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Values from another
place, pt. 2 – February 10, 2008
Matthew 5:1-12 - Dennis Mullen
Values I learned growing up on a farm:
Values I picked up at school:
Values I learned growing up in church:
Values I inherited as a citizen of America and the world:
Last week we began to talk about a very different set of values, the ones that determine behavior in that foreign land called the Kingdom of God (“foreign” to this world, not to us). We’re in a series of indeterminate length (even though I still have “four weeks on the bulletin”) called All I Really Need to Know…is in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ sermon in Matthew 5-7 is a radical manifesto of Christian behavior. John Stott calls it his best-know and least-obeyed teaching, and it’s too bad if we lack the faith to obey because Jesus tells us at the beginning and the end of the sermon that we will be blessed if we DO put his words into practice.
Last week we started at the beginning of Matthew 5 and went through the first four Kingdom Values:
MT 5:3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit…that is, blessed are those that KNOW that in their own character, they have nothing to offer God, those who come to him broken and repentant for their sins…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It’s an odd thing, a hard thing to come to the place where you say that you have nothing with which to impress God; that even your gifts are stained with sin; many church-goers never get there, and if non-Christians laugh at this notion, it shows that they have understood it, better than we do perhaps.
MT 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, especially those who learn what it is to grieve over their own sin; blessed are those who come to understand the damage their selfishness has done to others and how much they themselves have missed out on because of it…for they will be comforted. These first two values say that it’s a blessed thing to see the ugliness in yourself as it really is. The next value speaks about the result…
MT 5:5 Blessed are the meek, blessed are those who treat others with the gentleness of humility, blessed are those who realize they have no basis for being arrogant in how they treat others…for they will inherit the earth. Everything around us screams that you get your share of the earth and its goods by being confident and forceful, by raising a lot of money and getting your personal brand out there. This value about meekness has to be claimed in faith in the One who said it. It really is a value from another place.
MT 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, those who long to see God’s will be done on earth and in their own hearts as it is in heaven…for they will be filled.
MT 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
A few weeks ago, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments about capital punishment…not whether we should have it or not, but whether the three-drug cocktail used in lethal injection is in fact a humane way to end someone’s life. I can picture someone from another country laughing at us and saying: “Who cares about HOW you kill a murderer? They have taken a human life, after all. You could torture them, and they would deserve it.” Maybe so. But “blessed are the merciful…”
The best-known words on mercy (after these from Jesus) come from Shakespeare. In The Merchant of Venice, one person says:
The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
That’s true. Everybody needs to receive a little mercy from time to time, and what a blessing it is when we receive it, when someone decides not to treat us as our sins deserve. But when you GIVE mercy, it can be a great blessing too…you let yourself off from having to be angry about something, or having to enforce consequences against someone. What a relief if I can let some jerk at the store go on his way without having to tell him off.
Shakespeare’s character goes on to say:
…in the course of justice, none of us
Should see salvation: we do pray for mercy;
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy.
Anyone here want what’s coming to them? Did you come to church today just to get your fair share of what you deserve? The Bible says that “the wages of sin is death” and that no one can stand righteous before God.
But thank God, our Father in Heaven has always been about mercy:
From Psalm 103
8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious,
slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse,
nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
That is God’s gift to us. But it is also his EXAMPLE to us. Jesus told a story in Matthew 18 about a servant who owed someone millions of dollars and who deserved to go to prison, but the lender was moved with compassion and said, “Ah, forget it.” So the servant went out and immediately found someone who owed him a few hundred bucks, and had him thrown in jail. That would never happen, would it? Jesus said it happens whenever we fail to show mercy to anyone else…because we have received so much of it from God.
Mercy is compassion for those in need. It extends relief, helps, heals, cures, gives. It refuses revenge and doesn’t always insist on punishing those around it for their sins, and even when it is necessary, mercy cares HOW the guilty are punished. At times, Christians have been known for everything but mercy. We’ve been arrogant, judgmental, eager to call down fire from heaven on our enemies, political and otherwise. But Jesus says “blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.
MT 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Purity of heart implies two things…one, that your heart is clean, unstained by sin and by the junk of the world; and two, that you’re authentic, real, the same person inside as out. You are consistent in who you are and who you appear to be, AND (very importantly!) that person is a godly person. That’s a pure heart and Jesus says that you are blessed if you have it, for you will see God.
I think that most people take him to mean that they’ll see God when they die, that a pure heart indicates they have a saving and growing relationship with Him so that in the next life, they have confidence in where they’ll be. True, but there is more. I heard Joel Osteen this week talk about expecting the best and not the worst in life, and he said that people ask him what best explains his success. His ability to expect the best was #2. The #1 thing, he said, was that to the best of his ability he has always tried to maintain a pure heart toward God. I take that to mean that he doesn’t fill his mind and emotions with entertainment that glorifies what is contrary to God’s will; that he doesn’t harbor anger or bitterness; that he doesn’t try to live with a foot in two competing Kingdoms. And in saying that, he’s getting at the second meaning…the pure in heart will see God at work NOW in their lives today. When we harbor sin, we throw up a wall between us and God and it shouldn’t surprise us if God doesn’t work much in that situation – we haven’t given him room to work. But a pure heart is an invitation for God to work in us and around us…so blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Listen to this description of the Pharisees that Jesus uses to show the impurity of their hearts. Matthew 23:25-28 - "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Now let me give you a word of encouragement about purity of heart. No matter how dark your inner world, no matter how inconsistent it is with your faith, you can begin right away to pursue purity of heart. When we say that the pure in heart will see God, we’re not talking about moral perfection. Every Christian is on a journey toward a pure heart, and no one gets all the way to the destination in this life. Now if you take that as an excuse and say: “Well it doesn’t matter how I live…” then you won’t see much of God working in that mess. But if you invite him in by deciding today to pursue him with a single mind and a pure heart, then you’ll see that blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
MT 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Peacemakers. Is that who we are? Churches are often known as places of argument, conflict, where people choose sides and do not know how to practice healthy conflict skills. And Christians these days are often thought of as warlike. People in conservative churches like ours are more likely to support the war in Iraq than is the general public. All I’m saying then is: “How are we peacemakers?” Christianity is the largest religion on the planet but the planet is hardly more peaceful now than at other times. How are we peacemakers?
I want you to see that this isn’t just some isolated idea that only Jesus mentioned.
David: PS 37:37 Consider the blameless, observe the upright; there is a future for the man of peace.
Peter: 1 Peter 3:8 Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. 9 Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. 10 For,
(and here he quotes David in Psalm 34:12-16)
"Whoever would love life
and see good days
must keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from deceitful speech.
11 He must turn from evil and do good;
he must seek peace and pursue it.
12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous
and his ears are attentive to their prayer,
but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil."
Paul: Romans 12:17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay, "says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." 21 Do not be
overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
And do you understand that peacemaking is the heart of what Jesus Christ did on the cross? Colossians - 1:19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
It’s no wonder that peacemakers will be called the sons of God, for making peace, reconciling all to himself, is God’s work, even his nature.
Do you know what I wish for? (and it may be up to the younger generations to really make it happen). I want to hear Christians, when they talk about the sanctity of life, include war in the discussion, and when they tell me how pro-life their preferred candidates are, that they bring Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount and “blessed are the peacemakers” into the discussion. I want churches to be known as houses of reconciliation where we live on grace and peace and help bring healing to marriages and families and fighting business partners and even Democrats and Republicans (and Ron Paul supporters, whoever they are!) Why is this so important? Because “blessed are the peacemakers…they’ll be called sons of God.”
MT 5:10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. I’m counting this as the eighth blessing, and the paragraph that comes after it as an expansion on it: MT 5:11 "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
And in Luke 6:26 he added this corollary: Woe to you when all men speak well of you,
for that is how their fathers treated the false prophets. If ever there was a value from another place, this is it! I mean, with some of these blessings, there is a certain obvious logic. We may not BE peacemakers, but people almost always admire them. We may not have hearts that are very pure, but most people, secular or Christian, know that they should be authentic. But the persecuted? If you know ANYTHING about persecution, you have to ask HOW are these people blessed?
I have told you about I Sold my Soul on eBay, the atheist-goes-to-church book. Here’s a guy looking for a reasonable faith, a faith that makes sense. I like that. But at the same time, I read a book that Joanie McKinney gave me called Back to Jerusalem about some Chinese Christians and their plan to take Christianity west from China, evangelize the Middle East and end up back in Jerusalem where the Gospel started. These Chinese Christians are willing to pay with their freedom and their lives to see this happen, and many of them have paid such prices. Out of many wrenching stories in the book, one of the most intense is about a woman, a young mother, who was jailed for several years for being a Christian. Then her captors told her that it was time to go, that she would be released, and they dressed her up in her street clothes and gave her her belongings, and ushered her to a place where she could see her children and her children could see her, and then they said: “Oh, all you have to do to be free is to deny Jesus Christ.”
She couldn’t do it. She went back and spent another 20 years in prison, and lost the chance to raise her own children.
That makes absolutely no sense unless Jesus is really Lord and he really does reward in eternity those who lay down their lives for him on earth. It’s a Kingdom value and it is in direct conflict with the values of this present age, not to mention common sense.
The reason to rejoice that Jesus gives is “great is your reward in heaven”. It’s no wonder if non-Christians don’t get it, don’t support our values. Indeed, they don’t make much sense. In fact, what Jesus calls us to is a life that makes no sense apart from him.
I once read about a Christian missionary who was buried in a small cemetery in a far away land. The epitaph on his headstone simply said: “Apart from Christ, there is no explanation for such a life”.
The same will be said for anyone who truly lives these values from another place, these Kingdom values in the Sermon on the Mount. That’s why I now put a question mark on the screen. The question isn’t “Will it be worth it?” because Jesus already promised that it would. The question is: Will you believe it…enough to live it? Will I pursue a pure heart? Will I accept that the humility of meekness is the stronger position rather than the boldness of self-promotion? Will you hunger and thirst after righteousness enough to put away other things that pull you down? Will we trust in mercy rather than revenge? Will we make peace? And will we accept persecution if we must for the sake of being faithful to Christ?
These are values that don’t make sense to the world. They come from another place. Only by God’s power through his Spirit within us will we see them come to pass in us. Let’s pray that he will do just that.
Morrison
Hill Christian Church
P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E.
Race St.
Kingston, TN 37763 (865) 376-5205
