Sermon Tone Analysis

Date: 2022-02-13

Audience: Grass Valley Corps ONLINE

Title: Living in the King’s Community

Text: Matthew 5:17-48

Proposition: Even the smallest details of God’s Law are essential

Purpose: Let your heart be transformed!

Grace and peace to you!

Flip to Matthew chapter 5 – we’re going to dive right in.

Quick reminder of where we’re at: Matthew is sharing the story of Jesus so that his readers can understand why he believes Jesus to have been the fulfilment of God’s promise of a Messiah – a king who would come to rule over all the world as part of restoring the Kingdom rule that had existed before humankind’s choices had created the rebellion we’ve been living in since Eden.

The message of Jesus was that people need to turn back to God because his reign is being reestablished.

Declaring our allegiance not only puts us in his camp but living out that allegiance helps lead others to join his Kingdom.

Faith in Matthew’s messiah isn’t simply the matter of flying a flag or claiming to be on the team.

As Jesus sat down at a flat spot on a mountainside to talk with those following him, he began by stressing the kind of people who would come to be part of the Kingdom and went on to emphasize what the lives of those in the Kingdom would look like, how they would show mercy and an effort to keep their reason and drive focused on Kingdom efforts, and how they would be constantly striving to bring harmony and wholeness to all the world.

It was a grand vision – one that would make some hearts soar.

But others would have found this message disturbing – it sounded different than what they’d heard before.

Was Jesus teaching them a whole new way, one that rejected the way they knew which had been given by God through Moses and then interpreted by their ancestors and elders over the years?

Was he calling on them to spurn what had come before in favor of some radical new teaching?

Even as these thoughts and questions would have begun bubbling under the surface of the minds of his listeners, Jesus addressed them.

More than that, he went on to give some particularly pointed examples of how God’s Kingdom calls us to a HIGHER standard, not a lesser or different one.

By now you have probably found Matthew 5. We’re starting where Jesus is speaking at verse 17.

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.

19 Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

[1]

We’re going to take a couple of moments to go over a few things in this passage which you probably didn’t understand.

Matthew’s audience, the people he wrote this biography for, were First Century religious Jews living in what we consider to be the Ancient Near East.

There are things that were part of their everyday life which he didn’t explain, because everyone knew them.

Things that went without saying for them, but which we might miss or misunderstand because we don’t know about them in the same way.

For example, when Jesus talks about the Law.

We Americans tend to think of the Law as something which has been legislated and put into books to regulate some kinds of behaviors.

We generally believe that everyone else should follow these rules explicitly and that we should be able to bend or break them if it would inconvenience us to follow them.

Most of us know that “The Law” was something more than that to God’s people in the scriptures.

It was the commands given to Moses by God which formed the basis of all religious life for the Israelites, right?

Well… Yes, but also, no.

That doesn’t really capture the extend of what it meant.

Their world didn’t separate into sacred and secular.

There was no separation of church and state.

The Law of Moses was the single, driving force behind all of their society.

Everything you did, including how you got up in the morning and how you lay down at night was shaped by how you understood those 613 commands to interact with what you were doing.

And, just like we do, the people struggled with how to understand those rules.

A lot of them have no explanation or qualifier – some are guiding principles with no details at all.

“Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy” – what does that mean?

At what point does taking a nice afternoon walk turn into working instead of resting?

Can you go to the gym?

Some of these discussions go on even now – Kindling a fire on the Sabbath was forbidden – does that mean you can’t turn on a light switch or start a car in modern days?

Can flipping a switch really be compared to gathering sticks and brush and laboring with flint and iron or other tools to strike some sparks to create a cookfire?

Different authorities had different interpretations for many of these commands, and that’s still true today.

This led to a saying that someone who was clarifying the true intent of a command so that it could be understood and followed according to God’s ideal was fulfilling that law.

And if your interpretation fulfilled the letter of the law but did not meet God’s ideal, then you were abolishing or destroying that law.

So what is Jesus saying?

He’s saying that he’s not here to get rid of or change God’s law, but he is here to make it clear that God’s intent isn’t being met.

He says that even the smallest letter won’t disappear from the law.

What’s the smallest letter in English?

Maybe the lower-case “i”?

In what Jesus is saying it is the Hebrew letter yodh.

There was a story told by the sages, well known by the people of the day, that when the LORD changed the name of Abraham’s wife Sarai to be Sarah, the yodh that was removed cried out for many generations.

At last, when Moses changed the name of Hosea the son of Nun to be Joshua, the yodh was returned to scripture.

The teachers would say that this proved that not even the smallest letter can pass from the Bible.

The point Jesus is making is that even the smallest details of God’s instructions for life are essential.

The Pharisees and the Scribes who were charged with teaching and enforcing the Law, along with Corps Officers, Pastors, and other religious teachers should be particularly aware and observant of those details because of our roles in life.

Jesus uses them as examples because they are known for their religious precision and effort to conform to the Law.

But he’s telling people that really becoming a part of God’s Kingdom takes more than that.

Keeping the letter of the law while missing the intent is possible, and it’s a grievous mistake to make, because it means that you are NOT living in God’s Kingdom.

Don’t miss that.

It’s too important!

Nothing in the teaching of Jesus is focused on getting us some kind of golden ticket that will allow us to go to heaven some day.

Everything in his teaching is focused on what it means to live under the reign of God NOW.

The Kingdom of God is at hand – is your allegiance to God or is it to the rebellion?

If it’s to God, then this is the expectation.

Start making an effort to live the way you are intended to!

It isn’t about going through the motions: It’s about allowing your heart to be transformed!

Jesus gives us six examples where living out God’s principles would transform not only our hearts, but the whole world.

21 “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, e and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’

22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister, will be subject to judgment.

Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court.

And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

[2]

Let’s face it: Killing someone isn’t really that hard to avoid.

But letting them get under your skin and make you angry?

And then harboring that feeling, letting it fester and grow?

That’s a lot easier to indulge, isn’t it?

And when that happens, you’re suddenly closer to murder than you might think.

In the story of Cain and Abel, it is Cain’s anger that leads to his murder of Abel.

Anger that began in a little thing, but which Cain kept burning until it fired him to draw his brother out into a field and strike him.

He may not have intended to kill Abel, but when you allow your emotions to control you instead of the other way around, things inevitably get out of hand.

Jesus tells us how to know when our anger has already taken us too far.

When we refer to them contemptuously or insultingly.

That word “raca” is an expression of contempt.

Like calling someone stupid.

And the bit which says, “you fool,” is translated from a word referring to being morally worthless.

This is the progression of anger, right?

Something sets you off and you think or say or post on Facebook, “You’re such an idiot!” and that’s just feeding the fire, so your emotion grows stronger and you come back, “You’re an idiot and you’re evil.

Your opinion is without value.

You’re obviously bound for hell!”

Maybe you stop speaking to them at all.

Maybe you start talking about them behind their back.

Everything they say just upsets you more.

Your anger blinds you to anything but more anger.

Jesus says that’s on you.

Oh, but listen, he tells you what to do about it!

23 “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar.