Last week we went over Matthew 7:1-5, and discussed it as it relates to correcting or being corrected by our brothers and sisters in Christ by the Scriptures.
Even though I laid out a number of reasons that we should humbly seek correction and reasons we should provide correction and rebukes in a kind and compassionate manner, many of us still bristle at the idea.
Well at the end of the message last week I said that there are times when we will go to a brother or sister and find out that we did not have a clear picture and there wasn’t sin. Praise God.
There will be times when we will go to a brother or sister in love and they will thank us and repent to God and be brought back into fellowship. Praise God.
But, I said, there will also be times when they will absolutely rise up and reject the correction. Sometimes that means they will walk away from the fellowship, sometimes that means they will attempt to sabotage you, sometimes that will mean character attacks, possibly even a lawsuit.
But God’s call on our lives is not dependent on the results that we get. We don’t tell God “Okay, I’ll do it, as long as I come out on top; or, as long as it doesn’t make for awkward conversations; or, as long as they don’t think I’m a bible thumper.”
No reaction — good or horrible — NO REACTION changes the call on your life and the call on my life to deal with our sin and then help others with theirs. It is what we do if we love one another. It is historically, one of the key reasons for the church.
Now this week we will address what happens when we face rejection and when our words fall on deaf ears and the like.
And we are not only going to talk about rejection when it comes to church discipline, but we will also talk about rejection when we evangelize to our friends and neighbors, and co-workers and family.
But before we get into verse six, let’s review the first five verses, because we need to keep the foundation strong for where we are going tonight.
Matthew 7:1-5
1 "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
Before we talk about dealing with rejection, let me reemphasize, if you are being rejected in church correction or in evangelism — if you are being rejected because you are harsh, or self-righteous, or degrading, or smug or if you are pompous and look down on the person you are going to, then you need to get right. Those things are planks!
Above all, our mission is to get the Gospel out. And if you are lacking in humility or compassion, or gentleness or grace, it’s an indicator that you still don’t get the Gospel yourself.
And listen, from a guy who used to be on the receiving end of wrong headed — or wrong hearted — evangelism. If you are trying to get the Gospel out before you have the Gospel in your own heart, than what you actually do is hinder the Gospel.
We’ve been talking primarily about church discipline, but again this next verse can be applied to those outside of the church that we are trying to share the salvation message with, or to those who join us in fellowship every week, when we see them succumbing to sin.
The key element is, this is how we deal with those who disregard or flatly ignore the message. Those who reject the Word of God in their words or actions; those who reject the word as it is delivered in kindness, compassion and gentleness; but this is not to those who have been given the Word of God with a billy club, Amen?
That’s why Jesus goes through the first five verses BEFORE verse 6.
Now to Matthew 7:6
6 "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
Now, the crowd that Jesus was talking to did not watch the Westminster dog show, they didn’t care one lick about the animal shelter’s “Dogs of the Week” in the newspaper and they weren’t the type to cry at the end of Old Yeller.
Except for the well-trained shepherding dogs (Job 30), the dogs in that time were filthy, scavengers who ate dead bodies and lapped up blood from the ground (2 Kings 9 and 1 Kings 22). They were like vultures.
And throughout the Old Testament, dogs were used as an illustration of those who were far from God in their rebellion (Proverbs 26:11), or far from God because of their ignorance of Him. In Psalm 22, a Psalm pointing toward Jesus’ death on the cross, the men who drove spikes through our Lord’s hands and feet are called dogs (Psalm 22:16).
So dogs were not looked well upon. And the same was true with pigs.
This was before Charlotte's Web. Pigs were looked at as unclean animals. And as anyone who’s ever been to a 4-H fair can tell you, you can spend all day cleaning the animal up, making it look good and as soon as it can, that little pig is going right back to the muck as soon as it gets a chance.
Jesus says, don’t give what is sacred to the dogs or the swine. They don’t appreciate it and they may even turn on you.
And that’s all good until you start calling people dogs and swine. Here’s a tip, even though that’s how Jesus describes those who will not listen, or those who reject the Word, those who persecute you; That is not a directive that we should them call them dogs or swine.
That usually ends badly. You tracking?
Now let’s read it again, because Jesus gives us an important warning here.
Now to Matthew 7:6
6 "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
Again, we have some distance from this culturally in two different ways.
First, except for an occasional pit bull or Doberman that has been mistreated or trained to be vicious, we don’t come into contact with very many dogs that are going to turn on us and tear us to pieces.
And the pigs we see are almost always behind gates and their fed into a state of slumber most of the time.
But at the time that Jesus was teaching, these animals were dangerous and would be avoided at all costs.
And when you came into contact with them, what would their primary focus be? Eating.
So if you throw something like pearls to a pig, the pig might at first look and think it is food. Once the pig finds out it isn’t that little swine’s going to be mad and may come after you.
So this teaching is saying don’t give pigs and dogs something as beautiful and as precious as the news of the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew 13: 45-46), because not only will it not be appreciated, it may make the people mad because it’s not what they want.
And the other cultural distance that we have is that we do not usually face the kind of attack here in Middle America that other witnesses of the Gospel face in other parts of the world. And we certainly don’t face the martyrdom that the early Christ followers faced.
Remember, for the early Christians, and the people of God before Jesus came, being torn to pieces was a real danger. The book of Hebrews 11 addresses some of the things that happened to the prophets and the men and women of God who trusted in Him completely. It starts with some of the big names like Abel, Abraham and Moses and it shows some of the benefits of faith, but also some of the hardships.
Hebrews 11:35-37 says
35 Women received back their dead, raised to life again…
(Awesome, right?)
…Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. 37 They were stoned; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated…
Most of us will not see this kind of abuse. But again, some people WILL mock you. Some will make up all kinds of lies about you; some may bring lawsuits against you. Some of you may lose jobs.
Jesus tells us to expect that, and to a degree we should see it as a blessing, because it is the same way they came against the prophets of the Old Testament, it how Herod came against John the Baptist, and it’s ultimately how the people came against Jesus. We are in good company and we will be on the same side as Jesus when this all shakes out.
But in Matthew 7:6, he says, don’t make persecution your goal. If you see an unfruitful prospect for the Gospel, move on, don’t get worn down by arguments or debates or fending off unnecessary attacks. No,
Move on.
The time you spend just spinning your wheels is time that you and I are not getting the message out to the next person.
Now, here’s the danger.
Dogs. Literal dogs, tail, ears, barking, sniffing dogs are obviously what they are.
Pigs. Literal pigs, corkscrew tail, oinking, stinky old pigs are obviously what they are.
But a person who is a spiritual dog or pig is not obvious.
The danger that we face is predetermining in our own minds who is going to accept the Gospel and who is going to reject it; by the way they look or the way they dress, or where they live, or what they do for a living or the way they’ve talked in the past.
We simply will not know if they are dogs or pigs until we give them what is sacred. Until we give them the pearl.
What the New Testament tells us is that we have a mission to carry the Good News out to the world and if they respond well than praise God. But if they will not, move on.
When Jesus sent out his 12 disciples. Matter of fact let’s all turn there.
Matthew 10
1 He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; 3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; 4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.
Let’s stop there for a minute. You realize that we here are among that group that Jesus said not to go to. We were dogs and swine. But, after the Jews rejected Jesus, we were given the gift that was first given to the physical descendants of Abraham. We were then, through our faith in Christ by the grace of God, made to be SPIRITUAL descendants of Abraham.
We must always remember that we were once enemies of God who were reconciled or made right with God by Christ. That way none of us will boast of our own works or our own good deeds or look down on those who are still far from God.
Okay, Remember where we started. We were all dogs and swine before we were given faith.
Moving on…
7 As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' 8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. 9 Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; 10 take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff; for the worker is worth his keep.
11 "Whatever town or village you enter, search for some worthy person there and stay at his house until you leave. 12 As you enter the home, give it your greeting. 13 If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it; if it is not, let your peace return to you. 14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake the dust off your feet when you leave that home or town. 15 I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
Okay, back to the point. We move into an area. It may be our workplace, our home, our extended family. It may even be our Sunday church or our small group. We move in and we bring the Good News. To the “secular” places, it may mean bringing the news for the first time. For the churches and small groups it goes back to correcting sin and being open to correction for our own sin.
But here’s the key. If the person or people don’t come to the Gospel, we need to shift focus to the next person or people.
That doesn’t mean quitting our jobs or shunning our family if our co-workers and loved ones won’t come to Christ, it means, we stop sharing in words and simply live lives that reflect the truth of our salvation and the beauty of a life that is dependent on Christ.
But we move on.
And this is where it gets to be a hard teaching, because we know the truth of the Gospel. We know that it is the “Good News” because there is an ancillary, very true bad news. It is what Jesus told His 12. He said:
15 …“I tell you the truth, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.”
And instead of town we can read, it will be more bearable for Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that co-worker, that mom, that aunt and uncle, that brother, that sister, that neighbor.
We don’t look down our noses smugly. We don’t say flippantly, “we’ll I’m picking non-smoking for my eternity.” We don’t laugh it off. We don’t say good riddance to bad rubbish. We don’t call them idiots. We don’t become elitists.
We mourn. We mourn. We mourn.
Because there is a judgment. And it is eternal.
Revelation 14:11 tells us:
11 And the smoke of their torment rises for ever and ever. There is no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and his image, or for anyone who receives the mark of his name."
And in Matthew 25:46 Jesus gives us a warning about those who do not truly follow Him saying "Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
And we don’t want it to be eternal. We have friends who claim Christ as their savior but who cling to the concept of annihilation for unregenerate sinners. Simply put, annihilation is a belief that those apart from God will simply cease to exist, that, that will be their punishment.
Believe me, when I look to some of my loved ones who see the Gospel as foolishness, I want to look to annihilation.
But, I simply don't see it holding up Scripturally.
The reason that we don’t teach that; the reason that we mourn over those who refuse God’s gift of His son, is because eternal in Matthew 25:46 is eternal, it is everlasting. It’s the Greek word aionios (i-o-nee-os). It means without end, never to cease, everlasting
The words forever and ever in revelation 14:11 are the Greek aion (i-o-nee) it’s the root of the word eternal in Matthew and it means forever, an unbroken age, perpetuity of time, eternity
We rejoice that we have eternal life with God, but we mourn the eternal punishment of those we love who are far from Christ.
We’re about to end it but let me add some good to the bad news. Those who will not accept now may later, so we are told to pray earnestly for our loved ones, that they may come to the cross and find salvation.
And brothers and sisters, I can tell you from experience that it works. I was a dog. I was a spiritual pig. I rejected God, I rejected His word. I mocked His children. I had a deep hatred in my heart for His bride, the church.
But people continued to pray for me, many stopped trying to share Him with me with their words, but they prayed and prayed and prayed.
And God let me wallow with the pigs until I was so low that I saw how wretched I had become. He softened my heart, which was the soil for the seeds that so many people had tried to sew in me.
If we asked around this small gathering I believe we’d find some similar stories.
And we find them in the Bible. Look at Paul. Before Jesus got his heart he was known as Saul and he was a vicious terrorist bent on the destruction of the early church. But god turned him into one of the most powerful change agents in the history of our spiritual lineage.
So don’t give up on the dogs and swine in your life. Pray for them each day, pray for them with earnest prayer.
But, as Jesus teaches us, we must not let them take us off of our mission. Get moving with the Gospel into places where God will use you to work out His Kingdom mission.
Let’s pray…
