Jesus - The Law With Flesh On

Jesus ~ The Law with Flesh On

Pastor Glenn Newton 7-28-02

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to

abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth

disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means

disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Anyone who breaks one of

the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least

in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be

called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness

surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter

the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5: 17-20

Can I ask you the same question that I asked the kids earlier? What is it that makes you

a Really Good Christian? Some one word answers if you will....

It seems like all of life for some reason can become like a competition, a game of sorts,

where everyone seems to be keeping score.

Do you keep track of who is driving the newest car in your neighborhood? I have

a neighbor who has a $100,000 motorhome with a garage that is designed specifically to

house it. His motorhome is worth more than the parsonage. But you know, I’m not

keeping track!

We don’t keep track of who wears the nicest clothes to church do we? You know

what, I don’t think we do for the majority of us, and I think that’s great! Don’t get caught

up in that.

Our human nature makes us competitors, or comparers, or score keepers. If you

can tell me how many services the person sitting across the room has missed in the last

three months...... your a score keeper. If you dare and watch to see who puts money in

the offering plate and who doesn’t, your a score keeper, and shame on you....

Pastor’s can get into this game easily enough. I have to give reports every month,

and at the end of the year. I happen to love working with numbers and tracking

attendance and setting goals and that kind of thing. But I could spend way too much time

comparing how we are doing this month compared to last year at this time, and two years

ago, et. Pastor’s also find themselves when they get together always finding a way to ask

the other guy how many did they have in church last Sunday....... It’s almost funny just

watching the creative ways they come up with to get that information.

I want to talk to you today about a very important teaching of Jesus that we find in

Matthew chapter 5. Jesus is speaking to the common crowd of his day, with some of the

teachers of law sprinkled in for sure, because they were always listening, trying to catch

him saying something that would go against God’s Word, which at that time was the O.T.

You need to understand that the common man and women who were there that day

listening to Jesus couldn’t read Hebrew, which by the way was what the OT was written

in. So these people were at the mercy, if you will, of the interpreters and the scribes of the

day. They had to trust what the Teachers of the Law was saying was really the Truth.

You can see the power the Pharasees had over the common people of the day.

One of the Things that I love about Jesus was that when He came, it was like He turned

on the Lights, so all the people who had been living in this darkness, all the sudden they

could see the truth for themselves.... Aren’t you glad that Jesus is the Light of the World,

and that He turned the lights on in your heart, so you could see the truth?

These Pharasees and the Teachers of the Law were continually accusing Jesus of breaking

God’s Law. Sometimes they accused Him of doing away with it altogether... Listen to

John 5:16-18 So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jews

persecuted him. 17 Jesus said to them, "My Father is always at his work to this very

day, and I, too, am working." 18 For this reason the Jews tried all the harder to kill

him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own

Father, making himself equal with God.

These Jews hated Jesus, why? Because He was turning the Light on to their little

man-made traditions and Powergame. He was exposing them as men who only cared