Greatness in the Kingdom
Kingdom Living

Transcript

Good morning, church. It’s good to see all of you here this morning. We're continuing our series through the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount has been described as the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest preacher who ever lived.

We're going verse by verse through this series and we're excited to continue that today. Before I begin, I just want to say another word about our “It's Time” initiative. One of our first values there, one of our first benefits that we're aiming at, is community engagement. So, yesterday we went out and we hung the Hope Station bags on doorknobs all morning yesterday, getting ready for the food drive. Then, we'll pick up the food next week.

We were getting exercise as a benefit. We were getting extra spiritual and physical exercise. Then, I see in our bulletins today that we have another exercise opportunity for you next month, as our church supports the Choices Women's Center. I signed up to be one of the walkers,

so if the old man with the replacement knees can do that, you can do it, too. I'll be out there helping with that. It's good for your soul and good for your physical exercise. I encourage you to get involved with these things that we're doing together.

The last couple of weeks, we've studied the Beatitudes. Jesus talked about the character of the Christian, the character of the kingdom citizen and that we're poor in spirit. We admit that we need a Savior, that we're bankrupt spiritually, but we're blessed because we admit it. He goes on to talk about that: blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, that we want to be right with God. He talks about the character.

Then last week, He began to talk about how we're to be the salt and the light of the world. So there's an inner character and then there's an outer witness. Now this week, He's going to begin talking to us about the importance of studying God's Word and how we view God's Word. How we should obey and follow and teach God's Word.

These are things that He's about to open up to us as He transitions to this new topic. He had been talking about righteousness in these earlier verses, but He never really told us what righteousness is. He's about to remedy that. He's going to go into great detail over the next few verses as we dig in. John Stott writes in his commentary about this.

He says, “This paragraph is of great importance not only for its definition of Christian righteousness but also for the light it throws on the relation between the New Testament and the Old Testament, between the gospel and the law.” In other words, in this passage today, we're going to learn how Jesus views scripture. Don't you think that's important to know how Jesus thinks about scripture; how He views the Old Testament and how He sees it? That's important because I believe that how King Jesus views it is how we, as kingdom citizens, should also view scripture.

When I was in seminary, one of my favorite seminary professors was Dr. Russ Bush. He was the professor over philosophy and ethics. He was a brilliant man. He wrote about this idea of Jesus in scripture.

He said, “What you think about Jesus will ultimately influence what you think about the Bible. Your theology of the ‘living Word’ (Jesus) and the ‘written Word’ (the Bible) go hand in hand.” That's the truth. If you have a high view of Jesus, you'll have a high view of scripture. I wonder today, do you struggle with understanding scripture, especially the Old Testament?

We're again going through the one year Bible together. Many of you are on what we call the “Bible bus” together this year. It’s been about twenty years that I've been leading us to do this; every year because we're excited about being a church that has a certain level of biblical literacy, that we've read it, we've read God's “love letter.” Right now, the Old Testament reading is in Deuteronomy. In those early books, people will send me texts like, ‘I don't know what to do with all these laws.

I didn't even know there was a law about that and how does that work out?’ Maybe that's you. You have a lot of questions, especially about the Old Testament. Many struggle with how to balance the tension between the New Testament and the Old Testament.

How do I do that? Some wonder, Well, how many of these Old Testament laws still matter today? I mean, do we still have to obey all of those laws? I mean there's a bunch of them and some of them are very “detaily.” How do we do that

and by the way, doesn't the New Testament say that we're no longer under law but under grace? Well, in fact, it does say that. So how do we apply that? Well, Jesus is going to begin helping us with some of these questions today. What does it mean to have a high view of Scripture and to obey Scripture through the lens of how Jesus sees it?

Here's what I would say very simply to you. If you consider Jesus your king, then you'll have His view of Scripture. If you consider yourself a follower of Jesus, then you must, we must look at the Bible from His point of view. What does Jesus say about it?

Well, we're going to dig in on that today. In Matthew, chapter 5, verses 17 through 20, Jesus called those who saw the Bible through His eyes as great in the kingdom of God. Now, the way He defines greatness and the way the world defines greatness are two different things, aren’t they? But He says that greatness in the kingdom of God is measured by your view of the Scripture and how you obey it and how you follow it according to His power.

As we look at the reading today, I think we'll see three marks of those whom Jesus calls great as they obey the scriptures and have a view of the scriptures like He does. So let's dig in, we'll read the text, and then we'll unpack it together. Matthew 5:17-20 (ESV) 17 “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.

18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19 Therefore whoever relaxes 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 does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” This is God's word.

Amen. We're looking for three marks for those whom Christ calls great in the kingdom. Here's the first mark:

1. Affirm Christ’s high view and fulfillment of Scripture.

In other words, the mark of those who Jesus calls great in the kingdom and see scripture as Jesus sees it. Do you see it as He sees it? So, let's look; how does He see it?

He comes out saying, ‘Look, regardless of what some have said about Me, I did not come to abolish the law and the prophets. Rather, I came to fulfill them.’ When He says, “law and prophets,” He's clearly talking about the whole Old Testament. The Old Testament writings were complete by the time of Jesus. In fact, they had been for 400 years.

From Genesis to Malachi, they had a complete Hebrew Bible. When He says “law and prophets,” it's His way of saying the “whole enchilada, the whole thing.” ‘I didn't come to abolish it. I didn't come to destroy it. I didn't come to tear it down.

Quite the opposite. I came to fulfill it.’ Now, this is either the most egotistical claim that anybody has ever made, or it's the truth. We believe it's the truth because we believe Jesus is King. He came and said that everything in the Old Testament points to me.

Every law is fulfilled in Me. Every Messianic prophecy; there are over 300 of them in the New Testament fulfilled in Me. Every detail of the Hebrew scriptures, of the Torah, of the nebarim and vakhedabim, the law, the writings and the prophets, it's all about Jesus.

It all points to Jesus. Every page points to Me. It's fulfilled in Me. This is an astounding statement, isn't it? This is an amazing thing that Jesus says,

’Scripture is about Me.’ If you want to understand the Old Testament, read it through the lens of Jesus. In fact, I often tell people, read it through the lens of the New Testament, the New Covenant. That's how you'll understand the Old Testament. Because the Old Testament is a progressive revelation that's fulfilled in Jesus.

This is how you read it. Just this past week, I had someone contact me and say, “Can you help me with explaining to someone who's not a believer about the problems they're having with the Old Testament? They can't figure out what kind of God this is

and they were being really judgmental of God and of the writings of the Old Testament.” What I wanted to say and I tried to say is that, first of all, the word of God says in First Corinthians chapter 2, that spiritual things are foolishness to the natural man, to the one that's far from God, but for the one who has been born again, they understand it. For the spiritual man, they understand the will of God. One of the things I would say, for a person to really understand the Old Testament, rather than getting into a debate with someone about explaining that to them, introduce them to Jesus. Because until they know Jesus, they'll never understand the scripture anyway.

It'll always be foolishness to them in a way. So, Jesus is the lens that you want to put on to read scripture. When you read it through Him, you have a new heart and a new mind. The scripture begins to enlighten you and it makes sense. Jesus says that I'm the fulfillment

and then He gives us how high His view of it is. In verse 18, He says, “For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” Now, again, the word law here is Him saying the whole Hebrew scripture. Here, He's using it as synonymous in the context here, of the whole of it will not pass.

Heaven and earth will pass away. All of creation will pass away, but My word will not pass away until all of it is fulfilled. How high is His view?

Well, He's the creator. The Scripture says that He was active in creation. He says that all that I've created will not last longer than My word. My word will

outlast it. How high is His view? It's as high as the heavens. His view of Scripture is so high. Let's not miss the way He opens up in

verse 18, “For truly, I say to you…” this is the beginning of what you might call the “I say to you” statements that increase as we move forward here. Now, when I preach, I don't say, “I say to you,” because I don't have the authority to say that. I'm a nobody, but I know somebody and He lives in me. So when I preach, I say, “Thus saith the Lord”

and I tell you to turn with me to the book of Matthew. Here's what God told Matthew to write down. I stand on Another's credibility; I have no credibility of my own.

That's not how Jesus talks. He says, “Truly, I say to you.” How can He talk that way? Well, He's the one who is the inspiration for every word here. He's the living word.

He speaks. In the original Greek, it says, “Amen,” “I say to you.” You'll find in scripture a double amen. It'll be translated “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

As we read in the King James, “Verily, verily, I say to you;” this is the truth. Maybe, He had the same kind of crowd that I do. Some Sundays they wouldn't “Amen” Him, so He “Amened” Himself.

I figured I'd get an “Amen” right there, but I didn't. But it was a pretty good Christian joke, though, wasn't it? “Amen, I say to you.”

He begins to speak on His own authority, so that the people who would leave after He would speak to them would be talking among themselves and they'd say, ‘He doesn't speak, he doesn't preach like any of the scribes or the Pharisees. He preaches as if He has an authority all His own. No man has ever talked as this man. He speaks as one with authority.”

He has authority. He says, “I say to you, not an iota nor a dot will pass away.” What's an iota? It's the smallest letter in the Greek Alphabet.

It looks like a lowercase i in our Alphabet. Not a dot; we know what a dot is. It's like a punctuation mark. I like what the King James says, “Not one jot or tittle will pass away.”

Not one accidental stroke. There are no accidental strokes. Not one of them will pass away. What a high view He has.

I have young people often sending me links to YouTube videos and asking me, “Pastor, I don't know what to do with this. This person is attacking scripture and it seems to make a lot of sense and they've got all these things they're saying.” May I say to you, that's not new; that's not new. Who was the first person to attack God's word? Can you guess who it was?

It's pre-historical. In fact, it's in the Garden of Eden. Whenever Eve was looking at the fruit, she says, ‘Yeah, but God said, we're not supposed to eat this fruit’ and what does Satan say? ‘Did God really say?’

That's what he does, ‘Did God really say?’ and people of this world and people under the influence of the evil one have been repeating that question ever since. Young person, don't let anyone steal the word of God from you. ‘Did God really say?’ Yes indeed, Amen.

He did say it and when all of creation fails and there's a new heaven and a new earth, then every word in here will have been fulfilled. It will outlast creation. That's God's word. That's the view that Jesus has.

What's your view of scripture? I tell you what my view is: Whatever He said. I'm nobody but I know somebody. He said, “...not one iota, not one dot will pass…” and He said He was the fulfillment of every word.

That's what I believe because I call Him King. What do you believe? What's your basis for your belief? Jesus is the fulfillment of the moral law because He lived a sinless life.

The moral law would be like the Ten Commandments: “Thou shalt not kill,” “thou shall not steal…” Those kinds of laws. He was the fulfillment of the ceremonial law, which is the sacrificial law, the law of the temple. Because, as John the Baptist said, when he saw Him coming to the Jordan river, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”

He fulfilled all of the sacrificial laws. We don't need a sacrificial system anymore. We don't need a high priest anymore. The Book of Hebrews says, “He is our great high priest.”

He fulfilled all the civic laws, if you will. He fulfilled all of those prophetic writings that pointed to the Messiah. He is the fulfillment of all the scripture. Indeed, Paul writes in Romans 10:4 (NIV) “Christ is the culmination of the law so that there may be righteousness for everyone who believes.” He fulfilled it. I couldn't and

neither can you. We can't do it. That's what the law is. It's kind of like a mirror, that you look and you think, Oh, no, I'm a mess. I need help

and it drives you to Jesus.

After His resurrection, Jesus appeared to some disciples. You can read about this in Luke, chapter 24; this is going to be Gary's “loose paraphrase,” okay? I like to visualize things in the story.

(Paraphrase: He shows up as these two disciples are leaving Jerusalem, they're walking on the road to Emmaus and they're brokenhearted. They're talking among themselves, ‘We thought he was the Messiah. We really did. We thought He was bringing the kingdom of heaven and then the Romans crucified Him.

What will we do?’ They're wringing their hands and they're leaving Jerusalem. Then, Jesus shows up, walking with them. Now, Jesus is not only great, He's cool. I told you, this is my version.

He just shows up. He's walking with them, and they're talking. Jesus asks, ‘What are you talking about?’ They say to Him, ‘Have you been living under a rock? Everybody in Jerusalem's talking about it.

We all thought He was the Messiah, but He was crucified.’ Jesus begins, ‘It says in the scriptures to tell them from the law and the prophets how the Son of Man had to come and die in their place.’ He's so cool on top of everything else. They are talking to Him, and they still don't recognize Him. They ask him, ‘Hey, we love talking to you.

Do you want to come? We're pulling over here to get something to eat. You want to come and join us?’ He says to them, ‘No, I really have to go.’

They beg Him to come and He goes with them. They begin to break bread; they ask Him to say the blessing over the bread. He takes the bread in His hands and He prays the Hebrew prayer, “Baruch hatay adonai elohenu malak ha'alam hamatzi le chamen ha'eretz. Amen.”

As He breaks the bread, He disappears. They say, ‘It was Him! It was Him?’ One said, ‘Didn't our hearts catch fire inside of us as he explained; we should have known it was Him.’ But, they didn't recognize His voice.

They didn't recognize the way He looked, but they recognized His hands.’ End of paraphrase) My mother passed away in 2001. If her hands showed up on my leg and I didn't see any of the rest of her, if her hand was laying right here, I would know it was her hand. Do you know what I'm talking about?

I can still remember exactly what her hands look like. My mama's hands. Oh, they saw their Savior's hands, and they recognized Him and then He was gone. After Jesus disappeared, the disciples went back to Jerusalem.

They run back to Jerusalem, and then Jesus shows up there. I told you He was cool, man. On top of everything else, He's the best.

He shows up there. ‘Oh, there's Jesus. He's here now.’ Jesus says this in Luke, chapter 24, verse 44.

He's in the upper room with all the disciples, including the ones from that he'd been talking to on the road to Emmaus. Luke 24:44 (ESV) 44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things.

He opened their minds .They'd studied it their whole lives, but they finally understood it. It was about Him the whole time.

Kingdom greatness begins by affirming Christ's high view of scripture and recognizing that He alone is the fulfillment of it and He alone gives us righteousness. It will not come to us by rule keeping, but through surrendering and recognizing that He is the one. This is the first mark of those that would be called great by Jesus in the kingdom of heaven. They affirm what Christ affirms about the scripture. Then here's the second:.

2. Obey Christ’s commandments and teach them to others.

We're in verses 18 and 19 now. Obey Christ's commands and teach them to others. Jesus upheld the absolute authority of scripture. He said that not one iota, not one dot (not one jot or tittle)will pass.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but My word will not pass away until all is accomplished. He had a high view of scripture. Then, He contrasts those that would be least and those that would be great. When He talks about those who are least, we find out that He must have been talking about the scribes and the Pharisees. We'll hold off on that because that's coming in another verse or so, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

but He talks about the least here first. He says, 19 “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven…” There was a habit among some teachers of the law to relax the law so that they could live up to it, so they could climb up to it because they had an external view of the law, that they could somehow make it possible to live up to it. You're thinking, Well, you know we would never do that.

Oh, yeah, really? Have you ever told a ‘white lie?’ Have you ever said, ‘That wasn't a lie; it was just a fib.’.

’I made a mistake. It wasn't a sin. It was an accident.’ I think that we learn all of this language while we're still toddlers.

We just kind of “jazz it up a little bit” as we get older and we won't admit that we're sinners and that we've fallen short. We don't want to admit that. We don't want to admit that we're poor in spirit. It's human nature to make excuses and to do what it says here, to “relax” the commandments so that they're achievable.

Now, may I warn you that He's beginning to talk about the relationship of the person in the kingdom of heaven and how they should obey the word of God and He's going to make it. In fact, I would just warn You. I don't know if you should come back next Sunday because it's going to get strong, starting next Sunday.

It's already been strong. It's going to get stronger. He keeps on saying, “I say to you,” Then, this thing about “watering down” the commandments, “relaxing” them so that I can squeak by and find a loophole kind of thinking like that.

He ruins it for everybody starting next week and you'll see why. He says things like, “You have heard it said, thou shalt not kill, but I say…” There's those “I say” statements coming. They're coming.

”...but I say, if you've called your brother Raca…” I've never called my brother Raca. Well, let me tell you what “Raca” means in Aramaic. It means “empty head. “ I think I called my little brother that before I started school.

He probably called me that,too. He says, ‘If you've called your brother empty head, if you've had hate towards your brother, you've committed murder.’ He says, “You've heard it said, thou shalt not commit adultery.

But I say, if a man lusts after a woman, he's committed adultery in his heart.” Well, Jesus, you're ruining it for all of us. We thought we were keeping the law, but we couldn't keep it in our hearts because what He's warning us about now, it's more than the external. You need a “rewrite.” “You need my law,” as the prophet said, “written on your heart.”

You need a “heart transplant.” You need a new heart. This is what he's exposing to us and he says that the way you're trying to live up to it right now is relaxing it. But what I say to you is you need to obey it and teach it.

You see it in verse 19, that some of you are trying to “relax” it, but that's not what I'm asking you to do. In verse 19, He says, “Therefore whoever relaxes 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 does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Oh Lord, I pray that for the last 33 years, as far as I know, with you as my witness, those of you that have been on the journey for all or most of it, this has been my desire to obey it and teach it, to do it and teach it. Now, I'm not perfect at it. Indeed, my understanding grows all the time. Every time I read, every time I study, I understand more. But I will not claim to you

that I know it all, because I don't. The other problem I have is sometimes I forget what I did know and I have to be reminded. I’m like you; we are forgetful. We're forgetful people.

Maybe one of the most important words that God teaches us is “remember.” That's why we have the Lord's Supper every Sunday. We do this in remembrance because we're forgetful people. We do this because we want to remember what he did for us. I want to do it, but I can't without Him.

But with Him, “I can do all things through Christ, who gives me strength” and so can you. Now, what's the secret here? What's the secret of this way of living so that we are counted great in the kingdom of heaven. It's love. Look what Jesus says in John.

John 14:15 (ESV) “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” This is how He decides. If you love Him, you can say, “I love Jesus all day long.” You can sing the children's song, “Oh, how I love Jesus” and that's good.

But the way that He knows that you love Him is if you do what He says. He says In John 15:10 (ESV) “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.”

This raises a question. Are Christ's commandments the same as the Old Testament's commandments? For us today, as we look through the lens of the New Testament, how many of the Old Testament laws are we still to follow, not following them in order to earn because we already know we can't keep them all perfectly. Only Jesus has.

But which ones should inform our lifestyle so that we look like we're supposed to have the “salty” lifestyle, right? We are the salt of the earth. Remember, I mentioned three categories of law. Moral laws are perpetual,

like the Ten Commandments. They are perpetual. They actually reveal the character of God and they reveal the character of kingdom citizens who have Jesus in their life, who God has written the law of God on their hearts. So, moral laws are perpetual. Ceremonial laws have to do with temple worship; they are fulfilled in Jesus.

The holy days, the sacrificial system are all fulfilled. In fact, Hebrews is very careful to tell us that's been laid aside now. Not because it was abolished, but because it was fulfilled, it was completed, it was accomplished in Jesus. What about civil laws?

Civil laws have to do with the peculiar called out people in Israel. They were to follow these. It had the effect of setting the Jews apart as a special people. We are to recognize those.

The dietary laws, for instance, we're to see the beauty of those. But we're no longer finding those binding on us in terms of following Jesus. They've accomplished their purpose already. Indeed, the temple was destroyed in 70 AD, so there's no place to bring sacrifice anymore. The people of Israel have been scattered to the four corners of the world.

So today, Christians now live under the law of love, which calls us to love God and to love others. So, if you think about the two tablets of the moral law, which are described in the Ten Commandments, the first five say, you know, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” “Thou shalt not take the Lord thy God's name in vain.” “Thou shalt not have any graven image…” Those first five are Godward, they're upward.

Here's the great commandment, found in Matthew 22:37-39 (ESV) 37 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” So, if you love God, you'll keep the first five commandments.

If you love your neighbor, you'll keep those commandments of “Thou shall not kill,” “Thou shalt not steal,” “Thou shalt not commit adultery” and so on. Those are the two tablets. You might want to stay home next Sunday and watch online between your sock feet, you'll have some distance. But if you show up next week, this is what I'm calling, “reverse psychology.”

I'm hoping it's working right. We're going to deepen the idea that He's saying it's no longer about the external, it's about the internal. It is about heart change. If you love God and love one another as you love yourself, you'll keep the whole thing. He calls us to it. I wonder about this “love” thing.

It reminds me of a story of me growing up. I've told you the summers I spent with my grandfather. But as I got older, I started hanging out with my uncle Basil. My uncle Basil owned a construction business, and one of his businesses was a guttering business.

We would do aluminum guttering. At age 13, I started spending summers working for him. My first job working for him was a “gopher.” Do you know what a “gopher” is? It's when they say, “go for that and go for that.”

So, I ran and went for things and brought them to them. Hey, go get me my hammer. Go get me this. I was a “gopher” that summer. But as I grew, by the time I was 16, I was driving.

My uncle's business had grown, and sometimes he would not be on the job site. He'd be out doing estimates for the future jobs. He'd come by and check on us, but we were on our own and I was with these two other guys. They were in their 20s, I was 16, 17 years old.

We'd be doing a job and it would be getting hot in the afternoon and they'd start wanting to cut corners. Let's get off. Let's get this job finished and get out of here. I'd say, “Wait a minute, you guys are cutting corners.

You know that's not how my uncle Basil tells us to do it.” Oh, you and your uncle Basil, you Mr. “goody two shoes,” you and your uncle. Are you gonna tell uncle Basil on us?

They would pick on me. I would tell them, “Yeah, I will. I will tell on you.” One of the things my uncle would always say would be, “Now, before you nail it down, before you spike it and get it all set, I want you to go up there and pour some water in it to make sure it drains.” Sometimes we would be doing a 30 or 40 foot run on the front of the house and wanted to make sure it drained all the downspouts.

Most guys don't do that but we do. Well, we don't have time for that. What if it's wrong?

Then, we'll have to pull it and redo something. I'd go up on the roof and pour the water in there and say, “Hey, we're going to have to raise that/or lower that.” They would get so mad at me about that. It wasn't because I was a “goody two shoes,” because I wasn't. It was because it was my uncle Basil's business and I loved him.

It wasn't for the customers. It wasn't because I enjoyed getting picked on. Oh yeah? Are you going to tattle on us? I didn't like that part of

being picked on by these “twenty somethings.” I just love my uncle Basil and he told me to do it and he told them to do it. But they didn't think; they tried to take shortcuts. They'd try to “relax”

the instructions. I wasn't motivated by being good so much. I was motivated by my love for my uncle Basil. He was like a second father to me.

He's with the Lord now. My father died when I was eight. He was one of those men in my life that helped me become a man. Do you cherish God's word? Do you love Jesus?

He says, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

That leads to the third mark. The first mark is that we affirm what Jesus affirms about scripture. The second mark is that we do what He says. If we love Him, we'll do what He says and we'll teach others the same.

3. Rely on Christ’s righteousness to enter the kingdom.

We rely on Christ's righteousness to enter the kingdom. We're talking about kingdom entrance. We're talking about, ‘How do you get in this kingdom?’ Jesus makes a startling statement. We're in verse 20 now.

He's got another one of those “I say to you, I tell you” kind of things. Verse 20, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” I tell you on My own authority. I tell you this because I'm the only way anyone gets into the kingdom. The only way you get in this kingdom is through the King. That's the access.

It's a narrow road. It's a narrow gate. You'll never get in unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. Now, the scribes and the Pharisees were in the “righteousness hall of fame” for the Jews.

The scribes had PhDs in righteousness. The scribes and Pharisees are standing right over there. They heard what was said.

They're over there. They're wearing all of the clothes. A scribe was a professional keeper of the law of God. He wasn't even ordained until he was forty years old. He had to go to extra schooling.

He had memorized the Hebrew Bible. These guys were experts of the law. He says, ‘unless your righteousness is greater than theirs, you'll never get in.’ They were thinking, I guess nobody's getting in. You're right;

not without Jesus. You'll never get in because their righteousness externally was the greatest example that anybody could think of. Indeed, they'd made up laws. They'd made up boundary laws around other laws, especially around the Sabbath.

They had all kinds of laws that they were keeping. The scribes were professional law keepers and the Pharisees were strict observers of the law. Jesus rebuked both of them for their hypocrisy. Here's what the apostle Paul says about this righteousness.

Unless we have the righteousness of Jesus, we'll never get in. He says, Romans 3:21-25 (ESV) 21 “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.”

The only righteousness that's acceptable to God is Christ's righteousness. Therefore, for me, I will never be able to enter the kingdom of heaven on my own basis. But when Jesus died on the cross, He took all of our sin that we might receive his righteousness. He took all of my separation from the Father, saying, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” so that I might say I am a child of God and say, ‘Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.’

He took my death; for the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus. He took my sin. He took my separation.

He took my death. He gave me His righteousness. He gave me His sonship. He gave me eternal life. It's the greatest exchange on planet earth.

It's the greatest. “...unless your righteousness exceeds the scribes and the Pharisees.” Well, the only person I can think of who has that kind of righteousness is Jesus. This is why Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Oh, wow.

Unless your righteousness exceeds, unless it's greater than, you'll never enter. But, with Christ's righteousness, He says, ‘Come on in and see everyone that's in Christ.’ How do you get in the kingdom? Well, first you have to get in Jesus.

Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” You have to get in Him and He's got to get in you. That's how you get in the kingdom,

because He gives righteousness to you, His righteousness. The Pharisees had 248 regulations and 365 prohibitions to fence around the law so that the law was only skin deep; it was external, it was outward and external. Verse 19 warns about trying to “relax” it so that you could do it on your own and then verse 20 warns about how it's something that you can't achieve unless it exceeds theirs.

I've got this chart. I want you to see this. This is a chart I've shown you before. Here's our temptation with following the commandments; one is that we look at it and we think, It's too great. Therefore, I'm just going to do whatever I want to.

That's license; that's a licentious lifestyle. I'm going to just go do whatever. That's a lawless lifestyle. We could say that's one of the “ditches off the road” to love.

What's the road to love? It’s love God, love your neighbor as yourself and you'll keep all the commands of God. You'll keep the commands of Jesus. John 13: 35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

So, we want to stay on this road. We don't want to fall into lawlessness, nor do we want to fall into legalism, which says, ‘Oh, I can earn it, I can do it myself,’ because you can't. Unless your righteousness exceeds the Scribes and the Pharisees, you'll never get in.

There's only one Who's done that is Jesus. Kingdom greatness is about true righteousness. How do we surpass the righteousness of the Scribes and the Pharisees? Not by trying harder, but by receiving Christ and getting a new heart, a new mind and a new way of thinking. It's about authentic heart level obedience to Jesus.

Let's pray. Lord, thank You for Your word.

Thank You for Jesus who fulfills all of the Word that You've given us. Lord, I pray for that person that's here today that would be willing to say, ‘I get it, I'm a sinner.

The only way to please God is through Jesus and I want that.’ Is that you, my friend? Would you pray that right now? ‘I'm a sinner, I'm not going to water it down. I'm a sinner and I repent.

I want to turn away from that and turn to Jesus. I believe You died on the cross for me, Jesus. I believe that You were raised from the grave and that You live today. I believe that with all my heart. Would You come and live in me?

Forgive me of my sin. Make me a child of God. I want to follow You all the days of my life as my Lord, my Savior and my King. Thank you. Thank you.

Come into my life. Change my life. Give me a new heart.’ If you're praying that prayer of faith, believing, He'll save you and make you a child of God. He'll give you a love for God and a love for your fellow man.

Others are here today and you're a Christ follower. You know exactly what we're talking about. But you've been having some things you've held in your heart. Maybe it's jealousy, maybe it's unforgiveness. There's a place where you're not loving your neighbor

and if you're not loving them, you're not keeping the King's commandments. You're not loving Jesus. Would you confess it right now and say, ‘Lord, forgive me. Help me to go and make it right. Help me to be reconciled to You and reconciled to my neighbor.

Lord, I want to follow Jesus because I love Him and I pray in His name. Amen.’