ORGANIC CHRISTIANITY MATTHEW 5:13-20

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1 ORGANIC CHRISTIANITY MATTHEW 5:13-20 MAIN IDEA Jesus is inviting people to become part of his kingdom. We learn from Jesus how to live in the kingdom. All that we do and become is a result of following and imitating Jesus. I. ORGANIC EVANGELISM (VS 13-16) By the way we think, speak, and act in our relationship with others; evangelizing our friends, family, and people we encounter becomes a natural part of who we are. A. WE ARE SALT (13) B. WE ARE LIGHT (14-15) C. WE ARE WITNESSES (16) II. ORGANIC LIVING (VS 17-19) Our outward actions and words ought to be consistent with the commands given to us in the Bible. A. GOD S LAWS ARE RIGHT AND TRUE (17-18) B. CONSEQUENCES FOR DISOBEDIENCE (19a) C. CONSEQUENCES FOR OBEDIENCE (19b) III. ORGANIC GOODNESS (VS 20) Our thoughts, words, and behaviors should come from hearts filled with the love and power of Christ. A. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE PHARISEES B. THE HISTORY OF RIGHTEOUSNESS C. THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD S KINGDOM

2 Organic Christianity Matthew 5:13-20 Note: Everything I am preaching in this series on the Sermon on the Mount is taken directly from the following sources. There is not much that is original thinking on my part: The Gospel of Matthew by William Barclay Be Loyal by Warren Wiersbe The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard Celebration of Disciplines and Workbook by Richard Foster The Good and Beautiful Life by James Bryan Smith This week Jesus lays out the theme of His sermon. In verse 20 Jesus states the goal for all that want to live in His Kingdom; our righteousness must surpass that of the Pharisees and teachers of the law. The law Jesus is talking about could refer to the Ten Commandments, the commandments found in the Torah which is the first five books in our Bibles, or the entire Old Testament. The Pharisees were the super religious. They read, studied, memorized, and meditated on the Bible every day, they attended church and prayed every day, they gave way over 10% of their money to church, they fasted twice a week, they meticulously followed the commandments in the Scriptures, and they tried to stay away from unbelievers. The teachers of the law also studied a great deal and lived like the Pharisees. As I look at these people, I don t do all those things as religiously as they did. If one of these Pharisees attended our church, we would all stand in awe of them. We would think they were extremely righteous and that we could never live as good as they do. We would want them to be board members, Sunday school teachers, Small group leaders, and even hire one of them to be the pastor. And yet Jesus tells us that our righteousness has to surpass theirs. As we go through the Sermon on the Mount, we will see all Ten Commandments either directly or indirectly mentioned. I ll try to point them out as we go. These religious people followed the Ten Commandments to the letter. Jesus is going to tell us that is not enough for those of us who live in His Kingdom. For this morning s text let s stick with this main idea. JESUS IS INVITING PEOPLE TO BECOME PART OF HIS KINGDOM. WE LEARN FROM JESUS HOW TO LIVE IN THE KINGDOM. ALL THAT WE DO AND BECOME IS A RESULT OF FOLLOWING AND IMITATING JESUS. In other words, fulfilling the law and commandments should be a natural process as we love and follow Jesus. Keep in mind, we are His apprentices. One thing Jesus is going to do in this sermon is expose religious hypocrites. For those of us who have been Christians for a long time, we need to soften our hearts and see if Jesus is exposing our hypocrisy. Page 2

3 Two elderly women were sitting in the front pew of a church listening to a fiery preacher. These were the kind of ladies that used to wave their handkerchiefs in the air and shout hallelujah as the preacher preached. The preacher started to preach against stealing and the two ladies waved their handkerchiefs and shouted, Amen brother! Preach it Reverend! The preacher moved on to condemning lust and again the ladies, still waving their handkerchiefs shouted, You preach it now Reverend! He then moved on to preach against lying. They jumped to their feet this time and yelled, Right on brother! Tell it like it is now Preacher! But then the preacher went on to describe in great detail and condemn the sin of gossip. The two ladies quieted down, sat down, folded their arms and said, Now he s quit preaching and now he s just plain meddling. Isn t that the way it is? We can easily point out the sins of others and we easily condemn others while committing the same sins or even greater sins. We have made ourselves the measure of righteousness. The late comedian George Carlin used to say, Do you ever notice that when you re driving; anyone going slower than you is an idiot and everyone driving faster than you is a maniac? When you take time to think about it, we do think that way; at least I do. When we carry that over into our religious lives; we think that people who are following the religious rules more seriously than we do, are fanatics; people who don t follow the rules as seriously as we do are backsliders. We are by nature judgmental people and we religious people tend to be even more judgmental than unbelievers. But Jesus will make sure to cut us there as well as the sermon goes on. I. ORGANIC EVANGELISM (VS 13-16) Verses lay out for us organic evangelism. Again, I m using the word organic to describe a process that is natural and leads to genuine growth. BY THE WAY WE THINK, SPEAK, AND ACT IN OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHERS; EVANGELIZING OUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND PEOPLE WE ENCOUNTER BECOMES A NATURAL PART OF WHO WE ARE. In verse 13, Jesus says that we are salt. He will go on to say that we are light. As we study through this section let s get what Jesus is saying. He is saying that Salt and Light are now part of our nature. They are now part of who we are in Christ. These qualities belong to all Christians. If we are Christians then Salt and Light are part of who we are. Salt is considered to represent purity in many cultures. The ancient Romans believed that salt was the purest of all the elements on earth because it came from the two purest things of all; the sun and the sea. The Hebrews offered up their sacrifices accompanied by salt. In Numbers 18:19 God made a covenant of salt with Israel. Let s look at the major qualities and uses of salt. Salt was used as a preservative. Up until the 18th century, we didn t have manmade ice to preserve food. All the cultures of the world used and still use salt to preserve food. It doesn t matter what part of the world you come from, I m sure you are acquainted with foods that are cured and preserved by salt. Page 3

4 Next, salt gives flavor to food. Many of you know that I go to Mexico every chance I get. There is a restaurant I make sure to go to every time I get to Playa Del Carmen. It is an Argentinean steak house. One day I asked the owner how he got the steaks to taste so good. He told me they just salted the steaks and cooked them on the fire. I told him that I was kind of hurt that he would lie to me. After all, if he didn t want to give me the recipe, he could have just told me. He insisted it was just the salt. When I got home, I bought the Argentinean sea salt, salted the steaks, and cooked them on the fire. What an incredible taste, just like in Mexico! Every time I cook for my friends using the salt, I get the same surprised response. This salt really adds amazing flavor to the steak. Let s think about this for a moment. Salt is pure, it preserves life, and it adds taste. We live in a rotten and decaying world. We live in a sexually immoral society. People in our culture think nothing of cheating, lying, manipulating, or doing anything they need to do to get what they want. Jesus sends us into the world as preservatives. As we live holy and upright lives, the Holy Spirit uses us to slow down the decay. We are called to add flavor to the tasteless, boring, and desperate lives people are living around us. We are called to bring healing, hope, and joy into people s lives as we bring Jesus to them. Since we are salt, we should start praying for Jesus to bring opportunities into our lives so we can bring taste, preservation, purity, love, and hope to the desperate and unhappy people we know. We have a kind word, an encouraging word, a comforting word to bring to people. It s who we are in Christ. Can you think of some situations in which you can be salt? Perhaps people are gossiping. How can you be salt? Perhaps someone is being treated badly. How can you be salt? Perhaps people are strangers or new to your group. How can you be salt? Think of situations in your life where Jesus is telling you to be salt. Jesus tells us that we are light in verses There are a couple of cities that I love flying into at night. San Francisco, Las Vegas, New York, and Chicago are breathtaking at night when you fly into their airports. If you have every driven through mountains and look at cities in the valleys all lit up, the view is amazing. Let s remind ourselves of a couple of things here. Jesus said that He was the light of the world and now he calls us light. If we are genuine believers, then we participate and share in the life of Jesus. Light lights up the dark. We are able to see things we could not see. It keeps us from stumbling and tripping over objects that we could not see in the dark. It shows us a path where to go. Jesus showed us Who God is and what He expects of us. We know what God is like because we know what Jesus is like. Jesus lights up the way to an abundant and joyful life. He shows us the danger and destruction of sin. He shows us how to avoid it and how to pursue holy lives that will bring us peace, joy, and contentment. As light, Jesus expects us to show people how to find peace, joy, and contentment. He expects us to show people how to live the abundant life. I m not criticizing new and improved evangelistic techniques or new programs for churches. However, if we are living salt and light, it should be natural for us to be leading people to saving faith in Christ. I m pretty sure none of us are living off in a cave somewhere. We all meet and come in contact with people every day. We should be living invitations to them to enter God s Kingdom life. In other words, as verse 16 points out, we are witnesses for Christ. Here is where I often get confused. I let my light shine before people and I want them to give glory to God; but somewhere Page 4

5 along the line I want them to recognize me as the cause of the good thing and I want people to like me as a result. First of all look at the phrase good deeds. The word for good can also mean beautiful and noble. The result of our good works ought to be that people s attentions are drawn to God. They should quickly forget us and recognize the source of the beauty and goodness is God. Our motivation for being salt and light is to be useful for God s Kingdom. If we put a light under a bushel, it s useless. If salt loses its preserving quality or taste enhancing quality, it too becomes useless. If we are not salt and light for God s Kingdom, we are useless. Our goal is to be useful for the Kingdom of God. Can you think of places you can be light; showing people a better and more fulfilling way to live their lives. Natural evangelism consists of living lives filled with beautiful works and directing people s attention to God as the source. BY THE WAY WE THINK, SPEAK, AND ACT IN OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH OTHERS; EVANGELIZING OUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, AND PEOPLE WE ENCOUNTER BECOMES A NATURAL PART OF WHO WE ARE. II. ORGANIC LIVING (VS 17-19) As we follow Christ as His apprentices, verses illustrate what organic living looks like. OUR OUTWARD ACTIONS AND WORDS OUGHT TO BE CONSISTENT WITH THE COMMANDS GIVEN TO US IN THE BIBLE. Whether or not people realize it and acknowledge it; God has built moral laws into the universe. In verses 17-18, Jesus reminds us that God s laws are right and true. People may have gotten the wrong idea about Jesus view of the Old Testament law. For example, when Jesus healed on the Sabbath; people came to the conclusion that Jesus was demonstrating that people no longer had to keep the Sabbath. When He refused to stone the woman caught in adultery; people concluded that Jesus was saying adultery was okay. In other words, people were starting to think that the commandments God gave to humans in the Old Testament no longer applied. Jesus stated in the strongest possible terms that that was not the case. Here He says that He did not come to abolish God s commands; rather He came to fulfill them. If I were to ask us, Which of the Ten Commandments no longer apply to us today? we would really have to answer that all of them apply to us. Many of us may say that Sabbath doesn t apply to us, but we ll go into that in depth at a later time. We would all say that decent human beings don t murder, steal, lie, cheat on their spouse, don t look for ways to take things from other people etc. Without even getting into the heart of Jesus message; if we want to call ourselves Christians, our behavior should at least conform to these basic moral commands. In Old Testament times; God gave moral, civil, and ceremonial commands to the nation of Israel. Even though they had a king; they considered God to be their ultimate ruler, who even the king had to answer to. They were a theocracy. During the time of Jesus, Israel was under the rule of the Roman government. They were no longer a theocracy. If the king represented the civil law, the priest represented the ceremonial law. These were the religious worship rules that governed the temple worship. It described the particular sacrifices and festivals. Before Jesus time, Israel was taken into captivity and their temple was destroyed. They had to figure out ways in which to worship God without the temple. During Jesus time, the temple had already been rebuilt and the ceremonial law came back into force. However, at this Page 5

6 time, many of the Jews who had been in captivity and no longer able to prove they were pure Jew; were prevented from worshiping in the temple. Instead of being inclusive; they were becoming more exclusive. Less than 40 years after Jesus death, the temple was again destroyed and never rebuilt, even up to today. There would be no way to practice the ceremonial law. So if the king represented the civil law and the priest the ceremonial law; the prophet represented the moral law. These were laws that govern the relationships between human beings and God and people to people. These are laws that apply to all people, everywhere, throughout all of human history. They applied to the ancient Israelites, they applied to Jesus, and they apply to you and me. Jesus stated that He came to fill up the law; not abolish it. By filling it up, Jesus means several things. First of all, He fulfilled all the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah like the virgin birth, being born in Bethlehem, being tortured, killed, being placed in a rich man s tomb, and rising from the dead. There are a lot of prophecies that Jesus fulfilled during His lifetime. There are about 60 prophecies that He fulfills and about 300 references that apply to Him. So He fulfills the role of the Promised Messiah. Jesus came to fill up the law by explaining through word and deed the nature, character, and person of God Who is the Author of the law. God revealed Himself to us in the Bible and in the Person of Jesus. The entire Bible describes how God is reconciling human beings and all of creation to Himself. Jesus is the atonement for our sins and Jesus will come back to set up God s Kingdom on earth; punishing the wicked and rewarding the righteous. Jesus said that not one dot of the i or one cross of the t will disappear until all of this comes to pass. Here is where the confusion comes in. The law was simple but didn t often go into great detail. For example the law said that people were not to work on the Sabbath. The Scribes and Teachers of the law started to define work for the people. These scholars ended up defining 39 types of work prohibited on the Sabbath. They defined them in great detail. Watch how Jesus uses the phrase, You have heard it said but I say to you. Jesus is going to go to great lengths to break down all the added laws the religious people added to the plain simple laws; and replace them with the heart of God in regards to the commandments. In the first half of verse 19 Jesus reminds us there are consequences for disobedience. We are not free to make up our own rules for religion and life. The same God that wrote, You shall not murder, is the same God Who says, Love and pray for your enemies. When we start to make up our own rules, we start to lose out on all the blessings God has for us. Keep remembering that Jesus started out the sermon by stating that God has blessings for those who embrace this sermon. When we disobey God, we miss out on the abundant life He has for us. On the other hand, Jesus also states there are consequences for obedience. There are abundant blessings of peace, joy, and contentment available to those who choose to follow Jesus and live life the way He lays out of us in word and lives as an example. Again we have to emphasize this. Jesus is not coming with a new set of laws for us to legalistically follow. Here is how that can go astray. Jesus said, Don t call your brother a fool. The legalist will reason, I can t call him a fool but I can call him a moron, a numbskull, or a jackass; just not a fool. Jesus said that when someone strikes on the cheek we should turn the other cheek. The legalist reasons, I ll go ahead and turn the other cheek; but after I m hit there, I ll beat that guy to a pulp. Page 6

7 Jesus wants to take a law and reveal to us the heart, the nature, the character, and the person of God. Then He wants us to live like He does. Dallas Willard stated the goal like this, How would Jesus live my life; if my life were His to live? In my case, I m invited to think about how Jesus would live as the child of Italian immigrants, married to a woman from China, with two adult children, who is presently the pastor of Devon Church getting ready to retire. And then I am invited to live that life as an apprentice of Jesus. There is a lot of treasure at stake. God has an abundance of love, joy, peace, and contentment for us. The choice is ours whether to receive it or reject it. If we are followers of Christ, then OUR OUTWARD ACTIONS AND WORDS OUGHT TO BE CONSISTENT WITH THE COMMANDS GIVEN TO US IN THE BIBLE. III. ORGANIC GOODNESS (VS 20) In verse 20, Jesus lays out what organic goodness looks like. OUR THOUGHTS, WORDS, AND BEHAVIORS SHOULD COME FROM HEARTS FILLED WITH THE LOVE AND POWER OF CHRIST. I think that most students of the Sermon on the Mount identify this as the main theme of Jesus discourse. We need to hear this like Jesus original audience heard it. Let s put ourselves in Jesus audience. We are poor, common, blue collar folk. We don t have time to pursue religion. In fact, we tend to think of ourselves as those who are minimally meeting our religious commitments or not even meeting them at all. Jesus first shocked us by inviting us into His Kingdom and into a personal relationship with God. We got all excited. Now He tells us that if our righteousness doesn t surpass the righteousness of the religious superstars of the day; we can t enter the Kingdom. Is He playing with our feelings and emotions? First He invites us and then sets the bar so high we can t possibly attain it! We already pointed out how religious the Pharisees and Teachers of the law were. I m thinking that I can t even do what they do; how could I possibly surpass that? My problem is that I m hearing this in worldly terms; not Kingdom Jesus terms. I think it s important to understand the primary word here. The word for righteousness in Greek is dikaiosúnē. This word for righteousness had a rich history. In fact, about 400 years before Jesus came into the world, a Greek philosopher named Plato wrote a book on this subject. The book is called The Republic in English. A more accurate translation of Polis would be city. In this work, Plato lays out his view of what a well ordered soul would look like and what a well ordered city would look like. The quality that keeps a person s soul well-ordered and what quality citizens must exhibit in order for the city to run well is the same word Jesus uses here, dikaiosúnē. I think Dallas Willard captures the meaning of the word righteousness when he defines it like this in The Divine Conspiracy, what that is about a person that makes him or her really right or good. For short, we might say, true inner goodness. I don t want us to miss the relevance for us. For Plato, righteousness was that special thing inside of a person that made his or her soul healthy and made him or her a good citizen of the city. The more righteous citizens a city had; the healthier the city would be. This is a good illustration that will help us to understand the righteousness of God s Kingdom. To be sure the righteousness that Jesus is talking about will cause us to keep the commandments; but Jesus is primarily focused on that part of us that compels us to be good and upright people. At the Page 7

8 risk of oversimplifying this, Jesus wants to change our hearts. Once our hearts are changed; our behavior will follow. The point Jesus makes starts with two Old Testament passages that deal with this concept of righteousness. Let s start from the fact that on our own, we can never achieve the righteousness Jesus is calling us to. That applies to you, to me, to the Pharisees, the religious teachers, and to any people we think are really religious. The prophet Isaiah puts it like this: Page 8 We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind. Isaiah 64:6 / New Living Translation Jesus clearly understands and is teaching that the kind of righteousness He is asking for is not achievable through our own power, strength, or resources. Jesus makes it clear that without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). God the Holy Spirit is the only One Who can change our heart and empower us to live this type of righteousness. In his letter to the church in Philippi, after describing the humility and self-sacrificing love Jesus expects of us and modeled for us, the Apostle Paul put it like this: 13 For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Philippians 2:13 / New Living Translation Now this task of being righteous will be available to us through the righteousness of God. God demonstrated His righteous love by sending Jesus, His One and Only Beloved Son to die for us and make us right with Him. Jesus is saying that unless we allow His Holy Spirit to make us righteous; there is no way we can live up to the lifestyle He is about to describe. This is not about getting people to conform to some set of religious standards and behaviors; this is about changing people s hearts. From the very beginning of the Scriptures, God made it clear how we can access this special power to live lives that are pleasing to Him. The Bible describes how the father of the Hebrew nation accessed this power to please God 6 And Abram believed the LORD, and the LORD counted him as righteous because of his faith. Genesis 15:6 / New Living Translation Jesus is again inviting all the people who heard Him; very religious or not religious at all, rich, poor, uneducated, educated, privileged or underprivileged, you, me, and all the people we will ever meet; into a personal, passionate, intimate, and God-empowered relationship but placing our faith and trust in Him. It is only as we invite God s Holy Spirit to live in us that we can live up to the righteousness Jesus says we need to enter the Kingdom of God. We will then be entering God s Kingdom based on the righteousness of Jesus; not our own. Jesus is saying that without Him, the best person you know cannot enter God s Kingdom. However, with Him, the lowliest person you

9 know can enter God s Kingdom and enjoy an abundance of love, joy, peace, and contentment. OUR THOUGHTS, WORDS, AND BEHAVIORS SHOULD COME FROM HEARTS FILLED WITH THE LOVE AND POWER OF CHRIST. The stuff Jesus is preaching here was exciting to those who were hearing it. The very proud and religious people may not have received it well. We know a few of the Pharisees understood and submitted to Jesus message; but it was this group of very religious people who plotted to kill Jesus and actually managed to have Him killed. Jesus is all about heart righteousness; not about public displays of righteousness. JESUS IS INVITING PEOPLE TO BECOME PART OF HIS KINGDOM. WE LEARN FROM JESUS HOW TO LIVE IN THE KINGDOM. ALL THAT WE DO AND BECOME IS A RESULT OF FOLLOWING AND IMITATING JESUS. This week, we want to practice the spiritual discipline of hospitality. Hospitality is meant to point out to us that status in life means nothing to God. If we are well off according to worldly standards; we need to humble ourselves and confess to God that we are in the same desperate need for Him to come into our lives and make us righteous as those who are less fortunate than we are. If we are one of the less fortunate, we too need to confess our desperate need for Jesus to come into our lives and make us righteous. Hospitality is meant to demonstrate to the world what the Kingdom of God looks like where there are no worldly distinctions that separate us. We are united by the love of God, the righteousness of Jesus, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Reach out to someone that is normally out of your comfort zone. Ask them to lunch or to go for coffee. This may be a coworker, a classmate, a neighbor, or a person at church. Intentionally connect with someone who is different from you. If you are uncomfortable with this step, start by simply becoming a good listener. Genuinely listen to people; especially those who are different. Learn to listen with grace and without judging. Give people your full attention when they are talking to you. Welcome outsiders into your group. Look for opportunities to be salt and light. Intentionally extend God s love and grace to people you come in contact with. Remind yourself that you are no better than anyone else. We all enter God s Kingdom the same; by grace through faith. Lectio Divina This week, we want to practice the spiritual discipline of hospitality. Hospitality is meant to point out to us that status in life means nothing to God. Page 9

10 If we are well off according to worldly standards; we need to humble ourselves and confess to God that we are in the same desperate need for Him to come into our lives and make righteous as those who are less fortunate than we are. If we are one of the less fortunate, we too need to confess our desperate need for Jesus to come into our lives and make us righteous. Hospitality is meant to demonstrate to the world what the Kingdom of God looks like where there are no worldly distinctions that separate us. We are united by the love of God, the righteousness of Jesus, and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Reach out to someone that is normally out of your comfort zone. Ask them to lunch or to go for coffee. This may be a coworker, a classmate, a neighbor, or a person at church. Intentionally connect with someone who is different from you. If you are uncomfortable with this step, start by simply becoming a good listener. Genuinely listen to people; especially those who are different. Learn to listen with grace and without judging. Give people your full attention when they are talking to you. Welcome outsiders into your group. Look for opportunities to be salt and light. Intentionally extend God s love and grace to people you come in contact with. Remind yourself that you are no better than anyone else. We all enter God s Kingdom the same; by grace through faith. Page 10