This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 23, 1988.

This morning we are reading from Matthew chapter 5, and we will begin with verse 21. We are reading through verse 26. This is Jesus speaking. He had heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.

But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother Raka shall be in danger of the counsel, but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire.

Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him. lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou shalt be cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost pardon. Pray with me now briefly.

Our Father today, there are servants of yours who are preaching the word in every land amongst all the tribes of the earth. And we are rejoicing our God in the fullness of that mission which has been before the church, which in fact our God, we are seeing fulfilled. But hear us on behalf of your servants, that they would be conscious of their office, conscious of that position which they have, that you welcome them to that side from which then the word is declared to your people. for your people’s good. And not only that, it is a word of salvation that goes forth to those who are strangers yet to the blessings of your covenant. By that word today, draw your elect, that they might delight in all of the fruits that are given them of the Spirit and at your table.

We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Every time I try this, I do so with shaking, with trepidation, with a great deal of fear, apprehension, launching into these verses in Matthew 5. I have done it before, and some of you weathered that storm with me, but here we are again as we make our way towards Matthew chapter 6 and our consideration of what Jesus has to say there. These are not easy verses. These are truly as difficult, as difficult verses as you will find in the scripture.

So there is then this formidable task of addressing ourselves to these words of our Savior as we make our way towards the consideration of Matthew chapter 6. If we have before us here, as we look at verse twenty, a consideration of that righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. That, in fact, is what Jesus is going to be speaking about as we make our way through the fifth chapter, and even beyond. For the main body of this sermon on the mount has to do with that surpassing righteousness or if you will the superlative righteousness which is found in and through Jesus Christ alone.

So that’s. That sets the tone establishes our direction. But I do want to come at all of this in a bit of a novel way. I want to ask you a question. And from the answer to that question, I want to build to our consideration of these verses specifically so that you might understand something more of the atmosphere that Jesus is declaring. as he speaks, as he does. Here’s the question.

What would you say is the most outstanding feature of Matthew’s Gospels? Now, I know that you’re rattling through in your mind all 28 chapters here. a computer agent upon us, and we’re all starting to work like little IBMs, right? OK. Racing through the entirety of that gospel, I’ll ask the question again. What is the most outstanding feature of Matthew’s gospel? Now, you might come up with a different one than I do. But this is what I say. We’ll see if we agree. Chapter 28.

I want you to note specifically what is missing as you come to the end of this gospel. You have the directions of the risen Christ to his disciples. They are to meet him at a certain place in Galilee. They come to this mountain that Christ has designated, and Jesus speaks to them after they have fallen down and worshiped him. Now, you know the passage, you know what Jesus says, but is there anything strange at all about the way in which this gospel concludes?

Well, if you compare it with the gospel of Luke, or if you compare it with the story which Luke has felt compelled by the Spirit to go on and complete with his treatment of the life of the church in the Book of Acts, you realize what’s missing. Why, this gospel doesn’t have any account of the ascension. of the gospel end, in fact, with this… remarkable statement by Jesus. Now, I know how we usually approach these verses. We’re very much interested in the missionary mandate for the church, but that twentieth verse and the last part of that twentieth verse are so important to the gospel of Matthew, because if you catch hold of what Matthew is doing here, you have a handle on the entirety of the gospel. You see, there’s no ascension, and the final words of this gospel by Jesus are, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Well, what’s the impact of that?

Jesus never leaves. Jesus never leaves. He is with us yet. Let’s make it very poignant. He is with you yet. Now, the final words which he gives you are merely a tying up. of what has been at the center of our consideration of Jesus throughout the entire gospel of Matthew, for you see, at the heart of the gospel of Matthew is the identification of Jesus as Emmanuel, which means, well, you know, God with us. The treatment of the person of Jesus by Matthew, then, so wonderfully fits in with and harmonizes with the conclusion of the gospel. This is what Matthew has been trying to tell the church through his gospel. The one who is called Emmanuel says at the conclusion, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. He is with us, yet He continues. Are you conscious of Him? Are you conscious of His presence with you this morning?

Well, we have here, then, at least what I consider to be that outstanding feature of the Gospel of Matthew. And it certainly focuses our understanding of Jesus, that one who is given the title Immanuel, but it does something else as well. For if this one who has said to us he is with us to the end of the world is, as he says, or as he has demonstrated himself to be throughout this gospel, truly Immanuel God with us, that means that in his person the reality, the truth, the very substance of heaven has come into the environment of the world. this world in which you live. The stuff of heaven has come into the world. Now, there is a phrase that is used by Matthew throughout his gospel to bring that home to you, and that phrase is, the kingdom of heaven. The reality of the kingdom of heaven, the stuff of that kingdom has now intruded into the world, and that, in the person Jesus Christ, the Emmanuel God, with us. Again, I ask you, are you conscious of that? Are you conscious of the fact that the stuff, the reality of heaven has intruded upon this world, has intruded into your life?

Those things which are above, those things which are unseen. Those things which are commonly, ordinarily doubted. Those things that are forgotten, obscured, pushed aside. Those things which in the end are of ultimate importance. Those things which are of eternal value. the reality of the kingdom of heaven has intruded upon the earth, in that the one from heaven has come into the world and lived in it.

Alright, the answer to that question then, have that laid out for us. And this distinctive feature of Matthew’s gospel. Then helps us to understand. Helps us to understand the person of Jesus and also our own persons or. His people or the church. In their deepest significance. Let’s think about.

This one who is called Emmanuel, God with us, he comes into the world, yet he doesn’t appear to be a God at all. His glory is obscured, his life seems to be overlaid with the strain and temptation, struggle itself. There is the suffering which he endures. This God in the world undergoes rejection by men and is brought to the point where he must endure the cross. Suffering is shame.

But the magnificent thing about all of this is that his life of humility and his mission, his mission accomplished through suffering, have superimposed upon them that radiating glory of the kingdom of heaven which is embodied in him. So though you look at him and you see that which might offend, you look at him and you see that which might not impress. Yet overlaid upon him is the magnificence of that radiating glory of the kingdom of heaven, because he is, after all, Immanuel. Laid over the humility, the indignity, the suffering, the death—laid over all of that is a glory that is to be perceived by those who are initiated. by the Holy Spirit. It is an uncommon message, an unlikely gospel. This one in the earth, humble and poor, ultimately stricken, ultimately crucified, is the Lord But that’s precisely the point, you see, that Matthew wants you to see.

That as it was with the Lord, so it is for his people. They are like him. They are joined to him. He is, after all, God with us. That union of God with man. So that now, while the church is in this world, while his people are here, they too will suffer shame, undergo humiliation, experience suffering, but in all of that there is superimposed upon their experience the reality of that glory of the transcendent kingdom of heaven. Our life has superimposed upon it then. The magnificence of that radiating glory of the kingdom, that is a thought. As it was for the one who is called God, with us it is so for those who follow him.

Isn’t this really the point in the Beatitudes? Here in the Beatitudes, the disciples of Christ are called poor, poor in spirit. They are called the mourners. They are called the meek or the humiliated. They are called those who hunger and thirst, and yet superimposed upon all of those realities is the magnificence of the opening word by Jesus, blessed.

Why? Because the blessedness of the kingdom of heaven is being experienced by them even though they are the deprived, the weepers, the humiliated, and the hungry and the thirsty. even though they are the persecuted. For the sake. Of the kingdom of heaven for righteousness for the sake of the cross. Extended to them is blessings like that which was extended under the prophets of. The very realities of heaven. Being their glory.

Well what does all of this have to do with Matthew five twenty one. Twenty six. What we have been saying. Not only takes us to the heart of our consideration of Jesus and of the church illuminating for us more deeply the significance of Christ in his person and the truth concerning our lives as those who belong to him, but it as well illuminates our obedience, the obedience which we owe to our God and which Jesus Christ himself has performed before us. I know the way in which the passages here have been ordinarily approached. They have been approached as if Jesus means nothing more here than to reiterate for us, republish the law from Sinai. He quotes the Old Testament to again reassert it in its proper form into the life of the nation of Israel.

Not so. Not so. This one who has appeared has come from heaven, and the very landscape has been transformed by his appearance. The kingdom of heaven has intruded upon the earth, and you can’t even assess righteousness the same way anymore. You can’t even look at the law the same way. You can’t treat the commandments the way you used to treat them. It’s not adequate. Who’s going to try you? I asked you the question.

What court of law, be it Jewish or Gentile, is going to try you for hatred? The court of heaven will. The court of heaven will. What court on earth, be it Jewish or Gentile, is going to try you for lust? The court of heaven will. You see what’s happening? Heaven has intruded upon Earth in the coming of Jesus Christ, and the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven has itself intruded, and that becomes the standard for righteousness. Nothing else will do. I put it to you. Can you conceive of heaven? as a place in which hatred exists. You see you can’t can you? And that’s the law for the people of God. The law is living in an environment and promoting that environment in which hatred is an utter impossibility.

And as you work your way through the passage and the illustrations that Jesus gives here in this particular text, You realize what’s coming to play. If you therefore are presenting your offering at the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you. You leave your gift, you go to your brother and you reconcile with him first. Let’s translate that in terms of the kingdom of heaven. Let’s make the brother who has something against you God. Well, let’s suggest that in the activities of this world in which we find ourselves at variance with others, we are compelled by the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven to treat our brother as if he were God. For I abandon the altar and I go to my brother as if he were the altar, where I meet God, and there I am reconciled. The intrusion of the kingdom of heaven into your life completely radically transforms all of your human relationships. You cannot treat people the same way anymore. You say, well, I at least won’t treat my brothers the same way anymore.

But surely there is adequate excuse when it comes to my enemies. And Jesus goes on. He goes on. Verse 25, make friends with your enemies quickly while you’re in the way. I am compelled even to treat my enemies in a similar fashion, being reconciled to them as well.

But I have told you all along that as we approach this whole matter of the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, we cannot do so without looking intently at the cross of Jesus Christ. For it is in the cross of Jesus Christ that we perceive that God has in fact performed all of the actions. All of the actions which are necessary for our reconciliation to him. What if we are the offended brother in verse 23? What if we are the one who is the opponent?

You see, here we are. We’re the offended one sitting over here, but the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, how it works itself out is this. The example before us out of heaven is God himself. He was the offended party, but he didn’t sit around wringing his hands or sitting upon them waiting for us to do so. He went out and pursued us. You get the picture. Here I am racing after the one who is The offended party, the one to whom I am to be reconciled, but I find that he is a brother, is also constrained by the kingdom of heaven and the example of God to us, that God, though offended, pursues us. We were the enemies, weren’t we? We need him as he’s coming towards us.

How wonderful it would be now, you see, for the reality of the righteousness of the kingdom to be asserting itself in the life of the Church. As those who think they are innocent and yet realize that somebody is offended by them are pursuing that individual that the other side of the coin is, but they equally are pursuing and they are meeting under the banner of the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven which is manifest in the activity of God towards his people. Why it’s a veritable heaven on earth. Before the cross of Christ we have no excuses left. What offense is as great as your offense to God? And yet He pursued you and saved you. He so loves you. That’s heaven. That’s great.

Our God, it is no mere republication of the law of Moses, but now there is revealed a superlative righteousness that is commensurate with the manifestation of Christ, your Son, out of glory. And Lord, we would delight in that and appropriate it to the full as the very righteousness of heaven is manifest in us. Though surely the impetus for our behavior, the motivation that is given us by you, is the truth that we know about you, shown to us through your pursuit of us in the work, ministry, death, resurrection of our Savior. Do encourage us, our God. that we would understand the environment into which we have been translated by your marvelous work of grace.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.