Sunday Worship Service Livestream


November 9, 2025
  • Welcome and Announcements
  • Prayer of Invocation
  • Firm Foundation
  • Wonderful Words of Life
  • Scripture Reading: Matthew 5:17-20
  • Ancient Words
  • Pastor's Message - Word of God Speak
  • Lord's Supper
  • Thy Word



Matthew 5:17-20

  • 17 "Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.
    18 For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
    19 Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
    20 "For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.


SERMON NOTES - Word of God Speak

INTRODUCTION
  • The Sermon on the Mount was not an evangelistic sermon but a discipleship sermon.
  • "Identifying the disciples as Jesus' audience is crucial for recognizing the ethics of the sermon as applying to those already committed to Jesus as a group of his followers trying to live together in community. But great crowds also form an important part of Jesus' audience. They too will learn what genuine discipleship involves as they consider the possibility of commitment to Jesus." - Craig Blomberg
  • While the audience was disciples and seekers, Jesus targets another group of people: the religious people, the scribes, Pharisees, other religious leaders and rulers.
  • Jesus spoke these words to people drowning in religious legalism. His sermon confronts and exposes the difference between Pharisaical externalism and the true spirit of God's law, emphasizing that genuine righteousness is not measured by outward conformity but by inward motives and intentions.
  • It is important to understand that the exposure and rebuke of pharisaical legalism runs throughout the entire sermon and colors what Jesus says, specifically that true righteousness is a matter of the heart, not just external conformity to law.
  • Verse 17 has been described as the hinge between the Beatitudes and Jesus' broader teaching in the Sermon on the Mount. The verses before it describe the character and calling of kingdom people who are salt and light in the world and verse 17 explains that this new kingdom ethic is not a rejection of the Law, but its true fulfillment.

JESUS EXPLAINS THE LAW
  • There is a striking comparison between Moses' giving of the Law of God from Mt. Sinai and Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus does not give another law, but teaches that it's not about the letter of the Law, but the spirit of what God desires from His people.
  • Jesus had not come to abolish the Law but to fulfill it.
  • Fulfillment means embodying the Law's essence - love, justice, and holiness - rather than just following its letter.
  • Jesus kept the Law perfectly. Jesus did not break the Old Testament Law and it is crucial that we understand that because when He said things and did things by which He was accused of breaking the Law, we know that the problem was not with Jesus, but with something else - the man made traditions that had become more important than the Law itself.
  • "Now Christ makes clear that he is not contradicting the law, but neither is he preserving it unchanged. He comes "to fulfill" it, i.e., he will bring the law to its intended goal. This is what the Pharisees and scribes have missed, who therefore need a greater conformity to God's standards (v. 20). Both the Law and the Prophets together (v. 17) and the Law by itself (v. 18) were standard Jewish ways of referring to the entire Hebrew Scriptures (our Old Testament)... Old Testament remains normative and relevant for Jesus' followers (2 Tim 3:16), but none of it can rightly be interpreted until one understands how it has been fulfilled in Christ. Every Old Testament text must be viewed in light of Jesus' person and ministry and the changes introduced by the new covenant he inaugurated." - Craig Blomberg
  • By saying that He would fulfill every yod and every stroke, Jesus declared He intended to fulfill the law down to the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet. He was going to perfectly and completely fulfill the Law down to the smallest minutia of it and if we could paraphrase, He was going to dot the I's and cross the t's.
  • Jesus had come to fulfill the Law but the purpose of the Law was to point to Jesus.
  • Fulfillment doesn't erase the Law-it completes its purpose. Once fulfilled, its function shifts, from external regulation to internal transformation.

JESUS EXHORTS OBEDIENCE TO THE LAW (vv. 19-20)
  • "Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."