The Sermon on the mount

King's principles

We started with the Beatitudes teaching us what true righteousness was, Beatitudes towards ourselves and sin and toward the Lord.

Last Sunday we were challenged to be the Salt and Light of the world and our attitude towards the world.

Matthew 5:17–20 (NIV)

“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. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

How true righteousness comes

Certainly, after the crowd heard our Lord's description of the kind of person God blesses, they said to themselves,

“But we could never attend that kind of character. can we have this righteousness? where does it come from?”.

They wondered how his teaching related to what they had been taught their entire lives.

what about Moses and the law?

In the law of Moses, God certainly revealed his standards for holy living.

The Pharisees defended the law and sought to obey it.

But Jesus said that the true righteousness that pleases God must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees.

To the common people, the scribes and Pharisees were the holiest men in the community! If they had not attained, what Hope was there for anyone else?

Jesus explained his own attitude towards the law by describing three possible relationships.

WE CAN SEEK TO DESTROY THE LAW (V.17A)

Matthew 5:17 NIV

“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.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;

The Pharisees thought Jesus was doing this.

To begin with, his authority did not come from any of the recognized leaders or schools.

Instead of teaching” from Authority'' as did the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus taught with authority.

Not only in his authority but also in his activity, Jesus seemed to defy the law.

He deliberately healed people on the Sabbath day and paid no attention to the traditions of the Pharisees.

Our Lord's associations also seemed contrary to the law, for He was the friend of publicans and sinners.

Yet, it was the Pharisees who were destroying the law!

By their traditions, they robbed the people of the word of God; and by their hypocritical lives, they disobeyed the very law that they claimed to protect.

The Pharisees thought they were conserving God's word when in reality they were preserving God's word; embalming it so that it no longer had life!

Their rejection of Christ when he came to the Earth proved that the inner truth of the law had not penetrated their hearts.

Jesus made it clear that he had come to Honor the law and help God's people love it, learn it, and live it.

He would not accept the artificial righteousness of the religious leaders.

Their righteousness was only an external masquerade.

Their religion was a dead ritual, not a living relationship.

It was artificial; it did not reproduce itself in others in a living way.

It made them proud, not humble; it led to bondage, Not freedom.

WE CAN SEEK TO FULFILL THE LAW (V.17B)

17b … I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

Jesus Christ fulfilled God's law in every area of his life.

He fulfilled it at his birth because he was “made under the law”

Galatians 4:4 NIV

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

5 To redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

Every prescribed ritual for a Jewish boy was performed on him by his parents. He certainly fulfilled the law in his life.

For nobody was ever able to accuse him of sin.

while He did not submit to the traditions of the scribes and Pharisees, He always did what God commanded in the law.

The father was well pleased with his son

Matthew 3:17 NIV

And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Jesus also fulfilled the law in his teaching.

It was this that brought him into conflict with the religious leaders. When he began his ministry, Jesus found the Living Word of God encrusted with man-made traditions.

He broke away the thick crust of religion and brought the people back to God's word.

He opened the word to them in a New and Living Way -

They were accustomed to the “letter” of the Law and not the inner “kernel” of life.

But it was in his death and resurrection that Jesus especially fulfilled the law.

He bore the curse above the law

Galatians 3:13 NIV

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole.”

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”—

He fulfilled the Old Testament types and ceremonies so that they no longer are required of the people of God. Hebrews 9 and 10

he set aside the old Covenant and brought in the New Covenant.

Jesus did not destroy the law by fighting it; He destroyed it by fulfilling it.

perhaps an illustration will make this clear. I can put it on the rock and smash it in bits with a hammer. or I can plant it in the ground and let it fulfilled Itself by becoming oak tree.

when Jesus died, she rept the Veil up the tempo open the way into the holiest

Hebrews 10:19 NIV

Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,

he broke down the wall that separated the Jews and the Gentiles

Ephesians 2:11–13 NIV

Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision” (which is done in the body by human hands)—remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Because the law was fulfilled in Christ, we no longer need temples made by hands or religious rituals.

Acts 7:48 NIV

“However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says:

Colossians 2:10–13 NIV

and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,

How can we fulfill the law?

By yielding to the Holy Spirit And allowing him to work in our lives

Romans 8:1–3 NIV

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh,

the holy spirit enables us to experience the righteousness of the law in daily life.

This does not mean we live sinlessly perfect lives, but it does mean that Christ lives out His life through us by the power of His spirit. Galatians 2:20

Galatians 2:20 NIV

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

When we read the Beatitudes, we see the perfect character of Jesus Christ.

While Jesus never had to mourn over his sins, since he was sinless.

He was still a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief.

Isaiah 53:3 NIV

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

He never had to hunger and thirst after righteousness since he was the Holy Son of God.

But he did Delight in the father's will and find his sanctification in doing it

John 4:34 NIV

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

the only way we can experience the righteousness of the Beatitudes is through the power of Christ.

WE CAN SEEK TO DO AND TEACH THE LAW V19

This does not mean we major in the Old Testament and ignores the new. 2nd Corinthians 3 makes it clear that ours is a ministry of the New Covenant.

2 Corinthians 3 :1-3(NIV)

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, like some people, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everyone. You show that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

But there is a proper Ministry of the law. 1st Timothy 1:9.

1 Timothy 1:9 NIV

We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers,

that is not contrary to the Glorious message of God's grace

Jesus wants us to know more of the righteousness of God, obey it, and share it with others.

The moral law of God has not changed. Nine of the Ten Commandments are repeated in the New Testament the pistols and commended to believers.

The exception of the Sabbath commandment, which was given as a sign to Israel in

Nehemiah 9:14 NIV

You made known to them your holy Sabbath and gave them commands, decrees and laws through your servant Moses.

We do not obey an external law because of fear.

No, Believers today obey internal law and live it because of love.

The Holy Spirit teaches us the word and enables us to obey.

Sin is still sin, and God still punishes sin.

In fact we in this present age are more responsible because we have been taught and given more.