Matthew 5.21-26

Mt 5:21 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder (KJV kill), and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' 22 "But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire. 23 "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you 24 "leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 "Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. 26 "Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.

We left off last week with verse 20, which reads: For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed (is deeper than) the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

• The rest of Matthew 5 affirms the fact that God man looks on the outward, but God looks on the heart (1 Sam 16.7). The righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees (or any other man made religion for that matter) was purely an external righteousness. The Pharisees spent their lives endeavoring to live by every detail of the law. Their religion was all about “making yourself right in the sight of God” by keeping rules and regulations. And Jesus says, “It is not enough to be righteous on the outside if you are not also righteous on the inside.”
• Matt 23:25 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. 23:26 "Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. 23:27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. 23:28 "Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
• The deeper righteousness that Jesus is talking about are righteous deeds that are motivated by the love of God stemming from hearts that have been made righteous by divine grace.
• The illustrate this in an academic setting, Jesus is not saying that the Pharisees have scored in the low 90’s on the holiness test, on the righteousness test, and if you’re going to enter into the Kingdom of God, if you’re going to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, then you are going to have to score in the high 90’s. And keep in mind that what God requires to enter heaven is 100%. No room for any sin, at any time in your life.
• Jesus is about a qualitatively different righteousness. It’s a righteousness that is brought about by God Himself within the person who repents and trusts in Jesus Christ as Lord.
• It’s the deeper righteousness that is known in the Bible as the new birth. The new birth is the result of the new heart that God gives to us, by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. With the new birth, there will be new attitudes and new behavior that are motivated by the love of God, rooted in the grace of Christ, and put into action as we yield to the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. Serving God becomes a delight, not a duty. An act of worship for an audience of One, not a public performance to impress men or for self worth.
• Beloved, this deeper righteousness is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. It is a righteousness that works its way all the way down to the heart—a heart that is changed by God—and then ushers forth in love and purity and holiness and love and prayer. All kinds of new attitudes and desires. A desire to please God and bring Him glory, not a desire to be seen of men and receive the glory that belongs to God alone.
• This does not mean (I want to be very clear), that if we ever struggle with motives or desires, and give in to the desire to be seen of men, that we are not a disciple of Jesus. The Christian life is one of ongoing sanctification beloved. We are not in heaven this morning. We are not sinlessly perfect today. We are not already glorified. There will always be a struggle in this life. But as we read in Romans 6-8, “Yes, you will still feel the pull and tension of sin, that is the very essence of temptation. Yes you will still fall. Yes, you will still sin. But the difference is that there will be an overwhelming desire in your heart to forsake sin for the glory of God and for the Kingdom of Righteousness.
• This deeper righteousness that Jesus is speaking about is the result of not the means of a right relationship to God through faith in Christ.

You have heard …. But I say to you. Jesus was not altering the meaning of the law of God in any of these passages. Rather, He was correcting what they had “heard”—the rabbinical understanding of the law. Just because something is taught for a long time, does not mean that it is the right interpretation according to the Bible. Sola Scriptura is the final authority, not church history or church fathers per se.  

According to Jesus Christ here in the Sermon on the Mount, we learn 3 very important principles (1) The spirit of the law is what matters most. (2) The thoughts and actions that lead to the obedience of the law are what should be judged. (3) The true intent of the law is meant to bring us into a positive relationship with God and our fellow man.

Motives and attitudes of the heart.

• Beloved, our heavenly Father is more interested in your motives and attitudes then your actions. There are many people today who are trying to be so careful in their actions, but their motives and attitudes stink. God is most interested in the motive and attitude of the heart from which actions spring. Thus, what a person does outwardly can be thoroughly disallowed by the attitude in which he or she does it. A person can be doing all kinds of magnanimous works for God in the church. Busying him or herself, in doing many marvelous works for their fellow man, but if the attitude is bad, or the motive is wrong, it is worth nothing in the sight of God.
• Precious KF family, according to 1 Cor 13, it is possible for a person to do the most magnanimous things without being motivated by the love of God. Paul, in writing to the church in Corinth addresses the issue of motives and attitudes:
• 1 Cor 3.13 the fire will test each one's work, of what sort it is. 14 If anyone's work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone's work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
• In Rev 2, the church at Ephesus was orthodox in belief, but mechanical is duty, and the Risen King Jesus said to them, Re 2:4 "Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love.
• Oh beloved, may we remind ourselves and one another that the only acceptable motive for serving God is love for Him and for His glory.

Our next section of the Sermon on the Mount is going to point out to us that right relationships matter to Jesus Christ. We are living in an era that finds so many relationships shattered by anger, bitterness, resentment and revenge. I say this with a heavy heart beloved, but there are people sitting in churches today, even this church, whose hearts are filled with anger, bitterness, resentment and revenge and think that all is okay as long as I “come to church”, put on my church face and talk Christianeze! How wrong!

• Ps 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.
• The clear teaching of Jesus Christ that we are to earnestly seek to live in right relationships with one another for the glory of God.

Mt 5:21 ¶ "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. (Thou shalt not murder is the 6^th commandment found in Ex. 20:13; Deut. 5:17). Mt 5:22 "But I say to you (affirmation of deity and divine authority) that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause (most ancient manuscripts do not include this phrase that some people have used to justify being angry at others) shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.

• Jesus begins with the most basic command, "You shall not commit murder." The early religious leaders thought of this only in terms of clear-cut homicide. If there was no blood, then everything was okay. Jesus is telling us here that, when we harbor resentment toward a brother or sister in Christ; when we refuse to forgive when forgiveness has been asked of us; when we refuse to talk to a brother or sister in Christ who has offended us, so that we can be reconciled to them; when we are angry with them unjustly, and willingly maintain a state of alienation from them, we are "killing" them in our hearts. We are guilty of murder in terms of the true intent of God's commandment.
• Thou shalt not murder means much more than physical murder. Jesus teaches us that the commandment of God calls for us to deal with ungodly, unholy anger, which is the root of murder. In other words, Kingdom citizens will prize their relationships with one another, and they will demonstrate this by dealing with anger. Do you honor the relationships God has entrusted to you by dealing with anger in your own life, or are you a Phariasee?
• The Bible teaches us that we are created in God's image, and thus we are to show respect to all men. As much as is possible on our part, we are to seek to live in a right relationship with all men.

Whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.

• Anger is a heart matter that is manifested by lashing out at others verbally or physically. Anger is a secondary emotion that can be triggered by things like resentment, bitterness, ill treatment or envy.
• Jesus forbids the anger which broods, the anger which will not forget, the anger which refuses to be pacified, the anger which seeks revenge.
• Jesus makes it clear that it is not only those who commit the act of murder who are in danger of judgment.

And whoever says to his brother, 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council.

• Raca! Lit. “Empty-headed; "you vain fellow" or "you good-for-nothing."

• Calling someone a fool showed contempt for their character. It is a disdainful attitude verbally expressed in insults to another. The idea behind this verbal attack of another person views the other person as inferior - so obviously, pride is also part of anger's root.

But whoever says, 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire.

• You Fool; vile wretch; the highest form of reproach in the mouth of a Jew.
• We tend to treat the damage that we do to others with our lips very lightly because we do not see a trail of dead bodies left behind. Beloved, verbal poison is just as lethal and devastating as any other kind of poison known to man.
• Hell fire A reference to the Hinnom Valley, SW of Jerusalem. Ahaz and Manasseh permitted human sacrifices there during their reigns (2 Chr. 28:3; 33:6), and therefore it was called “The Valley of Slaughter” (Jer. 19:6). In Jesus’ day, it was a garbage dump where fires burned continually and was thus an apt symbol of eternal fire. Jesus is teaching us that those who have murderous intentions in their hearts are also in danger of the judgment.

My friend, if you a religious person who thinks that you are right with God this morning because you have never physically murdered another human being, then you are interpreting the law like a self-righteous Pharisee, and not Jesus Christ.

• According to Jesus Christ, an angry or resentful attitude towards another person carries the same kind of moral guilt in the sight of God as a physical act of murder is in the sight of man on earth.
• If you are walking around seething and constantly angry and boiling inside with a murderous attitude against your spouse, your parents, your children, their coworkers, or a brother or sister in the body of Christ, according to Jesus, you’ve violated the law of God already, in your heart and you need to repent of it and confess that as sin.
• Beloved, if an ungodly seed in the heart and mind is not confessed as sin and repented of, it will eventually result in an ungodly deed in word or action. Let me tell you my dear brothers and sisters in Christ; murder and bitterness and resentment in your heart will stand in the way of your fellowship with God.

Mt 5:23 "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you,

 24 "leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

• Jesus is telling us to deal with the horizontal before we deal with the vertical. Jesus considers it far more important to be reconciled to a brother than to perform a religious duty. We can’t think that our service towards the Lord justifies bad relationships with others.
• Notice who it is that is being called upon to act. We would have thought Jesus was going to say, "and if you there remember that you have something against your brother . . ." (And the Bible does, indeed, talk about taking care of such anger toward someone who has offended us.) But that's not what Jesus is saying here. The person called upon to take action in this case is the one who is the 'offender'. It's the one who thinks themselves capable of "living with" the alienation that is caused by the other person being offended. It's the person who, though recognizing things aren't perfect, at least thought everything was "workable"; and that even though the other person is making a big deal about the matter, they feel they don't have to. Jesus' words are directed toward the person who feels free to come and approach the alter and make an offering, in spite of the rift. It's that person - not the offended one - who is here being called upon to cease in the midst of their worship and initiate the reconciliation.

Mt 5:25 "Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. 26 "Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.

·      Sinclair Ferguson is correct, "Animosity is a time bomb; we do not know when it will 'go off.' We must deal with it quickly, before the consequences of our bitterness get completely out of control"

·      Jesus calls for reconciliation to be sought eagerly, aggressively, quickly—even if it involves self-sacrifice. It is better to be wronged than to allow a dispute between brethren to be a cause for dishonoring Christ (1 Cor. 6:7).

·      Paul expresses the same idea in Ephesians 4:26-27 (do not let the sun go down on your wrath). When we hold on to our anger against another we then sin – and we give place to the devil.

• The point we must not gloss over in this teaching of Jesus is that relationships with one another matter to God.

When this section of Scripture is taught, the question is often asked, what if the other person refuses reconciliation?

• As Paul tells us, "If possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men" (Rom 12:18).Then you do your part in making it happen. Give it sufficient effort. If the brother refuses, then commend the relationship to God and press on, always being ready to reconcile if the barriers are removed.

• If we sincerely do as much as depends on us toward an offended brother or sister, and reconciliation still does not occur, then the offense is now theirs and no longer ours. But the point is that we should refuse to “live with" the rift between us. WE should be looking for the opportunity to make things right.
• Matthew 18 teaches us that our refusal to forgive others in light of the enormous amount of debt that God has forgiven us angers God and leaves us in torment.
• Are you sitting here this morning with unresolved heart issues with other people? Let me close by sharing with you what the writer of Hebrews wrote to his brothers and sisters in Christ. It's an authoritative word from the Holy Spirit to us as well as to them. The writer urged them,
• Heb 12:14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled.
• Mt 15:18 "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. 19 "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. 20 "These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man."
• Beloved, bad attitudes of the heart defile yourself and those around you…..most importantly, they quench the Spirit of God.

In closing, I believe it is important to emphasize that Jesus is not saying that anger is as bad as murder. It's ridiculous to think that someone who shouts at another person in anger has sinned as badly as someone who murders another person in anger does. Jesus is emphasizing that the law condemns both. Jesus is not saying that the law says they are the same things. What Jesus has been telling us is that the true understanding of the law will cause us to see that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God….the purpose of the law was to drive us to the grace of God and His provision for our sin through faith in His Son Jesus Christ. The only way to get right with God is by receiving the grace and mercy that God has provided for you by the sacrifice of Jesus for your sin. Will you call upon His Name this morning?