Anger

 

The Right Side up Life / Matthew 5:21–27

 

Intro

Jesus words to us int The Sotm forced you to ask questions and causes you to face our own issues. No one else will ask you to deal with your internal conversations. Jesus will

If you call yourself a Christian this morning, you cannot get away with, I just needed to blow off some steam. Our passage today doesn’t let us.

Anger itself is not sin. Jesus was angry and did not sin. But, anger makes it really easy to sin.

Because of two connected ideas

Anger points at something

Anger constricts everything

Anger constricts. Reconciliation expands. Jesus offers a better way.

Matthew 5:21–22 ESV

“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; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

When we hear the words, “I say to you,” one we should probably pay attention. And, Jesus is not changing the law, He is showing us what righteousness looks like in Him.

But Jesus is looking for perfection, for wholeheartedness. He knows that the internal drives the external actions. It is one thing to have not murdered. But honestly that is a pretty low bar.

And His Commands test the durability of our hearts. What are they made of. Great that you haven’t murdered anyone,

But how have you spoken about your neighbor?

About your co worker?

About that family member that is particularly difficult

That person who votes for who know who

Or even, you know who.

Anger constricts. That is all it can do

Anger constricts because it is a focusing agent. Not all anger is bad or sin. Anger is necessary for human action. There should be some things that anger us.

Anger constricts worship

When anger takes the center stage, really the only one we end up worshiping, because it is constricting, is ourselves. We may be angry about something but when we exhibit anger and it constricts, the focus ends up on us. And we shout and yell at others because they have gotten in our way.

Matthew 5:23–24 ESV

So if you are 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.

Reconciliation Expands.

There is no limit to what it can do. Reconciliation brings back what was broken. Reconciliation is the superglue of human relationships. It doesn’t just put the pieces together. It actually binds us back. It builds back relationships when we let God reconcile

Reconciliation is the cornerstone of worship.

And without the act of reconciliation we would not be able to worship. Primarily because God has reconciled Himself to us in Christ. But also reconciling with one another restores worship to God. Reconciliation matters so much that this passage focuses entirely on the haste of it. Jesus tells us if you are going to be hasty, don’t be hasty toward anger. Be hasty toward reconciliation.

Run, don’t walk, toward reconciliation

Matthew 5:25–26 ESV

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.

Come to terms quickly.

Ephesians 2:4–7 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

Anger will always want to take more than is offered. Reconciliation will always offer more than has been taken.

So today, to deal with your anger.

First, bring it to God. If you are angry, tell Him. Place it before the cross.

Second, tell someone else. Talk through your anger with someone who is safe.

Third. Run to reconcile. Don’t walk, run. Come to terms.

 

Matt 5:13-16. Salt and Light

The Right Side up Life  / Matthew 5:13–16

Introduction

Up until this point we can say Jesus is talking about someone else, even something else.  Up until this point it is a helpful story

Salt: Drawn into His Promises

Matthew 5:13 ESV

“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.

We don’t want to rush ahead with what the Scriptures are saying. We do this quickly and too easily in the Bible and every other place. We hear a phrase or picture or image and we know what it means.  We think we do.

The images salt and light mean something specific about the way God interacts with His people.

Numbers 18:19 ESV

All the holy contributions that the people of Israel present to the Lord I give to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. It is a covenant of salt forever before the Lord for you and for your offspring with you.”

The salt reminds us that we are sustained by God’s promises in Christ. 

›     Salt is what we experience by knowing we are kept in Christ.

Sent through His Power

Matthew 5:14–16 ESV

“You are the light of the world. A city set 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.

Genesis 1:3 ESV

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Exodus 3:2 ESV

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

Exodus 13:21–22 ESV

And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

John 1:4–5 ESV

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

SO then as soon as we see light used in this passage we understand that God is breaking into the world.

But how?

Through the church.  Through those devoted to Christ and His life.  That is light as well.  The way we navigate through the world as Christians is what Jesus Himself calls light.

›     We are called to act as light in the world.

The church, according to Jesus, is the necessary voice in the culture.  That God is still working, still moving, still acting, always reconciling.

Beatitudes pt 3

The Right Side up Life  / Matthew 5:9–11

 

Conflict is normal.

The way out is what is abnormal

We are called to be peacemakers.  Which means, with all the effort that we have, we are called to make peace with others.

Colossians 1:21–22 ESV

And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

Glorifying God

Getting the Log out

Matthew 7:3–5 ESV

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

This is a normative posture because it is the place where Christ lifts our burdens.  It is not the place of shame or heaviness, it is the posture of freedom. 

This is how we understand that conflict can give glory to God. We go to the place where we need restoration.

We are always waiting for the other person.  Christ didn’t.  We don’t either. 

Because it is in getting the log out that we can understand restoration

Restore and be reconciled

Matthew 5:23–26 ESV

So if you are 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.

We are called to be experts in it.  What does it mean to be a Christian in the world? What does it mean to act like Christ in the world?

2 Corinthians 5:19 ESV

that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.

To be a peacemaker is to respond to Christ making peace in our own lives. 

Matthew 5:10–11 ESV

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.

Matthew 5:9 ESV

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

And then immediately after he says, people will misunderstand you because they misunderstand Christ and they will utter all kinds of evil.

And that connection may be the most important of all

Because we love justifying the idea of treating people the way they treat us. Jesus doesn’t say be kind to people only as long as they are kind to you.  He says make peace even when, especially when, people utter all kinds of evil against you. 

Beatitudes pt 2

The Right Side up Life  / Matthew 5:6–8

 

Luke 4:18–19 ESV

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to proclaim good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives

and recovering of sight to the blind,

to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

This is the crux of His ministry

Because of what He came to do it changes our posture of what kind of life we are called to do.

The Position of the Blessed life

We are given the position of the life Jesus calls us to,

Now we are going to look at the posture of the blessed life

The Posture of the Blessed life

           

Three postures

            The posture of the kingdom of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who show mercy and those who are pure of heart.

Matthew 5:6 ESV

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

Again this is on purpose because Jesus isn’t setting forth unattainable goals.  He is using hunger and thirst as the most basic form of understanding how we desire.

Righteousness.  Jesus doesn’t define for what so we can assume all things.  Righteousness means right standing or right relationships. 

Living righteously does not mean that everyone agrees with us or that we say things that everyone agrees with.  It means we take stands on issues that would misform righteousness.  We agree with Christ’s move to reconcile all things to Himself, which means that righteousness is moving toward one direction: Jesus.

Matthew 5:7 ESV

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

The concept of mercy can be a strange animal.  Because we often struggle to show it but we love more than anything receiving it.

Why is mercy important? Because mercy offers the space in another’s life to choose differently.

We know that because if you are in Christ this morning you have been shown mercy.

We all want mercy, and that is part of the flourishing life, but real and true life is found in being merciful.

Matthew 5:8 ESV

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

This is the call and reminder that we are not just called to be morally better.  This list is not just about things to do, though the sotm will fill a lifetime on what it means to follow Christ well in the world. 

Again Jesus is telling us, this is how life works.  If you want to see what flourishing looks like, it looks like this.  If you want to see God, it will mean a purity in heart.  A whole heartedness. 

The concept of paying attention is necessary in the sermon on the mount. Because to pay attention means that we are able to focus in ourselves for that which Christ is doing.

Culture makes massive demands on your attention. They are coming for all of it. News networks make massive demands on your attention.  Social media makes massive demands on your attention.  All of them promise a form of the flourishing life.

Beatitudes pt 1

The Right Side up Life  / Matthew 5:1–5

 

Jesus is going to show us how the most difficult places are the places where the Kingdom of God thrives.  

Matthew 5:3–5 ESV

“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.

This is a strange starting point.  We start from a broken condition, a less than position.  

That is displayed at the cross.  We can trust Christ’s words that life comes from loss because of His display at the cross. 

› The flourishing life does not come a full tank.  It comes from recieving what Christ offers.  And that means recognizing where we are. 

This is the position that everyone seems to want to run from.  Why? Because it is the place that everyone has been.  Everyone has experienced the discomfort of poor in spirit and mourning. 

› If you are poor in spirit, if you grieve, if you are meek, you are in good shape. Because you are in the condition to recieve. 

Christ came to take what is ugliest in us and call it the place of mercy.  

The beginning of the flourishing life is to cut through the illusion of the our delusion. 

We have been and are poor in spirit.  There are times when we still mourn.  And we haven’t figured out that meekness thing to well yet. 

Don’t make anything up. Don’t cover anything up. 

But trust Christ enough to be honest with Him this morning.  

That is condition for being happy because God does something about that. He not only speaks into that.  He changes the conditions entirely. 

We are not just poor in spirit, we have the kingdom of heaven.  

We are not just those who mourn, we are those who have recieved mercy

We are not the meek, we have the security found in the inheriting the earth.

And we remember that life comes from loss when we participate in communion. 

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Sermon On The Mount intro

The Right Side up Life 

 

Introduction to series 

But by far, the best way to understand life is to have someone personally guide us through it. 

there’s not a single person in the world who has not struggled in how to live in that intersection. Of how to live well. What we will see is what God desires for us, what He desires from us and how He calls us to do that. 

That is actually the upside down life.  It is not life giving, it is life taking. 

Christ is inviting us into the right side up life

John 14:6–7 ESV

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

We are looking at what Scot McKnight says is “bringing God’s future to bear on the present.” The SOTM is not example, not principle, it is obedience for now.  It is a picture of what life looks like now in the frame of divine grace. 

Matthew 7:24–27 ESV

“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” 

The words we will look at this morning in terms of introduction are 

blessed and perfect. 

These are words used throughout the Sotm 

We see Jesus talking all the time about the blessed life. 

And then He calls us to be perfect as your father in Heaven is perfect 

Let’s look at these words in turn.  They will help to prepare us for the rest of the Sotm. 

What is God desiring for us?

We have different ways of understanding blessed so we first have to look at the way Jesus uses it. 

Because his usage is strange. Look at the first time He says it 

Matthew 5:3 ESV

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Remember that Jesus is not just downloading new information from Heaven.  If HE did that no one would understand Him. He is Jewish, and coming from a specific Jewish background with ideas of blessedness. 

Jesus is looking for the meaning from the OT. 

Look at Psalm 1:1-3

Psalm 1:1–3 ESV

Blessed is the man

who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,

nor stands in the way of sinners,

nor sits in the seat of scoffers;

but his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

He is like a tree

planted by streams of water

that yields its fruit in its season,

and its leaf does not wither.

In all that he does, he prospers. 

Matthew 5:3 ESV

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus is saying, this is the blessed, the fortunate, the happy life. Even though it doesn’t look like blessedness, we can trust Jesus interpretation of it.  

He’s not dreaming with us to say what things could be like, he is walking around the city center, showing us all the buildings in the sites

This is what he means by blessed, showing us the concrete way that we are called to flourish in the divine grace of Jesus. 

What is God desiring from us?

Matthew 5:48 ESV

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

JEsus is using, not the word, Holy, as we like to think, but He is using the word that means complete or without fragments.

› It means that who understands their purpose, means and end.  It means that which is complete, inside and outside. That is why Jesus makes this inner outer connection all the time. 

› This is not perfection or acting perfect. No one lives that way. No one here, anyhow.  We are imperfect with a picture of a better life and everything we need to live that out. 

As we’ll see in the sermon in the amount, the idea is not that we would be perfect as we understand it, but rather that as we live wholeheartedly devoted to God, we understand the places in which we are not complete or hole hole, the imperfect parts of us. And we understand that we take those to God we bring those before him and he reconciles he redeems he restores. Hole Hearted devoted people take their imperfect parts because they recognize that much better job with him than we do.  whole hearted devotion does not fear imperfection because it knows where to go with it and that God can do a much better job with it than we can.

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1 John 3

Letters of John

 

When we become disoriented, we often ask two questions:

What did I do to get here?

What do I need to do to move on from here?

So If you have ever been disoriented, or are running from pant leg to pant let, trying to find something familiar, then looking at this passage can help us to settle into God’s claims on us as His children.

God’s claim on us as children shows us what love is and how we experience it

1 John 3:1–3 ESV

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

We know who(se) we are

John says, and so we are.

Maybe we need to remind ourselves of this truth. How incredible it is that God would love us enough, not to be called His minions or employees, but His children.

And when we orient ourselves to Him, we end up being able to understand much more about how to operate and live in the world. We understand what it means to be formed to be like Him.

1 John 3:3 ESV

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

God is already complete. He is actual. He is pure. And to know Him is to become like Him. If He is pure and we belong to Him and orient our lives to Him, we know what He is like and become like Him. We choose to be like the GOd who calls us children.

We know where we are

We are free to love others and free to serve others when we are no longer disoriented and are oriented by the heart of God for His kids.

1 John 3:20 ESV

for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

If we feel condemned, if we feel like it is too much, too far, too hard. If loving people feels like an impossibility, then God wants you to know that He is greater than that burden. He is inviting you into sonship and daughtership.

 

1 John 2

Letters of John

 

We are formed by everything that God has given and are called to walk fully in that grace

But sometimes we forget what grace looks like and how to walk.

I’m sure you have heard the phrase, “practice makes perfect.” While that is not entirely true. It’s not that practice makes perfect, it’s that but practice makes permanent

› But we don’t always ask the question, are you being formed in the way you want to be?

› Are you being formed in the way that God is calling you to be?

What we do most we become the best at

Our understanding of the good, that means, isn’t always good.

Maybe what you find is good has hurt a lot of people.

Maybe your definition of what is good can’t hold up much more.

The stuff we do over and over (our orientiation to the world) that forms us Augustine says that the law of sin is the violence of habit.

1 John 2:15–17 ESV

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

He is not saying don’t love other things. He is saying your love either forms or malforms things. What we desire can make something better or it can make things much much worse.

he is not saying don’t love other things. He is saying don’t love other things because of what you can get out of them. It’s not love for them it’s love for desire of the flesh, you. Or desire of the eyes, you. Or the pride of life, you.

Your practice with your desires is making permanent. And you are being formed to points that may not be healthy. The orientation you move toward may start well, but desire easily malforms and you end up further down the road than you wanted.

1 John 2:3–6 ESV

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

And if we have trusted Christ to save us we have everything that He has given

1 John 2:1–2 ESV

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Christ is the one who is the “propitiation” for our sins. Meaning that all that was wrong, all that was made wrathful, all that was broken, is appeased.

1 John 2:5 ESV

but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him:

We have to orient Christ in such a way that we are formed by Him. And Christ is how we know God. We are formed to God because of Christ and live our our lives by doing the stuff that He did.

we are being formed by all sorts of things in the world. Minute by minute. Are you being formed in a way that is what you are hoping for? Are you being formed in a way that God is calling you to?

 

1 John 1

Letters of John / 1 John 1

 

The writer of this letter, John is connecting everything that he is going to tell us with one single idea: God has entered the world and we have been able to comprehend him.

Whenever people practice a theology of just in case they are looking to that thing and asking, “are you enough this time?” Will you be big enough for me to stop searching?

God has made Himself known and that fact alone makes all the difference in our lives.

If you want to know what happens when God shows up, these verses this morning help us to understand.

Christ showed up: God has become known

1 John 1:1–2 ESV

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—

This is John’s claim. It is his only sense of authority. It is his complete source.

He is telling the hearer’s of this letter, or sermon, that because Christ has shown up, it is worthwhile listening.

Philippians 2:6–8 ESV

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Hebrews 1:3 ESV

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

everyone on the face of this planet wants an experience of the good. The good life the meaningful life, the fulfilling life. And people define their lives by their proximity to that good (Taylor). John is saying that the good has come and come near and we are invited to interact with it, with Him

We Remain connected to Him

God chose connection with humanity, refusing to keep us alienated from Him. We know this because John states that they encountered Him because they could recognize Him. He didn’t look unlike them or speak unlike them . His way of being with humans was to become human.

1 John 1:5–10 ESV

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Because Christ has been made manifest in a way we can encounter him, we are invited into fellowship with Him.

1 John 1:4 ESV

And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Joy is complete in encountering Him together

Joy has a source outside itself. You experience joy within yourself but the source of that joy comes from somewhere else.

Luke 2:10–11 ESV

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Christ has come into the world so that, together, we can experience joy. It is not waiting for something more, it is celebrating in what is now.

But there isn’t joy in the planning.

Joy comes in the experiencing. Christ has already revealed Himself, you role is less planning and more inviting in.