06 Matthew 5:6-8 - The Conundrum of the Kingdom

Series: The Gospel According to Matthew

March 19, 2017
Christopher C. Freeman

Title: The Conundrum of the Kingdom Text: Matthew 5:6-8 FCF: We often think we can manufacture holiness in ourselves through our effort. Prop: Jesus takes our place not just in death but in life to fulfill God’s righteous standard, so we must depend on Christ. Scripture Intro: [Slide 1] Turn in your bible to Matthew chapter 5. Last week we barely cracked open the sermon on the mount. We identified the main point of the sermon. That Jesus is trying to communicate to all who hear him, disciple or otherwise, that to be a citizen of His Kingdom, you must be perfect. Of course that poses a problem because Jesus begins the sermon describing His Kingdom citizens, and the first descriptor of them is that they understand that they are spiritually bankrupt. That there is no good in them. He continues by saying that they also are deeply crushed by their spiritual condition because they understand that there is no hope at ever being innocent in God's eyes. Then He says that His Kingdom citizens look at the holiness of God and their wills break. They are like the dam that gives way to the power of the water. But this doesn’t sound like someone who is perfect does it? In fact it sounds like perfection is the furthest thing from Jesus' mind in describing His Kingdom citizens. Today, however, we will look at the positive side of what kingdom citizens are. And if you thought last week was difficult to stomach - I tell you that this week will be downright confusing and depressing. But fear not. The correct understanding of the beatitudes will enable us to unpack the rest of the sermon on the mount. Because everything else Jesus has to say flows out of this. So I'll begin in verse 1 of chapter 5. I'll be reading from the NASB but please follow along in whatever version you prefer. Sermon Intro: A paradox is something that seems to be a self-contradictory statement, but proves to be true. Here are some examples from some famous people’s writings or sayings. [Slide 2] "I can resist anything but temptation."-Oscar Wilde [Slide 3] "What a pity that youth must be wasted on the young." - George Bernard Shaw [Slide 4] “I know one thing: that I know nothing.” -Socrates (via Plato) [Slide 5] “Life is a preparation for the future; and the best preparation for the future is to live as if there were none.” -Albert Einstein [Slide 6] “Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” -Gandhi [Slide 7] “It’s weird not to be weird.” -John Lennon Here are paradoxes that you or I might say: [Slide 8] Nobody goes to that restaurant because it is too crowded. [Slide 9] You can save money by spending it. And here are some that are just funny: [Slide 10] Microsoft Works [Slide 11] Jumbo Shrimp [Slide 12] To shut down your computer, first click Start. [Slide 13] No keyboard detected. Press F1 to continue I asked my wife for an example of paradox... she said [Slide 14] women in general :) [Slide 15 (blank)] Today we will see a paradox in Jesus' sermon. He has already shown us that citizens of His Kingdom understand that they are spiritually bankrupt. That they mourn over their spiritual condition because it is impossible to change it. And they see the holiness of God and conclude that they cannot win - so they submit themselves to whatever He desires to do to them. In all of these last week we saw the Chinese finger trap that is the Kingdom of God... in that citizenship is by a means opposite of what you'd expect. But to seemingly contradict everything He just said, today we will see the other side of the coin. Today we will see Jesus telling us that to be citizens of His Kingdom, you must be perfect. Question? How can you be innocent and guilty? How can you be perfectly good and wicked at the same time? This truly is the conundrum of the Kingdom - and since you may not be here for the entirety of our study of Matthew. Since Jesus may return before we get to the solution to this paradox, I'm going to jump the gun and reveal the end. The hope of Jesus was to draw His listeners to Himself. And that is the key that we will see today. Jesus' incarnation, life, death, and resurrection, took our spiritual bankruptcy, our mourning, our meekness - he became that for us - and he imputed or installed in us the three things we will see today. It is in Him positionally that we are made perfect. And it is in the Spirit practically that we continue to grow to be MORE like Him every day. So what will we learn today? Depend on Jesus. Believe. It is that simple. And it is the same message for Christians and non-Christians alike. Believe. Transition: So what is this paradox? How are these contradictory to what we learned last week? Well lets dive in. I.) The King gives the blessing of holiness to those who need it to live, so we must depend on Christ. a. [Slide 16] Blessed – Belief that results in God’s favor b. Are those who hunger and thirst i. To be starved and to be parched. ii. We don’t get this. We have 3 meals a day. We get dehydrated because we drink too much coffee and pop. iii. To be hungry and thirsty is to be on the brink of starvation as you haven’t eaten a good meal in days. It was to be parched for clean water from a well that you had to draw up yourself. Assuming you owned it. iv. Immediately following these words, again I wonder if Jesus paused. Blessed are those who are on the brink of starvation and fatal dehydration. v. but not for food and water do they yearn. This great need. This absolute necessity. It is life or death and the outcome is determined by what? c. For Righteousness i. The Greek construction here means that we are not on the brink of starvation or fatal dehydration and seeking SOME righteousness – but ALL righteousness. The phrasing if applied to food would be a desire for a morsel of bread vs. A desire for the whole loaf. ii. Can mean justice. It is correct enforcement of the law. When a murderer is punished for his crimes that is justice. 1. It is obvious that this is not something globally, but instead something personal. There is personal hunger and thirst for this. And the promise is related to our being. 2. To hunger and thirst for justice would mean to hunger and thirst for your personal eternal punishment by God. This doesn’t seem to be the meaning that Matthew is intending iii. In fact all throughout the book of Matthew he uses this word not to speak of justice, as in being given what you deserve, but instead to be set right. To be made the way you were supposed to be. To be innocent of lawlessness. So to be thirsting after righteousness is not to beg for justice but instead to have never needed to be brought to justice. Innocent, never having been guilty. 1. What he is saying that after understanding your spiritual bankruptcy, mourning over that state, and having seen the glory and holiness of God, humbly submitting to Him… 2. That you starve and are parched to be pleasing to God. That is, to have God’s righteousness. Not just positionally friend, to get out of your just punishment – but practically to be like Him forever. To live as He wants you to live. You may as well substitute the word Holy here. Belief resulting in favor is given to those who are on the brink of starvation and fatal dehydration for lack of Holiness. iv. No natural man wants this. This is the state of Kingdom citizens. They want desperately to be what God expects them to be. They desire to be like Jesus. Just as God the Father was greatly delighted in the Son, that is the hunger and thirst of all Kingdom Citizens. And just like the Son, The Holy Spirit comes to us to enable us to do this v. This is yet another truth that proves decisively that a person who claims to be of Christ that does not hate sin. A person who claims to be of Christ that does not appall every single inconsistency they have with God. A person who claims to be a Christian who does not desire to find exactly what God would have them to be and do exactly that. That person has very little hope that they are genuinely a follower of Christ. vi. Why? Because when Christ is raised in you, when you are clothed with Him, when the Spirit invades you – you cannot resist His desires for long. You can grieve the Spirit. You can walk away from following the Son – but God the Father chastens those He loves. The triune God Will not allow a true Christian to abandon forever the pursuit of being like Him. vii. And how are those who are seeking holiness because they are about to die for lack of it, blessed? d. For they will be Satisfied i. Gorged. Filled to the capacity and then some. Overflowing. ii. This happens positionally in Christ in that we are given infinite righteousness in Him. Practically we understand that it is always the will of God for us to be holy people. Those who seek it by their own strength will be frustrated. iii. But in Christ our hunger and thirst for Him will grow. We will eat his words and drink his ways. And we will be satisfied. But like we do with food and water, we will hunger and thirst again. Therefore we must continue to do this in this life because while we wear these sin scarred garments of flesh we cannot ever truly be satisfied. But one day. One day we will be forever satisfied. One day we will drink from the living water and never thirst again. As those who mourned over their spiritual condition will one day be comforted, this is the object of that comfort. Our life threatening need for holiness will be quenched never to be empty again. Transition: As a starving man hotly pursues his next meal lest he die, so we hotly pursue the Righteousness of God lest we die. But how can the spiritually bankrupt hope to ever be righteous? Would they ever even want righteousness? Would the one who has nothing good in them, ever desire to be completely good? That is paradox number 1. But there are two others. Let us look... II.) The King gives the blessing of forgiveness to those who forgive others, so we must depend on Christ a. [Slide 17] Blessed – Belief resulting in God’s favor b. Merciful i. Mercy is the combination of the words forgiveness and compassion. 1. To not grant to someone that which they have rightfully earned. Usually some punishment. 2. To take on the skin of another and understand as much about their situation as possible and render love in the most effective way possible. To demonstrate that love by action and not only word. And to do so without thought to what can be personally gained. ii. Kingdom citizens understand their own spiritual condition, mourn over it, humbly break before the Lord of Holiness, they long for that holiness and in so doing demonstrate that holiness in their dealings with others. Specifically by emulating the compassion of God and forgiveness of God. iii. This was a foreign concept in their culture and those who did not punish or recompense those who harmed them were certain to have more harm done to them. To show compassion on those who were weak or unable to care for themselves was a sign of weakness. If the helpless are to ever be strong, they ought not survive on the mercy of others, but pull themselves up and make something of themselves. A Roman philosopher said that mercy was “a disease of the soul.” But Is it a Roman cultural phenomenon to have disdain for mercy? I think if we are honest with ourselves, mercy without hope for personal gain is considered at least peculiar in our culture, and in some ways – utterly ridiculous. iv. To be merciful then is to be a helper of the helpless. Compassion is woven to this word. Love is woven to this word. Kingdom citizens do not stop at words but compassionately demonstrate action. Not because they will get something from it. Not because there is something special about them. They do so, because they have been invaded with a God who is compassion. Who is mercy. Who is love. He comes bubbling out of them. We empathize and sympathize. We offer help and hope and grace – why – because we look at others and realize that we are the same. v. Of all the Beatitudes I find this one to be the most piercing to my heart. It cuts me to my bones. It destabilizes my assurance of salvation. I long to be merciful and to be merciful because God is merciful, not so that I may gain but so that He may be glorified. Yet often I am the one saying – get a job you bum – instead of let me help you find a job my friend. vi. God’s people don’t have a list of qualifications to earn their compassion. Instead they are ready and willing to give and help. Even to be taken advantage of. Are there limits? Of course there are. Is there an end to God’s mercy? No. There is no end to His mercy, but one day He cuts off His mercy. vii. At some point the most compassionate thing that God can do for us is tell us no. At some point the most compassionate thing that God does for us is let us experience the consequences of our sin. At some point the most loving things God can do for us is allow us to struggle and strive. To squirm under the boot of trials and temptations – Why? So that we may learn what it is to believe. So we may practice dependence and submission. viii. Likewise there is a point that compassion stops helping. There is a point where forgiveness is granted but action is taken. There is a breaking point where mercy’s objective remains unchanged but the manner it is applied shifts. ix. But our job is to lean of the Spirit to know when that shift takes place. And to be honest, I feel all of us struggle to know when that is. 1. Some of us err on the side of grace. We forgive and never grant consequence. We help without expecting the person to grow and learn. In both these cases we guarantee that the person will continue offending and continue being helpless. 2. Others of us err on the side of wrath. We forgive but are slow to give trust. We forgive but we selfishly protect ourselves from the possibility of them hurting us again. We help sometimes, but only those who we know are desperate. Often we don’t help at all, expecting the helpless to know better. We apply our upbringing and opportunity and assume they had the same. And even if they did – do you begrudge them for being a sinner? Aren’t you one too? 3. As with all things we must lean on the Spirit of God to know when to shift from Forgiveness encouraging repentance to forgiveness and giving consequence. We must depend on the Spirit to help us to know when to shift from helping the helpless to get back on their feet and provide for themselves and ceasing to help the helpless realizing they don’t want to provide for themselves no matter what we do. 4. We must lean on the Spirit because only He can tell us when that time is. We dare not trust ourselves. x. And if we show the Spirit’s balanced Mercy, how are we blessed? c. For they shall receive mercy i. Compassion and Forgiveness fall on us. From where? ii. Some suggest that this is a human proverb. That others will show you mercy if you start the process. That if you grant compassion to them, that they will reciprocate. 1. Not only does this invalidate the concept of granting mercy for no personal gain 2. but it also proves to be scripturally and experientially untrue. a. When we show compassion and forgiveness to others, it is tragic but common to receive no compassion or forgiveness back. b. The sting of helping a homeless man and providing food for a month only to see him on the street corner again a few weeks later. I’ve been snookered you think. – Indeed you have, but should you expect anything else? c. It is not a social gospel we believe in, where men can be shown enough kindness to change them – but a gospel of grace. That man’s heart can be replaced with the heart of God. That heart of stone turned into flesh. d. The most merciful being that has ever walked the earth was rejected and crucified. Should we expect to be offered mercy in return? Are we more effective at offering mercy than Jesus? I think not. iii. This mercy comes from the one who has been the provider of all the blessing up to this point. God. iv. This is a concept repeated often throughout the New Testament. Those who offer forgiveness and compassion will be given forgiveness and compassion by God. This leads us to ask – is this the unpardonable sin? Is God saying that those who do not forgive or show compassion lose their salvation? Or is He saying that we must earn our forgiveness by first showing forgiveness? 1. God is saying that those who have been shown so much compassion and forgiveness will never refuse it to another. 2. You won’t lose your salvation, but your life practice is to show forgiveness and compassion to others. 3. This is part of the broader concept of the place of works in our salvation. a. Works have no part FOR our salvation, but they certainly have a part IN our salvation. b. Those who are being changed into the likeness of Christ. Those who are being transformed and are renewing their mind – they obey God. They obey Him which shows that they love Him. c. It is such a difficult theological line to tread. And it seems like no matter what you say, people either accuse you of legalism or license. So let me try to be extremely clear. d. The evidence that we love God is that we obey, but that doesn’t mean we try hard to obey to prove that we love Him. The evidence that we are saved is that we obey, but that doesn’t mean we try really hard to obey to prove we are saved. e. [Slide 18A] Rather that those works, that obedience flows out of us in the passion and power of the Spirit of God. It is a new nature. And since we still have these wretched bodies there will be conflicting displays of nature. It is natural for a bird to fly. It is natural for a snake to grow scales. It is natural for a flower to bloom. But if a snake one day grew a bloom on his skin it would be a wonder to behold. f. The first thing people would do is to trap that snake and study it. They would try to assess whether or not the blooms are stuck to his scaly skin, or if they have grown from him. Perhaps it is difficult to know, perhaps the flower bloom was somehow meshed between his scales. [Slide 18B] But when he starts to sprout more and more blooms from his body – it becomes clear that there is something strange going on. g. We have been made into something entirely new. As such we produce blooms. We are still snakes, but rosy flowers begin to grow on us. One of these flowers is mercy. It is evidence that there is a new nature within us. Oftentimes the things we associate as flowers that prove we are saved are not at all what the bible tells us. I go to church, I read my bible, I don’t smoke or chew or run with those who do. The bible presents several lists of items that are indicative of a person who is a child of God. We just covered one in Galatians 5. The fruit of the Spirit. Those are the flowers of which we speak. h. Some look like they have these flowers. Some flowers are stuck on with mud, others with glue and tape. Others have been grafted into the skin of the snake. Still others are from a small moss or fungus has grown on the skin of the snake to produce the flowers. But in all these cases the truth is easy to assess. It is just a snake. They are fake Christians. i. But for the Christian – the flowers multiply. We see buds all over the snake. They bloom in differing colors and fragrances. Fewer and fewer scales are noticeable as the flowers hide their existence and take their place. But what is obvious to everyone is that this is a phenomenon of nature. j. And to the snake, he makes no effort to grow his scales, nor to produce the blooms. k. And to Christians, we don’t try really hard to produce works of righteousness – just as we don’t try really hard to produce works of unrighteousness. But our new nature in us produces obedience. And that obedience is evidence that we love God. And that obedience and love continues to grow and grow, and our works of unrighteousness are fewer and fewer. l. That is the place that works have IN salvation. That they are not necessary FOR it, but The Spirit is expected to produce works IN us if we are saved. m. Which is why, as we have preached and taught many times over the last year, if you look at your life, and your blooms are sickly, falling off, or not there – you have cause for alarm. Why? Because you might be JUST a snake. Transition: [Slide 19 (blank)] So not only do kingdom citizens starve for the righteousness of God, but they are also unflinchingly forgiving and compassionate. But how does someone who is spiritually bankrupt ever forgive anyone? How can a person who is empty of spiritual goodness ever be in a position to be compassionate or forgiving to another? Another paradox to be sure. There is one final paradox and it... is a doozie. III.) The King gives the blessing of seeing God to those who are blameless , so we must depend on Christ a. [Slide 20] Blessed – Belief that produces favor from God b. are the pure i. The word for pure means clean, morally guiltless, upright and spotless. ii. No accusation can be brought against such a person. iii. The word was used to describe wine that was undiluted. It was pure wine. No water added. c. in heart i. Perhaps one of the most clear of all the beatitudes to demonstrate that such a person does not exist. ii. To add this phrase, in heart, has devastating truth to it. iii. The heart is the center of personality and will. It is where the mind thinks and the emotion feels. It is the core of who we are and is connected to our soul. The heart represents everything that you are that is not physical. And Jesus says blessed are those who are pure in their innermost immaterial being. iv. Jesus is saying that you must be undiluted in your thoughts, motives, emotions, opinions, worldviews, theology, character, and internal voice. Do you know what that means? 1. No one who had ever had a thought of greed, an emotion of unjust anger, happiness over an enemy’s loss or thoughts of lust could ever claim such a thing of themselves. 2. Perhaps, like the Pharisees they could claim some measure of external success in keeping laws of God, but to keep them to the point that there was never sin within? v. This is THE most devastating beatitude in that it excludes every single person who has ever lived. vi. To be this person and poor in spirit are absolutely impossible. In fact they are the opposites. How can someone be spiritually bankrupt yet internally guiltless? vii. The crowds should have asked Him – but they were not listening. viii. Some have suggested that either Jesus was misquoted or that this beatitude should have been at the beginning or the end simply because it seems to be by far the most demanding. The fallacy in this is that all of them are demanding. All of them are more than we are capable of in our natural condition. Men do not naturally entertain the possibility of their own spiritual bankruptcy. They do not mourn the impossibility of their innocence. They do not break and submit to God, even if it means their destruction. They do not look to holiness for survival. They do not have the weakness of compassion and forgiveness. No one can do any of these things. ix. In truth this beatitude is exactly where it should be. Everything said up to this point leads us to this – and as we will see next week, everything said after this flows from this. x. To be 100% guiltless of any thought, word, motive, emotion or deed. And for this, how then are we blessed? d. for they shall see God i. This is a future term that has continuing results. So it could be translated – for they will continue to see God. ii. Who is he talking to? Jews. Certainly they remember Moses. Certainly they remember that Moses – their patriarch – whom they had elevated to near divine status. He couldn’t see God. He was not permitted. God told him in Exodus 33 that no man can see God’s face and live. He told Moses that His glory would pass by and when he was a safe distance from him, God would remove protection from Moses and allow him to see God’s goodness. iii. Do you understand what this means? He is telling these Jews that those who are pure in heart (something impossible) will continually see God (something equally as impossible). This one beatitude should have had them simply dumbfounded. Why didn’t they ask Jesus what he was talking about? iv. That a Kingdom citizen that is being made holy, will continue to see the affects of God’s presence in their life. That His invisibility will become visible in them and that they will pursue it even more aggressively. And one day – they will see Him with their own eyes, face to face, as they stand before Him and bathe in his Holy presence, they will not be destroyed. v. When Moses came down off that mountain his face was so bright that he had to wear a veil. But not forever. II Corinthians 3 indicates that it did fade – but what II Corinthians also explains is that those who are Kingdom citizens, those in Christ – the glory they have will not fade. Meaning that while Moses’ face shown with the affects of the glory of God – Those in Christ reflect, in increasing intensity, the glory of God as they are continually transformed into His likeness by the Spirit of God. Transition: [Slide 21 (blank) (End)] So what can we take home from today? Having seen what it is God is calling us to? What shall we do? Conclusion: I hope that you do not sit in the pew and hear these words and like the Jews who stood before Jesus on the plain as he spoke to them from the mountain side, let them roll over you as if they were in some foreign tongue. I hope that you have listened actively to what is expected of Kingdom Citizens. I hope that you have come to the same conclusion that I have, and that I believe Jesus wanted. I hope when asked the question, what shall we do with what we have learned today? I hope that the answer is clear. If the first 3 beatitudes communicated the unworthiness of mankind to be in God's Kingdom, these last three confirm the impossibility of ever being worthy. I hope is it clear that there is absolutely nothing you can do. What I mean by that, is that I hope you understand that all of this is unachievable. That it is absolutely impossible to be this kind of person. Because if you come to the end of the Beatitudes with that truth tattooed to your heart... then when you finish the sermon on the mount, you will have no greater desire than to learn more from your King. That you will greatly seek after the answer to the HUGE problem that Jesus draws us to. He doesn't give us the solution. Not in this sermon. Why? Because He is the solution. And as we work our way through Matthew it will become abundantly clear that He is the King, who left His throne, and sacrificed everything so that we could trade places with Him. It is not only in His death but in His life that we are set free. The spotless lamb of God trades the places with the spiritually bankrupt. You can't go earn it. You can't go live it. For me to try to tell you to go out and be hungry for righteousness, be forgiving and compassionate, and be pure in motive, emotion, thought and deed - it would be futile. Because we are still snakes. What I am saying is that if Christ be in you and the Spirit of God in you - than these are in you already and growing. So what if they aren't? Do I try harder to produce them so it proves that I am clothed in Christ and that His Spirit is in me? NO! Repent of trying to do it on your own. Repent of being spiritually bankrupt, mourn over that condition and be broken and contrite. Then believe - Depend on Christ's finished work for positional and eventual fulfillment of all of these in you. And surrender to the Spirit's leading as he gives you passion and power to produce these beautiful flowers in place of your scales. Then set out to need righteousness to live. Then set out to be forgiving and compassionate. Then set out to be guiltless in your motive, emotion, thoughts and deeds. And every day you repent and yield to the Spirit and step out in faith to obey, you will see the Spirit making you more and more into His image. But it is so easy for us to try to take over. To make it all about laws and rules. It is so easy for us to keep praying for change and never yield to it. It starts with what we found last week. A realistic picture of who we are underneath. That picture makes it absolutely necessary to believe. To depend on Christ and surrender to the Spirit This isn't a motivational speech - You can't do it. But because of God - you don't have to. Why? Because it is DONE! IT IS FINISHED! Repent and believe. Repent of your inconsistencies with God. Depend on the complete consistency of the Son and the execution of your inconsistency through Christ’s Cross. Surrender to the Spirit as He grows you to be more consistent with God. Why? Because the Kingdom is here… and the Physical Kingdom is coming quickly. We don’t have time for apathetic or tire kicking Christians. The bridegroom is coming.

Episode Notes

Sermon Notes on Matthew 5:6-8

 

What does it mean to hunger and thirst for righteousness?

 

Mercy is a combination of two words: Forgiveness and  Compassion

 

Is Jesus saying that we can lose our salvation if we do not forgive someone?

 

Explain how this statement is true – Works have no part FOR us to be saved but they do have a part IN our salvation.

 

What does it mean to be pure in heart?

 

What implications does the meaning of pure in heart have for those who desire to be Kingdom Citizens? 

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