Matthew 5
Jul 24, 2022 2022-07-24 Ben Hoyer Exodus 20; Matthew 5:17-26Connecting Psalm 19, the Ten Commandments of Exodus 20, and Matthew 5:17-26, this message shows that Israel kept the law because they were already God's people, and that Jesus came not to abolish but to fulfill that enduring teaching.
Read transcript
Auto-generated from the audio — may contain errors.
That song was really beautiful. Thanks for reading it. It's like painting on that word, but it's so great. It's all 19. And it goes along with the rest of the readings that we have assigned to the three. And sometimes it's hard to find a thread through these tests if you were to look at all three of them. You've been following the lecture where they give us an old testament, a song, a gospel reading, and a new testament. And sometimes kind of
go together with us. They all go beautifully together this time. So later today, after we stopped through a couple of these tests, you might go back to Psalm 19 because it'll be like even more after we've sought about after the chapter 20, now see chapter 5, and go into chapter 6. After chapter 20 has a story that I gave to the kids, and I just want to recap it for you briefly before we spend most of our time on Matthew chapter 5. And it's significant here
because it does have this 10 commandments key. And there's some cool aspects to the 10 commandments that we don't always think about. But the main thing to get about the 10 commandments is the context of where they fall in the history of Israel. Remember that God has remembered where Esther's point falls in the whole story. But by the time we get to Esther chapter 20,
God has already created the nation of Israel and made its commitment to them. We're in chapter 20 all the way back in Genesis chapter 12, 17, God has made His commitment to the people of Israel and forming them as a nation, to stand out among all the other nations as the one that has a divine relationship to Him. That in relationships to this God, the God of creation and life, who now will be known as the God of Abraham and eventually the God of Abraham and Isaac,
and eventually the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and then turned Israel into a big agreement. So all the way back in the middle of Genesis, God begins the process of establishing a relationship with a nation of people in order that all the world would see what life looks like when you live in relationships with the God of creation and life. So by coming to Exodus chapter 20, God is doing something different with Israel, but it is not formative for them. I mean, it does not make them
Israel. They already are in Israel. This is important. They are not Israel because they keep the 10 commandments. They get the 10 commandments because they are in Israel. And this follows all the way through. This is a good little rhyme for relationship with God. You are God's not because you live right. You get to live well because you are God's.
A God's prerogative and movement towards you comes first. And in response empowered by the prerogative of God, we get to live. And this is true. At every stage of the people of God's and out the story of Scripture, God and he don't ask, he is created. God of his own prerogative breeds the breath of life into them. Abraham doesn't ask for a special relationship.
He doesn't even know who the God is, but while he is yandering around in Iran, God calls him out and Abraham follows him. When he comes to rescue the Israelites from Egypt, they don't know his name in fact. They ask him to leave. God moves anyway of his own prerogative, rescue them, and comes down at someone. And look at the very beginning. Well, I'll just read it to you in next to the chapter 20. You can look at the other things you want to say to the chapter 20 verse 1. And God spoke all those
words saying, I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt out of the house of slavery. So you will not have any other God's preforming. It isn't if you have no other God's preforming, if you do not make it for yourself, or call God, though, if you do not take the words, the name of the Lord and things, if you remember the side, if you only are proud of then I will be your God. Because I am your God. So then with this one.
Okay, we could say a lot more about this chapter 20, but I wanted to establish that first and come back to it and go to Matthew chapter 5. So I'd love it if you look with me at Matthew chapter 5. If you have a paper topping Matthew to be being a New Testament, Matthew is in general. Matthew chapter 5. And again, just like the next chapter 20, we need to understand the
context of what we're going to get. The reading that they have assigned for us is 17-26. You can see the consistencies. You look at verse 17, the consistency with accidents. Do not think that I've come to abolish the law of the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. So he's saying, this is interesting. I did look at that by the same girl. I needed a look up.
How many years do you think are the Queen Moses and Jesus? But there's a lot, whatever it is. Right. If I really were here, I'd probably tell me. But she's not. How many years there are between Moses and Jesus? But a lot, this is a lot of generations between Moses and Jesus. And Israel hasn't always succeeded in being what God had intended.
Mark, this one's most of the time not succeeding. God had in mind that he would miraculously deliver his people who had been slaves for 200 years from the strongest military power of the day, set him up on Jerusalem in the middle of a trade route, bring his mannequets presence out of wherever it dwells infinitely, and put it down in this cavern apple, becoming the temple, the model of the heavenly city, and the proximity to God would transform the lives of the people
around them. So that all the nations passing through on the trade route, the creation of people, who only have to deal with one God who do not covet, steal, murder, or destroy, whose lives makes sense, whose children honor their parents, whose borders expand. They would be a nation whose life makes sense, and they would go, why is it? And like when Solomon dedicated the temple, he said, we imagine that all the nations of the world would come and worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob here. It was, he sets the cart Israel for the sake of the rest of the world,
that all the world would be drawn to him, right? And they don't. They aren't. Israel too often failed at the job. They turn a God of programhood into one of ex-pensivity. What's interesting to me today is that that law of Moses, that God gave him a sign that shook the mountain, tablet, persevered, amongst the people who failed. So that when Jesus comes, the great delivering king,
who takes the original teaching and doesn't say that teaching failed and done with it, because in the fulfillment, I am in direct line with this teaching, the teaching that we got generation to go, that no one helps me able to live out slowly, that the teaching persists. Now, thinking about, we've been working up our eighth graders that are going to be ninth graders. We've been working them up to confirmation. And a big part of them confirming their faith is
understanding the 10 commandments. That the same thing Moses got and as in chapter 20 on Sinai, after Shaking Mountains, among the people who never all the way, lived it out, made it free of Jesus, who reinvigorated and breathed new life in it. And then God's teaching persisted amongst the people who were persecuted for generations. It was 300 years before they became the dominant religion. And yet people do not abandon the faith
amongst the persecuted. They cling to the storm, to this way, through these words, these 10 words that describe life. And even today, in the midst of great abuses, short-sided applications, kind of selfish manifestations of faith, even today, amongst all the brokenness of political systems and power structures, in churches, these 10 words per cent, we continue to teach them to our children.
In this section in Matthew chapter 5, I think Jesus gets a little bit of wonder. Why might this way persist amongst three in a midst, so much brokenness and failure? And in order to understand it, last week, because we don't have time to teach like Jesus did. Have you read stories about Jesus teaching or Paul? The famous story about Paul teaching
where he teaches for so long, a dude falls, falls asleep, falls out of a window and dies, so Paul has to go and resurrect him. Have you read that story in Acts? Or how many times Jesus is preaching, and he preaches long enough that people start to gather around, and he puts them back onto a boat on multiple occasions. And in those days, the teacher would sit and everyone else would stand because the teacher was a very strong alternative teaching for so long he had to sit down. We don't have time to teach like David. If we did, we'd get the whole context of the whole
story on the month. We'd start at the beginning of chapter 5, we'd work our way up to verse 7, we'd run all the way through to chapter 7, all the way through. We don't have time to do it, so I just have to give you a little bit of context in order that you don't get verse 17 out of context and this interpretation. You've got to go back to the beginning of chapter 5. Chapter 5, seen the crowds, he'd run up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him first, and he opened his mouth and taught them things.
Blessed are the poor and spirit who there is the kingdom of heaven. This is enough context. Jesus is about to re-give the sermon on Simon. And just like I told the kids in the 10th of Manage, the door to the 10th of Manage is to Manage 1. All commandments make sense when you come in through commandment 1. You want to not murder have only one God. You want to not covet have only one God. You want to honor your mother and father have only one God. All of the commandments make
sense for the person. And the same is with the Beatitudes. You've got to subscribe one person that night and they all make sense when you come in through the door of the poverty and spirit. You and I with respect to the spiritual things cannot make something happen. We cannot affix ourselves. We cannot solve our own cost of the central problem. With respect to spiritual things we are poor. It says blessed are the ones who recognize their poverty and spirit
for they will receive the reign of God. This is the key consistently the key from Moses through Jesus Paul on the feet Luther all the way down to today. The key is the state the the the doorway into divine relationship is a recognition of your own limitation. And in order to drive that home Jesus said look at the look at the message of Moses. Don't think and some radical inventing something new. This is the same thing. Don has been saying to humanity since the beginning.
He said Matthew chapter five verse seventeen. You know I think I have come to abolish the law of the prophets. I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them for truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away that iota or doubt this is little vowel marks on the Hebrew language and it's hittler dot will pass away from the law until it is accomplished therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to be the same will be called
least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever it does then and teaches them will be called great in the heaven. So I tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the strife and the Pharisees you will never even enter the kingdom of heaven. Matthew makes sure to write this down because in the times just after the ascension of Jesus as there's this turmoil in the Israelite church the people who had come for Pentecost saved for a period of time until persecution came in Jerusalem
and scattered them all back to their homes. They began to persecute the people the followers of the way of Jesus because they didn't want a diversity of views in the church which caused any problems for all of the systems and structures and at the time that Matthew writes the life of Jesus says it's a big about a relationship to the law. Um, Jesus is something altogether new and so Matthew makes sure he recalls the teaching from the terminal on the mount that says I didn't come to do anything new and so what he's about to do is conquer Jesus' understanding of the law
with the Pharisees and what other people how they're interpreting what Moses found at Sinai and remember that the Pharisees were very good at interpreting rules. So I asked you what rules you love find the heart of you that loves that rule the Pharisees love rules and love them. The nice thing about a rule is you know your goal right? A rule there is a right behavior
and a wrong behavior. You probably love the rule because you find yourself often on the right side of the rule. It says rules you enjoy keeping. The other thing rules are really nice is because it can divide people. I know very clearly you are wrong. The reason that's satisfying is because I have worked very hard to keep myself right. So there is a some reward in feeling right. There's
a lot of reward in recognizing I did all this work to be right so now I get to point out that you are wrong. Pharisees they love law. They love rule. They are very good at all aspects of rule. Right. Basically they have something like 613 rules that they've extracted from the Old Testament.
And right it was like the numerical value of the letters Torah out to 613. So they knew they needed these 613 but they couldn't agree on which 613. And there were rules to protect people from breaking the rules. There were rules about which things you needed to take a 10th of and which you didn't. How far you could walk for water before it qualified as you work. Which fires you could start which fires you couldn't sell. This is why they debate with Jesus when he's feeling someone on the Sabbath
because they tried to do the healer so he feels someone's back at work so he couldn't be doing work on Sabbath. He could wait till the next day to deal with the guys here instead of on this side. All of a sudden the rules supersede all out. The rules win the day. The rule govern. Right. The rule wins. And the Pharisees then win because they win the rule. And so Jesus started winning.
He said your righteousness needs to supersede that of the Pharisees. So if you are like out on the mercy of Galilee. You're just a regular dude. When you heard about this guy in the synagogue. He healed some people. He did some things. You go out. And now you're not a Pharisee because at some point the Pharisee was smarter than you.
As you grew up in the Israelite system and you do a system of the day. You keep going in learning the Torah. And when you can't pass the Torah test anymore. You can't hold all the tests in your brain. You can't understand the logic of syllogisms that they build. You can't memorize enough things. Then you stop going to Hebrew school and you go down your tree. Right. The Pharisees never flunked out.
They just kept doing better. Then they also had some political savvy because they recognized the Pharisees were controlling so much. They become the lawyers. So if you are like a regular dude going out to the hillside. So here's Jesus teach because he said I couldn't grab I doing cool stuff out in Galilee. And he says he says the Giansus and then he says don't think because I just gave you those beautiful Beatitudes that sound generous that now I've come to abolish the law and the
prophets the law will never go away and your righteousness will mean to pass that of the Pharisees. Astonishing. Mind blown. How is that even possible? That your righteousness would pass that of the Pharisees. For I tell you that left your righteousness is achieved that of the scribes and the Pharisees. You will never enter into the reign of heaven.
Verse 21. You have heard it was said to those of old. You shall not murder and whoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. But for insults his brother will be liable to the counsel. And whoever says you fool will be liable to the hell I've had.
Bummer. I mean I would be much more comfortable if Jesus were quoting Pharisees here and then rebuking them for saying such harsh words. But that is not the case. These are the words of Jesus of Nazareth. He says whoever but I tell you whoever is angry with
his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to counsel. And whoever says he's fool will be liable to the hell of Pharisees. Jesus in his great sermon on the Mount.
Where in the same area where he feeds the 5,000 where he walked on water where he establishes an answer to the text. That's also judgment and fires of heaven. Jesus is judgment. I mean we can't get away from that. We've got to deal with it somehow. I think he is demonstrating the intent that has been there all along.
When when God communicates with Moses on Sinai those 10 words he does it in response to the request of Israel. The call had come out. I'd love to miss you. You're changing the creation of the whole nation. Cool. How then should he live? And he gives them these 10 words. These 10 divine that describe what their life will look like. It's been extracted into commandments in its original context. It was not pulpit.
It was called the 10 words of God. Foking on Mount Sinai. And Jesus awakens his followers at the Sea of Galilee to the potential within them. He says don't settle for mere observance of law and rule as the Pharisees. Don't reduce or diminish the way of God into some rule following that puts up self-righteousness
and builds walls and deep lines of demarcation among them all. Don't settle that you might be someone who can be right in order that everyone else can be wrong. Jesus, miraculously, raises our expectations. It says if you want to live under the reign of God you are a person who does not harbor anger. You can be a person who loves generously and forgives for gives free men.
Jesus on the Hill Valley as part of this term in On the Mount. Don't settle for the rule following of the world. Elevate your expectation of yourself so you might be the right person, not nearly do the right thing. You might be the right person, not nearly do the right thing.
And consistent with his story about the end times we're talking about separating the sheep from the goats where he talks about big ways from me I never knew you. Jesus is clear throughout his whole life that God is among many roles God's role is to God and separate God's people from those who are known. Jesus is consistent with that. But here again he says
that this is God's judgment not ours. It gets easier to understand when I recognize I don't know what's in the heart of the people in the room. I don't know where anger lies and neither are you. God is our judge not one another but he does say that God has no judge.
Well okay. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council and whoever says you will will be liable to help him. So if you are offering your gift as the author he goes on then and says ask in accordance. So he says if you are offering your gift as the author and there you
remember that your brother has something against you simple. If you are coming before God says and you remember that there's a disagreement between you and someone wait. Leave your gift there before the altar and go and first be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer the gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going while you are going within two court left your accuser, hand her over to the judge and the judge to the guard and you be put in prison
truly as they do you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. Unrelent him. Unforgiving justice. Justice will be paid. Jesus is consistent here and in other places that God among other things is the judge who will execute right judgment and then you and all you and I hearing those words would be well to examine our self.
I mean he goes on and outlines other things but you see what he's saying that from the beginning God had in mind to make you somebody different from the inside out whether it's anger or well if you go to lust or divorce or oath or retaliation he's like he's expanding the notion of the law this is why this is why Paul explained he's so enamored with the idea that we could exemplify the fruit of spirit which are the positions and attitudes of the heart that we
could be the right person from the inside out not the outside in and so Jesus was encouraging you to examine yourself now because the judgment of God is real. Okay how's the examination going? The lesson are the pouring spirit with a rain of heaven is there.
What's it on the knee? Well then we'll be comforted. Jesus addressed the right point. Says, I'm just the right person in the world to elevate the expectations of humanity what we were possible.
Image bears of the God in the world moving about the world to us to do it and represent God to all the other Jesus humans to elevate your expectations no mere rule followers but image bears of God in all that that might mean to move through the world with love and generosity and elevate your expectations and yes you will fail but what he is saying is that do not settle for mere rule followers embrace your poverty of spirit and come at it again.
To me the reality of the spirit of God to mold us into people who can live out this calling explain why these ancient words endure not because they act outlines of power and build an exclusive
cloud that's better than everyone else these ten words endure because they raise our expectation of who we might be in the world and when we approach them well they break it down into recognizing our poverty of spirit and like Abraham and Moses and Jesus and Paul we welcome our frailty and in so doing welcome the spirit because the palace to allow us to live the life we were
made I'm saying that these ancient ten words endure because they walk us into relationship with God which brings us to life and verminate what is described by the words. I hope that this morning amidst all the misapplications and misunderstandings of the way of Jesus you might be reacquainted again with the expectation of Jesus for you
not because you can grit your teeth into it but because when you realize you fail you open your start heart to restore again to come alive and live in accordance with those expectations. Hey Lord give us faith this morning to believe and receive your good will and your life giving spirit. Jesus to look squarely at your judgment of the word of knowledge alcohol of your spirit
I'm calling for you.