JESUS AND THE LAW #1
MATTHEW 5:17-20, 27-30 LESSON # 4
ENTERING THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN: RADICALIZING THE LAW

I. Introduction:
Q Can following the Mosaic Law save us from our sins?
Q If the Law cannot save us, what is the role of the Mosaic Law?
An = Paul reminds us, it can show us our sin, but its primary function in the Old Testament ass as a response to His mighty action of saving. It was God who opened the Red Sea, not the prayers or righteousness of the Israelites. God saved Israel from slavery by His mercy. Israel was given the change to maintain their freedom by obedience to His Law.
The Mosaic Law was given at Mt. Sinai which took place after the saving event at the Rea Sea. In the Old Testament, salvation preceded Law.
Like the people of the Old Testament we are kept free by the Law in two ways. First, it is our response in gratitude to His salvation and our means of saying “thank you”. Second, as we obey the Law it frees us from our selfishness. This was how it functioned for Israel.
Q How does the Old Testament Law function in the Christian life today?
An = After they give their answers, then you begin.
Note: It is often said that Jesus did away with the laws of the Old Testament or that we are under grace now, so the Old Testament does not apply. Jesus would disagree. First, it is true that something “new” arrived in the history of mankind when Jesus Christ came to earth.
Second, in Christ the fullness of God was revealed. Jesus Christ’s is God’s Son. His Father is the God of the Old Testament. And the Father and the Son are One.
Note: Our aim today is to see some of what Jesus thought about the Law or the Old Testament. After all if Jesus is the head of the Church, then it makes sense to see what He thinks about the Old Testament. After all, it is Jesus, who is God.

II. The Eternality of The Law. Matthew 5:17-20.
>>>> Have someone read Matthew 5:17-19.
Note: The Old Testament in Jesus’ day was often referred to as the “Law and the Prophets”.
Q What was Jesus saying in 5:17 and 18?
An = In verse 17 He said He came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. In verse 18 He said not the smallest letter of the Old Testament shall pass away until all was accomplished.
Q What was Jesus saying in 5:19?
An = In verse 19 He issued a warning: our greatness as teachers is diminished if we degrade the Old Testament and our use to the Kingdom of God is made greater if we teach it.
QQ On a scale of 1-10 what was Jesus’ view of the Old Testament?
An = It was definitely a 10!
Note: Perhaps the most difficult verse of these three to understand is 5:17. Jesus said He “fulfilled the Law”? Jesus seemed to be aware of this difficulty and that was why He said verse 20. Verse 20 will explain verse 17 and all the rest of chapter 5 will illustrate what 5:20 meant. So let’s read 5:20.
>>>> Have someone read Matthew 5:20.
Q What was Jesus saying here?
An = Jesus seemed to be saying this verse was the key to entering heaven. That is an important thing.
Q So, how do we enter the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven?
An = Our righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
Q Who were these gentlemen? Who and what did they represent that we must exceed their life style or we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven?
An = The Pharisees were the most religiously scrupulous people of their society. They firmly believed in the Old Testament as the Word of God. They claimed that they were strict adherents of the Bible. They were highly regarded and were respected leaders in society. I often liken them to the Conservative Evangelicals of our day. Evangelicals say they really try to live a godly life and take seriously the teachings of the Bible. The Pharisees were lay leaders much like our serious deacons, trustees, and elders of Evangelical churches.
Another group during Jesus day was called scribes. Scribes were the biblical scholars of their day. They were experts in the Bible. They were the professors of religion of their time or the Bible Ph.d’s of their day.
Q So what was Jesus saying?
An = To enter His kingdom one’s righteousness must exceed the righteousness of even the most respected leaders of their day. This sounds very discouraging to me. When I read this as a child I was pretty disheartened. This is bad news to most of us in the room today. After all Jesus is the one who defines who gets into heaven, and what He said sounds almost impossible to accomplish for most of us.
RQ Should we all give up? Is not heaven just impossible to obtain?
Note: What will follow in the next few verses is a series of six examples of what Jesus meant by our “righteousness exceeding that of the Pharisees” and what He meant in 5:17 when He said He came to “fulfill” the Old Testament. In other words, what did He mean by “fulfill” or “fill up” and what did He mean by “exceed”? The next six examples will demonstrate in practical terms what He meant.
Note: There is a pattern in Matthew 5:21-48. It is a definite, easy to observe, pattern that is found six times in the rest of the chapter. We will look at one of these examples and look at the others in the next few weeks. All six of these examples answer the question: What does “exceed” and “fulfill” mean?

III. The Pattern and An Example. Matthew 5:27-302.
A. The Pattern:
Note: Let us first examine the pattern to how Jesus taught how the Law was to be fulfilled or how He practically explained how those who wished to enter the kingdom of heaven must “exceed” the righteousness of the established religion of the day. The pattern was simply this. It had three steps sometimes followed by a fourth. The pattern is….
1) Jesus quoted the Old Testament by either saying “you have heard” or “it was said”. Most people of that day did not own a Bible and so they heard the Scriptures read each time they went to synagogue, the Temple, etc. So Jesus first quotes the Old Testament as authority.
2) Jesus then followed with “four words” “But I tell you…” in the NIV and there are “five words” in the NASB, RSV, KJ “But I say unto you…”
Note: The revolutionary statement of these words is astounding. After quoting the Bible Jesus claimed enormous authority when He added but I say…. That is like me saying this is what the Bible says “but this is what I say….” These were fighting words to Jesus’ contemporaries; Jesus was making serious and alarming claims here.
Note: Jesus was doing to the Old Testament Law what the Holy Spirit had already done to the Law in the Old Testament. Jesus, like the Prophets, was radically applying the Torah to contemporary situations.
3) Finally Jesus gave an application of that portion of Scripture that “exceeded” the religious practice of the day. His application went further along the very spirit of that Law, and brought it to its “fulfillment”.
4) Finally, sometimes there was additional help that Jesus gave His audience to help them implement His teaching.
B. An Example of the Pattern: Purity of Heart. Matthew 5:27-30.
>>>> Have someone read Matthew 5:27-30.
Q Do you see the pattern?
An = Do you see the first part in 5:27 where Jesus quoted the Law. This time it was one of the Ten Commandments: the seventh commandment or Exodus 20:14. Then in verse 28 is the famous words, But I tell you (NIV). Then the rest of verse 28 explains the “further purity”, or “how to exceed”, or “how to really fulfill” God’s real heart in this matter. Finally, this particular example of the pattern also has “additional helps”.
Q If we go back to verse 28, what in essence was Jesus saying?
An = In essence Jesus said: “not only are you not to commit sexual sin with another man’s wife but you are not to even “scope a woman down”. You are not to even “fanaticize” about her sexually. This is radical and exceeded the actual command not to commit physical adultery. The men in the audience knew how “exceeding” this application was.
Q You may say this is “too hard”. How many in the room are adulterers with Jesus’ definition?
An = This condemns all of us men. Every man in this room has had illicit sexual fantasies. We would never want someone to have sex with your wife or your daughter if they were not married to them, nor would we want them “scoping down” our mother, wife or daughter with lecherous eyes. Jesus was showing us a higher, greater way to be righteous in the realm of sexual behavior. You see Jesus had articulated what “our best” would point to.
Note: One other note. I said sometimes Jesus added a fourth part to the pattern. This application of the Old Testament does have the fourth part. Here we will see not just Jesus’ will but something more. We can see part of His heart, the heart of God.
Jesus did not want us to be condemned in guilt and left there. To be sure we deserve to be condemned in guilt because our hearts are guilty. However, His thinking is greater than what we often think. He wanted us to go to heaven and not be left in condemnation, and He wanted us to live so that we can control of ourselves sexually here in on earth! He wanted us to know how to live so that His will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
Q How would we begin to enter His Kingdom or where Jesus Christ reigns in us?
An = Let us see how He wished to help us.
>>>> Let me re-read Matthew 5:29-30.
Q Was Jesus telling us to cut out our eyes when we see a cute girl on the beach, or cut off our right hand as we reach for pornography?
Q = Was the mark of true Christian males that they only have left hands and wore patches over their right eyes?
An = No, He was speaking metaphorically. I think Jesus clearly had something else in mind here. Martin Luther says you cannot stop the birds from flying over your head but you can stop them from building nests in your hair. As sexual creatures we cannot help but being excited by the human body, but we can help what movies we see, and what magazines we buy or what web sites we visit. We can help by getting out of situations, that in, and of themselves, are not wrong but cause us to stumble sexually.
Note: The right hand in the Ancient Near East was the “best hand”, the right eye, the “best eye”. Jesus was saying sometimes it is best to get rid of something that in and of itself is not wrong but it leads to our destruction.
EX 1 Those who know something of Alcoholics Anonymous, or a twelve step program know that alcoholics do not “modify” their drinking they eliminate it. A glass of good wine at dinner, a cold beer at the end of a hard day is not wrong but it would begin the destruction of an alcoholic trying to quit drinking alchohol.
Ex 2 The beach is beautiful, but for years I did not often go, because so many poor girls went there. They were so poor that they could not afford a full bathing suit, they could only afford those skimpy things that exposed a great deal. Poor girls!! Is the beach wrong? No! Are attractive girls wrong? No! But for me to see them like that only made me lust. The body was made by God. A quick look at the Song of Solomon clearly shows the celebration and appreciation the Bible wants us to have towards sex and the human body. It does not say the body is wrong but that “lust” is wrong.
Note: If I am serious, I must radically cut out of my life what causes me to stumble. If I do not then I prove I do not want His will to be mine” on earth as it is in heaven. What I am willing to cut out reveals who I really am, and what I really want.
Q So what was Jesus doing here?
An = Jesus said nothing about being “baptized” here as necessary or as helpful in getting into heaven. If we want to enter Jesus’ kingdom, then we must “exceed the religiosity of our day”.
Q If baptism does not save us, if being a “decent man or women” does not save us then what does?
An = You have to want to be truly in His kingdom. You have to want it above all other things. It must dominate all of your life. You will need His help. You will need the help of God’s Holy Spirit. It can be done. Jesus wants us in heaven. The only problem is that we cannot get there on our terms.
What Jesus’ Words may point out is that we are a cultural Christian. We are not willing to be radical and let God truly be our King. I struggle just as you do and sometimes and it helps me to remember Matthew 5:6: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled. I have to want sexual purity so bad I am willing to cut things out of my life that I know lead me into temptation.
Note: Many of you know both ministers and priests that have hurt others by their sexual activity. His word to Christian leaders is to discipline ourselves to cut out anything in our behavior that could lead us to sin.