Preached in Markham Baptist Church, October 29, 2006

"UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP" -
A STUDY OF THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT:
PART 5: A CALL TO RECONCILIATION

If you were here last week you will remember we discovered that the law of God and the character of God are the same thing. The law is good and holy because it shows us what God is like. But we also learned that we cannot keep the law on our own. The law only exposes our sin. If we want to keep the law we have to aim at something other and more.

That’s why what Jesus says in Matthew 5:17 is such good news. He has not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Our hope of fulfilling the law or reflecting the character of God is Christ in us. It is an awesome miracle – now through faith in Christ, Christ lives in us. We are able to keep the law, reflect the character of God.

Why? Because we have been given a new spirit and a fresh heart. We have been given the very life of Christ.

Last week I used an illustration of an apple tree. If you picture yourself as an apple tree but want to produce pears, you can be pruned, and someone can attach pears to your branches with wire, but apples will keep coming. If you want pears, you have to dig up the apple tree and plant a pear tree.

A whole new tree is needed for new fruit. Sometimes we Christians try to modify the tree – we make resolutions and commitments to pray more, go to church more, or resolve to stop bad behaviour. “When I go to the family party I won’t say that mean thing.” “When I drive along the road I will not speed.” But our resolve is soon broken, what needs to happen is not more resolutions, but a whole new tree needs to be planted.

And so we learned that this is what has happened to you and me. We recognize that we need a change of root – for apart from the Lord we have no good thing. (Psalm 16:2) But now with Christ’s life planted in me I have a new tree, new root - the seed grows, it blossoms, and produced fruit that is God’s character.

Now the problem with this is that we Christians start thinking one of two ways. There are the law keepers who say if we don’t commit adultery, don’t divorce, don’t break our oaths, then we are okay. We have a long list of laws, which also include not dating girls who smoke or boys with tattoos. And we think as long as we keep these laws we are okay. But all the while we are seething with anger and lust and revenge – we are trying to keep the law by keeping the law. This was the Pharisees problem. They cleaned the outside of the cup but left the inside dirty. (Matthew 23:25-26)

Then there are other Christians who say, God has cleaned my insides and that’s all that matters, so I can commit adultery, I can break my promises. No, no. That’s not what Scripture says. Romans 3:31 says, “Do we nullify the law by this faith? Not at all. Rather we uphold the law!”

But both extremes are wrong. It’s not even a balance between law and grace it is both/and.

Jesus brings grace, His unmerited favour. And He lives in us and the fruit of His life in us is that we are now ABLE to keep the law and therefore uphold the law.

Dallas Willard has said that the law is not the source of rightness but it is forever the course of rightness.

One other thing we need to take in before we look at the text and that is – because Christ is in you God looks at you as He would look at His own Son. Jesus has made us right before God (see 2 Corinthian 5:21). So God now looks at you as one who is pure and clean. Colossians 1:22 says, “But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from blemish.”

Ephesians 5:27 – “radiant without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish but holy and blameless.”

That is who you are.

Or, think of Isaiah 62:5 -“As a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will God rejoice over you.” That’s you. God rejoices over you, you’ve become His beloved because of Jesus Christ. You are utterly loved to the very core of your being.

And knowing THAT frees you to explore some of the disturbing and dark aspects of who you are. You do not need to worry about what you’ll find. And it certainly won’t surprise God.

You know what happens is that we are Christians, but we get angry just like we did before we were Christian. So we go to more prayer meetings and worship times, and we serve in the church more – but we treat women with the same chauvinism now as we did before we were Christians. We still seethe with feelings of revenge toward those who oppose us just as much as before we were Christians. We are just as controlling, just as anxious, just as consumed with material things as we always were. And we don’t allow Jesus to do the hard work of changing our hearts.

So in this sermon Jesus takes us deeper. He has come to fulfill the law in you and now He says lets take a closer look at your heart. Let’s get to the root of your behaviour and this is the part of the purpose of verses 21-48.

In verse 21 Jesus points out that the interpreters of the law said that if you want to keep the law – reflect the character of God - then don’t murder.

Jesus has not come to abolish the law. He affirms we should not murder but he says if you want to reflect God’s character it’s deeper than not committing murder. You need to get rid of all anger.

To be sure anger is a complex, God-given emotion. Scripture never says we are not allowed to be angry. Jesus got angry.

Anger rises in us spontaneously. It’s a God-given emotion and there are things in this world we should be angry about, it is a powerful motivator to action. The problem for us is that our anger is often tied to selfishness - show me a person who has embraced anger and I’ll show you some one who feels that their self has been wounded.

Then we act on it poorly. We slam doors, we give the cold shoulder, we long for revenge. Not only that, but after it has arisen we decide to indulge it, nurture it, we become angry people and any incident will bring it out. That’s why Scripture says, “Do not let the sun go down on your anger.” Face it and deal with it.

Anger that is not dealt with grows into contempt. Contempt is anger’s son, but worse. It is the studied desire to see another hurt, fall and disgraced. “You fool,” is an expression of contempt.

Now understand that Jesus isn’t giving us 2 new laws. Whereas before the law was do not murder, now the law is don’t murder and don’t be angry and don’t harbour contempt. No, no. He is saying if you want to reflect the character of God understand that relationships matter – so take a close look inside.

Jesus gives 2 illustrations of godly character; the first begins at verse 23 where He says instead of anger there needs to be reconciliation. Be the kind of person who willingly interrupts the most sacred rituals – Jesus speaks of laying a gift on the altar – today He would speak of being baptized or the celebration of communion – be a person who willingly interrupts the most sacred rituals in order to be reconciled with a person.

The second illustration, Jesus is not saying we should simply give into the demands of our adversary. He is simply saying that we should be genuinely committed to what is good for them, seek their well-being. This may require not giving in to them.

Nor is Jesus saying that we should never go to court. Go to court or don’t go to court – Jesus is not giving us a new law – what matters is that you do whatever you do without hostility, bitterness, and that driving desire to win. Be prepared to sacrifice you interest for the other if that is the best thing to do.

Why do you think some Christians are so angry? I would suggest it is because we haven’t done the hard work of looking deep inside at the blackness, the darkness with true poverty of spirit. May I suggest that we ask ourselves the hard questions?

Kneel before the father and ask, “What is this anger about? Where is it coming from? Does it remind me of something in the past? What will it mean for me to be assertive and not aggressive, deliberate, but not impulsive, prompt but not rushing in to speak with the person who worked these angry feelings?”

At verse 27 Jesus says let’s look at your heart and your fantasy life. We do this because we know God loves us, as a groom loves his bride, so we are able to look at the dark places of our heart. The law says do not commit adultery. Does Jesus agree? Of course. He has not come to abolish the law. But just because you don’t commit adultery doesn’t mean your heart is what it should be.

I have a friend who would never dream of committing adultery, but let a pretty woman go by and he won’t stop commenting on her physical attributes. And it’s a problem for women too. We live in an age of equal opportunity and so women have won the perverse right of commenting on men’s bodies, their pecs, their arms, their abs, their butts, just like men. Hurray. You’ve won the equal right to be crude.

But Jesus says, I’m at home in you now. We need to look at the lust in your heart. To be sure, sexual desire is natural, just like anger. In fact, sexual desire is vital to life. Nor is it sinful to look at a woman. But the word lusting in verse 28 means to look at a woman with the purpose of desiring her. That is, we desire to desire. We nurture the desiring. We fail to see the person but only see ourselves as sexually engaging him or her. Such a person sees adultery occurring in their imagination. It is a choice. Adultery is not in your DNA. Adultery grows out of lust. It is the desire for something you can’t have.

So how do we address it? With a law? “Cover all women up with a black veil!” No. Because I could still desire what’s under the veil. Cut out the eye – that’s what some interpret Jesus suggests in verses 29. But my friends, make me blind and I can still have an active fantasy life.

No Jesus is saying do the hard work of going to the heart. Ask what is it that is motivating you? Do you realize you are using others, degrading them to things to be used for your pleasure? God doesn't do that. He respects each person as a unique person of worth. And God’s character is in you, so you do the same.

Recognize it for what it is – a sin - so confess it. Realize if left alone it can consume you. So take the hard steps of rooting it out. Often we try to make bargains with God rather than dealing with the problem. We say, Lord I’ll do more Bible reading, attend more prayer meetings, give more to your church but Lord don’t make me give up my lust – what Jesus calls “your right eye”. But if your right eye was the cause of your sin, you would do anything to get rid of it – perhaps even gouge it out. So with this – get to the root of it and gouge it out of your heart.

At verse 31 Jesus says lets look at your heart and divorce. “You have heard it said anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.” A man was considered to be generous if he gave a woman a written certificate to prove her status as unmarried. This allowed her to defend herself against the charge of adultery. Which would result in death. She could get remarried and if that failed make a living as a prostitute. Big-hearted!

But Jesus says, wait, you don’t understand divorce. It’s not what God intended for married couples. To be sure there are times when it has to be done and it happens. But just because the man has given a divorce paper doesn’t mean that the right thing is done. Because in Jesus’ day if a man divorced a woman, one of three things happened – either the woman went to live with relatives and became a servant, she might find a man to marry but she would be viewed as damaged goods or she would become a prostitute.

Listen, God hates divorce. But like any sin if we confess it to Him, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So whatever your situation, married, divorced, remarried, celebrate God’s forgiveness and go and sin no more and go on serving God in your singleness or in marriage.

Jesus isn’t giving a marriage seminar here. He has come to change our hearts, so let’s look at the heart. Is it hard, which makes divorce necessary to avoid greater harm and therefore makes it permissible? (Matthew 19:8) Or is your heart soft? Bearing with one another, speaking the truth in love, even in times of difficulty and pain until the tender intimacy is restored?

Jesus continues in verses 33-37 and asks, let’s look at the heart and your need to impress people. It all has to do with oath-taking. In Jesus’ day, people would make oaths by heaven, or earth, or Jerusalem and therefore since they were not made to the Lord they figured they could break them. Like a child makes a promise but keeps their fingers behind their back.

Jesus isn’t saying that Christians should never take oaths. Instead He addressing the heart - in effect asks, are you a person who is seeking to impress others by your sincerity and reliability? Dallas Willard suggests that making an oath is a device for getting our own way – a device designed to over-awe others so as to get our own way.

Jesus says that’s not like God. And since you have God’s spirit in you, let your yes be yes and your no be no. Why do you need to impress?

Then in verses 38-42 Jesus refers to a portion of the law that refers to personal injury. In Leviticus 24 and Deuteronomy 19 we read that injurers should have the exact same injury inflicted on them as they have inflicted on others. The major point of this law was to address the injury, but more it restricted what could be done to the criminal – it was an eye for eye, not an eye for eye plus an ear and an arm. It was an act of equalization and it stopped the whole cycle of injury, counter injury, injury, counter injury.

But Jesus says, Let’s look at the heart – instead of injury for injury, I say, turn the other cheek. If someone asks for your tunic, then give your shirt too. If you are forced to go one mile go two. Give to whoever asks.

Are these new laws we must keep? No. If we turn them into laws we could say I’ll turn the other cheek but then I’ll knock your head off. I’ll go 2 miles but not a step further. It’s a not a new set of laws. It’s about the heart.

Jesus said, look inside. Are you secure enough in your relationship with God that if someone wants your tunic and they have need you can give your shirt as well? If someone forces you to go one mile (a Roman citizen may have had the right to force a non-Roman to help carry a burden) then go beyond the legal requirement to go 2 miles. If you are secure about who you are in Christ, you can do that. We can be vulnerable because in the end we are invulnerable.

Then verse 43 Jesus states that the teachers of the law said love your neighbour – and that’s all – just your neighbour. You can hate everyone else.

But Jesus says wait, that’s easy, even tax collectors do that. No, it’s about the heart, and you have a new one so now you are able to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

In the last verse (verse 48) we read, “be perfect, thereof, as your heavenly father is perfect.” He is saying reflect the character of God.

Is it keeping the law? Yes, but it’s more than that – it is getting ride of anger and the action will follow. It’s getting rid of lust and the action will follow. It’s getting resting in the goodness of God so that we are sincere, and we can let our word stand. It’s moving beyond retaliation and seeking to disarm hatred with loving kindness. It’s doing the hard work of looking at the heart and not settling with superficial Christianity where we do all the right things and say all the right things but still have our heart unchanged.

How does it happen? It’s being poor in spirit, recognizing the blackness of our heart and mourning over our sin, and yielding ourselves to God and hungering and thirsting for a change. It’s hard work.

As you may know, Nora and I are reading the Narnia series together before bed. We are now making our way through the voyage of the Dawn Treader. And last night we read a portion of the story that pictures perfectly what feels like to follow God in taking a deep, hard look at our heart.

Eustace is a young boy with a terrible attitude. He is simply beastly. And one night because of his selfishness and stubbornness and anger and greed and unwillingness to forgive, he becomes a dragon. He wants to change and go back to being a little boy, but he can’t do it himself. Eventually the great lion Aslan (representing Jesus) appears to him and leads him to a beautiful well to bathe. But since he is a dragon he can’t enter the well.

Aslan tells him to undress. Eustace remembers that he can cast of his skin like a snake. He takes off a layer by himself, dropping it to the ground, it feels better. Then as he moves to the pool, he realizes there is yet another hard, rough, scaly layer still on him. Frustrated, in pain, and longing to get into that beautiful bath, he asks himself, How many skins do I have to take off?

After three layers, he gives up, realizing he cannot do it. Aslan then says, You will have to let me undress you. To which Eustace replies:

I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back and let him do it. The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. But when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt … Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other tree times, only then hadn’t hurt – and there it was lying on the grass, only ever so much thicker, and danker, and more knobbly looking than the others had been. And there was I was smooth and soft … Then he caught hold of me … and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious and as soon as I started swimming and splashing I found that all the pain had gone from my arm. And then I saw why. I’d turned into a boy again … After a bit the lion took me out and dressed me … with paws … in these new clothes I’m wearing.

My friends Jesus has come to live in you to reflect the character of God in you. He wants to get below the surface of religious respectability and change your heart – are you willing? It may be painful as old methods of dealing with anger and old ways of treating people, ways that have grown comfortable for you but oh so damaging to others as He tears those away.

Will you allow Him? If you do so, you will find that you are wearing a whole new set of clothes, clothes that reflect the character of God.