It'll Cost More Tomorrow

Questions

What do I want them to know? To do about it?

You can live free (from guilt, shame, and separation from God) tomorrow by making investments and sacrifices today. Sin always has a cost, that cost is lower when the sin is un-acted upon.

How will they know it?

In the first 2 of 6 statements by Jesus about what the law really means, Jesus highlights that our anger becomes murder and lust becomes adultery. Jesus calls us to make sacrifices of Pride, anger, desire, and action that lead to investments of peace, forgivenessgrace, purity, and freedom

Why will they care?

Who will be changed by it?

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Kids

Any of you ever get in trouble? Me too!

I remember sometimes when I would get in trouble, I would get mad at my parents for me being in trouble…even though I was the one who broke the rules.

The Bible tells us that we have to be really careful with our anger. It can get us in trouble really quickly.

A part of our passage today is from Matthew 5 says “if you are on your way to court, try to make things right NOW”

It’s always easier to apologize and make things right today instead of tomorrow. So next time you say something you know you shouldn’t because you’re mad…whether it’s your parents or a friend, apologize fast

Sermon

Problem

(What is true for gas inflation is true for sin. Jesus wants us to know that sin starts far earlier than we think)

Saw a guy at pump 2 yesterday put $10 worth of gas in his car…made me wonder where he’s heading…probably pump 3.

A friend told me they were robbed at the gas station the other day. When the police asked if he knew who did it, he said, yes…pump 5.

It’s strange, do you remember when you could get air free at the gas station, but now it’s a couple bucks? Inflation.

Sometimes you have to laugh or cry.

Gas prices seem to be on a non stop flight up. Though I did check the average on Google today for Vancouver Gas prices have gone down this last week by 2.9 cents. So there’s something...

Inflation is a phenomenon by which prices go up over time. Lots of complicated reasons that aren’t the point of today’s message, but it is a clear reality.

Though home prices seem to be stabilizing at the moment, as we look back on a year since we bought our house…we couldn’t have done it now. Not this house anyway.

The reality of inflation adds to that sense that we should act now. That if we are thinking about getting something, we should do it, because tomorrow it may cost more.

In today’s message, Jesus begins to press in to what the law really means.

As we covered last week, our salvation is not by law, but by grace because Jesus fulfilled the requirements of the law. So we are saved because Jesus died and rose, not because we “do” or “achieve” anything.

But the law is still in effect because the law describes the gap between us and God. Between us and who we were designed to be.

And in that space there are still consequences for us and others. In that space there is still separation from God if we are not trusting in Christ to renew that relationship.

The pharisees, the religious attorneys of the day had, through their oral tradition, some over simplification, and attempts to check boxes for the law instead of understand it, reduced the understanding of what the law intended for their listeners.

So Jesus goes into 6 statements that all begin with a variation of, “You have heard it said” which progresses to “but I tell you”.

We are going to look at these two at a time over the next couple weeks.

Why is this so important for us?

Today’s message is about people and their value.

Do you know who puts a high value on people? God does. As we just pointed out, The God of creation came into creation to fulfill the law through his life, death, and resurrection because GOD thinks people are worth that.

Jesus knows that our blessed life, our life of freedom and joy is hinged on our living according to our design and loving others according to their value (which he established by creating and redeeming them) and so he needs us to get this if we are going to be his followers.

Understanding

(5:21-22, 27-28)

Let’s look at the two statements together

Matthew 5:21-22 ““You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister, will be subject to the court. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire.”

Matthew 5:27-28 ““You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery. But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

There’s the law, and the heart, which is the real law.

Murder is the intentional destruction of a human being made in God’s image with malice.

If we listen to Jesus, we realize that there’s more to it than killing. We can also see inflation at work.

Three addendums:

Angry - subject to judgement - lowest level of the legal system.

Anger is not always bad. Jesus was angry, we see God angry…and there are things worth being angry about.

In Mark 3 Jesus gets angry because of the hard hearts of the pharisees and the damage it was causing to the vulnerable.

But in Psalms and Ephesians we read this:

Ephesians 4:26 “Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger,”

Anger is supposed to communicate something to us, and then be dispersed. God can be trusted to act in anger…but far too often…like every time…our anger is no where near pure.

How many terrible decisions and broken relationships come because someone was angry and held it. Inflation kicks in here for sure.

the longer we hold our anger, the higher the price for resolving it…often doing permanant damage in our hearts…

Insults - Now inflation starts to kick in faster. This idea of insulting is anything that lowers the value of another human. A word or action that takes away from their life to add to ours.

Again, subject to judgement. You haven’t murdered them…but you have taken a part of their life unjustly and ungraciously, for your purposes.

This is not love, this is hate. Hate is only possible when we lower someone’s value. There is no room for it in the church or in the Christian...

1 John 3:15 “Everyone who hates his brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.”

John was listening to this message. If you are willfully reducing another person, you are acting in hate and you are on the murder spectrum.

“You fool!” - This one translates poorly. The phrase here is more than an insult. I remember reading this and thinking, that “you fool” was a pretty soft insult for this increased judgement to hell fire.

The phrase implies condemnation. To put it the way we would say it...”Go to hell” or “damn you”.

We’ve reached the point of the destruction of another that we are telling them and God where this person belongs for eternity. We are seeking their separation from God.

And we put ourselves in the crossfire. Jesus puts the risk on us that we are advocating for them…That’s a lot of inflation from anger to here…the cost gets higher.

Let’s go to the next statement

Matthew 5:27-28 ““You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery. But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

Adultery requires less explanation.

Adultery is sexual intimacy outside the commitment of a mutually sacrificial marriage relationship.

Our sexual desire was meant to be fulfilled in absolute security and safety. It’s actually a picture God uses of the design of his relationship with us! Complete vulnerability and connection.

Adultery happens when we are seeking to get the pleasure without the purity, without the intimacy, in violation of what it is supposed to be.

Like anger being on the road to murder, adultery begins farther back and the cost gets higher, but very quickly.

At the point where our eyes engage with desire we are in violation of the command. Lust is the desire for something that we give nothing back to. It transforms the human into an object for our enjoyment.

This is where the pornography epidemic hits home. It feels consequence free…but Jesus tells us that when we use a human like an object, we are adulterers.

Now Jesus’ main goal is getting us to understand and experience a life of intimacy with God and others, a blessed life.

The law was being read that as long as you don’t murder or commit adultery you were fine. Jesus says, that’s just the end result of the inflation of hatred and lust. That’s where we need to deal with it.

Turning

We can make an investment (which takes sacrifice) that can set us free -

As we are in a season of high inflation, I’ve heard many people talking and I’ve thought quite a lot about investments and strategies to make sure inflation is not robbing my bank account of it’s value.

For any investment though, there is a sacrifice. Money that could be spent today, is invested for tomorrows freedom.

Jesus, in both of these statements tells us of sacrifices we can make for the sake of avoiding the high cost of sin and finding freedom on the other side.

Make no mistake though this is a sacrificial investment. It’s not like the 2% that gets taken for your 401k, you will notice.

But Jesus is telling us these because he longs for us to have the freedom, he longs for us to not go through suffering we don’t have to. So he gives it to us clearly.

Implications

(Pay the price (that is, take action against sin) before it becomes an action: 5:23-26, 29-30)

The Investment for Freedom

Matthew 5:23-24 “So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”

Pride for Peace

Note that Jesus goes straight at it here. You remember that someone has something against you. Don’t wait, go do what you can.

This comes at the price of our pride.

I would guess that 99 times out of 100 if your friend has something against you…you have something against them too.

Jesus says: YOU. Go.

But…they…Jesus says You, go.

He’s saying it to them too. But their refusal to pay the price doesn’t take away your need to do so.

You can not control their response, you can not control their willingness to respond in kind. You can do your part. And your part is the investment that frees you.

It ties into the next phrase:

Matthew 5:25-26 “Reach a settlement quickly with your adversary while you’re on the way with him to the court, or your adversary will hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny.”

Anger for Grace

The cost for your anger is high and will get higher. Jesus says, deal with it quick. Make a settlement before you get to the court. Before it costs you far more than you want to pay.

Every step down the anger road is a step of inflation. The cost goes higher every day.

Think about how you talk about others. How you post on social media.

Jesus is telling us that our words are murder weapons. Our anger is deadly to others and costs us far more than we expect.

Jesus is urging us to pay the lesser cost for our anger by dealing with it now.

Let’s look at our Jesus’ other statement:

Matthew 5:29 “If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”

Desire for Purity

Important vocabulary word for this passage: hyperbole - exaggeration for understanding.

Here’s the point

Desire is fun. It is enticing. Genesis 3 says that at least part of the fall was Eve noticing the look of the apple.

Here’s a challenge. Anger isn’t something you decide to start. It comes, we have to choose what to do with it. Desire is the same. We rarely choose to start it…but like anger, it is easier to keep rolling down the trail instead of paying the price to invest in what will bring freedom.

James describes the problem with desire:

James 1:15 “Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.”

Apart from the grace of God, every sin separates us from God, it costs us life and joy and freedom.

Jesus says if our right eye (our best eye) causes us to sin, get rid of it.

In other words, what is triggering the desire? deal with that!

Is it a particular form of entertainment?

A place you go?

In my own battles with this I found there were totally innocent websites I had to avoid because of the ads that would appear.

It may be that having ready access to the internet is the right eye that needs to be removed.

Bottom line, what triggers desires that are lustful instead of pure needs to go if you are going to have freedom.

But when you are already there…the problem is desire if the investment is not made will inflate to action. Jesus tells us to pay the price.

Matthew 5:30 “And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”

Sin for Freedom

When looking starts leading to action, the price is harder to pay…but inflation keeps going up. The gas is only going to cost more. What do you need to remove from your life that is causing you to treat people like objects?

I need to wrap this up. Let’s get to the bottom line:

Application

In 5:25–26, Jesus urged the offender to settle an offense quickly at lesser cost, rather than delay and incur the judgment of higher authority.

in 5:29–30, he urged his students to pay the lesser costs that may be required to halt an adulterous heart early on, rather than allow the sin to develop fully and incur the final judgment of God.

Jesus repeats this pattern twice, To communicate two underlying principles:

It costs less to address the root of a sin early on than to carry the weight of the consequences of the sin fully developed as well as the weight of judgment before God. The earlier sin is dealt with, the better.

Most sin at it’s heart comes down to how we fail to value another person according to their identity as an image bearer of God.

As we have said over the past couple weeks, thanks be to God for the gift we have of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus and his death and resurrection. The son of God suffered and took on sin that we might live in freedom and perfect relationship with Him. If you have never given your life and trust to Jesus, please talk to someone come talk to me or a member of our prayer team following the service.

This week, as I was dwelling on this message, an event took place that is significant in our nation. As you may have heard, Roe v Wade was overturned.

Yes, it is a reason to celebrate. Anytime laws better reflect God’s compassion for every life, no matter the size, that is worthy of praise.

But as I was contemplating this message, I was cut to the heart by another thought.

Our political divide just got much wider.

I have enough friends who see this matter differently to see their response on social media and their anger and fear are real. We can debate all day long, but what they feel is real.

And the impression they have been left with is that Christians are are far more interested in their morality, than in them.

That we judge behavior, but are not interested in walking with them.

We don’t want to help care for people, but we insist that those people carry the consequences of their choices.

Abortion is an evil. It originates in the second statement and finds it’s end in the first. Sexual relationship without commitment and sacrifice, leading to the dehumanization of the life created through that act.

But this moment in history is either a hazard for the church or an opportunity.

We can be kind or cruel.

We can demonstrate sacrifice or be apathetic.

We can condemn or give grace.

And as I was studying this passage, the deeper I dug, the more I saw the murderer and adulterer in me. And I cried out in grateful praise for the grace God has given me.

I have no legs to stand on to judge those who have had an abortion or those who have performed them.

Truth is, we live in one of those states that people will come to in order to get abortions. Overturning Roe impacts the federal right, not the state legality.

This is a rubber meets the road moment for the church. They have made up their minds about us. They are angry and fearful. But God adores them. God sees past the hurt and sin that led to their actions to the image bearer he hand knit to bring life and light into the world.

Will our words and actions alienate them farther from God, or give them a reason to believe that there is a God who loves, a God who forgives, a God who can redeem ANY story and give new life?

This morning, as we close, and as the worship team comes up, I believe God is calling us to a prayer of confession and repentance for our own sin, and a prayer of grace for salvation for those whom God loves and longs for restored relationship with.

I’ll offer a prayer and prompts, and then leave you to silent prayer this time. Between you and the Lord.

Confession

Murder

Adultery

Restoration

Relationship with God

Relationships with one another

Relationships with the lost

The lost reconciled to God