Kingdom Principles Part Two - Audio

Greater Life Church

Bro. Hughes continues his series from he Sermon on the Mount. In our text tonight, Jesus states that he is the fulfillment of the law. Jesus said that not one jot or tiddle would pass from the law. What He said is in contradiction to what He did. The law that Jesus talked about was very different from the law that religious leaders talked about. They meant the scribal and oral law that had been passed from generation to generation. It had grown so large that it took books to explain the explanations. The law as the Jews knew it were rules. The original law that Jesus referenced were principles. The Pharisees took the original principles and devised rules to address every possible action that could take place. For instance, the original law said to keep the Sabbath. That became interpreted that no work could be done. That leads to having to define work. Once work was defined, they had to define a burden, because carrying a burden was work. The simple act of writing was determined to be work. By the time Jesus came along, the original ten commandments had become the Mishnah that, if it were written in English, it would be 800 pages. The Pharisee’s service to God was keeping these thousands of rules and regulations as if they were life and death. They had forgotten the most important part of that God had originally given them. So when Jesus said that no part of the law would pass, He took them back to the original law. The ten commandments can be boiled down to two words: Reverence and Respect. The reverence of God, God’s purpose, and God’s gifts. Respect for property, truth, fellow man, and self. These two things are the two foundations on which all laws must be based. Humans are good at keeping rules but not having a relationship. When we elevate rules above relationships, we have created a monster. When Israel elevated the rules to the status of being a law, they removed the relationship that the original law intended. Jesus did not come to cause a conflict between the old and the new, he came to show what those rules that had been interpreted should look like. The real law does not begin on the outside, it begins on the inside.