 Matthew 5:1-12
Threats to Peace, Joy, and Contentment When do you find yourself struggling most with being discontent? When are you more likely to experience restlessness and anxiety? What’s usually happening in your life when you’re least likely to have joy? Each one of us struggles with these things at different times throughout our lives. There are perhaps a variety of reasons for this, but very often, the threat to our peace, joy, and contentment can be found in one of these four areas of our lives…
These four areas very often chip away at our peace, joy, and contentment. Can you relate to that? In our Scripture, Jesus points us to a new way of seeing that can make all the difference in our lives. This change in our perspective can help us find, and hold onto, the peace, joy, and contentment God desires for us. The Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5:1-12 comes at the beginning of what’s called, The Sermon on the Mount, which is found in Matthew 5-7. I love The Sermon on the Mount. We’ve studied it many times at the church I serve. However, as much as I love studying it, that’s exactly how much I don’t like studying it. That’s a little tongue-in-cheek, but there’s some truth behind it. The Sermon is very convicting. Jesus doesn’t pull any punches in those three chapters. John Stott once said that the most charitable thing you could say about a person who says, they try to live according to The Sermon on the Mount, is that they’ve never read it. Maybe you’ve heard someone say, “the preacher isn’t preaching… he’s meddling.” That’s the kind of sermon, The Sermon on the Mount is. The Beatitudes Therefore, it’s interesting that some of the most beautiful words in Scripture, the Beatitudes, make up the first 12 verses of that kind of sermon. But it’s important to understand that they do because the Beatitudes are the foundation for everything else we read in The Sermon. Very often, when we think of the Christian life, we think of behavior, of how we act. And yet, in this sermon on the Christian life, Jesus begins by focusing on the character of the Christian, of what’s happening on the inside of a person. He’s saying, “This is what every Christian’s character should be.” If you want to behave or act in a Christian way, according to Jesus, you must have the character he describes in these verses. You see, the change Jesus calls us to, happens from the inside out. So, here are the eight virtues, or character traits, Jesus gives us in these verses…
The virtues Jesus lists here give us a picture or portrait of what every Christian is called to look like. It’s not a buffet table where we can pick and choose the ones like and pass on the ones we don’t. To be honest, I used to think that. I thought these were like spiritual gifts. We don’t all have the same spiritual gifts, and that’s a good thing because the body of Christ needs the variety of gifts – like a body needs feet, hands, noses, ears, and so on. But the Beatitudes, and the Fruit of the Spirit, are in an entirely different category. Just as each of us is called to bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, So too is each of us called to be poor in spirit, mourn over sin, be meek, hunger and thirst for righteousness, pursue mercy, purity of heart, peace, and to stand for our faith, even under the threat of persecution. It’s a group package. It’s a cumulative portrait of what each of us who follow Christ ought to look like. Blessed Now, what word comes before each virtue? “Blessed.” Each virtue or character has a particular blessing that goes with it. And it’s important to understand the blessing isn’t something we do. It’s something given to us by God. And Christ says we receive those blessings when those virtues describe us. It’s from those blessings we begin to receive the inner satisfaction of peace, joy, and contentment. It’s also vital to understand that these blessings don’t depend on outward circumstances, or the people in our lives, or the stuff we own, or what people think of us. We often use the word “blessed” or “blessing” to describe something that happens to us – something related to our circumstances; like a good report from the doctor, a promotion at work, a safe trip. And, to be sure, God blesses us in those ways and it’s right to see God’s hand of blessing in those circumstances. However, that’s not what Jesus is saying here. The blessing he’s talking about doesn’t have anything to do with circumstances. Paul knew what Jesus had in mind. He said in Philippians 4:12-13, I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Paul’s outward circumstances weren’t dictating his inward peace, joy, and contentment. He found them in Christ alone. God’s Eternal Perspective So, here’s the big idea: Jesus is giving us a new way of seeing. It’s not what we would’ve naturally come up with on our own. It’s only as we see all of life the way God does – what we might call an eternal perspective – that we’re able to have this inner peace, joy, and contentment, regardless of our circumstances. But don’t you find yourself, more often than you would like, thinking and living like Eeyore, from Winnie the Pooh? We can become really negative, really quickly, can’t we? And that’s often because we’re not enjoying God’s blessings that come from cultivating these virtues, because we’re looking at life through only a temporal perspective. Thus, we say things like,
You can fill in the blank with whatever you want, but those things will never bring the blessing Jesus is talking about. The blessing he’s talking about doesn’t depend on your outward circumstances. The Apostle Paul knew it’s our perspective on our circumstances that will shape us most, and not just the circumstances. This isn’t Stoicism that says, just adjust your attitude and then you can handle any situation you face. Instead, God is at the center of an eternal perspective. Trusting in God and depending upon his grace in every circumstance is what brings the blessing. It’s loving what he loves, desiring what he desires, obeying him always, seeking to align your will with his. This is what brings the blessing Jesus is talking about. The World’s Temporal Perspective But this isn’t the perspective of the world, is it? How might the Beatitudes sound if they were written today. I came across the following that attempted to answer that question.
You get the idea. But when we compare those to the eight characteristics Jesus gave us, they don’t exactly match up, do they? That’s because Jesus turned the thinking of the world upside down. A New Way of Seeing Instead, we must look to God’s inspired Word, the Bible. That’s where we hear the authoritative voice of Jesus saying things like, “blessed are…
But those aren’t virtues we’d naturally seek to pursue and cultivate, are they? We need God’s grace to change our hearts. We need a new way of seeing – a different perspective. God’s perspective. This new way of seeing comes only when we have a new heart, and we receive that new heart only when we trust in Christ alone as our Savior and Lord. We need his Word to direct us and his grace to enable us to see in this new way and cultivate the character of Christ in our lives. Walking Points
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 "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15)
Disciples Learn About 20 years ago my church family met to pray together and develop some vital core values for who we believed God was calling us to be as a church. We emphasized what a follower of Jesus Christ ought to look like. For example, we agreed that we ought to be loving disciples, serving disciples, compassionate disciples, and so on. The one that really connected with me, as Minister of Discipleship, was “Learning Disciples.” Our Vision Committee said unanimously, disciples of Jesus Christ must be students and teachers of God’s Word. That is, we must learn what Scripture says as well as pass on those same wonderful, life-changing truths to others. Stewardship In other words, disciples of Jesus Christ are called to be faithful stewards of what God has so lovingly and graciously given to us. A steward is one who cares for something that belongs to someone else. God calls us to be stewards (caretakers) of his resources. Of what belongs to him. We’re called to be stewards of our time, talent, treasure, relationships, and truth. Because in reality, it all belongs to him. Our Scripture puts it this way, "Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." (2 Timothy 2:15) Paul told Timothy he must study Scripture, so he would have no reason to be ashamed before God, but instead, so that he would be approved by him. Up to this point in this chapter Paul had been warning Timothy to stand firm against the false teachers of his day. Timothy had a great responsibility to correctly handle God’s Word. And Paul is letting Timothy know that this great responsibility is not for the approval of other people, but for God’s approval. And not only was Timothy to stay away from the empty, deceptive, and misleading words of the false teachers, but he was to help others do the same. That effort won’t always be appreciated and applauded by others. In 2 Timothy 4, Paul reminded Timothy that people very often run after teachers who tell them what they want to hear. As we learn in John 6, hard teachings, even when they come from Jesus, will cause dissatisfaction from the hearers. Therefore, Paul wanted Timothy to avoid empty disputes over empty and false words by “correctly handling the word of truth.” But you can’t do that if you don’t know what the word of truth says. It takes work. That’s why Paul tells Timothy he’s going to have be a “worker.” The image is of someone who is a “hard worker.” There’s nothing casual or easy about being a steward of the word of truth. The word of truth Paul had in mind was the Gospel of Jesus Christ – the redemptive truth of God. And we find this redemptive word of truth in the pages of God’s inspired Word, the Bible. The Bible: God’s Inspired Word So, why is it important to view and accept Scripture as God’s inspired Word? Here’s how John Wesley put it, “I want to know one thing – the way to heaven, how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach me the way. For this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have it: Here is knowledge enough for me. Only God is here.” Brothers, how precious is it, that God loves us so much, that he didn’t just create us and then leave us alone to stumble through life in the dark? Instead, he gave us a light. Psalm 119:105 declares, "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light to my path." Renew Your Mind Just think about all the influences in our culture that compete for our attention and loyalty, every single hour of every single day. We have images and information coming in from every direction - from the Internet, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, friends, family – all of this and more. And in subtle ways that are easy to miss and in obvious ways that are seemingly impossible to miss, these things mold and shape us, and not always for the better. Just think about the following everyday temptations…
Now, the point is not that each and every influence is evil and harmful to us. The point is, we need to be discerning. And we can’t be discerning if we’re not actively growing as learning disciples, as faithful stewards of God’s Word. Paul knew the danger well, which is why he wrote these words in Romans 12:2, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." (Emphasis mine) How can we resist being conformed to what the world wants us to be? How can we know God’s will? By being transformed by the renewing of our minds. And how do we renew our minds? By studying God’s inspired Word. So, what do we mean when we say Scripture is “inspired?” God-Breathed Well, to answer that we have to look at another Scripture in 2 Timothy. Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness," (Emphasis mine) That phrase, “God-breathed,” in the NIV, or “breathed out by God,” in the ESV, comes from the same word, from which we get “inspired.” “Inspired” really means “expired.” Not expired, as in, “Your coupons have expired.” Or, “The Milk in the back of your refrigerator has expired.” Instead, it means God “breathed out” his Word through the writers of Scripture, so that what we have in the Bible is not a collection of human opinions, but God’s revealed truth. We’re using the word “inspired” differently than if we said, “the choir or praise band gave us an inspired performance during worship this morning.” Instead, when we say the Bible is the inspired Word of God, we’re saying that what we have in the Bible is exactly what God wants us to have. It’s exactly what he wants us to know. It came from him. And what does he want us to know? Well, let’s take a look at the verses that precede and follow 2 Timothy 3:16. "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (2 Timothy 3:14-17) (Emphases mine)
And that’s what God tells us about his Word in just these four verses! The Difference It Makes Can you see why it’s so important that followers of Jesus Christ make it a constant priority to continue growing as learning disciples? God has made us stewards of his inspired Word. And as we work hard to study it, and even harder to obey it, and even harder to teach it to others, not only will we glorify God; not only will we please God; not only will we be blessed; but we’ll also be a blessing to others as we point them to the fullness of salvation they can enjoy through Jesus Christ our Lord. Walking Points
 Proverbs 7:21-27
To the Cheese... It’s interesting how, in this Scripture, the unsuspecting man followed the prostitute to his demise. O how her beauty, flattery, and persistence wore him down. Yet he was an active participant in his own deception. Thus, he blindly, yet willingly, followed her to her home, supposing he was about to have the time of his life. Unbeknownst to him, he was marching toward his undoing. Observe the language…
Out of willful ignorance or naiveté, these three creatures fell prey to the traps set for them – a decision, so to speak, that would cost them their lives. Compound Effect We are the same. We may see great big obvious temptations for what they are. But the serpent’s craftiness is found in his subtleties. It is the consistent smallness of our daily surrenders to those subtleties that lead us into the slaughterhouse, the noose, the snare. A compromise here and there will have a powerful snowball effect in our lives. We often have no idea when we say “yes” to that first, small, seemingly insignificant trifle of a temptation, that it is the first step on a path that will lead to our destruction. We unwittingly pay a price that will cost us dearly – our very lives… our families… our ministries… and so on. I can’t help but think of the children’s song, “Be careful little eyes what you see. Be careful little ears what you hear.” For ultimately, we cannot plead ignorance. We cannot say we didn’t know the gun was loaded. God has given us his Word and Spirit to lead and guide us through our lives. Ponder the Walking Points questions below with some Christian brothers and ask the Lord for his grace to live faithfully as godly men. Walking Points
 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
Our True Rule The United Methodist Church, by way of its denominational standard, addresses the sufficiency of Scripture. The 2008 Book of Discipline reminds us, Scripture is “necessary for salvation” and is “the true rule and guide for faith and practice.” The "practice" referenced is the practice of our faith, the exercise of living this life under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and preparing for the next. We believe God expects us to live such a life in accordance with Scripture’s direction, rules, laws, commands, examples, teachings, principles, and all the rest. That covers a great deal of ground. Scriptural Holiness United Methodists believe that what John Wesley called scriptural holiness relates to both our inward walk with Christ and the outward expression of that relationship with our neighbors. Our Doctrinal Statements, General Rules, and Social Principles cover an enormous variety of topics, such as God, the Church, the Bible, discipleship, economics, environment, bioethics, justice, marriage, parenting, politics, poverty, and yes, our precious Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that comes through him. In all these spheres and more, Scripture is our “true rule and guide for faith and practice.” The 2008 Discipline says this about scriptural holiness, We insist that personal salvation always involves Christian mission and service to the world. By joining heart and hand, we assert that personal religion, evangelical witness, and Christian social action are reciprocal and mutually reinforcing. Scriptural holiness entails more than personal piety; love of God is always linked with love of neighbor, a passion for justice and renewal in the life of the world. Every Sphere In other words, Scripture is sufficient for every sphere of life. This is what our Discipline means when it reminds us that Scripture is “necessary for salvation” and is “the true rule and guide for faith and practice.” So, while the Bible doesn’t, for example, teach me how to change the oil in my car, it still directs and guides me to do even something as mundane (and as important) as that to God’s glory. It teaches me to be a good steward of what God has provided. And caring for my car in such a manner shows my love for my closest neighbors - my family. The Apostle Paul teaches us, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work. (2 Timothy 3:16-17) Scripture is profitable for every area of your life. He doesn’t use the same language here, but Paul is saying Scripture is sufficient for every sphere of life. Bishop Mack Stokes addressed this by writing, Immediately following the “General Rules,” Wesley wrote, ‘These are the General Rules of our society; all which are taught of God to observe, even in his written Word, which is the only rule, and the sufficient rule, both of our faith and practice.’ (The Bible in the Wesleyan Heritage, p. 21) Understanding that Scripture is sufficient for faith and practice is not the same as saying the Bible is a science textbook, a political constitution, or a manual for how to care for your car. But the Bible clearly does have something (and something important) to say about those areas of life and far more. Wayne Grudem, (who is not a United Methodist), shares this definition for the sufficiency of Scripture, which I believe is helpful. He writes, The sufficiency of Scripture means that Scripture contained all the words of God he intended his people to have at each stage of redemptive history, and that it now contains all the words of God we need for salvation, for trusting him perfectly, and for obeying him perfectly. (Systematic Theology, p. 127) God commands us to submit to our Lord in every sphere of life and he guides us in that quest in and through his Word. It is sufficient for such a grand pursuit. Walking Points
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