Kingdom Law: Christ and the Scriptures

Good and Gracious King

WELCOME

Good morning family! Welcome!

Hear the Word of the Lord from Psalm 119...

Your righteousness is righteous forever, and your law is true.

Trouble and anguish have found me out, but your commandments are my delight.

Have trouble and anguish found you out this past week?

Good news! The Psalmist found hope in the same place where you can find it: God’s Word.

In just a moment we’ll hear a reading from the text for today’s sermon in Matthew 5:17. Turn there now.

While you’re turning, 3 quick announcements:

1) A word about PBC. We are Missionaries.

We are not satisfied with the fact that we have heard and received the good news. We want others to know Him too!

Operation Christmas Child

Thank you for your help at the packing party on Friday night. You packed 242 shoeboxes!!!

Those boxes cost $9 to ship, so if you’d like to help contribute to that $2178 needed for shipping, please mark OCC on the memo of your check or envelope

Volunteers still needed for Collection Week on November 15-22 to help receive, process, and pack shoeboxes into cartons and load them into a trailer at the end of the day

2) Two of our missionaries will be with us this weekend...

Afghan workshop on 11/20

Preaching in the morning on 11/21

Missions report in the evening

3) Budget Report, tonight at 5:30 PM

Pick up your copy at the blue flag after the service

Now look in your Bibles at Matthew 5:17-20 as Elizabeth Wells comes to read for us.

Scripture Reading (Matthew 5:17-20), Elizabeth Wells

Prayer of Praise (God is Trinity)

His Mercy Is More

Great Are You Lord

Prayer of Confession (Ignorance), Joel Dowell

It Is Well

NEW CITY CATECHISM #46

PASTORAL PRAYER (Mike Lindell)

SERMON

According to art experts, the Mona Lisa is the most famous work of art in the entire world.

SHOW MONA LISA IMAGE

Painted by Leonard da Vinci around 1503, it’s been described as "the best known, the most visited, the most written about, the most sung about, the most parodied work of art in the world". [1]

Some have said that this is, in fact, the world’s most recognizable face. But whose face is it?

The most common theory is an Italian noblewoman named Lisa Gherardini del Giocondo

Other theories include...

Da Vinci’s mother Caterina

Princess Isabella of Naples

A Spanish noblewoman named Costanza d’Avalos

An unknown woman

A disguised self-portrait of da Vinci himself!

The best (and only) way to settle the debate would be to hear from da Vinci himself! Who better than the artist himself to tell us about his artwork?

Whenever Christians talk about the Bible, we invite debates far more fierce than anything related to the Mona Lisa.

The Bible is the best-selling, most translated, most read, most loved, and most hated book in the world

But what should we believe about it?

Is it simply a helpful book? Or is it the Word of God?

Is it reliable historically? Scientifically? Archaeologically?

Is it out of date? Is it dangerous? Is it true?

Where do we turn to find out what we should believe?

Pastor? Friends? Family? Internet? Politicians?

Who better to tell us what to think about the Bible than Jesus Himself?

Turn to Matthew 5:17

Sermon on the Mount

Jesus is preaching to His disciples about how to live righteously on this earth as citizens of the kingdom of heaven.

Kingdom character (Beatitudes)

Kingdom influence (salt/light)

Potential question: what do you believe about the Bible?

You’ll never meet someone with a higher view of Scripture than King Jesus.

Six truths Jesus believed about the Bible...

1) Jesus Believed the Bible is UNIQUE.

5:17a—“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets...”

Law and Prophets (17) or Law (18) = Common nicknames for the Old Testament

Explain Old Testament

The OT was not the only religious teaching available in Jesus’ day

There was also what was called the oral law

The Pharisees calculated 248 positive commands and 365 negative commands in the law.

There was often debate on how to interpret and obey these laws.

The Jews commonly believed that God gave Moses the answer in the oral law, which was passed down orally from generation to generation

Jesus isn’t defending the oral teachings and traditions of the Pharisees. He’s interested in what the Bible says.

In the next section of the sermon, Jesus tackles head-on the oral traditions of the Pharisees by saying “you’ve heard this, but I tell you this”

5:21—“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’”

5:27—“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’”

5:31—“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’”

5:33—“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.’”

5:38—“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’”

5:43—“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’”

But isn’t Jesus talking about Scripture and refuting it? No, He’s refuting erroneous misinterpretations of Scripture from the oral law!

Contrast those six instances with Jesus’ treatment of Scripture when He was tempted...

4:4—“...It is written...”

4:7—“...It is written...”

4:10—“...It is written...”

You’ll never meet someone with a higher view of Scripture than King Jesus. He believed the Bible is unique.

2) Jesus Believed the Bible is AUTHORITATIVE.

Some Bible teachers say Jesus, not the Bible is our ultimate authority.

“I follow Jesus, not the Bible”

“Jesus said all authority on heaven and earth is given to Me, not to some books”

But even though Jesus is a Messiah King with authority, He refuses to undermine the authority of the Bible!

5:17—“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.”

Abolish—to make invalid, to annul, to repeal a law

Jesus says 2x He did NOT come to abolish the Old Testament

Jesus cannot deny the Bible any more than He can deny Himself. He is God and the Scriptures are the Word of God.

Matthew 19:3-5—“And Pharisees came up to [Jesus] and tested Him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?”

Jesus grounds His beliefs about marriage in Moses’ words in Genesis 2:24

Look carefully: who does Jesus believe said those words?

“He who created them . . . said”

Jesus believed that Scripture has authority because God is the author of Scripture

To deny the authority of Scripture is to deny the authority of Jesus!!

Greatest temptation in this generation will be what we believe about sex, gender, and marriage.

Bill with the wrong diagnosis code, not paid by insurance. I couldn’t change the code, neither could the insurance biller. Only the doctor has the authority to change the diagnosis.

You’ll never meet someone with a higher view of Scripture than King Jesus. He believed the Bible is authoritative.

3) Jesus Believed the Bible is UNBREAKABLE.

In John 10:35, Jesus famously says that Scripture “cannot be broken”

Here He says the same thing, just a bit more indirectly...

5:18—“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.”

Iota:

Iota is the Greek letter “i.” The Hebrew equivalent is the letter yodh

It’s the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet

SHOW YAHWEH IMAGE

First letter in the spelling of Yahweh, the covenant name for God

Looks like a little apostrophe

Smallest letter in the Hebrew OT

Dot:

Sometimes translated “tittle” or “stroke”

Referring to the little hook at the end of a letter

Serif vs. sans-serif fonts

Jesus is saying “not even the smallest letter of the smallest stylistic stroke at the end of a letter is going to pass from the law until all of it is fulfilled.

Go to the end of your Bibles and you’ll find promises that have not yet been fully accomplished. Until that happens, God’s Word will not pass away.

The French philosopher Voltaire attempted to destroy the Bible, and even made the bold prediction that within 100 years the Bible would be nothing but a museum piece. But within 100 years, the very printing press upon which Voltaire had printed his literature, was being used to print copies of the Bible. And afterward, the very house where Voltaire once lived, was literally stacked with Bibles prepared by the Geneva Bible Society. [2]

"Hammer away, ye hostile hands; Your hammers break, God's anvil stands."

You’ll never meet someone with a higher view of Scripture than King Jesus. He believed the Bible is unbreakable.

4) Jesus Believed the Bible is NECESSARY.

How many of you need eyeglasses or contacts to see clearly? I’m so sorry for you, that must be horrible!

John Calvin said that spiritually speaking, all of us can see something about the existence of God by looking at the world He’s created. But it’s not enough. It’s fuzzy and unclear. To see clearly (not perfectly, but clearly) we need what Calvin called the “spectacles of Scripture.”

This is the doctrine of the necessity of Scripture. We cannot know God, ourselves, our need for a Savior, or the way to be saved apart from the Scriptures.

And Jesus believed that the Bible is necessary....

5:19—“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.

If you want to be great in the kingdom, even the least commandments must be known, obeyed, and taught to others!!!

In other words, you cannot grow up as a kingdom citizen unless you grow deeper into God’s Word.

Sometimes Bible people are made to feel guilty, as if we’re just a 21st century version of the religious people whom Jesus was constantly at odds with

But the problem of the religious people in Jesus’ day wasn’t that they were too preoccupied with Scripture. The problem was that they didn’t know Scripture enough!!!

In Matthew 12:3-5, the Pharisees are mad at Jesus’s disciples for plucking heads of grain on the Sabbath. This was a violation of the oral law. But when Jesus defended His disciples, He used the Scriptures to do it. He said to them twice, “have you not read?”

In Matthew 19:4, when the Pharisees asked Jesus about divorce, He took them again to the Scriptures and asked, “have you not read?”

In Matthew 21:16, when the chief priests and scribes heard little children praising Jesus, He took them to the Scriptures and asked, “have you not read?”

In Matthew 22:29-31, when the Sadducees asked Him about the resurrection, He asked them, He rebukes them for not knowing the Scriptures and once again asks them “have you not read?”

Read your Bible!

Read Mark, then Romans

Read through the NT

Read through the whole Bible

As you read it, strive to obey what you read.

Help others to read, understand, and follow the Bible!

“whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven”

Parents/grandparents

Older Christians

Baby Christians—find someone who knows less than you!!!

You’ll never meet someone with a higher view of Scripture than King Jesus. He believed the Bible is necessary.

5) Jesus Believed the Bible is SUFFICIENT.

May seem redundant to say the Bible is necessary and sufficient, but it’s not

Just because something is necessary doesn’t mean it’s sufficient. A good diet is necessary for a healthy lifestyle. That’s true. But a good diet isn’t sufficient for a healthy lifestyle. You can have a good diet and be unhealthy in other ways because although it’s necessary it’s not sufficient.

Church attendance is necessary for your spiritual health, but it’s not sufficient.

Sermons are necessary, but not sufficient for discipleship

When we say something is necessary we’re saying it’s something that you need. When we say something is sufficient we’re saying it’s all you need.

Kevin DeYoung — “To affirm the sufficiency of Scripture is not to suggest that the Bible tells us everything we want to know about everything, but it does tell us everything we need to know about what matters most.” [3]

Everything you need to know to become a Christian

Everything we need to know to be a faithful Christian

Everything we need to know to have faithful churches

Jesus believed that the Bible is sufficient.

5:20—For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

You must have a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and Pharisees to enter heaven

Notice the Word “FOR”

Go back—what is it “for”?

Verse 19, Jesus is talking about our need to obey and teach His Word

For, because, we need righteousness to enter God’s kingdom

Jesus is saying you and I will gain the practical righteousness we need by knowing, obeying, and teaching the Bible.

We don’t need some other book, some other teacher, some other information. We need God’s Word. And that’s all we need. Scripture is sufficient.

The Pharisee’s righteousness was insufficient because they didn’t believe the Scriptures were sufficient.

The Pharisees valued the Scriptures. But it was Scriptures + tradition. And anytime we put something else alongside the Scriptures (tradition, convictions, preferences, etc.) we are in danger of eventually denying the Scriptures altogether.

Matthew 15:1-3—“Then Pharisees and scribes came to Jesus from Jerusalem and said, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? For they do not wash their hands when they eat.” He answered them, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”

The righteousness Jesus wants you and I to have is...

internal and external (Pharisees were focused on only the external)

private and public (Pharisees were focused on only the public)

Obedience to Scripture, not Scripture + someone else’s traditions

Pharisee and tax collector (Luke 18)—the Pharisee boasted that he fasted 2x a week, something that was never commanded in the law but was commanded by the Pharisees

God-glorifying, not self-glorifying

Diminishing the sufficiency of Scripture will lead to a diminished righteousness

You’ll never meet someone with a higher view of Scripture than King Jesus. He believed the Bible is sufficient.

6) Jesus Believed the Bible is ABOUT HIM.

5:17b—“I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

Consider the staggering implications of this claim. Jesus is saying the entire OT is pointing to Him

John 5:39—“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me,”

Luke 24:27—“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”

But what does it mean that Jesus fulfills the whole OT?

He was born under the law

Galatians 4:4-5—“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

He had to be human to be subject to the law’s demands and the law’s penalties

He perfectly obeyed the law

1 John 3:4-5—“Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that [Jesus] appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin.”

Jesus never broke the Sabbath (although He did break some manmade Sabbath rules) He never dishonored His parents, never stole, never lusted, never hated, never lied, never coveted

He was sinless in His thoughts, His emotions, His actions, and His words

He never did the wrong thing, He never did the right thing for the wrong reason

And yet...

He was punished as a lawbreaker

Galatians 3:13—“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”

Because of our sins, we deserve all the curses of the law

The Old Testament requires the death penalty for murder, adultery, blasphemy, lying, disobeying or dishonoring your parents, and more

The curse of the law is even worse. It’s physical death and eternal separation from God.

Jesus absorbed that curse in our place by dying on a tree

What does that mean practically?

For the Christian, He is the end of the law’s condemnation

Romans 8:1—“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Christian, all the threats of the law have already been absorbed by Jesus on the cross in your place!!!

Because Jesus obeyed the law perfectly and paid the penalty for our obedience, if your faith is in Him, He completely transforms your relationship to the law...

For the Christian, He is the point of all the law’s symbols

The Bible is filled with symbolism that is pointing to something beyond itself

High priests, offerings, sacrifices, sabbaths, festivals, etc.

All of these were like signposts pointing us to Jesus!

Colossians 2:16-17—“Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”

The Apostle Paul, who was once a dedicated Sabbath-keeping, temple-sacrificing Jew, was so opposed to Christians returning to these symbols because you don’t go back to the sign once the substance has arrived!

Because Jesus obeyed the law perfectly and paid the penalty for our obedience, if your faith is in Him, He completely transforms your relationship to the law...

He gives the Christian power to obey the law in the Spirit

Romans 8:2-4—“For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. 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.”

Christian, with the Spirit’s help you can obey the true intent of God’s law

You can resist the sinful anger and hatred that violates the sixth commandment against murder

You can resist the temptations to lust and a low view of marriage that violate the seventh commandment against adultery

You can love your neighbor as yourself. And yes, that even includes your enemies.

There are many uncertainties in this life. There are many things we don’t know for sure, many things we can (and sometimes should) debate.

But we know what Jesus believed about the Bible. Are we willing to believe what He believed?

Unbeliever—repent and believe!

Christian—are you living like you believe?

Christian—are you obeying? are you teaching others?

To God Be the Glory

BENEDICTION (2 Peter 3:18)