Sermon on the Mount - Matt 5:21-48

Opening - Play Simon Says

As we spend our summer looking at Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 5-7, my hope and prayer for us is that God would empower us through the Holy Spirit to live out the kingdom life that Jesus describes.

Last week, Sean Wood, our friend from World Vision, preached on Jesus’ statement about how we need to have a righteousness that is greater than the Pharisees. The Pharisees were a religious sect of Judaism, who desired to be meticulously obedient to God’s word. To protect themselves from breaking God’s laws, they created a whole separate system of laws that defined and codified very possible variation of God’s laws so the didn’t break them.

For example, one of the Ten Commandments - one of the most important things for God’s people to observe - up there with don’t murder people or cheat on your spouses - is to take a day off. This was a big deal - God’s people are supposed to set aside one day per week to rest and worship. Well, in the Mishnah, a collection of ancient Rabbinic teachings, there were 39 laws and related to the sabbath detailing what you can and cannot do.

For example, because weaving is a type of work, you cannot weave on the Sabbath. That means you also can’t braid hair on the Sabbath because that is similar to weaving. You can’t grind wheat or flour on the Sabbath because that’s work but that means you also can brush dried mud from boots or clothes because that’s close to grinding. You cannot light or extinguish a fire on the Sabbath because that’s work and therefore you also cannot turn on or off lights in your house because that’s the same thing.

So life was very restrictive for the Pharisees who desired to earn God’s approval through their strict obedience to their man-made laws that protected them from accidentally breaking one of God’s laws.

Seems like an impossible standard, doesn’t it? And Jesus says our righteousness is to be greater than theirs. How is this possible? Well, as Sean pointed out, it isn’t possible. That’s why Jesus came. When we put our faith in Jesus, he exchanges his righteousness for our sin. Out of his deep love for you and I, He takes our sin upon himself and gives us his righteousness so that we can be reconciled to God the Father.

But in the NT, righteousness has two meanings. One meaning is a “right standing before God.” And that’s what Jesus came to give us.

But another meaning is the “right way of living.” It’s an active form that is about how we live.

Before Jesus, people were trying to live right so they could have right standing before God. But now, Jesus flips that upside down. Now, we are given right standing with God and our response to that gift is change the way we live so that we are more in line with God’s standard for humanity.

So Jesus challenges us to have a righteousness that is greater than the Pharisees and then, in our passage today that Simeon read, he gives us six practical examples of what that looks like.

Now, if we were spending a year going through the gospel of Matthew, I would go through each one individually. But since we are looking at this whole section from Matthew 5:21-48 today, let me share with you the big idea from this section. If you are a not taker, you want to write this part down:

In the Kingdom of Jesus, God’s people live out God’s principles from the inside out.

In Jesus’ time, the dominant religious group are those Pharisees and they were mostly focussed on the outside - on external actions. That’s why for them, obedience was the pathway to God’s approval. But Jesus teaches us here that we are called to go deeper than just external actions - we are called to live out God’s principles from the inside out.

So what does it look like to have an inside out righteousness?

An inside out righteousness examines the heart AND actions

Throughout our passage, Jesus takes the external command and then takes it deeper, into the inner self.

“You have heard it said…” and “But I say…”

The Examples:

Don’t murder (external) - deal with your anger (internal)

Don’t commit adultery (external) - deal with your lust (internal)

You can get divorced with a certificate (external) - work on your marriage (internal)

Don’t break your vows (external) - have an integrity so strong, you don’t need vows (internal)

Eye for an eye (external) - be strong enough to offer mercy (internal)

Love your neighbour and hate your enemy (external and easy) - love your enemies (requires internal peace)

An inside out righteousness isn’t concerned with “what can I get away with and still be okay in God’s sight). It’s an internal, ongoing transformation into the character of Christ. Yes, actions matter. But so do motives - so does the heart. Without diminishing actions, Jesus invites us to deal with our inner person and surrender to him our anger, our lust, our selfishness, our deceitfulness, our desire for revenge, and our lack of mercy.

An inside out righteousness prays the prayer of Psalm 139.

Psalm 139:23–24 NLT

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

An inside out righteousness honours God through relationships with others

I find it fascinating that when Jesus talks about righteousness, he sets every example in this section in the context of relationships

“Oh, you’re angry with someone? You need to deal with that.” “Oh, someone has a beef with you? Before you come to church and worship God, go talk to them.” Be reconciled. It’s relational.

His teaching on lust is about how you relate to a person of the opposite sex. Our primary identity is not our sexuality - it’s our status as beloved and adopted children of God. Both men and women are called to exercise self-control over our lustful thinking toward each other and relate to recognize the image of God in each other first.

And as an aside - for years churches have cultivated a patriarchial attitude that laid the burden for lust upon the shoulders of women. We told women of every age that they had to dress modestly so that men wouldn’t lust. But that goes against Jesus’ teaching here. Jesus says to all of us, especially the men, to take personal responsibility for the lust in your heart. It’s not about what others do, it’s about you - you need to learn to relate to people in a healthier, more respectful way.

Coming back to this idea that Jesus framed all these examples of inside out righteousness within the context of relationship, he continues.

Divorce, vows, revenge and even love for our enemies are all obviously about relationships.

And the reason Jesus does this is because an inside out righteousness honours God through relationships with others.

What does Jesus say is the most important commandment?

Matthew 22:37–40 NLT

37 Jesus replied, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”

He connects loving God with loving your neighbour. In the kingdom of God, you cannot separate the two. That’s why the apostle John says

1 John 4:20–21 NIV

20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

If we are going to have a righteousness that is greater than the Pharisees - an inside out righteousness - then we have to remember that righteousness isn’t just between you and God. It’s bigger than that. It’s also about you relating to others like Jesus relates to them. To be righteous in God’s sight is to be right in your relationships with others.

So an inside out righteousness examines both our heart and our actions and it honours God THROUGH our relationships with others. It also…

An inside out righteousness exchanges justice for mercy

The pearl of justice is found in the heart of mercy. - Saint Catherine of Siena

I think every human, in most circumstances, wants justice for others and mercy for themselves. Imagine you’re standing in a long line waiting to get in, and a group of 5 people show up and join their friend who is in front of you. You feel that injustice and part of us often wants “someone” to say something to them. But if we were running late, and a friend saved us a spot in line, we rejoice at the mercy of our friend.

When we are driving, and someone passes us doing 30 km over the speed limit, and then gets pulled over by the police who were hiding around the bend, a part of us rejoices. But when we are speeding, and we zip past the police officer and they don’t come after us, we are grateful for mercy.

Most of us want justice for others, and mercy for ourselves. But in the kingdom of God, we are called to let go of that sense of justice and to offer mercy to others instead.

Our passage in the sermon on the mount today starts off talking about anger and connects it to the importance of reconciliation when we are in conflict with people. It’s teaching us to let go of our anger and offer mercy.

And the passage closes off with teaching about loving our enemies, which is the ultimate act of mercy. It’s what Jesus demonstrates to us through the cross. Paul the Apostle writes…

Romans 5:8–10 NLT

8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son.

When we lived our own way, functioning as our own God in control of our lives, we were living as an enemy to Christ. We rejected his ways and lived for ourselves. But thanks be to Christ, who looked upon us in our sin, in our rebellion and gave us mercy by dying on the cross for us, so that we could live with God. We lived as his enemies but he made us his friends through his sacrifice.

And that’s what we are called to do as well. An inside out righteousness is one that is strong enough to let go of our need for justice against those who hurt us or those who break the rules, and offer people mercy instead.

Conclusion

In Matthew 11:29-30, Jesus says

Matthew 11:29–30 NIV

29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

New Testament scholar NT Wright said,

The Pharisees had spoken of people being called to carry ‘the yoke of the Torah’, the heavy burden of the Jewish law with all its commandments. Jesus offered a different ‘yoke’, which, because it came from his mercy and love, was easy to bear.

Following all the rules, scared to make a mistake, is a heavy burden to live under. Jesus came to give us a different way. Yes, to follow Jesus means that we still follow the precepts laid out, even the ones in the OT. But instead of being an external list of rules that if followed perfectly means God will accept you, he offers another way. The way of God’s people is to follow God’s principles from the inside out - to allow the love of Jesus to so permeate our hearts, that it results in greater obedience to God the father.

A Pharisaical righteousness looks at the external - at what we do - but ignores the heart.

But an inside out righteousness examines our hearts AND our actions

An inside out righteousness honours God THROUGH our relationships with others

and an inside out righteousness exchanges justice for mercy.

Pray.