The Letter to the Colossian Church- 10

Subtitle: Living out Your New Identity- 1

Colossians 3:1-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Sunday, September 28, 2025.

In the first two chapters, we have looked at the details of who Jesus is.  He is the Messiah, but he is more than that.  He is also the Creator who even hold all things together.  It is a mistake to think of Jesus as merely a human who has been elevated to a high position.  He is the first light that came forth from the Father to do His will in creation, and he is now doing the Father’s will in the New Creation.

The identity of Jesus is also connected to what he has done, particularly in the salvation that he has done for all who believe upon him.  In Jesus, believers don’t just have all that they will need.  We really do have all things, period, in Christ.  There is absolutely nothing that others can come along and offer us that we don’t already have in Christ.  This is where the Colossians have been susceptible to the deceivers and charlatans in their midst.  These charlatans are not adding anything to Christ.  Instead, they are separating you from trusting Christ completely.

In chapter 3, Paul now turns to an exhortation on what it means to live for Christ in the light of these great doctrinal truths laid out in chapters one and two.

Let’s look at our passage.

Those who have been raised with Christ… (v. 1-4)

Paul begins with the words, “Therefore, if…”  He is giving some conclusion type statements that flow out of what has been said so far.  The teaching of who Christ is and what he has done is intended to make an impact upon the life of those who embrace it.

The conditional, “if,” is not so much questioning whether this has happened, but rather, lays out a logical progression from that reality.  Thus, it can some times have the sense of “since this is true, then….”  Of course, Paul is addressing a group.  It is possible that he means it both ways.  Some of them may need to examine themselves, whether they are truly in the faith.  However, the main concern is for the Colossian Christians to see how the truths about Jesus should connect to their daily walk.

Also, though he is speaking to them as a group, and he will list some imperatives that are also in the plural, each one of them (us) will need to make an individual decision to heed the instruction of the Holy Spirit through Paul.

This brings us to the second part of the conditional statement.  Paul basically says the same thing two different ways.  First, they are to keep seeking, and second, they are to set their minds on the things above.  The first has to do with seeking something, which can be seen as an external things.  Yet, the second helps us to see that Paul is not just concerned about external action.  The focus of our minds and the activity of our life need to be the things that are above where Christ is.  Essentially, Paul is calling us to be concerned with heavenly matters, the purposes and desires of God.

We see this in the Lord’s prayer.  We are praying that the Lord’s Kingdom would come and that His will would be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Paul is not just talking about contemplating mysteries in the heaven.  He is talking about the reality that it is the desire of God that we live out His purposes on this earth.  However, this takes a person who is looking for that, seeking it, focused on it.  What is God’s will for me down here?

Let’s take Jesus for example.  He could have lived his life in a mortal body any number of ways, but God the Father had a particular purpose for his mortal body.  Jesus sought to live out the purposes of heaven, of his heavenly Father, rather than purposes that his fleshly body would like.  Yet, the Father wanted him to sacrifice that mortal life in order to redeem those who would believe on Jesus.  God’s concerns are very different from ours.  He really wants to save anyone who wants His help.

This helps us to see why the kings of the earth and all those who have power cannot save humanity, even if they really wanted to do so.  Unless they die to themselves and seek the purposes of God, they are doomed to seek the purposes of their flesh.  Humanity has a spiritual problem that cannot be solved through fleshly means.

What Paul is saying here is the same thing that Jesus was saying in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:31-34.  He was challenging his followers to quit seeking the things of their flesh and focusing their minds on how they can get the things of this world for their flesh.  Rather, we are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness and God will make sure our bodies and lives are provisioned.  Notice, that seeking the Kingdom of God is seeking His purpose and will.  Yet, the rule of God has very real focus on what happens on this earth.  If you live for your flesh, you will live at a level that only brings death.  However, if you live for the will of God, then you will live at a level that brings life into this world.

You see when we pray, “Your Kingdom Come; Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we are not asking God to fix everyone else around us so that our experience and circumstances are good.  Rather, we are praying for God to show us what that would look like in us, in our life.  God, let your Kingdom come…through me!  This is what Jesus did.

God is greatly concerned about the earth, about our jobs, our marriages, our families, the politics of our land, etc.  But, He is calling us to seek Him and live lives focused on what He would have us do.  His heart will direct our earthly enterprise, and we will become something greater than we could ever be as His purpose flows through us into the world around us.  It starts in me, and then moves to my family, then to my neighbors, and beyond.  This is to be our focus.

In verse one, Paul emphasized that Christ is seated at the right hand of God the Father.  On one hand, he could know this because Jesus ascended into heaven before his disciples.  Also, the Deacon Stephen described Christ standing at the right hand of the Father during his stoning.  Yet, this is also a direct allusion to Psalm 110.  David’s lord is seated at the Father’s right hand, and he rules over those who volunteer to serve him.  This will go on until the time the Father is ready to put Messiah’s enemies under his feet.  This is also connected to the Son of Man in Daniel 7, although we are not told there that the Son of Man sits at the Father’s right hand.  To be seated at the right hand of the throne is to be able to exercise the power of the throne.  Jesus has authority over all powers and authorities in the heavens and on the earth (Colossians 2:10).

Why does the Messiah sit at the Father’s hands for a season?  The Father is allowing people on earth to make a decision.  Will they be on the side of His Messiah, or will they follow the path of the flesh?  Yet, his sitting at the right hand of the Father also has a sense to it where the Christ and his glory is “hidden” (verse 3).  Jesus did not show himself to the whole world following his resurrection.  Rather, he showed himself to a select group who would be his witnesses to the world.  More than this, he confirmed that this was more than a trick through signs and wonders, which involved amazing healings, casting out demons, and many other amazing miracles.

Of course, we are not in heaven.  We are here on the earth.  This is why Paul reminds us that our life is hidden in Christ and will be revealed in glory at the glorious Second Coming of Jesus.  This isn’t obvious to the world, and you too may have trouble believing it at times.

At the Second Coming, Christ in all his glory will be revealed to the world (Revelation 19).  Yet, at this time, we also will be revealed in glory.  This is what Romans 8:19 is referencing.  The whole creation groans, eagerly awaiting the revelation of the sons of God (that’s you and me!).  It will be quite obvious who you are on that day.  We are to live today in the light of the glory that we are destined to receive.

Put to death the connection of your body to sin (v. 5-7)

Since you are a child of God who is going to come with Christ in glorified form, then you should be focused on something in particular today.  Verse 5 literally calls us to put to death “those members that are connected to the earth.”  What does that mean?

This is limb terminology, the members refer to the parts of the body, particularly the limbs.  Of course, Paul is not suggesting that we lop off hands and start gouging out eyes, literally.  The “limbs” or “members” that we are to remove are listed in verse five.  But, before we get into the list, we should recognize that we do not do these things in order to be saved.  Paul is pointing to the glorious future we have with Christ as the reason to remove these things.  Simply put, we do not do these things in order to be saved, but because He has saved us.  We don’t do them to have a future, but because God has promised us a glorious future.

It might be easier to think of this in pruning terms.  Jesus in John 15:2 says that every branch in him that bears fruit will still be pruned in order to be more fruitful.  Paul is picturing bad things that need to be cut off.  However, pruning may also cut off perfectly good things.  They are removed in order to make room for carbon dioxide and sunlight.  This increases fruitfulness.

Though pruning may be easier for us to understand, putting things to death and hacking off limbs refers to war.  And, if you have ever tried to fight against sin, you know that it is a difficult battle in which you will need to kill the lusts of the flesh within  yourself over and over again.

Christ is coming (verse 4), and the wrath of God will come upon those who continue in disobedience to the Father and His Messiah (verse 6).  They continue to reject Jesus and the new life that he offers.

So, we need to be cutthroat about sexual immorality in our life, that is any sexual activity that is outside of a marriage commitment between one man and one woman.  We need to remove that from our life.  We also need to cut off impure things, passion (driven by the flesh), evil desires, and greed, which is called idolatry.

Idolatry is the worship of something that is not God in His place.  It is to surrender to something that is created the type of devotion and influence on your life that only God should be given.  A greedy person can never have enough.  They are never satisfied because the thing they greedily desire has become something more than it should be in their life.  We see this in the lives of people who are greedy for money, or can never get enough alcohol or drugs.  These things take over their lives and become the sole purpose that directs their lives to the detriment of all other people, even themselves.

In verse 7, he highlights that this is how they used to live (before Christ).  You used to be this way, but you can also be pulled back into those things.  A believer lives a life of focus on the purposes of heaven and not the purposes of their own flesh.  Believers are putting off these things of the flesh. 

This is what verse eight emphasizes.  Paul uses the language of taking off and putting on clothing.  We are to put off the “clothing” of the prior life, lived in the darkness of ignorance.  We can take off the sinful desires and actions of our heart, and we can then put on the righteousness of Christ.

This leads to another list.

Another list (v. 8-9)

The things of our past, flesh-focused life involve anger and wrath.  The word malice ahs the idea of having an over all demeanor of being bad to others.  We are to take off (or put off) slander.  The word is literally blasphemy, but was used of both God and other humans.  At its core, blasphemy is saying something that is not true about others.  It is a form of lying.  It can be done knowingly, on purpose, but it can also be done out of a lack of concern about the truth.  I can slander people who I don’t like because I feel like they are bad, but have never taken the time to find out the truth.  These things are wrong and called blasphemy.  He also tells them to put off abusive (or filthy) speech.  He ends the list with lying to one another.  Verse 9 refers to this activity as the “old self,” or “old man.”  These are the kinds of things that your old self used to do.  Cut them out of your life.  Take off those clothes and burn them in the fireplace!

Of course, we will have failures, but over time, if we keep focused, God will give us victory and we will become more and more fruitful for the Kingdom of God.  You can’t do this alone, or by your own strength.  The good news is that it is God who is working with you and in you to make this possible.

Put on the new self (new man) (v. 10-11)

In verse 9 and 10,  Paul pictures this taking off and putting on as something that happened in the past.  “Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self…”  This is something that we have to embrace.  There is a point in our life where we hear the Spirit calling us to die to the old life and come alive to the new.  The positive response of our heart to the Spirit happened at a point of time, and it had a real transformative effect within us.

Yet, this putting to death of the flesh is not done in one day.  It will not be done by one decision or action.  I see this first part as a sort of burning the ships behind you.  Another image is that of “crossing the Rubicon.”  You reach a place where you are committed to putting these things to death.  This is what Paul is referencing here, your decision to follow Jesus, and not yourself or the world.

Yet, verse 10 tells us that the new self “is being renewed (renovated) to a true knowledge…”  This renewal is not in the past tense.  Rather, it is a present process that is happening in the life of the person who has chosen to follow Jesus.  The Holy Spirit daily works in our life to help us prune, put to death, those things that are of the old man.  He also works in our life to help us put on, cause to grow, the new self that looks like Jesus (the image of Christ).  Next week, we will look at a list of good things that Paul gives, but verse 10 gives us the principle that governs the list.  We are not only being renewed into the image of Jesus as he is right now in the heavens.  We are first being renewed into the image of Jesus as he lived out the purposes of God the Father on this earth.  We are learning to follow him in his humility, suffering, and commitment to pleasing the Father.  He is our pattern, our template, the image that we seek to live out in this life.

There is a cooperation between the Holy Spirit and us in this renovation.  The power is His, but we must take the steps of faith to see it flow through our lives.  This renovation is finally completed by the power of Christ at our resurrection.

Verse 11 ends with the point that this renewal is such that the distinctions of this world become irrelevant.  The distinctions that he lists could be expanded into others.  In Christ, believers are not focused on distinctions that have been important in the past: Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian or Scythian, slave or free, etc.  The purpose of God is to save all people no matter how far from him they have been, and no matter what class of people they are a part.

Why is this so?  It is so because Christ is everything and is in everything.  That last part is not meant in a New Age sort of way.  Paul is telling them that Christ is everything you need, regardless of how many poor categories you may find yourself.  He is your everything, and he will be in all the things that you face in  your life.  He is with the martyr at the end of his life.  He is with the evangelist when someone ridicules and spits in his face.  Christ is with you in all these battles that you fight against your old man.  When you feel like God has forsaken you, trust His word that says He hasn’t!  Know that even in this thing you are facing, the Lord Jesus is working out the purpose and will of God the Father.  You are a part of His Kingdom coming into this world!

New Identity I audio

Led By the Spirit

Romans 8:1-30.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on May 19, 2024, Pentecost Sunday.

Our passage today does not focus on the gifts of the Spirit, but on the leading and help of the Holy Spirit.

As we were walking through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 to 7, we recognized that it begs certain questions.  How can a person do these things?  How can I love my enemies?  How can I be perfect even as my Father in heaven is perfect?

The short answer to these questions is that it will take a miracle of God.  Similar to Abram and Sarah wondering how they were going to have a child, we wonder how God will do the impossible things that He says He will do in us.  Like Abram and Sarah did, we can try to accomplish it in our flesh, but this is not God’s way.  In the end, it would be Isaac who would receive the promises of God to Abraham and carry them into the next generation.  Thus, we must not look at ourselves, our abilities, and our strength to find hope.  Rather, we look to Jesus, the one who is doing this powerful work within us.

We are told that God gives His Holy Spirit to those who put their faith in Jesus so that we can then do the impossible.  I do not mean things like jumping over a tall building in a single bound.  These are the kinds of things our flesh dreams up when it thinks of doing the impossible.  No, I mean those impossible things that God has promised to do in us and through us.

So, let’s look at our passage today and see the hope that we have in the help of the Holy Spirit for us.

The Spirit helps us to fulfill the righteousness of the Law (v. 1-4)

This first point is one of the main points that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount.  Those who follow him will be enabled to fulfill the righteousness of the Law.  Paul sees this as the result of walking with the Holy Spirit.

The preposition that is translated as “with” has an added sense of something else that is in opposition.  We walk with the Holy Spirit as opposed to what we were walking with before.  In this case, Paul sees our flesh as the problem.  This shows the choice that is before everyone who hears the Gospel of Jesus and then responds in faith.  It is a choice between continuing to follow our flesh, or turning away from it in order to walk with the Holy Spirit.

This was always the weak point in the Law of Moses.  When verse three talks about the weakness of the Law, it is not pointing to a problem in the words themselves.  It is our tendency to follow our flesh.  The Law was perfect, but we are not.  Thus, we end up only condemned by those words.

Jesus boiled the whole purpose of the Law down to loving God with our whole being and loving our neighbor as ourself (even when that neighbor is our enemy).  When our flesh leads, we fail this all the time, but when the Spirit leads us, then we are enabled to accomplish what God was wanting.  Now remember, we wouldn’t have the Holy Spirit if Jesus hadn’t gone to the cross for us and won the authority and right to pour out this Holy Spirit upon his followers.

So, let’s delve a little deeper into walking with the Holy Spirit.  Walking has to do with how we live our life, the directions we go in, and the purpose behind what we do.  We are not intended to do this alone, but instead, to do it with the Spirit of Christ in us.  It is not up to my wisdom and my strength.  Like Adam and Eve talking with God in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden, so too, we can pray and receive the wisdom, the leading, of the Holy Spirit for what we face.

It is the Holy Spirit that teaches us to fulfill the purpose of God.  It is the Holy Spirit that teaches us how to love God and other humans in the way that Christ has loved us.  These things are not in contention.  To love God is to be helped by Him to know how to love others.  The world may try to put them in contention.  However, you do not help (love) people by bending God’s word or twisting it.

The Spirit helps us to focus on the things of God (v. 5-8)

When we follow the flesh, we are generally doing stupid things that we will need to repent over later.  Just like parents teach their kids to focus on a task, or teachers help students to focus while in class, we too are enabled to focus on the right things by the Spirit of God.

The power of technology is not helping us in this area of focus.  People may focus on a screen for long periods of time, but we are almost completely disabled in our ability to get our heads out of it and into what God is trying to accomplish.  Of course, focus has always been a problem, even before such technology.  It has been a problem because the flesh in in competition with the Spirit of God.  When a person is saved, they are given the Spirit of God; He dwells within them.  Yet, they still have a mind of the flesh that is hostile to the things of God.  If left to our own devices, each of us would become focused on the things of the flesh, not the things of God.

In this area of God’s things, i.e., things of the Spirit, versus things of my flesh, there are things that I need to get rid of, and there are things that I need to start doing.  Maybe, I didn’t read the Bible before, or I didn’t pray and gather together with Christians, but now I start doing those things.  Maybe, I used to be involved in sexual immorality in certain ways, but now I stop doing those things that are contrary to God’s design in my life.

However, sometimes it is not about the thing I am doing so much as it is about the reasons why I do it.  Helping poor people is a good thing.  However, I can do it for fleshly reasons.  I can do it because it makes me feel good about myself.  Perhaps, I do it because it makes me feel like I am better than others.  I might do it because I want to use it as leverage for manipulating them.  The Holy Spirit teaches us how to take those impure, fleshly motivations, and cleanse them from our heart.  Then, we can be enabled to do a good thing for the right reasons, reasons that are made clean by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus addressed this in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:1-4.  Sometimes, we simply want people to think that we are better than we really are, image control, branding. 

The flesh will do religious and virtuous things for fleshly reasons, but the Spirit of God is given to teach us to say no to our flesh.  The Spirit is the grace of God helping us to break free from the hold that the flesh has upon our mind and life.  The flesh will be hostile to losing its grip on your life.  It is used to getting its way.  Paul points to this hostility in verse seven.  The flesh cannot be submitted to the Holy Spirit.  We can only quit listening to it and start listening to the Holy Spirit.

Even now, we see this fleshly hostility surfacing within our society.  People will complain about the “horrible, vengeful God of the Old Testament.”  Yet, at the same time, they will complain about the evil in the world as if it is God’s fault.  What they refuse to see is the tension between the love of God, that withholds judgment for a time so that we may take hold of the solution He has given us in Jesus, and the justice of God, which will (even must) judge wickedness eventually.  In its hostility, the flesh makes many self-serving arguments as to why it should lead in your life.  To cooperate with it is to cooperate with what is destroying your life, but to cooperate with the Spirit of God is to cooperate with that which is giving you Life.

The Spirit gives life to us in these mortal bodies (v. 9-11)

This issue of cooperation is key to our spiritual walk.  Though Paul does not emphasize the baptism of the Holy Spirit here, let me simply say this.  When you believe in Jesus, the Spirit comes to live within you.  He comes to help us in all the ways we need help.  Yet, we are also instructed to pray and ask for the baptism, or infilling, of the Holy Spirit.  These are two different pictures of the same thing. 

Being baptized in the Spirit is an external picture of immersion into the Spirit.  Yes, I have the Spirit, but does the Spirit have me?  Being totally surrounded by the Spirit is a powerful picture of a person surrendered to His work in their life. 

Being filled with the Holy Spirit uses an internal image.  You are a container that has the Holy Spirit within.  However, the nature of the Spirit allows Him to increase in measure to the point of filling us up and overflowing our life into the world around us.  This is something that occurs as we cooperate and seek His filling of us.

When you became a Christian, a follower of Jesus, it wasn’t your flesh saying yes on that day.  It was that moment at which you heard the Holy Spirit pointing you towards Jesus, and you began to cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s leading.  The only question now is this.  Will I continue cooperating with, walking with, the Holy Spirit?  The Christian walk is one of daily walking with the Spirit, daily thanking God for His Spirit and inviting Him to fill you to overflowing for the purposes of God for that day.

This is that life which Paul is talking about.  The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead is able to give life to us in these mortal bodies.  Notice that he uses a different term from the word “flesh” that he has been using up to this point.  The flesh refers to the more sinister aspect of our bodies.  “Mortal” sees our bodies in the fact that they are dying and we will surrender them one day.  These mortal, earthly bodies are impacted by sins that we have done in them and to them.  We can sometimes lose hope in the life of God because of these very weaknesses in our mortal bodies.  Yet, we can have life even now because of the work of the Holy Spirit within us.  My flesh might be slowly wasting away and slipping ever closer to death, but my spirit is growing in relationship and closeness by the Spirit.  I am no longer ruled by the flesh’s fear of death and sickness.  I am more than a conqueror in Jesus Christ who leads me forth into victory, even through the valley of the shadow of death itself! 

Of course, the Spirit of God will give life to our mortal bodies at the resurrection too!  However, I believe Paul’s point here is about the life we can receive and live out now, even while we are in sinful flesh, and sin-impacted, mortal bodies.

The Spirit makes us to be sons of God, and thus, His heirs (v. 12-17)

The phrase “sons of God” is important.  It is sometimes translated as “children of God.”  The point is not that we are not, or cannot become, mature.  There is a certain spiritual maturity that is possible within these mortal bodies.  However, it pales in comparison to the status of the mature sons of God that we will have following the resurrection.  The resurrection is an instantaneous change, but our spiritual maturity in these mortal bodies is progressive.  We come to faith in Christ as spiritual babies, but we are not intended to remain babies.  The Spirit works in us first to be the evidence that we are the “babies” of God, but then to also help us grow up into the adult sons of God (as far as it is attainable in this life).  Spiritually mature believers have learned to fight and win the battle against their flesh in order to follow the Holy Spirit.  That doesn’t mean it is no longer a battle, and they are no longer tested.  However, it does mean that they have experience and spiritual skills that they didn’t have as babies. 

We have been adopted into the family of God, and we have become joint-heirs with Jesus in the eternal life that God is even now giving to those who put their faith in Jesus.  Technically, Jesus inherits it all, but we inherit because of our close relationship with him (his bride, his disciples, his family).

Thus, our calling is not that of slaves, but that of His family.  In this passage, Paul is focused upon the motivation and hop that the believer will need to fight the flesh and follow the Spirit.  You are His family in Christ.  He is not going to jerk the rug out from underneath of you.  You were made to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, even the New Heavens and the New Earth. You will be glorified with Christ one of these days.  It is the Spirit of God that witnesses with your spirit that these things are true.

Yet, in other places (Romans 1:1, Philippians 1:1), Paul calls himself a slave of Jesus Christ.  He is not contradicting this point.  Rather, Paul is referencing the fact that he volunteers to be a slave serving the purposes of Christ precisely because he is so convinced of the call of God for us as His children.  Now is the day of battle for the souls of men trapped in darkness.  Now is the time of laboring in the field of humanity in order to draw all men into faith in Christ, and therefore, adoption into the family of God.  We can be sons working long hours (the hours that a slave would work) because it is the work of our Father, our Savior, our LORD!  This is not a contradiction, but a powerful understanding of what it means to be adopted into the family of God and how that frees us to completely offer our mortal lives to His glorious work of redemption. 

We will share in his glory.  We share in the glory of his humanity right now, but after the resurrection, we will share in his glory as the Highest One, the Anointed of God, the King of Kings and the Lord of lords.

The Spirit helps us in our weakness (v. 25-30)

In verses 18-24, Paul talks about how the creation was subjected to the futility, the emptiness, of the curse because of the hope of its undoing in Christ.  We are a part of that great restoring of all things back to a condition of being very good (Genesis 1:31).  When God’s earthly imagers have been restored, then too, the curse shall be lifted off of the earth.

In our weak, mortal flesh, it may seem hard to believe that these things shall be true.  To follow the Spirit is not to walk by sight (what you see), but to walk by faith.  Ask yourself, when you look at the world today, are you filled with a great hope that we are on the cusp of 1,000 years of peace, and the corrupt governments of the world being removed?  No.  Our hope is place upon Jesus himself.  The Apostle Paul even warned in 1 Thessalonians 5:3, “For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape.”  Similarly, if it one day looks like this world will create peace on earth, then don’t believe it!  It will be short-lived because they mean to do it without the One-True, Anointed Son of God at its helm.

The weakness we have in these mortal frames to put faith in what we see is helped by the Holy Spirit.  He helps us to keep our hope in Christ when all is failing around us, or when the wicked pretend that they have fixed all things.

We trust that God is working all things to our good (vs. 28) because we have put our faith in Jesus Christ and are being led by His Spirit.  We have too many testimonies from the Bible to doubt that He is doing such.

Ultimately, Paul describes God’s will for each of us, for all of us together: predestined, called, justified and glorified (vs. 30).  “Glorified” is put in the past tense, but it is a verb that technically has no tense.  The emphasis is not on when these things happen, but that they are the sure purpose of God for us.  He has predestined (put a destiny before us) those who follow the Spirit of God to be conformed into the image of His Son, Jesus.  To do that, He is faithful to call out to those trapped in darkness.  “Look upon Jesus and be healed!”  “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men!”  Those who answer this call by faith are justified by God (made to be right before Him).  This grace is made available because of the free-will offering of Christ upon the cross.  Those He has justified, He will glorify.  Though there is a certain glory that we have in following Christ in his humility, this points to the resurrection and our coming with Jesus when He returns to earth in His glory!  This glorification though future is yet guaranteed because of Jesus himself.  God will not deny His Son.  All who have put their faith in Jesus and have become his will be made to be like Him completely at the resurrection.  This is God’s purpose in you, and this is why we follow the Spirit of God rather than our flesh.  All who follow the flesh are destined to miss out on all of those good things that God has planned (those things we know about, and those things that we don’t know about). 

You have too much to lose to give up now.  Yes, the devil, the world, and even your flesh will tell you to quit believing in Jesus and start putting your faith in the ability of man to save himself.  Right now we are given the choice.  What will I do with Jesus?  However, one day we will stand before Jesus and the choice will be his.  What will he do with me?  Choose Life today! (John 14:6).

Led by the Spirit Audio

Sermon on the Mount X

Subtitle:  Correcting the Righteousness of the Hypocrites I

Matthew 6:1-4.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on February 11, 2024.

Chapter six of the Sermon on the Mount clearly moves on to another main point.  Jesus has been looking at the teaching of the Scribes and the Pharisees, the teachers of his day, and showing how it fails to fulfill the Law.

Now, Jesus moves to exposing the problem with the apparent “righteousness” of these “hypocrites.”  However, more than exposing their problem, Jesus shows his followers how to live out true Kingdom righteousness.  Whereas the previous point showed the lack of love for others in their teaching, this point will show the lack of a true heart for God in their righteousness.

In fact, what Jesus shows here is at the root of the common problem that religious institutions tend towards corruption.  If their teaching is superficial, i.e., has no heart, so their righteousness itself is also superficial.  It is generally not for the glory of God.

Jesus will look at three areas of spiritual matters: charity (acts of mercy), prayer, and fasting.  It is not by accident that prayer is at the center of this point, and at the center of the whole Sermon on the Mount.

Today we will focus on the acts of mercy that are often called charitable deeds.

Let’s look at our passage.

The way of righteousness (v. 1)

Though Jesus does not use the word “way” here, it an important theme throughout the Old Testament, and the work of Messiah.  John the Baptist details this when he comes forth as the voice in the wilderness that calls for the way of the LORD to be prepared.  At the end of this sermon, Jesus will point to the “narrow way.”  This is essentially following the teaching of the Messiah, Jesus.

We also know that Jesus is talking about their “righteousness” in this chapter because of his words back in Matthew 5:20.  There is a question in the manuscripts in verse 1 on whether it says, “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds…,” or if it read, “Take heed that you do not do your righteous deeds…”  The manuscripts that are older and more reliable actually split about 50/50 on which is original.  The difference is not significant, but if the proper word is “righteous deeds,” then this verse serves as an up front description of what is wrong in the following three areas of righteous deeds.  I believe that is most likely and it would also create a clear tie back to the earlier recognition that our righteousness needs to exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees.

In truth, deeds of righteousness is the larger category of which charitable deeds is a subset, just as prayer and fasting are other subsets of this larger category.  Historically, these were so close that “righteousness” was often used to refer to them as a synonym.

Let’s tie this into our role as imager of God.  If we will listen to Jesus on this point, we will be able to properly image God the Father to the world around us.

We should also recognize that charitable deeds is not just about money.  It literally means an act of mercy.  If we use the Good Samaritan as an example, you will see that the most important thing that he gave to the ambushed man was his careful attention.  Everything that he did from that man flowed from a heart of compassion, mercy.

Jesus gives us a command.  “Do not do your righteous deeds before men…”  However, instead of putting the imperative upon the verb, i.e., “do not do…,” he puts the imperative on the verb “take heed!”  The effect of this is to intensify the imperative.  Jesus commands us to take up this area of our life and pay close attention to it.  It can be translated as: “beware,” or “Be careful.”  We need to spend time thinking through this any time we go to do an act of righteousness.  In the book of Deuteronomy, this kind of language generally points to an area of sin that we need watch out for or we will fall.

Thus, we are told that our intention must never be about other people seeing us.  If you do that, then you will have no reward from God because He knows that you are not doing it for him, but for them.  We see this in the story of the widow’s mite.  The motive of the rich man will only be rewarded by the adulation of the crowd.  What about the widow?  Most people who saw her probably contemptuously looked down on what she was doing.  Even when she did it in public, she was not in danger of doing it for the praise of man.

Messiah corrects them in their charitable deeds (v. 2-4)

Let’s be clear up front that we are not talking about salvation as a reward for our “righteousness.”  Before we come to Christ, our righteousness is as filthy rags.  However, when we come to Christ in faith, we are now saved.  Yet, through his teaching and with the help of his Holy Spirit, we are enabled to walk out the righteousness of Christ, and even fulfill the Law.  We are enabled to better image God the Father to the world around us.

Of course, walking out the righteousness of Christ is wrapped up in our salvation.  Our salvation in Christ is the foundation upon which we walk forward.  If I don’t keep my eyes upon Christ, and worse, I begin to resist and rebel against the Holy Spirit, then I can harm my own faith in Christ, even to the point of walking away from him.  Thus, on one hand, we can never merit salvation through walking out the righteousness of Christ.  Yet, on the other hand, if I become discouraged and walk away from Jesus, then I can forfeit it.  So, the one is integral to the other.  He has saved me, and that stirs up the desire to image him to the world.

We notice in verse 2 that Jesus describes a trumpet being blown when the hypocrites are going to do a charitable deed at the synagogue or on the streets.  It is unclear whether this was literally being done, or if it is an apt symbol of what they were doing.  Regardless, whether literal or metaphorical, it does serve as a great symbol of a person trying to draw attention to what they are about to do.  They do things that “trumpet” their deeds.  Of course, this doesn’t just happen in religious works among religious people.  The secular world is full of trumpeting one’s own goodness.  But, God’s people should be different.

The point is that they would not give, or do an act of mercy, without having a mechanism by which to draw attention to it.  Why?  It is because they want to be seen by men so that they will receive some kind of glory from them.  If we think of all the inner vices that Jesus referred to in working through the six case studies on the Law, they lust for the attention and glory that people will give them.

It is easy to despise those who give great sums of money in order to get their name on a building when we don’t have enough money to do the same.  The problem is not that they have money, and it is not that they even give it away.  The problem is the intention of the heart is all pointed towards people and not God.  In fact, not all people who give large donations do what we are seeing in these verses.

Essentially, Jesus is speaking to a crowd that most likely does not have much money.  He is telling them that these rich scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees, might appear to be quite righteous, but most of their hearts are not right before God.  They simply lust for the glory of people.

We people are too quick to give glory to others.  Of course, we are not God and cannot see the motives of people’s hearts.  However, that is exactly why we should be careful glorifying the righteous deeds of others.  We are all too ready even to trumpet for them, and to continue to trumpet long after the deed has been done.  This is not about judging them, but recognizing that we do not know the true value of what they have done.

All of this is couched in a negative command.  We are not to draw attention to our charitable deeds.  More importantly, our motivation for giving must not be driven by the recognition we could get from other people for being so righteous.

This brings up the greater issue of why we should give charity.  Notice that Jesus just assumes they will do it.

As I said before, the word basically means “an act of mercy.”  It emphasizes that you do not owe a person anything, but you are touched in your heart (actually deep in your guts) for them.  You have compassion upon them.  In prayer before God, and with the knowledge of my resources, I determine in my heart what I am going to do. 

However, we need to be careful of thinking that God needs to give us a particular number- not that He can’t do that if He wants.  However, He actually wants you to become like Him.  That means your love and compassion needs to be expressed by you.  Perhaps, you could have done more, but what you did was good, if it was done for Him.  An act of love is and act of love. 

Imaging God is at stake here.  No one is more compassionate and giving than God.  Our charitable giving needs to be out of a desire to be like God in this world by helping others.  In fact, it shouldn’t even be about a desire to get God to bless you more in this life.  God is always blessing us.  Why do I crave more?  As God supplies in your life, respond compassionately to the world around you with your time, energy, help, and even giving. 

At the end of verse three, Jesus gives us the command in a proverbial form.  I believe this is all about counteracting our inner desire, even lust, to be recognized by people for our charitable deeds.  All proverbs can be abused.  I’ve heard some justify not telling another family member what they are doing because we are not to let our left hand know what the right hand is doing.  However, verse 4 clarifies exactly what Jesus means.  Do your deeds in secret.

The right hand was typically the hand of giving to others.  Yet, we should recognize that the left hand belongs to the same body.  So, this may actually be saying something that is going on internally within us.  When we give, we should not give a second thought to what a good thing we are doing.  We should not even judge our own works as too how good they are before God.  We should simply do them and move on.  Don’t get a big ego over it.  Don’t even internally trumpet your goodness.  This will only have a corrupting influence in your heart.

Of course, Jesus is not creating a law here, and if someone finds out that you gave a charitable donations, then God will be angry and punish you, or simply not give you a reward.  It is actually quite hard to give mercy to another person without at least them knowing.  Should you hide such things from your spouse?  I don’t think Jesus is trying to create an environment where we are hiding things from our spouse.  The point is to be taken simply, and at face value.  Make your aim to please God and to show His love to others.  Pay close attention to your motivation, the desire that is motivating you.  If you will do this then the details will become immaterial.

Let’s end with looking at the rewards for both the hypocrites and for the followers of Messiah.

The hypocrites are rewarded.  However, it is not by God.  God allows them to have whatever glory people are giving for such things.  They simply get what they were looking for.  God doesn’t owe them anything because it wasn’t done for Him.

Yet, there is a trap in their giving.  The corrupting influence of the glory of the people will continue working in our hearts.  It will continue to corrupt until no good thing remains.  The word here for “rewards” can be used for positive or negative things.  Thus, it can take on the idea of punishment.  Perhaps, the glory of men is a punishment that God gives to the wicked.

How much charity is given out of wrong motives?  How much charity is given from hearts that hunger for something other than God?  Whatever you are hungering for (whether as a giver, or even as a receiver) becomes an idol, and to worship an idol is to become a worthless, vain thing ourselves.

We were not designed to hold up well under the glory of people (just look at the lives over time of those who have it). 

There is nothing wrong with giving honor where honor is due, but we need to be really careful.  We are a people who love to idolize others.  Perhaps, it has something to do with living vicariously through them, even being a part of the group that they came from.  Yet, the adulation of a crowd can never satisfy a heart that was designed to be satisfied by the One True God.  All other things fall short of His glory.

This brings us to the righteous who do their charitable deeds for the right motives and in secret (as best can be done).  Giving secretly leads to a reward from God.  The word “openly” is in question and is not found in the oldest manuscripts.  We should be careful of overemphasizing a reward in this life.  God is constantly blessing us in this life.  But, later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus will emphasize laying up treasure in heaven.  Peter speaks to this in 1 Peter 1:4.  There, he calls it an inheritance reserved in the heavens.  If we live for Christ in this life, then He has a great reward for us in the life to come.  Our great reward is to be resurrected and inherit the whole earth with Jesus.  We will serve as the glorified, righteous administration of King Jesus.  It is not yet manifest what we will be, but when Jesus comes, we will appear with Him clothed in His glory!  Now, that is much better than screaming crowds of fallen people shouting our name!

Correcting Hypocrites audio

The Sermon on the Mount II

Subtitle: Jesus Opens the Door to the Kingdom

Matthew 4:23-5:12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 10, 2023.

We talked last we about Jesus as King Messiah delivering the teaching in our passage.  We also talked about Jesus as the Greater Moses, the greater prophet, delivering the instructions of Yahweh to God’s people.

This is how we need to see this passage from chapter 4 through the end of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 7.  Through Jesus, the promise of Abraham was even now breaking forth upon Israel.  Furthermore, it will not stop until it has inundated the whole earth.

Let’s look at our passage.

The setting (4:23 to 5:1)

Chapter four has Jesus calling the four fishermen to follow him.  However, Matthew records his own call in chapter nine.  The emphasis is more on his teaching and ministry to the people than it is on The Twelve who will follow him. 

I mention this because Jesus is speaking to “his disciples” in Matthew 5:1.  It is easy to immediately think of the 12, but Matthew purposefully puts this before mentioning any other of the twelve being called.  I do not believe that Matthew means the 12, or even the 4 that we know are called at this point.  I believe it refers to the larger group of those who wanted to hear what Jesus was teaching.

Notice that the ministry of Jesus leading up to this has been to the desperate multitudes that had followed him.  Of course, they came to him because they were sick, lame, needy, and some even demon-possessed.  However, Jesus was setting them free.  Imagine if experiencing such a thing.  The man is healing people, but he is also teaching and preaching about the “Gospel of the Kingdom” (4:23).

These people are not just seeing a power that was greater than any prophet before, and had not been seen in Israel for centuries.  They are also hearing a different kind of teaching.  It is not completely different.  It talks of the kingdom as the rabbis of their day did.  However, Jesus interacted with the sick and hurting different than they did.

I think this can be summed up in the rebuke of Jesus in Matthew 23:13.  “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you  allow those who are entering to go in.”

Jesus is going to talk about “the narrow gate” in Matthew 7:13.  He is also going to refer to himself as the door in John 10:1-10.  The religious leaders of Israel were keeping people from coming into the Kingdom, but Jesus, who is the very door and gate into the Kingdom, is calling to them to come in.  He is healing them and telling them that the Kingdom belongs to them.  This was a very different approach from a religious leader, and it shocked them.

The image of a scary, ferocious dog comes to mind.  The religious leaders were hypocrites because it was their job to help the people towards God and His Kingdom.  However, spiritually they were keeping people from entering it.  They wouldn’t go in and they were intimidating people not to go in.

More than that, their view of those who were sick, infirm, and demon-possessed caused them treat the people in that condition as sub-class, as if God had cursed them and didn’t care for them.  The attitude projected the idea that if people were more like them, then they wouldn’t have the problems that they do.  They had no problem moving on and leaving the poor and oppressed behind.  However, Jesus said that they were not entering the kingdom.  So, where were they progressing to?  They were leaving the oppressed behind, but they were only progressing towards an imaginary kingdom of their own making.

They had a system that had been developed, and many of them had risen through the ranks of it.  It was a system of theology and thinking that told them that they were God’s best and blessed.  It patted them on the back and told them that they were doing good in God’s eyes.  They had the right credentials hanging on their walls, and they had the right people patting them on the back.  Their lives were relatively good, and so they must be God’s favorites.  They could look at a person with a horrible sickness, or disability, and rejoice that God loved them more.  They didn’t have a demon-possessed child, even more proof.

The problem is that, when it is your child who is sick or demon-possessed, you don’t have the luxury of just moving on.  Of course, there are some people out there who disown family because they “didn’t sign up for this.”  But, many a loved one suffered through with family members without knowing why this was happening to them, and yet being told by the religious leaders that they were cursed of God.

Life has a way of challenging us in ways that we didn’t ask for.  Do you think any sick person wanted to be sick, or that they all somehow deserved it?  What about congenital stuff that is in the DNA?

There is a certain “accident” of nature in the DNA of a man and the DNA of a woman coming together and producing a third combination.  Though we can talk about the process of this, there is still a mystery in how certain genes are picked versus others.  Does God completely control that?  Is any of it left up to the lower natural laws that He has created, and just becomes what it will be?  We must confess that there is much mystery here that we are not given the answers to. 

So, life tests us.  What is our choice?  Do I come alongside a person in compassion, or tells myself that there is something spiritually wrong with them, or it wouldn’t have happened.  Do I isolate myself because I don’t want to get it too?  Who wants a leper in the Kingdom?

A surprising definition of the blessed (5:3-12)

This is how I believe Matthew is presenting Jesus as he gives his address, which starts with the “beatitudes.”  They are called the beatitudes because “beati” is Latin for “blessed” and the ending “tude” simply means “thing.”  These are the blessed things or blessings that Jesus declared to the people.  We see this throughout the Bible.  However, each of these blessings give a surprising definition to just who are the blessed in Israel that day.  Let me give you a hint.  None of the people in that crowd thought of themselves as the blessed, except for the fact that Jesus had just healed them.  Everything else told them that they were cursed.

This surprise twist is opening the door for them to enter the Kingdom.  Notice the formula first.  It states that “blessed are,” and then it states a condition of life, or experience, or even a particular kind of activity.  It then follows that up with a reason why they are blessed.  In essence, they are things that God has planned for the people who fit the first category.  They are not so much blessed by the first category, but they are blessed by what God intends and plans for those in that category.  Again, they all have a surprising twist to them.

Before we look at each of them, it is important to recognize that we have a message regarding just who is blessed and it is being given by the Messiah.  This is interesting because the Psalms are put in a 5 different collections that use the Covenant of David and the Promised Messiah as a call to Israel for faithful trust in Yahweh’s plan.  The first two psalms give a sort of introduction to the whole collection.

The focus of Psalm 1 is on defining for Israel both the proper way to follow Yahweh and the blessing that Yahweh will dispense to them.  Psalm 2 may seem to drastically change the subject as it presents the nations rejecting and conspiring against Yahweh and His Anointed One.  The Psalm ends with another statement of blessing, which clearly ties back to the blessed person of Psalm 1.  There are other literary ties between Psalm 1 and 2.  Thus, they are intended to function together.  They picture a person who does not follow the wicked, sinners, and mockers of their age.  Instead, they meditate on the instruction of the LORD night and day.  This causes them to become a fruitful tree, rather than chaff.

The word for blessed essentially speaks to the effect of a relationship with God.  It is sometimes translated as happy, but that falls short.  It speaks to the good effects in our life, and in every kind of way, because we are faithfully trusting God.  This person will be able to recognize Messiah and quickly embrace him in trust, in faith (Ps 2:12).

Yet, the connection goes deeper than this.  The Messiah, Jesus, is the perfect example, exemplar, of the Psalm 1 blessed person.  He is the ultimate tree of life in which all the righteous are able to be fruitful.  Every one of the beatitudes are exampled perfectly by Jesus throughout the Gospel of Matthew.  God is not just saying that He has a plan for us and we should trust Him.  Even more, He has joined us in those difficult situations and promises to lead us to that blessing that God plans for us.  Jesus is not just identifying intellectually with these people, with us.  He is identifying by immersing himself in the same situations.

Each one of these situations have an aspect to them that our flesh doesn’t like.  Because of this, we are tempted to run from them or do what we can to avoid them.  We can spend so much energy in avoiding them that we lose sight of a blessing that God is trying to give us through them. 

Our flesh, the world, and the devil, can pile on when these situations are present.  “If you really had God then this wouldn’t happen.”  Or, “If God really loved you, was really on your side, then…”  They do not appear to be blessings.  In fact, notice that the condition, i.e., poor in spirit or mourning, are not themselves the blessing.  They are like a present that is wrapped up and yet leads to a good thing.  The blessing is the thing that God plans to do or give for those in that tough situation.

When we end up on a sick bed it is not a good thing.  Yet, if we trust God and wait upon Him, He has a blessing, a good plan through it.  We must be careful of letting fear cause us to flee from the very things in which God is trying to give us a blessing.  I’m not saying that God purposefully causes these bad things, but that He allows them because He can overcome it and use it for the good.

The blessings (v. 3-12)

We will talk about the structure of the Sermon on the Mount later, but this introductory message about being blessed by God comes in three sets of three.  Threes play a big part in the structure of this sermon, so I am going to look at these in sets of three.

Let’s get into them.

The poor in spirit (v. 3) is using wealth terminology, but applies it to a person’s spirit.  It is speaking of being humble as opposed to proud.  Yet, it is not just talking about a moral ethic.  Of course, it is good to be humble and not good to be proud.  However, in our context, these are people who have been ground down by their condition of life.  They have been politically dominated by successive empires.  They have been religiously dominated by an uncaring know-it-all class.  On top of this, they had things going on physically and spiritually in their life that brought them to very humble, very low, circumstances.

As we go through this list, we should recognize that some of them present things that we should ethically try to do.  However, underneath of that idea, there is the bigger issue of not even having a choice.  You are humble because everything in life has ground out any pride you may ever have had.

Let’s look at the second blessing.  Jesus speaks to those who mourn.  Again, Jesus isn’t telling his followers that they should never be happy, but always mourning.  Rather, it is about speaking to people whose life has descended into something difficult over which they mourn.  This is definitely one of those things that we try to avoid in life.  Yet, here is Jesus saying that God sees us when we mourn, and He has a blessing for us.

The third  situation is the meek.  It is sometimes translated “lowly.”  We see this in Zechariah 9:9.  “Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey…”  This is the same word for “meek” in our passage.  This word is also applied to Moses in Numbers 12:3.  “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.”  Again, this is the same word.

In some ways, the word meek has the concept of lowly and unimportant.  However, notice that we cannot say that Moses and, even more, Messiah are not important.  The word is not about your role and purpose in society.  It is a word of how you carry yourself towards others.  It is a person who is not seeking a position even when it is given to them.  They are not desperate for everyone to see them as something great.  Instead, they are lowly, humble, meek of spirit.

When I think about Moses, I believe that he is lowly because he knows that he can’t deliver Israel at all.  He has no power and is no one.  If it wasn’t for God, he could do nothing.  When Korah, Dathan, and Abiram complained against Moses, it wasn’t Moses who rebuked them.  It was God Himself who stood up for Moses and rebuked the rebels.

It is similar with Jesus, but not in the same way.  Jesus is perfect and has no sin, unlike Moses.  However, Jesus does not fight against his detractors.  He humbly and meekly trusts in the Father to be his defense, even to the point of crucifixion.

Now look at the blessing side of these three.  For those who are poor in spirit, we are told “theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Similarly for the meek, “they shall inherit the earth.”  This is Kingdom terminology.  Israel had been waiting for Messiah to come and set up the kingdom, and here he is, talking with broken people and telling them how blessed they are.  The Kingdom has been brought near to them and it is there for them to enter.

Yet, notice the blessing for those who mourn.  It simply lets them know that they are blessed because they are going to be comforted.  He is not talking about someone in this life comforting them.  He is talking about God the Father.  He has a plan to comfort them for the things that cause them to mourn.  Instead of tying it to the Kingdom, it is simply tied to trusting God, period.  In the end, God is the only true source of blessing, and if He is blessing us, then it doesn’t matter whether it is in the Kingdom or outside.  It is blessed because God is with us.

The second group of three begin with those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Hunger and thirst are things that come to us because food and water are lacking.  Of course, this world clearly lacks righteousness.  It pictures a person with pains and panting for just a bite and a sip of righteousness in this life. 

This begs the question.  What am I thirsty for?   There is a commercial that has the line, “Stay thirsty…”  Yeah, we should stay thirsty, but we had better be careful what we are thirsting for.  In a world thirsting for righteousness, it is easy for us to develop and accept worldly substitutes instead of true righteousness.  Messiah is the true righteousness.  However, we can be so full of eating at the trough of false righteousness that he is not palatable to us.  Instead of redefining righteousness and creating a system of traditions that pats you on the back, telling you that you are righteous, (a righteousness that our flesh likes) we come to God and seek His righteousness, and wait upon Him.

Next we have those who are merciful.  The merciful are generally those who have been in tough times themselves.  We should seek to be a merciful person as a matter of ethics.  However, the truth is that life teaches us mercy by the difficult things that we experience.  We gain empathy through the things that happen to us.  It slows us down and enables us to see people that we used to walk on past without a thought.  The more we flee environments where we need mercy, the less we are able to hear the hurting heart of those who do.

Then, we have those who are pure in heart.  We can make this more complicated then it needs to be.  It is not about never making a mistake or sinning.  It speaks to a singleness of purpose.  I may fall into sin because of my flesh, but my heart simply, purely, wants to be right with God.  For Israel, singleness of purpose meant honoring God and following His instructions.  Guess what, it means the same thing for us.

I find it interesting that, in this central group of three, the blessings do not mention the Kingdom.  We can put so much emphasis on ruling in a Kingdom with Messiah that we can lose sight of what is most important, and that is a relationship with God that is good.  Can I be satisfied in this life before, or without, the Kingdom?  Can I be merciful?  Jesus was all of these things even though his life was tough, and he laid the throne of Israel and the world on the altar before God and allowed it to be burned to powder at the cross.  God’s people being free from their sins and truly knowing God the Father was more important than a thousand years of ruling on this earth.

Thus, the hungry and thirsty will be satisfied by God.  When, LORD, when will you do this?  This cry of our heart can overwhelm God’s promise that He will satisfy us, both in helping us to be righteous and in making this world a righteous place one day.  The merciful will be shown mercy by God.  Imagine crying out for righteousness and then standing before God and finding out that you yourself were not righteous, were not merciful.  Imagine hearing the words, “Depart from Me.  I never knew you.”  The pure in heart, those who keep singularly focused on God’s purpose and will, will find a day when they see God.  This is not just talking about judgment day, but beyond.  We will one day dwell in His presence never to be separated again!

It has been said that God whispers to us in our pleasures, but He shouts to us in our pain (C.S.Lewis).  Can I hear what God is saying over the din of my own heart, the world, and the devil?  May God help us to trust Him.  None of these central blessings mention the Kingdom because the Kingdom is just a part of God’s plan of blessing for us.  Even now, He has a blessing for us in the midst of our difficulties.

This is why Job could give the cry of faith in Job 19:25-26.  “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at the last [day] on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God!”  Wow, what a statement of faith in the midst of difficulty.  His only hope is to simply see God and be received.

The final three begin with the peacemakers.  There is no more thankless job than getting in the middle of two people who are angry with each other.  If you really care about reconciling them, you may find both of them turning their proverbial guns upon you.  In fact, even Christians can do this.  When we are offended, we can demand that the people around us pick our side, or die.  You have to agree with me to be right.  The heart of a peacemaker cares about both people and both sides of the issue.  In general, both sides will have something to work on. 

The ultimate peacemaking is to mediate between God and the lost.  Very few people will thank you for trying to reconcile them to God, unless they actually are reconciled to God.  Jesus says that the peacemakers are blessed because they will be called the sons of God.  Who is going to call them that?  It won’t be the world.  It will be God who calls us the sons of God.

It may not be manifest to the world that we are the sons of God.  In fact, they may accuse us of being the sons of the devil.  But, it will be manifested one day.  It won’t be an in-your-face celebration because that isn’t the heart of Jesus for the lost.  He is the ultimate peacemaker, and he did so by laying down his life.  He suffered that we might be able to reconcile with God.  No, we will have tears of joy that God has fulfilled His promise, and tears of sorrow for those who never believed.

The last two blessings are sometimes looked at as the same.  They are both about being persecuted, but the difference is why you are persecuted.

Those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness (doing/trying to do the right thing) are first in view.  We can notice that the tight formula that Jesus has been using opens up to greater commentary, even instruction, by him.  This is interesting because persecution has a way of breaking down our formulaic approaches to life, and gets us real with people and God very quickly.  These are blessed because “theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  This is the same blessing as the first beatitude and points to the kingdom again.

The Kingdom is important to God, and there will be a literal rule of Jesus physically on this earth.  God is not a liar.  He will keep His promises to the saints.  However, keep that in mind as we go to the next blessing.

Those who are persecuted for the sake of Jesus are the last we see.  This is parallel with the Old Testament saints who were persecuted because they were faithful to Yahweh (sometimes even by apostate Israelites).  Such are blessed because their reward is reserved for them in heaven.  This does not just mean heaven itself is the reward.  It is a recognition that your reward cannot be touched by anything in this world.  It is held firm, reserved, secure in heaven for you.

If you truly understood God’s heart for you in the midst of the difficult things you are going through, then you would rejoice and be exceedingly glad.  Perhaps, Jesus is laying it on a little thick?  Listen, this is the One who went to the cross, into the grave, and trusted God to overrule His treatment in this life.  He trusted the Father to be the only source of blessing that He would cling to.  Like Jacob wrestling with the Lord, Jesus becomes the ultimate Israel, “One who has Power with God!”

May God help us to also keep our eyes upon Jesus.  If we are persecuted for doing the right thing, and especially for trusting Jesus, then we can rejoice that we are taking our place among the many saints in the Bible, and the countless saints throughout all of time.  Let us follow Jesus, the ultimate blessed one, and learn of him the path of blessing.

SotM 2 audio