You Have Heard It Said... (Anger, Lust) Series

“You Have Heard It Said…”

(Anger and Lust)

Matthew 5:21-30

NOW – I want to start off this morning with some words that Paul (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) penned to the church of Rome.

GO AHEAD AND TURN – to Romans chapter 13, or follow along on the screen.

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.

The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law. – Romans 13:8-10

whoever loves others has fulfilled the law

therefore love is the fulfillment of the law

QUESTION – how does ‘love’ fulfill the law?

BECAUSE IF YOU – love someone (agape love, a love of the will, a sacrificial love for the benefit of others)…

THEN YOU – will not harm them, you will not murder them, you will not steal from them, you will not commit adultery with or on them. BECAUSE – those would be the exact opposite of loving them.

Get It?

NOW – in my studies for today’s conversation I came across a great analogy in Dallas Willard’s book, ‘The Divine Conspiracy.’

Willard is discussing how Jesus on that Galilean Hillside was wanting us to understand that God was always calling us to something much deeper than merely controlling our outward behavior.

AND THEN – he goes on to say that…

“When I go to New York City, I do not have to think about not going to Boston or Washington DC. People do not meet me at the airport or station and exclaim what I great thing I did in not going somewhere else. I took steps to go to New York City, and that took care of everything.”

IN LIKE MANNER – when we value and treasure those around us, seeing them as people created in the image of God, and we chose to love them with God’s kind of love…

THEN – that takes care of everything else.

UNDERSTAND B/S – simply not going to Boston or Washington DC, is a poor plan for going to New York City.

LIKEWISE – simply not stealing from, or murdering someone… is a poor plan for loving them as God desires.

IN FACT – it will not work.

SURE – we may have avoided going to Boston or DC, but never made it to NYC.

HOWEVER – if we make the decision (with the help of God) to love people the way God desires, that takes care of everything else, and doing things that would harm them, well we would never get on that plane to begin with.

whoever loves others has fulfilled the law

therefore love is the fulfillment of the law

Prayer

OKAY… let me set the scene…

It’s 30 AD and Jesus has been: preaching, teaching and healing people for about a year. AND SO - there is a very large group of people following after Jesus.

AND – as Matthew chapter 5 opens up…

IT’S TIME - for Jesus to give His platform speech, His manifesto, if you will.

YES IT’S TIME - for Jesus to let everyone know what both He and His Kingdom are all about.

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. – Matthew 5:1,2

AND UNDERSTAND – this huge crowd is made up of people coming from different places and representing diverse ethnic, religious, and political backgrounds.

In That Crowd Were…

• Religious Jews from Judea with their devout commitment to the observance of the law.

• Galilean Jews for whom synagogue life, though important, was not the obsession it was for the Judeans.

In That Crowd Were…

• Non-observant Jews who, having dropped out of religious life altogether, were labeled as “sinners.”

• Greeks from the Decapolis region (the ten cities east of the Jordan) with their sophisticated love of art, philosophy, and athletics… and of course,

• The Romans—the triumphant foreign occupiers from the dominant superpower, were in that crowd on the Hillside as well.

AND UNDERSTAND - what Jesus has to say in the Sermon on the Mount (about the path to real life, and about life in His Kingdom) He addresses to all of these different people.

AND LISTEN – this path was not what they expected, and it is certainly not a path that most people were on.

OKAY - here’s the bottom-line…

IN – this Manifesto, Jesus declares that His Kingdom is about: being, having and living. UNDERSTAND…