Sermon Transcript

We are continuing our series in Matthew 5 because we are trying to answer and be faithful to the command of Christ to go out and make disciples of all nations. Our call to make disciples requires, according to Matthew 28, to teach them to obey all the commands that He has commanded us. And currently, we are finding ourselves in the Sermon on the Mount, which is Matthew 5–7. This is probably the greatest sermon—not the one I’m about to give you, but the one we’re going to talk about—that was ever preached on earth.

So rise with me. We’re going to read from Matthew 5:21–26. This morning, I’m reading from the Christian Standard Bible.

“You have heard that it was said to our ancestors, Do not murder, and whoever murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister, will be subject to the court. Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire. So if you are offering your gift on the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift. Reach a settlement quickly with your adversary while you’re on the way with him to the court, or your adversary will hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny. (Matthew 5:21–26, CSB)

This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.

Father, I pray that my brain would take a back seat and that You would just use this vessel. Father, I ask that if there was ever a moment where I could just give word-by-word prophecy, I wish that it would be today. Your word cuts to the heart and gives life because You have given it to us as a gift. Even now, I can see You on Your throne, and I need Your help to bring every mind that’s in this place and listening online to see You on Your throne. Please captivate us in our hearts to stop living for ourselves and to live for Christ alone, and to consider everything as a loss for the sake of knowing Christ and following Him unto our very death. Please be with us and help us to make reconciliation with our adversaries as Your word calls for us to do, while we engage with the world to be the salt and light of God. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

Investigate the Word of Man with the Word of God (Matthew 5:21)

There are not a lot of people in this room who are under 40. Because of that, you might not understand the magnitude of the death of Charlie Kirk. But for those of us who are under 40, we’ve spent hours watching his clips online. We have watched a man rise up and speak to a generation of people who felt like they were forgotten about. You see, our generation was working in the real world, and we were told that unless you believe everything according to the ways of the world, you did not have a valued opinion. And if you spoke up, you would be ostracized and excluded, beaten and bruised.

Then came along an 18-year-old man, a boy, a little boy, about 13 years ago. And he came up and he started to challenge the status quo. All of a sudden, he was saying things that people like me could not say out loud. Because God had gifted him with the ability to interact with people in a way that people like me had not seen done. When people were being threatened to lose their jobs, kicked out of Thanksgiving family dinners, this man rose up and he was finally able to say the things that many of us could not say. And what made him special was that he always did it with dignity and respect for his opponents. He was a light to the world. I’m sad to say, we didn’t realize we had him until he was gone. It’s a pain that a lot of people are feeling and have felt all week. I would encourage you to go and watch his videos.

But it wasn’t just Charlie Kirk we lost. We had shootings in Wake Forest. I’m told we had another one last night at a high school football game, or Friday night. I’m told that there was—well, we know about the stabbing of Iryna Zarutska in Charlotte. People are being murdered. In Charlie Kirk’s case, I do believe that he was martyred primarily because the enemy was after him. Because he wasn’t just a political pundit. His main mission in life was to point people to Jesus Christ. His wife, his widow, got online the other night, and she said that his mission was to “make heaven crowded.” That’s his real mission. But we only knew him as the political pundit unless you’ve really watched a lot of his videos. He was being the salt and the light of Christ while he was trying to improve the quality of life in America. Jeremiah 29 tells us to pray for the well-being of the city that you live in. And that’s what Charlie Kirk’s mission was.

So when we see somebody like Charlie Kirk get murdered for his beliefs and silenced and told to shut up—someone who, I mean, everyone’s a sinner, but I have very rarely seen this guy come up short—when we see somebody like that or a refugee who was murdered on the train in Charlotte, who came here to escape her war-torn home country and came here for aid and help and refuge and gets murdered, and then a racial slur is taunted over her dead body, when we see that, Christians, I know you feel angry. Do we have a right to feel angry? Is it wrong to feel angry? Today, that’s what we’re going to explore. We’re going to find out what to do with that anger. How does Jesus want us to respond?

The main point of today’s sermon is this: we must make amends for any offense that we commit against one another lest we incur judgment. I know that some of our favorite Church services are the ones where we come and hear only about God’s love. But if we only heard about God’s love, we’re only getting half the picture. Part of what makes the love of God so great and magnificent is the fact that He is also a just God. Because of that, what makes Him just is that He punishes wrongdoing. So I want you to focus on the fact that God’s love is also seen in the justice and the punishment of sin and wrongdoing.

Jesus says in Matthew 5:21, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘Do not murder,’ and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.” Jesus is indeed actually quoting a verse from Exodus 20—it’s one of the Ten Commandments: “You shall not murder.” And the rest of the Hebrew Bible, that is the Old Testament, talks about the judgments that are incurred for murder, and that is the death penalty. But Jesus begins by saying, “You have heard that it was said.” When He says that, He is not addressing the Bible; He is addressing and correcting the interpretation that was given to God’s people. When He says, “You have heard that it was said, but I say to you,” Jesus is now addressing how they should have understood the command, “You shall not murder.”

Folks, that’s why the first point is that you should always investigate the word of man with the Word of God. If you hear somebody say something, go look it up for yourself. Make sure the Word of God actually says what you’re hearing reported, including by me. And if I’m wrong, please come and tell me. But always look it up in the Word of God. You have no idea how incredibly blessed we are in today’s society that you can have a single copy of God’s Word. Most of you, I know, in here have more than one Bible. They could only rely on what their teachers were telling them because a Bible would be the equivalent of, I’m guessing, $10,000 today, because it had to be copied by hand, every stroke and letter, and probably took months to complete. But you can have one delivered tomorrow. Keep that in mind as your Bible collects dust. Cherish the Word of God.

We have a tendency to accept things that we hear enough times. If we hear it more than enough, we begin to think that it’s gospel. It must be in God’s Word. My favorite example of this is, “God helps those who help themselves.” I grew up thinking that was scripture. It’s nowhere near the Bible.

Rebuke Rage in Your Heart (Matthew 5:22)

The greatest point that we must focus on today is that Jesus is now going to correct the understanding of what murder is. Look at Matthew 5:22:

But I tell you, everyone who is angry with his brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Whoever insults his brother or sister will be subject to the court. Whoever says, “You fool,” will be subject to hellfire.

Rage in Your Heart and Murder Incur the Same Judgment

We must rebuke rage within our hearts because murder incurs the same judgment as being angry with your brother. So, when we see people get angry with fellow Christians—brothers and sisters—because they make a mistake, look at them cross-eyed, say something mean, wear something they dislike, or do something they disapprove of, and they get angry, Jesus is saying here, at face value, if we just take it literally, you face the same judgment as someone who took Charlie Kirk’s life.

But now we need to really ask, what is the meaning of Jesus’ brotherly anger? Is Jesus forbidding any form of anger? When we saw Iryna Zarutska murdered on the train, were we allowed to get angry? When we found out that the man who murdered her walked away and said, “I got that white girl,” are we allowed to get angry? When we saw our brother Charlie Kirk murdered on September 10th, just because somebody disagreed with him, are we allowed to get angry? Jesus says, “Whoever is angry at his brother is guilty of the same judgment as one who murders.” Are we allowed to get angry? What about when we heard Charlie Kirk’s widow say, “Mommy, where is Daddy?” from his three-year-old girl? Are we allowed to get angry? What about when I saw this week people dancing, celebrating, and singing joyfully because Charlie Kirk was murdered? Were we allowed to get angry? Jesus says, “Whoever is angry with his brother is worthy of judgment.” We saw videos of people jokingly saying, “I guess Charlie Kirk lost the gun debate.” Are we allowed to get angry?

The short answer is yes, but not for long. The Bible permits anger because the same word that is used in Greek here in Matthew 5:22 is the same word that’s used in Ephesians 4:26, where Paul says, “Be angry and do not sin.” So, Paul is clearly saying that there are ways to express the kind of anger Jesus is mentioning without sinning. But what kind of anger does Jesus have in mind that makes us guilty of murder?

Jesus Addresses a Lingering Rage That Inspires Verbal Abuse and Character Assassination

This is an anger that is ongoing, festering—a rage that inevitably inspires verbal abuse and character assassination. So I am here to tell you that we can get angry when people assassinate our brothers. But, to understand how Jesus comes to this conclusion in this text, we have to understand Jesus’ broader precepts and thinking. He says in Matthew 12:34, “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks.” What we hold in our hearts will exit our mouths.

And what we’re going to see next is that Jesus is going to address two other things. While He starts by addressing an attitude of the heart (i.e., anger), He quickly moves to behaviors that follow the attitude: verbal abuse and character assassination. He says whoever calls his brother “raqa,” which is an Aramaic term that probably is close to our idea of “dimwit” or “stupid,” will be liable to the council or the Sanhedrin. He adds another term of verbal abuse, which is where we get our word ‘moron’ from. If you call your brother a moron, He says you are liable to hellfire.

I don’t think we grasp the gravity of how seriously God takes human dignity. God abhors when we cut each other down. And something that I am guilty of—just because I’m driving and somebody pulls out in front of me and makes me hit my brake pedal, in my heart I’m going, “You moron!” Matthew 5:22 says I will be held liable to hellfire. Do we take human dignity seriously, even of our greatest opponents?

Now Jesus’ interpretation of this command, “You shall not murder,” is not just coming from Jesus at this point. He is bringing a point that is actually found in the Hebrew Bible itself. Leviticus 19:17–18 says:

Do not harbor hatred against your brother. Rebuke your neighbor directly, and you will not incur guilt because of him.

In Leviticus 19, we already have this idea that you can be angry and incur guilt. But if you just go to your brother and say something like, “Hey, you really should not be doing that,” you are less likely to do something sinful. But it requires that you open your mouth instead of harboring the attitude of hatred. You see, oftentimes we think it’s better for us to just keep our mouths shut. We think it’s better to not say anything at all. But the Bible tells you that the human heart will fester, and it will fester the kinds of emotions that will drive you and inspire you to say things that are worthy of hellfire. Sometimes it’s just easier to go to them and say, “I thought that was a jerk move. You shouldn’t have done that; I didn’t like it.”

Now, Jesus gives three consequences—we’ve touched on this just a little bit. Three consequences: one, the first one is you get the same death penalty as a murderer; it just says “judgment.” That’s the first one. The second one is the council, the Sanhedrin, and the third one is hellfire. The point is this: Jesus is artfully saying that all of these behaviors—anger with your brother, “raqa” or “dimwit,” and “moron,” the name-calling, the verbal abuse—all of it results in the same thing: God’s judgment. This is because God takes very seriously what we do with our words and how we treat each other. Every single one of us has the image of God. So when we assault each other and cut each other down, we are assaulting the image of God.

Now there are only two reasons why we might let our anger go unchecked, why we might want to take justice into our own hands and become vindictive.

1. We don’t believe that God will sufficiently exact justice. So we want to take it into our own hands and give the justice now according to our own hands.
2. The second is we do not believe that the sin that someone has committed against us far exceeds any sin that we have committed in the past. We are angry because we think their sin is so much worse than the sins that Jesus has forgiven us of. But you know what Charlie Kirk said?

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”

You see, we would not harbor hatred and anger towards people if we were so convinced of how truly sinful we are, right? If you’ve never struggled with drugs, you might have a hard time sympathizing with somebody who has. But if you have struggled with drugs, you might be more inclined to help them find a life of sobriety. It’s the same way when somebody sins against you in any way. If you are truly coming to terms with how you have sinned against God, you can forgive anyone of anything. Jesus says, “If you will not forgive others, how do you expect your Heavenly Father to forgive you?” This requires radical forgiveness.

Reconcile with Others Before You Worship (Matthew 5:23–24)

As the greatest Teacher delivering the greatest sermon, Jesus now turns to illustrate the proper application of what He just said. I know every single person in this room has insulted somebody. So all of us should be going, “Does that mean I deserve hellfire?” Well, the short answer is yes, we all deserve to go to hell. But what do we do now? These illustrations are going to show us that there is still hope for our behavior of cutting people down. And the second illustration is going to show us that there’s not a lot of time to right our wrongs.

This illustration is:

“So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there you remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there at the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother or sister, and then come and offer your gift.”

Notice this: He is still calling him your brother. This is a family member, somebody in Christ. And if you are at Church—because He’s saying you’re at the altar, right—what are we talking about here? We’re talking about an act of worship. We don’t have a temple, we don’t have altars, we don’t have animals that we bring to sacrifice. But do not be mistaken: this is someone who is trying to do something for the Lord and make a gift, an offering, a sacrifice, and say, “God, I love You, look at my actions, I’m here to serve You.” And God’s saying, “I don’t want it unless you first go and make amends with the person you wronged.”

Is there something that you know you have done that maybe you need to make right? Is there something that somebody is holding against you that you genuinely know is a right claim? You have wronged them. And you’re sitting here, and maybe you’re not feeling like you’re connecting with God. God could be telling you, “It’s because I want you to leave your sacrifice and go make it right.” And then, when you make it right, return and offer your gift.

Can you imagine when a Galilean would have heard this? You see, a Galilean would have traveled 80 miles to the temple to offer the sacrifice. They didn’t have cars, folks. It’s a long trip, 80 miles. And then, if they got there, after 80 miles, Jesus is saying, if you’re interrupted by a memory that you did something wrong with somebody, leave it there. Walk 80 miles and then come back another 80 miles to offer your sacrifice. Guys, that’s radical behavior that Jesus is asking from us. That’s how important it is to our Savior that we do everything within our power to seek reconciliation with those we have wronged.

1 John 1:8–9 says:

If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And while you might think it’s going to be too painful or too costly to revisit the things you’ve done wrong, Jesus says it will cost you far less than what it will cost you if you don’t.

Risk Wrath If You Avoid Reconciliation (Matthew 5:25–26)

That is made clear in the next illustration: if you avoid reconciliation, you risk the wrath of God. You risk wrath if you avoid reconciling with your brother, whom you have wronged. Jesus says in this illustration:

“Reach a settlement quickly with your adversary while you’re on the way with him to the court, or your adversary will hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the bailiff or officer, and you will be thrown into prison. Truly I tell you, you will never get out of there until you have paid the last penny.”

Notice He does not say “brother” anymore. This is a picture of a man who has now turned into your enemy, though he was probably your brother before. But because you have refused to make amends for the wrongdoing, you are now at odds with each other. And at that point, he’s going to hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer or the bailiff, and then he’s going to throw you in prison. You notice that fast-paced rhetoric? It’s boom, boom, boom. He is saying that while you’re on the way to the courtroom, try and settle out of court because once you’re given to the judge, you’re done for. It’s too late.

This is no human court, Church. This is God’s court that He has in mind here. How do we know that? Well, first, He’s already brought hell into the picture in Matthew 5:22. But secondly, there is no Jewish law that says that people would be imprisoned for debt. So there is no way that this is referring to a human court. This is referring to heaven’s court. And there is only one Person who can pay the debt for our sins, and that’s Jesus Christ.

Colossians 2:13–14 says:

And when you were dead in your trespasses, He made you alive with Him. He forgave us all our trespasses. He erased the certificate of our debt with its obligations that was against us and opposed to us, and He took it away by nailing it on the cross.

And this is something Charlie Kirk knew well, too. Charlie Kirk said:

Jesus Christ was God in human flesh, who first and foremost taught us how to live and secondly, and most importantly, He was a gift to us that if we accept Him as our Lord and Savior, then we can have eternal life.

And later he wrote:

Though He committed no sin, He was crucified on a cross for the propitiation of sin in the great exchange, our sins for His righteousness. [That means that today,] no matter what wrongs you have done, they have been paid for in full. We don’t deserve it, we didn’t earn it, we couldn’t pay for it, but He offers it freely if you believe in Him and follow Him. I pray you know Jesus is real, and He died so that we can live.

That’s what Charlie Kirk said. He understood that we can rack up a mighty debt before our God, and Jesus has the ability to take it all away.

So, Jesus, in this sermon, is very much saying that you should not stay angry when you see people do wrong to you. If you do lash out in that anger because you don’t address it, you don’t forgive them, and you lash out against them, you need to do everything in your power to make it right. It is so vital, so important to Jesus, that you make it right, that He would rather you leave these pews right now and take care of it. It’s an urgency. And it’s urgent because once you are handed over to Him for judgment, it will be too late if you have not reconciled.

You see, there is no such thing as a believer who claims to have been forgiven of his sin by Jesus without also trying to make that sin right, the one he committed against other people. You cannot claim to love God and not care about what you have done to others. The heart that loves God cares about what he’s done to his fellow humans. So, make it right.

Now we experienced a lot of anger this past week. What do we do with it? We’re allowed to be angry, but we must forgive and engage. In Church, I would like to honor Charlie Kirk’s life by taking his advice. He said:

“When people stop talking to each other, that’s when you get violence. That’s when civil war happens, because you start to think the other side is so evil that they lose their humanity.”

So this means that we should be the salt and the light of the earth (Matt 5:13-16), Church. We should engage with those in our culture. That’s what Christians do. That’s what Paul did in Acts 17. He’s walking through the Areopagus and he’s seeing their statues and their false gods, and he doesn’t say, “You morons, you’re worshiping the false god!” He says, “Let’s talk about this god statue that you have here. I see that it says, ‘To the unknown god.’ I’m here to tell you I know who that god is, and I’d love to talk about it.” And some people talked to him. Some people followed him. Some people thought he was an idiot and walked away. But he engaged with the culture, and that’s what Christians are called to do.

So we forgive those who persecute and murder us, but we engage with them. For too long, we have tried to keep the peace with other Americans by not talking about important moral topics. Let me say that again. For too long, we as Christians have chosen to be silent to keep the peace. And we have not talked and addressed important moral topics. I think that should stop. I think we as Christians need to be bold and brave and call abortion for what it is: it’s murder. I think Christians need to be bold and brave and say that choosing to live your life and do whatever you want is not going to make you genuinely happy. I think that we need to protect our kids in the public school system and go to the public hearings of our local school boards and get involved. I think we need to do more than just vote. We need to engage in our culture and fight for being the salt and the light of the earth. Because that’s what Jesus said we are. We stop the moral decay of our earth by being God’s voice.

Jesus said, “Don’t light a lamp and put it under a basket, but put it on a stand so that everyone can see your good deeds and give glory to your Father who is in heaven” (Matt 5:15-16). When Charlie Kirk was murdered, do you know what I saw this week? I saw people marching in South Korea saying, “We are Charlie Kirk,” as they fought for their rights. Then I saw people who were marching in the streets of London—over 100,000 people—and they played Amazing Grace on the bagpipes in honor of Charlie Kirk. I saw this week a post in France where they were saying that there are still many Christians here, and they were also thanking God for Charlie Kirk. I saw people holding a candle vigil and praying outside the American Embassy in Madrid, Spain, for Charlie Kirk. But they were praying because of his good deeds. People turned to the Father. Hundreds of posts on X this week were saying they were going to Church for the first time this Sunday.

Let us be the salt and the light. We want to turn people to the Lord. Do the good deeds of your culture and fight for morality. But do it because you love Jesus. And do it with dignity and respect for others. That’s what we’re called to do, Church. So let the anger from this week go, and let’s make a difference. Let’s go to the Father.

Father, we thank You for being with us. I pray that You would please help us to be bold, to be brave, to be life-changers, to be the salt in the earth of our culture. Lord, I know You love us, and I thank You for loving us so deeply. But this week hurt. But we know that in Your Word in Romans 8:28, we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. Help us to leave here today, not angry, but being forgivers of others because we have been forgiven and making a difference in our world as we seek to be the salt that You have purposed us to be. Help us and give us wisdom to love all those who oppose us, just as You have done when we opposed You.

Father, I pray right now that You would please do a mighty work in this country. I ask You to come against Satan, that You come against the demonic ideologies that are plaguing the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere, and I pray that You would bring an end to all that is evil in our society. I pray that You would slaughter the entire industry of pornography. I pray, Father, that You would bring an end to prostitution, that You would bring an end to human trafficking, and that You would help them to find a new life in Christ. I pray that You would rescue the oppressed and the victims. I pray, Lord, that You would put a hedge of protection around our children who are in the public school system. I pray, Jesus, that You would put an end to a hypersexualized ideology that is affecting all forms of our entertainment and our media and our news broadcasting. I pray, Jesus, that You would revive traditional family values in this country and that You would give the Church the strength and the courage to fight for it. Help us, Lord Jesus, to raise our children up to be the next generation that carries the torch of the gospel. And I pray, Lord, that You would squeeze out the enemy in every facet of American society. Please, in Jesus’ name, amen.