Restoration Before Sacrifice (Matthew 5:23-24)

Jesus’ Warning About Anger and the Heart

That's why we're here gathered to worship this morning. Amen. Amen. Well, let's go ahead and open your copy of God's Word to Matthew chapter 5. We're going to be starting again in verse 21. And if you were with us last week, you'll know that we were in this very passage.

However, today I would like to speak to a slightly different element of what Jesus is saying here in the Sermon on the Mount. And we will be primarily focusing on verses 23 and 24. Yet, in order to understand the context, we need to read the entire section as a whole.

So let's read here Matthew chapter 5 starting in verse 21. Jesus says, You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment.

Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. And whoever says, You fool, will be liable to the hell of fire. 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. This is the reading of God's holy, perfect, inspired word. So, just as we do every week, let's pause and let's go to him.

And ask in our frailty that the Holy Spirit would illuminate our hearts and minds to this truth. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we humbly come before you acknowledging our need for you to work in and through us.

God, you have given us your word and we know that it is clear and it is true and it is just and it is perfect and it is holy just as you are. So Lord, we pray that you would illuminate our hearts and minds to this truth.

God, I pray that you guard me from error. That I would speak only truth from this word. And that you would open the eyes and the ears of the hearers this morning. In Christ's name, Amen. Well, we have just begun to come into a new year.

I was talking to our group on Wednesday night and realized that we're already basically a month into the new year. So I'm a little late to that.

But we have.

New Year Reflection and the Church’s Road Map

We've just begun to come into this new year. And when you come into a new year, it's really a common practice to evaluate elements of your life. Evaluate things from this past year. Maybe habits. Maybe things you would like to do better.

And to set goals. We call them resolutions. New year's resolutions. And I know that by this point some of us have already failed at some of those resolutions. We maybe have given up on our gym membership that we jumped into.

But the church body is really no different. A church body has a great opportunity just like individuals. They have this unique opportunity to make both necessary changes as far as aligning themselves with the word of God.

And maybe some minor little details as far as church structure and as far as ministry perspective. And so we make those changes. And to lay out a vision. Really a road map you could say. A road map that helps us to accomplish the goals both personally and corporately.

And this is precisely why today we have a family meeting right after our lunch. We keep pushing this because this is important for us to really be able to set forward for the new year. And so as we prepare for this meeting to look back at the past year and celebrate what God has done amongst us.

But then also to talk about plans for this next year. And that's the good part about being a follower of Christ. At least one of the many good parts I should say of being a follower of Christ. It's that our vision, our road map you could say, has already been given to us.

And it is perfect. It's a perfect road map. It's God's word, right? It tells us everything we need for life and godliness. It tells us everything we need for scripture. And so we get to look at that and align our vision with His vision.

Because that's the only way that God is going to bless the efforts of a church. When I say all of that, keep it in mind that this road map, much of what we see in scripture requires sacrifice. There's a sacrifice that is made by the followers of this road map.

There is a dying to self. We talk about that a lot here. That's all through scripture. The dying to self and giving up what I desire. And the living for others. Much of scripture we see that there are times when it requires sacrifice.

Persecution. There's persecution that comes upon believers' lives. And we accept that as far as following Christ. Because Christ undertook persecution. Blessed are the persecuted, as Pastor Jeremiah preached a few weeks ago.

But then there's also a sacrifice of keeping a loose grip on our earthly possessions and our desires and our time. There's sacrifice involved. And even though we acknowledge and we know that all of these sacrifices, even the greatest of sacrifices that we can make as a church, the greatest of sacrifices that an individual can make, do not add one ounce of favor with God.

Not even the smallest sliver of favor. God is not happier or angrier with you in the midst of your sacrifice. That's not what the purpose of it is. It can't gain us favor. We are merely making a sacrifice, an offering of sacrifice to God of our lives out of an abundance of grace of what Christ has done for us.

That's the sacrifice we are making to lay at the feet of our Savior. And so as we meet later, we are going to be presenting opportunities for each one of us to sacrifice an offering of our time and our resources, of our giftings and of our finances.

And don't worry, this is not a sermon on tithing. This encompasses so much more than that. There's so much more to offering to God. And then in God's perfect timing, He has ordained us to be in this perfect passage at this perfect time as we prepare to meet at this very moment.

And so we must pay careful attention to obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit in this. And that's why we're still in this passage that we covered last week. I want us to see this other element because I believe that this is God orchestrating this time for us.

So in light of that, in light of trying to obey the Spirit's prompting before we ask each and every one of us to make a sacrifice of our time and resources, it is incumbent upon me to point to Christ's words here in Scripture as a warning.

There's a warning here. And I want us to look at that warning. So to build up to it is we've just read this portion of Scripture. Last week we saw how Jesus was making a distinction between the letter of the law.

And if you remember and as we just read, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not murder. And He makes a distinction between the letter of the law and the Spirit of the law. And what does He say? He says, hey, anger, hatred towards a brother, towards another human being, another image bearer is murder.

You have committed sin against God. You have broken God's law of you shall not murder because you have hate in your heart. And that is precisely because God looks upon the heart, doesn't He? God looks upon the heart.

He doesn't look on the outward. What's inside a man's heart is what is defiling him. You know, the verse says what comes out of a man is what defiles him. That's what Jesus said, right? But what comes out of a man is fruit of what's in his heart.

So it's truly what's in his heart, and that's what Jesus is getting at. It's not just our outward actions. Of course, the act of murder is sin against God. It is breaking the commandment of God to not murder someone.

But being angry with your brother is a heart matter. But He didn't stop there. He went as far as saying that even merely insulting another person leaves you liable to judgment. Again, because it's the heart, what comes out of our heart.

Because what comes out of our heart when we insult, demean, slander another person, that's what's exposing who we truly are, and that is a sinful, murderous individual, that heart. And now, as I said, in light of that, we are going to focus on verses 23 and 24.

So let's look at our passage here, starting in verse 23. Jesus says, so. Some of your translations say, therefore. And again, what is it therefore, right? What is He saying? He's tying it to what He's just told us, what we just talked about.

The fact that it's not just the committing the crime outwardly, but it's a heart matter. And if you insult your brother, you're liable to judgment. So, if you are offering your gift at the altar. Let's stop here for a moment.

Now, these Jewish listeners that were there listening to Jesus as He's preaching this amazing sermon, these Jewish listeners would have understood this to be part of the ceremonial law. This to be part of a day of atonement that they would have taken part in.

They would have brought an animal to sacrifice as God had required to the priest on that day of atonement. And what they would do in that process is the person would lay their hands on this animal before they hand it to the priest, identifying themselves with that animal.

So that there was imagery that the sacrifice, the blood that was spilt from that animal was symbolizing an atonement for their sins particularly. And so this is how they would have understood what He's saying.

When they go to the altar, before they hand that animal over to the priest, they must lay their hands on it and then hand it over. And so, in light of what they understood Jesus to mean, we know that we are no longer under that ceremonial law.

I do not require y 'all to bring a lamb this morning so that I can sacrifice it behind the curtain over here. We're no longer under that ceremonial law because Christ was the perfect atoning sacrifice once for all.

It was just imagery. So, the question then is, how, if at all, does this portion apply to us today? When Jesus says, so if you come to the altar, does it apply to us? Well, I would say it does apply to us in principle.

The principle is here. Jesus here is not laying out a prescription for the ceremonial law. That's not Jesus' purpose in this statement. The entire sermon, He's speaking of a heart matter. The entire sermon on the mouth that He's been preaching, that we've been studying all these past few weeks, has been applicable to all believers of all time.

As we've gone through the Beatitudes and on up to this section, we've seen that Jesus is speaking to all of us. So, if He's addressing this sermon to all of us, is He leaving us out here and He's just speaking of the ceremonial law of the Jewish believers?

I don't believe so. Plus, we know that those ceremonial laws of sacrifice, those were not what saved those Jewish people, were they? Those people were never saved by that ceremonial law. That's not what saved them.

What saved them is trusting in the ultimate sacrifice that was to come. They were saved very similar to how we are, but they were looking forward to the Messiah coming and we're looking back and we see it fulfilled.

And so, even then, in the ceremonial law, before Christ came and made the ultimate sacrifice for atonement, this was a heart matter. This was a heart matter for the Jewish listeners here. They were merely obeying God's command for them when He told them to make a sacrifice.

What did they do? They obeyed His command. Now, some obeyed from the letter of the law. Some of them obeyed from the letter of the law thinking that when they lay their hands on this animal and they hand it over to the priest and he sheds the blood on their behalf, they really legitimately thought that that act was atoning for their sins for the year.

There were those that thought that, really, especially in Second Temple Judaism, which is these people that are standing there at the Sermon on the Mount listening to Him. But there were others. There were the elect.

There were those that God had set His love upon before the foundations of the world that they were doing this sacrifice, this act of obedience from the Spirit of the law. They knew that they were merely acting out of obedience as symbolizing the object of their faith.

They were saved very similarly to how we are. They were just being obedient. So I ask again, how does this portion of the Sermon on the Mount apply to us? How does that tie into us? I would say in the same way it did them.

It's the same way that it applied to these Jewish listeners before we seek to be obedient to what God has called us to do. Now, it's no longer the sacrifice. It's no longer the ceremonial laws. We no longer have to follow all of those civil, judicial laws that were for Israel.

We no longer have to follow the ceremonial laws. But we do have commands from God that we are to follow. So the question is, are we following them from the Spirit of the law, seeking to be obedient to those commands of God, or is it a heart matter?

So it's very similar. It's the exact same way that He was speaking to them, so it does apply to us. As a matter of fact, what has God called us to do? How does this tie into us today? I think the Apostle Paul puts this succinctly in Romans.

As a matter of fact, open your Bibles up there. Romans 12, verse 1. Romans 12, 1. It's a very common verse. You're probably familiar with it. Romans 12, 1. The Apostle Paul, as he's coming near the end of his letter here to the Romans, he has an appeal for them here as he transitions into chapter 12, which he didn't have chapter 12.

We added that part. He says there in verse 1, I appeal. This is important. If Paul is appealing to us, this is important to listen to. He's basically saying, hey, open your ears really up. Pay attention.

Focus to this section. I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God. Because of God's grace, because of God's mercy, because of the fact that God in his merciful act of giving his son to us in that perfect sacrifice, because of his mercy, what does he say?

He says, to present your bodies. To present your bodies, your everything, your very essence, everything about you, your time, your resources, your physical well-being, everything that you have, everything that you are, everything that you do is what Paul is saying here.

By the mercies of God, because God has been so merciful to allow you to do this, he says, to present your bodies, your everything. And he goes on. Look at it. It says, as, and here's the kicker, a living sacrifice, offering your gift at the altar.

We're no longer called to ceremonial laws, but we are called to offer a living sacrifice. As a living sacrifice, and I love how he uses that phrase living there, we get to live because he died and then lived again.

So unlike the sacrifices before that were just ceremonial, that were just imagery, that animal died. Its life was over. It was done. And that's why they had to keep going through that ceremony year after year after year.

But Christ, our Savior, is living. Christ is a living sacrifice. That's why it's once for all.

It's done.

And so this living sacrifice, he says, that we are to present our bodies as a living sacrifice because we are now able to live in him. We now have life, new life. We're a new creation. And he is allowing us here in this life to live sacrificially for him out of an act of obedience presenting our all to him.

And then he goes on. Look there again. He says, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. This is what this boils down to. It's an act of spiritual worship. When Jesus says that, hey, when you go and make your offering, when you're offering your gift at the altar, he's speaking to us today too in this because our gift at the altar is our spiritual worship.

For those of you that were with us Wednesday night, you know we're in this passage in Hebrews. In Hebrews 13, verse 15, it's said very similarly. He says, through him. Through who? Jesus. Through Jesus, then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise, a spiritual worship, a sacrifice of praise.

Then he says, the sacrifice of praise to God. That is the fruit of lips. Remember what comes out of your mouth is what's in your heart. What's in your heart is going to come out. But he's saying the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Those that are in him, those that are in Christ, those that have been given a new heart, and those that love the Lord and have a heart of praise, that have a true sacrifice of praise. This isn't just false fire being offered up by a non-converted person that does not have a heart of praise.

They can speak something with their lips, but then it's coming from a vile place of hardness and deadness of their heart. And so they're not able to make a sacrifice of praise. They're not praising at all.

It's idolatry at that point. But this, a true believer that has the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name, that is a believer. That is somebody that can offer up a sacrifice of praise. And it even goes so much deeper than this, because when he says, through him, then let us continually.

You see, the sacrifice that was before that had to be made on that day of atonement, that had to be done over and over and over and over and over, and it's a continual process. And even in that, that was imagery for us, because now we are to offer up a sacrifice of praise continually.

The beautiful part is we don't have to wait for the day of atonement. Every day is the day of atonement and it is done. It is finished, and we are on the other side of it. And so we get to offer up a sacrifice of praise to God.

We get to give our bodies to the Lord, every element of who we are, and everything that we have is His, and we get to lay it at His feet. That is the sacrifice at the altar that applies to us. And so Jesus' words here in the Sermon on the Mount, yes, they do apply to us.

It is a sacrifice of praise. This is a spiritual worship to God of our very being, our entire life. So I think we need to identify maybe some practical elements of that. If you're not fully understanding where I'm going here, I want us to see some specific ways in which we do this.

Some specific ways in which we have a continual worship and offer a sacrifice to the Lord. The first one being the Lord's Supper. I mean, Pastor Jeremiah, talking through this passage this week, he brought this up.

As we do the Lord's Supper every single week, and if you're here, you know that we often give that warning that Paul gave in 1 Corinthians 11 to not come in an unworthy manner. Some of you are sick. Some of you have died.

And we do this every single week. What a great opportunity. What a great time of worship for us individually and corporately to be able to make a sacrifice of praise, to be able to come and partake of the elements together.

And we'll talk about that here in just a moment when we get prepared to go to the table. That's just one of the first. The second, service to others. There's some practical ways that we make a sacrifice to God.

We show love to others. We make a sacrifice for those around us. In particular, the household of faith. Amen. So we have sacrifice through our giving. We had our time of offering just a moment ago. Some of you give to other people around you when they're in need.

And that is a sacrifice of praise. Worshiping through song. We just got to sing some songs of praise to God. That is worship. It is a form of worship. It's our scripture reading. Pastor Jeremiah opened us up with a call to worship.

And it gets our hearts set towards God. And obviously, prayer.

Prayer.

These are just some practical ways. These are just some of the obvious particulars of ongoing worship. And I point these ones specifically out because these are some of the ways we're going to be asking everyone to participate as a church this year.

Some of these ways that are just obvious. But just as Paul said, and just over in Hebrews, everything about our bodies, everything about who we are, everything about our lives should be for Him. And it should be shown through some of these other practical ways.

That's how we are evidenced as the fruit of the Spirit is in our lives because of these things. And as I mentioned earlier, there is a warning in this passage from Jesus here. Because as we prepare to point some of these things out and call our church body to that sacrifice of praise, I want us to see this warning.

So look back at our passage there in chapter 5. Verse 23 again.

He says,.

Reconciliation Before Worship

So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you. So this phrase here, and there remember, it implies a couple of things I think. I think we can see a couple of things here.

The first one being that we are not presuming upon God. What do I mean by that? I mean we are not coming to make a sacrifice of praise of our lives to God in blatant, unrepentant sin. Somehow thinking that this sacrifice will appease God.

I don't need a contrite heart. I have this sin over here. I'm not going to let it go. I know I'm not repentant of it. I'm not willing to lose hold of it. And then I'm going to the table. Or I'm going to give my offerings to the Lord.

Or I'm going to help my neighbor. Or I'm going to do this other thing. And when you're doing those things, you're not doing them in the Spirit. You're not doing them for the honor and glory of God. That is not spiritual worship.

That's self-worship.

And you're hanging on. And so there is an assumption here when Jesus says, and there remember, that you're obviously not presuming upon God here. You don't think that this sacrifice that you're about to make is going to make me happy with you.

Because that's not what I'm after. I'm after the heart. I'm not after your work. I'm after your heart. And your heart is proving to not be a heart of sacrificial worship. The second thing I think we can see and imply here in this phrase, and there remember, is that the Holy Spirit is the one that's bringing to mind.

I think that's what Jesus is getting at here. That you're recalling something forgotten. I think we've all been there. We've all had a situation to where we remember an offense. We remember a sin that we've not repented of that wasn't in mind.

We didn't intentionally go to give our sacrifice thinking God would make us happy, but we forget. And then there are a group of people I need to acknowledge. There are many people out here as I counsel with different ones that have a very sensitive conscience.

I want to acknowledge you. You may be one of those. You have a very sensitive conscience constantly over-analyzing. Constantly being hesitant to go to the Lord's table. Being hesitant to take part in corporate worship from fear that you have maybe somehow forgotten some sin in your life and that since you forgot it, now God's going to smite you.

I know there's some of you out there that struggle with this. There's many that struggle with this. Let me ease your mind. Let me ease your mind without trying to be the Holy Spirit. Because He may be convicting you of something other than that.

But let me ease your mind. We all have sin in our life. If you think for one moment that you're going to come to this table or you're going to make an offering or you're going to do something from a sinless place, you've got another thing coming.

That's impossible. We all have sin in our life. Things that we aren't aware of at times even. I've sinned in this pulpit already and I'm not even aware of it. Because I am a sinner. Because I am in this flesh.

The only thing good in me is Christ. The only thing that is good in me is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, God Almighty. And that is a great thing. But as far as Nathan goes, as long as I'm on this side of glory, I still have the residue of sin in my life.

And we all do. Yet Christ paid for those.

So be careful.

Be careful when you're overanalyzing yourself and be careful when you just presume upon God. Both are dangerous. There is a balance here. And it is a balance that requires us to constantly look to the cross.

Look to Christ. Because when we do that, when we look to the cross and we're presuming upon God, it brings a repentant spirit into our hearts. And when we look to the cross whenever we've forgotten something, then the Holy Spirit brings to remembrance something that we need to lay before the cross.

And we're constantly living in the Spirit, constantly looking to Christ. Plus, this isn't what this passage and passages like this are talking about. He says, and there, he's talking about at the altar of sacrifice, remember, we ask God to search our hearts and find any wicked way in us.

And the Holy Spirit will reveal those things. Not only will the Holy Spirit reveal intentional sin of your own, but look at the passage again. This drives even deeper. It says, so if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you.

It's just got interesting. Jesus continues to add to the scope and widen the scope of sin at its core. Remember, he started with murder. You commit the act of murder, sin. Obvious, you've broken the law of God.

And then he made it a little bit bigger. He said, let me tell you something, anger. You're angry with your brother, you've committed the sin. Then he got it bigger. And he said, speaking negatively of your brother, you've committed sin.

Just even speaking words that reveal what's in your heart. And now he's even made it wider. Now he says, even the perception or the accusation from another brother or conflict that has not been resolved is sin.

You are guilty of that sin. So let's first address what he means by brother. This question was brought up last week as we were in this passage. Who is your brother? If you've been with us through our study through Philippians and other series that we've done, you'll see specifically in the Pauline letters, when you see the word brother, it is referring to fellow believers only.

People that have a profession of faith that are in Christ. So is that what Jesus is talking about here? If your brother has sinned against you, a fellow Christian alone. If you remember that your fellow Christian has something against you.

Well, this is, of course, part of it. But it's much wider than that. I believe it's not limited to believers. As a matter of fact, most scholars believe that Jesus is speaking of all people here. He's speaking of every human being, every image bearer, Christian or not.

And I say that because remember, after all, Jesus is speaking of a heart matter. This has far less to do with your brother or that other person and everything to do with you and me. He's speaking directly to us here.

This could be anyone. This could be your spouse, your neighbor, co-worker. It could be a church member. It could be a friend. It can be anyone. And what does Jesus say about this person? Look at it again.

He says, and there remember that your brother has something against you. Now, this could be a couple of things here. This could be a deserved offense. This could be that your brother is offended because you have sinned against them.

You have done something to them, either knowingly or unknowingly. And you have harmed them in some way, whatever that may look like. So it could be a deserved offense. This person could be rightfully offended.

And they have something against you because of it. But it also, also could be an undeserved offense. Here's where it really dives down to the heart of the matter here. The fact of getting to our heart.

Because remember, this is about us, not them. This could be an undeserved offense where you yourself have done nothing wrong. You've done nothing to them. You've not been a reproach to them. But here's the thing.

Either way, the point of this is seen in verse 24. Look at it. He says, let's read up to it. And there remember that your brother has something against you.

Leave your gift.

Your offering of praise.

Your spiritual worship.

Leave that gift there. Whatever it may be. That offering. That coming to the table. That sacrifice of praise. Leave your gift there before the altar.

And go.

Do you see the urgency in Jesus' words here?

Do you hear it?

Do not drag your feet. Do not make an offering to God at this moment. Do not try and just go through the motions. Because that's the spirit of the law. You have now broken the spirit. That's the letter of the law.

You've now broken the spirit of the law in doing so. By forcing yourself through the motions when you have something here. Do not make an offering to God. Don't try and pretend that everything is okay.

Do not just forget about it. Don't just walk away. He says, first, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First, be reconciled to your brother. Again, any person.

Not just a Christian.

This person that has something against you. Either deserved that you've done to them or undeserved that you had no part in. You're responsible.

It's you.

That you go to them. And first be reconciled. Now this word reconciled. This reconciliation. I was trying to think of tying in some of the Old Testament laws to show the heart of God. But I came to the realization I don't need those this morning to point to this.

Because reconciliation is at the very core of the heart of God. We broke communion with Him through Adam. Remember? Adam and Eve had perfect communion with the Father. And they broke it. And in them, we've now broken it.

And we broke communion with Him. And He was the initiator of reconciling us to Himself.

He is at the core of His heart.

It's a heart of reconciling. There's reconciliation here because of who God is. Remember how Jesus, earlier on in the Sermon on the Mount, He called us. He told us that we are the light of the world. And how we pointed to the fact that He had earlier said that He was the light of the world.

What it means is because we are called to represent Him. We are called to be a representation of Christ. We are the light of the world because of Him in us. And we are now representing the very character of God.

We offended Him. We hated Him. We were deserving of His wrath. Yet He pursued us. That's reconciliation. He had not offended us. He had done nothing wrong to us. As a matter of fact, He had only been good to us.

And then He pursued us and reconciled. Not only did He pursue us, He took the offense upon Himself. It went even deeper. He pursued us and took the offense upon Himself. And subsequently the wrath do us.

The heart of God.

And now in light of such grace, we of all people should be the ones emulating this grace. Go first make peace with your brother. Reconcile. For that undeserved or deserved offense. Now does this mean that a Christian will be perfectly reconciled and at peace with everyone at all times?

Paul seems to think not. Over in Romans chapter 12 again, verse 18, he says, If possible, live peaceably with all. He says something in between there. If you remember the verse, he says, If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

You may go and reconcile with that brother. You may apologize and ask for forgiveness for the offense that you have made and they choose not to forgive you. But you sought it in a biblical way. You may go and absorb the offense that is undeserved.

You did nothing to them and they may still revile you. But as long as it depends on you, live at peace with all. Have you gone through the steps of making things right? This requires an actual act of going to the person.

Let's just be practical for a second. This requires the actual act of going to the person. I think sometimes in my life when I've had these issues going on, I've justified it in my own heart saying, I've forgiven them.

I've forgotten the offense. I'm just going to step back and quietly keep worshiping the Lord. But that's not what this says. It says that if our brother has something against us, we must deal with it.

We must go and be reconciled. And this requires us to not just quietly forgive, but to go. You must pursue both parties being restored as whole. That often requires absorbing the offense, as I said a moment ago.

And when you think about that, absorbing the offense, taking it upon yourself, when you think about that, is there any other act in this world that is more Christ-like? Absorbing an offense that Christ, our sin was imputed upon Him.