Sunday, March 18, 2018

Keys to the Kingdom – The Sermon on the Mount - 05 FAITHFULNESS


In Jesus’ day, divorcing one’s wife was simply a matter of handing her a piece of paper and sending her away. Breaking one’s promise was quite acceptable, as long as “non-binding” words were used when the promise was made. Scripture was misused to justify both of these practices! Jesus called His disciples to radical faithfulness. It’s a key to the kingdom.
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Reading: Matt 5:31-37
From Sonja R. Ely Dallas, Oregon: I was watching my five-year-old granddaughter Christy play with her dolls. At one point, she “staged” a wedding, first playing the role of the bride’s mother who assigned specific duties, then suddenly becoming the bride with her “teddy bear” groom. She picked him up and said to the “minister” presiding over the wedding, “Now you can read us our rights.” Without missing a beat, Christy became the minister who said, “You have the right to remain silent, anything you say may be held against you, you have the right to have an attorney present. You may kiss the bride.”
This subject – marriage, divorce, and remarriage – is a hard and sensitive one in several ways. So many people have had so much pain as a result of God’s original plan not being followed. Our culture – even the broader religious culture – has weakened regarding the purpose, sanctity, and permanence of marriage. One of the mantras we hear, not always using these exact words, is, “God wants me to be happy more than He wants me to be faithful.”
There are many couples in this church who have weathered the storms that confronted them. They have remained faithful to God and each other, as they promised Him they would, “until death do us part.” “For better or for worse, in sickness and in health, for richer or for poorer.”
And, even beyond marriage, we are seeing a breakdown in promise-keeping in all areas of life. We see it in the business world, in politics, in personal relationships, and even in the church.
Such was life also in the time of Jesus.
In Jesus’ day, divorcing one’s wife was simply a matter of handing her a piece of paper and sending her away. Breaking one’s promise was quite acceptable, as long as “non-binding” words were used when the promise was made. Scripture was misused to justify both of these practices! Jesus called His disciples to radical faithfulness. It’s a key to the kingdom.
Photo above - Old Faithful Geyser
Yellowstone National Park
Erupts 1-1/2 to 5 minutes, every 35 to 120 minutes.
Max height 90 to 184 feet. Biggest regular geyser there.
Country songs say it all!
WHEN I SAID I DO
FOREVER AND EVER AMEN
I COME FROM A LONG LINE OF LOVE
Broken Hearts and Homes
In the US – one divorce occurs every 13 seconds.
Average age of couples at first divorce: 30.
(Among those who actually do marry.)
Prior cohabitation raises risk of divorce 40%.
50% of kids in the US will see parents divorce.
Almost 1/2 of those will see a 2nd divorce.
43% are being raised without their fathers.
Broken Hearts and Homes
Rate for under 50 about 2X that of those 50+.
Divorces for 50+ almost doubled past 25 years.
Today - 15% of women divorced or separated.
In 1920 - less than 1% of women divorced or separated.
Lowest divorce profession: agricultural engineers.
Followed by optometrists. Then ministers.
Broken Hearts and Homes
Risk is lower when:
Parents were happily married.
Marriage occurred at age 25+.
Couple attended college.
Couple has strong religious foundation.
Faithfulness in Marriage – Matt 5:31-32
Let’s start here first: Matt 5:1-30.
Up the mountain before down the aisle.
Note how Jesus’ message begins and then progresses.
From attitude – to influence – to self-control – to faithfulness.
No surprise that Jesus would address marriage and other vows.
Anyone who pursues the traits Jesus listed in the Beatitudes ( a peacemaker for example) …
Anyone who seeks to have the influence Jesus described, who wants to salt the earth and light the darkness for Him …
Anyone who repents of sinful anger and improper, lustful desires (who will make every effort to settle out of court and reconcile if in the wrong) …
Anyone who is willing to cut off a hand or lose an eye rather than surrender to sin is certainly ready to hear Jesus’ next radical teaching.
So the Sermon on the Mount could actually be used as a pre-marital or even marital counseling manual!
How crucial it is, then, that every couple considering marriage go up the mountain, listen to Jesus, and plan ahead what they will do when they begin their lives together! How unwise it would be to enter into marriage WITHOUT considering attitude, influence, and self-control! These are the very things that destroy marriages!
Take them up the mountain before you walk them down the aisle!
In Jesus’ day it was easy to get out of a marriage. It was easy to get out of a promise. The two were and are related. One who will break marriage vows will often break other vows as well. Faithfulness in one area of life – or the lack of it – will often be seen in other areas of life as well.
Up the mountain before down the tubes.
“It was said …” Deut 24:1-4 (mis)used to allow easy, no-reason divorce. “Just give her a legal paper.”
Jesus called His disciples to radical faithfulness.
Divorce
Mt 5:31 “It was said, ‘WHOEVER SENDS HIS WIFE AWAY, LET HIM GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE’; 32 but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
Also note:
1 Co 7:10 But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband 11 (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.
32 Shocking Divorce Statistics
“It was said,” not, “It is written.” Yet Jesus then quotes Scripture!
What’s the difference between what the Scripture said and what they said?
Matt 19:3-9 Read and review the passage.
Jesus’ fuller explanation:
Mt 19:3 Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” 4 And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” 7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give her a certificate of divorce and send her away?” 8 He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. 9 “And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman, commits adultery.”
From the beginning. One male and one female. Leave and cleave. One flesh.
“What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
“Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives … but from the beginning it has not been this way.”
God through Moses in Deut 24 did not command, endorse, or encourage divorce! The only actual command was that one who did divorce his wife would not be able to take her back again. Perhaps even this fact affirmed the sanctity of the original marriage and the serious hesitation one should have before dissolving it. “Think long and hard. You cannot just undo this decision.” The certificate would have simply made it public, not holy.
Dt 24:1 “When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out from his house, 2 and she leaves his house and goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and if the latter husband turns against her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife, 4 then her former husband who sent her away is not allowed to take her again to be his wife, since she has been defiled; for that is an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance.
So what was meant by “some indecency?”
Stott: Rabbi Shammai took a rigorist line, and taught from Deuteronomy 24:1 that the sole ground for divorce was some grave matrimonial offence, something evidently ‘unseemly’ or ‘indecent’. Rabbi Hillel, on the other hand, held a very lax view. If we can trust the Jewish historian Josephus, this was the common attitude, for he applied the Mosaic provision to a man who ‘desires to be divorced from his wife for any cause whatsoever’. Similarly Hillel, arguing that the ground for divorce was something ‘unseemly’, interpreted this term in the widest possible way to include a wife’s most trivial offences. If she proved to be an incompetent cook and burnt her husband’s food, or if he lost interest in her because of her plain looks and because he became enamored of some other more beautiful woman, these things were ‘unseemly’ and justified him in divorcing her. The Pharisees seem to have been attracted by Rabbi Hillel’s laxity, which will explain the form their question took: ‘Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?’2 In other words, they wanted to know whose side Jesus was on in the contemporary debate, and whether he belonged to the school of rigorism or of laxity.
Faithfulness in Promises – Matt 5:34-37
Vows
Mt 5:33 “Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘YOU SHALL NOT MAKE FALSE VOWS, BUT SHALL FULFILL YOUR VOWS TO THE LORD.’ 34 “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING. 36 “Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 “But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.”
From marriage vows to all commitments.
“You have heard, it was said.” Scrip (mis)used.
Cf. Lev 19:12; Num 30:2; Deut 23:21, 23.
Le 19:12 ‘You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the Lord.
Nu 30:2 “If a man makes a vow to the Lord, or takes an oath to bind himself with a binding obligation, he shall not violate his word; he shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
Dt 23:21 “When you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be sin in you, and the Lord your God will surely require it of you.
Dt 23:23 “You shall be careful to perform what goes out from your lips, just as you have voluntarily vowed to the Lord your God, what you have promised.
Their escape clause: vows not specifically including the words, “to the Lord.”
Key phrase here – don’t miss it! – vows “to the Lord.”
Why so important?
Because then, if one vowed by something or something other than the Lord, the vow was not binding, or at least not as binding!
So one might vow by heaven, or earth, or Jerusalem, or even their own head! The requirement to keep the vow depended on the words attached to the vow! If a person simply said, “I will do that,” but did not follow those words with, “I vow by the Lord.” Then fulfilling the vow was optional!
Matt 23:16-22 If by heaven, earth, Jerusalem, or even their own head … then not binding!
Mt 23:16 “Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the temple, that is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obligated.’ 17 “You fools and blind men! Which is more important, the gold or the temple that sanctified the gold? 18 “And, ‘Whoever swears by the altar, that is nothing, but whoever swears by the offering on it, he is obligated.’ 19 “You blind men, which is more important, the offering, or the altar that sanctifies the offering? 20 “Therefore, whoever swears by the altar, swears both by the altar and by everything on it. 21 “And whoever swears by the temple, swears both by the temple and by Him who dwells within it. 22 “And whoever swears by heaven, swears both by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it.
Jesus called His disciples – then and now – to radical faithfulness. It’s a key to the kingdom.
Possible hymns:
None of Self and All of Thee
Let the Beauty of Jesus Be Seen in Me
More Like Jesus
Take My Life, and Let it Be
How Great Thou Art
The Providence of God

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