Series: Cornerstone Academy
Speaker: Terry Biggs
Topic: The Church
The Law and Abortion
Our Statement of Faith
To Tell the Truth
Manuscript
What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever seen happen in church? Now, I know that this is an odd question and that your response will largely be influenced by the church tradition that you grew up with. I also know that for many of us the strangest thing that we’ve seen in the church doesn’t really make headlines, because it was an argument over the color of the carpet or something like that. But some of us have seen some really shocking things.
For me the strangest thing I’ve seen happen within the church gathering is a toss-up between my visit to a charismatic church with my friends and the church revivals that I witnessed as a child. In both cases I saw things and heard things that were extremely odd and not even close to Biblical. I’ve seen a church auditorium of 400 people go from what I would consider normal and orderly worship to out of control and unbiblical expressions of “spiritual gifts.” I’ve also seen “evangelists” say and do things that may or may not have been true, but they certainly produced results.
As I’ve gotten to know many of you, I’ve heard some strange stories about your experiences. I’ve heard things that were just plain weird and things that make me sad about the state of the church in our country. But there is a story in the book of Acts about what took place in the early church that easily tops anything I’ve ever seen.
In Acts 5, we read the story of Ananias and Saphira, a couple who owned a piece of property and sold it giving some of the proceeds to the church. But apparently, they weren’t honest about their intentions. The couple decided that they would keep some of the money and give the rest to the church, which was fine; but instead of being honest about it they lied to the Apostles about what they were actually doing.
When the husband came and gave the money, Peter said to him, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land…why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” When Ananias heard these words, he fell down dead and then a few verses later his wife died as well.
Transition…
Can you imagine walking into church and seeing a husband and his wife being carried out dead; all because they lied. Do you take lying that seriously? Do you put a premium on speaking the truth and nothing but the truth?
The first lie occurred in the Garden in Genesis 3 and from that point forward lying is a sin at the very heart of our fallen human nature. Jesus called Satan the “Father of lies” in John 8:44 and Psalm 116:11 tells us that, “All men are liars.” Our God is a covenant keeper who never lies, but we are covenant breakers who lie naturally and treat it like it is no big deal.
But Jesus wants His followers to be men and women who speak the truth.
Matt 5:33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
In this passage Jesus is talking about oaths and vows but the real matter at hand is that He wants us to be people who tell the truth. So this morning I want us to look at three thing related to this passage: The Instruction of Moses, The Ongoing Corruption, and The Simple Truth.
Sermon Focus…
I. The Instruction of Moses (V. 33)
V. 33 you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.
Here in this verse, Jesus is not quoting from one OT passage, but rather He is combining a handful of passages that are each aimed at teaching the same thing.
Exo 20:7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
Lev 19:11 “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. 12 You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.
Num 30: 2 If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
Deut 23:21 “If you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay fulfilling it, for the Lord your God will surely require it of you, and you will be guilty of sin. 22 But if you refrain from vowing, you will not be guilty of sin. 23 You shall be careful to do what has passed your lips, for you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God what you have promised with your mouth.
The intention of these verses is to instruct the people of God to be people who speak the truth. God wants His people to be people of integrity, to be people that others can trust. He wants us to be truth-tellers who say what we mean and mean what we say. In other words, God wants us to be like Him and He never lies (Titus 1:2).
But Moses’ instruction is necessary because by our fallen nature we are not like God, when it comes to speaking the truth we are far more influenced by the one who has been lying from the beginning.
The crowning work of God in creation was the marriage of Adam and Eve. God was pleased with all that He had made and He declared that it was good. But He was so pleased in the creation of Adam and Eve the He declared it was very good. There was a measurable increase in goodness.
Then Satan entered the story as a serpent and his aim was not to corrupt creation from the bottom up but from the top down. Satan focused all of his malice upon the intimacy of the man and woman. But how would he bring down God’s crowning creative achievement? How is Satan going to bring down the pinnacle of God’s creation? By Lying.
In Gen 3:1 - Satan said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
The simple answer is “No, that is not what God said”; but Satan isn’t interested in facts. He asks this question as a way to cause Eve to doubt what God had said. Eve had never had any reason to question if God had told her the truth about the fruit on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She had never considered the possibility that God was not telling her the truth, nor that He was limiting her experience of life in any way. But now she is, because of Satan’s lie. Satan is a liar and he wants to destroy all trust in God and God’s Word.
So he asks, “Excuse me dear lady, but did I hear God actually say that there was something in this garden that you aren’t allowed to eat? How could God withhold something from you?” She had never thought that way before. Eve had always had everything she needed and everything she wanted. She had never had any reason to doubt God’s Word nor God’s generosity.
Back up at Gen 1:29 we see just how generous God was with Adam and Eve.
V. 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
She had a whole world of fruit to choose from but Satan’s question causes her heart to fix on the one thing that God told her not to eat. And God even gave her an explanation as to why. He told them that they were not allowed to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because, “In the day that you eat of it you will surely die.” You see God was not only being generous but also protective.
4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
“Dear lady, this fruit won’t cause you to die, in fact the real reason God doesn’t want you to eat it is that this fruit has the power to make you just like Him.”
Satan tempted Eve by calling God’s Word into question and by lying about what God had said. God’s Word has fashioned the universe. God’s Word is purer and more powerful than anything we know. God’s Word is the foundation of all reality, but the serpent challenges Eve’s view of reality by calling God a liar. Satan lied to her and turned her heart away from God.
Satan wanted her to believe that God’s Word was a lie. He wants all of humanity to believe that God’s Word is a lie. He wants to turn the world upside-down…with a lie. From the Garden on throughout all of Biblical history we see that God always speaks the truth and that Satan is the father of lies. One of the key distinctions between the people of God and the unbelieving world is whether or not we believe the truth and speak the truth.
So, this is not just some arbitrary decision that telling the truth is good and lying is bad; being honest, being a person of integrity, and speaking the truth are tied to the very character of God. This flows out of who He is. By contrast, to be dishonest, to twist the truth and to knowingly tell lies is an echo of Satan’s influence in our hearts.
But what does all of this Biblical backstory have to do with what Jesus is talking about in Matthew 5? Let’s look at that again.
II. The Ongoing Corruption (Vv. 34-36)
V. 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.
So, the immediate context of this passage is about the taking of an oath or a vow, which amounts to a solemn promise. If you were to make a vow or take an oath, you would be making a sincere promise to carry out some task, or to follow up on some responsibility.
But the oath or vow is only as good as the integrity of the person making them. In other words, I can make promises all day but what really matters is whether or not I follow through, will I be a man of my word.
Now the Pharisees saw things a little differently. Once again, they were interested only in the letter of the law and not the spirit of the law. So long as they were careful in how they worded their vows, they thought there was no need to be so meticulous about carrying them out. So, they created a system of making vows and oaths in carefully worded ways that justified their lack of integrity.
They had trouble telling the truth consistently, just like you and I do, so in order to guard themselves against being found guilty of swearing falsely by the name of God, it seems that they had firmly established the habit of swearing by everything EXCEPT God.[1]
The Pharisees argued that what the law of Moses was really prohibiting was not taking the name of the Lord in vain but taking the name of the Lord in vain. So, they would make promises but as long as they didn’t mention the name of the Lord they didn’t think it was necessary to keep those promises. They had created a system that allowed them to be righteous in the eyes of the law even though they were dishonest in actual practice and for this Jesus called them hypocrites and blind guides in Matthew 23:16-22:
V. 16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
The main point of what Jesus is saying in both of these passages is that it doesn’t matter what verbal formula you use, what matters is whether or not you are going to keep your word. If you make a vow you are bound to keep it. If you make a promise you should do everything in your power to keep it. If we learn to be people of our word, people of honesty and integrity; then there really is no need to make a vow at all. We simply become honest and trustworthy people, like our heavenly father.
So Jesus gets around the issue of Oaths and Vows and makes it very simple for us.
III. The Simple Truth (V. 37)
37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
Haddon Robinson’s comments on this passage are helpful.
“If anger was the real issue of murder, lust the real issue of adultery, selfishness the real issue of divorce, then deceit is the real issue of oaths.” He went on to add “Jesus wasn’t addressing whether or not we should take an oath. He was talking about whether or not we are truthful…. We don’t tell the truth because we have taken an oath; we tell the truth because we are truthful.”[2]
Honest people don’t need to swear by anything, they are known for their honesty and their word is enough. That’s what Jesus wants us to understand. He wants us to honest and truthful the way He and the Father are honest and truthful. Jesus wants us to follow Him and to be men and women of integrity.
Think about it, if we said what we meant and meant what we said there would be no need to make lofty promises. If we kept our word, even down to the smallest thing, it might cause us to be slow in speaking which would be a good thing, but it would also eliminate the need for solemn vows because people could simple trust us. This is what Jesus wants from his people. He wants us to live simple and quiet lives of honesty and trustworthiness.
This is something that we are going to have to think about and work hard so that we can grow. We are going to have to work hard to avoid some of the more common ways that we fall into deception and falsehood. So let’s talk about some of the ways we commonly fail to tell the truth.
1. The half-truth: you tell the truth, but not all the truth. This happens when our children get into fight and when we try to get to the bottom of what happened we only get one side of the story.
This also happens when a friend tells you about a fight they had with their spouse and when you ask what happened to cause the fight, they only tell you the terrible things their spouse did, while conveniently leaving out the terrible things they’ve done.
Abraham did this when he claimed that Sarah was his sister. She was his half-sister, but he didn’t mention that she also happened to be his wife! He was being deceitful so that he could protect himself and it happens to us more than we care to admit.
2. The “white” lie: these are the “innocent” lies that “don’t hurt anyone.” You call in sick to work when you’re really well. Just because it is culturally expected doesn’t mean that it is right.
3. The lie to cover for someone else: this doesn’t happen as much today, but before we had cell phones we had something called a home-phone. There were times when someone would call to talk to a friend who happened to be sitting right beside you, but you lied and said, “No, they’re not here right now.”
We might see this at work where a secretary would lie about her boss or supervisor not being in the office, when actually they are avoiding someone or some deadline. Whatever the circumstance we are lying to cover for someone else.
4. Exaggeration: stretching the truth to make yourself look better or to evoke sympathy for your cause. Sometimes it’s an old fish story where we want people to think we are better than we actually are. But at other times this is a form of manipulation that we use to gain people’s sympathy. Either way it’s a lie.
5. The silent lie: have you ever had a person assume something flattering about you that is clearly false, but you don’t speak up to correct it.
6. The cover-up lie: You hide your own wrongdoing with the rationalization that it would hurt the other person too much to find out the real truth.
7. The evasive lie: do you ever change the subject or conveniently dodge the truth by not answering directly. [3]
All of these are common and seemingly simple ways of communication, but as Christians we need to learn to see them for what they are…lies. The intention is to hide the truth, to embellish the situation, to manipulate and deceive so that we can gain favor in someone else’s eyes.
James 3:2 We all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4 Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5 So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.
How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.
The truth is that we will fail in our speech, but what should we do when we fail? What happens when we make a promise that we simply cannot keep? What happens when we fail to speak the truth? The first thing we must do is to confess our sin to God. Then we must confess our sin to the person we lied to and finally we must seek to make things right with genuine repentance.
Conclusion…
The Bible is filled with warnings for how our tongues can cause destruction.
Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
Jesus wants us to be people whose tongues give life. He wants us to be a church whose speech is trustworthy.
I want to challenge you, all of us as a church, to take this matter seriously and to work to grow in the area of telling the truth. I have provided for you a copy of 20 Resolutions on Taming the Tongue written by Sinclair Ferguson. Let me urge you to take this and open your Bible to the book of James and read through these two things together examining the common ways you speak and seeking to grow in speaking the truth in all things.
[1] https://bible.org/seriespage/16-yes-or-no-enough-matthew-533-37
[2] The Christian Salt & Light Company [Discovery House Publishing], p. 156-158
[3] ibid
What is the Church?
Series: Cornerstone Academy
Speaker: Pastor Justin Wheeler
Topic: The Church
The Truth about Marriage and Divorce
Manuscript
If the Bible is telling us the truth about reality, then the universe and our place within it are not accidental, they are filled with divine purpose. If the Bible is telling us the truth about reality, then we know that there is a purpose to everything, that time, matter and physics are not ultimate and that our lives and how we live them truly matter. If the Bible is telling us the truth about reality, then we know that life and death are among the most important things, that love is worth dying for, that music does make life better, that there is a time to laugh and a time to cry.
If the Bible is telling us the truth about reality, then we know that much of the popular cultural outlook is completely wrong. If the Bible is telling us the truth about reality, then we can know with certainty that God created mankind with marital romance in mind. In Genesis 2, God established Marriage as the first cultural institution and it was established before the fall as a gift to us and a profound mystery that has something to do with God’s plan for the world.
Before there was a city, a school, a hospital, or even a church; God established a home in the Garden for Adam and Eve to enjoy as husband and wife. Marriage was God’s plan and it did not come about as a social construct; rather it came down out of Heaven to occupy an exalted place in human history. This is how the Bible starts. This is how God’s story began.
At the beginning of Scripture and right on the heels of creation, God move very quickly from the creation of the universe to the marriage relationship between Adam and Eve? But why? Why does God put a man and a woman on center stage at the beginning of all things; because the story God wants to tell is a love story? It is a love story that ultimately takes shape when Jesus, our perfect groom, comes to redeem His eternal bride, the church, from the sin that drove us from Him in the first place. Marriage is a picture of the gospel and this means that there is more at stake in our understanding of marriage than we can imagine.
Transition…
For this reason, we need to take Jesus’ teaching on marriage and divorce far more seriously than many of us do. In Jesus’ day, there were some common cultural views on marriage and divorce. Those views were related to what Moses wrote in the book of Deuteronomy, but like many things, the true meaning of God’s word had been twisted to suit the desires of the day. The prevailing view at the time was that Marriage wasn’t all that important, and so long as you provided a legal document of divorce one could walk away from marriage in a “no-fault” kind of way.
But Jesus wants us to know that it is not that simple.
Matt 5:31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Like most of what we have read in this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ teaching on the subject of marriage and divorce don’t find wide acceptance in our present day. Modern sensibilities have not only downgraded the importance of marriage (Biblical) but have also reduced the significance of divorce.
Many of you have experienced divorce either personally or through someone close to you. Many of you still bear the scars from a divorce that took place within your family. Many of you look at divorce as one of the most difficult and shaping events of your life. Because of this, it is nearly impossible to talk about divorce or to teach on divorce in a way that will shield you from the stirring up of painful memories and emotions. It is not my intention to be offensive, it is, however, my intention and calling, to be honest with you about what the Bible says and that may result in your being offended. May God show us grace as we navigate these waters together.
Sermon Focus…
I. What is Marriage?
Marriage was God’s idea from the very beginning. Marriage is not a human concept or a social construct. Marriage is not simply a legal contract for the purpose of state-recognized tax incentives. Marriage is not simply a way to propagate the human race, nor is it simply God approved mating.
According to Genesis 2, Marriage is an institution established by God and ordained by God at the very beginning of human history. God instituted marriage as the foundation for all of society. This is incredibly important for us to understand because when we see that marriage is God’s idea we must also see that He is the one who establishes the rules that govern it.
In his book, Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel, Ray Ortlund writes:
“Marriage is not a human invention; it is a divine revelation. Its design was never part of our own made up arrangement; it was given to us at the beginning of all things, as a bright shining monument of eternal significance. We might not always live up to its grandeur. None of us does so perfectly. But we have no right to redefine it, and we have every reason to revere it.”[1]
Marriage was designed by God as a way for a man and a woman to enter into one intimate relationship that in part would allow us to experience the intimacy that each of us truly longs for and to experience the type of intimacy that is perfected within the Godhead. At no other point in nature does 1 + 1 = 1 save in the marriage of a man and woman. In no other relationship in the universe does 1 + 1 + 1 = 1 save in the divine trinity. I believe that God designed marriage as a way of allowing us, His creatures, a taste of the intimacy that He enjoys in the godhead perfectly.
But there is more to the mystery of marriage and it is that the marriage relationship between a man and woman is to be a display of the gospel to the world. In Ephesians 5 Paul tells us that marriage, flawed though it is because of sin, is to be a vivid display of the love that Jesus Christ has for His bride, and the submissive respect that the church has for her Lord
Marriage is God’s idea and is therefore governed by God’s Word. Marriage is the foundational institution upon which all of society and culture is built. Marriage is a covenant between one man and one woman in the eyes of God and for the duration of their lives. Marriage is a beautiful gift from God that beckons us to behold the sin-overcoming grace of God in Jesus.
But marriage, like everything else in this world is subject to sin. So, what happens when sin begins to affect our marriage?
II. Marriage is worth fighting for.
First, let’s understand that Marriage is not the problem, sin is. Sin is the result of our desire for pleasure, comfort or control, which overshadows our desire to please God. Sin is our natural selfish inclination to have what we want, when we want it and how we want it. When you take two people who are both plagued by this problem and you put them into the same house together, it gets messy quick.
It’s especially difficult in the first year of marriage because that year is largely about getting to know one another and getting to know yourself. Marriage is intended to produce intimacy between a husband and wife and that intimacy is not easily gained, it must be pursued and fought for. Some days you take two steps forward in intimacy, the next day you might take one step back.
But what happens when sin crowds out intimacy? What happens when a husband gets to know his wife, but he fails to learn anything about himself? What happens when desire gives way to sin and sin gives way to fighting and we haven’t learned how to fight fair? What are we to do when marriage becomes difficult?
Friends, I want to encourage you that your marriage is worth fighting for and I want to offer you 6 weapons that you need to use regularly as you battle to have a godly marriage.
1. Remember Your Vows - We don’t often make vows in life, in fact the Scriptures are going to warn us against making vows rashly. But when we make a vow before our spouse, our pastor, our family, our friends and before God; it is no small thing. And yet, how often do we simply forget the vows we made to love in sickness and in health, to love for richer or for poorer, to love until death do us part.
Often times, we make those vows with no integrity at all. What we really mean is I’ll love you as long as it’s good, because we all have the hope and expectation that it will be good. But when it gets difficult we need to remember that we made a commitment before God to love our spouse and that is going to be difficult at times.
Loving your spouse is going to mean that you forego your own happiness at times, and that’s OK because marriage is not primarily about your happiness, it’s much more about your holiness. Marriage is one of the most powerful tools in God’s toolbox when it comes to our growth in godliness.
2. Remember the Word of God - When Leigh and I got married in 2001 we very quickly moved 9 hours away to Kansas City, MO where I was enrolled in Seminary. I had just completed my undergrad and Leigh was still working on hers when we got married and moved away from both of our families and our home church.
We had gone through pre-marital counseling and it was a big help, but nothing really prepared us for the first couple of months of being married and being alone in a place that was foreign to us. Those first few months were hard, but they were beautiful in that we had nowhere else to turn but to the Word of God and to one another in order to work out our problems.
We learned to navigate the ups and downs of married life together and with our Bibles open. I praise God for those years and for the instruction that I received from the Word on how to love my wife, how to encourage her, how to listen to her, how to wash her with the water of the Word, how to be gentle with her, how to care for her, and the truth is I am still learning.
3. Relate to your Spouse – In conflict the worst thing you can do is to wall yourself off from your husband or your wife. Talk to one another. Listen to one another and work on the problems together. But don’t wait until things get bad to try and work on your relationship. Turn off the TV, put down your phone, close your computer and simply talk to one another. Facebook can wait but your wife shouldn’t have to.
4. Repent of Your Sin – Our initial response is usually that the problem is not with me, it’s with her. But consider that the problem you are having in your marriage is not primarily about your spouse. It may be that you are the one that is most in need of growth. Most of us are really good at pointing out the faults in our spouse, but we are terrible at seeing our own.
So be honest with yourself and with your spouses. Be willing to see what the real problem is and when the problem reveals your sin or shortcoming, be the first to ask for forgiveness and to repent.
This is another place where the Word of God is going to be critical for us, but let me caution you to use the Word like a band-aid and not like a baseball bat. When my kids get a cut or a bruise a band-aid just makes it all better because it comforts the hurt, it covers the wound and it holds out the promise of healing over time. That’s how we should use the Word in our marriages, to comfort our hurts, to cover our wounds and to bring growth and healing over time.
Where truth needs to be spoken firmly, speak but check your motives before you wade into war. We need to wash each other with the word, which implies gentleness. We need to “live with our wives in an understanding way, showing honor (I Pet 3:7).”
5. Receive Godly Counsel – Contrary to our own opinion, we are not always the wisest people in the world. There are times when we need to receive the counsel of other Godly men and women, and we need to be prepared to follow it. There are two steps to receiving counsel, hearing and following. Don’t reject the counsel of another simply because it is difficult, if the council is Biblically sound and contextually appropriate, follow it. If you are not sure if it meets those criteria, then include other counselors in the process.
Proverbs 11:14 Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.
6. Be Reconciled to Your Spouse –We live in a day when divorce is put on the table before most other steps are taken. But the pursuit of reconciliation is the posture of Gospel people. Reconciliation can only happen when sin is confessed and forgiven. But it can happen and should happen in the lives of Christians because we are a people whose lives are defined by reconciliation.
Of all people, Christians should be those who champion confession of sin and the forgiveness that follows, because we are those who have confessed our sin and found forgiveness in Christ. We should be those who wait patiently for and who fight for reconciliation because we have been reconciled to God, many of us after years of sinful rebellion.
Now, that we have talked about what marriage is and some ways that we can fight for our marriage, let’s talk about the other side of this passage in Matthew 5.
III. What is divorce?
Matt 5:31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Jesus addresses the issue of divorce in all of the gospels and when he does he is not only addressing divorce itself but also the current controversy that was taking place between the rival rabbinic schools of Hillel and Shammai. You can see the debate much more clearly by reading Matthew 19.
Matt 19:3 And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” 4 He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” 7 They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?”
In Deut 24, Moses allowed for a man to divorce his wife if she found no favor in his eyes because he found some indecency in her. Shammai taught that the indecency Moses referred to was adultery, but others broadened their interpretation. Some rabbis such as Hillel, taught that if a wife spoiled dinner a man had a right to divorce her. Another named Akiba, allowed for divorce if the man found a woman that was prettier.[2]
The actual phrase in Deuteronomy refers to a scandalous act of sexual misconduct, which means that these latter interpretations are not only wrong, but they are mocking the sanctity of Marriage. They are using the letter of the law as a way to justify their sinful desires. Jesus clearly sides with the more conservative school on this issue, but He's going to go even further than that.
8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
Notice that the Pharisees say that Moses commanded divorce, but Jesus points out that Moses allowed for divorce. God allowed for divorce as an act of grace intended to cover the shame of sin within us and within our marriage. But divorce is never commanded and it is only permitted in very specific circumstances.
Jesus’ teaching on divorce is clear. He restricts divorce in every circumstance but sexual immorality (adultery) and desertion by an unbeliever.
Matt 5:32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Matt 19:9 And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”
1 Corinthians7:12 To the rest I say… that if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. 13 If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him… 15 But if the unbelieving partner separates, let it be so. In such cases the brother or sister is not enslaved (Is Free). God has called you to peace.
So there are three principles we need to understand and follow from these passages when it comes to divorce.
1. Divorce is permitted, but not required, on the ground of sexual immorality.
2. Divorce is permitted, but not required, on the ground of desertion by an unbelieving spouse.
3. When the divorce was not permissible, any subsequent remarriage (to someone other than the original spouse) results in adultery.
But what about those whose divorce was permissible? When the divorce was legitimate, I believe, a person is free to remarry. I believe that when Jesus uses the exception clause in Matthew 5 and 19 which allows for divorce that it also gives that person the freedom to remarry. At the same time, I believe that Paul is supporting this idea in I Cor 7:15 when he says that the Christian who was abandoned by an unbelieving spouse is “free” or “not enslaved.”
There are some guys whom I greatly respect who would disagree with me on this. Some would agree that divorce is permissible in the case of those two exceptions, but that remarriage is not. And it really comes down to what Paul means by “free” in I Cor and whether or not Jesus’ exception applies to both divorce and remarriage. I think free means free from covenant responsibilities and therefore free to remarry. I think the exception modifies both.
But how would Jesus’ audience understand this teaching? Here’s a pretty strong statement on that issue from Kevin DeYoung…
“All scholars on every side of this divorce and remarriage debate agree that it was a given for first century Jews that remarriage was a valid option after a valid divorce. To be granted a legal separation meant de facto that you were no longer bound to anyone and thus free to remarry. No one in Jesus audience was thinking that remarriage wouldn’t be an option.”[3]
In situations where the divorce was permissible, remarriage is also permissible. This does not mean that you should run out and be married again, but I believe that it is permissible for you to do so.
Conclusion…
I know that this sermon has probably raised a ton of questions in your minds. Many of these questions are difficult because they don’t fit neatly into a Biblical scenario and they are difficult because of the emotion involved. But we can’t let complexity or emotion drown out God’s Word. So, in closing I want to address 4 groups of people this morning.
1. To those who are married I want to urge you to not only stay married but also to fight for your marriage, work at your marriage, pray for your marriage and guard your marriage. Just because things are good for you right now doesn’t mean that you are not open to temptation and just because things are bad right now doesn’t mean that your marriage can’t get gloriously better. Remember your vows, remember the Word, work on your relationship, repent of your sin, receive Godly counsel, and above all seek reconciliation.
2. To those who are single I want you to know that to find a godly spouse is to find a good thing. But, both Jesus and Paul are clear that a full and godly life can be lived in singleness. Read I Corinthians 7 and meditate on its instruction. Focus on the fact that the true aim of a disciple of Christ is to be devoted to the Lord in all things. Marriage is a beautiful gift from God but your manhood or womanhood is no less intact because of your singleness.
3. To those who are divorced but shouldn’t be I want you to know that divorce is not an unpardonable sin. There is grace in Christ that is more than a match for your sin. I want to urge you to find forgiveness at the cross and let the kindness of the Lord bring you to fresh repentance and then as much as you are able, seek reconciliation. In Christ, there is always the hope of reconciliation but if that doesn’t happen, don’t seek remarriage with someone else.
4. To those who were improperly divorced and now remarried I think you should follow Paul’s instruction and stay as you are but seek forgiveness and repentance for your past sins. I would also urge you to make amends with your ex-spouse, your children, your family, your friends, and your church. I would urge you to also find the grace and mercy of Christ to be enough to satisfy the guilt of your past. But I would also challenge you to guard your current marriage with newfound wisdom, strength and purpose.
Marriage is a gift from God, but sin is still our enemy. Jesus shows us grace when he allows for divorce in certain cases, but He reminds us in these passages that this whole issue of divorce is really brought about by our hardness of heart. Marriage is supposed to be this grand thing that gives us a taste of true intimacy. It is also the grand theme of the story of redemption that God is writing for all the world to see.
That gospel story is ultimately a story of reconciliation. It is the story of how an infinitely patient and loving God has pursued and won back His often adulterous and wayward bride. If you are a believer in Christ today then you are the product of God’s reconciling work and you have the promise of His Word that He nothing can ever separate you from His love, He will never divorce you.
[1] Ray Ortlund, Marriage and the Mystery of the Gospel (preface)
[2] Leon Morris, Luke (TNTC, pg 275).
[3] Keving DeYoung sermon notes What Did Jesus Think of Divorce and Remarriage?
The Authority of the Scriptures at Cornerstone
Series: Cornerstone Academy
Speaker: Dan Truitt
Topic: The Authority of Scripture
The Perspective of Christ
Christ our King
Manuscript
When God set out to redeem his creation from the Fall, His ultimate purpose was to take what He had once created as good and to completely restore it to a state of sinless glory. His plan was that the entire universe would once again be free from sin and once again under His glorious and benevolent rule. Then He would hand that rule over to another, His only Son and Heir to the throne, who would rule over all things as King of kings and Lord of lords.
This morning we have gathered to worship Jesus Christ our Prophet, Priest and King. Perhaps, this morning the image of Jesus that is most easily called to mind is the image of Him as a newborn baby nestled in a manger. He didn’t come into this world in the majesty of a king; his birth was as humble as they come. He wasn’t born in Jerusalem, the Kings’ city, but in Bethlehem where the shepherds lived. At His birth, He traded a king’s robe for peasant rags.
This is definitely not the way you would expect the story to go for the Son of God and king of all the world to come into the world; but this will be the theme of His rule.
Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Our King has to rescue the poor by becoming poor. He has come to heal the broken, the lame, the blind, and the outcast by being broken and cast out in our place. Jesus has come to rule with a heart for the lowly and with the desire to make sinners into sons.
Transition…
The story of Jesus’ rise to kingship is the story of the Bible and it is a progressive journey from the brokenness of the Garden to the glory of the cosmos restored; and on that day we will see Jesus in this way…
Rev 19:11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. 13 He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. 14 And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. 15 From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
But how does that story actually unfold? How do we get from the curse in the Garden to the restored rule of our resurrected King? That is the story that we will be studying this morning and it begins all the way back in the Garden with a promise from God.
Sermon Focus…
I. God Promised a King
Even before the fall in Genesis 3, we see something of God’s design for a King to rule over creation. He gave Adam and Eve the command to, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over…every living thing that moves on the earth (Gen 1:28).” To have dominion means to rule, it means to exercise authority over the things that have been made. It was part of God’s plan for mankind that we rule God’s creation but instead we bowed our knee to sin and have been dominated by it ever since.
But in the promise of God to restore creation He made it clear that one day He would send a king to rule. In Genesis 12, God spoke to Abram and called Him to be the father of His people. He promised to give Abram a great name, to give him a great land, and to make his family a great nation. God also promised to give Abram a son and then He promised that through that son, one day God’s people would have a king. Soon a king would come!
They had their first opportunity during the period of the judges. At that point, Israel had taken possession of the Promised Land but they were being threatened by the surrounding nations. The theme of the book of Judges is what I call the cycle of stupidity. The cycle began with the people enjoying peace and God’s blessing, but then rebellion occurred and idolatry as well. They would be given over to bondage and then would cry out for mercy. He would hear and raise up a deliverer, a judge, to save them only to have the cycle repeat itself.
So, one by one God raised up judges to lead their armies, fight their enemies, and protect their land. But just a few cycles in and the people of Israel came up with a plan that they thought woulg keep them from falling into the hands of their enemies. In Judges 8:22-23, The people request that Gideon establish himself as their king.
Gideon had led their armies against the soldiers of Midian and had been victorious so the people want to exalt him as their king. But Gideon refused saying, “I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you.”
Gideon’s son Abimilech, did lead them as a judge for a short time but only in a small region and his rule was nothing like the king God had promised. But, God had promised and it wouldn’t be long now. Very soon a king would come!
II. Kings Come and Kings Go
It was Samuel who would serve as Israel’s final judge and near the end of his life the people begged him for a king. Like Gideon before him, Samuel wasn’t excited about the idea of appointing a king for the people. Of course, he knew that God had promised to send Israel a king but the problem was that they didn’t exactly want the kind of king that God had promised them.
The people demanded of Samuel, “Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.” Israel did not want a righteous king to come in and lead them in faithfulness to God, they wanted a champion king, a war-lord to rule and strike fear into their enemies. They did not want to be faithful to God’s covenant; they wanted to be like the other pagan nations around them.
The short rule of Saul…
In response, God tells Samuel, “Go ahead and appoint them a king…‘They have not rejected you, they have once again rejected me.” The period of the judges comes to a close when Saul is chosen to be king of Israel. But his place among the people of God would be short-lived.
Saul’s rule as king started well. He gave glory and credit to God for Israel’s victory over the Ammonites. But his first major blunder came in I Samuel 13 when he took upon himself the office of Priest. He disobeyed the command of God and he found out that his days as king were numbered. God wants His people to have a King, but only the right king will do.
David the improbable champion…
Enter David the one who would become the shepherd-king of God’s people. We first meet David in I Samuel 16 as the youngest son of a herdsman of Bethlehem, named Jesse. God sent Samuel, to anoint young David to be the future king of Israel and when that anointing took place the Spirit of God rushed upon David. This anointing would be put to the test in the very next chapter as David, the shepherd boy anointed king stood in the valley of Elah to face the giant, Goliath of Gath, the champion of the Philistine army.
For forty days this seemingly invincible man would come out into the valley between the two armies and he would mock Israel and defy their God, while the people of Israel trembled in fear. But, God’s anointed king, who appeared weak and insignificant, in his zeal for the glory of God he strides out into the valley to meet his enemy. ”He fights for the people knowing and trusting that the battle belongs to the Lord. David stands alone as the one in the place of the many, and through him God works salvation for His People.”[1]
David wasn’t a perfect king, but he foreshadows Christ more clearly than any other. Regardless of what some modern Christian authors might say about you and I taking on giants, we are not the heroes in this story. We are not David, we are Israel. Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.
David the father of the future Messianic king…
After his battle with Goliath David quickly became all the rage in Israel. The people made up songs about him and he was elevated to first place in their hearts even over Saul the reigning king. At the age of thirty, David took over in Israel as God’s anointed king and the favor of the Lord went with him in all of his efforts.
He led the army into battle against the Philistines and he defeated them to secure Israel’s borders. He captured Jerusalem from the Jebusites and made it his own capital city. He brought the Ark of the Covenant into the midst of the people and dreamed about building a grand sanctuary around it; but God said, “No!” God would not allow David’s blood-stained hands to build His temple, His house.
But this wasn’t God’s final word to David. In 2 Samuel 7 God made a covenant promise to David…
2 Samuel 7:8…I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you went…And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel…And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son.
While David was a good king, He was not the King. God’s purpose was not fulfilled in David but would be fulfilled through David. The King that God will one day send to rule over His people will come from the tribe of Judah, from the line of David. He will build a house for God and His rule will last forever. This is God’s plan. Very soon now and Israel’s true king would come.
III. Our Promised King Arrives
David died in 971 B.C. and 1000 years had come and gone. But as the New Testament opens we hear that the promise made to David was about to come to pass. In Matthew 1 we see the genealogy of Christ that begins with Abraham, continues through David and results in Jesus. The entire New Testament is established on the fact that Jesus is the focal point of all redemptive history and He is the heir to the throne over God’s people.
In Luke’s gospel account, we read that not only is the genealogy in order for Christ to be the long-awaited king; but God sent a messenger (an Angel) to make it very plain who Jesus is. Look with me at Luke 1:26-35.
26 In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary… 30And he came to her and said, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end… The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.
The King that God had promised His people had almost arrived. He was in the womb, a miracle in itself, because this king was the very Son of God, conceived by the Holy Spirit. But even before He was born He had a name, “you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins (Matt 1:21).”
Jesus was a very common name among Jewish males in the first century; the 4th most popular name behind Simon, Joseph and Judah. If you grew up in first-century Palestine, odds are you would have known a boy named Jesus.
But the reason this name was so popular was that it meant something wonderful? Jesus is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew name Joshua and Joshua is the combination of two words that when put together mean, “Yahweh Saves.” This little boy, born of a virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit, bore the name “Yahweh Saves.” God had saved Israel in the past and the day was approaching when He come and save them again, for good.
Thirty years pass and the name Jesus of Nazareth is well known throughout Israel. He had proven Himself to be a prophet, mighty in word and deed. He had proven Himself to be a faithful teacher of God’s word. He had declared Himself to be the Son of God and if you had ears to hear, He claimed to be the long-awaited hope of Israel, their promised Messiah and King.
In Luke 19 God’s promised King is standing on the doorstep of Jerusalem. The King to end all kings had made His way to the city but more importantly all of history has been leading up to this moment when the Son of God would enter the city where He will rescue fallen humanity from sin.
The people of Israel have been hoping for God to raise up a King to lead their nation out of oppression and into freedom and prominence. They have prayed for such a king, longed for such a king and God has indeed sent them a king. But his posture is not what they expected. Jesus hasn’t come as a warrior King firing arrows into enemy lines, instead He has come as a humble prophet whose words pierce people’s hearts. Israel expected a conquering king and God sent them a sacrificial savior.
As the disciples complete the final leg of their journey into Jerusalem, the city of Kings, they are not prepared for how this journey will end. Their sights are set on a throne but Jesus is focused on the mercy seat. They expect that they would soon see Jesus wearing a crown of gold but in just a few short days they will see Him wearing a crown of thorns. The disciples are filled with hope on Sunday as Passover week is set to get underway, but by the end of the week they will be filled with grief and fear. But make no mistake…their King had finally arrived.
Before He goes in, Jesus tells His disciples to go and get him a donkey. Now, why does Jesus want to ride the last mile and half on a donkey? He has been walking for three years and now all of a sudden, He wants a donkey? This request has to do with fulfilling prophecy. In fact, almost everything we see in the triumphal entry has to do with fulfilling prophecy.
The prophet Zechariah let us know that when the Messiah came, one of the identifying marks would be that He will come into the city of Jerusalem in a unique way,
Zech 9:9 Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
So, Jesus’ riding in on this colt is actually fulfilling an OT prophecy made about Him. Five hundred years before Jesus arrived in the city, Zechariah predicted that the messiah would come in this way, and here He is for all to see. The King to rule all kings wouldn’t come on a great white stallion, but on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
Jesus is no ordinary king. He is humble and gentle, willing to set aside His Kingly right in order to take on the role of a sacrificial servant. Jesus comes as our king and then He humbles himself to be our servant. This is a picture of the gospel to us. When we sin against our God, we are doing the opposite of what Jesus does here. When we sin against God, we are like servants trying to put ourselves in the place of the king. We have no right and no authority to rebel against our creator but we do.
But when Jesus came He flipped the script. He came as our king but He put himself in the servant’s place. So that He could die for our sin and rescue us from ourselves.
35 And they brought it (the colt) to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. 36 And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road.
In 2 Kings 9:13, the men of Israel took off their outer garments (cloak) and laid them on the ground for Jehu the newly anointed king of Israel to walk over. This might seem like an obscure bit of OT history but to the disciples this is an honor afforded to a king in celebration of his anointing.
37 As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, 38 saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Jesus is riding on a donkey, His disciples are laying their garments on the ground in front of Him, and now the people are singing and celebrating the coming of the King. This phrase, “blessed is He who comes….” is taken directly from Psalm 118, which is a Messianic psalm, and it means that this crowd is acknowledging Jesus to be the Messiah.
Jesus is being welcomed into the city as the promised Son of David and this title is known by all of the Jews to refer to the ultimate King, the promised and final King, the Messiah. Jesus is the rightful king of Israel but His ruling crown will have to wait.
IV. Christ Our King Returns
As our great High Priest (Heb 4:14) Jesus had another task to complete; to offer the sacrifice that would atone for our sin. He was that sacrifice. He was our true Passover lamb. He entered the Holy Place to offer His own blood as atonement and He poured it out upon the mercy seat…every last drop.
The king we needed was not the king we deserved. He came to die and by his death he bought our freedom. In Heaven, they sing a song about Jesus,
Rev 5:9…“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, 10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.”
Today, Christ rules as our king from Heaven and His rule is a spiritual one. His rule is grounded in his work of redemption and all who believe in Christ are citizens of His kingdom. He rules over the church as our Savior, He reigns in the hearts of His people by the Holy Spirit, He governs His people by His Word, and the day is coming when our king will return to rule over all the earth in glory.
Conclusion…
The day is coming when a window will open in the sky and the white war horse of heaven will come bearing the One who is, Faithful and True, whose name is King of kings and Lord of lords.
This morning we find ourselves living in the time in between Christ’s first and second coming. The King Has Come and His Return is Imminent.
He is coming again, as the king over all kings. King of Israel, king of all the nations, king of nature and the universe.
Until he comes again, there is a day of amnesty and forgiveness and patience. His posture now is humble and meek riding upon a donkey; at his return, he will sit atop a white war horse holding in his hand a rod of iron. He is ready to save all who receive him as Savior and who worship Him as King.
Which King will you have?
[1][1] G. Goldsworthy, According to Plan pg. 166.
Christ our Great High Priest
Manuscript
Hebrews 10:11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
Have you ever considered what it was like to spend a day as a priest in Jerusalem? If you were a Jewish priest in active service at the temple, then your day began before the sun came up. You would gather with the other priests on duty and cast lots to decide which tasks you would perform on that day. You might be filling the bronze lavers with water or maybe preparing the altar for the sacrifices to come. You might be stationed at the gates, which opened at 9 am, or maybe you would blow the silver trumpets to announce the beginning of the morning service.
Of course, there was a possibility that your day had a bloodier start to it. Each morning a sacrificial lamb was slain and then salt was sprinkled on the sacrifice. Someone had to make sure the lamps were trimmed, the incense needed to be filled, burnt offering was given, the drink offering was poured out and then the trumpets were blown again. The morning service would come to an end with the singing of the Psalm of the day presented by singers (Levites) and this would be accompanied with the playing of instrumental music.
An evening service, much like this would begin at 2:30 pm and this meant you had a few hours before you would be doing this all over again. But and in between the two daily services the people were allowed to come and offer private sacrifices or offerings as needed. If you were a priest of God this was your routine every single day but there were also special days like the Sabbath. There were special feasts and celebrations, each requiring careful attention on the part of the priests. There were even some functions that only the high priest could perform, like entering into the most holy place, which was the highest honor a priest could ever hope to receive.
The responsibilities of the priests included making the sacrifices and performing the ritual of the sanctuary, burning the incense along with their intercession in the Holy Place, and teaching the people the laws and the ritual (Deut. 33:9,10; Mal. 2:7). According to the writer of Hebrews, these services took place day in and day out, the sacrifices were offered over and over; but at the end of the day sin remained (Heb 10:11).
Something needed to change and with the coming of Christ it did change. Jesus brought an end to this priestly system. He even brought an end to the temple that housed the priestly operations. He did this by stepping into the priestly role himself offering the single sacrifice of His own body as atonement for the sins of all those who believe. When His task was completed He rendered this entire priestly system obsolete and He took up the office of Our Great High Priest.
Hebrews 4:14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Transition…
In the Old Testament, God established three offices to operate within the nation of Israel; Prophets, Priests and Kings. These offices were put in place to function in the lives of the people and to help them have an ongoing relationship with God. But one of the things we learn in the New Testament is that these offices were also put in place to foreshadow the day when God’s Son would take up each of those offices on behalf of His people. The writer of Hebrews refers to the function of those three offices in the Old Testament as mere shadows and He refers to Christ as their fulfillment.
This is one of the primary points of the book of Hebrews; to show us that in the unfolding of God’s plan of salvation a radical change has taken place with the coming of Jesus. Within God’s plan for the redemption of His people a shift has occurred from the Old to the New, from promise to fulfillment, from shadow to substance.
Jesus has taken over the priestly office and has assumed the role of our Great High Priest and our task this morning is to understand the shift that has taken place. To do that we are going to learn 2 truths about Jesus as our High Priest, 2 ways that we respond to Jesus as our High Priest, and 1 promise made sure by Jesus our High Priest.
Sermon Focus…
I. 2 Truths about Jesus, Our Great High Priest (V. 14)
V. 14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God…
The first thing I want us to see in this verse is that Jesus is our High Priest but He didn’t come into that role in the conventional way. The high priest was distinguished from other priests by the roles and responsibilities that fell to him, but also by his family lineage. The priesthood traced its lineage back to Aaron and through Aaron’s sons. If you were part of that family line then you were eligible to serve as a priest. The high priests came from the line of Zadok, Aaron’s grandson and this was the established pattern up until the time of the exile.
Each High Priest was supposed to be able to be able to trace his lineage back to the High Priestly families, but from the exile onward, the high priests were often appointed by rulers and at times the office could be attained for a sum of money.[1] This led to much corruption within the priesthood and the regular operation of the temple, which Jesus addressed during his ministry (Luke 19:46). The High Priests major responsibilities were to make atonement in the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement, to officiate in the Temple, and (at certain times) to preside over the Sanhedrin.
Now, we just read in Hebrew 4:14 that Jesus is our Great High Priest but He is not a son of Aaron, He is the Son of God. He came into this role in an unconventional way. Obviously, as the Son of God He can have and do whatever He wants but don’t forget that He is also a Son of Man. Jesus’ lineage is two-fold, divine and human and one of the question that we should ask is how can a nobody from the tribe of Judah become High Priest, or better yet our Great High Priest?
To answer this question, we need to talk about a priest named Melchizedek. First of all, Jesus is not from the priestly line of Aaron, instead His human lineage follows the kingly line of David, which we will talk about more next week. But, Jesus’ entry into the priesthood didn’t come from His human genealogy, it came by divine appointment.
Heb 5:1 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins…4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was.
5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him,
“You are my Son, today I have begotten you”;
6 as he says also in another place,
“You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek.”
7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. 8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, 10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
Now, I’m certain that most of you didn’t come to church this morning wondering, “I sure hope Pastor Justin helps me understand that guy Melchizedek?” but this is a very important point in the discussion about Jesus’ priesthood and it ties in with this mysterious character from Abraham’s past. Melchizedek was the king of Salem and a priest of the Most High God; he held both of these offices. He met Abraham in Genesis 14 after the battle to rescue Lot from the five kings. Melchizedek met Abraham with bread and wine and blessed him and then Abraham gave him a tenth of all that he had.
That is all that we know of Melchizedek until Psalm 110, which is both a royal Psalm because it deals with David’s kingly line but it is also a Messianic Psalm. But the really odd thing about Psalm 110 is that it connects the kingly line of David (Jesus lineage) to the priestly line of Melchizedek. Then later in Zechariah (3 & 6) we see a vision where God sends His servant and this servant is called the righteous Branch.
Zech 6: 12 ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch…13 It is he who shall build the temple of the Lord and shall bear royal honor, and shall sit and rule on his throne. And there shall be a priest on his throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.” ’ 14 And the crown shall be in the temple of the Lord
So what does all of this mean? Melchizedek is important for two reasons: He is a priest of God from outside the line of Aaron and in him we see a pattern of one who would serve as both a priest and a king. This means that God’s plan has always been to bring together, through His Anointed Servant, the two offices of Priest and King and these offices would be held by the Messiah permanently.
The Old Covenant priesthood was intended to be temporary because it was just ‘a copy and shadow of the heavenly things (Heb 8:5).’ When God gave Moses the instructions for the temple and the instructions for the priesthood, He gave him only the earth scale model of what was truly taking place in Heaven. The earthly priests were acting out a ritual that would eventually be played out in Heaven itself.
When the High Priest would go into the Holy Place to make sacrifices and offerings for the people, he was simply acting out what Jesus would eventually do when He passed through the Heavens. The OT High Priest came before the earth scale model of the Throne of God, but Jesus went before the actual Throne of God and He is there now, constantly reminding the Father of the sacrifice that He made for us and constantly praying to the Father on our behalf.
Brothers and sister, “we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.” We also have a Great High Priest who understands our humanity in ways that make him sympathetic to our weaknesses because He lived on earth in the flesh and during that time He experienced all of the temptations that we face, but He was without sin (V. 15)
Brother/Sister Jesus knows what it is like to be tempted to sin. In fact, He knows more about facing and overcoming temptation than you and I ever will. We face temptations and there are times we overcome but far too often we fail and give in. Our capacity to battle temptation is small compared to His. He has faced every temptation that we have but He never gave in to them, which means that His capacity to sympathize with us is greater than we can imagine and if we will look at God’s word we will see His sympathy in action.
Think about Jesus’ sympathy for the woman caught in adultery in John 8. Why didn’t He call for her to be stoned? Why didn’t He pick up the stones Himself? For one, He felt sorrow (sympathy) for her. He understood the temptation that she had given in to and rather than condemn her, He felt compassion for her and He did what only a great High Priest could do; He brought her case before His Father.
Do you realize that right at this moment Jesus is serving as your Great High Priest in Heaven. He is sitting at the father’s side asking Him to show you mercy and grace. When you are being tempted to sin, Jesus is fighting for you before the throne of God. When you fail and give in to that temptation, Jesus is ready to forgive you and cleanse your sin away. Right now, He is sitting at God’s right hand reminding the Father of His sacrifice for you and praying that the Father would restore you and give you new mercy and fresh grace.
And because He lived on this earth in the flesh Jesus knows the sorrow that sin brings. He knows the pain that sin leaves behind. He knows the guilt that you bear from past sins and the anxiety you face in your present struggles. He not only faced the temptations that we face, He also lived with sinners. He may not know our grief first-hand but He sat with those whose lives had been destroyed by sin. He ministered to those whose families were torn apart by sin. He comforted people who had to live with the fact that their sin had brought pain and heartbreak to people they loved.
Jesus knows and He cares. Jesus is the great High Priest that God planned to give to His people. He is the priest who lives forever, divinely appointed to offer the once-for-all sacrifice to atone for our sin. He is at God’s right hand and will remain there for eternity whispering prayers in the Father’s ear on our behalf.
But what does this mean for you and me? It means that we should hold fast to our confession of Jesus as our Savior and we should draw near to the throne of God with confidence.
II. 2 ways that we respond to Jesus our Great High Priest (V. 14 &16)
Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession… (and)16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
First, we respond to the news of Jesus as our High Priest by holding fast to our confession. This means that we don’t abandon our faith in Christ as the Son of God who saves us from our sin. We stay faithful. We keep trusting His gospel and we keep believing His promises. Why would we turn away from this Great High Priest?
The author of Hebrews is writing this letter to Jewish Christians who are being tempted to abandon Christianity and run back to Judaism. They were being tempted to go back to the system of sacrifices and laws that they had known all their lives. They weren’t sure if Jesus would truly save them and bring them to God.
But the whole point of this book is to show us that Jesus is better. Jesus is the One that God has been pointing us to ever since Genesis 3. He is the Savior that God promised and the Savior that has come. He truly brings us to God as the fulfillment of God’s eternal plan of salvation and because of that he urges us to hold on to our confession of Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Don’t be ashamed of Jesus. Don’t abandon the hope He gives you. Don’t seek some other way to deal with your sin or your temptation. Don’t seek another priest, but Hold Fast to Jesus and with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. We should hold fast and draw near because everything that was required for our salvation has been provided. We have no reason to fear and no reason to turn back.
Heb 10:12 When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God…14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Let me try to put this into perspective for us by imagining what it was like to try and approach God before the coming of Jesus.
(Illus… May I Go In There?[2]
Imagine with me a Moabite of old gazing down upon Jerusalem and the Tabernacle of Israel from some lofty hillside. This Moabite is attracted to what he sees so he descends the hill and makes his way toward the Tabernacle.
He walks around this high wall of dazzling linen until he comes to a gate and at the gate, he sees a man. “May I go in there?” he asks, pointing to the gate where all the bustle of activity in the Tabernacle’s outer court can be seen.
“Who are You?” demands the man suspiciously.
“I’m from Moab,” the stranger replies.
“Well, I’m very sorry, but you can’t go in there. You see, it’s not for you. The Law of Moses has barred the Moabite from any part in the worship of Israel until his tenth generation.”
The Moabite looks so sad and said, “Well, what would I have to do to go in there?”
“You would have to be born again,” the gatekeeper replies. “You would have to be born an Israelite, of the tribe of Judah, or of the tribe of Benjamin or Dan.”
“Oh, I wish I had been born an Israelite,” the Moabite says and as he looks again, he sees one of the priests, having offered a sacrifice at the brazen altar and the priest cleansed himself at the bronze laver and then the Moabite sees the priest enter the Tabernacle’s interior. “What’s in there?” asks the Moabite. “Inside the main building, I mean.”
“Oh,” the gatekeeper says, “That’s the Tabernacle itself. Inside it contains a lampstand, a table, and an altar of gold. The man you saw was a priest. He will trim the lamp, eat of the bread upon the table and burn incense to the living god upon the golden altar.”
“Ah,” sighs the Moabite, “I wish I were an Israelite so that I could do that. I would so love to worship God in there and help to trim the lamp and offer Him incense and eat bread at that table.”
“Oh, no, the gatekeeper hastens to say, “even I could not do that. To worship in the holy place one must not only be born an Israelite, one must be born of the tribe of Levi and of the family of Aaron.”
The man from Moab sighs again, “I wish that I had been born of Israel of the tribe of Levi of the family of Aaron,” and then, as he gazes wistfully at the closed Tabernacle door, he says, “What else is in there?”
“Oh, there’s a veil. It’s a beautiful veil I’m told and it divides the Tabernacle in two. Beyond the veil is what we call ‘the Most Holy Place’… ‘the Holy of Holies.’”
“What’s in the Holy of Holies?” the Moabite asks.
“Well, there’s the sacred chest in there and it’s called the Ark of the Covenant. It contains holy memorials of our past. Its top is gold and we call that the mercy seat because God sits there between the golden cherubim. Do you see that pillar of cloud hovering over the Tabernacle? That’s the Shekinah glory cloud. It rests over the mercy seat,” said the gatekeeper.
Again, a look of longing comes over the face of the Moabite man. “Oh,” he said, “if only I were a priest! How I would love to go into the Holy of Holies and gaze upon the glory of God and worship Him there in the beauty of His holiness!’
“Oh no!” said the man at the gate. “You couldn’t do that even if you were a priest! Only the high priest can enter the Most Holy Place. Only he can go in there. Nobody else!”
The heart of the man from Moab yearns once more. “Oh,” he cried, “If only I had been born an Israelite, of the tribe of Levi, of the family of Aaron. If only I had been born a high priest! I would go in there every day! I would go in there three times a day! I would worship continually in the Holy of Holies!”
The gatekeeper looked at the man from Moab again and once more shook his head. “Oh no,” he said, “you couldn’t do that! Even the high priest of Israel can go in there only once a year, and then only after the most elaborate preparations and even then only for a little while.”
Sadly, the Moabite turned away. He had no hope in all the world of ever entering there!
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith (Hebrews 10:19-22).
Here it is, a tremendous word of welcome, extended to Jew and Gentile alike, to come on in and worship, not in the holiest place of the human tabernacle, but into the Holy of Holies in heaven itself "by the blood of Jesus."
Conclusion…
We don’t have to stand outside the temple any more. We can go right in to the very throne of God and we will find that it is a throne of grace. Because of Jesus, God’s throne of judgment has become to us a throne of grace. As believers in Christ, when we approach God we will find there mercy and grace to help in our time of need.
So, draw near to Christ today and confess your sin and your need of Him. Hold fast to Christ today knowing that if you hope in Him your hope will not fail you.
[1] From the Talmud (Talmud Jer. Ioma, I.), “In the first Temple, the high-priests served, the son succeeding the father, and they were eighteen in number. But in the second Temple they got the high-priesthood for money.”
[2] This is taken from an illustration in John Phillips' Exploring Hebrews commentary
The Work of Christ our Prophet
Manuscript
1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is superior/more excellent than theirs.
Here in this opening paragraph to the book of Hebrews we are introduced to Jesus and since we are gathered here to worship Him this morning I thought it would be a good idea for us to try and understand what this text says about Him. Working backward from verse 4, we learn that Jesus is superior to, He is greater than the angels and the name that He has inherited is more exceptional than theirs. The word “superior/better” is used 13 times in Hebrews to compare Jesus to what went before Him. That Jesus is better is a key theme of this book and here at the start, God wants us to know that Jesus is much superior to the angels. As powerful and amazing as the angels are, Jesus is better.
In verse 3, we learn that He has taken his seat at the right hand of God’s throne. Jesus sits on a throne in the place of chief honor beside the Majesty on high. In other words, Jesus is sitting in the throne room that governs the universe and He is the king in waiting who rules over all. This position, this title was His by right, as the Son of God, but He also claimed it when He accomplished the task given to Him. He was given the task of making purification for sin.
The sin that entered the world through the Garden, the sin that spread through the hearts of every generation of mankind, the sin that separates us from God, the sins of all God’s people; by Jesus work on the cross that sin has been cleansed, washed away. He provided the remedy for our defilement by offering up His own life to set us free.
In the middle of verse 3, we learn that by His command the universe stays in place, the stars continue to burn and shine, the planets continue in their orbiting course and life as we know it is sustained. Jesus is the strong nuclear force (ie. The nuclear glue) holding the nucleus of atoms together and if He were to let them go, the universe would dissolve in a moment.
If you could look upon His face, you would find yourself looking into the face of God. If you tried to look upon Him, you would have to shield your eyes to see beyond the shining glory of God that radiates from Him like the consuming fire of the sun in its full strength. He is the radiance of the glory of God.
He was the construction supervisor for the creation of the universe and He is set to inherit the very universe that He made. When you hear Him speak, you are hearing the voice of God and His voice is the final and definitive voice.
As we look at this passage we see a handful of wonderful truths about Jesus but there is something in particular that I want to discuss with you this morning. In this passage, we also see a three-fold description of the work of Jesus as a Prophet, Priest and King. He is the prophet through whom God has spoken His final word; He is the priest who has accomplished a perfect work of cleansing for His people’s sins; and He is the King who sits enthroned in the place of honor alongside God the Father.
Transition…
Over the next few weeks, I want us to focus on Christ’s fulfillment of these three roles and this morning we are going to learn about His role as the final Prophet of God.
Sermon Focus…
In the OT, prophets priest and king were three separate offices that God established and these offices served as mediators between God and the people of God. The prophets spoke the Word of God to the people, the priest offered sacrifices, prayers and even praises to God for the people, and the king ruled over the people as a representative of God. At times there were faithful prophets, priests, and kings; and as we know there were also wicked ones who failed in their office. But each of these offices foreshadowed the One who was to come. The One who would execute these offices with finality; that’s where Jesus comes into this discussion.
In Christ, these three offices come together and are fulfilled. As our Prophet, Jesus speaks the Word of God to us and He also reveals God to us. As our Priest, Jesus offers Himself as a sacrifice to God for us that ends all sacrifices. As our King, Jesus rules over the church and all of creation.
Let’s look at His role as Prophet.
I. God Has Spoken to Us in His Son (V. 2)
As we open our Bibles we learn very quickly that our God speaks. In Genesis 1, we learn that He spoke creation into existence. God’s word is powerful and true and this is a theme throughout the book.
Psalm 33:6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. 7 He gathers the waters of the sea as a heap; he puts the deeps in storehouses. 8 Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! 9 For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.
Our God speaks and things happen; but He also speaks to men and He speaks to His people through those men called prophets. Moses was the first prophet of God and after him there was a line of prophets all the way to Malachi in the OT and then John the Baptist in the NT. These prophets were anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and they spoke or wrote God’s message to God’s people.
But there was a lingering promise that came through Moses, about a special prophet that God would send one day.
Deut 18:15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen…18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
Fast forward to the New Testament and you see that people are discussing whether or not Jesus is that prophet. The woman at the well discovered that Jesus was a prophet when he told her everything that she had ever done. The people were trying to figure out who Jesus was and they guessed, “Some say you are John the Baptist, other say Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets (Matt 16:14).” But Peter puts all the questions to rest in Acts 3 when He reminds the people of Moses’ promise and declares that Jesus is the one who fulfilled that promise.
Jesus is a prophet of God, the greatest of the prophets and He was also more than a prophet. He is the One prophet that all the other prophets were pointing to. He is the One prophet who fulfills all the promises and prophecies that God ever gave to His people. He is the One prophet who not only speaks the Word of God but who is the Word of God.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Jesus was not only a messenger bringing revelation from God, He was the source of revelation from God (Grudem 626) and we see this even in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus says, “Truly I say to you.” Jesus uses this phrase all the time and when He does He is drawing our attention to His authority not simply as a messenger of God but as the Son of God.
When Old Testament prophets spoke a word of prophecy to the people they would introduce it with the phrase, “Thus saith the Lord” and this showed that they weren’t speaking on their own authority, they were speaking on the authority of God. God was speaking through them.
Jesus uses a different phrase, “Truly, I say to you…” He is a prophet like no other because He doesn’t simply speak for God, He speaks as God. He is a faithful witness to God’s truth, because He is God’s Word in the flesh.
But why was it necessary for God to send us His Word in the flesh? Why were the prophets of Old not enough? To answer this question I want us to take a theological tour.
II. Munus Triplex – The Three-Fold office and the Triple Cure
It was John Calvin who brought the three-fold office of Christ into prominence during the Reformation. He wasn’t the first to write on it, the early church fathers and Catholic theologians referred to the work of Christ in these three distinct ways (prophet, priest, and king). But Calvin set out to show how Christ not only served in these roles but did so as a means to completely satisfy our need for salvation, where the Catholic teachers left that need unfulfilled.
Calvin understood that Jesus’s fulfillment of the three-fold office was tied to His title as the Messiah or the Anointed One of God. “Under the law, prophets, as well as priests and kings, were anointed with holy oil. Hence, the illustrious name of “Messiah” was bestowed upon the one promised mediator,” who fulfilled all three anointed offices of the Old Testament.[1]
But another Reformed theologian, named Francis Turretin, who introduced the threefold office of Christ as the divinely revealed cure to man’s threefold disease of ignorance, guilt, and pollution. Turretin taught that Christ serving in the triple office, as prophet, priest, and king, was necessary to accomplish the Triple Cure to our fatal three-fold disease.”
We don’t like to think of ourselves as ignorant, but the Bible points out that man lives in a state of ignorance that is brought on by our sin.
“God saw that every intention of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually (Gen 6:5).”
“We did not honor God or give thanks to God, but our foolish hearts were darkened and we exchanged the glory of the immortal God (Rom 1:21).”
“We were blinded by the god of this world, kept from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ (2 Cor 4:4).”
As a result of this, we are like blind men stumbling through life ignorant to the truth of God and to the guilt that we bear as sinners.
James 2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.
Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
But why is this true? Why have we sinned and become guilty before God? Because the sin in our hearts has infected every part of us.
You were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Eph 2:1-3).
These are the descriptions of our disease, the explanation of our corruption. The disease itself is sin and its prognosis is fatal. All of humanity is infected with it and earthly doctors have no cure because with a man it is impossible. But with God all things are possible.
Our threefold misery of ignorance, guilt, and bondage to sin are addressed and overcome by the threefold cure of Christ our prophet, priest and king.
Ignorance is healed by the prophetic; guilt by the priestly; the corruption of sin by the kingly office. Prophetic light scatters the darkness of error; the merit of the Priest takes away guilt and secures reconciliation for us; the Power of the King removes the bondage of sin and death. The Prophet shows God to us; the Priest leads us to God, and the King joins us together and glorifies us with God.[2]
There is one more thing I want us to see related to Christ’s role as our prophet and it is something that only He alone could help us to see.
III. Christ’s Role as our Prophet (Luke 4:16-21)
Christ’s role as our prophet means that He is representing God to man. He is shedding light on the love of the Father and the plan of the Father for ruined sinners like us. Like the prophets of old, Jesus serves as a prophet by speaking the word of God to us. But, the fact that He is God in flesh should give us a clue that His role as prophet will not simply be contained in the words that He speaks but also in the life that He lives.
I want us to look at Luke 4, where Jesus not only speaks the Word of God in a very interesting way but He also points us to what He will accomplish for us.
Luke 4:16-21 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.
The setting for this chapter is that Jesus has already begun his ministry of preaching the good news in the synagogues around Galilee. But on this day, He has come home to the synagogue in Nazareth and it is easy to imagine the excitement about His arrival. All of His friends, neighbors and family have gathered around to see if all the stories are true. Not to mention the fact that there is probably a great deal of pride on their part that one of their own has been called out to be a prophet to the nation.
There hadn’t been a prophet in Israel for several hundred years until John the Baptist stepped out and now the word is that Jesus might be a prophet as well. This is a local boy made good kind of story. So everybody is crowding into the synagogue because Jesus is in town and they want to hear what He is going to say.
Luke 4:17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
This verse is really interesting because many scholars believe that synagogues at this time followed a regular schedule of reading through the Scriptures but Jesus searches the scroll of Isaiah until he finds the passage He wants to read. He came into synagogue on the Sabbath with a particular message to preach. So when the time came he stood up and read this…
Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." Luke 4:20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
This is not only the message of Jesus but His mission as well. This is why Jesus has come, to fulfill the promises made about Him through the prophets. Or you could say that He has come to fulfill the promises that He has made about Himself. Let me explain, this passage comes from Isaiah 61:1-2 where the Anointed Servant of the Lord is speaking about what He will do when He comes.
This section of Isaiah is understood to be the future Messiah speaking about His Mission. So when Jesus stands up to read this passage He is literally speaking about himself. He is quoting Himself and declaring the reason He has come and everything He declares He will also accomplish.
But what did He say?
1. He came with the anointing of the Spirit of God and He displays the power of God…we see that taking place in two ways: 1. He was anointed by the Spirit at His baptism and 2. He walked in the power of the Spirit throughout His life performing signs and wonders which only God can accomplish. What this means is that Jesus is the Anointed One of God.
2. He came to bring good news to the poor… Jesus preached the gospel of the Kingdom to all who would listen and He calls them to respond with a humble heart to the good news. This verse is not saying that the gospel is exclusively for those who don’t have money; the idea of poverty here is related to those who are poor in spirit. He is preaching good news to those who will humbly receive His word and this message is still being preached today.
Friend, if you come to the gospel of Jesus with a hard heart and an arrogant spirit you will walk away like the Pharisees boasting in self-righteousness on your way to Hell. But if you come to the gospel with humility, the knowledge that you cannot save yourself, and you cry out for mercy; you will find it in Jesus. He delivers what He promises.
3. He came to set the captives free…This is not the language of political revolution but a prophetic word of spiritual transformation. Jesus has come to proclaim forgiveness from sin and freedom from the law of sin and death. We do not simply need to be set free from individual sins and bad habits; we need to be transformed and set free from Satan’s control.
4. He came to give sight to the blind…we could easily read this and take note of those for whom Christ restored their physical sight; but the point is much deeper. The Scriptures say that Satan has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they might not see the glory of God in the face of Christ and Jesus has come to strip those blinders off our eyes so that we can see and be set free. He doesn’t just declare the truth, but He gives us eyes to see that truth and hearts that are eager to accept it.
5. He came to liberate the oppressed... This carries a couple of ideas: Jesus came to liberate those men and women who had been abused under the legalism of their religious leaders. He came to liberate those who had been oppressed by demonic forces. Jesus does not simply come and promise liberty for the oppressed, He actually delivered and still does.
6. He proclaimed and ushered in the year of the Lord’s favor... This verse ties in to the Old Testament concept of the Year of Jubilee which was a time when everybody got to start over. If you had to sell your land because of debt or some family tragedy, in the year of Jubilee you would get it back. If you had to sell your possessions to your neighbor because of hard times, in the year of Jubilee you would get it all back. If you were weary from working and laboring for year after year, in the year of Jubilee you could rest and God would make the fields grow in abundance. Jesus has come to usher in the year of Jubilee, which means that it is time to celebrate.
Here’s what that means for us spiritually, Jesus not only preached Good News but in His death, burial and resurrection He made that news good. He atoned for our sin. Jesus died in the place of sinners and paid the ransom price to make us free and this becomes the foundation for our celebration. God’s favor is poured out on all those who receive Christ as savior and Lord. We don’t work for our salvation because the work has already been done. It is Finished! Let the celebration begin.
He told them “Today this passage is fulfilled in me.”
Conclusion…
In His role as the final prophet of God, Jesus came to reveal His plan to us but in His role as the Savior of the world, He came to accomplish this for us. As our prophet, He not only announced an end to our sin but He made an end to our sin. He not only announced the love of the Father but showed us the love of the Father.
Jesus fulfilled His role as our prophet but He also fulfilled His role as our redeemer. He does more than prophecy about these good things, He has come to give us these good things. He not only preaches Good News but He makes that news Good. He not only talks about a celebration, He has given us an invitation to the party.
[1] Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion Vol 1, Book 2 (pg. 495-6)
[2] https://www.monergism.com/triple-cure-jesus-christ-–-our-prophet-priest-and-king {Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Vol. 2 (Phillipsburg: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1994), p. 393.}
Lust and the Kingdom of God
Manuscript
Matt 5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Is there any Christian teaching more ridiculed than Christ’s teaching on sexuality? Is there any command of God more ignored and broken than the 7th commandment against adultery? Is there a more popular sin in human history than sexual immorality? Our American culture and much of the world thinks that Jesus is crazy for what He says in these 4 verses.
We live in a culture where our entire lives are inundated with sexuality. It’s on our TV, in our movies, and on the catalogues and ads that are delivered to our door. It’s on billboards as we drive into downtown. It’s plastered across the magazine racks in high-gloss photos as we approach the checkout counter at the grocery store. And of course, it’s almost as if the internet was made for the specific purpose of pushing sexuality into our lives in every imaginable way.
This has had a huge impact on our lives and our culture. Adultery is so common that it is simply accepted as a normal part of adult life, especially for our political leaders. In fact, if a political leader takes measures to remain faithful to their spouse they are mocked as being sexually repressive. Sex before marriage is just normal and it has been this way for generations. Homosexuality has been declared a basic human right by our Supreme Court. Transgenderism and transsexualism are just this cultural moment’s examples of sexual deviance being made to look normal and God’s standards being made to look obscene.
There was a time when the Jesus’ teaching on sexuality was largely embraced as good and right, even if it wasn’t practiced. But that is no longer the case. A sexual revolution has taken place.
This revolution is now so complete that those who will not join are understood to be deficient, intolerant, and harmful to society. What was previously understood to be immoral is now celebrated as a moral good. The church’s historic teaching on sexuality in general and homosexuality in specific, which was shared by the vast majority of the culture until very recently - is now seen as a relic of the past and a repressive force that must be eradicated.[1]
Transition…
When it comes to teaching on this topic, Jesus stands in the minority. Jesus, the Son of God and the Savior of the World, says that it would be better for us to live life without eyes and hands than to embrace the sexual revolution and ride it all the way into hell. He teaches us that there are some things that our hearts are naturally oriented around that will lead us to Hell. He wants us to understand that eternal things are at stake and therefore we must do whatever it takes to kill sin before sin kills us.
But before the battle gets underway we need to learn a few things. First, we need to learn what the law says about adultery. Second, we need to learn what Jesus says about lust. Third, we are going to learn how to battle against the temptation to sin in these ways.
Sermon Focus…
I. What the law says about Adultery (V. 27)
The first thing Jesus does is to quote the 7th commandment found in Exodus 20:14.
Matt 5:27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
That’s all this is. Jesus is not adding to the law or taking away from the law; He is simply stating again that this law of God still applies. He is quoting from the 10 commandments and reminding us that God’s standards for sexual purity and marital fidelity haven’t changed. God’s standard was established in Genesis 2.
From the very beginning God made it clear that He created us, male and female, and His intention was for a “man to leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife…and the two were naked and unashamed (Gen 2:24-25).” That has always been God’s designed context for intimacy. Within the context of monogamous, heterosexual marriage sex is an amazing gift of God that is to be enjoyed for pleasure, for procreation and for the joy of intimacy. Outside of monogamous heterosexual marriage sex in all its forms is sin.
Adultery is sinful because it falls outside of what God has declared good and right, but it is also sinful because it seeks to destroy what God set up as the foundation of the world He created. He created this world and designed man, “to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth…” This would take place as families grew and children were born, but adultery is an attack upon the family.
Last week we learned that murder is an assault upon the image of God in man and this week I want us to see that adultery is an assault upon the plan of God for man. Satan’s temptation of Adam and Eve was aimed to separate the husband and wife from their God. The temptation to commit adultery is aimed to separate a husband from his wife and a wife from her husband as a means of undermining the plan of God for the world.
Therefore, adultery is forbidden throughout the Bible and the punishment for this sin was death. But this wasn’t enough to keep people from committing this sin especially kings. The highest profile case of adultery in the Bible is that of King David and his sin with Bathsheba in 2 Sam 11. But David’s son Solomon was a serial adulterer and as a result the nation seemed to follow his lead. The prophet Jeremiah lamented the fact that, “The land (of Israel) was full of adulterers (Jer 23:10).”
But Jesus wants us to know that there is much more to adultery than the physical act.
II. What Jesus says about Lust (V. 28)
28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Last week we learned that we can commit murder with our words but here Jesus teaches that we can commit adultery with our eyes. Lust is heart adultery. It is the strong sexual desire for something or someone that is forbidden, for something that doesn’t belong to us.
The act of Adultery is forbidden in the 7th commandment and lust is actually forbidden in the 10th commandment.
Exodus 20:17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
So here in Matthew 5, Jesus is bringing these two commands together to show that they are connected. One of the things that God’s commandments show us is that we can commit sin without ever committing the act. When a man looks at a woman (not his wife) with strong sexual desire in his heart or when a woman looks at a man (not her husband) with strong sensual desires in her heart, Jesus says that you are guilty of adultery and sexual immorality. Let’s make this more personal, Jesus is saying that when you look at another person other than your spouse and you entertain lustful thoughts about them, you are committing sin in your heart.
Lust alone is enough to defile us before God.
Matt 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person.
Those childhood/teenage crushes that so many think are innocent, those wild fantasies that we never discuss, those emotional romance novels that our culture has grown to adore, the pervasive spread of pornography; all of these things have caused us to consider lust a common and respectable sin. But Jesus says that any of these is enough to condemn us before God. And just so we’re clear, any and every sexual practice which God declares immoral in deed is also immoral in thought.
The fact that we live in the 21st century does nothing to change, altar or undo God’s command for sexual purity. C.S. Lewis wrote this in 1952 in the culture of Great Britain and it is true of our culture today.
Chastity is the most unpopular of the Christian virtues. There is no getting away from it; the Christian rule is, either marriage, with complete faithfulness to your spouse, or else total abstinence. Now this is so difficult and so contrary to our instincts, that obviously either Christianity is wrong or our sexual instinct, as it now is, has gone wrong. One or the other. Of course, being a Christian, I think it is the instinct which has gone wrong.[2]
I agree with his conclusion about where the problem lies. It is not Christianity that is the problem it is our sinful sexual instinct that is the problem.
Human sexuality was created by God as a pleasurable gift to be enjoyed, as a means to build families, and as a way to strengthen intimacy/unity between a husband and wife. But the sin in our hearts has the power to corrupt the best of God’s gifts.
In a world filled with sinful people we find a world filled with sexual immorality. In every way imaginable humanity has explored the scope of sexual sin and the result is more serious than we might want to think. In Romans 1 as Paul is teaching on the pervasiveness of sin in the world he tells us that the root of the problem is that mankind has, “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of man and beast…mankind has exchanged the truth of God for a lie…mankind has exchanged what is natural for what is unnatural and the result is that the Wrath of God is ready to be unleashed against mankind.”
The vertical dishonoring of God (exchanging of God’s glory) is ultimately what has led to the horizontal idolatry of man, beasts, and sex.
When you exchange something, you express your preference. You express your greater desire. And if you prefer God’s creation over God, then you find God less desirable than what you prefer…if you see anything as more beautiful, more attractive, more desirable than God, you are in the dark and not seeing reality for what it is…This exchange of God’s glory for other things - this preferring human glories over God’s glory – is the root of disordered sexuality.[3]
In other words, sex is about worship. Our sinful heart’s refusal to worship and submit to God is what gives rise to the sexual immorality and idolatry in our hearts, our lives, our homes and our culture.
So at this point the question is, “What hope do we have to see real change in our lives when it comes to sexual sin?” Well let’s start with what Jesus says here in Matt 5 and then think about what Jesus did on the cross.
III. What must we do about Lust and Adultery (V. 29-30)
29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
Now, most of our world disagrees with this and many of us may as well. Jesus says it is better to go through this life without a hand or an eye than it is to indulge in sinful pleasures and go to hell. Our world lives like this statement from Jesus is a lie. But Jesus isn’t trying to take our joy and pleasure away from us. He is trying to lead us into the deeper and greater joy that He made us for.
We don’t like to entertain deep thoughts like this but the truth is that intimacy with God is eternally more enjoyable than a one-night stand or lustful thoughts. That’s what Jesus is saying here and if he were able, that is what King David would tell us.
(Illus…David looked upon a beautiful woman and desired her, so he had his guards go and get her and then he sinned with her. The sin in his heart led to sin in the bedroom and then it spilled out into his army when he orchestrated the death of one of his own mighty men, Uriah.
If he were here, David would tell us that Jesus is right and that we should make war with our flesh rather than to give into the temptation to sin with our eyes or our bodies.
But what about this command to cut out our eyes and cut off our hand. Notice that he says to eliminate the right eye and right hand. He is not speaking literally as some throughout history have supposed. Jesus is speaking metaphorically and using dramatic figures of speech to show us that sin must be dealt with radically. The value of the right eye and hand as the most important or valuable part of us shows that “in order to avoid sin one is to give up everything, even what is most important and most treasured” (Luz, Matthew 1– 7, 247).[4]
So one step in our approach to battling sin and temptation is, “If our right eye causes us to sin…don’t look.” Behave as if you had actually plucked out your eyes. That is what mortification is all about. It is taking real and drastic measures to battle against sin and temptation. For some of us that means you need to put filters on your computers and home network. For others, this means that you need to stop reading the books you’re reading. For others, this means you need to delete your social media accounts, or stop watching the movies or HBO and Netflix shows you enjoy so much.
Yes, I’m sure that your friends will say, “What are you talking about? You’re not going to know how this end. If you’re not going to watch this new show or read this new book…you won’t be as culturally educated as you could be.” That may be true, but it is better to be culturally maimed and preserve your purity. The question is whether you are willing to go to this extreme to battle sin and temptation.
Jesus says that it is better to live life culturally maimed, to avoid certain experiences in this life, than to risk final destruction in the life to come.
Now, in many ways, this approach to change is good But this approach is not enough because this approach doesn’t address the root of our problem. This approach is simply not complete because it focuses on the outward behaviors only and the root of our problem with sexual sin is the heart. Behavior modification alone will not solve this problem of our hearts. Only Jesus can solve this problem.
Now, one of my deepest Christian convictions is that the gospel is so much more than simply the minimal doctrine that one must affirm in order to go to Heaven. The gospel is the power of God that saves us from sin’s guilt and sin’s control and turns the entire world upside down.
The gospel is so powerful that it can turn an enemy of God into a worshipper of God. It is so powerful that it can change your eternity as well as your life here and now. The gospel changes us at the very core of who we are. It reorients our heart around the weight of God’s glory and when the gospel takes root in our hearts it begins a process of reorienting all of life around our growing love for God over our love for sin.
As believers in Christ our identity as gospel people is going to propel us into battle against sexual sin. Jesus doesn’t command us to embrace a Biblical sexual ethic in order that we can be saved, but instead as the born again people of God he calls us to embrace a God-honoring view of sex. Obedience to God flows out of a renewed relationship to God.
Conclusion…
I think that our battle against sexual sin begins not with what we need to do but with something we need to believe…
Our identity is in Christ, not our sexuality. The culture says, “You are your sexuality.” The culture says that to deny our sexual urges is to deny our humanity. The culture wants us to believe that If we reject its views of sexuality and the practice of those views then we are rejecting what it means to be human.
But the Bible teaches us something else about sex?
a. The Bible teaches us the context in which sex is a gift. Within the context of monogamous, heterosexual marriage sex is an amazing gift of God that is to be enjoyed for pleasure, for procreation and for the joy of intimacy. Outside of monogamous heterosexual marriage sex in all its forms is sin.
b. The Bible teaches us that sex and romantic fulfillment are not the keys to life. They are gifts but they are not the ultimate point of life. Jesus was celibate and lived the fullest and most God-glorifying life ever lived. Therefore, Jesus teaches us that the key to a full life is not intimacy with another person but rather intimacy with God.
In American culture, we have completely distorted this. Our culture promotes the pursuit of sexual pleasure first and foremost and then in the context of our sexual enjoyment we are to then find religious teaching that affirms and supports our sexuality.
But Jesus wants us to pursue our relationship with God first and foremost and then in the context of that relationship we are to enjoy God’s gift of sex in a way that glorifies Him.
Trusting Christ with our sexuality is hard because it goes against the grain of what culture says and in many ways, it goes against the grain of what we feel and want. Our natural predisposition is to sin. It is to go against God’s glory, Gods rule, and Gods word. We are dead in sin, we are enemies of God, we are blinded to God’s glory and through the gospel Jesus calls us out of this and into a life with God that is going to be hard.
But I want us to remember something about Jesus as we seek to navigate through this issue. In His life, Jesus dealt with a lot of sinful people, even those caught up in sexual sin. But something you will notice is that He never seems to want to push those people away. No matter the issue, Jesus invites people in close so that He can talk to them and offer them grace. Even when He encountered people who were involved with deep sexual sins we see that Jesus draws near to them and offers them grace, He is honest with them about their sin, but then He looks them in the eye and He says, “Now, come and follow me.”
Friends, I want you to know that Jesus doesn’t push us away because of our problems with sexual sin; He invites us to come even closer. He offers us grace, He calls us to repent, but He also offers us a place at His table. So let’s draw near to Him and let His grace and truth guide us.
Transition to the Lord’s Supper…
In a few minutes, we are going to put our Bible’s down and we are going to take up a small piece of bread which reminds us of the broken body of Jesus and a small cup of wine or juice that reminds us of the blood of Jesus. And like we have done many times before we will think about these elements, pray over these elements and then eat and drink them together. Now when we do this the historical and theological facts of Jesus’ death will be swirling around in our heads and that is the way it should be.
In that moment, we remember that Christ commanded us to do this for the sake of remembering. He told us to engage our minds and remember His loving sacrifice. But when the Holy Spirit opens up our hearts and pours the reality of God’s love into us, that’s when our obedience becomes an act of worship. That’s when our faith in Christ becomes true spiritual food for our souls.
So as we ready ourselves to eat this Lord’s Supper and to feast upon Christ’s provision for our redemption I would ask that you ready your hearts by clinging with all of your might to the love of God. We have a great need for a Savior and in Christ we have a great Savior for our need. Surrender your life to the love that God has shown us in Christ. Build your life upon Him. Trust your soul to His steadfast
love and pray with me that we would experience this love more and more through the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you are a believer in Christ, meaning that you trust that Jesus is the Son of God who died to take away your sin and was raised to secure your salvation. If you are trusting in Christ alone as your Savior and Lord then we welcome you to join us in observing the Lord’s Supper this morning. As the plates pass you will see clear cups filled with grape juice and purple cups filled with wine.
If you are not a believer and have not come to trust in Christ then we ask that you simply let these plates pass by you. But I would urge you to think deeply about the state of your soul. I would urge you to consider your sin and its offense to God. I would urge you to look to Jesus as your only hope of rescue and to put your trust in Him alone for salvation.
[1] Al Mohler We Cannot Be Silent (Pg. 4)
[2] C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity: Sexual Morality (pg. 95)
[3] John Piper Living in the Light of Money, Sex and Power (pg. 34-5)
[4] Pennington, Jonathan T.. The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing: A Theological Commentary (p. 207). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
Anger and the Kingdom of God
Manuscript
Matt 5:20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone 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.
23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
Of all the sins that Jesus could have chosen to start with to make his point, He chose murder. He could have started with something simpler and less offensive, but He comes out of the gate with one of the most grievous sins known to man. But if you think about it, it makes sense for Him to start with murder since man’s first crime was murder.
In Genesis 4 we read about the very first sin committed outside the Garden of Eden. Cain and his brother Abel prepared their offerings to the Lord. The Lord received Abel’s offering but not Cain’s and,
“So Cain was very angry, and his face fell…8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him.
Now, Jesus’ audience would have been very familiar with this story about the first act of murder and the other stories of murder that follow. They would have remembered the story of Lamech who boasted about his two wives and that he had killed a young man. Perhaps Jesus’ audience would have been familiar with the first prohibition against murder from Genesis 9:6, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.”
Don’t miss the fact that we are 9 chapters into the Bible and we have already seen murder become so prevalent on the earth that God gave Moses this divine law in order to forbid it. Murder is a serious crime in the eyes of God and it demands a serious punishment. Murder is an assault upon the image of God in man. Human life is not cheap, it is precious to God and when it is taken, God demands justice.
The act of murder is a grievous sin and its effects can be seen throughout the Bible and throughout the history of humanity. Murder is a terrible crime, a terrible transgression of God’s law, which demands swift and balancing justice, but murder has a root that goes deeper than the act itself.
The Scribes and Pharisees trusted in themselves that they were righteous. They trusted that since they hadn’t committed the act of murder that they had kept God’s law, but Jesus shows here that God’s law requires much more than we might think. God’s commandment teaches us that envy, anger, and even insults are forbidden.
Transition…
Anger is one of those respectable sins and when we get angry we don’t think it’s a big deal, at least it doesn’t seem like big deal to us. We get angry all the time with people who don’t drive the way we want them to. We get angry with our children when they run around the house making noise instead of going to bed like we asked them to. We get angry with our spouse when they forget something, or do something that annoys us, or when they fail to do something the way we wanted them to. We get angry when our favorite team doesn’t win. We get angry when someone posts something we don’t agree with online…We get angry all the time and for a lot of reasons
I think it is safe to say that we have an anger problem and Jesus wants us to know that this is a VERY BIG DEAL. We just read what Jesus said, “Everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.” Jesus is talking to us this morning and He wants us to avoid the error of the Pharisees. He wants us to understand that our sins have roots that go way deeper than just the physical acts.
Sermon Focus…
I. Murder is terrible, but it is not the root of the problem (v. 21-22)
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone 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.
Now, it has been 3 weeks since we have looked at the Sermon on the Mount together and if you are anything like me then you could probably use a reminder of what we learned a few weeks ago. In verses 17-20 we learned about Jesus’ relationship to the Old Testament in general and to the law of God in particular. We learned that Jesus has not come to do away with the Old Testament law, nor has He come to establish a new law. Ultimately, He has come to fulfill the demands of law and to accomplish salvation for His people. But He has also come to faithfully teach on the law so that it would accomplish its purpose in the hearts of God’s people.
The people needed both of these things and so do we. They definitely needed a Savior who would take away their sin but they also needed a faithful teacher of the law because the Scribes and Pharisees had made a real mess of the Old Testament. They had confused and manipulated the law by adding their own interpretations of it and the result is that the people had been taught to look at their relationship with God as little more than a system of superficial rules. They had been taught that salvation could be earned by keeping all the rules.
(Illus…Martyn Lloyd-Jones suggests that the condition of the Jews in Jesus’ day was much like the people of the world just prior to the Protestant Reformation. They had popes and priests teaching them that salvation could be earned through a system of religious practices. The people were ignorant about what God’s Word actually taught and as a result they had been completely led astray by their teachers. But the reformation placed the Word of God in the hands of the people and they began to see for themselves that salvation was a gift of God’s grace, not the result of man’s work.
In a similar way, Jesus has come as a reformer to make the Word of God clear. He has come to make clear what God’s Word says and to show what God’s Word reveals about the real condition of man’s heart. Jesus is concerned with the letter of the law (v. 18) but He is also concerned with the spirit of the law because the Kingdom of Christ is first and foremost internal not external, it is spiritual and moral, not physical and political.
The gospel of Jesus and this sermon are not about external conformity to a pattern of dead religion. Jesus wants nothing to do with that. He doesn’t want blind obedience; He wants our lives of faith to be fueled by love for God that flows from hearts that have been spiritually changed and drenched in God’s grace. The kind of righteous life that Jesus outlines for us in this sermon is first a matter of the heart. His words are aimed at our hearts.
That’s why here in verse 21, Jesus doesn’t stop with the letter of the law but He probes deeper to help us understand what the law reveals about the root of sin that lies in our hearts. The letter of the law promises judgment for the sin of murder but the spirit of the law shifts our focus from the outward act to the inward state.
Now why might this be an important point for Jesus to make? How many of us have read the 10 commandments and thought, “Well at least I haven’t committed murder?” The Pharisees did the same thing. They looked at the pursuit of righteousness simply in terms of what they had and had not done, but Jesus says our behavior is only part of the equation. The key to understanding the deeper purpose of God’s law is to understand what it reveals about our hearts and in our hearts, we commit murder all the time.
It is easy to see that anger is what leads to the act of murder, especially if we look at the story of Cain and Abel. But here Jesus wants us to know that the anger in our hearts is just as dangerous and deserving of condemnation as the act itself.
Jesus wants us to know that God cares when we commit sinful acts, but He also cares about the sinful condition of our hearts. The acts themselves are produced in the heart and the attitudes and emotions of the heart are enough to defile us.
Matthew 15:18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a person.
Can you remember the last time you were really angry? Angry enough to raise your voice? Or angry enough that you would need to repent of what was actually on your mind? Angry enough to mumble under your breath an insult or angry enough to shout that insult in the direction of another person? In the direction of your brother?
In the eyes of God this anger is enough to defile us. It is not enough that you have kept yourself free from the sin of murder; the unrighteous anger in your heart cries out against you. It may not lead us to murder but it shows itself in our angry thoughts and even the insults that we speak to others. Jesus tells us that this unrighteous anger makes us liable to judgment, which means that anger itself is a transgression of the law.
But wait a minute, is all anger sinful? Some say so, but I think the Bible gives us a category of righteous anger that God displays and He calls us to share. Righteous anger is anger that is directed toward sin, and I’ll share some examples from Scripture. In Exodus 4 we read that the Lord’s anger was kindled against Moses for his insecurity and lack of faith. This phrase is a common one in the OT and it shows that there is a type of anger against sin that is holy.
Later in Exodus 32, Moses himself gets angry when he sees the sin of the people and he throws the 10 commandments to the ground. This type of human anger against sin is connected to the anger that God feels toward sin, but God warns us against giving ourselves over to it completely.
In Psalm 4:4 we read, “Be angry, and do not sin; ponder in your own hearts on you beds and be silent. Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord.” Paul quotes this Psalm in Ephesians 4:26 when he says, “Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.” From these and other passages, I believe that it is possible to be angry and it not be sinful; but only when our anger is directed toward sin.
Jesus showed this type of anger toward the corruption of His Father’s House and His anger was directed toward the sins of men. But I suspect that much of the anger that we feel is not directed toward sin. We get angry because things aren’t going our way. We get angry when we aren’t getting what we want. We get angry when people let us down or when they disrespect us or when our kids annoy us or disobey us for the 10th time; and this anger reveals the sin that still resides within our hearts. This is what Jesus wants to confront us about.
James 4:1 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? 2 You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel.
James, the brother of Jesus, wants to follow His Lord’s example and probe to the root of our sin. He points out that the fighting and disunity that breaks out and ruins our relationships is really about the sinful desires of our hearts. We want control and when people don’t let us get our way we get angry. We want peace and when people make too much noise we get angry. We want people to recognize us and our accomplishments, but when they recognize others instead we get angry
This type of anger is selfish, prideful, jealous and idolatrous. This type of anger wreaks havoc in the church. It turns our family holidays into uncomfortable meals that lead to harsh words, hurt feelings and broken families. This type of anger causes bitterness between a husband and his wife and leads to greater sins.
You may have been a believer for years but this type of anger is still lurking in your heart. So, what do we do about? But what do we do about our anger? In the next few verses, Jesus gives us a couple of examples on what to do about our anger.
II. Don’t mask the sin in your heart with external religion (v. 23-24)
Matt 5:23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
Now this is something that I think most of us are guilty of. What Jesus is warning us against here is attempting to cover up our sin by going to church and participating in religious ceremony. We may be standing in the church building singing in worship, and the whole time we know that we have sinned against someone who is standing on the other side of the room. Perhaps, You are standing next to your spouse whom you sinned against on the way to church and Jesus is saying, “Put your hands down. Put your checkbook away. Humble yourself and go to your brother or sister and ask for their forgiveness.”
Jesus wants us to know that everything is not fine just because we came to church. In fact, this seems like an echo of what God told Israel through the prophet Isaiah.
I have had enough of your burnt offerings…I do not want the blood of bulls, lambs and goats…I cannot endure iniquity and the solemn assembly. (Isaiah 1:11-13)
When we overlook our sin against a brother and we think that it will all be fine if we just go and pledge our love to the Lord at church, Jesus tells us that we got the order all wrong. He tells us to stop attempting to worship Him, to leave our gift at the altar and go to seek reconciliation with our brother and then come back to worship.
Jesus wants us to realize that unity and love between Christians is more important to God to God than our tithes and our singing.
Remember that this is a sermon about Jesus’ Kingdom and His Kingdom is different than every other Kingdom. He commands His people to love one another and when anger or hate, which is the opposite of love, gets in the way; He calls us to stop everything and pursue the restoration of love.
Now, some of you men are uncomfortable with this because this isn’t hypothetical for you. You might be at odds with someone right now. Some of you men are thinking, “That’s just not how men handle these sorts of things.” But this is how all of us should handle these sorts of things as members of the Kingdom of God.
We should be quick to confess our sin. We should be quick to seek the forgiveness of those we’ve wronged, quick to reestablish our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ. And once we’ve done that, then we should give thanks to God in worship.
1 Sam 15:22, “Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice…
Don’t use religious ceremony as a mask for your sin, that’s what the Pharisees would do and our righteousness must exceed theirs. Our righteousness must come from the heart.
But what about our relationship to those outside the church? Do we have a responsibility to them as well? In verse 25, Jesus gives us an illustration of what would happen when a person had an unpaid debt. At least that seems to be the scenario that Jesus is using.
In Jesus’ day if a person had borrowed money and then refused to pay it back at the agreed upon deadline, the person who loaned the money could take up the matter in court. If the borrower is proven guilty then they would be thrown in jail. Here is what Jesus says we should do.
V. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
This verse is connected to the previous one in that in both cases there is something standing between us and another person. In the first case, we did something against our brother and in this second case we have failed to pay our debts. The point of this is that when something stands between us and another person we should be urgently seeking to make things right.
Whether we owe them money or an apology we should take immediate action to be reconciled to our brother and even to our debtor. We are to be people of integrity in all walks of life because we are concerned with serving God from the heart. We do what’s right, not to be seen by others, but because it honors God. So, if we owe a debt, we should work hard to pay that debt off as soon as possible but if for some reason we are unable to meet the terms, we should be honest, go to that person and seek to make things right. We are to make every effort we can to mend relationships with others.
Conclusion…
1. Murder is terrible, but it is not the root of our problem. The root of the problem is the sinful desires of our hearts which are in themselves enough to condemn us. But empty religious rituals aren’t enough to solve our problem.
2. Don’t try to mask the sins of your heart with external religion. This was the lifestyle of the Pharisees and Scribes; it failed for them and it will fail for us.
God wants us to humble ourselves and seek reconciliation. He wants us to value integrity more than comfort. He wants us to let go our pride and then pursue peace, unity and love. He wants us to do what’s right not just to be seen by others but because He sees our hearts.
Let every one of us examine our hearts right now. Is there someone that we need to seek out today? Is there someone in this room that we need to seek forgiveness from? Maybe that person is standing next to you. Don’t hold on to your pride, turn to them and confess your sin. Go to them and seek to make it right. If there is something that you can or should do to seek peace with your brother or sister then do it at once.
Then come back to God who stands over His children ready to pour out new grace.
James 4:6 God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.
He will forgive. In fact, that is why He sent His Son into the world. Jesus paid the price to make us free. He cancelled the debt of sin that we owed…and He didn’t wait until we asked Him. He came deliberately and while we were still enemies of God. He humbled Himself, made Himself the object of man’s scorn, He let His enemies gloat over Him but He fulfilled His mission.
He came to save His people, to give us new hearts, to lead us into His new Kingdom and He calls us to follow Him.
Contentment
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
Heroes and Martyrs
Topic: The Reformation
Part 4 of 4
Speaker: Mark Ritchie
Church Life of the Reformation
Topic: The Reformation
Part 3 of 4
Speaker: Mark Ritchie
Doctrines of the Reformation
Topic: The Reformation
Part 2 of 4
Speaker: Mark Ritchie
What was the Reformation?
Topic: The Reformation
Part 1 of 4
Speaker: Mark Ritchie
The Righteousness of the Kingdom (2 of 2)
Manuscript
This week we are jumping right back into the middle of a section where Jesus is addressing how He and His ministry relate to the Law and the Prophets. We spent our entire time on this last week and we discovered that Jesus did not come to abolish the law and the prophets but rather He came to fulfill them. He didn’t come to throw down the law but to uphold it, to teach us the true and deeper meaning of it, to fulfill its prophecies and to execute its demands with perfect obedience.
So, If Jesus came to fulfill the law and to establish a new covenant community upon His fulfillment, then what does that mean for the citizens of this new community? If Christ came to fulfill the law then in what way does the law affect my life as a believer?
Transition…
Matt 5:17 “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 say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
Sermon Focus…
I. The Permanence of the Law (v. 18)
18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
First, I want us to recognize the significance of the phrase, “Truly I say to you.” Jesus uses this phrase all the time and when He does He is drawing our attention to His authority as a teacher. Do you remember the phrase that the Old Testament prophets used? When they spoke a word of prophecy to the people they would introduce it with the phrase, “Thus saith the Lord” and this drew attention to the fact that they weren’t speaking on their own authority, but they were speaking on the authority of God. God was speaking through them.
But Jesus uses a different phrase, “Truly, I say to you…” He is speaking on His own authority as the Son of God. He uses this phrase 28 times in Matthew, 25 times in John, 19 times in Luke and Mark combined; and each time He is asserting Himself as a faithful witness to the truth of God because He is God in the flesh. He doesn’t simply speak for God, He speaks as God. It seems like a subtle thing but in the overall picture, Jesus is declaring to us the very Word of the Lord.
But what does the Son of God say to us about the Law in this verse? He is stressing the fact that the law of God is permanent and that it will not be brought to an end until heaven and earth are brought to an end.
“Until Heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass…”
Now what does this mean? The passing away of Heaven and earth represents the end of time as we know it. It is a reference to the time to come when Christ will return to this earth to judge the world and when He comes it will set off what the Scriptures call, The Great Day of the Lord.
2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
On that day, Jesus will return to judge and to make war. Heaven will open and Christ will come forth on the white war horse of Heaven and He will come to “tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty (Rev 19:11f).” On that day Christ will step into His role as Conqueror and He will Captain the armies of Heaven to bring judgment upon Satan and the sin of mankind.
Now, that day has not yet come and until it does, Jesus wants us to know that the Law of God will stand. Not even the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until that day until all is accomplished.
But that brings up another question: If Jesus has come to fulfill the law (V. 17) then how is it still functioning? What part does it still play in our lives today?
Remember last week when we talked about the 3 parts of the law (Judicial, Ceremonial and Moral)? The Judicial law that governed Israel as a nation has been set aside. Israel rejected and crucified her Messiah, the temple was destroyed and the nation under God’s Old Covenant came to an end. In that sense, Jesus’ coming fulfilled that portion of the law.
The Ceremonial law that governed Israel’s worship has also been fulfilled and brought to an end. Christ was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices and to make this fulfillment clear, the temple of God, where the sacrifices were made, was destroyed in 70 AD. When Christ was upon the cross the veil of the temple was torn in two which means that by His sacrifice all who believe in Him have access to God in the Spirit. Jesus fulfilled the Ceremonial law.
But what about the Moral law the 10 Commandments? Jesus fulfilled the Moral law, not by adding to it or even by simplifying it, but by keeping it. Jesus fully obeyed the moral law of God and when we turn from our sin and receive Christ, the righteousness He earned through obedience to God’s law is credited to our account before God.
We call this Justification, an act of God’s grace where He pardons our sin and accepts us as righteous in His sight, not based on the works we do, but based on the perfect obedience of Christ that is credited to us by faith.
2 Cor 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
But Christ has done more than to obey the law for us. As Christians, we are no longer under the penalty of the law but we are still guided by the law in our pursuit of righteousness. The moral law of God still functions in our lives, not to condemn us for our sins, but to direct us in our obedience to Christ.
Now, we love to talk about how the law cannot save us and that it was never intended to save us. We are bold in our rejection of salvation by works and of the legalism that reminds us of the Pharisees, and we are right to do both. But from these verses Jesus wants us to learn that the moral law of God still has a purpose in our lives today.
One of the reasons that we know this to be true is from the Sermon on the Mount as a whole. In this Sermon, Jesus is giving us a deeper explanation of the 10 Commandments or the moral law. He teaches us to reject the corrupt teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees and then He expounds on them to give us the true and deeper meaning of each one. Jesus wants us to know that the law is permanently bound to heaven and earth but He also wants us to know the role of the commandments within His Kingdom.
II. The Commandments and the Kingdom (V. 19)
19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Notice the shift in Jesus’ language from the term law to commandments and that it is not subtle at all. I think this is a shift from the law in a general sense to a more specific focus on the 10 commandments or the moral law. Also, notice the term therefore at the beginning of verse 19. It is there to show that there is a connection between the law of God and the Kingdom of God.
Follow the logic of these verses with me…Because Jesus has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it, and because not a single stroke of the law will pass away until all is accomplished, therefore greatness in the Kingdom of God is going to in some way be measured by our faithfulness to the law. If we relax the law because of God’s grace then we will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven.
For many of us this can be confusing. We know that we are not saved by our keeping of the law but rather that we are saved by believing the gospel and within reformed theology (Lutheran theology) there is often a sharp distinction made between the law and the gospel. In Luther’s view, there should be no law in the gospel and no gospel in the law but on this point, I don’t think Luther was right.
We do need to be careful not to confuse God’s moral demands with His saving grace, but I think it is more faithful to Scripture to understand that the law is a gift of God’s grace intended to function in our lives in very particular ways.
First, the law has a civil function within society in that it serves to limit and restrain evil (Roman 13:3-4). Second, the law has an evangelical function in that it shows us our sin and drives us to Christ (Gal 3:10). Third, the law functions to guide us as believers to know the will of God and to live a faithful Christian life.
I John 2: 3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.
In His book, The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, Puritan Samuel Bolton wrote:
The law is abolished as a covenant for our justification, but it remains a rule for obedience. We are not under the curses, but we are under the commands of it. We are not under the law for justice, but we are under the law for conduct. The law no longer has the power to condemn us, but it still has the power to humble us and to build us up for our greater good.[1]
As we continue to study this SotM, Jesus is going to help us understand how we obey the law from the heart. He is going to teach us how to grow to be more like Him. He is going to show us how to be doers of the Word as well as hearers.
Now, look back to verse 19, where I want you to see that there is a connection between the word “abolish” and the term “relax.” The root word in both of these is the idea of casting something aside or throwing it down. And since Jesus has not come to cast the law aside and neither shall we, His disciples. If we relax or cast aside the law then we aren’t treating the law the way Jesus did and Jesus gives some really strong warnings about this.
Matt 18: 1 At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” 2 And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
5 “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, 6 but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin (break the moral law), it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.
Jesus is not soft on the law. He is completely opposed to the legalism of the Pharisees but He is equally opposed to the type of antinomianism that would relax the law of God or seek to overthrow it altogether.
What does it mean to be called least in the Kingdom? If we relax one of God’s laws it’s like we are saying that this law really doesn’t matter. We are treating it like it is the smallest of the laws and Jesus says that our title in the Kingdom will be, “Really doesn’t matter.” Our status in the Kingdom of Christ will be consistent with the status we gave to the law in our lives and in our teaching.
But if we learn the proper purpose and value of the law and we are faithful to teach it and to do it, then we will have an honorable name in the Kingdom. Our name will be Megas or Great.
First, Jesus wants us to know that the law is permanent. Second, He wants us to understand that the law of God still functions within His Kingdom. Finally, He wants us to know that our obedience to the law had better be greater than that of the Scribes and Pharisees.
III. The Christian and the Law (v. 20)
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
It’s no secret that Jesus didn’t get along with the Scribes and Pharisees and a huge part of their disagreement had to do with the law. Jesus rebuked them over and over for their corruption of the law, for the fact that they added to the law and even made their human traditions more important than the law of God.
They were supposed to be experts in the law and the Jews had a saying, “If only two people go to heaven, one will be a scribe and the other a Pharisee.” They were revered in their day for their thorough knowledge of the law and for their rigorous adherence to it, but there were some big problems with their views on the law.
Their law was entirely external –
Matt 23:25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
They were only concerned with external conformity and not to the real heart change that Jesus came to bring. They didn’t care about their motives or the condition of their heart. Which means that they could lust all they wanted so long as they didn’t act on it. They could hate all they wanted as long as they didn’t go through with an act of murder.
They thought that external obedience was enough to earn the righteousness of God and by believing this they reckoned that God’s holiness was cheap. But Jesus teaches us that God looks on the heart and that true religion flows from a new heart.
Their law was hypocritical –
Matt 23: 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. 28 So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
8 different times in Matthew, Jesus directly calls them hypocrites. Their religion was nothing but an act, a hypocritical external wrapping that hid the reality of spiritual death. Of course, they couldn’t see that this was true. They believed that they were right and so they kept spreading their teaching as far as they could and the result was that they were actually spreading falsehood, not truth.
Their law was a Corruption of God’s Word –
These guys were serious about the law, so serious that they gradually added their own interpretations to the law in order to expand on it. Instead of the 10 commandments that God gave on Mt. Sinai, they expanded the law to contain 248 commandments and 365 prohibitions. Let me give you an example of how they corrupted the law of God.
Take the Sabbath. What began as a command to rest from your work and enjoy the provision of God became an absurd attempt to regulate everything from how far you could walk to how much you could carry in your pockets. Here is a list of rules on the Sabbath from a section of the Talmud called the Mishna; and remember, according to the Pharisees and Scribes your entry into heaven depends on this.
You could travel no more than 3,000 feet from home. Unless on Friday before the Sabbath you had planted food at the 3,000 foot point and then you could go 3,000 more because you constituted that point as a home because your food was there. Now if you lived down a long narrow street and you might have been a few hundred feet down from the end of the street or the end of the alley, you could take a piece of wood and put it across the end of the street or alley or you could take a piece of rope and put it across the end of the alley, or you could take a piece of wire and string it across the end of the alley and that would, in the eyes of God, turn it into a doorway and you could consider that the front door of your house so you could go 3,000 feet from there.
You couldn't carry anything on your person that weighed more than a dried fig. But you could carry half a fig two times on the Sabbath.
You couldn't eat any forbidden food larger than an olive. And if you put an olive in your mouth and spit it out because it was bad, the Talmud said you couldn't replace it with a good one because your palate had tasted the flavor of the first one.
If you threw an object in the air, you could catch it with the hand that you threw it with, but if you caught it with the other hand, it was sin because there's less work in doing that than...that.
If you were in one place and your arm stretched to reach for food and the Sabbath overtook you, you had to drop the food rather than bring back your arm or you had carried the burden and sinned.
A tailor couldn't carry his needle. A scribe couldn't carry his pen. A pupil couldn't carry his books. No fire could be lit. No fire could be put out. Cold water could be poured on warm, but warm couldn't be poured on cold. An egg couldn't be boiled even if you buried it in the hot sand, which is how they would boil an egg in the desert. You couldn't take a bath for fear that the water would flow off you and wash the floor. You couldn't move a chair since it might make a rut and that would be too much like plowing. Women could not look in a mirror or put on any jewelry. If she were to find a white hair, she had to resist the temptation to pull it out.[2]
And the list goes on and on for 24 chapters. Today if you go into Jerusalem on the Sabbath you will encounter something called the Shabat elevator which is an elevator that automatically goes up and down stopping on every floor so that Jews will not break the Sabbath by pushing the button. What started as a gracious command of God has been corrupted and turned into a terrifying day where the slightest mishap might doom you to Hell.
Remember that Jesus said that our righteousness must exceed theirs if we hope to enter the kingdom of Heaven. Does this mean that we must keep all of the 240 commandments and 365 prohibitions? No! Christian righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees in type not in degree. The righteousness that is pleasing to God is the inward righteousness that begins in the heart and then faithfully seeks to live out the law in life.
We call this sanctification and it is an ongoing work of God’s grace where God’s people are, over the course of their lives, transformed more and more into the image of Christ. God enables us by His Spirit and His Word to grow in faithfulness more and more and to turn from sin more and more. This process starts when we are born again and it continues throughout our lives as a fulfillment of the promise that God made in Ezekiel 37.
Eze 37:26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
If you are a born-again believer in Christ then you have the Spirit of God within you, but that doesn’t mean that you can dispense with the law, because the work of the Spirit is to give us new hearts, to write God’s law on those new hearts, and to enable us to walk in obedience to God.
Conclusion…
Jesus is not interested in empty, superficial, hypocritical religious practice. Religion is a word that has the ability to conjure up both positive and negative ideas when it is used. The term religion, when used in a negative sense, refers to the empty religious rituals and formalities that are devised by man and are sadly so prevalent in the church. Behind the negative use of the term is the belief that religious practices are sufficient for us to earn the favor of God. Religion says, “I obey the rules so that God will accept me” and when this idea is full blown it teaches people that in order to be saved we must simply keep all the rules.
But this is a lie and this is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel says that “God accepts me on the basis of Jesus ‘works and in response to this grace, I obey (Eph 2:8-10).”
Here in the Sermon on the Mount we see Jesus does not give us a new law but boldly claims that He has come to fulfill the law and on the cross, that is what He did. But He has also come to faithfully expound on the law that was already given.
The people’s view of the law had been obscured by the teaching of the Scribes and Pharisees, but Jesus has come to make it clear and to call His disciples to understand it’s ongoing function, not to save us, but to guide us as we follow Him.
[1] Beeke and Jones A Puritan Theology (Pg. 562).
[2] List of items extracted from John MacArthur sermon titled Jesus the Divine Truth Teller. This list was originally taken from Alfred Edersheim’s book The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah which details the Talmudic traditions of Jesus day.