When You’re Going To Judge Jesus… Make It A Good One!

John 7:50 “Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,)”

John 7:51 “Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth?”

How would you like it if someone judged you before they ever met you, heard you, saw what you do?

Wouldn’t you greatly appreciate if the person judging you did it from firsthand and not based on what other people say?

Shouldn’t you get all the facts first? Don’t you think you should get the truth on the people and matters you judge? Wouldn’t you like that in return?

Look, we all would greatly appreciate fair minded and reasonable judgment from others, why would you not extend this courtesy to the Son of God?

In this world, a whole lot of judgment gets passed very quickly before any due diligence is done. It’s very easy to casually judge and make passing judgments with little or no consequence. Just read any social media post and it’s judgment after judgment. And that’s ok. But when we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, we have a man literally “at hand” who each one of us must and will judge, and he is the most critical and consequential judgment you will ever make…

… make it a good one! Because many do not.

There is the fact of judgment. We all do it. It’s just a matter of how we do it, and how good we make it, by what measure we mete it out, what yardstick we use. This whole “don’t judge” stuff is all a bit of a joke so we don’t need to take that fanciful detour today. Don’t judge me people are the most judgmental people I’ve ever met, and they’re ruthless in their judgment of your Christianity,but is it a good one?

And it’s not as consequential if you get it wrong on a person you thought you had summed up, or assigned to a certain place in your estimation… but when it comes to judging Jesus… that’s something, it’s someone you can’t afford to be wrong on!

Nicodemus, the guy who told the Jews, hey why don’t you hear him and see what he does first before you try and off him… if you just listen to him today, and his peers of his day did not, he’ll tell you how to make a good judgment of Jesus, after all, he judged Jesus for himself by coming to see Jesus for himself.

But remember another guy called Pilate? He’s the guy remembered for judging Jesus and making a howler with that judgment.

Pilate was the Roman governor who sat in the judgment seat of Jesus, and he ended up choosing to sacrifice Jesus rather than his own pride and prestige. He tried to “keep the peace” by offering up Jesus… history shows the Jews revolted not too long after. Sacrificing the Prince of peace for peace will never work, and when you hear “keep the peace” tactics you’ll always find the truth of Christ being sacrificed in order to do so, with no actual peace being found.

Jesus can be pretty expendable to people can’t he. Maybe he’s expendable to you, but he’s pretty precious to God the Father! This is a judgment you have to take care with!

Before going down the crucifixion path, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod and Herod to Pilate. They were handballing Jesus around trying to not have to be the one who officially made the call. Is that you? You’re in some grey no man’s land area on Jesus, you just don’t want to know about it, or have to deal with him… yet you cannot wash your hands of the most important judgment you will ever make.

When we say, make your judgment of Jesus a good one, it is because you need to gather the facts first… as Proverbs 18:13 says “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.” … man people judge Jesus in ignorance, or have certain agendas in that judgment that pervert it. Ie. the Jews were envious of Jesus, wanted to keep their followers and their position in society and government, were offended by his preaching, and all their judgment of him was seen through their little offended selfish prism.

Today I have quoted from John 7, a most wonderful chapter about people judging Jesus. A big religious feast was on, Jesus was the talk of the town. Some said Jesus was this. Some said Jesus was that. Exactly nothing has changed.

Nicodemus suggested actually hearing what Jesus said for himself. Sounds good? Well the Jews didn’t think so, they scolded him badly. They were so confident they had it all right, when they couldn’t have been more wrong. Many people right now are walking around having judged and sentenced Jesus and his word, and they don’t know they’ve made an all time howler.

If I could encourage you to do any one thing, it’s to taste and see that the Lord is good for yourself. Noone can do it for you. And if he’s not to your taste, and you truthfully just prefer sin and darkness, much like a sow loves the mire and could think and aspire to no higher than it’s mud… then you can do that, but the sad case of many people is that they can see the honey dropping, they’d like to get to know him more, but like the crowd in John 7, there was so much stirring about Jesus, but they were scared to get closer because you weren’t supposed to talk about him, or be seen with him, or find out about him for yourself. As a result, the judgment was very poor.

The honey dropping comment is in reference to the Biblical account in 1 Samuel 14, where a whole army, famished and starving to death with hunger, comes across honey dropping in the woods. It’s an unexpected paradise of heavenly taste… and their mouths drool in anticipation, but no man except for Jonathan tastes and sees for themselves, because someone has made them afraid to do so.

Just how poisoned has your judgment of Christ been by other people who have not tasted and seen for themselves? Saul never tasted of the honey, and ordered his people not to either. What a bad leader! There are plenty of bad Christian leaders aren’t there. Remember, someone who has dead religion wants you to be dead with them also. Miserable souls want others to be miserable with them.

Look, people in John 7 were reasoning all about Jesus, and they were misinformed, their reasoning and logic was wrong, they didn’t have all the facts, they were ignorant of truth… but judging. They were being discouraged from following and listening to Jesus… and so they were making judgment without facts. And when they could have known Jesus’ origin, descent, purpose, doctrine, preaching, offering for themselves clearly from the proverbial horses mouth… instead judgment was being based on hearsay and popular opinion.

And so the reason why you have to get to know Jesus for yourself from his holy word is because there are many people who represent him, that don’t. It’s all through the Bible. Jeremiah and Ezekiel found the greatest wickedness and departure from God in the high places of religion, where you would have thought surely they know God… but God told them nope, and he let them have a look inside the true spiritual state of the spiritual supposed leadership of Israel. Jeremiah had even told God when God challenged him to find one man in the whole city who did truth and judgment…

Jeremiah 5:5 “I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.”

Look, the point is, if someone doesn’t know Jesus, why would you judge Jesus based on what they say and do?

Would you like someone to judge you based on what someone else is saying about you, who doesn’t even know you? Would you think that’s fair or unreasonable and stupid?

Back to John 7, and the Jews sent officers to arrest Jesus, and those officers heard him for themselves, and it was then they realized it was a fools errand. They returned to their masters with this reply “Never spake man like this man”. And yes, they were told how wrong they were. Which is just typical, people that don’t know Jesus are quick to educate those that do on who he is and how wrong you are in serving him. But those officers took different orders now. Hope you do one day too.

And so the whole point of this post is to as Nicodemus said, Judge Jesus based on hearing and seeing him yourself, get in the Bible for yourself. Read 1 John 1… that’s why we have been given the Bible from God. So we can know God for ourselves from God himself… the Bible isn’t of man, it’s God’s words on paper, equally available to all, so you can know, so you don’t need to be duped, conned, fooled, deceived and make a bad judgment on Jesus that ruins your life.

I mean, Jesus said of the Laodicean church… he’s not even in it! He stands outside at the door knocking… because many churches have church without Jesus these days.

If you still doubt what is being said, read the book of Job, and you’ll find Job undergoing a big counselling session by his friends who met up beforehand and decided on what was wrong with Job and they come to straighten him out and educate him using their wisdom and supposed understanding of God.

Watch out for Christian counselling, most of it is baloney. Well meaning perhaps, maybe not as well, Job’s friends were quite envious of his walk with God and his trial gave them an unexpected angle of advantage to seize upon that they had not had before. Counselling is a lot of the time people who don’t know God really doing more harm than good, thinking they know what they’re talking about and how to help because they’ve supposedly got their life in order while they condescend to someone’s mess… and all the while they have zero clue about anything, though the words are flowery and good, like Job’s friends were.

You need a counsellor? One of Jesus Christ’s name is Counsellor… pray to him. Read his book. And nothing wrong with a true friend who will minister Christ faithfully to you.

Thing is, Job didn’t request their expertise, and as he heard them talk and tasted their wise words… he found their answers to be vain and untruthful. And God at the end of the book is very angry with these men for speaking on his behalf when they didn’t say what is right of him. It’s pretty audacious to speak on God’s behalf when you don’t know him… don’t you think.

But Job, even in his darkest hour, had to the good sense not to judge God by their words. He knew they were full of it. And you will realize that eventually in life, many people don’t know God who say they do, and can put on a fairly convincing performance otherwise. Stick to God’s word to get to know God… it was God’s word that really changed the course of Job’s trial and trouble.

John 7 concludes with everyone going to his own house. That’s our society, everyone’s gone “to each their own” on who Jesus is. You can barely get two Christians reading out the same book now… literally. That’s not indicative of the fact God’s lost the plot, that’s a sign of our times and an encourage to hasten anticipation of his return.

Romans 3:4 tells us how to make good judgment. And so does many other places in scripture. But it’s to “let God be true, but every man a liar” so stop basing your judgment on what people who don’t know God say and instead lean on what God says through God’s authorized messengers. Nicodemus here in John 7 spoke some sense, unwelcome sense but sense nonetheless… hear him for yourself! See what he does for yourself! It’s a wonderful work that God has done and is doing through his Son, I hope your life is part not in opposition of that heavenly and eternal and inevitable and finished work!

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