Tuesday, August 2, 2011

What Jesus Said about Being Good Enough - Anger, Lust, Marriage, Divorce, Part 2 of 34

TEXT: "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.' But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother 'Raca!' shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says 'You fool!' shall be in danger of hell fire" (Matthew 5:21-22).

IDEA: We may think we are "good enough" to qualify for Christ's kingdom until we see what Jesus means by "good."

PURPOSE: To help listeners realize that all of us fall short of Christ's standards.

What would you say to a man who said, "Look, if Jesus died for me, He shouldn't have bothered. I've never done anything bad enough that someone should die for"? Can you appreciate why someone would say that? What's going on?

I. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus goes beyond both the Ten Commandments and the righteousness of the most moral people in the first century (Matthew 5:21-47).

What do we learn from the way Jesus makes His statements?

"It was said" represents a relatively rare passive form which is used in the New Testament for quotations of Scripture or a pronouncement of God. This isn't a reference to some human teaching, but to a divine declaration.

"Hearing" was the way that people in the community heard the Law as it was presented and interpreted by the teachers of the Law. Very few people could read or write and fewer actually owned manuscripts to read.

II. How does Jesus go beyond the statements of the Old Testament law and the righteousness taught by the scribes and Pharisees?

He promotes an "inward" concern for motives and attitudes beyond a mere visible observance of regulations.

He goes beyond "rules" to look for the more far-reaching principles that should govern the people of God.

He isn't as concerned with the avoidance of a specific sin, but the far more demanding and positive goal of finding and following what is God's will for His people.

It substitutes for what seems to be a 100% achievable conformity to a set of regulations to a totally open-ended ideal (be "perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect").

CONCLUSION:

"Rules" might be kept, but God's righteousness is in another league completely. None of us can play in that league.