Alright, Matthew chapter 5, yeah, as we are almost done with the chapter, one chapter, even in one chapter since October. Isn't that insane? We are almost done. It's a long chapter nonetheless, but we are almost done.
Next week we're going to be finishing out the series Crazy Things Jesus Said, and we'll be finishing out with talking about loving our neighbor, but that's how Jesus is going to end this chapter. And we'll get to chapter 6 and chapter 7 and finish the rest of the sermon on the Mount, probably next year sometime. So we're going to be taking a break, so it's not like it's going to take us a year. We'll take a break and following next week's sermon, we're going to do a couple weeks talking about the Passion Week of Jesus leading up to Easter.
So we'll be talking about specific stories that are important for us to know that really kind of describe the situation leading up to the death and resurrection of Jesus. And obviously on Easter we'll be talking about the resurrection of Jesus. And that's going to be a great time to bring friends because what we're going to be doing is we're going to be talking about the resurrection, but I'm also going to be talking a little bit apologetically. And so that's a word that we mean for giving a defense.
So I'm going to give reasons why I believe there's actually an empty tomb and I give some arguments that some people often say, well, you know, Jesus was stolen, his body was stolen, he was all be talking about that on Easter. So that's going to be a good sermon to come to. But listen, we've been in Matthew chapter 5. We're talking about this crazy radical thing that Jesus has started to tell his people.
Remember, he started off with, this is how you flourish in your life, your some character attributes that you need to bring a part of your life in the beginning part of chapter 5. And then he says this radical statement that I have not come to get rid of the Old Testament law, but I've come to fulfill it. And so everything that Jesus is saying here, he is picking something from the Old Testament that he was as an example to show how his new kingdom that he is bringing into this world, how we should act and how it completes the thought. And so for example, we talked about when he says, you know, you've heard it said, do not murder, but I say to you don't have anger in your heart.
What Jesus is doing, he's saying, yeah, you shouldn't murder, right? He didn't come to get rid of that rule, right? You still shouldn't murder somebody, but he is completing the thought and saying it's not really about the murder. It's about the anger that's in your heart.
And so the big principle that Jesus was giving to us in that example was that we need to check our attitudes that our attitudes could actually cause us to sin. It's not just about the act of committing murder, but the very act of having anger in your heart is actual sin as well. And then the path goes from there, Jesus is talking about sin and he says, well, I'm going to give you an example about how you need to fight sin in your life. And so he uses this, he uses the next analogy of adultery and lust.
And he says, you've heard it said, don't commit adultery, but I say to you, don't have lust in your heart. And then he tells the people, if you have lust in your heart, what should you do? Well, if your right eye causes you to sin, cluck it out, right? If your right arm causes you to sin, cut it off.
What are you saying is you need to fight sin in your life. And he continues this kind of progression, thought progression. And then he says, but don't think you can bend the rules to get around sin. So last week we talked about divorce and remarriage and what Jesus has to say about that and how the culture to get around, to have multiple sexual partners, what they would say, well, I can just divorce and remarry, divorce and remarry, I can divorce and remarry.
And that's how they got to have multiple partners without actually making the commitment. And so they were using something that God had set up in the Old Testament for the harness of our hearts. They were using something that was supposed to protect the innocent party, the one who was being broken against to use it to their own advantage. And Jesus says, listen, it's not just about fighting sin.
It's also about there's no loopholes for Christians. If you're a follower of Jesus, you should not be trying to find loopholes to get around the system. But Jesus says, the sin is a sin. And even if you're trying to find a loophole, you're still, it's about the attitude that's there.
And so he continues this kind of thought process. And I think what's happening here, we're going to look at today, we're going to talk about two different themes. We're going to talk about honesty and we're going to be talking about loving people and retaliation, all built on this idea of an oath. And so what I think the progress here, remember Jesus is speaking this, I think he's thinking and using the example of adultery and divorce and remarriage, right?
And the oath and the commitment that's being made here. And then he goes into oaths, right? And so I think that's the logical progression, right? So there's some, you know, Jesus is smart here.
And so he's going to start talking about oaths. And so we're going to look at two sections, oaths, and then we're going to look at retaliation and see how they fit together. So if you had a Bible, Matthew 5 verse 33, what we're going to do is go through the passages like we've been doing, just kind of walking through and I see what God has to say for us. So let's read 33 through 37 and we'll talk about it and then we'll read the other portion of Scripture.
Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. But I say to you, do not take an oath at all either by heaven or is the throne of God or by the earth or is the footstool or by Jerusalem for is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head, or you cannot make one hair, white or black, that what you say simply be yes or no, anything more than that comes from evil. I'm going to give you the overall thing, the overall principle straight up front and it's this, followers of Jesus should be so honest in their life that they do not need to make an oath.
And let's just talk about it for a second. First thing that we see here, first reality of honesty or first reality of oathmaking is this, ever since the fall, this honesty has been and will likely be the norm. We live in a very dishonest culture. I was just researching the internet, just looking at a bunch of different popular songs that talked about honesty and dishonesty.
And there's a lot of them from Madonna, all the way to punk rock bands and all that kind of stuff. But one, struck me in particular. And these are the words from the great theologian Billy Joel. And he says this, honesty is such a lonely word, everyone is so untrue.
Honesty is hardly ever heard and most what I need from you. I think he said it really precisely as he is looking at the culture. We live in a culture where people are dishonest. I was reading a couple of statistics about how about a little over 60% of people actually admitted to lying to their job, right, and their job.
It was funny, they did one, I think it was 85% admitted to lying on their resume. They just think about that. They lied on their resume. So another one, 92% of teenagers, obviously, admitted to lying to their parents.
And I'm assuming that the other percent, 8%, were just lying to themselves because I think we've all been there, right? We've all been lied to our parents or our guardians before. We live in a very dishonest culture. And that's recognized because Jesus actually, the Old Testament, actually has to make a law for this reason.
And so we see in verse 33, it says, you have heard it said, you shall not swear falsely. That's a negative thing. You shall not do this, right? You shall not lie under oath.
You shall not lie in court, right? You shall not lie in your life. But you shall perform to the Lord what you have done. So instead, you need to be honest.
The reason why God had to say this in the Old Testament was because the culture was dishonest. I was going along this vein and I was thinking through, I wonder just in the book of Genesis, how many stories have to deal with dishonesty? And because I'm somewhat of a research nerd, I like looking up this stuff, okay? Some of you are like, man, that's probably super boring, but I actually like it.
Listen to this, dishonesty actually starts the story of human beings. God created mankind in Genesis 3. And what's the first thing that happens? Thean lies to Eve.
And then what happens? Well, Eve and Adam are tricked. And then what do they do? They hide from God and they don't tell God the whole truth.
That's just Genesis 3. Then we see Abraham lying to Sarah in chapter 12. We see Jacob tricked Esau with twisted words. And his name actually means dishonest or trickster in chapter 27.
We see Laban then tricked Jacob and returned to 29. That was a story where Jacob wanted to work for a sister. And then the dad kind of did a switch of ruin, gave her the ugly sister. It's a great story, by the way.
We're going to cover that in a couple of weeks in our marriage or our relationship series. It's a really great crazy, you know, Jerry Springer type of story. It's pretty cool. Then you see the brothers of Joseph at the end of Genesis in chapter 33, lied to their father about Joseph's death.
And that's just in the first book of the Bible. And I think we could go through the whole entirety of scripture and look at this theme of dishonesty, that it will be the norm until something drastically happens. That's why I believe that Jesus is telling his people that honesty for Christians, the followers of Jesus is going to be of supreme importance. Imagine a community that is honest, where people could take you at their word.
In a society and a culture where you need contracts for everything because no one trusts you, imagine if they can come to the church and know that they can trust you. What I think Jesus is trying to portray here. Then he says this verse 34 is the next principle. Every promise is made in the sight of the Lord.
That's the second reality of honesty. That every promise that you make is in the sight of the Lord. It's not that we just live in a dishonest culture, but we need to remember that God watches everything that we do. Look at verse 34.
It says, but I say to you do not take an oath at all. So Jesus is not against taking oath. He's just talking about these types of oath here by heaven or by the earth or by Jerusalem or by your heads. Let me talk about that for a second.
What people were doing was they somebody would want to contract, you know, they had a promise something. That's what they would say. They would say, I swear on heaven above that I will do this. Or I swear on what's a common English kind of term that we use, right?
I swear on my mother's grave, right? You know, we use some relative, right? That's what's happening here. I swear by heaven, right?
Or I swear by the earth underneath my feet. Or I swear by the king himself. Or I even swear from the deepest parts of me, right? I swear on my own body, my hair.
And what they're doing is they're making false claims because in the Old Testament it says if you're going to make an oath, you should make it in the name of God. That's the type of conviction that's supposed to be had. But what they were doing is they were saying, you know what? We're going to swear on, we're going to swear to something.
We're going to promise something just shy of swearing it to God. That way you could break your deal. You can renege on your deal, right? And then they could say, whoa, you promised.
You could say, oh, did I? No, no, I promise on my hair. Shave my head. That's okay, right?
Well, I promise on the, you know, this particular land, right? Or I didn't promise on God. You really expect me to be accountable if I'm not swearing it on God himself. And so they're trying to get around this honesty that God is actually demanding here.
And what Jesus is doing, he's telling his people that you need to realize that whether it is heaven, earth, whether it is a king or a city or whether it is the hair on your head, God is everywhere. So he says, right, by heaven, what's the throne of God? God is there. Oh, you're going to swear by the earth.
Well, that's his footstool. God's still there. Oh, you're going to swear by Jerusalem. Well, guess what?
That's God's city. Or he said, oh, you're going to swear by your head. God is even in control of whether your hair, of your hair. That's how much God's in control.
And so the point Jesus is making is that every single promise that you make is seen by God. And then he tells us this last reality of honesty. He says, or what I think he's trying to convince us is this, that the world lacks conviction or honesty. I think the type of honesty that Jesus really wants followers or Jesus to have needs to be convictional, first of all, conviction.
What does that mean? It is something that is inside of you that if you were not to do it, you would feel guilty about it. That's conviction, right? If you're convinced that you're supposed to do something and you don't do it, you feel convicted.
It's one of the ways you can use this term. And I think that's what he's trying to get at in verse 37 when he says, let what you say, simply be yes or no, any more than that is evil. You should be so convinced that you need to be honest because God is everywhere. And this is what the world needs that you live out conviction, honestly, that everything you do, that you, the world should look at the church, should look at Christians and say, I don't need a contract.
Now, that's going to be impossible, right? We live in America. Everyone has a contract, right? But what they should do is they should look at us and say, I wouldn't need one though, because they're so honest.
If I were to kind of give a rhetorical question, I wonder how many of you if I asked what's one defining characteristic of the church, the American church, right, the church is that we know, I wonder how many of us would actually use the word honest. And I don't think many of us would. There's a lot of skepticism when it comes to church, right? They're only in it for the money, right?
There's all these different things that people think, oh, you have to be this way. They're not honest people. And yet the church is supposed to be the most honest people that when you go to them with something, you can trust them. And I think Jesus is telling his people, you need to have this conviction, honestly, if you want to be a father of Jesus and live in this new kingdom, this is what he's looking for.
This would be counter-cultural in our world. But then I think this progression leads into the next section. So I think Jesus is talking about oaths, and then he's talking about pops in his head. And he thinks, oh, man, I should probably talk about this too.
That it's not just about being honest, but it's about dealing with issues in an honest way. And he brings up this other section dealing primarily with retaliation. So let's read that section now in verse 38. It says you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
How many of you guys knew that was in the Bible, right? A lot of people know that from Egyptian culture and that kind of stuff, but that's actually in the Old Testament as well. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him also, or the other also.
And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. You have to go the one who begs for you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Now, there's a lot in here, right?
I think often, or at least most people have heard the phrase, right? Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. And then we've also heard the phrase, you know, turn the other cheek, right, as a plea for like pacifism, right? I'm supposed to let everyone slap me on one cheek, and I'm supposed to turn the other one and let them smack me again, right?
And we have these like, these presuppositions or these things that we think about when we come to this text. And so what I'm not trying to do is show you culturally what Jesus is trying to say here, so we don't kind of, so we don't take it out of context. And I think where the oath kind of comes in is this, what is being said here, an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, is actually courtroom language. It's about someone who's actually swearing under oath in court.
And I think that's where Jesus is making the connection. He's talking about oaths and honesty. And then he's like, well, let me give you a further example of this. And he's talking about this thing that's called the Lex Talionis, is one of the phrases in I for an eye of tooth for a tooth.
So let's look at these different factors then for retaliation that Jesus is going to talk about. First is this, Jesus' intent on banning personal vendettas is for the protection of the innocent. He's talking about the situation in court when somebody goes in and falsely testifies against somebody else. And an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was not meant to be a personal vendetta.
But what the culture had done was they had taken it upon themselves and said, well, if you do this to me, then I'm going to do this to you. When Jesus says, no, no, the reason for this, I for an eye, was that if somebody took you to court and said, you know, I see Michael here, for example, I say, Michael, I saw you doing this, your hand should be cut off because you stole from me. And I'm completely lying. And the whole point to protect you, the innocent party is to say, if they find out I'm lying, guess what they do?
They cut off my hand because that's what would have happened to you if you were proven guilty. That's the whole point of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was to protect the innocent party from somebody falsely accusing them in court. It was not meant for a personal vendetta. And yet the society had decided that, you know what, if you do this to me, I can just get right back at you.
Why? Because, oh, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. You see how the past few weeks they had just totally misunderstood what the Old Testament was trying to say. Like when it came to, you know, not murdering, oh, but it's okay if I hate somebody, right?
Or, you know, oh, it's okay if I don't actually admit adultery, if I do all these different other things, right? Can you see how they had just completely misunderstood what the intent was behind some of the Old Testament principles? And this is another one. They said you're totally taking it to be something that it's not.
This is meant to protect an innocent party. But I want you to know something else about this and it's the second thing is this. Jesus is principle here on turning the other cheek or principally for non-life threatening situations. Let me talk about that for a second because I think it's important for us to understand all this.
Let's look at verse 39, but I say to you do not risk the one who is evil, but if anyone, what does it say, slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Jesus is talking about not having personal vendettas and then he starts using some language here that is going to help us understand the kind of meaning that Jesus is going for. He's not using life, not using life threatening language. So a lot of people have looked at this and said, well, I guess passivism is the way to go.
No self-defense. If someone slaps me on one cheek, I've just got to turn the other one as well. I can't stand up for myself, right? Some people are like, well, what if I'm an abusive relationship?
Should I not stand up for myself? Should I just turn the other cheek? Or if there's a criminal activity going on, should I not report that? Should I not take action?
Should I let people just walk all over me? And some have tried to use this and say that that's what it means. Again, if you look at the first point, it's to protect the innocent party. Second, it's using non-life threatening language here.
Even if an eye for a nine, a two-third tooth, you can still live without your eyes, right? You can still live. Can you live without teeth? Yes.
You can live without teeth. Can't eat steak. It's that's terrible. But you can still live without teeth.
And then Jesus decides to use language like a slap. Yeah, yeah, it's going to hurt. But he doesn't talk about a spear or talk about when a sword comes and chops off like your ear or something like that, right? He's not talking about this life threatening situation here.
What he is talking about is when there's a non-life threatening situation, then you can do these things. So if your life is being threatened, if you're in abusive relationship, if there's criminal activity, Jesus is not addressing that type of situation. He's addressing the type of situation when somebody insults you and it hurts your feelings. It hurts a dynamic in your relationship.
It hurts. He's not talking about something that is criminally wrong here. He's talking about something that is not life threatening. That's not like he's not saying you shouldn't have self-defense.
I guess that's kind of the goal that I'm trying to get over here, okay? He's not talking about something that's life threatening. If you take this out of context, you will say or you have to come to the conclusion that Jesus is a pacifist. If you take it out of context, you don't look at the historical culture.
You don't look at his whole aim is to protect the innocent. How is keeping somebody in an abusive relationship? How is criminal activity helping somebody who's innocent? Do you see where I'm getting out with this and how you have to understand that in order to understand what he means by turning the other cheek?
What he is saying is that sometimes as a follower of Jesus, it is better to get slapped twice. Then to make a mess of your life. How many times did somebody hurt us, insulted us, done something to us? It was not criminal activity.
And we decided to get back. Did that make the situation better or did it make it worse? I think what Jesus is telling his people is sometimes it is better to feel the pain of a slap and then a second one by turning the other cheek than making matters worse and retaliating. I think that's what Jesus is really trying to get at here.
I heard this a while back. I don't know where I got it from, but it's not original to me. But it's this phrase, if you decide to fight on every hill, eventually you will die on one. I think what Jesus is trying to say is make sure that if you're going to die on a hill, if you're going to go to head to head with somebody, make sure it's worth it.
Because most of the time, it probably isn't. It's not worth dying over. Take the slap, turn the other cheek if you get another one, and move on. Except for where Jesus doesn't really say to move on.
He actually tells us to do something actually much different. It's actually weird because we were thinking to move on. He says you can move on once you do one thing. The last principle here is this.
Jesus's solution when someone is insulting you is not wicked slander. It's not retaliation. It's not getting back at them. But it's overwhelming love.
That's where verse 40 comes in. If anyone should sue you and take your tunic, look at this. Let him have your cloak as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.
By the way, Chick-fil-A, they call it second mile service. I don't know if it has to do with this, but when you work there, they teach you to go the second mile. I wonder if this is where they get it from, even though they would be taking another comment. They can do it.
They're Chick-fil-A. And then 42, give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. What Jesus is saying is you can move on. When you have taken the slaps, you can move on on one condition.
And that is by going the extra mile. It's by responding in love and not slandering. He says, give them another cloak. Go another mile.
He gives the one who begs from you. The one who insults you. Don't retaliate. Don't get caught up in the trap of what they're doing.
And if to be honest with you, if you really want to get them angry, I mean, it's not motivation. We don't want to get them angry at that. You know what will happen if you respond in love most of the time? They're going to get more angry.
I mean, because they're going to feel convicted that they're doing something wrong. And oftentimes what happens is when you respond in love, two things will happen either. You'll get more angry and you'll probably won't ever talk to them again. Or two, which is what we hope would happen, is your response of love will soften their heart and they will see their error and they will repent of that and you'll be able to salvage that relationship.
That's the goal here. The goal is not just to turn cheeks and leave, right? But this is to love them overwhelmingly that you can build that relationship back up. So Jesus here is telling his people two things.
He says, you need to be radically convictionally honest in your life and you need to not respond with insult, but you need to respond with love when something happens. And here's why this is important. I guess not why it's important. This is important.
This is why, but this is our greatest example. That's why this is our greatest example of this. How did God retaliate to mankind rebelling against him? Think about that for a second.
How did God respond to mankind when they rebelled against him? Did he retaliate? Did he respond in anger? No.
He sent his own Jesus to die for us. Just think about that for a moment. Think about this last principle of responding in love, not retaliating with anger or insult, because God had every right to leave us in our rebellion. And just to say, you know what, you don't want any of the good things that I have planned for you.
You don't want to have a relationship with me where you're going to find your soul identity and your purpose in life. You don't want to have a relationship with me where the world is going to start making better sense when you're in this relationship with me. You don't want a relationship with me knowing that I can give you eternal life with me after this. You don't want a relationship with me.
That what I have taught you in Scripture would provide if you was going to help you have a good life. Now I'm not saying it's going to be an easy life, but it's going to be a good one. You don't want any of that? It's fine.
And God could have left us by ourselves, but he doesn't. And God would have even been justified to punish us right then. But he doesn't. What he says is, you know what, I'm going to send my son Jesus to down the cross.
To give people the opportunity to believe in his sacrifice that they can have a relationship with me. Now one day he has a just God. So one day people who do not come to know him as their Savior, they will have to come to the fact that they have chosen to be apart from God forever. But for those of us who are saying, you know what, I do want to believe in Jesus.
I do want to follow him. We get to be so grateful for the greatest love that has ever been displayed. And that's when God could have retaliated against us. He sent us on Jesus instead.
This is why it's important. After every week that we've gone through this series, I've been trying to stress the importance of you do these things not so that you can have a better home life or better work life or better life in general. These are good things. Being honest is a good thing.
Not responding with insult, but responding in love is a good thing in your life. Whether you're a Christian or you're not a Christian. That is not to end all be all for Christians. The reason why we do these things is not so that our life becomes better.
We do this because we want to show the world. It's all about being missional. We want to show the world a small example of the great love that God has. So the reason why I don't respond to insults is not because I want to avoid a problem.
The reason why I don't respond with insult, but I respond in love is because I want that person to think to themselves, why is this person different? Why is John different? And I hope to be able to point them to the greatest love of God. That's why we are as Christians.
That's why we're supposed to practice these things. We show the world a great example of what God has done. He says, be radically honest, convictionally honest, and he says to us that we shouldn't respond in anger, but we respond in love. And guess what?
Next week is our last week in this series and he's going to tell us to do one more thing and he's going to go even deeper. And he's going to say it's not just about responding in love, it's about loving your enemies. That's what we'll talk about next week. So let's break.
Lord, I just thank you so much for allowing us to study your word. If I was too many times I have not something right thing, I have not responded in love, but I've responded in anger. I could think of a handful of times where I have lied and I've not been honest. And I have not been a good example of you who is perfectly honest and perfectly loving.
Lord, I pray that you would be with us as we just think about these things. I pray that we would not just be honest, but honestly, I'm a loving, loving, and snake. I'm going to do those things because we want to reflect what you have done in our lives. If you're in this room and you say, I've been not honest, be with a loved one, be with a worker.
And even be God, you haven't been honest with God about where you really stand with Him or what you're struggling with and what needs to be worked on. I'm going to ask you, nobody's living around. I want you to raise your hands and be praying for me. Some of you in this room might say, well, I've been retaliating.
It's not the honesty part maybe I struggle with, but it is the I've been holding a grudge and I've been personally retaliating. I've been retaliating. I've been hating. I've been scheming to get back at somebody.
What Jesus says is, you just need to let it go. That's you and you just need to let go of something that is just tearing you down and bringing you down. You need to respond with love and not insult or hate. You don't look around like you're reaching in the classroom, praying and how best to serve you.
And lastly, we want to be always just focused on knowing that we can never fully embrace what Jesus is teaching. We do not make him our Savior, the one that we follow and we get that our lives. So Father, I ask that if there's anyone in this room, that is not a father of you, it's never dedicated to life to you. When I pray it now, you would just go big down with the Holy Spirit, that's what we need to do.
Father, I ask that you get in the boldness. Not only to walk with you, Father, I ask you to give the boldness to raise your hand. So there's anyone in this room who wants to send a crisis or Savior, make him the center of their priority. I ask you to raise your hands and not pray to you, help you.
For those of you who have raised your hand, I just want to encourage you. What God has done in your life is he saved you, but he wants to do something greater with your life. Part of that is discipleship is about wanting other people to grow and be open and honest about your need through growth. You just know that we are here to help you.
Lord, just thank you so much for just the cries of the people who have been, maybe to sign us with you or with a loved one and meet mixed steps. Reconciliation, when I pray for those who are burning or are hard or retaliated and all you need to do is just to step aside and let you work and maybe even turn the other cheek. Lord, I am thankful and grateful for those who raised their hand. Become a part of your family, as adopted as your children.
Whatever that you help us, the Church, be a great family to them now, help them grow. For blessings to be, finish out tonight just to give you and trust in you. Just stand by pray.