Sermon On The Mount - The Beatitudes, Part 2 - Pastor Brad DeLong

So thankful for the presence of God. That's just another sign of his goodness and thankful that you all are here to enjoy it. You can be seated tonight in the presence of the Lord. I just want to take note of the fact I was thinking this week just preparing for uh this next installment of this series just how thankful I am that I get to come on a Wednesday night and there are other people who had the same idea and they have the same rhythm and they're they're getting dressed and they're coming and we're all coming with the same purpose that we're going to study this book. I don't want to take it for granted that I get to come to the house of the Lord multiple times a week with such awesome people. Honestly, I'm so thankful. I can see why the psalmist said, "I was just glad when they said to me, let's go to the house of the Lord." And what better thing could we be doing on a Wednesday night? Really truly, honestly, so thankful that we get to be here. And we are so blessed. And we continue to thank God for what he did just about 10 days ago. We had two young people that were filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost and one that was baptized in Jesus' name. We thank the Lord for that. really I I've thought about this in recent days just how thankful I am I get to be a part of these moments and I was at youth camp there was a young lady there I believe her name was Kylie and uh from what I'd heard from her pastor she's been in in church about three weeks and I got to sit there and watch as she lifted her hands and began to speak with other tongues and her life was changed she doesn't even really know what's happening she just decided to show up to church camp and there's a bunch of crazy people around and uh and she receives She's a gift to the Holy Ghost. I just thought, what? I get to be a part of this. It's so exciting. It's a reminder how blessed we are to be a part of the kingdom of God. And it's the very same kingdom. This is what's so awesome to me that Jesus introduced. And he introduced it in this series and in the sermon on the mount. We're going to turn to Matthew chapter 5. I encourage you to follow along in your Bibles, follow along on your handheld devices if need be. The scriptures will be on the the screen. Let me just ask you by show of hands. I know we're we're kind of just getting started. We're a couple weeks in, but I'll give you the I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. How many of you have read the Sermon on the Mount? Anybody? Matthew 5 through7. Okay. All right. Very good. How many of you have studied it? Anybody? You've been diving in. Okay. All right. Uh here's here's my admonitions. Study this. We're going to be parked here for a little while. And I hope you understand why uh already just the lessons we've heard. But I also hope you understand why by the end of this lesson today. So, uh I'm just going to forewarn you. We're going to be checking in because I think it's important that we read and study the word of God. And these three chapters in particular are so uh critical to Christianity as a whole. And we do have the advantage of of listening to and watching sermons online and and YouTube or our Facebook page and elsewhere. But I would say if there's a sermon that we should all listen to and study and listen to again, it's this one. It's the sermon on the mount. You have heard over and over the past several weeks how impactful, how formative this collection of teachings has been for the church and really for the world as a whole. There are people that quote the sermon on the mount that don't even know that they're quoting it. Well, you should judge not. They don't know the context. They don't know. Well, yeah, judge not unless you and that's there. There are so many passages in this sermon that people uh they base their lives on. They don't even realize where they it's found. There's entire companies and organizations and nonprofits that are based squarely in these chapters. And there are entire communities and and households that rest their framing and their foundation on these red letters and the words of Jesus in this sermon and others. So I encourage us all read it, study it. I'll give you some uh some resources uh resources rather for that in a in a few minutes. Implement it and know it. Uh if you listen to an audio Bible, if you have the ability, if you have the Uver app, it will take you 15 minutes to go through the entire sermon on the mount, that's opposed to my 40 minute long sermons. Okay? Jesus was a little more short- winded uh in this sermon. There's probably some others he was a little more long-winded. Who knows? But you could get through it in 15 minutes. And if we could get these words in our hearts and abide by this sermon like the rest of scripture, it will change us. So, uh, to recap what we've already studied, what we've already heard thus far, I remind us tonight, this sermon is, of course, one of the most influential teachings and writings of our time. In school, you probably read some books that were prescribed to you and and uh they're they're considered very influential books and uh there's there's obviously Christian genre books and things that you know writings by men like CS Lewis and Tolken and others that uh that are are pivotal and and cultural. Uh but this sermon is I think I believe and I know it trumps them all. Many believe it was actually a collection or a compilation of some of Jesus's most pivotal or pivotal teachings while he walked the earth. There are some that believe that Jesus stood on the mountain and he taught this as one sermon and that is entirely possible, but others believe that Matthew uh did a little clipping and and pasting from multiple sermons to create this one mega and master sermon. Either way, you're going to see he's very intentional. Matthew's very intentional about how where he places it, how he pieces it together. And these are all, of course, teachings of Jesus and and Matthew considers them as being very significant. So, he arranges them in a position of prominence in this book. You read in chapter 4, there's a buildup where uh where Jesus is traveling, he's teaching, he's ministering, and then there's just this pinnacle moment on a mountain. Okay? Anytime someone's on a mountain in scripture, just take note of it. It's usually an important moment. You could probably think of a few Bible characters that went up a mountain and something awesome happened there. I don't think it's coincidental that Jesus is up on a mountain and whether he was on a literal mountain or not, I believe he was. Matthew just makes sure, hey, everybody, it's a mountain scene and the original readers would have, oh, this is this is important. Okay, let's key in here. This is significant. And Jesus thoroughly introduces the the kingdom of the heavens or the kingdom of the skies as it's been translated in some text. So just imagine there's this ramp up in chapter 4. Jesus is preaching and ministering. He's saying, "Repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of the skies is coming." He's calling people, "You should follow me." And uh God's kingdom is being introduced. He climbs a mountain with some followers. He sits them down. And there at this pinnacle and and climactic moment is where the kingdom is introduced. They've waited for this kingdom for millennia and it's introduced. That is this moment. It's a big moment. And he begins to teach them the ways of the kingdom. He he talks to them about this new but also old and fundamental way. He is to some uh just the new rabbi on the scene. But of course, we know he's not just any rabbi. And his words start to have that reversal effect that Bishop talked about last week. this sermon. You anyone ever read in the gospels where they're like, "We've never heard anyone talk like this before." Anyone notice those moments? This is one of those moments. They're like, "Who is this guy? He's not just another teacher." Uh, and he proves that in this in this sermon. It changes everything, but also affirms what God has been saying from the beginning and I believe clarifies for the hearers of that day and time how it should be applied. That's where the biatitudes are introduced. And before we get into the last six of them and and the the following verses, I want to add just a little more context. All right, everyone still with me? You good? This context is helpful. We talked about this in our heroetics series. If any of you remember hermeneutics, heroetics at that time, rabbis and teachers are fairly common. They travel. They taught. Most of you probably heard of Nicodemus. He was a well-known teacher. And there were many other well-known teachers. Many of them had different takes on the law and the and the Torah and the prophets and the way that uh they ought to live. The Pharisees tend to take a pretty conservative view. And some would say they laid heavy burdens on people. So just imagine there's a bunch of traveling evangelists that are giving their take on the things of the law and the prophets. And of course that's to say the Old Testament. Anytime you see that the law and the prophets usually just referring to the Old Testament. One of those teachings happened uh to be around Jesus's time. and included these blessed statements. Okay, an example would have been something like this. This is Proverbs 3:13. Blessed is the man who finds wisdom and the man who gains understanding. That sounds familiar. And you see in the New King James, happy is the translation. A non-scriptural one that came around that time was literally this. Blessed is the man who marries a reasonable wife. You can take that one or leave it. It's not in scripture. It was just one of those rabbis. Okay, I'm going to leave that out there for you to chew on. These were common sayings and teachings in that day. This word blessed there uh could have been the word baroo simply means blessed. Uh the the Greek word macarios, which is blessed or happy, you saw or or most likely the word or phrase ashray. The this last word array seems to make the most sense because it was used in this type of teaching. It can mean happy. It can mean blessed, but it also uh denoted this phrase uh similar to what we would say they're living the good life. Okay, this person's living the good life. This is a phrase that someone would say about someone else after observing their life or their situation. It was blessings in the eye of the beholder. So it would almost literally read, "The man who marries a reasonable life is living the good life." That would kind of be the rendering. In our vernacular, in our culture, it might sound like, "Oh, you have a a huge house and a 401k. You are living the good life." And of course, that's debatable, right? Uh and that's the point. These statements astray, whether someone is living the good life or not, it's in the eye of the beholder. So you can be rich with blessings and families and and the goodness of God just like we sang about, but you can still be looked at as poor in someone else's eyes. This is so significant. We got we have to get this because teachers of that day had their own interpretations of what living the good life really meant. Oh, that person's living the good life and that person's living. One of them said, and I again, I don't uh I don't adhere to this at all. I think it's anti-biblical, but this was a traveling rabbi. He said, uh, someone who never has to serve someone that's underneath them. They're living the good life. Well, that's obviously not scriptural, but that's something that was circulating around that day and time. And, uh, they're they have these different opinions and what it means to live the good life. But then then comes this teacher named Jesus. And this time on this mountain in this kingdom, it's not just another opinion of another traveling rabbi. This one is different. So when Jesus stands before them and he says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven." That's as definitive as it gets. That's not just another opinion. That's the word of God. The poor in spirit are living the good life. For they will inherit the kingdom of the skies. Again, this isn't just the word or opinion of another rabbi and and teacher. This is the word of the Lord of the kingdom of heaven himself. and his word turns everything on in. That's awesome to me. All right, just the context. All these guys have these opinions and here comes Jesus and he says, "Let's go up this mountain. I'm going to tell you who's really living the good life and I'm going to tell you how the kingdom operates." And that context adds tremendous weight and meaning to this text over and above what's already there at face value. On that note, I'll say one last thing briefly. Uh you can get plenty of added context from I've mentioned this the Bible project podcast in this sermon Tim Mackey some of the scholars they do a great job of breaking it down. I'm going to reference him and others frequently in this lesson tonight. And one note that he had was very key. He literally called it the key to unlocking this entire sermon. And he poses it in a question that we should all ask before you read this sermon. So when you sit down tomorrow or in the near future to to read it, he gives us a key. Are you ready for the key? Anybody? You ready? All right. I thought this was a pertinent question. He says, "Before we try to decipher the meaning of some of these teachings, ask yourself, who is Jesus talking to in this sermon? Who's he talking to?" This is what we call the the grammatical historical approach in hermeneutic, which we talked about a couple months ago. Jesus was not in this moment on this mountain talking to 21st century Americans. Now, we can definitely glean from it, as you're going to see, and some of you already have, but he was speaking to first century Jews under Roman rule and occupation. Bishop noted this last week. When you realize that, it it helps you to to unlock this whole thing. He finishes the the first triad. If you remember last week, Bishop said there's nine biatitudes. They're in three sets of three. 3* 3 is nine. We're working through uh multiplication tables with with our kids. So, uh I think three times three, nine. All right. Good. So the first three we read, blessed are the poor in spirit, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. You can imagine the shock factor all these people. Who is this guy and what is he saying? You see the theme in this the first three verses, that first triad, those who are grieving, those who are downtrodden, those who are vulnerable and oppressed. You can imagine how this would minister to some people in Roman bondage, how it would kind of shock their system to some extent. And as I hurry along because there's a lot of ground to cover, the second triad starts in verse six. You can follow along in verse six and it you see it it shifts the theme slightly and starts to deal with some heart issues. The first has a theme of focusing on those who were oppressed and mourning and poor in spirit. And then verse six says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled." Another rendering of that might be those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are living the good life for they shall be filled. Notice, okay, Jesus takes that meekness moment in verse five and then he speaks to hungry and thirsty people. If you track this through the Bible and the the gospels, people always seem hungry and thirsty around Jesus. He's always feeding people, you know, like I think he probably fed 10,000 plus people. Uh that was part of his ministry. And he actually gets on to people. He's like, "No, you're just here for another meal. Get out of here." You know, so again, imagine first century Israel. He speaks to people in this context. They knew what hunger was. They faced food scarcity regularly. Their food was taxed. Their ancestral farmland was taken and confiscated. They they knew hunger. They most likely faced it often. So Jesus says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." That would that would perk your ears up. Oh, I'm hungry. Probably just the word hunger. Oh, yeah. He's talking to me and then he's saying, "Wait, we're righteousness." Jesus knew his audience firsthand. He He speaks to their empty stomachs. He He calls for them to crave righteousness. The word sedaka, that word, simple translation of it, and I love this. Doing right by God and doing right by others. That sounds familiar. I heard that and I'm like, "Yes, connect with God and others. Come on. We're doing right by God and others. Righteousness." All right. I just geeking out over our mission statement. Sorry. Yeah. So Jesus tells these hungry people, "Hey, I know you're hungry, but but this should be the primary craving of your life." And again, if you look at his ministry and some of his later words, he actually, like I said, he calls people out. You're just following me because you want a meal. You want physical food. And these may have been some of the same people that he tells that you should hunger and thirst for righteousness first, doing right by God and others. Paul would later say this, "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but it's righteousness and peace and joy and the Holy Spirit." Jesus was not primarily concerned with their physical hunger. He was concerned with it. He had compassion on them, but he was concerned for their other cravings. He was calling them to hunger for righteousness. We're going to see in chapter six, the kingdom, and the king will fulfill every righteous desire. Some of you know the scripture, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you. So he actually circles back to that in in a way. And if we'll seek the kingdom and God's righteousness first, all those things will be added to us. It's powerful powerful teaching and principle. Then he gets into verse seven. This matters of the heart uh theme continues. Blessed are the merciful. The merciful are living the good life for they shall obtain mercy. This one seems pretty self-explanatory that if you're merciful, you're living the good life. Again, it ties into verse six and doing right by God and others. This is the way of the kingdom. It also ties into the Old Testament, something we'll discuss later in Psalm 18. This is pretty close and and parallels one another. It says in Psalm 18, "With the merciful, you will show yourself merciful. With a blameless man, you will show yourself blameless. With the pure, you will show yourself pure. and with the devious you will show yourself shrewd. So the same God is speaking on the same theme. And you'll also notice later in Matthew chapter 6 and 7, this theme is revisited. Says things like, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who've trespassed against us." And it says things like we mentioned earlier, "Judge not lest you be judged. By the same measure you give, it will be given back to you." Jesus is laying the foundation for the rest of the sermon. So in a culture where if you think about it mercy was pretty sparse probably either because the Roman Empire or the Sanhedrin or maybe just the general demeanor of the people Jesus says you have to be merciful or or literally you have to have mercy on or show compassion to others. If you think through the context the rest of Jesus's ministry this was something that these first century hearers struggled with something we still struggle with. Think about the woman caught in the act of adultery. They were struggling with being merciful to her. So Jesus says, "Hey, if you are merciful, you're living the good life because you're going to have mercy." Verse eight rounds out the triad. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. That just at face value, that's pretty profound. If you're pure, you will see God. Like not even Moses really got to he got to see him in part, but I read that one day and man, it hit me right here. I'm like, I got to be pure at heart. I got to see God. One scholar noted that the pure in heart, there are those in Israel whose hearts were clean and undefiled. Those who recognize that God alone was their help and their reward. The righteous would see God on the day of judgment as in the first Exodus. Another scholar said it denotes one who loves God with all of his heart with an undivided loyalty and whose inward nature corresponds with his outward profession. His inward nature corresponds with his outward profession. I think the word integrity comes to mind when I think of that. Someone who's pure in heart shows what's in their heart by their words and by their deeds. Their words align with their heart in its purity. Psalm 73 parallels this beatitude. It says, "Truly God is good to Israel. He's good to such as are pure in heart." Tinddale commentary mentioned that the pure in heart receive the promise they will see God. And he mentions this really only will be realized in heaven fully when we see him as he is. And then we'll be like him and the longings of that uh verse six will be finally satisfied. But he also says in a lesser sense the vision of God is already the experience of his followers on earth who persevere in his service. And we do this Hebrews 11. We see him who is invisible. So we're already seeing God. How many of you have seen God work this week? Your purity of heart lends itself to that. Jesus, as we round out this triad, he's trying to reward and bless the pure of heart. that the merciful, those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, they're they're already living the good life, but they're also going to have the reward of being filled and they're going to obtain mercy and they're going to seek God. These three rewards alone are pretty incredible to me. Just think about what Jesus is saying. You're going to receive mercy. You're going to be completely filled and you're going to get to see God. Is there really anything else that you'd want? That's pretty awesome. But he doesn't stop there. The last triad in the chapter uh the first of course deals with their condition, grief, brokenness. The second deals with the matters of their heart and righteous living. The third I I said Matthew he constructed this beautifully and maybe he just took verbatim the words of Jesus. But the third builds on both of those. And you'll notice this one has a theme of conflict and how conflict is resolved in this kingdom that's that's arrived. It's amazing, like I said, how these are constructed because you really can't properly deal with conflict if your heart isn't in the right place and your heart uh condition depends on your your actual physical condition or or your your spirit and whether you're grieving or mourning. So Jesus is intentional about how the I think if he would have started with conflict first, they'd have been like, "No, that's that's that's way out there." But the fact that he lands there is significant to me. The hearers would have known conflict well. Jesus is telling them the way that conflict, the way the one uh they face regularly is addressed in the kingdom. Verse n, blessed are the peacemakers. We've talked about this verse a lot. They shall be called sons of God. I love this note here that in a world characterized by conflict and rivalry in that first century, a keeper of the peace is rare, a peacemaker still rarer. The absence of selfish ambition which marked the earlier biatitudes provides the only basis for this quality which is particularly pleasing to God. God is the supreme peacemaker and this quality marks disciples out as his sons for the son shares the characteristics of the father. If you are like Jesus you are a peacemaker. Jesus was calling at that day. I need followers, imitators, peacemakers. Mackey makes a distinction really helped me. I've spoken about it in in a paraphrase since that time. He said, "Peacemakers don't recuse themselves from conflict. They don't uh pull out. They don't take shots from the sidelines. They don't remove themselves entirely from the struggle. Peacemakers intentionally and carefully step into conflict and they show the parties how things are resolved in the kingdom. I'm going to say that again. Peacemakers when they see conflict and it's their uh responsibility as a child of God to help and intervene, they step in in a cautious and intentional way and they say, "Hey, this is how we do it in the kingdom." Peacemakers are just that. They make peace. They take appropriate measures to resolve the conflict and do more than sweep it under the rug for another day. They step in intentionally and they make peace. And I love this that as a result, they're called the sons of God. This was an early teaching of Jesus most likely. They didn't hear a lot of this language. Just they didn't have the whole New Testament. To be called a son of God, that's a big deal. And this quality marks disciples out his sons. Peacemakers are just like their father. Verses 10- 12 continue this theme. I'm going to read them together. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and they say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were for you. I lump these together because they're they're so closely aligned. They're saying uh some of the same things. Some say that verses 11 through13 aren't really part of the the biatitudes that they're just another section. But I defer and others defer. I think the gene uh the the theme generally runs all the way through. And these words are significant. It's talking about the prophets. The prophets were held in very high regard. The these martyrs, those who died for the faith were held in in high regard. So to suffer for God was a big deal. To be called to suffer for him. uh you would have been highly honored if you suffered as a martyr for God's law. But you also note and one scholar noted no other rabbi that we know of and we don't have writings called disciples to die for his own teachings or name. Jesus kind of gives them a precursor here for this kingdom that people in this kingdom are going to suffer. He's distinct in that from other rabbis. The truth is, he's telling us that when you do right by God and others and when you're a follower of the kingdom and you stand alongside Jesus in the frey, you're going to be marked. You're going to be marked. Uh we're told that men will see our good works and they're glorify our father in heaven. You're going to be marked for good reasons. But we're also told that they're going to revile us for the very same reason. So whether you're admired or reviled, the pursuit of righteousness will gain you the very thing Jesus came to introduce, the kingdom of heaven. And that wraps up the biatitudes. I know I had to move quickly there. How many of you learned at least something there? We uh one of my former bosses said, "It's like throwing spaghetti against a wall. Some of it will stick, others will fall off, and maybe you can pick it up later in your own study." I can tell you just in what we just discussed, we're just scratching the surface of the meaning here. I think we could have taken nine weeks on the nine biatitudes. Uh there's there's just they're just so rich with meaning. And we'll get on to verses 13- 16 and I'll hurry along is starting to get uh to get into the the meat of the matter on what it means to be a disciple of this new kingdom. So some call these assimilitudes uh you know meaning likeness or resemblance. And Jesus uses these next couple verses to to show what a follower and an imitator of Christ looks like. So you can follow with me in verse 13. You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but be be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. You're the light of the world. The city that's set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but but on a lampstand it. It gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men they may see your good works and glorify your father in heaven. One writer said from a a general description of the disciples character and the biatitudes the sermon now turns to talk about uh and and just a direct address of Jesus's disciples and indicates the effect that those biatitudes should have on their life and witness. If you live by these nine biatitudes, you ought to be salt and light. In other words, I I think the rubber really starts to meet the road here in 13-16. Jesus starts to address the substance. What does it mean to be a a disciple of this new kingdom that's arrived? What should we be? What should we not be? Kenir introduces this section by saying, "A disciple of the kingdom who does not live like a disciple of the kingdom who does not follow the biatitudes is worth about as much as tasteless salt or invisible light." I'm going to repeat that again. A disciple of the kingdom who does not live like a disciple of the kingdom is worth about as much as tasteless salt or invisible light. That's pretty straightforward. I believe this is at the heart of what Jesus is saying that if you're going to be a true disciple of the kingdom, you have to exhibit these characteristics. You have to walk the walk and not just talk the talk. Otherwise, he says, you're like salt that isn't salty or you're like light that's covered up in and smother. Elsewhere, Jesus would call this lukewarmness. We know he he looks poorly on those who honor him with their lips, but their hearts are far from him. To use the words of my friend Brad Portella, he says, "Don't just talk about it, be about it." I like when he said that. I think it summarizes what Jesus said. Various scholars have emphasized, you know, different uses of salt in that day and time. Uh it was a preservative agent, but it seems like Jesus is using this uh salt as as a taste, as a seasoning. He's talking about its use for taste. And that was used in a lot of analogies and this was a pertinent metaphor. So the summary is that real salt does not lose its saltiness. But if it did, what would you do to restore its salty flavor? Would you salt it? Unsalty salt is worthless. It's worthless. I This really helped me because I've I've read different things and I've taken different uh tax from this, you know, these three verses, but it just helps me to look at it just a brass tax. He's talking about the taste of salt. And if you can't taste, if you buy a thing of salt tomorrow and you put it on your your food and it there's no taste, what are you going to do? You going to keep it? Probably going to throw that out. Or you're going to use it on your driveway. Not today, though. Not right now. Unsalty salt. None of us want to be unsalty salt. All right? That's not a good thing. The same could be said for someone lighting a lamp and then placing it under a basket. What what is the point of that? A true disciple of Jesus and of the kingdom would be useful like salty salt and like a lamp on a lampstand. The point is that you and I should truly affect those around us. We should stand out like a city on a hill, which which may or may not be why you're persecuted uh in those earlier verses. And that city that he was referencing, many probably would have quickly associated with Jerusalem. And it would have been a bright city on a hill at night. So if you're a true disciple of this kingdom, you should have the same reversal effect that Bishop talked about. The kingdom and its principles will have a reversal effect on your life. Those should and will change your life. And if you are living those principles and and you're interacting in any way with the lost around you, if you're merciful, if you're meek, if you're a peacemaker, if you're hungering after righteousness, if you're pure of heart, you will be as much a change agent as salty salt and as a city on a hill that cannot be hidden. Any of you know someone that is merciful, meek, pure of heart, peacemaker? Anyone know anybody like that? Raise your hand if you do. Yeah. Would you say that that person changes people around them because of the spirit of God? If if you got the Holy Ghost, and this is before the Holy Ghost had been given on the day of Pentecost, you should change people around you. Men should see your good works is the last scripture there, and glorify your father in heaven. Jesus makes it clear this kingdom, its disciples, will have a reversal effect on those around them. You're probably gonna uh they're going to glorify your father. You might be persecuted for it, but you should be like a lamp in a dark room. True disciples are not worthless to Jesus. They're not extinguished lamps. They are useful for the master. And that leads us directly into the last section that we're going to cover tonight. Jesus's uh continued teaching. Verse 17, he says, "Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets, the Old Testament. I didn't come to destroy, but I came to fulfill. For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tit will by no means pass from the law until all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of these of of the least of these commandments and and teaches men to do the same, they'll be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, talking about those ones he was just talking about, biatitudes and these principles, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say to you, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. I'll admit this section is loaded and we really need to grasp this introduction. We're going to talk about what it's introducing next week. Uh the law and its application in the first century. I also say it it might seem like he jumps a little bit, but remember Matthew was very careful how he recorded andor compiled this sermon. The early part of chapter 5 introduces the kingdom. Here's the kingdom. Here's the biatitudes. Here's the values. My belief is that this section builds on top of that. It's as if to say this. Here's the kingdom of the skies. These are the characteristics of his disciples. You should employ these. You should embody these. And just like any other rabbi would at that time, Jesus then offers his view, which I would say is the definitive and right view of the law and the prophets and how they should be applied and lived. This was common for a teacher and a rabbi to do in that time. And you'll discuss some of this next week uh of the law's view of marriage, for example. Uh there were two main houses, two main schools of thought at that time. They were being propagated across Israel. So, you're going to notice Jesus steps up to the podium and he says, "Here's the true spirit of the law of the Lord and and his precept." He starts it all by saying what many of the people might have been wondering. They're hearing, "Okay, there's this new kingdom coming and and we're supposed to live these ways and but how I wonder what his take is on the law." Every rabbi was offering their interpretation or they were offering their two cents. And Jesus knowing his audience says, "Hey, listen. I I don't think I came to destroy the law and the prophets. It might have been at this point in the sermon that people are like, I don't know about this guy, you know, and he said, whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't think I I came to destroy all these things. I came to fulfill these things. I didn't come to destroy. I came to fulfill Jesus himself was literally the fulfillment of that law and his prophet. He didn't come to tear it all down. He came to fulfill the law and in many ways to enhance and to to refocus on the law. Again, we'll discuss this next week, but you see an example where he says in verse 27, you've heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So he's not taking the law and jump on it and throwing it. He is saying this is how we should live the law. Kenir says Jesus's ethical demands are no weaker than those of the law given by Moses. In many ways, he raises the bar. He also said Jesus didn't oppose the law, but he opposed an illegitimate interpretation of it that stressed regulations more than character. An interpretation that produced, as Jesus would say, whitewashed tombs, choice words for Pharisees. So, he gets right to the heart of the matter. He reiterates his point. And he says, "For assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or tit will by no means pass away from the law until all is fulfilled." This was a common uh analogy of the day that the jot the tit were some of the smallest strokes in the Hebrew language. It was like our comma or period, just a small dot. Jesus says that that this word is forever settled in heaven and not even a comma or an apostrophe is going to be removed until it's fulfilled in his timing. He says, "Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and and teaches men to break the least of them shall be called the least in the kingdom." And I I love this. I didn't catch it, but jump back real quickly with me again to first century Israel. What's the question they kept asking Jesus, "Jesus, what's the greatest commandment? What's the Everyone had to answer this question. If you were a true rabbi, what's the greatest one? What?" And you, of course, he answers, "Well, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself." But Jesus has that reversal effect. He says, "Hey, hey, if you break even the least one, everyone's fixated on the greatest." And he says, "I came to fulfill this law and if you break the least one, some say that the least uh was found in I think Deuteronomy 22 where it talks about not if you come across a bird's nest, don't take the mom and the eggs. Don't be greedy, just take the eggs." You know, like kind of a minuscule thing. thought about that recently because there's a herd of someone that's got a bird's nest. I'm like, they just got to get rid of that thing. I'm like, wait a second. Oh man, they're going to be the least in the kingdom, you know. But Jesus says that the the law in our case, the entire Old Testament, don't set it aside. It shouldn't be broken. Instead, the good disciple will do and teach the commandments. He will go beyond lip service to be guided by them in his life and teachings. This seems to point back to what he just said about being a true disciple of the kingdom in word and deed. It's parallels a powerful statement I read by a man's name's RT France. He said, "Disregard or disrespect for the Old Testament makes for a poor Christian." I don't have the time to get into this tonight, but there is a a wave and probably has been a way for quite some time that well, Jesus is here. We don't even need the Old Testament. There's a book uh that advocates for the reading of the Old Testament and the high regard. It's called the Old Testament is dying. So, it's not uh teaching against it. But many are trying to say, "Well, the Old Testament, just just get it out of here." Jesus, everything is built on this. And he's saying, "No, no, no, don't. I'm not here to to throw all this out." He just gives us the right view. And while some of the 613 commandments in the law were completed at Calvary, that does not do away with the wealth of principles and commandments that continue to steer and guide us today. I think we could all say, "Thou shalt not murder." Still on the table. So Jesus settles that debate about the Old Testament. He's calling his disciples to a new level. Some would argue a higher level of righteous living that existed at the time even with the Pharisees. And he uses them as a reference in that last verse. For I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees who were looked at as like the most pious of them all, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Circles back again to righteous living, doing right by God and others. Once again, he calls for righteous living in word and deed as opposed to phes and scribes who weren't exactly doing it. And he does that and says all this to set up the remainder of the chapter which we're going to discuss next week. So we will go ahead and put a pin and things right here. I will tell you as we close tonight that these words uh they have come alive to me in a new way in recent weeks and months. I've been wanting to do this series for quite some time. I just uh I love this sermon on the mount. of course love the Bible but I will say to us in the words you know in the sentiment Jesus expressed it's one thing to read them and maybe to gloss over them it may even be another thing to to study them and in an academic sense to have the head knowledge but it's another thing entirely to live them to be a true disciple to be salty salt in a city on hills how probably all of us have heard the sermon on the mount we probably heard sermons preached from it again and again and again and that has been the case in my But when I actually sat down and said, "Okay, let's dive into this thing." It changed my life for the better. Jesus stood on that mountain that day and he spoke to hungry people about being righteous. But if we will open our ears and hearts tonight, I believe we will hear him calling us to the same. So, one of the goals of this series is that you would know the sermon on the mount, know the backstory and the context, but the other goal is that you would live it. And it might be that something we discussed tonight spoke to you and helped you. And maybe there's not some particular thing. Maybe you just have a desire that you want to go and study it for yourself. Either way, I wonder if we'd stand together right now. And if there is an area, maybe there's one of the nine batitudes that really has challenged you. Maybe you need to work on uh being pure of heart. Maybe you need to work on being meek or uh or a peacemaker. Maybe there's just something in general about this sermon that's really spoken to you. If the Lord is challenging you in any way or helping you or spurring you forward, I wonder if you'd pray about that right now. Would you join me in lifting your hands and lifting your voices and let's apply this and ask for the Lord's help as we try to live as disciples. Jesus, I'm so thankful that we have the privilege of studying your word together. We don't take that for granted. while so many others are not even able to open this book and read this sermon. Some have never heard of your powerful words in the sermon on the mount. And tonight, I pray that you would help us not just to hear them and not just to have our interest peaked in them, Lord, and and not just to read them, but I pray that you would help all of us, that you would help me. I don't want to just teach what you taught, Lord. I want to live what you taught. And if there's anything that that I need to change in any of these biatitudes and I need to work on, I pray Lord that you would help me to do that. I want to be a true disciple. I want to be a lamp on a lampstand. I want to be a city on a hill. I want to follow you in every way, shape, and form. Emulate you in Jesus name. We ask for your help in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.