The Fuller OT for Our Lives

Intro

I’m so glad to be back and preaching this morning. But, I want to start this sermon off different. Rather than me spoon feed this text to you and you not have to wrestle with it yourself, lets take a moment to do that. I want you to read through these four verses, and ask the question, how does this passage make you feel?

WAIT. Matthew 5:20

Matthew 5:20 NET 2nd ed.

20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!

On the surface, this is not a good feeling text. Jesus who is supposed to be soft and gentle, is being harsh with this rigid keeping of laws. Our initial feelings about this passage could be a significant weight. A weight that Jesus is calling his disciples to rigid law keeping. This becomes a burden for us. We have immediate feelings of “I am insufficient to do this!” and “I can’t keep the law better than religious leaders!”

Erika and I have been to Bible studies we have been to that start with the question of “How does this text make you feel?” This is not how we do faithful Biblical study. We don’t go to the Word of God and ask “How does this make me feel?” Asking how the text makes us feel is an improper initial question with the Word of God.

But unfortunately, there are so many doing bible studies in this way, and so much content online promoting this way of thinking.

Rather, we want to ask the initial question of what is God saying to us?

Do you see the difference? We need to understand who the Bible is about. Is the Bible about me or is the Bible about God? Is the Bible intended to make me feel better about life, or is the Bible intended to magnify Christ and glorify God?

We might be able to say that it is both, but I’m trying to ask which we value more, which one are we starting with.

We must dive deep into the text to try to understand it the way God wanted us to understand it, work through the words and the phrases. It is only after we have determined what God is saying, that we can determine our feelings and actions of this text.

We start with knowledge of God, who God is, what he wants for humans, and then that informs who we are. If we are the image of God, we start with him as the one to whom our image points.

This is how we taught Biblical Hermeneutics and how we study the word of God individually and together. If you want to know more and would like to understand better how to study and interpret the Word for yourself, I’d be happy to do that study with any of you.

We want to understand deeply what Jesus is saying. Is Jesus trying to make us feel insufficient? Is Jesus trying to make all of his followers feel like they can’t do it? Is Jesus telling us that we are called to an impossible standard of law keeping? Are we meant to feel unworthy and insufficient?

I would say no.

When we start with God instead of our preconceived ideas and feelings about this text, we see so much more hope and grace in this text.

Today we are going to see how Jesus comes to be the fulfillment, and the new way of living he calls his disciples to.

There is a ditch on both sides of the road for us to avoid with this passage. One would be that we feel obligated to follow every aspect of law keeping to maintain favor with God. Some might teach rigid Torah keeping based on Jesus’s words here. There are sects and movements away from orthodox Christianity back to keeping of all of the 613 Jewish Laws.

The ditch on the other side of the road is that we would feel like we could throw out the law as no longer applying to us. Doesn’t Paul say the law is not over us anymore? Doesn’t Christ remove the law from us?

Both of these ditches are against what Jesus is teaching here.

Main Point: Because Jesus fulfills the OT, his disciples can follow him in a new way of keeping the Old Testament.

Fulfillment of the OT (17)

First today, we see the fulfillment of the Old Testament. And we see this in verse 17.

Jesus states twice in this verse that he does not come to abolish the OT.

He begins this statement with “Do not think.” This is a way Jesus is helping us to understand his mission.

It is here we see a critical aspect that informs our understanding. Jesus it not just talking about commandments, he is talking about the Law AND the prophets. Together. This is a way that the New Testament writers refers to the Old Testament. The Old Testament is summed up as Law and Prophets.

Already, this small detail is going to inform how we understand what Jesus is doing with the Law and the Prophets. He isn’t just thinking about commandments, he is thinking of the Old Testament Scripture as a whole.

And what Jesus tells us is that he has come to fulfill the Law and the prophets.

What does it mean for Jesus to fulfill? In what way is he fulfilling?

He is not using the word “fulfilled” to primarily extend, annul, or intensify the law to show you how awful you are.

Often times, this is how we read the rest of what Jesus says. We might think “look how intense Jesus wants his disciples to keep the law.” But this is not his primary motive here.

This is not Jesus saying “ditto to whatever Moses and the prophets said.”

Does the word “fulfill” mean he just keeps it? Jesus can keep all the laws?

Fulfill is an important word that Matthew uses. To get our bearings a bit, since it’s been a few weeks since we were in Matthew, lets reflect on what Matthew has been about so far. We’ve been seeing how Jesus came to be all the promises of the Old Testament. Even the promises we didn’t know were promises. Matthew loves to use this word “fulfill” to show how Jesus is the one we have been waiting for. He came to be the better Adam, the better Moses, the better Abraham, the better King like David, the better Israel, and now in this statement, Jesus is saying, yes, everything, i came to fulfill. All that the Old Testament has.

As the only one who can actually keep what the Old Testament commanded, he comes to be the goal of the Old Testament, and to be the sole authoritative interpreter of how we live it out.

It’s important for us to understand some background at this point. At the time of Jesus, and even still today, there is a variety of ways that people think the Old Testament should be kept. Some are more loose, some are more strict. Some ensure you are following the letter of the law, and some want to add extra laws to ensure you keep what God’s law is.

But Jesus comes to be the reinterpreter, or the explainer, or the revealer of the Old Testament. At the end of the sermon on the mount, note how the crowds respond. That no one, not even the Jewish law experts teach like this with this authority.

When we get to the Sermon on the Mount, we are understanding how Jesus is bringing his kingdom. This is a message for the ones who have already made a commitment to be his disciples. You will remember Jesus’s and John’s message of “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is here.”

And we might ask the question “what does it look like to be a disciple in the kingdom of heaven?” That is the question Jesus is answering in the Sermon on the Mount.

We saw in the beatitudes at the beginning of chapter 5, the ways that disciples of Jesus live out this kingdom lifestyle, not in themselves, but because of the grace of God in them. These general life characteristics are a display of our God working in us in his blessings.

We saw the idea of salt and light, and how our intention is not selfish, but making much of God to those around us, bringing other people to glorify God with us.

So when we come to this text, Jesus isn’t saying “but you can’t do it! hahaha!”

Jesus’s intentions are not to offer you the kingdom, and then tell you can’t get in.

Like a mean kid offering you a gumball, just to eat it themselves and say you can’t have it.

No! Jesus is inviting you to be a part of his kingdom. He wants us to join him!

So in light of how Matthew uses the word fulfilling, Jesus comes to BE the law and the prophets.

What do i mean by that?

Let me show you in a picture. This is for you visual learners.

Jesus is rooting his teaching in the Old Testament, but he alone fills the role. Jesus comes to better communicate God’s will, our hope, and the future of humanity.

The Law and the prophets were intended to help us understand God and his ways and how we are meant to live in his world in relationship with him and for his glory.

But we continued to fail in upholding God’s standard for us.

But Jesus comes to enable us and help us and teach us God’s ways and what it looks like to live for him.

The Law and the Prophets are intended to show us how to be the image of God, and now Jesus’s life and teaching will show us how to be the image of God.

The Law and the prophets were a time, but it is now being fulfilled. Jesus isn’t ending it, he is carrying them over into a new era of fulfillment found in himself.

The Law and the prophets were a sign pointing to Jesus. He is the one they were about and pointing to.

Verse 17 here is the front bookend of Jesus’s teaching that gets the final bookend in 7:12. Jesus is telling us to follow him to fulfilling what the law and prophets were meant to do.

What we see in the teachings of Jesus is how we are meant to think, believe, feel, and live concerning God’s Old Testament. Jesus is not going to contradict Moses and the prophets, he reveal the full intentions that God teachings for humanity.

What we want to be careful of is pitting Paul’s teachings against Jesus’s teachings in Matthew. Both inspired writings by the Spirit of God. Paul suggests in places that we are free and released from the Law and are now under Christ. And what we see here is that Jesus is telling us how we live not bound by human understandings of the Law, but his understanding of the law in freedom.

And consistent with Paul and Jesus is the fact that law keeping does not earn righteousness. We have none! But, because we have been shown God’s grace, we are not obligated to law keeping, but follow God’s ways in response. Not as a way to earn what we could not earn, but as a response to what has already been earned by Christ on our behalf.

Jesus’s teaching on the Old Testament, not the Old Testament itself, will be the basis for Christian discipleship.

Consider the great Commission: Matthew 28:20

Matthew 28:19–20 NET 2nd ed.

19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

What does it look like to make disciples? It looks like pointing people and instructing them on Jesus’s teachings.

We as disciples of Jesus look to him to explain to us how we are meant to live in the new Kingdom. We trust that he has already accomplished for us what we could not in the law, and that he is our authority for understanding. We trust in Jesus to both be sufficient when we could not, and join him in fulfilling the law.

Continuation of the OT (18-19)

Then we see the continuation of the Old Testament in verses 18-19.

Jesus starts here with “Truly.” Matthew records 31 of Jesus’s 50 “truly” statements. This is a way of him saying he has authority.

Think of Jesus saying “truly” as like the Old Testament prophets saying “thus saith the Lord.” Or like the apostles saying “it is written.”

And Jesus says that not a iota or a mark of a letter will pass from the Old Testament until it is accomplished.

Jesus is saying that the Old Testament, down to the smallest detail, is as permanent as heaven and earth. It will never loose significance. It will never loose significance. It has continually authority as it comes from the Holy Spirit.

Jesus is not coming to set aside the Old Testament. He is going to fully work it out for us.

We were the end of the Old Testament. Our sin made a stop to God’s word. But Jesus comes to continue them and through us, continue it.

Many of you can relate to issues of home plumbing. In our last house, we had a blockage due to years of not having the pipes clean, and old rusting pipes. One of those old gross p-trap that was made of copper. I had to go down in the basement, cut that thing out, and replace the pipes with updated PVC so that the water could flow better.

Jesus does this with the Old Testament, He removes the blockage of our sin, and becomes the conduit for pure godly living. And now he is inviting us to be a part of this new system to allow the godly heart living to flow through us as well.

Jesus does not come to make a different way than the Old Testament, all that it points forward to, and that it was meant to do, now becomes a reality found in Jesus. Going back to the picture.

Jesus is the one who will accomplish the entirety of the law. Jesus doesn’t come to change the law, he comes to reveal the intent and purpose of the law.

I don’t want us to think that Jesus’s commands for kingdom living are not a more intensified version of the Old Testament, I want us to think of them as a more full version of the Old Testament.

He comes to show us what the Old Testament was really about, heart worship for God. Not outward performative religion, but heart worship.

Practically, what does it look like for Jesus to continue the law through himself on our behalf?

Look at this text in Hebrews 9:11-14

Hebrews 9:11–14 NET 2nd ed.

11 But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things to come. He passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, 12 and he entered once for all into the Most Holy Place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself secured eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow sprinkled on those who are defiled consecrated them and provided ritual purity, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our consciences from dead works to worship the living God.

Here, the author of Hebrews is telling us about Jesus is the greater fulfillment of the office of priest, and the one who became a blood sacrifice to remove our sin once and for all. He came to fulfill and live out those parts of the law, so that we can now live with him in worship to God, and not be dead in these works that we couldn’t accomplish anyway.

There is a penalty for our sin, death, our life is the payment for our sin. But the debt, the payment has been paid by Jesus. What we could not accomplish, he accomplished in our place and made a way for us.

Then look at verse 19. Jesus is further stating the permanence of the Old Testament and that it is not to be relaxed.

Jesus also explains what great kingdom disciples look like. It is the one teaching and living out Jesus’s way of life. Jesus’s teachings and explaining the way we are to keep the Old Testament.

“these commandments” are the commandments that follow in the rest of the chapter. So if you are curious, go read ahead this week. This week we are laying the ground work, and then next week, Jesus will take us through practical examples of Anger, Lust, Divorce, Oaths, Retaliation, Loving your enemies.

I loved Mike’s recent study on Marcianism, a heresy from early Christianity where people believed the Old Testament no longer applies to us. But this is not just an ancient heresy, it is one that still plagues Christianity today. There is a swath of things in social media saying Jesus removes us from the Old Testament living, or New Testament believers are unhitched from the Old Testament, or the God of the New Testament is different than the God of the Old Testament. But look at Jesus’s words given to his kingdom disciples, the Old Testament stands like heaven and earth. Just like Jesus, we are not meant to relax the Old Testament, but live it out.

The Jewish leaders at this time had split the law into heavy and lighter commands. Things that had to be absolutely followed, and less important things.

Other religions will also separate religious practices and law keeping into categories. But Jesus wants godly living completely through us. They are all important.

We don’t think to ourselves, “I’m good enough, I’ve removed a lot of sin from my life, but this one small thing, i’m going to hold on to.” or “This is just a minor sin.”

Jesus is saying not to even relax that one small thing that you want to hold onto. To be a part of the kingdom, and greatest and fully apart of the kingdom, seek to fully live out all that God wants for us.

Brother or sister here today, Let us embrace God’s grace and remove all sin from us so that we can more fully live out all that God has for us in uncompromising faith.

We must seek to obey, not seek to pick and choose which things we want to obey.

In verse 19, obedience is not the primary issue, but giving authority to Jesus’s teachings concerning the Old Testament. No one has authority to remove them or make them lighter.

There is application here for us who are discipling or influencing others.

Do those of us who others look to for example and advice, we should not relax Godly living. We do not instruct people in legalistic standards like the Pharisees, but we point people toward living for God and keeping his word.

Bad disciplers help others in justifying their sin and relaxing the law. They tell people that reading the Old Testament is unnecessary and not helpful. The ones least in the kingdom are the ones who excuse the sins of others with light phrases like “Ah, we all mess up!”

True disciples of Jesus point others to the cross that is God’s grace for us and enables us to live out godly lives. The greatest in the kingdom move people toward God’s Word, including the Old Testament, and help keep our fellow brothers and sisters from sinning. We point people to the Word of God, not our personal feelings and life experience for ethics.

Living out the OT (20)

Lastly today, we see living out the Old Testament in verse 20.

Matthew 5:20 “20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!”

Of all the verses in this passage, this one maybe is the most horrifying to us. Unless my righteousness is better than the religious leaders? Jesus, what are you asking of me? I could never live up to that standard! I can’t be better than them! I look at my past and I look at my present, and think, I will never get to enter into the kingdom!

Jesus uses a double negative in this verse. In English, double negatives don’t make sense. But in other languages, and in common Greek, double negatives show emphasis. You will never, no certianly never, enter the kingdom of heaven.

If you are like me, when we first read this verse, the guilt and inability begin to creep in!

But lets look into what Jesus is actually saying here. Remember, Jesus is not giving a message of exclusion, he is inviting people into this kingdom living!

This is really critical for us to understand about the sermon on the mount. Jesus is not trying to show his disciples an impossible standard to exclude everyone who is trying to be a part of his kingdom. He is graciously showing people kingdom living and what it looks like.

You’ve heard the phrase “if you can’t beat them join them”

Well you can’t beat them, and Jesus is not telling you to join them.

Jesus is saying, “if you can’t beat them, find another way” But the way is found in Jesus.

Jesus says that he can beat them at fulfilling God’s plans for mankind in the Old Testament, and then we can join him in it.

This is not rigid rule following, but a conscious effort to determine what pleases God.

We’ve talked about this before. But when we think about entering the Kingdom of Heaven, we aren’t thinking of walking into heaven’s pearly white gates. While we do expect this part of eternal life, this is not the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus and John have been talking about the Kingdom of Heaven being here now in our lives. It’s something that we spiritually enter because of Jesus.

We enter the kingdom of heaven by recognizing the kingship of God in our lives and submit to him through repentance and trust in Jesus.

The scribes were professional students and teachers of one system of understanding the Old Testament and wanted extreme strictness to the literal and letter keeping of the law.

The Pharisees wanted reform from sin, and added extra meticulous law keeping to help people legalistically keep the law.

“Far Beyond” the righteousness of religious leaders seems ridiculous. An impossible standard.

We can only begin to understand Jesus when we first ask “what is this righteousness?”

The scribes and the Pharisees are looking at righteousness as strict legalism and correctness. Jesus is telling them that this way to righteousness is deficient and insufficient.

But Jesus is looking for love for God and his ways. True devotion to him. Something that he has fulfilled and enables us to fulfill because of him.

Jesus is saying that the religious leader way is wrong. Your righteousness needs to be different. Not higher, but of a different kind.

Remember how Jesus sums up the Old Testament, Love God with all your heart soul mind strength, and love others.

The message Jesus is bring is a passionate love for God, not outward rigid law keeping.

Jesus comes to be righteousness for us. Through his lived righteousness which he gives to us, we now live righteously on a different plane. On a different level. Not as law keeping, but as heard devotion and worship and love.

This is an imperfect illustration. But do you ever talk to people in high school vs people in a College program? Or even better yet, people in a masters degree? What is the difference?

High schoolers are doing the school because they have to. And on both sides of the spectrum. The ones who don’t plan to do further education just get by and make it work. Doing what they have to to survive.

Then there are the High schoolers who have great plans to aspire to get scholarships. So they work and stress over grades and tests trying to achieve a certain GPA. So they can achieve something.

Both of these two types of High Schoolers, are they really enjoying the work? Are they loving it? Do they want it? Maybe the odd ones.

Even college students have a sense of obligation to what they want, though they may enjoy the studies more.

But then you get to someone in a masters program. You ask them if they are enjoying it and what they are learning. Be careful. Have an exit plan. And they don’t need a scholarship. Graduate schools will happily take all your money regardless of your GPA. You are there because you want to be there. People in Master’s degrees love what they do.

So it is for us. We don’t live out rigid law keeping as a sense of obligation or as a duty to achieve something. We get to do it because we love it.

So for us who are Christian disciples, we seek the will of God in the Old Testament, we are not bound by legalism. Let me give one example.

We’ve talked about this one in our hermeneutics class, so if you were there, this will be familiar, and if not, it will illustrate this point still.

One of the Old Testament commandments is that you must have a fence or boundary around your roof so no one falls off of it. And we think, all of us are law breakers because we don’t have a fence on our roof!

When we think about Jesus’s words not to relax the law or teach that we can abolish it, we don’t throw this out, cross it out of our bibles, flip the page and say “not for me.”

But when we think about the intent here, and God’s will, he desires for his people to protect human life, and go out of our way for safety. So what does this look like practically for me?

I want to value the things God values. i want to love the things God loves. If God loves human life, i want to also. I don’t do this out of obligation or to earn favor with God, but I want my heart to follow God.

So what does that practically look like? Not rigid to the letter law keeping of a fence around my roof, But think about fall. Leaves are coming down, and if i have an uneven drive way or sidewalk, it could present a tripping hazard for people. Someone might fall just like someone might fall off a roof. So if I value human life, i can clear some leaves away, that way people can more safely walk on what God has entrusted to me.

Maybe you are thinking, still doesn’t apply, my driveway and walkways are perfectly smooth. I have one for you. Winter will soon be upon us. Seeing that my driveway might be slippery, I don’t want the people walking, or the mail delivery people to slip, i will clear and salt what God has entrusted me with.

And this is just one simple application. Possibilities are endless. This is a lifestyle of loving what God loves and protecting human life.

Beyond the Walls (Grace and Growth)

Let’s talk about how we are meant to “feel” about this text. Let’s get back to that.

Because of our knowledge of Christ and his work in fulfilling what we could not, we respond with hearts of gratitude being overwhelmed by the grace we did nothing to achieve.

Before we had kids, I was doing project management for a construction company. The owner was great, but did a lot of things in the office and winning new jobs, and let me manage his ongoing projects. But he ran out of money, and had cash flow issues. We tried to make it work for a while, but eventually, we needed a paycheck to live. We got to the point where we were having to decide, should we pay groceries or rent? And then, we were given a huge medical bill $800. Maybe not massive to you, but for us at the time, it was massive. I decided it was time to cut ties and find an employer who could actually give me a paycheck.

So I went to go work for the high end cabinet place. I had already built a relationship with the owner some. I went there, and was working in a panic to help Erika and I survive. I was thankful for the job, but also panicced over the fact that I needed to work to pay of all the debt from not being paid for months, and this medical bill looming over us.

A few weeks in, the boss had no idea of my situation, we didn’t share it with anyone in the company, but the owner walked up to me and handed me a wad of cash and told me to put it in my pocket. it was $800.

No longer did i have to work in a panic trying to achieve something and survival, now i worked in thankfulness, enjoying the work that I did. The work was not something that was an absolute necessity lest we die, it was something that i could now enjoy and find fulfillment in.

This is Jesus’s work for us. We might feel like we are striving and trying to get everything right, but we don’t have to, and we can’t. We will never work out way out of the debt we owe of sin before God. But Jesus has paid that debt on the cross. We must embrace the wonderful grace of Jesus, that completes what we could not, he pays the debt we owe, and accomplishes what we never could. Now we work in thankfulness and live out God’s law in our lives.

I hope that you will with me embrace the Gospel as our hope in this life and the one to come.

If you are not a follower of Jesus yet, come and talk to us after the service.

If you are a believer, let the Gospel fuel your worship and love for God in your actions this week.

We acknowledge our sin that is ever present before God and realize that we can’t keep up the legalistic standards of the Old Testament. We need someone to step in for us and fulfill what we could not.

Jesus does that. Jesus comes to make a way for us. Jesus comes to fulfill what we could not. And now we get to join him in Kingdom living.

Romans 10:4

Romans 8:1-4

Psalm 51:16-17

Gal 5:1-6

Rom 7:1-6

Rom 10:4

Gal 3:24-25

Acts 11:2-10