In the midst of God’s rule? Your righteousness must be surpassing.

Want to know God in charge? Like it or not, excessively generous love is where you will find Him. Chances are we won't like it.

Matthew 5:38-48

This is the peak of the mountain Jesus is leading his hearers to climb.

Blessed? Righteousness.

How righteous?

Enough to be persecuted by people who live by the rules of this world.

Enough to value making peace more than justifying contempt.

Enough to be more concerned about the integrity of your heart than the legitimacy of your status.

Enough to aim for turning enemies into family.

JUSTICE

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
MERCY

(39) But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil.

1. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
   
2. (40) And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
   
3. (41) And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
   
4. (42) Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
   

Measured LOVE

(43) "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'

Generous LOVE

(44) But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (45) so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

1. (46) For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
   
2. Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
   
3. (47) And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?
   
4. Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
   

What if I don't wanna get slapped, sued, bullied and begged on? What if I love US and hate THEM?

Well, just ask yourself: Who's your daddy?

The world's love is for self. GOD's Love is generous; overflowing the boundaries; the cup runneth over.

(48) You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend." – M.L. King

*What we want to ask about is how literally to take this or that. As a teacher I hear the question as "Is this going to be on the test?" Translation: "Do I really need to pay attention to this?" My suggestion is we should actually consider Jesus' lecture as worth understanding. We should suspend application questions until we have come close to understanding meaning answers. But they are upsetting; no question.

"Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable."
  --  C.S. Lewis

So, what does all this indignity bearing stuff mean? It means people should believe God is just and irrepressible. It means people believe that other people are to be redeemed and reconciled, not rebuffed and eradicated.

For God so loved the world He gave. Will we?

Easter Story Board

This is a story board. It explains the significance of Easter in light of the big picture. The concept was designed by Telos X, the graphics which make it speak by http://csstanley.com/blog/
I will sketch out below a few of the ideas contained in this story board. I also look forward to hearing from some of you as to what you see in the story as it is presented here.

May your Easter worship inspire you to live like exiled royalty with hope that the King has risen and he will return!

God is the Alpha and Omega in Whom we live

Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: "I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. (Isaiah 44:6)

"I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." (Revelation 1:8)

And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. (Revelation 21:6)

The background for the Easter Story Board reveals that God (YHWH) is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End, First and Last. What does that mean? All of reality, including time and space, exist in God; God is involved in the unfolding of history, butHe is also above it. As Paul explained to the Greek philosophers using their own thinking:

Acts 17:24-31 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, ... he is actually not far from each one of us, (28) for "'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said, "'For we are indeed his offspring.' ... (30) The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, (31) because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

King Regent Ruled

The Crown represents God as Lord over all.

The heart is humanity. God is love and we are created in His image. The two greatest commands are to love God and love people.
The legs extending from the heart shows that man is designated to be God's regents, ruling over creation.

The world under man's rule, with man under God's rule, is a very good place. That is the vision we long to see fulfilled. Why isn't it? What has gone wrong?

Fallen

God assigned man as the royal regent over creation. A serpent (creature) appeals to hidden treasures (fruit of the knowledge of good and evil) in spite of God's royal decree.

The royal regent foolishly rebels in pursuit of the treasure and finds himself banished; outcasts.

Now the world is cursed. Access to God is blocked and man's heart is dead in rebellion. Humanity looks to the world and worships the creation instead of the Creator (Romans 1:18ff).

This is how life seems. Nature is wild and dangerous and people learn to be the same. Sexual immorality, violence, selfish agression; as the world goes so goes the heart of man. Humanity has lost sight of God and tragically gets entagled in ongoing deception for the powers and principalities who have usurped the rule abdicated by Adam. The sin of Adam is the source of the tragic world we now see on nature documentaries as well as on news broadcasts. The kingdom has fallen upside down.

First Adam's death; Second Adam's life

Romans 5:12-15 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned-- (13) for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. (14) Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. (15) But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.

Easter is the judgment of humanity for the sin of Adam abandoning his role as God's regent over creation. That is what happened on the cross.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit...

The resurrection is the first of many. Jesus' resurrection not only shows that God the Father accepted his sacrifice for Adam's race, it also shows that their is a new humanity. The resurrected Christ is the Hope for the Omega community, the renewed world. As Christ has overcome death with life, those who surrender their rebellion and declare their loyalty by grace through faith in Christ will likewise live beyond death. The fallen world is passing away, the undying world is coming!

Already! but not yet...

Romans 8:14-25 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (15) For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" (16) The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, (17) and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (18) For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. (19) For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. (20) For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope (21) that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (22) For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. (23) And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (24) For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? (25) But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Now we see the hope that comes through faith. Jesus has conquered the rebellion and been declared the Lord of Heaven and Earth (Mt 28). He then calls on his apprentices to be making more apprentices who are to be immersed in The NAME (who is Father and Son and Holy Spirit). This people who are immersed in God's ultimate reality (the self-existent I AM) become different. Adopted into the royal family and given a newly created heart, these people still live in a world that is wild and dangerous. However, these do not live like the world in rebellion is the ultimate reality. They have faith (confidence) that Christ is King and that his people will be revealed in fullness when the King of Kings renews the world in victorious judment.

1 Thessalonians 2:12 we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.

The conlusion is like the beginning. The difference? Where we were once naive young royals, then we will be sobered and wise, humbled by redemption and resolute by Christ's incorruptible resurrection. We will rule like we were intended to rule.

Revelation 1:3-8 Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. (4) John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, (5) and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood (6) and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. (7) Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen. (8) "I am the Alpha and the Omega," says the Lord God, "who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty."

Revelation 21:1-6 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. (2) And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (3) And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. (4) He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away." (5) And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true." (6) And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.

Alpha failure completed on the cross; Omega hope launched with the resurrection

Alpha – the beginning. God created humanity and told humanity to make more people and to rule over God's earth. God – man – creation (love God, love people, rule wisely)

Alpha failure – the serpent, a member of creation who should be under man's dominion, tricked humanity with promises about the power of the fruit of creation (specifically the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil). Adam should have taken authority but he foolishly left his role of responsibility and in doing so abdicated his rule under God to the rebellious creation. Enter: sin and death under the rule of the Adversary.

Life after the Alpha failure has meant that rebellious creation now blocks God and man. Powers and principalities in rebellion to God function as if they were in charge. God has condemned this with a curse upon man and creation. Subsequently the natural creation is in chaos, full of violence, aggression and frustration. How do we experience this? We justify animal like behavior arguing that it is natural. Death defines the fallen world.

How does God deal with the Alpha failure? God the Son takes the failure onto himself by reliving the challenge of Adam to trust and obey God the Father by the power of God the Spirit. Jesus lives the life Adam should have lived and does it in a much more demanding environment. Jesus then takes on the consequences of the Alpha failure by submitting to the death of a rebel. The cross is the consequence of the Alpha failure.

What message comes from the cross? "τετέλεσται/Tetelestai!" – it is finished. The price of the Alpha failure has been paid for. And then there was silence, until a new hope arose: the Omega – the ending. Jesus' was raised to life as the first of the last. He is the Hope of how it will end. God will be visibly and undeniably in charge as King, people will once again worship and obey Him as kings and priests in the King's service and the world will flourish under wise rule. What was started will be accomplished.

But what about now? We still see a world gone wild in aggression and death. What is different is that our hearts can be turned upside right. We can by faith see beyond the oppression of rebellious creation. We have been declared righteous heirs in the Kingdom in spite of the pretense of the powers and principalities. We, in Christ, are to live up to what we have already attained: sonship. We are the children of glory, the princes and princesses of the King and we are to act like it. How does true royalty act? With dignified strength and grace standing up for justice and for mercy in humble service to the King of Kings, the First and the Last, the Alpha and the Omega.

The Magic Ring of the Secret Sinner

Plato's Republic contains an interesting story about choices. Is restraint from actual sin righteousness or cowardice? Subsequently, is it really a sin if one would do something, say in their mind, but wouldn't actually do it?

"Suppose now that there were two such magic rings, and the just put on one of them and the unjust the other;,no man can be imagined to be of such an iron nature that he would stand fast in justice. No man would keep his hands off what was not his own when he could safely take what he liked out of the market, or go into houses and lie with any one at his pleasure, or kill or release from prison whom he would, and in all respects be like a God among men. Then the actions of the just would be as the actions of the unjust; they would both come at last to the same point. And this we may truly affirm to be a great proof that a man is just, not willingly or because he thinks that justice is any good to him individually, but of necessity, for wherever any one thinks that he can safely be unjust, there he is unjust. For all men believe in their hearts that injustice is far more profitable to the individual than justice, and he who argues as I have been supposing, will say that they are right. If you could imagine any one obtaining this power of becoming invisible, and never doing any wrong or touching what was another's, he would be thought by the lookers-on to be a most wretched idiot, although they would praise him to one another's faces, and keep up appearances with one another from a fear that they too might suffer injustice. Enough of this."

Lust Liberty Lies: working around God to get the goods

We want God and the things God doesn't want us to have. Tricky task, that. But that is why we have religious experts; lawyers. Having lived where there is no objective law it is important to say that lawyers can be a true blessing. Having also lived where lawyers can take money from a Good Samaritan leads me to the type we have in mind in Matthew 5. These are the lawyers who, for the right fee, can find a way to make the law work for you, not justice. YOU HAVE HEARD IT SAID (from your best religious lawyers) how the Law can take prohibitions against sexual sin, covenant breaking and false advertising and find a way for you to cheerfully do all three and still hold a prominent religious status. Jesus did not like that. That is partly why we either like or dislike Jesus.

Lust

Jesus challenged the idea that as long as you did not actually follow through with adultery, you have done nothing wrong. So, people have learned how to use their imagination to target a person and have their way with them without having to deal with consequences (including rejection). But that makes for a creepy community. Eye contact should be an issue of mutually recognizing another soul. When one's eye is filled with dwelt upon lust, there is anything but real connection, soul to soul. There is abuse. God gave us a will, a mind, and a body. The will/heart makes choices. The mind/eye considers choices. The body actually carries out the choices. Treating someone like a 'sister' with polite body control is not the main issue. The heart is the main issue. If the heart has used the body to be around someone, the eye/mind to consider someone/imagine what could be with someone, and the heart/will has decided to indulge the thoughts (just cutting the body out of the enjoyment), they are not noble; they are just not caught.

Jesus says to purify the system. There should be consistency from heart-eye-body, not duplicity (hypocricy). If your heart does not want to have adulterous lust with someone, then don't allow your mind to ponder it, and if your mind can't help it because your body keeps bringing it to your mind, then restrict (mortify) your body. It is called discipline. Soldiers, athletes, musicians, and any other skilled person finds value in discipline. It is a good thing, though to hear some religious people recoil from the idea one would wonder. Is there room for GRACE if we have discipline? Discipline, rightly done, is the intentional application of God's grace in our actual physical, mental and spiritual lives. It is good!

Liberty

I remember being invited to a kid's birthday party and saying yes. I regretted it. Shortly afterward another kid invited me to go to a professional football game with him and his dad. I tried to find a way to get out of my commitment to the birthday party. The problem was that I had been really clear; I had made a commitment. Though my dad was a lawyer he did not share any of those really sneaky lawyer tricks with me. He told me that I had made a deal and I needed to keep it. It was the right thing to do. I am glad I did, but not because it was more fun than watching football. It was better to be a boy with integrity at a fairly average party instead of a boy without integrity at a really cool outing. We don't always believe that. We think that if there is more short term pleasure we should get out of our contract and get on with our pleasure. We don't get it. That kind of living is foreign to God and why we can't find Him even though we actually live in Him and have our being in Him. If our hearts were more pure our ability to see and live in Him would improve immensely. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Lies

Yes=yes, no=no. Should be simple enough. So what is Jesus referring to? The issue is 'swearing' on something with more credibility. To swear on the temple, altar, moon etc. is to somehow give extra weight to one's otherwise weekened 'yes' or 'no'. The problem is that none of those are under the control of the one making the promise. God's reliability is not transferred to someone who appeals to God's name, and ultimately, there is nothing that is not in one form or another traceable back to God. He is self-existent (I AM) we are contingent (I am because He Is). All we can say is yes or no with no other reference point than our own credibility. So if we are muddle hearted (adulterous eyes, clever contract wrangling, exagerated promises) we are not blessed; we are up the murky creek. However, if we are pure of heart, unmixed, clear... we are blessed. We can even see God for who he is. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Describing the whole Sermon, including Psalm 1 and Matthew 3-7

The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7 is written by a Jewish writer describing a Jewish teacher explaining to a primarily Jewish audience the idea of what life should be like; a blessed life. The first psalm in the Jewish book of Psalms also gives a picture of a blessed from a Jewish perspective: soak up the Torah, the revealed law of God, and you will be like a fresh, strong productive tree (instead of like the chaff waste blown off of grain which is to be burned. Matthew 3 builds to the Sermon with the proclamation of John the immersing prophet who is calling Israel back to God’s law. He warns religious leaders that they may think of themselves as trees, but they are not like the one in Psalm 1. They have become dead trees in danger of getting cut down by their owner.
Jesus steps forward and identifies with the repentance of Israel in the wilderness, but he also wants to show his allegiance to the Kingdom of Heaven, which is a Jewish way of saying the Kingdom of God. What is that? That is when and where God is in charge, sovereign, ruling. Jesus believes it an d demonstrates it in three distinct temptations at the end of an excruciatingly long fast in the wilderness. The wilderness time is numbered reflecting the wanderings of Israel. This one of God, unlike Israel, resists all temptations and is faithful. Neither the craving of physical needs like bread, relational needs like being seen as special enough to be saved miraculously nor the pragmatic temptation to spiritually compromise for earthly gain can make Jesus stray from his faith. Jesus shows that it is right to trust God as in charge because he is.
Immediately after the account of testing Matthew records how Jesus told others what he had lived: God is in charge here and now, so we ought to turn from how we are living to live in faithful obedience. Jesus and his newly chosen group of apprentices take this message to the people but soon have the people coming to them. That is when Jesus goes on the side of the hill and sits down his disciples, surrounded by those who look to him for blessing. What Jesus tells them is about the blessed life.
What is the blessed life? It is living in the rule of God, the Kingdom of Heaven. Who is it for? It is for those you might not expect, the poor and persecuted, the mourning, meek and starving, as well as for the merciful, pure hearted, peace makers. It is for those who grow up in real righteousness from God, not from society.
The explanation of the ‘blessed’ life is done in sequence, with eight ‘blessed are’ statements being explained in eight descriptions. These eight are divided into two equal groups, each with a header and 3 main sub-points.
The first group of four has the persecuted for righteousness sake as the header. Jesus explains in Matthew 5:11-48 how real righteousness matured in us really is the way to live with God in charge. In Mt 5:11-20 he explains why a blessed life is about more righteousness, not safe, mixed or hindered righteousness. The problem with most people is not that they are ‘too righteous’, it is that they aren’t genuinely righteous the way God has always said to be.
So what does it look like to grow in righteousness? One must be committed to making peace. This mindset, that God is right and that reconciliation should be the priority, is the fundamental righteousness needed to be identified as sons of God. If in fact we are his children, because he made peace for us and now calls us to grow up in His provided peace, we should also have hearts of integrity, purity. If our hearts are clouded by partially suppressed desires, by rationalized selfishness or by exaggeration, we should not be surprised that we cannot get a clear picture of God. God saves people as a peacemaker to be a peacemaker, and that requires integrity. If we are to grow in God’s grace we have to not only get past outward contempt and manipulation, we actually need to be of one mind, of a pure heart.
If we grow in God’s grace like that, then we will be so fundamentally different in this world that we will inescapably feel the pain of going against the grain of this world. Persecuted for righteousness sake is all about being genuinely different, not just acting as if we were different, such that the world’s aggression does not convert you. As a child who has been adopted into God’s family and is growing up in His character, you would expect a pattern of behavior that is unique. Having received undue mercy, you would then live that way and give mercy to others. That cycle continues. Get; give; get; give… God’s way will become our way as we grow up.
But how do we actually do that? Chapter 6 verse 1 states that the key is living to God and not to the religious or any other human community. Take giving, for example. The merciful man is giving mercy for a different reason than the socially motivated giver. Though hypocrites give to be seen, the blessed way to give is to do so for the sake of righteousness. One gives to fix a need, and that need is not to be perceived by others as generous. (Mt 6:2-4)
Likewise the discipline of prayer is not about boasting, it is about meekly asking. By closing the door and privately asking the one who is Lord over the earth to rule here as He does where He is, the earth is gained. Essentially the world will be ruled by God (and ultimately is so now, even if we do not fully see it as such). By praying meekly, loyally for that kind of world, one is necessarily going to receive that kind of world; it is the only world that will ultimately be. (Mt 6:5-15)
How does one get to be so pure of heart that they ask God to rule and they mercifully give just because they want things to be right? They have to grieve over what they have been doing to contribute to the problem. By fasting we can break the addiction to rationalizing our way of living that is not righteous. (Mt 6:16-18)
But where does that start? The whole thing starts with wise evaluation. What is truly valuable? If one cannot discern value, one’s investments are doomed. Those who see their spiritually poverty as the urgent and important issue over and against the common assessment that financial poverty is the problem that needs to be fixed; well, they are blessed. (Mt 6:19-24)
So what we have seen is two sides of the mountain. Blessed are those who are own up to being poor in spirit and treasure not being poor in spirit. They will fast, pray and give in ways that are real and useful. They will not do works of righteousness to look good to men, they will be God’s works of righteousness and do things unto Him as is only appropriate.
These are people who are increasingly mature in righteousness that contrasts with the world. Breaking from selfishness they become peacemakers. Being at peace with God and desiring to be at peace with others, they pray for purity of heart to see God as their provision, not their manipulative tactics. These are people of mercy who give mercy and get mercy because they are increasingly growing up in God’s blessed way.
What of the rest of the Sermon? Jesus was tempted and knows that people will have some real questions. He addresses the concern for straying from this path of blessed living as people have real physical needs in 6:25-34. He deals with peoples’ concerns about needing to sort others out first in 7:1-12. He deals with peoples’ presumption that they already are righteous by addressing their foundational character in regard to their relationship to God in 7:13-27. He amazed the crowd for the simple fact that he disarms their excuses. The unrighteous life should not be the life we life. There is a blessed life, and it is built on Jesus and what he can teach those who will build on him.

PeacemakeR Ministries

A friend recently sent me a book called The Peacemaker by Ken Sande. I like it. It gives a very comprehensive and practical description of applying Biblical principles of making peace in very common situations. One item that stood out to me was a visual guide to the slippery slope in conflict. Some fall off to one side in avoiding problems even at the cost of relationships others to the side of aggression to win a problem even to the loss of relationship. It is a useful way to be aware of what happens to us when we come up against a challenge that calls for peace through wisdom and conviction to glorify God even if it costs us.

http://www.peacemaker.net/site/c.aqKFLTOBIpH/b.958151/k.5236/The_Slippery_Slope_of_Conflict.htm

Sunday March 9 – Broken Relationships

Matthew 5:9 "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God."

It is markedly good to be someone who is about making the effort to be at peace with people. That is what God does. To do that as well is to show His nature through your actions.

Where does Jesus explain MT 5:9? MT 5:21-26 seems to fit. Let's see if it works:

Matthew 5:21-26 "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' (22) But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. (23) So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, (24) leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. (25) Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. (26) Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

The law that they have heard of old is righteous (right on the mark). We shouldn't murder. What Jesus says is an even more advanced idea of living rightly. Brotherly anger in the kingdom of heaven is of equal seriousness as murder was in the kingdom of Israel. If you use the obnoxious sound "raca" (sounds like hocking up snot to spit) to insult a brother contemptuously it is treason in the kingdom of heaven.

So what should I do instead of being contemptuously angry with my brother?

• Make peace with my brother. It is more urgent than giving a sacrifice to God. Sacrifices are symbolic of trusting God. Actions like making peace are actually trusting God.
  

What should if I am being accused?

• Try and reach a settlement knowing that only God can give thoroughly fair judgment. This is just practical. If you try to fight over every detail you may actually lose and end up wasting time in debtors' prison.
  

Be a peacemaker, it is God's way toward you and should be your way toward others.

Mt 5:11-20 very simply put

God's way of living is better than the world's way, even if the world bullies you (persecuted for righteousness)

• God's way of living is wasted if it is mixed with the world's way (salt example)
  
• God's way of living is wasted if it is pure but hidden (light example)
  
• God's way of living is more righteous than just being religious (life, not just talk)
  

 

Challenge for the week: Explain how living under God's direction is a good way to live (even when it is hard)

Come up with another example to explain how good + bad = bad (not good)

Come up with another example to explain how good is to be shared, not hidden

By the way…

Christ is our righteousness before God. Because he lived righteously, not mixing bad or hiding good, he actually fulfilled the way of God's Kingdom. He died for our failure to live right and was raised to life for…? For us to be able to start living more and more like him! Why? It is the best way to live!! Accepting Christ's righteousness is how we get adopted. Learning to live righteous like Christ is growing up in our adopted family. So, should we try to be righteous to get a relationship? No. Should we enjoy our relationship by trying the righteous way of life instead of the foolish way of life? I think that would be more than o.k., it is the blest way to live.

Matthew 5:11-20 How is your life as a member of God’s Kingdom? RIGHTEOUS!

Even though you get treated wrong for doing right, you are living right; you are living with God in charge.

Think about it. When God sent prophets who said and did things in obedience to God as King (the kingdom of heaven) how were they treated? Angrily. The world is trying to live AS IF God were far away and practically we are in charge. When we live defiantly like that we really don't like someone reminding us that we should be living loyally to the king. That is what happened to the prophets. If you are living God's way some people are not going to like it at all. They will even mistreat you. You are not to be joyful about their mistreatment directly, just joyful about what their mistreatment means: you really are living God's way clearly enough to enrage the people trying to distance themselves from God. You are experiencing the kingdom even while they are mistreating you. Think how much more you will enjoy it when the King is fully revealed!

Righteousness is like a little dish with salt in it. It is good unless people dip stuff in it in a way that the salt gets mixed up with stuff being dipped in it. What can you do with the salt then? Toss it. It is the same with righteousness. Even if you are righteous, but you are also unrighteous, the mixed character is not going to allow you to really experience God's way of life. Even thieves have right stuff that they do from time to time. Fair enough. But if they are also stealing, then their nice things done for the community don't really make them useful to the community. Their lawless ways mixed with their lawful ways leaves them lawless. So it is with righteousness. You can't experience God meaningfully as King while you are regularly in rebellion. You should be unmixed in your character, in your way of living loyally to the King.

But suppose you decided to never do 'unrighteous' things. Maybe you moved off to live in a cave. You wouldn't steal, kill, lie, commit adultery or any other blatantly unrighteous act. Also, imagine that you prayed morning, noon and night and studied the Word relentlessly. Well, you might be able to say that you were living unmixed; pure. Light is pure. Unlike salt, it can't be mixed. But Jesus has a warning for those who try and hide from unrighteousness: living like that is as useless as living all mixed up. You are pure, but blocked from usefulness. He uses the image of an oil lamp burning a pure flame. Is it pure, unmixed; even 'righteous'? Yes. But put a basket over it. Now is it right? No. It is useless. Righteousness is NOT the avoidance of bad stuff, righteousness is the success of right stuff. What do I mean? A doctor can never make a mistake if he doesn't do any surgery. But if he is a doctor and won't do a needed operation for someone he has done wrong. James, Jesus' half-brother says it this way: James 4:17 So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin. I'm gonna let my light shine (no bushel basket blocking, eh).

Jesus realizes that some in the crowds, both disciples and others, are probably looking really confused by now. He makes his point extra clear:

Matthew 5:17-20 "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) For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. (19) Therefore whoever relaxes 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 does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. (20) For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The Law and the Prophets is a common Jewish way of saying the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament). They are God's revealed truth. They are actually supposed to be lived out. People were created to be wise, not foolish, loving, not foolish. The community of people loyal to God as King are not supposed to look for loop holes in God's truth, they are actually supposed to learn, live and teach them as the RIGHT way to live. So is Jesus saying we should REALLY live rightly (instead of wrongly)? Well, yes, I think it is fair to say he is. The Pharisees, like a messed up dish of salt or a blocked out light are less than what God as King would have. Do you BELIEVE that God is King? Are you a loyalist for the Kingdom of Heaven? Well, Jesus says you really ought to act like it. If you do you will experience that it really is a great way to live. In fact, its righteous!

 

“Blessed” “Kingdom of Heaven” “Righteousness”

We are going to give lots of discussion for some details for those who want to think a little more deeply on what is being said (and not being said) in the Sermon. I have written a relative straight forward reading of Matthew 5:11-20, what follows is a bit more back groung.

Let's consider the words of Jesus as recorded by Matthew. It is very likely that they are translations from Aramaic (the Hebrew of Jesus' day) to Koine Greek, the common language of the day (like English is worldwide today). Matthew is writing to show how Jesus is the fulfillment of the promises of the Kingdom through David. There are assumptions that the readers will keep that in mind as they listen to what is being said. Luke is writing to gentiles. He has to say things in a way that are more of a meaning based translated. Sort of like speaking to people who live in Thailand we could write "then she said 'jai yen' na kha" or even "then she said 'cool your heart', please" and people aware of Thai should understand. If you were to write to people in the USA who aren't familiar with Thai idioms, you would write: "then she politely said to calm down". Comprende?

I will add each post separately so it doesn't seem to long.

“Blessed”

BLESSED is a word that people use in different ways. The useful question, though, is how did Jesus mean it?

3. Being in a desirable state or position, fortunate (Greek makarios)

This word is not related linguistically to the Greek verb for "to bless" at all, and the meaning is quite different, even though it is often translated as "blessed" in older English translations. It describes the state of the person who is being referred to; that he is in an enviable position, a good situation. Usually he is enviable because of the future good that he is going to experience, not because of his present state in this world. In contrast to the other words which are translated "blessed", there is no reference to God implied. This is the word that is used in the Sermon on the Mount when Jesus says, "Blessed are those who . . ."
See: Matt. 5:3–11; 11:6; 13:16; 16:17; 24:46; Luke 1:45; 6:20–22; 7:23; 10:23; 11:27–28; 12:37–38, 43; 14:14–15; 23:29; John 13:17; 20:29; Acts 20:35; 26:2; Rom. 4:7–8; 14:22; 1 Cor. 7:40; Titus 2:13; James 1:12, 25; 1 Peter 3:14; 4:14; Rev. 1:3; 14:13; 16:15; 19:9; 20:6; 22:7, 14.

Suggestions for translating "blessed" in sense 3:

It is good for those who . . .

Those who . . . are in a good position/fortunate
Those who . . . are worthy of congratulation

Some languages have an idiom to express this idea; for example "they have a good head". Beware of words or phrases which imply some kind of feeling or emotion on the part of the person who is "blessed". The meaning is not that such people are "full of joy, rejoicing" but rather that their situation is one to be envied. The English translation "happy" is not an ideal one.

Prepublication version, Key Biblical Terms in the New Testament; An aid for Bible translators, Katharine Barnwell, Paul Dancy, and Anthony Pope, Summer Institute of Linguistics

Hebrew: H833 / אשׁר / אשׁר / 'âshar / 'âshêr BDB Definition:
1) to go straight, walk, go on, advance, make progress
1a) (Qal) to go straight on, make progress
1b) (Piel)
1b1) to go straight on, advance
1b2) to lead on (causative)
1b3) to set right, righten
1b4) to pronounce happy, call blessed
1c) (Pual)
1c1) to be advanced, be led on
1c2) to be made happy, be blessed
Greek G3107 / μακάριος / makarios / mak-ar'-ee-os

A prolonged form of the poetical μάκαρ makar (meaning the same); supremely blest; by extension fortunate, well off: - blessed, happy (X -ier).

What does all of that mean???

Blessed is a DESCRIPTION of how someone is. There is a different word for blessing someone. It is like the Chinese word that is seen on T-shirts, tattoos, cards, posters…

What Jesus is saying, quite simply, is that the person he is describing in his sermon is the person who really is well off, they really have life the way it should be. This is different than the idea of a cause / effect idea of "if you become poor and persecuted etc. God will inject blessing into your life. The description of being blessed is not in addition to being like the person described, it is what such a person is by the very fact that they live that way.

How am I blessed by living righteously?

I get to be a person who lives righteously. That is a BLESSED (really good) way to live.

“Kingdom of Heaven”

What is the Kingdom of Heaven, and is it the same as the Kingdom of God?

"Kingdom of Heaven" is how Jews in the time of Jesus said "Kingdom of God". Luke writes to gentiles and helps them understand what Kingdom of Heaven means by translating it: "Kingdom of God".

So what is the Kingdom of Heaven (God)?

Kingdom is where a King rules. Kingdom of God is where God rules. That is what John the Baptizer, and Jesus, where trying to get people to realize. They said REPENT (turn your thinking around)! God IS ruling (the Kingdom of Heaven) is at hand (hear and now). Paul did the same thing with the folks in Athens when he explained that we don't feed and care for God, God cares for us. In HIM we live and move and have our being. He is ruling even when we can't (or won't) see it and believe it. That is why LORD is linked with Jesus well over 100 times and SAVIOR is linked with Jesus about a dozen times in the New Testament. We sometimes get confused as if Jesus is the SAVIOR who can become our Lord. The New Testament thinking is that Jesus is LORD who can become our savior.

So what does Jesus mean" for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"?

If kingdom of heaven is the rule of God, how does that relate to the idea of "going to heaven"?

The words for heaven are the same as the words for sky, air, space. They are the beyond the immediately physically. Really? Isn't heaven where God lives and Hell where the devil lives? Not exactly. The fallen spirits are surprisingly active in 'heaven/the heavens/the heavenly places'. Heaven shows up 6 dozen times in the ESV translation, in Matthew alone! Heaven is mentioned another 200 times in the New Testament. It includes some of the ideas we have of 'a place up there with God and people who die in relationship with God', but it means more than that. Consider:

A lying angel from heaven: Gal 1:8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

Or

Ephesians 3:8-10 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, (9) and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, (10) so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

Who?

Ephesians 6:11-12 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. (12) For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

The point is that 'heaven' is not as simple as we have often taken it to be. It is a reality that is currently all about us and most closely associated with the mysteries that stretch out endlessly as we look up into the night sky; but it is more than that, too.

So is there really a sense of 'heaven' as in "go to heaven when you die" and does that have anything to do with what Jesus is talking about when he says the kingdom of heaven?

Hebrews 12:22-29 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, (23) and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made complete, (24) and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (25) See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. (26) At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens." (27) This phrase, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of things that are shaken--that is, things that have been made--in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. (28) Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, (29) for our God is a consuming fire.

The kingdom of heaven, or if we lack Jewish understanding, the kingdom of God, is defined as where and when God is in charge. Could that be right here, right now AND eventually there and then? Yes. The problem is that we can't get a good look around us.

1 Corinthians 13:9-12 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, (10) but when the complete comes, the partial will pass away. (11) When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. (12) For now we see in a polished metal mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

The fact is that we cannot see the whole thing clearly, so we need to focus on the part we are told to pay attention to. What part is that? We are to be actively living with God in charge of providing righteousness as a gift by which we are adopted and the grace to live out the rightness of his ways such that our actual habit of living, our character, is righteous. We are to acknowledge by thought, word and deed that God is in charge here and there, now and then; that is the blessed life.

“righteousness”

So what is righteousness? Short answer: not wrongishness.

Righteous means: the way it ought to be. As Christians we are rightly amazed at the way Jesus lived righteousness (the way it ought to be) and then gave that to us by grace through faith. We should never lose our awe at God as the one who is by definition righteous and the one who describes righteousness in his written and living word. For the sermon on the mount, Jesus is using righteous in its most practical form. Try it:

Blessed (on track, getting it right) are those who are persecuted (treated badly by those who aren't right) because they are so thoroughly righteous (living the way they ought to live). Why? Because they are the ones who really are living AS IF God was in charge of right and wrong now and at the conclusion of history.

How would you paraphrase what Jesus said to someone without a lot of Jewish understanding?