Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Alexander the Great conquered the world, but anger conquered him, and turned him into a murderer.

Like so many of the murders of history, it was not intended or designed.

It happened because men do not understand that anger is the beginning of murder.

Clitus, his best friend, was teasing Alexander at a banquet.

Both of them were filling up with wine, and they began to lose control.

Clitus became quite nasty in his remarks, and Alexander lost his temper, and he hit him with his fist.

His officers restrained him, and led him out of the banquet hall.

Clitus, in anger, followed and continued to taunt Alexander.

Quick as a flash, Alexander snatched a spear from one of his guards and hurled it at his friend, and killed him.

Remorse followed his fury, and he drew out the spear, and would have fallen on it in grief had his officers not prevented it.

Clitus had been his friend from childhood.

He did not want him dead.

All that night and for several days Alexander lay in remorse piteously calling for Clitus.

It was an awful price to pay to indulge in anger.

Anger is no tame pet you can let roam free.

It is a wild beast, and it is a killer.

Most murders happen within families because this is where anger is permitted to roam freely.

People kill their friends and relatives, not because they want to, but because they underestimate the danger of anger.

People think that because their anger is over in a minute or so, they are in control, but that is all it takes to throw a spear, or pull a trigger.

This is why Jesus tells us that thou shalt not murder is not enough.

It is a good law, for it is a law of God, but He came to refine the law and improve it, and make it more effective.

Therefore, He says that the way to prevent murder is to recognize where it begins, and to deal with the seed which is anger.

The rest of this Sermon on the Mount is an elaboration of how Christian righteousness is to exceed the legalistic righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees.

From the emphasis of Jesus on bad human relations we can assume that Jesus is saying to us, God considers man's inhumanity to man as one of the world's greatest problems.

We like to think, like the Pharisee, that if we get right with God, and worship Him properly with all the right rituals, it doesn't much matter how we relate to people.

It is at this very point that religion can be the greatest enemy of Christ and true godliness.

Christians are not immune to this perversion anymore than were the Pharisees.

They actually got so caught up in their legalistic religion that they developed a contempt for man.

Man in his sinful nature was forever violating the law of God, and so they hated and despised man, and they lost the whole purpose of God in trying to save man.

Anger, hostility, and contempt dominated their feelings, in contrast to the love for man that Jesus brought into the world to fulfill the law.

I had an experience as a teenager that came back to me as I studied these verses.

It revealed to me how we can be tempted to follow the same path as the Pharisees.

I was working at a theater, and was outside putting up plastic letters announcing the next attraction.

The theater was right next to the sports bowl which was a hang out for youth.

The police stopped and grabbed a couple of guys and put them up against the store front and frisked them.

One got smart and got a slap across the head.

I was an innocent bystander, but I got angry at what I saw.

I made some smart remark.

One of the cops came over and grabbed me by the arm, twisted it behind me, and marched me to his car.

All I remember is that I started shouting, "I am a Christian!"

It must have made quite an impression because he let me go.

As I look back on it I can see that my thinking was that because I was a Christian he had no right to touch me for my bad attitude.

I was right with God, and, therefore, my anger at men was not to be an issue.

All that mattered is that I loved God.

This kind of thinking is what makes religion so hateful to people with a humanitarian heart.

Religious people often try to combine love of God with hate of man, and are really convinced it can be a workable plan.

Love God with all your heart, and hate your neighbor.

This kind of religion has been the curse of human history, and will be until the end of time.

Jesus in this Sermon attacks this kind of religion, and declares it unfit for the kingdom of God.

It sounds good because it magnifies God and obedience to His law, but it is really evil because it forsakes the purpose of God, which is to save man, and not condemn him.

God is not content with you for not killing men.

He is not satisfied until you love men as He does, and want to see them saved.

Jesus deals with human relationships as the key to being truly righteous.

According to this Sermon on the Mount man's biggest problem is not, how can I worship God properly, but how can I love my neighbor properly?

The first issue that we are focusing on is really basic to our developing a Christian value system in our thinking about man.

The overall issue here goes far beyond the law, and whether or not we ever murder anyone.

The issue is respect versus contempt.

One or the other of these attitudes will dominate our life, and which one it is will determine whether or not we are capable of being salt and light.

The point is, you do not have to be Christlike to obey rules.

The Pharisees proved this.

They did not murder, commit adultery, and all kinds of negative things.

They kept the law, but they did not love and respect people.

The goal of God is not to get people to conform to rules like a scientist training mice in a lab.

The goal is to get people to relate to others in love, and be channels of His Spirit in the world.

This means that not murdering people is just not enough to fulfill the law and the purpose of God.

His purpose can only be fulfilled when you develop an attitude of respect and love for persons.

If you kept everyone of God's laws, but did not love people, you would not have a righteousness fit for the kingdom of God.

In order to achieve this noble goal you have to identify and destroy three enemies that will block your path, and they are anger, hatred, and contempt.

All three of these negatives seem so much alike that they are obviously in the same family, but Jesus implies that each brother is meaner than the other, and so they are dealt with as representing different degrees of evil and judgment.

We have heard of the James brothers and the Dolton brothers, but here are the hostility brothers who, once they take over the town of your life, make you a murderer.

Even if you don't kill anyone, Jesus says you violate the whole purpose of God in giving the law, and so for all practical purposes, as far as the kingdom of God goes, you are in the same category with the murderer.

Like a sheriff out to protect the town from this trio of cut throats, we need to examine their profile and learn to identify them so we can run them out of town before they can set up shop in our territory.

We can imagine three wanted posters in the post office with three ugly pictures of these enemies of the soul, and descriptions of their dastardly deeds.

The first ugly mug is-

I. AWFUL ANGER.

He is just as deadly as his two brothers, Hideous Hatred and Callous Contempt, but he has some redeeming values.

We can't deal with the values here because Jesus is looking only at the negative of anger in this context.

It is hostility toward another, not because they are terrible and worthy of wrath, but because you are in a rotten mood, and evil thoughts control your emotions.

The best we can say for anger here is that it is the mildest form of murder in the heart, and, therefore, receives the least judgment.

It is mild murder in the sense that it leaves the other person alive, but it still makes you a murderer at heart.

Anger toward another is a beginning sign that you are on the borderline of homicide.

When you spot anger creeping into your town you know trouble is brewing, and its time to take action before things come to a boil.

Anger is an enemy of the kingdom of God because as long as anger controls the heart the heart cannot fulfill the purpose of God, which is to be a channel of love.

When you are angry with a person you are not open to the spirit of God, and so the chances of you being a channel of love and respect are very slim.

More than likely you will subtract from others self-esteem, and degrade their dignity, and reduce the respect they have a right to receive as persons made in the image of God.

Anger blinds us to values, and that is why it is a killer.

Alexander killed is best friend because anger covered over all the good he knew of his friend, and it made the present evil of his nature so blown out of proportion that was all he could see.

Anger makes murder so easy because by the time it is boiling all that is visible to the angry man or woman is a picture of evil that ought to be mashed.

It is the elder brother wishing that little louse of a brother of his would have been killed in the far country, and gotten what he deserved.

This was the attitude of the Pharisees toward the sinners Jesus was saving.

The people who broke the laws that they were so laboriously keeping were being saved, and being invited to banquets where they were happy, and they were being set free from their bondage by Christ's forgiveness.

The Pharisees were angry at the love and mercy of Christ, for it seemed so wrong to them, and so they murdered Jesus, convinced that they were doing what was right.

Anger can so distort one's perspective that they can do the greatest evils and feel they serve God in doing so.

Paul was convinced his anger was good and righteous as he went from town to town killing and imprisoning Christians.

Jonah was even convinced he had a right to be angry at God, for God promised to destroy the Ninevites, and then, just because they repented, God showed mercy and ruined the whole thing.

Had he the power he would have murdered the whole city and felt more righteous than God.

James and John, the sons of thunder, would have murdered the people of Samaria by calling down fire from heaven, but Jesus rebuked them and prevented such folly.

Peter almost murdered Malchus with the sword, but Jesus prevented that and healed the ear that was cut off.

The point is, anger is so close to being a force for good that it is hard to recognize when it is being a force for evil.