All I Really Need to Know...is in the Sermon on the Mount
1.  Values from another place – February 3, 2008  Dennis Mullen

         If you were to walk down the streets of Brooklyn, you might see some very conservative Jewish men walking along in dark clothing, old-fashioned hats, and long curls hanging down in front of their ears.  You cannot miss the fact that though they live in the same county we do, they are also citizens of a different culture...and if you followed them home, you would see the differences in what they eat, what and how they study, how they arrange their homes and schedule, etc. 

         In the part of Ohio where I was raised, it’s common to be driving along and come up on a slow-moving, horse-drawn, Amish buggy.  Inside, you’ll see a family dressed like people from the 1800s, and if you follow them home, you’ll see that this old-fashioned lifestyle is fairly consistently applied to everything - no indoor electricity or plumbing, though the more liberal ones may have a cell phone.  Though the Amish live in the same country as us, there is no doubt that they inhabit a different culture.

         Now:  Visit any evangelical church.  In the parking lot are the same types of cars you’d see at work or at the movies.  Inside you’ll meet people who are dressed like you’d see at any restaurant and if you listen to their conversations, you’ll probably hear the same topics you hear in the lunch room at school/work (hopefully the language is cleaner). 

         But these are superficial things.  The question a visitor might have is:  Are these people different?  Are they part of another culture, a different Kingdom?  Or are they just a copy of the world we al inhabit?  And how would you know?  What differences would you look for?

         In Matthew 5-7, Jesus gives an answer.  We call this passage The Sermon on the Mount, and in it Jesus comes pretty close to giving us a complete description of how we are to be different, which is why I call the series “All I Really Need to Know is in the Sermon on the Mount”.  It’s only a slight exaggeration, because almost any area of Christian ethics is covered pretty well here.

         And it’s radical stuff too.  John Stott says that the Sermon is Jesus’ best-known teaching, AND his least-obeyed.  Maybe you’ll agree as we go along, and hopefully we can begin to change that.

         In the Sermon, Jesus tells us that citizens of the Kingdom of God will live differently than citizens of the world.  The difference won’t be about external things.  We won’t wear a uniform or ride in buggies.  In many times and places, we will blend in, and you won’t notice us in a crowd.  But according to Jesus, the closer you look, the more you’ll see the difference in how we live.  You’ll see it, according to the Sermon, in our good deeds, in our handling of anger, in our faithfulness to marriage, in our conduct with regard to violence and revenge, in the way we handle money and the way we deal with the worries of this life, and in our refusal to lift up ourselves as judges. 

         In summary, it’s a Kingdom with citizens you won’t notice at first; and then you’ll realize by the quality of their lives that they are citizens of another Kingdom, people who live by values from another place.

         Now would be a good time for a moment of silent reflection...ARE we that kind of people?  And when people look at YOUR life, do they see another culture, or just a copy of the world all around them?

         Today as we jump in to the first 12 verses of the Sermon, we get to see as clear a statement of Kingdom values as there is in the NT.  In 8-9 short statements that we call Beatitudes or blessings, Jesus tells us who is really blessed, who really has it made.  And who DOES have it made?  In America, we would say:  The rich, the good-looking, people who do exciting work, those with rich relationships and especially those who have the freedom to retire early! 

         Jesus thinks differently.  Who are the blessed ones in his Kingdom?  Listen, and you’ll hear some values that don’t make much sense at all...unless Jesus really is Lord and his teachings really are true.

         5:1-12, possibly audio...

         1.  You have heard it said, “Blessed are the self-confident, those who believe in themselves and have faith in their own abilities, for theirs are the good schools, the good jobs, the good neighborhoods, the good friends, and the best lives”.  But Jesus says:

           MT 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit,
                   for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

         Poor in spirit...does that mean humble?  Sad?  Shy?  Maybe it is best understood by its opposite.  The church in Laodicea, Revelation 3.  This is he same church Jesus called “lukewarm”, and that he wanted to spit them out of his mouth.  Why?  Jesus told them:  17 You say, `I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

         Does that sound familiar?  Could those words be used to describe us?  Their sin in Laodicea was arrogance about how much they could do for God.    This is the kind of person who writes on their resume that their qualifications are so great that if someone doesn’t hire them, it just exposes the impoverished judgment of that company!  Have you ever known someone who figured if you didn’t jump to support all their ideas it showed your lack of perception? 

         Actually, church attracts people like these, and thank God that they come.  But once they get here - once WE get here - we eventually have to realize that we come to God with empty hands, with nothing to offer him, and actually, with quite a bit of junk to lay down before we can reach out to him. 

         We sometimes get carried away with all the great things we’re going to do for God.  But listen to his response to that kind of thinking...

ISA 66:1 This is what the LORD says:
  "Heaven is my throne,
    and the earth is my footstool.
  Where is the house you will build for me?
    Where will my resting place be?
  ISA 66:2 Has not my hand made all these things,
    and so they came into being?"
      declares the LORD.

  "This is the one I esteem:
    he who is humble and contrite in spirit,
    and trembles at my word.

         John Calvin:  “He only who is reduced to nothing in himself, and relies on the mercy of God, is poor in spirit.”  Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.   

         2.  You have heard it said, “I just want to be happy.  My main desire for my kids is for them to be happy!” or maybe even, “The God I believe in wouldn’t want me to be unhappy!”  But Jesus says:

         MT 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn,
                      for they will be comforted.

         That seems a little cold, don’t you think?  Isn’t it a bit like “Blessed are you when you get the flu, because you’re going to start feeling better soon!”  “Blessed are you when you have to go in for a root canal, because it’ll feel SO good when it stops!”  What does this mean?  Would you say this to a guy who just lost his wife?  “Wow, you are SOOOOO lucky, because once you get through this you’ll get to experience what it’s like to feel better each day!”

On one level, this is a simple promise…grief doesn’t get the last word, sickness and death do not win, Lazarus won’t spend eternity at the Rich Man’s gate, starving, dying of preventable disease.  The mother in Africa who watches her child starve will one day see a great reversal.  Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

         But there is more here than that.  In light of “blessed are the poor in spirit”, Jesus now says:  “Blessed are those who mourn their spiritual emptiness, who shed tears of repentance as finally they realize the true state of their heart.” 

         I wrote in the newsletter (and on my blog) this week about how I like listening to Joel Osteen.  People call him the smiling preacher, and he loves that.  He says he was born with a smile on his face.  I like Joel’s attitude toward life, and I also know that just as there is a place for “the smiling preacher”, there is a place for “the weeping prophet”, which is what they called Jeremiah.  In fact, the Scripture we studied this Wednesday night in GLOW is Ecclesiastes 3 which says that there is a time to weep and a time to laugh.

         When is the time to weep?  When you’re grieving of course.  When you have lost someone or something precious.  But note these examples...

         Paul:  PHP 3:18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

         David:   PS 119:136 Streams of tears flow from my eyes,
    for your law is not obeyed.

         Paul again, speaking to the Christians in Corinth:  1CO 5:1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father's wife. 2 And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?

         And Jesus...remember when Jesus wept?  Not at the tomb of Lazarus, but riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, with all the cheering taking place:  LK 19:41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it 42 and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes. 43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. 44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you."

         Are our eyes so dry and our minds so tuned in to The Happy Song that we don’t know how to weep that truth is rejected and people are living as enemies of God?

         And then, this outburst from Paul, after he traces the sinful state of his own heart:  RO 7:24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?

         But the beatitude says “Blessed are those you mourn.”  It isn’t a command to “Get busy mourning, wipe that smile off your face” but a blessing.  Only if you will allow yourself to own up to the full tragedy of your sin, can you know the joy of being forgiven, accepted just as you are.  Blessed are you who mourn.   You will be comforted. 

         3.  You have heard it said, “Blessed are the strong, the bold, those who know how to market themselves, because they will leave the rest of us behind.”  But Jesus says:

         MT 5:5 Blessed are the meek,
                      for they will inherit the earth.

         When Jesus said this to peasants and to other Israelites who could see, maybe even while he was talking, Roman soldiers wandering about, this was a little hard to believe.  “The meek will inherit..we’ll they’d better get busy, because they are falling way behind.”

         Now I don’t mean to say that meekness is weakness.  Some say meekness is “strength under control.”  It’s the lion that cares for a cub rather than kill it.  D. Martin Lloyd-Jones takes a different view – Meekness is a true view of oneself, expressing itself in attitude and conduct with respect to others.  If I own my poverty of spirit, then I can’t be arrogant with you.

         They don’t make movies about meekness.  There isn’t going to be a Rambo 6:  The Joy of Serving Others.  Meek people, the world says, get run over.  They don’t inherit anything.  But that is the temporary illusion.  Faith sees something else, and the Bible talks about it often:

 PS 37:1 Do not fret because of evil men
    or be envious of those who do wrong;
  PS 37:2 for like the grass they will soon wither,
    like green plants they will soon die away.
  PS 37:3 Trust in the LORD and do good;
    dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture….

PS 37:10 A little while, and the wicked will be no more;
    though you look for them, they will not be found.
  PS 37:11 But the meek will inherit the land
    and enjoy great peace.

         Scripture promises that although it seems to work to trample over people to get where you want to be, to do so puts you on the wrong side of God’s will, and there may be Hell to pay for it!  Now, if you look around and see how the world really works, you may come to doubt that.  It’s a Kingdom value, a value from another place, and you have to step out on faith to claim this one.  Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

         4.  You have heard it said:  “I want to taste each pleasure life offers.”  Jesus says:

         MT 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
                   for they will be filled.

         There are actually three types of righteousness in Scripture…legal righteousness - being right in God’s eyes - that’s the one which is granted at salvation.  You don’t need to hunger and thirst for God to love you more (he already loves you) nor to make him accept you.  That legal righteousness is available at the cross.  If you have accepted Christ, be secure in it!  Enjoy it!  Your slate is clean, your record is expunged.  No need to hunger to improve God’s love for me. 

         Then there is moral righteousness, or growth in character and holiness.  That’s one I want to hunger and thirst for more.  I don’t want to be content with a heart that approaches God so far, and no further.  I don’t want to continue to hold on to my private anger or lust or will to power and try to keep God out of these parts of me.  I want more and more of that moral righteousness so that on the outside and the inside, I’ll be more like Christ as he is revealed in Scripture.  Do you know why I want this?  Because Jesus says that I will be blessed.  How?  Blessed to be whole, authentic, real, not saddled with the burden of being a phony, not living with the tension of being a fake, which leads to depression, but rather being free of the impulses that get me in trouble or make me regret my actions later.  To increase my hunger for moral righteousness this year, I’m reading through the chronological Bible that John has been promoting, and I’m setting aside time and energy for prayer and for worship and other practices that put me in contact with God’s holiness.

         Unfortunately, that’s where we evangelical Christians often stop.  But there is another type of righteousness which, given the content of the rest of the Sermon, we have to deal with - social righteousness.  In the Lord’s Prayer (later in the Sermon) Jesus prays for social righteousness when he says, “May Your Kingdom come, may Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven...”  This is where we go out into our county and country and world and we notice that some people have the deck stacked against them in life so that they are trapped in poverty or in spiritual darkness, and they probably will not find a way out unless we help them get justice...unless their world changes so that God’s will is done around them as it is in heaven.  I want us to hunger and thirst more for social righteousness this year.  I want us to realize that our benevolent work, important as it is, is a ministry to people who have fallen off a cliff; and that we also need to do something about putting up a guardrail at the top of the cliff so that people quit falling off!  That is social righteousness.  May your will be done on earth...  When we vote this Tuesday, a candidate’s likelihood of increasing social righteousness (or lack thereof) ought to be at least as important to us as his/her moral righteousness in life.

         Younger evangelicals seem to get this better than my generation.  Rob Bell says that according to the Bible, it matters who you sleep with and it matters what you look at on the internet and it matters how much you drink - these are issues of moral righteousness - and he says that according to the Bible, it matters if poor people (including the working poor) can go to the doctor, and it matters if black people get passed over for jobs because of race and it matters if rich people get acquitted in court when they should be convicted, just because they have the money to work the system.  Moral righteousness matters.  Social righteousness matters.  Blessed are we when we hunger and thirst for both, for we will be filled.        

         I admire anyone with the guts to live so differently from mainstream society that you can’t help but notice them.  But the challenge Christ gives to us, the adventure he calls us to and empowers us for - is to create a new culture with values from another place - heaven.  It’s SO much more than having church, so much more than being good, so much more than camping out and waiting for heaven.  This is what we were MADE for - to usher in God’s Kingdom, to live such awesome lives with values from another place, that this world will begin to change and God’s will shall begin to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Morrison Hill Christian Church
P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E. Race St.
Kingston, TN  37763   (865) 376-5205