February 2, 2025 • 33 mins
1. The teachers had a wrong interpretation
1. Only observed the law outwardly
2. Neglecting the law inwardly
2. Jesus gives a complete interpretation
1. Feeling Anger
2. Expressing Anger
3. Categories of Anger
1. Temper
2. Resentment
3. Righteous
4. Reconciliation needs to be…
1. A priority
2. Done with urgency
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:30):
Good morning. You have your Bibles. Matthew 5 is where we'll be. We are in week four of
our series on going through the Sermon on the Mount. By the time we are done with this
series we will have looked at every one of Jesus's words to his disciples in the Sermon.
(00:56):
This is the first time that we know of that he is spending some quality time with those
who have chosen to follow him by teaching them why he came. Now this message would have
been offensive to them. I want you to imagine being a young Jewish boy and you have been
(01:16):
taught your whole life how to live your life in a way that honors God. You've been to temple
many times. You've celebrated Passover. You've observed the Sabbath. You've been told what
to expect when the Messiah comes. You've been told he's going to overthrow the government.
(01:37):
He's going to wipe out all of your enemies. The Jewish state will be elevated above all
others once again. Your entire life, this is what you know to be true. This is what
has been indoctrinated into you. Then Jesus shows up and there's some hope that this might
be the Messiah but they didn't know yet for sure. He begins telling them that their rabbi
(02:03):
and their parents have been teaching the things of God incorrectly. Their entire identity
as good Jewish boys is about to be rocked. In this chapter Jesus begins by telling those
who are listening that God will bless those who do certain things and have certain attitudes.
(02:26):
For example, he says that God will bless those who are gentle and merciful. God will bless
those whose hearts are pure and he will bless those who are persecuted for how they live
for God. He goes on to tell them that they are the salt of the earth, that they are the
light of the world. He's not speaking to large crowds of curious people here. He is teaching
(02:52):
his disciples the ones that have chosen to follow him. While his rules appear to be a
little different from those who were commonly practiced or understood, Jesus assured his
disciples that he'd not come to abolish the law but he came to fulfill the law. As we
see here in a minute, God holds his followers to a higher standard. When we begin a relationship
(03:21):
with him, when we become a part of his family, he raises the bar of how we are supposed to
act and he raises the bar of how we are to behave. So that's our text this morning. I'm
going to invite Tabitha up here to read our text out of Matthew 5 this morning. She's
going to read verses 21 through 26. Now, today's a special day. Tabitha is nine years old today.
(03:52):
And a couple weeks ago, now you have to know Tabitha to appreciate this, but a couple weeks
ago she came up to me and told me that February 9th is her birthday. She's reading the passage.
February 2nd is her birthday and she is reading the passage on her birthday. She didn't ask
(04:13):
if she could. She said, I'm reading the passage on my birthday. And so she's going to read
our passage this morning. Am I supposed to remind them what I said earlier? Okay. She's
accepting gifts for her birthday. If you feel so inclined, one dollar bills, five dollar
bills, like if you feel so inclined, this is this girl's birthday. Let's make her day
(04:37):
special. Can we do that? If you're able, we'd love for you to stand and honor the Lord's
word as she starts in verse 21. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall
not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone
(04:59):
who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will
be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and they remember that your brother has something
(05:22):
against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go first be reconciled to your
brother and then come and offer the gift. Come to terms quickly and the accuser will
while you are going with him to the court. Let's your accuser hand you over to the judge
(05:47):
and the judge to the guard and you will and you put in prison. Truly I say to you, you
will never get out until you have paid the last penny. Amen. Good job. That's pretty
father. We thank you for Tabitha. We thank you for her life and another year and we pray
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God that you just bless her abundantly. You walk with her all the days of her life. We
thank you for your word. I pray father that as we look at this text that you will soften
our hearts to it, that you will open our eyes to the intention of it and I pray father that
you will change us. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. She's going to make
(06:34):
a fortune today. So Jesus begins verse 21 by quoting Exodus chapter 20 verse 13 that
says, do not murder, which we know of as part of the Ten Commandments. The Lord had given
the instructions to Moses and he had passed them on to the people. But there are a lot
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of people who do everything possible to live within the letter of the law while the whole
time they are really living against the very principle behind the law itself. So Jesus
is acknowledging the law which is good but now he's about to tell the disciples that
everything they had heard in temple wasn't complete. He's going to show that all the
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righteousness of the Pharisees and all the righteousness of the scribes isn't enough.
So he gets to verse 22 and he says, but I say. What he is telling the disciples in that
moment is that the religious leaders had a wrong interpretation of the law. We must keep
in mind that Jesus was not setting his teaching against the Old Testament. Instead he was
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referring to the faulty interpretation that the scribes and Pharisees had given to it.
Had Jesus been contradicting the Old Testament, he would have been contradicting the very
text and words that he had authored. In ancient times people did not have multiple copies
of the Bible like we do today. They weren't able to pull it up on their phones. They didn't
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have a variety of them with different Bible covers and colors and things like that laying
around the house. Their understanding of the Scripture, it was primarily gleaned from what
they had heard the scribes and the Pharisees teach and what they saw in their lives and
how they practiced it. They relied heavily upon these men to read and interpret the law
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of God. The problem with this system was that the religious leaders did not always expound
the exact meaning of the text. And as we said last week, when Jesus is referring to the
law, he's referring to the entire Old Testament. When the Jews refer to the law, they're referring
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to the Old Testament, but they're also including the Mishnah and the Talmud, which were commentary
on what the law meant to them. And they filled in the places where they felt like the law
wasn't sufficiently explained. The Jewish leaders only observed the law outwardly. They
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had deduced the Sixth Commandment of do not murder to the mere act of one person taking
another person's life. So in their mind, as long as they didn't kill anybody, they were
good. They were obeying the law. They had no trouble sleeping at night because even
though they might have wanted to, they made it another day without taking a life, something
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to be celebrated. Have you ever struggled with the rules before? The disciples knew
the law itself, and they knew how to live by the letter of the law. The same is true
for us. We know that killing someone is wrong, and most of us, hopefully all of us, would
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never do that. But sometimes when it comes to rules, we tend to push the limits and see
just how much we can get away with. Just how much we can push the boundaries without actually
breaking the law. But the reality is that while others may judge us for our outward actions,
God will judge what's in our heart. The Bible is clear that while man looks at the outward
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appearance, God looks at our heart. Jesus is explaining to the disciples here in Matthew
chapter five that there's really more behind the heart of the law besides just not killing
someone. While that might be the law that the world must follow, as followers of Christ,
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we are again held to a higher standard, a different standard. Jesus says that this goes
way beyond murder. The intention behind this law goes way beyond murder. He texted a step
further and says that if you were angry with someone, you were subject to judgment also.
You don't even have to kill someone, but you're just as guilty. I want you to stop for a minute
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and consider something when it comes to murder. Hardly anyone kills another person who wasn't
angry first. I don't think you're just having a great day and everything's good and you
decide to go kill somebody. Sometimes people get killed over some stupid stuff. Some of
you might remember several years ago, a pastor in Tennessee, he was killed by his wife with
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a shotgun over an argument about money. I have this list in my office and I keep track
of every time I read about a pastor that's killed by a family member just so I can keep
an eye on him. You never know what's going to happen. A few years ago, a man in New
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Zealand was killed over a game of scrabble. Two of his friends disagreed with him over
how a word was to be spelled, so they beat him with a bat and stabbed him in the back.
Anyone that's ever played a game of scrabble or any types of games with a family member,
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like you understand how they got there. Uno can destroy a family pretty quickly, but we
look back and we're like, that's a stupid reason to kill somebody. According to the
law, you can't kill someone, but according to the standards of Jesus, you can't be angry
with someone. The Pharisees didn't murder anyone, but in their heart there was anger,
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and we can for sure see this in the life of Jesus. They did not like him. They were always
trying to come up with schemes to try and trap him in something. This eventually led
them to pleading with the Romans to have him crucified. The Romans didn't want anything
to do with it, but the Jews were angry. So they only observed the law outwardly, but
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they also neglected the law inwardly. In essence, Jesus is saying, I know what you've
heard and I know how you've been taught, but I'm telling you that the command not to
kill goes further than the physical act of murdering somebody. It deals with the matter
of hearts as well. In a 1994 article that was titled, Wars Lethal Leftovers Threaten
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Europeans, the author wrote, the bombs of World War II are still killing in Europe.
They turn up and sometimes blow up at construction sites in fishing nets or on beaches 50 years
after the guns fell silent. Hundreds of tons of explosives are recovered every year in France
alone. Thirteen old bombs exploded in France last year, killing 12 people and wounding
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11. Unexploded bombs become more dangerous with time. With the corrosion inside the weapons
become more unstable and the detonator can be exposed. May I suggest to you, when it
comes to anger, that what is true of lingering bombs is also true of lingering anger. If
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you bury anger, it will explode when you least expect it. What Jesus says in verse 22 is
that to be unjustly angry at someone is as evil as actually murdering that person. That
is the heart of the law that God gave to Moses. It wasn't because Cain killed Abel and God
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was trying to correct something. It wasn't because Moses had killed an Egyptian and God
all of a sudden was like, we're going to see an epidemic here, we've got to get this under
control. It was because inward obedience to him is just as important as outward obedience.
So what Jesus is giving the disciples is a full and complete explanation of the law and
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the heart of the law. In no uncertain terms, Jesus clearly states that to feel enmity in
our hearts towards our brother unjustly is to be as guilty of murder as if we actually
took his life. Now the Bible has a lot to say about anger, which is important because
we all feel anger at times, do we not? But what do we do with it? Again, Jesus didn't
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come to abolish the law so that we know anything that was written up and to that point about
anger or any other topic was still relevant then. It's just as relevant today. David says
in Psalm 37, refrain from anger and turn from wrath. It only leads to evil. Solomon says
in Proverbs 14, a quick tempered person does foolish things. He also says in Ecclesiastes
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17, anger resides in the lap of fools. Now there's many more examples in the Bible describing
anger as a trait that we shouldn't desire unless you want to be foolish. You should desire
anger if you want to do evil. But on top of all that, Jesus says that those who hold anger
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in their heart will be subject to judgment. But he also addresses expressing anger. One
cannot feel anger very long without expressing it. That phrase in your Bible that says insults
his brother is the term raka, which means empty or worthless one. The phrase you fool means
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to be dull or stupid. Now there are ways in which people can be destroyed short of the
physical act of murder. How many of us have had our character assassinated because of
words that were said to us or words that were said about us? We might not use the term raka,
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but we use words that are just as destructive. Proverbs 18, 21 says that the tongue has the
power of life and death. When you express your anger, do you do it in a way that destroys
someone's character? Does it harm their reputation with others? Now we might not call that person
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a fool. We might not call that person worthless, but we have our own little phrases that communicate
our feelings towards others. In Texas, sweet little old ladies would never call somebody
an idiot, but they will say bless your heart. If you've been around people from the south,
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you know exactly what that means. There was this lady at our former church that was a
little old school which was not a problem for me, but it was a problem for her because
at times she did not like some of the things that I said, and she did not like some of
the things I did. And she's really sweet, so she's not going to come up to me and look
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me in the face and tell me what an idiotic thing I just said or what an idiotic thing
I just did. Instead, she would just walk up to me and say bless your heart, pastor. Now
I know what she meant. She knows what she meant. She just put a little sugar on top
of it. Southerners have perfected the insult. So let's look at some different types of anger
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because I think they fall into some basic categories. The first one is our tempers.
Some of us have them and others don't, at least externally. Now I have a temper that
the Lord has done a number on over the years. When I think about my temper in the past,
I think of uncontrolled rage that violates the principle of self-control that we read
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about in Galatians chapter 5. A temper is generally displayed when something happens
that we don't like, and all of a sudden we erupt like a volcano spewing out all kinds
of destruction in our path, whether it be verbal or physical. When I think about my
life 15 years ago or so, I understand what it means to say that anger leads to foolish
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things. How foolish is it that there was a period of time where I lacked such self-control
that I couldn't keep my hand from going through drywall, that I couldn't get myself to calm
down and not feel the need to throw things? It is foolish when my temper flared up. I couldn't
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even process things reasonably. I could never once consider an alternative idea to fix the
situation. Now I might not have ever killed someone, but I have sure felt the rage in
my heart that did not honor the Lord one bit. Rage is never acceptable. Regardless of the
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situation or circumstance, it is a result of being in the flesh, and when we are living
in our flesh, we are sinning against God. If you struggle with a temper like I did, pray
that God would give you self-control. Pray that He would fill you. I got pretty good
at patching holes in the wall, and that's not a skill that I'm proud of. Anger can also
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be seen in resentment. Now, resentment has been called the frozen rage. Resentment says
I'm angry, but I'm not going to tell you or let you see that I'm angry. It leads to bitterness.
It leads to broken relationships. When a person harbors resentment and hatred in their hearts,
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they are always going to be poisoning themselves more than they're hurting the other person.
The enemy wants you to walk around with a spirit of resentment towards others, but he
especially wants you to walk around with a spirit of resentment towards those that are
part of the household of faith. He wants to use every tool that he can to divide you and
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keep you from experiencing abundant life. Do not let him win. I think sometimes we wait
until the end of the service. We've got to get through the sermon, and then we're going
to make a decision after all this hoopla is done. But there's no need to wait. You can
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resolve in your heart right now to let go of resentment. If the Lord is speaking to you
right now, will you decide in your heart to let it go and move forward? Maybe you need
to send a text to someone, schedule a time where you can get together to make things
right, but don't ignore the Lord if he's speaking to you regarding your resentment.
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The final category of anger is a righteous anger. We know that Jesus had a righteous
anger. He walked into the temple and he saw how people were making a mockery of it. They
were making money from the things of God. I've heard people use that text as an excuse
to explode in anger. I've heard them say, if Jesus can turn over tables in the temple,
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then I can throw things around my house. If Jesus can make a big scene, then I can make
a big scene when my family doesn't do as I expect, that is a complete misunderstanding
of this text. Righteous indignation does not allow for apathy or indifference on the part
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of God's people. Sin should make us angry, not necessarily at a person, but at the evil
that is happening around us. There is a way to love the sinner, but hate the sin. I hate
what pornography is doing to our culture. I hate how it's affecting our children. I
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hate that it's so easily accessible. I hate that abortion has become a political issue.
I hate that homosexuality and transgenderism is so prevalent in our culture right now,
that our children are having to deal with it. Our children are having to ask the questions,
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how do we handle this situation? But we shouldn't hate the people that are struggling with it
because there's sin that I struggle with. Jesus didn't hate the people that were collecting
money in the temple. He hated what they were doing. They were exploiting the worship of
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God for their own personal benefit. We need to be angry about the things that anger the
Lord, to righteous anger. Now, once Jesus is done with explaining the heart of the law,
once he is done giving the complete interpretation and reminding the disciples that caring around
anger in their hearts is destructive, he gives them the remedy. He gives them the remedy
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in order for their worship to not be hindered. And in verses 23 through 24, he talks about
reconciliation. He shows us that reconciliation should be a priority. Jesus told the disciples
that if they were standing before the altar in the temple, if they were offering a sacrifice
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to God, and suddenly they remembered that someone has something against them, that they
were holding anger against them, that there was something wrong against them, he tells
them to leave there immediately and go be reconciled to that person. It's probably going
to be inconvenient, but go reconcile to that person to try and worship God while harboring
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anger, while harboring bitterness against one another is futile. God will not accept
such hypocritical worship. Such was the worship of the scribes and the Pharisees. Any outward
service to God, though it looks good to man, though it makes him look like good people,
is an abomination to God if it's done with harboring unconfessed sin in our hearts. The
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Lord's instructions are very clear as to what we are to do if we realize that we have offended
a fellow believer. We are to leave what we're doing and make an effort of reconciliation
a priority. We cannot be right with God until we are right with one another. Notice that
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we as believers are to take the initiative. We don't wait on them to come to us. We take
the initiative. Maybe God has not put it on their hearts for reconciliation because he
is wanting to do a work in you. We take the initiative. Then in verses 25-26, Jesus says
that there should be an urgency to our reconciliation. No time should be wasted on our part when
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it comes to making things right. Every day that's spent at odds with another brother
is a day spent at odds with God. Every day you continue to walk in unforgiveness or bitterness
or anger or resentment. You give the enemy more time to work on you. It gives him more
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time for that root of bitterness to grow and blossom inside of you. It would be best for
a man, he says, to settle out of court. Settle on your way to court. Don't wait until you
get before the judge. Settle out of court on your way there. By doing so, he says you're
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going to spare yourself a lot of grief. As Jesus is talking about the temple and offering
sacrifices on the altar, what he's really talking about is worship. Now we worship a
little bit differently today. We're not slaughtering animals on the stage. We're not lighting
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fires and burning incense that we hope makes it to heaven, but the same principle still
applies. If we come into worship and we show up here on a Sunday morning and there is something
wrong between us and another person, we can't worship God. The songs that we sing, the prayers
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that we pray, the offering that we put in the box will not be honoring to God because our
relationship with others isn't right. And therefore our relationship with God is affected.
If we are angry or if it caused someone else to be angry at us, we can clearly not worship
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God as he intended. Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 4, he says, get rid of all bitterness,
rage, anger, harsh words and slander, as well as all types of malicious behavior. Instead,
be kind to each other, tender-hearted, forgiving one another just as God through Christ has
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forgiven you. Forgiveness is not possible by our own strength. Forgiveness was made
possible through the cross of Christ. That's why we're supposed to forgive others. That's
how we're supposed to give others because Christ has forgiven us. It's clear that Jesus
wants our hearts to be pure. It's clear that He wants our actions to be pure. He deserves
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our worship, not just an outward religion. He deserves to be worshiped. And sometimes
we tend to look at things and react to things on the surface. But over the next several
weeks we're going to continue dealing with some other issues that Jesus goes a little
deeper on. If you have chosen to be a follower of Christ, you have chosen to give up your
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life and follow Christ. It's like a life swap. You are not free to act and behave and think
as you choose anymore because you've chosen to let Christ be the Lord of your life. You've
chosen to let Him be in control. So I want to say just take a few minutes now. Let's
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reflect on how things in your life are in regards to anger and resentment and bitterness.
As you reflect on those things, it's possible that you'll find that you're not giving the
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Lord control that you're still in control of a lot more than you should be. Why not give
Christ control today? Why not surrender everything to Him and live the life that He intended for
you to live today? We're about to take communion. We're about to take communion and remember
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and celebrate the forgiveness that we've been given in Christ. I don't know how you walked
in here this morning. I don't know if you're maybe in a season where you feel spiritually
dry. I feel the Lord is distant. I feel like He's not speaking to you. My assumption would
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be that you are walking in some unconfessed sin, that you are harboring some sort of anger
in your heart toward somebody else and your worship has been hindered. So my encouragement
to you this morning is let's deal with it. Let's handle it. If you need to leave right
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now to go make peace with somebody, I'd encourage you to just get up and leave. But worship,
we come into worship God, we need to be in right relationship with one another. Because
when our worship is hindered, we tend to make it all about us and not about Him. We tend
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to really be focused on our preferences and what we want and how we want to worship instead
of just realizing it's not about us at all. We get a worship to God that saved us and
forgave us and redeemed us. So we're going to take communion together. I'm going to
invite Matthew and David up here. Matthew is going to sing a song over us as we take communion.
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I'm going to invite the elders and the deacons to come forward and get ready to pass these.
Good morning. You have your Bibles. Matthew 5 is where we'll be. We are in week four of
our series on going through the Sermon on the Mount. By the time we are done with this
series we will have looked at every one of Jesus's words to his disciples in the Sermon.
(00:56):
This is the first time that we know of that he is spending some quality time with those
who have chosen to follow him by teaching them why he came. Now this message would have
been offensive to them. I want you to imagine being a young Jewish boy and you have been
(01:16):
taught your whole life how to live your life in a way that honors God. You've been to temple
many times. You've celebrated Passover. You've observed the Sabbath. You've been told what
to expect when the Messiah comes. You've been told he's going to overthrow the government.
(01:37):
He's going to wipe out all of your enemies. The Jewish state will be elevated above all
others once again. Your entire life, this is what you know to be true. This is what
has been indoctrinated into you. Then Jesus shows up and there's some hope that this might
be the Messiah but they didn't know yet for sure. He begins telling them that their rabbi
(02:03):
and their parents have been teaching the things of God incorrectly. Their entire identity
as good Jewish boys is about to be rocked. In this chapter Jesus begins by telling those
who are listening that God will bless those who do certain things and have certain attitudes.
(02:26):
For example, he says that God will bless those who are gentle and merciful. God will bless
those whose hearts are pure and he will bless those who are persecuted for how they live
for God. He goes on to tell them that they are the salt of the earth, that they are the
light of the world. He's not speaking to large crowds of curious people here. He is teaching
(02:52):
his disciples the ones that have chosen to follow him. While his rules appear to be a
little different from those who were commonly practiced or understood, Jesus assured his
disciples that he'd not come to abolish the law but he came to fulfill the law. As we
see here in a minute, God holds his followers to a higher standard. When we begin a relationship
(03:21):
with him, when we become a part of his family, he raises the bar of how we are supposed to
act and he raises the bar of how we are to behave. So that's our text this morning. I'm
going to invite Tabitha up here to read our text out of Matthew 5 this morning. She's
going to read verses 21 through 26. Now, today's a special day. Tabitha is nine years old today.
(03:52):
And a couple weeks ago, now you have to know Tabitha to appreciate this, but a couple weeks
ago she came up to me and told me that February 9th is her birthday. She's reading the passage.
February 2nd is her birthday and she is reading the passage on her birthday. She didn't ask
(04:13):
if she could. She said, I'm reading the passage on my birthday. And so she's going to read
our passage this morning. Am I supposed to remind them what I said earlier? Okay. She's
accepting gifts for her birthday. If you feel so inclined, one dollar bills, five dollar
bills, like if you feel so inclined, this is this girl's birthday. Let's make her day
(04:37):
special. Can we do that? If you're able, we'd love for you to stand and honor the Lord's
word as she starts in verse 21. You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall
not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone
(04:59):
who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will
be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire.
So if you are offering your gift at the altar and they remember that your brother has something
(05:22):
against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go first be reconciled to your
brother and then come and offer the gift. Come to terms quickly and the accuser will
while you are going with him to the court. Let's your accuser hand you over to the judge
(05:47):
and the judge to the guard and you will and you put in prison. Truly I say to you, you
will never get out until you have paid the last penny. Amen. Good job. That's pretty
father. We thank you for Tabitha. We thank you for her life and another year and we pray
(06:08):
God that you just bless her abundantly. You walk with her all the days of her life. We
thank you for your word. I pray father that as we look at this text that you will soften
our hearts to it, that you will open our eyes to the intention of it and I pray father that
you will change us. We ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen. She's going to make
(06:34):
a fortune today. So Jesus begins verse 21 by quoting Exodus chapter 20 verse 13 that
says, do not murder, which we know of as part of the Ten Commandments. The Lord had given
the instructions to Moses and he had passed them on to the people. But there are a lot
(06:59):
of people who do everything possible to live within the letter of the law while the whole
time they are really living against the very principle behind the law itself. So Jesus
is acknowledging the law which is good but now he's about to tell the disciples that
everything they had heard in temple wasn't complete. He's going to show that all the
(07:23):
righteousness of the Pharisees and all the righteousness of the scribes isn't enough.
So he gets to verse 22 and he says, but I say. What he is telling the disciples in that
moment is that the religious leaders had a wrong interpretation of the law. We must keep
in mind that Jesus was not setting his teaching against the Old Testament. Instead he was
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referring to the faulty interpretation that the scribes and Pharisees had given to it.
Had Jesus been contradicting the Old Testament, he would have been contradicting the very
text and words that he had authored. In ancient times people did not have multiple copies
of the Bible like we do today. They weren't able to pull it up on their phones. They didn't
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have a variety of them with different Bible covers and colors and things like that laying
around the house. Their understanding of the Scripture, it was primarily gleaned from what
they had heard the scribes and the Pharisees teach and what they saw in their lives and
how they practiced it. They relied heavily upon these men to read and interpret the law
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of God. The problem with this system was that the religious leaders did not always expound
the exact meaning of the text. And as we said last week, when Jesus is referring to the
law, he's referring to the entire Old Testament. When the Jews refer to the law, they're referring
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to the Old Testament, but they're also including the Mishnah and the Talmud, which were commentary
on what the law meant to them. And they filled in the places where they felt like the law
wasn't sufficiently explained. The Jewish leaders only observed the law outwardly. They
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had deduced the Sixth Commandment of do not murder to the mere act of one person taking
another person's life. So in their mind, as long as they didn't kill anybody, they were
good. They were obeying the law. They had no trouble sleeping at night because even
though they might have wanted to, they made it another day without taking a life, something
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to be celebrated. Have you ever struggled with the rules before? The disciples knew
the law itself, and they knew how to live by the letter of the law. The same is true
for us. We know that killing someone is wrong, and most of us, hopefully all of us, would
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never do that. But sometimes when it comes to rules, we tend to push the limits and see
just how much we can get away with. Just how much we can push the boundaries without actually
breaking the law. But the reality is that while others may judge us for our outward actions,
God will judge what's in our heart. The Bible is clear that while man looks at the outward
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appearance, God looks at our heart. Jesus is explaining to the disciples here in Matthew
chapter five that there's really more behind the heart of the law besides just not killing
someone. While that might be the law that the world must follow, as followers of Christ,
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we are again held to a higher standard, a different standard. Jesus says that this goes
way beyond murder. The intention behind this law goes way beyond murder. He texted a step
further and says that if you were angry with someone, you were subject to judgment also.
You don't even have to kill someone, but you're just as guilty. I want you to stop for a minute
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and consider something when it comes to murder. Hardly anyone kills another person who wasn't
angry first. I don't think you're just having a great day and everything's good and you
decide to go kill somebody. Sometimes people get killed over some stupid stuff. Some of
you might remember several years ago, a pastor in Tennessee, he was killed by his wife with
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a shotgun over an argument about money. I have this list in my office and I keep track
of every time I read about a pastor that's killed by a family member just so I can keep
an eye on him. You never know what's going to happen. A few years ago, a man in New
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Zealand was killed over a game of scrabble. Two of his friends disagreed with him over
how a word was to be spelled, so they beat him with a bat and stabbed him in the back.
Anyone that's ever played a game of scrabble or any types of games with a family member,
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like you understand how they got there. Uno can destroy a family pretty quickly, but we
look back and we're like, that's a stupid reason to kill somebody. According to the
law, you can't kill someone, but according to the standards of Jesus, you can't be angry
with someone. The Pharisees didn't murder anyone, but in their heart there was anger,
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and we can for sure see this in the life of Jesus. They did not like him. They were always
trying to come up with schemes to try and trap him in something. This eventually led
them to pleading with the Romans to have him crucified. The Romans didn't want anything
to do with it, but the Jews were angry. So they only observed the law outwardly, but
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they also neglected the law inwardly. In essence, Jesus is saying, I know what you've
heard and I know how you've been taught, but I'm telling you that the command not to
kill goes further than the physical act of murdering somebody. It deals with the matter
of hearts as well. In a 1994 article that was titled, Wars Lethal Leftovers Threaten
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Europeans, the author wrote, the bombs of World War II are still killing in Europe.
They turn up and sometimes blow up at construction sites in fishing nets or on beaches 50 years
after the guns fell silent. Hundreds of tons of explosives are recovered every year in France
alone. Thirteen old bombs exploded in France last year, killing 12 people and wounding
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11. Unexploded bombs become more dangerous with time. With the corrosion inside the weapons
become more unstable and the detonator can be exposed. May I suggest to you, when it
comes to anger, that what is true of lingering bombs is also true of lingering anger. If
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you bury anger, it will explode when you least expect it. What Jesus says in verse 22 is
that to be unjustly angry at someone is as evil as actually murdering that person. That
is the heart of the law that God gave to Moses. It wasn't because Cain killed Abel and God
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was trying to correct something. It wasn't because Moses had killed an Egyptian and God
all of a sudden was like, we're going to see an epidemic here, we've got to get this under
control. It was because inward obedience to him is just as important as outward obedience.
So what Jesus is giving the disciples is a full and complete explanation of the law and
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the heart of the law. In no uncertain terms, Jesus clearly states that to feel enmity in
our hearts towards our brother unjustly is to be as guilty of murder as if we actually
took his life. Now the Bible has a lot to say about anger, which is important because
we all feel anger at times, do we not? But what do we do with it? Again, Jesus didn't
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come to abolish the law so that we know anything that was written up and to that point about
anger or any other topic was still relevant then. It's just as relevant today. David says
in Psalm 37, refrain from anger and turn from wrath. It only leads to evil. Solomon says
in Proverbs 14, a quick tempered person does foolish things. He also says in Ecclesiastes
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17, anger resides in the lap of fools. Now there's many more examples in the Bible describing
anger as a trait that we shouldn't desire unless you want to be foolish. You should desire
anger if you want to do evil. But on top of all that, Jesus says that those who hold anger
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in their heart will be subject to judgment. But he also addresses expressing anger. One
cannot feel anger very long without expressing it. That phrase in your Bible that says insults
his brother is the term raka, which means empty or worthless one. The phrase you fool means
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to be dull or stupid. Now there are ways in which people can be destroyed short of the
physical act of murder. How many of us have had our character assassinated because of
words that were said to us or words that were said about us? We might not use the term raka,
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but we use words that are just as destructive. Proverbs 18, 21 says that the tongue has the
power of life and death. When you express your anger, do you do it in a way that destroys
someone's character? Does it harm their reputation with others? Now we might not call that person
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a fool. We might not call that person worthless, but we have our own little phrases that communicate
our feelings towards others. In Texas, sweet little old ladies would never call somebody
an idiot, but they will say bless your heart. If you've been around people from the south,
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you know exactly what that means. There was this lady at our former church that was a
little old school which was not a problem for me, but it was a problem for her because
at times she did not like some of the things that I said, and she did not like some of
the things I did. And she's really sweet, so she's not going to come up to me and look
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me in the face and tell me what an idiotic thing I just said or what an idiotic thing
I just did. Instead, she would just walk up to me and say bless your heart, pastor. Now
I know what she meant. She knows what she meant. She just put a little sugar on top
of it. Southerners have perfected the insult. So let's look at some different types of anger
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because I think they fall into some basic categories. The first one is our tempers.
Some of us have them and others don't, at least externally. Now I have a temper that
the Lord has done a number on over the years. When I think about my temper in the past,
I think of uncontrolled rage that violates the principle of self-control that we read
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about in Galatians chapter 5. A temper is generally displayed when something happens
that we don't like, and all of a sudden we erupt like a volcano spewing out all kinds
of destruction in our path, whether it be verbal or physical. When I think about my
life 15 years ago or so, I understand what it means to say that anger leads to foolish
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things. How foolish is it that there was a period of time where I lacked such self-control
that I couldn't keep my hand from going through drywall, that I couldn't get myself to calm
down and not feel the need to throw things? It is foolish when my temper flared up. I couldn't
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even process things reasonably. I could never once consider an alternative idea to fix the
situation. Now I might not have ever killed someone, but I have sure felt the rage in
my heart that did not honor the Lord one bit. Rage is never acceptable. Regardless of the
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situation or circumstance, it is a result of being in the flesh, and when we are living
in our flesh, we are sinning against God. If you struggle with a temper like I did, pray
that God would give you self-control. Pray that He would fill you. I got pretty good
at patching holes in the wall, and that's not a skill that I'm proud of. Anger can also
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be seen in resentment. Now, resentment has been called the frozen rage. Resentment says
I'm angry, but I'm not going to tell you or let you see that I'm angry. It leads to bitterness.
It leads to broken relationships. When a person harbors resentment and hatred in their hearts,
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they are always going to be poisoning themselves more than they're hurting the other person.
The enemy wants you to walk around with a spirit of resentment towards others, but he
especially wants you to walk around with a spirit of resentment towards those that are
part of the household of faith. He wants to use every tool that he can to divide you and
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keep you from experiencing abundant life. Do not let him win. I think sometimes we wait
until the end of the service. We've got to get through the sermon, and then we're going
to make a decision after all this hoopla is done. But there's no need to wait. You can
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resolve in your heart right now to let go of resentment. If the Lord is speaking to you
right now, will you decide in your heart to let it go and move forward? Maybe you need
to send a text to someone, schedule a time where you can get together to make things
right, but don't ignore the Lord if he's speaking to you regarding your resentment.
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The final category of anger is a righteous anger. We know that Jesus had a righteous
anger. He walked into the temple and he saw how people were making a mockery of it. They
were making money from the things of God. I've heard people use that text as an excuse
to explode in anger. I've heard them say, if Jesus can turn over tables in the temple,
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then I can throw things around my house. If Jesus can make a big scene, then I can make
a big scene when my family doesn't do as I expect, that is a complete misunderstanding
of this text. Righteous indignation does not allow for apathy or indifference on the part
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of God's people. Sin should make us angry, not necessarily at a person, but at the evil
that is happening around us. There is a way to love the sinner, but hate the sin. I hate
what pornography is doing to our culture. I hate how it's affecting our children. I
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hate that it's so easily accessible. I hate that abortion has become a political issue.
I hate that homosexuality and transgenderism is so prevalent in our culture right now,
that our children are having to deal with it. Our children are having to ask the questions,
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how do we handle this situation? But we shouldn't hate the people that are struggling with it
because there's sin that I struggle with. Jesus didn't hate the people that were collecting
money in the temple. He hated what they were doing. They were exploiting the worship of
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God for their own personal benefit. We need to be angry about the things that anger the
Lord, to righteous anger. Now, once Jesus is done with explaining the heart of the law,
once he is done giving the complete interpretation and reminding the disciples that caring around
anger in their hearts is destructive, he gives them the remedy. He gives them the remedy
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in order for their worship to not be hindered. And in verses 23 through 24, he talks about
reconciliation. He shows us that reconciliation should be a priority. Jesus told the disciples
that if they were standing before the altar in the temple, if they were offering a sacrifice
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to God, and suddenly they remembered that someone has something against them, that they
were holding anger against them, that there was something wrong against them, he tells
them to leave there immediately and go be reconciled to that person. It's probably going
to be inconvenient, but go reconcile to that person to try and worship God while harboring
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anger, while harboring bitterness against one another is futile. God will not accept
such hypocritical worship. Such was the worship of the scribes and the Pharisees. Any outward
service to God, though it looks good to man, though it makes him look like good people,
is an abomination to God if it's done with harboring unconfessed sin in our hearts. The
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Lord's instructions are very clear as to what we are to do if we realize that we have offended
a fellow believer. We are to leave what we're doing and make an effort of reconciliation
a priority. We cannot be right with God until we are right with one another. Notice that
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we as believers are to take the initiative. We don't wait on them to come to us. We take
the initiative. Maybe God has not put it on their hearts for reconciliation because he
is wanting to do a work in you. We take the initiative. Then in verses 25-26, Jesus says
that there should be an urgency to our reconciliation. No time should be wasted on our part when
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it comes to making things right. Every day that's spent at odds with another brother
is a day spent at odds with God. Every day you continue to walk in unforgiveness or bitterness
or anger or resentment. You give the enemy more time to work on you. It gives him more
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time for that root of bitterness to grow and blossom inside of you. It would be best for
a man, he says, to settle out of court. Settle on your way to court. Don't wait until you
get before the judge. Settle out of court on your way there. By doing so, he says you're
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going to spare yourself a lot of grief. As Jesus is talking about the temple and offering
sacrifices on the altar, what he's really talking about is worship. Now we worship a
little bit differently today. We're not slaughtering animals on the stage. We're not lighting
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fires and burning incense that we hope makes it to heaven, but the same principle still
applies. If we come into worship and we show up here on a Sunday morning and there is something
wrong between us and another person, we can't worship God. The songs that we sing, the prayers
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that we pray, the offering that we put in the box will not be honoring to God because our
relationship with others isn't right. And therefore our relationship with God is affected.
If we are angry or if it caused someone else to be angry at us, we can clearly not worship
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God as he intended. Paul tells us in Ephesians chapter 4, he says, get rid of all bitterness,
rage, anger, harsh words and slander, as well as all types of malicious behavior. Instead,
be kind to each other, tender-hearted, forgiving one another just as God through Christ has
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forgiven you. Forgiveness is not possible by our own strength. Forgiveness was made
possible through the cross of Christ. That's why we're supposed to forgive others. That's
how we're supposed to give others because Christ has forgiven us. It's clear that Jesus
wants our hearts to be pure. It's clear that He wants our actions to be pure. He deserves
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our worship, not just an outward religion. He deserves to be worshiped. And sometimes
we tend to look at things and react to things on the surface. But over the next several
weeks we're going to continue dealing with some other issues that Jesus goes a little
deeper on. If you have chosen to be a follower of Christ, you have chosen to give up your
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life and follow Christ. It's like a life swap. You are not free to act and behave and think
as you choose anymore because you've chosen to let Christ be the Lord of your life. You've
chosen to let Him be in control. So I want to say just take a few minutes now. Let's
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reflect on how things in your life are in regards to anger and resentment and bitterness.
As you reflect on those things, it's possible that you'll find that you're not giving the
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Lord control that you're still in control of a lot more than you should be. Why not give
Christ control today? Why not surrender everything to Him and live the life that He intended for
you to live today? We're about to take communion. We're about to take communion and remember
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and celebrate the forgiveness that we've been given in Christ. I don't know how you walked
in here this morning. I don't know if you're maybe in a season where you feel spiritually
dry. I feel the Lord is distant. I feel like He's not speaking to you. My assumption would
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be that you are walking in some unconfessed sin, that you are harboring some sort of anger
in your heart toward somebody else and your worship has been hindered. So my encouragement
to you this morning is let's deal with it. Let's handle it. If you need to leave right
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now to go make peace with somebody, I'd encourage you to just get up and leave. But worship,
we come into worship God, we need to be in right relationship with one another. Because
when our worship is hindered, we tend to make it all about us and not about Him. We tend
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to really be focused on our preferences and what we want and how we want to worship instead
of just realizing it's not about us at all. We get a worship to God that saved us and
forgave us and redeemed us. So we're going to take communion together. I'm going to
invite Matthew and David up here. Matthew is going to sing a song over us as we take communion.
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I'm going to invite the elders and the deacons to come forward and get ready to pass these.
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