Death by Church Plant: Sermon from The EDGE Co - Matt 5:17-20

This next part of the Sermon on the Mount is all about God's law.

Jesus here reminds us that He has a very high view of God Law.

He says He did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it.

This is an interesting statement. A quick read of the gospels might lead you to believe otherwise. Jesus eats food with his disciples on the sabbath. Jesus touches lepers. He stops religious leaders from stoning a woman caught in adultery. He says, "Neither to I condemn you, go and sin no more."

Some of us when we hear this, forget everything else we know about Jesus, and take this to mean that while Jesus may seem like a friend to sinners, he is in fact "keeping score" and if that is true, we are all in big trouble. The next phrase, rather than alleviating our fears, only makes it worse.

Jesus illustrates the eternality of God's law with a popular story line from contemporary Jewish teachers (5:18). Jesus' smallest letter (NIV), or "jot" (KJV), undoubtedly refers to the Hebrew letter yod, which Jewish teachers said would not pass from the law. They said that when Sarai's name was changed to Sarah, the yod removed from her name cried out from one generation to another, protesting its removal from Scripture, until finally, when Moses changed Oshea's name to Joshua, the yod was returned to Scripture. "So you see," the teachers would say, "not even this smallest letter can pass from the Bible." Jesus makes the same point from this tradition that later rabbis did: even the smallest details of God's law are essential.

Live it or teach it poorly, and you will be called the least in the Kingdom

Live it and teach it well, and you will be called the greatest.

Here we should remember the significance "greatness" has in Jesus' day. We read that the disciples were constantly fighting. And that their ongoing fight was "who is the greatest disciple?" "Which one gets to sit at his right and on his left?

And on several occasions Jesus is quizzed on what he believes to be the "greatest commandment."

To be called great is the World Series MVP award.

Last night, the TExas Rangers won the American League Penant. Nelson Cruz was selected ALCS MVP after his postseason-record sixth home run of the series, and he also had a record 13 RBIs. Young hit a pair of two-run doubles in a nine-run third inning that sent the Rangers on their way to becoming the AL’s first consecutive pennant winner since the New York Yankees won four in a row from 1998-01. Cruz is a great hitter.

Unless your righteousness surpasses the lay leaders and seminary professors -

Can you imagine someone saying, unless you can play baseball better than the Texas Rangers, you will not make it into the kingdom of heaven. What is Jesus taking about?

I would hope that all of us could agree that what Jesus means by this is that we must have genuine heart change. What does that look like?

Zacchaeus is an interesting fellow. When he climbs town that tree, his life completely changes. Everything that was important to him - money, personal safety - no longer matter, because Jesus loves him. He is now free to love others.

Saul, who becomes Paul, is another guy who experiences a complete life change. He is a pharisee that is on his way to evict Christians from their homes when he encounters Jesus (who speaks from heaven). Years later, Paul writes the letter of Galatians. The Christians in Galatia had decided that in order to really be Christian they had to obey all the Old Testament rules. In 2:15, he says, "We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ."

I listened to a sermon by Erwin McManus where he talked about the intersection of Buddism and Christianity. Erwin had met a Buddist who had just read the whole Bible in a week. Erwin McManus asked him what he thought, and he said it made him said. "Why?" "Because if it is true then I have to die and start all over again."

And a few verses later, Paul says, "19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”[d]

Let me see if I can sum this up.

Here at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, he is laying out some basics for us. 1) The Law is eternal, and the no part of the law will ever be compromised. 2) Living, and teaching the Law correctly determines our greatness in the kingdom of heaven. 3) Unless our righteousness surpasses the religious superstars you know, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

This final truth could be said this way, "Only perfect people get to go to heaven."

One begins to understand why sinners like Jesus. Because he put everyone on the same level. Basically this teaching says, "Nobody gets to go." And thus the ones who had made more mistakes no longer felt judged by the ones who had made fewer mistakes.

But it goes deeper than this. Jesus begins the part of his sermon saying that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill them. To complete them. Jesus came to live the perfect life. And while the religious leaders thought Jesus was breaking the laws, he was in fact fulfilling the law at a level they could not even understand, let alone practice.

Then when Jesus dies on a cross, he is able to take upon himself the sins of the world. He exchanges his perfect life, for our imperfect life, in such a way that who ever believes in Jesus will not perish, but have eternal life. You might say, "only perfect people get in!" And I would say, that is why it is crucial that the life we live now is "in Christ." He declares us righteous, and then gives us the freedom to go and live life in his power.

Response:

1) Joy - we are free from the condemnation of the law we could not keep

2) Worship - Jesus died for us, and he alone deserves our worship and adoration

3) Righteousness - what we were previously unable to do, we now can do, because we have the Spirit within us.

Mark Kraakevik

of 8776 West Geddes Place, Littleton, CO 80128
Mark can be reached at 720-308-4051
Mark's blog can be found at www.markkraakevik.posterous.com

Posted via email from Mark Kraakevik