Matthew 5:17-20
The Fulfillment of the Law
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. 18 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.19 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. 20 For 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.
Matthew 28:16-20
The Great Commission
16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
As we read through the four gospels and the New Testament, we read often about two major religious groups of the time...The two groups are the Pharisees, and the Sadducees...The Pharisees believed in the Law of Moses...They believed that God orally gave Moses both the oral and written Mosaic Law and this Law was to be followed to the letter...The Pharisees were the blue collar teachers of the people and many listened to their interpretations of the Old Testament...They associated more with the common man...The Pharisees believed that there was life after death, and believed in the resurrection of the believers, who followed the Law of Moses...
The Sadducees were more affluent and more upper society than the Pharisees...They we more likely to have other cultures and cultural changes in their interpretations of what they believed in reading the Old Testament...They helped maintain the Temple of God...They duties and much of what they did centered around the Temple...They were associated with Temple rituals...They did not believe in life after death and in resurrections...
Because many people could not read in the time of Jesus, these two groups, and a lesser known group known as the Essenes were the ones who taught others the Bible and Scripture...
These two parties of Pharisees and Sadducees made up the Sanhedrin...The Sanhedrin was the ruling party of Israel...The number of members in the Sanhedrin was seventy one...It was led by the High Priest of Israel...And as a group the Sanhedrin dealt with the religious matters of their day...These two groups were very religious and helped others follow and interpret the Scripture...
Jesus never seemed to warm up to either of these groups...He did not seem to particular believe the elite Sadducees and their interpretations of Scripture...And He particularly was more often at odds with the Pharisees...Jesus most of the times seemed to oppose or be at opposition with these two major religious groups, who were well known by His people...He seemed to tell them that rituals alone do not get us closes to His Father...And to me, it seems that Jesus is almost anti-religious when dealing with the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the other religious leaders of His time...Yet all the while, He was teaching the common person and those on the fringe of society and the outcasts about God and bringing them closer to His ideas...He taught His Disciples much, and they were just common men...And what is the a very interesting thing, He does believe in organized religion...In His Great Commission, He tells His Disciples to make the people of all nations disciples of His and to teach all nations the things He has taught them and commanded them to do...Jesus' Disciples established the Christian and the Christianity group...This is something He wanted them to do...
Neither the Pharisee or Sadducee saw that Jesus was the One to come, and the One to fulfill the Old Testament Scriptures, and the very Law of Moses that the Pharisees, so firmly believed in...And the Temple of God, is God's home on earth and is mainly, if not exclusively, for worshiping Him and His Father...Maybe we should look at our rituals and our relationships closer...Maybe it is easier for us to follow rituals than to have a relationship with God and His Son...
Jesus knows the Bible better than anyone...Jesus fulfilled the Bible...Each Book of the Bible in some way represents the One God would send to us to teach us how the Bible should be lived...In His three years His teachings show us both how to live, and how to interpret the Bible...He represents and is the Bible, because He fulfills the Bible...And He want us to have a personal relationship with Him and His Father...