A large family sat around the breakfast table one morning. As the custom, the father returned thanks, blessing God for the food. Immediately after, however, as was his bad habit, he began to grumble about hard times, the poor quality of the food he was forced to eat, the way it was cooked, and much more.
His little daughter interrupted him, “Dad, do you suppose God heard what you said a little while ago when you were giving thanks?”
“Certainly,” the father replied with the confident air of an instructor.
“And did he hear what you said about the bacon and the coffee?”
“Of course,” replied the father with a note of caution in his voice.”
Then his daughter asked, “Dad, which did God believe?”
Children are sometimes so brutally honest.
Have you ever felt blessed ?
Do you feel so blessed that you are thankful for the blessings that God gave you?
Do you ever feel so blessed that you want to go out and bless others?
Well today we are going to meet a man that was so blessed that his blessing was meant to overflow over to the World.
Could you imagine being so blessed that your blessing would pour out into the world.
This man was called Abraham.
It is hard for us to understand how important Abraham was for the Jewish people.
One Hebrew Rabbi said of Abraham that God created Adam first and when Adam messed everything up then God called Abraham to fix it all.
That is literally how important Abraham was to the Jewish people.
That is why we find Lazarus in Abraham’s Bosom in Luke 16 and we see in John’s Gospel the jewish people call Abraham their father.
So he is very important.
There is also a pivotal passage in the Bible that works like a big hinge that much of the rest of the Bible will hinge on.
In Genesis 12 we see the Call of Abraham and the Promises made by God.
Genesis 15: 1-3
1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you; 2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great ; And so you shall be a blessing ; 3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."
God comes to Abraham. This is the idea with Israel.
Abraham, I’m going to bless you, but not just for your sake, because the world is a mess, but it’s my world.
And I want it back. I want to fix it, so I’m going to work through you. You will be like a blessing conduit. You will be blessed, to be a blessing.
God’s idea was that He would bless Israel and Israel would bless the world.
Now, this is God’s idea with Israel. They are blessed to be a blessing. God calls this “blessed to be a blessing” relationship a “covenant.” And He uses some different images to describe it.
Now this is all behind Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the MOunt. In the Book of Numbers, God says,
Numbers 18: 19
19 "All the offerings of the holy gifts, which the sons of Israel offer to the LORD, I have given to you and your sons and your daughters with you, as a perpetual allotment. It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the LORD to you and your descendants with you
We’re actually going to have Him use salt in the sacrifices. Now, why a covenant of salt, because in our day, salt is optional.
In the ancient world, though, it was not optional. In the ancient world, there was no refrigeration.
Decay and rot were the great enemies of life, and salt was the only force that could arrest decay. It could preserve.
So, it had a power in the ancient world. It was almost like magic. Salt was the beginning, really, of trade in the ancient world. They fought wars over it.
So how important was salt to the ancient world and the world in general?
Homer called it divine.
Plato called it a "substance dear to the gods."
Shakespeare mentioned salt 17 times in his plays.
Perhaps Leonard da Vinci wanted to send a subtle message about purity lost when he painted "The last Supper."
In that painting an overturned salt cellar is conspicuously placed before Judas.
In ancient Greece a far-flung trade involving the exchange of salt for slaves gave rise to the expression, "...not worth his salt."
Special salt rations were given to Roman soldiers and known as "Solarium Argentums" the forerunner of the English word "salary
Because in my world there’s rot, there’s decay, there’s sin, there’s deceit, there’s corruption, there’s selfishness.
Everything’s spoiled. I’m going to start a new people, and I’m going to have a covenant of salt, so that through my people I can begin the process of saving my world from corruption, and decay, and rot.
As you meet with people, you’re freshness, you’re hope, you’re joy. A covenant of salt. Blessed, to be a blessing.
And then He uses another image. In the Old Testament God says to His servant,
Isaiah 42:6
I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles
That word again. Here’s what’s really interesting. And a light for the who? For the Gentiles.
Remember, God said to Abraham, all the peoples of the earth. It’s not just about Israel. It’s not an insider deal.
Isaiah 49:6
It is far too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.
God says my world is dark, the people confused.
They hide, they sin, they’re scared. I want you to be light, poise, truth, confidence, knowing God.
A light not just for yourselves, [but] for the Gentiles, for the whole world.
Blessed to be a blessing. This is God’s vision for Israel. Covenant of salt. Covenant of light.
But this was very largely lost in Jesus’ day. There were in His time, four factions, all of whom had their own vision for Israel that was at odds with God’s vision.
There was first of all Rome. Rome’s vision for Israel was that Israel exists to enrich whom? To enrich Rome. To be exploited financially.
Then there was another group of people, in Jesus’ day. These were Israelites.
They were called the zealots. Anybody know how the zealots felt about Rome?
They hated Rome. They were committed to the violent overthrow of Rome.
They were engaged in things like assassinations. They were involved in practices that were considered terrorism by Rome.
That kind of tension is nothing new. And their mission for Israel, their idea was that Israel was created by God to eventually rule the earth.
So, their vision was that Israel would rule the earth.
Then, there was another group of people. And, they were called the Sadducees.
Oddly enough, a lot of them were priests. But, these were folks who had given up, really, on the Kingdom ever coming down here, on God ever doing anything.
So, their deal was, they collaborated with Rome. That’s how they got power, and were able to rule in the temple and so on.
Their vision was, get a piece of the pie. We’re going to become like Rome, and get while the getting is good.
Then there was another faction, who were kind of disgusted with these folks.
So, we might call them the reformers. These were people like when you come across the word, Pharisee, [think] reformer. The Pharisees were reformers.
And their deal was: Israel, why don’t we just isolate ourselves from everybody who doesn’t obey the law?
From all the Israelites who aren’t pious enough, and from all the Gentiles, and everybody that are unclean?
Then when God sees how good and pious we are, then He will destroy everybody else, and the world will be ours.
So, these were the visions
. Rome, they kind of were the world.
And the zealots said we exist to rule the world.
Sadducees said: we ought to be like the world.
And the reformers said: we ought to withdraw and isolate from the world. Nobody was talking about blessing the world. It was in the middle of this cauldron that Jesus comes.
He stands on the side of the mountain, and He remembers how God said to Abraham one day,
I will bless you.
Jesus talks to this rag-tag group that He’s been healing and delivering.
What’s the first word in the Sermon on the Mount, of the Beatitudes?
Blessed! Blessed are who? Blessed are the poor, blessed are those who mourn, and blessed are the hungry. Blessed are you.
you are blessed to be a blesser.
Here’s where Jesus makes this turn. It is part of the thought in “The Sermon on the Mount.” It is to be regarded as an extended, very careful reflective thought, not just a series of random sayings.
Blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed, blessed. “You are the salt…”
Now see if you see the progression that we saw with Abraham and How God wants to bless others.
Matthew 5: 13-16
13"You are the salt of the earth ; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot by men.14"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden ;15nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.16"Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
You’re the salt of the earth, light of the world. And the people respond, of course.
Who, us? Insignificant us?
Not the Romans, with all of their power and wealth?
Not the Zealots, with all of their passion?
Not the Sadducees, with all of their connections, not the reformers with all of their piety and religiosity? And Jesus says, no. He says they’re all wrong.
The subjugators and the dominators and haters, and the collaborators and the isolators, they’re all wrong. And here’s what I’m going to do.
I’m going to love them all. I’m going to love the Centurions.
I’m going to have a Zealot become one of my people.
I’ll love the priests, I’ll love the Pharasees, and I’ll love them all.
But a lot of them won’t get it.
They’ll fight me, they’ll oppose me, they’ll persecute me, and they’ll imprison me.
Eventually they’ll kill me. And then, here’s the next step in the plan.
You, my little rag-tag crowd, you will love them.
And then they’ll fight you and oppose you and persecute you and imprison you. And kill many of you. And what will you do?
Then you’ll love them even more.
Isn’t that a great plan? Aren’t you all fired up about that plan?
And, of course, a lot of people weren’t.
But some people were. And it happened just the way He said it would.
Unbelievable brilliance. But now, it would take a different kind of person—
it would take a salt and light company, and, of course, people were not there. So Jesus has to talk about how does transformation happen.
Ironically, when it comes to transformation, that’s what these guys, the reformers, religious leaders, scribes and Pharisees were most interested in.
Jesus was in a lot of ways most similar to these four factions to this camp. But He had His biggest disagreements with these guys.
And it’s critical to understand this to get His teaching. Because this is what got Him into so much trouble. We turn there now.
Jesus says,
In Matthew 5: 17-20
17"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets ; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.18"For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished.19"Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven ; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.20"For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Loaded and dangerous language, here! Now, what made Jesus different from all of these other folks, from the teachers of the laws?
Two areas that didn’t, and then the one that did. Jesus is not different from them because they loved the law and he didn’t.
Rabbis in Jesus’ day loved the law. And no one loved Torah, no one loved the law more than Jesus.
He uses quite technical language in it.
The smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet was the letter yodh. It was made by just a little mark like this, that’s all it was.
That was the smallest letter, the least stroke of the pen.
The Yod – when God changed Saraii’s name to Sarah was a Yod was removed.
The Rabbi’s told a funny story to their students to illustrate the importance of one Yod.
They told their students that that little YOD protested to get back into the Bible and it protested so hard that finally God put it back in the Bible.
When Moses changed Hoshea’s name to Joshua it was changed by the simple changing of one YOD.
The Rabbis would then tell the students that not one JOT or Tittle not one YOD will be abolished from the Torah.
You see that was the original intent of the Law- Jesus has come to embody that Law – to show that this is God’s plan.
God’s Plan is that YOU are the LIGHT of the World. You are SALT.
Once again we need to let that set in and not go over our heads – our vocation, our calling, we are to be a light- salt
To bring purity to corruption to this decaying world.
To illuminate darkness.
In everything that you do that is your calling – where sin corrupts you bring salt to help bring back purity from putredness.
Where there is darkness you come to shine a light into that darkness.
So what does that look like? We just need to look at Jesus and He shows us just what that looks like.
Lets see what this is going to look like:
Matthew 5: 38-48
Matthew 5: 38-48
38 "You have heard that it was said, 'AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.' 39 "But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 "If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41 "Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 "Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. 43 "You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.' 44 "But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven ; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 "For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have ? Do not even the tax collectors do the same ? 47 "If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same ? 48 "Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
1) Jesus tells us not resist those that are evil to us.
If one slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also.
This image would be from the Roman Empire in which slapping one on the right cheek meant that you hit them with the back of your hand.
This was the ultimate sign of disrespect in the ancient world and Jesus tells us that we need to be willing to take abuse for His sake.
This doesn’t mean that we are to be pushovers and go around volunteering our cheek to be slapped but we do see this come true in the Passion narrative of Jesus. In the story of the crucifixion we see that the High Priest Temple guards strike Jesus on the cheek and Jesus questions why they do this.
Jesus does not resist but still questions why they do it.
2) Jesus tells us in verse 40 of chapter 5 that if anyone wants to take your inner garment and sue you for it you are to give them your outer garment also.
This seems so bizare to us today. To have such a giving attitude that we would be willing to give to those that even mean to harm us. The context of this teaching of Jesus means that you have an attitude that is giving to those that mean you harm.
We see this specifically fulfilled by our Master in the Crucifixion account.
We see in Matthew 27 that Jesus is stripped of his garments and the soldiers cast lots for his garments.
Jesus willfully allows this to happen because Jesus gave up His life willfully.
He allowed the soldiers to take His garments.
Our master specifically models what He expects from us to love those that hate us so much we would give them more than what they ask for from us.
3) In verse 41 Jesus states that whoever would force you to go one mile, you should go with him two.
This refers to a Roman Law that allowed Roman soldiers to make an occupied Jew carry his pack for one mile. The Jews had put posts up one mile from their homes to tell them exactly where to stop.
No good Jew would walk one step further for a pagan Roman but now Jesus is saying something totally odd.
According to Jesus you are to go two miles and not just one.
That is exactly what Jesus did.
Jesus would be lead from the High Priests residence to the Praetorium and Pilate, to Herod and back, and then the path to the cross.
Jesus would willfully walk with these Roman soldiers and will go the extra mile to His death.
He literally takes the extra mile.
4) Jesus tells us in verse 44 that we must love our enemies. A radical concept of trying to love those that hate us.
We are to love our enemies so much that we are to pray for them.
On the cross, as He was crucified, Jesus prayed for those that crucified Him.
Jesus said, Father Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.
Jesus in his moment of pain and self giving thought about those that were killing him.
These pagan Romans and Jewish leaders that hated him so much, he asked for their forgiveness. Our master modeled perfectly how we should live.
This is what it looks like when you are acting as salt and light.
When you live in a fallen world that is full of sin, we bring purity
We bring light like Christ.
So today – many of you are wondering how do I act as Salt and Light?
Some of you are doing it right now.
Some of you are nursing sick loved ones back to health – bringing light to their world.
Some of you are teaching classes and showing children the way – The Bible teaches That Thy word is a lamp unto my feet.
Some of you are living pure lifestyles in a workplace that is full of bad language and dirty jokes – everyday you bring salt to your environment.
Some of you are raising faithful kids, grandkids, and you are bringing hope and light to a dark world.
Some of you are writing cards and notes of encouragement to those that are sick or newly baptized.
Some of you give of your means so the Church can bless those that are hurting by helping people financially.
You see that being salt and light is something that you do all the time. It is what we are called to do.
If I can challenge you today to anything I would say – live intentionally this way –
go to work or in your home purposefully living as salt and light for those around you.
Be a self sacrifice for others – live just to bless other people and it will be paid back to you in spades.
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Blessed are...
A state trooper sees a vehicle on the interstate doing 33 miles an hour and pulls the car to make sure everything is all right. When he approaches the driver he discovers that it is a group of older ladies.
"Excuse me, maam. But are you alright ?" He asked.
She replies, "Oh, yes officer. We're just fine. We are just on the way to Bible study. Was I doing something wrong?"
The officer says, "Well maam, you were traveling way under the speed limit and I was concerned that you might be having car trouble or something."
"But, officer", the lady interrupts, "I saw a sign there about a mile back that said 33, and I know I wasn't going any faster than that."
Chuckling, the trooper says, "maam, that was a state highway route marker, this is State Route 33, not the speed limit. The speed limit signs have a MPH at the bottom."
"Oh, now don't I feel foolish!", replied the lady turning red.
"That's ok, but please try to be more careful, I would hate to see you get hurt", finished the officer. Then as he turns to say good-bye to the ladies in the back seat, he notices for the first time that they are trembling violently and quite pale.
"Maam, what is wrong with your friends? Can I escort you to a hospital ?"
"Oh, no, they're all right. We just turned off of Route 150."
Not many of us our like these ladies. Following the very letter of the law.
But that’s our difficulty in life. We know what we’re supposed to do, and we think that that’s an accomplishment.
You get into a car; we’re all issued a book when we’re learning about driving. It’s called “The Rules of the Road.”
We know the book, but when an officer stops you for speeding or running a red light or something, do you ever try saying to him,
Officer, I know the book! I love the book! I agree with the book! I scored really well on my test. I was doing 55 in my heart.
Is the officer very impressed with that?
They don’t really care if you know the book. What matters is, what are you doing?
The problem is the education system in our day is largely built on the notion that what matters is that people are like empty jugs, and you just pour information into them.
And then their job is to retain the information and be able to spit back the answer you’re looking for on a test.
And if they do that, then they get good grades.
We all think we’re smart. That’s really good. Unfortunately, that’s gotten into a lot of church life, too.
A whole lot of people think growth is about just learning more and more and more and more information and being able to give the right answers.
What is usually the case is a disconnect between knowing what you are supposed to do and actually doing it.
A book was written by professors from Stanford on businesses that are ineffective.
For example, a company knows they need to improve quality control.
They know this. So, they talk about it, they listen to presentations about it, they read books about it, they look at state-of-art systems for it, they just never actually get around to doing it.
They never actually raise quality control.
Or, a company that has customer service problems.
They know they have customer service problems.
They know how important it is, they do studies on it. They appoint task forces to make recommendations.
They write “customer service” in their core values.
They just never actually do customer service. It’s a problem. It’s not a problem of ignorance.
It is not a problem of a lack of information. It’s not that they’re not smart enough.
The problem is a problem of knowing too much, but doing too little.
There is a gap that they call the “knowing/doing gap.” We know what we ought to be doing, but we’re not doing it.
We know that part of the danger of our sermon today for all of us including me is that we may hear the word but not be doers of the word.
As a matter of fact we are going to look at the greatest sermon ever preached.
This sermon is called the Sermon on the Mount.
Now before we even begin this study let us look at how Jesus ends this sermon on the Mount. It begins in Matthew 5 and ends in Matthew 7.
Jesus warns us in Matthew 7
Matthew 7: 24
24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Jesus warns us that to listen to this sermon requires putting it into practice.
We should not just be ones that hear the word but those that do the word.
Our challenge this morning is to take the charge of Christ and take it into account as we look at the first beatitudes.
You cannot preach a sermon series about Discipleship without preaching from what was probably the closest Jesus came to issuing a manifesto on what He wants for his followers.
Today we are going to look at the Sermon on the Mount and I know that we have heard this teaching so many times that we grow numb to it.
This morning I invite you to hear these teachings brand new and here them as a summons to what life should be like in the Kingdom.
Before one can start to understand the importance of this teaching you must go back and see some of the themes of Matthew’s Gospel.
Scholars have witnessed that Matthew’s gospel shows the teachings of Jesus as a New Moses type and His work as a new Exodus.
This exodus had been predicted by the prophets.
This Exodus – Or new Exodus would bring an exodus from the power of sin and bring times of refreshing for God’s people.
In Matthew’s Gospel we notice some similarities in the life of Christ and Moses.
When Jesus was born a leader wanted to kill him just like Moses
Jesus had to flee the country and wait until the leader that wanted to kill him had died.
Israel crosses the Red Sea and is called God’s Son.
Jesus was baptized in the Jordan and was declared God’s Son from Heaven.
Jesus is lead into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for 40 days after His baptism.
First, Jesus is tempted by hunger, which had caused Israel to grumble against God.
Then he is dared to put God to the test, to question God’s care for him.
This recalls the Israelites’ testing of God at Meribah and Massah.
Finally, he is tempted to worship a false god, which Israel actually did in creating the golden calf.
When Jesus quotes the Bible to Satan He uses passages from the Exodus account.
God is painting us a picture and imagine what He is telling us when we learn in Matthew 5:1 that Jesus goes upon a mountain to give His teaching.
Remember Israel traveled 40 days to get to Sinai the Mountain to receive the Law.
Now Jesus after 40 days of temptation in the wilderness goes upon a Mountain to give His greatest teaching on God’s Law.
Some would even call this the giving of the Law of Christ.
Immediately after his baptism and temptation, Jesus had begun to announce the good news that the kingdom of God, that had been promised in the Old Testament era, was now on the threshold.
He himself had come to inaugurate it.
With him, the new age had dawned, and the rule of God had broken into history.
"Repent," he cried, "for the kingdom of heaven is near" (Matthew 4:17).
Indeed, "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom" (Matthew 4:23).
None of them had to take notes or write them down because they would remember them for the rest of their lives.
When 9/11, when that attack took place, I bet everybody in this room could tell you where we were when we heard the news.
Because when something changes your life, you just remember.
OK, now. We start today with the Beatitudes, the blessed.
Nobody who was there had to write them down.
Nobody who was sitting on the side of that hill and heard those blessed statements from Jesus would ever forget them, not till they die. And I want to tell you why.
Because it is terribly important as we begin to be molded and shaped and have our lives changed by the Sermon on the Mount that we understand what’s going on when Jesus is giving the Beatitudes.
And a whole lot of people who know them and have them written down and maybe hanging up on a wall don’t understand what Jesus is doing with them.
But the people who heard them never forgot them.
And I want us to know why.
To get this, you actually have to back way up to the Old Testament, because the Prophet Isaiah is one prophet who wrote about a day that Israel was looking forward to.
What would happen for the human race on that day? This is what Isaiah said:
Isaiah 52:7
7How lovely on the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of happiness, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, "Your God reigns !"
What’s coming? Good news is coming. Gospel’s coming. What is it?
Your God reigns. That’s the Kingdom. There is a Kingdom.
There is a sphere in which everything is precisely the way that God wants it to be.
God is delighted and joyful. It is the range of His effective will.
It is real, and one day, how beautiful on the mountains will be the feet of the one who comes to tell us, “It’s here.”
Whose feet will those be? Who’s going to bring that news that the human race is dying to hear?
Isaiah did.
One day somebody is going to say,
Isaiah 61: 1-2
1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted ; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted , To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners ; 2 To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God ; To comfort all who mourn,a
Jesus quotes this very passage about His mission.
Who’s bringing the good news?
The Lord’s anointed. And that meant the Messiah.
The word Christ, it’s a Greek word christos from a little verb, chrio which meant “to anoint.”
Some of you will know when Jesus got up in His home town to begin teaching ministry, those are the words that He read.
When He finished reading them, He said,
Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. It’s me. I’m the Lord’s anointed.
Who’s the good news coming to?
Well it’s kind of an odd bunch.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to the brokenhearted, to those who mourn, to those who grieve.
Now of course, the good news will not be that it’s good to be poor or brokenhearted or mourn or grieve.
The good news is, now the Kingdom is coming to you.
The good news will be, for poor people and brokenhearted people and mourning people and grieving people, who will say,
Not me. I lost out on the good news.
I’m an outsider. And then the Lord’s anointed will say,
No, no, no. It’s you. It’s you. It’s you. You all come in now. It’s for you.
That’s what the world’s waiting for. The broken, the oppressed—and then one day, a poor carpenter who turned rabbi began to walk amongst the people of Israel on this earth and to say,
Now it’s come.
And as He’s going in their midst, He sees people who are desperately hurting, and He begins to touch them.
The bodies become made whole.
This really happens. People who have been under spiritual oppression in the grip of darkness are liberated or released.
And see, what’s happening when this is going on is, that’s the Kingdom at work.
Jesus sees the crowd that’s gathered around Him as He’s doing this and He begins to teach them, to explain what’s going on.
Now, who’s coming to hear Jesus? What’s that crowd like?
They’re nicely dressed people.
They’re successful people leading prosperous lives with happy children who get good grades and enter into nice colleges, driving hybrid cars.
And they have well-groomed pets.
Do you think? Not so much.
Not so much. [It’s] very important to understand what’s going on in this sermon.
Jesus went through Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom. Your God reigns.
This is what people have been waiting for for centuries.
The whole human race—although most people don’t know it—and healing every disease and sickness.
Now it’s no accident that He is proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and then He begins to heal disease and sicknesses.
It’s not just like coincidental or disconnected that those two statements are right there because He proclaims good news and then He’s manifesting the realty of the Kingdom in their midst.
He is dispensing its power.
Matthew 4:24
The news about Him spread throughout all Syria ; and they brought to Him all who were ill , those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics ; and He healed them
So, you have to understand as we’re picturing this sermon, this is a motley crew gathering around Jesus.
These are not the people who could afford the best of care, the best of food, the best of medicines.
This is not a catered event aimed at a high-end crowd.
These are the poor. These are the broken-hearted.
These are those who mourn.
These are those who grieve. Jesus, the Lord’s anointed, has actually been dispensing the Kingdom, power and reality.
Up there has now been coming down here in a few lives—broken, needy lives.
And now He wants to—He has to explain what’s going on.
It’s not just random acts of power.
He has to explain about up there coming down here so the people can understand, so they can see what
God is doing, so that they can respond, so that they can join in, so that they can be a part,
so that they can become His movement, so that they can enter into the blessed life and become a blessing to a broken, needy, mourning, grieving world.
So with this Jesus says:
Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven
And now everything has changed and the world is turned upside down. Many times people hear the Beatitudes and they think,
Oh, I guess I’m supposed to try harder to be like that? I guess I’m supposed to try harder to become poor in spirit so that I can get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
I remember when I was a kid sometimes they were taught as the “Be Attitudes,” like attitudes that we’re suppose to cultivate or something. And sometimes, even though the Beatitudes say “blessed,” they actually end up making people feel guilty or defeated, because people look at them and think,
I’m not like that. I don’t know that I could ever be like that. I don’t even know that I want to be like that.
So, Jesus in the Beatitudes is not talking about what to do in order to be blessed. He is not saying,
Try hard to be poor in spirit or to mourn.
He is doing something else. And I’m not sure that I can explain this clearly, but I will give it the best shot that I can because it’s so important.
In the ancient world there were two kinds of Beatitudes or blessings sayings,
The first kind is what might be called a blessing or a saying of instruction.
And this would be worded like this, “Blessed are the wise,” or “Blessed are the obedient,” or “Blessed are the faithful.”
And the idea here is: these are statements that say,
If you do this, if you live in this way, then you will live the good life.
And then you will be blessed.
These are designed to teach, to instruct.
There’s a second kind of blessing statement, much more rare.
You see it occasionally in the century or two before Jesus came.
And these are what might be called surprise announcements
These were in a kind of literature that were called “apocalyptic literature.”
This came about when Israel was just crushed by disappointment and frustration, because it seemed that the Kingdom of God had not come and seemed farther and farther away and seemed like it was never going to come.
So, sometimes in this apocalyptic literature—very rarely—there would be these statements about who’s blessed, but they were very surprising, they were very odd.
The ones pronounced blessed are people in distress, people under severe pressure, people who look hopeless.
And there’s a promise of blessing, but in these few statements and the surprise ones, that promise was always other worldly.
It was never hope for this world, not this life.
The purpose of these surprise blessing statements was not instruction.
It wasn’t, “Try to be this way.” The purpose of these was just hold on, just don’t quit.
Just don’t give up, just believe. Just hang in there, be encouraged, be consoled.
Now, when Jesus gives His blessings in the Beatitudes, He is not doing this. He is not giving advice.
You actually see this most clearly in Luke 6.
Identical situation. Jesus has been healing and delivering, a motley crowd has gathered around him and he then explains what it is that’s going on.
In Luke 6, the Beatitudes look like this.
Luke 6:20-22
Blessed are you who are poor…Blessed are you who hunger now…Blessed are you who weep now…Blessed are you when people hate you.
(Not because it’s good to be poor or hungry or weepy or disliked, but because the Kingdom of God has now become available to you through Jesus.
Now in Matthew the same thing is going on. The wording is a little different. Matthew says,
Blessed are the poor in spirit… (Matthew 5:3)
These are the spiritually impoverished.
These are people who include the materially poor, as well.
They are sometimes called the “people of the land.” They didn’t really know or do Torah.
They had no spiritual qualifications. They had no credentials. They were religiously illiterate. [There are a] lot of folks like that in our day, maybe you are one of them.
Now, it will help, I think, to get the picture if you imagine that Jesus is talking about somebody individually that He has just now helped, because that may well be what He did.
Jesus would very often, when He’s teaching, do this. Because He teaches to change lives, he teaches right out of a situation that’s going on around Him.
So, let’s say that Jesus sees in the crowd someone that has been brought to Him that He’s just helped.
Maybe it’s a man who was brought to Jesus because he had been demon-possessed, emotionally tormented, out of his mind, a spiritual zero.
Never part of a faith community; nobody would ask him what does he think about God. Now he’s calm and in his right mind. Why?
Because even though he had done nothing to deserve it, a merit, Jesus just comes up and touches him, and heals him.
This is a message of Grace – have we ever considered that the Beatitudes are a message of Grace and Hope.
They are not to be read as something that I have to do to merit God’s favor.
Jesus is giving grace to those that no one cares about and no one really wants to be like.
That is why these people will never forget this message of Jesus.
They are thinking:
One of us is blessed? Nobody’s ever told us that one of us could be blessed, before.
Jesus continues to give this upside down sermon on who is blessed – he says:
Matthew 5: 4
4"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Want to know who’s blessed? Blessed are those who mourn.
Not because it’s a good thing to mourn, but because the reality of the presence of the Kingdom is coming down to the mourning, and they shall be comforted now.
He is not doing this, he is not saying mourning is a good thing. He is not saying,
Blessed are those who mourn over their sin.
For the longest that is how people have read this beatitude but there is no contextual evidence to think this.
It actually follows with the other earlier beatitudes is that these people are actually in mourning because they have been left out.
Blessed are those who thought they had missed out;
who thought they had lost out on the good life, because now, through me, here is the Kingdom. If you want it, come right on in.
And everyone in the Beatitudes involves situations of dire human needs that left people hopeless, thinking they were forever outside.
Blessed are the meek. These are the people who have been pushed around.
This comes right out of Psalm 37:11. Psalm 37 is the story of the struggle between the meek and the powerful. And it says in Psalm 37,
The meek will inherit the earth. (Psalm 37:11)
The meek in Psalm 37 are the powerless and the land-less.
They were the peasants. In Jesus’ day—and it still is true in the Middle East—who owns the land, that’s a pretty big deal. The Romans and the wealthy had seized the whole thing.
And the vast majority of everybody listening to Jesus, they’re in this category. They’ve got no hope, they’re never going to have land.
Blessed are the shy, Blessed are the timid. Blessed are those who have no leverage and no connections and who are not assertive.
Today I want you to see what type of Savior that we have.
We have one that is meek, gentle and loving – This is the God that you serve. A God that cares for those that are poor in spirit, destitute.
Those that are mourning over all the things that grieves those that have nothing to look forward to.
A God that cares for those that are meek and kicked around.
Folks this is a message of love – pure grace – A God in Heaven that will look down on people hurting, poor, mourning and destitute and call them Blessed.
He can call them blessed because he is a God of unmerited favor – one that wants to lavish you with His love in Christ.
Our call to discipleship is one that calls you to follow a Savior like this.
A compelling message – this message is one that you want to share with others that God calls us to a Kingdom that is upside down –
God wants to bless those that no one else cares about.
"Excuse me, maam. But are you alright ?" He asked.
She replies, "Oh, yes officer. We're just fine. We are just on the way to Bible study. Was I doing something wrong?"
The officer says, "Well maam, you were traveling way under the speed limit and I was concerned that you might be having car trouble or something."
"But, officer", the lady interrupts, "I saw a sign there about a mile back that said 33, and I know I wasn't going any faster than that."
Chuckling, the trooper says, "maam, that was a state highway route marker, this is State Route 33, not the speed limit. The speed limit signs have a MPH at the bottom."
"Oh, now don't I feel foolish!", replied the lady turning red.
"That's ok, but please try to be more careful, I would hate to see you get hurt", finished the officer. Then as he turns to say good-bye to the ladies in the back seat, he notices for the first time that they are trembling violently and quite pale.
"Maam, what is wrong with your friends? Can I escort you to a hospital ?"
"Oh, no, they're all right. We just turned off of Route 150."
Not many of us our like these ladies. Following the very letter of the law.
But that’s our difficulty in life. We know what we’re supposed to do, and we think that that’s an accomplishment.
You get into a car; we’re all issued a book when we’re learning about driving. It’s called “The Rules of the Road.”
We know the book, but when an officer stops you for speeding or running a red light or something, do you ever try saying to him,
Officer, I know the book! I love the book! I agree with the book! I scored really well on my test. I was doing 55 in my heart.
Is the officer very impressed with that?
They don’t really care if you know the book. What matters is, what are you doing?
The problem is the education system in our day is largely built on the notion that what matters is that people are like empty jugs, and you just pour information into them.
And then their job is to retain the information and be able to spit back the answer you’re looking for on a test.
And if they do that, then they get good grades.
We all think we’re smart. That’s really good. Unfortunately, that’s gotten into a lot of church life, too.
A whole lot of people think growth is about just learning more and more and more and more information and being able to give the right answers.
What is usually the case is a disconnect between knowing what you are supposed to do and actually doing it.
A book was written by professors from Stanford on businesses that are ineffective.
For example, a company knows they need to improve quality control.
They know this. So, they talk about it, they listen to presentations about it, they read books about it, they look at state-of-art systems for it, they just never actually get around to doing it.
They never actually raise quality control.
Or, a company that has customer service problems.
They know they have customer service problems.
They know how important it is, they do studies on it. They appoint task forces to make recommendations.
They write “customer service” in their core values.
They just never actually do customer service. It’s a problem. It’s not a problem of ignorance.
It is not a problem of a lack of information. It’s not that they’re not smart enough.
The problem is a problem of knowing too much, but doing too little.
There is a gap that they call the “knowing/doing gap.” We know what we ought to be doing, but we’re not doing it.
We know that part of the danger of our sermon today for all of us including me is that we may hear the word but not be doers of the word.
As a matter of fact we are going to look at the greatest sermon ever preached.
This sermon is called the Sermon on the Mount.
Now before we even begin this study let us look at how Jesus ends this sermon on the Mount. It begins in Matthew 5 and ends in Matthew 7.
Jesus warns us in Matthew 7
Matthew 7: 24
24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Jesus warns us that to listen to this sermon requires putting it into practice.
We should not just be ones that hear the word but those that do the word.
Our challenge this morning is to take the charge of Christ and take it into account as we look at the first beatitudes.
You cannot preach a sermon series about Discipleship without preaching from what was probably the closest Jesus came to issuing a manifesto on what He wants for his followers.
Today we are going to look at the Sermon on the Mount and I know that we have heard this teaching so many times that we grow numb to it.
This morning I invite you to hear these teachings brand new and here them as a summons to what life should be like in the Kingdom.
Before one can start to understand the importance of this teaching you must go back and see some of the themes of Matthew’s Gospel.
Scholars have witnessed that Matthew’s gospel shows the teachings of Jesus as a New Moses type and His work as a new Exodus.
This exodus had been predicted by the prophets.
This Exodus – Or new Exodus would bring an exodus from the power of sin and bring times of refreshing for God’s people.
In Matthew’s Gospel we notice some similarities in the life of Christ and Moses.
When Jesus was born a leader wanted to kill him just like Moses
Jesus had to flee the country and wait until the leader that wanted to kill him had died.
Israel crosses the Red Sea and is called God’s Son.
Jesus was baptized in the Jordan and was declared God’s Son from Heaven.
Jesus is lead into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan for 40 days after His baptism.
First, Jesus is tempted by hunger, which had caused Israel to grumble against God.
Then he is dared to put God to the test, to question God’s care for him.
This recalls the Israelites’ testing of God at Meribah and Massah.
Finally, he is tempted to worship a false god, which Israel actually did in creating the golden calf.
When Jesus quotes the Bible to Satan He uses passages from the Exodus account.
God is painting us a picture and imagine what He is telling us when we learn in Matthew 5:1 that Jesus goes upon a mountain to give His teaching.
Remember Israel traveled 40 days to get to Sinai the Mountain to receive the Law.
Now Jesus after 40 days of temptation in the wilderness goes upon a Mountain to give His greatest teaching on God’s Law.
Some would even call this the giving of the Law of Christ.
Immediately after his baptism and temptation, Jesus had begun to announce the good news that the kingdom of God, that had been promised in the Old Testament era, was now on the threshold.
He himself had come to inaugurate it.
With him, the new age had dawned, and the rule of God had broken into history.
"Repent," he cried, "for the kingdom of heaven is near" (Matthew 4:17).
Indeed, "Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom" (Matthew 4:23).
None of them had to take notes or write them down because they would remember them for the rest of their lives.
When 9/11, when that attack took place, I bet everybody in this room could tell you where we were when we heard the news.
Because when something changes your life, you just remember.
OK, now. We start today with the Beatitudes, the blessed.
Nobody who was there had to write them down.
Nobody who was sitting on the side of that hill and heard those blessed statements from Jesus would ever forget them, not till they die. And I want to tell you why.
Because it is terribly important as we begin to be molded and shaped and have our lives changed by the Sermon on the Mount that we understand what’s going on when Jesus is giving the Beatitudes.
And a whole lot of people who know them and have them written down and maybe hanging up on a wall don’t understand what Jesus is doing with them.
But the people who heard them never forgot them.
And I want us to know why.
To get this, you actually have to back way up to the Old Testament, because the Prophet Isaiah is one prophet who wrote about a day that Israel was looking forward to.
What would happen for the human race on that day? This is what Isaiah said:
Isaiah 52:7
7How lovely on the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who announces peace And brings good news of happiness, Who announces salvation, And says to Zion, "Your God reigns !"
What’s coming? Good news is coming. Gospel’s coming. What is it?
Your God reigns. That’s the Kingdom. There is a Kingdom.
There is a sphere in which everything is precisely the way that God wants it to be.
God is delighted and joyful. It is the range of His effective will.
It is real, and one day, how beautiful on the mountains will be the feet of the one who comes to tell us, “It’s here.”
Whose feet will those be? Who’s going to bring that news that the human race is dying to hear?
Isaiah did.
One day somebody is going to say,
Isaiah 61: 1-2
1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted ; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted , To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners ; 2 To proclaim the favorable year of the LORD And the day of vengeance of our God ; To comfort all who mourn,a
Jesus quotes this very passage about His mission.
Who’s bringing the good news?
The Lord’s anointed. And that meant the Messiah.
The word Christ, it’s a Greek word christos from a little verb, chrio which meant “to anoint.”
Some of you will know when Jesus got up in His home town to begin teaching ministry, those are the words that He read.
When He finished reading them, He said,
Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. It’s me. I’m the Lord’s anointed.
Who’s the good news coming to?
Well it’s kind of an odd bunch.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor, to the brokenhearted, to those who mourn, to those who grieve.
Now of course, the good news will not be that it’s good to be poor or brokenhearted or mourn or grieve.
The good news is, now the Kingdom is coming to you.
The good news will be, for poor people and brokenhearted people and mourning people and grieving people, who will say,
Not me. I lost out on the good news.
I’m an outsider. And then the Lord’s anointed will say,
No, no, no. It’s you. It’s you. It’s you. You all come in now. It’s for you.
That’s what the world’s waiting for. The broken, the oppressed—and then one day, a poor carpenter who turned rabbi began to walk amongst the people of Israel on this earth and to say,
Now it’s come.
And as He’s going in their midst, He sees people who are desperately hurting, and He begins to touch them.
The bodies become made whole.
This really happens. People who have been under spiritual oppression in the grip of darkness are liberated or released.
And see, what’s happening when this is going on is, that’s the Kingdom at work.
Jesus sees the crowd that’s gathered around Him as He’s doing this and He begins to teach them, to explain what’s going on.
Now, who’s coming to hear Jesus? What’s that crowd like?
They’re nicely dressed people.
They’re successful people leading prosperous lives with happy children who get good grades and enter into nice colleges, driving hybrid cars.
And they have well-groomed pets.
Do you think? Not so much.
Not so much. [It’s] very important to understand what’s going on in this sermon.
Jesus went through Galilee teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom. Your God reigns.
This is what people have been waiting for for centuries.
The whole human race—although most people don’t know it—and healing every disease and sickness.
Now it’s no accident that He is proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom and then He begins to heal disease and sicknesses.
It’s not just like coincidental or disconnected that those two statements are right there because He proclaims good news and then He’s manifesting the realty of the Kingdom in their midst.
He is dispensing its power.
Matthew 4:24
The news about Him spread throughout all Syria ; and they brought to Him all who were ill , those suffering with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics ; and He healed them
So, you have to understand as we’re picturing this sermon, this is a motley crew gathering around Jesus.
These are not the people who could afford the best of care, the best of food, the best of medicines.
This is not a catered event aimed at a high-end crowd.
These are the poor. These are the broken-hearted.
These are those who mourn.
These are those who grieve. Jesus, the Lord’s anointed, has actually been dispensing the Kingdom, power and reality.
Up there has now been coming down here in a few lives—broken, needy lives.
And now He wants to—He has to explain what’s going on.
It’s not just random acts of power.
He has to explain about up there coming down here so the people can understand, so they can see what
God is doing, so that they can respond, so that they can join in, so that they can be a part,
so that they can become His movement, so that they can enter into the blessed life and become a blessing to a broken, needy, mourning, grieving world.
So with this Jesus says:
Matthew 5:3
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven
And now everything has changed and the world is turned upside down. Many times people hear the Beatitudes and they think,
Oh, I guess I’m supposed to try harder to be like that? I guess I’m supposed to try harder to become poor in spirit so that I can get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
I remember when I was a kid sometimes they were taught as the “Be Attitudes,” like attitudes that we’re suppose to cultivate or something. And sometimes, even though the Beatitudes say “blessed,” they actually end up making people feel guilty or defeated, because people look at them and think,
I’m not like that. I don’t know that I could ever be like that. I don’t even know that I want to be like that.
So, Jesus in the Beatitudes is not talking about what to do in order to be blessed. He is not saying,
Try hard to be poor in spirit or to mourn.
He is doing something else. And I’m not sure that I can explain this clearly, but I will give it the best shot that I can because it’s so important.
In the ancient world there were two kinds of Beatitudes or blessings sayings,
The first kind is what might be called a blessing or a saying of instruction.
And this would be worded like this, “Blessed are the wise,” or “Blessed are the obedient,” or “Blessed are the faithful.”
And the idea here is: these are statements that say,
If you do this, if you live in this way, then you will live the good life.
And then you will be blessed.
These are designed to teach, to instruct.
There’s a second kind of blessing statement, much more rare.
You see it occasionally in the century or two before Jesus came.
And these are what might be called surprise announcements
These were in a kind of literature that were called “apocalyptic literature.”
This came about when Israel was just crushed by disappointment and frustration, because it seemed that the Kingdom of God had not come and seemed farther and farther away and seemed like it was never going to come.
So, sometimes in this apocalyptic literature—very rarely—there would be these statements about who’s blessed, but they were very surprising, they were very odd.
The ones pronounced blessed are people in distress, people under severe pressure, people who look hopeless.
And there’s a promise of blessing, but in these few statements and the surprise ones, that promise was always other worldly.
It was never hope for this world, not this life.
The purpose of these surprise blessing statements was not instruction.
It wasn’t, “Try to be this way.” The purpose of these was just hold on, just don’t quit.
Just don’t give up, just believe. Just hang in there, be encouraged, be consoled.
Now, when Jesus gives His blessings in the Beatitudes, He is not doing this. He is not giving advice.
You actually see this most clearly in Luke 6.
Identical situation. Jesus has been healing and delivering, a motley crowd has gathered around him and he then explains what it is that’s going on.
In Luke 6, the Beatitudes look like this.
Luke 6:20-22
Blessed are you who are poor…Blessed are you who hunger now…Blessed are you who weep now…Blessed are you when people hate you.
(Not because it’s good to be poor or hungry or weepy or disliked, but because the Kingdom of God has now become available to you through Jesus.
Now in Matthew the same thing is going on. The wording is a little different. Matthew says,
Blessed are the poor in spirit… (Matthew 5:3)
These are the spiritually impoverished.
These are people who include the materially poor, as well.
They are sometimes called the “people of the land.” They didn’t really know or do Torah.
They had no spiritual qualifications. They had no credentials. They were religiously illiterate. [There are a] lot of folks like that in our day, maybe you are one of them.
Now, it will help, I think, to get the picture if you imagine that Jesus is talking about somebody individually that He has just now helped, because that may well be what He did.
Jesus would very often, when He’s teaching, do this. Because He teaches to change lives, he teaches right out of a situation that’s going on around Him.
So, let’s say that Jesus sees in the crowd someone that has been brought to Him that He’s just helped.
Maybe it’s a man who was brought to Jesus because he had been demon-possessed, emotionally tormented, out of his mind, a spiritual zero.
Never part of a faith community; nobody would ask him what does he think about God. Now he’s calm and in his right mind. Why?
Because even though he had done nothing to deserve it, a merit, Jesus just comes up and touches him, and heals him.
This is a message of Grace – have we ever considered that the Beatitudes are a message of Grace and Hope.
They are not to be read as something that I have to do to merit God’s favor.
Jesus is giving grace to those that no one cares about and no one really wants to be like.
That is why these people will never forget this message of Jesus.
They are thinking:
One of us is blessed? Nobody’s ever told us that one of us could be blessed, before.
Jesus continues to give this upside down sermon on who is blessed – he says:
Matthew 5: 4
4"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
Want to know who’s blessed? Blessed are those who mourn.
Not because it’s a good thing to mourn, but because the reality of the presence of the Kingdom is coming down to the mourning, and they shall be comforted now.
He is not doing this, he is not saying mourning is a good thing. He is not saying,
Blessed are those who mourn over their sin.
For the longest that is how people have read this beatitude but there is no contextual evidence to think this.
It actually follows with the other earlier beatitudes is that these people are actually in mourning because they have been left out.
Blessed are those who thought they had missed out;
who thought they had lost out on the good life, because now, through me, here is the Kingdom. If you want it, come right on in.
And everyone in the Beatitudes involves situations of dire human needs that left people hopeless, thinking they were forever outside.
Blessed are the meek. These are the people who have been pushed around.
This comes right out of Psalm 37:11. Psalm 37 is the story of the struggle between the meek and the powerful. And it says in Psalm 37,
The meek will inherit the earth. (Psalm 37:11)
The meek in Psalm 37 are the powerless and the land-less.
They were the peasants. In Jesus’ day—and it still is true in the Middle East—who owns the land, that’s a pretty big deal. The Romans and the wealthy had seized the whole thing.
And the vast majority of everybody listening to Jesus, they’re in this category. They’ve got no hope, they’re never going to have land.
Blessed are the shy, Blessed are the timid. Blessed are those who have no leverage and no connections and who are not assertive.
Today I want you to see what type of Savior that we have.
We have one that is meek, gentle and loving – This is the God that you serve. A God that cares for those that are poor in spirit, destitute.
Those that are mourning over all the things that grieves those that have nothing to look forward to.
A God that cares for those that are meek and kicked around.
Folks this is a message of love – pure grace – A God in Heaven that will look down on people hurting, poor, mourning and destitute and call them Blessed.
He can call them blessed because he is a God of unmerited favor – one that wants to lavish you with His love in Christ.
Our call to discipleship is one that calls you to follow a Savior like this.
A compelling message – this message is one that you want to share with others that God calls us to a Kingdom that is upside down –
God wants to bless those that no one else cares about.
Sunday, January 15, 2012
take up your cross
An out-of-towner drove his car into a ditch in a desolated area. Luckily, a local farmer came to help with his big strong horse named Buddy.
He hitched Buddy up to the car and yelled, "Pull, Nellie, pull!" Buddy didn’t move.
Then the farmer hollered, "Pull, Buster, pull!" Buddy didn’t respond.
Once more the farmer commanded, "Pull, Coco, pull!" Nothing.
Then the farmer nonchalantly said, "Pull, Buddy, pull!" And the horse easily dragged the car out of the ditch.
The motorist was most appreciative and very curious. He asked the farmer, “Why did you call your horse by the wrong name three times.
"Well mister... My horse Buddy is blind and if he thought he was the only one pulling out the car, he wouldn’t even try!"
There may be some here today that think you are going about this life all alone.
We may seem so confused or even feel like giving up because life is so hard and it seems that faith in Christ is so hard.
We tend to make the Christian message very difficult. We started a series of sermons here at the first of the year on being Disciples of Christ.
The First week we talked about how Costly Grace really is to God – it cost His Son, It cost a death on the cross to open a path of discipleship for us today.
Last week we talked about human barriers to discipleship and ways we get in the way of God’s work in our lives.
Today, I want to focus in on Jesus call to True Discipleship.
When Jesus calls us to Discipleship what will it look like?
Last week I introduced you to the idea that many folks believe in Christ as their Savior but not as their Lord, somehow and unbiblically so, Christ as Savior has been separated as Christ as Lord.
But this problem is not new. Even back in the 1400’s Christians had this same problem.
The German spiritual writer Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) said this: "Jesus now has many lovers of his heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of his cross."
Many wanted to have the benefits of the Kingdom of Jesus but without following Jesus - To this I would say people have missed the point.
Our life in Christ begins now and is not something that we should only be looking forward to in the Heavenly dimension.
Some have relegated Christianity to a forward looking and only a heavenward experience when the Bible clearly teaches that our life in Christ begins now.
Jesus has become a concept or thought instead of a reality. The reality of a living Jesus who is ascended into Heaven and seated at the right hand of the Father in victory is lost on many people.
I don’t agree with everything Karl Barth said but he had a great quote about how we have made Jesus a concept.
The Word became flesh--and then through theologians it became words again.
Jesus was a reality – God in flesh – God among us but we have reduced Jesus to just mere words.
If we are asked what does it mean to be a Christian? – we would respond that a Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ.
Is that the answer that Jesus himself would give?
I mean, how do you define “to follow”?
“To follow” seems like a fairly wide open response. Does it mean I follow the teaching of Jesus?
Or that I give my life over to Jesus? Does it mean I go to church and learn about Jesus?
Or perhaps, does it mean I just really, really like Jesus?
Today Jesus answers that question for us, “What does it mean to be a Christian”?
Today’s reading from Mark 8 gets to that very question – What does it mean to be a Christian?? Today we will see a confession of faith and then Jesus will give an answer to what it means when you give that confession.
Today’s passage occurs in Caesarea Philippi and it is important to know about this location. This is a very pagan place and would have a large population of Roman sympathizers.
This city is named for Caesar Augustus and Herod Philip. This would be a place where one would find a strong Roman presence and ethos.
Mark 8: 27-38
27Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi ; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, "Who do people say that I am ?"28They told Him, saying, "John the Baptist ; and others say Elijah ; but others, one of the prophets." 29 And He continued by questioning them, "But who do you say that I am ?" Peter answered and said to Him, "You are the Christ." 30 And He warned them to tell no one about Him. 31And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 33 But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind Me, Satan ; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's."34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.35"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.36"For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul ?37"For what will a man give in exchange for his soul ?38"For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."
We see that it is here in Caesarea Philippi that Jesus decides to reveal who He really is.
It is here that Jesus contrast human reality with spiritual reality by asking the defining question:
Who do you say that I am?
This is the defining moment in this book.
Everything is different from here on in.
Just like NOW people then were confused about WHO Jesus really Is.
They try to place Jesus in a category, but he doesn’t fit into already established categories, so they speculate.
Just like in our time we try to put Jesus into categories that make us comfortable.
The most recent person they saw with similar kind of godly power was John the Baptist. So they speculate Jesus is now John the Baptist.
Which of course makes no sense.
But, understand, there is no biblical or theological basis for this type of thinking, this is just what people are thinking.
This idea that John the Baptist is now Jesus, is more in the realm of folklore than anything else.
The people also claim that Jesus is Elijah.
The prophet Elijah was the most powerful of all the prophets in the OT.
He was known for his powerful speaking and for his miracles. Jesus is known for his powerful speaking and for his miracles, so “perhaps” people speculated,
“Jesus is Elijah”.
Now, we see that John the Baptist ministry was in the spirit of Elijah.
This does not mean that the spirit of Elijah inhabited John’s body, no “the spirit” means not a person’s spirit, but in the spirit of, like - she sure has great school spirit.
It is more along the lines of spunk and is not insinuating possession by a spirit or even reincarnation.
They also think Jesus might be one of the other prophets.
The point is that they aren’t sure who Jesus is, but they know that he is a powerful man of God and so they place him in a category with all those they can think of who were powerful men of God.
All that said, no one publicly is saying that Jesus is the Messiah.
They think he is powerful, godly…and beyond that, they just don’t know.
They are doing is assigning Jesus a preparatory role as was the role of the prophets, when his role is the definitive role.
Then is verse 29 Jesus directly asks the disciples,
“Who do you say I am?” How the question is structured in verse 29, brings out this meaning:
You whom I have chosen and trained, who do you think I am in contrast with other people.
The disciples have been extended a special grace.
Peter, and no one else, is able to express what they have all been hoping for, “You are the Christ.’” Peter is calling Jesus the Messiah.
The basic meaning of messiah is a passive one “the one anointed by God” it implies election and appointment to a particular task and a special endowment of power to accomplish that task.
Peter’s expression of faith recognizes the divine promise and realization of Israel’s hopes – but Peter is ignorant of the deeper meanings.
It was a profound expression of faith that he spoke, but as we see in the following verses, it was also a misunderstanding of faith.
Peter’s words were correct, but the concept was wrong.
With this in mind, Jesus then defines what it means to be messiah in verse 31:
He must suffer, be rejected, be killed and then rise again.
The concept of identity of Jesus is linked to the reality of His Rejection and His Crucifixion and Resurrection.
Linked together with Messiahship is rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection.
This must be they way it is! Peter outright rejects Jesus’ definition.
When Peter claimed that Jesus was the Messiah it meant one thing to him and it certainly didn’t mean he would suffer and die.
The Hebrews thought of the golden age of Israel when David was king.
It was in the popular imagination that they would one day regain this situation.
Let’s be clear that this was not the only view of what the Messiah would be like and what the messiah would do for the people of Israel, but it certainly was the popular conception of what the Messiah would bring.
Within this popular concept, which probably, to some extent Peter has bought into, there certainly was no understanding that the Messiah would be murdered – I mean in their mind they would conclude,
“What would be the point of the Messiah rising in power only to die and have things fall apart?”
That would make no sense. In a way it could be like a presidential candidate going through all the difficulty of campaigning to get elected, to only then die right as he arrived in office.
How effective would that be? You give up your power right as you gain it?
Jesus rejects Peter’s rejection of his definition of what it means to be the Messiah saying, “Get behind me Satan.”
Get behind me – essentially means get out of my sight.
It is thought to be said in the military sense, return to your rank - be a true follower of mine and not one who speaks for Satan.
Then Jesus defines what is required to be identified with him.
He calls everyone together showing that what he is about to say is meant for us all and not just his disciples.
Jesus then speaks about the cross.
The cross shows the “how” to be my follower, or what it means to be a Christian.
Jesus says in verse 34, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. In saying this, Jesus shows us what it means to be followers of Christ.
What does it mean to bear one’s cross?
Well, it doesn’t mean to suffer a personal issue.
“I guess this chronic issue of diabetes in my life is my cross to bear” or “Having my mother-in law visit for over a month is my cross to bear”.
Having your mother-in-law stay for a month might be a difficult situation, or having an illness might be a horrible thing – but it is not what Jesus is talking about here.
To apply what Jesus said to either of those situations is completely wrong.
This is not at all what Jesus had in mind. To take up your cross does not mean to take up and carry your burdens.
Think of it this way: Jesus is telling us what it means to be a follower of his, putting up with my mother-in-law for a month is not the definition of being a follower of Christ.
It might be saintly in some respects, but it is not what Jesus is getting at.
See Jesus is not talking about doing the best I can in spite of the situation or circumstances that surround me.
And though it is our cross, it is not about us, it is about Jesus. It is about sacrificial obedience TO Jesus Christ.
It is not about me, it is about Jesus. When Jesus tells us to deny ourselves, he does not mean to deny things.
The denial Jesus is speaking of here means that I submit everything to His control.
2 Timothy 2: 11-13
11It is a trustworthy statement : For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; 12If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; 13If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
In the Roman world, when one carried their own cross, it meant that they had succumbed to the power of Rome – they had submitted themselves to Caesar’s lordship unto death.
Jesus uses this illustration to show what discipleship is. We are to submit to the power and lordship of Jesus period – come what may – good times and bad.
We submit to Jesus Christ. This is what it means to follow Jesus Christ.
Notice Jesus is not saying that by following him your life will become easy. No, what is he saying? Just the opposite.
This is why he emphasizes gaining the whole world and losing your life.
Those who tell us that all of our health issues, and financial troubles will fade away when we follow Jesus are just plain ignorant.
If they claim this is what has happened in their life and it can happen to you too – then clearly they are living out another gospel.
I don’t know about you, but it literally frightens me to think we could so easily follow another gospel and gain the whole world (which means everything I always wanted) and yet lose it all.
Jesus calls not for only his suffering but ours also.
It is a complete call and identification with Christ.
In fact, carrying the cross is an indication that one is prepared to die.
A person is only willing to die for something that is the most important to them.
Rom. 8:17 says, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
To forfeit one’s soul, verse 36 – implies that fault of the one experiencing the loss, a sense that one has trifled away their life doing ridiculous things.
In other words, what we think of as normal life accomplishments….are a great danger.
For we may think we are accomplishing great things as we gain, gain, gain, but in the end we lose it all.
Not a commitment to the message of Christianity, or the concept of Christianity, or even the morals of Christianity, but it is a call of commitment to the person of Jesus.
What does a follower of Jesus look like: One who has total submission to Jesus.
APPLICATION:
We clearly see that to try to separate the confession of Who Christ is – the Messiah – the Son of God must be connected to His call to Suffer and Die is Satanic.
Satan’s plot would be to try to get Christians today, just like Peter did to try to separate the two – Christ’s identity and His suffering.
One reason people don’t want to think about the suffering Christ is because it reminds us that He can call us to suffer too.
A servant is no greater than His master – and because of this we are called to walk as He did – rejected by the world, but embraced by God.
Because of Jesus suffering, because of His separation we will never be separated from the Love of God.
Jesus bore our sins and suffered the separation that we deserved and now has opened up a way to true life.
Jesus has opened up a new humanity – a new way in which we were originally called to be.
Two paths – The first Adam was a coward – he was disobedient, he didn’t protect his bride, he didn’t obey God
Now Jesus is the New Adam – the new man – the obedient man and He has unlocked the way to true humanity.
We have to choose today what path we want to take.
You can take the path of the heavy, heavy burden of your own ambition.
The heavy burden of trying to live up the world’s expectations – the best house, the best car, the best clothes.
Do you get tired of that – do you ever get tired of being what everyone wants you to be and bearing that heavy burden?
There was an article Written called, How to be Miserable
I want to read this to you and let you consider this way of living versus what Jesus has to offer.
It says, "Think about yourself. Talk about yourself.
Use "I" as often as possible. Mirror yourself continually in the opinion of others.
Listen greedily to what people say about you. Expect to be appreciated. Be suspicious. Be jealous and envious. Be sensitive to slights. Never forgive a criticism. Trust nobody but yourself. Insist on consideration and respect. Demand agreement with your own views on everything. Sulk if people are not grateful to you for favors shown them. Never forget a service you have rendered. Shirk your duties if you can. Do as little as possible for others."
This is the way of Adam the way of sin the way of the world.
But the Gospel calls us to something different – the Gospel calls us to die to our self.
It is on longer I but Christ who lives in me.
What we have lost in our Gospel preaching is that when we confess Who Christ is – it now behoves us to take our cross and follow Him.
He can make that claim on our life because of Who He is. He is our God and the only way to reach true happiness, contentment, and salvation is to walk in this way. The Way of the cross.
Charles Spurgeon once correctly stated:
There are no crown-wearers in heaven who were not cross- bearers here below.
Today we must choose – there is only one way to the Father – there is only one way to be a disciple and that is taking up your cross and to follow Jesus.
Today I want to close you with these thoughts.
1) Who are you living for? Are you living for Christ or are you burdened by your own care?
2) Do you want true peace for you and your family?
3) Do you see every part of your life through the lens of the cross and Jesus?
4) Are their parts of your life that you keep hidden from God? Are their parts that you have not surrendered to Christ? Are their secret parts of rebellion to God that you still are not in submission?
Today our challenge is to take up the cross of Christ and follow Him.
He hitched Buddy up to the car and yelled, "Pull, Nellie, pull!" Buddy didn’t move.
Then the farmer hollered, "Pull, Buster, pull!" Buddy didn’t respond.
Once more the farmer commanded, "Pull, Coco, pull!" Nothing.
Then the farmer nonchalantly said, "Pull, Buddy, pull!" And the horse easily dragged the car out of the ditch.
The motorist was most appreciative and very curious. He asked the farmer, “Why did you call your horse by the wrong name three times.
"Well mister... My horse Buddy is blind and if he thought he was the only one pulling out the car, he wouldn’t even try!"
There may be some here today that think you are going about this life all alone.
We may seem so confused or even feel like giving up because life is so hard and it seems that faith in Christ is so hard.
We tend to make the Christian message very difficult. We started a series of sermons here at the first of the year on being Disciples of Christ.
The First week we talked about how Costly Grace really is to God – it cost His Son, It cost a death on the cross to open a path of discipleship for us today.
Last week we talked about human barriers to discipleship and ways we get in the way of God’s work in our lives.
Today, I want to focus in on Jesus call to True Discipleship.
When Jesus calls us to Discipleship what will it look like?
Last week I introduced you to the idea that many folks believe in Christ as their Savior but not as their Lord, somehow and unbiblically so, Christ as Savior has been separated as Christ as Lord.
But this problem is not new. Even back in the 1400’s Christians had this same problem.
The German spiritual writer Thomas à Kempis (1380-1471) said this: "Jesus now has many lovers of his heavenly kingdom, but few bearers of his cross."
Many wanted to have the benefits of the Kingdom of Jesus but without following Jesus - To this I would say people have missed the point.
Our life in Christ begins now and is not something that we should only be looking forward to in the Heavenly dimension.
Some have relegated Christianity to a forward looking and only a heavenward experience when the Bible clearly teaches that our life in Christ begins now.
Jesus has become a concept or thought instead of a reality. The reality of a living Jesus who is ascended into Heaven and seated at the right hand of the Father in victory is lost on many people.
I don’t agree with everything Karl Barth said but he had a great quote about how we have made Jesus a concept.
The Word became flesh--and then through theologians it became words again.
Jesus was a reality – God in flesh – God among us but we have reduced Jesus to just mere words.
If we are asked what does it mean to be a Christian? – we would respond that a Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ.
Is that the answer that Jesus himself would give?
I mean, how do you define “to follow”?
“To follow” seems like a fairly wide open response. Does it mean I follow the teaching of Jesus?
Or that I give my life over to Jesus? Does it mean I go to church and learn about Jesus?
Or perhaps, does it mean I just really, really like Jesus?
Today Jesus answers that question for us, “What does it mean to be a Christian”?
Today’s reading from Mark 8 gets to that very question – What does it mean to be a Christian?? Today we will see a confession of faith and then Jesus will give an answer to what it means when you give that confession.
Today’s passage occurs in Caesarea Philippi and it is important to know about this location. This is a very pagan place and would have a large population of Roman sympathizers.
This city is named for Caesar Augustus and Herod Philip. This would be a place where one would find a strong Roman presence and ethos.
Mark 8: 27-38
27Jesus went out, along with His disciples, to the villages of Caesarea Philippi ; and on the way He questioned His disciples, saying to them, "Who do people say that I am ?"28They told Him, saying, "John the Baptist ; and others say Elijah ; but others, one of the prophets." 29 And He continued by questioning them, "But who do you say that I am ?" Peter answered and said to Him, "You are the Christ." 30 And He warned them to tell no one about Him. 31And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32 And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. 33 But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind Me, Satan ; for you are not setting your mind on God's interests, but man's."34 And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.35"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.36"For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul ?37"For what will a man give in exchange for his soul ?38"For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels."
We see that it is here in Caesarea Philippi that Jesus decides to reveal who He really is.
It is here that Jesus contrast human reality with spiritual reality by asking the defining question:
Who do you say that I am?
This is the defining moment in this book.
Everything is different from here on in.
Just like NOW people then were confused about WHO Jesus really Is.
They try to place Jesus in a category, but he doesn’t fit into already established categories, so they speculate.
Just like in our time we try to put Jesus into categories that make us comfortable.
The most recent person they saw with similar kind of godly power was John the Baptist. So they speculate Jesus is now John the Baptist.
Which of course makes no sense.
But, understand, there is no biblical or theological basis for this type of thinking, this is just what people are thinking.
This idea that John the Baptist is now Jesus, is more in the realm of folklore than anything else.
The people also claim that Jesus is Elijah.
The prophet Elijah was the most powerful of all the prophets in the OT.
He was known for his powerful speaking and for his miracles. Jesus is known for his powerful speaking and for his miracles, so “perhaps” people speculated,
“Jesus is Elijah”.
Now, we see that John the Baptist ministry was in the spirit of Elijah.
This does not mean that the spirit of Elijah inhabited John’s body, no “the spirit” means not a person’s spirit, but in the spirit of, like - she sure has great school spirit.
It is more along the lines of spunk and is not insinuating possession by a spirit or even reincarnation.
They also think Jesus might be one of the other prophets.
The point is that they aren’t sure who Jesus is, but they know that he is a powerful man of God and so they place him in a category with all those they can think of who were powerful men of God.
All that said, no one publicly is saying that Jesus is the Messiah.
They think he is powerful, godly…and beyond that, they just don’t know.
They are doing is assigning Jesus a preparatory role as was the role of the prophets, when his role is the definitive role.
Then is verse 29 Jesus directly asks the disciples,
“Who do you say I am?” How the question is structured in verse 29, brings out this meaning:
You whom I have chosen and trained, who do you think I am in contrast with other people.
The disciples have been extended a special grace.
Peter, and no one else, is able to express what they have all been hoping for, “You are the Christ.’” Peter is calling Jesus the Messiah.
The basic meaning of messiah is a passive one “the one anointed by God” it implies election and appointment to a particular task and a special endowment of power to accomplish that task.
Peter’s expression of faith recognizes the divine promise and realization of Israel’s hopes – but Peter is ignorant of the deeper meanings.
It was a profound expression of faith that he spoke, but as we see in the following verses, it was also a misunderstanding of faith.
Peter’s words were correct, but the concept was wrong.
With this in mind, Jesus then defines what it means to be messiah in verse 31:
He must suffer, be rejected, be killed and then rise again.
The concept of identity of Jesus is linked to the reality of His Rejection and His Crucifixion and Resurrection.
Linked together with Messiahship is rejection, crucifixion, and resurrection.
This must be they way it is! Peter outright rejects Jesus’ definition.
When Peter claimed that Jesus was the Messiah it meant one thing to him and it certainly didn’t mean he would suffer and die.
The Hebrews thought of the golden age of Israel when David was king.
It was in the popular imagination that they would one day regain this situation.
Let’s be clear that this was not the only view of what the Messiah would be like and what the messiah would do for the people of Israel, but it certainly was the popular conception of what the Messiah would bring.
Within this popular concept, which probably, to some extent Peter has bought into, there certainly was no understanding that the Messiah would be murdered – I mean in their mind they would conclude,
“What would be the point of the Messiah rising in power only to die and have things fall apart?”
That would make no sense. In a way it could be like a presidential candidate going through all the difficulty of campaigning to get elected, to only then die right as he arrived in office.
How effective would that be? You give up your power right as you gain it?
Jesus rejects Peter’s rejection of his definition of what it means to be the Messiah saying, “Get behind me Satan.”
Get behind me – essentially means get out of my sight.
It is thought to be said in the military sense, return to your rank - be a true follower of mine and not one who speaks for Satan.
Then Jesus defines what is required to be identified with him.
He calls everyone together showing that what he is about to say is meant for us all and not just his disciples.
Jesus then speaks about the cross.
The cross shows the “how” to be my follower, or what it means to be a Christian.
Jesus says in verse 34, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. In saying this, Jesus shows us what it means to be followers of Christ.
What does it mean to bear one’s cross?
Well, it doesn’t mean to suffer a personal issue.
“I guess this chronic issue of diabetes in my life is my cross to bear” or “Having my mother-in law visit for over a month is my cross to bear”.
Having your mother-in-law stay for a month might be a difficult situation, or having an illness might be a horrible thing – but it is not what Jesus is talking about here.
To apply what Jesus said to either of those situations is completely wrong.
This is not at all what Jesus had in mind. To take up your cross does not mean to take up and carry your burdens.
Think of it this way: Jesus is telling us what it means to be a follower of his, putting up with my mother-in-law for a month is not the definition of being a follower of Christ.
It might be saintly in some respects, but it is not what Jesus is getting at.
See Jesus is not talking about doing the best I can in spite of the situation or circumstances that surround me.
And though it is our cross, it is not about us, it is about Jesus. It is about sacrificial obedience TO Jesus Christ.
It is not about me, it is about Jesus. When Jesus tells us to deny ourselves, he does not mean to deny things.
The denial Jesus is speaking of here means that I submit everything to His control.
2 Timothy 2: 11-13
11It is a trustworthy statement : For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; 12If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; 13If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.
In the Roman world, when one carried their own cross, it meant that they had succumbed to the power of Rome – they had submitted themselves to Caesar’s lordship unto death.
Jesus uses this illustration to show what discipleship is. We are to submit to the power and lordship of Jesus period – come what may – good times and bad.
We submit to Jesus Christ. This is what it means to follow Jesus Christ.
Notice Jesus is not saying that by following him your life will become easy. No, what is he saying? Just the opposite.
This is why he emphasizes gaining the whole world and losing your life.
Those who tell us that all of our health issues, and financial troubles will fade away when we follow Jesus are just plain ignorant.
If they claim this is what has happened in their life and it can happen to you too – then clearly they are living out another gospel.
I don’t know about you, but it literally frightens me to think we could so easily follow another gospel and gain the whole world (which means everything I always wanted) and yet lose it all.
Jesus calls not for only his suffering but ours also.
It is a complete call and identification with Christ.
In fact, carrying the cross is an indication that one is prepared to die.
A person is only willing to die for something that is the most important to them.
Rom. 8:17 says, “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”
To forfeit one’s soul, verse 36 – implies that fault of the one experiencing the loss, a sense that one has trifled away their life doing ridiculous things.
In other words, what we think of as normal life accomplishments….are a great danger.
For we may think we are accomplishing great things as we gain, gain, gain, but in the end we lose it all.
Not a commitment to the message of Christianity, or the concept of Christianity, or even the morals of Christianity, but it is a call of commitment to the person of Jesus.
What does a follower of Jesus look like: One who has total submission to Jesus.
APPLICATION:
We clearly see that to try to separate the confession of Who Christ is – the Messiah – the Son of God must be connected to His call to Suffer and Die is Satanic.
Satan’s plot would be to try to get Christians today, just like Peter did to try to separate the two – Christ’s identity and His suffering.
One reason people don’t want to think about the suffering Christ is because it reminds us that He can call us to suffer too.
A servant is no greater than His master – and because of this we are called to walk as He did – rejected by the world, but embraced by God.
Because of Jesus suffering, because of His separation we will never be separated from the Love of God.
Jesus bore our sins and suffered the separation that we deserved and now has opened up a way to true life.
Jesus has opened up a new humanity – a new way in which we were originally called to be.
Two paths – The first Adam was a coward – he was disobedient, he didn’t protect his bride, he didn’t obey God
Now Jesus is the New Adam – the new man – the obedient man and He has unlocked the way to true humanity.
We have to choose today what path we want to take.
You can take the path of the heavy, heavy burden of your own ambition.
The heavy burden of trying to live up the world’s expectations – the best house, the best car, the best clothes.
Do you get tired of that – do you ever get tired of being what everyone wants you to be and bearing that heavy burden?
There was an article Written called, How to be Miserable
I want to read this to you and let you consider this way of living versus what Jesus has to offer.
It says, "Think about yourself. Talk about yourself.
Use "I" as often as possible. Mirror yourself continually in the opinion of others.
Listen greedily to what people say about you. Expect to be appreciated. Be suspicious. Be jealous and envious. Be sensitive to slights. Never forgive a criticism. Trust nobody but yourself. Insist on consideration and respect. Demand agreement with your own views on everything. Sulk if people are not grateful to you for favors shown them. Never forget a service you have rendered. Shirk your duties if you can. Do as little as possible for others."
This is the way of Adam the way of sin the way of the world.
But the Gospel calls us to something different – the Gospel calls us to die to our self.
It is on longer I but Christ who lives in me.
What we have lost in our Gospel preaching is that when we confess Who Christ is – it now behoves us to take our cross and follow Him.
He can make that claim on our life because of Who He is. He is our God and the only way to reach true happiness, contentment, and salvation is to walk in this way. The Way of the cross.
Charles Spurgeon once correctly stated:
There are no crown-wearers in heaven who were not cross- bearers here below.
Today we must choose – there is only one way to the Father – there is only one way to be a disciple and that is taking up your cross and to follow Jesus.
Today I want to close you with these thoughts.
1) Who are you living for? Are you living for Christ or are you burdened by your own care?
2) Do you want true peace for you and your family?
3) Do you see every part of your life through the lens of the cross and Jesus?
4) Are their parts of your life that you keep hidden from God? Are their parts that you have not surrendered to Christ? Are their secret parts of rebellion to God that you still are not in submission?
Today our challenge is to take up the cross of Christ and follow Him.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
The Cost Of Discipleship - Costly Grace
Have you ever felt like life has you all turned around.
You notice that when you drive to Church – well if your me and you don’t live in the Mimosa Community you drive by a lot of different Churches.
Churches with different signs and different names.
It seems like there are a lot of competing voices in the church world today. People proclaiming that this or that is right.
What if during a new year we were able to strip away the clutter and get to the some sort of clarity.
I am convinced that Satan’s plan is to confuse us and take our eyes of Christ in order to
Many years ago, a professor from Harvard University was speaking to a class on Columbus Day. He said that there were three profound things about Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America:
First, when he left Spain he didn’t know where he was going.
Second, when he arrived in the New World he didn’t know where he was.
Third, when he returned to Spain he didn’t know where he had been.
A voice from the back of the class added, “Yeah, and he did it all on borrowed money!"
The professor called back to the voice and said, many of you in college right now are doing the same thing, you are here you don’t know what you are doing here, where you are going, or where you have been and it is all on borrowed money!!
Well some of us can relate to that view when it comes to our faith. We feel confused – don’t know which way is up – so many voices telling us what is right.
We need clarity in our faith – we need to know what is really important.
There was a couple who were sitting with a marriage counselor for their first session and the good doctor asked them to identify what seemed to be the root of their problems.
The wife responded, "It all started when we thought it would be cute to think up each other’s New Year’s resolutions"
Many of our problems begin when other people impose views on us or expectations on us that are contrary to the Bible.
Our subject this morning is one such thing- it is Grace – God’s grace – I want to start this new year and talk about something basic.
I want us as a Church to really think about what it means to be a disciple of Christ.
A wonderful New Years resolution for all of us would be to become more like our Savior Jesus Christ.
When we read our sign it says Church of Christ – We want to be a Church that reflects Christ to the community.
I cant presume to know your business or know what New Year’s Resolution that you need but I would think we all need to work on becoming a Disciple of Jesus Christ.
What is really important? What really matters? If we don’t get this down then nothing else will matter what we do.
All the church services, singing, Communion and Bible reading will not matter if we don’t get this central idea down.
What does it look like to be a follower of Jesus Christ in Fayetteville, TN in the year 2012.
That is the question we are asking. Today we start with the idea of Grace and what I call Costly Grace.
INTRO:
Paul says in Ephesians 2
Ephesians 2: 8
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God ; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Many people read this verse and stop – and in our Instant Gratification way of thinking – say well God will just shed his grace on you and you can have Jesus and just keep living like you did before.
Folks want to abuse Grace – since God is gracious – they just think that they can keep sinning and living like they did before and they think that all that it takes is a one time confession and that is all it takes.
In some churches they just say the Sinners prayer and then it is all okay.
Some may think I will just get baptized and like magic I will be okay.
Paul would answer this mindset. IN Romans 6 Paul answers this way of thinking – this cheap grace or what is the least I can do mentality.
Romans 6: 1-2
1What shall we say then ? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase ? 2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Paul explains that this mentality is crazy – should someone keep sinning so that Grace will increase – he tell us God forbid it!
When we become a Christian we are dead to sin. - We don’t live that way any longer.
But that is totally contrary to the American form of the preaching of the Gospel.
Most of the time you hear the message of getting saved and God saving you from your sins and that it is all.
So how do we shake off this idea of Cheap Grace??
We live in a time when the confusion that we experience is a false view of Grace. It is endemic to Christianity and has been around for awhile .
We see Grace as an idea – a concept in Christianity – most of us could tell you what Grace is but many of us don’t really live like we believe it.
What has been lost is the sense of discipleship. We have separated Grace from Discipleship.
Somehow we have asked the question –What is the minimal requirement to get saved?
We basically say, what is the least we can do to be saved?
Ideas come from places – this way of looking at salvation has a history. I think it is very important to understand why we think like we do.
It goes back to Medieval times – we might think – “There is no way that Medieval Europe influenced how I see my own salvation but you would be shocked”
If we were to go back in time we can trace where this development of what I call Cheap Grace came from.
In the first 300 years of Christianity you did not see this doctrine of Cheap Grace. People readily laid their lives down for Jesus Christ.
Many would die in the Roman Persecution readily and cheap grace of the Gospel of minimal requirement was unheard of.
In the early church there was no separation between God’s Grace and the call to Discipleship they went hand in hand.
So what changed?
For one thing Constantine in the year 325 AD enacted the Edict of Toleration – this was a good thing but I think Satan used it to his advantage.
Now this is my opinion but I believe that Satan tried to destroy the Church through persecution but as one early Christian put it the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church.
The more the Romans persecuted the stronger the church got. The faster it spread because the only people in the Church were those that were dedicated to Christ.
But that changed in 325 AD. The church was not the official state religion in Rome – that would come until another 70 years but the Church was protected from persecution and had a special place in Roman society.
What happened in response to this is a softer gospel. It was much easier to be a Christian. IN response to this was the monastic movement.
People wanted Christianity to cost something –t o be tougher – so they went out in seclusion to caves and to the wilderness to live a life of self- denial in Christ.
They would have to invent a way to make Christianity tougher. – Now we may think that is strange but their motives were good. They wanted to follow Christ and be devoted to Him- they wanted Grace to cost something-
They wanted to give their lives totally to Christ.
What that made was a new situation – By the Middle Ages – it developed two classes of Christians.
A class of monks and religious people that were strictly devoted to Christ – they gave it all away and took on a vow of poverty many times to follow Christ.
Then there were the average people – they were an average class of Christians – and in this average class of Christians there were some that were devoted to Christ.
But to a large degree what happened was two separate classes of Christians in the Middle Ages – one that believed in Costly grace and another that had a much more minimal approach to Christianity.
Out of the Monestaries and monastic movements would be many pious people and that life cost something but many others saw the sacraments – communion and baptism as a minimum conduit of grace.
Much like how Christians see it today – if I just say the sinners prayer or get baptized I am okay and God doesn’t want my whole life in response.
They saw baptism and communion in much the same way in the middle ages – live like you want many times but these actions will bring God’s grace at no cost to me.
In the 1500’s a monk named Martin Luther saw this and knew there had to be a shake-up in Christianity. There had to be a turn back to the Biblical notion of Justification by Faith.
To Luther in the original movement was that all people were supposed to give their lives to Christ in response to Grace.
Grace to Luther was always coupled with dying to self and living for Christ. Luther never thought different from that. When Martin Luther talked about Grace he meant Grace that was so radical that it called a man to die to himself and live New in Christ.
Luther believed that all people were to live in the world and live for Christ – He wanted to Reform the view that Christianity belonged to a special class of specialists but that the common man was called upon to be a Disciple of Christ.
The vocation of man was not to go into a monastery and practice pious faith but to go into the workplace and live for Christ everyday.
In England the Reformation about this same time brought about the Book of Common Prayer and the translation of the Bible into English.
The Book of Common Prayer was to give the prayers and devotions that only the monks and monasteries had been praying into the hands of the common people.
The common man was to develop an everyday devotion to Christ. The people should be able to read God’s word in their own language and practice it in everyday life.
This is a radical turn in human history. This is amazing stuff.
But something changed- Luther’s message was truncated – it was dumbed down.
Soon after Luther’s death people focused on his teaching about Grace and stopped talking about dying to self and discipleship.
It would not be long before the Enlightenment and other historical events would come to bear on the preaching of the Gospel.
Many groups that came out of the Reformation in the 1500’s started to see Grace as a type of cheap grace.
What was being preached emphasized the fact that one needed to be saved but neglected the idea of Discipleship.
This helps numbers in churches grow – Think about Jesus and what he said,
Luke 14: 26-30
26"If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.27"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.28"For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?29"Otherwise , when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,30saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'
Not many preachers that want someone to respond to the Gospel call ever read that passage.
I mean Jesus is saying radical stuff – you have to deny yourself – take up your own cross,
Being his disciple is something you better think about before you start.
This is the Biblical doctrine of Costly Grace – grace that will ask us to die to ourselves.
1) How do we see Grace as the Bible teaches it? How do we rip off these glasses that have been handed down to us from the Middle Ages and from some of the Reformers to get to what Jesus really teaches about Grace?
I. First of all, we must have a realistic view of WHO we are.
We must quit comparing ourselves to each other.
People so often in churches compare their lives to other people and either feel condemned because they don’t measure up to those around them or they feel superior to everyone else.
We may look at those around us and say- you know I am pretty good – I don’t cheat on my wife. I don’t beat my wife, I don’t drink.
I am pretty good compared to everyone else.
Or we may look at those folks around us and think – man they look like the perfect family, they look like they have it going on.
Just by outward appearances they seem to have it all together.
But you know what – none of that matters – God sees us all the same.
Without Christ – the apostle Paul tell us In Ephesians 2:1
That we were dead in our sins. – All of us without Christ – without Grace – are dead spiritually. We have no future.
The Christian life is not one that we compare ourselves to each other but we compare ourselves to God’s perfect standard.
It is God’s will that matters and not what people think about us.
2 Corinthians 4: 7-10
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves ; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed ; perplexed, but not despairing ; persecuted, but not forsaken ; struck down, but not destroyed ; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body
Paul’s point is simple – it is not about the outward appearance of man that counts – it is about the inward renewal that is taking place.
We are constantly dying to self and becoming more conformed to the image of Christ.
These clay jars represent the frailness of human life – our bodies decay and break down but God’s treasure is in us.
The world may see a decaying body but God is at work in us and will raise us up one day glorified.
Paul is using an image from the Temple- The clay jars and pots were what the sin offering was cooked in in the Temple.
The sacrifice was placed in the Clay Jar.
In the same way the sacrifice of Jesus is in us- His sacrifice on the cross is at work in our earthen bodies – our clay jars.
God, if we cooperate with Him, will bring about a work in us – a change that will bring glory to God. This earthen vessel doesn’t matter – it is the new life in Christ.
It doesn’t matter what we look like or appear to other people – it is a transformation that is being brought about by the Holy Spirit.
II. Grace must be changed from a principle or system that we think about in our heads.
Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system.
It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian 'conception' of God.
An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins....
In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin.
Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God
Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner.
Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything can remain as it was before.
Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession....
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate
Cheap grace is a grace that doesn’t see Christ as living and reigning. It sees God as something distant and detached from the world.
Costly Grace sees God as involved – it sees our salvation as a living relationship with God – a sharing in the divine life of God.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man’ will gladly go and self all that he has.
It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods.
It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.
It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.
Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.
Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.
Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.- God’s Son taking on flesh and dying for us. We forget that Jesus ascended to Heaven in his new glorified body of flesh.
The 2nd person of the Trinity the Son never shed his flesh after the resurrection but reigns at the right hand of the Father in a body – a human glorified body.
It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.
Grace that is rightly understood is grace that tells that to live a true life that is free – a life that is fulfilled is one that costs you your own life.
You must give up your own selfish will, die to it, and be willing to be a new man that God has called you to be.
Conclusion:
As we close today – Let me share with a story that illustrates Costly Grace: The novelist, A.J. Cronin, tells a story from his own experience as a doctor who catches the wonder of the gift of grace.
The Adams family at the close of the Second World War decided to open their home to a little refugee boy with the outlandish name of Paul Piotrostanalzi. (Peeotrostanalzhee)
The Adams had two daughters and a son named Sammy.
Sammy and Paul became inseparable friends, but little Paul was a difficult child, and often disobeyed Mr. and Mrs. Adams.
One day, little Paul went swimming in some contaminated water.
He became very ill with a high fever, and the doctor suggested he sleep in an attic bedroom.
But little Sammy missed his friend Paul so much that one night he crept up the attic stairs and into bed with Paul.
Paul's hot breath fell on Sammy's neck all night. In the morning, Sammy, never a strong child, became deathly ill.
Paul recovered his health, but Sammy died within three days. It was a terrible tragedy for the Adams family.
A year later Dr. Cronin decided to pay a call on the Adams family.
As he pulled into their driveway, he was amazed and then angry as he saw Paul, the refugee boy, working in the garden with Mr. Adams.
He got out of his car and angrily approached Mr. Adams.
"What's this Paul Pio ... whatever his name is, doing here after what he did to your family?"
Mr. Adams looked at the doctor and then said quietly, "Dr. Cronin, you won't have any more trouble with Paul's name. You see, he's Paul Adams now. We've adopted him."
That is a wonderful story of costly grace.
You see God’s Son came to our world and took on the contagion the sickness of Sin – that sickness caused Him to die.
The cross is all about what sin really looks like – if you think your sin today is not a bid deal just look at the cross of Christ.
That is how dark sin is – what it looks like – it took the life of Jesus – but what did God do?
By the death of Jesus we are reconciled to God – we are adopted back to His family.
Now put yourself in the place of Paul the boy that was adopted.
Do you think he was thankful for what that family did for him?
What if he would have rejected the Adam’s offer of adoption after their son Sammy had died because of the disease that he gave him?
You would think that as reprehensible. But the same is true for us.
God’s grace is awesome – God’s Son died for you and God has adopted you into His family.
Don’t you think it would be ridiculous to ask the question, God what is the least I have to do to be saved? What is the minimal requirement?
Would not the more Biblical response be God I love you and I am thankful for what you did for me and I lay down my life for you. I freely accept your gift of Grace and in return I give you all I have – my life so that I can have new life in your Son.
You notice that when you drive to Church – well if your me and you don’t live in the Mimosa Community you drive by a lot of different Churches.
Churches with different signs and different names.
It seems like there are a lot of competing voices in the church world today. People proclaiming that this or that is right.
What if during a new year we were able to strip away the clutter and get to the some sort of clarity.
I am convinced that Satan’s plan is to confuse us and take our eyes of Christ in order to
Many years ago, a professor from Harvard University was speaking to a class on Columbus Day. He said that there were three profound things about Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America:
First, when he left Spain he didn’t know where he was going.
Second, when he arrived in the New World he didn’t know where he was.
Third, when he returned to Spain he didn’t know where he had been.
A voice from the back of the class added, “Yeah, and he did it all on borrowed money!"
The professor called back to the voice and said, many of you in college right now are doing the same thing, you are here you don’t know what you are doing here, where you are going, or where you have been and it is all on borrowed money!!
Well some of us can relate to that view when it comes to our faith. We feel confused – don’t know which way is up – so many voices telling us what is right.
We need clarity in our faith – we need to know what is really important.
There was a couple who were sitting with a marriage counselor for their first session and the good doctor asked them to identify what seemed to be the root of their problems.
The wife responded, "It all started when we thought it would be cute to think up each other’s New Year’s resolutions"
Many of our problems begin when other people impose views on us or expectations on us that are contrary to the Bible.
Our subject this morning is one such thing- it is Grace – God’s grace – I want to start this new year and talk about something basic.
I want us as a Church to really think about what it means to be a disciple of Christ.
A wonderful New Years resolution for all of us would be to become more like our Savior Jesus Christ.
When we read our sign it says Church of Christ – We want to be a Church that reflects Christ to the community.
I cant presume to know your business or know what New Year’s Resolution that you need but I would think we all need to work on becoming a Disciple of Jesus Christ.
What is really important? What really matters? If we don’t get this down then nothing else will matter what we do.
All the church services, singing, Communion and Bible reading will not matter if we don’t get this central idea down.
What does it look like to be a follower of Jesus Christ in Fayetteville, TN in the year 2012.
That is the question we are asking. Today we start with the idea of Grace and what I call Costly Grace.
INTRO:
Paul says in Ephesians 2
Ephesians 2: 8
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith ; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God ; 9not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.
Many people read this verse and stop – and in our Instant Gratification way of thinking – say well God will just shed his grace on you and you can have Jesus and just keep living like you did before.
Folks want to abuse Grace – since God is gracious – they just think that they can keep sinning and living like they did before and they think that all that it takes is a one time confession and that is all it takes.
In some churches they just say the Sinners prayer and then it is all okay.
Some may think I will just get baptized and like magic I will be okay.
Paul would answer this mindset. IN Romans 6 Paul answers this way of thinking – this cheap grace or what is the least I can do mentality.
Romans 6: 1-2
1What shall we say then ? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase ? 2May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Paul explains that this mentality is crazy – should someone keep sinning so that Grace will increase – he tell us God forbid it!
When we become a Christian we are dead to sin. - We don’t live that way any longer.
But that is totally contrary to the American form of the preaching of the Gospel.
Most of the time you hear the message of getting saved and God saving you from your sins and that it is all.
So how do we shake off this idea of Cheap Grace??
We live in a time when the confusion that we experience is a false view of Grace. It is endemic to Christianity and has been around for awhile .
We see Grace as an idea – a concept in Christianity – most of us could tell you what Grace is but many of us don’t really live like we believe it.
What has been lost is the sense of discipleship. We have separated Grace from Discipleship.
Somehow we have asked the question –What is the minimal requirement to get saved?
We basically say, what is the least we can do to be saved?
Ideas come from places – this way of looking at salvation has a history. I think it is very important to understand why we think like we do.
It goes back to Medieval times – we might think – “There is no way that Medieval Europe influenced how I see my own salvation but you would be shocked”
If we were to go back in time we can trace where this development of what I call Cheap Grace came from.
In the first 300 years of Christianity you did not see this doctrine of Cheap Grace. People readily laid their lives down for Jesus Christ.
Many would die in the Roman Persecution readily and cheap grace of the Gospel of minimal requirement was unheard of.
In the early church there was no separation between God’s Grace and the call to Discipleship they went hand in hand.
So what changed?
For one thing Constantine in the year 325 AD enacted the Edict of Toleration – this was a good thing but I think Satan used it to his advantage.
Now this is my opinion but I believe that Satan tried to destroy the Church through persecution but as one early Christian put it the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church.
The more the Romans persecuted the stronger the church got. The faster it spread because the only people in the Church were those that were dedicated to Christ.
But that changed in 325 AD. The church was not the official state religion in Rome – that would come until another 70 years but the Church was protected from persecution and had a special place in Roman society.
What happened in response to this is a softer gospel. It was much easier to be a Christian. IN response to this was the monastic movement.
People wanted Christianity to cost something –t o be tougher – so they went out in seclusion to caves and to the wilderness to live a life of self- denial in Christ.
They would have to invent a way to make Christianity tougher. – Now we may think that is strange but their motives were good. They wanted to follow Christ and be devoted to Him- they wanted Grace to cost something-
They wanted to give their lives totally to Christ.
What that made was a new situation – By the Middle Ages – it developed two classes of Christians.
A class of monks and religious people that were strictly devoted to Christ – they gave it all away and took on a vow of poverty many times to follow Christ.
Then there were the average people – they were an average class of Christians – and in this average class of Christians there were some that were devoted to Christ.
But to a large degree what happened was two separate classes of Christians in the Middle Ages – one that believed in Costly grace and another that had a much more minimal approach to Christianity.
Out of the Monestaries and monastic movements would be many pious people and that life cost something but many others saw the sacraments – communion and baptism as a minimum conduit of grace.
Much like how Christians see it today – if I just say the sinners prayer or get baptized I am okay and God doesn’t want my whole life in response.
They saw baptism and communion in much the same way in the middle ages – live like you want many times but these actions will bring God’s grace at no cost to me.
In the 1500’s a monk named Martin Luther saw this and knew there had to be a shake-up in Christianity. There had to be a turn back to the Biblical notion of Justification by Faith.
To Luther in the original movement was that all people were supposed to give their lives to Christ in response to Grace.
Grace to Luther was always coupled with dying to self and living for Christ. Luther never thought different from that. When Martin Luther talked about Grace he meant Grace that was so radical that it called a man to die to himself and live New in Christ.
Luther believed that all people were to live in the world and live for Christ – He wanted to Reform the view that Christianity belonged to a special class of specialists but that the common man was called upon to be a Disciple of Christ.
The vocation of man was not to go into a monastery and practice pious faith but to go into the workplace and live for Christ everyday.
In England the Reformation about this same time brought about the Book of Common Prayer and the translation of the Bible into English.
The Book of Common Prayer was to give the prayers and devotions that only the monks and monasteries had been praying into the hands of the common people.
The common man was to develop an everyday devotion to Christ. The people should be able to read God’s word in their own language and practice it in everyday life.
This is a radical turn in human history. This is amazing stuff.
But something changed- Luther’s message was truncated – it was dumbed down.
Soon after Luther’s death people focused on his teaching about Grace and stopped talking about dying to self and discipleship.
It would not be long before the Enlightenment and other historical events would come to bear on the preaching of the Gospel.
Many groups that came out of the Reformation in the 1500’s started to see Grace as a type of cheap grace.
What was being preached emphasized the fact that one needed to be saved but neglected the idea of Discipleship.
This helps numbers in churches grow – Think about Jesus and what he said,
Luke 14: 26-30
26"If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.27"Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.28"For which one of you, when he wants to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if he has enough to complete it?29"Otherwise , when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who observe it begin to ridicule him,30saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.'
Not many preachers that want someone to respond to the Gospel call ever read that passage.
I mean Jesus is saying radical stuff – you have to deny yourself – take up your own cross,
Being his disciple is something you better think about before you start.
This is the Biblical doctrine of Costly Grace – grace that will ask us to die to ourselves.
1) How do we see Grace as the Bible teaches it? How do we rip off these glasses that have been handed down to us from the Middle Ages and from some of the Reformers to get to what Jesus really teaches about Grace?
I. First of all, we must have a realistic view of WHO we are.
We must quit comparing ourselves to each other.
People so often in churches compare their lives to other people and either feel condemned because they don’t measure up to those around them or they feel superior to everyone else.
We may look at those around us and say- you know I am pretty good – I don’t cheat on my wife. I don’t beat my wife, I don’t drink.
I am pretty good compared to everyone else.
Or we may look at those folks around us and think – man they look like the perfect family, they look like they have it going on.
Just by outward appearances they seem to have it all together.
But you know what – none of that matters – God sees us all the same.
Without Christ – the apostle Paul tell us In Ephesians 2:1
That we were dead in our sins. – All of us without Christ – without Grace – are dead spiritually. We have no future.
The Christian life is not one that we compare ourselves to each other but we compare ourselves to God’s perfect standard.
It is God’s will that matters and not what people think about us.
2 Corinthians 4: 7-10
7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves ; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed ; perplexed, but not despairing ; persecuted, but not forsaken ; struck down, but not destroyed ; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body
Paul’s point is simple – it is not about the outward appearance of man that counts – it is about the inward renewal that is taking place.
We are constantly dying to self and becoming more conformed to the image of Christ.
These clay jars represent the frailness of human life – our bodies decay and break down but God’s treasure is in us.
The world may see a decaying body but God is at work in us and will raise us up one day glorified.
Paul is using an image from the Temple- The clay jars and pots were what the sin offering was cooked in in the Temple.
The sacrifice was placed in the Clay Jar.
In the same way the sacrifice of Jesus is in us- His sacrifice on the cross is at work in our earthen bodies – our clay jars.
God, if we cooperate with Him, will bring about a work in us – a change that will bring glory to God. This earthen vessel doesn’t matter – it is the new life in Christ.
It doesn’t matter what we look like or appear to other people – it is a transformation that is being brought about by the Holy Spirit.
II. Grace must be changed from a principle or system that we think about in our heads.
Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system.
It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian 'conception' of God.
An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins....
In such a Church the world finds a cheap covering for its sins; no contrition is required, still less any real desire to be delivered from sin.
Cheap grace therefore amounts to a denial of the living Word of God, in fact, a denial of the Incarnation of the Word of God
Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner.
Grace alone does everything they say, and so everything can remain as it was before.
Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves.
Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession....
Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate
Cheap grace is a grace that doesn’t see Christ as living and reigning. It sees God as something distant and detached from the world.
Costly Grace sees God as involved – it sees our salvation as a living relationship with God – a sharing in the divine life of God.
Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man’ will gladly go and self all that he has.
It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods.
It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.
Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.
Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ.
It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner.
Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “ye were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us.
Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us.
Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.- God’s Son taking on flesh and dying for us. We forget that Jesus ascended to Heaven in his new glorified body of flesh.
The 2nd person of the Trinity the Son never shed his flesh after the resurrection but reigns at the right hand of the Father in a body – a human glorified body.
It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life.
Grace that is rightly understood is grace that tells that to live a true life that is free – a life that is fulfilled is one that costs you your own life.
You must give up your own selfish will, die to it, and be willing to be a new man that God has called you to be.
Conclusion:
As we close today – Let me share with a story that illustrates Costly Grace: The novelist, A.J. Cronin, tells a story from his own experience as a doctor who catches the wonder of the gift of grace.
The Adams family at the close of the Second World War decided to open their home to a little refugee boy with the outlandish name of Paul Piotrostanalzi. (Peeotrostanalzhee)
The Adams had two daughters and a son named Sammy.
Sammy and Paul became inseparable friends, but little Paul was a difficult child, and often disobeyed Mr. and Mrs. Adams.
One day, little Paul went swimming in some contaminated water.
He became very ill with a high fever, and the doctor suggested he sleep in an attic bedroom.
But little Sammy missed his friend Paul so much that one night he crept up the attic stairs and into bed with Paul.
Paul's hot breath fell on Sammy's neck all night. In the morning, Sammy, never a strong child, became deathly ill.
Paul recovered his health, but Sammy died within three days. It was a terrible tragedy for the Adams family.
A year later Dr. Cronin decided to pay a call on the Adams family.
As he pulled into their driveway, he was amazed and then angry as he saw Paul, the refugee boy, working in the garden with Mr. Adams.
He got out of his car and angrily approached Mr. Adams.
"What's this Paul Pio ... whatever his name is, doing here after what he did to your family?"
Mr. Adams looked at the doctor and then said quietly, "Dr. Cronin, you won't have any more trouble with Paul's name. You see, he's Paul Adams now. We've adopted him."
That is a wonderful story of costly grace.
You see God’s Son came to our world and took on the contagion the sickness of Sin – that sickness caused Him to die.
The cross is all about what sin really looks like – if you think your sin today is not a bid deal just look at the cross of Christ.
That is how dark sin is – what it looks like – it took the life of Jesus – but what did God do?
By the death of Jesus we are reconciled to God – we are adopted back to His family.
Now put yourself in the place of Paul the boy that was adopted.
Do you think he was thankful for what that family did for him?
What if he would have rejected the Adam’s offer of adoption after their son Sammy had died because of the disease that he gave him?
You would think that as reprehensible. But the same is true for us.
God’s grace is awesome – God’s Son died for you and God has adopted you into His family.
Don’t you think it would be ridiculous to ask the question, God what is the least I have to do to be saved? What is the minimal requirement?
Would not the more Biblical response be God I love you and I am thankful for what you did for me and I lay down my life for you. I freely accept your gift of Grace and in return I give you all I have – my life so that I can have new life in your Son.
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