LESSON 4 jesus fulfills the law The Sermon on the Mount To understand the central message of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is the fulfillment of all the law and the prophets. Jesus is the truest and best interpreter of Scripture. That students would understand that all sin is a heart issue. It is not what we do or do not do that leads us into sin. All sin is born in a heart that has fallen away from God. Background Passage: scripture Passage: Memory Verse: MATTHEW 5-7 M ATT HEW 5: 1 7-2 0 M AT T HEW 5: 1 7 Blessed are Just Jesus Jesus and the law Defining the law To fulfill Righteous people page 34 jesus fulfills the law Don t assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.
PREPARING TO TEACH Before you begin to prepare your teaching plan, read the complete Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). If possible, read it multiple times from several different versions to gain understanding of the truth that Jesus came to fulfill the law (Matt. 5:17-20), which is foundational to the entire message. After reading the sermon itself, you may want to study insights from Bible teachers and theologians about the Sermon on the Mount. These are available in books, commentaries, mystudybible.com, and other resources. It is especially important for this lesson that you read and respond to the questions by the author in the Venture Up Travelogue. This plan uses some of these questions, but you may wish to choose others. As you prepare, mark questions that are particularly meaningful or thought-provoking to you, or that strike you as particularly relevant for your group. While Jesus was critical of the Pharisees many times, including in this Focal Passage, prepare to point out ways believers today sometimes add to God s Word or focus more on what they perceive as rules than on living as Jesus taught in this revolutionary sermon. Ask God to speak through you as you prepare and teach. Pray for each member of your group. Challenge each person via email or other means to read the Travelogue and respond to the questions. TEACHING SUGGESTIONS BLESSED ARE Draw from the Travelogue (p. 39) to emphasize the truth that some words are more powerful than others, whether positive or negative. Ask: What words convey power or even life change for you? Call on volunteers to respond. Lecture briefly on the power of Jesus words in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5-7, drawing from the Travelogue (pp. 40-41). Use the following quote from the Travelogue illustrating the contrast between culture and the world: The beatitudes of the culture rang out loud and clear. Blessed are the rich. Blessed are the well fed. Blessed are the prosperous. Discuss how our cultural attitudes compare. page 3 5 jesus fulfills the law
Read Jesus blessings to the people from Matthew 5:3-12. Ask: If you had been listening to Jesus that day and realized one or more of Jesus blessings were directed to your needs, how might you have responded? Discuss how the Pharisees and other religious leaders of the time might have responded. Ask: What difference should the Beatitudes make in the way we live as believers? Based on the principles of the Beatitudes, ask adults to call out ways they count themselves blessed. Record responses on the marker board or a tear sheet. Discuss as needed. Compare the types of responses you have recorded on the board or tear sheet with the kinds of blessings Jesus pronounced in Matthew 5:3-12. How are they similar? How are they different? Ask group members what can be learned from comparing the two lists. JUST JESUS Ask whether the Old Testament is relevant or authoritative for believers today. Invite members to explain their answers. Point out that with Jesus powerful messages, His miracles, physical and spiritual healings, and the new covenant, it might be easy to conclude that Jesus came to replace the Old Testament. Terms such as New Testament Christians are sometimes misinterpreted to suggest the Old Testament is not relevant to the lives of believers. Choose two questions from the list below to discuss briefly. What difference would it make in your life if the Ten Commandments were no longer taught? How would your understanding of the identity of Jesus be impacted if you never studied Messianic prophecies? How would your life be different if you knew little or nothing about the faith of Abraham, Moses, Noah, Ruth, Esther, Nehemiah, or others? Where would you turn for the comfort you now find in the 23 rd Psalm? How would your understanding of the character of God be altered without the Old Testament? Point out this statement from the Travelogue (p. 42): If the coming of Jesus means that everything else is unimportant, page 3 6 jesus fulfills the law
then it also means that God made a mistake during the times of the Old Testament. If that s true, it calls everything we know about the perfect wisdom, power, and knowledge of God into question. Discuss. JJESUS AND THE LAW Say: After the Beatitudes and a challenge to His followers to be salt and light in a dark world, Jesus answered the question as yet unasked, Why did You come? Call on a volunteer to read aloud the Focal Passage, Matthew 5:17-20. Point out that Jesus answered the question succinctly in Matthew 5:17, this week s Memory Verse. Urge adults to memorize this verse as a reminder of why Jesus came. If time allows, work briefly on memorizing the verse. Repeat it together a couple of times, have half the group say the first sentence and the other half say the second sentence, switch roles. Don t make it laborious. Don t forget to include the verse reference. Teaching Option Save this activity for the end of the session when you know how much time you have left. Ask: How might you use these verses to answer a believer who downplayed the importance of the Old Testament? Draw from the Travelogue (p. 42) to point out that Jesus emphasized in Matthew 5:18 that He came to fulfill even the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet in the Old Testament. Ask: What did Jesus mean by His definitions of least in the kingdom and great in the kingdom in Matthew 5:19? How did these definitions conflict with the teachings of the scribes and Pharisees? How do they conflict with today s culture? Call attention to the Travelogue question (p. 43): What implications does this (i.e., Jesus saying He came to fulfill the law) page 37 jesus fulfills the law
have for us in terms of the study of the Old Testament? Call on volunteers to respond. Draw from the Travelogue (pp. 42-43) to explain the rigorous approach of the Jews to educating students about the Torah (books of the Law), and the Mishnah (oral interpretation of the Law). Turning to today, call attention to a 2014 survey by the American Bible Society that included the following statistics: 26 percent of American adults never read the Bible. 37 percent say they read the Bible once a week or more. 50 percent of adults agree the Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life. 88 percent of American households own a Bible 1 Ask: What do this survey and many others tell us about the significance of the Bible in our nation today? How is our church doing at educating people of all ages in what the Bible says and how we should both read and apply it to our lives? DEFINING THE LAW Draw from the Travelogue (p. 44) and other resources to point out that because the Torah (books of the Law) did not provide rules for every situation in life, the Pharisees and other religious leaders added many rules and definitions interpreting God s law and just how it was to be obeyed. Call on a volunteer to read aloud Exodus 31:15 about Sabbath behavior. Ask: What questions might people ask about how to obey this verse? Answers may include such things as the following: What is meant by work? Is it permissible to prepare meals or to feed the animals on the Sabbath, or does that constitute work? Exactly what actions on the Sabbath would cause a person to be put to death? If a child falls into a ditch on the Sabbath, is it permissible to rescue the child, or does that constitute work? Emphasize that the consequences of such rules led to people obsessing about them and focusing more on adhering to the rules than focusing on the meaning of the Scriptures themselves. Point page 3 8 jesus fulfills the law
out similar legalism has been prevalent throughout history. Ask whether some adults remember their parents enforcing strict rules about Sunday behavior that might include such things as no movies, no playing with friends, always dress up for church, no running in the church, and many others. While well intentioned, some children came to dislike Sundays because of such rules. Call on volunteers to share their responses to the following two Travelogue questions (p. 45): What do you think Jesus meant by His statements about greater righteousness? Why do you think we tend to compare our righteousness to others? TO FULFILL Draw from the Travelogue (pp. 45-46) and other resources to explain what Jesus meant in saying He had come to fulfill the law. Point out in the Travelogue (p. 46) the following statement: He (Jesus) is reminding us that righteousness is a state that permeates our whole being. He wanted to point out that it is people who were righteous who were acceptable to God, rather than people who do righteous things. Ask: What is the difference between being righteous and doing righteous things? Why does God value being righteous over doing righteous things? RIGHTEOUS PEOPLE Ask adults to read silently the first Travelogue paragraph under the heading Righteous People (p. 47). Call on volunteers to read aloud 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Romans 8:4. Discuss the implications of Jesus promises regarding how we become righteous in a way that pleases Him. Ask: What should be our response to these truths? Call attention to the following statement from the Travelogue (p. 47), asking that group members read it aloud in unison: Life with Christ is not about proving something; it s about accepting that something has already been proven by Him. page 39 jesus fulfills the law
CONCLUSION Distribute 3X5 cards and pencils. Ask adults to draw a horizontal line across the card with the numeral 1 on the left and 10 on the right. Ask: Are you living more like It is finished, or are you living like you still have something to prove (Travelogue, p. 48)? Ask each person to silently reflect on where they are on this continuum (1=Something to prove; 10=It is finished) and mark the spot with an x. Ask them to list at least two changes they need to make to move toward recognizing Jesus has already done the work for us by giving us His righteousness. Pray, asking God to guide each adult to greater understanding that Jesus has fulfilled the law and provided eternal salvation. FOLLOW THROUGH Send a communication to all members of your small group, asking them to reflect on the closing activity from this week s lesson. Urge them to ask God to help them rest in His work, not their own (Travelogue, p. 48). Ask them to read Mark 4:1-20 and the Travelogue material on the parables of Jesus for next week s lesson. Also urge them to respond to the questions in the Travelogue accompanying the material. Use a study Bible, commentary or mystudybible.com to research the power of parables in Jesus ministry, next week s lesson. Be prepared to include in your teaching plan at least one parable that has special meaning in your life. Pray for each class member. 1 For more information about this survey go to americanbible.org, click on Bible resources and then State of the Bible. The study updated annually. page 4 0 jesus fulfills the law