For Those Who Follow

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Go ahead open your Bibles with me to Matthew, Chapter 5, verses 1-16. If you did not bring a Bible with you today, we have Bibles available on our Baptistry in front of the Sound Booth… If you don’t have one, take it with you as a gift from us. Turn with us today to Matthew 5:1-16, that is page 539 in the Bibles that we provide.

Erica and I have been residents of Arkansas for just shy of three weeks, and living in the townhouse apartment community we do, one of my favorite things to do, is to walk to the mailbox. And for some weird reason, it’s always been one of my favorite things to do, I have even been known to check the mail on Sundays, you know… Just in case they change their minds about mail delivery and I didn’t hear about it. And here recently, I was expecting a small package, a book I ordered from England, and I had received the package and went inside and tore it apart only to find that it wasn’t only my book, but there was a package inside the package I had received.

I don’t know what was going through my mind, maybe just the excitement of getting mail, but I tore the second package open to find out that it wasn’t anything I was interested in. Inside, I found a sealed DVD of a 1998 Disney movie, “Brink,” a movie about teenagers who rollerblade. Naturally,… I’m confused, because rollerblading teenagers isn’t one of my interests, and so I flip over the second packaging only to find out that it was meant for someone else, and that somehow their package, which was destined for Illinois, somehow got lodged in my package… We have since then shipped their 1998 Disney movie to them..

I’m sure we can all name times and occurrences in which we’ve committed the terrible crime of opening mail that’s not actually ours… I think in our passage for today, we’re going to encounter this same type of feeling, that the message we’ve received doesn’t sound like it’s for us….

Let’s go ahead and read our passage for today.

Matthew 5:1-16, Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.

The Beatitudes

And he opened his mouth and 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.10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Salt and Light 13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

OPENING PRAYER.

In this portion of the story of Jesus, Jesus has amassed quite a following by those who are interested in his miracles, and he takes the posture of a teacher and be begins teaching. What we have gathered around Jesus is some of his earliest followers, those who he has appointed to join him in his journey of changing the world, in addition to those men, we have an unlikely crowd of rag-tag followers… Many of the people who jump on board are just those who are thrilled by the promises of more miracles and new adventures. This crowd, I’m sure, would have had to be incredibly large, composed of many different types of people…. I think there are probably four type of people present:

  1. The disciples of Jesus
    • These are those who come, being led by something other than their own will power… At times they’re filled with skepticism, but a wild anticipation because this Jesus guy is really good.
  2. Those hungry for miracles and excitement
    • These are the people who only hang around as long as Jesus is just doing something… Every church in the world has these. They stick around as long as the church is feeding them, the worship is good, and as long somebody doesn’t say something they don’t like
  3. Those who get the understanding that Jesus is important to the Jewish people, and they’re expecting something huge
    • This is a really important piece of those who are in attendance. You have a large number of Jewish people are waiting for the promised Savior of Israel… They’re waiting for the one who is crowned King by the weirdo in the woods, John the Baptist, they’re waiting for the one who heals the sick, who does miracles from God… This group of people have been trying to achieve Godliness their whole lives and think they’re the only ones who are going walk into eternity — and nobody else. Some of these people are violent, too. They think the Savior looks like somebody who carries a big sword and starts His Kingdom through hostile takeover. These are what you and I would call “religious” they get the how’s and why’s, but they forgot the relationship factor… This is a large and confused group of people…
  4. The little guys who could never wedge there way into the pack, they have the economy seats of all economy seats, the nose bleed section of the biggest stadiums if you will…
    • There’s a famous scholar who writes about this last group of people, he calls them the “anawim inwetan,” and says that they’re the lowest of the low of all people… This group is the poorest of the poor, they’re like India’s Low Caste System… Generation after generation who will always be born into poverty, riddled with disease, there’s no chance of them ever getting a fighting chance. Many of these families are those who could never catch a break following the Babylonian exile, and thought that they could get a fighting chance in the Maccabean revolution in the period of 400 years where people were trying to start the Kingdom of God on their own… These people are giving up, they’ve lost all hope.

Everyone in attendance is on the edge of their seats, waiting for this mysterious and captivating Jesus to speak… It’s a lot like getting a letter in the mail, just because it’s in your mailbox, we think we’ve got to rip it open, but it doesn’t mean it was meant for you…

One of the greatest comparisons for Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is the Presidential Inauguration Ceremony and Address, which is coming up fairly soon on January 20… When a new leader has been elected, they typically, in years past, have given a message to the American people which sometimes encapsulates their vision for the betterment of America, what their promises in office may or may not be, and typically, it’s an uplifting message. But it’s the beginning of something new, a new reign, and order.

Jesus begins His reign as King of the world with an address for all of the people who think they’re going to follow the King and He has this idea in mind, this is what followers of the King look like, but Jesus begins with a very confusing statement…. If you were one of the people in the crowd who considered themselves holier than thou, then you were probably rubbing elbows with the guy next to you and saying, “Here it is! All those rules weren’t for nothing…” But Jesus begins with this statement in verse 3, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven…” And I suppose that this would have caused a shockwave to be sent out into the crowds. Someone raises there hand in the back, “Excuse me, ‘poor in spirit,’?” Yes… You heard that right. Jesus continues, it’s the “poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, the reviled and rejected… The list just kept going.

So who are the poor in spirit? And how do I get to be poor in spirit? … But the real question is, “How do I get blessed?”

Many of your translations or study Bibles, probably have a little footnote relating to the word, “blessed,” and it probably says, “happy.” Because I love you, I have to tell you… That’s a terrible word. Because for you and me, “happiness” doesn’t mean anything to you and me. Here’s what I mean… I’m happy that Villanova won the NCAA Championship, because I picked them. I’m happy after I eat dinner. I get happy when I watch puppy videos on Facebook. See what I mean? Let’s put happy in that place, “Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Anyone who has ever been poor, don’t say how excited they are to be poor. Anyone who has a terminal illness never says how pleased they are of their illness.

The word “happy” is a terrible word and so instead, let’s translate “blessed,” as “those who have favor from God,” and let’s try it out now… “Those who have favor from God are the poor in spirit, for theirs is kingdom of heaven.” Because typically, the poor in spirit don’t get anything nice, but God has shown His favor to them, and now their minds are blown. The only way we gain entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven is if Jesus says we get in… We don’t get an eternity with Him through doing things, or being nice,… Jesus decides. And if Jesus gets to decide on who is in or who is out, He also gets to dictate our behaviors and course of living… Instead of giving some wimpy Presidential promise, Jesus says, “This is how King followers live…”

Jesus gives us a plain outline of what life looks like for those who follow the King:

  1. The blessed live a life comprised of humility
    • In Matthew 5, verses 3, 4, and 5 Jesus describes the quality of understanding value.
      • In verse 3, it is described as the “poor in spirit,” or those who are economically and physically oppressed, but they trust God that they’ll be rescued from it.
      • In verse 4, it is described as “those who mourn,” or those have grieved the pain of loss, tragedy, and injustice, — even more importantly, they grieve for those who don’t yet know their Savior, but look forward to the day of hope that John promises in Revelation 21:4, “That He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
      • In verse 5, it is described as “the meek,” or those who suffer but instead of looking for revenge, they look for the welfare of others. The perfect example of this is Jesus… In Matthew 21:5, He rides the donkey into Jerusalem, to be slaughtered on our behalf — the meekest of them all.
  2. The blessed live a life seeking righteousness and justice
    • In Matthew 5, verses 6, 7, and 8, Jesus describes the quality of purpose
      • In verse 6, it is described as “those who thirst and hunger for righteousness,” it’s the idea that nothing in life can satisfy but it’s only doing the Will of God that will make us complete.
      • In verse 7, it is described as “those who show mercy,” or better yet, who allow their lives to be disrupted by the messiness of other people, but hand out second chances like it’s going out of style.
      • In verse 8, it is described as “those who are pure in heart,” or those who look to following God first… Psalm 24 asks the profound question, “Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?”  and the answer is, “Those who have clean hands and pure hearts.”
  3. The blessed live a life that loves peace
    • In Matthew 5, verses 9, and 10-12, Jesus describes to us our values. Values are the reasons for why we behave the way we do
      • In verse 9, it says that “the peacemakers will be blessed,” the Jewish people believed that the future King would be what Isaiah calls, “the prince of peace,” the who who holds the government on his shoulders. ——— Peace is a very difficult concept for us, it’s not being nice, or anything like that, it means walking into the middle of gunfire and putting our hands up. That sounds dumb… but the Kingdom in which Jesus reigns has no violence.
      • In verses 10-12, the blessed are described as those “who are persecuted,” persecution is about seeking God’s Will no matter what other people want.

For those who follow the King… our lives are to be humble, longing for justice, and peaceful.

Last week, we learned that the Sermon on the Mount leaves us with a decision in our life…. Will we follow the King? This week, we’re leaving with the question, “Are our lives marked by humility, righteousness, and peace?”

For those in attendance that day, they had to decide if this new and confusing message was for them… Statistically, some of them didn’t understand, others tried to conjure up that type of change in their life, others thought they had already achieved it, but there were others who were exactly right where they needed to be. For the disciples of Jesus, there journey was just getting started; for those just interested in miracles, they weren’t concerned with change in the first place; for the super religious people who think they’ve got it figured out, they won’t probably get in the kingdom; but for the people at the very back, who were hanging on by their last thread, this was exactly the message they needed. — Today, I hope you’re either the first or the last variety, that it’s the beginning of your journey of transformation, or you’re just now realizing it for the first time. For those who think humility, peace, and righteousness, are something you can YouTube, or think they’ve got it figured out already, it’s my prayer that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you see your need for change, and your need for the King.

Let’s close with verses 15 and 16… as we grow we’ll learn to be shaped towards humility, righteousness, and peace… But verse 15 and 16 says that we already are something: we’re salt and light. No matter where we are in our growth track in following Jesus, we are supposed to be preserving the best things about the Christian life and drawing others into the light of Christ… It means we push that mower across the driveway and mow our neighbors lawn who works long hours to provide for their family… It means we offer to pray with that coworker who just found out their husband is leaving them. It means we dance at weddings, waltzing with our grandchildren; it means we check on our Life Group members when things haven’t been going well. It means taking donuts to the office when we don’t like our jobs. It means choosing not to fight with our spouses, and instead regularly showering them in compliments… it means celebrating the milestones of following Jesus that the old me died a long time ago…

Gateway Church, are your lives defined by humility, righteousness, and peace?

CLOSING PRAYER

HONORING MOTHERS

Comment(1)

  1. Reply
    Allison Jones says

    This was a very eye opening and profound sermon. Faithfulness,prayer,and church attendance alone will not achieve what God has outlined for us. It is a life lead in every moment every day of the week. Kindness towards everyone, being thankful for what you have instead of wanting more.Thank you and God bless.

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