Matthew - Lesson 5C

• We’re studying through Jesus’ first sermon delivered during His earthly ministry, which we call “the Sermon on the Mount”

  • We’ve already studied the first sixteen verses of the sermon, including the well-known section called, “the Beatitudes”

    • In that section, Jesus declared that the Kingdom of God (or Heaven) was reserved for people who have a certain spiritual nature

    • Jesus gave nine traits of the Kingdom-bound person in His beatitudes

    • 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

  • As we learned, these traits are the spiritual fruit of a changed heart

    • By placing our faith in Jesus Christ, God changes our spirit so He may begin to develop these qualities in our nature  

    • As we live-out these Kingdom traits outwardly and consistently, we become salt and light for the world

    • This process marks the believer as different than the world, because it’s not the way the world thinks and acts

  • 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

    • They may have possessed authority over the nation’s spiritual life, and they were certainly experts in the customs and traditions of Israel

    • Nevertheless, Jesus exposed them as ignorant and blind when it came to knowing how to please God

• Now imagine if you were a member of the crowd gathered listening to Jesus

  • You are a Jew who has grown up under Pharisaical Judaism 

    • Since your youth, men like the Pharisees have been your teachers, your spiritual authorities, and your examples of godliness

    • Moreover, these men are the most scrupulous observers of the Law you’ve ever seen

  • Time and time again, you’ve been amazed at their self-discipline as they practiced the rules of the faith

    • They fasted several times every week

    • They washed themselves before every meal

    • They prayed long, intense public prayers several times daily 

    • They tithed on everything they received, even on the herbs growing in their garden

    • Simply put, you could not imagine someone more pleasing to God

• But now Jesus, a man clearly empowered to speak for God, has declared that the Pharisees’ demonstrations of piety counted for nothing with God

  • The Pharisees lacked humility and mercy and love

    • They were depending on their self-righteousness rather than relying on God’s mercy

    • They loved the money and power of this world, rather than seeking for the riches of the Kingdom to come

    • In short, Jesus has labeled the Pharisees as fakes, counterfeits, and frauds

  • Now as you take this in, you start wondering what, if anything, you’ve been taught is correct and true?

    • Jesus has rocked your world, calling into question everything Jewish culture held dear

    • Because if the Pharisees weren’t God’s spokesmen, then what about the Law & traditions they commanded everyone to follow?

    • Was Moses wrong also? Are the feasts irrelevant? Was the temple service invalid?

    • Was Jesus advocating that it all be thrown out?

  • I think Jesus knew His listeners would have these concerns, so in the next section of His sermon, Jesus reassures the crowd 

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.

• 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

  • You may know that this statement has been a source of considerable controversy in the Church 

    • 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

    • They maintain this despite the consistent and unequivocal teaching of Scripture that Christians are NOT under law

    • Instead, we have been freed from the Law by grace

    • Nevertheless, some use Jesus' words here to defend their assertion

  • 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

    • First, let’s understand what Jesus actually said

    • He said that He did not come to abolish “the Law or the Prophets”

    • For a Jew, the phrase “the Law or the Prophets” was their way of saying “the whole Bible”

    • Since the New Testament didn’t exist in Jesus’ day, the Jewish Bible wasn’t called the Old Testament

    • Instead, they called the Bible “the Law and the Prophets” or sometimes “Moses and the Prophets”

  • So in effect, Jesus said, “I didn’t come to abolish the Bible”

    • And of course, Jesus never advocated for doing away with the Word of God, for after all, Jesus IS the Word

    • Jesus was not a revolutionary…He didn’t advocate anarchy or lawlessness

  • 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

    • Jesus was answering critics who claimed He was encouraging Jews to ignore all of God’s Word

    • 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

    • 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 

    • And when we do, we find Scripture telling us consistently that the answer is, “No” (see Romans study)

• Returning to our passage, we could translate Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:17 this way:

  • 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

    • Jesus came as a man to live in perfect compliance with God’s Word, never committing even a single act of sin

    • Since Jesus was born a Jew under the Law, He also lived in perfect compliance with all the requirements of Israel’s Law

    • And more than that, Jesus also fulfilled all the prophecies spoken by the prophets concerning the Messiah

    • Some of these prophecies Jesus has yet to fulfill, but He will do so at His Second Coming and in the Kingdom

  • Jesus was perfectly righteous in all that He thought and said and did 

    • Therefore, by His earthly life, He brought to pass all that Scripture requires and promises

    • 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

    • His perfect life sets the standard for our entry into Heaven, the Bible says

    • The Bible describes Christ’s perfect life as equaling the glory of God

  • Only those who equal the glory of God are eligible to enter into His presence

    • Jesus meets that standard because He is God

    • But the Bible also says that everyone else ever born has fallen short of that standard

    • Romans 3:23 says that all humanity has sinned and therefore all have fallen short of the glory of God

  • We are born sinners and so by our nature, we stand no chance of meeting the standard Christ set

    • We start sinning before we even know what sin is

    • That’s why Jesus came, He says, to accomplish all that the Word of God required because we couldn’t do it

    • And then, when we place our faith in Jesus as our substitute, the Father is willing to credit us with Jesus’ perfection

    • 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

• 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

  • Jesus testifies that the Word of God is going to stand the test of time and be proven right in the end

    • 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

    • In fact, Jesus says the physical universe itself is less enduring than the Word of God

  • When you consider the vastness of space and the enormity of planets and stars and galaxies, remember it will all pass away one day

    • And after it’s gone, and we’re experiencing what God has prepared for us afterward, this same Word will be with us

    • So if you think the Universe is unshakable, what does that say about the Word of God?

    • Jesus says everything in this Word will come to pass exactly as God has spoken…and Jesus fulfills it all for us

  • In that verse, Jesus uses a uniquely Jewish idiom to emphasize His point

    • He says that not the smallest letter or stroke of the Word would go unaccomplished

    • Jesus is referring to characteristics of the written Hebrew language

    • The smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet is called a “jot” in English, and it’s barely the size of an apostrophe  

    • Secondly, in the Hebrew alphabet, some characters are distinguished from one another merely by slight protrusions, called “strokes”

  • 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

    • And therefore, every detail in Scripture, no matter how minor, will come to pass and cannot be set aside

    • Today, we have a doctrine built on Jesus’ statement…the inerrancy of Scripture

    • Every word in the original written manuscripts is exactly as God intended, with no mistake or error

    • Not even a single letter is out of place

    • 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

    • We believe it, because Jesus said it

  • 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

    • Those who accuse Jesus of trying to tear down God’s Word are dead wrong

    • He is so committed to it, that He will comply with everything it says, down to the least detail

    • Which was more than His critics could claim for themselves

• But Jesus referenced these features of written Hebrew in His idiom to make another point concerning the Pharisees

  • Jesus was implying that He was NOT interested in complying with the Pharisees’ oral law

    • Remember a couple of weeks ago, I explained how the scribes had created a vast set of rules and traditions for Jewish life

    • These rules were first developed following the Jewish return from captivity in Babylon 

    • They were intended as a form of protection to ensure Israel never violated Scripture again and thus, never be sent into captivity again

    • The scribes called their new rules “fences” because they were barriers to violating Scripture

    • If you kept the scribes’ rules, then you would have no possibility of violating Scripture, or so they assumed

  • A classic example of a “fence” is the kosher requirement to never combine meat and dairy

    • In kosher kitchens, meat products and dairy products are never combined or served together

    • 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

  • Obviously, this restriction isn’t spelled out in the Law given to Moses, so why did the scribes propose it?

    • In Exodus, and again Deuteronomy, the Lord instructs Israel not to boil a young goat in its mother’s milk

    • This practice was uniquely associated with Baal worship among the Canaanites 

    • 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

    • So God gave this law to Israel to keep them from participating in Canaanite idolatry 

• 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

  • They focused entirely on the logistics involved and overlooked the spiritual purpose of the law

    • The rabbis wondered what would happen if a Jew bought a young goat from a certain butcher

    • And then that same Jew also bought milk from a farmer in the market

    • But unbeknownst to that Jew, the milk he purchased just happened to come from the mother of that young goat

    • If that Jew then cooked the goat in the milk, he would have broken the law, the scribes concluded

  • So to preclude any possibility of such an accidental violation, they established rules barring the mixing of meat with dairy

    • Over the centuries, later rabbis came along and expanded on the rules of the prior rabbis

    • So the fences continued to grow ever more encompassing

    • Until eventually, the rabbis reached the point of requiring separate dishes and pots and pans

    • And that, my friends, is why even today in Israel you cannot order a cheeseburger at a kosher McDonald’s 

  • Once these rabbinical rules became firmly entrenched in Jewish culture, the original intent of God’s Law had long been lost

    • What started as a prohibition of engaging in Canaanite pagan worship had become a silly concern about cheese sitting on a burger

    • In fact, by the time the rabbis had decided to outlaw the mixing of meat and dairy, the Canaanites were extinct!

    • Nevertheless, their rules live on without purpose or reason, and with little or no relationship to the Word of God

• Over the centuries, the Pharisees’ rules were assembled into a book called the Mishnah

  • Mishnah means “repetition”, because it was taught through repetition, and it records centuries of rabbinical “scope creep”

    • By Jesus’ day, the Mishnah’s reach extended far beyond simply prohibiting the mixing of meat and dairy 

    • It has six divisions covering tithing, feasts, sabbaths, temple service, ritual cleansing, women, and various crimes

    • And in its printed form, the Mishnah can reach to over 1,000 pages in length! 

  • 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

    • Despite the fact that the Mishnah wasn’t written by Moses, the Pharisees claimed Moses received it from God

    • They claimed God communicated the Mishnah orally to Moses, not in writing

    • Over the centuries, it was passed down orally through the elders and priests of Israel

    • Only after the Jews’ return from exile in Babylon did the scribes write it down, supposedly under the inspiration of the Spirit

    • So the Pharisees began calling the Mishnah an “oral” Law, which complimented God’s written Word

  • So the Jews of Jesus’ day had two forms of “Scripture”

    • They had true Scripture, called the Law and the Prophets

    • And they had an additional work of so-called Scripture called the Mishnah

    • It’s similar to the way Mormons claim that both the Bible and the Book of Mormon are Scripture

    • But also like the Mormons, in practice, the only book the Jews actually studied and followed was the oral Law, the Mishnah

• 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

  • His accusers made no distinction between these two works

    • In fact, the Pharisees were more disturbed by a violation of the Mishnah than they were of a violation of God’s Word

    • 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  

    • So when we read about Jesus being accused of violating the Law, we need to understand they mean the oral law 

  • But Jesus wanted His disciples to understand that these two works, Scripture vs. the Mishnah, were not equivalent

    • One came from God, but the other was given by men

    • One was the way to life and godliness, but the other was merely a means of self-righteousness

    • One must be accomplished, but the other must be abolished

  • And I think Jesus chose the idiom He used in v.18 to clarify where His allegiances were

    • Jesus was committed to every letter and stroke of the written Word, the true Word of God

    • But He cared nothing for the Pharisees’ so-called oral law

• This one issue explains everything you need to know about why the Pharisees hated Jesus

  • If Jesus invalidated their treasured Mishnah, then what would happen to the Pharisees’ power over the people?

    • If the people realized that the Mishnah’s requirements were not sent from God, then the Pharisees instantly became irrelevant 

    • Because their power and wealth was based in their expertise of the Mishnah, not in the Word of God

  • So at the core of their conflict, was the fight over the authority of Scripture vs. the teaching of men

    • The Pharisees claimed their teaching was equal to the Word of God, and therefore they substituted it for the Bible

    • Jesus disputed the Pharisees’ claims and even blatantly ignored the Mishnah at times, especially when it conflicted with righteousness

    • For example, in every case where Jesus is accused of violating the Sabbath, he is actually violating the Mishnah’s rules concerning Sabbath observance

    • And those rules were not God’s definition of how to keep the Sabbath

• This same conflict continues today, because the enemy knows how important discrediting the Word of God is in his war with God

  • And the enemy works to discredit the Word of God with two versions of the same lie

    • To the irreligious of the world, Satan lies by telling them the Word of God is nonsense, full of myth and error

    • And therefore they can ignore it, and they gladly do

  • But to the zealous of the world, Satan’s lie goes in the opposite direction

    • To that group, he says that Scripture is so holy and special we can’t begin to understand it without expert assistance

    • It’s like your mom’s special china…so precious, you never actually use it to eat

    • Or like someone who buys a really nice couch, but then covers it with plastic

  • The Word of God is so special, we don’t actually read it or learn what it says

    • Instead, we need priests or popes or sages or imams…or Pharisees to interpret it for us 

    • 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

  • 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 

    • For those who care nothing for religion, their eyes go to the Creation or to themselves, instead of to the Word

    • And for those who are zealous, he directs their eyes to false teaching that obscures the Word

  • We need to guard against falling into this same trap today

    • There are many Christians studying in Bible studies or small groups and when they gather, the book they open isn’t the Bible

    • They open books written about the Bible

    • Men study pamphlets about how to live a manly life, women watch emotional videos of how to live a victorious life

    • Teens read books about how to avoid sex and drugs, etc. 

    • We think we’ve learned something about the Bible, but we probably didn’t – we were probably just entertained

    • That stuff is fine, but only if it’s a supplement to – not a substitute for – the Bible

    • By knowing the Bible, you’ll be able to filter that stuff; you’ll know what was good and what was not

  • 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

    • That’s the key issue behind His conflict with the Pharisees

    • Jesus said He came to uphold and fulfill the irreplaceable, irrefutable, unequaled Word of God

    • But just as assuredly, He came to tear down the worthless manmade rule books that distract people from that truth

    • That’s why Verse By Verse Fellowship exists…to reassert the importance of Christians knowing and obeying the Word of God

    • Even as we know and follow the One Who fulfilled it all

• 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

  • Jesus says that anyone who advocates for the annulling or ignoring of even the least requirement of Scripture will be held accountable by God

    • Such a person, Jesus says, will be least in the Kingdom

    • Obviously, Jesus is speaking about those who would enter the Kingdom in the first place, that is, believers

    • 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

    • In other words, there is no greater way for a believer to offend Christ than undermining the Word of God

  • 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

    • Because no one else will have done what He did…no one else can say that 

    • Jesus is making a veiled reference to Himself in that statement

    • Because of course, Jesus will possess the greatest honor in the Kingdom, having obeyed all that the Word requires 

    • And having taught us all how to obey it by His Spirit

• So where does that leave the Pharisees?

  • Remember, if you lived in that day, you saw these men as the most religious, most dedicated and fervent followers of God imaginable

    • Won’t they receive honor for their respect of God’s Word?

    • Well, notice Jesus adds in v.20, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom

  • That’s like telling a Catholic that unless your righteousness exceeds the Pope, you can’t enter Heaven

    • Or telling a Mormon that unless your righteousness exceeds Joseph Smith, you can’t enter

    • Or telling a Muslim that you have to exceed the righteousness of Muhammed

    • It’s shocking and unbelievable

  • But it’s true…as scrupulous as the Pharisees were, they were still a long way from equaling the glory of God

    • They may have tried their best, but in reality, they simply became practiced at following their own rules, rather than obeying God’s Word

    • And as much as we may look down our noses at the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, we’re no better

    • We do the same thing…we carefully define the rules we think make us holy so we can sleep at night

  • 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

    • But we’re going to Heaven, because He approves of our faithfulness in marriage

    • Or we judge homosexuals or murderers or pagans by saying, “There’s no way that person is going to heaven”

    • Conveniently forgetting our own lusts or hatred of others or devotion to materialism 

    • That’s being a Pharisee, and Jesus says it’s not good enough to get into Heaven

  • So how do you get into Heaven? You have to be perfect like Jesus

    • Which means you need Jesus

    • You have to receive His perfection on your behalf 

    • You have to put your faith in Him or you won’t be in Heaven

    • That’s why Jesus came…to bring you into the Kingdom with Him