Sermon on the Mount: Blessed Be 5

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TODAY! Welcome Home Party - 15 minutes to get to know the Home Team Leaders and be part of what God is doing here in Refuge Aviano and this community

Yesterday: Men of Valor fellowship

10 November: Anthony and Shannen Braswell will be with us again

28 November: Thanksgiving Meal

rythm today

Restos meal train

Intro

Things change when God speaks.

How does God speak into your life???

You must recognize that God is already speaking - His Word is eternal, and it continues since the dawn of the spoken existence of Creation, to now, and off through all eternity, His Word has spoken and is constantly changing the World around us.

You must be listening for His voice.

You must be near the source. His Word - it is alive. It is living. It is LIFE. If you’re not hearing Him speak to you, you’re not in His Word.

Here’s the reality:

God wants to speak into your life.

He wants to tell you His love for you.

He wants to tell you His love for this world.

He wants to tell you what He wants you to do - for you to know your purpose in this world.

He wants to reveal Himself to you - for you to know Holy, Almighty God personally.

He wants to reveal His glory to you - and for you to know how He can call you friend.

Church, He wants you to know the POWER of His Word, that’s able to empower you to be an agent that brings life and change to this fallen world.

God does not desire a bunch of religious people

2 Timothy 3:5 CSB

5 holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people.

He does desire and seek His Church - the Bride of Christ - to be beautiful and radiant with knowledge of His word, operating in the authority of His word, and carrying out the acts of righteousness that changes the world around her.

Christ Fulfills the Law

Let’s look at the next passage of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 .

Remember - here in the previous passages, Jesus brings God’s core values and vision for what His followers should expect and live.

He gave the Beatitudes - a practical and behavioral mindset of what a child of God looks like…and the reward for those who persist in faith.

He gave the analogy of the Christian’s impact in the world - using the familiar life-sustaining needs of salt and light.

You are Salt and Light.

And we need to be salty and brilliant.

Interestingly though, Jesus shifts the viewpoint in verses 17-20, as He talks about Himself.

Remember, Jesus is fully man and fully God - so we hear the heart of God when He’s speaking here.

Matthew 5:17-20

Matthew 5:17–20 CSB

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.

This word “Fulfill” here in the greek

Lexham Research Lexicon of the Greek New Testament πληρόω

to satisfy ⇔ fill up — to satisfy, conceived of as if filling a container completely.

Lexham Research Lexicon of the Greek New Testament (πληρόω)

πληρόω (plēroō)

Jesus is saying here, as a born Jew to the Jewish people around Him, that He did not come to do away with everything you’ve been taught.

He didn’t come to undo the Law of Moses, or the teachings of the Prophets.

Instead, what Jesus is saying here, is that He has come to satisfy every requirement of the Law in Himself, which would ultimately lead Him to the Cross and to die according to the Law’s requirement.

Jesus came to fulfill, that is to satisfy, the requirements God established for God’s chosen people to be holy and acceptable in His sight.

You see, what some people see as purely religion, God established as a way to be in communal relationship with the Father.

Some people are still ate up about what they can and can’t do, meanwhile God had established a WAY for His people to know Him, to know His love for them, to know His grace and mercy, to know His limitless power and fulfill their God-given purpose.

You see, God’s word was established in the beginning so that you and I can have relationship with Him.

It’s always been that way. From the beginning of time - from when God breathed His own breath into Adam and gave Him life - literally gave of Himself intimately and relationally.

God has always desired relationship with you. The fact that you’re sitting here today in Aviano, Italy listening to a man from North Carolina that’s prayed and sought God for a time-appointed word is proof of that right now.

What is the Law or the Prophets

What is it that Jesus came to satisfy? First we must remember WHY the Law was established.

Here are a few reasons, the primary of which was so that those who followed this Law understood the requirements of someone ‘pure’ enough to have relationship with God - He set up a rule book for what it would take for a sinful people to have a relationship with Holy God.

It also allowed for:

A people to know how to worship their God. For His people to know how to relate to their God. For His people to know how to relate within their families. For His people to know how to relate within community. For His people to be identifiably different and separate from the other people groups around them. For His people to be united and bound together in purpose. For His people to be reminded of their need for purity before a Holy God.

For His people to be an example to all the peoples of the world to know how to have relationship with Holy God

Do you remember the 10 commandments?

You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make idols. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor You shall not covet

All of these are fulfilled and satisfied when a born-again believer obediently follows the teachings of Christ.

Not only these 10, but an additional 603 laws, and all the teachings of the Prophets that came over thousands of years.

Here’s the thing with laws and lists. Humanity has a tendency to grab hold of what is required and do nothing more than that.

Standards - double edge sword. On one hand, you get the minimum required; on the other hand, you hardly get a maximum out of someone. But yet standards are needed - to get the bare minimum out of someone.

This is what happened with the Law of Moses and what the Prophets said. And the Pharisees, the religious and powerful elite that governed the Jews here in Jesus’s times did the bare minimum of the Law, finding every loophole they could in their religion, and profited off the people they were supposedly serving.

So when the Pharisees start feeling the pressure of this Kingdom-minded message from Jesus, they pressured Jesus in Matthew 22 asking Him which is the most important Law for them to follow

Jesus says this sums it up, listen:

Matthew 22:37–40 CSB

37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”

Love God what all your heart: that is all your passions and desires. Love God with all your soul: that is how you live your life. Love God with all your mind: that is your focus, thoughts, and intentions. But don’t forget your neighbor in the process - the person nearest to you right now, how can you show them your Love for God and in a way that meets their needs too.

That’s it. If you live life this way - which is the Way of Life Christ brings us to - then you’ve satisfied the requirements of the Law to live a holy and pleasing life before God.

The way of the Law was hard - it was too hard. The Lord knew this. That’s why He came to bring the reset; to take the weight of the Law upon Himself and satisfy His own requirements of His wrath against sin and to open the doorway of reconciliation to the Father.

He is Savior. That’s why He IS Savior. Those who have accepted Christ as Lord of their life, have repented from their sin and follow Him have been SAVED by God from God’s own wrath.

What remains is His Peace.

God wants to speak His PEACE into your life today. Won’t you let Him?

The Satisfied Law Remains

When we understand the purpose of the Law, we understand why it remains - in Christ Jesus.

Again, Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life - and no one comes to the Father except through Him.

In Jesus being the Way, the Truth, and the Life, the Law is summarized and satisfied in the life lived in Christ Jesus.

Therefore the Law remains, but having been satisfied in Christ Jesus we are reconciled in relationship with God.

This is a beautiful thing because this is where we get Justification from:

Where we are JUSTIFIED in Christ Jesus

Romans 5:1 CSB

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Galatians 2:16 CSB

16 and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified.

Because of Christ’s work on the Cross and satisfying the requirements and penalties of the Law, we have been justified.

What is justification?

Just as if I had never sinned

The Law remains until heaven and earth pass away, Jesus says, and not one aspect of it fades away or is passed over. It still applies - however, those who are covered by faith in Christ Jesus and having been redeemed by Him, we are covered by the blood He shed that paid the requirements of the Law - a sinner’s death.

When God sees us, He no longer sees us through the lens of condemning our sinful life - but sees us redeemed in Christ Jesus through rose-colored lenses shaded in His own Blood.

We are freed by the Blood of the Lamb - that is Christ Jesus - and set free from the bondage of the Law of sin and death.

We are free in the life of Christ Jesus.

He has taken our death, and He has given us His Life - we are justified, just as if we’ve never sinned - through faith in Jesus Christ.

The Justified Life

“Let him be great” - term used for kids in modern days to promote their talents and abilities.

But God’s terms of greatness here are explicitly aligned with what He’s said we should do from the beginning.

To be GREAT is to follow the teachings and intentions of the Law - which gives a life of holiness, dependence on God, and a Kingdom of heaven-minded impact on the world around us.

That’s what it is to be great. And if anyone teaches otherwise, Jesus says they’ll be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus preaching here tells us God wants us to be great - and how to be great in the kingdom of heaven.

And he warns us not to listen to anyone that tells us otherwise!

When someone tells you - you don’t have to follow the Scriptures that hard. When someone tells you - you don’t have to always be obedient to God, there’s grace. When someone tells you - you don’t have to forgive that person, its okay to be mad. When someone tells you - you be you, and don’t ever let anyone change you.

RUN THE OTHER WAY

To be great - is to show our love for the Father, and obey all His commands.

To be great - is to know there is grace, but to not take it for granted and intentionally live a holy life.

To be great - is to forgive, because you’ve been forgiven; and there’s no sin worse than your own sin.

To be great - is to constantly be changed into the likeness of Christ, to die to ourselves and put on the life of Christ every day.

To be great - is not to elevate yourself in the eyes of others, but to be looking for opportunities to lift a brother or sister up; out-doing one another in works of love, honor, and respect.

The Pharisees had religion - the had and knew the Law of God. But they didn’t have the HEART of God.

Jesus is tell us here that to get into the kingdom of Heaven…you need to know and apply the heart of God to your life.

Closing

The Law reveals the Heart of God - and is still applicable today.

When He said:

You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make idols. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Honor your father and your mother. You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor You shall not covet

He meant all of it - and He still means it today.

The Laws of God are fulfilled in the Christ-centered life.

The Christ-centered life is applying the Word of God to your life.

It may seem difficult or foreign at times, but as the born-again Christian believes, and reads, and consumes, and applies the Word of God. It changes you. It changes your perspective of what is important in life. It changes what you value - for example, we here at Refuge Aviano value True Riches and invest in True Riches.

And what I see, time and time again, that when someone really grabs hold of what Christ has done for them, and really starts paying attention to what His Word says and is…life changes.

A continued appreciation for His Passion

A continued realization of what it means to be reconciled with God

Better and healthier mental clarity

Understood situational awareness of what’s going on in the World

Relationships renewed or better defined

Marriages reconciled and reunited

Healing in the mind and heart

And these are just some of the things experienced in the Believer’s life.

God wants to speak into your life today. Won’t you let Him?

Blessed Be the one who finds fulfillment in the Word of God.