Jesus came to give us
life. Life with him. Life with peace and joy and love. To the extent we understand and participate
in the Sermon on the Mount will be the level at which we are blessed with those
things.
- What is Life?
- Cereal?
John Gilchrist, who played "Mikey' in that Life commercial is
now 44.
- A Game?
Some people treat it like a game.
Those that do tend to lose.
- A criminal sentence? Some people treat life as if it were a
criminal sentence.
- At the Univ. of Wash.,
the 4 columns in its logo are named "Loyalty, Industry, Faith,
Efficiency," which spell "LIFE." (I know that looks like
"liffey" to you Cougars, but you'll just have to trust me here.)
- Life is what Jesus came to bring us
i.
Opposite of life
is...not death...but "separation"...separation of the soul from the
body. Death is separation. In the garden, "If you eat of this tree,
you will surely die." What
died? Not Adam and Eve. But they were separated spiritually from God
and that connection died. But it can be
"born again." How much untold misery over thousands of years
has that separation cost the human race?
ii.
Life is joining
soul with body. True life (when you're
born again) is joining God with your soul.
This combination is meant for eternity.
iii.
John 10:10 says
the "thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I come so that they might
have life abundantly." Translation,
Satan wants to separate (death) you from God so that he can steal your joy,
kill you and destroy your eternal future, but I (Jesus) have come to this world
to bring you to me and God so that you will enjoy the life I've given you to
the full.
1.
Some say Jesus is
some kind of cosmic killjoy. How
completely wrong they are. Jesus is all
about giving us pure, complete, wall to wall joy.
- What kind of life did we have before Jesus?
- As the sage prophet Crocodile Dundee told the
mugger waving a switchblade at him, "That's not a knife...this is a
KNIFE." Translated:
i.
Your knife is
small,
ii.
ineffective,
iii.
likely to get you
injured,
iv.
not at all what a
real knife should be about.
- Likewise, Jesus in the Sermon On The Mount
(SOTM) is telling his disciples who've been living in the world's
culture, "What you've been told about living...is not a life...this
is a LIFE." Life without
Jesus is:
i.
small/selfish/shallow/empty/unfulfilling
ii.
ineffective/misguided/materialistic
iii.
Likely to get you
hurt, and others
iv.
Prone to failure,
collapse and sorrow
- Three of Jesus' main purposes in the SOTM
- Showing us who he is, and what he values
i.
He then lived
them out perfectly to show he "walked the talk"
- Showing us who God is and what God values
i.
John 14:7. If you really know me, you'll know my father
as well
- Showing us how to live life
i.
"I have come
to give you life and life abundantly "(more than plenty)
1.
Full of peace
2.
Full of joy
3.
Full of meaning
and goodness
4.
Full of hope
5.
Full of substance
6.
Full of adventure
7.
Full of closeness
and friendship with God
8.
Satisfying and
ultimately victorious in the end
a.
(News flash: God's team wins in the end)
- Problems people have with the Beattitudes
- They think they teach you need to be broke,
wimpy and sad
i.
If God says we
should be broke wimpy and sad, we should be broke wimpy and sad. He's God, after all.
ii.
But that's not
God's message at all, as we'll see
- They don't make a whole lot of sense
i.
They are
counter-intuitive to how people naturally act.
On first reading they don't make sense
1.
Yet they provide
super--natural wisdom to strengthen and heal relationships
a.
The most
important things we have on earth are our relationships.
i.
Our relationships
define who we are more than any other thing.
b.
Money, status,
talents are often curses in disguise, keeping us from focusing on relationships
c.
God is the
inventor of relationships. He knows how
they work best...much more than us. We
would be wise to take his advice on relationships.
2.
The beatitudes put
us in God's will, in harmony with how we're wired, and the resulting fruit is
joy and peace
a.
God knows how
we're wired and this is our wiring diagram.
If we want the life God wants for us, this is a guide how to
accomplish that.
b.
It's like putting
an apple tree in Eastern Wash with good soil, water, etc. It can't help but bear fruit.
c.
When we live life
with God, in God's way, because he wired us, we can't help but bear fruit.
- Verse 3: Blessed Are the Poor In Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven
- Of all the things he could have said, Jesus
starts with this
i.
Crucial,
critical, first point.
- Poor In Spirit "Ptochos", opposite of
"Proud in Spirit"
i.
Means
"bankrupt in Spirit," a beggar, helpless to change his situation.
1.
God's vision of living for us...his key, crucial, most important thing for us is an intimate, loving, pure, free-flowing relationship with him. That's it ("I am the vine, you are the branches"). Nothing else in life comes close to this priority
or ever will.
a.
Not money
b.
Not earthly
status or position
c.
Not works
d.
Christianity...
i.
Is not reading
and following the rules of God
ii.
Is not reading
and following the rules of Jesus
iii.
Is
acknowledging we're bankrupt and helpless inviting the spirit of the living God
to dwell in our hearts to change us FTISO (From the Inside Out)
2.
Three types of
people
a.
Those that don't
want a relationship with God. They will
not enter his Kingdom
b.
Those that want a
relationship with God on their own terms, not God's. They will not enter his Kingdom
c.
Those that want a
relationship with God on God's terms.
They will enter his Kingdom.
ii.
First point...this
is where we meet God. If you want to
meet God, you need to meet him at the intersection of Hopeless Street and Helpless
Avenue. He
is found nowhere else. Our adventure
starts here. It continues here. And we will journey far if we just stay here.
1.
This is a
"salvation" operation, not a joint You & Him self-improvement
plan. Your sorry backside needs saving and he needs to save it.
a.
If you don't
think your sorry backside needs saving, then you're on "I'm Doing OK
Street" and you'll never bump in to him and you're on your own.
b.
If you think you
can help partially, then you're on "I Can Do It Street" and you'll
never meet him and you're on your own.
2.
If you think you
can help him save you, you're not at the intersection of Hopeless and Helpless.
a.
Interesting
another word for "intersection" is "cross." It's where we cross paths with God. And we decide the course of the life we live
on this planet, Our Way or God's Way.
b.
There's a word
for those who don't want to be bankrupt and helpless: proud.
i.
Essentially
claiming Jesus is wrong
1.
He is not
all-knowing
2.
He is not God
3.
He is not savior
a.
Don't like his
salvation
b.
Don't need his
salvation
c.
Don't care about
his salvation
4.
They know "better
than God"
5.
Want to alter his
New Testament
a.
Jesus' New
Testament is a "take it or leave it" deal
b.
It is not open to
alterations
c.
Pride is a
terrible terrible thing because it is a separator. It is both subtle and brutal. It is stealthy and deadly. It is the enemy's chief tool to rip you off
and rip you up. You want to see your
life turn bad...take a healthy dose of pride and watch your life head down the
toilet.
i.
Pride says,
"I'm better than you. So, I don't
need to treat you well. I don't need to
serve you. I can take from you....or
simply ignore you or make your life miserable." Pride is the seed of
hatred, amongst other things. Rather
than joining, it separates. As we saw
earlier, what's a synonym for separation?
Death. Death to relationships.
ii.
Pride separated
Lucifer from God
iii.
It is totally how
the natural man wired.
1.
Natural man is
looking for self-justification, a purpose and identity
a.
God has given a
purpose and identity...
i.
love relationship
as a child of God (identity)
ii.
Work, with gifts
God gave (purpose)
iii.
Results in
harmony with God, peace, joy, satisfaction, etc.
b.
Without God, we cope
by looking inside for purpose and identity which will always cause problems.
i.
Causes unhealthy,
unbalanced relationships (based on self-satisfaction and taking)
ii.
Self-justification
causes need to be better than others (pride)
iii.
Or, if they don't
measure up, self-condemnation, withdrawl
iv.
Self-medication
tends to result from these unhealthy states
c.
Reason for
existence
i.
self-actualization,
want to be who I'm supposed to be. If
you look internally for who you should be, they probably don't match God's
plans for who you should be.
3.
If you look for
him at the corner of Spiritual Blvd and Good Works Parkway, you might be able to fake
others out into thinking you've got a good relationship with God. You'll have company. That's where the Pharisees hang out.
iii.
If we miss this
point, we're going to miss God and his kingdom.
1.
God says we need
to be "connected," not just "in the vicinity." Vine and branches. If the branches are simply "near"
the vine they die.
2.
Imagine
interviewing anyone now in heaven, or a seasoned saint who's been walking with
God and ask them if it was worth the trip to the corner of Hopeless &
Helpless. Every single one will
tell you what a blessing it has been.
- Verse 4: Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be
comforted
- Though it applies to all who are saddened by
struggles in life, used a lot at funerals...
- Greek word "Pentheo" seems to indicate
it really means those who are remorseful and mourn over our spiritual
state (see: Bankrupt and Helpless above)
i.
Recognizing the
price God had to pay to rescue us from our unsaved condition.
- No one likes to mourn, but in this fallen world,
it has a purpose
i.
Causes us to look
to God for comfort
ii.
Reminds us we are
not yet home, where there will be no mourning
iii.
Recognizing our
bankrupt spiritual state keeps pride at bay
1.
Some Christians
seem to think that spiritual people always look like they just ate a lemon. Joy and laughter are frowned upon.
2.
While we
acknowledge and glance at our sinfulness, we quickly turn and focus
on Jesus, who has forgiven our sins, cleansed us, adopted us and fellowships
with us.
a.
So Christians
live in a state of spiritual tension...recognizing our sins, but agreeing with
God they are forgiven and our relationship is perfectly restored. This "pull" keeps us from getting
proud (since I'm a sinner)...or overly depressed (since God sees me as pure)
and brings us to a place in between, blessed, peaceful dependence on and loved by God.
- Verse 5: Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the
earth.
- When we realize we are bankrupt (verse 3) and
still can enter God's kingdom and are comforted (verse 4), the spirit
moves us to want to follow after God and not our flesh anymore. We become "meek."
- Many Christians don't like this verse because
they are misinformed and think that "meek" means
"milquetoast" or "timid and week" or
"pushover."
- Not at all.
The Greek word is "praus." This is an equestrian term for a wild
horse which is now tame enough to ride.
All the strength, all the power, all the toughness. Just obedient to authority.
- Other examples:
i.
Jesus himself was
described as meek. Unfathomable power
completely yielded to the father.
ii.
If you remember Reggie
White of the Eagles and Packers.
Aggressive when it was right to be aggressive, calm when it was right to
be calm. Strength under control.
iii.
A Navy Seal or
Army Ranger might be a good example if they're under control of their commander
and God.
iv.
Another example
would be a seeing eye dog.
1.
It's totally
focused on its master, it's working every moment to please its master. It's on the lookout to aid the master in
every way.
2.
Doesn't run off to
play or provoke any incidents
3.
If the master is
accosted, it will defend ferociously
4.
Completely loyal,
affectionate
5.
Valuable
commodity...a well-trained guide dog can run $50,000.
6.
(NOTE: While the
dog is a great example of meekness (power under control), don't think that God
needs us to watch over him and protect or defend him. The analogy does not apply there. It is he who is watching over and protecting
us.)
- The meek will inherit the earth
i.
An inheritance is
something you didn't earn, which is being given to you as a gift
ii.
We don't earn
salvation. It's given to us. Our response to this gift is gratitude and an
invitation to the Holy Spirit to change us, and he comes into our heart and
changes us into his image by his grace, so that we conform to his image and
begin more and more acting like Jesus.
1.
If we, for one moment,
believe anything we're doing is helping us earn or increase his love,
acceptance, or our salvation (which we already have in full and cannot be
increased), then we are working to approach God via the Law. In which case the whole law applies and you must
to bear the burden of perfection to enter his kingdom. Good luck with that. Tell me how that works out for you.
a.
This is where I
got hung up for years. I didn't believe
I was truly loved, so I worked to get love from God and others. It made for an unhealthy, works relationship
with God, and unhealthy, needy relationship with others.
- Verse 6: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness for they shall be filled.
- Follow the flow of the beatitudes. We come to God bankrupt and are taken
in. We mourn for our sin and are
comforted, we give ourselves to him and come under his control, the
result of which we begin a hunger and thirst for righteousness.
- As we walk with him and fellowship with him
(roots), we develop a new kind of spiritual craving as this new life
inside of us begins to grow.
i.
Hunger/thirst,
bodily craving...one that grows until the craving is met.
ii.
Presently I
hunger and thirst for Twinkies and Pepsi and fill in spare time with God stuff.
iii.
I can't wait till
my primary hunger and thirst is for God's righteousness and fill in the spare
time with Twinkies and Pepsi.
iv.
You cannot create
a hunger. Hunger happens as a result of
a need from the body. Same with the
soul. God will create the hunger.
- ...and he will fill it. So he creates the need, fills the need
and we are blessed in the process.
- The two verbs are in a "constant"
tense...so the proper translation is "Blessed are those who are
constantly hungering and thirsting for righteousness, for they are
constantly being filled.
- Verse 7. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown
mercy.
- Next step of God's process...We've met God on
his terms and he's taken us in, we've mourned over our sins, and he has
us under control. We're
continually hungering and thirsting for righteousness and we're being
continually filled. As we have trusted in him and not ourselves to
cleanse us, we begin to experience more and more of his mercy and find
ourselves sharing it with others.
- Church people seem to fail this test
i.
Come across as
angry and bitter at sinners
ii.
As if we were any
better
iii.
Mature people
will pray for others and focus on what's best for non-Christians...
iv.
Too often
Christians play the "judgment card" and it's not nearly as effective
as the "love and mercy" card
- Mercy is one of Jesus' major traits.
- Matthew 7.
Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you
will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
- Mercy is a froot. You cannot make yourself merciful. This comes as a froot of the
relationship, so don't strive for mercy.
i.
An apple farmer can wander through his orchard and grimace and moan and
hop up and down when he doesn't see mature apples. But it won't help grow fruit.
ii.
The farmer can't "grow" fruit
iii.
He doesn't even know "why" fruit grows, but God does.
iv.
He doesn't know "how" fruit grows, but God does.
v.
But if he focuses on things like soil, water, pesticides, temperature,
etc...apple trees wired as they are...will produce fruit
vi.
Likewise, we should not worry about froot. We should not grimace and moan and hop up and
down about lack of good froot.
vii.
Instead, we concentrate on meeting Jesus. Where?
Intersection of Hopeless Street and Helpless Avenue. You meet him there and you....wired as you
are...will produce froot.
viii.
God says his yoke is easy and his burden is light. He does the heavy lifting. We just abide and let him grow the froots.
ix.
In Germany,
they call this "rootzenfrootzen."
x.
No, they don't.
xi.
But they should.
- Verse 8: Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God.
- Translated: "Blessed are those who are
becoming more pure in heart, as they will be seeing God more clearly." As an added benefit of allowing Jesus
to work in our hearts, we'll have a better and better vision of God.
- What a blessing to be able to see God more
clearly each day...until the day we will look God in the face as he
welcomes us to eternity with him and join the multitudes who live in the
unrestrained joy, love and peace of his presence.
- It's important to note that Jesus did not say
"Blessed are those who keep the rules", or "blessed are
those who strive to look good."
- All throughout this discourse Jesus is not
speaking of outward actions, but
inward attitudes. Jesus is
primarily concerned with the heart.
i.
Unlike the
Law, which is primarily concerned with outward righteousness, Jesus is
concerned with inward righteousness
1.
All spiritual
changes are FTISO, not FTOSI (from the outside in)
2.
There is a great
temptation for us to minister to others FTOSI.
"Get a haircut."
"Get a job." "Stop
being an idiot." But these are all
ineffective because they are not FTISO.
3.
This requires we
look at Jesus as we minister.
ii.
If the inward
attitudes are solved, you'll have no problem with the outside ones.
iii.
Jesus/God are
both internally
pure...this, like all the other beatitudes, describes who Jesus
and God are
iv. Heaven is not filled with people who led good lives. Heaven is filled with sinful people who trusted in Jesus to constantly clean up their sin.
- How do we break out from this spiritual acting
out and have God purify our hearts.
See verse 3. We recognize
we're spiritually bankrupt and destitute and meet God at the corner of
Helpless and Hopeless. That's
where the journey on this yellow brick road starts... and continues...all
the way to heaven. Any advances we
make are made by him as we cling to him.
- Verse 9: Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called
children of God. Right
there! There! God is calling us to be his beloved
children. It's the whole point of
our ride on This Big Blue Ball. He
wants us to enter the relationship where he's our loving daddy.
- As we progress in our walk with God (v. 3-8), we
will begin to show an outward focus.
The love he has for us begins to move outward as unselfish serving
of others. This is a fruit of
spiritual maturity confirming God's work in our hearts.
- The word "peacemaker" here seems to be
a progressive word. It implies:
i.
We have God's
peace in our hearts
ii.
We minister God's
peace in our sphere of influence
iii.
We maintain God's
peace as we move forward
- The result is that we will be his children
i.
We are in an
intimate relationship with him
ii.
We act like he
acts (A "chip off the old block")
iii.
We minister his
peace, even where others do not want his peace
1.
We will find
ourselves walking with God, experiencing resistance from those opposed to God's
peace.
- Verses 10 & 11: 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.
- It's important to know that this does not mean
everyone who is persecuted for taking a Godly stance is blessed.
i.
Many Christians
take godly stances, but defend them with fleshly acts...accusations,
judgmentalism, self-righteousness, etc.
They think they are being persecuted for God's sake, when they're really
being persecuted because they are foolish and rude.
ii.
They are not
humbled in spirit (verse 3)
iii.
They are not
mourning over their own sins verse 4)
iv.
They are not meek...under
God's control (verse 5)
v.
They are not hungering
for God's righteousness (verse 6)
vi.
They are not
merciful (verse 7)
vii.
They are not
seeing God (verse 8)
viii.
They are not
bringing God's peace (verse 9)
ix.
They jump right
to flesh-led action instead of spirit-induced action and the results are both
tragic and expected. They
"minister" FTOSI while condemning others and leave spiritual carnage
in their wake. Then they go home at
night, proud of themselves for suffering for God's sake when in fact they've
been nothing more than Pharisaical fools.
God loves them but now needs to go pick up after the mess they caused.
x.
How church people
love to jump to verse 10 without considering verses 1-9. How long will I be such a fool?
- This is the final spiritual "fruit"
that Jesus speaks of in the beatitudes.
It doesn't seem like a fruit we'd enjoy, but it's the mark of
maturity. It's the proof of a
healthy, mature Christian life.
It's the sign of approval from God on a man or woman fully under
God's righteous influence.
i.
A man or woman
who so prizes their relationship with God that they will gladly lay down
comfort, status, position, ownership in the world for his sake.
ii.
And if you asked
them if it was worth it, they would say, "Of course. What I lost matters little to what I gain
each day with Christ."
iii.
They do not groan
or complain because the spirit is so full in their lives that they see God
(verse 8) and they see they're another step closer to that final untethered
relationship with God.
iv.
And if you were
to ask them how they achieved this level of purity...how they attained the
status of a spiritual giant...how they grew to be a mighty oak standing strong
against the battering elements...what would they say?
1.
Would you hear
their secret strategy?
2.
Would they share
with you their inside tricks
3.
Would they tell
you how they could be strong when others were not?
4.
No. They would sit you down, shake their heads
and say, "You know, I don't really know if I've done anything so great at
all. In fact I can't take credit for any
of it. God kept growing me, and the
circumstances sort of happened. But let
me tell you something. I remember one
day, long ago, when I realized what a total worthless bankrupt person I was,
and how I had no power to change it.
Then, or now. I realized I was
getting worse and not better. But my
life changed one day when I heard a
little voice from inside...my soul, or whatever you call it...and it said,
'take this next left on Hopeless
Street. Stop the car when you get to Helpless Avenue. There's someone there waiting for you. Right now.
And he wants to be your Dad."
End
