Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Matthew 5:17-21

Theme: The Law of God is uncompromising and eternal, and men are utterly incapable fulfilling it which dooms us to judgment.

Jesus, however, perfectly fulfilled it and by our faith in him God imputes his righteousness to us.

““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.”

(Matthew 5:17–20, ESV)

The passage is “hard” because other places in the Bible seem to contradict what Jesus here says.

The Apostle Paul writes in his letter to the Church at Rome, “For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.”

(Romans 10:4, ESV).

If Christ is the end of the law how can Jesus say that until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot (jot and tittle in the KJV) shall pass away?

It’s not just verses 18 that’s “hard” — it’s the entire passage.

1st, the Pharisees where convinced that Jesus was doing exactly what he claims should not be done, i.e. relaxing the commandments.

2nd, the Pharisees where convinced that they were doing exactly what Jesus claims should be done, i.e. those who teach the commandments will be called great in the kingdom.

3rd, The scribes and Pharisees were, in the eyes of the common people, paragons of moral and ethical virtue.

How in the world can anyone exceed their righteousness?

These are the issue with the text before us.

The text teaches us that the Bible can be absolutely trusted

The text teaches us that the Bible is all about Jesus

The text teaches us that the Bible calls us to a changed life

I.

THE BIBLE CAN BE ABSOLUTELY TRUSTED

“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.”

(Matt.

5:18, ESV)

1. Jesus was regularly criticized by the scribes and Pharisees for not keeping the Law of Moses

a. they accused him of breaking Sabbath-day laws on multiple occasions

1) they had created an elaborate hedge around the Law in an attempt to keep people from getting too close to the Law, and thus breaking it

ILLUS.

An illustration from our day would be a prohibition against the use of alcoholic beverages.

Not only should a “good Baptist” not use “adult beverages” but a good Baptist would not even darken the door of a place that served such beverages.

It’s not just sinful to drink alcoholic beverages, but it’s sinful to patronize a place that does because you might be tempted.

This was the logic of the Pharisees.

They called building a hedge around the Law.

b. so in their eyes Jesus was a Sabbath breaker ... he was a “sinner” because he ate with tax collectors ... he and the disciples didn’t follow the Pharisee’s hand-washing rituals ... and they regularly accused him of blaspheme

2. on the other hand, Jesus regularly criticized the scribes and Pharisees for laying a heavy burden on the people through their very strict application of the Law

““The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do.

For they preach, but do not practice.

4 They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.”

(Matthew 23:2–4, ESV)

a. what Jesus criticized was their interpretation of the Law

1) it was the Pharisees’ hedge of protection that they had erected around the Law that Jesus was critical of

2) it was the heavy burden the Pharisees insisted the people carry

A. THE LAW IS GOD’S PERFECT EXPRESSION OF HIS WILL FOR MAN

1. that will can be explained in one word — holiness

a. that holiness has two aspects to it

1) 1st, God’s people are to be set apart from the world — in it, but not of it — this is the negative aspect of holiness

a) as we all know, to live set apart from one’s culture is always easier said then done

b) weather it is the Egyptian culture’s influence on the Hebrews, or the American culture’s influence on the Christian, immunity from a culture’s world view is difficult live out

2) 2nd, God’s people are to live righteously — living in a way that honors God — this is the positive aspect of holiness

a) we are to be wholly devoted to Him

b. this is not only an Old Testament truth, but a New Testament truth

“even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love” (Ephesians 1:4, ESV)

2. our holiness was never meant to be a matter-of-fact legalism, but that is exactly what happened in Jewish culture, and it can happen to believers if we are not constantly on guard against it

a.

God’s will for humanity — a perfect holiness — is eternal and unchangeable

1) Jesus did not come to modify it, but to fulfill it

b. he set the standard for obedience to it — to the point that he was without sin — never having broken the Law in fact or in spirit

3. the question is this: Is Jesus telling his disciples that the Law is still in force?

a. yes, that is exactly what he is say ... it is still in force, and not the least part of it will pass from the Law until all is accomplished

b. that’s the key and we will get there in later

B. THE SCRIPTURES CAN BE FULLY TRUSTED AS GOD’S REVEALED WILL

1. Jesus tells his listeners that not an iota or a dot will disappear from the Law and the Prophets

a. it’s his way of referring to the entirety of the Jewish Scriptures

1) we call it the Old Testament, and the Jews call it the Tanakh

2. Jesus uses two terms that gives us some insight into his theology of the Scriptures

a. most modern translations say, not an iota or a dot will pass from the Law

1) the KJV says jot or tittle

2) what is Jesus talking about?

b. the jot is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet

1) it is called a yod and looks like a single apostrophe

2) the iota is the smallest letter in the Greek alphabet and corresponds to the English lower case letter “i”

a) since the New Testament was written in Greek, that’s why we read it as iota

c. the English word tittle comes from a Hebrew word meaning horn or hook, and was not a letter, but a small ornamental stroke of the pen that distinguished one Hebrew letter from another

1) in the English alphabet think of the difference between a capital “O” and a capital “Q”

a) the difference is a single simple pen stroke and it’s called a tittle

3) or consider the difference between a lowercase “q” or a lowercase “g”

a) if the hook goes to the right it’s a “q” if to the left it’s a “g”

4) tittles also refer to the superscript dots over the lower case English letters “i” and “j”

5) so technically “dots and dashes” were originally referred to as tittles

ILLUS.

Most of us grew up hearing the instruction in English class, “Don’t forget to dot your “i”s.

Shakespeare would have instructed us to “Don’t forget to tittle your “i”s.

d.

OK, so why the grammar lesson?

3. what Jesus is saying is that not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of the pen will disappear from the Scriptures

a. it’s Jesus way of saying that the Old Testament is completely trustworthy, even to the smallest detail

b. there are three conclusions we can draw about the Scriptures from Matthew 5:18-19

4. 1st, the Scriptures are inspired

a. twice Jesus says that nothing in the Scriptures will disappear or pass away

1) heaven and earth will disappear before the truth of the Scriptures do

b. the Word of God is more enduring than nature

1) it means that the Scriptures are not a natural product

ILLUS.

Over the years I’ve heard people (including some Christians) say, “The Bible is a great book, but it’s just a human book.

It’s inspired, but it’s only as inspired as was Shakespeare or Robert Frost of J. K. Rowling.”

c. Jesus didn’t leave us that option

1) Jesus says that the Scriptures transcend heaven and earth