“For Judgement I Came” – The Promise of Jesus
Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” 40 Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt;[a] but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
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Pastor Thom Rittichier:
We all do it. We all do it, though we prefer that it not be done to us. As a matter of fact, we have a retort. And the retort goes like this. When this happens, we say something like, I’ll be the judge of that. When a person uses that phrase, I’ll be the judge of that. What are they saying? What is it they’re expressing to the person who has just made a statement? I don’t believe you. Okay. I don’t agree. Okay. They are basically saying that I am not going to put myself in a place that you’ll render judgment on me. I’m not giving you that position. I’m not accepting this, I’ll be the judge that, I’ll be the judge of that. And when you look at this picture that kind of gives us an impression as to why we go there, notice the hand on the scale here, when they are rendering the judgment. Of course, you know, Lady Justice, who is to picture judgment being given on things all the way up to the Supreme Court, she has a balance that’s held out and she is blind, well blinded with a blindfold, and weighing the evidence to come to it, Of course, this guy’s got a little, maybe he’s got a point of view in his judgment that is attempting to come across. We don’t prefer that others do that to us. And we respond to it. That’s kind of the response that comes in John chapter 9. And I’m going to ask you to turn there with me. The kind of response the Pharisees who were the leaders of the Jewish people at this point in time shared between two groups, the Sadducees and the Pharisees.
The Pharisees were the ones who were more hands on with the people, more present with them, they were a larger group. And the Pharisees give that kind of a response. You’re gonna judge me? I don’t think so, here in John chapter 9 to a blind man who seems to have some amazing insights concerning their hand tipping the balance in the judgments they were rendering. And as this guy, you remember this guy, last week Dr. Stewart talked about him. Dr. Stewart was really fond of that guy. Do you remember, if I could remember his words, it was something like I really like this guy. That he said with, with some emotion. I really liked this guy. And I and I’d have to agree. The guy has a wow kind of an experience here. A wow kind of experience that was seen by people around, by the Pharisees, by Dr. Stewart years later, by you and I as it comes out through what he said to us. It was, it was a wow experience and God, through Jesus, uses this guy and what he says to communicate clearly to the people, there and then, and to communicate clearly to us, here and now. God uses this guy and he uses the situation. If you’re with me in John 9, I want you to slide down to verse number 34 where the Pharisees give this, I’ll be the judge of that, you judge me, I don’t think so. Look with me at verse number 34. And they answered him, after this guy expressed some insights he had concerning their motivations, they answered him saying you were born utterly in sin, you were totally completely born in sin. Now, that was a judgment. As a matter of fact, it was a judgment that had kind of been taught in the circles of Judaism. And it was kind of caught by a lot of people, not just the Pharisees here, but also if you remember in verse 2 of this chapter, even Jesus’s disciples asked him, as a teacher of God, Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind, it was sin, you are utterly born in sin, and that judgment, though widespread and taught and caught by people. It’s just not
accurate. It was just out right wrong. It was incorrect and it wasn’t where God was at, at all, on this thing. You know that from how Jesus answered his disciples. Sometimes judgments are like that, that we make, we all do it, render judgments. We prefer not to be judged but we all render judgments. And some of them come from, from background things that we caught when we were growing up, or we were taught. And some of them come from the ideas we developed. I remember recently, hearing a leader in the medical world, a leader, as they were talking about some of the racial issues and him having to say, I wasn’t raised this way. I have to go back and rethink all of these things that I was raised with, yeah, judgments come that way for us sometimes. Usually, it’s a mix of our own ideas and some things we picked up here or there, off the internet, or somebody said something or TV show or something, but we render those judgments. Interestingly, that Jesus told us not to judge according to appearance, the way things appear to be on the surface. John 7:24 He says that, but render righteous judgment, a judgment that aligns with what God, who the righteous judge, will give to us, a judgment, our evaluations. Now this is kind of an important thing. This is something we do on a daily basis is render judgments. And we have to, we have to, we’re expected to, we’re expected to weigh things, but sometimes those judgements that we make on people, races, individuals are superficial judgements, maybe from something we grew up with, we caught, taught or some mixture we had with it. A guy named J.C. Ryle, who spoke a lot about Christian lives, said this, there is nothing, this is a little booklet on judgement that’s used in counseling, Rendering Judgments, nothing is so common as to judge to favorably or to unfavorably from merely looking at the outward appearance of things. We are apt to form hasty opinions of others, either for good or ill, on very insufficient grounds. We pronounce some men to be good and others to be bad, some to be godly and others to be ungodly. Without anything but appearance to aid our decisions. We should do well to remember our blindness and to keep in mind this passage about rendering judgment. And that was in Jesus’ statement about don’t judge according to appearance. Judge, yeah, judge, but judge a judgment that is right. A judgment which the Lord, the righteous judge, has given to us. This morning we’re going to talk about this thing of judgment. And you know in this passage, there is a lot of judgment going on. As a matter of fact, verse 27, when these Pharisees have already made a judgment against Jesus, look up at the verse 22, where it says the Jews had agreed that if anyone should confess, should hold to Jesus to be the Christ, they will be put out of the synagogue, that was a decision, a judgment that was made. And it was a judgment, not just for themselves against Jesus.
It was a judgment, they were pressing on other people, against Jesus, to be opposed to Jesus. And they were even pressing this man, who is formerly blind but now he sees, concerning pushing him to say what didn’t happen, that he was blind and now sees, say that didn’t happen, just to oppose Jesus. That’s an amazing judgment and the guy picks up on this, I want you to see this. I want you to see how he picks up on this. So they came and asked him again, verse 27, and he answered them, verse 27, I’ve told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples? There’s something going on here. There’s something going on and he’s seeing it. It was known that if anyone confessed him, they’re going to put him out of the synagogue. There’s something going on and they revile him, and they say, No, we’re Moses disciples. We don’t know where this guy is from. And they rendered judgment on him, verse 34, you were completely born in sin, and you’re going to judge us, you’re going to instruct us, you’re going to teach us and they cast him out. I want you to know that that was a big deal. When somebody was put out of the synagogue, out of Judaism, they were put out of any good standing in the community, because the synagogue was the center of the Jewish community. This person was an outcast, they were outcast socially, they’re outcast communication wise, they were an outcast in business being carried on, this was a big deal. And that’s what they were going to do. They were going to excommunicate from life anybody who wasn’t opposed to Jesus, who confessed him.
And Jesus, hearing about that, I want you to know this is an unfolding situation. This is not like we’re doing here, something that happened in the past, and we’re studying this unfolding situation. This is happening. And as this is happening, God is using this, through Jesus, to communicate a great deal to those people, there and then, and to us, here and now, as the situation unfolds. Situation unfold is that Jesus heard that they cast him out, verse 35. And having heard that they cast him out, He went and found him. And he said, Do you believe the Son of Man and the guy said, Who is he, sir, I don’t know that I may believe. And Jesus said, the one who is speaking to you, is is him. It is he who speaking to you. And the guy said, Lord, I believe and he worshipped him. And then here comes Jesus promise, it’s right here. I want you to see it. Jesus said, for judgment, I came into this world, that those who do not see may see. And those who see, may become blind. This morning, we’re going to talk about, for judgment I came. That’s Jesus statement here to us. And we come here, as we’re observing the Lord’s table this morning, for a very important reason. This promise of Jesus, for judgment I came, raises some questions. How is this so that Jesus came for judgment? You know, twice previously or twice, once previous once after, Jesus says that he didn’t come for judgment. But here he says, I did come for judgment. How is that so? And we’re going to talk about these mays that he just said will happen to people, two mays. He says it, one may, that those who can’t see may see and number two, second may, those who see may become blind.
This is what we’re going to talk about this morning. And we’re going to talk about it around the Lord’s table, because I want you to know, very, very clearly, that the Lord’s table is a judgment. It’s about the judgment that Christ came for. He came for judgment, for an evaluation to be taken into consideration, not superficially, not on the surface, but as it really is a decision to be rendered. And that decision rendered, bringing the condemning consequences and outcome, punishment, retribution for judgment I came. Now, as we start to look at this, there is a passage that I want you to see, it’s a proverbial statement. Proverbs, if you remember, these are Proverbs from God. These aren’t human proverbs that develop these are Proverbs from God, and the Proverbs from God talk to us about how to live with people here on Earth, how to live with them, God’s directions for living with people. Psalms is for living with God in your life over and over the interaction is there in the Psalms, these expressions of praise and worship and songs to sing in your heart about this relationship to God going on. With Proverbs, it’s the relationship to people and God’s wisdom for relationship with people and in Proverbs, twice stated, is this phrase, there is a way that seems right to a man this as I look at it, it appears to be right this this this, this I see to be right. But it’s end, the outcome of this is the ways, that’s plural, the ways of the, it’s just one of the ways, but it is the ways of death, a way that kills, a way that kills physically, reality, a way that kills spiritually, in relationship to God, a way that kills eternally. There is a way, there is a way, this for our living with people here on Earth. There is a way that seems right to a person. But where it’s really going is just one of the ways to death. We need to bear that in mind as we live here, with people and of course, this is always about other people that their ways that seem right to them are the ways of death. Is that ever true about us?
Yeah, we need to bear this in mind like J. C. Ryle said. We need to make sure that we’re not blind on this. So let’s do this. And we’re going to do it rather quickly today. First off, how is this so that Jesus came for judgment. How is this so when other statements in John tell us that Jesus did not come for judgment? John chapter 3 verse 17. John chapter 3 verse 17 is right after one of the most well known, as a matter of fact, there are two really well known passages in the Bible. One is, judge not lest you be judged. You ever heard that one? Have you ever heard that one come at you. When you make a statement, like what the Bible says, yeah. Judge not lest you be judged. That’s a well known passage. The other one is John 3:16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that who believes in Him should not but have everlasting life. And then John 3:17 says, right away, for God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him. That’s the statement, Jesus did not come to judge. He came to save. John chapter 12 verse 47 says, Jesus statement, I didn’t come to judge. As a matter of fact, that is really, really an interesting statement. It reads like this, John 12:47, it says, If anyone hears my word and does not keep them, I do not judge him, for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. I didn’t come to judge it. And yet, Jesus statement here in this promise, is this, for judgment I came into the world. How does that work out? The passage tells us how this is so. Turn back with me to John 3:16, following here, John chapter 3 verse 16 and following reads like this. For God so loved the world, that he took aim, to give his son for the purpose that whoever believes will not perish but have eternal life. God didn’t send His Son into the world to judge the world. That’s why he sent him not to judge. By the word, by the way, the word judge here is the same word that’s used over in John 9 verse 39, when he says that I came for judgment, one’s a noun, this one’s a verb, but it’s the same word. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world. Some translations say condemn, because the idea of judgment here just isn’t the decision. But it’s also the consequences of the decision, the condemnation, and the consequences of the condemnation, the sentence that has to be experienced, fulfilled. So some just render it condemnation. It’s the word judgment. For God’s sent not his Son into the world to judge the world but in order that the world might be rescued, saved through him. And notice how this works out, how this is so, whoever believes in Him is not judged but whoever does not believe in Him is judged already, same word. He’s already judged because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God. That judgment is done, that judgment is a natural consequence. It is an evitable outcome from God sending His Son to save. You see, from the very beginning, Genesis chapter 2 verse 17, you know this, God tells us this, don’t eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
helped me out with this, because the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. You shall die. That was a statement from the beginning. Ezekiel, it’s repeated over and over, Ezekiel on two occasions Ezekiel, Ezekiel has done this, Ezekiel says, the soul that sins shall die. You can help me out with this one, the wages of sin is death.
But God did act, to rescue, he acted sending His Son not to condemn, but to rescue. Those who believe aren’t judged. Those who don’t believe are judged already. And this is the judgment. Look at me at verse 19. Here’s the judgment. It’s a judgment they render on themselves. This is the judgment that the light has come into the world. And people love darkness rather than the light because their work, their deeds, their actions were evil and they liked it. They were harmful, but fun and so everyone who does wicked, who does these evil things and prefers them hates the light and doesn’t come to the light, less their work should be exposed. But everyone who does what is true, who responds to what the reality is about themselves, comes to the light so that it may become clear that their works have been accomplished in God’s doing. Here’s God’s doing. This is what God did do. God did what the law, weak as it was by the flesh, you know most people think that they’ll be good enough and they get to go to heaven, that’s what most people think. And so as a result, when they die, they get to go to heaven. It’s how they get saved, I died, I was good enough, in my opinion, I get to go to heaven. That’s how most people think, that’s how most people think, if I’m good, I get to go to heaven. But the law, even the law of God, whatever one we come up with, the law of God was weak, was weakened by the flesh. And it could not, could not do anything but show us how weak we are, show us our missing the mark. So God’s done with the law weakened by the flesh could not do by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He judged sin in the flesh. This is what happened. This is the judgment that Christ came for. Christ came to be judged, sin in the flesh. God made him sin. And God rendered the judgment on sin, that this iscondemned.
The judgment God handed down is that sin deserves to die. And Christ died for us. He condemned, he judged sin, sin, he judged sin in the flesh. And in Romans chapter 6 where this is all talked about the Apostle Paul talks about the lingering effect of sin still wanting to dominate in my life, but it’s rendered powerless. And I can progress out of this, because what happened on the cross is God judged sin. And the problem is people choose to die in their sin. Well, actually, it comes before that. They choose to live in their sin.
They like it.
There’s pleasure in it for a little while. And I prefer it. So don’t judge me. I’ll be the judge of this. Don’t judge me. I’ll be the judge of this. That’s why we hear, judge not. Doesn’t the Bible say You ought not to judge? Yeah, but it says a little more of it than that. But say that, it’s why we hear that. That’s how this thing, okay, matter of fact that John 12:47 passage says the same thing. Jesus says, He who doesn’t do this, doesn’t, listen to it, I don’t judge them. The word that I’ve said to you judges them, the words that I’ve already told you, the soul that sins, it dies, you do this, you shall surely die, the wages of sin is death, death is the sentence, sin is judged in the flesh, it deserves to die. And if you live in sin, and you die in sin, then you will be judged too, for your sin. It’s sin that he came to destroy, that table is about judgment on sin. I know we’re so familiar with sin, so every day, so commonplace, that we do not grasp the impact of sin on God. He’s angry with it every day – the Bible says. And those who choose to stay in it, he’s angry with every day because they push down the truth. So how did Jesus come to judge sin? Let me, let me back this up and just use a little illustration of this. This is an illustration that I didn’t come up with. This is an illustration, I was searching the internet on judgment, on a particular phase of judgment and a John Piper message came up, a John Piper message on this very passage in which John Piper talks about Jesus coming to judge and he used this illustration, I’m going to borrow it, quote, John Piper borrowed illustration, John Piper says this, this can be better understood, this can be well understood, at least it helps me he said that, and by the way, I’m free libbing on this, isn’t word for word, okay. John Piper said that, this helps me. Think of a doctor. Can you think of a doctor? Anybody here can think of a doctor? Okay, we can think, think of a doc. There’s a doctor who gets called to a urgent scene, battlefield urgent scene. And as he goes to this, finally gets there to this to this urgent scene at the battlefield. There’s a guy who has gangrene from a wound and feels, and his arm, and the guy there seeing the doctor come says to him, did you come to cut off my arm? And the doctors responds, I didn’t come to cut off your arm.
I came
to save your life,
but in order to save your life, I’m gonna cut off your arm. Jesus mission was to save life. But to do that, he had to render judgment on sin to death. And it just so happens that if you choose to stay in sin, then it’s judgment to death on you.
Because you don’t have to.
This table is judgment on sin. And this is what it cost, the life of God’s Son. That’s the price to pay for sin.
I don’t know if that illustration helps you or not, I think it was good, obviously, because I used it. So that’s how it’s so, it’s an inevitable consequence. Jesus didn’t come to judge, it’s an inevitable consequence, though, when he brings the judgment of death on sin, where he himself steps into place and dies for us. That’s how serious God is about sin. And it brings judgment because some choose not to trust that, as a matter of fact, they out rightly oppose him on that. And don’t think that that’s only them, there and then. That’s for us, here and now. For you and I when we choose to oppose Christ in His directions for a life on what we want. It’s the same blindness. So how do these mays happen to people and I’m going to go through these really quickly. May see. John chapter 9 verse 39, Jesus said, for judgment I came into this world that those who do not see may see, that is those who don’t see, they may see and here’s where God uses this guy that Dr. Stewart likes, he really likes this guy.
That this guy is used not only by Dr Stewart, but by God, God uses this guy, he uses the blind guy to show us, by his progression, how somebody who is blind comes to see, the guy is born blind physically, just like we are born blind spiritually. The guy says, I don’t know who this is. But I do know something about this guy that I was blind, now I see. That’s what he says. Okay, so this guy miraculously causes him to see, that’s what happened. It’s a physical example here. And it’s played out because God is using it to show us how it is that people who are blind come to see, it happened to him physically. Who is this guy? They asked him verse 17, notice his progression. He’s a prophet. He’s someone who communicates to us from God. He’s a prophet, that’s who he is. And then verse 37, he is introduced face to face to the Son of man and he calls him Lord and he worships Him. I believe you’re the Lord, I given you your place of worth in my life. I give you that place and he worships Him. That’s how blind come to see. And it’s the same thing that happened to this guy physically. And it’s what happened to this guy spiritually. And it’s what happens to everyone who comes to Christ, born blind, now see, that’s how it is. That’s how it is and it keeps happening. He keeps doing it. He keeps working this miracle in people’s lives. Now, let’s do this one. How about the second may, may become blind, that is those who did see. And for us the Pharisees show us this. Some of these Pharisees overheard what Jesus said. As a matter of fact that, wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t an accident. Jesus is loud enough, He is present enough. They’re close enough. Look at verse 40. And some of the Pharisees near him heard these things and said, are we also blind? He picked, they picked up something that he was saying about those who see become blind. And they say, are we blind? Are we blind? And Jesus answers them, according to their estimate of themselves. Jesus answers them according to their perception of their judgment, the way that seemed right to them, that’s what he answers them to. Now, I want you to know that there is a regression here in the lives of the Pharisees.
They say, verse 16, that we, we are Moses disciples, this guy, this guy is not from God. Why? Because of a judgment according to appearance to them, that he didn’t keep the Sabbath day. You know the thing is, Jesus kept doing that, John 5, he causes a lame, a man who’s been lame from birth to walk, and it’s the Sabbath day, this thing with the blind guy, it’s the Sabbath day, why is God keep pushing this in their face on the Sabbath day? Should we say Lord, you know, lighten up on him. No! it’s an issue, it’s an issue of life and death. And he keeps, isn’t that what the Bible does, it jars us. Did you ever notice that? It kind of like whew, and it kind of keeps you off balance. And the purpose of that is that we don’t become complacent. We don’t come, oh, I’m a good Christian. Not that I necessarily give up my wants for God’s direction, which is the essence of blindness. I don’t necessarily do that. And it jars us. It jars us. It jars these folks here. This guy, he’s not from God, he doesn’t keep the Sabbath day. Judge not according to appearance, Judge righteous judgment. Verse 22, who ever says he’s Christ, gets put out of the synagogue, that was their view, you are not going to call him Christ, you are not going to say he’s saved you based on this little thing of trusting him. You just trust Him and you think you’re good. That’s out of the synagogue. Verse 24, he’s a sinner, as a matter of fact, that said, he’s got a demon. He’s a sinner, got a demon. They show us, they show us though they come to him and say, are we too blind? And Jesus answers them to their perception. Verse 41, Jesus said to them, if you were blind, if you were, if you were, if you were genuinely perceiving yourself to be blind, like this blind guy did, if you genuinely were, then you would have no sin. You would not be missing the mark that God set for this. There would be no guilt or culpability for you on that. Not he’s saying that if a person’s ignorant, blind, they don’t sin, no he’s not saying that, he is saying, if you are genuinely blind, like this guy realized he was genuinely blind. If you genuinely saw yourself as blind and your need, you’d have no sin. But on the other hand, now the way it is now, right now you say, we see. We see. We know this man cannot be of God. If you say he’s Christ, you’re out of the synagogue. He is a sinner. That was there regression. Therefore, he says, your sin is on you. This table that we’re going to transition to is a table of judgment that there is a judgment on sin.
And Doug to come up. I’m going to ask them to distribute these, if you would. So if you like to take those and pass them out, as these are coming out, I’m just going to explain these a little bit. Could you be seated, please? Thank you. As these are coming out, I’m going to explain these a little bit, there’s a little cellphone thing at the top, cellophane, just push that back with your finger, it’ll roll and you open that one first. That’s the bread and then you open the second one, which is the cup. So according to the Scriptures, and the night in which Jesus was betrayed, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, In the night in which he was betrayed, he took this bread, and this cup. As we come to the Lord’s table, the Bible says this 11, 1 Corinthians 11:28, let every person examine himself, then so eat of the bread, and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment, same word that we’ve been looking at, you eat and drink judgment on yourself, this is why many of you are sick, why many of you have died. But if we judge ourselves rightly, we shall not be judged. This work by Christ, this work by Christ where he judged sin in the flesh renders us able to judge ourselves. We can take the scriptures and make a judgment on ourselves. I can judge that I’m going according to my thoughts, my feeling, I’m going according to what I just grew up with, and was handed down to me I was taught or I caught this, rather than the the judgment of God. And we can do that. And you know, there are people in our congregation, get this, there are people in our fellowship, people who are even streaming, that, that call and ask, am I thinking right on that? I need your help here. Because what they want to do is to judge themselves, Dr. Stewart does that on occasion, Karen does that, does it especially with my wife. And this is the ability that this judgment of sin has given to us that we can judge ourselves. And when we come to the Lord’s table, we are to judge ourselves. And we judge ourselves this way. We discern that this body of Christ bore our sin, totally on the tree. So that we being dead to sin should live for God’s way. We discern that this is the body of Christ. Is there a sin in my life that I’m choosing?
You know, sometimes counseling, I get to talk with folks. And I see, again, how this blinds us and I get to easily see how it blinds me because in my counseling, it’s like, whoa, whoa, yeah, I talk more to myself. It’s like, what I want so strongly, that I disregard what God has said, I don’t even pay attention I just, I’m indifferent to it, I don’t even want to hear it, don’t spend time to, it blinds me. It blinds me.That’s what Galatians 5 is about, where it says, the flesh, myself and what I want, desires against the Spirit of God. That’s too bad for Paul isn’t it? His flesh wanted what was against the Spirit of God. Poor guy.
Poor guy. Anybody else in here know that experience? Yeah, we know it. And it blinds us. That’s why He says, These make evident that you’re in the flesh dissension, contention, strife, outbursts of anger, sensuality, immorality, drunkenness, and things like these, he has to put those out so that like me, I’m going along, and suddenly I can’t realize what, I can’t recognize why everybody is out of sorts here. Nobody Nobody is getting and then suddenly I realize, it’s me. I’m the one because I’m the one that’s bringing up the dissension, the contention and strike. And that happens because blind, we get blind, we get blind to what we want so strong. Does that happen to pastors? Happen to deacons, elders, How about you? You see, there’s a fork in the road. And the fork in the road is exactly what Jesus said. That those who are blind may see. And those who say they see, become blind, we get blinded. Thank God, that this happened, that he bought our sin and his own body and the tree, and we discern this correctly, my sin is done here. I’m not judged, because he bore it on the tree, but now I live to Righteousness. So the night he was betrayed, he took the bread, cellophane peels off. And he said, This is my body which is broken. It’s broken under sin. That’s how serious it is for you, take eat. In the same manner, after the dinner, he took the cup. And he said, This cup is the new covenant, the new agreement between God and man, the New Covenant, it’s in my blood, it is shed for you and for many, so that sin, sin, so that sin may be forgiven. It’s judged in the flesh, and you’re released of it.
Do this in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and you drink this cup, what do we do as often as we do this? We proclaim, we proclaim, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Amen? Amen. This is a matter that is accomplished by Christ alone.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
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