Sermon Transcript
All right. Good to have everybody today. Today, just like last week, we are going to be in the book of Matthew. We’re still in chapter five. Let’s first read this passage. Matthew 5:17–20.
“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.” (ESV)
This is the Word of the Lord. Let’s pray, church.
Father, I pray that You please be with us. I pray that You please move us to receive Your Word today. Father, I pray that You roll the Holy Spirit over Your congregation and for our hearts and our minds to be pricked. I pray that You open our mind’s eye and have us to focus intently on the message that You have. I pray that You open our mind’s eye and have us to focus intently on the message that You have. I pray that You open our mind’s eye and have us to focus intently on the message that You have. For us, Lord, I pray that You please take this servant’s brain. You help me to focus. Help me to not get distracted or my thoughts to go back and forth. I pray, Jesus, that You please protect us from the enemy who seeks to kill, destroy, to steal, to thwart the kingdom of God and in our mission that You have given us. But we will have none of it if You will stand with us and protect us. I pray. I pray that You would call heaven’s armies to be here today and protect us from the enemy. I pray, Jesus, that You would help us to be the light of the world and salt of the earth to do a great thing here. This is Your home, God. And we ask that You would dwell among us to dwell within us. And for us to proclaim Your excellencies. And Father, if there are people that are not born again in our midst today, I pray that You would give them new life, causing them to turn from their life of rebellion and to submit to You as King. Please be with us, Jesus. Be with us and help us to glorify You in Jesus’ name. Amen.
All right, church. I have a question. Does the Old Testament matter? I love the enthusiasm. Thank you. The Old Testament does matter.
Now, if you don’t know, the Bible is made up of two testaments. The Old Testament refers to every book in the Bible that was written prior to Jesus. The New Testament refers to everything that was written after Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection.
But how many times have you heard someone say, “Well, that’s not really important because that’s written in the Old Testament”? Maybe if you’re like me, you might have repeated that without thinking about it. Now, I know there was definitely a time where I would have done it. But I’m not so sure that I would have done it in the way Andy Stanley did, who is the pastor at North Point Community Church. He once said in a sermon:
Peter, James, and Paul elected to unhitch the Christian faith from the Jewish scriptures [that is, the Old Testament]. And my friends, we must as well.
Andy Stanley was counseling Christians to unhitch their faith from the Old Testament. He further added the go-to source for our behavior in the church should never be drawn from the Old Testament.
Now, I’m trying to understand and give him a charitable reading here. I think that what he’s doing is he’s scared people are going to walk away from the faith or never come to faith if they read scary texts in the Old Testament. But that still is no reason for counseling Christians to unhitch their faith.
In fact, I think that it was wrong for him to even say that these are the Jewish scriptures. It’s the wrong label. Because that implies that the Old Testament is only for Jewish people. I wholeheartedly disagree. That label is wrong.
And in fact, I would add that I think the label Old Testament is the wrong label for those books in the Bible. And the reason is because the word testament comes from the Latin word testamentum, which means, anybody know? Covenant. So when we say the Old Testament, we are saying that these books of the Bible are only part of the Old Covenant. But we know that to be false.
All of the prophecies of our coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, they came from the Old Testament. So the Old Testament is already talking about the New Covenant. The promise that God would save the nations through His Messiah, whom we call Lord and King. And His name is Jesus. And all of that came from the Old Testament.
So if Old Testament means Old Covenant, and we agree, there is nothing Old Covenant about the Old Testament, except that it mentions it—then what should we call it? I prefer the phrase Hebrew Bible. Because that is the language that all of these books were written in (apart from a few places in Deuteronomy, Daniel, and Ezra, which was Aramaic).
So church, with that in mind, I want you to understand that I am not the only one who has a problem with Andy Stanley, or other Christians, who have made mistakes like I did in the past, about saying that the Hebrew Bible is not relevant for the modern church. Jesus has a problem with it.
In fact, the books from Genesis through Malachi are very much still relevant. They very much still matter. And we know that because Jesus tells us so in Matthew 5:17–20. He tells us that not any iota, not a dot, is going to pass away from the Hebrew Bible, until everything was fulfilled.
So, with that in mind, I am actually going to help you see that in our passage today Jesus gives us three reasons that we must treasure every bit of the Hebrew Bible. So, keeping in mind that the Hebrew Bible refers to all of the books of the Old Testament, from Genesis through Malachi, what are the reasons why we should treasure them? Christians must treasure the Hebrew Scriptures because they prophesy Christ and the righteousness that His followers ought to possess.
The Hebrew Bible Portrays a Deeper Portrait of Jesus and His Mission (5:17)
The first is that we should cherish the Hebrew Bible because it portrays Jesus more deeply. It gives us a deeper portrait of Jesus and His mission. How do we see that? We see that first in Matthew 5:17. In Matthew 5:17, Jesus says that “I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come to fulfill them.” Jesus is using a phrase that was common in first-century Israel. This is how they would have referred to the Bible. They didn’t use the word Bible in Jewish circles. The word Bible is a Greek term. It just means book. But they wrote the Bible on scrolls. And so how would they refer to their scriptures as a whole? They would use the phrase the Law and the Prophets. The Law, actually, the word I’m going to prefer to use is Torah.
Torah refers to the first five books of the Bible: Genesis through Deuteronomy. So it’s Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Moses wrote all of these. Sometimes it’s called the books of Moses. But in short, they would just say the Law or Torah. And then when they wanted to go beyond the books of Moses, they would add the Prophets. And that would carry them from the book of Joshua all the way through Malachi. So that is how they would refer to the entire Bible.
So when Jesus says that “I have not come to abolish but to fulfill the Law and the Prophets,” Jesus is saying, “Folks, I’m here to make every promise come true that is written in all the books from Genesis to Malachi.” That’s a big claim. And that is why I say that we get a deeper portrait of Jesus and His mission. Because everything in them from Genesis to Malachi points to Jesus. Amen? Amen.
Now, when Jesus says the Law, church, our English, our Western minds might hear that and be tempted to think that He’s talking about commandments. He will talk about commandments, but He’s not talking about them just yet. You see, the Law, remember, is another way of saying Torah. And Torah is just, sometimes you could refer to a law, like a command. But it, a lot of times, refers to just Genesis through Deuteronomy.
Now, when He says He’s fulfilling the Law, we have to remember that He’s talking about the books of the Bible and not the commands here. Because if I were to say I’m fulfilling the law, that could mean that I’m just being obedient. And I am obeying the law. But you see, in the book of Matthew, you must understand that Torah, the books of Moses, Genesis through Deuteronomy, they are also prophetic. And when Jesus says, “I am here to fulfill the Torah, the Law,” He’s talking about the books of Moses being prophecies about the Messiah. And He is here to fulfill those prophecies.
Now, if you’re a long-time Christian and you want to see more about this, I suggest you check out Matthew 11:13. Jesus says in that verse that the Law operated as a prophecy. Matthew’s Gospel repeatedly shows Jesus fulfilling prophecies, such as:
- Isaiah 7:14: The Messiah would be born of a virgin.
- Micah 5:2: The Messiah would be born in Bethlehem.
- Isaiah 26:19: The Messiah would heal the blind.
- Zechariah 11:13: The Messiah would be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver.
Jesus Is the Long-Awaited Prophet Like Moses
These are just a few examples. The Messiah is fulfilling the prophecies of the Hebrew Scriptures. And not just that, but He does something very subtle. He shows that Jesus is going to fulfill one more thing that is very important for us to grasp. Jesus is fulfilling the prophecy that the Messiah would be the prophet like Moses.
Now, why is that important? You see, Moses was called to pull God’s people out of slavery. He was a Hebrew who was raised by the Egyptians. But he slowly comes into favor with God. And he is chosen by God to be the guy who would lead God’s people out of slavery and into the promised land, into salvation. And he enters into, he helps Israel enter into a covenant with God. And that covenant was, “if you obey all 613 of the commandments I’m giving you, I will take you to the promised land, I will be your God, and everything will be great.” But of course, Moses tells them, “you’re a hard-hearted people. You’re not going to follow the Lord’s commands.”
Is everything hopeless? No. Why? Because at the end of Moses’ life, he tells them there’s going to come another prophet who will be just like me. He will hear God’s Word directly, like I did, and He’s going to give you God’s words. And when you get God’s words, you are going to be entering into an age of salvation, coming out of slavery. And Matthew is here to tell you, in his gospel, that Jesus is that long-awaited God. That prophecy comes in Deuteronomy 18:18–19. Let me read this for you. Let me read this for you. Let me read this for you.
“I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.” (ESV)
Folks, He’s talking about Jesus. And Matthew doesn’t just come out and say it, “Hey, Jesus is the prophet like Moses.” For instance, just as Pharaoh ordered the death of all firstborn Hebrew males when Moses was born (Exodus 1), Herod ordered the slaughter of all male infants in Bethlehem when Jesus was born (Matthew 2). Additionally, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5–7) begins with Jesus going up a mountain to deliver God’s Word, mirroring Moses receiving the Law on Mount Sinai. So at this point, folks, I want you to understand and treasure the reality that the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, is valuable because it reveals a deeper picture of Jesus than we would get if we only had the New Testament.
So what kind of portrait of Jesus does it paint? I’m just going to give you a little summary I wrote here of the expectations of the Messiah that the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, gives us:
The Messiah would be the long-awaited King who is God Almighty and Wonderful Counselor. He is the one through whom every bit of creation was made. He is the reason that creation has not crushed us all at this very moment. And yet, this Messiah would be the child of our great ancestor named Eve, who would finally crush the ultimate enemy of God and humanity, Satan himself. This Messiah would be the descendant of King David, who builds God’s eternal dwelling place, the church, and establishes God’s kingdom, where no earthly king will ever thwart. This Messiah is God in the flesh, who would wipe away every tear and disease. He is the Savior who gives us the eternal peace that we have all yearned for in that promised land. The Hebrew Bible tells us that this Messiah will be the tender King who will punish every oppositional force, but embrace us in that promised land. He is the one who brings in the age of peace and justice. He secures the resurrection of God’s people. Church, this is the description of the Messiah that we worship. And everything that I’ve just said comes from the Messiah. And everything that I’ve just said comes from the Messiah. And this is what some would tell you is not relevant to us. But as you can see, it’s very much relevant.
The Hebrew Bible Is Still Relevant (5:18)
And that is exactly why the next point is, the Hebrew Bible is still relevant. We cherish and treasure the Hebrew Scriptures because the Hebrew Scriptures are still relevant. You see, we know that because in Matthew 5:18, Jesus says, “Nothing will pass until all is accomplished.” Folks, that means that not everything has happened yet. Jesus has not yet fulfilled everything that is written in the Hebrew Scriptures. There is still more to be done.
So what more is there to be done? For example, in Daniel 7, we still await the coming of the Son of Man on the clouds of heaven. Not only that, but you see the final battle of Zechariah 8:14. That also has not yet happened. And then not only that, but the one I look forward to the most is when the Messiah will usher in the government of world peace in Isaiah 9.
Now, you’ll notice here in Matthew 5:18, He doesn’t say the Law and the Prophets. This time, He just says the Law. So what is He referring to here? Is it the same? Well, actually, the Law, Torah, can not only refer to Genesis through Deuteronomy, but it can also refer to the entire Hebrew Bible as well. How do we know that? Well, in John 10:34, Jesus quotes the book of Psalms. But He calls it the Law, the Torah.
So the word Torah could also refer to the entirety of the Hebrew Scriptures. But the question we must ask is, what does He mean by every jot and tittle? I love this word, tittle. This is one of my favorite King James Bible verses. What is a jot and tittle?
When Jesus says iota, he is likely referring to the smallest Hebrew letter yod. We don’t even have a letter in English that is smaller than a yod. Jesus is saying the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet matters.
But then He says, tittle, which is a stroke. A very small stroke. It’s very much like the stroke that separates the letter H from the letter B. Right? In fact, it’s very much like the stroke that distinguishes the capital P from a B. So a stroke can change a word like Hot to Pot, and Bop to Bop. All of them have different meanings. And they’re all pretty much separated by a stroke. So when Jesus says, “not an iota or a tittle is going to pass from the Hebrew Scriptures,” Jesus is telling you that His Bible will be preserved until the day He accomplishes every prophecy.
The best illustration from this comes when we discover the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947. Before they were discovered, the earliest copy that we had of the book of Isaiah came from the Aleppo Codex (circa 930 A.D.). Now, if I were Satan, and I knew that, I would be telling people, “How can you really believe that these things were prophesied about Jesus, since the earliest copy you’ve got of Isaiah is a thousand years after Jesus?” If I were Satan, “I’d be telling the church, you don’t know that they didn’t change that.” But in 1947, we discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls. And we found a complete copy of the Great Isaiah Scroll. Scholars were stunned by how well Isaiah’s writings were preserved in the thousand years that separated these two manuscripts. So when Jesus tells you about an iota, not a dot, not a tittle, not a jot is going to pass from the Hebrew Bible, we know that to be true because we have seen it in archaeology. A thousand years separates those two manuscripts, and it is incredibly well preserved. So folks, we can have faith and trust and treasure the Hebrew Bible.
The Hebrew Bible Reveals the Ethics of the Messianic Kingdom (5:19–20)
Now, we have to look at this next point a little bit more carefully. So I want you to keep your mind here, okay folks? The last point, why we can treasure the Hebrew Bible, is that the Hebrew Bible reveals the ethics of the Messianic Kingdom. Now, ethics refers to law code, right? What is good, what is bad? And when we say Messianic, we’re talking about the Messianic Kingdom, we’re talking about the Kingdom of the Messiah. So this is Christ’s Kingdom.
We see this Messianic Kingdom ethic in Matthew 5:19–20. Jesus says, “Whoever relaxes one of the least of these commands, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the Kingdom of God.” So we must ask, what does He mean by these commands?
Sometimes when we use the word these, we’re looking back. But, Jesus hasn’t mentioned any commands yet. So we can’t be looking back. What is Jesus doing? He’s looking forward. When He says, “You must not relax any of these commands,” He is looking forward to the commands that He’s about to discuss from Matthew 5:17–7:12.
So what does He do in this coming discussion? Jesus is, just like Moses did with ancient Israel, setting the stage for a covenant. But for us, it is the New Covenant. Like Moses, Jesus is about to deliver commands, and his ministry will culminate in the New Covenant being firmly established (Luke 22:20).
When Jesus discusses these commands, he is interpreting the laws from Moses as they were meant to be interpreted. He is showing us what God actually intended for us to do with the commands that God gave Moses. He’s going to say things like, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder, but I say to you, whoever is angry at his brother has committed murder against him in his heart.” He’s going to say things like, “You have heard it said, do not commit adultery. But I say to you, whoever looks at a woman with lustful intent has already cheated on his wife.” You see, Jesus is taking the commands of Moses and He is now bringing them to the fore, to the front, and showing you that God was not intending for us to look at the laws of Moses and obey them by the letter. He wanted us to abide by the law, but by the spirit of the law. And the spirit of the law is of the heart. The law that God wants us to abide is a law that is written on our hearts.
We Need the Righteousness of the Heart of the New Covenant
So the Old Testament still matters because it not only reveals our Messiah and His mission, but it also gives us the new kingdom ethics. And those ethics are ones of the heart. And this is why Jesus says that your righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 5:20. Although the Pharisees and the scribes were meticulous about outward righteousness, their hearts were far from God. The Pharisees and the scribes were professionals in religion. They had the Word of God memorized. They could quote every 613 laws, and then they could tell you a thousand years of their traditions, as taught by their teachers, and how they can even further keep those commands. They were great at looking righteous. And Jesus says that is not enough.
If you want to enter the kingdom of heaven, you’ve got to be better than the professional righteous people. Can you imagine the clamor, the shock, and the awe when the people who love Jesus, who has been so tender to them—healing their infirmities and showing them God’s love—are now looking at Him and hearing Him say, “If you want to be with Me, you’ve got to be better than the professionals.” Now, if we didn’t know any better, we would hear that and probably fall to our knees in desperation and wonder, “What hope is there for me if I’m not better than the scribes and Pharisees?”
So what is Jesus doing? Jesus is pointing us away from the external ethic of religion and pointing us to a different type of ethic altogether—the ethic of the Messianic Kingdom. He drives this home heavily later in the same Gospel:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of the bones of the dead and every kind of impurity. In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. (Matthew 23:27–28, CSB)
This tells us where God’s priorities are. He is not prioritizing how well you follow the rules in front of others. He cares about how well you obey the Lord with your heart.
How is your heart? Do you only avoid looking at someone lustfully when you believe someone might see you? Or do you avoid it because you don’t want to be offensive to the God that loves you? Do you only pay your taxes because you know the IRS might come after you? Or because you know the Lord has commanded you to submit to your government? Do you love the poor because someone’s looking at you while you are giving money away? Or do you do it in such a way that only God sees your charity? That is the ethic of the new covenant.
The new covenant ethic, that is, the ethic of the Messianic Kingdom, was at the heart of the kingdom dwellers in the Beatitudes (Matt 5:3-10). When He says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (5:6), He’s describing a Kingdom citizen who desires righteousness in their own hearts. They acknowledge their lack of internal purity and are famished to have it. And God’s mercy says that they will have it—“for they will be satisfied” (5:6b). The Lord will give them the heart that loves God, and that heart is pure (5:8).
The Beatitudes are talking about the people who belong to God’s kingdom. They are people who are poor in spirit. They’re humble. They mourn when they sin against God. They weep when the world rejects God. They are meek. They hunger and thirst for righteousness. They’re merciful. They’re pure in heart. They’re peacemakers. And they’re persecuted for their righteousness. This is the image of someone who belongs to the Messiah’s Kingdom. This is the kind of righteousness that the Pharisees and the scribes did not have, but we must have if we are to belong to His Kingdom. Do you have that heart? Do you weep and mourn when you sin against the God that loves you? Have you called out to Him and said, “Lord, make me new. Give me a heart that loves You.”?
Folks, if you give to the church, I’m so happy. We can do great ministry with it. But giving money to the church is not going to get you anywhere. It’s not going to get you into God’s kingdom. Giving to the poor is not going to get you into God’s kingdom. The only thing that matters is worshipping God with the heart of the New Covenant.
Now, how do you get this new heart? You clamor to God. If He has not given you this new heart, I would ask you to ask Him: “Give me a heart that loves You deeply. Please. I want to enter this kingdom. I want to be with You.” Chances are, if you even desire that, you probably are already in His kingdom. Because Jesus says that the human heart is so wicked that everything evil in the world comes from the heart (Matt 12:34-35; 15:18-20). Paul says in the book of Romans, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God” (3:10-11). So, if you desire God and are bothered by your sin, this may be a sign that you have already been given the heart of the New Covenant.
But if your sin does not faze you, if you have never wept over offense to God, then I would be alarmed. If you sin against God and it doesn’t affect your conscience, I would be trembling. Because that would mean you do not have the heart of righteousness needed to enter God’s kingdom. That’s why I’m saying this—because that is what we need. We need a righteousness of the heart, Church. And that heart comes from the New Covenant that God established through Jesus. This New Covenant, with the new heart upon which God’s Law is internally inscribed, was prophesied in the Hebrew Bible in Deuteronomy 30:5–8. Having this heart will drive you to pursue the Lord and love Him through obedience.
Now, I want to show you one last thing, and we’ll close with it. I am very excited about it. While it is true that the expected prophet would be like Moses, we must also recognize that Jesus is greater than Moses. Like the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 3:1-6), Matthew contrasts Jesus with Moses to show that Jesus is greater. In Matthew 5:18, Jesus states that when Heaven and Earth pass away, the words of Moses will pass away with them. But in Matthew 24:35, Jesus says, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.” In light of this comparison, Jesus is not just the long-awaited prophet like Moses; He is eternally greater than Moses.
Conclusion
So I want you to cherish not just the Hebrew Bible, but the Savior that the Hebrew Bible points to, who is giving us these eternal, commanding words. Jesus says that we must have a heart of righteousness that loves the commands of Jesus, and that’s why we’re preaching this series. Because every one of us has a responsibility to teach them. Jesus says:
“All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18–20)
We must be more righteous than the Pharisees and scribes and obey the commands of Christ Jesus. Because that is the only way we will enter that kingdom. In fact, Jesus says that if you relax these commands He’s giving us, though you might be saved, you will be called least in the kingdom of God.
So yes, you might be saved, my friend. You might have given your life to Jesus and said, “Okay, Jesus, I’ll give you my life and my heart. I recognize You’re King,” but you’re barely putting in any effort. You don’t read your Bible. You don’t pray. You don’t give money. You don’t serve the poor. You are barely serving God.
And when judgment time comes, those who are skating by will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. Is that what you want? But the one who obeys these commands and teaches them—that is making disciples of Christ—those are the ones who will be called great. And not great by others, but great by God.
That is my hope and my ambition, Church. I not only want God to look at me and say, “Welcome, my servant, you have served Me greatly,” but as your pastor, that is my hope for each of you also. My hope is that every single one of you would take seriously the Great Commission and go and seek and save the lost and teach them to obey Christ Jesus so that when you enter the kingdom, you hear, “Welcome. You have done well. You have served Me greatly. Come receive your inheritance.” Will you do that? Will you pursue the Lord by obeying the commands of Christ and teaching others to do the same?
Father, I thank You for teaching us that the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament, means a great deal to us. It is still relevant. It tells us about our Lord and Savior. It shares His mission. And it reveals the ethics we are to live by. Will You please pierce our hearts today and help us to do that? Lord, we love You. We praise You, and we thank You. If anyone here is not born again, Lord, I pray that You would pierce their hearts. I pray that You would transform them. I pray that You would give them a new heart—the heart of the new covenant—so that they would love You, Lord. If there are those present who have never wept over their sin against You, who have never been bothered by breaking Your commands and not caring, I pray that You would do that for them today. I pray that You would break their hearts and draw them to You. I pray that You would break their hearts and grant them life with You. I pray that You would break their hearts and grant them life with You. I pray that You would break their hearts and grant them life with You. Please, Lord Jesus. We pray all of this in Your precious and holy name. Amen.