Word Count: 2347
Ecclesiastics 15:15-20 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 Matthew 5:21-37 Psalm 119:1-8
Prayer: In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; let these words bring honour to you. Amen.
Summary: The Jews were very troubled with grace, because they needed laws to follow; particularly as the message of the New Testament suggested that they were above the law. They were very confused just like many Christians today. So let us put Grace into context.
This sermon was delivered to the congregation in St Oswald’s in Maybole, Ayrshire, Scotland on the 13th February 2011: by Gordon McCulloch. (A Scottish Episcopal Church in the Dioceses of Glasgow and Dumfries).
Introduction:
Today's Gospel lesson is a continuation of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, the Sermon that we have been listening to for the last two weeks.
Now in today’s message, we are going to delve into some heavy, difficult material and I was a bit worried about putting it together but once I started you will see the message becomes much simpler, and clearer; but note it is a very much solid food as Paul said in his letter to the Corinthians; “it is certainly not milk for infants; but the beginning of solid food”.
So let us start, with the background. The audience in this occasion was the Jewish Christians, Jews who believed in Jesus, but Jews who were being persecuted by the other traditional Jews for heresy and expelling them from the synagogues: hence the verses at the beginning of the Sermon "Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” Jesus goes on “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Most of these Jews, were beginning to doubt themselves that they were no longer Jews as they had abandoned the Law; the Torah of God; the observance of which made a Jew a Jew. They were therefore very troubled in that they needed laws to follow, as the Christian message of the New Testament suggested that they were above the law. They were very confused indeed just like many Christians today. So let us put this into context.
First let us consider the good old Pharisees. When in doubt, have a go at them. Jesus did, and he did so on a regular basis. Now why did Jesus pick on them? Well we are very inclined to be very negative about the Pharisees, but we need to give them some credit because they were totally committed to the laws of God, not just the ten laws given to Moses on the Mount Sinai, but over 600 other laws as stated in the book of Leviticus.
We could never accuse the Pharisees of being slack, in fact we heard the other week past of a pious man in the temple who “fasted twice a week and give a tenth of what he got”. That is more than we do, these guys were serious about God and Jesus never ever criticised their devotion; but He criticised them because they went about things the wrong way, and they were not showing any kind of God’s promises here on earth.
The Pharisees were basically interested in the outward process of worshiping God; and in doing so they were actually promoting themselves. Their whole attitude was wrong and Jesus used them as an example of what not to do.
Jesus tells his congregation that the Laws of God are still valid, more so than ever, and should never be ignored. In fact Jesus said: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfil them.”
Jesus wasn’t tearing down the precious gift of God’s law, which he had given to Moses all those centuries ago; instead throughout his life; he showed us how the law of God should be lived; that it should be lived from the inward heart and not from any outward manifestation of holier than thou.
Now following God’s law isn’t a matter of not committing the “big sins” and hoping that the “little sins” will not be noticed. Here Jesus emphasises the fifth commandment. “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder’ ’’ This was said to Moses by no less than God himself. So it’s the authoritative word of God. ‘But I tell you’ says Jesus ‘There is more to this commandment than you’ve been taught. It’s not just the act of murder that’s the problem, but the attitude that leads to murder.’
Now the Jews, being very manipulative of the law rarely committed murder, however much scheming went on, that revenge on someone was always ongoing. To stop this Jesus said “Anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement.”
Who here has never been angry, who here hasn’t cursed or muttered about someone else. Jesus was saying two things here.
1. If you take control of your emotions, and do not think of murder, (or revenge), then you will never take action regardless of your hurt. You will cease to plan some kind of revenge, which if you think about it could be worse than murder. So thinking about murder can lead you into some kind of situation that is beneficial to no one. Okay, murder is a big thing, but anger, well everybody gets angry at some stage, but be careful as to where your anger takes you. Jesus was being very clever here because the 2nd thing to consider is this.
2. Never thinking about murder; and revenge; and anger; and payback is virtually impossible, and you may ask, what kind of impossible standard Jesus is laying down here. I will discuss that in a minute.
Let us turn to the second topic of this part of the sermon where Jesus said, `You shall not commit adultery.' But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman (or man) with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. We will stop here to apply the above logic as we did to murder.
Again Jesus is telling us to control of our emotions, and do not think in a lustful way. That way you will never take any kind of action that is detrimental to our well being. You have heard the saying; it will all end in tears.
You have heard of families breaking up, and the one that hurts me is when innocent children are made to suffer for one parent’s indiscretion. Jesus is bluntly saying, if you do not think lustfully; you will not take lustful actions which always leads to disaster. Enough said on that topic.
What we therefore need is a whole new approach, a change of attitude. As kingdom centred people, who have received from Jesus; we need a new heart and a new mind.
We also need the Holy Spirit to safeguard our thoughts and direct our actions. God’s law, as Jesus teaches us here, forces us to examine ourselves. Jesus asks us to be honest about our deceptions, or our self justifications in which we excuse our anger, or our lust, because we simply cannot help it.
Here endeth a typical sermon, a sermon of milk. Let us now proceed with some solid food, are you ready.
Now, the second part of the do not lust commandment is similar also to the do not commit murder commandment. Never thinking lustfully about someone is also virtually impossible at times; and you may ask, what kind of impossible standard Jesus is laying down here.
Well the law is made to do two things. On the positive, it is to instruct you and to guide you in your daily life but secondly, and this may difficult to understand, the law is designed to break you.
Before you were a Christian, you paid lip service to the law. After you became a Christian, you followed the law seriously. Which was easier? Obviously not trying to follow the law and trying to be perfect so that God would love us.
By consistently trying your best you made more failures than you did by simply living. The more you try, the more you are bound to fail; and worst, the more you fail the more your feel unclean or unworthy; or even feel abandoned by God: and totally useless we are. We are certainly not typical of God’s people, certainly not typical of the people we are meant to be.
Now Jesus is saying that in the Old Testament you needed to keep every part of the law to be at one with God. Now the law that Jesus refers to here is not the basic Ten Commandments, but over 600 hundred commandments or laws, and therefore impossible to keep. So we are onto a loser before we start.
The Bible is crystal clear, the Levitical Laws and the Holiness Code are for the children of Israel. They are not for Christians of the New Testament.
The Old Testament says, if you break one of Gods laws you are unworthy. Try it; one law of the Old Testament says that we must keep the laws of the land. You drive home today and you will see a speed limit for 30 MPH. Drive at 1 MPH faster and you have broken a law of the land, and therefore a law of God; and you are therefore unclean before God and God hates sin. You have not committed murder or adultery, but you nevertheless broken a law of God and are therefore unworthy of his blessings.
Do you see what I am getting at; being righteous and trying your best to live righteous will never get you to heaven.
Does that mean you are free to sin? No. No. No. You are not free to sin but free from sin and its consequences. Sin does not have dominion over you, and that is where Jesus comes in. When you get to heaven, you will be asked one question. Do you believe Jesus is Lord? A yes gets you in, and no does not. Nothing else will be asked. I found this very difficult to understand when I was a young Christian but that is the basis of the New Testament.
Everything is about what Jesus has done for you, and absolutely nothing about how hard you tried and failed. It is all about Jesus. It is certainly not like those Pharisees we spoke of earlier; with all there talk and no action. They had all the gear but no idea. They were trying to justify themselves by what they had done, and not by what Jesus had done.
The Pharisees tried hard to obey the letter of the law; and failed. If we try the same approach we are doomed also. It’s mission impossible. You do not have to work your way into heaven?"
You cannot be perfect, or live a perfect life on this earth. If you can, name to me one person who ever lived, and I will find a sin or a set of sins they have committed. Only Jesus was perfect, and he died to save us from ourselves.
We aren’t always people of integrity, we do fail. We drag our old nature around regardless of how much we try but Jesus tells us to ‘bring it out into the open, and repent of it, and aim for kingdom values.’
When we fail, (and we will), remember Jesus died for you and for that very sin you have just committed. Confess unto him your sinful failures and you will be forgiven; as said at the Last Supper: ‘this is my blood, which is poured out for you, that you may receive the forgiveness of sins.’
To put a wee bit of my own logic to this, if God does not forgive us of our sins, we are totally useless to Him. Think about it, we would be caught up in our own self obsession and not free to worship and serve God; and the wages of sin lead to death; (and the wages of sin is death).
The reality of forgiveness means that we can honestly confront our failures; our anger at people; our simmering disputes, and spiteful words. We can confront our lustful thoughts, as failure, recognise them and deal with them before anybody gets hurt. We can let God’s word convict us and lead us to say, ‘I’m sorry.’ It’s then that we are freed from our sinful failures, free to begin refresh and re-energised.
Free to live in a loving, constant relationship with Jesus, who promises us that He “is always with us” … “to the end of the age”. We are free indeed, but guided and protected by a loving God, who asks that we call him Father as he loves us.
Amen.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank you for Jesus and what he achieved on the cross. We thank you that we can be forgiven for our past sins and even our future sin, though by your grace, we do not deserve it.
Father we know that we are not free to sin, but if we do, we have an advocate with You through your son Jesus Christ.
Father we thank you for Roman 8:1 which says, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.
Father we know that we are free from the consequences of sin, but I ask that we receive a personal revelation of how much you hate sin; and how you sent your son Jesus Christ to died on our behalf so that we are free to become sons and daughters of your choosing, people that you can be proud of.
We ask in Jesus almighty name. Amen.
