The Life of Christ – Lesson 7 December 27, 2017 Matthew Chapters 5-7 Luke 6:20-49 The Life of Christ – Lesson 7 The Sermon on the Mount

How will we apply this sermon? The larger question is: are we accountable to all that Jesus Christ taught during His ministry? There are many who espouse that all that Jesus taught during His ministry applied only to those under the Old Law – the Law of Moses. There are challenging texts in this sermon that some simply want to avoid – perhaps most notably, Jesus’ teaching on marriage and divorce.

What some say re: the doctrine of Christ … “None of the teaching in MMLJ/BC (i.e., the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – before the cross - CS) is New Testament teaching or doctrine.” (Dan Billingsly)

What some say re: the doctrine of Christ … In his conclusion Dan Billingsly goes on to state, “New Testament truth: none of the teaching in MMLJ/BC is New Testament doctrine. Any New Testament gospel preacher, elder, deacon, Bible class teacher, or Christian who teaches any doctrine from MMLJ/BC as the New Testament teaching of Christ and seeks to bind it on the Lord’s New Covenant church today – rejects the teaching of Christ and the apostles, and denies the true New Testament doctrine of Christ.”

Why this doctrine? “Christ’s Old Testament teaching on marriage, divorce and remarriage in Matthew 19 is not New Testament doctrine, but his restatement of the true law of Moses in contrast to the false rabbinical ‘traditions’ of the Jews on marriage, divorce and remarriage.” Dan Billingsly http://www.biblestudiesbydanbillingsly.org/page6.html

Sermon on the Mount Teaches OT Jerry Bassett (Rethinking Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage): “It is often assumed that Jesus used The Beatitudes to introduce new qualities which would characterize primarily, if not exclusively, those who would become citizens of the spiritual kingdom he came to establish. Truly, these qualities are required of Christians …

Sermon on the Mount Teaches OT “… however, on the particular occasion when Jesus delivered the Sermon of the Mount, he addressed Jews who were still obligated to the Law of Moses. His purpose, as at other times in teaching the Jewish multitudes, was to call them to repentance with reference to the law under which they lived, the Law of Moses.

Sermon on the Mount Teaches OT “In so doing, Jesus was preparing them for acceptance of the kingdom which God had sent him to establish … We should not be surprised, then, if we find Jesus directing the Jews back to the teaching of Moses, and of the Old Testament in general …

Sermon on the Mount Teaches OT “in The Beatitudes … everything Jesus declared to be essential to the enjoyment of spiritual happiness had alreday [sic.] been enjoined on his hearers, the Jews, by the teaching of the Old Testament.” (Pages 13-14, emphasis added)

Sermon on the Mount Teaches OT Samuel Dawson (Taped sermon: “The Sermon on the Mount, the Law of Moses, and the New Covenant,” 4/15/90, Sumner, WA): -On Matthew 5:17ff, “… a section that obviously is not part of the new covenant teaching. Jesus teaching Jews, bringing them back to the Law of Moses – and He’s going to be reinforcing exactly what Moses said.” (emphasis his)

Sermon on the Mount Teaches OT Samuel Dawson (Taped sermon: “The Sermon on the Mount, the Law of Moses, and the New Covenant,” 4/15/90, Sumner, WA): -On Matthew 5:19: The new covenant was “not going to be revealed for three more years!”

Sermon on the Mount Teaches OT Samuel Dawson (Taped sermon: “The Sermon on the Mount, the Law of Moses, and the New Covenant,” 4/15/90, Sumner, WA): “Don’t assume that Matthew 5 and Matthew 19 is addressed to Christians: It wasn’t spoken to Christians. He was speaking to Jews, and He was saying it in a context of ‘I didn’t come to throw Moses out, I came to get you back to Moses the way you ought to have been.’”

Sermon on the Mount Teaches OT Dan Billingsly: “Jesus revealed no New Testament doctrine during the thirty-three years of the Old Testament age described in MMLJBC.” -Letter to Dennis Ross, Nov-Dec, 2004

What isn’t being debated … Jesus Christ, being a Jew, did in fact live under the Old Law and was responsible for obeying the Old Law. This He did perfectly, without sin (Hebrews 4:14-16). We read throughout the four gospels of Jesus and His chosen apostles observing various tenets of the Old Law as his parents raised Him to do (Luke 2:41).

What isn’t being debated … The end of the Old Covenant was marked by the death of Christ and was in full effect until then (Colossians 2:14).

What isn’t being debated … Salvation and forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ was obviously not possible until Jesus shed His blood (Hebrews 9:14-22) upon the cross.

What isn’t being debated … It is also granted that during His ministry, the kingdom had not yet been established (Mark 9:1) and that all references to the kingdom in the gospels are always to something in the near future with repeated occurrences of the expression that the kingdom is “at hand” (Matthew 10:7) or “come near to you”(Luke 10:9-11).

What isn’t being debated … Neither had the church come into existence as Jesus spoke prospectively about the fact that it was something He would build (“I will build My church,” Matthew 11:28).

What isn’t being debated … It’s understood that a testament or a covenant is not in effect until the death of the one who made it (Hebrews 9:15-18). Thus, the New Covenant was not bound upon man prior to the death of Christ.

What isn’t being debated … It’s agreed that Christians did not exist during Jesus’ time upon earth but that designation is reserved for those who were baptized into the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of their sins (Acts 11:26).

What the issue is … I most stringently deny such an argument and any conclusion that what Jesus taught while living in subjection to the Law of Moses has no authority over those who live after the establishment of the church and the kingdom.

What the issue is … Any advocacy of such by the scriptures is both false and eternally dangerous, and to promote teaching such as that is false teaching that needs to be exposed and avoided.

What did Jesus preach? Jesus preached something other than “the law and the prophets” which had been proclaimed “until John.” What He preached was the “gospel of the kingdom of God.” Luke 16:16; 4:42-44 Matthew 4:23; 13:10-11; 16:16-19; Luke 8:1 (note, “mysteries of the kingdom”, as opposed to the “mysteries of the Law”)

What did Jesus preach? Though the Kingdom was not yet established, Jesus repeatedly spoke about: How to enter it. Matthew 7:21; Mark 9:47; John 3:3-5 Who could enter it. Matthew 5:20; 18:3 The challenges to entering it. Matthew 19:23-24

What did Jesus preach? The new Covenant. Jeremiah 31:31- 34; Luke 22:19-20; Hebrews 8:6-13; 9:15- 17 While a covenant is not in “force” while the one who made it lives, the establishment and communication of such a covenant does take place while the testator still lives, even while another covenant may be “valid.”

The “New” Covenant If Jesus did not establish the authority of the “new covenant” while He lived, when did He? If we can’t read about the binding provisions of the “better covenant” (Hebrews 7:22; 8:6) in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, then where can we read of them? Definition of “New” – “as respects substance; of a new kind; unprecedented, novel, uncommon, unheard of” (Thayer)