SOTM - Lesson 14

Intro

Turn with me to Matthew 5:21-26

Matthew 5:21–26 ESV

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

Tell the story of breaking Eli’s DS [insert photo of Spy Kids Game]

It wasn’t until about 15 years later that I finally paid back what I owed Eli.

Now, I tell that silly story because I think it shows how we are by our sinful nature controlled by anger. Most often, our anger is irrational and causes us to do things that will always end worse for us.

We see this clearly if we turn to Genesis 4:1–11 when Cain acts on his anger and murders his own brother. In this instance, God warns Cain of his anger and the end results of it: (Genesis 4:7) “7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.””

God gave us the story of Cain and Able in part as a picture of how the sin nature brought about by Adam ruins us from the inside out. Sin is not only something we should avoid, it is something we must be on guard against, as if it were a wild beast ready to hurt you.

And history has proven that anger rules man: Cain killing his brother Abel; Saul seeking the destruction of David; the crucifixion of Jesus and his disciples; wars; slavery; abortion; genocide; assassinations; bullying; and the list can go on and on. Take a look at your school and how classmates treat other classmates. How they talk down to others or gossip. The jokes people make. It all comes down to our sinful nature which causes us to be angry with others.

You did not have to be taught how to get angry. It was natural to you. Your mom and dad did not tell you “when you don’t get something you want, you should scream and throw a tantrum until you get what you want. And if that doesn’t work, the trick is to use physical violence to take what they have. But if that doesn’t work, go ahead and hit them and then take what you want.” You, because of your fallen nature, know how to place yourself at odds with others.

James puts it this way: James 4:1–3 “1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”

The Fulfillment of the Law

And this is what Jesus is getting at in our passage today, the heart of the issue.

Remember, this is part of a larger sermon Jesus gave about what it looks like to be in the Kingdom of Heaven. The King, prophesied since Genesis 3, thousands of years earlier, is finally here. And when the King takes his throne, he begins to shape his kingdom. Now, unlike earthly kings and leaders, Jesus’ kingdom is set to fully find its place in a new heavens and earth, after sin has been judged and all that God created us to be is fully set in place. This kingdom is promised by God to reign for all of eternity, unlike the nations that rule today.

And this being the case, Jesus came to earth to save all those who will enter this kingdom. And so while we wait to enter into this kingdom fully, we are shown now what the kingdom looks like and what those who inherit it will be like.

Now, if you remember from two weeks ago, there are many who think Jesus has come to change God’s commands. But this is a misunderstanding. He did not change God’s law at all. We have changed it of our own accord. He is now showing us what it actually looks like to obey God’s law.

That is why he said in verse 20:

Matthew–Luke Matthew 5:17–26

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The scribes and the pharisees took God’s law and turned it into something that could be followed without being what it was designed to be: love for God and for others. We remove the heart of the issue in God’s law so that we can be righteous by our own standards. We can look “holy” and “good” and “religious”, but our hearts are far from God. This is why Jesus says our righteousness must exceed the scribes and Pharisees.

And that ultimately meant that we must be perfectly righteous. Which none of us are.

So, God sent His Son to take on the penalty of our unrighteousness, death, so that we could be forgiven our sinfulness and be given a heart that could fulfill this law.

Remember what I said last time we met: Grace is the root, Love is the fruit.

We are unable to love perfectly, and so we do not deserve to be in God’s Kingdom which is characterized by love. So, by grace, God gave us salvation and entrance into this Kingdom by the sacrifice of Jesus. By grace all men can be saved, and then by grace we can live truly righteous lives — lives dictated by love. Grace is the root, Love is the fruit.

Anger and Reconciliation

But what does that actually look like? A fulfilled law that is truly righteous carried out by grace that causes us to love genuinely? That sounds nice, but how do we actually live this way?

For the remainder of chapter five you will see Jesus answer this question. He is not necessarily exhaustive in how it works completely, but these are guides for living as a citizen of Jesus’ Kingdom.

You will see Jesus has a certain structure. He will tell you a law of God that was familiar to those listening, and then show you how Jesus has come to fulfill this law. Within his explanation of the law you will also be able to see how the scribes and pharisees obeyed these laws in a way that God did not intend. So, Jesus is getting at the heart of the matter. In Jesus’ example today, we see that Love puts and end to anger.

Jesus starts in V. 21 reciting to them the law of God. Do not murder.

This is one of the ten commandments that God gave the Israelites during the Exodus.

God is the God of life. He created all that has ever lived and will bring to life all that will ever live.

It’s hard for me not to mention my son Calvin. There are monumental moments in life. Seeing God create a living person, made in the image of God. Who has a soul that will live on for eternity. God gave Gabbi and I front row seats to His handiwork. This is who our God is. He breathes life and sustains life.

You can see then how this distinguishing character of who God is finds its exact opposite in death. Death is the result of disobeying God. In the shortest verse in the Bible, we see what God thinks about death and all that surrounds it: John 11:35 “35 Jesus wept.”

Death is the result of our independence from God. If God is the God of life, doesn’t it make sense that our rejection of God and His way would result in death? And so, while God weeps over death, He is the One who gives us our just results by taking away our life. Therefore, you can image why God commands that we should not murder — taking the gift of life away from someone. It is not our decision to make or life to take. God alone holds the rights to choosing when to exact the rightful punishment of our rebellion.

So, as Jesus states, “whoever murders will be liable to judgment.” But notice what he goes on to say, not only does murder make you liable to judgment, but so does anger. Anger is the nature behind murder. Therefore, even if you do not actually commit murder, you have killed the spirit of the one who you are angry with.

You have, in essence, committed it to your heart that someone is worthless.

That is why Jesus says that insults make you liable to the council. This is just another way of saying that although you do not murder, your anger has caused you to insult the person. And in your heart you are just as guilty in front of judges as if you had murdered them.

Further, and to make his point absolutely clear, to call someone a fool is to make you liable to the hell of fire. You are judged guilty in front of men and judged guilty by The Judge.

You might think this seems to harsh a punishment. But, think back to the passage in James. We murder because we feel we deserve something more than someone else. Whenever someone takes another's life, it is because they have judged in their hearts that the person is not worth life. We do this for any number of reasons: covetousness, jealousy, our own sense of justice.

Again, the life of men are taken for war and land. The life of billions of children are taken because moms feel their way of life is worth more than their child's. Hitler felt that the jews were worthless and caused the genocide of thousands because of it.

That same heart is the same heart that looks at someone at school and insults them, or gossips about them, or makes fun of them. You feel worth more than someone else, so you belittle them. You have killed them in your heart. And you deserve the punishment of God just as much as if you had murdered the person.

This is not the way we should be! Take a look at your life. Are you an angry person? Do you find yourself putting others down or have feelings of hatred? You are looking at someone created in the image of God and saying they have no worth.

Reconcile

This is not the way of Christians. You either need to be saved from your murderous heart OR you have been saved from your murderous heart.

[encourage the students to be salt and light in this way]

There are three points of application that we see from this passage that reveal with God’s Kingdom is like.

The first we have already discussed: Turn away from a life controlled by anger.

This, of course is impossible for us to do genuinely unless we give our lives to Jesus. It is only once we are forgiven that God’s Spirit is poured out to us and enables us to genuinely love those who would otherwise anger us.

You must turn from the circumstances of the word and turn your eyes on Jesus. The world will always temp you to covet or seek your own justice. However we must be like Jesus.

Jesus was hated without cause (John 15:25). And he was hated not by some, but by all. He was hated by both you and me, and while we were not there at the time of his crucifixion, we nailed him to the cross with our sins. Yet even though Jesus was mistreated all the days of his life, and even though all the world was his to do with as he pleased, he was slow to anger (James 1:19) and endured the cross for our sake.

We see that there is a place for righteous anger, which Jesus demonstrated from time to time, but as 1 Peter 2:23 tells us, “23 When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

Jesus, only let his anger burn at injustice, hypocrisy, and unbelief. Never did he get angry at personal mistreatment. As Daniel Doriani says:

Matthew–Luke Response

When tortured, he takes it like a lamb and refuses to retaliate

If Jesus did all this for you, all the things that the world is concerned with that causes it to burn with anger can be of little concern to you. Like the old saying: “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face, and the things of the earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glorious grace.”

More than just simply turning away from anger, Jesus tells us to Make Peace With Our Neighbor

Matthew 5:23–24 ESV

23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Jesus paints the picture of a man going to an altar of God. During this time, man would celebrate peace with God by bringing sacrificial gifts to an altar. Jesus is in effect saying that God would rather we leave this gift at the altar and urgently seek peace with man.

1 Samuel 15:22–23 “22 And Samuel said, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to listen than the fat of rams. 23 For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king.””

In terms for us, God doesn’t want you to be praying lofty prayers and singing passionately at church if you have knowledge of some area in your life where you need to make peace.

Notice how Jesus doesn’t say who is in the right or wrong in this passage. It doesn’t matter if you actually did something to make someone angry or not. The issue isn’t over who is “right”, it is seeking love and peace with your brother and sister.

So ask yourself, is there anyone in my life that I should try and make peace with? Specifically, someone who is within my reach to show love to? Of course, you cannot force peace. But you will be held accountable with how you handled situations.

So we must not be controlled by anger, we should seek peace with our neighbor, and finally,

We should even try to prevent anger in our enemies.

Matthew 5:25–26 ESV

25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

In the last two situations, we have talked about our relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, our neighbors. But here, we see that it is an enemy.

Most of us would probably say we do not have any enemies. And as Christians, we should strive to make peace with all. But the idea here is not maybe a mortal nemesis, but more likely those who are antagonistic to the gospel and our Lord. Matthew 12:30 “30 Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”

In our world today, the message we proclaim is often seen as hateful or judgmental. It should be then that when we proclaim this news, it will place us at odds with the world.

So now, notice again that Jesus doesn’t describe the situation in terms of who is right or wrong. Both Christians and unbelievers are sinners and we all wrong others. Jesus once again isn’t concerned about who is right or wrong. The issue Jesus seeks to resolve is to resolve peace.

The picture here is of a scenario where you are accused by someone in a court setting. No one is in court over small issues, so you could believe that tensions are high and that both parties feel they are in the right. Most of the time, the consequences are high as well.

Now, imagine this is you. In normal arguments we are often too proud to back down from our own position. Here, Jesus’ command is most challenging because we have to humble ourselves to a point of seeing past the argument.

Regardless of if you are right or wrong, Jesus says to come to terms with (or make friends) quickly. Even if this means you have to do it on the sidewalk outside the courthouse. Yes, you will have to lay down your pride, you might even seem to your accuser to have “lost the battle” and waving the white flag. But Jesus’ statement here is SO wise… who cares! It would be better for you to make amends than for there to be a chance that you end up guilty.

In one sense, this seems to be covering your own back. But what Jesus is really getting at is that regardless of the situation, God’s Kingdom is comprised of those who desire to intentionally take action to make peace.

I hope you see how important this is to God and our Lord, and maybe even tonight some of you would be willing to make up with those you have wronged or with those that have wronged you. In this way you can be salt and light in a very practical way, maybe even showing someone the peace of God for the first time.