WELCOME & INTRODUCTION
A NEW BRIDE
[excerpt taken from Chapel Chats II by Dennis Lynn, Cascade College, pg. 23.]
A man once recalls the story, now part of the family folklore, beginning when, as a new bride, his Aunt Edna put a shoe box on a shelf in her closet and asked her husband to never touch it. For fifty years Uncle Jack left the box alone, until Aunt Edna was old and dying. One day as he was putting their affairs in order, he found the box again and thought it might contain something important.
Opening it, he found inside 2 doilies and $82,500 in cash. He took the box to his wife and asked about the contents. Aunt Edna explained, “My mother gave me the box the day we were married. She told me to make a doily to help ease my frustrations every time I got mad at you.”
Uncle Jack was touched that in 50 years she had only been angry with him twice. “What is the $82,500 for?” he asked. Aunt Edna replied, “Oh, that’s the money I made selling doilies.”
We all get angry from time to time. I don’t know anyone who never gets angry. It is a part of the human condition and why anger is addressed so often in Scripture. Anger is an emotion we all experience. It is unavoidable. When we were children and didn’t get our way, we may have thrown a temper tantrum. When we drive on the highway and someone is in the left lane, not passing traffic, and going slow, we might get angry. Maybe it’s something justifiable. Someone was mean to you or ignorant about life and said something about you. Maybe you are a victim of a crime. Maybe even worse, someone abuses you or has taken advantage of you. Someone has been unjust, bigoted, and prejudiced against you for your skin color or your religious convictions. These are all reasons why we would get angry.
Today’s passage reminds me of a recent Dennis the Menace comic strip I saw:
“Mr. Wilson lost his temper, but we helped him find it…REAL QUICK!”
In our passage from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we are going to hear what he has to say about anger and what to do and what not to do when you are angry. Let’s read our passage this morning.
MATTHEW 5:21-26
21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. 23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 25 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. 26 Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.
Last week, we moved from beatitudes to this teaching that Jesus had come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. We spent some time talking about what that means for Jesus to be the fulfillment of the Law. Today, Jesus begins to speak in a compare and contrast about that Law and how he fulfills it in every way and how he is trying to get the people to understand what the Law’s intent was.
This set of passages in the Sermon on the Mount are called the Six Antithesis. Here Jesus contrasts the interpretation of the Law by the scribes and the Pharisees with his own interpretation—the interpretation God wishes the people had known and seen.
So commandments like “You shall not murder,” “do not commit adultery,” “an eye for an eye,” and “love your neighbor” are exposed. The antitheses contrast Jesus’ ethical demands with those of the Old Testament Law as interpreted by the scribes. Jesus’ teaching and His interpretation of the Old Testament transcend the literal demands of the Law. He surpassed the Law by insisting that one should avoid sinful attitudes as well as sinful actions showing that the behavior of His followers is to be guided by God’s own character rather than merely by His commands.
The phrase, “you have heard that it was said” fronts each of the six antithesis. We will see this each of the next six weeks. And let me take a moment to plug our Bible class on Sunday mornings. We are going through a study of Exodus right now and will be taking a Sunday to address the Ten Commandments and the Law. So if you are wanting to hear more about what the Law teaches, we will take a Sunday to go into some detail about it. I just worked on this this week. That class will happen in about 3 weeks or so but the whole of Exodus is interesting and I would love for you to join us Sunday mornings at 9am.
So let’s get into our actual text this morning.
Jesus begins by explaining the Law’s teaching on murder:
“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ (Matthew 5:21)
They had heard it said from Exodus 20:13 from the Ten Commandments that Moses brought down from God at Mount Sinai.
EXODUS 20:13
“You shall not murder.”
This was expounded and expanded in the next chapter Exodus 21 which explained further about striking someone to death, who it was that was killed, whether it was with hands or an object or a weapon, if it only injures them, whether it was done on purpose or an accident. The Law laid out the details of what would happen to such a person. Jesus tried to clarify that murder was just the end result of the heart of an angry person. So he goes on to connect murder to how our hearts should be focused.
“But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment…” (Matthew 5:22)
Here is the antithesis. Do not murder…but even if you are angry, you are liable to judgment. If you are angry with your brother, you might as well be subject to the laws against murder. Why does Jesus equate these two things? I can be angry with someone but not have ended their life. But this is how Jesus equates it. If we turn to Mark chapter 7 we can see Jesus’ reasoning behind this perspective.
MARK 7:20-23
20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Jesus said everything that comes out of a person defiles him. It’s from the heart that come those evil thoughts that lead to evil actions. In our passage in Matthew 5, Jesus explains this and I will further explain.
But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. (Matthew 5:22)
Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to hell. That word for fool is not translated in all versions of the Bible. Some of you have transliterated versions which give you the English spelling for the Aramaic word: rhaka
This word means “empty-headed man” or “worthless”
This was an insult used to tell someone they had no value at all and should just go ahead and go to hell. Using this word was telling someone they were unable to be saved and might as well die. It was a word of murder and Jesus says if you treat people with this level of anger, you yourself would be condemned to hell.
MATTHEW 7:2
For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.
This is what anger does to us. It can lead us to thinking evil thoughts and then the evil desires and actions can come when we let anger overcome us. In a timely way, we see that in school shootings. We see that in road rage. We see that in a gathering set aside for a “Day of Vengeance” like you may have seen yesterday. We see that in riots and I am an equal opportunity preacher: we saw it in June of 2020, January 2016 at the White House and we saw it on January 6th 2021 at the Capital. People let their anger overcome them and people get hurt or killed. This isn’t the way the people of God act.
So what do we do with anger? What happens to anger? I have three things we need to consider.
ANGER
1. Unchecked Anger Grows
We see it in the passage with letting anger overcome us to the point that we are insulting people, when we allow anger to prevent us from loving our brothers and sisters, when we call people fools and say that person might as well go to hell.
I see that today in memes online. I’ve mentioned this before, but when we say that it’s okay to write people out of your life who disagree with you. Again, I am not talking about people who abuse us, people who physically harm us, people who want to kill us or put us in a bad situation. If you are in a physically, emotionally, spiritually, or mentally abusive relationship, please get some help from a friend or family member. That isn’t healthy and staying there because you want to try and fix them or you want to minister the gospel to them isn’t a good idea. But to write people out of your life because they don’t vote the way you do or because they go to a different church than you do or because they don’t raise their children the way you do. That is ungodly.
Anger grows. Don’t let that anger grow to where you become someone Jesus would condemn.
2. Unproductive Anger Hurts You
We all need to find a way to release and vent our anger in a constructive way. In a productive way. Turn your anger into something positive.
I have become somewhat of a gym junkie. I have to go to the gym now and exercise several times a week. It has made some of my stress bearable by letting it out through sweat and strain. My body can release the endorphins I need to improve my mood and it lets out the pain of anger as I work out.
If that’s not your thing, you can scream into a pillow, get a boxing punching bag, or talk to a counselor. Speaking to someone you trust about your issues can help. Sometimes just talking about your anger or unhappiness can help you release it. Before acting on your anger, take a moment. Some of the most irrational arguments come because people don’t take some time to pause before speaking.
What we see in Scripture is that if you cannot get over something that upsets you, you should go speak to the person. We read that in Matthew 18:
MATTHEW 18:15-16
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.
There is more to this passage that I am not going to read this morning. Because there is context in this passage about going to the church that I don’t have time for this morning. Let me caution you to hesitate on the verses that follow this literally in our modern time. These verses get abused into gossip, slander, and doing the opposite of what is godly. But the point with Matthew 18 is that if someone sins against you, go talk to that person. It may just be a misunderstanding.
And what do we see in our passage this morning from Matthew 5?
MATTHEW 5:23-24
23 So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, 24 leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
What does Jesus say? If you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift and go…how often do we think that it is always on the shoulders of the one offending us to come to us to reconcile? Jesus says, you know someone has something against you? Then go find him and talk to him. YOU leave your gift. YOU might not be ready to be in my presence knowing someone is really angry with you.
3. Righteous Anger is Okay
Remember though, being angry is okay but don’t let it cause you to sin. From our Scripture reading this morning:
EPHESIANS 4:26-27
26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil.
Jesus got angry. He got angry when the money changers were in the Temple courts cheating people out of their money so they could follow the Law and offer a sacrifice. Jesus got angry at the Pharisees for their hypocritical legalism about the Law. Jesus got angry with people preventing children from coming and talking to him. Jesus got angry when he confronted the Pharisees about the Sabbath and whether he could heal someone in pain and they had no response. The lack of a response made Jesus angry because they had hard hearts about the truth. But he did not sin.
Be angry when it is warranted. When you see unjust actions happening it should anger us. But we can respond and not sin.
I’ve been angry. There are things that rightly have brought me to anger. Watching the church allow itself to die because of stubbornness over preference and legalism makes me angry. On the opposite end, watching the church bring in progressivism in allowing sin and unqualified people take on leadership makes me angry. Watching our children being sexualized at school makes me angry. Seeing a world that willfully allows corruption and won’t call it out makes me angry. Seeing Satan drag people down makes me angry. Abuse, racism, lies make me angry.
But I have to temper my anger into being productive and positive for change. Otherwise, I am no better than the Pharisees. I am no better than those I am angry at. We find a way to fight positively for truth and justice. It isn’t easy.
Jesus wrote his Sermon in a way that just made sense. If we look at the other Five Antitheses, we can see where anger leads: lust, divorce, lying, retaliation, hating people who are different.
I don’t like to end on a negative. I want us to see the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus. He wants us to stay away from anger because this is our witness to who Jesus is. If we only dwell on the things that make us angry, we are not being the ambassadors to Jesus’ Kingdom that we are called to be.
We should be that Light that we talked about 2 weeks ago! Shine your positive light in this world so they can see Jesus. If you are shining your light, you don’t have time for anger and malice. Our world needs that! This world needs you and your positive example! When school shootings are all on the news and the only thing people are talking about, be the light. Find ways to encourage people.
When you see anger, pray for them.
INVITATION
Easter Sunday is next week! We want people to hear about the Gospel of Jesus and his resurrection. Jesus is alive! What a message!
