Sermon Title: Running Into Walls

Running Into Walls (8.13.17) 1

OT Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34
“The days are coming,” declares theLord,“when I will make a new covenant(A)
with the people of Israeland with the people of Judah.32It will not be like the covenant(B)
I made with their ancestors(C)when I took them by the handto lead them out of Egypt,(D)
because they broke my covenant,though I was a husband(E)to[a]them,[b]”declares theLord.

33“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israelafter that time,” declares theLord.
“I will put my law in their minds(F)and write it on their hearts.(G)I will be their God,and they will be my people.(H)34No longer will they teach(I)their neighbor, r say to one another, ‘Know theLord,’
because they will all know(J)me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares theLord.
“For I will forgive(K)their wickedness
and will remember their sins(L)no more.”

Gospel Reading : Matthew 5:17-20
17“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.(A)18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.(B)19Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands(C)and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.(D)

One of my favorite VBS songs as a kid was "I Just Want To Be a Sheep." Part of it goes like this, "I don't want to be a Pharisee, I don't want to be a Pharisee, because they are not fair you see. I just want to be a sheep." And it's true, Jesus calls the Pharisees out on being hypocrites in many ways.
Because of this, when we hear Jesus say that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees we can think, "piece of cake, got that covered!" However, one area where they were not hypocritical in was in terms of following righteousness in accordance with the letter of the law. In fact, some scholars believe that there were 613 rules that they held themselves to so that they did not even get close to breaking God's Holy law. For example, some Pharisees would shield their eyes form women when walking in public so that they would not be defiled by lusting after them. They shielded their eyes so well that they would frequently run into walls, making their bruises a mark of holiness for everyone to see!
Many Christians believe that reading the Old Testament is about as useful as running into a wall. My OT teacher said that many people treat it like the unfortunate preface to the part of the Bible that really counts. However, that is not how Jesus understands the Hebrew Scriptures.In fact He says, "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 tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished." After this, Jesus goes even further. Don't you hate it when Jesus does this, He sets a standard for us and we think, "Oh I can do that," then he goes andsurpasses it. He does this by telling us that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees. In other words, we must follow the rules better than the weirdoes that follow the law to the point of running into walls!
Is Jesus calling us to run into walls? Is He consigning us to a miserable life of legalism? This morning, we will find out that exceeding the Pharisees righteousness is not about following laws chiseled into stone that we run into. Instead, exceeding the Pharisees righteousness is something more, something deeper. So what walls do we run into when trying to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees?
The first wall we, as Christians, tend to run into with the law is our focus. It is easy to see God's moral law in the Old Testament as a wall to avoid or impossible to climb. When thinking of God's law like this we, like the bruised Pharisees, are too often focused on ourselves, not God.
Too often we look at God's Holy law and set it aside as if it is irrelevant. We reason that we cannot earn our salvation so why even try to follow God's law. It is true that we cannot earn our salvation. We cannot earn our second birth. Instead, it is a gift from Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that enables us to be reconciled to our heavenly Father.
However, the statement "I cannot earn my salvation therefore I will not even try to follow God's law" has the wrong focus. We are not born again to remain infants in the faith. Instead, we are born again so that we can grow into who God has called us to be. This is why in Romans chapter 6, Paul says, "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace?By no means!" Paul goes on to tell us that we are no longer slaves to sin but slaves to righteousness. In other words, through Christ's unmerited grace, we are not freed from obedience to God. Instead, we are freed for joyful obedience to God.
Instead of focusing on how much we can get away with and still be saved we ought to focus on God. I am reminded of my very first driving lesson from my father. My dad gave me the most important lesson first, avoid hard things. Avoid running into lamp posts, houses, trees, other cars, and pedestrians, not technically a 'hard thing,' but still good to avoid. Easy enough, right, yet we see people not doing this all the time. My dad taught me one trick to keep from running into things. Do not focus on that which you want to avoid, instead keep your eyes on where you want to go.
That is where the Pharisees got it wrong. They understood the law of God and righteousness as a group of things to avoid even if you ran into a wall! Instead, the Holy Law of God is more like a road map. It is a road map of where God wants us to go. So to exceed the Pharisees righteousness we should not only look at the law itself but look at the heart of the law giver. In other words, when we come upon a moral decision in life we consult the scripture and ask who is God calling me to become through these commandments.
When we turn our eyes toward Jesus we see His heart behind the commands. "Thou shall not murder" doesn't simply mean we should just not kill someone. Although that is very important, I want to be clear on that, the heart behind it is asking questions like"Is what I am doing encouraging life? Is it encouraging the life and flourishing of those who are weak, defenseless, and vulnerable?"
As we try to follow this road map, we quickly discover something. We keep on running into another wall, the wall of our hardened hearts. We know what is righteous and we even desire to become righteous but we do not do that which is righteous. What hardens our hearts? What would it look like if we were given hearts of flesh rather than hearts of stone?
We see an example of a heart turned into flesh in Les Miserable. The main character's name is Jean Valjean and he is a convict. He breaks his parole and starts a new life. Valjean, becomes a kind man who does all sorts of wonderful things. However, there is an inspector, Javert who tirelessly tires to put him back into prison. Valjean eludes him until toward the end of the play. Javert and Valjean are in an ally alone, Valjean has a pistol to Javert's head, he could kill the one man who knows his past and no one would find out. However,Valjean spares his life. As we watch this we do not think, this person is a tool, Valjean is an idiot. Instead, we are inspired by his grace.
We see something divine in those who love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them. However, how many of us wake up every morning and say, "I cannot wait to run into someone that has made my life a living hell so I can be nice to them?" If you do, you are a better person than I am to be sure! For those of you who are as broken as I am we do have hope. The prophet Ezekiel recorded the Lord saying the He will remove our hearts of stone and put His Spirit within us and give us hearts of flesh.
When we ask the Holy Spirit into our hearts and obey His guidance toward Christ likeness, a strange thing begins to happen. Even though obedience toward His righteousness feels unnatural at first our hearts begin to change. Our hearts begin to hate sin and love righteousness. We begin to hate sin for more than just it's bad consequences and love righteousness for more than its rewards. In other words, we begin to avoid that which is sinful, not just to avoid hell, but because we genuinely despise it. Likewise we begin to gravitate toward righteousness not to just get into heaven, but because we genuinely begin to love that which is righteous.
So when the Lord speaks through the prophet Jeremiah by saying that "the days are coming, when He will make a new covenantwith the people... A covenant that will not be like the covenant that was made with their ancestors," God is saying that our righteousness will exceed that of the Pharisees. Our righteousness will exceed that of the Pharisees because we will not just follow God's Holy law as some external rule book.
Instead of running into walls of laws chiseled on tablets of stone God's decrees will be written on our hearts. Our righteousness will exceed that of the Pharisees because our inward disposition will change so that we will desire God's righteousness in our inmost being. Our inmost being is transformed, not through running into walls but through trust. Trust that even though we do not always want to follow God's plan for our lives the Holy Spirit will change our hearts as we follow God's plan for our lives. As we follow Him we will begin to earnestly desire to have hearts conformed to that of Christ.
Becoming people who no longer run into walls like the Pharisees. After all, "I don't want to be a Pharisee, because they are not fair you see. I just want to be a sheep."
Sheep that exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees by focusing on God and not ourselves for righteousness. Looking to God and His holy law as road map to the heart of the law giver. A heart that will melt our hearts of stone into hearts of flesh. Hearts that allow the Holy Spirit to write Christ's story on them. The story of how we were once a people without love, compassion, or purpose but now we are a people who are continually being molded into Christ's likeness. His likeness of loving the loveless, giving compassion even to those who don't deserve it, and the purpose of reconciling this world back to its loving creator.
Let us pray, Lord help us not to run into the walls of looking to ourselves to find righteousness and trusting in our hardened hearts. Instead, enable us to look toward you so that Your Holy Spirit will melt our hearts of stone and give us hearts for love alone. In your Son's name, Amen.
Receive this blessing and benediction. Let us go forth no longer running into the walls of self focus and hardened hearts. Instead, let us set our eyes on Jesus so our hearts will be transformed into hearts of flesh with God's holy law of love written on them. In God's name you may go in peace.