Sermon Tone Analysis

The Attitude of the Heart

This far we’ve covered some pretty controversial, gut wrenching and often neglected character traits that we’re supposed to have as Christians.

Not only character traits but key lessons on how we should live our Christian life.

Last week we discussed divorce and this week we come to the topic of murder, anger and getting even.

In fact, the next two topics murder and loving our enemies might throw us for a loop in some ways because we may be familiar with the Jesus who was gentle, meek and mild and instead we get a picture of angry Jesus, zealous and wild.

I mean, if you painted His face blue and gave Him a Scottish accent, any one of us might be inspired to follow him into battle!

But before we get to Braveheart Jesus, we need to start back at Matthew 5:21, so grab your Bibles and turn with me there...

Read Matthew 5:21-26 and 38-42

MURDER

“You shall not kill” is actually not a command found in the 10 commandments.

The command in Scripture, in the original language is “You shall not murder”.

(SLIDE) Exodus 20:13

The Hebrew word for murder literally means “the intentional act, premeditated killing of another person with malice.

(Malice= The intention or desire to do evil.)

In CA the Penal Code provides the definition of murder:

187.

(a) Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being, or a fetus, with malice aforethought.

Malice is a form of evil intent that separates “murder” from “killing”.

There are forms of killing in the CA Penal Code that are not considered murder when one of the following conditions are met:

A person kills someone accidentally.

A person is trying to defend him or herself and prevent his or her own murder (self-defense).

A person is trying to prevent someone from entering his or her house to commit some violent felony.

A person is trying to prevent the murder of someone else (protecting the innocent).

In all of these situations, killing is actually legal and justifiable, and exceptions of this nature exist in the Penal Code of every state in the US.

Even those who don’t believe in God or the authority of the Bible recognize the necessity for laws like these to accomplish greater good.

So you’re asking, why is the pastor preaching on this stuff from the pulpit?

Well, the Bible is the source for all of these modern laws and the exceptions come directly from Scripture:

An accidental killing is murder:

A killing performed in self-defense is not murder:

A killing performed in an attempt to save the life of an innocent person is not murder:

See killing becomes murder when (and only when) it is not properly justified, and the justifications are completely clear.

The difference between legal and illegal use of deadly force is really a matter of motive, intent and justification- the differences come straight from Scripture.

To be clear also, because of the parameters we must also understand that this allows for the law enforcement, military and other agencies to protect our lives.

God does not condone complete pacifism in His laws, and nor does Jesus in His teachings.

One more thing worth mentioning is that different translations could possibly give into different meanings.

For example, according to the KJV the 6th commandment states “Thou shall not kill”.

This is inaccurate because this leads into so many misinterpretations.

If it was simply, “Thou shall not kill” then all of the killing throughout the nation of Israel that even at times God commanded (Deut.

20) would mean he broke His own commandments.

So clearly it does not refer to a complete halt on taking another human life and has to refer to murder itself.

Jesus brings up the 6th commandment of “Thou shall not murder”, because it was an offense that many of his audience were familiar with according to the laws- however as believers needed to see a new outlook on it.

He goes a step further into verse 22 and says “BUT I TELL YOU...”

As we talked about last week, the entrance of sin in Genesis 3, at the time of Adam and Eve, led to anger, jealousy, pride, hatred, selfishness, etc.

It led to the violent acts against one another and it started with the child of Adam and Eve.

(Genesis 4:8)

However, to God, every human life is important, and since God knew that man was sinful and evil and had become “lawless”, He enacted guidelines that would seek to modify man’s behavior.

This is exactly Jesus’ point here in Matthew 5.

Because murder is an action that is first carried out from motive, intent and of course malice- it starts with the attitude of the heart.

ANGER/INSULT TO INJURY

So what about angry brave-heart Jesus?

Not the gentle Jesus, meek and mild but the angry, Jesus, zealous and wild?

This is the Scripture you may have pictured in your heads, where the Pharisees were in the temple courts running a corrupt operation and He shut it down, colorfully.

But if Jesus did it, why can’t we?

Or can we?

The bigger question is how can I know that my anger is righteous?

Here are some ways we can tell if we have righteous anger:

1) Your anger doesn’t produce righteousness.

Has your anger produced good things?

2) If it’s all about you.

We may claim our anger is about righteousness but in reality it’s selfish.

When our anger is more concerned with preserving ourselves rather than upholding God’s glory it is not righteous anger.

Unrighteous anger is preserving our honor, righteous anger is preserving God’s honor.

Because we belong to Him, we are freed from the burden of self-preservation.

3) It cultivates a crop of bitterness.

When contain unrighteous anger we are so consumed with resentment, bitterness and rage that we can not see the purposes of God.

Only the purposes of our settling the anger, which comes from a seed of bitterness.

We do not care about the other person or people in our bitterness.

Righteous relationships severs anger at its roots and prevents bitterness and gives birth to peace.

4) Unrighteous anger takes justice into your own hands.

Unrighteous anger keeps records of wrongs and takes responsibility for revenge.

We put God to the side and become the judge and the jury- we play God and arrogantly take matters into our own hands.

To be straight- unrighteous anger is a brand of unbelief.

It is a failure to trust God to bring justice and restoration as promised.

But faith, exchanges trust and gives justice back to God where it belongs.

5) If we are consumed by our anger, it is not righteous.

Our anger becomes all consuming instead of us allowing the all consuming fire, who is God control our emotions, moods and attitudes.

To get practical- anger affects our physical health, our sleep, productivity, emotional and mental state.

It can become like a fire that lingers or rages out of control, it often burns so much of us and others while we allow it to consume us.

6) It’s certainly not righteous if we give it time to simmer.

You’ve been waiting for that verse.

You might know it well or you might’ve just heard it for the first time but either way it now is stuck with you.

We are a fallen people because of sin.

In our flesh we tell ourselves to hold on to it.

Don’t let it go because of what’s been done to you.

Paul in Ephesians tells us to let it go.

Don’t let it simmer overnight, it will burn in the pot o to speak.

When we let our anger simmer and never seek reconciliation it is exactly the opposite place that we need to be and it is certainly not considered righteous.

7) If Satan benefits from our anger, then it’s unrighteous.

Anger, especially when simmering gives the enemy a foothold into your life and others.

Anger plays into Satan’s agenda at distracting you from a life of freedom and not focused on the Lord.

8) Unrighteous anger will come back to bite you.

In our flesh, anger does not give an option of forgiveness.

Jesus’ words here in Matthew 6 are basically that forgiveness unextended equals forgiveness unaccepted.

“When you forgive, that means you absorb the loss or debt.

You bear it yourself.

All forgiveness, then, is costly.”

-Timothy Keller

In Christ, we always have access to forgiveness that takes on our debt.

On one hand my anger is for me but it is at everyone else’s expense.

In Christ’s love we are freed from the prison of our own anger and given freedom and resources to forgive.

I believe we can sum this all up by what James told us in his letter.