Jesus just told a crowd of sick, poor, overlooked people that the kingdom of heaven already belonged to them. Now he tells them what that kingdom actually asks of them, and it goes further than anyone on that hillside expected.

"Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:20)

In this teaching we walk through six places where Jesus takes something everyone in that crowd thought they already had handled, murder, adultery, divorce, oaths, retaliation, enemy love, and shows that the real target was never just the outward act. It was the heart. Not a higher bar than the most religious people of that day were held to. The bar that was there the whole time.

This is session 3 of a 5-part series through the Sermon on the Mount at Hope City Church.