Matthew Chapter 5 Verses 14 – 16

• This is cool because as Christians we are to be salt and light. Light reveals and yet it brings warmth. Light gives power. Light gives security. Light, lights up the darkness, if I may quote Bob Marley! I mean think of this passage this way. We have the Holy Spirit within us! He is within us! He knows truth! He is eternally wise! His heart is forever for man and for their good, (I mean, He is God!) We gotta let that light out!
• Why would we suppress God under layers of foolishness and flesh!? I just don’t get it, personally. One thing I know about Christians is that we want to be exactly who God wants us to be. Deep down, we are dying to bring glory and honor to God and to walk in power proclaiming Him to this world…let your light out and let God make you into precisely what you yearn to be anyway…
• And I love this, Jesus was like this, the things He did, the miracles He performed, the life He lived, He did it in such a way to always bring attention to the Father. He didn’t pose for a photo shoot with Lazarus or a selfie with the wine pots at the wedding in Cana! HA! Folks would see what He did and they would glorify the Father in heaven…we are to do the same!

Matthew Chapter 5 Verses 17 – 20

• I love this and this is so gear-changing when you grasp it! Jesus didn’t come to chase away the debt of sin on mankind. He came to pay it. Chase away an enemy and they will plot and plan and come back stronger…convert an enemy to a friend and they will stick around and love you…This is what Jesus did on the cross!
• And until it’s all over, until heaven and earth pass away, the law is going to stick around with men…either as a friend, walking with you completely paid and fulfilled by your relationship with Jesus Christ, or, as an enemy, perfectly revealing that your sin is upon you…and nothing you do on your own will ever be enough.

• Jesus says here that you have to be more righteous than the most perfect people around…the scribes and the Pharisees and I’m sure everyone gasped because these were perfect in the eyes of men. There was a saying at this time in the Jewish culture that went, “If only two men get into heaven, one will be a scribe and the other will be a Pharisee,”…but Jesus was saying and you gotta know…that you don’t have to be perfect in the eyes of men…that’s not enough…you have to be perfect in the presence of God…

Matthew Chapter 5 Verses 21 – 22

• It’s been said that, “The New Testament is in the Old concealed, the Old is in the New revealed. Therefore to understand the Old Testament, we must hold it in the light of Christ.” Jesus is blowing their minds right now. (Not that He hadn’t already) But essentially He is revealing to them and to us that the Law, the Ten Commandments, wasn’t to tell us what to do and what not to do but rather to reveal to us that we’ve all gone wrong…that the Law is not in the physical but in the spiritual! A physical law can be mastered…a spiritual law is a whole other story…
• This changes everything for the disciples, for the religious, for the Pharisees and the Sadducees! And when we grasp this, this changes everything for us! Have you ever murdered? Have you ever stolen? Have you ever practiced idolatry? Have you ever committed adultery? We hear this and immediately survey our history. What we have and have not done physically but to answer this question truthfully, we ought not to search our past but rather search our hearts. And if we do we find out the answer to all of these questions is, “yes.”
• Sobering. But here’s the truth. Sin is not first what we do…sin is first who we are. Sin courses through our veins in the blackness of the blood that was inherited by us from our father, Adam. If I steal physically, I simply reveal that in my heart I was first a thief. Jesus is revealing the truth of the Law to them and to us. And the cool thing is that as heavy as that is…if we receive what He is saying, the revelation will lead us right back to Christ. In need of a Savior. Poor in spirit. Mourning over what we now understand. Meek and without pride…hungry for righteousness…
• Now you’ll also hear a repetitive pattern in Jesus’ speaking. When Rabbi’s taught, spiritual leaders taught, synagogue services were held, they would always say, “It is written,” and they would teach from the scriptures. Jesus says, and you will hear this over and over again from Him…from Him and only Him…, “You have heard that it was said…but I say to you…” They’d never heard anyone teach like this before….
• All other teachers and leaders and spirituals derived their authority to teach from the written Word but Jesus taught them on His own authority. Do you see that? He is revealing to them and showing us as we spend time in the Word that Jesus is the Word made flesh. He is the Author and the Finisher of faith. He is the authority and in Him the Word of God is revealed!

• And here Jesus reveals that murder is sin revealed while anger, bitterness, wrath and envy are all murder conceived. And life begins at conception folks…

Matthew Chapter 5 Verses 23 – 24

• We often remember and quote this verse incorrectly but Jesus says here that if you are bringing a gift of worship to God and remember that someone has beef with you…not the other way around…but you remember that you’ve done something to offend someone else…hold off on worship at the altar and go worship in the streets! (The fastest way to God, a straight line to God is humility and service towards your brother)

• Now does this mean go and track down every person that has something against you and try to make it right? No way! For some of us that would be a full time job with no retirement in sight! HA! The key is that as you come before the Lord, listen! Jesus says, “And there remember.” If the Lord places someone on your heart and impresses upon you to go, then go. Obey the Lord. The highest form of love, belief and worship.

Matthew Chapter 5 Verses 25 – 26

• This is so practical! We never read of Jewish police, do we? I mean we read of temple guards and Roman guards but there’s no episode of COPS in any of the New Testament! HA! In those days if someone committed a crime against you, it was your responsibility to bring them in! You’d bring them before the courts there and what Jesus is saying is that while you are on the way, work it out!

• Here’s why that’s so practical and needed! We all have issues with folks. We have all had issues with folks and we will all have issues with folks! And in each one of those issues, problems, quarrels…in each one there’s an opportunity to humble yourself and make it right. But we so often don’t. And then the issue becomes so hard and complicated and confusing that it never gets right. Jesus says Just Do It! When there is any opportunity to make peace…do it! Because once you’re thrown into the spiritual prison located in each human’s heart, you’ve got no money! No way to pay a penny! So when you’re still communicating with your adversary, before you find yourself imprisoned…man humble yourself and make peace, because there comes a time when you cannot. And do you know what that is? Murder.

Matthew Chapter 5 Verses 27 – 28

• Are we all not adulterers and adulteresses? Again, “You have heard it was said…but I say…” Jesus is showing us, revealing to us the darkness is not without…it’s within, man. He is the Light. He is turning the lights on in the darkest rooms of our hearts and together we are all convicted, and all-inclusively we are all sentenced to hell because of sin but Jesus is not only the Light but He is the Way, the Truth and the Life! He is the only Way to go to heaven…faith in Him alone because there are no good people!

Matthew Chapter 5 Verses 29 – 30

• What’s taking you away from God in your life? Deal directly with it! Deal radically with it! We have no account or record of any folks walking around after this sermon with one hand or one eye. Jesus is just making a point. That nothing is worth denying what God has for you…and most certainly absolutely, nothing is worth you going to hell for eternity!

• One last thought as we close, the kingdom of heaven is the greatest goal, knowing God and glorifying Him with our lives is our greatest desire and if that’s true then there should be a willingingness, a readiness and a reality to let that bring about in my life the greatest sacrifices.