Fulfill the Law
Knowing Jesus Through the Old Testament • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 44:07
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Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
17 “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.
18 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.
Fulfill
To bring to the fullest measure or completion
Jesus fulfills prophecy in bigger and better ways than they were originally thought
To fulfill the law is to bring it to it’s fullest meaning and intent
Accomplished
The law will not pass away until all that the law was intended to bring about is accomplished
I like the NLT’s rendering
18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.
The Law and the Prophets
Insert slide showing canonical ordering differences
The Law is more than a list of commands
The Law is a story of how God will bless the nations through Abraham and his descendants
Jesus is going to bring that story to it’s climax
The Blessings Through Abraham
The Blessings Through Abraham
3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
The Law’s purpose
More than giving us a list of approved behaviors
More than for the sake of Israel
God is undoing the curses of Genesis 3 by bringing blessings to all families through Abraham
How those blessings come about
1 When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, 2 that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”
I’ve heard from some that the command to walk blamelessly before God is a promise, not a command - grammar disproves that
If Abraham doesn’t walks blamelessly before God then the covenant and blessings aren’t going to happen
17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”
Abraham shall surely become a great nation through whom all nations are blessed
He was chosen to command his children the way of the Lord
That will then result in all the promises being realized
What happens if Abraham’s children don’t keep the way of the Lord?
15 And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16 and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, 18 and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Why is God going to bless Abraham?
Summary: This is the purpose that is awaiting fulfillment in the days of Jesus
All nations need to be blessed
But it will only happen through blameless obedience to God’s ways
The Blessings Through Israel
The Blessings Through Israel
The promise and purpose of Abraham are passed down through his family, the children of Israel.
4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 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; 6 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.”
God wants to make Israel into three things:
His treasured possession among all peoples
A kingdom of priests
A holy nation
They’ll be one of a kind
6 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
Just as Abraham was chosen out of all the earth, now Israel is
But just as Abraham was chosen for the sake of all nations, so is Israel
Kingdom of priests
Priests bridged man to God
You could not worship in the tabernacle/temple without a priest assisting with the sacrifice
Question 3 - How does this relate to the purpose of Abraham in Genesis 12:3?
Israel would do that on a national scale - bring the nations to God
Holy people
Not merely set apart
Set apart for a purpose
Question 4 - The Law is what makes them so distinctive
5 See, I have taught you statutes and rules, as the Lord my God commanded me, that you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 6 Keep them and do them, for that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ 7 For what great nation is there that has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is to us, whenever we call upon him? 8 And what great nation is there, that has statutes and rules so righteous as all this law that I set before you today?
Israel’s Heart Problem
Israel’s Heart Problem
Israel didn’t live up to her holy calling
1 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:
2 “You only have I known
of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
for all your iniquities.
9 Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod
and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt,
and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria,
and see the great tumults within her,
and the oppressed in her midst.”
10 “They do not know how to do right,” declares the Lord,
“those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.”
The nations see nothing but chaos within Israel
The problem was in their heart
They were to have a devotion that comes from the heart
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
They needed to perform some heart surgery
16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.
Rather than being a blessing Israel ended up cursed
45 “All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. 46 They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. 47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things,
They did not keep the way of the Lord and practice righteousness or justice
They had a bad heart - just like Pharaoh
Instead of blessing the nations they were just as lost and profane as them
Summary: The Law’s purpose was to bring about blessings because of Israel’s obedience.
But it couldn’t bring about obedience because of Israel’s heart problem.
So God promised he would fix that as well.
Israel’s New Heart
Israel’s New Heart
2 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 3 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.
They didn’t have a heart to understand because God hadn’t given them one
1 “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 5 And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
Add more material here
Summary: Israel’s obedience to the law would bring blessings to the whole world. But because Israel’s heart was stubborn, God would need to give them a new heart to obey.
New heart > Obedience > Blessings
Fulfilling the Law
Fulfilling the Law
How Jesus fulfills the Law
Half-hearted obedience would never bring it’s full intention to bring a blessing to all the nations
It would only come to it’s fullest intention through blameless obedience
Jesus is the one who has obeyed blamelessly and brought the law to it’s intended goal
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. 9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him,
19 For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.
Because of his obedience our hearts can be transformed
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
So that we can fulfill the same purposes of Israel
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
4. What happens if we don’t walk the paths of God? Should we expect any blessings to flow through us to the rest of the nations?
