from the pastor

The Antithesis of Anger

Matthew 5:21-24

 

Have you ever wanted to murder someone? Come on! I’m not suggesting you’d actually do it!  Story of Basketball Coach

It’s not a crime unless you actually commit the murder right?

  

For the past few weeks we’ve been doing a series on the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is trying to show us what the kingdom life looks like.

 

As he’s teaching, Jesus explains the law to his disciples and shocks them when he says that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you’ll never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

Then he goes on to make several comparisons that show the difference between external performance of the law and internal obedience.

 

Whenever Jesus comes across a commandment that forbids something, he does something really interesting. He enjoins the opposite.

 

If the commandment says do not have other Gods apart from me, the opposite is implied. 

 

For instance, when he says “Do not put other Gods before me,” He’s saying what this means is: “Not only should you not have other gods, you need to make God your number 1 priority.”

 

In the Sermon on the mount, he does this several times by saying:  “You have heard it said… but I say… So let’s see what Jesus has to say about anger and murder.

 

Turn in your bibles to Matthew 5: 21-24, I’ll read this passage for you.  

 

"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brotherwill be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell. "Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.

 

Right away Jesus says: You have heard it said do not murder! Do you see how Jesus enjoins the opposite? “You have heard it said… but I tell you…

 

What is the opposite or antithesis of anger?  

Love, grace, mercy, forgiveness.  

 

Jesus is saying ‘look you may be justified in your anger but refraining from acting on your feelings of hate won’t absolve you of wrongdoing.

Simply “not killing someone” isn’t enough. You need to respond in love.

 

The suggestion would have sounded crazy. How do you respond in love to someone you want to murder?

 

This teaching would have sounded preposterous but Jesus is trying to get at something deeper. He wants them to understand the spirit of the law.

 

Living the Kingdom life isn’t about externally practicing the laws and it’s not about protecting our self interests. 

 

It can’t be attained through good works. It only comes through relationship with God, through having our identity rooted in Christ.

 

When our identity is rooted in Christ, we’re driven by love, the good works will follow. 

 

I’ve heard people say that Christianity isn’t about being religious or following a bunch of rules, it’s about relationship. What do they mean?

 

For generations the Israelites did their best to please God by following the commandments but no one could ever live up to them. The Pharisees would go out of their way to practice the letter of the law but they were far from living the kingdom life.

 

While they knew all about God and his laws, they didn’t know him personally. They didn’t have a relationship with God.    

 

When we recognize God for who He is, we are transformed by the power of His Spirit. A paradigm shift takes place. All at once we realize that it’s not about us. The purpose of our life is far greater than our own personal fulfillment, our peace of mind, or even our happiness.

 

It’s greater than our family, or careers or even our wildest dreams and ambitions. We were made by God and for God, and this changes everything.

 

It would be like Galileo in 1610 realizing for the first time that the earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around.

 

Instead of living our lives as if we were the center of the universe, God is the center. This transforms our understanding of God, our understanding of self and even the way we relate to the world.

 

Our identity is no longer based on our achievements, looks, careers or what other people think of us. We are a sons or daughters of the living God; a God who has looked into our deepest parts and in spite of all our brokenness he chooses to accept us right where we are. He loves us unconditionally.

 

How could this not impact our relationship with the world?

Suddenly we have the ability to see the world through God’s eyes.

 

Christianity really is about relationship! It’s a series of interconnected relationships that can’t be separated.

 

In verse 23 when Jesus says “if you’re offering your gift at the altar and there remember your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled with your brother and then come and offer your gift.

 

Jesus is saying look, your relationship with your brother can’t be separated from your relationship with God. Trying to love God while at the same time hating your brother lacks integrity.

 

I looked up the word integrity in Wikipedia and it says that integrity as a concept has to do with consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations and outcome. It is the quality or state of being complete, and undivided.  

 

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray he said: Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts AS WE ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS…

 

To me this suggests that our forgiveness is contingent on our willingness to forgive.

 

If we’ve been forgiven and our relationship with God has been transformed, it should transform our ability to love others. We should be able to extend the same sort of forgiveness we’ve been given.

 

In 1st John 4:20 it says “If anyone says ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. In today’s passage Jesus says that“anyone who is angry with his brotherwill be subject to judgment.

 

Come on! How can we be held accountable for being angry! Isn’t that an emotion that is beyond our control?  

 

That word angry that Jesus is using here means to harbor hate in our heart for another person. He’s not saying that anger in itself is always sin. There are several examples of Jesus getting angry in scripture and we know he was without sin.

 

It is more a matter of what we do with our anger. He wants us to recognize that anger left unchecked has an incredibly destructive power.

 

In verse 22, Jesus says: “Anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.”

 

The word Raca is an Aramaic word that means empty headed or stupid and the word fool is a translation from the Greek word Moras, where we get the word Moron today.

 

Jesus isn’t saying that if you call someone a fool you’re going to hell. He’s saying look. Harboring hate in your heart is a slippery slope that leads to death. You can’t love God and at the same hate another person.   

 

The word hell in this passage or Gehenna was actually a place south of Jerusalem. It was a deep ravine or trash heap where during the reign of Ahaz, human sacrifices were made, and since it was a place that was always burning, it came to symbolize hell as in eternal damnation.

 

Ultimately Sin is sin and it leads to a lack of love. It undermines our relationship with God and with others so if we don’t deal with our sin it will keep us from living the Kingdom life.

 

In verse 25 Jesus says “Reach a settlement quickly with your adversary while you’re on the way with him, or your adversary will hand you over to the judge…   

 

Jesus is saying don’t put off making amends until it’s too late and don’t hold grudges. Our time is short and God has amazing plans for us. We can’t afford to miss out on those things because we’re harboring bitterness. Some of you are still mad about something someone said or did to you back in third grade. I know because this happens to me too.

 

I’ll be walking down the street and all of the sudden I will be reminded of something that happened on the playground in 2^nd grade and I start thinking if I only would have said this or done that…   

 

Jesus isn’t just trying to protect us from judgment, he wants us to be free to experience the Kingdom Life here and now.

 

I told you about my basketball coach in high school. One good thing that I learned from him was this: if you make a bad play or you miss a shot, don’t allow yourself to dwell on it because if you do you miss the next play.

 

The same is true of life. If we make a mistake or if somebody does something that throws us off. Move on, or you’ll miss the next play.

 

God says that we (the church) are the hope of the world. We are his plan to reach the world but if we’re going to live that out we need to respond to the world that is different from the norm. We need to respond in radical love.

 

To do this we need to rid ourselves of any baggage that might keeps us from loving well, (Fear, hate, anger, prejudices, stereotypes), and while we can’t do this on our own, we know that God’s grace is sufficient. We can do it with the help of God’s Spirit within us.

 

But we have a part to play as well!

 

One of the keys to living the kingdom life is the ability to see our own brokenness and to recognize that even the slightest bit of anger or malice toward another person can grow and ultimately destroy our ability to love.

 

I want to give you two examples (one when I got this right and a second example where I missed it). Both took place while driving in New York. Do you know that New York is now #1 in the country for road rage incidents? It’s tough out there. 

 

 

If we can’t take a step back and remember who we are in Christ and what he’s done for us, how are we going to be salt and light? How can we be ambassadors for Christ?

 

People don’t care what we have to say about our faith if we can live it out in ways that are nothing short of supernatural.     

 

Sometimes living this isn’t easy. Sometimes it can be very costly.

 

I know this is a challenging call. Some of you have experienced tremendous pain at the hands of others and it’s hard to let that stuff go.

 

The only way we can deal with this is to take an inventory of the hurtful things we ourselves have done, the countless times we have turned our back on God. And yet, He continues to extend unwarranted grace and mercy to us. 

 

Living the kingdom life is the antithesis of anger. It boils down to one thing. LOVE! God’s love for us gives us the ability to love the world. We are his ambassadors and this is the key to living the Kingdom Life.

 

As you have heard, I don’t always get this right and maybe you don’t either. The good thing is there’s grace for that! If we really want to live the kingdom life we just need to ask God to bring healing into those broken places in our hearts so we can respond to the world in love.  

 

Let’s take a moment for some quiet contemplation. Let’s ask God to do some work in our hearts so we can live the kingdom life, so we can really love.  

 

Benediction: May you recognize God’s love for you, may you see that your identity is rooted in Christ and may you live the kingdom life as God intended. 

 

 

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Salt and Light, Chips and Salsa

Matthew 5:13-20

 

(Have some chips and salsa up front)

 

I’m not sure when I first ate chips and salsa, or enchiladas, or chimichangas. Even having grown up in Texas, where today there is a Mexican food restaurant every other block, contrary to what you might think, when I was a kid, it wasn’t that prevalent. I probably started eating Mexican food in junior high. But a lot has change since then. Now it is a staple in our house. We have tacos and taco salad and from time to time Dee will even prepare those exquisite chicken enchiladas with sour cream sauce.  And I make a darn salsa if I may say so myself. And whenever I go back to Texas, I’ll have Mexican about every other day.

 

Now, our kids will have no memories of life before chips and salsa; you might call it BC (you know, before chips; sorry, that was bad). But now in the years AQ (after queso) there are Mexican food restaurants all over the place. Go to Food Emporium and you can find 20 different salsa varieties; in fact it is the number one condiment in America. And do you know what the most popular name for a newborn baby boy last year was in Texas? Jose. I’m not kidding. Hispanic culture has swept into the southern United States and begun to permeate the rest of the country. It’s all over the place. 

 

You’re probably thinking, “Keith, where in the world are you going with this? What relevance could this possibly have with the Sermon on the Mount?” Well, thanks for asking. You see, the point is that the spread of Hispanic culture in the United States is a classic case study in the way one culture intermingles with and changes its host culture. How did it happen? Well, Mexican immigrants didn’t come in with a lot of political power or wealth or influence, they simply came into this country with something of their culture that was so attractive that it took hold and it changed the culture they moved into. 

 

So how does that connect with the Sermon on the Mount? Turn in your bibles to Matthew 5, verse 13, and leave them open; we’ll get to that passage in a little bit (you may want to take out your outline as well). Jesus, in this passage, is going to talk about our life’s mission, our life’s work, our cause, if you will. But, the problem is, these are very familiar words. In fact, they are too familiar.

 

You see, because they are so familiar a lot of people dismiss the Sermon on the Mount as platitude, or as something that might have been relevant for that audience but not us. Some have seen it as a so-called “interim ethic,” meaning that this would be a reasonable way of life if one presupposes that Jesus was mistaken in thinking that the “end of time” was to come very soon. If the “end of time” is upon us, then it’s all very fine to love your enemies rather than war against them, because God will sort out the good guys from the bad guys real soon. If the “end of time” is right around the corner, it’s all very well not to pursue money and trust God to provide; in fact it’s just good economic sense, like knowing that you should only buy a four-roll package rather than a twenty-four double roll package of toilet paper, you know, if you know the world will end tomorrow.

 

Other people dismiss the Sermon saying that the Sermon on the Mount is not providing an effective ethic for how we Christians should live out in the “real” world. They would say that to love our enemies, or trust God to provide, or pray for those who persecute us); if we really obey, if we really do what Jesus teaches us, then we will have no relevance to the real world.

 

And kind of in the same vein, some would say that the Sermon on the Mount advocates an irresponsible passivity, and if we really want to make a difference for the kingdom of God we can’t allow people to walk over us, which is what the Sermon seems to endorse.

 

But see, here’s the thing: this is the great irony of the Sermon, and why chips and salsa has anything to do with our text. Jesus is teaching us a different way of “making a difference.” Jesus is teaching us the way the church is to make a difference in the world, not the way power makes a difference or wealth makes a difference. It’s not the way the mighty make a difference. It’s not the way the wealthy make a difference. But it is the way of the Kingdom of Heaven

 

You see, just as Hispanics have changed America, Christians should be able to do the same. It wasn’t by power or might or wealth or influence that salsa and queso and green chili sauce have changed American culture. Hispanics have changed and are changing American culture simply by coming, and being, and doing. And they offer something that is so attractive, we’ve just got to have it. (eat a chip).

 

Now last week we started looking at the text of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, specifically the Beatitudes, and what I hope you took away from the message is that this Sermon, in its entirety, is not a random collection of platitudes or a new set of rules. Jesus was proclaiming a revolutionary message—that the Kingdom of God had come; that up there could indeed be experienced down here. A lot of people think of Jesus as a kind of guru, who went around just dropping out these beautiful, but kind of random sayings, like they would belong in a Hallmark card or something. That’s not what was going on. If Jesus’ teachings in the Sermon are not to be applied today, then we can throw out the rest of the New Testament as well, because when you look at it at face value, it says the same things as the rest of the NT.

 

For example, Paul says in Col 3: “Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. ¹⁴And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.” If you read through the sermon, you find that Jesus is teaching exactly the same thing.

 

Another example. Paul wrote to the Romans: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” In the Sermon, Jesus said the same thing over and over; He would say, “You’ve heard it said…but I say to you.” The Sermon on the Mount is absolutely in keeping with the whole of the NT and if we try to dismiss it then we must dismiss the rest of the NT as well. 

 

You see, this Sermon is designed to launch a movement in the face of powerful opposition from at least four factions, that Jesus was aware of, and we’ll look at those in a moment. And all of them had power and money and influence, and what’s more, they had reasons to get rid of Him. So, these words are not kind of happy little esteem boosters. They are dangerous. To understand them, we have to back up and understand what Jesus is really saying about Israel’s story. So let’s go back to the beginning of Israel, where it was all getting started; let’s get a little OT understanding.

 

Look at your outline. God comes to a man named Abraham, and this is what He said: let’s read these words together out loud. (put on outline): “I will bless you and you will be a blessing... And all the people of the earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:2-3)

 

This is the idea with Israel: “Abraham, I’m going to bless you, but not just for your sake, because the world is a mess, but it’s my world. And I want it back. I want to fix it, so I’m going to work through you. You will be like a blessing conduit. You will be blessed, to be a blessing.

 

Now, I’m going to pause here for a moment and talk about us. Anybody in this room feel blessed today? Ever?  If you look at your life, your body, your mind, your education, your home, your friends, your gifts, your I.Q.?  Food?  Opportunities? Do you feel blessed at all? Now, did you ever receive anything that you didn’t earn or merit or deserve? How many of you who are here today would say, “Yes, I have been blessed”? OK, here is the question: Why were you blessed?  To be a blessing.  It’s not just for you.

 

Now, this is God’s idea with Israel. They are blessed to be a blessing. God calls this “blessed to be a blessing” relationship a “covenant.” And He uses some different images to describe it. And this is all behind Jesus’ words. In the Book of Numbers, God says, (put on outline): “It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord for both you and your offspring.” (Numbers 18:19)

 

Now, why a covenant with the image of salt? Today salt is a condiment. You know, this summer we spent 6 weeks in England and the English really don’t use much salt at all, because, well, there’s too much flavor in it. The only English food groups are butter, sugar, coffee and ale. So, they just don’t use salt.

 

In the ancient world, though, salt was not a condiment; it was not optional. In the ancient world, there was no refrigeration. Decay and rot were the great enemies of life, and salt was the only force that could arrest decay. It could preserve. So, it had a power in the ancient world. It was almost like magic. Salt was the beginning, really, of trade in the ancient world. They fought wars over it. Romans would pay their soldiers, their salary, often in salt. In fact, we get the word “salary” from the Latin word for salt. Ever heard the phrase, “is he worth his salt?” It means, is he valuable, is he worthy of hire?

 

The Bible talks a lot about salt. Some of you know, there was a family of a guy by the name of Lot. They’re fleeing Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot’s wife was disobedient to God, and she was turned into a—what?—pillar of salt. Pillar of salt. And they took her with them on the journey, and that was the beginning of the salt lick. No, I just made that up. That’s not really true. OK.

 

So, salt is like this magic thing in the ancient world. God says, I want to make with you a covenant of salt. Why? Because in my world there’s rot, there’s decay, there’s sin, there’s deceit, there’s corruption, there’s selfishness. Everything’s spoiled. I’m going to start a new people, and I’m going to have a covenant of salt, so that through my people I can begin the process of saving my world from corruption, and decay, and rot.

 

As you meet with people, you are freshness, you are hope, you are joy. A covenant of salt. Blessed to be a blessing. And then He uses another image. In the Old Testament God says through the prophet Isaiah (put on outline), “I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles.” (Isaiah 42:6)

 

That word again—covenant. And here’s what’s really interesting.  A light for the who?  For the Gentiles. Remember, God said to Abraham, all the peoples of the earth?  It’s not just about Israel. It’s not an insider deal. God says in Isaiah 49:  “It is far too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept.  I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6)

 

God says my world is dark, the people confused. They hide, they sin, they’re scared. I want you to be light—demonstrating poise, truth, confidence, knowing God.  I want you to be a light not just for yourselves, but for the Gentiles, for the whole world. Blessed to be a blessing. This is God’s vision for Israel.

 

So what do we have? Covenant of salt. Covenant of light. But these concepts were largely lost in Jesus’ day. There were, in His time, four factions, all of whom had their own vision for Israel that was at odds with God’s vision. First of all Rome. Rome’s vision for Israel was that Israel exists to enrich whom? To enrich Rome. Rome’s vision was that Israel existed to be exploited financially.

 

Then there was another group of people in Jesus’ day. This was a faction of Israelites called zealots. Anybody know how the zealots felt about Rome? They hated Rome. They were committed to the violent overthrow of Rome. They were engaged in things like assassinations. They were involved in practices that were considered terrorism by Rome. That kind of tension is nothing new. And their mission for Israel, their idea was that Israel was created by God to eventually rule the earth. So, their vision was that Israel would rule the earth.

 

Third, there was a group of people called the Sadducees. Oddly enough, a lot of them were priests. But, these were folks who had basically given up, given up on the Kingdom ever coming down here, on God ever doing anything. So, their deal was, they collaborated with Rome. That’s how they got power, and were able to rule in the temple and so on. Their vision was, get a piece of the pie. We’re going to become like Rome, and get while the getting is good.

 

And fourth, there was another faction, who were kind of disgusted with everybody else. We might call them the reformers. These were the Pharisees who were well intentioned, even if a bit misguided. Their deal was: Israel, why don’t we just isolate ourselves from everybody who doesn’t obey the law? From all the Israelites who aren’t pious enough, and from all the Gentiles, and everybody that are unclean? Then when God sees how good and pious we are, then He will destroy everybody else, and the world will be ours.

 

So, these were the visions. Rome, they kind of were the world. And the zealots said we exist to rule the world. Sadducees said: we ought to be like the world. And the reformers said: we ought to withdraw and isolate from the world. But here’s the deal: Nobody was talking about blessing the world. It was in the middle of this cauldron that Jesus comes. He stands on the side of the mountain, and He calls people to remember how God said to Abraham one day, “I will bless you, so that you can be a blessing.”.

 

Jesus talks to this rag-tag group that He’s been healing and delivering. What’s the first word in the Sermon on the Mount, of the Beatitudes? Blessed! Blessed are who? Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, and blessed are the hungry. Blessed are you. Why? So you can be a blessing.

 

What’s coming? Good News. What’s the Good News? Our God reigns. Who’s bringing the Good News? The Messiah, Jesus. Who’s the Good News for? Jesus says, “It’s for you, it’s for you, it’s for you, it’s for you. But here’s the deal: you are blessed so that you can bless others.”

 

So Jesus transitions in His sermon. And again, don’t think of this sermon as a series of random sayings, it is to be regarded as an extended, very careful reflective thought. So he says, “Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed…You are the salt of the earth.”  

 

Okay, if you have your Bibles open, look now to Matthew 5, verse 13: “You are the salt of the earth. (Everybody knows where this image is coming from.) But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” He is describing what happened to Israel, what these people have done to it. He is making a very serious charge, an indictment. 

 

“If salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?  It’s no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled on by men.” (Matthew 5:13)

 

Verse 14: “You are the light of the world. (Everybody knows where this image is coming from.) A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl (but that’s exactly what’s happened).  Instead they put it on a stand so that it gives light to everyone in the house. (The whole world.) In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds, and glorify your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:14-16)

 

What’s Jesus’ point? You are blessed to be a blessing. You’re the salt of the earth; you’re light of the world.

 

And the people respond: who, us?  Insignificant us?  Not the Romans, with all of their power and wealth? Not the Zealots, with all of their passion?  Not the Sadducees, with all of their connections?  Not the reformers with all of their piety and religiosity? Jesus says, no. He says they’re all wrong. The subjugators and the haters and the collaborators and the isolators, they’re all wrong. And here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to love them all. I’m going to love the Roman Centurions. I’m going to have a Zealot become one of my closest friends and followers. I’ll love the priests and I’ll love the Pharisees. I’m gonna love them all. But a lot of them won’t get it. They’ll fight me, they’ll oppose me, they’ll persecute me, they’ll imprison me. Eventually they’ll even kill me.

 

“But here’s the next step in the plan. You, my little rag-tag crowd, you my little Mexican immigrants, you of no power or wealth or influence, you will love them. Sure, there going to fight you and oppose you and persecute you. In fact, they may even kill some of you. And then what will you do? Then you’ll love them even more. Isn’t that a great plan? Aren’t you all fired up about that plan?” Of course, a lot of people weren’t. But some people were.

 

And it happened just the way Jesus said it would. Unbelievable brilliance.  Some of this little rag-tag group of followers began to actually live out what Jesus preached in this sermon; they actually believed that these words of His were true Kingdom principles and they did what he said. They bridged the knowing/doing gap and they became salt and they became light and it changed the world. It really did. That’s why we’re sitting here today.

 

Friends, that was Jesus’ plan then, and that’s His plan now—that we would hear these words of his and put them into practice; that we would be doers, and in so doing we would become salt and light. We have been blessed to be a blessing. And like those Mexican immigrants who have changed our culture simply by coming and being and living and doing, we need to do the same. There should be something so attractive about our lives that people want it (eat a chip). 

 

When you are at work, when you are shopping, when you’re on a plane, when you are in your laundry room doing laundry, there should be something so attractive about your life that people would want a piece of what you’ve got. Friends, that’s Kingdom living and that’s what God has blessed us for. Blessed to be a blessing.

 

Real Blessing

Matthew 5:1-13

 

We are immersing ourselves these days, and will be for the next several months, in the Sermon on the Mount, the greatest talk ever given. It has influenced more people than any words ever spoken in the history of the human race.

 

The last couple of weeks we’ve kind of set the stage for the sermon. Last week we set the context for it by looking at this man Jesus who taught these words and the challenge was, are we going to listen to Him, the one who demonstrated that He is God incarnate, or will we listen to the so-called wisdom of this world, because only in listening to Jesus will we really experience the kingdom life he came to give us. But we can’t just listen to Him; we have to do what he says. Jesus taught to change lives.

 

Now, I’d like for you all to look in your bulletin and take out the outline, and notice on the back are a few study questions for you to consider over the next week. But as you look at the outline here’s a question: Do you think there were many people talking notes when Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount? Think he had the disciples give everybody an outline to fill in the blanks when they got to the Sermon on the Mount? Why not?  Because Jesus was interested in changing lives, and when something happens that changes your life, you don’t need notes, you just remember. You just do.

 

How many of you know exactly where you were when the 9/11 attack took place? You know why? Because when something changes your life, you just remember. Jesus taught not to disseminate info, but to change lives and people remembered.

 

Now today we’re going to jump into the sermon by looking at the Beatitudes, these statements of blessing.  Some of you may remember that two years ago I did a series on these and spent 10 weeks on them, and my guess is that most of you can’t really remember anything I said—and I gave you outlines and everything. But here’s the deal; nobody who was there when Jesus spoke had to write anything down. Nobody who was sitting on the side of that hill and heard those blessed statements from Jesus would ever forget His words, not till the day they died. And you know why? And it is terribly important that we get this. A whole lot of people know the beatitudes and have them decoupaged and hanging up on a wall, but they don’t understand what Jesus is doing with them. But the people who heard them never forgot them. And I want us to know why. To get this, we actually have to back up to the Old Testament, because the Prophet Isaiah is one prophet who wrote about a day that Israel was looking forward to. What would happen for the human race on that day?

 

This is what Isaiah said in Isa 52 (and I put it on your outline): “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news...” Good news is the Gospel. This is an Old Testament concept. It comes from passages like this in Isaiah. “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet…” That’s how good the news is. Even the feet of the people bringing it are beautiful. ...”who bring good news, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion: (that’s God’s people,) “Your God reigns” (Isaiah 52:7).

 

What’s coming? Good news is coming. What is it? Your God reigns. That’s the Kingdom. That’s God’s Kingdom, the sphere in which everything is precisely the way that God wants it to be.  It is the range of His effective will. It is real, and one day, Isaiah says, how beautiful on the mountains will be the feet of the one who comes to tell us, “It’s here.” Whose feet will those be? Who’s going to bring that news that the human race is dying to hear?

 

Well, Isaiah says in ch 61, one day somebody is going to say, “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, …to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” (Isaiah 61:1-3)

 

Who’s bringing the good news?  The Lord’s anointed. And that meant the Messiah. The word Christ is the Greek word kristos from a little verb, krio which meant “to anoint.” Some of you will know when Jesus got up in His home town to begin His teaching ministry, these words from Isaiah are the words that He read. And when He finished reading them, He said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. It’s me. I’m the Lord’s anointed.”

 

Who’s the good news coming to? Well it’s kind of an odd bunch. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to the brokenhearted, to those who mourn, to those who grieve.” Now of course, the good news will not be that it’s good to be poor or brokenhearted or mourn or grieve. The good news is, now the Kingdom is coming to you.

 

The good news will be for poor people and brokenhearted people and mourning people and grieving people; people who think, “I lost out on the good news. I’m an outsider. I’m the little street kid with nose pressed up against the glass wanting what’s inside but knowing I can’t have it. It’s for others, not me.”

 

And then the Lord’s anointed will say, “No, no, no. It’s you. It’s you. You all come in now. It’s for you.”

 

That’s what the world’s waiting for. The broken, the oppressed, they’re waiting. And then one day, a poor carpenter who turned rabbi began to walk amongst the people of Israel and to say, “Now it’s come.” And as He’s going in their midst, He sees people who are desperately hurting, and He begins to touch them and the bodies become whole. This really happens. People who have been under spiritual oppression in the grip of darkness are liberated. That’s the Kingdom at work.  And Jesus sees the crowd that’s gathered around Him as He’s doing this and He begins to teach them, to explain what’s going on.

 

Now, who’s coming to hear Jesus? What’s that crowd like? Well, they’re mostly Baptist. They’re nicely dressed people. They’re successful people leading prosperous lives with happy children who get good grades and enter into nice colleges, driving hybrids… You think? Not so much. It’s very important to understand what’s going on in this sermon.

 

Ch 4, vv. 23-24 tells us that Jesus went through Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom—“Your God reigns!” This is what people have been waiting centuries for. And as he’s proclaiming the Kingdom reign of God He begins to heal people from disease and demon-possession.  It’s not coincidental that those two statements are together, because He proclaims good news and then He’s manifesting the realty of the Kingdom in their midst. He is dispensing its power.

 

So, you have to understand as we’re picturing this sermon and Jesus’ audience, this is a motley crew gathering around Jesus. This is not a catered event aimed at a high-end crowd. This is not the sermon at the Ritz or the sermon at the Plaza. These are the poor… These are the broken-hearted… These are those who mourn… These are those who have been persecuted and oppressed.

 

Through His teaching and His healing Jesus is showing that up there is now coming down here. So in the Sermon on the Mount  He begins to explain this so the people can understand, so they can see what God is doing, so that they can respond, so that they can join in, so that they can become His movement, so that they can enter into the blessed life and become a blessing to a broken, needy, mourning, grieving world.

 

And so, He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) What he’s saying is that everything has changed and the world is turned upside down. Many times people hear the Beatitudes and they think, “Oh, I guess I’m supposed to try harder to be like that? I guess I’m supposed to try harder to become poor in spirit so that I can get into the Kingdom of Heaven.”

 

Sometimes these Beatitudes are taught as the “Be Attitudes,” like attitudes that we’re suppose to cultivate or something. In fact, here’s a confession, two years ago when I taught the Beatitudes, I taught them as such. And I’ve gone back through what I taught two years ago, and I still believe that what I taught was biblically sound in principle. But here’s my confession: as I’ve read the whole SoM as a sermon, I’ve come to understand that Jesus was not teaching those principles from the Beatitudes. While the principles I taught are true, that was not Jesus’ point. You see, in the Beatitudes Jesus is not talking about what to do in order to be blessed. He is not saying, “Try hard to be poor in spirit or to mourn…”; He is doing something else. He is engaging His audience; He’s drawing them in.

 

You see, in the ancient world there were two kinds of Beatitudes or “sayings of blessing”. The first kind is what might be called Blessings or sayings of instruction. And this would be worded something like, “Blessed are the wise,” or “Blessed are the obedient,” or “Blessed are the faithful.” And the idea here is: these are statements that say, “If you do this, if you live in this way, then you will live the good life. And then you will be blessed.” These are designed to teach, to instruct.

 

There’s a second kind of blessing statement, which was less common. These are what might be called Blessings of Surprise. These were used in what was called “apocalyptic literature.” This was the literature written in times when Israel was just crushed by disappointment and frustration, and it seemed like the Kingdom of God was never going to come.

 

So, sometimes in this apocalyptic literature there would be these statements about who’s blessed, but they were very surprising, were very odd. These would be worded something like, “blessed are people in distress, people under severe pressure, people who seem hopeless.” There was the promise of blessing, but that promise was always other worldly. It was never hope for this world, not this life. The purpose of these surprise blessings was not instruction. It wasn’t, “Try to be this way.” The purpose of these was to encourage people to hold on, to not quit and to believe. Just hang in there, be encouraged, be consoled.

 

OK, you with me? Two kinds of blessings that were very different from each other: statements of instruction, statements of surprise. I’ll give you an example or two, just to make sure we’re all together on this. Which category would this blessing statement fall into? “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.” Which category is that, instruction or surprise? Very good. You guys are sharp. That’s instruction. Go to bed early. Get up early. And then you will enter into the blessed life.

 

Or what about this one? “The early bird gets the worm.” Is that an instruction or a surprise blessing? Right again. It’s an instruction, because the worm is the blessing in that one. If you get up early, then you’ll be the one that gets the worm.

 

Now, when Jesus gives His blessings in the Beatitudes, He is not doing this. He is not giving advice. You actually see this more clearly in Luke 6. Identical situation. Jesus has been healing and delivering, a motley crowd has gathered around him and he then explains what it is that’s going on.

 

In Luke 6, the Beatitudes look like this. “Blessed are you who are poor...Blessed are you who hunger now... Blessed are you who weep now...Blessed are you when people hate you.” (Luke 6:20-22) Not because it’s good to be poor or hungry or weepy or hated, but because the Kingdom of God has now become available to you through Jesus.

 

Here in Matthew the same thing is going on. The wording is a little different. Matthew says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit...” (Matthew 5:3) These are the spiritually impoverished. These are people who include the materially poor. As I mentioned last week, 97% of the people in 1^st century Palestine lived in poverty. They didn’t really know or do Torah. They had no spiritual qualifications because they lacked the resources to be trained. They had no credentials. They were religiously illiterate. There are a lot of folks like that in our day—no spiritual qualifications—and maybe you are one of them.

 

Gallop did a poll on the Sermon on the Mount a number of years ago. And the ignorance about it was quite striking. The majority of the people did not know who preached the Sermon on the Mount. You know what the number one answer was for who preached the Sermon on the Mount? Billy Graham. Billy Graham was number one. I’m not making this up. A substantial number of people, I think it was like 24%, said that it was called the Sermon on the Mount because it was delivered on horseback. Of course, that’s not why it was called that. These are people who don’t know the Bible. No one’s asking them to teach your children in Sunday School. They’re spiritual zeros, didn’t get the faith-gene.

 

Now, it will help, I think, to understand these Beatitudes if you can imagine that Jesus goes up on the mountainside and He’s about to teach this motley crew that’s gathered about the Kingdom. He looks around and He sees in the audience many he has touched and healed. So, let’s say that Jesus sees in the crowd this guy who was brought to Jesus maybe a few days before because he had been demon-possessed, emotionally tormented, out of his mind, a spiritual zero. Never part of a faith community; nobody would ask him what he thinks about God. But now he’s calm and in his right mind. Why? Because even though he had done nothing to deserve it, Jesus just comes up and touches him, and heals him. And so Jesus has him stand up, and they smile at each other. And Jesus has him face the crowd. Jesus says, “You want to know who’s blessed? This guy right here; blessed are the spiritual basket cases. Blessed are the faith-challenged. Blessed are the religious disasters, for now theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

 

And the guy sits back down and everybody’s looking at him, going “Wow!” Nobody ever looked at this guy and went “Wow” before, but now they do. And the guy says to the people around him, “Yeah, that’s me. I’m the poster boy of the blessed life; that’s me.” And this rag-tag crowd, this motley crew is going nuts: “Yeah, one of us is blessed! Nobody’s ever told us that one of us could be blessed before. Is there anybody else? Who else? Come on, Jesus, give us another one; tell us another one.”

 

So Jesus gets on a roll. He goes, maybe, to a middle-aged woman. She been sad for so long and everybody knows why she’s been sad—she was unable to have children. That’s always a sad thing, but in that day it was even more so because there was a stigma attached to it. And now her husband has died and she’s alone. She’s brokenhearted. And she’s penniless. She has no hope. But a few days ago she came to Jesus in utter desperation and he touched her and her heart was changed and a supernatural comfort fell over her. And then He said to a couple of His disciples, James and John, “You watch out for her, now. Because that’s going to be one of our core values, caring for widows. People are going to be amazed by how we care for widows; that’s a core value in the Kingdom. The good news is for them.”

 

And so Jesus goes to this widow. And He has her stand up and He puts an arm around this woman’s shoulder, and He has her face the crowd.  He says, “Want to know who’s blessed? Blessed are those who mourn. Not because it’s a good thing to mourn, but because the reality of the presence of the Kingdom is coming down to the mourning, and they shall be comforted now. You just watch what happens in the life of this woman.”

 

Now He is not saying mourning is a good thing. He is not saying, “Blessed are those who mourn over their sin.” Jesus was capable of saying that, and that is a right thing to do. But that is not what the text says. He is saying, “Blessed are those who thought they had missed out; who thought they had lost out on the good life, because now, through me, here is the Kingdom. If you want it, come right on in.”

 

And every one of the Beatitudes involves situations of dire human need that left people hopeless, thinking they were forever outside. “Blessed are the meek,” the people who have been pushed around. This comes right out of Psalm 37:11. Psalm 37 is the story of the struggle between the meek and the powerful. And it says in Psalm 37, “The meek will inherit the earth.” (Psalm 37:11) The meek in Psalm 37 are the powerless and the land-less. They were the peasants.

 

The Romans and the wealthy had seized all the land and the vast majority of everybody listening to Jesus, they’re in this category. They’ve got no hope; they’re never going to have land. But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have no leverage and no connections and seemingly no value.”

 

Jesus is not saying, “Be shy, be timid, be unassertive.” He’s saying, “Hey, congratulations, you meek people, because here’s the Kingdom, now. And nobody, not even the powerful and the connected, can keep you out. Good news! Blessed are the meek, because the Kingdom’s here”.

 

And on He goes. We won’t go through them all because we don’t have time. But you get the sense of it.

God’s presence, God’s favor, God’s love, God’s mercy is now available to you.

 

Friends, the Beatitudes are not instructions on how to be blessed. The Beatitudes are not instructions on how to do anything. The Beatitudes are not saying, it’s good to be spiritually poor or to mourn. You see, you can be poor or mournful or hungry and still reject Jesus. And then you miss the blessing. That’s possible. But Jesus is saying, “Now there’s an alternative.”

 

See, the Beatitudes are not instruction on how to be blessed. The Beatitudes are designed to shock people into realizing that now the blessing, the good life—that we all drive ourselves crazy and frantic and busy trying to grab a hold of—the good life, the real good life, life in the Kingdom is now available to anybody who wants it through personal contact with this man Jesus. And no one and no thing can shut you out.

 

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the one who comes to say, “Good news; our God reigns.” (Isaiah 52:7) Are you with me?

 

Now here’s a question: what do Beatitudes look like in our day? If Jesus were giving them right here in NYC, what would they sound like?  A good exercise for you to do this week as you read through the Beatitudes, write out some Beatitudes for our day. In fact, that’s one of the assignments for the small groups and triads. But I’ll give you some examples.

 

We have to start by asking, who are the people that our culture says are shut out of the good life? Who are the people who get the message in our culture—on our playgrounds, in our classrooms, from our media, in our commercials—that says, “Oh, too bad for you; you got the wrong genes.”

 

Start at just the silly level, because we live in a silly culture. Blessed are the geeks. Blessed are the nerds. Blessed are the wimps. Blessed are you when you have dandruff and pimples and all manner of bad breath. Blessed are those who have no fashion sense. Blessed are the uncoordinated. Blessed are the middle-managers. For Jesus says, “You’re not a loser.” Jesus says, “The party’s for you. You’ll be righteously celebrated at my table.”

 

And then there are the more serious ones. Blessed are the anxious. Blessed are the unemployed. Blessed are the divorced. Blessed are the homeless. Blessed are the drop-outs and the burn-outs and the left-outs. Blessed are the chronically angry. Blessed are the sexually addicted and the sexually frustrated. Blessed are the mentally ill. Blessed are the HIV positive. Blessed are the parents who failed. Blessed are the children who ran away. Blessed are the barren. Blessed are the pregnant-out-of-wedlock. Blessed are the failures. Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. Is this good news for anybody yet?

 

Blessed are you who felt that because of your bad genes or bad health or bad circumstances or bad looks or bad choices, you had been cut off forever from your chance of a life worth living. Jesus says, “You have not missed your chance. Here’s the Kingdom, now, available to you through me to begin now and to know in its fullness one day and enjoy into eternity. Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed are you.

 

And if you receive it, then you get to become a blessing to other people. Then those words that were spoken to Abraham so long, long ago, “I will be your God and I will bless you and all the peoples, all the nations of the earth will be blessed through you.” That’s what the Jesus community is supposed to be—a blessing because we’ve been blessed.

 

Now, I have to answer one question because a lot of us look at those words, and we say, “You know what, that’s not really my condition in life. What about the people that are not in that category? What about the well-off and the well-fed and the well-pleasured and the well-spoken of?” Well, of course the Kingdom is available to them, too. It’s available to everybody. But Jesus does give a warning, here, that I need to hear and maybe you do too.  You see, people in that category—the well-off, well-fed category—can sometimes mistake the blessed life for the well-financed, well-thought of, well-dressed, well-off life. They can start to think that—if they’re Christians—they can start to think that that’s the life that’s blessed by God. Those are the lucky ones. And then entitlement and arrogance and pride and exclusivism all start to creep into the Jesus community.

 

It doesn’t happen on purpose—most of the time people aren’t even aware of it—but when that happens, instead of being a Jesus community that’s a blessing to others, we form kind of a little club for elite people. And then everybody who doesn’t have a well-managed, well-financed, well-thought of, well-dressed life, looks at them and says, “I could never belong to that club”.

 

There’s a little mat that gets put on the ground before a front door in a lot of homes; used to be more common than it is now. A little mat and people just wipe their feet on that mat. But there would sometimes be a single word on it. We have a name for that kind of mat. We call it a...what?   A Welcome mat. A welcome mat; just kind of a humble little mat, says to a person at the door, “You know, we’re not neutral about your presence in this house; this is your kind of place. You walk through this door. You’ll find that you’re celebrated here. Welcome, welcome, welcome.”

 

Sometimes, though, there are different signs. I read about this convent—and as far as I know it’s true—but there was this convent that had a huge fence all the way around it to keep people out. And there was a sign at the gate that said, “Keep Out. Beware of Dog. No Trespassing. Violators will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Signed: The Little Sisters of Mercy.”

 

Sometimes that’s how we are. But when Jesus began to form His community, it’s like there was a giant welcome mat out in front of Him. And wherever He went: Welcome, poor. Welcome, mourners. Welcome, Gentiles. Welcome, sinners. Welcome, prostitutes. Welcome, everybody. Nobody’s perfect, but everybody’s welcome.

 

Friends, this is a Kingdom. And see what happens, people will look at that community, see the poor in spirit there and the meek there and the mourning there. They say, “You know, if it could happen for them, it could happen for me. I could be a part of that group. I want to be a part of that group.”

 

Now, of course, lots of people rejected Jesus. But it was because they didn’t want His Kingdom. It was never because He gave them the subtle vibe that they really weren’t Kingdom material. Because for Jesus everybody was Kingdom material: nobody’s perfect, but everybody’s welcome. And that’s good news. 

 

Anybody here got it all together? No. None of us has it all together—certainly not me. Nobody around here has it altogether. We know that. The good news is, even though we’re all messed up, junked up, goofed up people, Jesus says, you’re blessed because the Kingdom is for you.

 

I want to end with another confession: I have a lot of moments in my life when I put up a No Trespassing sign where Jesus would roll out a welcome mat. I had a moment like that this past week. And I need help with that. Nobody in this room needs the Kingdom more than me.

 

But can I let you in on something? You want to know who’s blessed?  I am. I’m blessed. Not because I ever get it right or have anything together, but simply because Jesus came to me and invited me in. I don’t know why. But He did.

 

And you know who else is blessed? You’re blessed. You’re blessed. You’re blessed. And you’re blessed. Not because you’re well-off, well-fed, well-dressed, well-educated. But because you’re in a messed up, goofed up, junked up, knee-deep, desperate, choking condition. Good news! Blessed are you. Blessed are you. The Kingdom is here and if you’ll just receive it as a broken needy person, then out of that broken needy blessedness, you become a blessing to other people. And in your life and your life and your life, and then eventually in my life and in our life as a community, there’s just this giant welcome sign.

 

And everybody—every background, every education, every culture, every language—everybody says, “Wow, I can be a part of them.” Friends, that’s the good news.

 

Would you bow your heads for a moment? Maybe you have been running after the wrong good life for a long time and Jesus is coming to you today and saying, “Would you just let go of that? And in your brokenness and neediness, would you just say, ‘Yes’ to Me and the blessing is yours?”

 

If you’ve never done that, then now is your time just to say, “Jesus, I confess my own need, my own brokenness, my own sinfulness. And I want to be forgiven of my sins because of what You did on that cross when You died for me. I want You to be my companion and my friend through life. I want the real good life.”

 

And Jesus, for all of us whom You have touched with the good news of Your Kingdom, we acknowledge our brokenness and our neediness. We’re so grateful that one day You came to bring the good news, the blessing of the Kingdom. Make up there come down here in our lives, in our world. We pray in Jesus’ name.

 

Context Matters

Mt 1-4

 

Maybe you heard about the woman who went to do some shopping. So she headed off to the mall in her Volvo. And because it was pouring down rain, she wanted to park near the mall entrance and not walk far. So she circled a few times and then saw the lights of a car reversing out of a parking spot right near the entrance. She pulled up and waited for it to leave and was about to pull into the space when a young guy in a little red sports car whipped into the parking space in front of her. Well she was ticked, so she lowered the power windows and shouted at him, “You can’t do that.” This young guy, who at this point was getting out of his car, with this self-satisfied grin on his face, says, “Oh, yes you can, when you’re young and fast.” This woman is seething so she backs up, throws her Volvo into gear and charges straight into this guy’s car, crashing into the little red sports car. She backs up again, puts her Volvo into gear and charges again, crashing into the little red sports car. She backs up again, puts her Volvo into gear and charges, crushing the rear end of this little red sports car. The young guy is beside himself, first in shock and then in rage. He shouts at this woman, “Hey, lady, what are you doing? You can’t do that.” She leans out the window and says to him, “Oh, yes you can, when you’re old and rich.”

 

Here’s the point: context matters. How we approach any given situation depends on our context, our circumstance or framework for life. In other words, the context of our lives shapes our view of reality. If we are young and fast we will live life one way and we’ll see things from a certain perspective; if we are old and rich we’ll live different and see things differently. You can’t do that. Oh, yes I can. You see, context matters. 

 

Now, last week we kicked off this series on the Sermon on the Mount and we talked about the story Jesus told at the end of the Sermon on the Mount about the house built on the sand v. the one built on the rock. When the storm comes the former crashes while the latter stands firm. Jesus says that’s like people who listen to His words but don’t do anything about it, as opposed to somebody who actually does what He teaches, builds his life on His words.

 

We talked about this knowing/doing gap, and that Jesus is not really concerned with people who know stuff, but don’t actually do stuff. That’s the problem that we all face over and over again. We know what we’re supposed to do, and we think that that’s an accomplishment. When you go for your driver’s license you have to know the rules of the road. And we all know them; we know the book. But when an officer stops you for speeding or running a red light or something, do you ever try saying to him, “Officer, I know the book! I love the book! I agree with the book! I scored really well on my test. I was doing 55 in my heart.” Is the officer very impressed with that? They don’t really care if you know the book. What matters is, what are you doing?

 

But sometimes we deceive ourselves into thinking that we’re living rightly because we have what we think is the right information and thus the right answers. But Jesus isn’t really interested in right answers. He’s interested in changed lives. So here’s the question we have to come to terms with as we approach Jesus’ teaching in the SoM: How are we to read it and then apply it so that our lives are changed? You see, different people read this sermon with different mindsets. Some people see this sermon as articulating this impossible and unfulfillable ideal. If you read it that way, full of impossible demands, if that’s your context then you either walk away from the gospel and Jesus altogether, or you simply cry out for God’s mercy, and beg for forgiveness

 

Some people see this Sermon as, you know, kind of extra-special instruction for extra-special Christians; that this is for the hard-core believer, not just your average Joe and Joette. If you read it that way, then you create this class structure within Christianity, which sets up a whole different context.

 

Or some read it as kind of a prescription for Christian living, kind of a “how to”. And if you read it that way it leads to ideas like the “be-happy attitudes” or “how to improve your prayer life” or “you are the salt of the earth—a sodium-free diet is not for you.”

 

Now, here’s the thing: while all of those frameworks have elements of truth in them, not one of them really hits the mark. One says, you can’t do that; the other says, oh yes I can. So how do we read the SoM so that we can understand it and apply it?  How are we to understand Jesus’ words in a way that maintains the integrity of His message and yet is culturally relevant to us? Well, in a nutshell we need to get on the same page with the one who taught the Sermon in the first place. To do that we need to take a look at the context of the Sermon on the Mount because context matters.

 

To get us started here’s a question that’s not rocket surgery: In the book of Matthew, what precedes chapters 5—7. Chapters 1—4. You guys are brilliant.  Friends, that is a significant point, because it is how Matthew sets up this sermon. Chapter 5 begins, “Now when he saw the crowds, he went up the mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him…” Did you notice the pronouns—“he,” “his,” and “him.”?  Who is this “he,” “his,” and “him”?

 

Again, not brain science. It’s obviously Jesus. But the implications of the text not naming Him are huge. Having just pronouns forces us to go back and find out who this “He” is…is he young and fast or old and rich; who just exactly is this guy because context matters? To just say, “It’s Jesus,” isn’t enough. Which Jesus. The name Jesus was as common as say, Bob or We need to know more about this man. And fortunate for us the first four chapters give an enormous amount of attention to defining who Jesus is and what he is commissioned to do and that to a large degree determines the context of the sermon. So what do we know about Jesus by the time we get to the SoM in chapter 5?

 

Now I’m going to ask you to hang with me for the next few minutes because I’m going to lay out some stuff that you’re going kind of be wondering, “where’s he going with this?” Trust me; I’m going to get to a point that is significant. But I need you to track with me as we get there. So I’m going to pause periodically and ask, “are you with me?” At which point your response needs to be, “I’m with you”; even if you’re not I need you to say you are so that I can feel okay about myself.   So, are you with me?

 

Turn to Mt 1.  Mt, as many of you will know, was written to a Jewish audience which is important to keep in mind. Okay, here we go.   In ch 1, vv. 1-17, we have the genealogy of Jesus where Jesus is introduced, and he is introduced in relation to God’s life-giving purposes promises as understood by Israel. In v. 2 we see that Jesus is son of Abraham. And what was God’s promise to Abe? God promised that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. In v. 6 we see that Jesus is son of David to whom God promised a life-giving reign forever, but even more specifically, —according to the job description of Psalm 72—it would be the king’s job to represent God’s care for the poor and needy and God’s justice and deliverance for the oppressed.  So what do we learn about this Jesus from the genealogy? That He is set apart for a divine purpose, namely, to bring blessing to all the nations; to establish a kingly reign that ushers in God’s life-giving and just purposes for all people, especially the poor and needy. Okay, are you with me?

 

Then we’ve got the conception in vv. 8-25. In v. 21 the angel says to Joseph, “You are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” And in v. 23, “and they will call him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.” Anybody here ever had your life’s job description given to your stepdad while you were still in the womb? Well this Jesus did. And his job description is save people from sin and to be present with them. In other words, it is to manifest God’s saving presence.

 

In ch 2, we see His impact as an infant. It’s really quite amazing the impact he had on the Status quo just because word of His birth Got out.   We see it in verse 3, where Herod, puppet king of the Jews, put in place by Rome, representative of Roman interests, defender of the status quo, (who, by the way was so paranoid he had two of his sons killed as well as one of his wives—he was not a good guy). Anyway, he’s terrified because some “wise men” from the East ask a politically unwise question: “Where is the one born king of the Jews?” Oops, wrong person to ask THAT question to. That was Herod’s title and he understood they weren’t asking about him. So Herod, being the insecure despot that he was, is terrified; he has so much to lose and so much to defend. So when his “kingdom” is threatened, he goes to great lengths to protect it. And you know the story; he ends up killing the baby boys around Bethlehem in efforts to thwart God’s purposes, eliminate God’s anointed, and defend the status quo, to defend his kingdom. As an infant this Jesus totally disrupts the status quo. Are you with me?

 

Then in ch 3, vv. 1-12, we’ve got the forerunner John the Baptist (as opposed to, you know, John the Methodist or John the Presbyterian). John is Elijahesque in his appearance and his proclamations about Jesus. He confronts the religious elite—the Pharisees and Sadducees—and the religion they represent and he announces Jesus’ ministry as one of Spirit and fire—it’s an image from the OT that identifies this Jesus’ saving and judging impact.

 

In vv. 13-17, we see Jesus’ baptism where he is ordained by God: the heavens open, the Spirit descends, and for the first of only two times in Matthew’s gospel, God speaks directly, v. 17: "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."  You see, God confirms Jesus’ identity as agent and representative of God’s saving presence.

 

Then we move to ch 4, vv. 1-11, where Jesus is tempted by the devil. And the devil doesn’t tempt Jesus with stuff like he would tempt us with—you know like money and sex and that kind of stuff; he holds out good things for Jesus to do: feed the hungry, trust God, take charge of all the empires of the world. Now all the things that the devil tempts Jesus with He will eventually do, but the issue for Jesus is not what he is to do, but whose direction is He following. You see, as God’s son, God’s agent, he carries out God’s will and God’s purposes in God’s timing at God’s direction, not Satan’s.

 

In vv. 12-l6, and I inadvertently left this off your outline, but we see Jesus fulfilling Messianic prophecy. Look at v. 13: Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali— 14to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah:  15"Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles— 16the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." Mathew is quoting Isaiah 9, telling us that Jesus is in Galilee under the Gentiles, under Rome, land of darkness and death, and He is fulfilling this messianic prophesy as a light has now dawned in the person of Jesus, who is commissioned to manifest God’s saving presence. Are you with me? Hang in there.

 

In 4:17, Jesus begins his public ministry. Jesus as defined by these first three and a half chapters announces that God’s kingdom, that God’s reign has come.  And in the context of God’s commissioning of Jesus—that he would save His people from their sins—His public ministry begins to show us what it looks like when God’s reign, His Kingdom, His saving presence breaks into human experience.

 

We first see it vv. 18-22, as Jesus calls disciples. He calls two sets of brothers in sequence, totally disrupting their lives as they know it—their priorities, their commitments, their tasks. He gives them a new identity (He says “follow me”), a new task (He says, “I will make you fish for people”), and a new community focused on himself. He is a caller of disciples. Friends, when God’s Kingdom, God’s saving presence, comes among people, it claims their lives, it disturbs the status quo, it creates new priorities and identities, it gives new purpose, it commissions people to new tasks, and it creates a new and alternative community that is going to need formational instruction, as in… the Sermon on the Mount.

 

Then we see what it looks like when God’s Kingdom, God’s saving presence comes among people in 4:23 where Jesus teaches and preaches. V. 23 says: “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.” You see, when God’s Kingdom, God’s presence comes among people there is instruction that is authenticated with power and followed by life change.

 

And then we see two more things vv. 24-25. V. 24: “News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them.” So again we see healing and wholeness. V.  25: “Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.” Do you see what he did? He didn’t just heal, but as the Son of Abraham he enacted God’s life-giving purposes for all people—not just Jews. He breaks down social barriers and brings in this epidemic of wholeness, of transformation. In a culture where 97 percent of the population was consigned to poverty and inadequate nutrition because of the greed and subsequent oppression imposed by the 3% elite, Jesus brings in a new order of health and wholeness.

 

So what does it look like when God’s Kingdom, God’s saving presence comes among people?  Well, in a nut shell, it’s the beginning of the end. In 5:1, it says literally, “he went up the mountain.” The phrase “he went up the mountain” is a quotation from earlier in scripture. Nine times in the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible) it refers to Moses going up Mount Sinai to receive the 10 Commandments, the law, the revelation of God’s will.  And six times the clause is used in reference to Mount Zion, referring to the coming of God’s age of justice and life, where the people learn God’s ways. By quoting this phrase Matthew presents Jesus as the revealer of God’s ultimate purposes for the world which are now underway in his ministry, even in his words. Are you with me?

 

Okay, everybody exhale. Now, why bother? You may say, “Keith, I KNOW all that stuff.” Yeah, but you see, we have this knowing/doing problem; we may know this stuff about Jesus, but do we allow it to impact our doing? So why bother to rehearse all of this material from the opening chapters of Matthew? Because context matters. It frames and contextualizes the Sermon on the Mount, and thus it shapes and informs how we read it. If you’re young and fast you might read it one way—putting a spin on it so that it suits you; if you’re old and rich you might read it another so that it suits you; but what we have to do is get on the page with Jesus, this Jesus who is referred to by those pronouns in 5:1; who is neither young and fast or rich and old. You see, this Jesus is commissioned to manifest God’s saving presence as God’s son; this Jesus is one who disrupts the status quo; this Jesus is one who calls people to himself and to a new community where all are welcome; this Jesus, as Matt sang earlier, is the one who always was and is to come, who is the healer of the broken, who is the savior and redeemer, who is author and perfector, beginning and the end. This Jesus who says, “I Am,” is the one who preaches the Sermon on the Mount.

 

Friends, too often there is a disconnect between the Christianity that we live and the Christianity that this Jesus calls us to. Dallas Williard says, “Strangely, we seem prepared to learn how to live from almost anyone but him. We are ready to believe that the latest studies have more to teach us about love and sex than he does, and that Louis Rukeyser knows more about finances; that “Dear Abby” can teach us more about how to get along with our family members and co-workers, and Carl Sagan is a better authority on the cosmos. We lose any sense of the difference between information and wisdom, and act accordingly.”

 

Here’s the thing. Where we go for “information” on how to live shows where our faith is and who we really have confidence in. By our actions we demonstrate the extent to which we find Jesus either relevant or irrelevant as teacher for our lives. I mean, when was the last time you attended a course on how to “love your enemies, bless those that curse you, do good to those that hate you, and pray for those who spit on you and make your life miserable”? Anybody? No. But we’ve done the Public Annex thing on “how to dress for success” or “looking for love in all the wrong places.” We’ve done the business management courses, but how many of us have ever done a study on how to conduct our business on behalf of Jesus. If we’re honest, most of us are much more prone to listening to the thinking of this world rather than the principles of the Kingdom, taught by the King himself.

 

Friends, what this Jesus teaches—this Jesus who walked on water, healed the sick, raised the dead, spoke creation into existence—what this Jesus teaches in the SoM envisions for us a life shaped by God’s Kingdom, God’s reign. This Jesus teaches about a kingdom where hate and ill-will is replaced by love. This Jesus teaches about a kingdom where not only is adultery and divorce no longer present, but where women are not objectified either. This Jesus teaches about a kingdom where people are true to their word, where people are not driven by greed but they give to those in need; where people are selfless and humble and truly righteous. This Jesus teaches us how to live so that we can embody God’s Kingdom in our day-to-day lives and so that we can articulate that kingdom to others. His teaching is an identity-shaping, community-forming sermon that helps us to become a community of disciples who live out Kingdom life.

 

So what’s your context? What’s the context from which you will engage the SoM? Will you engage it in a way that suits you and fits your life so that you can maintain the status quo of your kingdom? Or will you engage it as the teaching of the Son of God who has come to bless you, to save you, to call you and give you the abundant life of the Kingdom? Will you engage it as the words of “I Am”?

 

The Foundation

Matthew 7:24-29

 

(Talk briefly about Sushi the fish…we live like sushi in a bowl…that’s our reality, but there is a bigger one out there…the kingdom of heaven)

 

If you would, grab a Bible and turn to Matthew, the seventh chapter, and just keep it open. We’re launching into a series today, looking at what is the single greatest talk that was ever given in the history of the world.  And I want us to begin this series by thinking about something.

 

Say a company knows they need to improve quality control. They know this. So, they talk about it, they listen to presentations about it, they read books about it, they look at state-of-art systems for it, they just never actually get around to doing it. They never actually raise quality control.

 

Or, say a company has customer service problems. They know they have customer service problems and they know how important it is. So they do studies on it. They appoint task forces to make recommendations. They set “customer service” as one of their core values. They just never actually do customer service.

 

What’s the problem?  It’s not a problem of ignorance. It is not a problem of a lack of information. It’s not that they’re not smart enough. The problem is not a knowing problem, it’s a doing problem. There is a gap between knowing and doing.  We know what we ought to be doing, but we’re not doing it.

 

Now aren’t you glad that even though this can happen to an organization, it never actually happens in the life of a human being? Aren’t you glad that as long as the right information gets poured into you, you find yourself effortlessly doing everything that you know you ought to do? Right? Just shove in enough right information and you’re set, right? Yeah, not so much.

 

As we begin this study of “The Sermon on The Mount,” the greatest talk that’s ever been given—which I’m really excited about—I want to begin by having us look at how seriously Jesus takes this knowing/doing problem by jumping to the end His message first.

 

Jesus crafts the close of His thought very carefully.  When I was in seminary, learning about preaching, my prof taught us that the two most important parts of any sermon are the beginning and the end. Those are the two parts people remember the most. Now, a lot of you have listened to many, many sermons. Which do you think preachers are usually better prepared for, the beginning of a sermon or the end of a sermon? The beginning of a sermon! Almost always, people put time, effort, creativity into the beginning and that’s usually the best prepared part of a sermon (just to let you in on a little trade secret). But a lot of times, preachers, once they get started, it’s like they think, “Well, I just want to get the plane up in the air and once it’s up there, I’ll find a place to land it down there somewhere.” You would be amazed how often preachers do not give adequate thought to how they will end their message. In fact, I wish I knew how I was going to end this one.

 

But Jesus does this soaring talk, the greatest talk in the history of the world, but He knows the problem that people are going to have. And so, He purposefully concludes the talk with a little parable, Matthew 7, verse 24.  Now I want you to try to picture this, feel the drama of this moment, the power of this story. You’ve been listening to this fabulous talk, and then Jesus comes to the end: “Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and then puts them into practice (bridges this knowing/doing gap)... He’s like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine (In other words, they have the info, they have the “know” part down)…everyone who hears these words of mine, and does not put them into practice, is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” (Matthew 7:24-25)

 

End of sermon. Everybody go home. That was kind of a downer way to end the sermon. You wonder, why doesn’t Jesus end with something more positive? It’s because He knows the human heart. See, this is what every one of us struggles with, and Jesus knows that.  He knows that just knowing is a lot easier than doing. We’re pretty good at knowing; we’re pretty smart people. We know stuff and we like to talk about stuff and we like to discuss stuff and we like to debate stuff. We like to be smarter than other people about stuff. You see, as long as it’s just a matter of knowing, I’m still in control, I’m still in the driver’s seat. But when it comes to doing, I’m no longer in control. You see, doing costs us. Doing is going to cost time; it’s going to cost energy; it’s going to cost money. It’s going to mean that I, as smart as I am, I’m no longer in control anymore. And that’s a problem for many of us.

 

So, here’s my prayer for us as we’re going through this series. The prayer is that we wouldn’t just know more by the end of this series, but that we would be better at the doing. Remember what Jesus’ brother James said? “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” (James 1:22)  His point is, when we just hear and know, we deceive ourselves into thinking that we are doing.

 

So, here’s my prayer, and should be the prayer of all of us. “Lord, help me be a DOER. Help me to not just hear, not just know, but actually do what Jesus said.”

 

Now, this is not something we do on our own. A lot of people, when they think of this Sermon on the Mount, they think of it as a list of rules or a list of moral principles or a list of ethical guidelines that sometimes look quite foreboding. That’s not what Jesus is doing primarily in the Sermon on the Mount. You see, the great crowds that gathered, they had heard talks on rules before. They’d heard about the Ten Commandments from Rabbis since they were infants. So that’s not what attracted them to Jesus and His message. The message that Jesus gave made everybody stop in their tracks and you pick it up in Matthew.

 

What was the message? Well, look at Mt 4, v. 17; I’ve put it there on your outline. Matthew is kind of summarizing Jesus’ whole message. This is how he does it. Mt 4, v. 17: “From that time on, Jesus began to preach, “Repent, the kingdom of heaven is near.” Or as some translations put it, “is at hand.”

 

And then, in Verse 23 it says, “Jesus went through Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom...” The good news is that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And then, in Chapter 5, He begins the Sermon on the Mount with these words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven...” (Matthew 5:3)

 

You see Jesus had a message that made everyone come running, and that message was “the Kingdom of Heaven is here, now, and it’s available to everyone.” And this got everybody excited, because they understood what he was talking about. But we may not, so let’s think for a moment about what that meant.

 

Here’s the disconnect for us: A lot of us, when we think of Heaven, we think of some geographical place way, way out there beyond the stars that’s far, far away in outer space where you go when you die—kind like a pleasure palace or something. That is not what was going on in the minds of Jesus’ listeners when they heard the phrase, “The Kingdom of Heaven” and that’s not what Jesus meant. It goes back to the prophets, back to Isaiah, who talked about the good news being that our God reigns. And the idea was that there’s a sphere or a realm or a reality in which everything that God wants to happen happens, in which everything pleases God and that is the Kingdom of Heaven. A technical term for this is The Range of God’s Effective Will; where things are as God wants them to be. That’s the Kingdom of Heaven.

 

However, when God created human beings, part of what He does is He kind of gives us each our own kingdom. If you think back to the Book of Genesis, God says, Let us make human beings in our own image and let us give them “dominion.” (Genesis 1:26) That’s a kingdom word. You have your own little kingdom where what you say goes; it’s the range of your effective will. And we can extend that. I get into my car and when I turn on the radio, the stations, the little buttons, are set to the stations I want them to be set to. The seat is positioned just where I want it to be positioned. The minors are just as I want them to be. Why? That’s my kingdom.

 

I walk into my office and the books are all arranged there just the way I want them to be. And there’s mail sitting on my desk, there are things stacked on my floor… Why? That’s my kingdom.

 

I walk into a house at the end of a workday. There’s an easy chair with slippers lying by it, there’s a glass of red wine on the table next to the chair, there are steaks cooking on the grill. Why? I’ve walked into the wrong house!

 

But the idea here is, I have a kingdom, you have a kingdom. We’re made in the image of God. Your kingdom is where what you say goes; “the range of my effective will”—there’s something God-like about that and that’s a really good thing. And we can extend our kingdoms and they merge and they intersect, and as they do they form families, neighborhoods, school systems, corporations, countries. And you put all of that together, practically speaking, that’s what the Bible calls, “the kingdom of the earth.” That’s the kingdom of the earth in which we live.

 

Question: How are things going in the kingdom of the earth? Not so well. Did you read the paper this week? (get stuff from paper)… And that’s just our world.

 

And then, our life, your life, my life. Some of you are situations right now where your world is falling apart. There’s heartache, betrayal, hurt, abuse, addiction, sin... That’s the kingdom of the earth.

 

And we’re waiting for somebody who’s going to fix this up. Maybe the next election, maybe another government, maybe another economic system. And then, this Rabbi comes. Now see the people of Israel have been waiting for this. We all have been waiting for this. This Rabbi comes and He says, The Kingdom of Heaven is near, it’s at hand, it’s here. Life together with God, in God’s favor, in God’s presence, that life has now become available down here to ordinary people. That’s what Jesus promised. He talks about how to pray in the Sermon on the Mount. If you still have your Bibles open, just turn over a page to Matthew 6:9. He says, This is how you should pray: “Our Father in heaven... (Matthew 6:9) And that didn’t mean God way far off. It means God all around, God is closer than you can imagine.

 

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come...” What does that mean? God’s kingdom is the range of His effective will where what God wants happens. “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

 

Jesus says, “Now you pray that,” because that’s God’s test. No human being can do that. But that’s what God is doing. Jesus says, “Now, this process has begun. The Kingdom is here, it’s available, but there are still other kingdoms that defy it, that compete with it, that are still going on.” But, Jesus says, now something’s happened, something’s changed in the course of history. Now, “Up There Has Come Down Here.” And if you want to, you can get in on it; you can be a part of it. You can actually live in the kingdom of heaven right now, right here.

 

Dallas Willard wrote this book on the Sermon on the Mount called The Divine Conspiracy.  It’s a great book that you all ought to read and it makes exactly this point.

 

But see, here’s the problem: Jesus brings the kingdom of heaven near, but people mess it up when they think they can engineer it on their own. So he gives this Sermon on the Mount telling people what it looks like when folks begin to live a Kingdom kind of life. It’s very important to understand, and we’ll go through this over the next several months, but Jesus, in this sermon, is not giving a set of new rules. He is not giving a new form of legalism. He is giving examples of what Kingdom people look like people, what they do with anger or with sexuality or with truthfulness.

 

Now, I want to throw out a couple of questions, just to whet our appetites and get us thinking this way. Then I want to ask you to reflect: when you hear Jesus’ teachings about a Kingdom kind of life, is your problem that you didn’t know what Jesus was saying or is your problem a doing problem? Do we, as a church, have a knowing problem, or do we have a doing problem? Are you ready to do that assessment? Are you excited about doing that assessment? Here we go...

 

This is Jesus teaching... “You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemies.” That’s kind of conventional wisdom.  But Jesus says, “But I tell you love your enemies.” Now, that’s what people in the Kingdom do. That’s what God does. An enemy is just somebody that’s hard to love. Jesus says, “Love your enemies.”

 

How many of you are surprised to find out that’s Jesus’ teachings? How many of you thought that Jesus was going to come down on the hate side of the love/hate issue? So how’s that going for you?  

 

(Example of woman on the plan continually bumping my chair…she said, “my legs are just long and you’ll have to live with it.”) I wanted to say, “well I’ll be happy to break them off for you.” But I didn’t…because my kids were sitting there. But I wanted to.

 

What Jesus is saying is, in the Kingdom now there is this invitation to a new kind of life and in the Kingdom—now it will take wisdom and discernment and the help of the Spirit to apply this—but in the Kingdom people are characterized by love. And they love, not just when it’s easy, but they love when it is difficult. This is a new kind of love. And then things begin to be done on earth as they are in Heaven and on the airplane I start living UP THERE down here.

 

As we walk through this series you will find enemies; enemies are anybody that it’s hard for you to love. And then the prayer is, “Jesus, would you make me a doer?” We don’t want to just get smarter and know more, we want to be doers.  “Jesus, would You make us doers? Would You help us to live Up There down here?”

 

Another teaching of the Sermon on the Mount: Jesus says that the Kingdom has come near. The Kingdom is now available. Life with God is now available. So he says, “Therefore, I tell you do not worry about your life... (Matthew 6:25)”

 

Now, anybody surprised Jesus taught that one? Anybody here think that Jesus was going to recommend anxiety as a good strategy for day-to-day living? But you know what? Sometimes I stay up to 2 o’clock in the morning because I’m worried about stuff.  I worry about my kids. I worry about the things I did wrong the previous day. I worry about the things that I have to do today that I do not know how to do. I worry about all kinds of stuff.

 

What’s worse, if I am honest about it, my worry is mostly not concern for other people. Mostly, it’s pretty self-centered. And I try really hard to not worry. Did you ever try really hard to not worry? What happens? You just worry all the more. Then, I see Jesus says, don’t worry and then I get worried because I’m worrying and He said not to.

 

But, He never said don’t worry by trying really hard not to worry. He said, “the Kingdom of God is available; therefore, my advice to you would be, don’t worry about what you are going to eat or drink or wear or how you are going to live. Don’t worry about your life, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. (Matthew 6: 31-33)”

 

Friends, none of this means that storms will never come. Storms come to both houses, but what you find is that when the storm comes—you lose a job, you lose a relationship, it’s cancer—when the storm comes…your house stands. The storm can’t blow it down. You find out that it really is true about the Kingdom. It’s available to you right here, right now. It’s not about easier circumstances. It’s not about storm avoidance. It’s about building on the rock, having right foundation, and that’s the fact that the Kingdom is here for you and for me.

 

Now, of course, as we seek to actually follow Jesus we will fail all over the place. Of course, we will. And this brings me to the last key point. Jesus said, what’s changed? Folks have always known they are supposed to do stuff and always failed to do it. But, something fundamental has changed. What’s changed is “Up There Has Come Down Here.”

 

How did Jesus know? Well, Jesus says in this story there are two groups of people listening to the Sermon on the Mount. If your Bible is still open, beginning at Chapter 5: “Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside... (Many people flocking to Jesus.) His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them. (Matthew 5:1-2)” He’s teaching His disciples. Now jump to the end. Mt 7, v. 28: “When Jesus had finished saying these things the crowds were amazed at his teaching...(Matthew 7:28)” So there are the disciples. They are the ones that have said Jesus we will follow you, we will do as you say. And then there are crowds that are listening. “The crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law.”

 

Now, when Matthew says that the crowds were amazed at His teaching because He taught with authority, He has a precise meaning in mind. This doesn’t just mean the crowds are saying, “Man He’s a good teacher and really knows His stuff.” It’s not that. Jesus is claiming something that no other teacher, no other Rabbi would claim.

 

He does it in the story about the houses. Rabbis had talked about the knowing/doing gap for a long time, but they have the same problem all of us do. This is a Rabbinic saying from right around Jesus’ time from a Rabbi by the name of Nathaniel. This is what it says: “Whoever studies Torah and does good works, may be likened to one who lays a foundation of stone and bricks that rising water cannot overturn.”

 

Does that sound kind of familiar? It’s quite similar to Jesus’ words. What’s the one difference? Rabbi said one who studies Torah and builds a life on it. Jesus says something no rabbi would ever say, not whoever hears Torah and does it, but whoever hears these words of mine. “You used to have the Torah. Now you have me. What you have been hoping for is me.”

 

The coming of the kingdom has begun, Jesus says, because now I’m here—my life, my teaching, my death, my resurrection. It’s all happening through this one man. The crowds would come because He did amazing things and said amazing words. They were amazed at this claim, but they were uncommitted. They were hearers. Wow! But every once in a while somebody stands up and leaves the crowd and becomes a disciple. One who is not simply a hearer, but one who is a doer. Which will you be?