PERMISSION TO COME ABOARD; PERMISSION GRANTED MATTHEW 5:1-12 (PART I) Main idea WHEN JESUS SAID WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME; HE MEANT THAT WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME. I. INTRODUCTION (VS 1-2) The Sermon on the Mount is not another set of rules to legalistically follow. Rather the Sermon on the Mount is a description of the attitudes god requires of those who choose to enter His kingdom. A. THE AUDIENCE (1) B. THE PURPOSE (2) C. THE CONTEXT II. WHOSOEVER (VS 3-6) Marginalized people are invited to come into the kingdom of God and receive citizenship. A. BLESSED ARE (3-11) B. THE POOR (3) C. THE SUFFERING (4) D. THE DOWNTRODDEN (5) E. THE OUTSIDER (6) III. BLESSING ONLY IN CHRIST (7-12) Blessedness only comes from relationship with Jesus. A. WITHOUT CHRIST NOTHING IS BLESSED (7-9) B. NOTHING NOBLE IN PERSECUTION WITHOUT CHRIST (10-11) C. BLESSEDNESS COMES ONLY IN BEING IN RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS (12)
Permission to Come Aboard; Permission Granted Matthew 5:1-12 (Part I) 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 A man sat at a bar looking very sad. The bartender noticed the forlorn customer, so he asked the guy why he was so glum. The man explained that he was moving to Australia and his friends were throwing a big party. There ll be singing and dancing all through the night. They ve even arranged for a fireworks display, said the man. But why would that depress you? asked the confused bartender. Well, said the man, I wasn t invited. This morning, we are starting our study through the Sermon on the Mount. During this series, I would like us to keep in mind that Jesus didn t only come to die for our sins. He came to bring the final stage in God s destruction of evil and His final redemption of all of creation. Jesus brings the Kingdom of God to every person who wants to be part of God s plan of redemption. When Jesus took on human flesh and entered human history, the common religious thought of the day was that those who were rich, those who had high social standing, and those who held high religious positions were blessed by God. The poor, the sick, the down-and-out, and those who had no social standing could not be right with God. Jesus came to change all that. In his song based on Matthew 10:32, Arthur Pankratz wrote this wonderful chorus: Jesus said that whosoever will, whosoever will, whosoever will Jesus said that whosoever will, whosoever will may come. I'm so glad that He included me, He included me, He included me: I'm so glad that He included me when Jesus said that whosever will may come! I remember singing this song as a little boy and really understanding that Jesus was personally inviting me into a relationship with Him. That s the main idea of this morning s text. WHEN JESUS SAID WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME; HE MEANT THAT WHOSEVER WILL MAY COME. I am going to preach Matthew 5:1-12 from two different perspectives. This morning s perspective comes from Dallas Willard. He believes that these are not qualities to emulate; rather Jesus is offering Page 2
entrance to the Kingdom and a right relationship with God to those who were totally marginalized and locked out of participating in the religion of the day. I. INTRODUCTION (VS 1-2) Verses 1-2 give us an introduction to the Sermon on the Mount. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT IS NOT ANOTHER SET OF RULES TO LEGALISTICALLY FOLLOW. RATHER THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT IS A DESCRIPTION OF THE ATTITUDES GOD REQUIRES OF THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO ENTER HIS KINGDOM. Verse 1 describes the audience listening to Jesus words. Jesus saw the crowds following, so He led them to a flat place on the mountainside where they could all sit down and listen to His teaching. His disciples came and sat down in front of Jesus. In Matthew s Gospel, Jesus has just chosen Peter, Andrew, James, and John. After this sermon, He chooses Matthew and the rest of the Twelve. In Luke, the sermon comes right after Jesus names the Twelve. In any case, it seems as if all the Twelve heard the Sermon on the Mount. It seems as if Jesus is addressing the disciples; and the crowds are invited to listen in with the intent that they hear this invitation and understand it is open to them as well. This message would be both shocking and wonderful. They had never been treated with such dignity. This sermon is an invitation to you, to me, and to anyone who is willing to hear it, receive it, and respond to it. The purpose of the sermon is laid out in verse 2. It simply says that Jesus sat down and began to teach. Here is where we have to change our idea of what it means to teach and to learn. We have come to think of teachers pouring out facts into empty vessels. It s all about receiving facts, filing them away, and then being able to repeat these facts at the appropriate time. I have already told you the story of an ethics teacher who taught about the evils of some corporations that polluted the environment, mistreated their employees, and participated in several questionable business practices. During one of our get-togethers, I asked him how he made decisions on where to invest his money. He said he only taught ethics. He invested his money where he could make the most profit. Education is being able to learn facts and to be able to repeat them when called on. Jesus teachings are meant to change lives. Jesus teachings are an invitation to us to participate in His life. Jesus teachings are based on the assumption that what we learn is based on our relationship with Him. The Sermon on the Mount is not Jesus giving us another set of religious rules to follow. The Sermon on the Mount is an invitation to participate in the advancement of God s Kingdom. It s all about attitude. The religious context in which Jesus is preaching this Sermon is the Ten Commandments, the religious practices of the day, and common attitudes concerning the Jewish religion. During this sermon Jesus will address the Ten Commandments. He will address the extreme practices and laws the Pharisees invented to help them keep the Ten Commandments. And He will address common made up ideas of religion held by people. It seems as if the crowd and the context are not much different than the position we find ourselves in. THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT IS NOT ANOTHER SET OF RULES TO LEGALISTICALLY FOLLOW. RATHER THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT IS A DESCRIPTION OF THE ATTITUDES GOD REQUIRES OF THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO ENTER HIS KINGDOM. Page 3
II. WHOSOEVER (VS 3-6) Verses 3-6 focus on the Whosoever. MARGINALIZED PEOPLE ARE INVITED TO COME INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND RECEIVE CITIZENSHIP. Think about it like this. We don t think of prostitutes, exotic dancers, drug addicts, gang members, homeless, and others as likely candidates to become church people. However, these are exactly the type of people Jesus is talking to. In all of verses 3-11 we encounter the phrase, Blessed are. The word blessed in Greek is makarios. This word primarily means happy; but even more than happy; this happiness is not dependent on circumstances. One can experience this kind of happiness whether things are going well or going poorly. The word often refers to the happiness the gods enjoyed. We could say that this is blessed joy. It is a state of being emotionally well-off. This is a word that has all sorts of emotional punch. So when Jesus says, Blessed are, please hear the power of those words. He is saying something like, Well-off are you, blessed joy is yours, the experience of unrestrained happiness belongs to you, etc. And then He says this to people who would never expect to hear these words addressed to them. These blessed are phrases found in these verses are known as the Beatitudes. He gives this incredible blessing to the poor in verse 3. If you think about it, there is nothing good about being poor. The word used here for poor means absolute, abject, and total poverty. These people are destitute. They may eat some days, and they may not eat for days. They have no home. They have nothing. And yet Jesus says to them, Blessed are you who are poor, down and out, and totally destitute. Can you imagine hearing that? These kind of poor people were considered to be scum of the earth. Who would want to have anything to do with them? Jesus wants them. Jesus invites them to be part of His Kingdom. Keep this in mind as we go through the Beatitudes. Being poor, down and out, downtrodden, persecuted, marginalized, etc. doesn t gain you salvation just because you are in these states. Salvation comes only through faith in and having a relationship with Jesus. What Jesus is saying here is that no matter how they had been locked out of traditional religious experiences, Jesus was throwing wide open the door to them. It would still be up to them to respond in faith by taking Jesus up on His offer to follow Him. To the poor Jesus is saying, Don t let the opinion others have of you or even the opinion you have of yourself keep you from being in a relationship with me. Today you are blessed because I am inviting you into a relationship with God. You will be blessed if you receive Me as your Lord and Savior. It doesn t matter to God if you are rich or poor. The Kingdom is open to both rich and poor. There is no advantage the rich or the educated have. If you want to be in a relationship with God, the door is open. Next, Jesus approaches those who are suffering in verse 4. We talked about the vulnerable status of women in Jesus day when we studied through the Pastoral Epistles. If a woman s husband died or if she was divorced, she didn t have many good options. Oftentimes these women ended up becoming prostitutes; not because of their own choice but rather because that was their only option to feed themselves and their children. Widows and orphans found themselves marginalized. Lepers were forced to live outside of society. Physically handicapped people were forbidden from entering the temple area. Only men could enter the inner court and only the High priest was allowed into the Holy of Holies. There were plenty of opportunities for people to fall on hard times and they would certainly mourn. These situations would almost put them in a Page 4
permanent state of mourning. Jesus tells them that the comfort of God is available to even them. God wanted to throw His arms around them and gather those who suffered under His mighty wings like a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings. The word for comfort is the same root word used to describe the Holy Spirit. Just knowing that God loved them would ease the suffering. We have all been in situations during our lives where we were suffering and felt all alone. We can hear God say to us that even in these states we can receive the blessed joy of God. Again, people are not going to be blessed since they are suffering. The point is that even though we find ourselves in these states; God invites us to invite Him into our lives. In verse 5 Jesus invites the downtrodden into a personal relationship with Him. There were people that were so beaten down by society; they could never imagine being accepted into the family of God. There were slaves, Gentiles, and Gentile slaves. Shepherds were almost always ceremonially unclean and forbidden from entering formal worship. Think of all the downtrodden people hearing Jesus tell them they were now being given an invitation to inherit the earth. Jesus is saying they are blessed because He is inviting them to be in a right relationship with God if they choose. And in verse 6, Jesus invites outsiders into a relationship. There are always people who feel that they could never feel at home in church. I think of people who were born into families where their parents were drug addicts. They themselves then found themselves at odds with the law from a very young age. These kids are sent to juvenile detention and then end up in jail. It seems as if they never had a chance. They would love to know that God loves them but they feel as if they are not worthy to be in a relationship with God. Jesus tells them that if they receive Him, He will save them. Think of people in jail who need to hear Jesus offer of a right relationship with God and salvation. Again, I need to remind us that just being poor, suffering, being downtrodden, or an outsider does not mean that God will bless you for simply being in these states. Some religious denominations that are simply focused on social justice miss this point. If they are right, then all we have to do is waste our money, participate in harmful behavior, and make ourselves destitute and we will be blessed by God. That is to miss the point of these beatitudes. The point Jesus is making is that even though we may be in these situations, He is still offering us a place in the Kingdom. However, just like anyone else these people too must confess their sins, repent of their sins, and submit their lives to Jesus as Lord and Savior. It is our relationship with Jesus that saves us and our rejecting relationship with Jesus that condemns us. This applies to the advantaged and disadvantaged the same. Rich and poor, educated and uneducated, powerful or weak, high on the social ladder or down in the gutter; we all come to salvation in the same way; confessing Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Everyone is saved by grace through faith. MARGINALIZED PEOPLE ARE INVITED TO COME INTO THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND RECEIVE CITIZENSHIP. III. BLESSING ONLY IN CHRIST (7-12) And that brings us to His second point; this type of blessing is only found in Christ as laid out in verses 7-12. BLESSEDNESS ONLY COMES FROM RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS. Verses 7-9 hammer home an important point; without Christ nothing is blessed. We have to remember not to take this out of context. There are plenty of do-gooders in this world who show mercy to less fortunate people. There are plenty of philanthropists who donate money to good causes. There Page 5
are people who work in organizations who try to bring peace to troubled areas and relationships. Marriage therapists try to bring peace to troubled marriages. There are people who seem to be genuinely honest and above board. Again, without Jesus; these people may receive accolades from society; but it does nothing for their relationship with God. Oftentimes these people are proud and it is enough that they get recognition from society. However, Jesus is teaching that everything that flows from us needs to come from being in relationship with Him. The mercy we show must come from the personal understanding that we extend mercy because God has extended us mercy. Seeing God comes from being single-minded about seeking and serving God. The only true peace comes from being in a right relationship with God. We may not often get human praise for these things but we should not look for human praise. We are to do these things only out of gratitude for what God has already done for us. In verses 10-11 we are reminded that there is nothing noble in persecution without Christ. There are plenty of times my friends and I were persecuted; not because we were godly rather because we were stupid and obnoxious. I have seen too many Christians claim to be suffering for Christ when in reality they were suffering because they were proud, arrogant, obnoxious, stupid, or all of the above. I need to always check my heart when I find myself suffering. I would like to think I am suffering because of my faith in Christ but I have found that too many times I am the cause of my own suffering. Again, people are not blessed because they are persecuted, suffering, or oppressed. Without Jesus, people who are oppressed, persecuted, and suffering, are helpless and hopeless. It is only when we suffer for the cause of Christ that we can find this blessed joy. Verse 12 reinforces this point that blessedness comes only in being in relationship with Jesus. Too many people in our society think they are good and righteous. When they suffer or are criticized they elevate themselves to the status of the great reformers in human history. People identify themselves with Martin Luther King Jr., with Gandhi, with great revolutionaries. In fact some people today want to put themselves in line with Jesus in working for social justice and things like this. But the point Jesus makes in this sermon is that nothing is blessed unless it flows out of being in relationship with Him. The point is this. BLESSEDNESS ONLY COMES FROM RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS. There is nowhere else to find this blessed joy Jesus talks about in these verses. However, if we take time to think about how these people who had been locked out of formal religion heard this incredible invitation; we have to say they would have been overcome with emotion. People would be weeping with joy. They would want to come and touch Jesus. For the first time in their lives they felt hope for the future because their future was speaking to them. They were encountering God in the flesh, He was telling them that He loved them, and that He wanted to be in a personal, passionate, and intimate love relationship with them. How many people in our world need to hear that message? People are filled with anger, with lust, with depression, and are chasing after things that will only leave them worse off. We have incredible message from God for this lost and hurting world. The Kingdom of God is on the move and has a standing invitation to anyone who wants to enter. If we surrender our lives in faith to God; we enter the Kingdom and receive citizenship in this Kingdom. This offer is open to you, to me, and to anyone we encounter in life. We have been given authority to offer citizenship in God s Kingdom to everyone we meet. Who do you know who needs to hear this incredible offer of Page 6
blessed joy and unending happiness no matter what we face in life? WHEN JESUS SAID WHOSOEVER WILL MAY COME; HE MEANT THAT WHOSEVER WILL MAY COME. As we study through this Sermon on the Mount, I am going to suggest a spiritual discipline that we can practice during the week to help reinforce the concept Jesus is teaching. This week, let s practice the spiritual gift of meditation. I want to make this simple. We don t want to confuse this with any of the practices of eastern mystical religions or anything like that. Write down Ephesians 2:8-10 on a note card. 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Page 7 Ephesians 2:8-10 / New Living Translation Carry this card around with you. Pull it out when you have time. Read it and think about it. You can do this while riding on the bus or the train. Instead of pulling your phone out and texting, pull out the card and meditate on it. At least two times during the week, set aside 20 minutes. Go to a quiet, comfortable place, and spend time reading, thinking about, and praying according to this verse. Listen for God speaking to you. Listen especially for Him to say, Blessed are you. Examine your life and identify areas in which you need to experience God s, Blessed are you. Invite Him into that part of your life. At the end of the week, take some time to write down how God is changing and forming you. We will close each service during our study through the Sermon on the Mount with doing Lectio Divina with Colossians 3:1-17. This week, let s practice the spiritual gift of meditation. I want to make this simple. We don t want to confuse this with any of the practices of eastern mystical religions or anything like that. Write down Ephesians 2:8-10 on a note card. 8 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. 9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Ephesians 2:8-10 / New Living Translation Carry this card around with you. Pull it out when you have time. Read it and think about it. You can do this while riding on the bus or the train. Instead of pulling your phone out and texting, pull out the card and meditate on it.
At least two times during the week, set aside 20 minutes. Go to a quiet, comfortable place, and spend time reading, thinking about, and praying according to this verse. Listen for God speaking to you. Listen especially for Him to say, Blessed are you. Examine your life and identify areas in which you need to experience God s, Blessed are you. Invite Him into that part of your life. At the end of the week, take some time to write down how God is changing and forming you. Page 8