Matthew C. Mitchell's Blog, page 56

[Matt's Messages] "But I Tell You"

“But I Tell You”
Following Jesus - The Gospel of Matthew
April 15, 2018 :: Matthew 5:21-26

We’re learning to follow Jesus together by studying His theological biography, the Gospel According to Matthew. And we’ve reached the three chapter section where Jesus teaches His utterly amazing Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus has turned His disciples’ world upside down telling us what His kingdom truly values and what surprisingly is truly the “good life.” How to truly flourish and to influence the world as His followers, being salt and light for Him.

And then last week, we entered the main central section of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount where Jesus revealed His relationship to the first 2/3 of the Bible. We commonly call “The Old Testament,” and Jesus called, “The Law and the Prophets.”

Now let me know if I got it across to you.

What is Jesus’ relationship with the Old Testament?

He did not come...to what?  Abolish the Law and the Prophets.

Jesus didn’t come to rip out the first 2/3 of the Bible. Even though it might have seemed like it at times!

What did He come to do to the Old Testament?

He came to fulfill it.

Jesus came to fulfill the entire Old Testament.

Isn’t that a bold claim?

Remember, I said last week that this really invites the question, “Who does Jesus think He is?”

He is not just claiming to be the greatest interpreter of the Old Testament. He is claiming to be the whole point of the Old Testament!

And remember what claim He made on His disciples’ lives at the end of last week’s passage (v.20)?

Jesus requires a greater righteousness.

Greater, that is, than the “extra-super-holy people,” or those who everybody thought were the extra-super-holy people, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law (“extra-super-holy people” comes from The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones).

Jesus said, “I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

And that sounds scary, and if you don’t belong to Jesus, it should scare you, but if you do belong to Jesus and He’s changed you and is changing you, then it should not scare you. Because, as we’ll soon see, the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law had a fake righteousness. It was wasn’t very deep and it wasn’t very high, and it wasn’t very real.

It looked good at first, but it wasn’t truly great in reality.

So Jesus is calling us to a greater righteousness.

And that’s what we’re going to see again and again as we move through the rest of the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus fulfilling the Old Testament and calling us to live out a greater righteousness.

Now, in the next section (verses 21 through 48), Jesus does just that.

In fact, He gives us 6 examples, 6 illustrations of both how He fulfills the Old Testament and how He wants us to live out a greater righteousness than the Pharisees.

Scholars sometimes call them the 6 antitheses. But I’m going to call them the 6 “But I Tell You's.”

Here’s our title for today. And it could be our title for the next several weeks.

“But I Tell You”

Jesus is going to use this phrase 6 times from verses 21 through 48.

Look down and find them:

Verse 22.
Verse 28.
Verse 32.
Verse 34.
Verse 39.
Verse 44.

And that last one should sound really familiar, because we’re memorizing it right now.

Your version might say, “But I say to you.”

Wait until you hear what it is in Greek! Are you ready?

It’s pronounced, “Ego de lego!”

I just love that.

This is the “But.”
This is the “I.”
And this is the “Tell You.”

Kids, today at the dinner table when your parents ask you what the sermon was about, you say, “Ego de lego!”

And when they say what does that mean, you say, “But I Tell You.”

What do you think is the most important word there?

It’s the “I,” isn’t it? This is Jesus making a point again about Who He is.

Who does He think He is?

He isn’t just the greatest interpreter of Moses.

He is greater than Moses!

He is what Moses was talking about.

And what He says about the Law is what we really need to know about the Law now that He has come.

Does that make sense?

So all 6 of these “But I Tell You’s” follow a similar pattern.

Just the like Beatitudes all had a pattern. These all have a pattern.

First, Jesus quotes from Torah. Then He explains that statement with all of its Messianic meaning. And then He gives a practical application to daily life.

First, He quotes from Law. Then He gives the authoritative explanation of that quotation with all of its Messianic meaning. And really, He explodes the myths about the popular interpretations that these people had always heard and believed. He corrects those and sets everything straight. And then lastly He gives a practical application to daily life, really for the most part an antidote to the problem He’s addressing.

So that pattern gets followed basically through all 6 of these.

Today, we’re only going to do the first one.

It’s the longest one because Jesus is setting out the pattern. And then they’ll get shorter because He thinks we can extrapolate the pattern from there.

Next week, maybe we’ll get through 2 of them.

I believe that these are just 6 illustrations of how we’re supposed to read and apply the Old Testament now that King Jesus has come.

He is telling us what a greater righteousness looks like.

And He starts with the 6th commandment. “Thou Shall Not Murder.”

Do you see what I mean about “Who does Jesus think He is?”

I mean in verse 21, He quotes God from the Ten Commandments and then says, “But I Tell You...”!

Look at verse 21.

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.'”

Who said that?

Well, that “Do not murder” piece is from the 10 Commandments. Moses said that and He was speaking for God!

And Jesus must think that He’s on the same level to come out with “But I tell you...that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.”

That’s just amazing.

Now, that phrase, ‘and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment” is not a direct quote from the Old Testament.

That’s what the other teachers were saying.

And it’s true. If you murdered someone, then you would go to court and be tried for that killing. Normally there was a jury with 23 people on it to decide if you were guilty and needed to pay for it with your life.

Now, that’s murder. Not just any kind of killing but criminal killing with malicious intent.

It’s not manslaughter or an accidental death or killing enemy combatants as a part of your duties as a soldier or defending the helpless as police.

It’s murder.

And the Old Testament law in cases of murder called for the death penalty (Numbers 35:31).

“Do not murder and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.”

And the Pharisees all said, “That sounds easy! I’ve never murdered anybody. I’m good! That’s it? I’m righteous? I’m in the kingdom? Cool!”

And Jesus says, “Not so fast.” v.22

“But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.”

You don’t just get off if you keep from killing them.

You’re not allowed to simply refrain from shooting at them while still harboring contempt and rage and fury in you heart.

You see where Jesus goes with this?

He goes to the heart level.

He goes deep in.

He goes to the attitude. He goes to the affections. He goes past the externals and to the internals. He goes to the root.

Jesus goes to the heart.

“But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.”

It’s not just murder that’s against the Law.

The Law is aimed at doing away with sinful anger.

If you get angry in ways you shouldn’t, then God sees that and you could be tried for it.

It’s not that murder and anger are the exact same thing.

It’s that murder is the result of anger.

Anger is at the heart of murder.

Murder is the most extreme version of sinful anger.

It’s not the same thing, but it is the same heart.

We murder because we desire to damage and destroy.

And anger, therefore, is “murder in the mind.” (From Grant Osborne)

Where only God can see.

But He can see!

Do you see how Jesus is showing His disciples what the Law was always driving at all along? He is fulfilling the Law by showing us the greater righteousness.

It’s not good enough to just keep from sticking a knife in their back. We also have to do away with the “want to.”

And the words that reveal that “want to.”

Killing people with our words. V.22 again.

“But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca,' is answerable to the Sanhedrin [the court system]. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.”

Now, I don’t think we’re supposed to see a big difference between being angry, saying “Raca,” and saying, “You fool!”

I think they are all basically the same thing. But Jesus is escalating the consequences to make us feel approaching danger. He’s saying, “It’s going to go from bad to worse.”

You let this stuff rule your heart and come out of your mouth, and you are in trouble with God.

The word “Raca” means “empty-headed.” It’s like calling somebody an idiot or an imbecile or a dimwit.

The Greek word for fool is “moros.” I think we get our “moron” from it. It means someone who is stupid and senseless and probably unsaved.

These are spiteful words. They are attack words. They are rash, and angry, and abusive words.

It’s not just pointing out someone’s foolishness. It’s name-calling and pouring on the verbal abuse.

And Jesus says that if you do that are you are in danger of the fire of Gehenna.

The agony of hell, the place of punishment named after the valley of Hinnom where they had once sacrificed children to Molech.

A picture of terrible extreme punishment.

Why?

Just because you got angry?

Isn’t there a proper time and place for anger?

Yes, there is. Some versions add the words, “without cause” in verse 22 after “brother.” It isn’t in the oldest manuscripts, so it probably wasn’t in the original. But some copyist understood that there are proper times and places for righteous anger.

Jesus Himself gets angry and wasn’t in danger of the fire of hell for it.

But we are much more prone to sinful anger than we are to righteous anger.

And that’s what Jesus is going after here.

Killing people in our hearts and with our tongues.

I have only two points of application for today’s passage. And here’s the first one:

#1. REPENT OF YOUR SINFUL ANGER AS QUICK AS YOU CAN.

Don’t settle for just not murdering them.

That’s not good enough.

We cannot harbor unrighteous anger in our hearts and expect God to just wink at it.

God wants us to repent of our sinful anger at the heart level.

And He’s pretty serious about it.

Jesus says so.

And if we repent, it will come out in our words, right?

We won’t be calling people names.

We won’t be calling our brothers and sisters in Christ “idiots and imbeciles.”

We won’t be spitting out abusive and spiteful language at the people around us who we are angry with.

You know what? I think verse 22 should govern the way we talk on social media.

I see it all the time on Facebook. “Those idiots in Washington.” Or “those fools in Harrisburg.” Or “that jerk that cut me off in traffic.” “Those morons who are trying to [whatever political cause you’re against at the moment.]” “Those dimwits who are trying to run my life.”

Brothers and sisters, words like that should not come out of the mouths of people who claim to follow Jesus Christ.

And that goes for the “share” button, too.

If you share a post that says those things, then you are saying it, too.

And, of course, we don’t need social media to get this wrong.

We do it with our mouths, not just our keyboards.

Is this the way you talk to your family?
Is this the way you talk to your friends?
Is this the way you talk at work?
Is this the way you talk at school?

Our Lord Jesus Christ is calling us to repent of our sinful anger and our angry words as quick as we possibly can.

Where do you need to start?

I told you that Jesus was going to make us uncomfortable, didn’t I?

Jesus is turning our lives upside down.

He is challenging our little kingdoms as His own kingdom draws near.

That’s the problem, isn’t it?

That’s why we get angry like this. Because we think our kingdoms have been attacked.

But in Jesus’ kingdom, we love people, from the heart.

We don’t live lives of perpetual outrage.

I sometimes think that Facebook was made for being mad and getting people mad.

Let’s not let ourselves become like the world and be mad all of the time.

Yes, there are plenty of things to get mad about.

If you care about justice, you will get fired up when you see injustice.

Jesus did, too.

But He didn’t live His life set on perpetual outrage.

And when they actually attacked Him, He did not open His mouth.

That’s when I tend to get mad. When I get attacked.

When I don’t get what I want.

Our Lord Jesus Christ is calling us to repent of our sinful anger and our angry words as quick as we possibly can.

#2. RESOLVE YOUR CONFLICTS AS QUICK AS YOU CAN.

Remember there are 3 parts to this pattern. First, Jesus quotes from the Torah. “Do not murder.” Then He gives the authoritative interpretation as the Messiah. And the last part is an application point to daily life that presents the alternative to the problem. The antidote.

The antidote to anger is not repression. It is reconciliation.

It’s not “anger management.” It’s doing your part to resolve the conflict.

So Jesus gives two short examples of what that might look like in every day life.

As usual, He is a master teacher and master storyteller who tells a story to teach.

And the main point of both stories is to resolve your conflicts with a great sense of urgency. V.23

“Therefore [to reduce this anger problem], 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.”

Get the picture?

Somebody has traveled to Jerusalem to bring a gift (perhaps a sin offering) and place it on the altar. That might happen like twice a year. Maybe they came from Galilee far away.

But as they’re doing it. They remember that they have sinned against somebody else.

“Your brother has something against you.”

What happened? Did you call him a name? Did you say “Raca” to him? We don’t know.

But you realize that you are the reason for this conflict.

And Jesus says, leave it right there and go make this right!

Now, we could say that Jesus is teaching that conflict resolution is more important than worship. I think that’s good to think through. Especially if you think of worship as mainly singing or giving your offering or taking the Lord’s Supper. External things that you do.

But I think the main point here is simply to waste no time trying to make things right.

Don’t wait for a convenient time.

Don’t think you have more important business that should come first.

Go do it. Right now.

So, as your pastor, that’s what I’m saying to you right now.

Go now.

I don’t care if you wait until the last song.

If you have a conflict with someone that’s your fault and you can do something to solve it, don’t wait.

Treat conflict resolution as urgent.

That’s the point of Jesus’ second story, too. V.25

“Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.”

I don’t think that’s a parable. The judge is not God or anything like that.

I think Jesus is just giving us another example of conflict resolution with urgency.

You owe somebody money and they’re taking you to court.

You damaged their truck or something.

Settle it quickly or you’ll be sorry.

That’s what Jesus’ is saying.

Take your conflicts seriously and do whatever is in your power. We don’t have power over the other side. But whatever is in your power, especially if you are in the wrong, to reconcile.

Because what happens if you don’t?

Anger!

Rage, fury, contempt.

Then spiteful hurtful words.

And if not checked, murder.

But even nobody gets killed, King Jesus still wants us to delete the sinful anger out completely of the equation.

The earlier the better.

Because this is serious stuff.

If you don’t repent and reconcile, there can be disastrous consequences.

Resolve your conflicts as quick as you can.

Feel free to go right now.

Does this all seem impossible to you?

Repenting of your anger and resolving your conflicts?

Jesus died for your sinful anger and to bring peace into your relationships.

And He came back to life to give you power to put your anger to death and to do your part to have peace with others.

The gospel makes it possible for us to live out the greater righteousness that Jesus requires.

In Jesus, you can do it.

You can say NO to unrighteous anger and YES to peacemaking in relationships.

And then King Jesus will fulfill all righteousness in and through you.

And then King Jesus will get the glory.

Just like He told us!


***

Previous Messages in This Series: 01. The Genealogy of Jesus
02. The Birth of Jesus Christ
03. The Search for Jesus Christ
04. The Baptism of Jesus
05. The Temptation of Jesus
06. Following Jesus
07. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
08. The Good Life (Part One)
09. The Good Life (Part Two)
10. You Are The...
11. Jesus and the First 2/3 of the Bible

[Matt's Messages] “Jesus and the First 2/3 of the Bible”

“Jesus and the First 2/3 of the Bible”
Following Jesus - The Gospel of Matthew
April 8, 2018 :: Matthew 5:17-20 

I know it’s been a while since we were in Matthew together. We took a break for Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday, so let me remind you where we are.

Our sermon series is called, “Following Jesus” because that’s what we’re learning to do in the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew is a theological biography of the most compelling Person in history–the Person of Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ has called us to follow Him and fish for more followers.

Jesus said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”

So we’re learning to follow Him in the Gospel of Matthew.

And we’ve reached the first of five major blocks of Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel of Matthew, arguably the greatest teaching ever given which we have come to call “Jesus’ Sermon On the Mount.”

Where Jesus teaches with unequaled authority what it means to live as a citizen of the kingdom of heaven–a kingdom which He has announced has drawn near.

It’s going to take us a while to get through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, but that’s not a bad thing. This teaching deserves all of the attention that we can give it.

Jesus began His message by declaring what a flourishing life looks like. “The good life.” And it was different than what we might expect.

In fact, just about everything Jesus says in these chapters is different than we might expect!

Jesus turns our expectations upside down.

Jesus turns our world upside down.

Jesus describes a kingdom that, to us, seems upside down!

Where the people who are blessed are those who are needy, sad, lowly, unsatisfied and even persecuted because of following Him.

But that’s the way it really is. That’s where the flourishing is.

And then Jesus told His disciples that they are salt and they are light.

They are going to have a big influence on their world. Jesus’ followers are world-changers making a real and visible difference in the world to glory of their Father in heaven.

Remember that?

Well, that was just the introduction to His amazing sermon.

Now, Jesus gets down to brass tacks.

Now, Jesus is going to get off to the races.

And He’s going to say some more radical things.

Jesus has already turned their world upside down. Now He’s going to do it again.

He’s going to say some more audaciously surprising things, and He’s going to say them authoritatively. With audacious authority.

In fact, as I studied these next four verses, the thing I kept thinking the most was, “Who does Jesus think He is?”

I almost titled this sermon that, but I’m going to save it because that’s a like theme that’s going to come up again and again in Matthew.

But as I read it to you, think about what He’s saying about Himself here. I think we’re just used to it. But imagine anybody else talking this way and what you and I would think if we heard them talking this way.

Now, here is the title for today: “Jesus and the First 2/3 of the Bible.”

Because what Jesus is going to say in this next section is going to rock the world of His listeners. And they are going to think from what He says that maybe He’s throwing out the first 2/3 of the Bible.

What am I talking about there?

The Old Testament, right? Did you ever notice that the Old Testament is quite a bit longer than the New? It’s roughly twice as long. Not exactly, but close enough for approximation.

What did Jesus think about the Old Testament?

How did Jesus relate to the Old Testament?

Well, let’s read it and see.

I’ve had to begin using a new Bible because my old one is falling apart.

Some of you may have noticed that my old one lost a few pages about a month ago. They were just the maps in the back, but the binding is coming apart, so I’ve switched over to this one.

I’m told it’s a good sign when your Bible is falling apart from use because that means your life won’t be falling apart. I like the sound of that!

But imagine for a second that I took my Bible, and I just ripped out the whole Old Testament and threw it away.

We don’t need that any more!

Rip!

Pages flying everywhere. Cindy picks them up and puts the on my desk.

And I say, “I said we don’t need those any more.” And I put them in the paper recycling.

And I never refer to them again.

And I tear them out of every Bible that I can find.

And I delete the Old Testament on my computer.

And I never from the Old Testament from this pulpit again.

What do you think of that?

That’s kind of like what Jesus’ opponents thought He wanted to do.

The way Jesus will interact with the Old Testament, especially the Mosaic Law, will lead some people, especially the Pharisees, to believe that Jesus was tossing it out of the Bible.

And Jesus knows that they are going to think that way, so He heads them off at the pass and kicks off the main part of His Sermon on the Mount by dispelling that very idea. Look at again at the first part of verse 17.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets...”

“That’s not why I’m here at all. I have not come on the scene to attack the Old Testament.

I’m not here to destroy it or tear it down or talk it down or hurt the Old Testament in any way.”

Quite the opposite. Verse 17.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”

I’ve got two points this morning, and here is number one:

#1. JESUS HAS COME TO FULFILL THE ENTIRE OLD TESTAMENT.

“The Law and the Prophets” is one way of saying the whole thing, the whole Old Testament.

And far from coming to abolish it, Jesus has come to fulfill it.

Now, should not be a surprise to those who have been reading the Gospel of Matthew. We’ve already seen that “fulfill” is one of Matthew’s favorite words. Apparently, he gets it from Jesus!

Matthew loves to point out that Jesus fills to the full the Old Testament.

It’s part of His mission in life!

He has come for this very purpose. The reason for Christmas is fulfilling the Law and the Prophets.

To “complete their intended purpose.”  (A phrase from Craig Blomberg.)

The whole Old Testament is about Jesus.

You see what I mean when I say, “Who does He think He is?”

He doesn’t just say surprising things. He claims the first two thirds of the Bible are about Him!

(I believe they are, but imagine if anybody else talked like that!)

Do you believe that the whole Old Testament is about Jesus?

That He fulfills it?

Have you seen it?

One of the goals of my preaching ministry for the last fifteen years or so has been to take us through the Big Story of the Old Testament and show how it relates to Jesus.

What was our series called on the Books of Kings?

“The King of Kings in the Books of Kings”

When the kings were at their best, they reminded us of the promise of Jesus.

When the kings were at their worst, they reminded us why we needed Jesus.

That’s true of everything in your Old Testament. It all points to Jesus in some way (often in multiple ways.)

Even the book of Leviticus.

Even the Law of Moses in Exodus and Deuteronomy.

Those things also pointed to Jesus.

So don’t let anybody draw a big fat line between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

And tell you that the Old Testament God was one thing and the New Testament God is another. Or that Jesus has come to save us from the Old Testament God.

Or that Jesus threw out the Old Testament.

There was a guy in the first couple centuries of the church named Marcion who did that. He cut out Old Testament from the Bible and tried to create a Christianity that was based on only the last third.

Jesus said, “No way!”

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” Verse 18.

“I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”

Jesus doubles down on this promise.

He has come to fulfill the Old Testament, and He will fulfill the Old Testament. And nothing is going to stop Him.

I love that phrase, “not the smallest letter, not the least of stroke of pen.”

Or King James, not “one jot or one tittle.”

Do you know what jot is?

The Greek is “iota,” like our letter “i,” and it stood for the Hebrew letter, “yod.” That’s where get "jot."

Let me show you a “yod.”

אלוהים

This is one of the Hebrew words for God, “elohim.”

That little mark thereי is “yod.”

Someone has gone through and counted them in the Old Testament. There are about 66,420 yods.

Now the “tittle” is like this.

Is this letter the same as this letter?

C G

O Q

F P

The "tittle" is the little mark that makes the difference in letters like that (but in Hebrew).

Tiny little things. But important, too, right?

Imagine mixing up some of those letters and what that would do to the message?

Jesus has come to fulfill the entire Old Testament.

Now, that should encourage us. There isn’t anything that is going to be left out or dropped.

Every promise will be fulfilled.

Jesus will be everything the Old Testament anticipated.

Prophet, Priest, King, Judge.

He will fulfill all of those offices, but also the other themes:

Temple, Sacrifice, Festivals, Clean & Unclean, Wisdom, Exoduses, Conquests, Return from Exile, so many things!

Jesus will fulfill the entire Old Testament.

He will accomplish it.

And nothing, nothing, will be lost.

How encouraging is that?!

It also should cause us to repent of our picking and choosing. Right?

Maybe we don’t rip out the pages from our Bible.

But we are tempted to pick and choose what we’re going to like or not like, right? What we are going to follow and not follow?

We are tempted to not read some of those books.

What’s your least favorite book in the Old Testament?

Which ones are you tempted to skip over and not give any weight to in your life?

I’m not saying they are all equally important (or understandable), but they are all God’s Word, and they are all fulfilled in Jesus.

And we’re tempted to rip some of them out of our lives.

What commands are you tempted to ignore?

Now, Jesus says, “fulfill,” not “keep the same.”

Because Jesus has come, things are going to change.

The Old Testament remains God’s Word and important for us to read, but we stand in a different relationship to it.

Now that Jesus has come and is fulfilling what the Old Testament was always driving at, some of those things will not be in play like they used to be.

Animal sacrifices for example.

The group in Prayer Meeting has been studying the Book of Hebrews. It says why we no longer do animal sacrifices with the blood of bulls and goats. Why?

Because Jesus has fulfilled them with His Perfect Sacrifice!

Things are changing. Jesus is going to change things now that He’s come.

But He’s not abolishing the Old Testament. He’s fulfilling it.

You see Who He thinks He is? He thinks He’s the point of the first 2/3 of the Bible!

So Jesus thinks that He is the best interpreter of the Old Testament because apparently it’s all about Him.

For the next few weeks (verses 21 through 48), He’s going to interact with popular interpretations of things in the Old Testament Law, and He’s going to give his listeners what He considers to be the right one.

And of course they are, but they are still going to turn things upside down.

And we don’t get to pick and choose which ones we want to follow. V.19

“Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Now, “these commandments,” I think are the Old Testament commandments properly interpreted and applied by King Jesus, the Point of the Old Testament.

Or we could call them now, “The Law of Christ.”

If you break the Law of Christ and you teach others to do it, too, woe to you.

But if you live out the Law of Christ and you teach others follow it, too, then you will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

I don’t know about you, but I would love to be called “great in the kingdom of heaven.”

Just for following Jesus!

What’s important is to make into the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus ends our passage for today with a sober warning. V.20

“For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

2. JESUS DEMANDS A GREATER RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Greater, that is, than the Pharisees and the teachers of the law.

Now, how is that supposed to make you feel?

I’m sure that it made the people there gasp.

When they heard Jesus say that, they probably passed out in shock.

The Pharisees and the experts in the law were seen as the “extra-super-holy people” (Sally Lloyd-Jones’ phrase from The Jesus Storybook Bible, pointed out by Jonathan Pennington in The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing.)

These were the most religious people on the planet.

And Jesus was saying that you had to have a righteousness that surpassed theirs in kind and quality. Deeper and higher.

And if you didn’t then you wouldn’t see the kingdom when it comes in all of its fullness.

That’s shocking.

But let me ask you this.

Raise your hand if you have a righteousness greater than the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.

I know that I do.

It’s really not that hard.

Every genuine believer in this room has that righteousness!

I mean think about what kind of righteousness the Pharisees had.

It was mostly outward and showy.

Is your righteousness outward and showy?

It was mostly focused on the lesser of God’s commands and ignoring the greater of God’s commands.

Is that your approach to holiness?

The Pharisees righteousness was based on rule following not on trusting and loving God.

Are you trying to please God through rule-following or by faith?

The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law were prideful about their righteousness.

They thought they were hot stuff.

Do you think you are hot stuff?

They kept looking for loopholes.

Is that how you try to work out your righteousness?

They were unchanged at the heart level.

Has your heart been changed by Jesus?

They had not experienced the new birth.

Every genuine believer in this room has been born again.

Don’t despair!

Your righteousness, if you truly belong to Jesus, is deeper and higher and greater in both kind and quality.

And I’ll tell you one other thing.

I don’t think it’s exactly what He’s talking about here, but we know from the rest of the New Testament that we also have Jesus’ righteousness on our account!

Through justification.

So, it’s not that hard to have a righteousness that surpasses these guys.

The newest believer in this room already does.

Now, Jesus is going to unpack that for us in the next several weeks. In fact, I think that’s the point of the entire sermon on the mount. Demonstrating what this greater righteousness looks like from the perspective of the greatest interpreter of the Law.

And it will challenge us.

Jesus intends to turn our lives upside down so that we fit in His truly right-side-up kingdom.

It will require repentance and change.

And we won’t get to pick and choose which things we want to repent of or to change.

But it’s entirely possible.

Because of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Because He came to fulfill the entire Old Testament, the first 2/3 of our Bible.

And He did it, ultimately, by taking our place on the Cross.

And by His work on the Cross and in our hearts, we become the kind of followers that He wants us to be.


***

Previous Messages in This Series:
01. The Genealogy of Jesus
02. The Birth of Jesus Christ
03. The Search for Jesus Christ
04. The Baptism of Jesus
05. The Temptation of Jesus
06. Following Jesus
07. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
08. The Good Life (Part One)
09. The Good Life (Part Two)
10. You Are The...

Book Review: "Those Who Hope" by Tim Stafford

Those Who Hope by Tim Stafford

Satisfying depiction of the unsatisfying reality of being caught between the “already” and the “not yet” of the kingdom of God.

I am a big fan of Tim Stafford’s writing–first in nonfiction (his work on notes for the first NIV Student Bible was a major discipling influence on me during some of my most formative years) and also in fiction (I’ve read and re-read his “River of Freedom” trilogy several times to great personal benefit), so I was interested to see what he would do with a book set in an urban gospel mission among the homeless, hurting, and addicted.

I think I can say that I enjoyed reading Those Who Hope, though I’m not sure that “enjoy” is the right word. Stafford has written a book that is good art–it makes you think and feel meaningful things about the world–but the things it makes you think and feel are uncomfortable, unpeaceful, not pleasurable. The characters in this book experience suffering and are often the cause of their own suffering, their own worst enemies. And Stafford shows how relentless that sin and suffering cycle can be. He captures the very real and very heartbreaking pattern of addiction. Even the most virtuous main character feels always ready to succumb once more.

There is hope in this book, and not just in the title. But the hope is not Pollyanna-ish. It’s a chastened hope. There is no over-realized eschatology where the characters stop being fallen and hurting people and everything is happy-ever-after. That day is still in the future in reality and in this work of art. The recovery (and redemption) is very realistic.

I don’t think this book is as good as Stafford’s “River of Freedom” books. The writing is clunkier at times and could have used another round of editing. Readers also should know that it is not a G-rated book. Some swearing and sensuality (though tastefully done) make it at least at PG-13. This is not a book to hand to your younger kids.

The main reason to read Those Who Hope is to experience a bit of the unhappy merry-go-round of addiction and at the same time be pointed to the compelling Person of Jesus who in Himself is the answer both in the “now” and the “not yet.” But that also calls for living in tension while we live in expectation for His Kingdom to come in its fullness. Stafford never reveals it, but the title of this book probably comes from Isaiah 40:30-31, “Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” But many other translations than the NIV translate those words, “Those who wait.” Very appropriate.

Recommended for those who appreciate satisfying art about the unsatisfying parts of life.


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[Matt's Messages] “The Stone the Builders Rejected”

“The Stone the Builders Rejected”
Resurrection Sunday
Psalm 118:22-23 :: April 1, 2018

There once was a stone.

And it was a stone unlike any other stone.

Some builders were constructing a large important building, and they started, as all builders do by laying a foundation. They were trying lay a strong foundation that would keep the building supported, level, and plumb.

It was a foundation made out of giant stones.

And these builders knew that they needed to be careful to pick only the best stones for their foundation. They had to be choosy.

Especially for the cornerstone. Because everything keys off of the cornerstone. In a foundation like that the cornerstone influences, determines really, everything.

If you get the wrong cornerstone, your building won’t be level or straight or...still standing.

So these builders went to the rock quarry, hunting, hunting for the perfect stones upon which to build this important building.

And they saw this one stone.

This stone that was like no other.

And they looked at the stone.
And they looked at one another.

And then they looked at the stone.
And then they looked at one another.

And then they all said...“Nah...That one’s no good.”

“I think we can do better than that.”

“That one’s too big. That one is too ugly. That one isn’t the right color. That one will stick out too much. That one doesn’t look level or straight or strong enough. It doesn’t look like any other the other ones. That stone just doesn’t look right.”

The builders rejected the stone.

And they turned to other stones to build their building.

But that was a big mistake.

Those builders made a terrible error.

Those builders misjudged that stone.

That stone was perfect.

That stone was just right.

It might not have looked like it at first glance, but that stone was exactly the right stone, not just to be in the foundation of the building but to be the chief cornerstone.

And yet the builders had rejected it.

Does this story sound familiar?

Last week on Palm Sunday, we studied Psalm 118 together.

Which is the psalm that the crowd was singing at Jesus when He rode into Jerusalem on the donkey.

Verse 26 of that psalm says, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD!”

Just a few verses before that the psalmist writes about this stone.

It’s verse 22.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; 
the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

I said last week that we’d come back to that verse today and so here we are.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone...”

The psalmist gives us the end of the short story I was telling you.

It’s a surprise ending.

Do you like surprise endings?

I do, at least if they’re happy ones.

I like a good twist at end.

The psalmist says that the stone the builders rejected eventually became the capstone or, more literally, “the head of the corner.”

Could be a key stone up above, but much more likely the cornerstone.

That stone went from rejected to exalted.

From rejected to exalted.

From the lowest place imaginable–unworthy of even being in the building.

To the highest place imaginable–where the whole building rests upon it.

Quite a transformation for that stone, wasn’t it?

That’s a surprise ending which nobody saw coming.

Now in Psalm 118, it’s referring either the nation of Israel going from the bottom to the top, perhaps in battle or it’s the Davidic king having been in some way rejected and then unexpectedly rising to victory. Either way, it was a great cause for rejoicing.

And the psalmist and Israel were exuberant in their thankfulness.

But that verse was also a prophecy.

It established a prophetic pattern that would be only be fully fulfilled later on.

That’s why the crowd was shouting it at Jesus on Palm Sunday.

Psalm 118 is referenced several times in the New Testament, often by Jesus Himself.

Let's jump over to Acts chapter 4 and hear what the Apostle Peter thought about that stone.

In chapter 3, Peter and John had gone to the temple to pray. You might know the song. They met a lame man on the way. He asked for alms and held out his palms, and this is what Peter did say: “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk!”

And what happened?

“He went walking and leaping and praising God!”

And Peter and John got arrested.

They got arrested for preaching about Jesus. And they were drug before the Jewish Religious Leaders and interrogated.

And when it was time for Peter to speak, this is what he said. Acts chapter 4, verse 8.

“Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: ‘Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He [Jesus] is 'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.' Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.’”

According to Peter, the story of that stone was the story of Jesus Christ.

He was the perfect candidate to be the cornerstone.

But He had been rejected.

That’s what was happening on the Cross.

Jesus was rejected.

How did Isaiah say it?

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.”

At his trial, the leaders of Israel said, “Nah. I think we can do better than this.”

“He will not be king over us.”
“He is not the Messiah.”
“He is not the Promised One.”
“We reject Him.”

“Throw Him away.”

And the crowd shouted, “Crucify Him!”

And don’t think it was just the Jews who did that.

You and I have done it, too.

So many have misjudged Jesus over the centuries.

So many have made the grave error of spurning and rejecting Him.

So many have said, “Pass. I don’t think so.”

There are so many excuses.

Jesus doesn’t look like the kind of Savior that many want.

For some He doesn’t seem real.

If that’s been your excuse, I encourage you to study the historicity of Jesus in books like The Case for Christ out there in the foyer.

For others He seems too demanding.

He wants to be Lord and King and not our buddy or our pet or a genie in a bottle.

And other are turned off by His suffering.

They don’t want a weak Savior Who allows Himself to be killed.

Christianity is the only major religion that has the humiliation of its god at the very center of its faith.

And that suffering Servant calls for His people to suffer, too.

We don’t like the sound of that.

But it’s a terrible mistake to reject Jesus.

#1. DON’T REJECT HIM. RECEIVE HIM!

The good news is that Jesus is still giving out second chances.

The Apostle John said, “[Jesus] came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him [they rejected Him]. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:10-12).

Some of you have never received Jesus.

You come to church every once in a while, maybe to make somebody happy.

And you kind of believe all that Christianity stuff. At least, you nod your head at it and you aren’t against it.

But you haven’t personally, yourself put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your own Savior and your own Lord.

Jesus said that if you are not with Him, then you are against Him.

Don’t reject this stone.

Because there is coming a day when this stone will return and crush His enemies.

That’s what Jesus said in Luke chapter 20, verse 17.

You can turn there if you want, but we won’t be there long.

Jesus told a story that implicated the Jewish Religious Leaders.

A parable about a rejected son and how his dad would destroy those who rejected the son.

And Jesus ended His story with Psalm 118.

The Bible says, “Jesus looked directly at them and asked, ‘Then what is the meaning of that which is written: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone'?  Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.’"

We think that we are judging the stone.

The builders thought that they were judging the stone.

But at some point the stone will bring judgment on them.

Don’t reject Jesus. Receive Him while there is still time.

Go back to Psalm 118.

And notice in verse 23 who did all of this.

“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;
the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

#2. MARVEL AT HIM!

Because Jesus is alive!

The stone was rejected, but somehow, in some amazing, miraculous, and marvelous way, the stone has become the capstone! The chief cornerstone. The head of the corner!

As Peter said, “You crucified Him, but GOD raised Him from the dead!”

That’s what we believe.

And it’s marvelous in our eyes.

It’s the greatest thing.

It’s precious.

1 Peter 2, “Now to you who believe, this stone is precious” (v.7).

We don’t value anything higher than the Risen Lord Jesus Christ.

And that’s why we proclaim His name to the world.

He was rejected, crucified, dead and buried.

But up from the grave He arose!
With a might triumph over His foes.

What a wonderful surprise ending? Or should I say, surprise beginning?

“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone;
the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

Book Review: "Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A real page-turner but ultimately unsatisfying.

It’s taken me two months to write this review because I didn’t know how to articulate my basic reservation about Ready Player One. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it.

I did grow up kinda geeky in the 1980's so many of the recursive pop culture references were nostalgic fun, but I’ve never been much of a gamer (I’ve got books to read!) so I didn’t quite resonate with the main thrust of Ready Player One which is digital living in a gamer’s dreamworld on steroids (think TRON meets Avatar meets War Games meets Minecraft meets...you get the picture). RP1 did, however, keep me turning pages–the mark of a good yarn. I wanted to find out what happened to Parzival, Ache, and Art3mis, and I wasn’t ever sure how it was going to turn out (another sign of good storytelling).

I enjoyed Ernest Cline’s creative dystopian world-building and thrilling plot-twists, but I hated the incessant crassness and crudeness. Do people really talk like that? Just because of the interminable foulness, I couldn’t recommend it to any of the young people in my life who might be a natural target audience.

But that wasn’t my biggest beef. I couldn’t figure out how to say what I disliked the most about Ready Player One until I read Alissa Wilkinson's Vox review of the new movie version of RP1. She says:

Ready Player One presents itself as a story about a gang of brave, scrappy heroes who are motivated to save the world — but only the virtual world, the one that keeps them from engaging with what’s really going on in the physical world.

And the movie applauds this. It very obviously wants us to cheer for our heroes as they try to save the OASIS from destruction. I sat watching this all unfold, disturbed by the implication here: that we out in the audience are supposed to be on the side of escape. In fact, we are on its side, engaging in a movie that functions as an escapist fantasy itself.

It’s a little hard not to feel like the emperor isn’t wearing any clothes.

By the end of the film, the only concession to this weird dissonance comes in a sort-of statement that it’s probably good to take off the headset and actually interact with the real world now and then. Not to think about how the in-world injustices might map onto real-world injustices, or to fix problems.” Read the whole thing.

Yes, that’s it! The movie must capture the book in this regard. Everybody in this dystopian future admits that their world is terrible and that there isn’t that much to do about it, but what is really really important is to save virtual reality and videos games. Umm. No.

In 2018, I’ve committed to getting offline more, reading more paper books, going for more hikes in nature, remembering that I’m an embodied creature on purpose, and relating to people eye-to-eye and face-to-face. I haven’t given up on the digital world (I’m posting this online, after all), but I know that the mediated world is mediated and secondary. So, I don’t mind escaping for a bit into an engaging story about escaping, but making escaping the whole point of life leaves me empty and unsatisfied. As Stein said, “There is no there there.” If you read RP1, strap in for a ride, but also prepare to think critically about what the author and his characters believe are the best things in life.


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Book Review: "Slavery By Another Name" by Douglas Blackmon

Totally devastating exposé of the horrifying history of neo-slavery in the United States AFTER the Civil War.

I’m ashamed that I didn’t know hardly anything about the shameful forced labor of African Americans from the Civil War to the second World War. I knew that Reconstruction was incredibly hard and that sharecropping was backbreaking work for very little if any profit. I knew that prejudice continued unabated, that blacks were hated, lynched, disenfranchised , segregated, and mistreated. But I did not know they were re-enslaved in massive numbers through fraudulent, sketchy, brutal and high-handedly evil practices. Even worse, I didn’t know how hard these cases were to prosecute and to reach any semblance of justice.

“Certainly, the great record of forced labor across the South demands that any consideration of the progress of civil rights remedy in the United States must acknowledge that slavery, real slavery, didn’t end until 1945–well into the childhoods of the black Americans who are only now reaching retirement age. The clock must be reset” (pg. 402).

I should have known this. It is our history. But it is a shameful history that we’d rather not recount. A decade ago, Douglas Blackmon did us a great service by uncovering and documenting this dishonorable history. I can’t imagine the painstaking work he did to dig out the facts and assemble them into this compelling narrative of so many reprehensible events.

One of my personal commitments in 2018 is to read much about the problem of racism, staring it in its ugly face, and to “not look away” when its offensive reality makes me uncomfortable. It’s so easy to skip to the parts of life we like, but the truth will set us free. If you want to learn about the truth of the wicked new slavery that arose after the Emancipation Proclamation, I highly recommend this unflinching book.

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[Matt's Messages] “Blessed Is He Who Comes In the Name of the LORD!”

“Blessed Is He Who Comes In the Name of the LORD!”
Palm Sunday :: March 25, 2018 :: Psalm 118

We’re going to take 2 Sundays off of our study of the Gospel of Matthew to focus on what we often call “Passion Week” or “Holy Week,” the time between the Triumphal Entry of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on that donkey on Palm Sunday through to the Crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday and then the Resurrection of Jesus Christ on the following Sunday.

You know why I picked Psalm 118, right?

I picked Psalm 118 for today because verses 25 and 26 are the words that the crowd shouted at Jesus as He rode that donkey into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday.

Verse 25 starts with the words, “O LORD, save us.”

And the Hebrew there is “Hoshi ahna” which when transliterated into Greek becomes “Hosanna!”

And then verse 26–which is what the choir sang this morning and what Marilynn put on the front of your bulletin–is also the title of this message.

“Blessed Is He Who Comes In the Name of the LORD!”

That’s a long title, but it’s a good one.

It’s a Palm Sunday message.

My question this week was why did they shout these words out of Psalm 118 on that day?

And so I went back to study Psalm 118 which I’ve never preached before, and I said, “This is what I want to preach on this Sunday.”

Psalm 118 is a festive psalm. It’s obviously a happy, joyful, elated, ecstatic, rapturous song.

The people who are singing this song are clearly happy. They are worshipping and they have so much to be thankful for.

It could easily be a psalm that we used at Thanksgiving.

In fact, the ancient Israelites did use it at their Thanksgiving, the Feast of Tabernacles.

Interestingly, they also sung it during the Passover celebration.

Psalms 113-118 are called the “Egyptian Hallel” because they were full of praise to the LORD for Israel’s rescue from Egypt. And they were sung, all 6 of them, at the Passover.

You know at the Last Supper, when Jesus and his disciples sang a hymn before going out to the Mount of Olives, you remember that?

Well, this is the last hymn that was normally sung at the Passover, so it very likely was the song they sang as they left the Upper Room and went the Garden of Gethsemane.

Isn’t that interesting?

Now, we don’t know when this psalm was originally written or who wrote it.

It kind of sounds like King David, but his name isn’t on it like it is on others.

So it might be one that is in the style of David but written by someone else.

Many scholars believe that it was written for a specific major event in Israel’s history and to be used as part of the procession for a festival.

Many believe that it was written to be used in the dedication of the new temple after the exile in the book of Ezra (cf. Ez 3 & 6). We don’t know for sure.

I’d like to know, but I’m actually glad I don’t know.

Because with psalms like that, where you don’t know all of the historical details, it’s really easy to immediately feel how they relate to our lives today.

So many of these words are going to feel like you can apply them directly to your life right now. You can sing them right now!

Some of them won’t. There are a few strange features here that are very Hebrew and very Israelite. So we have to think about them in their original context before moving over to 2018. But it’s just a short mental jump.

Now, as I read it, I want to you to try to picture it in your mind.

I think there is a little bit of a movement here, a progression, as the psalm unfolds.

Verses 1 through 4 are an opening, and introduction, and I think you’re supposed to hear various people respond and sing out with their parts.

And then verses 5 through 18, there is like one major voice that speaks. And that could be the voice of the Israel together, but I think the singer is the King. A King David or a King like King David. And he sings his testimony.

And then in verses 19 through 27, what I think happens is that king reaches the gates of the temple and they sing about his entrance into the temple and about the worship procession marching right up to the altar and celebrating the salvation of God.

And then the lone voice sings out again basically the same thing that he started the song with it–thanksgiving to God for goodness and His unfailing love.

Did you hear the exuberance? Did you hear the joy?

Can you see why the happy pilgrims shouted from Psalm 118 when they thought that Jesus was their Messiah processing into town?

Here He comes!

“Blessed Is He Who Comes In the Name of the LORD!”

Did you hear all of the repetition?

This psalm is full of repetition.

It is incredibly full of repetition. (See what I did there?)

Starting with this first section. Verses 1 through 4.

#1. HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER.

The worship leader calls upon the people to respond with thanksgiving. V.1

“Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”

And then he calls out to various people to say it with him. V.2

“Let Israel say: ‘His love endures forever.’

Let the house of Aaron [where the priests come from] say: ‘His love endures forever.’

Let those who fear the LORD [every believer] say: ‘His love endures forever.’”

You know what this is like?

It’s like a liturgy.

You next week, we tend to do a liturgy like they do all over the world.

Let’s practice right now.

I’ll say, “Christ is Risen.”

And what are you going to say?

“He Is Risen Indeed!”

Christ Is Risen.
He is Risen Indeed.

Christ Is Risen.
He is Risen Indeed!

That’s what the psalmist was getting going here with Psalm 118.

"Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good”

And what do you say? “His love endures forever.”

Let Lanse Free Church, “His love endures forever.”

Let the Lanse Ladies say, “His love endures forever.”

Let’s the Men of Lanse say, “His love endures forever.”

Let all who fear the LORD say, “His love endures forever.”

That word “love” is the Hebrew word “hesed.” It means God’s steadfast love. His loyal love. His gracious love. His covenant love.

It’s the steadfast love that is new every morning. Like we learned about this Fall in Lamentations chapter 3.

The psalmist says that the LORD is good, and that we know it because His love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out, it just goes on and on and on.

“His love endures forever.”

That phrase is repeated again and again in the psalms.

In fact, in Psalm 136, it’s repeated with every single verse.

You think that some of our worship songs get repetitive?

God loves repetitive worship songs! Just read Psalm 136!

“His love endures forever.”

That statement is worth repeating, amen?

And the psalmist is going to come back to it one more time at the end.

But first, he’s going to tell us some stories about God’s faithfulness.

One voice rises out of the crowd. I think it’s the king who is singing. Verse 5.

“In my anguish I cried to the LORD, and he answered by setting me free.”

#2. MY STRENGTH, MY SONG, MY SALVATION.

The sing was in trouble. He was in distress. He was hemmed in and constricted. He was surrounded, but he called out to the LORD, and God answered by placing him in a spacious place. He set him free. He rescued him.

He’s got every reason to praise the Lord.

Now, catch all of the repetition in this section (verses 5 through 18), there’s a lot.

Look at verses 6 and 7.

“The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The LORD is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies.”

Sounds like David, doesn’t it? He says something very similar in Psalm 56 which gets quoted in Hebrews 13.

“The LORD is with me.”
“The LORD is with me.”

Do you sing that song to yourself?

That’s the song to sing when you are worried. When you are afraid. When you are tempted to be anxious and apprehensive and scared.

“The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

Well, a lot, right? Man can do a lot of things to us.

But what can they do, really? Nothing of consequence if the LORD is with us.

If God is for us...who can be against us?

“The LORD is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies.”

If God is your helper then what can you expect but ultimate victory?

Now, that doesn’t mean that Christians can only expect victory. We know the Bible stories. We know how Paul was treated. We know how Job made out. We know what happened to our Lord on Good Friday.

But we also know what Paul expected. We know the very end of Job. We know what on Resurrection Sunday!

“The LORD is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies.”

So therefore, verse 8 and verse 9.

“It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.”

Do you hear the repetition?

Which is better? To trust in men or to find your safe place in the Lord?

“It is better to take refuge in the LORD.”

He’s the only safe place. Men will let you down.

Which is better? To trust in princes? Politicians, nobles, leaders or to trust in the LORD?

“It is better to take refuge in the LORD.”

Politicians will inevitably on some level always let you down.

We don’t put our faith in government.

I have a friend who says, “Even the best of men are men at best.”

A some people are truly wonderful. But they all have feet of clay.

Not our Lord! He is completely trustworthy.

He is completely safe.

And He saved the singer. Verse 10.

“All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off. They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the LORD I cut them off. They swarmed around me like bees, but they died out as quickly as burning thorns; in the name of the LORD I cut them off.”

I would have loved to have heard this sung, in Hebrew, by the king.

The nations surrounded him. That’s why I think this is the king singing. Because it’s national. The Gentiles had him surrounded.

But he prevailed. He cut them off. He fended them off. How?

“In the name of the LORD.”

That means in the power of the LORD. Under the banner of the LORD.

Not on his own. Not in his own strength.

But in the name of the LORD.

It was scary. He was surrounded. It was a like a swarm of bees. Anybody?

But then they burned up like a thorn tree tossed on the fire. V.13

“I was pushed back and about to fall, but the LORD helped me. [Here’s Who He is:] The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”

Do you feel it?

This singer knew just how dangerous a situation he had gotten caught in.

He just about fell, but the LORD came to His rescue.

So now the LORD is his strength, his song, his salvation.

The LORD is the theme of his life.

Does that sound familiar?

Does that sound like something you could sing?

You’re not a king, but if you are a Christian, you are a rescued person.

You are saved soul.

Verse 14 is a quote from Exodus 15. The song they sang after the Red Sea Rescue.

“The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”

That’s what we sing if we are Christians, isn’t it?

That’s “Amazing Grace,” right?

“The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.”

And it’s everyone that sings, right? V.15

“Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: ‘The LORD's right hand has done mighty things! The LORD's right hand is lifted high; the LORD's right hand has done mighty things!’”

Wahoo!

I love that repetition. It’s to put a exclamation mark on it.

Everybody sings. Everybody shouts!

“LORD’s right hand has done might things!”

Everybody is celebrating. Everybody is whooping it up.

God has given us the victory. God has rescued us.

He has become our strength. Our refuge. Our helper.

He has become our song. He is what we want to sing about. He is the theme of our lives.

He has become our salvation. He has picked us up and pulled us out. And saved us.

And the singer knows that he has everything to thank God for. V.17

“I will not die [not today!] but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done. The LORD has chastened me severely [I’ve suffered], but he has not given me over to death [I’m right here, praising the LORD!].”

That’s his testimony. And it’s why he’s here today to march up in worship to the temple and give a sacrifice of thanksgiving the LORD.

Do you feel it this morning?

Do you see all that you have to thank the Lord for?

Are you singing in your soul, “He has done great things! He has done great things! He has done great things. Bless His holy name.”

I think in this last section, we’re supposed to see the king ride up to the gates of the temple with all of the people gathered round. And he sings out verse 19.

“Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.”

And then either he sings again or the gatekeeper sings back verse 20.

“This is the gate of the LORD through which the righteous may enter. [Whatcha gonna do here?]

I will give you thanks, for you [LORD] answered me; you [LORD] have become my salvation.”

That’s what I’m here to do! I’m here to bring thanksgiving to my Savior.

And nobody thought that I would make it. V.22

“The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

We’re going to come back to that next week.

Jesus fulfilled that one, too, didn’t He? He sure did. (We studied it in Sunday School today, too.)

But this time it’s the psalmist, probably the king, maybe David that sings it.

Everybody had rejected him. It looked like he was no good. Down for the count.

But instead, he’s been lifted up. And put in the most important spot.

And it was the LORD who did it.

“...the LORD has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes.”

We can’t believe what we are seeing. But we are seeing it with or own eyes!

And so we sing on this day. V.24

“This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Not just any day, but this day. This day of salvation.

This day we celebrate our salvation.

“This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Do you feel how happy they are?
How thankful they are?

This is a Sunday morning worship service, isn’t it?

This is people getting their praise on because they know that they are saved.

And they know they have a Savior. V.25

“O LORD, save us; O LORD, grant us success.”

“Hoshi ahna”

“Hosanna!” “O LORD, save us!”

Now by the time of Jesus, that phrase, “Hosanna” meant more than just, “Please save us.” It also meant, “I praise you because I know you’re going to save us.”

We know that God saves.

We know Jesus that you have come to save.

And we say, “Bless you!”  V.26

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you.”

This isn’t the same kind of blessed as in the beatitudes.

This is the other kind.

This is not so much a state in which to be congratulated. It isn’t saying that this person is flourishing, though of course they are.

This is the word of blessing. This is God landing blessing on someone.

God bestowing His blessing on someone.

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.”

If you come in the name of the LORD (like the king who cut off his enemies in the name of the LORD (in verses 10, 11, and 12) then you are receiving the blessing of God.

And then I think the second sentence is a response back in song.

“From the house of the LORD we bless you.”

They are singing to each other.

I wonder if the Lord Jesus sang back to the people.

The Bible doesn’t say.

But He did say that if the people kept quiet, the stones would cry out.

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you.”

And the singer says (v.27), “The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine upon us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.”

Do you see the progression?

First the song, then the gates of righteousness.
Then the house of the LORD.
And now right up to the altar of sacrifice.

Verse 27 is hard to translate. You can see how in the NIV, they have branches in their hands. And that’s just like they did on Palm Sunday, right?

But you can also translate it, “Bind the festal sacrifice with cords, up to the horns of the altar.” (ESV of Psalm 118:27b)

So the picture there is bringing the sacrifice, the lamb perhaps, all tied up and then up to the altar to be killed and his blood poured out as a sacrifice.

“Thank you, Lord, for your salvation!”

That’s where the psalm ends. With the same note of thanksgiving that it started with and was carried along with.

#3. GIVE THANKS TO THE LORD!

Verse 28.

“You are my God, and I will give you thanks;
you are my God, and I will exalt you.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
[Say it!] his love endures forever.”

What does that altar make you think of?

The Cross, right?

Where the perfect Lamb of God was sacrificed in our place.

Not just a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

But a sin offering. A guilt offering.

Jesus sacrificed HIMSELF for us.

He was the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

So we have even more to be thankful for than the first singers of this psalm, don’t we?

Or at least we know more about what we have to be thankful for.

We know what it cost God to ultimately show us that His love endures forever.

We know now what it means for JESUS to be our strength, our song, our salvation.

So we can now give thanks and exalt the LORD like never before.

Because of Jesus.

Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD.

[Matt's Messages] "You Are The..."

“You Are The...”
Following Jesus - The Gospel of Matthew
March 18, 2018 :: Matthew 5:13-16 

This is Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  Perhaps the greatest message ever preached, and certainly preached with the greatest authority by the world’s greatest teacher.

We’re going to take a few months, in fact, to work our way through it. We’ve already dedicated three Sundays to Jesus’ Sermon, and we’re just 12 verses in!

Jesus has gone up on a mountainside and is teaching a great crowd that have begun following Him. And He’s invited them to live the good life as His disciples.

Jesus has invited them (and therefore us) to follow Him and to live lives that are blessed, full of well-being, in a word...flourishing.

But, as we’ve seen the last two weeks, the good life is may be not what you might expect.

The flourishing are those who are needy, sad, lowly, unsatisfied, and even persecuted.

Jesus’ teaching is surprising; it’s counter-intuitive; it’s downright strange to our ears.

Because it’s a teaching that comes from the Kingdom of Heaven which challenges all of the kingdoms that we know so well.

Jesus is the King of the Kingdom of Heaven which is a very foreign country to our experience. It’s like nothing that we’ve ever seen or heard.

Except in echoes...

We were made for this kingdom, and we don’t even know it.
We long for this kingdom, even though we have not yet seen it.
But now that it’s being revealed, we’re being made ready for it.

To be ready for this kingdom means repentance.

Jesus said, “Repent! (Turn around.) For the kingdom of heaven is near.”

So from the get-go, Jesus is calling us to change.

And the rest of His Sermon will rock our boats even more.

He wants to turn our lives upside down.

You can’t receive this message and stay the same.

Now, today we’re only going to move forward 4 more verses. Matthew 5, verses 13t through 16. Very famous verses. Very familiar verses. You may have memorized them or sung songs about them when you were growing up. (Which is awesome. These are very good words to memorize!)

But today, I want to back up and read from the beginning of the Sermon.

Because I realized something this big week that I have never noticed before. Never even thought about before.

It was right there in front of me, but I’ve never seen it.

Here’s my big insight. You ready?

Verse 13 comes right after verse 12.

Pretty impressive, eh?

Verse 13 comes right after verse 12.

What I mean is, who is the “you” there in verse 13?

Who is Jesus talking about? Who is He talking to?

It’s the same people that Jesus has been talking about and talking to from verses 3 through 12.

It’s the same, “You.”

The beatitudes people. The blessed people. The-strangely-enough-they’re-flourishing people.

That’s who Jesus is talking about and to in Matthew 5:13-16 when He tells them, who they are.

The sermon title for today is simply, “You Are The...”

And we’ll have two obvious ways we will finish that incomplete sentence. The two ways that Jesus finishes that sentence in this paragraph.

I’ve preached on this passage before, several times, but I’ve never really grasped that these words flow out of the beatitudes.

They don’t exist on their own in some contextless-memory-verse kind of way.

The “you” of verse 13 and verse 14 and verse are the same people who are called strangely-called-blessed in verses 3-12.

Did you see how verse 13 flowed right out of verse 12?

I never saw it before.

The “you” of verse 13 is the same “you” as in verse 11.

The “you” that is blessed even though (or even because!) you are being persecuted for following Jesus.

It’s the same people who have just been described as living out the upside-down good life described in the Beatitudes.

That is who is salt and who is light.

It’s Jesus disciples.

The followers of Jesus. Those who have become citizens of the kingdom of heaven by faith and are living a different kind of life.

We’ve got two points this morning, and you’ve already guessed what they are.

#1. YOU ARE THE...SALT OF THE EARTH. V.13

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”

Now, notice that Jesus says that this is what you are.

“You ARE the salt of the earth.”

He’s not saying that we need to become the salt of the earth but that we already are the salt of earth–that is, if we are the “you” that He’s been talking about all along.

Remember, last week, I said that He looked His disciples in the eye when He said verse 11. Well, He’s looking them in the eye again today.

“You are the salt of the earth.”

Now, what does that mean?

You know, that's a strange thing to say.

We're used to it because we've heard this over and over again.

But it's a strange thing to say, "You are the salt of the earth."

What does that mean?

Well, it doesn't mean what we sometimes mean when we call someone the “salt of the earth” and we mean that they are a kind of honest and humble and homey kind of a person. "He's the salt of the earth, he is."  Kind of “down to earth.”

Jesus is saying something different than that.

He’s not saying that His disciples are “down to earth.”

He’s saying that they are like salt for the Earth. And I don’t think He means the ground there. He means the Earth. The world. It’s parallel to what He says in verse 14 about the “world.”

"You are the salt of the earth."

What does that mean?

Well, what does salt do?

It melts ice on the roads?

It's a fertilizer?

You know, there have been at least 11 different interpretations of why Jesus uses salt in the Sermon on the Mount.

Here’s one. This is a salt shaker that I stole from the Wild Game Dinner last night.

We use salt on our food to flavor it.

That could be a part of what is meant here.

But I don’t think that was the biggest reason they used salt in the ancient world.

What salt was mainly used for in that culture, that pre-industrial culture, before there was refrigeration was to preserve meat and to purify things. To clean things.

Salt was a preservative and a purifier more than a seasoning.

It was a flavoring, too. So, Jesus could be saying that we give flavoring to the world.

But, I think that what Jesus is emphasizing is that Christ-followers deployed into the world are a preservative and purifying influence on the world.

They hold back corruption.

At least, we are supposed to.

I think the main point of salt is that is has an effect. It has an influence. It does something.

When you add salt to something, things happen.

And when you add salt to meat, it doesn’t corrupt so quickly.

So Jesus is saying that His followers will have a positive preserving effect on their world.

But only if they don’t lose their saltiness.

Did you see that in verse 13?

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”

Now, technically, salt can’t stop being salt chemically.

But something that is called “salt” can start to get additives and impurities and contamination and not be worth calling salt any longer. Or worth using any longer.

Like if you said, “Pass the salt, Pastor Matt,” and I passed this to you, and you sprinkled it on your excellent venison last night, but then you took a bite and you found out that I had added pepper and paprika and cinnamon and cumin to the salt.

How would that taste?

What if I added in some dirt, as well? There’s still some salt in there. It’s still “the salt,” but it’s lost its saltiness.

The Greek there for “loses its saltiness” is actually something like, “becomes foolish,” as if the salt has lost its mind or gone off the righteous track.

Can salt like that have a positive preserving purifying effect?

No. It’s useless. It’s worthless. It’s “no longer good for anything,” except something to walk on.

So what is Jesus saying?

He’s saying that we are supposed to be different.

Jesus’ followers are different.

We are like salt that has an effect on the Earth.

But we are not supposed to become just like the rest of the Earth.

We can’t preserve or purify anything if we allow ourselves to be contaminated.

I don’t know about you, but I would hate for Jesus to tell me that I am basically a useless disciple.

I’d hate for Jesus to tell me that I am a worthless disciple because I’m really no disciple at all! I’m not salt.

Salt is sodium chloride. And look at me. I’m not sodium chloride. That’s not me. I’m everything but.

Do you see what I’m saying?

What does it mean to be salt? It means to live out the values of the kingdom.

It means to be a disciple of Jesus.

It means to live out the virtues of the beatitudes.

Because verse 13 comes after verse 12.

Want to know if you’re salt?

Are you poor in spirit?
Do you mourn?
Do you choose meekness?
Do you hunger and thirst for righteousness?
Are you merciful?
Are you pursuing purity of heart?
Are you a peacemaker?
Are you persecuted because of righteousness?

Then you are salt!

You are sodium chloride.

You’re the genuine the article.

Stay that way.

But what if your life looks like the opposite of the beatitudes?

What if you consistently choose the anti-beatitudes?

What if you are prideful?
What if you are unfazed by sin and suffering?
What if you grab what you want when you want it instead of being meek?
What if you don’t care about righteousness? You could take it or leave it.
What if you refuse to show mercy?
What if your grasp impurity to your heart?
What if you love fighting and harbor bitterness?
What if you run hide and run away from persecution pretending you don’t belong to Jesus?

Well, then you are not salt.

And as disciples go, you’re not worth very much.

Do you see how Jesus is calling us to live out the good life that He has just laid out for the disciples?

Not perfectly but truly.

The key application question is, “Are you salty?”

Not like a pirate. And not like a sarcastic person. That’s what people tend to mean when they say, “Stay salty, my friends.”

But like a Beatitudes person. Do verses 3 through 12 describe me?

Am I salty?

Am I salty at work?
Am I salty in my relationships?
Am I salty in my neighborhood?
Am I salty in my family?

And what do I need to do to stay that way?

Because it’s only as we’re different from the world that we have a positive effect on the world.

I think that’s even more clear in verses 14, 15, and 16 where Jesus says the same thing but with another and even more striking image. V.14

#2. YOU ARE THE...LIGHT OF THE WORLD.

You!

He looks them in the eyes and tells them that this is who they are.

“You are the light of the world.”

Now, Jesus is the light of the world, right? Absolutely.

But we belong to Jesus so we are the light of the world, too.

Notice, again. He doesn’t say that we become the light of the world.

We are the light of the world through the gift of Jesus.

But that light has purpose. It has a goal.

What is the purpose of light?  To shine, right?

Light in the Bible means illuminating, purity, truth, revelation, glory.

It’s making the glory of God visible. V.14

“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. [It stands out. It shines.] Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.”

The whole point of light is to shine. Right?

The other day, I used the flashlight app on my phone to find something in the shed at night.

Do you know what I mean?

I have this app that turns the flash on my phone camera into a flashlight so that I can find stuff in the dark.

So, I turned it on, but you see how I have this flappy thing on my phone case?

Well, it was closed up like this. So the light was on but I couldn’t see anything because it was covered up.

It wasn’t helping me at all, but it was still draining my battery!

That’s what Jesus is saying.

How dumb is it to light the lights and then cover them up?

That’s a useless light.

The whole point of being a disciple is shine for Jesus. V.16

“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”

Now, here’s where my big insight plays in again.

What are those “good deeds” in verse 16 that we’re supposed to be doing?

They are not “good deeds” by being what we don’t do.

Like what sins we don’t commit.

Do you see what I mean?

This isn’t so much “they don’t cuss,” “they don’t get drunk,” “they don’t cheat.”

It’s the positive things that Jesus’ disciples do.

It’s living out the beatitudes!
It’s hungering and thirsty for righteousness.
It’s being merciful.
It’s being peacemakers.
It’s choosing meekness.
That sort of thing.

The word for “good” in “good deeds” in verse 16 is kalos and it means beautiful.

It means morally beautifully.

The things Jesus’ followers do are morally beautiful. They shine.

Now, sometimes, they are going to do that and they are going to get persecuted.

Verses 10-12 told us to expect that and to rejoice when it comes.

But verse 16 tells us that some people will see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven!

I love that “Father in heaven.” That’s a mindblowing phrase. We are used to it, but it’s something that Jesus that is new with Jesus, a gift of Jesus, and it’s amazing.

Did you notice that the Father gets the credit for our living out these good deeds?

In the next chapter, some people try to do “good deeds” to get praise for themselves.

That never works.

But Jesus says that we should “let our light shine before men” that they may see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven.

Of course that means that we can’t hide. We can’t run away from following Jesus.

I don’t know about you but when Jesus started to promise persecution, I started to think about how to protect myself from that persecution.

Because I don’t like pain.

But Jesus says that we are the salt to the earth. That means we’ve got to get out of the saltshaker and into the world.

And Jesus says that we are the light of the world. That means that we can’t hide away and pretend we don’t know Jesus.

Even if it means getting hurt for it!

Jesus is calling us forward (no retreat!) to boldly follow Him and live out the values and virtues and norms and culture of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The application question is, “Are you shining?”

You are the light the world. Are you acting like it?

The world will sit up and take notice when we actually live differently than they do.

For example, take our Hide the Word verse for right now.

“But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

Live that out.

Live it out in real time and in real life.

Not just on paper.

And not in your own strength.

You can’t do it in your strength.

But do it by faith.

And the world will sit up and notice.

Be the salt. Be the light.

Not by being flashy, but by being Jesusy.

And the world will see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

You know I am whatever is the righteous version of proud of you all.

I love watching you put on something like the Wild Game Dinner last night.

All of the work that goes into that.

Food, tables, chairs, sound equipment, greeters, servers, door prizes, the time spent!

And such good attitudes.

And what do you get out of it?

Well, you are being meek when you serve like that.

And you are hunger and thirsting for righteousness when you want men and women to trust in Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

And when you serve like that, you are being peacemakers. Hoping to bring people into peace with God.

And somebody might laugh at you for putting on the Wild Game Dinner.

Because it’s not a fund-raiser. We don’t make any money at it.

What are you doing all of that if you don’t make any money?

Blessed are you if you put on a Wild Game Dinner for people just out of love and a desire for them to know Jesus!

Well done. You are salt. You are light.

Stay salty and let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise (not you!) your Father in heaven.


***

Previous Messages in This Series:
01. The Genealogy of Jesus
02. The Birth of Jesus Christ
03. The Search for Jesus Christ
04. The Baptism of Jesus
05. The Temptation of Jesus
06. Following Jesus
07. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
08. The Good Life (Part One)
09. The Good Life (Part Two)

[Matt's Messages] "The Good Life (Part Two)"

“The Good Life (Part Two)”
Following Jesus - The Gospel of Matthew
March 11, 2018 :: Matthew 5:7-12 

Since before Christmas, we’ve been studying together the Gospel of Matthew which is a theological biography of the most amazing Person Who ever lived, the Lord Jesus Christ. The first four chapters gave us a bit of His backstory. Where Jesus came from and Whom Jesus came from and how Jesus got His start in ministry. His baptism, His temptation, His calling of the disciples, His healing the sick, and His teaching and preaching “the good news of the kingdom.”

His message was, “Repent (turn around), for the kingdom of heaven is near.”

And crowds have begun to follow Him, so He’s gone up on a mountainside, sat down in the authoritative posture of a wise teacher, and has begun teaching His disciples, His followers, and the crowd listening in what we now tend to call, “Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.”

Jesus’ sermon spans three chapters (chapters 5, 6, and 7) of Matthew, and I read the whole thing to us a few weeks ago in one sermon. It doesn’t really take that long to read.

But it can take a lifetime to learn!

In the Sermon the Mount Jesus teaches about the Kingdom of Heaven.

Is the Kingdom present or future?

Yes, right?

It’s both. The Kingdom is already here. Jesus said it had come near, and that’s because the King has come.

But the Kingdom is also not here yet. Not in full. Not complete. Not what it will be–when the King returns.

And in this sermon, Jesus teaches how His followers (and that’s what we want to be! How His followers) are to live right now in light of the Kingdom of Heaven.

And Jesus teaches this material with unequaled authority. Unparalleled authority. Nobody outside of God has ever taught with such original, underived, natural, unquestionable authority as Jesus taught right here.

When He was done, everybody marveled at the authority that He was teaching with.

King Jesus is delivering what some have called His Kingdom Manifesto.

And it’s part and parcel of what He wants taught to all of His disciples, including us today.

But the particulars of what Jesus has to say can be very surprising.

Jesus turns everything upside down.

We saw that last time, didn’t we?

Jesus often says the unexpected. He teaches with a twist that you didn’t see coming.

In fact, He starts the whole sermon with a twist.

With this little word here: “Blessed.”

Right?

The word is “Makarios” in Greek, and it’s very hard to translate into English. We use the “blessed,” but this isn’t the kind of blessing where God’s puts a blessing on someone, like a word of blessing down from God.

And translations use the word, “happy” but that’s too emotional and kind of a “thin” word these days.

The word, “makarios,” means to be in a state to be congratulated.

We said last week that it means to be fortunate, to be well off, to be...one sharp scholar has recently suggested the word, “flourishing.”

Which is a little awkward, but it really gets across the sense of the living goodness of the word.

We said that the Australians, “Good On Yer” or our saying, “Good For You,” or “Way to Be!” kind of get there, too.

Have you ever asked someone how they are doing, and they say something like, “I’m in a good place right now.” ?

Or maybe somebody else said it to you, “I think you’re in a good place right now.”

“You are where you need to be. You’re living well.”

“You are really flourishing.”

That’s what Jesus is saying here.

But that’s not the surprising thing.

The surprising thing is what kind of people Jesus says are truly blessed!

I would have never come up with this list.

But it’s exactly what Jesus leads with.

The needy. The sad. The lowly. The unsatisfied.

Those are the kind of people Jesus says are in a good place!

And really, because of how He’s saying it, Jesus is inviting His disciples to live in this way.

He’s saying, “This is the Good Life.”

This is the way to be.

This is the Kingdom Life.

This is King Jesus’ answer to the age old philosophers’ question, “What is the good life?”

“What is the best life?”

“What is the best way to be?”

“What does the flourishing life look like?”

Well, the answer might be a little hard to receive.

The Sermon on the Mount is at various points hard to receive.

Because the world is broken and so are we.

So we struggle to live as we should and as the Kingdom will be.

Jesus asks us to live out the values and customs of the Kingdom while we wait for it to arrive in full. And that’s not always easy.

But it’s always good!

So last week, we noticed that all 9 of these beatitudes follow the same pattern, and it’s important.

First there is a statement of blessing or happiness or flourishing.

“Blessed are...” Jesus says.

And then there is a description of the kind of people who are blessed.

And then the reason for their blessing is given.

Blessed are people X for reason Y.
Blessed are people X for reason Y.

Flourishing are people like X for the reason Y.

And for the first four, the kind people were really strange. You might never have guessed that those kind of people were living the good life.

And I actually think that’s true to varying degrees of all of these.

But the poor in the spirit, the mourners, the meek, and those unsatisfied with their own righteousness or with all of the injustice in the world–those folks are blessed.

And all for good reasons!  “Because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. They will be comforted. They will inherit the earth. They will be filled with righteousness.”

The kingdom has come and is going to come.

And so those who live the kingdom life are blessed.

Let’s look at the next one. Verse 7.

“Blessed [flourishing] are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

#1. THE MERCIFUL.

Same pattern.

If you are merciful, good for you. You are living the good life!

You’re in a good place.

Now, most of us would agree with that, but it’s not always how it feels, is it?

Did you ever have somebody in your grasp, and the last thing you wanted to show them was mercy?

I’m sure you have. I have.

In those moments, being merciful, showing compassion, being forgiving, helping somebody out, almost feels wrong. It definitely feels unnatural.

To be kind to someone who doesn’t deserve it?

Somebody who actually deserves the opposite?

That’s a different kind of living!

I think this is where we often go wrong on social media. We often form judgments about the shameful things that people do out there, and we get our pleasure from castigating them online.

We heap on the shame and outrage about what those bad people are doing.

What if we committed to being merciful online?

Not giving everybody a piece of our mind.

Telling somebody off.

Ridiculing their behavior. Which just might be ridiculous.

What if we didn’t do that? What if we were known for being merciful in our communication?

In our offline relationships. Husband and wife. Brothers and sisters. Co-workers. Neighbors.

Blessed are the merciful.

Does that describe you?

It better. Because this is a description of Jesus’ followers! This is what a disciple looks like.

And I’m sure it does. Not perfectly. But truly. I’m sure that every genuine believer in this room has been and is merciful.

By the way, we’re hear these themes pop up again and again in the Sermon on the Mount and in the rest of the Gospel of Matthew.

He’s not done talking about showing mercy. He’s going to circle back around on all of these ideas as the book unfolds.

Why?

Why are the merciful to be congratulated?

Just because they show self control?

I mean, they probably aren’t getting justice in many of these situations!

If you show mercy, you may not see justice. (That’s how it feels!)

What does Jesus say? V.7

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

When is that? That’s in the kingdom, right?

That’s future tense. “They will be shown mercy.” Already, but not yet.

That’s what Kingdom is for sinners like you and me! It is pure mercy that we enter it at all.

“Our sins they are many, but His... MERCY IS MORE!”

This is not a legalistic thing. “If you forgive 7 people, you will have 7 sins forgiven.”

If you are merciful to 10 people, then you will receive 10% mercy in the kingdom.

No. At the Cross, Jesus showed you lavish mercy! And in the Kingdom you will know it like you can’t imagine.

So having been shown mercy and knowing that unbelievable mercy is coming, what kind of person are you going to be?

Now, the opposite is also true. By the way, what is the opposite of “blessed” in the sense of “makarios?”

It’s not cursing per se.

It’s “woe.”

In chapter 23, Jesus will issue some “woes” to the Pharisees.

And it’s fair to turn verse 7 around and say, “Woe to you if you will not be merciful, for you will not be shown mercy.”

To whom do you need to show mercy this week?

Because that’s living the good life.

Jesus did it. Right?

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Let’s look at the next one. V.8

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

#2. THE PURE IN HEART.

“Flourishing are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

What does it mean to be pure in heart?

I’ll tell you what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean that you heart is 100% squeaky clean right now.

How do I know that? Verse 3.

We are poor in spirit. We don’t have what it takes.

We don’t measure up, and we know it. We have empty spiritual pockets that can’t impress God. We are sinners by nature and by choice.

I can’t be that and also be utterly holy at the heart level. Not until Jesus comes back!

This must be describing the direction my heart in which my heart is pointing.

It must be describing a pursuit of purity at the heart level.

A love for God and single-mindedness about living for Him.

A new heart that is a gift from God. That’s what He must be talking about.

I won’t be pure in heart unless God does a work in my heart.

I’ll tell you another thing that it isn’t. It isn’t purity on the outside.

I think that’s what He’s emphasizing.

Jesus is going to talk a lot in the next few chapters about not putting on a religious show on the outside and having an untransformed heart on the inside.

“Flourishing are the PURE IN HEART.”

Not just the pure in ritual.

Not just the folks who show up for church in their Sunday best.

But their hearts are far from Him.

“Flourishing are the pure in heart [WHY?] for they will see God.”

Wow.

What a promise that is!

Again, it’s a promise for the Kingdom to come.

And it’s something that not even Moses got to experience. Right?

Jesus is the new and greater Moses, and He’s promising a greater experience that even Moses had.

Remember when Moses asked, “Show me your glory!”, and the LORD passed by Him and in the cleft of the rock, and all he got was a glimpse of the afterglow of His back, so to speak?

John said, “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.”

And now that One is saying that the pure in heart will see God.

Revelation 22:4, “The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.”

I’ll say they are blessed!

I want a piece of that!

“Blessed are pure in heart.”

Does that describe you?

I’ll bet it does. I know it does for every genuine believer in this room.

Do you love God? Are you pursuing God? Not just on the outside but on the inside? From the center of your being?

If not, I invite you to repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.

And put your trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, the cleansing of sins, and the hope of eternal life, seeing the very face of God!

Jesus’ death and resurrection make it all possible to have a new heart a pure heart and be blessed.

Look at the next one. V.9

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

#3. THE PEACEMAKERS.

This doesn’t say the peaceful. It is says the peacemakers.

These are the people who pursue peace and try to make peace happen.

They are flourishing.

Peacemakers are the ones who work hard at bringing people together and act as agents of reconciliation.

They know and use the powerful words.

Let me tell you about some really powerful words that have the ability to change the direction of relationship.

Are you ready?

“I’m sorry,” and “I forgive you.”

Those are some powerful words right there.

And peacemakers know them and they know how and when to use them.

Some people think they are peacemakers, but they are really (what Ken Sande calls), “peace-fakers.” They pretend there is peace where there really isn’t.

And the opposite are “peace-breakers” those who stir up trouble and bring division into relationships.

Jesus says that we are called to be peacemakers, confronting where necessary, issuing apologies where appropriate, and handing out forgiveness wherever possible.

And not just doing it ourselves but helping others to do it, too.

Guess what? That’s what a disciple looks like! That’s what Jesus’ followers do.

That’s what the kingdom looks like, and here’s the promise.

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

As we live the good life, we will be recognized as offspring of God Almighty, bearing the family resemblance.

When?

Well, it can happen now. But this is future tense, “will be.” I think it’s talking about the Kingdom.

One day, the Sons of God will be revealed.

He’s talking about us!

Those who have received Jesus. Those who believed in His name.

We are the children of God. And we’ll be recognized for as such.

And in the meantime, we pursue peace.

Are you a peacemaker?

You better be.

Because that’s what Jesus says we’re supposed to do.

And it’s what Jesus did, right? Nobody brought peace like Jesus did!

“The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him.”

“He is our peace.”

Jesus is restoring shalom to the world.

That’s His mission, and we are called to join Him in it.

Where do you need to spread some peace this week?

Not faking it, but making it.

To whom might you need to say, “I’m sorry” or “I forgive you.” ?

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.”

Last set. V.10

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

#4. PERSECUTED.

This is the most unexpected one of the whole bunch.

Jesus still fits another twist into this before He’s done.

“Flourishing are those who have been persecuted.”

I would have never thought of that one!

Good for you! If you have experienced oppression and persecution for doing what is right.

You’re in a good place!

This one isn’t even something we do. It’s something that is done to us.

All we’re doing is seeking righteousness. We’re longing for it like in verse 6. We’re hungry and thirsty for righteousness.

And someone comes along and dings us for it!

We’re treated badly.
We’re opposed.
We’ve made enemies.

And not because we’ve done something wrong!

All we’re doing is following Jesus!

And they’re hurting us here.

In verse 11, Jesus gives one last beatitude and it’s the same one He just did.

It’s like He expands it or unpacks it.

And He personalizes it. Listen. Verse 11.

“Blessed [flourishing] are you [not just “they” out there, but “you.” He’s looking you in the eye.] when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you [catch this] because of me.”

Because you are following Jesus, you will be persecuted.

You will suffer for it.

And good on you!

You should be congratulated if you are persecuted for Jesus’ sake.

In fact, you should jump up and down with joy! V.12

“Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

This is the one that Jesus says the most about.

Blessed are the persecuted. Why? Because they join the long line of prophets of God who were persecuted, and they will be richly rewarded.

“GREAT if your reward in heaven.”

V.10 is the same as verse 3. The persecuted get the same thing as the poor in the spirit.

They get the kingdom. They get it now. And they will get it then.

And they will be rewarded.

Three thoughts about applying that to our life today, and then we’ll be done.

First, prepare yourself for persecution.

It will come.

If our Master was persecuted, then who are we to think we will escape it?

That’s not to say that it will be the same for all of us. Not everyone will be crucified.

Some will just get (v.11) insults and slander.

But everyone who desires to follow Jesus will experience some persecution.

If we don’t, we’re doing it wrong.

And that’s persecution, not for doing things wrong, but for doing things right. “Because of righteousness.”

And second, don’t stop following Jesus because of the persecution.

It’ll get hard, but don’t stop. Don’t run away.

And don’t stop doing the other beatitudes when it gets hard.

Keep being needy, sad, lowly, and unsatisfied.

Keep being merciful!

Keep being pure at heart and being peacemakers.

Don’t stop when it gets hard.

And don’t complain about it and whine about it and demand your rights all of the time.

Instead, rejoice and be glad when you are persecuted for following Jesus.

Remember in Acts 5 when the apostles were arrested and then FLOGGED for following Jesus and what did they do when they were let out, they ran around complaining about how badly they were treated?

No. They had just been flogged, but Luke tells us, “The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.”

They knew that one day they would vindicated.

So they didn’t stop.

Instead, they celebrated.

That’s upside-down, friends.

And that’s the good life.


***

Previous Messages in This Series:
01. The Genealogy of Jesus
02. The Birth of Jesus Christ
03. The Search for Jesus Christ
04. The Baptism of Jesus
05. The Temptation of Jesus
06. Following Jesus
07. Jesus' Sermon on the Mount
08. The Good Life (Part One)

Book Review: "A Sacred Sorrow" by Michael Card

A Sacred Sorrow: Reaching Out to God in the Lost Language of Lament by Michael Card

A beautiful elegy to tear-filled faith.

Michael Card’s A Sacred Sorrow is a rich, searching, wise, authentic, and accessible (re)introduction to the “lost language” of biblical lament. For the last few years, I’ve been reading everything reliable that I can find on lament in the Bible. I think the 21st century American church needs that kind of tear-filled faith woven back into our prayer lives, corporate worship, and imagination. Pain and suffering are sadly normal in this broken world, and thankfully God has not left us without tools for living in, responding to, and walking through inescapable sorrow. But all too often we have not had access to or a workable understanding of lament (at least in the majority of conservative American evangelicalism that I’ve experienced). We prefer praise. We attempt to get past or get over our pain. We try to smile it away. We know that we’re supposed to trust, to hope, to consider it all joy, and to consider the joy set before us. And we don’t realize that we are also expected to and invited to weep, wail, and wrestle with God.

Enter Michael Card with his short meditations on the lives and laments of Job, David, Jeremiah and, most importantly, Jesus. Card writes about the dark, lonely, uncomfortable, negative, jagged parts of Scripture and how they are in there for our good. And he does it in an experiential way. Most of the things I’ve read so far on lament are academic and abstract. They express the ideas of lament well, but Michael Card sings them. You feel it. And you know that it is right.

A times he over-reaches or overs-peaks. At least he says things in stronger ways that I could say myself based on the data I have. I have to admit that Card could just be utilizing poetic license, or he may see things I just can’t see...yet. I’m very glad that I’ve read it, and I will recommend it to others who want to help restore the rawness of faith in a minor key.

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