Upside Down and Inside Out

Intro

We are spending much of our Sundays this year walking through the Gospel of Matthew, looking deeply at the life of Jesus in order to know Him more fully, to follow Him more closely, and to share Him more passionately.

Matthew’s Gospel, as we have learned through the first 4 chapters, isn’t an exhaustive biography of Jesus’s life, and it doesn’t necessarily follow a strict chronology.

But there is a structure that is super helpful to understand.

Matthew is telling the story of Jesus’s life, focusing mostly on the last 3 years and His journey to the cross. And dispersed throughout the narratives are 5 teaching discourses or “sermons” that Jesus gives.

Matthews wants us to know Jesus intimately, to see and know all that He did in those 3 years of ministry, but also for us to hear His voice as He taught those who followed Him.

Over the next 4 weeks we are going to look at this first sermon.

We spent 9 weeks last year making our way through this sermon, so our goal this time is to give the overall picture, rather than dive into the details.

Today we are going to look at the first 20 verses, what is commonly known as the Beatitudes.

Matthew 5:1–20 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: 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 11 “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me. 12 Be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven. For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you. 13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. 17 “Don’t think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. 18 For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all things are accomplished. 19 Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commands and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven.

An Invitation to a New Way to LIVE

The end of Matthew 4 was a summary statement about the ministry of Jesus:

He went about teaching, preaching, and healing, and a large crowd gathered to follow Him.

We are told in verse 17 the main message He was preaching

Matthew 4:17 CSB

17 From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

A call to a new life because a new king had come. A new WAY of life was being inaugurated.

Now with a large crowd following Him Jesus decides it is time to stop and speak to the crowd about this new life He is bringing in.

Dallas Willard was a Christian writer, teacher, and thinker who grew up in the 1930s and 40s in rural Missouri.

His book “The Divine Conspiracy” is centered around the Sermon on the Mount and what is means to follow Jesus as a disciple.

I want to read a bit of a lengthy passage that he used to explain the message of Jesus in Matt. 4:17 and in His Sermon on the Mount:

As a child I lived in an area of southern Missouri where electricity was available only in the form of lightning. We had more of that than we could use. But in my senior year of high school the REA (Rural Electrification Administration) extended its lines into the area where we lived, and electrical power became available to households and farms. When those lines came by our farm, a very different way of living presented itself. Our relationships to fundamental aspects of life—daylight and dark, hot and cold, clean and dirty, work and leisure, preparing food and preserving it—could then be vastly changed for the better. But we still had to believe in the electricity and its arrangements, understand them, and take the practical steps involved in relying on it.

You may think the comparison rather crude, and in some respects it is. But it will help us to understand Jesus’ basic message about the kingdom of the heavens if we pause to reflect on those farmers who, in effect, heard the message: “Repent, for electricity is at hand.” Repent, or turn from their kerosene lamps and lanterns, their iceboxes and cellars, their scrubboards and rug beaters, their woman-powered sewing machines and their radios with dry-cell batteries. The power that could make their lives far better was right there near them where, by making relatively simple arrangements, they could utilize it.

We can read the sermon on the mount in a variety of unhelpful and even dangerous ways.

We often risk reading as steps for initiation into the kingdom of Heaven.

Steps we must take in order to clean ourselves up so that we can make it to heaven.

But that misses the MARK in really hard and hurtful ways.

On the other hand, we can read the Sermon as list of new rules or expectations for Christians to try and live up to.

That we judge ourselves by in order to live up to the expectations of God. When we do well we can rest, but if we fail (and we inevitably will) pain and punishment are soon to follow.

But again, that missed the mark of Jesus’s true desire and purpose of the message.

The Sermon on the Mount isn’t an INITIATION or an EXPECTATION, it is an INVITATION.

Especially in regards to these opening verses, the SM is, in a sense, a sales pitch, without the gimmicks and the over promising.

Jesus is inviting those listening, us included, to a new way of life.

Those who choose to follow Him, to embrace this life, will be “BLESSED”, satisfied, and, dare I say, happy.

Doesn’t that sound like a brochure to a all-inclusive resort?

But here’s the thing you likely have already seen about these verses.

They sure don’t seem to be presenting what anyone would ever likely deem a “blessed, satisfying, or happy” life.

poverty, mourning, humility, righteousness, mercy, purity, peacemaking, and persecution… not an ideal vacation.

To understand they picture Jesus is painting, we have to understand who He is painting it for.

There are 3 groups listening to His message.

There are His disciples, those who have decided to follow Him, to listen to Him, and who trust that what He is saying is worth living for.

There is also the crowd, those who are attracted to Jesus because of the healing, or the preaching, or some other reason, but haven’t yet committed to following Him like the disciples.

And then there are the religious leaders, the scribes and the Pharisees. These were the interpreters and caretakers of the Law and prime examples of the righteous/religious life among the common people.

For each of these groups, the Scribes and the Pharisees had the map to Heaven, or at least they were writing it.

They knew what it looked like to be someone approved by God.

And it is to this Jesus is speaking/confronting.

Jesus is presenting a life in the Kingdom of Heaven, a life He says “fulfills the Law and the Prophets”. A life that surpasses the righteousness of even the most committed Pharisee. (vs 17 and 20).

But it isn’t the life anyone was expecting, and it isn’t the life any of us would naturally live.

But it is a life Jesus says is “Blessed” “Happy” and “Full”

I want to look at 2 adjectives that describe the life Jesus is calling us to in these verses.

Life in the Kingdom is UPSIDE DOWN.

We grew up watching the game show Family Feud, all the way back to the Ray Combs years.

I never heard the keys to a happy life make the show, but

if you asked 100 people the keys to a happy life you would likely get a variety of answers.

But I would be willing to bet in the top 10, 20, or even 50 you wouldn’t find poverty, mourning, humility, mercy, or purity.

Actually, it is unlikely that any of the 8 beatitudes would even make the list of answers given.

In reality, the opposites of each would likely be on the list.

I could hear wealth and self-confidence making the list in some form.

Or pleasure seeking and gratifying the flesh.

Pride, power and being important.

Self-sufficient and capable.

Ruthless pursuit of success at all costs.

Fighting for what is yours.

and getting back at anyone who wrongs you or hurts you.

But Jesus says “Blessed” which literally means fortunate, happy, privileged...

And though it might sound odd, embedded in Jesus’s list is a question: Are you happy pursing what the world says will make you happy?

And if we are REAL honest, and if we really listen to the world around us, which has embraced this philosophy and ethic, we will see and hear a clear and resounding no.

Rather there is a constant struggle that never satisfies, a dreaming and hoping, a striving and fighting, searching and trying but never a finding.

And to this Jesus is saying “The Kingdom of Heaven is where those who are searching can find what they are looking for...”

Jesus is saying the key to true happiness/blessedness isn’t the way that comes so naturally to us.

Blessedness/happiness is found in embracing the upside down promises of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Happiness is not in the circumstance of life or the pursuit of better circumstances.

It is found in a relationship with God through Jesus.

And so we can read Jesus’s list as promises/reasons for embracing Jesus as Savior and Lord:

Because Jesus has saved us, we can be poor in spirit because we know he promises to be our sufficiency in all things

Because Jesus saved us, when we see the brokenness of our world and our own hearts we can find comfort in what he did for us.

Because Jesus saved us, we can be meek and take the 2nd place because that’s what Jesus did for us.

Because Jesus saved us, we can hunger and thirst for righteousness because the God of righteousness has become our Savior.

Because Jesus saved us, we can’t help but being merciful to others because that’s how he was to us.

Because Jesus saved us, we want to be pure in heart so we can know him more.

Because Jesus saved us, we can prioritize peace instead of vindication because that’s what he did with us.

Because Jesus saved us, we can endure persecution because Jesus’ resurrection shows us it is worth it.

This Kingdom Life is gloriously upside down, but it is also inside out.

Life in the Kindgom is INSIDE OUT.

The beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount as a whole is dangerous if we are not careful.

We can read these verse as if they are commands that tell us the requirements to get to heaven.

"If you don't do these things and think this way then you cannot get to heaven."

That is dangerous because the onus is on us to live UP to the standard that Jesus is setting here.

But that doesn't take into consideration the context of the sermon on the mount.

Jesus's whole life on earth was pointing to the end of His life.

He didn't come to give us more rules to follow, better rules to follow, or redefined rules to follow,

He came so that the requirement of the law, which we could never meet, would be fulfilled in Him, and the punishment for breaking God's law would be satisfied in Him.

So that ANYONE and EVERYONE who would trust in and follow Him would be invited into the Kingdom of God and transformed to live out this life He is describing.

This sermon should be overwhelming for us as we read it.

"Martin Luther recognized that the SM cannot be an articulation of the means of entering the kingdom of God because it is impossible for humans apart from God’s grace to carry out its stringent demands. It gives God’s perfect expression of his moral will, which is impossible for humans to maintain, and therefore forces us to recognize our sinfulness and cry out for God’s grace in repentance."

How can I possibly be meek in a world that is so self-focused, with a born-in nature to primarily think about myself?

How could I possibly hunger and thirst for righteousness when I am so prone to pursue what satisfies my flesh and makes me feel good in the moment?

To have mercy on someone else is so difficult for us if we haven't experienced mercy.

We all struggle to be peacemakers when vindication seems to be so sweet.

How are we to stay faithful when we are being persecuted for our faith?

Then you look further into the sermon and see the way Jesus seems to increase the demands of the law, making what seemed like an avoidable sin something nearly impossible to avoid (I got angry almost every day this week).

The Beatitudes are attitudes not actions

It isn't about changing our actions, but our hearts changing.

"Jesus will continually go to inner motivation, not external performance. The inner life will naturally transform the outer life. The heart that treasures the kingdom of heaven above all else will be the starting point for transformation of the entire life."

"The kind of life to which Jesus points in here will be the Spirit-empowered result of those who have already responded to the gospel of the kingdom, not the means by which one enters it.”

True followers of Jesus will live out these attitudes and commands, not as a means of entering the kingdom, but as an outgrowth of the kingdom life that will be theirs through the empowering of the Spirit.

Is this Your life?

Do you see the analogies Jesus gives for kingdom people?

Salt of the world - flavor enhancers

A city on a Hill - a glorious place shining in the distance.

A light in the darkness - light inviting the lost and the wandering to safety and security.

Jesus is inviting everyone that is willing and able to hear to embrace the promises of His glorious Kingdom.

He is inviting each of us to a relationship that is full of blessedness/happiness/fulfillment IN HIM.

It isn’t a set of rules, duties, or expectations.

It is an invitation to an upside down and inside out way of life where true happiness can be found.

Will you receive it?