2023 02 28 The Character of the Kingdom Part 1

The speaker introduces a sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount from the book of Matthew. He highlights the Beatitudes, which describe the character of the kingdom of heaven. He emphasizes that God blesses broken people and uses their broken circumstances for His purpose. He explains that brokenness reveals our need for God and allows us to recognize our dependence on Him. The speaker also discusses the importance of blessing others and reflecting God's love to those around us. He encourages humility and points out that our actions should bring attention to God rather than ourselves. The speaker concludes by saying that God can use anyone, regardless of their limitations, and that our worth is found in Him. Starting tonight, I'm kind of starting a new series, sermon series with you guys. And anyone who preaches a sermon like I'm doing now tries their best to communicate the word of God in a clear and life-changing way. Ultimately though, no matter how hard any of us try, the greatest sermon ever preached has already been preached and written down. And starting in chapter five of the book of Matthew in the New Testament, we have the recorded words of a sermon that Jesus himself preached. The sermon's known as the Sermon on the Mount because Jesus preached it from a mount. Now, over the next few weeks, we're going to read that sermon and talk about some of its implications and applications for us as it describes the character of the kingdom of heaven, the character of the kingdom that Jesus was bringing. So we're going to start in Matthew chapter five, verse one. We're going to skip that. Okay. Now, when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them. He said, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. The first section of the Sermon on the Mount is often called the Beatitudes. The attitudes that we should be is maybe a way you can think about that or seek to live. And some of these Beatitudes are a bit counterintuitive. The first few groups of people he mentions that will be blessed are the poor, the mourning, the meek, the hungry, and the persecuted. And I think to say, it's safe to say that most of us have not sought to be one of these things, right? But many of us have experienced one or more of these things in our lives, whether it's living in a lean time financially or through grief and mourning. We've experienced some form of hardship in our lives. We've all been broken in some way. And essentially, Jesus is saying here that God blesses broken people, which is my first point for you, that the character of the kingdom is one of God bringing blessing through broken people and broken circumstances. Now, why would God consider these people blessed? We don't feel blessed when we're broken. But what does Jesus say here? He says that mourners will be comforted, that those who are humble, whose pride has been broken, will inherit the earth, that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be satisfied. And I think the one that explains it in the best is the first one in verse three. The NLT puts it this way. God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him, or the poor in spirit. Brokenness in our lives reveals our need for God. Not that God is breaking us so that we will need him, but rather that we're already living in a broken world and we are all broken because of the effects of sin within us and the world already. We already need God. The passage doesn't say that being broken makes us need God, but rather that it makes us realize our need for God, to finally have our eyes opened and become aware of our need for God. And I won't pretend to understand the full reasons why God allows certain sufferings to happen in our lives. But what I do know is that when everything's going fine, we tend to put God in the background, right? I've been there. Maybe it's just me. Maybe you guys are better than that. But we metaphorically put him on a shelf for a rainy day to forget our need for God until a crisis arises in our lives. And then we make grand promises to God, right? We say, if he'll heal us, if he'll deliver us, give us what we want or what we need, that we'll become a missionary or we'll devote our lives to him in a deeper or more serious way. But as quickly as he removes us from trouble, we quickly forget our hastily made promises. Perhaps then, as hard as it may feel for us to hear, God's allowance of troubles is a mercy in itself, that we're blessed for our brokenness because it reminds us of our need for God. And ultimately, when you and I pass from this world, we can either go to a place of total bliss and comfort with God or a place of darkness and total absence from God. So which is more merciful of God? To give us so many comforts in this life and so much security that we feel no need to reach out to him to satisfy us, to comfort us, to the point we forget him entirely? Or is it more merciful of God to allow us to endure hard things, even though it hurts him to watch us suffer so that we'll recognize our need for God and that the moments of good things are his supply as well, so that we'll trust him, remember him, and devote our lives to him now and in the life to come? Do we want temporary comfort in this temporary life that leads to our forgetting our Savior and living in discomfort for eternity? Or do we want to endure discomforts in this life that drive us towards our Savior to live in his comfort for eternity? The second point about the character of the kingdom of heaven in tonight's passage is that God blesses us to bless others. God's kingdom is characterized by us reflecting God's love to others rather than hoarding our blessings for ourselves. The merciful, the poor, the peacemakers, those are people who are outwardly focused, we give mercy to others, we help mediate peace between others. And even our personal purity, when it talks about the pure of heart, our becoming more like Christ and following his ways helps us to become a blessing to those around us. And as we bless others, we see the benefits in scripture are that we'll be given mercy. We will see God, it says, and we will be called children of God. Because it's evident to those around us that we embody his ways. I don't know if any of you have ever experienced this, but I've experienced this personally when I was in that town that I grew up in where occasionally I'd meet somebody and somebody's like, are you so-and-so's son? And I was like, oh, yeah, yeah, how do you know my parents? And it was a small town, everybody just went to high school with some kind of thing, you know? And that sort of thing. But they could see certain characteristics, whether they were just physical characteristics or otherwise, they could see certain characteristics and mannerisms go, oh, they're the son of so-and-so, right? People will be able to see that we are the children of God because it's evident that we embody his characteristics. And I think that's really beautiful. If we can see God at work as we seek to purify ourselves, not to become perfect, but to become more and more like God by reflecting his character. And we'll see him at work in our lives and the lives of those around us. And it may take time, and it may feel like our glimpses of God are small, but we will see God as we seek to bless others. Lastly tonight, I wanna look at what Jesus said about salt and light and how that shows us the character of the kingdom, specifically how it shows us that kingdom humility isn't quiet, but it doesn't loudly speak about us. See, Jesus asks the question, what is the point of salt that isn't salty? Who here likes salt and vinegar potato chips? No one? Yeah, okay, okay. A friend of mine's wife, she just loves salt and Vickie's, like them, salt and Vickie's? Salt and vinegar potato chips from Miss Vickie's. And she was having a debate with someone because they said, salt and vinegar is not a flavor. That's just like, you put salt on chips, vinegar is just a thing that's on a lot of chips. That's not a flavor. And she had this big debate about whether or not it was a flavor. And, but I think we can all agree that if a chip didn't have salt and vinegar, it would be very, you know, bland, very plain. Salt adds flavor. And interestingly, it kind of enhances the flavors that are naturally in a dish already. It kind of draws it out. So if you add salt and it doesn't enhance or change the flavor, it has no purpose. And this is what Jesus was saying about us. Are we enhancing and bringing out the truth of the gospel to others? Or are we like a lamp that's covered and put under a basket? Imagine your power goes out and you light a candle, but then you cover it, completely pointless. So as citizens of God's kingdom, we're not called to be quiet, but our standing up and our speaking out is not about us. We're not here to make ourselves famous. We're here to point people to Jesus. And we'll talk about this a little bit more in coming weeks as we talk about things like prayer and stuff and kind of the challenges that Jesus was putting out to people about the way that they prayed that was pointing back to themselves instead of God. But verse 16 of our reading tonight said, in the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see so that everyone will praise your Father in heaven. So your good deeds will be a credit to him. Are we loudly bringing attention to ourselves or to God? When we have the people doing the Christmas kettles and they have the bells, everybody knows, they hear that bell, they see the shield, they see all that, they see the kettle, they know immediately Salvation Army. I don't even have to see them, I just hear the bell and I'm like, oh yeah, that's Salvation Army, right? But imagine if we had someone go out and do the kettle, but they just kind of like, instead of ringing the bell, they just shouted their own name, saying like, I'm raising money, I'm Chris, I'm raising money, you know what I mean? And we'd be like, what is up with that? That's weird, right? And it's trying to bring credit to themselves. I think even as, and this is not unique to me, but it's certainly something that I, like anyone else, experience, even as I'm speaking, even as there's preaching, it can often be a struggle. You know, I tell stories from my own life, not to bring attention to me, but to share a relatable experience that maybe you've gone through or have gone through something that's similar so that I can shed light on God's word in a way that is experientially similar, right? So we can make sense of the Bible, but there's always the risk when you use your own life stories of bringing attention to yourself. You know, even the ways that God has blessed me to communicate can sometimes get in the way because sometimes I get compliments about my speaking ability and that can either puff me up with pride or even if it doesn't go to my head, it can be a distraction for some people if they're not hearing what God's word is in the moment and they're just thinking about like, you know, isn't great, Chris just said it's a great speaker kind of thing, you know, or maybe you're just like, man, this guy's such a bad speaker, I can't even focus. But I'm not a natural born talent. You know, it reminds me of when God called Moses to speak to the people of Israel and to help freedom. This is what he said in Exodus 4, 10 to 12. Moses pleaded with the Lord, oh Lord, I'm not very good with words. I never have been and I'm not now. Even though you've spoken to me, I get tongue tied and my words get tangled. Then the Lord said to Moses, who makes a person's mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak? Hear or do not hear? See or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go, I will be with you as you speak and I will instruct you what to say. The key thing here is Moses' ability to speak or not speak was nothing compared to God's ability to speak through Moses. Even with Moses' limitations, God was not limited. So my prayer is that each one of us, whether we feel like we have gifts to offer God or maybe we're sitting there feeling like we have nothing, we're just like, I can't speak. I can't speak like so-and-so. I can't sing like so-and-so or I'm just not good at X, Y, and Z. It doesn't matter because Moses, he didn't know what he was doing. He didn't feel like he could do it, right? And I'm telling you, I don't feel like if you were to ask me a few years ago, if I would be up here and be doing this, if you asked me when I was a kid, oh, this is what you're going to be doing. I'm like, okay, right? I was the shyest, I'm not exaggerating. I was the shyest kid you could possibly meet when I was a kid. I was a homeschool kid. I didn't really talk with hardly, like even as a teenager, I just didn't talk to people, right? That was just way too scary, right? I'd rather just go draw comics in my room. That was me, right? I didn't like talking and speaking, but God will use you despite whatever you have because it's about, you know, it's like the boy that came with the five loaves and the two fishes. And God is just like, I'm just going to take whatever you're willing to give to me. Give to me your skills, give to me your lack of skills, and I will amplify that to bring glory to God. And I don't say that to say, you know, look what God has done in me and I've come so far. I'm saying, look at what God has done. Look at what God did with Moses. Look how God can use a person who doesn't naturally have that ability to do something. So if you're sitting there feeling like you don't have what it takes, whatever that means, all it takes is an open and humble, willing heart to be used by God in any way that he is willing. And that's not small. I heard someone say the other day, I'm going to try not to butcher this quote, but it was so good. They said, all God needs from someone to be used by him is nothing, but most people don't have that. Which takes a minute to wrap your head around. But what he was trying to get at is so many of us either feel like we have either in the positive sense, in one sense, we have so much confidence. We feel like we have something to offer. It's maybe getting in the way of the way that God really wants to use us, which is in a different direction and area, or maybe we have so much baggage in the way of feeling like we have nothing to offer. But he's saying, your nothing is all I need. Just bring that to me. So I just want you to know, God wants to work through you too, and he's not limited by your limitations. Instead, he wants to bring the focus of others to him. He wants us to humbly but boldly draw attention off of ourselves and onto him, and that's where we find our true worth. So tonight, as we've started to unpack the character of the kingdom as talked about in the Sermon on the Mount, I want us to think about how, number one, God blesses us through brokenness. Number two, God blesses us to bless others. And number three, God blesses us by using us to bring attention to him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you that you can use each one of us. Lord, I thank you that you've been able to use me to speak some of your words tonight and hopefully make it clearer to everyone who is listening tonight. And Lord, I just pray that your word would continue to go beyond any of my limitations, Lord, that your word would be able to just sit in people's minds and their hearts, Lord, that each person here would be able to see how you can use them, even in their broken circumstances, even as they feel like a broken person, that you can use them and you can use their broken circumstances, you can use a broken person for your will, Lord, and that you are blessing them, that you are blessing them to know that you need them, Lord, that you're blessing them to bless others, Lord. Thank you, Lord, for each and every person here, Lord, and I just pray that you would keep speaking to them throughout this week in a way that they will really understand in a way that speaks to them personally, Lord God. And I just thank you for the honor and the privilege to be here with each of these wonderful people. In Jesus' name, amen.