Tag Archives: darkness

Pastor Rick’s Study Notes: Matthew 5:17-20

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Pastor Rick’s Study Notes:

PRT Matthew 5:17-20

v. 17 Don’t even consider that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets; I came not to overthrow and dismiss them but to satisfy and fulfill them.

v. 18 For I tell you this very truth: until heaven and earth come to an end, neither the smallest letter nor the tiniest accent point will disappear until all these things will happen.

v. 19 for this reason, anyone breaks even the smallest of these commandments or teaches others to do the same, will be the smallest in the Kingdom of Heaven. But here’s the one who will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven: everyone who does what it says and teaches others to do the same.

v. 20 For I tell you that, unless your right actions and right relationship with God extends beyond the standards of the legal experts and Pharisees, you won’t even enter the doors of heaven.

Study Notes:

v. 17 Don’t even consider that I have come to destroy the Law or the Prophets; I came not to overthrow and dismiss them but to satisfy and fulfill them.

Jesus is answering an unspoken question here (or perhaps he heard the rumblings of this statement about tearing down the law and prophets – it later became one of the big accusations. He didn’t destroy (he wrote them!) The word is to break down, dissolve, dismiss, abolish. He came to fulfill the prophets and satisfy the law.

This word destroy is a word picture of someone taking down a tabernacle or tent into pieces. He came to fulfill, that is fill to the fullest, the Law and Prophets.

Light plays a huge role in demonstrating the effect of the Kingdom on people, churches, cultures, generations, etc. We are brought into the light, become the light of the world, and are indwelt by the Spirit of Jesus, the Light of the world.

Ephesians 4 “we were in darkness and now we walk as children of light.”

Philippians 2:15 “you shine as lights to the world.”

1 Peter 2 “we are called out of darkness and into His wonderful light.”

Read this in context with v. 15-16 – what we do is in the light, not to show us to the world, but to show Jesus to the world. Matthew says the light is on the stand where everyone in the house can see the light. Luke says the light is on the stand so that everyone who enters into the house can see. He satisfies the reason people grasp for religion and rules. Jesus completes the prophetic.

v. 18 For I tell you this very truth: until heaven and earth come to an end, neither the smallest letter nor the tiniest accent point will disappear until all these things will happen.

The smallest letter of the Hebrew language is the “yod” – no bigger than an apostrophe. The accent point in Greek is the little marking that might distinguish letter and pronunciations. These accents were not widely used in the marketplace since most wrote in Uncial; and after all, it was their language.

Here, the word is not everlasting but sufficient until heaven and earth disappear. At that point, we will as Paul says, “know in full.” Until God brings it all to the culmination, not even an accent point will be canceled.

v. 19 for this reason, anyone breaks even the smallest of these commandments or teaches others to do the same, will be the smallest in the Kingdom of Heaven. But here’s the one who will be great in the Kingdom of Heaven: everyone who does what it says and teaches others to do the same.

Remember that the legal experts and teachers had set the laws in major and minor categories – greater laws and lesser laws with corresponding ramifications. Some says 613, but these are what Moses said to do or not do. The “for all time” laws are the big ten.

The “least” in the kingdom is a word that can mean littlest or smallest; the person who chooses to live contrary to God’s parameters and/or takes others in the same direction chooses a “small” life here, and the “smallest” life in eternity.

It’s choosing to live in the light. Luke adds some insight here; our acts give light to the world and cause the lost to bring glory to God. Our eyes are our light in Jesus’ parables; and we let light in by what we choose to give witness to; or we let “dark” into our eyes by what we feed on.

The big question on everyone’s mind, then, if the Pharisees and the teachers of the law aren’t in, who will be? Nobody wants to be small; so who will be great? Jesus answers: you who do and teach (demonstration, proclamation.) the Pharisees (Matthew 23:3) taught but clearly didn’t do. That’s why he said the next sentence.

v. 20 For I tell you that, unless your right actions and right relationship with God extends beyond the standards of the legal experts and Pharisees, you won’t even enter the doors of heaven.

These are the comments that endeared Jesus to the people and drew the ire of the temple leaders. This would also fly in the face of “common wisdom” that the Pharisees and legal experts were the examples to follow; Jesus says it’s the exact opposite. It’s like the lovers of the law were approaching heaven, but couldn’t see what stopped them (unforgiven sin – they needed a Savior.)

  1. Have you ever been in a place that was completely, utterly, dark? How did it make you feel?
  2. Do you have a favorite Bible verse? What is it? Why is it so meaningful to you?
  3. How do you “let light in” to your life through using the Bible? What practices do you do now? What do you need to begin practicing?
  4. What can you do the avoid places that make your life smaller and darker?
  5. What kinds of “beautiful deeds” do you like doing for others to help them experience the love of the Savior?
  6. How can others help you through prayer and encouragement?

Victory in the Darkness

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I want to begin today with our first few verses of our passage this morning in Luke 22:

52Then Jesus spoke to the leading priests, the captains of the Temple guard, and the elders who had come for him. “Am I some dangerous revolutionary,” he asked, “that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me? 53Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there every day. But this is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns.” 54So they arrested him and led him to the high priest’s home. And Peter followed at a distance. 

We are at the beginning of Passion Weekend when Jesus faced betrayal, abandonment, arrest, torture, trial, conviction, and the Cross. Jesus here calls the weekend of his suffering “the time when the power of darkness reigns.” It’s the moment in history when the earth literally shook, and the Kingdom of God invaded and changed our world for eternity.  It’s the time in all of history that settles salvation for those who choose to follow Jesus as He secures victory in the midst of the darkness. Jesus is our victorious King who accomplished the greatest act of compassion when darkness ruled. He’s worthy of our worship today.

Join me again in Luke 22 and I’ll pick up our passage at the end of v. 53 and we will read through v. 71. I’m in the NLT today in case you want to follow along in our live event on YouVersion.

Where:

 53Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there every day. But this is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns.

54So they arrested him and led him to the high priest’s home. And Peter followed at a distance. 55The guards lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter joined them there. 56A servant girl noticed him in the firelight and began staring at him. Finally, she said, “This man was one of Jesus’ followers!”

57But Peter denied it. “Woman,” he said, “I don’t even know him!”

58After a while someone else looked at him and said, “You must be one of them!”

“No, man, I’m not!” Peter retorted.

59About an hour later someone else insisted, “This must be one of them, because he is a Galilean, too.”

60But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.

61At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly, the Lord’s words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.” 62And Peter left the courtyard, weeping bitterly.

63The guards in charge of Jesus began mocking and beating him. 64They blindfolded him and said, “Prophesy to us! Who hit you that time?” 65And they hurled all sorts of terrible insults at him.

66At daybreak all the elders of the people assembled, including the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. Jesus was led before this high council, 67and they said, “Tell us, are you the Messiah?”

But he replied, “If I tell you, you won’t believe me. 68And if I ask you a question, you won’t answer. 69But from now on the Son of Man will be seated in the place of power at God’s right hand.”

70They all shouted, “So, are you claiming to be the Son of God?”

And he replied, “You say that I am.”

71“Why do we need other witnesses?” they said. “We ourselves heard him say it.”

Getting There:

Today’s passage and our message on Victory in the Darkness looks into some of the most personal moments and some of the most painful experiences in the Gospels. The brutality of Jesus arrest is contrasted with a most intimately personal wordless exchange between Jesus and his disciple Simon Peter.

And right before the verses we read this morning, Judas leads the arresting gang to Jesus in the privacy of his place of prayer. The council of religious leaders had access. Judas, one of Jesus’ best friends, had turned on him to protect his bank.

  • Judas, as one of the Twelve, walked right in without a challenge – and he was closely followed by the ruffians and guards with clubs and blades.
  • If we expand the scene, you can see hiding behind the mob the religious leaders – cowards and afraid of Jesus, of the crowds, and of truth – keeping a safe distance to make sure they didn’t get caught in a skirmish and didn’t get their robes dirty.
  • And Judas, in typical Middle Eastern fashion, said hello to Jesus with a kiss.

And at that very moment, the power of darkness gained the upper hand.

In these verses, one betrays Jesus, one tried to take things into his own hands by breaking out the two swords they had, all would abandon the scene, and one would even deny ever knowing Jesus.

And the power of darkness ruled.

But it had to. And over the next three days darkness like a covering of chaos and hate fell over the city of Jerusalem and beyond. And in the midst of the darkness, God’s greatest victory was won.

There:

  1. When the Darkness Fell, the Hate Increased. When Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss, the door opened for darkness to pour in. The Guards and ruffians and the religious hierarchy stepped into the darkness and took Jesus into custody. Look how it happened:

The apprehension – earlier, the disciples bragged that they had two swords at their ready. When the guards took Jesus, one disciple took the sword and slice the ear from a guard. All four Gospel accounts include this and John names Peter as the sword bearer and Malchus as the casualty. 1) For the most, when a person is named, it is because that person is known to the believers. He very well could have become a Christ-follower. 2) That Jesus heals his ear on the spot is evidence that darkness, even the darkness of violence, can’t contain the Victory Jesus brings.

The march – Luke only records the march to the high priest’s house and back to the temple for trial. The other Gospel writers record the march from the trial to Pilate, to Herod, and back to Pilate, followed by the scourging and the final march up the hill to the Cross.

Though it’s a brief verse, the words here and the further account in the Gospels are that they violently arrested him. Even though he submitted to this, they took him violently and force marched him from site to site. Hands bound likely behind his back, pushed step-by-step off balanced to be tried illegally at night – the decision is handed down in the dark by Annas, and his son-in-law and high priest, Caiaphas.

Then he was marched to the temple so the verdict could be ratified, and rubber stamped by their supporters on the Jewish council at first crack of dawn to give the appearance of legality. They declared Jesus a heretic with hopes that the Romans would grant a swift execution. As many as 22 laws were broken in a single verdict so they could keep power. And darkness ruled.

  • The beatings – Luke records the first of at least four specific times and each place of physical beatings Jesus endured within the span of nine hours on the way to the Cross.

After the pretrial verdict from the high priest, the guards in charge unleashed their fury on Jesus. Here Luke uses the word for roughing Him up by pushing, punching, and beating him. And he writes that this is just a sampling of what they did to Jesus.

But the other gospels fill in the experience – as they spent their hatred and everything about life that had built cruelty into their sinews – they slapped him with open hands and punched him with closed fists, they spit on him, they beat him in ways that flayed back his skin, they threw him around violently, and beat him with rods. Then, they blindfolded him so they could mock him with anonymity. The darkness ruled.

  • The darkness – Church, in this darkest of nights, when hate flowed freely, God’s victory was secured. In the midst of the violence and hate, Love wins.

I Cor 13 tells us that, “we know in part” and we see as with a dimly focused mirror the depth of God’s love and the beauty of His presence. But because of the Father’s love through Jesus not just enduring the darkness, but winning the victory, we will see Him face-to-face.  

2. In the Darkest Moment, Compassion is Unveiled. And right in the middle of the account of Jesus’ arrest, Luke and all the other Gospel writers recount the Peter’s conversations disowning Jesus.

First, to the servant girl who was the door keeper, he denied being one of Jesus followers.

Second, to another servant, most likely the same girl who was off duty and around the fire, he denied being with “one of them” with Jesus. Peter knows he is “One of them.” Guilt by association, if Jesus is a rebel, then Peter is one of the rebels he was leading.

Third, restless and milling around the fire, Peter is feeling the darkness and chaos of the night, and he is watching for Jesus. But Peter never was good staying under the radar. A little later as the pre-trial with the high priest came to a close, the servants crowded around the fire confronted him again, including one who knew the man whose ear was cut off, and Peter not only denies Jesus, but disowns him with a curse.

And in a most personal and intimate way, Jesus communicates with Peter through a look, perhaps as he is leaving the high priest’s house. Face-to-face, and heart-to-heart, Peter knows that look because he’d seen in before – a look of sadness perhaps, mingled with compassion, forgiveness, and hope. He knew his sin and denial, but he knew Jesus’ mercy. In his darkest moment, Jesus’ love and mercy conquer his heart.

The verse says he fled “toward the dawn”. He ran into the light. He wept painful, stinging, tears and cried loud and long. Mark says he threw his cloak hood over his face, perhaps to hide his shame. But the cloak came off and who he was came into the light. The best place for screw ups and failures is to come into the light. What comes into the light can be forgiven. Perhaps the mystery behind all that happened, really happened to Judas in his heart and in his final moments is because he avoided the light. But here we have the full display of both what Peter did and how he responded in repentance.

3. In the Midst of the Darkness, The Kingdom Wins.  In His plans, the Father sent His only Son in the flesh to suffer and die, to face the enemy in the darkness moments in history, so that He could bring the Good News of the Kingdom. We can try to fully understand it, but we keep returning to the depth of this mystery called redemption.

What did the early Christians say? “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” Jesus in this mystery of grace and compassion stepped from eternity into our history, died and went to the grave, for the express purpose to conquer death and initiate a Kingdom of heaven take over, one person at a time, one neighborhood at a time, one nation at a time. He brought the gift of salvation and a fresh relationship with the Father through his mercy. So, you and I could enjoy that relationship for eternity, and so you could live as representatives of the King here.

The earliest creed we find in the Bible is this: Jesus is Lord. We belong to Jesus and we are the redeemed so we can give hope to our world around us – that the one who knows us best, loves us and had offered us life abundant and eternal.

In Luke 10 when the disciples and the extended group of followers return from a ministry trip and they can hardly contain their excitement over how the Kingdom of God impacted lives, Jesus declares this: I was watching Satan fall like a flash of lightning to the earth. When the Kingdom invaded earth through the presence of Jesus, the fall of the enemy was both swift and cataclysmic to the Kingdom of darkness.

And as Jesus followers live out the Kingdom values and bring His message of salvation and forgiveness and love others unconditionally and pray for His presence to bring life and healing and hope, Jesus said when his disciples returned from their ministry trip that he saw the progression of the enemy’s demise quick and complete. And we are a part of bringing the enemy’s demise in lives one prayer, one story, one act of compassion, one saved and delivered and heal person at a time. The Kingdom wins.

Illustration: You and I have been in dark places before. Grief. Guilt. Confusion. Depression. Loneliness. And it is in that darkness we experience that we cry out for mercy, and God makes his presence known. When I sat on the back seat in a church in the midst of bad choices, I cried out to God for His mercy, and His Kingdom presence came and conquered my heart. When I waited alone in the waiting room of the hospital after six hours of a surgery on Susan that should take only an hour or so, I asked God to meet me, and He did.

Pray: Do you have a dark place? Jesus brings victory in the darkness.

Greater the darkness; more visible the victory.

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I know people who have gone through great tragedy and experienced dark days. Businesses fail. Homes are taken. Children (or spouses) stray. Partners betray. What felt secure evaporates in a brief moment. And dark times and deep questions often follow.

And you might ask, Why bring this up? Because we all face those dark nights of the soul.

How you and I as Christ-followers respond in the darkness, and especially how we take one step at a time toward God’s grace and purposes in that darkness, has a great impact on people. We give hope to others when we pursue King Jesus and keep loving and serving others when our days are dark.

When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, he announced it as the hour “when the power of darkness reigns.” (Luke 22:53). And for the next three days, the darkness crescendoed around the city of Jerusalem and across the heavenlies.

And heaven’s greatest coup came in the deepest darkness. What was usurped for millennia by the Conniver in the Garden of Eden was reclaimed for good in the dark hours in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus is acquainted with the darkness; He does His best work when people need hope and salvation. And that’s when He does His best work in and through you and me.

This week, Renovation Vineyard Church begin our journey through the dark days of Jesus’ Passion as we move through the hours just before Easter Sunday and His unmatched triumph over the enemy and the grave.

Trusting His Victory in the Darkness – Pastor Rick