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).
ILL: Read from Song of Ascents where E. Stanley Jones used the verses above in counseling the Nizam of Hyderabad on joining India after the separation of Pakistan from India. ESJ used this passage in advising the foreign secretary (Page 115)
OUTLINE FOR TODAY:
1. Court System in the Hellenistic World
2. Biblical Emphasis against Procrastination
3. The Importance of Reconciliation?
4. The Urgency of Reconciling
5. Form and Content in the First Anti-Thesis
RECONCILE – NOW!
I. COURT SYSTEM IN THE HELLENISTIC WORLD
“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).
QUESTION: What seems odd about the picture painted in vs. 21?
It seems odd that the plaintiff could be walking along with the defendant on the way to court.
In Greek cities the plaintiff had the right to make a summary (quickly executed) arrest by holding a man’s cloak in such a way that he would strangle himself if he struggled and take him to the judge. Of course he would need to catch the thief red-handed. Such crimes where this happened were for clothes-stealing (a curse of the public baths), pick pockets, house-breaking, kidnapping of slaves etc.
In Jewish Culture – The plaintiff and defendant would appear before a council of elders. In a small village they may often find themselves on the same path walking together heading for the court. If a man was judged guilty he was handed over to an officer who worked for the court.
The officers were also called whippers, executioners, scourgers. These were not kind, easy going officers that read you your Miranda rights or feared being recorded on a video camera.
This illustration Jesus used is about the repayment of a debt. The officer was to see that the debt was repaid. If the debt was not repaid, the officer had the authority to throw the guilty party into prison. There were no TV, showers, exercise yard and telephones in those jails.
II. BIBLICAL EMPHASIS AGAINST PROCRASTINATION
“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).
ILL: In I Samuel 25, the story of Abigail and David, David’s followers had protected the shepherds of Nabal and Abigail for a long time. Finally David asked Nabal for food for his followers. Nabal mocked him and as a result David lost his temper and was planning to kill all of Nabal’s men. When Abigail heard what was happening she lost not time and prepared a gift of food to take to David and his men (200 loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, 30 gallons of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins, 200 cakes of pressed figs). She then went with her servants to get to David before he attacked her home. David received her gift, and thereby halted his intent to kill everyone. He said, “…if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak” (I Sam. 25:34)
ILL: Dear friend, if you’ve gone into hock with your neighbor or locked yourself into a deal with a stranger, If you’ve impulsively promised the shirt off your back and now find yourself shivering out in the cold, Friend, don’t waste a minute, get yourself out of that mess. You’re in that man’s clutches! Go, put on a long face; act desperate. Don’t procrastinate—there’s no time to lose. Run like a deer from the hunter, fly like a bird from the trapper! (Proverbs 6:1-5, The Message)
ILL: (Luke 19:1-10) – Zacchaeus, the tax collector, heard that Jesus was going through Jericho (a very wealthy city that was given by Antony to Cleopatra as a gift). Zac was a short guy and so climbed a Sycamore tree … a tree that had low, protruding branches. Jesus saw him, and told him to come down and he did IMMEDIATELY. My Bible school teacher felt that Zacchaeus was converted somewhere between the branch and the ground. A tradition has it that Zacchaeus went back and watered the tree consistently because this is where he met the Lord. After having lunch with the Savior, Zacchaeus stood, perhaps in his courtyard, and said, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything I will pay back four times the amount” (Lk. 19:8).
“I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands” (Psalm 119:60).
III. THE IMPORTANCE OF RECONCILIATION
“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.
QUESTION: Why is reconciling with an offended person so important that we are told to leave our offering and go be reconciled now?
A. Failure to reconcile with another person breaks our relationship with God.
“If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” (Psalm 66:18).
B. Failure to reconcile makes our service unacceptable to God.
“…. leave your offering there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled ….”
C. Failure to reconcile keeps me from having a relationship with the offended party and thus lessens my life story and my life experience.
D. Failure to reconcile keeps me from enjoying a pure conscience.
So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before god and man” (Acts. 24:16)
E. Failure to reconcile keeps me from enjoying the abundant life of a Christian.
I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full (John 10:10, NIV). I am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10, KJV).
F. If you go the legal direction in reconciliation you will never have a right relationship with someone.
G. The humbling experience of reconciling often helps us be more careful in how we deal with people. It makes us ore sensitive. It is a good way of killing the murderer within.
IV. THE URGENCY OF RECONCILING NOW
“. . . leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled …. Settle matters quickly . . . (Mt. 5:24, 25). … “As you are going with your adversary to the magistrate, try hard to be reconciled to him on the way ….” (Luke 12:58)
QUOTE: This is nothing but a picture. You and I are traveling through this world, and the law is there making its demands. It is the law of God. It says: ‘What about that relationship between you and your brother, what about those things that are in your heart? You have not attended to them.’ Settle it at once, says Christ. You may not be here tomorrow morning and you are going to eternity like that. ‘Agree with thine adversary quickly, while thou art in the way with him.’ (MLJ, 230)
If personal relationships go bad, immediate action will almost always mend the problem. But if dealing with the offended party is postponed, the situation usually gets worse.
CLASS ACTIVITY: What, then, keeps people from making amends, reconciling with an offended brother, sister, individual. List as many reasons as you can think of.
Pride, embarrassment – ILL: My tie incident with Tim Kamke.
Fear of rejection, hardness of heart, lack of sensitivity …
V. FORM & CONTENT IN THE FIRST ANTI-THESIS
Vss. 21-22 – Principle: Murder vs. angry contempt
Anger …. Raca …. Fool …
Vss. 23-24 – Application: Offering (form) & conflict (content)
Postpone the offering, focus on reconciliation
Vss. 25-26 – Illustration: Urgency of immediate reconciliation
“Just do it NOW!”
Making the offering over against reconciling with an offended individual is an example of putting the ceremonial over above the moral, something the Pharisees were prone to do.
What about us? We can be sticklers about how the worship service should be run, what music should be used, or whether people should raise or not raise their hands. Yet we participate in communion when we know we have not reconciled with a brother and/or have some matter of sin that we have to deal with.
“He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant – not of the letter but of the spirit; for the letter kills but the spirit gives life” (II Cor. 3:6).
SO WHAT???
1. Our relationship with God must be pre-eminent in our thoughts. Anything that breaks that relationship must be dealt with.
2. We must not postpone reconciling with an offended brother or sister. Any religious exercise performed while we have sin in our hearts that has not been dealt with is meaningless.
3. It is so easy to do the “religious” thing and yet be living in sin. This is the prime illustration of what being a hypocrite is.
4. God wants us to have a full, rich, meaningful, joy filled life. The way to do that is to make sure that we are living with a pure conscience before God and men.