Way of the King - Fulfilling the Law (Matthew 5:17-20)

Introduction

REVIEW

Children can be released

Turn with me to Matthew Chapter 5

Continue in our series through the sermon on the mount

Jesus describing the kingdom of God that is being established and what is means for us to surrender to his lordship as disciples/citizens of his kingdom.

Previously

The Flourish in the Kingdom

Salt & Light of the Kingdom

Today: Demands of the Kingdom

Jesus is driving deeper and deeper into our heart...

Blessed are those who...

Blessed are you...

You are...

Unless your righteousness...

CONNECTION

As we come face to face with Jesus teaching - we often respond in one of two ways:

Religious | Rule Followers - tell me what I have to do and I’ll do it. I’ll get it done.

Irreligious | Rule Breakers - Let’s loosen up a big and have some fun, it’s not the end of the world. Don’t be out of control bad but don’t go all radical on me.

Today’s passage is going to wreck both of these perspectives

But open the door for something completely different.

PASSAGE

Stand to read and recite

PRAY

TRANSFORMED THINKING

WHO WE WANT JESUS TO BE?

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law?”

Why did Jesus say this?

What do you imagine people were thinking?”

Jesus is going to abolish the Law.

Many thought that when the Messiah came he would bring a new Law as part of the New Covenant prophesied back in . But people thought about these promises differently, including the disciples who are nw sitting at Jesus’ feet.

Not only did they view religious practices differently, they are also on completely opposite sides politically - and this had tremendous implications when it came to the topic of the Kingdom of God, because Israel was under Roman occupation.

ROMAN OCCUPATION

About 60 - 70 years before Jesus, the Jews had a civil war and two brothers claimed rights to the throne. One of these sons paid Rome tons of silver (8), and nearly a ton of gold.

Rome came in a took over. Herod was made King and then later Ceasar Augustus.

When Jesus was about 12 years old - Ceasar Augustus died and the region around Galilee was known for zealots and false Messiahs.

At that time, 3 Messianic uprisings broke out simultaneously and one of them captured the palace of a town just 4 miles away from Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown.

The Roman army came in a destroyed the Zealots, crucifying 2,000 of them. The leader was thrown into the Sea of Galilee with a stone around his neck.

TWO GROUPS OF PEOPLE

Zealots

Overthrow the Romans for an independent Israel

About the Law with exactness to usher in the true Messiah who will defeat Rome and establish a new and free Israel.

Zealots and Pharisees

records the names of all 12 disciples, including, Simon the Zealot - to differentiate him from Simon Peter.

Survivors

They are just trying to make a living

They want to get on Rome’s good side so they can take care of their families.

The Sadducees cozied up to the Romans and they made an agreement - the Sadducees would help keep people in line and the Romans would keep the Sadducees in religious power by appointing the high priest from their group.

This also included people like Matthew the Tax Collector.

He was personally profiting off the Roman occupation. - Rome wanted a fixed amount - Matthew could demand whatever he wanted and whatever he collected beyond Rome’s request, he could keep for himself.

What’s worse, as a Jew, he joined with the occupiers in the oppression of his own people.

IMAGINE

Our politically charged environment but mix into that us being on the losing side a war that now has us under military occupation

Add to that - different views of God’s Law as some use it for power (Sadducees) and others try to obey perfectly to initiate the Kingdom of God.

WHO JESUS DECLARES HIMSELF TO BE

“For truly I say you, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law.... (eternal)

Simon’s reaction - AMEN

“Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments...”

OK, OK, he’s pretty serious

ABOLISH THE LAW - Revolutionary?

EVERY LITTLE DEATIL STAYS

RADICAL REQUIREMENTS

RIGHTESOUSNESS DEMANDED

“I have not come to abolish the law or the prophets” (The whole of the Old testament)

“For truly I say you, not an iota, not a dot will pass from the law.... (eternal)

Simon’s reaction - AMEN

“Till pigs fly...” - until heaven and earth pass way

Think about dotting your “i” and crossing your “t” - not an iota...

OK, OK, he’s pretty serious

LOOSEN THE BINDS

“Therefore, whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments...”

Simon the Zealot, “OK, OK, he’s pretty serious...”

Jewish Perspective

613 Laws | 248 Do’s & 365 Do Not’s (Judaism 101 webpage)

Yes - offer sacrifices

Does it really matter if we destroy a fruit tree? or to eat the fruit of a fruit tree for the first 3 years after it was planted?

Our Perspective

Bad Sins

Homosexuality

Adultery - “It’s not like I’m sleeping with another person’s spouse...”

Murder - “it’s not like I’ve killed anybody”

Permissible | The Sins We Tolerate

ungodliness - “living one’s everyday life with little to no though of God, or God’s will, or God’s Glory” Jerry Bridges

Discontentment

Pride

Self-Control - concerning food, money, netflix

Judgmentalism, envy, slander

DEEPEN THE PRESSURE

“Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments...”

Literally means to ‘loosen’

It’s as if the demands of the are binding our hands together.

We wiggle and twist to try and loosen the grip but the ropes become tighter and tighter

“But whoever does them… teaches them… great in Kingdom”

“For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

CRUSHING DEMAND OF PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS LEADS TO DESPAIR

“For I tell you...”

“Righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees”

I imagine Simon the Zealot looking down in defeat

Who is more righteous that Pharisees. They are the professional followers of the Law. Day and night that is their one aim.

It’s like saying, “if you don’t play basketball better than the players in the NBA you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

It’s absurb.

Matthew, the tax collector looking up in astonishment

Then who can be saved.

Not only is he guilty, but everyone is guilty.

Jesus continues to drive the point home

He says murder is more than the act of killing someone but also hating them in your heart

Adultery is more than sleeping with someone outside of marriage but it is imagining having sex with someone who is not your spouse.

Again and again Jesus is going to drive the demand of righteousness deeper and deeper into our hearts.

Until finally he will conclude, “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

With the statement, you hear the sound of the hammer driving the final nail into our rebellious hearts.

DESPAIR

I don’t want to move too quickly away from this point.

Do you feel the desperation of a starving beggar pleading for a morsel of hope

Blessed are the poor in spirit...

Blessed are those who mourn

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness

REQUIREMENTS FULFILLED

AUTHORITY

The words of Jesus then begin to repeat in your mind...

Do not think… abolish the law

I did no come to abolish them but to FULFILL them.

For truly… until heaven and earth… UNTIL ALL IS ACCOMPLISHED.

Who is this man and why doesn’t he talk like the other Rabbis?

“No scribe or rabbi had ever spoken like this. They typically spoke in the second or third person. Rabbi Abin said in the name of Rabbi Elai in Rabbi Jocab’s name...”

Jesus said:

Truly, I say to you...

For I tell you...

…but I say to you...

What did Jesus mean...

The fulfillment and accomplished was still in the future when Jesus preached this sermon but came to completion throughout the life Jesus, at the valley of his death, and the climax of his resurrection.

Of Greater importance than Israel’s bondage to Rome was all people’s bondage to sin.

Greater bondage than Rome was the bondage of our hearts enslavement to sin.

ROMANS 8:1-4

“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”

How, how could this be possible?

This man who spoke with greater authority than anyone else?

(3a) “For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do...”

God’s Law could convict of sin but it did not have the power to heal our hearts from sin

tells us

The Law cannot give us life but we become prisoners sin

The Law is like a guard or schoolmaster - showing us our sin so that we might look to Jesus.

“So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”

“So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.”

The Law did not have the power to save - only to convict of sin - it was necessary

This is why Jesus did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it.

(3b) “By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Jesus - God is flesh

Our sin place on Jesus

To relax any of the commands is to minimize Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross

As the nails pierced his hands and his feet… God’s judgement against all sin was placed on Jesus

He was perfect - the only man to every perfectly obey the Law was crush beneath the weight of our sin.

FULLFILLED

ACCOMPLISHED

Jesus cried out, “IT IS FINISHED!

This word in Greek also means to “fulfill or to accomplish.”

There’s more...

Jesus rose from the dead three days later

He ascended to heaven

He send his spirit to live within all his followers.

As prophecies hundreds of years prior - he turned our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh.

The spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you...

In the coming weeks

External obedience does not save

Internal heart change is demanded and possible because of Jesus.

CONCLUSION

Two Kinds of People

Rule Followers

Rule Breakers

Third Kind of Person

Cry out for mercy & receive it

Continue memorizing and meditating on the Beatitudes

Time of Solitude and Silence

Acknowledge where you try to relax God’s commands - Pretending

Acknowledge where you think your personal efforts make God owe you - performing

Ask for help - to rest in his mercy - and walk humble with God in his grace.