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The Upside Down Life #8 – Blessed Are Those Who Hunger and Thirst, Pt B

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Hunger & Thirst For God’s Righteousness (Not Yours)

I. INTRO

Today we have something very important to consider.  If you’ve been around for the last year – or most of the last year, hopefully you have noticed that I have been harping about the gospel.

We’ve been saying that the Bible is NOT a disconnected set of stories each with a lesson on how to live our lives — but the Bible contains ONE single story – with three layers:

  • The first layer of every sub-story tells us what’s wrong with the human race and the world.
  • The second layer tells us what God has done to make it right.
  • And the third layer tells us how it will all end.

Good Bible exegesis (or analysis, or interpretation) will always look for these three layers in every sub-story of the Bible – from Genesis to Revelation.  Some are more specific to a particular layer, but the Bible only has one story.  If we SEE that the Bible begins to really come alive…

Over the course of the last year we have been considering what amounts to three aspects of God’s grace – we could describe them as past grace, present grace, and future grace.

  • Past grace is what the Bible calls JUSTIFICATION.
  • Present grace is what the Bible calls SANCTIFICATION.
  • Future grace is what the Bible calls GLORIFICATION.

So, we could say the believing Christian has been justified by grace, is being sanctified by grace, and will be glorified by grace.  Our past, our present, and our future are all wrapped-up in God’s grace.

We are justified, sanctified, and glorified by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

We have spent most of the last year preaching and teaching about present grace the grace for sanctification, believing that most of us “get” grace for salvation but not grace for sanctification.

In my preparing for this message/sermon today I have come to believe that not only have we had a faulty belief (or understanding) of present grace (sanctification), but that we may also have a faulty belief about past grace – or justification.

Let me throw a pop-quiz at you – and then I’ll pray and we’ll jump into the sermon for today: Does God want you to try and be good?

At the risk of making some of you mad I will say – if your answer is “yes” there’s a good chance you’re still stuck in moralism. (Moralism is the anti-gospel, relegating change to will power and behavior modification techniques.)

If your answer is a genuine, heartfelt “no” then you may be on your way to understanding sanctifying grace – and what we will be talking about today – God’s imputed righteousness.

With that said I’d like to pray for our time together this morning and then we’ll begin…Eph 1:18-20:

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.”  Amen

We’ll begin with a review and then move toward a greater understanding of God’s Righteousness.

Our series is The Upside Down Life and we are taking our time moving through the introduction of what theologians believe is the greatest, most profound sermon ever given – The Sermon On the Mount, which is found in Matthew chapters 5-7.  (It’s really just an overview.)

Jesus opens the sermon with 8 distinctive markings of the Christian and the Christian life – that we have come to describe as the Beatitudes.

There is a stanza in the famous Robert Frost poem titled The Road Not Taken that helps us to understand what Jesus was saying.  While I don’t think this is what Frost had in mind, it DOES help us to reflect on our lives…

“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

Why would we take the road less traveled? Is the Christian life a hard road?  Yes, because in this inaugural sermon Jesus jumps below the surface and into the question of motive – why we do what we do.

To walk this road is to encounter Truth (with a capital T).  It’s the Truth about God – for God IS Truth.  AND it’s the truth about us.

Now the good news is – the gospel tells us that Jesus Christ has made a way, a road for us to walk along — with Him.  And the Beatitudes describe this less traveled way…

The road begins with admitting our spiritual poverty.  To truly/honestly acknowledge and admit our spiritual poverty leads us into a place of mourning and repentance, which, in-turn, renders in us a meekness wherein we become humble learners (or true disciples).  And as humble learners a holy craving, or longing erupts in us to know and be known by God.

Matthew 5:6 declares: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” (The Beatitudes – and the SOTM ARE a road less traveled…

Here’s how King David said it in Psalm 42:1-2: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When can I go and meet with God?” (NIV)

The series is titled The Upside Down Life because the gospel-way is so counter-intuitive to the human condition – we are hard-wired in our fallen nature toward self-determination and legalism.

Last week Gene began to break down for us what it means to hunger and thirst for God – he said, first and foremost, that righteousness is not a product but a Person.

Gene likened the first three Beatitudes to a spiritual rototilling of the soul.

Gene likened a hunger and thirst for righteousness to a consuming desire for Jesus – as we become aware of hunger pangs for heaven.

Humility opens the door to holiness and happiness.

Gene encouraged us to re/discover our great Evangelical tradition of deeper encounters…

  • John Wesley – Holiness not as achieving sinless perfection but as having one’s heart fully fixed on God. (His “heart was strangely warmed.”)
  • Bernard of Clairvaux – “To Thee our inmost spirit cries…[for that] which only Thou canst fill…”
  • Blaise Pascal’s “Night of Fire” in 1654 – 2 hours of “Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.”
  • D. L. Moody’s experience with God: “…I can only say that God revealed himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to ask Him to stay His hand.”

And I would add Sarah Edwards (d. 1758), wife of Puritan pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards, to Gene’s list.  She had such an encounter with God such that she felt her soul “being filled to all the fullness of God.” As her husband was to describe it, God had filled Sarah with “joy unspeakable and full of glory” (1 Peter 1:8).  Most of us have wrongly determined that that kind of joy is reserved for heaven.  It’s not.  There are both a momentary and a residential joy that are available to us – no matter what our circumstances are.

Today, I’d like to zero in on the word righteousness in Matt 5:6: “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness – for they shall be satisfied.”

Here’s the BIG IDEA: The doctrine of righteousness is a part of the larger doctrine of justification (or, grace for the past).

Think of justification as one coin with two sides…

  • One side is God’s MERCY and FORGIVENESS.
  • One the other side is IMPUTED (credit) RIGHTEOUSNESS and GRACE (for sanctification).

If you’ve been going to church for a while now – you’ve probably heard a definition for justification that goes something like this:  Justification means “just as if I’d never sinned.”

Now that’s a nice play on words but it’s woefully shallow and certainly an incomplete definition.  Because it only deals with one side of the coin.

Let’s see if we can understand a little better this essential concept of imputed righteousness…

II. BODY

What is righteousness?  Righteousness is a validating performance record that opens doors (Tim Keller).

  • Job? Resume…
  • Grad school? Academic record Grades…

We tend to believe it’s the same with God – that we are to, somehow, build a resume of a moral performance record to make it into heaven.

Jesus comes along, and with the other NT writers, tells us about an absolutely unheard of spirituality, an unimaginable approach to God. Where God provides us with an unblemished record—absolutely free of charge. Not just a good record, or even a great record – but a divine righteousness – a perfect record that comes to us as a gift! 

When we have this it’s the end of our personal struggle for validation, for worth, or worthiness, and acceptability.

Apart from the Christian gospel there is no other religion or belief system that offers anything like this. 

The gospel is God developing a perfect righteousness and He offers it to us – and by THAT righteousness alone we are accepted. 

Roms 3:21: “But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.”

Free Justification – Forgiveness AND Imputed Righteousness are essential to understanding the gospel.  Tim Keller likens it to the table in a grand banquet room…  Free Justification IS the table.  No table, no dinner…

Why is free justification so important?  Because it affects our assurance of salvation.

We begin to understand Free Justification as we consider the difference between IMPARTED righteousness and IMPUTED righteousness.  I’ll give you a brief overview of both and what IMPUTED righteousness accomplishes and then we’ll pick it up again next week…

Many churches – including the Catholic Church teach IMPARTED righteousness.

This actually can be defined as THE single issue that brought about the Protestant Reformation.  Martin Luther saw this afresh in his study of the first five chapters of the book of Romans.

So, what IS Imparted Righteousness?

  • The word, “impart” means to “to give.” We could also describe it as  “infused” righteousness.
  • Imparted righteousness thus declares that Christ’s righteousness is given to, or infused within – so that the believer actually becomes righteous.  (This is NOT what the bible teaches.)

Paul is not writing that we are transformed into people who possess righteousness, but rather that we have been united to Christ

And because of our union with Him (the emphasis of Romans 5), we have that which He possesses, that is, we have HIS righteousness.

Imputed Righteousness – The word “impute” means “ascribe” or “credit.” Imputed righteousness carries the theological weight of being “counted” or “considered” or “reckoned” righteous.

Within the first 12 verses of Romans 4 (this is where Martin Luther saw this) you will notice the number of times the word “credited” (in both the NIV and NASV Bibles) is used.  This word distinguishes the means of faith by which both Abraham and all other believers are justified before God.

Paul is not writing that we are transformed into people who possess righteousness, but rather that we have been united to Christ (i.e., the 30 “in Him” passages of Paul’s letters), that “in Him” — because of our union with Him (the emphasis of Romans 5), we have that which He possesses, that is, righteousness.

III. CONCLUSION — What imputed righteousness accomplishes:

  1. In God’s eyes Jesus’ perfect record is imputed to us.
  2. We are treated as if we had lived the perfect life that Jesus lived.
  3. We are given the love that Jesus deserved (through His obedience).
  4. We have the same access to the Father that Jesus did.
  5. The best news is that all of this comes not from us doing anything (i.e., works) at all, but simply by faith.

The Upside Down Life #4 – Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

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I. Intro

Matthew 5:4; Hebrews 12:14-17

Today we will continue in our series The Upside Down Life, looking at the first 16 verses of Matt 5.  Today we will do some review work and unpack a few concepts in Matt 5 and then we will move into Heb 12.

(Review) Both Gene and Chris did an excellent job defining the words “blessed” (and what it means to be “poor.”)  Those notes are available here on the blog…

Review “poor in spirit”…

  • Two weeks ago Chris said being “poor in spirit” is seeing our desperate need for God.
  • And then last week Gene said some pretty heavy things…
    • He said that as a church we are to be thankful that SBF has been privileged to go through all the struggles we have. God must be thrilled that there is somebody here who is broken and hungry for more… (Heavy words…a perfect message to begin our week-long fast as a church).
    • Gene went on to say SBF has lost pastors, people, programs, reputation, visible success, and a downward trend in the bank account…  [God comforts the afflicted – and afflicts the comfortable]
    • Your church is flat broke, you do not have it all together, you do not have it all figured out, and you cannot muscle, or buy, your way out of this one.
    • Blessed are those bankrupt in spirit, because they are entering the eternal reserves of the reservoirs of the God of true riches.
    • As a church we’ve been taken out to the woodshed…we’ve been spanked. Are you glad yet?  [I have a tremendous amount of respect for those of you who have stayed.]

Where do we go from “bankrupt in spirit”?  We mourn…

Today, we will look at 5:4 “Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted”

Once we see and acknowledge our deep spiritual poverty, it gives way to a deep and utter repentance.  (There’s a difference between repentance and “relentance.”)

There is a transforming grief, or repentance, that surfaces – not only for our own lives, but also for the injustice, greed, and suffering that grips our world.  (“Meanwhile we groan.”)

I’ve titled the message this morning, The Unlikely Route To Joy (borrowed from a chapter heading in Dan Allender’s’ book Wounded Heart).

  • In order to become rich, we need to acknowledge and own our poverty.
  • And in order to know “joy inexpressible and full of glory” (1 Pet 1:8) we must mourn.  This is the essence of living the upside down life (or counterintuitive).

I would like us to refer to mourning as a lifestyle of repentance.

For those of us who have read Pete Scazzero’s book, The Emotionally Healthy Church, we remember that the 3rd principle of the EHC is to live in brokenness and vulnerability.

This means living and leading out of our failure and pain, questions and struggles…[1]

This is how Paul led.  In 2 Cor 12 – Paul speaks of being caught-up to the third heaven – and then he shares about his thorn in the flesh… “a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.”

Dr. Dan Allender – “An about face movement from denial and rebellion to truth and surrender… Repentance involves the response of humble hunger, bold movement, and wild celebration when faced with the reality of our fallen state and the grace of God…It is a shift in perspective as to where life is found…It is melting into the warm arms of God, received when it would be so understandable to be spurned.” (Wounded Heart)

**Mourning, or lifestyle repentance, is living WITH our failures, but not UNDER them.

II. BODY

With that said please turn to Hebrews 12…

If we had to boil down the book of Hebrews to a one-word description, the word would be perseverance. It is written specifically for a group of Christians who were about to quit.

Vs. 14-17 are full of some very specific admonitions to help us with engaging in a lifestyle of repentance…

14Pursue peace with all [people], and the sanctification without which no one will see [to perceive, to know, to become acquainted with by experience] the Lord.

15See to it [Looking diligently – episkapao] that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled [stained];

16that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal.

17For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance [NIV – he could bring about no change of mind], though he sought for it with tears.

This is a heavy passage: Esau found no place for repentance – even though he sought for it with tears.  (What are we supposed to do with this text?)

This passage offers us some insight into the reasons for Esau’s inability to come to a place of true repentance – and I believe it will help us to consider some possible issues that may be keeping us from fully knowing the privilege of repentance.

Listed in this passage are (at least) 6 admonitions that will move us toward embracing a lifestyle of true repentance…

1.  Pursue peace with all people.

Pursue: to run swiftly [NIV –  Make every effort]

Peace: from a primary verb eirēnē (harmonized relationships)

“If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.”  Matthew 5:23,24 (NAS)

Roms 12:18 – “If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men.”

(In a few weeks we’ll be talking about Mat 5:9 – Peacemaker vs. peacekeeper.)

I once flew from Reno, NV to Tulsa, OK and then rented a car and drove 3 hours just to ask someone’s forgiveness after reading this passage and taking it to heart.

2.  Pursue sanctification.

Sanctification: hallowed [NIV – Make every effort… to be holy] The Lord’s Prayer (Mat 6) hagiasmos (Heb 12 – noun), hagiazō (Mat 6 – verb)

We have positional sanctification and progressive sanctification…

The Gospel Is for Believers.  We Christians need to hear the gospel all of our lives because it is the gospel that continues to remind us that our day-to-day acceptance with the Father is not based on what we do for God but on remembering what Christ did for us.  (That is what communion is all about…)

**Esau was rejected by God because he steadfastly refused to serve the purpose of God and instead served his lust for the immediate and the tangible.

3.  Pursue grace.

“See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God.” (v.15)

Grace: All that God is lavishly poured into you. If God has acted lavishly toward you, could you not be lavish to others?  Or yourself??

Jerry Bridges, in his masterpiece says, “The idea portrayed here is analogous to the ocean waves crashing upon the beach. One wave has hardly disappeared before another arrives.[2]

Pursue the truth in love (Eph 4:15).

“See to it that…no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled.”  (v.15)

Notice the word, “many.”

Like a small root that grows into a great tree, bitterness springs up in our hearts and overshadows even our deepest relationships.

A “bitter root” comes when we allow disappointment or expectations to grow into resentment, or when we nurse grudges over past hurts.

Eph 4:15: But speaking the truth in love we are to grow up…” In my view this passage speaks to the epitome of what it means to be spiritually and emotionally healthy

5.  Pursue purity.

“See to it that…there be no immoral…person like Esau.” (v.16)

pornos – male prostitute.  Again, Esau steadfastly refused to humble himself to serve the purpose of God.  Instead he served his lust for the immediate and the tangible.

6.  Pursue God.

Instead of being godless (or, “unhallowed, profane” – Vine’s]

Esau found no place for repentance (metanoia), though he sought for it with tears.

We usually associate tears with repentance.  And it’s true that tears very often accompany true repentance.  But here we have the instance of Esau crying for repentance but not finding it.  Why?  Esau was in “relentance,” not true repentance.

III.CONCLUSION

“Repent therefore and return, that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.”   Acts 3:19 (NAS)

Nothing will cause a renewed soul to hate sin so much as a realization of God’s grace; nothing will move him to mourn so genuinely over his sins as a sense of Christ’s dying love. It is that which breaks his heart: the realization that there is so much in him that is opposed to Christ. But a life of holiness is a life of faith (the heart turning daily to Christ), and the fruits of faith are genuine repentance, true humility, praising God for His infinite patience and mercy, pantings after conformity to Christ.  —The Doctrine of Sanctification by A.W. Pink.

[1] EHC: 110.

[2] Jerry Bridges, Transforming Grace.

The Upside Down Life (#1) – An Indepth Look At Matthew 5:1-16

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The Way In Is the Way On.  An Overview of the Beatitudes…

I. INTRO

I have been serving here at SBF for 11 months now – and I can tell you that everything we have been studying up to this point has been preparing us for the study we are about to embark on…

We will take our time and work through the first 16 verses of Mathew 5.  These are also the first 16 verses of the most famous sermon of all time – The Sermon on the Mount (SOTM), which consist of chapters 5-7.  They are all red-letter verses, in other words these are the words of Jesus.

Here’s what John Stott the late pastor, author, and missiologist has said about the SOTM:

“The Sermon on the Mount is probably the best-known part of the teaching of Jesus, though arguably it is the least understood, and certainly it is the least obeyed. It is the nearest thing to a manifesto that he ever uttered, for it is his own description of what he wanted his followers to be and to do.”[1]

Now, reading the SOTM only takes about 10 minutes so it’s widely thought that Matthew is giving us the “Cliff Notes” version (i.e., highlights).

We need to make some theological distinctions as we lean into the Beatitudes and the SOTM…

Some of the theological roots of SBF include what’s known as a dispensational[2] view of the Bible.

Dispensationalists and most of the rest of Evangelicalism would differ on the interpretation and application of the Beatitudes (and the SOTM).

Classical dispensationalism would argue that the Beatitudes (and the SOTM) are not gospel but pertain to life in the millennial kingdom after to the second coming of Christ.[3] (If you have a Scofield Study Bible – that would emphasize the classical view of dispensationalism.)

It should be noted that there are more moderate views of dispensationalism.  If you have a Ryrie Study Bible – he’s a more moderate dispensationalist.  Yet he would still believe that primary fulfillment of the Beatitudes (and the SOTM) are in the millennial kingdom.[4] (Popular contemporary dispensationalists include John MacArthur and Charles Swindoll.  I have also heard that John MacArthur has become more moderate in his dispensationalism, but I don’t have first hand knowledge of that.  Charles Swindoll would also be considered a more moderate dispensationalist.)

The basic evangelical approach is to recognize that the kingdom of God has come in the person and work of Jesus. (Mk 1:15: “kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel). This “kingdom now” theological perspective teaches that Jesus established the kingdom of God (KOG) at His first coming and will consummate the KOG at His second coming – and we live in the age (or dispensation) between the two.  One theologian, George Ladd, has said we live in the presence of the future – between the already and the not yet.[5]

So, how will this affect our study of the Beatitudes?  I believe the Beatitudes (and the SOTM) ARE for today – and that they are the means to allowing the gospel to be worked into our lives – and then through our lives to others.

Here’s how I would say it: “The Gospel is not advice, it is news.”  (Jared Wilson, Gospel Wakefulness, Crossway 2011: 188.)  It is the ultimate Good News.  I would suggest to you that Sunday Services are not primarily the place to give advice… Gospel-centered (or Christ centered) change (i.e., sanctification) is rooted first and foremost in remembrance. We are to remind one another primarily of what Christ Jesus has done, not what we must do.

We cannot commend what we do not cherish.  -John Piper

And the essence of Christian maturity is when the Gospel – or, what Christ has done — gets worked IN – and then THROUGH our lives – which is what I’d like to spend our remaining time considering – and this will be the main intent of our series.

Today we will take a look at the Beatitudes.  Allow me to offer a few introductory thoughts.

II. BODY

Contained in the Beatitudes are eight qualities that characterize the life of Jesus Christ, and therefore, through conversion, they begin to characterize our life in Jesus Christ.  Jesus calls us to follow him, surrender to Him, and to depend upon His strength and power.

The word beatitude comes from the Latin word meaning “blessed.”

More specifically the word means exalted joy, or true happiness. (Joy is not always exuberant, but can also be described as calm delight in even the most adverse circumstances.  Joy fueled Paul’s contentment – Phil 4:11.)

With the beatitudes, Jesus dives into our innermost being probing the heart and raising the question of motive.  (This is why, at face value, it’s harder to be a Christian than Jewish…)

What made Jesus a threat to everyone and the reason He was eventually killed was that in His encounters with people (particularly the religious leaders), He exposes what they were on the inside.  Some people find it liberating – others hate it.  (Mat 23:27: hypocrites and whitewashed tombs.)

The Beatitudes, I have come to see, is our surrendered response to the Gospel.  I see the Beatitudes as a step-by-step spiritual formation process that moves us toward spiritual depth and maturity.  This becomes cyclical as we grow deeper and deeper in our faith.  The Beatitudes become the outworking of the Gospel IN and THROUGH our lives.

1. Blessed are the poor in spirit…

“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope.  With less of you there is more of God and his rule.” (Petersen – MSG)

Another translation renders this verse, “Happy are those who know their need for God.” (JBP)

What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”?  A desperateness of soul that is weary of living in it’s own strength and longs for God’s mercy and grace to come and refresh the soul.  In a word, it is DESPERATION.

Prodigal Sons (Lk 15:11-32) The younger prodigal came to the end of himself (v.17) and though he had no idea of the Father’s love, made his way home.

In the recovery movement this would be similar to steps 1 & 2:

  • Step 1 – We admitted we were powerless over our addiction – that our lives had become unmanageable.
  • Step 2 – Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

2. Blessed are those who mourn…

I have a river of sin in my life – with 3 primary tributaries…

  1. Original sin (Adam & Eve traded the presence of God for the knowledge of God – and that’s been our core tendency ever since…).
  2. Family of origin issues. (We all have negative traits and generational sin patterns that we bring into our Christian experience.  Are you in touch with yours?)
  3. My own dumb choices.

As we are honest about the sin that has infected us there will be a transforming grief and accompanying repentance, that surfaces – not only for our own lives, but also for the injustice, greed, lust, and suffering that grips our world.

I want to own my sin everyday.[6]

This is where the upside down life comes into play.  The Beatitudes are counterintuitive (paradox: seeming contradiction).  We go down to go up; death precedes resurrection; we get to joy by traveling through grief.  Our soul wants to find a way around grief, but God says, “No, you must travel through grief – and the good news is, He says, “I’ll go with you and we will do it in My strength and power.”

The way of the Gospel is a death and resurrection cycle…

**The gospel has the greatest potential to captivate us when we understand that we are more depraved than we ever realized and simultaneously more loved that we ever dared to imagine.

3. Blessed are the meek…

Rick Warren would say, “Meekness is not weakness, but the power of your potential under Christ’s control.”  The concept of meekness describes a horse that has been broken.  We can either surrender to Christ and invite His breaking, or remain the undisciplined and wild stallion.

Grieving over sin and suffering grows meekness in us and delivers us into a humble learning posture (disciple means learner).

4. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness…Spiritual hunger and thirst is the growing desire to be empty of those things that don’t reflect God, and initiates a deep longing for wholeness in our lives.

5. Blessed are the merciful…

Mercy is entering into another persons feelings – attempting to see things from another person’s perspective – all with understanding AND acceptance…just like Jesus has done for us.

As we receive God’s mercy we begin to give mercy – to ourselves and to others.

6. Blessed are the pure in heart… Mercy cleanses our heart and restores purity to our lives.

Did you know that your virginity CAN be restored?

2 Cor 11:2For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.

7. Blessed are the peacemakers…

Purity gives way to a personal serenity and peacefulness.  Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the absence of anxiety in the midst of inevitable conflict – and when others encounter it, they want it too.

Our Western concept of peace needs to be considered in the light of the ancient Hebrew concept of peace, which is SHALOM — and means more than our limited understanding of peace (i.e., the lack of conflict).

Biblical SHALOM means a universal flourishing, wholeness and delight; a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied, natural gifts are fruitfully employed — all under the arc of God’s love. Shalom is the way things ought to be.

Neal Plantinga – “the webbing together of God, humans, and all creation in equity, fulfillment, and delight.”

I will also say there is a difference between a peacemaker and a peacekeeper.

To be a peacemaker does not mean peace at any cost.  Peacekeeping creates a false peace.  Many of us live out our lives with this false peace and say nothing or do nothing to change it—in churches, homes, work places, marriages.

Examples:

  • Someone makes inappropriate sexual comments to you at work.  You know its not accidental because its repetitive and degrading.  But you keep your mouth shut because you know they’ll threaten your job or make you miserable if you say anything.
  • A family member makes a scene at a family gathering.  It embarrasses you, the rest of the family, but you say nothing.  You keep the peace because to go there would unearth a lot of stuff that you just aren’t willing to deal with.
  • Your spouse makes insulting remarks to you or humiliates you publicly through critical tone of voice.  It grates on you.  But you keep silent because you want to keep the peace.

8. Blessed are the persecuted… Living life from a kingdom of God perspective will place us in conflict with those that oppose it (usually it’s “religious,” moralistic people!).

III. CONCLUSION

Without the knowledge of our extreme sin, the payment of the Cross seems trivial and does not electrify or transform.  But without the knowledge of Christ’s completely satisfying life and death, the knowledge of sin would crush us – or move us to deny and repress it.

By walking the way of the Beatitudes we hold our depravity and the Cross in a healthy and dynamic tension that will lead to transformation and renewal.

[1] The Message of the Sermon on the Mount, InterVarsity Press, 1978:15.

[2] Dispensationalism is a theological system that teaches biblical history is best understood in light of a number of successive administrations (dispensations) of God’s dealings with humankind. It maintains fundamental distinctions between God’s plans for national Israel and for the New Testament Church, and emphasizes prophecy of the end-times and a pre-tribulation rapture of the church prior to Christ’s Second Coming.

[3] As one dispensationalist put it, “this Sermon cannot be taken in its plain import and be applied to Christians universally…It has been tried in spots, but…it has always been like planting a beautiful flower in stony ground or in a dry and withering atmosphere” (I. M. Haldeman, The Kingdom of God, p. 149).

[4] The moderate dispensationalist [still] views the primary fulfillment of the Sermon and the full following of its laws as applicable to the Messianic kingdom” (Dispensationalism Today, 107-08).

[5] A good primer on this alternative to dispensationalism view would be the “The Gospel of the Kingdom” by George Ladd.

[6] “None is righteous, no, not one.” Romans 3:10 (ESV)
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.” Eph 2:1-2 (ESV)