Enemy Love
Transcript
All right, how are we doing this morning? All right, I don't know how to take that. We'll be in Matthew chapter 5. Hopefully we'll get better, wake up a little bit. We're in Matthew chapter 5. We're walking verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount.
We're spending a good bit of time this spring just walking through, studying what Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount, how we can apply it to our lives, how we can begin to live as if we know this, trust this, believe this. So we're just spending some time in these three chapters in Matthew. So Jesus kind of begins the Sermon on the Mount by saying he's building a culture. But he begins by proclaiming a message that's going to change the culture of the people who are going to follow him. He's beginning to say, I'm starting a kingdom, and this is what we're going to be like. This is what my people are going to be like.
And it's any of you who have ever gone from one culture to another, have gone even just in the U.S. You can go from southern culture to kind of the northeast or the west coast, and you'll see that there's just some differences in how people think and how they act, how they treat one another. If you ever go overseas, there's just some different cultural things that happen. And that's what Jesus is saying is he's building a culture. I remember in college I got the opportunity to go to Romania on a mission trip, and we were just serving with some churches that were already there, and we were traveling around and getting to preach in different churches.
And preaching in Romania was interesting because everything took twice as long because you would say it, and then your translator would translate it. And it's interesting, too, because you don't know, like, I like to cut up jokes and stuff, and I think that's probably even worse. When I was in college and preaching, like, that was like half of what I did. And that you just don't know the Romanian churches. It's like, I don't know what to do. So I remember the very first time I was going to preach in a Romanian church, I was thinking, I kind of hope I had something to kind of break the ice a little bit, try to get people on board with what we're doing.
And I walked up, and I stand in front of everybody. It's a small church. There was an aisle right down the middle, and there was just two little sections of pews, and one section had only men, and then there was a section of only ladies, except for my two brothers, who had sat on the ladies' side. Because we didn't know. We didn't know there was a men's section and a ladies' section, and that was a cultural thing for them. That's not really, like, not taught in the Bible as a way to do this, but it was just how they were expressing their culture.
And I remember walking up and being like, jackpot, I got a way to start this off. And my brothers didn't realize it until I pointed it out, that they were sitting in the ladies' section, and both of them were like, you could see them tense up like, should we move? What have we done? But they were real gracious towards us, not knowing what to do. But there's just something about, there's these different cultures where this isn't okay.
You stand out if you act this way. This is the way we're going to behave. And that's what Jesus is doing in the Sermon on the Mount. He's saying, this is what my people are going to look like, and if you say you're a Christian, if you say you're a part of the kingdom, this is how you behave, and you should stand out. It should be odd in two ways. If you are a Christian in normal human society culture of the world, Christians should stand out.
He says, as a city on a hill, that there should shine, that there should be something different about us. And if you say you are a Christian and do not behave this way, if this isn't your posture, you should stand out among Christians. You should look weird. The church should have its own distinct, this is how we respond. This is how we act. This is our culture.
The reason I say that is because what we're going to look at today, Jesus says three very difficult, very hard sayings here that are difficult to apply, difficult to live with. And I know our attitude when reading the Sermon on the Mount a lot of times is to make it law. It's to immediately start saying, okay, well, what are the rules? Where does that apply? How far does that go? When Jesus is working to say this is what people are going to be like, this is the culture we're going to have, not to say here's rule number one, here's rule number two, here's rule number three.
He's painting a picture for a type of people. And that means that as we approach it, we're asking what's our posture, what's our attitude, how in general are we going to act? These are examples of that, not here's this rule and you just perfectly apply it and you're okay. And if you can kind of figure a way around it, that's okay because he's giving rules. He's not, he's giving a way of life. That means that as we walk through life, there are going to be things that aren't covered here, but then we're going to say, okay, well, how does that apply given the posture we're supposed to have as Christians?
If you don't get that, this is going to be really confusing. So does that make sense? We're on page where he's building a culture, he's making a type of people. Okay, cool. Let's pray.
And then we'll jump into the text. Lord, we ask for your help. We pray that you would bless the proclamation of your word. We pray that you would bless the healing of it. That we might receive it. That it might change us.
And God, we ask that you would bless the healing of it. That we would live this way as we follow you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We're going to pick up in verse 33.
So Jesus is continuing to teach. Here's kind of what we're going to look like. Here's how my culture, this is the group of people I'm making. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old. So he's been quoting the law, the Old Testament law, and how people have been teaching it.
And then he's been kind of correcting and saying, you've been following it like it's law. What I'm saying is follow the heart behind it, the culture behind it, the pattern, the posture behind it. So you heard it said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. That rule in the Old Testament was, if you promise God you're going to do something, do it. That was the rule. Don't swear falsely.
If you promise God, if you make a vow to God, follow through you. And he says this. But I say to you, verse 34, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair black, white, or black. And I know that we can now, by boxing, or beating up your head, especially with my church, but it doesn't stay that way. Let what you say be simply yes or no.
Anything more than this comes from evil. So this is the first difficult thing we're going to look at today that Jesus calls us to. And he's calling us to integrity, to honesty, to when you say yes, mean yes. And when you say no, mean no, don't have some sort of secret thing behind it. And when he talks about taking oaths, what they were doing is they would say, I swear by heaven. I swear by Jerusalem.
I swear by the earth or by my head. And then when they kind of weaseled out of the oath they had taken, they were like, well, I didn't make a vow to God. Had I made a vow to God, I would have followed through with it. But I just promised by Jerusalem. And so what Jesus says is, hey, all of it belongs to God. Heaven's his, the earth's his, Jerusalem's his, your head is his.
Stop it. Like he's in all of it. Not just when you say, I swear to God, does it shoot a flare up and he goes, oh, what was this about? Let me write that one down. No, he's paying attention to us on all levels when we're speaking. And he's saying, have integrity, be honest.
Quit trying to get away with things. So, here's what this means. Very, very straightforward. Tell the truth. You say something, it should be true. That's the point.
Be honest. Don't have to live a life. He says anything else comes from evil. The reason he says that is if sin hadn't entered into the world, we wouldn't need to have an extra special yes. Yes would be yes, no would be no. We wouldn't be tricking each other.
An oath is just, I double promise yes. This is an extra special yes. This one's a yesy yes. That's what an oath is. So when somebody tells you a story and you go, promise?
You're just saying, like, you swear? This really happened? Is this an extra special yes? Or is this one of those yeses that actually isn't a yes at all? That's what that is. That's why he's saying everything else comes from evil.
Like, the only way we had to start doing this was the lies in the world. This is when you say, I swear my mom is great. Or just you tell somebody something and they say, that's a lie and you say, that's money. It's the same thing. It's this. This one's for real.
They say, no, just when you speak. Yes or no. That's it. Quit all this other stuff. Let me give you an example of how this plays out. So when I was growing up, we used to do tactical misrepresentations of the facts.
The tactical misrepresentation of the facts, which is you represent facts. Like, it's true. And then you let them draw the conclusions they would like to do. I'll give you an example. In high school, I went to a bathroom. Took my shoe off.
Put it up in the air. Took my wallet out. Tossed it up in the air. I took my keys out of my pocket. Tossed it up in the air. And I walked to the nurse's office.
And I said, I'd like to go home. I was just in the bathroom throwing things up. Both of those statements were true. I would like to go home. I was in the bathroom throwing things up. Had the nurse asked what, I would have said, my shoe, my keys, and my wallet.
I'm going to head back to class. Or when I tried to play it off, it's like I had a really bad diet. Like, I just eat terrible things. She let me go home. It was excused. That's deception and is outside of what Jesus is calling us to here.
Technically, I did not lie. But in a way more real sense, yes, I did. So Jesus is saying, have integrity. I'll show you another way that this plays out practically in life. I go to my wife. I said, hey, the guys in my group, we're having a poker night on Friday.
Is it cool if I go to that? She says, yeah, that's fine. I mean, it's my one evening off, and I'll just stay home and watch Archer. And I say, you sure? She says, yes, fine. Do whatever.
That'll be okay. I said, okay. Then I go. And then when I come home. Yes, y'all, you're aware of what I'm talking about. So I walk in the house.
I'm also in the future. You walk in the house, and then she's sitting up. Archer's already in bed, and she's like, I cannot even know. I'm smart, so I'm like, what on earth are you talking about? You should have known. Like, I can't believe.
And it's like, you know what I'm saying? She said, it's fine. But secretly, it was a love test. And here's what happens as we begin to do this in life, where we let integrity kind of break down, is you can't even pick a restaurant when this begins to happen in a relationship. Hey, you want to go? Do you want to go to this burger place?
Yeah, that's fine. Oh, it's fine? So it's not fine. No, I'm okay with that. No, you know, whatever. You want tacos.
You always want tacos. Let's go eat tacos. You can just have 15 tacos and be happy in your little heart. It's like you cease to be able to even talk to each other. So if your spouse is just coaching on how to apply this, your spouse says, I want to go to this thing, and you think, I don't want you to go to that thing, don't say, sure, go to that thing with this secret.
I don't want you to go. I don't want you to go. Have a real conversation. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. This is one of the things we teach in premarital counseling all the time. Say what you mean.
Don't mean it. And then if you do this, here's how we handle this in my house. I'm sorry. Right. Um. But you said that you don't.
So it's not fine. No, I'm okay with that. No, you know, whatever. You want tacos. You always want tacos. Let's go eat tacos. You can just have 15 tacos and be happy in your little heart. It's like you cease to be able to even talk to each other. So if your spouse is just coaching on how to apply this, your spouse says, I want to go to this thing, and you think, I don't want you to go to that thing, don't say, sure, go to that thing with this secret. I don't want you to go. I don't want you to go. Have a real conversation. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. This is one of the things we teach in premarital counseling all the time. Say what you mean. Don't mean it. And then if you do this, here's how we handle this in my house. I'm sorry. Right. Um. But you said that you don't. So next time, don't say that.
And just make sure that you're not going to click the line. That'd be fine. it's not quite approached that way but it's close um here's the thing like be honest be be truthful uh and don't expect people to be able to figure out what you what you're doing here and don't intentionally deceive people Jesus is saying stop that just be honest for some of you in the room practically this is going to be very difficult because you have made a practice of deceiving maybe it's in small things maybe it's it's uh you just kind of some of you you feel like this is the only way you can do your job there's no way I could do my job as a salesperson if I just was completely honest there's no way I could do my job as a mechanic if I was just completely honest like this some people act like this well this is just how our our industry works that's not true there is a distinct way to be a christian in every industry you're in some of you just life is like this with your spouse you just kind of lie a decent amount um maybe even over small things the beginning for you because stopping yourself from lying when you really practiced in it is hard the beginning for you will be coming back and saying what I just said I know I said it this way I actually said it that way on purpose of you to believe this uh and not a need to be honest one of the some of some of us in life have met someone have known someone maybe in our family maybe we weren't here and we were too much just honest when I said yes and yes and said no and no and that was refreshing beautiful and helpful
Okay so if that was difficult I have good news it gets worse um go to verse 38 you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth that is old testament law it is in three different places but I say to you do not resist the one who is evil but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also and if anyone would sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak as well and if anyone forces you to go one mile go with him two miles give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you this is one of the most well-known uh passages uh that in the bible one of the most well-known sayings that Jesus has that we would turn the other cheek that we would go the extra mile we still use these terms uh here here's what he's getting at and I think it's helpful to understand the eye for an eye tooth for a tooth law that was given in the old testament was given as a way for Judges to judge properly it was not an interpersonal way to interact it was for Judges to make right judgment and it was to um limit excessive punishment as well as to a smaller degree keep from having a major issue happen and then someone gets a slap on the wrist but mostly it was it was saying payback isn't double you knock my out I don't get both of yours I just get one that's what an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth was was a no excessive punishment it led the punishment to crime and it was given to Judges to make wise judgment but they have begun to use it the same way we use it
So something happens to us someone at work lies about us makes it hard for us to get a promotion and we say well which means here it comes the bible's given me free reign to retaliate that I get to do to you what you did to me someone lies about you someone uh offends you someone harms you and we we quote it as well I get to retaliate I get to make it even I get to get even and Jesus says no that's not that's not our culture that's not what we look like um that's not how we're going to act I do think when you read by itself
Verse 39 but I say to you do not resist the one who is evil if you read that by itself it becomes you immediately want to say okay I have like a thousand questions I think two of the main ones that pop up are we're not allowed to stop hitler that side of the argument or the if someone breaks into my house I'm not allowed to defend myself I think that that those two questions are helped by the context because everything Jesus gives after this when he says don't resist the one who's evil because he talks about personal the personal implications of this so being slapped having someone take your property
Having someone impose upon your time and then having people ask to walk he's not talking about nations military laws this rule was actually given to Judges that's assumed that there would be Judges and rulings and laws but he's just saying quit applying this personally as I can retaliate against you the bible has other places where it talks about the rightness of an army the rightness of a military that he's going to never put his force so I think it's wrong to take this and push it into every aspect of life and say make sure they don't have cost
I don't think that's ever so appropriate in understanding the context of what he's talking about so he says in your personal life when it has to deal with your person you here's how we respond and so I want us to to look at what he is saying because I think it is very difficult if someone slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also he does not say attacks you although I do think if someone were to to strike you not just open hand slap you but to to uh punch you or attack you
That there is room for christians to hold this with some uh tension and say I think we've got to at least wrestle with the implications of Jesus so for the person who says I have a family and if someone breaks into my home I believe I'm called to defend myself I would say I think you have warrant there in scripture to pay attention to that to hold that view I also think you need to consider how to respond in a way that is in line with this that has some sort of a posture here so that when someone says
Uh they have their concealed weapons permit and they act like I hope somebody starts on with me I don't think that's in line with the culture Jesus is talking about I think that would be something that you would need to consider think about way out for someone who says I don't have wife kids if someone breaks in my house my main goal is just to get out of my house I don't want to harm them I believe that when he says that if they sue you and take your clothes that'll include being robbed and I'll just do what I can to get out of this situation even though
In south carolina I have the castle doctrine which means that I can uh kill that person and then walk away but I believe that I'm a christian I've been called to a different culture I think that's fair I think that's within this I do think Jesus knows he's mostly speaking to being slapped and being slapped is not a major physical injury it hurts your pride it is degrading let me give you an example you're at a restaurant you see a couple and it's tense and then one of them
Let's say the lady just to help you she jumps across the table and starts trying to like call the guy's eyes out and choke him I would think look at this situation this is a hot mess both of these people have serious problems like there's there's something that's happened in this relationship to cause this now let's say she splashes water on him and open hand slaps him and walks out I don't think what a terrible lady I think I want to look back at him does that make sense an open hand slap
When he's talking about being struck it is a you are beneath me you it is an affront of pride and character this is the same as if someone lies about you who undercuts your character I can tell you right now that if if another grown man comes at me and punches me I'm gonna be angry I'm gonna have a hard time handling that if he open hand slaps me I'm gonna come real close to me and here's why he punches me he thought I better do a good shot on the first one because this is about to get serious if he open hand slaps me his thought process was I'm gonna learn whatever I want
This guy is a weak, weak, small and I'm telling you the logical implications of me being an open hand slap are gonna be so much harder to deal with than someone just attacking you that's what Jesus is talking about he is addressing when someone comes after you your name when someone comes after you you're right when someone comes after you're self-warned you don't get to retaliate that's not the posture that we have they lied about me I'm gonna lie about this they kept me from getting a promotion I'm gonna keep them from getting a promotion or they got the promotion over me because they lied I'm gonna do everything I possibly can to get them fired
And he said no that's not our culture it's not what we're gonna lie he keeps going so personal pride personal insult and he says if anyone would sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak as well you see Jesus is teaching that his people that the church and the people who follow him and his kingdom are not going to walk around demanding their rights that our goal as christians is not to say well this is my legal justification and this is my legal right but that we're gonna hold that with an open hand
That we're not going to demand and impose ourselves on others but that in situations where someone's wrongfully suing us or rightfully suing us we're gonna hold very weighty how do we respond when I'm talking about you and how do I show the praise when someone is evil and insulting me when someone is imposing upon me how do I show the praise how do I model the way that Jesus is responding up to see Jesus says if he sue you for your tunic that's your inner garment give him your outer garment as well he says respond
Not the way they would assume you would respond I'm gonna sue you and take your tunic man I'll give you I'll give you both right now and I'll make this right right now I'll see you in court no you won't let's handle it right now what you need what's restitution how can I be gracious right now he's saying these people are gonna look for if anyone forces you to go one mile go with them two miles you see what Jesus just did in these three instances he says if they attack your pride in your name
Your self worth if they attack your stuff or if they attack your time all christians are gonna hold down with another how many of you how many of us would say well I'll give some time but I won't give my stuff or how many of you say well I'll give my stuff but I'm not giving any time how many how many of us have said things like I can't be friends with that person they're just too many they just need too much for me I can't be friends with them they take up too much of my time I can't
I can't be around them anymore all they ever do is ask me for stuff and Jesus is saying his people are ready for that have an open hand because they have an open heart 42 give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow you the christians are supposed to be the people who follow Jesus who are his people and his kingdom are supposed to be open handed when someone asks
For something when someone asks to borrow something even though they haven't even given back the other thing they borrowed he says our response is yeah it's just stuff yeah it's just my time oh yeah it's just part of my reputation that's what his people are I want to specifically take a second on this one
The borrowing give to anybody who asks if you because of our location we live near columbia some of you live in columbia there is a decent amount of hand handling that happens and so one of the immediate responses to this is anybody comes over and asks for ten bucks as a christian I'm supposed to just give
Ten bucks that's one of my fun choices one of the things I've wrestled with in the parking lot and someone comes over and I have a really good inclination with the people that are telling me some story about having to get back to orange bird or their mamas and get enthrined and they've got to catch
Them like am I supposed to just hand them 20 bucks I want to say a few things on that real quick one is if you come to the conclusion yes yes Jesus says give to those who beg beg beggars that's what they're doing give to beggars yes I will give you the ten bucks
I'm not going to give them the ten bucks and let Jesus sort it out I'm going to respond faithfully to what he's called me to and just be open handed and give to beggars and let him sort out how they respond to that we're going to do you think that the people who are homeless in our city in those situations in our city are in those situations for a
Reason if we lived I grew up in edgefield if we lived in edgefield I think I would approach this passage differently we don't live in edgefield we live in columbia there are multiple homeless shelters in downtown that will help people get out of homeless situations so the way that my wife and I handle
This is we've had this discussion I've told her my wife said and I said and I said and I said and I said and I said and I said just give to those who borrow and her response was okay somebody walks over and says I want your truck appropriate christian responses here
I like my truck so I was like hold on a second uh move out of your house here are the keys this is your question it looks like again I think if someone said I think that's what Jesus called me
To and I'm going to just do this in faith I think there's some room for I don't know how I would say you're wrong although I'm not sure that's what he's getting at here's here's the way we handle this our yes is on the table someone comes and asks us for help if someone comes and asks us
For money if someone comes our yes is on the table although we will slowly over time define what that yes looks like giving you ten dollars a day so that you can stay on the street and keep a habit going is not us loving you that harms you so we put our yes on the table and then we say here's what we'll do we're actually
Going to invest more time we're going to invest more energy because we're going to try to help you get off the street rather than just doing this one time thing and then at times as we have done that as we have said we're not going to keep giving you ten dollars a day but here's what we will hope you do we'll hope you
Get in the same business we'll hope you get in the same business and we'll have other programs and we'll have people then tell us yes because there's a reason why they're doing this and at that point I feel like we have done it and we can do to say yes to actually give to those new people
So what I think people do this is what I'm just why I'm explaining this and trying to help I think what people do is say well giving that person ten dollars isn't going to help them they're just going to use it to further their habit and so they use not harming people with giving money to just say no and what I think we need to do is have a
Qualified yes that's what our church does we help people our goal is to put significant amount of money towards getting people off the street getting people jobs getting people in we don't just help them by maintaining the lifestyle they have help them by saying yes here's how we're doing it and I think that's what
Jesus told us that our stuff our turn and our reputation is made the ones that are okay here's how I do think at times we try to respond to this and I think Jesus covers it but I want to point it out we say okay yeah but they're ungrateful yeah I did that but they're a jerk
About it yeah okay okay I did I did go you know I was trying to do this but they're they're rude or they they waste it and that's why I think Jesus begins by saying do not resist the one who is evil because I think anything we could put in the yeah but there category
Eventually we'll just fit on the category I think Jesus covers that today at the beginning of the set right this is how we can do come on that's that's that's hard I think it's 42 43 this is our third difficult
Teaching that gives us respect you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy that's not in the law love your neighbor is but then people took it to the they kind of said well that's true and this has true so our response
The way we're supposed to live is to love our neighbors and hate our enemies he says but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you here's what happens as soon as God says love your neighbor our response is who's my neighbor we even see that in the in the gospels
Where somebody comes to Jesus and ask him that who's my neighbor and so Jesus says love your neighbor and love your enemies and now you shouldn't have any follow-up questions who's my neighbor love them all the way over to who's my enemy love them okay what Jesus
Just said was love people and he's going to tell us how to love our enemies but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you persecute means they are actively trying to tear you down destroy you destroy your
Way of life take you out remove you from the picture they are persecuting you they are actively that may be a co-worker that may be a neighbor that may be someone who just Acts like you don't exist they're doing things actively
To harm you and he says pray for them and don't pray things like God get them you may pray God change them God help me to love them but pray for them so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he makes his son rise on the evil and the good and sends his rain on the just
And the unjust so he says that God does this this is how he treats evil people the sun rises on them it sets on them rain falls on their crops just like it falls on good people's crops that God is gracious in creation
To all of them and that our response should be the same so here's let's think about this for a second we have enemies ISIS for example Al-Qaeda all the other number of people out there in the world who are actively trying to harm we have real enemies I believe that
That includes them so when Christians say I think we should just carpet bomb the Middle East and start over I want to respond no I don't think we can arguably we solve some problems but we can't that's not appropriate that's not
Our posture that's not like we can't do that we're supposed to love them we're supposed to pray for them pray for their hearts to change pray for us to be able to interact with them well pray for I think one of the ways you pray for someone who
Is actively seeking evil is that their plans wouldn't work out so that they have less to stand before God and be judged to her God help that to fall through be gracious on them let them change let their plans be terrible and not work but pray
For them but I also think this applies to normal everyday life and most of us will not interact with people from ISIS so those will and again if you are in military or desire to be in military I'd love to speak with you about that because I don't believe that's exactly
What Jesus is talking about here and I think there is some room for conflict inside of nations on nations we don't have time for it but for most of us who will not be facing an enemy on a battlefield I want to help
Us see something our culture we've gotten tribal it just means each one of us has begun to say this is the people I belong to my uncle my uncle Abel is from Nigeria when he was born
They cut tribal marks into his face and packed it with dirt and salt so that his entire life he is marked by which tribe he is he sees anyone whose face looks like that he can immediately begin to talk to
Him because he never was from my grandmother was on an airplane saw a guy with the same tribal marks as my uncle immediately was like she immediately knew you're from you're from Obamachal Nigeria like immediately because he
Marked himself he did but he finished him he was one of the last they kind of stopped this he's one of the last guys to have this done that last generation but we do this to ourselves we kind of announce which tribe we're a part by how we dress
By if you're ever in a meeting and everybody pulls out a computer you can kind of see which tribe you're a part of are these all PCs are these all Macs if you've ever met a person who uses a Mac and you open a PC
Around them you'll know they're a Mac person by how they go I said to someone the other day man my computer's slow he just walked off I was like well what the heck like this is the thing we've marked ourselves you can
Walk into a high school cafeteria and you can see people who've labeled themselves it's made easier by the fact that they're all together in chunks but you can tell is it a white guy with pink shorts he's announcing things about
Himself they made fun of us because when we ordained a pastor all of us had beards and we were wearing plaid we've marked ourselves we've done this in the way we dress in the way we speak we we've become tribal but see it's it's beyond
That get on facebook sometimes and you begin to see who belongs which tribe are they a part of and here's what happens we have grown increasingly unable to get all more people in office how many have been flipping to facebook
And told somebody to repost something from fox news limbaugh wire federalist I think that's what you know I think that's what you immediately thought okay I get it someone post something for
Black lives matter or reposted some article about how clinton should have won or somebody's posting stuff about make america great again and you immediately thought okay good to know who's your enemy who's the person who's destroying america
Who's the person who's ruining the family who's the enemy of progress you see we might would say this includes the refugees and this includes isis but then if we see somebody who is a part of an organization in the
U.s we think well I don't ever have to talk to them I don't have to be their friend you could do this during election time and see who had signs in their yard for bernie or for trump and you immediately
Could know well they're part of that group so they're my enemy I'm against them and Jesus says no love them pray for them care about them get to know them now this is hard how do you as a christian relate to someone who
You fundamentally want their plans to not work out how do you how do you relate to people who absolutely you disagree with on so many levels that's a good question and I think we'll figure it out as we try but I think we've gotten really really good at hanging out with our tribe and demonizing
Everybody else this happens in theological circles we're the only people who read the bible right God have grace on the idiots don't know how to study the bible like I mean this happens we do this and Jesus is saying love them get to know them care about them
Now you may not feel warm and fuzzy inside that's not the word he uses he uses a word that's an unconditional love for all the times you don't feel warm and fuzzy for the people who are very difficult this means that this is your neighbor who always parks in front of your house when you talk to him about
Him this is the co-worker if this kind of thing bothers you drinks out of your mug or actively will always ask you for help but will never help anybody help this is your boss who means you in front of other people there's some people in your life
Who have made themselves you in front of your your life who have you in front of your your life who have you in front of your your life who have you in front of your your life very good I think this is helpful for us to think about I was watching some of those animal planet
Like dog shows this was a while back but they catch a dog they rescue them from a terrible situation they set them down put a ball in front of them and then they reach down and snatch it have you all seen this like right when the dog is about to eat and if the dog tries to bite
Them they think oh it's violent put it down have you all seen that they do this I remember watching that thinking are you kidding me I would try to bite you if you snatched my plate away from me like and this dog just came out of a terrible situation how is it ever going to not act like that unless
People get around that care about it and change it and I think that's part of what we've got to understand as we say this person is toxic right but how do they get un-toxic they have some people who are unwilling to they have some people who sit them down and say hey we've got to talk this can't be how our relationship works I love you
I care about you I want the best for you but this isn't how we're talking to you I love you I care about you I'm not going anywhere but you got to be honest with me I love you I care about you I'm not going anywhere but we can't have it to where when you want attention you throw a fit or you set your house on fire figuratively to get people to come pay attention to you we've got to work on this
It's the only way they grow having a two-year-old has helped me with this the only way he'll act like a normal human in society is if there are some people around him who keep loving him through the fact that he has no clue how to do that and that's the way it is for some people that's what God's called us to who's your enemy and how do you begin to love them okay he says this verse 46 for if you love
Those who love you what reward do you have do not even the tax collectors do the same and if you greet only your brothers what more are you doing than others do not even Gentiles do the same you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect so what he just said was if you love the good and the bad the evil the just and the unjust those who are easy to love and those who are really hard to love you'll start looking like sons of your father
And then he says if you only love those who are easy to love but you get away from those who are hard to love everybody does that that's not what my people look like my people like a group of people who hold their reputation their finances their material their time their energy with an open hand and love all the people who are hard to love that's my people that's my church this is impossible without Jesus you cannot do this without Jesus some of you who are
Going to try to make this a long go okay I'm a white knuckle and love all the unlovable people it's not gonna happen and some people will break themselves over this rule and say well I'm done I can't I can't be like this is how it's supposed to work this is ridiculous to call me this you cannot do this without Jesus Disney's remaking Beauty and the Beast this will be a live action one this will be a real piece which you're seeing in the story
Line there's an 11 year old prince so she curses him until he turns 21 if he can find somebody to fall in love with him he won't have to see him she was a little heavy and they don't love you they don't okay then's the breaks kid so this is the story that unless he can find someone to love him
He will remain at peace and I love this story because I think we all so badly want that to be true but we know that through our decisions and our attitudes and actions we are thinking to learn but many of us are very aware of that and the hope that someone can do the wrong and love us and love us I think that's not that easy
And that's what happens in the gospel unless you see that Jesus has already done this for you he has no hope to live this unless you see that Jesus fulfilled all the promises of God and was perfectly honest and had perfect integrity on this world on your behalf you'll never be able to have it in any kind of real way
In life unless you see that when evil people imposed themselves on Jesus he actually did turn the other cheek he actually did allow them to take every bit of clothing that he had off of his back that he actually did carry a Roman cross up a hill that he actually did have everything robbed of him stripped of him that he actually
Was able to stop it as the son of God had all of the rights in the universe to stand and say this will not happen but laid them all down on our behalf and that he did that to pray for and care about and love his enemies whenever he ends until you see clearly that Jesus has done this for you and that's the only way you were saved in the first of your life and that was the
Only way to change from a thing so they're loving them because they're loving them and they're loving them and they're loving them and they're loving them only for Christ and I hope you're saved and I hope you're saved and I hope you're saved and I hope you're saved
And I hope you're saved and I hope I want to tell you two practical ways things that we can meditate on think about that I think will help us actually carry this out in life have you ever seen an adult argue with a child to the point that they both look like children have you ever seen this like it turns into like I can already tell like I've got a
Two year old he can barely talk I got so frustrated with him the other day I had to like set in his crib and leave the room and I know I should be like a well adjusted adult but it's difficult and I can tell you there's going to be a time where I'm with a four year old in Walmart and he's going to be like well I hate you I hate you yeah and look like another four year old like have you ever
Seen this like there are these moments where you want to look and be like hey unless you act like an adult that kid doesn't have a chance unless you see more clearly than the kid can this isn't going to work out and I think as Christians that's one of the positions we get to take in the world is that we get to see some things we're privy to some things
That other people aren't so we get to act differently and it's going to be really easy to act in the sense two things that I think we get to hold in our minds because of the truth of the gospel that will help us apply this one is the eternal ramifications of the mission that God has through Christ reconciled the world to himself and he has given us the ministry of reconciliation meaning that as Christians
We have a responsibility for the eternity of the world that they will one day stand in judgment before God and we all will and as Christians we believe we'll stand in judgment before God and say my hope is in Christ as that Psalm said earlier I'm clothed in his righteousness alone like the only thing I have is what Jesus has done for me and so what Jesus calls us to to be the father
To be imposed upon to love those who are harming us if we can remember that most likely we'll go into a Christless eternity and my interaction with them may be one of the only times that you can see the grace of life in the face of evil which is the relationship I have to Jesus grace in the face of evil I think it will help us we pray for the last Holy Spirit help me care about this person's soul
More than I care about my stuff help me care about this person's eternity more than I care about my time that they've asked for the second one is I think the eternal ramifications of God's blessing the truth is if you are a Christian your hope is eternal you have an inheritance that is undefiled unperishing and unfaded kept in heaven for you people can take all your stuff they haven't taken anything from you people can take
All your time that's a drop in the bucket of eternity people can take your life and they've just shot you into an eternity of true life and real life before the king I think if we'll remember the eternal ramifications of the mission and the eternal ramifications of the full and free blessings that we have in Christ we actually can live with a culture that Jesus calls us to we can actually begin to know
What we've done this kingdom and I want you to remember you saved sinners and pray for Jesus about good for those of us who have messed this up in the past who are terrible at this right now the absolute thing that we need to repent up I think the best I want you to know that we can and use the saved sinners and hope that we're there and we have an eternity to follow this morning God we thank you
For your grace thank you that you saved sinners that you loved us enough to die for the enemies that you loved us and that you called us to love so that we have a model for it and we also have to be about to do and the power to actually protect us I pray that you would help us to look like this that as years go by that this would be a good description of our church family that we would look
Like we belong help us to not retaliate help us not help us not
Marriage and Divorce
Transcript
Good morning. Grab your Bibles. Go to Matthew chapter 5. It'll be on page 473 if your Bible looks like this. Here's what we're doing. We're taking, we're just kind of walking through every week.
We're walking through the Sermon on the Mount. So that's Matthew chapters 5, 6, and 7. And we're walking through and just kind of taking it as we come, seeing what Jesus says, trying to understand what his point is and what we can learn from what he says. We're kind of in a section, and we've been in it for the past couple of weeks, where Jesus is, in his teaching, he's pointing out our approach to the law and our general tendency, their approach, our approach to take God's rules and then try to figure out, okay, how do I work around these? To kind of approach with, am I just doing exactly what it says, then I'm okay.
And Jesus is basically running through a hit list and intentionally picking some fights, intentionally using as examples some very tense subjects to try to point out how we like to say, am I living the right way, am I doing the right action, and disregarding what the point of it was in the first place. That our hearts matter as well as our actions. And so Jesus talks about anger. He talks about how we treat people we dislike. He talks about lust. He talks about marriage.
Like, he just kind of goes through a list of hot button issues and just presses all of them, and then he keeps moving. So thanks for doing that. And so that's kind of, that's what he's doing. He's trying to show us how we approach the law. And basically, our general tendency is, what's the rule? Where's the line?
How close can I get to the line? How much can I try to wiggle around this? Is that exactly what was said? My granddad told me this story one time when he was growing up. It was in like the 1930s, and he used to just eat butter. Now, I don't know if that's a thing you do, and I don't know if it is, if anyone's ever told you that's weird, but it is.
So like every time I've been at a fair and seen that they have fried butter, I've just thought, gross. And I guess my granddad, when he saw that, was like, dear diary, jackpot. Like, he just would eat butter. And so to the point that his mom was going somewhere, now butter, then, like he had like, they had like a mound of butter on a plate in their, I guess like whatever kept stuff cold. Ice, chest, freezer, refrigerator thing, whatever they had in the 1930s. I know that butter was different because they weren't buying like sticks.
They had like a mound on a plate. She told him before she left, it was such an issue that she's leaving. She has to tell him not to eat the butter. So she's going somewhere, and she looks at him and says, do not lay a finger on the butter. And he says, yes, ma'am. She leaves.
He opens the refrigerator. Puts his hands behind his back. He leans in and bites a large chunk out of the top of their butter. Closes the door. Walks off. Just pleased in his heart.
She gets home, sees what happened, sees that it's clearly just he bit it. And he doesn't even get in trouble. She was like, well played. I did say finger. I would have tore him up. Jesus' point as he's going through the section is that's what we do with any kind of rules we're given.
That's the natural inclination of the human heart is to say what exactly is the rule. What words exactly were used. And then try to figure out how to get what we want in and around the rules. That's our goal when it comes to rules. And so he's pushing back on that and saying, you've missed the point. Like my granddad missed the point.
The point was don't eat the butter. He missed it because he just focused on, he knew the point. But he figured out a way to get around it. And that's our goal. So whenever we come to the Bible and we say, what exactly does it say?
Jesus is going through this and saying, no, you've missed the point. That's not how this was supposed to be approached. So as we study the Bible, we try to understand what was the point he was making. What's the point in the context we're given? We don't want to just take a verse and say, here's what these words are without understanding the greater context. But as we've been studying this passage, we also believe that we can put weight on the actual words here and bear down on it.
And so what we did was the first week we talked, we said, here's the big picture. Here's what he's saying about the law. Here's what he's saying about how we fail and how we approach the law. And then we've gone back through and we're just saying, okay, what exactly is he saying and what can we learn from it? And so today we are going to spend time on the Christian sexual ethic, what the Bible teaches and how Jesus approaches human sexuality and marriage, what the overall Christian sexual ethic is. And I've got a quote here from C.S.
Lewis. He's a theologian from the 1900s. And he says this when talking about Christian sexual ethic. He calls it chastity, which is just Christianity's approach to sexuality. He says chastity is the most unpopular of the Christian virtues. There is no getting away from it.
The Christian rule is either marriage with complete faithfulness to your partner or else total abstinence. And so we would even have to amend that now because when he was speaking, there was no gay marriage. But Christians actually have to step in now and make it even more unpopular by saying we actually believe the Bible says that it's heterosexual marriage with complete faithfulness or else total abstinence. And he's right. He says this is the most unpopular thing Christians say. This is the worst virtue we have.
And he keeps going. He says now this is so difficult and so contrary to our instincts that obviously either Christianity is wrong or our sexual instinct is wrong. Or our sexual instinct as it is now has gone wrong. One or the other. And he says of course being a Christian I think the instinct has gone wrong. I want to quote another well-known theologian Scarlett Johansson.
I read this in the Huff Post this week. Scarlett Johansson is an actress. If that just threw you off you don't know who she is. She's talking about monogamy and she says that she appreciates it. She appreciates monogamy appreciates marriage but that it's so hard and so difficult not only for her but for everyone else that it's unnatural. She believes it's unnatural for us to be monogamous.
To have one person that you devote all of your romance and love to. And C.S. Lewis is noticing the same issue. This is so against how we think and feel and want to approach. It's so contrary to our nature that something has had to go wrong. Either Christianity is wrong or we're wrong.
And that's what Scarlett Johansson is pointing out. She's saying it's unnatural. Natural it's just so difficult that it cannot be what it was what it's supposed to be. This can't be what we're made for. And so here's what we're going to do is we look at what Jesus says today. We're going to look at the words he says which Jesus kind of just throws a one-two punch and keeps moving.
He says very harsh things very Just kind of brings the hammer down and then keeps going. So what we're going to do is we're going to look at what he says and then as best we can we're going to try to understand what the big picture Christian teaching is. We're going to look at a couple other passages in the Bible to help us get our our head around this approach to human sexuality. And I think today is just going to be a little hard. I think it's going to be it's going to be hard. We're going to have to keep fighting our own intuition our own instincts as we try to understand what the Bible is saying.
For many of us as we look at specifically divorce it's just going to be painful. It's just going to be a hard morning. That for some of us who come from families where divorce has played a big issue for some of us who have been divorced some of us who are maybe going through a divorce currently or some of us who are considering divorce and thinking that is our our current best option today's just going to be it's just going to be painful as we try to understand this but hopefully by the end we'll get to see why the Bible says what it says and why ultimately Jesus is better. But let's let's we've agonized over this in preparation and it's going to take us a while to kind of say what we feel like needs to be said this morning.
But let's pray pray for us pray for our hearts pray for the people around you this morning that the Lord would help us to listen. God we thank you that as painful as it is you don't leave us alone when it comes to difficult situations and difficult issues that when we've made a mess of things you step in you step in by teaching us you step in by addressing us and speaking to us but ultimately Lord you step in by taking our sin our pain our brokenness and dying on a cross for it that you step in by joining us in the midst of it so God I just ask that you'd help us to listen that you'd help us to to find words to speak to you with to pray as we wrestle through this and ultimately we ask that you'd help us to believe to believe that you are better that you are good
Even when we can't see that and we ask for your help in Jesus name Amen We said early on as we started the Sermon on the Mount that Christians are designed to look different and that this is one of the areas where Jesus just kind of talks about church being salt and light that we're supposed to stand out in culture and that sexuality and our approach to marriage is one of the areas where Christians are just going to look different you're just going to look weird you're going to stand out in how we think about this and how we approach this you're going to have people around you say are you kidding me and we're going to have to say no I'm not and here's ultimately why I think it works out even though I have some of the same difficulties
And reservations that you have but culturally we're kind of all over the place when it comes to marriage this is this is I don't know if y'all have noticed this if you're watching any movie that has to do with like romance and relationships if the main characters start off not married the movie ends with magical they got together they're going to get married wedding stuff how many cartoons are like it's a wedding and they just ride off like I was I've got a little kid now and I'm watching more Disney cartoons and my wife likes them
So we watch Cinderella and I'm pretty sure this is the one where they like no Snow White they meet in the woods and just sing to each other it's really weird and then then they get married and then at Cinderella they meet at a dance dance with each other and then her foot fits in the shoe boom they get married they ride off in a carriage and then it says the curtains close and it says I lived happily ever after and I'm like do you know how awkward
That carriage ride is? these cats haven't even talked to each other like he doesn't even know she's got the most annoying laugh in the world like this is going to be so difficult for them but that's how movies work so like Hitch or whatever the end credits is like a wedding and they're like dancing around or whatever and that's it we've reached it magic happy land but if the movie starts off with the couple married the marriage is the problem like if it's a relationship romance movie and it starts out like
There's conflict and there's drama and there's tension and there should be because that's what makes a good movie conflict and drama and tension if you watch a movie that doesn't have tension it's a bad movie but those are our two competing messages that we get marriage is the route to happiness and to fulfillment romance is how you know who you are sexuality is who you are and it's the route to becoming a complete person and because we believe so much that romance
And sexuality are the route to happiness we treat a lot of marriages like marriage is the problem marriage is actually what's hindering me from being full from being fulfilled from being complete and so it's Jesus is speaking into that when we listen today that's how we have to hear and here's the thing as Christians we're going to look crazy I saw this stat recently I thought it was very interesting the National Center for Biotechnical Information did a study and their website is a.gov website
I'm not quite sure where they fall in our government structure but they do testing on stuff they did a study and they just got a bunch of TV shows and they coded them and 82% of them had sexual content some form of relationship marriage sex some 82% of the shows they got they said that American youth and I couldn't figure out how they were defining that American youth
See 14,000 depictions of sex a year on television 14,000 so I had seen that statistic I thought it was really interesting and I was thinking I know this has to affect how we think about it like this amount of exposure to sex and sexuality and marriage and like the messages we're being told like I know that's got to affect how we're thinking about it and then I read this in a book called Switch
Talking about it's kind of a psychology book sociology book about how to get people to make decisions and it said in the 1980s a Harvard professor named Jay Winston heard about designated drivers from Scandinavian countries he heard that Scandinavian countries had this concept of a designated driver where when you went out drinking one person wouldn't drink so they could drive and he knew that they were having seeing good results
That people were being safer there was less fatalities and road incidents incidents so he wanted to bring that to the US he's a Harvard professor he wanted to create out of nowhere a social norm did not exist in the US as far as he knew he's one of the only people who'd heard of it that they were doing this in other countries so he decided that the best way to do it was just to expose
People to it even if it was fictional didn't actually exist in real life if it was fictional so what they did was they got 160 television shows primetime TV shows to give it 5 seconds 160 television shows to give the concept 5 seconds they got The Cosby Show Mr. Belvedere Cheers Who's the Boss LA Law if you recognize some of those shows you just dated yourself they started in 1989
1988 By 1991 3 years later they got 160 shows to give it 5 seconds 3 years later 9 out of 10 Americans had heard about designated drivers 37% of all Americans including infants had actually been a designated driver now the infants weren't but they included all of them in their study 54% of frequent drinkers had been driven home by one they made it up and just stuck it in cheers did it 160 times
In 3 years everybody knew about it 40% Americans had actually been one youth including us with our adult we get to watch all the shows we want a mature show I can watch whatever I want my mom ain't telling me what to watch youth see 14,000 depictions of sex a year how much are we seeing and if you are going to tell me that does not affect how we think about it I'm going to be very inclined
To disagree with you if you're going to tell me that the amount that we see depictions of relationships how to communicate to each other how we ought to think about marriage how we ought to think about love how we ought to think about lust how we ought to think about sex we're going to see thousands of these hundreds a week if 160 depictions of a designated driver can change an entire nation in 3 years how many years
Have you been watching TV it's absolutely having an effect on us and Christians are going to look crazy if we stick to what the Bible says so let's read let's read what Jesus says it's going to be difficult to read and let's begin to walk through how we're supposed to understand this and think about it pick up in verse 27 you have heard that it was said you shall not
Commit adultery so Jesus again is kind of saying this is what the law is this is what the rule is but I'm trying to explain to you what the intent was and the fact that your heart matters not just your actions but I say to you verse 28 that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart if your right eye
Causes you to sin tear it out and throw it away for it is better that you lose one of your members than your whole body be thrown into hell and if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away it's better for you that you lose one of your members than your whole body go into hell it was also said whoever divorces his wife let him give her a certificate of divorce
But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except for on the ground of sexual immorality makes her commit adultery and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery Jesus uses harsh language to talk about very sensitive subjects and ties it to the concept of absolute eternal weight when he says that this needs
To happen otherwise hell hangs in the balance and in a culture where romance and relationships and sexuality and marriage is held up as the way to find fulfillment and the way to define yourself this is just hard to take in a second we're going to walk through and kind of just say here's what he says here here's what
He says here here's what he says here before we do that I want to take one quick zoomed out view at the bible's approach to marriage to help us understand why Jesus says this as harshly as he does God designed male and female brought them
Together in Genesis it was the first wedding he kind of presided over it the goal was that there would be monogamy one man one woman together devoted to each other as husband and wife they would leave their parents they would cleave to one another they would
Be one flesh God intentionally in the beginning of the bible took a naked man a naked woman brought them together and said y'all gonna go be one flesh and that's the first
Marriage so he tied marriage with sexuality sin enters the picture and it gets really messed up and if you want to read a lot of graphic depictions of terrible sexual Acts you need to look
No further than the old testament where it doesn't mince words and talks about a whole lot of sexual deviance that happens it is kind of weird when you're reading the bible and you feel like this is inappropriate
That's an odd experience to have when you're reading the bible but that's what happens in Ephesians 5 paul says and we're gonna look a little bit more at it later but paul says that the secret to marriage the mystery about it is that
It was originally intended to point us to the gospel that when God presided over the first marriage he meant for it to point us to the gospel which is Jesus's love for his people Jesus's love for
The church Jesus's love for his bride that's what the church is called Jesus's bride that marriage is meant to point us there that's why christians believe that marriage is a paint by Numbers meaning that all of us should get the same
Picture that husband wife together for life is meant to be pointing us to a bigger more real to a true reality of Jesus's love for the church that's the secret behind marriage that was the point
Originally that's why christians are very rigid about what we believe about marriage and sexuality because we believe sexuality sex and romance were designed for marriage and that marriage was designed to paint one picture and point us to the gospel my wife and I went to johnston south carolina
Yesterday which you may not have ever heard of because it barely exists a friend of mine works kind of around the state and he called one time and said I just left the middle of absolute nowhere he said I thought kind of columbia was nowhere this is like you got to get lost in nowhere
To find this place and I was like what and he said johnston I was like that's where my wife's from that's where my high school was and you are correct it is in the middle of absolute nowhere we're coming back from there last night riding down highway one and
It's kind of you know highway one just kind of weaves its way through south carolina and every once while we'd see a sign that would say gilbert and point that way or lexington columbia and point that way and they'd have these little Numbers on them that meant this is how far
You are away these are the mile markers this is how far you're gonna go we'd ride for a little while in that direction we'd see another one that said lexington columbia and the Numbers had gotten smaller they want to on them the reason
Is it's pointing to an actual place it's got to point a direction it's got to have an actual number that corresponds to something because you're going to a real place christians believe the same thing about marriage and the gospel that marriage is meant
To point towards Jesus it's meant to point towards his love for the church it's meant to point towards and so that's why we get very rigid and specific about it's got to look like this it's got to be this way all husbands should act
Like this all wives should act like this like we christianity steps in and is very concrete about it because we believe it points to one clear picture sex designed for marriage it has two major functions recreation and procreation that means
It's fun and it makes children it's the way God designed it intentionally designed to be enjoyable intentionally designed in healthy adults to make children when everything is working properly there should be children I saw something
Recently that said that the reason there was an argument for easy access abortion and contraceptives that said pregnancy is just too great a cost for something as small and simple as sex and as a christian my response to that
Is there's a reason why sex causes pregnancy like it was meant to happen inside of a marriage where there was a male and a female there to raise a child like that's how it's supposed to work it kind
Of feels like if someone argued that they needed to lower the penalty for accidentally shooting someone with a gun because the penalty of you know killing someone and having to go to jail for it is just too great a cost for something as fun as pistols and my immediate response would
Be pistols were designed to harm people and you say no no I just use it for fun and it's like yeah but that we still have to have some regulations around this there's got to be some rules because that's what it was made for it feels the same
It feels like that's the argument it's like no it was designed for a purpose now I think immediately especially if you haven't been around the church much hadn't read your bible when someone walks up here opens a bible says hi I'm a pastor let's talk about sex there's this immediate like oh here we go women cover yourselves up hide
Sex is dirty wrong and bad save it for your spouse there's some sort of we just got liberated we just got free we just got to use our sexuality to give us power and now immediately it's like no get it out of here it's terrible it's gonna ruin society bible treats sex the way
It does because it believes it has greater value than you do it believes it's more powerful than you think it is there's a reason why you don't have to get a license to drive a moped if you hit someone on a moped you get hurt your moped
Isn't hurting anything like you run into my truck with your moped I'm hopping out hopping back in that's it like that's how it works like there's a reason why you have to get a license for a car and the reason why you have to get a bigger more intense license for an 18 wheeler
Because they're powerful they have more capability there's more to them there's a reason why the bible steps in and draws real clear distinct lines around sexuality and marriage because God designed it to be potent to be powerful it's because it's lifted up as it matters when Christianity
Says that you should dress modestly it's not because we have a low view of your sexuality it's because we have a high view of it I believe it belongs to you and to your spouse and you should like that's why like if you came to me and said oh you're so ashamed of your money with your safety deposit box I'm not ashamed
Of it I like it I don't want you to have it oh you got a safe you're ashamed of your money it doesn't make any sense and that's that's the same way Christianity treats it that it matters it's valuable so as we read through this I want you to just as as much as you can let's try to
Listen and see what Jesus is saying we're going to move to another passage in a minute to try to help us understand it more because they also disagreed with it both the Pharisees and his disciples there has to be greater clarification and we get
That later in Matthew so verse 27 you've heard that you should not commit adultery I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart Jesus ties lust which is a sexual
Desire that's carried out visually as adultery I do not think so adultery specifically means you've kind of cheated on your spouse you've broken that relationship with your spouse that's what the word adultery means he's
Saying that lust is the same thing going on in your heart he's pointing out that you've got to stop sin while it's in your head before it gets to your heart before
It makes it into action he's saying it's the same issue I don't think he means to say that if you lust outside of being married so a non-married person lusting free and clear I don't
Think when he uses the word adultery he meant to say that lusting outside of marriage is fine I think it's possible he actually means all lust is actually an offense against your spouse whether you have one right now or not
Because all sexual desire was meant for a spouse and nowhere else that's the rightful place for it then he says if your right eye causes you to sin tear it out throw it away it's better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off throw it away it's better for you
To lose one of your members than your whole body go into hell we spent all our time on that last week talking about the graveness of sin the seriousness of sin and how much more serious Jesus takes it than we do it was also said whoever divorces his wife let him give a certificate of divorce he's quoting Deuteronomy 24 there and he's speaking into a situation where they said
The rule says give her a certificate and so there was consistent amount of write a certificate hand it off like you could just anytime your wife was disagreeable to you you could get a divorce and so Jesus is speaking and saying you think you're accomplishing this by following the letter of the law but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife except on the ground of sexual
Immorality and that's a different Greek word than he's used so far he means active sexual sin so that would be for them it would also include like if you married someone who had told you they were a virgin prior to getting married and then you found out they weren't because that was a grave issue in their culture it would include that it would include sexual
Sin while married with another person any kind of sexual action so adultery he's saying unless there's this going on unless they've already broken the sexual relationship you make her commit adultery whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery and so what Jesus said was there is no route from
Divorce outside of them already committing adultery outside of them already breaking the covenant through sexual sin there's no route that does not lead to greater sin greater brokenness he teaches this on a regular basis he teaches it here in Matthew 6 he teaches
It in Mark he teaches it in Luke it seems like it was something that he taught on a semi-regular basis so jump over to Matthew 19 because Jesus has taught this so much this very
Kind of aggressive controversial idea that you can't just get a divorce and be fine you can't just say well we filed the paperwork we're good that he actually has religious leaders show up to question him about
It Matthew 19 verse 1 now when Jesus had finished these sayings he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond
The Jordan and large crowds followed him and he healed them there and Pharisees those are religious leaders came up to him and tested
Him by asking is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause he answered have you not read that he who created them from
The beginning made them male and female and said therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife
And the two shall become one flesh so they are no longer two but one flesh what therefore God has joined together let not
Man separate so his response to can't we just get a divorce when we want to his response to that marriage is a sacrament meaning that
It belongs to the church it doesn't it belongs to humanity God designed it from creation and gave it to humanity that's what Jesus
Goes back and says no this is a creation ordinance it's given to humanity therefore and then he ties sex to it he says they'll become one flesh that's
Specifically talking about sex he says that they'll become one flesh and let not anybody tear that apart is never the goal of marriage to get
A divorce and so they have an issue with this they respond and they said to him what I think we want to say
Then why did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away what they just said was Deuteronomy says
Write a certificate Bible boy he says haven't you read they said you read it was a tree and that's hard to take but
His point when he responds to them was he says the hardness of your heart what he says is Moses was riding into a
Very messed up situation where this had gotten out of control and because of people's hard hearts marriages were a train wreck and because
Of people's hard hearts they weren't going to fix them and so Moses had to decide a system for how are we going to
Handle this but that was not God's intention that's Jesus' answer and that sexuality was designed for marriage so that sex outside of that
Covenantal relationship in marriage leads to sin and once you have covenanted with someone the only thing that works to break that effectively is sex with
Someone else adultery and I'm so thankful for the disciples in this passage verse 10 the disciples said to him if such is the
Case of a man with his wife it is better not to marry I have struggled immensely with this section of the Bible and
With what Jesus teaches about marriage and when I read the disciples I just say thank y'all for saying that to him I have
Struggled with what I want Jesus to say about marriage and what I think he actually does say about marriage and the disciples step
In and they say hold on a second the only way to end a marriage is a sin train wreck that's it no this
Person was bad you're okay he says no the thing that destroys marriage is sin and ultimately when there is a broken marriage if people move
On and remarry there's adultery he says that in Matthew Mark Luke that if so in what he said in Matthew 5 if your husband divorces
You and she remarries she commits adultery do you know how hard that is to take if you actually think about that what if
She had nothing to do with the divorce what if he just sent her off and he said no what happens is when they
Get remarried there's sin that's how they start their marriage now he does call it a marriage he doesn't say they're never married again
Or that one doesn't count but he I stand with the disciples some where I'm looking at what Jesus says and I go hold
A second what about this type of marriage you're telling me there's no way to get out of that outside of it being broken down by sin
There's no what about this lady whose husband is like this husband whose wife is like this like I want to bring to him
Pastoral situations that I'm aware of so here's what he responds with and I think I think it's helpful it helps win me over
I think it's refreshing I'm not completely won over by his response but Paul helps us later and we're going to Ephesians 5 to
Read what he says but here's how Jesus responds not everyone can receive this saying but only those to whom it is given I've
Heard people read that before and go oh okay good so not everyone has to stay married just the people who receive what he
Just said but Jesus keeps talking that's not what he means not everyone who receives this saying but only those to whom it is
Given for there are eunuchs who have been so from birth and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men and there
Are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven without going into too much detail about eunuchs they
Were sexually abstinent he's saying that you can be sexually abstinent for receive it Jesus backs up what the bible says which is some
People are going to receive marriage and they need to stay married some people can't receive that they're not given to marriage some people
Are going to be abstinent abstain completely from sexual activity and that's fine and if that's what you want to receive receive that so
The disciples say hold a second you mean to tell me there's no way out of my marriage and it'd be better off to
Not get married and Jesus says yeah that's fine and let me just say for single people in the room Jesus says yeah that's fine
You don't have to be married to be a complete human you don't have to have sex to be a complete human that's not
The path to fulfillment that's not the path to happiness that's what we believe as Christians he's not married he never has sex this
Seems so crazy to our culture who are so sex crazy that we made the da Vinci code which is like obviously he had to
Have a secret girlfriend nobody's that happy without a girl or some sort of love interest we have all these kind of like and
Jesus says no I'm a full complete perfect human for the next person who says this in the Bible and says it more forcefully
Is Paul he says that in first Corinthians chapter seven he like doubles down on it he says I wish all of y'all would not
Get married and then you could focus more on Jesus mission he says the guys who are worried about making their wife happy the
Wives are worried about making their husband happy he says I'm just trying to do what Jesus wants I got all the free time
In the world people are like I gotta get home my wife is cooking dinner he like I ain't gonna get home I'm working for
Jesus that's what Paul says I wish y'all could not get married but if you want to that's fine that's what Paul says not
Exactly like that I paraphrase a little bit but that was his point you can be a full complete human and never get married
But he says if you do get married the point of marriage is to stay married that's the goal that's that's Jesus' stance on
This I want to take a second before I kind of got down to I figured out as I was working through this my
Biggest argument against this and that's where I want us to end this morning but before we get there I want to take a
Second and just kind of with what we've said so far I want to sum up a few things if you are single I want
To take a second and speak to single married if you are single some of you are going to get married that's good the
Bible says marriage is good some of you are not going to be married Christianity is the first group people who came along and said
You can be a full complete human and never be married that's great it's celebrated some of you are going to get married some
Of you aren't that's fine for those of your goal as you follow Jesus is to abstain sexually until you get married that will not
Make all of your married sexual activity magical and amazing I don't I think that's been told to people in the church like if
You save yourself for sex it's going to be the most amazing thing no sex is designed for marriage it's designed to be good
Saving yourself sexually for marriage is designed because you are supposed to devote yourself to your spouse and covenant with them and say everything that belongs
To me belongs to you that's what sex is supposed to be marriage is not going to save you it is not how you level up
As a person some of you are thinking I've got problems but when I get married it'll fix me I'm lonely and sad but when I get married
It'll fix me if I can just get married then I'll know I'm cared about then I'll know I'm complete then I'll know I'm whole
That is not going to happen and if you would like to know whether I'm telling the truth ask a married person if getting
Married fixed them or made them whole and complete and utterly satisfied it doesn't work that way wasn't designed to the Bible never points
To marriage as the you're fine so if you're not married you're single in the room marriage is fine it's good don't believe it's going
To fix you it's not how you level up as a human it's not how you become a whole person it's not true if
You're not married in the room and you do not you're not going to get married you're not supposed to God has laid that
Out for you that's not how life is going to work for you you're fine you're a full complete human I do want to
Talk to the married people in regards to single people married people stop stop acting like marriage is the thing that has to happen
To your single friends stop acting like they don't count as a person until they are married stop asking them who they are dating
Stop watching them have a conversation with a friend and walking over and going stop it just stop if you have a single friend
Who is trying to date people and want you to set them up go for it if you have a single friend who has
Not asked you to do that stop marriage did not complete you did not fulfill you did not magically make you an amazing person
It did married people we have to if we believe this if the church actually believes this if we are going to stand with
Any amount of credibility and look at a person who has been divorced and say that we believe that you should not get remarried
If we stand with any amount of credibility and look at someone who struggles the same gender attraction and say that you should live
Your entire life not married if we're going to stand with any amount of credibility and look at someone who says I just don't
Think I'm supposed to get married and we're going to say we agree with the apostle Paul that that's beautiful and you should spend
Your life for Jesus mission if we're going to say that with any amount of credibility we have to open our homes on holidays we have
To open our homes on random Thursdays we've been taught that the route to life the time to have a roommate if you're a
Certain age we've over sexualized everything we've got to open our homes Anna and I struggle with this because we're both friendly kind of introvert
People we struggle at times with wanting our house to just be the place where we sit and don't think or interact with people
And we struggle with that being how we interact with each other we have to work on that but we struggle with not wanting
People but we've got to we've got to open our homes we can't just say oh that's great be alone forever we've got to have
People over for Christmas and Thanksgiving and we've got to have them over random nights of the week to help us raise our kids
And to help us love well and serve well also and this one's going to sound weird and it's weird to me and I've
Been working on it and it's still weird we're going to have to physically touch single people in non-sexual ways super weird to say all
Right got it out there this means put your arm around somebody we have acted like if you were single and you need physically
To be touched get a cat or a dog if you're single and you want someone to act like they like you get a
Dog if you want someone you have to pursue and they hide from you and act like they don't care about you get a
Cat we should be able to sit down put arm around somebody sit close to them share a couch hug somebody for longer than
Two seconds guys that's super weird for me I don't like touching people I'm working on it I got some people that I'm intentionally trying to be like
Hey good to see you and like keep my hand there like longer than I want to which was beyond the first time I
Touched them so but I believe it's important also we've got to quit stealing the word love from the Bible and making it only
Mean romance how many times have heard first Corinthians 13 read at a wedding that's the one that says love never fails love never gives
Up love never ends like I'm not quoting it perfectly but I think I actually started singing some sort of a pop song in
The middle of that but you know which one I'm talking about the word there Paul's writing to a church not a couple he's
Writing to his people writing to the church and saying this is our love for each other we've acted like if you're not in
A relationship you don't get the real full meaning of love that's not true the reason that's good to read at weddings is because
It's meant to be single people you get to live a full robust real life people who are not single who are married have deep
Meaningful friendships with people where you share intimate details about your life with single people let them do the same it makes what Jesus
Says tenable we have to follow up our actions with what we say we believe okay married couples in the room take divorce off the
Table don't bring it up in arguments don't hold it over top of each other don't think about it that's not the intent I say
This to people periodically even if your goal is just happiness on earth best shot at that is the spouse you're married to that's
The way the Bible lays it out best shot is the spouse of your youth that's the best shot you got at it divorce
Is painful and traumatic harmful every person that you're married to is a sinner and broken there's no shame in struggling there's no shame
In getting counseling we do counseling there's a recovery program we'll help if you're in our church family we'll help pay for marriage counseling we
Think it's perfectly fine at times to say we've had the same argument 1300 dimes we only know how to run this track we need
Somebody else to talk to that's fine all good marriages that last have seasons where they could have just hung it up you talk
To any marriage that's last any couple that's lasted they have seasons where they say yeah we could have just walked away this five
Years was terrible if you are married in the room and this is not your first marriage I have a couple the answer to
That is quite possibly with as strongly as Jesus says it quite possibly and the next question is so what do I do how
Does that work there's a story in John chapter 8 where they catch a lady who is in committing adultery at that moment they
Bring her to Jesus and they say we just caught her adultery what are you going to do the law says we should kill
Her and Jesus says whichever one of y'all is sinless throw the first stone the rest of us will follow you one by one the
Bible tells us starting with the oldest to the youngest so young people in the room who think you're sinless pay attention to the
Old people who put their stones down and walked away Jesus looks at her and she says am I not condemned he says they haven't condemned
You and neither do I go and sin no more there's forgiveness in Jesus and your marriage counts your marriage is real every time it's
Talked about Jesus treats it like a marriage stay married repent where you need to repent and move forward in the freedom that Jesus
Doesn't condemn you you get to move on don't make it worse fight for this marriage make this marriage good and beautiful make it
Point to the gospel you're free and forgiven there's hope if you are divorced and single your marriage was not meant to end that way and I'm sorry
Marriage is painful divorce is painful I'm going to talk about that on the ride home divorce is painful in some ways it's more painful than a death there's a lot of regret and shame and despair and guilt and I want
You to know Jesus pays for our guilt he takes our shame where there's regret he's a redeemer meaning he steps into broken messes cleans them up makes them more beautiful than they ever were where there's despair
He's our hope the bible never holds up marriage as the thing that's going to fix us it never holds up romance is the thing that's going to fix us or make us whole it always only singularly solely
And forever points to Jesus to do that there's hope for you given the circumstances of your divorce you may not be supposed to get remarried we would love to talk with you about that struggle with you over that
Wrestle through the scriptures together on that and then walk with you in life whichever way that plays out romance is not essential to our happiness and fullness and that was the biggest complaint
I had as I was reading what Jesus had to say about marriage and divorce is that I feel like when Jesus says if you get a divorce you should not get remarried or when he looks at single people and says some of you should just be single
Forever I have been indoctrinated to believe that marriage is one of the primary ways if not the primary way that romance is the primary way sexuality is the primary way to define who you are and to
Find fulfillment and happiness and the Bible never even comes close to saying that so when the Bible looks at anyone and says you shouldn't get married it does not think it just robbed you of happiness although I would have a hard time saying that
Because there's a part of me that believes I am if I have to counsel a divorcee and say I believe the Bible tells you that you should not get married again there's part of me that thinks there went happiness but Jesus never thinks
That the Bible never says that it never holds marriage up that way it never looks at romance that way it only always points to Jesus singularly and solely for our joy and hope and delight and satisfaction and fulfillment and it even
Does it in the midst of when it's talking about marriage go to Ephesians 5 as we finish up this is what wins me over this is what makes me go okay I trust you even though I don't like some of this even though I would have tried to lay it out differently in my own
Wisdom and even though I know that that time is very lacking verse 25 Paul's talking to husbands and wives he's talking beginning in 22 to wives we're going to pick up in 25 as he paints a beautiful picture of what a husband's supposed to look like and he's going to tell us why he says it
That way so page 569 if you have one of the white bibles in the rows chapter 5 verse 25 husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her so he says here's how you ought to love he's pointing to Jesus this is the picture of
Love that we have that Jesus loves the church and he gave himself up for her the church is everyone who's placed their faith in Jesus that he might sanctify her having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot
Or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish in the same way husbands love their wives as their own bodies he who loves his wife loves himself for no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes it and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we are
Members of his body therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh this mystery and that that word's also secret this mystery is profound and I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church however even though it refers to
Christ and the church let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband Paul says the secret behind marriage the mystery behind marriage is that it ultimately points us to the really good husband it ultimately points us to the true
Husband Jesus who loves pursues and gave himself up for the church marriage is not the fulfillment completion road to happiness Jesus is marriage is only ever meant to point us to Jesus so if you're married
That's how you ought to love that's how you ought to serve if you're not married that's how Jesus loves and serves that's the way it works all of it ultimately is pointed to Jesus and his love for
The church and his love for his people only he can ever fulfill us make us whole mend our souls love us the way that a good husband ought to love English theologian J.I. Packer
Explains it this way it says through setting his love on human beings God has voluntarily bound up his own final happiness with theirs it's not for nothing that the Bible habitually speaks of God as a loving
Father and husband of his people God was happy before they were made he would have continued happy had he simply destroyed them after they had sinned but as
It is he has set his love upon particular sinners and this means that by his own free voluntary choice he will not know perfect and unmixed happiness again until he
Has brought every one of them to heaven he has in effect resolved that from now on and for all eternity his happiness shall be conditioned upon theirs a good husband a good father has their happiness
Wrapped up in their children in their spouse can't be fully and unmixed happy without the other being happy and fulfilled and complete and what
It says is that Jesus looked at the church and says I'm tying my happiness to yours when we want to respond that this is
Against our happiness and we want to use a trump card do whatever makes you happy Jesus has said I love you and therefore I've
Tied my happiness to yours and I'm also worked up some questions that we get frequently asked when we talk about this we're going
To do some Q&A here in a second I'm going to pray for us Raz is going to come up here and we're going to
Walk through a few questions but let's pray God we thank you for your word we thank you for your help we pray that
You'd help us to trust you to believe in you to follow you even in places where we don't understand where we don't know
Why things are working the way they're working or why your word says what it says pray that you'd help us to look to
The cross to know that you are for our good that you have joined yourself with us both in our despair and in your
Happiness in Jesus name we pray amen we do this from time to time where we do some Q&A we usually try to open it up
For people to send in questions this time specifically we also had some questions that we just know get asked on a regular basis
When we talk about this topic we answer a few questions and then we hope that this kind of Q&A is just the beginning
Of it we are wide open about any of this so this is Raz he's one of our pastors I'm going to read out questions we're
Going to tackle them pretty quickly give a biblical answer rather than a case by case kind of answer because there's a million hypothetical situations that
Everyone can dream up when each question comes up on the screen so let's look at the first one okay the first question is when
Is it okay to get a divorce let me start by saying that that's pretty similar to the question that the Pharisees asked the Pharisees came and said
Is it okay to get a divorce for any reason so to ask the question when is it okay to get a divorce or really to
Ask any question that presupposes that divorce is an option is going to be difficult to answer because it's kind of the wrong question if
Divorce is presupposed as an option then the Bible is going to say stay married the answer is marriage is not supposed to end in divorce and so this is one of those questions that
Is saying I'm looking for a divorce what are my options here and the Bible's immediate response is going to be marriage is good you're married you should stay married divorce
Is not an option unless it really has to be now that opens the door for when does it really have to be and that
Makes this question become actually a whole lot more serious because if it's asked in an inquisitive way then it's missing the point but if there's some
Serious sin issues going on in someone's life it really has to be a more targeted question about which how bad does the sin
Have to be how frequent is the sin can it be resolved is staying married no longer an option and I think typically we
Get our intentions in asking this question are typically off that that haven't been said the two kind of most common cited specific instances
Are the ones we read today in Matthew 5 and 19 where Jesus says except for sexual immorality which would be active sexual sin in the marriage in their
Culture would also have included sexual sin prior to the marriage because they would have said that that broke the covenant you had lied about being
Sexually pure it's a little bit different in our culture and usually people know what they're getting into when they get married sexual immorality also Paul in
1 Corinthians 7 has to address a different situation because when Jesus talks the church hadn't begun yet fully when Paul is writing two churches and saying if
You are a Christian you got married you and your spouse are married everything is fine but you became a Christian and suddenly your
Whole life view has now changed about what is okay what is not okay and your spouse says I don't want to be married
To you anymore and they just leave they're not a Christian but they just say I'm kind of done with this because I can't
Handle you being a Christian and our life being this way Paul says you're free which there is some argument over whether or not that
Means free to not chase them down or that means free to get remarried ultimately all of the situations that lead to divorce are
A mess and they're painful and we want to walk shoulder to shoulder with you through it be as helpful as possible help fight
For your marriage to last and to get past this stuff but we want to have any of those conversations we can I think
Also because the Bible doesn't say this the next follow up question is what about abuse so our response to that first of all
Is if that is you and you are in this room we want you to come talk to us Paul says this in 1
Corinthians that I think helps us with that if I can find it I I am going to read it out loud to the
Married I give this charge not I but the Lord this is verse 10 the wife should not separate from her husband but if
She does she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband and the husband should not divorce his wife I think that helps
Us out where it's like you shouldn't do this this isn't the goal but if you have to leave leave but with the goal
Being reconciliation not moving on and so to get out of an abusive situation to get out of a broken situation is actually okay
You should do that we want to help we have some full grown men that want to talk to your husband and but the
Goal should be reconciliation that your husband would repent that you can work this out or that you would stay unmarried because of how
Messed up it's gotten so what kind of like Paul lays that up let's go to the next question does being a new creation in christ mean
That a marriage that happened before you became a christian does it mean that that marriage doesn't count because you're not a new creation yeah
Sure does being a new creation in christ mean that a marriage that happened before you became a christian doesn't count okay so new creation in
Christ that's a quote from Galatians and more specifically probably second corinthians five um that's kind of taken out of context I have heard that and I've heard pastors say
That I've heard people say you know once you become a christian whatever happened in the past doesn't count I think when Jesus says bases it off of
Creation and just applies it across the board to all marriages I don't think that's actually true I think you're taking that out of context and
Applying it to something that that it's not meant to apply to what he's saying is you are made new all of your old
Sins pass away the same way that all of us are free not condemned from all of our sins we are a new creation
But that does not change some of the consequences of what's happened in our past and how we ought to move forward in faithfulness
And obedience so no I don't think so I think if that were true then we would have seen Jesus telling people once they
Become a christian they have to get remarried and there is that never ever happens if people are not it is never considered invalid
And even when he talks to the woman at the well he refers to all of her marriages as marriages all of them are
Considered treated as if they were all actual marriages does the bible ever clearly say what sexual immorality is first of all we do
We usually I only want to ever make the bible define a word when I kind of want to disagree with what I think it means
So that may not be you that is me also just when I'm going to I'm going to help show y'all what I do whenever I
See something in the bible and I really want to know what it means Raz what's that word mean in Greek he does Greek
I did that a bunch for this sermon is that a real question yeah sure okay so the Greek word that is translated into
English is sexual immorality is a word in Greek it's pornea and pornea used to be translated to fornication back when people used to say that word in English but they don't say that
Word anymore so it doesn't make sense to kind of cram into the biblical vocabulary so sexual immorality is the word that they the
Phrase that they used to translate pornea and what pornea means in Greek is any sexual act that occurs outside of a heterosexual monogamous for life
Marriage so a lot of people say what does that mean though what does that include that includes a bunch of things anything that is outside anything that is sexual and physical outside marriage is included
In that that's prostitution incest that is sex before marriage that is it covers a lot of things and I think what Chet was saying is that we want to argue with definitions that's only ever a thing when we want to get away with something when we want
To say what I'm doing doesn't count nobody hears you shouldn't murder and says yeah but let's define murder see what the Greek word said let's see what 10 different translators translated as oh they all said murder I wonder if it counts
If it was an accident I wonder if it counts if I did it to 50 people at once nobody makes arguments trying to justify things nobody questions the definition of a word until they're trying to justify something at least that's the most often time I want to maybe you're just curious
But that doesn't usually happen question they didn't have this at least not in the form that we have it does that apply to pornography that's a good question we have taught from this platform in the past that sexual immorality that pornography and
Sorry for the language masturbation falls under sexual immorality as a result of Che was saying just during the sermon that we sweated this passage a lot in the past week we kind of went Pharisee on it and tried to define terms and understand it like to the letter of the law
So that we could teach clearly on this which I think at times we were missing the point but this question came up for us today we were missing the point today no no no not today during the week sorry during the week when
We were trying to dissect this passage and find out what does it actually say we were pulling a Pharisee move and saying yeah but does it actually mean this and sure Jesus was saying stay married the question was does pornography count there are there are
Three terms that we used from the Matthew passage in Greek it doesn't matter what they were in Greek in English they are lust adultery and sexual immorality through discussions this week and research and trying to dig into the Greek text I think most likely now it
Doesn't really matter at the end of the day but most likely pornography fits more into the lust category and less into the sexual immorality category at the end of the day Jesus just said any man who looks at a woman lustfully has committed adultery in their heart and that's a big deal and we're not saying no longer an issue
You guys just go ahead and deal with like no it's still in the same category we still have sin issues when it comes to pornography and masturbation and stuff but it's probably not one of the categories that Jesus has just said you can get divorced over this it's I think it's ripped out of that category because if if somebody's struggling with
A pornography addiction we wouldn't say your next step is to get divorced that's just I think that misreads the text even if someone was struggling with sexual immorality we wouldn't say that and that's not what Jesus would say either the goal is to reconcile to repent
And to move forward okay yeah let's go to another question what if someone gets married and then they realize realizes and then realizes they made a mistake our third question answerer also I would be inclined to agree with him that
That there and this is what this is what this is what the conversation I get to have with people when they ask I'm just not sure if the person I'm married to is the one because we've pumped that idea into the world that you have a soulmate
Or whatever one true soulmate which by the way comes from Greek mythology where souls used to be have like two heads four arms four legs and the gods cut you in half and you have one true soulmate that idea does not come from scripture
It comes from some weird soul cut nonsense stuff from mythology here's our answer to that and here's the Bible's answer to that are you married to them they're the one I have good news for all you married people it's the
One you found them that's how it works stay married fight for the marriage you have you're married to the one keep it going make it work and yes in some ways you're going to realize you made a mistake
Because you're going to think I thought this was going to fix me and be magical and they're terrible and also I've learned I'm way more terrible than I thought and so yeah fight for it make it good and seek counsel where you need it
But yeah you're married to the one so go make it work that's the last question if you have more questions hang out with the community group this week talk about it as a group I think that would be a really good way to handle
I would suggest probably don't come up with hypotheticals because as soon as you come up with hypotheticals you're probably asking the wrong question also if something was unclear today from what was said because periodically things are just come over talking to me I'll be hanging out right here to make sure that that it's clear and if
You're gonna be upset I at least want to make sure you're upset for the right thing not something I should have said better all right you wanna pray for us and we'll get sure let's pray God we thank you for Jesus and the power that he has to reconcile us to you even though we're fallen even though we're sinful I pray for the
People in our church family who are dealing with some of the mess that occurs when when sin enters into a marriage and starts destroying things and I pray that they will seek you that they will seek what it is that you're calling them to and I pray that as a church family we can rally around those people and encourage them to seek Jesus in all things pray for a church family in general that we would hold marriage tightly with a
Biblical standard that we would hold sexuality tightly with a biblical standard and that we would constantly pursue you with our lives in all of it it's in Jesus name
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