KINGDOM RIGHTEOUSNESS (2)

Matthew 5:1-20

“For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:20, HCSB) “Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won’t know the first thing about entering the kingdom.” (Matthew 5:20, The Message)

Pharisees “love and protect their traditions with their lives. They build massive systems and programs, like sets for a musical, that unnecessarily burdened God’s people — and that hid what’s really happening inside of them.”[1]

[1] https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/the-making-of-a-modern-pharisee, Marshal Segal, accesed on 2/12/21.

a). the kingdom of heaven IS ACCESSIBLE

b). these characteristics are unattainable on our own

““Follow Me,” He told them, “and I will make you fish for people!”” (Matthew 4:19, HCSB).

Becoming like Christ is what God does in us, not what we do. God is the active agent; we are the recipient. The spiritual transformation is God’s work. What is our work then? Does God do all the work and we just sit around in life’s hot tub, lazily waiting? No, we have work to do as well, it just isn’t trying to become like Christ. It is equally hard work, perhaps more difficult than the attempt to be like Jesus. Having died to our false self, our flesh, God now performs his resurrection miracle in us. We are now in a posture to be resurrected by the power of God into the freedom of life in God. It’s not about shirking responsibility, it is about a clear division of labor. Our job: die to false self. God’s job: transform us into the likeness of Christ.[1]

[1] Cuss, Steve. Managing Leadership Anxiety (p. 31). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.

c). This righteousness is costly.

2. Matt 5:13-16

First, salt. In Jesus’ day salt played three primary functions. It was a preservative as well as a flavoring. Salt was also used to kill vegetation and weeds.

Second, light. Most homes in Jesus’ era were built around a central courtyard which was where cooking was done. Most rooms had at best small windows primarily for ventilation. Most living was done outside but when weather forced people indoors light – fueled by olive oil – were important.

3. Matt 5:17-20

a). God’s Word is eternal

I hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen; that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will bear arms on behalf of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform noncombatant service in the Armed Forces of the United States when required by the law; that I will perform work of national importance under civilian direction when required by the law; and that I take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; so help me God.

““Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4–5, HCSB)

b). God’s Word is eternal

The Word of God does not go in and out of fashion. His Word is the same today as it was yesterday and as it will be tomorrow. Jesus’ teaching in no way negates anything in the Law and Prophets.

c). God’s Word finds its completion in Jesus Christ

The obedience God seeks, the pattern of life God desires is found only as Jesus becomes alive in and through us. The righteousness God demands is perfectly met in Jesus the sinless One whose self-sacrificing death atones for the sin of all who believe.

[Jesus] is totally against the externalism induced by the enormous legislative superstructure which the scribes and Pharisees had erected as ‘a fence for the law’. Much of this legalism was contained in oral pronouncements, readily memorized in middle-eastern lands where writing was not very common … In the third century ad some of it was codified in the Mishnah, which runs to some 800 pages (in English). Then commentaries emerged, to explain the Mishnah. These were known as talmuds. There are twelve printed volumes of the Jerusalem Talmud and sixty of the Babylonian Talmud! … Broad principles of the law, such as keeping the Sabbath holy, were encrusted with a thousand rules and regulations which must have cowed the spirit of the normal Israelite. Glancing, for example at Shabbath 3–6 in the Mishnah we note that a new lamp can be moved from one place to another on the Sabbath, but not an old one; hot food may be kept warm by covering with clothes, feathers or dried flax, but not by covering with damp herbs or straw—which could engender fresh heat (and thus ‘work’) on the Sabbath day … and so forth.[1]

[1] Green, M. (2001). The message of Matthew: the kingdom of heaven (p. 93). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Every church has an equivalent to the Jewish Mishnah and Talmud’s. Most of them aren’t written but rather silently enforced. When newcomers enter they are often confused and uncertain because they haven’t been read into the ‘correct’ dress and behavior codes.

According to Jesus to experience the kingdom of God there needs to be a radical change – not of external behavior but of internal ways of thinking and living! Real righteousness cannot be defined or described by thousands of pages of regulations. Real righteousness is a gift – receiving the gift of Jesus’ life – the One who lived perfectly obedient to God; the One whose death satisfies God’s demand for a penalty for sin; the One whose resurrection promises new life – a life granted by the in-dwelling Holy Spirit!