I'm going to read from God's word for us now.
We are in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 7.
Matthew chapter 7, verses 1 to 6.
Why do you see the speck that's in your brother's eye,
but do not notice the log that's in your own eye?
Or how can you say to your brother,
let me take the speck out of your eye when there's a log in your own eye?
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.
Do not give dogs what is holy,
and do not throw your pearls before pigs,
lest they trample them underfoot and attack you.
Amen.
This is the word of the Lord.
Good evening.
If you have a Bible with you,
please do keep it open at Matthew 7, verses 1 to 6,
which Chris just read for us.
Cultures, even generations,
culture after culture within the same place,
have very different values on judging other people.
Way back, a long, long time ago,
when I was a teenager, back in the 1990s,
UK culture, and it was the same in US culture as well,
was all about not judging other people.
Don't be judgmental was the message of that age.
And that had all of its own values behind it.
The idea was nobody has the moral high ground over anyone else.
We're all trying to live life on our own terms,
so you just don't have the right to judge someone else.
But really, the thing that made that so normal
was the world's most popular TV show at the time,
which was called Friends.
Some of you are just old enough to remember it,
so I commiserate with you.
Some of you are too old or too young,
and you should count yourself blessed.
But when I was a teenager, this is what everyone watched.
It was about six young adults living in New York,
living life without any bigger moral framework,
all trying to make their own way in life.
And the big idea in that show with what it meant to be a friend
was that you were never judgmental of your friends.
You were always affirming, always supportive.
A friend would never say to one of their friends
that there's a connection between their actions
and the consequences of those actions.
That's not what friends were supposed to do.
So the worst thing that you could be was judgmental.
Nowadays, though, that has all flipped around.
And now we live in a culture in the West at large,
here in Edinburgh, that is pro-judgmental,
that's highly judgmental.
There's something wrong with you nowadays
if you don't judge people,
if you see evil in the world,
if you see evil in someone else's life,
when you don't call it out,
what do we say to that?
We say, silence is violence, right?
Who's the icon of our age?
It's not Joey and Chandler
not pointing out the consequences of their actions.
It's Greta Thunberg who's become a global celebrity
by going around saying,
how dare you?
Shame on you to everyone,
making us all feel really bad about ourselves.
And ours is the age that has given rise
to what gets called cancel culture,
which is a really deep rejection
of the kind of culture that I grew up in
in the 1990s,
which was only a firm culture.
So the question is,
if we think about these two cultures,
1990s culture, 2025 culture,
which one gets judgment right?
Because they can't both be true.
Let me say something
that's going to end in a prediction.
I don't claim to be a prophet
and we don't really do that
in a reformed church like this,
but a humble prediction.
The reason that the culture we have now,
at this moment,
which is so into being judgmental,
the reason for that is that
what came before that age of,
don't judge me,
don't make me face consequences
for my actions,
that way of living
just doesn't really work in real life
because actions do have consequences.
And even back in the 1990s,
nobody really believed
that we should never judge
another human being for anything ever.
Imagine you walk into your home
and you find someone burgling it
and you say,
stop, burglar, that's wrong.
And the guy turns around
and says to you,
don't judge me.
Did anyone ever say,
well, it is 1995,
so I suppose you're right.
People just didn't do that.
But what that culture back then
tried to hold on to,
we could put it in Christian terms,
was something like this.
show me grace,
but don't you dare tell me
I'm a sinner.
So, it was something like
grace without righteousness
and that doesn't work.
So, what our culture has done
is just to swap all of that around.
It inverted it.
And now we have the opposite.
I will condemn you
for being a sinner,
but there's no grace for you.
There's no redemption.
There's only shame.
And there's your cancellation.
And that doesn't work
in real life either.
That is a crushing way to live
because nobody is perfect.
And if the judgment turns on us,
there isn't a prospect of redemption.
So, then life becomes a game.
And the way that you play the game
is you keep the arrow of judgment
pointed away from yourself
as much as you can.
Always point it at someone else
because the moment it turns on you,
the game is up.
And you don't want anyone
to go looking for the skeletons
in your closet
and that motivates you
to look for them
in everyone else's.
Okay?
It's all a big game of distraction
away from ourselves.
And that's not satisfying either.
It's a really ugly way to live.
So, here's the prediction.
What will come next?
Well, eventually,
the culture we have now
will give up
on this way of being judgmental.
And what will come next?
Well, I think what we see now
is that it's changing already.
Our culture is really tribal
in lots of ways.
Identity, political groups,
all that kind of stuff.
And what people increasingly expect
is righteousness without grace
for whoever the opposite tribe
to mine is
and grace without righteousness
for me and my tribe.
Okay?
We want acceptance for ourselves
and condemnation for the other.
But those things are really separate.
But that doesn't work either.
Eventually, people will move on from that
because it's just another way
to shuffle around
the same set of options
that don't work.
Now, what I want us to see tonight
when we're looking at these verses
in Matthew 7
is that Christianity
offers us a way
to think about judgment
that you will not find
in the same holistic form,
the same true-to-life form,
the same true-to-God form.
You won't find that
in the culture around us.
However, the culture
tries to shift itself
unless our culture
were to be really deeply,
profoundly impacted
by the gospel.
So we're looking at verses 1 to 6.
And these are a really puzzling few verses,
a really puzzling unit
in the Sermon on the Mount.
So the Sermon on the Mount
is this big, long sermon
that Jesus preaches.
And this is a very strange part within it.
At least it seems like that
when we read it first.
Because it begins with Jesus saying,
don't judge other people,
verse 1.
But then in verse 6,
Jesus himself calls some people
pigs and dogs.
And which sounds like
he's judging them.
And in the middle of that,
there's this really puzzling story,
this parable,
about someone who has
a whole log of wood
stuck in his eye
and who can't see
that log of wood there.
And he's trying to take
a tiny splinter
out of someone else's eye.
So there's a lot going on
in these six verses.
And the big challenge
in reading them
is trying to work out
what verses 1 to 5,
don't judge people,
don't be a hypocrite,
you know,
with a plank of wood
in your eye,
what that has to do
with verse 6.
Don't cast your,
don't give what's holy
to the dogs,
don't cast your pearls
to pigs.
And it's such a strange
combination
that some scholars
on the Bible,
even some really good ones,
have thought
that they just,
that they can't be connected.
This can't really be
one whole idea
that Jesus has.
So even,
so John Calvin,
really great commentator
on the Bible,
thought that
when Matthew was writing down
Jesus' sermon,
these were simply
two different things
that Jesus was talking about.
And they follow one another
in what he writes down,
but they're not intended
to be read
as one whole unit.
But one scholar
who saw that they are connected,
I think he was right,
was John Stott,
a great preacher,
Bible commentator
in London.
And John Stott said that,
I think he was right on this,
that these verses,
one to six,
and actually even
what comes next as well,
are all one movement,
one idea,
because there's a thread
that runs through all of them,
and that is relationships.
So verses one to five,
if you are a Christian,
are about your relationships
to other Christians.
Verse six, then,
if you are a Christian,
is about your relationships
to some non-Christians.
And what comes next
from verse seven
is your relationship
to God.
Okay, so Stott saw
that these are all
different ways
that Jesus is addressing
how the gospel shapes
the relationships we have
to all these different,
these different people,
and then to God.
And when you read
the verses like that,
it makes a lot of sense,
not just of these verses,
but actually of what we see
throughout the gospels
at large,
and throughout the New Testament
at large.
Because when Jesus says,
don't judge,
he's not saying,
never use your critical faculties,
you know,
never form an opinion,
never reach a verdict
where you have to discern something.
Imagine you take your car
to the garage,
you know,
you're driving it,
something doesn't seem right,
and you think it needs looked at,
so you take it to the garage,
and you ask a mechanic,
have a look at it,
tell me,
is this car safe to drive or not?
And then the mechanic,
you know,
does what he does with the car,
but then he tells you,
I'm really sorry,
but I'm actually a Christian,
so I'm not allowed to make
that kind of judgment call.
That's not what Jesus is saying.
The word for judge here
comes up a lot in the gospels,
comes up a lot in Matthew's gospel,
and it's something that Jesus says,
God the Father does,
something Jesus says that he does,
and the word means specifically
someone who sits in judgment
over someone else
to discern the difference
between good and evil,
okay?
And now this is a really important point.
There are other places in the gospels
where Jesus tells his followers
that they should judge.
In John 7, he says,
do not judge by appearances,
but judge with right judgment.
In Luke 12, he asks a crowd of people,
why do you not judge for yourselves
what is right?
So what we have here in Matthew 7
is Jesus teaching on judgment done badly,
okay?
If it's possible,
if Jesus says judge with right judgment,
it's also possible to judge
with wrong judgment,
and that's what he's addressing here.
Judgment done badly between Christians,
people judging with wrong judgment,
and then after that,
Christians lacking good judgment
in how they relate to some non-Christians.
So there was a,
I already quoted John Stock,
pastor in London,
there was another pastor in London
called Charles Spurgeon,
and he had a really excellent insight
also on how these verses hold together.
And he said that if you really take
the Christian gospel to heart,
it will shape you in two ways.
It will make you a particular kind of person
in two ways.
On the one hand,
it will stop you from being censorious.
I'll explain what that means in a minute.
And on the other hand,
he said it will stop you
from being a simpleton,
okay?
And we could update the language.
It will stop you from being naive,
okay?
So it'll stop you from being censorious,
and the gospel will stop you
from being naive.
So I'm just plagiarizing Spurgeon entirely
because those are the two points
of the sermon, okay?
The two ways that the gospel
shapes you in your relationships,
as we think about judgment,
stops you from being censorious,
point one,
and it stops you from being naive,
point two.
So don't be censorious.
In our culture nowadays,
a lot of people confuse the word
censorious with censorship.
So if you look up,
if you Google censorious
and look at the news,
you'll find a lot of journalists saying,
we live in a censorious culture
when they're talking about,
you know,
books that get banned by libraries
or something like that.
But that's not what the word censorious
means, okay?
But in the way that I'm using it.
So someone who is censorious
is someone who is severely,
harshly critical of other people.
Okay?
John stopped,
defined it like this.
Censoriousness is a compound sin.
It's a sin made up of different parts.
It's a compound sin composed
of several unpleasant ingredients.
It does not mean to assess people critically,
but to judge them harshly.
The censorious critic is a fault finder
who is negative and destructive
towards other people
and enjoys actively seeking out their failings.
He puts the worst possible spin
on their motives,
pours cold water on their schemes,
and is ungenerous toward their mistakes.
So the thing is,
if you're a censorious person,
it means that you appoint yourself
the judge,
the jury,
and the executioner
for other people.
And deep down,
you actually enjoy it.
You like being the judge,
and you take it upon yourself
never to be the one who's judged.
You think that you belong
on the bench,
but not in the dock.
And here's where this is exactly,
why this is a very pervasive thing
in the culture that we live in,
why this is an idol
that's offered to us every day.
Our culture in Edinburgh today
believes in something like righteousness
and judgment,
but our culture doesn't really believe
very strongly in forgiveness or grace.
You know, we talk about karma
a lot nowadays,
but much less about grace.
And that means that in our culture,
to be judged by other people
is terrifying,
it's devastating,
because our culture can offer,
it can condemn us,
but it doesn't really have ways
to offer us a path back.
It can't offer us redemption.
And that means that we have an incentive
to judge other people.
And the more we do that,
the more we think
that we're protecting ourselves
from the judgment
ever turning on us.
And so we tell ourselves
that we are righteous,
that whatever the big issue is,
I am on the right side of history,
and other people
are the immoral ones,
and I rage against them.
But really,
we just become censorious,
which is a way of trying to hide
underneath all of that,
trying to hide from the judgment
ever pointing around to us.
So in real life,
if this is you,
maybe you are that person
in the staff room
who always likes to draw attention
to other people's failings.
You know, if you talk about a colleague,
it begins with,
you know, the problem with her is,
the issue with him is,
and maybe you enjoy the way
that you think it makes you
look better than them.
In real life,
maybe this means that
you're the person who lurks
on social media
waiting for one of the people
in the other tribe
to say something
that you can condemn them for,
and those are the comments
that you lead with.
And you express your righteous anger,
and you enjoy the,
all the wee dopamine hits
that come with everyone else
in your tribe liking it.
Or maybe you're the bully
in your playground,
and you love to point out
how rubbish
all the other kids are.
In the Sermon on the Mount,
if that's you,
Jesus' counsel to you is,
you need to live a different way.
Don't be censorious.
And he says that in a way
that speaks very directly
into our culture.
The reason that Jesus gives
for why you should not be
a censorious person
is that you can only pretend
to be the judge for so long.
You can't do it forever.
Eventually,
you must be the one
who also gets judged.
You can't put it off forever,
and when that happens,
you will be held
to the same merciless standard,
the same harshly critical standard,
that you've been dishing out
to everyone else.
It's exactly the same logic
as when Jesus said,
if you live by the sword,
you will die by the sword.
If you live by censoriousness,
you will die by censoriousness.
If you choose,
in a censorious culture,
to be a censorious person,
eventually,
well, that's the only game in town.
You will have to be
on the receiving end of it.
Eventually,
some other judgmental person
will shine a light
into the dark corners of your life
and show you no mercy.
Okay?
True story that many of you
will have read
in the newspapers
a week or so ago
here in Scotland.
There was a politician
who was doing moral grandstanding
against second homeowners.
Because we have
a housing crisis,
there are a lot of people
who really struggle
to find a place to live.
This politician was railing
against second homeowners
and how immoral this is.
And shame on you
if you have a second home.
Only for someone else
to do some digging on her
and it turned out
she has a second home in Scotland,
she has a third home in Spain
where the housing crisis
is much worse.
If you live by censoriousness,
you will die by censoriousness.
But the gospel
offers you
a different way to live.
It offers you the chance
to be a different kind of person.
If you've really taken it to heart,
then the gospel tells you
that before God
you were morally bankrupt.
You were spiritually empty.
And you were guilty
before God
as a rebel.
And you were his enemy
but he showed you
completely undeserved mercy
and he made you,
he put you in the category
a friend.
And he adopted you,
not just a friend,
he made you his child.
And he welcomed you
into that
and it was all
completely gratuitous.
And it was lavish
and you didn't deserve
any of it.
Not the tiniest speck.
And there's something
that just doesn't work
if you say,
I have received
all of that from God,
all that lavish forgiveness,
all that mercy,
and now when I turn around
to my fellow human being,
none of that flows through.
And I will show
other people no mercy.
And I'm only hard-hearted.
And I don't believe
in forgiveness for them.
And I actually really like
dragging them down.
I like seeing them
not being redeemed.
There's something
that just doesn't,
that doesn't work with that.
Okay?
And we see this,
if you read through
all of Matthew's gospel,
when you get to chapter 18,
Jesus tells a parable
about this.
About a king
who had a servant
who owed him
a massive debt.
You know,
up in the millions of pounds.
And he asked the king
for mercy.
And the king said,
I free you of the debt.
I'll show you mercy.
I forgive you.
And the servant
was delighted.
He goes off.
And then there's someone else
who owes that servant
a tiny sum of money.
You know,
ten pounds,
something like that.
And he can't repay it.
And he says to the servant,
I can't repay this.
I'm bankrupt.
I ask you for mercy.
And the servant
grabs him by the neck
and throttles him
and says,
no mercy for you.
And he throws him in prison.
He's happy to receive forgiveness,
but he does not pass on forgiveness.
He loves to get mercy,
but he does not love to give mercy.
And when the king
in Jesus' parable
hears about this,
the king is furious
with the servant
because although he received forgiveness,
he didn't show forgiveness.
And the king then
has him thrown in prison
and has the other man released.
See,
that is why
censoriousness
and the gospel
don't fit together.
They're like oil and water.
If anything,
believing the gospel
should make you less censorious
and certainly not more.
Now,
if you're listening to this,
maybe you're not a Christian,
maybe you're skeptical.
And in our kind of culture,
then maybe you're listening to this
and thinking,
you know,
in a silence
is violence culture,
where we do really believe
in righteousness
and there's a lot of evil
in the world
that needs to be called out
and challenged.
Maybe you're listening to this
so far and thinking,
okay,
so the Christian message
means
that people who believe it
become naive
to the evil in the world
and that's why,
you know,
they don't call it out
like I want to.
Or maybe
does Christianity
just dull your conscience
and make you passive
and you just learn
to tolerate
all the evil in the world?
In which case,
Christianity seems like a problem.
But that's not what
Jesus teaches here.
Not at all.
In fact,
look at what comes next
after he says
don't be censorious.
Look at verses 3 to 5
and the story
that Jesus tells.
He asks you
to imagine someone
who sees a problem
in someone else's life.
So there's something
to be corrected.
There's an evil
in someone's life,
let's say.
And there's a person
then who's trying
to correct that
in someone else.
And Jesus compares
that problem
to a tiny speck.
It's a splinter
in an eye.
Okay?
And if you have
a splinter in your eye,
you probably do want it removed.
I mean,
that's not a good thing.
It's not there
to be left in the eye.
But here's the issue.
The person who's trying
to take the splinter out
happens to have
an entire log,
a beam of wood.
So not just a little bit of wood,
but the word he uses
is the word for,
you know,
a rafter that you would have
from the roof of your house.
This person who's trying
to deal with the problem
has that sticking out
of his eye.
I mean,
it's meant to make you laugh.
It's a ridiculous image,
but this guy has that
sticking out of his eye,
and even more ridiculously,
he doesn't even see it.
He's completely blind
to this fact.
And the ridiculous picture
is, you know,
if you want to take
a splinter out of someone's eye,
you have to get quite close,
and you need to be able
to see it clearly.
If you,
I don't know,
I've never had a beam
stuck in my eye.
I can't imagine it would be easy
to get near someone else's head
doing that,
but that's what he's doing.
He's trying to fix something
in someone else's life,
all the while assuming
that his life
also doesn't need
to be fixed
in very fundamental ways.
And Jesus
calls it out.
There is no silence
is violence here,
but there's something
much better.
There is speech
that is redemptive.
Because Jesus here
says that the guy
with the beam in his eye
is a hypocrite.
He's looking at
someone else's life,
having forgotten
first to look at his own.
You know,
there's an Old Testament
story that teaches
the same thing.
And it's the story
of King David
where he abuses
his power as a king
to steal another man's wife.
And then he abuses
his power as king
to have that man
sent to the front line
of a battle
where he will certainly die.
And he does.
And he does all of this.
He has multiple beams
in his eye.
And then the prophet Nathan
comes to David
and says,
let me tell you a story.
Once there was a rich man
and there was a poor man.
And the rich man
had many sheep
and the poor man
only had one.
And the rich man
had to feed a guest.
But he didn't take
any of his own sheep.
Even though he had so many,
he took the poor man's
only sheep
and he slaughtered it
and he fed it to the guest.
And when David's hearing
the story at this point,
he becomes furious
and says,
that man deserves to die.
And Nathan says to him,
David,
you are the man.
Right?
The beam in his eye
that he could not see.
You're,
this story is about a,
is about a speck.
It's about a splinter.
It's about a sheep.
You are the one
who stole
another man's wife
and who had that man murdered,
who murdered that man
by arrangement.
And here you are feeling rage
about someone
who stole a sheep
because he was a bit
of a cheapskate.
So there,
David is like the guy
who doesn't see
that he has a plank
in his eye
when he's looking
at someone with a speck
in his eye.
And Jesus' judgment there
is,
you hypocrite.
But here's the thing
where Jesus doesn't fit
into our way
of doing this
in our culture.
Jesus' judgment
is redemptive.
It's not,
you hypocrite,
cancelled.
Jesus says,
first,
take the plank
out of your own eye.
Then you can actually
help get the speck
out of your brother's eye.
It's not that Christianity
doesn't,
it's not that Christianity
makes you naive
to the problems
in the world
or in other people's lives.
And it's not that Christianity
means you just tolerate it
and that you do nothing.
Instead,
it changes
how you respond
to these problems.
It means that now
you respond to them
with humility.
A kind of humility
that only the gospel
can form in you.
It means you respond
with gentleness
that only the gospel
can form in you.
It's not randomly
that Jesus chooses
for his story
an eye,
something that is
so sensitive
and that would feel
even a tiny splinter
and be irritated by it.
You can only take it out
with tremendous care
and gentleness.
And the gospel
shapes you like that.
It gives you
a new way
of judging others
that is grounded
in humility
because the gospel
says you sit
under the same judgment.
And that's
the real difference
between the gospel
and censoriousness.
If you're censorious,
you judge others
as though you don't
need redemption
yourself
and as though
there is no redemption
for the people you judge.
But if you believe
the gospel,
it's different.
If you judge
someone else,
you also recognize
that you stand
under the same judgment
and that you both
need the same redemption.
You know,
it's like the difference
between,
if you imagine
someone who just
lambasts someone
who struggles
with alcohol addiction
and writes
that person off,
the difference
between that kind
of person
and someone
who comes alongside
that person
and says,
I have the same struggle,
let's get you help.
Right?
Those are two
completely different things.
So,
that's the first thing.
The gospel shapes you
and says,
don't be censorious.
And the second is
that the gospel shapes you
and says,
don't be naive.
See,
the other effect
of the gospel
is that it changes
the kind of judgment
or discernment
you have
about people
who don't yet
believe the gospel.
So,
here,
in verse 6,
Jesus pivots
from talking about
people who do
share the faith
with you,
don't judge your brother,
to people who don't.
So,
now,
just like with
don't judge,
we have to read Jesus
here in the whole context
of the gospels.
So,
what you see in the gospels
more broadly
is that Jesus
talks about
the kingdom of heaven
as a pearl,
as a pearl of great price.
So,
there's another parable
also in Matthew
where he talks about
a merchant
who travels
the whole world
looking for
valuable pearls.
And
he finds
what he knows
instantly
is
the greatest
pearl that there
ever could be.
The pearl
of great price.
And he knew
how valuable it was
and he knew
it was actually
more valuable
than everything
else in his life.
So much so
that it would be
worth giving up
everything
to get this pearl.
So,
he sells
everything
to get the pearl
of great price.
So,
elsewhere in the gospels,
Jesus speaks about
how there are some
people in this world
who are looking
for goodness
and truth
and beauty
and they encounter
the gospel
and then somehow
it strikes them
down to the ground.
It strikes them
so powerfully
that they will
reorder their
entire lives.
They'll give up
anything to get this,
to get this Jesus.
It's what they've
always been looking for.
But here in Matthew 7
when he says
don't give what is
holy to the dogs,
don't cast your pearls
to pigs,
he's talking about
people who encounter
the gospel,
who are not looking
for truth.
They're more like
a stray dog
that scavenges
in the rubbish.
So,
Jesus says
don't throw
what is holy
and there he's
drawing on the idea
of holy bread
in the temple.
Don't throw
that holy food
to dogs
who will just
treat it
as though
it's any old
rubbish
in the scrap pile
and don't throw
your pearls
to pigs
who get all
the waste food
that the farmer
doesn't want
because that pig
will know
that the pearl
isn't that waste food
and the pig
will just trample
the pearl.
Now,
that maybe sounds
like a really
strange thing
for Jesus to say
after everything
that he said
in verses 3 to 5
about planks
and specks.
But here's why
I think Jesus
says this
in verse 6.
In verses 1 to 5,
he tells us
that we have
to go
into a
censorious world
as non-censorious
people
and we have
to do that
with a way
of living
in this world
that will be
deeply
counterintuitive
to the people
around us.
Some people,
when they
hear our gospel,
when they see
what it looks like
and how we live,
will think
they'll be like
the merchant
who finds
the pearl
of great price
and they'll see
our way of life
and the reason
for that
in the message
of the gospel
and be attracted
to it
and they will
join us.
But not everyone
will be like that.
Some people
will hear our message
and they'll hate it.
It's not
what they're
looking for.
So,
some people
will respond
like that.
Now,
to be sure
what Jesus
does not
mean here
is that we only
share the gospel
with people
who will
respond well,
like the merchant
looking for the pearl
of great price.
We can't do that
in any sense
because until you
share the gospel
with someone,
you don't know
how they'll respond.
So,
that's why
Matthew's gospel
ends with the
great commission.
Bring the gospel
to everyone.
And you just
don't know
when you do that
whether someone
will say,
finally,
this is the pearl
of great price
or,
why have you
given me
this round,
hard,
white ball?
I wanted
a rotten turnip
and I would
have just been
happy with that.
I don't want
what you offer.
You see,
you just don't
know in advance
and that's why
Jesus,
at the very end
of this gospel
tells his followers
that you must
share the gospel
with everyone.
But if you want
to understand
what Jesus means
here in Matthew 7
about not casting
your pearls
before swine,
you actually need
to think of
what happens
in a few chapters
time in Matthew 10
because that's
the chapter
where Jesus
takes his disciples
and he tells them
you are now
my apostles
and he sends
them out
to preach
to everyone
that they come
across
in the towns
and villages
around them
and he sends
them out
to give people
a deep,
remarkable,
life-changing
window
into the
kingdom of heaven.
So he tells them
as he sends them
out,
you are now
my apostles
and he sends
them out
to give people
this deep
exposure
to the
transformation
the gospel
will bring
to the world.
So he sends
them out
to heal
the sick,
to raise
the dead,
to cleanse
lepers,
to cast
out their
demons
and he sends
them out
saying,
and you won't
make a penny
from this,
you will not
ask anyone
for anything,
you will not
exploit anyone
financially,
you will not
make money,
in fact you
will give
lavishly
and you will
make their
lives better
and even
when you've
done all that
some people
will still
reject you
and everything
you've done
for them
and the message
at its heart
they will just
say is garbage
and when that
happens,
Jesus tells them
in Matthew 10,
after you've done
all that for them
then you shake
the dust off
your feet
and then you
bring the message
of the kingdom
of heaven
to other people
and that's
actually the
context where
when Jesus
is sending
them out
he tells
them I am
sending you
out as sheep
among wolves
so be as wise
as serpents
and as innocent
as doves
so you see
taking us back
to Matthew 7
if the gospel
has made you
or is making
you a non-censorious
person
in hyper-censorious
Edinburgh
2025
that means
that the gospel
is making you
the kind of person
who is
discerning enough
to see the speck
in someone's
eye
but it also
makes you
someone who
is gentle
enough
trustworthy
enough
non-pompous
enough
humble enough
honest enough
about the plank
in your own eye
that maybe
they'll trust you
to get close
enough to their
eye to help
them take the
speck out
but
if you're
doing that
you're doing
it as
sheep
among wolves
because the
gospel in a
censorious
culture
will divide
people
some people
will hear it
and think
finally this
is my
liberation
from
censoriousness
from this
world's
harsh
judgmentalism
but other
people will
hear the gospel
and see it
lived out
and think
I'm going
to be
you know
what
I'm going
to be
more
censorious
than ever
shame on
you
for bringing
this message
to me
and
that's why
if you want
to live
like this
you need
to be
as wise
as a serpent
and you need
to be
as innocent
as a dove
and that
is why
Jesus
follows
judge
not
do not
judge
with do
not cast
your pearls
before swine
amen
let me pray
our father
in heaven
we thank you
for your son
Jesus Christ
we thank you
for the
fathomless
wisdom
in his
teaching
we thank you
for his
perfect
judgment
of the
human
heart
of
the
goodness
and the
evil
in this
world
the goodness
that you
have made
the evil
that must
be redeemed
and we thank
you that
Jesus
has come
into our
world
the true
judge
who made
himself
the one
who was
judged
we thank
you that
when his
gospel
when his
perfect
person
when his
lavish love
confronts us
that it
shows us
ourselves
in a new
light
and that it
helps us
see the
the beam
in our
own eye
but also
that Jesus
is the one
who comes
to open
our eyes
to help us
see the truth
about himself
about yourself
about ourselves
we thank you
for his
great redeeming
love
for the way
that he
is patient
with us
that he
came to us
in all
humility
and gentleness
we pray
that in
small ways
day by day
you would
help us
to grow
more and
more
into being
like Jesus
in all
of those
ways
we pray
for your
forgiveness
for all
the ways
that we
are shaped
by the
world
around us
and all
the ways
that it
does not
resemble
your
gospel
and we
pray that
you would
help us
in this
world
then
to be
people
who
are
reworked
refashioned
by your
gospel
and because
of that
who are
sent out
as sheep
among
wolves
help us
to be
both wise
and innocent
in following
our saviour's
teaching
we pray
for this
in his
name
amen