How many of you have ever heard someone say or teach, “Since Jesus came we’re no longer under the law.”?  All my life, people have told me that since Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sins, and if I believed in Him, I would no longer be subject to the law of the Old Testament.  My life would be free from all the rules, regulations, and restrictions found there.  All I need do now is live by “grace.”  Certain people have been particularly clear in pointing out that tithing is not part of living a “New Testament” faith.  Jesus got rid of that obligation along with all the other rules.  I just saw a church sign the other day that read, “Why tithing is not for today.  Come see this Sunday.”  In today’s Scripture from the Sermon on the Mount, we’ll find Jesus making a clear statement about what his coming has and has not done concerning the Law.  In fact, much of the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus’ direct commentary on Old Testament Law.  As we’ll see starting next Sunday, Jesus is going to take teachings from the Ten Commandments and other portions of the Old Testament Law and give His specific instruction for His disciples regarding them.  Today, though, He gives us the “big picture” regarding His coming and the Law.

     We’re going to take a little different approach than usual this morning as we turn to God’s word.  Instead, of reading the whole passage and then breaking it down into smaller parts, we’re going to take it verse by verse. We’re looking at Matthew 5:17-20 this morning, and as I have done each Sunday since we started our series on the Sermon on the Mount, I’m going to encourage you to open your Bibles if you have them, so you’ll be able to compare your translation to the two translations you’ll see on the screen:  the MOT and the NLT.   I am going to ask you to read the verses aloud with me from the screen, as we investigate each one, so let’s read God’s word together as we find it in Matthew 5:17, first from the MOT, then from the NLT:  [Jesus said,] ¹⁷Do not think (suppose, assume) that I came to destroy the law and the prophets.  I came not to destroy but to fulfill (make them come true). MOT   [Jesus said] ¹⁷“Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. NLT  Let’s pray……………… Amen.

     Why do you suppose Jesus told us not to think, suppose or assume that He came to destroy the law and the prophets?  Jesus’ approach was shall we say “unorthodox,” when it came to reading and applying God’s word.  As we mentioned several weeks ago, when the typical rabbi read God’s word, He stood to read and then sat down to teach or preach from the text he had read.  The typical rabbi didn’t offer his own opinions.  He simply offered the interpretations of the great rabbis who had come before him.  Not so, with Jesus.  When Jesus read the Scriptures in the synagogues, He followed up the readings with interpretations that came directly from Him.  Every time Jesus taught in the synagogues we read that the listeners were AMAZED at His teaching, because He taught as one with AUTHORITY, not as the scribes and Pharisees.  Jesus didn’t need to rely on what someone had said hundreds of years before, to interpret the Scriptures to the people.  He is the ultimate authority on the Scriptures.  That’s why when He went up on the mountain to present the Sermon on the Mount He didn’t even read the Scriptures before He sat down.  He sat down to give the last word on various truths from the “Law and the Prophets.” The Law and the Prophets include most of what we call the Old Testament.  The “Law” includes the first five books of the bible, while the “Prophets” include not only the traditional books of the prophets, which bear their names, but also some of the historical writings.  The Old Testament also has another section known as the “Writings,” which includes books such as Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes. 

     When Jesus said, “I came not to destroy but to fulfill (make them come true)” with regard to the Law and the Prophets, He was telling the disciples that God’s word—which then consisted only of what we would call the Old Testament is still God’s word, and that He came to fulfill or make it come true.  What does that mean?  In what sense did Jesus fulfill or make the Old Testament come true?  First, Jesus lived His life as an example of what the Old Testament really meant.  He lived the Law perfectly.  No one else ever has.  Now, listen carefully, because you may be thinking, “Jesus didn’t live the Law perfectly.  He did things that broke the Law.  The Pharisees pointed out Jesus’ breaking of the Law all the time.”

     It IS true that the Pharisees constantly accused Jesus of breaking the teachings in the Law and the Prophets.  In fact, Jesus was ultimately arrested, put on trial and convicted of blasphemy, because He contended that He was God.  Jesus was accused of breaking the Sabbath, of breaking ceremonial and dietary laws, of breaking the laws regarding cleanness, and perhaps others. If Jesus, was accused of breaking all these laws how could He say, “I came not to destroy but to fulfill (make them come true)”?  The answer’s simple really: Jesus understood the Law completely, and the Pharisees didn’t.  The Pharisees relied on commentaries put together down through the ages by other religious teachers, who had taken the pure Law handed to Moses by God, and “interpreted” it for application.  For example: God had, indeed, said, “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” He further stated that no work was to be done on the Sabbath.  Over time, the question became, “What IS work?”  Jewish commentators developed precise instructions on the matter.  It was work if one walked farther on the Sabbath than the distance to and from the synagogue.  It was work if a loose thread was found on your robe, because that would be “bearing a burden.”  The list went on and on.  Then along came Jesus.  He would go into synagogues to teach on the Sabbath and as He entered, He would see folks who had various diseases and handicaps.  The question became, “Would Jesus HEAL on the Sabbath?”  After all, that’s WORK.  In every case Jesus DID heal on the Sabbath.  In one case Jesus even took the time to use the healing as a teachable moment.  A man in the synagogue had a “shriveled” hand.  Jesus knew the religious leaders were waiting to see whether He would heal the man, so He asked them a question, “I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” (Luke 6:9b NIV) They didn’t answer.  Here’s what happened next:  ¹⁰He looked around at them all, and then said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did so, and his hand was completely restored. ¹¹But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus.  (Luke 6:10-11 NIV)  Did Jesus break the Sabbath?  Of course not!  Jesus told us in today’s Scripture that He didn’t come to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it.  We find other examples of Jesus reinterpreting the Law away from being sort of a “trivial pursuit” for religious folks, to being what it was always intended to be:  God’s instruction for living abundant, faithful lives.  Let me give you one more example of how Jesus reinterpreted the Law to eliminate the trivializing of it done by the religious leaders.  This is a longer passage, but it points out several realities regarding Jesus fulfilling or making the Law come true.  The passage comes from Mark’s Gospel, and is found in Chapter 7, beginning in verse 5:  ⁵So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with ‘unclean’ hands?”

⁶He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

    “‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. ⁷They worship me in vain;

their teachings are but rules taught by men.’ ⁸You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to the traditions of men.”

⁹And he said to them: “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! ¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ ¹¹But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: ‘Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God), ¹²then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. ¹³Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

¹⁴Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. ¹⁵Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’”

¹⁷After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. ¹⁸“Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don’t you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him  ‘unclean’? ¹⁹For it doesn’t go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)  Mark 7:5-19

     Do you see Jesus’ point?  The religious leaders had developed traditions and rituals that let them seem to be fulfilling the Law, living according to it, but in reality their hearts were far from God.  In fact, Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah’s harsh and telling words:  “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. ⁷They worship me in vain; Their teachings are but rules taught by men.”  The application for us is the same. When it comes to God’s law do we fall at one of two extremes:  Do we say, “I know God’s rules and I keep them without fault.”?  Or do we say, “I’m freed from the law by God’s grace.  I don’t have to worry about God’s law any longer it doesn’t apply to me.”?   Listen closely right now:  We ARE saved by grace.  Nothing we do brings us salvation, but as Jesus’ disciples, as those who ARE saved by grace, we respond to the grace by living out God’s law as an act of grateful obedience.   Jesus made it clear that the Sabbath is not a time for failing to do good.  He made it clear that any traditions we develop that keep our hearts from absolute devotion to Him are NOT part of God’s true law for our lives.  He made it clear that no food makes us “unclean,” because it simply goes into our bodies, nourishes us (or fails to nourish us) and then goes out as waste.  Rather, it’s what comes out of us—what we say, that shows others the conditions of our hearts.

     Jesus uses the Law throughout the Sermon on the Mount as our instructor, as our guide. He sharpens it, and hones it to the point that we will see that none of us can live it apart from the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in us, but what Jesus never does is tell us that the Law is over, that the Law has no place in our lives.  In fact, look what He said next in Matthew 5:18:  ¹⁸For truly I (Myself) say to you, until heaven and earth pass away (disappear), one “iota” or one point shall be no means (“ou me”) pass away (disappear) from the law, until all things come to pass. MOT   ¹⁸I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved.  NLT  A quick question:   Have heaven and earth “passed away” or disappeared?  Of course not!  Then not one “iota” or one point have disappeared from God’s law unless its purpose has been achieved.  What is the purpose of the Law?  Put simply, the purpose of the Law is to define and instruct God’s people.  God gave the Law to Moses so that His people, the Israelites could be set apart from all the nations on the earth as God’s people.  God’s Law defines us.  We are a people who love God FIRST, who have no other gods except the one, true and living God, who has revealed Himself to us as Father, Son-Jesus and Holy Spirit.  We are people who live in holiness.  We are people who live with one another in love.  More than 600 laws defined the Israelites as God’s people, and instructed them in how to live as God’s people.  When Jesus came, He came not to DESTROY the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill them, to make them come to pass. 

     Consider this: when Jesus died on the cross, paying the penalty once and for all for the sin of humanity—and paying the penalty once and for all for your sin and mine—was that the point that “all things came to pass” or “the law’s purpose was achieved” as some teach?  No.  Our salvation was purchased in that moment.  But even that salvation is not completed until we avail ourselves of it, and no reasonable person would contend that as we look around the world right now, that all that God’s word teaches has come to pass.  The ultimate fulfillment of God’s plan and purpose is yet to come at Jesus’ return. 

     We are living in “the time between the times” as some scholars have referred to it.  We live between the time when Jesus purchased our salvation and when He will return to ultimately fulfill God’s plan.  In this time between the times we are called to live as salt and light, in the power of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus was adamant about the importance of living out the Law—not the traditions that sprouted from the Law—but the Law as we go about our lives.  Here’s what He said about the importance of living out God’s commands:  ¹⁹Whoever, therefore, breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches thus to others, shall be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.  But whoever does and teaches them, shall be called great in the Kingdom of heaven. MOT

¹⁹So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. NLT 

    Would you rather be called “least” or “great” in the Kingdom of heaven?  We know the right answer don’t we?  Who wouldn’t want to be called “GREAT” in the Kingdom of heaven!  Jesus tells us that as we break even one of the least commandments of the Law and teach others to do the same, we will be called LEAST in the Kingdom of heaven, but the way to be called GREAT in the Kingdom of heaven is to do what the Law commands and teach others to do the same.   So, what ARE we to do?  Are we to pick and choose?  Are we to memorize all 600+ commands in the Law of Moses and then make sure we live them?  Remember what Jesus said—It’s a matter of the HEART!  In fact, when a teacher of the Law asked Jesus, “What is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Without hesitation Jesus answered, “’You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”  Matthew 22:37-40 NLT There it is:  Love God—Love People.  We don’t have to memorize the whole Mosaic code.  We must love God and love people from our hearts.

  Jesus closed His teaching on the Law with this statement:  ²⁰For I tell you that except your righteousness shall exceed more [than that] of the scribes and Pharisees, by no means shall you enter into the Kingdom of heaven.”  MOT  ²⁰“But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!  NLT It’s not likely that we can feel the weight of Jesus’ words here, as His original hearers would have.  When we think of scribes and Pharisees, we automatically think “bad guys,” hypocrites, haters of Jesus, the “enemy.”  But in Jesus’ day the scribes and Pharisees were revered. These men dedicated their lives to the Law of God.  Many memorized the entire Old Testament, AND many of the commentaries written about it as well.  While our image of the Pharisees is negative, the disciples would have heard the statement something like this:  Except your righteousness exceeds that of Billy Graham and Mother Teresa you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  Feel the difference?  If you think of the most righteous person you’ve ever known or read about in your life, and then hear Jesus say to you:  Unless your righteousness exceeds that you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven, you’ll have an idea of what it sounded like for Jesus’ disciples to hear His words from Matthew 5:20.   How in the world can our righteousness be that great?  Only one way:  In the power of the Holy Spirit.  If we sat down this afternoon and mapped out a plan to live God’s Law in every aspect of our lives, and then got up and started living the plan, how long would it be before we failed?  10 seconds? 10 minutes? 10 hours?

What if we “succeeded”?  What if for the next several days we thought everything right, said everything right, did everything right?  That would actually be worse than if we failed, because the “success” would bring pride—just as it brought pride to the scribes and Pharisees.  Religious pride is a terrible thing.  It separates us from God and people—which means it separates us from Jesus’ great commandment to love God and people.

     At the end of the day, then, Jesus’ command for us to have a righteousness that exceeds the scribes and Pharisees is a call to reliance on Him—and His abiding presence in our lives through the Holy Spirit.  It’s a call to remember that apart from Him we WILL fail.  It’s a call to live the Law in Spirit and in truth, and not to assume that as His followers the law no longer applies.  For us the Law applies in a new way---not as a means of gaining God’s favor, but as a means of demonstrating that we already have God’s favor, through His grace and salvation demonstrated by Jesus on the cross.  Here’s TODAY’S CHALLENGE:  I will live God’s law and teach others to do the same in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.   To live out that challenge we’ll need two things:  1) An understanding of God’s law—which comes from reading and study of God’s word; and 2) a constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit—which comes from opening ourselves to the Holy Spirit and trusting Him to lead us in every situation.  If that’s the desire of your heart, would you read the challenge with me?  TODAY’S CHALLENGE:  I will live God’s law and teach others to do the same in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.   Please stand with me.  God’s law IS for today.  God’s instruction shows us how to be God’s people and do God’s will.  As we learn His law, and apply it in the power of the Holy Spirit, we’ll be called great in the Kingdom of heaven, which is amazing, AND we’ll be used by God to welcome others into the Kingdom as well—which is the main reason we’re still here, right?  Do you remember what I asked you to do last week?  To reach out both of your hands and picture yourself holding the hand of someone who needs to know Jesus?  Is either of those people with you today?  Have you prayed for them?  Contacted them?  Visited them?  God has given us a search and rescue mission—and the consequences are much more than a matter of life and death—they are a matter of ETERNAL life and death.   Let’s pray……… Amen.