This is the end of studying the Ten Commandments this round, and leads into the first Advent Sunday heading towards the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We have looked at each of the Ten Commandments in a series of sermons and Sunday School lessons. Parents and children were looking at the same subject each week.
Today is also the first week of Advent. You saw the 1st candle being lit and listened to a reading. We are starting the walk into the Christmas story of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and how that impacted our lives.
The first half of my title today came from a church sign I saw online which was so appropriate to our series. The second part was a thought God gave me to add to it.
The Sunday School lesson gives us this relationship between the Old Testament and the New Testament:
OT – Our sin is real
NT – Our sin is gone.
The theme I am following for today is “The Law leads to the Cross.”
Exodus 20:1-17 and John 3:14-17 both give us lots to think about and to live by.
Let’s recap with a quick look at the Ten Commandments.
Elton Trueblood, in his book, ‘Foundations for Reconstruction,’ writes this poem which sums up the Ten Commandments:
Above all else love God alone;
Bow down to neither wood nor stone.
God’s name refuse to take in vain;
The Sabbath rest with care maintain.
Respect your parents all your days;
Hold sacred human life always.
Be loyal to your chosen mate;
Steal nothing, neither small nor great.
Report, with truth, your neighbor’s deed;
And rid your mind of selfish greed. 1
We have spent time understanding the Ten Commandments and seeing how they apply still today, in our current world. We need to remember them and constantly remind ourselves of the importance God put on them. At the same time, we need to look at what the life of Jesus Christ was all about.
Galatians 3:19 NIV
19 What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator.
We are reminded in many Scripture passages of the state we are in and what we need to do to move us into a better life of living with God.
Colossians 2:13-14 NIV
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
Romans 7:6,12 NIV
6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
12 So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is holy, righteous and good.
Then came Jesus! This was the beginning of the new way of living.
Matthew 1:20-21 NIV
20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
John 1:15-17 NIV
15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’
16 From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another.
17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
John 3:16-17 NIV
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Jesus starts us on this journey when He gives these insights to His life and the OT Law.
Matthew 5:17 NIV
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.”
Matthew 22:37-40 NIV
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Galatians 5:1 NIV
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
James 1:25 NIV
25 But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this—not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.
Psalm 119:11 NIV
11 I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.
We have heard, studied and learned the Ten Commandments. We have read and thought about how our Lord Jesus Christ came to earth to set us free from all the Law – not because the Law is wrong but because God wants us to be free of the burden of the Law. God’s commandments endure forever, the consequences are always there, but we can be free from those consequences if we trust in Jesus and learn to live the way God directs us.
Today we can start a new path of life. We can decide to let Jesus be our guide, mentor and Lord. Let’s pray and then watch a short video before we take Communion!
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