According to the Flesh

Welcome to Worship in the Word with Pastor Robert Morris. We are in a series called Passover to Pentecost, where Pastor Robert is sharing about 50 days that changed the world. Today's message is about how to see people the way God does. Pastor Robert has some incredible things to share, so let's join him now. So I'm continuing the series, Passover to Pentecost. We talked about Passover two weeks ago on Easter. The title of this message, you won't understand yet, but you will.

It's called According to the Flesh. We're going to be talking about the 50 days that Jesus, that's between Passover and Pentecost, Jesus was on the earth 40 days. I want to read you some passages. I can't read all of them, but I want you to notice that the disciples did not recognize Jesus after the resurrection.

And then we're going to tie that into a truth we can apply to our lives, all right? So John chapter 20 verse 11, but Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had laid. Then they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, because they've taken away my Lord and I do not know where they've laid him. Now, when she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus.

That's really strange. She'd been with him, most believe the entire three and a half years of his ministry, but probably at least three of those years. And she didn't know it was him. John 20 verse 19, then the same day at evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

You'd think walking through the wall would be enough to recognize Jesus. Not until he even spoke peace with you. They didn't say then they were glad. He had to show him his hands and his side. Remember he had to do that eight days later with Thomas. Thomas didn't say my God and my Lord until Jesus said, touch my hand, put your hand in my side. Then he said, my God and my Lord. Why didn't he say it right at that time?

I'm just trying to tell you there's something different about his appearance. Luke 24 verse 30, now it came to pass, he said at the table with them that he took bread, this is the disciples on the road to Emmaus, blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew him and he vanished from their sight. Okay, he's been walking and talking with them for hours. Let me say that again. These are the two guys that have been with him three and a half years.

They've been walking and talking with him for hours and did not recognize him. So we all know, probably all of us, you may be new in the faith, I understand that, but we probably all know 2 Corinthians 5 17. Therefore if any man is in Christ, he's a new creation, old things pass away, all things become new. You ever heard that verse? Do you know verse 16? Here's verse 16. Therefore from now on, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh.

That's where I got the title of the message. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. So here's what Paul says. Now we knew Christ according to the flesh because he became a human and walked on there 33 years, but we don't know Christ according to the flesh anymore. But we're also making a decision as believers to regard no one according to the flesh.

No one. What does Jesus look like? Now, I didn't say, if you got an image in your mind, I didn't say, what did Jesus look like? When you imagine Jesus, let me ask you this, do you imagine a human form? Sure you do.

You're not wrong for doing that. But he was only human 33 years. If we imagine a human form, then aren't we knowing him after the flesh? What if we did what Paul said, and we don't regard Jesus according to the flesh anymore because he shows up to the disciples and nobody recognizes him. But what if I don't regard you anymore according to what your flesh is?

What if I take the time to get to know you as a person and stop judging people? Do you realize this is the answer to prejudice in our world? Every form of prejudice there is.

Every form. So I have four, normally three, but four applications of this truth. Number one, ethnicity.

Ethnicity comes from the Greek word ethnos, which means nations or languages, regions of the world. So John 4, Jesus is at the well talking to a woman. Verse 9, then the woman of Samaria said to him, how is it that you, being a Jew, notice she brings race into it. Ask a drink for me, a Samaritan woman, for Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Watch Jesus's response. Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.

Do you know what he was saying to her? You're judging me after the flesh. You're judging me, you're pre-judging pre-Judas. Prejudice. Prejudice, pre-Judas. It's a judgment without the facts. That's what all prejudice is. It's a pre-judgment. He said, you're judging me after the flesh. But if you judge me after the spirit, you'd realize that I could give you living water and that all these ethnicities don't matter.

You're a person and you need a savior and I'm the savior. That's what he's trying to tell her. You got to get past this racial thing. You got to get past this, that I might be a different ethnos than you.

You got to get past that. Just think about if we made that decision, it would completely solve the problem. Now, I'm not talking about that we don't see or notice a different ethnicity than us. I'm not talking about that. What I'm saying is that I don't regard. This word regard, we decide not to regard someone.

This word regard means to judge, to get to know, to interview, to discern. In other words, I'm going to get to know you not after the flesh. I'm going to interview you not according to the flesh.

I'm going to get to know who you are as a person. When Ethan Lane got married, I was talking with a friend of mine who's an African American pastor. The only reason I'll ever say that is because it's germane to the story. If it's not germane to the story, I'll just tell you I have a friend of mine and I'll never say who's African American because it doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter what his ethnicity is, but it matters in the story. Anyway, he and I were talking and he said, hey, I heard your daughter got married. He knew Elaine and we'd been friends for many years and I said, yeah, and he said, do you have a picture of the wedding or anything like that? I said, I do. So I pull up my phone and this friend of mine said, he's black. Just like that. So I said, what?

I met with that guy six months and he never one time mentioned to me he was black. I said, he's got some splaining to do. Y'all remember that? That was Ricky Ricardo to Lucy.

You got Lucy got some splaining to do. But I had told him Elaine's met someone. He's a wonderful young man. He graduated with a degree in accounting. Our family's fall in love with him.

He comes from a good family. But I never mentioned his race because it wasn't germane that Elaine had met someone. Number two, gender. That's a huge prejudice in our world. Gender.

Galatians 3 28. There is neither June or Greek. There's race again. Slave nor free.

That's status. There's neither male nor female. Now some of you have to deal with this because some of you men are prejudice. You're gender biased.

There's no doubt you are. I'm reading the Bible. There is neither male nor female. Now some of you say, well, wait, there are other scriptures.

But you don't know about those either. And I can take a whole message if you'd like for me to explain to you difficult passages about male and female. But there's no difference in Christ.

And it says you are all one in Christ Jesus. How is a woman less capable than a man because she doesn't have genitalia, male genitalia? I mean, I'm as serious as I can be. If a woman walks into a business meeting and you have any type of a negative thought, you're biased.

You're biased. That's all there is to it. And what if you decide from now on, which I read it in the Bible, to regard no one according to the flesh? And you're not talking to a female. You're talking to a person.

Are y'all following me? You're just talking to a person. Now I realize there are differences. I'm again saying that it's not that we don't notice there are differences. I'm not saying that. I'm simply saying we choose not to judge that person according to ethnicity or gender. I'm going to get to know you, not according to the flesh.

I'm going to try to know people after the Spirit. So I know there are differences. Okay. So I don't want to be graphic. I'm not trying to be crude, but you know, there are people today that are going to take this too far. There are no differences between men and women. Take your clothes off. There are differences.

I promise you. There are differences. And they're not just biological. They're not just physical. Women are more in touch with their emotions.

And studies prove that. They are much more in touch with their emotions. I mean, I've been in marriage counseling, and you're sitting there talking, and the woman is so in touch, and she's crying. And that's why you have Kleenexes. You don't have Kleenexes for the guy, unless there's allergies in there, you know. You have Kleenexes in marriage counseling.

She's very in touch. And then you say to the man, you know, so how was your childhood? Oh, it's fine. My parents left when I was six, and I was raised by wolves, and you know, it just goes on. And you say, wait, wait, wait, wait. Did that wound you? No, he said, I love the wolves. He has no clue.

That's why men get married, so they can find out, oh, that hurt me. I understand that now. Debbie and I like to listen to the oldies, now they're called. So we're listening to this, and this old song comes on. I'm not going to play the song, but you'll recognize it. I just want to show you the words to the chorus. It was written by Dan Hill and sung by Dan Hill, okay? Here, here are the words to it. Sometimes when we touch, you all remember this? The honesty is too much, and I have to close my eyes and hide. I want to hold you till I die, till we both break down and cry.

I want to hold you till the fear in me subsides. A man did not write this. Dan Hill did not write this song.

Dan Hill's wife wrote him a little love note. Put it in his suitcase, he opened up, oh, that'd make a good song. And now, we get in trouble. We men, because we're listening, the song comes on the radio, look over at wives, they're crying.

And we're like, what's wrong? He gets it. He gets it.

No, he doesn't get it. I'm just being honest. There are differences between male and female, but I'm not going to regard you in a demeaning way, because you're different than I am, all right? Number three, age.

This is a discrimination. First Timothy 4-12, Paul told Timothy, let no one despise your youth. I'm going to tell you what that word means in a moment.

But be an example to the believers in word and conduct and love and spirit and faith and impurity. So I'll show it to you in a moment. I'll show you the definition. But the word despise in the Greek means, now, you'll have to hang on, so I'm not going to show it to you yet, but it means contium, not condium, contium. It's where we get our word contempt. Let me show you the Webster's dictionary. Contium means to treat with contempt, but that doesn't help us any.

Here's what it means. To regard, notice the word regard, as unworthy of one's notice or consideration. To regard someone as unworthy of one's notice or consideration. This is a prejudice. To judge someone younger than you as unworthy of your consideration.

It's an age discrimination. First Timothy 5, that was four. First Timothy 5 has this phenomenal truth that most people read over and never even see. First Timothy 5 verse 1, do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father. Younger men, this is how you exhort younger men as brothers, I underline brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters with all purity.

Now, again, you're thinking, I didn't see it, okay. So he tells the younger men, first of all, I don't even want you to rebuke an older man. I want you to exhort him. Even if you've got to correct, speak correction, I want you to speak to him in an honoring way. And you speak to him as a father.

But then he says an unbelievable phrase. And you older men speak to the younger men as brothers. He didn't say as sons. And he told the younger women to speak to the older women as mothers and he told the older women to speak to the younger women as sisters, not as daughters.

This is huge. In other words, when someone speaks to me a younger man, he can speak to me as a father, but I don't speak to a younger man as a son because he's a grownup now. He's an adult. So I speak to him as a brother.

Let me tell you what this is saying. It's okay to look up to someone. It's not okay to look down on anyone.

That's what this is telling us. It's okay to look up to someone. It's not okay to look down on someone. It's okay to respect our elders. It's not okay to disrespect our youth. That's not okay. They're our brothers in Christ.

They're our sisters in Christ. I've told you many times I meet with this coach. So one time Josh and I were meeting with him and we were sitting on the couch and he was sitting in a chair. Josh and I are sitting beside each other. And so he says, oh, I don't want to ask you questions, not trick questions.

Just real simple. I'll ask both of you. He said, Josh, who is that sitting on the couch beside you? And Joshua, it's my dad. Then he said to me, Robert, who is that sitting on the couch beside you? I said, it's my son. He said, not according to the Bible. He said, according to the Bible, y'all are brothers. And he said, and Josh, if you see your father as higher than you for the rest of your life and Robert, if you see your son as lower than you, you two are going to have problems for the rest of your lives.

He said, you've got to begin to see yourself as brothers. Everyone with me? Okay. And so here's the last one, appearance. We don't judge people after the flash. We don't judge by ethnicity, gender, age, appearance.

Now there could be many more applications I just chose four. Now God tells Samuel to go and anoint the next king of Israel. He doesn't know who it is yet, but he says it's one of the sons of Jesse. First Samuel 16, this is when he sees the oldest son, the firstborn.

Verse six, so it was when they came that he looked at Eliab, that's the oldest son of Jesse, the firstborn, and said, surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, do not look at his appearance. Could we say, do not regard according to appearance or at his physical stature because I refused him for the Lord does not see as man sees. Could we say according to the flesh for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. How many times do we judge by the outward appearance?

Come on, come on. Tall, short, thin, heavyset, long hair, short hair, no hair. Let me throw that in for some of you guys, make you feel comfortable.

How many times we judge according to that? You know, I have a friend of mine that played professional basketball. So everybody sees the guy and, you know, and they'll come up to him and he told me, he said, people come to me all the time, say, can I ask you a question? And so he said, so what I say when they asked me now is I say six foot nine, 13.

Yes. And they're like, what? He said, well, I know that one question leads to three. And what you're going to ask me is how tall am I? I'm six foot nine. What size shoe do I wear? 13.

Can I play basketball? Yes. Now again, I'm not saying it's wrong to notice. I'm not saying that. You can't help but notice a six foot nine guy.

Okay. But to judge, to judge according to appearance, personal appearance, nerdy, good looking. Our society is just taken by appearance. But we're not to judge according to appearance. So I really had one major point today that we're not going to regard people according to flesh. Let me read it to you in The Message Bible, second Corinthians 5 16.

Because of this decision, we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong. We have a really good friend here at Gateway Church. Nick Vujicic. Let me show you a picture of Nick in case you don't remember. Y'all remember Nick?

He was born with no arms and no legs. When I met him the very first time many, many years ago, he said four words to me. I've now introduced him to a lot of people. He says four words. Every time he meets someone, he says four words.

Give me a hug. You'd make a huge mistake if you judge Nick according to his flesh. Because he is a wonderful, wonderful person to get to know. And you make a huge mistake if you judge anyone according to the flesh. From now on, what if Gateway Church and Christians around the world would say, from now on, we will regard no one according to the flesh. We're going to get to know everyone according to the Spirit. We want you just to take a moment to think about what Pastor Robert shared today and really listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. If you want to connect with us or check out some of Pastor Robert's other messages, visit pastorrobert.com. And if you haven't already, go follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so we can be a part of your community. We're so glad that you joined us. Next time, Pastor Robert is sharing about the benefits of Christ's resurrection. Until then, have a blessed day.