The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:33-48 (day two)  But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil. Vs 37

I am not a good poker player. That should probably bring comfort for you to know one of your pastors doesn’t gamble well. It’s the bluffing. I can’t do it. Put another way, I am not the guy you want to walk into a car dealer with to try and purchase a new vehicle. Too often, I tell them exactly how much we have to spend, and what our old car is worth, and I always feel they are telling me the best price they can give. As far as bartering, I am deficient. The older I get, the more I recognize not everyone operates with this mindset. My assumption is that if I am telling the truth why would I think the other person is lying? 

Regardless of how I fare transactionally, this is the path the Jesus set for us as we deal with others. Frankly, we cannot be accountable for what other people say, but we are responsible for our words. Frankly, it’s so much easier to keep up with the truth than a lie. Know what you believe, and say it. Don’t try to be or say anything other than what you know.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:33-48 (day one)

Join us as Senior Pastor Chris Johnson, Associate Pastor Aaron Hufty, and Associate Pastor Bryan Richardson walk us through Matthew 5:33-48 in our Winter Re:Verse Series: “The Sermon on the Mount – Living Kingdom Values.”

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:17-32 (day seven) 

The Greek word hamartia, that we translate as sin, actually comes from an archery concept meaning to “miss the mark.” It referred to arrows that didn’t hit their target. Sin is when we miss the mark that was set for us by God. Much like the Pharisees whom Jesus is speaking to in this passage, we often pride ourselves in simply landing our arrow in the vicinity of the target, comparing ourselves to our neighbor who shanked his arrow into the woods. Yet, if we are true to the archery analogy, anything short of a bullseye is miss. Even if it was just a little bit offline, it still missed the mark.

Adultery and murder have a wider effect and bigger complications on the community around us than lust and anger respectively, but what Jesus is concerned about is when we get comfortable with the near misses. The heart is where the sin begins, and if our heart is not headed for the bullseye, we may easily find our own arrows headed for the woods.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:17-32(day six)

“I am the way…” -Jesus, John 14:6

The Pharisees were the gold standard of righteousness. At the time, most probably thought that if anyone was righteous, they were. Truth is, they had managed to become more like Pharoah than Moses by heaping burdens on the people rather than leading them to freedom.

When Jesus declares, “I came to fulfill the law.” Part of what he means is that he is the new gold standard (and the new Moses). Essentially saying, “If you want to know how to live according to the law, if you seek righteousness, then all eyes on me.”

This is Jesus’ way of saying, “I am the way.”

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:17-32(day five) “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.“

The ticket for admission into the Kingdom of Heaven now includes a righteousness greater than the Scribes and Pharisees. Wait? What?!!  Their righteousness must somehow be better than the professional rule writers and keepers. How could this be possible. Is Jesus trying to rewrite or undo the Law in order for them to have access to the Kingdom?  Well, according to Jesus Himself, absolutely not. Then how can the righteousness of His disciples be greater?  Jesus enlarges the focus of obedience from strictly external to also include internal. It is greater because it is deeper, moving from just behavior to also mind and motive- a “heart righteousness”. The prophets wrote and signaled this truth long before.  “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it;“ Jeremiah‬ ‭31‬:‭33‬ ”I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes,“ Ezekiel‬ ‭36‬:‭27‬ ‭

With God’s work and wisdom (His Spirit in us) we now have access and opportunity for the greater righteousness that Jesus teaches.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:17-32 (day four)

“Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”

One of the principal values of the Kingdom of God is reconciliation. Jesus came so that we would be reconciled to the Father, and in Kingdom life, through the power of the Spirit, we can also be reconciled to one another. But we often don’t take the work of reconciliation as seriously as we should.

Jesus tells us that before we present our offering at the altar – before we present ourselves as holy and living sacrifices to God in worship – if there is enmity between us and someone else, it needs to be handled immediately. We cannot hang on to old grudges or simply wait for time to help us forget them. The enemy would love nothing more than for us to take unforgiveness casually. We have to fight through our pride and even the awkwardness that we feel in order to get to peace – ASAP, Jesus says.

That being said, we know that Jesus lived the human life. He understands the complexity of human relationships. He knows that there are some wounds which will not fully heal until we’re in heaven, and that’s exactly his point here. We can’t fulfill the law perfectly. We can’t forgive perfectly. We can’t reconcile perfectly. Jesus can. What step of faith do you need to take today in order to live a life of peace?

 

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:17-32 (day three) 

“Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court.”

It’s probably not uncommon to think of a typical person in hell as a ne’er-do-well. But it turns out that the population of the damned might well be able to build quite a safe, orderly city where the murder rate is low and sexual assault is rare. Jesus reveals that an outward display of good citizenship, though, is not the center of heaven’s moral vision. God’s command to refrain from murder, for instance, is intended to form in human beings a kind of heart that doesn’t merely avoid violence but reaches out with compassion. It is possible to hate a person without becoming a felon. Which is why it would ultimately take the “convicted criminal” Jesus Christ to lead us to follow the law of love.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:17-32 (day two) 

I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. vs. 17b

How many times have you heard a non-believer say that religion is a series of ‘thou shalt nots’? In doing so they have boiled the entirety of scripture into a sound bite of impossible standards of living. Jesus highlights a few of the commandments, and even takes them to their extreme with how we should treat one another. In the final analysis, it’s true, we can’t keep up our end of the bargain, so what are we missing? We are missing the work of a perfect savior. He and he alone can perfectly keep the law, and it is on him that we are to rely when we cannot. It is through the lens of his atonement which makes these conversations possible, or we would be constantly fretting about how poorly we measured up to the law today. We live, not free from the law, but wholly justified by his perfection. Walk in that light today.

Re:Verse passage – Matthew 5:13-16 (day seven)  

 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket. vs 15

In this advent season, we celebrate the incarnation. John tells us that God became flesh and dwelt among us. Hillsong, inspired by John 1, wrote, “Light of the world, you stepped down into darkness.” The Light came to us and purposely surrounded Himself in  darkness in order that we could have Light in all of us and the darkness would be exposed and expelled. That is Love!

What is expected of us in return? We are sent out into the world to let our Light shine in the darkness. Which means we need to purposely surround ourself in darkness. Though it is true that  if more lights gather together, their cumulative light shines brighter, but how can darkness be exposed if the  lights are stagnant? In an attempt to make our lights brighter, we end up  hiding them under a basket of comfortability. In this advent season, how might you be able to bring Light to the darkness? What do you need to do to get out of your comfort zone and expose and expel darkness?