Is It Right for You to Be Angry? - 4/26/26 - Joseph Vondenstein

All

right, good morning. Going to make sure

all the things are on and working. Thank

you once again for the opportunity to

stand before you and present a portion

of the word of God to you. If you open

once again to Jonah chapter 4, which was

Jonah 4 · chapter mention

our scripture reading this morning, I'll

start again in verse one.

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and

he became angry. So he prayed to the

Lord and said, "Ah, Lord, was not this

what I said when I was still in my

country. Therefore, I fled previously to

Tarses, for I know that you are a

gracious and merciful God, slow to anger

and abundant in loving kindness, one who

relents from doing harm." Therefore now,

oh Lord, please take my life from me,

for it is better for me to die than to

live. And the Lord said to him, "Is it

right for you to be angry?"

The question that God asked her right

here, is it right for you to be angry?

Brings up the question, when is it right

for us to be angry?

We see the example.

Turn with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 3.

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

Ecclesiastes chapter 3, starting in

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

verse one. To everything, there is a

season. A time for every purpose under

heaven. A time to be born and a time to

die. A time to plant and a time to pluck

what is planted. A time to kill and a

time to heal. A time to break down and a

time to build up. A time to weep and a

time to laugh. A time to mourn and a

time to dance.

And

go down to verse eight. a time to love

and a time to hate, a time of war and a

time of peace,

right? God has set a time for

everything. We have this example

and God's asking Jonah, he's asking him,

"Is it right for you to be angry?" That

implies there is a time and there is a

place in which it is right for Jonah to

be angry. So this morning, we're going

to look over examples of biblical anger.

We're going to look at God's anger.

We're going to look at man's anger. the

way it's used, the context around the

situation, so we can better understand

the time and the place for everything

because there is a time and there is a

place. We have to understand how to use

it properly. If you'll turn with me

first to Exodus chapter 22

Exodus 22 · chapter mention

This will be our first example of God's

anger.

Exodus chapter 22.

Exodus 22 · chapter mention

And we're going to begin reading in

verse 22.

You shall not afflict any widow or

fatherless child. If you afflict them in

any way and they cry at all to me, I

will surely hear their cry, and my wrath

will become hot, and I will kill you

with swords. Your wives shall be widows,

and your children shall be fatherless.

Why is God angry in this instant, right?

Because he's because he's telling these

people if you do something, if you

afflict the helpless, if you take

advantage, if you use if you abuse and

and treat right his children unjustly,

right? He is a God of justice. He's a

God who cares about these kind of things

and his wrath will become hot. There is

a reason for his anger.

You'll turn with me now to John in

chapter 2.

John chapter 2 beginning at verse 13.

Now the Passover of the Jews was at

hand. And Jesus went up to Jerusalem. He

found in the temple those who sold oxen

and sheep and doves and the money

changers doing business. When he had

made a whip with cords, he drove them

all out of the temple. With the sheep

and the oxen, he poured out the changers

money and he overturned the tables. And

he said to those who sold doves, "Take

these things away. Do not make my

father's house a house of merchandise."

Then his disciples remembered that it

was written, "Zeal for your house eaten

me up." So the Jews answered and said to

him, "What sign you show us if you do

these things?" And Jesus said to them,

"You destroy this temple and in three

days I will raise it up." Right?

We have this example

in verse 17. It says, "Zeal for your

house has eaten me up." Doesn't directly

say that Jesus had wrath the same way we

saw in the last example, but we can tell

the context, right? He's whipping

people. He's running around throwing

over tables. We can understand that he

is angry.

The question is why? What's the reason?

Once again, the same way that God was

angry with the unjust handling of people

and hopeless people, Jesus who is

undeniably God is angry with the

incorrect handling of worship in his

father's house over right the time of

the Passover, right? the

the things that are supposed to be done

at this time, right? People are using it

as an opportunity to make money. That's

wrong. That has

that resonates with Jesus on a moral

level. And that makes him angry because

he sees that this worship is not being

handled correctly.

And then if you turn me to Romans

Romans 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1,

Romans chapter 1,

Romans 1 · chapter mention

we're starting verse 16.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of

Christ, for it's the power of God to

salvation for everyone who believes, for

the Jew first and also for the Greek.

For in it the righteousness of God is

revealed from faith to faith. As it is

written, the just shall live by faith.

For the wrath of God is revealed from

heaven against all ungodliness and

unrighteousness of men who suppress the

truth in unrighteousness.

Right? So we see once again the wrath of

God is revealed from heaven against

what? Against ungodliness. We see in

verse 17 the righteousness of God is

revealed. And in verse 18 the wrath of

God is revealed right the righteousness

is revealed in the faith in the way that

we are taught to live in the example we

are given in right the gospel of Christ.

But his wrath is revealed whenever

that gospel whenever that that means of

life is not being fulfilled.

So we see that God's anger is a direct

response to wrongdoing to injustice to

the mishandling of a good thing. Those

are the examples we have of God being

angry. And because God is angry, we know

that that anger is just because God is

just. We're going to look at a few

examples of man's anger.

If you look now at Genesis chapter 1,

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

Judas chapter 1, beginning in verse 26.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our

image,

according to our likeness. Let them have

dominion over the fish of the sea, over

the birds of the air, and over the

cattle, over all the earth, and over

every creeping thing that creeps on the

earth." So God created man in his own

image, in the image of God. He created

him, male and female, he created them.

And then

if you'll go forward with me into

Genesis chapter 4,

Genesis 4 · chapter mention

starting in verse one. Now Adam knew Eve

his wife and she conceived and bore Cain

and said, "I have acquired a man from

the Lord." Then she bore again, this

time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a

keeper of sheep, but Cain was a killer

of the ground. In the process of time,

it came to pass that Cain brought an

offering of the fruit of the ground to

the Lord. Abel also brought the

firstborn of his flock and of their fat.

And the Lord respected Abel and his

offering, but he did not respect Cain

and his. Cain was angry, so his

countenance fell. So the Lord said to

Cain, "Why are you angry?" The same

question he asked Jonah, "And why has

your countenance fallen? If you do well,

will you not be accepted? And if you do

not do well, then sin lies at the door.

Its desire is for you, but you should

rule over it." Now, Cain talked with his

a with Abel his brother, and it came to

pass, but when they were in the field,

Cain rose up against Abel his brother,

and killed him.

In Genesis chapter 1,

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

what we just read 26 and 28, we see that

God said, "Let us make man in our image,

according to our likeness."

God made man like him. God made man. God

made us with a lot of the same ideas, a

lot of the same emotions, a lot of the

same thoughts and attributes as God. God

loves and so he gave us love so we can

love each other and understand how to

love him. God has anger and he gave us

anger. with the example of how to use it

appropriately in every aspect of man

whether it's curiosity or inventiveness

right you see the the systems that God

has designed around us in the world to

keep the world running and you look at

the systems that we've designed for

ourselves

right all these parts that make up us

every single one of them was given to us

by God including anger that's the

example we have in Ecclesiastes chapter

Ecclesiastes 3 · chapter mention

3 there's a time there's a place for

everything. Right after we see God

talking about making us similar to him

in the likeness of him, we have this

example of man using anger wrong.

Right?

We see this anger. We ask the same

question. Same one we saw God had wrath.

Same we saw right Jesus flipping over

the table which is this question. Why is

he angry? He's angry because of

jealousy. Not because he sees something

doing wrong, but he sees within himself

something is wrong. And he projects that

anger because he knows he is not enough.

He did not do enough, right? He knows

that he did not do well. So what God

says if you do not do well, then sin

lights the door. God's telling him, you

can make right the right decision. You

can change. You can do what's good.

Right? And he's angry because he was

not. That's our first example.

of man's anger.

You look at some more with me. Exodus

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

chapter 32.

Exodus chapter 32. Start with me in

Exodus 32 · chapter mention

verse 15.

And Moses turned and went down from the

mountain.

And the two tablets of the testimony

were in his hand. The tablets were

written on both sides. On the one side

and on the other they were written. Now

the tablets were the work of God and the

writing was the writing of God engraved

on the tablets. Now when Joshua heard

the noise of the people as they shouted,

he said to Moses, "There is noise of a

war in the camp." But he said, "This is

not the noise of the shout of victory,

nor the noise of the cry of defeat, but

this is the noise, this is the sound of

singing that I hear." And as soon as he

came near the camp, and he saw the calf,

and he saw the dancing, Moses anger

became hot, and he cast the tablets out

from his hand, and broke them at the

foot of the mountain. And he took the

calf which they had made. He burned it

in fire and ground it into a powder. He

scattered across the water and bade the

children of Israel to drink it. And

Moses said to Aaron, "What did this

people do to you that you had brought so

great a sin upon them?"

Right?

Once again, we're asked the question,

Moses, why are you angry? What's going

on? We see he's angry because once

again, the same reason Jesus was angry

because of the mishandling of worship.

They turned toward idolatry right after

they left right after they left Egypt

and they saw what what the true God was.

They saw what God was capable of in

comparison to the false magicians and

the false gods and the false beliefs of

Egypt. Now they're turning away from

him.

Right?

And the second question I want to ask is

what did Moses's anger accomplish?

What did Moses's anger do? Right? He set

this example for them. This is not

acceptable that these sins, this

idolatry has a consequence.

Right? We we go out. He he gets the

Levites to go and and kill how many of

them.

I didn't write this in my sermon, but

they killed a bunch of them, right?

3,000 men. Verse 38. So the sons of Levi

did according to the word of Moses and

about 3,000 men of the people fell that

day. Right? There's a consequence for

sin, right? The wages of sin or death.

We see that example set.

His anger served to cause change amongst

the people. Obviously not permanent

change. We know what they went on to

continue doing, but a change of mind and

a change of understanding of the

consequences of these actions to show

that they were wrong.

Look with me in Matthew chapter 8 for

Matthew 8 · chapter mention

our next example.

Not 18. Matthew 18.

Matthew 18 and verse 23.

Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like

a certain king who wanted to settle

accounts with his servants. And when he

had begun to settle his accounts, one

was brought to him who owed 10,000, but

he could not pay. His master commanded

that he be sold along with his wife, his

children, and everything he had, and

that a payment would be made. The

servant therefore fell down before him,

saying, "Master, have patience with me,

and I will pay you all." So then the

master of the servant was moved with

compassion and released him and he

forgave him that debt. But the servant

went out and found one of his fellow

servants who owed him a hundred dinari.

And he laid hands on him and took him by

the throat saying, "Pay me what you

owe." So his fellow servant fell down in

his seat and begged him, saying, "Have

patience and I will pay you all." But he

would not have patience with him and he

threw him out into the prison that he

should pay the debt. So when the fellow

servants saw what had been done, they

had become grieved and they came to tell

their master all that had been done.

Then his master after he had called them

said to them, "You wicked servant, I

forgave you all the all the debt because

you begged me. Should you not also have

had compassion on your fellow servant

just as I had pity on you?" And the

master was angry and delivered him to

the tormentors until he should pay all

that was due to him. So my heavenly

father also will do to each of you if

you from his heart does not forgive his

brother his trespasses.

We often read this section of scripture

and we read it from the perspective of

forgiveness, right? We see we see one

being forgiven and the other not being

forgiven. We see the contradiction and

the hypocrisy and Jesus uses it as an as

a lesson to teach us we should forgive

each other, right? Because we also are

guilty of great sin. But we also see

here is two examples of anger.

An example of anger that was used wrong.

Right? In verse 28, it says the servant

went out and found his fellow servant

who owed him 100. And he laid hands on

him. He took him by the throat saying,

"Pay me what you owe." He was violently

angry because he was wrong. He felt

right. He was owed this money. He

deserves this money because it was his.

That's how he feels. And because of

that, he gets angry and he ignores the

grace he just received and throws the

other one into prison. But the master's

anger is a different kind of anger.

He's not angry

because the servant's trying to get back

his debt. He's angry because the servant

is being injust. The servant is taking

no account to the debt he was forgiven

and now throwing this other person.

Right? It's the context, what happened

before that interaction that causes the

master to be angry. Verse 33, he says,

"Should you not have also had compassion

on your fellow servant just as I had

pity on you?" And his master was angry.

We see an example again of a righteous

anger and of an unrighteous anger. The

righteous anger is in response to a

wrongdoing and the unrighteous anger is

in response to an internal emotion. The

same way we saw with Cain and Abel,

right? That anger was the response of

jealousy, of inadequacy, of projection.

And then our final example for man's

anger will be Matthew chapter 26.

Matthew 26 · chapter mention

Acts chapter 26. If you will begin

Acts 26 · chapter mention

reading with me in verse 69.

Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard.

This is at the time of Jesus death. And

a servant girl came to him saying, "You

also are with Jesus of Galilee." But he

denied it before them all, saying, "I do

not know what you were saying." And when

he had gone out of the gateway, another

girl saw him and said to those who were

there, "This fellow also was with Jesus

of Nazareth." But once again he denied

with an oath, I do not know the man. And

a little later those who stood by came

up and said to Peter, "Surely you are

one of them, for your speech betrays

you." And so he began to curse and

swear, saying, "I do not know the man."

And immediately a rooster crowed. Peter

remembered the words of Jesus, who had

said to him, "Before the rooster crows,

you will deny me three times." And so he

went out and wept bitterly.

Once again, we're looking at the result

of anger. If God was to ask Peter right

now, why are you angry? Is it right for

you to be angry? Why is Peter angry?

He's not angry because of injustice.

He's angry because of fear. He's angry

because he knows what could happen to

him if he is identified as one of the

people who is with Jesus. He's got a

very visual representation of what could

happen to him if he is viewed the same

way as Jesus.

And so out of fear and out of anger and

out of frustration, out of his own

emotions, in the heat of the moment,

>> what does he do? He lashes out in anger.

Turn me to Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

There's a few counterpoints to be made

to the argument that anger is acceptable

for Christians.

There are several verses that people

have used to say just because right the

master's anger in the parable is

acceptable does not mean that we have

the right to use anger acceptable. Just

because Jesus anger was acceptable does

not mean we right. is because Moses does

not mean we right we have verses talking

against evil is this not a contradiction

of the scripture or can it be quantified

with context

how can we say it's okay for us to be

angry whenever in Romans 12 and verse 17

we have repay no one evil for evil have

regard for good things in the sight of

men if it is possible as much as depends

on you live peaceibly with all men you

Think Jesus was living peaceable

peaceibly with those money changers? Was

Moses living peaceably with the

Israelites?

Beloved, did not avenge yourselves, but

rather give place to wrath. For it is

written, vengeance is mine. I will

repay, says the Lord.

Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed

him. If he is thirsty, give him drink.

For in so doing, you will heat cold fire

on his head. When I was younger, when I

was little, this never made sense to me.

Verse 19, do not avenge yourselves, but

give place to wrath. Is that not the

same thing? I I could not distinguish

that when I was younger. But we're told

not to avenge ourselves. Right? For many

people, Jesus would have been seen as

avenging himself. Or we come back to

that.

Turn me down. Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Chapter 5 and verse 38.

You have heard that it was said, an eye

for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But

I tell you not, resist an evil person.

Whoever slaps you upon your right cheek,

turn the other to him also. If anyone

wants to sue you and take your tunic,

let him have your cloak also. Whoever

compels you to go one mile, go with him,

too. Give to him who asks you, and from

him who wants to borrow, you do not turn

away. You have heard that it was said,

you shall love your neighbor and hate

your enemy. But I say to you, love your

enemies, bless those who curse you, do

good to those who hate you, and pray for

those who spitefully use you and pers

persecute you, that you may be sons of

your father in heaven. For he makes his

son rise on the evil and the good, and

he sends rain on the just and the

unjust.

People take these verses and they say,

right, we're supposed to turn the other

cheek. We're supposed to let people walk

on us. That's what it means to be meek,

right? is what it means to be lowly is

to completely give ourselves and let

right turn the other cheek right do not

repay evil for evil do not give in to

vengeance not avenge yourselves

let's look one more chapter 5

Galatians chapter 5 starting in verse

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

19.

Now the works of the flesh are evident

which are adultery, fornication,

uncleanness, lwdness, idolatry, sorcery,

hatred, contentions, jealousies,

outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions,

dissensions, heresies, envy, murders,

drunkenness, robberies, and of the like

of which I tell you beforehand, just as

I also told you in time past. Those who

practice such things

will not inherit the kingdom of God. We

see verse 20, outbursts of wrath. Did

not God have outbursts of wrath? Did not

Moses have outbursts of wrath? If these

are the works of the flesh, why do we

see these examples of people doing this?

Go to James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

James chapter 1 and verse 19.

James 1 · chapter mention

So then, my beloved brethren, let every

man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and

slow to wrath.

For the wrath of man does not produce

the righteousness of God. Slow to wrath

is what? It is the opposite of an

outburst. An outburst is instant. It's

emotional, right? It's on the spot like

what Peter had, right?

Slow to wrath. What does that mean? How

are we or how can we be slow to wrath? I

think about Jesus, right? It says, what

did he do? He saw this happening and he

went out and he made open the cords.

That takes time. That's not quick.

That's not speedy. That's not an

outburst, right? It was calculated. It

was patient. It was meaningful. And then

why did he do it? Because he wanted to

make a change. He wanted to send a

message. He wanted to change the minds

and the perceptions of people about what

was acceptable. The same way Moses did

with the people. You think it it's quick

to burn a calf, a golden calf, and to

grind it into paste, grind it into a

powder. That takes time. That takes

patience. These are not outbursts of

wrath. But these are these examples we

see of wrath that is acceptable

are in response to injustice.

And they are

in order to make a change.

If you go with me to Ephesians chapter

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

4,

Ephesians chapter 4, what does Paul say

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

in verse 26? He says, "Be angry and do

not sin. Now let the sun go down on your

wrath or give plates to the devil. The

anger is not the sin. What is the sin?

It's what comes after the anger. It's

the outburst. It's the It's the improper

use of anger. Right? He's acknowledging

right here. Anger does leave a door to

sin.

It gives place. It can give place to the

devil. Right? But the anger itself, that

is not the problem. And when we were

looking at these verses previously about

turning the other cheek, right, we're

looking about, right, the sin of an

outburst of wrath, looking about living

peaceibly with all men. The reason I

bring that up is because these are all

conversations people have had with me.

People have said, "Well, you're a

Christian, right? You you can't listen

to angry music." That's wrong, right?

That's a sinful. You're supposed to be

peaceful with all you're not supposed to

be angry, right? Because anger is a sin.

And there's lots of misconceptions.

There's lots of people who believe these

things or think these things are sin.

You know, you can't get frustrated about

this. You have no right, right? You're

supposed to be meek. They don't

understand

the place

that these things take. Romans chapter

Romans 12 · chapter mention

12, we're worth looking at. It says, "Do

not avenge yourself, but rather give

place to wrath." Which almost echoes,

"Be angry and do not sin."

When we were personally wronged,

like like the servant was, he felt that

he was personally wronged with his debt.

Right?

We need to take it with patience and

with humility,

right? Without ego, without wrath and

outbursts.

That's the same thing we see in Matthew

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

chapter 5 talk about if someone takes

your cloak, give him also your tunic. If

someone asks for a mile, right? Help him

for two miles. When you are personally

wrong, you have the example to be mean

and to be humble and to be slow to

wrath. But whenever others are wrong

like God talks about, right? Whenever

the fatherless, whenever you take

advantage of them, whenever you abuse

them and you mistreat them, those are

the examples of anger and injustice or

whenever God is being mistreated.

Whenever we see Jesus, right, going

after the money changer, whenever we see

Moses going after

going after the the Israelites who are

in idolatry, or another example I think

of is whenever the prophet Nathan comes

to David and says, you know, there's

this man who had a sheep and a rich man

came and took it from him, right, and

killed him. And David is so brought up

with this anger and with this righteous

right this ignant righteous justice

righteous anger because he sees that

someone has been wronged right he

doesn't perceive it it's himself at the

time that is the anger we are supposed

to have that is the anger that causes

change that pushes us to action the same

way right we see the correct examples of

anger being Would

you turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter 4?

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

Second Timothy chapter 4, we're going to

2 Timothy 4 · chapter mention

start in verse one. I charge you

therefore before God and the Lord Jesus

Christ, who will judge the living and

the dead at his appearing and his

kingdom. Preach the word, be ready in

season, out of season. Rebuse,

convince, rebuke, exhort with

allsuffering and all teacher teaching.

Look at that word rebuke. We know what

it means. It means it means to scold,

right? It's it's what you do with your

children. It's what you do whenever

they're in the wrong, right? That's the

example that God has set for us.

And it's not always done in anger, but

often it is because something wrong is

happening. All the examples we see of

anger or is wrong, right? Calling back

totally right. It's it's because of a

personal injustice. It's because they

perceive some something was done wrong

to them. And it's emotional. It's quick.

It's in the moment. All the examples of

anger we see that are done righteously,

whether by God or by man. They're in

response to something wrong. They're in

response to the mishandling of worship,

the mishandling of people. They're in

response to injustice and they bring

about a change.

Anger when used properly brings out

change. It brings out action. We have

the example to convince, rebuke and

exhort with all longsuffering and

teaching. Those are all things that are

beneficial to the church in our

day-to-day lives. When we see sin, when

we see Christians who are falling

behind, right, we have an obligation to

have a loving conversation with them,

but in a manner to rebuke. And that

might require a level of anger or with

your children. You have the

responsibility to rebuke them when they

do wrong. And that requires a level of

anger. In your workplace when things are

being mishandled, I'm sure all of you

have been angry and you've had to make

changes. Anger brings action. And that

action can bring change. We have to

understand as Christians how to use that

in the right manner. How to use anger in

a manner that is slow is in response to

the right things and with consideration

to the context and not be people who

have outbursts of anger. We were talking

about elders this morning, right? One of

the big qualifications for elder is it

is men who are not given to outbursts of

anger because for men that's a very

common problem. That's something a lot

of us have and especially in our culture

it's very it's accepted to being an

angry man. A lot of the times we have to

be mindful of what's making us angry,

why it's making us angry, and if we're

responding to it in the correct way.

When I'm angry, I like to imagine that

I'm sitting there like Jonah underneath

that plant that just up. And God's

asking me, "Is it right for you to be

angry?"

Or like he's asking Cain, "Is it right?

Why are you angry?" We have to be

mindful of our anger and understand that

God gave us anger for a reason. And we

have to know those reasons so we can use

it right. So if in your life you perhaps

have not been handling your worship

correctly, if you have not been handling

your own emotion, your own self, the way

you present yourself, the way you act,

and you

as a Christian need to come forward,

need to repent of those things and make

a change, we're here for you. Or if you

are not part of the church and you would

like to be part of the church, if you'd

like to repent of your sins to confess

Jesus as the savior, be baptized and

have the opportunity for you to enter

into salvation at your stand.