Category: Matthew 5

Categories
Luke Luke 6 Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Perfect in love, perfect in mercy

The gospels

As Christians, we often come across verse 48 in Matthew 5 where Jesus says,

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

The context of it is very interesting. Certainly we are to strive for holiness in our lives, but in this passage, it is specifically talking about perfection in one area in our lives. Love.

Sometimes, people take Jesus’, “But I say to you…” statements as him contradicting what God had said in the Old Testament.

This is not true. What he was doing was contradicting people’s wrong interpretation of God’s commands.

We saw this in the last passage. Jesus wasn’t contradicting Moses’ law on justice. He wasn’t saying, for example, it’s okay to kill someone who took your eye or tooth.

What he was saying was, “While it’s civil law that the punishment must match the crime, you’ve taken it to mean that it’s okay to take revenge in the name of justice or fairness.

But I say to you that though it is certainly your right to seek fairness and justice, you can be a greater light in this world, you can be more like your Father in heaven, if instead of demanding justice all the time, you show mercy and grace to those who wrong you.”

And Jesus lived that out in his own life. Had Jesus demanded justice for himself, he would have never gone to the cross.

In this passage, we see another misunderstanding the Jews had about what God commanded. You can easily find in the Old Testament where it says to love your neighbor. (Leviticus 19:18)

You will be hard pressed to find anywhere, however, where it says to hate your neighbor. It’s not there. The Jews added that to God’s command.

So Jesus corrected their way of thinking. He said to love our enemies, to pray for those who persecute us, to bless those who curse us, and to do good to those who mistreat us. Jesus himself did this on the cross.

When his enemies nailed him to the cross and were mocking him, he prayed for them. Note that he didn’t pray about them. He didn’t say “See what they’re doing Father? See how terrible they are?”

He prayed for them. “Father forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

Despite their actions, he loved and cared for them. And by dying, he gave them and us hope for forgiveness and eternal life.

Jesus then pointed out that anyone can love someone who loves them. Even the worst of people can do that. But it’s very difficult to love those who hate you.

Yet that’s what God does for us. Though we hated him, though we made light of him, though we turned our backs on him, yet he daily gives us blessings we never even credit him for, even the sun and rain.

But more than that, he sent his Son to save us from our sin.

And so he calls us to be like him. To be perfect in our love as he is perfect in love. To be rich in mercy, as he is rich in mercy.

How perfect are you in love and mercy to those around you?

Categories
Luke Luke 6 Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: But it’s not fair

The gospels

There is something in all of us, I think, that screams for fairness. And if something happens that we feel isn’t fair, we scream against it. But is that the best response?

These few verses go against every instinct we have.

Jesus said,

You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’

But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. (Matthew 5:38-39)

Verse 38 comes from the Mosaic law, and it was basically instructions to judges on how people were to be punished for wrongdoing.

The point here is not revenge, but telling the judges to match the punishment with the crime, and not go beyond. If someone cost another an eye or a tooth, for example, you were not to kill the offender for that action.

It should be pointed out, however, that this was never literally carried out. You didn’t actually take out another person’s eye or tooth if they cost you yours. Instead, there was usually some compensation that was paid.

The idea was justice, or put another way, fairness.

But Jesus here says, “Don’t be so concerned about fairness. Instead, be a light, even to those who abuse you.”

The first example he gives is a very interesting one. He says, “If someone strike you on your right cheek, turn the other cheek.”

Now, I’m a lefty (and proud of it). So it would be no problem for me to nail someone on their right cheek.

But for most people, they are right-handed. And the only way for them to lay any kind of forcible blow on the right cheek of another is to slap them with the back of their hand.

In other words, Jesus isn’t talking about someone bullying you; he’s talking about someone insulting you.

In Jewish culture, it was considered a graver insult to slap someone with the back of your hand, than with the palm of your hand.

So Jesus was saying, “If someone insults you, let them. Don’t feel like you have to insult them back.”

Is it fair to just take this abuse? No. But Jesus tells us, “Don’t worry about fairness. Show grace.”

He then says if someone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give them your cloak as well.

In Israel, everyone had many changes of shirts, but generally only had one cloak.

Most people slept in their cloak to keep them warm at night, and Moses’ law said that if you took that cloak as a pledge for a loan, you should give it back to that person before he goes to bed at night. (Deuteronomy 24:12-13)

But again, Jesus says that if someone sues you to take your shirt, don’t worry about fairness. Give them your cloak as well.

Romans could force any Jew to carry a burden one mile because the Jews were under their rule. The Jews balked at that, as would we if we were forced to do something we don’t want to.

But Jesus said, “If that happens, don’t just go the one mile, go one extra. Do more than you’re forced to.”

And finally, Jesus says to lend freely to those around you, not worrying about whether they will return what they borrowed from you.

You might ask, “Are you saying that I should just let people walk all over me?”

No. But if we are only worried about “fairness,” we’re fighting a losing battle because we live in an unfair world.

Life isn’t always fair. We can’t always control that. What can we control?

Our attitude. How we react when life, when people are unfair. We can scream. We can fight.

Or we can show grace. We can show mercy. And if you think about it, that’s what Jesus did for us.

It wasn’t fair that he went to the cross. He never did anything wrong. But he showed grace and mercy to us, and because of it, we can know forgiveness and eternal life.

If Jesus did that for us, shouldn’t we do that for others?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Honesty

Matthew

Trust can be hard to come by. And in this broken world, people find it so hard to trust, we require oaths.

“I promise…”

“I swear…”

But Jesus says here that we are to be people of such integrity that God or others shouldn’t require such oaths from us.

He said,

Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’

But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.

And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.

Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. (Matthew 5:33-37)

Back in those days, swearing an oath in the name of God made it binding. But if you swore by heaven, earth, Jerusalem, or by your own head, it was less binding.

But Jesus said, “No, swearing by all these things are just as binding, because heaven, earth, and Jerusalem all belong to God and are reflections of his glory. So if you swear by them, you swear by him.

And even if you swear by your own head, that belongs to God too. You can’t even control when your hair turns white.”

In short, unlike what the Pharisees and teachers of the law taught, all oaths are binding.

But Jesus says, don’t swear at all. The only reason you’d need to swear an oath at all is because you think people might not believe you.

Why would they think that?

First, they might not know you. In that kind of situation, you may need to swear, such as in a court of law.

But second, they know you, and they know you’re not trustworthy, or they have doubts about you. In those cases, you may feel a need to swear.

There is nothing to be done about the first situation. As I said, we live in a world broken by sin. Lack of trust is the norm. Because of this, we may be required to swear oaths.

I don’t think Jesus is casting aside all oaths in this passage. Jesus himself spoke under oath when on trial. (Matthew 26:63-64)

But, the second situation is something you can control, at least to an extent, by proving yourself honest to the people around you. That when people hear you say you’ll do something, that’s all they need to hear.

Can people trust you? From the little things (being on time for a party with friends) to the large (faithfulness at work or in ministry)?

Jesus calls us to be light. And to be a person that can be completely trusted is shining that light brightly in a world where few can.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Whatever it takes

Matthew

My favorite sports team is the Pittsburgh Steelers, and back in the 70s, their coach was a man named Chuck Noll.

Noll had a saying, “Whatever it takes.” In other words, “We do whatever necessary to win the game (within the rules, of course).”

Well here, we see that same kind of attitude. But it has nothing to do with winning games. It has to do with sin.

Jesus essentially tells us, “Do whatever it takes to get rid of sin in your life.”

He said,

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell. (Matthew 5:29-30)

Although some people have taken this literally, Jesus does not mean this literally. He doesn’t want you to literally gouge out your eye or cut off your hand.

What he is saying is to take sin seriously. Too often, we don’t. We just say, “Well, it’s okay. God will forgive me.”

And unlike what Jesus taught in the Beatitudes, we don’t mourn over our sin. Instead, we continue on in our sin.

But Jesus reminds us here that sin is the reason that he went to the cross.

Sin causes people to go to hell. You were going to hell because of your sin before you met Jesus. How then can you take it lightly and continue on in your sin?

And so Jesus says do whatever it takes to get rid of sin in your life. What does that mean practically?

First, it means prayer. We do not have the ability to fight sin on our own. We need the power of God working in us to conquer sin.

Second, it means avoiding problem areas in your life. In other words, if you have a problem with alcoholism, stay away from bars or parties where alcohol is served and you’ll be tempted to drink.

If you have a problem with lust, stay away from anywhere that sells pornography. Cut these things off from your life.

Third, it means accountability. Share with someone you trust your struggles and have them check up on you regularly. Not only that, have them pray with you and for you.

James writes,

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

But whatever you do, don’t take sin lightly. Jesus didn’t. He went to the cross because of it.

So do whatever it takes to be holy as he is holy.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Adultery

Matthew

From murder, Jesus moves on to adultery. And in doing so, I think he really pushed a sensitive button in those who thought they were so religious.

As I’ve said, the Pharisees were very proud of how well they kept every minor detail of the law. But as I’ve also mentioned, by merely focusing on the letter of the law, they completely missed the spirit of it.

A perfect example is in the case of adultery. Among the Pharisees, there was a group disparagingly called “bruised Pharisees.”

These were people that were so worried about lust, that they would literally walk with their eyes closed if they were near a woman, and in doing so would actually walk into walls because they weren’t looking where they were going.

But you also had Pharisees that debated about divorce. Moses had written that a man could divorce his wife if he found any “indecency” in her. (Deuteronomy 24:1)

The argument was about what “indecency” meant. Some thought it was sexual immorality. Others thought you could divorce your wife if she was too loud or even just burned your dinner.

In my opinion, the main problem came, however, when a married Pharisee saw a woman that he lusted after.

He might bruise himself trying to avoid looking at her, but perhaps after dusting himself off, he caught a quick glance at her and then perhaps took another glance. Soon, he was thinking of her all the time.

But he was married. As a result, the thought would then come, “How can I get around this law against adultery? I know. I’ll divorce my wife and marry this other woman.”

They literally did this. The frequency of divorce among Pharisees was an open scandal in Israel.

And so Jesus made it very clear: You may be avoiding the act of sleeping around. But that doesn’t mean you’re innocent of adultery.

He said,

But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28)

That did not absolve any of the bruised Pharisees either, because they could go home, bruises and all, and still plot how to divorce their wife to marry this other woman.

So Jesus told them,

It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’

But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery. (Matthew 5:31-32)

Considering that he was comparing true righteousness with the “righteousness” of the Pharisees, I think it’s pretty clear what he was talking about.

If you divorce someone because there’s someone else you want to marry, you are committing adultery. It may not technically be adultery by the letter of the law, but in God’s eyes, it is.

How about you? Are you committing adultery in your heart?

Are you lusting after another to the point where you’re planning to get divorced? Or are you encouraging a married person to get divorced from their spouse so that you can marry them?

That’s adultery, and God condemns it.

You may not be sleeping with another person, but are you joined to your spouse, heart, body, soul, and mind?

Or is your heart being pulled to another person? That too is adultery in God’s eyes.

May we always have hearts faithful to the ones we have committed our lives to. Namely, to God, and to our spouse.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Making things right

Matthew

We read in the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Often times, we solely think of this in terms of bringing peace between two outside parties.

But there is another situation in which we are called to be peacemakers. We are called to be peacemakers when we are one of the parties involved, and this is what Jesus talks about here.

He says,

Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar.

First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:23-24)

I think there are two important things to note here.

First, he says, “If your brother has something against you.”

So often, there is a rift in our relationships, and we know that someone is upset at us, but we feel like we did nothing wrong. So we say, “It’s their problem, not mine.”

But when you do that, what you are essentially doing is devaluing them. You’re saying, “This person is not worth my time. If he has a problem, he should come to me.”

Or, “It’s his problem, not mine. He should deal with it.”

But Jesus doesn’t allow any room for this kind of thinking. He says that if someone has a problem with us, we are to do what we must to bring reconciliation.

Many times, it just means a simple apology.

“But I didn’t do anything wrong!”

Maybe you did, maybe you didn’t. Maybe the other person is being too sensitive. It doesn’t matter. You need to value them enough that you take their feelings into consideration. And if you have hurt them, you need to acknowledge that.

If nothing else, you should say, “I understand that when I said that or did that, I hurt you. I didn’t mean to. Will you forgive me?”

And from that point, you need to keep in mind just what you did to cause the problem, and for their sake, and for Christ’s who died for them, you need to avoid those actions or words in the future.

The second thing to note from this passage is that broken relationships with others affects our relationship with God.

God will not accept our gifts or offerings if we have not made every effort to bring reconciliation to our broken relationships.

Peter writes that God won’t even accept the prayers of husbands if they are not living with understanding with their wives. (I Peter 3:7)

Jesus then points out that if you really did something wrong, it’s especially important to get things right as soon as possible. He said,

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. (Matthew 5:25-26)

But whether you are truly at fault or not, Jesus tells us to do all we can to make things right.

That said, reconciliation is a two-way street. Some people don’t want reconciliation. You can’t control that.

What you can do is control your actions. To first pray for that person. To ask God what you can do to bring reconciliation. And then to do all God has told you to do.

After that, it’s up to the other person. And if they refuse to respond, then all you can do is leave it in God’s hands.

In short, follow the words of Paul who wrote,

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. (Romans 12:18)

Are you at peace with those around you?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: When we despise people in our hearts

Matthew

Here we see one of the main problems Jesus had with the religious leaders’ interpretation of the law. It was strictly a matter of outward compliance, while totally ignoring what was going on in the heart.

In this passage, Jesus shows us what this means in terms of murder. He said,

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ (Matthew 5:21)

Many Pharisees and teachers of the law kept this commandment. They never murdered anyone (at least until they had Jesus crucified, anyway).

But Jesus told them,

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. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. (Matthew 5:22)

Jesus here goes beyond the outward crime of murder to the attitudes of the heart. Basically he says, “So you have never actually killed anyone? Great! But how about within your heart? Have you ever murdered someone in your heart?”

What does that mean, to murder someone in your heart?

What are you doing when you murder someone? You are basically devaluing that person. You are saying, “You have so little value, you are no longer fit to live.”

Well, what are we doing when we say to someone, “You idiot! You fool! You (fill in the blank)!”

We are devaluing them in our hearts. Essentially that’s what it means to despise someone. To look upon them as someone of little worth or value.

Murder is merely taking this attitude to an extreme. But if we hold on to this attitude in our hearts, it can actually lead to murder. We’ve seen this time and again in our society.

Anger is another problem that Jesus points to here. It is natural for us to get angry. We can’t control when we get angry. It’s an emotion. Something happens, and we get angry.

But we can control what we do with our anger. Do we hold on to it? Do we let it simmer in our hearts? Do we embrace that anger?

Anger undealt with takes us to the next level of murder. We either cut people off from our lives, or we actually take their lives.

And Jesus says that if we do so, we will be liable to God’s judgment, and apart from the grace of God, hell.

How about you? Is there someone in your life that you despise in your heart? That you have devalued?

Is there someone that you have cut off because of the anger you hold toward them in your heart? Then in God’s eyes you have murdered them.

John tells us,

Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. (I John 3:15)

And again,

Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness…

Whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him. (I John 2:9,11)

So let us start seeing those around us, even those who have hurt us, as people of value. Because they are. And it was for that reason that Jesus gave his life for them…and us.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Fulfilling the law

Matthew

I think it’s significant that Jesus probably said these things after the controversies with the Pharisees over the Sabbath had begun (although you wouldn’t guess this by looking at the book of Matthew alone).

Jesus had probably already done multiple healings on the Sabbath earning the criticism of the Pharisees.

But Jesus makes it clear here that,

I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17)

How did Jesus fulfill the law and the prophets? Primarily in three ways.

First, he fulfilled the prophesies of the Messiah to come.

Second, he was the only man to ever perfectly obey the law. Because of that, he was able to take the punishment for our sin on the cross.

As Paul wrote,

For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.

And so he condemned sin in sinful man in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3-4)

Third, he fulfilled in his death all the sacrifices that God had required of the Jews.

As the writer of Hebrews points out, while God required them, they in themselves could not cleanse us from our sins. What they did do was paint a picture of what Jesus would do for us on the cross.

Now in Jesus, all our sins have been cleansed, and so these sacrifices are no longer required. They are, as Jesus puts it, accomplished in him. (Hebrews 10:1-18)

But while some things in the law were accomplished in Jesus Christ, as was our justification before God, nevertheless, the law still points to the holiness of God and what kind of people God desires us to be.

And so each day, we are to strive to be holy as he is holy. Not in order to earn our salvation, but because now the Holy Spirit lives inside us to help us live it.

Before we were powerless to do what God commanded. But now God himself dwells in us and gives us the power to become the people he originally designed us to be.

And Jesus warns us,

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. (Matthew 5:20)

That probably stunned the people who heard it because the Pharisees and teachers of the law were considered the strongest preservers of God’s law. They had made rule upon rule in order to make sure they kept God’s law.

But righteousness goes far beyond keeping the letter of the law. Righteousness is a thing of the heart. And if your heart is not right before God, nothing you do is right before Him.

Three points that Jesus would lambast the Pharisees and teachers of the law for were lack of justice, mercy, and faithfulness in their lives. (Matthew 23:23)

We’ll see more of what he means by that as we continue through his sermon.

For now, the question is, how is your heart? You may be doing all the right things, but is your heart right before God? What would he say about your heart today?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Salt and light

Matthew

It is very interesting to me the context in which Jesus talks about us being salt and light in the world.

What was the context? He had just finished talking about persecution. That we are blessed if we are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

Right after that, he tells us we are the salt of the earth, and he warns us that if we lose our saltiness, we’re no good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled.

How can we lose our saltiness? By giving into pressure from our family, our friends, and the people around us to conform to them, rather than to Christ. To do so because we are afraid of what they will say or do to us.

When we are so focused on pleasing others that we forget that we need to please God above all others, we lose our saltiness.

We are meant to be salt in this world. Salt preserves. It keeps meat from rotting.

In the same way, Christians are to be people that keep our culture from rotting by showing people God’s ways.

Not just by telling them about God’s ways, mind you. But by showing them God’s ways by the way you live your life.

And by showing them God’s ways, they’ll see the contrast between a healthy, fulfilled life and a morally decrepit one.

Salt also flavors. It gives taste to food that has little or none. In the same way, we are to flavor the world around us with the love and touch of Christ.

But we can do neither of these things if we are simply blending in with the world.

God put us in this world to be light. A city on a hill that cannot be hidden. For what purpose? To show his glory to a lost, hurt, and dying world.

How can we then hide that light that God has lit in our lives by giving into the pressure of those around us?

How about you? Have you so conformed to this world that you’ve lost your saltiness? That your light can no longer be seen?

Who are you trying to please? God? Or the people around you?

May we obey the words of Jesus and let our lights shine before men, that they may see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: A whole new way of thinking

Matthew

As we look at the Beatitudes one last time, it strikes me that it is an entirely different way of thinking from the way the world thinks.

Many think that it is the ultra-religious who are blessed by God. That you have to be on a special spiritual plane in order to be blessed by God.

But Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” That God looks with favor on those who are spiritually bankrupt.

More than that, he looks with favor on those who realize they are spiritually bankrupt. Because when we do, we realize our need for grace. And it is at that point, that we can be saved.

The world thinks that it’s those who find happiness in this life that are blessed. And so they subscribe the old axiom, “If it feels good, do it.”

But Jesus says that it is when we mourn over the sin in our lives, and over the pain that sin causes in this world that we find blessedness. Because only then can we find his transforming power in our lives and in the world around us.

The world teaches that it is those who take the bull by the horn, who take control of their own lives that are blessed.

But Jesus says, we are blessed when we submit our lives to God in everything, through the good and bad. To trust in his goodness and his judgment. And when we do, we’ll find a life that truly works.

The world says, “Blessed are those who can do whatever they want. Who do whatever they can to bring happiness into their lives.”

But Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after what is right.”

It’s not always easy, nor is it always pleasurable. But only in doing so will we find true satisfaction.

The world proclaims, “Look out for number one. Step on whoever you have to in order to achieve your goals.”

But Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful. Look to the needs of others above your own.”

This can especially be seen in forgiveness, where you stop focusing on yourself and the pain you’ve received, and you focus on the hurt and the needs of the person who hurt you.

And when we do that, we become like Jesus who prayed for his enemies saying, “Father, forgive them. They know not what they do.”

The world teaches that morals are relative. That we can’t judge another’s morals. That all moral codes are equal.

But Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart. For it is only they who understand God’s holiness, who will see God.”

The world says, “Mind your own business. Don’t get involved. Live and let live. All roads lead to God.”

Jesus says, “It is those who go out as ambassadors and preach the gospel, who help bring peace between God and the people around them that are sons and daughters of God.

And it is those who help bring peace between others that prove themselves to be like their Heavenly Father who brought peace between himself and us.”

The world believes that if everyone likes you, you are blessed.

Jesus teaches that we can’t please everyone. That there is only one who is worth pleasing, and that is God. That’s who we need to seek to please.

The kingdom of God has a radically different way of thinking from the way the world thinks. But if we’ll embrace it, we’ll find what life truly is all about.

So as Paul encourages us,

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2)

Categories
Luke Luke 6 Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Under fire

The gospels

Nobody likes to be persecuted. Nobody likes to be disliked. In an ideal world, everyone would like you.

But this isn’t an ideal world. It’s a world that has been corrupted by sin. And because of that, people’s minds have been corrupted by sin to the point that they can’t distinguish good from evil. Even when they can, they often prefer evil.

John put it this way,

Light has come into the world (through Jesus), but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. (John 3:19)

Because of this, Jesus warned his disciples,

If they persecuted me (and they did), they will persecute you also. (John 15:20)

Think about this. Jesus was perfect. He never did anything wrong. He was love incarnate. And yet people hated him and put him on a cross.

If Jesus was perfect and he was treated this way, what makes us think we’ll be treated any differently?

But Jesus tells us that if we are persecuted for doing what is right, if we are persecuted for following him, we are blessed.

That seems a strange thing to say. Being persecuted is a blessing? I don’t want to be persecuted.

But the blessing is not in the persecution itself. It’s in knowing that we are following in our Master’s footsteps. That we are being like him even to the point of being persecuted as he was.

And the blessing is in knowing that the persecution is not in vain. That God will ultimately reward us for our faithfulness under fire.

So let us not get discouraged when persecution comes our way. When we are rejected by our family or friends or others around us for Jesus’ sake.

As the old saying goes, you can’t please all the people all the time.

Jesus couldn’t. Neither can you.

So let us focus on pleasing just one person: God. And in doing so, we will find true blessing.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Reconcilers

Matthew

If there is one thing that God has called us as Christians to be is reconcilers. Why? Because Jesus himself was the great reconciler.

When there was a huge gap between God and us because of our sin, Jesus came down and died on a cross, taking the punishment for our sin. Now, because of what he has done, we have peace with God.

So when we can bring peace between two people who are at war, we prove ourselves to be “sons (and daughters) of God.”

God hates it when the children he loves are in conflict with each other. And so he calls us as his children to step in where we can to help bring peace.

This is not to say that we are to step into every conflict we see. Proverbs warns us against getting involved in conflicts that we have no connection with. (Proverbs 26:17)

But when you see people that you love fighting, you should do what you can to bring peace.

To be sure, you need to be careful about the timing, and also you will need God’s wisdom as to how do so.

Above all, you should have the love and respect of the people you’re dealing with. Without a relationship with the warring parties, you’re more likely to do harm than to do good.

But there’s an even more important way in which God calls us to be reconcilers. We are to be people that help bring reconciliation between God and those around us.

The apostle Paul wrote,

All this (i.e. salvation) is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them.

And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

What an awesome responsibility. Jesus did the work of salvation on the cross. But now God tells us, “I put it in your hands now. It’s your responsibility to reach out as my ambassadors.”

What message do we pass on?

We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:20-21)

It is, of course, not up to us to change people’s hearts. That can only be done by the Holy Spirit. But we are called to be reconcilers, people who help bring peace between God and the people he loves.

Jesus tells us,

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. (Matthew 5:9)

Are you a peacemaker?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: To see God

Matthew

There are so many songs that express a desire to see God. Back when I was a kid, we had a song,

Open our eyes Lord,
We want to see Jesus.

To reach out and touch him.
To say that we love him.

Slightly more recently, there was another song,

Open the eyes of my heart Lord,
Open the eyes of my heart.

I want to see you.
I want to see you.

They’re both great songs, and I love them, but if we really want to see God in our lives, Jesus tells us,

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

Why is purity so important? Because God is holy. When the angels sing at his throne, they don’t sing about his love, they sing about his holiness.

(Okay, maybe they sing about his love too, but we never see a song in scripture that says, “Love, love, love, is the Lord God Almighty.”)

God tells us in both the Old Testament and the New to be Holy as he is. (Leviticus 11:44-45; I Peter 1:16).

God hates sin and cannot be near it. And if we are covered in its muck, we will always find ourselves at a distance from God.

This is not to say that we’ll lose our salvation or that God will stop loving us, but we will never have the close relationship that he desires to have with us.

One time, I was talking with a friend in her garage, and her two-year old daughter wandered off.

When she came back, she had a sponge in her hand that her husband had used to clean grease off of their car. So now, the grease was all over her hands and her face, yet despite this, she reached out to my friend wanting to be picked up and hugged.

Needless to say, my friend did NOT want to do that, and so her daughter started to cry. So very gingerly, my friend picked her up from behind and took her into the house to get her cleaned up.

Many times, we wonder why we feel distant from God. We wonder why he doesn’t seem to hear our prayers, or why we never seem to sense his presence.

A good question to ask yourself is, “Am I covered with muck? Is my sin making God keep his distance from me?”

The writer of Hebrews tells us,

Without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:14)

A couple of notes. First, remember that though we may struggle with sin, God promises that,

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. (1 John 1:9)

The key is that we always seek to keep a clear conscience before God. And to do that, daily repentance is essential.

The second thing is that just because God seems distant does not necessarily mean you are in sin. There may be other reasons (which is a topic for another blog).

But repentance is a starting point. Ask God, “Is there something between you and me?”

And if there is, God will let you know. I strongly doubt God will ever tell us, “Well, I’m not going to tell you what you did wrong because you should already know.”

So if he doesn’t point out any sin in your life, then know that there are probably other reasons for his silence. And in time, he’ll let you know what they are.

But every day, you should ask yourself, “Is my heart clean before God?”

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Mercy

Matthew

I remember having a dream one night about being at some kind of ministry training seminar or something in China of all places (I’ve never been there), and during it, our teacher told us, “You all know your Bibles well, but are you living it?”

He then started to teach about mercy, and he quoted from the passage where Jesus said, “Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” (Matthew 9:13)

At that point, I woke up kind of wondering what it all meant.

I was on vacation at the time, and that night, I visited my brother’s church. As I was waiting for service to start, I was reading over those passages on mercy.

Then when the message started, my brother (an assistant pastor) read from James, after which he started teaching on, of all things, mercy.

Later that week, I visited my home church and my pastor spoke about…mercy.

Which kind of gave me the idea that God wanted me to learn something. And that year, God started to teach me about mercy.

It’s a lesson I’m still learning. I wish I could say I am now a completely merciful person, but I’m not. It’s an area I still need to grow in.

Jesus says here,

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

What does it mean to be merciful? One thing I learned that year was to stop putting people on a measuring stick. To constantly demand that they meet the standards of my expectations.

God gave me that lesson one day while teaching English to some Japanese students.

I was getting really frustrated with some of them because of their lack of improvement. I was feeling like, “You should know this already! You learned this! Why can’t you remember?”

But God told me, “Bruce stop putting them on the measuring stick you’re setting up. Yes, they probably should be at a higher level than they are. Yes, they should probably know this by now.

But they don’t. Stop criticizing them and accept them where they are. Look at what their needs are and do what you can to meet them.”

It was a lesson I never have forgotten. So many times, people don’t meet our expectations as friends, as coworkers, as children, as husbands, and as wives. As a result we become very critical of them.

But to be merciful means to stop criticizing and to instead start asking ourselves, “What is their need? How can I meet their need?”

That was a key difference between Jesus and the Pharisees, and you see it throughout the gospels.

Another meaning of being merciful is to forgive. People often don’t deserve our forgiveness. Some aren’t even sorry for the hurt they cause us. And because of that, resentment and bitterness start to build up in our hearts.

The word resent, means “to feel again.” And when we hold resentment in our heart, whenever we think of that person that hurt us, we “feel again” the pain they caused us.

Resentment and bitterness chains us to our past. And God doesn’t want that for us. He wants us to move on and find the purposes for which he created us. But we can’t do that if we keep holding on to our past.

More importantly than that, God showed mercy to us, even though we didn’t deserve it. And because of that, he calls us to show mercy to others and forgive them even when they don’t deserve it.

And Jesus tells us time and again that if we desire mercy from God, we need to be merciful to others. We see that in this passage, in the prayer he taught his disciples, and also in the parables he taught.

How about you? How merciful are you?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Hungering and thirsting for righteousness

Matthew

I suppose as you look at this passage, you can read it two ways, both equally valid in my mind.

First, Jesus could be talking about having a hunger for holiness in your life. To want to live a life that’s pure and pleasing to God out of your love for him.

Yet so often we struggle. Paul talked about that struggle in Romans 7. Yet in that struggle, we see his desire for righteousness in his life.

In short, he says, “I want to do what’s right, but somehow I can’t. I just keep falling time and again. What a total mess I am!”

I know I feel the same way. I desire holiness and purity, and yet so often I fall. And it’s easy to become discouraged. To just throw in the towel and say, “Forget it. Why keep fighting? I’m just going to fall anyway.”

But Jesus encourages us here to not give up. To keep on hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Because the day will come when those desires will be fulfilled.

Ultimately that will happen in heaven. But even here on earth, God is continuing to work in us, “to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:13)

And until that day when perfection comes, the grace of God reigns. For as Paul writes in those passages in Romans,

But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (Romans 5:20-21)

Because of this,

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)

But I think there’s another sense in which our hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled.

So often we look at the world around us, and we see all the injustice and sin that is so prevalent.

We see the failings of the court systems. The laws that are being passed by politicians that are contrary to the word of God. The way moral values are changing so that what was once considered detestable and wrong are considered right.

And we wonder, “When will righteousness and justice come to our land again? Are we beyond hope?”

To be honest, I don’t think things will get better. Paul gives a pretty bleak picture of what the last days will be like. (II Timothy 3:1-5). And I do believe we are in those last days.

I personally put no hope in the politicians, the justice system, or anything else we have set up in order to make things right.

Yet I have hope. Why? Because the day will come when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord. (Philippians 2:10-11).

So I refuse to despair at all the evil I see. Justice and righteousness will come. Our hunger and thirst for these things will be satisfied.

So until that day, I will wait and hope, not on the things of this world or the governments and institutions people have set up, but on God.

May we never lose our hunger and thirst for righteousness in our lives or in the world around us. For Jesus promises that we will be satisfied.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Submitted to the Father

Matthew

I have to admit that whenever I read this, I’m always having to look up the word meek. What exactly does it mean to be meek?

I suppose it would be good to say what it doesn’t mean. It doesn’t mean weak. When you look at Moses and Jesus himself, both were described as meek, but you could hardly call either of them weak. They were both very strong men.

The word meek comes from the idea of an animal that has been tamed. A tamed animal has not lost any of its strength, but is submitted to its master, and is willing to be used for his purposes.

Defined this way, Moses and Jesus can definitely be called meek.

Moses, after originally trying to fight for the Israelites on his own strength, and then giving up completely when he was essentially exiled, put himself under God’s authority and went on to accomplish great things.

Jesus, of course, while never ceasing to be God, nevertheless submitted himself to his Father’s will, going to the cross, and accomplishing the purpose for which the Father sent him, our salvation.

Both went through trying times. Both went through times of weakness. But both persevered through those trials, and kept on going until they fulfilled the purpose the Father had for them.

That’s what it means to be meek.

How about you? Are you meek? Have you submitted yourself to the Father?

When times get hard, do you complain, and ask, “Why is this happening to me? I thought I was doing what You told me?”

Or do you humble yourself before him, and continue to do his will?

It is to those people that Jesus says, “They shall inherit the earth.”

We will not go unrewarded if we submit to the Father and follow his will every day.

The question is: Will we?

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Those who mourn

Matthew

I have probably heard hundreds of messages on the beatitudes and seen numerous commentaries, and most of the time, they interpret this verse as meaning, “Blessed are those who mourn over their sin.”

I suppose it fits in well with the idea of being poor in spirit. We see just how spiritually bankrupt we are, and because of that we mourn.

Mourning over sin can be good or bad. Mourning over sin that results in repentance leads to life. But mourning that leads to despair leads to death.

You see that in Peter’s and Judas’ lives. One repented and found life. The other found despair and killed himself.

The key question to ask is where does our mourning take our focus? On God and his grace? Or on ourselves and our utter depravity?

When we focus on God and his grace, we find comfort. When we focus on ourselves and our utter depravity, it will lead to despair.

But I’m not so sure Jesus was totally focused on mourning because of our sin.

Sometimes we mourn not because of our sin per se, but because of the brokenness in this world because of sin.

We mourn because of the sickness and death we see around us. We mourn because of all the hurt that people cause each other.

And as I said, it’s easy to despair because of it. To wonder if there’s any hope.

But again I ask, where do we place our focus when we mourn? If we focus merely on ourselves, it will lead to despair. Because in ourselves, we don’t have the power to change all the awful things around us.

When we place our focus on God, however, it leads to hope because God is above all our circumstances, and he can take what is broken and restore it. More than that, he can take what is dead, and bring it to life.

Dead relationships. Dead marriages. Dead hopes. Dead souls.

Are you broken because of sin? Are you mourning because of all the hurt you see in your life and in those around you?

Take your eyes off of yourself and on the one who gives life to that which is dead. Because when you do, you will find comfort.

Categories
Matthew Matthew 5

Sermon on the Mount: Not for the “spiritual”

Poor in spirit
www.LumoProject.com

We’re skipping back to Matthew 5 at this point, and we’ll be combining the two sermons on the Mount and the Plain, as they have very similar themes.

Jesus’ words here are slightly different from those we read in Luke. Instead of saying, “Blessed are the poor,” he says “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”

While in the former, he seems to be talking to those who were monetarily poor, in this passage, he seems to be saying something different.

There’s no doubt that some Pharisees, teachers of the law, and other religious folk in the crowd were listening to Jesus speak that day.

And when others looked at them, they thought that these people must be the specially favored of God. They were so spiritual. They knew the Bible so well. They lived such righteous lives.

And probably as people looked at themselves, they felt spiritually inferior.

Jesus’ 12 disciples must have especially felt that way. They had no religious training that could compare with the religious elite. They were just fishermen. One was a despised tax collector.

They were a short-tempered, proud, bickering group. A group that Jesus often chided for a lack of faith.

And yet, Jesus said to them, “Yes you are spiritually poor. But the kingdom of God is for people just like you.”

On the other hand, many of the people they considered spiritually rich would find themselves locked out of God’s kingdom when they came to heaven’s gate. Why?

Because the truth is, we are all spiritually poor. None of us have anything we can bring before God that allows us to say, “See, you have to let me in.”

More than spiritually poor, we are spiritually bankrupt.

The Bible says,

“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)

In fact, all our righteous works are but filthy rags to God. (Isaiah 64:6)

Because of this, we all need Jesus. All of us need his forgiveness and grace, from the Pharisee to the tax collector, from the pastor to the prostitute. And without it, none of us will enter his kingdom.

Do you feel spiritually poor? Know that there is hope for you.

Even if you don’t have a seminary degree, even if you’re just an ordinary person with no special qualifications, and even if you have totally messed up your life, the kingdom of God is for you.

Why? Because whether you’re a pastor, an office worker, or a prostitute, we are all the same. Sinners in need of grace.

The kingdom of God is not for the “spiritual.” It’s for the sinner.

Do you feel you’re not good enough for the kingdom of God? Cheer up. None of us are.

But if you will humble yourself before God, ask his forgiveness for your sins, and if you will receive Jesus as Lord of your life, he promises you eternal life.

And no matter who you are, there are no second-class citizens in his kingdom.