Teaching the Disciples: Defining Kingdom Values

Good morning!

As a reminder this morning, bring those “Amens” or any audible comment you might feel is appropriate.

Last week, Carey did a wonderful job of setting us up for this next section.

He reminded us that Jesus is the one bringing His kingdom.

As part of that process, he chose twelve ordinary men to join him and to be sent out to preach the gospel.

After calling the twelve, Jesus continues to do what only he can do.

The emphasis was that Jesus is calling us to be his disciples and, after learning from Jesus, to be sent out to share what we have learned.

Today, Jesus is going to be teaching the disciples.

If you look at Matthew 5:1-2 and Luke 6:20, you will see that Jesus is speaking directly to those that he has called.

Matthew 5:1–2 CSB

1 When he saw the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 Then he began to teach them, saying:

It is worth noting that Luke calls this the sermon on the plain, and Matthew calls it the sermon on the mount.

There are a couple of theories about this.

Some scholars believe that Jesus was teaching like a circuit preacher.

He would preach the same message in several places.

If you think about the fact that word of mouth was the only way this message was being communicated at this point, it makes sense that Jesus would do this.

The other theory is that Jesus was on the mountain teaching, and after coming down from the mountain to the plane, Jesus taught his disciples.

See picture

Either is possible, and regardless of whether he was on the mountain or at the foot of it isn’t of great consequence.

What is important is the intended recipients.

Matthew and Luke agree that Jesus was teaching those who had chosen.

These men have chosen to follow Jesus, and in return, they are about to get the inside track on who Jesus is and why he is here.

This desire for the inside track is something that exists in nearly everyone.

For example, the popularity for shows like, How it’s made, to advanced fields of study in space exploration, medicine, biology, chemistry, physics, or history.

All of these things start with desire to better understand something.

To know why and how things happen the way that they do drives humans to ask questions and to dive deeper.

In our passage today, Jesus is giving his disciples a glimpse into how God sees the world.

The reality is that these guys were curious about Jesus.

He was so different from anyone they had ever met, and this curiosity served them well.

They are going to see that God’s view stands in opposition to how we see the world.

Specifically, the major theme of this section is a redefining by Jesus of what brings honor and what brings shame.

Let’s read these verses together from Luke 6:20-26.

Luke 6:20–26 CSB

20 Then looking up at his disciples, he said: Blessed are you who are poor, because the kingdom of God is yours. 21 Blessed are you who are hungry now, because you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, because you will laugh. 22 Blessed are you when people hate you, when they exclude you, insult you, and slander your name as evil because of the Son of Man. 23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. Take note—your reward is great in heaven, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets. 24 But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort. 25 Woe to you who are now full, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are now laughing, for you will mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets.

Words of encouragement and words of warning from Jesus are the beginning of this section.

But Jesus isn’t teaching just anyone.

Jesus is addressing his disciples, not the unbelieving crowds.

I mentioned this previously, but I want to make sure that we are completely clear on that.

Otherwise, we could read this passage and think that Jesus is saying that the poor and hungry of the world are blessed.

Obviously, this is not true.

What does it mean to be blessed?

Life Group Question: How has your understanding of what it means to be blessed changed after reading this passage?

Numbers 6:22–27 CSB

22 The Lord spoke to Moses: 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. You should say to them, 24 “May the Lord bless you and protect you; 25 may the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 may the Lord look with favor on you and give you peace.” ’ 27 In this way they will pronounce my name over the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

Blessed, in the ancient Near East and as Jesus is using it here, meant highly favored (as divine grace).

There are two specific words in Hebrew and Greek that are translated as Blessed.

In Hebrew:

Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Hebrew (Old Testament) 1385 II. בָּרַךְ

בָּרַךְ (bā·rǎḵ)

Bae-Rock

Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Hebrew (Old Testament) 1385 II. בָּרַךְ

speak words invoking divine favor, with the intent that the object will have favorable circumstances or state at a future time

In Greek: Ma-Car-E-os

Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains: Greek (New Testament) 3421 μακάριος

μακάριος (makarios), ία (ia), ιον (ion): adj.; ≡ DBLHebr 890, 897; Str 3107; TDNT 4.362—LN 25.119 blessed, happy, fortunate

Lexham Theological Wordbook μακάριος

In the Beatitudes in Matt 5, Jesus declares that people who experience various kinds of difficulty or undesirable circumstances are in fact blessed by God (Matt 5:3–11; Luke 6:20–22). Here the contrast with apparently negative conditions sheds light on the nature of true blessedness.

Lexham Theological Wordbook μακάριος

The word makarios can also be used to describe God as blessed (e.g., 1 Tim 1:11; 6:15). In at least a few instances, it refers to future favorable circumstances (e.g., Luke 14:14, 15).

In many cultures during this time, to be blessed was also expressed as “to shine your face upon,” which we see in the passage from Numbers.

Jesus is making radical changes to their understanding of what it means to be blessed.

Consider how Jesus is redefining what it means to be blessed in your own context.

Does #blessed conjure up images of poverty, hunger, sorrow, or hatred?

Of course, they don’t, yet here we see Jesus telling his disciples that those believers who are in those conditions are blessed by God.

Jesus is saying that in the course of our following Jesus, when experience any of these things, we are blessed, not because of the hardship, but because we have God’s full attention.

Life Group Question: How does it make you feel that when your obedience causes hardship, you have God’s full attention?

Do you remember a few weeks ago when we talked about the joy that was brought to people when Jesus fully saw them?

This is what it means to be blessed by God.

We are “fortunate or happy” because we have God’s full attention!

In verse 23, Jesus says...

Luke 6:23 CSB

23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. Take note—your reward is great in heaven, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the prophets.

Rejoicing is the result of God giving honor to those who follow Jesus’ example.

If we experience any of these kinds of suffering in the midst of the response to our following of Jesus, we have God’s attention and will be rewarded.

As followers of Jesus we are going to face those that claim to be followers, yet are living for themselves.

Look at the accusation that Stephen made of those who then killed him.

Acts 7:51–52 CSB

51 “You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit. As your ancestors did, you do also. 52 Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become.

This passage is the conclusion of Stephen, the first Christian Martyr’s message, which resulted in his death.

He was calling out the historical rejection of His word by His people.

Their response was to kill Stephen just like their ancestors had killed the prophets.

The kid's story was about this as well.

Jeremiah 18:1–11 NLT

1 The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2 “Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.” 3 So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. 4 But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over. 5 Then the Lord gave me this message: 6 “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. 7 If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, 8 but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. 9 And if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom, 10 but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would. 11 “Therefore, Jeremiah, go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem. Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am planning disaster for you instead of good. So turn from your evil ways, each of you, and do what is right.’ ”

Life Group Question: How has the American Church responded to God as Israel responded to the prophets?

Life Group Question: Has our church responded like Israel? If so, how is God asking us to change?

Jesus is trying to help us realize that this upside-down kingdom he is establishing will be difficult for some to accept.

As we read in Acts and in Jeremiah, this is not a new condition for humanity.

From the very beginning, we have rebelled against God’s authority.

When we are following Jesus, working to bring about this upside-down kingdom, we are going to face the ridicule.

In experiencing that, Jesus says that we should rejoice in knowing that our reward is in heaven.

We should rejoice in knowing that what we are doing in following Jesus is correct if we are receiving the same kind of reactions that Jesus received.

We can rejoice knowing that we have God’s full attention!

His face is shining on us, is toward us; he sees us fully!

In Jesus’ day and in ours, shame is culturally found in poverty, hunger, sorrow, and hate.

This is not the case for those that are following Jesus.

At the same time, Jesus redefines what does bring shame.

They are described as “woe’s” by Jesus.

The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary Woe

An interjection denoting pain, discomfort, and unhappiness. It is a distinctive form of prophetic speech, and is found both in the OT and in the NT.

The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary Woe

It is characteristic, therefore, that the woe cry should be used in an impersonal formulation expressing intense anger and directed against certain types of activity which are strongly disapproved of:

So, what are these activities that Jesus is categorizing as shameful? What is he warning against?

From God’s perspective, shame is the result of living your life focused only on your own needs and desires.

Let’s look again at this section in verses 24-26.

Luke 6:24–26 CSB

24 But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your comfort. 25 Woe to you who are now full, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who are now laughing, for you will mourn and weep. 26 Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets.

Do you see how upside-down this is when compared to the world?

Culturally, all of the things that Jesus listed in this “woe” section are what the world tells us that we should strive towards.

Once again, Jesus is trying to help us understand that He is here because he cares about people.

All people, as image-bearers of God, should be treated as such.

In his upside-down kingdom, Jesus wants us to see that the world's priority on self-fulfillment is the opposite of Kingdom priorities.

This is the inside track that Jesus is talking about.

He is flipping over our understanding, the disciples understanding of what it means to live in the Kingdom of God.

In the early church, we see the explosive results of actually living in this way.

Acts 2:41–47 CSB

41 So those who accepted his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand people were added to them. 42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and signs were being performed through the apostles. 44 Now all the believers were together and held all things in common. 45 They sold their possessions and property and distributed the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple, and broke bread from house to house. They ate their food with joyful and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. Every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

This is the very kingdom that Jesus was describing.

People sold their possessions, and they gave up their wealth, their comfort, and their time when they experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit.

The result of living like this was a world-changing movement that introduced the world to the Messiah.

I know you have heard me say this before.

If you always do, what you’ve always done, you’ll always get, what you’ve always gotten.

The status quo of the religious people in the days of Jesus wasn’t helping people come to know God.

I would say the same is true today.

When we are more worried about ourselves, our opinions, and our politics than we are about our neighbors, we are living in a dead religion.

Jesus was teaching his followers that living sacrificially was the path to being blessed by God.

If we really desire to know God and make Him known, we can’t continue letting our culture define what it looks like to follow Jesus.

Jesus is defining Kingdom life to his disciples.

Jesus role-modeled that life, and it cost him his life.

As followers of Jesus, we have to ask ourselves if we are actually going to follow him.

Are we willing to live sacrificially for the sake of others?

Am I willing to give up what culture says is most important in order to embrace the Kingdom of God?

Am I willing to live in cultural shame to experience Kingdom blessings?

Jesus makes it clear that Kingdom values don’t line up with cultural values.

Not even a little bit.

This is not about compromising; this is about abandoning our lust for cultural acceptance so that we can experience the love of God.

Now, this is the point of the sermon where you might expect there to be a list of things to change about your life.

I’m not going to give you a list.

Here is what I will say and ask.

Take some serious time this week and meditate on this passage.

Give God the time and room to speak into your life and make the changes He sees fit.

The last thing I want or God wants is more dead religion.

If I give a list and we all try really hard, Jesus isn’t transforming us; we are just doing stuff.

To be transformed by the renewing of your mind like Paul talked about, we must allow God to change how we see this world.

We must allow Jesus to transform our perceptions that have been shaped by this world.

We must allow Jesus to define the Kingdom of God in our lives and then follow as he leads.

If we are going to truly know Jesus, we must be willing to follow.

He is laying out for the disciples what that is going to look like.

He is laying that out for us, too.

Life Group Question: The real question is, are we willing to let Jesus define our lives, or will we let American culture define it?

Many of the problems in the world that the church perpetuates are the result of living in an echo chamber.

Jesus pulls the disciples away from the crowds and lays out what His kingdom looks like.

Over the next few weeks, we will see Jesus continue this teaching within this small group of men.

But this is the first step.

Letting Jesus redefine your life so that it looks like His and not like the world.

If you let him, you too will find yourself rejoicing as you join Jesus in changing this world.

Jesus and a small group turned the world upside down.

Life Group Question: What will it take for God to use your Life Group to flip Cenla upside down?

Jesus isn’t done, and he wants you to join him.

Will you?

Let’s pray.