Matthew 5:20-22, 27-28, 38-39 – The Higher Road – Bible study

Matthew 5:20-22,27-28, 38-39 The Higher Road Christianity is about salvation, but it is not JUST about salvation. Christianity is also about the change that salvation brings. Christians are to walk on a Higher Road. The verses that we are pulling out of this text are part of the Sermon on the Mount. It starts in Matthew 5 and goes through chapter 7, making it the longest recorded sermon that Jesus preached. Of course Jesus gave many truths in the message, but at least one I see in these verses is that Christians are called to a Higher Road. In the verses we just read, Jesus gave us the thoughts of others, then He gave us His thoughts. His thoughts were always higher than the thoughts of the others. \#Matt 5:21\ OTHERS THINK – Thou shalt not kill. \#Matt 5:22\ BUT JESUS COMMANDS – Be not be angry with without a cause. \#Matt 5:27\ OTHERS THINK – Thou shalt not commit adultery. \#Matt 5:28\ JESUS COMMANDS – Do not even lust. \#Matt 5:38\ OTHERS THINK – An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. \#Matt 5:39\ JESUS COMMANDS – Turn the other cheek. \#Matt 5:20\ OTHERS have one level of what righteousness may be. JESUS EXPECTED MORE. All of this is summarized in the first verse we read. Matthew 5:20 except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Jesus was teaching a works salvation but the change that salvation brings. So it is throughout the Bible. God expects more of Christians than He has expected from any other group of followers in history, more than the Old Testament saints, more than the scribes and the Pharisees, certainly more than the lost. Notice the HIGHER ROADS to which we are called. I. Instead of merely avoiding sin, God wants us to avoid temptation. Matthew 6:13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen. Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Luke 22:46 And said unto them, Why sleep ye? rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. A. All of these verses are teaching the same thing. 1. Some temptations can be avoided. 2. There is no sin in temptation. It is the result of being weak flesh in a sinful world. But why expose ourselves when we do not need to do so? B. How can we avoid temptation? 1. By using the powers and abilities that God has given to us. 2. Let me give you some of three. a. Prayer is a power. (1) Prayer is a power in so many different ways. (a) Prayer is a flare that signals God for help. (b) Prayer is our faith and our words releasing God into our world. (2) But the one I want to emphasize is that prayer drives Satan away. (a) Satan is our tempter. (b) He is not the only source of our temptations but he is one of them. (c) Satan does not like prayer. (a) Prayer calls down God. (b) The more we pray, the more righteously we pray, and the more earnestly we pray a righteous prayer, the closer God gets. (c) The closer God gets, the further from us the tempter gets. b. Salvations transformation is a power. (1) The transforming power of salvation removes sin and selfishness. (2) Humans are born sinful and selfish. We cannot help it. It is who we are. (3) Before the fall, we were neither; but the fall changed us. (a) Consider Adam and Eve. (b) Eve ate of the forbidden fruit first, being deceived by the devil. (c) She then gave the fruit to Adam. i. Are we to think that Adam, the man who named every animal and remembered the name, forgot what the forbidden fruit looked like? ii. Are we to believe that Adam could not tell the difference in Eve before and after she became a sinner? iii. I submit to you that Adam both recognized the fruit and knew that something had happened to Eve. iv. Why did he eat the fruit then? aa. Because he loved Eve. bb. He would rather die with Eve than to live without her. cc. Adam loved Eve like Jesus loves us! dd. Both were willing to die for the one they loved. (4) But immediately after Adam had eaten the forbidden fruit, God came and asked what happened. (a) Adams answer was, "The woman whom Thou gavest me gave me and I did eat." (b) Adam loved her so much before the fall that he would die for her, but now he was throwing her under the bus. (c) What happened? Sin had now filled him with sin and selfishness. (5) Every human being ever conceived has been born in that condition, but salvation changes it. (6) It transforms us into people who care about God and others. Not always overnight, but it always happens. c. The Holy Ghost fills us with God. (1) Prayers runs off the devil; salvation transforms the sinner, then the Holy Ghost fills us with God. (2) God did not create people to be an empty vacuum. (3) We are a space needing to be filled. (a) A lost person is empty of God so Satan fills him. (b) A saved person is empty of the devil and can be empty of self so God fill him. (4) Having God inside of us is what truly makes New Testament Christians the most different followers of Jesus there has ever been. (a) God may have come upon some people for a time before; but for us, God moves inside and never leaves. (b) And if we have the Person of God, we most certainly have the power of God. (c) There is nothing we cannot do and nothing we cannot be. C. And so God expects more from us than He has any other group of followers before us. 1. He expects us not only to avoid the sin but to learn to avoid the temptations as well. 2. He expects us to walk the Higher Road. II. Instead of merely loving our friends, God want us to love our enemies. A. Jesus mentioned this in both His Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; and His Sermon on the Plain: Luke 6:27 But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, B. Our culture is much more vocal and dramatic today. 1. People are dramatic, ultra-sensitive, loud and obnoxious. 2. All of that makes it likely that there people out there somewhere who do not like you. 3. As Christians, it is all right that people do not like us as long as there are no people out there that we do not like. C. If there are, God expects us to put them on the top of our list. 1. Not our gossip list but our prayer list. We are not to talk about them to others but to God. 2. Not our naughty list but our nice list. We are not to do them wrong when opportunity arises but to do them good. 3. Not our despise list but our love list. We are to look for ways to genuinely demonstrate love to them. a. When we speak to others, we speak to them. b. When we invite others, we invite them. c. When we thank others, we thank them. D. \#Matt 5:38-42\ Jesus was serious about this. He gave many examples: Matt 5:38 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: 1. \#38\ We are not to seek vengeance. If vengeance needs To be sought, God will do it. Matt 5:39 But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. 2. \#39\ We are not to resist them. a. The example Jesus gave is if someone slaps us, turn the other cheek and let them slap that one too. b. Friend, that is extreme, but it is what was practiced by Jesus and His disciples. Matt 5:40 And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloke also. 3. \#40\ We are not to hold a grudge even if the attack against us is by legal means and takes are financial assets. Matt 5:41 And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. 4. \#41\ And if compelled to go one mile, we are to go an extra mile of our own free will. Matt 5:42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away. 5. \#42\ We are not to reject those who ask to borrow our stuff. E. Two questions: 1. Why are we to love our enemies? a. Because God said to do it and we are to obey God. b. Because we were Gods enemy, but He loved us. (1) Love is a powerful tool in reaching people. (2) You and I were reached by love. (3) God wants us to demonstrate His love to others so that He can reach them. 2. How do we love our enemies? a. The same way we avoid temptation. b. The same powers that change our relationship with sin can change our relationship with others. (1) We pray and drive the tempter away. (2) We let the transforming power of salvation remove our sin and selfishness. (3) We welcome the Holy Ghost to fill and control us. F. God expects us to walk the Higher Road. III. Instead of merely being thankful in the good times, God wants us to be thankful in the bad. 1Thess 5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. Job 1:21 And said, Naked came I out of my mothers womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. A. I would like to tell you that the Higher Road has no problems on it, but I cant. 1. It does. 2. In fact, believe that the more like Jesus you become, the more problems you will have. 3. And if certain kinds of problems, that is true. a. You are likely to have more problems with sinners, more problems with sin, and more problems with Satan. b. Instead of running with them, you are running against them. 4. But you will have less problems with sorrow, quilt, and consequences. B. As Christians, we are not to look at our problems but at our God. 1. I dont say we are to ignore our problems because that would be impossible. 2. But we are to focus on what God is and will do more than on our problems. Christians, there is a Higher Road for us. God has commanded it. Now we must choose to walk on it. If we do, we will not regret it.