Dear
Friend, grace and peace be unto you from God our Father, and our Lord
and Savior, Jesus, the Christ. Amen.
Today I am beginning a series of 25 sermons on Jesus' "Sermon
on the Mount" recorded in Matthew's gospel, chapters 5,6
& 7. I have given this series the title of "Living
God's Kingdom Now." What good is it for us to look
only at these teachings of Jesus as future and not desire and hope for
them in the present? During this series you will be challenged
to put these teachings of Jesus into practice in your own life, now.
That can happen, and let us pray it does happen, as we focus on Jesus'
words and desire the Holy Spirit to move in us to make it happen, now.
Today's message is titled "Knowing the
King." It is important to know the God who reigns
over you. You need to trust Him. You need to be committed
to Him. You need to know that God's Kingdom is ruled by Jesus.
What kind of ruler is He? Jesus gives us a very clear picture of
what His rule is like.
"Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat
down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them,
saying:" (5:1-2)
Here is the Jesus who has come to rule your life in His Kingdom.
He is someone who sees you. He is someone who loves and cares
for you. He aches for you and your needs. He sees each and
every one of us here today.
Jesus has two basic ingredients for reaching you and me.
Compassion - Jesus is not afraid to see what He sees. Sometimes
we get weary of seeing the tragedies of the world and we don't want to
see the needs anymore. We want to go off and live in our own
little world. Jesus never abandons us in that way. He is
never afraid to see your need. He will never look away in
disgust or weariness. He cares for you. In His
"Sermon on the Mount" Jesus helps us keep our eyes open to
see the needs of the world.
Discipleship - in this moment with the multitude Jesus realized how
large the task of compassion in our world would be. He would
need a lot of help touching lives with His love. That is what
His disciples would be for. That is what you are for. As
you are touched by His compassion you can touch others with His love
and compassion. You can live God's Kingdom, now.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven" (5:3)
"Blessed" (makarios) means to have a spiritual joy and
satisfaction that lasts regardless of conditions, that carries one
through pain, sorrow, loss and grief.
The compassion of Jesus brings to you the characteristic of being
blessed. His blessing enables you to endure through a multitude
of difficulties in this life. He lists here some of those
blessings and the rewards that come with them.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit…" This does not mean
poor as in hunger or poverty. "Poor in spirit" is the
opposite of being "full of self." It means being
humble and not proud or self-righteous. You are open to God's
grace and love for you instead of being puffed up with your self.
God is first in your life and you and the world take second place.
"…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." With your
spirit right toward God you receive the forgiveness and assurance of
God. You begin to live God's kingdom, now. You fellowship
with others who live God's kingdom, now. You move in the circle
of the Forever Family of God, now
"Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted"
(5:4)
"Blessed are those who mourn,…"
"Mourn" (penthountes)
means to have a broken heart. It is the strongest word possible
for mourning. It is like a deep wailing that occurs at the death
of a loved one. Here it is your deep sorrow for your sin.
It is your brokenness of self over your sin and disobedience toward
God. It is your weeping on seeing Jesus on the cross for you.
You are cut to your heart at what God had to do to get you back into
His Kingdom.
"…for they will be comforted." As you grieve for
what God had to do for you, He comes to you with His love, giving you
peace and relief. He says, "It is Ok. I did it
because I love you." You find comfort and joy in the
sorrow. It is as the author to the Hebrews says, "Let us
fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for
the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat
down at the right hand of the throne of God."
"Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth"
(5:5)
"Blessed are the meek,…" "Meek" (praeis)
means to have a strong, but tender and humble life. It is a
strong yet teachable spirit. You are a strong person under God's
control. The opposite of meekness is arrogance or pride.
This is your attitude as you live God's Kingdom, now.
"…for they will inherit the earth." As you live a
life of meekness and humility you will experience the fullness of
God's gift of life. You will be comfortable with yourself,
knowing who you are and whose you are. You will live confident
in this knowledge. You will be a good steward of the earth and
rejoice in having been given an eternal inheritance.
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for
they will be filled" (5:6)
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for
righteousness,…" This is to have a hunger and thirst for
all things of God - His right-ness. You will acknowledge that
only God is right and good. You accept that you are not perfect
but you strongly desire to be.
"…for they will be filled." The promised fulfillment
of your desire is met by God's grace to you for faith. Your
faith in Jesus and His righteousness is counted as right standing with
God. Jesus is the one who will fill you with the very things of
God through the work of the Holy Spirit. He will do a
transforming work in you.
"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy"
(5:7)
"Blessed are the merciful,…" "Merciful" (eleemones)
means to have a forgiving spirit and a compassionate heart. This
is getting right inside a person and feeling what they feel. You
will deliberately seek to understand a person, meet their need and
forgive them. You will not be hard, unforgiving or unfeeling but
rather tender and caring. You and I live God's kingdom, now, as
we are merciful.
"…for they will be shown mercy." As you show mercy,
mercy will come to you. You are not perfect. You fall
short of the glory of God. You need mercy from God and those
around you. Others need to be able to accept you with your
faults, absorb a hurt, just as you must be able to accept them.
As you are able to show mercy you will be living God's kingdom, now.
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (5:8)
"Blessed are the pure in heart,…" "Pure" (katharoi)
means to have a heart or self that is unsoiled and unpolluted by the
world. It is to be cleansed, forgiven, be made holy. You
will not be able to live this pure life on your own. In fact you
will be continually tempted to worldly things, sins, but it is your
desire to be pure for God. Confession will always be a part of
your desire to be pure.
"…for they will see God." You will endure in your
faith and thus be able to see who God really is. You will see
His purity as you, in a small way, begin to experience it in your own
life. You will be seeing in yourself some of God. It will
be like looking in a dim mirror and seeing the reflection of God
coming back at you. He will be reflected in your life and you
will live His kingdom, now.
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of
God" (5:9)
"Blessed are the peacemakers,…" The world has its
troublemakers. The world needs peacemakers. The
characteristic of God's peacemaker is one who looks to resolve
disputes between God and humankind and between humankind itself.
Your first priority in life is to be at peace with your God.
This comes through your faith in His Son, Jesus. Your second
priority in life is to be at peace with your fellow human beings.
As you become a peacemaker you will be living God's kingdom, now.
"…for they will be called sons of God."
"Sons" needs to be interpreted "children."
We are children of God as we promote His main work of bringing peace
to His creation that has rebelled against Him and made this world such
a troubling place. You truly live God's Kingdom, now, when you
work for peace.
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people
insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against
you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your
reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who
were before you." (5:10-12)
"Persecuted" means to endure suffering for Jesus, to be
mocked, ridiculed, criticized, ostracized, treated with hostility, be
martyred. Why are you blessed? Because these are the signs
of your faith. They are the rewards of your faithfulness in a
hostile world. They are your crowns of glory. As you are
faithful to Jesus you will be persecuted. It is a blessed
promise.
As you stand and seek to live God's Kingdom, now, know this, you will
be persecuted. You may experience the most devilish attacks.
You may lose your job because of your faith. You may be laughed
at. If you strive to live God's kingdom, now, you may upset
politics, patriotism, nationalism and capitalism. You will not
be popular but you will be God's champion. You will be very
popular with Him.
What kind of King, Ruler is Jesus? He reveals to us in these
blessings that He is compassionate, is full of God, has a broken heart
for the world, is strong yet tender, desires to do the Father's will,
is merciful, is unspotted by the world, is a peacemaker and was and
still is persecuted by the world because of all the above. Jesus
lived God's Kingdom, now. Do you think you can do that?
I almost titled this series, "God's Mission Impossible."
You think you have worked hard in life. You haven't come close
to working as hard as you must work, or God must work in you, to live
God's Kingdom, now. In the weeks ahead you will be challenged
beyond your imagination. But if you stick with it you will be
blessed. Let us pray this will be "God's Mission Possible" for you
and me.
Heavenly Father, we embark on a very difficult journey today. It
is a journey to live Your Kingdom, now. Open our eyes and minds
and hearts to see what this journey entails and give us the faith to
make it. And in the process, by Your amazing grace, enable us to
better live Your Kingdom, now. Lord, make this mission possible.
In Jesus Name,
Amen.
