March 7, 2021
Morning Service

Jesus has called us to “Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men.”  Along our journey He is teaching us what that means and what it will take to become successful.  “Attitude is everything” is obvious as He began our lessons with describing the attitudes that we need to be displaying with what we call the “Beatitudes.”  He immediately followed that by commanding us to be “Salt and Light” to this world; preserving others and making life better for them as well by reflecting the light of Jesus upon those around us.  We are all uniquely placed in this world precisely where God want us to be in order to point those around us to Jesus by following His teachings and loving others as He loved us.   His words challenge us to look honestly at ourselves and see if we are doing our best to fulfill this task faithfully; if not us then who?  We will find out today that with these teachings we are setting a firm foundation for us to build upon along our journey with Him to become fishers of men.  As we begin today Jesus, actually answers one of the obvious questions that would be rolling around in the mind of someone who has been raised according to the Law of Moses.  God gave the law to His chosen nation of Israel to define to them what His expectations were for them.  The Law defined sin and the path to reconciliation to God for committing sin, through animal sacrifices that did not pay their sin debt but merely their interest on it.  Those sacrifices rolled the sin debt forward until Jesus paid it in full upon the cross.  The most famous part of law is the 10 Commandments, but the law also includes 613 other commands that pertain to every civil and religious aspect of their lives.  It became a very legalistic way of life to be always following the rules set out before them in such great detail.  It became a bondage that the Jewish people had to bear in order to feel they pleased God.  Jesus now begins to magnify the Law and unpack it to reveal its true meaning.

Mat 5:17-18 "Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.  (18)  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.

            It would be extremely difficult for this Jewish nation to follow Jesus if He came on the scene and abolished the entire Law and started over.  It was all they had ever known their entire lives and for the previous generations as well.  It was the Law that defined them as a chosen people of God.  So right off the bat Jesus explains that He has not come to “destroy the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill it.”  Paul told the Roman church that the Law in itself was “holy, just and good,” but the religious leaders had created it to be a burden to follow rather than a joy.  Jesus was here now and would set it straight.  The law was set up to fail as God foreknew that it would be impossible for mankind to keep it to perfection.  Jesus fulfills the Law of Moses by living a life of perfection and then offering Himself as the Sacrificial Lamb for all of mankind’s sin.   He uses the Law to teach His followers unpacking the real meaning behind these commandments and to reveal to them that He as the Messiah, our Lord and Savior, is the fulfillment of the Law.

 

Mat 5:19-20 Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men 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.  (20)  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.         

            Jesus did not come to lower the bar of expectations for His followers, no He is raising it to a new level; magnifying it.  The scribes and Pharisees were considered to be the most righteous of the entire Jewish nation and now Jesus is calling His followers to have righteousness that “exceeds” theirs!  Not only that, but if our righteousness was not greater than theirs, then we would “by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.” This is in no way a call to be “more religious” than these leaders, but to be more “righteous.” Righteous means to be living morally right in both actions and intents.  These religious leaders were “doing” the works of righteousness, but their “intent” was not pure. Listen to how Jesus describes these leaders to His disciples later in this gospel:

 

Mat 23:23-28 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.  (24)  Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!  (25)  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence.  (26)  Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.  (27)  "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.  (28)  Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

            Yes, these leaders painfully obeyed every small detail of the Law, but missed the true meaning of it.  He does not criticize them for being detail oriented, but in so doing they were missing the attitude and intent to be driving their actions needed to be found faithful; “attitude is everything.”  These leaders were pious, arrogant, and judgmental to others thinking themselves to be greater than those around them.  They boasted on their own righteousness and flaunted it by their dress and lengthy public prayers.  They were totally missing “the weightier matters of the law; justice, mercy, and faith.”  Jesus has just told us that the ones who will be blessed are the poor in spirit, those that mourn, the meek, those that hunger for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, and the persecuted.  He is calling those to follow who have an inward desire (honest intent) to be all that God wants, not someone who is just going through the motions or even doing it for the wrong reasons such as self-gain.  He described these leaders as “whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Outwardly appearing righteous to men, but inside full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”  This will become even more evident to us along our journey as their jealousy drives them to immediately seek to silence Jesus by killing Him; their attitude reflected their heart.

            It is easy for us to now to judge these spiritual leaders and their hypocrisy but in reality we can’t because we have the same problem they do.  We often put up the righteous front on the outside, but inside we know we are not perfect; the truth be told we are broken.  Our only defense is to humbly speak the truth and admit that we are sinners saved by grace through faith, not of ourselves but as a gift from God. (Eph. 2:8) Jesus is calling us to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees by following Him in love from our heart; not a stricter adherence to the law.  He made it simple for us when He commanded this of us:

 

Joh 14:15   "If you love Me, keep My commandments."

Our love for Jesus magnifies the “why” we obey rather than the “what.” Our obedience comes from the work God does in us, not what we do for ourselves.  Our obedience is Christ centered not self-centered.  We obey in love, glory, and reverence of our Lord, not for the admiration of people.  We obey Jesus’ commands because we are complete in Him, He defines who we are.  We obey Him because we love Him and have chosen to follow Him wherever He leads us.  If we are doing these things with a pure and humble heart, then our righteousness will exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees and we will have our part in the kingdom of heaven.

            In calling you to “Follow Me,” Jesus is not asking that only your outside actions, what you do, point to your obedience, but also your heart, why you do what you do, belongs to Him as well.  As He told the Pharisees, you can’t clean the outside of the cup and expect the inside to be clean; you start on the inside and then the outside takes care of itself.  This really defines what the Lord has laid upon my heart with this study of following Jesus as one of His disciples.  To clean the inside of our cup, we must know Him and truly believe that He is our Lord and Savior.  We must build a relationship with Him and follow Him because we love Him and not out of a sense of duty or obligation.  He wants your heart and once we yield it to Him, the outside of the cup will clean itself up along our journey through our loving obedience.

 

Heavenly Father, open our hearts to know Jesus, to love Him, and to obey and serve Him for all the right reasons.  Create in me a clean heart oh God and restore the right spirit within me.