The Gifts of the Holy Spirit- 3

1 Corinthians 14:1-19.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 14, 2026.

Having explained in chapter thirteen the importance of love as a permanent foundation to everything that we do as followers of Jesus, Paul now turns back to the issue of spiritual gifts and the abuses happening within the Christian gatherings in Corinth.

Chapter twelve introduced Paul’s teaching on spiritual gifts in general.  He ended that chapter with the instruction to zealously desire the greater gifts.  This statement in and of itself is not problematic to the Corinthians.  They would believe that they were seeking “the greater gifts.”  However, Paul is setting up why their fascination with speaking in tongues is a misunderstanding of what actually makes a spiritual gift greater than another.

This is why chapter thirteen may feel like it is disjointed.  Paul lays the groundwork of why love for God and others must direct our choices in the area of spiritual gifts before he comes back to spiritual gifts in chapter fourteen, where he explains why tongues is not the greater gift compared to prophecy.

Let’s look at our passage.

The need for intelligibility in the assembly of believers (v. 1-5)

Chapter fourteen narrows its focus to the spiritual gifts of speaking in tongues and prophesying because this is where the trouble was occurring in the Corinthian church.

His main concern is that speaking gifts that are exercised within the assembly of believers (i.e., during a church service) should be intelligible, understandable, to those gathered so that they can be spiritually edified.

We should not let our modern concept of church gatherings cloud our understanding of this.  A Christian gathering is not about the building.  It can be in a home, in a cave, or out in the jungle.  Regardless, when believers are gathered to worship God and encourage one another in the faith, the emphasis must be on the ability of people to understand the language of what is being said.

We should also note that Paul does not argue that the Corinthian believers do not have the Holy Spirit or that the gifts they are exercising are not legitimate.  Rather, his argument is that they are abusing them or using them in a way that is grievous to the Holy Spirit who is enabling them in their lives.

Paul opens up with tying chapter twelve and thirteen together with twin imperatives.  They are to pursue love while also zealously desiring spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy (rather than speak in tongues).

Please note that he uses the same verb, zealously desire, for spiritual gifts in chapter twelve and fourteen.  However, he chooses a different verb for love; pursue love.  This can be pictured as always chasing after something that is illusively out of grasp, but the better picture is that of a pathway or, even better, the person of Jesus Christ himself.  The love of Christ is always before us as an example and guide.  We must make that our aim and pursuit while exercising (or desiring) spiritual gifts.

Verse 1 also answers the question that Paul has set up at the end of chapter twelve.  What is the greater spiritual gift?  Prophecy is the greater gift within the assembly of believers.  You could also add any other word of wisdom, knowledge, etc. that is given in a language that the people understand.

In verse two Paul begins to describe some differences between speaking in tongues and prophesying.  A person who speaks in tongues speaks to God not man (v. 2).  No one understands him, and he speaks mysteries (i.e., no one understands what he is saying).  A person who speaks in tongues also edifies themselves (v. 4).  All of this can be changed if the message in tongues is interpreted for the people in attendance.  The interpretation would then be addressing the people (not God), and it would be understandable to them.  The message in tongues that is interpreted will also be able to edify the whole church.  At that point, speaking in tongues with interpretation would be functionally equivalent to prophecy.

Comparatively, a person who prophesies speaks to the people and they can understand them.  The prophecy is given to edify the whole body and not just the speaker.  Paul gives three examples of the way that prophecy can help the church: edification (build them up to be like Jesus), exhortation (whether commands or encouragements), and lastly consolation.  Paul sees these three aspects in the purpose of prophecy.

Analogies that argue for intelligibility (v. 6-12)

Verse six restates the problem in a personal way.  Paul again resorts to putting himself in the position that the Corinthian mindset would encourage.  “If I come to you speaking in tongues,” this implies if he only did this, like the Corinthians liked to do.  Paul asks how this would be able to benefit them.  It would only be profitable if he spoke a language that was intelligible, whether a revelation, knowledge, prophecy or teaching.

Thus, Paul is emphasizing that intelligibility allows for people to be built up in the faith and character of Christ.  The profit here is spiritual profit.

Paul then points to areas of life where the principle of intelligibility is necessary.  In verse seven, he speaks of a flute or a harp.  Music requires a distinction of tones in order to produce a pleasing sound as opposed to a raucous noise.

In verse 8, he moves to a bugle.  This was used in the military to quickly direct men.  Particular tunes were used to get men out of bed, or to warn of attack, etc.  If the bugler does not clearly blow the right notes, it would confuse the men and leave them open to danger.

In verses ten and eleven, Paul speaks of foreign languages around the world.  The message encoded in each language is real but is also inaccessible to a person who does not understand it.  I am a foreigner to them, and they are a foreigner to me.  The term “barbarian” was a Greek term that mimicked the sounds of a foreigner “bar bar bar” and became barbaros or barbarian in English.

If you were in a group that knew you did not speak a different language, but they kept speaking it among themselves, the result is that you would feel not only left out but also pushed out.  Paul makes the point that an unknown language makes you a foreigner to the speaker.  We will be isolated from one another and limited in our ability to work together or help one another.

Christians are to be a new people.  We don’t all necessarily have the same native language, but we speak a common language in order to accomplish the purpose of God with one another.

These examples all highlight the importance of intelligibility when it comes to the verbal spiritual gifts in church gatherings.

Paul ends this section in verse twelve by calling the Corinthians who are zealous of spiritual gifts also “to seek to abound for the edification of the church.”  In other words, they should exercise them for the greater purpose of God, building up believers to be more like Jesus.

They should not be zealous for a spiritual gift as a status symbol.  They should not settle for everyone edifying themselves (everyone for themselves) when they are gathered together.

The Corinthians may have imagined that everyone was being edified in the church when they were all speaking in tongues.  However, Paul will now move to explain the purpose of tongues versus the purpose of prophecy.

Application to the believing community (v. 13-19)

Paul now moves to describe how tongues and prophecy should be exercised within our gatherings.  The first application is that the person who speaks in tongues should pray for its interpretation.  He doesn’t make clear if this is before speaking or after speaking.  The main point is not to settle for continuing in tongues without interpreting the message.  The onus is put upon the person who believes they have a message in tongues to give.  We should leave room for churches to discover in trial and error just who in the may or may not have the spiritual gift of interpretation.  Regardless, it would eventually be clear whether someone is present that is used in that way by the Spirit.

In verse fourteen, Paul describes praying in tongues, which is addressed to God, as praying with your spirit.  This is placed next to the idea of praying with your mind, which is praying in a language you understand.

When you pray with your spirit, i.e., in tongues, your mind is “unfruitful” (there is no intellectual benefit) other than the knowledge that the Spirit of God is enabling your spirit to talk with God in an unknown language.

Verse 15 includes singing in this.  To sing with my spirit is to sing in tongues, and to sing with my mind is to sing in a language I understand.

Praying with your mind is important, and most people can understand this.  However, how does praying with your spirit build you up?  It teaches you how to trust the Holy Spirit and have confidence that God knows what your spirit is saying.  It gives you a comfort in knowing that the Holy Spirit is helping you to pray to the Father.

Some may refuse such things, declaring that they will only be edified through their mind.  This seems to be a short-sighted and selfish attitude.  God knows what we need.  Why would we shut off any help that He wants to provide?

In verse sixteen, Paul questions how someone can say, “Amen,” in the assembly to something that they do not understand.  They are called “the uninformed” (some versions have “ungifted,” but this seems to be more of an interpretation).  This could be a reference to non-believers, or it could be believers who are not taught in regard to spiritual gifts (or simply don’t have the gift of interpretation).  However, it seems most likely that this is a reference to those who are uninformed in the Gospel.  How will they hear the truth and believe (say amen) if it is not in a language they understand?

Paul may even be saying that you are turning your fellow Christians into those who are uninformed by the fact that they don’t know what you are saying.  The point is that they are left out of any meaningful interaction with what is being done.

Of course, Paul is not putting tongues down.  He says in verse eighteen that he speaks in tongues more than all of them.  However, he apparently does the lion’s share of his tongue speaking when he is by himself (in personal times of prayer).  Five intelligible words are worth more than 10,000 words in tongues that are unknown.

There is a modern contention among some that there should be no tongues at all in churches today.  Yet, the Bible tells us to desire spiritual gifts because it is God who desires to work them through us for the good of the body of Christ.  We should follow love and follow the Spirit because they are one and the same.

Second, we should not let fear cause us to shrink back from spiritual gifts.  We should trust God and exercise them properly for the benefit of all who are attending, not just for ourselves.

We will stop here today and pick up later.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit 3 audio

The Gifts of the Holy Spirit- 2

1 Corinthians 13. This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, June 7, 2026.

This chapter is most generally known as the Love Chapter, and it is true that it describes the love of Christ and how the Holy Spirit seeks to express it in our lives.

However, this chapter is specifically about how the love of Christ should impact our exercise of spiritual gifts.  Thus, it is a specific application of how the love of Christ impacts this area of our lives. 

We should even see that it is part of a corrective teaching that shows how the love of Christ can be used to redirect abusive activity in any area of our lives.

Chapter 12 ended with two notions.  First, Paul wanted the Corinthians to recognize that speaking in tongues is not the greater gift, as they thought.  Prophecy is a greater gift than it.  However, in order for them to understand why it is greater, they must understand the “more excellent way” of the love of Christ.

Let’s look at our passage.

The necessity of love with spiritual gifts (v. 1-3)

Paul starts with the spiritual gift that the Corinthians valued most, speaking in tongues.  He could make this same point by using them as the hypothetical person, but instead, Paul uses himself.  “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels…”  This is to soften the hard statements that he is going to make.

Of course, all of our speech should spring forth from a heart full of God’s love.  It is a necessity for the disciple of Jesus.  However, Paul is correcting them on their use of spiritual gifts, especially speech that finds its origins in the Holy Spirit.

It is not clear whether Paul actually believes it is possible to speak in the language of angels.  There is some evidence from the period before Jesus that some Jews believed it was possible.  Regardless, the Corinthians certainly thought that they were speaking the language of angels, or of the heavenly beings.

I know that some people point to Acts chapter two.  They say that true speaking in tongues will always be a language from this earth, i.e., a human language.  However, the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit was a unique event.  The commencement of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit was a fulfillment of the Feast of Weeks.  The feast pointed to the harvest that would come in from the Spirit-empowered activity of the people of God.

We should also note that many things that happened at that first outpouring were not repeated, for example: Fire separating into individual tongues over each of the believers, the sound of a mighty rushing wind, and the reversal of the judgment of confusing the language of the people in Genesis 11.  These things can happen again as God wills, but we do not see them mentioned again.

The Corinthians wanted to be super-spiritual, but their thinking was not biblical.  Paul throughout 1 Corinthians was correcting them on this.  In chapter seven, we find that some married couples were trying to live without having sexual relations with one another.  This may sound strange to us, but it was an attempt to live like the angels here on earth.  In their opinion, being spiritual meant trying to live less like mortals on earth and more like angels in heaven.  Paul challenged them on it.  Their attempt to be spiritual would set them up for temptation.  He told them that refraining from sex for a short period in order to focus on prayer (i.e., like fasting) was okay, but they should not extend the period too long.  If they loved one another, then they would demonstrate their spirituality by physical intimacy. 

In chapter eleven, we see that some of them were trying to live as if there are no longer differences between men and women.  Again, being like the angels (super-spiritual) would mean to throw off all gender roles.  Paul challenges the women to recognize cultural norms in their demeanor, especially within the context of Christian gatherings.

In chapter 12, we saw that they thought speaking in tongues was the greatest gift.  They believed that a spiritual person would be more likely to speak in an unintelligible language.  Yet, Paul is showing them that this is not true spirituality.  True spirituality asks what the Holy Spirit is leading us to do and does it.

Their rejection of a bodily resurrection in chapter fifteen was also sourced in this messed up view of spirituality.  A bodily resurrection seemed to be going in the wrong direction, toward the earth rather than heaven.  Yet, Paul shows them that the bodily resurrection of believers is dependent upon the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ (who is the most spiritual of all humans). 

This brings us back to chapter 13. The key to Paul’s argument is picturing a spiritual gift being exercised without love for others.  We will deal with the clanging cymbal imagery at the end of this section.  “If I speak in the language of angels (the desire of the Corinthian Christians) but do not have love, then I am a clanging cymbal.”  He then does the same thing with two more spiritual gifts.  “If I have the gift of prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge…but have not love, I am nothing.”  “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” 

This last mention of the spiritual gift of faith that could even move mountains is an allusion to the words of Jesus in several different places.  In Matthew 17:20, Jesus spoke of casting out demons with faith the size of a mustard seed (i.e., it is not about a great amount, simply about believing).  In Luke 17:6, he spoke of dealing with unforgiveness in our own heart.  Of course, there it is not a mountain but a mulberry tree.  So, Paul is picturing a person who is the epitome of what Jesus is talking about.  Yet, without love, I am nothing!

As if that wasn’t enough, Paul adds two more things that are good in and of themselves and do not look like the previous spiritual gifts.  “If I give all my possessions to the poor…”  This reminds me of the rich young ruler who was challenged by Jesus to sell all his possessions, give the proceeds to the poor, and then follow him.  Even such a great act without love would be nothing.

Finally, Paul speaks of a person surrendering their body to be burned.  He may have in mind a person who is martyred for the cause of Christ.  Yet, if such was done without love, it would “profit me nothing. “ We can imagine doing something like that and finding out it didn’t benefit us at all.  What a shock.

All of these are intended to shock the Corinthians.  Paul describes things that they would see as spiritual in and of themselves: speaking in tongues, prophecy, the gift of faith, selling all of our possessions to feed the poor, and being martyred for Jesus.  Yet, Paul’s challenge to them is to point out the necessity of love in all our activity for Christ.  Without love, the one who speaks in tongues is a clanging cymbal.  God is not edified, and the people around them are not edified.  Without love, the one who gives prophecies and moves big things by their faith is nothing.  Without love, the one who feeds the poor and is martyred is not profited by it, i.e., they have not put any treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21).

These three phrases: a clanging cymbal, nothing, and profits me nothing, are all saying that there is no spiritual benefit in good acts alone.  To use Paul’s words in Galatians 5:6, what is beneficial is faith in God working through love.  If my activity is not born out of faith in God working through the love of Christ, then it does not benefit me.

The Christian must always emphasize Christ-like character before activity.  Notice that Paul does not argue that they do not have the Holy Spirit.  The presence of the Holy Spirit does not insulate us from error any more than the presence of God in the garden insulated Adam and Eve from temptation.  The Corinthians were grieving the Holy Spirit as they exercised spiritual gifts, all the time thinking they were super spiritual. 

How long can you do that and spiritually survive?  Paul doesn’t say.  Nevertheless, we must (it is a necessity!) have love in all that we do but especially in exercising spiritual gifts.

The character of love (v. 4-7)

Paul then moves to describe the true nature of Christ’s love.  The structure of this section has 2 positive descriptions followed by 7 negative descriptions.  There is then 1 transitional negative and positive description that is followed by four rapid positive descriptions.  This section is crafted into a poetic piece.

Let’s look at the first two positive descriptions.  Love is patient.  The word “patient” here has the idea of having a long fuse, a slow temper.  Love is also kind.  If patience is restraining myself from unleashing unloving things upon a person, then kindness is pouring out good things upon a person, whether they deserve it or not.  Kindness is an overlooked virtue. 

Next, we have the seven negative descriptions of what love is not.  Most of these are self-explanatory. 

Love is not jealous (or envious).  Love does not brag and is not arrogant (puffed up with pride, an inflated sense of self).  Love does not “act unbecomingly” (NASB).  This has the idea of something that is shameful or disgraceful.  Love is not self-seeking.  It is not provoked (i.e., provoked to the point of anger and wicked actions).  Love does not consider wrongs against it.  This is more than not writing down a list or keeping one in your head.  It has a deeper sense of not taking note of wrongs done against you.  I simply don’t think about it or dwell on it.

This can be seen as an eighth negative description, but it is balanced by the positive that it should be.  Love does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices with the truth (the truth of God’s love in Christ to save all people through our sacrifice to share it with them).  I would say that some in the Church are rejoicing in wicked things like abortion and trans-gendering our kids.  However, this is not love.  This is a self-seeking attempt to garner the acceptance of others at the expense of the truth of God.

Lastly, we have the four staccato statements that all include the phrase “in all things.”  The meaning works with some of the words, but others require a deeper understanding of what is meant by “in all things.

Love bears all things is the idea that it carries or puts up with all things.  Love does not quit carrying our brother though his sin is heavy.

Love believes all things.  This does not mean it believes anything that a person says to it.  The word believe is the same as having faith.  Love has faith in all things.  It never quits but always believes. 

Love hopes all things.  Again, “all things” is not about the object for which we hope.  Love never loses hope in any situation.  It is easy to give up on others especially when they sin against us.  Yet, love continues to hope for their salvation and sanctification.

Lastly, love endures all things.  This is another term for being patient.  It pictures a person remaining under a heavy load.  We may want to toss it off, but love compels us to stick in there, perseverance.

All of these things describe Jesus who is the very Image of the Father, and the pattern for our character and life.

The permanence of love beyond spiritual gifts (v. 8-13)

“Love never fails” looks at first like it is part of the previous description.  Thus, love is never defeated or fallen to the ground.  It is always victorious.

Yet, the following words add another meaning to the phrase.  Paul is telling us that love will never end nor will it fall away from our experience in the future.  This last description serves to transition to Paul’s last point about love versus spiritual gifts.

Love will never end, but spiritual gifts will come to an end (vs. 8).  A time will come when speaking in tongues will cease to be a thing that the Holy Spirit is working in God’s people.  A time will come when words of knowledge (Paul is talking about spiritual gifts here) will be done away.  The bigger truth in the area of spiritual gifts is that they are only for this present age, whereas love is for all ages.  A Christian must have love down first before going after spiritual gifts.

In verse nine, Paul brings up the idea that we presently know “in part” and prophesy “in part.”  This is connected to the idea that the Kingdom of God is now here, but not yet fully.  Thus, prophecy does not help us to know everything.  Rather, it gives us a part of the picture.  These gifts are necessary because we do not have full knowledge of everything that God is doing.  Yet, He gives us enough through the written Word, through mature believers, and through the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

In verse ten, Paul sees that there is a day “when the perfect comes” in which these partial things will be done away, i.e., the spiritual gifts.  There are some Christians who try to make the case that the perfect is the New Testament written down for us.  They try to say that once the apostles wrote these books, then the spiritual gifts went away.  Anyone who tries to do them today is not actually operating by the help of the Holy Spirit.

I do not believe this is the proper interpretation of that phrase.  All gifts of the Holy Spirit and the fruit of the Holy Spirit are pointed towards Christ, the perfect image of the Father.  Jesus is The Perfect who is coming back to this earth at some point in the future.  It is at the return of Jesus that spiritual gifts will be done away.  This is clear from the beginning of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians.  In chapter one verse seven he says, “you are not lacking in any gift, awaiting eagerly the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  He is not talking about the New Testament.  He is talking about the Second Coming of Jesus!

Thus, spiritual gifts are still operational today.  The Spirit is still wanting to work through believers in these various ways.  When Jesus comes, he will bring this “now but not yet fully” period of time to a close.  Then spiritual gifts will drop away like training wheels on the bike of a kid who has learned to ride.

Verse 11 picks up this imagery.  When Paul talks about putting away childish things when he became a man, he does not mean that as a pejorative.  The things of childhood are necessary.  They are childish only in that they are connected to that state of development.  Similarly, our mortal lives as followers of Jesus are our spiritual childhood.  Yes, we want to become as spiritually mature in our life as we can.  However, the bodily resurrection that Christ will bring about will be our entrance into adulthood.  We will truly be the adult sons of God at that point.  The things of our childhood (now) will be put aside (then).

In verse twelve, Paul not only changes the metaphor to looking into a mirror, but he also speaks of what we know.  Now I am looking into a mirror that is dim, but then I will look into the face of God.  We presently do not see God fully, but we will in the future.  We presently know God’s plan fully, but we will in the future.  We will know just as sure as we are fully known by God right now.

This brings us to the last verse.  In the present, spiritual gifts are given by God, but they must be exercised in love.  Paul pairs love with faith and hope.  He sees these three virtues as abiding in our lives throughout this mortal stage.  The believer needs faith in what God has done through Jesus, hope in what God has promised for those who believe in Jesus, and love for God and others.  We cannot walk this Christian walk without the three virtues of faith, hope, and love.

Yet, the greatest of these is love.  This can simply be a poetic flourish.  However, if we think about the future state of having glorified, heavenly bodies, and dwelling directly in the presence of God, we might ask ourselves what faith and hope will look like then.  Faith is a thing because we do not fully see God.  We must trust Him.  Hope is a thing because we do not have all that God has promised.  We must wait upon Him.  However, when we see Him and receive all that He has promised, faith and hope will dissolve back into the underlying queen of virtues, love.  We will love and be loved for all eternity!

Gifts of the Holy Spirit 2 audio

The Afflicted One

Matthew 27:45-54.  Psalm 22.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on October 20, 2024.

We are going to take a break from the book of Acts this week and look at Jesus, the Afflicted One.

Isaiah 53:4 says, “We esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities.”

Also, Psalm 22:24 says, “He [God] has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted [one].”  It is worth noting that “afflicted” is singular.  It could be referring to all who are afflicted as a singular group.  However, in light of the rest of the psalm, it is more likely that it is speaking of the particular afflicted one that David presented earlier in the psalm. 

Before we go to Psalm 22 though, let’s start in Matthew 27.

The cry of Jesus and the silence of God (Mt. 27:45-54)

Our passage picks up with Jesus having been on the cross for three hours. Verse 45 uses Roman time terminology.  The hours of the day are counted from 6 AM forward.  Thus, the sixth hour until ninth hour would equal noon to 3 PM.  To remind ourselves, Jesus is first put on the cross at 9 AM.

There is an interesting change that happens at noon.  For the first three hours that Jesus was on the cross, everything seemed natural.  A man is dying.  It is day time, and the world is going on like normal.  However, at noon, a darkness comes over the land.  This cannot be a solar eclipse because Passover is during the full moon.  This would put the moon on the opposite side of earth from the sun.  There are conjectures on the mechanism that God used to “turn off the lights” for three hours.  A common one is to link it to a large volcanic explosion.  Regardless of how it was done, this ominous situation continues until the death of Jesus.  In fact, after the death of Jesus, a large earthquake hits Jerusalem.  The darkness followed by an earthquake coinciding with the execution of Jesus would leave the average person watching freaked out.  Anyone watching this would think that something really bad had just happened.  For the first three hours, a guy like Caiaphas, the high priest, would feel justified.  But from noon to 3 PM, it would leave one with a strange sensation.

We see this with the Roman soldier mentioned in verse 54.  He has seen a lot of men crucified.  He is shocked and states, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

The death of Jesus is accompanied by a sense of God’s apparent silence.    How could God let this happen?

This is where we should remind ourselves of the hopes of the populace of Israel.  Jesus had healed people and taught them in a way that amazed the multitudes.  They had come to believe that he must be Messiah.  However, the leaders of Israel figured out very quickly that Jesus was calling them to repent too.  This provoked them to despise him and to work to kill him.

The populace hoped that Jesus, who must be messiah, would begin removing the yoke of the Romans, and  yet now, he has been publicly executed.  Think of it.  If you have put all your hopes in a man, and then, he is killed, it shocks you to your core.  On top of this, they heard Jesus crying out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  It could appear to some that Jesus himself expected God to stop his execution and is now in the throes of disillusionment.

This idea is quite common today.  The average person who doesn’t believe in Jesus will point to some bad thing that happened, or simply that there is evil in the world, and ask, “How could God let that happen?”  If God exists and really is all-good, then surely He would stop all the evil that is happening on this planet.

Jesus at the cross fundamentally challenges this contention.  We think we understand, and we think that God should stop evil.  Our tendency is to talk about these things as if we really understand all the repercussions.  However, these things really are greater than we understand.  This is probably why God designed humans to become parents.  This way, we too can learn what it is like to bend over backwards for the good of a young person who will give you flak for your choices, at some point.  I think parenting is God inviting us to know Him just a little more than we did before we became parents and can have every one of our decisions second-guessed.  There is a certain wisdom to the circle of life.  We generally do not understand these things until we grow old.

The reality on the ground at the crucifixion of Jesus says, there is no way that this man can be Messiah.  Otherwise, God would have stopped it.  So, what about this question that Jesus cried out about God forsaking him?

I mentioned earlier that the first thought of skeptics is the cynical angle.  Jesus realizes that he is going to die, and somehow he thought God would deliver him.  He is no messiah, and he was wrong.

There are good reasons to completely reject this idea.  First, throughout the Gospels, Jesus warned his disciples over and over again that he was going to Jerusalem and he would be killed there.  Of course, the cynic will believe that the disciples made this up after the fact.

Before we look at the next reason to reject this idea, I do want to say this.  I believe that a part of the reason that Jesus cries out this question from the cross is to let us know that he gets it.  For every time we have felt that God has abandoned us while something evil, something bad, does its thing, here is God in the flesh telling us that He gets it.  It is hard, and our flesh doesn’t like it.  The weight of God’s silence in the face of such injustice can be crushing.

We can place ultimatums on God, challenging Him to do such and such by this time, or we are going to cast our faith aside (whether in a rejection of His existence, or of His goodness).  Of course, Jesus knows better than that.  Still, he lets us hear these words from his mouth.

I believe that there is a spiritually immature part of all of us that wants God “to fix” our problems and the bad things in our life.  We typically pray for God to take away anything bad.  We want Him to bail us out of any nightmares that come our way.  Of course, wise parents know that it is often better to help kids through their problems and through their consequences, rather than taking them away.  A wise parent will come alongside their kids and help them through the problem, rather than completely removing it for them.

I think that God is doing this in the Garden of Eden.  He is not judging Adam and Eve because He is hurt and wants to make them pay.  He definitely doesn’t give the decree and make their sin and its consequences just go away.  Rather, He chooses to walk with them down this tough road they have chosen, and He gives them aid against an enemy that is far to strong for them.

The cross causes us to shout, “Take it away, God!”  “Remove the wicked people, and remove all injustice!”  However, Jesus tells us, “Pick up your cross and follow me!”

This leads us to the second reason why this cry in verse 46 is not a cry of disillusionment.  This was a time when books were not divided into chapters and verses.  Though the Psalms are small units within a collection, they were not known by a number.  Jews would not say, “Let’s read Psalm 22.”  Instead, they would use the first line, the first sentence, to refer to it.  Thus, Jesus is not just telling us that he knows our pain of feeling forsaken by God.  He is actually telling us to read Psalm 22 and pay attention to it.  He is connecting that Psalm to his current situation.  Of course, there were some people who couldn’t quite hear what he was saying.  Jesus was also in agonizing pain, making it harder to enunciate his words.  The Aramaic word “Eli” means my God.  However, some thought he might be calling out for Elijah (it was prophesied that Elijah would show up to help Messiah).  However, some would have wondered why Jesus was quoting from this psalm (what we call Psalm 22).

The prophecy of David in Psalm 22

David wrote this psalm roughly 1,000 years before Jesus.  David wrote many psalms.  However, he was more than a musician.  David was also a prophet.  In 2 Samuel 23:2, David says, “The Spirit of the LORD spoke by me, and His word was on my tongue.”  He goes on to tell what God had told him.  God had told him that the one who rules men should be just.  He should be like the rising of the sun and the coming of the dew in the morning.  These are beautiful images of something that is a blessing.  Yet, David also says that his family was not so.  He had fallen short, and his family would fall short too.  Remember, that David had two sons try to take the kingdom from him while he was alive.  Yet, God also told David that He would still cause the promise of an Anointed King to “shoot forth,” or “branch out.”  Isaiah (chapter 4) and Zechariah (chapters 3 and 6) both picked up this verb and turned it into a title for Messiah, The Branch, or The Shoot.

What I am getting at is this.  David is not just writing a psalm about something bad that happened to him.  This is a prophetic psalm that looked forward to something that God showed David.

Jesus and his apostles also quoted and spoke of David’s psalms as prophecy.  So, why did Jesus point out this psalm?

Psalm 22 is a strange psalm.  It has two different types of psalms stitched together.  It starts off as a lament psalm.  A lament psalm basically cries out to God about a suffering situation.  Often, wicked people are involved, causing the pain.  Or, they at least pile on with condemnation.  Lament psalms typically plead to God for help and will end with a statement of faith in God’s character.  Verses 1 through 21a of Psalm 22 are exactly this.

Yet, in the second half of verse 21, something happens that changes the whole character of the psalm.  Verses 21b through the end of the psalm (verse 31) switch to a psalm of Thanksgiving.  This is somewhat odd.  It would be like a song that starts out singing the blues, and then turns into Pharrell Williams singing, Happy.  More than this, it is not quite clear what exactly happened to change a scene where someone is being put to death by wicked men, into a scene that is praising God and calling everyone to join him.

God showed David something about Messiah through his own affliction.  King Saul and Israel had rejected God’s anointing of David.  Yet, Messiah would also be rejected and afflicted by his own people.

Who is this afflicted one in the first part of Psalm 22?  It cannot be David.  David’s descriptions of the afflicted on do not fit him.  Yes, some of the things fit him.  David was afflicted.  Look at verses 7-8.  This description could fit David.  He had become a hunted man by King Saul under a false charge of treason.  This had him always on the run.  It was common for people to despise and ridicule David at this point in his life. 

How about verses 12 to 13.  The bulls and the lions here are symbolic of people who had power within Israel’s society.  King Saul had power and position.  David often felt like he had no where to turn to and was being encircled like a prey hiding in a thicket from predators.

Still, there are too many other descriptions that cannot be about David.  Verse 14 pictures the afflicted one of being poured out like water and having all of his bones out of joint.  Verse 16 speaks of dogs (more animal imagery for people) piercing the afflicted one’s feet and hands.  Verse 17 has the afflicted one being so emaciated that he can count his bones and people are staring at him.  Lastly, verse 18 has his garments being divvied up while he looks on.

This does not describe David.  It describes someone who is being put to death, someone who is not going to need his clothes anymore because he is headed to the grave.

I imagine that David wrestled with God over why He seemed so silent during David’s affliction.  Yet, God showed David that what he went through would be nothing compared to what King Messiah would go through.  David is the little-“a” afflicted one, but Messiah would be the capital-“A” Afflicted One. 

This Afflicted One would come to remove all injustice.  However, God is also a God of grace who doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed.  In the Affliction of the Afflicted One, God is giving space and giving time for us to repent by putting our faith in Jesus.  We could respond to the horrible truth that is displayed at the cross of Jesus: this is what even the best of us do to God.  If it wasn’t for His grace, we would have been destroyed along time ago.

It is easy to miss this message from David.  Yes, they were excited about Messiah removing injustice because that is clearly the Gentiles.  However, they missed the rejected aspect of the Messiah (well, he will be rejected by Messiah, but not us!).

All along this part of Psalm 22 is the idea that God is silent.  God doesn’t do anything about this horrible affliction from the wicked.  At least, up until we reach verse 21.

“Save me from the lion’s mouth and from the horns of the wild oxen!  You have answered me!”  No matter how you translate this verse, two things stick out that cannot change.  The first verb “save me” is a form of the verb that makes it clear that the person is still praying.  There is no question about this.  However the last verb “answered me” is not in this form.  It is a form that says the action of the verb has been completed.  Somehow the afflicted one goes from crying out for salvation to declaring that God has heard him, answered him.  This is the hinge point of the psalm.  God has answered His Afflicted One, but it will not be explained just exactly what God did.  Yet, it must be something really big to change the scene from a righteous man being put to death, to him praising God.

Even if you were being killed, pierced, emaciated, and your bones were out of joint, and God answered you, you would not be in a condition to be praising God.  You would be in a hospital for a very long time asking why God didn’t intervene sooner.

There is not only a switch of genre in this psalm (lament to thanksgiving), but there is a switch in who is narrating the scene.  All throughout the lament, it is first-person narration of what is happening to him.  Even the praise in verse 21 begins by the afflicted one.  “You have answered me!”  Verses 22 and 23 continue the praise, but in verse 24 we see that the narrator has either began to speak of himself in the third-person, or David has taken over and is prophetically calling Israel to pay attention to this amazing thing that God is going to do.  All of Israel are called to praise the Lord because the Lord delivered (will deliver) this Afflicted One.  David will go on to recount how this amazing deliverance will even cause the Gentiles to praise God (verse 27).  What could happen that would cause the ends of the earth and the nations to give praise and worship to God, remembering what God did for His Afflicted One and “turning to the LORD”?  What could cause “all the families of the nations” to worship before him?  Then, verse 28 clearly ties into the Messianic prophecies that picture the Anointed King that God sends to rule over all the nations.  “The Kingdom is the Lord’s, and He rules over the nations!”  This Afflicted One is that King!  Nothing in David’s life, or Israel’s history, even comes close to something like this, except for one person.  It is Jesus.

However, there is more.  In verse 29, the David employs language of “all those who go down to the dust.”  They will bow before the Afflicted One.  This language of going into the dust is language that speaks of people who have died (can’t keep themselves alive).  They are mortals who go into the grave.  It appears to say that even those who have gone into the grave will bow before him.  How can that be?  Of course, the New Testament testimony of what the Apostles came to know about Jesus shows us that the death of the Afflicted One was overturned by Resurrection.

Jesus is pointing us to this passage.  He is not saying that he has been forsaken by God.  He is saying exactly the opposite.  He is making the declaration of truth in the face of all the devils of hell and what they are unleashing upon him.  It may look like He is, but the Father will not abandon me!

Where are we today?  The Gospel of who Jesus is has gone to the ends of the earth, and many people of every tribe, language, and nation, have bowed before Jesus and worshipped him.  Yet, the powers of the world are not choosing Jesus as Lord of lords and King of kings.

The challenge for us is to believe what Scriptures says, what the Spirit says, about Messiah, even when it appears that it will never happen.  He will be afflicted to death, but God will answer him, has answered him!

Perhaps you are in the middle of affliction right now.  Perhaps you feel that God doesn’t care about you and has forsaken you.  His testimony is that He does love you and won’t abandon you.  You just need to put your faith in Him and trust Jesus. 

Why would Jesus go through all that affliction?  He was paying the price for your sins and for mine.  He was making a way for us to repent of our sins and believe in him so that we can be forgiven by God the Father.

Fatherly wisdom in the Scriptures tells us that God has come down and gone through the fire with us.  He has helped us and will bring us to the other side of this difficult affliction.  We will come out the other side more like Him.

Friend, our weak mortal state is not the final word.  God has promised something beyond this.  Let’s choose to identify with the Afflicted One who chose to identify with us!

Afflicted One audio

The Sermon on the Mount III

Subtitle: Jesus Opens the Door to the Kingdom II, also

Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God

Matthew 5:13-16, 17-20.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 17, 2023.

We are continuing our look at Jesus, King Messiah, who was also The Prophet like Moses.  He is giving the good news to the poor and misfortunate of Israel that the door to the Kingdom of Heaven is in front of them.  They only need to enter by faith in Jesus as its king.

This sermon will finish the introduction of Jesus.  Thus, I have titled this first part “Jesus Opens the Door to the Kingdom.”  Verse 17 will begin the main body of the message Jesus is giving.  I have titled it as “Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God.”

Let’s look at this first part.

Jesus Opens the Door to the Kingdom (5:3-12, 13-16)

Verses 3 through 12 are called the beatitudes, and they answer the questions of who God is planning to bless and how.  The surprise twist in these beatitudes show that God values things very different than we do.  None of these people would have thought of themselves as blessed, but rather cursed.  Jesus is not in the temple talking to the elite religionists of his day.  He is in the wilderness on a mountainside with the poor and afflicted of Israel surrounding him.  He tells them that they are blessed because God is opening up the Kingdom of Heaven to them.

We also pointed out last week that the beatitudes do more than tell them they are blessed.  They also create a composite sketch of Jesus himself.  Jesus is the ultimate poor and afflicted one whom God values, more, whom God loves.  Jesus is the ultimate person who is blessed of God to the ultimate degree.

This is exactly what Isaiah is prophesying in Isaiah 53:3-4.  Here is the text.  “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

Notice the intention is to show that our value system would be so messed up that we would think Messiah, the Servant of the LORD, was essentially cursed of God.  These people listening to Jesus would have been told by society (and believed it) that they were not blessed of God, otherwise their life wouldn’t be so filled with sickness and poverty.  Yet, Messiah would appear to be the most cursed of God, while all the time being the most blessed of God.  This is why Jesus not only puzzled people in the first century, but continues to puzzle them to this day.

Starting in verse 13, Jesus gives three metaphors that represent the purpose behind why God is blessing these unfortunates.  In other words, the blessings mentioned in the first part has a purpose that goes beyond those people.  Do you remember Abraham?  God blessed him above all others in his day.  Yet, that blessing was intended to be a blessing to all of the nations (Genesis 18:18; 22:18; and 26:4).

This is a principle with God.  His blessing to anyone is never intended to be only for their sake.  If you picture a reservoir behind a dam, then you will get the point.  We can be so fearful of the lack of future blessing that we dam it up and hold it to ourselves.  Yet, God has a purpose in blessing us that intends for us to find ways to release it to others in a good way.  He wants to bless others through the blessings that He gives to you, and He wants to bless you through blessings that He gives to others.  May God help us to understand this way of God so that we can be truly blessed.

The first purpose in our blessing is pictured by salt.  Those who enter the Kingdom of Heaven through Jesus are intended to be the salt of the earth.  Jesus doesn’t tell us what the salt represents, but he does give us a hint by emphasizing the flavor of the salt.  Through the years, two aspects have been pointed out about salt.  It makes things taste better, and it preserves things from rotting.

So what is the flavor?  Are we making the world taste better for God?  Or, are we to be making this life taste better for the lost, so that they will see God?  This is not explained.

A good principle to remember is to let Scripture interpret Scripture.  We can look for other places where the Bible talks about salt and see if it is used as a metaphor for anything.  You are going to find about 42 places in the Bible where it uses the word “salt.”  It almost always simply means salt.  However, there are a couple of references that are interesting. 

In Leviticus 2:13, we see that a grain offering was required to be salted, even referring to it as the “salt of the covenant.”  So whatever the salt represented, it was important to God.  We should also put on the back burner of our thoughts that Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt.  Jesus tells us to remember her.  The most helpful verse is given to us by the Apostle Paul in Colossians 4:6.  It reads, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”  From this verse, it appears that the salt most likely represents grace in Matthew 5.

Does this make sense in the story of Lot’s wife?  Notice that she had been the recipient of a lot of God’s grace, particularly being saved from the destruction of Sodom.  Being turned into a pillar of salt may represent the sad reality of her perishing over the top of all the grace that God had given her.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, who is the ultimate grace of God, graciously opens the door of the kingdom to the poor and afflicted of Israel.  Yet, such grace in their lives, is intended to be spread, salted, on others in Israel, and even to the Gentiles, by extension.  This grace of God is what not only makes this life that He has given us flavorful.  Yet, for the lost, we become the flavor of God by being His grace to them.  Only some will like the taste, but it is God’s intention for us nonetheless.

If the salt loses its flavor, its grace, there is something missing.  Essentially, we are missing Jesus.  We are then not helpful for the purposes of God.  We will simply be trampled upon by men.  In this world, there will be trampling.  The trampling itself does not mean that you have lost your flavor.  Rather, if we have lost our flavor, that is the only thing that we would be good for.  Don’t miss that point.  In Jesus, any trampling that happens to His people will accomplish the work of God because we have the flavor of God in us, essentially Jesus.  They trample us over the top of being the grace of God.  This will open the eyes of some as they see that something is wrong.  On the other hand, the trampling of those who do not have the grace of Jesus only seems fitting to the world.

Jesus then gives two metaphors back to back because they essentially point to the same thing.  Believers are to be the light of the world and a city on a hill.  These are both about visibility.  Light enables people to see things that they couldn’t see before, and elevation helps whatever is on it to be seen as well.  Of course, Jesus is the light of the world, but because he is in us, we become the light of the world (like a lamp). 

We have no light in and of ourselves.  Rather, we become a container of light that is supposed to be made visible to the world around us.  A good metaphor for this is the earth, the moon, and the sun.  Only the sun makes light in and of itself.  However, the moon can reflect light to the earth because of its relationship to the sun relative to the earth.  Jesus is not on the earth, but our relationship with him makes us able to give light to them, i.e., information about God, His character, and His purpose.

God’s intention is that the truth, about who Jesus is and what he has done for those who will believe, will be made known to everyone.  If this is hidden, it is not done by God.  If our light is under a basket, it is because we are not cooperating with His intention for whatever reason.  In fact, a city on a hill has no say about it.  It will be visible.

The principle given in verse 16 is that we are to do good works, live out the righteousness of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, in such a way that those good works point them to our Father in Heaven.  God wants them to see true righteousness born of the Spirit and out of relationship with Jesus.

This will set up a later tension in the Sermon on the Mount between things that should be visible to others and things that should not be. The flesh tends to make things public that it shouldn’t and keep private what should be public.  In more simple terms, the flesh makes public what should be private, and private what should be public.  How do we know which should be?  We know through the word of God and relationship with Jesus by the Holy Spirit.  He leads us.  Nothing can replace true spiritual relationship with Jesus.

Fulfilling the Torah and Prophets of God (5:17-20)

In verse 17, we come to the main body of Jesus’ teaching.  It is going to come across as something totally new, as if Jesus was adding to the Torah, or even changing it.  Thus, Jesus begins by clarifying exactly what he is doing.

Jesus knows that his teaching will be misconstrued by some, whether purposefully or ignorantly, as anti-Law.  Paul had this same problem.  In fact, even in the Church, there are some pastors who basically tell their people that they don’t need to know the Old Testament.  It isn’t for Christians.  However, instead of destroying or abolishing the Law (the instructions of God given at Sinai), Jesus had come to fulfill it. 

This is Matthew’s 7^th use of the word “fulfill.”  It is easiest to see this with the prophets.  They often pointed to future things that God was promising to do in order to encourage the faith of people before they were fulfilled.  You might picture this as an empty glass, or a glass that is not completely full.  The presence of the cup, or rather many cups of prophecy, gives us hope that God will keep His word.  Past fulfillments encourage waiting for future fulfillments.  The Law also has aspects that need to be fulfilled, like an cup that is only partially filled.  An example of this would be the sacrificial system.  It begs the question of just how does the blood of an animal remove my sin from me.  The work of Jesus on the cross and at the resurrection becomes a fulfillment of the sacrificial system.  We now understand what it was trying to teach us.  And, herein lies the problem.  We too often think of the Law as a list of infractions and penalties.  However, it’s true purpose is to teach us about righteousness, sin, judgment, and the loving grace of God.

We should be careful of just thinking of Jesus as fulfilling some of the prophecies.  He is what all the Law and Prophets were pointing us towards.  Their whole purpose is so that we would recognize, embrace, and follow Jesus.

Paul explains this in Galatians 3:23-25 by comparing the Law to a tutor or a schoolmaster.  Israel was like a child who is under the rule of a governor or governess.  When the child becomes an adult, the job of the governor will be over, and the young adult enters into the next phase of life.  Jesus was too valuable of a gift to simply send.  God took precious time training and teaching Israel through the Law so that they could recognize Jesus for what he was, the ultimate servant of the LORD.

Jesus is coming forth as the Messiah to lead Israel into the Kingdom of spiritual adulthood.  “The Kingdom is here; it is time to step up, son!”

In verse 18, Jesus speaks to the certainty that every bit of the Law and the Prophets would be fulfilled.  To do this, he refers to the durability of heaven and earth.  This heaven and earth are not eternal.  They are destined to be transformed (melted down and reformed) into a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 20).  How are we going to survive that?  The answer is only by Jesus! 

Jesus explains that before the heavens pass away, i.e., the Revelation 20 event comes, every bit of the Law and the Prophets will be fulfilled.  In order to emphasize both the certainty and the attention to detail of its fulfillment, Jesus mentions two words that are strange to English ears.  The KJV and NKJV have the words “jot” and “tittle.”  The ESV has the words “iota” and “dot.”  The NIV doesn’t even try to come up with a word for them.  It has “smallest letter and least stroke of the pen.”  What is he talking about?

If you were in our church when I preached this, I walked us through the Hebrew letters and what these words are referring to.  In a shortened form for this article, the word “jot” or “iota” is a reference to the Hebrew letter “yod.”  It looks like an apostrophe but is a consonant that has the sound of /y/.  It is the smallest letter in Hebrew (at least half the size of the others).  The “tittle” or “dot” refers to a small protrusion on a letter that distinguishes it from another letter.  This is the case between the Hebrew letters Resh and Dalet.  The Dalet is not rounded like the Resh, having a protrusion on the upper right-hand side of the letter.  This small stroke on the letter is important to distinguish the letter.

Notice what this means.  It makes sense that God is going to fulfill all of the statements and promises that He made in the Bible.  However, this takes it deeper.  He is not only going to fulfill the statements, He is going to fulfill the words, the letters, down to the small distinctions between letters.  The detail to which God is fulfilling the Law and the Prophets will go to a level that we can’t even comprehend looking forward.  It is similar to the disciples after the cross.  Beforehand, they had trouble getting what Jesus was saying.  It seemed so contradictory to the Scriptures.  However, after the cross and after the explanations of Jesus, they look back at the Old Testament and it suddenly explodes with meaning that they did not see before.  They had been trained not to see it.

Verse 19 then moves to underline the importance of the commands and their fulfillment.  Jesus didn’t come to break the commandments, but some would.  Some would even teach others to break the commandments.  Breaking the commands is parallel with the earlier destroying the Law.

Now, if you read what Jesus is saying like a Pharisee, then you will think that we should still be doing sacrifices, and that the Apostle Paul really was a heretic misleading early Christians.  However, this is an uninformed application.  The Church does not teach that the Law has been destroyed so Christians can eat pork if they want, go to church on Sunday if they want, and skip doing sacrifices.  Rather, we teach that Jesus is King Messiah who sets up a new covenant in which we now fulfill the Law and the Prophets by obedience to him and the instructions that he brought down from God the Father (like Moses).  Jesus teaches us to accomplish the whole purpose of the Law.

This is what Jeremiah was getting at in 31:31-34 of his book.  The new covenant was not taking away the Law, but putting the Law (the Torah, instructions of God) in their minds and writing them on their hearts.  The new is absolutely connected to the old because the old was pointing to the new all along.  Israel was by and large stuck on the superficial aspects of the law but not understanding the deeper truths that it was pointing towards.

It would be similar to parents giving their children a bed-time.  They go to bed at a specific time, not because it is the inherently moral time to go to bed.  Rather, the bed-time teaches a discipline and greater lesson that there is a time to go to bed and a time to wake up.  All responsible adults who do not live like children, understand this and respect it in their lives, regardless of when exactly they go to bed.  Yes, some laws are inherently moral.  “You shall not murder.”  But, the sacrificial laws, dietary laws, and feast days, were illustrative, even prophetic, of things that they only typified.  They were training wheels to help us understand what Jesus was, and is, doing.  Through Jeremiah, God basically says that their penchant to focus on the superficial aspects of the Law had kept it from getting into their hearts and minds.

Yet, God was going to fix that.  How?  Verse 34 tells us that God would forgive their iniquity and their sin.  It is important to understand the power of God’s forgiveness of our iniquity.  Jeremiah doesn’t explain the mechanism that God would use to make it possible for Him to forgive our iniquity.  However, Isaiah 53 does.  When you are given forgiveness undeservedly, it can have a powerful transformative affect upon your heart.  It is not guaranteed.  Some are not seeking forgiveness and don’t believe that they have done anything wrong.  But, forgiveness powerfully affects the repentant heart that desires restoration of relationship.  This is what John the Baptist meant when he said, “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29). 

Jesus is instituting a new covenant, a covenant of the adult-children of God who are no longer under the tutor of the Law, but for whom the lessons of the Law point us to the ultimate fulfillment that God intended in it.

Lest we be arrogant towards Israel, let us remember that no one gets to adulthood without first going through childhood.  Don’t think of it as God loving one more than another.  Rather, it is God doing what is necessary to save humans.  In fact, the kingdom is first offered to Israel, and a remnant of Israel entered into the Kingdom, becoming adult-children of God.  The Church is founded upon the faithful work of Jewish men and women who took the Gospel of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth, bringing Gentiles into the saving work of Jesus.

Christians do not throw off the Old Testament.  Rather, we fulfill it in our lives through faithfully following the instructions of King Jesus.

To slam this point home even further, Jesus gives a serious, even severe, warning.  Those who misunderstand his teaching here will be the least in the Kingdom as opposed to the greatest.  This is not a time to be humble.  Jesus is speaking about a judgment by God as to our service.  We can be saved by believing in Jesus, but still misconstrue some of the finer points of what he is doing.    It appears that a person can be in the Kingdom, but become hampered in our ability to truly serve Him.  The key is to stay humble, stay in the Scriptures, and keep prayerfully seeking the help of the Holy Spirit.

Yet, verse 20 gives us a more powerful warning.  Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  The idea of being shut out of the Kingdom is a fearful one.  All of Israel saw the Kingdom as the apex of God’s promises to us.  The Kingdom is perfect relationship into eternity.  To be shut out of the Kingdom is to be shut out of all that will come for those who are in relationship with Yahweh.

It is only the righteousness of Christ that saves us.  Yet, Christ wants to impact us by His Holy Spirit to live out that righteousness on this earth through a real relationship with our Maker, and Redeemer.

If we think of this warning in superficial terms, then we will be exasperated at the idea of doing more righteousness than the Pharisees.  However, we need to understand the heart element here.  A Pharisee may do a ton of things that he believes to be righteous because of the traditions of men.  His righteousness could amount to filthy rags before God.  But, one sinner who believes on Jesus and has even an ounce of Christ working in his heart can produce more righteousness, more true righteousness, than the other.  It is quantity, but quantity that first survives a hurdle of quality.

May God help us to be a people fulfilling with Jesus all that the Law and the Prophets are pointing towards!

SOTM3