Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery

Introduction:

2 Kings 18:4 – He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah. And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made, for until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it (it was called Nehushtan).

Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery (Matthew 5:27-30):

1. Adultery Is a DEVASTATING SIN. (Matt 5:27–28)

   Matthew 15:19 – For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

   Titus 1:15 – To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

2. Adultery has DIRE CONSEQUNECES. (Matt 5:29–30)

   1 Corinthians 6:9–10 – Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

3. Adultery requires DRASTIC MEASURES. (Matt 5:29–30)

   Romans 13:14 - But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

   1 Corinthians 6:9–11 – And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:27-30

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. Explain Matthew 5:28 in your own words.
   

3. What did Jesus mean by gouging out your right eye and cutting off your right hand (Matt 5:29-30)? What are some practical ways to apply this teaching?
   

4. Is Jesus saying a believer who commits adultery will go to hell? Who exactly is “thrown into hell”?
   

5. What would you say to a professing believer who confesses that they can’t break free from lusting?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

• AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

  Open up those Bibles to Matthew chapter 5.

  If you're visiting with us today, we are going through the Sermon on the Mount verse

  by verse.

  And Happy Mother's Day, the title of today's sermon is "Thou Shall Not Commit Adultery."

  I, I, um, we go where the text goes, okay?

  That's what we do.

  We go where the text goes.

  So let's do that.

  I'd like you to bow your heads please and just pray for me to be faithful to communicate

  God's Word.

  And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what is an extremely challenging

  passage.

  Let's pray.

  Father in heaven, we thank You for Your Word.

  We're not going to shy away from it.

  We just heard two testimonies of the way that Your Word has transformed lives.

  We're going to hear at least four more in the next service.

  That's why we, um, we just want to go after Your Word, God, because we believe that Your

  Word does Your work because that's what You said.

  And that is certainly what we've seen.

  So Father, I pray for all of us here today, all those who are going to be listening, watching

  this stream or downloading the podcast.

  Father I pray that You would bring revival in each and every heart in a way that greatly

  glorifies Your name.

  We pray in Jesus' name.

  And all of God's people said, "Amen."

  Amen.

  Matthew chapter 5, are you there?

  In Numbers chapter 21, you have Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt to the promised

  land and Israel complained and grumbled against God, against Moses.

  And the Lord sent these fiery serpents who, and these serpents bit some of the Israelites

  and many of them died.

  Well they repented.

  And God told Moses to put a bronze serpent on a pole.

  And if the Israelites, when they were bitten by one of the snakes, if they looked at this

  bronze serpent, they would live.

  Well then fast forward, Israel in the land established and they had kings.

  Some kings were very bad and some kings were just not as bad.

  Right?

  Can you relate to that at all?

  And Hezekiah was a king who was not as bad and he brought a lot of reforms to Israel.

  Here's one.

  We put this verse up from 2 Kings chapter 18.

  Hezekiah says, "He removed the high places and broke the pillars and cut down the ashram.

  He broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made for until those days the people

  of Israel had made offerings to it."

  It was called Nahushdin.

  See what happened?

  You see what happened?

  People took a blessing that God gave them for their benefit and they turned it into an

  idol.

  That's exactly how it is with physical intimacy.

  It is a gift that God gave those in the covenant of marriage, but we have turned it into an

  idol.

  So on your outline today, this is it.

  "Thou shall not commit adultery."

  I want you to write some things down.

  Number one, write this down.

  Adultery is a devastating sin.

  Adultery is a devastating sin.

  Now just that statement alone, it's a hard sell because we are a sex-obsessed culture.

  You've taken this gift from God and we've perverted it and we worship it.

  Do I have to point that out at all?

  Look at all the homosexuality madness, all the transgender stuff.

  And you're like, "Yeah, you know what, Pastor Jeff, you're right.

  You're right.

  It's bad out there."

  And I would say, "Church, it's bad in here."

  I was reading some polls for what they're worth.

  But according to one poll, one half of self-identifying Christians believe that casual sex is okay.

  Consenting but not in a relationship.

  They believe that's okay.

  Half.

  Think that's alright.

  What?

  I read a poll about pornography use among non-Christian men.

  Non-Christian men, 65%.

  Like, yeah, that's pretty bad.

  Christian men, 64%.

  The same poll, lest you think, "Yeah, creepy men, right?

  Creepy men, same poll, 51% of women."

  And you know at this point, you could be like, "Well, look, Jeff, we're only human.

  Everyone does it.

  It's not hurting anyone."

  Well according to Jesus, it's a devastating sin.

  Look at verse 27, Matthew chapter 5.

  Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall not commit adultery.'"

  Stop there.

  Adultery.

  What is adultery?

  Well the technical term is defined as intercourse with another person's spouse.

  But it's become a catch-all term for relations with anyone who is not your spouse.

  And you're going to see in this passage, it's very clear that that's how Jesus was using

  the term in the most general sense possible.

  You go to Exodus chapter 20 and verse 14, you see that it's the seventh commandment.

  You go to Deuteronomy chapter 22 and verse 22, you'll see that under the law in Israel,

  adultery was punishable by death.

  And I don't have time to get into it this morning.

  We've done whole sermon series on this, by the way.

  But I just encourage you, if you're ready to just brush it off as, "Oh, church people,

  just making a big deal out of nothing," read Proverbs 5, 6, and 7 sometime.

  And you will see that adultery is a devastating sin.

  I heard one pastor this past week call it a sin for fools.

  And I think that's a very good description.

  adultery is devastating.

  I mean, it wrecks you, destroys your reputation, affects your relationship with your spouse,

  relationship with your kids.

  Oh, and the other person, what about them?

  It affects, now if they're married, it affects their relationship with their spouse.

  If they have kids, it affects their kids.

  And what has done to their reputation.

  But the devastation of adultery is way deeper than that.

  Look at verse 28.

  Jesus says, "But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has

  already committed adultery with her in his heart."

  Do you notice verse 27, verse 28?

  Jesus said, "You have heard, but I say to you," what was Jesus doing?

  Pastor Taylor talked about this last week.

  Same thing with murder.

  Same thing.

  Jesus was contrasting their definition of sin with God's definition of sin.

  Because their definition of sin in Jesus' day was all about externals.

  So when they hear adultery, they're thinking only in terms of the physical act with another

  person.

  But that, not alone, is adultery.

  And Jesus says, "No, you're not taking it far enough.

  And you're understanding.

  It's a hard issue.

  Like murder.

  You don't have to actually kill someone to be considered a murderer in the eyes of God."

  Jesus is saying the same thing about adultery.

  You don't have to physically be with another person to be an adulterer.

  Look at verse 28 again.

  He says, "I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already

  committed adultery with her in his heart."

  Now you have to understand this looking with lustful intent, it's not an accidental glance.

  This is literally in the process of continuing to look.

  It's looking in such a way that you are fueling your sexual imagination.

  When that happens, the deed's already done.

  Adultery has happened.

  Now listen, I don't want you to misunderstand because it's even worse than you think it

  is.

  Listen, Jesus did not say that looking at a woman with lustful intent causes you to commit

  adultery in your hearts.

  Jesus said looking at a woman with lustful intent means you already committed adultery

  in your heart.

  Jesus is saying that you looked with lustful intent because it was already in your heart

  to commit adultery.

  I think this is where a lot of people get this mixed up.

  It's not, "Oh, I was going about my business and I just stumbled across this woman and

  I looked at her and that is what caused me to lust."

  That's not the extent of it.

  It's this, I have an adulterous heart that's looking for a woman with lustful intent.

  See the difference?

  The look did not cause the lust.

  It is the lust that caused the look.

  You see the difference?

  Look, look, I can't, there's no way I can overstate this.

  This is a real problem.

  And this is a real problem that people sitting here have right now and are not dealing with

  it.

  You're not an adulterer because of something you do, it's who you are.

  It's a heart thing.

  You see with adultery like murder, as Pastor Taylor talked about last week, before it's

  an act, even if it doesn't become an act.

  That is what is in your heart.

  This is the heart of the law.

  Jesus said in Matthew 15, 19, "For out of the hearts, out of the heart come evil thoughts,

  murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander."

  You see that?

  The sinful acts are symptoms of a sinful condition.

  Committing the act of adultery, those are the leaves on the tree that has the root of

  an adulterous heart.

  And if you're sitting here still somehow magnanimously saying in your head, "I would never commit

  the act."

  I did not and I would never commit the act of adultery.

  But if that sin is in your mind, if that sin is constantly in your imagination, you have

  a real problem.

  That's why pornography is such a big business.

  Why?

  Because sinful hearts are literally searching for it.

  And you have to understand that if that's your issue, the sin started even before you

  got online because it's in here.

  It's a devastating condition to live in.

  You're unable to live a holy and upright life because when your heart is full of adultery,

  it perverts everything.

  And consider Titus 1.15.

  Look at this verse.

  Paul says to the pure, "All things are pure."

  But to the defiled and unbelieving, meaning your heart is full of perversion and sin,

  to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure.

  But both their minds and their consciences are defiled.

  Do you know what that means?

  That means that when you're in that latter condition, you cannot look at another woman

  purely.

  You cannot see another woman as a sister, as a mom, as even just another human being.

  When this is where your heart is, every woman that you encounter, you're evaluating.

  And many become objects in your minds and hearts of fantasies.

  Lust just becomes all-consuming.

  And the people that live in this defiled state don't even see a problem.

  God's gift of marital intimacy has become an idol that you use to gratify your flesh.

  So see, Jesus is telling us out the gate, this is a devastating condition.

  And secondly, I shall not commit adultery.

  Not only is adultery a devastating sin, but adultery has dire consequences.

  Adultery has dire consequences.

  Look at verses 29 and 30.

  These two verses kind of saying the same thing, but this is some of the most startling stuff

  Jesus ever said, in my opinion.

  He says, "If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away, for it

  is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it is better

  that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."

  And you're like, "Man, gouge out your eye?

  Like cut off your hand?"

  Like, "Man, that seems awfully extreme."

  If that's the part you're focusing on, then you have completely missed the point.

  Because neither of those things are extreme.

  They're not extreme at all compared to hell.

  Notice twice Jesus says, "Thrown into hell."

  Thrown into hell.

  What's the obvious implication, right?

  We get it.

  We get what He's saying.

  Jesus is saying here that people with adulterous hearts go to hell.

  If you're still not convinced, Paul backs this up, verse Corinthians 6, verses 9 through

  10.

  He says, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?"

  Meaning go to heaven.

  Meaning go to hell.

  He says, "Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral nor adulterers nor men who

  practice homosexuality nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor revilers nor swindlers

  will inherit the kingdom of God."

  Your priority in this life, more than anything, should be preparing yourself for eternity.

  Are you doing that?

  Because the Bible says your decisions in this life matter.

  And someday you're going to stand before God.

  So if lust is a problem for you, if lust characterizes you, and look, I can't answer

  that.

  I can't answer that for you.

  But you know if this sin consumes who you are.

  And if it characterizes you, there are consequences.

  As we talked about before, here and now, apparently, obviously, easily seen, there are consequences

  for adultery.

  But Jesus says there's also consequences when you take your last breath.

  Adultery has dire consequences.

  So let's talk about the other big thing in these verses.

  Number three, adultery requires drastic measures.

  Look at them again.

  He says, "If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away, for it

  is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.

  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it is better

  that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."

  Weren't you just blessed by the obedience of those who were baptized today?

  Didn't you say obedience is a wonderful thing?

  Awesome.

  Who's first?

  I mean, didn't Jesus just say if your hand causes you to sin, to cut it off?

  Who's first?

  We're not going to do it over the tub because we get more baptisms in the next service.

  And you're like, "Yeah, what about the other verse?"

  Well, don't worry.

  We can take care of the eye, too.

  We'll get Pastor Taylor up here.

  We'll do them both at the same time.

  You won't know.

  You won't even know what's going on when both of them are happening at the same time.

  And you're like, "Man, gouging out your eye and cutting off your hand.

  Man, that sounds drastic."

  Oh, it absolutely is.

  Maybe even more than you think.

  Because you see, Jesus was speaking to Jews.

  And the Jews viewed the right greater than the left.

  Just as a general thing.

  If you're left-handed, I don't need any hate emails.

  Okay?

  That's just the way it was, right?

  Sitting at the right hand.

  My right hand, man.

  The idea was right is better than left.

  So your right eye and your right hand and the Jewish mindset, those were the two most important

  things that you own.

  What Jesus is saying is this, there is nothing that is too important to eliminate from your

  life if it is causing you to sin.

  Adultery is destructive, it's enslaving, it's condemning.

  We got to deal with that.

  We have to deal with it.

  Do you believe that?

  Whatever.

  Listen.

  Whatever it is that feeds the lust in your heart, no matter how important that thing

  is, it has got to go.

  It's got to go.

  If you're feeding your lust through your phone or maybe a tablet, smash them up.

  And you're like, "Pastor Jeff, I have the newest iPhone.

  I spent a lot of money for that."

  It's not worth hell.

  Is it your laptop?

  Smash it up.

  Or you know, take your laptop to the kitchen and only use it around your family.

  You're like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff, my family is really nebby."

  Good.

  So glad to hear that.

  It's not worth hell.

  Maybe for some of you it's your social media accounts where you're having inappropriate

  relationships, conversations with people online or looking at things through those that you

  shouldn't be looking at.

  Delete them.

  Delete those social media accounts.

  You're like, "But Pastor Jeff, that's how I stay connected.

  Join a small group."

  You're like, "Put Pastor Jeff, the social media, that's just my leisure time.

  Take up pickleball.

  It's not worth hell."

  You know what?

  Maybe we'll just take care of all this.

  Call and cancel your internet if it's a problem.

  If it's leading you to feed this lust, Jesus says, "It has to go."

  And you're like, "Well, Pastor Jeff, I need the internet for my job.

  Get a new job.

  I will find you a job where you don't need the internet because it's not worth hell."

  Maybe for some of you as we are approaching summer, maybe it's a membership in a public

  pool.

  Like, you know what?

  I go there, Pastor Jeff, and I look at the women there, and I get to tell you what did

  Jesus say.

  You've got to get extreme here, people.

  But Pastor Jeff, my pool membership, that's just kind of our thing like we do in the summer.

  Swim at home.

  And I don't have a pool at my house.

  Do you have a bathtub?

  It's not worth hell.

  And I know people are like, "Okay, Pastor Jeff, I hear what you're saying, but I'm going

  to be honest with you."

  It's going to be kind of embarrassing to have to explain to people why I smashed my phone

  and canceled my internet.

  It's going to, I'm going to have to explain to people why I did that.

  That's kind of embarrassing.

  I'll tell you what's going to be more embarrassing than that is you not cutting off your sin,

  and someday you're going to stand before God.

  And God's going to say, "Do you remember the strangest Mother's Day sermon you've ever

  heard?"

  Why didn't you listen?

  Why did you despise my word?

  Why did you think following me was not worth cutting off the stuff that keeps you from following

  me with your whole heart?

  Why did you find me not worthy?

  Notice Jesus says it's better.

  It is better to lose your eye, lose your hand.

  It's better.

  What's better than going to hell?

  Literally anything.

  Anything you have to lose for the sake of your soul is going to be worth it.

  Romans 13, 14, same thing.

  Paul's saying the same thing.

  Maybe not in as graphic terms as Jesus, but it's the same thing.

  He says, "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify

  its desires.

  Make no provision.

  Take drastic measures to cut off anything that feeds the flesh."

  It's like that old story I heard, an old metaphor.

  Maybe you've heard about the guy.

  He had a white dog and a gray dog.

  And every time he put food out for them, the gray dog would whoop up the white dog, take

  all the food.

  The white dog would get none.

  After a while, the white dog, not eating, got weaker and weaker and weaker and the gray

  dog getting all the food, got stronger and stronger and stronger.

  The guy said, "I've got to do something about this."

  So he put both the dogs on a leash.

  And for a month, he only fed the white dog.

  This isn't a real story, by the way.

  Don't call it PETA.

  But he only fed the white dog.

  The gray dog barely surviving.

  But after that time of only feeding the white dog and not the gray dog when he let them

  off the leash, now the white dog was strong because it was the one that got fed.

  The gray dog was weak because it was the one that got starved.

  And I think you see the obvious application.

  The dog you feed is going to be the dominant dog.

  And the dog you starved was going to be the weak dog.

  See in this analogy, the white dog represents walking by the Spirit.

  The gray dog represents walking in the flesh.

  I think some of you are so weak because you're not feeding the Spirit, so to speak.

  You're not into Word.

  You're not worshiping.

  You're not praying.

  You're not in fellowship.

  You're not listening to good biblical podcasts.

  You're starving that.

  When instead you need to be starving the flesh.

  Make no provision for the flesh.

  Starve the adulterous heart by making no provision for whichever dog you feed is going to be

  the dog that is strong.

  And the dog that you don't feed is the dog that gets weak.

  And you're like, "Man, Pastor Jeff, this sounds impossible."

  Oh, it is.

  Absolutely.

  That's why we put Romans 13 back up there, please.

  It is impossible.

  Hence the first phrase in this verse, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ."

  Reformation is not going to work.

  If your goal here is to just try to clean up your act, you're not going to get very far.

  You need transformation.

  You need the life of Christ in us to be able to make these choices.

  Oh, and by the way, earlier we read, well, 1 Corinthians 6, we read verses 9 and 10.

  I'd like to go back and I'd like to look at the very next verse.

  Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

  Do you not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor adulterers, nor adulterers, nor

  men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers,

  nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God?

  Look at verse 11.

  And such were some of you that you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified, you

  were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God.

  I just want to ask you today, are you an R?

  Or are you a Wurr?

  Because today, today could be the most important day of your life because today you can become

  a Wurr.

  Like it about your heads as the worship team makes their way back up.

  Just like it about your heads.

  Close your eyes.

  Look, this is a between you and God thing here, alright?

  There's some of you that have been trapped because you don't know Jesus Christ as your

  Lord and Savior.

  You don't have the power or resources to overcome this sin because you're living in the flesh,

  not by the power of His Holy Spirit because you don't know.

  Today can be the day that you receive Him.

  And you know what?

  We're baptizing in the next service.

  Pastor Taylor would be thrilled to be able to baptize you because you've repented from

  your sin and turned to Jesus Christ.

  But if you, heads bowed, eyes closed, if you're sitting here and you're like, you know what

  pastors, I am a believer in Jesus Christ, but I'm honestly, I'm stuck in this sin.

  I just want to ask you, Christian, stuck in this sin.

  Why in the world would you indulge in a sin that Jesus died for?

  Today Christian, you need to repent.

  Today Christian, you need to do some cutting.

  Father in heaven, I just simply ask today that you open up the eyes of our hearts that we

  don't look at this sin from a worldly perspective because the world celebrates it.

  Father, let us see this sin from your perspective.

  It's a horrible sin.

  Father, let us see the consequences that Jesus laid out for us.

  There is eternal separation from you for the heart that chooses to live in lust instead

  of walking by the Spirit.

  Father, I pray that you would give us the wisdom, you would give us the strength, and

  you would give us the faith to be able to cut some things today.

  It's ultimately going to bless us to be free from this bondage, but the end goal of all

  things, Father, is for the glory of your name.

  Father, I pray that you would glorify your name through a work of your Holy Spirit, bringing

  people to you in repentance and bringing your people back from a willing bondage to

  sin.

  Please, Father, let our life, let our very life be an act of worship in the way we repent.

  We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Thou Shalt Not Murder

Introduction:

How Do You Stop Hatred from Growing in Your Heart? (Matthew 5:21–26)

1. By putting it to Death when it First Appears. (Matthew 5:21–22a)

   1 John 3:15 – Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

2. By refusing to Kill others with Destructive words. (Matthew 5:22b)

   Ephesians 4:29 – Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

3. By seeking after Immediate Reconciliation. (Matthew 5:23–24)
4. By remembering what’s At Stake. (Matthew 5:25–26)

   1 Corinthians 6:10 – ...nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:21-26

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. Are you struggling with anger/hatred? How can you deal with it right now before it gets out of control?
   

3. Read Ephesians 4:29 - What are some practical ways to control your mouth and keep corruption from spreading to others?
   

4. Why is it so hard to admit your faults and ask for forgiveness?
   

5. What are the consequences of giving yourself over to hatred and unforgiveness?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

• AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

  Turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 through 26.

  Matthew chapter 5 verses 21 through 26.

  We live in a culture that is absolutely obsessed with murder.

  There are dozens and dozens of true crime podcasts that delve into the nitty-gritty details

  of the worst crimes imaginable.

  Who has ever listened to a true crime podcast?

  No shame.

  Just asking.

  There are seemingly thousands and thousands of TV shows that are centered around murder

  investigations.

  Let me just list a few.

  Blue Bloods, Only Murders in the Building, Criminal Minds, Chicago PD, Sherlock, Bones,

  Castle, The Rookie, Longmire, Colombo, Psych, Monk, Murder She Wrote, Diagnosis Murder.

  Then there are the franchises that have spun out an endless amount of added-on shows, right?

  Law and Order, Law and Order Special Victims Unit, Law and Order Criminal Intent, Law and

  Order LA, Law and Order Trial by Jerry, Law and Order True Crime, Law and Order Organized

  Crime, NCIS, NCIS Origins, NCIS Los Angeles, NCIS Hawaii, NCIS New Orleans, NCIS Sydney,

  CSI, CSI Miami, CSI New York, CSI Los Angeles, CSI Vegas, CSI Cyber, CSI Sheboygan, CSI Wexford.

  Okay, wait.

  Those last two don't actually exist, but at the rate they're pumping out these spin-offs,

  you never really know.

  But millions of people tune into these kind of shows every single week to watch fictional

  murderers face justice.

  On top of these podcasts and TV shows, we even play a board game with children that

  is all about murder.

  That board game is?

  Who has ever played Clue at some point in their lives?

  I don't want to explain the basic premise, right?

  Okay, three to six players, you're all trapped in a mansion and one of you murdered Mr. Bodie,

  who owned the mansion.

  Was it Ms. Scarlett, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Mrs. Peacock, or Professor

  Plum?

  The whole purpose of the game is to figure out who is the murderer, what is the murder

  weapon, and what is the location of the killing?

  Again, this is a game for children.

  If the game can end with an accusation like this, Colonel Mustard in the conservatory

  with a candlestick.

  Maybe you love playing this game growing up because you like to solve the mystery, assign

  the blame for murder, and point the finger at made-up characters.

  But what if I were to tell you that every single person in this room is guilty of murder?

  This is in my opinion, it's not a suspicion, a hunt or an unfounded accusation.

  This is a clear and simple fact from the mouth of our Lord.

  According to Jesus Christ, we are all Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with a candlestick.

  And you may be thinking, "Taylor, I don't know about the person next to me, but I have

  certainly never murdered anyone in cold blood."

  Well, you may be innocent of physically murdering, but there is no wiggling out of the reality

  that you are guilty of spiritually murdering in your heart by hating others.

  And again, I know that some of you may be resisting what I'm saying already.

  You think to yourself, "I don't hate anyone.

  I am pleasant with everyone."

  I mean, sure, there are some people I intensely dislike.

  There are some people I vent about constantly.

  There are some people I avoid at all costs, and if I saw them in the grocery store, I

  would run in the opposite direction.

  But hey, that's different.

  Is it different?

  Maybe you are dressing up your hatred to make it look nice and acceptable when it is actually

  cruel and dishonoring to the Lord.

  No matter who you are, how nice you may appear, you are not exempt from hatred.

  Because you have to understand that murder is not just an action.

  It is a state of heart in mind.

  We have been studying the Sermon on the Mount since February, and we are in the second section

  of our study, "The Heart of the Law."

  Last week, Pastor Jeff taught that Jesus Christ didn't come to abolish the law, but to perfectly

  fulfill it through His life, death, and resurrection.

  And throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus demonstrates that the law is not skin deep.

  It actually drills down deep within you to your heart.

  Jesus cares about who you are on the inside.

  He is far more interested in the internal than the external.

  In Matthew 5, verses 21-26, Jesus exposes your greatest desires, fears, and innermost

  feelings which you try to keep hidden away from others.

  Jesus pulls your anger into the light to show you how truly ugly, subtle, and destructive

  it actually is.

  Jesus doesn't do this to humiliate you.

  He does this to help you.

  Jesus doesn't do this to condemn you, but to change you from the inside out.

  Because hatred cannot be allowed to fester.

  It will hollow you out on the inside, and it will hurt everyone around you.

  So how do you stop hatred from growing in your heart?

  Well, our passage for this morning offers four methods of extermination that will keep

  the infection from spreading.

  Before we cover those, let's go to the Lord and ask for His help.

  Please pray for me that I will faithfully proclaim God's Word, and I will pray for you

  that you will joyfully receive God's Word.

  Father, we thank you for this most important appointment of the week.

  We gather together as your people to worship you, to encourage one another, and to sit

  under the proclamation of your Word.

  Lord, I thank you that you watch over your Word to perform it, and that your Word accomplishes

  every purpose for which you send it out.

  I pray this morning that you would do your work in our hearts and lives.

  We ask all this in Jesus' name.

  Amen.

  So how do you stop hatred from growing in your heart?

  The first method of extermination by putting it to death when it first appears.

  By putting it to death when it first appears.

  Let's read verses 21 through 22.

  Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, and

  whoever murders will be liable to judgment.

  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment."

  So Jesus kicks off a pattern that we see six times in Matthew chapter five.

  You have heard that it was said, but I say to you.

  And at first glance, it may look like Jesus is changing one of the six commandments.

  It may look like he is erasing the original meaning and coming up with something brand

  new.

  But as Pastor Jeff said last week, Jesus came not to lessen the law, but to elevate it.

  Jesus is not changing the sixth commandment.

  He is simply revealing something that has always been within it, but has been ignored.

  He is not contradicting God's word.

  He is contradicting the Pharisee and scribes incomplete interpretation of God's word.

  The religious leaders of Jesus' day thought and taught that the sixth commandment of,

  "You shall not murder," only applied to the physical acts of homicide in manslaughter.

  They put this commandment into a box and ignored its deeper meaning.

  And here is the heart of the sixth commandment.

  Do not give yourself over to unrighteous anger, which leads to the act of unjustly ending

  someone's life.

  Anger is the first domino in that chain reaction.

  The religious leaders limited the scope of God's command and the process they limited

  its impact.

  By viewing the sixth commandment in this way, a religious leader could look at himself and

  say, "Hey, I am perfectly keeping this commandment.

  I have never clubbed someone over the head.

  I've never pushed my neighbor off a tall building in a fit of rage.

  God must be so proud of me, but internally they are killing people by despising them,

  despising tax collectors, sinners, and Gentiles."

  In this passage, Jesus corrects the massive oversight of the men who should know the law

  better than anyone else, but have missed the entire point.

  They have missed the heart.

  Jesus is saying, "Don't think you're safe and sound because you have no bodies buried

  in your backyard.

  You were on the hook for a serious crime and heading for serious consequences if you have

  hatred and anger and bitterness buried in your heart."

  It's especially egregious to be angry with fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

  Why is that?

  You know, as a dad, it pains me to watch or read news stories about kids being bullied.

  But do you know what would be worse than watching strangers be mistreated, finding out that

  one of my own kids is being bullied?

  Do you know what would be the worst of all?

  Discovering that one of my kids hates and actively tries to hurt his or her sibling.

  It grieves the heart of God to watch his children despise and attack one another.

  And John talks about this in his first epistle.

  He says, "Everyone who hates his brother is a what?

  A murderer.

  And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."

  At this point, you may be frustrated thinking, "Wait, so you're saying I can never be angry

  with anybody, especially if he or she is a Christian.

  How is that possible?"

  To be clear, Jesus isn't saying that anger is always sinful.

  God gets angry.

  God hates sin and what it causes.

  Jesus got angry throughout the Gospels.

  As a human, it is impossible for you to not feel feelings of betrayal, of annoyance, and

  frustration.

  Jesus isn't condemning anger in general.

  He is condemning a very specific kind of anger.

  In this passage, the word for anger in the Greek is orgizō.

  And this is a fuming, a boiling anger that is nurtured and intensified like a pot of water

  on a stove.

  You keep dialing up the temperature, keep dialing up the intensity until it overflows

  and scalds people.

  This kind of anger twists your heart.

  It distorts how you view other people.

  You may even danger about bad things happening to this person.

  You may want this person to get what's coming, to get what they deserve, to be publicly humiliated

  and to feel the same exact pain that you feel.

  When you hate someone, you are communicating this message to the Lord.

  Lord, I don't care if that person dies and I want them out of my life for good.

  Now, you would never say that out loud, but that's what you're feeling in your heart when

  you harbor bitterness.

  Because that person is dead to you when you never ever want to see him or her ever again.

  In your book, it's like they've been wiped out of existence.

  It's like they've fallen off the face of this earth.

  That kind of anger is a spark that can be snuffed out or fanned into flame.

  It's challenging to put to death in its infancy, but it's way harder to kill once it's fully

  grown and is out of control.

  And this principle holds true in every other area of life.

  If you had gone to the dentist, when you first noticed that tooth pain, you could have avoided

  the unpleasant and very expensive root canal.

  That small leak in your attic would have been much more manageable whenever it was a small

  drip, but now every single time that it rained, it's like a waterfall in your attic.

  Even care of your yard would have been much easier when you pulled weeds as they popped

  up, but after months and months and years of neglect, there are weeds everywhere.

  In those moments, you noticed a problem, but you did nothing about it.

  You stuffed it down instead of honestly addressing the issue.

  Never turn a blind eye to your sin.

  Only when it comes to unrighteous anger and hatred, when you see that root of bitterness

  pop up, be relentless and pulling it out and throwing it away instead of giving it room

  to breathe and to grow.

  When that urge to mentally curse someone out in your mind pops up, don't entertain it.

  Don't go down that ungodly route.

  Instead, choke out those thoughts with the word of God.

  If that person is a believer, pray for their sanctification.

  If that person is not a Christian, pray for their salvation.

  When a family member or friend fails you, trust me, they will fail you.

  Don't stew on the offense and tally up all the ways that person has let you down in the

  past.

  Instead, run to the only one who has never and will never let you down.

  Go to God the Father so that you can choose patience and gentleness instead of pettiness

  and retaliation.

  When the desire to believe the worst about someone in this church enters your mind, willingly

  decide to believe the best until proven wrong.

  Run down the stove of your anger before it hurts you and everyone around you.

  How do you stop hatred from growing in your heart?

  Second method of extermination by refusing to kill others with destructive words.

  By refusing to kill others with destructive words.

  So Jesus moves on from what's in your heart to what comes out of your mouth at the end

  of verse 22.

  He says this, "Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel and whoever

  says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire."

  Maybe this seems over the top to you.

  You may be thinking, "Really Jesus going before the Supreme Court and being thrown into hell

  for insulting and slander?"

  Isn't that a bit severe?

  Well, maybe you won't think that if you understand what these insults actually mean.

  That word for insult in the Greek is "rokka" which means empty-headed or worthless.

  And that word for fool is "moros" from which we get which English word do you think?

  Moron.

  That's not just a cute, funny word.

  The New Testament uses that word to describe those who were outside the kingdom of God.

  So by labeling someone as "rokka" and "moros" you are saying you are a worthless and stupid

  waste of space with nothing of value to offer anyone so you can go straight to hell for

  all I care.

  True Christians cannot lose their salvation by using their mouths for evil.

  But a person whose life is marked by this kind of vile speech should question the genuineness

  of his or her faith and status in the family of God.

  How can you flip people off in traffic throughout the week and then passionately raise your arms

  and worship on Sunday?

  How can you unapologetically scream at your wife and your kids and then use that same

  mouth to pray to a heavenly Father who you were nothing like?

  How can you day after day at work belittle your colleagues, your coworkers, your employees,

  and then go to a small group and claim that you are a bold witness for Christ?

  How can you ruin the reputation of others with slander and then describe your reputation

  as above reproach in God-honoring?

  You cannot habitually kill others with your words and claim to love Jesus with your whole

  heart.

  Your words say way more about you than the person you are speaking against.

  Please do not underestimate the impact and influence of your words.

  You can use your mouth to point someone to Christ or away from Christ.

  To smash them into a million pieces or to help put them back together again.

  You can use your mouth to give someone hope or to take away the little hope that someone

  has.

  Listen to what the apostle Paul has to say about how you should and shouldn't speak in

  Ephesians 4-29.

  Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouth, but only such is good for building up as fits

  the occasion that it may give grace to those who hear.

  No corrupting talk.

  Corrupting brings the mental picture of something that is rotten and moldy.

  Imagine every single time you use your words in a negative way that this gross odor eaks

  out of your mouth and grosses out everyone around you.

  My wife and I were first married.

  We lived in a garage apartment above the house with a very nice Christian couple and their

  son.

  We have almost no complaints about them.

  Great family, very kind to us.

  We had one small complaint.

  Once or twice a week they would make a meal that smelled horrible.

  The smell would go from the kitchen into the vents and finally into our apartment.

  I can't tell you how many candles we lit, how many balls of Febreze we sprayed to try

  to fight off this odor.

  Somehow those defenses make it worse, doesn't it?

  The smell is kind of mixed together to create a horrible uber smell.

  It's been 11 years.

  I swear to you, I can still smell this meal in my house sometimes.

  I know that's not possible.

  My wife tells me I'm imagining it, but that smells so offended in my nose that it haunts

  me in every season of life.

  You may be thinking, "Okay, what's the point of this random gross story?"

  Your corrupting words have the power to linger and haunt people for the rest of their lives.

  If I passed around a mic this morning and asked everyone to share the most hurtful things

  that have been said to or about you, there wouldn't be a dry eye in this room.

  Now I want you to think about some of the most hurtful things you've ever said to or

  about someone.

  Was it worth it?

  Do you stand by what you said or do you regret it?

  Just given a do over, would you say it all again or would you keep your mouth shut?

  Remember your answers to those questions when you were tempted to lash out at others with

  your words.

  Recognize that you can never take your words back no matter how much you wish that you could.

  How do you stop hatred from growing in your heart?

  Third method of extermination by seeking after immediate reconciliation.

  By seeking after immediate reconciliation.

  So verses 23 through 24, Jesus switches gears to focus on how you should address the anger

  of others when you are at fault.

  Let's see what he has to say about next steps.

  Verse 23, "So if you were offering your gift at the altar and there, remember that your

  brother has something against you.

  Leave your gift there before the altar and go.

  First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift."

  Jesus places a high premium on resolving relational issues quickly and pursuing after reconciliation

  as soon as possible.

  He even puts it above sacrifice, which to Jews in the first century would have been

  unthinkable.

  Being sacrificed is expected and commanded by God, but Jesus says it's more important

  to be at peace with others around you.

  He's saying if you're making your sacrifice, leave it there, leave, go put this issue to

  bed and then come back to finish your sacrifice.

  This would be similar to us hearing, "Listen, if you're shopping at giant eagle, leave your

  cart at the register and get out of there.

  If you're pumping gas, jump into your car and speed away and don't worry if the gas

  nozzle is dragging on the road behind you.

  If you're worshiping a church on Sunday, stop singing and track that person down.

  Resolve that unfinished business."

  Do you have unfinished business right now?

  Do you need to ask for forgiveness?

  Maybe you need to step out, make that call, send that text or even speed out of the parking

  lot.

  If that's you, do it right now.

  Maybe you don't want to.

  Sadly so many of us demand apologies from others, but we're so bad at apologizing when

  we're wrong.

  Why is that?

  Because apologizing requires humility.

  You have to make yourself small and put yourself at the mercy of someone else.

  Do we naturally want to do that?

  None of us do, but it's commanded by our God and it is expected.

  It's way easier to cut ties and run than it is to admit your faults.

  That's why there are so many marriages that end in divorce.

  That's why there are so many friendships that are broken.

  That's why so many professing Christians leave their current church to go to another

  church down the street.

  Well, time for a fresh start.

  No one at this new church knows my dirty laundry or my history yet not yet.

  Give it a few weeks or months and you'll be looking for a new church yet again.

  It is far more appealing to the flesh to be totally unknown and completely unconfirmed

  than it is to be fully known and lovingly confronted.

  Please stop pretending because Jesus is not fooled.

  Stop running away from those you've hurt because your problems will just follow you wherever

  you end up.

  Do not be lazy and passive about reconciliation.

  Just like, yeah, yeah, I'll put that on my to-do list and get to it at some point.

  No, Jesus is saying, rip up your to-do list because nothing else matters.

  Do whatever is necessary to attempt to stifle that anger that is between you and the other

  person.

  How do you stop hatred from growing in your heart?

  Final method of extermination by remembering what's at stake.

  By remembering what's at stake.

  Maybe you're still unmoved by Jesus called a crush hatred and pursue after restoration.

  You know what God is calling you to do, but you just don't want to do it.

  You don't have any plans to make any changes or say sorry anytime soon.

  Well, thankfully, Jesus knows how stubborn you are.

  And he knows how stubborn I am.

  So he follows up his command with a very stern warning in verses 25 to 26.

  He says this, "Come the terms quickly with your accuser while you were going with him

  to court lest your accuser hands you over to the judge and the judge to the guard and

  you be put in prison.

  Truly I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny."

  Let me bring this first century illustration into the 21st century.

  Imagine that you and your neighbor are fighting over a property line dispute.

  And during one argument, you get so angry that you viciously attack him.

  You were 100% guilty and there are witnesses to back up your neighbor's testimony.

  Your neighbor threatens to call the cops, to press charges and sue you if you do not apologize.

  But in that moment, you don't want to apologize.

  You want to defend yourself.

  You want to fight against your neighbor.

  You don't want him or her to have the satisfaction of beating you.

  But let's follow that to its logical conclusion.

  The cops come, you're arrested, you're put on trial and you have to go to prison and

  stay there until you are let out.

  And even then, you still have a lot of legal fees and you still have to pay out the lost

  suit.

  Let me ask you, is there any upside to that option, option A?

  What do we think?

  No, it's all horrible.

  But thankfully, there's an option B. Throw yourself at the mercy of your neighbor.

  Ask for their forgiveness and seek after an agreeable solution.

  If you do that, your future is no longer filled with orange jumpsuits and public showers.

  Maybe thinking, well, thanks for the random legal advice, I guess.

  But what does this have to do with me?

  Well, here's the point.

  Hatred is a prison that you willingly lock yourself into.

  Hatred is a prison that you willingly lock yourself into.

  If you give yourself over to it, if you refuse to repent, there will be consequences in this

  life.

  You will become very lonely and unpleasant to be around.

  You'll be known as the cranky guy or lady at church that everyone wants to love but

  doesn't know how to.

  You'll be viewed as the human cactus.

  Everyone tries to hug you and bring you closer, but you just push them away and hurt them

  with jabs.

  You will be trapped in a loveless marriage.

  Your children will wither away under your harshness and constant criticism.

  And you'll wonder one day why they don't visit anymore or call you to check in.

  Your friends will drop away like flies one by one by one because they're tired of you

  picking fights and refusing to apologize.

  Let me ask you, is that the direction you want your life to take?

  Is that where you want to end up?

  And these final two verses, Jesus is focusing on the penalties you will face right now if

  you wrong others and never seek forgiveness.

  But over this past week, I couldn't help but consider the eternal penalty for unrepentant

  hatred and a continual refusal to seek after the forgiveness of Christ.

  Paul is crystal clear in 1 Corinthians 6 10 that revilers slanderers will not inherit

  the kingdom of God.

  As I said earlier, some of you need to do some serious self examination.

  If you relentlessly feed this anger in your heart and it pours out from your mouth and

  through your actions, you may need to answer this really difficult question.

  Am I truly saved?

  Because true Christians choose to love instead of hate.

  A true follower of Christ wants to repent of sin, not wallow in sin.

  Someone who has experienced the forgiveness of Christ wants to extend that to others instead

  of withhold it.

  Those who have been changed from the inside out say, "I'm sorry, will you forgive me?"

  Not "I'm sorry, but" or "I didn't do anything wrong."

  Because none of us are perfect in any of these areas.

  But you should be making progress day by day, week by week, month by month, year by year.

  Are you kinder, more loving, more forgiving now than when you first came to Christ?

  And if the answer is no, maybe you never truly came to Christ in the first place.

  If your honest answer to the question of "Am I truly saved?" is no, then your future is

  far more terrifying than any earthly jail or prison.

  You are looking down the barrel of an eternity of being sentenced to a prison that is inescapable

  once you are there.

  In hell, no one is released early or given visitation rights.

  But I have great news this morning.

  You don't have to be sentenced to that kind of eternity.

  There is still time to trust in Christ today.

  You don't need to carry that hatred or bitterness any longer.

  Those burdens will sink you both now and forever if you let them.

  Give those burdens over to Christ who was hated by the crowds that you could be loved

  by His Father, who was rejected on the cross that you could be accepted, who bore the angry

  wrath that you deserve so you could be declared innocent.

  Jesus Christ has open arms this morning.

  He is calling you to run to Him.

  He is ready and willing.

  Are you ready and willing to run to Him and accept all that He has to offer?

  Let nothing hold you back from Christ because He will withhold nothing from you once you

  come to Him with a sincere faith in genuine repentance.

  If your honest answer to the question of "Am I saved?" is yes, but you still wrestle with

  holding on to resentment and burning with anger, I have a few final words of encouragement

  for you.

  You may have dug yourself into a pit of your own making.

  You keep digging and digging and digging with obsessive thoughts, unkind words, and stubbornness.

  But please listen to me.

  You only need to stay in that hole as long as you want to.

  Nothing and no one is keeping you there besides yourself.

  If you want to get to a better place, get over yourself and admit your neediness.

  Admit that you need God's help.

  Find yourself the truth instead of buying into your own lies.

  You should hold no grudges because God holds no grudges against you.

  You have nothing to prove to anyone because Jesus Christ already approves of you.

  You have no reason to repay evil for evil because the Bible says that vengeance belongs

  to the Lord.

  You have no defense for your hatred because you have received the greatest love imaginable.

  Let's spend some time with the Lord in prayer.

  Please close your eyes and bow your heads.

  Use this time to confess your sin to the Lord.

  To acknowledge how much you need Him to change.

  Stop putting on a show and be honest with your Father because He already knows what

  you're struggling with.

  The first step in finding a solution to your problem is admitting that you even have a

  problem.

  Don't worry about what's for lunch.

  Don't worry about your busy day tomorrow, how your kids are doing in the back.

  Do business with God.

  Father, we come before you to confess our sin.

  Lord, all of us struggle with this in some way at some level, whether we want to admit

  it or not.

  And Lord, if there is someone in this room who doesn't know you, Lord, I pray that today

  would be the day of salvation.

  Today would be the day where they run to you and ask for forgiveness for the very first

  time.

  For the rest of us, Lord, would help us to recognize that we are already forgiven of

  our hatred, that the eternal penalty for our sin has been taken away.

  But Lord, we are called to love you so much that we must hate our sin.

  Lord, help us to hate how we sin against you rather than hate others.

  Where we ask for your power, we ask for your strength to grow, to mature.

  I pray that we'd walk out of this room as lighter people after giving you the burden

  of our hatred and anger.

  I ask all this in Jesus' name.

  Amen.

The Place of the Law

Introduction:

Why Should the Old Testament Matter to Me? (Matthew 5:17-20)

1. Because That's Where We Learn About Jesus. (Matt 5:17)

   John 5:39 – You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me...

   Luke 24:27 – And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

2. Because It's Still Relevant. (Matt 5:18)
3. Because You Will Be Evaluated Based On What You Do With It. (Matt 5:19)

   Romans 8:2-4 – For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

4. Because Your Salvation Depends On It. (Matt 5:20)

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:17-20

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. Tell of a strange or goofy trend you’ve heard churches being involved in. Why do churches latch on to such things?
   

3. What are some things you’ve heard taught about how Christians should regard the Old Testament? How do these compare with what Jesus said?
   

4. How do you know what parts of the Old Testament Law were just for Old Testament Israel and what is still relevant for Christians today?
   

5. In your own words, explain what Jesus meant in Matt 5:20 about how our righteousness “must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.” What results if it doesn’t?

Breakout
Pray for one another.

• AUDIO TRANSCRIPT

  Let's open up those Bibles to Matthew chapter 5.

  This past week at Owen's doctor appointment,

  Owen's my son for those of you who don't know,

  my son's doctor's appointment,

  the doctor was talking about how many doctors

  try to make a name for themselves

  by promoting some new controversial thing.

  You know what I'm talking about?

  He was saying, you know, if you just practice

  straightforward medicine, well, that's not very exciting.

  But if you have some controversial angle, you know,

  maybe some crazy diet or some supplement

  that's going to be the cure-all or some new treatment

  that nobody's ever heard of, you know,

  you jump on some kind of a fad,

  but you've got to have some kind of a twist,

  some kind of a gimmick.

  That's how a lot of doctors get popular,

  because he said the fundamentals just aren't very exciting.

  People love the new, trendy thing.

  And it makes doctors popular.

  And as he was talking about that, I thought, you know what?

  That happens in the church, doesn't it?

  Just preaching the Bible straightforwardly

  isn't exciting enough.

  So many preachers try to give some new angle on things,

  or they try to make something very controversial, very trendy.

  You know what I'm talking about?

  There was a wave of evangelicals years ago

  that jumped on this trend that there is no hell.

  Denying the doctrine of hell, and there

  were people that jumped onto that.

  And there are some pastors that think

  that you're going to be edgy and controversial and popular

  if you swear in your sermons.

  Or if you are explicit in sexual content in your sermon.

  That's trendy, and that's edgy.

  And people are going to think I'm cool,

  and that's going to make me popular.

  Everything from modalism, denying to Trinity,

  to some churches that say, hey, we're not just

  going to preach the Bible straightforwardly.

  Our church is going to have a really strong, patriotic flavor to it.

  I saw one recently, Pastor Rich actually sent me this video.

  Here's a trend in some churches now.

  Roller coasters.

  There's a company that makes these little roller coasters.

  When I say roller coasters, don't think Cedar Point.

  Ah, no, no, no.

  This is some little, it's like a kiddie ride that comes out.

  And then we get this sermon series called Roller Coaster

  because life is a roller coaster.

  And in these videos, these pastors

  were riding out on these roller coasters that were barely moving

  and they're all waving.

  [SCREAMING]

  And I'm like, never.

  But one of the most disturbing new trends

  that people were jumping on to because that makes us cool

  and popular was when a very popular preacher talked

  about unhitching from the Old Testament.

  We got to unhitch from the Old Testament.

  I mean, Jesus did.

  And Peter did.

  And Paul and John, they were doing everything they could.

  This preacher said to unhitch themselves

  from the Old Testament.

  Well, that idea is nothing new.

  In fact, when we get to this section here in Matthew chapter

  5, you see, Jesus knew that that is exactly what the Jews thought

  that Jesus was doing.

  They thought Jesus was bringing something new and trendy.

  They thought Jesus was unhitching from the Old Testament.

  And to be fair, I can kind of see why they thought that.

  I mean, Jesus didn't subscribe to the form of Judaism

  that existed in His day.

  We're going to talk about that here in a few minutes.

  Jesus didn't keep all of their Sabbath rules.

  And I mean, Jesus followers, His disciples, you realize none of them

  were rabbis.

  And all the biggest thing, though, the biggest thing

  that set Jesus apart was His preaching.

  Nobody ever preached like this.

  This one preached.

  So at this point in the Sermon on the Mount,

  they've heard the Beatitudes.

  They've heard the "you are the salt and the light."

  And they've heard this, and the Jews are sitting there going,

  this is wild.

  But is He anti-Old Testament?

  Is He replacing the law and the prophets?

  Is Jesus bringing something funky fresh?

  Did the kids still say funky fresh?

  No.

  By the time I learned a new term, it's been outdated by about 12 years.

  So it was probably relevant when this was actually said.

  But they were like, He's bringing something funky fresh.

  Well, Jesus knew what they were thinking.

  Is this some radical hippie preacher

  trying to give his own little twist on things?

  Look at verse 17.

  Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish

  the law and the prophets."

  Now, understand, we're going to be talking about the Old

  Testament today.

  They did not call it the Old Testament.

  To them, it was the Scriptures.

  To them, they called it the law and the prophets.

  That's what they called what we call the Old Testament.

  So let's not get confused.

  When we talk about Old Testament, we're talking about the law

  and the prophets.

  And Jesus says, "Don't think that I've come to destroy

  your Old Testament."

  He said, "I came to fulfill it."

  So this need to unhitch from the Old Testament

  seems like a bad idea if we're going to take Jesus seriously.

  But listen, I really need you all to dial in here.

  Because this topic that we're covering today in God's word

  is something that Christians get all mixed up on.

  And I know there is a high probability of me being misquoted

  or misunderstood as we go through this.

  Because Christians are all kinds of mixed up on this issue.

  What does the Old Testament have to do with me?

  What purpose does it have for me?

  Christians get all mixed up about that.

  And some say, "Well, you know what?

  The Old Testament, it all applies.

  And you're commanded to keep everything,

  all of the dietary laws and the washings and all of that.

  All the rules that we've made up for the Sabbath,

  you've got to keep the Sabbath."

  And some have that mindset towards the Old Testament.

  And on the other hand, there are people that say,

  "Well, the Old Testament doesn't apply to me at all."

  None of it applies. It doesn't matter.

  Look, because of Jesus, I'm a child of God and I'm forgiven.

  I am free in Christ and I can do whatever I want.

  Maybe you've heard the arguments from the pro-gay crowd.

  You know, anytime somebody says something about,

  you know, the Bible says homosexuality is a sin,

  the response says, "Well, you know, that's in the Old Testament.

  But did you know, you know, the Old Testament says

  that it's a sin to eat lobster and to get tattoos

  and blending certain fabrics and you do those things?"

  You heard that argument?

  And they say, "No, no, no.

  With Jesus it's just about love, right?

  That's all it is in the New Testament.

  Love is love."

  And today I just want us to take a giant step back

  and say, "What is the place of the Old Testament for us?

  What does it mean to us?"

  So I'd like you to bow your heads and I want you to please pray for me to be clear

  and accurate in proclaiming this very difficult passage.

  And I'm going to pray for you to have a heart open to receive not what you think it says,

  but what God actually said.

  That's what we're going after here today.

  What did Jesus actually say about what we call the Old Testament?

  Let's take a moment and pray.

  Father in heaven, I pray that our number one concern is just what you said.

  Father, you know in my heart, I have this concern.

  People are going to walk out of here still convinced of something that's just not true biblically.

  And Father, your word changes our minds.

  And I pray that we all take a look.

  It doesn't matter what our favorite podcast preacher thinks.

  And it doesn't even really matter what I think.

  What matters is what you said.

  And I pray God that that's what we're going after today.

  And for those of us that have maybe walked in here today with preconceived notions about the place of the law

  in the lives of believers, I pray that you would change your minds today

  in a way that greatly glorifies your name.

  So that we can be the people that you've called us to be.

  We pray in Jesus' name.

  And all of God's people said, "Amen."

  It's a very, very short sermon today.

  But it's a really long introduction.

  Alright, so I want you to write some things down.

  Why should the Old Testament matter to me?

  Again, law and the prophets, that's what they called it.

  We call it the Old Testament.

  It's the same thing that was their Scriptures in Jesus' day when He spoke these words.

  So the question, Christian, what about the Old Testament?

  What does it mean to me?

  What's its purpose for me?

  Why should it matter to me?

  Number one, write this down.

  Because that's where we learn about Jesus.

  Look at verse 17.

  Again, Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets."

  The Old Testament.

  He said, "I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them."

  So is Jesus anti-Old Testament?

  No, it's actually quite the opposite.

  Jesus said, "I came to fulfill them."

  What does it mean to fulfill?

  Well, some people think that fulfill means complete.

  As in, the Old Testament was just putting the ball on the tee,

  and Jesus came to hit the ball, and He just came to finish, to complete something.

  Now, it's irrelevant.

  That's not exactly what it means.

  Some people think, well, what He's talking about is how He perfectly obeyed the Old Testament.

  Now listen, He did perfectly obey the law.

  He did.

  But that's not what He meant here.

  Well, what did He mean?

  Fulfill literally means to carry out what was said.

  I'm going to say that again.

  Fulfill means to carry out what was said.

  What Jesus is saying here is this.

  Everything that the Old Testament says, everything written in the law and the prophets,

  I will carry it all out.

  That is a staggering claim.

  What do you mean?

  Well, in the book of Genesis, we find that Eve's seed will crush the serpent.

  Jesus said, "I did that. We'll do that."

  Jesus is the blessing of Abraham.

  Jesus did that.

  Jesus, in the book of Exodus, is the Passover lamb.

  Jesus said, "I'm going to do that."

  In the book of Leviticus, we see the sacrifice in the priest.

  Jesus says, "I'm going to do that."

  In the book of Deuteronomy, there's going to be a prophet raised like Moses.

  Jesus said, "I came to do that."

  Second Samuel says that there's going to be a king in David's line that will be king forever.

  Jesus said, "I came to accomplish that."

  The book of Malachi says there's going to be a forerunner for the Messiah.

  John the Baptist, Jesus says, "Don, check, did that."

  Book of Micah says, "Where the Messiah would be born."

  Oh, little town of Bethlehem.

  Jesus is like, "Yeah, I did that."

  It feels like Christmas, doesn't it?

  You know, like it did there for a second.

  In the book of Isaiah, the Messiah would be virgin born.

  Jesus says, "Check, light to the Gentiles. Check, did that."

  The book of Isaiah talks about Jesus' death and resurrection.

  Jesus is like, "I came to complete that."

  It talks about the kingdom of the Messiah.

  Jesus is like, "I came to do that."

  Book of Jeremiah talks about Jesus cleansing the temple.

  "I came to do that."

  Book of Zechariah, "He'd be sold for 30 pieces of silver."

  Jesus said, "I came to complete that."

  Psalms talks about His suffering.

  Psalms talks about His ultimate reigning.

  Jesus, and there's so much more,

  but Jesus said, "I came to carry all of that out."

  And it's a staggering thing because Jesus carried out things

  that aren't humanly possible to fulfill.

  I've heard these knuckleheads say that Jesus was, you know,

  sort of orchestrated His life in such a way that it looked like

  He was fulfilling Old Testament prophecies.

  But He did things nobody else could ever have any control over,

  like where He was born.

  Did you control where you were born?

  Nobody has control over that.

  Born to a virgin. How He was born.

  Nobody has control over those things.

  This is the claim that Jesus is making.

  His death, His betrayal, all these things.

  Prophecy in the Old Testament.

  This is who the Christ would be.

  This is what the Messiah will do.

  Jesus is saying here, "I came to do all of that."

  You think I came to destroy the law and the prophets?

  No. I came to do it.

  That's why in John chapter 5, Jesus said to the Jews,

  "You search the Scriptures," meaning the Old Testament,

  "because you think in them you have eternal life,

  and it is they that bear witness about Me."

  Jesus said, "You'll find Me on every page of the law and the prophets."

  Every page of your Old Testament.

  Luke 24-27, post-Resurrection disciples,

  "Rodua meias," it says, "In beginning with Moses and all the prophets,

  Jesus interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself."

  So wouldn't you have liked to have heard that conversation?

  So the Old Testament, long before Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were written,

  we learn about Jesus.

  We learn all about Him.

  In fact, the Gospels and the Epistles really serve to show us

  how Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ that's promised in the Old Testament.

  What's more, we cannot understand Jesus,

  and we cannot understand His cross, apart from the Old Testament.

  You know, just last weekend we celebrated Easter Resurrection Day,

  and Good Friday.

  And what do we say?

  We're like, "Jesus died on the cross! Jesus died on the cross!"

  And so what?

  Do you know lots of people have died on crosses? Did you know that?

  That was a common form of execution.

  It wasn't like Jesus was the only one who ever died on a cross.

  I mean, countless people did.

  So what?

  The cross only makes sense in light of what is written in the Old Testament.

  The law condemns sin.

  The law requires death, and Jesus paid the penalty of sin with His sacrifice.

  And if you unhitch yourself from the Old Testament,

  do you know what Easter turns into?

  Sentimentality. That's all it is.

  Oh, the poor innocent man!

  He was just doing good and they killed him.

  That's so sad.

  It is so much more than that.

  This is the Lamb of God sacrificed on your behalf.

  Sentimentality.

  And when we do that, we miss the glory of the cross.

  I listened to a sermon a few years ago from a very, very popular preacher.

  I'm paraphrasing here, but again, in the name of being edgy and cool,

  he said God broke His law because He loved us so much.

  And he gave this illustration, "Get your heartstrings ready because they're about to get pulled."

  But he says it's like a mom at a playground with her kid,

  and her kid falls and gets hurt, and mom throws the kid in the car.

  And when she drives to the hospital, she ain't stopping for stop signs or stop lights,

  and she's a speeding.

  She is breaking the law.

  because she loves her kids so much, she will break the law out of love. And that is what

  God has done for you. He has broken His law because He loves you. Oh, again, that talked

  just to heartstrings, but that is completely false. The glory of the cross is not that

  God broke His law because He loves you, the glory of the cross is God fulfilled His law

  through the death of His Son on your behalf. That is the glory of the cross. So you want

  to learn about Jesus? You want to learn about Jesus? Well, then you get to get in the Old

  Testament because He said, "Oh, I didn't come to throw this away. I didn't come literally

  to destroy it." That is what abolish means. I didn't come to abolish it. He said, "I came

  to carry this out." Alright, so why should it matter to me? Because that's where we learn

  about Jesus. Number two, why should the Old Testament matter to me? Because it's so relevant.

  You're like, "Says who?" "Says Jesus." Look at verse 18, "For truly I say to you until

  heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law until all is

  accomplished." Oh, and by the way, heaven and earth will pass away. We talked about that

  last week, didn't we? Revelation 21, 2 Peter 3. Yeah, heaven and earth will pass away.

  So Jesus says, "Until then, not one part of this law is going to pass until it is all

  carried out." Every iota, every dot, that's the smallest letter. That's the smallest stroke

  on a letter. What Jesus is saying is this. Jesus is saying, "Look, until the end of the

  world, there's not a dot on an i. There's not a cross on a t that is going to be irrelevant."

  Jesus is saying every single chapter, every single passage, every single word, every single

  letter is going to matter until the end of the world.

  Now, we looked at what Jesus did so far. But the Old Testament clearly talks about what

  He's going to do in the future. The Old Testament talks about Him coming to destroy His enemies.

  The Old Testament tells us about Jesus reigning over all. The Old Testament tells us about

  the Millennial Kingdom that we learned so little about it in Revelation 20. Why is there

  not much content? Because the Old Testament is full of the content, that's why you want

  to know what that kingdom is like, you've got to get in your Old Testament. Jesus here

  is saying, "Look, God's law is not going away." God is saying, "This is how it's going to

  go down." And here's the thing, that cannot be changed. Not even just it won't change,

  that's true, but it can't change. It can't change. You know, sometimes we as people,

  as human beings, sometimes we make rules for things that we have to change, don't we?

  Sometimes we make rules and we find out that that rule didn't work. We didn't anticipate

  a possible exception to the rule. We didn't anticipate a loophole. We're constantly changing

  our rules. You know what I'm talking about? Let me give you an example. Years ago, a leading

  youth group at another church, I invented a game. I think I invented it. But we call

  it the ultimate Frisbee challenge. And what it is, I see Lyric nodding her head. Do you

  remember the ultimate Frisbee challenge? Sponsored by Pepsi? It always had a different sponsor.

  Some things are just funny for me. But it was a combination of dodgeball and hot potato.

  It was every man for himself. But we would have 30 second timed rounds. And the kids

  would run around the field and have to hit themselves. We had a little one of them floppy

  rubber Frisbees. They'd have to hit somebody with the Frisbee. And if you could hit with

  the Frisbee, you were it. And you would hit somebody else with the Frisbee. But when the

  30 seconds ran out, whoever was in possession of the Frisbee, you're out. That's last man's

  standing. We play that with our youth group here sometimes. You should come and play.

  It's a real hoot. But do you know what I found early on? I was constantly tweaking the rules.

  You know why? Because I'm like, "We have 30 second rounds. You know what the kids would

  do?" They'd sit and count it off. And they would know, "Don't be stuck with the Frisbee.

  Okay, we're getting, okay, 25 seconds. All right, don't make sure that I'm not in blasting

  range here, right?" So I'm like, "Ah, now we get to change how long each of the rounds

  are." So I did that. I'm like, "All right, this is going to be a 15 second round and now

  they're still counting it off." I'm like, "Well, that was a dumb rule change. Now they can

  still count." So I'm like, "All right, every round is going to have a different amount

  of time, but I'm not telling you how much time. I'm just going to call time when the

  watch or the phone alarm goes off and whoever has it is done." All right? But then I realized

  there was another problem we had regarding the rules, as we didn't have boundaries. So

  I'm like, "Maybe we shouldn't be running around on the turnpike." So, all right, new rule.

  You have to stay in this area. Don't jump in the cattail garden over here where they

  throw the dead pets. All right? There's a story to that. You're like, "What's your point

  at all this?" It's a really fun game. That's all. I just want you to come up. No, there's

  a point. My point is this. At your workplace, in your church, and sometimes, yes, parents

  in your home, sometimes policies and rules get tweaked and added and subtracted. What

  Jesus is saying here is that's not the case with an omniscient, perfect God. When God laid

  out His law, do you think God is sitting in heaven? Like, you know, I, gosh, I came up

  with that, but I'm going to have to change that. That's not really fair. I'm going to

  have to change that one. That one's a little too hard. I'm going to have to change that.

  That's not really that clear. Do you think God is constantly tweaking what He said? If

  He does, that's a problem. Why? Because your faith means nothing. If your faith is based

  on something that can change. You know what I mean? It's like, today, welcome to harvest.

  Today, Jesus is the fulfillment of God's law, and He's coming again to reign. Believe in

  Jesus Christ tomorrow. Tomorrow, tomorrow you're saved by good works. So you better

  get out there and hope that your good outweighs the bad, because tomorrow that's the rule.

  Good works is the rule. And by Friday, God's like, you know what? Never mind. We're just

  going to keep the earth going as it is for all of eternity, and you can all go to hell

  for your sin. Do you see the problem if God's constantly changing His rules? That's exactly

  what Jesus is saying. When God gave His Word, when God gave us the law and the prophets,

  God says, "This is how it is. This is how it's going to be, and nothing is going to change

  that." The Word of God is final and authoritative. So, we'll make it easy. We'll just give a

  quick test here, according to what Jesus laid out for us here. Did heaven and earth pass

  away yet? No. Well then, that means there are still some things written in the Old Testament

  that need to be accomplished, according to the words of Jesus. So, it's still relevant.

  Alright? So, why should the Old Testament matter to me? Because that's where we learn about

  Jesus. Because it's still relevant, number three, because you will be evaluated based

  on what you do with it. Look at verse 19. "And every antenna in the room should be up right

  now." Look at this verse. Jesus says, "Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these

  commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of

  heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of

  heaven." Look at the first word there in verse 19. "Therefore, therefore, Jesus just stressed

  how important the Old Testament is." And Jesus is saying, "Look, I said it's important, so

  it should be important for you too." And I think it's very clear here in this verse,

  this, this verse 19, this is not a salvation issue here. This is a reward issue. Because

  very clearly here Jesus said, "What you do with God's word, specifically the Old Testament,

  is tied into your reward." Do you see that? He's not saying, "Not in the kingdom of heaven."

  But what you will be called while you're in the kingdom of heaven. Do you see that?

  We talk about God's law. There are actually three aspects of God's law. Write these down.

  There's judicial, ceremonial, and moral. When you look at God's law in the Old Testament,

  that's what you find. All of these laws, given, it falls into one of those categories. It's

  judicial, it's ceremonial, or it's moral. Now tune in here. Some light bulbs are going

  to go off here in a second. It's judicial. Some of the laws are judicial. What's it

  mean? It means to govern a specific nation for a specific season. Like what nation is

  that? Old Testament Israel. Some of the laws given in the Old Testament were given for

  that specific nation for a period of time. We aren't bound by those laws any more than

  you were bound by the national laws of Mexico. That was for a different nation at a different

  time. That's judicial. But there's ceremonial laws in the Old Testament that has to do with

  the temple, the sacrifices, the priests, all of that, the washings, the blood, the altar,

  all of that, the ceremonial stuff. All of those are pictures of Jesus that He fulfilled

  through His death and resurrection, and you fulfill those things by believing in Jesus.

  I'm going to get to that more in a second. So just put that one on the back burner for

  a minute. But in the Old Testament, there's a moral aspect of His law. That's for everyone.

  Those are things like, "You shall love the Lord your God with your heart, soul, mind,

  and strength." You're like, "Is that for me as a New Testament Christian?" "Yeah."

  "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." "Is that for me as a New Testament Christian?"

  "Yeah." "Is that for me as a New Testament Christian?" "Yeah." "Is that for me as a New

  Testament Christian?" "Yeah." "I have to obey those things?" "Yeah, you do."

  Listen very closely. This is a great opportunity to misquote me, so I want you to listen very

  closely. Christians live under the New Covenant, meaning we are not under the Old Covenant

  Law, meaning that our salvation is not based on us keeping the law. I want to be crystal

  clear on that. Your salvation is not based on keeping the law. The law was never meant

  to save anyone. In fact, the law could not save anyone. We covered this a few weeks ago.

  Everyone saved. Everyone in heaven is there because of Jesus Christ. That's Old Testament

  and New Testament and beyond. Everyone walking around heaven right now, and anyone who ever

  will walk around heaven is going to say, "I'm here because of Jesus Christ." Not by keeping

  the law. Are we clear on that? The law was to show us Jesus and to show us our need for

  Jesus. We are saved by grace. Again, we just spent like a whole sermon series talking about

  this, but I want to be clear here. The idea that many Christians have is, "Okay, I'm

  not under the law. I'm not saved by the law, so I can do whatever I want to do." That

  is wrong. That is dead wrong. Under the New Covenant, listen, the law wasn't discarded.

  It was written on our hearts. You see the difference? God didn't say, "Ah, we're done with that.

  God said, "I'm going to write this on your very heart." We obey God's commands because

  we've been born again. He lives within us. We love God, and loving God means wanting

  to obey God. Listen, we're going to talk about this over the next few weeks. Jesus didn't

  abolish the law. He actually elevated the law. The law says, "Thou shall not murder."

  Sixth commandment. Did Jesus come along and say, "You know what? Forget all that. You

  want to murder, go ahead. You're a child of God. You're free. You're forgiven. Go murder."

  Is that what He said? No. No. Of course not. What did He say? He said, "You've heard and

  said, 'Don't murder,' but I'm telling you, if you have hatred in your heart, you've committed

  murder in your heart." He elevated the law. He goes, "It's deeper than just what you do.

  It's about who you are." He elevated the law. The Old Testament says, "Do not commit adultery."

  Seventh commandment. Did Jesus say, "Well, you know what? Now you're under the new covenant.

  You're free. You're forgiven. You can just go be with whoever you want, whenever you

  want. It doesn't matter because you're free." Of course not. That's foolish thinking, but

  there are a lot of Christians who believe that. "I can do whatever I want because I'm

  free." Jesus elevated it. Jesus goes, "No, no, no, no. Adultery isn't just an act. Adultery

  starts here. It's lost in here. That is committing adultery." He elevated the law. He didn't

  abolish it. He said, "It's so much deeper than you think it is." Jesus didn't abolish

  the law. He empowers us to keep the law. Here is one of the most profoundest things you'll

  ever hear in your life. He said He came to fulfill the law. Jesus is still right now

  fulfilling the law through you. This could be a whole other sermon, but we don't have

  time for that. I haven't even gotten to today's sermon yet. We're still in the introduction.

  Look at what Romans 8. I encourage you to mark this, read this, meditate on this. Look

  at what this says. "For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from

  the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not

  do." Meaning we couldn't obey the law because we're sinful people in the flesh. Look at

  this. "By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemns sin

  in the flesh. In order that, the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled

  in us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." What is that

  saying? It's saying, "When by the power of the Holy Spirit you obey God, Jesus is fulfilling

  the law through you." So verse 19, remember verse 19? It's a warning and an encouragement.

  First of all, the warning Jesus said here in verse 19, "If you're a true believer, but

  you're not really serious about obedience, and you're one of those people that goes around,

  you believe and you teach, you're free in Christ, it doesn't matter what you do because

  you're free, you're a child of God, it doesn't matter what you do. Jesus says if you're that

  guy, in heaven you're going to be called the least. But if you seek to obey God and you

  teach others to be obedient to the Word of God in heaven, you're going to be called great.

  So listen, if you subscribe to these teachers who say obedience isn't really that important,

  I'm not judging your salvation, and I'm not judging their salvation either. But Jesus

  very clearly right here said in glory, "You will be known as great or least." Which one

  do you want? In heaven, for all of eternity, you're going to have a reputation in the eyes

  of God, and in the eyes of everyone there. And God is evaluating you based on how you

  handle His Word. Pretty sobering, isn't it? One more. Number four, because your salvation

  depends on it. Why should the Old Testament matter to me? Because your salvation depends

  on it. Like, wait, wait, wait, wait. You're telling me my salvation depends on whether

  or not I believe the Old Testament is relevant? Let's see what Jesus said. Look at verse 20.

  "Jesus, for I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees,

  you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Oh, you see, this is a salvation issue here.

  It wasn't in verse 19, but very quickly Jesus' teaching turns into a salvation issue in

  this aspect. Jesus here very clearly tells us that entering the kingdom requires righteousness.

  And He says, "You better be more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees." Now, I know

  for us, if you're familiar with the Bible at all, you're like scribes and Pharisees,

  bad guys. But in Jesus' day, they were looked at as the, like, the holy elite. Those were

  the religious people. It's like the feeling people in our culture would get if you saw

  some nuns walking down the street. Wow, those are the holy people. Listen, your salvation

  depends on this according to Jesus. Here's why. So much talk through this series and

  through the Sermon on the Mount on righteousness. Righteousness. You've got to be righteous.

  You're righteous. Needs to exceed the scribes and Pharisees. Righteousness. Righteousness.

  But what is righteousness? I mean, who determines what's righteousness? Who sets that standard?

  Who defines that? Well, you better get it right because entering the kingdom depends on it.

  The scribes. Who are the scribes? They were just, they were students of the law. Their

  whole existence was in studying the law of God. The Pharisees, they were the religious

  elite of Jesus' day. They made six hundred and some man-made laws that you had to keep

  in order to keep God's law. A lot of them circled around the Sabbath. They made these

  rules. You have to do these things because if you don't, then you have broken the Sabbath

  and that's breaking God's law. So they piled on hundreds and hundreds of laws. And you

  see the scribes and the Pharisees, they seemed so holy. But they weren't. All of their righteousness

  was external. Their teaching was hollow. And you read your Gospels, you see Jesus was constantly

  calling out their hypocrisy. Read Matthew chapter twenty-three sometime. See the problem

  with the scribes and the Pharisees, their righteous rules, it was about ceremony. Not

  about the heart. It was about putting on a show. It wasn't about the heart. It was all

  about them and it wasn't really about God at all. Their laws and their rules and their

  religion didn't have any love for others at all. They were mainly concerned with actions,

  not motives. See their disposition was, "Look at all the stuff that I do. Look at what a

  good person I am. Look at how righteous I am because I keep all the rules." And Jesus

  here is saying, "R righteousness doesn't work that way." And like the scribes and the

  Pharisees, we can fool ourselves into thinking that we're righteous. I have to ask you, do

  you do what you do to look good to others? Or because you love God and you want to honor

  and obey Him? Which is it? It's the former according to Jesus. You're not in the kingdom.

  All right, then, what determines righteousness? What has Jesus been talking about this whole

  time? What determines righteousness is found in the Word of God. That is where we get our

  definition. Righteousness comes from a faith that is defined in the Word of God. I believe

  in Jesus. I believe He is the Messiah. I have received Him. He has changed me from the inside

  out, God wants my heart and He has it. Righteousness results in a lifestyle of obedience to God's

  Word. All right, that was the introduction. Here's the sermon. You did not have to groan.

  So how should I view the Old Testament? I would strongly suggest that you view it the

  way Jesus did. All right, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, again, we ask that your

  Word changes us, it changes our minds, and when our minds change, our conduct changes.

  The Father, I pray that even as born again believers under the new covenant, we would

  groan our understanding of the purpose of the law and the prophets. Father, we live

  in a day where so many churches and so many pastors and preachers want to just completely

  throw it out. And we turn to your Word and we see Jesus Christ with a much different

  attitude. So Father, I pray that for this church, and I pray for those that watch this

  and listen to this and download these messages, I pray, Father, that we would take the attitude

  towards the Old Testament that Jesus had. You've called us to righteousness. Let us

  pursue righteousness as it is according to your Word. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

You Are God's Influencers

Introduction:

Influencer = Social media professional who has built a sizable following around a relevant topic, and can therefore influence their followers to take an action, thanks to their credibility and authority.

As Salt and Light, I Am God's Influencer (Matthew 5:13-16)

1. My Influence is Expected.
2. My Influence Comes from Me Being Different.
3. My Influence Is for God's Glory.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  Open up your Bibles with me, please, to the book of Matthew in chapter 5.

  Today we are going to talk about influencers.

  Now the young people here already know something about this, but those of us who

  are older, this is, I'm in that category too, this might be a new

  concept to some of this. But what is an influencer? We have a definition here, can

  we get the definition up on the screen? This is what an influencer is, okay?

  It's a social media professional who has built a sizable following around a

  relevant topic and can therefore influence their followers to take an

  action thanks to their credibility and authority. That's what a social media

  influencer or an influencer, that's what that is. And those relevant topics,

  that's a lot of different things, right? It's food, health, fashion, pop culture,

  travel, gaming, beauty, you name it, there's somebody out there that is an

  influencer. They are internet celebrities. And by that, some of them were already

  celebrities and they got online. And some of them are people who became

  celebrities because of their online presence. There's lists of the top ones.

  I was looking up all these lists and you can do this sometime, not now, but I was

  looking up lists of who were the biggest influencers of our day. And for

  sake of time today, I'm just going to share top five. Here's the top five,

  according to this one list for whatever that's worth. The number one biggest

  influencer, Cristiano Ronaldo. I don't even know who she is. Is anybody a soccer

  player? Not football. That is a different sport. We call it soccer like good

  Americans. Okay, so apparently Cristiano Ronaldo is a soccer player and on this

  list, the biggest influencer in the world currently. Number two, I think I heard of

  her. It's Selena Gomez. Isn't she like an, is she an actor or something? Okay,

  actor, singer. Okay, all right. Number three is Mr. Beast. Probably not his real

  name. Number four is Lionel Messi. Messi, another soccer player.

  What? I played soccer in high school and college and it was not popular back then.

  Now two of the top five so far. Oh, number five. I know number five. Number five is

  the Biebs as his followers like to call him. Justin Bieber. That's number five.

  Did you know God has a face for his brand? God has a spokesman. God has someone

  to endorse his relevant topic. Do you know who that is? It's you. It's you.

  Think it by your heads with me and I want you to pray for me. Once we turn to God's

  word that I'll be faithful to communicate it and I will pray for you to

  have a heart open to receive what God has for us today. Let's pray.

  Father, your word tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing through the

  Word of Christ. The only transformation that can happen is supernatural

  transformation. It has to come from you. And I pray, Father, that as we encounter

  your word, as we encounter you, we are profoundly changed. We pray these things

  in Jesus' name. And all of God's people said, "Amen." We just finished what was

  like an eight-week series on the Beatitudes. And the Beatitudes describe

  what a follower of Jesus is like. Verses 13 through 16 describe the function of

  the believer in the world. You are God's influencer. You are. When you live as

  described in the Beatitudes, you influence the world. Like, well, how does that

  happen? Well, let's see what our Lord says. Matthew 5 verse 13. He says, "You are the

  salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be

  restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and

  trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world." A city said on a

  hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. But

  on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house, in the same way, let your

  light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory

  to your Father who is in heaven. Jesus here is saying, okay, here's the short

  version. The world is decaying and it's dark. Have you noticed? What it needs is

  salt and light. Let's talk about salt and light for a second, shall we? When it

  comes to salt, look, in our day, we kind of take salt for granted. It's everywhere.

  It's on every table, it's in your cabinet. It's everywhere, and it's cheap. But the

  people that lived in Jesus' day would have had a different view of salt. To the

  Greeks, they considered salt divine. The Romans said that there is nothing more

  valuable than two things, sun and salt. In fact, Roman soldiers were actually paid

  in salt. Do you ever hear that expression? He's not worth a salt? Ask where that comes

  from. True story. It was so important in so many ways. People would use salt in

  making covenants. Salt was used in Old Testament sacrifices. Salt was used for

  flavor, obviously. Salt is an antiseptic. Like, well, how did Jesus mean it?

  I believe the main primary focus of Jesus' teaching here is salt as a

  preservative. Salt prevents corruption. You see, in Jesus' day, they didn't have

  refrigerators. They didn't have a deep-freeze chest in the garage like we do.

  So in order to preserve meat, you would literally have to rub salt into the meat

  to keep it from spoiling. And in the same way, Jesus' followers are the salt in the

  meat of the world. We are what's preventing the world from totally rotting right now.

  But the Bible says, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, the book of Revelation, when

  the church is removed from the world in the rapture, the world is going to go to

  hell. It's going to get horrific because the salt's been removed. It's gonna rot.

  So the implication here of salt is that the world is polluted and corrupt and it

  has this tendency to rot like meat. And what it needs is your influence. It needs salt.

  Let's talk about light for a second. Also, much more valuable in Jesus' day

  because, again, we kind of take it for granted, don't we? We're so used to having

  electricity and flicking the lights on. But don't we just lose our minds when a

  storm takes the power out and there's no light? I know our house does, but they

  didn't have that electricity. So light would have been a much more valuable

  thing to them. But you know, Jesus said, "I am the light of the world," back in John

  chapter 8 and verse 12, "and here Jesus says you are the light of the world." So

  which is it? And the answer is both. It's both. It's His light through us. Just as

  the moon doesn't produce its own light but reflects the light of the sun, that's

  how it is for followers of Christ. We are to reflect the light of Jesus Christ in

  our lives. Now when the Bible talks about light, it's talking about revealing

  God's truth. This is what the Bible refers to when it's talking about light,

  right? Psalm 119, 105, "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." So

  light has to do with the revelation of God's Word. It is the light that tells us

  the cause of the darkness. It is the light that shows us that our problem is

  we're separated from God. But it's also the light that shows us the way out of

  darkness. It's the light of God's Word that says there is a way to get back to

  God, and that is through Jesus Christ, who died for your sins, who rose from the

  dead to give you eternal life. It's through faith in Him. That's how you get back to

  God, and that is only revealed in the light of God's Word. So the implication

  when Jesus talks about light is this, the world is dark. Sin has made this world a

  very dark place. What it needs is light. It needs your influence. So on your

  outline, I encourage you to take some notes here. Here's the sermon, "As Salt and

  Light, I am God's Influencer. I am. And if you claim to be a follower of Jesus

  Christ, you are an influencer for God. You are." Let's unpack this a little bit.

  Shall we, number one, write this down, "My influence is expected." My influence is

  expected. Interestingly, in the Greek, we talked about this in the Beatitudes. It's

  here too. You know, you as emphatic in the Greek. So literally, you could

  translate this. Jesus is saying, "You are the only light in the world. You are the

  only salt in the world." You know, I was thinking about salt this week. You know,

  something really interesting about salt, as valuable as it is, it's really no good

  on its own, is it? It's not good by itself. I mean, when was the last time you

  went to Pantera bread, and you said, "Yeah, you know what? I'm not really that hungry.

  I'm just gonna have a bowl of salt." Like, who does that? It's no good on its own.

  Salt is always used for something else. And you know, thinking about that further,

  light is the same, isn't it? Light is always used for something else. Meaning

  this, when you turn on the lights, you don't do it because you're like, "You know

  what, man? I just really like light." Like, nobody just really likes light. Why do you

  turn it on? Because it's light that illuminates what's in the room. Light has

  no other purpose. So salt and light always used for something else. Always used

  for something else. You know what? You are so valuable. You are. But like salt,

  you're not valuable for yourself. Here's what I mean. If all God wanted was for you

  to be saved, then the moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, God

  would just take you to heaven. Like, we're done. Good job. I wanted you to be saved.

  But He doesn't do that. God, when you're saved, God keeps you on this earth for one

  reason. It's influence. He keeps you here to be salt and light. You see, that's what

  Jesus is saying here. There is no salt and light except from a Christ follower

  who is going to show and tell the people around you about Jesus. Like, well, you're

  the pastor, isn't that your job? No. Look, it can't be. You're going to encounter

  people just through the course of your every day that I'm never going to meet.

  You're going to work with people and there's people in your family. The

  pastor Taylor is never going to meet. So whose job is it to let them know about

  Jesus Christ? That's yours. That's why God has you there. There's no alternative.

  There's just not another option. But you know, side note, it's an interesting

  paradox. Last week we were talking about persecution, right? And people hating you

  because of Jesus. Isn't it an interesting paradox that the world hates us so much,

  but the world needs us so desperately? Look, you're expected. You are expected to

  be salt and light. That is so clear from Jesus' words. It is just an

  expectation. That's why Jesus gives warnings of being useless. Did you see

  that? He says, verse 13, "If the salt has lost its taste." And then over in verse 15,

  he says, "Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket." What's the point?

  Well, the point is this. If salt isn't salty, it's useless, right? And if light

  doesn't shine, useless. What Jesus is saying here is when salt isn't salty,

  when light isn't bright, what that means is you've lost your influence. You've

  lost your influence. It's a terrible place to be when you lose your ability to be

  salt and light for Jesus Christ. You're like, well, how does that happen? How do

  you lose your influence? How does salt lose its taste? How do you hide your

  light? Well, it happens through sin. That's how it happens. Constantly

  complaining, you're losing your saltiness. Gossiping, you're losing your

  saltiness. Do you have a hair trigger temper? You're losing your

  saltiness when that erupts. I'm inappropriate with the opposite sex in

  any way. Flirtation, direct messages to full-on affairs. You're losing your

  saltiness when you're involved in sin. Jesus gives a hard wording about that

  here. He says you're not good for anything when that happens. I can just

  speak personally, you know, over the years there have been several pastors who

  have been a big influence influence. Several pastors have been a big influence

  on me. Some local guys, some national names. People who have disqualified

  themselves from ministry because of flagrant sin. And in a lot of the cases

  it was affairs. Whether it was emotion or physical, that seems to be the

  predominant disqualifier. And look, right wrong or indifferent, you can reach your

  conviction on this. But I gotta tell you, I've thrown away a lot of books and a

  lot of sermons and a lot of materials for ministries. Because those pastors lost

  their influence, how can you preach this? And for years secretly live a

  completely different way. How can you do that? You don't have audience with me

  anymore. You're like, yeah, that's terrible. Well, what about you? What about

  your influence with your unsafe family, with your friends, with your co-workers?

  When they know that you're a Christian, and by the way they absolutely should,

  look, when they know you name the name of Christ, they're watching you. They are

  watching everything you do. They're watching your attitudes. They're listening

  to every word that you say and how you say it and what you talk about. They're

  listening. They're watching. I have to ask you, do they

  see sin? Or maybe you just try to tone down the salt a little bit when

  you're around them. Maybe when you're around them, you don't want to be the

  weird religious wackadoo. So you're just, let's just dim the lights a little bit.

  Can we just dim the lights a little bit? Jesus says, if that's the case, He says,

  you're not good for anything. Like, Jesus is saying, why do I have you here? Why do I

  have you here if you're not going to be salt and light? You're no good. It's a

  hard warning. But notice, Jesus didn't say after the beatitudes, okay, now would

  you pretty please be salt and light? He said, you are. You are. So really the

  question is, how salty are you? How bright are you? Because you're going to

  influence people one way or the other. And Jesus is expecting His influence on

  this world to happen through you. So your influence is expected, number one.

  Number two, right this time, my influence comes from me being different. My

  influence comes from me being different. That's something else about salt and

  light. It has to actually be touching what it's going to affect. Did you know

  that? If the salt's going to be of any use, it has to be on the food. I know that's

  profound, right? What did you learn in church today? He said something about the

  salt's no good unless it's on the food. Right. Right. The light must be mingled

  with the darkness, right? But at the same time that it's touching, it's also

  distinct. What I mean is salt and light are unlike the medium on which they're

  placed. So the point is we are to be different from the world. We're to be

  as different as the salt is from the meat. We're to be as different as the

  light is from the darkness. And that means my friends, we're not we're not

  self-serving. We're not materialistic. We're not worldly. The influence happens

  when we're different from the world. And somehow we have a hard time as

  Christians remembering that. We think that we are going to attract the

  world by imitating them. We have this game in our minds where we say, "Well, I'm

  going to show them that I'm no different than them. And they're going to see that

  I'm cool and I'm relevant and then I'm going to be able to give them the gospel."

  We think being like them is going to attract them.

  Just imagine you have this co-worker and you have an exchange like this.

  Your co-worker says, "Hey, you want to hear a dirty joke?" And your reply is, "Yes." And

  then I will tell you one because I'm cool. Your co-worker says, "Hey, did you check

  out that new lady that they hired? She is fine." And your reply to that is, "Yes, I

  also think she is smoking as you do because you and me are the same." Your

  co-worker says, "Hey, do you want to have too much beer later?" And your reply is, "I

  sure would because that would be relevant to my relationship with you

  because I'm just like you." And then maybe after our beers I will tell you how

  Jesus changed me. Changed you? From what? Even in the church. Even in the church.

  There's this tendency, we want to attract unsaved people so we think we've

  got to be just like them. Let's put on a show. Let's make it like a secular

  concert. Let's get the laser lights and the smoke machine and put on a big

  theatrical production here. Let's be like the world. That'll win the world, won't it?

  Because don't we want people to be comfortable? We hate that, don't we? When

  churches are like, "We want you to come and be comfortable." Church is the last

  place you should be comfortable. Standing in the face of the Word of God is

  the last place you should feel comfortable. The church is, "Let's be like the

  world and what that means is we're going to have to not take such a

  hard stand on the truth of God's Word because we want to win the world, right?

  And in order to do that, we got to be like the world." I was shown a church

  recently online was advertising, "You can get baptized there." But the interesting

  kicker was, they said, "You can get baptized any way you want."

  Any way you want. You want to get dunked? Well, don't you? You want to get

  sprinkled? We'll splash you? You want us to dip our hands in water and touch your

  forehead? We'll do that. You name the way you want to get the water on you. We'll get

  the water on you. As our Lord would say, "What is going on?" I heard this quote one

  time that always stuck with me. Somebody said, regarding the church, they said,

  "Just when the world needs us the most, we become just like them." And look, if we're

  just the same, we got nothing to offer them, right? And if we learn anything from

  the Beatitudes, it's this, kingdom of heaven people live different than kingdom

  of earth people. We are not the same. We are not made out of the same stuff that

  the world is made out of. We are salt and light. My influence comes from being

  different, right? And finally, number three, my influence is for God's glory. My

  influence is for God's glory. Look at verse 16 again. Jesus says in the same way,

  "Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give

  glory to your Father who is in heaven." Good works. Good works. You do good works?

  Well, you have to check your motives for that, right? Because it's not about what

  people think about me as much as what they think about God. But Jesus said,

  "They'll see our good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

  Meaning this, "I do what I do because I love Jesus." And people are going to see

  that, and that is going to give me the opportunity to share the gospel with

  them, to invite them to church where they're going to hear the gospel. And

  our hope is that they receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, because

  that is the ultimate way that God has glorified.

  But if we're going to be influencers, we have to be salt and light both.

  Because you can read this passage and be like, isn't Jesus kind of saying the

  same thing with the salt and the light? Like, why did He use two pictures? Why

  didn't He just keep it short and use one? Because there's some key

  differences between salt and light. The one I want to focus on is this. We could

  spend so much time on this, we don't have it. But I want to say this. Jesus is

  saying you have to have godly conduct, that's salt. And you have to have the

  gospel message that's light. You have to have both.

  Meaning this. You can't just walk away from this message and focus on one of

  these aspects, but not the other. Meaning, let's just say you're only

  going to focus on being salt. Okay, you're like, you know what, he's right

  about the salt, you know what, I got to work on that. I'm just only going to focus

  on being salt. I'm just going to focus on my walk with Christ, but you never

  actually share the gospel with anyone. Well, the question is how is anybody

  going to glorify the Father if you never tell them the gospel? Do you think

  people are going to see your good works and just automatically, somehow,

  miraculously understand the content of the gospel just because you're doing

  good works? There was a saying that was thrown around years ago. You know those

  sayings that sometimes creeps into the church that Christians use that sound,

  they sound so like magnanimously spiritual, but they're really, when you

  think about it, really kind of empty. This is one that kind of drove me nuts.

  Years ago, people would say, preach the gospel and use words if necessary. Remember

  that one? Preach the gospel and use words if necessary. Look, words are

  necessary. Words are necessary. No one hears the truth just by watching

  somebody's character, but on the other hand, if you're like, you know what,

  you're right, I'm not going to worry so much about the salt. I'm not going to

  monitor my salt content so much. I'm going to focus on being light.

  But look, if you're just running around telling everyone John 3.16, but you're

  not personally walking with Christ, there's no good works backing up this

  message that you're preaching, you're going to leave people asking, why should I

  listen to his message? Because he doesn't seem any different than me. You got to

  have salt and light both. See, salt refers to your general conduct. Light is the

  specific word. Salt talks about who you are. Light speaks to what you do. Salt is

  being the example. Light is carrying out the work of evangelism. Salt is living it.

  Light is telling it. See, that salt can't save anyone. Salt holds back the

  corruption. You need the light of God's truth to lead the salvation, but the

  light has to be backed up by the salt of God the character and good works. That's

  Jesus' point here. And the end game? The end game is the same end game for

  literally everything in the universe. The glory of God.

  We get that definition of the influencer back up here. I looked at a few

  definitions here, but I thought, wow, doesn't this definition really speak

  to the same kind of stuff Jesus was talking about here? Look, here's what I

  mean. Has our Lord built a sizable following?

  A little bit. You may have heard of him. He built a sizable following. Does he have

  a relevant topic? I would argue the most relevant topic ever, eternal life. Is our

  Lord interesting in influencing His followers to take action? That's why

  we're here. Like, well, how does that happen? There's last two words jumped out

  to me then. Credibility and authority. What's credibility? That's salt. And what's

  authority? That's light. Look, God has given us a new mission field to reach at

  Harvest Bible Chapel. God has given us a community without a church where we can

  be salt and light. So there's an exciting new chapter ahead for Harvest Bible

  Chapel. And just now we're going to have our town hall meeting, getting an update

  on how God is moving. And my friends, you were in the presence of a miracle

  today because I got done early. We'll do the directors cut in the next service.

  So why don't you just want to take a couple minutes? We're gonna start at 10

  promptly, Pastor Rich. So once you take a couple minutes, if you need to check on

  little Joey or use the restroom and then at 10 o'clock sharply, Pastor Rich is

  gonna come up here and we have an amazing update for you on what the Lord's

  doing. So let me pray real quick and then we'll reconvene here at 10. Father in

  heaven, I just want to close this time in your word by asking you to empower us to

  be what you've already pronounced us to be. You've said we're salt and light, God,

  we need the wisdom of your word and the power of your spirit so that we can carry

  out that function in a way that glorifies your name. Thank you Father for all that you've done.

  We're excited at what you're going to do. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:13-16

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. In what ways are disciples of Jesus like salt? Like light?
   

3. How does salt lose flavor (the believer lose their influence)? In what ways do we put our lamps under a basket? Why does Jesus say someone in that state is “no longer good for anything”?
   

4. Why is it important to both salt AND light? Why not just focus on one or the other?
   

5. How do you really know if you are doing good works for other people’s attention or God’s glory?

Breakout
Pray for one another to be salty and bright.

Congratulations to the Hated

Introduction:

The Heart of the Disciple: Congratulations to the Hated! (Matthew 5:10-12)

Who Are “Those Who Are Persecuted”?

1 Peter 4:3-4 – For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you...

Luke 9:23 – And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

2 Timothy 3:12 – Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted…

Why Are We Congratulating Those Who Are Persecuted?

Acts 5:40-41 – And when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. Then they left the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name.

How Do I Respond to Being Persecuted?

Three Reasons to Rejoice in Persecution:

1. Persecution Proves I Belong to Jesus!

   1 Peter 1:6-7 – In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

2. I Have a Reward in Heaven!

   2 Corinthians 5:10 – For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

3. I'm in Good Company!

   John 15:20 – Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!

• Audio Transcript

  Open up your Bibles with me, please, to Matthew chapter 5.

  Matthew chapter 5, as we are coming at the end of an eight-week-long congratulations

  party as we look at the Beatitudes.

  This is the introduction to the greatest sermon ever preached.

  And every Beatitude begins with the word "blessed."

  And the word "blessed" means congratulations.

  If I asked you, "What is a Christian?"

  We could probably go around the room and get dozens and dozens and dozens of different

  responses to that.

  What is a Christian?

  What does a Christian do?

  What does a Christian look like?

  How does a Christian act?

  As we go through the Beatitudes, understand from the mouth of our Lord, this is what

  a Christian is.

  So it really doesn't matter what I think a Christian is or what you think a follower

  of Jesus is.

  This is what Jesus said a follower of Him looks like.

  This is what Christians are meant to be.

  And as we've said through this whole series, there's a spiritually logical flow in the

  Beatitudes.

  Jesus wasn't just pulling out these random sayings.

  There's a flow here.

  It's like a staircase.

  It's like steps on a ladder.

  Let's look at them again.

  Jesus said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

  Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

  Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

  Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

  Blessed are the pure in hearts, for they shall see God.

  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

  Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom

  of heaven."

  Look at this flow here.

  What I want you to see here, the first three Beatitudes address our need.

  We're poor in spirit, and we should mourn over that.

  And we need to stop thinking of ourselves first and live a life of complete unselfishness.

  That's meekness.

  That's the need that we have.

  And then the need is satisfied as we hunger and thirst for righteousness.

  And then the next three Beatitudes show the result.

  We become merciful.

  We become pure in heart.

  We become peacemakers.

  Today, this last one, this is the outcome.

  If you are sincerely following Jesus Christ, if Christ is alive in you and He is changing

  you, I've got to tell you, this is kind of a shocking statement that Jesus says, "You

  know you made it."

  When people hate you.

  Wow.

  Before we dive into this, let's just pause for a moment.

  I'm going to ask that you would please pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's

  Word, and at the same time I will pray for you to receive what it is the Lord wants to

  tell us in His Word today.

  All right?

  Let's just take a moment.

  Please pray for me.

  Father in heaven, as we come to Your Word, this is a hard one.

  But we're not cherry picking.

  Just trying to cover the parts of Your Word that might be easier on our ears, Father.

  We want to hear everything that You had to say.

  This is a hard one.

  I pray, Father, for all of us, You would open our hearts for a time of self-examination

  and also a time of maybe a change of perspective.

  To Your glory and honor, Father, let Your Word take root in our hearts.

  To make us the people that You've called us to be, to make us the people that Jesus described,

  as followers would be.

  I pray these things in Jesus' name.

  All of God's people said, Amen.

  All right, we're in week 8 of the party.

  Anybody else have like party fatigue?

  You're like, "All right, you know what?

  In any other party I would have gone home long before this."

  But look, we've got one more week of party, all right?

  So are you ready?

  Today, we want to wish a hearty congratulations to the hated.

  You ready?

  Let's do it!

  I get to tell you, it feels strange.

  You're hated.

  Congratulations!

  I'm so happy for you.

  You're hated?

  Wow, that's awesome!

  Like, man, you're going to have to explain that one.

  Well, let's look at what our Lord says.

  "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness's sake, for theirs is the kingdom

  of heaven."

  So the first question we have to ask is, "Who are we congratulating here?

  Who are the persecuted?"

  Well the Greek word persecuted means pursue.

  The word we would use in our day is harass.

  This verb tense talks about somebody who continually allows themselves to be put in this position,

  the persecuted.

  You're like, "Well, persecuted like how?"

  Well, Jesus tells us.

  Look at verse 11.

  "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil

  against you falsely on my accounts."

  So you see this persecution, there's two sides of the coin here.

  There's reviling.

  That's face to face.

  That's, I'm assaulting you with words in your face, or we would just call that insulting

  you.

  Right?

  But then He says, "Uter evil falsely."

  That's not in your face.

  That's behind your back.

  That's slandering you.

  That's, I want to ruin your reputation.

  I want people to think lesser of you.

  So I'm going to say things about you behind your back.

  And what I don't know, I'm just going to make up because I want people to think of you in

  a negative light.

  But you have to notice here, Jesus says persecuted.

  Look, you've got to get this because if you miss this, there's somebody going to be walking

  out of here strutting like a rooster because you missed it.

  Jesus says it's for righteousness sake.

  Verse 11, He says it's on account of Him.

  And that's so important when we talk about persecution.

  It's not persecution because you're obnoxious.

  Okay?

  It's not persecution because you're a jerk to everyone.

  And you wear your religion like some kind of an honor badge that you think it's your

  job to slap everybody in place.

  People treat you negatively because you're a jerk.

  That's called consequences.

  That's called you're reaping what you're sowing there.

  So He's not talking about that.

  He's also not talking about putting on a show.

  Right?

  It's not trying to be as over the top, self-righteous as you can be so that you get people's attention

  so that they say something about you so you can be like, "Oh, I'm so persecuted."

  He's not talking about that either.

  Look at Daniel.

  Daniel quietly softed the Lord and He was persecuted.

  Right?

  Jesus isn't talking about getting a rise out of people on social media by trolling them.

  You know exactly what to post, exactly what to comment, and you know it's going to get

  a rise out of people and people are going to say things and you're going to be like,

  "Oh, I'm so persecuted."

  No, you're not.

  You're being a jerk.

  Okay?

  That's not what Jesus is talking about at all.

  He clarifies that twice here.

  It's being hated, being persecuted because of Jesus.

  It's because of His righteousness.

  It's because you strive to be like Jesus.

  Or in the context of this sermon, you're just striving to live out these Beatitudes that

  He laid out.

  You're just striving to be that kind of person.

  And you're hated.

  Isn't it sort of ironic?

  What did Pastor Taylor preach about last week?

  The previous Beatitude.

  What was that one?

  Okay, two of you were here.

  There were more of you here than that.

  What was the previous Beatitude?

  Peacemakers.

  Isn't that interesting?

  Blessed are the peacemakers and then...

  Blessed are the persecuted.

  What's going on there?

  Well, it is very simply this.

  Christians strive for peace with all men, but all men don't return the favor.

  And you're like, "Wait, hang on a second, man.

  Why all the hatred, man?

  Why the hatred?

  Why can't we just live and let live, man?

  You know what I'm saying?

  Why do they hate?

  Well, Peter tells us that.

  Peter answers that very question.

  Why do people hate you for trying to follow Jesus?

  Look at 1 Peter chapter 4 verses 3 through 4.

  He says, "For the time that has passed to feces for doing what the Gentiles want to do."

  And in this context, Gentiles is sort of a figure of speech for unbelievers.

  He says, "Living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and

  lawless idolatry."

  Do you see that Peter says, "Listen, Christians, we're done living life like it's one long

  beer commercial."

  All right?

  He says, "With respect to this, they are surprised..."

  The unbelievers are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery

  and they malign you.

  Do you see that?

  He's saying that people are going to slander you, malign you, because you're different.

  You live as a citizen of heaven.

  You don't live a sinful lifestyle and lost people view that somehow as you condemning

  their sin.

  Lost people feel like when you try to follow Jesus.

  And even if you don't say a word, they feel like you're calling them out.

  "Oh, oh, oh, you think you're better than me?"

  "Oh, you don't do that stuff, oh, oh, Mr. Holier than thou, huh?

  Whatever happens to thou shall not judge, huh?"

  And you're like, "Well, I'm not judging.

  I just don't live that way because of my faith in Jesus Christ.

  They're going to hate you for that."

  And maybe you're like, "Well, you know what, though, Pastor Jeff, I wouldn't say anything

  to anyone because I believe.

  I believe in keep your religion to yourself."

  And I would say, "I ain't good either."

  According to Jesus.

  In Luke 9.23, Jesus said, "For whoever is ashamed of me, oh, oh, look at the end of my words.

  Of him will the Son of man be ashamed when he comes in his glory, in the glory of the

  Father and of the holy angels."

  Do you see that?

  End of my words.

  It's not just ashamed of Jesus.

  It's also being ashamed of what He said.

  It's being ashamed of what He taught.

  So what do we do?

  We try to avoid persecution by making the gospel tolerable.

  And we say things like, "Well, there's not just one way to heaven.

  You know, we're all kind of on our path.

  And as long as you're sincere, I think God sees that.

  And there's not just one way to heaven.

  I don't really think there's a hell.

  You know, I know there's some Christians that believe that.

  But I don't really think that's - I don't really think a loving God would send somebody to

  hell.

  And you know what, man?

  Love is love, right?

  And we're ashamed of what Jesus said when we talk like that.

  When you're with your family, your unsafe family members specifically, when you're with your

  unsafe friends, when you're at the workplace, the sort of just kind of hides your faith.

  We're ashamed of Jesus' words.

  It's a problem.

  Try this.

  Try saying things like, "I believe that marriage is for a man and a woman because that's what

  God said."

  Say things like, "I believe that the unborn are people who deserve to live."

  Try that one.

  Try, "I believe that Jesus is the only way to heaven because He's the only one who died

  for my sin and rose from the dead to promise eternal life."

  He's the only one who did that.

  So I believe He's the only way to heaven.

  Say that.

  People will hate you.

  And you're going to be persecuted for righteousness' sake.

  And you're like, "You know what, Pastor Jeff, the world is rough, man.

  The world's rough.

  It's rough out there.

  It's not just the world.

  Some of the worst persecution of Christians happens in the church.

  Think about this.

  Jesus' ministry.

  Who gave Jesus the most problems?

  Was it the unsaved pagans?

  It was the hardcore religious people, wasn't it?

  And what about the book of Acts?

  The book of Acts, the first four chapters, it's attacks from the outside, still from religious

  people, but it was attacks outside the church.

  And the church was standing strong.

  And then what happened in Acts chapter 5 and chapter 6?

  All the problems came from within the church.

  And things really got hard then.

  And church, I've got to tell you, the worst insults that I've ever received, the worst

  slander about me that's ever been spoken, the worst accusations that I've ever experienced

  have come from church people.

  It shouldn't be that way.

  That's how it is.

  And maybe there are some people sitting here.

  And if we're being honest, some of the ways that you're talking about people and the leadership

  of the church, you're being divisive.

  And maybe you're not the persecuted.

  Maybe you're the persecutors.

  You're like, well, why would church people do that?

  Same reason.

  You take a stand on what the Bible says.

  You stand for righteousness.

  Blushly, worldly-minded people in the church are going to attack you.

  By the way, look at verse 11 again.

  Jesus says, "Blessed are you when others revile you."

  Notice He didn't say "if."

  Like this is going to apply to some of my followers.

  No, He didn't say that.

  Listen, if you're a true follower of Jesus, it's when it's going to happen to you.

  You are going to be persecuted in some way, shape, or form to some degree for your faith.

  This is for all true disciples.

  And if you're not getting any kind of backlash because of your faith in Jesus Christ, that's

  actually a bigger problem than if you're facing persecution.

  This is for all true followers.

  Paul says this in 2 Timothy 3.12, in case it's unclear.

  "Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

  So you think you're going to stand for Jesus and Satan's kids aren't going to hate you?

  Let's not be so naive.

  That's who the persecuted are.

  You're like, "Wow, so why are we congratulating them?"

  Well, let's look at the text.

  First time, why would we congratulate people that are hated, persecuted for righteousness'

  sake?

  Well, look what Jesus says, "For theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

  The kingdom of heaven.

  We talked about this, didn't we?

  It's the place where Jesus is ruling.

  Like, where is the kingdom of heaven?

  Right now, it's in the heart of every believer.

  Hers is the kingdom of heaven.

  The first and last Beatitudes are bookended by this statement.

  That was the very first thing Jesus said.

  "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

  What Jesus is saying is the first thing, and the last thing you need to know is when you

  receive Him, you get His kingdom.

  Oh, and by the way, with all these Beatitudes, all of these results, all of these things

  we've been congratulating people for, you realize every single promise, every congratulation

  of every Beatitude are all facets of a diamond called salvation.

  These are all just figures of speech describing salvation.

  Receiving the kingdom of heaven, that's salvation.

  Being comforted by God, that's from salvation.

  Inheriting the earth, salvation.

  Being satisfied, only in salvation.

  Receiving mercy, that's salvation.

  Being able to see God, that's salvation.

  Being called a Son of God, that's adoption, which is, tell me, salvation, right?

  Receiving the kingdom of God is salvation.

  So why are we congratulating those hated because of Jesus?

  Because it proves that Christ is in you.

  Wait, wait, you mean people who would hate Jesus if He were here, hate you instead because

  you remind them of Jesus?

  That.

  That is a high honor.

  That is a really high honor.

  And somebody right now is like, "Oh, you know what, Pastor Jeff, I don't think we should

  think that way."

  And I would say, why not?

  The early disciples did.

  Acts chapter 5 says, "When the counsel had called in the apostles, they beat them and

  charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus and let them go."

  Now I would think the next statement would be, and the apostles left cursing them under

  their breath, the apostles left crying, "Why God, why did this happen to me?"

  That's what I would think the next line would be.

  But you see what the next line is?

  It says, "Then they left a presence of the counsel rejoicing that they were counted worthy

  to suffer dishonor for the name."

  See that the early apostles, they weren't waiting for Harvest Bible Chapel to have our

  little congratulations party before they started celebrating.

  They were congratulating themselves.

  What an honor to so act like Jesus that sinners treat you like Jesus.

  That's an honor.

  And that is why we're congratulating those who are persecuted.

  So there's one more question that we have to answer today.

  The third question on your outline.

  How do I respond to being persecuted?

  How do I respond to being persecuted?

  You know, this beatitude is obviously very different than the rest.

  The other beatitudes are about what happens in me.

  But this beatitude is about what happens to me.

  But you know another difference is this is the only beatitude that Jesus elaborates on

  right here.

  And you're like, "Wait a minute.

  Is this the part of the sermon where you tell me how to be persecuted?"

  No.

  I don't need to tell you how to be persecuted.

  You follow Jesus Christ, you will be.

  That's the point.

  You strive to live this kind of a life.

  You will be.

  The question that we need to answer is how do I respond to that?

  That's the question.

  And the answer is not retaliate.

  "I'll get you for this."

  It's not that.

  It's not resenting people like, "I hate you for this."

  It's not that.

  And it's not even becoming depressed or sorrowful.

  Like, "I hate this."

  It's not that either.

  Look at verse 12.

  Because Jesus actually tells us how to react.

  Look at this.

  "Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven.

  For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

  Jesus says, "Here's how you react.

  People hate you because you follow Him?"

  Jesus says, "Rejoice."

  And you're like, "Really?

  Yeah.

  Jesus actually doubles down on that, doesn't He?

  He says, "Rejoice and be glad."

  Why should I rejoice and be glad when people are against me because of Jesus?

  Why would I do that?

  How in the world is that an occasion for happiness?

  Well Jesus tells us that too.

  We don't have to guess.

  But He tells us right here.

  So the three reasons to rejoice in persecution, jot these down.

  I'm going to go through these quickly.

  These are the three reasons Jesus gives right here.

  Number one, persecution proves, "I belong to Jesus."

  We already touched on this briefly already.

  But like the rest of the Beatitudes, there's a congratulations on what results.

  He says, "Yours is the kingdom of heaven," meaning you belong to Jesus.

  Do you want to know if your faith is real?

  Or would you just rather stumble through life wondering, "Do I really believe?"

  I mean, do I really believe in Jesus Christ?

  Is my faith a real thing or is it just kind of in my head or have I deceived myself?

  Is my faith real?

  Well, your faith needs tested and there's only one way that happens.

  See what Peter says again.

  First Peter 1, he says, "In this year rejoice."

  Oh, there's rejoice again.

  For what Peter?

  "Now for a little while, if necessary, you've been grieved by various trials, persecution

  being a big one, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold, that

  perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and

  honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ."

  Well, here's the point.

  Anyone can say that they believe in Jesus Christ at a prayer meeting.

  Or go to a small group and say, "I just want you to know I believe in Jesus Christ.

  Do you think there's going to be any pushback there?"

  No, there's not.

  It's easy to say it there.

  But do you still believe when it's not so popular?

  Do you still believe when you're insulted for it?

  When you're rejected for it?

  When you're falsely accused because of it?

  Do you still believe when your faith costs you something?

  You see, when following Jesus is painful, but you refuse to walk away because His promises

  are so glorious and His ways are so right?

  When Jesus Himself is so worthy, you don't really prove to Jesus what your faith is made

  out of.

  As much as you've proven to yourself what your faith is made out of, because I've got

  a feeling Jesus already knows.

  That's reason to rejoice.

  Resurrection proves I belong to Jesus.

  Number two, I rejoice.

  I have a reward in heaven.

  Look at verse 12 again.

  "Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven."

  Be like, "Well, what's your reward?

  What's your reward?"

  Well, there's all kinds of rewards in heaven.

  Actually, you could kind of look at heaven as one big reward, right?

  And I mean, you've got this, "There's no sickness, and there's no war, there's no unhappiness."

  Oh, how about the best thing in heaven?

  Jesus Himself.

  All of that's true.

  And at the same time, the Bible says that each individual gets special individual rewards.

  And how much of these you get is based on how you live now, including facing persecution

  because of Jesus.

  Saint Corinthians 5:10, Paul says, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of

  Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether

  good or evil, there's different levels of rewards based on your faithfulness now, based

  on your faithfulness in the face of persecution."

  Like, "All right, well, what are those rewards then?"

  I don't know.

  But here's something I do know.

  Jesus says they're great.

  And if Jesus says something is great, that's what I was thinking.

  If Jesus says it's great, then it must be pretty great.

  If God Himself refers to something as being great, then it must be spectacular.

  So church, can we just believe Jesus and wait 15 minutes and find out what it is?

  I'm going to tell you all the stupid insults and slander are going to look pretty petty

  in light of whatever Jesus has for you.

  And that's a reason to rejoice.

  I have a reward in heaven.

  Number three, third reason to rejoice.

  And the face of persecution is, "I'm in good company.

  I'm in good company."

  Look again, verse 12.

  Jesus says, "Your reward is great in heaven."

  But then he taxed on this statement too.

  He says, "For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

  Are you being persecuted for your faith to some degree in some way?

  And if you follow Christ, you should be.

  Well Jesus reminds us here, "You're in good company."

  I mean, man, think of the people in the Old Testament.

  Abel, Moses, David, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel.

  You're in some pretty good company.

  Oh, how about Jesus himself?

  You know, Jesus spoke of this in John 15 when he said, "Remember the word that I said to

  you, a servant is not greater than his master.

  If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

  If they kept my word, they will also keep yours."

  Okay, hang on.

  How is this a motivation to rejoice?

  How?

  Okay, so you're saying I should be motivated by the fact that other people were persecuted

  too?

  Like, how is that a motivation?

  You know, we love the name drop, don't we?

  Oh, you say you don't.

  You say you don't.

  You run into somebody famous at the airport and keep your mouth shut.

  You won't.

  I ran into Jerome Bettis at the airport one time, literally ran into him.

  Like physically, ran into him.

  I knocked him back about five yards.

  Okay, I made that part up.

  I did make that part up.

  We love the name drop.

  I felt good telling that story.

  Why do we do that?

  Why do we name drop?

  Because there's something in us that we're kind of proud of our associations.

  You know what I mean?

  There's something in us that we like that.

  Four years ago, Aaron and I were at a church conference in Orlando.

  And we were having breakfast.

  It was this big dining room.

  Aaron and I were having breakfast.

  And this stranger comes and sits at our table.

  He just sits there literally right beside me.

  And dude was so weird.

  Now listen, I am not criticizing.

  I'm weird.

  My wife married weird.

  All right?

  I'm not criticizing.

  The dude was just strange.

  He just sat down with us.

  He had these giant like plastic rimmed glasses like really big.

  And he had this enormous mustache.

  He looked like a cartoon character.

  And if you know me, I was like so fascinated by him.

  I think people were so fascinating.

  But when like this cartoon character sits down, he was so strange.

  And he was going on and on and on about some exercise bike that he bought.

  I'm like, they're still making exercise bikes?

  Like people are still doing that?

  You can buy a bike with two wheels and take it on the road.

  Like he was so strange.

  But he sat there and talked to Aaron and I the whole breakfast about his exercise bike.

  And then he gets up and leaves.

  And Aaron and I are like, who was that?

  Well then we go into the auditorium for the conference.

  And Aaron and I take our seats.

  And there's a time of worship.

  And then somebody gets up and announces.

  They're like, we'd like to introduce our main speaker for the event.

  Paul Tripp.

  He came out on the stage and Aaron and I are like, that's him.

  That's the guy we had breakfast with.

  I walked around the rest of the conference like, I don't want to brag or anything.

  But I had breakfast with Paul Tripp.

  You know, it was just kind of a thing we do once.

  Yeah.

  Oh, it was great.

  We were talking mustaches and exercise bikes.

  Are you being persecuted because of your faith?

  Do you realize that's the occasion for the ultimate name draw?

  You're like, I get to be hated because of Jesus.

  Do you realize what that means?

  I'm in company with the Lord of the universe.

  They can't get him so they come after me.

  Isn't that awesome?

  I'm with Jesus.

  Way cooler than Paul Tripp, by the way.

  When you feel like your faith has made you an outcast, hey, hey, that's just for now.

  Someday you're going to be walking around heaven with the prophets who came before us

  who were persecuted for their faith and you're going to look around these people in heaven

  and say, you know what?

  It was rough at times being insulted, being slandered, but now I see that I'm in good company.

  That is a reason to rejoice.

  So as our worship team makes their way back up to the platform here, I have to ask you,

  has being a Christian resulted in people reviling you?

  Has being a Christian resulted in people insulting you and lying about you?

  Do people hate you just because you follow Jesus?

  Well then, on behalf of the elders, the ministry team, and all of the nursery workers at Harvest

  Bible Chapel, we would like to wish you a truly heartfelt congratulations.

  Yours, yours is the kingdom of heaven.

Small Group Discussion
Read Matthew 5:10-12

1. What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
   

2. What are different ways persecution is carried out? Have you ever personally been persecuted because of your faith, on some level? If not, why not?
   

3. Read 1 Peter 4:3-4. What exactly motivates nonbelievers to slander Christians who refuse to live a sinful lifestyle?
   

4. Why do you think Christians aren’t persecuted in America the way Christians are persecuted in other countries?
   

5. In your opinion, which of Jesus’ reasons for rejoicing in persecution is the most compelling / motivating? Proof of salvation, reward in heaven, or being in good company?

Breakout
Pray for one another.