7/28/13 KINGDOM LIVING

The Foundation for Life

    The Sermon on the Mount is not just a set of rules & regulations - it is a picture of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is having His unhindered way with us. Oswald Chambers
    We are beginning a series on Kingdom Living -- How we are to live as followers of Jesus.  What impact does the Bible have in effecting real and continual changes in our daily lives?  The passage we will use is commonly known as The Sermon on the Mount.
    Let me start by sharing an experience a college professor had as he was startled by his students’ lack of an ethical foundation.
    Dr. Stephen L. Anderson, a professor in Ontario, Canada, had what he called a moment of “startling clarity” while teaching a section on ethics in his senior philosophy class. He wanted an “attention-getter”—something to shock his students and force them to take an ethical stand. He hoped that this would form a “baseline” from which they could evaluate other ethical decisions.  This is what happened.
    He showed, without comment, the photo of Bibi Aisha. Aisha is the Afghani teenager who was forced into an abusive marriage with a Taliban fighter, who abused her and kept her with his animals. When she tried to flee, her family caught her, hacked off her nose and ears, and left her for dead in the mountains.  She was saved by a nearby American hospital.  The professor was sure the students, seeing the suffering of this poor girl of their own age, would have a clear ethical reaction.
    Some of the students could not even look at the picture.  They were experiencing deep emotions.
    Then something amazing happened.  The students became confused. They seemed not to know what to think. They nervously spoke lacking confidence, afraid to make any moral judgment at all. They were unwilling to criticize any situation from a different culture. Their response, “Well, we might not like it, but maybe over there it’s okay.” Another said, “It’s just wrong to judge other cultures.”
    Ask yourself:  How can people be so numb to a clear moral offense?
    These students refused to leave their nonjudgmental position.  The professor said, “I left that class shaking my head. It seemed clear to me that for some students the lesson of character education initiatives is acceptance of all things at all costs.”  For many, the overriding message is “never judge, never criticize, never take a position.”
Dr. Stephen L. Anderson, “Moments of Startling Clarity,” Education Forum (Fall 2011)
    Let me read my response to this story:  While we live in a world of confusion and compromise, Jesus gave us His fundamental principles and expects us to follow them.  We see throughout the Bible, and especially in this sermon from Jesus, His solid foundation for life.  There ARE universal truths He expects us to follow.
    The Sermon on the Mount - foundational to Kingdom Living.  Jesus is called the King of Kings.  He is the eternal ruler Who will never lose His power.
Revelation 19:16 NKJV
16 And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
    The angel speaking prophetically to Joseph, when he was concerned about his fiancé, Mary, when she told him she was pregnant.
Matthew 1:21 NKJV
21 And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.
Matthew 2:1-2 NKJV
1 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 saying, “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East and have come to worship Him.”
    This King, Jesus, came to establish His kingdom.  As believers in Jesus we are part of that eternal kingdom.  As a sovereign ruler, He established the rules and expectations of His kingdom.  He laid down the law.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus expressed the basics of His law.
    I have heard this passage described as the constitution of the church.  That is another good description.
Question:  What is a constitution?
    A constitution is an established set of fundamental principles or precedents to govern a country or other organization.  These rules identify, establish, what the entity is.
    When you have a constitution, only those duly authorized can change that constitution.  Not just anyone can come by and say, “I don’t like that, I think I’ll change it.”
    Jesus established the foundation for His kingdom.  Anyone who wants to be a part of it must live the way the Sovereign established the rules.  We do not have the right or privilege of changing what Jesus established.  We are going to study the ground rules Jesus established for His followers to abide by.
    This sermon reveals God’s principles of righteousness we are to all live by.  We must not begrudgingly live by them, but hunger and thirst for them and joyfully live by them.
    After the teaching we know as the beatitudes (Jeff is covering them in the adult S.S. class), Jesus started out His sermon talking about Salt and Light.
Matthew 5:13-16 NKJV
13 You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
14 You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.
15 Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
    Salt is necessary for life.  When someone hears from their doctor that they have to give up salt for health reasons there is usually a negative reaction. They go home and try it and say their food tastes horrible.  Something is missing.  Then they go to the store and get some salt substitutes.  They come home and try it and are disappointed.  “Give me my salt.”
    Two main things that salt does: gives flavor and preserves.  Since Jesus said we are salt, we must not fall into the moral decay and corruption of the world.  The only hope for the world and the mess we are in is the church. That is the church being the church Jesus established.  We are necessary for the world to be the best it possibly can be.
    We must resist the prevailing spirit of the world that compromises what the Bible teaches and accepts anything people want.
    Another thing salt does is that it creates thirst.  Think about helping people become thirsty for Jesus.
    Let’s talk about what it means to be spiritual salt.  Discussion.
    We are also called light.  What is light for?
What is spiritual light?
Verses on light.
Proverbs 4:14-15 NKJV
14 Do not enter the path of the wicked, And do not walk in the way of evil. 15 Avoid it, do not travel on it; Turn away from it and pass on.
18-19
18 But the path of the just is like the shining sun, That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. 19 The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble.
Philippians 2:14-15 NKJV
14 Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,
    Back then, as well as today, it can be said we live in a crooked and depraved generation. Jesus emphasized that the world we live in is an unbelieving, faithless and perverse generation.   Without God, people are living in spiritual deception and darkness.  As a result, they have a twisted and manipulated view of life.  Their values and understanding of religion are confused.  They create their own immoral ways of life as they reject God’s truth.  Sadly, I have met people who claim Christianity who have established their own ways of life, justifying it by financial, convenience or personal preference justifications.  But, what it must be is:
Believers contrast society with a different worldview.
    Godly values stand out from the popular ungodly beliefs and lifestyles.  Growing Christians endeavor to be pure so they can effectively demonstrate Christ’s message of hope and life.  This is where we are to be light shining to a spiritually dark world.
    ***God has called us to a higher righteousness.  A genuine life that reflects Christ in all we do.  Jesus said:
Matthew 5:20 NKJV
20 For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.
    The Pharisees were known for being super-spiritual.  If you doubted it, just ask them.  But, Jesus knew something about them.  They were phoney.  The Pharisees lived by the law but were not right with God because their righteousness was external.  God was not in their hearts. They kept the rules, prayed and fasted as well as attending worship services.  The problem was that they substituted the outward religious actions for the inner heart attitudes and devotion to the Lord.  It is not a matter of which one we need, we need both.  Both the heart and the part others can see must be committed to Jesus.  Otherwise all we have is dead legalism.

Discussion:
The statement I just made:  The problem was that they substituted the outward religious actions for the inner heart attitudes and devotion to the Lord.
The king, the sovereign, gets to make the rules
Our eternal King knows best
Our King has our best interest at heart
Question: what is better - submit or resist Jesus?
Then, why do we resist so much?

As we work through Christ’s sermon over the next weeks, let’s strive to learn all Jesus wants us to grasp and submit so we can grow in our walk with Him.
    A closing thought:  God doesn’t force us to serve or obey.  We must make the choice.  What if God forced us to believe and controlled people with Taser guns?
    This is an interesting thought, having taken some training with them and seeing the impact they have on a person.  What if God set a deadline for ridding the world of evil? Suppose God announced that next Monday at midnight He will step in and stop all suffering caused by evil people. How would He do that? Let’s say God decides to use a tool carried by many police officers—a Taser gun.
    A Taser gun shoots an individual with a temporary high-voltage current of electricity, up to 50,000 volts.  Generally they cause a person to drop to the ground in agony.  The makers of Taser guns boast of a 95 percent compliance rate.  The goal of using a Taser is compliance.  Hit a person with enough electricity and you can get him to do anything.
    Again, suppose God gave a deadline for stopping evil.  When that time comes, God gets us to comply with his wishes by shocking us. Start to tell a lie, and you are hit with a half-second zap. Try to rob a person, and you get two seconds of shock. A would-be murderer would be incapacitated. However, knowing that evil thoughts often lead to evil actions, God also zaps us for sinister thoughts.
    What would be the result? A world of twitchy people, who obey God like cowering, beaten dogs.
Thoughts taken from J. P. Moreland & Tim Muehlhoff, The God Conversation (IVP Books, 2007), p. 26
    That is not God’s plan.  He wants us to know the blessings of new life in Jesus and the joys of serving Him.  Let’s be salt and light to the world.