Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

How many of you have heard the “Golden Rule” being to treat others the way that you want to be treated?

This is a rule that is often taught in schools and understandably so, if someone treats others the way that they would like to be treated then people will treat others fairly well.

This is a standard that all people can live by regardless of your faith/beliefs.

With that said, we know that Scripture calls us to an even higher standard!

Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount has been turning the world upside down and continues to do so in our text today as He shows that the commands of the law are not necessarily wrong, but they should lead to a change from the inside out rather than simple external action.

D.A. Carson notes that in there exists an overwhelming call to defeat sin.

“We are to deal drastically with sin.

We must not pamper it, flirt with it, enjoy nibbling a little of it around the edges.

We are to hate it, crush it, dig it out… sin leads to hell.

And that is the ultimate reason why sin must be taken seriously.”

As humans, we all are sinners.

We live with sinners.

We come to church to worship the King with other sinners.

Dealing with other sinners is how we spend the majority of our time on this planet because everyone is a sinner!

gives us several key things to keep in mind regarding dealing with fellow sinners and our own personal sin.

Some people live with the motto of an “eye for an eye” or maybe returning good with good.

After all, these are normal human things!

However, returning good for evil, that is divine!

That is the perspective of Jesus Christ and what we see throughout .

Whenever our heart is genuinely changed from the inside out, we are able to be salt and light in our world and are able to think, speak and act more like Jesus Christ.

The way that this is possible is not our of our own works or effort, rather it is all about grace that we receive from our Lord and Savior.

Martin Luther King Jr. made a great point whenever he said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.

Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

As sinners living with other sinners, we must be light.

We must be changed and we must live differently.

Matthew 5:21-

Matthew 5:24-26

Matthew 5:27-

Matthew 5:30-

Matthew 5:33-

Matthew 5:37-

Matthew 5:41-

Lots of Scripture to unpack here.

Our outline helps break this into 4 sections.

Live right with your Friends (21-26)

In this passage there are 6 antitheses as Jesus illustrates the greater righteousness that He demands from His disciples.

He says that the people have heard something but that Jesus requires something even greater.

As we looked at last week in , the scribes and pharisees were very righteous in the eyes of other people because they kept all the 613 laws or at least attempted to do so.

With that said, they were not “righteous” in the eyes of Christ.

Their external actions were not what God demanded, He demands internal obedience.

This is the idea that Jesus gets at in this passage during these “You have heard, But I say to you...” statements.

This opening section opens with Jesus calling His followers to live according to a higher standard.

The law was clear in that it was wrong to commit murder and that there was a consequence for doing so.

This is basic human reasoning.

Killing someone is wrong.

If you murder someone then you will suffer the consequences.

You can go up to the most adamant atheist and ask them if killing someone is wrong and worthy of punishment and they would likely reply by saying that it is certainly wrong and worthy of being punished.

You don’t have to be a Christian to understand that murder is wrong.

However, Jesus raises the bar up a notch and says in verse 22 that being angry to someone then you are liable to judgment.

This is troubling for us because we’ve all been angry with people before.

But Jesus isn’t done yet.

He continues to intensify his argument by then saying that insulting your brother/sister makes you liable to the council (probably the Sanhedrin - the Jewish leadership) and finally if you call your brother/sister a fool then you are now liable to God’s judgment and to hell itself.

While the punishment on earth for being murdering someone is not the same as the earthly punishment for being angry with someone or perhaps calling them a fool, however, the punishment from an eternal perspective is similar.

The final insult given by Jesus, calling someone a fool, is the Greek word “Moros” where we get the word “moron” and this is far worse than calling someone dumb or an idiot.

This word is found throughout Matthew (7:26, 23:17, 25:2-3) and is used to describe someone who is not a part of the kingdom of God.

Calling someone a moron, in , means that you are saying that they are not a Christian, they are not saved and they are going to hell.

If you do this to another person, you are facing judgment by the King of Kings.

Does this seem a little extreme to you? Probably.

It would have sounded extreme to Jesus’ listeners as well!

Jesus’ message sounds extreme because He is showing that the standards of the Kingdom are far greater than the standards of this fallen, sinful world.

Our world is concerned with equality and external actions, Christ is concerned with the condition of our heart which is the true source of our actions.

So, we must watch our heart in order to live right with others.

Christ continues in verses 23-26 and says that we should get ourselves right before we offer things to the Lord.

He gives two illustrations in these 4 verses: financial giving and differences with others.

Before we gather to worship God, to sing songs, to study the Word and to give our gifts to Him, we must ready our heart and do some careful inspection.

tells us that

tells us that God loves a giver with a clear conscience.

First, we must be reconciled to others before coming to worship God through our offering.

D.A. Carson is direct when he says, “Forget the worship service and be reconciled to your brother; and only then worship God.

Men love to substitute ceremony for integrity, purity, and love; but Jesus will have none of it.”

Forget the worship service and be reconciled to your brother; and only then worship God.

Men love to substitute ceremony for integrity, purity, and love; but Jesus will have none of it

The second illustration in verses 25-26 deal with settling our differences with others.

One of the hardest things to do as humans is to disagree with others and to settle our differences peacefully and with love.

The illustration used by Jesus is not simply people disagreeing over something little like what color carpet is in the sanctuary or whether we should sing 2 verses of a song or every verse of the song, those are extremely small things that do not matter in the scheme of eternity.

The disagreement in verses 25-26 is one so severe that the courts have to get involved.

We find a principle in such disagreements in

Piper is right whenever he notes that Christians are supposed to pursue reconciliation but we are not responsible for making it happen.

We cannot sacrifice the integrity of Scripture in order to reconcile ourselves to others!

We should pursue reconciliation but we cannot make it happen.

Spurgeon notes that, “A lean settlement is better than a fat lawsuit… make peace with the utmost promptitude.”

We stop things from escalating.

Seek reconciliation in order to live at peace with Athers, even whenever they were the ones “at fault” especially in our mind!

This is not easy, in fact it’s probably the hardest part of being a Christian, but we are called to be peacemakers and sometimes that means that we have to seek peace whenever someone else has wronged us.

Don’t give into Deadly Temptations (27-30)

Christ continues this passage by hitting close to home.

Everyone knows the command, “do not commit adultery.”

It is plain and simple.

A married person is not to have personal relations with anyone other than their spouse.

While our culture might not see adultery as that big of a deal, Scripture says that it is!

We talked about this during Christmas as the punishment for adultery was death.

Tim Challies lists 6 specific reasons why adultery is harmful and destructive.

Adultery is turning away from a promise - to your spouse and to God.

Adultery leads the adulterer from security to chaos and brings about divisionA

Adultery is secretive and dishonest.

Adultery loves darkness and tries to remain a secret as long as possible.

Adultery destroys the adulterer.

Adultery erodes the character and integrity of the ones involved.

Adultery damages society.