JSM | Uprightness .6 | Adultery, Divorce & Vows .3 (9/22/2024)

JSM | Uprightness .6 | Adultery, Divorce & Vows .3

By Rev. Nicholas Sybrowsky
Heb. (נּט רּקהץ מּןביםךשד דּטנרם'דלט)
Gk. (Βψ Ρεω. Νιξηολασ Σψβροωσκψ)

Invocation:

“Blessed are those you choose and bring near to live in your courts!  We are filled with the good things of your house, of your holy temple. ~Ps. 65:4 (NIV)

Opening Word & Reading for Worship:

The Wedding at Cana (ESV) or The Miracle at Cana (KJV)

 [Jhn 2:1-12 ESV] 1 On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. 3 When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine." 4 And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come." 5 His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you." 6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to the servants, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim. 8 And he said to them, "Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast." So they took it. 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now." 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. 12 After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

1. Jesus was careful to release the power of the Kingdom of God.

:4 And Jesus said [to his mother], “Woman, what does this have to do with me?  My hour has not yet come.”

Jesus was self-restraint in releasing the power of miracles, yet because his mother asked, he helped carefully in this wedding crisis.  Notice that the water that was turned into wine was better than the wine the guests had been consuming.  Wine in our contemporary view is an alcoholic beverage that has a bitter taste to it, yet we know that the word wine gets watered down so to speak in its use in antiquity.  That’s another topic for observation later, but my point is that Jesus knowing ‘his hour had not yet come’ was careful to avoid drawing the crowd’s attention.  His mother knew that her child Jesus of Nazareth was special.  In the Gospel according to John, he ends with Our Times Are in His Hand (KJV BLB: Pericope Taken from the NASB95) Jn 21:25 “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen. [Jhn 21:25 KJV]

{Invite everyone to stand & the worship team up} PAUSE

Omniscient, Omnipotent & Omnipresent God.  (Translation:  All-knowing, All-Powerful, Ever-present.)  

If Jesus can perform subtle miracles before his hour then our Lord and savior can perform miracles after his hour.  What miracles have happened or are happening right now?  Miracles we simply don’t have the privilege to observe the source.

What miracle do you need today and tomorrow?  We believe that our God is the God of miracles.  Let the God of miracles know what you need and allow Him to make new wine.  Will you allow Jesus to release within you the power of the Kingdom of God?

Further Invocation:

Our precious heavenly Father, we enter into this time of worship to offer ourselves as living sacrifices to you, holy and pleasing.  And we pray that this sacrifice is a sweet-smelling aroma to you, Lord.  Jesus Christ our Savior.  Amen. (Cite 2) 

Let’s worship the One True God, the God of miracles!

Sermon: 

Jesus is calling us to live Conscientiously; honest lives with an impeccable word of mouth full of integrity.

The helpfulness like that of knowing the how and why of instruction, rules, regulations and commandments. If and when taking an oath, it helps to know the context of what’s implicated.  Solemnness is exceptionally important when taking a vow.  Jesus is calling us to live Conscientiously; honest lives with an impeccable word of mouth full of integrity.  In other words, Watertight lips don’t sink ships.  The watertight integrity of our speaking is exceptionally important when bearing witness.  The adversary is known as the Father of lies, therefore as a believer and follower of Jesus it’s crucial that we develop the characteristics of honesty and integrity.  For our God is the Father of truth. 

 

Intro:

I’m not certain which type of vows were exchanged at the Wedding in Cana, nor if vows were exchanged at all.  The couple uniting in Holy Matrimony likely did exchange vows.  Perhaps they had similar detail as what we would consider traditional like these I share now.

Imagine a Bride and Bridegroom standing here before us.  “Please join hands and, to each other, express your vows of love and devotion."

The couple are holding hands and facing each other.  The Groom repeats this vow after the minister: "I, Mr. Groom, take you, Mrs. Bride, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part; as God is my witness, I give you my promise."

The couple still holding hands and facing each other.  The Bride repeats her vow after the minister:  "I, Mrs. Bride, take you, Mr. Groom, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish until death do us part; as God is my witness, I give my promise." (Cite 2)

The Word of God tells us what love is like and what love does in 1 Co. 13.  The love chapter is very useful in understanding what real love is and assists us in becoming loving people.  Despite these traditional vows describing the promise before God and the public witness, people continue to fail to uphold their promise.

I have many opinions and reasons that might help explain why people fail to uphold these promises, but I’ll spare you the lecture and share the main thing.

God.  God is the main detail.  In my opinion, each individual person’s world view and their opinion of God or rather their personal theology (study of God) impacts the prospects of fulfilling their vows.  Whether we like it or not, God loves each of His fallible children. 

After twenty years of practicing this vow with my wife Kelli, I can speak for both of us.  We’re fortunate to have the grace of God in our marriage.  Without this grace I’m confident we would have joined the statistics of 42% of the failed marriages here in America today.  To this day we need the grace and mercy of our Lord and Savior to empower us with a love we fail to manifest without his power, knowledge and ever-present spirit.  Despite twenty years of success in these promises to each other, we remain human.  Like everyone else, we aren’t immune to temptation.  Nor are we free of adversity today and tomorrow.  In fact, she and I are only getting older.  With the failing body as we age, we still work to love one another as God has called us to do.  Contrary to the romanticist “better with age” fallacy.  We’re not always getting better with age.  Not to suggest we loathe growing older but as I’ve witnessed aging with grace beautifully isn’t as easy as one may think.  Age we all do, nonetheless.  By God’s mercy we will do so gracefully.   

 Main Text: Oaths/Vows Matthew 5:33-37

 "Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.' 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. 36 And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. 37 Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil*. [Mat 5:33-37 ESV]

*Foot Note: Or the evil one (the father of lies).

1.  “Swear on your mother.”  “Cross your heart and hope to die, stick a needle in your eye”  Another example is crossing your fingers behind your back.

Is Jesus suggesting that ALL oaths or vows are evil?  No.  Jesus clearly prohibits ‘taking an oath at all’, by various methods practiced in antiquity i.e. by heaven, by the earth, by the city of Jerusalem and by your head.  How do we reconcile this prohibition(:34)?  What did the Lord Jesus Christ mean?  

John appears himself to be under an oath from the time of his development in the womb.  A Nazarite vow was projected upon him or rather commanded by God via the Angel Gabriel (messenger) and his mother Elizabeth in Luke 1:15.  He likely simply obeyed and practiced that which he was called to live out by God’s grace.  We don’t know for certain if John practiced the rest of the Nazarite vow, nor if he committed for life or for a time period.  In the past you may have heard me state that Jesus was a Nazarene or Nazarite.  There is a difference between being a Nazarene and having taken a Nazarite vow.  We know from evidence within scripture that Jesus was not under a vow when he took communion drinking wine with his disciples.  In my opinion, I suspect that Jesus may have taken the Nazarite vow for some time or not at all.  Whether he did or did not, surely being from Nazarene could have influenced similar practices, yet I don’t know for sure.  This is just my opinion.

We see another example at the seizing of Jesus when he stood before the Sanhedrin.  The practice of responding “under oath” in verse 63-64 of chapter 26 in the book of Mathew.

“63 But Jesus remained silent. Then the high priest said to him, "I demand in the name of the living God--tell us if you are the Messiah, the Son of God." 64 Jesus replied, "You have said it. And in the future you will see the Son of Man seated in the place of power at God's right hand and coming on the clouds of heaven." [Mat 26:63-64 NLT] 

In the letter of James, we can hear a resemblance of what Jesus said in our main text:

[James 5:12 cf.] 

12 But most of all, my brothers and sisters, never take an oath, by heaven or earth or anything else. Just say a simple yes or no, so that you will not sin and be condemned. [Jas 5:12 NLT] 

 I like and agree with what Donald C. Stamps had to comment on this verse.  He wrote: 

“James’ instruction here is similar to Jesus’ words in Mt. 5:33-37.  He is not condemning the taking of a solemn oath or making a vow, as godly people did throughout the Bible (Cf. [i.e.] Ex 22:11; Mt 26:63-64; Ro 1:9; 9:1; Heb 6:13).  Rather he is warning people to think before they speak and to take their commitments seriously.  He condemns any trivial use of God’s name (where we speak with our lips, but our hearts are not true to the words) [Lip Service)] in an attempt to guarantee our commitment or to confirm the truth of what is spoken.  Basically, James is telling us to be people of integrity who are true to our words.” ~ DCS (Cite 3 ). 

People who use such terms of oath and swearing (See point 1) to their witness often times have an ulterior motive to lie.  They say such things to manipulate people into trusting them.

Promises made with integrity will be challenged with obstacles but the honest owner won’t give up and quit on fulfilling their promises.  They’ll promptly admit if they’ve fallen short of their commitment and they’ll earnestly attempt to get back on track and repent if they’ve wronged someone in the process.  This isn’t true for the person who lacks the ability to be honest.

During this time of Jesus’ teaching there was a practice of challenging people to be honest because the climate socially had become corrupted by evil practices full of selfish interests.  The Word of God was being abused and so were the words of people.  We can observe examples of this culture rebuke & correction being addressed by Jesus when he criticizes the Religious Leaders in Mt. 23:1-36, Mk 12:38-40 and Lk 20:45-47.  These leaders were setting the tone and standards causing much of if not all of the issues at hand.

2. The truth is absolute. Let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no.

What the Lord Jesus Christ meant here (:37) was “Say what you mean and mean what you say”.  Honesty doesn’t require that you swear by anything.  When you operate in truth your yes will mean yes and your no will mean no.  The Moral Law is absolute and just as the Decalogue is absolute so too can your word regarding any commitments you make.  If you’re committed to the righteousness of God and doing the right thing then you will be honest and admit when you’re wrong.

Sometimes when facing the music of our mistakes the adversary grants us an opportunity to lie, cover up and or conceal the whole truth and nothing but the truth.  If and when we use what the Father of lies offers, we might find ourselves attempting to validate a lie with an oath.  The truth itself is objective, meaning it is absolute.  This is an elementary idea.  

While serving in a read-a-thon I discovered this great pneumonic acronym:

"THINK before you speak, 'Is what I’m about to share Truthful, Helpful, Inspirational, Necessary and Kind?'”  ~Author Unknown (Cite 4)

"Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry.” ~James 1:19 NLT

3. Further Prohibition Reconciled:  Jesus himself was an oath keeper.

Which leads me to believe that the Lord was simply correcting an issue of honesty in the surrounding culture of that day and era.  Frequent lies being told by swearing an oath without concern for the serious consequences.  The New Covenant is a form of oath commitment.  It’s a commitment that only needs a yes or no.  Do you believe. Yes or no?  Do you trust in God?  Yes or no?  Do you believe that Jesus died and rose the third day? Yea or Nay?

You heard the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ teaching “did not come to abolish the law”.  Throughout each of these core teachings Jesus is further validating the ten commandments and removing all the extra sauce that didn’t belong in the recipe for successful practice.  For example:

 

12 "Do not bring shame on the name of your God by using it to swear falsely. I am the LORD. [Lev 19:12 NLT]  

This itself is a reference to the 3rd commandment.

According to A. Lukyn Williams of the Pulpit Commentary,

 “…This current teaching was the logical deduction from the statements of the Law, and yet the Law had a higher aim.” [Which is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ.] (Cite 5 )

Again, further Exposition by A. Lukyn Williams, 

“Ver. 34 Swear not at all (cf Jas. 5:12) Yet, as St. Augustine points out, St. Paul took oaths in his writings (2Co. 1:23; 11:31); and our Lord himself did not refuse to answer [after being seized by the Sanhedrin].  He, that is to say, and St. Paul after him, accepted the fact that there are times when a solemn oath must be taken.  How, then, can we explain this absolute prohibition here?  In that our Lord is not here thinking at all of formal and solemn oaths, but of oaths as the outcome of impatience and exaggeration.  The thoughtlessness of fervent [claims] is often betrayed into an oath…We have an ideal duty towards God, but we have also a practical duty to those among whom we live, and the present status of human affairs permits and necessitates oaths.  Hence was that even Christ submitted to them.” (Cite 5) 

The book So Help Me God is a Reflection on the Military Oath.  In the preface author Brian Bohlman writes well the following: 

 “As service members fight in the war on Terror, many are reflecting on the military oath they pledged to keep.  Four words ultimately transform American citizens into Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guard members.  Although the proceeding lines of the military oath often receive more attention, the last four words spoken by every service member, [at each enlistment commitment],[these last four words] bind then to a higher authority.  Those familiar words are…”So help me God.” (Cite 6). 

 

Just as our men and women in the Armed Forces uniform need God’s help to fulfill their commitments, we too need and have God’s ever-present help.

4. Next week is Sunday Sing but in Two Weeks we observe JSM | Uprightness .7 | Revenge

Conclusion:

Whenever you speak, let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no.  If we operate in absolute truth, we will be truth sowers and the truth will be reciprocated.  The Law of the Harvest indicates that we reap what we sow.  Chances are we will never be instructed to bear witness under oath.  If we find ourselves in such a  circumstance the stress of sharing honestly and in truth will be most effective and least stressful if we’ve been practicing as Jesus instructs us.  Being impeccable with your word is ever important. 

 

Exhortation:

1 A [good] name [is] rather to be chosen than great riches, [and] loving favour rather than silver and gold. [Pro 22:1 KJV]  

What is your reputation?

1 A good name [is] better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one's birth. [Ecc 7:1 KJV]  

What will be your reputation?

Altar Call to Action:

Take a risk and trust in the Lord’s grace to help you produce a harvest of truth. 

(Preacher Briefly describes jobsite MARMC Truth.  Observe Live Stream).

Prayer & Song:  

Shared spontaneously.

  

Benediction:

God can and will receive you.  He has promised to ‘receive’ you "IF" (2 Co. 7:1).

2 Chronicles 7:14

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land ~2 Chronicles 7:14 (NIV)

Next message!

Citations & Credits:

1. Bible Translations:  ESV, KJV, NIV, NASB95 and NLT.  
2. Christian Ministers Manual Dr. Guthrie Veech, Pg. 65 Traditional Marriage Vows. Invocation & Benediction helps.
   
3. Fire Bible & Donald C. Stamps
4. THINK Acronym Author Unknown.  Discovered on elementary school poster while volunteering during Dr. Seuss Read-a-thon in Norfolk, VA. 
5.  A. Lukyn Williams Exposition of the Pulpit Commentary pg. 165 Ver. 33 and Ver. 34 Swear not at all. EERDMANS Volume 15 Matthew
6. So Help Me God author Brian Bohlman