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, May 3, 1987.

This morning, our scripture begins with John chapter 5. We are looking at the end of that chapter, beginning with verse 39. This is John chapter 5, verse 39. Circumstances, Jesus’ confrontation with the leaders in Jerusalem. And this is what he has to say. Hear the word of Christ. Search the scriptures. For in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.

And ye will not come to me that ye might have life. I receive not honor from men, but I know you that ye have not the love of God in you. I am come in my father’s name, and he received me not. If another shall come in his own name, him he shall receive. How can ye believe which receive honor one of another, and seek not the honor that cometh from God alone?

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father, There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” Beginning with verse twenty one.

We have 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 council, but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath off 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 thine adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, thou shalt not, thou shalt, thou shalt by no means come out thence till thou hast paid the uttermost part.”

Pray with me briefly. Today, Lord, your word is heard in all the continents of the earth. May it be our prayer and our heart’s desire that your word would go forth as that seed planted in the hearts of men and women for that bountiful harvest of the last day. Father, to that end, may we preach and may we hear. Lord, to your glory, may your words be before us now. Amen. Some of you this past weekend had the pleasure of entertaining in your homes members of the I had the pleasure of entertaining in my home Douglas Whittington. Now, there’s something that you need to know about Douglas Whittington.

He is a professional. He is a professional at getting lost. You might recall that there was a morning, a Sunday morning, a number of years ago, when Doug was scheduled to preach here. Well, I believe that it was sometime after 1130 when he finally showed up. He had been lost. As I say, he was a professional at it. You might recall the story about him not that long ago of the trip that he made to summer camp. there in the panhandle of West Virginia. Well, people were expecting him at three, and then they were expecting him at four, five, six. Dinner came and went. Still no Doug. He had campers in his car. He had food in his trunk. Where was Doug?

Well, when he finally showed up at 930, we found out that he had not only seen much of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, but he had visited a number of truck stops and got all kinds of directions, competing directions, in order to find the camp that was hidden there in the hills and valleys of northern West Virginia. Doug Withington is a professional at getting lost. And he says, and I think that some of you can identify with him, that Pittsburgh is of all the cities in the United States the place that you can get lost in easiest. Easiest.

The worst place in the world for a professional at getting lost the worst place in the world for that kind of person to find themselves. Considering being lost, what if you’re totally lost? And by that I mean, you don’t even know where you’ve been, let alone where you’re going. You can’t even retrace your steps.

Have you ever been in a situation like that? I think there was an afternoon some Sundays ago when some O’Leary’s and Jones’s found themselves in the woods. Looking for a way out and not knowing where in the world they were. They didn’t know where they’d been. They didn’t know how to get back. let alone how to make any progress. So when in doubt, pray.

And I understand that’s exactly what Chris Jones did. Eventually they found a road, and they at least knew that all roads lead somewhere, so they followed the road. But when you look at Matthew 5, 17 through 20, it says, if you find yourself in the middle of the woods, and in order to get your bearings, it’s important for you to know where you’ve been in order to understand well where you’re going.

For finding yourself in that passage, those very controversial verses, don’t think that I came to abolish the law of the prophets. I didn’t come to abolish. I came to fulfill those words that are familiar to us all. Finding yourself in the midst of those words, in that passage, it’s imperative that you have the sense about you to look back to where you’ve been in order to look forward to where you’re going. Now we’ve tried to make the connection between those verses and what preceded clear. I’ve expounded those verses in terms of an unspoken question on the lips of the disciples.

And that question is, alright Jesus, if things are as you say, Here you are describing the blessings and the demands of this kingdom that you are claiming to inaugurate. Things are, as you say, what then of the law and the prophets? So Jesus, in those verses, makes the response. And in doing so, he maintains a grip upon the Law and the Prophets in such a way as to set himself in the center of them. Now it’s not simply a setting of himself in the center of those Law and Prophets in some general way. But he sets himself in the center of them quite specifically namely in terms of that which is virtually the fulfillment of them, his death, his resurrection.

So now, you see, we have that exposition of verses 17 through 20 with the backward look, but we also, from those verses, are looking forward. We’re looking forward to the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. More specifically, we are looking forward to the verses that end this chapter, this fifth chapter in Matthew. And we are prepared now to go on and look at these verses in terms of the exposition that is mandated because of what we have concluded concerning the centrality of Jesus and his work to the law and the prophets.

No exposition of the law and the prophets will ever again be adequate if it leaves out this person, Jesus Christ. And specifically, if that exposition leaves out his death and his resurrection. We have here presented to us then a superlative righteousness, a righteousness that far exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees.

Jesus speaks about that righteousness. Now, in the twentieth verse, And it is by way of this superlative righteousness that Jesus makes plain the revelation of the wisdom of the kingdom of heaven. That wisdom that comes from above. That wisdom that is utterly uncommon. It is unlike anything with which we are accustomed. It is then, in turn, of that wisdom, a wisdom made plain in Jesus himself, a wisdom made plain in his ministry, his words, and his life, a wisdom made plain in those things which he does, and those things that consummate his life here in the world, in the flesh, wherein he gives himself supremely for our sakes, that we may be redeemed Well, here we go into verses 21 through 48. And it’s imperative that we expound these verses in terms of the things that we’ve said.

Now, I want you to know, first of all, as we move into this section, how there is a refrain, a structure that is common It is repeated. It’s there to organize your thoughts. It’s there to concentrate your attention. A series of contrasts are presented for you.

As we read verses 21 and 22, you see it there. You have heard that the ancients were told. That’s how it reads in the New American Standard. You were hurt, you have heard that the ancients were told, and then in verse twenty-two, but I say to you, contrast. That’s not a contrast spoken once in these verses, it’s repeated no less than six times. You’ll notice that it is repeated in verses twenty-seven and twenty-eight. It is repeated again in verses thirty-one and thirty-two. 34 and 35, 38 and 39, and finally in 43 and 44.

A series of contrasts then are presented to you. These words are presented to you in order that by them there might be this exposition of that uncommon wisdom that comes with Christ, that wisdom that is from above, out of heaven. Now how are we to understand these contrasts? Appropriately, Jesus, in presenting to us the first of these six contrasts, is giving us a programmatic contrast. one that is deliberately set here for our instruction. And if we get a hold on the first one, the other ones will be easy.

Now, this is a common practice by Jesus. You might recall how he deals with the matter of his speaking to his disciples in parables. For instance, if you were to turn to Matthew 13, there’s a listing of the parables there given by Jesus. the first one being that parable concerning the sower. And Jesus makes the comment to his disciples when they question him about the interpretation of that parable, if you understand this parable, then you will understand all the parables.

Now, we have no easy task for us this morning. These contrasts that are given here are not easily penetrated. But Jesus, in this first one, is going to give us clues, helps, in order to direct us through the series that follows. What is the exact nature and major focus, then, of the contrast that we find in verses twenty one and twenty two. There have been a number of suggestions made. One, is it what appears immediately in the verse?

The first word. you contrasted with the ancient or those who are old. Is the contrast between Jesus disciples, those who have been called unto him, those whom he is presently instructing, even us as we are instructed by him and those who have preceded the time of Jesus. specifically of Israel, and maybe even more particularly Israel, as Israel was given the law by God in former times, in the days of Moses. Is the contrast then here between the you and the those of old.

That’s one suggestion. Another one is, is the contrast what pushes itself upon us from the structure of the passage? That between those who have said in former times such and such, and Jesus, who now says what he does, is the contrast between those who have said such and such formally, between Jesus and those who have said those things in former times. I don’t think that either of these suggestions is what Jesus is getting at.

For you see, if you take them absolutely, then they establish barriers where no barriers are meant to be. For instance, if you take the first suggestion, that the contrast is between the you of the passage and the ancients of the passage, us and those of old living in that former age.

If we take that as being the contrast, and if we take it absolutely, then established is a permanent wall between the church, which we are, and Old Testament Israel. But is that true? Is there a permanent wall established between the Church and Old Testament Israel? No. In fact, the pressures of the New Testament can convince us of just the contrary.

Paul, writing to Gentile Christians in Corinth, talks to them as if their fathers were those who lived under Moses leadership. And what of the second? What if we say that the contrast between those who said this and that in former times, and Jesus, who now says what he does. But if we take that absolute, we are confronted with the fact that the one who says Such and such in a former time is none other than Moses. Because what Jesus does here, as he goes down through these contrasts, is merely to quote the commandments.

The first one is, thou shalt not kill. If we take it absolutely, then we are establishing an impenetrable wall between Jesus and Moses. Can we do that? We know that such a wall cannot be built. Well, if these two alternatives are ruled out, what option do we have left? Is the contrast here, rather than these which we suggested, is it something that is suggested to us by the prevailing tone and images of the passage. Notice, for instance, the legal imagery of this section, verses 21 through 26.

Notice all of the legal terms, and if you have a New American Standard, you’re in better shape than if you have the King James in front of you this morning, because the legal wording is brought out much more clearly. In verse twenty one, the words used there are court and guilty in verses. In verse twenty two, court again, Supreme Court and guilty. Twenty four, reconciliation, a legal term. Verse twenty five, opponents at law, the judge, the officer, prison, and also in verse twenty six, prison is in view. All of these legal terms. But you will notice as well, in addition to these legal terms, there is a convolution given in verse twenty one for not only there and brought out again clearly in the new American standard.

Not only there is there the quotation of the Old Testament commandment, you shall not murder or thou shalt not kill, but there is also the quotation, a quotation or a saying that truly has no Old Testament counterpart. Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court to the court. I know the King James has judgment there, but in view is not final judgment. You is the legal system of Israel, the court of Israel. That is what is in view.

So you have the addition of this saying here to the commandment that has no Old Testament counterpoint. And with that, you see, you are drawn along a certain line that is going to lead you to certain conclusions and also establish for you the precise nature of the contrast given to you here, and that contrast will be carried on throughout the rest of this chapter.

You see, the contrast is not between church, between the church and Israel. The contrast is not between Jesus and Moses. The contrast is between courts. The contrast, the contrast is between ways of judgment. The contrast is between two authorities. On the one hand, you have Jesus speaking out against that which is merely a human judgment in the name of that judgment that comes from above, from the kingdom. The contrast is not between the Church and Israel. It is not between Christ and Moses. The contrast is between two competing authorities, two competing structures, one of the earth, the other of heaven. The judgment that Jesus is pleading for is the judgment that comes out of heaven, and an uncommon judgment it is.

Notice how it progresses. Notice how it progresses. According to a human court, how could the things mentioned in verse two stand up? Verse 22, stand up at all. How are you going to prosecute a person who’s angry? You can’t prosecute them at all. How are you going to prosecute somebody who says to his brother rock or even calls his brother a moron? Now, you see, the language here suggests something quite ridiculous, and that’s exactly the point.

Jesus is putting before his audience, before his disciples, those things that mean nothing whatsoever to human courts of law. And he’s making them the most important things. Those things that wouldn’t be prosecuted in any human court, they are prosecuted in the court of heaven. And those things that the world looks upon as being insignificant, they’re the most significant thing. In fact, they’re so significant that they’ll send you straight to hell. He turns the whole legal system of the world on its head.

And it doesn’t even matter if that legal system claims Moses as an authority. You see, it doesn’t even matter if that legal system claims the Judeo-Christian heritage. Moses, without Christ, is merely human tradition. Rendering judgments according to the Ten Commandments, without seeing Christ and the administration of the wisdom that comes out of heaven, is merely rendering a human judgment.

That is what is happening. Among the brothers, notice how brother is repeated here throughout, among the brothers all of whom are disciples of Jesus Christ. It isn’t the legal arrangements of the world that prevailed. It’s the legal assessments of heaven and of Jesus Christ. And those things that would be thrown out of the human court are the very things that will judge your soul. according to God because you see the things that pertain to God are the things of the heart the things that no human court can see and no human judge assess There is much more here for us to learn We’ll look into the matter again next week Oh Lord We know well rely upon human judgment We might thank well upon our own revered legal system. We may even claim Moses as our authority. But our Lord Jesus Christ. Turns all of that inside out and back upon itself. Oh Lord. You deal with our hearts. the anger of them, the impetuous and foolish word that we may speak. And those things that are looked upon as nothing by the courts of the world, and even the courts of Israel, are looked upon as being of the most supreme importance in the kingdom of heaven. Help us, Lord, we pray.

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.