Matthew 5:38-48

Loving your enemies doesn’t make any sense.  Why would you love someone who is trying to hurt you?  Yet that is exactly what Jesus did for us and out his love we can those who haven’t deserved it either. 

Jesus calls us to be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. Perfect in our action, and in our heart; but this is only possible when we are perfected in God. In this passage Jesus sets a much higher standard for His followers: To go against the grain of the “Me First”  life that is practiced and promoted by the world. But…this high standard should always drive us to the Gospel, to admit we need help, and embrace the One who is perfect!

Matthew 5:33-37

Followers of Jesus are to reflect the nature of God, and part of that means being people of truth. And being people of truth will not only honour God, but point people to Jesus – The Way, The Truth, and The Life – as we are “salt and light” in the world.

Matthew 5:33-37

We live in a deception epidemic; a post-truth world. While we value the truth all too often it is far from our lips. Jesus challenges our propensity to spinning truth to suit our situation. He calls his disciples to live as men and women of truth, rejecting evil, and manifesting the fullness of who they are as new creations in Him.

Matthew 5:33-37

The first sin recorded in the Bible is a lie.  And since then, lying has wrecked lives, families and careers all around the globe.  Jesus calls his followers to be people of truth and integrity, not just because we have to, but because in the gospel we have no need to hide from the truth. 

Jesus turns his attention to the practice of oath declaring and the evil that lies underneath its pious cover. He reorients us to the intention of the Law of God and reminds us of a God of promise that does not leave us to fend for ourselves under the crushing weight of the law.

Matthew 5:31-32

Today you’d be hard pressed to find someone who hasn’t been directly impacted by the divorce of an immediate family member or a close friend. Yet, in Matthew 5:31-32 Jesus teaches that divorce should be avoided at almost all costs because it goes against God’s design for loving, committed, life-long unions.

When Jesus explains to his disciples God’s intention for marriage, they are shocked to hear God’s standard and we are still shocked today.  Jesus deals with divorce and marriage by bringing us back to God’s design and calls us to live it out as an illustration of the gospel. 

Matthew 5:31-32

The reason that divorce is so damaging is because marriage is so beautiful. Our enemy will do all he can to destroy what God created to reflect His great love for us. So, we need to do all we can to protect and preserve the sacred institution of biblical marriage.

Matthew 5:31-32

There is what you think about divorce, what society says about divorce, and then what Jesus says about divorce. The call of the Christian is to believe and follow Jesus. In this sermon we will explore what Jesus says about divorce, remarriage and adultery in the Sermon on the Mount and throughout the Bible and then   circumstances we find ourselves in.