5:17-20 | Fulfilling the Law

Christ's Relation to the Old Law

1. People could easily have thought Jesus might be completely overthrowing the Old Covenant

   1. He had not respect for the traditions of the Pharisees, calling them vain and useless

   2. He had radical views on the Sabbath

   3. Spoke of the temple being destroyed

   4. Will he keep going untill the entire law is overturned?

2. Jesus came to fulfill the Law and Prophets

   1. He did not come to tear down and sweep away the Old Covenant but to complete it

   2. Matthew has been showing us how Jesus completes it six different times so far

   3. How did Jesus fulfill the Law and Prophets?

He is the Completion of the Old Testament

1. Everything that had been done in history was to lead to Jesus

   1. God intended it before creation of the world | Ephesians 1:3-5

   2. He was the true offspring of Abraham | Galatians 3:16

   3. All the prophets of Israel looked forward to a coming Messiah | Luke 13:26-27

2. We need to respect the Old Testament

   1. We will not understand the New unless we see the Old

   2. By ignoring the Old we are ignoring Jesus | John 5:39, 42

   3. These are the same words that will make us wise to salvation

3. We should never ignore or consider it irrelevant

   1. These were the scriptures early Christians learned from

   2. If we do not see Jesus in the Old then we are reading them wrong

   3. We must not dismiss them as unimportant stories

4. The Law and Prophets would remain valid untill its completion

   1. You have a better chance of seeing heaven and earth pass away, than for the law to pass away without being fulfilled

   2. "When pigs fly"

   3. The Law passed away because it was about Jesus, and Jesus accomplished his purpose

Relaxing the Commandments

1. We relax commands for our own benefit | Matthew 23:1-4

   1. God's commandments are hard to follow

   2. A lot of people get ahead in life by sinning

2. To make God more agreeable

   1. God is very offensive

   2. Relax commandments by saying they were only applicable to that time and culture

   3. Galatians 1:6-10

3. We relax commands to feel more righteous about ourselves

   1. I can't keep God's Law but I can keep my own watered down version

   2. Surface obedience is easy enough, but what about from the heart?

4. These will be called least in the kingdom of heaven

   1. Don't expect any rewards for putting in little to no effort for God

   2. Many interpret as they won't enter into heaven at all with verse 20

A Righteousness Greater than the Scribes and Pharisees

1. A shocking statement

   1. Pharisees literally meant "The Separated"

   2. How can we go beyond someone like that?

2. We need to go beyond surface obedience

   1. This is the rest of chapter 5

   2. Culminates in nothing less than perfection | 5:48

3. The Pharisees were content in their righteousness | Luke 18:9-14

   1. The law doesn't make us feel good about ourselves

   2. It shows us how desperately we need a savior

   3. We should never be content in our righteousness