Study Guide: "A Matter of Integrity"

Text: Matthew 5:27-30

Open:

Jesus refers here to Exodus 20:14, the 7th of God’s Ten Commandments.  The 6th commandment (re:murder) protects the sanctity of life and the 7th commandment protects the sanctity of marriage.  Hatred and lust have always been two of the most powerful influences on mankind.  The person who yields to these influences finds him or herself more controlled than in control.

Here in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus upholds the sanctity of marriage by demanding radical integrity, which translates into avoidance of anything that violates God’s design for human sexuality. 

I. Radical Integrity Demands Purity (v. 27)

There are Ancient Prohibitions Against Sexual Immorality

1) Job

Job 31:9-11: “If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door, then may my wife grind another man’s grain, and may other men sleep with her. For that would have been shameful, a sin to be judged.” (Job is most likely the oldest book in all of the Bible)

2) The Mosaic Law portrays adultery as despicable and punishable by

     death (Lev. 20:10; Deu 22:22)

3) The New Testament is just as clear on this as the Old Testament.

1Co 6:9-11

II. Radical Integrity is a Matter of the Heart (v. 28)

Inappropriate Thoughts Cannot Be Tolerated.

1) Jesus said that the desire to have improper relations with someone other than your spouse is mental adultery and thus sin, making the intention as wrong as the action.  The marital bond is so strong in God’s eyes that being unfaithful in one’s mind is seen as breaking the trust so vital to a strong marriage.

This is Not An Incidental or Involuntary Glance, But an Intentional and Repeated Gazing.

1)  “Looks” is a present participle and refers to the continuous process of looking.

2) “Lustfully” is literally “to lust.”  The “to” is used with the infinitive “lust for”, indicating a goal or action that follows in time the action of the looking.  Jesus is therefore speaking of intentional looking for the purpose of lusting (example: pornography).

This is Truly a Matter of the Heart.

“already committed adultery with her in his heart”

It is not lustful looking that causes the sin, but the sin in the heart

causes the lustful looking.  The lustful looking is the expression of a heart that is already immoral.

To avoid you have to plan ahead – Make a covenant with your eyes!

Psalm 119:37: “Turn my eyes away from worthless things; renew my life according to your word.”

III.  Radical Integrity Demands Radical Preparation (vv. 29-30)

Jesus Must Be Speaking Figuratively.

1) If the problem is in the heart/mind, what good is plucking out an eye or cutting off a hand?

Jesus is speaking of avoiding/refusing anything – physical or otherwise, that causes us to be tempted or makes us more susceptible to temptation.

2) In Jewish culture, the right eye and right hand represented a person’s best and most precious faculties.  Jesus’ point is that we should be willing to give up whatever is necessary, even the most cherished thing we possess, if doing so will help protect us from doing evil/sin.

“Makes you stumble” = skandalizo = often used of the bait stick that springs the trap when an animal touches it.

Anything that morally or spiritually traps us, that causes us to fall into sin or to stay in sin, should be eliminated quickly and totally.  Sin must be dealt with radically!

Close:

So here’s the bottom line: if we are going to be people of integrity it’s going to be up to us.  What is on the inside determines what is displayed on the outside.  The only way that we keep God's anointing on our lives is by being people of radical integrity.

Study Guide: "Getting Right Instead of Getting Even"

Open:

The truth is, conflict is inevitable, which makes irritation and anger, at times, down-right unavoidable. Conflict is a part of life and Jesus has a lot to say about it.  He helps prepare us to live with him in the future by showing us how to live the abundant life here and now.

Matthew 5:21-26 is c,early one unit and is the first of six such units, all beginning with: "You have heard that it was said, but I say to you ..."

In telling us how to deal with conflict, Jesus tells us to get right with God instead of getting even with one another.

I. Anger is unavoidable, but hatred is unacceptable (verses 21-22).

  1. The meaning of anger.

"Angry" is from a Greek word meaning "a smoldering cauldron of hate."

- Sometimes anger is appropriate.  It is a God-given emotion to motivate us to action.

  2. Hatred is a voluntary reaction.

"Raca" comes from the sound made just before we spit.

"Fool" comes from a word that means mentally disturbed in the worst sense.

- You may be justified in your anger and hurt, but you are never justified in hating another person.

Psalm 4:4; 1 John 2:9

II. Reconciliation is more important than religion (verses 23-24).

  1. We can't worship God if we hate someone else.

Psalm 66:18

- Hatred is like hydrochloric acid that eats through the exterior right into the vital organs.

  2. Be willing to take the first step toward reconciliation.

- we are only responsible for what others hold against us when it is owing to real sin or blundering on our part.

- We are responsible for pursuing reconciliation when it is our fault, but we cannot make reconciliation happen.

Romans 12:18

III. Quickly handle all problems with both brothers and enemies (verses 25-26).

  1. Time does not heal all wounds. (Hebrews 12:14-15)

  2. Don't wait until you know what to say and how to act.

Close:

The next time you need to deal with conflict, remember that Jesus tells us to get right with God instead of getting even with one another.

Study Guide: "Something To Count On"

Matthew 5:17

Open:

We have transitioned into a new era (Postmodern era) without most of us realizing it.  Princeton theologian Diogenes Allen says, “A massive intellectual revolution is taking place that is perhaps as great as that which marked off the modern world from the Middle Ages.”  Before someone yawns and sighs, “Who cares?” I need to inform you of some of the monumental changes in what distinguishes this new era from what we’ve all known and been accustomed to.

What we’ve always held to be true is now being challenged by a new way of looking at the world that sees to be taking hold of every aspect of the culture.  The basic shift may be summed up by the statement of postmodernists that says: “There are no absolutes.”  This is the breakdown of belief.  Today, there is no universal consensus about what is true.”

Translation: “If it feels good—do it.”  “If it sounds right—believe it.”

What does this have to do with our text? Everything!

The Jews were asking Jesus the same basic question millions of Americans are asking today.  They wanted to know what to hold onto/what to count on.

Jesus’ meekness, humility, gentleness, and loved was a great contrast to the proud, selfish, and arrogant Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees and priests.  His call to repentance and His proclamation of the kingdom made people listen, even if they did not understand or agree.  They wondered if he was just another prophet, or even a false prophet.  They wondered if he was a political or military revolutionary who might be the militaristic Messiah they were expecting.

What everyone did agree upon was that Jesus was different!  He did not identify himself with the scribal schools or religious movements.  He identified himself with the outcaste, sick, sinful, needy people.

Whereas all the other rabbis and religious leaders talked only about the religious externals and traditions, Jesus taught about the heart.

But the primary concern of every faithful Jews was, “What does he think about the law; what does he think of Moses and the prophets?”  If Jesus was doing away with the law, what was left to hold onto, to count on?

Jesus here tells us that there is something to hold onto, something to count on.  When everyone around you shouts that everything is relative, remember what Jesus teaches in this text: The absolute, what you can always count on, is the law of the eternally sovereign God.

But, what is to law of God that Jesus says never changes?

I. TAKE A CLOSER LOOK AT WHAT JESUS SAID (v.17).

Jesus’ warning, do not think, indicates that most, if not all, of his listeners had a wrong conception about his teaching.

Most traditionalistic Jews considered the rabbinic instructions to be the proper interpretations of the law of Moses, and they concluded that, because Jesus did not scrupulously follow those traditions, He obviously was doing away with the law or relegating to a status of minor importance.

Because Jesus swept away the traditions of washings, special tithes, extreme Sabbath observance, etc., the people thought He was overthrowing God’s law.

1. Jesus begins by telling them that they were seriously mistaken about his view of the law.

The word Jesus uses for abolish is kataluo and it means to utterly overthrow or destroy, and is the same word used for the destruction of the Temple (Mt 24:2) and of the death of the physical body (2 Co 5:1).

The basic idea of “abolish” is to tear down and smash to the ground, to obliterate completely.  In several places the word is used figuratively to nullify something, render it useless.

2. Jesus says that he had not come to nullify, to tear down and smash to the ground the law.

“The Law and the Prophets” represent what we now call the Old Testament, the only written Scripture at the time Jesus preached.

Everything Jesus taught directly in his own ministry, and everything he taught indirectly through the apostles, is based on the Old Testament.  It is therefore impossible to understand the New Testament apart from the Old.

The rabbis looked through Scripture to find various rules and to those they added their own “take” on them—they would add supplemental requirements.

It was the keeping of such external minutia that had become the essence of the law for the scribes and Pharisees and many other Jews as well.

Jesus condemned such man-made traditions and requirements but upheld the true Word of God as something to count on.

II.  WHAT REALLY MATTERS IS YOUR HEART (v. 17b).

Jesus said he came not to abolish the Word of God but to fulfill it.

To “fulfill” means that Jesus took the letter of the law and expanded it to include the heart of the law.

There were 3 categories of law in the Old Testament and Jesus went to the heart of each of them:

     1.  Jesus Fulfills the Moral Law.

The moral law was the direct command of God in the 10 commandments.

Jesus was concerned with the heart and not just a person’s action or inaction.

     2.  Jesus Fulfills the Civil Law.

The civil laws were those related to daily living, agriculture, diet, cleanliness, dress, etc.  These were special standards that were to set apart God’s people from the rest of the world.

Christ dwelling in us should set us apart from the world.  His living in us should make a difference in what we say, how we think, how we act.

     3.  Jesus Fulfills the Ceremonial Law.

The ceremonial law governed the form of Israel’s worship.  God’s people were to worship and love a holy God.

Sacrifice was the heart of the Old Testament worship.

As the perfect sacrifice, Jesus brought all other sacrifices to an end.

Galatians 3:24, “So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.  Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.”

CLOSE:

So, we do have something we can count on.  There is an absolute in this life after all.  That which never changes is the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God.  And together, they expose our hearts, because that is what Jesus is concerned with.  You can count on the fact that Jesus wants your heart to be right before God. 

(Dr. Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)

Study Guide: "What Will Be Your Influence?"

Today is Grandparent's Day across the country.

Grandparents have been found to be influential in some of the fundamental aspects of their grandchildren's lives, namely in helping them form their identities and in transmitting values, ideals, and beliefs to them. These areas have been described in family research over several decades.

Grandparents can influence their grandchildren through the roles they assume in their grandchildren's lives. Based on interviews of 300 grandchildren, Kornhaber and Woodward suggested a number of direct roles played by grandparents, including the following:

1) Family historian. Grandparents who act as family historians inform current generations about the experiences of their progenitors and the origins of their family lineage. Grandparents often remember more about family history and are able to provide continuity in family traditions.

2) Mentor-teacher. As mentors and teachers grandparents take time to teach a moral principle or skill or instruct in some meaningful way.

3) Nurturer. Another role that provides important opportunities for grandparents is that of being nurturers of grandchildren's emotional and physical well-being.

4) Role model. With the state of today's deteriorating society, grandchildren are often in need of positive role models in their lives. Adolescents and young adults are continually searching for people to emulate.

5) Playmate. Finally, grandparents can serve as playmates in the lives of their grandchildren.

Bottom-line? Grandparents have great influence on their grandchildren.

READ Matthew 5:13-16

What you have in these very simple four verses is the picture that our Lord gives of the Christian in the world, the function of the believer in the world. If I could reduce it to one word, it would be the word 'influence.' Our Lord is saying that the Christian who lives according to the Beatitudes is going to influence the world as salt and light. In all that a person does and is (or is not), the sum total of our character, consciously or otherwise, affects other people.

Years ago, Elihu Burritt wrote this, "No human being can come into this world without increasing or diminishing the sum total of human happiness. Not only of the present, but of every subsequent age of humanity. No one can detach himself from this connection. There is no sequestered spot in the universe, no dark niche along the disc of nonexistence to which he can retreat from his relations to others, where he can withdraw the influence of his existence upon the moral destiny of the world. Everywhere, his presence or absence will be felt. Everywhere, he will have companions who will be better or worse because of him. It is an old saying," says Burritt, "And one of the fearful and fathomless statements of import, that we are forming characters for eternity.

One other writer put it this way, "You are writing a gospel, a chapter each day, by deeds that you do and words that you say. Men read what you write, whether faultless or true. Say, what is the gospel according to you?"
What will be our influence?

Influence. Every believer is an influence on others.  The question for us is, “What Will Be Our Influence?”  What message do you leave the world? When you pass by, what are you saying?

The final Beatitude in verses 10-12 is transitional. We see, in verses 10-12, the attitude of the world toward the believer, and in 13-16, the attitude of the believer toward the world. The world is going to hate us, but we still have to be salt and light to influence them. The important truth is revealed that the people the world hates are the very ones they desperately need to be influenced by.

I. Our Identity as Believers Is To Be Influencers.
We alone are the salt of the earth; there is no other. That's it, just us. If we lose our saltiness, it's lost. We are the light; that's it, just us. Nobody else. If our light is under a bushel, there is no other alternative.

In verse 13, "You are the salt," and verse 14, "You are the light," the pronouns are emphatic. You only are the light, you only are the salt, no one else! You're it, and if you don't positively influence the world, if you don't bring the light to bear on the world, there will be no redemptive influence and no light.

So the saved are the salt. The verb here, este, stresses being. The stress is on being, what we are and what we continue to be. We are the salt, we continue to be the salt, and we are the only salt in the world.

The idea isn't, "Please be salt," it's, "You are salt." The only question is whether you're salty. You are light; the only question is whether you're on or not. That's all. If you are a believer, you're salt. If you're a believer, you're light.

We are the light and the salt. That's just the way it is.

II. Our Potential Positive Influence is Profound.
What does it mean for us to be salt?  Let me give you some thoughts about salt.

1.   Salt was an important commodity in the ancient world.

1)   In the Greek's day, salt was considered to be divine. In fact, they called it theon, they called it divine. Salt was very important. The Romans said nothing was more valuable than sun and salt, because in a day without refrigeration, the only way they could preserve meat was to salt it. They would literally rub the salt in. You've read about the old times when they traveled across the sea and kept their jerky in big barrels, soaked in brine, or even just salted and left hard and stiff. You see that in stores today. Salt was a preservative.

2)   Roman soldiers were paid with salt, did you know that? If you were a lousy soldier, you weren't 'worth your salt,' that's where that phrase came from.

3)   Salt was used throughout the ancient society as a sign of friendship. There were salt covenants. Today in the Arab world, if a man partakes of salt with another man, if two Arabs today partake of salt, that means that they are under each other's care. Even if a worst enemy came in and ate with a man, and ate his salt, that man would be obliged to care for that enemy as if he were his fast friend. I think there has been something of a holdover with that today, when people throw salt over their shoulder when they make a promise in some societies.

4)   Salt was used to season food. In fact, food without salt, let's face it, has something missing.

5)   Salt had healing properties when placed into an open wound.

So you can see how just the statement 'you are the salt of the earth' could open up to the minds of the people a lot of thoughts, a lot of things that were possible.

2.    All of the above properties could be applied to the believer’s influence:

1)   We are to preserve Christian values in a world that is increasingly antagonistic toward them.

2)   We are to provide flavor.
Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers." Robert Lewis Stevenson once wrote this in his diary, "I have been to church today, yet I am not depressed."

3)   We are to promote healing.

4)   We are to produce thirst.

a.   Some writers say that salt's primary purpose is to create thirst. Salt is in your body because it creates thirst and makes you drink, and you have to drink in order to stay alive. If you don't drink water, you get bloated and die, and salt is involved in that.

b.   One writer said this, "The primary function of salt is to create thirst. Without salt in food, there would be an improper intake of liquid. Where there is an improper intake of liquid, there would be dehydration and death, or severe sickness. This would be particularly true in the desert countries around the land where our Lord was speaking. An essential part of every traveler's baggage was a sack of salt to prevent dehydration; eve in our day, those who labor manually in the summer use salt tablets."

Our primary purpose in this world is to live such lives that we make others thirst to know our Savior.

CLOSE:
What about your influence? What's it like? What happens when you walk by?
(Dr. Dane Fowlkes, Pastor)

Study Guide: "Happy are the Harassed"

Matthew 5:10-12

Open:

The first question I would like to take up this morning is whether Jesus' words about persecution are relevant in these days.  Has modern society become so tolerant that talk of persecution is outdated?  My answer is that these verses are very relevant and not at all outdated.  Let me mention two reasons why this teaching on persecution is still relevant today.

1. The first reason comes from a global perspective.  

2. My second reason for saying that these words about persecution are relevant today is taken from the words of Paul in 2 Timothy 3:12, "In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."

So these words of Jesus about persecution are relevant for today not only because millions of Christians in our global village are being persecuted for their faith this very day, but also because to one degree or another all of you who are in dead earnest about putting God first in your work and home and school and leisure will bump into some form of opposition sooner or later. And none of us knows when our freedoms may cease or when we may be called by God to go to a dangerous place or take a stand here that will cause many to dislike us.

Now what is this teaching of Jesus?

I.  The Cause of Persecution (v. 10)

    1.  This Beatitude seems to be singled out from the other seven.

• It is repeated several different ways in verse 10-12.
• The person is changed in verse 11 from ‘they’ to ‘you.’
• It’s the very last Beatitude-it’s as if it’s the pinnacle, the climax, of what the Lord has been saying to his disciples and the others listening to the Sermon on the Mount.
• The word “persecute” comes from the Greek idea of ‘to pursue.’  A good translation of this word is to ‘harass.’  “Blessed are they who are harassed.”

    2.  Now, let's focus on why the persecutions come. This is important because not all persecuted people are blessed - only those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Verse 10: "Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.”

So we can see why a life devoted to righteousness or godliness will be persecuted or reviled or spoken against.

When you desire to be godly in all your affairs and relationships -- when you follow the righteousness of Jesus in his strength and for his glory -- there are two possible responses people can have who stay around you. These are described in John 3:20-21: “For every one who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light, for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God."

• But, we ask, what about all the unbelievers in my life who are neither converted nor persecuting -- who are just civil, or even polite? There are at least two possible explanations:

1)  One is that your light is under a bushel. You are keeping the stumbling block of the cross well concealed (Galatians 5:11; 6:12-13). You don't let your distinctive values show.

2)   The other is that you are letting them show and the people around you are moving toward one or the other of these two polls: persecution or conversion.  Neither of these must happen immediately. There are all kinds of factors that can hinder expressions of persecution.

So we should all examine ourselves to see if we are playing a kind of cowardly Christian incognito. And if so we should repent and resolve to be more sincere in the expression of who we really are.

All of this leads us to another consideration this morning:

II.  The Blessedness of the Persecuted (vv. 10-12)

(v. 11) "Blessed -- fortunate -- are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad..."

    1.  Now this is a shocking piece of counsel. What can possibly justify the command to be glad when we are hated, and mocked and tortured and killed?

• And make no mistake about it -- Jesus does have death in view here. This is what they did to the prophets (Matthew 23:30; 1 Kings 18:13; 19:10; Nehemiah 9:26; Jeremiah 26:23). This is what they would do to the disciples. So he says in Matthew 24:9, "Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and put you to death; and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake."
• What can justify such counsel to people in pain? -- "Rejoice and be glad!?" I see two possibilities:

1)   Either this is the talk of an insensitive, sophomoric, ivory tower theologian who has never known what it is to scream with pain.

2)   Or this is the talk of one who has seen something and tasted something and knows something about a reality that most people have never tasted or glimpsed.

·    This is the Lord speaking.  It is not some pastoral novice that blunders into a funeral home slapping people on the back, saying, "Praise God, anyhow." This is the Lord. And he says to his disciples, most of whom will drink the cup of martyrdom, "Rejoice and be glad" when you are persecuted, when you suffer. How can he say this?

    2.  He can say it because he knows beyond any shadow of a doubt that the reward of heaven will more than compensate for any suffering we must endure in the service of Christ. "Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven."

• There is a mystery here -- the mystery of joy in the midst of agony; the mystery of gladness in the midst of misery and groaning. And this mystery is contained in a miracle, namely, the miracle of faith -- the bedrock assurance that heaven is a hundredfold compensation for every pain.
• To the degree that you believe what Jesus sees in heaven, to that degree you will be able to rejoice and be glad in suffering. "Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven."

    3.  But this raises a question: In order to rejoice and be glad in the suffering of persecution must you not believe that the suffering itself enlarges your reward in heaven? If the same reward in heaven could be obtained without suffering, would we not cry out against the uselessness of suffering rather than being glad to embrace it?

• I think the answer is that the more your faith is tested through suffering the greater will be your reward. I think this is taught in Matthew 19:29: "And every one who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake, will receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life."  

I close by pressing home one of the clear implications of this text . . .

III.  The Reward of Heaven.

Jesus wills for us to have our treasure in heaven not on earth (Matthew 6:19-20). Jesus wills for your heart to be so set on heaven that to leave this earth is a cause of rejoicing. Not without tears! -- as Paul said, "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing," and as Jesus sweat blood in Gethsemane in the face of his own pain, but for the joy set before him endured the cross.

CLOSE:

Sooner or later a deeply God-centered Christian will be mistreated for the things he believes or the life he lives.

So what shall we do? How shall we keep our hearts in heaven?

• Make a regular practice of your life to consider the prophets of old who were persecuted and killed for the cause of God and righteousness. Turn often to Hebrews 11:36-38 and read how by faith they suffered mocking and scourging, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, ill-treated -- of whom the world was not worthy!
• Go often to these great men and women of old and get inside their hearts. Put yourself on the rack with them and learn how to love heaven with them. Listen as they say, "Abuse suffered for the Christ is greater wealth than all the treasures of Egypt, for we look to the reward" (Hebrews 11:26).
• Read the testimonies of those who have given their all for Christ.

 "He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."                                            Jim Elliot, martyr
(Dr. Dane Fowlkes, pastor)