6. Jesus and the Torah [Matthew] - Tim Mackie (The Bible Project)

Matthew chapter 5 verse 17 was dive in and explore together 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 tell you unless until heaven and earth disappear not the smallest letter not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished therefore whoever sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly they will be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven for I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven these are the words of the Lord Jesus we have been a couple months now in the Gospel of Matthew we've been following the birth of the Messiah the king and these last few weeks we've been tracing his entry onto the public stage right as an adult and he's going around he's making this announcement he's teaching it he's proclaiming it it's talking about it it's what you would hear about him on talking about on any given day it's the main theme of everything Jesus said and did and what is that thing the kingdom the kingdom five of you by the year and a half from now it'll roll off the tongue a little more naturally right the kingdom kingdom of God or the kingdom of the heavens when you think of Jesus you have to think of what he said was his most important topic talking about and bringing it's the kingdom and so he went around announcing the kingdom to all of the wrong sorts of people because he yiii coming as the world king is the story of god reclaiming his world from what we've done to the place and so jesus goes about and he announces the kingdom and he offers it to all of the wrong people right upside-down kingdoms we explored this he he moves specifically towards the sick the hurting the poor the unimportant in significant spiritual zeros of his day and these were the first people to whom he offers the kingdom and the opportunity to enter into God's reign over the world and so he brings them all to this mountain which is where we're all now and on this mountain he's teaching the good news of the kingdom that's what we were told at the end of chapter 4 and so he's teaching the good news of the kingdom he blesses them riot these poor insignificant people he says you actually are the blessed ones the ones to whom I'm offering the kingdom you all are called to be the salt and the light out there in the world and here's where we are right now what we're going to move into what is typically called the ethical teachings of Jesus except they're not just simply ethical teachings they are a part of this kingdom announcement and its kingdom announcement is exactly what we've been tracing and we'll explore more it's about God's people coming under the rule and reign of their King and finding their whole orientation to the world turned upside down because the kingdom is this alternate community Jesus is setting up where the value system is totally different and it's a community where generosity and work peacemaking and serving each other and humbling ourselves and seeking other people's well-being and and so on these are the highest values of the kingdom it's like this alternate this alternate world and I think it's a lot like this and maybe probably it's not that many of you had this experience but you know what I'm talking about if you've ever been to one of those countries the small number there's actually not that many countries in the world where you drive on the left side of the road anybody if you had the experience at least you know you actually had the experience of driving on the left side of the road which is completely incorrect of course right most of the world has a right but driving on the left side of the road um like Australia India from southern African countries and then of the united kingdom right it's one of the like London you go to London you get a rental car and you gotta wonder how many accidents in London are just caused by tourists alone right on and on an average day there if you've ever had this experience or just trying to imagine yourself actually switching like the steering wheel to the other side of the car and then driving on the wrong side of the road on the left side it's totally disorienting it's just so disorienting and and there's it's easy to see what if you've been driving especially for years you're trained like you don't even think about what you're doing you know when you use your left hand to do the signal and so on and it's the left-hand turn that's the most complicated turn and you have to be really wary and stuff of what's going on and everything is upside-down when you're in that Kingdom right in the United Kingdom driving around in in London so so this is very similar I think it's a great way to think about what Jesus is asking his followers to do and why he spends so much time teaching about life in the kingdom people it's because it's totally counterintuitive he's trying to teach a new way of being human some of which overlaps with ways that we already live and some of which actually exposes how screwed up are the ways that we live and it's calling us to retrain how we live and it takes an enormous amount of intentional effort individually and as a community except and this is where the analogy breaks down because Jesus is not gathering a whole bunch of people and saying let's all go move to Guatemala or something like that and set up like a whole alternate world and in the forest and make a new country and where we all just drive on the correct side of the road he doesn't do that what he expects is that his followers will be members of this upside-down kingdom but we'll be out in the world in their day to day lives and relationships as salt and his life what Josh was exploring last week and so it would it would be as complicated as all of us deciding right here about 400 so of us in the room right now and we all just make this pact when we leave this room left side of the street as we to Portland and just imagine what would happen I really think about that what if we all what happened at 7th of Fremont right here if we all committed to do that what happened is called a collision it's called a car crash that's what Jesus is challenging us to do is to go into our world not leave it but be members of a new and different kind of Kingdom with a completely upside down value system and then just go live and what should we expect will happen tension conflict and collision and not just for his followers for Jesus Jesus himself turn a page or two forward to the end of what we call the Sermon on the Mount here it's chapters 5 6 & 7 look at the last words of chapter 7 and we'll see the first little seeds of this collision of kingdoms right here if Jesus finishes talking is chapter 7 verse 28 and 29 last sentences of the chapter it says when Jesus finished saying all these things unpacking life of the kingdom it says the crowds were amazed at his teaching so just have all these crowds Jesus finishes you know this this long teaching about the kingdom people are stunned absolutely stunned why because he was teaching as one who had Authority and not like their teachers of the law the two things here a thort Jesus is walking around talking why he owns the place and he just teaches as if he has authority but Authority in comparison to him and why is this stunning people it's because they already have an existing Authority in their culture and it's called the law and people who teach teach the law now when you look at verse 29 you see the word law this is going to come up many times again needed to think not anything in terms of law in our culture you need to think viable and you need to think Jewish background here you hear the word law law has a Hebrew word underneath it that I've taught on many different occasions what is it Torah Torah and at its core it means teaching or instruction and in Jewish setting Torah is a reference to the first five books of your Bible what Christians call the Pentateuch Jewish tradition is called Torah five books of Moses Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers Deuteronomy and even more specific than that law refers to a whole set of passages within those first five books that are called the commands or the commandments of the Torah I think you've heard of 10 of them for sure right because people like fight about putting them in public monuments and so on so you've heard of those the great Ten Commandments but those are just the first ten they're 603 that come after those in those books of the Bible Exodus Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy that's the reference here and in Israel's lies in Jesus's day that forms the heart of their scriptures that's God's Word that's where God's people go to learn God's will and so what stuns people is that Jesus sets himself as an authority totally independent of the teachers of the Torah so for example what I'm doing here right now is I don't actually claim to know very much and there's no particular reason why you should listen to me but I do think we should listen to the Bible and so I do my best to unpack the Bible because we accept this as some form of authority over us as a community of disciples and what's that Jesus is doing is he's just saying like hey and I've got a bunch of new stuff to teach you and you need to pay attention to this as if you're hearing the will of God and it stuns people promise this guy and where did he get this authority and it leads to this collision this collision of values and of authority and it just begins right here let me just give you two other examples of how this is going to play out in the story and where it's going so for example I Matthew chapter 9 Jesus is going to have some dinner with a guy named Matthew he's a tax collector and there's lots of other tax collectors and sinners there eating with him and his disciples and the Pharisees who teach the Torah and teach God's people to obey the laws of the Torah they see this and they talk to his disciples and oh my for does your teacher doing eating with these tax collectors and sinners now there's a number of reasons why the Pharisees are ticked off because of this and it's not just because they're you know uptight religious people or something like that so the tax collectors these are all Jewish people who have in some way or another allied with Rome and they work with the local Roman centurions to enforce the collection of taxes what are the odds that your jewish tax collector has not been had a head of ham sandwich that day what are the odds that he has not kept kosher really hot right and of course who are the other sinners that where that was me let's go back to Matthew chapter 9 where the other sinners who were there we're told in some of the other Gospels the prostitutes sex workers were often at these banquets that Jesus would throw and so on they're clearly they're not following the laws of the Torah and so on where the Pharisees are so hacked is because here's Jesus saying he's representing God's kingdom and he's offering it to all of the wrong people who do not follow Torah at all what are you doing Jesus why what authority do you have to offer the kingdom to these people it'll go in another directions next slide Matthew chapter 12 another time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath these disciples were hungry you begin to pick some heads of grain and eat them like you do and the Pharisees saw this and they say what look Jesus give disciples or they're working on the Sabbath they're doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath and when they say not lawful or unlawful they mean you're breaking one of the Ten Commandments Jesus you're working and providing food for yourselves on on the Sabbath this is here we go Jesus sets him up as himself up as an authority to teach and it's independent in addition to the Torah where did Jesus get this authority and it's going to cause huge conflict and it's it's a conflict that actually continued to exist in the Jesus Movement right so what we call Christianity began his life as a Jewish messianic renewal movement and it was actually only as the movement began to collect lots of non-jewish disciples of Jesus so the whole question came up like oh if I'm not Jewish like what is my relationship to the Torah I'm totally down for Jesus but I also like wearing poly cotton you know and I might so my filled with two kinds of seed because that's how my great ancestors have done this my great-grandfather and so on and you know I've pigs not eating ham is not a big deal whatever in Athens Greece and so this became a huge burning issue what is the relationship of Jesus and disciples of Jesus to the first three quarters of your Bible that you call the Old Testament that Jesus called the Torah and the Prophet and this isn't just a theology question this is the practical question where do you go to find God's will for what it means to live as a genuine human being to the words of Jesus to the Scriptures to both if both how do they relate to each other when Jesus seems to be doing things that aren't are you with me yeah okay Jesus sees this collision coming he knows it's coming and that's what he addresses in the paragraph that we're exploring here today go back to chapter 5 verse 17 and he speaks this dense sentence that has everything everything you want in it chapter 5 verse 17 he says do not think that I've come to abolish the law the Torah or the Prophet so when he says prophets he's referring to the other main section of the Hebrew Scriptures the in Jewish tradition the Old Testaments organized in a little bit different order than like in your English Bible in front of you but to say Torah and prophets is to say is the scriptures and Jesus says don't think that I've come to undermine the the scriptures now if he has to say don't think that I have come to do that what does that assume of course it assumes that everyone thinks that he's doing that right and we as the Pharisees especially now that's not what I'm doing you that's what you may think that I'm doing but that's not actually what's happening here I'm not undermining the ancient scriptures rather I have come not to abolish them but to what but to fulfill them fulfill them now if you've been cruising through Matthew with us you know we're just five pages in but seven times already he has used this concept of Jesus fulfilling the prophets so seven times in just five pages I mean he's really making a big deal of this he'll highlight some of it and the life of Jesus he'll stop the story and then address the reader and be like hey did you know this fulfilled what was spoken through the scriptures are through through the prophets and so he quotes like from Isaiah or something Isaiah said the Messiah the king will come and Jesus fulfills that that totally that kind of makes sense to us but Jesus says he not only fulfills the prophets but also what taurah the law now what does it mean to fulfill the ten commandments you know Isaiah points to the future says the future Kings coming Jesus says I'm that guy but what is the 10 commandments point to and what does it mean to say you fulfill the commandments what on earth does that even mean and it means a lot of things and we're just going to camp out here for a few minutes because this is a rich dense concept it's going to come up over and over and over again in the story and really it's about that it's the it's about cultivating the mindset of a disciple and of where do I look to discern God's will for living as a disciple and as a heat as a human being when Jesus says I come to fulfill the Torah and the prophets the first thing is of course remembering the whole story of Israel and key passages in the prophets and then the scriptures that point forward so just again think through the story with me God calls because people a bruh God calls into being a people through the family of Abraham Abraham out of the nation's I'm going to make you Abraham into a nation is going to bring blessing to all other nations that nation becomes a lot more people they go down the Egypt they become enslaved big bad guy named Pharaoh God rescues his people out of slavery brings him to the desert to the foot of this mountain called Sinai and God appears to them in the form of this cloud and thunder and lightning the Psalms really intense and kind of freaky and he he said it makes this announcement to them he says I've carried you out of Egypt on eagle's wings and he says here's what I want to do with you out of all the nations of the earth here you are I brought you to myself I'm going to make you into a kingdom of priests who are going to show my character to all of the other nations if you will agree to the terms of this covenant this relationship called the Covenant and what are the terms of the relationship between Yahweh and Israel it's in this potential and it's or the first thing the cod said to them it's Exodus chapter 20 and after those 10 six hundred and three more as the story goes throughout the rest of the Torah so this he's creating them as a kingdom who will is selected out from among the nation's they will live distinctly and differently and so show who God is to the nation okay now let's summarize 600 years in one question how do they do I fail huge fail this epic epic fail 600 years got the very patient and they fail and actually they just he lets them ruin the whole thing by honoring the dignity of their decisions and they run the whole nation into the ground and it lands them actually getting kicked out of their land and most of them sitting in exile in Babylon and so that this moment of the story you think clearly if Yahweh has a you know sane bone in his body that's a bad metaphor whatever if he's like if he's good clear rational thinker he's going to call his losses you know and just walk away precisely what he doesn't do Israel has walked away Yahweh will not walk away from his promises and so Jeremiah one of the great prophets is real sitting in exile in Babylon and these are his words to that generation of the people he says the days are coming declares the Lord when I will make a new with that people of Israel and with the people of Judah it will not be like the Covenant that I made with our ancestors when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt yeah they broke that covenant even though I was a husband to them declares the Lord so the emphasis here is that they are the ones who walked away the covenants broken not because Yahweh was unfaithful because they were but that doesn't mean the whole story is off there's a new covenant coming and it will be different it will be distinct so you have the Ten Commandments and then the 603 after that and those were the specific terms of the agreement for Yahweh in ancient Israel that didn't work they and it didn't work not because they're bad it work didn't work because Israel was unfaithful and so what you're always going to do is going to bring about the creation of a new relationship with this people but it will be different be different and here that's the covenant here's the covenant I will make with the people at that time I'm going to put my Torah in their mind I'm going to write the Torah on their heart I will be their God and they will be my people no longer will they need to teach their neighbor or say to one another hey you should know the Lord because they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord and let's stop but just let's keep this up here so what this is a new and distinct covenant and the terms of the relationship will be different but are we doing away with Torah and the commands no but their role is changing because it's not about them being written in a code that you obey it's about God doing something to embed and internalize his will on the hearts of his people and that that that embedding of the motivation and the desire and the knowledge of how to live as a human before God it's an expression of relationship you see this I will be their God and no be my people they'll just they'll know what to do because there'll be a degree of closeness and connection that will make obedience no longer its duty but a joy and an expression of what's actually deep inside of us do you see what he's saying here you're talking about the renovation of the human heart you don't have to compel obedience what I'm going to do is something that will make obedience become natural and what is that thing how on earth okay how on earth you do something like that you get somebody to that kind of place and it's the last sentence right here here's what I'm going to do I'm going to forgive their wickedness and we'll remember their sins no more now this is is profound but it's also really practical so just think through think of your own life think of a situation where you you really blew it with someone else right you wronged them you said you did something you really let them down you hurt them whatever just get that story get that story in your mind when you did that and if you have to work really hard me it's a clue that you're not that self-aware just a little hunter or that your friends are never honest with you right about how you really treat them so we'll get that story in your head right because we all have one of those stories now what happens next we may not have all experienced and that but some of us will have with that person we hurt them and they work through it right it's lame they work through it and they get to a place where they actually come towards us and they forgive right I name it I own it I own what I did and they don't have to do this in fact I may not even deserve this but they forgive me they forgive me they take it we let it go and we work through it something changes something deep changes in the relationship when that happens you guys with me and if you've experienced that before you know what I'm talking about because all of a sudden that relationship has this bond that is strong longer that then just friendship or nature and part of it is is it actually a really unnatural act to do that with somebody you know like alpha male chimpanzees my wife and I are watching this great documentary series on wildlife in India right now there are so many monkeys in India oh my gosh I had no idea how many different species of monkeys are in India and so like alpha male you know chimps or whatever like they don't when they have conflict they don't forgive each other they bash each other's heads in you know like that that's what we do naturally that's nature to forgive is unnatural in a way and it's the unique relational repair and bond that human human beings do and something happens there and if you've ever been forgiven by someone when you totally wronged them you know the change that takes place all of a sudden how you think about that person and you're wanting to do right by them and you're wanting to honor them it changes and the motivation towards for doing that changes towards them it's just this gratefulness in this care because you because of this crazy thing that that person did for you that's what Jeremy is talking about here God's going to move towards his people in such a great act of forgiveness that all of a sudden the demands of the Torah won't be like what you have to obey it's going to internalize it in a renovation of the heart that's so deep the obedience to Yahweh begins to come naturally that's what Jeremiah is talking about and it's going to happen through a great act of forgiveness God moving towards his people so this promise just stands there in the Hebrew Scriptures the rest of Israelite history prayed out and that covenant was not realized and that promise is connected to all kinds of other promises in the prophets and so on Jesus comes onto the scene and these are precisely the promises that he sees himself picking up and bringing into reality Jesus sees himself forming the Jeremiah 31 people the people of the New Covenant he said so it is last supper he took the wine you know in the bread and he said this cup is what he says it's the new covenant in my blood what Jesus sees himself doing is actually enacting God's forgiveness he's not going to wait for tax collectors and sex workers to like come repent give offer sacrifices in the temple he's going to go to them it's this preemptive strike of grace on God's part the Jesus is enacting and so these these parties that he's throwing for these people like this these you know these tax collectors and prostitutes and sinners they know what Jesus is about it's no secret he's not compromising he's calling them to repent and to follow him but the way that he moves towards them in the way that he loves them and respect them it draws these people to him and all of a sudden these people begin to notice like their desire to obey the God of Israel if they follow Jesus it starts to mess with their minds and with their hearts okay now we're talking we're talking here talking about the renovation of the heart and that's what Jesus sees himself is doing and so here's what he's going to do over the next six weeks the next six Sundays we're going to take the next six paragraphs that follow in Matthew Matthew chapter five and what Jesus is going to show is how his call to his followers is to do what he is doing which is fulfilling the Torah which is not simply about obeying the laws it's about allowing Jesus to begin this renovation of the heart look at it look at will just look at two examples and I think this will kind of set the stage for us go down to verse 21 he says you you all have heard it said you all have heard that it was said to people long ago you shall not murder what's he quoting from right there 10 for ever tried quoting from the Torah you've heard that it was said yeah don't murder people anyone who murders will be subject to judgment but I tell you anyone who's angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment now notice what he's doing here he quotes from one of the laws in the Torah Commandments and he says you have heard that it was said and that is right that is good that is a that is a solid reliable indicator of God's will but now I say to you and what he's doing right here he's not contradicting the law he's simply adding his teaching as a new authority alongside the commandment and in what he's going to do is he's claim that what he's about to teach actually fulfills the intent and the purpose of the command and so what does Jesus so for some of us actually know that's not true for a very small circle of human beings not murdering someone when they cut you off like on the road and like making you angry and do whatever not murdering them is a real step forward right for a small circle of human beings not to take their lives right but for most of us that's not our issue right and the commands all the command does is open up a whole can of worms right actually and for Jesus this is that command is a pointer to issues real issues of the human heart about pride and contempt and anger and what Jesus wants to see in the ethic of the kingdom is the real issues address it's about there's a little movies we plow in our head about people that we don't like and we degrade their humanity with what we say or what we do and in so doing we essentially erase their humanity we murder them in our minds and in our hearts and Jesus is there we go that's the issue right there it does not abolish the authority of the command it actually brings it to a new degree of fulfillment look just one other example real quick here look at verse 27 he's going to do this six times this is the second time he says you've heard it said you shall not commit adultery what's he quoting right there the ten commandments but I tell you anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart say it's the same exact thing to simply not get into bed with somebody for some people is a real step forward right to not do that when the impulse for desire comes but Jesus says that all that does is expose what are the core issues in the human heart that of longing and desire to be known and that of just lust and insatiable self-indulgence those are the issues that are exposed and those are the issues that Jesus teaching wants to deal with this is what it means here I haven't come to abolish I'm actually fulfilling the purpose of the law as I bring about the New Covenant and the people of the New Covenant are people who live in this upside-down state who drive on the side of the road and who that are being shaped into the Jeremiah 31 people and it will lead to collisions in your culture because it's just it's totally counterintuitive many ways the Jesus is calling his people to live and so a helpful illustration as we go through these six weeks that has helped me think about this is something an experience that maybe some of us have had before if you've ever learned to play an instrument anyone to learn to play an instrument in the room yes and then you or you've learned a second language at least attempted to learn a second language anybody smaller fewer there we go okay we got half the room represented right here okay so what the rest of you do with your time I don't know what you do so we're trying to play music and together languages so a whole bunch of us if you've ever had that experience what are the first weeks and months like as you go about doing that you play an instrument you're just some of you can't even remember so long ago but you spent weeks just getting the ground rules of the instrument and usually that comes in the form of playing scales when it was in the late 80s it was the decade of the saxophone I mean come on what wasn't right and so I was like 9 or 10 I don't like that and I had to learn how to play the saxophone and so I tortured my family my poor parents I mean they like rancid or a nice box of on for me to play or lease it or whatever anyway and so I would sit in my room for weeks and I got I did it for a year and I was so horrible after I just gave it up and then I got my first skateboard and then this it was written after that point so so you just play your scales it's so boring but when what are you doing what you're doing is you're taking something that's not your nature and you are acquiring a new set of instincts so that knowing what sound is connected to what finger at what point at what moment that that just becomes intuitive and my whole desire is the same thing with learning language you vocab cards and these really intimidating paradigm verb charts just like ah torture and it kind of is but the whole point is that you spend weeks and weeks and months memorizing all of this to internalize it to acquire a new nature and then what happens in a year what happens ideally unless you're made what happens is that you begin you get proficient and all of a sudden you can you you're playing your scales so many thousands of times has internalized it that you can begin to make new combinations and create notes and harmonies and melodies and so on that are are so here's issue as you speak the language as you begin to play music are you contradicting the scales are you are you saying like yeah I was lame like those aren't true anymore like of course that's not what you're doing but a year into playing an instrument do you spend three hours just playing your scales anymore of course not of course not why because you have fulfilled the purpose of playing your scales that's exactly it seems to me what Jesus is saying right here the 613 commands were God's will for ancient Israel for a time and for a place and they are good it is not just that they were good they are good but that to which they pointed is now fulfilled and now we're going to begin to speak the language of the kingdom and play the music of the kingdom with our lives as we become the Jeremiah 31 people together and it's that balance that Jesus is trying to strike right here look at verse 18 he's so great let's just ditch the Old Testament then it's complicated and talks funny so why should I read it in the place and Jesus is like not so fast verse 18 he says truly I tell you until heaven and earth disappear not the smallest letter not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the Torah until everything is accomplished so he's talking down to the details of the Torah it is still a statement of God's will it is still a statement of God's will down to the tiniest detail now I have least stroke of the pen and smallest letter any other translations of those little phrases iota hmm jot and and tittle that's the King James phrase jot and tittle what on earth does that mean let me show you one here it is this is from one of the Dead Sea Scrolls the great Isaiah scroll all written 150 years or so before Jesus it's Hebrew handwriting that Jesus would have been familiar with on the left you'll see in the circle the Hebrew letter Rache if the letter are in our language so you pronounce that words rah rah - they see in the right you see the middle letter in the circle there that's the Hebrew letter dalet it's the letter D the equivalent to our D so that's the Hebrew word Adam which means human now visually what is the difference between race and dollas visually how it looks do you see it there there you go that says that's what Jesus is talking about the smallest little stroke of the Hebrew alphabet in the Torah right so if you were to hmm if you were to take off that little stroke on the dollar on the right it would become the letter R and then it would be the word Aram which is the name of a country but at least one of ancient Israel's neighbors it changes the meaning altogether so what Jesus is he's affirming here down to the smallest details the Torah remains a statement of God's will until what until everything is accomplished and what does Jesus doing he is bringing things to their accomplishment he goes on he says therefore anybody who set two one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly they'll be called least in the kingdom of heaven the laws of the Torah are not second-rate they're not to be denigrated Jesus disciples need to learn from the laws of the Torah I need to learn from them and in fact need to do them the critic says whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven but wait I thought you just said that how we fulfill them is going to mean that they have been fulfilled and so what I do with them is a little bit different now so what is that difference now he's saying to do them what do you mean Jesus taught clear for us please okay he does in verse 24 I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the Toraja you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven and some of us read that and we're like dang it charm done for us I'm done for what is what on earth does that mean so the Pharisees and the teachers of the Torah think like Bible professors and scholars and then the Pharisees are like the the local community leaders and pastors and teachers and so on and so what he wants you to have in your mind are the people who have made their livelihood and life's passion and work studying the 613 commands of the Torah and how God's people are to obey them that's what he means by righteousness in righteousness is all about right relationships it's about being formed by God's will so that I do right by God and by other people in every possible situation and Jesus says unless you're doing right by God and others surpasses that of the Pharisees yeah you're done for what you know you don't enter the kingdom and some of us hear that and we're like dang it I guess I'm out you know I'll go try some other religious Club or maybe able to take up golf you know that's the good with what what on earth are we supposed to do and if you're in that place it's because you think what Jesus is saying is all what I'm calling my disciples to do is play the Pharisees game but just Ratchet it up even more intensely but of course if you really think hard that's not what he's going to do it's not what he's going to do is he quotes from the Torah and then gives his new teaching that internalizes the purpose of the command what he's calling his disciples to is nothing less than a renovation of the heart and here I mean I don't know what to say you guys except this is one of these paradoxes and Jesus's teachings in the next six weeks he's going to expose issues of pride of lust of contempt of our of the ways that we wiggle out and escape having to let people truly know who we are through the bending and distortion of the truth you know we call it longing but it's this maneuvering around what's really true about us that we can you know manage people's perception of us right we call it lying it's really just perception management so he's going to expose all the stuff inside of us deep core issues about the state of our hearts and our minds and and he's going to call us to a higher degree of obedience and faithfulness and and relationships towards other people that seems that seems possible and we're going to hear these commands and the last statement he's going to do is he's going to say yeah be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect and yours like dang it so what I would do and your if it's like you're crushed by Jesus's teachings but it's not a joke like he fully expects his followers to really do this and to really live this way but yet at the same time he surely knows that when we look at the way he lives and calls his disciples live it's like climbing Mount Everest we're just like who can live that way all of the time and if you hold on to that paradox I think you've got it he's got the issue right there and it all comes together in the teaching of Jesus it's the last slide I'll show you it's in Matthew 22 where he brings all of this together you'll just see all the dots connect right here hearing the Jesus silenced the Sadducees the Pharisees then got together one of them an expert in Torah tested him with this question teacher what's the greatest commandment in the Torah jesus replied love love love the Lord your God with all your heart all your soul all your mind that's the first and greatest commandment well here's the other greatest commandment wait we just asked you for one Jesus yeah but there's two greatest Commandments right and they are this love God and love your neighbor as yourself all the Torah and prophets hang right here who are the Jeremiah 31 people the Jesus sees himself bringing into being it's people who are so bowled over by the fact that Jesus has moved towards them in spite of all of the crap that's in their hearts and their minds in the way we think about people in ourselves and Jesus comes and he throws these forgiveness parties right we take part in it every single week when we gather we call it the bread and the cup but we're we're reenacting these forgiveness parties the Jesus through as he moved towards people and just offer them the kingdom and being a part of his people to set the act of sheer grace and and as that is that slowly over time begins to affect you and and you you allow Jesus to expose you allow his teachings and that paradox that exposed like this isn't about murder is it it's about how I view other people and myself is superior to them why do I do that when did I start doing that like how did that happen and how over years of driving on the certain side of the road have I made that my nature now to view myself as better than other people because most of us do some call it confidence other calls other people call it prized but that's what it is and Jesus is like yeah that's it that's what's in focus right here all of the Torah and the prophets are trying to raise and expose is this brokenness deep brokenness in our lives so that Jesus can move towards it and work on it with His grace and that's what this is about and so you know I feel like half of the pastoral conversations you know when you know somebody writes me a note or email is something we get together we're talking through something in your life and you guys I don't I don't know what to say half the time to be perfectly honest with you and I'm so here's what I'll do and I'm more than happy to have that cup of coffee the list is reenacted right now we'll open up the scriptures and we'll talk about God's grace for you despite how screwed up you are in these circumstances that you found yourself in and and for some of us it's actually tragedies and hardships and real failures in our lives that get us thinking about this stuff for the first time you think you're like fine if you're going through life and then and you think you're just doing great as a disciple of Jesus when in fact you're just playing the Pharisee game and then something really difficult goes down and you really fail big-time or someone else fails you big-time or some tragedy hits and all of a sudden the true you that you don't let people see you very often it just comes out it comes out and anger it comes out in sexual misbehavior it comes out and crashing your life financially crashing your relationships the stuff just comes pouting out of us right when hardship comes and when difficulties and failures and paradoxically that those are the worst and the best moments because those are the moments where Jesus is saying is like I didn't come to save people who think that they're healthy I came to save sick people who know that they need to be healed and that's what it means to be a part of the Jeremiah 31 people and so as we go through these teachings I don't I don't know what to say except that I think we need to pray right now and we need to reflect and we need to come to the bread and the cup and we need to reenact these forgiveness celebration meals the Jesus held so often and that he held that last night before he was betrayed and he said this is my blood it's the new covenant it's poured out for you this bot is bread is my body it's broken for you do this to remember me and as we come to the bread and the cup we we remember this the gist is there are failures and flaws have been exposed Jesus comes in sheer grace to move towards us and he lived his life on my behalf he actually is the only person who reads this way and his and he did it for me he lived as the human I'm called to be but perpetually failed to be and then he gives his life to me and says he wants to take responsibility for me I mean it's just crazy why on earth would he do that but that's precisely what he said he was doing and in his death he dies the death that we are all destined to as the result and consequences of being a part of the screwed up humanity that we're all you know intertwined together with and his resurrection from the dead is his statement of love and grace and hope and that his life cannot be given to us and that's and I don't know what the step forward is except the step to come to the bread in the cup and just say Jesus help me help me because I can't fix your problems and odds are you and I actually can't even fix our own problems but Jesus came to rescue the sick who who will throw up their hands in in a request for help and so let's do that here together let me close in a word of Prayer you

Channel: Tim Mackie Archives

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Id: BxDPIyH8UZE

Length: 48min 10sec (2890 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 19 2017