Sermon Tone Analysis

Announcements

Are there any announcements?

Communion will be next week.

There will be a baptism and potluck in the month of October and this will be the beginning of potluck season.

If anyone is considering being baptized, please see Pastor John.

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to FCC, where we worship God in Spirit and in Truth, one verse at a time, one Book at a time.

We grateful that you have joined us today here in person and online as we make our way through the Greatest Sermon ever taught, by the Greatest Bible Teacher the Lord Jesus Christ himself.

But before we dive into the Word, I wanted to say thank you for your prayers, texts, emails, cards, and calls during this difficult season of life and a special thank you to Kevin and Brent for covering the pulpit in my absence.

Our father passed away on 9/8 and then one of my childhood friends who many of you know (Scott Fahey) passed away on 9/10.

But before they passed, I had Covid after retuning from Israel.

So thank you from the bottom of our hearts for everything!

We have come as far as Matthew 5:21, so let us open our Bibles there to see what nuggets the Lord has planned for us today.

Read Matthew 5:21-26

Prayer

Lord, thank you for the cross, thank you Jesus and your living Word.

There are many of us sitting here today that are in the midst of a difficult season of life, struggling in our relationships at home, with our children, and even at work.

Our finances are stretched, but even in the midst of it all Lord, we trust you, and we know that you are with us.

So please rain down nuggets from heaven today that will lift us out of the miry clay and make us more like You!

In Jesus Name, we Love You! Amen and Amen!!

Review

We are getting ready to look at several contrast with regards to the traditions that Rabbi’s of old were teaching and the Word of God.

And it is not accident that theses contrasts are set in the context of Jesus as the fulfillment of Exodus:

He is the Son of God called out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15), just like Israel.

2. He passes through the waters in baptism, just like Israel passed through the Red Sea when exiting Egypt.

3.

He is tested in the wilderness, like Israel was.

4, He expounds the Law of God in the mountainous region, like Moses, Ezra, Nehemiah, and the prophets did.

We ended at verse 20, the last time we met a few weeks ago, and I wanted to pick up there.

Can you imagine what Jesus’ listeners were thinking?

In the eyes of the people, the Scribes and Pharisees were the most righteous people around, they kept the letter of the law, at least they thought they did.

Therefore, everyone looked at them as being holy.

So I am confident that the people that were listening thought, that there is no my righteousness will exceed that of the religious leaders!!!

Guess what, they were right!

Church, Isaiah wrote:

Therefore, it is not our righteousness, but the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ that makes us righteous in the sight of God and even man.

This is not external righteousness only, but internal righteousness.

See the Pharisees and the religious folks of the day tried to keep the letter of the law by adding their traditions to the Law itself and although they looked good on the outside, inside they were full of dead men’s bones.

When Jesus showed up church, he said it is not only external adherence to the letter of the Law, but much more important to the Spirit of the Law which is internal and of the heart.

See, the bottom line is righteousness begins in the heart and flows out of the heart!

So over the next few weeks, we will be looking at several contrast or illustrations of how our righteousness can exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees.

And it no accident that these contrasts are set in the fulfillment of the Exodus:

Jesus is the Son of God, called out of Egypt (Matt 2:15), just like Israel was called out of Egypt and he calls us out of Egypt as well.

Jesus passed through the waters of baptism, just like Israel passed through the waters of the Red Sea and we are called to pass through the water of baptism too (Matt 3:13-17)

Jesus was tested in the wilderness, just like Israel got tested there and so do we (Matt 4)

Jesus expounds the Law of God in the mountainous region of Galilee, just like Moses, Ezra, Nehemiah, and all the great prophets did, and teachers of the Word are called to do today.

So as we open up this section of the Sacred Text, may our hearts be listening, and our minds grasp the nuggets of the truth God has for us today.

We Jesus use the phrase “You have heard that it was said to those of old,” or a similar one depending on your translation, to introduce each of the six corrective illustrations He gives in this part of His sermon (see vv. 21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43).

So in verse 21, 27, 31, 33, 38, and 43, Jesus begins with You have heard that it was said to those of old!!!

This phrase has reference to rabbinical, traditional teaching, and in each illustration as we move through our text over the next few weeks Jesus contrasts that human teaching with the divine Word of God.

These examples show ways in which God’s righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees .

Thou shall not murder is the sixth commandment that is found In Exodus 20 and throughout the OT and NT.

But before I expound this text I wanted to share something that will help us to understand why Jesus gave the six illustrations that we will cover over weeks to come.

As Martyn Lloyd-Jones has pointed out, the condition of Judaism at the time of Christ was remarkably like that of the church in the early sixteenth century.

The Scriptures were not translated into the languages of the people.

The liturgy, the prayers, the Scripture reading, and even most of the hymns and anthems were in Latin, which none of the common people knew or understood.

When a priest gave a sermon or homily, the people had nothing by which to judge what he said.

They had no idea as to whether or not his message was scriptural, or even whether or not being scriptural was important.

The Bible taught what the church said it taught.

The church, therefore, placed its own authority over that of Scripture.

Over the centuries the Roman Catholic church had developed a system of religion that departed further and further from Scripture.

It was a system that the common man had no way of investigating or verifying.

The greatest contribution of the Protestant Reformation was to give the Bible to the people in their own language.

It put God’s Word into the hands of God’s people.

It was the truth of Scripture that brought light to the Middle Ages and consequently an end to the Dark Ages.

In a less extreme way church the Jews of Jesus’ day had been separated from their Scriptures.

During and after the Exile most Jews lost their use of the Hebrew language and had come to speak Aramaic, a Semitic language related to Hebrew.

Parts of Ezra, Jeremiah, and Daniel were originally written in Aramaic, but the rest of the Old Testament was in Hebrew.

The Septuagint, a Greek edition of the Old Testament, had been translated some two hundred fifty years earlier.

But though it was widely used by Jews throughout the Roman Empire, the Septuagint was not used or understood by most Jews in Palestine.

In addition to that, copies of the Scriptures were bulky, expensive, and far out of the financial reach of the average person.

Therefore, when the Hebrew text was read and expounded in the synagogue services, most of the worshipers understood little of the text and consequently had no basis for judging the exposition.

Their respect for the rabbis also led them to accept whatever those leaders said.

Church, it is important for us to hear what Pastor Lloyd Jone wrote, because although we have countless Bibles in our homes, on our phones, and computers, there are some of us sitting here today that do not study to show ourselves approved.

Over and over in God’s Word he exhorts us to study and meditate on the Word like:

Church, this is just a few scriptures, but there are many more.

Jesus shows up after 400 years of silence to Israel.

And he has the courage and authority to speak up about the teaching of the day, we should do the same.

Is this negative?

Is he being critical?

Or is he Jus t speaking the truth in love....

The Jews in the day of Jesus and Christians today often believe what they hear, this is why we are to study.

How is you time with the Lord?

When is the last time you picked up his Word?

Please church, study to show yourself approved so you will not be ashamed.

Please check what I say and if I wrongly interpret the Biblical text, please let me know.

Do not take my Word for it, Take God’s Word for it!!

This is another reason we teach verse by verse, so we get the whole counsel of God in context!!!

But truth be told church, many today do not want the truth: Look at what the text says:

And then again in:

Do you think we are in latter times?

Do you think Jesus is coming back soon?

Church, it is important now more than ever for us to know our Bibles and that we allow our Bibles to know us.

Jesus in verse 20 said our righteousness must exceed the Scribes and Pharisees or we will not enter into the kingdom of heaven...

Here and over the next several weeks, Jesus is going to contrast God’s Law or God’s Word to the teaching of the religious leaders of the day because it was not completely true church.

Yes, commandment number 6 is true, if you murder without a cause, the Law says you will be judged.

An eye for an eye.

See the Pharisees became self-righteous because they were convinced in their own mind that they were keeping the letter of the Law.

The commandment is not in regards to wartime, not in regards to protecting yourself, your family, or others, it is dealing with premeditated murder.

Taking someones life for revenge.

And yes, they were not killing anyone physically or literally by taking a life, but next week church, Jesus is going to say: