Right now, for those of you who are visiting or guests today, we are in the middle of a serious call that deals with the Sermon on the Mount. And it's a famous sermon. And what Matt just to give us before we actually get into the text today, just to retrace our steps, what Matt has been dealing with is the idea of how the Sermon on the Mount is so countercultural. It's so different from anything that we would naturally just do. And so what he's talked about up to this point is just he's walked us through the Beatitudes. He's walked us through our relationship to the world and how the world sees us. Last week, we talked a little bit about our relationship to the law. And this week, we're going to talk about the concept of anger. So if you will open with me in your Bibles to Matthew five, verse twenty one, that's where we'll start today. Matthew 5 21. This is Jesus speaking to his disciples and he says the following. You've heard that it was said of those who are old 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. 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're going with him to court. Lester accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge 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. Now, before we get into what these verses actually mean, let us retrace our steps. I've given you kind of what Matt talked about, but what I think is essential to understand, first off, is when the Beatitudes talk, Matt even dealt with this in his first sermon, the Beatitudes are not some like call, some code that we are called to live by. They're not some new law imposed on us. The Beatitudes are talking about the way that a person who is born of the Spirit is not just what they're striving to be. This is who you are. And so when he describes that list, he's not putting it out before you and saying you need to do this, this and this and this. True, you do need to do this, but you need to do it not as if it's simply an engagement of your will. Principally, you're you're doing it on your own strength. You need to understand that. You are this. And you live like this because principally not because of right doing, because of right being and what Christ has accomplished. That's an important thing to set the tone for this so that when he moves into the idea of, OK, this is who you are, then he moves into, well, you're before the world, you're salt and light. And now he moves out to our identity, not who we are individually, but as a as a body of believers, we are salt and light in the world. And he starts extending the story. And then he moves to, and this is the hard thing. This is where he seems to take a dog turn left. This is where he starts talking about the law. And I think for a lot of us, we think with Christianity, we just dispense with the law. We just get rid of it. And what Matt clarified last week, no, we don't get rid of the law. The law stays and the law is fulfilled. And it's fulfilled in Christ. And that's the fundamental thing we have to understand. And so it's important to understand that, because what Christ is doing here is not just giving us a new like saying, OK, this is a new thing. I'm giving you a new thing that you need to learn how to do. He's not doing that in this case. He's actually revealing the extent of the law. So when he says in this first verses, if you look in verse twenty one, you've heard it said to those of old, you shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. He is basically saying this is what you've heard up to this point until now, you've defined murder as the act of shedding blood. So if you take a knife or you take a gun or you do something like that and you actually in someone's life, That's murder, and it's a very closed definition. And he's defined it just the Pharisees, they like that definition because it's very clear, it's very small and and they can clearly place themselves out of it. Because if you say, well, don't murder and murder means don't kill someone with a weapon or don't in someone's life, then I can clearly put myself outside of that category and I maintain my sense of righteousness. But that's not what Jesus does. He actually deepens it. He says, OK, you think it's just this little circle and you think that's enough, but it goes far deeper. And so what you find in the Pharisees and what you find in the people at this time period, what they're trying to do is just make these nice little circles so they can basically stay out of these puddles of mud and still feel good about themselves. So it says, don't murder, you know, don't give false testimony, don't divorce your wife, things like that. And if we can stay out of that, we're fine. And they kind of follow the, they kind of follow it, they kind of follow, yeah, we're not doing these things, but they don't really get to what the heart of it is. And so I remember when I was a kid, my parents, like, there's four of us, there's two brothers and one sister, and I'm the oldest. And we would always fight like our favorite food is cereal. I love cereal. And I love sweet cereal. And I remember when I was a kid, we would fight over because my parents wouldn't buy sweet cereal all during the week. And then on the weekends, that's when we'd get the sweet cereal. So we'd wake up Saturday morning and it became like a fight and we were pouring these monstrous bowls and it's like flowing over the edge and it's like And by the time the third or fourth kid got up there was almost nothing left. That's how much cereal we were eating and And my parents were like well fine. I've got a solution for this my dad was like you're gonna start measuring your cereal and You're going to start using this measuring cup. And he would put the measuring cup out every Friday night because we'd wake up before my parents and set it out on the table with the sweet cereal. And we'd wake up the next morning and we would pour our own cereal in the cup. He'd say, use the cup. And I am always an early riser. I always was. I was the first one up and I would use the cup. But I didn't use the cup to its measurement. I poured in the cup, dump it, pour it in the cup again, dump it. I was using the cup, but it had nothing to do with what my dad was really trying to get at. The idea my dad was going for was something far deeper. It was equity. It was it was the idea of you got to share with your brothers. Everyone's got it's got to be even. But I was using the cup just because I was like, I'll use the cup. Sure, I'll fill it and I'll be done with it. And that's what the Pharisees were doing with this verse. Don't murder. They were saying, OK, yeah, we'll define it in these strict, restricting terms. Oh, and by the way, I'm noticing a lot of you are looking to your sheets. We will not be filling those out today. I apologize. I didn't clarify that. So you can just look at me. We will we will be using the question in our gospel community groups. We will not be following those those things. So if you're looking like, where is this guy? He's going with this. So anyways, the basic idea is there. But the concept here that the Pharisees understood when they did find it is the strict restrictive. I mean, in this restrictive way, clearly they could keep themselves out of it and above it and they were fine. But Jesus, what he does is so incredible. Look what he does in verse 22. 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 counselor and whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell of fire. Now, what Jesus effectively does with this is he takes it out of simply the realm of shedding blood and the physical and those grotesque, violent crimes that we all deplore just almost naturally. We look at it. We say, how could anyone ever do this? And what he does is he shifts it all of a sudden, just with this like this shift and brings like, like the gospel was all I mean, the law was out of was all distorted, and then he shifts it on its side. And then you're seeing it clearly. It's like, oh, this actually deals with stuff in my heart. Because how many of us can honestly say that you've never been angry with your brother? And anger, we understand. I'm not dealing with the righteous anger that you see in the Psalms and you see Jesus flipping over the tables. We're talking about a different thing. We don't need to clarify that, I think, this morning. But the unrighteous anger with our brother. Who of us have never insulted his brother? And who of us has never called someone a fool? And then all of a sudden, the nice little pool that we had drawn, we find ourselves right in the middle of it. And we're like, oh, I thought I was safe. I thought I was outside of this. And I think that scared the Pharisees, I think it scared all of us here is because all of a sudden they were looking at something that they looked at themselves and said, naturally, I can't do this. I don't know if you're like me, but in the morning, Some mornings or some afternoons when when the track is crazy and you're up on Central Park heading south on Central Park and you're taking a left onto to MLK And there's that light that just is seriously the left hand turn light that is must be like three seconds. That thing is it's like lightning. And what you see is people turning left. And there's like seriously another car length in front of them, between them and the white line where they could go and more people could actually get through the light. And I just sit there looking around and my wife knows this because she's like, Jeremy, calmness, calmness. And I'm seeing the people just just pile up. and just kind of taking their time. I pass the light, I'm fine, and there's a whole car length in front. And where they could pull up and more people could get through, they're just there. And what comes into my heart? Honestly, I'm thinking, you waste of space. Not you personally, but yeah, you personally, because look at this space. All you have to do is just move your car just ever so slightly to the front and it would be like more people would be getting through and we wouldn't be backed up until 33rd. And yet what Jesus is getting at is exactly that. He's pinning us down and saying, this is what the law really condemns. And so you can murder people. Not just with a physical shedding of blood. You can murder people with your attitude, your thoughts and with your words. And so when I'm saying. Sometimes out loud and sometimes in my head, waste, come on. I am falling into the very thing that Christ is saying. That's breaking my law. That is not fulfillment of the law, that is not what I came for. And he continues. So if you are offering your guilt, your gift at the altar and then 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're going with him to court. Let 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. And this is where Jesus actually takes it up even another notch. He's saying it's not enough. That you just don't feel anger. There's something that I'm pointing to that goes well beyond that. And and I'm going to say this, it's impossible to hear. Like if we just take this and this is what I'm so afraid of. But by Christ, I don't fear this. If we read these verses out of context and this is all you hear today, you need to be this person, you need to kill anger in you, then you will leave here more oppressed. And I will done this message no justice. This is not what Christ is saying. Just discover a way not to be angry in and of yourself and discover a way to do good beyond what you're possible with what's possible in your flesh. That's not what Christ is saying. The only way to understand what he's pushing us to understand in these verses is to read Romans 7. Let's let's switch over to Romans 7 real quick. It's Romans 7 6. This is what the apostle Paul writes. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive so that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code. What he's talking about here, and this is where it's so important that we reflect back on the attitudes and what he moved to as far as like salt and light and then our relationship to the law. He's Paul reinforces we are dead to the law. in regard to its ability to condemn us. But it still exhibits itself through us. Because why? Because we don't serve in the way of the flesh anymore. We serve in the way of the spirit. So what what really what what Jesus is effectively doing is he's taking people. He's basically saying all those little pools that you've created. to make it so that you don't feel like you're as dirty as maybe in the flesh as you actually are. He's drawing that pool around you and bringing it up over your head so that you feel inundated and so that you will call out to him in those moments and say this. I am not naturally this way and I could never do what you're calling me to do. I will naturally gravitate toward a fascinating people with my words or my attitudes or actions. I will naturally gravitate toward those things, but But we don't serve in the way of the code. We don't serve in this way where it's like I engage all of my will and I tell myself I'm going to do better next time. What we do is we look to him and we serve in the way of the spirit. So we are like, because I am in the spirit, because he died for me and because the spirit is in me now, I live like this. And I live like this because the communion that I maintain with him. That's the secret. He ups the level because he puts this demand on you that he knows that the only way that you ever live out the law. Is through communion with him. So the righteousness, your righteousness will shine through because you have communion with him, because his spirit dwells in you and you are relying on his spirit to to do these things in you. And that's why when you get to the second second piece, And this is the amazing thing. Remember what he said, your salt and light of the world. He's actually reinforcing and pulling this into to better perspective in this particular versus what he's doing is he's saying you'll be light to the world because you won't merely not get angry when people are. Maybe are doing things that deserve condemnation. It's not you're just not going to get angry with them. You're actually going to be the person that I use to disarm their injustice. You're going to be the one I reach out to. And so when you see you've got your brother has something against you, you're going to be the one that reaches out to him. You know, in other points, he says, if you have something against your brother, go and tell him. He's saying you're going to be the one that proactively goes out and seeks to be one who restores peace and solves problems. And through you. I'm going to disarm. What the accuser has done effectively through through other people's stories, and that's what's so amazing about these verses, like When he tells us not just merely not to get angry, don't just don't just not get angry, avoid anger. He's actually saying, go and promote peace, promote the things that I stand for. And you'll do that because I'm in you. Now, how are we going to do that? How are you really going to, like, be a part of what God's doing to disarm anger? You know, not only our own lives, but others. And I'll tell you, I think the only way to do this is is what what he referred to in Romans seven. And that's specifically this, that when we come into situations where we see that our natural tendency is to get angry. I think at those moments, I think that it's essential that by faith we step back and evaluate who Christ is, who he is in us. What he's doing on a broader plane in terms of his kingdom and where we fit in it and just ask him for help. I don't think there's anything super profound in what what he's calling us to do, like if you were to tell me, oh, Jeremy, Jeremy, you're telling me I need to rely on Christ. I already know that. Yes. The profound thing when it becomes profound is when we actually start living it in the day in day out situations of our lives. It's when we walk into that situation and we're on MLK turning left and we're really saying, Lord, I know I shouldn't be angry. But I can't talk myself out of it. I can't just say, oh, I shouldn't be this way because my emotions are strong and and it's not enough just to fight with feelings. I think that there's an element where we are subjecting our feelings to our will. And we're saying, Lord, by faith. I'm going to believe what you're telling me in this moment, that I am a part of your kingdom and that I'm called specifically. To disarm the situation. And so looking at the different situations in our life, thinking through anger and what we're going to be talking about with lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, loving your enemies. What we're going to start seeing is the thing that he's calling to us, calling us to do, is going to be beyond us in every one of these situations. Matt's going to deal with a lot of these in the upcoming sermons. All of these are going to be beyond us. And the real answer in all these things is how can you Look at yourself and begin to understand yourself as a child of God within the kingdom. And begin to believe that what he did, what he accomplished in you, he's wanting to accomplish in the world and he's wanting to spread this. And I think that's I think that's the essence of of what we really need to understand as followers of Christ. Let me close this in prayer.