Tonight we’ll be studying Matthew 5:25-26. It’s the last in a three part series about anger and reconciliation as Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount.
And to jump start this lesson, we are going to go back and review to keep everything in context. We’ll start at Matthew 5:21 and move forward, read it with me:
21 "You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' 22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
(Unpack briefly for review {Click here for that message})
23 "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
(Unpack briefly for review {Click here for that message})
So, last week – from those verses — we said He gave us a ministry of reconciliation.
He gave us a ministry of making things right whenever and whenever we can with whoever we can in order to draw others closer to the light of God.
His will for us is that we first be reconciled with Him, through Christ.
And then, Jesus says, go and be reconciled with one another. It all goes back to. “Love God and Love others as yourself.” (Matthew 22:36-40)
And last week we read Jesus saying don’t give your gifts at the altar if you know someone has something against you. First, GO and make things right, be reconciled.
And we looked at Isaiah 1:11-17, where God says, if we have an unresolved heart issue or conflict with another person, then all our smiles and sacrifices, all our worship, all of our “Christian-ness” all of that stuff we do and say in His honor — is worthless. He makes it clear; He wants no part of that.
So, Jesus says yes, taking a life is sin. But, that’s not the line. The line is at our heart.
So if we hold onto a grudge, or we stew in resentment or let our hearts marinate in malice to the point that our hearts spill out in harsh words — words that can hurt feelings, words that can destroy reputations or cause other types of damage —
Jesus teaches that in those things, anywhere in the spectrum from anger to murder, we defy the will of God. We stand in opposition to Him. In short, we sin.
And the thing that we like to throw out as an argument here is, yes, but what about Jesus, He got angry, and The Old Testament says that God’s anger burned against the people.
The quick answer is yes. That’s true. And if you are dealing with righteous anger, we can discuss that at another time. That is the anger that Jesus had.
But, it’s clear that Jesus, in this passage, is teaching us how to deal with life where we are living.
So let’s not put up a smoke screen so we can discount the rest of the lesson.
Now, that’s all review, lets dig into the meat of tonight’s passage.
Let’s read, Matthew 5:25-26
25 "Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
So, according to this text, when should we settle matters? Jesus says quickly! We don’t drag our feet. In verse 24, He says FIRST, go and be reconciled.
In other words, as believers, this is a #1 priority.
And then, who are we to set things straight with? Your adversary. At risk of going off on a tangent, this is a great standard for not going to other people about issues that have nothing to do with them.
For example, if the conflict is with your boss, go to Your Boss, not to your co-workers behind the boss’ back.
If it is your spouse, go to Your Spouse. Women, don’t complain to your girlfriends or the people at work, or even your Mom, about your husbands. Men don’t gripe to the guys at the gym, or at the bar or at your workplace about your wife.
Moving on. Last week we talked about reconciling quickly. And last week the focus was on the fact that conflicted hearts and conflicted relationships block us from true fellowship with God in our worship.
So following the God, then man path, Jesus first shows us our relationship with the Father, then He brings the issue down to how it relates with us normal folks.
Let’s read Matthew 5:25-26 again
25 "Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. 26 I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.
Now Jesus uses a legal illustration and you may be in that situation where someone is taking you to court over money, or property, or custody or whatever.
In that case, this passage is pretty clear-cut. Make things right before you get to court, because there is a chance that things are going to go very badly for you if you leave it up to the judge.
But, what about the rest of us?
There are a lot of times when there is a rift in a relationship that never makes it to a real court. What does this passage teach us about those situations? The situations of conflict that we live in from day to day?
The lesson here is: There is set time in which we can reconcile and after that, our chance is gone. The damage is done and there may be nothing left for us but regrets.
Think about the person in Jesus’ illustration. He was headed to court because someone had something against him.
If the guy is anything like me he doesn’t want anything to do with reconciliation, because he thinks he is in the right. There’s no telling him otherwise.
The man who Jesus is telling to attempt reconciliation may think that once he has a chance to explain his side of things to the judge, then everything will turn out in his favor.
But, then he goes before the judge and the court decides against him.
Have you ever been in that situation when you have been so mad that you stopped listening to any arguments that contradicted the way you were thinking? And then one person that is removed from the situation lets you in on some nugget of information that shines a whole new light on the situation and you finally see your part in the problem.
Well, the judge’s verdict may have been that “ah-ha!” moment for the man. But, since he figured it out too late, he could no longer avoid the consequences — the consequences of his pride and stubbornness.
So as he sits in the jail cell, he has all the time in the world to think, “If I had just made things right before we got to court. I was such a fool!”
But it is too late.
A painful example of this in my own life, some of you already know this story.
Way back, it must have been 10 years ago, my dad had a stroke.
So I traveled up to Indianapolis from Texas and did what I could to help out with the family and help them figure out their next steps.
And my youngest brother, I think he was 12 or 13, was dealing with it the best he could, but he was a kid, and as an early teen, he was focused on how it affected him. His way of reacting included several outbursts. The kind you would expect from someone his age.
Anyway, long story short, on the day I left to go back to Texas, my brother had thrown a fit about something and I snapped.
I, an adult, a grown man who should have had more self control, who should have known better, called my brother a selfish ingrate and told him he was a burden on my folks when they needed less stress, used every four letter word I knew, and I know a lot.
And, I took no account of the pain, hurt, or confusion he was feeling as a result of my dad’s illness.
I had no consideration for the scars that words can have. I took no account of the way he had looked up to me as an older brother.
No, the anger in my heart added with the stress of the situation spilled out in words of hate.
Here’s where it gets back to the passage in Matthew 5:25-26.
I could have reconciled the situation; I could have apologized before leaving Indiana. Or, in the time afterwards I could have called or written him a letter, or something. But like the man in the passage, I thought I was in the right, my pride and my resentment held me back and then one day it was too late.
In October of 2000, my brother was hit by a car while walking to a friend’s house. And suddenly, it was over. My chance for reconciliation was over. And just as it would be with a judge rendering a verdict and slamming down his gavel. When I heard those words over the phone, “Your brother is gone.” It became obvious and undeniable that I had been in the wrong.
And like the man in the prison, I was locked up in a grieving heart saying to myself, “I was such a fool!”
Now, since that time, I have come into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as my Savior, Redeemer and Lord.
And I know that I have been forgiven of my sins.
And I have faith that one day we will be in Heaven, walking side by side with Jesus and He will wipe every tear from my eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:4).
And that is great, but as I walk this world in this flesh, with these memories, I am still gripped at times with deep regret.
That is one of the things Jesus is warning us against. Again, He doesn’t give us these commands to hold us back or to be some mean taskmaster. No, He knows that otherwise we will suffer under the yoke of our sins. The laws, the commands of God, are for our good.
This is the end of three weeks of messages about dealing with anger and about reconciliation. Jesus is very clear and out of love for Him we are to obey.
Can you imagine what life would be like if we could grasp and really do this? I’m not talking about everybody, just you and me in our lives, in our spheres of influence.
What would our relationships be like if we dealt with anger right away instead of letting it marinate in our soul.
What would it be like if we didn’t wait to apologize or to set things right.
I’ve said what I can about this chunk of Scripture. Now I would beg you, all of you, to read Matthew 5:21-26 tonight in the quiet of your home and get on your knees if you have to, and ask God, where do you want to see reconciliation in my life, with whom must I make things right. At work, at school, with my kids, with my parents, with my spouse or boyfriend or girlfriend; Lord show me.
And Lord, in what areas am I holding onto anger. The anger that kills me from within, the anger that seeps out of my heart and into every area of my life. Lord take that anger from me, help me to remember your grace in my life and your mercy.
Give me a new focus in the areas where I have held to this darkness.
I guarantee that the Holy Spirit will show you what direction to go toward healing.
And that brings us to the last point tonight. There is a time when all of this is over, one day everything will be done and our chance to make things right will be over. That time for you and for me will be the day we take our last breath or the day Jesus returns, whichever comes first.
And on that day, we are told every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
The most important area of reconciliation is that between you and God.
Before we were the enemies of God and now we have been reconciled to Him through the saving work of Christ on the Cross.
If you have never put your trust into Him, into Jesus our Savior, if you have been hoping to just be “good enough” to get in or if you have assumed that every religion leads to Heaven as long as you are sincere, or if you’re here and you don’t even believe in Heaven or Hell. One day Jesus says, it will be too late to get things right.
One day, those who have all the arguments or questions that they think disprove God, or make Him hard to know, one day, they will be saying, “I was such a fool!”
So we beg you, if you have not done so already, be Reconciled To God.
Turn with me to Luke 16:19-31. we’ll read this and then close in prayer.
19 "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'
25 "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'
27 "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'
29 "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.'
30 "'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'
31 "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"
Let’s pray…
May 24, 2009
Matthew 5:23-24— Series on the Mount #13
Before we get into the passage tonight lets review some main points of the last few weeks. This section of the Sermon on the Mount is heavily focused on the relationship of the Law and grace. And Jesus is teaching what true obedience to the Law looks like.
Now remember what we said last week. The Law first leads us to understand our need for a savior. It tells us:
"This" is God’s standard, anything short of this in any arena of our lives is sin,
— And sin makes us impure,
— And that impurity cannot be cleansed by anything that WE do,
— Our impurity separates us from God,
— And, even though we don’t like to hear this, that separation ultimately leads to death and Hell.
That is, UNLESS God intercedes on our behalf. And when He intercedes it is because of His mercy and Love, but it is also to bring glory back to Him, back to God.
It all goes back to glorifying God, right. Glorifying God with our words, our actions OUR LIVES.
But remember, any “good” words or “good” actions — even what the world would call a “good” life —
If any of those words or actions or whatever are not springing from an understanding of, and a trust in the saving work of Christ on the Cross, and our rebirth given through His resurrection — any good works aside from that faith is trash.
Isaiah 64:6 tells us that any righteous acts done outside of the faith are like filthy rags.
So make sure you understand Gods love, mercy and grace for you.
And, then everything else, everything that is in accordance to His moral Law will flow from that thankful regenerate heart. And we won’t be as likely to get puffed up with pride.
In fact, before we get started lets just go to
Ephesians 2:1-10 to drill this point home:
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature [or flesh] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his (Because of God’s) great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works (not by works— not by works— not by works!), so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
So, like we said last week if we truly understand Jesus’ love for us and we truly understand the reconciling work that He has done to change us:
Change us from enemies of God
To sons and daughters of God,
We then reflect that same spirit of reconciliation to others.
That reconciliation is one of the good works that He has prepared in advance for us to do. It is a good work that springs from our understanding of what He has done for us.
Now with all that said, let’s get back into the Sermon on the Mount,
Where Jesus has been teaching us about where we stand in light of the Law and His grace.
Matthew 5:23-24
23 "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
The first thing we need to ask is, what is the gift we are laying at the altar?
We don’t offer animal sacrifices, grain sacrifices, burnt offerings, incense, any of that in the church today.
In the life of the Christian, God looks at our worship, our praise, our tithes and offerings, our prayers of thanksgiving, our love for Him to be gifts at the altar.
We get a taste — just a little slice of this concept in
Hebrews 13:15 Listen to the passage:
15 Through Jesus (in other words, in light of our salvation, in light of the truth of God’s grace) [Through Jesus] therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise — the fruit of lips that confess his name.
We offer gifts of praise to God at the altar.
But also remember, that when we talk about the altar in the Christian life, we are not confined to a church building or a service out here in the park or anything “church-y” to give that gift.
No matter where we are, we are to honor God in all that we do, in our words at home, in our actions on the road, in the example we show at work, in the way we treat the checkout person at Kroger…
In everything we are to honor God and worship Him. That’s our gift at the altar.
Paul shows this point in Romans, first focusing us back on our mighty and wonderful Lord and then, our response…
Turn with me to Romans 11:33-36
33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 "Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?"
35 "Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?"
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
And then, with that in mind, he continues in Romans 12:1
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. (This is your gift at the altar)
So with all that said, Jesus teaches us that if we are doing something with the express purpose of trying to honor God and suddenly we realize that someone has something against us then:
We need to STOP! And go do what we can to make things right.
Now the second piece is important, this is saying if a brother has something against us. This wording implies that we are to deal with conflict that we have caused.
We are going to deal with forgiveness soon, but here Jesus is talking about those harms we have caused others.
If somebody might have something against you because you were talking behind his or her back — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have been making things unnecessarily difficult for a co-worker or an employee — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have been disrespectful to your parents or to your teachers — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have been robbing from the workplace in hours or materials — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have been selfish in your marriage and have been taking and not giving with the parenting or the housework or you fill in the blank (you know what to fill in) — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have children that you have neglected to support, that you have failed to provide for — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have done some stupid or insane thing while drunk or loaded or whatever — Jesus says go make that right.
If you are currently involved with a trivial lawsuit, or if you have been in the past — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have betrayed a trust with someone — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have broken a commitment in any area of your life — Jesus says go make that right.
The list can go on and on and on can’t it?
I could keep going, but one of the works of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of sin. To shine a bright light on areas where we have been unloving to God, or unloving to others.
Whatever the spotlight is on — we need to deal with that thing or those things.
Now notice what Jesus makes clear. We are to stop whatever we are doing and GO make things right!
He doesn’t say to wait for just the right situation to arise where you can work in an apology.
He doesn’t say wait until the next day, He says leave the worship — which, again, is whatever we are doing as Christians — leave what you are doing set it aside and first Go make things right!
And, don’t use the excuse like I have used of, “well, I’m going to pray on it and see if God gives me a word on this.”
Let me tell you something. God doesn’t change. What He told us already in Scriptures is what He is telling us today.
If we want to know what to do when we’ve wronged someone, just read
Matthew 5:23-24 again:
23 "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
And to be reconciled is to bring a friend back that has been apart, or to change one’s mind. Reconciliation is a big piece of God’s will for us in this life.
As we continue to explore the Bible tonight, let’s go to 2 Corinthians 5:17-21:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Here’s the piece, God went through the hard work of reconciliation. And then He told us, go and spread this message. The message of Jesus is the message of setting things right. The gospel is, "we were broke and God fixed us."
Now just as sin entered the world and broke EVERYTHING, so now the saving work of Jesus on the cross will spread out and fix things.
But, if we are trying to evangelize to the world, if we are trying to spread His message of reconciliation while we hold onto areas of hurt and disunity, we are being the hypocrites that people like to point to as an argument against the church, against Christianity — against God.
We are giving people a reason to turn away and therefore dropping the ball on the “good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
And when we come to worship God with conflict in our hearts or conflict in our relationships the problem is not just that we are not sewing seeds.
It’s that we are actually offering something to God that He wants no part of.
If we don’t follow this command from Jesus in Matthew 5:23-24, if we do not quickly mend broken relationships, then God has already made it clear what He thinks of our “gifts.”
Let’s read
Isaiah 1:11-17 together I don’t think it will need any explaining or unpacking. It’s pretty clear.
11 "The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?" says the LORD.
"I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12 When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts
my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;
16 wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,
17 learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.
In closing. We have two options. God does not work with much gray area and here Jesus is very clear. If someone’s mad at us, if we have wronged someone we are to do whatever we can to make things right. There should be no reason on our part for an impasse.
Now if the person refuses to forgive us, that’s on them. God promises to judge. But, we are to clean up our side of the street.
And some people might have questions tonight like,
“What if the problem, if I owned up to it would mean I might lose my job, or my relationship? What if it would mean possible jail time? What if, what if, what if?
At the end of the day, that will be between you and God. We are not the morality police. We are simply laying out the Word. And what I can tell you is that Jesus doesn’t say here, "First, go and be reconciled unless _________."
He doesn’t give us an out.
What He does say is "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life [save his reputation, save his job, save his status in the community, stay out of jail — whoever wants to save his life] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Whatever you are not dealing with is the thing that Jesus says is blocking you from fellowship with the father) (He continues) What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:24-26)
If we take Jesus at His word, then we need to stop pretending in the areas where we have conflict and deal with them. Any cost to our pride, our social standing, even our physical freedom, pales in comparison to the cost that Jesus paid for us.
Let’s Pray…
Now remember what we said last week. The Law first leads us to understand our need for a savior. It tells us:
"This" is God’s standard, anything short of this in any arena of our lives is sin,
— And sin makes us impure,
— And that impurity cannot be cleansed by anything that WE do,
— Our impurity separates us from God,
— And, even though we don’t like to hear this, that separation ultimately leads to death and Hell.
That is, UNLESS God intercedes on our behalf. And when He intercedes it is because of His mercy and Love, but it is also to bring glory back to Him, back to God.
It all goes back to glorifying God, right. Glorifying God with our words, our actions OUR LIVES.
But remember, any “good” words or “good” actions — even what the world would call a “good” life —
If any of those words or actions or whatever are not springing from an understanding of, and a trust in the saving work of Christ on the Cross, and our rebirth given through His resurrection — any good works aside from that faith is trash.
Isaiah 64:6 tells us that any righteous acts done outside of the faith are like filthy rags.
So make sure you understand Gods love, mercy and grace for you.
And, then everything else, everything that is in accordance to His moral Law will flow from that thankful regenerate heart. And we won’t be as likely to get puffed up with pride.
In fact, before we get started lets just go to
Ephesians 2:1-10 to drill this point home:
1 As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature [or flesh] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. 4 But because of his (Because of God’s) great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works (not by works— not by works— not by works!), so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
So, like we said last week if we truly understand Jesus’ love for us and we truly understand the reconciling work that He has done to change us:
Change us from enemies of God
To sons and daughters of God,
We then reflect that same spirit of reconciliation to others.
That reconciliation is one of the good works that He has prepared in advance for us to do. It is a good work that springs from our understanding of what He has done for us.
Now with all that said, let’s get back into the Sermon on the Mount,
Where Jesus has been teaching us about where we stand in light of the Law and His grace.
Matthew 5:23-24
23 "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
The first thing we need to ask is, what is the gift we are laying at the altar?
We don’t offer animal sacrifices, grain sacrifices, burnt offerings, incense, any of that in the church today.
In the life of the Christian, God looks at our worship, our praise, our tithes and offerings, our prayers of thanksgiving, our love for Him to be gifts at the altar.
We get a taste — just a little slice of this concept in
Hebrews 13:15 Listen to the passage:
15 Through Jesus (in other words, in light of our salvation, in light of the truth of God’s grace) [Through Jesus] therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise — the fruit of lips that confess his name.
We offer gifts of praise to God at the altar.
But also remember, that when we talk about the altar in the Christian life, we are not confined to a church building or a service out here in the park or anything “church-y” to give that gift.
No matter where we are, we are to honor God in all that we do, in our words at home, in our actions on the road, in the example we show at work, in the way we treat the checkout person at Kroger…
In everything we are to honor God and worship Him. That’s our gift at the altar.
Paul shows this point in Romans, first focusing us back on our mighty and wonderful Lord and then, our response…
Turn with me to Romans 11:33-36
33 Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments,
and his paths beyond tracing out!
34 "Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been his counselor?"
35 "Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay him?"
36 For from him and through him and to him are all things.
To him be the glory forever! Amen.
And then, with that in mind, he continues in Romans 12:1
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. (This is your gift at the altar)
So with all that said, Jesus teaches us that if we are doing something with the express purpose of trying to honor God and suddenly we realize that someone has something against us then:
We need to STOP! And go do what we can to make things right.
Now the second piece is important, this is saying if a brother has something against us. This wording implies that we are to deal with conflict that we have caused.
We are going to deal with forgiveness soon, but here Jesus is talking about those harms we have caused others.
If somebody might have something against you because you were talking behind his or her back — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have been making things unnecessarily difficult for a co-worker or an employee — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have been disrespectful to your parents or to your teachers — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have been robbing from the workplace in hours or materials — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have been selfish in your marriage and have been taking and not giving with the parenting or the housework or you fill in the blank (you know what to fill in) — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have children that you have neglected to support, that you have failed to provide for — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have done some stupid or insane thing while drunk or loaded or whatever — Jesus says go make that right.
If you are currently involved with a trivial lawsuit, or if you have been in the past — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have betrayed a trust with someone — Jesus says go make that right.
If you have broken a commitment in any area of your life — Jesus says go make that right.
The list can go on and on and on can’t it?
I could keep going, but one of the works of the Holy Spirit is to convict us of sin. To shine a bright light on areas where we have been unloving to God, or unloving to others.
Whatever the spotlight is on — we need to deal with that thing or those things.
Now notice what Jesus makes clear. We are to stop whatever we are doing and GO make things right!
He doesn’t say to wait for just the right situation to arise where you can work in an apology.
He doesn’t say wait until the next day, He says leave the worship — which, again, is whatever we are doing as Christians — leave what you are doing set it aside and first Go make things right!
And, don’t use the excuse like I have used of, “well, I’m going to pray on it and see if God gives me a word on this.”
Let me tell you something. God doesn’t change. What He told us already in Scriptures is what He is telling us today.
If we want to know what to do when we’ve wronged someone, just read
Matthew 5:23-24 again:
23 "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
And to be reconciled is to bring a friend back that has been apart, or to change one’s mind. Reconciliation is a big piece of God’s will for us in this life.
As we continue to explore the Bible tonight, let’s go to 2 Corinthians 5:17-21:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Here’s the piece, God went through the hard work of reconciliation. And then He told us, go and spread this message. The message of Jesus is the message of setting things right. The gospel is, "we were broke and God fixed us."
Now just as sin entered the world and broke EVERYTHING, so now the saving work of Jesus on the cross will spread out and fix things.
But, if we are trying to evangelize to the world, if we are trying to spread His message of reconciliation while we hold onto areas of hurt and disunity, we are being the hypocrites that people like to point to as an argument against the church, against Christianity — against God.
We are giving people a reason to turn away and therefore dropping the ball on the “good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
And when we come to worship God with conflict in our hearts or conflict in our relationships the problem is not just that we are not sewing seeds.
It’s that we are actually offering something to God that He wants no part of.
If we don’t follow this command from Jesus in Matthew 5:23-24, if we do not quickly mend broken relationships, then God has already made it clear what He thinks of our “gifts.”
Let’s read
Isaiah 1:11-17 together I don’t think it will need any explaining or unpacking. It’s pretty clear.
11 "The multitude of your sacrifices—
what are they to me?" says the LORD.
"I have more than enough of burnt offerings,
of rams and the fat of fattened animals;
I have no pleasure
in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.
12 When you come to appear before me,
who has asked this of you,
this trampling of my courts?
13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings!
Your incense is detestable to me.
New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations—
I cannot bear your evil assemblies.
14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts
my soul hates.
They have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even if you offer many prayers,
I will not listen.
Your hands are full of blood;
16 wash and make yourselves clean.
Take your evil deeds
out of my sight!
Stop doing wrong,
17 learn to do right!
Seek justice,
encourage the oppressed.
Defend the cause of the fatherless,
plead the case of the widow.
In closing. We have two options. God does not work with much gray area and here Jesus is very clear. If someone’s mad at us, if we have wronged someone we are to do whatever we can to make things right. There should be no reason on our part for an impasse.
Now if the person refuses to forgive us, that’s on them. God promises to judge. But, we are to clean up our side of the street.
And some people might have questions tonight like,
“What if the problem, if I owned up to it would mean I might lose my job, or my relationship? What if it would mean possible jail time? What if, what if, what if?
At the end of the day, that will be between you and God. We are not the morality police. We are simply laying out the Word. And what I can tell you is that Jesus doesn’t say here, "First, go and be reconciled unless _________."
He doesn’t give us an out.
What He does say is "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life [save his reputation, save his job, save his status in the community, stay out of jail — whoever wants to save his life] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. (Whatever you are not dealing with is the thing that Jesus says is blocking you from fellowship with the father) (He continues) What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:24-26)
If we take Jesus at His word, then we need to stop pretending in the areas where we have conflict and deal with them. Any cost to our pride, our social standing, even our physical freedom, pales in comparison to the cost that Jesus paid for us.
Let’s Pray…
May 13, 2009
Matthew 5:21-22— Series on the Mount #12
Let’s pray…
Read Matthew 5:21-22 together
Why has God laid out commands for us? What is His moral law for? Why did He give us the 10 Commandments? Why did Jesus give commands during His earthly ministry?
Did he say do this and do that or else?
No.
He gave us the moral law to show us the way we are to behave. The way we were designed to live. And, to make us aware that we were not living within that framework in the first place. As we go over the principles of the 10 commandments look at it as a path to freedom not a bunch of do’s and don’ts.
— We are to Love God above all else.
— We are not to bow to anyone or anything besides Him.
— We are to honor His name. We don’t take it in vain.
— We are to take time out to rest. And if we are in any place of authority, we allow others to do the same, to rest.
— We are to honor our parents and we lead our children to the things of God.
— We are not to kill people.
— We are not to have sex with people we aren’t married to.
— We are not to take things that aren’t ours.
— We are to tell the truth.
— We are to be content with what God has blessed us with and we are to celebrate the ways that He has blessed others.
And, Jesus gave us a Cliff Notes version of His moral law by telling us to Love God and love everyone else as we love ourselves.
If you go down the list you can see the heartache that can spring from disobedience to those commands. These commands provide us with the worldview that God wants us to have. And far from limiting us, these commands provide us with freedom from the entanglements of this world.
But, the law is not only an owner’s manual. It’s got some teeth. It is a teacher. The Holy Spirit uses the Law to help teach us about our sin.
You see, anything outside of this standard, anything outside of His will for us, is sin.
And any sin in our lives results in judgment and death.
But, The good news of the Bible is that once we understand our sinfulness, and once we understand that we can’t get right on our own, It is then that we will recognize our need for a savior and then we can put our trust in Jesus Christ — God the Son — who came down to our level, lived the sinless life that we could not live and died to take the penalty that was due to us.
That’s the gospel! That’s why we have hope in this hopeless world.
With all that said, let’s look again at Matthew 5:21, where Jesus teaches on one of the big 10.
Now, most of us read that command and we say, “No problem, I’m good on that one.”
We pat ourselves on the back and get a little bit of pride.
This is exactly how the Pharisees and the teachers of the law looked at it back in the day. And that’s why we are reading about it now.
You see the Pharisees had made the Law into an idol. They were under the impression that if they kept all the laws, if they did everything right, they would be right with God.
The problem with this is that they didn’t understand that God looked at the heart and not at outward appearances. They took this thing that He gave us — the Law — and put their faith in it, not in Him.
And, as Jesus teaches here, they may not have murdered someone, but their murderous thoughts produced evil words, which were sin enough to separate them from God.
Remember, God doesn’t have a sliding scale for sin. Without the saving work of Jesus Christ, a little white lie or a word of gossip gets you to hell as quickly as murder.
Let’s move on to Matthew 5:22…
We’re going to break this verse down into three sections.
1. Anyone who is angry …will be subject to judgment.
—As believers, we can look at this judgment as the as the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Here we may get the nudge back toward love and away from anger. Because murder usually begins with anger, it is a sign we must guard against. If we do not heed the nudge, we may be led by the anger into sin.
—We always have to add the caveat, that anger in itself is not the sin. The warning here, and throughout the New Testament, is that anger can cause sin if we dwell on the anger. So watch out.
2. Anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin.
— Raca would amount to cussing at someone. An empty headed insult that just seems to leap out of your mouth before you now it’s coming. — It can also be something else that’s less crass, but still hurtful. If we are quick to call our children or our spouse a name when they don’t fall in line or we lash out verbally at a momentary problem at work, we can count those as a Raca moments.
—It springs from unresolved anger in our heart, it is usually reactionary and we may not even know how it came out of our mouth. But Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 12:34 that those words are the overflow of the heart.
—And our passage tonight teaches that we will have to answer for it. Jesus mentions the Sanhedrin, who for all of their faults, they were still the authority that the Jews submitted to, and the Sanhedrin had the duty to guide their people to God. To keep them on track.
—As Christians, we can look at this as being similar to church discipline.
—In other words, if Andy and I are riding in the car up to Wal-mart and somebody cuts me off and I start screaming at the guy or saluting him with one finger. It is Andy’s obligation as a brother in Christ to address that as possible sin. Not out of pride, or self-righteousness, but out of Love for the Father and love for me. It is more unloving to quietly watch a brother or sister turn from God.
3. Now the third piece says, “Anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.”
—The difference of what we say here “you fool” verses “Raca” seems slight. But the consequence sounds a lot worse.
—All the studies indicate that this last part refers not to a spur of the moment reactionary comment like Raca, but instead it is a premeditated verbal attack.
—It’s a word or words designed and planned out to hurt someone emotionally, or to discredit them or to otherwise abuse them. And the reason this kind of attack could lead to Hell is not because it is a different kind of sin, one that God will not forgive.
—Instead it is a clear sign that the person doing the attack may not yet be saved and must repent and turn to Christ before it’s too late.
—Jesus is clear and we are going to spend a great deal of time later in this series about His teaching that if we are truly His we will produce the good fruit.
—Now, we’re all going stumble in this life. But if we are planning out attacks, that’s a sign of the bad fruit that will be cast off into the fire.
—Regardless of how long you’ve been in church. No matter what you did at VBS when you were 12 years old; If you are calling yourself a Christian, but the you go out and rip into people or spread hurtful gossip around about your enemies (whether the gossip is true or not), if that is you and you still say “Yep, I’m a Christian.” Then Jesus seems to imply that you are like an apple tree who denies it’s produces apples and says instead, “Nope, I’m an orange tree.”
So, with that all said, what does this look like in the world? I’ve never used the word Raca in conversation until tonight. What do we walk away with from this text?
The first piece seems pretty easy, right? Anger is anger. If you aren’t sure about that, get with me after the service.
Moving on…
If we are in the Raca stage, it may be visible in areas like how we react when the kid spills soda.
You know, it may leave a stain and this may be a time for discipline, but if you have to scream, or cuss or if insults fly quickly and easily from you mouth over a beverage and some fabric, you need to get with a brother or sister and get help.
Another area this may be evident may be in that low grade anger that people pick up on. That vibe you put off with a scowl or short answers to where they say, “don’t talk to (mom, or don’t talk to dad or the boss or whoever YOU are) because they’re in one of their moods.”
You can also see it in areas where you are overtly sarcastic and you use that as a weapon to maintain an upper hand.
I know we are all trained to be sarcastic in today’s culture. I actually enjoy sarcastic humor, but if you are using it out of spite for a person check yourself.
Now to the biggest warning from Jesus in this passage. We already hit on it with the tree and it’s fruit. But, let me make it as clear as the New Testament makes it.
First, being a “good” person will never get you to Heaven.
Good is relative and if we judge our “goodness” to that of Hitler or Stalin, then we look Good. But that isn’t God’s measuring stick. We will one day be in front of Him and Our “goodness” will be compared to that of God. Pure and Holy and completely Righteous God.
We believe that a lot of people who thought they were “good enough” to go to Heaven are going to Hell when all this shakes out.
It is not our works that save us. We are saved by Faith in Christ and even that faith is given by the grace of God.
Our salvation has nothing to do with our behavior.
And this is key. This is something we talk about all the time. You don’t need to worry about cleaning up your act, or even controlling your words and anger before you can be saved.
But if you call yourself a Christian and your words and, by extension you heart, is in direct contradiction to the will of God as expressed in the commands of God, you are falling for a lie.
In James 1:22, we are told to be doers of the Word and not just hearers. If we are just hearers we are deceiving ourselves, James says.
In other words, you can come to church on a Wednesday or on a Sunday or both. And you can watch Joyce Meyer every morning and you can even know more scripture than anyone else. But, as Jesus says at the end of Matthew 7, everything ends with a crash and destruction if we don’t put that knowledge into practice.
Let’s pray…
Read Matthew 5:21-22 together
Why has God laid out commands for us? What is His moral law for? Why did He give us the 10 Commandments? Why did Jesus give commands during His earthly ministry?
Did he say do this and do that or else?
No.
He gave us the moral law to show us the way we are to behave. The way we were designed to live. And, to make us aware that we were not living within that framework in the first place. As we go over the principles of the 10 commandments look at it as a path to freedom not a bunch of do’s and don’ts.
— We are to Love God above all else.
— We are not to bow to anyone or anything besides Him.
— We are to honor His name. We don’t take it in vain.
— We are to take time out to rest. And if we are in any place of authority, we allow others to do the same, to rest.
— We are to honor our parents and we lead our children to the things of God.
— We are not to kill people.
— We are not to have sex with people we aren’t married to.
— We are not to take things that aren’t ours.
— We are to tell the truth.
— We are to be content with what God has blessed us with and we are to celebrate the ways that He has blessed others.
And, Jesus gave us a Cliff Notes version of His moral law by telling us to Love God and love everyone else as we love ourselves.
If you go down the list you can see the heartache that can spring from disobedience to those commands. These commands provide us with the worldview that God wants us to have. And far from limiting us, these commands provide us with freedom from the entanglements of this world.
But, the law is not only an owner’s manual. It’s got some teeth. It is a teacher. The Holy Spirit uses the Law to help teach us about our sin.
You see, anything outside of this standard, anything outside of His will for us, is sin.
And any sin in our lives results in judgment and death.
But, The good news of the Bible is that once we understand our sinfulness, and once we understand that we can’t get right on our own, It is then that we will recognize our need for a savior and then we can put our trust in Jesus Christ — God the Son — who came down to our level, lived the sinless life that we could not live and died to take the penalty that was due to us.
That’s the gospel! That’s why we have hope in this hopeless world.
With all that said, let’s look again at Matthew 5:21, where Jesus teaches on one of the big 10.
Now, most of us read that command and we say, “No problem, I’m good on that one.”
We pat ourselves on the back and get a little bit of pride.
This is exactly how the Pharisees and the teachers of the law looked at it back in the day. And that’s why we are reading about it now.
You see the Pharisees had made the Law into an idol. They were under the impression that if they kept all the laws, if they did everything right, they would be right with God.
The problem with this is that they didn’t understand that God looked at the heart and not at outward appearances. They took this thing that He gave us — the Law — and put their faith in it, not in Him.
And, as Jesus teaches here, they may not have murdered someone, but their murderous thoughts produced evil words, which were sin enough to separate them from God.
Remember, God doesn’t have a sliding scale for sin. Without the saving work of Jesus Christ, a little white lie or a word of gossip gets you to hell as quickly as murder.
Let’s move on to Matthew 5:22…
We’re going to break this verse down into three sections.
1. Anyone who is angry …will be subject to judgment.
—As believers, we can look at this judgment as the as the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Here we may get the nudge back toward love and away from anger. Because murder usually begins with anger, it is a sign we must guard against. If we do not heed the nudge, we may be led by the anger into sin.
—We always have to add the caveat, that anger in itself is not the sin. The warning here, and throughout the New Testament, is that anger can cause sin if we dwell on the anger. So watch out.
2. Anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin.
— Raca would amount to cussing at someone. An empty headed insult that just seems to leap out of your mouth before you now it’s coming. — It can also be something else that’s less crass, but still hurtful. If we are quick to call our children or our spouse a name when they don’t fall in line or we lash out verbally at a momentary problem at work, we can count those as a Raca moments.
—It springs from unresolved anger in our heart, it is usually reactionary and we may not even know how it came out of our mouth. But Jesus makes it clear in Matthew 12:34 that those words are the overflow of the heart.
—And our passage tonight teaches that we will have to answer for it. Jesus mentions the Sanhedrin, who for all of their faults, they were still the authority that the Jews submitted to, and the Sanhedrin had the duty to guide their people to God. To keep them on track.
—As Christians, we can look at this as being similar to church discipline.
—In other words, if Andy and I are riding in the car up to Wal-mart and somebody cuts me off and I start screaming at the guy or saluting him with one finger. It is Andy’s obligation as a brother in Christ to address that as possible sin. Not out of pride, or self-righteousness, but out of Love for the Father and love for me. It is more unloving to quietly watch a brother or sister turn from God.
3. Now the third piece says, “Anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.”
—The difference of what we say here “you fool” verses “Raca” seems slight. But the consequence sounds a lot worse.
—All the studies indicate that this last part refers not to a spur of the moment reactionary comment like Raca, but instead it is a premeditated verbal attack.
—It’s a word or words designed and planned out to hurt someone emotionally, or to discredit them or to otherwise abuse them. And the reason this kind of attack could lead to Hell is not because it is a different kind of sin, one that God will not forgive.
—Instead it is a clear sign that the person doing the attack may not yet be saved and must repent and turn to Christ before it’s too late.
—Jesus is clear and we are going to spend a great deal of time later in this series about His teaching that if we are truly His we will produce the good fruit.
—Now, we’re all going stumble in this life. But if we are planning out attacks, that’s a sign of the bad fruit that will be cast off into the fire.
—Regardless of how long you’ve been in church. No matter what you did at VBS when you were 12 years old; If you are calling yourself a Christian, but the you go out and rip into people or spread hurtful gossip around about your enemies (whether the gossip is true or not), if that is you and you still say “Yep, I’m a Christian.” Then Jesus seems to imply that you are like an apple tree who denies it’s produces apples and says instead, “Nope, I’m an orange tree.”
So, with that all said, what does this look like in the world? I’ve never used the word Raca in conversation until tonight. What do we walk away with from this text?
The first piece seems pretty easy, right? Anger is anger. If you aren’t sure about that, get with me after the service.
Moving on…
If we are in the Raca stage, it may be visible in areas like how we react when the kid spills soda.
You know, it may leave a stain and this may be a time for discipline, but if you have to scream, or cuss or if insults fly quickly and easily from you mouth over a beverage and some fabric, you need to get with a brother or sister and get help.
Another area this may be evident may be in that low grade anger that people pick up on. That vibe you put off with a scowl or short answers to where they say, “don’t talk to (mom, or don’t talk to dad or the boss or whoever YOU are) because they’re in one of their moods.”
You can also see it in areas where you are overtly sarcastic and you use that as a weapon to maintain an upper hand.
I know we are all trained to be sarcastic in today’s culture. I actually enjoy sarcastic humor, but if you are using it out of spite for a person check yourself.
Now to the biggest warning from Jesus in this passage. We already hit on it with the tree and it’s fruit. But, let me make it as clear as the New Testament makes it.
First, being a “good” person will never get you to Heaven.
Good is relative and if we judge our “goodness” to that of Hitler or Stalin, then we look Good. But that isn’t God’s measuring stick. We will one day be in front of Him and Our “goodness” will be compared to that of God. Pure and Holy and completely Righteous God.
We believe that a lot of people who thought they were “good enough” to go to Heaven are going to Hell when all this shakes out.
It is not our works that save us. We are saved by Faith in Christ and even that faith is given by the grace of God.
Our salvation has nothing to do with our behavior.
And this is key. This is something we talk about all the time. You don’t need to worry about cleaning up your act, or even controlling your words and anger before you can be saved.
But if you call yourself a Christian and your words and, by extension you heart, is in direct contradiction to the will of God as expressed in the commands of God, you are falling for a lie.
In James 1:22, we are told to be doers of the Word and not just hearers. If we are just hearers we are deceiving ourselves, James says.
In other words, you can come to church on a Wednesday or on a Sunday or both. And you can watch Joyce Meyer every morning and you can even know more scripture than anyone else. But, as Jesus says at the end of Matthew 7, everything ends with a crash and destruction if we don’t put that knowledge into practice.
Let’s pray…
May 7, 2009
Matthew 5:17-20 — Series on the Mount #11
Before we get started, we’ve talked before about the wrestling match that a pastor has when we preach about the commandments of God and Grace.
Many times we feel like as soon as we start teaching on Grace, everyone takes that as a cue to live like Hell because, “Hey, The worse we are, the better God looks for covering us with more grace.”
Which, if you’re new to this stuff — that’s the wrong attitude.
But then there are clear passages from the New Testament where He really lays out that we are to behave differently as Christians.
And when we teach on that, many people get to the point where they think, “Okay, so I need to throw out my T.V., stop drinking, and stop talking to non-believers, and just get into a bunker and wait for Jesus. If I just follow those commandments I’ll be safe.”
Which, if you’re new to this stuff — that’s also the wrong attitude.
But, it’s our nature to go off to one extreme or the other, and as pastors we are trying to bring you to the heart of the law and grace.
Tonight we are tackling a passage of scripture, from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that deals with this issue head on.
I hoping that you will leave here tonight with a clearer understanding of where you stand with God and what is expected in the relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Let’s Pray before we dig in to the text…
Now please read with me Matthew 5:17-20
This is one of the toughest areas to understand in the Scriptures and again I think if you don’t get this, if you don’t grasp what Jesus is teaching about the Law, you will either go way out into some legalistic zone, or you’ll read v 20 and simply give up hope.
I have studied this passage at length and I am going to take many points from a pastor named John MacArthur because really, he made it clearer than any of the commentaries that I studied.
Here we go. The Question that we ask when we see this passage is:
What do we do with the Old Testament Now that we have Jesus?
And, some of you may not have any knowledge of the Old Testament, and we are going to get into some summary information tonight.
The first thing we are told is, Don’t Discount the Law — It is still valid.
Read Matthew 5:17-18 again.
— To understand this passage we first need to understand that there are three separate types of Law found in the Old Testament: John MacArthur explains it like this
— There’s,
Look at it like this:
o Moral Law — Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). This is the foundation of the way we are to live, as commanded by God. Even if you don’t know the Bible, you’ve probably heard of these. They are in the greatest hits collection of scripture.
o Judicial Law — How the Nation of Israel was to function as a community and in relation to other nations.
—They had laws about how and what they ate, how they could dress, how they were to conduct their relationships (parents to children, husbands and wives, sick and healthy, you name it).
—They had laws for everything and that goes back to what we talked about last week.
— It goes back to how they were set apart, how they were to be that light in the dark world. As foreigners interacted with the Jews, they would see a nation of people who were totally different — Totally devoted to God.
—And if they were doing that correctly, if they were following God’s judicial Law, which sprang from the Moral Law — the ten commandments — this would bring the glory to Him, to God and bring other nations to Him.
—This Judicial Law, the law for the Nation of Israel was fulfilled in Jesus at the Cross.
—Because when the people of Israel made the ultimate rejection of Jesus, when they screamed out “Crucify Him, Crucify Him,” the nation of Israel was no longer considered God’s one and only people.
—When they rejected Jesus, they Rejected God.
—They were no longer a nation set apart by God.
—Because of their rejection, we have been blessed and included in the redemption.
—Read with me Matthew 21:33-43 (This is Jesus talking about the final rejection and the handing of the Kingdom to other peoples).
—But, don’t write off the nation of Israel, God promises that He will draw them back to Him in the last days.
—Anyway, that’s the judicial law. When they rejected Jesus, that law, setting them apart was completed and the keys t the Kingdom were taken from them and given to ALL who trust in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
o Moving on to the Ceremonial Law — How the Israelites were to worship God. These laws were also fulfilled in Jesus. We’ll go over a few examples.
—Again, if you look to the Old Testament,
They had priests that were intermediaries or the go-betweens between God and Man.
o Now Jesus is our High Priest and our mediator. We don’t need to go to a man to talk to God, that barrier has been tor away. The high priests pointed to Him.
The Israelites were to make animal sacrifices and that blood was to cover their sins. This had to be done over and over, because it was only a covering.
But, those imperfect sacrifices pointed to Jesus. Jesus’ blood, spilled on the cross was a perfect — once and for all sacrifice for all of our sins.
And it did not cover our sins. It washed our sins away. Every sin that we have committed and every sin we will commit was taken from us and put on Him, on the cross, and we were washed clean.
All of the ceremonial laws pointed to Jesus and were fulfilled by Him. They have been fulfilled by Christ on the Cross.
—When He died, it was finished. His work for salvation was complete and the Ceremonial Law was accomplished.
All that said, lets look at Matthew 5:17-18 again. "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
— So we’ve got the judicial laws for the Nation of Israel that aren’t in effect because the nation rejected Him — That part is fulfilled. That part is accomplished.
— We’ve got the Ceremonial Laws that are no longer in affect because they simply pointed forward to Jesus and have been fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. They are accomplished.
— And that leaves us with the Moral Laws, the foundation.
— Are they fulfilled? Are they accomplished?
o Yes, Jesus fulfilled them by living a sinless life. You go down the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) and He can check them all off. He, Jesus accomplished them.
— However, the moral Law still has value for us today, the moral law was not for the Jews alone, they are the way we were designed by God to operate.
Let’s read Matthew 5:19 again:
We are not only to follow His commands, but we are to teach others to do so as well. The difference is, we don't teach, "Follow these or else." We teach, "Follow these, it is how Jesus said we can show or love for Him." (John 14:15)
Lets all turn to Exodus 20 and we’ll do a quick review of what He is calling us to follow.
—v 3 We are to Love God. That means we will recognize Him and ONLY HIM as our God.
— vv4-6 We are not to make idols of anything else, back then they actually bowed down to golden calves, and wooden statues and other things that they hoped would bring blessings on their crops or their procreation, or whatever else.
We don’t bow to statues anymore, but we do have the temptation to look to our Jobs or our friends, or even our wives, husbands, children or parents to bring us happiness and satisfaction more than we look to God.
He says knock it off, Make God ultimate, above everything else.
And just to keep hitting on this a little further, In the same way we make Jobs and family into idols, some of us are worn out or hurt by the world so we also look to drugs or alcohol, or gambling, or sex, or shopping or whatever else to escape the pain or to forget the pain.
God says stop bowing to those idols, too. Turn instead to Him for strength, and comfort, and guidance through the storms and trials of life. His grace is sufficient.
— v 7 We are not to misuse His name. That means of course not to use His name as a cuss word, but also not to give Him credit or blame for bad things happening to us, or bad things happening to other people, when those things may not be from Him.
And don’t say God’s telling us to say things that he didn’t say, things that clearly contradict His word. Don’t misuse His name.
— vv 8-11 We are to remember to take time out, to rest. Now Jesus did teach people not to make this into some ritual that takes the heart of it away. He doesn’t want it to become a burden that we have to bear.
But, this is a basic need that we seem to have forgotten. We are designed to pause, to be still, to recharge.
— v 12 We are to honor our fathers and mothers, and the Old Testament is clear that that was a double sided command, we are to honor our parents, and they are to point their children to the Lord, Exodus 20:12 says:
Later on, after God had given the 10 commandments, He ended up scattered the nation of Israel in the Old Testament and curses came upon them because they fell away from their devotion to Him.
As parents, we are to be honored by our children, but we are also to lead them in the Word, so that they will live long in the Land that God is giving them, which is ultimately Heaven and relationship with God. And that is only able to happen if they find salvation through faith by grace. Raise those kids up right.
— Vv 13-14 We are not to murder or commit adultery. These seem pretty basic, but we will see in the next couple weeks How Jesus makes a point of clarifying these commands.
— v 15 We are not to steal
— v 16 We are not to lie
— v 17 And we are not to be envious of anybody else. That means don’t be jealous of their job, their wealth, their stuff, their relationships, their abilities or talents, ANYTHING.
So that’s a basic rundown of the moral law in its simplest form. And Jesus sums them all up and says all of the law hinges on two things — Loving God and Loving one another (Matthew 22:36-40)
And remember, Matthew 5:19 states that we are to not only practice these, but also to teach them to others.
I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but who has been able to truly practice those, let alone teach them?
Then we get to Matthew 5:20 and this is the one that causes a lot of people to go crazy, this is where people throw their hands up, they throw in the towel and they say, “Impossible, I can’t do it! No one can do it! If this is true if verse 20 is true, we’re all doomed!”
Let’s read it together:
Matthew 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
So, we are to align our lives, our walk, to moral Law and teach others to do the same (v 19).
But, if we are honest, we can admit that we all have broken those Laws.
Some people might have broken some of the Laws on the way out to church tonight.
So how are we to SURPASS the righteousness of the Pharisees, who were legalistic about their obedience? Are we doomed to be left out of the Kingdom of Heaven?
NO!
First remember that Jesus was always going after the Pharisees because they were devoted to the Law but not to God, they had made the law an idol. Thus breaking the second commandment.
And they added all of these other rules on top of the law that God gave them and those unnecessary rules caused countless Jews to stumble.
And Jesus went at them again and again as hypocrites because they followed the Law and all of their rules for external glory.
Glory and recognition and esteem for themselves. Not for a heart that loved God. Not for His glory.
But, don’t misunderstand the teaching. Jesus doesn’t somehow let us off the hook to just go against the law since the Pharisees were so corrupt.
No, in Matthew 23 Jesus tells His followers, do what the Jewish leaders say, but not what they do.
Here’s the heart, we take on a righteousness that surpasses the Pharisees, only when we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ Himself.
And that can only happen when we come into a saving trust in His work at the cross
At the cross where Jesus, who lived a sinless life here in the world, was put to death — and in that death, absorbed the wrath of God that was due to us
When we trust in that, we are cleansed of our sins.
Our sins are removed and they are as far from us as the east is from the west, when we trust Him as our Savior, there is no longer any condemnation,
We are no longer slaves to the sin that made us unrighteous in the eyes of God.
We are made righteous once and for all by Christ.
And when we recognize Him as our Lord, as our King, we will begin to walk in the light of His moral Law
By the guidance and encouragement and strength of the Holy Spirit.
And, because we recognize His love for us, and mercy and grace to us, we will — out of Love and gratitude — seek to please Him, and thank Him, and serve Him by Loving Him in the way He has designed us to show love and admiration
– That is, in obedience to the Law.
– But remember, our obedience is not what saves us, it is faith! Our obedience is imperfect, but it will progress higher and higher as we continue to focus on our love and gratitude of Him, not a focus on the Law itself.
And we will Love others — those close to us and those who we feel are unlovable — we will love them because of Him.
We will do it all:
— Through Christ and
— For Christ
— In order to Worship Christ and
— Draw others to Christ
Let’s pray…
Many times we feel like as soon as we start teaching on Grace, everyone takes that as a cue to live like Hell because, “Hey, The worse we are, the better God looks for covering us with more grace.”
Which, if you’re new to this stuff — that’s the wrong attitude.
But then there are clear passages from the New Testament where He really lays out that we are to behave differently as Christians.
And when we teach on that, many people get to the point where they think, “Okay, so I need to throw out my T.V., stop drinking, and stop talking to non-believers, and just get into a bunker and wait for Jesus. If I just follow those commandments I’ll be safe.”
Which, if you’re new to this stuff — that’s also the wrong attitude.
But, it’s our nature to go off to one extreme or the other, and as pastors we are trying to bring you to the heart of the law and grace.
Tonight we are tackling a passage of scripture, from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount that deals with this issue head on.
I hoping that you will leave here tonight with a clearer understanding of where you stand with God and what is expected in the relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Let’s Pray before we dig in to the text…
Now please read with me Matthew 5:17-20
This is one of the toughest areas to understand in the Scriptures and again I think if you don’t get this, if you don’t grasp what Jesus is teaching about the Law, you will either go way out into some legalistic zone, or you’ll read v 20 and simply give up hope.
I have studied this passage at length and I am going to take many points from a pastor named John MacArthur because really, he made it clearer than any of the commentaries that I studied.
Here we go. The Question that we ask when we see this passage is:
What do we do with the Old Testament Now that we have Jesus?
And, some of you may not have any knowledge of the Old Testament, and we are going to get into some summary information tonight.
The first thing we are told is, Don’t Discount the Law — It is still valid.
Read Matthew 5:17-18 again.
— To understand this passage we first need to understand that there are three separate types of Law found in the Old Testament: John MacArthur explains it like this
— There’s,
Look at it like this:
o Moral Law — Ten Commandments (Exodus 20). This is the foundation of the way we are to live, as commanded by God. Even if you don’t know the Bible, you’ve probably heard of these. They are in the greatest hits collection of scripture.
o Judicial Law — How the Nation of Israel was to function as a community and in relation to other nations.
—They had laws about how and what they ate, how they could dress, how they were to conduct their relationships (parents to children, husbands and wives, sick and healthy, you name it).
—They had laws for everything and that goes back to what we talked about last week.
— It goes back to how they were set apart, how they were to be that light in the dark world. As foreigners interacted with the Jews, they would see a nation of people who were totally different — Totally devoted to God.
—And if they were doing that correctly, if they were following God’s judicial Law, which sprang from the Moral Law — the ten commandments — this would bring the glory to Him, to God and bring other nations to Him.
—This Judicial Law, the law for the Nation of Israel was fulfilled in Jesus at the Cross.
—Because when the people of Israel made the ultimate rejection of Jesus, when they screamed out “Crucify Him, Crucify Him,” the nation of Israel was no longer considered God’s one and only people.
—When they rejected Jesus, they Rejected God.
—They were no longer a nation set apart by God.
—Because of their rejection, we have been blessed and included in the redemption.
—Read with me Matthew 21:33-43 (This is Jesus talking about the final rejection and the handing of the Kingdom to other peoples).
—But, don’t write off the nation of Israel, God promises that He will draw them back to Him in the last days.
—Anyway, that’s the judicial law. When they rejected Jesus, that law, setting them apart was completed and the keys t the Kingdom were taken from them and given to ALL who trust in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
o Moving on to the Ceremonial Law — How the Israelites were to worship God. These laws were also fulfilled in Jesus. We’ll go over a few examples.
—Again, if you look to the Old Testament,
They had priests that were intermediaries or the go-betweens between God and Man.
o Now Jesus is our High Priest and our mediator. We don’t need to go to a man to talk to God, that barrier has been tor away. The high priests pointed to Him.
The Israelites were to make animal sacrifices and that blood was to cover their sins. This had to be done over and over, because it was only a covering.
But, those imperfect sacrifices pointed to Jesus. Jesus’ blood, spilled on the cross was a perfect — once and for all sacrifice for all of our sins.
And it did not cover our sins. It washed our sins away. Every sin that we have committed and every sin we will commit was taken from us and put on Him, on the cross, and we were washed clean.
All of the ceremonial laws pointed to Jesus and were fulfilled by Him. They have been fulfilled by Christ on the Cross.
—When He died, it was finished. His work for salvation was complete and the Ceremonial Law was accomplished.
All that said, lets look at Matthew 5:17-18 again. "Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
— So we’ve got the judicial laws for the Nation of Israel that aren’t in effect because the nation rejected Him — That part is fulfilled. That part is accomplished.
— We’ve got the Ceremonial Laws that are no longer in affect because they simply pointed forward to Jesus and have been fulfilled in His life, death and resurrection. They are accomplished.
— And that leaves us with the Moral Laws, the foundation.
— Are they fulfilled? Are they accomplished?
o Yes, Jesus fulfilled them by living a sinless life. You go down the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) and He can check them all off. He, Jesus accomplished them.
— However, the moral Law still has value for us today, the moral law was not for the Jews alone, they are the way we were designed by God to operate.
Let’s read Matthew 5:19 again:
We are not only to follow His commands, but we are to teach others to do so as well. The difference is, we don't teach, "Follow these or else." We teach, "Follow these, it is how Jesus said we can show or love for Him." (John 14:15)
Lets all turn to Exodus 20 and we’ll do a quick review of what He is calling us to follow.
—v 3 We are to Love God. That means we will recognize Him and ONLY HIM as our God.
— vv4-6 We are not to make idols of anything else, back then they actually bowed down to golden calves, and wooden statues and other things that they hoped would bring blessings on their crops or their procreation, or whatever else.
We don’t bow to statues anymore, but we do have the temptation to look to our Jobs or our friends, or even our wives, husbands, children or parents to bring us happiness and satisfaction more than we look to God.
He says knock it off, Make God ultimate, above everything else.
And just to keep hitting on this a little further, In the same way we make Jobs and family into idols, some of us are worn out or hurt by the world so we also look to drugs or alcohol, or gambling, or sex, or shopping or whatever else to escape the pain or to forget the pain.
God says stop bowing to those idols, too. Turn instead to Him for strength, and comfort, and guidance through the storms and trials of life. His grace is sufficient.
— v 7 We are not to misuse His name. That means of course not to use His name as a cuss word, but also not to give Him credit or blame for bad things happening to us, or bad things happening to other people, when those things may not be from Him.
And don’t say God’s telling us to say things that he didn’t say, things that clearly contradict His word. Don’t misuse His name.
— vv 8-11 We are to remember to take time out, to rest. Now Jesus did teach people not to make this into some ritual that takes the heart of it away. He doesn’t want it to become a burden that we have to bear.
But, this is a basic need that we seem to have forgotten. We are designed to pause, to be still, to recharge.
— v 12 We are to honor our fathers and mothers, and the Old Testament is clear that that was a double sided command, we are to honor our parents, and they are to point their children to the Lord, Exodus 20:12 says:
Later on, after God had given the 10 commandments, He ended up scattered the nation of Israel in the Old Testament and curses came upon them because they fell away from their devotion to Him.
As parents, we are to be honored by our children, but we are also to lead them in the Word, so that they will live long in the Land that God is giving them, which is ultimately Heaven and relationship with God. And that is only able to happen if they find salvation through faith by grace. Raise those kids up right.
— Vv 13-14 We are not to murder or commit adultery. These seem pretty basic, but we will see in the next couple weeks How Jesus makes a point of clarifying these commands.
— v 15 We are not to steal
— v 16 We are not to lie
— v 17 And we are not to be envious of anybody else. That means don’t be jealous of their job, their wealth, their stuff, their relationships, their abilities or talents, ANYTHING.
So that’s a basic rundown of the moral law in its simplest form. And Jesus sums them all up and says all of the law hinges on two things — Loving God and Loving one another (Matthew 22:36-40)
And remember, Matthew 5:19 states that we are to not only practice these, but also to teach them to others.
I’m not going to ask for a show of hands, but who has been able to truly practice those, let alone teach them?
Then we get to Matthew 5:20 and this is the one that causes a lot of people to go crazy, this is where people throw their hands up, they throw in the towel and they say, “Impossible, I can’t do it! No one can do it! If this is true if verse 20 is true, we’re all doomed!”
Let’s read it together:
Matthew 5:20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
So, we are to align our lives, our walk, to moral Law and teach others to do the same (v 19).
But, if we are honest, we can admit that we all have broken those Laws.
Some people might have broken some of the Laws on the way out to church tonight.
So how are we to SURPASS the righteousness of the Pharisees, who were legalistic about their obedience? Are we doomed to be left out of the Kingdom of Heaven?
NO!
First remember that Jesus was always going after the Pharisees because they were devoted to the Law but not to God, they had made the law an idol. Thus breaking the second commandment.
And they added all of these other rules on top of the law that God gave them and those unnecessary rules caused countless Jews to stumble.
And Jesus went at them again and again as hypocrites because they followed the Law and all of their rules for external glory.
Glory and recognition and esteem for themselves. Not for a heart that loved God. Not for His glory.
But, don’t misunderstand the teaching. Jesus doesn’t somehow let us off the hook to just go against the law since the Pharisees were so corrupt.
No, in Matthew 23 Jesus tells His followers, do what the Jewish leaders say, but not what they do.
Here’s the heart, we take on a righteousness that surpasses the Pharisees, only when we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ Himself.
And that can only happen when we come into a saving trust in His work at the cross
At the cross where Jesus, who lived a sinless life here in the world, was put to death — and in that death, absorbed the wrath of God that was due to us
When we trust in that, we are cleansed of our sins.
Our sins are removed and they are as far from us as the east is from the west, when we trust Him as our Savior, there is no longer any condemnation,
We are no longer slaves to the sin that made us unrighteous in the eyes of God.
We are made righteous once and for all by Christ.
And when we recognize Him as our Lord, as our King, we will begin to walk in the light of His moral Law
By the guidance and encouragement and strength of the Holy Spirit.
And, because we recognize His love for us, and mercy and grace to us, we will — out of Love and gratitude — seek to please Him, and thank Him, and serve Him by Loving Him in the way He has designed us to show love and admiration
– That is, in obedience to the Law.
– But remember, our obedience is not what saves us, it is faith! Our obedience is imperfect, but it will progress higher and higher as we continue to focus on our love and gratitude of Him, not a focus on the Law itself.
And we will Love others — those close to us and those who we feel are unlovable — we will love them because of Him.
We will do it all:
— Through Christ and
— For Christ
— In order to Worship Christ and
— Draw others to Christ
Let’s pray…
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)