The Angry People

Below is an excerpt from the sermon...

Matthew chapter 5, if you will. When we were in the tent, I spoke on something similar to this. We will go a little bit further and in a different direction. We’re in Matthew 5. This is what we call the Sermon on the Mount. This is the Starting Point class that Jesus had basically. And He is telling the disciples what to expect, what they need to know. And it is the greatest message that’s ever been preached. You can read it in probably about 10 or 12 minutes. But notice the topics He covers. This is the very first topic after what we call the Beatitudes.

Matthew 5:21–22 “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill…” How many of you are glad, that’s in the Bible—"thou shalt not kill”? And it’s not talking about killing a spider. It’s not talking about stepping on a roach. It’s not talking about war. It’s not talking about someone trying to kidnap you. It’s not talking about a burglar breaking in your house. That’s not what He’s talking about. He’s talking about premeditated murder. He’s saying, “Thou shalt not kill.”

And He says, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: 22. But I say unto you…” Notice what Jesus did. He often went a step further. He said, not only is it a sin to murder, “…but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.” And so Jesus says, “Okay, it’s a sin to commit premeditated murder, but let’s go before that.” He said, “How about not being angry?” An ongoing anger towards someone. Okay, so this is what we’re going to talk about.

And again, God is not talking about someone in line and throws a soda on your face… You’re not supposed to stand there and say,” God bless you.” There is a time to be angry. Your kids misbehave. It’s hard to discipline a child while you’re smiling or laughing. You know, they just don’t get it. From time to time, you have to get your “game face” on. If you’re going to run a company, if you’re going to lead in any way, there’s a time where the countenance changes and you say, “This is not acceptable and here’s how we’re going to do this here.” And that sort of thing. And so, we’re talking about anger that doesn’t stop. That’s what we’re talking about today.

The title of the message this morning is “The Angry People.” And obviously we’re not one of them, right? We’re talking about those people. So, the whole message is for those people that are not in this building, right? Okay, sure is quiet.

I’m not going to read the passage, but if you’re one of those note takers, in James 4:1-2, James talks to the mature Christians and says, “From whence come wars and fightings among you?...” He’s not talking about physical fighting, but he’s asking, “Where does that come from?” Why are you at war with another person? Why are you at war with that person at work? You just can’t get along with them. Why is it that you hold a grudge against someone, and it’s been for years? Why is it that your #1 goal is to make a certain person miserable? James asks, “Where does this come from?” He says it comes from down in the heart. It’s long past whatever they did to you, and now it’s ongoing anger. And it’s a constant war. You ever meet someone you didn’t even know who they were, but you just looked at their face, you could tell they’re at war inside. I mean, they’re a ticking time bomb about to explode, and you don’t even know why.

I was on the elevator one time, and the door shut. It was a man in there and, the door closed. I said, “Good morning.” He said, “It’s not a good morning, and shut up!” Wow! What did you do? I got to the corner, and I just prayed for the door to open. Now, what’s going on? It wasn’t the words I said. There’s a war going on inside of that guy. We’re going to talk about that.

There’s been a lot of anger in the news. I mean, all you have to do is just open the newspaper. Almost every other story has something to do with anger.

Let’s pray. Father, bless this time. Help us, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

How do we define anger? Short fuse. Ticked off easily, chip on the shoulder, ongoing anger issues, not letting things rest, stirring things up constantly, bringing up the past, exploding at the drop of a hat, tip-toeing to be around you, drama, and the words, “What do you mean by that?” Sometimes those are just signs of anger.

Anger itself is not a sin. God has given us that emotion. He says be angry and sin not. It’s the sin part. It’s a trait of God. We mentioned it several months ago. God was angry at the world. He flooded it with water. God gets angry, too.

He was angry at the city of Sodom and Gomorrah. He burned it with fire from Heaven.

He got angry at the Hebrews that were traveling to the Promised Land. They were complaining. He gave them bread. He gave him water. He delivered them out of Egypt. And they said, “We’re tired of this bread. We don’t like quail. We don’t like this water. We wish we were back.” And pretty soon, snakes start showing up. God sent snakes to bite the people. God got angry.

There is a place called Hell, so God must have anger. On the cross, that’s what Jesus suffered. God took his anger against all mankind’s sin and put it on the cross. Does God get angry?

Little Children try to come to Jesus, and the disciples said, “Stay away from Him. He’s too important to bother.” And Jesus got angry at the disciples.

He got angry at their unbelief. He said, “You believe I can do this?” And he could just look at the crowd and know that they didn’t believe He was able to perform a miracle. He got angry.

He healed on the wrong day of the week to some people. They said, “It’s the Sabbath, it’s Saturday. We watch cartoons on Saturday. Don’t heal this person on Saturday.” And Jesus got angry, and He said, “Your day of the week is more important than someone’s health?”

He got angry. People who made excuses angered Jesus. He told the story of a feast, and it represents getting saved. He said someone prepared a great big feast, and they killed the animal, and they put the spread of food out, and everyone said, “Yeah we’ll come. Yeah, yeah yeah.” And then it was time for the feast, and they said, “Well, you know, we bought some land. Well, we got something to do. Well, I got married.” And they made excuses about coming to the feast, and it made Him angry. When people give excuses to God about here’s why I’m not getting saved, here’s why I don’t want your Son, it makes him very, very angry.

The Bible says that we are not to be soon angry. What’s that mean? It’s not a sin to get angry, but it shouldn’t be really fast. He says that we are not to be long angry. And that’s why if you’re married and you’re in the room right now, you’re never to go to bed angry at night at each other. The Bible says, “…let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” (Ephesians 4:26) It’s a sin to go to bed at night when you’re still fuming and sizzling and upset with someone. You say, “Why is that wrong?” Because you wake up, and then it escalates. It’s going to be worse the next day, worse the next day. You resolve those things. He said, don’t be long angry.