Jesus and the Old Testament (Mt. 5:17-20)

Here’s my sermon from this past Sunday, where I talk about how Jesus fulfills the Old Testament law. You can catch the audio and video here.

Friends, we want a standard we can reach for ourselves. And we want someone to tell us how we can go about reaching it. That’s what I want us to wrestle with today.

We’re in an age where the Bible is questioned, where it’s ridiculed, as a guide, and as a standard. And in a day when self-betterment resources also are everywhere. And in a world that is more and more instant, and more and more visual, what it sadly results in is us getting those things more and more through images like memes and through media like Tic-Toc.

On May 3rd, a Tucson, Arizona native posted what was purported to be a video of him removing a Gila Monster from his garage. But in the video, that went viral, the man claims that the Gila Monster is one of the most venomous lizards  in the world. Experts say that it may not even be a Gila Monster in the video at all. And that the reptiles aren’t even that dangerous. There are no recorded deaths from Gila Monster bites. And they’re rarely even seen. And are not that aggressive when they are. But one dude with an iPhone and a TicToc viral video can give a lizard a bad name.

Today, social media is littered with people speaking about spirituality whose credentials are no better than this man. People ripping on the Bible. People telling people how they can live better lives. People telling us what we want to hear. People who are far more dangerous than any Gila Monster. Because, to raise themselves higher, they lower the standard of what God expects.

Now this is what the Pharisees are doing, back in Jesus’s day. But they are a part of the institution. They are trusted teachers. They are respected leaders. But they’re taking God’s word and are actually tearing it down. And they’re creating a standard they think they can live up to. And through their living and their teaching, they’re encouraging those around them to join them on that path. And here in Matthew, and throughout this Sermon on the Mount, Jesus calls them out as the truly dangerous monsters that they are.

The Pharisees accuse Jesus of destroying the Scriptures. For twisting them and distorting them. But Christ says here: it’s not Him. It’s them. They’re the ones perverting the word of God. He’s the one setting things straight. Here on this hill, we see a new and better Moses. We see Jesus take his words and give their true meaning.

We’ll look at six paragraphs each of the next several weeks here in chapter five. Each starts with basically the same words - ”you have heard that it was said.” And then Jesus straightens things out. Debunking one lie at a time. These verses, 17 through 20 of chapter 5, serve as an introduction to the rest of the chapter.

And Jesus here, on this mount, teaches the point, the goal of Scripture. And with it, He explains where it all goes, where it all points. Just how far deep it penetrates. Just how far wide it all extends. He tells us about the story of God’s word. And He tells about the standard of God’s word.

The Story and Jesus

First, let’s hear what He says about the story of God’s word. We’ll start by seeing Christ’s claim here. He says, in verse 17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Now in talking about the “Law or the Prophets,” Jesus is using a shorthand term that refers to the whole Jewish Bible - what makes up our Old Testaments. The Lord is saying, contrary to what those monsters were saying, “I’m not here to tear that all down. I’m here to fulfill it.” But what does He mean by that?

Now there are lots of kids running around here at Karis. And I know there are a lot of moms and dads with painful Lego wounds on their feet. We’ve all likely seen a situation where you have a kid playing with Legos, carefully building a structure and a kid walks up and kicks them over, tears it all down. Jesus is saying here - whatever those guys are saying, I’m not doing that. But imagine one of those adults is an artist, and can do things with Legos that you and I can’t imagine. And she takes that same box of Legos and turns them into this stunning sculpture of Jesus. That’s what the Lord is saying here. All of those words, all those pages - they take their shape in me. I, Jesus says, “Fulfill them.”

Now when we think of that word fulfillment, our mind usually just goes to prophecies - from our Old Testaments - that Jesus fulfills. We’ve already seen that kind of thing here in the book of Matthew. You may have been here, when we looked at chapter 2, where Matthew quotes Micah 5:2, that says Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. That’s just one example. But Christ’s fulfillment of the Old Testament is much bigger than that.

You may remember later in chapter 2, in verses 13-15, where Joseph takes Mary and the baby Jesus, and they flee to Egypt for awhile, and then return. And verse 15 reads, “This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken to the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I called my son.” There he quotes Hosea 11:1, and says Jesus fulfilled that. But how does that work? In the book of Hosea, it’s clearly talking about Israel, and them fleeing Egypt at the Exodus. Here’s how it works. It’s not just the obvious prophecies that Jesus fulfills. It’s the stories. They point to Jesus. The history of Israel. He is the true Son, that Israel, God’s chosen Son, points ahead to.

It all reaches ahead. It finds its fulfillment in Him. The temple, the sacrificial system. Christ is the temple, God’s presence come to earth. He’s the sacrifice - a full, final one - that allows us to approach that presence. And think about our theme here - “Our King, His Kingdom.” He’s the King that all those old kings longed for. He’s the new, better David. The Anointed One. The ruler, the hero we all want. And that Promised Land points to the Kingdom He’s establishing and will one day bring to completion. He’ll one day rule over the whole earth as King, with us, His chosen nation, right there with Him. All of our Old Testament comes together as one big arrow that points toward heaven, toward Jesus.

Now these four verses really serve as four steps. The first here is what Jesus claims - that He’s the point of the Law and the Prophets. That He’s not there tearing it down. In the second step, Jesus explains that statement. He gives a promise. Every single word still stands. Verse 18 again: “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Not an “iota” - there he’s using the name of a Greek letter to refer to the smallest Hebrew letter.

Not a “dot” - there he’s likely referring to the small dot that distinguishes several Hebrew letters. Jesus is saying, as the NIV puts it, “not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen,” is gonna go away until it’s all fulfilled. And that won’t happen until the end of this age, when this world passes away and the new heavens and new earth come. Jesus says, “These words can’t be destroyed. They’re gonna stand until the end, when they’re all fulfilled.”

But does Jesus really mean what He says here? Every word? Every letter? Really? It’s common for people to say something like this today: “You say that sex is for marriage and marriage is for a man and a woman - and you get that from the Bible? Hopefully, you’re staying away from shellfish and bacon. Hopefully you’re still making sacrifices in the temple. Hopefully you’re still stoning people who commit adultery.” And they drop the mic and walk away. But that sounds clever. It may get some applause. But it reveals a real ignorance of the Bible, and it ignores these important words of Jesus here in Matthew 5. He fulfills all of those commands. Because clearly the coming of Jesus means that some things have changed, right?

Now many Christians have approached it this way. In the Old Testament, in Moses’s law, you have three kinds - civil, ceremonial, and moral. You have the rules that kept order within the nation of Israel. You had rules for worship - around the temple and the sacrificial system and such. And then you had the Ten Commandments and other statements about what’s right and wrong. When Jesus came, He fulfilled the civil law - now God’s people are from all nations. He fulfilled the ceremonial law - there’s no more need for a temple or sacrifices. But the moral law - all of that - still stands.

Now I won’t say that’s not helpful at all. But I think it’s far better to say that Jesus has fulfilled all of it. That it all has found its goal in Jesus. That’s what I think this passage in Matthew says. Every word, every letter, every brush stroke stands. But they now find their continuing relevance only in Christ and what He has done. Pass the bacon, I say. As Mark 7:19 explains, Jesus has made all foods clean. Don’t do sacrifices. They’re not just unnecessary. They’re now blasphemous. But that doesn’t mean that none of the Ten Commandments and other moral commands of the Old Testament don’t find their way over into the new. And become a part of what Paul calls the “law of Christ.” We can’t tear out any of God’s words. We do interpret them, though, by what Jesus has accomplished and what He now calls us to do.

So Jesus stands here teaching, “Those guys over there. They’re missing the point. I am its point.” As God the Son, He has the authority to speak about it. As God the Son, He’s the whole point of it all. The Pharisees are sitting in their cars at the roundabout, not moving, waving other cars through, turning that intersection into a four-way-stop. INSTEAD OF KEEPING IT MOVING. Or driving around in circles instead of actually getting somewhere - making it into a self-congratulating cul-de-sac.

They’re turning God’s word into something it was never intended to be. They’re taking God’s people in an entirely different direction. They’re actually taking things backward, away from the law’s very goal. And they’re accusing Jesus of doing something wrong. And this is because they’re trying to puff themselves up. And Christ is sucking the wind out of them. But we’ll get to that later. The story of the Bible points to Jesus the King.

The Standard and Jesus

I want to move on to the second main point, and the third step in Christ’s argument. Jesus gives a warning. In verse 19, He says this:

Matt. 5:19 Therefore whoever relaxes 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.

What’s Jesus saying? Because not one word of God’s law is going to be destroyed - and they’re all going to last until they’ve been fulfilled - you’d better keep them. And teach others to do the same. Or else.

Now I don’t think Jesus is setting up two categories of people in heaven - those who don’t obey and are called the “least” or those who do and are called the “great.” No. He’s saying who will be in and out. There are those who chapter 7 says “enter by the narrow gate,”  and encounter life. And there are those who go through the gate that is “wide” and who enter destruction. There are those who bear good fruit. And those who bear bad fruit who are one day “cut down and thrown into the fire.” There are those who call Him Lord and don’t do what He says. And those who do obey and will enter the kingdom. There are those who build their lives on the rock. And there are those who build them on the sand. Each of those groups is separated by how they respond to and teach the words of God.

That’s the first thing we need to see about this standard - it goes wide. It includes everything. Things that seem to be obviously a big deal - weightier things - as well as commands that seem less important - lighter things.

Everything. Again, of course, understanding how it’s fulfilled by Christ. But we’re mean to do and teach all of it. And those who lead and teach will be accountable for how faithfully they do it.

I now have two teen drivers. And, no surprise, but one thing I remind them constantly is to never text and drive. You’ve heard this. It’s supposedly far more dangerous than driving drunk. Anyway, one time I was driving down the interstate. I believe I had all three kids in the car. And I got a voicemail. It was from another, older pastor in town, wanting to know if Karis would want to provide music for an event.

Now I knew Bobby and his crew were far too busy. And they wouldn’t have been that excited about this gig. I had my Apple Watch on, and I thought I’d shoot Bobby a text - again while I was driving. So I said something like this: “Hey Bobby, I got this request from Pastor ________. I  know you’ll have no interest in doing this at all, but I felt like I should pass it on.” And then it started to send.

But Siri isn’t often as smart as she claims to be. And I soon realized that I was also texting that other person. And I was frantically trying to hit my watch to make it somehow not send. And my kids right then chose that minute to rebuke my hypocrisy. The more I looked at my watch, the more they screamed. And yes, the text ended up going to both. I think I was saved by the fact that the man didn’t really send texts. But I was never really sure. And I sure didn’t set my kids a good example. Big things. Small things. Take them seriously. Teach - and model - them rightly.

You may not be aware of this, but we were aided as a church plant, in the beginning, by funds that came from the Southern Baptist Convention. I graduated from the flagship SBC seminary in Kentucky. We still have loose ties with that denomination. But you probably heard of the explosion that happened a couple of weeks ago, that’s shaken up the SBC.

Recently an independent investigation determined that the denomination’s executive committee had orchestrated and maintained a vast cover-up - of pastors and ministry leaders who had committed sexual abuse. They had this list of names. And instead of letting hit the news. And interrupt ministry they were trying to do. They swept it under the rug. And more and more people got hurt. Now this is as those same officials were fighting against and exposing other areas they thought didn’t line up with God’s word. Some of which were legit. And many of which were not. Church, this is sad. This is evil. This is wrong. And God will hold us accountable. To obey it all. To teach it all. That’s what the Lord is saying here.

I want to turn to the fourth step of Christ’s argument here - He tells us here where this all goes. He tells us our need. Now when the Pharisees first heard verse 19, they probably felt good. Of course, they were following every letter. And they were teaching the people to keep every word. But Jesus drops a bomb on them in verse 20, and no doubt causes the crowd on that mountain to gasp. He says, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of heaven.”

Now this brings us full circle, to where I started. The Pharisees had created a standard they thought they could reach. And they sought to teach others how to reach it themselves. As we’ll see here in the rest of Matthew 5, they’d point out they hadn’t murdered. They hadn’t committed adultery. They hadn’t committed divorce - or at least not when she didn’t deserve it. They didn’t lie, because they knew the right way to make oaths. They at times got even with enemies, but in a way they thought the Bible allowed. And yes, they loved people, but really just the people who looked just like them.

Jesus says here, “That kind of ‘righteousness’ just isn’t good enough.” It’s only external. Jesus explains how deep the Bible’s standard goes. Down to the heart.

You see, the Pharisees weren’t submitting to the Bible. They were just using it. They were interpreting it in a way that made them feel good, that puffed themselves up. They dumbed it down. They lowered its standard. But Jesus says, “Unless your obedience goes deeper than that, you won’t be in my kingdom.” He puts it another way in the last verse of chapter 5: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” That’s the standard.

Here’s what the Pharisees were trying to do. And something we also try to get away with ourselves. They were trying to staple fruit on to the limbs of a dead tree. Can you imagine someone doing that? Your neighbor across the fence? You look out, and they’ve got a staple gun. And on to these brittle, black, dead limbs, they’re taking apples, and they’re trying to staple them on. It’s not gonna work. Here’s what Jesus wants to do. He wants to make us new trees. With new roots. As the band Waterdeep has put it, “To our blackened branches,” he’ll bring the “spring-time green of new life.” And from us will come true fruit. That glorifies God.

Think about the crowds and how they would have heard these words. “Those are the super-holy people. They’re our teachers. They’re the experts. The ones who are supposed to tell us what to do. And Jesus says we have to be better than them?” What? And Jesus would reply, “Exactly. You have to do better than them. In fact, my standard is perfection.” And that would have sucked all the wind out of their sails but made them ready for the gales of the Holy Spirit.   

And that, of course, would have been His point. To point to Him. He’s the only One that meets that standard - that of perfection. As we look at God’s word, we realize, if we’re honest, that we could never measure up. That we’re “poor in Spirit,” and we need the riches found only in Christ. We run to Him, empty and poor. We beg Him to forgive. We ask for His righteousness. The story of the Bible points to Jesus the King. But, also the standard of the Bible points to Jesus the King.

How We Try to Tackle The Problem

If we’re honest, we all know we struggle to meet this standard. But here’s how we generally try to tackle this problem. We act like the problem is outside of us, but the solution can be found inside of us. My circumstances, my relationships - this, you, them - that’s the problem. But with just a little help, maybe the right combination of videos and blogposts, I’ve got what I need right in here. I just need to follow my heart.

But sadly, the truth is just the opposite of that. The problem is actually in here. In our hearts. That want to worship things other than God - and especially ourselves. That overflow in sins in thought, word, and deed. And the solution is actually on the outside. It’s found in the story of God that finds its fulfillment in Jesus. It’s found in Jesus measuring up to the standard of God - something we could never, ever do.

These truths here drive us to what the Bible calls justification - where we put on Christ’s righteousness like a white rob - and stop primping and preening ourselves.

Now let’s say that’s you - and me. We know Jesus is the focus of the story of the Bible. We know Jesus is the hope for the standard for the Bible. And we want more of Him, more of that. Well, what then do we do with these verses here. Here are five things.

First, read your Bible and look for Jesus on every page. I don’t mean in a “Where’s Waldo?” kind of way. But how do we see Christ fulfilling all the stories and commands and images? But here’s an even more basic question: are we reading our Bibles? If we don’t think we can see Jesus. If we find ourselves low on hope. That may just be why. But maybe we don’t even realize that, because we’re stuffing our hearts with TicToc and other things. Let’s get in God’s word, Karis.

Second, take every word seriously as it’s meant to be understood. If God’s word settles it, let’s hear it. And seek to believe it. Small things. Big things. If God is God - if He’s bigger and wiser and stronger than us - we’d expect that He’d say things that would challenge us and unsettle us. So let’s open the pages and expect that every time. If that never happens, we’re probably only seeing what we want to see. And our God probably looks a little bit too much like us.

Third, obey - and teach - every word as fulfilled in Christ. We’re not just supposed to read it and even cherish it. We have to live it out - in His strength, for His glory. We have to put it into action - even if it’s hard. We have to trust His Holy Spirit to help us, to strengthen us, to live it all out. Sure, we’ll fall, as we try to walk in line with this story. Sure, we’ll fail. We’ll miss the standard, all the time. But little by little, God will guide us and grow is in following His word.

Fourth, let the words humble and transform your heart. Again, the Pharisees were just focusing on externals. They only took things skin deep. But the Bible, the gospel, speaks to the core of who we are. Who or what are we cherishing in our hearts? What’s going on in here that spills out - out here? Are our hearts full of anger or love? Impatience or grace? God wants to meet us in here. That was the problem with me driving down I-70 with my kids - not mainly the texting, but the arrogant, unloving spirit inside me.

Fifth, reach up to Jesus, and let go of your own efforts. Realize with me that there’s no point in trying to lower the standard of God. To minimize our sin or maximize our goodness. That gap - between God and us - will always be there. And the only way it will be filled up is by the person and work of Jesus. Let’s give up. And reach up. And let Him make us new.

The Story and the Standard

Any Stranger Things fans here? Maybe you grew up in the 80s like me, or you’re  currently a teenager. Those seem like the groups most excited about the show. But I love it. Now this may be mildly controversial, but I think one of the best scenes - at least one of the most heartwarming ones - comes from season 3. I’m talking about the duet Dustin and his new girlfriend Susie sing through their CBs while they’re trying to help save the world. Go watch that again. And thank me later.

Now this is no spoiler. But we see Dusty-bun and Suzie-poo almost immediately in the new season. Susie hacks in somehow to the Hawkins school computer, they somehow guess the right password, and she proceeds to move Dustin’s Latin grade up from a D-. But right before she does it, she looks up on a shelf in her room, sees a figurine of Jesus looking over her, and says out loud, “I will repent later.” And she strikes the A key.

Friends, that’s what we try to do. Find a way to make an A. Even if we have to cheat. Lower what’s expected. Raise ourselves up. And we want a Jesus of our own making, one who’ll let it slide. But, no.

He says, “This is the standard. You can’t reach it on your own. And there’s no way to fudge it. And you can’t begin to fool me. I want you to see your failure and reach up.” Karis, let’s humble ourselves and receive His grace. The story of the Bible - and the standard it calls us to  - both point to Jesus the King. Let’s pray.