Lesson Point: Main Idea: • Jesus values all human life and expects His followers to do

the same.

(Background )/ Lesson Passages: (Matt. 5) Matt. 5:172-20, 21-22, & 43-45Memory Verse: Matt. 5:14

Jan. 17Carrying His Values

• BRIDGE / INTRO to 5b from 5a: (2 weeks ago):• Recall the Beautiful AttiTudes of Matt. 5a:

1. Poor in spirit (humble), faking nothing, admitting our need of God2. Mournful, wanting to shed death of our sin natures3. Meek, wanting to inherit properly4. Hungry to be filled up as righteous5. Merciful, overflowing to others6. Pure in heart, wanting to reveal only God thru our lives7. Peacemakers, wanting to reconcile others’ to God (evangelism)8. Persecuted for God (and then: even Doubly so)!

• On the heels of salt & light: righteousness must TRULY be fulfilled, so that others may be led back to God. Unlike the myriad of legalisms of the Scribes & Pharisees, who were the “right” ones in their minds:

• Only in Christ, in the Kingdom, are we MADE capable of living fruitful, productive lives (the Beatitudes)!

1. Look to the Scriptures (Matt. 5:17-20) • :17 On the heels of salt & light – REALLY fulfill “the Kingdom!” God’s commandments for real living.

• The law was /is a gift to men, to constrain from sin natures – a schoolmaster /tutor who leads toward Christ (Matt. 11:13; Rom. 10:4; Gal.3:24-25; Jn. 1:17)

• Knowledge, without realizing its intent to make us somehow PRODUCTIVE – is just vain repetition.

• God allowed the weakest law could become, seemingly, thru the Pharisees – who multiplied their own versions. I’m reminded of the layers of so-called knowledge on how to teach, by teachers who don’t always (*some of them) know the subject matter!

• Unlike the myriad of legalisms of the Scribes & Pharisees, the “right” “legends in their own minds”

• ALL NATURE has awaited / awaits the further revealing of Christ (Rom. 8:19; 1 Cor. 15:24 consummation as the kingdom is delivered to God the Father).

• :19 ALL must be fulfilled – complete righteousness, as God intended – not walking a fence line or crossing over to licentiousness. Cf. Matt.18:6–we’re eg-accountable to/for others

• :19a-c Witness the foolishness of some decadent false teachers –versus– :19d-e e.g. Billy Graham.

• :20 it MUST be His gift! Eph. 2:8-9. Repentance comes from hearing God’s words.

• BUT it (His words) must also be operative in us – not just hearers, deceiving ourselves (Jam. 1:22). We have an obligation to live as Christ did – sinlessly! If we deny Him by our lives, we are not following Him & are none of His (2 Tim. 2:19-21

• If Pharisees can show fleshly zeal, surely we who are born again can show more (Php. 3:9-10, BUT THIS IS PROVEN OUT BY CHRIST / Grace working with & in us).

Relate-able Verses • Matt. 11:13; Rom. 10:4; Gal.3:24-25; Jn. 1:17; Rom. 8:19;

• Matthew 11:12-15 “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of Heaven has been taken by storm and eager men are forcing their way into it. For the Law and all the prophets foretold it till the time of John and—if you can believe it—John himself is the ‘Elijah’ who must come before the kingdom. The man who has ears to hear must use them.

• Romans 10: 1-4 My brothers, from the bottom of my heart I long and pray to God that Israel may be saved! I know from experience what a passion for God they have, but alas, it is not a passion based on knowledge. They do not know God’s righteousness, and all the time they are going about trying to prove their own righteousness they have the wrong attitude to receive his. For Christ means the end of the struggle for righteousness-by-the-Law for everyone who believes in him.

• Galatians 3:23-25 Before the coming of faith we were all imprisoned under the power of the Law, with our only hope of deliverance the faith that was to be shown to us. Or, to change the metaphor, the Law was like a strict governess in charge of us until we went to the school of Christ and learned to be justified by faith in him. Once we had that faith we were completely free from the governess’s authority.

• John 1:14-18 So the word of God became a human being and lived among us. We saw his splendour (the splendour as of a father’s only son), full of grace and truth. And it was about him that John stood up and testified, exclaiming: “Here is the one I was speaking about when I said that although he would come after me he would always be in front of me; for he existed before I was born!” Indeed, every one of us has shared in his riches—there is a grace in our lives because of his grace. For while the Law was given by Moses, love and truth came through Jesus Christ. It is true that no one has ever seen God at any time. Yet the divine and only Son, who lives in the closest intimacy with the Father, has made him known.

• Romans 8:18-21 In my opinion whatever we may have to go through now is less than nothing compared with the magnificent future God has planned for us. The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own. The world of creation cannot as yet see reality, not because it chooses to be blind, but because in God’s purpose it has been so limited—yet it has been given hope. And the hope is that in the end the whole of created life will be rescued from the tyranny of change and decay, and have its share in that magnificent liberty which can only belong to the children of God!

• .

Relate-able Verses • 1 Corinthians 15:24-27 Then, and not till then, authority and power, hands over the kingdom to God the Father. Christ’s reign

will and must continue until every enemy has been conquered. The last enemy of all to be destroyed is death itself. The scripture says: ‘He has put all things under his feet’. But in the term “all things” it is quite obvious that God, who brings them all under subjection to Christ, is himself excepted.

• Matthew 18:5-7 “Anyone who welcomes one child like this for my sake is welcoming me. But if anyone leads astray one of these little children who believe in me he would be better off thrown into the depths of the sea with a mill-stone hung round his neck! Alas for the world with its pitfalls! In the nature of things there must be pitfalls. yet alas for the man who is responsible for them!

• Ephesians 2:4-10 But even though we were dead in our sins God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, gave us life together with Christ—it is, remember, by grace and not by achievement that you are saved—and has lifted us right out of the old life to take our place with him in Christ in the Heavens. Thus he shows for all time the tremendous generosity of the grace and kindness he has expressed towards us in Christ Jesus. It was nothing you could or did achieve—it was God’s gift to you. No one can pride himself upon earning the love of God. The fact is that what we are we owe to the hand of God upon us. We are born afresh in Christ, and born to do those good deeds which God planned for us to do.

• James 1:21-25 Have done, then, with impurity and every other evil which touches the lives of others, and humbly accept the message that God has sown in your hearts, and which can save your souls. Don’t I beg you, only hear the message, but put it into practice; otherwise you are merely deluding yourselves. The man who simply hears and does nothing about it is like a man catching the reflection of his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, it is true, but he goes on with whatever he was doing without the slightest recollection of what sort of person he saw in the mirror. But the man who looks into the perfect mirror of God’s law, the law of liberty (or freedom), and makes a habit of so doing, is not the man who sees and forgets. He puts that law into practice and he wins true happiness.

• 2 Timothy 2:19-21 God’s solid foundation still stands, however, with this double inscription: ‘the Lord knows those who belong to him’, and Let every true Christian have no dealing with evil. In any big household there are naturally not only gold and silver vessels but wooden and earthenware ones as well. Some are used for the highest purposes and some for the lowest. If a man keeps himself clean from the contaminations of evil he will be a vessel used for honourable purposes, clean and serviceable for the use of the master of the household, all ready, in fact, for any good purpose.

• Philippians 3:7-11 Yet every advantage that I had gained I considered lost for Christ’s sake. Yes, and I look upon everything as loss compared with the overwhelming gain of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. For his sake I did in actual fact suffer the loss of everything, but I considered it useless rubbish compared with being able to win Christ. For now my place is in him, and I am not dependent upon any of the self-achieved righteousness of the Law. God has given me that genuine righteousness which comes from faith in Christ. How changed are my ambitions! Now I long to know Christ and the power shown by his resurrection: now I long to share his sufferings, even to die as he died, so that I may perhaps attain as he did, the resurrection from the dead.

• .

2. Value Human Life (Matt. 5:21-22)• Again, surface level laws are the outermost

fringes of what we do to hurt each other. Hell is the ultimate judgment, all earthly judgments are meant to serve that opp to be saved soundly by God’s grace, for all men.

• [Rather, we will see at the end of the lessons: LOVE: Speak first kindly to bros. and others. ]

• The progression of sin: Anger & jealousy murder (Gen. 4 (Cain); 1 Jn. 3:12 jealous of righteousness. James says watch out: that sin will stalk, conceive and bring forth death. Jam. 1:14-15, 19-20.

• :22 Stages of “advancement”: Judgment by: ●others; ● by a group; ● by God’s Eternal standards. (Cf. Matt. 18:25, church judgment)

• //// :23 __Go FAR beyond, to ensure that God’s kingdom is served, rather than our jealous / selfish fleshly desires.

• :25 count the cost with your enemy Satan pursuing you (this time, rightfully, if you’ve sinned and deserve judgment (1 Pet. 3:17 Don’t get judged for sinning, but for doing right!). Lk. 14:31-34 says to count the cost, you must deny yourself, and come to terms with your enemy and how you will truly represent Christ to others. You must work out your salvation (Php. 2:12), or risk having your faith shipwrecked (1 Tim. 1:19).

Relate-able Verses

• 1 John 3:12 unlike Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered[a] his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil, and his brother’s were righteous.

• James 1:14 But each person is tempted when he is drawn away and enticed by his own evil desires. 15 Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.

• James 1:19 My dearly loved brothers, understand this: Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, 20 for man’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.

• Matthew 18:25 Since he had no way to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt.

• 1 Peter 3:17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will,[a] than for doing evil.

• Luke 14:31 “Or what king, going to war against another king, will not first sit down and decide if he is able with 10,000 to oppose the one who comes against him with 20,000? 32 If not, while the other is still far off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, therefore, every one of you who does not say good-bye to[a] all his possessions cannot be My disciple.

• 34 “Now, salt is good, but if salt should lose its taste, how will it be made salty?

• Philippians 2:12 So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

• 1 Timothy 1:19 having faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and have suffered the shipwreck of their faith.

3. Love Beyond Expectations (Matt.5:43-45)• :27-32 (Filler) “you have heard.. But I say..:” do

not commit adultery by evil-ly (selfishly) desiring another, which would cause unfaithfulness.

• :33-37 Do not swear and conduct your lives in an assuming-ly self-righteous way. Be open to God’s will even changing to accommodate your spiritual progress or regress.

• :38-42 Give & yield to the “ignorant” (those unaware of God’s offer of grace) and even those who abuse you. Offer grace & truth (as Jesus to his strikers, the false religious leaders).

• :43 Crux: This goes far beyond just a “non-negatives’ righteousness” of a surface-level not doing of the “NO”s. Instead, Yes do the YES’s of evangelism (loving to cover over sins, and to share Christ). Recall Beatitude #7: Peace-makers are called ‘Sons of God’: a witness!

• CHRIST”S EXAMPLE.: HE could have judged all of us to hell, instantly. Instead, he warns and reproves and leads us toward His salvation (the admonition and nurturing of the Lord).

• Loving those who love you is easy, and perfunctory – and isn’t His type of LOVE (read 1 Cor. 13). God is patient, kind, …

• Love covers a multitude of sins. Love will lead others to Christ. Do not use labels, but reveal ALL sin as equally repugnant before God. We have singled out “worst” sins – but all ‘R slippery.

(Backups)