LIFE IN GOD’S KINGDOM
IS A LIFE OF GLAD SUFFERING
MATTHEW 5: 7-12
INTRODUCTION
Describe the plight of a cowboy who has set off across the desert. He
runs out of water, his horse dies and he’s been walking under the brutal
sun for 1 ½ days. His eyes frantically scan the horizon, looking for signs
of water. What are the signs he is looking for?
Do you ever feel like you’re in a desert in your spiritual life? You
are looking all around you for the marks of God’s presence and work. But
all you see is a bleak and barren landscape. Your own heart is full of
fear or anger or worry or lust . You continually get into fights with
those closest to you. Your feelings are continually crushed by the indifference
of those closest to you. Your job is not satisfying. You set your hopes
on a vacation or an event or a purchase and you are disappointed after
the event occurs or the purchase is made. How do you know if God is anywhere
nearby or if he is working in your life? What hope does he offer for a
better future?
In Matthew 5: 3-12 Jesus gives the reliable and certain evidence of God’s
work. He gives the signs to look for to find out if and where God is at
work in human lives, in your life. There are 8 Beatitudes or blessings
listed here. I covered the first 4 on June 6th. So I need to
go over a little bit of ground so that we all can pick up where we left
off then.
- First, remember that these statements are made by Jesus to his disciples.
In other words, Jesus is describing to those who have come to follow
him what will be true of their lives if they really do follow him. If
you are a Christian, this is what is true of you and this is what your
future looks like.
- Second, notice the pattern….
- Third, the term blessed means that these are people who God is looking
on with favor. Here are the people in whom God is working. The term
also implies that it is these people who are to be admired and envied.
They have the kind of life that we all ought to aspire to attain.
- Fourth, these 8 characteristics go together. You cannot have one without
the others. In fact, there is a logical sequence to them. (Go through
the sequence of the first four.)
- Fifth, the eight descriptions of the future are all describing the
future that awaits all those who belong to Christ. If God has given
you salvation in Christ then this is the future that awaits you.
- Finally, there is a warning in this list of blessings. If these things
do not characterize your life, then you do not yet belong to Christ.
The future that Jesus promises is not for you, in fact, the very opposite
awaits you if you do not turn away from your sins and place all your
hope in Jesus. It doesn’t matter how much you say you belong to Jesus,
if these traits are not in you, you don’t.
MAIN POINT
God is working in every human being who…
I. Is kind to the undeserving and hurting (v. 7)
Up to this point in Jesus’ description of the character of those whom
God is saving, Jesus has concentrated on internal attitudes. Now, in the
first explicit description of external behavior he says that when God
is saving a person, the certain mark is that they are merciful to others.
What is mercy?
This word is used often to describe God’s treatment of people. In Romans
11: 32 we are told that, "God has bound all men over to disobedience so
that he may have mercy on them all." And in I Timothy 1: 15-16 Paul says
this, "This is a trustworthy statement that deserves full acceptance,
‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ - of whom I am the
worst. But for that very reason, I was shown mercy so that in me, the
worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as
an example for those who would believe on him…" God’s mercy is God’s being
kind to those who don’t deserve his kindness. Like Paul, every Christian
knows that it would only be right if I were dead and in hell right now.
But not only does God continue to give me life on earth but he killed
his Son in my place so he wouldn’t have to kill me for my sins. He also
treats me as if I had lived a perfect life because he credits the perfect
obedience of Jesus to me.
Jesus tells two stories that illustrate the two faces of mercy:
- The unmerciful servant in Matthew 18
- The good Samaritan in Luke 10
Personal illustrations from yesterday:
- Cheryl was kind to me even though I put a hole in her tent
- Someone shipped me a box of Mr. D’s donuts yesterday
Apart from God’s mercy towards me the greatest expressions of mercy I
receive are from my family. My wife continues to be kind to me even though
I regularly offend her. My children continue to love me even though I
am unkind and unsympathetic.
Merciful people:
- Are amazed at God’s mercy towards them
- Don’t carry grudges
- Patiently endure the offensive behavior of others (Spouses, parents
and children pay attention)
- Do not retaliate, do not make people pay for the wrong they do
- Do kind acts for those who have treated them unkindly
- Seek to meet the needs of those who are suffering
How do you become a merciful person?
- Meditate much on your own sins and how right it would be for God to
be angry with you and deal harshly with you.
- Meditate much on the life and death of Jesus, remembering he did everything
he did for the sake of all who believe in him
- Meditate much on the fact that heaven, according to Eph. 2:7, is going
to be a place where God shows his kindness to all who trust in Christ
forever.
You do not earn mercy by being merciful. That would be a contradiction,
because mercy is God’s kindness to those who don’t deserve it. I show
mercy because I’m so overwhelmed by mercy. It is the infallible evidence
that God is working in you.
God is working in every human being who…
- Is kind to the undeserving and hurting
- And…
II. Has a heart in love with God and God’s ways
Here again Jesus is dealing with the interior life of his follower. It
is very important to notice that when Jesus sets out to describe the Christian
life he spends most of his time describing what goes on inside the Christian.
This is so very contrary to how most of us think about Christianity. Christianity
is first of all about getting a new inside. This Beatitude makes it clear
that what Jesus came to fix in us was not wrong behavior, but wrong loves.
You see, your problem and my problem is not that we do the wrong
things but rather that we love the wrong things. Jesus didn’t say,
blessed are the pure but blessed are the pure in heart. God’s favor isn’t
on those who perform all the correct religious duties and family duties
and civil duties, those who live "pure" lives. Rather, God’s favor rests
on those with pure hearts.
What do you think of when you think of purity? Pure gold means that there
is nothing mixed with the gold. So a pure heart is a heart that has only
one thing that it loves. A person with a pure heart is a person who loves
God alone, whose hope is in God alone, who yearns for just one thing,
to be with God, to be like God. However, pure can also mean clean or without
stain. There is a moral dimension to purity. The person with a pure heart
delights in doing good and in being good. A pure heart hates sin and hates
to sin. What this beatitude tells us is that motives matter. Why you do
what you do is as important as what you do, even more important.
Why does Jesus concentrate on the interior? Because it is possible to
change your external behavior not because you love God and his ways but
because you love the approval of others or because you love money or because
you love power or because you’d rather hang out with people who don’t
drink and smoke or …. People with pure hearts do the right thing because
they love the right thing not because of what doing the right thing will
get them in this world.
Matthew 12: 34 (spoken to the Pharisees, the most respected people in
the community), "You brood of vipers! How can you who are evil say anything
good? For out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks." Mark 7:
20-22, "For from within, out of men’s hearts come evil thoughts, sexual
immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness,
arrogance, folly, envy and slander." The only people who actually do good
are those whose hearts have been made good by God. You can change your
behavior, only God can give you a new heart, only he is able to give you
a heart transplant.
It’s right here that we have the explanation to why so many kids that
have grown up in the church, when they go away to college or move out
of the house quit going to church and start to party. The reason they
do it is because they don’t have pure hearts. Why did they do right when
they lived at home and were required to be in church? They didn’t like
fighting with their parents, they liked the other kids, they liked the
food after church, they liked the trips the church went on, etc. I’m a
perfect example….good kid because liked the approval of adults, girl I
liked went to church, liked pleasing my parents. But, rarely thought about
God and had a heart full of pride and lust. So, I partied when I went
to school.
It’s right here that we have the explanation as to why people who have
been involved in the church for a long time and are apparently Christians
go wrong. Like Dick…. If we could look in the heart we would see that
it was not pure, in other words not doing good because loved good but
because of what doing good will get you.
How do you get a pure heart?
- Be ruthless in your self-examination and suspicious of your motives.
Examine your emotional responses. Watch how you respond to the commands
of God.
- Listen to criticism
- Repent of wrong motives
- Plead for God to give you a pure heart
God is working in every human being who…
- Is kind to the undeserving and hurting
- Loves only God and His ways
- And…
III. Works to make peace
"Blessed are the peacemakers" is really only the second characteristic
that is primarily focused on external behavior. To be a peacemaker is
to be a person who works to bring together warring parties. It is, first
of all, to be a person who loves to bring God and sinners into a state
of peace. Second, it is to be a person who loves to bring people into
state of peace with one another. A peacemaker is not just working at helping
others come to peace but makes sure that he or she lives in peace with
God and others as well.
Biblically, peace is not merely the absence of fighting, but the establishment
of friendship and affectionate relations between two parties that were
at odds with one anther. It’s not simply getting opponents to lay down
their arms but getting them to love each other.
All who are peacemakers are called the sons of God. What this means is
not simply that God is the Father of all who are peacemakers but that
when we engage in peacemaking we look like our Father. This is the work
that he is doing in the world, making peace between himself and human
rebels. So, in order to understand what it means to be a person who works
to make peace we need to look at what God, through Jesus, the Prince of
peace, has done to make peace between us and God. The Bible declares that
every human is an enemy of God and God is the enemy of every human being.
We are naturally at war with God. That means that God is angry with me
and that I am angry with God. The main difference between God’s anger
and mine is that God has a reason to be angry with me, while I have no
reason to be angry with him. God does not like me or my ways and I, by
nature, do not like God or his ways. If we are going to not only cease
our conflict but love each other something has got to change between us.
God’s just anger against my sin must be appeased and I must be changed
into someone with whom he is not angry. My heart must be changed so that
I no longer hate God and his commands but rather love him.
This is exactly what God does for us in Christ. Col. 1: 20-22 says, "Once
you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of
your evil behavior. But now, in Christ Jesus, God has reconciled you to
himself by Christ’s physical body, through death to present you holy in
his sight, without blemish and free from accusation." Christ satisfies
God’s justice by dying in my place and then he makes me holy, without
blemish and free from accusation. So, no longer is God angry but rather
he loves me like he loves Jesus. But what about me? Has my heart been
changed so that I now love God and his ways? Do I consider God my friend
instead of my enemy? Do I now love the one I used to hate?
Deut. 30: 26 says, "The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts…so
that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul and live."
Eph. 2: 17-18, "He came and preached peace to you who were far away and
to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father
by one Spirit." Rom. 8: 15-16, "…you received the Spirit of sonship. And
by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit
that we are God’s children.." God, by his spirit makes me into a loving
son so that God and I are reconciled to each other, we love each other
as a Father and a son love each other.
So if I am being like my Father, then I am engaging in the work of reconciling
men to God and men to men. When I think about my relationships with others
I think about how am I going to be an agent of peace in this persons life.
How will I help to remove the barriers that separate them from God and
from other people?
Story of Elizabeth Elliot returning to share the gospel with the Aucca.
The Scriptures say that one of the characteristics of every human being
is that, "the way of peace they do not know". That seems rather obvious
when we look at the world we live in, doesn’t it? However, every person
in here knows that the problem of war is not just in Kosovo. It exists
in every home represented in this room. If you are a Christian, it is
your chief ambition to make your home a place of peace, a place where
people are not at war with God or with each other. So the question each
of us must ask as we think about our relations with those we live with
is this, "What can I do, right now, to help this member of my family know
the love of God in a greater way? What can I do, right now, to show my
love to this person?
God is working in every human being who…
- Is kind to the undeserving and hurting
- Loves only God and His ways
- Works to make peace
- And who…
IV. Gladly suffers for the sake of Jesus
The eighth blessing is the most startling of all, the most unexpected.
It is especially so on the heels of #7. Jesus just said that Christians
are engaged in the work of making peace, helping people lay down their
arms and enter into loving relationships with God and each other. However,
the very next thing he says is that these peacemakers are persecuted,
that the people who live around them react violently against their lifestyle
and persecute them. It’s not only startling that the world persecutes
peacemakers but also that persecution is a mark of God’s blessing.
There are several things that we need to note about the persecution that
is the mark of God’s blessing on a person:
- First, persecution is common to every Christian. Paul says in II Timothy,
"Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."
If I’m never persecuted is it because I’m not living the way Jesus describes?
Don’t be like the Jehovah Witnesses who go out looking to be persecuted.
- Second, the persecution is because of righteousness in v. 10 and because
of Jesus in v. 11. These are not two different things but the same thing.
The persecution that is a mark of God’s favor is that which comes because
you live the righteous life that Christ gives and models. As you live
out the first seven blessings you will be persecuted. Notice the persecution
does not come because of something you do wrong but because of something
you do right. Don’t call it persecution when you’re arrested for spray
painting "Jesus saves" on public property. Much of the scorn towards
Christians in the media is not the result of persecution but because
Christians have behaved obnoxiously or foolishly.
- Third, when we are persecuted, we rejoice. You don’t rejoice at the
persecution but because the persecution will be richly rewarded in heaven.
When you are persecuted is the time to rejoice, it is not the reason
we rejoice. We’re not masochists. We rejoice that, "these light and
momentary afflictions are achieving for us an eternal glory that far
outweighs them all." We say with Paul, "I consider that our present
sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed
in us." Illus: Pastor that kissed the wall of his prison
- Fourth, one of the ways we endure the persecution with joy is to remember
those who have gone before us and suffered in the same way. We are to
remember God’s approval of their lives and that they are now enjoying
their reward and we soon will be with them as well. Illus: The impact
of Julia climbing the wall on Jordan
- Fifth, notice that persecution is not just getting thrown in jail
or beat up or killed but having people insult you and falsely accuse
you. The problem we have with this is how do I know if the insults I’m
receiving are because of my righteous living and how do I know if it’s
just because of my stupidity or sin? When the other driver gives me
the finger for changing lanes without signaling while I was on my way
to church, is that persecution? When your husband gets mad at you because
you were late coming home because you gave a ride home to a co-worker
whose car broke down, is that persecution? When your friends make fun
of you because you don’t swear, is that persecution? When you don’t
get invited to the office party, is that persecution or a personality
conflict? Sometimes, it’s really obvious that we are being treated badly
because we are living for Christ. But much of the time we don’t know.
How do we react to this?
- We don’t automatically assume we are being persecuted.
- We show mercy to those who offend us, no matter what the reason.
- We seek to make things right between us and the other person. We seek
to find out if we have offended the other person by our sin.
- Finally, we rejoice that we have been given the kingdom of heaven
through Christ and one day we will live with him forever.
Persecution is not just what happens to people living in Moslem countries
or those living in communist countries. Persecution is common to every
Christian. If you are following Christ, you will be persecuted. If you’re
not being persecuted, is it because you are not living openly for Christ?
God is working in every human being who…
- Is kind to the undeserving and hurting
- Loves only God and His ways
- Works at making peace
- Gladly suffers for the sake of Jesus
© Copyright 2000 John Swanson.
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If you would like to post this material to the web or if your intended
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