Murder Diagnosed By God’s Standard |

About this sermon

Introduction: In the 20th verse we saw an indictment of the scribes and Pharisees. It is a very gracious exposure. If it had been responded to properly, it would have represented something gracious to the scribes and Pharisees themselves. If I’m on the wrong track, I want to know that before there’s no turning back — before my fate is sealed. But it was certainly a gracious word for those under their influence. Jesus described the devastating effect of false righteousness in the seat of instruction. ESV Matthew 15:10 And he called the people to him and said to them, "Hear and understand: 11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person." 12 Then the disciples came and said to him, "Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?" 13 He answered, "Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit." ESV Matthew 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. False teaching — false understandings of righteousness — are no small matter. So, when Jesus sounds the alarm, it is not alarm sounded for the scribes and Pharisees as much as it is for those who had been falsely guided by their influence. What follows in this sermon are six examples of what Jesus is exposing. He is exposing an insufficient understanding of the Word of God, and as a result an insufficient understanding of true righteousness. He is dealing with a view of God’s Word that is superficial, confined to external behaviors, a view that ignores, or distorts the standards set forth in Scripture, and tragically thinks of the righteousness God requires as something that sinners can achieve. The first example Jesus chooses is God’s law concerning murder. We will consider what Christ says under five headings. • HOW THE PEOPLE HAD BEEN TAUGHT (vs.21) Now, there are two questions that must be answered as you interpret this verse. The questions are related. What is the nature of the teaching that Christ references in the beginning of the verse? What is the actual teaching being described by the verse? Let’s take the first one. Is this a reference to the law as it was originally given to the people? Or is this a reference to a long history of instruction — years and years of teaching by various rabbis and other instructors? I believe it’s the latter. I think he’s likely referring to the teaching the people had received from the scribes and Pharisees that referred to the viewpoints of a long history of authorities — a long history of commentary on the law — that is, the rabbinical understanding of the law. I say this based on a few factors: WE KNOW THAT JESUS DID NOT COME TO CONTRADICT THE LAW OR PROPHETS. He already said that. WE ALSO KNOW THAT THE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES WERE INVALIDATING SCRIPTURE BY THEIR TRADITIONS WHICH WERE PASSED DOWN OVER TIME. ESV Mark 7:5 And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?" 6 And he said to them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, "'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7 in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.' 8 You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men." 9 And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10 For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother'; and, 'Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.' 11 But you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, "Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban"' (that is, given to God)-- 12 then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13 thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do." WE KNOW THAT some of what “they had heard” certainly did not come from the Old Testament. ESV Matthew 5:43 "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' So, Christ’s reference to that which was said to those of old, is not referring to the giving of the law, but the long history of teaching from the law. The second question, then, becomes a question of what the scribes and Pharisees had done with this PARTICULAR law that Christ chose for His first example. What was Christ taking issue with? What is He correcting? I think the simplest and most accurate way to state it is that Christ was authoritatively telling the people what the law was truly pointing to in the statements that it made.