Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

We have quite a bit to cover today as Jesus unpacks six traditional Laws and applies his brand of righteousness to the Law in comparison with the Pharisaical form of righteousness.

And as we have already discussed this practice only served to complicate the Law and makes it overwhelming.

[PRAY]

Father God, I praise your name and welcome your warm embrace as we have gathered together to worship and praise your Holy Name.

earnestly seek your leadership and guidance as we serve You and advance the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ in Los Fresnos.

Father I ask that you bless me with clarity of mind, precision of speech, and a heart for your people as I bring your message today.

In the name of Jesus Christ, the Great Teacher, I ask these things.

Amen

I. Living Out Your Righteousness Day by Day - Matthew 5:20

I have talked previously about Matthew 5:20 because it is the central theme to The Sermon on the Mount...

I also spoke about how we could only achieve such a lofty goal through the work that Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross.

Jesus moves from talking about righteousness in verse 20 directly to applying a righteous view of the Law to our daily lives.

Jesus pointed back to the very same Law of Moses that the Pharisees blew up into this massive set of rules to live by.

character > conduct

Remember that Jesus is teaching us here that conduct isn’t the point, but character is at the core of the law.

PRINCIPLE

When we live by a code of righteous conduct, we become like the Pharisees.

When we live by a righteous character, the deeds and actions of righteous conduct flow into our daily lives.

Jesus chooses to highlight six laws that are focused on the way that we relate with others...

A. Murder & Anger - Matthew 5:21-26, Exodus 20:13

Jesus quotes the Ten Commandments here and begins to unpack this law for the disciples… with a righteous life in mind.

Recall that Jesus was speaking to His disciples when He spoke these words.

He wasn’t very likely sitting in the company of murderers.

He was sitting with common people with common problems.

But He takes this grand offense of murder and compares it to a much more common practice of getting angry with one’s brother.

How many of us hold anger against our brother, another family member, somebody at work or here at church?

This is not a righteous anger that Jesus is talking about.

The anger that Jesus mentions is the kind of anger that boils up inside of us and we nurse it inwardly and hold it grudgingly against our brother.

While He doesn’t equate murder with anger and calling names, He does say that this type of begrudging and quarrelsome behavior makes us guilty enough to deserve the fires of hell.

[Wow!]

In other words, behavior that we would laugh off as insignificant, Jesus would categorize as a big deal.

Jesus is following murder back to its root of anger.

He is saying that the root of the sin is not in the murder, but the root is in the anger.

So why should we not be held accountable for the root of our sin (anger) rather than the product of our sin (murder)?

B. Adultery & Lust - Matthew 5:27-30, Exodus 20:14

Jesus moves on to another law from the Ten Commandments by quoting Exodus 20:14

This time he takes adultery and connects it with the root sin of lust...

The road to the sin of adultery begins when lust sparks into flame in our heart.

In fact it begins with a look.

Not just a glance.

The word for “look” here is a longing stare, for the purpose of fanning the flame of desire into lust.

This “look” has the purpose of feeding the sexual appetite.

This law highlights the sanctity of sex and the right place of marriage which we don’t have time to explore fully today.

This law also shows us how the human heart can mislead us and take us down a path that only has one end… the fires of hell.

Sexual sin is a problem for many men and women who have not learned to purify the desires of the heart.

We have the power to discipline the actions of our body by limiting our ability to engage in sin.

This takes a strength of will to avert the eyes or to draw back when we find ourselves in tempting situations.

But that is exactly what we have to do in order to avoid this type of sin.

Jesus is saying, not only shall you not commit adultery, but when you begin to feel the stirrings of lust, adultery is right around the corner.

Paul warned Timothy, his young pastor protege, to run away from these situations...

And that is exactly what we must do when presented with sexual sin or any other addictive type of sin.

C. Divorce - Matthew 5:31-32

Before we tackle this one, let me just say that our purpose today with this message is not to take a deep dive into the topic of divorce.

It is a big topic that affects a lot of people at a deep level.

Additionally the topic of Old Testament divorce compared to what Jesus taught can be quite complex.

That being said, Mosaic Law allowed for divorce by requiring the husband to give his ex-wife a legal bill of divorcement.

But only if there was some reason for the husband to be ashamed by his wife.

This does not necessarily mean that the husband was ashamed by some infidelity on the part of the wife.

It simply meant any form of shame.

By now it’s probably not a surprise to you that Jesus took the Mosaic Law to the next level...

Jesus is actually further restricting the terms of divorce to the reason of unchastity… that is to say for reasons of porneias (in Greek)-fornication, immorality, or specifically infidelity.

More clearly put--and the way that we interpret this teaching for our lives today--is that if a husband or wife is married to one who sins against them by having sex outside the marriage, then the one who has been wronged may be released from their marriage vows, free to marry again.

However the one who has sinned, would not be considered free to remarry because of their sin.

Again, the heart of the matter here is that Jesus holds husbands to a much higher standard in divorce than the Mosaic Law requires.

D. Swearing Oaths - Matthew 5:33-37; Leviticus 19:12; Numbers 30:2

This is not about cursing, but about swearing oaths or making vows...

This is based in the Levitical Law… specifically he is referring to Leviticus 19:12 and Numbers 30:2… and the message is a command not to swear falsely or make oaths and vows and later to fulfill those vows.

And, yes, you might have noticed that Jesus refers to people swearing by their head or some other body part.

The Pharisee practice was to avoid swearing a divine oath to God, but they might even swear by the city of Jerusalem or by heaven to bolster their promise.

We don’t often think today of making false oaths or vows to support our conversation, but we still see it from time to time.

A modern day equivalent of this might be to say something like, “May God strike me dead if I’m lying.”

or a more common saying in the south, “If I’m lyin’ I’m dyin’.”

We might even hear someone saying something like “I swear by my mother’s grave.”

This is much better said if one swears on the grave of their mother-in-law… Not really.

I can’t say that.

I have the best mother in law in the world.

Jesus wanted for us to keep our speech based in honesty.

A true character does not need “crutches” to prop it up and get people to believe what we are saying.

Oaths and vows cannot compensate for poor character.

In fact, this type of speech is just brash bluster.

Proverbs 10:19 teaches us to watch out for this kind of behavior...

E. Retaliation & Revenge - Matthew 5:38-42; Leviticus 24:19-22

Jesus speaks to the Levitical Law regarding retaliation and revenge...

The original law regarding retaliation in Leviticus 24 seems quite fair on the surface, but human nature tends to take a wrong and kick the revenge up a notch higher than is required or recommended.

This law kept those who were wronged from extorting a greater compensation from the one who wronged them than the offense actually deserved.

Jesus upturned the Levitical Law by asking His followers to be willing to accept loss rather than forcing one to suffer.

But quite often we forget this, don’t we?

We are so interested in getting what we’re owed that we are willing to force the issue.

But Jesus knows that if we are willing to take the loss, and if we can stand our ground without turning away, then we can also be in a position to help the one who has a need.

PRINCIPLE We often have the opportunity to help those who seek to hurt us.

You’ve heard the saying that “Hurt people hurt people.”

Violence and hurting others comes from a position of weakness.

The weak man hurts others and runs away to protect himself.

The strong man can love others while at the same time suffering hurt from them.

F. Love of Enemies - Matthew 5:43-47; Leviticus 19:17-18

The Mosaic Law set out rules for dealing with your enemies.

But Jesus, of course, had a deeper message.

One that we often forget about in the heat of our emotions when we are wronged.

Christian love is not an emotional response.