Being the Church - Following & Practising the Way of Jesus

Become Like Jesus.

We are looking at what it means to follow and practise the way of Jesus. We have thought about:

Being with Jesus in Scripture; Sabbath; Solitude & Silence and Simplicity.

We are now thinking of what it means to become like Jesus and to do this we will focus on Matthew chapters 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount which contains Christ’s teaching on what it means to live as as citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven.

We become like Jesus through the process of discipleship.

Discipleship as we have already seen begins with spending time with or being with Jesus.

This is an ongoing, formative process through which we become more and more like Jesus - to use the language of our last Sunday sermon from 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 - a process in which we get sanctified “through and through.”

This happens as the life and teaching of Jesus, is modelled for us; influences our lives because we keep company with Him and reproduces His character in us by the agency of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus, teaching challenges our behaviour, renews our minds and resets our values:

His Spirit in us, transforms our lifestyle by empowering and enabling us to live more and more to righteousness and less and less to sin!

This is spiritual formation, which is as Dallas Willard suggests: “Spiritual formation in the tradition of Jesus Christ is the process of transformation of the inmost dimension of the human being, the heart, which is the same as the spirit or will. It is being formed (really, transformed) in such a way that its natural expression comes to be the deeds of Christ done in the power of Christ.” - https://dwillard.org/articles/spiritual-formation-what-it-is-and-how-it-is-done.

It’s also important for us to note that Jesus intends us to learn how to do this in Community and this introduces us to one of the really BIG IDEAS of Jesus ministry - the Kingdom of God which he came to introduce, and is here and is operative in the world.

His preaching announces that the Kingdom of God is at hand; available for entry and requiring a lifestyle of behaviour in community, which will transform the world.

And so He teaches us and calls upon us to practice His teaching and we are going to spend some time in Matthew 5-7 to learn what it is to follow and practice the way of Jesus in order that we might become more like Him!

And this really does take practice - like I really would like to be a great keyboard player but the truth is I just don’t practice enough and I could pray about it and ask God to give me a gift of keyboard playing, but its very unlikely that this will happen, its not the way it works - you get better by practice, its the same with discipleship. It takes effort and purposeful intention to become the kind of people Jesus wants us to become.

Question 1 - In what ways can we learn and practice to become like Jesus?

We become like Jesus by manifesting the attitudes that bring the blessings of God’s Kingdom to earth!

These are described for us in Matthew 5:1-11 and they reveal themselves in decades of spiritual formation as we seek to follow and practise the way of Jesus.

“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 sons 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.”

Becoming like Jesus begins in the Heart - Spiritual Transformation happens from the Inside Out!

Scripture points us to the heart as the place in human personality that is at the centre of spiritual formation:

Proverbs 4:20-24 reminds us to keep the words of God’s wisdom “within your heart” for “they are life to those who find them, and health to a man’s body.” So the exhortation, “above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.” (v. 23)

Mark 7:15, 20-23, Jesus teaches about the true source of evil in human life: “what comes out of a man makes him unclean.... For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.”

In Luke 6:43-45, Jesus points out that “no good tree bears bad fruit nor does a bad tree produce good fruit…People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers.” It is the inner nature of the tree that determines its outward product. Likewise, “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”

The heart matters because Jesus says: Matthew 5:20: “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

The Pharisees had a righteousness that was concerned about the deed, the act itself, not stealing, not murdering, not committing adultery. Outward conformity to the law. It was primarily motivated by the desire to “be seen by men”(Matthew 6:1)

Jesus in contrast challenges that conception of righteousness saying: “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder,a and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca’, is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell...You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:21-22,27-28).

Jesus is saying here that what counts in heart-intention. You are not simply to be a person who has never murdered anyone, you are to be the kind of person who would not murder anyone even if you could and get away with it! You are not simply to be a person who has never committed adultery but a one who would not even if you could and get away with it! This is much more testing. This is deep righteousness; it speaks of what is going on in the heart!

And the primary motivation for this kind of righteousness comes from the heart! It is an act of agape “love” to God and your fellow men, your neighbours who you “are to love..as yourself” and even your “enemies.”(Matt 5:44). see Rom 5:5;Col 3:5-14.

2. Becoming like Jesus manifests itself in attitudinal characteristics that are seen in the lifestyle and are rewarded by God.

It’s disputable as to whether just some, or in fact all of the traits here are regarded as negative from a worldly perspective:

Negatively you might say that being “poor in spirit”; “those who mourn”; “the meek”; “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness"; “those who are persecuted.”

Positively however you may include, being “merciful”; being “pure in heart”; being “peacemakers” as admirable, but this really does depend on perspective because to a worldly person these may not be considered good qualities at all!

It may be that Jesus is drawing attention to the fact that what some people may find distasteful and unblessable, God actually blesses and rewards.

What Jesus is pointing out here is that people who are truly happy exhibit these qualities of life and heart. Who says so? God says so!

the beatitudes are a striking contrast between the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of heaven: Pride vs. Humility. Revelry vs. Mourning. Oppressive Use of Power vs. Meekness. Hunger for Personal Gratification vs. Hunger for Righteousness. Vindictive vs. Merciful. Hidden Agendas vs. Purity of Heart. Divisive vs. Peacemakers. Acceptance vs. Persecution.

The beatitudes show us the upside down nature of the kingdom of heaven which stands in stark contrast to the world! That is why Jesus says in Luke 6:24-26: “But woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets.”

This is a complete reversal of how things are in the Kingdom of this earth! Those in the Kingdom of this earth believe and are told that the rich and well fed and those without a care in this world and those with great reputations are blessed but not so in the Kingdom of God.

For Jesus it is “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now for you will laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.” (Luke 6:20-22).

Now, this is important because Jesus is not giving us a “set of “how-tos” for achieving blessedness.”(Dallas Willard).

“They would then only amount to a new legalism. They would not serve to throw open the kingdom—anything but. They would impose a new brand of Phariseeism, a new way of closing the door—as well as some very gratifying new possibilities for the human engineering of righteousness.” ― Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God.

Jesus is not giving us a list of things we must do in order to get saved, for that would be works salvation. Instead, the beatitudes are evidences, marks of what kingdom people look like, of what Christians look like.

We are not to think of the Beatitudes, as Jesus' command for us to try harder to be even more poor in spirit than we currently are; even more meeker or even more mournful over sin or absurdly to seek even more persecution in order to be blessed by God.

We are to see them as the very attitude of heart that makes room for God’s gracious favour and helps us live, love and serve Him now in the Kingdom of Heaven.

As D.A. Carson put it: “Nevertheless, I insist that if the Sermon on the Mount be construed merely as legal requirement to kingdom entrance, no one shall ever enter: can anyone meditate long on Matthew 5-7 and remain unashamed? The Sermon on the Mount provides us with a crushing blow to self-righteousness and follows it up with an invitation to petition God for favor (7:7-11), without which there can be no admittance to the kingdom. At the same time it sketches in the quality of life of those who do enter, those who petition God, ask for forgiveness, and who by God’s grace discover not only forgiveness but a growing personal conformity to kingdom norms. It is not long before their own lives begin to sum up the law and the prophets”- D.A. Carson, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount and His Confrontation with the World.

We should recognise ourselves here!

Our values and outlook in life are conditioned not by the attitudes of the world but those of the Kingdom of God. which are created in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and reveal themselves in our actions and reactions in our everyday lives. Our way of being in the world.

This is about our character - “the intention of God is that we should each become the kind of person whom he can set free in his universe, empowered to do what we want to do. Just as we desire and intend this, so far as possible, for our children and others we love, so God desires and intends it for his children. But character, the inner directedness of the self, must develop to the point where that is possible.” ― Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God

It’s important that we see that the blessed life here and now, not just future!

When Jesus speaks about the Kingdom of Heaven, he is not referring only to the future but to the now.

“The Kingdom of Heaven is within you”, He says(Luke 17:20-21)

This is not about Heaven when we die! - it is about the attitudes and values I exhibit as a citizen of the Kingdom which God rewards, even whilst the worldly man may despise.

Notice that the beatitudes are book-ended with “the Kingdom of Heaven” at the start and at the end with all those in between, e.g. those who are “merciful”, receiving “mercy…in the Kingdom of Heaven”

So when I am experiencing difficulties as a result of manifesting these characteristics I am also comforted by the Holy Spirit knowing that where when I am aware of my own absolute poverty of spirit and know how much I need God, I am blessed; when I am meek and poor; hungering and thirsting for righteousness; merciful; pure in heart and being a peacemaker and being persecuted for righteousness sake, then however despised by the world these things are, they are the conditions of heart and life in which I am being blessed by God and will be eternally rewarded.

It is a way of being in the world!

Question 2 - If you were to include your own Beatitude for living as a member of the Kingdom of Heaven today, what would it be?

And its a way of becoming like Jesus:

He was poor, having “no place to lay His head”(Mtt 8:20) and “by His poverty” coming to earth to save me and make me “rich”(2 Cor 8:9)

He mourned as “a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering”(Isa 53:3) as He wept over Jerusalem’s sinful rebellion (see Mtt 23:34-39) and mourned with those whose lives had been vanquished of hope due to the death of a loved one like Lazarus(see Joh 11:35).

He was “meek and lowly of heart”(Mtt 11:28-29) and as we come to him we “find rest for our souls”

He hungered and thirsted after righteousness, having “food to eat” that we know nothing of...my food is to do the will of Him who sent me.”(Joh 4:32-34).

He was merciful, teaching us “to forgive others” as we would be forgiven ourselves and showing forgiveness to those who crucified Him saying, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”(Lk 23:34).

He was “pure in heart”, having a single-eyed devotion to doing His Father’s will and having pure motives in His dealings with others.

He was a peacemaker, “the Prince of Peace”(Isa 9:6) reconciling God to men and men to God and men to men.

He was persecuted for righteousness sake, insulted and treated horrendously because of His love for God and His determination to do God’s will!

And “as He is, so are we in the world”(1 Joh 4:17) - This is the pathway He modelled and we are called to follow in His steps, taking up our cross and following Him - see 1 Pet 2:21; Luk 9:23.

Application - Do You Believe that you can really change and become like Jesus in your attitudes of heart and your reactions to events in life?

Are you happy and comfortable with being “poor in spirit”, knowing your spiritually bankrupt and deficient , a spiritual beggar who has entered the Kingdom of God by grace and who lives in it comfortably in utter dependence upon that grace, everyday as a member of the kingdom of heaven.

Are you content in your mourning; happy in your sadness as you weep for your own sins and the sins of the world, knowing that you also will in turn be comforted by the Holy Spirit within.

Are you confident in your meekness, gentle and mild, in the face of the intimidating and assertive, because you know it will be you, not they who will will inherit the earth.

Are you hungry and thirsty for righteousness, conscious of a deep need within that not only you yourself but others will be right with God and live in alignment to His will because then and only then can you be completely filled and satisfied in life.

Are you willing to be merciful, accepting that sometimes you will be “taken advantage of” because of the kindness and generosity of your heart, because you know that you also will receive mercy.

Are you fully focused on doing the will of God from your heart and truly motivated by a pure desire to do good for others with no self-serving motive for you know that such who live this way will see God.

Do you make it your goal to be a peacemaker, to be the kind of person that settles rather than fans disputes; being in the middle of conflict with the sole aim of bringing reconciliation. If so you will “be called children of God.”

Do you accept that sometimes you will be “persecuted for righteousness’ sake” as you stand up for what is right. This may mean that you will be reviled, persecuted, treated falsely on account of your faith in Jesus but you can still “rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

However hard this might be - and it will - this is the happy life of those who are members of the Kingdom of God - the reflective life of those who are becoming like Jesus!

Question 3 - Ask one or two in your group to share a brief testimony on how adopting the attitudes of the Kingdom of Heaven in the past have helped them honour Jesus in a particularly difficult or challenging situation.