The Perfect Scorer

Intro

We love ranking

Casey’s top 40

Lettermans nightly top ten

sports rankings

draft rankings

what are your Top three restaurants in the area?

Connecting the OT

Matthew was likely not the first gospel account written - probably Mark.

It has the most OT references including the 5 prophecies already in the first four chapters.

Includes the genealogy connecting Genesis and Abraham to Jesus

Primary Audience was jewish believers.

WHO SAID

41. "With great power comes great responsibility." (Spider-Man, 2002) 42. "Just keep swimming." (Finding Nemo, 2003)

21. "Here's looking at you, kid." (Casablanca, 1942) 22. "There's no place like home." (The Wizard of Oz, 1939)

30. "Elementary, my dear Watson." (Sherlock Holmes movies/books, popularized 1939–60s)

34. "Wax on, wax off." (The Karate Kid, 1984) Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy FDR

"Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country." - John F. Kennedy 

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." - Abraham Lincoln 

"To thine own self, be true." - William Shakespeare

AUDIENCE:

Grew up with the Law

613 Explicit laws with thousands added.

I don’t think they had a top 25 list of holiest people, but if they had the internet there would have been.

Stott said this was Jesus’ manifesto

Also the most misunderstood passage. Jesus said all this at one time, but there is so much there we will look at it all summer and still feel rushed.

Does not mean, here are 150 ways to be a better person.

Be good enough and you are OK

Matthew 5:17–19““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. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes 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 does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Matthew 5:20 “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The Law Fulfilled

Exodus 19:5–6 “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine; and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.””

The covenant was one of performance. If you keep it, you will be rewarded, if you fail to keep it, you will be punished.

Romans 3:20 “For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.”

Galatians 3:19–23 “Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made, and it was put in place through angels by an intermediary. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.”

Nothing will pass away until it is fulfilled. No one has every fulfilled the law - perfection.

Antinomians (ANTI LAW) believed we were spiritual and physical doesn’t matter.

If someone acts like holiness can be relaxed, they will be called least:

BUT

English Standard Version Chapter 5

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Unless you run faster than Usain Bolt

Unless you throw faster than Ohtani

Unless you sing better than Celine

Unless you golf better than Melvin Clower

Unless you are smarter than Stephen Swails

Give Up.

FALSE MEASURES

It’s not like I killed someone

I’ve never robbed a bank

what is perfection?

In proton therapy, the protons used have a size of about 0.84 femtometers — that's 0.00000000000000084 meters.

To put it in perspective:

One human hair is about 75,000,000 femtometers wide!

So, a proton is around 75 million times smaller than a single hair

Touch the roof

NOT EVEN CLOSE

Who rose again and ascended into heaven.

Holiness starts on the inside and it comes out.

FOLLOW ME AND I WILL MAKE YOU

"Christ’s teaching, in its true meaning, gives the only possible solution to the terrible contradictions of human life, and that solution is simple, clear, and intelligible to everyone." Tolstoy

“The Beatitudes give us a description of the character of true believers. They are not a prescription for how to enter the kingdom, but a description of those who already belong to it.” (The Bible Exposition Commentary, Matthew 5)

MOST OF US GIVEN UP ON PERFECT… NOW IT’S JUST OK.

Matthew 5:48 “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

SPIRITUAL COMPLACENCY

“The Beatitudes give us a description of the character of true believers. They are not a prescription for how to enter the kingdom, but a description of those who already belong to it.” (The Bible Exposition Commentary, Matthew 5)