Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Grace and Justification
tucker is so grateful we've been together working together for i think almost 10 years together which has been such a blessing but he's always hey do you want to share i'm like no thanks and do you ever want to you want to teach them nothing and like i'm just out of my heart so simply say no thanks it's just easy right and so this one was a very similar interaction no thanks no thanks no thanks we got to like three or four of those and he's like well i really want you to do that and i was like well that's okay yep we'll see what happens so um so i'm so excited you guys could be here for this um so great um do you guys get nervous like yeah okay that's reassuring that's good no it's i uh i like talking i don't have a problem talking even standing up here doesn't bother me but it's like okay god what do you want me to say like this is your this is your book like what do you want me to say what do i have to bring that's going to help anybody in this room right like so god you better speak to these people and that's been my interaction with god the last several weeks honestly it was like out of anxiety and sinning the last several weeks just anxiety and on top of anxiety being like god you've got to say something like because i don't have anything to give these people it's only your word that has the words of life right like you got to say something to people so i just want to get out of the way and i want you to say what you need to say to your people because i would rather sing you songs right now and if you'd like prefer that i could go grab a guitar but or i'd rather go run miles and miles in the foothills right like i love i love running you guys like running anybody like running okay now how many of you don't like running yes i knew it i knew it there's always more people that don't like running that do like right i was converted to love running like four or five years ago it's now become just a great outlet for me honestly to get out and flush out my brain my mind and all the anxiety that gets built up through moments like this um because i love just getting out there and running with the lord and i get to talk to him and we have conversations and i was having a conversation with him this last week because i run a decent amount every week but this last week i ran a lot more building up to this moment i was like okay i got to get out there and just get my head straight and i was running and i was like god i don't like coming to this moment with just anxiety i know that's not right like forgive me i'm sorry i was like can i just be a little more confident like i'd rather err on the side of arrogance can i sin in arrogance instead of anxiety because i just want i want to be like comfortable and confident in what i need to say and he's like well neither sorry you can't you can't go do that in anxiety and i don't want you to do that in arrogance either i want you to come and just rest at my feet i want you to just come and ask for me to provide i want to provide for you right and i'm saying all this because i want i want to share that with you guys that god has given you guys gifts talents abilities to speak and lead and teach in different areas of life in different communities and families and so use those opportunities that he gives you to let him provide for you what it is you need to share let him provide for you what it is that he has that he wants to do in and through you and through your life and so if i have to be like a real example of that like right now in a prophetic way like these prophets had to live out these weird things like that's what i get to do for you today i get to live out noah's nerves on stage live for you all today so welcome to noah's nerves right amen so um but i do get it just to pile on some more fun stories like that i get a share with you a passage in here which is about christ coming to fulfill the law if you guys know the sermon on the mount it's like the passage that nobody wants to do so i was like cool tuck thanks for like getting me up there was just a really fun passage because this is like a pivot point passage that really sets up the rest of what christ is doing and what he's going to kind of explain throughout the sermon on the mount it's the real thick like theological piece in some ways that really sets everything else up so i was like wow thanks god like this is just extra special that i get to do that passage you know on top of these two three weeks of just anxiety and everything that could go wrong goes wrong and everything piles up at once right like families in town hot water heater blows up cars in the shop flat tire on the other one like this has been my life the last several weeks and so oh and then i got to get ready for my own vacation and get my kids ready and just all these things just build right and i just like wow i why these last two weeks god and he says because i want you to come to me and i want to provide for you something that you can't do you don't get to do it you're weak admit it let me be strong let me show you something so i love that i love that about god that he lets my life come to complete chaos for me to get to the point i'm on my knees and say okay fine you do it you say something right and so i just share that with you because i think we all get to that place and we all need to surrender and say okay god you provide you come in you share you help you give me what i need right and so that's what we're going to talk about a little bit today in this passage uh we're going to be in chapter 5 of the sermon on the mount here of matthew and continue in that and so we're going to cover verses 17 through 20. before i do that though i gave you guys all a little handout in the bulletin if you grab the bullets and on the way and if not we'll put it up on the screen here so you can see it as i kind of chat through it really quickly but this came from a teacher of mine steve walker he's a great pastor for like 40 years down in oregon he lives here now he helps teach a part of this program that i'm at here like this seminary cohort that i'm a part of and so he gives us this little uh little uh cheat sheet i call it of the sermon on the mount and i love this because i like little anecdotal things that kind of help me remember passages or help me get into the bible or different books of the bible or sections of the bible and so he's done a great job kind of mapping this out for us and because we can kind of see where we've been we went through the rethink your values section already with going through the beatitudes and john whitaker last week did a great job i think sharing what salt and light look like right in our in today's society and who we are as believers and how we live that out so we kind of covered that section and today we're getting into raise your standards and i'm going to i'm going to hit that first one the bible because like i said this is the pivot point and after that we see tons of examples of how we're supposed to live out our lives as believers so we're going to be in razor standards and then keep this for the rest of the series for this summer because we're going to be in the sermon on the mountain use this as your own time when you're when you get away and studying through this stuff to kind of help maybe remember uh where we're at and where we're going but today we're going to see these next two sections down the bottom it says jesus corrects two deadly mistakes and jesus asks two probing questions we're gonna get into that a little bit because we're gonna see that number one morality amounts to rule keeping is a great mistake and that performance is the basis for acceptance is another mistake and then we're gonna we're gonna answer the question of what does god want from me then okay and who needs a savior it's kind of the premise of really this whole book uh this whole section that we're going to be in but those are the two things that we'll try to answer today and look at those different deadly mistakes as well as we do that so this message will hopefully encourage you and equip you and help you to just better understand this what do we do god how do we do this and so let's uh let's get into our passage though so this will be verse 17 through 20. if you don't mind i'm just going to read this really quick and then we'll go back and kind of break it up so chapter 5 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 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 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 for i tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven heavy passage some bold statements from jesus in here and so that's why this is a it's a tricky passage there's great godly men that disagree on this passage but i love the simplicity sometimes that god gives us when we look at his word and he was so great at right in parables and stories to just unpack these really big truths but in simple ways and so my desire today is to kind of simplify this in some ways and make it something that we can all understand something that we can kind of walk through and say okay god well now what do we do and this kind of helps spell it out i think this passage helps us spell that out so let's look at verse 17 a little bit so it says don't or do not think that i have come to abolish the law or the prophets i have not come to abolish them but i've come to fulfill them i think he's saying guys don't misunderstand me here okay i didn't come to just eradicate this mosaic law that you're familiar with or the prophecies that the prophets uh shared but i've not come to do that i don't come to tear it down or change it or do anything like that i've come to actually fulfill them and so that's a that's a pretty uh meaty statement to come out and say hey you know i know you guys have all been trying this for a while living out these laws right your scribes and fairs these are modeling for that for you but um i'm gonna actually go ahead and take care of that i'm gonna fulfill that today i'm gonna start to show you what that looks like and all the prophecies you've heard about all the prophets have shared about what a messiah is going to do and what they're going to be like i'm going to go ahead and do that as well so he's very bold i think out of the gate here saying hey i'm not going to change the game i'm not going to change the rules at all i'm going to come and i'm going to take care of it i'm going to fulfill it all and i'm going to show you guys what that looks like and so how does he do that um very simply plainly he does that through just perfect obedience to the law he does that through the fulfillment of the prophecies that are out there about the messiah and so as far it's far from canceling the scriptures he's going to come and he's going to fulfill them and i love that i love that he opens up like that and remember he's talking to his disciples too i know we mentioned that at the beginning of this series but he's left the crowds um he had been ministering to these great crowds that says proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom in chapter four that was his thing he was out just proclaiming the kingdom right so keep that in mind and now he zooms in he says in chapter five verse one seeing the crowds he went up on the mountain and when he sat down his disciples came to him so you know it's more of a almost like a home group small group kind of his disciples came he sat down you know it's a more intimate setting he's like all right now let me let me tell you guys some things i've been talking about the kingdom to these crowds i've been sharing all these kingdom things and ideas and now i want to kind of zoom in a little bit with you guys so he's doing that so remember that keep that in mind um because in verse 18 he says so now 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 so how long is that well it's just until it's all done until it's all fulfilled until it's all accomplished right like you said but i think there's two different time periods that we're also looking at in this verse and so if you want to kind of follow along with me he says the first bit is for truly city to do until heaven and earth pass away so as long as you can see this earth this planet that we live on that this is all this is all a play this is this the word the rules all this stuff the law is all in play so okay well that's interesting jesus so wait a second because you're saying the bible is full authority it's all still there and yes well then should we still be sacrificing animals should we still be doing these old testament rituals and things and covenant things uh no i don't think so because of the second time period that we're going to look at right here because until everything is accomplished is the second half of this so we see two different time periods jesus recognizes that not all the scriptures are going to be fulfilled at the same time and i think that's an important thing to point out that these old testament ceremonies sacrifices things like that are going to be fulfilled in the sacrifice that jesus gives on the cross so he's going to fulfill that mosaic law all these laws that the scribes and the pharisees have been you know clinging to and holding on to and trying to do perfectly he's going to go ahead and take care of that he's going to fulfill that and he's going to die on the cross to be the ultimate sacrifice to fulfill that and so in that sense that will be done that will be fulfilled so that will be that'll be off the table at that point right and so and we're going to see later why he why he wants to fulfill to the to the smallest detail right because that's what he said he says not an iota not a dot right um so it's very small neat details there he's going to try to fulfill every little detail and he's going to but on the other hand there's this moral law of god that remains so we're going to lose this mosaic covenant and law he's going to fulfill it's going to be done but there's this moral law that reigns that keats continues that's part of his kingdom that he's preaching that we're going to hear more about what that looks like and what we do and how we act so this moral law is going to still be in play in effect throughout history really as a as a reflection i think of his holy character of who he is and how he wants us to interact and do life here together on earth but uh do you guys know what an iota is or a dot any guesses out there i thought it was a cute little animal iota it just sounds like a kind of cool but it's not at all it's a it's like a little small thing in the alphabet in the in the hebrew alphabet but it's a very small thing but it makes a big difference depending on how you use it right it's like if you look at the letter p um and you add the kickstand to it now it's like an r right so it's a big difference if you're talking to pat or a rat right so that's but you put that little kickstand on there and you got a rat instead of pat and so it's little differences like that jesus is kind of pointing out right saying hey this is i'm going to fulfill this to the very miniscule details down to the very smallest thing so don't that's why i say it's called raise your razor standards he's like don't lower the bar look what i can do watch what i'm about to do right i'm about to do this to the detail and so pay attention and so i think that's really important to think about because um what he was talking to these scribes and pharisees they as we get to the next verse we're going to see that they were relaxing some of these laws they were kind of not really doing the whole thing and so that's why they get called out in this next little section but again coming back to our second time periods we have until heaven and earth disappear until everything is accomplished jesus recognizes that you know these are going to be at different time frames but the moral law continues and jesus insists that the scriptures are authoritative for our standards and they're reliable down to the smallest detail and he's going to go ahead and fulfill those is what we're going to see as the story continues verse 19 therefore then 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 he's in a in a way he's declaring war on these scribes and pharisees he's like hey you guys have been you've been relaxing the rules that i've given you in a sense like great in some ways great job on the on the mosaic covenant laws and all that stuff you've really kept yourself from some things that are bad that's great but you've missed the heart of what i'm doing here you miss the desire of really i want you guys to be in right communion with my heart i want you to be in right relationships with each other i want you to serve and bless and care for and provide for one another and help each other not just take care of these rules and laws and try to perform them perfectly i'm that's gonna get rid of those two um deadly mistakes right there at the top right morality amounts to rule keeping he's like no that's not it performance is the basis for acceptance no that's not it and so well what is it jesus what is it because he's kind of putting them up against the wall a little bit these pharisees and how he's talking and he's using it too as a model to his disciples saying you guys those are your those are your uh those are the people you respect you can look up to right those are your pastors and your teachers right in modern day society right the scribes and the pharisees and i don't want to paint them all in the bad picture these guys were great biblical godly guys right for the most part we definitely see some radical ones that went too far but like these guys were the back to the bible people they were trying to get people back into the word and follow the rule and the law and that was that was a good thing but they missed the heart and so that's where jesus is going to get them in the next in verse 20 because um well we'll save that it's coming up i'm going to spend more time on 20 in just a second 19 though he says so these guys are relaxing these things and they're going to be considered least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven and so he's again he's pointing to himself he's like you're like we're gonna i'm gonna do them and i don't want you to lower the bar i'm gonna just keep it up where it belongs and because i want this moral uh righteousness this real inward righteousness this heart to be exemplified because you guys know the rules you've seen all the guard guardrails and guidelines and stuff like that but that's just to keep you in the right heart and you just turned it into a whole nother system so i want to get you back into the heart of what this is really all about and so he's declaring i think kind of this war on these guys these spiritual leaders in the day and they're really their cherished legalistic system that they had in place and that they were you know doing a good job of and felt great about and arrogant about in a sense and so he's saying that not only will the good works defined by these pharisees because they defined the good works in the day and it was incorrect he says it will not make someone great in god's kingdom but it will also um the legalism that they're in well we'll talk about in a minute it won't even get them into the kingdom of heaven and that's the heavy subject part of this passage here is in verse 20. so let's read it before i tell you unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven and that's the passage just kind of feels weird doesn't it's kind of like oh that's heavy god like that's a lot how do we how do we exceed what these guys have done they put extra rules in place just to keep them from the original rules like that's impressive right and god's saying like no not really um because they miss the heart of what really i've desired from you guys from the get-go you know this law wasn't always in place there was people before the law that existed that god called blameless the god called righteous that god said believed in him and so okay well then what do we do god this is this is heavy this is big and this is that question that i think we need to answer that's on your sheet there that says well what do you want from me then god what are we supposed to do what does that look like what i think it is simply is this inner righteousness this eternal righteousness this inner man that we read about in the new testament and more about in the future but god's desiring this inner change this heart change right the external part is there his guidelines and guard rails but he's desiring this heart change and so that's what he's leaning towards when he says that you know you got to exceed the scribes and pharisees because they're taking care of the kind of the external stuff but they've missed the heart part and so god okay well what does that look like how do we do that because the only righteousness that satisfies god's standard is going to be this heart this heart thing and so what is that and i think it's belief i think it's faith we read it all about it in the new testament you know that we have faith in jesus and so that's what it's going to equate to here i think is jesus is calling him to say you got to have faith in me you got to believe in me and believe in the things that i'm going to share with you and that i'm going to model and i'm going to do i want you to do likewise so he says in romans if you guys want to turn with me i don't have a slide for this one but in romans 3 21 it's kind of the beginning of it where he's talking about upholding righteousness right righteousness through god's through or the righteousness of god through faith is what a little section is titled okay so gotta have faith and then in chapter four we get like kind of a little snapshot a little picture of someone who did this which is great when we can see little models like that right so it's abraham justified by faith so i'm just gonna read these first few verses of chapter four he says what then shall we say was gained by abraham our forefather according to the flesh for if abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about right like just like a pharisees i get look at all this cool stuff i've done look at all the rules i kept great job right he has something to boast about but not before god maybe above maybe around men maybe they'll be impressed by these for what does the scripture say though abraham believed god and it was counted to him as righteousness he believed he believed what and that's what i'd like to actually unpack a little bit and mostly for today is what did what did abraham believe that it was accounted to him as righteousness that he was he had this faith in god they counted him his righteousness these scribes and phases are trying to do everything and they can't get it so what did abraham do to get it how did he how did he achieve that he believed plain and simple but i
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.