Let's be honest, many of us have experienced
having the Word of God shoved in our
face as if trying to shove it down
our throat or we have felt that we
have been hit over the head with it,
all because someone thought that was the way
the Bible was to be applied to our
life or circumstance.
Hello and welcome to our special study on
the Sermon on the Mount.
In today's lesson, our teacher will show us
a better way to handle the Word of
God, Jesus' way.
You are the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill
cannot be hidden, nor do they light a
lamp and put it under a basket, but
on a lampstand, and it gives light to
all who are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men that
they may see your good works and glorify
your Father in heaven.
Do not think that I came to destroy
the law or the prophets.
I did not come to destroy, but to
fulfill.
For assuredly I say to you, till heaven
and earth pass away, one jot or one
tittle will by no means pass from the
law till all is fulfilled.
Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of
these commandments and teaches men to do so,
shall be called least in the kingdom of
heaven.
But whoever does and teaches them, he shall
be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
For I say to you that unless your
righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and
Pharisees, you will by no means enter the
kingdom of heaven.
That's Matthew 5, verses 14-20.
Someone has said that psychology, that leaves Christ
out when you study it, is like looking
in a dark room for a black bed.
And philosophy that is not Christ-centered is
like looking into a dark room for a
black bed that is not there.
Agnosticism is like looking in a dark room
for a black bed that is not there
and shouting, we found it, we found it.
Jesus is saying on the mountaintop, beginning at
verse 14 of Matthew 5, that if you
are one of my disciples and you are
instructed in the things of the kingdom, you
are not like somebody looking in a dark
room for a black bed that is not
there and shouting, we found it.
No, you are the light of the world.
You are like a city strategically placed on
a hill that cannot be hidden.
You are like a candle that has been
lit and then strategically placed on a candlestick
that it might give light.
You are to let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good
works.
But those good works will point to your
heavenly Father who is the source of all
these things that are happening in your life.
He is the one who has lit up
your life, lit your candle, and placed you
on a candlestick, and you point to him
when your light shines.
The disciple of Jesus is the light of
the world for several reasons.
First of all, he is the light of
the world because he is in relationship with
the one who is the light of the
world.
Jesus says in the Gospels, I am the
light of the world, Matthew 5, verse 14.
And like these disciples of Jesus, because you
and I are in a vital relationship with
him, then there is a sense in which
we are the light of the world.
These disciples were, and the disciples of Christ
today are, to be the light of the
world because they and we have been instructed
by him.
They have continued in his word, and they
have come to know the truth that has
set them free.
Then they can point others to the same
truth.
In verses 17 through 20, there's another reason
why the disciple of Jesus is the light
of the world.
It's because he has the right understanding of
the word of God.
In verses 17 through 20, Jesus is talking
to these disciples who are on the mountaintop
with him because they want to be part
of the solution, part of the answer to
all the problems those people have at the
bottom of the mountain.
He is saying to them, look down the
mountain.
You see all those people there with all
their problems?
One of the reasons is because they're like
sheep without a shepherd.
They don't know their right hand from their
left.
They don't know, and they have no light.
Now, one of the ways in which you
are to be the light of the world
to them is that you should show them
the proper use of the word of God.
When Jesus said this about the scripture, which
is what the law and the prophets mean,
the Old Testament, he was saying several things.
He was saying, first of all, before you
go down there and apply the word of
God or the law of God to the
lives of people, you must pass the law
of God through the prism of the love
of God and then apply the law of
God to the lives of people.
Because all the law of God came out
of the heart of God's love for man.
You need to understand the proper use of
the scripture.
He was also challenging the religious establishment here.
He said in this paragraph, verses 17 through
20, when he talked about his approach to
the law and the prophets, everything I am
teaching you and everything I'm going to teach
you will agree absolutely with the law and
the prophets.
Not one stroke of the pen, not the
smallest letter of the law and the prophets
will go unfulfilled.
If you understand my approach to the scripture,
I have not come to take away anything
from the scripture.
You will discover that what I am teaching
you will agree entirely with the scripture.
But at the same time, he was saying,
and this is the key to the rest
of chapter five, but what I am teaching
you will not agree with your religious teachers
and the scribes or the Pharisees.
He is challenging the religious establishment here and
he is preparing his disciples for the fact
that the religious establishment will not respond to
them favorably because he is saying what I
am teaching you will not agree with what
they teach.
We also saw that in verse 20, he
made a very important statement about the personal
righteousness of his disciples.
He said your righteousness, when you understand what
I am teaching and when you understand my
approach to the scripture, will far surpass the
righteousness of these scribes and Pharisees.
We saw the reason for that in our
last study.
The righteousness of the religious establishment was hypocritical.
The righteousness of his disciple was to be
real.
The righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees
was external, but the righteousness of the disciple
of Jesus was to be internal.
The righteousness of the religious establishment was horizontal.
It was for all the appearance of things.
It was so that they would appear to
be religious before men.
It was a show that was put on
for the benefit of men, that men might
see them giving or praying and think they
were generous or pious.
But he is saying your righteousness will not
be horizontal like that.
It must be vertical.
It will be as unto God.
When you understand what Jesus is saying about
the scripture here in this paragraph, verses 17
through 20, you understand another reason why he
was in conflict with these religious leaders.
He is saying your righteousness, if you understand
me, will be scriptural, whereas their righteousness is
largely traditional.
It's not really based upon the scripture, at
least not a proper understanding of the scripture.
Now that, I believe, introduces us to the
rest of chapter 5, which is considered the
most difficult part of the Sermon on the
Mount.
Beginning at verse 21 and all the way
to verse 48, there are six paragraphs.
These paragraphs will each begin with something like,
You have heard that it was said to
the people long ago, but I tell you,
When he says this, and he says it
at the beginning of each of these six
paragraphs here in chapter 5, we need to
understand that he is disagreeing with religious establishment.
He is saying in so many words, the
scribes and the Pharisees, the teachers of the
law, have been telling you certain things, and
I'm about to tell you how it really
is.
For the most part, this is a matter
of disagreeing with the scribes and the Pharisees
about their approach to scripture.
That is what that paragraph, verses 17 through
20, is all about, the approach to the
scripture that Jesus has.
It is so important that we know how
to approach the scripture, because if our approach
to the scripture, if our philosophy of scripture,
you might say, is not as it should
be, then we will never find in God's
word what he wants us to find there
in his word.
So here in verses 17 through 20, you
have a paragraph that might be called, Jesus's
philosophy of the scripture, or the approach to
scripture by Jesus Christ.
His approach to scripture simply was, and this
was the big difference between Jesus and the
religious establishment, to pass the law of God
through the prism of the love of God
before you apply the law of God to
the lives of people.
The apostle Paul said the same thing when
he used these expressions, the letter of the
law and the spirit of the law.
The spirit of the law is love.
The spirit of the law asked the question,
what was on the heart of God when
he wrote this particular scripture?
What was the purpose of this particular law
or teaching of scripture?
What is the principle that you can get
from this scripture?
Anytime you approach the scripture, it should be
done in this light, from the perspective of
the spirit of the law, which is God's
love for man and God's concern for man's
well-being.
That is why all the scripture was written.
Anytime you get to the spirit of the
law, you will find it to be a
life-giving force.
But the letter of the law kills.
The apostle Paul says the letter kills, but
the spirit gives life.
2 Corinthians 3, verse 6.
That's what we really have here in the
largest section of Matthew 5 and the most
difficult part of the Sermon on the Mount.
Jesus is really saying, as he did in
this paragraph, verses 17-20, they tell you
this is the way they teach Moses, this
is the way they teach the scripture, and
sometimes it's not even scripture that they were
teaching, it was their own tradition.
But let me, Jesus, tell you how it
really is.
Remember, you who have studied the Gospel of
John with us or who have been through
the Gospel of John, the emphasis is that
Jesus is God in the flesh.
He has the right to do this because
as God in human flesh, he is the
one who wrote the law.
He is the one who wrote the scripture.
Scripture is given by inspiration of God.
God is the author of all scripture.
And so here you have God in the
flesh saying, now these religious leaders do not
have the right perspective on the scripture.
They are applying it in the sense of
the letter of the law.
They are throwing the Bible at people.
They have forgotten the spirit of the law,
the principles of the law, the purpose of
the law.
At this period of history, when Jesus came
to these people in Israel, it was like
the time that they had returned from the
Babylonian captivity and few could understand the scripture
because the scriptures were written in another language.
Remember the Babylonians had conquered Jerusalem and the
people were taken captive into Babylon for 70
years.
Then Persia conquered Babylon, so Israel was then
captive in media Persia.
During the times of Nehemiah, Ezra, Esther, Malachi
and Haggai and Zechariah, there was a return
from that captivity.
Now while they were in captivity for 70
years, the people had learned to speak Aramaic
and Aramaic had become the common language of
the Jews.
So from the time of the return from
captivity and then throughout the 400 silent years
between the Old and the New Testament up
to the day when Jesus was here ministering
to these people, the majority of them did
not speak or read Hebrew, the language of
the scriptures.
Most people were not literate at that time
and the scriptures were kept in the temple
or in the synagogue.
People did not have their own Bibles like
you and I do as it was before
the Reformation when the Bible was in Hebrew,
Greek, Latin and the common man could not
read the scriptures and therefore had to accept
the priest's explanations for what it said and
what it meant.
That is what you had during the time
when Jesus was teaching these things.
The people had to believe the scribes.
They had to take the Pharisees' word for
it because the only people who could really
get into the scripture were the people who
understood Hebrew.
There was a very small elite group of
people who understood Hebrew so the people were
at the mercy of the scribes and the
Pharisees.
If the scribes and the Pharisees said, this
is what the word of God says, the
people had to trust their word.
Jesus is setting that record straight and is
causing a kind of reformation as he does
so.
Look at this first paragraph where Jesus is
showing the difference between the way he approaches
the scripture and the way the scribes approach
it.
Beginning at verse 21 when he says, 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 am saying to you, whoever is
angry with his brother without a cause shall
be in danger of the judgment.
And whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall
be in danger of the council.
But whoever says, You fool, shall be in
danger of hellfire.
Therefore if you bring your gift to the
altar and there remember that your brother has
something against you, leave your gift before the
altar and go your way.
First be reconciled to your brother and then
come and offer your gift.
Now to get perspective again on what Jesus
is doing here in the Beatitudes at the
beginning of this teaching, remember that we said
he told us to look inward?
To look into our heart of hearts where
attitudes are born and see if we have
the right attitudes?
Jesus said to consider your attitudes.
Many people of old age have not only
hardening of the arteries, they also have hardening
of the attitudes.
Attitudes are so important.
In focusing at the beginning of this teaching
upon attitudes, Jesus was telling us to look,
to look inward.
But when he finishes giving us these beautiful
attitudes, he says to us in so many
words, now if you look in and if
you see by the grace of God that
these attitudes are in you because God is
putting them into you, he is building them
into you, then when he gave us these
four illustrations, you are the salt of the
earth, you are the light of the world,
you are a city set on a hill
that cannot be hidden, you are a candle
on a candlestick, he was saying now look
around.
And throughout all of Matthew chapter 5, he
is telling us to look around.
In other words, he is telling us to
apply the attitudes in all of our relationships
of life.
Here Jesus begins to show how we ought
to approach the scripture and get the spirit
of the law rather than the letter of
the law from the scripture.
He is applying the teaching he has already
given, the beatitudes in relationships.
The first relationship to which we should apply
this teaching is with our brother.
The scripture uses the term brother frequently and
I believe if you study all the usages
of the word brother, the scripture means a
fellow brother, not only a blood brother, not
simply someone who is a part of your
family and with whom you grew up.
Of course it is also used that way,
but primarily it is anybody who is in
Christ.
You are in Christ by the grace of
God and anyone else who is in Christ
is your brother.
The apostle Paul refers to people very carefully
in terms of the degree of relationship he
has with them.
To Paul, a brother was a fellow believer
and then he uses the expression a companion
in labor.
That's a brother with whom he agrees and
they can work together.
And then a fellow brother to Paul was
somebody who risked his life along with Paul
for Christ.
But these expressions are used very carefully in
the scripture.
In the first chapter of John, we are
told that the miracle of the new birth
happened to us so that we might have
the authority to call ourselves the sons of
God.
We are not all sons of God simply
because we are human beings.
And everybody is not our brother because they
are fellow human beings according to the scripture.
When you have been born again and have
the authority to call yourself a son of
God, anyone else who has been born again
and has the authority to be called a
son of God is your brother.
It is very important that we should relate
to our brother properly.
Someone has said, we can never win the
world if we lose each other.
I saw a book once on a table
at a conference that was kind of a
trick book.
The title on the outside cover of the
book was The Greatest Problem of Missionaries.
And when you opened up the book, inside
it said, Other Missionaries.
Very often the problem is other missionaries.
It's in relating to their brother missionary who
is perhaps a companion in labor and a
fellow soldier.
Someone has said, to live above with the
saints we have loved, oh, that will be
glory.
But to live below with those we know,
that's another story.
Jesus gives us an awesome teaching here.
What he is saying is he begins to
apply this teaching of the Sermon on the
Mount, Matthew 5, verses 21-48, where he
is giving this application to what he has
taught in the first part of chapter 5
and where he is elaborating on his statement.
There is a difference between the way I
approach the scripture and the way your religious
leaders approach the scripture.
His first illustration is this.
What the scribes and Pharisees had taught concerning
a brother and our relationship to a brother
was do not murder because if you murder,
you'll be in danger of judgment.
This word judgment does not mean the eternal
judgment.
It means do not murder your brother because
you'll end up in jail.
You'll spend the rest of your life in
jail if you murder your brother.
And with their very literal letter of law
approach to this great commandment from the Ten
Commandments, they seem to be saying as long
as you do not murder your brother, then
your relationship to your brother is right.
Jesus is saying, listen, let me tell you
what the spirit of this law is.
The spirit of this law is that your
relationship to your brother is vitally important.
And why is it that people would actually
murder one another?
It's because of what is in their heart.
In their heart, when they have things like
anger or if they refer to their brother
as raka or you fool.
Now these are expressions in those days that
would be comparable to our expressions like you
jerk or you meathead.
Think of any term that is very derogatory
in your language and in your culture.
That is what these words raka and you
fool really represent.
In other words, what he is saying is
that if you have anger in your heart
towards your brother, your relationship to your brother
is not right.
And if you find yourself speaking ill of
your brother, if you are speaking down to
him and using terms of contentment towards your
brother, your relationship with your brother is not
right.
Here Jesus gives us an awesome teaching.
He says, listen, if you go to pray
and as you're about to pray, if you
realize that your relationship with your brother is
not right, here it's because the brother has
something against you and in other parts of
the Gospels, it's because you have something against
your brother.
But the point is, if your relationship with
your brother is not right, he says, first
go and be reconciled to your brother.
Then come and offer your gift or come
and pray.
Throughout the scripture, again and again, the teaching
comes down to two words and those two
words are God first.
That's not easy.
But it's not complicated either.
We complicate it because we do not want
to put him first.
But really, again and again, you have these
teachings like Matthew chapter 6 verse 33.
But seek first the kingdom of God and
his righteousness and all these things shall be
added unto you.
Matthew chapter 6 verse 33.
That is the way chapter 6 will end.
Again and again, the scriptures come down to
that.
God first.
If God is at all, then God is
absolutely.
And God is absolutely the most important thing
in our life.
So God must be first.
But here is a place where it says
that your brother is first.
First go, be reconciled to your brother.
Then come and pray to God.
That's an amazing teaching.
But what it's saying is this.
Your relationship to God and your relationship to
your brother are interrelated.
If a man says that he loves God
and he does not love his brother, first
John chapter 4 says that he is a
liar.
If someone says, I love God and hates
his brother, he's a liar.
That's because these two relationships, the vertical and
the horizontal are interrelated.
And that's why in the instructions about the
communion table, we are told that there should
be confession and getting right with a brother
before we come to the communion table.
We cannot win the world if we lose
each other.
And so as Jesus applies the teaching of
the Sermon on the Mount and shows us
at the same time his approach to the
scripture, he says, listen, the spirit of this
commandment is not do not kill your brother.
The spirit of the commandment is be right
with your brother.
Make sure your relationship to your brother is
what it ought to be.
So if you find anger or if you're
thinking of your brother in terms of contempt,
do not even pray until you get that
relationship with your brother right.
First go be reconciled to your brother.
Then come and pray.
God bless you all.
Until next time.
May our Lord give you encouragement and joy
as you see God working in and through
you as you apply his word to your
life and as you follow the truth at
every level that we are discovering in Jesus
Christ's teaching on the Sermon on the Mount.
I trust you will plan to join us
next time when we will continue this very
valuable study here in the Mini-Bible College.