Christianity Behind the Curtain

Mr. Plankhead spots Mr. Sawdust on the other side of the synagogue. He isn't going to be satisfied with just seeing it. Would you notice? He wants to perform surgery.

Hold still! Let me get that speck out of your eye. Jesus is pulling the curtain back and showing us ourselves We have an amazing blindness to our own sin and an amazing perceptiveness of the sin in others He created a perception of yourself for work, another for home, and a different one for social settings. In other words, do you have different masks that you wear based on the setting you're in? As believers, we can even find ourselves going to church with a mask on. We hide our own issues and focus on the problems of others. Jesus encouraged his true disciples to examine their own lives honestly and thoroughly for sin. And we do that before confronting another believer with their issues.

This is Wisdom for the Heart. Here's Stephen Davey with a message called, Christianity Behind the Curtain. The more I studied the text that's before us today, the more it struck me that what Jesus is doing here is stringing together some pearls that collectively will pull back the curtain on us all. He's essentially describing in very realistic terms the characteristics of growing disciples. There's no smoke in mirrors here.

There's no impressive sound effects. Just the real thing. What does it look like? What does it sound like to be a growing disciple? So we're going to pick up this string of pearls, as it were, and as we work our way through it, I want to give you four characteristics of growing disciples.

Characteristic number one is this. We'll just simply call it genuine generosity. We're now in verse 38. Give and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.

For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. Now Jesus is using a sermon illustration here that his audience would have immediately understood. They'd seen this a thousand times.

So let me describe it for you. In fact, I'm going to read Darrell Buck's paragraph on this in his commentary as he describes this first century scene. He wrote, the measuring of corn would be carried out according to an established pattern. The seller would crouch down on the ground with the measuring container between his legs. He would fill it three-fourths full and then shake the container around with a rotating motion to make it all settle down. Then he filled it to the top and he gave it another series of shakes. Next, he pressed down on the corn with both hands, squeezing it all together. He then bore a hole in the middle of the pile and he would pour even more kernels into it, patting it down periodically until there was no room for one more kernel. In this way, the purchaser was guaranteed an absolutely full measure.

It simply couldn't hold anymore. Now even though Jesus is pulling out this very common experience, he changes it ever so slightly, which would have gotten their attention. He adds a couple of things in his changing of this illustration. First, the Lord says here that the measuring vessel is not just full to the brim.

Did you notice? It's actually running over. It's spilling over into the recipient's lap. That word for lap, lapron, was a pocket created by the fold in the robe. So he's receiving this and it isn't just a full measure.

I mean, it's running over. Now secondly, he changes it here so this isn't really about selling grain or corn or flour or anything. In fact, the word sell is not found in this passage. Jesus is using the word give. Notice, give, not sell, and it will be given to you.

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. So you see he's presenting a picture here of not so much a generous seller, although we love it when we get a good deal from some salesmen, right? Jesus isn't commending a generous seller here. He's commending a generous giver.

This is how we're to give. In fact, keep in mind he doesn't use the word money either, does he? That's because he's describing something deeper. He's describing a characteristic of a growing disciple that goes deeper than your debit card.

He goes way deeper than your portfolio. He's talking here about our spirit, our attitude. Is it stingy? Is it tight-fisted?

Or is it open and generous? Do we live with the spirit? This is how we willingly meet the needs of others. This is how we give our time. This is how we share our talent, which so many here on this platform did, in fact, today. This is how you use your spiritual gifts, as so many of you have volunteered teaching and working in a variety of ways as you serve the body. This is the use of your home.

This is indeed the use, of course, of your finances. But a growing disciple is described here as someone who has this spirit of overflowing, genuine generosity. Secondly, Jesus describes in parabolic form, a parable, what I want to label as cautious conformity. Notice he asks a rhetorical question, verse 39, Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into the pit? And he's expecting the answer.

Well, of course not. You wouldn't have a blind individual leading a blind individual somewhere where they're not sure where they're going. Now, in Matthew's much longer sermon notes of the Lord's message, he connects this warning with the false prophets in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 15. In fact, Jesus will again connect blindness with the religious leaders over in Matthew chapter 15.

He'll repeat, in fact, this same parabolic statement. He'll refer them to religious leaders. This is the idea of spiritually blind people trying to lead spiritually blind people. They're going to just wander where?

In the darkness. They're not going to be helped. See, this is the fatal delusion of the scribes and Pharisees in Jesus' day. They represented the religion of the day, and they're deliberately choosing the darkness. They're choosing to refuse the light, the seeing, as it were, of Christ's gospel.

So this is a rather devastating condemnation on the religious world of Jesus' day. They're pumping out disciples. I mean, they're committed to disciple-making. They're producing disciples, but their disciples are no better off than the teachers.

They have a religious system, as one author put it, producing graduates as blind as their professors. So the point here is you better be cautious. You better be careful. If you want to grow as a disciple, who are you listening to? Who are you following? You're not just listening to them.

You're actually becoming like them. That's the warning Jesus gives us here in verse 40. Notice, a disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone. When he is fully trained, will be like his teacher.

Did you notice? Jesus doesn't say that every disciple will end up as smart as their teacher, as eloquent as their teacher, as widely used as their mentor. Jesus says something far more frightening here. This is why you don't want to line up to be a teacher, James says.

You can have a stricter accounting. Why? Because he says students become like their teacher. See, we would typically say it this way. Like father, like what? Son.

Jesus as well. That certainly may be true, but what I'm talking about here is like professor, like pupil. Like discipler, like disciple. Like teacher, like student. See, in the ancient world, that student-teacher relationship was different from ours. It was much more personal. It was oral. It was the transmission of verbal instruction. There wasn't a library. You go down to the end of the street and check out the latest publication. Your teacher assigned you to read 3,000 pages or whatever.

That didn't occur. You virtually lived alongside them. You walked with them. That's why we talked earlier about picking up the dust from the sandals of your teacher, your discipler. You are picking up their attitude, their nature. Even in our educational system, it's still in many ways the same.

If we had time to give everybody a microphone, you tell us. Give us the name of a teacher from elementary school, middle school, high school, college, grad school, whatever, that made a great, a profound impression on your life. More than likely, we would have this constant theme running through that had nothing to do with the intellect of your professor but their disposition, their attitude, their love for their students, their love for this subject. That impacts you. A growing disciple is warned here. You're going to pick up on that stuff. You might forget that academic science, that proficiency where they were brilliant, but you're going to walk away with having had them rub off on you an attitude. Jesus says here then, you're not just going to learn from them. You're going to become like them. So you're not just picking up a podcast. You're picking up a personality, a perspective. Be cautious because conformity is taking place. Thirdly, I'll call it honest humility. Look at verse 41, a passage we all know.

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye and you can't see the log that is in your own eye? Now, stop here. Jesus, his audience is probably smiling at this point. This is rather exaggerated.

This is hyperbole. But let's get the scene here. Here's a guy with a log sticking out of his eye. So you can imagine wherever he goes, he turns his head. He's just knocking people over. In our culture, he comes to church and everybody ducks under the pew. Here he comes.

But it's interesting to me. This guy is perceptive. Jesus says he sees his brother over there. He's got a speck in his eye.

Now, how do you even see your brother, much less a speck in their eye? But he does. A speck of sawdust and a plank of wood are identical in nature. The only difference is the size of the issue. So both guys have this issue. They've got this problem. One guy has a rafter-sized problem. And the other guy, it's implied he's just getting started. And Mr. Plankhead spots Mr. Sawdust on the other side of the synagogue. And so he isn't going to be satisfied with just seeing it. Would you notice? He wants to perform surgery.

Hold still. Let me get that speck out of your eye, trying to get him cornered, his audience no doubt smiling like we are. I mean, we're smiling, but we're also smarting because Jesus is pulling the curtain back and showing us ourselves. And a growing disciple will get the point. We have an amazing blindness to our own sin and an amazing perceptiveness of the sin in others. And most often, it's the same thing. Now, Jesus does not go on here to say to his disciples, look, don't worry about that propensity.

That's just the way you are. It's okay. No. Verse 42. You hypocrite.

Ouch. First, take the log out of your own eye. This relates to repentance and confession. And then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye, which means that a growing disciple is going to adopt this kind of honest humility about themselves. How did they miss it, though?

How do we miss it? Well, he gives us a clue back in verse 41 for just a moment. He's going to use two different verbs.

You might underline them in your text. They might be translated differently or they should be. Jesus says, why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye but do not notice? Different verb.

The first verb for to see means to see with understanding. And again, this is seen correctly. Mr. Plankhead can actually discern a true problem. It's a real problem. It's a real speck.

It's a real sin. He can see it. But then Jesus asks, why don't you notice the log? That's a different verb. That means to see with reflection, to see and then say, you know what, I'm seeing something but it's in me.

I got the same problem. So this man is failing to reflect on his own life, his own struggles, his own failures, his own sins. It seems that he'd prefer to look at his brother across the synagogue, look at the speck rather than the plank in his own eyes. So here's the action point that leads a growing disciple into holy living. It is honest humility or you might say realistic reflection.

Reflecting honestly, openly, humbly before God that God, you need to do a work in my life. Especially when I look around at others. I can so easily spot the same problem I've got. Can you spot their sin? Yeah. Can you discern their weakness? Yeah. Can you see even the smallest speck? Yeah.

But guess what? The next time you spot the sin in the life of your brother or sister, Jesus wants to use it so that we ask the question, do I see that sin in them? Do I sense that spiritual weakness in them? Do I discern that personality problem, that moral compromise, whatever it might be?

Do I see it in them because it is in me? That's how you grow as a disciple. It's interesting that with that counsel or confrontation here, the Lord goes on to tell us take care of it in our own lives.

But I want you to notice we often forget the last part. Go help your brother. Look at this, end of verse 42. Then you will see clearly, that is after confessing, dealing with it in your own life, to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye. Now you're ready to perform constructive surgery.

And you're not going to knock the guy out with the plank. You're going to help him. John Chrysostom writing on this text in the fourth century said, now you are ready to correct your brother, not as a foe, but as a physician. See, God may very well want to use you to go help that brother, that sister, because you're spotting something in their lives.

You've gone way down river, you've gotten it right, and you see they're just starting out. A growing disciple is marked by genuine generosity, cautious conformity, honest humility. Let me give you one more internal integrity. Verse 43. For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit.

For figs are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good. The evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil.

For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks. Now, again, Jesus is pulling back the curtain and he's exposing here in this illustration two issues. What are the works coming out on our hands, so to speak, and what are the words coming out of our mouths?

You can't produce what you're not. So it leads that disciple into this, you know, God's got to do a work producing integrity internally. We get all hung up on what we're doing. Jesus is saying, you know, the issue is who you are becoming, which is why he ends this discussion.

Did you notice? You might circle it. The words, the heart, cardia, the center of who you are, what's in our heart is going to show up on our hands. What's in our heart is going to come out our mouths. What's in us internally eventually shows up externally. Well, there it is for everyone to see and hear. The curtain is pulled back and the fruit is hanging out there on the limbs of our lives.

Those words are floating through the air, having come from our mouths. Every once in a while, I'll watch one of those crime shows. You know where the person's caught? I mean, they did it. They pulled the trigger or whatever. The evidence is all there. The trial takes place.

They're guilty and then they're interviewed by some reporter and I mean over and over and over again. That person says the exact same thing. It wasn't me. That's not who I am. And that's when I start talking back to the TV. Guys, as your wife gets irritated, I mean, yeah, it's exactly who you are. I'm going to use you as a sermon illustration on Sunday. That's who you are. That may not have been who you were, but that's who you became. We do what we do because of who we are. And so, whenever we do something or whenever we say something, Jesus is saying, Hey, there's an illustration.

I need to do something internally in our lives. Because our hands and deeds and words have given us away. They open the curtain on who we are. Ken Hughes writes convicting words on the same text.

He says it this way. If a person's life is ungodly, it's because they're ungodly. If their words are graceless, it's because they're ungracious. If they speak profanely, it's because they're profane. If their conversation is worldly, it's because they're worldly.

If their words are mean, it's because they're mean. We can fix every one of us, by the way. There's no growth if you hear that and go, That's the way I am.

It's not really me. What we say and do externally is a reflection of who we are. And more importantly, what we are becoming as a disciple.

So the growing disciple gets serious about this root issue, this hidden issue, this heart issue, this need for internal integrity to grow and develop by the transforming work of the Holy Spirit through his Word. And that's daily. Because we fail daily.

And that curtain gets pulled back. We are shown publicly what we are becoming privately. And we ask the Lord, All right, we need to reset. We confess and want to turn from it in repentance and thank him for his grace as disciples. Disciples are not perfect, right? But we want to progress.

How do we progress? Well, do we reflect genuine generosity? Or are we tightwads? We reflect that with cautious conformity or are we just listening to everybody without discernment following anybody? Are we honest in our humility? Are we reflecting on what we see so easily in others?

Is there internal integrity where God in private is making us desire to be more and more like Christ? So let me encourage you, disciple of Christ, don't stop. Don't give up. Don't quit. Don't believe the lie of the enemy.

Well, that failure was fatal. You're done. Now, here's the promise Paul delivered to the Philippian Church. The one who began this good work in you, guess what? He's going to complete it. He's going to bring it to completion when? In the day of Christ, when you on that day finally arrive, perfected in holiness, glorified with a new body, and he says, OK, I'm going to finish it now. Which means we didn't finish it here. But we're following him.

And one day he'll complete it when we see him face to face. This is wisdom for the heart. Today's message is called Christianity Behind the Curtain.

It comes from Stephen's series out of Luke 6 called The Sermon on the Plateau. We're going to bring you the final lesson in that series tomorrow. In the meantime, we'd like to hear from you. If you have a comment, a question, or would like more information, you can send us an email. Simply address it to info at wisdomonline.org. We have a special place on our website where Stephen answers questions that have come in from listeners like you. If you come across a passage that's confusing, or maybe you encounter a teaching that you need to have clarified, Stephen would like to help you. Anytime you have a question regarding the Bible or the Christian faith, send that question to info at wisdomonline.org. That's all for today. Join us next time here on Wisdom for the Heart.