St Theodore's Sermon

	St Theodore's Wattle Park

Sermon of the Week

31/1/99

The Blessings of the Kingdom Matthew 5:1-12

   You may have noticed all the hype this week over the 50th anniversary of Australian Citizenship. On Tuesday there were articles in The Age on what it means to be Australian. In Epicure, the food section there were countless articles on what constitutes an Australian cuisine. On the news that night we saw people going through the citizenship ceremony, reflecting on their new identity as Australians, waving Australian flags. It's good on Australia Day to think about what makes Australians different from Americans or the English or Indonesians or Japanese, isn't it? It's important to understand our national characteristics, some of which we can be proud of, others we might want to change.

   Well, today I want us to think not so much about the characteristics of Australians, but, rather, about the characteristics of those who are members of the Kingdom of Heaven. Here in Matthew 5 Jesus outlines the sorts of characteristics that are to be found among those who are members of God's Kingdom.

   But first notice who Jesus is addressing. At the end of ch 4 we have this picture of large crowds coming out to hear Jesus and to be healed by him. He's surrounded by these people. Ministry opportunities everywhere. But then in ch 5, Matthew tells us that when he saw the large crowds he withdrew to the top of a mountain and his disciples came to him. That begs the question, doesn't it, why does Jesus leave a successful healing ministry to begin to teach his disciples? In modern parlance, why exchange action for mere talk? Well, the answer is that this isn't just talk. What he wants to do is to practise preventive medicine, not just curative. He understands that in God's economy, following God's word and obtaining good health and long life have always been associated. So teaching the disciples how to live as subjects of the King is far more valuable than healing their hurts. So Jesus withdraws, just far enough away that only those who really want to hear what he has to say will follow. But of course in Matthew's scheme of things, we're also to understand that Jesus goes up the mountain to give them the law. This is Jesus reinterpreting Moses. Remember that the mountain was the place where the law was first given, and now Jesus returns to a mountain top to renew their understanding of God's law.

   So Jesus begins to teach them: not just how to live, but the sorts of lives that belong in the kingdom of heaven; in fact the sorts of lives that become possible as the kingdom of heaven breaks in.

   But the passage we're looking at today doesn't in fact give us any of this new law. Rather it sets the ground work. It tells us the sorts of people who fit in the kingdom. To help you think about these blessing statements, I've divided them into 2 sections: "The Benefits of the Kingdom" and "The Behaviour of the Kingdom."

   1 The Benefits of the Kingdom

   Vs 3-6 outline for us the benefits of being in the kingdom. Here we find the kinds of people that the Kingdom of heaven is for.

   First of all there are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. So who are the poor in spirit? According to Luke's version they're simply the poor, that is, the materially poor. But Matthew adds "in spirit." So we might conclude that they're those first of all who are poor and are weighed down by it. Notice he isn't saying there's something intrinsically good about being poor. He isn't talking about those who choose a simple lifestyle because they think it brings them closer to God. These are they who are brought low by their circumstances. Those who suffer from depression, those who feel like failures, those who don't have the spirit to do the sorts of things that the rest of the sermon on the mount calls for. And what does he say about such people? Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven! Isn't it interesting that Jesus begins this list of blessings with this ultimate statement of the grace of the gospel. Those who are failures, who are weighed down by their circumstances, who are powerless to help themselves, are the very people who belong in the Kingdom of heaven. I was talking to someone just this week about dying and what they'd say to God when they get to heaven, and they said "Well, I'll say I've been a good person. I've done the right things. I've always tried to please him." (I wonder if that's the answer you'd give to that question.) Well you know, those aren't the sort of people that the Kingdom of Heaven is for. The Kingdom of Heaven is for the poor in spirit: those who are failures, those who can do nothing else but cry to God for mercy.

   You see, this sermon on the mount isn't for those who are enjoying mountain top experiences. Rather it's for those who are in the depths, in the valley, who need Christ to lift them up.

   And it's also for those who mourn. Why? Because they will be comforted. Just as the poor in spirit are welcomed into God's kingdom, those who mourn can expect God's comfort.

   Well, who are those who mourn? You know people mourn for many different reasons. We mourn the loss of loved ones. That's obvious. But we mourn other things as well. There are probably some here who are mourning the loss of youth. I played squash with my son the other day and one thing was clear: I'm a lot older than I used to be. And the sad thing is I'll never get that youthful flexibility and speed back. Others mourn the state of the world: with good cause. Some mourn the state of the human heart, others the state of their own heart. In Jesus' day the Jews mourned the state of their nation, their subjection to Rome. In some parts of the world today Christians mourn for the suffering caused by persecution. But what do you do when you're mourning something? Who or what do you turn to? Jesus is saying here, turn to God. Look around at his kingdom, because that's where you'll find true comfort. Comfort because you know that Christ has overcome death. Comfort because you know that God has promised you a new body that will never wear out, a new heaven and a new earth, where Christ will reign in peace and justice. Comfort because even though your heart may be tainted by sin, Christ has removed that taint through his death on the cross. Comfort because you know that even if you're suffering here on Christ's behalf, he has a great reward stored up for you in the Father's presence for all eternity.

   Next he says "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." The meek are those who refuse to put themselves forward, who make no claims for themselves. They may be related to the poor, in that they're unable to stand up for themselves, but in the Greek, the word didn't necessarily imply weakness. Rather it implied a voluntary submission to someone else's authority. It was used for instance of a well trained war-horse, strong, yet completely under the control of its rider.

   This is the opposite of what we think makes for success isn't it? These days we teach kids to be assertive. We teach them how to write a CV that presents themselves in the best possible light. These days if you want to get on you have to put yourself forward, because no-one else will. But that's not how God's kingdom operates. In the Kingdom of Heaven, God looks at our hearts. He values humility and meekness above assertiveness. He wants people who are like Jesus Christ who humbled himself on our behalf. And he promises that those who have a meek heart will be given the earth. That is we'll rule the earth alongside Jesus himself.

   Finally in this section, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. This is similar to those who mourn. There may be several reasons why you'd hunger and thirst for righteousness. It certainly isn't hard to develop such a hunger when you look around at the world today. Even in an organisation with such high ideals as the Olympic movement we see graft and corruption. We long to see injustice wiped out, the guilty brought to account. What about in our own lives? Do you hunger to do what's right, yet find yourself struggling to do so. Well, in God's Kingdom we'll find both those hungers satisfied. We'll find the guilty brought to account in the end, and in the meantime we'll be given plenty of opportunity to do what's right.

   But at the same time, this is also a word of grace. The real righteousness that the Kingdom will give us is a righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ, a righteousness based solely on what he's done. The righteous acts we'll do, the righteous living we seek to have, will come about because God enables it, because his Spirit empowers us in our daily living. The sort of behaviour we're about to look at, and the sort of behaviour that the rest of the Sermon on the Mount directs us to is only possible because God's Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us and changes us from the inside out.

   2 The Behaviour of the Kingdom

   Well, if those are the benefits of the Kingdom, what is the sort of conduct that fits in the kingdom, that is, what is the Behaviour of the Kingdom?

   V7: Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. The first four blessings have spoken of God's mercy for the helpless, but now the shoe's on the other foot, or to fit in better with this time of year the ball is in our court. How are we to respond to the demands of the Kingdom? There are 2 ways that you could respond. Some people respond by a rigid demand for righteousness. They say, look at how Jesus told you to live. You'd better keep up to that standard or you're in big trouble. On the other hand, the word of the gospel is a word of mercy. Jesus teaches this over and over again: in 7:1,2 where he tells us not to judge; in his teaching on the Lord's prayer (7:12,14-15) where he tells us we have to forgive if we're to ask for God's forgiveness, in his parable of the unforgiving servant in 18:21-35; and in Luke 7:36 where the woman comes to anoint him with oil as a response to the forgiveness she's received. What he's teaching us is that if we want to receive mercy the onus is on us to show the same mercy to others.

   V8: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. We know, don't we that it's only the pure in heart who can come into God's presence and live. So how do we become pure of heart? Well, again, by the purifying work of the Holy Spirit. Yet at the same time there's an implication here of a responsibility on our part to purify our lives. To allow the Spirit to work, if you like. That is, this is both a gift and a struggle. We're called to be pure and at the same time are enabled to be pure.

   And the wonderful thing is that as we allow this to happen we actually experience God's presence with us. In that sense we see God at work within us. And as we live among others of the Kingdom we see God at work in them. If our hearts are pure then what we see in them is the pure bits, not the tainted bits. So the promise that we'll see God isn't just tied up with a future experience of heaven, there's a present component to it as well.

   V9: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. The peacemakers in Scripture are those who make something whole, who bring about a balance of relationships, where all parts hold together n harmony. You might picture it as someone who stands at the hub of a circle with the community on the perimeter, holding all the relationships together. So the peacemaker, first and foremost is a reconciler. You may know someone like that. Someone who is able to break down conflict and bring people together. This is something we should all be aiming for as God's people. Why? Because such people can be described as children of God. You see, first and foremost, God is a peacemaker. The reason he sent Jesus was to bring peace, reconciliation between himself and us.

   Now that doesn't mean we should be weak in our approach to injustice and wrongdoing. We're not called to make peace with evil. We're not called to compromise the word of God in order to bring a superficial peace between people, as some of a more liberal persuasion might argue. Jesus didn't compromise the word of God in his dealing with the Pharisees for example. Nor did he ignore them. What he did was argue with them. But in the end he submitted himself. In the end he gave up his life in order to bring us peace with God. So too, we're called to be peacemakers, sometimes by arguing against evil, but sometimes by following Jesus example of submission and meekness.

   V10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This final blessing is something of a summing up of the previous 7. It has elements of both benefit and behaviour. Those who do the right thing won't always be rewarded by this world, particularly if what they're doing has to do with the righteousness of the gospel. As Jesus told his disciples sometime later, the servant in no better than the master. If they hated Jesus, they'll also hate us. It doesn't matter that the sort of behaviour taught here and in the rest of the Sermon on the mount should be well received by people. The fact is that it won't be, simply because of the name in which it's done. But we mustn't be downhearted if we find our attempts at righteous living are looked down on or despised, if we encounter opposition and even persecution. In fact if we know our scriptures, that's exactly what we should expect. It's always been like that. People have always persecuted those who spoke on God's behalf to a sinful nation (v12: "in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.") But even as we're experiencing this opposition we can rejoice because there is a reward stored up for us in the Kingdom of Heaven.

   So can you see how these blessings have gone full circle, from the grace of God seen in the blessing on those who are powerless, weighed down, sorrowing, hungry for justice, to the expectations of kingdom living in the blessings on those who live righteous lives, lives of mercy and purity and peacemaking, now back to God's gracious promise of vindication for those whose lives of righteousness receive the unjust reward in this life of opposition and persecution.

   Can you also see that the blessings Jesus pronounces have a universal application. Everyone in this room, everyone in the world, I guess, can relate in one way or another to the experiences outlined in the first 4 blessings. Anyone can come to Jesus and be enabled to live the sorts of lives expressed in the next 3 blessings. All can expect to meet opposition if they faithfully follow Jesus, but equally all can look forward to the reward he promises of eternal life with the Father in heaven if their faith is in Jesus Christ.

   Are you a disciple of Jesus? Are you a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven, a subject of God the King? Are these your experiences? If so ask God to comfort and strengthen you. Is this your way of life? If not ask God to help you live this way. Let's pray that each one of us would experience these blessings of the Kingdom in our lives each and every day.


	Contact us	Preaching Program	Home		Last Week's Sermon

	You may have noticed all the hype this week over the 50th anniversary of Australian Citizenship. On Tuesday there were articles in The Age on what it means to be Australian. In Epicure, the food section there were countless articles on what constitutes an Australian cuisine. On the news that night we saw people going through the citizenship ceremony, reflecting on their new identity as Australians, waving Australian flags. It's good on Australia Day to think about what makes Australians different from Americans or the English or Indonesians or Japanese, isn't it? It's important to understand our national characteristics, some of which we can be proud of, others we might want to change.
	Well, today I want us to think not so much about the characteristics of Australians, but, rather, about the characteristics of those who are members of the Kingdom of Heaven. Here in Matthew 5 Jesus outlines the sorts of characteristics that are to be found among those who are members of God's Kingdom.
	But first notice who Jesus is addressing. At the end of ch 4 we have this picture of large crowds coming out to hear Jesus and to be healed by him. He's surrounded by these people. Ministry opportunities everywhere. But then in ch 5, Matthew tells us that when he saw the large crowds he withdrew to the top of a mountain and his disciples came to him. That begs the question, doesn't it, why does Jesus leave a successful healing ministry to begin to teach his disciples? In modern parlance, why exchange action for mere talk? Well, the answer is that this isn't just talk. What he wants to do is to practise preventive medicine, not just curative. He understands that in God's economy, following God's word and obtaining good health and long life have always been associated. So teaching the disciples how to live as subjects of the King is far more valuable than healing their hurts. So Jesus withdraws, just far enough away that only those who really want to hear what he has to say will follow. But of course in Matthew's scheme of things, we're also to understand that Jesus goes up the mountain to give them the law. This is Jesus reinterpreting Moses. Remember that the mountain was the place where the law was first given, and now Jesus returns to a mountain top to renew their understanding of God's law.
	So Jesus begins to teach them: not just how to live, but the sorts of lives that belong in the kingdom of heaven; in fact the sorts of lives that become possible as the kingdom of heaven breaks in.
	But the passage we're looking at today doesn't in fact give us any of this new law. Rather it sets the ground work. It tells us the sorts of people who fit in the kingdom. To help you think about these blessing statements, I've divided them into 2 sections: "The Benefits of the Kingdom" and "The Behaviour of the Kingdom."
	1 The Benefits of the Kingdom
	Vs 3-6 outline for us the benefits of being in the kingdom. Here we find the kinds of people that the Kingdom of heaven is for.
	First of all there are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. So who are the poor in spirit? According to Luke's version they're simply the poor, that is, the materially poor. But Matthew adds "in spirit." So we might conclude that they're those first of all who are poor and are weighed down by it. Notice he isn't saying there's something intrinsically good about being poor. He isn't talking about those who choose a simple lifestyle because they think it brings them closer to God. These are they who are brought low by their circumstances. Those who suffer from depression, those who feel like failures, those who don't have the spirit to do the sorts of things that the rest of the sermon on the mount calls for. And what does he say about such people? Theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven! Isn't it interesting that Jesus begins this list of blessings with this ultimate statement of the grace of the gospel. Those who are failures, who are weighed down by their circumstances, who are powerless to help themselves, are the very people who belong in the Kingdom of heaven. I was talking to someone just this week about dying and what they'd say to God when they get to heaven, and they said "Well, I'll say I've been a good person. I've done the right things. I've always tried to please him." (I wonder if that's the answer you'd give to that question.) Well you know, those aren't the sort of people that the Kingdom of Heaven is for. The Kingdom of Heaven is for the poor in spirit: those who are failures, those who can do nothing else but cry to God for mercy.
	You see, this sermon on the mount isn't for those who are enjoying mountain top experiences. Rather it's for those who are in the depths, in the valley, who need Christ to lift them up.
	And it's also for those who mourn. Why? Because they will be comforted. Just as the poor in spirit are welcomed into God's kingdom, those who mourn can expect God's comfort.
	Well, who are those who mourn? You know people mourn for many different reasons. We mourn the loss of loved ones. That's obvious. But we mourn other things as well. There are probably some here who are mourning the loss of youth. I played squash with my son the other day and one thing was clear: I'm a lot older than I used to be. And the sad thing is I'll never get that youthful flexibility and speed back. Others mourn the state of the world: with good cause. Some mourn the state of the human heart, others the state of their own heart. In Jesus' day the Jews mourned the state of their nation, their subjection to Rome. In some parts of the world today Christians mourn for the suffering caused by persecution. But what do you do when you're mourning something? Who or what do you turn to? Jesus is saying here, turn to God. Look around at his kingdom, because that's where you'll find true comfort. Comfort because you know that Christ has overcome death. Comfort because you know that God has promised you a new body that will never wear out, a new heaven and a new earth, where Christ will reign in peace and justice. Comfort because even though your heart may be tainted by sin, Christ has removed that taint through his death on the cross. Comfort because you know that even if you're suffering here on Christ's behalf, he has a great reward stored up for you in the Father's presence for all eternity.
	Next he says "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth." The meek are those who refuse to put themselves forward, who make no claims for themselves. They may be related to the poor, in that they're unable to stand up for themselves, but in the Greek, the word didn't necessarily imply weakness. Rather it implied a voluntary submission to someone else's authority. It was used for instance of a well trained war-horse, strong, yet completely under the control of its rider.
	This is the opposite of what we think makes for success isn't it? These days we teach kids to be assertive. We teach them how to write a CV that presents themselves in the best possible light. These days if you want to get on you have to put yourself forward, because no-one else will. But that's not how God's kingdom operates. In the Kingdom of Heaven, God looks at our hearts. He values humility and meekness above assertiveness. He wants people who are like Jesus Christ who humbled himself on our behalf. And he promises that those who have a meek heart will be given the earth. That is we'll rule the earth alongside Jesus himself.
	Finally in this section, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled. This is similar to those who mourn. There may be several reasons why you'd hunger and thirst for righteousness. It certainly isn't hard to develop such a hunger when you look around at the world today. Even in an organisation with such high ideals as the Olympic movement we see graft and corruption. We long to see injustice wiped out, the guilty brought to account. What about in our own lives? Do you hunger to do what's right, yet find yourself struggling to do so. Well, in God's Kingdom we'll find both those hungers satisfied. We'll find the guilty brought to account in the end, and in the meantime we'll be given plenty of opportunity to do what's right.
	But at the same time, this is also a word of grace. The real righteousness that the Kingdom will give us is a righteousness by faith in Jesus Christ, a righteousness based solely on what he's done. The righteous acts we'll do, the righteous living we seek to have, will come about because God enables it, because his Spirit empowers us in our daily living. The sort of behaviour we're about to look at, and the sort of behaviour that the rest of the Sermon on the Mount directs us to is only possible because God's Holy Spirit comes to dwell within us and changes us from the inside out.
	2 The Behaviour of the Kingdom
	Well, if those are the benefits of the Kingdom, what is the sort of conduct that fits in the kingdom, that is, what is the Behaviour of the Kingdom?
	V7: Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. The first four blessings have spoken of God's mercy for the helpless, but now the shoe's on the other foot, or to fit in better with this time of year the ball is in our court. How are we to respond to the demands of the Kingdom? There are 2 ways that you could respond. Some people respond by a rigid demand for righteousness. They say, look at how Jesus told you to live. You'd better keep up to that standard or you're in big trouble. On the other hand, the word of the gospel is a word of mercy. Jesus teaches this over and over again: in 7:1,2 where he tells us not to judge; in his teaching on the Lord's prayer (7:12,14-15) where he tells us we have to forgive if we're to ask for God's forgiveness, in his parable of the unforgiving servant in 18:21-35; and in Luke 7:36 where the woman comes to anoint him with oil as a response to the forgiveness she's received. What he's teaching us is that if we want to receive mercy the onus is on us to show the same mercy to others.
	V8: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. We know, don't we that it's only the pure in heart who can come into God's presence and live. So how do we become pure of heart? Well, again, by the purifying work of the Holy Spirit. Yet at the same time there's an implication here of a responsibility on our part to purify our lives. To allow the Spirit to work, if you like. That is, this is both a gift and a struggle. We're called to be pure and at the same time are enabled to be pure.
	And the wonderful thing is that as we allow this to happen we actually experience God's presence with us. In that sense we see God at work within us. And as we live among others of the Kingdom we see God at work in them. If our hearts are pure then what we see in them is the pure bits, not the tainted bits. So the promise that we'll see God isn't just tied up with a future experience of heaven, there's a present component to it as well.
	V9: Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. The peacemakers in Scripture are those who make something whole, who bring about a balance of relationships, where all parts hold together n harmony. You might picture it as someone who stands at the hub of a circle with the community on the perimeter, holding all the relationships together. So the peacemaker, first and foremost is a reconciler. You may know someone like that. Someone who is able to break down conflict and bring people together. This is something we should all be aiming for as God's people. Why? Because such people can be described as children of God. You see, first and foremost, God is a peacemaker. The reason he sent Jesus was to bring peace, reconciliation between himself and us.
	Now that doesn't mean we should be weak in our approach to injustice and wrongdoing. We're not called to make peace with evil. We're not called to compromise the word of God in order to bring a superficial peace between people, as some of a more liberal persuasion might argue. Jesus didn't compromise the word of God in his dealing with the Pharisees for example. Nor did he ignore them. What he did was argue with them. But in the end he submitted himself. In the end he gave up his life in order to bring us peace with God. So too, we're called to be peacemakers, sometimes by arguing against evil, but sometimes by following Jesus example of submission and meekness.
	V10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This final blessing is something of a summing up of the previous 7. It has elements of both benefit and behaviour. Those who do the right thing won't always be rewarded by this world, particularly if what they're doing has to do with the righteousness of the gospel. As Jesus told his disciples sometime later, the servant in no better than the master. If they hated Jesus, they'll also hate us. It doesn't matter that the sort of behaviour taught here and in the rest of the Sermon on the mount should be well received by people. The fact is that it won't be, simply because of the name in which it's done. But we mustn't be downhearted if we find our attempts at righteous living are looked down on or despised, if we encounter opposition and even persecution. In fact if we know our scriptures, that's exactly what we should expect. It's always been like that. People have always persecuted those who spoke on God's behalf to a sinful nation (v12: "in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.") But even as we're experiencing this opposition we can rejoice because there is a reward stored up for us in the Kingdom of Heaven.
	So can you see how these blessings have gone full circle, from the grace of God seen in the blessing on those who are powerless, weighed down, sorrowing, hungry for justice, to the expectations of kingdom living in the blessings on those who live righteous lives, lives of mercy and purity and peacemaking, now back to God's gracious promise of vindication for those whose lives of righteousness receive the unjust reward in this life of opposition and persecution.
	Can you also see that the blessings Jesus pronounces have a universal application. Everyone in this room, everyone in the world, I guess, can relate in one way or another to the experiences outlined in the first 4 blessings. Anyone can come to Jesus and be enabled to live the sorts of lives expressed in the next 3 blessings. All can expect to meet opposition if they faithfully follow Jesus, but equally all can look forward to the reward he promises of eternal life with the Father in heaven if their faith is in Jesus Christ.
	Are you a disciple of Jesus? Are you a citizen of the Kingdom of heaven, a subject of God the King? Are these your experiences? If so ask God to comfort and strengthen you. Is this your way of life? If not ask God to help you live this way. Let's pray that each one of us would experience these blessings of the Kingdom in our lives each and every day.

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