The Gospel of the Kingdom - Matthew - Jesus and the Law - Part 1

 

Text: Matthew 5:17-20 – ““Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.”

We last spoke about our Kingdom Actions in being the Salt and Light in this world. Moving forward we are going to look as Jesus speaks about the Kingdom and the Law.

Remember that Christianity was (and is) a product of Judaism. The Old Testament traces the foundation of the need and provision of a Redeemer for mankind. God was working through the Hebrew people to send His message to a world that had moved away from Him.

I was taught that a great Sermon – such as the Sermon on the Mount has three essential ingredients:

1. 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.    
2.  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.
3. 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 a personal application to ourselves. We may apply it to others, but we need someone else to help apply it to us! It’s also 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!

Let me illustrate with a story I once heard about a 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.  Now, since He’s preaching to Jewish people who have only the Old Testament, He makes His application from there. He knows that a good Jew will take what He’s preaching and lay it beside their Old Testament scroll and see how it measures up.

We need to see how what is said measures up to God’s standards. We need to see how we measure up. Put on your seat belts as tomorrow we look at what this passage says.