Holistic Transformation Part 1

Jesus' point is this, that we are to be people that are true through and through.

People that are true, people that your word is your word, nobody even has to think twice about whether or not you're going to be faithful.

Nobody needs you to swear on a stack of bibles.

Today on Back to Basics, Pastor Brian continues his study in the Sermon on the Mount.

Join us as Pastor Brian begins his teaching on Matthew chapter 5 verses 33 through 37.

In a message titled Holistic Transformation, now is Pastor Brian.

So as you know, we are journeying together through this portion of Scripture, Matthew 5 through 7,

and this is, as many of you know, commonly referred to as the Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount is, as we pointed out many times before, Jesus teaching on what life in His kingdom looks like.

It is His description of how those who follow Him will think, act, and live.

And the best summary that we have come across in explaining what it is, is that summary and that one paragraph that we have read, I think probably every single week,

from Jacob Jeremiah, what Jesus teaches in the Sains collected in the Sermon on the Mount is not a complete regulation of the life of the disciples.

And it is not intended to be, rather, what is taught here are symptoms, signs, examples of what it means when the kingdom of God breaks into the world,

which is still under sin, death and the devil.

You yourself should be signs of the coming kingdom of God, signs that something has already happened.

So the Sermon on the Mount and the things that we are looking at are really, you know, getting to the hearts of the matter,

and really showing us that to follow Jesus is first of all, it is a matter of the heart.

So I have entitled the message to a holistic transformation because we are talking, this is what Jesus is talking about.

He is pushing back against this external religious observation and going through the motions and the rituals.

But the people, the leaders especially, their hearts were far from God. Jesus said, he quoted Isaiah to them on one point.

He said, well, did I say a prophesy of you? You honor me with your lips, but your hearts are far from me.

And so this Sermon is really getting to the heart of the matter and it's speaking about this holistic transformation.

Transformation that goes deep to the core of our lives and then works itself out from there.

So here in this section that we are in and we're looking at this section where Jesus is basically, he's correcting the misinterpretation of their scriptures, which we would commonly refer to as the Old Testament.

He's correcting the wrong interpretation that has been taught by the religious leaders of the day.

You have heard that it was said to those of old, but I say to you.

And so as we look at this particular portion today, we are there once again.

The second thing that Jesus is doing is he is reaffirming and in some cases reframing the truth of God's word for all generations.

And that's what Jesus is doing here. Jesus here is not simply in this particular portion.

He's not simply reaffirming. He's actually reframing.

And that's because of the distorted teaching of the religious leaders on this subject of swearing and taking oaths.

And so you see here something really interesting. You see Jesus as the legislator.

You see Jesus as the log giver. And he is now changing something.

So he alone could do that because of course he is the Lord.

But it's pretty interesting that that's what he's doing here.

He is reframing things and this is the reason.

He's reframing things to get back to the heart of what those laws were really all about because it had been lost in the false interpretation of the leaders.

So he's getting back to what were these commands about swearing and oaths and all of that.

You know what was at the root of those things. That's what he's getting back to.

Honesty and integrity among God's people. That was really at the root and Jesus is going to bring that out.

So he says in verse 33, again you have heard that it was said to the people long ago.

Do not break your oath but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.

Now this is not a quotation of any one law of Moses.

But rather a summary of several Old Testament precepts which require people who make vows to keep them.

So Jesus just summarizes what was said in a number of different places in the law of Moses.

And so here are a few examples. In Exodus we read in the 20th chapter actually in the Ten Commandments you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

That is taking the name of the Lord swearing by the name of the Lord or taking an oath in the name of the Lord is the idea there.

Because 1912 you shall not swear by my name falsely says the Lord.

Numbers 30 verse 2 when a man vows to the Lord he shall not break his word.

So that was and there's a couple of more that are very similar but that was the teaching of Moses.

That's what came down from Moses.

Now the rabbis would do this quite frequently.

They would invent clever ways of breaking vows without incurring guilt.

The rabbis were the master of the loophole.

Truly they were always looking for the loophole.

This is what God said but you know maybe he really meant this.

Here's an example. If you take a vow this is kind of a summary of what they would do.

If you take a vow and use the name of the Lord it's binding.

If you didn't swear in the Lord's name then you were free to break your promise.

So I mean it's almost like what most of us probably did in our childhood when we would swear to our friend or somebody that you know such and such was the case.

And then when they discovered that it really wasn't the case we'd say oh well I had my fingers crossed behind my back anyway so it doesn't really matter.

Or I didn't swear by this I only swear by that.

This is what these guys were doing.

But the tragedy is that these are full grown men and not only are they full grown men but they are supposed to be the spiritual leaders of the nation.

But this is the type of thing we're doing.

Jesus himself gives the best example of this type of thing in the 23rd chapter of this gospel of Matthew listen to what he said.

Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees. Blind guides.

You say if anyone swears by the temple it means nothing.

But if anyone swears by the gold of the temple they are bound by the oath.

You blind fools.

Which is greater. The gold or the temple that makes the gold sacred.

You also say if anyone swears by the altar it means nothing.

But anyone who swears by the gift on the altar is bound by that oath.

You blind men.

Which is greater the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred.

Therefore anyone who swears by the altar swears by it and everything on it.

And everyone who swears by the temple swears by it and the one who dwells in it and anyone who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and the one who sits on it.

So Jesus is taking away all of their ability to find the loophole and to manipulate because again what they would say is well I didn't swear by God.

But Jesus says well if you swore by the earth you swore by God's footstool.

If you swore by heaven you swore by his throne.

So he's not giving them any way out of this.

So with this as the background it's easy to see why Jesus says in relation to his people for the future do not swear an oath at all.

He just says we're going to just we're going to next those oaths.

And we're going to get down to the real core of what is going on.

Now a couple of quick sidenotes because this this question has been asked many many times about swearing or taking oaths.

Well if you know since the Bible says this like what what happens if I get called for jury duty and you know that I like have to testify and I have to take an oath.

Well listen that this has nothing to do with that at all but there have been those who have mistakenly thought that throughout the long history of the church.

They have thought that you couldn't take an oath in court or you couldn't swear upon entrance into some type of service.

The anabaptist back in the time of the Reformation and the Quakers who came not much later on in history but are still with us today the Friends Church.

They mistakenly thought that this was what was being said or applied in that way.

And to this very day serious Quakers still refuse to take oaths or to swear in a courtroom.

So just so you know in case your conscience has ever bothering you when you have to maybe do this.

Jesus isn't talking about anything like that.

So it's just you know probably going back to the the anabaptist who the anabaptist were a group of people in the Reformation who just they took everything just absolutely literally and they didn't take into consideration the background of the context often.

So this is why they would have come up with that type of an interpretation but no application in that area.

As we see the context we understand okay this is this is what Jesus is referring to specifically these types of things.

Second thing when Martin Lloyd Jones the great 20th century British preacher when he preached a series on the sermon on the Mount in the 1950s which became a classic book on this topic I think most pastors have that book in their library.

But when he was teaching the series on the sermon on the Mount he imagined someone asking the question why when the world is in the state that it's in should we be talking about such things as vows and oaths.

And whether we should take them or not after all they might say this seems a bit trivial in comparison to all the problems in the world.

His answer was essentially this according to the New Testament everything a Christian does is important because of who we are and of our effect on others.

One of the ways people become Christians is by observing Christians we are all being watched and therefore everything we do is of tremendous importance.

And then he said this perhaps one of the most potent means of evangelism at present is whether we are people of integrity people whose word can be trusted now the reason why I'm sharing this is because I think there is a parallel at the present moment there are Christians today.

Who would ask why are we teaching through the sermon on the Mount and talking about not taking oaths with all the evil that is going on in the world they would say you should be preaching in times you should be preaching the judgment of God against all the wicked people who are destroying our country.

You should be educating people on the woke agenda and working to get people that are going to support our traditional values into office listen this is huge right now in our Christian culture so much so that some Christian leaders are even looking at some of the statements of Jesus in the sermon on the Mount and saying you know those that's too weak.

Jesus is saying things like turn the other cheek we can't afford to turn the other cheek because if we do we're going to be buried by the left and so I over and over again I hear Christian public figures pastors saying you know the church has to rise up the church unless the church does something the country is going to hell.

Well what is what are they wanting us to do that's the question that I have you see the reality is those efforts that I just mentioned here that people would insist that this is what you should be doing instead of talking about this you love your enemy stuff those efforts will inevitably fail to produce the level of change needed.

So they shouldn't be given the level of priority that they are given by so many in this moment the reality is these things will ultimately fail and so to take that and make that the priority and to think of something like what we're talking about today which which really what we're talking about is getting into the deep things of our hearts.

Where change must take place first see that that's that's the important thing formation of Jesus character in our lives listen will never fail to bring forth the fruit of righteousness that glorifies God and that's what matters first and foremost and that's really what we need more than anything to do.

Today that's what we need we need people that are transformed people who are honest in a dishonest culture people with integrity in a culture of corruption will be the ones in the end to make the real difference that's the truth.

A German theologian who lived through Hitler's reign of terror said that during the time listen listen to what he said he said the avoidance of one small fib could be a stronger confession of faith than a whole Christian philosophy championed in lengthy forceful discussion.

I believe that we are living at a time especially here in the west where merely talking about the faith without living it will no longer fly it will no longer be tolerated people don't want to hear us preach things we are not living.

They don't and probably more so than any time I can remember the need is for really living our faith as well as proclaim it we always have to proclaim we always have to preach there's no time we just say well i'm not going to you know we don't have to preach or say anything we just you know we just try to live good lives and that's going to be the thing there's some somebody somewhere came up with the same one time they attributed to

Saint Francis that that he he supposedly said preach the gospel and if necessary use words well Francis never said that he wasn't that daft when it comes to what the gospel is you can't preach the gospel without using words but you need to preach the gospel with a life that supports what the gospel says.

So people just don't want to hear they should follow Jesus from people who don't really seek to live the way Jesus lived.

I shared this quote before but it just it's so relevant again Leslie newbiegan he asked the question how is it possible that the gospel should be credible that people should come to believe that the power which has the last word and human affairs is represented by a man hanging on a cross i'm suggesting that the only answer the only hermeneutic of the gospel is a congregation of men and women who believe it

and live by it who believe it and live by it and quite honestly for decades perhaps even maybe even longer period of time that the the environment in the culture has allowed for a telling but not living but we've come to a place in the culture where that's not taught.

It's not tolerated any longer people want to see the reality of Jesus in our lives and the wonderful reality is when they see Jesus in our lives and they hear what we are saying that's when people connect that's when they say wow this this is real stuff.

It isn't just religion this isn't just external. So what is Jesus's point? Jesus's point is this that we are to be people that are true through and through people that are true people people that your word is your word. Nobody even has to think twice about whether or not you're going to be.

Faithful. Nobody needs you to swear on a stack of Bibles because they know man this this person is a person of integrity. Jesus formed people can be nothing less.

Peter says this Christ left you an example that you should follow in his steps who committed no sin and listen and no deceit was found in his mouth. No deceit was found in the mouth of Jesus.

You could absolutely count on Jesus to be always truthful always speaking the truth and Peter reminds us Christ left you an example.

We continue tomorrow with more valuable insights from Pastor Brian as he continues his series on the sermon on the mount. Thank you for listening to Back to Basics with Pastor Brian Broderson. You know Back to Basics is a listener supported Bible teaching ministry.

We couldn't do this without the prayers and financial support of friends like you. If today's message encouraged you, would you prayerfully consider supporting the ministry?

You can also sign up for our newsletter to stay connected. Visit Back to Basics Radio dot com and now once again, here's Pastor Brian.

In the teaching of Jesus, we see that he has much to say about hypocrisy and he calls his people to sincerity and to integrity that is going to come from a deep transformation.

Transformation of the heart and manifest itself in the simple yes and no being all we need to say because people know that we mean what we say.

I read one time that during the period of the Second World War and during the insanity of Nazism that simply telling the truth was so profound because so few people did it.

We forget that how profound it is sometimes to just be people of integrity but that is part of our witness as God's people.

In a world full of deceit, we are to be honest people are yes being yes and no being no.

Back to Basics is the listener supported preaching and teaching ministry of Pastor Brian Broderson.