Welcome to Season 3 of Love & Context. This season,
we're exploring the life of Jesus step -by -step
and uncovering what His story teaches us about
loving God and others. Here on Love & Context,
we're all about having real conversations about
how to live out that love in practical, everyday
ways, and understanding the Bible in its full
context. We're so glad you're here. Let's dive
into Season 3 of Love & Context. That's how Ben
wants to start every podcast. Welcome to the
Love and Context. Every week, guys. Podcast.
Every week. Every week now. For now. Right. Until
I get onto a kick for something else, right?
Uh -huh. If this is your first time with us,
that was probably the weirdest intro you've ever
heard. Yeah. And the funny thing is, this comes
after we do our little intro. It's like, season
three welcomes you. And so then I do this. Yeah.
Yeah. So we are in the life of Jesus. I'm Ben.
I'm Spencer. And we're talking about life of
Jesus. And we've been just going through some
different stories. Last week, we had that fun
conversation, which I was wondering when we were
having it, how it was going to pace together.
And then when I went and edited, I was like,
oh, this is a good conversation about healing
and what does it mean to engage the miraculous
and the supernatural in your life with Jesus.
And how do we do that as believers? This week,
we're going to be stepping into, actually, it's
going to be a two -week mini within series, because
we're going to be talking about the Sermon on
the Mountain. We broke it up into two weeks.
Truthfully, I've done this at churches. You could
probably split it up into 15 weeks, but we did
try to cover the whole life of Jesus in one season,
so we're going to have to combine some things
at some point. I don't know if you know this.
John wrote this in his book. He said that if
we actually talked about everything Jesus said
and did, there wouldn't be enough books to contain
everything. So we're very much feeling like that
sometimes when we skim a stone across and keep
running. But Sermon on the Mount, there's also
the Sermon on the Plain, which is going to be
very similar in the book of Luke. We're going
to choose to jump into the one in Matthew, simply
because of the way that it's structured. But
either one of those, like they're going to be
very similar typed teachings, probably very similar
package that Jesus like presented in different
places in his ministry. So without further ado,
ado, ado? Ado. I should actually look at his,
I'm wondering what the ado means. I don't know.
I should look it up at some point. Somebody look
it up and send us an email. But without further
ado, I know what it's supposed to mean, but we're
going to jump into Matthew chapter 5. So we're
going to read this in small sections, and then
one of the things that I want to stress in the
Sermon on the Mount is that everything you're
about to read is part of one conversation. Yes.
Sort of one narrative. And so we're going to
talk about this beatitude, this introduction
that Jesus gives. And then we're going to talk
about salt and light. But it's coming out of,
this is the beatitudes. And then we're going
to talk about the fulfillment of the law, which
is coming out of salt and light. Then you'll
talk about murder, but it's in the context of
what came before it. Because it's all one conversation.
There is a book that I think is, I really enjoyed
it. It does kind of a conversation in a section
of it through the Sermon on the Mount. It's the
Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard. And he has
a really good conversation about how, as they're
progressing, each of these things is actually
starting to address different things in the human
condition. And Jesus is going through and walking
them through this progression of what does it
mean to be a kingdom person. One of the first
things about the Sermon on the Mount is, what
is the purpose of the Sermon on the Mount? It's
to reveal... The kingdom of God. This is like
the crux of his message. The kingdom of God is
here among you, and you can interact with it.
Now let's talk about what that kingdom looks
like. Yeah. All right. So let's go ahead and
jump in. We're going to be in chapter 5 of Matthew,
verses 1 through 20 today. Now when Jesus saw
the crowds, he went up to the mountainside and
sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began
to teach them. Okay. Once again, remembering
Jewish tradition. When you sit, that's when you
teach. Yes. Right? All right. So first thing
he says, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are
those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the
earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst
for righteousness, for they will be filled. I
almost forgot the ness on the end of that. Hunger
and thirst for righteous. Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy. Okay, let's pause
there. So the first section is blessed are. Right?
Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those
who hunger and thirst. Blessed are. And it's
this conversation of God is setting this precedent.
One of the things I think is really might be
a way to understand this is that the kingdom
of heaven doesn't look like you think it does.
The people who the world tends to exclude are
actually the people who God is coming to address.
Yeah. Right? This is going to be evidence later
in Jesus' teaching where they'll be like, Like,
what are you doing with sinners and prostitutes?
He's like, it's the sick that need a doctor.
You don't go to people who are well and be like,
hey, do you need some crutches? Right? Yeah,
and there's also a conversation in the Beatitudes
about Jesus counteracting Roman ideology, which
is sneaking into Jewish culture. Oh, 100%. Where
if you look at what Beatitudes are saying, all
the things that Jesus is saying is like, blessed
are the... Blessed are the meek, right? Meekness
was not a Roman attribute. Nope. Right? Or blessed
are the poor, right? Rome was all about getting
as rich as you could. Blessed are the humbles.
Rome was all about being pride. Well, you think
about blessed are the peacemakers. So with Caesar
Augustus, you're going to have the Pax Romana.
So going back to one of the episodes in the last
season where we were talking about Caesar Augustus,
there is this idea that you make peace through
might. That's not what we're doing. So you have
this blending of two cultures that's kind of
happening because you've got Roman influence
coming into Jewish influence, even though the
Jewish people are supposed to be able to be autonomous
with their religion. It took me a little bit
to get that word out. And so Jesus is saying,
no, no, no, let's come back to what it means
to follow God. If you recall a few episodes back,
we talked about the different five main responses
to, let's just call it the Messianic era, the
time between the Old Testament and the New Testament.
There was Pharisaic, Sadducee, Zealots. There
is the Essenes. But one of the other ones that
we talked about is also the Herodians, right?
And Herodian is largely like Herod. is the word
in there. It's these people who, they are Jewish,
yeah, but they've also kind of just appropriated
Roman or Greek life, right? They've really just
blended their stuff, and Judaism is, for lack
of a better term, it's not just like a button
that you put on their sash, like for the Boy
Scouts. It is more significant than that, but
it's basically that. It is. It's not necessarily,
the life doesn't revolve around it. It revolves
around a mixing of the two, which, by the way,
is a great conversation for modern church. Right?
When your faith becomes so intermingled with
your ideology or the culture around you. Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, just take... Take, for example,
denominationalism for a little bit, right? Yep.
You have people who are like, oh, I'm a follower
of Jesus. You have other people who are like,
I'm Pentecostal, or I'm Freemethist, or I'm Baptist,
right? And it's like, okay, what are you saying
about the other people when you make that comment?
Right. Like, and, and it might not be a judgmental
thing at first, but really what you're saying
is you really have is showing this heart of like,
Hey, I'm right. You're wrong. I have a cornerstone
on righteousness. Yeah. And it's like, that's,
that's actually not how the gospel. I also have
a cornerstone on righteousness, but his name
is Jesus. So, and you can also have him too.
So, Oh, by the way, I was actually just looking
here. So those of you on YouTube, you can see
this shirt. One of the guys who listens on a
regular basis, Dave, if you're watching, hello,
Dave. This is one. of my shirts, and he was like,
he's like, I wore it on Sunday, and he's like,
that's the same shirt you wore on the podcast,
and I'm wearing it again, and so I realized this
was going to post two weeks in a row with me
wearing the same shirt. I have other shirts.
It just so happens that... The question is, did
you wash it? No, listen, actually, no, here's
the truth. I did not. My wife did, because my
wife is incredible, and she takes care of me,
because she's awesome, and I am capable of washing
a shirt, but I swear that, like, okay. We're
going here. I will take a shirt and I'll change
shirts at night or whatever and I'll put it into
the laundry hamper. By the time I come back to
my room, and it can be an hour, it can be a half
hour later, I swear it's gone and into the washing
machine. I know that the washing machine was
just full. How did she get it in there? That's
my question. It's like the flash. I look away
and suddenly it's taken care of. But I used to
really focus on doing the laundry. And then we
had a conversation. And Tara actually enjoys
doing the laundry. And she enjoys folding clothes,
which I, by the way, hate doing. But I do because
I love her. And so sometimes she still asks me
to jump in and fold clothes. But it's like her
therapeutic routine. And then I go do the things
that she doesn't like doing. You know, whenever
there's like a spider and she's like, it needs
to die. That's your job. And I said, okay, cool.
I got that. I need you to get the things, like
clean the things on the top shelf, right? Because
I'm 6 '6", you know? It is, we worked out between
the two of us how to partner in life, right?
By the way, that was a random aside that it's
not about gender roles specifically. It's about
you and your partner figuring out what works
for you. Yes. Yes. No, not one being valued over
the other. Yes. All right. So Jesus is like is
counteracting this. This message is talking differently
from Rome because Rome is, you know, stand up,
have pride, take control, you know. And Jesus
is like, be kind, be humble, take care of the
needy. Care for those. Thirst for right doing.
Righteousness. Thirst for the things that actually
put the world back together. Thirst for justice.
This is the kind of people that are part of this
kingdom. He's setting this preamble. The people
who tend to interact with the kingdom of God
are these types of people. There is a good conversation
to have there. If these aren't characteristics
of me ever, Am I actually living into the kingdom
of God, or am I trying to co -opt the kingdom
of God into what I want it to be? Yeah. Right?
And the answer may be yes or no. That's a personal
conversation. I think it's worth checking, right?
Not to beat yourself up, but just to be like,
man, am I representing Jesus well? Yeah. Like,
am I actually representing his kingdom or what
I think his kingdom should be? Yeah. So, but
then he makes this turn, and it says, blessed
are you. So who's he talking to at this point?
Everyone. but specifically his disciples who've
come up to listen to him. So at least the 12,
if not the 72. There's people that travel with
him all the time. So then he turns to them and
he says, this is what it looks like to be part
of the kingdom of God. And because you do these
things, blessed are you when people insult you,
persecute you, falsely say all kinds of evil
against you because of me. Okay. Because of me
is a big part of that sentence. Yes. You and
I have known a number of people in our life,
and there is more than once the story where people
talk about, they're like, I'm being persecuted
because of my faith. Sometimes true. Sometimes
also, you were kind of a jerk there, and it kind
of just backfired on you. I listened to a pastor
tell a story one time where he was like, yeah,
when I was pastoring and I was facing just...
Horrible persecution. I was driving to the church
one day, and the muffler on my car fell off,
and the guy I was sitting next to in church was
like, or you didn't take care of your car. I
was having a discipleship conversation with somebody,
and they were talking about, it was a political
thing that was going on, and they said, I want
to represent Jesus well. but I also feel like
I need to be involved in this thing. And I said,
okay, well, you can go and be involved in it,
but make sure that you're representing Jesus
and not you when you go. So you're behaving with
kindness and gentleness and compassion with the
people around you. Yes, you can speak truth and
love, but make sure that when we're saying that,
it's actually saturated in love, right? That
you're not just throwing that on there as like,
ah, I'm going to say hurtful things, but don't
worry, I love you. Verbal abuse. And then I made
this statement, and I've said it a couple of
times. If you follow Jesus and live like Jesus
and people get mad at you, that's expected. If
people don't like Jesus because of you, that's
sin. Because you're bearing up the name of God
incorrectly, going back to the Exodus. But Jesus
tells his disciples, he says, you're going to
live this way, and you're living in a largely
Roman, Jewish... Pride, shame, culture, all these
different things are going to be going on here.
They expect you to be strong and conquer and
do all these things. And if you live this way,
people are going to insult you. They're going
to make fun of you. They're going to falsely
say all kinds of evil about you because you're
in their way. When that happens, you'll be blessed.
Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward
in heaven. Because the prophets endured the exact
same thing. They said things people didn't want
to hear. Because they didn't want people to go
flying off a cliff. Yeah. Right? And I think
that's encouraging. By the way, that doesn't
also say that people will stop saying bad things
about you. It just means in the middle of it,
you're going to be blessed. Yeah. And the reality
is sometimes we just take those bad things that
people say about us way too personally and hold
on to it way too long. Yeah. Right? If it's a
bad thing that you know is not true, just let
it go in one ear and out the other. As a good
friend of mine would say, he's like, you don't
grant landing permission to those thoughts. When
that comes in, you're like, nope, you're going
to keep flying. This is not the spot for you
to land. I do think there is a problem when we
let too many people speak into our life. I think
that you need to build a relationship. Pastor
Sarah said you can't correct without connection,
right? If there's not connection between you
and somebody else and it's not something that
the Holy Spirit is revealing to you or somebody
is using, like somebody who is connected to you
talks about somebody else saying something and
it connects with you, right? Like, you need to
be really careful about applying it. You need
to listen to the voice of God. You need to listen
to the voice of wise counsel. And I was like,
people who know nothing, okay. if you're on social
media and you write something and some random
McRandlesons write something about like, you
don't represent Jesus. Well, I, I got news for
you. Like their opinion means very little. Well,
and yeah. And the thing about social media too,
is when you're scrolling, a lot of times you
are letting people speak into your life who you
don't even know. True. Right? Like, you'll be
scrolling through and you'll see a diet thing
of being like, you should stop eating this right
away. Do you like diet soda? Well, it's got all
these chemicals. And then you'll get to a Christian
one where it's like, you are not following Jesus
if you're not doing that. And it's like you give
headway to all of these people you don't even
know who you have no relationship with, no connection
with, and you're letting them speak into your
life. Yeah. The reality is that's what scrolling
reels for hours and hours does. And I'm saying
that as us being people who post reels on a regular
basis. We do. We do. And we're trying to encourage
people to self -reflect, not necessarily. I actually
have this thing that I reposted, and it's from
a friend of mine. His name is Josh, and I'll
leave his last name off because I don't know
if he wants to be. Yeah, that's fine. Throw it
on the podcast. But he posted a thing, and he
does consulting for Christian ministries, and
he posted things as signs that you've gotten
into bad teaching. And so I would say this is
signs that you're maybe listening to the wrong
people. You start to think that the opinions
of an entire people group don't matter. Right?
At all. Not that they don't apply, but they don't
matter. The teacher, podcaster, leader, etc.,
is almost always trying to get you angry. If
you're honest, you're beginning to think of a
person or a group as less than human. You celebrate
when harm comes to anyone. If any of those things
are true, that's signs you're getting into bad
teaching. Because that's not what Jesus teaches
us to do. We're always about bringing life. We
confront evil. We confront injustice. We stand
against the forces of evil and we wage war against
the devil and principalities. But we love people.
And we always value people. Yes. You know? It's
just problematic. Yeah. It was appropriate for
what we're talking about. Because, you know,
you go through these things and, like, immediately
somebody, like, the first thing on social media,
and I love this because we're talking podcast
and we do social media posts. In fact, I might
even clip this into a post. Right? But they'll
come across a post that's like, are you believing
heretical things? Right? Like, it's already.
negative thing yeah rather than hey have you
read this in the Bible and what it means to actually
follow Jesus with X Y & Z but you know negative
content tends to sell better it does right it
does now This conversation, people are going
to say all kinds of things about you. If you
are somebody who is mournful, who sits with those
who need to be comforted, if you have power but
you hold it under control, that's what it means
to be meek. You choose to hold your power under
control and serve other people. You are a meek
person, right? If you are pure in heart and you
see God where he's working and those different
things, people are going to have issues with
you. And so the temptation with this might be
to go and hide. inside of your churches to hide
away from the world. Well, good news. We got
another verse that comes up. You want to read
the salt and light section? Yeah. You are the
salt of the earth, but what good is salt if it
lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again?
It will be thrown and trampled underfoot as worthless.
You are the light of the world, like a city on
a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights
a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead,
the lamp is placed on a stand where it gives
light to everyone in the house. In the same way,
let your good deeds shine for all to see, so
that everyone will praise your Heavenly Father.
Incidentally, if you guys are following along
in your Bible, I'm reading NIV, he's reading
NLT, because we think multiple translations is
the right way to go. Mine's better, but you know,
I'm going to clip that out and be like, so, um,
so the temptation is like, people are going to
say bad things about you. They're going to, they're
going to make fun of you. They're going to lie
about you. So, and you're like, okay, well we're
just going to huddle up until, until Jesus comes
back. No, like you, you are the salt of the,
of the world, right? You are the light and salt
of the world, right? You have to be out there.
If you're not being salty. which is really funny
because like being salty is like being, you know,
like it's a, it's like being irritated kind of
thing now, uh, or being kind of persnickety.
Um, but I love to say we need to be salty. Yeah.
Well, and I'm convinced Jesus is talking, clearly
talking a little tongue in cheek here where he's
like, you don't light a lamp and then hide it.
Right. Right. He's like, then why would you light
the lamp if you're going to do that? Right. Type
thing. And, uh, But that's the reality. It's
like we're supposed to put this stuff on display
for the world to see, not for the sake of what
we have done, but for the sake of what Jesus
has done. And if you know anything about ancient
cities, one, we have way more light than anybody
has ever had light in any time in history ever.
So we wouldn't necessarily understand if you
put one light on a hill, that's not necessarily
going to be lit up because we have so much light
pollution in our world. But if you have a power
outage, right? and then somebody lights a light
randomly on a hill, and it's like, bam, you can
see it. Yep. Right? In the ancient Near East,
most of the cities are built on reservoirs of
water or ability to accumulate water because
the desert is really hot, and there's not water
everywhere. And so they build them on top of
these same locations, and over time, as each
city is conquered, they kind of build on top
of each other until it's actually a city on a
hill. literally is salvation to you if you don't
know where you are to see a city on a hill because
you're like, I know where people are. I know
where water is. I know where provision is. I
know where I can go and not just be lost. I have
seen some of the aerial drone footage of traveling
through Israel even now and I would get lost
super fast. I understand if you live in the culture,
you could probably figure it out. I would get
lost super fast. I would have GPS and it would
be like, walk 400 miles this way. And I was like,
okay. That's about too many miles. It's like,
so when you ask the two things, what does salt
do? What's salt do? Adds flavor. Right? It also
preserves things. Yep. Preserves things. You
ask what light does, it reveals what's hidden.
Right? And so that of which is hidden can be
dealt with. It's incredibly hard to clean your
house if you don't have proper lighting. Because,
well, you have dogs currently. Yes. And so if
you don't have good lighting, like that dog hair
gets everywhere and it's impossible to see. Because
it'll get stuck underneath the couch, it'll get
stuck on a sock, it'll get stuck underneath a
table leg. And I was like, proper light actually
reveals what needs to be done. Speaking of, well,
you're always going to have hair. Dog hair will
always be with you, to quote Deuteronomy. It's
not Deuteronomy, really. But to your point, light
reveals what needs to be taken care of. It's
really easy to think that things are fine when
it's completely dark. then you flip on the lights
and you're like, uh, you ever, okay, this is
actually, this is, this is going to connect with
some people. You ever knock something over like
a water bottle in the middle of the night and
you're like, ah, it's probably not so bad. Then
you turn on the light and there's water everywhere.
And you're like, ah, I should have just left
the light off. It wouldn't, I wouldn't have known.
Yeah. Yeah. It's like that. Right. Yeah. And,
uh, like, so the point of us is, is it's, it's
all positive things. Light is about helping to
clean up. It's about knowing where people are
going. It's about being able to see your destination.
Salt is about preservation. It's about flavor.
It's about to bring out, if you want to say,
bring out the flavor of the kingdom of God in
the world. You're the salt of the world. You
should be bringing out the flavor of the kingdom
of God. When people engage you, they should go,
man, God is good. It's quite different. Right.
Right. They're like, oh, man, I was actually
having a conversation with a with a friend of
mine who is who is close to faith. And and they
were talking about just I was interacting with
them and they were talking about like just Christians
that they had known and and like what they had
known historically. And like they had known things
about like with priests who had abused children
and like all these, you know, all these different
things. And and then we started to talk about
the Bible. And about faith and what does it actually
mean to live it out? What does Jesus call us
to do to lay ourselves down on behalf of other
people? And we go through those things. So it's
been like five or six years. They started reading
the Bible and they're starting to like follow
after Jesus. But it's funny because I have the
conversation. They're like, yeah, I kept I was
judging faith by what I saw in people who didn't
actually follow faith. Right. And then it was
like, but having the conversation about like,
what does it actually mean for me to live out
living for Jesus? Not perfectly. brought out
the flavor of who God really is, right? And that's
our job. That's our job in relationship is to
bring out who God is and reveal Christ. You know,
talking about bringing on light. Revelation,
right? Yeah, right. So then to this point, then
he's going to jump up. He's going to say, in
the same way, let your light shine before others.
They're going to see your good deeds and glorify
the Father in heaven. they're going to see the
things that you do, and they're going to go,
wow, God's awesome. Yeah. When we're truly living
in the way Jesus calls us to live, right? Now,
and like when we're truly living in a way where
like, hey, this person needs help, I'm going
to help them out. Or, hey, I'm sacrificing my
time to... be here for someone who is mourning
a loss or fill in the blank right when we're
living that way people are gonna people will
see someone who genuinely cares for other people
and they'll be like this is great i want to know
more about why they do this right at least i've
at least i've yet to meet people who are like
that person cares i should never spend time with
them If you read some of the early church history
reports by UCBS and some of the other early church
historians, the Romans, one of the reasons that
Christianity went through such an explosive growth
is that Rome would persecute them, but the people
around them were like, we don't want you to persecute
these. These are great people. We love having
them here. right? Like they do such good things
for the places around us. I'm reminded of a pastor
who was talking about his city. He had a burden
for his city, right? Yes, for the gospel, but
yes, for also like taking care of people. And
they had a report and it said, named their city
as like one of the 10 worst cities in America,
right? And he brought it to their staff meeting
and he put it out there and he says, is this
our problem or is the fact that this isn't our
problem, our problem? Yeah. Right? And I just
love the way, like, is this our problem, or is
the fact that this isn't our problem our problem?
Years ago, there was a guy, he was a leader of
one of the denominations in the U .S., and he
got to a point where he was leading what they
called a division, so just a large portion of
the country. And so he's moving to this new city,
and he gets a realtor to buy a house. And he
looks at the realtor, and he says, hey, we want
to move to a not desired neighborhood. A neighborhood
that has some rougher characters, and that's
where we want to buy a house. And the realtor
started laughing. And he's like, what's so funny?
And she's like, well, no, it was just a good
joke. And he's like, I wasn't joking. Yeah. Like
he's like, I want to be salt and light to the
people who need it. And I want to share Jesus
with the people who need it. And the realtor
was like, okay, you know, so they bought a house
and he's like, yeah, first thing we did is he's
like, we just got to know the community and we'd
have them over for barbecues and, you know, stuff
like that. And, you know, and. And he's like,
I got a lot of flack because people would come
into my house and they'd be like, hey, you're
leading a denomination and you have people coming
into your house smoking and drinking. And he's
like, yeah, they don't know Jesus. Yeah. And
I'm sharing Jesus with them. And slowly that
community transformed and more people came to
know Jesus. They came to set down these bad habits
and so on and so forth. Because one person was
like, yeah, no, I don't need to be in an upstanding
community where I can hide away from the problems
of the town. It's an upcoming parable, but the
parable of the mustard seed. It's like once it
takes root, you can't stop it. Yep. But you have
to go plant it. Yep. It is an invasive species.
The gospel is an invasive species. If it takes
root in your heart, it's coming for you. And
that's not to say that, of course, people have
free will and they're allowed to choose and blah,
blah, blah, like 100%. Theological typewriters,
go away. I'm saying that when God is coming after
you, you're going to know him. Now, does everybody
need to go move to the worst place in their city?
No, that's not what we're talking about. But
where you are, listener, podcaster, and us too,
what are the issues in our city? What's the issues
in our town, in our neighborhood? And how are
we being intentional about bringing the kingdom
of God there in act and then being able to do
it in word? Right? And I think the tendency is
like, oh, well, if I want to make some changes,
maybe I'll just jump into politics. Maybe. That
might be where God's calling you. Yeah. Into
local politics. But I would suggest that politics
is the least effective way to actually change
people's life. Agreed. The most effective way
to change your life is to get involved with them.
Yeah. And actually go and do things that are
going to make a difference. And just... Just
caveat on the politics thing, just real quick,
and then we can move on. We've lived through
Democratic regimes, and we've lived through Republican
regimes, and guess what? We're doing just fine
through both. After all of those things, God
is still king. Yeah, he's still king. It's crazy.
And the reality is, do you know how much it affected
my day -to -day life? Not that much. Not that
much. We get hung up on stuff politically when
it's like, hey, maybe we should, I mean, yeah,
take note of what's really important, but maybe
we should. redirect some of that energy into
bringing Jesus to our community. Yeah. Yeah.
Paul did it during the reign of Domitian. Yeah.
I feel like we could probably figure it out.
Yeah. You know? Yep. Great. All right. So coming
out of this conversation, you're going to do
good deeds and people are going to see it and
they're going to glorify Jesus. Don't think that
I came to abolish the law or the prophets. This
is in context, right? I have not come to abolish
them, but to fulfill them. So, he just said you're
going to do good deeds. That doesn't mean you're
going to abolish Torah. In fact, Torah is going
to be the deeds that you do. Right? He didn't
come to do away with them. He came to put them
on display. To be really clear, this is a Jewish
teacher talking to Jewish people. Correct. Yeah,
because we can talk about the book of Galatians
some other time. There are things in the Torah
that do not apply to Gentiles. There are, of
course, many things in Torah that do. But there
are things specifically about Jewish people that
apply to them. But he says, I didn't come to
abolish this. Nope. I came to put it on display.
John 1 .1 is going to say the word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us, right? Yeah.
And so Jesus is literally Torah made flesh, and
so he is the law, and he is physically there.
He is what the law and the prophets are supposed
to look like. And when you tie this verse into
the larger context of Scripture, what you get
is Jesus saying, hey, we have... misunderstood
what Torah is actually supposed to be. Correct.
It was always supposed to be about this Genesis
12, blessing all nations. So he says, don't think
that I've come to abolish the law and the prophets.
I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill
them. Fulfill does not mean one and done. Put
them on display for how they're supposed to be
lived. Right? 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.
Therefore, anyone who sets aside one of the least
of these commands 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.
For I tell you that unless your righteousness,
your righteous acts, surpasses that of the Pharisees
and the teachers of the law, you certainly will
not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, interesting
thing about that with the confrontation of the
Pharisees and the teachers of the law is that
they had a lot of head knowledge and not a lot
of due knowledge. So when we're talking about
the righteousness, it's actually what you do
with what you know. So if you don't surpass them,
I guarantee you, you're not living about the
kingdom of heaven. But what were they doing?
Yeah, right? Yeah, that's what I'm saying. What
were they doing? But this is, I think it's really
interesting because this verse, a lot of times
people say, well, Jesus came not to abolish the
law but to fulfill it, which means that it's
done, means it no longer applies. That's not
what that means. No. He says it's not going away
until heaven and earth disappear. By the way,
I don't know if you know this, heaven's not disappearing
ever. Uh -huh. So you may want to reinterpret
that a little bit, right, until all these things
are accomplished. And we could get into the Greek
and get into the, but the context here is that
The instructions that God's given you, the Torah,
how you're supposed to live your life, how you're
supposed to be a blessing to other people, you're
supposed to bless all nations. Put these things
on display in your life to live for God. Like,
these things aren't going away. You need to do
them. And you need to put them on display. Jesus
is going to do it. Yeah. If you're going to follow
after Jesus, you need to do that. Now, of course,
broader context, we are Gentiles. We don't follow
what's called Helica, right? We can have a broader
conversation about that later. We've had some
conversations about it. But what Jesus is calling
us to do is he says the things that God calls
you to for righteousness, to impact the world,
to love people, love God, to bring mercy, to
be generous, to put the kingdom of God on display,
to have a meek heart, like all these different
things, these aren't going away. Don't do away
with them. Go do it. This teaching isn't doing
away with that. It's actually fulfilling this.
Right? Yep. Being salt and light is not going
to abolish this. You need to fulfill it in the
way that you live. Yep. When we're talking about
fulfilling it, like you hinted at this too, but
a lot of times we get caught up on, okay, what
are the things I need to do? You need to be in
relationship with Jesus. Yeah. And let your good
works flow from that. Correct. Right? Yeah. James
talks about this, too, in James 2, where he's
like, okay, you say you have your faith, but
you show your faith by your works. Right. And
we've often interpreted that as like, okay, because
I believe in Jesus, here are all the things I've
got to do now. It's like, no. You need to have
a relationship with Jesus, and Jesus is going
to change your heart, and good works are naturally
going to flow from that. Yeah. It's going to
be the fruit. It's going to be the fruit of your
relationship with Jesus. I'm going to borrow
a story from later in the Gospels. Jesus says,
I am the true vine and you are the branches.
If you remain in me, you will bear fruit. There's
no if and but. Yeah. Right? If you don't remain
in me, you're going to wither and die. You're
not going to bear fruit, and you're going to
get cut off. The job for us is not to produce
the fruit. Our job is to remain, abide, be with.
And if you do, you will produce. So why do we
have this conversation? If your life has no fruit,
we want to have a conversation about Jesus, because
if you know Jesus, you will have fruit. Now,
it might be piddly fruit. It might be really
not great fruit because you're not well -connected,
or you need to be lifted up, which is another
thing that happens in that verse. But if you
connect to Jesus, you will have fruit. And you
also need to define what does good fruit look
like. Right. Because a lot of times, unfortunately
in the American context, a lot of times we classify
good fruit as like how big is your congregation.
Or how in line is your theology. Yeah. Right?
Talk about denominationalism, right? And the
reality is most rabbis outside of Jesus had three
to five disciples. They said, okay, that's what
I can do. I can invest in three to five people.
So that's reality. And it could be that you're
investing in someone and their life does a 180.
That is substantial fruit. That's substantial
fruit because you could also be investing in
100 people and nobody's life's getting changed.
Yeah, and I think this is where sometimes, like,
this is where Paul can be incredibly helpful
for our Roman mind is what I'm going to call
it. Yeah. He talks about in Galatians, he says,
the fruit of the Spirit is obvious. It's love.
Demonstrated in joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self -control.
These types of things, when they start to blossom
in your life, are evidence that God is actually
working in your life. Like, you are connected
to the tree. Yeah. Like, if you are connected
to the tree, you're going to have patience, or
at least you're going to recognize that you're
being really impatient and want to grow your
patience. Uh -huh. Right? Yeah, you're gonna,
like, the Lord will, if you are falling short
in an area, the Lord will be like, hey, he'll
knock on the door and be like, hey, maybe we
should work on this. Yeah. Right? They'll be
like, what do we need to do to correct this?
So this first part, and this is really the preamble
because we're going to be jumping off of this
into next week's. So he said, this is who I'm
coming to talk to. These are the people that
are being ushered into the kingdom of God. And
when you do these things, you're going to be
talked about a certain way, but that's okay.
You're going to be blessed in the middle of that.
I'm going to be with you. And then he says, that
also means you can't hide. You've got to go out
there and be. the salt gotta be the light put
on your good deeds so that people glorify god
that they see the kingdom of god in you if you
have the kingdom of god in you by the way holy
spirit is inside of all of us that follow jesus
you need to take it to the places that need the
holy spirit yeah right Take him, sorry, not it.
And then he says, I didn't come to abolish the
law, I came to fulfill it. In other words, everything
that is in the Torah is actually meant to be
lived out. And that's really important because
as we pause here, he's then going to start going
through a bunch of things in Torah that they've
misunderstood. He says, I didn't come to get
rid of this. I came to show you what it was always
supposed to be. So he's going to make these phrases.
He says, you have heard it said, but I say unto
you. So this is the springboard, and next week
we're going to be going into a lot of these portions
of Torah. The first one is talking about murder,
right? You've heard it said, but I'm going to
say unto you. And he's going to start reinterpreting,
and so what that means is not, Jesus is not raising
the ante on these things. That's something I've
heard people say. He said, this is always what
it was supposed to be. Now let's talk about what
that means to live out. Right? Until the next
week. You can reach us at loveandcontext .gmail
.com. Oh, yeah. You can comment all sorts of
weird things on TikTok. Once again, remember
that if you engage us disingenuously, I'll probably
give you a lovely comment like, thanks for boosting
our algorithm. Because I love you, but I'm also
not going to engage with your nonsense. Unless
it's in person. I love engaging nonsense in person.
We love genuine conversation. Oh, yeah. Ben and
I absolutely love genuine conversation. That's
not... often what is found in the comment section.
I know it's not real. No, it is not. So if you,
if you like have a genuine question, I would
suggest emailing me because I probably won't
even see it if you don't email it. Yep. Um, and,
uh, but we're going to, I don't look at the comments
at all. Yeah. I see them sometimes, like sometimes
it'll notify me and I'll read them. And, uh,
and I'm like, if it, if, if it was a sincere
thing, I'm sorry. Sometimes I laugh at them.
Um, because I'm like, that is a really weird.
thing to say to somebody you don't know. Um,
the other thing is, uh, very soon, as soon as,
uh, Mr. Spencer finishes doing the, uh, audio
book version, we will be releasing our book on
the Genesis, uh, from our podcast conversations.
I'm about halfway through on Exodus. And so that'll
be coming in about another six months to seven
months. Um, but, uh, if you were like, man, I
really like these conversations. I want to check
it out in book form. And then we're going to
have an audio book that's based on the book that's
based on the. We're real inceptioning this. It's
like fashion trends. They just go full circle
every about 20 years. And then what we need to
do is we need to get a different group of people
to have a podcast about the book. Yeah. My wife
and I, we work in the school district. And we've
been laughing this last year because the stuff
we see kids wear, we're like, oh, we're back
in high school. Yeah. Like, this is what we wore
20 years ago. Yeah, that's so funny. I mean,
fashion is a cyclical. Yeah, it is. So that's
going to be coming out. And my book is out, Beautiful
Chaos. It's on Amazon. You can get it there.
Audiobook is also available, but you have to
listen to me. So if you don't like listening
to me, don't get the audiobook. Just read the
book. But, yeah, so things are going well. And
I do want to give a shout -out to, when the book
does come out, the Genesis book, all proceeds
are going to local Young Life Ministry. So if
you want to support Young Life, that's a good
way to do it. Yep. All right. Other than that,
we'll see you guys next time. And that's a wrap
for today's episode of Love and Context. We hope
this conversation encouraged you and gave you
fresh insights into how we can better love God
and others through the powerful truths of the
Bible. We'd love to hear from you. Send your
questions, thoughts, or suggestions to loveandcontext
at gmail .com. Your feedback means the world
to us and helps shape future episodes. Stay connected
with us on social media for updates, behind the
scenes content, and additional resources. You
can find us on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and
Facebook at loveandcontext. Love and Context.
Be sure to hit that follow button and join our
growing community. Thanks for being part of the
Love and Context family. Remember, love is at
the heart of it all. Until next time, keep seeking
wisdom, embracing love and living out your faith
in today's world.