17. What Do You Think of the Old Testament? (Mt. 5:17-20)

REVIEW

FLIP CHART: SOM’S KEY VERSE, GOAL, MOTTO

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness ….” (Mt. 6:33a).

The law sends us to Christ for justification; Christ sends us back to the law for sanctification.

FLIP CHART: Show new “Perfect Righteousness” chart explaining steps to coming to Christ (As a worm, mourning, meek, spiritual hunger/thirst with the result of legal righteousness). Explain moral righteousness, immediate moral change at conversion, gradual change through life’s challenges and speeding up moral change via CCRC (Concentration, Choice, Reflection and Confession/Thanksgiving). Repeat the verse, “By one sacrifice He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Heb. 10:14) HAVE SOMEONE COME FORWARD AND EXPLAIN THE CHART.)

FLIP CHART: Go over John Stott’s outline of SOM.

INTRODUCTION:

One commentator, D.A. Carson, writes, “Mt. 5:17-20 is among the most difficult verses in the Bible [to understand and interpret].”

OUTLINE FOR TODAY:

1. Relationship of the OT to the NT

2. Jesus’ Opinion of the OT

3. Permanence and Inerrancy of the OT

4. God’s Voice Through the OT Today

“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. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks 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 practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt. 5:17-20).

“I tell you the truth …” By introducing His statement with the words “truly I say to you“, Jesus confirmed the special importance of what He was about to say. Ameµn (truly) was a term of strong, intense affirmation. Jesus was saying, “I say this to you absolutely, without qualification and with the fullest authority.” His teaching was not only absolute but also permanent. (Stephen Sizer)

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF THE OLD TESTAMENT?

I. RELATIONSHIP OF THE OT TO THE NT

“The New Testament is latent in the OT and the OT is patent in the NT” (St. Augustine).

“The Old Testament is the Gospel in the bud; the New Testament is the Gospel in full flower; The OT is the Gospel in the blade; the NT is the Gospel in full ear.” (Bishop JC Ryle)

Several things in the Old Testament are radically changed by the coming of Jesus Christ. In the completed masterpiece, there are temporary measures that are no longer needed, like sacrifices. But that is like removing the scaffolding. It is far different than erasing the masterpiece. (Chip Bell)

I feel increasingly that it is very regrettable that the NT should have ever been printed alone, because we tend to fall into serious error of thinking that, because we are Christians, we do not need the OT. … They are indissolubly bound together, and there are many senses in which it can be said that the NT cannot be truly understood except in the light that is provided by the OT (MLJ, 191).

II. JESUS’ OPINION OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

“I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Mt. 5:18).

Many people challenge us to get to Christ. They don’t like the OT but they respect, appreciate and honor Christ. So they want us to avoid the OT and focus on Christ.

“I believe the Bible to be the Word of God first of all because of the testimony of Jesus Christ to that fact. We live in a day that many men say that they accept the teaching of Jesus Christ, but that they do not accept the teaching of the whole Bible. They say that they believe what Jesus Christ says, but as to what Moses said or is said to have said and what Isaiah said or is said to of said and what Jeremiah said and Paul said and John said and the rest of the Bible writers, they…they do not know about that.” (R.A.Torrey)

TABLE ACTIVITY: Apart from Matthe5:18, what evidence do we have in the Gospels that reveal Jesus’ opinion of and attitude towards the Old Testament Scriptures? Write down as many indicators as possible that point out His attitude to the OT. (Count out the individuals and mix up the table settings).

Someone has said that, in the four Gospels, Jesus quoted the OT Scriptures 64 times.

Remember that the only written Scriptures during the time Jesus was on earth was the OT. “Everything Christ taught directly in His own ministry, as well as everything He taught through the apostles, is based on the OT. It is therefore impossible to understand or accept the NT apart from the Old (J. MacArthur, 252).

1. Jesus called the Torah the “Word of God” in Mark 7:13, “Ye do make the Word of God of none effect through your tradition.” Prior to this verse Jesus was quoting from the Ten Commandments and portions of the Torah.

2. Jesus calls the Psalms, “The Scripture.” In John 10:35 he has just quoted as a proof a verse from the Psalms and then adds, “The Scriptures cannot be broken.”

3. Jesus could have used His own words to defeat Satan during the temptation in the wilderness. Instead three times he quotes the OT Scriptures saying, “It is written …” The greatest spiritual encounter in the life of Christ was won based on quotations from the OT Scriptures.

4. To show the Sadducees that they were wrong in their teaching that there was no resurrection, Jesus quoted a verse from Exodus 3:6. (Luke 20:27-38)

5. Jesus used all of the OT on the road to Emmaus to prove that He was the Messiah.

READ: Have someone read Luke 24:13-27

““He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Christhave to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.”” (Luke 24:25-27).

“It is impossible … to take Jesus seriously and not take Scripture seriously. It is impossible to believe Jesus spoke absolute truth and not to consider Scripture to be that absolute truth, because that is precisely what Jesus taught it to be” (MacArthur, 251).

READ FROM THE COMMENTARY: “You will find so many people today who seem to think they can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ fully and yet more or less reject the OT. It must be said, however, that the question of our attitude to the OT inevitably raises the question of our attitude towards the Lord Jesus Christ. (MLJ, pg. 187).

It is not possible to accept Christ’s authority in our lives through the Gospels without also accepting the authority of the Old Testament Scriptures in our lives.

III.THE PERMANENCY & INERRANCY OF THE OT

The Old Testament is as much a fixture of the universe as are the heavens and the earth.

Others have said that “Until the heavens and the earth disappear” could just be an idiom for the inconceivable.

The jot and tittle, “…the smallest letter … the least stroke of a pen …” The smallest letter – the letter which the Authorized Version calls the jot – – was the Hebrew letter iodh. In form it was like an apostrophe – ‘ — ; not even a letter not much bigger than a dot was to pass away. The smallest part of the letter – what the Authorized Version calls the tittle – – is what we call the serif, the little projecting part at the foot of a letter, the little line at each side of the foot of, for example, the letter “i”. Jesus seems to lay it down that the law is so sacred that not the smallest detail of it will ever pass away” (Barclay, 127).

“Just what is a jot or a tittle? The English word “jot” is Greek iota, a letter of the Greek alphabet that corresponds to our letter “i”. Evidently it was also the equivalent of the Aramaic and Hebrew letter yod, which is written like our apostrophe (’), just a small stroke of the pen. A “tittle” (rhythms with “little”) is Greek keraia, and means “literally ‘horn,’ ‘projection, hook’ as part of a letter, a ‘serif'” (BAG 428). You can see how a tiny part of a letter is important when you compare the lower case letter “l” with the number “1”. The difference is in merely a “tittle.””(Dr. Ralph Wilson)

Christ showed his confidence in the inerrancy of the OT when he dealt with the Sadducees concerning the resurrection.

“No other statement made by our Lord more clearly states His absolute contention that Scripture is verbally inerrant, totally without error in the original form which God gave it. That is, Scripture is God’s own Word not only down to every single written word, but down to every letter and the smallest part of every letter” (MacArthur, 262).

Martin Lloyd-Jones says that this pronouncement (in Mt. 5:18) is one of the most momentous and important pronouncements every made. Christ emphasizes the importance of this pronouncement by prefacing it with ‘Truly I say to you …’.

QUESTION: How does the confrontation with the Sadducees in Lk. 20:27-38 show the inerrancy of even the smallest details in the OT?

In the confrontation with the Sadducees about the resurrection Jesus bases his whole argument on a single verb tense. Jesus is quoting from the book of Exodus (3:6) which says, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” Hundreds of years after they had died God was still their God, which means they were still alive. God “is” the God of Abraham … which means Abraham is still living. If Abraham was not living God would have said, “I was the God of Abraham ….” Thus Jesus defends the very grammatical forms of the OT words.

APPLICATION: We focus so much of our time and lives on the transitory … our homes, jobs, hobbies, country, retirement and so little on the Word, including the OT, that will last until the end of the world.

PERSONAL ACTIVITY: Fill in the following information on the print-out at your table: (1) Have you ever read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation? (2) How many times have you read the whole Old Testament? (3) Give the year you last read through the Old Testament. (4) What is your most favorite book of the Old Testament?

IV. GOD’S VOICE THROUGH THE OT TODAY

We read in John 10 that the sheep follow the shepherd “because they know his voice.” Jesus goes on to say, “I know my sheep and my sheep know me – – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father … My sheep listen to my voice (hear Me); I know them …” (John 10:4,14-15,27)

“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12).

“For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” (I Peter 1:23).

Luther once said, “The bible is alive. It speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.

More about Jesus in His Word

Holding communion with my Lord

Hearing His voice in every line,

Making each faithful saying mine.

ILL: My fear of being a missionary, of going to Indonesia of learning a language in the light of the fact that I flunked Latin in high school … in hind sight mostly due to goofing around and not studying as I should. So my Senior Year in Bible College I sweated over this matter, worried about it, wondered about …. wondered if I was getting into something I could not handle. This went on for some time. Then one morning, during morning devotions, I was reading in Exodus and read a verse that was spoken by God to Moses. Moses did not want to be God’s spokesman to Pharaoh because, it appears, he was a stutterer. When he was pleading to be excused God gave him this promise: “Now therefore go. I will be with thy mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say.” (Ex. 4:12, KJV). This verse leapt off of the page. It was as if God were speaking to me. It is an ‘existential moment’ that was imprinted forever in my memory. God spoke to me. That verse carried me through all of my fears and worries and gave me great peace. It still is with me today.

ILL: A couple of weeks ago I had to deal with a matter with one of my employees and was concerned and worried how to handle it. It made a depressing entrance back in to the office after we had been away for a week. Then, reading in Genesis 17, it was again, as if God were speaking to me through these words, “I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.” (Gen. 17:1).

TABLE ACTIVITY: Discuss and share a verse from the Bible that you feel God underlined and highlighted, using it speak to you personally about some issue in your life and/or has used to comfort you in a special way, a verse that really came alive. The experience was so unique and real that you held on to that verse for a long time.

We must read the OT, just not as an historical text, not just for an understanding of theology. We must read it with the ears of our heart open to the voice of God. It is a “living” Word, the very breath of God and we must listen for His speaking voice as we read!

SHARING: Have some class members share about ‘hearing’ the voice of God speaking to them through the Word.

SO WHAT!!!

Jesus coming showed us how He wants us to keep the law. He is a role model and an example. He fulfilled the law by keeping it perfectly.

He also fulfilled the predictive prophecies of the law and the prophets and the shadows and types in the Old Testament.

He has given us a deeper understanding of the law and the prophets.

He fulfilled the demands of the law on sin but accepting the penalty and thus making a way for us to be delivered from the curse of the law.