Title: This Great Distraction Called Life

Text: Matthew 6:25-34

FCF: We often consider this life and all it has to offer supremely important

Prop: Because God is good, all-knowing, and sovereign, we must turn from our distractions and pursue God.

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Matthew chapter 6. After today we will be 1 chapter away from completing the first discourse of our Savior to the people He came to save. In this sermon it is abundantly clear that He is communicating that all the hope and security they placed in their perception of this world and even religion and faith was ill placed. That in fact, the world was far more different than they could have ever imagined. That their entire worldview was askew and distorted. Interestingly enough, as we pointed out earlier, Jesus does not come close to presenting the gospel to the people who stood before Him on the plain. In fact, even looking ahead a little bit to the conclusion of the sermon, he leaves them with somewhat of a casual invitation to hear and heed. But doesn’t really tell them where to go. As far as gospel presentations, most evangelists would have given him a failing grade. But perhaps the way those evangelists give the gospel is the real failure. In today’s snippet, Jesus will clearly show us how off course we are. He will communicate a message of complete nonsense, and expect us to believe Him. He has actually been doing this the entire time, but what He says today… will be the greatest challenge yet to our perception of the world. I’m in Matthew chapter 6. I’ll start reading in verse 25. I’ll be reading from the NET today, but please follow along in the version you prefer.

Transition:

Let’s just dive right in today. I am anxious to show you what Jesus is saying.

I.) God is a good, all knowing, and sovereign, so we must stop being distracted by our life. (25-32)

a. [Slide 2] – 25 - Therefore

i. In light of perfection being needed to enter the Kingdom

ii. In light of the fact that the way you perceive the world is absolutely backward and upside down… that literally everything you are pursuing is getting you nowhere.

b. I tell you

i. Based on no teacher’s authority

ii. Based on no book’s authority

iii. Based on His authority alone

c. Do not worry about your life

i. Stop worrying

1. Do not has the idea of immediate cessation of a current practice, not a future hypothetical prohibition.

2. Worry here is placed in a comparative and contrasting relationship with the word pursue in verse 32 and 33. Therefore, whatever we see worry to mean here, it must communicate in some way a connected thought to what is said in verse 32 and 33.

3. The word here means to be anxious or to have a mind that is divided or distracted.

ii. Stop being distracted by your life

1. Life here is certainly meaning our temporal earthly existence.

2. More specifically our physical needs here.

3. Stop being kept off course by mere physical earthly needs.

4. Like what?

d. What you will eat or drink or about your body what you will wear.

i. We must take these at face value

1. Need is something you have probably never known.

2. To worry about where our next meal is coming from. To be parched for water. To not own a shirt, shoes, or a jacket. These are all situations that few of us have probably found ourselves in.

3. Yet to Jesus’ crowd this was something that hit close to home.

4. No doubt many who saw him that day were not exactly wealthy. Most were probably poverty stricken.

5. Certainly the pursuit or worry over food, drink and clothing would not be seen as a distraction by most. Why?

6. Because it was a need to live. Both the preservation and continuance of life depended on these three items.

ii. But we can also take them and apply them a bit farther.

1. We have separated our needs out today

2. Emotional, physical and mental needs.

3. It is entirely appropriate, and given the following context, absolutely necessary to apply this to all categories of need. This would include not only physical but emotional, social, and mental needs as well.

e. Isn’t there more to life than food and more to the body than clothing

i. The word more here can mean either greater in quantity or greater in quality. It is difficult to say which is intended here.

ii. Both are true. Life does not consist solely of food, water and clothing. But also there are far more important matters than simply food, water and clothing also.

iii. not only would your life be incomplete if you had only these, it would also be ordinary, mundane and dull if you had only these. You would be living but is it really living?

iv. Therefore, to focus on and obsess over these three things makes very little sense, since they are neither the total nor pinnacle of life.

f. [Slide 3] - 26 - Look at the Birds of the sky: They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them.

i. The point is not that birds do not work for their food. It is obvious that they do go out and collect.

ii. The point is that they do not plant, harvest, or store the grain. They go out every day to find food and bring it back to their nests.

iii. Yet every day they return to feed themselves and their young. In other words, the bird relies on the environmental system that God designed and upholds.

iv. Does this mean no bird ever starves? No.

v. This is a proverb. Something that is generally true. In this case it is an illustrational proverb. A general truth observed to convey a deeper truth.

g. Aren’t you more valuable than they are?

i. If God cares for a soulless bird, and has designed the environment to operate in such a way that they can survive without taking drastic measures to do so…

ii. Then He certainly cares for you, a creature made in His image, and commanded to subdue the earth.

iii. Now we must be cautious here. Proponents of the self-esteem movement have used this verse and verse 30 to defend the concept that God thinks that you are worth an awful lot. That you are of GREAT value. And from a surface level perspective, it seems that they are right. But what does Jesus say, and to whom is He saying it? That will help us test this proof text of the self-esteem movement.

1. Jesus is not actually saying you are of great value. He is simply saying that you are more valuable than birds. So Jesus is not teaching that humanity is of great value to God, but is instead teaching that humanity is not equal to animals. In the hierarchy of importance, animals (and plants later) are not on the same level as humanity. Jesus’ assumption is that they understand this.

2. So if Jesus is not teaching that we are of great value, what is he teaching?

3. He is teaching that all humanity is of some value. Why are we of some value?

4. God’s image in us is important to God, because it is He who put it in man, and it belongs to Him.

5. Therefore our worth to God is intrinsically woven to His image that He placed in us. In other words. We only have value because He gave us value. And that value was tarnished by sin. That image was broken by sin.

iv. We have to see this proverbially as well since it pairs with the birds. Otherwise, if any human being ever died from overexposure, dehydration or malnutrition, this passage of scripture would be untrue and the bible would crumble in on itself. Therefore, as is often the case, the truth in this passage isn’t about man at all. It is about God. God is good. So good that even in our depraved state He still supplies our food, drink and clothing in most cases. To the righteous and unrighteous alike. We should leave this text not saying… wow I am so valuable to God, but instead, wow, why wouldn’t I value God above all else? Even above food, water and clothing.

h. [Slide 4] - 27 - And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life?

i. If this is true of God… then the logical conclusion is spelled out by Jesus.

ii. In your distraction and preoccupation with the physical things of this life, how many of you can actually add an hour to your life?

iii. Who is in charge of life and death?

iv. Just as God is good, this short question reminds us that God is sovereign. God is never powerless to prevent or act. He is in ultimate control over life and death. To the extent that even those who commit suicide and homicide bow to His ultimate plan even if they stomp on His moral plan.

v. Perhaps you know someone who committed suicide or even murdered someone. Perhaps you are thinking, so it was God’s will that that person die? Obviously not in that way but certainly that they die, yes. I imagine being an Israelite watching Pharaoh say no repeatedly to letting them go, they would have concluded that Pharaoh was acting outside of God’s ultimate plan. But to assume such a thing would be wrong. I know that those who followed Jesus to His death thought that His crucifixion was the end of God’s ultimate plan, even though we know they were wrong. God allows men to choose, but never yields His Sovereignty to do so.

vi. Jesus continues.

i. [Slide 5] - 28-29 - Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers of the field grow; they do not work or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these!

i. Another proverb

ii. The word for flowers could mean 1 of several varieties so it is perhaps best to leave it as an ambiguous flower rather than a lily or otherwise.

iii. Flowers do not harvest wool and spin it into pedals to adorn them. They are provided sunlight and rain which causes them to grow.

iv. It is not that the plant does not seek these through photosynthesis and root systems, but they don’t have to make it rain or go get the sunlight.

v. Yet they are more magnificent in splendor than all the wealth imaginable.

j. [Slide 6] - 30 - And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, won’t He clothe you even more,

i. This is a symmetrical point as the birds. Here Jesus does not reference value so much as he references longevity.

ii. Plants grow and die quickly. But there is something immortal put into men which make them unfading and unending.

iii. Since we endure and plants do not, does it not make sense that God, being good and being sovereign would not clothe us to a greater degree?

k. you people of little faith?

i. somewhat of a harsh indictment on the surface. I mean what were they worried about? Not their 401ks, not their Cadillac that is in the shop, not their healthcare premiums, or doctor bills… they are worried about food. Clothing. Water. Those seems like good things to be concerned about right? Suddenly them being concerned about it is lacking faith? How does that work?

ii. Jesus hits the nail on the head here. which is like, DUH

iii. Worry , anxiety, or a preoccupation on anything earthly, is rooted in disbelief. Jesus has in not so many words shown us that God is both good and sovereign. He is both benevolent and omnipotent. To worry is to deny that you believe one or both of these things.

iv. Or as one theologian puts it “Worry is practical atheism and an affront to God” Robert Mounce.

l. [Slide 7] – 31-32 - So then, don’t worry saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink” or “What will we wear”

i. Since all this is true… Don’t be distracted by questions of physical provision

ii. Don’t be thrown off course by things you perceive as your greatest need.

iii. Don’t be preoccupied with the things that you have assigned greatest importance.

iv. Why?

m. For the unconverted pursue these things,

i. Gentiles do this guys. Pagans do this.

ii. You are called out as Jews to be set apart. To come out from among them.

iii. To be DIFFERENT. Yet you are no different. You are exactly the same.

iv. Again if these people were half paying attention there would have been an uproar here. They would have said – What are you trying to say Jesus? You saying we are no different than Gentiles? But again… the plain was silent.

v. Why else should you stop worrying?

n. And your Father knows that you need them

i. God is not only good and Sovereign, but He is also All knowing.

ii. He is not blind to your need.

iii. so much so that before you even ask in prayer he already knows you need it.

iv. So many Gentiles are desperate for their gods to hear them, but your God doesn’t need to hear you to know your need.

Transition:

[Slide 8] So to summarize what Jesus is saying, basically He is telling us that God is good, all-knowing and sovereign and worry about your needs when you say you believe that He is all of these, is a contradiction. So stop being distracted by these petty things. [Slide 9] But that leads us to the question, “so what do I pursue?”

II.) God is a good, all knowing, sovereign , so we must put our highest priority on pursuing God (33-34)

a. [Slide 10] – 33-34 - But above all

i. Even though you could be content to rest in that promise that God will supply your needs. That God is good, sovereign and all-knowing.

ii. There is a greater element of life that has yet to be mentioned.

iii. Remember how Jesus said that food, water and clothing were not all life was about? That both in their number and in their importance they were lacking?

iv. Perhaps after those statements you were wondering… well what else is there? What is of the highest priority since these seem to be kinda insignificant?

v. With these two words, above all, Jesus will clue us in to exactly that.

b. pursue

i. If worry means distracted or preoccupied with the mundane

ii. pursue is its antonym. Pursue means on course, focused and obsessed with the extraordinary.

iii. To paint a word picture – worry is a jogging toddler looking every which way but forward, zig-zagging to and fro heading to no real destination. Something with which I am intimately acquainted. Pursuit, however, is an Olympic sprinter with eyes fixed on the goal.

iv. But what are we to pursue? What is the greatest priority in life?

c. His Kingdom

i. The rule and reign of God over all aspects of life.

ii. Pursuing this means both in your own life and on earth endeavoring to make life as it would be in the Kingdom.

iii. It is absolute dependence and absolute surrender.

iv. God’s will reigns in and through you.

d. and His righteousness

i. The moral will of God producing a blameless person

ii. Absolute rightness with no wickedness to speak of.

iii. Just or without evidence to bring a charge.

iv. There is absolutely no hope of reaching these things practically or otherwise without Christ.

v. Remember Jesus is speaking to a group of Jews who thought that the Kingdom was going to be an earthly empire facilitated by a book of Joshua type of messiah that would ride out and wipe away every enemy. So for Jesus to say – pursue God’s Kingdom and righteousness… would have at least perplexed them if not outright burst their bubble. How can I pursue something you are supposed to be bringing with you? How can I pursue God’s righteousness? Who is like the Lord right?

e. and all these things

i. All what things?

ii. Food, water, clothing – physical and earthly needs

f. will be given to you as well

i. If you pursue the Kingdom and righteousness of God – not only will you get the kingdom and righteousness of God

ii. But all these things you once thought were so important will be given to you.

iii. If you fight to keep your life you will lose it, but if you lose your life for my sake you will gain it. If you pursue the ONE from whom all life flows, you will have life and you will have it more abundantly.

iv. Now we know that many Christians from the book of Acts to the present have died of starvation, dehydration and over exposure. So is this a lie?

v. Jesus is no doubt not referring to this life but when the Kingdom of God is fully realized. In fact it seems that the last chapter has been primarily about how this world, this life, this temporary existence is in fact not worth investing in. That of course He will be your food, water and clothing. He alone offers unwavering eternal care of His children in His Kingdom. That is why later we are told to seek His Kingdom first.

vi. In fact, a staggering thought is woven to all of this. The only reason we have need is because we are bound to this world. Why then would we focus on this world to supply our needs, when it is the one causing the need.

g. So then, do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself

i. Tomorrow is not your concern.

ii. Leave that to the good, all knowing, sovereign God.

h. Today has enough trouble of its own

i. All you need to focus on, is God.

ii. That should give you enough for today.

iii. One day, One step at a time, living in faith and obedience to Him. Pursuit of Him and His will.

iv. Indeed today may be full of trouble. Why add to it, by being worried about tomorrow’s trouble too.

v. Like the bird and the flower do not prepare for the future by storing up sunlight or grain, but go out each day and trust in God’s providence. So we, day by day, depend on Him. We learn from the past, plan in His will for the future, and live and fight and passionately pursue His Kingdom and Righteousness in the present.

Transition:

[Slide 11] So to summarize what Jesus is saying, it is basically this, God, His Kingdom and His Righteousness, is all you need to focus on today. Pursue Him today. So combining that with what we learned about Him, it has some pretty tough applications for us.

Conclusion:

This world and all that is in it is nothing more than a great distraction. It didn’t start that way. God made it perfect as He was perfect. He designed it to bring Him glory and honor. Even of humanity He was well pleased. And if that state, that Garden Era continued uninterrupted, then there would be nothing in this world, created by this amazing God that would seem at all worth getting distracted for.

[Slide 12] Perhaps one of the most perplexing statements in Genesis for many people is when Adam and Eve sinned, what did they notice about themselves. They came to the sudden realization that they were naked. Now to those more critical or unobservant there might be a temptation to snicker or sneer. But to me, those are some of the saddest words in scripture. Do you know why? It was the first sign that their perception had changed. Now we can argue as to the exact moment that both Adam and Eve sinned, was it the biting of the fruit or before that… in any case, the first sign that their perception of the world was different was themselves. They looked at each other and suddenly discovered… we are vulnerable. We have needs. We need clothing… Food… Water. They realized that they had shame and guilt. Meaning of course that they needed honor and innocence. Before they needed neither. Now, all of a sudden, they did. So much so that when God came to meet them they tried to hide. [Slide 13] And when He questioned them they tried to secure their innocence by blaming others.

From that day on… Life on earth became a powerful distraction. Remember what Eve thought as the words of that worm rang in her ears.

1.) The fruit was good for food – Physical sustenance – But Eve who was your sustainer?

2.) Attractive to the eye – Pleasure – But Eve who alone satisfies?

3.) Desirable to make one wise – But Eve from where does wisdom come?

From that day my friends, mankind has been plagued by this life. For most of us, this life will be no longer than 100 years. [Slide 14] Compared to the history of man that is 1.5% of time. Your life only makes up 1.5% of what has already happened. And each year, that percentage gets smaller. [Slide 15] Compared to the world’s population, your life represents . 12 zeros 2539% of the world’s current population. [Slide 16] And based on the 107 billion people who have ever lived on the earth you represent . . 14 zeros 93% of the world’s cumulative population. [Slide 17] Not to mention the fact that we live on 1 of 100 billion planets in our galaxy alone and suddenly perhaps you start to wonder where we get the impression that the Lions winning a superbowl is like SUPER important. [Slide 18 (blank)] Maybe we even start to wake up and realize that whether we live or die doesn’t matter as much as we think it does. Maybe we start to realize that the fact that God gives any value to us is pretty amazing.

You know what we lost at the fall? Perspective.

Our hearts were turned outward toward God, and we saw this big wide world He made, and this great big God we serve and we didn’t need anything as long as we had HIm then we fell and all that didn’t matter anymore. Our hearts were turned in on ourselves, we forgot this great big God was even there and we started worrying about infinitely smaller things, assuming that our lives depended on them.

[Slide 19] Worry, as we saw today, is a mind distracted from pursuing the extraordinary to obsess over the mundane.

[Slide 20] Like when a radar guided missile is fired at a target. They deploy a cloud of small, thin pieces of aluminum, glass fiber or plastic. To the radar guidance system it makes it look like there are several smaller targets rather than 1 large target. The missile guidance system gets confused and seeks out the biggest and closest object. Which is rarely the intended target.

Like the cloud, our depravity causes us to focus inwardly on self. We become absolutely consumed by things of infinitely small value. Like our future… Like our job… Like politics. Like sports.

[Slide 21 (blank)] We were made for more than this!

We were made to be image bearers. We were made to reflect the glory of the King of the Universe. We were made to be His ambassadors, His Children, His servants, His friends. And our depravity ripped that all away from Him and just when His name could not be tarnished any more, He came riding in on a donkey and was lifted up on a cross, raised from a grave, conquered death and took back humanity from the clutches of sin and death.

And after all this, what sense would it make if after being ripped from the arms of sin and death, His children would willingly keep on sinning and would be obsessed with sustaining their life and living for comfort in a world destined to burn.

So what do we do instead?

Chase after God. His Kingdom and His Righteousness

Devour everything you can about Him. So much so that your thoughts become His thoughts. Your feelings become His feelings and your actions become His actions. We’ve looked at this before, but honestly this is at the very core of what it means to seek God’s Kingdom and Righteousness. It is pretty simple [Slide 22]

1.) Head – Meaning The Holy Spirit is transforming our minds– We seek truth in the bible. The bible is God’s thoughts about Himself, humanity, life, worship and everything else. As we devour His Word, since the Spirit is woven to our minds we begin to understand God’s thoughts. We start to see the world the way He sees it, which is drastically different than how we saw it before.

2.) Heart – Meaning the Holy Spirit Turns our Hearts – As our minds begin to change to think the way God thinks, and since the Spirit is woven to our emotions, we begin to feel the way God feels about ourselves, other followers of Christ, those who do not follow Christ, the needy, this world and everything it offers. We rejoice, mourn, feel compassion and concern the same way God would. We hate what God hates.

3.) Hands – Meaning the Holy Spirit Guides our actions so we become teachers of God’s message – With God’s mind and God’s heart and the Spirit woven to our hands, feet, eyes and voices, we go out into the culture around us and show others the truth of God. We seek to share with them His thoughts and feelings. We seek to help others as God would help them and give them God’s truth with God’s motivation.

All this is impossible for the unbeliever. Since they do not have the Spirit of God.

For the Believer this is a relentless pursuit of our creator and it all starts with what He has revealed about Himself in this book.

We live in a country with hundreds of different English translations of the bible. Each with several thousand copies. From Amazon to walmart you can go to any of these places and buy a bible and some places give them out for free. We have countless books written about the bible as reference works bringing insight to the culture, history, language, date, time, setting, mindset, geology, political factions, and societal norms of every single verse.

It is safe to conclude that we have unrestricted access to the truth and teaching of the bible.

But a recent study by Lifeway produced some horrifying stats.

They found that 80% of church goers do not read their bible every day. [Slide 23]

19% said every day

25% said every 2-3 days

14% said once a week

22% said once a month

18% said rarely or never

Now before you go blaming those Catholics… This was a survey of almost 3,000 Protestant regular church attendees.

So only 45% of Protestant church goers are regularly engaged in bible reading. And again… this is just reading… not study. The President noted, as this was only 1 statistic of a larger discipleship study they did that

[Slide 24] "The impact of the Word of God on people's lives is seen in the relationship between Bible engagement and turning from wrongdoings and choosing to obey God – two indicators of higher Bible engagement scores," he added. "Such tangible life changes show the transformational impact of Bible engagement in the life of a disciple of Christ."

So if it is so important, why don’t we do it?

My guess… we are worried about “what will I eat?” “What will I Drink” “What will I wear”

Far too busy to focus on the God’s Kingdom and His Righteousness. We have better things to do.

But can you imagine what would happen if we pursued His Kingdom and Righteousness and recklessly abandoned everything else?

[Slide 25 (let it play, it will change automatically)] We look at Missionaries who abandoned all they had to go to Africa and die of some terrible disease serving God, and we wonder, wow what great Christians. We look at the reformers who stood boldly against the control of the papacy and defended the true gospel to the point of enduring the most sadistic forms of torture, and doing so with songs of praise on their lips, and we think, wow what Great Christians. We hear about how each and every apostle of Jesus Christ was hunted down and sentenced to death by the most cruel forms of execution imaginable and we think wow, what Great Christians.

[Slide 26 (end)] You know what. There is no such thing as Great Christians. Only a Great Christ. The only difference between us and them is that they ran out of distractions. They saw how great He was and desired nothing else but to pursue Him.

But we worry about healthcare and retirement. College and marriage. We get dumped and it shakes the foundations of our world and we wonder if we’ll die alone. We worry about getting a job we love because heaven forbid we get a job that we don’t like. Then we’d have to work for a paycheck and not for fulfillment. I remember thinking in High School, you know what Jesus better not come until that next video game comes out because I don’t want to miss it. Yeah, your pastor actually thought that. But you know what I keep discovering about all the things I value in this life?

It’s all dung friends. It is all waste. It all burns.

All these things will be given to you also.

If you are pursuing God and He gives you a wife, then Praise Him. If not, then you still have Him right? If you are pursuing God and He gives you a great job that you love, Praise Him. If not, you still have Him right? If you are pursuing God and He allows you to enjoy something on this earth praise Him, but if not, you still have Him right?

If you are pursuing God and He leads you to a stake where you will be burned alive for pursuing Him… Praise Him because they can’t take Him from you. In fact, they only push you closer to what you are chasing.

Perhaps that is actually what He means when He says I will never leave you nor forsake you. That when we don’t expect Him to join with us, but instead join with Him, He will always be constant.

It is time for us in Affluent America to gain some perspective. The only thing that matters is God’s Kingdom and Righteousness. And in a country full of distractions… I fear we have been marveling over the pot hole in the parking lot next to the grand canyon for so long that we may have forgotten how breathtaking and awesome our God truly is.

May God give us grace to remember before it all burns.

Title: Hoodwinked

Text: Matthew 6:19-24

FCF: We often catch ourselves seeking fulfillment in things that fade and fail.

Prop: What you pursue shows who we worship, so we must put our highest priority on seeking God and His Kingdom.

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Matthew chapter 6. The section of scripture we are going to look at this morning is not exclusively in the book of Matthew. We also find it in Luke 11, 12 and 16. Luke uses these sayings in different contexts and at chronologically different times in Jesus’ ministry. As such, many have concluded that Matthew pieced together this sermon from various points of Jesus’ teachings, making this less of a sermon with a main point and more like a grouping of proverbial phrases and lessons from several points in Jesus’ ministry. There is a much simpler explanation of course. Most likely, since we know that Jesus was an itinerate preacher meaning that he spoke in various places; we assume that He no doubt repeated the content of his messages. Therefore we don’t have to assume that Matthew doctored up this sermon or that Luke ripped it apart. Instead it is simply that Jesus repeated himself, even to teach a different point. But what is Jesus teaching here? He just finished talking about our motives being important in our piety. And three times he said that God would reward things done in secret if we don’t pursue man’s honor. But what is that reward? Treasure? Wisdom? Security? That is probably what prompts Jesus to talk about the lasting treasure of the Kingdom of God. I’m in verse 19 of Matthew chapter 6. I’ll be reading from the New King James Version but follow along in whatever version you prefer.

Sermon Intro:

[Slide 2] Have you ever thought about how ridiculous eating for pleasure is? No seriously. Think about it. What is food for? To provide fuel to our bodies so that we can continue. Right? So why does it matter whether it is Tofu or a steak? Why does it matter if it is Brussels sprouts or pizza? Why do we have so many variants of so many types of food? How many types of fuel do you put into your car? I’m not talking brands, but types. You don’t put in gas one week and dirt the next right? Why don’t we just eat gruel for every meal? It would sustain us right? We’d have fuel. But no. Today we have the food network. Today we have apps designed to find different places to eat based on the type of food you are looking to eat. There are people out there known as foodies. Maybe you are one of them. Basically they are super picky about their food because they can “taste the difference”. Now I’m not saying we should go to gruel every day. I love the variety God has given us, but have you ever stopped to wonder why we spend so much time, money, and energy pursuing food? Especially when you know that in 8 hours or less it will, how do I say this, no longer be with you. That is a pretty short relationship right? 8 hours. Can you imagine if we moved on from relationships that fast? And yet, we pursue what we like, what we crave even.

Unfortunately, food is not the only thing we pursue in life that ultimately fades or fails us. In fact, I’d challenge you to think of something on this rock that we pursue that doesn’t fade or fail us. And just like some people are foodies, others are work alcoholics. Some are Facebookers. Others are Sales gurus. Others are defined by who they are dating or what their gamerscore is. Some have higher ambition like being a family man, or being a church goer or ministry helper. But at the end of the day… everything I have mentioned up to this point is like grass. It withers and it fades. Even ministry can quickly become unnecessary or unbiblical. Even churches can close their doors. Even families can crumble. In fact there is one common thread in everything we have discussed. It all burns. It is all fleeting and fading. It is volatile and it is fragile.

[Slide 3] So, what Chris, it’s suddenly it is wrong to be a family man? That isn’t what I said. But with great subtlety, we are so easily veered off our heading ever so slightly. So that even good actions with good intentions can quickly steal our aim away from that which is most important.

Jesus will tell us today, in no uncertain terms, that what we pursue betrays the truth of what we love with your whole heart. What we pursue tips our hand as to what cards we are holding.

So then, rather than pursuing the infinite number of things that we could… let us put our highest priority, our one aim, our focused chase, on seeking the King and His Kingdom first.

Transition:

[Slide 4] In verses 19-21 Jesus will tell us that the things that we consider of greatest value show what we love in the deepest recesses of our hearts. And when I say love, I mean unconditional, unwavering, love. Perhaps a better word would be, worship. What we value most reveals what we worship.

I.) The Kingdom’s treasure is eternal and this world’s treasure is not, so we must put our highest priority as seeking the Kingdom. (19-21)

a. [Slide 5] – 19 - Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth

i. To lay up means to heap or store.

ii. for yourselves indicates the purpose of the store housing of wealth or valuables. It is purely self-gratification.

iii. on earth clearly forms the ongoing dichotomy between the world’s philosophy and the Kingdom’s philosophy.

iv. Just as Jesus endeavored to destroy the system of gathering honor for yourself through piety so he endeavors to destroy the system of gathering and hoarding material possessions for yourself.

b. Where moth and rust destroy

i. On earth things decay

ii. As a ramification of the curse, all things break down

iii. Moth destroys organic matter

iv. Rust destroys metal.

c. and where thieves break in and steal

i. What cannot be destroyed easily, also cannot be protected easily.

ii. Usually what is difficult to destroy is valuable. (except maybe the cockroach)

d. [Slide 6] – 20 - but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven

i. instead of thinking this way, selfishly heaping up wealth and possessions for yourself as you would have heaped up honor for yourself

ii. rather – heap up wealth or things of value in heaven.

iii. What is meant by treasures in heaven? Before we answer that, let’s see if the context helps us.

e. where neither moth nor rust destroys

i. Treasures in heaven, things that are valuable in heaven cannot be destroyed.

ii. There is no way for them to decay or fade.

iii. They are eternal. They are like God. In fact, they are no doubt woven to His character somehow.

f. and where thieves do not break in and steal

i. Heaven is absolutely secure against incursion.

ii. The only things that pass through the gates are things that God permits to pass through.

iii. It is, therefore, impossible for thieves to break in and steal what is of value in heaven.

iv. So what is valuable in heaven is woven to the character and nature of God.

v. This will help us to understand what exactly is of value in the Kingdom. The short answer is, anything that is like God is of value. So when we obey, when we think like God, feel like God, live like God, speak like God – when we are like Him, we are accumulating treasures in heaven. We are furthering the Kingdom.

g. [Slide 7] – 21 - for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also

i. Jesus switches to a singular pronoun here. Up to this point he was saying you all. Don’t you all heap up treasures now.  Now Jesus is pointing the finger at each person individually. He is communicating a universal truth that is the same for every person regardless of background. What is this truth?

ii. What you value communicates who you are at the very core of your being.

iii. That is not to say that the path to changing who you are is by changing what you value.

iv. It is not a statement of cause but of affect. Your heart is a certain way and that affects what you value.

v. So how does one change their heart? Well that is what Jesus is trying to get across to these folks. That they can’t change their heart.

h. [Slide 8] To summarize what Jesus is saying here, it is that the world’s most valuable things are temporary and fleeting. Even the world’s definition of love, family and success are all fleeting. What is valuable in God’s Kingdom are things related to God’s nature. And they are everlasting. So pursue Him, and you will heap up things that are truly valuable, and can never be taken away.

Transition:

[Slide 9] Jesus continues by telling us that what we perceive to be true about this life betrays the truth about how dark our hearts truly are.

II.) The Kingdom’s Light allows us to see clearly while the world’s Light (actually darkness) blinds us, so we must put our highest priority as seeking the Kingdom (22-23)

a. [Slide 10] – 22 - The lamp of the body is the eye

i. Light enables us to see things that are hidden. It allows us to navigate and find our way. If you do not understand, go on a deserted country road and turn off your headlights and attempt to drive.

ii. Don’t actually do that… but you get my point.

iii. So like light guides us and enables us to see clearly, imagine that the eye is a lamp.

iv. Our eyes guide us. Without them we would be in darkness.

b. If therefore your eye is good

i. They eye becomes a metaphor for the spiritual side of our natures.

ii. The word for good here is difficult to translate.

iii. It means sound or fortified. Certain derivatives of the word also mean clear, healthy, or even generous.

iv. Jesus probably employed the use of this word to present a double meaning.

1. He most certainly means generosity as it is a passage with obvious material overtones.

2. But another layer of truth is beginning to emerge and will continue to do so until we reach the end of chapter 6.

3. Saying that your eye is good would indicate that you are focused, clear, and healthy. It means that you have the right priorities and you see the world the way God sees the world. It means that your passion, your pursuit, your aim is fixed on God. This of course would lead a person to be generous since they view the things of this world as temporary; therefore they aren’t to be heaped up for a selfish purpose.

c. your whole body will be full of light

i. So just as a person who’s eye is functioning properly can see clearly to judge distance and avoid obstacles

ii. So also a person who is focused on God and generous is a person who sees the world as it is and can operate correctly to avoid false assumptions and idolatry.

d. [Slide 11] – 23 - But if your eye is bad

i. Bad here is the word traditionally used for evil, but can also be used as someone who is a miser or greedy.

ii. Again, we see what is probably an intentional word play happening.

1. Where Jesus is both meaning the general concept of being out of step with how God sees the world and God’s prioritization of the world and all that is in it

2. and also specifically how that would apply to wealth in that a person hoards material things because they do not see the world the way God does.

e. your whole body will be full of darkness

i. As an affect of having a focus out of step with God’s to the extent that you hoard possessions for this temporary and fleeting life

ii. the cause is that you have a body that is full of darkness.

iii. You see the if phrase here is not causative but affective. Your eye is bad because you have a body full of darkness.

iv. Both this comment on darkness and the comment on light reveal the same truth that verse 21 did. That what we treasure reveals where our heart is, so also, how we perceive the world reveals the true nature of our spiritual condition.

f. if therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

i. So if you perceive the world to the extent that what you value and what you pursue is miserly and out of step with God, yet you claim to be of the light, you claim to be religious, you claim to be God’s people

ii. Then how great is the darkness of your heart in that you have so desperately been deceived to think that you are good, when you are in fact quite the opposite.

iii. Jesus’ argument is an argument that Matthew will repeat over and over and over again. It is the idea that those who are closest to the truth, yet do not have saving and changing faith, are the most lost among us.

iv. Do you realize what that means? It means that prostitutes, thieves, drug addicts and serial killers have a greater chance for light in their hearts than those who sit in church every Sunday but do not have saving faith. And as James says, saving faith is a faith that changes us.

v. This is not the first bomb that Jesus drops on empty religion and ineffective faith, but it is certainly the most potent thus far. But did the people around Him understand? I don’t think they did. If they did… there most certainly would have been an uproar. But the plane stayed silent as he continued to teach.

vi. And if you are not careful, you too will stand silent before what Jesus is teaching you today. That if you are able to sit through the gospel being preached to you, and you have a faith that isn’t changing you to be like Christ, if your faith has been ineffective to cause you to grow to any real degree in the last week, month, year or decade, then you are in greater darkness than a witch doctor in an unreached tribal community on an island that no one has ever heard of. The darkness in your heart is so thick, that it would take something cataclysmic to get through. That if Jesus came today instead of in the 1st century, his harshest words would have been reserved for you, the modern Pharisee.

vii. If that is you… If you are a Christian by name, but have seen no effects of your faith – perhaps the Spirit is speaking to you now. If so – don’t wait for the end of the service. Don’t wait for the end of the sermon. I know that a deacon here would love to talk to you about your spiritual future. Just get up and pull them aside – deacons who are ready to talk to these folks can you raise your hands? There they are… don’t wait, heed Jesus’ warning. It is not enough to be religious… you must be in Christ. You must have a faith that is alive.

g. [Slide 12] So to summarize what Jesus is saying here, he is saying that God’s light, God’s perspective on the world and all that is in it is the correct perspective and the only one that allows us to see clearly because it is light. The world’s light is actually darkness and emanates from within us. If then, we are seeing clearly, we will be generous. If we see the world the way God does, we will be generous.

Transition:

[Slide 13] Finally Jesus reveals that the thing that we passionately and tirelessly work to accomplish reveals the real master that we serve.

III.) The Kingdom’s Master is in direct conflict with every other would be master, so we must put our highest priority as seeking the Kingdom (24)

a. [Slide 14] – 24 - No one can serve two masters

i. Masters here are slave owners.

ii. Being a slave was a full-time commitment. It was not even a full-time job – it was greater than that.

iii. You were at the beckon call of the master at all times. You became part of the family, but you certainly were property.

iv. To think that you could potentially have two masters as a slave is ridiculous. They are simply incompatible.

v. Therefore Jesus’ statement is not a command, as in don’t serve two, but a certainty of fact, as in, it is impossible to serve two.

b. for either he will hate the one and love the other

i. Love and hate is a rhetorical tool. It is not meant to convey the actual emotions or choices of love and hate. Especially since last week we learned we were not justified to hate anyone.

ii. Hate here instead is an object of comparison. The rhetorical tool being employed is primarily to show the absolute incompatibility between the two masters. They are in such opposite directions that to choose to go east, is to choose to never go west. To choose to love one, would be considered an act of war against the other.

c. or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other

i. Same concept only spelled out a little differently.

ii. To choose to be loyal to one is to be disloyal to another. If one person says to go to Lansing and the other says to go to Sarnia, how do you accomplish both of those? You don’t. You choose to be loyal to one and choose to betray the another.

d. You cannot serve God and mammon.

i. Mammon is an old word. Probably from Chaldean, meaning it was around when Daniel was in Babylon.

ii. The word used to mean to entrust. It was a banking term when you entrusted someone with your possessions. Eventually the word came to mean where you place your confidence.

iii. It is obvious by Jesus’ time that the world came to mean wealth or money and the way it came to that meaning is easy to see. Men often place their confidence in money or possessions.

iv. Knowing the backdrop of this word and the double meaning and spiritual meanings that Jesus is weaving into this, it makes me curious as to whether Jesus used this word specifically to illicit a multilayered meaning.

v. There were other Greek words that Matthew could have used to translate Jesus’ Aramaic if the word Jesus intended was wealth or money or riches. Which leads me to wonder why he chose this old word instead.

vi. Perhaps Jesus is building an argument. That all the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.

vii. Perhaps Jesus is saying that all things you place confidence in besides God are foreign masters that are darkness and fading treasures.

viii. Money is absolutely one of them and a specific application that is evident in this text. But perhaps… there is more to Jesus’ argument here than simply possessions.

e. [Slide 15] So to summarize Jesus’ words he is saying that God is the only master that we can have and no other will provide the light and treasure that are pure and lead to life. Whether that be wealth and possessions or anything at all that is of this world and not of the Kingdom.

Transition:

[Slide 16 (blank)] So what can we take away from this passage of scripture today? What can we learn? How do we respond?

Conclusion:

[Slide 17] The things we consider of greatest value show what we love in the deepest corners of our hearts.

What we perceive to be true about this life betrays the truth about how dark our hearts truly are.

The thing that we passionately and tirelessly work to accomplish reveals the real master that we serve.

[Slide 18] In short, what we pursue shows what we worship.

There is a world that has been built up in every culture of every age of every land. It is a world that serves to distract, blind, confuse and distort reality. It is a false world. A façade. A phony. But we have been immersed in it, raised in it, exposed to it and saturated with it. Since our birth it is all we have ever known. And since it is all we have ever known, it is what we think is truth. As with any good lie, this world possesses elements of truth. The misinformation is not overt. So small is the lie that without digging it would be impossible to find. And why dig to find it when you have been told that everything we need is on the surface?

The sermon on the mount as a whole has been building an irrefutable argument. One that cannot be cast aside. And up to today you might have missed it. But today Jesus makes it abundantly clear. The world you know is a lie. It is a clever ruse to throw you off the scent of the truth.

Jesus first attempts to communicate that to them by telling them what Kingdom citizens look like. Which all of them should have been scratching their heads and thinking, well that is impossible.

Then Jesus attempts to show them what Kingdom citizens do. A clear dichotomy is being formed between the Kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of this world. Not only are they not the same, but they are in direct conflict.

Then Jesus attempts to show them the law of the Kingdom and to their dismay it is the same law, fully enforced that they have been failing for thousands of years. God has not changed, His standard is still perfection, because He is perfect.

Then Jesus attempts to show them that their pursuit of honor will only produce their shame. But their pursuit of no honor will give them honor from God. This is the first hyper-practical illustration that the world they know is backward and upside down. It is a distorted reality. It is a lie. A ruse. A hookwink.

And here today in this passage Jesus clearly clues them in on how to know they have been duped.

What do you consider of greatest value? To what philosophies and ideologies do you cling? What do you passionately and tirelessly work to accomplish? That is what you love. That is who you serve. That is what you worship. THAT is your god.

And if that answer is family, career, love, honor, wealth, power, peace, happiness, pleasure, friends, girlfriends, knowledge, hope, self or anything but God than you are serving a master that is not God. You have a light that is actually darkness. You have a treasure that will wither and fade.

To the 1st Century Jew Jesus’ message is clear. The world is not the way it seems. God’s perspective is the only reality. All else is cleverly devised lie.

The Kingdom of heaven, AKA how God sees the world which is how the world actually is, functions backward and upside down to the way we would assume it would.

Does your treasure rust, fade, tarnish or die? Do your perceptions on life lead you to mistakes, or fail you? Do your pursuits and accomplishments leave you empty and have you sacrificing what God says is more important? Than your treasure is not really treasure, your light is actually darkness, and the god you serve is not the God of the bible.

As 1st Century Jews they needed this truth ramrodded into them because they thought they had it down. They thought that since they were Jews they were untouchable.

There was a TV show back in the late 80s and early 90s where one of the characters demonstrated a similar attitude that the Jews did. The character on the TV show had a son who wanted to be a priest. After she gave him some money to go and buy a nice suit for entering the priesthood she started treating people very poorly. She actually stated in the show that because her son was going to be a priest that God couldn’t punish her for any of her nasty pranks she played on people. Of course her son, as fickled young people often do, changed his mind. Suddenly she was terror struck for all the bad she did that God now would hold her accountable for.

Her theology was bad but her attitude was not uncommon. The Jews thought that since they were God’s chosen people… God’s hands were tied. What was He going to do? He chose them, now He was stuck with them. Jesus comes on the scene and basically just dismantles all of that. You aren’t safe from God… in fact you may be more blind than those who have never heard about Him at all.

To 21st century people we need to understand that God is not looking for a part time relationship. He is looking for you to reject everything to follow Him. Not because He is selfish but because there is only 1 thing of value worth pursuing, There is only 1 perception of this world that is real and there is only 1 thing worth tirelessly working for and that is Him.

There are no doubt some among us today that have never made an initial decision to reject that fantasy world we are describing. Perhaps you never thought the world was a lie before today. Maybe right now you are thinking to yourself, it sounds like the plot of a movie I once saw. I won’t disagree with you, but it doesn’t make it less concerning for you. Because if this world is a lie. If it’s values, direction, culture, and goals are all distorted and skewed – would you ever consider that it was? What I mean is, if had always seen life through a window, and someone came up to you and said, that window is tinted, would you believe them? Probably not. You’d probably say – Your window is too bright, or has been tampered with to be brighter than reality. Well today Jesus is telling you, your window is tinted. You are seeing the world through a glass that is dark and is hiding the truth. What Jesus is offering, is to see the world as it actually is. To remove the lies and see clearly. How do you do that? Well on a window, you’d smash the old one and put a new one in, and keep it clean to make sure no smudges ended up doing the same thing the tint did. In the same way, reject your former way of viewing the world – and depend on Jesus and His view of the world. I’d love to talk to you more about that after the service if this is you.

To others here, myself included, this passage serves as a stark reminder that there is only one God. Now you might be wondering where exactly I am going with this.

I was at a Pastor’s prayer meeting earlier this week and in one of the prayers, one pastor confessed his propensity to serve multiple gods. Not that he rejected God as one that he worshipped, but rather that he would add other gods that were not gods at all, that would give him comfort. Things that would give him hope. Things that would give him peace. Things that would give him satisfaction. Things that would give him direction. My heart grieved with his, for I too am guilty of this. Of course by doing this I am willingly adding something imperfect to something perfect. I am adding a second master and by doing so am moving away from the first.

So for those who have already smashed that tinted window and replaced it with God’s clear one… this message is simply a treasure check. It is an idol finder. Is God your only God? And if He wasn’t, how would you know? He already told us.

What do you pursue? How do you spend your time? To what do you run when times get hard? When life is good and everything is going well – what captures your attention?

If the answer to all of those questions is anything but a passionate pursuit of God – then you, like me, are a Polytheist. What does that mean?

Polytheism is the belief that there are many gods but some are more powerful than others.

So you may think that the God of the bible is the greatest – but when we pursue something that is not Him –it reveals that there are idols in our hearts.

And let me tell you some of those idols are entrenched so deep within us that we have grown so accustomed to them being there that until the Word of God shows us, we don’t even know they exist. In fact, many of them tend to be things that are good but we have put them out of balance. Relationships, food, happiness and money for example.

And speaking of money, as Christ is here – it is one of the biggest idols of our hearts. And let me tell you something, you don’t have to have a lot of it to be its slave.

Paupers to Kings and everything between have been slaves to wealth. If you constantly are thinking that if you only had a better job, or a raise that life would get easier. If your go to solution for a problem is to throw money at it. if you have tons of money in your bank account and no living heirs. If you have two of everything. If you live in America… you might just be serving the god of materialism and wealth. Because we live in such an affluent culture that money has become a great crutch for us. We depend on it completely.

Our country is 20 trillion dollars in debt.

We throw away more than 40% of the food we produce in this nation.

The average income for an American Household is $65,000 while the average debt for an American household is $90,000

What does all this tell us? That America is hopelessly enslaved to material things. Our hope is built on nothing less than lotto balls and wealthiness. We pursue it. We live by it. We die by it. If we have a problem we purchase the answer.

But as Christians we have been given the eyes of God. His Word washes our eyes to see that all of this. Every dime. Every car. Every house. It will all burn. And when our souls live on and our wealth is gone… we’ll have played the fool to cling to such fragile things.

Jesus’ message to us is very simple to see, but not so simple to do… identify and destroy using the Words of God, all that is cheap imitation and replace it with that which cannot fade, and can never be stolen. The character of God in us.

What would happen if all of us had our priorities in order? What would happen if we all valued above all else what God valued? What would happen if we all saw the world as God sees the world? What would happen if we tirelessly labored for God and nothing else?

We would finally be focused. We’d finally be united. We’d finally be affective.

The church that passionately pursues God is the church that the gates of hell cannot stop. When we cast aside the chains that so easily weigh us down and look to Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith, we are then free to be ambassadors of God. And We’d be unstoppable.

We’d be turning down higher paying jobs to have more time discipling our kids. We’d trust God even when we were without work. We’d obey God even when it cost us money, time, energy or comfort. We’d date differently, spend differently, love differently and live differently.

We’d be so weird. Jesus was weird. We’d be like Jesus. We’d be salt in a world of putrefaction and decay. We’d be light in a world stumbling in darkness.

God help us to cast aside our idols. Pull down our Asherah poles. Help us to live for the only God worth living for… You.

Title: Motive Pollution

Text: Matthew 6:1-18

FCF: We often struggle syncing our motives to our actions.

Prop: Kingdom citizens live to pursue God’s approval, not man’s, so we must not display our righteousness to be seen by people.

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Matthew chapter 6. By the end of the message we will officially pass the mid-way point of the sermon on the mount. As such it is probably wise for us to review what Jesus has been preaching about up to this point. His audience is comprised of many people from various backgrounds. And they are not all there for the same reason. Some of them are there because they believe that Jesus is the Messiah. They don’t know exactly what that means yet, but they want to be there to find out. Everyone else is there for various other reasons. Jesus is a healer, a miracle worker, a great teacher, a scribe, a Super –Pharisee or perhaps a heretic. So as we interpret the words Jesus says we must relate them to primarily a confused and/or deceived audience. The great topic of His sermon is the Kingdom God. First He describes what it takes to get into the Kingdom of God. Unsurprisingly the requirements are very difficult, but far more difficult than the average Jew or above average Jew could have ever imagined. For they would have to be both aware of their spiritual deadness and also be perfect in their hearts. He continues with the role of Kingdom citizens on earth while they wait for the physical kingdom to come and their role is primarily preservation. To prevent the world from becoming an utterly evil place. They are responsible to bring light and hope to those who are lost in darkness. Then Jesus moves on to discuss the law of the Kingdom of God. That the law was the fulfilled version of the law they already had. That it was completed to be both letter and spirit. That even to the least command it was to be kept or they would be excluded from the Kingdom. Yet even those who kept the least, The Pharisees, were considered to be unworthy. Then Jesus challenged them with their assumption that they had kept the great commands. He explains that great sins like murder, adultery, breaking of oaths, and unjust retaliation and hatred, had been taught insufficiently. That even the precursors and associated actions with these sins are worthy of the same judgment as the sins themselves. Then bluntly Jesus says that they must be perfect as God is perfect if they ever hope to satisfy the law of the Kingdom of Heaven. Today Jesus will expand on what he said in chapter 5 verse 20, when he said that their righteousness would need to abundantly exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. Today he is going to explain what He means by that. I’m in chapter 6 and I’ll start reading in verse 1, I’ll be reading from the NET but follow along in whatever version you prefer.

Sermon Intro:

[Slide 2] What we do is something that can be gauged. We can measure outward actions. In the previous section of scripture, it is possible to verify that you were or were not able to accomplish all that Christ said. Never been angry, never committed adultery, never broken a vow, never hated anyone. As improbable as it might be, perhaps, as one rich young ruler did, they could have concluded that they kept them all. [Slide 3] But motive. The reason we do what we do. Now that is a much trickier subject. The rich young ruler’s heart was still tied to greed. Even if His actions were not.

Motive is untraceable. No one knows why we do things. Even knowing our own motives, at times, can be difficult. We have a tendency to lie to ourselves. We convince ourselves that our motives are this or that, when perhaps, we know they are not that way – and perhaps we don’t.

[Slide 4] Motives can be overwhelmingly complicated. In fact the entire nature of Psychology can be boiled down, in essence, to the determination of the motives of men. Why do we behave the way we do? Why do we think the way we do? Why do we feel the way we do? [Slide5] But motives can be excruciatingly simple. And in effect, Jesus has already demonstrated that. The motives that push a man to be angry are the same motives that push a man to murder. The motives that push a man to lust are the same motives for a man to commit adultery. Our motives have roots, and they run deep. Deeper than our behavior. Deeper than our values. Deeper than our emotions. Deeper than our environments. They run to the very core of our being where they are watered by our own depravity.

Is motive important to God? Does God care why you obey Him, so long as you obey? Jesus has shown us that the root system of our motives produces fruits of darkness, but if there is a fruit that resembles light, does it mean that its roots are of light?

Jesus made a bold statement, that to follow the Kingdom’s law, their righteousness would need to be far greater than the Pharisees. And now Jesus will show us why that is.

[Slide 6] The Pharisees considered the three acts of service in this text to be indicative of a truly righteous person. In fact, the word for righteousness is the same word for almsgiving in Hebrew. So linked to piety were these three practices that whatever the Pharisees did, these would always be part of their lifestyles. Even to today modern Judaism is defined by these three activities, almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. In fact, Muslims borrow all three and add a pilgrimage to Mecca and the recitation of the Creed to form their 5 Pillars. It is remarkable how similar Judaism and Islam truly are.

So for Jesus to bring up these three aspects of living a holy lifestyle is to attack the very foundation of their faith. In a very real way, Jesus was going after their gospel… which of course was not a gospel at all.

But what about these pillars of their faith was Jesus attacking? Their practice? No… in all cases he assumes the practice would continue. So what is He attacking? What is He saying is insufficient righteousness? Look with me at verse 1.

[Slide 7] Be careful not to display your righteousness merely to be seen by people. Otherwise you have no reward with your Father in Heaven.

It is not the practice of these pillars, but their motivation to perform them. If you do them only to be seen by men, then God will grant you no reward.

We have already discussed how difficult it is to be sure of our motives, let alone to have the right motives for what we do. As Jesus goes on here, we are going to see very clearly that Kingdom citizens live to pursue God’s approval, not man’s. And whether in secret or in public, it matters very little to the citizen, so long as God is pleased. So for us, the challenge is to not display our righteousness merely to be seen by people.

Transition:

Now Jesus will set out to dismantle the acts of piety the Pharisees were known for, not their adherence but they hearts. In so doing, he attacks our motives as well. The first is almsgiving. Jesus teaches private and generous giving to those in need.

I.) Jesus teaches private, generous giving to those in need, so we must not display our righteousness merely to be seen by people. (2-4)

a. [Slide 8] 2 - Thus whenever you do charitable giving do not blow a trumpet before you

i. There are no references in any Jewish work to the blowing of trumpets to signify a time of almsgiving in the synagogue or in the street.

ii. Therefore, interpretation of this statement is diverse.

iii. I think Jesus is simply drawing a hyperbolic example. Jesus was no doubt using this as a ludicrous example to get his point across. Which was?

iv. Don’t draw attention to your giving. Don’t seek man’s admiring gaze as you prepare to gift your large sum to the coffers.

b. as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets

i. Our modern interpretation of the word hypocrites has taken on a particularly negative force.

ii. This is probably largely to do with the teachings of Jesus in scripture.

iii. Here, however, Jesus is probably not referring to them as people who say they believe one thing and live the opposite way.

iv. Jesus is probably simply calling them actors or pretenders. Those who play a part for an audience.

c. so people will praise them

i. As actors would, the purpose of playing the part is to playing well enough to gain the audience’s applause at the end of the play.

ii. So a person, who gives in such a way as previously stated, was only doing so to gain a favorable reaction from those who witnessed their generous activity.

d. I tell you the truth

i. Verily or truly

ii. Jesus would often use this phrase to introduce a difficult, harsh or counter cultural truth. Whenever you see verily, truly, or I tell you the truth – pay close attention to what is about to be said – because it will no doubt be a devastating blow to a fortification of wrong thinking.

e. they have their reward

i. Have here is a word used to convey something possessed in the fullest sense that it could be possessed.

ii. Jesus is saying that their reward is the greatest they will ever get. Honor.

iii. But, Jesus is essentially calling their view of honor as completely backward… how far does the praise of men really go?

iv. [Slide 9] You have no doubt heard these names… Lindsay Lohan, Brittany Spears, Justin Beiber, Miley Cyrus and Shia Labeouf. What they all have in common is that they were once very famous people but have since fallen out of the realm of fame and more the area of tabloids and infamy. Just when you think you have heard the last of them, they seem to be “caught” doing something even more ridiculous than the last time they popped up on the radar. All of them had meteoric rises and equally as disastrous falls. Each of their lives is built on the fame and praise of men. And even the secular, backward, mixed up world doesn’t want to be them anymore… because their lives are shattered by the weight of their has-been status. They represent both the highs and lows of fame. And if that is the reward earned for living piously for men’s praise… Christ gives warning. Be careful. Because that is all you will receive. And it fades quicker than it came.

f. [Slide 10] 3 - But when you do your giving

i. When indicates certainty. Christ is not rejecting giving to the needy altogether. He assumes that kingdom citizens will give… that is not the issue.

g. do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing

i. There are a couple different interpretations we could take on this. Since it cannot be literal without, as one commentator put it, first having a lobotomy.

1. To give gifts anonymously. This could mean both to give funds without knowing who would receive it and to give funds without the recipient knowing it was you who gave it.

a. While this interpretation is not a bad practice

b. It is probably not the intention of Christ to limit our gift giving to only times that we can give where others do not know it was us nor do we know who the money went to.

2. That the only people who know that you gave are the ones you helped.

a. This comes closest to what Christ was probably saying.

b. See to it that as few people know about your giving as possible. So that it is impossible for you to receive widespread glory for your gift.

ii. There are also a couple very odd interpretations that I’d like to refute.

1. Giving without tracking or reporting

a. This teaching would say that because of what Jesus is saying here, you should not keep a record of what you gave for any reason. Taxes included. That there should not be any benefit to you for your gift.

b. Now if this is your conviction, I don’t wish to push your conscience to violate itself. So if it is your preference to not report such giving or even keep logs of it in your budgeting and records, then by all means do so.

c. But I will say that this is not what Jesus is teaching here. In fact, there is no teaching at all on tax deductible contributions or keeping no record of gifts given.

d. What is being taught here is the intention of the gift, not the actions surrounding the gift. Don’t do it for man’s praise. This is a teaching combating false motive… not to design more laws of action around.

2. Giving without restraint

a. Others see this abstractly as saying that to give with reference to what you have left and knowing your limits on how much you earn in a given period of time and comparing that to the gift in question, would be letting your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

b. Again, if this is your preference I do not wish to stomp all over it.

c. But I will say that this is not what Jesus is teaching here. In fact, to not be a good steward of where your money is going, would probably violate some other principles in scripture.

h. [Slide 11] 4 - so that your gift may be in secret

i. This is the crux of the matter. That your gift be given in secret.

ii. So widespread glory cannot be given to you. The motives are simply to help others and not to build up your own image before men. To give to get the least honor that you can.

i. And your father who sees in secret will reward you

i. God is omniscient. He knows all and sees all. He alone is the audience of this action.

ii. He will then reward you the purity of your righteousness.

iii. That reward of course, is honor. God honors those who seek no honor.

j. [Slide 12]So to summarize everything that Jesus is saying in this first point, is that when you give to those in need, do it without seeking honor for yourself. Only seek to help the person in need. God will honor you.

Transition:

[Slide 13 (blank)] So private and generous giving are the motives that should drive us, and if you want to boil that down even further, it is loving others selflessly. Now Jesus goes after their motives for praying.

II.) Jesus teaches selflessly intimate prayer with God, so we must not display our righteousness merely to be seen by people. (5-15)

a. [Slide 14] 5 - Whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, because they love to pray while standing in the synagogues and on street corners so people can see them

i. Hypocrites is used in the same way as before – emphasizing the acting of the part

ii. Jesus is not condemning standing up while you pray or public prayer.

iii. It is obvious the point of His contention is that they do this so people can see them pray.

b. Truly I say to you, they have their reward

i. The same usage as before

ii. Their reward – their transaction is complete.

c. [Slide 15] 6 - But whenever you pray – A point of certainty

d. go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father in secret

i. The room here probably refers to an inner room that people had in their houses for storage.

ii. It was no doubt windowless and able to be locked.

iii. Pray to God in secret. Not that public prayer is evil, but intimate, private prayer is more difficult to get glory from, unless you outright brag that you are doing it.

e. And your Father, who sees in secret will reward you – Similar to our previous discussion.

f. [Slide 16] 7 - When you pray, do not babble repetitiously like the Gentiles

i. Here Jesus breaks with the formula. He is no longer specifically addressing Jewish piety but rather religious piety in general.

ii. The Gentiles would repeat the names of their gods over and over again to gain their attention.

iii. They thought by babbling on and on they could gain their gods ear and perhaps get them to do what they wished.

g. Because they think that by their many words they will be heard.

i. Jesus is not condemning long prayers.

ii. Jesus is not condemning repeated prayers or repeating yourself in a prayer.The fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

iii. He is condemning mindless, thoughtless, babblings that are selfishly used to make their god do what they wished or to earn some sort of favor from God.

iv. Like saying Rosary- perhaps

h. [Slide 17] 8 - Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.

i. You don’t have to ask me for me to know. God says.

ii. I already know before you ask. You don’t have to get my attention… I know you better than you know you.

iii. Prayer is not necessarily to force God to do something… it is to commune with Him and to show Him our need of Him. This we will see demonstrated in the example He gives.

i. [Slide 18] 9 - So pray this way

i. Ironically, this prayer has been turned into liturgy

ii. The very thing Jesus is condemning as mindless repetition we have done with this prayer.

iii. It doesn’t mean you can’t pray this prayer if you mean it… but it was never intended to be a special prayer for you to repeat out of ritual – exactly the opposite actually.

j. Our Father in heaven

i. Abba – Familial connection. Not daddy as some have suggested, but definitely familial. Communal. Patriarchal almost.

ii. Almost like addressing the Patriarch of the family in a society where they determine the direction of the family. This is a term of endearment but is also latent with respect and humility. That is why Daddy, simply will not work

k. may your name be honored

i. We ought to spend some time in our prayers magnifying His name

ii. We ought to not jump right to our requests as we so often do. Prayer, remember, is not so much to get God to do something for us, but to express our desperate need of Him… not necessarily what He can give us.

l. [Slide 19] 10 - may your kingdom come

i. Do you know what this is saying?

ii. Come Judge the earth Lord.

iii. That should be on our lips. Begging for justice. Begging for mercy. Begging for the day that we can be with Him.

m. may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven

i. Until then, may your will be accomplished in your people here

ii. as already happens in heaven.

iii. Up to and including our will being supplanted.

n. [Slide 20] 11 - give us today our daily bread

i. Provide for us physically.

ii. Our most desperate needs not our selfish wants.

o. [Slide 21] 12 - and forgive us our debts as we ourselves have forgiven our debtors

i. Maintain our spiritual connection, being reconciled to you. This is our one true spiritual need. To be connected to the Father.

ii. Do this in the same way that we are maintaining our relationships here being reconciled to one another.

iii. This is actually a promise to God – which Jesus will elaborate on in just a moment.

p. [Slide 22] 13 - and do not lead us into temptation

i. Do not allow us to be led to a place that we are tempted to sin

ii. God never tempts but it is obvious in scripture that he leads us to points that we could be tempted. In those times we are told to count it as joy so that our faith can be perfected.

q. but deliver us from the evil one

i. Fight for us!

ii. Our enemy is great – but you are The Greatest.

r. [Slide 23] 14 – 15 - For if you forgive others their sins, your heavenly father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive you your sins.

i. While it is true that forgiveness of others is indicative of our relationship to Christ being legitimate, this is not saying that our justification is evidenced by our forgiveness of others.

ii. What is probably in scope in the prayer and in this section is that we confess our sins to God and He is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us. The relationship is restored. We repent and believe and there is no longer a break in fellowship with God.

iii. God is warning us, maybe even threatening us here that if we do not reconcile with others, then He will not reconcile with us. This is a truth we saw last week. Your relationship with God cannot be right if you do not have reconciled relationships with others, so far as it depends on you.

s. [Slide 24] To summarize Jesus’ teaching in this extended section, He is saying that when we pray it is to be intimate with God, and selfless meaning we are not seeking anything but intimacy with God. He even demonstrates what that would look like, with a pattern of prayer for us.

Transition:

[Slide 25 (blank)] So Jesus has demolished the self-centered motives of Pharisaical piety for both almsgiving and prayer. Lastly, he will dismantle their motives for fasting.

III.) Jesus teaches covert, desperate fasting for God, so we must not display our righteousness merely to be seen by people. (16-18)

a. [Slide 26] 16 - When you fast, do not look sullen like the hypocrites, for they make their faces unattractive

i. Every Monday and Thursday the Pharisees would fast.

ii. They would go barefoot, put on slightly tattered clothing and put ashes on their faces to make themselves look gaunt and flushed.

iii. Of course, One day of fasting won’t actually do this to you. Especially if you have established a habit of fasting. Your body will naturally not go into emergency mode because it understands that it can live without food for a day because it has done it.

b. so that people will see them fasting

i. What do you do when you see a person that is tired, weak, frail or otherwise under the weather? You have pity on them right?

ii. This blending of pity and piety forms great honor and esteem to the actor. Look what he is putting himself through for the sake of God.

iii. It is the martyr complex.

iv. We play similar cards when we talk to one another about the difficulties we faced in doing a ministry or the challenges that we had to work through. We complain about how tired we are and when asked why we say something to the affect of, well you know, just slaving for Jesus trying to make this ministry work. Implying of course that without us it would fail.

v. This is very similar to the actions of the Pharisees. To be given honor for our extreme devotion.

vi. Romans 12 calls our extreme devotion, our reasonable service. Meaning of course that it is not something special, but is simply what is expected.

c. I tell you the truth, they have their reward – Again – their reward is people thinking they are devoted. Giving them honor.

d. [Slide 27] 17 - when you fast

i. Not if, but when.

ii. Fasting is an often neglected thing in the church.

iii. I’d be a hypocrite myself if I pretended that it was part of my normal walk. It isn’t .

iv. In scripture we see fasting for a variety of different reasons.

1. grief – in that people mourned so much they did not eat.

2. prayer – in that they prayed in place of eating.

3. charity – in that they fasted and gave what they had to others instead

4. Seeking God’s will – in that they searched His Word and Prayed rather than ate.

v. In each case we are giving food up to do something else of a greater spiritual value. The bible concludes that this should be a normative part of the Christian’s life.

vi. It does not mean they gave up sin. People for lent give up sex or doing drugs or lying. God tells us to put those things to death, but not as something special or extra but as part of every-day Christ likeness.

vii. It does not mean to give it up as some ritual practice. Giving it up without replacing it with a more important spiritual activity is pointless.

viii. Perhaps you say “I have a medical condition to where I can’t fast.” The point of a fast is to have an obvious earthly impulse to do something, rejecting that impulse to do something of eternal value. You will feel hungry, and when you feel the hunger, you feed on the spiritual food. By the spirit of the teaching then, it doesn’t have to be food. It can be TV, Facebook, Video games, or, Please don’t throw any stones at me, work… yes! work. What do you think the Sabbath is? Is it not a fast from work? For what purpose? To spend the time you would be working with God instead. Many of us take vacations and go places – but have you ever taken a vacation and shut yourself in your house and spend your off time praying, reading, studying and connecting again with God?

ix. Be still and know that I am God. Fasting is being still. Ceasing our normal to introduce spiritual.

x. But when we fast, how are we to do it?

e. [Slide 28] 17-18 - put oil on your head and wash your face so that it will not be obvious to others when you are fasting

i. Treat it like any other day.

ii. Don’t post on facebook that you are taking a break to connect with God… Don’t put your TV on the curb with a sign on it that says spending time with Jesus instead. Don’t complain to fellow church goers about how difficult it was to miss that episode of The Walking Dead, but you know, suffering for Jesus.

iii. Treat it like any other day. Don’t even tell your pastor you are doing it. Why?

f. but only to your father who is in secret - Because it is toward God and no one else.

g. and your father, who sees in secret, will reward you. – The same promise that has already been told to us 2 times… God, who sees all, will give you honor.

h. [Slide 29] So to summarize what Jesus has said here it is simply this… Fasting is done covertly and desperately. It is a secret and it is used in times of extreme difficulty. So that your heart can be knit to God’s. Not to make you look SUPER SPIRITUAL.

Transition:

[Slide 30 (blank)] So what is it that God desires that we take away today? What is the main point here?

Conclusion:

The law of the Kingdom of Heaven is so demanding that it even reaches to the depths of the heart of man. That God not only cares what we do, but why we do it. To the extent that if we do the right thing for the wrong reason it pollutes what we have done. Did you catch that? Even your righteous deeds can be undone by why you did them. And I want you to see the subtlety here. Because if you look over at Matthew 5:16, Jesus, 3 breaths ago told us that the purpose of Kingdom citizens is to do good works before men. Now He seems to be saying the opposite. But there is a subtle difference in play here. What is that difference? Here It is to display our righteousness before men that they may see our good works vs. displaying our righteousness before men that they may see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven. Do you see how mind numbingly subtle that is? Both say to live our lives before men, but one has an extra layer. [Slide 31] I chose the NET for this passage of scripture specifically because it adds to verse 1 a very helpful word. Now the word is not in the original text, and perhaps you feel uncomfortable with that. I understand why. But the NET adds this word to help clarify exactly what is going on. The word… is merely. If your sole purpose in doing these things is to be seen by men… then you fail. The difference is that the Kingdom citizen in 5:16 does it to be seen of men and to bring glory to God. But this subtle change of motive pollutes the action. Giving, praying and fasting are empty because the motive polluted it.

Why does this matter to us? Why is it important for us to know that action is polluted by motives? [Slide 32] Ultimately because obedience polluted by motives steals glory from God. Why were we created? God formed us to be willing worshippers. Image bearers. To bring glory and honor to Him. But when we obey His laws for any motive other than to bring Him glory, then we are stealing what is rightfully His. Especially when our motives are to bring ourselves glory. But this transcends even selfish motivation. To obey because that is what Christians do. To obey because that is what Mom and Dad taught me. To obey because that is the way I was raised. To obey because that is what is right. To obey because I don’t want to be judged. These are all motives that are woefully insufficient. We obey because we want to bring Him glory. And we want to bring Him glory because we Love Him. And we Love Him because He first loved us. And He loved us while we were worthless to Him.

So what am I to do with all this Chris? Well that depends. I kinda see two angles here.

If you are not a Christian. If you have never repented of your sin and surrendered your life to Christ, then the teaching here has one very clear point for you. But you have to see it from the perspective of the 1st century Jew standing on the plane with Him that day. Do you realize what Jesus was saying to them? He is saying you have to be perfect not only in action but in motive too!

You can’t be perfect. Now not many would argue that… but Jesus is going to great lengths here to prove that no matter how hard you try you will still fail God’s standard. But that is why He came. He came to take the punishment for your failure and provide a way for you to begin to succeed in pleasing God. So for you… reject your wickedness – agree with God that your way leads only to death and destruction and that you are guilty and shamed before His throne. Cry out in dependence on Christ’s sacrifice to abate God’s wrath against you and surrender to allowing God to change you into someone new. This you must do if you hope to walk into God’s Kingdom. Your only other option is death.

If you have begun your walk in Christ, regardless of what stage of it you are at, the message for us today is that our motives matter to God. Although we won’t be judged when we get it wrong, the Spirit drives us to get it right. But how can we change our motives? Can we change our motives? Can we just muster up enough thoughts to say ok I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing it for Him? I want to show you something cool in Philippians 2:12-13. We were in Philippians 2 this past Christmas. Paul told the Philippian church to be humble like Christ because when Christ came to earth as a human, it was one of the most shameful and humiliating things He could have done. After telling them to be like Christ and be humble he then starts to explain to them how to do that.

[Slide 33] 2:12 So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, continue working out your salvation with awe and reverence,

He says to continue to work. To be diligent. To labor and discipline yourself with awe and reverence. Understanding that you are attempting to please and obey a Holy God who hates sin. But that is not all that God is…

[Slide 34] 2:13 for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort – for the sake of his good pleasure – is God.

In that obedience, as we are trying to do what God has for us, God Himself is the one who supplies us with the desire or the passion and the effort or the power. Why because He wants to be pleased with us. So He supplies us with supernatural power and passion to do so. How? Obviously through His Spirit in us.

So, as we learned today, our obedience to God is not simply action but it is motive too. But look what God supplies to us. He supplies power to obey, action, and He supplies passion to obey, motive. Now does that mean we don’t need to do anything? Of course not – He just said that we need to discipline ourselves. But how?

[Slide 35 (blank) (end)] We repent of our false motives. We depend on Christ to spare us judgment for those motives and we surrender to the Spirit to lead us to correct motives.

Are you giving to be thanked?

Are you singing to be heard?

Are you studying to prove others wrong?

Are you studying to prove yourself right?

Are you resisting temptation to show your personal fortitude?

Are you loving to be loved? Serving to be served?

Are you soul winning to put more notches in your belt?

Reject your wicked motives. Out loud if you have to. Declare them as what they are. Wickedness before God. Submit your heart to obey for the reasons God outlines in His word. Well what are those reasons Chris? Why should I sing? Why should I study? Why should I love? Why should I witness? Go find out! If you seek you will find. If you ask it will be answered. If you knock… the door will be opened. You want answers? Go get them. God is not silent about motives. And I’m not doing your homework for you.

Can you imagine what would happen to the world if the church was full of people who did right and with pure motives? We’d be so weird. Just like Jesus. Jesus was weird.

Can you imagine if we sought to be holy, not so others would think us holy, but so others would want to know and praise the God who made us holy?

God could use us to change the world. He is going to change it with us or without us. What a privilege it is to be extinguished in being used to accomplish His will.

Title: Pop Goes Perfection

Text: Matthew 5:21-48

FCF: We often struggle knowing how to gauge how close we are to meeting God’s standard.

Prop: God’s true requirement behind His law is perfection, so we must depend on Jesus

Scripture Reading Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Matthew chapter 5. Today we will look at a staggering 28 verses in this sermon. It is simply not possible for me to cover in depth each point that Jesus is making. Each point could and should be isolated as individual applications for the life of a Kingdom Citizen. In fact, to a believer I would say that each of these sections we are going to cover today are the standard by which God has called us to meet. We are not speaking of the impossible but the possible in Christ. But what we do have to understand about this section is that the original hearers of these words did not have the Spirit of God in them. They, mostly, were comprised of people who were following Jesus as some wise teacher or scribe and not as the Messiah. So although we can apply this as a normative lifestyle to ourselves, the original author’s intent and the original speaker’s intent primarily was to convict those who listened that their law-keeping was insufficient to please God. That being the case, we must take all of these together because it is clear that they represent 1 thought unit and not 6. Perhaps, at a later time, we can come back to these individual examples to apply them specifically to the topic raised for Christians, but for now, we must adhere to the author’s intent which was to convey the absolute impossibility of keeping the fulfilled law of God. I am in chapter 5 verse 21 and I’ll read all the way to verse 48. I’ll be reading from the NASB but follow along in your preferred version.

Sermon Intro:

[Slide 2] I haven’t had very many jobs in my short lifespan. Many of you probably have had much more varied experience in several different types of employment. But one thing I have learned, is that a good job expects great things from its employees. But a great job tells them what exactly they expect. Have you ever worked a job with no job description? I have. It was a disaster. Why? Because no one, not even your employer, knows what is expected. Over time there is a list of things that your employer expects of you, and there is a list of things the employee things they are responsible for. That list is rarely the same. I have heard some employers justify not giving a job description because they want to wait to see what the strengths are of the employee. Ok. But I’ve played that game too. You know what never happens? That. There is never a sit down discussion as to what is expected. Now eventually, could be days, could be months, could be years, but eventually the boss is going to get tired of the employee not meeting his unspoken, unagreed upon, or unachievable expectations. Eventually the employee is going to get tired of always being told to do more, stay longer, or do better.

You see without a job description it is difficult to gauge if you are meeting what is expected of you. But many people are confused when it comes to what God is expecting of them. They think about it from two angles. [Slide 3] One angle is from cultic or pagan perspectives which basically equate God’s standard as some kind of cosmic scale. In this scenario as long as the number of good things you do outweighs the bad things you do, then God lets you in. So after killing 6 million people Hitler could have sent 6 million and 1 birthday cards and made up for it? Others see it as a weightiness of the bad and good. So murder is obviously worse than speeding. Adultery is worse than cheating on a test. So as long as the good things you do are better than the sum total of the bad things you did, then you are good. [Slide 4] And then you have sections of Christianity that know that Jesus paid their penalty and gave them grace – but they live a rigorously bound lifestyle knowing that if they mess up here or there, the big guy will get them. That when they suffer God is displeased with them and when they are prosperous God is pleased with them. [Slide 5] Or perhaps they think that God’s standard has been thrown out the window because Jesus paid it all and that bought our pardon giving us freedom to do as we please.

[Slide 6 (blank)] We left off last time with Jesus saying that the law was not abolished but completed. He came to live it in letter and in spirit, and to pay for our failure to do so. He concluded, perhaps you remember, with a standard which said, you must keep the law, even to the least commands. Perhaps they thought they nailed the great commands but the least would have been tricky. The Pharisees came close but then Jesus says that their righteousness needs to abundantly exceed the Pharisees. What we will see in this next section is Jesus actually challenging whether they managed to keep the greatest commands as they no doubt thought they had.

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 7] The basic construction of all 6 examples Jesus gives is “you have heard it said… but I say to you…” In some of these Jesus is attacking something that was added to the law. In other cases He is attacking an interpretation of the law. In still others he is attacking how they applied the law to themselves. What is true in every case though, is Jesus is calling them to a much higher standard than they had accepted. Proving of course that He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. What we see then, is Jesus declaring Himself to be the final authoritative commentary on the law of Moses. He did not need to appeal to His education under a certain Rabbi. He appealed instead to His own authority. [Slide 8] Of course His examples end with the final interpretational paradigm that we must keep in mind as we see each of these examples. Verse 48 which we will look at first – That God expects us to be perfect as He is perfect. His righteous standard is Himself. The only people allowed as citizens of His Kingdom are those who are like Him.

Transition:

With that verse as a guide we can rightly interpret these 6 examples. For the sake of time this morning I have grouped them into 4 categories so we can bite off more at a time. [Slide 9] The first will show us that God’s standard is forgiveness and reconciliation, not just that we don’t murder each other.

I.) Forgiveness and Reconciliation are the goal, not simply lack of murder, so we must depend on Jesus.

a. [Slide 10] – 21 - You have heard it said that the ancients were told, you shall not commit murder

i. You have been taught that the ancient Israelites were taught to not commit premeditated murder.

ii. The punishment for which was death.

b. Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court

i. You have also been taught, although it was not necessarily taught in the Law, that such a person who commits murder will be liable or declared guilty before the court.

ii. Jesus doesn’t necessarily say that this was a false interpretation. He is simply saying what they have learned. Which tends to be in agreement from the Old Testament.

iii. But what does Jesus say?

c. [Slide 11] – 22 - But I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court

i. Angry with his brother

1. This is not a familial relationship in question here. It is instead a communal one. That someone who is angry with a person in the same faith community.

2. Anger is not a flash in the pan kind of anger nor is it irritation but is instead a brooding anger. An anger that bears a grudge. That causes you to view the person differently. It is an anger that is akin to wrath.

3. Some translations, KJV specifically, have the phrase “without cause” in the text. The best manuscripts we have, meaning most intact and earliest, have this word absent. Most likely the word "without cause" was inadvertently inserted as an explanatory note to qualify the anger toward a brother.

4. We have already discussed how this anger was bearing a grudge or was as brooding. So leaving the words without cause in, I must ask the question… is there ever a cause for which we are justified to be wrathful against a brother in our community? Even in the case of sin – do you feel comfortable feeling bubbling wrath at someone for their sin.

5. In fact this is exactly what I think Jesus is talking about. To take God’s place and be wrathful toward someone, is simply not permitted. And perhaps this is exactly what Jesus will talk about in Matthew 7 when he commands us to judge not unless we wish to be judged by the same standard. If you are wrathful at someone, even if it is for a sin, you have taken God’s place as judge.

ii. So taking God’s throne as wrathful judge has the same end as murder… that he be brought, tried, and found guilty before the court. But what court exists that can see the heart of a man? What court can determine whether such wrath be present ? It is obvious here that Jesus is alluding to His Father’s heavenly court.

d. And whoever says to his brother You good for nothing shall be guilty before the supreme court

i. You Good for nothing

1. The word is Raca and is, in most translations, simply transliterated because we are not sure what exactly this word means.

2. Some say it is an Aramaic swear word. Others say it is a word that means empty headed or good for nothing. Still others communicate that this is not actually an insult so much as it speaks to the attitude of contempt toward another. So while anger is strictly internal, contempt starts to manifest in how the other is treated.

3. With all these together you get the general concept of the word.

ii. We should not interpret an escalation of court to supreme court. As we asserted previously , the court Jesus is no doubt alluding to is His father’s. Therefore, this more blatant contempt is not somehow worthy of a worse punishment. The implication is that He would be found guilty at the supreme court if it functioned the way God’s court would.

e. [Slide 12] And whoever says, you fool, shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell

i. Fool here is probably referencing the moral character of a person. Not so much that he is brainless, but that he is godless.

ii. It is basically calling someone a pagan sinner because you are angry with them

iii. Again, this is not an escalation of punishment, just one more way to express that the judgment received for allowing anger to run out of control produces the same guilt that murder would.

f. [Slide 13-14] – 23-24 - Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother then come and present your offering.

i. The situation Jesus raises is of great significance.

ii. If you are attending to your sins. If you are bringing a sacrifice to confess to the Lord that you have done wrong. And then yet remember that you have wronged someone else… the implication is that God will not forgive until you restore what you broke.

iii. That when you are at war with another brother, than you cannot be at peace with God. John later says, if a man says I love God but hates his brother than he is a liar. So also to seek absolution of sin and be in a right relationship with God, when you are actively not living at peace with another brother, is impossible.

iv. So far as it depends on you. You cannot restore what another won’t allow you to fix. But so far as it depends on you, be at peace and be willing to continue to make peace.

g. [Slide 15-16] – 25-26 - Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that you opponent may not hand you over to the judge and the judge to the officer and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent.

i. While one valid interpretation of these verses is that Jesus is offering some great legal advice, I find it insufficient in light of the context.

ii. It is obvious that Jesus is alluding to a greater court and greater judge than exists on earth. So what exactly is He talking about? Luke records this parable in an entirely different context. In Luke 12 it is a plea to Jews to recognize that the time to seek reconciliation is now – lest the judgment of God overwhelm them.

iii. Could Matthew’s quote of Jesus here be conveying strictly a man to man relational truth? Perhaps. But perhaps he is actually using the concept of judgment from a God’s court in God’s presence (concepts throughout this context) to convey the same message. The time to seek reconciliation with your opponent – primary of which is God Himself – is now. Before it is too late.

h. In these first few verses it is as if Jesus is saying… we’ve already talked about the least commands still being important, but perhaps you wish to think you are innocent of the greatest commands? Do you think this to be true? Let me show you otherwise. Do you think you are innocent of murder? Anger, wrath and heated insults are worthy of murder’s punishment. Maybe you have never murdered… but if your punishment is the same as murder for being angry… does it matter? Would you enter into hell with a murderer and boast on the reason you are not there?

i. [Slide 17] Forgiveness and Reconciliation are the goal, not simply lack of murder – and if that is the goal, than none are perfect.

Transition:

[Slide 18] The second category shows us that God’s standard is not simply that we are pure and faithful to our spouse with our bodies, but that we are pure and faithfully committed with our hearts. I’ll be combining Jesus’ discussion on adultery by lust and adultery by divorce.

II.) A pure, faithfully committed heart toward your wife is the goal, not simply a pure and faithful body, so we must depend on Jesus.

a. [Slide 19] – 27-28 - You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery.

i. You have been taught previously that as long as you do not commit the physical act of adultery

ii. The 10th commandment forbids coveting her as property – but sexually you can still covet her.

b. but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

i. Coveting is not limited to desiring property. It is desiring something that is not yours to desire.

ii. To desire to enter into a sexual relationship with a woman that is not your wife is what is intended here. Simply the desire and no action at all.

iii. Jesus is drawing a big = sign between Desire and action. Your intentions, your motives, your thoughts are just as important as your outward actions.

c. [Slide 20-21] – 29-30 - If your right eye makes you stumble, tear it out and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. if your right hand makes you stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

i. In fact, this non-action based stumbling is so serious that it would be better to prevent it from ever happening than to continue to do it.

ii. This, of course, is not advocating self-mutilation but instead, radical prevention.

iii. Not only is desire just as punishable as action – but should be avoided at all costs.

d. [Slide 22] – 31 - it was said, whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce

i. Deut 24:1-4 indicates that if a man found something indecent in his wife that he could issue her papers of divorce.

ii. To them it is not an issue of whether divorce is wrong, but was instead an issue of whether or not there was a bureaucratic paper trail to prove that the divorce had been done correctly.

iii. In fact the word for indecent, by some of the greatest interpreters of the Old Testament at that time, was interpreted to mean any offensive things including if she burnt a meal.

iv. So quite literally for any cause a man could divorce his wife.

v. But what is Jesus’ interpretation of that passage?

e. [Slide 23] - 32 - but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

i. If you divorce a woman for any reason you force her to commit adultery with anyone she marries next. Not only that, but any who marry her, commit adultery with her.

ii. Unless she has been found to be unchaste. Matthew uses a word that means sexual sin in general and not the world for adultery. Probably because the word for adultery in Greek was primarily used for the husband’s infidelity. So as not to confuse the issue, he uses a broader sexual sin term to designate that the woman is the one who committed adultery.

iii. So not only is desire to commit adultery the same as actually committing adultery… but lack of faithful commitment to your wife is the same as adultery too.

f. So Jesus continues his examination of their keeping of the greater commands. The ones everyone agreed on were very important. He says, so you think you are good at not committing adultery huh? If you desire a married woman sexually, then you have committed adultery. Furthermore, if you divorce your wife for any reason other than adultery, not only are you committing adultery, but you are guilty of making her commit adultery and the one marrying her next.

g. [Slide 24] A pure, faithfully committed heart toward your wife is the goal, not simply a pure and faithful body – and if that is the goal, None are perfect

Transition:

[Slide 25] The third category is showing us that God’s standard is a truthful, God-Fearing person, not someone who can bend and stretch His law so they technically follow it.

III.) A truthful and God-Fearing person is the goal, not what vow can and can’t be broken, so we must depend on Jesus

a. [Slide 26] - 33 - Again you have heard that the ancients were told you shall not make false vows but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord

i. The prevailing interpretation to this law from Leviticus 19 was that all vows that were made in close association to Yahweh, God’s name, were binding and must be kept

ii. however, vows made with a significant distance from God’s name were not binding.

iii. Therefore there were entire booklets at the time discussing what you could swear by and subsequently break your vow and what you could not swear by if you did not want to keep your vow.

iv. The reason behind all this was because people were generally untruthful, so there had to be legislation determining which vow was to be believed or not and which vow was to be enforced or not.

b. [Slide 27-28] – 34-36 - but I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem for it is the city of the great King, nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black

i. Jesus concludes that if you are going to play that game, where you can manipulate God’s law so that you can lie, then it would be best if you didn’t make any vows at all.

ii. Because even the items you swear by that have been determined by you as not binding because they bear enough distance from God are not so distant.

iii. There is a principle taught here that God is intimately connected to everything around us. You can’t find anything that does not somehow go back to God.

c. [Slide 29] - 37 - But let your statement be yes, yes or no, no

i. This is the intention of the law Jesus quoted. Not that we are to fulfill our vows to Yahweh, although that is true, but that we are not to make false vows.

ii. Keep your promises.

d. anything beyond these is of evil.

i. Anything less than doing what you have promised to do is evil

ii. Manipulating God’s words to find loopholes is evil.

e. Jesus is saying, so you consider keeping your vows to God to be a great command? And you are perfect in keeping them are you? Don’t you realize that the command was not to keep the vow only if sworn on His name but to keep all your vows? Because if you swear by anything it is somehow connected to Him! You are guilty and your abuse of the law in this case is so egregious that I say don’t make vows at all since you can’t figure out what that means. Simply be truthful enough to where you don’t need to swear it to guarantee it.

f. [Slide 30] A truthful and God-Fearing person is the goal, not tip-toeing along the law using it to justify your lies. And if that is the goal – none are perfect.

Transition:

[Slide 31-32] The final category are two points blended together. God shows us that His standard is not to clarify when we are justified to retaliate against others, or who we are justified to hate, God’s standard is selfless non-retaliatory love toward all, even those who are our enemies.

IV.) A selfless, not retaliatory love toward those who oppose us is the goal, not when we are justified to retaliate nor when we are justified to hate, so we must depend on Jesus.

a. [Slide 33] - 38 - you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth

i. This is from Exodus 21. The Jews of the day would interpret this to grant them permission to retaliate.

ii. That justice was only served when you were granted a propionate payment for someone harming you or your property.

iii. What is clear is that they interpreted this completely backward. This law was not designed to guarantee that justice would be served. It was given to insure that one did not need to repay excessively for what they took. Rather than reading it this way: “if someone takes out your eye, than you have a right to take out theirs” it would instead read “if someone takes out your eye, you must not take two of theirs. You must not cut off their arms and legs. You must not kill them for it. But only give them a punishment that fits the crime” It is a law designed to end blood feuds.

iv. But Jesus has another way to end feuds too…

b. [Slide 34-35] - 39-42 - but I say to you do not resist an evil person but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you

i. Jesus is not advocating that you not defend yourself. Slapping is different than stabbing, punching, beating etc. A slap is a disgraceful act designed to humiliate rather than hurt.

ii. Suing you for your clothes is property and not necessarily physical well-being

iii. forcing you to carry a load for a mile was a Roman soldier’s right for any who were in a Roman province. Simon who carried Christ’s Cross was compelled to do this. All that is being taken from you is time and energy.

iv. Giving alms to those who ask and lending to those in need were costing you simply money.

v. In each of these cases the physical well-being is not being attacked. The only thing that is happening is minor discomforts and personal injustices against you. You aren’t being attacked but simply put out. Inconvenienced. At worst, shamed a bit.

vi. Jesus is saying that rather than retaliating against someone taking things from you, you should instead be selfless and understand that personal possessions, pride, and comfort are not important.

vii. If you remember our discussion about how the Jews had a system of honor and shame in their culture. Jesus is basically telling them to forget about this. To understand that it is not always shameful to be shamed. In fact it is more honorable to endure shame and love anyway. Which would have sounded completely backward to them.

c. [Slide 36] – 43 - you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy

i. To love your neighbor is highly biblical- Lev 19:16-18

ii. But to hate your enemy, is found nowhere in scripture. Which means that when the scribes saw the word neighbor they assumed it was Israelites and therefore if we are commanded to love our neighbors than we are also to hate our enemies.

iii. Obviously a logical blunder. If I command you raise your right arm, does that mean that you also must put your left arm on the ground?

d. [Slide 37-38] – 44-45 - but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He cause His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous

i. Jesus says, in effect, that all men are your neighbors. Even those who try to harm you. Even those who are wicked. Yes even the Romans. Yes even the Samaritans. Yes even the Muslims. Pray for them. Why?

ii. Because God the Father gives grace to all people on this world, wicked and righteous alike. To be like Him is our goal. So to be like Him is to love and pray for our enemies.

e. [Slide 39] - 46-47 - For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

i. Loving only those who return your love is natural. It is selfish. It is easy.

ii. Loving those who love us makes us no different than the vilest people who live on this rock. But loving those who actively seek our destruction is weird.

f. Jesus is saying, so you think that love is a great command? And you think you keep that command.? It isn’t love to only retaliate when you have a right to. It isn’t love to only hate those outside your spiritual community… no love is not retaliating at all. Love is giving grace to those who want to destroy you. That is love. You think you are loving people because you love those whom you get along with? Is that love? Or is that something else entirely?

g. [Slide 40] A selfless, not retaliatory love toward those who oppose us is the goal, not when we are justified to retaliate nor who we are justified to hate

Transition:

[Slide 41 (end)] So since it is not really in our scope to discuss how each of these standards apply to us today as believers, we will leave that for another time. But broadly, considering the scope of God’s standard of perfection for all mankind, what exactly should we walk away with from this text this morning?

Conclusion:

To a Jew, a relatively religious person who had law that came directly from God… only 1500 years later, that law was utterly perverted to a system of legalistic adherence. They believed that by keeping the law as best they could, they would be acceptable to God. What they did not realize was that even when the law was given, God’s standard is not your best. God’s standard is not your pretty hardest. God’s standard is not 110%. God’s standard is not almost, close or just about. God’s standard is perfection. Not because He is mean, not because He is a jerk, Not because He is unforgiving or unyielding but because He is Holy. He is separate. He is pure. Like gasoline and fire – they DO NOT MIX. One will consume the other. Would you say that it is awfully unforgiving of fire to not spare gasoline? Would you say that if fire would just give gasoline a chance, it would probably get along with it just fine? Of course not. Gasoline is flammable. God’s Holiness ignites the slightest imperfection within us. His standard is perfection not because He is being overly restrictive but because that is how it is. It is not a matter of choice so much as it is a matter of reality. But there is one major problem isn’t there? Is anyone perfect? Let me rephrase. Is any religious person perfect? Let me be more specific, is any Christian perfect? Let me be extremely specific – Is anyone in this room perfect? You say no. then we are all doomed. Why are we here? Why do you sit in your pews? Why do you sing these songs? Why do you listen to what this pimple-faced kid is saying from behind this Plexiglas pulpit? If you are already imperfect than there is no hope for you.

Where is the but Chris. I know there is a but coming. No. There is no but. You and I are dead in sin. We are hopelessly lost. We are imperfect and nothing we say, do or think can change it. We cannot please God. Because we are defiled. And as we saw last week as long as we have this perishable and mortal body on us- we cannot enter heaven. His standard is perfection. And we have already lost. We lost before we drew breath. The moment we were conceived, we were imperfect. Let it sink it for a moment. Let it creep into your bones.

No doubt some of you here today heard this list of examples of the law and thought… wow these are pretty difficult.

I mean I can’t hold a grudge against anyone? Not even my father who beat me? I can’t worship God until I apologize for being a jerk to my kids? I can’t look at other women or men and imagine what it would be like to be with them? I mean, that happens every day for me. I can’t divorce my spouse for any reason otherwise it is adultery? I’ve been divorced 3 times. And I know I’ve broken my share of promises. I know that I deceive people all the time. And is God telling me that if someone steals my car that I should give them my second other one too? That’s crazy. And I won’t love muslims for what they did and continue to do to us. I don’t care what you say.

To you I’d say – God demands perfection. Because He is perfect. And this list may seem crazy – but it is His law.

You say well what can I do? Nothing. No really Chris what can I do? Nothing. Chris you are scaring me… there must be something I can do… NO! There is not. But perhaps your mind is beginning to change about yourself. Perhaps you wish to reject what you have become and agree with God that you are wicked. That your actions are wicked. That your thoughts are wicked. If that is true… than all that is left is for you to believe. But Chris I thought you said that there is nothing I can do? Belief isn’t something you do. Let me define belief for you. Belief is crying out in desperation asking God to exchange who you are with who Christ is. Belief is utterly placing all your hope in Christ’s life, death and resurrection. Belief isn’t DOING something to please Him. Belief is relying on what CHRIST HAS DONE. Belief is completely surrendering all ownership of your life to Him. Belief is resigning your authority, abdicating your throne, ceding the empire of your life to Him to do with as He pleases. Belief is the opposite of doing something. Belief is the cessation of hostilities toward God. Belief is the cessation of resistance.

If you repent and believe… and that initial repentance and belief changes you to be a person who continues to repent and believe… God promises to give you grace. He will see His Son when He looks at you. You will no longer be gasoline igniting His wrath. You will be perfect positionally to Him. In other words He will see you as forever innocent.

Of course that does not mean that His law becomes irrelevant. In fact it means exactly the opposite and I can prove it to you. You see, there is a whole group of people sitting in this room who looked at this text today and thought in their minds… you know these laws don’t seem all that oppressive. In other words they thought exactly the opposite of what you did. They thought that these laws made complete sense. Furthermore, they are also desiring greatly to live their life in submission to them. Don't misunderstand. They don't do that because they are superior to you. They don't do it because it comes natural to them, and they don't do it by just trying hard. They do this because the Spirit of God is dragging them kicking and screaming. He is changing them to be something they never thought possible... like Jesus.

God demands perfection. And we can't be perfect. But Jesus trades places with us so we are perfect in the Great Judges eyes. Then we receive the Spirit of God who starts to transform us into a creature that actually wants to love and obey God. Not because they fear judgment so much, as it is because they are His children.

So... since you are not perfect... Christian... stop being prideful about how much theology you know, how much money you give away, or how great of a marriage you have. Remember it was not you, but God's grace that has afforded you the opportunity to obey. And stop being flippant about your liberties. Just because you have been set free from the punishment of your sin, doesn't mean God's standard has changed. He still desires to make you His masterpiece and change you to what He wants you to be.

So... since you are not perfect, and God's standard never changes... non-Christian, your only hope is in Christ. Because you are already imperfect. Won't you reject your wickedness? Won't you depend on Christ? Won't you surrender to His will for your life?

Title: Mirrors and Conduits

Text: Mathew 5:13-16

FCF: We often struggle understanding the reason disciples of Christ are left here on earth.

Prop: Because genuine disciples point a dark and decaying world to Christ, we must be like Jesus

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Matthew chapter 5. It might be helpful for us to do a bit of review of what we have seen in Matthew thus far. Matthew, a Jew, a Levite, yet a tax collector, writes a difficult book to his fellow Jew. We described it as a book that is like chewing a Tylenol. It is bitter. It is difficult for a Jew to hear, and it is difficult for us to hear. But as the words sink into your blood, they provide relief for the pain. Matthew's primary goal is to reveal Jesus Christ as the prophesied King of Israel. That He is the King of Kings. The Messiah. The Hope of nations. But, in so doing, he also must show how Israel crucified their King. He must communicate to them the real truth, that even though they knew so much and had the greatest opportunities afforded to them being God's chosen people - they missed all the signs.

Matthew opens his letter proving that Jesus was the rightful heir to the throne through David. He then defends the early life of Christ as fulfillment of prophesy. Then Matthew shows how Jesus fulfills even more prophesy by John the Baptist being his forerunner. Finally we see Christ demonstrating the Kingdom life by being baptized, following the Spirit and resisting the devil.

Then Matthew describes the beginning of Jesus' ministry. After leaving Jerusalem he came to Galilee and settled a new home in Capernaum. There he began preaching, teaching and healing which became the backbone of his ministry. As people heard of his miracles, he accumulated quite a following. At least 12 of which followed Him believing that He was the Messiah and not just a magician.

As the crowd gathered around him on a plateau, he went up the mountain side with his disciples and began to teach the crowd. That is where this sermon began.

The sermon as a whole describes in detail what it takes to be a citizen of the Kingdom of God. But the essence of the entire sermon is boiled down to 12 verses which we finished last week. Those 12 verses described the characteristics of those who were citizens of God's Kingdom. Since they are pivotal to the interpretation of the rest of the sermon, we should review what we have learned in the last 3 weeks. So I'll read in chapter 5 starting in verse 1. I'll be reading from the NASB, but follow along in whatever version you prefer.

[Slide 2-3] Kingdom citizens understand that they are spiritually bankrupt.

[Slide 4-5] Kingdom citizens mourn over their spiritual hopelessness.

[Slide 6-7] Kingdom citizens humbly submit to the Power and Holiness of God and to whatever end He has for them.

[Slide 8-9] Kingdom citizens see the holiness of God and they starve for it - they must be like Him.

[Slide 10-11] Kingdom citizens forgive others and show compassion on others.

[Slide 12-13] Kingdom citizens are unspotted by sin to the very core of their beings, even their motives and emotions.

[Slide 14-15] Kingdom citizens are peaceful disciple makers, desiring greatly that the peace of God reign in the hearts of all men.

[Slide 16-17] Kingdom citizens live so righteously that men persecute them to assuage the guilt and shame of their own failure.

[Slide 18-20] Kingdom citizens live for Christ so much so that men defame, slander and persecute them because men hate Christ.

[Slide 21 (blank)] Of Kingdom citizens Jesus declares that they are blessed , or favored of God. Favor, or grace, comes from belief. From dependence and surrender. That favor of God, although presented in many facets, ultimately is citizenship to the Kingdom.

Essentially what we have seen from the beatitudes is that in order to be worthy of the Kingdom, one must be perfect. Only one completes such a requirement. And it is in Him that we trust. We depend on Christ's incarnation, life, death and resurrection as a perfect substitute for our depravity. We surrender to His Spirit as He invades our lives and impassions and empowers us to be what God has called us to be...which is... To be like Jesus. And being like Jesus will have devastating effects on the world around us.

Continue reading with me then in verse 13.

Sermon Intro:

[Slide 22] When I was in college I chose to do one of my summer internship requirements as a camp counselor. For whatever reason I wanted a drastic change of scenery. So I went to the Mujave desert in Barstow California and counseled at a camp called ironwood Christian camp. The camp accepted my application and sent me information on how to go about getting there. The information said to arrive no later than Noon on June 3rd and to fly into Las Vegas Airport. So my dad and I scoured the internet for the best deals on airfare. The best deal happened to be a flight, non-stop, to Las Vegas. The only catch was I’d arrive on the 1st of June. Since the letter said to arrive no later than Noon on June 3rd we figured that would be fine, especially since I was sending my itinerary to them a month or so ahead of time. So the day comes, I got on the plane, and flew out of Columbus Ohio. I spent 4 hours in the air and arrived 1 hour later than when I left. I got off the flight and headed over to baggage claim. I expected to see someone with a sign for ironwood. No one was there. Perhaps they were running late I thought. So I found a nice bench and sat at the baggage claim area not wanting to miss them when they arrived. I sat there for about 45 minutes and began to wonder what went wrong. Did they forget about me? What am I still doing here? Shouldn’t they have gotten me by now? This was before the age of smartphones, at least before the age of me having a smart phone. And I wasn’t quite bright enough to have the phone number for the camp with me. So I took out my flip phone and called my dad.

The next 30 minutes was a very unamusing phone game where everyone was trying to call everyone to try to get me outta Las Vegas.

Finally I was able to get in touch with the camp, and they were not expecting me. It turns out that what they meant by be at the airport no later than Noon on June 3rd – was be there on June 3rd no later than noon. I was two days ahead of schedule. Whoops.

The camp was almost 3 hours from the airport, which pretty much guaranteed me a 3 hour wait at the airport. So ate every snack I had in my bag. The great thing was, that Patrick, the guy who picked me up, became a very good friend on the long journey back.

[Slide 23 (blank)] You know I think sometimes we look around at this world and we wonder… are we missing something? Did Jesus forget us here?

Transition:

That Jesus ascended and left us in this extremely difficult world. And we wonder…Why? Why are we here? Why didn't He just take us with him? The answer comes roaring out of Jesus’ words here in Matthew 5. We have a role to play. A mission to accomplish. And being like Him is the secret to its completion. Let's look at the Word starting in verse 13.

I.) Genuine Disciples preserve and season the world, so we must be like Jesus

a. [Slide 24] You

i. Jesus shifted in verse 12 to the second person pronoun you. Before this he was addressing the crowd and his disciples with third person pronouns like they and those. What could be happening here?

1. He is addressing specifically his disciples.

a. This becomes problematic since the vast majority of the sermon following is addressed to the second person. So either:

i. Jesus barely spoke to the crowds at all.

ii. or Jesus taught for several hours and even days and we only have some recorded

b. We also have a problem when we come to verse 28 of chapter 7. Jesus finished teaching and they marveled at his teaching with authority. But if he only communicated 14 verses worth of material to the crowd, that isn’t a lot to marvel over.

i. Perhaps there was more taught

ii. In those 14 he says some pretty big and amazing things.

2. He switches to personally connect with the people

a. After his introduction of the great problem of the Kingdom of God – he brings things down to a personal level.

b. Problems with this view, in Luke it seems he specifically looks at, or raises his eyes to his disciples and addresses them. Of course that was before he began teaching at all in Luke’s context

i. Either Luke 6 is a different sermon or

ii. Jesus is addressing his disciples primarily but speaking so all can hear him.

iii. Therefore, switching to the 2nd person would have a more personal tone, but communicate primarily to those who were following Him currently.

ii. the most likely explanation is that Jesus intended for His closest followers to understand and hear what he was saying, but he probably was not speaking softly so that only they could hear. Perhaps he is looking at them but talking to all present.

b. are the salt of the earth

i. Salt was used for flavor, preservation, fertilization and more. Since it had a variety of different functions it was a highly valued commodity.

ii. Have you ever heard the phrase “he is not worth his salt” – this was because Roman soldiers were actually paid in salt. That is how valuable it was.

iii. This is a metaphor that Jesus is beginning. Actually there will be 2 metaphors total from today.

iv. The salt is part of the metaphor but the “of the earth” part is not part of the metaphor.

v. Something similar would be to say that someone is the heart of the team.

1. Obviously team is reality

2. heart is the metaphor

3. It means that someone is the core or the emotional center of the team.

vi. The difference is, are the disciples the salt for the earth or the salt from the earth. Since “of the earth” is not part of the metaphor we should understand it as the disciples are the salt for the earth.

vii. But what particular function of salt is being talked about there? Preservation, fertilization, or flavor? Let’s keep reading

c. But if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again?

i. Based on this following phrase it is probably not fertilization.

ii. Which leaves us with preservation and flavoring.

1. The text seems to indicate that it is talking about the taste of salt and the saltiness of salt.

a. If this were true then, what would be the metaphor Jesus was trying to communicate?

b. His disciples are a valuable commodity that keeps the world tasting good? What does that mean?

c. Some have suggested that this is the interpretation and that Christians are the spice of life. We make the world a more interesting and enjoyable place to live. This explanation of the metaphor seems to fall flat, especially as we read later that if we lose our saltiness we are good for nothing.

2. With regard to preservation, it seems the text eliminates it as an option, but we must consider the word choice here by Jesus. The translation of the words “has become tasteless” is actually the same word we use for fool or foolish. To be dull or dimwitted. To be empty headed. The translation of to be salty again means, could mean to gain flavor or saltiness again. But it could also mean to regain the attributes that salt normally has.

a. When salt was used to preserve meat (in an age of no refrigerators) it goes through a chemical process of losing its preservative agents, not only does the meat spoil, but that salt is good for nothing.

b. Can you restore its preserving properties to it? Not unless you add more salt.

iii. So what is the metaphor?

1. The presence of God’s Kingdom being on earth in the hearts of its citizens produces a world that tastes something like heaven. It produces a people who through the invasion of the Spirit of God serve to retard the putrefaction of the world brought on by sin. Both concepts blend quite well to convey to us the role of the church on earth. We delay the utter ruin of the world, extending the time it takes to get back to a Noahic era state, where every thought was evil continually. We also mask an empty and tasteless world with vibrancy of the life giving indwelling of the Spirit of God.

2. In our lives we both fight back the sinful world system and make this world taste something like our King’s Kingdom.

3. How do we do this? As we will see expounded from this text, it is obvious that it is our holy lifestyles. Being set apart. Being like Jesus.

iv. But what happens if that stops in a believer’s life? What happens if they stop living holy lives and pursuing righteousness? What happens if they no longer battle sin, but instead they embrace it? What happens if they are no longer different than the world, but are the same? What happens when they no longer add the flavor of heaven to an empty world? What happens when Christians seek to adopt worldly methods and practices, incorporate worldly ideologies in their own lives? Indeed Jesus was speaking to 12 men, and all of them would lose their savor for a short time. In fact, one of them would lose his savor completely.

v. Can such Christians be made to be salt-like again? Before we answer that with speculation… let us read on to find the answer.

d. It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under food by men.

i. Now we may, living in Michigan, be thinking that such is a valid use for salt. To be thrown onto the sidewalks to provide traction and melting power for ice. But in the middle east, ice is a pretty rare occasion. In 2013 it snowed in Egypt for the first time in 112 years. In January of 2016 snow fell in Kuwait for the first time in the country’s history. Obviously the more mountainous regions would get snow, but salt is not really for this over there.

ii. So what is happening here? Look at the phrase at the beginning. It is good for nothing except…

iii. Question, when you sweep up your house, how do you use the dirt you found on the floor? Do you put it in your pillow for stuffing? Do you collect it and put it in a potting jar to plant a flower in when you get enough of it? Do you season your food with it? NO! You thrown it out the door, out the window or in the garbage right? Essentially it is garbage.

iv. Jesus is saying that people who end up this way – where they claim Christ but look exactly like the world – they are good for nothing. They are useless. And that seems to be a bit harsh. Is Jesus saying that a person can lose their salvation? A thematically similar passage is found for us in II Peter 1:3-11

v. [Slide 25] We unfortunately do not have the time to go into a full exposition of the text today, but let us turn there and let me show you what this passage means and how it coincides with what Jesus is saying here in Matthew.

vi. II Peter 1:3-11

1. Jesus in us supplies everything that we need to live in godliness.

2. [Slide 26] The end of all of this is becoming like him when we escape this world.

3. [Slide 27-29] Because this is the goal, then, applying ourselves consistently to obedience in faith, in that faith we add moral excellence, and in moral excellence knowledge, and in knowledge self-control, and in self control perseverance, and in perseverance, godliness, and in godliness, kindness, and in kindness love. Now we don’t have time to dig into each of these today – but obviously there is growth and holiness being developed through the power of the Spirit of God and the diligence of the one in Christ to yield to Christ.

4. [Slide 30] If you own or possess these qualities and they are not only present but becoming more and more obvious and higher in magnitude, they will make you neither useless or unfruitful in your relationship with Christ.

5. [Slide 31] For a person who lacks these or they are not increasing – he is blind, or at very least he is unable to see clearly. What can he no longer see? He can no longer see his former condition. He has forgotten how wicked he was and what it took to cleanse Him.

6. [Slide 32] Because of all this – be diligent, pay careful attention, make it a high priority to continue to examine whether or not you're calling and God’s choosing you is absolutely certain. How? As long as you practice these things… as long as you prove yourself to be useful. As long as you are not wasting time, then you will never stumble. You won’t have any reason to doubt that your calling and God’s choosing you was a reality.

7. [Slide 33] In fact, a person who possess these growing qualities will enter into the Kingdom of Christ abundantly. So not only will they not stumble in doubt, but they will have assurance.

vii. [Slide 34 (blank)] So how does this connect back to Matthew? How does this connect back to the salt?

1. Of course, Peter was present on this day. Jesus was no doubt looking at him when He was preaching these very words. Obviously they stuck with Peter. What are they both saying?

2. Genuine believers are THE salt of the earth. It is not that we must work hard to preserve it or keep it tasting like the Kingdom – it is that with us here and Christ in us, the world will taste like the kingdom and its putrefaction will be delayed.

3. So what does Jesus mean by saying that when we lose our saltiness that we are good for nothing? Is Jesus saying you can lose your salvation? No. It is the same thing that Peter is saying. That we are useless and that our calling and election is not sure. Or as one commentator put it.

4. [Slide 35] “With great responsibility there is often great danger. We cannot be an influence for purity in the world if we have compromised our own purity. We cannot sting the world’s conscience if we continually go against our own. We cannot stimulate thirst for righteousness if we have lost our own. We cannot be used of God to retard the corruption of sin in the world if our own lives become corrupted by sin. To lose our saltiness is not to lose our salvation, but it is to lose our effectiveness and to become disqualified for service. “ MacArthur, John MNTC on Matthew 1-7 pg 246

5. I'll let you decide what is worse - to be unsure of your salvation or to be useless to your King.

Transition:

[Slide 36 (blank)] So genuine disciples preserve the world from being corrupted by sin, simply by being in the world. What else do genuine disciples do in this world?

II.) Genuine Disciples reveal by their works the glory of God, so we must be like Jesus

a. [Slide 37] You are the light of the world

i. The metaphor here is perhaps a bit more clear. Light offers guidance and direction. The implication of course is that the world has become a dark place.

ii. In darkness, it is difficult to navigate. It is difficult to see much of anything at all. Especially when the celestial bodies are hidden by clouds.

iii. Yet with light we can see clearly what is real. Light chases away what shrouds the truth. It reveals what is hidden. It brings into clarity what was distorted.

b. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden

i. This should not be seen as another metaphor but an extension of what came before it.

ii. Cities, even at night, even without electricity, tended to be lit. The Night watch would set up and keep torches lit. A lit city is a safe city.

iii. Perhaps on a clear summers night you have walked outside and looked to the south west. What do you see? Lights. The night sky glows. From what? Detroit. Several miles away the lights of Detroit keep the south western sky partially lit. Now Detroit is only 600 feet above sea level. But with almost 700,000 people, we can see its light from several miles away. Imagine some of the towns in Colorado that are thousands of feet above sea level.

iv. And every Jew in front of Jesus would have known first hand of a city that could be seen at night and even in the day because it was on a hill. That city was Jerusalem.

v. Jesus is saying that it is impossible to hide a city which is on a hill. To hide it you must destroy it.

c. [Slide 38] Nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket

i. Just like you cannot hide a city on a hill at night

ii. So also no one lights a lamp and them smothers or suppresses its light. Not only could it cause the light to extinguish but the light would shine through the cracks of the basket. This speaks to the impossibility of hiding the light just like a city on a hill.

d. but on a lampstand and it gives light to all who are in the house.

i. The proper place for light is to be elevated above everything so that the light can permeate the whole room.

ii. We have overhead lighting for this very reason. You put a light on the floor it can cast shadows and make it difficult to function around the light. But a light that is up and out of the way produces the maximum amount of light.

e. [Slide 39] Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works

i. In the same way of the unhidden city and the light on a lampstand, so allow or permit your light to be evident to all. Public displays of holy lifestyles.

ii. We ought to be obvious. We ought to be conspicuous. We ought to stick out.

iii. The light of our life displays one thing clearly… our good works.

1. We love others

2. We obey God

3. We reject worldly values

iv. So our previous point told us that Christians who stop living rightly fail their mission. So this point tells us that Christians who live rightly but in secret fail their mission.

v. That not only is living a holy life key to being a disciple, but also living a holy life before men. We must be in the world yet separate from it. We’ll go into that in just a moment.

f. and glorify your father who is in heaven.

i. Alongside the truth we learned in the beatitudes last week, that when we do this we will be persecuted, there is also some who will see the good works and glorify God.

ii. In a very real way, God will get glory in our death or in theirs. In our physical death for His sake He will be magnified and in their spiritual death God will be glorified as he claims one more as His own.

iii. And this is the goal of disciples of Christ. To bring glory to God.

g. [Slide 40] “Both metaphors of salt and light raise important questions about Christian involvement in society regarding all forms of separatism or withdrawal. We are not called to control secular power structures; neither are we promised that we can Christianize the legislation and values of the world. But we must remain active preservative agents, indeed irritants, in calling the world to heed God’s standards. We dare not form isolated Christian enclaves to which the world pays no attention. “ Bloomberg, Craig L. NAC: Matthew pg 103.

i. [Slide 41 (blank)] We are irritants in this world. Little pests that convince them that there is more to this life than what they have concluded. We are little flashlights shining into the corners of their dark hearts, showing them the wickedness and inconsistencies within.

ii. By our public display of righteousness we walk among them as individual beacons showing them how broken the world and their hearts are. We do this until they persecute us or repent.

iii. But Christianity in this nation has become politicized. To question the nation is equivalent to question the cross. To take a stand for Christ has been denigrated to fighting against abortion or homosexual rights. Taking a stand for Christ has become the right to pray in schools or the right to take a bible to school.

iv. Has Christ called us to fight for our right to worship Him? Or has He called us to worship Him regardless of the cost? Has Christ called us to fight for his law to be imposed on everyone? Or has He called us to be law abiding citizens of a His Kingdom?

v. Let me ask you something. This culture 60-70 years ago looked outwardly like Christians. Divorce was not common. Infidelity was hidden. Premarital sex was shameful.

vi. When does light shine the brightest? When it is darkest, right?

vii. Now don’t misunderstand me, I am not saying we actively fight to make this culture more unlike the Kingdom so we can shine brighter. That doesn’t make any sense. But what I am saying, is that if we as followers of Christ would live holy lives, this dark culture in which we live would have no choice but to either persecute us or repent and believe.

1. If the church’s divorce rate looked any different than the worlds

2. If the church’s love was any different than any of the world’s charitable organizations

3. If the church members actually loved each other, selflessly.

4. If the church’s focus on entertainment was any different than the worlds

5. If the church’s emphasis on success was any different than the worlds

6. If the church’s fathers were leaders of their home

7. If the church’s wives were submissive to their husbands, as the church submits to Christ.

8. if the church members spoke about each other in secret any differently than your average water cooler talk at work

9. If the church members forgave each other

10. If the church actually did church discipline

11. If the church’s fathers would prioritize family over career

12. If the church’s fathers would prioritize family over football

13. If the church’s fathers would love their wives as Christ loves the church

14. If the church's fathers would admonish their children

15. If the church’s fathers would pray

16. If they would read the word

17. Study the word

18. Devour the word

19. Indeed if the church was just a little bit different than the world, the light would be blinding.

viii. But the fact of the matter is that the church as an organization and as people is not all that different than the culture around us.

ix. We desire greatly to be relevant to a dying world. And to many that means to worship bigger, make messages shorter, preach encouraging self-help style messages and make Sunday morning an event to be attended.

x. To others relevancy means not getting to serious about holiness or accountability but emphasizing false love and lazy forgiveness that has no care for purity or holiness.

xi. Still others see relevancy as holding their personal preferences as doctrinal hills to die on. Defending versions and behaviors that are not in scripture. Hoping to be holy they become Pharisees.

xii. But true relevancy for the church is not when people see our tie we wear, or how cool our youth group is. It isn't when people see how talented our praise team is or what version we prefer. Relevancy is not established by how many people attend our church, our social media presence, our modesty standards or opposition to movies.

xiii. [Slide 42 (end)] True relevancy in the church is when people don't see us at all.

xiv. True relevancy for the church is when this world sees Jesus Christ, the King of glory and grace shining in us.

xv. When people see Christ in us, individually, publically, then they will be forced to do to us as they did to Jesus – reject or repent.

xvi. Being salt and light doesn't mean we desperately battle legislation or social issues... It is that we are Christ to a world that so desperately needs Him.

xvii. That is how we stay relevant. We live the gospel. We be like Jesus. We be set apart. Different than this world. Relevancy through irrelevancy. Significance through insignificance. When the world sees less of me and more of Him, when the world sees less of you and more of Him... Then we will be so relevant that they will kill us to stamp out our light and remain in their darkness... or they will receive faith as a gift from God to believe.

Conclusion:

This passage of scripture indicates the delicate tension we face as we are in the world here but we are also in Christ. We are foreigners. Vagabonds. Peculiar people. We dwell in a land where we do not speak the language, we do not understand the culture, we do not share the values.

From politics to food, from leisure to law, from pleasure to war - we see the world backward and upside down.

In John 17 Jesus prays for the protection of His disciples and for those who come to believe because of His disciples. And friend that includes you and me.

Jesus' prayer is not to ask the father that we might be removed from the world, but that God would protect us so that when the world sees us, they would see Christ and they would know that God sent Jesus.

This is the Christian life. It isn't about morals or values. It isn't about right and wrong. It is about the Spirit of God who bears witness to the truth of Christ by.... our... lives. That truth of Christ points directly to the glory of God. We are but mirrors reflecting the glory of God to a world who needs His glory's piercing rays to burn through their hard hearts. We are but humble conduits to connect our world to Christ. We are mirrors and conduits - not because we were that way from the beginning, but because His glory has already burned through our hearts and made them soft. We have been connected to His life giving truth and have been set free.

But we can stop being mirrors and conduits in two ways as revealed today.

#1.) we live no different than the world. We act as one of them - but Our lives bear no witness to Christ and we become useless, losing all assurance that our faith is genuine.

Or

#2.) We hide the light. Content to live a holy life and never show Christ to anyone outside our safe little church. We wall ourselves up in our safe little building with our safe little friends. And our safe little activities and programs. We try to draw men here rather than go to them.

So what do we do? Be salt.... Be Light.... How? Be like Jesus. Let others see past you and see Christ in you. Or as Paul puts it – clothe yourself with Christ. It is you underneath to be sure, but it is not what people see. They see Jesus. And when they see Jesus in all of us – our culture cannot stay the way it is.

Title: The Rejection of Kingdom Citizens

Text: Matthew 5:9-12

FCF: We, having seen the light, often misunderstand how unattractive the light is to a dark world

Prop: Because Kingdom citizens are those who seek to expand God’s offer of peace to a world that hates Him, we must be Christ-Like

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Matthew chapter 5. We are in the midst of the introduction of the sermon on the mount. A sermon very obviously pointing out that to be a Kingdom citizen is to be perfect. And since that can only be Christ, we must depend on His life, death, and resurrection to gain entry. In fact the beatitudes, this introduction to the sermon, communicate very clearly the plight that all men are in. The first 3 beatitudes communicated that no man is worthy of the Kingdom of God. The second 3 beatitudes communicated that no man will ever be worthy of the kingdom of God. And today we will see that the last 3 beatitudes communicate how no man really wants the Kingdom of God. Today we will face some very harsh truths about our world and where we are headed. It is not a message for the squeamish. I am in Matthew chapter 5 and I’ll begin in verse 1. I’ll be reading from the NET but follow along in whatever version you prefer.

Sermon Intro:

[Slide 2] When I was a kid, for our theme park of choice we would always go south toward Cincinnati to a place called Kings Island. In the midst of my childhood Paramount purchased it, so it was nothing to walk in and see a Klingon talking to a Vulcan. If you don’t know what I am talking about it only means you aren’t a nerd. So don’t take it personally. In 2006 Cedar Fair purchased the park and it is now part of the same chain where you would find Cedar Pointe, which is probably a bit more familiar to you. Now when I was in high school my youth leader wanted to take us on a trip to Cedar Pointe. I wasn’t ok with this. I tried to defend my park of choice. Sadly my “we can go see Klingons” argument didn’t fly too well to my jock youth leader. After trying desperately to prove that Kings Island was the better park, I finally conceded. We went to Cedar Pointe and it. was. Awesome! In fact my opinion has completely shifted. And now in researching the park for this message I found that Kings Island may actually be the better park now… but it will take more than a few statistics to have me go back.

We are creatures of the familiar. What we know, is what we think is best. Oftentimes I think we as believers who have seen the light, misunderstand how unattractive the light is to a dark world.

Today we will see that God’s Kingdom is not only unachievable by humans, but is unwanted by humans. It is a gospel that no one wants. But what is our response to be? To live like Jesus. Simply be like Jesus.

Transition:

But where am I getting this idea that the world doesn’t want the gospel? It is good news right? Why wouldn’t anyone want it? Let’s dive in and see.

I.) The King blesses with the gift of the character of God those who make disciples of men, so we must be Christ-Like

a. [Slide 3] Blessed – Belief that produces favor from God

b. peacemakers

i. This is a word that is literally used only once in the New Testament – and you are looking at it.

ii. It is a composite of two words, one meaning peace and the other meaning maker. So that doesn’t really help us to understand what this means either. 

iii. Does this mean toward men?

1. It must have some layer toward men. We cannot make peace with God. He can offer us peace. And remember that these are Kingdom citizens, meaning they have already accepted peace with God.

2. Could it mean pacifism? Is this saying that we are anti-war? We could be tempted to go here and there is a very enticing interpretational element that may push us here.

a. Jews – the audience that stood before Jesus – were hoping that the Messiah would come as a warrior King. That He would take up the mantle that God had in the Old Testament. That He would bring down nations and free them from oppression.

b. So for Jesus to come out and declare that Kingdom citizens are pacifists, pursuing peace with all men, Interpersonally and internationally, would have been a HUGE challenge to them.

c. The only difficulty with interpreting things this way is three fold

i. Every element of this has been focused on a spiritual issue in the heart of mankind. And while it is a spiritual issue to fight with people – some fights are obviously pure. Fighting against sin or wickedness for instance.

ii. This idea was certainly brought up in the concept of mercy. Not that Jesus couldn’t repeat Himself, but it seems odd to bring it form a lofty concept such as mercy, to a very specific concept such as do not war or fight.

iii. Finally, the context of what follows this statement seems incredibly awkward If it means to not quarrel with others.

3. If it does not mean to simply not quarrel with others, what else could be going on here.

a. “The one who makes peace in others having first received the peace of God in his own heart. “ One commentator says

b. Certainly this does mean to be a peaceable person in that you do not quarrel but it also means that you take the peace that you have been afforded by God and give that to others.

c. To be even clearer this word’s meaning is twofold.

i. You have a heart and a spirit of peace among others, not desiring to fight or cause issues. You want to keep your accounts short and not let anything come between you and another.

ii. But it also means that you are seeking the peace of God to reign in the hearts of others.

iii. To be a peace maker then, is to be a disciple maker.

iv. When you combine these two concepts together you get the disciple maker that doesn’t go around causing fights but instead goes around and attempts to communicate the peace of God to men.

iv. So a peaceful disciple maker is blessed, how?

c. For they will be called the children of God

i. Remember when Jesus was baptized. God the Father said two things.

1. I am greatly delighted in this one who stands before me.

2. And this one is my beloved Son.

ii. Remember what we said it meant for Jesus to be the Son of God.

1. It did not mean that he was birth of God or created by God.

2. Rather it meant that he bore the characteristics of God.

iii. The favor of God upon us is to be imbued with the character or nature of God. To be like God.

iv. So how is being a peacemaker, being like God?

1. Again, if it meant to never fight – well that wouldn’t be accurate because God is at war with sin.

2. Instead, God is called the God of peace. Jesus is called the prince of peace. And our gospel is called the gospel of peace. But I caution you.

3. The way God sees peace is much different than us. It isn’t the state of no war – but rather – the state of no need for war. Absolute peace is achieved when there is no longer a reason to fight.

v. [Slide 4A] There is an old Dr. Seuss book entitled The Butter Battle Book. It is a story of two fictional nations that take up arms against each other to go to war on whether or not butter should be put on top or on the bottom of toast. Playing off that imagery I’d like you to imagine the same sort of instance but [Slide 4B] one group is going to war because it believes that grass is green. The other is going to war because it believes that grass is purple. Now let me ask you something. To be a peacemaker – is that to find some sort of common ground? Is that to try to harmonize the two truths that grass is both green and purple? Is to be a peacemaker to ignore what is true altogether and just simply explain that it doesn’t matter what color it is? Or is to be a peacemaker to press the opponent to recognize the truth so that there is no longer a reason to fight? Is being a peacemaker forcing them to see that grass is not purple but is green. And if it is green – lay down your arms.

vi. [Slide 5 (blank)] We are blessed with characteristics of God when we are peacemakers because to be a peacemaker is to be a truth teller. it is to communicate to a world at war with God that they are fighting for the wrong side. It is only in surrender that they will know peace. And do we do this in some self-righteous way, thinking we know better? NO! Why do we do this? Because we were once fighting Him too.

vii. A peacemaker is like God in that the only peace the world will ever know is a when they kneel before Him and proclaim Him to be Lord of Lords. When we desire to see this come about in others – we are like God. God desires that we all lay down arms – that we all repent.

Transition:

So having understood our own spiritual bankruptcy, being overwhelmed with sorrow over what that means, being humbled to the point of submission to whatever God would want to do with us, we see His holiness and we pant after it as if it was what was necessary for life for us. We emulate that God of holiness in showing compassion and forgiveness to others and we are pure in our lives, even to our very motives. And obviously we desire to see this peace that we have come to know – peace with God – a peace that surpasses all understanding – we desire to give that peace to others. But on God’s terms. But God’s terms are not man’s terms. And since that is true… we have the final two beatitudes.

II.) The King blesses with Kingdom citizenship those who are hounded for living as God would have them live, we must be Christ-Like

a. [Slide 6] Blessed - belief that produces the favor of God.

b. Those who are persecuted

i. This word literally means to follow.

ii. [Slide 7] Have you ever looked up in the sky and seen a large bird flying as fast as his wings will carry him as he flees from a smaller, faster bird nipping at his tail feathers? I did some research and this is called mobbing. It is when the bigger bird simply came to close to the nest of the smaller bird. The large bird is forced to flee hoping that the assault against him won’t last long.

iii. This, perhaps, is a good picture of what it means to be persecuted.

iv. It means to be vexed. To be pursued to the point of exhaustion. To not be left alone or in peace.

c. For Righteousness’ sake

i. It is not for arrogance or unkindness. It is not for pushiness… but for piety.

ii. As we live out holy lives before those of this world, our love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control, mercy, and Christ-like lives will speak volumes.

iii. And just like the birds, when we get too close to someone’s nest, when we hit a nerve in their worldview, when we live in front of them as though the grass is green, and not purple as they would imagine, for some, by the Power of the Spirit, they will awaken to the truth and lay down arms. But for most, they will protect their nest with all they have. They will guard their ideology and belief. Your works of righteousness will be offensive to them.

iv. Mostly it starts with pressure to conform. If that fails, the pressure is amplified through manipulation and threats. Finally there is a break in the relationship entirely. When we consider this happening on a larger scale, as there are more and more powerful people involved who do not see life the way you do – just like the birds - the mob mentality transforms quickly to violence bordering on insanity.

v. There are doctrines of heresy telling us that we don’t need practical holiness because Jesus has given us positional holiness. We need not worry about living pure lives because God has forgiven us or will forgive us. They blend and conform to an unholy world. And they are not persecuted. In fact, they are accepted. If our message attracts the world and they aren’t challenged with their sin – then we have the wrong message.

vi. But when we have the right message we will be hounded. Why? Because God’s peace means war to men. Citizenship to God’s Kingdom means the decimation of their own. Survival instinct kicks in and either they fight, they fly, or they are destroyed.

vii. [Slide 8] How could any such people be blessed? How could the hunted, the vexed, the pursued be blessed?

d. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.

i. They are kingdom citizens.

ii. There is a larger truth being conveyed here.

iii. Those who would live holy lives before all, even if it cost them their very lives, have to be citizens of a different kingdom. Because they understand that this world – this existence – this life is nothing more than a nightmare that they will someday wake up from .

iv. That on that day it will be but a faint memory as they bask in the glorious presence of the One who saved them from such a world.

v. In foundations small group and even in the bible study on Sundays, a question has been raised that in itself is quite interesting. The question is of martyrs. Is it the best thing that has happened to them, or the worst?

1. In one way, of course it is the worst because of the finality of death.

2. And yet – to be dead is to be free. The worst any man can ever do to us is kill us.

vi. Citizens of the Kingdom of God can endure such persecution because this isn’t home.

Transition:

[Slide 9 (blank)] So we go about attempting to bring the peace of God upon the hearts of all men, living holy lives in front of them – which is all but guaranteed to bring us persecution. It sounds like this is the best kind of Christian there can be – no hypocrisy or empty of love and yet we are still persecuted. There is another layer to this too.

III.) The King blesses with great reward in heaven those who are defamed, hounded and slandered for following Christ, so we must be Christ-Like

a. [Slide 10] Blessed – Belief that produces favor from God

b. you when people insult you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you falsely

i. Defamation – To publically disgrace or chide. To taunt. This is has the idea of berating someone to the point that they are beaten down by words. It is the inverse of backbiting.

ii. Hounding – To pursue tirelessly or to vex. We saw this in the beatitude before this. So we need not elaborate on it here.

iii. Slander – Speaking against someone falsely is called slander. This is by insinuation or outright deceit causing people to mistrust an individual by spreading lies.

iv. When – We may be tempted to force this word to mean that it is inevitable that we will face such things. We can prove that from other passages of scripture far more easily - John 16:33; II Timothy 3:12; I Peter 4:12-19. Christians will face trouble in this world. That is a fact. And it is a fact that blows up all the prosperity theology that exists. Both liberally in the sense that we will be wealthy and prosperous if we follow God and conservatively that we suffer when God wishes to teach us something and succeed when we are doing what God wants. For those who would follow Christ – Persecution and trouble is certain. But here, in this text, when is hypothetical not future certain. So if persecution is certain, why give the when that suggests a hypothetical?

v. It seems that persecution in general is not given this uncertainty – but the persecution of defamation and slander is. Perhaps we may not receive destruction of our reputation and integrity but are still hounded by the world.

vi. It is one thing to be simply hunted and killed for being holy – it is another to have your integrity and reputation sullied in the process of being hunted and killed.

vii. [Slide 11] In thinking of this my mind wanders to William Tyndale, who having translated the bible into the common English tongue so that the common man could read the Word of God, was brought to such harsh persecution that he was burned at the stake for not only his doctrine but his desire to shine the light of the Word of God on all who could read. For fear that the people would perceive the wickedness of their priests and friars, the clergy went to great lengths to suppress the truth. They were able to persuade the authorities to render his translations illegal in AD 1537 – and went to great lengths to defame His character and integrity citing that he translated the scripture so erroneously that it was full of errors. Before his death he wrote to John Frith, his ally and friend, saying “I call God to record against the day we shall appear before our Lord Jesus, that I never altered one syllable of God’s Word against my conscience, nor would do this day, if all that is in the earth, whether it be honor, pleasure or riches might be given me” To put that clearer – I did the best linguistic work I could for God’s glory and wouldn’t have done it any differently even if fame, riches or power were offered to me.

viii. Mr. Tyndale was defamed, he was slandered, and he was persecuted for the sake of Christ.

c. [Slide 12] on account of me

i. The greatest difference between the previous beatitude and this one is this.

ii. Although Christ and Righteousness are in some ways, the same, it is obvious that this is persecution purely for bearing the name of Christ.

iii. What then is the blessing in this?

d. [Slide 13] because your reward is great in heaven

i. We should not interpret this as some special blessing added to heaven. A better mansion or loftier view of the crystal sea. To gain citizenry, is the greatest blessing that any could aspire to gain. So what reward could be better than the greatest reward? This favor given by God – is as all the others have been – kingdom citizenship.

ii. We will experience persecution, in many forms, and when we experience it because of our right living or because of our simple faith, we then are favored with citizenship to God’s Kingdom.

e. Unlike the other beatitudes, this one has some additional information that we must look at too.

i. Rejoice and be glad

1. This is a typical response to trials and testings in scripture.

2. James 1:1-4 - James reveals to us that in our testings our faith is tested to the point that we increase our ability to endure. And as we endure to the very end it produces a person who is complete and lacking nothing.

3. I Peter 4:12-19 - Peter coincides with Jesus’ words here to explain how suffering for the name of Christ is a great honor, so that your life and death can bring glory to Him. And while we do not seek it by being a criminal or trouble maker, we are also not ashamed of it.

a. On Wednesday nights we have been reading through Foxe’s book of martyrs. The stories in this book are not for the faint hearted. But if you desire to remind yourself of what persecution looks like – or to prepare yourself for what it will be here soon, you need only read its pages and be horrified.

b. Peter’s words are difficult because he cautions about being ashamed at our persecution.

c. We naturally go to our blushing faces as someone ridicules us for being a goodie two shoes or a straight edge. We think in horror of the times that we are rejected because we are a churchgoer, or mocked in public address by scientists who call us bumpkins. And no doubt this is what Peter is talking about. To not be ashamed but to glory in the name of Christ. But may I submit to you that this example of shame is only the tippity top tip of the iceberg.

d. Can you imagine the shame it is to be stripped naked and drug through the streets by pins impaled through your ankles? Can you imagine the shame it would be to have your houses, your lands, your career, your bank account, your title, stripped away from you and put in prison for the remainder of your life while your family starves to death in poverty? Can you imagine the shame it is to have your wife and child ravaged in front of your eyes while the offender mock you for how poor of a husband and father you are?

e. And the only thing they ask of you for it all to stop… is to deny Christ.

f. Is there shame in being mocked for being a bible thumper? yes. But I pray that we have thicker skin – because the worst is yet to come.

4. So rejoice and be glad. Why? Because the judgment starts with the house of God. And if we endure such things on earth, can you imagine the fate of those who are disobedient to the gospel of God? If the righteous are barely saved, then what will become of ungodly sinners. So then, let those who suffer, remember that it is God’s will that they suffer. And if that be true, then they must trust their faithful creator as they continue to live for Him.

5. If you think the words I just spoke cannot be true – I basically just gave you the Chris version of I Peter 4:17-19. Perhaps a good passage for you to look up later.

ii. So they persecuted the prophets before you.

1. Even though that word from earlier “when” cannot be proved as certainty… I feel like the bible goes to great lengths to show us that persecution is certain.

2. Because it has always been this way.

3. The religious Jew rejected their prophets. They persecuted their own prophets. Why? Because they did not like what God said through them. Their prophets mostly told them they were wicked and needed to repent and beg God to show mercy on them. They didn’t like that message.

4. I am no prophet, but I am a student of history. The culture and nation we live in marches in lockstep to the times of 1st Century Israel. There are plenty of religious people in this nation. And if I were a betting man, I would wager that, like it was in the days of Jesus, it will be those who call themselves Christian that will tire of tolerance for the true church of Christ. When persecution comes it will be at the hands of those claiming to rest in the embrace of Christ. The primary persecutors of the church of God here in America will not be those who fight for abortions, LGBT rights, or the Liberal progressives. Persecution will come primarily from those who tire of the preaching of the Word of God. Those who tire of hearing how sinful they are. Those who tire of hearing how important it is to live holy lives. It will be those who claim to be of Christ that hunt us down and either take our lives by their own hands, or turn us in to the authorities. Why? because they cannot abide the message that the Word of God preaches to them.

5. I come across passages in scripture every day that I do not like. Do you think I like the thought that persecution is certain while trying to raise a 2 year old daughter? Do you think I like the very real possibility that I will be murdered for preaching what I preach? Do you think I like the fact that if I do not preach what God says to preach that I will be judged more harshly? Do you think I like being a puppet? A stooge? A flunkie who delivers a bunch of bad news to those in his charge? Do you think I like that?

6. No I don’t. But fortunately it doesn’t matter one hill of beans whether I like it. Why? Cause I am a stooge.

7. When we are all stooges… when we are all used of God on this earth and persecuted for it, we will be in good company. Because such was true of the prophets of God, such was true of the apostles of Christ. How marvelous to share in the sufferings of Christ with such a great crowd of witnesses.

Conclusion:

[Slide 14 (blank) (end)] As we close out this last section I am left with the question why. Why would such people be a threat to any people group?

Think about the fruit of the Spirit. Love, Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self control. What of any of these would be dangerous to an empire, Kingdom or nation?

Christians provide for their own families, they work hard, they are honest, they don’t cheat on their taxes. They don’t steal . They don’t contract and spread various sexual diseases. They solve their disputes quickly and hold each other accountable.

They provide for one another when there is a need. They help those outside their faith with physical needs as they can.

They pray for and submit to their government in so much as the government does not require them to violate God’s standard.

A Christian, walking in the Spirit, is the least threatening person that could ever become a citizen of your kingdom, empire, nation or land. So why is persecution guaranteed?

Because we are peacemakers. It is not that we are peacable or peace lovers. Because there would be no problem if this were so. But because we attempt to bring the Messianic Kingdom’s peace to the hearts of all who we rub shoulders with. And what does that take? It takes us telling them that they have rebelled against a Holy God, and that His wrath is set against them. It takes us communicating to them that they are wrong. It takes being holy people that are different. That live a life that is counter to their viewpoint. Our holy life condemns them just as much as our message.

You want to know why living this way guarantees our persecution? Because when we live this way we reflect our King, and this world and everyone in it, HATES. OUR. KING. They hate His word. They hate His law. They hate His holiness. They hate His judgments.

And if you are thinking, well I don’t know if people hate Jesus. I mean people seem to have a relatively positive opinion on Him. Even Muslims think he is a prophet. Atheists think he existed. Even pagans quote him at times. What do you mean that everyone hates Him?

These groups of people who have no problem with Jesus, have no problem with Him because they have already rejected the parts of Him that they do Hate. They have pared him down to something they can stomach. They have diluted Him to something that is not quite so dangerous to their own way of living.

And can I suggest to you that churches all across our nation and our world do this too. They attempt to cut Jesus down to a more acceptable form so that the unbeliever can be enticed by Him. This happens in various forms across this great land but chief among them is presenting a Savior that is literally all about them. Perhaps you have heard the phrase: He would have left heavens throne and came and died if I were the only one on earth. Now it is hard to know whether this is true or not, because although men like Augustine and C.S. Lewis have said it – it is not in the bible. In fact it is not even in the bible by implication. So although we can’t say for certain it is true… to offer this as some evangelistic tool to entice people to Him is obviously not good. We distort Jesus by painting Him as only a friend, only a Lord, only a savior, only a groom, only a King or any other only you can think of. To trim any of these titles away from Him is to make a false Jesus. It has gotten to the point that even the name Jesus has literally no meaning any more. Because everyone conjures up their own view of Him.

I sometimes wonder if the attrition in our churches, as we see young people leave in droves, is rooted to the fact that they find that this Jesus is not what was advertised.. And they think “This isn’t what I signed up for”.

And it isn’t just Jesus or the gospel that we pare down. Our churches try desperately to be relevant. We try desperately to engage in meaningful conversations with the spiritually bankrupt. We want them to respect us and see us as intellectuals. We want them to sit at a table with us and rationally discuss the gospel. We honestly think that if they will just see how good the light is, that they will stop walking in darkness. There is just one problem friend… this world will never be the friend of Jesus. He didn’t come to make friends. He came to destroy empires. In some ways He is that warrior King that the Jews wanted but he started with the empires in their hearts. We must be careful that in an effort to be relevant we not forget that we are petting a starving lion, not a house cat.

Perhaps the most damaging issue behind all of this is the motive to tailor the gospel and our living it to be enticing to the world. What we do not realize is that the more we tinker with the gospel to only show what will draw men to it, the more we offer something other than the gospel. The more we attempt to prove to the world that we are just like them so they will listen to us, the less different we appear to be. And when we lose difference from the world, we lose relevancy to the world. We’ll talk more about this next week.

You may say, well I thought gospel means “good news”. It is good news friend. It is.

For those who believe.

But for those who do not believe – it is the most offensive thing you could tell them. To tell them the grass is not purple. To tell them to lay down their arms and believe the grass is green. To tell them that they are wicked and have never had any good in them. To tell them that they are vessels of wrath, only worth destroying by a Holy God. To tell them that they have but one hope. To tell them that their only hope is to lower their gates and allow the King of Kings to ride in and take their city, their empire, all they have built. To abdicate the throne of their life and cede it to Him.

Or watch it burn as He rides in with His armies to destroy it.

To tell them this, is to tell them the gospel. To tell them this is seek to make peace. And to tell them this is to incur the hate of men upon you.

This good news, is news that no one wants, but everyone needs. But you can’t convince them that they want it. They must be made to want it.

A wonderful albeit morbid illustration of this is the disease of rabies. Rabies causes excessive salivation, dehydration and loss of muscle tone, painful swallowing and if not caught in time it will kill. Because of the painful swallowing, many develop a fear of water, in fact over half of those diagnosed develop a fear of all liquid.

You see the great problem of course. The disease sucks the moisture from your body and prevents you from replenishing it. To offer them a cup of water is the absolute best thing you could give them. In fact, it could save their life. But they fear it. They hate it. They reject it.

To give water to a rabies patient one must first administer the immunization against the disease, and even then fluids would need to be administered through an IV.

Our world wants nothing to do with the true gospel, even though it is everything they need. It is good news – but they do not naturally see it as such. So to try to dress up the gospel like something it isn’t, is futile. We need the immunization. We need the Spirit of God to invade them and turn their hearts.

Not only do some attempt to pare down the gospel to something enticing, but another equally damaging problem iw when others self-righteously preach the gospel on street corners and Facebook walls. They blast the passersby with messages of condemnation. Might I suggest to you that the gospel, the true gospel is offensive enough all on its own. You don’t have to help it along by being belligerent or overly aggressive. Remember that these people are where you once were. They are blind.

Perhaps you would say – well if they were walking into a burning building we must seize them by the arms and drag them away kicking and screaming. I think that is a poor illustration of what is actually happening. I think the better illustration is they are dying of dehydration from rabies, so I must wrench open their mouths breaking their jaws and shove as much water down their throats as I can. Would that work? No. You’d get bit in the process.

Perhaps you would say – Didn’t John say preach repentance. Yes that is the content of his message but his tone is only harsh to the religiously engaged but spiritually dead. Jesus’ tone is only harsh to the religiously engaged but spiritually dead. In fact, to the godless Jesus was extremely compassionate. Just read John 3 and 4 if you want to compare Nicodemus to the Samaritan woman at the well. If anything we should be preaching hellfire, brimstone, damnation and judgment to the apathetic, complacent, good for nothing church who is content to sit under the teaching and preaching of the word of God and leave unchanged. Turn your harsh tones on those who should know better and save the compassionate presentation of the offensive and harsh gospel to those who are deep in darkness.

Friends we do not need to pare down our gospel. We don’t need to be relevant to impact our world. We don’t need to aggressively shove peace down the throats of our enemies. We must be must be peacemakers. To declare the harsh truth of the gospel and bring God’s peace upon the hearts of all men. We must be holy people who live a Christ-Like life. And when we do this we should expect persecution. To be ridiculed. To be maligned. To be slandered. To be harassed. We will be sued. We will be prosecuted. We will be bullied. We will be harmed. We will be pillaged. We will be ravaged. We will be hunted and we will be killed. Because we are no friend of this Kingdom or its citizens – because we are citizens of the Kingdom that will replace it. It is a gospel that no one wants because it is a King that no one wants, who is bringing a Kingdom that no one wants.

May we praise the Lord now that it is only words. But soon… soon it will cost much more to bear the name of Christ.

And what should be our response? Rejoice. Because if we are being persecuted for being holy, peacemaking, Christ followers, then we are following in our King’s footsteps. And even if they take everything they can from us, then we have the great honor to die for His glory.

So ends the Beatitudes. There is no human worthy of God’s Kingdom. There is no human who could ever be worthy of God’s Kingdom. And no human would even want God’s Kingdom. Yet – we who are in Christ have been adopted as sons and daughters and if children we are heirs. And our inheritance is great.

If you have never repented and believed, or if you haven’t done so in a while, but would like to know more about this, please talk to me after we pray.

Title: The Conundrum of the Kingdom

Text: Matthew 5:6-8

FCF: We often think we can manufacture holiness in ourselves through our effort.

Prop: Jesus takes our place not just in death but in life to fulfill God’s righteous standard, so we must depend on Christ.

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Matthew chapter 5. Last week we barely cracked open the sermon on the mount. We identified the main point of the sermon. That Jesus is trying to communicate to all who hear him, disciple or otherwise, that to be a citizen of His Kingdom, you must be perfect. Of course that poses a problem because Jesus begins the sermon describing His Kingdom citizens, and the first descriptor of them is that they understand that they are spiritually bankrupt. That there is no good in them. He continues by saying that they also are deeply crushed by their spiritual condition because they understand that there is no hope at ever being innocent in God's eyes. Then He says that His Kingdom citizens look at the holiness of God and their wills break. They are like the dam that gives way to the power of the water. But this doesn’t sound like someone who is perfect does it?

In fact it sounds like perfection is the furthest thing from Jesus' mind in describing His Kingdom citizens. Today, however, we will look at the positive side of what kingdom citizens are. And if you thought last week was difficult to stomach - I tell you that this week will be downright confusing and depressing. But fear not. The correct understanding of the beatitudes will enable us to unpack the rest of the sermon on the mount. Because everything else Jesus has to say flows out of this. So I'll begin in verse 1 of chapter 5. I'll be reading from the NASB but please follow along in whatever version you prefer.

Sermon Intro:

A paradox is something that seems to be a self-contradictory statement, but proves to be true. Here are some examples from some famous people’s writings or sayings.

[Slide 2] "I can resist anything but temptation."-Oscar Wilde

[Slide 3] "What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young." - George Bernard Shaw

[Slide 4] “I know one thing: that I know nothing.” -Socrates (via Plato)

[Slide 5] “Life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none.” -Albert Einstein

[Slide 6] “Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” -Gandhi

[Slide 7] “It’s weird not to be weird.” -John Lennon

Here are paradoxes that you or I might say:

[Slide 8] Nobody goes to that restaurant because it is too crowded.

[Slide 9] You can save money by spending it.

And here are some that are just funny:

[Slide 10] Microsoft Works

[Slide 11] Jumbo Shrimp

[Slide 12] To shut down your computer, first click Start.

[Slide 13] No keyboard detected. Press F1 to continue

I asked my wife for an example of paradox... she said [Slide 14] women in general :)

[Slide 15 (blank)] Today we will see a paradox in Jesus' sermon. He has already shown us that citizens of His Kingdom understand that they are spiritually bankrupt. That they mourn over their spiritual condition because it is impossible to change it. And they see the holiness of God and conclude that they cannot win - so they submit themselves to whatever He desires to do to them. In all of these last week we saw the Chinese finger trap that is the Kingdom of God... in that citizenship is by a means opposite of what you'd expect.

But to seemingly contradict everything He just said, today we will see the other side of the coin. Today we will see Jesus telling us that to be citizens of His Kingdom, you must be perfect. Question? How can you be innocent and guilty? How can you be perfectly good and wicked at the same time? This truly is the conundrum of the Kingdom - and since you may not be here for the entirety of our study of Matthew. Since Jesus may return before we get to the solution to this paradox, I'm going to jump the gun and reveal the end. The hope of Jesus was to draw His listeners to Himself. And that is the key that we will see today. Jesus' incarnation, life, death, and resurrection, took our spiritual bankruptcy, our mourning, our meekness - he became that for us - and he imputed or installed in us the three things we will see today. It is in Him positionally that we are made perfect. And it is in the Spirit practically that we continue to grow to be MORE like Him every day. So what will we learn today? Depend on Jesus. Believe. It is that simple. And it is the same message for Christians and non-Christians alike. Believe.

Transition:

So what is this paradox? How are these contradictory to what we learned last week? Well lets dive in.

I.) The King gives the blessing of holiness to those who need it to live, so we must depend on Christ.

a. [Slide 16] Blessed – Belief that results in God’s favor

b. Are those who hunger and thirst

i. To be starved and to be parched.

ii. We don’t get this. We have 3 meals a day. We get dehydrated because we drink too much coffee and pop.

iii. To be hungry and thirsty is to be on the brink of starvation as you haven’t eaten a good meal in days. It was to be parched for clean water from a well that you had to draw up yourself. Assuming you owned it.

iv. Immediately following these words, again I wonder if Jesus paused. Blessed are those who are on the brink of starvation and fatal dehydration.

v. but not for food and water do they yearn. This great need. This absolute necessity. It is life or death and the outcome is determined by what?

c. For Righteousness

i. The Greek construction here means that we are not on the brink of starvation or fatal dehydration and seeking SOME righteousness – but ALL righteousness. The phrasing if applied to food would be a desire for a morsel of bread vs. A desire for the whole loaf.

ii. Can mean justice. It is correct enforcement of the law. When a murderer is punished for his crimes that is justice.

1. It is obvious that this is not something globally, but instead something personal. There is personal hunger and thirst for this. And the promise is related to our being.

2. To hunger and thirst for justice would mean to hunger and thirst for your personal eternal punishment by God. This doesn’t seem to be the meaning that Matthew is intending

iii. In fact all throughout the book of Matthew he uses this word not to speak of justice, as in being given what you deserve, but instead to be set right. To be made the way you were supposed to be. To be innocent of lawlessness. So to be thirsting after righteousness is not to beg for justice but instead to have never needed to be brought to justice. Innocent, never having been guilty.

1. What he is saying that after understanding your spiritual bankruptcy, mourning over that state, and having seen the glory and holiness of God, humbly submitting to Him…

2. That you starve and are parched to be pleasing to God. That is, to have God’s righteousness. Not just positionally friend, to get out of your just punishment – but practically to be like Him forever. To live as He wants you to live. You may as well substitute the word Holy here. Belief resulting in favor is given to those who are on the brink of starvation and fatal dehydration for lack of Holiness.

iv. No natural man wants this. This is the state of Kingdom citizens. They want desperately to be what God expects them to be. They desire to be like Jesus. Just as God the Father was greatly delighted in the Son, that is the hunger and thirst of all Kingdom Citizens. And just like the Son, The Holy Spirit comes to us to enable us to do this

v. This is yet another truth that proves decisively that a person who claims to be of Christ that does not hate sin. A person who claims to be of Christ that does not appall every single inconsistency they have with God. A person who claims to be a Christian who does not desire to find exactly what God would have them to be and do exactly that. That person has very little hope that they are genuinely a follower of Christ.

vi. Why? Because when Christ is raised in you, when you are clothed with Him, when the Spirit invades you – you cannot resist His desires for long. You can grieve the Spirit. You can walk away from following the Son – but God the Father chastens those He loves. The triune God Will not allow a true Christian to abandon forever the pursuit of being like Him.

vii. And how are those who are seeking holiness because they are about to die for lack of it, blessed?

d. For they will be Satisfied

i. Gorged. Filled to the capacity and then some. Overflowing.

ii. This happens positionally in Christ in that we are given infinite righteousness in Him. Practically we understand that it is always the will of God for us to be holy people. Those who seek it by their own strength will be frustrated.

iii. But in Christ our hunger and thirst for Him will grow. We will eat his words and drink his ways. And we will be satisfied. But like we do with food and water, we will hunger and thirst again. Therefore we must continue to do this in this life because while we wear these sin scarred garments of flesh we cannot ever truly be satisfied. But one day. One day we will be forever satisfied. One day we will drink from the living water and never thirst again. As those who mourned over their spiritual condition will one day be comforted, this is the object of that comfort. Our life threatening need for holiness will be quenched never to be empty again.

Transition:

As a starving man hotly pursues his next meal lest he die, so we hotly pursue the Righteousness of God lest we die. But how can the spiritually bankrupt hope to ever be righteous? Would they ever even want righteousness? Would the one who has nothing good in them, ever desire to be completely good? That is paradox number 1. But there are two others. Let us look...

II.) The King gives the blessing of forgiveness to those who forgive others, so we must depend on Christ

a. [Slide 17] Blessed – Belief resulting in God’s favor

b. Merciful

i. Mercy is the combination of the words forgiveness and compassion.

1. To not grant to someone that which they have rightfully earned. Usually some punishment.

2. To take on the skin of another and understand as much about their situation as possible and render love in the most effective way possible. To demonstrate that love by action and not only word. And to do so without thought to what can be personally gained.

ii. Kingdom citizens understand their own spiritual condition, mourn over it, humbly break before the Lord of Holiness, they long for that holiness and in so doing demonstrate that holiness in their dealings with others. Specifically by emulating the compassion of God and forgiveness of God.

iii. This was a foreign concept in their culture and those who did not punish or recompense those who harmed them were certain to have more harm done to them. To show compassion on those who were weak or unable to care for themselves was a sign of weakness. If the helpless are to ever be strong, they ought not survive on the mercy of others, but pull themselves up and make something of themselves. A Roman philosopher said that mercy was “a disease of the soul.” But Is it a Roman cultural phenomenon to have disdain for mercy? I think if we are honest with ourselves, mercy without hope for personal gain is considered at least peculiar in our culture, and in some ways – utterly ridiculous.

iv. To be merciful then is to be a helper of the helpless. Compassion is woven to this word. Love is woven to this word. Kingdom citizens do not stop at words but compassionately demonstrate action. Not because they will get something from it. Not because there is something special about them. They do so, because they have been invaded with a God who is compassion. Who is mercy. Who is love. He comes bubbling out of them. We empathize and sympathize. We offer help and hope and grace – why – because we look at others and realize that we are the same.

v. Of all the Beatitudes I find this one to be the most piercing to my heart. It cuts me to my bones. It destabilizes my assurance of salvation. I long to be merciful and to be merciful because God is merciful, not so that I may gain but so that He may be glorified. Yet often I am the one saying – get a job you bum – instead of let me help you find a job my friend.

vi. God’s people don’t have a list of qualifications to earn their compassion. Instead they are ready and willing to give and help. Even to be taken advantage of. Are there limits? Of course there are. Is there an end to God’s mercy? No. There is no end to His mercy, but one day He cuts off His mercy.

vii. At some point the most compassionate thing that God can do for us is tell us no. At some point the most compassionate thing that God does for us is let us experience the consequences of our sin. At some point the most loving things God can do for us is allow us to struggle and strive. To squirm under the boot of trials and temptations – Why? So that we may learn what it is to believe. So we may practice dependence and submission.

viii. Likewise there is a point that compassion stops helping. There is a point where forgiveness is granted but action is taken. There is a breaking point where mercy’s objective remains unchanged but the manner it is applied shifts.

ix. But our job is to lean of the Spirit to know when that shift takes place. And to be honest, I feel all of us struggle to know when that is.

1. Some of us err on the side of grace. We forgive and never grant consequence. We help without expecting the person to grow and learn. In both these cases we guarantee that the person will continue offending and continue being helpless.

2. Others of us err on the side of wrath. We forgive but are slow to give trust. We forgive but we selfishly protect ourselves from the possibility of them hurting us again. We help sometimes, but only those who we know are desperate. Often we don’t help at all, expecting the helpless to know better. We apply our upbringing and opportunity and assume they had the same. And even if they did – do you begrudge them for being a sinner? Aren’t you one too?

3. As with all things we must lean on the Spirit of God to know when to shift from Forgiveness encouraging repentance to forgiveness and giving consequence. We must depend on the Spirit to help us to know when to shift from helping the helpless to get back on their feet and provide for themselves and ceasing to help the helpless realizing they don’t want to provide for themselves no matter what we do.

4. We must lean on the Spirit because only He can tell us when that time is. We dare not trust ourselves.

x. And if we show the Spirit’s balanced Mercy, how are we blessed?

c. For they shall receive mercy

i. Compassion and Forgiveness fall on us. From where?

ii. Some suggest that this is a human proverb. That others will show you mercy if you start the process. That if you grant compassion to them, that they will reciprocate.

1. Not only does this invalidate the concept of granting mercy for no personal gain

2. but it also proves to be scripturally and experientially untrue.

a. When we show compassion and forgiveness to others, it is tragic but common to receive no compassion or forgiveness back.

b. The sting of helping a homeless man and providing food for a month only to see him on the street corner again a few weeks later. I’ve been snookered you think. – Indeed you have, but should you expect anything else?

c. It is not a social gospel we believe in, where men can be shown enough kindness to change them – but a gospel of grace. That man’s heart can be replaced with the heart of God. That heart of stone turned into flesh.

d. The most merciful being that has ever walked the earth was rejected and crucified. Should we expect to be offered mercy in return? Are we more effective at offering mercy than Jesus? I think not.

iii. This mercy comes from the one who has been the provider of all the blessing up to this point. God.

iv. This is a concept repeated often throughout the New Testament. Those who offer forgiveness and compassion will be given forgiveness and compassion by God. This leads us to ask – is this the unpardonable sin? Is God saying that those who do not forgive or show compassion lose their salvation? Or is He saying that we must earn our forgiveness by first showing forgiveness?

1. God is saying that those who have been shown so much compassion and forgiveness will never refuse it to another.

2. You won’t lose your salvation, but your life practice is to show forgiveness and compassion to others.

3. This is part of the broader concept of the place of works in our salvation.

a. Works have no part FOR our salvation, but they certainly have a part IN our salvation.

b. Those who are being changed into the likeness of Christ. Those who are being transformed and are renewing their mind – they obey God. They obey Him which shows that they love Him.

c. It is such a difficult theological line to tread. And it seems like no matter what you say, people either accuse you of legalism or license. So let me try to be extremely clear.

d. The evidence that we love God is that we obey, but that doesn’t mean we try hard to obey to prove that we love Him. The evidence that we are saved is that we obey, but that doesn’t mean we try really hard to obey to prove we are saved.

e. [Slide 18A] Rather that those works, that obedience flows out of us in the passion and power of the Spirit of God. It is a new nature. And since we still have these wretched bodies there will be conflicting displays of nature. It is natural for a bird to fly. It is natural for a snake to grow scales. It is natural for a flower to bloom. But if a snake one day grew a bloom on his skin it would be a wonder to behold.

f. The first thing people would do is to trap that snake and study it. They would try to assess whether or not the blooms are stuck to his scaly skin, or if they have grown from him. Perhaps it is difficult to know, perhaps the flower bloom was somehow meshed between his scales. [Slide 18B] But when he starts to sprout more and more blooms from his body – it becomes clear that there is something strange going on.

g. We have been made into something entirely new. As such we produce blooms. We are still snakes, but rosy flowers begin to grow on us. One of these flowers is mercy. It is evidence that there is a new nature within us. Oftentimes the things we associate as flowers that prove we are saved are not at all what the bible tells us. I go to church, I read my bible, I don’t smoke or chew or run with those who do. The bible presents several lists of items that are indicative of a person who is a child of God. We just covered one in Galatians 5. The fruit of the Spirit. Those are the flowers of which we speak.

h. Some look like they have these flowers. Some flowers are stuck on with mud, others with glue and tape. Others have been grafted into the skin of the snake. Still others are from a small moss or fungus has grown on the skin of the snake to produce the flowers. But in all these cases the truth is easy to assess. It is just a snake. They are fake Christians.

i. But for the Christian – the flowers multiply. We see buds all over the snake. They bloom in differing colors and fragrances. Fewer and fewer scales are noticeable as the flowers hide their existence and take their place. But what is obvious to everyone is that this is a phenomenon of nature.

j. And to the snake, he makes no effort to grow his scales, nor to produce the blooms.

k. And to Christians, we don’t try really hard to produce works of righteousness – just as we don’t try really hard to produce works of unrighteousness. But our new nature in us produces obedience. And that obedience is evidence that we love God. And that obedience and love continues to grow and grow, and our works of unrighteousness are fewer and fewer.

l. That is the place that works have IN salvation. That they are not necessary FOR it, but The Spirit is expected to produce works IN us if we are saved.

m. Which is why, as we have preached and taught many times over the last year, if you look at your life, and your blooms are sickly, falling off, or not there – you have cause for alarm. Why? Because you might be JUST a snake.

Transition:

[Slide 19 (blank)] So not only do kingdom citizens starve for the righteousness of God, but they are also unflinchingly forgiving and compassionate. But how does someone who is spiritually bankrupt ever forgive anyone? How can a person who is empty of spiritual goodness ever be in a position to be compassionate or forgiving to another? Another paradox to be sure. There is one final paradox and it... is a doozie.

III.) The King gives the blessing of seeing God to those who are blameless , so we must depend on Christ

a. [Slide 20] Blessed – Belief that produces favor from God

b. are the pure

i. The word for pure means clean, morally guiltless, upright and spotless.

ii. No accusation can be brought against such a person.

iii. The word was used to describe wine that was undiluted. It was pure wine. No water added.

c. in heart

i. Perhaps one of the most clear of all the beatitudes to demonstrate that such a person does not exist.

ii. To add this phrase, in heart, has devastating truth to it.

iii. The heart is the center of personality and will. It is where the mind thinks and the emotion feels. It is the core of who we are and is connected to our soul. The heart represents everything that you are that is not physical. And Jesus says blessed are those who are pure in their innermost immaterial being.

iv. Jesus is saying that you must be undiluted in your thoughts, motives, emotions, opinions, worldviews, theology, character, and internal voice. Do you know what that means?

1. No one who had ever had a thought of greed, an emotion of unjust anger, happiness over an enemy’s loss or thoughts of lust could ever claim such a thing of themselves.

2. Perhaps, like the Pharisees they could claim some measure of external success in keeping laws of God, but to keep them to the point that there was never sin within?

v. This is THE most devastating beatitude in that it excludes every single person who has ever lived.

vi. To be this person and poor in spirit are absolutely impossible. In fact they are the opposites. How can someone be spiritually bankrupt yet internally guiltless?

vii. The crowds should have asked Him – but they were not listening.

viii. Some have suggested that either Jesus was misquoted or that this beatitude should have been at the beginning or the end simply because it seems to be by far the most demanding. The fallacy in this is that all of them are demanding. All of them are more than we are capable of in our natural condition. Men do not naturally entertain the possibility of their own spiritual bankruptcy. They do not mourn the impossibility of their innocence. They do not break and submit to God, even if it means their destruction. They do not look to holiness for survival. They do not have the weakness of compassion and forgiveness. No one can do any of these things.

ix. In truth this beatitude is exactly where it should be. Everything said up to this point leads us to this – and as we will see next week, everything said after this flows from this.

x. To be 100% guiltless of any thought, word, motive, emotion or deed. And for this, how then are we blessed?

d. for they shall see God

i. This is a future term that has continuing results. So it could be translated – for they will continue to see God.

ii. Who is he talking to? Jews. Certainly they remember Moses. Certainly they remember that Moses – their patriarch – whom they had elevated to near divine status. He couldn’t see God. He was not permitted. God told him in Exodus 33 that no man can see God’s face and live. He told Moses that His glory would pass by and when he was a safe distance from him, God would remove protection from Moses and allow him to see God’s goodness.

iii. Do you understand what this means? He is telling these Jews that those who are pure in heart (something impossible) will continually see God (something equally as impossible). This one beatitude should have had them simply dumbfounded. Why didn’t they ask Jesus what he was talking about?

iv. That a Kingdom citizen that is being made holy, will continue to see the affects of God’s presence in their life. That His invisibility will become visible in them and that they will pursue it even more aggressively. And one day – they will see Him with their own eyes, face to face, as they stand before Him and bathe in his Holy presence, they will not be destroyed.

v. When Moses came down off that mountain his face was so bright that he had to wear a veil. But not forever. II Corinthians 3 indicates that it did fade – but what II Corinthians also explains is that those who are Kingdom citizens, those in Christ – the glory they have will not fade. Meaning that while Moses’ face shown with the affects of the glory of God – Those in Christ reflect, in increasing intensity, the glory of God as they are continually transformed into His likeness by the Spirit of God.

Transition:

[Slide 21 (blank) (End)] So what can we take home from today? Having seen what it is God is calling us to? What shall we do?

Conclusion:

I hope that you do not sit in the pew and hear these words and like the Jews who stood before Jesus on the plain as he spoke to them from the mountain side, let them roll over you as if they were in some foreign tongue.

I hope that you have listened actively to what is expected of Kingdom Citizens. I hope that you have come to the same conclusion that I have, and that I believe Jesus wanted.

I hope when asked the question, what shall we do with what we have learned today? I hope that the answer is clear.

If the first 3 beatitudes communicated the unworthiness of mankind to be in God's Kingdom, these last three confirm the impossibility of ever being worthy.

I hope is it clear that there is absolutely nothing you can do. What I mean by that, is that I hope you understand that all of this is unachievable. That it is absolutely impossible to be this kind of person.

Because if you come to the end of the Beatitudes with that truth tattooed to your heart... then when you finish the sermon on the mount, you will have no greater desire than to learn more from your King. That you will greatly seek after the answer to the HUGE problem that Jesus draws us to. He doesn't give us the solution. Not in this sermon. Why? Because He is the solution.

And as we work our way through Matthew it will become abundantly clear that He is the King, who left His throne, and sacrificed everything so that we could trade places with Him. It is not only in His death but in His life that we are set free. The spotless lamb of God trades the places with the spiritually bankrupt.

You can't go earn it. You can't go live it. For me to try to tell you to go out and be hungry for righteousness, be forgiving and compassionate, and be pure in motive, emotion, thought and deed - it would be futile. Because we are still snakes.

What I am saying is that if Christ be in you and the Spirit of God in you - than these are in you already and growing.

So what if they aren't? Do I try harder to produce them so it proves that I am clothed in Christ and that His Spirit is in me? NO!

Repent of trying to do it on your own. Repent of being spiritually bankrupt, mourn over that condition and be broken and contrite. Then believe - Depend on Christ's finished work for positional and eventual fulfillment of all of these in you. And surrender to the Spirit's leading as he gives you passion and power to produce these beautiful flowers in place of your scales. Then set out to need righteousness to live. Then set out to be forgiving and compassionate. Then set out to be guiltless in your motive, emotion, thoughts and deeds. And every day you repent and yield to the Spirit and step out in faith to obey, you will see the Spirit making you more and more into His image.

But it is so easy for us to try to take over. To make it all about laws and rules. It is so easy for us to keep praying for change and never yield to it.

It starts with what we found last week. A realistic picture of who we are underneath. That picture makes it absolutely necessary to believe. To depend on Christ and surrender to the Spirit

This isn't a motivational speech - You can't do it. But because of God - you don't have to. Why? Because it is DONE! IT IS FINISHED!

Repent and believe.

Repent of your inconsistencies with God.

Depend on the complete consistency of the Son and the execution of your inconsistency through Christ’s Cross.

Surrender to the Spirit as He grows you to be more consistent with God.

Why?

Because the Kingdom is here… and the Physical Kingdom is coming quickly. We don’t have time for apathetic or tire kicking Christians. The bridegroom is coming.

Title: Hi, Have you met you?

Text: Matthew 4:23 - 5:5

FCF: We often think more highly of ourselves than we should.

Prop: Because God blesses those who do not rely on themselves but on Him, we must abandon our self love.

Setting Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Matthew chapter 4. Today is going to be a different kind of sermon at least for me. I am leaving many of the paradigms that I am comfortable with and blending many things together. In so doing I believe that God has led me to craft a stronger more cohesive sermon without abrupt shifts.

Now as we attempt to move through Matthew, we will come to sections of discourse. These are places where Jesus speaks to people. What we have initially then is the setting of those sermons. Rather than crafting a sermon on the setting, or attempting to somehow draw the setting into the sermon artificially, we will instead deal with the setting of the sermon first and then move to the sermon itself. So I am in chapter 4 and I’ll begin reading in verse 23 and we’ll read through chapter 5 verse 2. I’ll be reading from the NKJV but follow along in whatever version you prefer.

Setting Scripture Explanation:

[Slide 2] Here we see Jesus going about His ministry. His ministry is beautifully outlined here by Matthew. Teaching in the synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all kinds of disease and sickness among the people. Teaching, preaching, healing disease and sickness. There is probably a message right there. It is not enough to help our world fix their superficial problems; we must teach the spiritually interested and preach the gospel of the kingdom too. However, there is a clear aspect of helping those who are physically unable to help themselves.

Matthew uses this as a transitional marker to describe how Jesus started to become famous. People heard about what? His preaching? His teaching? Nope. His healing. Often times the reason people hear about us will be about our love for them and not our message. And they may leave having received our love and not believing in our message. Does that change us? Nope. We keep teaching and preaching and healing.

We see that people came from all over to Jesus for healing of all kinds of afflictions. When Jesus sees the crowd, he goes up a mountain side where people can hear him better. His disciples come to him and he begins to teach.

Sermon on the Mount Scripture Intro:

So now we step into His preaching. Now this sermon, as one commentator counted, has almost 40 unique interpretations. And even eliminating the ridiculous and unbiblical, you still come away with at least 8 legitimate uses of this sermon. I believe the different interpretations and applications of this sermon speaks to the depth at which the Son of God preached. When you listen to modern preaching, even the best sermons are pretty flat compared to Jesus’ message. Not saying their preaching is bad, it is just not divine. Now many great theologians and preachers differ on the meaning of the sermon on the mount, but let me tell you what I see.

[Slide 3] In the previous section of scripture we perhaps get a clue as to what to expect from His preaching. First that his message was to repent, [Slide 4] and the gospel according to Mark adds to believe in the gospel. So His message is to repent and believe. That is the content. [Slide 5] Its topic is actually revealed in the text we just read, where we find that he preached the gospel of the Kingdom. So what is the gospel of the Kingdom and what does it mean to repent and believe. I believe that is exactly the nature of the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, some have said that there is no better evangelism passage in all of scripture than this sermon. If you take someone from verse 3 of chapter 5 to verse 27 of chapter 7, they cannot obtain a clearer picture of what the gospel is.

[Slide 6] So essentially what the sermon on the mount is, is Jesus explaining 1.) That the Kingdom of God is here now and is coming at the same time. [Slide 7] 2.) That the entry to the kingdom is not based on how many laws of His you keep or whether or not you are a certain race. [Slide 8] 3.) Finally that to enter the Kingdom of God you must be perfect. Because only the perfect are citizens of God’s Kingdom. Interestingly enough Jesus does not tell them that it is His perfection that would secure entrance. Why do you suppose he did that? Because the intention of the sermon, was to convince the people and His disciples of the very real and world shattering truth, [Slide 9] that they were NOT able to enter the Kingdom. His intention was to draw people to Himself. And even though this is the most powerful and amazing sermon that has ever been written, it had little to no effect on the hearers. As is the tragic irony of the book of Matthew, so the tragic irony of the sermon on the mount is that it is so clear and yet no one will hear.

Beatitudes Scripture Intro:

[Slide 10 (blank)] So what then is the nature of the first section that we will only slightly crack open this morning? This section is called the beatitudes. What that word means is simply – a state of being happy or blessed. This is an unfortunate name because it makes us think that each of these characteristics can be seen in isolation and that we are happy to be each individual item. The truth of the matter is that the blessing or the happiness is rooted in the concept of kingdom entrance. Each of these represents one layer of character that those who are Christ followers possess. Like the fruit of the spirit, these cannot be seen as individual character attributes but as a unified whole.

For the sake of time, we have to divide them up. Realistically we could and should look at all of them together. But since that would take us until about 2:00 I have elected, for the sake of the weakness of our flesh to take these, 3 at a time. You’re welcome 

In reality we should be studying the whole Sermon on the mount in one sitting as well. Because the strands that hold it all together can be severed by a week of work, kids, soccer, video games, broken down cars and the sweet smell of spring. Don’t worry we will review each week what we have learned in the sermon.

What you need to understand specifically about this section, is that is serves as a powerful introduction to the rest of the sermon and helps to guide us in its interpretation as a whole. Everything else that Jesus says, must flow out of what we find in these first 9 verses. So before we dive headlong into this, let us first pray.

Transition:

Rather than tell a story- I am anxious rather to just begin. Look with me in verse 3.

I.) The King gives the blessing of citizenship to His Kingdom to those who are spiritually bankrupt, so we must abandon self-love.

a. [Slide 12] Blessed

i. To be blessed is to be given Divine favor. Grace is another wonderful synonym here. Graced or favored.

ii. We hear the word grace and immediately we think of Ephesians 2

1. It is by grace that we are granted salvation from our sin. Grace is what positionally disconnects us from our depravity in the eyes of our Righteous Judge. We are granted favor, for which we did not earn.

2. Of course, we gain this grace through the vehicle of faith or belief. As Ephesians 2 tells us, faith or belief, is a gift of God, for if it were a work it would give reason for boasting.

3. So what then is this gift of God's that is faith or belief. Belief as we have tried so desperately to define it from Galatians and Jude is twofold. It is dependence and surrender.

a. Not only do we depend on the chair to hold us up theoretically,

b. but we surrender our full weight to the chair to hold us up practically.

c. And so, to believe, is to depend on the finished work of Christ for our positional perfection in Christ

d. and to Surrender to having Christ raised up in us, to surrender to being clothed with Christ, so we can pursue practical perfection.

e. Neither dependence nor surrender is in any way a work. The exact opposite really.

f. To be dependant is to be unable to do something on your own.

g. To surrender is to cease to attempt to do it on your own.

iii. So then, in this small word, blessed, exists the entire gospel . We gain favor from God by belief.

iv. One may just as well say, "belief resulting in grace is given to those..."

v. Indeed all that is missing from Jesus and John's message is the word repent.

vi. How interesting to note then, that the recipients of the first 3 blessings are those who very obviously experience repentance. Let me show you what I mean.

b. poor in Spirit

i. As we have already discussed there have been many people who have clung to this sermon and interpreted it many ways. It would be easy for us to do so too. All that we require to do this is to stop paying attention to what Jesus is actually saying.

ii. No doubt as Jesus spoke to the large crowd, many were poverty stricken. No doubt many of them were beggars. No doubt many of them felt oppressed by a government that taxed them excessively. It was not the Roman government from Rome from which these taxes were levied. In fact Imperial tax law was quite fair, probably being no more than 10%. The failure however, was that this 10% was collected from each individual governor of a province. Which the governors used as a means to stockpile wealth. They would overtax, pay the imperial tax amount, and bank the rest. This left the people struggling to get by. Not only that, but as we have already alluded to, the tax collectors for the governors would follow suit. By the time the people were asked to pay their taxes, it is impossible to put a number on it, but the taxes they would end up paying would be quite high.

iii. So when Jesus says, blessed are the poor, I wonder if he paused right there. I wonder if he let them think for a moment he was talking about their physical state. No way to prove it of course. Nevertheless to omit the following words would have us assume he spoke of food, clothing, and shelter. He was not, in fact, talking about this at all.

iv. in spirit – Reading these words with 21st century eyes we might think that instead of talking about poverty he was instead talking about those who were emotional beggars. Those who were downtrodden. Those who were helpless or abused. However, this word means wind or breath. It is not used to describe emotions, but to describe the non-material, immortal part of all of us. Our souls. Our spirituality.

v. So when we put all this together we have this thought – “belief resulting in grace is given to those who understand that they are spiritually bankrupt.” But what does it mean to be spiritually bankrupt?

1. If you are bankrupt, not only do you not have a penny to your name, but by definition you owe more than you are worth.

2. If you are bankrupt than by definition you are declared legally unable to dissolve your debts and all your assets that have any wealth attached to them at all are divided among your creditors based on what you owed.

3. To be spiritually bankrupt is to have more sin debt against God than you are able to pay. It is to have more sin debt against God than you are worth. In the sense that if you gave up everything that you are, it would still not be enough. This is why we cannot work for our salvation. Because it wouldn’t be enough.

4. To be spiritually bankrupt is to be absolutely, unequivocally, undisputedly guilty with no hope of parole, no hope of defense, and no hope of acquittal.

5. To be spiritually bankrupt – is to be declared what you are in God’s court – wretched and depraved. And when His court reigns down wrath upon you, there will be NONE who grieve. None who would have argument. The Angels of God would stand and applaud the righteousness of that judge. Because He successfully defended the glory of His Great name.

vi. “belief resulting in grace is given to those who understand that they are spiritually bankrupt.”

vii. Immediately we are shaken to our core by Jesus’ words. The first words out of his mouth communicate such a heavy message to our souls. Why? Because no one thinks they are that bad. No one thinks that they this way.

1. You might be able to get a man to admit he does bad things.

2. Rarer still is to have a man admit that he has sinned against a Holy God.

3. But it is quite another matter to draw the admission of a man that he is the enemy of God, utterly empty of all that is good.

viii. But Jesus declares with the authority of heaven – that a man that is able to come to grips with this spiritual truth, is blessed. How?

c. For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

i. There is possession in these words. Not of ownership but of nationality.

ii. As we declare that the United Sates is our country so Jesus declares that those who understand that they are spiritually bankrupt are blessed because they gain citizenry to the Kingdom of God.

iii. God’s Kingdom is made up of beings who know they have no right to be there.

iv. God’s Kingdom is owned by the godless. The empty and the hopeless. Why?

v. Because that is all that is left. There is none righteous.

vi. If a man says he does not sin he is a liar and the truth is not in him. And to fail in 1 point of the law is to fail in it all.

vii. Friends all of this points to 1 inescapable truth. The gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven is predicated on the fact that no one deserves it.

viii. Yet it will be given to those who realize and continue to believe, that there is nothing good in them. And this is why we believe that all the good works we do after we are converted are not works to please Him nor are they works of our own doing – because friend we are still this creature but the Spirit of God has invaded. We are still void of spiritual worth but we have been infused with the Holy Spirit and given worth in the Son of God. It is when we live as He would and in the Spirit that we are able to break the worthlessness in us and do what God would have us do. And who gets glory for that? Only Jesus.

Transition:

What else does Jesus say is distinctive about the Kingdom’s citizens? What other characteristics do they have? Really the next beatitude flows from the first. It is a response that a person has to the understanding of their own spiritual bankruptcy.

I.) The King gives the blessing of eternal spiritual joy to those who are crushed by their spiritual condition, so we must abandon self-love.

a. [Slide 13] Blessed – again – favored through belief.

b. those who mourn

i. It would have been easy, as with poverty, for the crowd to interpret this as simple mourning over loss. Simple grief.

ii. In fact many turn to this and rip it out of context and force our savior to say that God comforts those who grieve the death of a loved one or a pet. And I am not saying that God doesn’t do that. But don’t you dare cheapen the words of our savior by interpreting this beatitude so superficially.

iii. Jesus sets the tone of what this means by the first beatitude. It is obvious that he continues the same spiritual theme.

iv. To mourn then, is not the weeping of something we have had and lost. It is not over things, people, pets or possessions.

v. To mourn is to enter into the deepest sorrow. To be crushed by the weight of something. But of what? What would cause this deep sorrow to occur?

vi. The realization that you stand condemned before a Holy God with no hope of innocence.

vii. In the book of Zechariah chapter 12 we see a prophesy that has yet to come to pass. We see God preparing to set up his literal, physical kingdom on earth. In doing this He has preserved a remnant of Israelites that will be given grace. The text tells us that He will send a spirit of grace and supplication on Jerusalem. That they will look upon God who they pierced and will lament as you would cry for the loss of a firstborn. It says the whole land will mourn. With new testament eyes we see the obvious meaning. That Israel will one day awaken to the fact that they killed their own Messiah. Their own King. They will repent.

viii. I watched a video recently of a young man who was charged with almost 100 counts of sexual misconduct in various degrees. As the judge read through every single verdict declaring him guilty over and over and over and over again, reading off the maximum sentence of each crime he was declared guilty on – I watched as he wept bitterly. With every pronouncement of guilt he flinched. When the list was finally complete he was led away in handcuffs.

ix. It is the same level of mourning for us. When we realize that we stand before the Holy God of this universe and realize that we have no defense.

x. And again, after conversion, this mourning does not stop. People who can sin without grief. People who say, eh, God will forgive me. People who treat their sin as minor hurts to the big man upstairs- CANNOT be saved. Because they have no idea who God is. They have no idea what sin is. And they have never mourned over their spiritual condition.

xi. People often ask me – what do you do with a person who is very depressed because of a sin they committed? How do you go about convincing them that they need to forgive themselves because God has forgiven them. The simplest way to answer that question is- I don’t do any of that. We have this cockeyed notion in this culture that feeling guilty or saddened about our failure is some sort of defect. Jesus tends to disagree.

xii. But Jesus says those who mourn this way are blessed? Why?

c. For they will be comforted.

i. The comfort is the eternal joy in the Lord.

ii. The comfort is forgiveness. The comfort is atonement. That one would take their place. Jesus speaks about it in the future sense in that He has not offered such a sacrifice yet.

iii. The comfort for the young person who is saddened by their sin, is that they serve a God that has gifted them His Spirit and that He can give them victory. Feel the guilt – because you sinned against God. Don’t dismiss it. Don’t fight for it to be gone. Keep it. Love it. Cherish the sadness over your failure.

iv. What do I mean by that? I don’t mean you go home and lock yourself in your room and just dwell on what you did and how awful it is. But instead to count it as joy. Because the more it stung you, the more it anguished you, the more bitterness you taste in its wake, the more likely it will be that when you turn from it, it will be permanent. That when you turn from it, you won’t want to feel the pain again. You gain joy that even this failure will be used to remind you what bitter agony it is to fail your King. You might say, well then, where is the comfort?

v. The comfort is that one day the battle will be over and if to your dying breath you continue to mourn over your failure and desire to be JUST LIKE YOUR SAVIOR then you will stand before His throne stripped of your depravity and YOU WILL KNOW COMFORT. WHY? Because you will never fail Him again.

vi. It is not comforting to insinuate to someone that God doesn’t care about their sin. It is not comforting to tell someone to forgive themselves because the grief they are experiencing is not coming from themselves it is coming from the sharp sting of the Spirit of God. It is not comforting to tell someone to forgive themselves because they are in no position to do so. It is only God who can give them comfort. And in this life, that comfort will only be known when they obey God in love.

vii. So what do I tell someone who is saddened by their failure to please God? Like Jesus said to the woman caught in adultery - go and sin no more. Repent and believe. Crucify and follow. Put off and put on. Pursue God and you will know comfort.

viii. For those mourning over their sexual failures, it produces in them a fervor for obedience to God’s standard of chastity and to see that developed in others also.

ix. For those mourning over their addiction to drugs, it produces in them a fervor for obedience to God’s standard of self-control and they desire to see that developed in others also.

x. For those mourning over their murder of their unwanted baby in their womb, it produces in them a fervor to agree with God’s view of life and to make an impact of others who would choose the same atrocity.

xi. For those mourning over their idolatry it produces passion to eradicate their false gods and see to it that no one worships them again.

xii. [Slide 14-15] To be crushed by the weight of our offenses brings us low enough to repent and believe. Look at II Corinthians 7:9-10

1. Paul here is referring to a previous letter than caused the Corinthians to experience a great deal of sorrow over what he corrected them on. He is addressing that as a good pastor would. That he did not intend to hurt them but what that sorrow produced in them was exactly what it should have produced. This is from the NLT because it communicates the meaning of the text best. Although it does so somewhat liberally with the original languages.

2. 9 Now I am glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow God wants his people to have, so you were not harmed by us in any way. 10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.

3. So what a young person who is depressed over their sin may need – rather than to forgive themselves – is to instead analyze whether their sorrow is bringing them to repentance or not. Because if it isn’t bringing them to repentance… than it is a worldly sorrow and will only result in death.

Transition:

[Slide 16 (blank)] To be spiritually bankrupt and mourn over that state are key characteristics of Kingdom citizens. There is one final layer to this onion. You see to be spiritually bankrupt doesn’t necessarily mean that you would mourn your sin. Many confronted with this truth have gone away rejecting God anyway. But even those who mourn their sin, may not be kingdom citizens if they do not have this reaction from their mourning.

II.) The King gives the blessing of exaltation to those who are humbled at their spiritual condition, so we must abandon self-Love.

a. [Slide 17] Blessed – favored through faith.

b. the meek

i. This word is very difficult to translate.

1. Because we have a natural word that rhymes with meek that bears similar characteristics. But meekness is not weakness.

2. The word means many things in different contexts. Gentleness, humility, self-control, tempered strength. Being able to express anger and power over the right things and in the right way and in the next breath being able to express gentleness and humility.

ii. It is obvious that these meanings must somehow relate to the previous beatitudes mentioned, but how?

iii. A form of this word is used to describe how a wild colt is broken. That the colt still possess the same fire, strength and speed, but has placed himself under the direction of his master.

iv. To be meek then, is a person who has discovered his spiritual bankruptcy, mourned his spiritual condition, and seeing the holiness and power of His master, has completely yielded all points of himself to God.

v. To be meek is to stand in God’s great court room and plead guilty.

vi. To be meek is to be humbled to the point of complete subjugation.

vii. Spiritual poverty leads to sorrow and repentance

viii. Humility leads to submission. The fullest scope of this we won’t quite get until next week.

ix. Meekness is to be broken.

x. Now brokenness is a word that is tossed around today. Mostly what people mean by brokenness is that they are sad about their sin. They actually mean sorrow. That is what we already talked about. And remember, we said that sorrow is useless if it does not lead to repentance.

xi. So what do we mean by brokenness? We mean that we have been broken. That our will has been yielded. We mean submission.

xii. Our culture says – never give up on yourself. Believe in yourself. Jesus’ upends that ideology in 4 words. To be meek, is to give up on you. Why? Because that way led you to spiritual bankruptcy and deep sorrow.

xiii. What is given to those who are humbled like this?

c. They shall inherit the earth

i. God’s ordinal plan for mankind was to be caretakers of the garden. To be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with others who would be caretakers.

ii. God promised Israel a promised land where all the nations would be drawn to Him

iii. Jesus now renews the original plan, saying that the blessing to those who are meek is that they will inherit the earth.

iv. Our world teaches that only the strong succeed. The fittest survive. Jesus tells us that success and inheritance comes to those who are humble.

v. This promise is to all believers and the path to it is humility.

vi. Indeed, as I have already said before, humility is at the core of the gospel. Without it you cannot be saved. Not that it is a work of your own to be humble, but rather than you are made humble – and the main way that we are humbled is through the word of God as it shows us our spiritual bankruptcy and His Holiness.

vii. Being made humble, being broken of our will, means we have been blessed.

viii. We will inherit the earth. The earth that Jesus himself with rule and we will reign with Him.

Transition:

[Slide 18 (blank)(end)] So what can we take home from this toe dip into the greatest sermon ever preached? What is our conclusion here today?

Conclusion:

As always, going back in time to the first century mind, we can find the answers to what we seek.

To the Pharisees, this message boldly tells them that they have no hope of ever being righteous enough in their own power. That no matter how pious they were on the outside, it will never make up for the spiritual death within.

To the Sadducee the message breaks the status quo that they fight so hard to preserve. There is another kingdom that is coming that is disconnected from this world. One that does not exist in this blip called life. Jesus speaks into their hearts telling them that one day this will all end. The rich, the powerful, the strong, will fade away and the meek and humble will inherit what the strong built.

To the average 1st century Jew, his message spoke to their greatest need. After healing them, after caring for them, after tending to their physical need, he uses a play on words to speak to their real need. That they are spiritually empty. That they must recognize their hopelessness and in hopelessness is where God offers hope.

But Jesus was not only talking to a crowd of people who followed Him because of His miracles. He was talking to 4 men, who followed Him because they thought He was the Messiah. What was Jesus saying to them? Hey guys, don’t think that by following me you are gaining ground in the kingdom. You don’t become a citizen by simply agreeing with what the King does. The only way to citizenship in His kingdom is perfection. But since that is impossible for you, then you must repent and believe on the sent sacrifice of God. And if that is true of you, if you have done that… then these 9 characteristics will begin to grow in you – and one day they will be all you know.

The angle of the message from the disciples perspective resonates best with us. Most of us here have in some way come to Jesus and at least are seeking answers. Perhaps we are the ones waiting for the miracles? Perhaps you are the one who dropped your nets, not really understanding what would happen. Really no matter who you are the message, at its core is the same.

From the first 1/3 of these characteristics we see a rather vivid theme. Honestly it describes repentance quite well does it not? The sudden realization that your world is backward. The sudden understanding that what you thought to be true is not actually true. The shattering of your foundation. All of a sudden you realize that you are not a good person who does bad things. All of a sudden you realize that you are not a bad person who does good things. All of a sudden you realize that you are not a bad person that does bad things. You realize that you are wicked, evil, children of wrath. Sons and Daughters of Satan.

When the image of yourself becomes crystal clear you weep for what you are. You weep because there is no hope. You weep for there is only death that awaits you. And not simple death where in but a few moments you experience pain to be released forever. No. As God as the life giver is also the life taker so He sentences you to eternal death in the heat of His glorious wrath.

And yet – in the hearts of those who are kingdom citizens – they are broken by this. They do not take up arms to defeat such a God… they realize there is no victory against this King. And they break. They yield. They submit. They are humbled.

Now these are not prerequisites to enter the kingdom, but are characteristics of kingdom citizens, which means that on the one hand, you do not need all of this, as a checklist prior to salvation, but on the other hand, if you are a believer that has not encountered the wretchedness of your soul when compared to the holiness of God anytime recently then you have cause for alarm.

All through scripture the closer someone came to God the more concerned for their life they became.

When Moses saw the goodness of God he fell to the ground and asked for pardon for the stiff-necked people they were.

When Isaiah saw God seated on His throne he assumed he would be obliterated because his lips were riddled with sin.

When Peter had toiled all night to catch fish and failed, Jesus commanded them to cast their nets on the other side and they had so many fish the boats were beginning to take on water. Peter fell to his knees and said “get away from me Lord for I am a sinner”

If you claim to be of Christ, and are immensely proud of the way you serve Him, you feel as though you do a pretty good job at living for him, if you look at others and wonder why they can’t just get their stuff together and live more like you do, if you honestly believe that God is lucky to have you and that you must be worth so very much to Him for him to come and save you,– let this message from Jesus Himself be a healthy dose of reality for you..

One perfect test of our understanding of this passage, is to go to the Old Testament and see the God who orders the Children of Israel to ride into the Canaanite land and slaughter the men, the women, the children, the animals. And to do so without mercy. To utterly decimate an entire race of people. If you accurately understand this passage… when you read that section of scripture, you do not think – Wow God, why would you do that – they were innocent… you instead think – Holy smokes… I am next!

If you interpret this passage correctly your heart resonates with Paul’s heart when he screams out, having already been converted, O WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM, WHO CAN SAVE ME FROM THIS BODY OF DEATH?

A correct understanding of this passage leads us to conclude that there is none righteous. No, Not one and that ALL have earned God’s fullest scope of His wrath. But the bread trail of Jesus’ words lead straight to the cross. Where that full scope of wrath was on Him poured. It was for our spiritual bankruptcy that he was pierced. And it is by those wounds that we are comforted of our mourning.

If you are a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven, you are well aware of how wretched you are. You know you have nothing to offer God of any worth. A preacher once said “there is no such thing as great men of God only wretched men in the service of a Great and merciful God” and if you are a Christ follower you know that to be true. That is why we will cast our crowns at His feet – for we are not worthy of such honors. He alone is worthy.

Kingdom citizens are humble people who know themselves. And in knowing themselves – they can sing with the song writer - “I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus name.”

Stop thinking so highly of yourself. Abandon your self love. Come to God. Bask in His Holy light. Let it scorch your lofty views of humanity. This is what Christians do. They are humbled people. Because they KNOW who they really are underneath. Do you?

Title: The King’s Demonstration of Kingdom Life

Text: Matthew 3:13-4:22

FCF: We often get confused on what it means to be a follower of Christ

Prop: Jesus continued and expanded on the message of John to repent, so we must repent and believe.

Scripture Intro:

[Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Matthew chapter 3. I am exercising a Pastor’s prerogative. Last week I had mentioned that I would take a break from Matthew to preach this morning on repentance. Well today we will preach on repentance. Next week we will preach on repentance. In fact, for the next several weeks we will be preaching on repentance. But it will all come from the book of Matthew. It seems, as I continue to dig in the richness of this book, that this concept is near to the heart of Matthew. Because it was near to the heart of the gospel of Jesus.

Today we will endeavor to almost get through 4 chapters of Matthew in 4 weeks. This may lead you to conclude that we are moving at a pace that is a bit faster than we originally anticipated. But I assure you that that is not the case. Matthew is structured in 7 cycles of narrative and discourse. That means that 7 times Matthew tells stories of healings and ministry being done and 7 times flowing from that story, Jesus speaks a sermon.

We are quickly approaching now the greatest sermon that has ever been given. The Sermon on the mount and I have no idea how long it will take us to get through it.

By way of review, we just learned about a man named John the Baptist, who was the Herald of the King. He was the voice in the wilderness. His message was to change your mind – to turn from your wickedness. To repent. Because God’s Kingdom – His system of running the world – was at hand. It was near. It was here. Today, we will see the Messiah. The King of Kings. The Lord of Lords. He will enter the scene and determine whether John’s message is false. I am in Matthew 3 and I’ll be starting in verse 13. I’ll be reading form the ESV but please follow along in whatever version you have.

Sermon Intro:

[Slide 2] My typical process for interpreting the text of scripture is to first pray, repenting of any known sin, and asking that God allow His Spirit to illuminate my heart as I read over the words in the text. I then set out to reading the text over and over again to try and gather exactly what the writer is trying to convey to the audience. I try to put myself in their shoes and see the words of the writer from their perspective. After I do this, I add grammatical considerations and then jot down what I think the text means.

I usually finish the text that I think completes a layer of thought, and then I go about comparing what I thought the text meant, to what others thought the text meant. Usually study bibles help with this to make sure that you are not missing the point completely. Commentaries are invaluable, especially technical commentaries that dig into the history, grammar, culture, syntax etc. of the book.

Every week there are layers I did not see. Layers that I was wrong on, and sometimes there are layers that I think other people are wrong on. But let me tell you, particularly on difficult passages, it is so encouraging to compare your understanding of the text to learned men who have been studying the bible for a long time. It communicates less to the smartness of the guy before you and more to the Divine nature of the Word of God and His Spirit’s ability to allow even me to understand.

[Slide 3 (blank)] It was probably quite intimidating for John to know that the Messiah of God would be coming to support the message he preached or to tear it apart. It is difficult enough to stand before you and preach the Word, knowing full-well that if I tell you untruth – I will be judged more strictly. But to have Jesus Christ walk in this room today…

Today we will see that Jesus will not only validate John’s message but expand upon it as He demonstrates for us what it means to live the gospel. He is baptized, spirit led, endures temptations and preaches and teaches the message of repentance in word and deed. Healing the hurting and declaring the Kingdom is near. What then is our response? It will have us repent and believe the gospel. It will have us follow our King.

Transition:

How does Jesus validate John’s message? By His baptism of course. Look with me.

I.) Jesus validated John’s message of repentance by being baptized, so we must repent and believe (3:13-15)

a. [Slide 4] 13 - The time is now ripe. Jesus is coming to John in the first step to beginning His ministry.

b. 14 - But our question is the same as John’s. John tried to prevent Jesus, perhaps as you or I might have too.

i. The logic isn’t complicated.

1. If John’s baptism is a symbol of repentance.

2. If John’s baptism is a symbol of the spiritual work of God in someone’s heart to reject their own worldview and adopt God’s worldview.

3. If John’s baptism is for those who have repented – then why is Christ partaking?

4. In fact, John’s logic is sound to its fullest conclusion, whereby he says to Jesus – I need to be baptized by you!

5. I am a sinner. You are not. I am wicked. You are not. John is saying – Baptize me in the Spirit and fire. Bring your baptism upon me.

ii. [Slide 5] 15 - What was Jesus’ response?

1. Baptize me anyway. Jesus seems to admit that the logic is air tight. That He doesn’t need to be baptized. In fact, it is He who needs to do the baptizing. So why does he say to keep on with it?

2. It is fitting, it is right

3. To fulfill all righteousness.

a. Fulfill means to accomplish

b. Righteousness is not justice so much as it is rightness with God producing obedience.

4. What is Jesus talking about?

a. Jesus is submitting to the teaching and instruction of John the Baptist. Validating his message. Affirming that it is true. By baptism, although it was not a symbol of His own repentance, it was a symbol of the truth in the way of repentance.

b. Jesus was about to begin a ministry of preaching and teaching. Not only will his message be what John has been saying – it will also NOT be the message of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Their message was self-righteousness. Their message was effort and human power. Their message was outward piety. Jesus is baptized to show His approval of the way of repentance, humility, belief and dependence on God.

c. Although He does not need baptism since he had no need for repentance – what he does provide for those who would come after Him, is the way of sanctification. In a few moments we will not only see Jesus submitting to the Spirit of God but tempted by Satan himself. The only thing missing from the equation for a successful spiritual walk with God is having a former nature that was depraved. So the life of Kingdom citizens is baptism, Submission to the Spirit and rejection of sin. The only difference in our walk with obedience to God, is repentance of depravity.

5. To put it as short as we can – Jesus’ baptism is to begin the process that John himself alludes to in the gospel according to John chapter 3. Where he says that he must decrease and Jesus must increase. John’s ministry is coming to a close and Jesus’ is beginning. The message will be the same – only with a minor correction, rather than repent and believe on the Messiah – Jesus will be saying Repent and believe on me.

Transition:

[Slide 6 (blank)] Jesus by being baptized by John began his life of illustration for all who would follow after Him. The first step in this life is repentance and the second is the sign of repentance in baptism. Jesus however, did not need to repent. The evidence for this comes next.

II.) Jesus proved that He does not need to repent, but we must repent and believe (3:16-17)

a. [Slide 7] 16 - When Jesus came up out of the water, the Triune God made it very plain that Jesus was God and was beginning His ministry

i. Came up out – A huge plug for baptism by immersion here, but that isn’t really the scope of what we are doing today.

ii. The heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended like a dove.

1. This is actually a fulfillment of Isaiah 42:1 – That God would place His Spirit on His coming chosen servant.

2. What we have here is the Triune God affirming that the GREAT DAY had come. That the ministry of His Messiah was to begin.

3. First we see the Spirit of God, which is not a dove nor did it look like a dove, but that it descended like a dove would descend. Probably slowly and gracefully. So the Spirit literally was placed on Him and rested on Him. He was anointed for ministry by God’s Spirit.

iii. [Slide 8] 17 - The voice from heaven – obviously God the Father – says this is my son

1. Psalm 2 prophesies about God calling him a begotten Son.

2. Son does not mean by ancestry. God did not create Jesus when His Spirit came upon Mary. God did not literally have an offspring.

3. The Son of God is a phrase that literally means sharing the same characteristics of God.

4. Judas was called the son of destruction – not that his father’s name was destruction (but how could would that name be  ) but that his life bore the characteristics of destruction. He was a destroyer.

5. Just as Judas was a destroyer – Jesus was God among us.

b. What God said about His Son proves that he never needed to repent.

i. Also from Isaiah 42:1, we see that God would be delighted in His Son.

ii. Here in Matthew we see the father saying that He is well pleased

iii. For God to be pleased with a human is impossible let alone for him to be well-pleased with someone. This word means greatly delighted.

iv. In other words there is nothing at fault with the One that stood before Him. What does that mean? Well to borrow from what we are learning on Sunday nights… let me put it this way.

1. There was no behavior; thought, feeling, action, or word that He had ever committed that was inconsistent with God’s Worldview.

2. There was no cultural practice He affirmed that was inconsistent with God’s worldview.

3. There was no value He held that was inconsistent with God’s worldview.

4. He had a worldview that was absolutely consistent with God’s worldview.

v. Not only did He never sin folks – He was not depraved. There was no sin nature. He was completely, 100% consistent with the Father’s Worldview. His Kingdom.

c. How does this draw us to repent and believe? Simply because we are not like Him, which I think is a easy yet difficult conclusion to come to. Easy in that it is easy to prove, difficult in that it is difficult to believe.

Transition:

[Slide 9 (blank)] The long and the short of it is that if this is not true of Christ – then we are damned. And I realize that is a strong word… That is why I used it. We are damned if Christ succumbed to sin. Which is what makes the next part of the story so gripping. Because Jesus is about to be tempted by the greatest of tempters. And if He falls – it has dire consequences.

III.) Jesus demonstrated what repentance and belief is, so we must repent and believe (4:1-11)

a. If we take Christ’s steps prior to beginning his ministry as a long illustration of how to live the life of obedience to God. A life of repentance, then what follows is how a normative Christian responds to the leading of supernatural and natural forces in a Christian’s life.

b. [Slide 10] 1 - First we see the leading of the Holy Spirit. What is odd here, is that the Holy Spirit led Jesus to be tempted by Satan.

i. This goes against the very principles that we teach. To flee temptation. Christ pursued it in accordance with the Spirit’s will.

ii. Was it God’s will that Jesus be tempted. It was. But He was not the tempter. But it was His will. We will ask the question why in a moment, but another layer we must consider here is this.

iii. So what is at stake here? If Jesus sins… what happens?

1. We tend to think selfishly, so the first thing that springs to mind is that we lose our savior. This is absolutely true. If Jesus sins, there is no hope for mankind. But it is far more dire than that.

2. If Christ sins – then He ceases to be God because God is the opposite of sin. Think about that for just a second. Jesus is part of The God Community. The triune God. 3 persons in 1 being. Question. What happens to a 3 legged stool when one leg is removed? It cannot stand. It falls.

3. If Jesus sins – the universe ends and that is not an over exaggeration. If Jesus gave in to the Devil’s temptations – God would fall. He would be destroyed. The universe in His hands would poof out of existence. In one moment – all things would be nothing.

iv. Why would God risk such a cataclysmic event? Why would He risk His own existence for this?

1. Was it really a risk?

a. Some say that because Jesus was God, it would have been out of character for Him to have sinned. In other words it was impossible for Him to sin.

b. Others say that because Jesus was also Human, he had every opportunity, as Adam did, to be tempted and to fall from outside temptations.

c. So who is right. Hard to say really. I personally bounce back and forth between these two positions. Perhaps it is silly for us to even ask such things. Perhaps not. But lets assume the worst. Lets assume that Christ could – being human – have succumbed to the temptations of Satan.

2. What was the purpose for the risk? Was it worth it?

a. [Slide 11] 2 - Jesus demonstrates, at great risk, what it means to be obedient to God in the most difficult of human conditions.

b. Not many of us can say that we have been without food for 40 days. Our modern science tells us that depending on your starting weight you can fast for this period and beyond. But on average you are looking at a 60 day maximum with plenty of water. The most interesting thing about starvation though, is the effects that it has on a human beyond the simple malnutrition of it.

i. Jesus was led to the dessert, a place of blazing sun. Sun gives Vitamin D. However, as the body starves, it stops processing nutrients and vitamins like Potassium and vitamin D. With an abundance of Vitamin D coming in from the sun, and his body not processing it, Jesus no doubt had significantly high blood pressure.

ii. He was no doubt quite dehydrated, dealing with dry and cracked skin.

iii. Obviously with no fuel his body was no doubt fatigued.

iv. And studies show that as a person starves they become more and more depressed.

v. What you have then is a tired, aching, hypertension ridden, depressed man who is being tempted by Satan.

vi. Not only did the Spirit lead him to the wilderness to be tempted, but to be tempted in the most vulnerable condition a human could be in.

c. And yet, He demonstrates repentance, in that he ALWAYS confronts the false worldview of Satan and compares it to the truth which is the worldview of God.

i. Jesus is in the dessert for 40 days and nights – calling back to the 40 years in the wilderness for the Israelites. The 40 days it rained on the earth. The 40 days and nights Moses spent on mount Sinai.

ii. This coupled with Jesus’ quotations from the book of Deuteronomy – the law given again after the wilderness wonderings as they stood poised to conquer the promised land.

iii. Jesus stands poised to conquer sin and death and secure passage to the promised Kingdom of heaven. To secure such a victory he will be the perfect Israel and keep the law of God.

iv. Satan starts his temptations questioning what we just learned to be true at His baptism. Are you truly God among men? He is not doubtful, but he will provide what he thinks that would look like if it were true. Are you truly the Son of God?

1. [Slide 12] 3 - If you were – you would not find yourself in a position of hunger.

a. SATAN VOICE: since you are God, and posses all power, you should get whatever you desire. Your desires should be met, even if it takes a miracle. After all, what is a miracle to the God of the Universe?

b. We cannot understand what Satan’s true temptation is really, until we understand what Christ says back.

c. [Slide 13] 4 - Jesus says that Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. A quote from Deut 8:3

d. Even though being fed is not a sin – God sent Him to this place for this time for this purpose. To ease His suffering in any way would be to live by his physical need and not by the will of God.

e. Jesus’ point is that the desire of God does not determine the will of God. – Which to us is a foreign concept. If we want something and have the power to get it we get it. Jesus tells Satan that his view of God is wrong. That he does not function like men. Just as men are subservient to the word of God – So the desires of God are subservient to the will of God.

f. [Slide 14] 5 - So Satan takes him to the highest point of the temple some 450 feet above the valley below.

2. If you were –it is not the will of God that you would be harmed. So cast yourself off of here

a. He takes what Jesus said about the desire of God being subservient to the will of God and shares a passage of scripture.

b. [Slide 15] 6 – This is a quote from Psalm 91. In this passage it is a promise that those who are devoted to God – to follow His will and obey Him – to those people God will not allow them to be harmed.

c. SATAN VOICE: God’s words – his will – is that those who obey Him will not be harmed. If it is true that you obey Him perfectly, then prove it. Cast yourself down from here. If it is true you are submitted to Him – He won’t let you get hurt.

d. Perhaps you are getting a more cautious view of the nature of Satan.

e. [Slide 16] 7 - Jesus Quotes from Deuteronomy 6:16 where he says not to test the Lord your God. The quote is actually a referent to Exodus 17 where the people said – if God was among us He would provide for us by giving us water. Then God provided by Moses hitting the rock to give them water.

f. In other words , Jesus is saying that Satan is wrong about what it means to be submissive and obedient to God. Submission and obedience does not rely on proof but on the Word of God alone.

g. Just as the Israelites did not actually trust God, nor were they obedient to God by asking if He was truly among them because they thirsted.

h. So also, proving that he was a perfect obedient submitter to God by testing God’s promise is evidence in fact that He does not trust or submit to God’s will.

i. If He was God’s Son – He would trust God to keep Him safe, and need no proof.

v. [Slide 17] 8 - Satan now concedes the point that He is the Son of God. But he offers Jesus something that Jesus would have to endure 3 years of living as a human and endure the wrath of God to get… rule of the world.

1. He takes Jesus to a high mountain – shows Jesus the Kingdoms of the world at their peak and tells Jesus to worship him and all of them will be His.

2. [Slide 18] 9 – SATAN VOICE: – Fine. You are the Son of God. But I know what The Father has promised you. You see what it is like to be one of them? Hungry, depressed, tired. You know what you have to do to free them? To bear the Full Scope of The Father’s wrath. His plan is unnecessary. It is overkill. Stop serving Him and serve me instead, and I will put you in the place that He would have – without all the pain and anguish He is making you go through.

3. [Slide 19] 10 - Jesus replies with a quote from Deuteronomy 6:13 telling him that the only being worthy of worship is Yahweh.

4. Jesus points out that Satan’s view of this world was not God’s view. God exalts the humble and puts down the proud. He gives significance through insignificance.

5. Jesus would need to be made sin and bear the wrath of God to be exalted above every other name and be given the Kingdom.

6. This was the only path because all others were lies.

d. [Slide 20] 11 - Having demonstrated the inconsistency between Satan’s worldview and God’s– He walks in obedience to the Word of God and lives victoriously, to the extent that Satan gives up.

e. Satan is an eternal being. He never gets tired. He never sleeps. So why did He give up? Perhaps God stopped him – or perhaps he knew to quit while he was behind.

f. This provides us with a promise reiterated in James 4- that if we submit ourselves to God (Spirit leading and obedience) and resist the devil (repent of false worldviews) then he will flee from you.

g. Then, as Satan alluded to, the angels of God ministered to the needs of Jesus. Because those that are loyal to God will not be harmed.

h. So why risk it? Was it worth it? – It was for us Christian. To demonstrate repentance and belief. Dependence on the Spirit and Surrender to God’s Worldview as we actively reject false worldview’s from within ourselves or from outside ourselves.

i. But not only that. Not only was he a good example for us… but He was actively providing something for us to depend on . He was providing a perfect life to trade for our imperfect one.

j. [Slide 21] And in this victory, the lyrics of the hymn by Charitie Lees Smith ring true. “Because the sinless savior died, my sinful soul is counted free, for God the Just is satisfied, to look on Him and pardon me. “

Transition:

[Slide 22 (blank)] The King has demonstrated for us thus far that although he had no need for repentance, he followed the path of repentance, rejecting false ideology and world view and depending on the Words of God to sustain Him through temptation. He did this so that we are able to depend on Him and follow Him. How can we follow someone who asks us to tread where they have not. Christ demonstrates His Kingdom life for us. And now, having demonstrated what it is to be a Kingdom citizen, He goes about preaching the message of kingdom entry.

IV.) Jesus continued preaching the message of repentance, so we must repent and believe (4:12-22)

a. Jesus’ 3 year ministry is typically divided into 3 separate years. 1 year of obscurity, 1 year of fame, and 1 year of rejection.

i. [Slide 23] 12 - The year of obscurity is actually absent from every gospel besides John. So what we see here is a 1 year gap between his temptation and the next events Matthew records. That year is in the book of John chapters 1-4 if you’d care to read about it.

ii. So we have some transitional phrases here that have some significance.

1. [Slide 24] 13 - He came back to Galilee from Jerusalem. A fact that we may not know if we did not read John 1-4

2. He moved from Nazareth to Capernaum for his home town. Which we may see why when we get to chapter 13.

3. This area was where Zebulun and Naphtali were given portions from the conquest. Zebulun’s land would be around where Nazareth and Cana were and was part of the area called Galilee. Naphtail would be the land to the west and north of the sea of Galilee – again still part of Galilee.

4. [Slide 25-26] 14 – 16 - Why is this important – because as Matthew loves to point out – this was prophesied. It is from Isaiah 9:1 –Which says that this land was under God’s judgment but it would produce a great light. The messiah.

b. [Slide 27] 17 - Verse 17 identifies that after his move to Capernaum, Jesus started his 2nd year of ministry which is His official preaching, teaching, and healing ministry which we will talk about next week.

i. But the message, you will notice, bears a striking resemblance to something we have already studied. Does it not? In fact it is the exact – word for word – message of John the Baptist.

ii. The only addition we have to this is in Mark where Mark adds believe.

iii. Repentance and belief are really two sides to the same coin. You cannot believe unless you first repent. And you cannot repent or believe without God’s initial drawing of your heart.

c. Immediately after this is conveyed, Matthew presents yet another illustration of what he is talking about.

i. It is officially a pattern now. John said repent and he demonstrated what it was not by the Pharisees and what it was by the nature of the baptism of the messiah.

ii. Jesus followed in the path of repentance and demonstrated what repentance and belief looked like.

iii. Now the message of Jesus was to repent and believe and we will see 4 men given that message and they demonstrate what it means to repent and believe.

1. [Slide 28-29] 18 20- Andrew and Peter – brothers

a. Fishermen by trade. Jesus said follow me. What did He mean?

b. These two men were disciples of John. Jesus had met them before and they came with him for a time, but had since returned to fishing. He calls them now for permanent messianic service. And they drop their nets and follow.

c. To what end? That they would be fishers of men.

d. They dropped their careers and followed Him.

2. [Slide 30] 21-22 - James and John – Brothers who were also fishermen. These men were called – and they came, leaving not just their careers… but their father too.

3. These 4 men left everything they knew to follow Christ. Suddenly their priorities reorganized. And although they are not as perfect a picture as Christ – it is another example of what it means to repent and believe.

Transition:

[Slide 31 (blank)(end)] But are we not still so confused by what it means to repent and believe? Let me attempt to illustrate this for you and in so doing, call you to repentance and belief.

Conclusion:

About a month ago I had the opportunity to watch one of America's most beloved sports, football. I can tell I am getting old because I left at the end of the 3rd quarter for home, thinking the Falcons would win. 

Now I can't remember if it happened in the super bowl or not, but I have seen it before in a football game, and perhaps you have too. The quarterback of the offense steps up to the line of scrimmage and begins to look at the defense in front of him. They call it reading the play. Essentially the quarterback is trying to guess the defense’s play to see if the play they are about to run will work with their defense. All great quarterbacks do this well.

Now the whole team has been practicing all week to design their game plan to be effective against their opponent. This game plan is based on their observation of how their opponent has played in the past.

And yet, occasionally you will see a quarterback step up to the line, and panic will overtake him. He realizes that the defense before him is uniquely designed to absolutely blow their play to smithereens. Whatever defense this was, it was not what his team anticipated. Therefore their game plan, was no longer valid.

Now the quarterback has to make a difficult decision. Does he continue anyway? Does he rack his brain trying to remember something in their game plan that will work? What if there is nothing? What does he do then? Anyone? Exactly he calls a timeout. And they spend the entire time out working with the coach who designs the plays to draw up a new plan that will work against the defense. The quarterback trusts and submits to his coach’s advice, goes out and executes the play.

Now he could go out there and do something else if he wanted to... but in so doing he would show that he did not trust or submit to the coach’s leadership, nor would he have success against a defense that outmatched his old plan.

Now even if you are not a sports fan, I think you will still understand the correlation here. We often misunderstand what it means to follow Christ. And even though this illustration will ultimately fail to show exactly what it means to follow Christ, perhaps it will help explain what we saw in God's Word today. Following Christ consists of ongoing repentance and ongoing faith. Repentance and faith, as we learned last week are two sides of the same coin. You cannot have one without the other. You cannot believe without repenting. So let me draw the correlation for you.

Who we are naturally is like the quarterback who goes into that game with a game plan. We all have a plan for life. We base that plan on what we think is true about the world and even God. And like that quarterback, we step before the truth of the Word of God and we are utterly dismayed by what stands before us. Because the God that stands before us is not the god we want him to be. He doesn't fit our paradigm. And if we continue unchanged - we will be utterly decimated by Him.

At this point we have a choice. We can ignore the truth and pretend it isn't true of God. This will lead to our destruction. We can try to create a new plan with our own wisdom and our own experience, which will also lead to our own destruction. Or we can call a timeout. We can repent. We can change our mind. We can confess that our plan is wrong, our worldview is wrong, our truth was only a well thought out lie.

The coach who gives the alternate play is like Jesus Christ. He has the perfect game plan, the perfect worldview, he has truth itself. We take the plan He designs and we go out and we trust Him and we obey Him. We depend on Him and His plan and we surrender to His authority. And the wrath of God falls on Him, and not on us. We are not dismantled in the sense that we are destroyed to death - but our plan, our worldview, our perceptions of truth are laid waste. We are destroyed to life.

How much sense then would it be for the quarterback to live in fear that the plan of his coach will fall apart? How much sense would it be for the quarterback having seen the new plan in action and seen its success to suddenly revert back to the old plan? How much sense would it be for the quarterback to continue to think that his way is best? It makes no sense.

And yet there are Christians by name who cannot control their emotions, who live in unrepentant disobedience, who trust in the lies of this world and the comfortable doctrines of demons, and we say - as long as they prayed a prayer they are saved.

Just as the quarterback must perpetually reject his old plan and adopt the new plan of the coach, so we must continually reject our depravity and depend on the all sufficient sacrifice of our savior (anti-legalism = Faith) and submit to His authority and commands (Anti-License = obedience = love).

Sometimes in a message like this we wonder where the love of God is. We are talking about repentance and rejecting ourselves and the wrath of God an awful lot. But listen... it is in the wrath of God that His love shine brighter.

You see just as the defense betrayed their play to the quarterback showing him that his plan wouldn't work and just as the coach provided the plan that would - So God the Father is the one who draws us to repentance (which is not our work) and Jesus Christ provides for us the life to be raised up in us (which is not our work). All that we have is our broken plan.

And that is the love of God. That despite us offering nothing worth saving - He, for His glory, chose to demonstrate His love, in that while we were yet Depraved wretches before Him - HE BLED AND DIED TO TAKE AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD.

So abandon your wicked way! Reject your broken plan. And Turn every thought, every emotion, every word, and every deed to depend on the One who was perfect for you and submit to His perfect plan. Repent and Believe until your last breath and you will have life.

Those who die every day and lose their life for Christ will wake up alive forever. But those who live every day to the fullest and cling to fleeting things will wake up one day and die forever. Who will you be?