This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Hi, this is Pastor Tom and I want to welcome you to Matthew, week five. We're
going to look at the second half of Matthew chapter five this week. We began
last week this look at the Sermon on the Mount, which we're also calling Jesus's
Life Management Seminar.

We've already looked at how to manage our attitudes as we looked at the "be"
attitudes if you want to see it that way. And this week we're going to look at
what Jesus had to teach us about managing our relationships. He's going to talk
about managing our relationships with one another this week and then next week
we'll look at, in the beginning of the week, managing our relationship with God.

Relationships, relationships with people, they are filled with joy and hurt and
often both at the same time. How can we manage our relationships so that we can
start to really enjoy the people that we live and that we work and that we
worship with, so that inner bitterness or suspicion stops overwhelming us, so
that relationships are no longer such a turmoil, but they can become a source of
real joy. There'll always be problems in relationships in this world because
none of us are perfect, but how do they become more a source of real joy in our
lives?

Well, Jesus is the master at managing relationships. You can see it even in the
way that he managed relationships. Jesus took 12 disciples, men as far apart as
zealots and tax gatherers, tax gatherers who worked for the government and
zealots who worked to overthrow the government, and he forged them into this
group where love and unity would change the world.

Jesus had this amazing ability to immediately sense a person's need and out of
that immediately establish a relationship with people. Just think of the people
who he met and immediately established a relationship with that transformed
their lives, the woman at the well and Nicodemus and Bartimaeus and Matthew and
Zacchaeus. Jesus is the master of managing relationships, and he teaches us
about relationships in Matthew chapter 5, the second half.

What he's going to do in these verses is encourage us, as he encouraged the
people then, to go beyond a legalistic view of God's word, to embrace the heart
of what God has to say. But he doesn't want to hear us telling us not to trust
in God's truth. He's going to tell us don't take just the legalistic side of
God's truth, but he does not want us to see in any way that he's saying don't
trust God's truth.

So he starts, before he says anything, he says this in verses 17 to 20, "Do not
think that I have come to abolish the law of the prophets. I have not come to
abolish them, but to fulfill them. " I tell you the truth.

"Until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke
of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is
accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and
teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But
whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom
of heaven.

For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees
and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.
" So Jesus here holds up the importance of God's word. He says I came to fulfill
God's word, not to put it aside.

He says everything's going to be accomplished that's in God's word. He says our
greatness is going to be determined by our obedience to God's word. And then he
says you have to have a righteousness that surpasses human effort.

He uses the illustration of the Pharisees, those who by human effort were
keeping the laws but they didn't have the heart of God's word. And the question
is how do you do that? How do you have that kind of righteousness that surpasses
human effort?

Well it's as if Jesus says I'm glad you asked because he teaches us how the rest
of this chapter and he applies it to relational teaching in the Old Testament
and the heart of that is Jesus' teaching. In doing this we're going to see that
Jesus gives us the antidote to what ruins relationships in five specific areas.
He gives us God's answer to anger, to lust, to lies, to revenge, and to hate or
discrimination against others.

He tells us now in each of those areas God has an answer for our lives. With
anger, let me just tell you where we're going this week. With anger he says
you've got to make your relationships a priority, that's God's answer.

With lust he says you've got to take your heart seriously. With lies he says you
have to choose simple clarity. With revenge he says you have to practice radical
mercy.

And with discrimination he says you have to seek godly maturity. So we're going
to start with what Jesus had to teach us about anger. What he had to teach us
about his solution for the kind of anger that ruins relationships.

Beginning in verse 21 and down to 26 here's what Jesus had to teach. You have
heard that it was said to the people long ago, "Do not murder and anyone who
murders will be subject to judgment. " But I tell you that anyone who is angry
with his brother will be subject to judgment.

Again, anyone who says to his brother "Racha" is answerable to the Sanhedrin and
anyone who says "You fool" will be in danger of the fire of hell. Therefore, if
you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has
something against you, leave your gift there in the front of the altar. First go
and be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift.

Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it
while you're still with him on the way or he may hand you over to the judge and
the judge may hand you over to the officer and you'll be thrown into prison. I
tell you the truth, you'll not get out of there until you've paid up the last
penny.

Jesus is painting a picture here of the anger that ruins relationships and he
starts by saying "You heard, don't murder. " And maybe you're doing okay at that
one, he's saying, but you're angry all the time in your heart. What he's saying
here is that as followers of Jesus, maybe even some of us who followed him for a
long time, one of the reasons we struggle in our relationships is because we
excuse what we're doing behind the something worse that we're not doing or that
somebody else is doing.

We excuse the anger in our hearts because we would never be a murderer, but
Jesus says the anger is ruining your lives just as well. He talks about three
things here actually and they build on each other. He says you have this anger
in your heart and the word that he uses here is a word that refers to sustained
anger.

This is not an outburst or a momentary feeling he's talking about here, it's an
inner bitterness, it's a grudge that you won't let go of. And Jesus says it's
ruining you, it's ruining your relationships. And he says it grows into an
expression of contempt, he uses the word racha.

You can almost tell what it means by the sound of it. It's just this sound of
frustration and contempt. So your anger turns into a contempt for the other
person.

You just can't stand being with them, you can't stand being around them. And
then he says you say you fool. The contempt turns into slander.

You wouldn't murder anyone, but you certainly would assassinate their character.
And that's what Jesus is saying happens here. It's ruining you, it's ruining
your relationships, so what do you do?

Jesus' solution to anger is, in two words he says don't worship. That's his
solution to anger. Now I thought that would get your attention.

Jesus says don't worship. Jesus says if you're worshiping and you remember that
someone has something against you, go and make it right. That's how Jesus says
you have to deal with anger.

Recognize that even in your worship of God you have to recognize your love for
other people. Now 1 John reminds us that if we say we love God but don't love
our brother and sister then we're fooling ourselves. And Jesus is the one who
first taught us this.

What's he saying here? He's saying make a priority of your relationships. Don't
hide even behind worship as a reason not to go make things right with somebody
else.

In fact, you may not even want to listen to the rest of this. You might not even
want to listen to the prayer today. Just turn this off, turn the car around or
get in the car or pick up the phone and go make it right with that person.

Take care of it right now, Jesus is saying, because relationships are so
important and your heart is so important and that anger is eating you up and
eating at your relationships. Nothing is more important, not even church. Now
you may have an anger, you may have a grudge against somebody who has died.

What do you do then? Well you can still make it right and almost in your mind in
a sense you can put a chair in front of you and you can make it right with them.
You can offer forgiveness.

You can offer the right words. Do it now. Nothing is more important.

Let's take a moment to pray together. Jesus, thank you that you love us. Thank
you that you made your relationship with us so important.

You came and gave your life for us and you want to give life to us. You want to
give life to our relationships and help us, Lord, we pray, to hear your
teaching. In those places where a bitterness has settled in or a slander has
settled into our lives, Lord, we don't want to live that kind of way, we want to
live your kind of way.

So help us to go and make things right with that person, to be reconciled with
that person. Because Lord, we know that that's part of being reconciled with you
on a day-to-day basis, living in relationship with you. Thank you for loving us,
strengthen us to love one another, we pray.

In your name we pray, amen. Tomorrow we're going to look together at what Jesus
had to teach us is his solution for lust.