From the Inside Out

Matthew 5:17-20

Preview:

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Thankful for what God is doing here

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A heart bent toward God

A desire to be just like Jesus Christ

Even unto death

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Made for more than coasting through life

We are the influencers

Meant to have an impact on those around us

Tonight

Jesus clarifies some things

This is early in Jesus’s ministry but people already have questions

Really challenges us and teaches us what following Christ is all about

Matthew 5:17-20

17 “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.

18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished.

19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

Pray:

Lord, we pray that you would open our eyes to behold the wondrous things of your law

Image:

My version of a clean house vs. Abby’s

When we got married

Fold towels the right way

“So you leave the shower curtain open?”

My version of a clean house

Laundry is done and hung up

No dishes in the sink

No junk on the counter

My shoes aren’t in the kitchen

Sweeping

Vacuuming

Abby’s version

Cleaning baseboards

Dusting the ceiling fans

Getting out the clorox wipes and wiping down the walls

Doing a deep scrub on the toilettes

Mopping everything

The whole house is completely spotless and smells like essential oils

Comes by it honestly

Her dad…

Vacuum at 10pm

Mow the yard with his headlights on

When they go on trips, he mops his way out of the door

I’ve never met anyone that works as hard as he does

He passed it down to Abby

True story…

I had never once wiped a baseboard until I got married

She’d come home

“I thought you said you cleaned the house?”

“I did…”

Honestly be so proud of myself

“What you did was straighten up the house… You didn’t clean it.”

My version of cleaning the house was just about straightening things up and making it look clean.

Abby’s version of cleaning the house involved actually cleaning the house.

“This isn’t what I was talking about at all…”

Transition

In this passage Jesus is clarifying what it means to be righteous.

There were different ideas

Pharisees

Sadducees

Essenes

“This isn’t what the law is about at all…”

You got it all wrong

I believe Jesus is trying to make two points in this passage

His teaching is in no way different from the Old Testament

His teaching is very different from that of the scribes and pharisees.

Jesus’s Teaching is in no way different from the Old Testament

Matthew 5:17 - “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”

Don’t Think

He begins on the defensive

People had their questions about Him

Healed a couple people on the Sabbath

Touching people with leprosy

He’s not following the rituals

His followers aren’t fasting twice a week

He’s not honoring the Sabbath in the way the expect him to

He didn’t go through the typical route to become a Rabbi

Not a pharisee

Not an expert of the law

He didn’t follow the traditional path

He often denounced the religious leaders

Told them they were wrong

Told others how dangerous their teachings were

He lived a different lifestyle

Often spending time with those that the religious leaders would never talk to

People have their questions

Who is this man?

Where did he come from?

What does he believe?

Why doesn’t he follow the law?

Why is he so different?

Jesus wants to clear this up

Abolish

Dismantle

Tear down

Lincoln Logs

I used to play with lincoln logs all the time

Even took them to show and tell one time and built a house in under a minute

At the end, I’d have to take the house apart

You begin to remove pieces

Taking apart the home piece by piece

Roof

Logs

Windows

Doors

Until it’s no longer a house at all but a pile of pieces

Abolish

That’s the word

Removing stones from a structure

Piece by piece

The Law and the Prophets

The Old Testament

Fulfill

This is where this passage gets tough

What does that mean?

Why didn’t he say “obey?”

Or honor?

Instead he chose to use the word fulfill

He did this on purpose

Fulfill

To complete a period of time

Such as in a prison sentence

Did you fulfill your requirements?

Yes. I stayed in prison for this long.

To bring to completion

To accomplish

To bring to pass

D. A. Carson - “To be that to which the other party pointed.”

Here’s what I understand to be going on

Jesus is saying the law and the prophets were pointing to something.

I’m who they were pointing to.

Jesus isn’t doing away with the law

But he’s also not just keeping the law or honoring the law

He is who the law was pointing to

This same thought is echoed throughout the New Testament. I’ll give you a couple moments.

Romans 10:4 - For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes

Christ is the goal of the law

Like a race… What’s the goal? Follow the path until you get to the finish line

What’s the goal of the law? To get to Jesus Christ

It’s pointing you there

Romans 3:21-26 - But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets.

This is what the law and the prophets were trying to tell you about this whole time

This is what Jesus is saying…

The law and the prophets were always pointing to something

I am who they were pointing to

This makes sense when it comes to the prophets

The prophets often made predictions about the coming messiah

Where he would be born

The lineage he would be born into

The events surrounding his birth

The type of life he would live

The type of death he would die

Jesus fulfilled all of those

Odds of Jesus fulfilling 8 prophecies

1 in 10^17th

That many silver dollars would cover the state of texas 2 feet deep

Mark one

Blindfold a man and tell him to find it

Odds of Jesus fulfilling 48 prophecies

1 in 10^157th power

This is an inconceivable number

So big that one might say it would be impossible

Yet all of them and more are fulfilled in Jesus Christ

But it doesn’t just say the prophets are fulfilled in Christ

It says the law is fulfilled in Christ

Even the law was pointing forward to something

Passover

Jesus is our passover

Through his blood we can be saved

Jesus was the ram that took Isaac’s place

Everything to do with the temple was pointing us to Christ

Jesus himself equates himself to the temple

The sacrifice system

Never meant to take our sins away

But was to point us to the one who could

All of the moral laws

Were to show us that we could never be perfect

We are in need of a savior

Why study the Old Testament?

Because it points us to Jesus Christ

V. 18 - For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished.

This is going to be important until the end of time

We read the Old Testament

Because it points us to Christ

It teaches us about Christ

There are principles to be learned throughout it

The Jewish law may not bind us

We learn what it looks like to fear God

What it looks like to trust God

We get different glimpses of who God is

Jesus loves the Old Testament

Sees every single bit of it as important

He did not come to abolish it

His not teaching anything different than that of the Old Testament

Jesus is teaching something very different than that of the scribes and pharisees

V. 20 - For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

Your religious leaders have gotten it all wrong

What God expects from you is a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees

Imagine that statement

Your religious leaders have lead you astray

They’ve gotten it all wrong

The best people in your culture?

They’re still not good enough

There is a way to be righteous but you’re going to have to be better than the best person you’ve ever met

The Pharisees

Where did they come from

Period of history for about 400 years before Christ was born that we have nothing recorded in the bible about

400 years of silence

There are history books

Just not bible books

Rose to prominence early on in that period

Believed that a strict adherence to the law would bring about the messiah

Jesus was just waiting on everyone to be good enough

Boy were they good

Pharisee = Separatist

Set apart

Most outstanding people in all of the nation

Spent their lives studying the law

Teaching the law

Dissecting the law

Highly respected men of God

Looked up to

They took God’s law and then added more laws to it that made them keep God’s laws

Sabbath

Added laws about knot tying

Moving dirt

Sweeping floors

How far you could walk

Just to make sure no one broke the Sabbath

Moses’s law you were required to fast once a year

Pharisees made you fast twice a week

You want me to be better than those guys?

We’re already falling short of keeping their commands

How can we be any more strict?

But it’s these guys that Jesus calls out more than anyone else…

Matthew 23

What was the issue with the pharisees?

Their religion was external and formal instead of internal

Matthew 15:7-20

Matthew 23 - White washed tombs

They were all about appearance

Looking righteous

Looking good

Looking holy

Had nothing to do with their character

Didn’t actually love people

Didn’t actually have a heart of generosity

Weren’t humble

Weren’t meek

Didn’t long for righteousness

Their religion was more ceremonial than moral

Going through the motions

Attending the services

Giving the sacrifices

Matthew 15

What was going on in that passage

They were telling their parents they couldn’t help take care of them because they had to give their money to the poor

My dad…

When my grandpa died

My dad was spending as much time with my grandma as possible

Often missing church to help take care of her

Bro. Paul asked about him

He’s been taking care of his mom on sunday’s

As he should

Not the pharisees

Have to go through the ceremony

Have to attend the service

No care for people

Just concerned about the ceremony

Their religion was concerned mainly with glorifying self

Prayed in the streets in order to be seen

Sounded trumpets when they gave in order to be applauded

Put on sackcloth and ashes when they fasted so everyone knew they were miserable

Their biggest concern was the applause and attention of others

That’s why they missed it

I didn’t come to teach anything different from the old testament.

But I did come to teach something different from the scribes and pharisees.

Because what I’m looking for… The true fulfillment of the law… is righteousness that comes from within.

Poor in Spirit

Broken over sin

Humble

Hunger and thirst for righteousness

“I’m convinced that much of Christianity for the last 100 years has had it’s focus more on looking like a Christian than on being a Christian.” - JP

This is a tall task

God knew we would fall short

Even on our best day we would struggle to keep our motives in check

That’s why Jesus Christ died for us