Sermon on the Mount: Recent Episodes
Christ Fellowship (PCA)
Three weeks ago, when we began studying Matthew 6, I told you that Jesus used the word “reward” seven times. That’s a positive word being used a perfect number of times.
I find it interesting that in the final section of chapter 6, our passage for today, Jesus uses the word “anxious” six times. That’s a negative word being used an imperfect number of times.
Rewards good. Anxiety bad. Focus your attention on God and the blessings of His kingdom. This is just another example of why I love the Bible! Thoughtful and beautiful down to the smallest details.
We begin reading today in verse 25.
25 “Therefore I tell you,
Jesus is drawing a conclusion based on what He just said in the previous verses about serving God instead of money. His argument then, is this: “because your heart is devoted to God and His kingdom instead of the world” …
do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.
This is the first command. Do not be anxious about your life. Specifically, he refers to what we consume and what we wear.
What does it mean to be anxious about those things? Some of this will clear up as we keep reading, but for now there is a broad way to think about this that may be helpful.
Most people live their lives with an unspoken philosophy. We are trying to get as much out of life as we can. We are trying to have the best life we can have. Solomon described it like this: “Eat, drink, and be merry – for tomorrow you may die!”
And I think Jesus is challenging that philosophy. His disciples don’t need to worry about living our best life now. Jesus wants to convince us to trust God and be content.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
This reminds me of something C.S. Lewis wrote in an essay called “The Weight of Glory”.
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
And so, Jesus pleads with us – don’t you know that there are more important things in life than the stuff you’re getting anxious about?
26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Don’t you know that my Father loves you and that your needs will be met?
27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?
Anxiety is probably subtracting hours from our lives, medically speaking. Nothing is gained by worry.
28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
Compared to us, birds have short lives. Grass and flowers have even shorter lives. But for the time they are meant to live, God provides everything they need.
And here Jesus introduces the word faith. Jesus will use the word “faith” 19 times in Matthew, but this is the first time he uses it. And the way Jesus uses the word faith here, He is saying that anxiety expresses a lack of faith.
Most people think the opposite of faith is doubt, but it’s probably more accurate to think of it as self-sufficiency. Rather than trusting and depending on God, we believe it is our job to get what we need. We are running out of time or resources or energy and that’s why we worry.
But if it is God’s responsibility to care for His children, that changes everything! And that’s exactly what Jesus says.
31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
And then Jesus ends the chapter with my favorite verse in the Sermon on the Mount:
34 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
The message is clear. Followers of Jesus are commanded – “do not be anxious”.
It’s a waste of our time and it demonstrates a lack of faith in God.
But how should we apply this message? There are several difficulties when it comes to applying this command and we need to think carefully.
One of the challenges here is that in a room of 100 people, there are probably 20 different responses to the words of Jesus here. People have different pastoral needs and Jesus often teaches in ways that can be applied many different ways. The statement “do not be anxious” is not so simple to apply in a world riddled with anxiety and very confused spiritually.
D.A. Carson illustrates this very well in his commentary on this chapter. I’m going to paraphrase him for time. He says imagine three men.
The first is cheerful and carefree. He rarely gets anything done and never gets anything done on time. He doesn’t worry about the next five minutes, let alone tomorrow. It is very difficult to get him to work at any task. Everyone knows him as “the nice guy”, but he’s irresponsible and insensitive to the needs of others.
The second person is almost hyper-responsible. He takes every grief and burden seriously. The state of the economy is a constant weight on his mind. Every bit of bad news prompts a new outbreak of anxiety. His constant worry is causing ulcers.
The third person is balanced and dependable. Married with two children, this man works faithfully to support his family. But one night, he wakes to discover that his wife can’t speak or move the right side of her body. A brain tumor is discovered, and the surgery is a failure. His wife has been given less than three years to live.
Now imagine that all three of these men are listening to a sermon on Matthew 6. The preacher concludes the sermon by telling the church that worry is shameful and wicked but gives no further application. How will each man react?
Probably, the first man will leave the church quite happy. He always knew that other people were uptight all the time.
The second man may feel quite rebuked by the sermon. He knows it is for him. He worries that he has been denying the Lord and feels despair. Without any sense of irony, he begins to worry about worry.
The third man listens to the sermon, and, unless he is remarkably mature and full of grace, bitterly sneers under his breath that the preacher should watch his own wife die before speaking on so difficult a topic.
That’s why application is so difficult but so important. The first man probably needed to hear something about discipline, self-sacrifice, and hard work. The second man should hear about God’s providence, of the means and results of prayer, and of the selfishness at the heart of our worry.
The third man needs to have a brother in Christ weep with him, pledge support, and remind of the proof of God’s love in Christ – the cross of Jesus.
What do you hear when Jesus says, “Do not be anxious.” I want to put up some Biblical guard rails in how we apply this to our lives.
First, there is a type of worry that is evil, but there is a type of worry that is good and responsible. Seeking the kingdom involves a measure of healthy worry. Jesus Himself sweat drops of blood the night before He went to the cross. What was He so concerned about? Doing the will of His Father! I think that proves that God created us with the capacity to experience anxiety of some kind and that it’s not all bad. The question is, WHAT are we anxious about?
Second, Jesus is not giving us a license to trash our bodies. We should care for our bodies. We should think about what we put in our bodies and what we keep out. But there is a difference between caring for the body God gave us and being obsessed with it. It’s possible to live a healthy life without being obsessed over fitness and dieting. And remember, we are not promised tomorrow. In Christ, we are promised eternity – but this body is still going to die.
Third, Jesus is also not giving us a license to be lazy. Able-bodied Christians are expected to work for a living. Birds aren’t fed by a miracle while sitting lazily in a tree. Birds actually work pretty hard for their food. Paul actually commands the church in Thessalonica, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.”
Fourth, Jesus is not prohibiting us from planning ahead. How do birds eat in the winter? Most of them migrate hundreds or thousands of miles! Proverbs 6 encourages us to consider the way ants store up food for themselves. It’s a good idea to save and plan.
Fifth, Jesus is not exempting us from times of trouble. He commands us not to worry, but He doesn’t promise an easy life. God feeds the birds, but birds sometimes get eaten or fly into windows. Grass withers. Flowers fade. He provides for them until, in His good providence, it is time for them to die.
Finally, Jesus is not exempting us from taking care of other people. In the end, God promises to provide for His children. Very often, the Church is the means by which God feeds and clothes people who are unable to do so. God’s church has always been known by this. The early Christians gained a reputation in the Roman empire for supporting not only their own poor but anyone in need.
This is an important point. Jesus could command His disciples not to worry about having their needs met, even widows and orphans, because God would be using the Church to meet those needs! Instructions to care for the poor are everywhere in the New Testament, but no one says it more clearly than James, the brother of Jesus:
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”
So, with those guard rails in place, what IS Jesus asking us to do? He’s asking us to trust His Father. The Father knows what you need and when you need it, including the path of suffering. Trust Him. That’s it. And know that the Son of God walked a difficult path before you. Even when you struggle to trust God, remember that Jesus trusted Him perfectly in your place.
This morning we will study a well-known part of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus addresses the sin of materialism, encouraging His disciples to consider the way they think about money and possessions. We will begin reading from Matthew 6 verse 19.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
In the old 1960s television series “Batman”, with Adam West, there was a common scenario. The Joker or the Riddler would often present Batman with a challenge – two people he cared about would both be in danger and time was running out. It looked as if Batman would only have time to save one of them and it was always a cliffhanger as the show cut to commercial.
It left the audience wondering which one Batman would save. Which person did he care about more? But somehow, Batman always managed to save them both.
Jesus doesn’t leave us with that option. You can serve God, or you can serve money, but you can’t serve both.
This knowledge is so important to Jesus that He uses three different illustrations to make the same point – two treasures, two eyes, and two masters.
First, Jesus says we can lay up or store up for ourselves two types of treasures. Treasure is something we value – something we desire. According to Jesus, there are treasures on earth and treasures in heaven.
Treasures in heaven are durable. Treasures on earth are decaying and vulnerable.
Preachers often illustrate this by asking, “What we are planning to take with us when we die?” And that’s a fair question. It echoes the words of both Job and Solomon.
“Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return.” In other words, I’m not taking anything with me when I die. For this reason, Jesus says that storing up treasures on earth would be foolish. Many of them are lost even before we die.
What treasures then can we store up in heaven? What does He mean?
Storing up treasures is investment language. So, another way to ask that question is, “What am I investing in?” Probably, Jesus intends for us to think of this as an investment in God’s mission and in God’s people. The one thing I CAN take to heaven with me – is other people.
Second, Jesus talks about two eyes: a healthy eye and a bad eye. A person with a healthy eye can see clearly. A person with a bad eye sees only darkness. But what does Jesus mean by this?
He’s talking about vision, or purposeful direction. We tend to move towards what we are looking at. Why do people get lost in the woods even when it feels like they are going in the same direction? It’s because they tend to focus on objects close to them instead of something farther away.
You can test this by standing in a field, looking down at your feet, and trying to walk in a straight line. When you look up, you will most likely discover that you were not walking in a straight line at all. Your focal point was too close. This is why people are taught to follow the North Star or something else far away when they get lost.
Jesus is asking a diagnostic question here – what am I looking at? What am I longing for? What am I obsessed with? If not the vision of God’s kingdom, then how am I supposed to be a source of light for others? How can anyone follow me if I keep getting distracted along the way?
Finally, Jesus teaches that we cannot serve two masters. The word “serve” is the verb form of the word “slave” in Greek. Jesus uses this specific word to make his point clear. You may be able to work two jobs for two employers, but a slave only has one master. And before you get tripped up by the word slave, notice that this is a chosen slavery and a chosen master. It is not a forced servitude.
But this final point gets at the value or the worth of each option. Only one is durable. Only one provides lasting benefits. But only One is truly worthy of our allegiance. Our loyalty.
Jesus is teaching that money can become a rival god. We enslave ourselves to it. And there will be moments when we must choose – we must decide who gets our loyalty.
It is incredibly easy to seek our ultimate security in money. It’s not only the wealthy that struggle with this. Young children who have missed meals or felt extreme hunger at some point will often unconsciously hoard food later in life. There’s an anxiety that comes from not feeling like we have enough of something, and Jesus will address that specifically next week.
But this morning we need to think clearly about how to apply this challenge. Where is our treasure? What has our attention? Who or what gets our loyalty?
It would be easy to walk away with the impression that money itself is evil, and that rich people are evil because they have a lot of money. That’s simplistic and completely misses the point. The Bible encourages us to be good stewards with our money – to invest wisely, to save, to give. We can’t do any of that without handling money.
As with everything else in the sermon on the mount, Jesus wants us to consider our heart.
One of the applications of this text is certainly that we should avoid materialism, but even that falls short of the meaning. Materialism is just one form of storing up bad treasures, and ultimately the point Jesus makes here is not about bad treasures, but good treasures.
More important to Jesus is that we see the world from the perspective of God’s kingdom. What matters? What will last? What is worth my time and effort and money?
That doesn't mean we can't have things. But our attitude must be that they won't last. And we must be willing to give things up or lose things if that’s what God ordains.
There’s a scene in "Pirates of the Caribbean" when a ship is trying to get away from the Black Pearl. The captain orders the crew to throw any unnecessary weight overboard. Why? To make the ship lighter and faster. The same thing happens in Acts 27 on Paul’s final voyage to Rome. They encounter a violent storm, and the men decide to throw the cargo overboard to try and save the ship.
I think this is the attitude Jesus is calling us to have. It is not that stuff is bad. It's that we are headed for a greater existence in glory and everything around us is ok to lose because it isn't lasting anyway. Even pirates would throw their gold overboard if it meant saving their lives.
Missionary Jim Elliot was famous for saying, "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."
And what is the treasure we can’t lose? It’s the kingdom of God – God Himself and His people. Jesus tells us in Matthew 13:
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Everything else is worth losing for the sake of God and His kingdom.
This is a difficult teaching for our culture because we are obsessed with money and possessions.
We celebrate Thanksgiving on a Thursday, and we spend the very next day obsessed with finding good deals on all the stuff we want. Only in America…
We need God’s Spirit to convince us that the treasure we are being offered in Christ really is far greater than anything the world offers us. And the best place to see that treasure for what it is – it’s at the cross.
Jesus lost everything for our sake when He went to the cross. They left Jesus with a loincloth and a crown of thorns. The soldiers played dice for His clothes, even his undergarment. They took even the shirt on His back. He lost all material possessions, all His friends and companions, all His dignity. Why? Because He treasured His Father and His people more than anything else the world had to offer.
Do you believe Jesus did that? Do you know all the promises God makes to His people? Do you believe those promises?
“He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” – Romans 8:32
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9
“My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” – Philippians 4:19
“And this is the promise that he made to us—eternal life.” – 1 John 2:25
“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” – Revelation 21:4
By some estimates, there are over 7,000 promises made by God to His people in the Bible. If you don’t believe Him, then you are wasting your time here this morning. But if you do believe Him, then take a moment and evaluate your priorities.
That’s what I need to be doing, because even though I love and trust God and I believe His promises, many days I function as if I’m a slave to this world.
Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also!
We are in the middle of a teaching series about the Sermon on the Mount. Last week, we talked about giving, praying, and fasting – some of the ways we draw near to God.
We skipped over the Lord’s Prayer, and we are coming back to it today. But before we read it, I want to make one connection back to last week’s sermon.
If you remember, Jesus talked a lot about the reward of being a disciple. We are not living the Christian life only to get a grand prize in heaven. Instead, our relationship with God is the prize. Being with Him. Becoming more like Him. Helping others know Him. Our religious practices matter only in the sense that they bring us closer to the Father.
Keep that in mind as we read the Lord’s Prayer. Let’s begin in verse 7.
7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
The Greek word for “empty phrases” is so unique, we think Jesus made it up. And that makes sense, because that’s what pagans are doing when they pray. They are making up prayers.
The word sounds like our word for “babbling” and probably means something like “blah blah blah”. The idea is this – when you pray, don’t go on and on making up things to say to God. We don’t get extra credit for extra words.
Jesus has a perfect relationship with His father and the longest prayer by Jesus recorded in the New Testament is John 17 – but you can say the whole prayer in 90 seconds.
There is a sense in which prayerfulness should be constant and our lives marked by little prayers all day long. Paul tells us to “pray without ceasing”.
But what Jesus has in mind here is the formulaic or ritualistic prayers of the Gentiles. They pray for their religion, but they have no idea who they are talking to or what their made-up gods want to hear.
He’s asking us not to talk to God that way.
8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
This is why Jesus asks us not to make up long prayers. Keep it simple, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
But this raises an important question. If God already knows, why pray at all?
It is true. We aren’t telling God something He doesn’t already know. Neither are we trying to convince God to do something, as if He might be lazy or disinterested in our lives. Why then does God ask us to pray?
God tells us to pray because it changes us, not Him. It is an act of dependance. The emphasis is on humble reliance, not magic words or ritual content. If your mind and your heart are not engaged in prayer, then it is worthless, because the most basic truth about prayer is that we are talking to a relational God.
According to Jesus the relationship is Father and child. God already knows, but He wants to hear from His children. It’s less about the content and more about the relationship. But Jesus now gives us a basic pattern for prayer.
9 Pray then like this:
Or “in this manner”. The Lord’s Prayer is a pattern for prayer – a guide. And what I want you to notice is that Jesus uses short, simple phrases. We teach this prayer to our children because even the smallest children can remember it.
I’m going to add a lot of words to explain the meaning behind each phrase, but please don’t miss the intentional simplicity of Jesus. There is depth and meaning to it, but notice how simple and childlike Jesus makes this prayer.
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
When we pray, we are speaking to a God who is both near and far. He’s my Father. We have a parent/child relationship. But He’s also in heaven… and He is holy.
Jesus begins the prayer by focusing our attention on the character of God and our relationship with God. The idea is that when we pray, we begin with a correct understanding of who we are talking to. Not Santa Claus in heaven… not Zeus or Allah or Vishnu or Buddha… this is Yahweh, holy Creator of heaven and earth… but He is also my Father.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
This is the first prayer request but notice the focus of this request. Before we start asking for things we need and things we want, Jesus instructs us to remember what God wants.
God wants His kingdom to come. God wants His will to be done. “On earth as it is in heaven.” In heaven, the angels know God and they serve Him as King. That’s not yet true on the earth. Everyone doesn’t know or love God.
Jesus teaches us to pray for that to happen – for everyone to know and worship God rightly.
This is an example of us saying to God, “I want what you want. Help me to see it.”
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
Some have been tempted to over spiritualize this prayer in the past. Surely Jesus must be talking about spiritual bread? Nope. He’s talking about literal bread. Father, please feed me today.
As a pattern for how we pray, I think we can include all physical needs here. This is admitting that we have physical needs and that we trust our Father to provide for us.
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And this is the spiritual need. Just as we ask God to provide for our physical needs, we also ask Him to provide for our spiritual needs – most importantly, forgiveness.
But notice the second half. “As we also have forgiven our debtors.” As we will see in verses 14 and 15, this is actually the heart of the prayer. But first, Jesus says this at the end of the prayer:
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
The prayer ends with a request for guidance and protection. Father, help me not to compromise. Help me not to fall. Protect me from the enemy – and we face a real enemy from whom we need real, supernatural protection.
This prayer, in contrast to the religious leaders, is preoccupied with the glory of God not the glory of self.
In contrast to the pagans, it is preoccupied with humble thoughtfulness instead of meaningless ritual.
The prayer is simple. It’s only 57 words in Greek. Easy to memorize. Easy for a child to repeat. No wasted words. No big words.
He’s my Father. He’s the King. He provides for me. He forgives me. He wants me to forgive people. He guides me. He protects me. Amen.
We don’t need a lot of fancy words to have a healthy relationship with God.
But notice again the heart of the prayer – verse 12.
12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Look what Jesus says immediately following the prayer.
14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Is Jesus here teaching that God will only forgive us on the condition that we first forgive others? On the surface, it sounds exactly like that.
This would be a problem, because the Gospel tells us that God’s forgiveness is never a reward for our works. Instead, the Bible teaches clearly that we have done nothing to earn our salvation. God’s forgiveness is based on the person and work of Jesus Christ.
I believe Jesus stated it in this way to make it clear that we have an obligation to forgive as disciples. In the same way God has forgiven us, we have an obligation to forgive others. The Gospel demands it.
Jesus mentions my sin before he mentions the sin of someone else, in order to remind me that I have been forgiven much. My tendency is to exaggerate the sins of other people and minimize my own sin. But Jesus wants me humbled. By saying it in this way, Jesus forces me to pray about my own spiritual need before I address the sins of others.
Remember, the entire sermon on the mount is about the fruit of repentance. In many ways, the greatest example of a life being shaped by the grace of God is the ability to forgive someone else. If you cannot bring yourself to forgive someone who wronged you, then perhaps you haven’t experienced the grace of God in your life.
And so, this is a prayer of humility. Having the right words or a lot of words – that’s not important. Is your heart engaged? Do you sense the need for God’s help?
The reason our words are less important than our hearts is because Scripture tells us that Jesus is praying for us and so is the Holy Spirit. God knows what we need better than we do. We can go to Him knowing that we are covered in perfect prayer.
The longer I have been a Christian, the more compelled I am to pray… the more I feel the need to talk to God. I think that’s probably normal.
As a young man, I didn’t feel as needy as I do now. But the more I have experienced the consequences of sin and death in this world, the more I experience the consequences of my own sin, the more aware I have become of my need for God’s help.
If you feel frustrated with your own prayer life, my encouragement to you is to spend some time reflecting on your need and God’s character. And there’s no better place than the cross. If your sin required the death of God’s only Son – and He was willing to give it – there’s your motivation to talk to Him.
We are now deep into our study of the Sermon on the Mount. This morning we begin chapter 6, where Jesus gives instructions about religious practices and how we should use our money.
But I want to pause briefly and take just a moment for us to consider how difficult the Christian life can be. This has been a challenging sermon series to write because every week brings new conviction. I’m preaching to myself.
It is true that Jesus offers us mercy and freedom by His blood. But the same Jesus who promises an easy yoke and a light burden also says that we must carry a cross and die if we follow Him.
John Newton, the writer of the hymn “Amazing Grace”, wrote these words in a letter at the age of 51: “The life of faith seems so simple and easy in theory, that I can point it out to others in few words; but in practice it is very difficult, and my advances are so slow, that I hardly dare say I get forward at all.”
I know what I’m supposed to do, but sin is always at my heels. And even when I do the right thing, it often becomes a source of pride instead of an expression of faith.
In fact - Jesus, in his demands for self-reflection, repentance, and faith is quick to warn us about our pursuit of righteousness. Let’s begin reading chapter 6, verse 1:
1 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
Look closely at this first sentence. We already have two issues that we need to clear up.
First, there are some who think Jesus is telling us to keep our religion completely private. But that is not what Jesus says.
Remember in chapter 5, Jesus commanded us to let our light shine before men. In other words, He actually wants us to practice our righteousness before other people. But He doesn’t want us to do it “in order to be seen by them”.
It is not wrong to be seen doing good, but it is wrong to do good in order to be seen. I’ll explain this more as we come to the specific examples in our text.
Second, notice that Jesus mentions a reward. He’s actually going to mention rewards exactly seven times, meaning that it must be really important. And that raises a question: is Jesus encouraging us to be good only to earn a reward? This will also become clear as we read, but I wanted you to notice both of these issues. Verse 2:
2 “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
We don’t know if the religious leaders actually used trumpets to announce their giving, but it would not surprise me. They made a spectacle out of everything they did.
They wanted praise from men and Jesus says they already have that. But that’s all they will get… there will be no further reward from God. And there’s that word again, reward.
But notice also, Jesus says “when you give to the needy”. He doesn’t say “if you give”. He says “when you give”. Jesus assumed that his disciples would give. He expected them to give to people in need. Verse 3:
3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Imagine a child on a playground trying to get the attention of his mom or dad. “Watch what I can do mommy! Look at me! Look at me!”
The parent – child relationship makes that normal. But to everyone else, it quickly gets annoying. And I think this is what Jesus is telling us. My Father in heaven cares about my giving and He sees it. And He’s the only One who needs to see it.
We don’t need to be seen by everyone else and our childish anxiety to get everyone’s attention is not an expression of righteousness. It’s annoying and it takes the focus away from the relationship that matters most. God sees. That should be enough. And again, Jesus mentions a reward. Verse 5:
5 “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.
Different example – same message. Another mention of rewards.
Again, notice that Jesus says, “When you pray…” not “if you pray”. He expects us to pray. Verse 6:
6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Some people interpret this to mean that Jesus forbids us from praying in public. I don’t think that is the correct application for a few reasons.
Public prayer was a part of worship in both the Old and New Testaments. There were also several occasions when Jesus intentionally allowed His disciples to see and hear Him praying.
It’s also worth mentioning that all the Greek words in verses 5 and 6 are singular. That tells me that Jesus is referring to personal, private prayer.
We know that the religious leaders would often pray out loud in public places – not as part of a corporate worship service, but only to be seen praying. That is what Jesus forbids.
We will skip verses 7-15 today. That is the Lord’s Prayer and I want to give it a Sunday of its own. Verse 16:
16 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 17 But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, 18 that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Giving, praying, and fasting… these are the three religious practices that Jesus talks about. We know what He means by giving and praying, but most Christians today have no idea what fasting is about – because churches don’t talk about it much.
Notice again, Jesus says, “When you fast…” He’s not discouraging us from fasting. He expects that we will.
To be honest, I should probably talk about it more often because it is an extremely Biblical practice, and it can be very helpful in our growth as Christians.
Let me start by explaining what fasting is not. Fasting is not a physical or psychological discipline. It is not a diet. The Bible encourages us to eat healthy, but that has nothing to do with fasting.
It is also not a manipulative tool to get God to do what we want or to earn favor with Him. God does not reward people just because they did a fast. Jeremiah 14:12 says, “Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, and though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them.” So, please don’t try fasting to get something from God.
Biblical fasting is a spiritual discipline, and it always occurs with prayer. You may pray without fasting, but you can never fast without praying. Fasting is abstaining from food in order to deepen our communication with God for a period of time.
Our hunger reminds us of our need of Him and leads us to prayer. It is a physical way of saying, "Jesus is more important to me than food.”
But apparently there were people who would make it obvious they were doing a fast to get attention. And again, this is childish behavior.
Imagine a child walking around with a pouty face. What do they want? Attention! They want someone to ask what’s wrong!
There were people who made themselves look pitiful so everyone would know they were fasting. And Jesus teaches us to avoid such childish behavior.
Giving, praying, fasting – really any of the ways we practice our faith – can became a show. And once again, Jesus encourages us to look at the heart. Dig deeper. Just because other people think you are doing well, it doesn’t mean you are. What does God think of you?
A.A. Bruce summarizes the message of Jesus in this way – “We are to show when tempted to hide and hide when tempted to show.” It is a challenge, but what is my primary concern? Is it the glory of God or the glory of Mike?
I’ll give you an example from this week. Earlier this week, I saw a need for something, and I prayed about it. Just a quick prayer, nothing special. Less than an hour later, someone called me with an answer to that prayer. It was very obvious to me that God orchestrated the entire thing. I did nothing except pray and I’ve seen God do things like that dozens of times over the years.
It would be easy for me to make it about myself, as if I have some special connection to God. Instead, I hope I tell the story in such a way that God is glorified. It’s not about me at all. I want you to know God answers prayer.
Now, I want to finish by going back to the rewards. Jesus mentions God’s rewards seven times. We would be foolish to ignore it. But what does He mean by it?
On this question, I found C.S. Lewis to be very helpful. Lewis talks about two types of rewards: extrinsic and intrinsic.
An extrinsic reward is a gift that has no real connection to the action you performed. It’s like winning a prize at the fair. We play those silly carnival games in order to win the oversized stuffed animal, not because we love the games. We just want the reward.
But an intrinsic reward is something we get that is connected to the action. For instance, two people fall in love and they are rewarded with a happy marriage. A student works hard in high school and is rewarded with a scholarship. A hunter patiently waits all season to get the trophy deer. The reward is connected to the action. In other words, we don’t just do these things in order to be rewarded.
And I believe that’s the type of reward Jesus is talking about. Someone’s needs are met. Someone gets closer to Jesus. We flourish as a result of our efforts.
It would be wrong to think of this reward as winning the grand prize in heaven, because Jesus is the grand prize! Our reward is being more like Him. Our reward is being with Him. Our reward is seeing other people come to know Him as well.
Think back to my illustration from earlier – there’s a child on the playground trying to get mom’s attention. But this time he falls and scrapes his knee. In tears, the child looks up to see a stranger standing nearby and the stranger says, “Come to me! I’ll kiss it and make it better!”
What’s the child going to do? Scream loudly and run to his mom as fast as he can. Why? He doesn’t want comfort from a stranger. He wants comfort from a trusted parent. It’s not what we say or do in that moment. It has much more to do with who we are. My child knows me. My child trusts me.
That is the kind of relationship Jesus wants His disciples to have with the Father. Our religious practices matter only in the sense that they bring us closer to the Father. That is the reward! We already have His attention. Why are we so anxious?
In other words, Jesus is inviting us to enjoy the kind of relationship that He has with His Father. And that will be even more clear next week as we study the Lord’s Prayer.
But this morning, we come to the Lord’s table.
This morning, we come to the end of chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
This is the most blatant distortion of God’s law by the religious leaders so far. Love your enemy was a law. Hate your enemy was not a law. They justified this extra statement by narrowly defining the word “neighbor” as a fellow Jew.
In other words, they chose to conveniently interpreted the law in the this way: I must love ONLY my neighbor, or I must love only my NEIGHBOR – my Jewish neighbor.
The religious leaders would also defend this interpretation using the many obvious examples of God punishing His enemies. Surely God doesn’t want us to love His enemies?
Jesus objects to this narrow interpretation.
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
In other words, you prove yourself to be an enemy of God by failing to love your enemies. And by saying this, Jesus widens the definition of neighbor.
The command to love one’s neighbor is found in Leviticus 19. Twice in the same chapter, God commands the people to show kindness to foreigners living among them.
In verse 10, he tells them to leave some of the harvest for foreigners to gather. In verse 34, he says this:
You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
In other words, remember who you were and who you now are! The command to love our enemies is rooted in the faithfulness of God to people who don’t deserve His love – people like us. Who are we to decide which people are neighbors and which are enemies?
Jesus answers a similar question in Luke 10.
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.” 29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
In other words, who do I have to love Jesus? And who can I ignore?
30 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ 36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” 37 He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
Several years ago, I spent four Sundays unpacking the rich meaning of this story and it still wasn’t enough. In a few sentences, Jesus teaches us about generosity, compassion, mercy, and impartiality. He shows us what it looks like to be a good neighbor.
But the punchline of the story is the unlikely hero. The good neighbor in the story is someone the lawyer would have quickly identified as an enemy. Jews and Samaritans hated one another.
But Jesus uses this story to answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?” And the answer then is literally anyone in need. Whoever needs you to be a neighbor is your neighbor. Disciples of Jesus must not ignore the needs of people we would rather avoid.
As we keep reading in Matthew 5, Jesus defends this view even further.
For he (your Father in heaven) makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
Jesus is describing what we call “common grace”. There is a coming judgment, in which God will punish the guilty. But in the meantime, God continues to provide sunshine and rain for everyone – without partiality. Even his enemies receive common blessing.
And Jesus says this is the standard of our doing good to others.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
What’s Jesus saying? He’s saying that love is not unique to Christians. All humans experience love, because we are made in God’s image. Even tax collectors can love people.
I have to wonder if Jesus said this with a wink to Matthew, who recorded these words for us. Matthew was a tax collector – and they were hated because they worked for the Romans and most of them took extra money from their own people.
Even the worst among us love their friends. Even the pagans. And Jesus says that is not enough. We want to give ourselves a pat on the back for doing something all decent human beings do.
But love of enemies – that is a uniquely Christian virtue. And then the chapter ends with this verse:
48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
A heavy ending to a heavy chapter…
Some people believe that Jesus is cutting against the entire grain of Scripture by suggesting that literal perfection is possible for us in this life. It is not and that is not his purpose. The standard is perfection, but Christians are far from perfect.
Remember, this sermon is about kingdom life. What does it look like to be a follower of King Jesus? And remember that the most important characteristic is a recognition of need. It begins and continues to grow by way of repentance and faith.
Jesus started this section on the law by saying that our righteousness must exceed that of the religious leaders. And He illustrates that standard in several ways, slowly raising the bar.
Think of it like adding weight in a workout until you literally can’t lift it anymore. Have you been angry with anyone? Have you experienced lust? Have you broken a promise? Have you endured insults without retaliation? Do you love even your enemy? Are you perfect?
You have to be perfect! I can’t Jesus. I can’t do it. Exactly.
So, let’s evaluate our lives together and be honest with ourselves.
The people who get our love tend to be the people we know, the people we trust, and the people we like. This is especially true in the American South, and we know it. We want to know where you’re from and who you know. It’s not easy to move here from somewhere else in the country and find real community.
This is true even in our churches – maybe especially in our churches. Every church thinks it is friendly, but very often visitors to churches will describe the same church as cold and unwelcoming. Why? Because the members are friendly with the other members and ignore the visitors. Who would Jesus move towards in a crowd of people? The ones sitting alone. The people on the margins.
This is why when I describe Christ Fellowship, I like to say we are a family – but I don’t stop there. If that’s all I said, most people on the outside would hear, “They’re a family and I’m not a part of it.”
Instead, I say, “We are a family, but we are always adopting.” You can be part of this family. We want you to be a part of this family. But we have to work together as a church to help new people see that and believe it.
And yet, that’s only scratching the surface of what Jesus is telling us here. These words can be applied to all the reasons human beings naturally divide themselves into groups of friends and enemies because of sin. We do it because of racism or ethnocentrism. We divide based on income or class. We divide based on age, affinity, politics – there is really no end to ways we create enemies as human beings.
To get to the heart of what Jesus is calling us to do, we need to think of an enemy. Think of someone you really can’t stand – someone you wouldn’t be comfortable in the same room with. And you may have trouble thinking of a specific person – but I bet you can think of a category. It might be a liberal or a conservative. It might be a gay or trans person. It might someone from your past that hurt you specifically.
Now, I want you to imagine standing shoulder to shoulder with that person before the throne of God, arm around them, talking to God and asking for this person’s blessing! Listen to this quote by John Stott:
“Jesus seems to have prayed for his tormentors actually while the iron spikes were being driven through his hands and feet; indeed the imperfect tense suggests that he kept praying, kept repeating his entreaty ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing’.
If the cruel torture of crucifixion could not silence our Lord’s prayer for his enemies, what pain, pride, prejudice, or sloth could justify the silencing of ours?”
And this is where I can begin to see what it must look like for God to love me, because my sin was equally the cause of Christ’s torture. I was an enemy.
That is the nature of God’s love – to love the otherwise unlovable. It is the only love that conquers the world. I am not perfect. Neither are you. But a perfect love and a perfect righteousness is available to us in Christ Jesus.
This morning, we will consider only a few verses from the Sermon on the Mount. The text is short because this is an exceedingly difficult command and I want us to take it seriously. Every week, Jesus has challenged us in uncomfortable ways, and it continues today. Matthew 5, beginning in verse 38:
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
Turn the other cheek. Give him your cloak. Go the extra mile. Give to the beggar. Lend to the borrower. These are difficult commands, especially for people who pride themselves in individual liberty. “If anyone FORCES you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”
This bothers us and probably Jesus wants us to be bothered by it. It sounds like Jesus is commanding us to be Christian doormats.
But we need to remember the most important rule of interpreting the Bible: Scripture interprets Scripture. In other words, if you’re struggling to understand something, look at the context and look at what the Bible says in other places.
Remember, earlier in the same chapter, Jesus said that if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. No one takes that literally, so I think we should be careful here as well. And yet, Jesus said that to make sure we understand how seriously we should view our own sin.
He’s making a point here as well and as disciples of Jesus we should take these commands seriously. But we need to break it down a little bit. Let’s go back to verse 38.
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
The law Jesus quotes here is a civil case law. It was meant to inform the judges of Israel. How should they handle violence between two people? God’s answer was simple. Eye for eye. Tooth for tooth. It sounds barbaric to our modern sensibilities, but there is actually great wisdom in this practice.
The goal was to restrain people from taking revenge or enacting vigilante justice. It also helped keep feuds from escalating, as they are prone to do. It was also not just a single case law. There were many examples of this in the Old Testament.
For instance, if someone was caught stealing an animal, he would be forced to return the animal and also give the victim a second animal. His punishment then was to suffer the same loss he tried to inflict on another person. This is found in Exodus 22:4-6.
If one man broke another man’s arm, the judge would have the first man’s arm broken in court. Leviticus 24:19-20.
If someone lied in court, they would give that person the same punishment owed to the person they accused. Deuteronomy 19:16-21
Modern societies consider these to be cases of cruel and unusual punishment, but honestly, I think there is great wisdom in this type of law. Certainly, we should yearn for an end to all violence and that is coming. But in the meantime, God has given the state authority to judge the guilty.
It is also my conviction that Jesus takes no issue here with these laws. That’s not his purpose and that’s not what he says.
Instead, what Jesus seeks to address is that the religious leaders sought to apply this law in private relationships – not only in public cases. He’s concerned with personal relationships, grudges, resentment… how we conduct ourselves when we suffer a personal offense. Most of all, what’s going on inside our heart?
Notice in verse 39, he doesn’t say that “eye for an eye” is bad law. Instead, he says “do not resist the one who is evil”. He’s urging his disciples not to retaliate – not to take the law into their own hands.
The Apostle Paul says something very similar in Romans 12:
19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
It’s clear that Paul means this in a personal sense, because in the very next chapter, the very next verse, he says this:
1 Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. 2 Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.
The teaching is clear. God uses human authorities to apply civil law, but disciples of Jesus have a different responsibility. We have a different law to apply.
Turn the other cheek. Give him your cloak. Go the extra mile. Give to the beggar. Lend to the borrower.
And yet, we need to use some discernment. This can get very complicated very quickly if we try to tease out every possible application.
Is he saying that we should subject ourselves to physical abuse? If I’m walking down the street and I see a man attacking a woman, is my only responsibility to call the authorities? Would it be wrong for me to intervene?
Should I give money to every beggar I meet? I get calls occasionally from a man that we helped years ago at our mother church. Since that time, we realized that the man is actually a very successful con artist. Should I continue giving in that situation?
Some of these problems are resolved when we look more closely at what Jesus is actually saying. For instance, turn the other cheek has a context.
Consider the type of blow that Jesus is actually referring to. If a right-handed man strikes someone on the right cheek, then he is actually using the back of his hand. In the first century, as it is today, such a blow was considered an insult. Think of it more life Will Smith smacking Chris Rock.
In other words, this was not just any physical assault. This was an attack on the man’s honor and what Jesus is commanding is that we do not seek to defend our honor with violence. Suffer the insult.
Verse 40 has a similar meaning. If someone takes you to court, they are publicly accusing you of wrongdoing. And notice that Jesus does not qualify this. It doesn’t seem to matter whether I’m being falsely accused. He’s tells us to resist the temptation to fight for our honor.
Verse 41 is particularly difficult, as I mentioned earlier. And there was a common scenario for this verse. Roman law allowed soldiers to force local citizens into carrying their equipment for up to a thousand paces. In other words, a foreign army could force you to carry the means of your own oppression.
And Jesus says, quite clearly, that we should turn that coercion on its head by voluntarily going an extra mile! That’s a tough one.
And finally, we come to verse 42. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
At face value, this seems simple, but we need to consider a few things.
At that time, it was widely assumed that poor people were under a curse from God. Of course, that was bad theology, because God had been very clear in the Old Testament that He wanted His people to care for the poor. And we know that poverty can be very complicated. Sometimes people make bad decisions, but sometimes they have suffered from other people’s bad decisions.
And yet, this was the common assumption in the first century. Poor people were poor for a reason. It was their fault. They were cursed with poverty. They didn’t deserve money.
Do you remember the story of the rich young ruler? It happens later in Matthew – in chapter 19. A man comes to Jesus asking what good thing he must do to gain eternal life. Jesus told the man that the one thing he lacked was that he needed to sell his possessions and give the money to the poor. He couldn’t do it. Why? It wasn’t just because he loved money.
Think carefully. How do most rich people get rich? Most would argue that they got their wealth through hard work. Obviously, that’s not the case with everyone. Some people inherit their money, but somewhere in their family history someone worked hard to gain wealth and there is usually a lot of pride associated with that kind of effort.
This is especially true in honor and shame cultures, like the American South. People tend to have a strong sense of pride in what they’ve worked for. And we live in a democratic republic.
Imagine how much more difficult it must have been for a Jew to get wealthy in the Roman Empire! Assuming the rich young man was a Jew, he or someone in his family worked very hard to gain this wealth. From his perspective, human effort and willpower earned him his status. He was not about to throw it all away to the poor, who had not worked to earn that money.
Even the way he words his question to Jesus demonstrates this attitude. “What good thing must I do to gain eternal life?” But Jesus teaches that this attitude keeps us from understanding the economics of God’s kingdom. Even the disciples struggled with the situation and Jesus responded by telling them a very powerful story.
He says imagine a landowner with a vineyard. He needs workers, so he goes to the market at around 6am and hires some men. They agree to a fair wage and head into the field.
The landowner goes back into town a few times during the day and hires more workers under the same arrangement. But as the day progresses, he doesn’t lessen the pay. Everybody gets the same wage. Even the workers he hired an hour before sunset got a full wage.
As we might expect, the workers he hired at 6am are upset when it’s time to get paid. They felt entitled to more, even though they agreed to the wage they got. They’ve worked a full 12 hours and the last people hired only worked 60 minutes. But the landowner replies that he has a right to be generous to the latecomers if he chooses and he has not been unfair to the other workers. No one forced them to work.
But we don’t like this at all. We want to be paid in direct proportion to the work we do, and we want everyone around us to be paid in the same way. If our boss is going to be extra-generous with someone else, he’d better be extra-generous with us.
But this attitude makes it very difficult for us to understand the grace of God.
So, what do we do with Matthew 5? Remember the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount. This is about kingdom living. This is about living a life produced by repentance and faith. This is about seeing fruit, or evidence, of a grace-shaped life – not because you have to, but because you want to. Again, it is about the heart.
The basic principle, I think, is this: followers of Jesus are being called to a gracious economy in our personal interactions.
If I can be so bold, we are being called to live as if we have no rights in this world. No right to comfort. No right to property. No right to wealth. No right to honor.
The civil authorities may preserve such rights on our behalf, and they should. Ultimately, justice will be served by God. But WE are being called to voluntarily self-sacrifice, voluntarily surrender our rights in love. And of course, that’s what Jesus calls us to – because that’s exactly what He did for us.
Jesus laid down His right to crush His enemies with the snap of a finger. A legion of angels stood ready to annihilate the people who spit on their King, stripped and flogged Him, pressed thorns into his head and mocked Him, then nailed Him to a cross. He has the right to destroy me with a Word, but He laid it down to receive me as a friend.
We continue our study of the Sermon on the Mount this morning. Today is all about communication – how we talk to each other. This lesson is especially convicting for me because I’m not the most careful person when it comes to my words.
Let’s consider the words of Jesus together:
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.
I’m sure we are guilty of this at times. Last week, I told some of my friends a story about something that happened to me. A few of them questioned the truthfulness of my story, so in an effort to convince them I literally said these words: “May God strike me down if I’m lying about it.”
One of my friends responded, “Please let me back away before you say something like that.”
That’s an embarrassing story, because I shouldn’t need to say something so foolish to convince people I’m telling the truth. And that is the point Jesus makes in verse 37. It was unnecessary. Even evil, he calls it.
But there’s a context I need to share. The religious leaders at that time were known for creating loopholes when it came to oaths. In fact, I’m going to call them “oath games”, almost like a game children play with each other.
As a child, if I made a promise but I had my fingers crossed, what did that mean? It meant I didn’t have to keep the promise.
That’s the kind of nonsense people were doing with these “oath games”. They decided that the oath is only binding if the correct formula was used. It was a sneaky way of getting out of a promise and essentially cheating other people.
Jesus attacked the Pharisees for exactly this type of game in Matthew 23:
16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ 17 You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? 18 And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it is nothing, but if anyone swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ 19 You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? 20 So whoever swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it. 21 And whoever swears by the temple swears by it and by him who dwells in it. 22 And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it.
In other words, they invented these rules to help people get away with lying – or bearing false witness, which was a violation of the ninth commandment.
And what does Jesus teach? The formula is irrelevant. His point is that words have power in and of themselves. There is no magic formula. If you’re going to play games with oaths, then stop using them altogether. That is His message.
But we need to talk about this further, because this teaching would have been very confusing to the crowds, and it should be a little confusing to us if we know our Bibles.
It should be a little confusing because God Himself swears by oaths all over the Bible.
Genesis 22:15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, Deuteronomy 7:8 It is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Psalm 132:11 The Lord swore to David a sure oath from which he will not turn back: “One of the sons of your body I will set on your throne.
You might say, well that’s God. He’s different. But the apostle Paul does it too.
Romans 1:9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, 2 Corinthians 1:23 But I call God to witness against me—it was to spare you that I refrained from coming again to Corinth. Philippians 1:8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.
It seems that Jesus could not be making an absolute prohibition against oath swearing. In fact, the Old Testament clearly allows oath swearing, even by God’s name.
Deuteronomy 10:20 You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.
Is Jesus contradicting this by telling his disciples not to swear oaths? I think there are several considerations.
First, I think there is a clear difference in the Bible between public speech and private speech. There is a place for public oath taking – marriage vows, joining a church, signing a contract. I don’t think Scripture forbids these types of oaths.
Second, remember that Jesus is calling out a very specific practice – the oath games of the religious leaders.
Third, if we follow the pattern of the sermon on the mount, Jesus is using this commandment to reveal something about the human heart. The very existence of oaths and promises should tell us that we live in an untrustworthy world.
Why does even God choose to speak to us through oaths and covenants? Not because God lacks credibility, but because we lack faith. We question the words even of our Creator.
This was the first sin – believing a lie instead of the Creator. And God knows that we are so prone to hearing lies, we are so distrusting of the words we hear, that he chooses to take oaths for our sake. He uses them to comfort us in our doubts and to assure us in our faith. In other words, God used oaths to help convince people who don’t already know Him that He can be trusted.
But that’s not how most of us use our words and that’s what Jesus wants to expose in us. Let’s use this as an opportunity to think about our words together this morning.
Do people trust what I say, or am I the kind of person that must exaggerate to convince people I’m telling the truth? If I carried the reputation of being a trustworthy person, would all the extra words be necessary?
It may be difficult to see this problem, especially if you focus on professional relationships. It is easier to see in our informal relationships. Moms and dads, one of the most important things we want from our kids is that they learn to tell the truth, right? We want to be able to trust them.
And yet, if we are honest, how often are we guilty of breaking little promises to our kids? How often do we fail to follow through because “we’re adults and they are kids, and they need to adjust”? We play these oath games with our kids and then we act surprised when they lie to us.
Dan Doriani has a great section in his commentary on this passage asking the question, “Why is telling the truth so difficult?”
And if we are honest, it is difficult. It seems like it should be easy to tell the truth, but we all know it can be a challenge.
He suggests that we face a temptation to bend the truth out of carelessness or cowardice.
Sometimes we are careless with our words. This is me most of the time. I don’t always think before I speak. I joke that there’s a slip and slide from my brain to my mouth, but it’s not funny. It can be hurtful. It can be unwise. It’s hard to stay truthful when you don’t think before speaking.
Other times we tell lies because we are afraid to tell the truth. Honesty exposes us. It makes us feel weak and vulnerable. And people may use our honesty against us.
It may cause conflict. Sometimes the most loving thing we can do is speak the truth, but we are afraid of the consequences. We are afraid of how the other person will respond.
But Jesus is calling us to be careful and courageous with our words. And notice that His standard is perfection. He wants us to understand that these failures are significant. They are evil.
In fact, Jesus would have us all believe we are liars and cheats in order to save us.
I saw an article this week saying that one third of all pastors in the US believe that “good people can earn their way to heaven.” Let me say that again. One third of all pastors in the US believe that “good people can earn their way to heaven.”
And that is a lie, because there’s no such thing as a good person.
RC Sproul put it like this: "Yes, good people, living the perfect lives God requires, can save themselves. The problem is there are no good people!"
We cannot earn our way to heaven. We are promise-breakers and liars. We speak when we should hold our tongue and we hold our tongue when we should speak.
Thankfully, God spoke a Word when He could have held His tongue. God made and kept a very important promise. God made a promise to Abraham several thousand years ago. Abraham believed God’s promise and it was credited to Him as righteousness.
But not at first. Abraham asked God, how do I know I can trust you? And God said, “Go get some animals.” Abraham cut the animals in half, expecting to make a covenant with God.
That’s how it was done. Two people would walk between the dead animals together, as if to say, “We will keep this agreement, or you can do to me what we did to these animals.”
But God didn’t let Abraham walk the path. He put Abraham to sleep and then God walked both ways alone. What was He saying? “Abraham, I will keep my word. And when you fail, because you will, I will be the One to die in your place.”
Jesus came to keep God’s promise. He took the curse for liars and cheats like me. And all He wants me to do is repent and believe. Yes, Lord, I am a lawbreaker. You are my saving grace. And that is the truth.
I tried to let everyone know ahead of time – today’s sermon is rated PG. I’m not going to say anything shocking or explicit in nature, but I’m going to use plenty of Bible words that may require some explanation by parents later. If your child is old enough to ask the question, they are probably old enough to get an age-appropriate answer. But as the parent, it is your judgment call and I wanted you to be prepared.
With that, let’s begin. Matthew 5 beginning in verse 27:
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’
This is the seventh commandment. Like the sixth commandment, the seventh is easy to remember and relatively easy to keep, at least it was in the mind of a first century Jew.
But we live in 21st century America and we are perhaps the most sexually broken society in the history of the world. Roughly 20% of all married adults admit to cheating on their spouse at least once.
The average American will have more than 20 “partners” before marrying. Nearly half of all marriages end in divorce. Nearly half of all children are born out of wedlock.
20% of all advertising is designed to trigger the sexual part of our brains. Between 75 and 95% of all men view pornography regularly. Between 30 and 50% of women.
The number of LGBT adults has doubled in only the past ten years. Twenty percent of all adults between the ages of 18 and 25 identify as LGBT. I could go on, but you get the idea.
By comparison, first century Jews were living a lifestyle far closer to God’s design for human sexuality. And yet, Jesus did not think of them as pure. He didn’t say “good job for keeping the seventh commandment so well!” Let’s keep reading.
28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Again, Jesus uses a commandment that most people think they are keeping. The vast majority of the people listening to Jesus had never committed an adulterous action. And yet, Jesus says that they are guilty of breaking the seventh commandment.
Jesus says very clearly that sin is not limited to our actions. It also involves our desires. Just as he linked anger to murder, Jesus now links lust to adultery. The law is not only concerned with our actions. God is also concerned with our desires.
Sexual desire is normal. God created the experience. It is a gift from God, but not in every context.
I spent 13 years ministering to students and I often got a question from young men about their relationships. They would ask me, “How far is too far?”
In other words, what can I get away with before it becomes sin? It’s a very bad question and it reveals our tendency to define sin very narrowly. That was the problem with the religious leaders in the first century. Like Bill Clinton, they defined sexual sin in very narrow ways.
But if we accept the definition of sexual sin offered by Jesus, then we have all gone too far. This is a very broad definition of sin, that even includes our thoughts. And God takes it very seriously. How seriously? Look what Jesus says next.
29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.
This was a favorite teaching of Jesus. He used it often and it’s extremely violent. We recoil at the thought of someone doing this. And that’s the point. Our own sin should make us recoil.
No one in the history of Christianity thinks that Jesus wants us to literally cut off parts of our body. Everyone agrees this is hyperbole. He’s teaching a lesson.
Think about it like this. If you’re diabetic and it gets out of control and you develop gangrene in your foot, what will the doctor tell you to do? Amputate your foot. And as sad as that is, we understand the need. If you keep your foot, you will die. Lose the foot and you survive.
That’s the illustration. Sin is deadly and we must be willing to take drastic measures to deal with it because it wants to destroy us.
And notice that Jesus mentions hell twice. In fact, Jesus talks about hell more than anyone else in the Bible. And if you follow the argument, what is he saying? He’s saying that we deserve hell long before we have committed a sinful action. We deserve hell based on the lustful intent in our hearts – something only God knows about. And that alone can destroy us.
But in a culture like ours, no one really believes that sex is dangerous as long as it is consensual. And no one thinks of desires as a moral issue at all. Even Christians struggle to understand this.
Part of the problem is that we haven’t done a great job in the church of explaining God’s design for sex and marriage. We have been afraid to talk about it, which means our people are consuming the garbage of the world and getting nothing healthy from the church.
As a result, I don’t think most Christians really understand why God commands sexual purity. The typical Christian answers we hear are, “You might catch an STD or you might get pregnant.” And that never persuades anyone. But God is very clear about this in the Bible.
Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. – 1 Cor. 6:18
In other words, it is wrong because it is both extremely selfish and self-harming. Why? Because it violates God’s design for sex and marriage.
Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. – Heb. 13:4
In other words, there is a right context and a wrong context for sexual intimacy, just as there is a right context and a wrong context for starting a fire. I can start a fire in my fireplace, but not in the middle of my living room. Beautiful in the right context. Destructive in the wrong context.
Listen to this quote by Lewis Smedes: “When two bodies are united, two persons are united. Nobody can go to bed with someone and leave his soul parked outside. The soul is in the act.”
He goes on to say that sex outside of marriage is a “life-uniting act committed without life-uniting intent.”
We need to be teaching this to our kids, early and often. We need to be talking about it with other Christians. We also need accountability and encouragement, because we’re dealing with something that is much more dangerous than most people realize.
I watched an interview recently with a former adult film star. She talked about the immense shame that she carries. She talked about men approaching her in public because they recognized her and the things those men would say and do to her in public because they assumed it was ok. She described is as a living hell.
We convince ourselves that our secret sins are not a big deal. But we are people made in the image of God and so are the people on the screen. Jesus commands us to take it seriously. Cut it off. Eliminate obvious sources of temptation from your life.
Unfiltered, unmonitored, and unrestricted access to a smartphone is not going to work for most people I know, especially men. That’s like leaving the gates to the city wide open when you know the enemy army is standing outside.
But we need to consider one final word from Jesus, this morning.
31 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Jesus is referring to Deuteronomy 24:1-4. It is the only law concerning divorce in the Old Testament. It’s about a rare circumstance in which a man might try to remarry a woman he previously divorced in order to gain a second dowry. The law was actually meant to protect the woman from being taken advantage of by a man.
But the Jews started using it as a justification for any man to divorce his wife for any reason and that’s what Jesus condemns. He interprets the law much more narrowly. Divorce is only permitted in cases of adultery. Period.
If you divorce someone only because you don’t want to be with them anymore, it makes you guilty of adultery. There is more we can say about divorce from Scripture and if you have questions, I can point you to some helpful resources. But Jesus is sufficiently clear. He’s not a fan of divorce. It’s almost never the right decision, especially for the children involved.
I also want to say, I know this is a tough sermon. Jesus cuts us pretty deep here. But remember, He is not wounding us without cause or purpose. God exposes us to heal us.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
If the goal of Jesus is to lead us to repentance and faith, He must first convince us that we need it. And that was always the purpose of the law. It is meant not only to show us a better way to live. It also holds up a mirror to show us our deep need for salvation.
So, let’s use this as an opportunity to dig deeper. If we could summarize our main problem with the seventh commandment, I think it is probably a lack of contentment. That is the central heart issue.
Am I content, or satisfied, with who the Lord has provided me as a spouse? Or if you’re not currently married, are you satisfied in your current singleness? Are you satisfied with the male or female body that God gave you? Are you satisfied with His will for your life? His design for you?
Lust creeps in when we lack contentment. And every human being struggles with this on some level. We see it all around us, don’t we? Our culture is the most sexually broken because we are also the least content. We are restless and lonely, naked but unseen. Unknown. It’s never enough.
If you think you’ve never broken the seventh commandment, then you’re probably in the wrong place. If you think you’re the most sexually broken person in this room, then you’re definitely in the right place, because this is where Jesus promises to be. Jesus calls the church His “bride”. We are hardly the perfect bride, but He is the perfect groom.
God has a high view of marriage because He designed it as a picture of the Gospel. His love is offered to us freely, it starts with forgiveness, and it never ends. But it also requires sacrifice.
Jesus died to redeem seventh commandment breakers and restore the One relationship we are all searching for in our sin.
This is the promise of God, written to the prophet Hosea about His people:
I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
No matter our past failures, no matter our present struggles, Jesus offers us a healthy, eternal relationship. And through that relationship, we are offered grace and healing for what has been broken. He takes us the way He finds us, but He never leaves us the way He found us. He’s calling us to purity, but He provides the grace we need to walk in t
We will continue our study in the Sermon on the Mount. If you remember, the first week, I said that Jesus would offend everyone on purpose. That really starts today. We have completed the introduction and now we come to the body of the sermon, beginning in Matthew 5:17:
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
It is difficult for me to overstate the importance of this verse. Jesus has already mentioned the prophets back in verse 12. And he will mention the Law and the Prophets again in chapter 7, near the end of the sermon.
Jesus wants to make it absolutely clear to his audience that his own teaching fits with the teaching of the Old Testament. He’s not betraying the Jewish faith. He’s bringing fulfillment to it.
This is important because the religious leaders repeatedly accused Jesus of rejecting Old Testament commands. But Jesus anticipates that criticism and defends Himself.
18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
An iota is the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet. A dot is a tiny stroke used to distinguish between Hebrew letters. Jesus is saying unequivocally that God’s Law still matters, and it will continue to matter until the end of time.
I want to pause here briefly and address a concern that some of you may have. If you are familiar with Old Testament law, then you know there are many laws that Christians no longer follow. We no longer keep the ceremonial laws regarding sacrifices and rituals and cleanliness as they were written. There were also civil laws and case laws that were given to the nation of Israel.
That’s a lengthy discussion that I am willing to have with anyone who may be interested. Let me know and we can talk, but I want to focus on the intent of Jesus in this sermon.
Right now, Jesus is preaching to the choir. You can imagine the Jewish people nodding along as a rabbi talks about the importance of the Law. You can imagine the religious leaders grinning from ear to ear, thinking to themselves – “Yes, he IS one of us!”
Talking to ancient Jews about the law is like talking to Americans about the Constitution. You’d get a lot of nods and applause, even if most of the people in the room have never actually read it.
19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
And now you can imagine some of the normal people in the crowd getting a little uncomfortable, because most people know they’re probably guilty of relaxing some commandments. But the religious leaders are loving it. “Tell it Jesus! Preach! Amen! Amen!”
They considered themselves to be experts on the Law and they looked down on everyone else. But Jesus continues…
20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
And this is where we could play the sound effect of tires screeching or a record player scratching. Everyone stops nodding in agreement. Everyone is now uncomfortable, including the religious leaders. Jesus just told this crowd that none of them are good enough to enter the kingdom of heaven, not even the best among them.
It reminds me of the moment in 2 Samuel 12, after David committed adultery and murder. Do you remember? Nathan the prophet tells David a story about a rich man who took a poor man’s only lamb for himself. David was outraged and demanded justice, but then Nathan pulls the rug out from under David. “You are the man!”
That’s what Jesus did here. Jesus has the crowd feeling good about themselves and then he rips the rug out from under them. He has the entire crowd’s attention – most of all the men who think of themselves as law keepers. And then he gives a shocking example.
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’
That’s the sixth commandment. It’s also a very basic commandment – easy to recall and easy to keep. The vast majority of people on the earth will live their entire lives and never break this commandment, right?
And that’s probably why Jesus chose it as his first example. Almost no one believes they are guilty of breaking this commandment.
22 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.
Jesus teaches that anger breaks the sixth commandment. And by teaching this, Jesus breaks everyone’s understanding of the commandment.
No one listening to Jesus believed they were guilty of committing murder, but Jesus teaches that all of them are guilty of breaking the sixth commandment. How is that possible? Surely, there is a big difference between being angry with someone and taking their life?
It may help to give this verse some context. Remember, Jesus is speaking to real people and there are several instances in the Gospels when Jesus actually knows what people are thinking and feeling and he speaks directly to them.
Just moments before verse 23, Jesus mentioned the scribes and the Pharisees by name. He publicly embarrassed them, claiming that their righteousness was not good enough for God.
Do you think maybe they were angry with Jesus, their brother? Do you think some of them might even be muttering insults under their breath?
What happens inside us when we become angry with another person? There’s an impulse that rises up, a reaction to feeling offended. The other person becomes an object of contempt, meaning they are less valuable to us. We may even try to say or do something to the other person to intentionally devalue them.
That’s why we call people names. That’s why we speak insults. Anger, resentment, frustration… they lead to hate. The other person becomes a villain, and we may try to damage their character. We may even wish they didn’t exist. I have certainly felt that towards someone. And what Jesus teaches is that all of this comes from the same place.
Any of our efforts to devalue another human being, according to Jesus, qualifies as a breaking of the sixth commandment. Murder, of course, is the ultimate way to devalue another a human. But according to Jesus, insulting someone is in the same neighborhood.
This concept of value is why Christians oppose abortion. Abortion is absolutely a violation of the sixth commandment. Someone is saying that overall, it’s better for me if that human life doesn’t exist. My life and how I want to live it is more valuable than this infant.
This is also why Christians oppose neglecting orphans, or the poor, the sick, the hungry, and the homeless – the reasons people ignore the needs of others is often because of a judgment that such people are less valuable. My own needs are more important to me than my neighbor’s needs.
It’s possible some of the things I just said made some people a little angry with me. But that’s exactly the sort of response Jesus expected from his sermon. Is it possible that we have misjudged ourselves? That we are worse than we think we are? That’s the point.
All the ways we choose to devalue another human being, all of it makes us guilty of breaking the sixth commandment. The Westminster Larger Catechism agrees with this assessment, stating that the sixth commandment requires:
“charitable thoughts, love, compassion, meekness, gentleness, kindness; peaceable, mild and courteous speeches and behavior; forbearance, readiness to be reconciled, patient bearing and forgiving of injuries, and requiting good for evil; comforting and succoring the distressed, and protecting and defending the innocent.”
And besides murder, the sixth commandment forbids:
“…sinful anger, hatred, envy, desire of revenge; all excessive passions, distracting cares; immoderate use of meat, drink, labor, and recreations; provoking words, oppression, quarreling, striking, and wounding.”
This fits with what Jesus taught in Matthew 5. Look at what He says next in verse 23.
23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
Notice that Jesus does not say, “If you have something against your brother.” Instead, he says, “If your brother has something against you.” Think about that. That’s a big shift. If you know someone is angry with you, Jesus thinks you have a responsibility to deal with it.
And notice that He doesn’t qualify it. It doesn’t seem to matter if the person’s anger is justified. I may be innocent. I may have done nothing wrong. But if I know there’s tension, if I know you have a problem with me, I have a responsibility before God to do something about it.
In other words, personal reconciliation is at the heart of the sixth commandment. Not only am I forbidden from devaluing my brother. I have a responsibility to pursue peace. In fact, it is more important to Jesus that we reconcile with another person than if we go to church! Don’t come worship at my altar until you get that right!
And then, as if that’s not hard enough, he takes it a step further.
25 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. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
In other words, work it out quickly, while you have the chance. The Apostle Paul says something very similar in Romans 12:18 – “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.”
And by now, everyone in His audience should feel offended. Refusing to live this kind of peaceable life makes all of them (and all of us) commandment breakers, worthy of hell. Jesus says, “You will never get out until you have paid the last penny.” No mercy for you. Not even a penny!
Great sermon, right? It really warms the heart, like chicken soup for the soul. Just kidding.
But what is Jesus trying to do? He is trying to show his hearers their own spiritual bankruptcy, even the ones who think they are doing well.
Jesus began the sermon with a focus on the heart. Poor in Spirit was the necessary precondition for repentance and faith.
And now he teaches us that sin also has necessary preconditions. Anger leads to contempt leads to murder… it begins in the heart.
Keeping the law is not so simple as keeping a checklist of dos and don’ts. The Law exposes and judges the thoughts and intentions of our hearts. God is not satisfied with the life any of us would offer Him, if not for Jesus.
But after a few short years of ministry, Jesus demonstrated perfect fulfillment of the sixth commandment by going to the cross. Jesus was wrongly accused, condemned, and crucified. Jesus had the absolute right to respond to His accusers in righteous anger. He could have brought the wrath of God down on their heads.
Peter writes: “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.” And what did Jesus say to the Father while He suffered?
Instead, He muttered a prayer, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Jesus raised the standard of the Law far beyond anything we could ever hope to keep. He humbles us. He empties us. And, as Peter continues,
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.”
Before we read our text for today, we need to build on what was said last week. The sermon on the mount is a sermon about repentance and the kind of life that repentance brings with it.
Repentance leads us to a kind of life that Jesus blesses, but the world rejects. Jesus blesses the poor in spirit, the meek, and the merciful. The world appreciates the sentiment, but it sees no real value in that kind of life. The world blesses the rich, the famous, and the powerful.
Repentance is turning from our impulse to find happiness in what the world values and instead turning to Jesus and life in His kingdom. Matthew 5:10-16:
10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Verses 10-12 together form a single beatitude that is repeated twice by Jesus for emphasis and then further explained by two metaphors in verses 13-16. That’s why I’m separating it from last week.
But the previous beatitude, “blessed are the peacemakers”, is an important connecting point in the sermon, because peacemaking may bring persecution.
The efforts of Christians to live the kingdom life in a world that rejects the King will make us targets. No servant is greater than his master. They persecuted Jesus, they persecuted his disciples, they will persecute us.
Peacemaking is an attempt to reach people with the Gospel and walk beside them in repentance and faith. It is an attempt to build bridges between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world. But maybe you’ve heard the expression, “Bridge people get walked on.”
In 2 Corinthians 2, Paul says that “we are the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing.” To some we smell like life, but to others we smell like death.
Have you ever had an animal die in your attic or in your walls? It’s not a pleasant experience. You only know it’s there because of the smell, but the smell is bad enough that you will do anything to get rid of it. You can’t live with it, it’s so bad.
And that is how the Gospel is received by most of the world, according to the Bible. Some people are drawn towards Christ and His kingdom. But to most people, the Gospel is so offensive that they can’t tolerate it. They must get rid of it. And that’s why persecution exists.
Jesus specifically reminds his disciples of the prophets, who were often persecuted for the messages they preached publicly. Prophets were persecuted because they were saying things that disrupted people’s way of life. Their very presence was a criticism of the way people were choosing to live.
The prophets were exposing all the ways in which people were living outside the boundaries God had set for their lives. They were condemning people’s love of money, their neglect of the poor, and their broken sexual ethics. They were hated for it. And this is what Jesus wants for His disciples. We are being called to be a prophetic presence in the world, and Jesus uses two metaphors to explain how it works.
The first is salt, verse 13.
You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.
This requires some explanation because the salt we buy today is much different from salt they used two thousand years ago. Our salt is pure sodium chloride because we have refineries, but their salt was not pure at all.
The white dust they called “salt” was actually only part sodium chloride and was easily affected by moisture. The salt could be washed out and the white powder that remained was nothing but dirt. It looked like salt, but it was worthless.
With that explanation, it is obvious what Jesus means here. This is the Christian who has become no different than the world. This is the Christian who has no prophetic presence in the world because they are essentially no different from the world.
But what exactly has been lost? Again, this requires a bit of explanation. If we want to preserve meat, we put it in a deep freezer. Back then, the only way to preserve meat was to cover it in salt. That was the primary purpose of salt – to slow the decay of meat.
In other words, Jesus wants his disciples to be different enough from the world that our prophetic presence in the world helps to slow the decay of sin and death. When God’s people live a life of daily faith and repentance, the fruit produced by that behavior—the character Jesus outlines in the beatitudes—will have a positive effect on the world around us.
Christianity is good for the world, even if the world rejects our beliefs. Incidentally, this is something that even scientists are beginning to recognize. While more and more people are now describing themselves as atheists or non-religious, science is demonstrating that, in general, religious participation is actually good for people’s health and happiness.
Jonathan Haidt is an atheist and a social psychologist. Listen to what he wrote:
“Surveys have long shown that religious believers in the United States are happier, healthier, longer-lived, and more generous to charity and to each other than are secular people… Religious believers give more money than secular folk to secular charities, and to their neighbors. They give more of their time, too, and of their blood.”
The influence of Christianity has led to many of the advancements we take for granted in society. We are salt, slowing the decay of sin and death in a world running from God.
But only if we are different. I like the way Dan Doriani makes this argument in his commentary:
“If the only visible difference between Christians and secular people is that we go to church on Sunday and give money away more regularly, why would anyone want to join us? If we divorce, alienate our children, tell lies, and make dirty deals like everyone else, why not play golf on Sunday and spend our money on exotic vacations?”
And the truth is, in many of our churches, Christians are not much different from the world. The salt is in grave danger of losing its saltiness and the world will suffer as a result. A church that is no different from the world is worthless.
But there is another consideration. Notice that Jesus chose salt as the illustration and not sugar. Listen to what one writer says about this:
“To look at some Christians, one would think that their ambition is to be the honeypot of the world. They sweeten and sugar the bitterness of life with an all too easy conception of a loving God… but Jesus, of course, did not say, ‘You are the honey of the world.’ He said, ‘You are the salt of the earth.’ Salt bites, and the unadulterated message of the judgment and grace of God has always been a biting thing.”
Martin Luther agrees, saying that preaching the Gospel is like rubbing salt into people’s wounds. He writes that “the real salt is the true exposition of Scripture, which denounces the whole world and lets nothing stand but the simple faith in Christ.”
In truth, Jesus is the honey. But He calls us to be the salt.
The second metaphor Jesus uses is light. Verse 14:
14 You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
This is a much easier metaphor to understand because light works the same way today as it did then. We have no doubt what Jesus means here.
Christians who hide their light are Christians who are refusing to be in the world. Our God-given purpose is to remain in the world, letting our light shine before others. We must be visible. We must live our lives out in front of the world, not hidden in our homes and our churches.
We cannot move away from the world. We must move toward the world as Jesus moved toward us. It is tempting to retreat from the darkness, to isolate ourselves in fear. But that would be selfish, and even faithless. Jesus is commanding us to shine our light before a watching world.
Of course, the light we carry is reflective. We can’t stare at the sun without burning our eyes, but we can stare at the moon. The moon is not really a source of light. It only offers a reflection of the sun’s light.
This is why people might see our light and give glory to God, not us. Our good works are only a reflection of the character of God at work in us.
And what does light accomplish? It reveals. It exposes. It clarifies. And remember from last week, that is what repentance looks like. God reveals our sin. He exposes us. He gives us a more accurate self-perception. We turn from our sin and towards Christ.
We begin to hunger and thirst for righteousness. And then Jesus leads us immediately towards others. He makes us merciful. He strips away the selfish motives and makes us ambassadors of peace. He makes us salt and light.
Salt and light – this is how Jesus describes our purpose. Prophetic presence in the world, but not of the world.
We must be different. We must be visible. And we will be persecuted, or God will be praised. Those are the two possible responses, according to Jesus. If neither of those things is happening, then we probably are not really living our lives as disciples of Jesus. We may not be living out our purpose as salt and light.
Let me say that again – if we face no persecution for the way we live, or if God is not being praised by others for the way we live, then something is wrong. We are either too much like the world around us, or we are retreating and hiding from the world altogether.
I want to end with the words of Jesus in a prayer to His Father just before His death. Speaking of his church, Jesus said:
I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.
Church, this is why we are still here.
I spent a lot of time thinking about what to teach after sabbatical and I kept coming back to the sermon on the mount. We spent the past year and a half studying Judges and Samuel.
Do you remember this statement at the end of Judges - “Everyone did what was right in their own eyes”? That is the way of the world. We do whatever we think is going to make us happy.
God created humans. He knows how we best operate. He knows what will make us truly happy. But we are busy rejecting that knowledge.
And this is why I think the sermon on the mount is a great follow-up to Judges and Samuel. The sermon on the mount is Jesus telling his disciples what life in God’s kingdom looks like. This is how you were created to live. This is what will make you truly happy.
He shows us that the kingdom of God is counter cultural. His kingdom is not of this world. And Jesus shows us exactly what that means in very practical terms. But we aren’t going to like it. In fact, the sermon on the mount will offend every single one of us.
We live in a time and place where Christians don’t seem much different from anyone else. But Jesus destroys the notion that such a thing is possible. Above all things, the sermon on the mount is a call to repentance… a call to be different. “Do. Not. Be. Like. Them,” Jesus says.
But before we jump to conclusions about “them”, the people we are supposed to be different from, it is not who we expect. It’s two groups of people. We expect Jesus to tell us we need to be different from worldly people, pagan people. And he does.
But he also tells us we have to be different from the self-righteous people – the arrogant religious people.
And there’s a catch. Jesus presents a moral code in this sermon that literally no one can obey completely. No one except him. And that is what makes it so brilliant.
The sermon on the mount, then, accomplishes two goals – it shows non-Christians that they can’t please God on their own and it shows Christians how to please God through repentance and faith in Christ.
Jesus presupposes our need for faith and repentance. As Galatians 5:6 says, this is what faith expressing itself through love looks like. People who love, know, and trust Jesus will receive the sermon on the mount through a lens of repentance and faith. But non-Christians will be faced with a dilemma.
In his commentary, Dan Doriani writes: “An unbeliever will respond to the Sermon on the Mount either with foolish optimism: ‘I can do this!’ – or with hopeless despair: ‘I can never do this.’ Only a believer, a child of God, can rightly respond to its high standards.”
And with that very long introduction, we are ready to begin reading. This morning, we will start with the first 9 verses of Matthew 5, known as the beatitudes. There are seven we will consider today and an eighth we will consider next week. I’m saving it because I think it is a bit different than the first 7 and has more in common with the next part of the sermon.
1 Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.
2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
Everyone agrees that the words we just read are beautiful. People from other religions, even atheists, find these words compelling. Jesus speaks blessing into the lives of needy people. On the surface, everyone appreciates what we think Jesus says here.
To be blessed is to have the approval of God… to have God on our side. And it makes sense that Jesus would speak this way about people who display this kind of character.
But there’s something more to it than that. Consider the context. In the story of Matthew, the sermon on the mount comes very early in the ministry of Jesus. The first two chapters tell the story of his birth and childhood. The third chapter tells us about the baptism of Jesus. It’s not until chapter four that Jesus begins his public ministry.
He only recently called his first disciples and began preaching in Galilee. And Matthew tells us that the theme of his preaching was simple and clear: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
It makes sense, in light of that context, to read the sermon on the mount as a sermon about repentance. The beatitudes are about repentance. They display for us the fruit of repentance, which is the character of the Christian life.
And there is even a pattern that emerges here, which I am excited to show you. We can map it as a circle, starting with verse 3 – the first beatitude:
1) Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Poverty of spirit. This is humble dependence on God. This is self-awareness of sin. This is the necessary precondition for repentance. This is at the bottom of our circle because this is where we come to the end of self. Only empty people can be filled. I bring nothing in my hands to offer God. That’s what it means to be “poor in spirit”.
2) Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
This isn’t a separate class of people from those poor in spirit. This is the natural progression of the first group. Awareness of sin produces mourning. If I look in the mirror and see something I don’t like, something I have no power to change on my own, what will my response be? Sadness. And this is also a necessary precondition for repentance. We must face the consequences of our sin and the effects of sin in the world around us.
3) Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
This is not a word we use, “meek”, so I’m going to just define it for us. To be meek is to have a proper estimate of oneself. It’s not high self-esteem or low self-esteem. Instead, a meek person lives with an accurate perception of self with respect to God and other people.
According to Jesus, if we want life after death in the kingdom of God, we need an honest assessment of who we really are. You can see how these first three are related. Repentance begins with a work of humility. Bankrupt in spirit… saddened by it… humbled by it…
4) Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
We talk about repentance a lot in our church, and I always define it as turning from something and turning to something at the same time. If I start walking towards the back of the room, I get closer to the back door and further from the stage – at the same time.
Turning from sin is turning toward Christ. One can’t happen without the other also happening. And this verse is where Jesus turns the corner of repentance.
This person is no longer focused on self. The focus has shifted away from self and away from sin towards righteousness. We start wanting what God wants for us. Righteousness means right relationships… right living. And as God reveals our need, we start to hunger for the stuff we are missing.
Now this is where it gets interesting. You’ve heard most of this before, probably. And so far, Jesus has us focused on our personal need for repentance. I’ve been forced to look at myself and evaluate my own need. I’m beginning to recognize my personal need for righteousness. But watch what Jesus does next, as we make the turn.
5) Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Do you see what Jesus just did? He moves our focus off of self completely and shifts it towards other people. I can evaluate myself using the first four beatitudes and avoid thinking about other people entirely.
Am I poor in spirit? Am I mourning? Am I meek? Do I hunger for righteousness? I can ask those questions alone in my prayer closet, right? But I cannot answer the question, “Am I merciful” without evaluating my relationships. I have to think about other people. What does it mean to be merciful? In Bible terms, it means moving towards people who are suffering.
And what I want to suggest to you this morning is that repentance naturally leads us toward other people. If, by definition, repentance is making us more like Christ in His character, then we will also become more like him in his mission. If your “repentance” is not leading you to have compassion for other people, then it’s not repentance.
Jesus does the work IN US on the first half of this circle in order to do the work THROUGH US on the second half of the circle. Look at the next verse.
6) Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
What does it mean to be pure in heart? It means that the person we see is the real you. It means the outside you is the same as the inside you. There are no hidden agendas… no hidden motives.
In light of the previous verse, it means I’m not moving towards other people for my sake. I’m moving toward them for their sake. I’m not doing it for me. I’m doing it for you.
And now we come full circle:
7) Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
I put number 7 back at the bottom of the circle, because this is where repentance leads us – back to the beginning to walk beside others who find themselves empty before God.
It also makes sense because we never graduate from the need for repentance. Even as we walk beside other Christians in their repentance, Jesus keeps bringing us back to the same place. The chief characteristic of a Christian is a daily life of faith and repentance.
Think about it. Jesus placed hunger right in the middle. How many times a day do I get hungry? At least three times. And how many times a day do I eat? At least three times, usually. Am I ever going to outgrow my need to eat? I may need to learn how to eat less, but the day I stop getting hungry is the day I die.
And that’s the metaphor Jesus used to describe our need for Him. Hunger. Feed. Hunger. Feed. Every day. Repentance and Faith.
In the end, God is always doing as much IN US as he is doing THROUGH US. That’s how God designed it and that’s how He gets all the glory.
Jesus will say some things in this sermon that will make us very uncomfortable. He’s going to call us out… all of us. He’s going to empty us. But that’s always where the work must begin.
And this is just the beginning. Over the next few months, Jesus is going to get very personal with each of us. He’s going to expose us with a standard we could never keep – not to shame us, but to save us.
Happy are the unhappy… for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, they shall be comforted, they shall inherit the earth, they shall be satisfied, they shall receive mercy, they shall see God, they shall be called sons of God!