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Recap Last Week
How do we value the opportunity to receive new life in Jesus and appreciate the gift of growing in the knowledge of the Bible on the Journey?
We turn pages because we are no longer regarded according to the flesh, the old life is dead, and the new life has now come.
Now we look at what the window of our destination looks like throughout the History of the Old Testament.
Big Idea: The Old Testament opens the window for understanding the New.
INTRODUCTION
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Matthew 5:17-20 look at the beginning of Matthew 5 to find the context of this passage.
Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus opened His mouth and started with what has been called the beatitudes, Blessed are......
vs. 13-16, Jesus reminds us who we are as Christians or Christ's followers.
We are a salt and light, declarative statement that there is no such thing as a Christian who is not salt and light.
You are the world's city on a hill that cannot be hidden.
Jesus further reinforces the job of a light bearer for Christ in the world.
Up to this point in Jesus sermon he has spoken of the character of a Christian and the influence that he must have in the world and how such character will bear itself out in bearing good fruit.
He explains that the righteousness that he has already mentioned twice as that for which the disciple must hunger and thirst for and on account of which they must be willing to suffer for.
It is such a conformity to the moral law of God one that even surpasses that of the scribes and the pharisees.
The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:17–20)
This paragraph is of great importance not only for its definition of Christian righteousness but also for the light it throws on the following:
Relationship between the New Testament and the Old Testament
Relationship between the Gospel and the Law.
It divides itself into two parts: Christ and the Law (17, 18) and the Christian and the Law (19, 20).
Why must we know about these two relationships as we read the scripture?
Note: Very few Christians know much about the Old Testament.
We tend to gravitate towards the New Testament because it has the story of Jesus and His grace and mercy towards us that causes us to be born again.
History Lesson
I want you to put yourself in the place of the Israelites shoes if you had been listening to this sermon.
The beginning part is leading to a new regime in town.
One that is full of light, truth, character, morality, where so many people in the nation of Israel had witnessed the perversion of the law and the corrupt nature of the Sanhedrin.
They had heard the prophecies and read about them from the moment of their birth.
Now Jesus was standing right in front of them and they were ready for a Messianic king to right all the wrongs that had been done to them throughout history.
Jesus turns the page to remind the people that they should not discount the Old Testament Law.
If it were not for the Old Testament pointing towards God’s sovereignty and his divine providence you would not have the fulfillment of the law in Jesus Christ.
How do we turn the pages of scripture from the Old to the New?
What is Morality?
"If I steal from the rich and use it to feed the poor, is that good or bad?
If I drive over the speed limit to get my sick child to the hospital, is that good or that bad?
What is good?
And what is bad?
What is morality, and do you, as a person, have morals?"
Morality is what society treats as correct and acceptable.
They're the standards of thoughts and actions that everyone in a group agrees to follow so they can all live peacefully.
Stealing is against the Law.
However, a lot of people would consider stealing a piece of bread to save a homeless person from dying of hunger, moral.
Driving over the speed limit is a crime, but when it could help save the child's life in the backseat of your car, it becomes the noblest of actions.
As humans evolve and learn new things, our morals change.
This is why morality isn’t stagnant.
It evolves with time.
Think about issues like pre-marital sex, same-sex relationships, abortion, marijuana use.
These are all things that were considered immoral long ago.
But today, society is beginning to accept all of these as moral.
We’ve learned to be tolerant of people regardless of their personal beliefs or preferences.
And while not everyone might agree to all of these things or practice it themselves, things seem to have flipped.
...
Society is changing, but in the wrong direction.
What was once immoral, is now considered moral as long “as no one is hurt.”
But God’s law never changes because it is based on his holy nature.
Society can attempt to redefine right and wrong, but that doesn’t change God’s law.
Christ and the Law
Up to this point, Jesus had already disturbed and upset the religious establishment with his seeming attitude toward the Old Testament Law.
Controversies had flared up earlier in his minister for Mark, who puts both Sabbath plucking of corn and the sabbath healing of a man's withered hand before even the appointed twelve.
Indeed, from the very beginning of His ministry, people had been struck by his authority.
"What is this, a new teaching with authority."
It would have been natural for people to ask what the relationship was between his authority and that of the Law of Moses.
Jesus would introduce such a rule by speaking in his name and power, 'truly I say to you.'
The verb Jesus uses 'to fulfill' literally means 'to fill' and indicates an expression that his sayings were no repeal of the former but a drawing out and filling up of them.
Why READ the OLD TESTAMENT
We must read the Old and the New Testaments to Understand two principles.
1.
It helps us understand Christ and His Relationship to the Law.
What is at stake here in the relationship of the testaments is the place of the Law in the context of the Gospel and the relation of it to the NT passages that affirm that certain parts of the Law have been done away with.
Mark 7:19 (He declared all food clean)
Acts 10-11 (Peter sent to Cornelius)
This debate continues, especially among Palestinian Jewish Christians, about the continuation of the Law.
We must remember that Matthews's writing of Jesus' words must be kept in the context of its immediate relevance to the people.
"Do not Think That."
Jesus begins by setting aside the potential for misunderstandings as to the nature of the kingdom, but neither flow out of an open confrontation on the subject.
Matthew has yet to record any accusations that Jesus was breaking the Law.
Note: Many Jews during this time argued that the Law would be set aside and a new law introduced at the Messiah's coming.
We must understand that Old Testament contains various types of reading that we do not have in the New Testament.
The relationship of Jesus to these differs but the word 'fulfill' covers them all.
Jesus came into the world on a mission neither to abolish the Law of the prophets, setting them aside or doing away with them, but to fulfill them completely.
How does the Old Help us Understand Christ and his relationship to the Law?
The Torah: Usually translated as the Law, really means 'revealed instruction,' and the Old Testament does indeed instruct us about God and man and salvation, etc.
Jesus was committed to God's word; he came to fulfill the Law and the prophets, establish it, and achieve all that was written about Him in the prophets.
First, the Old Testament contains Doctrinal Teaching.
What are some critical doctrinal Teachings in the Old Testament?
*The Old Testament gives us the Doctrine of Creation
To Be made in the image of God is to be made communal beings.
To Be made in the image of God is to be made moral beings.
To Be made in the image of God is to be made spiritual beings.
To Be made in the image of God is to be made ruling beings.
So, we get from the Old Testament how we are to view our identity in everyday life, this changes how we view justice and mercy in everyday life.
We get our sense of sexuality and God’s design for procreation in the Old Testament.
(issues of homosexuality, transgenderism, women’s role in the Church)
*The Old Testament gives us the Doctrine of Original Sin
If you do not believe in the tragedy and universality of sin, then you will think that humans can fix themselves.
If you believe that the most profound problem of humanity is sin, then you know that together we cannot fix ourselves.
Understanding original sin begins with understanding the disaster in the garden.
So, we get from the Old Testament a picture of the falsehood platform that sin gives us and the foolish power it has to seduce us.
We see in the Old Testament the problem of sin in the world and how the solution is not simply behavior modification.
To have a healthy understanding of our heart issue requires that we have a good theology of sin from the beginning.
*The Old Testament gives us the Doctrine of the Sovereignty of God
Understanding why God decrees what He decrees?
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