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Mar 10, 2019

Mark My Word

Mark My Word

Passage: Matthew 5:17-20

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: The Highest Good

Everyone has a rule of life. We all abide--or at least claim to abide--by particular ideas and values we consider binding. Some we discard over time, others we retain--the latter because we believe following them leads to life. Jesus’s growing group of listeners to His sermon on the mountainside may think He’s out to dispense with divine commands they’ve heard since birth. Instead He’s out to champion the life found in following them.

Order of Worship

Pre-Service Text: Psalm 1:1-2
Call To Worship: Psalm 68:32-35
Affirmation of Faith: From The Barmen Declaration (1934), Thesis 2 (see below)
Old Testament Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Sermon Title: Mark My Word
Central Text: Matthew 5:17-20
Benediction: 2 Thessalonians 3:16
Post-Service Text: Romans 8:1-2

03.10.19 Sermon Notes

Worship Songs

It Is Well by Kristene DiMarco
Sing To The King by Phil Barfoot and Rebecca J. Peck 
What A Beautiful Name by Ben Fielding and Brooke Ligertwood 
Give Me Jesus by Fernando Ortega 
I'll Fly Away by Albert E. Brumley

Illustrations

Love & Friendship - 12 Commandments

Cider House - Those Rules

 

Readings & Scripture

Pre-Service Text: Psalm 1:1-2
1 Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

Call To Worship: Psalm 68:32-35
LEADER: O kingdoms of the earth, sing to God; sing praise to the Lord, to him who rides in the heavens, the ancient heavens; behold, he sends out his voice, his mighty voice. Ascribe power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in the skies.

ALL: Awesome is God from his sanctuary; the God of Israel - he is the one who gives power and strength to his people.​ ​Blessed be God!

Affirmation of Faith: From The Barmen Declaration (1934), Thesis 2
As Jesus Christ is God's assurance of the forgiveness of all our sins, so, in the same way and with the same seriousness he is also God's mighty claim upon our whole life. Through him befalls us a joyful deliverance from the godless fetters of this world for a free, grateful service to his creatures.

Old Testament Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord. 33 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”

Central Text: Matthew 5:17-20
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Benediction: 2 Thessalonians 3:16
LEADER: 16 Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

ALL: And also with you.

Post-Service Text: Romans 8:1-2
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

Related Scriptures:

  • Exodus 20:5-6
  • Exodus 34:1-28
  • Deuteronomy 30:16
  • Joshua 1:8
  • Ezra 7:10
  • Psalm 1
  • Psalm 119--esp. vv. 105, 127
  • Jeremiah 31:33
  • Mark 12:31
  • John 10:31-39
  • John 14:15-31
  • John 15:10-12
  • Acts 20:27
  • Romans 3:20
  • Romans 7:1-25
  • Romans 8:1-4

Discussion Questions & Applications:

  1. What were some of the rules in your household when you were young? Why were they rules? What good did they serve? Did you ever think or grasp their point?
  2. What is the ultimate intention behind any of God’s laws?
  3. Which laws previously given were no longer necessary with Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection? Why did His death accomplish that?
  4. If there is grievous error in both“legalism”--the belief that by obedience to the law one may obtain God’s lasting favor-- and “anti-nomianism”--the belief that because of God’s grace in Jesus we need no longer submit to God’s commands--then what is the proper view of God’s law?
  5. Which commands do you find the most challenging to obey? Why do you think so? How does our view of His commands change when we begin to grasp Jesus’s regard for us?
  6. How does Jesus mean to clarify your view of God’s commands? How does Jesus’s parable of the two sons in Luke 15 clarify the nature of a true obedience? How does each son think of obedience, and how does the parable challenge each of those views?

Quotes:

 

  • . . .the code is more what you'd call "guidelines" than actual rules.  - Barbossa in The Pirates of the Caribbean
  • Jesus’s message in the sermon is that God is our Father who sees and cares about the heart, not just external righteous deeds and religion. -Jonathan Pennington
  • God loves me enough to accept me as I am; but God loves me too much to leave me that way. - A student of theologian F.D. Bruner
  • We will learn soon enough, however, that the ‘much more’ of personal righteousness demanded of us in this Gospel will almost always drive us to the Need Beatitudes and to prayer for divine help – in short, will drive us to faith and to the living Lord. Matthew’s word ‘righteousness’ is an evangelist preaching our need of salvation.” - F.D. Bruner

Sermons/resources:

Books:

  • The Whole Christ, a book by Sinclair Ferguson detailing a particular theological controversy in 18th century Scotland which has contemporary relevance for how we think about the Law in light of Jesus

Related Media:

InView Media Album 03.10.2019