WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.480 More or less regularly, we've had a couple of breaks, but every Sunday morning in the 00:00:04.480 --> 00:00:09.279 last while, and we will be indefinitely God willing into the future, we're looking at 00:00:09.279 --> 00:00:16.160 Matthew's gospel in the sermon and working through the gospel. 00:00:16.160 --> 00:00:20.839 So we kind of… we're… we stopped for a while and the sermon on the Mount, which 00:00:20.839 --> 00:00:28.400 is a very central, important part of the gospel of Matthew and of the teaching of Jesus. 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:34.079 And slightly later on in Matthew's gospel, Jesus asks a question of the crowds that were 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:35.079 with him. 00:00:35.079 --> 00:00:42.000 He asked the listeners to him when they were… when the subject was John the Baptist, he 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:46.119 said, who did you… what did you expect to see? 00:00:46.119 --> 00:00:50.640 What did you expect when you went out to see John the Baptist in the desert? 00:00:50.640 --> 00:00:52.840 What were you expecting? 00:00:52.840 --> 00:00:59.600 You know, were you expecting someone in fine clothes who was come from a palace? 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:02.280 Did you expect to see a reed blowing in the wind? 00:01:02.280 --> 00:01:06.560 And he asks that question because there was all kind of misunderstanding about who John 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:09.560 the Baptist was. 00:01:09.560 --> 00:01:14.080 And I'm asking… I would ask the same question myself and of all of us this morning. 00:01:14.080 --> 00:01:16.320 What did you expect today? 00:01:16.320 --> 00:01:22.760 What have you expected today in coming to church and as we've opened Scripture? 00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:24.120 What was your view of church? 00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:26.240 So what were you looking for? 00:01:26.240 --> 00:01:30.200 What did you… maybe as a Christian, what did you pray about before coming to church 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:31.200 this morning? 00:01:31.200 --> 00:01:36.760 Or what is it you're expecting this morning from Jesus? 00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:39.840 Because we believe Jesus is living and alive, although he's not with us physically as he 00:01:39.840 --> 00:01:43.640 was when he spoke about John the Baptist. 00:01:43.640 --> 00:01:46.280 What is it you were expecting or looking for from church? 00:01:46.280 --> 00:01:49.600 Is it warm words or good singing? 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:52.919 Is it irrelevant truth? 00:01:52.919 --> 00:01:55.000 But they've an oxymoron really for us. 00:01:55.000 --> 00:01:56.000 It shouldn't be irrelevant. 00:01:56.000 --> 00:01:57.599 It should never be that way. 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:01.439 Did you just come to meet people, to meet folks for a social occasion? 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:05.519 And you just hear out of interest, you're passing by and it was raining outside and 00:02:05.519 --> 00:02:08.199 you decided to come in from the rain. 00:02:08.199 --> 00:02:12.159 There may be lots of different expectations that you've come. 00:02:12.159 --> 00:02:16.319 Maybe you've come expecting to rip apart everything that we do because you're cynical 00:02:16.319 --> 00:02:24.159 about church and about community and about the gospel and about the Bible. 00:02:24.159 --> 00:02:29.680 And I'm pretty sure that none of you expected that the theme of the sermon today would be 00:02:29.680 --> 00:02:33.359 anger and sex, okay? 00:02:33.359 --> 00:02:36.599 But that's what it's going to be because that's the passage that we have in front 00:02:36.599 --> 00:02:37.599 of us. 00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:41.759 The Sermon and the Mount is one of the most famous passages in the Bible. 00:02:41.759 --> 00:02:47.759 It's one of the best known passages, one that many unbelievers, many people, or maybe 00:02:47.759 --> 00:02:51.840 wouldn't call themselves Christians, will still, they'll value what they think is in 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:52.840 the Sermon and the Mount. 00:02:52.840 --> 00:02:56.599 It's a good ethical moral teaching. 00:02:56.599 --> 00:03:00.680 Maybe that is true from that particular perspective. 00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:05.319 But maybe they haven't really thought terribly much about what Jesus does say in the Sermon 00:03:05.319 --> 00:03:06.319 and the Mount. 00:03:06.319 --> 00:03:09.399 We've seen the beatitudes and the blessings of the beatitudes and that's probably the 00:03:09.400 --> 00:03:11.960 most famous part. 00:03:11.960 --> 00:03:20.280 But here, Jesus talking about Himself, His law, and in relation to anger and in relation 00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:21.280 to sex. 00:03:21.280 --> 00:03:24.200 It couldn't be more real. 00:03:24.200 --> 00:03:29.599 And Jesus and the Bible often speaks about fundamental emotions and our desires and our 00:03:29.599 --> 00:03:34.719 reactions and the drives that we have at the very heart of our humanity, the very heart 00:03:34.719 --> 00:03:42.560 of our being, and that He's reminding us that as we come into a relationship with Jesus 00:03:42.560 --> 00:03:48.039 Christ, all of these things are challenged and all of these things come under His Lordship 00:03:48.039 --> 00:03:53.000 and come under His sovereignty. 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:57.680 Because we need to remember that the Sermon and the Mount is first of all spoken to Christians. 00:03:57.680 --> 00:03:58.680 It's spoken to believers. 00:03:58.680 --> 00:04:02.840 It's spoken to disciples, those who follow the Mother, people who are listening. 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:07.479 So, He was speaking primarily to His disciples, to His followers. 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:08.479 And He's moving. 00:04:08.479 --> 00:04:11.400 It's a very important document as it were. 00:04:11.400 --> 00:04:13.719 It's a very important thesis that He brings. 00:04:13.719 --> 00:04:19.560 And He's moving on from the character of the believer, which is highlighted in the beatitudes, 00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:25.199 the kind of fruit, the kind of characteristics of the person who puts their trust and who 00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:29.800 follows Jesus, and the ones you know that we know about, the poor in spirit, the more 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:33.639 in the meek, the hungering, thirsting, the merciful, pure in heart, the peacemakers, 00:04:33.639 --> 00:04:37.360 all of these things are characteristics that mark someone who's come into a relationship 00:04:37.360 --> 00:04:41.240 with Jesus Christ, the kind of character we have. 00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:46.080 And really from that point on in the Sermon, we have the outworking of that. 00:04:46.080 --> 00:04:52.360 And therefore the conduct of the believer is Jesus is highlighting and expressing because 00:04:52.360 --> 00:04:57.199 of who Jesus is, because of what He's done for us, because He's transformed our hearts 00:04:57.199 --> 00:05:01.439 and gifted us salvation and changed us from the inside out. 00:05:01.439 --> 00:05:07.120 It means that our heart is changing, and therefore our conduct is changing. 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:08.439 It's not conduct first. 00:05:08.439 --> 00:05:12.959 It's not outward behavior first, and then somehow that makes us right with God. 00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:19.240 It's coming to Christ Jesus and knowing He freely offers us salvation and hope and forgiveness. 00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:25.360 And then recognizing that inner change brings outward... 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:31.600 Your character change brings outward conduct change, and it's fascinating. 00:05:31.600 --> 00:05:33.080 So what's Jesus doing here? 00:05:33.080 --> 00:05:37.840 He's doing several things in this passage and indeed in the whole of the Sermon, but 00:05:37.840 --> 00:05:43.280 particularly in this passage and beyond it actually. 00:05:43.280 --> 00:05:50.240 Because last time, I think it was Thomas, Thomas or might have been Callum, can't remember, 00:05:50.240 --> 00:05:55.560 he looked at the previous verses which talks about Christ coming to fulfill the law, and 00:05:55.560 --> 00:06:00.040 we sung about the law, and the law is the moral law of God from the Old Testament. 00:06:00.040 --> 00:06:06.040 And so here what we have Jesus doing, and it comes in a repeated phrase that he says 00:06:06.040 --> 00:06:11.879 a lot, he says, you have heard it said, but I say to you. 00:06:11.879 --> 00:06:14.280 You have heard it said, but I say to you. 00:06:14.280 --> 00:06:16.800 You have heard it said, but I say to you. 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:18.360 Now what is he doing? 00:06:18.360 --> 00:06:21.800 Well he's making a bold claim here when he's saying this. 00:06:21.800 --> 00:06:28.960 Now the context is the law of the Word of God, and he's saying you have heard it said, 00:06:28.960 --> 00:06:30.439 but I say to you. 00:06:30.439 --> 00:06:32.759 And what is he doing here? 00:06:32.759 --> 00:06:39.439 Well he's claiming the same authority as the Word of God, he's claiming to be divine, 00:06:39.439 --> 00:06:41.920 and we know of course that that's what ended up... 00:06:41.920 --> 00:06:48.160 That's what ended his life and ended up in going to the cross because he claimed divinity. 00:06:48.160 --> 00:06:54.680 He's claiming the same authority as the author, and he's saying this is what God meant, and 00:06:54.680 --> 00:06:59.280 he's expanding on what God said in the moral law and the Ten Commandments. 00:06:59.280 --> 00:07:00.480 He's internalizing it. 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:08.440 He's also correcting in some of the passages, he's correcting the misinterpretation of the 00:07:08.440 --> 00:07:10.640 Jewish leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees. 00:07:10.640 --> 00:07:15.879 You know, for example, he said, you know, you should love the Lord, you should love your 00:07:15.879 --> 00:07:18.399 neighbour but hate your enemy. 00:07:18.399 --> 00:07:24.079 So the law of God never says you should love your neighbour and hate your enemy. 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:28.560 They added that interpretation of hating your enemy, and it was never biblical. 00:07:28.560 --> 00:07:33.920 So sometimes he's correcting the interpretation of the scribes and the Pharisees. 00:07:33.920 --> 00:07:39.560 Sometimes he's broadening the teaching of the Old Testament moral law and giving us 00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:42.839 more insight. 00:07:42.839 --> 00:07:47.199 And he's using shock tactics a lot of the time. 00:07:47.199 --> 00:07:51.239 In some ways, I would have really liked to day if when that was being read by you and 00:07:51.239 --> 00:08:00.439 I heard gasps from the congregation, not because of you and reading which was impeccable, but 00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:02.559 because of the truth. 00:08:02.559 --> 00:08:06.399 You know, were you scandalized by it? 00:08:06.399 --> 00:08:07.399 You should have been... 00:08:07.399 --> 00:08:09.559 We should have been scandalized by this truth. 00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:13.800 I wouldn't have been surprised if there'd been all kinds of gasps and hands being thrown 00:08:13.800 --> 00:08:19.160 up in horror at what Jesus was saying because he's using shock tactics and he's talking 00:08:19.160 --> 00:08:21.840 about hell. 00:08:21.840 --> 00:08:24.840 No one in polite company talks about hell. 00:08:24.840 --> 00:08:30.079 And yet Jesus is talking about hell, he's speaking about Gehenna, which was a translation 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:34.240 for the valley of Hinnom, which was the rubbish dump outside Jerusalem where the rubbish was 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:35.639 thrown and burned. 00:08:35.639 --> 00:08:38.559 And it was used as an image, as in a picture for hell. 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:42.359 It was a place where nobody wanted to be, in other words, no one wanted to go there. 00:08:42.359 --> 00:08:43.919 No one spent their time there. 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:45.279 It was outside of the city. 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:47.359 It was an unclean place. 00:08:47.359 --> 00:08:52.839 And interestingly, Jesus, nobody in the Bible speaks more about the reality of hell than 00:08:52.839 --> 00:08:57.879 Jesus, a place that Jesus says you don't want to go. 00:08:57.879 --> 00:09:07.119 A place that is a reality that he speaks about so much, primarily because he comes from a 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:12.720 spiritual dimension, but also because he was to face it on the cross. 00:09:12.720 --> 00:09:16.000 Interestingly, he speaks about hell. 00:09:16.000 --> 00:09:22.240 And for us, you know, the hell, not just a place for Hitler or pedophiles in common 00:09:22.240 --> 00:09:32.279 thinking, but a reality for those who live their lives without recognizing the Lordship 00:09:32.279 --> 00:09:37.439 and the rightful place of God in their lives, that's why he came. 00:09:37.439 --> 00:09:39.559 That's what the gospel is all about. 00:09:39.559 --> 00:09:41.059 So he makes a bold claim. 00:09:41.059 --> 00:09:45.959 And in so doing, he's also challenging our approval ratings. 00:09:45.959 --> 00:09:51.799 He's challenging what we look for and who we look for and how we look for approval in 00:09:51.799 --> 00:09:56.839 our lives, speaking to all of us, and primarily to us as Christians. 00:09:56.839 --> 00:10:01.839 He's asking us if we're looking in our lives for God's approval, because Jesus says that 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:07.320 matters more than anything as he speaks in this passage, because he speaks about judgment 00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:12.080 and he speaks about justice, and he knows that God is the only author of these things. 00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:22.639 And he says that the standard of God's law, God's goodness, God's relational parameters 00:10:22.639 --> 00:10:31.800 are based on love and are not just based on external expressions of love, but our heart. 00:10:31.799 --> 00:10:37.279 And he moves from the outward to the inward, so he moves from do not murder and says attitude 00:10:37.279 --> 00:10:38.319 of anger. 00:10:38.319 --> 00:10:41.639 He moves from do not commit adultery to the attitude of lust. 00:10:41.639 --> 00:10:44.279 We're going to look at both of these in a little minute. 00:10:44.279 --> 00:10:49.599 And what he's reminding us is that the eye of God looks beyond our outward behavior and 00:10:49.599 --> 00:10:52.719 looks into our heart and into our thought life. 00:10:52.719 --> 00:10:57.719 And so what he's reminding the disciples and reminding us as Christians is that being a 00:10:57.720 --> 00:11:06.200 Christian is recognizing that we, at core, we need to change our hearts from the inside, 00:11:06.200 --> 00:11:11.000 or we need our hearts changed, and that is the work of God. 00:11:11.000 --> 00:11:13.200 It's not just outward conduct. 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:17.759 It's not just how we are morally in relation to the world around us. 00:11:17.759 --> 00:11:23.360 It's our heart, and it's therefore a recognition that we can't do that. 00:11:23.360 --> 00:11:24.759 It's impossible. 00:11:24.759 --> 00:11:28.639 We need a Savior in order to help us to do that. 00:11:28.639 --> 00:11:36.240 In order to be visible as believers, he wants us to look at the invisible, the heart. 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:38.559 It's all about the heart, not about the hype. 00:11:38.559 --> 00:11:43.039 It's about what we've been looking at in our discipleship series, the root and the fruit, 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:48.360 it's what goes on under the surface where our roots are, that we're directed towards 00:11:48.360 --> 00:11:53.000 God who is the living water through Jesus Christ where we get our nourishment and our 00:11:53.000 --> 00:11:54.000 life. 00:11:54.000 --> 00:11:58.240 In other words, what is reminding the disciples and reminding us, if we think somehow that 00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:08.360 the Christian faith, our Christian faith is a self-service engagement that we don't need 00:12:08.360 --> 00:12:13.120 to be in relationship with God or depending on God through Christ or praying to God and 00:12:13.120 --> 00:12:19.120 asking for God's help, not relying on Jesus Christ for a life of worship, then can I use 00:12:19.120 --> 00:12:24.639 a mixed metaphor with regard to the tree, I mean that we're barking up the wrong tree. 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:28.440 You know, we're barking up the wrong tree if we think that we can live the Christian 00:12:28.440 --> 00:12:36.560 life without Jesus Christ as it were, without the recognition of who He is and of our dependence 00:12:36.560 --> 00:12:39.720 on Him to change our hearts daily. 00:12:39.720 --> 00:12:45.039 I hope that is what we emphasize here all the time because He says that's the standard 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:50.279 by which we'll be judged whether our hearts are clean and we can't clean our own hearts. 00:12:50.279 --> 00:12:56.079 We need to be covered in the righteousness of Jesus and what He has done on our behalf. 00:12:56.079 --> 00:13:01.519 And that's the reality for everyone according to Jesus and according to His Word, that's 00:13:01.519 --> 00:13:07.079 the standard by which we will all meet with God on that day. 00:13:07.079 --> 00:13:09.480 So what He's doing is interesting, isn't it? 00:13:09.480 --> 00:13:14.480 He's setting up an impossibility and He's setting up Himself as having authority to 00:13:14.480 --> 00:13:21.080 save what He's saying and He does so in order to lead us to Himself. 00:13:21.080 --> 00:13:22.440 That's what He's always doing. 00:13:22.440 --> 00:13:27.480 In verse 20, the verse before the verse that you and started with, which we looked at before, 00:13:27.480 --> 00:13:31.000 for I tell you, unless you're righteous and it exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, 00:13:31.000 --> 00:13:33.759 you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 00:13:33.759 --> 00:13:38.860 And what you say, that probably doesn't mean a great deal to us but it was a very radical 00:13:38.860 --> 00:13:44.120 statement at the time because the scribes and the Pharisees were morally excellent. 00:13:44.120 --> 00:13:49.279 They excelled in outward behavior and in church life and in outward morality. 00:13:49.279 --> 00:13:54.320 And He's saying, look, the very best moral people, He says, if your righteousness doesn't 00:13:54.320 --> 00:14:01.039 exceed that, then there is absolutely no hope of entering into the kingdom of heaven. 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:07.279 And that's because He has come to offer a different righteousness, not based on our 00:14:07.279 --> 00:14:11.840 own merit, not based on our own efforts, not based on our own morality. 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:16.759 But He is inviting us to think that His Sermon is always inviting us to think about and 00:14:16.759 --> 00:14:22.040 be challenged by Him because in three short years of having delivered the Sermon, the 00:14:22.040 --> 00:14:26.920 skies were darkening for Jesus Christ and it was leading Him to the cross which was 00:14:26.920 --> 00:14:31.759 a cross of hell for Him. 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:40.160 You know, we ever thought of the, you know, why the most innocent, the most perfect, the 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:47.919 most glorious individual who ever lived righteously, lived right before God? 00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:54.000 If ever anyone didn't deserve to die in a cross, it was Jesus and yet He did and He 00:14:54.000 --> 00:15:02.120 did it willingly and deliberately and in a planned way because He was taking the forsakenness 00:15:02.120 --> 00:15:09.480 that is due to us because of our rebellion against God and paying the price. 00:15:09.480 --> 00:15:12.680 Because we can't be good enough for God on our own. 00:15:12.680 --> 00:15:16.840 He was good enough for God but He takes the price. 00:15:16.840 --> 00:15:25.039 That's the message of His rescue and redemption and He wants to expose our heart to drive 00:15:25.039 --> 00:15:27.639 us towards Him in His great love. 00:15:27.639 --> 00:15:33.240 You know, we get a great picture of that in the Old Testament for Samuel 16, verse 17, 00:15:33.240 --> 00:15:41.080 hopefully, yet where it's about Samuel choosing the next king and he doesn't look on, God 00:15:41.080 --> 00:15:47.519 doesn't look on the out, he ends up choosing David who's the youngest almost in the least, 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:50.799 developed at least physically and emotionally. 00:15:50.799 --> 00:15:55.480 The Lord sees, not as man sees, the man looks on the outward appearance but the Lord looks 00:15:55.480 --> 00:15:56.480 in the heart. 00:15:56.480 --> 00:15:59.519 That's a great summary of this passage. 00:15:59.519 --> 00:16:05.720 But so that's what Jesus is doing, He's driving us to that point where we'll say, well actually 00:16:05.720 --> 00:16:12.919 we feel uncomfortable but in a good way because it drives us to the great comfort and peace 00:16:12.919 --> 00:16:14.960 that He gives us. 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:18.439 So I think that's at least some of what He's doing. 00:16:18.439 --> 00:16:24.519 And these two sections talking about murder and adultery, He's beginning to unpack as 00:16:24.519 --> 00:16:28.120 He goes on as well the blueprint for the Christian and community. 00:16:28.120 --> 00:16:31.240 So that's important for us all, isn't it, as Christians? 00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:36.480 We're in community and this is the kind of thing He looks at for us in the way we love. 00:16:36.480 --> 00:16:39.960 And so He's really dealing with, and we'll talk technically for a moment about the second 00:16:39.960 --> 00:16:44.519 table of the law, so that Ten Commandments is split into two, a responsibility to love 00:16:44.519 --> 00:16:47.759 God and a responsibility to love one another. 00:16:47.759 --> 00:16:53.039 And so He's dealing with that second part of the law which is how we love one another 00:16:53.039 --> 00:16:59.480 as believers love your neighbour as yourself or the Eleventh Commandment is sometimes called 00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:05.200 that He gives in John 13 verse 34 which I think we have as well. 00:17:05.200 --> 00:17:09.079 A new commandment, He says, the Eleventh Commandment, I give you that you love one another just 00:17:09.079 --> 00:17:11.879 as I loved you, you are also to love one another. 00:17:11.879 --> 00:17:16.440 So it's the outworking of being Christians in community. 00:17:16.440 --> 00:17:20.359 And the first one is do not murder, that's handy, it's good to know, that we're not to 00:17:20.359 --> 00:17:26.279 murder each other in church, sometimes feel like it, maybe, but that's not what He wants 00:17:26.279 --> 00:17:27.279 for us. 00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:30.240 And maybe as you look at that commandment, you say, well, I'm okay on that one, never 00:17:30.240 --> 00:17:31.240 murdered anyone. 00:17:31.240 --> 00:17:34.879 Never been in front of the High Court for any kind of murder. 00:17:34.879 --> 00:17:39.959 And you think, fine, I've passed that particular law, I'm okay. 00:17:39.959 --> 00:17:41.559 But Jesus internalizes it. 00:17:41.559 --> 00:17:44.919 Well, He does three things, and He does this for both of them. 00:17:44.919 --> 00:17:50.119 He internalizes it, He exposes our heart, and He empowers us to change. 00:17:50.119 --> 00:17:57.919 So He internalizes it and reminds us, when He says, you've heard it said, you shall not 00:17:57.919 --> 00:18:01.439 murder whoever murders your libel to judgment, but I say to you, everyone who is angry with 00:18:01.439 --> 00:18:05.000 his brother's libel to judgment, whoever insults his brother will be libel to the council, 00:18:05.000 --> 00:18:09.000 whoever says you fool will be libel to the hell of fire. 00:18:09.000 --> 00:18:11.679 So it's strong stuff, He's internalizing it. 00:18:11.679 --> 00:18:16.119 And He's reminding us that it's not about just our outward behavior, the fact that we've 00:18:16.119 --> 00:18:24.079 never been in front of the High Court, but He's moving into our heart and into our motives. 00:18:24.079 --> 00:18:29.319 And He's using a very deliberate word, where He uses the word angry there. 00:18:29.319 --> 00:18:37.199 And it's a word that kind of speaks of brooding anger deep in our kind of being, a brooding 00:18:37.199 --> 00:18:41.039 rage that is in us, almost a disposition. 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:44.199 There were angry people inside. 00:18:44.200 --> 00:18:51.519 We may not have faced the courts of the land, but we are guilty before the court of heaven, 00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:53.000 which is very radical, isn't it? 00:18:53.000 --> 00:18:55.519 It's a much higher standard. 00:18:55.519 --> 00:18:57.799 And He exposes, why does He expose it? 00:18:57.799 --> 00:18:59.480 Because He says it's ugly. 00:18:59.480 --> 00:19:02.680 The uncontrolled anger in our... 00:19:02.680 --> 00:19:08.279 However we present outwardly, in uncontrolled anger inwardly is ugly. 00:19:08.279 --> 00:19:15.119 In verse 22, He talks about, in some of the translation, it uses the word raka, which 00:19:15.119 --> 00:19:19.119 is an Aramaic word that was used. 00:19:19.119 --> 00:19:28.119 It was a contemptuous word, which was a real insult to use in His day. 00:19:28.119 --> 00:19:29.119 And He's speaking about... 00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:30.119 Remember what He's speaking about here? 00:19:30.119 --> 00:19:35.119 He's speaking primarily about how we respond to one another as believers, although it has 00:19:35.119 --> 00:19:38.160 a wider implication, of course. 00:19:38.160 --> 00:19:42.720 If you're really contemptible in the way you speak about or think about another Christian, 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:48.480 or if you call them a fool, now that again has a much stronger connotation than maybe 00:19:48.480 --> 00:19:50.680 our understanding of that word. 00:19:50.680 --> 00:19:51.880 And so doing your... 00:19:51.880 --> 00:19:58.440 It's where the root word for moron comes from, moronic, where you would bring it to 00:19:58.440 --> 00:20:04.120 question the whole inward thinking of that fellow believer that they couldn't possibly 00:20:04.120 --> 00:20:07.640 be really a believer in thinking in the right way at all. 00:20:07.640 --> 00:20:12.520 A very aggressively hateful attitude. 00:20:12.520 --> 00:20:16.640 And He's exposing that and said, that's the opposite of how we should be in church. 00:20:16.640 --> 00:20:18.600 Sorry, I'm not just in church. 00:20:18.600 --> 00:20:20.120 In Christian community. 00:20:20.120 --> 00:20:24.360 He said, murder is its final outworking. 00:20:24.360 --> 00:20:29.320 But bitterness is bad for relationships within the Christian community. 00:20:29.320 --> 00:20:34.120 So if you think, or if I think, it's okay as Christians just to look good on the outside 00:20:34.119 --> 00:20:40.359 in terms of how we think of others, but really to sometimes find that what we're like on 00:20:40.359 --> 00:20:44.919 the inside is exposed by how we talk about people, whether we talk about them cheaply 00:20:44.919 --> 00:20:50.319 or bitterly or judgmentally or contemptibly, then we're revealing a heart that's not right 00:20:50.319 --> 00:20:52.239 with God, that isn't dealing with God. 00:20:52.239 --> 00:20:55.279 We just don't get it. 00:20:55.279 --> 00:21:00.399 We don't get our own need and the darkness and blackness of our own hearts that need 00:21:00.399 --> 00:21:01.559 to be cleansed. 00:21:01.559 --> 00:21:06.200 And it's no use just finding fault and pointing the finger at other people because there's 00:21:06.200 --> 00:21:09.279 always three fingers pointing back at ourselves. 00:21:09.279 --> 00:21:12.159 And that always should be our attitude as Christians. 00:21:12.159 --> 00:21:16.799 He internalizes it, He exposes it, and then He empowers us to be different. 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:20.839 Now, did you notice a subtle change as we go through this? 00:21:20.839 --> 00:21:26.079 He talks about being angry on the inside and the judgment that we will face because we're 00:21:26.079 --> 00:21:29.279 not recognizing our need for a heart change. 00:21:29.279 --> 00:21:33.839 Many says, so if you're going to offer a gift and the altar and remember that your brother 00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:39.160 is something against you, first be reconciled to your brother. 00:21:39.160 --> 00:21:43.000 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you're going with him to court. 00:21:43.000 --> 00:21:49.960 And it's moving from the angry heart of the individual to the fact that we may be causing 00:21:49.960 --> 00:21:58.240 anger in a brother and they're angry with us for how we're acting and offends that we 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:00.000 might have caused. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:07.120 And He says therefore, if you're to be so sensitive and so aware of how you're acting 00:22:07.120 --> 00:22:13.160 that if you have caused offence or if you've triggered someone to be angry because of what 00:22:13.160 --> 00:22:18.079 you've done and said, you have to be wise and sensitive enough to go and make that right. 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:20.880 In other words, He said, you take the first step. 00:22:20.880 --> 00:22:25.000 We are to be first responders as Christians. 00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:28.400 In other words, what we're not to say is, huh, He started it. 00:22:28.400 --> 00:22:31.559 I'll just wait for Him or her. 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:33.400 I'll just wait for them to put it right. 00:22:33.400 --> 00:22:39.000 They're the ones that, no, you're recognizing that there's probably something in me that 00:22:39.000 --> 00:22:42.680 has caused the division or the separation. 00:22:42.680 --> 00:22:43.680 Maybe it's not that much. 00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:49.640 Maybe the offence on the other part is much greater, but you still take the first step. 00:22:49.640 --> 00:22:54.759 You seek, reconcile, why do we do that? 00:22:54.759 --> 00:22:57.520 Because that's what Jesus did with us. 00:22:57.520 --> 00:22:59.440 He took the first step. 00:22:59.440 --> 00:23:02.000 He takes the first step. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:03.680 He's willing to be wronged. 00:23:03.680 --> 00:23:04.680 He moves forward. 00:23:04.680 --> 00:23:07.440 That's our experience of God's forgiveness. 00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:09.240 We are de-escalators. 00:23:09.240 --> 00:23:14.000 That's what we are to be because Jesus is de-escalated by going to the cross for us. 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:18.280 He's de-escalated our need before the living God. 00:23:18.279 --> 00:23:20.519 So do not murder. 00:23:20.519 --> 00:23:21.519 Takes it internally. 00:23:21.519 --> 00:23:23.759 So that affects us all. 00:23:23.759 --> 00:23:25.799 But then He also says, do not commit adultery. 00:23:25.799 --> 00:23:29.480 Well, I may be a bit more awkward on that one. 00:23:29.480 --> 00:23:34.839 You might not have murdered, but well, well, you might be saying, well, I haven't done 00:23:34.839 --> 00:23:35.839 that either. 00:23:35.839 --> 00:23:38.399 Well, at least not with someone who's married. 00:23:38.399 --> 00:23:41.839 Yeah, okay, I'm not perfect. 00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:42.960 Just natural right of sex. 00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:48.640 So I may have done that. 00:23:48.640 --> 00:23:53.039 But more than any other area and sense in the world in which we live today, this is a challenge 00:23:53.039 --> 00:23:58.079 to us as believers to recognize that God is Lord of our lives. 00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:09.559 It requires a different ethical and moral understanding of sexuality than is prevalent 00:24:09.559 --> 00:24:12.319 in the world in which we live. 00:24:12.319 --> 00:24:17.960 So I guess in many ways, and I'm going to be very general here about the prevailing opinion 00:24:17.960 --> 00:24:22.799 in society, about sex is generally purely a biological act. 00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:28.960 It's natural, however you would define natural, and that God is anti-sex. 00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:33.159 And Christians are Victorian and hypocritical in their ideas. 00:24:33.159 --> 00:24:36.519 And maybe sometimes we are. 00:24:36.519 --> 00:24:41.639 But I think if we are, then that's because we don't understand sex and sexuality as 00:24:41.640 --> 00:24:51.360 God's gift, as God, as the Creator, and underestimate its significance and its power. 00:24:51.360 --> 00:24:55.080 Because the Bible eulogizes sex as God's gift. 00:24:55.080 --> 00:24:59.280 There's a whole book about it in the Old Testament, the Song of Solomon. 00:24:59.280 --> 00:25:01.120 It's all about sexual love. 00:25:01.120 --> 00:25:05.200 And in the context of that book. 00:25:05.200 --> 00:25:06.759 And it's God's gift. 00:25:06.759 --> 00:25:11.520 And when God made Adam and Eve together at the very beginning, He said, this is good 00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:14.720 when they were joined together. 00:25:14.720 --> 00:25:20.759 And but what we realize, and what we see, and what Jesus is getting to hear is that 00:25:20.759 --> 00:25:27.559 it's given as an expression of love within the context of covenant, within the context 00:25:27.559 --> 00:25:28.559 of commitment. 00:25:28.559 --> 00:25:35.599 Not within the context legally of marriage, as we understand that now. 00:25:35.599 --> 00:25:44.279 But the primacy behind that is commitment and intimacy and promise and vows and covenant. 00:25:44.279 --> 00:25:49.439 I can't think of a word to update to covenant, but it's not a word. 00:25:49.439 --> 00:25:55.959 We use that often, but it's such a uniquely good commitment word that reflects God's commitment 00:25:55.959 --> 00:25:59.319 and covenant to us in salvation. 00:25:59.319 --> 00:26:06.240 So much so that marriage, the husband and wife is related to love of Christ for His church. 00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:10.720 And so it's covenant as opposed to consumerist. 00:26:10.720 --> 00:26:12.839 That may be the best way to describe it. 00:26:12.839 --> 00:26:16.960 We move from a consumerist idea of sex, which is what I can get from it and what is good 00:26:16.960 --> 00:26:23.119 for me and what can be used in a move on context to a covenant where it's seen in the context 00:26:23.119 --> 00:26:32.399 of intimacy, commitment, sacrifice and service, which is maybe very different. 00:26:32.399 --> 00:26:38.119 So the ad is rather that, who can give me what I want when I want it? 00:26:38.119 --> 00:26:44.639 And is the current what I'm getting good enough or do I move on somewhere else? 00:26:44.639 --> 00:26:48.719 I think a good and helpful quote is from a book that I use quite a lot when I'm going 00:26:48.719 --> 00:26:51.839 through marriage counseling or marriage preparation. 00:26:51.839 --> 00:26:56.639 A guy called Mike Mason said, to be naked with another person is a sort of, I think 00:26:56.639 --> 00:27:01.399 I've used it here before, sort of picture or symbolic demonstration of perfect honesty, 00:27:01.399 --> 00:27:04.439 perfect trust, perfect giving and commitment. 00:27:04.439 --> 00:27:08.279 And if the heart is not naked along with the body, then the whole action becomes a lie 00:27:08.279 --> 00:27:10.199 and a mockery. 00:27:10.199 --> 00:27:14.519 It becomes an involvement and an absurd and tragic contradiction, the giving of the body, 00:27:14.519 --> 00:27:17.439 but the withholding of the self. 00:27:17.439 --> 00:27:21.559 It is in effect the very last step in human relations and therefore never one to be taken 00:27:21.559 --> 00:27:22.559 lightly. 00:27:22.559 --> 00:27:29.599 It's not a step which establishes deep intimacy, but one which presupposes it. 00:27:29.599 --> 00:27:34.519 And that highlights some of what Jesus is saying here. 00:27:34.519 --> 00:27:40.000 It's a hugely spiritual reality reflected in the love of Christ for His church. 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:46.480 There's creational, relational, redemptive genesis of new community and family. 00:27:46.480 --> 00:27:49.679 And so it's very complex and very deep. 00:27:49.680 --> 00:27:53.960 So Jesus is doing the same thing here as He did with murder. 00:27:53.960 --> 00:27:58.840 He's internalizing it, He's exposing it and He's empowering us. 00:27:58.840 --> 00:28:03.640 So He's internalizing it again and saying, you know, you've heard it said, you shall 00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:05.200 not commit adultery. 00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:08.240 But I say to you that everyone who looks at women with lustful intent has already committed 00:28:08.240 --> 00:28:10.360 adultery within our heart. 00:28:10.360 --> 00:28:19.519 So He's talking about our thought life and our imagination and our heart and seeing how 00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:27.200 that can so often trigger destructive and divisive behavior. 00:28:27.200 --> 00:28:30.279 So it's not about acknowledging beauty. 00:28:30.279 --> 00:28:34.519 It's a much deeper malaise, He's speaking about you, because He exposes it with, again, 00:28:34.519 --> 00:28:41.920 with that word, lustful intent, a very strong word. 00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:51.600 It's a word that's about deeply, deeply desiring something that you need to get at all costs. 00:28:51.600 --> 00:28:53.880 That's really what the word means. 00:28:53.880 --> 00:28:59.200 It's used in the Old Testament quite often with regard to idolatry, you know, lusting 00:28:59.200 --> 00:29:02.759 after foreign gods. 00:29:02.759 --> 00:29:07.360 What it becomes therefore, what is preeminent in our lives, what takes first place. 00:29:07.360 --> 00:29:09.200 It's all that matters. 00:29:09.200 --> 00:29:15.319 I need to have, I need to get this, I need to ditch this relationship and get into another 00:29:15.319 --> 00:29:16.319 one. 00:29:16.319 --> 00:29:17.319 That is what will bring me happiness. 00:29:17.319 --> 00:29:18.819 That is what will bring me contentment. 00:29:18.819 --> 00:29:22.200 I've made a mistake in this and I'll go for that. 00:29:22.200 --> 00:29:30.759 And it's that focus on what will bring you ultimate peace and ultimate joy and ultimate 00:29:30.759 --> 00:29:31.759 contentment. 00:29:31.759 --> 00:29:39.160 It's often idealistic and it can be self-centered because it's getting what I want at all costs. 00:29:39.160 --> 00:29:46.240 And in the context of adultery, and I think God, Jesus is broadening out here beyond a 00:29:46.240 --> 00:29:50.160 tight technical explanation of adultery. 00:29:50.160 --> 00:29:55.560 But in adultery, He's decrying the attitude in the Christian faith, in the Christian church 00:29:55.560 --> 00:30:03.400 with those who believe that Christ is their Lord and God, saying that it's worth throwing 00:30:03.400 --> 00:30:08.800 away what God has given me and the vows that I've taken and the relations that I have in 00:30:08.799 --> 00:30:13.240 order to get what I need and what I want and what's important at this point. 00:30:13.240 --> 00:30:17.440 You know, destroying what God has brought together. 00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:22.279 And Jesus is saying, that's destructive of love. 00:30:22.279 --> 00:30:26.000 It's not what will bring the satisfaction and the peace and the longing that we're looking 00:30:26.000 --> 00:30:27.000 for. 00:30:27.000 --> 00:30:35.799 It's throwing away all that we have vowed and sought to do in order for something else. 00:30:35.799 --> 00:30:41.440 And it can leave so often, can't it, a sense of despair and failure and guilt and suffering 00:30:41.440 --> 00:30:45.240 and insecurity and division. 00:30:45.240 --> 00:30:46.559 And it's that expectation. 00:30:46.559 --> 00:30:53.680 And a believer, it's an expectation of finding in another relationship the ultimate satisfaction 00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:59.440 that can only be found in our foundational relationship with Jesus Christ through the 00:30:59.440 --> 00:31:05.319 Holy Spirit and in using the gifts He's given us, the way He intends to use us. 00:31:05.319 --> 00:31:12.159 But I think it can be broadened to not just pure adultery at that level, but also to pornography 00:31:12.159 --> 00:31:18.960 example because pornography moves completely away from that ideal of sexuality as God 00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:20.159 gifts it to us. 00:31:20.159 --> 00:31:25.759 It does the complete opposite of what God intends in community and in sacrificial giving 00:31:25.759 --> 00:31:27.919 to and for one another. 00:31:27.919 --> 00:31:33.799 It's detached, it's isolating, it's impersonal, it's consumerist, it's exploitative, it's 00:31:33.799 --> 00:31:41.359 objectifying, it's shallowing, it's desensitizing, it's creating unrealistic expectations and 00:31:41.359 --> 00:31:43.440 so we could go on. 00:31:43.440 --> 00:31:49.000 And we recognize the huge reality and problem of pornography in the world in which we live 00:31:49.000 --> 00:31:57.519 today and how it's destroying relationships and destroying love and separating people 00:31:57.519 --> 00:32:03.599 rather than God's ideal which is that we love Him and love one another which we can't do. 00:32:03.599 --> 00:32:08.359 Unless we're dependent on Him and come to Him for salvation. 00:32:08.359 --> 00:32:15.480 And so He empowers also in this particular area using very strong but you'll be glad 00:32:15.480 --> 00:32:20.439 to know symbolic and imagery language when He talks about, you're right, I cause you 00:32:20.439 --> 00:32:24.599 to sin, tear out and throw it away, better to lose one body than throw a body, be thrown 00:32:24.599 --> 00:32:27.719 into hell and you're right hand cause you sin, cut it off. 00:32:27.720 --> 00:32:40.160 He's got literal, he's just using radical, powerful imagery to its extreme to remind 00:32:40.160 --> 00:32:49.200 us that sexual desire with us is a very, very strong power and it takes within us the drastic 00:32:49.200 --> 00:33:00.200 power of God's Holy Spirit and our commitment to live within His parameters and enjoy His 00:33:00.200 --> 00:33:05.440 gift at the right time in the right way in the way He intended. 00:33:05.440 --> 00:33:13.360 God's blueprint is a challenge, huge challenge and we need, it's hard to disentangle it from 00:33:13.359 --> 00:33:21.559 abuse and from selfishness and the Christian life does involve for all of us some in different 00:33:21.559 --> 00:33:30.439 ways, singleness, married, in different ways it's a life where we need the grace of discipline, 00:33:30.439 --> 00:33:35.039 the recognition of cost and self denial and forgiveness. 00:33:35.039 --> 00:33:40.119 It's not this kind of amazing standard that we need to do to please God, it's recognizing 00:33:40.119 --> 00:33:45.839 that we will fail and fall and stumble but by His grace and by Himself putting everything 00:33:45.839 --> 00:33:51.399 in place that enables us to walk His way because it's a way of blessing and that's 00:33:51.399 --> 00:33:53.199 a huge challenge for us. 00:33:53.199 --> 00:34:01.959 You'll hear a completely different message, 99% of the week to which you've entered and 00:34:01.959 --> 00:34:07.559 even from within our own heart which says, no, I want to do things my way. 00:34:07.559 --> 00:34:12.039 Well I hope and I pray that Christ has got your attention this morning, certainly got 00:34:12.039 --> 00:34:22.639 mine and reminded me of the impossibility, I'm impossibly lost without His work of reconciliation 00:34:22.639 --> 00:34:29.000 in my heart and that I need every day Jesus Christ as my Savior otherwise if you don't 00:34:29.000 --> 00:34:31.440 you're on the road to destruction. 00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:35.840 All the signs are there, all the division, all the hatred, all the separation, all the 00:34:35.840 --> 00:34:37.760 bitterness, all the abuse, it's all there. 00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:42.200 So there are no hearts in this society in which you live and the challenge is to turn 00:34:42.200 --> 00:34:50.800 to Jesus afresh and find His, the battle of grace working out victory in our lives. 00:34:50.800 --> 00:34:53.039 Let's pray. 00:34:53.039 --> 00:34:57.200 Father God we ask and pray that you would help us to live for you and live with you 00:34:57.200 --> 00:34:59.000 and live in you. 00:34:59.000 --> 00:35:06.639 As our Creator you have given us all good things to enjoy, the reminders of that, celebrate 00:35:06.639 --> 00:35:12.119 that, love that, the reminders we are in a broken world and our hearts are broken and 00:35:12.119 --> 00:35:20.599 need to be made whole and need to be transformed and rebuilt by your grace and love so that 00:35:20.599 --> 00:35:28.760 we live that sacrificial life of love loving you and loving one another, a life of committed 00:35:28.760 --> 00:35:38.800 service and servitude to each other because we've seen Jesus serving and being, having 00:35:38.800 --> 00:35:41.760 an attitude of servitude towards us. 00:35:41.760 --> 00:35:48.160 So help us we pray, bless us today, bless us, really bless tonight as well, our praise, 00:35:48.160 --> 00:35:53.120 Sam praise and it would be an opportunity for many people to invite friends in and here 00:35:53.119 --> 00:36:00.039 a simple message from the living Word as well as sing from the Word and hear it in different 00:36:00.039 --> 00:36:09.880 ways and may we be just alert to that reality of God this evening as well. 00:36:09.880 --> 00:36:26.920 For Jesus' sake, amen.