You Shall Not Murder (Matthew 5:21-26)

The Sermon on the Mount and the Fulfillment of the Law

Well, let's go ahead and jump into it. Go ahead and open up your copy of God's Word, if you've got it with you, to Matthew chapter 5. We're going to be starting in verse 21 today, and if you don't have it with you, it will be up on the screen.

But as we continue our study through this Sermon on the Mount, verse 21 of chapter 5 here in Matthew, Jesus says, Leave your gift there before the altar and go. First, be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

This is the reading of God's Word this morning. Let us stop again and pray that God would reveal His truth to our frail minds. Dearly Father, Lord, thank You. Thank You for the privilege to gather and open up Your Word.

I thank You for Your Word, that You did not leave us to ourselves to guess or to assume, but we have clarity through the perspicuity of Scripture. Lord, we acknowledge our frailty and our misunderstandings, even though Scripture is clear.

So we pray that You would work in our hearts and minds. I pray that You would allow me to speak with clarity and truth, guard my lips from error. And we thank You once again in Christ's name. Amen. Well, as you can see, we are in a new transition.

This is a different portion of this section on the Sermon on the Mount. And this is one that will go on, actually, all the way through chapter 5. And so we're going to be spending the next 6 to 8 weeks in this particular portion of the Sermon on the Mount.

Christ Fulfills the Law Rather Than Abolishing It

But in that time, we must be careful as to not interpret this new portion of Scripture, this new section in this sermon, as somehow disjointed or disconnected from His previous statements. As Jesus is preaching this sermon, He has put everything in perfect order and it all builds upon itself.

And so we have to keep that in mind as we do this. As I've mentioned the last couple of weeks as we were dealing with verses 17 through 20, that we cannot understand the rest of the Sermon on the Mount without understanding those verses in their proper way because of how it builds.

As to the fact that Jesus came to fulfill the law and the prophets, not to overturn, not to do away with, not to throw out the Old Testament and start something new, but to fulfill it. And in doing so, He's drawing a distinction between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law.

And finally, and practically exposing the religious leaders' misunderstandings and really utter lack of righteousness in and of themselves in verse 20 where He says, For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

And so here in this new section, Jesus spends a significant amount of time expounding upon the truth of the law by contrasting it with that of the scribes and Pharisees. And He does this with a handful of very specific laws that they would have known very well.

And if you notice in your Bibles, most of your Bibles are going to have headings above each one of those sections there in chapter 5. And if you look at them, you will see the first section, which is the verses we're dealing with today, it probably says anger above that.

He's dealing with anger and murder and that sort of thing. We'll talk about that in a moment. The next one, He deals with lust, then divorce, oaths, retaliation, and then finally love of your enemies.

And obviously, Jesus intentionally chose these six things for a reason. And hopefully over the next few weeks, we will begin to see some of those reasons. But however, we must be careful as to not miss the forest for the trees, so to say.

This is an all too common mistake when reading the words of Jesus in this particular passage. And that is to become so focused on the specifics of those six principles that we're going to be seeing here in chapter 5 as somehow being an addition to the law.

And you'll understand what I mean here in just a moment as we dive into the text. But most people will address these verses as though Jesus is adding to the law of God. And then others will address this passage as simply a principle of anger instead of seeing the truth of what Jesus is driving home.

What Jesus is actually putting forth is that the truth of this law of God encompasses the spirit of the law, the intent of the law, not just the letter. And that's in contrast to what the religious leaders of that day would have understood the law to be.

When Jesus said He did not come to abolish the law or the prophets but to fulfill them, He is also making it very clear that He's not adding to it, which we addressed last week if you were with us. So some may ask, okay, why are we harping on this fact over the past three weeks?

Why are we addressing this so much, which I have because we have spent quite a bit of time on that. And the reason is because of man's propensity to be just like the scribes and Pharisees. We all have that propensity.

And what did the scribes and Pharisees do? We look for a list of principles and laws that are attainable, something that we can, with a little elbow grease, achieve. That's ultimately what we want. And so we want principles.

And so it leads us to the fact that if we simply obey that set of rules but not the spirit of it, we're still okay because we're ignoring that. It's similar to the account of the rich young ruler later on in Matthew 19.

I know Pastor Jeremiah has brought that up just recently, but it applies greatly to this concept here. If you remember this rich young ruler, he comes to Jesus, he calls him teacher, and he says, What must I do to inherit eternal life?

You notice the key word there, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And what does Jesus say to him? He says, keep the commandments. And then so arrogantly, the rich young ruler, with all of his pride and all of his principles, and the letter of the law says, I have kept all of those since my youth.

I've kept them all. The letter of the law has been perfected in my life. And I don't doubt it. He probably did keep the letter of the law. I doubt he murdered anyone. And he was so proud of himself. But what does Jesus say?

Jesus so wisely there at the end of his encounter with him, he says, Okay, we'll sell everything. Give it to the poor and follow me. And what does he do? The rich young ruler, he went away sorrowful. He goes away sorrowful because he realizes the man wanted a rule to follow.

What's the next rule, Jesus? Give me that rule and I will follow it. A law. Because that was easy for him. But what Jesus did was he exposed the spirit of the law. He exposed this man's heart. He exposed what was truly in him and that he had not truly obeyed the law.

And that man, realizing that he was incapable of fulfilling the spirit of that law, he went away sorrowful. Because that was something he was incapable of accomplishing. That was a rule far beyond his ability.

And this is precisely what we're going to see Jesus driving home over the next few weeks in the rest of chapter 5. So let's look at our verse here in verse 21. He says, You have heard that it was said to those of old.

Let's stop there for a moment. You're going to see in each one of these portions of what Jesus says, he uses this phrase very similarly in every one as he leads them in. So I believe it's important that we examine it.

And I want you to notice the first thing that is that he says, You have heard. Notice he didn't say, You have read. He didn't say, God said. No, he said, You have heard. So what is Jesus doing here? Jesus is making a distinction between the actual words and laws of God and the proclamation of the religious leaders.

He's driving a distinction here. These listeners had spent their lives. These people that are out there in the field listening to Jesus speak, these people have spent their lives hearing a hybrid of the law and the prophets that's mixed in and distorted by Jewish tradition of these religious leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees.

But now in this small little statement here from Jesus, Jesus is basically stripping these religious leaders of any perceived authority. And we'll see that as we go on. And what did he say to those of old?

You shall not murder. And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. He's obviously referencing one of the Ten Commandments, isn't he? Back in Exodus 20 when God told the people of Israel, You shall not murder.

And this is what he's referencing. And he says, And whoever murders will be liable to judgment. Some translations actually say will be liable to the court. I don't know what translation you have with you, but I think that this gets a little closer to the heart of what Jesus is getting at here.

Because judgment implies judgment of God. This, I believe, Jesus is speaking of something different. I think the Jewish leaders are so fixated on the letter of the law that they can only see this commandment of God, Thou shalt not murder, as the actual act of taking another's life.

That's all they can see it as. They've confined it to something practical that can be obeyed. Not only that, but they have little to no regard for the fact that God has been sinned against. Will be liable to the court.

No reference of God's holiness. No reference to the fact that a life of an image bearer, Imago Dei, has been wrongfully killed. There's no mention of that, is there? This is driving home the perspective and the perception of the religious leaders and how haughty they were.

They were all about the judgment that they could bring about, the court system. And all of that takes a back seat. All of God's holiness, all of God's righteousness that has been sinned against takes a back seat to their judicial system.

So after pointing that out, Jesus basically just drops a bomb on them. Jesus, here's the atomic bomb that hit, and I can imagine the religious leaders probably lost their minds if they were in that crowd.

Look at verse 22. But I say to you, we need to understand the magnitude of what Jesus just said. Those religious leaders were supposed to be representing the law and the prophets. They were the ones that were tasked to give their lives and study to it.

They were the ones that were given the task to uphold it and proclaim it. And right after Jesus just got through telling everyone what they say, He basically says, now let me tell you what I say. And in doing this, Jesus is asserting a couple of things.

And I believe there are none more obvious than the fact that Jesus is declaring His authority to be preeminent, I say. He gets the first word. He gets the last word. Because He created the law and the prophets.

This man speaking to these people in this crowd, they're hearing His words, the very words of Jesus coming forth from His mouth as He's proclaiming to them is the very one that created it all. Remember, nothing was created apart from Him and that's Jesus.

But I say, hence He gets to interpret the law, doesn't He? He gets the first and last word. In these five little words, but I say to you, Jesus proclaims before these hypocrites took their first breath, I was.

And what I say shuts the mouths of mere creatures. I am the ultimate authority. You now see the magnitude of those five words? You see how Jesus just dropped an atomic bomb on their worldview? And what does He say?

Look back at verse 22, but I say to you that everyone who is angry, now remember in contrast, He's speaking of the law of thou shalt not murder. And now He says everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

Here is where Jesus drives a sword through the heart of the matter. He says, you thought mere outward obedience to the law renders you righteous under the law. You thought as long as I don't take the life of another person, I have kept the sixth commandment.

Did I get that one right? All right. But Jesus says, oh no, let's get right down to the heart of that commandment. Because I am the authority to do so. And I can't help but think that some of those listening to Him in that moment were immediately reminded of King David's words back in Psalm 51 .6 where he says, behold, you delight in truth in the inward being.

You teach me wisdom in the secret heart. It's just like 1 Samuel 16 .7 when Samuel thought that of course God's going to be looking at someone like Saul in great stature, but he's looking at David. And what does it say?

It says there in 16 .7 of 1 Samuel, and the Lord sees not as man sees. Man looks on the outward appearance. And we are so focused on the outward, aren't we? The outward obedience, the letter of the law is what allows us to be righteous before God.

And it says there, but the Lord looks on the heart. You can only imagine that there were a few in that audience that immediately thought of those two verses and maybe more. And it was being revealed to them in that moment what Jesus was saying.

And so Jesus is not adding something to the law. He was exposing the spirit of the law, true righteousness. True righteousness under the law. Bringing to light what He meant back in verse 20,. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The scribes and Pharisees thought they were righteous because of their outward obedience. And we see the fruit of that, don't we? We see the fruit of outward obedience. We see the fruit of the law following the letter of the law, much like the hypocritical legalism of today.

We've all experienced it. Some of us have fallen prey to it many times. For just as I say all the time, we're all recovering legalists, right? We're either legalists or recovering legalists, one of the two.

But it's much like this hypocritical legalism when you give yourself a list of rules that lead you to believe make God happy with you. These rules I give myself, I follow them, and it makes God happy with me.

It always produces a smug self-righteousness, doesn't it? You ever known someone like that? So much legalism just drips off of them and there's a smugness, isn't there? I've been guilty of that. You can see it in the self-righteousness that then drives you even further away from true holiness.

You become more self-righteous and prideful in your achievements that it drives you even further away. It's a vicious cycle, isn't it? But here's the thing, even the most militant of religious legalists knows the true state of their heart.

They know the state of their heart. And when Jesus says something like this, that it's not just the act of murder but even the smallest bit of anger towards another that makes you a lawbreaker. Boy, that exposes the heart.

It cuts deep, doesn't it? And when that happens, you begin to see the law of God. And you know what lawbreakers deserve, right? Just punishment. People realize this. Jesus goes on there in verse 22. He says, whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council.

And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. I believe Jesus is driving his point home even deeper. When we insult or proclaim another image-bearer as a fool, what are we doing? We're demeaning them, aren't we?

We're slandering them. We are seeking to put their reputation to death, to murder it. So what Jesus is saying here is even in that, you are breaking the commandment of God. Even in something that seems so insignificant, you're breaking the command of God.

We often don't think of that, do we? We don't think of things such as slander and reputation and those sorts of things. There was a post I saw this week that reminded me of it from Justin Peterson. Or Peters, I believe is his name.

Justin Peters. He said it should be sobering to note that Romans 1, 29 and 30, gossip and slander are listed among the same sins as homosexuality, murder, and hatred of God. But we can become so fixated on the outward, the letter of the law, that we forget what's in here.

And we slander our brother. We hate our brother. So, so far, this seems pretty bleak, doesn't it? This seems pretty bleak. If this is what God actually requires of us, who can possibly live up to it? I'm glad you asked.

Jesus. Jesus lived up to it. That's the good news this morning. Our Savior lived up to it. That's what He meant when He said He came to fulfill it. Because He's the better Adam. Adam and Adam all have sinned.

We've all fallen short. We've all fallen and been born in sin. And categorically incapable of bearing the weight of the law. The law crushes us under it. Because we can't bear it. Because we are an Adam when we are born.

I think we've all felt that weight before, haven't we? That burden to be better. To do better. To act better. To obey. To somehow avoid punishment in hopes that what's truly in our heart never shows. And we can mask that guilt at times.

We can mask it through drugs. We can mask it through alcohol. We can mask it through pornography. We can mask it through our self-identity. We can mask it through our career. We can mask it through our family.

We can mask it through our hobbies. We can mask it through all types of things. And we often did, didn't we? Continuing to mask it. Only to be left with the hopelessness of our reality of sin. When we lay our head on our pillow at night.

The weight of the law. But Jesus. The better Adam. The one that has called us. Has set us apart. And imputed His righteousness onto us. A righteousness within us. That is alien to us. That is given to us freely.

That's the one that can fulfill it. Christ is the only one that has truly been able to fulfill the law. But because He has. Because He has fulfilled the law. And because He has imputed His righteousness onto some of us.

Hopefully all of us in this room. Have come to Him in faith and repentance. And are now His. Now we are made a new creature. Now, now we have the ability to obey the spirit of the law. Now that does not mean that we do it.

That does not mean that we obey the spirit of the law at times. Every time, does it? We get back to the passage here. We may not obey the spirit of the law perfectly. Even though we have the power within us to do so.

Through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We often go back to our chains, don't we? But there's good news. Even in Jesus' words here. This section here starting in verse 24. Or actually verse 23. This is some great news actually.

It's somewhat difficult to understand what Jesus is saying here. But let's seek to do so. He says, so if you are offering your gift at the altar. And there remember that your brother has something against you.

Leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court. Lest your accuser hand you over to the judge.

And the judge to the guard and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. Kind of difficult to comprehend what Jesus is saying here at first glance, isn't it?

But what Jesus is telling us here. Is that if we have something in our hearts. That we've gone back to sin. And even though we've got the ability to obey the spirit of the law within us. And we don't.

There's still opportunity to obey. If our brother. If we have something against our brother. If we come to worship together. If we go to the Lord's table. And we have something against our brother. Just as Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians.

We need to get that right. That's the beautiful part is we can now. The Pharisees, the religious leaders that were following the letter of the law. They could not. Because they didn't understand it. Because they didn't think it was wrong to go and make sacrifice.

That's all they needed was to actually make the actual sacrifice. The fact that they hated their brother and their heart while they did it. Meant nothing to them. Excuse me. But. But now. Because of the righteousness of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

We can. And we're encouraged to. I'm considering actually preaching those verses next week in a little greater detail. As we talk through what that looks like. Restoration with a brother and worship of God.

But just know that this is good news. This is great news. Because now when we come before the throne room of God. When we worship Him. We are righteous before Him. There is nothing that can strip us from that.

But now we can obey the spirit of the law. By being right with our brother. And obeying the law of God and not being guilty of thou shalt not murder. Because that's what God's getting at is His heart.

In these commandments. This is who He is. This is His very nature. And it's good for us. And we should long for it. You're going to hear this over the next few weeks. Over and over again. Because this is what Jesus is driving home.

Because it's so important for us to implant this deep within our hearts. Because this gives us great freedom. And it's not the letter. It's not the details. It's the heart. It's the heart that God desires.

It's a contrite heart. A heart of repentance. That He Himself has granted you. You don't have to conjure it up on your own. You don't have to bear the weight of the law. The law is a lovely thing to us now.

It's a beautiful thing. It's a sweet thing to us. Because we can see it for what it is. My voice is giving out. I'm going to have to stop now. So let's pray for our time of going to the table now. The Lord's Supper.

As I mentioned just a second ago. Let's pray for any sins that may be unrepentant of in your heart and mind. In your life. If you need to get right with a brother or sister. Please do so before coming to this table.

But if you are a baptized believer. In good standing with the church. You are welcome to this table. So let's pray. Dearly Father, Lord, I thank you. I thank you for your law. For your law is good. It is sweet.

It is perfect. God, we are so grateful for your son fulfilling that law. So perfectly so that we can take part and be given that righteousness.