How do Moses and Jesus lead us to life today?

Heart

Good Morning Everyone,

Many of you know me, some of you may not.

My name is Shawn and I am a Teacher. Teaching is my calling and ministry gift, given by God, it is why I am here on God’s Good Earth.

See my job, is to journey with you, my brothers and my sisters, coaching, mentoring, training, teaching, encouraging and loving along the way to maturity in the faith.

Now like any good coach or trainer, I am going to challenge you, if I didn’t we would never improve or reach maturity.

So what that means is, you should expect to come in, be filled, be instructed and leave challenged to go make a difference out in the world.

I say all of this to set the expectation. If you have no desire or expectation to change, or be challenged then know that we love you but nothing will change in your life.

However, if you have come in here hungry, I have food for you!

Title (POV)

This sermon is titled, How do Moses and Jesus lead us to life today?

WIIFM

Today we will be talking about:

How to best experience life in a way that leads to Blessing

Bible Instruction

So today if you are following along in a Bible we are starting in Matt 6 and this is the best sermon ever preached, preached by our King Jesus. Recorded here in the Gospel of Matthew.

Now as we turn there, I want to explain a concept about how to read the Bible to you.

Some tools when reading the Bible is to zoom out and ask at least some questions.

What is Happening?

So what is happening here big picture, Jesus has crafted a sermon that goes like this:

9 Blessings that are totally inverted

Shares the Identity of His people as salt and light

Starts teaching Torah which means Instruction, commonly translated as law and is the first 5 books in your Bible.

Quick Points here in v.17 when He says Law and Prophets he is referencing the whole of the Old testament by referencing the Sections of it

He re-affirms the need for protecting, practicing and promoting Torah

He challenges our view of Righteousness because surely in regards to the Law the Pharisees were Righteous? I mean weren’t they? Or does Jesus mean something by righteousness that we need to deepen our understanding on.

Re-gives Torah on:

Murder

Adultery

Divorce

Oaths

Justice

Generosity

Love

Prayer

Then He says THEREFORE in v.25 don’t be like your neighbours, but be like what I just told you to be like.

This should lead us to at least one question, why is everything that He just talked about actions for now and in regards to other people?

Do not judge, said another way, if you don’t judge others using God’s loving standard treating people how they’re worth not how they deserve, God will judge you, using yours.

Seek the Lord, Fear the Lord,

Love others as yourself Walk the narrow Path

Be careful who you listen to because they may lead you astray, to help narrow this down, the News and Media are false prophets, they claim to be speaking truth but rarely do, their prophesies lead people away from God, they are false prophets.

Blessing for those that listen and do and Curse those that listen and don’t

If we know our Bibles this should sound very familiar.

See the Biblical Authors use a number of techniques to communicate to us, now in our modern western world we tend to only think of the content as important, but the biblical authors also use literary genre, form and structure to communicate to us.

Let us zoom out a bit further,

Have you all ever noticed that all the events in the Gospels seem to happen at different times?

It is on purpose, the authors have arranged the events to communicate different messages, Matthew has gone through extreme effort in his Gospel to model Jesus’ life in mirror image to that of Israel.

Both start in the promised land

Both go down to Egypt to escape something

Both are brought up out of Egypt

Both are Baptised through Symbolic death waters exercising and defining Faith

Both have God commit to them in perpetuity and move in with them via a Temple which is a whole other sermon.

Both go through a Period of 40 in the wilderness being tested

Then before beginning the work of the Kingdom Moses gives an Epic Sermon

Ladies and Gentlemen the Sermon on the mount is Deuteronomy.

Do you see how using narrative patterning Matthew has set that up?

In actual fact, the only way to really interpret the Sermon on the Mount is to realise what Matthew is doing, He is giving us the key to understanding what Jesus is saying.

Matthew is making a huge claim here by saying that this person, Jesus is the new Moses, He is the one who is going to lead us on the new and true Exodus.

Deuteronomy 4:1 NIV

1 Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.

That you may live?

The New International Version Chapter 4

32 Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? 34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other. 36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire. 37 Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, 38 to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. 40 Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.

This is all about the Lord manifesting His life and His love to us, Saving us from Satan, Sin and Death, revealing Himself to us, every wonderful commandment is a testimony of God’s character and love for us and His good world.

But there is a shift happening here, who is Moses talking to?

This is not the generation that got taken out of Egypt, it is their children, Moses is not confused, this is intentional. By saying you, He is saying that this is your story by heritage and by right, this is your story but even more than that, we the reader are meant to see that it is our story too, this is the story of the faithful Israel. This is the logic here, that every generation needs to hear Torah which means Instruction afresh. Moses here retells most of the laws stated previously but adapts many of them for the new life that the people were about to enter going from a nomadic lifestyle to a settled agricultural one. Jesus followed this same logic clearly by giving the sermon on the mount to inaugurate His people into how to live in their day and age, by most restating but expanding on the Law.

Just so you do not think I am pulling this out of thin air,

The later Biblical Author Paul picks up this Logic in 1 Corinthians

The New International Version Chapter 10

10 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.

Who is Paul talking to? Mostly Greek Gentiles, but he says OUR ancestors, he clearly understands the logic of Deuteronomy.

He is saying that this is OUR story, stories give meaning and purpose to our lives and this is ours, this is the story that we as believers, as the faithful have been grafted into and it is beautiful.

Why does this matter?

So What Story

The New International Version Chapter 6

6 These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you.

4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. y 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

The New International Version Chapter 6

In the future, when your son asks you, “What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?” 21 tell him: “We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 Before our eyes the LORD sent signs and wonders—great and terrible—on Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. 23 But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land he promised on oath to our ancestors. 24 The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. 25 And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness.”

See loving the Lord and loving people are the exact same, the whole Torah is filled with how to love people, how to live with wisdom and kindness and generosity, everything that Jesus restated in the Sermon on the Mount.

See the word for Righteousness is Tsedakah which means right relationship in generosity, see while the Pharisees were trying to figure out how long we need to wash our hands for God is saying help the poor person on the street, with clean or dirty hands it is irrelevant.

See life and love are both experienced and expressed BEST when GIVEN to others.

Give it to others and you will receive it back 100 fold.

It goes deeper More Scripture:

Deuteronomy 4:6–8 NIV

6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.” 7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? 8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?

Salt and Light anyone? Jesus just restated what Moses said here.

See the focus here is on the other Nations other people bringing them to a knowledge and Faith in God.

this is evangelism, that following Torah will be evangelism. When righteousness is done and people are loving people and living in unity it will be a light to the nations. Jesus says it again like this in the Gospel of John.

The New International Version Chapter 17

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

It is our unity, our practice and outworking of Torah that will be the true Salt and Light to this world our ability to love and to forgive and to be self-sacrificing. That lifestyle will speak and teach our children and their children, it is our legacy and the inheritance to our children.

Life and Love are always meant to overflow and pour out to others, See Jesus has always been the same, yesterday, today and forever. His message has always been the same

Moses Finishes like this:

The New International Version Chapter 28

If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:

3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.

6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

Said another way, seek first the kingdom, seek other people first, seek right relations first, seek justice, seek lifting the lowly to the level of the elite and all these things will be added unto you. Consider as priority others above yourself.

Who doesn’t want to be Blessed?

The world is marketing this like it is going out of style, they are over promising and under-delivering

Remember how Jesus started the sermon on the mount?

He shows us how to actually be blessed, the world has got it dead wrong.

Title POV

See Moses and Jesus know truly how to live.

WIIFM

Blessing is available for you, true blessing, blessing that will lead to life and life abundantly.

Action Step

So what do I do you ask?

Firstly do what Ps.1 says:

Blessed is the one whose delight is in the Torah of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

You can not follow what you do not know, you can not keep what you do not have, you must get into your Scriptures and start applying them. Start a reading plan today, come to Bible Study on Friday 4:30 PM and study with us as a Family

How can you serve others:

At a minimum you can join us as a family in unity praying in our prayer plan, prayer is the spiritual engine that powers change, we want to see people’s lives changed for Jesus, we need every single one of you praying.

Come to prayer night tomorrow at 6 PM

Close

Make these the priority, nothing else will produce life in, you and others, like these habits

Altar Call

Now this may all be a bit of a shock to you, it may seem like a lot, the whole of the Christian life is about experiencing and expressing what God has done for us, how He has saved us from death and given us life and then telling everyone who will listen.

Maybe you are here and you feel weary, you need a fresh infilling and a fresh commitment to God, maybe you are here and you have never made a commitment to God, well here is your opportunity

In this hearing of my voice you are being called, God is calling you to turn from your ways and return to Him, He wants to fill you with life and show you the most excellent way!

So with heads bowed and eyes shut

Who will answer that call, He loves you, He has a plan for your life and He wants to be intimately involved with you every day.

If it’s you all I want you to do is raise your hand and I will see it.

Do it now,

Pray.