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So glad you're with us as we go through our red letter recall in the book of Matthew. We're taking in a paragraph a day and we are in for a treat the next three weeks, as we dive into the "Sermon on the Mount", where Jesus covers every topic you can imagine as He began His ministry! MONDAY..."the Beatitudes" (Mt 5:1-12)
I've asked my good friend Gary Cox, who's been the lead pastor at a church in Fort Myers for over 35 years, to give his synopsis of the beatitudes. This whole sermon on the mount has been a passage Gary has passionately taught from for years. Thanks big guy for sharing with our "finishing well friends"! Some of the most life-changing, life-giving, Red Letter Words of Jesus are found in Matthew 5:1–12. This teaching has come to be known as to be Beatitudes. At the beginning of Jesus' ministry, as He begins to teach a new kingdom, He paints a beautiful picture of what people in that kingdom, people that follow Him, look like and live like. He describes the character qualities of a Christ follower. A complete picture, not an à la carte one, that you can choose one over the other… But that each follower would live and look like this. BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT.
It all starts with an awareness of who we are and who God is. When we come face-to-face with our sinfulness and know, we need a savior. I know I am bankrupt in the goodness category and must reach someone greater than myself. When I have that proper spirit… The kingdom is mine. I'm ready to enter and live there. BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN.
When I come to that first awareness of my need for a savior and when my spirit realizes who God is and who I am not… My mourning will be about my sin. It breaks my heart that I have put separation between God and myself. It breaks my heart that I am the reason God would send his son… My sin, I mourn… And I'm comforted by awareness of His grace. BLESSED ARE THE MEEK.
Wow, Poor in spirit is how I see. God, weakness is how I see myself. When I have the proper, humble spirit about who God is, and when my sin breaks my heart, I will look at others differently. I will not look down or arrogantly or judge mentally on anyone. I will see them through the honesty of seeing myself and know that they are loved. They are valuable. I will have nothing to hide, and nothing to prove. I will not get defensive… Walking meekly… The world is mine. BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
When living the first three… I will find my appetite changing. I will be seeking what honors God, what draws me closer, what brings Him joy. I will find that chasing after things of the world, having an appetite for what the world offers is neither filling nor pleasing. And my appetite changes, my life changes, my joy changes… I feel full. Life to the full is how Jesus described it. Seek ye first… And these will be added. BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL.
My mercy toward others will flow from my awareness of God's mercy toward me. That "poor in spirit" awareness creates a mercy in me that is not natural. I live every moment aware of my need for God's mercy and it moves me to give that mercy to others with an awareness of the joy it will bring both them & me. BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART.
There can only be pureness in heart when there is acknowledgment of impurity. When I'm more in my sin, when my heart breaks over the thought of sinning, of hurting God, in someway, my heart becomes purer and purer. Living with the moment by moment desire to have a clean heart before God… We begin to see Him in the moment around us. BLESSED ARE THE PEACEMAKERS.
Only those who walk in meekness, not getting defensive. Those who walk in awareness of who they are really see others for who they are. Peacemaking becomes part of our nature. Not arguing, not pridefully trying to make a point… But one who not only pursues peace, but creates it around them. God looks and says, that's my kid! BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO ARE PERSECUTED.
When we live out these character qualities of a Jesus follower, we will be seeing different from the world. Some people, feeling threatened, will be cruel. We will be judged. We might be ostracized. But rejoice… The kingdom… The full life… The blessed life is ours! TUESDAY..."the Disciples & the World" (5:13-20)
Three phrases jump out at me today in the reading. One is to see the images of salt and light...preserving and illuminating. The other phrase is "not nullifying or abolishing" the law and the prophets, but fulfilling them thru obedience. And the third is when Jesus said “Unless you surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees,” this whole thing won't work. So to meditate on this passage today, it would be good to honestly ask ourselves… Are we creating some thirst for spiritual things around us in the lives of people? Are we living with integrity so that people realize we stand out in a godly way from the culture around us? Remember when Tim Tebow "took a knee in prayer" before every football game he played & the world noticed? That was refreshing. Not a lot of refreshing examples taking the place by storm these days is there? I have a friend who complains a lot who I grew up with. He's had some hard times and I try my best to empathize but every once in a while, I'll have to say to him, are we gonna curse the darkness or light a candle? Jesus said you are the light of the world, but your light is hidden, it doesn't help those who need a little bit of night vision to navigate things. Now the "law & prophets fulfillment" passage that Jesus teaches in this chapter is much more to do with him being the perfect example of what fulfilling that law looks like. It's not about doing away with the law, although the condition of the new covenant is all about Grace and Faith rather than perfection, sin, and further blood sacrifice. Jesus fulfilled, all that the law and the prophets required with his perfect life just for us! And the final phrase of warning from Jesus that we had better exceeded the hypocritical righteousness of the pharisees is a strong teaching! The Pharisees, the image conscious posers of the religious day, were the only people that Jesus ever got mad at. And he did it in very appropriate way. They were all about pretense. And Jesus couldn't stomach it. He also couldn't in revelation 3 in talking to the church at Laodicea. And I got a feeling, the semi nauseous feeling can occur when we try to make others think we are better than we really are. So to sum up… are you shining brightly? Are you trusting in his perfect life that was given for you? And are you striving to be authentic in your faith and not living on autopilot? May we help each other finish well in these three areas together! WEDNESDAY..."Personal Relationships" (5:21-48) Wow! These 28 verses could be a whole sermon series within itself! Jesus turns the kingdom upside down with this part of his sermon! I love the phrase "you've heard it said…but I say to you". That can either come from a rebel, giving contrary advice to what everyone knew was commanded. Or… It's given from the heart of God, reinstating the original intent, and the deeper reason for why the commands even exist! He begins by saying that beneath the surface of murder is the sin of hatred. He goes on to say that it's better to reconcile with your brother and come back to the church service with a pure heart than to continue on in a resentful relationship. Then Jesus says to "settle out of court", rather than be subjected to the legal system and it'll save everybody a lot of time, money, pain & grief! Then he clarifies, that as anger and hatred are the foundation of murder, lust is the foundation of adultery. These are things they already knew. He's just driving it home, giving them God's clearer perspective. Then he says don't take marriage lightly or you'll continue to divorce casually. And don't take oaths lightly, as a matter of fact, it's best not to even make an oath, but let your yes be yes and your no be no, because any other further verbalizing, in addition to the simplicity of our word is really generated from the evil one. Now that's scary for those of us who use far too many words to get our point across! We also find the “eye for an eye” passage that has great implications for capital punishment in our reading today. But you'll also see that it turns into the admonition to love your enemies, the greatest way for followers of Jesus to stand out in a rebellious, rights-demanding culture. Then Jesus tears into some of those phrases that can almost haunt us in our selfish moments… The "turn the other cheek" principal… The "go the 2nd mile" teaching… And the "lend to those who want to borrow your stuff" encouragement. So you're saying it's not all about me, Jesus? Now if you head to the end of the chapter in verse 48, you'll see with me how Jesus brings us all home. He boils it down and simply says that the reason for all of this illustration and suggestion for how we can be great examples to people who are far from God is because we are to be "Perfect as our heavenly father is perfect". That word "perfect" is from the Greek word, TELIOS, which simply means "fully developed, complete and mature". He wants us "full-blown and full-grown"! My goodness… Do we have a ways to go? I remember one of the phrases a good friend Ed Ferrari, taught me years ago in ministry. In an interview process, he would ask me, "so where do you see the holes in their résumé"? In other words, what are they lacking in experience, skill or maturity that we really need them to obtain? It was a great way to say, "what will we have to help them work on if we bring them on board"? So perhaps, where are the holes in the expectations Jesus gives for us? Relationships are hard. They take a lot of understanding, patience, and energy, & sometimes we run low on all three. I was reading in Philippians just the other day, that "He who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ". He will "perfect you", if you're willing and cooperate. We may feel like we're getting older, and we are. But with the help of God we're getting better. We're being "conformed to the image of His Son", according to Romans 8:29. That means tomorrow you'll be a little more like Him and a little less like you! May God continue to do the work in us that He wants to do! THURSDAY..."Secret Giving, Secret Prayer" (6:1-8) I love this teaching. It's the one that talks about the "prayer closet" and the "giving in secret", followed by the rewarding of God because He sees who we are when no one is looking! Now I believe it's pretty basic and self explanatory. Jesus doesn't want us to pretend to be more spiritual than we really are. He's more concerned about the "essence than the image" of our faithfulness. I have a couple of friends that are pretty creative in being “brokers of blessings”, if you will. They give secretly to people who are serving God, but facing financial difficulty in their ministry. They based the name of their "secret society" upon the words of Jesus, "don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing". Their name? "The Blind Southpaws". If that doesn't make sense to some of you, ask somebody who loves baseball and they'll tell you what that name means. Jesus finishes the paragraph before He teaches the Lord’s prayer, but simply saying in our prayers, “Get to the point!” Don't be repetitive like the Gentiles, who think they'll be heard by their prolific verbiage. And remember, Jesus says, your Father knows what you need before you even ask Him. That doesn't mean we shouldn't ask. It just means He already knows. Might be time for me to hush up. Might be a good time for us to look up. As we pray today, please remember that while we fumble for the words, His Spirit is already translating the prayers of our heart to our Father above. FRIDAY..."Let's Reflect... you've taken in a lot this week!" I know. It seems like we've been drinking from a fire hose this week. We have. Nobody opens Matthew 5-7 without their head spinning before long. So let it spin. Let your mind continue to be thrown into a constant state of wonder, how we can embrace all the things we've been told this week we need to do. Just look back over these two chapters and the first 8 verses of Matthew 6. What jumped off the page? What reminded you that you've always seem to know? What teaching of Jesus made you uncomfortable because you had a sense of conviction about it? Write those things down. Even if you're not a "world renown person who journals". I'm not. Our good friend, Neal Windham, has comforted me on several occasions saying a good compromise is to at least journal the "big things" in life. Neal is one gracious friend! But maybe that would be a start for some of us. Just write down on a Friday what God's been speaking to you throughout the week. And to make it easier, don't feel like you have to make up wording. Just use Jesus's words. Maybe our prayers could be, "Lord, help me turn the other cheek". "Lord, help me go the 2nd mile". "Lord, help me create some spiritual thirst or bring some spiritual light to the people that I'm around more than I have before." May it be a great weekend for you and your churches. May God prompt you to empty yourself and serving when the time comes… And may He and His word and His Spirit & people fill your heart, mind, & life with His truth and goodness... Love you guys and talk to you soon! george
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