WEBVTT 00:00:20.079 --> 00:00:21.519 Well, good morning, everyone. 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:25.120 I uh hope this finds you well this Sunday morning. 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:31.280 And uh welcome to you if you're uh tuning in from uh outside of Dublin, across the world. 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:36.560 Thank you for joining us as we continue our sermon series in the Sermon on the Mount. 00:00:36.799 --> 00:00:55.600 And really, from uh from this week, the sermon series almost gets uh kind of topical as we look at some of the issues that uh that Jesus raises in the Sermon on the Mount, which is why Andrew read from uh from two passages that we're kind of uh drawing from today. 00:00:55.840 --> 00:01:00.399 So today we're going to be thinking about anger uh in just a moment. 00:01:00.799 --> 00:01:13.840 Uh next week we'll be thinking about uh lust, uh then uh let me see integrity, uh prayer, and then two weeks on anxiety uh and worry. 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:18.879 So it's a really important season uh and sermon series, uh, I think for us. 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:20.159 So that's where we're going. 00:01:20.239 --> 00:01:22.480 We'll be thinking about anger today. 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:24.000 Uh, you're welcome. 00:01:24.159 --> 00:01:28.640 Uh, I hope you have a nice hot cup of something in front of you. 00:01:28.719 --> 00:01:32.000 And please do have that passage in front of you as well. 00:01:32.159 --> 00:01:35.760 Let's pray uh together as we come to God's word. 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:53.200 Uh Father, help us now as we consider uh this uh this teaching, these verses uh that inevitably will uh cut to the heart. 00:01:54.879 --> 00:02:04.000 Father, would you see us, would you show us our need uh of you, our great need of your grace? 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:17.280 Thank you that you send Jesus not only to teach us these things, uh, but to live the life that we could not live in order to bring us to you. 00:02:17.919 --> 00:02:21.680 So help us now, we pray, in the name of Jesus. 00:02:22.080 --> 00:02:22.719 Amen. 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:30.319 Uh, I want us just for a moment, right at the start, to think a little bit about werewolves. 00:02:30.719 --> 00:02:35.680 Uh, maybe you have uh never ever seen a werewolf movie, and that's okay. 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:39.840 Uh, but everybody should know what a werewolf uh is. 00:02:40.080 --> 00:02:49.919 Werewolves, uh werewolves live their life as uh most of their life as normal people, uh normal human beings, men and women. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:58.080 They're even uh in some of the best ones, uh some of the best movies, or uh, if you want a recommendation, you'd watch the TV show Being Human. 00:02:58.159 --> 00:03:25.599 Uh they are extraordinarily kind, really shy, mild uh mannered people until that uh that once-a-month trigger, till that that full moon and the transformation occurs, and uh they cannot help but but give way to to the beast uh who does uh untold damage and destruction. 00:03:26.319 --> 00:03:30.240 Something triggers them and they lose control. 00:03:31.120 --> 00:03:37.680 They're no longer in control of who they are, of their emotions. 00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:57.840 And the werewolf myth, like many uh myths of that genre, are actually a reflection on human beings, and they're a reflection on how we deal with our anger, how we deal with our rage. 00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:04.400 How do you feel when someone wrongs you? 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:08.319 Or how do you feel when someone is just wrong? 00:04:10.319 --> 00:04:12.719 How do you feel when you have been slighted? 00:04:12.879 --> 00:04:18.240 When you find out that somebody has been saying something about you behind your back? 00:04:21.199 --> 00:04:24.560 Do you seethe and brood? 00:04:26.079 --> 00:04:26.720 I do. 00:04:29.360 --> 00:04:31.120 Do you think badly? 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:39.680 Do you think bad thoughts about the person who's wronged you or who you perceive to have wronged you? 00:04:40.959 --> 00:04:43.279 Do you think vengeful thoughts? 00:04:44.639 --> 00:04:45.279 I do. 00:04:49.759 --> 00:04:56.560 I have lost many arguments in my life, but I've never lost a rerun. 00:04:57.680 --> 00:04:58.399 You notice that? 00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:07.759 You get into an argument with somebody, but then afterwards you play it back in your head and you think, oh, I said that thing and that thing and that thing. 00:05:08.560 --> 00:05:09.279 I would have got them. 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:13.120 I would have really stuck the dagger in, I would have won that argument. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:14.639 I've lost many arguments. 00:05:14.720 --> 00:05:16.319 I've never lost a rerun. 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:24.639 I tend to be good with words, I tend to be quite quick on my feet when I'm talking to people. 00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:35.920 And that, in I hope, contexts like this, uh, can be used for good, but that can also, like the one ring, be used for tremendous evil. 00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:42.160 I know that I can unleash my words and take somebody down. 00:05:43.680 --> 00:05:48.160 I know that I am a werewolf. 00:05:49.839 --> 00:05:57.759 I also know if I'm not going to do it overtly and offensively, I know how to do it slyly. 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:03.680 I know how to hide my daggers in jokes. 00:06:04.560 --> 00:06:12.800 I know how to hide my daggers in jest and frivolous comments. 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:14.000 Do you? 00:06:27.199 --> 00:06:34.079 Not only uh am I, speaking personally, uh married, I have children. 00:06:34.720 --> 00:06:42.800 You add children into the mix, and that makes the uh the beast all the more pronounced. 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:50.879 You being in a relationship with another human being, yeah, brings out it brings out the good in you and it brings out the bad in you. 00:06:51.040 --> 00:06:56.720 Being a parent brings out the best in you and the worst. 00:06:57.759 --> 00:07:01.120 We were in person, I might even say, can I get an amen? 00:07:03.680 --> 00:07:17.279 That is all to say that as we think about anger today, I want you all to know, if you haven't perceived it through your interactions with me before, that I have skin in the game. 00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:29.279 I know what it is to be angry, to speak in ways that are uncharitable, downright rude. 00:07:31.519 --> 00:07:34.079 And so I feel the weight of today's passage. 00:07:35.680 --> 00:07:48.879 To say nothing of the fact that don't you feel the world around you feeding your anger and your sense of frustration? 00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:59.839 Every social media platform that you go on is designed to fuel your frustration at the world. 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:04.879 Facebook tends to kind of uh fuel your frustration at people. 00:08:05.040 --> 00:08:09.920 You gotta hide them and mute them because you're you know, how could they think such a thing? 00:08:10.319 --> 00:08:13.839 Twitter should just never, you should just never go on it. 00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:20.079 It is just a a you know a fire in a bin. 00:08:21.360 --> 00:08:27.040 It's a dumpster fire that feeds and fuels anger. 00:08:27.279 --> 00:08:33.919 Look at what this person said, look at what she did, look at what Trump did, look at what Biden said. 00:08:34.720 --> 00:08:40.320 It just feeds the anger and the bitterness and the rivalry and the vengeance. 00:08:40.480 --> 00:08:53.679 And don't you feel as you're trying to you know relax and settle down to get better you know, go to bed and go to sleep, that you're like, there are people who are wrong on the internet, and we get swept up in it. 00:08:55.759 --> 00:09:26.320 We get swept up in all of the rage, I think of the rage in our in our world right now, in our country right now, the people that you know, I can't believe that they aren't wearing a mask, or I can't believe that the government is cracking down and taking away our rights, and I have rights, and I should be able to you know wear whatever I want to wear and go wherever I want to go, and how dare they do that, and how dare they set up checkpoints and the and eight kilometer tailbacks along the road, and it just spirals and spirals and spirals. 00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:28.720 Or is that just me? 00:09:28.960 --> 00:09:32.799 Like, am I the only werewolf at City Church, or are there others? 00:09:35.759 --> 00:10:05.440 The Sermon on the Mind is as we have noted in previous weeks, it is Jesus' manifesto for a Christian counterculture, a new society, a community of people that operates differently, that thinks differently, that works differently, that thinks and feels and values things differently from the world around us. 00:10:08.960 --> 00:10:27.840 But I guess before we can live differently, what Jesus has to do and what he does here and throughout the Sermon of the Mind is he holds up a mirror and he bids you to look at yourself as you truly are. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:35.200 This is a kindness. 00:10:36.799 --> 00:10:51.840 Jesus is being kind to us this morning as he shows us the seriousness of our anger so that we might turn from it. 00:10:52.320 --> 00:11:03.600 But not only that we might turn from it, but that we might turn to the only one who can offer us true help, true transformation for you and your inner werewolf. 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:17.360 The first thing that Jesus shows us is that our anger is murder in miniature. 00:11:18.399 --> 00:11:23.200 Jesus shows us that our anger is murder in miniature. 00:11:23.679 --> 00:11:27.919 Read with me uh again at verse 21 and 22. 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:34.159 He's talking to his disciples, those who have followed him. 00:11:34.480 --> 00:11:42.559 He says, You've heard it said to those of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:50.320 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be liable to judgment. 00:11:50.480 --> 00:12:01.519 Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel, and whoever says, You fool, will be liable to the hell of fire. 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:14.639 Whoever is angry is guilty of murder, guilty of the same judgment, liable to the same judgment. 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:16.720 That's what Jesus is saying here. 00:12:17.120 --> 00:12:26.240 Now, whenever we hear something like this, whenever we hear something critical of ourselves, I know what's happening in all of your in all of your heads because it's happened in my head this week. 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:35.759 Whenever you hear something critical, something so stark like this, uh, the first thing that happens is that you contact the lawyer that lives in there. 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:48.480 You contact your little mental solicitor, and he jumps to your defense, and he comes armed with rebuttals and questions and says, Well, what about this scenario? 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:50.000 And what about this, and what about that? 00:12:50.080 --> 00:12:55.840 And I know that you're doing that, and I know that there are there's more to say. 00:12:57.120 --> 00:13:01.440 Maybe you're you're thinking, Well, what about anger at injustice? 00:13:01.600 --> 00:13:04.799 Uh, what about when the Bible says that God gets angry? 00:13:04.960 --> 00:13:08.480 What about when Jesus got angry? 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:30.799 Those are all legitimate questions, and yes, we have to answer the fact that there is a distinction between godly anger and injustice against another or against God and the anger that Jesus is talking about here. 00:13:31.759 --> 00:13:34.639 But Jesus is not, he's not explaining all of that now. 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:38.639 Jesus is not offering any caveats or exceptions. 00:13:39.120 --> 00:13:39.759 Why? 00:13:40.720 --> 00:13:55.440 Because he wants you, he wants me to feel the seriousness of the anger that resides within us, because most of our anger is not aroused at great injustices. 00:13:55.919 --> 00:14:10.960 Some of it is, but the majority of our anger in the day-to-day is thrown up in the in the little actions of people around us, of our of our children frustrating us, and then we we blow up. 00:14:11.039 --> 00:14:18.879 We're like uh we're like the uh we're like the emotion and inside out the movie, you know, we're like and then our top just blows. 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:21.200 That's most what our our anger is. 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:25.919 It's something that comes because we perceive that something has been done against us. 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:34.720 It's not an injustice out there, it's that I've been hurt, my ego's been bruised, I've been slighted, I feel like I'm losing control. 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:39.840 And so we we are wrapped like little mini volcanoes. 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:49.440 And Jesus wants us to feel the seriousness of that, that that is murder in miniature. 00:14:52.080 --> 00:14:58.480 Religious people always want to make sure that the externals are right. 00:14:58.639 --> 00:15:08.799 You always want to make sure that you look clean and speak cleanly and act cleanly on the outside, that you're doing the right thing, saying the right thing, and that's all that matters. 00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:13.360 Religious people are always concerned about the outside. 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:32.480 And so what uh you know what happened here was that the people of old, the religious leaders, they're saying, well, as long as you don't actually go through the act of murder, as long as you don't uh do the external thing of actually striking down the person, then then you're golden. 00:15:32.799 --> 00:15:34.559 You know, you haven't broken that law. 00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:40.639 You can go tick uh to the sixth commandment of the of the Big Ten. 00:15:41.360 --> 00:15:46.720 Religious people always ask, how far can I go before I'm sinning? 00:15:47.440 --> 00:15:52.559 How close to it can I get before I've broken God's law? 00:15:54.080 --> 00:15:59.600 That is toxic religion, and that is not Christianity. 00:16:02.399 --> 00:16:10.799 So people looked at the commandment and said, Well, I haven't murdered anybody, so great, you know, one down, nine to go. 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:11.840 Tick. 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:14.080 I'm doing pretty well. 00:16:16.080 --> 00:16:19.200 Or uh what was happening in the latter issue. 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:25.120 So if you can scan your eye down to verse 38, you have heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:27.759 That was given. 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:31.200 The idea of that was to restrain violence. 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:45.039 It was given to the to the uh to those who were supposed to administer justice, not to individuals, and it was supposed to restrain violence uh and give a kind of principle of proportionality. 00:16:45.200 --> 00:16:50.720 So if you know if somebody, you know, somebody slaps you on the cheek, you don't then go and lop off their head. 00:16:50.799 --> 00:16:52.399 You know, it's proportionality. 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:58.320 But what toxic religion does is it twists it and it says, how much vengeance can I exact? 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:04.720 How much of my pound of flesh can I take before I'm sinning? 00:17:05.119 --> 00:17:07.119 And Jesus is saying, it's the wrong question. 00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:11.839 You're you're approaching it with exactly the wrong attitude. 00:17:12.720 --> 00:17:26.640 Religion is always about the outside, the external, making sure that the external rule keeping is there and getting as close to that line, that boundary of sin as possible without actually crossing it. 00:17:27.279 --> 00:17:28.960 But that's not Christianity. 00:17:29.200 --> 00:17:43.920 Christianity is not about mere external rule keeping, it's not about outward expression, it's about inward transformation, nor is it about how close to the line of sin can I get? 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:47.759 It's about how far can I run away from it. 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:54.720 You know, if you imagine that line of sin is a cliff's edge, you know that the ground below you is unstable. 00:17:54.799 --> 00:18:03.759 It's not a question of how close to the cliff's edge can I get before I fall off and fall to my death, it's how far away from that cliff's edge that I am safe, can I be? 00:18:06.160 --> 00:18:10.960 So Jesus tells his followers that you've been thinking about it all wrong, that we think about it all wrong. 00:18:11.039 --> 00:18:16.559 It's not simply a matter of never murdering someone, of never taking a person's life. 00:18:16.799 --> 00:18:32.079 If you are angry at your brother or sister, and I take it to mean any you know fellow human being in the in the family of humanity, if you are angry at another person, Jesus says that you are liable to judgment. 00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:37.039 Did Jesus get angry? 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:37.519 Yes. 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:41.119 Is there a time for anger at sin and injustice? 00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:42.000 Yes. 00:18:42.400 --> 00:18:46.160 But do you know about what the difference between Jesus' anger and our anger is? 00:18:46.880 --> 00:18:49.519 Jesus' anger was never wrapped up with ego. 00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:54.640 Jesus' anger was never wrapped up with self-justification. 00:18:55.759 --> 00:18:58.400 Jesus' anger was never wrapped up with entitlement. 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:10.880 And a moment's reflection, a moment's honesty, is that our anger, by and large, is it's because we're wrapped up in ourselves. 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:22.240 How often is our anger or contempt of a person kindled because we feel bruised? 00:19:24.720 --> 00:19:26.720 Our ego is hurt. 00:19:27.119 --> 00:19:33.119 We want to justify ourselves, make people see right. 00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:46.240 We could get all high and mighty, but a moment's reflection tells us that our anger so often comes out of a place of self-love. 00:19:49.359 --> 00:20:07.119 When I raise my voice to my kids, which I do far too often, it says much more about me and about where my heart is at, and about what I prioritize. 00:20:07.279 --> 00:20:12.960 I you know, I just want peace and quiet and compliance to my lordship. 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:19.039 It says so much more about me than it does about the thing that they have done. 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:23.839 And yeah, like children need to be need to be disciplined, right? 00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:27.599 But to fly off the handle. 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:31.599 It says so much more about me than it does about them. 00:20:33.599 --> 00:20:41.440 There's no doubt that parenting is hard, and I'm certainly not taking any shots at parents who are simply trying their best. 00:20:41.680 --> 00:20:45.440 God knows we are here, and we fail. 00:20:45.680 --> 00:20:48.400 And every parent knows that they fail. 00:20:49.759 --> 00:21:08.000 There's no doubt that parenting is hard, and that relationships in general are often fraught and fractious and afraid because you're having to contend with another human being who happens to be sinful as well, and two human beings who are sinful does not make a sinless relationship. 00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:17.519 But doesn't that all the more show us our need of inner transformation? 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:31.839 Doesn't the fact that like that we find it so hard to control ourselves in those exhausted moments show us all the more how much we need what Jesus is talking about here. 00:21:32.160 --> 00:21:35.839 We need his grace, we need his help. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:40.079 We don't just need to clean ourselves up on the outside, we need a heart change. 00:21:43.119 --> 00:21:50.880 Your anger, my anger, is murder in miniature. 00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:55.119 Think right back to the start of your Bible. 00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:56.960 Why did Cain kill Abel? 00:21:57.759 --> 00:21:59.599 The two the two brothers, the first. 00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:03.440 The first murder in the Bible is there in Genesis chapter four. 00:22:03.920 --> 00:22:07.599 Why did Cain kill his brother Abel? 00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:12.720 Well, it wasn't an accident, it came out of his heart. 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:16.799 He envied and resented his brother. 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:25.759 And because he felt hard done by his anger was aroused. 00:22:27.599 --> 00:22:30.880 And out of his anger he struck his brother down. 00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:42.079 That same envy, that same resentment, and jealousy, and anger resides in each of us. 00:22:46.240 --> 00:22:51.119 Jesus this morning is being like a master surgeon. 00:22:51.440 --> 00:22:55.920 He is reaching into your heart. 00:23:00.319 --> 00:23:08.160 And seeking to remove that resentful, egocentric, self-loving heart. 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:24.960 And to transform you because the consequence of continuing to live out of a heart that is bitter and angry is that we are liable for judgment. 00:23:26.319 --> 00:23:29.839 Is that we are bound for hell. 00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:33.039 And nobody likes to talk about hell. 00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:51.359 But the stark reality is that if you were to do a uh a sermon series um based on Jesus' teaching in the Gospels, say you did it over a month, you'd do uh three sermons warning people about hell and one sermon on money. 00:23:54.400 --> 00:23:55.920 That is the warning. 00:23:59.359 --> 00:24:01.599 The werewolf deserves hell. 00:24:03.920 --> 00:24:05.119 And so do we. 00:25:14.000 --> 00:25:23.279 So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift before the altar and go. 00:25:23.519 --> 00:25:28.960 First be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:40.240 Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest the accuser hand you over to the judge and the judge to the guard, and you'll be put in prison. 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:45.279 Truly I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. 00:25:50.480 --> 00:25:57.519 Think of that first illustration of that person who is uh who is in in worship, in church is what we would say, right? 00:25:57.680 --> 00:26:02.000 They're in church, hands raised in worship. 00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:13.680 Well, all the while outside of church they have done something wrong, they have hurt a brother or a sister. 00:26:15.200 --> 00:26:18.400 Jesus is saying, don't stay. 00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:19.519 Why? 00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:30.319 Religious people like to exchange inner goodness for outward ceremony. 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:39.920 Because outward, external ceremony, outward show is so much easier. 00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:43.440 It's so much easier than internal goodness. 00:26:44.319 --> 00:26:55.200 People love to substitute ceremony for true love, true integrity, true purity, but Jesus will have none of it. 00:26:56.559 --> 00:27:08.640 For Jesus, it is much more important to be reconciled with your brother or your sister than to be in public worship, than to participate in the ceremony. 00:27:10.160 --> 00:27:14.160 And note, if you would, the direction of accusation. 00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:21.279 So Jesus is saying that you're there in church and you remember that you have done something wrong. 00:27:21.440 --> 00:27:29.680 And the reason why I bring that up is because somebody might think, Well, I have been hurt, I have been the victim of hurt. 00:27:29.759 --> 00:27:32.079 Does that mean that I can't participate? 00:27:32.319 --> 00:27:34.079 No, that's not what Jesus is talking about here. 00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:44.640 Jesus is talking about you know that you've said something, that you have done something, your brother, your sister is hurt because you've said something either wrong or the tone that you use was wrong. 00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:49.279 Some of us might say the right thing, but we struggle to say it in the right way. 00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:54.000 Uh, that's you know, maybe one of the things that I have to deal with. 00:27:57.519 --> 00:28:19.359 Jesus' teaching here is that when it's on you and you know that it's on you, it is up to you to leave, to excuse yourself from the ceremony and go and be reconciled to your brother, to your sister, to your relative, because that's more important. 00:28:20.240 --> 00:28:28.720 It is more important that you are reconciled to them than you come and take communion whenever we are back and able to take communion. 00:28:29.200 --> 00:28:37.200 Because to sit there while you know that you have done something wrong, while you know that you have been intemperate is a sham. 00:28:37.279 --> 00:28:42.000 It's just a pretense, it's just you being an external religious person. 00:28:43.279 --> 00:28:57.680 Jesus says, No, get up, walk out of the room, go and apologize, repent, ask for forgiveness, plead for grace, hope for reconciliation, and then come back and worship with a clear conscience. 00:29:00.079 --> 00:29:03.920 Who do you need to go and reconcile with? 00:29:04.640 --> 00:29:15.920 Are you sitting beside the person that you need to now pause this feed and say, look, the way I responded yesterday, I I am sorry, please forgive me. 00:29:17.599 --> 00:29:19.359 Go and do it now. 00:29:20.319 --> 00:29:22.480 So be on Facebook later. 00:29:23.440 --> 00:29:28.640 If you need to send a WhatsApp message and say, can I talk to you this afternoon? 00:29:29.599 --> 00:29:30.880 Do it now. 00:29:38.960 --> 00:29:41.279 Why does Jesus tell us to do this? 00:29:42.559 --> 00:29:48.799 Jesus tells us to do this because God has never wanted merely your outward obedience. 00:29:48.880 --> 00:29:50.799 That's not what God is after. 00:29:52.640 --> 00:29:58.079 God doesn't want your perfunctory performance and your pretense and your sham religion. 00:29:58.400 --> 00:29:59.920 He wants your heart. 00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:02.160 That's all he's ever wanted. 00:30:02.319 --> 00:30:05.680 He wants you to worship out of a pure heart, out of spirit and truth. 00:30:10.799 --> 00:30:18.000 Similarly, the second illustration about you know reconciling on the on the way to court before you get it's probably debtor's prison, which is not a thing that we have now. 00:30:18.079 --> 00:30:28.400 But if you're um if you were in debt to somebody, you would have to go uh to prison if you didn't kind of settle it out of court um until they the debt was paid. 00:30:28.559 --> 00:30:33.839 But the point is this Jesus says you need to reconcile as a matter of urgency. 00:30:34.319 --> 00:30:40.400 It's not a kind of uh I'll get to it or I'll let this kind of rumble on a little while longer. 00:30:40.960 --> 00:30:44.880 No, you deal with it now so that things don't escalate. 00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:49.279 They say that's you know, to the to the judge, the judge to the guard, and the guard into prison. 00:30:49.359 --> 00:30:57.359 You don't want to make things worse for yourself, you want to deal with it as a matter of urgency to settle the grievance quickly. 00:30:57.599 --> 00:31:02.799 So, brothers, sisters, don't let things fester. 00:31:04.640 --> 00:31:10.559 Deal them quickly, and maybe there's wrong on both sides. 00:31:12.400 --> 00:31:18.960 You apologize for the stuff that was on you, you go and say, Look, I'm sorry. 00:31:20.880 --> 00:31:30.880 And see if that doesn't melt the ice a bit, such that the person then says, Do you know when I said that and I did that, look, I'm sorry too. 00:31:32.240 --> 00:31:35.599 And if they don't, that's not on you. 00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:37.839 That's not on you. 00:31:42.880 --> 00:32:04.400 The desire for reconciliation, the desire to be friends again, reunited again, will only come from a heart that is loosening its grip on its own ego, on its own sense of entitlement. 00:32:09.279 --> 00:32:14.799 Such a person will become less self-serving and more self-giving. 00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:27.680 And that's what the second reading is about from verses 38 to 42, when Jesus is talking about you being so look at verse 39. 00:32:27.839 --> 00:32:31.839 But I say to you, do not resist the uh one who is evil. 00:32:32.079 --> 00:32:36.559 Uh, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him also the other. 00:32:37.680 --> 00:32:43.759 And if anyone would sue you and take your chinock, let him have your cloak as well. 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:47.839 And if someone forces you to go a mile, go with him two miles. 00:32:48.400 --> 00:32:53.599 Give to the one who begs for you from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. 00:32:55.279 --> 00:33:04.160 People often get angry because their sense of entitlement has been ignored or contravened. 00:33:04.640 --> 00:33:07.200 I am entitled to this and I didn't get it. 00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:17.920 So I'm going to stand on this and I'm going to pound my fist on the counter of the restaurant or the shop that I'm in until my rights are heard. 00:33:21.039 --> 00:33:24.880 They get angry because they don't like to feel like they're being taken for a ride. 00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:27.279 How can this person do this to me? 00:33:27.519 --> 00:33:30.240 They're just taking advantage of me. 00:33:32.000 --> 00:33:40.720 The follower of Jesus counters the culture of entitlements by willingly laying aside their rights. 00:33:41.759 --> 00:33:44.720 Look at the three illustrations that Jesus gives. 00:33:45.039 --> 00:33:53.359 In turning the other cheek, Jesus is not saying, listen to this, Jesus is not saying that Christians should willingly endure physical violence. 00:33:53.599 --> 00:33:55.839 He is not saying that. 00:33:57.119 --> 00:34:04.720 If you are enduring physical violence in a relationship that you are in, you need to extricate yourself from that relationship. 00:34:04.799 --> 00:34:10.719 You need to get out and seek help and contact us if you are in Dublin and we will help you. 00:34:10.880 --> 00:34:16.000 This is not if you are struck in the cheek by a violent partner, you turn to them the other. 00:34:16.079 --> 00:34:18.480 That is not what Jesus is saying. 00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:24.079 Slap on the cheek in the inch in the ancient world. 00:34:24.239 --> 00:34:31.360 Uh it was uh it was like in Robo and Juliet, you know, you kind of do you bite your thumb at me, sir. 00:34:31.440 --> 00:34:34.079 You know, it's kind of it's uh it's a sign of insult. 00:34:34.480 --> 00:34:37.519 So it would have been just a code. 00:34:38.480 --> 00:34:44.719 It's Jesus saying if somebody insults you, not assaults you. 00:34:45.039 --> 00:34:50.480 If somebody insults you, you don't give back to them as good as you get. 00:34:51.440 --> 00:35:01.119 Well, you're just a how dare you say that to me, you piece of Jesus is saying, No, no, you don't give as good as you get. 00:35:01.360 --> 00:35:12.480 Rather, he's saying, you absorb the heart, you absorb the insult, you walk away. 00:35:14.559 --> 00:35:20.400 Your cloak in the ancient world, so you've been sued for your chinock, and Jesus says, Give them your cloak as well. 00:35:20.480 --> 00:35:26.719 Your cloak, which was uh one of your outer garment, one of your outer garments. 00:35:26.800 --> 00:35:27.840 You had two main garments. 00:35:27.920 --> 00:35:34.159 If you were a guy, you had your chinock and you had your outer cloak, and everyone was legally entitled to a cloak, right? 00:35:34.320 --> 00:35:35.119 That's the point. 00:35:35.280 --> 00:35:40.960 You were legally entitled to your cloak, you couldn't be sued for it, somebody couldn't take it from you. 00:35:41.119 --> 00:35:43.039 It was your right. 00:35:45.199 --> 00:35:51.360 And Jesus is saying, you give the guy suing you your cloak. 00:35:51.920 --> 00:36:02.239 That is, the follower of Jesus needs to be prepared to abandon those things that are his right for the sake of the kingdom. 00:36:05.119 --> 00:36:12.639 We set aside our rights, we set aside our entitlements in order to commend Jesus to others. 00:36:13.679 --> 00:36:20.880 The third one about uh you know forcing to walk a mile, you go to that comes from the uh the Roman world. 00:36:20.960 --> 00:36:23.039 So a Roman soldier could commandeer you. 00:36:23.199 --> 00:36:30.960 Say you're kind of you're walking one way and a Roman soldier is coming you the other way, and he's carrying his backpack, right? 00:36:31.199 --> 00:36:40.480 He can stop you, he has the right to stop you and say, You need to turn around and come with me for one mile and carry that for me to give me relief. 00:36:40.719 --> 00:36:46.320 That was a legal obligation in the ancient world, and that's an inconvenience, right? 00:36:46.400 --> 00:36:57.679 If you're walking here one way and this Roman soldier's coming along telling you, actually, no, you've got to double back and waste another mile, Jesus is saying, go with them too. 00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:00.000 Go with them too. 00:37:00.239 --> 00:37:03.199 Be prepared to be inconvenienced. 00:37:07.519 --> 00:37:18.800 That is that the followers of Jesus will not feel hard done by or irritable, but that they go the second mile. 00:37:22.480 --> 00:37:27.519 Maybe you're thinking at this point, how does anybody keep this? 00:37:27.840 --> 00:37:31.360 How does anybody live like this? 00:37:33.119 --> 00:37:35.760 Can I say you're supposed to? 00:37:36.880 --> 00:37:49.679 That's the point of the Sermon on the Mount, and that's why, thirdly, Jesus' teaching on anger shows us our desperate need of grace. 00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:59.280 All of this taken together shows us that external rule keeping isn't what Jesus is after. 00:38:00.079 --> 00:38:02.480 That's not what a counterculture is. 00:38:04.000 --> 00:38:11.519 But what it also shows us is that it is impossible to live like this without his help. 00:38:11.760 --> 00:38:18.960 It's impossible to live the way that he is describing without him intervening. 00:38:21.840 --> 00:38:27.760 Jesus is requiring here a change of heart for everyone who would follow him. 00:38:28.239 --> 00:38:36.639 Because we all default, don't we, to defending ourselves, to retaliating, to harboring grudges, to feeling hard done by and resentful. 00:38:38.320 --> 00:38:46.480 How do you take a heart like that and make it willing to be forgiving, willing to be generous? 00:38:49.360 --> 00:38:59.280 It's right that you should listen to the Sermon in the Mind here this morning and feel helpless because you are, and that's the point. 00:38:59.599 --> 00:39:02.880 The Sermon in the Mind is not a checklist to be fulfilled. 00:39:03.039 --> 00:39:08.800 It's supposed to make you stop and say, How can any of us escape hell if this is the standard? 00:39:08.960 --> 00:39:15.679 You later on the Sermon of the Mind, Jesus says, Your righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees. 00:39:23.119 --> 00:39:25.280 The answer is none of us. 00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:37.840 And then we remember that Jesus didn't come just to make you a bit more moral, to clean you up on the outside. 00:39:38.960 --> 00:40:02.000 He came to reach into your chest and to remove that angry, resentful, jealous, self-loving, grudge-harbouring organ from your chest, and to give you a new heart is a gift of his grace. 00:40:03.199 --> 00:40:05.920 It's a gift of his grace. 00:40:09.039 --> 00:40:13.599 Those of you who are particularly studious will notice that we skipped over a section. 00:40:14.880 --> 00:40:25.599 We skipped over the section where Jesus says that uh do not think that I have come, this is verse 17, to abolish the law or the prophets. 00:40:25.840 --> 00:40:31.679 I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. 00:40:34.320 --> 00:40:44.000 All of Jesus' teaching subsequent to that hangs on this idea that Jesus is the perfect law keeper for us. 00:40:45.519 --> 00:40:59.440 That Jesus is the one who fulfills all of the requirements of never looking resentfully or with bitterness or with egotistical anger at another person. 00:41:00.480 --> 00:41:02.559 He fulfills it for you. 00:41:06.960 --> 00:41:13.840 The werewolf in the werewolf myth so often tries to control his inner rage. 00:41:15.039 --> 00:41:18.079 He knows his triggers, it's the full moon, right? 00:41:18.400 --> 00:41:23.519 He knows what's going to set him off, and so he takes measures to counter it. 00:41:23.760 --> 00:41:33.039 He restrains himself, he locks himself in a cage so that when the triggers come, he doesn't do damage. 00:41:35.119 --> 00:41:41.679 There is value in you knowing what makes your blood boil, what's your full moon. 00:41:42.320 --> 00:41:51.760 There's value in you knowing what your cages and restraints are, but it is not enough. 00:41:53.360 --> 00:42:01.199 What the werewolf needs, what the werewolf wants, is to be freed from the curse. 00:42:02.320 --> 00:42:10.960 What you want, what I want, as I have studied this this week, is to be freed from the curse. 00:42:12.079 --> 00:42:15.280 And that is what Jesus offers in the gospel. 00:42:17.599 --> 00:42:25.599 Jesus is the only one who has ever lived who did not allow his ego to cause him to lash out. 00:42:26.880 --> 00:42:34.800 He suffered false accusations, blows of violence, and never spoke words of vengeance. 00:42:35.039 --> 00:42:38.239 Instead, he spoke words of forgiveness. 00:42:41.039 --> 00:42:46.480 Jesus died for angry people like me. 00:42:48.639 --> 00:42:57.760 He experienced the hell that I deserve for my resentful, egocentric temper. 00:43:00.159 --> 00:43:03.599 And in exchange, he has shown me grace. 00:43:07.199 --> 00:43:16.559 He shattered and is shattering my ego by showing me that I am helpless without him. 00:43:19.039 --> 00:43:24.960 He is bidding us all to look in that awful mirror this morning. 00:43:26.559 --> 00:43:29.119 That mirror of our own sin. 00:43:31.039 --> 00:43:34.000 And then to look to him for grace. 00:43:35.440 --> 00:43:41.440 What he means to cultivate in us is a look 18 attitude. 00:43:41.519 --> 00:43:45.840 In Luke 18, he tells the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. 00:43:45.920 --> 00:43:51.440 And the Pharisee stands with puffed out chests and says, Oh God, I thank you that I am not like this Pharisee. 00:43:51.599 --> 00:43:53.760 I thank you that I am better than other men. 00:43:54.639 --> 00:44:03.039 And the Pharisee cannot even lift his eyes to heaven and beats his breast and says, Have mercy on me, God, a sinner. 00:44:05.280 --> 00:44:07.440 We turn aside from our anger. 00:44:07.679 --> 00:44:23.599 God uproots our anger when we see that we have nothing in ourselves to claim entitlement over, that it all comes from Him, that it's all in service to Him. 00:44:29.039 --> 00:44:32.079 He took my hell and gave me His heaven. 00:44:32.880 --> 00:44:37.039 He took my murder in miniature and gave me His fullness of life. 00:44:38.079 --> 00:44:40.000 That is not to say that I am now perfect. 00:44:40.079 --> 00:44:46.480 That is not to say that I will now no longer ever again raise my voice to my children. 00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:52.880 But by God's grace, I'm not what I once was. 00:44:55.599 --> 00:45:08.639 And by God's grace, the Father looks at me with all of my faults and failings and sees not my egocentricity, but sees the perfect righteousness of his son. 00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:12.079 Thank God he does. 00:45:12.639 --> 00:45:19.760 And that he now has given me his spirit so that I can turn aside from anger. 00:45:21.199 --> 00:45:31.519 Because I can turn aside from my own desire for control, desire to be right all the time, and not just to be right all the time, but to be seen to be right all the time. 00:45:35.039 --> 00:45:37.119 Oh, that he would work that more. 00:45:42.079 --> 00:45:45.440 This is the reality of every Jesus follower. 00:45:48.800 --> 00:46:01.039 And it is from that transformed heart that we live lives that are now filled with gratitude, that are generous and forgiving, they're willing to set aside wrongs and hurts. 00:46:01.280 --> 00:46:05.519 They're willing to forgive because we know the depth that we have been forgiven. 00:46:10.320 --> 00:46:18.639 We long to be reconciled with our brothers and sisters that we have harmed because we know the sweetness of being reconciled to our God. 00:46:21.360 --> 00:46:25.760 We cultivate self-sacrifice rather than self-service. 00:46:28.719 --> 00:46:46.480 Because Jesus has generously, by his death and resurrection, given us a heart like his, as he lavishly laid down, set aside all his rights, and laid down his life for us. 00:46:47.280 --> 00:46:57.920 That's the heart that the Christian now has by the grace of God, empowered and fueled and energized by the Spirit of God. 00:46:59.920 --> 00:47:02.960 And so I want to leave you with a note of hope. 00:47:04.800 --> 00:47:17.760 Do not feel that at the end of this, that you cannot turn aside from your anger, that you can make no progress in the rage that you feel. 00:47:19.599 --> 00:47:25.360 Maybe some of your rage is so deep that you scarce want to look at it. 00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:39.280 Progress begins by a recognition of our own need, of our own helplessness. 00:47:43.199 --> 00:47:54.400 And what God lavishes on you then is his abundant, undeserved kindness and grace. 00:47:55.760 --> 00:47:57.679 And so he gives you new desires. 00:47:58.320 --> 00:47:59.920 He gives you a new heart. 00:48:01.840 --> 00:48:04.320 That is no longer addicted to self. 00:48:11.280 --> 00:48:22.320 That is willing to set aside all things in order to follow the one who loved your soul. 00:48:25.119 --> 00:48:48.639 If you need in this time, and with this I'll finish, if you need in this time to talk to somebody about the way that you feel, about the anger that you scarce want to look at, but who behind closed doors it erupts, it erupts in your relationships, it erupts towards your children as well. 00:48:50.880 --> 00:49:07.280 Would you reach out to me, to Duncan, to Ben, to Peter, someone, another brother or sister at City Church, to say, can I talk to you about the sermon on Sunday? 00:49:11.920 --> 00:49:14.639 And by God's grace we will make progress together. 00:49:16.400 --> 00:49:27.199 And one day God will complete that good work, and the curse will be lifted, and all of our werewolves will be dead. 00:49:28.320 --> 00:49:29.599 Let's pray. 00:49:44.320 --> 00:49:51.440 We thank you for his kindness that he shows us that our anger is murder in miniature. 00:49:51.760 --> 00:50:32.000 May we feel the weight of that, and may that weight both drive us away from indulging those emotions, but also drive us to Jesus, who soothes our angry hearts and transforms them into hearts of flesh that are sensitive to him, that are made after his own heart of self-giving, generosity. 00:50:33.199 --> 00:50:34.960 Help us, we pray. 00:50:35.280 --> 00:50:36.639 We need it, Lord. 00:50:36.880 --> 00:50:42.559 Give us your spirit afresh, we ask in the name of Jesus. 00:50:43.360 --> 00:50:44.000 Amen. 00:50:45.039 --> 00:50:45.679 Amen.