Life in the Knigdom

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 104:1-18

Scripture Reading: Deut 7:6-9 (Forrest)

Deuteronomy 7:6–9 ESV

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,

Sermon

GMC! I was Glad when they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord!

We have, once again a lot to cover today, so before we dive in lets begin with reading our passage then with a word of prayer.

READ: Matthew 5:2-16.

PRAY

God Almighty, ruler of heaven and earth, we thank you and praise you for your continued faithfulness. Thank you for giving us, each and every moment mercy and grace. You have been good to us. Thank you for the privileged and blessing of being able to gather as your people, as the ones that you so graciously called out of darkness and into wonderful light. Thank you for the gift of new life that we celebrate even as we celebrate the gift of a new year. Thank you for your word, given that we may know you, love you, and know what you would desire of us. I pray that you would teach us according to your word today, that you would see fit to cause our hearts to be good soil, that your word would take deep root and grow and flourish and change us. Help us to be a people that are those who live by a faith alive and well as evidenced by our lives as we seek to follow your commands. In Jesus name we pray. AMEN

Last Sunday I challenged myself to fit an entire Sermon series into one week, this week it is a little easier, just the fist part of the that series. Today we will be talking about the beatitudes and the pictures of both salt and light. When I was in college I heard an example from another pastor that I think is helpful so I am going to steal it.

Lets imagine that for just a minute we are going to study a forest. It seems to me like there are two ways that you can do that effectively. One is to look at it on a tree by tree basis. you look at how each one grows, its type, how it fits in with it’s surroundings, ask what does it add to the forest. and you could do that over and over again and to do so you might have a very good idea of what the forest is like. The other way is to look at ht whole forest as one thing. take the 2000 foot view, see its various biomes and features from afar. Neither one is right, they are just different, and these different approaches will let you see different things about them. The goal is that these studies, what boils down to biology verses forestry should be complementary if done right.

Well we usually take the first view in regards to how we approach scripture. We take it verse by verse seeing how they interact and live in their space. This week, like last week and, fair warning, for the next few weeks, we are taking a much more 20,000 foot view as we study the Sermon on the mount. We are looking for big pictures.

As we noted last week ultimately this Sermon is about the authority of Jesus, but it is helpful to think through the sermon as specifically the authority he has as king over his kingdom. Jesus as the king is, in some ways, laying the groundwork for what HIS kingdom is to be like. And so he starts with the beatitudes, and Jesus teaches us KINGDOM ATTITUDES

Jesus teaches kingdom ATTITUDES

As Jesus opens up this kingdom discourse he starts with a series of blessings that paints a beautiful picture. it is the picture of those who posses the kingdom of heaven. I try and limit grammar talk, because, true story, I once got a detention in High school because i was “disrespectful” to a my grammar teacher when I belligerently refused to understand a finer point of grammar because i felt it was useless. Fast forward some 25 years and I love it, but there is a part of me that sympathizes with the grammar haters. But this one is easy. So look with me to the first beatitude verse 3 and note the blessing.

Matthew 5:3 ESV

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

now look at verse 15. Matthew 5:10

Matthew 5:10 ESV

“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

what I want us to see is that these blessings are the exact same. in both theirs IS the kingdom of heaven. so point one is that whenever you see the tip and the tail of a section have the same exact langue that is a clue that something is going on. and what makes this interesting is to note the verb IS. that is present tense. theirs is, currently, NOW they are currently those who hold the kingdom of heaven. Now listen as i read the other blessings.

verse 4 they SHALL be comforted. verse 5 they SHALL inherit the earth. verse 6 they shall, verse 7 they shall, verse 8 they shall verse 9 they shall… these are all future tense. its gong to happen, it is sure, shall is a future projection of assurance but yet it is still future. and so the first thought just in general that we have to understand about the beatitudes is that we must read these with an eye to the future, and an understanding of the “already-not-yet” aspects of the christian life. Surely there is a future hope and promise in all of these, but we also must assert that there is also a present reality. The comfort, the possession of things like righteousness, being shown mercy. these are all present realities for the believer while we hope for the day when they are seen fully. The juxtaposition of these tenses show us that while we currently do have the kingdom we still wait it’s fulfilment. it is now with future hope and in that it is beautiful. but there is another angle to these that we have to deal with.

Again another story might be helpful. So growing up I always thought that the beatitudes were called that because they were “attitudes” that we are supposed to “be”. which is not right, but I think a helpful way to think through them. Literally beatitudes comes from Latin and french and just means “blessings” so this is jesus pronouncing a certain type of blessing, one that states the state or condition that is blessed, and the blessing that comes with them. So the question becomes how can I find myself in a place that mirrors the attitude that Jesus is proclaiming. and here we can ask what should these teach us? We start with A RIGHT VIEW OF SELF

A Right view of SELF

For those who will be in the kingdom these should be an extraordinarily humbling view of who we are. they paint a picture that is so incredibly counter to what the world glorifies or seek to see in itself. Just look at the virtues, not the blessings yet. It is those poor in spirit. not the strong or self important. it is the mourning ones. it is those who are meek, not the bold and ostentatious. it is the merciful, not the strong it is the peacemakers not the strong willed my way or the highway. These Beatitudes paint a picture of one who has a view of self that admits their desperate state and need for a God and savior. Just to give you a few quotes about specifically the first attitude that paint this picture:

Matthew 5:3 ESV

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

Douglass O'Donnell says: If you are poor in spirit you know there is nothing in you--not family ties, respect in the community, occupation, or so called “good” works or personal “holiness”--that is valuable enough to commend you to God.

R. T. France writes: poor in spirit is a spiritual orientation, the converse of the arrogant self-confidence which not only rides roughshod over the interests of other people but more importantly causes a person to treat God as irrelevant.

And finally my hero Spurgeon notes: in the kingdom of heaven the question n is not: do you deserve to be here? it is not: are you worthy of being in this kingdom? instead it is a more humble question: are you, like me poor in spirit?

And these thoughts continue as we work our way through them. What is mourning, it is mourning specifically sin. it is looking at my life and realizing what a wretch I am. it is mourning sin in the world and others it is seeing brokenness and weeping. meekness is humility and an acknowledging that the world does not begin nor end with me, but it is God’s. to hunger and thirst for righteousness is to understand my own lack of BOTH of those things. for you don’t thirst for water when you have just drank a bottle of it and you are not hungry when you just ate a huge meal. instead you hunger and thirst when you acknowledge that haven’t had and NEED those things. and we could go on. you must have a right view of self that is humble. AS Paul would write: Philippians 2:5-7

Philippians 2:5–7 ESV

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

but this right view of self lead to and informs then a right HEART TOWARDS GOD

A right heart towards GOD

It sees him as the merciful long-patient God who is rich in mercy. It sees God as the loving and compassionate God who is the one comforting. He is the God who is faithful to save and heal and forgive. But there is more to it than just that.

It is a heart that acknowledges that God is God and therefore he defines how the world works. And because he is God he will ensure that this IS how his world works. For most of these there is an unwritten though heavily implied “by God” at the end of each and every one of these. So verse 4 blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted by God. Verse 6 blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness fr they shall be filled by God. It is God who upholds his end of these beatitudes. So when I am poor and destitute in spirit. i, see last point, understand and affirm that, as the hymn by Augustus Toplady Rock of Ages states: nothing in my hands I bring it is God who remedies that situation, not by my strength or might, but by, we know, the redeeming power of God. When I mourn sin, my sin, sin in the world, I know and understand that the solution is not me just trying to be a better person, but God saving and redeeming, THAT is therefore why I am comforted. I am merciful because I am reciprocating the mercy shown me by such a forgiving and gracious God, and we could Go on and on.

What Jesus is preaching here is a fundamental restructuring of the world as we see it, or more to the point, the world As I want it to be, where me, the self, is removed from the bright shining center of it and God himself is enthroned. We cannot come to these beatitudes and think: OK, this will help me be a better person apart from the work of God, But then, once we see the work of God in them, then our hearts are enlivened and the glory of his grace and the Gospel shines through. For it is through the empowering work of Christ that all of this can happen.

that is the final change in our heart I want to mention today. a right Heart is one that sees and understands that these teachings of Jesus are only possible through the work of Jesus. He is our only hope that these can be true. It is only through the work of Jesus that we can be made righteous. It is through him, the propitiation for our sins, that we receive mercy, he is the one who brings comfort because the chastisement that brought us peace was upon him. He makes peace with us and God that we may now have the opportunity to be peacemakers, we are made pure, washed whiter than snow, by the precious blood of Jesus Chrsit. Apart from him these are wishful dreams at best, or a curse that we can never follow at worst.

Which then leads us to the second part of this first section. Jesus work doesn't just ENABLE us to live this life, it in fact DEMANDS that we , as Paul would say, live a life worthy of the calling we have recieved. because these attitudes are visible through our spirit empowered KINGDOM LIFESTYLE.

Which are visible through out Kingdom LIFESTYLE

It is not enough to just assert: yep, this is how Jesus taught we should live. If he is our king we must strive and endeavor to live the life he called us to. and so Jesus continues the Sermon with some telling pictures for us.

As A side note, In some ways the exhortations for kingdom lifestyle start in verse 11. But that is a thought for a different day. I would encourage you to look and ask what might that mean for me? but today I want to focus in on the two pictures that Jesus gives to describe the christian life He says that we are SALT AND LIGHT First some thoughts abut these tow together, then a quick look at them individually.

with both of these note that being in the world is a requirement. Per Blomberg: In light of the countercultural perspectives enunciated in the Beatitudes, it would be easy to assume that Jesus was calling his followers to a separatist or quasi-monastic lifestyle. Here Jesus proclaims precisely the opposite. To be salt and light REQUIRES that we are in the world, but the counter half of that phrase we all know rigs true. we are in the world but we are most certainly not OF this world. there is a powerful different-ness in living out these two. but there are also differences IN these two and their different-ness also shows the powerful dual nature of these two individually. lets first look at salt.

SALT

This may be one of the richest pictures in all of scripture. One commentary lists over 500 uses for salt. The most helpful and appropriate i think for this example is the one that Jesus specifically lists: taste. The lifestyle of a christian is one that should have a tasty distinctiveness. As Peter notes we should have a different sort of hope: 1 Peter 3:15

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

and that hope should be appealing to the world around us. such that they want to know: why? faced with trials and worldwide pandemics, faced with social and societal unrest what do we have? hope! and not just some ephemeral hope in whatever, hope in the God who is Good and right, that he will make all rights wrong. that's why we have hope. We are called to flavor life with the truth of the Gospel, specifically speaking the gospel that changes heals, that calls us to glorify God.

but note that this picture comes with a warning: don’t loose your saltiness. How does this happen? how can salt loose it’s saltiness? two ways: impurities and dilution. and in this picture both are helpful to understand the dangers for the believer.

Lets start with dilution. It is to have a Christianity that is one part Christianity five parts ideas that you have gathered along the way, two parts what some charlatan speaking on TV teaches and the most parts of whatever feels right to you. We would be wise here to heed the words of the proverbs: Proverbs 14:12

Proverbs 14:12 ESV

There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

Dilution is, to mix metaphors for a second, a lukewarm christian. It is one that has lost it’s passion and love and therefore has allowed cares and concerns and doubt and fear to take the place of that distinctive saltiness. and if we are thinking of this in terms of lukewarmness, then the warning to the lukewarm church is in order: Revelation 3:19-20

Revelation 3:19–20 ESV

Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

now we turn to impurities:

impurities are specifically in this picture sins. there is no faster way to loose our distinctiveness from the world than to look just like it. I remember as a junior in High School having an epiphany: My worldly friends and I looked the same, the only difference is I felt bad about it. and while that should have been a wake up call to cleanse the sins from my life I confess for a time I went the other way, until the grace of God called me back. But if that is you then my fried you have a problem. because you cannot be salt when the impurities of the world have claimed all the good taste that you can bring to the world. If you loose the distinctiveness of holy living then you have lost everything.

so be salt, live like salt, let your love and joy and passion and hope bring taste to the light around you then shine like a light.

LIGHT

our next picture is of light. light that shines through the whole house, light that shines like a city on a hill. and while a whole lot could be said here I want to get really particular for a second.

note what shines however here - it is our “good works”.

I found this week a helpful definition of Good works: Good works are actions that God has commanded us to do in his Holy Word that are fruit and evidence of a true and lively faith. there are two main points here. One: these are things that God has commanded us to do. we are to follow the commands of God. he tells us to live righteous and holy lives then defines what those lives look like, so we must pay attention and give careful thought to our lives and how we live them. but two, and probably more important, these are things God has commanded that we do that are “fruit and evidence of a true and lively faith”

we cannot do good works apart from faith. But with true faith, with saving faith, the good works will flow naturally as an outpouring of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

But what is in focus is not “Good works” qua “good works”. But rather good works as a light, as a beacon to the truth of Who Jesus is. this is kingdom living, we are to spread the gospel broader and deeper and the way that we do that in this particular passage is through our righteous living. it is living out the beatitudes that came right before this. It is living such lives impacted by the beatitudes that people look and think: that's different (and I want it!).

Lets pray!