Be On the Way

Matthew 7:12-14

The Golden Rule for Kingdom Life

The call to righteousness in the Sermon on the Mount

Living as the people of God’s kingdom in this world

Being holy, as our Father is holy, humble, dependent, yet shining as lights in this darkened world.

Asking, seeking, knocking at the door of heaven for the righteousness only God can provide

Desiring righteousness in my life, and in the Church/Yours

Do we look too much like the rest of the world, and not enough like the kingdom of heaven?

The life of the Christian is learning to let go of this world and to cling to Christ. This is ongoing, continuous, until we lay this life down and take up new life in glory.

My hope is to call you to that deeper life in Christ. We need to engage, to take up a war footing, being prepared to stand for righteousness, faithfulness, and holiness in an unrighteousness, unfaithful, and unholy age.

Concluding the Sermon on the Mount

Practical call to righteousness: Lloyd-Jones, “The sermon isn’t meant to be praised, but practiced.”

Pursuing the Righteousness of the Kingdom.

Righteousness is Counter-Cultural.

“The Golden Rule”

The mentality of our age:

Whoever has the most gold makes the rules…

Do as has been done to you…

Don’t do what you don’t want done…

How this rule is usually interpreted

Quid pro quo - do this so others will do it for you -

What Jesus really meant is radically different. It is not: if I want this, I must give this, but how would I want to be treated if I were in their shoes, and I were pursuing holiness?

Narrow Gate

To live in the righteousness of the kingdom is to go against the way of the world.

The narrow gate is the call to righteousness and obedience

Living according to God’s word, acknowledging his ways

The wide gate symbolizes the ease of living by your own instinct, seeking your own pleasure, putting yourself at the center

Life or Death

Josh reminded us last week that there are times when we face death or death decisions, where we must remain dead to God or die to the world to live for God. Jesus reminds us this week that we are all face with a life or death decision.

Two gates, two ways, one leads to destruction, the other leads to life.

You live your best life now, reaping all the rewards in this life, and you have no life in the coming age. You live for the kingdom now, on the hard road of sacrifice and obedience, and you know the reward the Father has kept up for you.

A dead fish will float down stream with all the rest, only a live fish can swim upstream.

Righteousness is Active

Golden Rule is not negative but positive

The negative approach would be easy, so long as I do no harm, I have kept the law. Christ calls us to actively seek and do good for others, even those that do not deserve it.

Not self-seeking, but self-denying - other interested

Be on the Way

The path is a journey - the gate is not the destination. You have been justified, not mummified.

You are saved from sin, for holiness and good works

The life of the Christian is one of growth, maturing, becoming more like Christ

Daily dying to sin and rising to righteousness

The Way of Righteousness is Narrow and Difficult

The Wide vs. the Narrow Gate

Wide road - all ways, all thoughts, anything goes

Narrow gate - through Christ, one at a time, leaving everything else behind

Bilbo losing his buttons to escape the goblin cave

The Easy vs. the Difficult Way

The easy way - never making demands, never calling you to change, avoiding confrontation, rejection, and suffering

Sin is easy, it comes naturally, it does as it pleases

Many are on it - unwittingly, by default or by choice

The difficult way - under scrutiny, growing, seeking truth and aligning with it

Living according to the beatitudes is not easy, it is impossible apart from God’s grace

Few will find it

Ask, seek, knock… are you searching for the hard way, the narrow gate, or going along with the rest of the world, swept along toward destruction?

Only found in faith, repentance, and surrender to the Lord.

The Christian life is too glorious to be easy

G.K. Chesterton, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”

No Other Way to Righteousness

This calls us back to the gospel

The Golden Rule is the straightedge -

It is the law and prophet - calling us to repent

Showing us how crooked we are. Have we treated others as we would want to be treated, or have we held a high expectation of justice for ourselves, but a low esteem for those around us.

The golden rule, as law and prophet, puts an end to our effort to earn righteousness on our own.

The Narrow Gate is through Christ Himself -

The exclusivity of the gospel -

He is the only gate to life

Jn 10:9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.

He is the only way to the Father

Jn 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

There is no other name, no other righteousness

Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”

The Narrow way is the life of Christ

To take up the cross and follow Jesus

If he carried the burden in love, if he suffered the scorn and rejection of man, will you not also as his disciple?

John 15:20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

To seek God’s kingdom and righteousness daily

We should want what Christ wants for us: righteousness.

Turning from the empty things of this life that lead to destruction, and clinging to Christ and His life.

Christ calls us forward in the gospel - His wisdom isn’t just to be praised, but to be practiced.

Hear Christ’s call, and come to Him by faith, in repentance, surrendering to His sovereign, gracious, and good will for your life.

God has declared you righteous in Christ, now live in righteousness by doing unto others that which you would have done unto you, and waking the narrow road of faith and obedience to Christ.

Christ calls you to live in Him in a way that is radically different from a life without Him. Be distinctively different, that the world may we reflect the beauty of God’s kingdom to a watching world.