Disciples and Others Matt 5:21-48

Disciples and Others

Intro: Did you know that in Arkansas, Alligators may not be kept in bathtubs.

And just in time for Valentine’s Day, as if it wasn’t hard enough in Idaho it is

Illegal for a man to give his sweetheart a box of candy weighing less than fifty pounds.

In Massachusetts and Maine it is required to carry a firearm to church on Sundays, in Maine’s case, it was in case the native Americans attacked.

Even those these laws sound strange to us, they wer created for a purpose. There was an intent to craft in and passing the law and there is also a spirit to enforcing the letter of the law.

God’s Law is constructed in a like manner. They are written for a purpose, but seem strange to us. And so we may get wrapped up in the letter of the law, trying to obey it so closely to the exact wording, that we lose sight of what the law is actually made for and just focus on the words and being righteous.

And so this section that we are going to look at today is Jesus explaining what the Pharisees think it means to be righteous by following the letter of the law and then goes one step further by giving his disciples what the intent or spirit of the law really means.

Read Verses:

Main Idea: Jesus Is clarifying the expectation for how His disciples interact with other people both in His Kingdom.

The Letter and the Spirit of the Law.

I think I Mentioned it last week and here and there through different sermons, but the church is a family and a living body. We should not do things to hurt or impede our family members or the other body parts because we are all working together.

I. How do you Treat your Siblings? (21-26)

The letter law says don’t murder.Which s easy for most everybody. But the spirit of the Law is that if you are angry with a brother is that you should reconcile with them if you are angry.

Forgiveness:

Forgive them if they have wronged you and ask for forgiveness if you have wronged them.

Why, because anger can lead to physically killing someone. People get in a rage and it turns into a physical fight and then it may result in someone being killed.

This is why dueling was outlawed as early as 1215 by the Romans and other countries followed their example. Oregon actually wanted to bring back theLaw that was on its books that allowed dueling. The people who proposed bringing it back were trying to prove a point of how absurd some of the laws are. They don’t need the letter of the law to say don’t go shoot someone at ten paces because you think you have been wronged. They jus know it is not right to murder someone for your pride and honor.

But when you are angry, it is not that easy to stop. Your temperature goes up, you can actually see Red as we learned when we went through Jonah.

But God wants us to master our emotions and not have our emotions master us. If not we will be judged for it.

says 19 My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, 20 for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.

says A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise person holds it in check.

And remember Jesus is both explaining that The pharisees see righteousness as one thing and God sees it as another.

Why, because there is a build up of emotion. Usually you work yourself into a frenzy.

But Jesus wants you to properly release that river of anger by talking to the person, asking forgiveness or forgiving, this way you are at peace with your brother or. Sister and the household or church can go on with life.

This is interesting because in the next chapter when the Disciples ask Jesus how they should pray, Forgiveness is the thing we should ask for and continually give out. Why, because we are better? No! Because God forgives us so we should forgive our debtors.

Jesus’ Action on the cross is the ultimate action of reconciliation and he wasn’t the one who caused the problem. But God is the only one that can truly make that reconciliation happen. Jesus atoned for our sins and bore God’s wrath.

TS: Jesus tells us about forgiveness when we deal with our siblings and he moves on to faithfulness in the next section when dealing with our spouses.

II. How do you Treat your Spouse (27-32)

In this section, Jesus talks about the letter of not committing adultery and divorcing your spouse. In one hand the letter is easy to fulfill. Don’t look and don’t touch and it is cheaper to keep her could be your motivation to stay with your spouse.

But the spirit of the Law is that you should remain Faithful to your spouse. Not just put up with him or her, but stay with them and learn to love them. Because God gave them to you.

Be thankful everyday for who you have in your life. If you focus on your spouse and his or her needs, there is enough work fulfilling and making them happy. That keeps you from looking around at other women or men and possibly being tempted. You are now content in your covenant that you would not give your spouse cause for divorce or cause you to want to leave your spouse.

Faithfulness

Again we have the Lord’s example of being faithful. Being longsuffering when people wrong you, but also how the relationship of God and israel is described in the Old Testament.

That is why the world has not been destroyed over and over again. Because God’s self description in and 7 The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin.

God is faithful to Israel because Israel is God’s bride.

The church is described as the Bride of Christ. Both groups are part of the whole being the people of God.

Will God get rid of his people. In jeremiah 31 we find the answer.

35 “This is what the Lord says:

The one who gives the sun for light by day,

the fixed order of moon and stars for light by night,

who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar—

the Lord of Armies is his name:

36 If this fixed order departs from before me—

this is the Lord’s declaration—

only then will Israel’s descendants cease

to be a nation before me forever.

37 “This is what the Lord says:

Only if the heavens above can be measured

and the foundations of the earth below explored,

will I reject all of Israel’s descendants

because of all they have done—

this is the Lord’s declaration.

Unless the impossible is made possible, the Lord will not leave or forsake His people. And so it should be with those of us who are married.

Going back to the weird laws, in france it is legal to marry a dead person and has been since the 1800s. This may sound weird or gross, but the practical, or the spirit goes back to children being born out of wedlock. If your husband died in battle, and there were constant wars going on in the 1800s,even though you were pregnant, then your child would be illegitimate, so this way the marriage would be recognized and so would the child. The last time this took place was in 2017 because a victim of terrosim married his partner posthumously.

Why because the covenant of marriage carries weight, not just so you can get an inheritance but so you can be linked to the person forever.

Being faithful helps you avoid sin.

"Thus I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD,

And in God foretells the new covenant that would be made and that new covenant is made through the body and blood of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

TS: When you are faithful you also keep your word, because you are being true to yourself as well as others.

III. How do you Treat your Yourself (33-37)

How many of you have used some kind of statement like I swear by my mother’s grave or my favorite car or t-shirt. Or insert something you have made an oath on to prove how serious you are.

Here, Jesus is bringing up something that first century Judaism did and that was make oaths or affirmations or “swearing” by Jerusalem, or heaven or earth or one’s head or the hair on your head. Just like when the three little pigs said they would not let the wolf in by the hair of their chinny chin chin. It is a strong oath with something near and dear to you. Because it was less binding than swearing By God. They could possibly get out of their oath if they needed to because it was not by Go, but they were also not breaking a commandment to not bear false witness as well.

But Jesus again goes beyond the letter of the law and avoids being tricky or lawyerish, and just says let your yes be yes and no mean no. Here the Spirit of the intent is explained.

One commentator says “Rather, Jesus’ followers should be people whose words are so characterized by integrity that others need no formal assurance of their truthfulness in order to trust them.”

Truthfulness

Our Truthfulness rests on and should be backed by God. Everything we say is essentially an oath sworn to God.

In Romans 9:1 Paul say I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying; my conscience testifies to me through the Holy Spirit.

There are two things: We should never take our words lightly because we are speaking as God’s children. God’s name should not be used in a vulgar or common which is the initial meaning of that word, way or usage. I heard my doctoral mentor said in his sermon last week, that he is trying to receive the word awesome only for God. because we have used it to describe things that are most certainly not awe inspiring.

Secondly, even if we try to skirt around it by using anything else, like the hair on our chins or your dog or the earth to swear on because it is still swearing by God because all things belong to God.

TS: When we are truthful with ourselves it is easier to be truthful with others and treat others with respect.

IV. How do you Treat your Neighbor (38-48)

It is human nature to dislike and bristle at the laws and just go along to get along, but then your behavior or reactions stop there. Most of us will not willingly break the law because we know there are consequences.

But it is another to turn the other cheek to someone who just slapped you. Jesus next alludes to and . Again he formally abrogates an Old Testament command in order to intensify and internalize its application. This law originally prohibited the formal exaction of an overly severe punishment that did not fit a crime as well as informal, self-appointed vigilante action.

Now Jesus teaches the principle that Christian kindness should transcend even straightforward tit-for-tat retribution.

In these commands, Jesus is contrasting the natural inclinations of humans against what a Child of God should be doing. We turn the other cheek, we offer the cloak along with the shirt, walk a second mile and loving your enemies even though they persecute you.

The world loves these verses because they think that is how society is made better. How we as humans rise above and come together. If we all give a little bit then no one will lack anything.

But there is something more at work for Christians that secular people lack. And what should propel us to act in the way that the Lord is instructing us. It is the difference of God’s influence in us and that makes us act this way.

God’s influence is the only lasting, sustaining energy that can make us turn the other cheek when someone hits us or wrongs us. At some point, people wil break down because they run out of energy.

But as Christians, we are new beings. Remade and filled with the Holy Spirit. As wiliam perkins, a puritan explained True believers, both the weak and the strong, looked to the object of faith—namely, Christ—not the amount of their own faith.”

God is what keeps us going, not coffee, not the idea of being good, but the idea of serving and emulating our Lord. that we can be just a little bit more like Him each day. That we bring the Kingdom on earth just a little more.

In our actions we are to demonstrate Godliness

“Jesus is not frustrating his hearers with an unachievable ideal but challenging them to grow in obedience to God’s will—to become more like him. J. Walvoord rightly observes, “While sinless perfection is impossible, godliness, in its biblical concept, is attainable.”

Conclusion:

Jesus is setting up his kingdom and establishing his people, Jesus makes clear that there is more to being adisiple than following the strict letter of the law. We must get to the root of God’s intent in making the law. We must get to his heart as best we can to understand what he wants from us.

He does not want perfection because we are perfected through the sacrifice of Jes. We are perfect and holy through his death and resurrection.

What God wants is us to reflect his image in which we have been made as it says al the way back in . We can demonstrate forgiveness and patience, we can be faithful, we can be truthful and we can be Godly.

It is all about the reformation of your heart that God is concerned with. That your heart of stone be replaced with a heart of flesh.

In is book about Puritan Piety or Godliness, Paul Schaefer explains “Moreover, the Christian life focused on the welfare of others as a chief aim of true godliness. He quotes Perkins and this is how we will close the sermon, The “libertie of Christ,” found in the free forgiveness of sins in Christ and known through the Word preached through the ministry of the church, was a liberty to serve others in love: “[Although we] … are free inwardly in conscience, yet in the outward use of our libertie we must be servants of men.… [We] must be as candles that spendeth themselves to give light to others.”

How are you spending your candle wax? Are you giving light to others or are you stealing light from them trying to be the brightest one?