Taught by
Stephen ArmstrongGospel of Matthew
Matthew - Lesson 5C
Chapter 5:17-20
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We’re studying through Jesus’ first sermon delivered during His earthly ministry, which we call “the Sermon on the Mount”
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We’ve already studied the first sixteen verses of the sermon, including the well-known section called, “the Beatitudes”
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In that section, Jesus declared that the Kingdom of God (or Heaven) was reserved for people who have a certain spiritual nature
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Jesus gave nine traits of the Kingdom-bound person in His beatitudes
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They included humility, repentance, gentleness, purity, mercy and a general longing for righteousness coupled with a recognition that we won’t find satisfaction this side of Heaven
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As we learned, these traits are the spiritual fruit of a changed heart
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By placing our faith in Jesus Christ, God changes our spirit so He may begin to develop these qualities in our nature
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As we live-out these Kingdom traits outwardly and consistently, we become salt and light for the world
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This process marks the believer as different than the world, because it’s not the way the world thinks and acts
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But as I read from Luke’s Gospel last week, Jesus also taught that the Pharisees, Israel’s religious leaders, weren’t authentic representatives of God
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They may have possessed authority over the nation’s spiritual life, and they were certainly experts in the customs and traditions of Israel
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Nevertheless, Jesus exposed them as ignorant and blind when it came to knowing how to please God
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Now imagine if you were a member of the crowd gathered listening to Jesus
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You are a Jew who has grown up under Pharisaical Judaism
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Since your youth, men like the Pharisees have been your teachers, your spiritual authorities, and your examples of godliness
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Moreover, these men are the most scrupulous observers of the Law you’ve ever seen
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Time and time again, you’ve been amazed at their self-discipline as they practiced the rules of the faith
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They fasted several times every week
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They washed themselves before every meal
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They prayed long, intense public prayers several times daily
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They tithed on everything they received, even on the herbs growing in their garden
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Simply put, you could not imagine someone more pleasing to God
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But now Jesus, a man clearly empowered to speak for God, has declared that the Pharisees’ demonstrations of piety counted for nothing with God
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The Pharisees lacked humility and mercy and love
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They were depending on their self-righteousness rather than relying on God’s mercy
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They loved the money and power of this world, rather than seeking for the riches of the Kingdom to come
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In short, Jesus has labeled the Pharisees as fakes, counterfeits, and frauds
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Now as you take this in, you start wondering what, if anything, you’ve been taught is correct and true?
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Jesus has rocked your world, calling into question everything Jewish culture held dear
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Because if the Pharisees weren’t God’s spokesmen, then what about the Law & traditions they commanded everyone to follow?
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Was Moses wrong also? Are the feasts irrelevant? Was the temple service invalid?
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Was Jesus advocating that it all be thrown out?
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I think Jesus knew His listeners would have these concerns, so in the next section of His sermon, Jesus reassures the crowd
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Matt. 5:17 “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
Matt. 5:18 “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Matt. 5:19 “Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Matt. 5:20 “For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
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In v.17, Jesus addresses the crowd’s concerns, saying He didn’t come (meaning His mission wasn’t) to put an end to the Law and Prophets
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You may know that this statement has been a source of considerable controversy in the Church
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There are those who point to Jesus’ words here, to claim that some or all of the Law God gave to Israel remains in effect for the Christian
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They maintain this despite the consistent and unequivocal teaching of Scripture that Christians are NOT under law
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Instead, we have been freed from the Law by grace
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Nevertheless, some use Jesus' words here to defend their assertion
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But as is usually the case, these claims rely on a misinterpretation of the text made possible only by taking Jesus’ words out of context
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First, let’s understand what Jesus actually said
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He said that He did not come to abolish “the Law or the Prophets”
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For a Jew, the phrase “the Law or the Prophets” was their way of saying “the whole Bible”
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Since the New Testament didn’t exist in Jesus’ day, the Jewish Bible wasn’t called the Old Testament
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Instead, they called the Bible “the Law and the Prophets” or sometimes “Moses and the Prophets”
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So in effect, Jesus said, “I didn’t come to abolish the Bible”
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And of course, Jesus never advocated for doing away with the Word of God, for after all, Jesus IS the Word
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Jesus was not a revolutionary…He didn’t advocate anarchy or lawlessness
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But it’s also clear that Jesus wasn’t talking about just the Mosaic Law, much less the issue of whether a Christian must follow the Law of Moses
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Jesus was answering critics who claimed He was encouraging Jews to ignore all of God’s Word
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Knowing the context then, we can’t use Jesus’ words here to support or defend a particular view of the question of Christians keeping the Law
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On the contrary, on the question of whether a Christian must live under the Law, we have to turn elsewhere in the Bible to find our answer
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And when we do, we find Scripture telling us consistently that the answer is, “No” (see Romans study)
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Returning to our passage, we could translate Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:17 this way:
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Don’t think I came to abolish the written Word of God…on the contrary, I came to fulfill all that God’s Word requires
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Jesus came as a man to live in perfect compliance with God’s Word, never committing even a single act of sin
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Since Jesus was born a Jew under the Law, He also lived in perfect compliance with all the requirements of Israel’s Law
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And more than that, Jesus also fulfilled all the prophecies spoken by the prophets concerning the Messiah
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Some of these prophecies Jesus has yet to fulfill, but He will do so at His Second Coming and in the Kingdom
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Jesus was perfectly righteous in all that He thought and said and did
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Therefore, by His earthly life, He brought to pass all that Scripture requires and promises
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In that sense, Jesus fulfills the Word of God, and He is the only human being who has ever done so or ever will do so
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His perfect life sets the standard for our entry into Heaven, the Bible says
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The Bible describes Christ’s perfect life as equaling the glory of God
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Only those who equal the glory of God are eligible to enter into His presence
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Jesus meets that standard because He is God
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But the Bible also says that everyone else ever born has fallen short of that standard
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Romans 3:23 says that all humanity has sinned and therefore all have fallen short of the glory of God
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We are born sinners and so by our nature, we stand no chance of meeting the standard Christ set
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We start sinning before we even know what sin is
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That’s why Jesus came, He says, to accomplish all that the Word of God required because we couldn’t do it
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And then, when we place our faith in Jesus as our substitute, the Father is willing to credit us with Jesus’ perfection
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But then Jesus went a step further, dying an undeserved death on the cross in our place so that He could pay the price for our failure to meet Heaven’s standard
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And if you’re thinking that perhaps you can find some way around this standard, that maybe this rule won’t apply to you, take note of what Jesus says in v.18
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Jesus testifies that the Word of God is going to stand the test of time and be proven right in the end
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When all is said and done, the Word of God will still be there, setting the standard for entering Heaven and convicting us of sin
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In fact, Jesus says the physical universe itself is less enduring than the Word of God
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When you consider the vastness of space and the enormity of planets and stars and galaxies, remember it will all pass away one day
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And after it’s gone, and we’re experiencing what God has prepared for us afterward, this same Word will be with us
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So if you think the Universe is unshakable, what does that say about the Word of God?
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Jesus says everything in this Word will come to pass exactly as God has spoken…and Jesus fulfills it all for us
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In that verse, Jesus uses a uniquely Jewish idiom to emphasize His point
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He says that not the smallest letter or stroke of the Word would go unaccomplished
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Jesus is referring to characteristics of the written Hebrew language
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The smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet is called a “jot” in English, and it’s barely the size of an apostrophe
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Secondly, in the Hebrew alphabet, some characters are distinguished from one another merely by slight protrusions, called “strokes”
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So Jesus says that even the smallest letter and the most subtle stroke of the Hebrew alphabet has purpose and meaning to God’s purposes
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And therefore, every detail in Scripture, no matter how minor, will come to pass and cannot be set aside
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Today, we have a doctrine built on Jesus’ statement…the inerrancy of Scripture
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Every word in the original written manuscripts is exactly as God intended, with no mistake or error
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Not even a single letter is out of place
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If we don’t believe that, where do we go from there? It becomes a slippery slope – there are people today who don’t even believe that David existed
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We believe it, because Jesus said it
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Jesus’ idiom emphasizes that He’s committed to fulfilling the written Word of God in its entirety, because it’s a perfect reflection of God’s will
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Those who accuse Jesus of trying to tear down God’s Word are dead wrong
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He is so committed to it, that He will comply with everything it says, down to the least detail
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Which was more than His critics could claim for themselves
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But Jesus referenced these features of written Hebrew in His idiom to make another point concerning the Pharisees
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Jesus was implying that He was NOT interested in complying with the Pharisees’ oral law
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Remember a couple of weeks ago, I explained how the scribes had created a vast set of rules and traditions for Jewish life
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These rules were first developed following the Jewish return from captivity in Babylon
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They were intended as a form of protection to ensure Israel never violated Scripture again and thus, never be sent into captivity again
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The scribes called their new rules “fences” because they were barriers to violating Scripture
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If you kept the scribes’ rules, then you would have no possibility of violating Scripture, or so they assumed
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A classic example of a “fence” is the kosher requirement to never combine meat and dairy
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In kosher kitchens, meat products and dairy products are never combined or served together
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To make sure meat and dairy never mix by accident, kosher kitchens maintain separate dishes, pots and even refrigerators for serving and storing meat and dairy
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Obviously, this restriction isn’t spelled out in the Law given to Moses, so why did the scribes propose it?
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In Exodus, and again Deuteronomy, the Lord instructs Israel not to boil a young goat in its mother’s milk
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This practice was uniquely associated with Baal worship among the Canaanites
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In Canaanite pagan rituals, worshippers would take a baby goat or calf from its mother soon after birth and boil it in the mother’s milk
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So God gave this law to Israel to keep them from participating in Canaanite idolatry
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But when the rabbis and scribes sought to create a “fence” to protect Israel from violating this law, they missed the whole point of the law
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They focused entirely on the logistics involved and overlooked the spiritual purpose of the law
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The rabbis wondered what would happen if a Jew bought a young goat from a certain butcher
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And then that same Jew also bought milk from a farmer in the market
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But unbeknownst to that Jew, the milk he purchased just happened to come from the mother of that young goat
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If that Jew then cooked the goat in the milk, he would have broken the law, the scribes concluded
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So to preclude any possibility of such an accidental violation, they established rules barring the mixing of meat with dairy
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Over the centuries, later rabbis came along and expanded on the rules of the prior rabbis
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So the fences continued to grow ever more encompassing
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Until eventually, the rabbis reached the point of requiring separate dishes and pots and pans
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And that, my friends, is why even today in Israel you cannot order a cheeseburger at a kosher McDonald’s
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Once these rabbinical rules became firmly entrenched in Jewish culture, the original intent of God’s Law had long been lost
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What started as a prohibition of engaging in Canaanite pagan worship had become a silly concern about cheese sitting on a burger
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In fact, by the time the rabbis had decided to outlaw the mixing of meat and dairy, the Canaanites were extinct!
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Nevertheless, their rules live on without purpose or reason, and with little or no relationship to the Word of God
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Over the centuries, the Pharisees’ rules were assembled into a book called the Mishnah
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Mishnah means “repetition”, because it was taught through repetition, and it records centuries of rabbinical “scope creep”
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By Jesus’ day, the Mishnah’s reach extended far beyond simply prohibiting the mixing of meat and dairy
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It has six divisions covering tithing, feasts, sabbaths, temple service, ritual cleansing, women, and various crimes
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And in its printed form, the Mishnah can reach to over 1,000 pages in length!
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Obviously, that’s a lot of additional burden, so to ensure the Jewish people respected the Mishnah, the Pharisees eventually claimed it was equal to Scripture
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Despite the fact that the Mishnah wasn’t written by Moses, the Pharisees claimed Moses received it from God
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They claimed God communicated the Mishnah orally to Moses, not in writing
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Over the centuries, it was passed down orally through the elders and priests of Israel
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Only after the Jews’ return from exile in Babylon did the scribes write it down, supposedly under the inspiration of the Spirit
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So the Pharisees began calling the Mishnah an “oral” Law, which complimented God’s written Word
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So the Jews of Jesus’ day had two forms of “Scripture”
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They had true Scripture, called the Law and the Prophets
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And they had an additional work of so-called Scripture called the Mishnah
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It’s similar to the way Mormons claim that both the Bible and the Book of Mormon are Scripture
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But also like the Mormons, in practice, the only book the Jews actually studied and followed was the oral Law, the Mishnah
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So, when Jesus’ accusers lined up to say he was abolishing the Law or the Prophets, what they actually meant was He was disobeying the oral law
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His accusers made no distinction between these two works
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In fact, the Pharisees were more disturbed by a violation of the Mishnah than they were of a violation of God’s Word
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Today in Israel, it’s a far greater scandal to set butter on your dinner plate in a kosher home than it is to commit fornication
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So when we read about Jesus being accused of violating the Law, we need to understand they mean the oral law
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But Jesus wanted His disciples to understand that these two works, Scripture vs. the Mishnah, were not equivalent
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One came from God, but the other was given by men
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One was the way to life and godliness, but the other was merely a means of self-righteousness
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One must be accomplished, but the other must be abolished
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And I think Jesus chose the idiom He used in v.18 to clarify where His allegiances were
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Jesus was committed to every letter and stroke of the written Word, the true Word of God
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But He cared nothing for the Pharisees’ so-called oral law
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This one issue explains everything you need to know about why the Pharisees hated Jesus
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If Jesus invalidated their treasured Mishnah, then what would happen to the Pharisees’ power over the people?
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If the people realized that the Mishnah’s requirements were not sent from God, then the Pharisees instantly became irrelevant
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Because their power and wealth was based in their expertise of the Mishnah, not in the Word of God
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So at the core of their conflict, was the fight over the authority of Scripture vs. the teaching of men
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The Pharisees claimed their teaching was equal to the Word of God, and therefore they substituted it for the Bible
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Jesus disputed the Pharisees’ claims and even blatantly ignored the Mishnah at times, especially when it conflicted with righteousness
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For example, in every case where Jesus is accused of violating the Sabbath, he is actually violating the Mishnah’s rules concerning Sabbath observance
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And those rules were not God’s definition of how to keep the Sabbath
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This same conflict continues today, because the enemy knows how important discrediting the Word of God is in his war with God
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And the enemy works to discredit the Word of God with two versions of the same lie
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To the irreligious of the world, Satan lies by telling them the Word of God is nonsense, full of myth and error
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And therefore they can ignore it, and they gladly do
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But to the zealous of the world, Satan’s lie goes in the opposite direction
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To that group, he says that Scripture is so holy and special we can’t begin to understand it without expert assistance
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It’s like your mom’s special china…so precious, you never actually use it to eat
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Or like someone who buys a really nice couch, but then covers it with plastic
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The Word of God is so special, we don’t actually read it or learn what it says
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Instead, we need priests or popes or sages or imams…or Pharisees to interpret it for us
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And for the same reason, they study their books, books like the Mishnah or the Catholic Catechism or the Book of Mormon, rather than the actual Word
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Both lies have the same effect…Satan takes our eyes off of the truth and replaces it with nonsense dressed up to look like it’s from God
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For those who care nothing for religion, their eyes go to the Creation or to themselves, instead of to the Word
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And for those who are zealous, he directs their eyes to false teaching that obscures the Word
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We need to guard against falling into this same trap today
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There are many Christians studying in Bible studies or small groups and when they gather, the book they open isn’t the Bible
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They open books written about the Bible
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Men study pamphlets about how to live a manly life, women watch emotional videos of how to live a victorious life
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Teens read books about how to avoid sex and drugs, etc.
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We think we’ve learned something about the Bible, but we probably didn’t – we were probably just entertained
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That stuff is fine, but only if it’s a supplement to – not a substitute for – the Bible
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By knowing the Bible, you’ll be able to filter that stuff; you’ll know what was good and what was not
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If we’re not careful, we risk focusing on our own “mishnahs” rather than turning to the one Book actually offering truth on all these matters
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That’s the key issue behind His conflict with the Pharisees
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Jesus said He came to uphold and fulfill the irreplaceable, irrefutable, unequaled Word of God
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But just as assuredly, He came to tear down the worthless manmade rule books that distract people from that truth
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That’s why Verse By Verse Fellowship exists…to reassert the importance of Christians knowing and obeying the Word of God
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Even as we know and follow the One Who fulfilled it all
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If you want to know how serious Jesus is about elevating the Word of God over the opinions of men, hear what He says in v.19
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Jesus says that anyone who advocates for the annulling or ignoring of even the least requirement of Scripture will be held accountable by God
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Such a person, Jesus says, will be least in the Kingdom
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Obviously, Jesus is speaking about those who would enter the Kingdom in the first place, that is, believers
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And Jesus says for believers who use their time on earth to weaken obedience to the Word of God, they forfeit their honor in the Kingdom
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In other words, there is no greater way for a believer to offend Christ than undermining the Word of God
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On the other hand, those who set their minds on obeying the Word of God, and teaching others to do the same, will be worthy of the greatest honor
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Because no one else will have done what He did…no one else can say that
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Jesus is making a veiled reference to Himself in that statement
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Because of course, Jesus will possess the greatest honor in the Kingdom, having obeyed all that the Word requires
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And having taught us all how to obey it by His Spirit
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So where does that leave the Pharisees?
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Remember, if you lived in that day, you saw these men as the most religious, most dedicated and fervent followers of God imaginable
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Won’t they receive honor for their respect of God’s Word?
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Well, notice Jesus adds in v.20, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom
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That’s like telling a Catholic that unless your righteousness exceeds the Pope, you can’t enter Heaven
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Or telling a Mormon that unless your righteousness exceeds Joseph Smith, you can’t enter
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Or telling a Muslim that you have to exceed the righteousness of Muhammed
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It’s shocking and unbelievable
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But it’s true…as scrupulous as the Pharisees were, they were still a long way from equaling the glory of God
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They may have tried their best, but in reality, they simply became practiced at following their own rules, rather than obeying God’s Word
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And as much as we may look down our noses at the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, we’re no better
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We do the same thing…we carefully define the rules we think make us holy so we can sleep at night
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For example, if we like to lie, but we never cheat on our spouse, then we tell ourselves that lying is no big deal to God
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But we’re going to Heaven, because He approves of our faithfulness in marriage
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Or we judge homosexuals or murderers or pagans by saying, “There’s no way that person is going to heaven”
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Conveniently forgetting our own lusts or hatred of others or devotion to materialism
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That’s being a Pharisee, and Jesus says it’s not good enough to get into Heaven
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So how do you get into Heaven? You have to be perfect like Jesus
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Which means you need Jesus
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You have to receive His perfection on your behalf
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You have to put your faith in Him or you won’t be in Heaven
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That’s why Jesus came…to bring you into the Kingdom with Him
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