Sermon Tone Analysis

1. Matthew 5:29-30

 

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.

It is better for you to lose one part 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.

It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

Jesus meant to shock us by saying this!

 

Metaphore

He is saying “Get serious about sin.

Don’t play games with it, because the stakes are too high!’

We can sometimes take sin lightly!

In Matthew, it comes right after Jesus’ words about adultery  - lookng at a person and lusting after them.

Classic case was King David (2 Samuel 11:2) who saw a woman having a bath on top of the roof, and ended up having an affair with her … it all started with the eye.

/There was a version of the New Testament  released a long time agocalled Willian Tyndale’s English New Testament, and people tried to stop its circulation on the grounds that a simple reader might mistakenly take such language literally and pluck out an eye causing a kingdom of eyeless men!/

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2. Matthew 5:39

 

Do not resist an evil person.

If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Doesn’t really refer to physical violence.

(don’t justify staying in an abusive relationship from this verse).

Most people are right handed … so a slap on some-one’s right hand is done with the back of the slapper’s right hand.

This was an incredible insult.

The Bible says ‘An eye for an eye!!!!’.

I have a right to revenge!

However, God gave people this rule not to encourage revenge, but to limit revenge.

Before this, if someone was killed by another person, the killed person’s family had an obligation to go after the murderer and the murderer’s family … feuds!!

So God limited revenge to just one for one.

(Exodus 21:24)

 

But the next step … hey, don’t take revenge at all.

Leave revenge up to me.

 

*Romans 12*

* *

*19** Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"**/ n/** says the Lord.

**20** On the contrary:*

* *

*  "If your enemy is hungry, feed him;*

*    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.*

*  In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."**/

n/*

* *

*RO 12:21** Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.*

If someone takes advantage of you:

 

* Don’t get resentful

* Don’t try to get them back

* In fact, instead of being a victim, take the initiative and show aggressive grace – do that person a favour.

3.

Luke 14:26

 

"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple

 

 

Confusing!

Goes against Jesus’ commands to love others, and responsibility to care for parents.

(Mark 7:9-13)

 

Hate had a slightly different meaning.

Hate could mean ‘to love less than something else’

 

When for example, regulations are laid down in the OT law for a man who has two wives

Deut 21:15 – if a man has one wife, one loved and the other hated (literally).

Really means, one is loved more than another.

Seen more clearly in Matthew 10:37

MT 10:37 "Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;

 

 

So, it means don’t let even the closest of relationships stop you from loving Jesus.

/Illustration of Mary and Japanese girl wanting to study at BCNZ/

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