Series: Jesus has a Question for You 4 Text: Matt. 7:1-5, 12 Valley Community Baptist Church Jan. 26/27, 2019 Avon, CT Pastor Jay Abramson Why Do You See the Speck and Ignore the Log? The Super Bowl is coming up next week and, besides the game, what s the best part of the Super Bowl? The commercials! One of the best commercials from the past dealt with the issue raised by Jesus question today of misjudging a person s actions. Let s watch [Show AmeriQuest Mortgage commercial 30 sec.] Before Jesus asks His question, He makes this famous statement: Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. (Matt. 7:1, 2) Then, in reference to that statement He asks: Why do you see the speck that is in your brother s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? (Matt. 7:3) So, as is true with many of Jesus questions, He s presenting us with a problem to be solved, a bad behavior to be corrected. The bottom line He s addressing is: I. Our Problem with Pride Jesus thinks we have a self-esteem problem; only He doesn t think we have too little selfesteem. No, He thinks we have too much. He teaches this plainly when the disciples ask Him straight out, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And how does Jesus answer? I mean, He could ve rightfully said, Why I am! I m the Son of God. I m going to be seated in the power seat next to the Father. So, you must mean, who s the second greatest person in the kingdom of God because, obviously I m the greatest. But oddly enough, Jesus doesn t say that. In fact, he says almost the opposite. He takes the smallest, weakest, least intelligent, least capable, least powerful person he can find a child; and stands him before them and then He says:... Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matt. 18:3-4) So, Jesus is basically horrified by all the self-promotion and self-absorption and selfaggrandizement in our culture today. We are, by definition, a very narcissistic people. Do you remember the story of Narcissus? He was a hunter in Greek mythology who fell in love with his own reflection in a pond and died from his obsession with that image. Does this not describe our obsession with self? For example, our obsession with selfies. In 2015, 24 billion selfies were uploaded onto Google. As a category of photos, selfies is the largest by far. And like Narcissus, deaths by selfies are climbing. In 2011 there were only three deaths by people doing something stupid to get an exciting selfie, like standing next to a wild bear. By 2017, the death toll had risen to 93 and it continues to climb. 1 This is simply a very unhealthy obsession with self. Jesus isn t an advocate of hating ourselves but of loving ourselves on an equal footing with loving others, which is what verse 12 is about. But if our love of self is highly elevated over our love of others, it will lead to trouble. 1
Now, what does this have to do with judging other people? Is Jesus telling us that it s wrong even to have an opinion about the behavior of others? Is He advocating an extreme tolerance that not only accepts the sinful behavior of others but gives a silent endorsement to it? No, that s not what Jesus is saying. Just think about this for a moment. This section of Scripture is part of Jesus Sermon on the Mount. What is Jesus doing in that sermon? He s judging others!!! In one sermon He says: But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment... But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matt. 5:22, 28; 6:15) No, Jesus isn t telling us NOT to evaluate the ethical behavior of others. He s telling us not to jump to conclusions or assume we know the motivations of others. It s a warning against rushing to judgment before we know all the facts. That s why, immediately after telling us not to do that, He says For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. (Matt. 7:2) So, if you make false assumptions and rush to pronounce those assumptions on the Internet, guess what? God will allow you to be judged by false assumptions as well. What goes around, comes around turns out to be a teaching of Jesus. Isn t this exactly what we see every day on the Internet? Assumptions were made, for example, of why the high school student was smiling at the Native American who confronted him in Washington, D.C. Thousands of people jumped to express not only their opinion of the matter, but some offered rewards for anyone who would judge the young man with physical violence. If you re a Christian, this is precisely what Jesus is telling you NOT to do. Does that mean you re never to express a judgment of someone s behavior on the Internet? No, but when you do, you should do it with the understanding that, however you arrived at your conclusion, that is how your behavior will also be judged. That declaration by Jesus should cause all of us to pause for hours, if not days, before we hit the send button on our opinion of someone else s behavior. Which brings us to this II. Where This Problem Will Lead Us After instructing us not to jump to conclusions nor quickly pronounce judgement on others, Jesus asks two questions. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, Let me take the speck out of your eye, when there is the log in your own eye? (Matt. 7:3, 4) So, the facts are these: Jesus sees that we have a sin problem. He calls it the log. He also acknowledges that other people have sin problems too. He calls them the speck. He s not saying that everyone else s sins are way smaller than ours. He s just talking about the person who loves to point out other people s sins but ignores his own. He s saying, You are so good at detecting sin in other people. How can you not see your own sin? So, first, Jesus is showing us that we have a perception problem. Today it s called a lack of self-awareness. In an article in the Harvard Business Review, Dr. Tasha Eurich wrote about selfawareness in the workplace. First of all, she says that research shows that only about 10-15 percent of people have what is considered a high level of self-awareness. Secondly, she says that 2
the more power we attain in any work environment, the less self-aware we tend to be. The reason for this is because the more power you attain, the harder it is for people to tell you the truth. 2 Here s an easy way to test your own self-awareness. Rate yourself from 1 to 10 on your own personality traits, for example, are you nervous or composed? Are you light-hearted or negative? Are you a people person or a homebody? Are you self-disciplined or impulsive? Now, ask your spouse or best friend to rate you on those same traits without their seeing your ratings. If your scores are very close or identical to theirs, you re pretty self-aware. If your scores are far apart, well, Houston, we ve got a problem. So what if you re not self-aware? Who cares? Well, Jesus cares a lot! Look at what His diagnosis is if you score poorly on this self-awareness test. Jesus says: You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother s eye. (Matt. 7:5) The charge of being a hypocrite is a serious one. The word literally means to be an actor, but Jesus always uses it in a very negative sense. He mostly leveled this as His primary charge, we might say judgment, against the Pharisees. In an exchange with Pharisees recorded in Matt. 15, Jesus said to them: You hypocrites! Well did Isaiah prophesy of you, when he said: This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. (Matt. 15:7-9) To be lumped with the Pharisees is not a place any of us want to be. Just read Matthew 23 where Jesus makes seven serious charges against them, calling him hypocrites six times. He also says that because they are hypocrites, they are children of hell. So, where does our sin problem lead us? If not dealt with, we become blind, we literally can t see our own sin. Sin for a non-believer in Jesus will send him to hell. But sin in a believer s life, while not sending him to hell, may block others from properly dealing with their sin, thereby keeping them from being saved from hell. What a tragedy that would be if a Christian, rather than helping someone find the door to heaven, ushers them through the door to hell instead. So, what can be done about this problem? Jesus isn t talking about sin generally here. He is speaking about a lack of self-awareness the sin of hypocrisy. Thankfully, something can be done. So lastly, we need to see III. The Only Solution to Our Problem is Repentance. The solution is clearly spoken by Jesus in verse 5: You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye (Matt. 7:5) But how do I do that? What is that action called? It s called repentance. And how does it work? In Korea in the early 1940s, God brought many Christian leaders and thousands of members of Korean churches to a state of revival. And as they traced this work of God back to its beginnings, they found an unassuming woman of God named Miss Aletta Jacobsz. Miss Jacobsz was not satisfied with the general confession in the Presbyterian prayer book which led believers to simply pray, I am a sinner. As she counseled Christians one on one, she would hand them a pencil and a piece of paper and ask them to write down specific sins. A prominent Presbyterian missionary leader recalled his counseling session with her. It went like this: Miss J: Have you considered Matt. 6:33, Seek first the kingdom of God? Mr. X: Yes, I preach on it frequently. 3
Miss J: Are you willing to face this truth squarely and see if you are actually seeking God s will first in all things? Mr. X: (after a moment of silent reflection, he said ) Well, I suppose I am not seeking God first in everything. Yes, I will have to admit I am not always putting Christ first in my life. Miss J: Now, Mr. X, since you say you have preached this truth frequently, and you now recognize you are not fulfilling it in your life, what would you consider anyone, who, while urging others to do something, is not doing it himself? Mr. X: A hypocrite. Miss J: Then how do you characterize yourself? Mr. X: A hypocrite. Miss J: Will you please write it down? Mr. X wrote on his piece of paper, I am a hypocrite, and soon he had a list of other sins that he suddenly could see clearly. And though it was a very humbling exercise, how grateful he was, after this time of repentance, to experience also the deep peace and real forgiveness that filled his heart. 3 Once the log is out of our own eye, THEN Jesus says... THEN you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother s eye. (Matt. 7:5b) THEN you ll be able to fulfill the Golden Rule of verse 12: So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matt. 7:12) The reformer, Martin Luther said: Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when he said Repent, willed that the whole life of believers should be repentance. 4 All of us here who have been using the 21 Days of Prayer guidebook have been asked daily for 21 days to answer 5 questions. One of those questions has been, What do you regret? How have you answered that each day? Do you see why that question is there? Do you see what it was leading you to do? It was leading you to take the log out of your own eye because, until that log is removed, you just have no chance of helping anyone else get the splinter out of their eye. But if you repent, you will see clearly. That s what Jesus guaranteed. I m going to give you time right now to de-log your eye. James 5;16 says: Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.... Don t head for the doors! We re not going to confess our sins to one another today. But the reality is we all need a Miss Jacobsz to prompt us, to guide us through a regular time of confession. I urge you to find such a person. But today, we re going to ask the Holy Spirit to show us the log or logs in our eye that need to be removed. I urge you to take a piece of paper or one of the prayer cards and, as the Holy Spirit reminds you of past sins that you have not confessed to God, I urge you to write them down. Writing them down or speaking them out loud loosens our grip on them in some mysterious way. Perhaps the regrets you ve considered over the past 21 days are some of those sins. But right now, I m going to pray that the Holy Spirit will be free to do what Jesus said He would do in John 16:13,... he will guide you into all the truth Spend this time with Him now. Let s remove some logs. [Jay prays before we spend 2-3 minutes in silence] 4
[On Jay s cue, worship team plays opening chord of One Thing Remains, Jay prays and invites people to stand and sing.] 1 Fstoppers.come/news/scientific-study-shows-selfies-kill-20times-more-people-sharks-294242 2 www.psychologytoday.com, Why Higher Execs Often Have lower Self-Awareness, Victor Lipman, Apr. 23, 2018 3 www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2003/march/14303.html 4 www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2018/january/8011518.html 5