Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction & Review

Beatitudes, blessing

“I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them...”

“I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them...”

“Unless your righteousness exceeds...”

“You have heard that it was said...”

QUOTE FROM 11/1/2019 - The Torah, what we call the Law, is the story and standard of God’s covenant with Israel.

The heart of the Covenant, the heart of the Law, is reconciled relationships.

Shalom.

Peace with God and peace with man.

With all the brokenness around us and in us, our inclination is to get Legalistic.

Atomistic.

Instead of looking for wholeness, we think in terms of checklists and technicalities.

With all the brokenness around us and in us, our inclination is to get Legalistic.

Atomistic.

Instead of looking for wholeness, we think in terms of checklists and technicalities.

The scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day had built a system they thought they could keep.

By building up extra teachings and laws around God’s Law, they thought they could protect themselves from breaking it.

The scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day had built a system they thought they could keep.

By building up extra teachings and laws around God’s Law, they thought they could protect themselves from breaking it.

But the result missed the point completely.

When you divorce God’s Law from God Himself, you just end up with more brokenness.

But the result missed the point completely.

When you divorce God’s Law from God Himself, you just end up with more brokenness.

HOW JESUS FULFILLS THE LAW 10/27 - First of all, Jesus embodies the very promises of Scripture.

He fulfills the Law and the Prophets by doing God’s commands, too.

And He fulfills the Law and the Prophets in His own teaching.

Today, as we look at , sections, 2 ways Jesus Christ fulfills the Law in His teaching, but both wrapped up in the same question:

Q.

How do we live out our status as children of God?

Q.

How do we live out our status as children of God?

Divide in 2, beg.

w/ vv38-42

I. Kingdom People must not insist on our own way (38-42)

<<READ 38-42>>

NOTE structure - Tradition, Principle that Fulfills the Law, Application

Tradition

“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” was well-known in the ancient world, and predates the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt.

We don’t know who invented the saying, but the earliest example we know of comes from the Code of Hammurabi, around 300 years before the Exodus.

“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” was well-known in the ancient world, and shows up in ancient Greek and Babylonian documents.

This is one of a handful of times in the Bible where God takes the words of an unsaved person and puts them in a new context.

When Hammurabi’s scribe wrote the Code, it was placed in a thoroughly pagan context, alongside some laws we would agree with, and others we wouldn’t, but it’s clear that it’s not the Word of the Living God.

We don’t know who invented the saying, but the earliest example we know of comes from the Code of Hammurabi, around 300 years before the Exodus.

Paul quotes two Greek poets in the New Testament, both of whom are writing about the false god Zeus.

Paul takes the true principles in these works, puts them in a new context, and uses them to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and deny the existence of false gods.

In the same way, the Old Testament Law stripped “an eye for an eye” from its Babylonian context and preserved the principle in order to teach God’s truth.

There’s an important lesson there.

You and I, made in God’s image but still feeling the effects of the Fall, at our best, our words are a mixture of truth and error.

Sometimes the errors are small, and sometimes they’re big.

But God is still able to use the truth that we do know, or speak.

The theological principle at work here is called “Common Grace.”

Common Grace is God’s favor to all of us, so that even people who are as far from Him as you can imagine can’t stop being His image bearers, still receive good things from Him.

Unbelievers will use all the blessings God has built into the universe including principles of wisdom that give rise to laws like this one, but without the gift of the Holy Spirit opening our eyes, we’ll suppress the clear and final conclusion that every area of knowledge points to Him.

And that means they still speak the truth sometimes, they still know real truths.

Unbelievers will use all the blessings God has built into the universe including principles of wisdom that give rise to laws like this one, but without the gift of the Holy Spirit opening our eyes, we’ll suppress the clear and final conclusion that every area of knowledge points to Him.

So, the Babylonians saw the general wisdom of punishments that fit the crime, but they did not acknowledge the God who gave them that wisdom.

So God placed that same wisdom here, in the Law, in the context of His grace and truth, so we can see that He is responsible even for unbelievers’ wisdom.

Common Grace is a garden of blessings, each of which bears the fingerprints of the gardener, but our natural desire is to enjoy the blossoms and deny the gardener’s existence.

So God gives common grace to everyone, including the Babylonians of Hammurabi’s time, and instead of seeing the wisdom of “an eye for an eye,” and giving thanks to the LORD who made them, no acknowledgment.

So God gently takes the rose and places it here, in the Law, in the context of His grace and truth, so we can see that He is responsible even for unbelievers’ wisdom.

So God took the blossom of the Code of Hammurabi, which was the result of His own Creative work in His image bearers, attempting to come up with just laws without Him, and He transplanted the rose

HOW JESUS FULFILLS THE LAW:

“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” 3x in the Law - In , , and .

Each time, the context is a criminal proceeding, where judges must determine how to proceed.

In every case, the idea of personal vengeance is completely ruled out.

In every case, the idea of personal vengeance is completely ruled out.

Its purpose is to prevent judges from favoritism on the one hand, and extreme retribution on the other.

As

deut 19.

The purpose of the law is to prevent judges from favoritism in applying the Law.

A couple chapters earlier in Deuteronomy, Israel’s judges are told,

The Old Testament Law warns against ruling in favor of popular opinion, showing partiality to the poor or the rich, or perverting justice against foreigners.

The standard for judges is impartiality.

“An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” means everyone is to get the same justice, and only justice.

By the way, this set the Biblical application of the principle completely apart from the way Hammurabi’s Code used it.

For Hammurabi, if a rich man punched out the teeth of a man of similar status, he’d get his teeth knocked out, but if he punched a poor man, he’d just get a fine.

God’s Word condemns that kind of injustice.

“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” is also meant to prevent the feedback loop of revenge.

How many times have you seen someone offend in a small way, and the other person gets filled with righteous indignation and escalates the conflict?

This happens in every home with kids - Angelic little Bobby knocks dear, sweet Larry’s favorite transformer on the floor.

In swift justice, Larry kicks Bobby in the shin, and Bobby launches a flurry of righteous retribution, and before you know it, Mom is standing in the bedroom doorway shouting, “WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON?” to which both boys say in unison, “He started it!”

And lest we think this is a problem only for little boys, we see the same type of escalation in the workplace, among grown family members, on the street.

One bad turn begets another, worse one, and so the command was meant to stop that.

So where did the tradition go wrong?

Taking the principle out of its Biblical context, the tradition turned the law from a command preventing injustice into a command justifying or even requiring revenge.

They used God’s Word to enshrine selfishness.

The Principle

Against this, Jesus gives a new principle and then applies it in verses 39-42.

Instead of insisting on retaliation or revenge, Jesus says, do not resist the one who is evil.

The Application

And Jesus then uses four example applications to help us understand what He means.

First, he says, if someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him.

To slap someone’s right cheek means to strike them backhanded - it’s not just painful, it’s insulting.