This evening we read together from Matthew chapter five. Matthew chapter five, reading through verse 26. This is the word of the Lord. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the poor in heart, for they shall see God. The pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, Ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. 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. 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, Raka, shall be in danger of the council. But whosoever shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, Thus far we read in God's Word this evening. The text for the sermon is It is verses 23 and 24. Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer thy gift. Matthew chapter 5, people of God, records the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount. Chapter 4 ends with Jesus going around about Galilee and ministering to the people in various ways, especially doing all sorts of miracles, wonders. And chapter 4 verse 24 tells us that his fame spread abroad. It spread all over the place. And so many people came to him and many of them came bringing others so that he might heal their friends and loved ones. Jesus clearly at this time attracts an enormous following. And so, in chapter 5, when he begins the Sermon on the Mount, he tells us, verse 1 tells us rather, that he goes up into a mountain in order to speak to the people. And those people are described as multitudes of people. In the sermon, he says to them a lot about the law. He tells them that he has not come to destroy that law. abolish it, he has come instead to fulfill it. He gives his interpretation of various of the commandments, beginning with the sixth, in verses 21 and following, and our text fits into that section of the chapter. Throughout, he is showing to the people that adhering to God's law goes far beyond the mere externalism of the Pharisees and of the scribes, so that he says to his hearers, unless your righteousness exceeds that of theirs, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Same is true of our own text. You can bring all sorts of outward worship, But if our hearts are at odds with the neighbor, then God is not pleased, no matter how much outward worship we might bring. It's a good time for us to consider this particular text, on the one hand, because Our congregation is unified. We are not consumed by strife and by infighting, meaning that this text can be preached without it being a direct attack on an individual or a few individuals in the congregation. But in addition, that even prompts us to give thanks for the unity that we do have as a congregation. On the other hand, though, we perpetually need this reminder. Always. Maybe some do have conflicts among themselves, between themselves, that are unknown to most, in which case this is a pertinent text to consider. But even if not, all of us need to be on guard because our sinfulness means that we are completely prone to the sorts of conflict and grudges and infighting and all the rest that this text refers to. And then at the same time, this is also a preparatory sermon. Jesus speaks of going to seek reconciliation before offering up a sacrifice, a gift. And we do well to apply the same thing to coming to the Lord's table. We ought not come if our hearts are filled with hatred and strife and enmity toward the neighbor in the church. There's a reason that churches sometimes delay the observance of the Lord's Supper when the congregation is going through a particularly rough time, when there is much struggle, there is much strife among the members. There's good reason for delaying going to the table. We should be coming to the table unified as much as is possible for us. So, we need to examine ourselves. And we need the commandment that Jesus gives in this text, which is the command to reconcile with the brother before worship. We take that as our theme with these three points. Reconciliation with the brother, its relationship to worship, and its blessed possibilities. Reconciliation with the brother. Jesus presents for us in this text a particular scenario. The scenario is that the hearer is going to the temple to offer, to present a gift on the altar, which refers to the offering up of a sacrifice, something that the Jews did all the time. They had sacrifices for sin and for guilt. They had sacrifices of thanksgiving and so forth. We read of an instance of this happening just a couple chapters later. Chapter 8, verse 4, after healing a man of leprosy, Jesus says to the man, There too, Jesus refers to the offering of a sacrifice as a gift unto God. He presents this as something that the hearer is just about to do. They have arrived at the temple. They've got everything ready. They're there with their animal. It's all set. Everything is prepared for the sacrifice. And then this person remembers. Suddenly, in a moment of time, the brother, they remember that the brother has something, has anything against me. any cause for offense. It might be real, a genuine, legitimate cause for offense. It might be imagined, something that really ought not be causing strife, but that they understand to be a big, big issue. So, either way, something is dividing this person from another in the church. What's to be done? Jesus presents this as something that is not necessarily happening right now, but that very well may happen at some point in the future. And if it does, he has two instructions. One, leave it. Leave your gift. Two, go and pursue reconciliation. So reconciliation then. This is not the typical word for reconciliation that occurs in verse 24. Be reconciled to thy brother. This word only occurs once right here. It's the only time it appears in the Bible. It's a word that specifically relates to parties that are at odds coming together We would say they're going to meet in the middle to find some sort of resolution to the particular struggle that they are having, an agreement that is suitable to both. Probably that will involve both parties giving a little bit in order to make some sort of compromise happen. Maybe they go into the conversation with a whole list of things that they hope to get in this agreement that they eventually iron out. But they might have to get rid of some of those, let some of those slide, and forget about a few of them in order to bring about a true reconciliation. They might have to make some sacrifices. Compromise is usually important in these sorts of things. That's different from reconciliation toward God, which, whenever it is referred to in the scriptures, uses a different word, or a couple of different words, but not the one in this text. When we talk about reconciliation with God, we are referring to God in Christ, who is our reconciler, who is our redeemer, our mediator, coming down to us and rescuing us from our sin in order to bring us back to the God whom we have forsaken. There is no mutually coming together and meeting in the middle. There certainly is no discussion of terms in order to find a suitable solution that can appease both sides and that both sides can approve of. There is no giving a little bit on the part of God, sacrificing some of what He really wanted to get in this arrangement in order to make something happen. We often say that Christ, our mediator, brings us back to God because God didn't go anywhere. We departed from Him, forsaking Him by our sin. God does not need to restore that relationship. He's under no obligation. It's all of grace. And when He does, He doesn't need to reform His own ways. He has not done anything that requires a change on His part. That is not what our text is referring to. Instead, what our text is about is reconciliation between or among humans, and specifically, brothers. Brothers, sisters in the Church. Reconciliation between humans is a coming together to restore a former relationship. Coming together to restore a former relationship. Let's take note of three things as regards that description. First, both must be involved with this. It is a coming together. Reconciliation cannot happen if only one side has any interest in reconciling. It's not something that can be imposed upon another person. You can't do it against their will. You can't force it on them without their consent. It can't even be a matter of indifference on the part of one person and not the other. It must be willing, a coming together. And that's why the idea that verse 24 conveys is specifically being reconciled with your brother. It's on the part of both. They come together. That first. Secondly, as they do so, they remember their former relationship. Formerly, they had goodwill toward one another. They were in unity with one another, with nothing standing between them. But now, something has happened. And whatever it is, it has driven a wedge in between them so that they are divided. There is something that stands in the middle and keeps them apart so that the relationship is damaged, even severely damaged. They are not together and one anymore as they once were. Both must be involved, they come together, they think on their former relationship, and third, they come together specifically with a goal in mind, and that goal is to restore that former relationship. They do not come together, then, for various wrong reasons. If it's a situation where both parties are at fault, then they don't come together in order to just jaw at one another a bit more and tear into each other. If both sides are to blame, they aren't just there in order to list off their demands and then cross their arms and wait for the other to bow to their will. If it's a matter of only one being at fault, only one being the offender, then they aren't just there so that the offended party can lay into the other and put them on blast, as we say, blow off some steam, and do nothing else. And they aren't just there so that the offending party can list off all of the reasons why what they did was justified, and they're really not needing to do anything, not needing to apologize. They aren't in the wrong. None of those is proper. in a situation of reconciliation. Instead, they come together with a specific purpose to restore their former relationship. Reconciliation presupposes that there was a relationship in the past, or maybe there still is, but it's greatly damaged, and so there was one that was stronger than the one that they now have. So what are some examples of what can cause such strife? How could it be that brothers in the church, brothers and sisters and sisters and sisters in the church, would have this division between them? It's easy to think of examples when you think about the second table of the law. Telling a lie to the brother or to the sister. Stealing from the neighbor. Any sort of a physical attack on them. Jesus is, after all, talking about the sixth commandment here. But then that leads us especially to see verbal attacks. Any form of verbal assault is especially the application here. We can use all sorts of sinful words that can give offense to the brother or to the sister, insults, backbiting, speaking in a demeaning sort of way to another, and more. the examples that Jesus gives fit. He says immediately before our text, Saying to someone else, raka, meaning something like empty-headed or senseless, insulting them, insulting their intelligence, insulting who they are, or saying to them, thou fool. Both of those things are examples of murder, murder with the tongue and things that can profoundly damage somebody else and that can be cause for division. Cause for the brother having something against you. This can happen in all sorts of different relationships, too. Husbands speaking disparaging words to their wives about her or about her abilities or maybe comparing her to others and saying that she ought to be better, she ought to be like so-and-so's wife who does a better job in these various areas. It could be young people who blatantly disrespect their parents' authority to their face and say it, speak disrespectfully to their parents and in that way drive a wedge between themselves and their father and their mother. It could be an office bearer who speaks an unnecessary, uncalled for, harsh word to a member relating to some perceived weakness in that person. That could give cause for the person having something against an office bearer. Which is a terrible thing. A proud comparison of your own children to the children of somebody else in the church and pointing out to them how yours are better in this or that area. Or it could even be children calling one another names. A child calling one of the other children stupid. Is that really any different than saying to another, Raka, empty-headed, senseless? That can drive a wedge where there used to be a friendship and drive those friends apart. But it's not just the second table of the law. The first table also helps us to understand how we might give cause for offense to a brother or a sister. For example, flaunting my Sabbath observance to another member of the church who observes the Sabbath much more strictly or who observes it much less strictly. Flaunting the way that I do it in front of them can be a cause for offense. It can be a stumbling block to the brother or to the sister. And even non-sin matters. can fit in this category. It could simply be that you make a sincere comment to your spouse, to your sibling, to another member of the congregation, and that sincere comment is misunderstood. And now, because of that, the one who has been spoken to thinks that there's a conflict. And if one thinks that, then it doesn't matter what the other thinks. The relationship has been damaged. Or it could be not noticing or not remembering some important date like the birthday of a child or some such thing. It could be a habit that you see in another person over and over again and that irks you. And the more you see it, the more it bothers you. and you let it bother you more and more. All of these could be things that we see or that we experience and then we respond to them wrongly and afterward we just let that wrong response sit in our heart and we just let it fester for a while until eventually we convince ourselves that there's a cause for me to be offended by that brother or by that sister. There is cause for me to have something against him or against her. And now, the relationship is damaged. That tears us apart. This is commanded. Reconciliation is Jesus' command to someone who is in one of these situations. In fact, His language indicates even immediacy in doing this. Do not hesitate, but go! Go! Even if you're not holding a grudge, even if you're not offended, even if you have not been sinned against, even if you don't think that there's a problem, even if you have nothing against them, go! Jesus says that even if only the other person sees a problem here, and you don't, still go and seek reconciliation with the brother or the sister that displays the urgency of doing this. This is not an insignificant matter. This is of the utmost seriousness. And he doesn't give a dividing line of sorts either. He doesn't say, go and be reconciled if you can think of some really, really bad sin that you committed against this person that you never actually apologized for, and maybe that's why they're holding a grudge. But otherwise, don't worry about it. If you think of anything that gives cause for offense, anything that the brother has against you, then go. Now, of course, that doesn't mean that we need to take this to the nth degree. And now we need to think back through our lives and come up with every single dispute that we have ever had and go back and try to resolve every single one of those. But this should be our default when we come to realize that there is ongoing conflict between ourselves and somebody else. It might be that you know you sinned. You know that you spoke a harsh, a murderous word to your wife or to your husband. And now you know that you need to go and confess and seek their forgiveness. So go! Don't delay, but go. Or it might be that you don't think you did anything wrong, but you can recognize there's a conflict between you and your friend. And so you go to them to try and resolve this wedge between the two of you. And as you speak with them, you realize you did, in fact, sin against them. You greatly offended them. You wounded them. And now, having seen that, you do need to confess and seek their forgiveness. Go! Be reconciled. Or it might be that another person from church took your comment personally, even though it was in no way intended as an insult. Nothing of the kind. But that's how they understood it. And now, because they misunderstood what you said, between the two of you, and in fact, evilly of you. And now you need to go out of concern for their soul. That's really what Jesus is getting at in the preceding context when he speaks of this sixth commandment violation. Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. Whoever calls another raka or fool. He's saying someone who has This sort of opinion about someone baselessly is in danger. They need to be corrected. And so go. Go and be reconciled. Don't delay. Or maybe you aren't experiencing any of this right now. In that case, the application is preparedness to go. Be reconciled the next time that this happens in your life. Be ready to go. And then there's application to all of us also, whether we are in one of these situations or not, to examine our own hearts. And do that this week, too. Examine your heart and look to see if there are the beginnings of these sorts of things, the beginning of holding a grudge against a brother or a sister, something that was done or said. And if there is, mortify it immediately. There's a relationship here to worship. Jesus makes that plain. Bringing a gift in our text stands in for worship generally. When he speaks of bringing your gift to the altar and leaving your gift before the altar, he is speaking of a sacrifice, but we don't need to limit it only to sacrifices. We can broaden out our understanding of this to all of worship in God's house. Corporate worship means gathering together as God's people for an official time of fellowshipping with the triune God. and we speak back to him. And the various elements of our worship bring that out. In the benediction, he speaks to us. In the songs, we speak to him. And so forth. But in all of this, here's the point, we are doing this as a body. Collectively. Corporately. The local congregation is representative of the whole body of Jesus Christ. United as one. And serving her Lord, Jesus Christ, together. so that the worship is especially about Him. It's about Christ. It is God in Christ who redeems us. And so we honor, we praise, we worship God in Christ for all that He has done, including especially His cross and His resurrection. The relationship then that Jesus sets forth between worship and reconciliation with the brother is one of priority. It's this. Jesus is adamant. If you are going to offer your gift, and you're right there at the altar about to do it, and suddenly you think of a cause for offense between yourself and a brother or a sister, then go. Leave it. Drop it. And go. It's a relationship of priority. Reconciliation takes precedence. It's as though Jesus is saying, it'll still be there when you get back. The priests will watch over that animal for you. They'll keep it until you return. But first things first, go and be reconciled. That brings us to see that God is not pleased with conflict in Worship, conflicted worship, we should say. An Israelite may have come to the temple and offered up a perfectly spotless lamb. And they might have gone through all of the motions, perfectly following all the regulations of the law, done everything as they were called to do it. And from an external point of view, nothing wrong with what they have done. But if they harbor in their heart enmity and hatred toward the brother or the sister who is just a few feet away, or the brother who is behind them in the line, ready to bring his offering, then God is not pleased with that worship. There are other passages in Scripture that confirm this same teaching. One well-known example is when Saul fails in his battle with Amalek, fails to carry out God's Word to the full. He spares Agag and he spares the chief of the cattle. And then Samuel says to him, to obey is better than sacrifice. Obedience is better. Similarly, we have the language of David in Psalm 51, 16 and 17. In his penitential psalm, in response to his sin concerning Uriah and Bathsheba, he says, And then one more. Psalm 66. We sang a moment ago from this Psalm, especially this Psalm 66, 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. God is not pleased with conflicted worship. So let's draw the connection here. Why is this so important? Why is it that Jesus puts them in this order? Is not worship primary? That's what we would be inclined to think. God loves worship. God delights in worship. It's praising and glorifying of his name. And he is the only praiseworthy one. He's worthy of the best of our praises. All of our praises. He's worthy of our best. He deserves it all. delights in being honored because that's his due. And Israel is his covenant people. So that worship is fellowship between himself and them. He speaks, they speak. And does he not delight in that? He delights, of course, to fellowship with his elect people through Jesus Christ, who is the mediator of the covenant and who is the head and the husband of the church. Furthermore, doesn't God call his people to worship him? Of course he does. Every worship service, we begin with a call to worship. Tonight we used Psalm 100. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. And we could give so many other examples. He calls his people to worship him. And isn't it a good thing that they do so, that they desire to worship him? Yes, of course it is. Psalm 92, for example, speaks of how it is a good thing to sing praises unto the Lord. We could give other examples there too. So yes, to all of that, all of that shows exactly how important worship really is. But that then just serves to underscore all the more why we should reconcile first God loves worship. God delights in worship. He is the only praiseworthy one. He's worthy of our best, of all of our praises. It's his due to be honored. In Israel, it's his covenant people, so that worship is fellowship between himself and them. He speaks, they speak. But God's people then come as a collective body. so that when they do, they should be unified. God loves and delights in worship, and so God's people should not corrupt corporate worship by their petty squabbles and their infighting and all the rest. God called Israel to worship Him corporately. How could they do that when split up by all of their grudges and infighting? God wanted His people to desire worship. And how could they collectively desire worship if they were at enmity with one another, and they were not united in their desire to serve the Lord? So people of God, prioritize it. Prioritize reconciliation. This is not something to put off, not even for the sake of worship, to get very practical for anyone who might be in one of these sorts of situations, even right now. That might mean that you're sitting in your home on a Saturday evening and you suddenly think of something that is causing offense or that could cause offense between to a brother or to a sister and something that would cause strife between the two of you. And so you pick up the phone and you call them and you talk through the matter to seek reconciliation. Or maybe you even drive to their home and visit with them to see them in person before the day is out. Or it might mean coming to church on a Sunday and seeing someone in the back before the church service begins and being reminded that there is something between the two of you. There's strife there. And so, calling them aside and asking them to speak with you a moment and briefly talking through the situation and trying to find resolution before you enter the sanctuary and come for worship. If you feel very clearly that there is a breach, then go. Go and be reconciled. Don't delay, not even for a worship service. The importance of worship underscores the need for it all the more for us too. God delights in worship But he also says that to obey is better than sacrifice. And if we have troubles within, if the congregation is torn apart and we cannot get along with one another, then God is not pleased by our corporate fellowshipping with him. If all we are is a group divided up by our grudges and our infighting, and we simply go through the motions of worship, God calls us to worship and He wants us to desire it. He commands us to come with one spirit, with joy and with thanksgiving. And how can we do that if our hearts are consumed with hatred and enmity and envy toward the brother or toward the sister? toward that other mom for something that she said about my children or toward that other man against whom I have been committing the sin of slander. How can we do that if that other member thinks that there is some major issue between us and for that reason thinks I hate them and is filled with a bitter resentment toward me? to worship in a way pleasing to God. First, we need to go and be reconciled. This is a preparatory sermon. The Lord's Supper is part of worship, and so this applies to the Lord's Supper as well. And in fact, it applies to the Lord's Supper in a particularly special way. We call the Lord's Supper communion, don't we? The Scriptures call it that, and so do we. It's fellowship between us as members of the Church, and it's fellowship between us and God, presupposing that this is a partaking as a body coming to the table as one, unified. We can't do that if we are separated by the sorts of things that we just saw. The form for the Lord's Supper in the portion that we read, the preparatory portion, includes a forbidding of coming to the table for all murderers, contentious persons, and those who live in hatred and envy against their neighbors. If those sins are true of you, and if those sins are true of me, then we may not delay. Not for worship, not for the Lord's table. We must go and be reconciled. Doing this has blessed possibilities. We're using the word of in two different ways. When we say, blessed possibilities of being reconciled. In the first place, the possibility of this happening at all. There's a blessed possibility of us reconciling. And that possibility is reconciliation with God in Jesus Christ. We already saw that that's not the focus and that that is of a different sort the reconciliation in our text. And yet, we only know reconciliation as brothers and as sisters because we know reconciliation with God. That's the only way we could possibly know anything about this. God in Christ reconciles us unto himself and we have done something far worse than simply misunderstanding what God said to us or even than speaking a murderous word about him once. We have cursed him and his son and gone our own way in total rebellion. But by sending Christ in the flesh and by the death Jesus Christ. God brings us back. He takes away that sin that stood in between us. And so, remember how we spoke of reconciliation between brothers earlier as a coming together? And then, specifically, with an eye on our former relationship and restoring it, now apply that here. God remembers our former relationship with Him as His covenant people, and He restores it. He restores it through His Son. And that informs and makes possible our reconciliation. Any reconciling that we do is a reflection of this great reconciliation. Any reconciling that we do is only possible because God has saved us. Otherwise, we would never even want to. We would be perfectly content to sit in our grudges, to sit in our hatred of the neighbor, consumed by these things, by our self-importance, by our pride. But because we've seen the gospel and because we believe the gospel, we can be, and we are, reconciled, not just to God, but then also to one another. And so there's another possibility, and that's what this makes possible for us. What it makes possible is blessed worship right alongside of one another as brothers and sisters. Jesus speaks of brothers. We cannot allow this sort of thing to go unaddressed. in the Church of Jesus Christ among and between brothers and sisters. We're united as members of the Holy Family. It's painful and it's hard, but the end result is blessed restoration. And then we can join hands before our Savior as those who have been saved by His reconciling blood. And together, collectively brought into the holy family of God as brothers and sisters, so that the offense is now gone. If the brother was in the state described in the preceding verses and in danger, the danger is gone. The situation is resolved. They've been rescued, and there's reconciliation. We can go back. Jesus says, leave it. Leave it at the altar. Go and be reconciled first, and then go and bring your gift. When there's been reconciliation in the church between a brother and a brother, or a sister and a sister, or a brother and a sister, after reconciliation, then we can go back, and we can worship, and we can do it together. united as we do so. It's possible that the offense remains. You might go to the brother and genuinely, from the heart, be seeking reconciliation, be doing everything you can to resolve the problem. And they might not want it. They might refuse. They might not believe that you're sincere. They might continue to hold a grudge. They might still misunderstand what you had originally said to them, or whatever the case may be. They might even still say, fool, raka. They might be in danger. And so you might even go again, and maybe even more than another time after that, seeking reconciliation. But eventually, we rest in knowing that we did what we could, and we leave this in God's hands. But ordinarily, that's not the way it goes. Instead, there's a blessed fruit. Ordinarily, there's reconciliation. The former relationship is restored and we are again fully at peace with the brother or the sister. And then we can come to the table and come unified. We can come with nothing standing between us. And you can eat that bread. and drink that wine, the same bread and the same wine that the brother or the sister eats and drinks. And together, we can give thanks for the reconciliation that He has given through that broken body and that shed blood. Amen.