Matthew 5:17-20 Thursday PM 1 of 5

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1 Matthew 5:17-20 Thursday PM 1 of 5 Review: Jesus is preaching to His disciples and potential disciples: He began in the Beatitudes presenting us with the attitude of the Kingdom of God After that, He talks about His disciples being salt and light, teaching us where He desires for us to display that attitude as His disciples It s here that He takes a slight turn that prepares us for what Jesus will teach on for the rest of Matthew 5 For the rest of Matthew 5, Jesus is going to remind us of various laws, and show us the true intent of each one. But before He does that, He wants to show us the intent of the law in it s entirety. 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. 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. Pray Pop quiz: The whole Bible is about? Jesus. The prophets pointed to? Jesus. The priests and the temple pointed to? Jesus. Events like the Exodus from Egypt and Noah on the ark pointed to? Jesus. So when we hear the Law, it s pointing to? Jesus. The Law seems to be one of the more off-putting aspects about Christianity We hold too tightly to the law and we become legalists Put away the law and we become lawless And so we kind of jump somewhere in the middle and put the law off to the side, hoping nonbelievers won t ask us about it Jesus didn t come to abolish the Law, nor did He come for us to put it to the side 17 I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. But what does it mean that Jesus comes and fulfills the law? It means not that the law no longer means something, or that it s decreased in meaning, it means that the law always meant something greater So in Jesus fulfillment of it, we don t forget the Law, but we now finally understand the Law

2 Matthew 5:17-20 Thursday PM 2 of 5 God didn t down the road realize the impossibility of keeping the Law and change His mind: Oh shoot, I made that one a little too hard Jesus, I need you to go down and fix that God s plan never changed from the Old Testament to the New God never once for a moment thought we would be able to keep the Law after it was given. At the heart of His plan, we must understand this fact: God never saw the Law as something for us to keep but He always meant for it to point us to the One who could Therefore, in order for us to understand what it means for the law to be fulfilled, we must understand He who fulfills it and how He does so. First, we need to understand that Jesus does not add anything to the Law...except perfect obedience When Jesus says He did not come to abolish the Law, He is essentially putting His stamp of approval on it. The Law wasn t wrong before He comes to fulfill it. He didn't put more laws in, nor did He takes laws out He didn t make amendments. Though Jesus had authority apart from the Law of Moses, His authority was never in contradiction to it. And in all ways, Jesus upheld the Law in and through His life in perfect obedience. But, what we do need to make clear in this is that, through perfect obedience, Jesus fulfilled the Laws in different ways: In studying of the Law, we can effectively categorize the Laws into the separate buckets: 1. Civil Law 2. Ceremonial Law 3. Moral Law Through Civil Law, God established for Himself a people (Israel) set apart (the definition of holy) from other nations Laws that dictated how they governed themselves and how they lived. Laws on what you wore, what you ate, how you handled punishments & justice. Through Civil Law, God establishes a people marked by a different way of living. Through Moral Law, God demonstrates His eternal, never-changing character Gave a deeper look into the heart and mind of God Moral Law shows us what HIs perfect nature looks like. And it s through Ceremonial Law that God reconciles the two. Laws of cleanliness and of the temple. Laws of the priests. Of sacrifices and offerings. Through Ceremonial Law, meant to cover sins, God takes His people, marked by Civil Law, and covers their sins that separate them from their God as displayed through Moral Law

3 Matthew 5:17-20 Thursday PM 3 of 5 What does it look like for Jesus to fulfill each one of these? As non-believers (and maybe even some believers) view it, why do we get to pick and choose? Why are we bound to some laws and not others? It all points back to how Jesus fulfills each of the laws. 1. Civil Law We are no longer bound by Civil Law Though God used Civil Law to establish the people of Israel, God no longer operates solely through the nation of Israel The very message that the apostle Paul carried was that the Good News extended not only to the Jews but to the Gentiles also. God extends a new covenant to His people: Hebrews 8:6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. Like Israel, we are God s people through a covenantal relationship but the author of Hebrews tells us it s a better covenant. So Laws that bound the nation of Israel don t bind us. Ex: When you read the Law that God s people should not wear garments of mixed fabric, guaranteed we would all be on a straight shot to hell. Because we ve been given a better covenant, we re no longer marked as God s people through Civil Law, but by the indwelling of the Spirit. And through that we should be noticeably set apart holy: John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. 2. Ceremonial Law: the laws of sacrifices and offerings Ex: It s not normal practice for us to conclude service with the pastor taking a goat, bringing it onto the pulpit, and slaughtering it as an offering for sins. Hebrews 10:1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. The blood sacrifices of Israel could only ever cover sins, but they could never take them away. So year after year of sacrifice, there still remained sin.

4 Matthew 5:17-20 Thursday PM 4 of 5 But that was exactly the point the Law of sacrifices was but a shadow of the good things to come through He that would fulfill this Law as well. Hebrews 10:5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; 6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. 7 Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. 8 When he said above, You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, Behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Jesus didn t shed His blood to supplement what the Law couldn t do. But because the Law was only meant to cover sins, Jesus does away with Ceremonial Laws in order to provided a better sacrifice that would once-and-for-all take away sins. And what remains is Moral Law The Law God established to show His very character And as a God who never changes but is in all ways perfect, when Jesus fulfills these Laws, He doesn t remove them from the life of the believer, He exemplifies them in the life of the believer Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. The character of God outlines in His Moral Law is perfectly portrayed through the person of Jesus And Paul will continue to paint this picture of Jesus: 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. Summary Jesus fulfills Civil Law by offering a better covenant for His people. Jesus fulfills Ceremonial Law by offering Himself as the better sacrifice that would not simply cover sin, but would take it away. Jesus fulfills Moral Law through perfectly exemplifying the nature of God being God Himself.

5 Matthew 5:17-20 Thursday PM 5 of 5 Matthew 5 contines: 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. [In Jesus, we don't forget the Law, we understand it] 19 [This is our relationship with the Law] 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. David Guzik: The law sends us to Jesus to be justified, because it shows us our inability to please God in ourselves. But after we come to Jesus, He sends us back to the law to learn the heart of God for our conduct and sanctification. It s in these words we find balance between legalism and lawlessness: In the Law, we don t find salvation or the attaining of righteousness. But we do find the One who gives us salvation, Who desires to transform us into the image of the Son. 1 John 3:1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. The law sends us to Jesus to be justified and He sends us back to the Law to learn the heart of God for our conduct and sanctification. Close 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. This may seem a depressing verse to end on But as people who have an understanding of the true purpose of the law, that should give us great joy. Though our righteousness may never exceed that of the scribes and the Pharisees, we have been passionately pursued by the one who is Himself righteousness Rejoice that God the Father saw fit to reconcile us to Him. In the depths of our sin, He sent His Son to perfectly live out the Law so that He could step in as our atoning sacrifice 2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Prayer & Worship