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Mike Berry · Scripture · October 28, 2018
All right. So, we're gonna be looking at the Sermon on the Mount. The question that we're gonna, one of the questions we're proposing this morning is, what is the purpose or intended outcome of the Sermon on the Mount? As you guys, I'm sure most of you guys know this.
Hey, how's it going? The Sermon on the Mount is, it's a famous section of scripture, right? Let's see if I can get this up. One of the most Famous passages in the Bible, it gets, in fact, it's, it's brought a lot of, phrases into just common culture.
And as we'll see. this morning. Like blessed are the poor in spirit and Our blessed are the meek, right? We hear phrases like that.
Hey, Katie. Hey, Katie Barry, Joshua is calling me. Would you wanna call him, call him back? Just tell him I started, I just started my lesson.
Well, let's go ahead and pray and then we will, we'll jump into things. Lord, we thank you so much for your kindness and goodness to us. We ask Father, that you would just open up your word to us as we As we, study it, we know that we need the aid of your spirit. This is not like any other form of study.
we can read the words on the page and understand the grammar and yet completely miss the import and meaning. And so we pray that you would aid us, Lord, that you would convict us where we need to be convicted, that you would comfort us where there needs to be comfort, and we know that your spirit is obviously discerning and wise in that respect and So, bring us to a place of poverty of spirit, help us to grow and that we thank you for your patience and mercy as you do so in Christ's name, we pray.
Amen. All right.
So, let's, let's delve in here. We're calling this lesson Jesus teaches, so we're getting a, a good overview of some of his teaching. And next week, we'll hit Jesus defends his honor and then we'll move through this, this quarter. So, let's do a little bit of review.
Last week, what key ideas did we take away from, studying how Jesus responded to the Pharisees and Sadducees. Anything that you guys remember as Jesus was interacting with those Two groups. Say it again. He's mad at them?
Yeah, we do. Well, we do see, yeah, him at times getting very amped up, right? Brutal vipers. In last week's material, do you guys, there's a phrase that gets repeated over and over again.
Anybody remember? What that phrase is. There you go. All right, brownie point for Larry.
That's good. I know, what do they call it? We'll give you a Iana ticket. Wanna, wanna money.
Have you not read? So this happens a lot as he's interacting with the Pharisees. We talked about he's interacting with the traditions of the religious left. Who are the group that we would describe as the religious left?
Yeah, so the Sadducees, what did the Sadducees not affirm? Yeah, the resurrection and and then angels and, and the soul and things like that. And so they try to set up this little verbal sophistry to trap Jesus, right? Like, can you make a rock so big that can God make a rock so big that he can't lift it?
So they set up this little story about marriage and, and so Jesus basically says, there's two things that you guys don't understand. Anybody remember what those two things are? Or even just list one. And he says, you don't understand two things before he says that.
Tell you, I'll give you a little hint. One of it has to do with the Bible. So you don't understand the scriptures nor the. Power of God.
So, if you understood the scriptures, the power of God, then you wouldn't be making these arguments against the resurrection. So, then, he does refer to the scriptures, right? But he also gives us some new revelation establishing his own authority. Right?
And then he also, then he talks to about the traditions of the religious right. Who are the religious right? Say it again. Yeah, so the Pharisees, and what, what is it that the Pharisees affirm?
In the passage we looked at last week. Tradition Yeah, so they've got their traditions that they've added to the scripture, particularly about hand washing and washing of bowls and things like that. And why do your disciples, Jesus not wash their hands before they eat? And then he basically says, you guys aren't understanding the scriptures again.
You're adding to the scripture, in fact, and then he goes after them on some of the particulars that they're ignoring. they're giving little loopholes for honoring your mother and father. And so he hits them up on that. But let's ask, last week we asked the question, are traditions always wrong?
Does the Bible always take the word tradition and use it negatively? No, it does not. I see you guys shaking your heads. I see those heads there.
Yeah, the tradition can be used very positively as a synonym for the gospel. The gospel has been handed down. Paul talks about the traditions that he handed down and that they were believing. but when traditions are outside of scripture, and they begin to take the place or they supersede scripture, now we've Houston, we have a problem, right?
and then we talked about last week some of our own traditions that could supersede scripture. It's not bad to have policy and traditions as long as you're not putting them on par with justification, sanctification, so on and so forth. All right. So that's in a nutshell what we talked about last week.
Today, we're going to continue looking at how Jesus pointed to God's standard of righteousness in His word. And as he taught what we know as the sermon. On the mount. So let's open up to Matthew 5.
Matthew chapter 5. First 17. We're gonna pick it up at verse 17 and following. And I, I want you guys to ask me this question later in case I forget.
later on, after we're done looking at the first section of the Sermon on the Mount, I want somebody to ask me, who's all that? Everybody say that. Who's all that? Right?
That's an old phrase from the 90s, right? I don't think kids use that anymore. Back in the 90s, kids used to say, He's all that, yeah, who's all that in a bag of chips? He's all that, she's all that.
I'm all that. So we're gonna ask in a second, who's all that? What are we gonna ask? Who's all that?
OK, so let's start. We, we could study the whole Sermon on the Mount, but then we'd be here for 3 hours. So we're gonna pick it up. At verse 17, right after the Beatitudes, but I lied.
Let's actually read verse 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. So it starts off with Jesus talking to his disciples. He gets into these things called the Beatitudes, verse 3, blessed are the Poor.
He takes basically everything that we would consider. Here's a, here's a person who's really happy. Here's a person who's had providential blessing in their life. Here's a person who's fortunate.
It would be the rich, the happy, the proud, those who have a lot of food, and so on and so forth, those who can go out and just enjoy pleasures, worldly pleasures. Jesus turns all that on his head, starting with this phrase, blessed are the poor in spirit. The poor in spirit. And then from that basis, it begs the question, Jesus doesn't answer the question directly, but it's kinda like once you read through the Beatitudes, you're kinda like left with the question, how do I get that?
How do I become all that? How do I become poor in spirit? If, if, if the person who is poor in spirit is the one who inherits the kingdom of heaven, in other words, this is the one that moves into the kingdom. In other words, this is the one that gets to go into eternal life.
How do I become poor in spirit so I can move into eternal life? That's a good question. Jesus never answers that question directly. He, he answers it by implication in the Sermon on the Mount.
And so, let's move over to verse 17 and let's keep that question in mind. How can I become poor in spirit and thereby enter into the kingdom of heaven? So we move to verse 17. Jesus says this, do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.
I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Let's just leave it right there. What did Jesus, what did Jesus come to do in regard to the law and the prophets? To fulfill it.
OK, so we gotta ask this question, what does that mean? He didn't come to destroy it. Sometimes you hear Christians speaking as if the law of Moses and the prophets, like, that's the Old Testament. We don't, we don't need to think about the Old Testament.
Jesus says, I didn't come to destroy the Old Testament, particularly the law of Moses and the prophets. I came to fulfill it. Let me ask you the question. what is the subject of, so, I did not come.
To destroy, but to fulfill. You have this verb phrase in there, I did not come to destroy, come to fulfill. What is the subject of the verb phrase, come to fulfill? What's the subject of come to fulfill?
Say it again. OK. So is the law coming to fulfill the law? Jesus.
Yeah, if you're not, if you, if you're ever not sure what to say, just do as kids in Sunday school say, Jesus, right? So, Jesus, I have come, I did not come to destroy, but I have come to fulfill. So, right out the gate, the fulfiller of the law, according to verse 17 is whom? Jesus, let's keep that in mind.
Jesus came to fulfill. Verse 18, for assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jaw or one tittle will by no means pass from the law. So will the law pass away before heaven and earth, quote unquote pass away? No, a good answer, good answer.
No. So the law and the prophets will continue until the passing away of heaven and earth. We won't, we won't really get into that phrase. There's debates about what exactly that means.
It's a little beyond the scope of the study. Until all is fulfilled. Who's gonna fulfill the law and the prophets? Jesus.
So, verse 17, you read down into verse 18 until all gets fulfilled, Jesus fulfills the law of the prophets. Verse 19, whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men to do so, shall be called the least in the kingdom. Whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Let me ask you a question.
how many commandments need to be broken to be considered the least in the kingdom? One, whoever breaks one, not one big command, but one of the littlest commands. Think of just some of those obscure commands in the Old Testament. You're reading through your Old Testament, you're reading through Leviticus, and there's a command about not shaving the sides of your beard.
Wear tassels on your clothing. Don't boil a goat in its mother's milk. I haven't done that recently. So I'm doing pretty good right there.
But you break one of the least of the commandments, and you are considered least in the kingdom of heaven. Now, the word least the kingdom of heaven, there's different ways that people interpret it. Some people would say it's like you're a low man on the totem pole when we get into the kingdom. Others would say it's basically, it's an idiom or synonymous with the idea of you don't go to heaven, you're not part of, to be considered least would be you're not even a part of the family.
we, we're not gonna get into that little debate right here, but what we are gonna talk about is, but whoever does and teaches implied them, that's not in the Greek, but whoever does and teaches, he shall be called great in the kingdom. So, there's a little bit of implication here in the language and the grammar. Whoever breaks one will be considered least. Whoever does and teaches, implied them will be considered great in the kingdom.
So, so let me ask you a question. If you break one command, you're the least. How many commands do you think are implied that you must keep in order to be considered great? Yeah, the implication, I think is all here.
You've got this back and forth of one equals least, something equals great. You get those questions on your SAT exams, right? You take these little exams and stuff where it says, fill in the missing word. One, break one command, you are the least, break blank commands, you are the greatest.
It would be something at least multiple, right? You'd feel like it's at least multiple and most commentators would say the implication here is all, all of them. So whoever does and teaches all of them shall be considered great in the kingdom. Verse 20.
For I say to you, That unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, now actually, we're getting a little bit of clarity on what's implied there, OK? Whoever is, whoever breaks one is the least. Whoever does something is the greatest. Now, illustration, you must be like the, the scribes and Pharisees.
Did the scribes and Pharisees try to keep some of the commands or all of the commands? All of the commands. They tried to keep all of them, not just what's in the law of Moses, but also what's in what we call the Mishnah and, and so on. And so, so I say to you, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means, he doesn't say, be the greatest in the kingdom.
Now, what does he say? You will by no means what? Enter the kingdom. If you break one command, you're considered the least.
If you keep all the commands, you're considered great. But if your righteousness doesn't exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you don't even get in. To the kingdom and the understanding here of kingdom would equal eternal state. All right?
Don't think heaven here. Think eternal life on into the future, on into the eternal state, past the final judgment, and so on and so forth. Let's phrase this in may, maybe a little bit more of a modern way, and I'm saying this for the common person like you guys might object to this as Christians, but if you just ask, talk to the regular person out there and you said to them, you have to be better than Mother Teresa to go to heaven. Or you have to be better than a monk or a saint to go to heaven.
What would that make them think? Do they have any chance of going to heaven? No, the average person out there who doesn't know a whole lot about religion, say, if I've got to be better than Mother Teresa to go to heaven, I'm, I'm, I'm doomed. There's no, there's no possibility of this.
And so how do you think the disciples fell after verses 17 to 20? Yeah, this is not how to win friends and influence people. This, this would not make me feel good about myself. Would it make you feel good about yourself?
No. This is not what Doctor Spock taught back in the 1960s, right? About how to build up children's self-esteem. And so, this would, this would leave us in a, in a pretty, pretty bad state.
But beyond that, let's keep going now. In verse 21, Jesus starts his first phrase that happens repeatedly in this sermon. He says, you have read that it was said. Now, this phrase gets said several times in different ways in verse 27, 31, 33, 38, 43.
He says, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder. And whoever murders will be in danger of judgment of the judgment. Now, the word judgment is gonna be used a couple of different times in this context. Here, it probably means you shall not murder, otherwise, you're gonna go to court and be liable to capital punishment.
In, in all likelihood, that's basically what's being spoken of here. every, every good Jew was taught, you don't murder, and we all know that, right? Everybody, everybody who's a good Christian, everybody who's a good American, you can always say, well, most of us will say, well, at least I haven't murdered anybody. Right?
And if you feel like you haven't murdered anybody, that you're, you're a pretty good person. We watch these terrible things happen on the news like yesterday yesterday in Pittsburgh, and this is a terrible person. This person deserves capital punishment. And we can all say, I've never done that, right?
So, so I must be OK. But then Jesus, this is the way he always follows us up. But I say to you, he says that again in verse 28, 32, 34, 39, and 44, but I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother, some of your translations add the phrase without cause. There's question marks about whether that really belongs in the text or not.
Some of you don't have that. shall be in danger of the judgment. Whoever is angry with his brother will be in danger of the judgment. I wanna, I, I would say implied the judgment of God there because no court in human history that I know of in, in, in, in Jewish history for sure would arrest somebody for getting angry, right?
So the first one, you could say, probably judgment, like going to court for murder. Nobody gets arrested for getting angry, but Jesus says, you should be afraid of judgment. And whoever says to his brother Raqqa shall be in danger of the counsel, that gets translated as counsel or Sanhedrin. Sanhedrin is the Hebrew, basically that means counsel.
So I, I think here, some commentators debate this, but I think this actually also means God's judgment. but whoever says you fool shall be in danger of hellfire. some people see a gradation, some people see this as all level. It's just basically judgment, judgment, hellfire.
It's all equal. If you're angry, let me give you an example. If you say Raqqa, if you say you fool, you're all equally in, in, in danger of hellfire. Let's talk about the word Raqqa.
That basically is the equivalent of like, it's Aramaic for like hole in the head. it'd be, you, you got a hole in your head. it's not like a curse word. It's not like you would hear this word and be like.
It's just like, and then the other word, they're fool is in the Greek, it leads to our modern word moron. You moron. You idiot. And and neither of these words, like I could say these in church and none of you guys are like, oh my goodness, Pastor Barry just cussed.
No, but if you say this to someone in anger, yeah, that's offensive, right? So, think about this. These aren't really bad words and Jesus says, you say these things in anger and you're worthy of hellfire. What about somebody who breaks out into all kinds of curse words?
What about, really, really bad words that we watch on television that come out of our own mouths? If we're worthy of hell for just calling somebody a fool, what are we worthy of if we use other F words, right? Think about that. I don't know about you, but I've, I, I've used, there's been many times where I've said things to my children out of anger that were cruel and, and, and, but they weren't, they weren't cuss words, right?
I remember when I was, and I've probably told this story, so you can stop me if you're bored of it, but when I was a younger person, I was moving into my teen years, my dad used to say something to the effect of Michael Scott. You had a better head in your shoulders when you were 9 years old. You've got your head so far up blank, you can't see straight. And I'd be like, that is very cruel.
I would never say or even think anything like that towards any of my children. That is so mean. I would never, ever, ever think or say anything like that. And then my own, one of my sons got to around 1213 years old, and the thought occurred to me, son, you had a better head on your shoulders when you were such and such age.
I don't know where your head is. And it never came out of my mouth, but I wanted to say it. It was in my heart. And I called my dad a couple of days later.
I said, Dad, do you remember when you used to say this to me? He goes, Oh yeah, I remember that. And I said, I completely understand now. I have no bitterness.
I for I forgive you. And he laughed. He said, Don't worry, they grow, they grow out of it. And, I can make, I can make fun of that and tell a funny story.
But look at what Jesus is saying. Just the fact that that was in my heart, that there was anger in my heart towards my child, even legitimately so. Makes me in danger of hellfire. how many times this last month have I been driving around on the freeway and I've said either out loud or in my heart, you idiot, either to myself or to somebody else, right?
but Jesus, I think it's no big deal. Jesus says, you think that murder is wrong. You're right. I'm telling you, saying moron will send you to hell.
Saying fool will send you to hell. And what, how should this, how should this make, how do you think the disciples felt when they heard this teaching from Jesus? Well, maybe convicted. I don't know about you, but when I've read this passage in the past, I've been looking for the secret meaning behind the text, like these must be really bad cuss words.
Like in the Hebrew Greek, these must be really terrible words for Jesus to make this statement, for him to say they're worthy to go to hell. This must be the equivalent of some of the worst cuss words in the English language. I'm here to tell you, they're not. These were like acceptable words in Hebrew culture.
Just like there's acceptable curses and acceptable terms, insults in our culture. Jesus saying, you can go to hell for acceptable insults if there's anger in your heart. You're angry towards someone, you insult them with an acceptable, socially acceptable word, it makes you culpable of hell. The intent, I think what, what we should feel is like, Jesus, are you being a little persnickety here?
This feels This feels wrong. How could anybody match this standard? I get angry all the time and say, accept socially acceptable, insults and, and you're telling me that makes me worthy of hell. And then he goes on, and we have to really read this in context.
He goes on and now gives a further illustration, you've gotten angry with somebody, you said a socially acceptable insult to them. It's not any big deal to you. But then in verse 23, therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and they remember that your brother has something against you. So the idea would be is you've come to make your sacrifice.
Now suddenly you realize that thing that you were stuffing down, somebody did something and, and you realize they're probably still upset about that. Here's what you should do. Leave your gift there before the altar. Go your way, first be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift.
Agree with your adversary quickly while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer and you'll be thrown into prison. Again, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the last penny. Let's consider the context here. What's the context?
Is, is he worried about being thrown into prison because he's murdered somebody? No, he said Raqqa. He said, you fool. And suddenly, now he's in worship, and, and, and this isn't like, like you live over here in the corner, you roll out of bed and come over to Cornerstone at the last minute.
This is like, you have to get up early and get the, the beast out to the To the worship center or, or whatever it is, the grain offering. Let's assume it's an animal. This is a lot of time, it's a lot of work. You go down there to the temple, you're about ready to have the sacrifice, and then the Lord, something comes to your mind.
Oh, I, I called so and so a fool. They're probably still smarting about that. Oh well, I'll take care of it later. How many times do we do that, right?
How many times do you show up at church, that maybe you or your spouse or your child, you guys had a little argument on the way to church. It wasn't that big of a deal, but when you really think about it, they're probably still upset, but you're like. It's not that big of a deal. And so you just continue on in the worship service.
Jesus says, in reality, let's talk about cold hard reality here. you should be arrested and thrown into jail. Now what is Jesus talking about? Is he talking about literally, you should be arrested and thrown into jail for having a fight with your wife before you come to church?
No, I, I think he's using an illustration here. I think this is meant to be taken illustratively within the context of the sermon. You've just called somebody a fool. You show up at church, you're ready to make your sacrifice.
Jesus is saying, leave that bowl at the altar, go and inconvenience yourself to go up to somebody and say, I'm sorry for calling you stupid and silly. Please forgive me and then go back and offer your bull. What should, what do you think the disciples, how do you think the disciples are, are res should respond to this? What's the expected response?
I think the expected response is, Jesus, are you really telling me that I'm gonna get, I should be thrown in jail for calling someone stupid and a fool? Are you really telling me that my, my, my little outburst of anger is so condemning that you don't want me to stay in worship and offer up the sacrifice? You've told us to offer sacrifices. Why are you telling me to leave this place of worship to go deal with some triviality like calling someone a fool?
or getting angry with someone and calling them a moron. This just doesn't There should be something about us that reads this and says, something is not computing here. But go back to verse 3 again of the same chapter. Blessed are who?
The poor in spirit, not the rich, the poor. Verse 4, blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who are meek or humble. Right from the very beginning, Jesus has set up a paradigm that says, I'm gonna tell you some things that are gonna sound the exact opposite of the way that you think it should be done.
And as we read through the Sermon on the Mount, that should, there should be a paradigm in our head. We should expect to hear things that sound unreasonable. Or they, it's like if you really measure our hearts against the full weight of the law, not just externally, but internally, it should make us feel very, very uncomfortable. And what is Jesus trying to do?
It seems like he's trying to drive us to the point of where we are recognizing how bad we really are. Let's finish the last few verses here. Look at verse 27. So he goes on, he says, you have heard that it was said.
We've already heard that phrase before. In old, you shall not commit adultery. Every Jew knew that he shouldn't commit adultery, says it in, both statements of the law, Deuteronomy 5, Acts 20. But I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to lust for her after already has committed adultery with her in his heart.
so now he's speaking to men. Why is, why is this command male exclusive, do you think? Is he saying that women don't have to worry about this particular command? No, Jesus.
What, who, who's the audience? Yes, he's talking to the disciples, right? So it makes sense why No, he's not. Look at verse one.
And seeing the multitudes, he went up to a mountain, and when he was seated, his disciples came to him. Then he opened his mouth and taught them. His disciples is the most close, closest antecedent. There are some people who think that it is the multitudes.
I would argue that the sermon on the plain is the multitudes. This one is to the disciples. Yeah. Yeah, well, yeah, we could, we could debate that later.
Yeah, they're, I don't wanna get into the cyclical aspect of his ministry and that the Sermon on the Mount was probably taught many, many, many times like you see on the sermon on the plain. I would argue that this is it was taught to the disciples first, but it's a cyclical sermon. And so Matthew is bringing in in verse 28 a cyclical aspect of the sermon that the response of the multitudes when they heard it at a later date, but that's no big deal. So, that's why when you get to Luke, you see almost the same material, but it sounds different at points because Jesus is teaching this stuff over and over and over again.
But that has nothing to do with our main point. The main point is this, that Jesus, he's developing this poor poverty of spirit stuff. He comes to verse 2028. He says, whoever looks at a woman to lust after her, the reason it's male-specific here is because his primary audience is males, doesn't mean that females aren't included.
And so the idea here, you would say in the bigger, by application, whoever looks at somebody of the opposite sex, In a lustful way, has committed adultery with them in their heart already. How should this make the disciples feel? What's the intended outcome? Do you think the disciples would have said, OK, let me think about that.
Oh, I've never done that. Good to go there, Jesus. What do you think their response was, Bill? I think that That Right.
it's Right. Yeah, so Bill's, Bill's saying that there would already be the high expectation in Jewish culture that obviously women don't go commit adultery, but men, there may be more latitude. So, yeah, that's a, that's a, that's a good thought. But how do you think the disciples would respond to just a look?
Right. Yeah, I'm not committing adultery, I've just looked. And beyond that, I think the disciples are, are looking at themselves and realizing who could possibly accomplish that if they're honest with themselves. Who could go throughout a certain length of period without looking in some way that would be something that would need to be repented of or what, whatnot.
And so again, Jesus seems to be spelling out things that feel on one level, nitpicky, right? You mean I can't even, even if my eye wanders for a second, boom, now I need to go into this extremity. Yeah, Steve. Yeah don't meet the standard.
the A Right. Breaks down each area like. Yeah He's trying to show them it's Greatest in society at that time. can Great.
OK, so that's a good question. So, Steve is saying it's that Jesus is addressing the inward, not just the outwards. Let me ask you guys a question. So, is the point that Jesus is making is, yeah, it's more than just committing physical adultery, it's you must not look and lust with your eyes.
Therefore, in order to go into heaven, stop lusting with your eyes and you'll be good. Is that Jesus's point? Dan, Right. Right.
I think that's the thesis. And Jesus never states it, what Dan said is, is Jesus is trying to bring them to a point of point of bankruptcy that they see their poverty of spirit. Jesus, he starts off by saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for those are the ones that are gonna quote unquote, go to heaven, right? And he turns everything upside down, and then he's listing all of these things that Jews would just consider, yeah, I've never done that, I've never murdered.
Yeah, I've never committed adultery. righteousness of the Pharisees, whoa, I can't do that. I need to be as perfect as the Father in heaven. Who could possibly do that?
I can't even look one time at a woman without that being considered adultery. And so, and then look at Jesus's response. So here's Jesus's solution in the sermon to the person who commits adultery in their heart by looking, and the idea would be, again, do you have to break a bunch of commandments or one commandment to be at least in the command in the kingdom? One, so we're not talking about many looks.
We're talking about one look, I would suggest contextually. Verse 29, if your right eye causes you to sin, I think implied one time, right? So if your right eye causes you to sin, which is an interesting way to phrase that, your eye caused you to sin. I think there's some humor there.
Your right eye, my eye caused me to sin. If your right eye causes you to sin, OK, here's the solution, guys, pluck it out, cast it from you. Why? For it's more profitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to go into hell.
We're talking about hellfire judgment if your eye one time causes you to sin. So you're already making excuses. That's not really me, that's my eye, and it caused me to sin. Jesus says, OK, here's the solution, pluck it out and cast it from you, because that's gonna be a lot better off than you going to hell.
This should shock them, and it should shock us. a lot of times, we wanna immediately minimize, and I, I think there is some hyperbole here, but we wanna immediately jump to the hyperbole and the figurative language and say, Jesus obviously doesn't mean throw your eye out. He obviously doesn't mean cut off your hand. And I think the first read we should have on it is, That your sin is so bad.
One look that you didn't even willfully do, your I did it for you. Here's the solution, pluck your eye out and throw it away because you don't wanna go to hell. That's the way this should impact us. Then he says, he goes beyond that, he says, If your right hand causes you to sin, and so the implication here would be, you go beyond just looking, now you're tempted to touch.
OK, here's the solution, and it's not just like many touches, it's like, and it's not even like you can justify it and say it's not really my will, it's my hand, just did it almost like kleptomaniacs say that it's not really me, it's my disease. I just, I just have to steal, right? cut it off. OK, here's the solution.
Cut it off, cast it from you. Why? For it's more profitable that one of your members perish than your whole body be cast into hell. The impact?
Jesus, are you really saying that if I give one look, And one inappropriate touch, I go to hell. Is that really what you're telling me? And I think Jesus would say, that's really what I'm telling you. That's how bad your sin.
And let's just be clear here. I don't think Jesus is playing word games or sophistry. He's not trying to exaggerate the problem of our sin just for the sake of argument. He's trying to really paint our sin against the backdrop of a holy judge.
I think he's trying to really show us exactly what our sin is and what it deserves. So, Let's make some summary statements here of this particular section and then we'll end by looking at the end of the chapter. Here's a couple of things I think we can affirm from what we've looked at so far. Who came to fulfill the law and the prophets?
I came, Jesus, right? That's the answer. Jesus, I fulfill. I will fulfill all of this.
How much will be fulfilled according to verse 18? All of it, the whole law, the whole ceremonial law, the whole moral law, the whole civil law, every prophecy, Jesus will fulfill it all. breaking one of the least commandments makes us, a person the least. And I, I can understand why certain commentators look at the full context and say the least means hell, it means judgment.
Verse 44, you must be better than Mother Teresa to even enter the kingdom. You don't even get in. If you're, if you're not better, much better than the Pharisees. And the implication here, I think is ultimately what Steve said is correct.
Ultimately, Jesus is trying to drive towards not just external but internal, but he's also arguing based upon the, the understanding that the Pharisees and the scribes are the most righteous, you must be better than the most righteous person to even have a chance to get in. Verse 5, anger and relatively mild words of anger make us worthy of hell, moron, hole in the head. That makes us worthy of hell. Again, we're talking about anger, words of anger, right?
If you're, if you're out with your friends and fooling around and you guys are, calling each other little insults, I don't think that's what Jesus is talking about, but you get angry and you don't say a really super socially bad word, but you say a socially acceptable word in anger. Jesus says, you're worthy of hell. So that's, that's the bottom line. So I, it, it really, it should bring us to this point of Man, if that's the standard.
Then who could possibly, who could possibly make that? And so let's look down, we'll, we'll, we'll spend a little less time on, verse 43, that should say, Oh no, that's 28. 0, we already covered 27 to 30. And we'll read verse 48 real quick.
We've talked about, therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Some of you guys might already know some of the language behind here. Perfect could be interpreted as mature. The reason we don't interpret it as mature here because of the parallel.
It's not, you shall be mature just as your father's mature. Would we, would we ever call the father mature? Like he's matured? No.
You would call the Father perfect. So that's why we would say, you shall be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect. That's the standard in order to go to heaven. So, some summary statements from verses 27 to 30, to look is enough to cast you into hell.
To look how many times? One time. So, one time you're out in public, one time you click on a page and look at inappropriate material for less stimulating reasons, that makes us culpable and worthy of hell. Drastic measures must be taken, poking out the eye, cutting off the hand.
I don't know if you guys heard the story. There's debates about whether this is actual history or not or just made up. But Origin, one of the early church fathers took this very literally and because he had trouble with his lust, he castrated himself. again, this is some of that medieval stuff where People would do strange things like live on towers and I think it was origin as well that wanted to run out and be a martyr, but his mother hid his clothes, so he couldn't go outside.
And so that ended up saving his life. Number 4, who will take the drastic measures required is an implied question in this sermon. If it requires me to pluck out my eye or cut off my hand in order to avoid going to hell, OK, how's this gonna work? Jesus, I don't see myself plucking my eye out anytime soon, and yet I have this lust problem.
I don't know that I'm gonna cut my hand off. So, what is the solution? You must be just as perfect as your Father in heaven. I think is the bottom line there in verse 48.
So, let's, let's make a few statements here about what Jesus is doing. Is Jesus adding anything to the law? If you guys did your homework, Is anybody You, even if you didn't do your homework, you can shout this out. Is Jesus adding to the Mosaic law in his statements?
He's not. he is getting them to go beyond, it's kinda like what's happened with Phariseeism and Sadduceism is they've put a circle around certain statements and said, OK, if you don't murder anybody, you're, that's good. If you don't commit adultery, that's good. But there's certain loopholes, like honor your mother and father, but if you practice Corbin, then you don't have to honor your mother and father.
And so, Jesus is not adding to, he's actually trying to give the full import. So here's a couple of things that we would say. Jesus wasn't negating the law, but pointing to his true intent and fulfillment. No one could ever obey the law.
If they could have met the requirements of perfection, Jesus would not have needed to come as savior. Seems like that is what he's, what he's driving us towards. Obedience to God is first a matter of the heart before it can ever be. action of our hands and feet.
This is why we need to look to Christ to renew our hearts and let them be conformed to His perfect character more and more each day. And so when you look down at verse 43 and following, we'll do this quickly. It says in verse 43, you have heard that it was said, I say do you love your neighbor and hate your enemy, or that was, it said this, but I say do you love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.
What does that phrase mean?
That you may be sons of your Father in heaven? The implication is that you may be adopted in the family and therefore enter the kingdom of heaven. It's another phrase of saying, who gets to the eternal state. It's those who consistently, always, without breaking this commandment once, love their enemies.
And bless them. So somebody does something terrible to you, you never Curse them. You always bless them. for, what does the Heavenly Father do?
He makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, sends rain on the just on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. If you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?
Do not even your tax collectors do the same. Now, as you're, as we read through the Sermon on the Mount, Partially, the law is there to demonstrate the standard that is impossible to achieve, but because it's an impossible standard, does that mean we never try to do the things that Jesus is saying? No, these are still righteous commands, so it's still a righteous thing to love your enemies, right? It's a righteous thing, not just to greet your friends, but try to go outside of your social circles.
And so we should still, as Christians, we wanna try to do these things, but we're not trying to do these things in order to achieve our own establish our own righteousness. Jesus is actually trying to get us to a place of poverty of spirit, so that these types of things can be done in the power of the Spirit. And, but the initial import, I believe when we read this text is to get us to consider how many times we just like being around our own friends and we don't really wanna reach out to people on the other side of the aisle.
We don't really wanna love people who we don't like.
we feel comfortable in our own little circles and so it should make us reflect and be like. Man, that's not me at all. I like to be around people like me. I don't wanna go hang around and be nice with people who aren't my political party, who aren't Christians, who actually are teaching social evils, who hate Christians, who are out there teaching against Christianity.
Why would I wanna go love them? Let alone just Christians in our own circles that we don't like being around because they're different from us. one of the things I would never would have anticipated as a pastor when I was studying for the ministry, I don't remember, and they probably said this, I just don't remember it. I don't, I don't remember anybody in my seminary classes telling me how often I would be involved in counseling godly Christians who don't like each other.
who have run into conflict. I don't, don't remember anybody ever telling me that. And I think if I could have had like a foreshadow if God would have given me a vision of all the complicated situations I'd be involved in that involved Christians, I'd probably have been like, I think I'll just remain a public school teacher. But it's like, there's these situations that all of us, not only do we not love our enemies as Christians, there's many times we don't even love our friends properly.
We don't love our family members properly. There's people in this church that we have things against and we have struggle to forgive them. And that makes us worthy of Judgment, that should make us fall to our knees in poverty and say, Lord, I need you. I need you to give me righteousness.
I need to mourn over my sin. I need you to grant me meekness. Who can take such drastic measures to deal with my sin? if you consider James 2:8-11, we don't have time to turn there, but you guys, many of the passage, if you, if you break one commandment, you've broken how many?
All of them And so James is really just reiterating what he learned from Jesus' cyclical preaching of the Sermon on the Mount. So, let's, let's talk about some applications. What was Jesus' purpose in expounding on these laws? What I wanna suggest to you is that Christ's purpose in expanding on these laws was to bring about a poverty of spirit.
And so now I want somebody to ask me a very important question. Who's that? Who's all that? Who's all that?
When we read through the Sermon on the Mount, I think we should read through it in at least 2, probably 3 different ways. Your first read, I'd encourage you to do this. Read through 56, and 7. From the standpoint of I have to do all of this to go to heaven.
Just read through the whole thing and say, if I don't do all of this, I don't go to heaven. And the import should be, woe is me. I am undone. Then read through it a second time and ask yourself after each verse, did Jesus do this?
Did Jesus love all of his enemies? When he is persecuted and slapped, did he love them in return? Did Jesus ever commit adultery? Did Jesus ever call somebody a fool in anger?
Did Jesus do all of the things that are listed? This is he perfect as his Father in heaven is perfect? And the answer is what? Yes, And so Jesus is all that.
And so when you read through, Yeah, I'm sorry. That's the the buried, so that you read through all of the, the Sermon on the Mount, from that perspective, it should leave us with awe and worship. And then when you consider the drastic measures that Jesus talks about this plucking of the eye and the cutting off of the hand, the implication, you can't just read the Sermon on the Mount and forget to fast forward to chapter 28. You've got to fast forward to chapter 28 and realize that Jesus didn't just pluck out his eye for us.
He didn't just Sorry, he didn't just cut off his hand. He gave us I'm sorry, he gave up his whole life for us. And so, it should make us, when we consider the econ if you think about plucking out your eye and cutting off your hand, that just seems so extreme, doesn't it? But we hear about Jesus dying on the cross so much, it doesn't feel extreme.
It, that's incredibly extreme and drastic that Jesus' whole person that he was crucified, that nails went through his hands and feet, and he's whipped and spit upon and slapped, and beyond that, that he endured the very wrath of God, the hellfire and judgment that's spoken of here in the Sermon on the Mount, that Jesus drank that in. But how do we get there? It starts with that first read. How, what brings about the poverty of spirit?
The Holy Spirit, as Jesus' teaching, we read the Sermon on the Mount, the Holy Spirit brings us to desperation. We're like, I cannot do this. It wasn't just my eye that caused me to sin, I sinned. It wasn't just my hand that caused me to sin, I've sinned.
I am worthy of that punishment. I've said fool, I've said Raqqa in anger. I've done these things, not just once, but countless times should be the import. Then we read it all again with Christ and Christ has kept it all.
He's fulfilled it all. The third way we read it is on the back end of Christ's righteousness, we then say, Jesus, through your spirit, help me become like this. Help me love my enemies. Help me, keep my eyes pure.
Help me not to get angry with my brothers. And when I fail, go back and read it again in the second vein with Christ's righteousness and His fulfillment. I really believe that that's the true import of the Sermon on the Mount. We, we, we, we can make grave mistakes if we read through the Sermon on the Mount and the end result is, this is what I must do.
In order to receive. Christ or God's kindness or, or God's favor on me. Yeah, Alvin had a comment. No.
Oh, Yeah, go ahead. So, Alvin's gonna read Isaiah 53. Right. Depression and judgment Hm So Isaiah 53 album read that Jesus was cut off from the land of the living.
Is that the way it says it? Yeah, that's an amazing cross-reference. Yeah, that's, that's awesome. Thanks for sharing that.
Yeah, Michelle. should make us feel as Like all of these standard. One of the Implications of that that I was thinking is he's saying Li Yeah And I would think like one of the things the disciples would be thinking is. T The the odds that I could.
Mhm. Yeah. Even though you're giving me away. myself, you're saying.
To, to help yourself do these things. Yeah, Just can't just leave them with a sense. Yeah. Yeah, Michelle's just saying that basically, the statement leaves us with, there's nothing I can really do to save myself.
I, I can't pluck out my own eye or cut my hand off. So, when Benjamin Franklin comes along 1700 years later and says, God helps those who help themselves. It's like, OK, go ahead and pluck your eye out, cut your hand off, see how that works for you. No, that's, I don't know about you, but I've, I've, I've read the Sermon on the Mount for many years, and I've always, in the past, I've always kinda got to the end of it and just felt there's, there's two ways that you can approach it if you don't see Christ being all that, is you can say, I, I, I, I can't do that and just go away feeling discouraged and guilty, or you can try to minimize what you think the text means.
And, and try to bring it back down to something that is achievable, which is what the Pharisees did. They try to bring things down that are achievable. By the way, it's what those that believe in sinless perfectionism do. People who argue for sinless perfectionism, they bring the definition of sin so far down that sin is deliberate, rebellious, angry acts against the glory of God.
If you don't do that, It's not sin. And so therefore, they believe that they can achieve sinless perfectionism. I would argue that's legalism. It's Phariseeism.
no, Jesus says, here is the standard. We're not just pretending, this is God's holy standard. You don't meet it, you don't even come anywhere close. The Father is absolutely perfect.
Christ has met it. and on the back end of Christ's righteousness to the Holy Spirit, we can then look at these commands and say, this is the standard, I'm gonna shoot for it, I'm going to fall short, but I have a savior. Yeah, Kim. Oh yeah.
Yeah. Totally. Yeah. Yeah That's a great statement.
Yeah. So, that's another thing to remember is that this will be accomplished in our lives, in the eternal state or in the kingdom. And so we, we will be hungry, but we will be filled. And I just love that how Christ says, nothing's gonna go unfulfilled.
All will be fulfilled. I will fulfill it. And to me, that's part of the thesis. There's two, actually, two verses that really stand out to me when I'm reading the Sermon on the Mount.
One is, Blessed are the poor in spirit. Two is, I will fulfill. I will fulfill all of it. Yeah, Steve.
teaching Teacher. How do you get to a point where you Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Romans. Yeah That's a great analogy. It seems that, it's like dropping down in the middle of Romans 8 and you haven't really talked about 1 to 7 yet. yeah, it's great.
And I just see the wis don't you see the wisdom of the Lord in doing this? It's like he, he knows where his disciples are gonna be once he dies and he's raised and he's ascended since the Spirit, but he's trying to build this foundation, right? He needs to break these guys down so that he can build them back up. So spend some time if, if you can this week, we, we won't get into these final questions here.
other than, I do wanna say, this is a quote from the MacArthur Study Bible. this is the proper use of the law with respect to salvation. It closes off every possible avenue of human effort and leaves sinners dependent on nothing but divine grace for salvation. I think that's a great summary of the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount, to close off every single effort or like, oh well, I could do this.
Well, maybe I can't do that, but I could do this to add to the plate of salvation. Now, Jesus is shutting it all down. You can't do any of it. It's all Christ.
Well, let's go ahead and pray. I'll be up here if you have questions, pick up the packet for next week. and let's go ahead and pray. Lord, we thank you so much for just this wonderful A sermon that we have recorded on the page of the scripture for us.
It's just a, a wonder to think of these words coming out of the mouth of our Savior. And And just, and it's been recorded for us to this day, help us to look at these commands and not minimize them. May they have the appropriate sense, bring on the appropriate sense of conviction. And, and also just give us a great appreciation for the drastic measure of the cross.
We thank you, Jesus, that you are really, all righteousness for us. You are all that, we are not all that. you have been all that righteousness for us, and then you give us your Spirit who then, gives us the want to and points us to Christ when we don't want to. you woo us to keep going.
and you are moving us to that future where we will be all that in Christ. we pray, Father, that you'd be with us as we worship you this morning, as we give of our offerings, use our gifts, hear your word preached. We pray this in Jesus Christ's name our Savior. Amen.