Upside Down Kingdom
Transcript
Good morning. Grab your Bibles. Let's go to Matthew chapter 4. We are starting a series in the Sermon on the Mount today. My name's Chet. I'm one of the pastors here.
Very excited to be able to start this series. We're going to spend a good bit of time in the spring just walking through the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is the largest section of Jesus speaking. So if you have a red letter Bible, so some Bibles will have what Jesus says in red letters. You've got a couple of pages that are just bright red. That's the Sermon on the Mount.
So this section of teaching is included in Luke. And there's some variations between them. And it seems like Jesus would have taught these concepts on a regular basis. So if you're going to be in one spot and teach on a regular basis to the same group of people, you teach different things. But if you're going to travel around, you're going to teach a lot of the same stuff over and over and over and over again.
And so Jesus had this one primary message about the kingdom, about what he had come to accomplish. And so we get in Luke and in Matthew some highlights from it, some different writing down of it as what he would have taught as he kind of traveled around. And here's the thing. There are only a few teachers that make it to us through history. So we've got Socrates.
We've got Aristotle. We've got a couple of people that just really kind of defined thought for us and defined teaching for us. And Jesus is one of those teachers that makes it to us through history that even now we consider a good teacher. Not many people will argue with that. Most people are okay with Jesus and they're okay with the things he taught. And they'll say, yeah, Jesus taught great stuff.
Like if we all could do a little bit more like what Jesus said, we'd be better off. There aren't a whole lot of people that are just out and out mad at the person Jesus. And most people would agree he was a good teacher. The problem is our culture wants to say that's just what he was, that he was just a good teacher. And so as we start this long section of Jesus' teaching, I don't want us to divorce it from what comes right before it. So Matthew, who's writing this gospel, tells us some stuff at the end of chapter 4 before he goes into this whole discourse that Jesus is going to give that does not allow us to just say, Jesus was a good teacher who said some good stuff.
So let's read chapter 4 as we get started this morning. We're going to run through it fairly quickly, but it's to help us understand who's talking, who's speaking to us in the Sermon on the Mount. So chapter 4, verse 23 is where we'll pick up. So, and he, that's Jesus, went throughout all Galilee. That's an area in Israel that's up above Jerusalem, teaching in their synagogues. That's where Jewish people met on their Sabbath, which was Saturday, and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease.
So he would proclaim the gospel. He would tell them what he was coming to accomplish. He would tell them the good news about God's kingdom that was being ushered in. And then he would heal people. Heal. I'm trying to not sound like a redneck, but I have a hard time.
All right. And healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria. And they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, those having seizures and paralytics. And he healed them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis and from Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond the Jordan.
So Jesus has massive crowds coming to him everywhere he goes because he heals people. Not only does he proclaim good news about the kingdom, but anyone who's sick, anyone who's hurting, anyone who's in pain can come to him. So, of course, he has massive crowds because they were on the same medical system as my uncle was telling me about earlier where they break a chicken leg. Like they they were trying to figure it out as best they could, but they didn't have the best system for having to handle medical issues. And so if there was someone there was an outside chance that someone could just make things go away, of course, you were taking time off and you were getting to them as best you could.
You were taking friends to them as best you could. You were finding ways to go be healed. And so Jesus had massive crowds. And I love that what it includes here because it includes such amazing things. It says every disease and affliction in here includes those who are sick. Those are afflicted with various diseases, oppressed by demons, having seizures and paralytics.
So people who had never walked before or who had been in an accident and no longer had the use of their legs, Jesus would just command them to get up and they'd be fine. People who had seizures. But I love that snuck into the middle of this list. It says and various pains. So people were coming to him and be like, I don't know.
It just hurts when I chew. I'm not sure. Can you look at it? It's red and it itches like they were just bringing him things. Just whatever it was. And he would heal them.
And he would heal from minute things to to massive things. And so when Matthew begins in chapter five to give us this Jesus teaching, it's not just a good teacher. But he's speaking with the authority of the person who can tell cancer to leave. And it does. Who has rule over the over human health, over the physical realm, over a spiritual realm. It says that he cast out demons, people who had spiritual affliction.
He can command that to leave. And it does. And so when Jesus begins to teach, the people that are listening to him have seen him do this. And they're hanging on every word because everything he says has absolute authority as he's just traveled around commanding people who've never walked before to stand up and walk home. So that's that's who's speaking to us.
He's not just a good teacher. And Matthew doesn't let us just sit on that. So as we begin the Sermon on the Mount, I want to set the stage for us just a little bit and explain kind of what we're looking at today. And then we got a good bit of work to do. So Matthew chapter five.
It's on page 472 in the white Bibles. You should already be there because it comes right after what we just read. Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And when he sat down, his disciples came to him. So it seems like Jesus just kind of wandered off by himself.
He sits down and his disciples come to him. Now, those are the people who are intentionally trying to follow Jesus. Now, he only has a handful at this point. There's four we know of that he said, hey, follow me. There's probably more, maybe four to let's say 25. I'm just guessing.
I know that in a couple of chapters he has to he prays and picks 12 in particular. So there had to be more than 12. Otherwise, he wouldn't have had to pray that long about it, I don't guess. Or maybe he could have just gotten four. Like, I don't know. But he's got, let's say, 20 people.
I'm making that up. A handful of people come to him out of a big crowd because he snuck off and they find him. OK, that's how this begins. And then Jesus speaks for three whole chapters. And then at the end, it says the crowds were amazed at what he taught. So what that means is he started off with just a few people.
And then slowly it grew and grew and grew and grew the longer he spoke. But he's specifically and directly and intentionally speaking to those who are actively trying to follow him. So that's where we are. He's talking to his disciples and saying, this is what we're going to be like. This is us. The section we're going to read today, if most of your Bibles will say the Beatitudes over top of it.
That word just comes from the Latin Vulgate, which was one of the earliest translations of the Bible. The Old Testament was written in Hebrew. New Testament was written in Greek. So Latin was a widely used language. One of the first translations was the Latin Vulgate. And it uses the word, that word Beatitude comes from the Latin word for happiness.
Because every one of these eight sentences Jesus is about to say, start with the word blessed. And it really means happy. Blessed are those, happy are those. Like he's going to go through this whole section where he says this. And so that's why they're called the Beatitudes. So if that's ever confused you, there you go.
That may not be helpful for you in life, but now you know it. So you're welcome. Let's take a second to pray as we begin to read this this morning. And try to understand what Jesus is teaching us here in the Beatitudes. God, we thank you that someone wrote down what you said. Thank you that you authored that, that you oversaw that process and that it's made it to us.
As the most well-preserved document in history. And I pray, Lord, that you would help us today to hear you speak in a fresh way. That you might go to work in our hearts to change us and to make us more like you. That we would, as a church family, begin to look like the people you describe here. We love you. We praise you in Jesus' name.
Amen. Amen. Amen. All right. So let's read the first ten verses together and then talk a little bit about what Jesus did.
And then we'll go back through verse by verse. And he opened his mouth and he taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And then his next sentence starts with blessed, but he changes his tone. And he's done something in these first eight sentences that he says that's called an inclusio, where the first sentence and the last sentence mirror one another, which means that's a complete thought. His hearers would have recognized this.
It's similar to where we have an acrostic, where we put a word down the side, and then we write a little poem. So maybe your word was like happiness. And your first, if you know how to do this right, your first word is always the same word that goes down the left. Happiness. And then you did your A. Always joyful.
Like, you know what I'm talking about? Like, they have these pride posters all over the school. Everywhere you go, there's a pride poster. And we immediately recognize what's happening here. So when you wrote a poem in school, they would have understood what he just did here.
So he's got this one thought here. And it's very interesting because his first statement is a present tense statement. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And his last statement is a present tense statement. And then every single one, the six in the middle are, here's how they are now. And here's what's going to happen for them in the future.
And what Jesus is doing is he begins the Sermon on the Mount as he's saying, this is what my people are like. This is what my kingdom looks like. And he does it in all of those. Those whom. That's kind of how he says it. And then everything else he says in the Sermon on the Mount is you.
You, you, you. Here's why. It's kind of like you're in, you're in, it's your first day of class. You're sitting around. Y'all are cutting up. You're talking.
Teacher walks in. Everybody quiets down a little bit. But they start messing with stuff at their desk. So you're still kind of cutting up. But it's gotten a little quieter.
And then as soon as they kind of walk to the front of the class, everybody quiets down because you're not trying to start off on a bad note on the first day. And your teacher says, for those of you who show up on time to every class, pay attention, take notes, and study hard. You'll do just fine. The rest of you are going to have a very hard time. That's what Jesus does here. Those who.
He begins to paint this picture of who the type of person is. And you understand as you're listening to it, as these disciples are sitting there, they're realizing what he's doing. He's painting a picture for them of who they're going to be. Of what they have to be in order to follow him, in order to make it. So he's saying, here's those who follow me.
Here's what my people are going to look like. Here's who we're going to be. So they've already said, I'm committed. I'm going to follow you. They followed him around as he's been teaching people that the kingdom's coming. And he's been healing people.
And now he takes them up on a mountain. And he says, okay, here's what the kingdom looks like. And here's what I want us to do as we read through it today. As if you are a Christian, if you say, I follow Jesus. And I want you to know he's speaking directly to you. Because that's who he was originally talking to.
Were those who have said, I'm following Jesus. And what I want us to do is I want us to weigh ourselves against everything he says. Because I know if I was sitting in class, and the teacher went through that, immediately I'd be going, show up on time. Or what else? Be here every time. Okay.
Take notes. I can do that. Study hard. Like you're weighing yourself. And then he says, you're not going to do well. It's like, okay, maybe I need to change a little bit.
Maybe I need to step my game up. Let's say there's the beginning of basic training. And the drill sergeant walks out. You're hanging on every word. And let's say the drill sergeant says, for all of you who have guts, who've never backed down. Who've never done anything cowardly in your life.
Who wouldn't mind being stabbed or electrocuted and can hold your breath for seven minutes. Like I was tracking a little bit, and then it was like stabbed and electrocuted. Hold my breath for seven minutes? Bro, that's called drowning. Like, is there like a bell I can ring? When do I get to leave?
Like, I'm not going to make it on this team. That's what would happen. And so I just want us today, as we read it, for some reason, because Jesus is saying, it's like our eyes glaze over, or we take it as some sort of pithy, nice, let's crochet that on a pillow, but we don't have to actually do it. Like, if we walked out of, if we walked out of our first drill sergeant stuff, and we were setting up in the barracks, and I looked at you, and you were like, man, this is going to be terrible. And I was like, I think it was like, you know, an analogy. I think he meant it, you know, it's a theoretical, just to kind of, it's not going to be that bad.
You'd be like, okay, I don't want to be near you, because you're going to die, and you're probably going to kill me. Like, this is terrible. I don't want us to do that with Jesus. I don't want me to just think, oh, it's a metaphor. No, he's saying, this is what my people are going to look like. So as Christians today, Christians in the room, I want us to weigh ourselves.
I want us to hold ourselves up and say, is this me? Is this what I look like? Do I look like a citizen of Jesus's kingdom? So, we're going to walk through each one of these. I'm going to do my best to try to give us a brief explanation of them, and then a little bit of like, how do we know we're doing this? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Okay, so Matthew says poor in spirit. Luke, when he records this, just says poor. Now again, this was the idea that Jesus was going around and preaching this on a regular basis, and so I think that we have to hold poor and poor in spirit together, and understand that they're trying to communicate the same thing. I think they're kin to one another. That he means, those of us who live in our relationship to God and others, like we're poor, regardless of your bank account.
Now I do think he specifically is saying something very gracious and loving to those on earth who don't have a nice bank account, who are poor, who have lived in poverty, or live in poverty. I think this is a very hopeful thing that he's saying, but when he includes poor in spirit, in Matthew, I think he's pressing against everyone else who has money in a bank account, and saying this has to be your attitude, and your approach in life. That you're poor in spirit. So for many of us, I think we have a hard time with this one, because we're very middle class in spirit. Because for many of us, we're pretty middle class in wallet.
Let me explain to you how being middle class in spirit works. Here's the basic idea behind being middle class. I've worked really hard for what I have, and I'm working really hard to make it better for those who come after me. I'm making it better for my children, so they don't have to work as hard as me. But I've worked really hard for everything I have.
I've earned everything I have, and I'm self-sufficient. That's the goal of being middle class. To be self-sufficient. To not owe anyone anything. That's why we have all those books on debt management, and debt consolidation, and here's how to handle your budget, and here's how to continue to gain, and grow your net worth, because it's, I've earned everything I have, and here's the thing about being middle class in wallet, and then trying to be poor in spirit. Middle class in wallet people miss something that people who are just poor understand.
Poor people understand that much of what you have in life was just grace, just blessing. You might would use the word luck. My uncle who's from Nigeria, I talked to him one time, and he said that if people could choose in Nigeria between going to heaven, or going to America, they would all choose America. I thought it was weird to us. I was like, why? And he said, they know America exists, and they've heard what it's like.
But here's the thing that people in Nigeria understand. They had nothing whatsoever to do with being born in Nigeria. And the people who were born in America have nothing whatsoever to do with being born in America. They're just blessed. They've just received grace. See, for many people in middle class situations, you were born on second base, but we live our life like we hit a double.
And what happens when we're middle class in wallet and try to be poor in spirit is that we actually approach Jesus with a very middle class spirit, which is, tell me what I'm supposed to do, and I'll do it. I'll be self-sufficient. Tell me what I need to accomplish. Tell me what the rules are. Some of you are so excited because we're going to read the Sermon on the Mount because you want to know what the rules are. What am I supposed to do?
Who am I supposed to be? I'll do it because I work hard for everything I have. What Jesus says is, no, blessed are those who realize they have nothing to offer and anything good they receive is purely by grace. That's why the gospel spreads so quickly among people in areas of poverty because you show up to middle class people and wealthy people and say, you can't earn anything. You can't achieve anything. God doesn't want anything from you.
He's died to save you and give you pure grace that you can't earn or keep. He has to do all of it for you and middle class people go, I don't know. I kind of like the rituals. I kind of like the rules. I kind of like knowing where I stand all the time based off of what I'm doing. I kind of like being able to have a checklist that I follow.
It's middle class. But you go in areas where there's absolute poverty and you say you have nothing to offer, but Jesus offers you everything and it's received so much more clearly and easily and seen so much more clearly because they understand they've lived in a world where they have nothing to offer to the world. That's true poverty is that you have nothing that the world values. That's poverty. You have nothing that the world values. And so when Jesus shows up and says, I'll give you grace, I'll give you value, it makes so much more sense.
It's hard to be poor in spirit when you're rich in wallet. But so we have to approach God with empty hands knowing that we bring him nothing. Here's what Jesus is saying. If you approach him with empty hands, you'll walk away full. Your hands will be filled. If you approach him with stuff in your hands, you'll walk away empty.
If you come to him and say, here's what I've got, here's what I've done, here's how I'm good, here's how I'm special, here's why you should love me, here's how I've earned it, that's what doesn't work. So how do we know we're poor in spirit? How do we know that we're lowly and humble and approaching God? How do I know? Do you look down on those who don't try as hard as you? Do you feel pride over our church because we're doing it right?
That's real bad in church plans. We're the ones who, we've got it. We know what's right. All the other churches around here, they don't know what's up. We're crushing it. Community groups, nailed it up top.
Are you frustrated with the people in your community group because you're the only one who's got it together? You're the only one who shares the gospel well. You're the only one who is actively on mission. Are you frustrated with the people in your group because they don't understand, they don't read their Bibles like you do? See, that's being spiritually wealthy over and above someone who's spiritually poor. But here's what Jesus says, he's come to rescue the spiritually poor.
And sure, we should read our Bibles. We're going to get to that. I think it's on the list. But, that doesn't make us special and it doesn't give us something to hold in our hands to offer to God. See, that's middle class spirituality. I'm the only one who's on mission with my neighbor.
I'm the only one who's contributing. I'm the only one who brings food every time. I'm middle class. Look at all these poor people in my group. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. I want us to understand as he reads through this and he says blessed and blessed and blessed and blessed and blessed that's not really a word we use very often.
Here's what he's saying. Here's the good life. Here's what it looks like to have blessing and blessedness. Here's the good life. And what he said so far is absolutely crazy to us. His first two are blessed are the poor and blessed are those who mourn and nobody in America is celebrating either one of those because it sounds like nonsense.
How many wonderful movies have you watched that were our true riches to rags story? How many of those have we circulated? How many times have they held up someone and said, see this guy over here who has nothing? Let me tell you the story about how he lost it all. And you're like, oh, I'll watch that on repeat. No, we don't do that.
We don't have those stories. Those who mourn, we have gone out of our way so drastically in our country to never have to be sad. We're told that if anybody's difficult, just get rid of them out of your life. They're holding you back. They're haters. We're told that we should go out of our way to be...
This is even promoted in the church and so I love that Jesus steps in in his second form of blessedness and says, blessed are those who mourn. People in the church and they mean well and I understand what they're talking about when they say things like, I don't want to have a funeral. I want to have a party because I've gone to be with Jesus. I get that and the Bible says that we should mourn as those who have hope but we should mourn. That death is brokenness. That pain is brokenness.
That this isn't how it's supposed to be. That Jesus in the Bible actually weeps at the tomb of a friend and then raises him from the grave. He knew he was going to but he still weeps because there's some blessedness in mourning and seeing what's wrong in the world and hurting over it. That's those who mourn. Mourning is sadness with a purpose. He doesn't say blessed is it to be depressed.
He says blessed is it to mourn. To hurt over something that matters and that has value. To see what's wrong in the world and have it affect you. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. See, now he's begun to say here's what they are now. Here's the alreadyness of my kingdom and here's what's not yet come.
See, that's Jesus' point as he goes through. He's saying my kingdom is now and in the future. They're going to look like this now but there's a future aspect of my kingdom. And that's how the kingdom works. That it's an already kingdom. We're already saved.
We're already changed. Jesus is already at work in us but we're not yet fully receiving everything he's going to accomplish and give to us. That's one of the things that I love in our church family. We have a lot of new Christians and one of the things that's most frustrating about being a new Christian is that you're still a sinner and you thought that was going to go away. Sweet, Jesus saves me from a sin. I'm about to be awesome.
And six months later they'll come and talk to you and they're like, man, I'm still messing everything up. And he's like, yeah, you're not going to outgrow your need for Jesus. You're not going to outpace him. You're not going to outgrow your need for the gospel. You're already saved from your sin but you're not yet fully saved. And so what he's saying is that my people are mourning now.
They're hurting now but they will be comforted. So how do we know if we mourn? Do you notice and hate sin? When was the last time you spent hurting with those who hurt? The homeless, the oppressed, the voiceless, the marginalized. When was the last time you stayed up at night to pray or got up early in the morning to pray over the injustice that's going on around us?
When was the last time you spent praying for Christians in other parts of the world? When was the last time you hurt over brokenness in your family or in your city? How much have you just said, ah, I don't need to think about that. I need to push that out of my mind. I need to stay positive. And Jesus is saying, no, my people are going to weep.
My people are going to hurt. My people are going to hate sin so much that it crawls inside of them and they feel it. My people are going to notice what's wrong with the world and then they're going to be comforted. When someone complains about injustice, when someone comes and says, this isn't fair, this is what's going on in my life right now, you don't understand what it's like to be me or for my type of people, do you listen? Do you empathize? Or do you try to make excuses?
Or do you just not care because you don't look like that or come from there? See, Jesus says, my people are going to mourn. My people are going to hurt. And then they'll be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. So here's the deal.
In this list, this is my least favorite one. Okay, I take that back. I like it for y'all. I don't appreciate it personally. And I have done a lot and I think the Christian church in America, look, can I just say most of the stuff in this list Americans don't like, period. We have things like meekness.
Yeah, come get my gun out of my cold, dead, frozen fingers. Right? Meekness, I've always said stuff like, well, meekness is weakness, but it's humility inside of strength. And that's true. But most of the time I'll argue things like, yeah, okay, but you don't want to be, like he means meek.
And then I'll start making arguments where I just chip away at it and chip away at it and chip away at it and chip away at it until meekness doesn't exist anymore. It's kind of a theoretical idea, but you don't actually have to employ it in this situation or this situation or this situation. So here's what I'm like. My wife is a very meek person most of the time. Y'all will only meet the meek version. If you meet the other version, Lord help you.
But she mostly is a very meek person. That's her general attitude, disposition in life. And so I get very frustrated. Let me give you an example. Whenever she works at a place and they have to do vacation calendars, she, when it comes to vacation, she just becomes the most accommodating person the world has ever seen. She'd be like, oh yeah, we were going to go on that, but they wanted that day.
I was like, yeah, but you've been there for like five years longer than that person. Yeah, no, but they asked for it. It's like, yeah, but you get the vacation calendar before them. Just write it in. Well, they said they wanted that day out loud. That's not how y'all's vacation planning works.
That's why they pass around a calendar. She has one lady, she's like, well, she really wants to celebrate this thing. And I'm like, I want to celebrate stuff. I have offered, I have offered, she didn't take me up on this. I've offered to go to work and help work out the vacation calendar myself. And I will tell you, it was not to employ meekness.
But here's what Jesus says. Here's the thing about earth. The meek do not rule the earth. They don't. Jesus says they will. The meek do not rule the earth.
But Jesus says the meek inherit the earth. They're going to get it. Those who are in the back of the line right now and who every time you walk up go, oh, you can get in front of me. And you think, sucker. Maybe you don't. I do.
They get bumped to the front of the line. That's what Jesus is saying here that his people are going to be very accommodating. They're not going to demand their rights. So what he looked at in a culture, in a Jewish culture that valued wealth, happiness, power. Jewish people, you could argue, value power over a lot of other things. And are seeking Jesus to accomplish that.
And from the very beginning of the Sermon on the Mount when he's teaching them what we're going to look like, he says it's not going to look at all like what you think it's going to look like. And this is what his group of people now, his church, are supposed to look like in the world. Meekness means, sorry, means you're quiet, gentle, submissive, easily imposed upon. Others get their way around you. You often don't speak up. You often don't press your advantage.
That's meekness. None of that is celebrated in our culture. So here's the question. Are you meek? Do you have to have power? Do you have to be in charge?
Do you have to have a say? Do you have to win? Do you have to prove to everyone that you're right, or strong, or smart, or brave? You care a lot about what's right and fair, but only when it pertains to you. Do you let others win? Are you happy when they win?
Are you excited for the times you get to lose because someone else got to celebrate? And I know that's very un-American, but it's very Jesus-like. Do others get their way around you? And not just, I'll let them have this one, and I'll let them have this one, and I'll let them have this one so that I can have the thing I really want. That's not meekness. That's sneaky power play.
Nonsense. Let's look at the next one. Verse 6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. That if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, you'll be filled up. They're going to hunger and thirst for righteousness here.
Eventually, they're going to be satisfied. Luke's gospel just says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst. Again, Luke is going to be more in line with just worldly poverty and worldly hunger and thirst. But Matthew's going to say, it's also just hunger and thirst for righteousness that you long for. Now, here's the deal. I think we read this and we think, okay, righteousness means goodness, what's right, what's just.
So, I think it means both in ourselves, holiness, that I would look the way I'm supposed to, that I would act the way I'm supposed to, that I would have integrity and be honest, that I would be righteous. righteous and in the world around me, that I would care about our, how policing works, that I would care about how our criminal justice system works, that I would care about all those in other nations who are dealing with poverty and pain and brokenness and starvation, that I would care about righteousness spreading around the world. And when it says hunger and thirst, I think we like to replace that with the idea of just long for. And in some ways, when we replace it with that, we kind of just disassociate ourselves from it. But here's the thing I know about me when I hunger and thirst.
I don't hunger and thirst long. I make a plan and I fix that. Some of you right now are hungering and thirsting and you're already thinking through, what time do you reckon this cat's going to wrap it up? And you're thinking through the restaurants that are near. And if you weren't, you are now and I'm sorry I did that. But what he says is that they hunger and thirst for righteousness, that they care about what's right and good and just, what matters, makes it into their lives.
I think that as we look at these last three and as we're celebrating Martin Luther King Day on Monday, I think we have a very good example in the United States of hungering and thirsting for righteousness, of meekness, of mourning in Martin Luther King. I think he's one of the, one of the Christian examples that we should hold up, that we should all be happy to say I'm on his team. Like I'm on Jesus' team and he's on Jesus' team. Like this is what we're supposed to look like. That as they fought for what was just and right, they did it in a humble and meek way, a non-violent way. That they mourned over what was broken.
I watched, I watched, I think, it's a CNN documentary, it's called The 60s on Netflix and I watched some of the end of it. They had actually filmed the Selma March where they're walking up towards that bridge and there's all these police officers on horses. Now, I'm not anti-police. I love police. I think their job is very difficult. My brother's a cop.
But there's all these police officers on horses and they're marching up and they're going to cross this bridge and they just ride in and start beating people with sticks, throwing tear gas. And I just watched them as they didn't fight back. And it's this picture of that's what Jesus' kingdom is supposed to look like. It's going to advance. It's going to care about injustice. It's going to care about righteousness, but it's going to do it with meekness and mourning and embracing the pain of what looks like the cross rather than the throne.
So how do you know if you hunger and thirst for righteousness? Do you notice sin in your own life? When you do, do you repent? Are you reading the Bible? Because if you said, I'm really hungry and I'm really thirsty, I would say, let's eat something. And for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, they consume the Bible.
They actively go out of their way to see what God says and what their life's supposed to look like and how they're supposed to change. Do you care about injustice in the world? The poor, the marginalized, the weak, the voiceless? Do you care about those who are hurting but don't have the exposure or the financial means to fix it? I think that's what it means to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Are you actively seeking change in yourself and in the world around you?
And here's the thing, if you hunger and thirst for righteousness, Jesus says you will be satisfied. Verse 7, blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Okay, so I think I always thought about mercy as I was going to do something bad to you or I have it in my power to do something bad to you but then I didn't, kind of like if you've watched the movie Gladiator and River, no, River Phoenix, but the other, Joaquin Phoenix, he's Commodus and he does some crazy stuff at the end but then he just kind of says, I'm not going to kill you and then he yells, Am I not merciful? And it's like, that was terrible.
Like you were just, I'm not going to kill you so that makes you merciful? And that's kind of what I always thought it was but Jesus actually tells a story in Luke's Gospel about the good Samaritan and what he says is there's a guy who's been beaten up and robbed and a priest comes by and he just kind of moves to the other side and walks past him which is, it's what I would do outside of the Holy Spirit helping me. If I see somebody bloody and beaten up it's like, probably deserved it or, I mean, maybe the people who did it are still here or maybe that's a trick and he's going to get me. So picture, like, car broke down on the side of the road.
That's what he's talking about. Passes over to the other side and goes, a Levite does it and he passes over to the other side and goes and he says, a Samaritan comes by, picks him up, binds his wounds, takes him to a hotel and gives the guy basically his debit card and says, whatever charges you need, put it on that. He didn't have debit cards to them but he just says, I'll pay you back when I get back here. And Jesus says, who was his neighbor? And the answer was, the guy who showed him mercy. You see, mercy is to be in a position of a power over someone and do them good.
That's mercy. The position of power doesn't mean you have to be the manager or the boss or it could just be that you're in a place where you have a little more seniority or you're in a place where you could exert your rights on someone. You could make them pay you back but you don't. Where you could press charges but you don't. You could be in a situation where your car is working and theirs isn't. Where you have a little bit of room in your wallet and a little bit of room in your budget or you actually can pull something out of your budget to pull this out and give it to somebody.
That's mercy. And Jesus says, blessed are the merciful because they will receive mercy. Those who went out of their way to help people around them, to serve people around them, will be served and helped. Those who didn't punish others for their sins against them will not be punished for theirs. When you have the ability to serve others, do you? Do you do good to those who can't repay you?
When was the last time your money went to someone else? More specifically, when was the last time your money went to someone else who wasn't going to be grateful or appreciative or you feel like really didn't deserve it? Who do you go out of your way to serve or to help? When was the last time your time went towards someone else? I think that's what merciful means. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Pure means clean or blameless or unstained. It means you have genuine motives. It means you're focused. If I gave you water, if you bought water and it said 85% pure on the side, I'd be like, what? You'd be looking at the back like, wait, what got in this? It's like one of those where it's like 100% this plus other flavors.
It's like, wait, hold a second. That's not how math works. You know what I'm talking about? So pure is 100%. It's focused. It's unadulterated.
You have soul allegiance. You look to God and God alone. John Piper, who's a pastor in the Midwest, he says it this way. He says, purity of heart is to will one thing, namely, God's truth and God's value in everything we do. The aim of the pure in heart is to align itself with the truth of God and to magnify the worth of God. If you want to be a pure in heart, pursue God with utter singleness of mind.
Purity of heart is to will that one thing. So as the Bible explains purity, it's basically saying the pure in heart are those who only seek after God and God's will and God's name and God's glory. And so really, I only have one question here that I think helps us ask the question, weigh ourselves, am I pure in heart, is this. Is your life about following Jesus with everything else thrown in? Or is your life about something else with Jesus thrown in? Is following Jesus one of the things you do?
Is church family one of the things you do? But really your goal is financial success or the perfect white picket fence 2.5 kids family? Or is your life about following Jesus and finances and work and friendships and everything else? Marriage gets thrown in along the way as you follow Him and becomes a means by which you follow Him. That's being pure in heart. And those who are pure in heart see God.
Something that no one was allowed to do in the Old Testament because sin would make God destroy you. But Jesus steps in and says if you're pure in heart you actually get to see God. You get to look at Him with your own eyes. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God. For those who make peace on earth they shall be called sons of God. Now peacemaking is not avoiding conflict.
Sometimes peacemaking is wading into conflict. So for many of us our household when we grew up or when we get back around there's so much drama and conflict between people but nobody ever talks about it. You have that family where you know of a thousand things that they should talk about and then you show up to Thanksgiving and it's how's the kids? How's school? Good, good, good. And it's like y'all haven't even seen each other for a year because you're mad at each other.
Pass the gravy. Like you have like you start to bring something up and you're the bad guy. Why are you causing drama? No, no, no, no, no, no. The drama already exists. I'm talking about it.
It's not causing it. What you said last year caused it. So here's the deal. The peacemaker that you know the peacemaker in our world may not be the person who's always trying to sweep everything under the rug. It's actually more likely the person who's pulling the rug back and saying hey there's a lot of dirt under here. But let's clean it up.
Not to be inflammatory. Not because that's the most entertaining thing to do when you're hanging out with your family. Not so you can film it and put it on Instagram. I have a vine of someone throwing a turkey on Infinite Loop. So one of the most peacemaking things we do in our church family is we have if someone comes to you and complains about something we have the basic question of what did they say when you talk to them.
So if you come to me and say this person's really frustrating or they did this my go-to response should be what did they say when you talk to them. That's peacemaking. That's I'm going to make you talk to them. If you say well I didn't talk to them my next response is oh I have their number. They're in our group. We'll see them tomorrow.
Like that's peacemaking. That we're going to make people sit down. I was talking to a local church leader here and we were talking about some conflict that was going on and we were talking about how we were trying to walk through it and he goes yeah what do you do you can't make them get in a room with each other. I was like we make them get in a room with each other. And a lot of times beforehand when there's some significant conflict we get like a list. I've mediated these things before my only goal is to make sure we talk about everything.
And those are terrible two hours. Just can I tell y'all like I've been in those where it's like two and a half hours of just it's awful. The last 20-30 minutes is great y'all. People start hugging remembering the gospel growing together. We've had people in our church family who had to do that with somebody and then later had another conflict and they were like oh let's do this thing because they knew what happened. They were like I got my list let's go.
That's peacemaking. And Jesus says the peacemakers will be called sons of God. So do you avoid conflict or are you willing to weigh in to reconcile? Are there people right now that you're mad at or that you have something against or they have something against you and you've just really grown okay with that? You're just not going to talk to that person or you're just going to wait until everything falls it's kind of forgotten or are you waiting in for the sake of a real relationship? Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Forgotten or are you waiting in for the sake of a real relationship? Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now I believe so this is the last statement where he says the same thing for theirs is the kingdom of heaven so he's saying this is my people this is what they look like
And he ends with blessed are those who are persecuted for what is right for what matters persecuted for something that's valuable for righteousness sake now I believe that in our culture we're going to move more towards that where Christians are going to be persecuted I know that every year we say they're out to kill Christmas or
Whatever can I just say our culture is not trying to kill Christmas that's how our culture makes money Black Friday is when all of the businesses go into the black they've moved Christmas to September y'all not trying to get rid of it they don't care much about Jesus which makes sense they don't
Know him we should care about Jesus but can I tell you this in 2016 not in the United States Christianity was the most persecuted religion people were lined up against walls and shot people were lined up and told to take knees and beheaded people were run out of towns said you got
A little bit of time but we're coming all the Christians need to flee blessed are those who are persecuted for what matters and what's good and what's right theirs is the kingdom it belongs to those so Jesus begins the sermon on the mount the rest of everything he says is going
To be directed to you because here's what he's saying all of those who all of those who all of those who this is what my people are going to look like and then he's going to tell us how to do it he's going to tell us how that begins to play out in different aspects of life but this is the church this is Jesus's
Followers they're poor in spirit they're humble they mourn they're meek they're not demanding their rights or their way they're standing up for others but not for themselves they hunger and thirst for righteousness they're categorized they're noticed by how much they care about what matters what's right in themselves
And in others and in the world they're merciful the church is marked by a group of people who go around doing good for everyone around them they're pure in heart singularly focused on the king they make peace and they're hated for it that's Jesus's people that's what we're supposed to look like that's our characteristics
So church family do we know we have nothing to offer God do we approach him with empty hands and utter humility knowing that everything we've received is by grace or do we look down on those who aren't trying as hard as we are who haven't learned like we have do we hurt
Over the brokenness in the world do we weep do we care about injustice and what's wrong when's the last time we got on our knees and shed some tears over sin in the world over homelessness or joblessness
Or poverty or human trafficking do we submit to others do they get their way do we celebrate when we lose because others get to win do we not always press our rights or our advantage but do
We intentionally not even go to court so that someone else can take advantage of us because Jesus' people are meek it's one of the things Paul says in one of his letters he says you gladly accepted
The plundering of your property because Jesus' people are meek do we thirst for righteousness do we hunger for what's right and good in the world do we read our bibles do we pray are we
On our knees do we care about our sin and hate it do we help others do we go out of our way to serve them does our money leave
Our pockets for others or does every bit of our personal wealth go to raise our personal standard of living how often are we helping those
Who don't look like us think like us act like us are we solely focused on Jesus or is he just one of the things that takes up
When we have enough time do we step into relational drama and bitterness or do we avoid it because we don't care about real peace and real
Reconciliation and real relationships do people hate us for how much we love Jesus see I I think it's helpful for us as we read through this to
Weigh ourselves and say is this me do we look like this does my group look like this and I think it's healthy and
Okay for you to say actually I'm okay there I think I think for the most part can't get too prideful that'll mess us up on
The first one being poor in spirit but I think you can say I do that one alright but I think if you come out of this into
This list and you go crushing it Jesus just could have wrote my name down I think you've missed something I don't think you're paying attention
To it and I think you've missed the first one definitely where you're supposed to realize you have nothing to offer but here's the
Thing Jesus doesn't just teach this he lives it he isn't just going to say this is what you're supposed to be like but
He actually lives this for us the perfect example of the beatitudes is Christ he lived this good life he's the ultimate riches to rag
Story that he left heaven to be born in a stable to be born to a poor family where he lives his life in a working class family who eventually travels
Around homeless is nailed on a cross the only thing that was over the brokenness in the world and the sin in the world that he he just moved to action that he
Leaves to fix it that he cares for it he's meek the God of the universe let little dirty weak frail ignorant humans nailing to a cross
So that he could redeem and so that he could save them so he could go to work on their behalf he hungered and thirsted for righteousness not just for himself but for us for his church for his people that he
Would he would die and take pain so that he could make many righteous he is ultimately merciful because he was in the ultimate position of power and
He laid it all down to take on weakness to benefit those who didn't deserve it he had singular focus and thought purity of heart
As he pursued the will of the father and he was truly persecuted for righteousness sake not only for his own righteousness but for the sake of
Those who would follow him that his righteousness would be given to us through the work he accomplished on the cross you see Jesus lived
This for us he doesn't just call us to it but he accomplished it for us so that all those who place faith in Jesus because Jesus
Takes our sin he stands in this has already accomplished it for us that we can stand before God and be made right that every
Blessing in the beatitudes can be given to the church that the church gets the kingdom that the church is comforted and inherits the earth that those
Of us who belong to Jesus will be satisfied and will receive mercy and will see God and will be called sons of God because
We're invited into the kingdom because of the work Jesus has accomplished and here's the thing when Jesus begins this and he says this
Is who my people are and we're going to spend the next several weeks walking through what he says it's going to look like he
Doesn't just want to give this to you doesn't want to do it for you but he wants to do it in you so
That we are actually supposed to look more and more and more and more and more and more like this until the day he calls
Us home that he's accomplished it for us and these blessings are already ours because of Christ but that we should be growing in meekness and
Mourning and hungering and thirsting for righteousness all the days of our lives that this is what his people will look like because Jesus is
At work in us to make us look like this the band is going to come back up we're going to celebrate that Jesus has
A kingdom that he's making us into these people that this is what the church gets to look like by the grace of God
As he works in us we have nothing to offer him nothing to bring to him nothing that gives us value or worth we're
Not going to accomplish this so that we'll be accepted that Jesus has already accepted us through the cross and that through his power
He's going to continue to work this in us and continue to change us and God I pray that through your Holy Spirit you
Would be at work in us to believe in your name and to believe in your son to celebrate that he didn't just call
Us to this and walk away but that he accomplished it for us that we do get to approach you as poor in spirit
Trusting solely in your work and not ours and God I pray that our church that your church in this city in this state
In the world would look like this as backwards as it is from all the things we want to celebrate I pray that you
Would help us to reorient our lives to believe in your upside down kingdom that we ought to be poor we ought to mourn
We ought to be meek that we're blessed when we're persecuted that we're blessed when we hunger and thirst for what's right and what
Matters we ask for your grace we praise you for your love in Jesus name amen
