How to sustain your marriage

Yesterday, we examined the passage about divorce and saw that Jesus calls his followers to a higher standard than the world around us. He desires for us to sustain our marriages, yet how do we do that? To be honest, I have been married for a year now, and am just now learning the surface of what it means to be married. So I feel very inadequate to write about this topic for you today. So I have been collecting bits and pieces of wisdom from people who are a lot older than me and who have been at this marriage thing for a lot longer than I have. So here are some great tips for different things to do to sustain your marriage.

Date your spouse.

That's right, one of the major things that old married couples told me they did to sustain their marriages was that they continued to date each other throughout their marriage. They carved out specific time on a regular basis to go on dates with each other, the way they did before they were married. When I asked them about what happened when they had kids and weren't able to go on dates, they said that they made it work because it was that much of a priority. They budget their money and make an intentional effort to pay for baby sitters so they could continue to go on dates with each other. Some said they had a deal with another married couple, to where one weekend they would watch their kids and the other couple's kids and the other couple would go on a date, and then the next weekend that couple would watch all the kids and they would go on a date. These married couples told me, this is so vitally important that it is worth being creative or the financial investment to make sure you are able to continue dating each other.

Another tip that I learned from these couples was to carve out specific time to talk about your marriage and conflict outside of conflict.

I was talking to a mentor of mine and he helped me realize that the only time I ever try to work on our marriage is when we are in the midst of conflict. My mentor told me that neither of us are thinking clearly and are in good positions to really evaluate ourselves clearly in the midst of heated conflict. So he told me that his wife and him, once a week, talk about their marriage and how they are dealing with conflict. This is an intentional set aside time that they are able to talk about their marriage outside of heated conflict. Another couple told me that they read from a marriage book every night together before they go to bed, and this spurs on a lot of discussion that really helps their communication. Here are some of the books they recommended:

1. Love and Respect by Emerson Eggerichs
2. Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas
3. For Men Only by Shaunti Feldhahn and Jeff Feldhahn and For Women Only  by Shaunti Feldhahn

They said that reading these books together gave them a safe place outside of heated conflict to work on their marriage and that they both were able to communicate more clearly, especially when it came to taking criticism from each other. 

Another tip that I learned for guys was this...pursue your wife. 

She wants to know that you love her and that you are going to continue to pursue her for the rest of your life. I don't care what you have done in the past, or what she has said in the past, but buy your wife flowers, buy her chocolates, plan a special date for her, take her to see a chick flick, do something that only she enjoys but give yourself completely to it. Maybe even go to hobby lobby, buy a craft and do it with your wife, I don't know, get creative. But your wife needs to know that she is the most important person to you and that she is worth pursuing. The pursuit doesn't end at the altar, it ends at the burial site. 

And women, here is the tip I learned for you....become your husband's biggest fan. 

Brag about him to your friends, post about him on Facebook, go to his softball games, basketball games, car shows. Tell him not that you love him but that you are proud of him and how good he is at what he does. Tell him that he does a good job washing dishes, mowing the lawn, cleaning up his stuff. Guys want to know that what they do makes you respect them. This means more to us than saying our eyes look pretty with that shirt on. Guys want their wives to be the girls that wear their letter jackets, go to their rock concerts and put their awards and trophies on display for the world to see. 

Men need to know that their wives admire them. 

And the last tip I was told by these very wise (old) couples, is to pray together. I was told over and over again to pray together every day. Couples after couples told me that after dinner they sit down and pray for each other, or when they got up in the morning, or right before they went to bed. I don't care when it is, it doesn't matter, but carve out specific time to pray with your spouse. This will become one of your favorite times during the day. It is very hard to hold a grudge or be hateful to someone that you are praying for and with daily. 

These are just some tips that I have been taught on how to sustain my marriage, hopefully they are beneficial to you.

Matthew 5.31-32

Today is a very hard passage that for our culture, hits very close to home for a lot of us. It is only two verses in length, and the difficult part of this passage is not understanding it, that is pretty simple, it is applying it and even living with it, because it is sooo prevalent in our culture. Let's read the passage:

³¹ “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’^[a] 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.


This passage can cause a lot of hard feelings and angry arguments because of some very ignorant interpretations. Some people will try to just focus on the very last phrase of verse 32, saying that if someone marries a divorced women, every time they are intimate they are committing adultery, they are committing a continual sin and thus not saved. This is a very extreme view, but believe me, it is out there. It is also very wrong. This is not the point that Jesus is trying to make. 


Sometimes we read what Jesus says as if it was said in a vacuum, and only applies to our interpretation 2,000 years later. 


But people can get so caught up on arguing about what this specific phrase means that they miss the whole point of what Jesus is teaching here. 


So what is the main point? What is Jesus trying to say?


He is combating rampant divorce and the oppression of women in his society. This is what I think Jesus is doing. 


As we will discuss tomorrow, Jesus was living in a time when men divorced women for any and every reason. Sound familiar? And Jesus is trying to show his disciples that people who follow Jesus, who are his disciples, they are called to a higher standard. 


We in the church are called to a higher standard in our marriages, yet the statistic still stands that the divorce rate is 50%, the same inside the church as well as outside the church. The only reason Jesus gives for someone to divorce his wife is for marital unfaithfulness. Not for nitpicking or for arguing all the time, or for getting ugly, or for a newer and younger version, or for even just having a bad year. Jesus actually expects us to believe and hold true to the vows, or promises, we made to our spouses on our wedding day...


"For richer, or poorer; for better for worse; in sickness and in health, till death do us part."


Jesus expects his followers to live to a higher standard than the world around them, and to sustain their marriages. 


Also, Jesus was combating the oppression of women in his society. 


It is a proven fact that when divorce increases in a society, so do a number of other things:

1. homosexuality increases
2. male sexual addiction increases
3. and women in poverty increases

The third one may surprise you the most, in a world where women have the same jobs and have the same opportunities as men, supposedly, yet in the ancient world, this was much more true. 

In Jesus' day, women were not able to make a living for themselves, in general. They relied solely on the care given to them by their Fathers, and when they got married, their husbands, and when he died, their sons. Women were always being taken care of, being provided for, by some male. Yet if a man divorced his wife, no one else wanted to marry her, she was used goods. So she would either go back to her Father's household, or live a life of prostitution, or live as a beggar. 

This was rampant in the first century, and Jesus didn't like it. He expected his male followers to take care of women, even those that were oppressed and unjustly divorced. If you look at Acts the sixth chapter, the early church actually had a ministry for single women. Maybe that is something as a church we should do. 

James 1.27 does say that "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

As followers of Jesus, we are called to sustain our marriages and to take care of single women. Let's do what he says. 

Matthew 5.27-30

So we have moved from the thesis, the main idea of the sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5.17-20, which is about what righteousness in the kingdom of God looks like. Now we are looking at the practical examples of how the rules of the law aren't abolished in Jesus' kingdom, but actually heightened. Jesus isn't concerned with the surface level issues, like killing and adultery, he is concerned with the real issues, like hate and lust. And so Jesus is tackling these issues one at a time. The first is murder, and we have seen that Jesus is trying to get to the source of sin and not just the result of sin. He wants people's hearts. And so let's move now to the next issue Jesus wants to tackle, adultery.

Let's read the passage:

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’^[a] 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.


This is a really tough passage. 


Just to clear things up, I don't think that Jesus is being literal with the command that we need to cut off whatever body part that makes us sin. There have actually been people who have taken this to the extreme and have dismembered themselves. Origen, the Church Father, actually castrated himself because he took this command literally. Later in his life, he said that this was wrong and stupid. But how it came about is not that crazy or uncommon. 


People do stupid things or believe crazy things when they don't pay attention to language and how literature works. When we read certain passages that are meant to be figurative and read them literally, we can believe things or do things that are way out there. And the same is true of passages that are mean to be literal and we make them figurative. That is why it is always important when reading the Bible to look for the Author's intended meaning. 


But we can get so focused on how to read the difficult and radical teaching and miss the practical application for our lives. 


Jesus calls those to follow him not only to not commit adultery, but to not desire sin, ultimately. How many times do we say in reference to sin that, "if only I weren't a Christian", or "if I wasn't a Christian" I would do that. 


Are we coming legalistic in our lives? 


Jesus' point is that it's not the action that is the sin, it is the rebellious desire inside of us that ultimately says, my way is better than God's. 


Think about it. 


Every sin is a result of a rebellious desire inside of us that thinks we know best or that what we want is more important than what God wants. 


And so Jesus wants us to change, not just legalistic actions that will make us look good, like the Pharisees, but he wants our hearts to be transformed to want what Jesus wants instead of what we want. Because the truth is, what God wants is ultimately better for us. 


It's like the parent who tells the kid, "look both ways before you cross the street." 


This instruction is for the good of the child, not just to boss. 


The same is true of God.


So what are the sinful desires in your life? Is it looking at a woman lustfully? Is it material wealth? Is it a desire for popularity or recognition? Is it for self-promotion or for attention?


What is the sinful, rebellious desire that you need to get rid of in order to follow Jesus?


People who follow Jesus surrender everything, even their secret, sinful desires. 

Spiritual Exercise 2

Today's exercise is going to be very simple. Figure out what activity or hobby that gives you the most joy and energy in life. It could be shopping or fishing or taking a nice walk outside. The activity could be playing video games,  watching a movie, scrapbooking, or even reading a good novel. Whatever it is, figure out what brings you the most joy and gives you the most energy in life. After you have figured that out, carve time out of every week to spend doing that activity. This requires that you make sure you are disciplined throughout the rest of the week to get done what you need to get done. But try to make time once a week, perhaps every sunday, to do this activity. We all need time to rest and to do the activities that we enjoy and that energize us. This is what part of having a Sabbath looks like.

So...

Find your activity

Make time to do it weekly.

Spiritual Exercise 1

Today, my exercise for you is to forgive and to release. I challenge you to make a list of people that either have wronged you and you have been holding bitterness towards them and to forgive them. Write them notes, but them lunches, meet wit them, and fix those relationships. And if there is someone that you have wronged or that you know is upset with you, go to them and sacrifice yourself, amend those relationships.

This reminds me of the TV show called, "My name is Earl." In it a man named Earl realizes he needs to make amends for everyone he has wronged or has a grudge against him. So he makes a list and goes through, one by one, making amends. It's a pretty funny show, but what he is doing is actually very biblical, now the way he goes about doing it sometimes isn't too Biblical.

So make a list, and make amends.

Matthew 5.21-26

Let's begin by reading our passage today:

²¹ “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ ²² But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.
   ²³ “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴ leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.
   ²⁵ “Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still with him on the way, or he may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be thrown into prison. ²⁶ I tell you the truth, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.


It is interesting to me that after Jesus gives kind of his thesis statement, or main thought for the entire sermon in yesterday's blog, what righteousness in the kingdom of God is like, then he moves on to describe this righteousness. Yet the interesting part is not that he goes to the Mosaic law in every description, citing what was said before and now restating it, taking each law to the root of the issue. That isn't the interesting thing to me. The interesting thing is that he begins by talking about relationships.  


Not until Chapter 6 does Jesus begin to talk about things like prayer and fasting and giving, what everyone in those days would have considered righteousness. These actions are those personal piety, or specifically, just relationships between the individual and God. Yet Jesus starts out with talking about relationships. He says, "you want to be righteous, don't be angry with your brother. You want to be righteous, don't look at women lustfully. You want to be righteous, don't hate your enemies, but love your enemies."


Jesus connects how you treat others with what righteousness, or being in a right standing with God, looks like. 


And the first is anger. 


And there are two situations that Jesus illustrates to show us how to handle situations that find us at odds with our brothers, with people. 


The first is in worship. 


if you see in vs. 23-24, a man is bringing an offering to the altar, and when he gets there he remembers that someone is angry with him. Instead of continuing on in worship, Jesus says that he must first go and be reconciled, or go reestablish the original state of the relationship before he can come back and worship. 


If there is bitterness and anger in between you and someone else, it effects your worship. It means that there is unforgiveness or sin involved in that relationship, and that bitterness and sin puts up a barrier not only between you and that person but with you and God as well. Jesus says that that relationship needs to be amended before true worship can take place. 


Is there someone that you are at odds with? Is there someone that is angry with you that you need to make amends with? Even if you did nothing, you need to do your part to try to make amends with that person. This is what Jesus did. Romans 5 states that while we were still sinners, still enemies with God, Christ died for us. He didn't do anything wrong, we rebelled against him. Yet he fixed our relationship and made amends by going to the cross to die for us. Christian, Christ-follower, we are called to follow in his footsteps. 


The second situation is in court. Jesus says to settle matters quickly with an adversary who is taking you to court. This situation involves that if a person is upset with you and suing you, don't let it reach the court, but settle it between yourselves. 


But what if the adversary won't budge? what if they are completely wrong and I am right? What if a lot of money is at stake? Don't I have rights?


No you don't. 


Being a Christian, being a Christ follower means dying to yourself daily. It means forfeiting your rights, your desires, your passions, and living solely to please God and advance his kingdom. In 1 Cor. 6.7-8 speaks on this same kind of situation. It says:


⁷ The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? ⁸ Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers.


1 Peter 2 talks about when we are being persecuted or are suffering injustice, to follow Christ's example. And you know what that is? To offer ourselves sacrificially for that person, to love self-sacrifically. We have no rights, we are slaves of Jesus Christ. This is exactly what Jesus did when he came to earth. He died to his rights, Mark 10.45 says, "For the son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give of his life as a ransom for many."


This is our calling disciple of Christ. 


Anger and bitterness only drives a wedge between you and God and his children. And when people are angry with you, turn your other cheek. 


The world has been fighting anger with anger for thousands of years. Let's try something else. I guarantee you it will bless somebody. 


The nations are blessed when people die on crosses. Pick up yours today. 

Matthew 5.17-20

There’s a neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY called Williamsburg that is almost entirely populated with Hasidic Jews.  I’ve actually been there, and honestly, it’s like stepping into another world.  Almost every storefront sign was written in Hebrew.  The men walk on the street dressed in their 100%-cotton black overcoats and donned with tall black 100%-cotton top hats, even in the pounding East Coast humidity.  The women are equally formal, garbed in white 100%-cotton blouses and black 100%-cotton skirts.  Honestly, it’s almost as if someone dropped Amish country in the middle of New York City.

On my first visit, I had made the mistake of wearing a plain tee (60% cotton, 40% polyester), cargo shorts and a baseball cap.  Needless to say, I was out of place, and everyone around knew it.  As I turned street corners, I drew oppressive stares and the atmosphere around me grew tense.  I soon realized that I didn’t belong, and what’s worse, everyone there seemed to silently agree.  I’ll never forget the way that this community looked at me: not so much with hatred or disgust, but with arrogance.  With pride, actually.  They looked at me as if they were righteous, and that by just looking at me, they could tell that I was not.  To them, I was merely a Gentile.

Hasidic Jews, after all, pride themselves on “perfectly” keeping the Law of Moses.  Their entire way of life – their occupation, their marriage, their clothing, their food – all of it is based on keeping the 613 rules that make up the Law of Moses, that long and supremely boring stretch of Scriptural wilderness reaching from Exodus 20:1 to end of Deuteronomy.

Now, personally I don’t find it quite so boring.  Actually, I find that some of these commands are rather unique.

For instance, Exodus 34:26 is careful to instruct us against cooking a young goat in its mother’s milk.  Not entirely sure why.  If you want cook it in water, vinegar, a cow’s milk, Hawaiian Punch, then go wild!  But not in its mother’s milk.  Deuteronomy 22:11 teaches Israelites to avoid wearing clothing woven together from wool and linen, meaning that their clothing had to be purely woven from only one kind of fabric.[i]

Leviticus 19:26 forbids preparing rare or medium rare steak.  Leviticus 19:27 prohibits men from shaving their sideburns.  Leviticus 19:28 outlaws tattoo parlors.  And these don’t even cover the numerous laws regarding what Israelites could and couldn’t eat (Leviticus 11), about sexual ethics (Leviticus 18) and about proper sacrifices (Leviticus 1-7).

All of these rules seem silly and impractical to us, but to the ancient Israelites (as well as to Hasidic Jews today) these commands represented a way of life.

Often, I think we get confused about the Old Testament and especially the Law of Moses.  We think that the Israelites and Jews viewed the Law of Moses as burdensome and unreasonable.  But it’s just the opposite.  They treated these instructions like their own personal Constitution, using them as the laws of their land.  They were proud of their Law; it filled them with pride.

Sometimes I think we make the mistake of treating the ancient Israelites and the Jews of Jesus’ day with pity, wondering how they could have lived under such strict obligations.  But we ought to understand that life as a Christian is no easier than life as a Jew.  In fact, living as Christian is much harder.  But we’ll get to that in a moment.

Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:17-20 are like a caveat emptor (Let the buyer beware!).  Everything that they were about to hear Jesus teach in Matthew 5:21-48 would sound like this young rabbi was teaching them to ignore the Old Testament teachings that they were so proud of.  But Jesus to explain that this wasn’t his intention.

Jesus taught the crowd on that day, 17 “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. 18 I tell you the truth, 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. 19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same 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. 20 For 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.

The Jews were serious about their Law to the point that they protected every letter within it.  Jesus acknowledged their concerns, explaining in vv. 18 that not even the smallest letter or the smallest part of a letter would disappear from the Law on his watch.  The ancient rabbis taught that when Sarai’s name was changed to Sarah, the letter “y” that was taken out of her name protested its removal from Scripture (Sarai could actually be spelled Saray).  In fact, it cried out so loudly that Moses was forced to return the “y” by changing Oshea’s name to Joshua in Numbers 13:16 (another way to pronounce Joshua’s name in Hebrew is Yoshea).[ii]  This was how serious the Jews were about maintaining the integrity of their Law.

This integrity was of some concern to the Jews in attendance that day; so Jesus, quick to explain, assured the crowd that he wasn’t hatching some elaborate plot to overthrow the teachings that the Israelites had preserved and passed on for millennia.  Quite the opposite, he planned to fulfill those teachings.  Because as they stood, these teachings were not yet complete.

As Christians, we often get confused about how to treat the Old Testament.  On the one hand, we ignore it completely as a set of unreasonable demands.  But on the other hand, we see Jesus in this text demanding his followers to keep the commands of the Old Testament and to teach others to do the same lest they get kicked out of the Kingdom.  So are we supposed to start cutting pork chops and bacon out of our diets and quit working on Saturdays(Sabbaths)?

Well, no.  In Acts 15, the Church decided that the Christian Gentiles were not required to strictly obey the Law as the Christian Jews had been doing even after they had accepted Christ as Lord.  And to an extent, even Jesus didn’t strictly obey the Law of Moses.  He worked on the Sabbath.  He touched lepers.  And he hung on a cross (Gal. 3:13).

But Jesus didn’t come to obey the Law of Moses.  He came to fulfill it.  To perfect it.

As you’ll see in the next few verses, Jesus wasn’t necessarily interested in the details of Moses’ Laws.  He was interested in the heart of Moses’ Laws.  In the very next section of Matthew, he teaches that to merely obey the command ‘Do not murder’ is to not go far enough.  He goes down deep into the heart of that command and orders his followers to eliminate the hatred or resentment that they harbor toward their neighbors.  Likewise, he teaches that abstaining from adultery isn’t enough; we must eradicate the lust in our hearts as well if we want to perfectly keep the command ‘Do not commit adultery’.  And he does the same with four more laws to illustrate this lesson: that to be a citizen in the Kingdom of God requiresthat we live a righteous life that goes above and beyond the righteousness of even the elite religious Jewish teachers.  The call to follow Christ is the call to walk a much narrower path than Moses could have ever proscribed or the rabbis ofJesus’ day could have ever drawn.

So what do we do with the Old Testament?  We go above and beyond it.  The Pharisees and teachers of the law in Jesus’ day were far too focused on the details of Moses’ Law.  They couldn’t see the forest for the trees, locked into a spiritual tunnel-vision that obstructedthem from seeing the fullness of God’s truth.  But we are called to dig beneath the rocky surface and uncover the perfect riches of God’s wisdom.

To find the heart of God’s commands is to find a higher standard.  The religious leaders in Judea were proud of their diet, abstaining from pork and shellfish and other critters, but we are called to sustain ourselves on nothing less than the Word of God (Matt. 4:4). They prided themselves on wearing clothing from pure fabric, but we are called to wear nothing less than compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience (Col. 3:12).  They offered the best of their flocks and herds in order to worship their God.  We must offer nothing less than our entire lives (Rom. 12:1).

The Jews carried a heavy yoke, but we carry heavier crosses.  So as we approach this Christian life, understand that it demands nothing lessthan everything we’ve got.  But trust me when I say that the work is definitely worth the reward.

Kyle Welch

Matthew 5.13-16

The Sermon on the Mount. Man, it really doesn’t get much better that this. Even though these few chapters of Matthew might be very familiar to some of us, it’s always a powerful experience to study them again. Yesterday we looked at the Beatitudes, where Jesus describes what it looks like to be a member of his kingdom. Today, we’re going to be taking a glance at Matthew 5:13-16:

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 by men.

¹⁴”You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵Neither 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. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

In these verses, Jesus uses two metaphors to describe how his disciples should be—salt and light. These metaphors are common enough; everyone knows what salt and light are like. I always like how Jesus uses everyday objects and situations when he teaches. The gospel isn’t something that only the academic elite can grasp, and the kingdom isn’t just open to the top tier of society. Instead, Jesus opens it up to everyone. However, even though Jesus’ teachings aren’t normally that hard to understand, they are certainly challenging to put into practice!

The thing about salt is that it doesn’t take much salt to go a long way. Salt is very distinctive. If a food is bland, it only takes a pinch to bring out the flavor. 

When I was four or five years old, my older sister had a kit for making all sorts of different popsicles. She would just have to put in water, add a little flavoring syrup, and throw it in the freezer, and before long she had a snack to enjoy. Unfortunately for me, she also liked to pull pranks on me from time to time, so one day she made popsicles using saltwater and gave me one to eat. Needless to say, it didn’t take many licks for me to realize that there was something wrong, and getting sick from it confirmed the fact that my sister had sabotaged my digestive system. A little salt goes a long way.

Jesus says that’s what we, his followers, are like. We are like salt. We’re distinctive. If we follow the way of life described in the Sermon on the Mount, we’ll stand out from the rest of the world. We simply won’t be able to hide it. Jesus’ warning to his listeners is for them not to lose their saltiness. Not to lose what it is that makes them distinctive. A follower of Jesus should look different than the rest of the world. The “normal” way of life isn’t to be poor in spirit, meek, merciful, or peacemaking. But Jesus calls us to live a life that looks different. We’re like salt.

Light is the same way; it’s distinctive. Jesus says that his followers are like a city on a hill that you can see for miles. Whenever I read this verse, I think of a time when I was driving with my sister from Arizona back to my home in Kansas (yes, this is the same sister that gave me the saltwater popsicles. She doesn’t do such mean things to me anymore. Probably because I’m bigger than her now.) Anyways, we were driving through New Mexico, where there wasn’t much of anything—just a lot of desert. But then we came over a rise, and there was a city ahead of us, and you could see the lights for miles. Compared to the complete darkness, the lights of the city were absolutely brilliant. There was no way this city could go unnoticed. You couldn’t hide it. It shone forth into the darkness. And that’s what Jesus says we are like. We’re a city, lit up on a hill, shining like a beacon into the world.

In a similar vein, Jesus compares us to a lamp, and he warns us not to put our light under a bowl so that it is hidden. Instead, we are to be lamps that are put on a stand so that they light up the entire house. This immediately brings to mind the song I sang in children’s church: This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine. We may be little lights, but even a little light makes a major difference in the darkness. 

I remember taking a tour of a cave when I was younger, and part way through the tour, the guide turned off the lights in that area. I had never before experienced such darkness. There was absolutely no light. You could feel the heaviness of the blackness. You could put your hand right in front of your face and not see it. But when the guide turned on just one light, everything changed. All of a sudden, the room was illuminated. Why? Because light is distinctive. It stands out in the darkness. In fact, the darkness gives way to light.

So again, the image of the city and the light is similar to that of the salt. Light stands out. It isn’t like its surrounding environment of darkness. And followers of Jesus aren’t like everyone else. Jesus calls us to be part of his upside-down kingdom, and the ethics of that kingdom are different than how the world operates. We see it in the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:3-12, and we’ll see it throughout the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. And Jesus calls us not to hide the fact that we live differently. We let our lights shine.

This section ends with Jesus saying in verse 16, “In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” I think that last phrase, and praise your Father in heaven, is especially important for us to grasp. Sometimes, we might catch ourselves living as though it says, “that they may see your good deeds and praise you.” We sometimes want people to notice the good things we do so that they pat us on the back and say, “Wow, you’re so good and holy. Look at how righteous you are! You’re just the best.”

But that isn’t the reason we are to let our lights shine. It’s not so that we can draw attention to ourselves. Rather, it’s to point people to God. We don’t do good deeds so that people put us on a pedestal and salute us. We do good so that they understand how God’s kingdom works and how Christ can transform lives. We’ll see this idea later on in the Sermon on the Mount, especially in chapter 6, when Jesus strongly speaks against doing our righteous deeds for our own glory. All glory belongs to God and God alone, and that is a truth that we must constantly keep in our minds as we live out this kingdom lifestyle that Jesus describes.

It’s a bland world out there. So go be salt. And it’s a dark world. So be light. And through it all, point to the Father.

David Heffren

Mattew 5.1-12

Now that we have looked at how the Sermon on the Mount fits into the book of Matthew as a whole, and now that we have looked what the purpose of the sermon is, what the upside down kingdom is like, let's dig in to it's intro, the Beatitudes.

 ¹ Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ² and he began to teach them, saying:
   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 sons 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. ¹²Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.


The space and time we would need to fully cover the beatitudes is way more than we have on this blog today. We could spend the next two weeks talking about these twelve verses and all of the different interpretations of them. 


This section of scripture is the heartbeat for the entire sermon, and their purpose ultimately is to show that in Jesus' kingdom, everything is upside down. 


The word that he uses over and over again is "Blessed", which literally means "congratulations". Mark Scott calls it the "nod of God." It's like Jesus is saying, "Congratulations to you who are poor is spirit for yours is the kingdom of heaven."


There are a number of ways to approach this passage. Some see the eight beatitudes like a ladder and the bottom rung is the poor in spirit. Once you get that, then you move up a step on the ladder, and you mourn. Next, you move a step up and you work on becoming meek, and so forth and so on right to the top of the ladder, being persecuted. They see it as eight steps to being the people of God. Some just say they are by-products of being the people of God. They aren't goals you work towards, but signs that this is what God's people look like. 


Some say they are socio-economic terms. The "Poor in Spirit" means those that have no money. The ones that are mourn are the disenfranchised. They say that it all has to do with your physical and social situations, not your spiritual life. Others take the opposite stance and say that it isn't social at all, but that it is all spiritual and figurative language. 


Whatever your stance is, whatever you believe, I tend to be a both-and type of person instead of an either-or. They are both goals and by-products, and they are both social and spiritual. But that is not the main point of the passage. The main point is that those that are Blessed are not the ones the world says are blessed. 


God says these types of people are blessed: The poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, those who are persecuted, they are the ones that are blessed, that receive the nod of God. 


Yet the world says the strong, the authoritative, the driven, the fearsome, the violent, the feared ones, the ones with power, the attractive ones, the talented ones, these are the ones that are blessed. 


As you look at the eight beatitudes, you will find that as you move down the list and become like these, you will become more and more separated from the world around you. 


When you become "poor in spirit", or as Eugene Peterson puts it, "when you're at the end of your rope," you have to rely solely on God. This is counter-cultural. This is completely against what the world says. They say, "Believe in yourself more! Get confidence, a bigger self-esteem!" 


When you "mourn", this is doing with without what the world says is needed. The world goes on in its merry life of drinking and partying and participating in sexual immorality and selfishness and materialistic lifestyles, and it does not realize that all of these things are self-destructive. The world is falling apart, and those that do not participate in these self-destructive practices sit back and mourn for it. Those that mourn are separated from the world, because they aren't living the life the world expects them to live. They seem uptight and sheltered. The world doesn't see them blessed, but God does. 


Being meek is strength under control. It is a war horse that has all the power to destroy everything in its path, yet it is completely submitted to the will of the rider. The meek renounce every right of their own and live for Christ. This is counter-cultural to the world. The meek say they have no rights, America is based completely on our rights. 


Each beatitude is against what the world says. And God says those are the ones that are blessed. 


those that hunger and thirst for righteousness is hungering for something that we can never attain. Yet, God will fill us at the end of time. The world says sucks to be you, God says congratulations. 


The merciful take on the distress and needs of others. The pure in heart are completely devoted to God and to no one else. The peacemakers endure suffering rather than fight fire with fire. And the citizens of the kingdom of God that act like this, they don't get recognition for their good behavior or for their counter-cultural lifestyles, they get persecuted. No recognition, but rejection. 


The world hates them, God blesses them. The world tries to kill them, God applauses them. The world shakes their head in disgust, but they receive the nod of God. 


And that's why the followers of Jesus, those who are part of the kingdom of God, are able to withstand the persecution and the insults. We wait for that nod, we wait for the applause, we wait for the time when God will say to us, "Well done good and faithful servant."


The Beatitudes show us that the world hates those who follow Jesus, yet God blesses them. And the way to follow Jesus is counter to what the world says. 


You have been called to live a life in direct opposition to the culture around you. Is God's blessing enough, or do you still need to be accepted by the world?


You can't receive both. 

Introduction to the Sermon on the Mount

We have now moved from the presentation of the king, the first four chapters of the book of Matthew. The whole point of these chapters is for Matthew to present to his audience that Jesus is the Messiah and to show what kind of Messiah/king he is.

Now we see Jesus open his mouth.

This is the first of 5 discourses found in the book of Matthew. And if you know your Jewish history, there is a reason that there is 5 discourses.

The Jews had the Pentateuch, which was the first five books of the Old Testament, also called the Torah or Law. Matthew is intentionally mirroring Jesus' five discourses with the fact that the Jews had five books of "Teaching" as well.

These five sections are:

1. Matthew 5-7
2. Matthew 10
3. Matthew 13
4. Matthew 18
5. Matthew 23-25

And the whole book is centered around these five teachings and the events that take place in between them. And you will see the connections between the events. 

1. Matthew 5-7--The sermon on the proclamation of a king, and the upside-down nature of his kingdom. 
1. Matthew 1-4 was all about the presentation of a king, now we see what this king has to say about his kingdom
2. Matthew 10--The sermon on the ministry of the King.
1. Matthew 8-9 is all about the King's ministry which is two fold: 1. healing the sick and 2. discipling the disciples. This is what his message is about in Matthew 10. 
3. Matthew 13--The sermon on the what Kingdom life is like (in parables)
1. Matthew 11-12 is filled with Jesus training the disciples what it means to be the people of God. 
2. The Pharisees and religious leaders of the day had a different idea of what it means to be the people of God, so there is a lot of conflict involved in this section. 
3. Jesus clarifies it all with his sermon in Matthew 13. 
4. Matthew 18--This sermon is all about Jesus teaching his disciples what the life of discipleship is like. 
1. Matthew 14-17, Jesus is focusing on the twelve disciples, training them and trying to get them ready for his death. 
5. Matthew 23-25--This sermon is about how to live in between Jesus' first coming and second coming. 
1. Matthew 19-22 is beginning Jesus' journey to the cross. And because his journey to the cross is filled with conflict, questions, debates, triumphal entries and all kinds of crazy things, Jesus wants to make sure his disciples know to Be ready and to Be faithful and to Be Loving, unlike the Pharisees. 

And then after Matthew 25, the rest of the book is about the death and resurrection of Jesus. 

This book is centered on five sermons, five discourses. And if you look back at what the discourses are about, you will see that all of them focus on Jesus teaching his disciples how to follow him. They are instruction manuals on what it means to follow Jesus. 

They are the discipleship handbook, and they still apply today. 

As we enter the first teaching, the sermon not the mount, we will learn that Following Jesus, being a part of his kingdom, is counter to what our culture says is the right way to live. 

Being a Christian, a follower of Christ, is upside-down, it is backwards, it is against the mainstream, it is a narrow path that few choose, but those that do produce fruit and build their house on a rock rather than on sand. 

Following Jesus goes against everything that our human nature tells us we should do, yet, following Jesus is how we were meant to live. 

Tomorrow, we are going to jump into the sermon on the mount, Matthew 5-7. My challenge to you is to read these three chapters sometime today in preparation for tomorrow. 

Following Jesus is really really hard, as we will find out, but it is really really worth it. 

Spiritual Exercise 2: Ministry

What a great sermon today about what makes Jesus angry. I have been very much challenged this week and would like to challenge you as well with this same thought.

What is our blind spot to sin in our culture today?

You may not understand this, so let me explain it.

A blind spot is something that we are unaware of, it is there, we are just blind to it. This is common in the lives of all the people that follow God. In the Old Testament they would actually offer sacrifices for the sins that they didn't know they were committing. They were saying, "we have blind spots in our lives and we know that we are committing sins that we are unaware of, so we are going to go ahead and offer sacrifices to cover up those sins."

So what is our blind spot in our culture today?

Not that long ago, we had a huge blind spot in our culture: slavery.

Men that would attend church religiously and read their Bibles everyday were slave owners not even 200 years ago. They would purchase human beings as property and force them to manual labor, and they thought that they were being good Christians when they would give the slaves an extra chicken at Christmas. And this was accepted as a social norm for a long time.

So if devoted followers of Christ could have a blind spot as big as slavery, couldn't we also have a blind spot that we just aren't catching?

In David Platt's book, Radical,   he talks about the blind spot of our society today, and it is that of materialism.

We as Americans are the richest country in the world, while 2 billion people in the world are living off of less than two dollars a day. And what are we doing about it? We have extra closets in our houses to store our junk and we pay for storage units every month to store more junk and we actually have yard sales in which we throw all of our junk out in the driveway so that other people can buy our junk and we can take that money and buy more junk.

Yet, as we saw in Matthew 4.23-25,  a large portion of Jesus' ministry was taking care of the physical ailments of the community around him. He relieved the people with diseases, the social outcasts. I read today in Matthew 25, about Jesus dividing everyone up at the end of time like a shepherd dividing the sheep from the goats. And the sheep, the faithful ones, were allowed to go to heaven because they cared for the poor and the sick and the downtrodden and the social outcasts. And the goats were condemned to hell because they didn't.

Are we taking care of the poor and the sick and the social outcasts?

This is not just a task for the select few.

This is not a ministry that only those who are passionate about this ministry or who have a certain spiritual gift. This is part of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. The first beatitude in Matthew 5.3 states: "Blessed are the poor in spirit". Luke renders this, "Blessed are the poor." The good news of Jesus is that all the suffering, the disease filled, politically oppressed, the sinful impoverished, all of the suffering and slavery of the world that sin has brought about is being undone by the kingdom of God and what Jesus did on the cross.

So what are we doing for the poor?

How are you helping redeem or undo the evil of poverty in the world?

Here are a number of suggestions:

• Invest into the Feed the Heart ministry
• sponsor a compassion child for every family member in your household. If you can't afford it, change your lifestyle, we can live on less.
• put a cap on your living expenses. Figure out what you can live on and no matter how many raises you get, or extra money that comes in, give the rest away to the poor and to the advancement of the kingdom of God, both locally and globally
• Serve at Watered Gardens
• Buy a community a water well. Go to worldvision.org and you are able to buy communities all kinds of things, like water wells, goats, cows chickens. And these things will be able to feed the family for long term. 
• give your money as a loan to kiva.org. This is an organization that takes your money and loans it out to someone in poverty who is then able to start a business with the money that you are giving them. This money allows them to work their way out of poverty so that don't have to rely on donations from you, but are able to sustain themselves through a job. And get this, they repay you the money that you provided. 
• Pray for one family that you can help in the local area get out of poverty. Commit one year to working with them, teaching them a trade, getting them a job, a place to live, fixing up their place that they are living now. Teach them how to budget their money, provide them a Emergency Fund at a bank, get them a checking account and a savings account. Commit one year to working with one family. 

We are called to make a difference, and this starts with you changing yourself, and making a difference in your own life. 

Bless somebody. 

Spiritual Exercise 1: List

We have just seen Jesus call four guys to follow him. Who are some people that you need to call to follow Jesus?

Make a list.

Make a list of some people in your life that you need to begin investing in, that you need to begin to challenge to answer Jesus' call on their lives.

Jesus started off with four, so why don't you start off with four.

It could be a neighbor, someone from work, a friend from high school, maybe someone whose kid plays on your kid's soccer team, or maybe even your child's teacher. Whoever it is, make a list and begin praying over that list, asking God to use you to call these people to a life of discipleship.

Matthew 4.23-25

Let's read this passage:

²³ Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. ²⁴ News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. ²⁵ Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis,  Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.


Here we see Jesus drawing large crowds to him because of his miraculous signs. And who wouldn't make sure to come out and see the miracle worker doing some crazy stuff? This is a fact that is very true about Jesus, people were drawn to him.


Crowds, thousands were drawn to him. 


And who wouldn't be?


This guy healed people with all kinds of diseases. He healed people who had severe pain, the demon-possessed, the paralyzed and this who had seizures. They would come to Jesus sick, and they would leave healthy, cured.


It was MIRACULOUS!!! 


So what does Jesus do?


He creates a lot of programs and builds a big building so that everyone can fit and be happy and comfortable. He starts a large organization that has a ton of staff to run these programs and put on a good show so that everyone is entertained week in and week out. He exhausts himself and his "staff" by making sure everyone is happy, that they don't make anyone upset. He makes sure that he writes thank you notes and encourages everyone for helping out in the slightest amount so that they don't feel "put out" by having to serve at the church for an afternoon. 


If you look at chapter 5, this is NOT what Jesus does. 


He doesn't worry about trying to please everyone, he doesn't concern or exhaust himself with trying to make everyone stick or stay, he sits down and teaches, and pay attention to what it says in Matthew 5.1, he teaches his disciples. 


Matthew 5.1-2 says this: 


¹ Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, ² and he began to teach them, saying:


He preaches a sermon. 


Being a preacher, I like that a lot!!!!


But in all serious, he preaches a very hard sermon. He says things like:


"Blessed are they who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."


and


"But I tell that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery in his heart."


And 


"Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect"


And 


"If you do not forgive men when they sin against you your heavenly Father will not forgive you"


And 


"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you"


and


"If someone strikes on the right cheek, turn to him the other also, and if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, give to him your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you and do not turn from the one who wants to borrow from one."


Jesus preaches a very hard sermon on discipleship, on what it means to follow him. 


This is very common in Jesus' ministry. He travels around, serving the outcasts and the hurting and the downtrodden, healing diseases, having these amazing debates and showdowns with the Religious leaders, yet when he opens his mouth he says things that tend to cause the crowds to leave.


He invites everyone to come by his actions, but teaches the hard truth about what it means to follow him. 


And what it means is this...you have to give up everything. 


So here is my question to you today: Are you a crowd member or a Disciple? Are you a fan or a follower of Jesus?

Jesus is the New Moses

One interesting thing that we, as westerners, could miss is the comparison that Matthew is making with Jesus as the new Moses, or the faithful Israelite.

This is very evident in the gospel of Matthew, and constantly Matthew is showing that Jesus is not only doing what the Israelites did, but he is accomplishing what the Israelites failed to do. He is fulfilling the law by his complete obedience to it and by his death on the cross in order to bless the nations. And if we just take a broad look at five pit stops in the life of Jesus, we will see that Matthew is setting up Jesus as the new and better Moses, the new and better Israel.

Egypt---Water---Desert---Mountain---Law

These are the five pit stops of the Israelites way back in Exodus.

If you remember with me, the story of the Israelites, you will remember that these are the five pit stops that they made as they were being rescued from slavery in Egypt.

First, they came out of Egypt. God judged the nation of Egypt with ten plagues, and by the last one, the Pharaoh let the Israelites go. And they packed up all their belongings, and set out for the promised land. On the way out of Egypt, Pharaoh changed his mind and sent his army after them to bring them back to their slavery in Egypt. The second pit stop the Israelites found themselves in was at the banks of the red sea, with the Egyptian army coming after them. But God parted the Red sea and allowed the Israelites to walk through on dry ground, rescuing them from their old way of life as slaved in Egypt. Then they entered the desert, and because of some bad decisions they would end up wandering in the desert for 40 years. This is the third pit stop. And before they were able to enter the promised land, they were tempted and tried over and over again during these forty years of wandering in the desert. The fourth pit stop is at the base of Mt. Sinai. Here, Moses climbed up on the mountain and received what would be the last pit stop, the law. This law was what would guide the Israelites and teach them how to be the people of God. It was their end of the bargain. God said, "I rescued you, I fulfilled my end of the deal, your end is to obey the law and follow all its rules."

This was the journey of the Israelites, being rescued from slavery in Egypt.

Egypt---Water---Desert---Mountain---Law

This is the exact path that Jesus took at the beginning of the book of Matthew. Because Jesus' parents were running away from Herod and his killing spree, they fled to Egypt. And Matthew 2.15 records what the prophet said: "out of Egypt I have called my son." And this happened to Jesus. He was in Egypt, and was called out of Egypt, just like the Israelites. Next, we see Jesus in Matthew 3, being baptized by John, water. Baptism symbolizes a death to old life and being raised to new life. This is what happened to the Israelites when they went through the Red Sea. They entered a new life, they were freed from the old. Then, immediately following Jesus' baptism, he was led into the wilderness to be tempted for forty days. The Israelites wandered through the desert for forty years. And now coming to Matthew 5, it reads this:

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

Jesus went up on a mountain and preached his most important sermon, the sermon on mount. This mirrors Moses going up on Mt. Sinai and receiving and giving the law to the Israelites. Jesus is giving his new law, the sermon on the mount, to his followers, the disciples.

Jesus is the new Moses and he is instituting his new law for his people, and it is the Sermon on the Mount.

This is our law, this is the center of what it means for us to be the people of God, to be the new Israel. This sermon is one of five messages that Jesus gives in the book of Matthew that represents center of what it means to be the people of God. This is what we are all about as Christians. And it begins with Jesus calling his disciples to him and teaching them.

What I learn from these first two verses of chapter 5 is this, being a disciple of Jesus means sitting at his feet and learning from him.

This is done by reading his word daily, eating your Bible. This is done by going to church and listening to teaching and most importantly, obeying that teaching. This is done by praying and listening to God, but pursuing a relationship with him daily. Disciples learn from Jesus what it means to be the people of God and bless the nations.

Are you learning from Jesus?

Matthew 4.18-22

18  One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew‚ throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. 19  Jesus called out to them, "Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!"  20  And they left their nets at once and followed him.  21  A little farther up the shore he saw two other brothers, James and John, sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, repairing their nets. And he called them to come, too. 22  They immediately followed him, leaving the boat and their father behind.

Before we can understand the story of Jesus calling his first disciples we must first look at the Jewish culture of his day.

Jesus grew up in Israel, in an orthodox Jewish region of Israel called Galilee. At that point they already had the first 5 books of the bible which they called the "Torah", which means teachings or instructions.

They believed that the best way to live was by following what the Torah said. So the education system was wrapped around teaching the Torah. Kids started as early as 5 or 6 learning the Torah. They would be taught by a Rabbi or Teacher. They would digest the word of God like food through the teachings or their Rabbi until the age of 10. At this point they would begin memorizing the entire first five books by heart.

There were several levels of learning the Torah, and at each level only successful students would continue. If you weren't good enough, you would go home and learn the family trade.

Rabbis who taught the word were the best of the best. They were the students that were smartest and knew the text inside and out. Not everyone could do what they did.

The final level of education was where the student would come to the rabbi and present himself to be his disciple. The Rabbi would want to know if this kid could do what the rabbi does. If he could be like him, did he have what it takes. If he found that this kid could do those things, he would say "come, follow me". The kid would then essentially leave his father and mother and follow after this Rabbi as his disciple, trying to be exactly like him.

So when Jesus found Simon, Andrew, James and John what were they doing?

They were taking up the family trade of "fishing". They were the kids that weren't good enough to follow a Rabbi. They weren't the best of the best. Yet, Jesus said as a Rabbi would.... "come, follow me".

It sometimes seems odd that they immediately dropped their nets and followed him, but once you realize that Jesus as a Rabbi was essentially saying "you are good enough, come follow me", it makes all the difference.

Jesus calls out to the "not good enoughs" and says, you can be like me, you can do what I do.

Notice that he didn't say "Take a course in evangelism", or "Study this book and practice this teaching Technique." No, he said "Follow me, hang out with me and I'm going to be changing you. You are going to become like me, a fisher of men".

The most interesting part of this story is that he took their trades and turned them into tools for the Kingdom. If you look at what Peter (simon) was doing on the day of Pentecost he was throwing out the net of the gospel and he brought in 3000 people (fish). John was mending nets when Jesus found him. John went on to write epistles that would mend the church and the people. The disciples eventual ministries were already seen in what they were doing naturally. God has a way of turning the natural into the supernatural through his grace for his glory.

Jesus is telling you, you are good enough, you can be like me, do what I do. Answer his calling!

Eat the book and Follow the leader.

Jesus took a bunch of "not good enoughs" and changed history forever.

Brad Moss

The Kingdom of God

Yesterday, my good friend from school, David Heffren, wrote about the preaching of Jesus as he began his ministry. And in verse 17, Matthew gives us the dominant thought, the big idea, the main thing that Jesus' preaching consisted of.

"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."

So what is the kingdom of heaven? If this is the central teaching of Jesus, we need to know it and have it also be the center of our teaching and preaching as well.

Matthew uses the term, "heaven" interchangeable with "God" in referring to the kingdom because he was a Jew and did not want to speak the name of God so that they wouldn't use his name in vain accidentally. So Matthew, as a good Jew, interchanges the name of God with heaven. So the Kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are the same thing.

This term is used 96x's in the NT and 58 of those times are in Matthew and Luke. And this term is a political term.

Jesus was a political figure.

Now some of you may have winced when I said that, but that is because our experience with politicians is a very negative one. My example for an oxymoron is a clean politician.

But I think that if we examine what the word political really means, and what Jesus was coming to do and how he was political, I think it will help us understand what being the kingdom of God is all about.

The word, political, comes from the Greek word politeuomai, which means 'to live as a citizen.' To live as a citizen of what? Of a kingdom, of a socially identifiable group of people that look, act, and hold the same allegiance to a certain entity. For Americans, that is the United States' government. For Britain, the allegiance is to the crown.

Jesus was political in the sense that he did these four things: 1. he was a person who was public rather than private. This basically means that the people had access to his ideas. 2. He was creating a sociologically identifiable group of people. This he accomplished by establishing twelve disciples as his core group of followers to rule in his new kingdom with him. 3. He had a social agenda. This sounds bad, but the agenda was not evil in the sense that we see earthly politicians having agendas. Jesus' agenda was ultimately to bless all the nations through his death on the cross and through his followers who were citizens of the new kingdom he established. And lastly, 4. He exercised power. Now when we think of power, it seems to always include some form of oppression on the downtrodden. Yet Jesus exercised power, but what kind of power?

This is where our problem with Jesus being political really hits home. All the kingdoms of this world operate politically with two tools. They use two kinds of power; violence and propaganda. Yet this is not the tools that Jesus uses. He actually tells his disciples how to operate in his kingdom, what his political tools are. They are indiscriminate love and truth. This is rooted in the passage found in Mark 10.45. This is what Jesus says to the twelve disciples when James and John try to finagle their way into being the greatest in Jesus' new Kingdom.

⁴¹ When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. ⁴² Jesus called them together and said,“You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ⁴³ Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus said, his political tool, the way he uses power is to sacrifice it on a cross and serve humanity. And that is what it means to be a part of the kingdom of God. This is Jesus' political strategy. He wants to create a socially identifiable group of people who are identified by their indiscriminate love and truth, by their sacrificial service for the world!!! He wants to create a group of people who will bless the nations!!!

This is the group of people you are a part of. You are a part of a kingdom that demands your total allegiance in order to bless the nations!!! And this is done by picking up a cross and serving someone.

Bless the nations, pick up a cross and serve the world.