Connect360: Nip It in the Bud

• Lesson 3 in the Connect360 unit “Kingdom Power: The Sermon on the Mount” focuses on Matthew 5:17-32.

The great theologian Barney Fife, a character played by Don Knotts on The Andy Griffith Show back in the 1960s, made famous the expression, “Nip it in the bud.” The statement means taking care of a problem in its early stages before it gets too big to manage.

The Law of Moses said, “Don’t murder.” Jesus told his followers, “Don’t even be angry with your brother.” The ancients were told, “Don’t commit adultery.” Jesus said, “Don’t even lust.”

One of the most important questions in life is, “How can we enter the kingdom of heaven?” The answer to this question has implications for our lives now and for all eternity. Jesus addressed this issue in Matthew 5:20, that is one of the key verses in the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus said only those who are more righteous than the scribes and Pharisees will enter the kingdom of heaven. How can this be true? No one was more righteous than these religious leaders, scrupulous in their attempt to keep the Law. They actually went beyond what the Law required. In the Old Testament, we hear about one day of fasting, yet the Pharisees fasted two days a week. They tithed every leaf in their garden. How can anyone be more righteous than they were?

Jesus spoke of a kingdom grace that transforms the heart. When Moses repeated the commandments in Deuteronomy 5, the people said, “We hear what you are saying, and we will do it.” God responded, “Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear me and keep all my commandments always” (Deuteronomy 5:29).

Jesus came to give them a new heart.

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