Power in the Pulpit | Matthew 5:33–37

Intro: Every four years after a presidential election, we have the presidential inauguration. What is the key component of an inauguration, does any body know. It’s when the newly elected president takes the oath of office. These are the words in the presidential oath. “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and I will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” A president can be impeached in the House of Representatives and then removed from office by the senate for violating this oath. The oath of office for a member of congress says, “ do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.” For violating this oath a person can be removed from office, fined and even held in jail if found guilty. Why is this a big deal? It’s because when somebody gives their word and takes an oath, it’s binding and expected to be kept. But how often do we make empty promises? Jesus did not think that should be the case. What we will find when we look at tonight’s text is that we should not have to make oaths because all we really control is our honesty. As we typically do on Sunday nights, can you please stand as we honor the reading of God’s Word.

Verse 33

Exposition: The passage starts with verse 33 where Jesus says, Matthew 5:33 ““Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’” To swear is to make an oath. An oath is defined as a solemn promise, usually invoking a divine witness, regarding your failure acts of behavior; often including penalties for failure within the contents of the oath.” An oath is when you say you promise or you swear that something is going to take place. In this day and age, they were extremely popular. It usually invoked God or some perceived god as a witness and often involved some kind of penalty if the oath was not kept. I swear as the Lord is God is one found in scripture. Other times you read about somebody saying may the Lord kill me if by this time tomorrow something is not accomplished. The idea of an oath is that the person is so sure that they are staking something on their dependence to keep it. To swear falsely is to promise something that one knows will not come true or is not true, or to break an oath that has been previously sworn. It is found pretty often in the OT that one should not violate an oath that they make. Numbers 30:2 says Numbers 30:2 “If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.” Deuteronomy 23:21 says Deuteronomy 23:21 ““If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin.” So obviously God does not look well on somebody making an oath and not keeping it. And why would he? It is suppose to be an even deeper assurance that somebody is being honest or that that intend to do what they say.

Application: While this may seem distant, we do similar things in today’s world. Don’t raise your hands, but think, about if you have ever said the following. Have your ever said, “I promise. I cross my heart and hope to die.” “I swear to God.” “I promise on [so and so’s] grave.” How about this one. How many of you have ever made a pinky promise? The origins of a pinky promise come from Japan. According to the an article I found on the Times of India website, this originated in Japan hundreds of years ago. If a person did not uphold that promise they had to chop their pinky off. That will make you think twice before you making pinky promises won’t it. But how often have you promised something or sworn something and then forgotten to do it. How many of us have promised a parent we are not going to forget to do something and then forget to do the very thing that we promised to do. Scripture is very clear that we should not do this because if we give this much assurance and then don’t do it, how naturally honest or dependable of a person can we be. Your words matter. I know sometimes when you are young you act like your words don’t matter as much as an adult, but they absolutely do. God wants us to be people of our word. And if we are making these promises and not not keeping them, that ‘s a big deal. In fact, it’s such a big deal, Jesus takes it even further.

Transition: So Jesus speaks about how the OT made a big deal of making an oath one did not keep. But then he goes and takes it a little bit further as we have seen several times as we have been looking at the Sermon on the Mount.

Verses 34-36

Exposition: We read in verses 34-36 Matthew 5:34–36 “But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.” Have you ever made a promise to somebody but you had your fingers or toes crossed when you said it so you acted like it wasn’t a real promise, even though the person you were talking to had no way of knowing that so it meant the same to them as it would have if your fingers weren’t crossed? That’s kind of what was going on during this time period.

Explanation: A loophole that had been created, it wasn’t really a loophole but many were acting like it was, was on how to know if an oath was binding or not. For an oath to be binding, God had to be involved. For example, if one swore an oath by the altar in the temple it was not binding. But if they swore by the gold on the altar, it was then considered to be binding because that involved God. Other ways that this manifested itself is that if one made an oath that involved referring to God, then it was a binding oath because God was involved. But if one swore by his or her head or some other place without directly mentioning God, it was not binding. But as Jesus points out, this is foolish because it gives a big view of ourselves and a small view of God.

Exposition: Jesus says in verse 34 not to make an oath by haven for it is the throne of God. There were people that thought if they made an oath by heaven but not God it was not binding. But why should it be any less binding. Heaven is where God dwells. It is where He sits on his heavenly throne. The very idea of heaven cannot be separated from the idea of God, so how is that any different. Jesus says in verse 35 not to make an oath by earth for it is Jesus’ footstool. This makes sense as well. Is God absent from earth? Well we know that God is omnipresent which means he is present everywhere at once. So it is not possible for him to be absent from the earth. We also know that he is in complete control of the earth and that he is the earth’s creator. So once again, we see that we cannot separate God from earth so there is no difference between an oath that is made on God or on earth. They both involve God. We also have not control over what happens on earth? How can we even pretend like we do to make an oath like that? Isn’t that something only God has control of? In verse 36 we read not to take an oath on your head because you can’t make your hair white or black. Now let’s start by pointing something out. Jesus said this to an audience that did not have hair coloring products. I know some of you are thinking, my mom actually can make one hair white or black and she pays a lot of money for somebody to do that, but that is not what Jesus is talking about. He’s talking about the fact that there is nothing anybody can really do to keep their hair from turning gray or make it turn gray. Once the pigment in hair follicles starts to die, there is nothing that can be done to stop it. There’s not even a way to make your hair start turning gray. It’s completely out of our control, but not God’s. So how can one say that a swear on their own head is not any more binding than on God when it is God who is ultimately in control.

Application: This seems so hokey because we don’t use phrases like this anymore. Don’t raise your hands on this, but have you ever said, I swear to God? You are swearing on God. But what about when you say cross your heart hope to die? You’re not the one that makes your heart beat, God is. As we already said, words matter. Even when we promise something we are not taking into account that we have no control over what could be coming our way. James 4:13-15 says James 4:13–15 “Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.”” So often we say these things that we don’t actually mean. If we don’t actually mean it, why are we saying it? Avoid using phrases like I promise or I swear when saying your conduct. This does not mean all oaths are bad. Oaths of office and marriage are good because they give legal standing to what is being done. But we shouldn’t be a people that are always making promises. That makes it more likely they will not be kept.

Transition: If we are not to make promises, how are we to give our word then. How will people know we are serious? Jesus gives us a way in verse 37.

Verse 37

Exposition: In verse 37, Jesus says Matthew 5:37 “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” Jesus says not to make oaths not to promise. Let your Word be good enough. Anything more than a yes or no comes from evil. I don’t know about you, but that sits kind of heavy for me. You may be thinking, of course yes means yes and no means no. That’s what they mean. But it goes deeper than that. If you have to promise something, that means that you are having to give assurance that you are going to keep your word. That means that they have a reason to doubt you. That means at some point you have not kept your word. And this is obviously true. Think about it, how many times when you promised somebody something have you said, “I promise I won’t forget this time.” “I promise it won’t happen again.” “I promise I am telling the truth this time.”

Exhortation: What Jesus is saying is that we need to be the kind of people that don’t have to make oaths or don’t have to promise. People know we are telling the truth by our past conduct. Folks, we cannot be known as people of God while also being known as people who may or may not can be trusted. We cannot represent God well if we don’t represent ourselves well because we don’t keep our word. We are the closest that some people come to reading the bible or knowing God. If we as believers cannot be believed, how well do you think people are going to think the things about God can be believed. We need to be people whose words mean what we say they mean. That means saying things that are trustworthy and being dependable people. If we say we are going to do something, we need to be the kind of people that do it.

Be the kind of person that does not have to promise. If you promise, there is a reason people doubt you

Conclusion: As we close tonight, I have just one question for you. Are you a person of your word? I’m not asking do you make promises you shouldn’t make or if you are following perfectly what Jesus said in this passage. The question is just, are you a person of your word. When people ask you a question, can they trust that you are telling them the truth. Can they trust that you are going to do what you are saying you will do? But if not, are you willing to bring that before The Lord. Maybe you have made oaths to yourself or others that you are going to cut some sin out of your life, but it keeps coming back. Are you willing to bring that before the Lord tonight? There is one who has kept his word and that is God. As surely as the sun rises he is God. And he has given us grace through the person of Jesus in our short-comings. Grace upon grace is what we have been given. If you are ready tonight to make Christ your savior, don’t delay. Come see me and talk more about this.