(15-20 minutes, easy set up)
Students will study Matthew 5:17-20 to understand how Jesus affirmed the significance of the Old Testament.
Provide a copy of the Student Worksheet and a pen for each student. Also provide a dry erase board and dry erase markers.
Learning Goal: Students will examine how Jesus fulfilled the Law and the Prophets.
Introduction: Ask: Have you worked on learning a foreign language yet? What makes learning a new language difficult? (copying the pronunciation, learning the rules for verb tenses and masculine and feminine nouns) Point out that no matter how well we know the rules of the language, or even how perfectly we pronounce the words, the proof of what we have learned is found in our ability to communicate in that language with others, especially those who have always spoken that language. Say: In the Scripture passage for today, Jesus addressed those who had grown up learning about and living under the Law and the Prophets. His message for them was that they still had much to learn.
1. Jesus confirmed the validity of the Old Testament (Matthew 5:17-18).
Ask: How important is the knowing what the Old Testament teaches? After a couple of responses, suggest that today’s lesson will help students understand the importance of the study of the Old Testament in a new way. Distribute a copy of the Student Worksheet and a pen to each student. Draw attention to the chart on the Worksheet and explain that this chart will be worked on for each lesson, so that students will have a fuller picture of Jesus’ divine image by the end of the six-week study. Encourage students to write “Jesus is the Fulfillment” in the first section of line 1.
Explain that the passage students will be exploring today is a small part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Call on a volunteer to read verses 17-18. Draw a line down the middle of the board and write “Law” on one side and “Prophets” on the other. Instruct half the students to look up the “Law” in the Old Testament on their smart phones to discover what is included in the Law and where the Law is recorded. Instruct the other half of the students to look up “Prophets in the Old Testament” to discover why the Prophets in the Old Testament were important and who were included as Prophets.
After a couple of minutes, call for responses. Use the information below as needed as students report:
Then, lead students to discuss:
Point out that Jesus confirmed The Bible is God's Word by fulfilling the smallest details contained in the Law and the Prophets. Instruct students to pair up with another student and to record what they’ve discovered about what it means that Jesus is the fulfillment of Scripture. After 30 seconds or so, call on responses. (Make sure responses include: Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s plan to redeem the world.)
2. Jesus confirmed the value of the Old Testament (Matthew 5:19-20).
Enlist a volunteer to read Matthew 5:19. Ask: What two responses to the commandments did Jesus describe? (Either “annulling” or “keeping” the commands.) Ask: What did Jesus mean by “annul”? Share some of the other ways this word is translated in versions other than the NASB: the NIV uses the phrase “sets aside,” the KJV uses the phrase “shall break,” the Message uses the word, “trivialize,” and the RSV uses the word “relaxes.” Write each word/phrase on the board as you share them. Ask: What do you think it means to when someone “breaks, sets aside, trivializes, or relaxes” God’s Word and leads others to do the same? (don’t take the Scripture seriously; interpret the Scripture the way they want it to read; teach others things about Scripture that are not true) According to these verses, what did Jesus say would happen to the person who did this? (They will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.) Ask: In contrast, what did Jesus say would happen to the person who “practices, keeps, does, takes seriously” the commandments and teaches others to do the same? (They will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.)
Enlist a volunteer to read Matthew 5:20. Explain that the scribes were responsible for copying and preserving the Old Testament Scriptures and that the Pharisees considered themselves to be experts in the Law. Point out they were considered important religious leaders of their people, and that the common Jewish people would have looked up to them as such. Ask: Why do you think Jesus’ statement must have shocked those who heard it? (Because Jesus said they would have to be more righteous than those leaders they looked up to.) Why is it impossible for us to enter the kingdom of heaven by our own righteousness—by relying on our own ability to obey all of God’s commands? (Only Jesus has ever been able to fully and completely obey God’s commands so He alone is able to atone for our sins.)
Encourage students to work with their partners to complete the last column on the first line of their worksheets. After a couple of minutes, call for responses, making sure to include I can place my faith in Jesus because He chose to fulfill God’s plan to redeem me.