Good morning. It's good to be with you all this morning again. For those of you who weren't here last week, I was here last week, and I preached here a couple times back in June as well. I do college ministry at UConn, and we're in the beginning of the school year. We're about four weeks into the school year now, actually, amazingly already. At UConn with my students, we have a Thursday night gathering on campus, which is essentially kind of like a worship service. And I preach through a section of scripture every semester. And this semester, I'm preaching through the Sermon on the Mount. And so I'm just bringing my UConn series here when I come and sharing it also with you guys. And where we are in the Sermon on the Mount, I would encourage you, if you haven't spent much time in the Sermon on the Mount lately, to spend some time in it, because it really is a masterpiece in the way, you know, the order in which Jesus lays out his message is just really masterful. And, you know, it starts out with the Beatitudes, which is this, like, it's like the preamble to Jesus's constitution, and he lays out this countercultural, ideal for what people are meant to be like. And it's just very radical in that it starts with being poor in spirit. It starts with mourning over our sin and unrighteousness. And last time I was here, we looked at the idea of salt and light, the idea of why. Why is Jesus raising up disciples here on earth? And what is Jesus ultimately up to with his people, his church? And today in the passage, we're gonna look at Jesus takes time, he kind of takes an aside to address this question that would have been in the back of the minds of many of his listeners, which is, is Jesus then anti-law? If Jesus is all about forgiveness, if Jesus is blessed are the poor in spirit, does he fit with the rest of the Bible or is this something different? Is this something new? Does Jesus care about obedience to God's commandments? If he does, then how does that fit exactly with the rest of the Bible? Questions like, is Jesus just providing an easy way out? And so that's kind of the background, that's what would be in the mind of Jesus' listeners as he says this next portion of the Sermon on the Mount. So, I'll read it for us and then we'll spend some time examining it together. So, it's in your bulletin there, Matthew 5, verses 17 through 26. Jesus says, 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. You have heard that 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. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council, and whoever says, you fool, will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny. The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Let's pray again. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for all the ways it makes sense of our world, and it makes sense of who we are, and our experience of life in your world. We thank you that it is good news. And Lord, we come to it today from all different places in life. Some of us have had really great weeks, and some of us have had really awful weeks. Some of us feel energized, and some of us feel tired. Some of us feel near to You, and some of us feel like You may not exist. And no matter where we are, we pray that You would meet us there in Your Word today. We pray that You would show us Your truth, and that Your truth would set us free. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen. Okay, so in our text this morning, Jesus has been giving this vision of God's kingdom on earth. And people at this point are wondering about God's law, the commandments that God gives, and how they fit into Jesus' vision of life in his kingdom. And Jesus says, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. Law and prophets was a way of saying the Bible. It was a way of saying Old Testament. you know a lot of times they summarize the Old Testament Testament by just saying the law and Jesus here talk gives us three aspects of the law his commandments the Bible up to that point that help us to understand how he fits and so today we're going to look at these three aspects the goodness of the law and the depth of the law, and then the fulfillment of the law to understand who Jesus is, the importance of Jesus, and how he fits with God's plan, his word. And so I want to start by looking at the goodness of the law in this passage. And if you look at this passage, Jesus begins by giving a very direct answer to the questions people would have been wondering about, right? Like if you look at kind of verses 17 through 20 in the text like they're very intense. They're very almost over-the-top It's like Jesus is saying Do you like this is how much I care about God's law? He says not one iota will pass away, which like you know the iota is the Greek I it's the smallest letter It would have been the way he was talking would have been the Hebrew yod, which is like an apostrophe it's the way of saying like It's not like a smudge will happen on God's law through my ministry. This is how much I care about it. You need to be serious about the law and obedience, and I am serious about it. It will not pass away. And the reason that God's law will not pass away, the reason it can't pass away, is because God's law is central to who He is. The law is essential to who God is and what our world is like, the world that he made. And I think it's fashionable today, and probably always has been, to kind of buck against the law. To kind of say like, well, I don't like the idea of laws. But what you need to see is that we live according to laws all the time. Think about the human body. We have a human body and we're free to do with it whatever we will, but the body needs things like sleep. And the body needs things like healthy food. And the body needs things like exercise. And the thing about our human body is that you can break those laws, right? And you will live. But, if you do, life will gradually become a shadow of what it's supposed to be. I work with college students, so I see the breakdown as the semester goes on and sleep gets less and less and nutrition is less and less. You can actually see it happening on the faces of college students throughout a year. The body breaks down and life becomes a shadow of what it was meant to be. Keeping God's law is like eating, sleeping, and exercising, but on a cosmic level. It's what our world needs. It's what our souls need. And one of the things that Jesus is addressing here in this passage is our tendency to treat the law like a burden instead of a blessing. So what that means is that when God judges sin, it's part of his goodness. Because sin destroys, sin messes everything up in our lives and in our relationships and in our world. God telling us how to live. is part of his goodness. It's not part of his stinginess or his bossiness. So how do you know if you're treating the law like a burden instead of a blessing? One way is if you're someone who's worried about the unfairness of the people around you not working as hard as you. If you're someone who has a tough time with forgiveness, it may be a sign that you view the law as a burden rather than a blessing. And what you have to see at this point is that Jesus is speaking to people who are more concerned with how they measure up to the people around them than they are about the goodness of God's law. And here Jesus is saying, the law is just, it's unquestionably good. I am all about this law. This law is here to stay because it's intertwined with who God is. The law is good. But the next thing Jesus goes on to get into is the depth of the law. And this is where people tend to get hung up. And Jesus says this amazing thing that really kind of confusing and difficult to deal with. He says, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. What you need to see is that people would have been really shocked to hear this statement. Because, you know, I think we think of Pharisees as, like, the hypocrites of the day. We view them negatively. But at that time, Pharisees were viewed as, like, if anyone has it together, it's these guys. If anybody is in with God, it's these guys because they follow all of the commandments so rigorously. To give you an example, like, if a Pharisee were here today, coming to this church, and he found a dime on the sidewalk outside. A Pharisee would go to the nearest place where you could make change and get nickel and five pennies and he would put one penny in the offering plate, right? Because you gotta be meticulous. You gotta tithe everything. That's kind of the way Pharisees, that's how devoted a Pharisee would have been. And so if that's what the Pharisees are like, How could our righteousness possibly exceed theirs? How could God demand that our righteousness exceed theirs to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven? I heard a story a while ago from a friend of his, a woman who had moved to New York City from somewhere else, working as a photographer. And so adjusting to life in the big city from the small town, she brought her dog along with her to the city. And not too long after she moved to New York, sadly her dog died. And so she was in her apartment with her dog, who is no longer living, wondering, well, what do I do now? And so she called the vet and the vet said, you know, we can take care of it for you, but you need to bring your dog down here. Like we're not going to pick it up for you. So you have to bring it down here. And so she looked around her apartment and she was like, how am I going to do this? And she found like a camera duffel bag or something that says like, you know, Nikon or Canon or Sony on it or something like that, and pretty big dog, so it had to be a pretty big bag, and so she put it in there, and she's like lugging it around the city, this dog in a bag, and gets on the subway, and as she's getting on the subway, a man approaches her, and he's like, excuse me, that looks heavy, can I help you with it? And she's thinking, Thank God, yes. And as she's handing it to him, he punches her and runs off with her bag. Now, imagine the look on his face when he gets to wherever he's going and opens the bag, right? What would he learn? He would learn it's possible for what's on the outside to indicate very little about what's on the inside. It's possible for what's on the inside to be very different from what's on the outside. And the reason that Jesus has so much conflict with religious leaders is not because they love God's law and he doesn't, but because he knows and teaches that God's law goes far deeper than any of us are willing to admit. And it often has very little to do with what shows up on the outside. And Jesus, in this passage, actually gives us a clarifying example of what he's talking about, right? With the idea of anger and murder, and he says, you know, you've heard that it's said you should not murder, but I say to you, anyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Again, what you need to see is that our tendency is to compare ourselves with the people around us and we view the law as a burden rather than a blessing. So, if you're like me, you often, in those moments when you feel kind of guilty, kind of bad about yourself, think to yourself, well, at least I'm not like you. That guy. We actually think things like, at least I've never murdered anyone. Those thoughts actually go through our heads to make us feel better about ourselves. But Jesus says, if you insult your brother, You know, if you're angry, you're guilty. And when he says insult, he uses a word that is translated different. Translators have a tough time with it. If you've ever read another translation, maybe you've seen that it says, like, if you ever call your brother raka, and it's this Aramaic term, which is kind of confusing because God calls people fools sometimes, right? And God is angry in this righteous way sometimes, but Jesus is addressing a specific type of attitude towards someone. And the idea of raka gets to it because it's this word that's so hard to translate because it means nothing. Like it means like you nothing, which you can't translate. We don't say you nothing, but we think it a lot, don't we? We feel that way toward people a lot of the time. It may take the form of, like, just forget about you. Like, if I never see you again, that will be great. And Jesus is saying is that if your heart is ever like that toward people, you are guilty of murder. He's saying it's hellish to dismiss anyone. Who cares if you've never actually pulled out the gun and shot them? And Jesus goes on to give these warnings about any kind of conflict that you have with someone, even if someone's mad at you. He's saying that when God's law says not to murder, it demands that we pursue those who are mad at us to make things right. It means that we work toward reconciliation. It means we work toward, we just move toward people always, every single time. And so, you know, are you feeling the depth of God's law yet at this point? The way I explain this with my students is think about two acorns. My daughter Margo is really into acorns. She knows that acorns fall off trees and when she sees them she gets excited. So we look at acorns a lot. If you think about two acorns falling off of a tree, A lot of acorns fall off of trees and very few become other trees. If you look at an acorn that landed in a good patch of soil and another that landed on a sidewalk, you wouldn't say that one was the good acorn and that one was the bad acorn. You would say, these acorns were dropped into different conditions. and that affected the way that the acorns grew. And so when Jesus talks about our righteousness exceeding that of the Pharisees, he's talking about depth. He's talking about the way that the law sinks into our hearts and changes us. And what you need to see is that these religious leaders are way off. Their righteousness is surface level, but it's not deep. And so, on some level, it's more conceivable that our righteousness would exceed that of the Pharisees, because it's very surface level, but we need to see that we are all way off, too. And as Jesus explains what the command to not murder is all about, we are meant to think, oh no, I dismiss people all the time. I am guilty. We're meant to be convicted in this moment. Christians are people, when they encounter a murderer, they don't say or think, how could you? They think, oh, my murderous heart. I am so capable of that. Thank God the conditions haven't arisen for me to actually do that. I am someone capable of that. That's what we should think when we encounter a murderer. I am capable of eliminating someone. I do it frequently in my mind. Which is why it is so good that Jesus has come. because Jesus hasn't just come to expose us through the law, but he's come to fulfill the law. And that's what this passage is really all about. Jesus says, I've come to fulfill the law and the prophets, which is his way of saying the whole Bible is about me. Everything that's been written up to this point culminates in me. This story of redemption in the Old Testament that's unfolding, I'm the culmination of it. And it's worth, at this time, kind of rehearsing what that story is, right? In that story, God creates a beautiful and wondrous world. And He creates beautiful people within it that are His true love. And he tells them how to live in the world that he created, not because he's mean, but because he's the only one who knows how life is meant to be lived in his world. And tragically, pride and self-centeredness make God's people reject him and reject his rule. And the result is that they become murderous. If you read through the first four chapters of the Bible, Adam and Eve reject him in chapter 3, and the first murder happens in chapter 4. It's not a coincidence. And as the Bible unfolds, God's people continually find new ways to do evil. But God's response is stunning. It's shocking. God's response is, my people and my world are too valuable to me though. And I can't change who I am, and so I can't change my law, I can't change how this world operates, but I can save them if I fulfill the law for them. And Jesus becomes part of the story at that point, which is really Genesis chapter 3 and onward. And He's the one that the whole Old Testament points to. As the sacrificial system unfolds, it points to Jesus. It culminates in Him. And what you need to see is that there's two ways that you can, if you just think about the concept of a law, there's two ways that you can fulfill a law. The first is to obey, right? And then the law has no hold on you. And the other way would be to pay the price for not obeying. Like if you get a speeding ticket and you pay the fine, You've fulfilled the law. The law has no hold on you. The law has no claim on you. But for Jesus, who is the Son of God, to save God's people, he has to do both of those things. And so he does. Jesus obeys in a way that the world had never seen before. The law is implanted deeply in his heart. And so what that means is that he dismisses no one. And in this amazing way, he makes time for everyone. And what that looks like is that he associates himself with all kinds of people, and even the people who are against him, he engages with. He loves deeply every single time. And thankfully, that's not all he does, though. Because Jesus is an example, only an example would ruin us. When I was a teenager, I don't know if people still do this, but everyone got the WWJD bracelets in the church. There's nothing wrong with those bracelets inherently, but if that's the creed you live by, there will be something wrong. Because you will become miserable. Because you'll never live up to it. And so thankfully Jesus doesn't come just to obey, but he also comes to pay the price for not obeying. Pay the price for our not obeying, which is not just death. It includes death, but What we deserve is to be, not only to die, but to be cast out eternally. And all of the people that Jesus saves deserve that. And so when Jesus is on the cross, Jesus is bearing an eternal punishment for all the sins of God's people. And I don't know if you've ever wondered about this. I've thought about this a lot, how there's a lot of people who have died for what they believe in in history. And many people have died very bravely for what they believe. And many Christians have died very bravely for the cause of Christ. And yet when Jesus dies, Jesus dies terrified. And the reason Jesus dies terrified is because he's staring down that tunnel of the eternal punishment. And what's happening is, it's an eternal punishment because he's being severed from the one that he's existed with, God the Father, for eternity. And so it is terrifying, and he takes it on. He bears the weight of an eternal rejection on behalf of God's people. And the result is that for those who have put their trust in Christ, the way He obeyed, that record of righteousness is transferred to us at the cross. And Jesus does it because it's who He is. Because the law, who God, it's who he is. The law is implanted deep in his heart. And what it looks like is just love. What it looks like is an unending love. And so how can our righteousness exceed that of the Pharisees? It can only happen when we realize that the one who gave the law is also our savior. And that his love for you is deeper than the depth of your sin. And he sees all of it. The sin goes deeper than any of us would ever care to acknowledge. And when you know that you're loved like that, obedience will come pouring out of you. A few weeks ago, I heard about someone talking about this psychological study that had been done with very smart young men. I think it was teenagers that had all gotten a perfect score on the math SAT. They were part of this psychological study. So all kind of same level of mathematical intelligence, really bright kids. And the one kind of variable in the study was their relationship with their dads. And they were divided into two camps for the study. Those who had the kind of dads that were like You'll always be my son. I'm so proud of you. No matter how you perform, I'm with you. I'm for you. I'll always love you. And so there were those that had that kind of dad and then they divided. The other camp was like the ones who had dads that were like, you better perform or else. You better live up to this standard or else. And so what they had these kids doing is they had them in a computer lab working on high-level math problems. And so they were able to monitor their performance. And as the study started, they're all performing at a similar level, similar speed, getting about the same percentage of answers correct. And at a strategic point in the study, they subliminally flash an image of their dad on the screen so quickly that the eye doesn't see it, but the mind does. And so they don't know that they've seen an image of their dads. But the researchers noticed that at that point in the study, the ones with the dads that said, you better perform or else, their performance starts to drop off a little. While the ones that had the encouraging, the always there for you dad, starts to pick up a little bit. What does it show? It shows that where you stand with the one that you are performing for matters. And the only way you will perform, the only way you will be truly obedient, the only way the law will sink deeply into your heart is if you know that you have a father who loves you. The only way you will perform is if you know that this father gave his son to bear the eternal weight of your punishment so that you could be like him and with him forever. So with that in mind, I invite you to go and live for the Lord. Not because He will cast you out if you don't, but because it's the best way to live. He died so that we could do it. Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, you do know our hearts and you know all the ways that we resist your law, all the ways that we don't want to live in accordance with it, all the ways that we don't want to be like you at our core, and we thank you that you are fixing us. We pray that you would enable us to love those around us. We pray that you would be able to enable us to not be angry with our brother or sister, but to actively love them. We pray that the power, you give us the power to do it by your spirit, through the gospel, working its way into our heart. We pray all these things in Christ's name. Amen.