Matthew 5-7 • The Blessings of the King
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
I'm going to ask that you look at that sermon on the Mount by opening your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5.
We'll look at a lot of Scripture this day, perhaps more than any in any sermon I've given to you thus far. So it would be good to have your Bibles open and keep them open as we go. Our opening prayer is just from the Beatitudes, the blessings that occur in Matthew chapter 5 beginning at verse 3. Jesus says, "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.
Blessed are you.
When others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely,
on my account rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
What does grace look like when you have a sermon of blessing and law that come together?
I think of the recent account of Judge Ollie Neal from the Court of Appeals in the state of Arkansas. He records that he wasn't much of a student, hated high school, and as a senior, one day cut classes and tried to hide out in the library.
Hiding among the stacks, he saw a book that had an alluring cover and thought that might be a book that he should read.
And so he took it and then realized that he would have to check it out with some of his female classmates who were working at the counter.
And he did not want to do that, not because of the cover, but because they would see that he was interested in reading.
He said he was a tough guy and he wanted them to know that all he could do was cuss and fight, not read a book.
And so in order to be able to read and protect his reputation at the same time, he stuck the book under his jacket and left the library.
A few weeks later, he'd finished the book and so he brought it back. But even as he was replacing it in its slot on the shelf, he noticed there was another book by the same author. And so he borrowed that book too.
A few weeks later, brought it back. There was another book by the same author on the shelf. He borrowed that, came back.
Another book by the same author.
By the end of that semester, he had read all of the books of that author.
Years later, he discovered that his sneakiness had not been quite as sneaky as he thought. He was at a high school reunion and the school's now ancient librarian, Mildred Grady, which I must say is the absolute best name a librarian could have, Mildred Grady said to him, "I saw you take the book the first time, but Mrs. Saunders and I, the library assistant,
wanted you to be able to read.
And so each time you took a book by that author, we got in the car and we drove the two-hour round trip to Memphis to find another book by that author so that when you brought it back, there'd be another one for you."
And so she provided for him a love of reading that became essential for his life and career and ultimate success.
You know, grace comes in lots of versions, but the common thread all the way through
is someone providing for someone else who does not deserve it and may even deserve punishment except for the mercy of the one who provides. That message is here, if we will see it, in this Sermon on the Mount where there is such emphasis upon the law of God. It's the highest expression of God's law in all the Bible and it's being given by Jesus who's supposed to bring the grace of God. How does that fit?
We certainly see Jesus' intent to bless. I mean, that's the opening. You have read or known these beatitudes starting out verse 3 and 4, "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted." I will tell you in any Sermon on the Mount, it's always proper to try to identify, "All right, what does it mean to be poor in spirit?
What does it mean to mourn? Who are the meek?" And to do lots of definitions of terms, but here's where we are, guys. We are going to look at the entire Sermon on the Mount before lunchtime today, and we can't do that.
I'm going to ask you to follow your instincts. You kind of have a sense of what those terms will mean.
What is the gospel path you are being led down?
Surely, Jesus is promising to bless, but he is first promising blessing for those who need the help of God, verses 3 through 5.
There are people who are broken in some way. They are poor in spirit.
They're dispirited, depressed, aching in some way.
There are those who mourn, that is someone or something that is precious to them, has been taken away. There are those who are meek. They are without the power or the boldness to correct their own situation. And Jesus describes them as receiving some blessing from him.
He doesn't just describe those who are requiring his help.
He then describes those who are reflecting his heart as they receive blessing too. The blessing is promised in verses 6 through 9 for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for those who are merciful, for those who are pure in heart, for those who are peacemakers. Notice they're not just reflecting the heart of God, but even as they reflect the heart of God, they are receiving blessing from the heart of God.
If you say, "How can those who hunger and thirst for righteousness be satisfied?"
The answer is actually in the next verse, verse 7.
Those who show mercy, receive mercy. If you love mercy, it's because you hunger and thirst for righteousness, and you're mourning for the reality of the life that you have, the existence you face before God. And so you hunger and thirst for righteousness and desire mercy.
And God is saying, "And as you show it, you begin to understand it and to receive it." And those who receive mercy from God, verse 8, are pure in heart.
By his work, he's shown mercy. And as the gospel is beginning to unfold, we recognize the purity is even for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness by some blessing from God that makes them pure in heart so that they could fulfill his purposes. And what are those purposes? We don't have to guess the purposes of Jesus. When he came, the angels announced, "Peace on earth, good will toward those on whom his favor rests." And the apostles told us, "And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus." And Jesus himself would say, "Peace I give you, my peace I leave with you." Not as the world gives it, but as I give it. I give you peace.
For Jesus to give that peace that would reconcile us to God and make us even desire to be peacemakers for his namesake, to reflect him in the way that he has treated us.
We recognize grace again.
But we should also recognize that grace was expensive for Jesus to offer, as it may also be for us.
Many of you have already seen this video of last week of a brother, of a man who was killed by a police officer at her sentencing for killing the brother.
A wonderful Christian talked about grace in a way that proved very expensive.
Here's the video.
I can speak for myself. I forgive you.
And I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you.
And I don't think anyone could say it. Again, I'm speaking for myself, not even bad for my family.
But I love you just like anyone else.
And I'm not going to say I hope you rot and die just like my brother did, but I personally want the best for you.
And I wasn't going to ever say this in front of my family or anyone. But I don't even want you to go to jail.
I want the best for you.
Because I know that's exactly what both of them would want you to do.
And the best would be give your life to Christ.
I'm not going to say anything else.
I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing that both of them would want you to do. Again, I love you as a person.
And I don't wish anything bad on you.
I don't know if this is possible, but can I give her a hug, please?
Please?
Yes.
I'm so sorry.
Grace comes in many versions.
But the common denominator is always the same.
It is providing for those who cannot provide for themselves and do not deserve it.
And when you recognize that, you recognize, "Oh, everybody will just cheer, but it can be terribly expensive.
It costs the life of our Savior.
And Jesus said, "If they've persecuted me, they will persecute you.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. But there's the kingdom of heaven." The kingdom of heaven broke in to a courtroom in the sentencing of a killer as somebody was able to say, "I will be the peacemaker for Christ's sake." But I'm not going to tell you that that was easy. Some of you know that after Brant John expressed that forgiveness, the ire of many rose just as quickly as the applause of the church worldwide.
How dare he forgive someone who has done something so awful. But that wasn't the worst of the ire that rose. There was another unlikely hug in the courtroom as on that same day after Brant John's forgiveness,
the African-American judge, Tammy Kemp, who had just sentenced the murderer as societal justice requires. I've said to you before, forgiveness is not the same as pardon from all consequences. Forgiveness is precisely what Brant said. He just said, "I desire the best for you." What will make your heart right before the Lord, which will give your testimony to others. "I don't remove all consequences. That's God's right to do, but He may be breaking you for your eternity's sake."
And so he said, "I desire the best." And when the judge heard that, she rose from her bench and gave her personal Bible to Amber Geiger with the words, "Read John 3.16."
And the rage of many rose.
"Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for yours is the kingdom of heaven."
This past week was bring your Bible to school day included.
And some of you know that the New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees created a video for focus on the family, which he encouraged students across the country to bring their Bibles to school, and he was excoriated for it. Newsweek Magazine reported, "Breeze recorded a video produced by an anti-gay group."
Another magazine described focus on the family as anti-gay extremist. Why?
They promote biblical truths and values, reserving sexual expression for a marriage between a man and a woman. How dare they?
And to our young people, we are so proud of you, how many of you not only gathered at the pole for prayer in your schools in recent weeks, but led in the movement to lead students and teachers to prayer before God.
Listen to Jesus as you may have received some scorn for that. Verses 11 and 12, "Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you, falsely, on my account, rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven."
What path have we gone down? Jesus has said, "Those who are broken, those who mourn, who are poor in spirit, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, receive mercy, even as they are showing it they understand more of the mercy of the God who gives them what they do not deserve, and they respond in gratitude, reflecting His character, even becoming peacemakers, where it is so difficult and they may be persecuted for doing it."
It is the path of the gospel, not in full bloom yet. Jesus has not died on the cross yet, but He is helping people know. If you mourn for who you are, your situation between you, hunger and thirst for righteousness that is beyond your attainment, then you love mercy and you begin to show it, and what you're doing is you're reflecting God's own heart for you that He has revealed. But it's so hard for us to follow that path. We all must say, "Well, I've kind of done the best I can, and certainly better than those people over there."
And so Jesus knows that with the intent to bless, He must first break us from ourselves.
How does He do that?
Verses 17 and 18, "Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away." Not an iota, not a dot. For those of you of the King James, not a jot or a tittle, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. This is still before you, the heart of God, which you must follow in obedience.
Does He mean that?
Examples?
Each example He gives will be broken into a new subject area by saying, "You've heard this," but this is what's really true.
The first example, verse 21, "You have heard it said, You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be liable to judgment." Well, that's an easy box for most people to check off. "I'm not Amber Geiger. I haven't murdered anybody. I'm home free."
That says that Jesus continues in verse 22.
"But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment. Whoever insults his brother will be liable to the counsel, and whoever says, you fool, will be liable to the hell of fire."
Bring angry with someone will bring you under judgment?
I mean, if you insult somebody, you're breaking the commandment against murder?
And if you name call, you will go to hell.
Surely He's not serious about that.
Reminds me of the words of civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who once said, "Ain't no such thing as I can hate anybody and see God's face."
Is Jesus serious? Verses 23 and 24. So if you're offering your gift at the altar, and there, remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come to offer your gift. And our minds just begin to rebel. Jesus can't possibly mean that. This is unreasonable. This is unrealistic. It's an impossible standard. Look at what that person said to me.
Look at what that person said about me and my family, how they insulted us. Look how everybody in our society talks about other people in the media, in politics, in social media, or in the comment sections of the website. Let's be serious.
So Jesus says, verse 20, "For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you'll never enter the kingdom of heaven."
And Jesus is just getting started.
Next example, verses 27 and 28, "You've heard it was said, you should not commit adultery.
But I say to you, everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart." But Jesus, the way people dress nowadays, the longings I feel because my spouse is no longer warm or affectionate, the images that are pushed at me on the TV and the billboards and the Internet, you can't possibly be serious.
But he is.
Verse 29 and 30, "If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it's better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."
Our temptation is to believe that Jesus can't be realistic because he doesn't know our times and our struggles and he just lived in a more holy day. Don't kid yourself.
Those of you who have been with me in the holy land or the lands where the apostles ministered recognized that sexual evil was more perverse and more rampant and more open than in any time in our society, including now. Just days before Jesus would go to the cross for his crucifixion, he would go to Caesarea Philippi where everybody went for the theme park dedicated to sexual perversion that was excused for religious purposes.
Things so awful we can't talk about them in ordinary company.
And yet it was done for entertainment and for religion and it was just open as open could be for all ages, for all people. And it's that very place that Jesus went before his crucifixion to say, "The kingdom of God is advancing and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." He knew exactly what he was talking about and he knew exactly what would tempt us. He will, lest you think about plucking out eyes or cutting off hands, he will provide a power other than that. Stick with me. He's not done with this sermon.
There is an alternative to self-mutilation.
It comes from him.
"So that we will seek one," he adds another example, verses 31 and 32. "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 on the ground of sexual immorality makes her commit adultery and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."
There are probably not more hurtful words in the entire Bible than these from Jesus
for any who have experienced the pain and the heartache of divorce.
Why would he speak so? He is not insensitive.
Rather, he is dealing with the rampant evil of his time where people would quote the law of Moses, "I can get a divorce if my wife doesn't please me for virtually any reason. She's not as young as she used to be.
She doesn't please me anymore. She makes me late to church.
She's now expecting a child.
The child she gave me is not whole in some way."
We've lost track, but if you travel in the Middle East, you recognize even to this day
there is what is called the practice of pleasure marriages where men to protect themselves from the charge of adultery, get permission from a holy man to marry a young woman of even adolescent age for a few months or weeks or days or hours to use her until you get the writ of divorce.
And so you have serial wives to please the man as the woman becomes a commodity used and discharged to a life of absolute horror.
And Jesus is saying the marital unfaithfulness is such a breach of the marriage covenant as God intended it that that alone is the justification for ending a marriage.
And the Apostle Paul well-knowing the pleasure marriages then and now said, and irremediable desertion as well, where somebody just walks out in heart, in distance, that is a form of unfaithfulness too. And Jesus is protecting women and children from the commodification that men were able to experience and express in that day. Jesus keeps looking at the law and he just won't let us escape it. This is what it really requires, not the ways in which you kind of characterize it and stereotype it. No, God is not looking on the outward appearance. He's looking on your heart.
And so Jesus begins to talk to people understanding how serious is their condition by also saying, and what you think you can do to make it up to God will not work either.
A section begins on generosity and prayer and fasting as Jesus says words that surely would distress his here. Chapter 6 verses 1 to 4, "Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly I say to you, they've received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you."
Are we more interested in God's purpose or our reputation?
That others will think highly of us.
In this church, we don't typically trumpet the gifts of anybody because we're concerned what motivations may then begin to drive us.
We rejoice in special gifts for special purposes to encourage others that no one is faking it but by and large our recognitions are brief, intended to expand God's purposes rather than ours. The vast majority of the gifts, no one else knows except the one who does the bookkeeping. I don't know, others don't know.
Why?
So that would be God's purpose that we're most concerned about. In prayer, verses 5 and 6 of chapter 6, "When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street quarters that they may be seen by others." Truly I say to you, they've received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And what about fasting? Now there's real holy endeavor there. Fast fast, 16 through 18. And when you fast, do not look, glue me like the hypocrites. "For they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others." Truly I say to you, they've received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head, wash your face that your fasting may not be seen by others, but by your Father who is in secret and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. This is awful.
Not only can we not measure up to the standards of God, we can't make it up by our performance.
It's not to be seen by, it's not measured how good we are because of how we compare to others. Men look on the outward appearance. God looks on the heart.
But if I can't measure up and I can't make it up, where does that leave me?
Broken.
Absolutely broken.
We play games in our minds. Wouldn't it be great to be at the Sermon on the Mount?
You know, it's almost like the sound of music, you know, the mountain slopes and Julianne, oh no, Jesus, and it would just be great to be there unless you listened to the words.
And if you actually heard what Jesus was saying, you can't measure up and you can't make it up, you would begin to look for some help.
To be sure that His purpose is blessing, Jesus bookends all that law discussion with verses 26 through 30 of chapter 6. Look at the birds of the air. They neither sown or reap nor gather into barge yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing?
Consider the lilies of the field how they grow. They neither toil or spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon, in all his glory was not a raid like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you? Oh, you of little faith.
Oh, it's just hard to put ourselves back in the situation, but we need to. For those who have just been crushed by the law as Jesus has expressed it, He says, wait,
look at the birds.
They don't sow or gather into barge yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Look at the grass of the field. I tell you, even Solomon, in all of his glory, was not a raid like one of these. If God so clothes the grass of the field which today is and tomorrow is cast into the fire, will He not much clothe you? Oh, you of little faith.
He's not only telling us essential grace, God taking care of those who cannot take care of themselves. God providing for those who cannot provide for themselves, whether it's birds or flowers or you.
The path to understanding is the path of faith. If God takes care of them, why would He take care of you? Put your faith in Him, the one who provides for those who cannot provide for themselves.
If you will just put yourself in the scene, Jesus, look at the birds. Look at the flowers. Believe God will take care of you and at some point the people whose eyes have followed his gestures have to come back to Jesus.
Put your faith in the one who provides for you. What is his provision? It's the one talking to you. It's gotta be hard for them to receive. And so before he goes on, Jesus even puts on more weight of the law.
Chapter seven, verses one through eight.
Don't judge other people for their wrongdoing.
Take the log out of your own eye before you take a speck out of your brother's eye. You're not made right by comparison. Verses 12 through 14, the golden rule.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Well, yeah, I know that's right, but verses 15 through 20, evaluate religious teaching, not by fine words and prosperity promises or seductive smiles.
But what is God's fruit evident in that ministry?
It's the only thing that makes it legitimate.
Unless you think Jesus is not serious about human performance and its displays, not justifying. Verses 21 through 23, not everyone who says to me, "Lord, Lord," will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of the Father who is in heaven on that day, that is judgment day, many will say to me, "Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do mighty works in your name, and I will declare to them I never knew you."
Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness. You must know everyone who heard this and actually listened to what Jesus would say, "Wait a second.
We can do great works and you won't receive us.
We are generous and we pray and we fast and we do everything we can to make it up to you, and your standards are so perfect that you say that's not going to make it right with you or your Father. I don't want to hear anymore.
I'm done.
Totally unreasonable, not familiar with real life.
I don't want to hear anymore."
So Jesus says, "At Propo of the week we've just had," verses 24 through 27, "everyone who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
And the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall because it was founded on the rock.
And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand and the rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat against the house and it fell and great was the fall thereof." And with that crash, the Sermon on the Mount is done.
Uh-oh.
I can't measure up. I can't make it up.
God you're going to have to provide some help here.
He does.
Chapter 8, if the Beatitudes are prologue and preface, chapter 8 is epilogue and hope.
The one who has just said his intent was to bless but broke us now tells us where we might be built up.
Chapter 8, verses 1 to 3, "When he came down from the mountain, great crowds followed him and behold a leper came to him and knelt before him saying, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean.
And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him saying, I will be clean.
And immediately his leprosy was cleansed." In that society, in that time, to have this terrible physical manifestation of leprosy was in their way of thinking the visible manifestation of some hidden sin.
And Jesus is saying, "I can help."
Who can he help? The one who says, "Jesus, you can help me."
And Jesus says, "I will."
One who calls out for help, Jesus will help.
Who are those people? Chapter 8, verses 5 through 10, "When he entered Copernom, a centurion came forward to him, appealing, Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home suffering terribly. And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. But the centurion replied, Lord, I am unworthy.
To have you come under my roof, but only say the word and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority with soldiers under me. And I say to one, go and he goes into another come and he comes into my servant, do this and he does it. When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, truly I tell you with no one in Israel have I found such faith." Faith in what?
That Jesus can provide for one who is unworthy, who does not deserve it. This is a Roman centurion. He's part of an enemy occupying army. He is a foreigner to the covenants of Israel. And Jesus is saying, listen, if you call out to me for help and do it by humbling, saying I'm not worthy, but I need you, that Jesus will help.
Verses 14 through 17, "And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law sick with fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her and she rose and began to serve him. That evening they brought to him, "Many who were oppressed by demons and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all those who were sick, this was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah. He took our illnesses and he bore our diseases, not just physical, but spiritual.
They were oppressed by demons. There is sin, there is iniquity that has opened the door to the worst of spiritual oppression. And Jesus, when people come to him for help, says, "I will help." He bore our iniquities.
He bore by stripes on his own back and nail prints in hands and feet the punishment that we deserved. "Oh, Jesus, I need some help and I have a right to call out, but I believe you can help me."
And he will.
Grace comes in many versions.
When Judge Ollie Neal went to the funeral of that library in Mrs. Grady, he said, "I credit Mrs. Grady for getting me in the habit of enjoying reading so I was able to go to law school and survive."
Mrs. Grady's grace changed a lifetime.
The grace of Jesus Christ can change an eternity.
What's the path?
Jesus, I need some help.
I'm not worthy to ask, but I believe, my faith is, you can help me.
So Jesus, will you help me?
And when we humble ourselves, the broken receive the blessing.
He will help.
Father, we thank you for sending your son our Savior.
And we ask that his truths that taken apart from him would break us, would do your gospel work of taking from us any pride, any self-sufficiency. And the words that Jesus is teaching us would be true from our heart, not outward performance, but true from the heart.
Jesus, I need some help.
And I'm not worthy to ask, but I love mercy.
I love your mercy.
Jesus, be merciful to me as sinner.
And when that is our prayer, he will be merciful forever.