Becoming Kingdom Citizens, Part 2: Hallmarks of Holiness

So we’ve talked about serving. We’ve talked about spiritual gifts. We’ve talked about living on mission with God, using our God-given resources for the kingdom, and seeing children and youth ministry as a real mission field in itself. God has been moving in our church, because you’ve responded. At the beginning of summer, we were in a much different place than we are now, we’ve got 99% of our youth and kids stuff covered. Well done. That’s a lot of doing.

But here’s the thing: before God is concerned about any of that, he is first concerned about our character. What kind of person are you? What do you love and hate? What draws your heart and ignites your affections? We’ve talked a lot about doing this summer. And we’ve done a lot this summer.

But here’s the thing: God is more concerned about who you are on the inside than anything you can accomplish on the outside. In other words, being comes before doing. Before we are in a position to do the work of the kingdom of God, we first have to become citizens of the kingdom of God and begin to depend on God to help us develop the character of citizens of His kingdom.

Which is why two Sundays ago we looked at the Beatitudes. Becoming Kingdom Citizens.

Becoming Kingdom Citizens, Part 1: Hallmarks of Humility

Humble kingdom citizens:

Are poor in spirit

Mourn over their sin

Are patient & gentle with others

Matt. 5:1-5

So today, we take up part two of that. Becoming Kingdom Citizens. This time, part two, rather than looking at humility, we’re looking at holiness. Three hallmarks of holiness. Here’s a preview so you know where we’re going.

Becoming Kingdom Citizens, part 2: Hallmarks of Holiness

Kingdom citizens desire holiness

Kingdom citizens show others mercy

Matt. 5:6-7

Two hallmarks of holiness. Look with me, then, at these beginning with the first.

Hallmark of Holiness #1: Kingdom citizens grow in godliness

Jesus says in Matt. 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” These beatitudes have a certain formula: Jesus first pronounces a blessing on someone, then describes the kingdom person on whom He pronounces that blessing, and then describes the result, or the reward, the reason why this kind of person is blessed, which here is being satisfied.

So what does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness?

Well, first notice the language Jesus uses. He doesn’t say “Blessed are those who want righteousness.” Or “Blessed are those who think it would be good to have righteousness.” No, he says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.”

What’s the difference? Most of us here in the US haven’t known what true starvation is like, and for that we should be eternally grateful because that is not a blessing bestowed on everyone. But most of us have experienced hunger to the point where it is uncomfortable.

Like our children, it’s just this thing that happens every night, it’s time to start getting ready for bed, and all of a sudden they’re starving, uncomfortably hungry. Usually they really are hungry. They were just distracted by other things.

The other morning I woke up so hungry I felt almost sick to my stomach. There are times when hunger is so uncomfortable that all you can think about is getting something in your stomach. Have you ever been so hungry and so uncomfortably hungry that you really didn’t care what you ate, just so long as you ate something?

Then think about thirst. A couple of summers ago I had gone to Morganton where my parents live and gone jogging on my favorite trail there by the Catawba River. Came back to the car after a two mile jog (yes Travis and Rick, I’m aware that you both run about 40 miles at a time but at least it’s something!). I’m ready to get in the car and pump the AC. I can almost feel the cold air against my burning skin. I can almost taste the cold water in the bottle with ice. And I’m looking for my keys and....I don’t have them. I get that feeling you get when you’ve done something really stupid as I realized, the keys are still in the van.

Well it’s about 95 degrees and some water would be really nice. But there’s no gas station or water fountain or drink machine nearby. And it would take the towing people 3 hours to get to me because they were short staffed. I was seriously dehydrated. After about an hour I was feeling pretty bad and decided I would walk to the grocery store which felt like it was about two miles away but it probably wasn’t. Finally I got some water.

The point is, Jesus uses pictures of hunger and thirst because he wants to describe the intensity of the desire for holiness in a citizen of the kingdom. There’s an urgency to it. There’s a longing after it. You crave it. Why? Because you know you lack it.

In fact in the ancient world, the world of the Bible, hunger was a regular reality (DBI p411). Starvation was a constant possibility. So those listening to Jesus here, they would have understood just what He was saying.

Now, here’s the irony here. For those of us who have trusted in Jesus, for those of us who have turned from sin and believed on Him and been born again, you are holy. You are holy in terms of your status before God. You are holy because of your position in Christ. But you are not yet perfectly holy in practice, in your daily life, and if you claim that you are, you are claiming to be sinless.

But the irony is that even though we who are in Christ are already seen as holy by God, and even though we who are in Christ are already growing in holiness, the fact is that we are not there yet, and we will never quite make it there this side of heaven. But because we’ve been born again, because we’ve been regenerated, quickened from spiritual death to new life, we have new tastes, new desires. Previously holiness didn’t mean much to us. Now it is everything to us. We want to be holy. And there is some part of us that will never quite be at peace until we are holy.

Well, here’s the thing. There’s good news for you if you long for holiness. The good news is what Jesus adds to verse 6:"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (NIV).

Every good and godly longing that God has given to you He will one day fulfill.

Don’t miss this, okay? Note this well. Every good and godly longing that God has given to you He will one day fulfill. Every good and godly longing, every good and holy desire that God has given you He will one day fulfill. In fact, He will begin to fulfill it for you in this life.

Isaiah envisioned the day when Jesus would come to satisfy our deepest desires.

Isa. 55:1

Isaiah 55:1 NIV

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

John 6:35

John 6:35 NIV

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.

John 4:14

John 4:14 NIV

but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

So do you hunger and thirst for righteousness? I’m not asking, are you righteous? I’m not asking if you’ve already arrived. None of us have. And even those who have made lots of progress in sanctification still desire more. That’s what Jesus is asking. Do you desire it? I will give it. I don’t know about you, but I look at how much further I have to go in growing to be more like Christ, and when I see my lack, I am interested in Jesus’ promise: Matt 5:6 ““Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”

Satisfied with what? Satisfied with the thing we long for. Righteousness. Listen to this text in the apostle John’s first epistle. 1 John 3:2-3

1 John 3:2–3 NIV

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

When Jesus returns, or when we die — either way, when we see Jesus, in some mysterious way John says we will be instantly perfected, beautifully glorified, completely righteous. We won’t become God or a god. But we will be righteous. Matt 5:7 ““Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

Hallmark of Holiness #2: Kingdom citizens show others mercy

Kingdom citizens not only desire more righteousness and holiness in their lives. They desire to show other people mercy. Matt. 5:8 ““Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Jesus says the one who is willing to be merciful with others will be blessed. What does that mean?

Well first of all, why don’t we talk about what “blessed” means? Here’s a hint - it doesn’t mean here quite what we might think it means.

The meaning of “blessed”

“Blessed” basically means “happy”

Happiness in the truest sense — joy

“Enviable” — “Fortunate” - “Privileged”

What I’m about to say is something I don’t say lightly. But today I’m going to say it. I don’t usually say it because I don’t want you to lose confidence in your translations because for they are trustworthy. But what I want to say is that when our English translations in the beatitudes translate all these with the word “blessed”, it is not the best translation in the world. It’s not very helpful. Why is that?

“Blessed” isn’t actually the best translation of the Greek. There is a Greek word that means “blessed”, but it’s not the word that’s used here. The Greek word used here is more like “happy”, “fortunate”, “enviable”. Almost all NT scholars agree on this. The better term is happy, fortunate, enviable. Why do the translations have “blessed”? I honestly don’t know.

Happy are those who grieve. Happy are those who mourn, Jesus says. Happy are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Happy are those who are merciful. Those who are willing to show mercy to others, Jesus says you’re among some of the happiest people in the world. Why? Hear it from Jesus: Matt 5:7 ““Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

Okay, so what is mercy? It’s easier to tell you a story that illustrates than it is to define it.

How many of you have seen the pictures that have come out of Afghanistan in recent days? Those people are desperate. They need rescue. They need deliverance. They’re vulnerable. They’re not protected, not by their own government, not even by our government. God commands us to seek justice for the orphan and the widow and the oppressed. God is taking note. He sees. Our governing leaders will answer for what they have done.

They need mercy, not abandonment. They identified the young man who died by falling off the airplane as it was getting airborne. His name was Zaki Anwari, a teenage soccer player who had dreams of playing for Afghanistan’s national soccer team. Somehow, he managed to hold onto the outside of a US military C-17 jet as it became airborne but of course as the plane climbed and increased in speed he fell to his death. A spokesman for the Afghan sports federation said that Zaki had told him that with the Taliban in control, his dreams of playing soccer were shot. He added, “Zaki had no hope, and wanted a better life.” Just a couple of years older than my son. He seriously believed that clinging to a departing military plane, no matter what became of him, would be better than living under Taliban rule.

Mercy vs. grace

Grace extends forgiveness when we’ve sinned

Mercy extends rescue when we’re in trouble

That is the kind of situation, the kind of person, the kind of pain and danger, that mercy extends itself to. Mercy and grace are different, by the way. I really enjoyed reading Martin Lloyd-Jones’ book on the sermon on the mount this week. And I like what he says about mercy vs. grace. Both are rooted in God’s love and compassion, he says. But grace is God’s compassion extending itself to man in sin and in need of forgiveness, while mercy is God’s compassion reaching out to man in trouble and in need of rescue. [Lloyd-Jones, p99]

Sometimes we need mercy because we’re suffering the consequences of sin and we’re in trouble. Sometimes we need mercy because we’re in danger through no fault of our own. You may not have experienced it before, but you certainly will at some point: at some point you will be in trouble, either of your own doing or someone else’s doing, and you will need mercy. You will want mercy. Jesus says those who receive mercy are merciful people.

Am I a merciful person? Here’s a good a way to find out.

Let’s say you go out to lunch today after church. Don’t even try to beat the Methodists today because we’re having the Lord’s Supper after this. :) But let’s say you go out and you experience terrible service. Just completely terrible service. You wait 20 minutes to get your order taken. 30 minutes later the server comes out and says “I’m sorry, I forgot to put your order in, it isn’t even started yet. It’ll be out shortly.” It comes out and it’s wrong. You send it back, and they fix it and bring it back to you. It’s right this time, but then you get your check. And you’ve been overcharged.

Now we’ve all been there. And by the way some of us have also been the servers who have done those kinds of things. It’s extremely frustrating and stressful for both you and the server.

But now the question is: how am I going to act toward the server? You’re not his boss, but he is serving you and you expect a certain level of quality. Rightly so. But here’s the key consideration. Turn to your sermon buddy and say “this is the key consideration”. You are a Christian. You are representing Jesus Christ. You are at that table in that seat as an ambassador sent to minister to everyone you come across in the name of the Savior Jesus Christ.

It would be understandable if you just let the server have it. But would it be the Christlike thing to do? More to the point, would it be the merciful thing to do?

Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful”. Blessed are those who have it within their power and are within their right to lay in to someone but by the Spirit’s help they restrain their anger, put on a smile, say to the server “You know, I’m sure your job is really stressful. I don’t know if I could do it. Either way, I hope your day gets better. God loves you and will forgive all your sin through Christ if you trust in Him. I’d love to see you at our church this Sunday. Either way, God bless you and I hope your day gets better from here.”

Then you tip her and walk to your car happy, blessed, and Jesus is pleased. The alternative is to attack your server, embarrass him, tell his manager, stiff him, storm out, get in your car angry and stay angry until you get your Starbucks fix. We’ve all done that. But church isn’t it so much better to show mercy?

It’s better for another reason, too - a more important reason. Look at the promise attached to this.

Matthew 5:7 NIV

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

It’s on your screen. “Blessed are the merciful, for” - read it with me “for they shall receive mercy.” This doesn’t mean that your salvation is conditioned on you being merciful to others. This isn’t works salvation. You don’t earn mercy from God by being merciful to others. If you could earn it, it wouldn’t be mercy; it would be your due. [Arthur Pink, p. 32]

So you don’t earn mercy from God by being merciful. That’s not what Jesus is saying. What Jesus is saying is that if you have been forgiven by God, if you have experienced His grace, if you’ve been the benefit of His salvation, if you have by faith been justified and set right with God - in other words, if you’ve been shown mercy - that is such a transforming experience that it cannot help but to make you a merciful person.

The word “mercy” in the New Testament

1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians and Philippians = 1x = 3

1 Timothy & 1 Peter = 2x = 4

Mark = 3x

Luke = 4x

Romans = 6x

Matthew = 8x

Something really cool I want you to see. How many of you like numbers and math and all that? Head count? I actually don’t, but I do in this case. Matthew has a real interest in Jesus’ mercy. Here’s why I say that. I got curious when I was studying this text. I wondered how many times Matthew’s gospel uses the word “show mercy” compared with all the others. So look at the screen. 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians and Philippians each have the word once, so that’s three times. 1 Timothy and 1 Peter each have the word twice, so that’s four times. Mark uses it three times. Luke uses it four times. Romans uses it six times. And Mathew uses it eight times.

What that tells me is that for Matthew Jesus was pre-eminently the Righteous One. The two blind men following after Jesus cry “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” (Matt. 9:27 NASB). The Canaanite woman with a demon-possessed daughter does the same: “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David” (Matt. 15:22 NASB). The father with a demon possessed son says “Lord, have mercy on my son” (Matt. 17:15 NASB). Again two blind men sitting by the side of the road cry out “Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David!” (Matt. 20:30 NASB). The crowd tries to shut them up but they cry out all the louder, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!”

Jesus is the Merciful One. I wonder if Matthew was so taken with the mercy of Jesus because He himself was so in need of it. Matthew was a tax collector. I don’t know for sure about that, but this I do know: to experience Jesus Christ is to experience mercy. And having experienced His mercy, Jesus the Merciful One expects us to imitate Him. He says in Matt. 18:33 “And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’” (Matt. 18:33 ESV).

Kingdom citizens desire godliness. And kingdom citizens show others mercy. In other words, kingdom citizens cultivate holiness.

Steps toward holiness

Realize that you can’t do it

Realize that you need God’s help

Realize that you need your church family’s help

Start somewhere, wherever God is convicting you now

Set practical goals (reminders on your phone, etc.)

Conclusion and call for response

Before I was born, before even the creation of the world or the beginning of time, Jesus saw my brokenness, saw the guilt and shame from my sin; He saw the strife it would create in my life and relationships. He saw the pain it would cause me, He saw the dishonor it brought to God. He also saw the end and eternal result, an eternity spent separated from Him in conscious torment. He saw all of my sin and all the damage it would do, and He saw yours. And He felt pity, and He acted.

How did He act? How did He go beyond just the feeling of compassion and act upon it? He left His throne at the right hand of the Father. He took on a human body and a human nature. He didn’t lay aside His deity; no, rather He added humanity to His divinity. Jesus is the God-Man, the place where God and man can meet and be reconciled. Jesus is able to be our Savior because He lived an obedient life for us, the life we should have lived; and He died for us, the death we deserved.

And He did all of this in our place, as our substitute, as our representative. His death satisfied the requirements of God’s law which we broke; His death absorbed the wrath of God due to us. Now anyone who will merely say “God, I am nothing, I have nothing to offer you. I’m a sinner. I deserve wrath. But I trust what your word says, that your Son has provided salvation for me. I want to be yours. Save me.” Anyone who can sincerely do that will be shown mercy.

Kingdom citizens are called to be holy. But it is not our holiness that saves us. Christ saves us. And in response to His saving us, as a response of worship, as a response of gratitude, we desire holiness. We work toward holiness. We fall. We confess. Our Savior picks us up and puts us back on the path of discipleship. That may happen again and again and again. But the general direction of your will be toward holiness.

One of the ways we grow in holiness is by observing the Lord’s Supper. That’s what is before us this morning. What is it that happens when we take the Lord’s Supper? It’s nothing magical. It doesn’t by itself make you holy. But if you do it rightly, it strengthens your faith. I just preached the word of God to you. The sermon is the gospel in verbal form. The Lord’s Supper is the gospel in visible form. The bread is a picture of Jesus’ body. The drink is a picture of His shed blood. You eat the bread and you drink the drink. Jesus wants us to eat and drink this because He wants us to understand that His death is our source of life, our source of nourishment.

And if you’ve trusted in Christ for your salvation and you’re a member of a like-minded church, Jesus invites you to His table today.

We’re going to observe the supper. We’re going to spend some time in prayer, responding to what God has shown us. And then we’re going to do something different. We aren’t going to close with a traditional invitation song. We’re going to respond with a worship celebration. The Lord’s Supper should now make us sad. We approach it with reverence. We take it seriously. But when it’s over we stand to our feet and sing at the top of our lungs.

After all, what is worship? Worship is gratitude in our hearts for what God has done for us. Worship is that gratitude welling up in our hearts and overflowing and expressing itself in our physical bodies - raised voices, raised hands, grateful hearts. Will you stand with me as we pray?