Keep sharing good news without ads.
Sunnyside Baptist Church Michael Dirrim
Well, let's go ahead and open our Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 5. Matthew chapter 5. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for gathering us here tonight. I pray that you would bless the reading and study of your word.
That you would help us to rejoice in your truth. That you would take your word and root it deep in our lives. So that we would rejoice in what you have to say to us. And that it would be our joy to be about your will in your way.
And we pray all these things in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Alright, well let's open our Bibles to Matthew chapter 5. And we're going to read a little bit about how Jesus looks at the 6th commandment. That was so familiar to his audience. We've been studying the 6th commandment.
The heart of the covenant that God made with Israel. The critical command. Which is, do not murder. Thou shalt not murder. In Matthew chapter 5, and we'll begin reading in verse 17. Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.
I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away. One jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. And whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment.
And whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says you fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. 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 be thrown into prison.
Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny. So, very often we are confronted with the task of seeing these important passages in the scripture and then thinking, okay, how is it that I obey that?
How is it that I follow that as a follower of Jesus Christ? And it seems pretty simple, right? The sixth commandment says, do not murder. We talked about the word there, it's more specific than kill. This is the kind of killing specifically of others who are made in the image of God to do so out of selfish and unlawful reasons.
Do not murder. And how is it that we understand that command in light of Christ? These are ten words about Christ. I found it really interesting, I read a commentator who said, little difference separates the practical outworking of this command today from its original application in ancient Israel.
From the point of view of the individual believer, this prohibition works exactly the same way. Is that what Jesus said? Did he say there's little difference? What did he say? You have heard that it was said to those of old, those of ancient Israel, you shall not murder, but I say to you.
And does it sound like Jesus is saying, oh, by the way, this one's exactly the same, or does it sound like he's saying there's a difference? Now, to my eyes, when I read it out loud especially, it's helpful.
I hear a difference. And it's not the difference where Jesus is saying, you have heard it said of old, do not murder, but I say to you, murder just a little bit. No, that would be advocating for a lesser standard of righteousness.
And if you read the passage just prior, he says that he's advocating for a superior standard of righteousness, something that's far clearer in manifesting the glory of God. So, I find that interesting.
He's not come to destroy the law of the prophets. He's not come to set aside as wrong or as unnecessary the Old Testament or the things that were said before. He's not come to destroy them, abolish them, do away with them, but to fulfill them, to fulfill them, you see.
And we are assured throughout the New Testament that love, the kind of love that Jesus teaches, fulfills the law and keep the law. It's not a keeping up with and obeying the statutes of the law, but it is a fulfillment of the law.
That's what Jesus said he came to do. I do not come to destroy, but to fulfill. And greater love has no man than this. And he laid down his life for his friends. And what did Christ do for us? In his love, and he fulfills the law.
He is the end of the law unto righteousness for all who believe. Romans chapter 10, verse 4, correct? So notice, what does Jesus say in verse 19 of Matthew 5? He says, whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.
So he's talking about his kingdom. You have the Beatitudes. He's already begun to shape the expectations of what his kingdom is all about. And he says, I've not come to destroy all the law and the prophets, but I've come to fulfill.
Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Who is it who gets to say when one of these commandments is broken and when one of these commandments is kept and taught? Who's the one who gets to say what the meaning of the law and the prophets are?
Moses?
No, not Moses.
Maybe Elijah.
No, not Elijah. Moses and Elijah showed up with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, and Peter was ready to give all three of them equal hearing. Three commentators on the law, three commentators on God's word.
We'll listen to all three of them and come to a consensus about what God's word means. And yet God obscured Moses and Elijah in the Shekinah glory cloud, and they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.
And God the Father says, this is my beloved son. Listen to him. Jesus gets to say what it is. And so when he comes, he says, now I'm going to show you a way of righteousness that is superior to, greater than what you have heard from old.
And he starts off with the most critical, central, important command. In the Ten Commandments, the heart of God's covenant with Israel, one that certainly reflects his concerns all the way back to Noah, all the way even back to just outside the garden when Cain murdered Abel.
You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you, so what do we expect? We expect that what Jesus says next is something that fulfills, something that is superior to, something that is more intense.
And how he begins to express himself is a way that his audience would understand well. He's working with their expectations. He's working with their experiences. And he teaches them his righteousness.
Now notice in verse 22, it begins this way. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of what? Danger of judgment. Now what kind of judgment is this? Well, when you look at verse 22, you see that there's a danger of judgment.
We also have a little bit of a hypothetical example that Jesus gives at the end of this little passage that also shows being in danger of judgment. He counsels us. He counsels his audience. He says, you know, you should agree with your adversary quickly while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge.
And the judge hands you over to the officer and you 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. And then he says in verse 22, and whoever says to his brother, Raka, do you have a different translation?
You fool, right? Or in Aramaic, empty head. So something, you know, basically eviscerating and denigrating somebody else. Raka, she'll be in danger of the counsel. But whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hell fire.
When you get to the centerpiece of what Jesus wants to talk about, do you see how this is extremely far and away more important of a warning than the other things he's talked about? What is he doing here?
Something he does a lot in his teaching, which is going from the lesser to the greater. He talks about things on a lesser level to show you the reasoning of it, the soundness of it. And then he says, well, if this is true about the lesser, then how much the greater, you see.
Look how he does this. If you are angry with your brother without a cause, you're in danger of the judgment. See, verse 21 says, you have heard it said of old, you shall not murder. Whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.
Is that what you're concerned about? Danger of the judgment. Well, you don't have to murder someone to be in danger of being put on trial. Just be angry. Just be angry. And the fruit of that is going to end up where?
You're going to end up in danger of the judgment just by being angry with your brother without a cause. That's going to put you in danger of the judgment. And indeed, one's attitude towards another, strong feelings like hatred and so on, plays a part in that judge's decision.
Further, notice how he moves from danger of getting in trouble with maybe the elders at the city gate. Getting in trouble with some civil court. Well, whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the council.
What if Jesus' audience is angry with some noble person of Jerusalem? And he's not on the council necessarily, but his cousin is. You say the wrong thing to the wrong person, you will get brought before the Sanhedrin and given a talking to.
You don't have to murder someone to get in trouble with the civil authorities. You don't have to murder someone to be brought before the Sanhedrin. This chief counsel of all the justice system of the Jews in this day.
So he moves from the regular civil courts to the supreme court of the Jews. You see how he's doing that? He's moving from lesser to the greater. And then he goes to the greatest consideration of all, which is what?
The court of God himself. You know, if you're going around and you're angry with your brother without a cause, and all the fruit of that anger comes spilling out, you're going to get brought up on charges, you're going to have a talking to with the city elders, and you're going to get in trouble.
You take it further and you begin to insult people and just kind of flail at people in your anger, you can get brought before the Sanhedrin. But you know what's more vital than that? Whoever says you fool, meaning you're continuing in this hatred of your brother and this cutting down of your neighbor with your words, that's going to put you in danger of hellfire.
Do you see how he goes from the lesser to the greater? And he does so at the very heart of his pattern, doesn't he? Now the Sanhedrin, their courtroom was appended to attach to the temple courts, the temple grounds.
When the apostles in Acts chapter 3 were preaching in the temple courtyard and they preached for hours and they got arrested, they got thrown into a prison cell there on the grounds and were brought right over from that prison cell into the Sanhedrin's council chamber the next day for trial.
One of the main concerns of the Sanhedrin was the care for the temple and the care for the worship of God. And if anybody was blasphemous or sacrilegious or anything like that, oh, you'd get in trouble with the Sanhedrin for sure.
You did something out of order, did something the wrong way. Isn't that what they got mad with Jesus about when he cleansed the temple? They got mad at the apostles about that. Well, notice how the danger of the council that you see there in the middle of verse 22 is in parallel with Jesus' example as he walks back down the other side of this thought.
Given the fact that if you hate your brother and angry with your brother in your heart puts you in danger of hell fire, since you see that that is the court of final appeal and the one that's the most important, therefore, he says in verse 23, 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. Isn't that interesting? Let's put the altar sacrifices into proper perspective. Jesus is teaching these neighbors of his, these fellow Jews, and they're still living under the old covenant, aren't they?
He's not telling them that his kingdom is going to be one that involves the Sanhedrin as one of his choice courts. He's not telling them that his kingdom is going to be one in which they're going to be offering sacrifices upon altars.
He's not saying that. He's talking to his audience who are under the old covenant and he's saying to them, think about it. You've heard it said, do not murder. And if you murder, boy, you're in big trouble.
But hang on a second. Let's think about a righteousness that is superior to that. Really, honestly, if you hate your brother in your heart, that puts you in danger of hell fire. So let's put things in perspective, shall we?
If you go and you offer up your sacrifice to God, here you are trying to have proper worship and doing the right thing. But isn't it more important what's going on in your heart? Isn't it more important how you're relating to your brother in your heart?
Now the Sanhedrin is going to be, pay up. I mean, temple sacrifices are a high bit of revenue. We've got to put even more gold on top of the gold in this place. They thought that the beautification, the glorification of the temple was tantamount to their future salvation by showing enough dedication to the Lord.
By beautifying his temple, they thought they were going to be saved from all their enemies. But God, but Jesus says to his hearers, you know, leave your gift. Go your way. Let's set priorities correctly.
Not convinced yet? How about some more common sense? Let me appeal to the bottom line. If nothing else can get through to his audience, surely their financial concerns. I mean, hit them in their pocketbooks.
At least they could agree about this, correct? Agree with your adversary quickly, verse 25, while you were on the way with him. Lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, you be thrown into prison.
Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny. Now, there's practical wisdom, of course, in what we're reading there. But do you see the echo and the concern in light of hell?
I mean, consider Jesus' metaphor later on when he gives his parable about the unforgiving servant, who having been forgiven, he would not forgive. Having been forgiven a million days wages, he would not forgive, or six million days wages, would not forgive somebody else who owed him a hundred days wages.
How could that ever be?
Exactly.
And the king threw the unforgiving servant into prison, and he would by no means get out of there till he paid the last penny. So this metaphor harkens back to what he says at the heart of it about being cast into hellfire.
If we are concerned, surely if we're concerned about being cast into prison and not being let out till every last penny is paid, surely we should be all the more concerned about the judgment of God in hellfire.
And this way, when Jesus is dealing with how he has come to fulfill the law and how he's dealing with the Ten Commandments, not only does he start with the most vital one, the central one, as we have seen, but he brings his strongest language in it.
Everything else that follows, he's very forthcoming in everything, but his strongest language is here, as he begins to demonstrate a superior kind of righteousness, a more basic and deeper concern. When we read in the New Testament, we often come into contact with the important, vital concern of the heart.
Is the heart right? Is the heart right with God? And, of course, this is a concern in the Old Testament as well. But in the New Covenant, every last member of the New Covenant is right with God in the heart, unlike in the Old, where you were in, by birth and circumcision, whether you were right with God or not.
So there's a big difference. Now let's think about the connection of all this and how are we to live. Let's go to 1 John chapter 3, 1 John chapter 3, where this teaching of Christ is really put into a more specific application.
And we'll begin in verse 13. Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. And again, John using the term world in this particular case. It stands for that system of opposition against Christ. So he's not talking about Gentiles only or Jews only, but anybody who's in opposition to Christ.
If the world hates you, we know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
You see that? Verse 15. Where did John get such an idea? The Sermon on the Mount. He understood what Jesus was saying. When you think about the context in which John is writing, he's writing against those who denied that the Messiah came in the flesh.
That's Antichrist. The ones who deny that Messiah came in the flesh. I don't know of any Gentile who's really concerned about the Messiah, whether or not he showed up in the flesh. But that was the primary contention of the Jews.
They denied that Jesus had come. They denied that Jesus was the Messiah. They denied that the Messiah had come in the flesh. They denied that. And those are the primary opposition here in 1 John. So I think it's fitting that in verse 12, verse 11 even, he says,.
For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Verse 12. Not as Cain, who was of the wicked one, and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brothers righteous.
I put that into the context. Why are the Jews persecuting the Christians when they're mostly both Jews? Well, why did Cain persecute and murder his brother?
You see.
Putting that into context. Well, verse 16. By this we know love, because he laid down his life for us, and we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. That's the opposite, right? We have a contrast here.
On one hand, you have hatred, which is murder. On the other hand, we have love. And by this, we know love. But when we look at Jesus Christ, and what he did for us, and what he did for all of his people.
So we see love there. But here's something more practical. Verse 17. But whoever has this world's goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him?
By little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. And whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments, and do those things which are pleasing in his sight.
Now, what was the commandments that we're supposed to keep? Oh, he explains it, verse 23. And this is his commandment, that we should believe in the name of the Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave his commandment.
You see?
So when we think about the other passages in the New Testament where it talks about love fulfilling the law, often I read those passages, whether we're in Galatians or Romans or Corinthians or other places, and I'm looking through, and I'm studying, and I'm reading commentaries and so on, they say, well, see?
See, the law is love. It's actually not what it says. It says that love fulfills the law. That's different. How is that different? Well, the recital, the musical performance, is the fulfillment of all those lessons in practice.
Right?
The recital is the fulfillment of the lessons in practice. It's a far other thing to say the recital, to say that the lessons in practice is the recital, because that's just not true. I mean, if you've been in a music lesson, oh, there's starts and stops, and there's working on special pieces, and I grew up with a piano player in the home, my brother, and I heard him practice two, three hours every day.
My dad finally got him a keyboard that had the headphones to plug in, you know, to lower the volume, and then all we heard was, that was no recital. When we went to the recital, oh, my goodness, what a joy to hear the fulfillment of all of those lessons in practice.
But it's not, so in the same sense, that love is the fulfillment of the law, but the law itself, that's not what love is. And that's why we find that contrast time and again in the New Testament, not that the law is evil or bad, or that there's nothing to be known or learned by it, but that love, you see, is the fulfillment of the law.
And when we think about how central, how important that central commandment is in the Ten Commandments, thou shalt not murder, how everything is encapsulated there, it's unsurprising then that when Jesus identifies a superior righteousness and he says that hatred is really murder, the direct opposite of that, the direct opposite of the breaking of all the commandments, is the fulfillment of the whole law, which of course is love, hatred and love at polar opposites.
Okay, any thoughts or questions as we close? All right, well, let's close by singing the doxology together.
