Scripture:
Matthew 5.21-26
Translation: 5.21You’ve
heard that it was said to the ancients: “Don’t murder!” and whoever would
murder, will be deserving of judgment. 22But I’m telling you that
everyone who gets angry with his brother will be deserving of judgment. and
whoever would say to his brother “Raka!” will be held accountable by the
Sanhedrin. And whoever would say “Idiot!” will be deserving of burning in hell.
23So, if you’re offering your gift on the altar, and there you
remember that your brother has something against you, 24leave your
gift there before the altar and go. First reconcile with your brother, and then
come offer your gift. 25Be making friends with your accuser quickly,
while you’re with him on the road, so that the accuser doesn’t hand you over to
the judge and the judge to the bailiff and you will get thrown in jail. 26Amen,
I say to you: you’d never ever get out of there until you pay back the last
penny.
Intro:
1.
Drama…oh drama…
Interpretation
1.
Structure
a.
Application of “Don’t
Murder or face judgment” to “don’t get angry and name call or face judgment”
(vv.21-22) (deal with relationship problems by not causing them)
b.
Avoid Judgment for Failure
by Dealing with Relationship problems before worship (vv.23-24) [deal with
relationship problems before spreading them and before they get too serious]
c.
Avoid Judgment for Failure
by Dealing with Relationship problems before judgment (vv.25-26) [deal with
relationship problems when they’ve escalated before judgment/irreversible
actions take place]
2.
Themes
a.
Anger
b.
Guilt/accountability
c.
Hell
d.
Judgment
e.
Relationships
f.
Reconciliation
g.
Worship
h.
Interpretation/application
of the Law
i.
Priorities
j.
Name calling
k.
Gift
l.
Escalation vs.
De-escalation
3.
Doctrines
a.
Relationships with people
need to be fixed before trying to worship God
Applications
1.
Outline
a.
Deal with People by Not
being the Sinner
i.
A lot of times we comfort
ourselves by thinking, “oh, what I did wasn’t really that bad” but Jesus sees
things differently and wants us to see them differently as well. He wants us to
see that our sin really is sin, it is a horrible evil perpetrated by us
ii.
Jesus wants us to see that
unrighteous anger is a sin as evil and as sinful as murder, hence if we are
going to deal with people by not being the sinner, we will obviously have to
not get angry and kill people, but also we will have to control our anger and
even learn how not to respond in anger
1.
That will mean watching our
words, name calling out of anger is like murder
a.
Cussing people out
b.
Name calling
c.
Gossiping
2.
Some things that we say
will get us held accountable by people, human authority figures
3.
And really all things we
say in anger in general we will be held accountable for by God
4.
Cussing people out and
calling names and saying hostile things to people or about people is something
that really is a sin, and it is so much a sin that indulging in it will leave
us deserving of burning in hell
5.
Hatred really is a problem.
Hating people is a big deal, Jesus is telling us that hating people is
tantamount to killing them
iii.
Jesus wants us to avoid
facing judgment, so He tell us to not do what will bring judgment on us. So why
should you and I deal with people by not being the sinner? Because if we are
the sinner we will face judgment, just like murders must face justice, we will
have to face justice for our murderous anger and hatred
iv.
We need to deal with people
by not being the sinner, by controlling our anger and giving up our hate
1.
This is going to require
love for the other person
2.
And humility about what we
deserve
b.
Deal with People by
Reconciling Before Worship
i.
Jesus is focused on the
importance of reconciling with people that we have sinned against
ii.
Reconciliation is so
important to God and to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit that They have told us to
get right with others before worshiping Them.
iii.
Jesus says our priority
should be on reconciliation, not fulfilling religious expectations; on getting
things right with people we’ve hurt before giving God worship
1.
This even makes sense,
because 1 John taught us that we have to love human beings before we can love
God; moreover, God wants us to deal with the people we’ve hurt first, before we
deal with Him
2.
God cares about true
repentance than just the mere appearance of repentance.
3.
More boldly, God doesn’t
want you’re worship if you have unsettled problems with people
4.
It is so important to God
that we get things right with each other, that He literally says, “if you’re in
the middle of worshipping God and you realize that you and so and so are at
odds because of something you did. Stop worshipping God and go deal with it!
5.
In fact, if you have my
permission to get up and leave in the middle of the songs or sermon or prayer
or whatever we’re doing and go get things right with someone, if you can. GO!
GET OUT! GO DEAL WITH IT!
6.
See the thing is God cares
about true repentance but also true worship. One of the ways we give garbage
worship to God is by giving Him worship tainted by the stench of unforgiveness,
unresolved problems, of sins not dealt with, of hostility between you and
someone else
7.
Our worship doesn’t have to
be half-hearted, per se, to be undesirable, it just has to be mixed with
unrepentant sin, with sour relationships
iv.
I’m not talking about when
someone else has sinned against you, that’s a different issue that we will look
at next week, but when you are the one who has perpetrated the evil, who has
hurt another person, who has done evil to another
v.
The truth is that
worshipping God does not always have to look like a worship service, sometimes
the way we worship God is by loving God enough to love others, to humble
ourselves and admit our sin to the person we’ve sinned against, sometimes
worshipping God needs to look like following God’s example of love and
humility, to look like holding the same value on reconciliation and
healthy/healed relationships that God does
1.
A value that He does in
fact hold, so tightly that He gave His only Son to restore His relationship with
us, a relationship we broke—such love, and such humility
2.
And of course, Jesus is
saying deal with your sin against others, not that you should never worship God
again. Deal with it, move on, and go back to worshipping God, what you were
doing when you realized you had something to deal with
vi.
Now, if we really obey
Jesus, and do what He says, that will mean we will Reconcile with others right
away, and regularly, as regularly as we worship God, as often as we pray, read
the Bible, serve Jesus, come to church. Even if you only tried to follow this
partially and settle your issues with others before Friday and Sunday, you
would be reconciling regularly, and indeed we as a community would become known
for our love for others and our humility in admitting our wrongs and seeking to
right them to the glory of Jesus, God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit!
vii.
And if we are reconciling
regularly right away, that will mean that our problems with others will not
grow to huge, they will stay small and easily fixable (generally speaking,
obviously if you still someone’s boyfriend, the problem won’t be small, but if
you fix it fast, the issue will deescalate—love and humility might mean
breaking up)
viii.
Obviously the best course
of action is to avoid sin in the first place, but when we fail to do that, we
should deal with it right away
c.
Deal with People by Reconciling
Before Judgment
i.
Jesus’ next scenario is
after things have escalated, or are in the middle of escalating, or have been
left unresolved for a while, or perhaps just happened but what you did was so
bad that the person you’ve sinned against has legal or official merit for a
lawsuit or investigation or whatever. Maybe the person is taking you to court,
or maybe the person is going to complain to the boss, or maybe the person is just
going to tell you’re mom or your significant other, or me, or Jin, or Jisun, or
Esther, or whoever. The point is things are bad. You are guilty and the
consequences are about to fall on your head
ii.
Jesus is saying deal with
it fast, before you have to pay for what you did, settle the problem before
someone else can get involved and throw the book at you
iii.
You don’t want to face
fines, prison time, getting fired or demoted, shamed or other negative things,
so Jesus says deal with it right away, and if you know they are in the process
of taking those kinds of actions against you, get right with them before they
finish that process.
1.
If someone is suing you,
settle with them out of court
2.
If someone is going to
complain to the boss about you, go to that person and make it right with them
before they do
3.
If someone is going to
press charges against you, try to make things right with them before they do
4.
If someone is going to post
what a jerk you were to facebook, go make things right before they do
iv.
This point is really just
an extension of the deal with things right away point, but the difference is
that there, Jesus is focusing on the importance of reconciliation as it relates
to your relationship with God, but now He is focusing on avoiding escalating
problems, avoid judgment.
v.
Of course, this story about
avoiding the human judge is at the same time somewhat typological for settling
things with people before God the Judge of All gets involved. Remember, Jesus
opened by saying people will be held accountable to human authority, but they
will also be held accountable to God, and unrepented evil and uncontrolled
anger and virulent hatred leave someone not just open to human judgment, but to
the judgement of God, namely hell. And while it is true that all true Christians
will never face hell, it is also true that all true Christians live out a life
of having been saved from hell and one that is free either by positive action
of success or repentance in failure of the kinds things that are indicative of
hell as a final destiny. You can’t be a real Christian and go to hell, but how
you deal with people will be one of the ways that your true nature will be
revealed
vi.
To deal with things before
they get out of hand, will require great love, but since we failed in the love
department to bring us to this point, it will require even greater humility to
display love
vii.
Look, if it means great
cost to make things right between you and others, do it. That is what love and
humility both require, and you have a personal incentive in it, namely, not
facing punishment and/or judgment.
2.
Discussion Questions
a.
How often do you find
yourself getting angry at people?
b.
How easy is it for you to
control your anger? Why?
c.
Do you see name calling and
hatred as really evil? Why or why not?
d.
Have you ever been in the
middle of worshiping or serving God and realized you had sinned against
someone? What did you do when you realized it?
e.
What are the benefits of
dealing with a relationship problem right away?
f.
How might present or
ultimate judgment affect your decision on how to deal with a relationship
problem?
3.
Perhaps one of the reasons
worship for us or worship for you is so difficult, is because you have a lot of
relationships, perhaps only just one relationship that needs reconciliation.
Maybe the problem is you are not good at having healthy relationships with
people that you have an unhealthy relationship with God, perhaps it is that God
refuses to accept your worship while there is this issue between you and others
that needs to be reconciled
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