“A Christian’s Righteousness, Part 1” – Matt. 5

I want you to use your imagination with me for a minute. Imagine that we are in Israel 2000-plus years ago on the side of a mountain listening to Jesus preach His Sermon on the Mount. Wouldn’t that be great? But before we go any further, I have to give you the background for this setting. We don’t know how many people are sitting and standing around him. Probably hundreds of people gathered that day to listen to this young man and almost every one of them had read and studied what we call today the Old Testament.

It’s what good Jews did back then. They studied the scriptures and they went to the synagogue and they were taught what the Law of Moses said. The Law of Moses is considered by most to be the first five books of the Bible, also called the Torah (in Hebrew) or the Pentateuch (in Greek). It includes the 10 Commandments but also all the other laws that are mainly in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

These laws were given to Moses by God and defined how the Hebrew people were to live, worship and rule. There were rules for everything that a person could possibly do. There were very specific rules for how, what and when to walk, talk, sacrifice, get clean, what to eat, what to wear, when to celebrate, when to work, when to rest. You can read it. It is overwhelming and impossible. I’ll just say it. Yet, that was the law that God gave and if you wanted to be right with God, you followed the Law.

So, for over a thousand years, the Law of Moses had been drilled into the people as how to be right with God. Follow the Law for true righteousness. When you messed up and didn’t follow the Law, there were very specific sacrifices to be made so you could get back to that righteousness. So, that is the context and that is the mindset of the people that Jesus was preaching to here in the Sermon on the Mount.

So, if we go back to imagining that we are there for this great sermon, can you imagine the peoples’ response as they are listening? As Jesus started off with the Beatitudes and told the people that they would be blessed by God if they mourn over their sins and if they are meek and truly desire to be righteous. If you are merciful and pure in heart, you can be right with God.

Can’t you just see the people in the crowd squint and turn their heads and look at each other? A husband says to his wife, “Hmm…nothing about the Law in there. When’s he gonna talk about the Law?” And then Jesus goes on to tell them that they are salt and light, meaning they have the truth and should speak the truth and they will give God glory by doing good things. But still nothing about the Law. All good rabbis would teach about the importance of the Law. What’s going on here? And then it dawns on them. He is teaching against the Law! He’s here to do away with the Law. This is blasphemy!

But Jesus, being God, knows their thoughts. He hears their questions and answers them directly in Matthew 5:17-20. Now, sitting here today, on the other side of the globe from where it happened and 2,000 years later, you are wondering what the big deal is. You know that we are not under the Law but under grace (Romans 6:14). Shoot, you’re wondering why anybody would read those Old Testament passages anymore anyway. What’s that have to do with you? Why should you care? Those are good questions. Let’s look at Matthew 5:17-20 to get some of those kinds of questions answered. Jesus said,

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Let me ask you a question. When we say that we don’t have any rules around here, what does that mean to you? Does it mean that it’s okay if, while I’m preaching and I really want to make a point, that I can accentuate that point with a cuss word? We don’t have any rules around here so does that mean if I hear you singing off key during our worship music, I can punch you in the mouth? Would it be okay if I took a few bucks out of Janet’s purse when she wasn’t looking? Why not? We don’t have any rules.

We don’t do that kind of thing around here, not because we have rules against it but because we love each other and don’t want to hurt one another. I like it around here and I want to stay here because I enjoy being with you and I am blessed by you and so I don’t want to do anything that hurts you. It’s because of our love for each other that keeps us from having a bunch of rules to follow. I think if Jesus physically lived in Wise County, He would be a member of Christ Fellowship. I really do. He’d get along well here with us not having any rules. He might visit Cates Street Baptist every now and then, but He’d be a member here. 😊

Just like we aren’t members here because we are perfect, we aren’t right with God – we aren’t considered by God to have righteousness – because we follow all the rules and all the Law of Moses. That’s impossible. God considers us righteous because of our life-changing faith in Jesus. It was Jesus who fulfilled the whole Law of Moses and kept all the rules and did everything just right without ever sinning. It is our faith in Him and our love for Him that makes us want to please Him with our lives and be right with Him.

When Jesus said He came to fulfill the Law, that word means to literally fill full. Fulfill is to fill full. If you filled a glass full of water to overflowing, it is filled full. Nothing else will fit. Nothing else is needed. That’s what Jesus did with the Law and the words of the prophets in the Old Testament.

I hear people say they don’t ever read the Old Testament because it doesn’t apply to us. We aren’t Jewish. We aren’t under the old law anymore. Why should we read it? And if you came to me and asked me where to start reading if you had never picked up a Bible, I would tell you to start with one of the Gospels. Read the Book of John first and see who Jesus is. Get to know Him and why He came and why He died and what He did for us. Read that first. But then you can go back and start reading the Old Testament with eyes that are looking for Jesus because everything in the Old Testament is ultimately about Him.

In the very first book, Genesis, God created Adam and put him in the Garden of Eden with this one command. Don’t eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or you will surely die, meaning die in your sin. What keeps us from dying in our sin? Jesus! It was starting to point to the Savior, Jesus, way back then.

I love the story of Noah’s ark, don’t you? I’ve been fascinated by the logistics of all that since I was a kid but did you know that the ark points to Jesus? The waters came and flooded the earth and everything that wasn’t in the ark died. And just like that, everyone that isn’t in Jesus will also die eternally in their sins. It was pointing to Jesus. It was saying, “Hey, there is something better coming.”

Keep reading and you start to hit some chapters that, I’ll be honest, are kind of boring and hard to understand. In Exodus, when it talks about how to build the tabernacle, it gives detailed instructions about what goes in the tabernacle and what it is to be made of and exactly how big it is and it’s all so tedious and boring…until you really start to study it deeply and realize that Jesus is our tabernacle and He was being described and pointed to and hoped for way back then.

I challenge you to go back and read the Old Testament again, but this time do it with an eye on Jesus. How did Jesus fulfill those things or become those things or perfect those things way back in the “boring” Old Testament? Did you know that Jesus Himself actually showed up quite a few times in the Old Testament? When we get through (in the next two years) with the Sermon on the Mount, we are going to look at some of those times. That ought to be fun.

But it’s when you get to the Law of Moses that Jesus says He fulfilled all of it. Prior to Jesus being born and dying and rising again, the way you were right with God was to make sacrifices of animals. You remember in Romans 6:23 where it says that the wages of sin is death? That was not just a New Testament teaching. Originally, in the Old Testament, when somebody sinned, they would bring a perfect bull or goat or dove or some kind of critter and they would sacrifice that animal on the altar and then they would take some of the blood and sprinkle it over the altar to signify that the sin had been covered over by that blood.

Jesus fulfilled that law by being the perfect sacrifice whose blood doesn’t just temporarily cover over that sin but does away with it forever. Hebrews 10:4 says that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin but Hebrews goes on to say that (v. 12) when this priest (Jesus) had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God and (14) by one sacrifice has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Y’all, this is really good news! Because Jesus goes on to say in His sermon in verse 20 that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. The people listening to Jesus believed the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were the most righteous and holy people on the planet. How could they be more righteous than they were? In fact, that word “surpasses” is used of a river overflowing its banks. Jesus said you have to be way more righteous than those guys.

The problem with the Pharisees was their religion was external. They did everything right outwardly but neglected the heart issue which was the main issue. Jesus called them whitewashed tombs and said they cleaned the outside of the cup but the inside was filthy. And they had no excuse. Their great king and forefather, David, knew this. He knew it was a heart issue. After he sinned with Bathsheba, he wrote the 51^st Psalm and in it he said, “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.”

The Pharisees thought of themselves as righteous and holy because they did outwardly what the Law said to do. They might hate their brother and lust after their sister but they didn’t show it, so they felt pretty good about themselves. What a slap in the face to almighty God! And it’s the same today when we make ourselves to look very religious. We go to church sometimes. We pray before lunch. We even commented “amen” on that post on Facebook. God must think we are really something, right? We might as well be Pharisees.

The Apostle Paul was a Pharisee. Do you remember that? In Philippians 3, Paul says, “If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.

Now, Paul could have stopped there and all the Pharisees and teachers of the Law would have loved him and he would have been comfortable in this life and would have been respected and loved by all the people and he would have busted the gates of Hell wide open and he knew it. So, he continues…

7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.”

It is that life-changing faith in Jesus that saves us and makes us righteous. It is our faith that makes us right with God, not because of what we do. But we do what we do because of our faith, not because we have rules or laws against it. We are obedient to God because we love Him and don’t want to hurt Him. We like being with Him and want to stay with Him and are blessed by Him and so we don’t want to do anything that would hurt Him. It is because of our love for Him that makes us want to please Him and be obedient.

Now, if you are anything like me, right about now you are thinking, “That’s right. Those Pharisee kinds of people drive me crazy. It reminds me of old so-and-so. He was like that.” Yes, you might think, like I was, that this would be a good time to put in an illustration of some preacher who had gotten caught sinning or some cop who got caught breaking the law. It would help remind us of what Pharisees look like. That’s what I was thinking too until I realized that’s probably just what a Pharisee would think.

In Luke 18 it says, “To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: 10 “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Lord, please forgive me. I am sick of my sin and I am sorry when I hurt you. Forgive me when my love for you and my faith in you is not reflected in my life but especially in my heart. Have mercy on me and forgive me and help me to live more like you and to love more like you. As my friend David said, “Create in me a pure heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” But you will have to do it, Lord. I can’t. Do it through me and in me and I give you all the glory. Thank you, Lord. I love you. In the name of Jesus, I ask these things. Amen

As the music plays, will you join me as we continue to pray?

“A Christian’s Influence” – Matthew 5:13-16

Did I tell you I was thinking about getting a couple of goats? I’m tired of mowing all the time and thought it would be interesting to get a couple goats. I was driving down the little farm road over there the other day and I saw some goats out in the field and so I stopped into the little farmhouse to ask about them. I knocked on the door and this old farmer came to the door wearing his overalls tucked into his boots – no shirt – and asked if he could help me. I asked him how much he thought one of his goats might be worth. He looked me up and down and real slowly said, “Well that depends. Are you a tax collector or did you just hit one with your car?”

And I thought that was a good question. He wanted some perspective on who I was. We all know that things change with our perspective or lack of and this old guy was trying to get the right perspective on me before he answered. It is important that we have godly perspective. Godly perspective is the difference in the men of Israel looking at Goliath and thinking, “He is so big we can never kill him.” And then David looking at Goliath and thinking, “He’s so big I can’t miss him.”

And just like that farmer’s answers were going to change based on who I was, our perspective changes how we think of our problems, our friends, our family, our church and most of all ourselves. Perspective is basically just comparing things so we can make good judgments. It’s how we all got here this morning. When we have good perspective we can see that we need to make a left hand turn, but that rock truck is coming way too fast so we make the wise decision to just wait until it passes.

The problem with our self-perspective is that we too often compare ourselves to the wrong thing, namely…everybody else. When we compare ourselves to everybody else, our perspective is warped and we will invariably see ourselves like in a funhouse mirror. We are either too fat or too thin, tall or short. That’s why I don’t like mirrors at all. I can’t find a good one. I look short, fat and bald in every mirror I try. I don’t know what it is.

But what we should do is have a godly perspective, especially when it comes to how we view ourselves. A lot of things would change if we viewed ourselves like God sees us instead of how other people see us. Scripture says a good name is better than money and my definition of a good name is the name by which you are known by God. If God says you have a good name then it doesn’t matter what anybody else thinks.

The right perspective, godly perspective will allow us to see ourselves as God sees us and just like our name, that can be good or bad but it will be truthful and so we can make wise decisions based on that truth. Did you know that the faster you go the less perspective you have? The Texas Driver’s Handbook has a drawing that helps illustrate this. It shows that when we are not moving, we have a field of vision of about 180 degrees. At 20 mph the field of vision is reduced by 2/3. At 40 mph it is reduced by 2/5 and at 60 mph the field of vision is barely wider than the width of the beams of the headlights.

So, I would like to slow down and take an honest look at who we are, as God sees us and as He tells us in His Word. We are continuing to look at the book of Matthew at the most famous sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount. When someone asks you, “Who are you?” what do you tell them? You tell them your name and you tell them what you do. You tell them your work history.

But we all know that is not really who we are. It is just our way of answering the question. Who we really are can be a complex and dynamic answer but the real answer comes from who God says we are.  When God says you are someone, then that’s who you are. And in this popular passage in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus says that we are salt and light.

I have to say that I love to think about being able to have been there and to have seen some of the incredible incidents of the Bible. I would love to have seen God part the Red Sea or to have seen David kill Goliath. I would love to have seen Moses come down from the mountain with the 10 Commandments or Daniel walking around and petting the hungry lions in the den.

But I have to say that I would love to have seen and heard Jesus preach this sermon. He wasn’t much to look at and he didn’t have a microphone and yet He obviously had their complete attention. Nobody fell asleep or had to leave early, I’m sure. But preaching radical truth will have that effect on people.

Let’s read a very small passage from that sermon in Matthew 5:13-16 and hopefully we can glean some truth about who we are in God’s eyes.

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

If you are taking notes and you like an outline, the 2 main points I have for this are

· We are to be salt not sugar

· And we are to be light not shade.

Jesus used 2 common items to describe who we are. Everybody knew the qualities of salt and light. There were, no doubt, many fishermen in the audience that day and when they brought their catch in for the day, the first thing they did was put salt on it to keep it from going bad, to preserve it and keep it fresh. They knew that salt had healing properties and without antibiotics, I’m sure they often used it in that way.

They weren’t too far from the Dead Sea as Jesus preached to them and I’m sure that a lot of their salt came from there. I have been there and actually swam in the Dead Sea, which was fun, but I saw that there was so much salt that it would wash up on shore and then the wind and the sun would actually leach all the saltiness out of it and this is basically what Jesus was talking about when the salt would lose its saltiness.

I have said many times that everybody wants to know the truth. Nobody wants to go through life deceived and so deep down they long for the saltiness of truth. The sad fact, though, is that while they long for the salt, they are attracted to the sugar. They love to hear about God’s love and patience and forgiveness. Everybody has a sweet tooth when it comes to God. They crave the sweetness of having somebody to fall back on when they are in a jam. When they hit rock bottom from making poor decisions, it’s so sweet to know that God will save them.

And while that is true; God will save and forgive; there is a time and place for the sweetness. Have you ever mixed up salt and sugar? Have you ever put salt in your coffee or sugar on your popcorn? It’s awful. It’s just wrong. It ruins the whole thing. And while there is nothing wrong with a little sugar used in the right way, Jesus is encouraging us to be salt even when people wish we were sugar.

Salt is the truth that keeps this world from going bad and preserves it from corruption. Salt is used as truth to cure and heal and is what is needed in this sin-sick world that is dying with festering and putrid wounds of sin. The world is dying in their sin and the only thing they want from the doctor is a lollipop.

When Jesus says we are to be salt, He is saying that we are to be the medicine that saves by speaking the truth that saves. The truth is that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life and no man comes to the Father except through Him. And when the world hears that they say, “Oh, that’s just too salty. I need a little sugar with that.” And then they go find someone who will sweeten that truth to the point that all the truth is leached out of it.

2 Timothy 4:3 says, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” Do you think that’s true? Do you think we are in that time? Let me give you some proof that we are in the time of people gathering teachers around them to sugar up the truth of the Gospel until it is not good for anything.

There are a million different illustrations of this but I saw an article a while back out of the Star-Telegram from Monday, June 3, 2013. In it the new pope, Pope Francis is quoted. Now, it’s no big secret that I’m not a big fan of the pope. For starters, I was pretty disappointed that I was not elected to be the first Baptist pope. I think I could have done well. But also, what kind of name is Francis for a guy, even a pope?

I even had a name picked out had I been elected pope. I would have called myself Pope Hank. That’s a good, solid name, one that can be appreciated by the common man. Anyhow, if I had been elected you would not have read this about Pope Hank: Pope Francis made headlines for saying that all people are redeemed by Christ, whether they’re Catholics or even nonbelievers. If someone says they are an atheist, the pope was quoted as saying, “Do good and we’ll meet there.” He said, “The Lord has redeemed all of us…all of us, not just Catholics.”

How’s that for not putting up with sound doctrine and saying what itching ears want to hear? How’s that for sugar? There’s so much sugar there that not only did I get diabetes just reading it, but it has sweetened up the Gospel until the Gospel is good for nothing. In fact, if what he says were true, then not only is the Gospel of Jesus worthless but the suffering of Jesus on the cross was worthless and the pope’s job is worthless as well.

Nowhere does Jesus tell us to be sugar. Jesus wasn’t sugar. He never glossed over things to make his teachings appealing. He told the rich young ruler that the man couldn’t get into Heaven and love the world. He told the woman about to be stoned to go and sin no more. He told His disciples that in following Him they may not even have a place to lay their heads. The Gospel is sweet and wonderful on its own. Don’t sacrifice truth for attraction.

Now, the only thing worse than not having enough salt is too much salt. Have you ever for some reason gotten a mouth full of salt? Don’t use this as an excuse to be harsh and caustic. Colossians 4:6 tells us to let our conversations always be full of grace. But even then it says that our conversations should be “seasoned with salt”.

In the next verse in our passage this morning, verse 14, Jesus tells us we are the light of the world. I would imagine that to be told that was quite a shock for them. They were simple fishermen and shopkeepers, housewives and workers. How were they supposed to be light? And not only light but light to the whole world! And while they were probably astonished by it, I think most of the time, we just don’t believe it.

WA Criswell said, “It just never occurs to us to believe that God’s people are the light of the world. For to us, we have unconsciously become persuaded that reason is the light of the world; enlightened self-interest is the light of the world, science is the light of the world, ingenuity and human inventiveness is the light of the world, but not God’s people. They are not the light of the world. But the Lord said so, “Ye are the light of the world.”

And Jesus clarifies what it means to be the light of the world. The light is our good works. In verse 16 He tells us to let our lights shine before men that they will see our good works and (not give us glory) but praise our Father in Heaven. And how is it that when we do good works that God will get glory? How is it that people will see what we do and know that we are Jesus-followers?

Jesus tells us the answer to that in John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” When we do good deeds and show that we love each other by doing good to people who hate us and showing love to people who can’t pay us back then we will stand out from the rest of the world. It’s not uncommon for unbelievers to do good in this world but it is uncommon for them to do good with no hope of being paid back or getting something out of it.

And so the problem is that most of us are not really standing out from the world. Oh, we’re not evil. We aren’t darkness necessarily. We are more like shade. When people see us they see that we are good people. They feel comfortable around us and like to be around us and that’s good. And sometimes there is a break in our leaves and some light actually falls on them but most of the time we just allow them to be whoever they want to be and we will shield them from the light and the truth because we don’t want to offend them.

And they don’t ever feel the warmth of the light but they don’t get the coldness of the darkness from us either. And in doing so it’s hard to tell us from them. God has a subtle little word for people who are like that. The original Greek word is “Blech!” In Revelation 3:16, God says, “So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

And just like the salt that has lost its saltiness and is good for nothing, if you settle for being shade instead of light, God wants to have nothing to do with you. There is all the difference in the world between believers and non-believers and it should be obvious. Everything Jesus taught was countercultural. The first will be last and last first. If you want to have riches, give them away. If you are feeling bad, do something good for somebody else. All that goes against the grain of the world and so it should be obvious to people when they are around us that something is very different.

John Stott says, “Probably the greatest tragedy of the church throughout its long and chequered history has been its constant tendency to conform to the prevailing culture instead of developing a Christian counter-culture.” Do you know what the prevailing culture thinks about church most of the time? They’re ok with it. It’s not hurting anything. They can do their thing as long as they don’t bother me. That’s what they think. They even like to come every so often and enjoy the shade.

I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be that kind of church. I don’t want to be that kind of believer. I want when people see us for them to shield their eyes because they see our selfless good works and can’t help but see the glory of God. I want them to feel the sting of the salt as it heals their wounds. If it doesn’t then it’s not healing their sin-sickness. We aren’t called to be sugar or shade. We are called to be salt and light. God calls us salt and light and when we see ourselves as He sees us, it changes our perspective. And when we have the right perspective, it changes how we make choices.

Ask God what choices He wants you to make today.  Is today the day you make the choice to be salt to your neighbor or co-worker and tell them the truth about Jesus?  Is there something good you could do for a friend or a fellow church-member; something for which you could do and not get any credit or be paid back?  When you have the right perspective, you will make those choices.

Maybe today you don’t make the right choices or have the right perspective because you don’t have the Holy Spirit living in your life as a follower and disciple of Jesus. The Bible says that we can ask Him to come into our lives to live and that when we ask Him to do that then we are also in Him. The Bible says that for those in Christ there is no condemnation. The Bible says that the sting of death is gone for those that are in Christ.  You don’t have to worry.  You don’t have to live in frustration anymore.  You don’t have to have any more fear.

Ask God to forgive your sins and then repent of those sins and that lifestyle and allow God to change you. All you have to do is believe. Do that today. Maybe you want to join the church or make some other big decision. I’d love to pray with you about that right now as the music plays.

“A Christian’s Character” – Matthew 5

What do you want out of life? That’s a big question, isn’t it? If you could sum it up in one word, what do you want? Money? Fame? Power? Prosperity? What about happiness? Is it wrong to want to be happy? I know some of you are thinking this is a trick question because we are in church and Christians aren’t supposed to be happy. Right?

Paul said in Philippians 3:10, “I want to know Christ--yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death.” That sounds more like what we are supposed to say, doesn’t it? I know Paul meant that and that should be a goal we strive for, but I don’t think it’s wrong at all to want to be happy.

The problem is when people think that money, fame, power and prosperity are going to bring happiness because they are disappointed every time. And yet, that makes sense to us. It just has to be true that stuff will bring happiness. It just seems right. Doesn’t it?

Proverbs 14:12 says, “There is a way that seems right to a man but in the end leads to death.” Death? That’s not what we wanted. We wanted happiness but scripture says when we search for happiness - doing what seems right to us - that we end up in death.

Have you ever noticed that oftentimes scripture doesn’t match what we think…or feel…or have been taught? For instance, what is your natural reaction if somebody slaps you? And yet scripture says to turn the other cheek. What should you do to your enemy? Scripture says to love them and pray for them and do good things for them. Crazy, right?

What do you do when you face trials? Worry? Work harder? Complain? Overeat? Skip church? (That’s a good excuse.) In the book of James, it says to consider trials as pure joy. So, that’s how we know James was a crazy person, right? No, the Bible is full of advice and even commands that seem to make no sense. Surely, we know better than that, don’t we? Surely, we are smart enough to figure things out and do the right thing on our own. Let me ask you, how’s that working out for you so far?

Are you doing what seems right to you and feeling the joy? Are you happy in this life just doing what feels right? You might get the warm fuzzies for a while doing what feels right to you but if you want to have true, lasting joy, peace and even happiness, we simply must do what scripture says to do even when it is counter to what we feel or think we know.

Sitting here in church this morning on our soft, sometimes too comfortable pews, I think everybody would agree with that statement. We all believe that we should obey scripture. But what about tomorrow at work when somebody really does hurt you? What about at home when the spouse makes you mad or embarrasses you? What about when your kid does something stupid that they probably learned from you? Are you going to do what scripture says to do then as well?

Let’s all turn to the book of Matthew. It’s the first book in the New Testament, between Malachi and Mark. We have finished our focus on making disciples as Jesus made disciples and now, we are going to learn, as disciples, what Jesus taught His disciples. When He had gathered all twelve of the men He wanted, His ministry started to really take off. People all over the place were flocking to hear Jesus speak and people were being healed and lives were being changed and Jesus was saying a lot of things that were different from anything they had ever heard. It says at the end of chapter seven that the people were amazed because He taught as one who had authority, not like the teachers of the law that they were used to.

For the people of that day, Jesus was countercultural. He taught things that were just the opposite of what the people thought or felt or had been taught. You know…just like today. And nowhere is Jesus’ teaching any more countercultural than in His Sermon on the Mount. You can just almost hear the people’s minds being blown as Jesus spoke about how to live, how to work and how to pray.

What He said about religion, righteousness and relationships was not counter to the Law of Moses that all the people were familiar with but it was expounded on and fulfilled by Jesus in a way that they had never heard or seen. This is the first major teaching that Jesus did after calling His disciples. It was what He wanted them – and us – to know, understand, love and especially live.

It was as if Jesus was telling them, “Alright, you call yourselves followers of Me. This is how I live and this is how you will live.” And all of this is non-negotiable, undebatable and mandatory. You can justify yourself to yourself all you want. You can explain this teaching away as old-fashioned or even impossible but Jesus is saying to us today, if you call yourself a Christian, this is how you will live.

There are thousands of commentaries written on this sermon of Jesus and I know it is the job of the commentator to explore every aspect of the text but so many, as usual, get bogged down in things that are not important. Is the Sermon on the Mount all one sermon or is it a culmination of sermons over a period of time? What mountain was it? Is it the same as the Sermon on the Plain as found in Luke 6? If it is the same, what kind of plane was Jesus on? Was it commercial or, as Kenneth Copeland would have you believe, was it a private plane? 😊None of that matters.

Now, Jesus starts off with what is called the Beatitudes. The word “beatitude” comes from a Latin word that means “blessed” and each of these statements by Jesus start with that word. He is saying if you want to be blessed, live this way. The cool thing is that the word “blessed” literally means “happy.”

Now, we have talked before that usually happiness comes from having good circumstances, but as you will soon see, Jesus is talking about having happiness in circumstances that are the opposite of good. You’ll see what I mean in just a second. Let’s go ahead and read the Beatitudes which are found in Matthew chapter 5, verses 1-12.

Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to teach them.

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

I’m going to tell you right off the bat that this is the greatest sermon ever preached. No, not the one I am preaching, contrary to what my mother thinks. I’m talking about this sermon that Jesus is preaching. But I could preach on this a hundred times and not do it justice and I’m not going to attempt it today. But if you will come back tonight, we are going to dive into these a little deeper.

If you, as a disciple, will come back here tonight, where the other disciples are, then you can tell what you have learned from Jesus to somebody else. That’s what disciples do. Remember? And you thought I was through harping on Jesus’ command to be a disciple.

Anyway, when Jesus lists these beatitudes, you probably have some questions. I have a good idea that the original listeners had some questions when it was over. I have some questions. (Imagine that.) My first question is, which one of these beatitudes is the most important? Which do you think we should strive for the most? Because I’m sure, as we went through this list, you probably found one or two that kinda sorta describes you and you hope it is the most important. So, which one is best?

The answer is, Todd, that’s not a good question because this is not a buffet list where you can pick and choose and try one and see if you like it and if not, go on to another. No, this list – the whole list – is the character of a Christian. Maybe you have studied the Fruit of the Spirit that Paul lays out in the book of Galatians (5:22-23). He says the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, and self-control. Just like it says “fruit” and not “fruits”, meaning this whole list of qualities should describe every Christian, the beatitudes should also describe every Christian.

But there are at least two problems with these descriptions. First, every one of them can be faked. They are all internal, spiritual qualities that, so often, church people like to pretend that they have. We have all met people – not in this church, of course – who walk around with the sad, puppy dog eyes, looking like they just lost their best friend who think if they act sad, people will think they are poor in spirit, meek and mourning. And with just one look they knocked out three beatitudes! That’s pretty good. But it doesn’t work that way.

1 Samuel 16:7 says, “People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." Also, Luke 6:45 says, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” God knows what is in your heart. You can’t fake it with Him but you can with man. How a man can tell if it is real or not is by what comes out of the mouth, especially when the person is not at church.

And that brings up the second problem with this list as far as the world is concerned. The world thinks this list of beatitudes is not something to be admired or desired. In fact, the world thinks just the opposite. In the world’s eyes, these characteristics are the marks of losers. The world says, “Assert yourself. Stand up for yourself. Be proud of yourself. Elevate yourself. Defend yourself. Avenge yourself and serve yourself.” (MacArthur, p.134) Look out for number one because if you don’t, who will? Right? But, these are not a list of descriptions for churchgoers. These describe true Christians in and out of church.

This leads me to my next question, question number two. Just how important is it to be identified by God as having these characteristics? I know it says we are blessed if we are merciful, pure in heart and peacemakers, etc. but…that’s hard to do. Do we really have to have these characteristics?

Let me answer my own question by first saying what I hope is already obvious and that is that these are characteristics of Christians. These do not make you a Christian. You don’t get to heaven by being persecuted. If you are persecuted but not a Christian, it’s because you did something wrong or maybe you’re just a jerk. You can’t have these qualities if you are not a true believer. The good news is that you can’t have them if you aren’t and you can’t do them without Christ’s help.

Just knowing that ought to drive you closer to God. Just like the Old Testament gave the Law of Moses, which was impossible to follow, these qualities are impossible to have without God doing it through you. But reading these should reveal to you, just like the Old Testament Law did, just how much we need God and how far from God we really are without the sacrifice of Jesus. But when we allow God to work in us and through us to have these qualities, we start to live out who God wants us to be and that is where we find our true happiness.

I was talking to a wonderful Christian lady the other day who said she just wasn’t having much fun in this life anymore. She’s a wife and mom and she’s starting a new business and her health is not great and she has a lot to do that she doesn’t really want to do and she doesn’t feel like she is really using the gifts that God gave her.

So, I mentioned to her that it seemed to me that the answer to her problem was in the problem itself. If she would use her gifts that God has given her, she would start to have fun again. That’s why these beatitudes are important. When Christians have these characteristics, it fulfills what God designed man to be and that’s when we are most happy.

Also, when a Christian is happy even in the difficult times, do you know what that does? It draws people to that person and, ultimately, to Jesus. There is no better tool for evangelism than a happy heart. And there is no worse way to evangelize than to try to tell somebody about Jesus while at the same time crying and whining and playing the victim and blaming everything on everybody else.

I went to a Bridgeport football game last year with some friends. I’m not much of a sports guy anymore but they assured me it would be fun. So, I got there and paid to get in. Paid way too much for a Dr Pepper, sat down on a frozen and hard bleacher surrounded by loud, obnoxious people, one of whom spilled their expensive drink on me and then watched as Bridgeport got creamed by the other team. I looked at my buddy and said as sarcastically as humanly possible, “Hey, thanks for inviting me. This really is fun.”

Isn’t that a perfect picture of what the world sees in us when we try to convince them to be a Christian as we live just like the world lives and we are just as worried as the world and just as miserable as the world and just as gripey as the world? “Oh, yea. That Christianity looks like fun. See ya!”

But when we have these beatitude characteristics and people see that we are happy and joyful even when things are difficult and we have peace in the storm, then people start to take notice. They say, “I’ll have what she’s having.” “Whatever he is into, I want in. I want some of that.” You don’t have to be perfect. The world knows you are not perfect and that you are going to make mistakes. That can be forgiven. But trying to make the case for Christianity while not living any different from the world is impossible to overcome. (Might want to repeat that.)

Okay, third and last question. We have seen that all these characteristics are important. We have seen why we need them. The last question is how? How do we go about getting and keeping these characteristics? Let me ask it this way. Let me ask it the way the world would ask and how I hope you are not asking. What is the least I have to do to get these characteristics? What is the minimum that I have to do while I flirt with the world and pursue stuff and chase worldly wisdom and do all the things that the world does? What’s the secret?

If that is how you are asking the question, then just forget it. Because this is impossible without a radical devotion to all things Christian, which includes prayer, scripture, the church and obedience to the equally radical things that Jesus taught. The whole Sermon on the Mount sets standards that go way beyond what even the Law of Moses laid out. The whole Sermon on the Mount demands, not just outward righteousness like the Law requires, but righteous attitudes and desires. It’s not just doing what is right but actually being right.

How do you obtain these characteristics? Be right with God. Lean not on your own understanding but in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5-6). All your ways! Your job is one way. Your marriage is one way. Your hobbies, your mouth, what you watch on TV and listen to on the radio. In everything you do and everywhere you go, your focus should be on God and making Him look good. Acknowledge Him in prayer, with thanksgiving and praise, considering all the trials joy and being still and knowing He is God and everything else revealed to us in scripture. Whew! That’s a lot to remember! How can we do all that?

Only with His help. Only by abiding in Him, resting in Him and letting Him do it through us. And aren’t you glad? Aren’t you glad that without Him, you can’t do anything worth a flip spiritually, but you can do all things through Christ who gives you strength…and happiness…and peace…and joy? Not because we deserve it but because of His grace and mercy and because He loves us. Oh, thank you, Lord!

And Lord, give us these characteristics today, please. But we acknowledge that we can’t do it. Would you please help us? Please remind us when we are not living this way and what led us away from it. Please give us wisdom to know what you want and what it looks like in our lives, for our sakes but also for the sake of your Kingdom. We look forward to being blessed and happy and we are grateful to you for doing it through us. We love you, Lord. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Let me ask you one more question. We are not guaranteed another breath and if you died right now, are you absolutely positive you would go to Heaven? Why are you sure? Does it have anything to do with how good you are or what you have done or what other people have done? If it has to do with anything besides God’s grace and your faith in Jesus dying on the cross to save you, then I need to talk with you and pray with you right now.

Today is the day of salvation. Ask God for forgiveness of your sins and repent of those sins and allow God to change your life starting today. Do it right now as the music plays.