Day 14

Chase: Hello and welcome to the Point Church Podcast. We're really glad you're here. Before we jump in, if you'd like to stay connected, you can download the Point Church app. It's a simple way to find messages, resource, and what's happening. And if this podcast is helpful, take a moment to like, subscribe, and share. You can find us on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Let's get into today's episode. Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Point Church Podcast. I'm here with Pastor Sam. As we're working through the gospel of Matthew for forty days, forty podcasts with our first season. ⁓ and we're working through chapter five right now, and we just left off of a ⁓ of verse twenty six and so we're picking up in verse twenty seven. Which reads You have heard that it was said, do not commit adultery. Right. So I'm gonna pause there. Yep. That was given to ⁓ the Israelites as part of the commands, the law, ⁓ specifically given to them in Exodus, saying, like, Hey, this is how you're gonna live. Like this is an extension of the Ten Commandments. Do not commit adultery. All right. And it says But I tell you, everyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Yes. Very similar to murder. Is it at least in our Bible says murder begins in the heart, adultery begins in the heart, that even looking lustfully at someone, again, Jesus is saying it's not the physical act, it's the heart posture. So again, you we stand guilty by our hearts. Again, needing A new heart needing Jesus' righteousness. Yeah. And he gets into what you should do. Mm-hmm. If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. For it is better to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your hi right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away, for it is better that you lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be to go into hell. Right. So here he's talking. Yeah. So Jesus ⁓ it has been always historically understood that he is talking metaphorically, not literally. He is not literally saying to do this. ⁓ but rather this is the need for redemption, a new heart, a new hand, a new, you know, a new body. Like you you you need to be consecrated is a word that comes to mind, sanctified. That ⁓ this this is ⁓ part of what I've heard one pastor say, this is why we lift up hands. And worship a church because it's our way of offering our hands to God. I have committed sin with these hands and I need you to make them clean. Now, I will say there is a story of kind of a legend that ⁓ an early church father, his name was Origen. There is a theory that in his zeal first becoming a Christian that he took this literally. Mm-hmm. ⁓ we don't need to go into the details of that too much, but he took this literally in his zeal to follow the Lord, he he did follow through literally on this, is at least a legend. And then he actually became well renowned as a biblical scholar and he was one who was I it makes sense now, was able to help people understand when Jesus is talking literally and when he's talking figuratively and you can see if this legend is true that he did take this literally, why this might be a passion project for him to help his readers understand yes when Jesus is talking literally and when he's talking metaphorically. So but historically this has always been a metaphor. Yeah. In verse thirty-one, it says it was also said, whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce. But I tell you, everyone who divorces his wife, except in the case of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery. Yes. So this is a ⁓ very difficult, potentially controversial teaching of Jesus, but he doesn't shy away from it, so we want to unpack it. Again, context, context, context. So Jesus is quoting from the Old Testament, from the law, whoever divorces his wife must give her a written notice of divorce. Now, the way that Moses rolled it out was that. That's him quoting it. The way it was practiced was not how God intended divorce to be handled. God intended marriage to be for life. Yeah. To be a reflection of the relationship between him and And us. Yes. But it's an earthly relationship. Now, what this practice was of handing someone ⁓ basically divorce papers, how it was used over the years was only for men to give it to their wives for any reason. Yep. She comes home at your you come home at the end of the day and she makes a dish that you don't like or she burns it, you could divorce her. And the priests would sanctify and say, Yep, it's your right. You can imagine how this creates power dynamics where men are elevated, that they have all the control. Women have to submit out of fear of being kicked out of their home. They don't have any money. They don't have, you know, job. Like it's just it's horrible. So what Jesus is doing is saying, Be faithful to your wife. You know, like again, this is supposed to be a representation of God and us, as God is faithful and patient with you, husband and wife must be faithful and patient with one another. So it raises and protects the rights of women. And the other thing that it did was it did create some ⁓ tension in the early church because ⁓ what it did was women when they heard the gospel preached in the early days, especially the Gentiles. They saw that this religion protects women. Women are of equal status of men. Yeah. So they flocked to the church because again, it's the outsiders becoming insiders, the insiders become outsiders. So Paul, so much so that he had to address it, because there were some women that said, Should I divorce my husband if he's not a Christian? You know, and it was it would go both ways. But typically in that time, it was women looking to divorce their husbands because they're like, Well, he's not a Christian and I want to be equally yoked. And Paul came in and said, actually. By remaining married to him, as long as he's not abusive and as long as he's not sex if he's sexually faithful to you, you staying married to him demonstrates the love of God through your kindness, through your actions, through your words, through your changing life. That is how it should be handled. That maybe you are in a marriage where one is a Christian and one's not. You shouldn't use your faith to lord it over the other one, but Use your faith to serve, witness, show that person the love of God through your marriage. And therefore, Paul says you redeem them. And so ⁓ when when is it time to maybe release someone from a marriage vow? So Jesus says here it's that you have every right if that person's been sexually unfaithful to you. Yep. You have every right to do that. So he makes no bones about it. ⁓ again through church history, there has been ⁓ the only other addition to that would be through abuse. Mm-hmm. And of course that has gone that has been handled poorly as well. Yeah. By some church circles where a pastor maybe typically ⁓ counsels the woman, ⁓ he's a faithful man, he's a good man, and he'll change and we'll talk to him. Paul would say no. Like they they would say, nope, like this man is abusing his wife. He is abusing someone made In the image of God. And of course it's true the opposite way as well, but that tends to be the story we hear of course more and more. ⁓ a book I read last summer, summer before, on forgiveness. It was the last book that Tim Keller wrote. And what stood out to me the most was how should a wife handle that her husband is abusing her? You know, what how how does she handle that? By, you know, we either think throw the book at him or forgive and forget are the two options. And he says it's both and that she should forgive him as she calls the cops. Hmm. Because it is not good for her to continue to be sinned against. Yes. And it's not good for the spouse to continue sinning. Mm hmm. Jesus would be very clear on that. Like, sin is the worst thing, so stop it. If that requires justice, it also requires forgiveness. It requires both. Get it out of your heart and also stop the perpetrator. So that would be now, of course, then you say, well, what counts as abuse? That is where the wisdom and the counsel of healthy, I'm gonna emphasize that word, healthy biblical church leadership from both sexes is incredibly helpful. Yes. It's not just a blanket statement, but what Jesus is saying is he's elevating the view of marriage. You don't get to just divorce someone willy-nilly. You don't get to just cast them aside because God did not cast you aside. And, you know, again, he's just trying to elevate the place of marriage. But if the marriage does not work out, sexual unfaithfulness or abuse, then that person is released and they are free to remarry. To remarry. So that but again, if you're just divorcing so you can go do whatever. Do whatever. Yeah. No. No good. No good. No good. Yeah. That's that's keeping in line with the teachings of Jesus. In verse thirty-three it reads, Again you have heard it was said to your ancestors. You must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord. But I tell you, don't take an oath at all, either by heaven because it is God's throne, or by the earth it is the footstool of Or by Jerusalem because it is the city of the great king. Yeah. Let's ⁓ let's actually read the rest of it and unpack the whole thing. Do not swear by your head because you cannot make a single hair white or black, but let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no. Anything more than this is from the evil one. Yes. So again, this is Jesus quoting again the law, quoting what their ancestors were told, saying, Do not swear an oath. Now, is he taking it back? No, he's not. What he is saying is rather, as my disciples, if you are a part of the kingdom of God, you shouldn't have to swear an oath. Because again, what people would do is they would swear these oaths and it would lead to some double speak. Yes. It would lead to maybe timeline shifting, like, ⁓ I swore I swore by the temple. Yeah. But we didn't say when I would do it. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like people would find ways to Break these O's. And what Jesus is saying is again enough with the frivolous talk. Is you're seeing this pattern, he's raising the bar, raising the bar. You shouldn't have to swear by the temple because your character is so obvious and so strong that everyone says, if Chase says yes, it's a yes. If Chase says no, it's a no. Your character, Christ in you, is enough for an answer, and you don't need to swear by anything else. And what he's saying is that double speak is from the evil one, from the tempter. It's when you again come with impure motives with a hidden agenda. If people know you as a person of pure heart, as he talked about in the Beatitudes, whether they're a believer or not, but they recognize that you're a person of your word, you have that reputation, they're not asking for a signed notice or an agreement. They're like, that person's word is bond. Like They will do it. It's stronger than So that's again what Jesus is saying is you don't need to swear on these things. Let your yes be yes, your no be no, and hold to it. Don't make a promise you don't intend to keep. Amen. Amen. And with that, we're gonna close out today's episode. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll see you back here tomorrow.