What does it mean to make disciples? This is a pretty basic question, isn’t it? After all, the Great Commission, which is the mission Christ has given to his church, begins with the exhortation to “make disciples.” Some of us went through some kind of mentoring relationship with another believer when we were perhaps new in the faith and speak of that as a time of discipleship in our lives, but those of us who didn’t, perhaps feel we’re underequipped for the task. I remember the first time someone asked me to disciple him, and my first thought was that I didn’t know how. I wished at that moment like I had some kind of manual, a “how-to” concerning making disciples.
But perhaps part of my fears were unjustified. I say that because if you look at the Great Commission in its parts, it’s pretty straightforward, isn’t it? Jesus says that we should make disciples, and then gives two tasks that go into that mission. First, he says we are to make disciples, “baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matt 28:19). That’s straightforward enough. We baptize, and since baptism is the public profession of faith one makes after he’s heard the gospel, repented, and believed, then this first aspect of making a disciple is done through the task of evangelism, isn’t it? We share the good news with individuals that though God is holy, man is sinful, and we are all under God’s judgment, God made a way for us to be forgiven of our sins and made right with God. He did this by sending his Son into the world who took on flesh, lived as the God-man, died on the cross to pay the penalty our sins had merited, and rose from the dead on the third day so that if we repent of our sins and place our faith in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ, we will be saved. And we, of course, profess that faith through the act of baptism. So, I don’t think that first task of making a disciple is very mysterious or overwhelming to us.
The second half of the task of making disciples Jesus also lays out in Matthew 28:20, adding, “teaching them to observe [i.e., obey] all that I have commanded you.” This second part, however, is a bit more overwhelming. Now, on the one hand, like the first part, it’s not mysterious. Making disciples is about teaching people to obey Christ’s Word. They must believe what he commands them to believe and do what he commands them to do. But, on the other hands, perhaps the overwhelming feeling is that we’re unsure where to start. Where do you begin when you’re charged with teaching someone to obey all of Christ’s commands?
Well, after making sure an individual understands the gospel and the glorious truth that we are declared righteous before God on the basis of faith alone, it seems like a good place to begin in teaching someone to obey what Christ commands is right here in Matthew 5 that we began to look at a few weeks ago, and specifically verses 21-48 provides for us a picture of the kind of hearts, lives, and obedience that Christ demands from his followers.
Starting in verse 21 and extending through the end of the chapter in verse 48, Jesus provides what have traditionally been known as “six antitheses.” An antithesis, of course, is a statement of contrast. And we find six of these in these verses we’re looking at this morning. Each of these antitheses begins with a statement of something to the effect of “You have heard that it was said . . .” (vv. 21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43) and is followed by Jesus saying, “But I say to you” (vv. 22, 28, 32, 34, 39, 44). And what Jesus is probably making reference to was the reality that the main way that individuals would have heard the law was through Jewish teachers reading from the book of the law in the synagogue. However, these teachers might also add their interpretations of certain commands, thus maybe even leaving the hearer unable to discern what was the law and what was interpretation. Thus, sometimes Jesus says in these verses, “You heard that it was said” and will follow with a verbatim quote of the OT law, such as in verse 27, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’” But in verse 43, for example, we see the law and an added interpretation, as Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’” The command to love your neighbor is indeed found in the law, but there is no command to hate your enemy. This was obviously an added interpretation of this law that would have been spoken and taught in the synagogue.
In either case, whether the law or the law and its interpretation, Jesus now stands to speak as the one in whom the law is fulfilled. And I think we go the wrong way to argue that Jesus’ goal in these verses is to intensify the law, or deepen the law, or annul the law, although he does seem to do each of these at times. It’s better to say that Jesus stands as one who fulfills the law and proclaims what the demands of the law pointed forward to and anticipated.1 The law was like a shadow, pointing to the substance, which is found in Jesus, his work, and his teaching. Therefore, as we hear Jesus’ commands, we can understand this as a basic of discipleship, obeying all that he has commands.
What I want to do, then, is simply walk through each of these six antitheses and note how it is that you are I should be characterized and what demands the Lord Jesus Christ makes of us. And let me again say that we come to this text understanding that we are justified by faith alone. You and I stand before God clothed with the righteousness of Christ through faith in Christ’s life, death, and resurrection alone. So, these demands aren’t demands that we obey and then merit some righteous standing before God on the basis of our works. If you go down that road, then you need to understand that God demands perfect obedience. Consequently, our only hope is Christ alone, whose perfect righteousness is credited to us through faith alone.
However, as many have rightly noted throughout the history of the church: we’re justified by faith alone, but justifying faith never comes alone. Rather, it creates within us a desire to obey the Lord. Therefore, from a position of being justified by faith in the crucified and risen Lord, we pursue obedience to all that Christ commands. We pursue righteousness. And if our justification isn’t followed by a desire to pursue righteous living and an actual pursuit of that righteous living, then we need to question whether we’ve ever truly been justified. But I trust today that in speaking to you who profess faith that indeed this is your desire. So, what then does Christ command? Let me list six things.
Jesus begins his teaching about anger by noting what they’ve heard concerning murder. He says, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment’” (v. 21). Now, there’s obviously nothing wrong with that teaching. That’s true. And that’s what the commandment says in Exodus 20. Murder is forbidden.
However, what Jesus then does is show that murder doesn’t arise out of a vacuum. That is, the act of murder doesn’t just happen. It begins with being gripped with anger. And this issue of being angry is itself liable to judgment before the Lord, just as murder is.
Let’s look at Jesus’ words. He says, “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” (v. 22). Now, when Jesus says that the one who says, “You fool” is liable to the hell of fire, he’s not zeroing in on those words. That is, he’s not giving us permission to call someone an idiot but not a fool. Rather, he’s multiplying examples of how anger shows itself. Murder is indeed one form of the end of anger. This doesn’t mean that everyone who is angry ends up murdering, but it is indeed true that everyone who murders is first angry. And insulting your brother is also a result of anger.
Now, let’s pause just for a moment to contemplate what exactly is being forbidden. After all, no doubt many of us are thinking, “But not all anger is unjust.” And, indeed, that’s true. When we hear about the murder of children, violence done against the helpless, or people being taken advantage of, it is good and right to feel anger over these atrocities. I think what’s being condemned here is when our anger is tied to being personally offended.
I mean, I think if we’re honest, most of the time we feel angry it’s wrapped up in our own ego. We may even first feel anger at the fact that abortion occurs in our country, but by the point we’re deep into a discussion with someone, we’re really just angry that someone is disagreeing with us. I’ve actually gone into a witnessing situation with a self-professed atheist before and found myself feeling angry by the end. But my anger wasn’t wrapped up in the fact that this individual wasn’t giving God the glory due his name but because he wasn’t agreeing with my really clear and helpful arguments!
Being angry must not characterize us. This section will end with Jesus saying in verse 48 that we must be perfect as our Father is perfect, and if we’re taking cues from our heavenly Father, then we know that he is slow to anger. It should be true of you and me that it is hard to make us angry.
So, it is worth us asking ourselves if we consistently find ourselves angry with others. If so, we need to repent. Much sin will grow out of that. And if we ask how serious of an issue this is, Jesus gives us two illustrations of how seriously we should take being reconciled to others.
First, he says in verses 23-24, “So if you are 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.” This example is amped up if you understand that making an offering at the altar probably meant going to the temple in Jerusalem. And Jesus was teaching to people in Galilee, about 80 miles away. Jesus is saying, “Go take that 160 mile round trip before offering your gift.” His point, of course, being don’t be someone who goes through religious ceremony and feels holy because of it when you’re at odd with brothers or sisters. Don’t come to church and sing songs of praise when you’re harboring anger against another or have done something to them to cause them anger and haven’t been reconciled. This is not to say, “Skip corporate worship,” but get things right with your brother.
Jesus’ second illustration is a legal one. He pictures someone taking you to court over unpaid debt where you could be thrown into prison and stay there until you’ve paid every cent. He argues that we should try to get right with our accuser before facing such a strict judgment. Again, his point is that we need to make sure that we deal with anger seek reconciliation before we stand in judgment before the Lord.
So, again, Jesus commands us not to be people who are angry. Don’t be people who care so much about our own egos and are so bothered by offense that we are quick to anger. May it be said of all followers of Jesus Christ that we are slow to anger and quick to seek reconciliation. And as challenging as this may seem, Jesus doesn’t stop there. He goes on to address the issue of lust.
Jesus begins the next section by stating that they’ve heard the command not to commit adultery. And that is an accurate reflection of the command. We are forbidden in Scripture from having sexual relations with anyone besides the person to whom we are married. But, as with murder arising from anger, so Jesus points out that adultery arises out of a heart that lusts. Jesus says, “But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (v. 28). Again, not everyone who lusts commits adultery, but everyone who ultimately commits adultery has already done the act in his heart by lusting.
Jesus demands of his followers that we’re not given over to lust. We’re not only commanded not to commit the act of adultery but not to contemplate, imagine, and fantasize about the act in our minds. Now, in one sense, nothing in our day has changed with the temptation to lust. There were prostitutes, fornication, and adultery going on in Jerusalem in the first century, and so it is in Jackson today. However, I do think it’s become a bit easier in our day to seek to lust.
Instead of simply using your imagination or having to go find a physical person after which to lust, we can access images and movies and the like on our computers, phones, tablets, etc. And the lust that we give into when we gaze upon and desire those images is sin itself, and is giving rise to greater acts of sin, like adultery. Therefore, they must be fought in radical ways.
The example Jesus gives is gouging out our eye or cutting off our hand. That is to say, take whatever measures you need to take, no matter how radical they may seem, to avoid giving in to lust. If it means that you only utilize a computer in a public place or don’t have a smart phone or tablet, then do it. And if we answer, we’ll that’s pretty extreme, then we should remember that the examples Jesus used were cutting off your hand and gouging out your eye.
We can’t play with lust because it’s trying to pull us into hell. Let’s be a church full of people who go on an all-out assault against lust. Let’s not treat it lightly or consider it as acceptable in light of how commonplace it seems. Let’s repent, turn from our lust, and take radical steps to cut it out of our lives. Jesus demands no less.
On a similar note, in verses 31-32,
Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 24, where Moses instructed the people to give their wives a certificate of divorce if indeed a divorce occurs. Now, Moses gave this command as a form of protection for the woman. If her husband divorced her and did not give her a certificate of divorce, then she could look like she’s merely abandoned her husband with no proof that he’s divorced her. Moreover, the husband could concoct a scheme whereby he divorces his wife, gives her a certificate, has her marry another man of wealth, and plans to be married again to his wife when her next husband divorces her or dies thereby getting another man’s wealth. Moses, therefore, refuses to allow the original couple to be remarried after this has taken place. Again, this law came in the midst of a number of laws about loving one’s neighbor.
However, many had taken this law as a license simply to divorce one’s spouse and go be with another. All you had to do was give a certificate of divorce. This was easy, no-fault divorce in the first century. But Jesus says, in essence, “Don’t deceive yourselves that what you’re doing is okay.” He says, “But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery” (v. 32).
That is, if a man divorces his wife, thinking he can go and marry another and it be holy, he needs to recognize that he’s actually committing adultery. A certificate of divorce isn’t sufficient to sever one’s marriage ties and obligations. You can issue a certificate of divorce to your wife, but when you go and bind yourself to another, Jesus says, you’re committing adultery.
Now, he does add “except on the ground of sexual immorality.” And I think this is because there is an exception here wherein if your spouse commits adultery, then the marriage can be rightly and scripturally resolves on the grounds of your spouse committing sexual immorality with another. We even see the Lord doing this toward Israel, whom he calls his bride, when she is unfaithful to him. In the midst of showing Judah what Israel did (whom he refers to as Judah’s sister), the Lord says in Jeremiah 3:8, “She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce.” So, Jesus provides this exception.
But let’s not miss the forest for the trees here. In a day of easy, no-fault divorce, Jesus says, “Don’t deceive yourself. When you divorce your spouse and go be with another, you’re committing adultery, and you’ll reap what you sow.” Followers of Jesus must be faithful in marriage. Additionally, we see that:
In verses 33-37, Jesus seems to be forbidding oaths or swearing by something in order to affirm your truthfulness. He says, “Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”
Some have taken this quite literally in that they do not believe they are allowed to testify under oath in court or the like. However, there are a few reasons for thinking that Jesus doesn’t mean this literally. First, he’s already told us to gouge out our eye or cut off our hand, which we understand to be a non-literal command but one indicating a willingness to take extreme measures. Second, Paul seems to call God as his witness sometimes in the NT, which would be a means of stating something in the form of an oath or swearing (e.g. 2 Cor 1:23). And, finally, God himself swears and makes oaths in Scripture (e.g. Psalm 110; Heb 6:13-17).
What was going on in that day is that people were using oaths for the intention of getting out of their word. For example, they made rules like if you swear by the temple, you’re not bound to your oath, but if you swear by the gold that is on the temple, you are bound. Therefore, people might say, “I swear by the temple,” intentionally deceiving their neighbors. This was like the first century’s version of crossing one’s fingers. This is why Jesus in Matthew 23:16-22 rebukes the Jewish teachers for saying you’re not bound if you sear by the temple instead of the gold or swear by the altar instead of the gift on the altar.
What Jesus is demanding of his followers is that we are people of our word. We speak truthfully and can be trusted. This must characterize us as much as being faithful in marriage, not lusting, and not being characterized by anger. And continuing on, we see that:
Here, Jesus notes the law “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” (v. 38). This indeed was a prescription in the OT judiciary system. The point was, in a court ruling, if someone cut your finger off and you took them to court, the judge couldn’t mandate that your head is cut off. It was a law to restrict extreme punishment. However, people had been tempted to take this statement out of its judicial setting and become vigilantes, noting, “You did this to me, and now I’ll do that to you.”
Jesus, however, says that we shouldn’t be people who retaliate. If we’re insulted through a slap on the cheek, as might be common in that day, we don’t return insult for insult. We’re willing to bear insults. Jesus uses the example of someone suing you for your tunic, something of an extreme, unlikely example, and Jesus say to throw in your cloak as well, meaning that we should be willing not to demand every personal right. Or, if a Roman soldier commands you to go one mile, go two. Or, again, give to the one who asks from you.
Now, once more, I don’t think we can press this to the point of literal obedience, for it’s simply not always loving to give to the one who asks. My youngest would literally let me give him sugar until his pancreas just gave up and shut down. And at times people have come into the church asking for money for food, and then gotten quite angry when I actually offered them food instead of money.
The point seems to be, though, that Jesus’ followers aren’t the kind of people who demand rights and seek retaliation. We won’t retaliate when insulted and won’t make demands in light of thinking we deserve a great deal.
Finally,
Here, Jesus quotes a clear interpretation of the law. The law does say to love your neighbor, but never to hate your enemies. Jesus says just as God does good to the righteous and unrighteous, sending his rain to fall and the sun to rise on each of them, so we must be people who love our enemies. We must be kind to those who would ridicule us and pray for those who persecute us. We must not be the kind of people who slander and return wickedness upon the wicked. Perhaps we would see greater blessing if we spent as much time praying for our enemies as we do speaking against them.
This is what Jesus demands. We must not be characterized by anger, lust, or adultery. We must speak truthfully, willingly lay down our rights, and love our enemies. And if this seems radical, then Jesus concludes by laying out that we must be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect, both pointing us to our need to trust in the crucified and risen Christ as our only hope of perfect righteousness, and pointing us to the radical obedience he demands of his followers. Therefore, let us this morning, repent and cry out to God for grace to obey his demands. And then, let’s take up the task of discipling others, teaching them to obey what Christ has commanded us here. Amen.