Overview Matthew 5:21-48

Would you pray with me as we get started? pray

Story about the test with specific instructions

In my seventh grade english class, with Mrs Thaler, She announced one day that she had a pop-quiz for us. We were a bit upset, but then she announced that after we were finished, we could come get snacks (candy or something like that) and we were going to watch the movie of the book we had just studied.

We were motivated to get done quick, but dismayed as she passed out a test that was many pages long stapled together with some just brutal critically thinking questions. As she passed the tests out face down on everyone’s desk, so that no one could get a head start, she reminded us that as soon as we were done with the test to turn it in to her, then we could grab snacks, and go watch the movie. She then stood at the front of the class, reminding us to read the instructions of the test, and to put our names on the paper, and said: “go.”

Papers fanned, and pencils began scribbling wildly as we rushed to get through the test.

Now I’ve always been a good test taker, but this was a tough one. And as I was working through these questions, I was appalled like, just like minutes into the test, someone got up and gave the test to Mrs. Thaler, who told the student “good job” they got their treat and went to the movie. It felt impossible! So I doubled down, scratching faster.

But another student got up and passed. and another. and another.

What was I missing! It felt impossible!

After another few students started laughing and then got up, I sat back and paused. I read over the instructions (which I Was supposed to at the start) and read: “To complete this test, put your name at the top of the paper, and answer the last question. Then without speaking come turn the test in to me.”

I laughed, and flipped to the last question which read: “What is your favorite book and why?” I quickly wrote my answer and turned in my test.

It was a poignant reminder that the context matters! I had spent so much time working and fretting about each of the details - that I had actually missed the whole point of the test.

This is so common in the human condition. particularly in terms of faith and practice.

these issues regarding the of the heart of the matter versus the tasks or details are profoundly pronounced As we continue in our study of the sermon on the mount this morning.

In this sermon, Jesus is coming from prolific ministry and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom, and healing and saving people - crowds around are gathering around him, and he is preaching about how to live righteously! How to live well before God and others.

Two weeks ago we were in Matthew 5:17-20, Jesus proclaimed to be the yes and amen of the Old Testament. He filled full all of the law and the prophets. And then he said that he actually wants his followers to have righteousness that is beyond, or a different kind, of the religious leaders of the time.

The rest of chapter 5 Jesus goes over 6 different case studies of the fulfillment of the Law and Prophets and what living righteously is like. Or what it looks like to live rightly

People throughout time want to live right. They want the good life. Same now, same then. The Jewish people wanted to live rightly before God and men. SLIDE THE GOOD LIFE

And what did that mean - well people answer different ways.

I bet even here - if we asked the question: How do we live the good life? we would get some really interesting answers!

Like think about it: What do you need to do to live rightly? What does it look like to be righteous? What does the good life look like? And then how do we become righteous?

Some common answers in our culture, even within Christian culture may be: go to church. Be kind. Do more good than bad. Give to church and charity. Pray often.

But friend here me - this is important - no good work will make you righteous. You can pray all day every day - that will not make you righteous. You can give all your money away to the poor - and still have a wicked heart. you can go to church every Sunday, and volunteer - and still not be in right relationship with God.

This is what Scripture says: Romans 3:10-12 This is Paul quoting and pulling together a whole pool of old testament verses:

Romans 3:10–12 CSB

as it is written: There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.

Or in Isaiah 64:6

Isaiah 64:6 CSB

All of us have become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like a polluted garment; all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

The Bible is clear, old and new testament - that we are not saved by the good things we do. Despite all our good works - Scripture says that we are instead dead in our trespasses and sins. That we are slaves to the broken flesh.

And it’s ALL and ONLY by God that we are saved - and own works don’t do it - in the words of Ephesians - so that no one can boast.

This is important! Friend don’t miss this - You cannot save yourself. (slide) A Blind person can’t gain their sight just by opening their eyes. A Dead person can’t come to life again. We are so lost, totally depraved - and no matter what we do - it will never atone for the wrong we do.

We need a better, a greater, a more infinitely good and wholly person to do it - we need a savior. Without him we are dead - lost. And all are attempts to pretend otherwise are just lies - a facade. A false front.

Story about dog poop in the back yard at the sioux falls house. We actually have to pick it up. Not just cover it up. You can spray perfume on it - but it’s still dog poop.

We can’t just throw good works like perfume on the refuse and sin of our hearts to have a good life, a good heart - no we need a completely new heart! We need someone to completely clean us!

So the question remains - how then do we live the good life? how do we achieve the good life? How can we live and be righteously.

Only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Let me read just a few verses for us on proclaiming the supremacy and holy work of Jesus Christ.

Romans 5:1 CSB

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Ephesians 2:8–9 CSB

For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast.

Galatians 2:16 CSB

and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.

Friends I could on and on with verses like this in the new testament.

But an issue emerges OFTEN in the sermon on the mount when we take each of these 6 examples, put them alone, and treat them like some sort of new law that Jesus is adding. What are they? I’m gonna read this whole section, so that as we go to the following weeks we can have heard it all together at least once - listen to what JEsus is saying:

Matthew 5:21–48 CSB

“You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister, will be subject to the court. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire. So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Reach a settlement quickly with your adversary while you’re on the way with him to the court, or your adversary will hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny. “You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery. But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. “It was also said, Whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce. But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in a case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. “Again, you have heard that it was said to our ancestors, You must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord. But I tell you, don’t take an oath at all: either by heaven, because it is God’s throne; or by the earth, because it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great King. Do not swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black. But let your ‘yes’ mean ‘yes,’ and your ‘no’ mean ‘no.’ Anything more than this is from the evil one. “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, don’t resist an evildoer. On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to the one who asks you, and don’t turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven. For he causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

that’s heavy stuff! And when we are honest: we can feel like Jesus is a liar! Didn’t he say his burden was easy and light? I can’t get angry? There is no reason I am allowed to be divorced.

We read things like that And then many often conclude that if we do those things - we must have earned our righteousness, and were good! ?

Y’all that’s just what the pharisees and scribes were doing! But us Christians have a way of “Jesus-ifying” works-based righteousness. And many Christians read the sermon on the mount, and read these 6 examples , and read them as a new law. And we say that we need to follow this law in order to be righteous.

But is that what Jesus is actually trying to communicate? IS he EXPANDING the law and imposing it on us? Slide (so how do we read this?)

For the rest of our time together, we are going to an overview of these verses, the 6 example of the righteous life: Then in the following weeks, we will work our way through them one by one - but before we do that - we have to take them as a whole - this was a sermon - a unit. And we need to understand the main point before the individual parts can make sense.

Read the instructions on the test before looking at all the questions. Or else you may find out you completely missed the goal.

So what is the point? What is he trying to communicate in this sermon and this section?

The Sermon on the Mount is Jesus talking about what it looks like to live in the kingdom of God. Jesus is saying: this kind of life is available to those who abide in the kingdom of heaven. This is what it looks like to live righteously!

Rich Villodas, a pastor and author, argues that the Sermon on the mount can act like a litmus test of if we are following the narrow way of JEsus - saying it that we don’t earn salvation by obeying the sermon on the mount - but the fruit of our salvation - the evidence of a life made new in Christ is evidenced by the Sermon on the mount.

I quoted Stanley Hauerwas in an earlier sermon, but let me repeat it: Haurewas says this:

“The sermon, therefore, is not a list of requirements, but rather a description of the life of a people gathered by and around Jesus.” - Stanley Hauerwas

MAtthew 5:21-48 is often called the Antitheses. In each example, Jesus will say something like: “You have heard it said” quote scripture, and then says: “But I tell you.”

Jesus isn’t contradicting the scripture, but is combating how the old testament has been interpreted in his current day. In many ways, Jesus is expanding our view of God’s intent for his people. It’s more, its more filled out, its beyond the letter of the law to the intent of it.

And more than giving us specific particulars - Jesus is laying down principles of kingdom life. We shouldn’t read this section as a complete list - rather they are examples of the kind of lives we are able to live through new life in Christ.

Here’s the thing: humans would much rather have it clear cut and specific. But instead - jesus is giving us principles, examples.

Martin Lloyd-Jones summarizes it like this as he writes about how he would articulate JESus’ thought process: Jesus constantly said something like this: ‘I have come to found a new kingdom. I am the first of a new race of people, the first-born among many brethren; and the people of whom I am Head will be of a certain type and character, people who, because they conform to that description ware going to behave in a certain manner. Now I want to give you some illustrations of how they are going to behave.”

They’re illustrations. They’re examples. the lives of those who are in christ will look something like this.

Because while we are saved by grace through faith - not by works - it’s not that works don’t matter! Ephesians 2:10

Ephesians 2:10 CSB

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.

And even later on in the sermon on the mount:

Matthew 7:17–20 CSB

In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.

It’s clear that actions do matter - Why? Because actions don’t come from thin air. They have a root. They emerge from deep within us, from our hearts, from our minds. Want to know what your heart is like? Pay attention to how you live! Your actions reveal whats within us! (slide)

It’s not the pure actions that make your heart new - it’s a new heart that make your actions pure!

And this is the mistake, the error, that Jesus is combating. On the sidelines of this sermon are the scribes and pharisees. Around the crowd that has gathered to receive from Christ, to be healed, to learn, are those who sneer from the side line.

And the pharisees followed the letter of the law, and their idea was that if they just follow their interpretation of the law - they would be righteous, and therefore they would judge everyone else.

But as we study this section, we will see - they missed the heart of the law.

Jesus opposition wasn’t and isn’t against the old testament Law - God made the law! It was a gift for the people of God! It revealed God and foreshadowed Christ!

No Christ’s issue wasn’t with the old testament - his issue was how it was being interpreted. He was combatting the so what’s of the religious leaders of the day.

AND he was demonstrating the good news lived out.

Jesus is saying: in this new kingdom, of which he is the first-born, it is actually possible to live the good life. life overflowing and eternal - and it won’t just look like not murdering - but not holding resentment.

It’s not going to look like just merely avoiding adultery - but the absence of lust.

It’s not going to be using legal loopholes to get what we want - but true desire to pursue the heart of God.

No longer having to make bold vows and swears to prove we are honest - but actually being a real and honest and true person - just as God is true.

It’s not about hating our enemies, it’s not about getting even - it’s about demonstrating the radical love of the father forever.

God, in and through Jesus Christ has come to set us free! Free from sin. Free from death!

Who the son sets free is free indeed!

We don’t get free by following the letter of the law - no we get free from the salvation of Jesus.

The Pharisees and the scribes put their law on their walls and their wrists and heads, and said: “Well I’m not guilty of this sin, or that sin, and I tithe this, and pray that, THEREFORE I am all good. I am right. I have acheived right standing before God.” They viewed the law as something as an end to itself. That the goal was the law.

THAT IS A WRONG VIEW OF THE LAW!

The End is God. He is the goal. The Judge. The King. The creator. What he says goes. Slide

So the question is this:

“Do I know God? What is my relationship with him? Does he know me? Is he pleased in me?”

Or, when we go to bed tonight, and we go through our day to justify ourselves - don’t judge yourself by whether or not you murdered someone - whether or not you committed adultery that day - or compare yourself to some wretched other person you deem as worse off, and think: well I guess I’m all good!

NO - Jesus is saying instead we need to ask ourselves: Did I live as if God is supreme in my life and as if Jesus is my king today? Do I know him better now as a result of today? Is there anything I have put between me and Christ today?

Because the only thing that can justify us is CHRIST. Not some test, not some list of spiritual disciplines.

The Christian life, apart from relationship with God through Christ, is blasphemous and fruitless. And there is great temptation in our lives, to go with lists rather than relationship. “As long as I do these things, I’m good with God.” NO!

In Christ, we come to him, confess our sins, confess him as savior, believe in our heart that he is Lord and God raised him from the dead - AND HE WILL SAVE US. He will take our heart of stone - and give us a heart of flesh. He will give us His Holy Spirit.

These examples are just that - demonstrations of the righteous life. If we don’t see righteous growth, sanctification in our lives, the answer isn’t to go through the test again and strive harder and go back to the law: IT’s to fall on our face before Christ and repent and beg and plead that he will save us and help us.

Jesus is the goal. Being his. His righteousness, his life.

It’s not that actions don’t matter - they do - but we can’t get it mixed up. Think about it in terms of Spiritual disciplines and practices. Discipline in our lives as Christians is a good thing.

BUT! IF our goal, our end goal, is to simply conform to a certain set of disciplines - that is such a dangerous trap. To think you have arrived simply because of the disciplines is a wrong end.

If you fast twice a week. And you pray three times a day - which in and of themselves are good things, but if you fast and pray simply in order to maintain your discipline - you completely missed the point.

There is no point in fasting just to fast. There is no point in prayer just to pray.

Nothing we use as spiritual formation or disciplines is profitable AT ALL UNLESS they bring us into deeper relationship and connection with Christ.

The pharisees did all the things “right” and they didn’t know God. They were white-washed tombs. They looked great - but they stunk of death.

The purpose of the law isn’t the law. The purpose of the disciplines isn’t the disciplines. The purpose of these next 6 examples isn’t to do them to earn righteousness - all these things can actually be a deep trap, if we see them as end in of themselves.

The same thing can be said of our public worship services.

If this service becomes and end in itself - if the goal is just to show up, we did the thing. If my goal is just to preach a sermon - without pointing to the blessed hope we have in the gospel of Christ and if we just sing songs without coming to know Christ better and to love him better, and to be loved by him better - ALL of this is foolishness and waste of time.

All these things - are to aid us to know Christ and be born again so that we can live righteously. If we get it mixed up - we are in danger of the trap of the pharisees.

The goal is knowing Jesus. Paul expresses exactly this in Philippians 3:3-9 listen to this man - he was a pharisee before salvation - and this is him talking about the law in terms of righteousness, and what the goals are.

Philippians 3:3–9 CSB

For we are the circumcision, the ones who worship by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh—although I have reasons for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law, a Pharisee; regarding zeal, persecuting the church; regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless. But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.

Oh that we, like Paul would count it all as loss so that we can we can magnify in our hearts the value of Christ as Lord.

Let’s pause and ask our question:

So What?

This next section of scripture we are headed into is just amazing - it’s filled with some incredible wisdom - but in order for us to handle those sections correctly - we have to keep the heart of the matter central.

Before we start on the test, we gotta read the instructions first, so we don’t miss out on the point.

This section of the Sermon on the Mount is where readers can go wrong and a big reason for that is missing the forest for the trees. They take just one statement out of context, and treat it as some new law they have to fulfill in order to have righteousness and earn heaven. This becomes a millstone around the neck of so many people!

And others, even if they will articulate that they believe in justification through faith, functionally live as if they are under the law.

Jesus came to set us free from the tyranny of sin. He came to free us from trespasses and hindrances from satan.

He has won it all - and by grace through faith, we are given his righteousness, so that we are able to live and move and do righteous things. But we can’t fake it till we make it. We need Christ to make us new so that we can authentically live Holy Lives.

So What?

So as we go into these sections, and this morning - we need to Know Christ. Do you know him? Do you have confidence in the forgiveness of sins? Do you live out of the victory we have in Christ?

When we are saved and born again - we are a new creation - and we are able to live well and please God - not out of righteousness that is our own - but out of Christ’s righteousness and holiness in us.

If you are convicted by sin - turn to Jesus.

If you are feeling lost - cry out to Jesus.

If you are feeling proud of all the good things you have done - repent and submit to Christ.

The reality of the situation is that we are slaves - like the jews were in egypt. And no matter how good we are at building and doing all that our task master tells us to do - we cannot escape our slavery.

But the Jewish people cried out, and God heard their prayers - and he struck down the enemy - leading his people out of captivity into freedom.

Friends - In the same way - we can stive to get out on our own - but we will fail. But Christ, came as the PAssover lamb - so the wrath of God will pass over us - and he will lead us out of captivity into freedom. Ultimatley to the promised land!

But as we wander here - we can’t forget about the lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.

That is why we celebrate the Lords supper.