Sermon on the Mount
Pt 3
Jesus and The Law
Matthew 5:17-20
Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. [18] For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. [19] Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. [20] For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. [NJKV]
OPENING REMARKS
A. Biblical Disillusionment
1. There is a movement today to discredit the Bible. Groups such as the Jesus Seminar have gone through and selected certain parts of the Gospels and have discounted them through their bead process as to what constituted the actual sayings of Christ. As with the example below it can be seen that this process has eliminated the majority of sayings attributed to Christ in the Gospel accounts.
Jesus Seminar Bead Example
In case you’re unfamiliar with the meaning of the Seminar’s bead game, let me explain. The beads indicated the extent to which a scholar believed a certain saying attributed to Jesus to be uttered by Jesus or not. According to the helpful paraphrase in The Five Gospels (the summary of the Jesus Seminar findings written by Robert Funk and Roy Hoover), the beads had the following significance:
red: That’s Jesus!
pink: Sure sounds like Jesus.
gray: Well, maybe.
black: There’s been some mistake.
Then, when the votes were in, they were given numerical value and averaged, so that each saying of Jesus ended up with a red, pink, gray, or black color. These results were published in The Five Gospels, with verses printed in the appropriate colors. This was, by the way, an intentional updating of the "words of Jesus in red" Bibles of the past.
Here is how "The Lord’s Prayer" in Matthew 6 appears in The Five Gospels. The translation is the so-called Scholars Version made by members of the Jesus Seminar.
The only words in red: Our Father
[No wonder its founder], Robert Funk, said this about Jesus:
We should give Jesus a demotion. It is no longer credible to think of Jesus as divine. Jesus’ divinity goes together with the old theistic way of thinking about God.
The plot early Christians invented for a divine redeemer figure is as archaic as the mythology in which it is framed. A Jesus who drops down out of heaven, performs some magical act that frees human beings from the power of sin, rises from the dead, and returns to heaven is simply no longer credible. The notion that he will return at the end of time and sit in cosmic judgment is equally incredible. We must find a new plot for a more credible Jesus. --- [Markdroberts.com – Unmasking the Jesus Seminar, 2005, downloaded 01 September 2007]
2. There are some who believe that the Bible is only a historical human book, not divinely inspired, and that it only contains human words of different events and happenings recorded for prosperity sake only. Since it is not God inspired it does not require any adherence for not following its precepts. There are no eternal consequences attached to its writings. Being of a historical factor it is like all others from the past, was written with a bias in mind or can be found inaccurate from archeological findings.
3. This post-modern culture of ours says that the Bible is not a reliable source by which to judge men’s morals. This they say because there is no absolute truth. Since there is no absolute truth there can be no standard by which true judgment can be made concerning a person’s behavior. Thus the Bible is irrelevant.
Post-modernism has become much like it was in the days of Judges before Israel had a king. People just did whatever they wanted and if someone did not like it, too bad. For each person set their own standard of what was right and wrong. Post-modernism today is to believe or not to believe, to follow or not to follow, and to regard or not to regard absolute truth. They reason my interpretation is as good as another.
Judges 21:25
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
B. Biblical Correctness
John MacArthur
We continually hear the idea that because times have changed the Bible does not fit our day. The truth of course, is the opposite. The Bible always fits, because the Bible is God’s perfect, eternal, and infallible Word. It is the standard by which true “fit” is measured. It is the world that does not fit the Bible, and not because the world has changed but because the Bible has not changed. Outwardly the world has changed a great deal since biblical days, but in its basic nature and orientation it has always been opposed to God and has never conformed to His Word. --- [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Matthew 1-7, Chicago: Moody Press, 1985, p. 250-251]
TEXT
17
Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
Destroy
The word in the Gk (kataluo) is best translated as abolish, annul, or to do away with. The word means: as invalidating an institution. --- [Friberg, Friberg, and Miller, Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament, Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2000, p. 220]
NOTE: Now does not that sound like what is going on today with the Bible. There is no absolute truth today; who can truly interpret it today? Just as in the beginning God’s enemies still are out to discredit His Word. – cf. Gen. 3:1b Has God indeed said!
A. Some thought that Jesus was trying to [abolish (NASB, ESV)] the authority of God’s Word.
It was no different in the time of Christ’s walk on this earth. | Can’t you just hear the talk going around? This Jesus – what a heretic: just listen to what the Pharisees and Scribes are saying about Him –
1. He does not obey the LAW.
a. He allowed His disciples to plucked ears of corn [worked] on the Sabbath – Mark 2:23-28
b. He healed on the Sabbath – Luke 14:1-6
2. He is constantly being disrespectful to our traditions.
a. Showing anger over the healing of a man’s hand on the Sabbath – Mark 3:1-6
b. Showing mercy to the adulterous woman caught in the act – John 8:1-11
3. He even claims to be God.
a. He made Himself equal to God – John 5:1-18
b. Forgiving a man of his sins and healing someone showing He is God – Luke 5:17-26
B. Jesus did not come to destroy the authority of God’s Word but to fulfill (establish) it.
NOTE: Jesus claimed that the Word of God was the absolute truth and that it has an eternal, infallible, and inerrant purpose.
Isaiah 42:6-8a - cf. Is. 49:8
I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house. I am the Lord, that is My name; and my glory I will not give to another.
Luke 4:16-21
[Jesus] came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read. And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
Then He closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
18
For Assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.
A. Heaven and earth pass away
This means the end of time as we know it, end of earthly history.
2 Peter 3:7
by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
Jot – is a Yod the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet
Tittle – is the small marks (vowel) made under the letters of the Hebrew alphabet to dictate its correct pronunciation and meaning of the Hebrew word.
B. All of the demands and the proclamations of God’s Word must be fulfilled.
1. Purpose
Gal. 3:19
Was given because of transgression until Christ shall come
Gal. 3:24
Tudor to bring us to Christ
Gal. 4:4-5
Christ born under the law that He could redeem those under the law
3. Not destroyed – but fulfilled
Romans 8:1-4a
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us …
John 19:30
It is finished.
19
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
A. Whoever refers back to the disciples of verse 1 for they are called either least or great in the kingdom of heaven.
This means that God’s disciples need to seek what the Lord wants taught – not their own endeavors.
Revelation 2:1-3:22
Message to the seven churches …
B. Keeping the commandments are important.
They are not to be disregarded.
Moral laws are still important today.
Note: As believers we are to remember three commandments:
1. Love God with all of our heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind (Matt. 22:37).
2. Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:39).
3. Love one another as disciples of Christ (John 13:34-35).
C. Believers can teach incorrectly or correctly.
1 Corinthians 3:10-15
… each man’s work will become evident … if any man’s work remains, he will receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. [NASB]
James 3:1-2
My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.
NOTE: As an instructor of God’s Word it is imperative that we search and study the Scriptures seeking what they say and correctly passing that knowledge onto others. Do not be so eager to become an instructor in the things of God. You will be held to a higher standard!
20
For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
Galatians 2:16
A man is not justified by the works of the law but through faith in Christ Jesus … by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.
Justified means to be declared righteous before God court of holiness.
A. Your righteousness
Isaiah 64:6a
But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags
B. Scribes and Pharisees righteousness
Luke 18:11-12
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I posses.
Philippians 3:4b-6
If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
Externally the Pharisees concerned themselves entirely with outward observance of the law and tradition. They took little consideration of motives or attitudes. No matter how they view someone on their inside as long as they did not act outwardly they did not break the law. In their eyes they were the righteous leaders and protectors of God’s Law for Israel.
C. Righteousness to enter the kingdom of heaven
2 Corinthians 5:17-19, 21
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ … God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them … For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
Galatians 3:10, 13
For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them. … Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree).
NOTE: If even God’s own law cannot make a person righteous, how much less can man-made traditions do so? Those who insist on coming to God in their own way and in their own power will never reach Him; they shall not enter the kingdom of God. Those who try to work their way into God’s grace knows nothing of what His grace is about.
It is tragic that many people today will try any way to God but His way.
They will pay any price, but will not accept the price He paid.
They will do any work for Him, but they will not accept the finished work of Christ.
They will accept any free gift from God, but will not accept His free salvation.
These people are religious, but not regenerated, and they shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
--- [John MacArthur, p. 281 (adapted)]
John 14:6
Jesus said, I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. [NASB]
INVITIATION
Except your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees you will not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.
COME WORSHIP THE LORD
. Our Invitation is open to all:
. Come to Christ
. Come if you need to pray
. Come be a part of us
. Come share with us what the Lord would have you to do
Bruce Allen
Underwood Baptist Church
bea0210@hotmail.com
September 2, 2007
