Anger
Matthew 5:21-26
Introduction
I love baseball. But let me tell you about one particular game of baseball that I’m glad I wasn’t part of; in the spring 1894, when the Baltimore Orioles came to Boston to play a routine baseball game. But what happened that day was anything but routine. The Orioles’ John McGraw lost his temper, got angry, got into a fight with the Boston 3rd baseman and before you knew it – the anger spread. Within minutes: all the players from both teams had joined in the brawl: letting off steam. The warfare spread to the grandstands, as the anger spread like fire – literally in fact: because someone set fire to the stands and the entire ballpark burned to the ground. Not only that, the fire spread to 107 other Boston buildings as well. Because of one man’s anger half a town was destroyed! And to think that it all started with a little altercation at third base. John McGraw couldn’t even remember later just why he got so angry yet the damage from his anger spread and just about destroyed a whole city.
Proverbs 29:8 tells us that mockers stir up a city, but wise men turn away anger. Anger sure stirred up the city of Boston 100 years ago. But God’s word knew all about it thousands of years ago. God knows the destructive power of our anger and His Word warns us to control it. If only John McGraw had kept himself under control the destruction of Boston would’ve been prevented. And if only you didn’t unleash your anger on your friends, or people you live with, or people you work with, or… if only we could control our anger. If only we’d treat seriously the commands of God’s Word (James 1:19-20):
Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.
Our ways are not God’s ways and we need to change from being slaves to sin to being servants of God, we need to die to anger and rise to patience. How can we die to anger? Count to 10? Hold our breath? Bite our tongue? No, we’ve got to go deeper than that. We need to let God’s Word do radical surgery in our lives, as we seek to live new lives with Jesus as our boss.
I. The Problem
• Where does our anger come from?
o We see the birth of anger in Genesis 4.
o Anger hits the landscape of this fallen world very early.
o Sin is born in Genesis 3 where Adam and Eve decided to reject God, instead of having God at the center of their world, they decided to grasp for God’s crown and become their own boss.
o God’s good creation was intact for just two chapters.
o Now we see anger being born in Genesis 4.
• If pride comes before a fall, it’s anger that follows hot on its heels.
o And, as surely as Eve now gives birth to Cain, pride gives birth to anger.
o In some ways this is a surprise isn’t it?
o Genesis 3 ended with a promise of a good birth.
o With the birth of sin, a hideous and terrible birth, came the promise of a great birth a wonderful birth (Gen 3:15), the birth of one who will crush the serpent.
o Her offspring will defeat Satan and will put right all that’s gone wrong with God’s perfect world.
• If you were reading Genesis for the first time, what are you thinking as you turn to Genesis 4 verse 1?
o Eve has a son you see, could this be the one?
o But if our hopes rise with the birth of Cain, they are soon dashed because he is definitely not the one to reverse sin.
o Instead of Cain crushing the serpent he’s taken captive himself.
o Cain’s life is far from a reversal of sin.
o In fact, we see sin spreading like a epidemic, it’s out of control.
o Sin grows like a hideous monster bringing destruction and death wherever it goes.
• A few contrasts between chapter 3 and chapter 4 show us just how destructive the spread of sin is.
o Eve had to be talked into taking the fruit (Gen 3) whereas Cain needs no persuasion (Gen 4).
o He thinks up his anger at his brother Abel all by himself because it’s in his nature.
o He needs no temptation to play God because he’s already ascended to the throne.
o Cain’s anger at his brother comes from his rejection of God.
• God has favored Abel’s offering over Cain’s.
o We don’t know why – but that’s the point – we don’t need to know why, and neither should Cain because we’re not God – and Cain’s not God and he should accept that God is God, that God’s at the center.
o But Cain’s a sinner and from his pride comes anger.
o His anger at Abel comes from his defiance to God.
o He wants to be at the center – he wants things to go his way, he wants to call the shots, he wants to be the judge, he wants to play God.
o In Cain we see the sinful angry heart inside all of us.
o Eve was visited by Satan to talk her in to sin but now not even a visit by God will talk Cain out of sin (Gen 4:6-7).
• Cain thinks he’s God, he rejects the true God’s Word, and self-centered and angry, he takes matters into his own hands.
o Do you see how sin has grown here?
o Eve had to be coaxed forward to sin but her son, Cain, can’t be turned back.
o Adam and Eve trembled with fear after their sin but there’s no hiding in the bushes for Cain he’s not quaking in his boots.
o Instead it’s defiance, back-chat, and insolence.
o Confronted by God with his brother’s blood on his hands he brushes off God.
o He’s rejected God’s way: he’s rejected God’s Word, and now he even rejects God’s right to question him.
• But the contrast keeps going.
o Adam and Eve didn’t question the judgment which God handed out to them but Cain grumbles that God’s judgment is unfair.
o He’s rejected God’s right to be God so completely, hasn’t he?
o Not only does he willfully and brazenly reject God’s way but when God calls him to account and passes judgment he turns around and files for unfair dismissal.
• So sinful, so self-centered, so convinced he’s got rights.
o This is the man of sin and, without Jesus, this is us.
o Consumed by sinful pride, convinced we’re at the center, we will unleash destruction on others.
o Parents might sometimes be disappointed if their child doesn’t become a lawyer or a doctor but Cain’s a really disappointing son.
o Where’s the son who’ll crush the serpent?
o Where’s the offspring who’ll reverse evil and fix the world?
o Who reverses pride, reverses self-righteous anger?
o If it’s not Cain, and we’ve seen that, who is it?
II. Solution
• The answer of course is Jesus and the reversal is illustrated perfectly in Luke 23.
• Look at the great reversal Jesus brings: they bombarded him with questions, they hammer him but Jesus doesn’t answer.
• He’s not going to take matters into his own hands.
• Pilate can see Jesus is innocent (v 14, 22) and has done nothing to deserve death (v 15) but they hate this innocent one (v 18).
• It is the hatred and anger of Cain that leads the crowd to cry “crucify him” (v 21).
• But Jesus doesn’t take matters into his own hands.
• You’d think he’d have every right to be angry but we’re people who want to put ourselves at the center, who want to play God, who go the way of Cain.
• Jesus doesn’t take matters into his own hands.
• Instead he allows his hands to be nailed to the wood.
• He submits to God’s will even to death.
• They hammer him again – this time not just with accusations but literally (v 33) as they crucified him.
• Not grasping but giving, not angry but forgiving, not murdering but murdered.
• Jesus is the total opposite to Cain.
• And with Jesus’ prayer (v 34) the reversal is total.
• Instead of anger, the most extraordinary patience.
• You see how he doesn’t put himself at the center?
• And of course he had the right to be there.
• But he’s here to reverse sin so he takes the mockery.
• He turns to God – trusts in God – prays to God.
• Instead of retaliating, he takes our pathetic anger at him.
• Yet Jesus’ anger would be righteous anger, not the selfish anger of Cain and of us.
• The Son of God being nailed up by pip-squeak sinners is well within his rights to crush us.
• But he’s the one who’s here to crush the serpent, he’s the son of Eve the world’s been waiting for to reverse the sin of Cain and of us.
• So he prays down not the fire of God’s wrath but forgiveness.
• In fact the fire of God’s wrath comes down on him so that his prayer might be fulfilled.
• Here is the son of Eve who mastered sin.
• Who, at the cross, paid for our sin.
• Who, at the cross, was bitten by the serpent and died, but who became the antidote to the serpents bite to put an end to the disease, to put an end to sins power.
• Jesus reverses sin through being a role model for us (1 Pet 2:21).
• Jesus is the one who doesn’t take things into his own hands but puts them in God’s hands, who doesn’t get angry but shows patience.
• Jesus didn’t consider himself at the center but God (v 23).
• That’s the example for us: to turn from anger and all sin.
• Second, Jesus is much more than just a model.
• He didn’t just show you how to turn away from sin, he turned away God’s anger at your sin (v 24).
• He bore your sin, he paid the penalty for your sin.
• Marvel at his example but be grateful he paid the price for your sin and your anger.
• We need to understand what happened on the cross.
• ‘Jesus died for me’ we say – yes but specifically, Jesus died for you, for your anger, for the way you’ve run others down, for the way you’ve gossiped about people, for the way you’ve plotted revenge in your heart, for all the ways you put yourself at the center and played God.
• They’re the things that murdered Jesus, that’s how we shed his innocent blood.
• He died for your pride – anger – envy – lust – impurity – greed.
• That’s what drove in the nails.
• He’s an amazing model, he’s an amazing sacrifice we need to see both and put them together (1 Pet 1:22).
• Your hearts are pure now he says, we’ve been forgiven, so now you can love from the heart.
• Now we’re fixed with God, we can be fixed with each other.
• So we don’t relate in pride, we don’t fester with anger but we love one another deeply.
• Purified hearts are loving hearts, hearts willing to forgive as we’ve been forgiven.
• The price is paid now you can follow the example.
• Jesus is your savior, now you can make Jesus your character.
• He’s forgiven your sin and now he wants to kill it. He’s paid for your anger so now you can turn to patience.
• Romans 5 explains how Jesus reverses the sin of Adam.
• In Adam we’re sinners, under God’s judgment.
• Cain’s problem was that he was in Adam.
• But we’re in Jesus, we’re forgiven with God back at the center.
• We don’t go the way of Cain, we go the way of Jesus.
• We’re not in Eve’s son Cain – ruled by Satan – we’re in Eve’s son Jesus – the serpent crusher.
• We don’t go the way of Cain, we go the way of Jesus.
• It’s all about dying and rising with Christ, living new lives in him.
• Jesus has replaced Adam (Rom 6:11-14), we’re in him not Adam.
• We’re in the one who has cancelled sin not under sin, and we’re to live in Jesus mastering sin not being mastered by it.
• God is back at the center, and our self-righteous anger dies with that.
Closing
But we enjoy anger, don’t we? We sometimes want to be back with Adam. Like driving home earlier, from a meeting in Downtown Dallas with the Boy Scouts, thinking of applications for this talk, but getting frustrated by the driver in front of me, “Oh come on, where did you get your license anyway…” Oops, me at the center again. Now where was that patience? Anger comes from putting ourselves at center even in self-righteous ways: I haven’t been served, I’ve been talked about … and I want justice! No, I don’t want the justice. I want the cross!! If I stay at the center I die with Adam. I want to put God at the center and rise with Jesus! I want to die to anger and rise to patience, accepting Jesus as my savior and following him as my example.
