The Good Life: A series through the Sermon on the Mount!

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Rhoda Short
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1 The Good Life: A series through the Sermon on the Mount Good news for the hungry Matthew 5:6 Intro: the Beatitudes start to pick up speed The following verse is predicated on the assumption that Something is missing (Righteousness) So we need to know what righteousness is before we can move on. New Oxford American: (of a person or conduct) morally right or justifiable; virtuous 1 Righteousness is often associated with virtue. But the difference is that righteousness retains a note of emphasis upon relationship of the soul to God 2 What is righteousness? Of course, we should form our definition from Scripture, not the dictionary. Types of righteousness in Scripture AP 1. Legal - how God sees us Genesis 15:5-6 (ESV) And He took him outside and said, Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them. And He said to him, So shall your descendants be. Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness. 2. Moral - how we act towards God Isaiah 48:18 Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea 3. Social - how we act towards others 1. social structures 2. the least of these in society 3. family Ezekiel 45:9 Thus says the Lord God: Enough, O princes of Israel Put away violence and oppression, and execute justice and righteousness. Cease your evictions of my people, declares the Lord God. Amos 5:23-24 Take away from me the noise of your songs; to the melody of your harps I will not listen. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. ALL of these will be in effect as a result of God s kingdom 1 of 6

2 Context in Matthew: social/moral - Roman occupation - Taxed without representation - Jewish aristocracy Something is wrong with the world We resonate and share that 4. Poverty 5. Clean water 6. Oppressive regimes 7. ISIS s religious rampage We mourn over the evils in the world. And as Christians, live in the tension between now and what life should be like. But what do we do with this tension? Possible courses of action I. Cause driven A. We immerse ourselves in good causes 1. breaking bad to born again - we might look down on those who are not as zealous as we are a) self-righteous II. Comparison driven A. That s really bad I m not that bad a) self-righteous Hidden motives Often our only way to alleviate unrighteousness is self-righteousness. This is precisely where Jesus flips what we know of this subject on it s head 3 Jesus: Blessed are those who desire a righteousness they don t have 4 IOW: Things aren t right in you either By using words rooted in physical needs to describe spiritual realities (e.g., hunger), 5Jesus goes deeper than our motives. Ever been hungry? Your body is telling you that you need food. You might be mildly hungry. If you re preoccupied with work, you won t notice the hunger. But if you re starving, you won t be able to think about anything else until you get to the object of your cravings. He is aiming to trigger in us an awareness of our own spiritual dehydration The problem with the universe is me - G.K. Chesterton Everyone is the problem but some don t want to remain (Hunger) It s that hunger for more that is so elemental to the Kingdom. 2 of 6

3 Problem: until we feel our spiritual emaciation until we are compelled to a desperate hunger, we will never see God as necessary much less satisfying. We won t even notice He s in the building. a human tendency seen vividly in a social experiment... The YouTube Experiment 6 (Gene Weingarten. Pearls before Breakfast) A nondescript, youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals cap went to the Metro at the L enfant Plaza Station in D.C., and stood against a wall beside a trash basket. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play. It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work, which meant, for almost all of them, a government job. L'Enfant Plaza is at the nucleus of federal Washington, and these were mostly mid-level bureaucrats with those indeterminate, oddly fungible titles: policy analyst, project manager, budget officer, specialist, facilitator, consultant. In the 45 minutes the musician played, only 6 people stopped and stayed for a while. About 20 gave him money, but continued to walk their normal pace. He collected $32. When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed it. No one applauded, nor was there any recognition. No one knew this, but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the most talented musicians in the world. He had just played one of the most intricate pieces ever written, on a Stradivarius violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston where the seats averaged $100. Two weeks later, at the Music Center at Strathmore, in North Bethesda, he would play to a standing-room-only audience so respectful of his artistry that they stifled their coughs until the silence between movements. Is it possible to be in the presence of beauty and goodness, and not recognize it or care? Ask Josh Bell. Ask Judas Iscariot. Yes. This is where some of you are right now: in church, but too dazed by the condition of your life, to be aware of the beauty of righteousness being offered in the beatitudes. See, it s not sufficient to know and mourn over your emptiness. There must also be a desire for righteousness. Without that, you will attempt to satisfy your emptiness in other ways. Life is marked by a search for fulfillment in sex, money, relationships, work, etc Isaiah 55:2-3 (ESV) AP Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Isaiah 55:6 (ESV) Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near Then the prophet answers with the only thing that can satisfy the broken human soul When you see in yourself a lack of righteousness, and looking upward to the righteousness of God, begin to hunger for what you see, the kingdom of God will be opened to you, and you will be satisfied. The best thing to happen to you is a holy change in desire Hunger for God is part of the blessing 3 of 6

4 That s what the Psalmists sang about Psalm 42:1-2 (NIV) AP As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Psalm 63:1-5 (NASB) O God, You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; My soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You, In a dry and weary land where there is no water. Thus I have seen You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips will praise You. So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips. It is possible to see what s wrong around you, but think you re ok. It is possible to be in the presence of beauty and righteousness, but think you don t need it. THE POINT of this Beatitude is that the Kingdom of God will be filled with people who have been given an appetite for something more Blessed = our hunger is satisfied How: God s righteousness comes to bear on our lives I. Great exchange A. God declares us right Romans 3:21-22 (HCSB) But now, apart from the law, God s righteousness has been revealed attested by the Law and the Prophets that is, God s righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ, to all who believe Romans 3:23-24 (ESV) For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus Romans 5:1 (ESV) Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:21 (ESV) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. II. Great change (Matt 5) A. God makes us right (conformity to Christ) Jesus is NOT saying, Blessed are those who want to be declared righteous. He is saying, Blessed are those who want to be made righteous. 7 ^ this is how you know the kingdom is near you a desire for holiness 4 of 6

5 Jerry Bridges (The Pursuit of Holiness) When the Holy Spirit comes into our lives at our salvation, He comes to make us holy in practice. If there is not, then, at least a yearning in our hearts to live a holy life pleasing to God, we need to seriously question whether our faith in Christ is genuine True salvation brings with it a desire to be made holy. When God saves us through Christ, He not only saves us from the penalty of sin, but also its dominion 8 Being declared righteous is just the beginning then there is a desire to pursue it That desire has been a part of the gospel all along Ezekiel 36:26-29 (ESV) And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God. And I will deliver you from all your uncleannesses. And I will summon the grain and make it abundant and lay no famine upon you. Some of you are already there. You want more in this life and you see that God is the answer. Take the plunge and never look back Don t overthink it. If the desire is there, plunge Some of you aren t there yet. You re caught between grace and obedience. Christianity is a get-out-of-jail-free card. A license to live how you want to live apart from God but with all the benefits of forgiveness. Reality, we love the love of God, and the grace of God, but we have not tasted of his love or grace unless we also love his holiness, his righteousness. If it s not actual righteousness that we desire, then it s not grace we desire either it s to live outside of God s rule and reign with the divine license to do so. God will not bless that. God had no intention of stopping with legal righteousness only to have carry on with our lives TOZER: God wants the whole person and He will not rest till He gets us in entirety. 9 You know you re saved, because you love what God loves, and the happiest thought to cross your mind is to be more like him. If that s NOT your happiest thought you need a deep inner work of the Holy Spirit to show you your profound need for Christ and to conform you to his image. Go back through the first 3 beatitudes over and over Awareness of spiritual poverty (poor) AP Brokenness (mourning) Humility (meekness) Until you hunger and thirst for God s righteousness (v.6) 1. Present participles: continuous action Psalm 40:8 (NASB) In the scroll of the book it is written of me. I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart. 5 of 6

6 A.W. Tozer (A Prayer) O God, I have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longings; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee, that so I may know Thee indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. Then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus name. Amen. 10 Works Cited 1 New Oxford American Dictionary 2 Dallas Willard. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God. (New York, NY: HarperOne, 1997) p See also Kenneth E. Bailey. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2008) p.77, and Robert A. Guelich. The Sermon on the Mount: Foundations for Understanding. (Waco, Texas: Word Books, 1982) p.87 3 Leon Morris, Everyone now and then does what is right, but Jesus is pointing his hearers not to occasional acts but to a passionate concern for the right. The Gospel According to Matthew. PNTC. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992) D.A. Carson. notes that hunger and thirst vividly express desire. The Expositor s Bible Commentary: Matthew Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, Kenneth E. Bailey. Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes: Cultural Studies in the Gospels. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008) Scot McKnight. Sermon on the Mount. (SGBC; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013) p.44 Jerry Bridges. The Pursuit of Holiness. (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1978) p.33 9 A.W. Tozer. The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine. (Camp Hill, PA: Wingspread, 1982) p Ibid of 6

The Good Life: A series through the Sermon on the Mount!

The Good Life: A series through the Sermon on the Mount Good news for the bankrupt Matthew 5:1-3 (ESV) 5h Century philosopher, Socrates: Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued. Declaration of