Sermon Tone Analysis

“Doing Good Doesn’t Make You Good”

Welcome

Introduction

Treadmill illustration

“Trying so hard, yet getting nowhere.”

Byung-Chul Han, a prominent German philosopher, attributes our fatigued society to what he calls “a culture of positivity.”

“He suggests that the reason why we so often feel exhausted and fatigued is because we are surrounded by a culture of positivity.

At work, watching TV at home or surfing the web, we are inundated by not-so-subtle messages of what we can do.

Han quotes the example of the “Yes We Can” slogan from the Obama campaign.

“Yes We Can” exudes positivity by suggesting that all we need to do is try harder and that there may be no limits to what we could achieve.”

In my own walk with God, I’ve seen that principle at work so often as it relates to sin.

To echo Paul, “I do what I don’t want to do and don’t do what I want to do.

I don’t do the good I want, but the evil I don’t want, I keep on doing.”

No matter how hard I try, sin is with me.

A tired Christianity

We feel like we’ve got to measure up.

We feel like we have to do everything right in order for God to love and accept us.

We only feel loved so long as we can perform.

No matter how hard I try, sin is with me.

I’m not sure how you go about coping with the fact that you, in your default, natural position are a sinner.

How about you?

How do you cope with the fact that you, in your default, natural position are a sinner.

Maybe you find yourself beaten and battered by the ever-present reality that you are not the way you’re supposed to be.

You spend your days trying to fix yourself.

You believe that all of your inadequacies can be cured with a little more effort, some extra safeguards, a change of scenery, and some new habits.

Or maybe you find yourself caught in this cycle of always trying to put the best foot forward.

You highlight all of your strengths but hide all of your weaknesses.

You rationalize your struggles away and minimize your sins, as you try to convince others that you’re not that bad.

More often than we’d like to admit, we approach sin with a fight or flight mentality.

Either we believe that we can fix our heart issues or we do everything we can to cover them up.

If you find yourself in either one of those camps, we’ve got a very good message for you - a message of grace, hope, and freedom.

If you find yourself in either one of those camps, we’ve got a very good message for you - a message of grace, hope, and freedom.

If you have your Bibles, please turn with me to .

In our passage this morning, Jesus refutes the idea that he came to do away with the Law.

He declares the longevity and the goodness of the Law.

Nevertheless, he decries its inability to save.

As we study this morning’s text together, I want to impress upon you one truth, one liberating message - that is, doing good doesn’t make you good.

Reading

Prayer

Prayer

MIT: “Doing good doesn’t make you good.”

Exposition

Background

This morning’s text lies at the very heart of the Sermon on the Mount.

For those familiar with Jesus’ sermon, you know that here he’s teaching his followers on the character of the Kingdom - that is, how to live with God as King.

Throughout the sermon, Jesus repeatedly contrasts two types of people.

We see this more clearly in Luke’s account of the sermon in , where Jesus issues a woe for every blessed.

Blessed are the poor… Woe to you who are rich

Blessed are the hungry… Woe to you who are full.

In Matthew’s Gospel, the contrast is more subtle.

Here, Jesus condemns the self-righteous, hypocritical, and externally religious.

He speaks against those who were very good at making themselves look good, but could not keep the law.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets

Throughout his ministry, Jesus encountered 2 types of people: those who wanted him to set aside the Law and those who accused him of setting aside the law.

There were some who knew they could not keep up with the Law’s demands and would have loved for Jesus to have set aside the Law.

And there were those who despised Jesus and often accused him of violating the law.

Jesus, however, rejects that idea, when he says I have not come to abolish but to fulfill.

In order to understand this passage properly, it’s important to recognize the difference between these two words, abolish and fulfill.

Abolish literally means to tear down, annul, or destroy.

Figuratively, it carries the idea of “setting aside.”

So Jesus says, I have not come to set aside the Law, as though it were void.

Instead, Jesus says he has come to fulfill the Law.

The word, πληρόω, means to fill up what is lacking in something, or to complete that thing.

It’s not the completion of a task, but rather it’s that Tom Cruise, Renee Zellweger in Jerry Maguire “You complete me” type of completion.

Let me illustrate the difference.

Glass of water illustration.

Imagine we were sitting in a restaurant and I asked the waiter, “Could you fill my glass?”

He then begins to fill my glass with water.

I say, “All the way to the top, please.”

And so he fills the glass all the way to the top with water.

Imagine, once he’s finished filling the glass to the full, I say to him, “Take the glass away.

I don’t want the glass.

It’s of no value anymore.”

How insane would that be?

Take the glass away.

I don’t want the glass anymore.

It’s of no value anymore.

When Jesus said he came to fulfill the law, he was saying that he was filling up what was lacking in the Law.

He was bringing about what the Law sought to accomplish.

How crazy insane would that be?

In order to understand what Jesus meant when he says he has come to fulfill the Law, we need to understand the ways in which the Law was lacking.

Before God gave the Law to Israel, he said, “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.

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,’ ().

You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how vI 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 wmy treasured possession among all peoples, for xall the earth is mine; 6 and you shall be to me a ykingdom of priests and za holy nation.’

God gave the Law to Israel, to show them how to live as the people of God.

They were to be a kingdom of priests, a holy nation.

They were to obey God and, through their obedience, serve as a living apologetic for who God is and what He wants for a world that does not know him.

Yet, immediately after God gives the Law, we see Israel’s gross idolatry.

In response, God gave Israel more laws to obey.

If you continue throughout what the Jews call the Torah, what we call the Pentateuch - that is, the first five books of the Bible - you will see this cycle of law-giving and law-breaking and more law-giving, and more law-breaking.

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The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

This is perhaps why Paul says in :

The Law makes us aware of our sin, but it can never help us fix our sin.

The same sentiment is echoed toward the end of Deuteronomy.