Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro

The great G.K. Chesterton once said this, “When a man really tells the truth, the first truth he tells is that he himself is a liar.”

Sub Intro: remind people of the “logic of the Gospel”: that a life of obedience is produced by a transformed heart.

In the sermon on the mount Jesus always shows us that the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.

Main Point Of The Sermon: The Gospel transforms liars and doubters into men and women who love and speak the truth.

LIARS AND DOUBTERS騙子和懷疑者

Oaths

In the Old Testament God allowed for oaths, vows, and promises to be taken.

Oaths were allowed in the Old Testament to guard against human deception and dishonesty.

So for example you see Abraham making an oath with Abimelech.

Genesis 21:22-24

Big picture oaths were put in place to guard against our human bent towards dishonesty and deception.

By the time Jesus was teaching however, oaths were now being used not to help honesty, but being used as excuses to be DISHONEST.

Jesus says

Jesus is speaking against something that was very common during this time.

What was happening is that religious teachers, the pastors of that day, were using oaths as a tool not for honesty but for dishonesty.

To get away with not keeping your word.

There was a whole complex system that the Pharisees and scribes set up to do this.

If you can imagine a money laundering scheme.

People find all the loopholes and areas in the system they can exploit to get money illegally.

Well this vow and oath system that the Pharisees had set up was being used to do the same.

They could exploit it so they didn’t have to keep their word.

For example: Oaths “by” heaven were more binding than oaths “on earth”.

If an oath was taken by the temple, it was not binding, you had to swear by the “gold” in the temple.

It’s like when you were kids and you had your fingers crossed when making a promise.

So I can get out of keeping my word.

This is what the Pharisees and Scribes were allowing to take place.

We shouldn’t be surprised.

From the very beginning we see that we as human beings are not good at telling the truth and being honest.

In the very beginning our first parents believed a lie.

From that moment on, we as humans are prone to deceit and to doubt.

We are not good at being trustworthy, but rather we are good at finding excuses and reasons not to keep our word.

What happens when you or I hear an advertisement from a political candidate?

Do you believe their promises?

Absolutely not.

Why?

Because we are prone to doubt, but we also have been swimming deceit and dishonesty.

NO OATHS.

DO NOT TAKE AN OATH.

Talking about His disciples.

For those of you who know your bible however, you should be asking this question.

Doesn’t God Himself make oaths?

Promises?

Gods Oaths Reveal Our Doubt上帝的誓言揭示了我們的疑慮

This leads to an important question.

If Jesus wants disciples to take no oaths, why does God take oaths, apparently violating his own ideal?

For God does takes oaths:

• He said to Abraham, “By myself I have sworn … I will surely bless you” (Gen.

22:16–17 ESV).

• God confirmed his promises to Israel “with an oath” (Heb.

6:17).

• God swore to mankind that he would never send another flood (Gen.

9:8–11).

• He swore to send a Redeemer (Luke 1:68, 73) and to raise him from the dead (Ps.

16:10; Acts 2:27–31).

• God took oaths to guarantee his covenants (Pss.

132:11; 95:11; 119:106).

Why does God do something that he tells us not to do? John Stott replies, “Not to increase his credibility but to elicit and confirm our faith.”

God does not take oaths because his credibility is in doubt, but because we, having told and heard so many lies, have learned to be doubters.

We are accustomed to breaking our word and having others break their word to us.

Therefore, God knows that we need assurance of his reliability.

He knows that our standards are so low that we expect falsehood from everyone, even him.

So for our sake he takes an oath to guarantee his word.

Imagine a couple who is dating where one of the persons is very insecure about the other’s love and commitment.

The other needs to constantly reassure her/him of their love, NOT because they have been unfaithful, but because of the insecure unbelieving heart of the other.

This is the same for us.

God doesn’t make oaths because His character is in question, but because our hearts our prone to doubt.

So far through Jesus’ teaching we have seen that oaths, both our own, and God’s only reveal our human tendency towards dishonest, doubt, and deception.

So if that’s what we aren’t supposed to do, then what SHOULD WE DO?

The disciples hearing this would have been shocked.

What do you mean no more vows or oaths Jesus?

What do we do?

How will others be able to believe we will keep our promises?

Jesus’ answer?

By your words.

Christians words and promises should not need anything extra to make them more believable or trustworthy.

This means that as Christians we are called to be honest, truth telling people.

Now I know there are some of us here who are thinking, “well is it really that big of deal if I just tell people what I think they want to hear?” Isn’t it okay if I say I’ll do something but never keep my promise if it makes a person happy?

The answer is it is a big deal.

Notice how Jesus says that anything but honesty, anything but speaking the truth comes from the evil one.

Basically it is sin.

This includes:

flattery:

Over promising but never intending on making good on those promises

Saying yes when we really mean no, or saying no when we really mean yes.

But why don’t we do this?

Why are some of us over-committed?

Why are some of us burnt out from ministry?

Why do some of us struggling with saying “yes” when we should say “no”?

Why do we flatter instead of being honest?

Why do we struggle to speak honestly to people, and instead just say things that we know people want to hear?

Jesus tells us that we don’t just have a speech problem, but we have a sin problem.

The “Yes” Of Man人的接納

“anything more than this comes from the evil one”

See Jesus says our broken promises, our dishonesty, our flattery, is rooted not in wrong speech but in a wrong heart.

If you walk away from this teaching and you say “Okay, I need to try harder and do better.

I need to be a more a trust worthy person.

Man I need to speak honestly when people ask my opinion” You’ve missed it.

Jesus’ teaching here, listen church family, Jesus’ teaching her should not force us to have more willpower, but instead Jesus’ teaching here exposes our deep need for this Gospel!

I believe one of the main reasons we struggle with being honest, trustworthy people is because we are living for someone else’s “yes”.

The reason why our ‘yes’ doesn’t meant ‘yes’ and our ‘no’ doesn’t mean ‘no’, is because we are living for someone else’s yes.

Let me explain what I mean.

For some of us we have an “inner critic”.