Murderers are Not Righteous (Matthew 5:21-26)
“Murderers Are Not Righteous”
Matthew 5:21-26
As you know, we are studying through the Sermon on the Mount.
It is a sermon meant to expose faulty righteousness,
And by now I think we can all agree that
This sermon accomplishes it’s goal.
Jesus first revealed to us 8 qualities of a righteous man.
(The Beatitudes)
He then revealed to us 2 expectations of a righteous man.
(Salt & Light)
And as we said, if we are honest with ourselves
We don’t measure up to any of them.
But at that point we did still held out hope.
Our hope was that He would say, “But don’t worry about all that, because I’m about to get rid of the Law anyway. It was too rigid, it was too difficult, and so I’m gonna narrow it down.”
If that was your hope (as it was much of Israel)
Jesus crushed your hope last week by revealing a startling truth.
“I did not come to abolish the Law or the prophets.”
The Law cannot be Abolished
The Law cannot be Annulled
The Law cannot be Avoided
You must measure up to it all.
And then came perhaps the most startling statement of all.
Matthew 5:20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
That was a very shocking statement by Jesus
The Pharisees, and scribes,
Looked like the most righteous people in the land.
In fact, there was a saying, “that if only two people went to heaven, one would be a scribe, and the other a Pharisee.”
And because you have spent time studying the word of God,
You know why they were not acceptable.
THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS WAS ALL FOR SHOW.
Matthew 23:1-7 “Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to His disciples, saying: “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. “But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. “They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.”
Furthermore, THEIR RIGHTEOUSNESS WAS ALL EXTERNAL.
Matthew 23:25-26 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.”
And we know that with God, this does not cut it.
1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”
What that means, is God isn’t looking at the action.
Now if you break the Law in action, obviously you are a Law breaker,
But God doesn’t look at the action. God looks at the heart.
If God sees a heart that wants to break the Law,
Then He sees a Law breaker.
Matthew 15:19 “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders.”
By human standards, a man is not a murderer, until he commits a murder,
By God’s standards, he is a murderer rather he commits the crime or not.
We’ve talked about this before.
Stealing doesn’t make you a thief, a thief steals because he is a thief.
Killing doesn’t make you a murderer, a man kills because he is a murderer.
The action doesn’t make the man, the heart makes the man,
Actions are only pictures of what is in that man’s heart.
And because the Pharisees were only clean on the outside, but not the inside, they did not measure up to God’s righteous standard.
So Jesus said, “unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
And that means neither the righteousness they PERFORM,
Nor the righteousness they PREACH is acceptable to God.
And this prompts perhaps
The most famous section of the Sermon on the Mount.
The “You have heard…but I say” sermons.
And the first one Jesus deals with is Murder.
Now, I titled this sermon “Murderer’s are not Righteous”
CAN WE ALL AGREE WITH THAT?
I mean, it is one of the Big 10.
If you murder someone, then you have failed to meet God’s standard.
Certainly we all agree, and since we do,
We may all be in for a rude awakening.
Let’s see what Jesus has to say about the issue.
4 points
#1 THE OBSERVATION
Matthew 5:21
You will notice the observation that Jesus makes.
“You have heard”
In our introductory sermon to the Sermon on the Mount,
I told you that one of the problems of Israel is that they were ignorant.
Because they had bad teachers they had bad theology.
And their bad theology left them at odds with God.
Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”
This was certainly the case in Jesus day.
And here He begins His list
Of exposing the bad theology they have been taught.
“You have heard that the ancients were told “You shall not commit murder” and “Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.”
Now first, let me just point out that
There was nothing wrong with this command in and of itself.
Obviously Jesus is referring to the 6th commandment
And that is not all that Scripture has to say on the subject.
Genesis 9:6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.”
Leviticus 24:17 “If a man takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death.”
Numbers 35:30 “If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.”
And so obviously as far as that command is concerned,
They were taught correctly.
And because Jesus did not come to abolish the Law,
He is not here to tell them that those commands do not exist.
He just merely makes an observation as to what they have been taught.
Then comes the second part.
#2 THE EXPLANATION
Matthew 5:22
So Jesus first analyzed what they have been taught,
And then He explains what they should have been taught.
And the first thing we notice is that Jesus internalized it.
“But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court;”
And all of a sudden that command just got a whole lot more convicting.
• You see, I might be able to resist actually killing a person, but how can I resist being angry at them?
In fact our culture puts temporal punishments
That help us protect ourselves from irrational behavior,
But our culture puts no limits on what we feel inside.
For Example: You get a ticket for speeding in your car,
But there is no punishment for wanting to.
Yet we are dealing with God “who looks at the heart”
And all of a sudden we realize that the Law which Moses gave
Looked much deeper than our action, straight into our desires.
Isn’t that true of God’s Word?
Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
God’s Word is not simply interested in what you do,
God’s word is interested in who you are.
And if you’ve read the Old Testament then you know
The issue was NEVER whether or not you killed someone,
But was always about the condition of your heart.
DO YOU REMEMBER THE TEACHINGS ABOUT THE CITIES OF REFUGE?
TURN TO: NUMBERS 35:9-25
And so we see that the issue was always the heart.
The wrong action with the right heart was defended by God.
Yet the right action with the wrong heart was condemned by Him.
And that is what Jesus reminds of here.
The Law came to examine your heart.
And so it’s really not about murder, it goes much deeper than that.
“everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court;”
Jesus says if you even have anger for your brother,
Then you are a murderer in God’s sight.
WHY?
Because murder and anger are the exact same sin.
(granted one is carried to a fuller extent, but they are the same sin)
And Jesus reveals that if you have anger “you shall be guilty before the court”
NOW TO BE FAIR.
What about these passages?
Ephesians 4:26 “BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger,”
Psalms 7:11 “God is a righteous judge, And a God who has indignation every day.”
Or what about these?
Matthew 17:17 “And Jesus answered and said, “You unbelieving and perverted generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring him here to Me.”
Or what about those passages where Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites or brood of vipers or declared their condemnation?
Or what about when Jesus cleared the temple?
AREN’T ALL THOSE INSTANCES OF ANGER?
So how is it condemned?
There are at least two differences between the righteous anger of Jesus and the condemned anger that is mentioned here.
1) Jesus anger was targeted at the sin and not the sinner.
Proven by His willingness to die for those same men
He pronounced condemnation upon.
2) Jesus anger was initiated because of the wrong suffered by others, not because of wrongs that He suffered.
When Jesus suffered He did not revile.
When Jesus suffered He was like a lamb led to slaughter.
When they accused Jesus He never became forceful.
It was when Jesus saw the sheep being oppressed that His anger arose.
And so we understand that the anger Jesus refers to here
Is an anger that arises out of selfishness
And one that is targeted at another person.
When you have that, you have just committed murder in God’s sight,
And you are guilty.
But obviously that is not all, for Jesus continues.
“and whoever says to his brother, ‘You good-for-nothing,’ shall be guilty before the supreme court;”
This takes the sin the next step further.
Now the sin has moved from the heart to the lips.
(Might I point out that eventually it moves from the lips to the hands,
And that is why anger and murder are the same sin)
But now there is not just anger, but there is SLANDER
“good-for-nothing” transates RHAKA
It is a word of Aramaic origin and it simply means “empty”
It was to call someone a “brainless idiot” or “worthless fellow”
Today they might be called “a moron”
And the point is that there is an anger and animosity in your heart
That eventually comes out of your mouth.
Matthew 12:34 “You brood of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.”
We are talking about verbalized anger.
David spoke of them:
Psalms 140:3 “They sharpen their tongues as a serpent; Poison of a viper is under their lips.”
And this is precisely the same thing as murder,
For this person is “guilty before the supreme court”
This was actually the court that tried the more serious cases.
(Obviously Jesus is placing a heavier emphasis on this
Than was ever seen before.)
And Jesus doesn’t stop there.
“and whoever says, ‘You fool,’ shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”
It all started with anger.
Eventually that anger is revealed through slander.
And here we learn the desire of that anger.
To call a person a fool was to do more than call them stupid,
It was also to call them godless.
Psalms 14:1 “The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; There is no one who does good.”
There are obviously fools on the earth,
And making them aware of that is not the problem.
The problem is wishing that upon someone.
If you want the translation of today it is to say to someone,
“You go to hell”.
It is far more than anger expressed,
It goes to the point of revealing the desire of that anger.
And according to Jesus this is also judged.
The person who does this “shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”
And so I hope you get the point.
They all understood that murder was wrong.
What Jesus wants them to understand is that
Murder is a sin that begins long before the deed takes place.
Now human nature is to try and justify ourselves
So we say:
• I’ve never killed anyone
• I’ve never told anyone to “Go to hell”
• I’ve never even slandered anyone and called them a “blockhead”
BUT HAVE YOU EVER BEEN ANGRY?
• Then you are a murderer in God’s sight.
• You are filled with a wicked sinful nature.
• You have fallen short of the glory of God.
• God will judged you for eternity in hell.
God looks at the heart, and it is there
That He determines what you are, regardless of what you do.
That is the explanation.
The Observation, The Explanation
#3 THE APPLICATION
Matthew 5:23-24
Now if you aren’t paying attention here,
Jesus can kind of be like a horse that all ducks out from under you.
Because He went in verse 22 to talking about
You having something against your brother
To here in verse 23 where He is talking about
Your brother having something against you.
“Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you”
So it appears we are dealing with the other side of the coin.
And here Jesus says if you are there giving your offering and realize that there is enmity between you and your brother, “leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”
And all of a sudden Jesus took this command to an even deeper level.
Now it is not just that I should not be angry at my brother,
But that I should also do everything in my power
To make sure my brother has no grounds to be angry at me.
You see the law forbids murder,
And that means that in order to keep the law,
We do everything in our power to keep it from happening.
We are talking about honoring God’s desire for brotherly unity.
AND DID YOU CATCH HOW IMPORTANT THAT IS?
God would rather have that than your sacrifice,
Or your outward worship.
1 Samuel 15:22 “Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams.”
Even if you have done nothing wrong.
Even if you are an innocent victim.
But if your brother is angry at you, God would rather have you fix that, than for you to bring an offering to Him.
AND ALL AT ONCE THE APPLICATION GETS CLEAR.
(This heart-murder thing is important to God)
You see the Jews always put the cart before the horse.
Isaiah 29:13 “Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,”
Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.”
The Jews always tried to live however they wanted
And then to appease God with their religion.
Jesus says, you’ve got it all wrong.
GOD WANTS YOU TO BE RIGHTEOUS IN YOUR HEART
And that is more important than your outward religion.
And so don’t make their mistake.
DO EVERYTHING YOU CAN
TO MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT ANGRY AT YOUR BROTHER AND
TO MAKE SURE YOUR BROTHER HAS NO REASON TO BE ANGRY AT YOU.
Romans 12:18 ”If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”
And so if there is some forgiveness that needs to take place in your life, Give it.
If there is some forgiveness that needs to be sought in your life,
Seek it.
THAT MATTERS MORE TO GOD THAN YOU SITTING IN THESE PEWS.
The application is that the heart matters more to God than your religion,
So make sure your heart is right before God.
The Observation, The Explanation, The Application
#4 THE ILLUSTRATION
Matthew 5:25-26
Jesus gives us here an illustration in our own worldly terms,
That will help us understand exactly how we are to handle this situation.
Jesus clearly teaches us that the time to make restitution is NOW.
When you have a problem and you are on the way to see the judge,
Now is the time to settle out of court, and fix the grievance.
But the real question is:
WHO ARE WE TALKING TO?
Because now it looks like Jesus is saying,
You had better go make peace with your brother,
Because if you don’t, then you will go to court and you will be judged.
That actually sounds opposite of what Jesus just taught.
Earlier it was the angry one who is guilty,
And here it sounds like it is the angry one who does the condemning.
WHICH ONE IS HE TALKING TO?
NEITHER
Now he is talking to you.
This parable is not about the discrepancy between two men.
This parable is about the discrepancy between you and God.
Jesus just said that if you are angry you are guilty.
And now He is saying you had better do something about that
Before you go stand before the Judge.
BECAUSE MURDERER’S AREN’T RIGHTEOUS BEFORE GOD
AND GOD WILL JUDGE THEM ETERNALLY IN HELL.
“Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.”
The whole point here is that because of your heart murder
You are guilty, and you are on your way to see the judge.
You had better do something to settle out of court.
HOW DO I DO THAT?
Romans 5:6-8 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Again we look back to that One who fulfilled the Law.
Again we look back to that One who perfectly kept every command.
Again we look back to that One who satisfied the wrath of God.
Again we look back to that One who said, “Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
This morning see the need and run to Jesus!
Romans 10:13 “ for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
