Last Week's Sermon
"Fulfilling the Law"
Scripture Passages: 1) Matthew 7:24-27
2) Exodus 20:1-21
3) Matthew 5:17-20
Letter of the Law: The Ten Commandments! The basis for many legal systems around the world! As you reflect on the law do you tend to be more of a letter of the law person, or do you tend to think that laws are meant to be broken? (Pause)
Why? What has formed that particular bent in you? (Pause)
I tend to be more of a letter of the law person. Deb tends to be more of a, laws are meant to be broken person. As you can imagine or perhaps have experienced in your own life that difference has been an interesting part of our journey together.
I tend to be a letter of the law person because growing up I was affirmed for “being good”. My self-worth came from following the law. I grew up in a household with a fairly black and white legalism about most issues. Step outside those lines and all of a sudden you had little value. As a kid you want to have value in your parent’s eyes.
Over the last 20 plus years of pastoral ministry I have walked with hundreds of people with highly varied life stories. All those stories have softened my perspective greatly. I have come to see that our lives are much more complicated than they often seem. Our lives often have much more gray than we sometimes want to admit, at least from the perspective I grew up with.
The Sermon on the Mount: Today we return to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon begins with the beatitudes, words of powerful mercy and love. Jesus began the Sermon with words of blessing because he knew that we cannot be a blessing until we have been blessed. So Jesus began the Sermon with the great foundation stone of grace.
Christian theology begins with God’s grace. I think that is the most powerful aspect of infant baptism. The infant can do nothing but be a recipient of God’s grace. He cannot earn it. She cannot ask for it. The infant can only receive the free gift.
God, sent Jesus to be our savior not because of anything we have done, but solely because God loves us. Christian theology begins with God’s grace. But God’s grace is not cheap grace. God’s grace calls for a response. Thus, Jesus’ sermon now turns to Jesus’ seven commandments.
One person described this critical point in the Sermon on the Mount this way, “God loves me enough to accept me the way I am [the Beatitudes], but too much to leave me that way [the Commands].” Have you ever thought of God’s law in that light? God’s law is a gift because God loves us too much to leave us the way we are; when God has created us for so much more.
As Jesus begins to describe our response to God’s grace this idea that God loves us too much to leave us the way we are, may be a helpful insight. Listen as Jesus continues to lay a foundation for our lives. Read Matthew 5:17-20.
Scripture: When Jesus says here, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets”, “law and prophets” is code language for the Scriptures. The Scriptures of Jesus’ day were the law and the prophets, there was no New Testament. Jesus’ Bible was the Law and the Prophets.
The Message translation says just that, “Don’t suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures – either God’s Law or the Prophets.” Bruner states it well. He writes, “The sense of this passage—Jesus’ only book review—is Jesus’ mandate to love Scripture and to live to keep it.” Love Scripture and live to keep it. If we want to respond to God’s grace we are to love Scripture and live to keep it.
When you think of your life’s purpose do you think of living to keep God’s Word? Jesus poses that very question at this turning point in his great Sermon. Jesus wants us to understand that we live to keep God’s Word not because we have to, not because it looks good on our record, not because of guilt or fear, but out of love for God’s free gift of grace. God gives us the law because God loves us too much to leave us to our own devices. Do we love God’s awesome gifts of grace and law enough that we choose to respond by living our lives keeping God’s Word? (Pause)
God’s Eternal Word: Jesus points out here that God’s law will still be alive and working long after the stars and earth, wear out. In other words God’s Word is eternal. God’s Word carries a weight and import that the ways of our world, the ways of our culture, our human made laws cannot begin to fathom or comprehend. Do we take that to heart as we consider the living of our lives each day? Following God’s Word, living God’s law is an eternal way of living. That may challenge the thinking, of our live for the moment, fast food, 4-G network world. Does the living of our lives have an eternal perspective or a text message perspective? Which do you think might be of more value and of a greater impact?
Verse 19 & Greatness: Jesus said, “Therefore whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
Or:
“Trivialize even the smallest item in God’s Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom.”
Jesus connects God’s law to our human striving for greatness. Do we want our lives to be trivial or great, and from whose perspective the culture or God?
I think for most of us this is a huge struggle. We want to be accepted. We want to receive praise from others. We want to be valued by the people around us. We want to be the greatest in the eyes of someone. We carry so much baggage about being great. And so we struggle valuing what God values. God’s law is a gift to help us live good and beautiful lives, lives that will make an eternal impact. God created the law because of God’s awesome love for us, but often we lose sight of that!
Verse 20 & Pharisees: Jesus ends this section with the astounding news that unless we live far better than the Pharisees, we will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven. That statement must have knocked the listeners off their feet. In Jesus’ day no one took following the law as seriously as the Pharisees. Jesus seemed to be stating the impossible. What could he be talking about?
God created the law out of love for us. God created the law because God wants the best for us. So do we follow the law because of our love for God? Do we follow the law because of our reverence for God and our respect for our neighbor? Jesus clearly points out here that following the law can be meaningless if the reason we follow the law is other than a response to God’s grace.
Do we follow the law as an act of our love for God? Is that our motive? Or is our motive something else? That will be Jesus’ question to us through the rest of the Sermon.
Jesus Fulfills the Law: Jesus lived his life as an act of love for God and us. Jesus’ love for God and us fulfilled the law, completed the law, taught the law, and points us to the true meaning of God’s Word and the true meaning of life itself.
Conclusion: Jesus said, “Take God’s Word seriously, show the way to others, and you will find honor in the Kingdom of God.” God loves us so much, God gives us the law, because God wants us to live life to the fullest, know joy beyond our imagination, and make a great impact on this earth for the very Kingdom of God. Will we come to understand God’s Word and law as gift, pure gift? Jesus prays that we will. Amen.
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