The Upside-Down Kingdom

Intro

[Thank worship team]

Good morning Bethel Church, and good morning to our network of rural churches that are joining us live on YouTube. And if you are new here, I want to extend a special welcome to you. If you would, there are “Connect” cards in the seat in front of you. If you would fill that out there or at the Welcome Center outside of the sanctuary. We even have a free gift for you if you are new to Bethel. We would love to get in touch with you and discuss how to get connected to our church family.

Announcements:

[Announcement 1]

[Announcement 2]

Today we will begin our study of Summer On The Mount. If you are reading out of the Bibles in front of you, our passage can be found on page 824. If you do not have a Bible, please stop by the Welcome Center and take one. It is our gift to you.

TRANS: Pray

Opening Hook

[Story, question, setup]

Matthew 5:1–2 ESV

1 Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going

Jesus is the fulfillment of Moses and Israel.

Matthew 5:1-2

Matthew 2:15 ESV

15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

Deuteronomy 18:15 ESV

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen—

The implication is significant: Jesus is teaching the new law as the new Moses for the new people of God.1

1 Scot McKnight, Sermon on the Mount, ed. Tremper Longman III and Scot McKnight, The Story of God Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013), 24.

Here’s the essence of what Jesus is going to teach: We are blessed when we live in the upside-down kingdom.

10 Key Concepts Bookmark

All of you should have received a bookmark in your bulletin today. These cover what I’m calling 10 key concepts from the sermon on the mount. We will reference this throughout the series. This is so that we can create a foundation for Jesus’ teachings. Sometimes Jesus uses terms that are packed with meaning, but that meaning is lost on us. This will help us grasp what Jesus is teaching.

Some weeks we will cover just one key concept, and others we will cover several (like today). So keep this with you in your Bible so you can go back to it throughout our series.

Jesus begins His sermon with several one liners, all beginning with the word “blessed.” Blessed is one of our key concepts:

Blessing

Blessing is not getting everything you want, but having God in whatever you face.

Matthew 5:3–12

TRANS: With this in mind, let us begin.

Matthew 5:3 ESV

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The Beatitudes

Blessings begin from humility.

Matthew 5:3

The one who is “poor in spirit” is the one who recognizes their spiritual neediness, and therefore lives a life of depending on God. In other words, humility.

Here is how Jesus starts His sermon:

When you depend on God, you are blessed.

When you are humble, God is with you.

When you depend on God, you experience the Kingdom.

“For theirs is the Kingdom.” This is another of our 10 key concepts, “Kingdom.”

Kingdom

The kingdom is not just where you go one day; it’s living under His rule today.

Matthew 5:3, 10, 19–20; 6:10, 33; 7:21

Notice that those who are humble receive something that is of great value. Not based on merit, but based on the God who gives. This is Grace, one of our key concepts:

Grace

Grace is God giving you what you could never earn.

Matthew 5:3, 7, 9; 6:12, 14–15; 7:7–11

In just the first verse, you can see how important these key concepts will be in this series. When we grasp the teachings of Jesus, and we live by them, we live a blessed life.

All of that starts with humility. With spiritual neediness. This is backwards from what the world teaches. The world teaches,

“never show weakness,”

“portray strength and a strong image,”

“figure it out yourself,”

“Anything that you want you must earn.”

Notice that in some situations these things can actually be good advice! Perhaps you need to take more personal responsibility. But when it comes to our relationship with God, these things come from hidden pride that says, “i don’t need God’s help. I can earn my way in.”

But Jesus teaches, “those who belong to my Kingdom are the ones that know they don’t deserve it.” It’s upside-down compared to the world. Kingdom-living starts with broken and need. It starts with humility. And when we live in humility, we are blessed.

TRANS: Jesus teaches about a kingdom that is upside down compared to worldly values. And he continues on this train of thought when continuing to talk about how to live a blessed life:

Matthew 5:4–8 ESV

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. 5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. 6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. 7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. 8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

The Kingdom flips worldly patterns.

Matthew 5:4-8

Mourn -> Comforted

The Gospel of Matthew f. The Eschatological Character of the Promises

For those who, as God’s people, find their current situation intolerable and incomprehensible, there are better times ahead.

Kingdom-living gives us reason to feel comforted in our discomfort, because Jesus promises that the future joy will far outweigh any present sorrow.

Meek -> Inherit

Meek entails someone who is teachable and not arrogant, one who is willing to learn and not defensive. To paint a picture, they don’t throw their weight around to get their way. Ironically, Jesus is saying, “success comes to those who are humble enough to learn from others rather than brutishly pushing forward.”

Hunger/thirst for righteousness -> satisfied

Righteousness, being one of our 10 key concepts,

Righteousness

Righteousness is a changed life flowing from a changed heart.

Matthew 5:6, 10, 20; 6:1, 33

If your heart feels restless and unsettled, seek righteousness. Seek Christ. And He will change you from the inside out, and this is deeply satisfying. The greatly influential early church leader, Augustine, famously said, “my heart is restless until it finds it’s rest in You.”

Merciful -> receive mercy

R.T. France has perhaps the best explanation of this:

it is a generous attitude which is willing to see things from the other’s point of view and is not quick to take offense or to gloat over others’ shortcomings1

1 R. T. France, The Gospel of Matthew, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publication Co., 2007), 168.

And when we live this way, we can expect God to deal with us in the same way. We must be careful not to get this backwards, though. Kingdom living is about those who have received mercy from God, and so extend mercy to others. This pattern is then cyclical. As we live from the mercy we received from God, and extend mercy, we see God continue to deal with us in a merciful way.

Practically speaking. I spend time with many people who have walked with Jesus longer than I have. And a theme I hear from them is this word, “mercy.” “He has been merciful to me.” I think what they mean is, “I know I have had my fair share of shortcomings, but God has shown me mercy.” And these are the same people who are merciful to others.

Some of the harshest people I know are the ones who have never experienced God’s mercy. But blessed are the merciful.

Pure in heart -> see God

Last in this section is the “Pure in heart.” Likely, Jesus is drawing upon Old Testament imagery to make a point:

Psalm 24:3–5 ESV

3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. 5 He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Those who see God are not those who “look the part,” but those have a changed heart. Jesus teaches against those who are acting like they know God by focusing on external things, but their hearts are far from God. If you want to see God, you must know God as your savior and Lord. When you do, God promises to give you a new heart.

Ezekiel 36:26 ESV

26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

TRANS: The kingdom flips worldly patterns. But Jesus then anticipates an objection. Because living this way would make people stick out like a sore thumb. “what if there are consequences? What if I am rejected or hated?” Jesus anticipates this:

Matthew 5:9–12 ESV

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. 10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Kingdom-living is worth it, no matter the cost.

Matthew 5:9-12

Jesus is drawing on what his primarily Jewish audience would have known, that many of the prophets of Israel were hated and reviled, yet they did it because they were called by God to deliver a message.

Now Jesus is saying that rather than sending one person to deliver a message to a nation, Jesus was raising up a magnitude of “prophets” to deliver a message to the world. Listeners would have thought, “wait, this job is just for the select few!” But Jesus is saying, that important job of the prophet is being extended to all who belong to His Kingdom.

But you know what Jesus calls such people who are willing to do whatever the King calls them to? Blessed.

If you are hated simply for being a Christian, you are blessed.

If you are falsely accused simply for being a Christian, you are blessed.

If you experience suffering simply for being a Christian, you are blessed.

Kingdom-living is worth it, no matter the cost. Because blessing is not getting everything you want, but having God in whatever you face.

But there is a tension, because in some respects we experience the blessings of the Kingdom here on earth, and in other respects we will not fully realize such blessings until we are with Jesus in heaven. This is what Bible scholars have referred to as, “already, and not yet.” The Kingdom has already arrived, and the Kingdom has not fully arrived. “Already, and not yet.”

The temptation is to fixate on one or the other. But when we emphasize one and not the other, we may get an overly rosy and naïve picture of the world, or an overly gloomy and pessimistic picture of the world.

Jeannine K Brown illustrates this perfectly…

The beatitudes are a pronouncement of blessings and reversals

Children’s Book: Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne. One might compare the tendency in some parts of the church to overemphasize the “already” with Tigger in Milne’s Winnie the Pooh stories: enthusiastic to a fault. We ought not to sketch the present life as a utopian vision that conveniently ignores the presence of suffering and evil. Eeyore, on the other hand, might be analogous to those perspectives that overemphasize the “not yet” of the kingdom: living as if God’s reign has not already begun in Jesus. Matthew, along with the other New Testament writers, strikes a careful balance, providing Christians guidance for how to live in light of the kingdom’s arrival yet before its final consummation.

1 Jeannine K. Brown, Matthew, ed. Mark L. Strauss and John H. Walton, Teach the Text Commentary Series (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015), 57.

But the Kingdom is not just where you go one day; it’s living under His rule today. Already, and not yet. And this “already” emphasis book ends the Beatitudes.

TRANS: Blessings begin from humility, the Kingdom flips worldly patterns, and Kingdom-living is worth it, no matter the cost.

Two Questions

Am I a citizen of the Kingdom?

What do you think of when I ask that question?

Dress Up “Christianity”

Yesterday I was playing with some hot wheel cars with my kids. We have a long track that can reach from the top of the stairs beyond the bottom of the stairs, so we were launching them into the living room. But of course, my youngest of the three, Addy, was in her own little 3-year-old world playing dress up.

While I am launching cars down the stairs, Addy is gathering her doctor bag and having me put on her doctor outfit. Again, off in her own little world.

Let me ask an obvious question: Is my 3-year-old daughter a doctor? No. I could say a lot of things about her lack of education and experience, but the bottom line is that no one has hired her for that role.

Here’s a temptation when we consider the question, “Am I a citizen of the Kingdom?” We start to put weight not on our relationship with Jesus, but on all the stuff we have done for Jesus. But to get ahead of myself in the Sermon on the Mount, there are MANY deceived people who look the part but are not citizens. They’re playing spiritual dress up.

But Jesus says in Matthew 7:22-23

Matthew 7:22–23 ESV

22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23 And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

The question is not “have I done things that I think a citizen would do?” The question is, “has Jesus made me a citizen?” That only occurs by faith in Him, not in pridefully trusting in your own works.

The question is not, “do I look the part?” but rather, “Do I know Him?” And more importantly, “does He know me?”

The Gospel

Recognize your need (humility, Spiritual poverty, unable to fix yourself)

Reach out to Jesus (for forgiveness of your sin,

TRANS: But perhaps you ARE a citizen of the Kingdom, but you are growing in your obedience to the King. As He walks with you and helps you, there is a process where you keep giving up control and you trust in Him. As you do that, you experience His blessings consistently rather than haphazardly. Here’s the final thought:

What must I surrender to receive the blessings Jesus promises?

Kingdom citizenship changes how we see everything: suffering, success, conflict, righteousness, mercy, purity, and opposition. Jesus is not calling His people to blend in with worldly values while adding religious language. He is forming a people whose lives display the reality of His rule.

But all of us are in-process. There is no perfect citizen of Jesus’ Kingdom here on this earth. But that does not excuse us from growth!

Ask Him, what must I surrender? Review this list of blessings that come from obedience to God. What is preventing you from receiving them?

Focus on the wrong things

Take verse 6 for example. Do you hunger and thirst for Righteousness? Do you *crave* the things of God? Or are your cravings leading you in a different direction?

If you miss a week of connecting with fellow Christians, do you feel like you missed something?

If you didn’t have time to read your Bible, do you feel spiritually hungry?

If you have not prayed for a few days, do you feel spiritually weak?

But as Ben preached about last week, distractions lead us into all kinds of anxieties, but connection with God brings peace. What has your focus?

Not Following Through When Prompted

If you belong to the Kingdom, then you are being helped by the King to live as a citizen. You begin to recognize a prompting that does not originate from you, yet is apparent in your mind or your heart, to do the right thing.

This is more than your conscience, although God works through our conscience. This is His Voice, His prompting, His leading, and you know the right thing to do… but you ignore it. Why? Are you afraid of what will happen? Trust in Him that He who leads you to the right thing will give you what you need to persevere.

Listen for His voice, and be blessed.

Unwilling to “stick out”

This one sets up next week, so I will leave you with a bit of a “teaser.” If you read the blessings and think, “give me all of them except verses 10-12” (the verses about hardship, persecution, and having negative relational consequences due to your faith) you may have bought the lie that to follow Jesus is a private affair.

But faith is not private, and we will talk more about that next week.

Conclusion : We are blessed when we live in the upside-down kingdom. Jesus is challenging us to reject the “wisdom” of the world, and to pursue the blessed life according to how He defines it.

Pray

Talk About It/Think About It

How does seeing Jesus as the fulfillment of Moses and Israel help us understand the Sermon on the Mount?

Why does it matter that Jesus is not simply giving good advice, but announcing the way of His Kingdom?

Why is humility the doorway into the Kingdom rather than confidence in our own strength?

Talk about why these blessings are opposite to what the world usually celebrates: mourning, meekness, hungering for righteousness, mercy, purity of heart, peacemaking.

Why does Jesus connect Kingdom blessing with persecution?

What is the difference between admiring the values of Jesus’ Kingdom and actually belonging to the King?

What is one area of life where following Jesus may require you to live differently from the world around you?