5:17-20 | Fulfilling the Law
Christ's Relation to the Old Law
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People could easily have thought Jesus might be completely overthrowing the Old Covenant
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He had not respect for the traditions of the Pharisees, calling them vain and useless
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He had radical views on the Sabbath
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Spoke of the temple being destroyed
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Will he keep going untill the entire law is overturned?
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Jesus came to fulfill the Law and Prophets
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He did not come to tear down and sweep away the Old Covenant but to complete it
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Matthew has been showing us how Jesus completes it six different times so far
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How did Jesus fulfill the Law and Prophets?
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He is the Completion of the Old Testament
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Everything that had been done in history was to lead to Jesus
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God intended it before creation of the world | Ephesians 1:3-5
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He was the true offspring of Abraham | Galatians 3:16
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All the prophets of Israel looked forward to a coming Messiah | Luke 13:26-27
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We need to respect the Old Testament
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We will not understand the New unless we see the Old
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By ignoring the Old we are ignoring Jesus | John 5:39, 42
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These are the same words that will make us wise to salvation
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We should never ignore or consider it irrelevant
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These were the scriptures early Christians learned from
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If we do not see Jesus in the Old then we are reading them wrong
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We must not dismiss them as unimportant stories
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The Law and Prophets would remain valid untill its completion
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You have a better chance of seeing heaven and earth pass away, than for the law to pass away without being fulfilled
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"When pigs fly"
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The Law passed away because it was about Jesus, and Jesus accomplished his purpose
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Relaxing the Commandments
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We relax commands for our own benefit | Matthew 23:1-4
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God's commandments are hard to follow
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A lot of people get ahead in life by sinning
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To make God more agreeable
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God is very offensive
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Relax commandments by saying they were only applicable to that time and culture
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Galatians 1:6-10
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We relax commands to feel more righteous about ourselves
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I can't keep God's Law but I can keep my own watered down version
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Surface obedience is easy enough, but what about from the heart?
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These will be called least in the kingdom of heaven
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Don't expect any rewards for putting in little to no effort for God
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Many interpret as they won't enter into heaven at all with verse 20
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A Righteousness Greater than the Scribes and Pharisees
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A shocking statement
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Pharisees literally meant "The Separated"
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How can we go beyond someone like that?
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We need to go beyond surface obedience
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This is the rest of chapter 5
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Culminates in nothing less than perfection | 5:48
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The Pharisees were content in their righteousness | Luke 18:9-14
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The law doesn't make us feel good about ourselves
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It shows us how desperately we need a savior
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We should never be content in our righteousness
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