You know the story he has sex with Bathsheba, another man’s wife commits adultery, then she’s pregnant.
He finds out about it and has the husband killed, murdered. Now, David is a murderer.
He’s an adult and a murderer. And king of Israel at that time, the most powerful nation on the earth.
Some time goes by, everything seems to be going ok.
And then Nathan, the prophet comes and says, hi, David, how are you? I’m fine.
Nathan, how are you? I’m fine.
Oh, hey, by the way, you know what, um, there’s a guy down the road. He’s got a situation.
Some, some guy came and took his little lamb. It’s the only lamb.
He had, in fact, he loved that lamb. It would be in his house.
I mean, he treated it like a child of his and uh it was his only lamb loved his love that little lamb and somebody stole it right out from underneath them.
David said in my kingdom, this has happened. Yeah, I’ll tell you what Nathan find.
I wanna find out. I want to know who took that guy’s lamb and I want him dead.
And Nathan says, wow, really? Yeah, that’s right.
Well, Nathan, you know what God told me to tell you that you’re the man.
Uziah loved his wife, Beth Sheba. It was his own life.
Only wife. He loved her crazy.
He was, he was nuts over her and you took her and you killed him.
David fell on his face and repented before God.
Oh, did he pay the price for his sin brutally? Did God forgive him? Yeah.
But you still have to pay the price of the fallout of what you, what you’ve done though.
God forgives you wasn’t David critical though, find such a man and kill him.
You see the same attitude comes out of the heart.
David from that moment on even the book of Psalms begins to change.
He starts to write more mercifully toward others, more kind toward others, more forgiving.
He says, oh God, don’t remember the sins of my youth blood out. Oh God, my iniquity from me.
You see the truth of the matter is my friend.
We can be liberated only from Jesus Christ or by Jesus Christ from sin that makes us critical.
And that also makes us bitter.
Look at the second part of verse 37 those who follow Jesus have been liberated from not only being critical but from being bitter.
Pastor and bible teacher, Jack Hibbs here on real life radio with his message called those who follow Jesus part one.
You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack’s series called The Gospel of Luke.
It’s a series on the book of Luke and the unveiling of Jesus Christ to this world.
And we’ll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.
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