INTRODUCTION
After spending 3-1/2 hours enduring the long lines, surly clerks and insane regulations at the Department of Motor Vehicles, I stopped at a toy store to pick up a gift for my son. I brought my selection - a baseball bat - to the cash register. "Cash or charge?" the clerk asked. "Cash," I snapped. Then apologizing for my rudeness, I explained, "I’ve spent the afternoon at the motor vehicle bureau." "Shall I gift-wrap the bat?" the clerk asked sweetly. "Or are you going back there?" submitted by Glenn Vaughan
We can do some crazy things when we allow our anger to take hold of us.
Have you done things while you were angry that you wish you could take back?
Anger can be one of the most destructive things in our life.
In verse 20 Jesus tells us that unless our righteousness exceeded that of the scribes and Pharisees, we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
In verses 21-48 Jesus gives us six examples of how our righteousness can exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.
The Pharisees were very religious; they looked good on the outside. When you look at the Old Testament Law, you see that the Law dealt more with actions and not much with the attitudes behind the actions.
The first area that our righteousness is to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees if we want to enter into the kingdom of God is the area of anger.
Today we are going to look at the devastating effects that anger can have on ourselves, on our worship of God and on other people.
SERMON
Before we get into the effects that we want to look at, we need to look at what Jesus is trying to tell us in verse 21.
In verse 21 Jesus points to the sixth commandment that in found in Exodus 20:13. He says that the ancients were told. This means that Jesus is speaking of the commandment itself, not the interpretation of the commandment as the KJV implies by translating the passage; Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
It is important for us to understand this seemingly subtle difference. If Jesus is dealing with the current interpretation of the Law, He is not replacing it, He is just adding to it whereas if He is dealing with the Law itself, He is replacing it.
The religious leaders thought they were in great shape if they did not kill a person. Jesus says that if our righteousness is going to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, we are not to get angry to the point of sinning. EPH 4:26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
If we are going to be citizens of the kingdom, not murdering a person is not the correct standard by which we are to judge ourselves. As we look over the next few weeks at the six contrasts between the Old Testament Law and the Law of the kingdom of God (the Gospel) we will see the theme of a higher standard of conduct and thought being set before us.
As we look at the effects of anger on our lives and the lives of others, we will see why Jesus raised the bar.
I. THE EFFECT OF ANGER ON OURSELVES 21-22
A. The Progression of anger
Jesus said that according to the Old Testament Law, if you murdered someone, you were sent before the court for judgement. To murder someone is to take a life with malice and aforethought.
The court could do one of three things with you.
1. Send Case to Sanhedrin.
2. Confine to city of refuge. If it was an accident
3. Execution if found guilty.
In verse 22 we see the progression of anger that Jesus condemns.
1. Anger without a just cause. We can be angry at sin, (RIGHTEOUS ANGER John 2:14-16. Money changers) but we are not to have anger toward people. Jesus says that if we go down that path that we are guilty before the court.
In 1 John 3:15, John tells us, Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
Jesus deals not only with the act of murder but the attitude behind it. In 1994 there were 23,305 homicides according to the FBI, a 22% increase since 1985. The notion that the increase is from gang and drug violence is a myth. In 1994 the most common reason for homicide was an argument, representing 28% of all homicides, most occurring at home. The FBI report states that drug and gang killing account for only 7% and .6% respectively.
When the anger is not there, the sin of further consequence will not happen.
Kansas University football player Dion Rayford was arrested after getting stuck in a drive-thru window. When employees at a Taco Bell forgot his chalupa, he tried to go in after them. The 6’ 3", 260-pound man did not quite make it through the tiny drive-thru window. Rayford was charged with several misdemeanors and was suspended from playing in the last game of his career.
2. The next step, contempt.
The word “RACCA” that is found in many translations is a transliteration of the original word. There is not a real good word in the English to translate it to. The gist of the word is that you are saying something with great contempt outwards another person.
The first step in the anger process is a silent anger, which then manifests itself in contemptible speech, hateful speech towards another.
When you get to this point, then you go to the higher court. We need to understand that Jesus is using a literary device to give us a way to understand the varying degrees of severity. It is apparent from the scriptures that there are degrees of reward and punishment.
3. The third progression in the anger process is a settled hatred.
The term “you fool” is a translation of a statement that denotes a fixed and settled hatred for another person.
In this most serve form of anger, Jesus switches from the illustration of where the punishment is ordered to the punishment itself.
Anger is a form of murder because its desire is to destroy anyone who blocks our paths to satisfaction or assaults us or who makes us look bad.
B. Anger also gives us a false view of ourselves.
The Pharisees thought they were righteous because they did not commit the act of murder.
When we are angry with people, many times we do not see the problem with that since we are not really “doing” anything wrong. Jesus scolded the Pharisees over being clean on the outside, but dirty on the inside. Listen to this passage and think about how it applies to us today. MATTHEW 23:25-26 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. "You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.
If you are harboring anger, you are hurting yourself and you are putting yourself at odds with God. We will look at what to do about that later.
II. THE EFFECT OF ANGER ON OUR WORSHIP 23-24
As we look at verse 23, you will see a shift in thought. The shift goes from you to others. Jesus tells us if we know of a brother (in Christ context wise) that WE are to go to THEM and try to settle the issue. The focus is on the OTHER person, not YOU.
In the context of verses 23-24, to us today, Jesus is saying, “if you are going to church to worship God” and you know of a brother who has something against you, stop, go to them, ATTEMPT to fix the problem and then come to church and worship.
The ‘therefore” of verse 23 ties theses verse with the consequences of having an angry spirit.
Jesus is telling us that if we are angry or if we have caused another to be angry with us, we cannot properly worship God until we have tried to make it right.
Verse 23 really puts us a course of reconciliation. We are not responsible for the way people react to our efforts, but only for our effort.
I used to take this to deal with only communion or offering time, but Jesus says that when we are angry with others or they have issues with us, our VERY worship is effected in a negative way. WE will look further at the course of reconciliation in a moment.
III. THE EFFECT OF ANGER ON OTHERS
In a 1994 article, "Wars’ Lethal Leftovers Threaten Europeans," Associated Press reporter Christopher Burns writes: "The bombs of World War II are still killing in Europe. They turn up--and sometimes blow up--at construction sites, in fishing nets, or on beaches fifty years after the guns fell silent. "Hundreds of tons of explosives are recovered every year in France alone. Thirteen old bombs exploded in France last year, killing twelve people and wounding eleven, the Interior Ministry said. "Unexploded bombs become more dangerous with time. ’With the corrosion inside, the weapon becomes more unstable, the detonator can be exposed.’" What is true of lingering bombs is also true of lingering anger. Buried anger will explode when we least expect it.
How many people do you know who have been blown up by old bombs left behind by you?
Think about what anger does to other people. When we are mad at people, what do we do? We drag more people into the fray.
Rachel and I have watched the sequel to the Lion King. It is about the lives of the Simbah and Scares families and the hatred that they harbored against each other for the past and how that destroyed the one family and almost destroyed the other. There were members of the family who were consumed by hatred and they really did not know why.
Anger affects our worship because when we are the reason that a person is angry, if that anger is not resolved, we are jeopardizing their eternity. How can we sing praises to God when we have done something to cause another person to stumble?
The language implies that the person has some legitimate issue with you. You have done something to wrong them. We know this from verse 25 where it speaks of making friends quickly with your opponent at law.
Anger destroys people. I was watching a police videos show on Fox the other night. A man was paralyzed in a car accident from a few years ago. He was angry so he finally went looking for his friend who caused his paralysis to shot him. When he could not find the friend, he shot the guy who sold his friend the car.
This young mans inability to deal with his angry will land him in prison for attempted murder.
Have you ever noticed that sometimes we get angry and remain bitter with people and actually forget why we’re so upset? Take, for example, the notorious Hatfield-McCoy feud. It hit newspaper front pages in the 1880’s, when the Hatfield clan feuded with the McCoy clan from across the border in Kentucky. Historians disagree on the cause of the feud -- which captured the imagination of the nation during a 10-year run. Some cite Civil War tensions: McCoys sympathized with the Union, Hatfields with the Confederacy. Others say it began when the McCoys blamed the Hatfields for stealing hogs. As many as 100 men, women and children died. In May 1976, Jim McCoy and Willis Hatfield -- the last two survivors of the original families -- shook hands at a public ceremony dedicating a monument to six of the victims. McCoy died Feb. 11, 1984, at age 99. He bore no grudges -- and had his burial handled by the Hatfield Funeral Home in Toler, KY.
Anger has such serious effects that Jesus tells us to deal with it before we come to worship Him.
IV. THE PATH OF RECONCILIATION 24-26
In Verse 24 Jesus gives us the first step in the reconciliation process. Go. Jesus tells us to go be reconciled with our brother. This means that we need to recognize what we did and that we are to be Christian enough to go to the person we wronged and try to make it right.
It will be up to the other person to forgive, but that is not your problem.
The second step is found in verse 25. Make friends quickly with your opponent at law. This verse shows that the brother who has something against you has a legitimate issue.
In Jesus day, if you had an issue with someone, it was up to you to get them to the court of law.
Jesus says as this is happening, make friends quickly with them.
B.R. Holt, Caldwell, ID relates the following story. Fighting rush-hour traffic from suburban Maryland to Washington D.C., can cause its share of near misses and irritating moments. One morning, a young lady darted her compact car from a side street into the stream of traffic immediately in front of a driver just a few car lengths ahead of me, forcing him to brake sharply. He avoided hitting her by inches and was obviously furious. Within seconds, traffic stopped at a red light, and I watched him pull up behind the offender, leap from his car, and stride angrily toward hers. Clearly, he intended to give her a royal bowling out. Seeing him coming, the very attractive young lady jumped from her car and ran to meet him--a big smile on her face! Before he could say one word or know what was happening, she had thrown her arms around him, hugged him tightly, and planted a passionate kiss on his lips! Then she was back in her car and driving away, leaving her antagonist standing in the middle of the street still speechless and looking somewhat confused and embarrassed--but no longer angry!
She knew how to make friends quickly. Maybe others who saw this will try to let her cut them off also.
Verse 25 tells us that just as with earthy problems, it is better to resolve them before the judgement comes.
HEBREWS 12:14-15 encourages us to: Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled;
CONCLUSION
Jesus said that our righteousness is to exceed that of the scribes and Pharisee’s if we are going to enter into heaven. Most people would be able to stand before God and say that they have not killed a person, but how many of us could say that we never hated a person or harbored anger and contempt toward another person.
Jesus wants our hearts to be pure as well as our actions, he desires worship, not just merely outward religion.
I hope that this morning if you are harboring hatred or anger toward another brother so sister in Christ, or if you know a brother or sister has something against you, that you will take the high road and make reconciliation efforts.
Harboring anger has devastating effects on your life, your relationship with God and the lives of others.
DO not let anger tear you apart, let it go, give it to Jesus.
