Qualities of Being
Notes
Transcript
Back when I was with CFA, I was in charge of hiring and firing for my shift. Thankfully, I only had to fire one person. Unfortunately, I really think I fired the wrong person. But, that’s another story. The person I should have fired quit soon after.
I was able to hire some amazing workers, and shape what our evening shift would be.
Every applicant new the qualifications that we were looking for, qualifications for attitude, qualifications for skill, responsibilities for the position. And, through the interview process, I endeavored to makes sure the applicant lined up with our ideal and weren’t lying.
Thankfully, a well-written description of qualifications and duties helps to narrow the applicant field.
Tonight is the super bowl. Only specific people can make it onto a football team. I can pretty much guarantee that none of us would be able to play professional football. We don’t meet the qualifications. We don’t have the skills or the physique.
What does this have to do with anything?
Jesus has been traveling around preaching the simple message:
From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
In the process of preaching that message, he approached several and asked them:
“Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.”
And a crowd of people starting following him. Those he has called, those he has accepted, and those who just are there.
Throughout this wondering and this preaching and this listening, I’m sure many have approached Jesus, asking “What are we supposed to be like in this kingdom? How do we get in?”
We could create all sorts of scenarios. The text doesn’t say. All we know, is that after a crowd of people have been following Jesus, he sits down and talks about the expectations of those who are in the kingdom. Expectations not given by man. This isn’t a whole bunch of pharisaical rules. These are expectations given by God himself.
Qualities which so many people look at and say: Yes, more people should live this way,
and so many more people look at it and say: I can’t live up to this.
Let’s read what Jesus taught. This is considered the introduction to his sermon.
Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them.
He said:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Before we dive in, I have to note something. Jesus was not teaching those who weren’t his followers. He was teaching those who had already decided to follow him. It just so happens that others were listening in on his private tutoring session.
The Sermon on the Mount was given to Jesus’ followers to teach them how to live in the kingdom.
In this sermon we are going to see that the kingdom-follower has specific qualities which incite a specific response in order to produce a specific result and point to a specific being.
Will you pray with me?
1. Has Specific Qualities
1. Has Specific Qualities
The Kingdom-follower has specific qualities. We know them as the Beatitudes. When I was a kid, I thought they were called that because they were attitudes that you were supposed to be. Be-attitudes.
It is actually from the Latin beatitudo, which means blessed.
That’s your random fact for today.
Let’s read those again:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
A follower of the kingdom has certain attitudes, exudes certain qualities, seeks specific things, and those things produce the blessings of God. All of which blessings are tied into the coming kingdom.
We read these, we put these on walls, but do we really understand them?
The kingdom follower is humble, realizing that he does not have everything together but desperately needs God. He is part of the kingdom that Jesus has preached about.
This kingdom followers sees all the pain in this life, from sin to natural disasters and mourns desperately, yearning for the comfort that is his in the coming kingdom.
This kingdom follower is gentle, not aggressive, realizing that his hope is not what he can gain right now, but in the recreated earth that he is guaranteed to inherit in the coming kingdom.
This kingdom follower desires that God’s standards are established and obeyed in every area of life, and in the coming kingdom that hunger will be quenched.
This kingdom follower
Matthew 2. Paradigmatic Preaching: The Sermon on the Mount (5:1–7:29)
embraces the characteristics of being generous, forgiving others, having compassion for the suffering, and providing healing of every kind.
knowing that one day they will stand before the judgment seat of God and be shown the same.
This kingdom follower has a lifestyle that is characterized by pleasing God. He
Matthew 2. Paradigmatic Preaching: The Sermon on the Mount (5:1–7:29)
exhibit a single-minded devotion to God that stems from the internal cleansing created by following Jesus.
Only the holy can stand before God. And the kingdom follower will be able to stand before him in the coming kingdom.
The kingdom follower seeks to bring the peace that he has experienced from God to those around him. He works for shalom (wholeness and harmony rather than strife and discord in all areas of life). Because of his efforts people will associate him with his God.
The kingdom follower will have specific qualities
2. Which Incite a Specific Response
2. Which Incite a Specific Response
You might have noticed that I left the last beatitude out. This one is different than the others.
It is similar to the first, in that the blessing is in the present tense. The blessing comes immediately, instead of in the future like the others.
But, instead of being one line, it is three lines. It is actually three different statements of blessing.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Steve. Ya’ll don’t know him. Steve used to have long conversations at work about Jesus with his coworkers. His boss warned him to stop talking so much and start working more. But, Steve kept talking about Jesus. So, his boss fired him.
Steve wasn’t persecuted for righteousness sake. He was fired because he was stealing time from his boss. He needed to learn to work while he talked.
Now the blessing comes when we are persecuted for Jesus’s sake.
When a kingdom follower lives as God has called him to live, he will interact with people that will not like him. Perhaps they don’t appreciate his meekness, his focus on eternity. Perhaps they don’t appreciate his holy living. Perhaps they don’t appreciate his weeping over oppression, or his desire to bring relationships back together. Perhaps they don’t want God’s standard held up in society.
There are so many reasons why a kingdom follower will face persecution, insult, slander, lies.
I know a pastor in a small Nebraska community who was trying to live out his calling. A new liberal female pastor moved into the area, so he invited her over to have supper with his family. They had a great conversation. Whenever they interacted in the community, he showed her kindness. But, everyone knew, including her, what he and his church believed about the Bible, salvation, holiness. After a few years, she left and she told her church that he was the reason she left. Because he had approached her and told her that she didn’t belong in the community.
He hadn’t.
But, as she left, she wanted to hurt his reputation, because he stood for truth.
History is full of followers of Jesus who were poor in spirit, who mourned, who were meek, who hungered for righteousness, who were merciful, who were pure in heart, who were peacemakers, and who were mistreated by their community, by their friends, by their families. Who were persecuted.
The response to these acts is rejoicing. Tim Challis points out 6 reasons to rejoice:
Persecution proves your citizenship
Persecution displays your faith
Persecution shapes your character
Persecution equips you for service
Persecution produces communion
Persecution provokes longing
All of which are reasons to rejoice.
The kingdom follower will have specific qualities which incite a specific response.
3. In Order to Produce a Specific Result
3. In Order to Produce a Specific Result
In order to produce a specific result.
None of God’s standards are random. They all have a purpose behind it.
I think about the people of Israel. God gave Moses the Law on Mount Sinai, in order to produce a nation that would be different from the nations around it. So that those nations would turn to God because of Israel showing God’s character.
Well, Israel didn’t. They decided to follow the nations instead of God and brought about God’s judgment.
Here, Jesus is sitting on mountain, giving expectations for how kingdom-followers will live, and he says the why at the very ending.
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.
“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Jesus uses two metaphors to explain the why.
First, Salt was used for a lot of different uses, preservative, flavoring agent, substance to treat wineskins, and as an agent to retard fermentation in manure so that it could be used as a fertilizer.
Salt had a lot of different uses. Unfortunately, in todays society, we normally only think of it as a flavoring agent, and we read that back into first century Israel.
As Craig Blomberg notes:
“given the amount of salt needed to preserve meat without refrigeration, it is not likely that many ancient Jews considered salt primarily as enhancing taste.”
It was a preservative, preserving food, preserving wineskins, preserving manure.
When a kingdom-follower lives as he has been called to live with the God-inspired qualities, he will be a preserving agent to society.
Sometimes that preserving process is pleasant. Most of the time it isn’t. Have you ever accidentally put salt in a cut. Kingdom-followers can be irritants, as we call the world to heed God’s standards.
Unfortunately, many times a kingdom-follower doesn’t want to be a preservative. He loses his saltiness.
More literally, this could be “is defiled.”
“This is not the scientifically impossible notion of salt becoming flavorless but rather the common problem in the ancient world of salt being mixed with various impure substances and therefore becoming worthless as a preservative.”
The only way a kingdom-follower can be a preservative is if he remains pure.
The second metaphor is light.
When someone lights a lamp, they do it in order to bring light to a room. It is idiotic for someone to light and lamp and put it under a bowl. What purpose is this?
God has placed us where we are, given us the talents and giftings we have, the personality, the thoughts, visions, and dreams, so that we might shine his light.
Two weeks ago, we talked about how Jesus was the light bursting into a dark world. Now, Jesus turns to his disciples and says: you are the light bursting into the dark world. Don’t put your light under a bowl.
We live the qualities of a kingdom follower so that society might be purified and that light might shine in the darkness.
The thing about salt and light. They can only affect a space when they are in that space. “We are not called to control secular power structures; neither are we promised that we can Christianize the legislation and values of the world. But we must remain active preservative agents.” “We dare not form isolated Christian enclaves to which the world pays no attention.”
We live as kingdom followers in order to impact the world.
The kingdom follower will have specific qualities which incite a specific response, in order to produce a specific result.
4. And Point to a Specific Being
4. And Point to a Specific Being
And to Point to a specific being.
Jesus says:
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
Our goal as a kingdom follower is to glorify our father.
The Pharisees of the day were focused on glorifying themselves. They would stand on street corners and pray really long eloquent prayers so that people would be impressed. If they ever fasted, which they normally did twice a week, they would dress in specific ways, with ashes, so that people would say: Wow! He’s a really spiritual guy. I want to be like him! And, so they would mimic the Pharisees so that other people would say: wow! he’s a spiritual guy. I want to be like him. Never ending mimicking streak.
The kingdom follower lives a specific way, so that they can be salt and light in a dark, rotting world, so that people will see their good works, but they won’t say: Wow, he’s a really spiritual guy, I want to be like him.
But that people will say: Wow, look what he’s doing. Why is he doing that? How can he do that? I want to be like him.
And we turn around and say: no. You don’t want to be like me. Let me tell you about my God. See my good deeds and glorify my God, because it is only because of him.
That is the most awesome opportunity there is. And I hope that you can live in such a way to experience that.
Now, the only way that we can live as a kingdom follower, is if we are actually a kingdom follower. If you have never turned to Jesus in faith, you can’t live this passage out. You might be able to hit one or two points here and there, but you can’t really. And you definitely will not experience the blessings. Jesus was talking to his followers.
If you don’t know what it means to be his follower, talk to someone today. Today is the day of salvation.
If you are his follower, strive for this life. But, know that these qualities are blessings which God produces in those who follow him and submit to him.
The kingdom follower has specific qualities which incite a specific response in order to produce a specific result and point to a specific being.
Let’s glorify him together this week.
