Jesus On Sin Series

Jesus on Sin

Jeffery Anselmi / General

Jesus on_________ / Sin / Matthew 5:27–30

Jesus teaches us to avoid sin.

INTRODUCTION

• Sin, when you hear the word, what comes to your mind?

• Do you think the concept is old and outdated?

• Do you think it denotes anything that is fun?

• Do you see the word as restricting your freedom?

• Is sin something we need to take seriously in this day and age, or do we even need to think about it?

• Do we think we can ignore what God says concerning sin because our situation is so unique that God will change His mind and make special exemptions for us?

• Is sin such an outdated concept that we no longer have to take it seriously?

• The more important question for us today is what does God think of sin?

• Is it something that God blows off like it is no big deal, or does God see sin differently than we see sin?

• In our text today, in the Sermon on The Mount, Jesus will speak on adultery.

• In the Old Testament, adultery was understood to involve sexual relations between a man (married or single) and another man’s wife or a virgin engaged to be married to someone else (Lev 18:20; 20:10; Deut 22:22).

• The primary concern in the command against adultery was violating or defiling another man’s wife.

• This sin was punishable by death.

• Both the adulterous man and woman were viewed as guilty, and the punishment of death was prescribed for both (Lev. 20:10).

Leviticus 20:10 NET 2nd ed.

10 If a man commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

• I share this so we can understand what Jesus is speaking of.

• However, in today's message, we will use this specific teaching of Jesus to unveil how Jesus views sin.

• In the Sermon on The Mount, Jesus seeks to move His followers and us to a deeper level of commitment than the Old Testament required.

• We are speaking of the move from the eternal control of oneself to internal control.

• Jesus expected his followers to take responsibility for managing their sinful habits rather than relying on the elders or religious leaders to monitor them on their behalf. So he called people to a different set of standards.

• The people of the day were used to having external controls placed upon them, like, don’t lie, cheat, steal, among many other don’ts.

• Our society is getting so out of line that external controls control us more and more.

Big Idea of the Message: Jesus teaches us to avoid sin.

• Let’s turn to Matthew 5:27-30, we will begin with verses 27-28.

Matthew 5:27–28 (NET 2nd ed.)

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’

28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

SERMON

I. Guard your thoughts.

• Jesus uses the statement “YOU HAVE HEARD IT SAID,” which ties back to the Old Testament commands.

• When Jesus breaks this new line of thinking to His followers, it is a revolutionary thought.

• When one is externally controlled, as the Law of Moses did for the people, life was pretty straightforward; you either obey or do not obey.

• The external system was a pass/fail test.

• You either passed the test or failed the test.

• It did not matter why you failed; failure is failure.

• One could not explain away or make excuses for their failures.

• When you are externally controlled, you do not have to worry about your thoughts; you must obey.

• You can obey and have a terrible attitude about obeying so long as you are obedient.

• Regarding adultery, so long as you did not act hypothetically, you could lust all you could get away with.

• Some people would feel comfort in that system because there are no gray areas; nothing is up to interpretation.

• Here is a for instance.

• We allow children in public and many private schools to dress how they want.

• The supposedly are dress codes, but those seem to be pretty gray.

• When your kids have to wear uniforms to school, they do not have to think about what to wear, or some teacher is not put in a position to tell a young man or lady that their clothing doesn’t fit the school’s dress code.

• Then parents fight about whether the said outfit violated the school dress code.

• With uniforms, you are wearing the uniform, or you are not.

• There is no gray area because the uniform specifications are spelled out.