Introduction
Firstly, raise a hand if you think lay people should have a big say in the way the church is run.
Secondly, hands up if you believe that Jesus was really raised from the dead.
Third question, would you please raise your hand if you are confident that you will be admitted to heaven when you die?
Fourthly, raise a hand please if you think that studying the Bible is worthwhile.
Fifthly - and I’m not taking notes - hands up if you think that Christians should give a generous proportion of their income to the Lord’s work, to support good causes and to alleviate suffering in the world.
And lastly; hands up if you believe that sending missionaries to lands that know nothing of Jesus Christ is a good thing. Thank you.
You are probably wondering why I started with those six statements. So I’ll tell you. Jesus said in our Gospel reading this morning, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Please listen carefully now, here’s the link. We know, from the Gospels, that the Pharisees and teachers of the law would have unhesitatingly raised a hand to all six, as many of you have - and I have – and yet Jesus said you’ve got to do better than that to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Here’s what we know about what the Pharisees on these six points.
1. Contrary to what many people think, the Pharisees were actually a dedicated lay movement – none were priests.
2. Unlike the Sadducees, who were the woolly liberals of the day, the Pharisees believed in the resurrection so they were quite sound.
3. Furthermore, they were absolutely confident that they themselves would attain eternal life.
4. They were very keen readers of Scripture; they learned hundreds of verses by heart and they spent many hours in Bible study groups.
5. You can guarantee they would be in Lewis’ good books. They methodically gave a full one tenth of everything they earned to God; from their monthly pay cheque to their garden herbs.
6. And to cap it all off, they were fervent about spreading the faith to other lands. Jesus said to them “You travel half way round the world to make just one convert” – that’s dedication isn’t it?
But I say it again. Jesus said you’ve got to do much better than them if you’re going to enter the kingdom of heaven. Think about that. The Pharisees who were radically committed to obeying every aspect, every detail of God’s law, no matter how trivial it seemed to be, fell short.
I doubt if there are many Christians, me included, who in practice come even close to their attention to detail. It’s a bit of a problem isn’t it? That’s what this sermon will try and explore.
The Law in the Big Picture of God's Word
We’re continuing our series on the big picture of the Old Testament. So far we’ve seen God create the world and we’ve seen that his creation has been spoiled by sin. This world is not the way it was meant to be. It’s all gone wrong because people made and still make bad choices and choose to rebel against God.
We’ve looked at the patriarchs; Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who learned to relate to God through faith and who grew through their many mistakes. We’ve seen how God made covenants, or binding agreements, with people and how he released his enslaved people from Egypt.
If you’ve ever tried to read the Bible from cover to cover I suspect you will have been all right so far.
But at this point, the end of the book of Exodus and into Leviticus and Numbers and then Deuteronomy it gets much harder. This is the bit we call the Law.
In Deuteronomy 1 it says that Moses “proclaimed to the Israelites all that the Lord had commanded him concerning them.” And it says that he “began to expound the law.” What is this law all about?
First Things First
A few days after God miraculously set his people free from slavery in Egypt he gave them ten simple rules to live by. We know them as the Ten Commandments.
It’s very important to understand that with God, it’s always this way round. First he sets them free. And then he tells them how to live. God still works that way today.
First he saves you. And only then does he tell you how he wants you to live as a grateful response to him.
That means Christians shouldn’t judge people who are not believers and lecture them about their shocking morality. Christians need to concentrate instead on telling others about the One who sets people free from sin. Only when they have been saved from sin should we talk about how to live God’s way.
When I was in Paris, we ran an Alpha course twice a year. We regularly had the joy of seeing people turn to God through this simple but powerful introductory course to Christianity.
In two consecutive autumn courses we welcomed two women with fertility problems. One had been trying unsuccessfully for a baby for 14 years. Even hormone treatment and artificial insemination were useless. When she got to 40 the doctors told her it was hopeless and that she should forget it.
The other woman had had an abortion when she was a teenager and there had been complications, making subsequent attempts to conceive a child unfruitful.
Both had gone through painful break-ups in unmarried relationships. Both came to the church in desperation. Both came to faith in Christ during the Alpha course. Both were filled with the Holy Spirit on the ‘away day’ halfway through the course. Both became pregnant within a week. And both gave birth to healthy babies (one boy and one girl) the following August.
The thing is both women had domestic arrangements that were certainly not what the Bible would prescribe as the right way to live. Both had messy lives. We didn’t judge them. We just loved them.
But as soon as they became Christians, without us saying a word, both wanted to put their lives right and live according to God’s word. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus sets you free first and then tells you how he wants you to live as a glad response to his saving grace.
That is why Jesus never commended the Pharisees, even though they lived upright lives. They went around criticising others and tut-tutting, placing a burden of condemnation on them, but they never lifted a finger to help people carry it.
And that’s is what Jesus means when he says , “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
One Law, Many Laws
So God gave his people the Ten Commandments. But in fact, that’s just the start. From Exodus to Deuteronomy, there are in total 613 different laws.
Some of the laws are quite straightforward. Do not give a false testimony in court. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Most of the straightforward ones are also repeated in the New Testament and are just as valid today.
Some of them are quite weird. Do not eat shellfish. Do not shave your sideboards. Do not wear garments with wool and linen mixed together.
Most of the weird sounding ones are not repeated in the New Testament and are not binding on us today. Those laws were given so that the people of Israel would distinguish themselves from pagan people around them and stand out. They tell us that our God wants us to stand out from the crowd – but in different ways.
Other laws dealt with the sacrificial system God established to take away sins. These regulations taught the people that God is holy, and that sin is serious - so serious it can only be cleansed by the shedding of blood.
Sin is still serious and God is still holy. But those sacrifices are no longer needed, because Jesus shed his blood as the final and complete sacrifice for our sins.
The New Testament says in Galatians 3:25, “Now that faith (in Christ) has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.”
Does this mean we should just ignore those parts of the Old Testament? No, not at all. They teach us just how seriously God takes sin, and they remind us too of what it cost God to make our salvation possible. Most of all, they point us to Jesus Christ, who loved us so much that He was willing to give His life for us.
Pointing to Christ
It’s very important to understand that with God, it’s always this way round. First he sets them free. And then he tells them how to live. God still works that way today.
First he saves you. And only then does he tell you how he wants you to live as a grateful response to him.
That means Christians shouldn’t judge people who are not believers and lecture them about their shocking morality. Christians need to concentrate instead on telling others about the One who sets people free from sin. Only when they have been saved from sin should we talk about how to live God’s way.
When I was in Paris, we ran an Alpha course twice a year. We regularly had the joy of seeing people turn to God through this simple but powerful introductory course to Christianity.
In two consecutive autumn courses we welcomed two women with fertility problems. One had been trying unsuccessfully for a baby for 14 years. Even hormone treatment and artificial insemination were useless. When she got to 40 the doctors told her it was hopeless and that she should forget it.
The other woman had had an abortion when she was a teenager and there had been complications, making subsequent attempts to conceive a child unfruitful.
Both had gone through painful break-ups in unmarried relationships. Both came to the church in desperation. Both came to faith in Christ during the Alpha course. Both were filled with the Holy Spirit on the ‘away day’ halfway through the course. Both became pregnant within a week. And both gave birth to healthy babies (one boy and one girl) the following August.
The thing is both women had domestic arrangements that were certainly not what the Bible would prescribe as the right way to live. Both had messy lives. We didn’t judge them. We just loved them.
But as soon as they became Christians, without us saying a word, both wanted to put their lives right and live according to God’s word. That’s the work of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus sets you free first and then tells you how he wants you to live as a glad response to his saving grace.
That is why Jesus never commended the Pharisees, even though they lived upright lives. They went around criticising others and tut-tutting, placing a burden of condemnation on them, but they never lifted a finger to help people carry it.
And that’s is what Jesus means when he says , “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
One Law, Many Laws
So God gave his people the Ten Commandments. But in fact, that’s just the start. From Exodus to Deuteronomy, there are in total 613 different laws.
Some of the laws are quite straightforward. Do not give a false testimony in court. Do not commit adultery. Do not steal. Most of the straightforward ones are also repeated in the New Testament and are just as valid today.
Some of them are quite weird. Do not eat shellfish. Do not shave your sideboards. Do not wear garments with wool and linen mixed together.
Most of the weird sounding ones are not repeated in the New Testament and are not binding on us today. Those laws were given so that the people of Israel would distinguish themselves from pagan people around them and stand out. They tell us that our God wants us to stand out from the crowd – but in different ways.
Other laws dealt with the sacrificial system God established to take away sins. These regulations taught the people that God is holy, and that sin is serious - so serious it can only be cleansed by the shedding of blood.
Sin is still serious and God is still holy. But those sacrifices are no longer needed, because Jesus shed his blood as the final and complete sacrifice for our sins.
The New Testament says in Galatians 3:25, “Now that faith (in Christ) has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.”
Does this mean we should just ignore those parts of the Old Testament? No, not at all. They teach us just how seriously God takes sin, and they remind us too of what it cost God to make our salvation possible. Most of all, they point us to Jesus Christ, who loved us so much that He was willing to give His life for us.
Pointing to Christ
When you think about it, God makes it pretty easy for us, doesn’t he? Never mind the 613 laws, just start with the Ten Commandments. It’s just ten simple rules to keep. It should be easy. But we don’t even get past the first one. “You shall have no other gods before me.” That means nothing should be more important to us than God.
But how many of us, honestly, have never put anything above God? It could be your job, it could be your holiday, it could be your family, it could be golf or football, it could be food and drink, it could be your church, it could be anything… the moment anything or anyone replaces God as first in my affections I break Commandment number one.
All of us are lawbreakers. Everyone who has ever lived has been a lawbreaker. The problem with the Law is it tells you what to do but it doesn’t give you the power to obey with your heart.
When winter passes and the springtime sun starts shining, we start spring cleaning because we see just how grubby our homes get over winter. God’s Law is a bit like the light that reveals how dirty a room is.
That’s why Jesus says in v17, “I haven’t come to abolish the law”. It’s really good to be able to see dirt and dust in your room. That’s why he says in v18, “Not one dot of an “i”, not one cross of a “t” will disappear from the law until kingdom come”.
God’s Law is the light that reveals how dirty our lives are compared to his holiness. Thank God for that. But God’s Law is not the broom that clears up the mess. The broom that clears up the mess of our patent inability to obey the law is Jesus - how we need him!
But how many of us, honestly, have never put anything above God? It could be your job, it could be your holiday, it could be your family, it could be golf or football, it could be food and drink, it could be your church, it could be anything… the moment anything or anyone replaces God as first in my affections I break Commandment number one.
All of us are lawbreakers. Everyone who has ever lived has been a lawbreaker. The problem with the Law is it tells you what to do but it doesn’t give you the power to obey with your heart.
When winter passes and the springtime sun starts shining, we start spring cleaning because we see just how grubby our homes get over winter. God’s Law is a bit like the light that reveals how dirty a room is.
That’s why Jesus says in v17, “I haven’t come to abolish the law”. It’s really good to be able to see dirt and dust in your room. That’s why he says in v18, “Not one dot of an “i”, not one cross of a “t” will disappear from the law until kingdom come”.
God’s Law is the light that reveals how dirty our lives are compared to his holiness. Thank God for that. But God’s Law is not the broom that clears up the mess. The broom that clears up the mess of our patent inability to obey the law is Jesus - how we need him!
A Matter of the Heart
What God wants is love from the heart; love for him and love for others. That’s why Jesus whittled down hundreds of laws and commandments to just two; “Love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. And love others as you love yourself.”
In other words, it’s a matter of the heart.
So does your righteousness surpass that of the Pharisees? Or is your religion, like theirs, only about ‘dos and don’ts’ with no affection for God and no love for others?
Let’s pray...
Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 18th November 2012
