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Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Scripture: Matthew 5:23-26
Well this morning we we press on from where we left off last week. We were in Matthew 5 of course considering this very challenging teaching the first of the antitheses that we've been working through Here in Matthew 5 and the Sermon on the Mount and we considered.
After we worked through these verses two weeks ago last week. We considered a little more practically. We brought it into the home. Into that place where we let our guard down we find it perhaps a little easier to deal with people.
In the ways that Jesus would want us to deal with people. When they're somewhat anonymous, maybe strangers. No, we don't see them that often don't spend as much time with them. We can be very cordial.
Everyone gets a warm hug a nice smile. You can make it through the Thanksgiving dinner. And then they leave you you watch them pull out of the driveway. Huh big sigh of relief. Now you can get back to your normal element and there you find.
Irritability friction anger resentment bitterness coolness sourness all these things. Beginning to well up in the very comfort of your own home. So we we looked at that last week. We talked about how that impacts our marriage and we didn't have enough time to make it to what we'll focus on this morning.
Which is anger in the church dealing with resentment with bitterness with ways that we wrongly think of in regard and relate to one another as Believers in the body of Christ and that's what we want to spend some time Dealing with this morning and since we've already worked through this passage.
We're not going to be doing much heavy lifting or referencing of our passage. We're simply going to be focused on application will almost be like a topical sermon today. We'll have a lot of time to consider some of these things.
But let me at least remind us of the passage that we've had before us now for several weeks. Matthew 5 beginning in verse 23. Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you leave your gift there before the altar and go your way.
First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. 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'll be thrown into prison.
Assuredly I say to you you will by no means get out of there till you've paid the last penny. Well, Jesus has this absolute proclamation. I say to you with all of the authority behind that. It's not the physical act of committing murder.
But the anger that resides within the heart that breaks the sixth commandment whoever is angry with his brother. That's where we began and that's especially where we begin this morning. Anger in the church anger with a brother or with a sister with those who have been adopted into the family of God as We said last week.
Redemption involves relationships and Christ transforms our lives. Every relationship in our lives becomes transformed as a result of Christ whether for the better or for the worse. There is no relationship that is left unscathed when our lives are hidden in Christ and by the Spirit.
We're united to him. There is a transformation of all other relationships in this life and that includes how we relate to one another as brothers and sisters who have the same faith. Redemption involves relationships and relationships involve reconciliation.
One of the things that we've referenced is Colossians 3 but now here's a transformation. But now you yourselves Paul's emphatic. That's not for someone else. That's not for someone sitting two rows behind you.
You yourself are to put off all of these first. Anger anger was the very first thing that Paul addressed and then all that flows out of that wrath malice. Blasphemy filthy language out of your mouth what we saw in 2nd Corinthians 12 contentions jealousies outbursts of wrath selfish ambitions backbitings whisperings conceits tumults.
Paul is a church planter. He certainly saw these things in spades. And as we saw also we must take seriously our communion in the body of Christ this bread that we break week by week. It's it's meant to demonstrate in a tangible way the unity that we have.
One cup one bread one body by one spirit with one baptism one faith. These things are held forth to us and they're meant to be reinforced in the way that we relate to one another. So there's no place for jealousy.
No place for bitterness. No place for tantrums. And yet a church that is actually living out life as a church will find that perhaps in the church Is where next to the home and in different seasons, maybe even more than the home where you'll be prone to anger to resentment to bitterness to Discouragement to resentment.
And Jesus says whoever is angry with his brother is liable to the judgment. Where pride festers. Division will follow. We're just gonna begin there. We're gonna come to four four points toward the end.
But let me just begin by talking about divisions being born of pride. Really pride is the sin behind all sin. Pride is that by which Lucifer fell. The pride is that by which Adam looked like a granite statue as he beheld his wife partaking of what was forbidden by God.
Pride is that which causes us not to submit to God's ways not to heal to the things that our conscience prompt but rather to stand on our own sense of Reputation our own sense of what's deserved our own sense of who we are and who others ought to treat us as.
So we're pride festers. Division will follow and we're pride festers. The smallest gripe the smallest slight the slightest Inconvenience can actually lead to a war. And so sometimes a close-knit church a church that's actually walking together as a body there can be squabbles and tumults that are Variegated they transform and change.
And the issues are always evolving. And and sometimes the most petty little Inconveniences can be thrown right into that that the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back. The smallest gripe becomes a war the smallest issue becomes something that actually reveals the fault lines in relationships.
I remember a church in Maine that I used to do pulpit supply for and The pastor there was telling me about how the church used to be a very contentious Church and there was a faction within the church That was very vocal very aggressive and they loved to sort of complain about everything.
And there was one business meeting where they were. They were having some disagreement about how to run things in the building and and Someone actually stood up and threw a hymnal at another person in the church.
Believe it. How can Christians behave in this way? We're actually throwing hymnals at one another. The smallest gripes reveal where our hearts really are. The little petty inconveniences that we grasp on to.
I was reminded of a Little factoid sometimes I don't know where to place these things and I'm always gratified when I have an opportunity. I bet very few in this room are familiar with the pastry war of 1839 the pastry war of 1839.
This was when allegedly Mexican army officers the 19th century sort of roughed up a French citizens bakery that was there in Mexico City and So there was this baker named Monsieur Ramon tell and he had this little bakery and he seemed to have it out for The sort of Mexican troops and so they sort of scuffled and looted his bakery and he went all the way.
Back to the king of France Louis Philippe the first and made his formal complaint. He demanded Reparations from the government of Mexico and France sent a war fleet to the bay and They actually fought a war for most of a year until Mexico finally conceded and had to pay the reparations.
Now, of course a War fleet is not sent for pastry. I know Frenchmen love croissants, but they don't love them that much. That little gripe was actually just a little straw that broke the camel's back.
It was just something petty that actually revealed a much deeper division. Hostility that was just below the surface and was looking for the spark that could light it up and that's what it's like in the church a Deep resentment just looking for the spark that will cause the powder keg to erupt.
So let us beware where pride is festering division will definitely fall out. You see in Florida news every now and then of a sinkhole. Day by day you're walking what seems to be terra firma and all of a sudden something the size of a baseball field Opens up and swallows up 18 homes.
How does that happen? Well underneath what seemed to be a stable surface? There was all this tumult and movement and it was erasing everything that should have been solid and supportive. And so finally something happens where no longer can the surface hold everything gets caved in and destroyed.
That's what pride does in a church body. It can maintain for a long time and seem to support and hold up its end of the covenant. But if there's tumult underneath if there's resentment contained within that surface will not hold indefinitely things will be swallowed up things will be destroyed.
First Corinthians 3 3. Where there is envy strife divisions among you? Are you not carnal these were the the factions the fault lines in the church at Corinth? And he says you're not even being led by the Spirit of God.
You're just you're just running in your flesh. You're reacting in your flesh and he says in the in the same letter earlier I plead with you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. That you would speak the same thing and that there would be no divisions among you, but that you would be perfectly joined Together having the same mind the same judgment.
This is a constant concern for Paul in the churches he says it to almost every church that he writes a letter to that they would be of the same mind that they would put Off those deeds of the flesh that cause divisions be of the same mind.
He says to the church at Rome. Be of the same mind toward one another and don't set your mind on high things associate with the lowly. Be like the humble. Don't be like those who are prone to division.
Don't be like what one pastor calls the fellowship of the grievous. We're basically you're you're all of a sudden finding a friend in someone who has a gripe. Someone that you've never even sat down and had lunch with.
Well you find out they have a grievance. That's somewhat similar to your grievance or they have some Irritation against someone that you have some irritation toward and guess what you've found your best friend in the church body.
You can't wait to hang out with them. You can't wait to feed the flames that fester toward division. And so Paul emphasizing this this need for patience this need for humility this need to associate with those who are lowly this Ability to prize the unity and the same judgment to the same mind in the body of Christ as we said last week.
You protect what you prize? You'll take great pains to protect what you prize in a church that prizes unity. By the Spirit of God will take great measures to protect and defend that unity. Paul in Ephesians 4 verse 13 speaks in this way.
He talks about the growth that the Spirit seeks to produce and the way that that growth comes about. God in his grace has put Structures in the church so that the church can grow thereby he gave some to be elders pastors for this very reason.
I'd like to think of that as OSHA. Kind of making sure that everything is running safely and in good order. And then everyone else within that is sort of the maintenance workers. That's what Paul is essentially saying in Ephesians 4 that we would maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
So you come to church you have a fellowship you put on your orange work vest and you've got your grease gun. And you're working to maintain you're a maintenance worker. And what you're maintaining is the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Now it's hard in the church. There's some people that essentially they they bounce from church to church to church because. They think they finally found the church and that lasts for about half a year.
We've finally we've finally found a decent church. Everyone is a stranger to them and they're a stranger to everyone and it takes about half a year just to settle in and get. To know some people then you start to see the warts and the blemishes and the wrinkles.
You get in some spat or you feel dejected or you feel slighted and you know. What it's time to find a new church. This church just is not the place. And you go to the next church down the street for six months or going we've found it the perfect church.
Not a few months later all the pretense comes off you get to know people. They start to see some things in your life. You start to see some things in their life and it's time to leave again. What a letdown you see the pattern that begins to emerge.
Everyone is a perfect stranger. So long as they remain a stranger you've heard that phrase a perfect stranger. Churches that feel that they don't struggle with Unity or don't really have a place to apply so much of Paul's concern.
They might actually pat themselves on the back and go we just don't struggle with this. You know all of our 1200 members they seem to do great. In fact, the only place that they struggle is in the small groups.
The small groups do tend to explode. But we keep them revolving and and our church is really doing great. Well, it's because your small group is functioning more like a church than the church. It's easy when everyone is a perfect stranger.
To harbor no ill will no ill feelings. No resentment toward them. But when you're actually rubbing shoulders with sinners as a sinner. All of these passages are going to apply. The perfect stranger is only perfect if they remain a stranger.
No one can fight and squabble like siblings. All right. I grew up with an older sister. Some of you have siblings. There's no squabble like a sibling squabble and guess what? We're brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.
Now God created unity. He desires for us to maintain this unity in peace and yet so much of the Bible Presupposes there's going to be friction. There's going to be occasions for bitterness for disappointment for wounds.
That you'll have to bear and learn how to cover and in all of this if we if we think back to the story of Cain. We're reminded we are our brothers keepers. We are our brothers keepers in 1st John 3 12.
The question is asked why did Cain murder Abel? It's because his works were evil his brothers were righteous. And if we read this in light of the larger context the whole emphasis there in 1st John, it's about loving your brother.
So right there. He says automatically remember this story. Remember that Cain was so cold. He felt no responsibility toward Abel. I don't know where he is. You know where he is. I'm not his keeper. I'm not his shepherd.
But in a sense what John is trying to drive home is. No, you need to learn how to love your brother in a way that you do feel responsibility for them. I am in some way a keeper for my brethren and A church that understands their relationship to one another in those terms will be a church.
That's a long way in maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. So 1st John 3 10 elaborates. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God nor is he who does not love his brother?
For this is the message that you heard from the beginning that we should love one another not as Cain who was of the wicked One and murdered his brother. Where there's a lack of love this is not fueled by the Spirit of God.
This is as Paul says fleshly. This is fueled by Satan himself. It's hatred of the brother. That is the victory of Satan in the body of Christ. And so we have to see hatred for what it is. According to Jesus from within out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts adulteries fornications murders thefts covetousness wickedness.
As Christians we put away these things we put away murder in the church by putting away gossip quarreling Jealousy outbursts of anger factions slander gossip arrogance and any kind of disorder. This is how we keep one another.
So the first thing is we need to keep one another. Now moving to some really specific application. In order to keep one another in order to be our brethren's keeper. We need to rightly consider one another.
Hebrews 10 25 and we'll just begin with the first part. Let us consider one another. Hebrews 10 25. In order to rightly keep our brethren. We need to consider one another. How do you consider the people that you're sitting around?
How do you think of them? When you're not with them, how do you remember them? How are we to consider one another? I'm gonna give four points. And the first is this the first is when we consider one another we ought to consider one another with joy with joy consider one another with Joy, there's this viral trend where they take a coach or Maybe a family member with a big family extended family or maybe a pastor and they have them sort of sit.
And they have a whole line of people behind them that they can't see and they come up and they just say a simple greeting, you know, hi and. And then it's can you actually get all the names, right? You can't see their faces just by hearing a simple phrase.
Can you actually know everyone. And the whole idea is you can actually sort of you know. See that wow, they actually recognize even just that voice and even though there's 30 people He knows them all by voice.
Isn't that something? And while we don't do it in that way a way would be when you have someone pop into your mind or pop onto your Text thread or or you you happen to see someone in passing. Do you smile?
Or do you frown you do the angry cat face? That's a good kind of litmus test here. Do you swipe right or swipe left? Do you smile? Do you frown? You see someone's face pop up in your mind on your phone in passing.
Is that a smile? Is that a hey, or is that a. And you keep kind of moving and these are the gut check things that how do we consider one another? There's a gut check. How do I my initial reaction if they had some way to sort of rig me up with electrodes.
Would they be able to tell by my physiology my visceral reaction to someone? That's the question as a spirit of God discerns to the very marrow of it all and what no one else can see he sees in full daylight.
So, how do you consider one another? Well, we ought to consider one another with joy when you go into someone's home you you see that they have pictures on their walls pictures on the refrigerator and.
And you you see in those pictures a family that is together and they're smiling. Hopefully, you know if it's all you know, all your kids they're all smiling with their eyes open. There's usually at least one that sort of has their eyes closed.
There is a blur. And that picture it's a pleasant memory of a place you were or a time you were together and you're all smiling and you've preserved That memory and you framed it and you've adorned your house with it.
Now whenever you go by you want to see those faces and remember them with joy. You want to remember that experience with joy? You don't go to someone's house and find, you know. A framed picture with a dent in the car and and the dad losing it.
Right or the wife sitting at the table looking dejected. All right. These aren't the pictures you frame. You would actually think it's quite bizarre. If you walked in and you saw all these random pictures of all the the things that went bad.
Of all the bad memories and all the times you were upset and and cool and dejected and you'd go. Time to leave this house and get out of here, right? These aren't the way that we preserve memories. That tends to be how we preserve memories with one another.
The smiles don't really retain long. It's it's that one comment that was said a few weeks ago. It was that one interaction that really actually bristled you it offended you and you didn't let on and that's what you've framed.
And you've adorned with and that's why in a hidden way you feel this resentment this distance this dejection. You'd be surprised in some ways to know what the picture gallery the portrait gallery of the church looks like member by member person by person.
So we ought to remember one another with joy. Even just a step back from that we ought to consider one another. We had just ought to remember one another period before we even add the with joy. Just do you consider one another?
Do you remember one another? It's already getting with all the kids we keep having which praise God but already it's hard to remember. What was that name again? Did they have a girl or a boy? I can't remember.
You know you have to actually be active about it. You actually have to put some work into remembering one another and and as you do that make sure that you're throwing out the things That aren't worthy of being framed and have a gallery that actually produces the joy that befits belonging together in the family of God.
So we consider with joy. Meaning are we quick to look past? Insults slights offenses. Are we click are we quick to cling to acts of kindnesses things that we're thankful for. These very things that are so conducive to the fruit of the Spirit.
Again, we fill up a room. We have a covenant feast as we did the week ago from yesterday. And it's very hard to harbor any ill will any cold feelings any offense of that kind. When you're gathering in that place for that purpose you you sort of have this feeling of belonging and and delight in one another and oh You just you're just so thankful and so in a way you want to have a mental Thanksgiving fellowship Thanksgiving feast.
Even when you're not together in that way. And so what you recount is the things that you're thankful for how different my life would be without this person. It's not always been easy, but how privileged I am to know them.
I'm the better for it truly. Maybe I'm not as Beneficial to them as I could be. I put a lot of that on myself. I See how different they are. Even though they're a difficult person. I see how different they are because of Christ in their life.
What a mercy reminds me of how different I am because of Christ in my life. You begin to ruminate in this way. This is how you begin to consider one another with joy with that you ask yourself this question.
Am I the kind of brother or sister? It's very easy to think of me with joy very easy. Am I that kind of brother? Do I have that kind of life and relationship with people in this body that when they think of me?
It's very easy for them. In fact, it would be quite foreign for them to think of me or remember me with anything less than joy. It seems to be the point in Hebrews 10. Just you know, don't make life difficult for your elders.
You might think you're making headway with them. You're just making it worse for yourself. And that's what the writer of Hebrews is trying to get across. It's not profitable for you much less not for them.
And so the question in general is what's profitable for us in the way that we relate to one another do we make it easy? To be remembered with joy. So we consider one another with joy. Second point we consider one another with prayer.
It shouldn't be a static thing that we just think of one another. When we have occasion to think of one another we ought to be praying for one another. It's that great insight by Martin Lloyd-Jones. When someone actually pops into your your mind or you're driving out the day and you randomly think of someone from the church.
You ought to just stop and pray just say a prayer for them. The Lord might have put that on your heart on your mind for a reason. And perhaps you've had experiences where all of a sudden you feel a certain warmth a certain presence Of the Lord in your life and it seems to sort of be the strange warming that Wesley spoke of it.
Where did that come from? And whenever I feel those ways you just feel blessed uniquely in a moment of a day I always pause it. I wonder if someone was just praying for me. I wonder if someone had just been praying for me so often on On a Saturday night.
I feel that I know somebody's praying for me. Things have been off and now they're running on all cylinders. Somebody's been praying when we think of one another with joy, we ought to pray with fervency for one another.
A Defensive and angry person will not be able to do this. I Was I was telling someone yesterday at a meeting I One thing that Alicia and I we haven't had occasion to do it in quite some time. We used to do a lot as if one of us was really struggling.
With anger about an issue right not between us, but just maybe an issue that we were just really frustrated about we were just Kind of reeling in our flesh. Spouting or venting about it and and not really taking those thoughts.
Captive not taking them to the Lord. If one of us was in our better mind would challenge each other and go why don't you? Pray right now. All right, not even taking the burden on The other person. No, let me pray for you.
I'm sorry you're feeling though. Just why don't you just take a deep breath and why don't you pray? It's impossible when you're angry. You feel like I can't go to the Lord. I feel like a hypocrite to pray right now.
I know that I'm not thinking rightly. I know that I'm not speaking rightly. I know that I'm not considering rightly. I just been venting it's very hard to turn that over to prayer so if you're considering rightly part of that is you'll be able to pray with fervency.
A Defensive and angry person is only going to be able to watch out for their own ego. Someone who understands these things these these difficult teachings of Jesus. They'll be able to watch over their brother's souls.
A Defensive and angry person watches out for themselves their reputation their sense of Need their sense of needs being met. Someone who understands what Jesus is after what Paul is so concerned about preserving in the church.
As someone who knows no, I am the one who brings this to the body. I'm the one who works very hard to consider my brothers and sisters with joy and to pray with them to pray for them Fervently to be watchful for them.
Watchfulness in prayer, you know if we spent half the time Praying for someone that we often spend speaking about someone we wouldn't really struggle with reconciliation that much. It's just so much easier to talk about someone than to talk to God.
We have a very shallow view of the power of words in this way. We have a very shallow view of the power of our words horizontally. We know what James says about the power of the tongue. This little bit that can steer the whole mighty Fleet this little this little spark that sets ablaze the whole forest.
We know the power of the tongue Horizontally we can see how it impacts relationships how someone can be set on edge how someone can be cast away. Simply by the power of the tongue by the power of speech.
But we rarely Recognize the power of the tongue vertically. The power to pray for someone the power to intercede. The power to realign and reapproach our whole relationship by opening ourselves up to God by acknowledging how we're feeling and Owning up anything that is sinful within that.
For James, he says if anyone thinks he's religious and does not bridle his tongue, but deceives his heart his religion is worthless. It's worthless and James is the same one who will say by the end of that letter if the prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
And certainly in this way a church that is praying that is availing in prayer. Will not struggle with reconciliation will not struggle in anger out of the abundance of the heart. Jesus says the mouth speaks a lot of the abundance of our heart has a lot to say.
Against one another at times a lot of the abundance of our heart the outflow of our heart is is sort of poured out. Horizontally brothers and sisters the great encouragement to us has to be that the abundance of our heart would actually be directed toward God in prayer.
What would it be like for a church? That talks about each other more at the throne room in terms of intercession. Then in text threads or inside conversations or in the secret recesses of our thoughts and reactions to people.
What would it be like if the most you had to say about someone was in your prayer life for them with God? Now it's always a bit of a two-way street in some ways. You'll never really be able to pray consistently and sincerely for someone until you've grown to love them.
That's that's certainly true you automatically almost spontaneously as a Christian pray for those that you love. But here's the catch in the body of Christ. You'll never really start to love people until you're praying for them.
To two-way street. If you're waiting to kind of Get the groove back waiting to feel a little bit better about someone so that you can pray. You're putting the cart before the horse. Just pray consider them if it's hard to do it with joy.
Consider them in prayer in faithful consistent intercessory prayer. Third and now pressing in a little further in Hebrews 10 25 we consider one another with joy with prayer. We consider one another in order to stir up.
That's what Hebrews is saying. Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. So notice there's a strategy now that's emerging. When we think of one another not only are we trying to remember all that we're thankful for all that's different in our lives and in that person's life as a result of Christ all that we hold in common the calling of Christ this walk of faith this Direction this hope of glory this recognition that I'm never just looking at my brother on any given day as someone who's going to Eventuate into dust.
I'm looking at one who will be a son of light on the very shores of of the eternal Canaan and so I can't help but perceive of them with all the immortal glory that we are walking toward together and in that sense.
It's very easy to say everything else is a vapor that will pass. But if they are trusting Christ in the way that I am trusting Christ. We have a relationship that will never end and so you begin to strategize.
How can I stir up this brother this sister to love in good works? Now you're considering them to such a degree that it's not just a reaction. Oh, I'm remembering them. It's not even the activity that has nothing to do with them.
I'm praying for them now. You're actually invested in how can I prompt? How can I cultivate? How can I provoke love and good work in their life? That's the kind of regard Jesus it's so striking. Isn't it?
Jesus says by this all men will know you are my disciples in. That you love one another. I'm convinced that a lot of the world Thinks that verse says something like you'll the world will know that you are mine if you love them.
But Jesus doesn't say that. There's certainly some good application and insight along that way. But Jesus does not say the whole world knows that you belong to me when you just love the world. It's not what he says.
He says the whole world knows you belong to me when you love one another. When the church loves those within the church when Christians love other Christians. That's how the world knows that we actually belong to him.
And how does that actually happen? How is it that a church would recognize disciples loving disciples? Well, it's because those disciples have considered one another in such a way that they're actually stirring up love and good works.
It's just like a parent a parent will think and they'll strategize. I see I see my child struggling with this subject. What can I what can I do that might help them? How can I get them over this hurdle?
There seems to be a disconnect. How can I make up for that? I've noticed that they've been doing this lately. I know that they've been talking on like this a lot lately. How am I going to address that?
There's some level of strategy some creative aspect to parenting that actually gets them past what they're struggling with. It's the same thing in the church. I see that there's a disconnect. I see that there's a need I see that there's a hurdle.
How can I stir them up? How can I promote love? How can I get them to that next step in their life? This means it's a love that is Purposeful as much as it's a love that covers over a multitude of sins.
And it has to be a love that covers over sins, by the way, if you're gonna be purposeful. If you're gonna move beyond a fond remembrance and sincere prayer to actually stirring and cultivating love in the lives of your brothers.
And sisters you're gonna have to have a very thick leather like love. Tissue paper will not do something fragile. Something that can be torn in a single Sunday. It won't do. It's gonna have to be something rugged something built for motorcyclists.
That's the kind of love you'll need something that can actually cover without Seeming to cover and only lasting for a season an actual covering something that won't absorb offenses. And that doesn't mean by the way that offenses are erased the Lord sees them the Lord knows.
In fact because you know, the Lord knows it should make it that much easier to let offenses go Lord. You see it Lord. Just help me to respond rightly Lord. Lord, you know, you see how my flesh wants to react but Lord restrain it.
I know you see it. I know you do all things. Well. Love covers offenses love covers irritations. Actual sins committed by brothers and sisters against brothers and sisters are covered over with the same gracious Mercy that we have received by Christ.
That means that this covering this this blanket. It's not threadbare. It's what I would put it this way a comfort blanket. We have a daughter that has a little blanket that she lets a comfort blanket.
That's our love for one another. It's a comfort blankets a covering that doesn't just cover sins like well I guess I'll exonerate you this time. No. It's a comfort. There's actually a premium put on brothers and sisters comforting one another in the scriptures.
It's something that we don't often think about but we know when someone's going through a trial and that shock is there we think oh. That's very appropriate to weep with those who are weeping. We seek to be of good comfort.
But actually it's just a way of life as as Christians. We're meant to comfort one another in other words. It's not easy to be a Christian. The Christian life's not a cakewalk. It's a narrow and difficult way that very few find it's thorny and there's times where as you're moving forward those thorns are pressed pretty deeply as Paul found thorns in his side and and and suffered through greatly in his Attempts to serve the body and and so it is in serving the Lord and serving one another.
There's thorns that snag and pull and drag and wound. We're meant to be of general comfort to one another in this way. 2nd Corinthians 13 11 makes it a command be of good comfort be of good comfort. Some comforts not really comfort at all.
It's the same thing as saying, I'm sorry, but and then just doubling down on your argument. Some comfort is I'm sorry, but and it's not really comfort at all. Now you need to be of good comfort. There needs to be something supple something nurturing about your comfort be of good comfort.
Well, what is that going to look like. What's our paradigm for that? Well, he spells it out at the beginning of the same letter 2nd Corinthians 1 he begins it by pointing to God Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies the God of all comforts.
That a way you think of God. What is the Holy Spirit called? The Comforter. What a marvelous title. That God has desired to send the helper with this primary Identification this this defining attribute as Comfort.
How instructive that is To us as brothers and sisters if we're being led by the Spirit who is the Comforter. What will our interactions look like? Well largely look like we're comforting one another. That's what spirit wrought fellowship looks like be of good comfort.
And he doesn't just say at one time Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies the God of all comfort who Comforts us in our tribulation that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves Are comforted by God.
It's just comfort comfort comfort comfort comfort. You see the emphasis there. So if we're going to find spiritual encouragement motivation help in times of need just general help to grow and press on and persevere.
There has to be a consistent and intentional desire to comfort our brothers and sisters. And when you have anger residing in your heart, that's what you'll refuse to do. You want to wallow in your anger?
The last thing you want to do is comfort someone that you're offended by but the scripture calls you to love in this way a Fervent love that we're meant to have for one another as Peter says a love that covers a multitude of sins a fervent love a sin covering love.
And if we consider one another and we're praying for one another and we're seeking to actually promote love and stir up good works. Then that means we're going to actually be building up the body of Christ edification.
So that's the that's that the key word for me of what we're stirring up what the love and good works equal in the equation edification edification. That's where Paul is in Ephesians 4. That's his great desire.
It's his desire in Galatians that the body of Christ would be edified that is constructed built up. Romans 14 let us pursue the things which make for peace the things by which we edify one another. When you're seeking to build up your brother or sister, you're seeking to stir up love and good works in their life.
I Want to note my love for you. I want to enhance your love for Christ. I want to help you to love the body. I want to help you to do good works that you've been called to do works prepared beforehand for you to fulfill.
The issue is this there is very little gray area. Very little no man's land. It might be an inch wide the distance between edifying or Deconstructing the distance between building up or Breaking down and what I've seen in my life if you're not actively seeking to build up.
Even though you just feel that you're being passive and maybe just taking a break. You're actually breaking things down. The only way to edify is to be active about it. There's not this gray area that we can live where we're not really building up, but we're not really losing anything.
You're always losing something if you're not actively building up. It's like that in every relationship, isn't it? If you don't maintain the relationship if you don't strive to maintain this Unity that you have in the in the the bond of peace the unity of the Spirit and it's actually breaking down.
It's that way in a marriage, isn't it? If you're not actively working on the marriage. You're just kind of letting things lie. You're losing all of that ground. You're losing all of that unity. So it is in the church.
The problem is anger makes us want to take a little break take a step back say I'm kind of I just need a Break, I need a timeout. I need some distance. I need some separation. I need people to know that I'm kind of removing myself.
Your instinct needs to be the exact opposite of that. Let us edify one another. That's simply the conclusion of consider one another with joy with prayer. Seeking to stir up love in good works. All of that is essentially what edification is.
So if we're not edifying we're deconstructed if we're not building up actively persisting when it's difficult. Then we're actively breaking down the unity that we're called to have. I was reading some weeks ago The account of Isaac Bacchus.
Isaac Bacchus was a Baptist preacher in the colonial era actually wrote a history of the churches around the time of the Great Awakening and He wasn't very well educated but compared to at least some of the the polymaths of the day like Mather.
But he has this incredible account and he also as men were want to do at that period of time. He kept very good journals. I was reading a biography about him and his interaction for Liberty in those early days in the colonies a book called demanding Liberty by Brandon O 'Brien.
And he referenced a few of the journal entries around the time that Bacchus was really struggling with issues in his pastoral ministry. And this is what I read. 1749 was a difficult year for Bacchus in the congregation young people began to show signs of spiritual apathy.
Whispering and backbiting became a problem among the youth. Older adults lost interest in the lengthy preaching meetings. They lost enthusiasm and worship lost their sense of urgency about the gospel and its demands.
Now this is what Brandon O 'Brien says. Some of the sins that Bacchus parishioners were committing sound harmless today. He lamented that in fact, the biggest issues were speaking against and despising one another.
Now you see what Brandon O 'Brien in Brandon O 'Brien's view. He's saying. In his ministry in 1749. He says things are really going sour. No one seems to be connected. In fact, if you look at the youth, they're whispering against each other.
They're backbiting. Look at the older people. They don't even want to show up. They have no energy. No zeal. No desire. They've lost a sense of urgency about the gospel. They're not applying it into their lives.
And he's beginning to connect this to whispering and backbiting. Speaking against despising one another and Brandon O 'Brien goes. Oh, that's really harmless. It's it's funny that he made such a big deal out of that.
I mean, these are just typical things that everyone faces. How different Bacchus's view was. Bacchus is far more biblical than O 'Brien in this instance. Bacchus is looking at it like Paul would look at it like John would look at it like Jesus looks at it.
What's the cause and what's the effect? Again going back to O 'Brien beyond particular sins was a general spiritual decline. Bacchus in his entries writes terms like dull cold hard to describe the church's spiritual climate in the season.
And he's going oh they have these little harmless sins of gossip and backbiting and despising there wasn't any great scandal. You know, why was it so hard? It's hard for that very reason. They were speaking against one another.
They were despising one another they were whispering and backbiting. No wonder there was spiritual decline. No wonder they lost any enthusiasm about the gospel why they were coming to the altar. They were coming to worship with pollution with sin with filth with stains.
What is Jesus saying in Matthew 5? Leave your gifts at the altar be Reconciled before you come to worship the Father. So what would be the smoking gun in? A season where we see spiritual decline. Where we lose enthusiasm to actually accept and Delight in and celebrate the gospel.
Where we feel the urgency of the claims of the gospel pressed upon our lives. Bearing fruit in our walks. Well, what's gonna be the smoking gun for that kind of decline? Whispering. Backbiting. Conceit tumult.
Devouring one another. Harboring resentment bitterness. These are the things that poison the church. These are the things that grieve the Spirit of God. These are the things that Paul says make us walk like fleshly men.
Not like men who have received the Spirit of God. Who would so move in us to be of comfort and prayer and zeal to maintain his unity in the bond of peace. So we're commanded let everything be done for edification.
That's the command 1st Corinthians 14 26. Let everything be done for edification. Whatever you do you do to edify if. If you leave the last brownie square during lunch fellowship, you've done it with the intention to edify the person behind.
Everything you do is for edification just your way of life as a Christian. We seek to build this all the way to completion and that's another command here in 2nd Corinthians. And this also we pray that you may be made Complete and I love this term.
I love this word this whole idea. It's everything we saw in Ephesians 4. In Ephesians 4 you have Christ giving apostles prophets evangelists pastor teaches. There's very reason that the body would be edified.
Built up to what. To a complete man. To a perfect man to a whole man. In other words the love the consideration the regard the prayer the comfort all of this. Love is stirred up and we're actually being completed.
We're fulfilling the mold that we were meant to inhabit. And what does that look like? Every joint. Doing its part. That's what he says verse 15 and following. Speaking the truth in love that it may grow up in all things into him who is the head Christ from whom the whole body Joined and knit together by what every joint supply.
Oh, we're all ligaments and joints here. We all have something to supply. There's no one here to demand. Everyone is here to supply. And what happens when every joint supplies? According to the effect of working by which every part does its share.
Causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. Paul says love is the fulfillment of the law. So we seek to build up one another in love by supplying and and that's all the way to completion until we're the perfect man.
Of Ephesians 4 and that's what he says as a command here in 2nd Corinthians in this we pray that you would be complete. Listen do you ever pray like that? What a prayer that is. Paul's not even in Corinth and he says let me tell you how I'm praying for you.
I'm praying that you would become whole. I'm praying that you would be complete. Do we pray like that? Lord, I pray that brother so-and-so would just see how he's been treating you lately. Well, that's not the prayer to pray.
Lord make make us whole. Let me cover offense. Let me stir up and consider. Let me promote and cultivate. Lord make us whole. Make us complete. Now now the normal word the word in Ephesians 4. It's actually a different word.
It's what I love about this passage in 2nd 2nd Corinthians 13 the normal word for a whole perfect mature complete. We don't have it here in 2nd Corinthians 13. Here the and it's it's a it's a term that's only found here in 2nd Corinthians 13 a Good gloss would be to be equipped to be Made in order or put in order.
The setting here is a broken bone. If you ever had a broken bone I had a broken thumb one year when I fell off a bike and they had to put it in a cast to Set it in order to realign it and get it whole again.
That's the that's the term setting it in order. Allowing it to heal and become complete and so Anger in the church pride festering in the church offenses cool feelings dejections. Separations all of these things in a body where every joint is meant to supply.
It's like a body with a bone that's broken. It needs to be set back in order and That's what Paul's command is pray that you would be made complete. He says it as a command a few verses later be complete.
Put the bone in order do what is necessary to be realigned and made whole. And that means if you're a brother or sister It's sort of like the Lord of the Rings early warning system where they have the big sort of torches going all around the walls.
Of the sort of lands that's kind of what you're like. You're sort of I'm noting I've noticing some tension some cool feelings. That's an early warning system. I need to do what I can to get these bones put back in order.
Blessed are the peacemakers. These are the sons of God. That means when you approach someone Who's maybe struggling to leave their gift at the altar and they simply chase you away by saying? Oh, no. No, it's fine.
No, I'm fine. That you don't just allow that dog to lie. You say ah, I don't think you are though. And I just really want to help you through this. I want to comfort you and be of good comfort. I want to pray with you and pray for you.
I want to put the the bone back in order because scripture commands us to be complete. Have you ever seen a Soccer match maybe or a football match where you know in the scuffle of the play you hear the whistles and Sort of all the players leave to the side and then you just see there's one player left.
And they're sort of rolling around on the ground and everyone's going. Oh boy. That doesn't look good. What happened? You didn't see it in the flurry of action. And the whole stadium is looking to the Megatron to find out what has happened.
And they show the replay and they zoom right in on the hamstring or whatever it was and you watch a leg Flex in a way that God did not design it to flex you watch a knee cave in or an ankle twist. And what is the whole stadium do?
Oh. In horror right there's this core of outrage and disco. And everyone's skin is crawling and people can't look and popcorn and hot dogs are getting put away people are green. That should be your reaction when you see a bone out of joint in the body of Christ.
That's Paul's reaction. When he see these bones splintering and fragmenting away from one another his reaction is visceral. No, this is this is not of the spirit. This is not what Christ has died to bring about.
This is not acceptable for those who profess the name of Christ. You can't have this mind in you. He's outraged. That the body would be out of joint when we are simply outraged. Against a brother or sister that should remind us that There's no such thing as a minor irritation if it's festering.
There's no such thing as a fracture that we can keep running on if it's actually a fracture for a church that's pursuing edification. We actually have to pursue edification. Not as a token statement not as something on paper, but as a way of life.
So that means even when the cast is on the bone and you're trying hard you're tempted sometimes to tear that cast. I remember when my thumb broke you know is in the summer and so there were itches underneath that cast that would drive me up a wall and you're trying to you're going through the Drawer looking for pens and straws and anything you can get in there to sort of scrape.
It's so irritating. You just want the thing to be off, but you recognize. No, it's doing a good work. It's allowing this bone to be set. It's irritating sometimes to allow the bone to be set so it's a it's hard work.
It's patient work. It's prayerful work, but it's necessary work. Finally brethren Paul says 2nd Corinthians 13 be complete be complete. That means you supply what is missing. You supply what another joints not able to supply right now you supply a double portion.
Because you're about the body. You're about the will of Christ. Another image that could be used and is used of this term is mending a fishing net. You think of a fishing net and it's got these huge holes and it's no longer working as it's supposed to.
And the idea is in the church you patch up and mend whatever is broken whatever is worn whatever needs to be replaced. You mend your ways quite literally mend your ways repair the damage. So this is a church that is considering one another with joy.
When they think of faces, it's smiling faces when they think of memories. It's pleasant memories when they think of a brother or sister. They think with thankfulness because they've sown thankfulness in their hearts and the flood of their memory banks with all that they have to be.
Grateful for this is a church that's stirring up not only love and good works. But a constant desire to pray with and pray for one another. All anger all bitterness all wrath are being put away. Bannered sort of buried drowned.
Every small step is for edification. Every act of reconciliation is about becoming complete in Christ. Now the big question as we come to the fourth and last point is how in the world are we going to do that?
So the fourth point the last point is simply this. Let me just remind you where we begin we begin with. Consider one another with joy. Consider another with prayer. Consider one another in order to stir up love and good works.
And how are we going to do all of that? Consider one another at the cross. Consider one another at the cross. Paul essentially gives us this framework in Philippians 2. He says if there's any comfort in Christ and notice there again this idea of Christ's being about comfort in the lives of his people.
There's any comfort in Christ any comfort of love any fellowship of the Spirit any affection and mercy. Complete my joy by being like-minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind. Letting nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit but in lowliness of mind esteem others better than yourselves.
Let each of you look out not only for his own interest. But also the interests of others. Now the whole church in Philippi is going well. How in the world are we going to do that? And here's the answer.
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ. That's the answer. Christ who did not grasp on to the divine equality he possessed. But rather allowed himself to be divested of it in taking on flesh.
The eternal one entering into temporality. The Almighty one becoming weak for our sake. The righteous one being born under the law in order to bear the righteous condemnation of the law. For all those that would trust in him.
You see what Paul's doing. He's giving us the template. He's giving us the framework for how we're actually going to be able to carry out these commands. We can only do it at the foot of the cross. We'll have no fleshly motivation to do it whatsoever.
And even the Spirit will be often quenched often grieved. Where he finds strength where he finds influence is when he brings us to the foot of the cross. That is very much the ministry of the Spirit to draw us to thoughts of our Savior and to the example of the Savior's Savior's sacrifice.
Don McLeod makes this whole point. What Paul is doing is simply this you have these practical problems. The answer is always theological. Remember that your theology and Remember your theology places your behavior.
Place your little difficulties in light of the most massive theology. You can muster. That's what Paul's doing. He sees the squabbling. He sees the fraction. He sees the resentment. He sees the hidden bitterness and he grabs all of that and says have this mind in you be like Christ in his approach to the cross.
And so as we become conscious of who Christ is and what he has done of what his mindset was of what his teaching is. We're also able to write to recognize what that means for us toward one another. I think I mentioned this years ago.
I need to read it again. Kind of a mixed bag theologically, but a very profound theologian Miroslav Volf and it's his book exclusion and embrace where he was. Recounting what the atonement of Christ means in terms of reconciliation in light of the Bosnian conflict and Massacres on both sides and family members that were so personally affected when he was a child.
And he comes to this conclusion within this book. He says that reconciliation is an expression of the will to embrace the enemy. And therefore the cross is indispensable the only way that can happen the only example we can have of an enemy being embraced.
Is that the cross? He says the cross is no doubt scandalous in a world suffused with hostility. You know what? The cross is still scandalous in a church suffused with hostility. We instinctively reach for a shield and a sword Volf says.
But the cross offers us outstretched arms and a naked body and a pierced side. That's the difference in the church. We instinctively reach for a shield and a sword. We look for allies. We look for who's seeing what I'm seeing who's kind of on my side of how I'm venting how I'm frustrated how I'm dejected.
Maybe there is no one on your side. So you wallow in your own sense of self-pity. No one understands me. I'm gonna let them know how I feel by removing my just you're looking for a shield. You're looking for a sword if you can't stab and you'll try to sort of gain all the diversion.
It's just all about you. You're looking for that shield for that sword. You instinctively do that because of the hostility because of the anger because of the resentment. And what does the cross come the cross comes?
And it says no outstretch your arms and embrace your enemy. I Don't offer a shield. In fact, if you have a sword put it back in the scabbard. If you live that way you'll die that way. I have outstretched arms and a stripped body and a sacrifice to give.
Paul says have that mind in you. Have that mind in you. If you would be complete remember reading of Carl FH Henry was an old theologian and When he was at Trinity da Carson was very close to him and da Carson You could tell was very impacted by this man's life.
He had been through a number of controversies related to the to an errancy and all sorts of things and he always maintained Sort of steadfast integrity in those respects and Carson really admired him because he had watched his reputation get chewed.
He watched posts and opportunities get Pulled away from him and he never saw him devolve into anger or bitterness or resentment. So he asked him he said You know, you've been at the very center of these things for half a century.
Have you stayed humble and Henry said It's really hard to be prideful when you're at the foot of the cross. It's just really hard to be prideful. When you're at the foot of the cross, do you want to stay humble be a student of the cross?
Do you want unity and completion in the body of Christ? Dwell often at the foot of the cross. Reflect on the cross. Be amazed by the cross. Don't quickly chase away that the thoughts of awe and wonder and personal application.
That the peerless son of glory Would bear the awful curse for your soul. Gospel humility only comes at the foot of the cross. And if you don't sit hard by the cross if you're not constantly surveying the wondrous cross.
Constantly saying to yourself in the words of the hymn did my Savior bleed for me. Did my Savior die for me. If you're not amazed by the wonder of his love you'll never be able to abound in love if you can't see the sin of anger crucified at the foot of the cross.
Then you'll never be able to repent of your anger. You'll never be able to Separate and be sanctified away from it. When you're actually dwelling at the foot of the cross you gain a sense of what truly matters.
And it's not the squabble and it's not the croissant and it's not whatever the spark is that's going to erupt or ignite that powder keg. You have an eternal perspective because of the cross. You recognize what you've been saved from and what you've been saved for you can't think of the cross without thinking of resurrection.
Glory, and therefore you consider your brothers and sisters. These are ones that have been bled and died for as well. If Christ did not see it fit to hold their sins against them. How dare you hold their sins against them?
So at the foot of the cross you embrace. You sacrifice you cover. You love you consider rightly with joy. You consider rightly with prayer you consider in order to love and stir up good works to edify.
Because you're considering at the cross. Amen. Let's pray father. Thank you for your word Lord. Thank you For giving us teaching Lord that Comes like streams in the desert of our corporate life Lord. We we know these things are written for a reason.
You know what what flesh and the world and the evil one seeks to do in this body Lord. You know that we are always on the verge of spiritual decline where conceit and dejection and whisperings are at bay.
And so we pray by your spirit Lord that you would compel us From the very shadow of the cross to consider one another rightly. May this church Lord be truly known by the world because of our love for one another Lord that these wouldn't be tokens.
These wouldn't be abstract sentiments, but these would be concrete ways of relating to one another as Concrete as our covenant binds us Lord. We pray that we would cultivate these very things by the power of the Spirit.
We would be able to keep and perfect and complete this body in the unity. He brings about in the bond of his peace. We ask all these things in your son's name. Amen.