Matthew 5:17-20

Order of Service

• Call to Worship — Psalm 146
• Hymn — Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul (#57)
• Prayer of Invocation
• Catechism Reading — Westminster Shorter Catechism, Third Petition of the Lord's Prayer (Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven) (p. 877)
• Hymn — The Lord's Prayer (#725)
• Pastoral Prayer
• Sermon
• Hymn — O Jesus, I Have Promised (#654)
• Benediction — 2 Corinthians 13:14

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Sermon Title: The Ministry of Christ's Coming and the Kingdom

Scripture: Matthew 5:17-20

I. The Ministry of Jesus's Coming in Relation to Past Authority

A. Jesus affirms Old Testament authority

1. His coming does not abolish the Law or the Prophets — not the smallest letter (iota) nor the smallest stroke of a letter (dot) passes away
2. The Old Testament remains permanently authoritative and vital for God's people
3. The whole Old Testament continues to point us to Christ, even after his coming

B. Jesus realizes (fulfills) Old Testament authority

1. Fulfillment is not abrogation — the law is not rendered void or made less important
2. Drawing on Geerhardus Vos (Biblical Theology): the Old Revelation contains the seeds of the New; Christ is the full-grown tree the seeds always contained
3. Everything in the Old Testament was leading toward, pointing to, and preparing us to meet Christ — his person, his authority, and his teaching
4. Jesus is both our Lawgiver and our Law-keeper; his authority to instruct his people cannot be separated from his person

II. The Ministry of Jesus's Coming in Relation to Future Accomplishment

A. Jesus promises eschatological completion (Matthew 5:18)

1. "Until heaven and earth pass away" points to Christ's return in judgment, the destruction of the ungodly, and the renewal of all creation (cf. 2 Peter 3)
2. We live now in the "until all is accomplished" — the same redemptive moment as the disciples on the mountain
3. Christ's first coming establishes his kingdom people; his second coming brings them to completion — hearts and affections fully conformed to love God forever
4. "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ" (Philippians 1:6)

B. Jesus promises eschatological confirmation (Matthew 5:19)

1. Kingdom people are distinguished by how they treat Christ's authority — those who relax his commandments are least; those who do and teach them are great
2. There is grace: even the "least" are still called kingdom people
3. Every commandment from Christ's mouth, however small, is to be obeyed in private life and public witness — not merely a "private belief"
4. Love for Christ looks like perseverance in holiness — not asking "what is the least I can do?"

III. The Ministry of Jesus's Coming in Relation to Present Activity

A. Present activity involves hands and heart (Matthew 5:19-20)

1. Jesus is not teaching salvation by works — the Beatitudes already showed the kingdom belongs to the poor in spirit, the gentle, those hungering for righteousness
2. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone; yet those in Christ are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17) who cannot help but show forth new life
3. The righteousness Christ teaches goes deeper than the externals of the scribes and Pharisees — they ordered the actions of the hands but neglected the affections of the heart
4. Christ's law is not new but fuller and mature — God cares for both the doing of the hands and the direction of the heart

B. Present activity flows from the believer's secured spiritual status

1. The Pharisees' righteousness was Christless, self-serving, anxious effort without rest
2. Kingdom people are already declared righteous — Christ's righteousness is imputed to them; that is the exceeding righteousness of Matthew 5:20
3. Cf. Ephesians 2:8-10: saved by grace, created in Christ Jesus for good works
4. Illustration: Dick Hoyt pushing his disabled son Rick across the Boston Marathon finish line — Christ satisfies the demands of the race for us and with us
5. "We will be found in him, not having a righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ" (Philippians 3:9)
6. God saved us to make us holy — freedom in Christ is freedom for holiness, not freedom from it