REVIEW
FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).
The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.
FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Repeat the verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14) HAVE SOMEONE COME FORWARD AND EXPLAIN THE CHART.)
FLIP CHART: Go over John Stott’s outline of SOM. Show that 5:17-20 was an introduction to a Christian’s righteousness.
INTRODUCTION:
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny (Mt. 5:21-26).
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. Review of the Six Anti-Theses
2. Form and Content in Matthew 5:21-48
3. Murder – Not Killing
4. Anger
Since the “axial age,” mankind has been asking the question, “How should we live?” The quality desired by the founders of the great religions, the Greek philosophers and the Hebrew prophets was “righteousness” (dikaiosune / dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay is defined as “true inner goodness” or “moral excellence.” In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus seeks to explain in detail what true inner goodness / moral excellence / righteousness looks like.
MURDER & ANGER ON THE SAME PAGE?
I. REVIEW OF THE SIX ANTI-THESES
An anti-thesis, is a contrast of two ideas that are in opposition to each other. Statement / Anti-statement; Concept/Anti-concept
Jesus postulates something and then makes an antithetical, clarifying statement, “You have heard that it was said, but I say to you …” He does this six times. The Pharisees would state a thesis and then support it by quoting various ancient scholars, e.g. Rabbi Hillel said …, Rabbi Yohan said …., Rabbi Barukh said etc … Jesus, in his six statements, did not support any of them by quoting former Rabbis. That is why, after the Sermon on the Mount had ended, “…the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” (Mt. 7:28-29).
(1) Prohibition against murder – Warning against anger
(2) Prohibition against adultery – Warning against lustful thoughts
(3) Regularization of divorce – Permanence of the marriage
(4) Oaths = of truth telling – Integrity = truth telling
(5) Retaliation — Reconciliation through creative suffering
(6) Hating one’s enemy – Loving ones enemy
“These six antitheses are more than simply a contrast between external and internal righteousness, or of false interpretations of the Law and correct ones. These antitheses are about what it means to follow Jesus, about what it means to live like a true kingdom person. (Danny Hall, quoted from the Internet). …. About what “true moral excellence looks like.”
This is a contrast between Christian righteousness and Pharisaic righteousness. The Pharisees were seeking to debase and weaken the law and the demands of righteousness. Christ is strengthening the law and increasing the moral demands of the law making the law more exacting and demanding.
II. FORM & CONTENT IN MT. 5:21-48
We need to review and think carefully through “form versus content,” for if we fail to grasp this concept we will misunderstand the impact of the Sermon on the Mount.
QUESTION: What is Dallas Willard saying in the following statement?
“What ‘killed’ the Wesleyan movement was that people took Jesus’ teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, in which he refuted general rules without establishing new ones, and turned them into legalism.” (Dallas Willard in Christianity Today, Sept. 2006, pg. 48)
Christian righteousness only surpasses the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees when it moves from a focus on the external to the internal. Jesus has a running battle of external over internal with the Pharisees.
These six thesis/antithesis explanations show us what “true inner goodness” looks like and the key to having a righteousness that surpasses the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law.
FLIP CHART: Go over again the externals of a beautiful wedding over the internal need for true love in order for the wedding to be meaningful.
ILL: You could say that “form” is the spoon and “content” is the food on the spoon. Or that a glass is the “form” and the milk in the class is “content.”
Where would we be if we felt satisfied holding an empty spoon, drinking from an empty glass?
We surpass the Pharisees in “quality” not “quantity.” Although prayer, fasting and tithing are essential spiritual disciplines, none are helpful apart from an inner moral righteousness.
Do we have something real, rather than formal?
Do we have something internal, rather than an external religiosity? Do we have something spiritual, rather than material?
And do we have something practical rather than ritual?
The law and the Spirit go together …. “My Spirit will put My law in your hearts.”
III. MURDER
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
The first murder in the Bible occurred when Cain killed Abel in Genesis 4. Cain was punished directly by God for this murder.
Then in the Noahic Covenant there is the establishment of capital punishment: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed ….” (Gen. 9:6).
The Sixth Commandment – “You shall not murder (Exodus 20:13).
The verse quoted in Matthew 5:21 is taken directly from the Septuagint.
QUESTION: In Matthew the command is, “You shall not murder.” Is there a difference between “killing” and “murder?”
Some would say that if a man is killed in self-defense, by accident, or in a just war, his act is not the equivalent of murder.
“The commandment, You shall not kill, can be better expressed, ‘Do not commit murder’ (NEB), for it is not a prohibition against taking all human life in any and every circumstance, but in particular against homicide or murder. This is clear from the fact that the same Mosaic law, which forbids killing in the Decalogue, elsewhere enjoins it both in the form of capital punishment and in the wars designed to exterminate the corrupt pagan tribes which inhabited the promised land” (John Stott, 82).
The problem with the Pharisees is that they thought they were doing well, since they had not murdered anyone. Jesus will show that the law against murder involves much more than the physical act of taking a person’s life.
IV. ANGER
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
QUESTION: How do you differentiate righteous anger from unrighteous anger?
A. RIGHTEOUS ANGER
We often justify our own anger as “righteous anger,” but I believe that we seldom exhibit “righteous anger.”
The Scriptures tell us to “Be angry and sin not” (Eph. 4:26). “It may be asked: How are we to distinguish godly anger from that which is unlawful? The former proceeds from love of righteousness, has in view the good of him against whom it is exercised, and looks to the glory of God. Whereas unholy anger issues from pride and desires the injury of the one against whom it is directed. Anger is lawful only when it burns against sin, and this is equivalent to zeal for the Divine honor.” (From the Internet)
ILL: The only times in Scripture that Jesus appears angry are when he sees injustice and manipulation, particularly of the poor, oppressed, and disenfranchised. When He walks into that temple courtyard, what he witnesses is merchants exploiting poor people in the name of religion. They are selling the doves to the poor for their offering and charging them outrageous prices, making a profit from the exercise of religion. Jesus says, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it a robber’s den.” (Matthew 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46.) Anger flows out of Jesus’ reaction to the injustice being done to poor and oppressed people.
But Jesus is never angry when he is personally attacked, slandered, and eventually hung on the cross. He offers no resistance. He doesn’t slander in return. In fact, when they come to the garden to arrest him, his disciples whip out a sword, start whacking away, and cut off the ear of one of the high priest’s slaves. Jesus stops that, heals the ear of the wounded slave, and tells them that this is not the way the kingdom of God is going to be (Matthew 26:51-52; Mark 14:47; Luke 22:49-51). (Danny Hall, Internet)
ILL: Moses was angry that the people of Israel were slaves of the Egyptians; Elijah was angry at the prophets of Baal and the idolatry they practiced; John the Baptist was angry at the distortion of religion by Jewish leaders; Paul was angry at those who wanted to confine the Gospel to the Gentiles.
The anger permitted is when we are righteously indignant at the injustices of the world. The anger forbidden is personal anger at others who are not meeting my needs, doing what I want them to do, or attacking me.
B. UNRIGHTEOUS ANGER
Defining Unrighteous Anger: “The verb here used for anger is orgizesthai. Another word for anger is thumos, which is like the flame which comes from dried straw. It is the anger that quickly blazes up and just as quickly dies down. It is an anger which rises speedily and which just as speedily passes. A third word for anger is orge, which is anger become invenerate. It is the long-lived anger, the anger of a man who nurses his wrath to keep it warm; it is the anger over which a person broods, and which he will not allow to die” (Barclay, 138).
Anger is listed as one of the “Seven Deadly Sins.” In the KJV a scribe inserted the words “without a cause” after anger because, I suppose he felt it too strict of a command. This is another illustration of a person trying to fix the form while missing the content.
ILL: Illustrating Anger – “News of the Weird.”
Rawle Trotman, 21, of Simcoe, Ontario, was charged with stabbing a fellow fisherman in an argument… over a worm.
Brian Hertzog, 18, of Reading, Pa., was charged with shooting his sister (leaving her paralyzed below the waist)… because she beat him in a wrestling match.
Deena Murdoch, 52, a teacher in Carrollton, Texas, was charged with choking a fourth-grade boy… because he sneaked a peak at her grade book.
An unidentified ”big blond” female customer was sought by Oakland, Mich., police in December for allegedly punching a 55-year-old female clerk at a Hudson’s department store when the clerk rolled her eyes at the customer’s request for a price check on a dress. ”Don’t you ever roll your eyes at me,” were the last words the clerk recalled before being decked.
William Fagyas, 82, was charged with stabbing his wife, Eleanor, 84, in the chest in Crown Point, Ind., in December… because, according to police, she ”was not in the Christmas spirit.” (Pikeville News Express, Friday, February 12, 1999)
We may never do anything like the above but have we ever said, “He made me so angry I could have killed him.”
What causes anger like that above? “Anger is an emotional bi-product of or reaction to a threat or hurt or disappointment or frustration or injustice in our lives, ie. “we want something and don’t get it,” “a person or thing frustrates us,” or “our honor is offended.” (From the internet)
Civil laws do not outlaw anger. How could they? They can only outlaw the result of anger …. And sometimes anger results in murder.
The problem is that absence of murder does not reveal a deep spirituality. If you avoid murder but harbor anger in your heart you are not owning the righteousness / moral excellence / true moral goodness that Jesus is talking about in the sermon on the mount.
It is not enough to avoid striking a man…it is a prohibition against even wishing to strike him.
Get rid of …. rage and anger (Eph. 4:31); “…rid yourselves of anger, rage, malice, slander…. (Col. 3:8); …. “…pray, … without anger” (I Tim. 2:8); “…slow to become angry…” (James 1:19-20).
Dealing with Anger: “Anger is initially a response, not a choice. We respond with anger so often because we are fallen. So in that sense even that initial anger is sinful. But it’s not a sin in the sense of a choice I make to disobey God. When it first strikes, I think anger is more of a temptation than a sin. It is what we choose to do with anger and what we choose to do because of anger that makes it sinful.” (From the Internet)
“Deliberate consciousness that the first heaven is the air around us, that God is alive in it, and that, bidden or unbidden, God is awfully present there. All prayer, including short prayer (“Help, Lord!”), is inescapably and gloriously local.” (Christianity Today, Sept. 2006, pg. 51)
NEXT WEEK: Why judgment? Why is eradicating anger from the heart such a priority for children of the Kingdom?
SO WHAT?????
1. As Christians God expects us to pursue righteousness (moral excellence, true inner goodness). This must be one of the priorities of our lives!
2. The Sermon on the Mount, including the six antithesis in 5:21-48, describe and illustrate what moral excellence looks like, and what it means to possess true inner goodness.
3. Murder is one of the Seven Deadly Sins, and the subject of the Sixth Commandment. It is different from killing.
4. Righteous anger is anger due to injustice done to others. Unrighteous anger is anger as a result of not getting our way.
5. We can ask God’s help whenever we develop a spark of anger because we live in a God bathed world.