Sermon on the Mount

Are you familiar with the quip “it is easier to get forgiveness than to gain permission”?

This attitude becomes an excuse to violate known boundaries. The person who adopts this mindset disregards or undermines the person whose permission is needed and destroys trust.

The person who consistently oversteps boundaries erodes confidence, especially in a permission-withholding relationship.

At the root of “the end justifies the means” thinking is a spirit of pride that is unfitting for the follower of Christ.

Today’s text reveals 3 behaviors that leave a residue of broken trust.

Broken Trust Begins in the Mind (vv.27-30)

Matthew 5:27–30 (ESV) — “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

The Prideful root - I will acquire something God has chosen to withhold from me

1. The one who is slain by this temptation fools himself into believing the pleasure will exceed the consequences.

2. The acquisition of the experience is only the outcome of the desire that has been fed.

3. The fantasy of the conquest always exceeds the reality of the deed.

Build a Fence around the Rule

1. Many of the rules where Jesus conflicted with the religious leader was because of their practice of building fences

In our recent series on the 10 commands we found that the 3rd command was “do not misuse the Lord’s name”. In order to avoid accidentally misusing the name, it became a common practice to never write or pronounce the name at all.

We do the same thing with items we consider valuable. In order to avoid breaking grandma’s dishes we tell our kids not to touch Grandma’s dishes. In order to avoid accidentally breaking grandma’s dishes, we prohibit ball-playing in the house.

The comic book or baseball card is encased in plastic, the collectible car stays in the garage.

2. Zoos put up fences to protect the animals from the public as much as to protect the public from the animals.

3. What does a stockcar look like after “rubbing the rails”?

4. While Jesus confronted the Pharisees for boundaries that were inconsistent with rules they were meant to protect, It is arrogant and dangerous for us to rationalize that the fences are not helpful.

5. The longer I work with the public the less I am surprised by entitled thinking—people who move safety barricades because they presume “those don’t pertain to me”.

In my previous experience in building maintenance we frequently would shampoo carpeting in high traffic areas between professional steam cleaning. This process always left the carpet a little damp for a few hours. (This is why you may find “wet floor” signs on carpeted areas in public buildings.) Because we also had several thousand square feet of ceramic tile in the atrium and some entries. Few surfaces are slicker than ceramic tile with a humid glaze. When a person walks on damp carpet they do not realize that the moisture transfers to the bottom of their shoes, then when he or she steps on the tile it’s like driving on the highway and discovering a spot of black ice. When people disregarded the “wet floor” signs we began to put up post and streamer barricades. Sure enough, some of the frailest Seniors were the first ones to move the barricades and walk right through the danger zone, as if the warning signs and barriers had nothing to do with them.

Take Action!

1. By moving from the outcome (adultery) to the source (lust), Jesus is confronting the “loophole” approach to behaviors. He is saying society as a whole and his listeners specifically need to dwell safely away from the edges, fences and guardrails of sin.

2. Establish Immediate and decisive boundaries to protect what is precious

· Gouging eyes and amputating limbs will not eradicate the core issue of the heart--It is still possible for a blind quadriplegic to have lust in his or her heart.

· “it is better to suffer minor losses willingly than to suffer the ultimate loss unwillingly[i]”

3. If you fail to act decisively, you are a calamity waiting to happen!

4. If you play fast and loose with sin, you are living on borrowed time.

Transition: From the broken trust of adultery, Jesus moves to a 2nd behavior that leaves a scum of brokenness.

Broken Vows Betray God’s Purpose (vv.31-32)

Matthew 5:31–32 (ESV) — “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Marriage is a picture of Christ and the Church

1. Just as Christ is working to accomplish the Father’s purpose in His bride. God has chosen you to partner with Him in accomplishing His purpose for your spouse. Before any divorce (regardless of reason) we must ask, “Have I done all that I could to accomplish God’s purpose in my spouse?”

2. DISCLAIMER: What I say this morning is not all that the Bible says about marriage and divorce.

a) The Prophet Hosea was directly commanded by God to remain with a wife who was known to be repeatedly unfaithful (Hosea 3:1).

b) Why did Joseph assume that he would “put Mary away” (either privately or publicly) apart from the Angel’s pronouncement?

c) Mark 10:2-12 and Luke 16:18 are even more restrictive than Matthew 5 or 19; they don’t even include the “adultery exception”

d) Paul includes abandonment as a legitimate separation in 1 Corinthians 7:15

e) In 1 Timothy and Titus we must consider what it means to be a one-woman man.

f) What I’m trying to say is that divorce and remarriage is not an easy, 5-minute diatribe. Please don’t take 1 line from today’s message as the be-all, end-all on marriage.

3. What are you asking of me?

a) Usually by the time pastoral advice is considered, at least one partner has already made some decisions in his/her mind. Are you looking for a way out? Are you looking for a reason to stay? Are you looking for advice to make it better?

b) Based on today’s text, I believe Jesus would say you are almost always better together than apart, because togetherness (even with its problems) is a picture of Christ being united to an unworthy and unfaithful bride.

Context of Jesus’ Brief Word

1. Two Camps of thought

a) Divorce is not mentioned in the Ten Commandments, it only appears in the Pentateuch in Deut.24. Verse 31 is not a Biblical quote, it is an inference that precedes the outcome of Deut 24:1-4.

b) “Those who followed Hillel said it was permissible for a husband to divorce his wife for any reason at all [dislike], but the other group (those following Shammai) said divorce was permissible only for a major offense [something shameful]. In His response, the Lord strongly taught that marriage is viewed by God as an indissoluble unit and that marriages should not be terminated by divorce”.[ii]

2. Jesus’ words in v.31 elevated and protected women. Some would have us believe that a biblical ethic on marriage is misogynistic (hateful toward woman).

a) Jesus was speaking to a culture where it was not unusual for men to abandon/send away a wife and not provide her the legal means of remarrying (a certificate of divorce). A woman who could not own property and could not marry would be all but condemned to a life of homelessness and begging or often subject herself to prostitution as a means of survival.

b) Jesus says common decency (“it was also said”) dictates that the least you should do is that if you send her away, giver her the right to find another.

c) By introducing the adultery test, Jesus was condemning most all divorces, especially those that men were pursuing on frivolous grounds.

3. Jesus sided with the Shammai position but takes it even a step further. His contrast between verses 31 and 32 imply, “instead of looking for an excuse to get out, you should be looking for a reason to stay together.”

Our society is not the first to devalue marriage. Polygamy and perversion have challenged the sanctity of the male-female lifelong monogamous marriage relationship for thousands of years. The Biblical record reveals it as early as Genesis 19.

Pack Your Coffin!

1. Jesus’ words today challenge the no-fault, easy to dissolve marriage. Most weddings that use traditional vows include the phrase “til death do you part”. I only know one couple who admitted to me that they entered marriage on a year-to-year basis. They married late in life after becoming widow and widower to their first spouses. Each year on their anniversary Don would ask Ellie, “You want to try this for another year?” By the way, their marriage lasted until Don’s death.

2. Contrary to the “let’s quit if it doesn’t work” idea in many marriages, Jesus says that marriage is something we should work at, or die trying, with no thought of retreat.

Sudan Interior Mission (SIM) began in 1893. Canadians Walter Gowans, Roland Bingham, and American Thomas Kent had a vision to evangelize the 60 million unreached people of sub-Saharan Africa.

Malaria overtook Gowans and Kent in 1894, and Bingham returned to Canada. On his second attempt, he caught malaria again and was forced to go back home.

Many people in their day dubbed the Soudan (specifically, Nigeria), “The White Man’s Graveyard” because of the high mortality rate of Western missionaries trying to Evangelize this remote part of the world. Diseases like Malaria, Yellow Fever, and Typhoid claimed so many victims, that most missionaries headed to this part of the world would typically pack their possessions in their own coffin. They would say good byes to loved ones to board a ship with the realization that they most likely would come home horizontally and not vertically.

Application

1. If marriage is meant to participate with God in accomplishing His purpose in your spouse, and if that purpose is an eternal purpose, we should enter with every intent on working at it until death.

2. By giving only 1 ground for divorce, Jesus is confronting the “throw-away” perception of the wedding covenant. He is saying society as a whole and his listeners specifically need to uphold the significance and the permanence of the husband-wife (yes, Jesus uses male and female terms) marriage relationship.

3. Some may wonder why we recognize wedding anniversaries during our worship service. It is because we want to honor the endurance of lasting marriages.

Transition: Finally, Jesus turns to a behavior that leaves a trail of shattered pieces.

Broken Promises Bear Consequences (vv.33-37)

Matthew 5:33–37 (ESV) — “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Boy who cried “wolf”/ The Weatherman who declares too many “emergencies”

Explanation

1. Is there something evil about the oath itself?

a. Some American readers jump straight to the Masonic Lodge and use this verse to condemn participation in a society with secrets. I don’t believe Fraternal organizations is what Jesus had in mind when he spoke these words.

b. I am aware that some religious traditions take these words very literally and they do refrain from taking any oaths at all, including an oath of office or an oath of allegiance.

c. But do we not make other vows? The voluntary Nazirite vow made by Samson’s mother; The common wedding vows; an oath of honesty in a legal proceeding; a vowed contribution in Deut 23:21.

2. I believe what Jesus is addressing is those who have so compromised truth that an oath becomes necessary?

I have observed so many broken “campaign promises” that I don’t put trust in any of them. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that they don’t intend to lie, but politicians rarely estimate accurately the resolve of the opposition.

3. I have been told “I’ll see you in church Sunday” so many times that I’m no longer surprised, (disappointed, yes, but surprised no) when they aren’t here.

4. What about emergency room bargains?

5. Jesus is addressing those who would make an oath and offer collateral that is not God himself, but something that is God-related. Often these oaths had no intention of being fulfilled.

“We’ll See”

I admit, but I don’t think I’m the only one guilty of “We’ll see”. We’ll see is a common response to, “Dad, can we go to the Ocean some time?” or “Dad, can we get ice cream on the way home?” When I’m 98% sure they will be sound asleep before we get home.

· Just I use “we’ll see” as a means of diverting disappointment. People in Jesus day would make promises that they did not intend to keep based upon Heaven, earth or Jerusalem, knowing that these will all pass away and be re-created in the end or upon their old-age which none of us are guaranteed.

Application (reference)

1. Just as a child learns that “We’ll see” or “We’ll talk about it” or “Someday” is as good as “no”. Jesus is saying it is wrong for us to hold out false hope in our promises to others.

2. By prohibiting oaths, Jesus is confronting the “optional” perception of truth. He is saying society as a whole and his listeners specifically need to uphold the integrity of what we say.

3. “The more words a man uses to convince us, the more suspicious we should be”.[iii]

· I really mean it this time.

· I’m so, so sorry

4. If you find yourself needing to add “really’s” and “so’s” to your promises, it is a pretty good indication that these verses are for you.

Conclusion:

Today’s text calls upon us to repair 3 types of brokenness:

1. Prevent Broken relationship by putting up fences around your integrity.

2. Prevent Broken Vows by committing lifelong to marriage.

3. Prevent Broken Promises by being truthful with yourself and others.

[i] Donald A. Hagner, Matthew 1–13, vol. 33A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1998), 121.

[ii] Louis A. Barbieri, Jr., “Matthew,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 31.

[iii] Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 1 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 24.