16th September 2024

16th September 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (Matthew 5:21-26 focus v21-22)


Message (Alan Burke) 


How are you today? One of the most common answers I hear to that is “good”. I know what they mean, that things are good, they have no complaints, they are feeling good about themselves. While I was in a Christian bookshop recently a staff member asked someone as they came in “are you good today” and as quick as a shot the person answered “No one is good—except God alone” (Mk 10:18). The staff member was taken aback but I had a smile on my face because the mans answer was right. Ok there is a difference between being good and feeling good but many people believe that they are good, they are good people. Today we come to a passage that confronts us of how none of us are good, there is not one of us who have kept the commandments but if we hear the words of Jesus and understand the good and necessary consequence of them then we will realise that there is not one of us who is good, not one of us who has kept the commandments rather we have left them in shatters. 


Our standing before the Lord is not about what we have done or can do and the reason is that sin has so distorted our nature that we are totally depraved. that doesn’t mean that we are as bad as we could be but that sin is such that there is not one part of us that is not wholly effected by it and our effort so Jesus strips all the pretence of our goodness away and leaves us knowing that it is not about what we have done or can do because even our best efforts are filthy rags before a holy God.  


Jesus here begins by correcting an understanding of the law that was taught in rabbinical teaching. The rabbinical teaching of the time was that you could keep the commandments of God by outward observance. Taking the sixth commandment Jesus expounds the full extent of what it requires of us. Murder is one thing but also anger and even belittling someone calling them a fool is enough to be in danger of the fire of hell. Actually the greek is much stronger than that, the NIV and the KJV says in danger of hell fire but a better translation as the ESV uses is liable, liable to hell fire. The greek is even more forceful, it’s deserving of the fire of hell. 


Now of course the point here in what Jesus is teaching is not that there is no difference between belittling someone, calling them a fool  and beating them to death with a frying pan, of course there is, but both reveal our hearts, they reveal the sickness, the sin within us and help us to see our need for God. There is also righteous anger, Jesus got angry, it is right and proper to be angered by injustice, abortion, immorality, by sin. Notice though who this anger and this belittling others is specifically in relation to, v22, if anyone who is angry with his BROTHER, then again, anyone who says to his brother. Jesus here is speaking primarily against anger and belittling fellow believers, our brothers and sisters in Christ. The primarily emphasis on this is towards each other, because if you are angry at your brother or sister in Christ, if you’re belittling them then you are showing that you haven’t understood the grace that has been shown to you. 


We might see what this is requiring of us as bordering on the ridiculous but it is with a purpose. What we see here is that if we are relying on our own righteousness then we have absolutely no hope whatsoever. You might think you are a good person but you don’t keep the commands when we rightly understand them. When we see what the Law of requires of us, how it should be understood, then we know that we are unable to do what is required. The standards of the Kingdom of God are far in excess of what we are able to do. It should drive us towards the promises of God that have now been fulfilled with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ who came to die for our salvation. The Covenant of Grace that has been revealed to us through Jesus Christ, who while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Rom 5:8). Knowing that we are V21-22 We Are Deserving Of The Fire Of Hell and this should drive us to Jesus. 


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q91. How do the Sacraments become effectual means of salvation?
A. The Sacraments become effectual means of salvation, not from any virtue in them, or in him that doth administer them; but only by the blessing of Christ, and the working of his Spirit in them that by faith receive them.
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