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…
