Transcript
The Sermon on the Mount. And I presume that we remember from our presentation last night that this is a sermon aimed at the disciples of Jesus Christ and recorded in a book that is written to a Christian audience. I suggest a Jewish Christian audience. And therefore something that has a very definite relevant application to us.
I would like to begin tonight by just reviewing very quickly what we said last night about the prologue. Remember that the prologue, as indicated on your outline here, is chapter 5:3 to 12. We noticed that in the prologue, which consists mainly of the Beatitudes, that there is a focus on character as over against activity. And that right up front the Lord Jesus Christ indicates His desire to find character qualities in His disciples.
We also noticed in connection with the prologue that the promise of possessing the kingdom is a kind of a bracket, a bookend. So that it is the first of the promises in verse 3, the last of the promises in verse 10. And we suggested this is probably designed to indicate to us that at least in terms of the ultimate fulfillment of each of these promises that the sphere or time during which they will be fulfilled will be the coming kingdom.
We should notice, we did not say too much about it last time, that the last of the Beatitudes is reinforced by verses 11 and 12. And the last of the Beatitudes in the series of eight, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,” our Lord emphasizes the truth here however by repeating and elaborating this blessing in verses 11 to 12.
“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.” Notice how this has changed slightly. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.” That is a very general statement. But now, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.” So He gives to the idea of persecution a distinctively Christian emphasis.
“Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven.” Notice there that the prologue ends with an emphasis on the theme of persecution, what we might call the privilege of persecution. Blessed are you when you are in fact persecuted for my sake.
That raises the question, what is our relationship to the world if we are disciples of Jesus Christ? If indeed it is a blessing to be persecuted for Jesus’ sake, what exactly is our relationship to the world? Are we doormats that the world is going to walk on continually or what is exactly the role that we have in the world?
And it seems to me that that is the question that is answered by the thematic verses as we indicate them here on the outline in chapter 5:13 to 16. What is our relationship to the world? Let us read it.
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all those who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
Our role in the world is not to become the objects of persecution although that may in fact eventuate from our fidelity to Jesus Christ. But our role in the world in terms of our discipleship is to be two things. Number one, salt. Number two, light.
If we think about these for a moment it seems to me that we might say that in the sense that we are salt we give the world a special flavor. We give them, so to speak, a taste of Jesus Christ. I have the privilege of traveling a fair amount. I traveled more when I was younger and met Christians all over the country. And one of the delightful privileges of going from place to place is meeting really dedicated men and women of God. People who love the Lord.
I am not just talking about preachers. I am talking about ordinary people who are in the pews and who are living for God. And when you get up close to them, when you interact with them, you sense the dedication. You sense the commitment. You sense the holiness that comes through. And it is that kind of a person that from a certain point of view makes the world taste a whole lot better.
If you never met a dedicated Christian in your life and met only worldly people I think the flavor of the world would be exceedingly flat.
Now there is a warning here that as the salt in this world we are not to lose our capacity to season. Because when we do lose our capacity to season then we are not really very useful. And as far as the world is concerned they can trample us. It is good for nothing but to be trampled underfoot. And there is very little that the world despises more intensely than a professing Christian who has lost his savor. A Christian whose life is inconsistent with his commitment. Who does not appear to love the Lord very deeply. Who appears to be motivated by material things and all these things.
If we taste like the world then the world has not much use for our spiritual commitment and testimony.
But not only are we to be salt, we are also to be light. Obviously. And you will notice that the stress here is on making the light visible. If a city is set on a hill then people can see it all around. You do not light a lamp, says Jesus, and put it under a bushel or under a bed. You set it out where people can see it.
And then the famous verse, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” Notice how we have moved forward here. As I indicated to you the prologue stresses character. There is not too much about what we do although some actions are implicit in the character descriptions that are given in the Beatitudes.
But now suddenly we are also to have works. We are to have acts. We are to have deeds by means of which the Father in heaven, to whom we claim a relationship, can be glorified. And I want to suggest that the body of the sermon to which we are coming, the body of the sermon which elaborates the righteousness that God wants to see in the disciples of Jesus Christ, is an elaboration of the good works by means of which we can glorify our Father in heaven.
So we move from the idea of character. Works are worthless without character. But if the character is there the works can be developed and they should be developed. And the life that flows out of good Christian character is the kind of life that produces acts, deeds, that glorify God.
So it seems to me that what we have here is a thematic statement that tells us in a nutshell what the Lord Jesus Christ wants from His disciples in the present age. He wants His disciples to be people who have such a character and who behave in such a way that they are the salt of the earth, that they are the light of the world. A challenging and I think inspiring goal for us to have.
That brings us to the body of the sermon which, as we have suggested last night, extends from 5:17 to 7:12. Now the body of the sermon contains an introduction to the body itself. And that is found, you will notice it on the outline, in verses 17 to 20.
I want to spend a fair amount of time on the introduction to the body. We can move a lot faster when we get into the body itself. But we have to understand the bearing of this introduction in order to appreciate the thrust of the body of the sermon as a whole.
Notice therefore, let us read the passage and discuss it. Chapter 5:17:
Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Now notice that our Lord and Savior begins the body of His message by saying, “Do not think that I have come to destroy the law and the prophets.” Have you ever stopped to think about those words? This is early in the ministry of Jesus. Why would anyone in His audience think that He had come to destroy the law and the prophets? Why does He start this way as if He is countering an impression that some in His audience may have had of Him, that He had in some way come to destroy the law and the prophets?
Have you ever considered that issue? Let us think about it for a moment. The Sermon on the Mount, as we know, takes place at least after the arrest of John the Baptist. You will glance over into chapter 4 of Matthew. You will notice in verse 12 of chapter 4 that we read, “Now when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, He departed to Galilee.” Then skip down to verse 17: “From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
We would say that the formal ministry of Jesus Christ began after the arrest of John the Baptist. But not the total ministry of Jesus Christ.
Now where will we find material that Jesus spoke and taught before the arrest of John the Baptist? Anybody here to answer that question? Where will we find material in the New Testament that Jesus spoke and taught before the arrest of John the Baptist? Guess what? In the Gospel of John. Guess where? Chapters 1 through 4.
Remember that we are told specifically in the Gospel of John chapter 3 that John was not yet cast into prison. He still interacts with His disciples after the interview between Jesus and Nicodemus. And when Jesus goes to Samaria He does so because the Pharisees had heard that He made and baptized more disciples than John.
So John chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 precede the Sermon on the Mount.
Now what does John 1, 2, 3, and 4 teach us? Well if I said what does chapter 3 teach us we all know, “You must be born again.” But as chapter 4 teaches we have to have the water of life, the gift of everlasting life.
May I suggest to you that at the time that Jesus spoke the Sermon on the Mount there were already questions raised within the Jewish public because Jesus did not teach salvation by the law. He taught salvation by grace. He taught regeneration by faith in Himself. He taught that the water of life was freely given to those who believe.
In a culture that was built religiously around observance of the law would not that appear to be a threat? Just like this isn’t the grace movement is perhaps a threat to lordship theology. Jesus preached grace. Jesus preached salvation through faith in Himself. John 3:16 is quite possibly the most fruitful and productive verse in evangelistic history. And Jesus spoke it Himself. Those are the words of Jesus Christ.
So when He sits down on the mountain to preach the Sermon on the Mount I think He is in fact countering ideas that have already surfaced among His potential critics. Does this man really hold to the necessity of the law? Is He trying by His teaching about eternal life, is He trying to set the law and the prophets aside? Is He sweeping away the historic revelation on which Judaism is built?
Though Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets.” So I would suggest first of all that His historical audience itself could and should have found this meaningful.
Now you remember that we said last night that all that we really have here is a condensation of Jesus’ total message. I am sure we do not have every word He spoke on the mountain. So we do not know how He elaborated this point. This is the written record of it that was designed to be presented to the audience for which Matthew wrote. And we suggested that was also a Jewish audience.
And by the time that the Gospel of Matthew was written the same issues were emerging in Judaism’s clash with Christianity. Does Christianity reject the law and the prophets? Does it set aside these things?
You want proof of that? Turn to Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter 6. And in the latter part of the chapter Stephen is on trial for His life. And there are false witnesses that are raised up to testify against him. Let us read verses 13 and 14.
They also set up false witnesses who said, This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law. No, for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.
The first of the martyrs. “Blessed are you when men shall persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.” Stephen was the first we know of to give His life for that. And what was the charge against him? He served someone who was going to, according to Stephen’s preaching, destroy the law and the prophets. That is what He was going to do.
That is a distortion and therefore a false accusation leveled against Stephen of course. But nevertheless you can see how it could arise from the doctrine of grace.
Please remember that by the time the Gospel of Matthew was written we also probably had the ministry of the apostle Paul well underway. And that was a ministry that reached the Gentiles and brought Gentiles into the same body with Jewish believers through faith in Christ.
And when Paul came back to Jerusalem in the later chapters of Acts he walked into a buzz saw, remember that? And even some of the believing Christians were a little uncertain of His theological soundness. And He gets advice from the Jerusalem leadership how to handle the situation. And He cooperates with them.
But what I want you to understand is that in the earliest period of the church, and I think ultimately tracing back into the earliest period of the ministry of Jesus Christ, there was a severe problem for Judaism and for Jewish people who thought in terms of salvation under the law. A severe problem on their part in accepting what Jesus had to say and accepting what His followers had to say and accepting Paul was a true and legitimate apostle of this risen one and so on.
So I think this is a meaningful statement. “Do not think that I have come to destroy the law and the prophets.” What have I come to do? “I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.”
And then He says in verse 18, “For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” Question. When do heaven and earth pass away? Revelation. Revelation 20. After the millennial reign. Exactly. After a thousand years of the kingdom.
Jesus is saying the heavens and the earth will remain until the law is fulfilled. What does He mean by this? Well as the next verse will show us He does not mean that even in the kingdom there will be perfect obedience to the law. What He is obviously talking about is a situation, a government if you will, that insists on the validity of the law from A to Z.
Let us stop and talk about this for a moment. One of the responsibilities that fell to the Jewish king, to the sons of David, to David Himself, was to lead His people in the observation of God’s commands and laws. And as we know if you read the book of Chronicles, if you read the books of Kings, you will find that the kings are evaluated on the degree to which they were loyal to God and did not promote idolatry but promoted rather the worship of God in accordance with the ancient Scriptures.
It was not so much a matter of their personal conduct although that entered in. But the king was responsible for the moral state of the kingdom over which He ruled. And I find it shocking that we get to Nehemiah 8 and Nehemiah, I think you should look at this. Turn if you will to Nehemiah 8:17.
Nehemiah 8. This records for us an observance of the Feast of Tabernacles during the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. Look at verse 17: “So the whole congregation of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and sat under the booths.” Here is the part. Here is the phrase that shocks me. “For since the days of Joshua the son of Nun until that day the children of Israel had not done so.”
Do you realize what this is saying? That the Feast of Tabernacles, instituted by Moses Himself, prescribed in the Old Testament Scriptures, had not been properly observed since the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that very day which was the postexilic period after the fall of both the northern and southern kingdoms.
In other words none of the Jewish kings insisted on the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles. Not David. Not Solomon. Not Josiah. Not Hezekiah. None of them did so. The Jewish kingdom was never a place where the law was fulfilled to the nth degree, right? Never a place like that.
But under our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all of the requirements of the law will be insisted upon. Every single one of them. It will be like the moral and legal constitution not only of the Jewish nation but of the world.
So the Lord Jesus Christ is here saying to us, “I really have not come to destroy the law and the prophets. In fact through Me, through My kingdom, they will be fulfilled. And heaven and earth will not pass away until that is true. I will in other words enforce the Jewish law in all of its specifics when I reign.”
Now as I have said that does not mean that there is going to be sinlessness in the kingdom. Notice verse 19: “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
In other words there will be infractions of the law in the kingdom. In terms of the government the government will insist on the inviolability of the law and all of its particulars down to the least commandment. And if there is anyone in the kingdom who says, “You know that commandment over there in Leviticus 23:15 that is not really very important, we can kind of ignore that,” the person who ignores it and teaches others so will have the lowest status in the kingdom.
Conversely the person who teaches its importance and observes it will have the highest status.
This gives us by the way a picture of the kingdom that we do not always have. The kingdom will not be a place where there will be perfect obedience. The kingdom will be, I am talking about the first thousand years, the kingdom will be a place where we have a perfect government.
Turn if you will to Zechariah chapter 14. In Zechariah chapter 14 after describing our Lord’s very impressive victory over the armies that have besieged Jerusalem we now are told something about the aftermath of that. Zechariah 14. Let us begin reading at verse 16.
And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain. If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain. They shall receive the plague with which the Lord strikes the nations who do not come up to the Feast of Tabernacles. For this shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.
Hey, is that how you have been visualizing the kingdom? There is Egypt. It is time for the Feast of Tabernacles. We are not going. Not this year. No rain. We are still not going. Plague.
You see what I am saying? The king and His government will insist on the observance of the whole law by everybody. That is the principle on which the kingdom will be governed. And rebellion will be dealt with as precisely what it is, rebellion.
Are you surprised that the reign of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is described as the reign of a rod of iron? And are you surprised that even though He has been in prison for a thousand years at the end of the thousand years when the devil is released He will find plenty of people who want to throw off this onerous yoke? A thousand years of oppression, of minute observance of an ancient Jewish law with all sorts of outdated taboos.
Bringing in some of that. I may be doing what they called anachronistic description here. But do not worry about it. People rebel at the strict government. And Satan goes out and says, “We can overthrow this government. Let us do it. Let us do it.” And thousands, probably millions, of people will follow Satan.
But the principle of the kingdom will be to fulfill the law and the prophets, to insist on the integrity and inviolability of the law down to the least commandment. Impressive.
So then it follows verse 20, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Okay. Here is the kingdom, right? And in the kingdom even the least commandment will be an important commandment. So it follows that the standards for entering this kingdom must be very high indeed. And Jesus says if your righteousness is not better than the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you are not getting in.
Now please understand that this is still early in the ministry of Jesus of course. And He has not begun to excoriate the scribes and Pharisees. The scribes and Pharisees were the paragons of legal observance in Israel. They were the people who went the extra mile in observing the law.
And Jesus says so focused on my law is the kingdom of heaven that if your standard of righteousness is no higher than the standards that the Pharisees and scribes have you are not getting in. I am standing here. I am one of the larger audience listening to this. I say ouch. Ouch and double ouch. How am I going to get in? How in the world can I get in? I am way below the Pharisees. I am way below the scribes. How can I possibly get in?
We know the answer, do we not? The answer is that we must have an absolutely perfect righteousness which is imputed to us through faith in Jesus Christ.
Let me pause here. I have already said to you that Jesus had begun to preach grace before He even preached this sermon. And I would call this statement here a pre-Pauline statement. Paul understood perfectly the point that Jesus is making. That the kingdom is a place where the slightest infraction of the law is considered a serious infraction of the law. So it follows from this really that a person cannot get in if he can be charged with any infraction of the law, right?
So how can that be done? By grace and by grace alone.
Now I want to also suggest that even though the Holy Spirit has left to the apostle Paul the tremendous responsibility and privilege of elaborating the doctrine of justification by faith, that that doctrine was already present in the teaching of Jesus.
And here I would like you to turn with me briefly to Luke chapter 18. This is a tremendously effective story found only in the Gospel of Luke. Let us read it starting in Luke 18:9.
And He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank You that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
Now here is where the Greek adds a little something to the English. In the phrase that the publican prayed in verse 13, “God, be merciful to me a sinner,” he uses a relatively rare Greek verb that is rare in the New Testament which can be translated this way: “God, be propitiated to me a sinner.” The Greek verb is hilasthēti. And it is the word from which we get the word propitiation.
So that the hilasmos for example in 1 John 2:2: “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.”
The publican here is not just asking for undifferentiated mercy. He understands that there has to be some kind of propitiation. We could go into how much he could have understood assuming that he lived before the time of Jesus or before the teaching of Jesus. But what Jesus gives us here is sufficient for our purposes.
The publican says, “God, I want you to propitiate my sins. I want you to take care of those sins. Be propitiated to me a sinner.” And Jesus says that is it. He is justified.
I say to you therefore that even though it does not appear very often in the reported teaching of Jesus Christ that Jesus taught justification by faith. And we must remember what I told you last night that the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are basically written for Christian people. And an allusion to these things is adequate when Jesus actually comes to the statement that we have read in Matthew 5:20.
“I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” That is all that we have recorded of what He said. But that is not necessarily all He said at that moment or anywhere else in the message that He gave.
But remember that this is in a book written to already saved people. So Matthew can assume that a saved audience will understand what righteousness is greater than the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. And can assume that the reference is to the righteousness of God that is granted by faith in Jesus Christ.
Now to what extent Jesus elaborated that truth in the sermon itself on that occasion I cannot say. This could have been a throwaway line to awaken people’s conscience. If I am an unsaved person out there this scares me, right? I have to be better than the scribes and Pharisees. I have got to find out more about how do I get better than the scribes and the Pharisees. How do you be near perfection?
And presumably it could create serious inquiry about what Jesus meant and what He taught on the subject of entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
So let me summarize it and then I am going to open it for questions here. In the introduction to the body of the message Jesus is saying, “Look, you have to understand that in my kingdom the law has total integrity. It has total validity. I have not come to sweep the law away.” He does not say, “I have not come to save you by the law.” But He said, “I have not come to destroy the law and the prophets. They are going to be fulfilled in my kingdom. I am going to insist on the requirements of the law.”
And let me just remind you that you cannot get in unless your righteousness is better than the best righteousness you can pick out in the Jewish community today.
All right. Let us open it for questions. Totally clear or absolutely obscure? That is always the conclusion, the options you have when there are no questions.
Any questions?
Yes. That is correct. So maybe let me let you finish your question and then I am going to try to respond to it. Yes. Now let me say something about that. That is an exceedingly good question. And I think deserves a little bit more than a simple answer here.
We do know from Matthew 25 and from the record of the judgment of the sheep and the goats that all nations are gathered before the Lord and divided into two groups. And the sheep are those who inherit the kingdom. And then it says that they shall enter into eternal life.
All right. It is possible that we can understand these people that are described there as entering into the kingdom in their normal bodies. But I do not think that is a probable explanation of that passage for two reasons. Number one, Paul says flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. And it also says they shall enter into eternal life.
So what I think happens there is that the sheep are instantly transformed so that they are capable of inheriting the kingdom. And they have the full experience of eternal life.
So then the question is where do the people come from who grow up in the kingdom with normal human bodies and procreate and commit sins and finally at the end of the thousand years rebel?
Well it seems to me that the answer has to be the surviving children under the age of accountability. It seems to me they are not included in the picture of the sheep and the goats. And we have lots and lots of little children too young to have made a choice. They have survived the enormous catastrophes of the tribulation period. And they get into the kingdom. God does not send them away to hell. That is my conclusion. That is an inference that I draw from putting these things together.
So then it seems to me of course some of their parents will have become glorified. They will probably raise any of their own kids that get in. But there will probably be a need in the particularly in the early phases of the kingdom for people who perform parental roles to nurture these children.
And I personally think that you know I one of my best friends at Victor Street Bible Chapel was a single lady. She passed away this earlier this year. And she never had any children. But she was so faithful to the Lord. I have to believe that she is an heir of the kingdom. I kind of expect her to be charged with the rearing of a number of children. And she will be great at it.
And I think this will be true of a lot of people. They may be in glorified bodies but they will be able to impart to these children more wisdom and more knowledge than their earthly parents could ever have dreamed of possessing and passing on.
So that is my concept of this. That children get in under the age of responsibility. And they grow up in the kingdom. And they have children. They and their children have children. And so on. And by the time we get a thousand years down the road there is no memory in the people who were born in the last 25 to 100 years. And they fall for the of Satan again.
But that is a very good question. And I do not know that that is the right answer but that is the way I put it together.
I beg pardon. No that Satan is put into the bottomless pit or I think that is a reference to Sheol for a thousand years and released at the end of the thousand years. And that is when He goes out and deceives the nations.
So Satan, this will be the best environment the world has ever known. That is right. That is right.
Yeah. Well I am sorry too that but that is exactly right. And you know a lot of people have said well the reason people are so bad is because Satan is out there fooling them all right. Let us get rid of Satan for a thousand years. People will still be very bad. And they will be rebellious.
And so I think that you know this makes a lot of sense. And that is one of the rationals for the thousand years. To once and for all demonstrate that man in an ideal environment, man under the best of all governments, man without the intrusion of Satan is still a sinner. Still a sinner.
And I do not think it necessarily follows that just because Jesus is there visibly that everybody in the world is going to believe His claims. And I think there will be plenty of people who do not believe in Him in a saving sense. They will know He is there but that is not the same as believing in Him for eternal life.
Yes. I am a very poor substitute but however go ahead and ask your question here. It is a downhill slide from the point at which He says, “My lord delayeth his coming.” And so I think the doctrine of the imminency of the coming of Christ is one of the many things that God has given us in His word to inspire and to challenge us to faithfulness, watchfulness, and activity.
Now I think it will be different in the millennium. And in my judgment it will be all the more condemnatory of human sin due to the fact that we already know that a thousand years down the road, at least that is the revelation of Scripture, that there will be a rebellion. The rebellion will be crushed. That is what the Scriptures say.
And yet knowing what the Scriptures say, talking to the people who understand and believe the Scriptures, nevertheless men will rebel and think they can pull it off. This is a supremely arrogant manifestation of human sin. And for that arrogance to appear in its full bloom it seems to me it is necessary for these facts to be known ahead of time.
You know you say if you get on drugs you can become an addict. And the potential addict says, “Not me. I can stop anytime I want.” And he gets on drugs and he becomes an addict. That is the way it works.
In the millennium the unsaved unbelieving mind says, “You know that is a bunch of nonsense.” I think frankly that there will be some very rational arguments against faith in those days. We may not be able to quite put ourselves into it but I can think of some. And ideas brought over from the previous age may percolate under the surface and be utilized by Satan when he comes out.
“Oh this person that claims to be the Son of God he is really a very gifted outer space alien. And our world is under the dominion of an invasion that came from outer space. He is not God of course. He wants you to think he is because then you do not think you can resist him. But forget that. We can resist him. We can throw off this yoke. We have been a thousand years under the rule of this alien invader. Let us get rid of him. Let us be free again. We have heard all the stories about the good times they had back in the old days. Freedom that they enjoyed. We live in this straight-laced society where all the rules of an ancient book are enforced on us. That is not human destiny. That is a detour from human destiny. Let us face the fact that this man is claiming more than he has got.”
And Satan of course has some powers of his own. Once he gets going he will probably have some impressive demonstrations to persuade people that they can follow him.
The same serpent that got Adam and Eve in a perfect environment in the garden of Eden to rebel against the God who had done them nothing but good will be active once again and effective with millions I think. But I think the awfulness of this is that everybody knows where that is going to end, when it is going to end.
All right. Yeah. We are rebelling just at the time that but the prophecies say but the prophecies are not going to come true. We are going to beat them. That is just a way of keeping us scared. That is a way of keeping us suppressed. We can all hear that kind of language, can we not?
Yeah. Yeah. You only need to shade it a little bit and shape it a little bit for the millennial situation. You can hear the same things, same themes being played.
James you had your hand up. Yes. I think it is very clear that they are separate. Yeah. Mh. Yes. Right. That is right.
Yeah. Well I do not know that I can really I may not be able to give you a fully satisfactory answer. Just to say that the these are two different sermons on two different occasions with a differing emphases although much material in common.
Certainly if we think in terms of the potential blessedness of a certain course of action it would be theoretically possible to think of the converse in relationship to its opposite. So in that particular sermon in Luke that is the kind of stress is something that Jesus is interested in communicating. Whether He said anything like this on the sermon that we do not know because we have Matthew’s condensation of. But let us assume that He did not. This is a different sermon. He is stressing things in a slightly different way.
I have been known to preach old sermons. And I do not necessarily preach them verbatim the way I preached them to begin with. I may have thought of the audience or something like that and decided I want to add, throw this in for this audience. You know that sort of thing.
No. I think Matthew intends to tell us the natural antecedent for “he taught them” the natural antecedent is the previous reference, disciples. So I think Matthew intends to tell us the same thing. It is a matter of grammar there. But I think that the natural way to understand it is “taught them” is a reference back to the immediately previously referred to disciples.
Okay. Let us take just I am not going to keep you much longer. But I would like to get into the first section to illustrate some of the material that I have laid out in a general way.
You will notice that we subdivide the body of the sermon into two larger units. One of which connects the righteousness that is being taught to our relationship to other people. And the other section connects that righteousness to our relationship primarily to God.
There is, if I am not claiming inspiration for my outline here, but you will notice I have five subsections under each. So I have five units that refer to our relationships with human beings. And five that refer to our relationships with God. Does that remind you of anything? Ten commandments in which the sequence is reversed, right? Because the first five deal with our relationship to God. The last five deal with our relationship to man.
But in the teaching of Jesus here he deals first of all with our relationship to others. And the first subunit is all we are going to talk about. Take about five minutes to talk about this and take your questions on it.
The essence of the first subunit it seems to me is that the kingdom style righteousness which Jesus is enjoining, and He is still thinking in terms of the kingdom as He speaks these words, is a style of righteousness that respects the other party.
Let us read it.
You have heard that it was said to those of old, You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of judgment. And whoever says to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, You fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny.
This is the way human relationships will be adjudicated in the kingdom. So whereas under the law there was a restriction against murder we go further than that. This time the one who is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of judgment. He can be called to account. I would presume before a court.
And whoever says to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council. This suggests a higher rung of legal liability. The word is the same word that is used elsewhere in the New Testament for Sanhedrin. So if you are just simply angry without a cause you are mad at your brother and you do not have a good reason for it you can be called into court.
If you go so far as to call, use a word like Raca, you numskull, something like that, you can get called to a higher court of accountability. And then whoever says, You fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
Hey do you realize that at the beginning of the millennium after the final battle of Armageddon most of the soldiers in that army are slain. But the beast and the false prophet are taken alive and cast into the lake of fire. The term hell fire here is a translation of the Gehenna of fire. So it is a reference to the lake of fire.
It will be possible for the king to take a serious offender in his kingdom and to send him instantly away into the lake of fire just as He sent the beast and the false prophet.
So you are just angry with no good reason, go to court. If you say Raca, null, go to high court. If you say you fool you can go to hell. Is that strict or what? That is strict.
I will come back to that point in a moment. Leave your gift in front of the altar. This is about respecting the rights of other people. Go your way and be reconciled to your brother. And then come and offer your gift.
If you have an adversary who feels you owe him something get it settled while you are on your way to court. Because you could get thrown into prison and not get out until you paid everything.
There were none of these statements about potential punishment have ever been carried out this way as far as I know in the history of the world. So we are talking here about kingdom judgment.
So here I am in the kingdom. And I am a welsher. I have not paid so and so for the work he did on my house. And he is going to take me to court. He has a right to take me to court. Jesus says get it settled before you get to court. Because you could wind up in jail for a very long time.
Now in the other part of this second unit, I cannot prove this but I think when we read the expression “your brother has something against you” I believe that this is a commercial terminology. And that this was probably used when a potential buyer went in to see the merchant and says to the merchant, “What do you have against me?” And the merchant says, “Well let me look at the records. I have this. You owe me for this. And you owe me for this. And you owe me for this. And you owe me for this.”
That to me makes sense out of this instruction. Here I am and I am coming to the temple. Understand the temple will be in existence during the kingdom, right? I am coming to the temple. I have a gift for God. Suddenly I remember I owe Joe Jones $100.
So I am going to take my gift to God back and cash it in and take $100 out of my gift to God and take the rest of it back and offer it to God. And doing that? No. Leave your gift. Leave it right there. Do not touch it. But go get settled up with your brother.
In fact the Greek word there for be reconciled with your brother could be translated settle up with your brother. Reach an agreement. Okay Joe Jones I owe you $100 for my house and I have not paid you. I am all right. I am promising now to pay you $50 a month. Is that going to be all right? Yeah that is all right.
Then you come back and offer it to God. Do not say to yourself I am giving a gift to God so I am not worried about Joe Jones. Right? He can wait. I am a worshipper of the Lord. I am giving to God. No, says God. Do not do that. Do not do that. Just put it down. Go back to your brother. Get it straightened out with him. And then come and offer your gift.
We have never lived in a society like this. And fortunately for all of us who are sitting here and who are born again we will not have a problem here. We will not owe anybody for anything. And even if we did we would pay them promptly because we would no longer be sinners.
But as we have said the kingdom will have sinners in it. And sinners welsh on their debts sometimes, do they not? And all these things are very realistic if we understand them as being the way that the king will minister the kingdom.
Now obviously what the Lord Jesus Christ wants us to understand is that this is the standard of righteousness that will obtain in the kingdom. So aim for that. If you are my disciple you are headed for the kingdom. If you are a follower of me this is what I am going to require in the kingdom. So set your moral sights high like that.
Be careful that you do not get mad at your brother for no good reason. Be careful you do not call him some insulting name like you dumb bunny or even worse, you know, you fool. Be careful that you do not take money and give it to God and say well the guy I owe this money to can wait. Give your money to God. But first settle with him.
And if somebody is going to take you to court settle it up with him. We can apply these principles to our own life and experience even though the enforcement of these principles is not today the same as it will be in the kingdom of God.
You get the idea. So the Lord Jesus Christ is teaching us a standard by which we can live which is nothing more nor less than the moral and righteous standard of His coming kingdom. A tremendous challenge for those of us who are following Him in this day and age.