MOVING INTO APPLICATION

Matthew 5:17-20 (CSB) –  “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

A great Sermon – such as the Sermon on the Mount has three essential ingredients:

·      Explanation—you explain the principles you want to get across. We all need to have the right principles in place in our lives. People who go wrong in practice invariably had the wrong principles behind it all. What you believe always affects how you behave.

·      Illustration—you paint a word picture to help open the eyes of the listeners. It’s like a window that shines the light of truth into people’s hearts.

·      Application—you make it relevant to the people listening. Jesus did this, because He knew our human nature, that we will listen to explanations and illustrations, but we resist making the personal application to ourselves.

We may apply it to others, but we need someone else to help apply it to us! It’s during application that many preachers get into trouble. People don’t mind me explaining Biblical principles or illustrating them, but if I go applying it to them, personally, well, the nerve of that guy!

I heard about a black preacher, who had a very vocal congregation! He preached to them, and they preached back to him [like saying ‘sic ‘em’ to a dog!] He used all 3 elements above to teach the principle of getting the church to grow.

He illustrated church growth by the growth of a child:

“If the church is gonna grow, she’ll have to learn to crawl.

And all the people responded: “let her crawl, preacher, let her crawl.”

“If the church is gonna grow, she’ll have to learn to walk.”

“let her walk, preacher, let her walk.”

“If the church is gonna grow, she’ll have to learn to run.”

“let her run, preacher, let her run.”

“If the church is gonna grow, she’ll have to learn to fly.”

“let her fly, preacher, let her fly.”

All was at a fevered pitch, so it was time to make his application. He said,

“If the church is ever gonna walk, run, and fly, it’s gonna take lots of money!”

And they all said together, “let her crawl, preacher, let her crawl!”

Well, in this great sermon of Jesus, He’s already given us the explanation…the beatitudes: How we enter / express / enjoy the kingdom of God. After His explanation He gave 2 great illustrations, of salt and light. “Salt that penetrates and light that radiates”. Now Jesus moves to His application.

Since He’s preaching to Jewish people who have only the OT, He makes His application there. He knows that a good Jew will take what He’s preaching and lay it beside their OT scroll and see how it measures up. We need to see how what is said measures up to God’s standards. More than that, we need to see how we measure up to God’s standards.

Tomorrow, we will start with the Redeemer and the Law.