Various Teachings of Christ

Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts. Morse Corner is a non-denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's word through the ministries of the local church.

If you'd like more information, visit our website morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message. But once the family starts to break down and then the churches start to break down, then what? Society starts to break down.

Honesty, Oaths, and Letting Your Yes Be Yes

Alright, the next section, verses 33 through 37. So there's a real practical reason why we want to obey Christ and teach His word and call people to the higher standard. Verse 33, Jesus says, Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not swear falsely, but you shall perform your oaths to the Lord.

But I say to you, do not swear at all, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the earth, for it is His footstool, nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.

So here's what Jesus says. Let your yes be yes and your no, no. For whatever is more than these is from the evil one. What's Jesus saying? You should be honest. I mean, this is basic morality. Be faithful to your spouse.

You know, be honest. Don't commit murder. These are all basic stuff. But yet, people often, they don't do it. What does the Scripture say? Let God be true in every man. What? A liar, because it's kind of in everybody to lie at times.

So, a follower of Christ should be honest. And you don't need to take vows. Christians typically, and there are lawful oaths and vows. There's wedding vows. I think we would see a connection. Jesus says, if you take a vow to your spouse, you keep it.

Amen? Right? So, but people would break it. So, there are lawful oaths and vows. But Jesus is saying, don't take vows. I swear to God that I'm going to do this. Or I swear by this. Jesus is saying, just tell the truth.

Let your yes be yes and your no, no. You want to be a man or a woman of your word. A Christian should be someone that people view as trustworthy. So, the problem was, back then, what Jesus is dealing with, is that, here's the thing about the Jews.

The Jews knew enough not to take God's name in vain. So, the Jews would not have, I swear by Jehovah that I will follow through with this. They knew enough not to do that.

They knew enough.

So, instead, instead of swearing by God, they would swear by heaven. Now, really, what's the difference? There isn't a difference. But they would swear by heaven. And they thought that's sort of a way to get around that, okay, if I don't follow through, I haven't blasphemed God.

But Jesus, like, God owns everything. God is, heaviness is dwelling place. So, that doesn't lessen your guilt. Everything belongs to God. So, they were being dishonest. You know, today we have our own version of this, our own vows.

What do people say? What are some things people say today when they take a vow? You know, when you were kids, you know, I cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye. That's what the five-year-olds used to say.

But you've heard people say, I swear on my father's grave. Have you heard people say this? I swear on my mother's grave. Some people, they will say, I swear on my children, I'm telling you the truth. And you can almost guarantee when somebody says that, what?

They're lying.

Like, nobody would do this.

Or this is what people think. Nobody would stoop so low to swear on their children's grave. Well, yeah, they would. And they do it all the time. Or kids will make a promise, but, you know, my fingers crossed.

People have all these ways of, you know, they lie, but I didn't really lie. Or I was just, you know, I took a vow, but I didn't vow before God, I vowed before them. None of this counts. It's still dishonest.

Jesus is saying, be honest, let your yes be yes, your no, no. So, God's people need to be honest. And don't look for ways to kind of get around things like that. Now we get into the more controversial statements.

The Meaning of an Eye for an Eye

Look at verse 38. So far, this has been pretty basic, basic stuff. This is what some people choke on, however. Verse 38, Jesus says, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too.

Give to him who asks of you and from him who wants to borrow from you. And do not turn them away. So, an eye for an eye. A lot of people, again, struggle with this or they have a misunderstanding of what's being said.

This was part of the law of Moses. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. So, what does that mean? If somebody hits you, you can hit them right back, right? An eye for an eye. No, that's not what it means.

It's not what it means at all. But that's what many people thought. So, what is this all about? Really, it's about the punishment must fit the crime. That's what this meant. The punishment must fit the crime.

I mentioned last week how there's some places in the world, so I hear, where if someone is caught stealing, what happens? Like, they do get their hand chopped off. Again, I don't know if that really takes place.

That's what I've heard. Is that a fair and just punishment? I know somebody's thinking, yeah, it is. No, it isn't.

No, it isn't.

That's excessive. Today, when someone commits a crime, what do we do? We lock them in a cage. We lock them in a cage for 18 months, 10 years, whatever it is. Or if somebody steals, then you have to pay a fine to the government, to the court system.

I don't know.

To me, biblically, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I would think they would have to pay back the person they stole from, right? That would seem to be biblical justice. But instead, we lock someone in a cage, and they have to pay a fine to the courts.

Well, this is, eye for an eye, it's about punishment must fit the crime. It's about justice, is what it is. Just as far as going back to the original thing we talked about last week, when somebody commits first-degree murder, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, what does that mean?

Someone commits first-degree murder, they get the death penalty. Again, that's the way it was in ancient Israel, and that's the way it was in this country, up until, you know, as the decades go on, things change.

But today, we have kind of a warped view of justice. What the Jews had done, they had turned an eye for an eye into an excuse to seek revenge. That's what they turned it into. So, number one, Jesus, remember, Jesus is not contradicting Moses.

Did Moses write an eye for an eye? Yes. Is Jesus correcting Moses?

No.

Jesus is addressing their wrong understanding of Moses, because the rabbis taught this basically gave you an excuse to seek revenge. So, what does Jesus say? An eye for an eye? No, he says, turn the other cheek.

Now, if there's a teaching in Christianity that everybody knows, it's this one. And if there's a teaching that half the people don't like, it's probably this one. Because in your flesh, and probably most of you don't get slapped very often, hopefully, but in your flesh, what do you want to do?

If somebody hits you, you want to hit them back. Here's the thing. When Jesus says, turn the other cheek, this, number one, this is not dealing with assault. Jesus is not commenting on crimes or assault.

This does not have any application to foreign policy. Jesus is not even teaching pacifism here. What he's doing, and he's not even saying you're not allowed to defend yourself. A slap, why? A slap is not an assault, is it?

A slap is not somebody trying to do physical harm to you. What's a slap? It's an insult. It's an offense. Even the idiom slap in the face, that means somebody is trying to embarrass you. They're trying to offend you.

So Jesus said, if somebody slaps you, what do you do? You want to slap them back, but what you do is you turn the other cheek. That is the best response, because they're trying to humiliate you, and by turning the other cheek, you what?

I mean, you're just, if anything, humiliating them. And of course, then if they slap you on the other side, then they look really bad. And that's not the point, to make them look bad, but if you hit them back, it's going to escalate.

So this is all good advice to kind of diffuse a situation. Hey, as Christians, we should be the bigger person. And you say, I don't want to be the bigger person.

I want to hit them back.

Well, being a follower of Christ, we want to do what Christ did. I think of Proverbs 15, verse 1, which says, a soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. So if somebody says something to you that's insulting, they're trying to get under your skin, you don't shoot right back at them.

You respond with a soft answer, because ultimately, our goal is to win people over, right? We don't want enemies. We want friends. We don't want to push people away from Christ. We want to bring people to Christ.

And if they see that we act just like everybody else acts, and we're willing to hurt somebody or strike back or insult them, we're going to be viewed as having no credibility as a Christian. So we do what Jesus did.

1 Peter 2, verse 23 says about Christ, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return. And when he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously. So if you have been wronged, the temptation is to get revenge.

But if we are wronged, what should we do? Hand it over to the Lord. Let God vindicate you. And I believe he will. Now, this part about being sued, it makes it sound like if somebody asks you for something, that you just have to give it to them.

If they sue you, hey, give them above and beyond. Well, the plain instruction is if you can bear it, then bear it. If you can deal with it, then deal with it. Don't resist. It's better to allow the injury or offense.

Why is that?

Because these are little things that Jesus is talking about. He's not saying if somebody asks you for your house, give it to them and give them your car also. No, that is not what Jesus is saying. That wouldn't work.

He's talking about little things. If somebody sues you for your coat, if somebody asks you to walk a mile with them, walk an extra mile, these are little things. So again, don't resist them. Don't strike back.

You don't want to escalate this into something bigger. Again, these are minor quarrels. You'd be better off not fighting about it. If you fight about it, if you resist, it's just going to make it worse.

Christians are called to peace. And if we do respond, it doesn't leave God any room to vindicate you. Let's just have an example here. Let's say it's the fall and you're next door neighbor. You know, the wind is blowing.

You have a tree on your property. The wind blows and blows all of the leaves off of your tree into your neighbor's lawn. Has that ever happened? Has that happened to you or happened to me one time? And then your neighbor says, hey, that's your tree.

It made a mess in my lawn. You should clean it up. He says, that's an act of God. I'm not in control of this. You know, deal with it yourself. What have you done? You've just, you come off looking like a jerk.

And if he knows you're a church member, you're a Christian, well, that's the way Christians are. They probably think, well, that's what I would say, and I'm no, you know, they're no better than I am.

But what does it do?

It closes the door to the gospel. How, if you had an opportunity to witness to that person, how are you going to share Christ with them after you kind of tell them off or act in an uncharitable way? What kind of Christian testimony is that?

So we would be better off, especially with these little things, to just suffer the offense. See, this is what people know about Jesus. He didn't revile in return. They crucified him. He did not fight back.

Now, again, I don't think Jesus taught pacifism, but that's kind of the idea some people have. The Christians shouldn't seek revenge. Yeah, we shouldn't. We should take the offense. That's calling us to a higher standard, isn't it?

Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornick Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornickchurch .com.

We'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.