How Shall We Live 3

Matthew 5:20 ESV

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

Matthew 5:48 ESV

48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Intro:

Over the past few weeks we have looks at how the disciples of Jesus are to live. In our last week we looked at the claim that christ is not coming to change or do away with the Law and Prophets but rather he has come to fulfill the,

Matthew 5:17–20 ESV

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. 19 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. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus Himself uphold the law and the prophets as something good that has been delivered to us in order

Romans 7:7 ESV

7 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”

The Law has told us Gods standard and what we have seen in out text is that there is a call to. Jesus does not relax the law to his people rather he provides clarity as to the intent of the law

What we are going to see in the text is that the law shapes and motivate our hearts mind and attitudes rather then our actions. Additionally While Jesus does not just create a list of what people must do to get into the kingdom he shapes who a person must be.

Jesus does this by a bunch of You have heard it said Statements

What he does with this is contrasting the improper legalist interpretation of the OT with a proper christ centred approach to interpreting his word. Jesus is not correcting the OT but helping people with their misinterpretation

You have heard that the law covers this but I tell you that it goes deeper then you though

Anger

Matthew 5:21–22 ESV

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 22 But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Jesus hear cites

Exodus 20:13 ESV

13 “You shall not murder.

However the heart behind murder is anger and states that anyone who is angry, insulting, calls some a rude name deserves hell.

The heart is what the lord is concerned with not the measure of Law keeping. Jesus is speaking against how the Pharisees interpret the law legalistically and goes beyond by expressing the heart of kingdom rather then the actions.

With this do not hear me say that this is only Jesus comparing saying rude or mean words to murder and that these should be avoided that would also be legalistic. Rather the call is the bring our thoughts and our about other people into submission to being transformed by God as the lord has intended our voices for the edification of the church not the murder of others

Within this section there is an injunction to be quick to forgive and to reconcile those who we have wronged and been wronged by

If God is going to punish anger and sees it as murder how can we his people worship him with unsettled beef?

Lust

Matthew 5:27–30 ESV

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Jesus Cites

Exodus 20:14 ESV

14 “You shall not commit adultery.

Adultery Most simply put is: Engaging in sexual activity outside the bounds of a marriage relationship.

Generally speaking this in the bible involves an affair as if a married person sleeps with someone outside of the that covenant

Jesus takes this even farther not just to say dont have sex outside of the covenant but any form of lust

Only fans, Porn, Instagram, Fantasies, Smut, sexually driven films, Bridgeton, fantasy about person, emotional lust of what this person could give me.

Jesus calls our sexual passions to be called in to order. no where in the text does it suggest that sexuality is a bad thing. However miss placed desire lead to sinfulness which is liable to hell.

We are called to take this so seriously that we are to cut off hands and pull out eyes. The trap of satan is set our call is the resist to a sacrificial level

Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary (b) Adultery (5:27–30)

self-mutilation is not to be taken literally, but indicates that the avoidance of temptation may involve drastic sacrifices (the right hand is the more valuable), which may include the severing of relationships or the renunciation of favourite activities

Marriage

Oaths

Matthew 5:33–35 ESV

33 “Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ 34 But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

The call hear is not about making objective statements but rather the character of a believer

We as the people of God live in an honest and pure fashion.

Matthew 5:37 ESV

37 Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

We are not doubled tongue we do not say one thing and mean another we earnestly mean what we say we dont need to appeal to god to back us up we simply are honest and pure in our speech

Love

Matthew 5:43–47 ESV

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Our love is not simply defined by caring for those who we love but in loving those whom it is difficult.

Increasingly more we are seeing the rise of hate for the other. We ourselves maybe feeling the same pressure and force coming down on us. There is much hate in our world and persecution however I believe that the church must look at it self and see if we are complicit in this hatred. are we loving the other? are we building up the kingdom? how do we respond to a world turned against us ?

My guess is that many of us act in rebellion the words of Christ and his call to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors.

there is an imperative in this call. We are not suggested to pray for those but called directly to do so in order that we maybe called Gods children. In other words. Gods Children must love enemies and pray for their persecutors to be called his children.

Matthew 5:46–47 ESV

46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Are we to show partiality. no

What witness is this ?

Perfection

Matthew 5:48 ESV

48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus Him self says

in the context of our text we are instructed that our righteousness must exceed that of the pharisees who keep the law to the T.

What Jesus is calling us to is impossible. according to this text i am murderer, adulterer, un loving liar. I dont read this text and see my perfection and im pretty sure you don’t either.

However the standard set for the kingdom of God is a perfect righteousness, Perfection is the standard we need to be perfect.

This verse creates a summary of all that has come before. this impossible standard of the law in which could never save us is fulfilled and completed in the person and work of Jesus

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Perfect obedience to the law is the standard for the kingdom. However not one of us is able to me this, as we see clearly in our text we are called to be perfect as Christ is.

A standard we can never reach, however by surrender not to the law but in obedience to the one who wrote it on our hearts, the one who perfected it, the one who speaks a better word and calls us to follow him not the law.