Unity: Hatred Or Harmony?

It's a joy to be here today. I know that it was a, some of you it probably was a lot of work to get here. And I pray that as every week you will have been satisfied that you've been in the presence and met with your God and heard from Him. I feel a certain liberty this morning because I'm wearing blue jeans and no tie. the truth be known I wouldn't mind preaching like this every week but yeah well I didn't know whether we were going to go on the ditch or not so I figured I better be prepared well let's pray and we'll look into God's word together father thank you again for what you're doing in our lives we thank you even for this weather because by it Lord you reveal our own hearts and you accomplish things in our lives even by the weather when the boiler's not working or the the driveway is full of snow you teach us many things and lord we thank you that in every single event of our life you are working for our good to conform us to the image of christ we thank you for such love thank you for a love that has purpose we thank you now for the revelation you've given us in your word and the purpose it has to make us like jesus and to make us a holy people give us attentive ears and submissive hearts this morning as we look into your word we pray this in jesus name amen the business meeting at the church that week was a horrible affair there was shouting and name calling and red-faced people standing and saying things you thought you'd never hear them say and so the elders are starting to think you know maybe we ought to just have fewer business meetings.

But the problem with that solution is that Jesus tells us that the problem has started much earlier than that. It isn't what happens on the outside, it's what's going on on the inside that's the key to the solution of any of those kinds of problems Many churches today are unsettled Many have split Many have had reputations of being fighters And the problem is not the structure or the government of the church. It's the heart of the people.

Take your Bibles today and turn to Matthew chapter 5. Now, we're doing this little mini-series on the unity of the church, and I thought it was good that we reflect on what Jesus says here about what goes on in our hearts. Now, of course, Jesus is not addressing business meetings here, although he really is, to a great degree. This isn't the Bible verse on business meetings, but it does give us an insight that should help us to understand where disunity starts in a church body and what we ought to do about that.

So if you will, let's start. Let's look at Matthew chapter five. I'll begin reading in verse 17, reading through verse 26. do not these are the words of jesus do not think that i have come to abolish the law or the prophets i've not come to abolish them but to fulfill them 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 has been accomplished 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 for I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven 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's angry with his brother will be liable to judgment whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire So if you're 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. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court. Lest your accuser hand 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. These are the words of our Master the Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount the Kingdom Manifesto that he has given that tells his disciples how they ought to be and how they ought to act And when we look at this, the first thing we need to see is that Jesus comes to you with divine authority.

In verses 17 through 20, he makes these, and by the way, these verses have been the center of controversy for centuries, but I think we can understand them clearly. Jesus says simply that what he came to do in his person and in his teaching was to fulfill the law and the prophets. That is to say that Moses and all the law and the prophets were pointing forward, always pointing forward to Jesus.

And that he brings to completion all that that was intended to accomplish. And so he says that I came not to abolish but to fulfill. Not meaning that we have to go back and do all that again. but saying this, my teaching and my person has fulfilled everything in the Old Testament so that if you follow me and you do what I command, you will accomplish everything that the Old Testament intended to do, which is to produce a holy people.

So you follow me. I've fulfilled it. You listen to me and God will have accomplished everything that you thought would be accomplished in the Old, which was a holy people. The intent of the law was to produce this people that would stand out. And Jesus says here, ah, but that was just pointing forward to me. My people are going to stand out as the holy people of God.

This is the goal that God always had in mind. And you can see that divine authority because he then goes on to say, after saying all of this, he says, you have heard that it was said, verse 21, verse 22, but I say to you, you see that several times. Verse 27, you have heard that it was said. Verse 28, but I say to you. Verse 31, it was also said. Verse 32, but I say to you, on and on.

You can see that as you go through. 33, 34, 38, 39, 43, 44. You see that same pattern. And Jesus is saying simply, I am the final word from God. Listen to me now. You've heard that it was said.

And what Jesus is saying is simply, that's what the Old Testament law said. Here's what I telling you Here the goal Here the fulfillment Here what it was intended to do And so Jesus comes with divine authority Now you know I know I need to stock my pantry with better stories and I know I say things over and over and over again, but I'm going to say it again because I want you to understand this. If Jesus is not who he says he is, then what we have here is someone who's contradicting God. no one, no rabbi would have the audacity to stand up and say you've heard that it was said, quote the Old Testament and then say but I say to you, that is, unless he's God, he's a blasphemer.

But he is God. In fact, he ends this whole thing in chapter 7 with saying, oh yeah, by the way people are going to appear before me at the last judgment. And I will say, depart from me, I never knew you. Wow. That is taking on himself great authority. Unless, of course, he already has it.

And he does. So Jesus comes to us here as we look at these succeeding verses, 21 through 26. He's coming with divine authority. He's not coming with nifty suggestions as to how to have good business meetings. He's not coming to us with, hey, here's some advice as to how you all ought to get along. He's coming with the voice of God and telling us how we ought to relate to one another, how we ought not to, and how we ought to relate to one another.

By the way, this is something that we always need to understand. When you minister the word of God to someone, always remember you're ministering the word of God. Too often, for example, and many of you can take the counseling class, part of the problem when you get involved in counseling is sometimes you get into this mode of saying, here, here's what God says, this will make your life better.

It's not about making your life better. It's about honoring and glorifying the God of heaven so he is seen in your life. So Jesus isn't giving us nifty little suggestions as to how to get along. He's giving us the authoritative word of God as to how we ought to react, how we ought to be, and how we ought to act. So what does he go on to say? he says you have heard it said that it said to those of old you shall not murder quoting the sixth commandment 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 Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says, you fool, will be liable to the hell of fire.

God had said, you shall not murder. And according to the Mosaic legislation, if you murdered someone, you would be brought before the council. There would be this procedure that would happen before you would be executed, according to God's judgment. And God's judgment was death. Now Jesus is saying, now you may think that you've conformed to the righteous demands of the kingdom by refraining from killing anybody, but think again.

But I say to you something different. Now this was not said. What Jesus goes on to say is not recorded in the Old Testament. It does not say, if you're angry with your brother, you'll be brought before the council. It's nowhere found in the Old Testament. But Jesus said this is where it was pointing.

This is where it was heading. I'm saying to you now, what? that if you're angry with your brother, you're guilty of murder. You're guilty of murder. Now, Jesus here is not teaching some gradation of guilt here, as if to say, you're in trouble with the village council for anger. You're subject to the Supreme Court, the Sanhedrin. That's what the council means.

Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council. He's talking about the Sanhedrin. He's not saying you're in trouble with the village council for anger. You're subject to the Sanhedrin for saying, insulting your brother, and you're worthy of hell for saying, fool. So just so long as I don't say fool, I won't go to hell. That's not what he's saying.

Because no council can see into your heart, right? No council can see into your heart whether you're anger, whether you're seething with anger. Jesus is not trying to say that some words of contempt are worse than others. There's no clear distinction between a person who's seething with anger and one who insults with derogatory terms. Each demand the judgment of God is what he's saying.

Each demands the judgment of God. And what he's saying is that the various expressions of contempt are worthy of hell itself. Now, friends, that is something to tremble at. when we say angry things to people that worthy of hell that how holy god is and that how deep his requirements go What Jesus is saying here simply is watch your heart Disunity hatred disharmony begins there You see, that business meeting was not a problem of procedure.

It wasn't as if only if we'd used Robert's rules of order, we wouldn't have had something like that. The problem was the hearts that came to that meeting. You see? That's what Jesus is driving at. That disunity starts, disharmony begins in the individual heart, you see. And so Jesus says you're guilty of murder when your contempt for your brother finds expression inwardly in this anger, in this seething anger, or outwardly, if it's seething anger, or in resentment, or in nursing a grudge.

Have you ever been guilty of looking all nice and polite on the outside? But inwardly, you look at a brother and you just start dredging up all the things he's done against you. And you start feeling bitter towards that person. You ever done that? That's what Jesus is talking about here. His name can't be mentioned without the bitterness worming its way into your thoughts.

Is there anyone here in this auditorium that that's true of you? Or maybe even your spouse or your children. Jesus declares you guilty of murder if you resent, despise, or are angry with your brother. The problem with that business meeting was that too many murderers showed up that day. That was the problem. Now Jesus says that contempt is not just this inward anger, but it can find expression in our language. he talks here about if anyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment whoever insults his brother if you have an ESV there's a little footnote there that footnote tells you the Greek word there is raka and if you have a new international version it will say to you and if everyone says raka that's basically a term of contempt that means blockhead or idiot okay we might as well skip over that because you never called anybody an idiot have you oh pastor only my kids yeah well if you say blockhead you insult somebody you you a murderer he says goes on to say and If you say blockhead you insult somebody You a murderer He goes on to say and if you say fool now he's not just saying, he's not just saying, oh, you call somebody foolish.

All right? A fool is someone, if you read the Old Testament, especially in the Proverbs, a fool is someone who despises the word and the wisdom of God, who is living his life his way as opposed to the way that God has outlined in his word. A fool is equated with someone who is rebellious against God. Okay? And so he says, you call someone an idiot, or worse than that, you call him wicked.

Or a rebellious person. You're guilty of murder. Now some, in protest to save a shred of their own righteousness, will say, but pastor, all anger is not wrong. I would say I agree completely. Psalm 5 says that God's angry. Psalm 7 says God is angry.

Psalm 5 even says God hates sinners. Yeah, I mean, Jesus in Mark chapter 2, he looks around at the Pharisees and he gets what? Angry. And it's the same Jesus who takes up a whip and starts turning tables over and driving people out of the temple. So all anger is not wrong. but are you as angry over your own sin as what someone says to you? Are you as angry over the slaughter of innocent children as much as someone who just says something careless about you?

What do you really get angry about? That's a question you need to ask. When God's honor is at stake, do you really get angry? When your honor is at stake, how does that compare? Right? So let's be careful. when it comes to sin in the honor of God we tend to philosophize and pontificate but when someone rattles our cage then we really get mad and God says here murder murder when you're angry and when you let that find expression in contemptuous words he says that all animosity and contempt deserves the punishment of hell the hell of fire The literal translation there, if you have a footnote, is the Gehenna of fire.

And that refers to the dump outside Jerusalem where the trash was burning all the time It was an expression that Jesus used to describe what hell was going to be like The people that day understood what the Gehenna was. Okay? It was the city dump where the fires burned all the time, and it came to stand in their thinking of his day, it came to stand for the final place of last judgment.

Now, you see, here's what we need to understand. We think ourselves morally superior to murderers. And Jesus says, but have you ever despised a brother? You're not morally superior. You're guilty of the same heart that motivated that murder. And all such anger lies at the root of murder.

Now you may say to yourself, oh Lord have mercy, I'm guilty of this very thing this morning. Lord what hope is there for me Jesus does not want you to despair alright our Savior does not want us to despair at his commandments but what he says here ought to drive us to the very beginning of this sermon Matthew chapter 5 verse 3 blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven you say Lord have mercy I'm guilty of this you know Jesus says if you're poor in spirit if you come to him poor in spirit saying oh Lord Jesus I am guilty of this I recognize it as sin and I abhor it please have mercy you're the kind of people that the kingdom of God belongs to you see look at verse 4 blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted as you mourn over your sin you find comfort for jesus says i suffered the wrath of murderers so you could be free don't despair look to jesus look to Jesus you know you remember that book I gave you for Christmas I hope you all have it the gospel primer if you have not read that you need to read it and re-read it and re-read it again there's a section in there where he Where Milton Vincent says this, God loves to forgive and he will embrace you. He's waiting to embrace you as soon as you repent.

As soon as you say, Lord, I mourn over this. This is true. Oh, forgive me. He's ready to forgive you.