Elder Saw Lip Hean
10-01-2021
Matthew
5:1-6
New
International Version
Introduction to the Sermon on
the Mount
5 Now when Jesus saw the
crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, 2 and he began to
teach them.
The Beatitudes
He said:
3 “Blessed are the poor in
spirit,
for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who
mourn,
for
they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for
they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who
hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for
they will be filled.
Matthew
3:1-2
New
International Version
John the Baptist Prepares the
Way
3 In those days John the
Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, “Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Matthew
4:17
New
International Version
17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”
Kingdom of heaven (or kingdom of God) is mentioned throughout the whole Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:3, 5:10, 5:19-20, 6:10, 6:33 and 7:21.
In Revelation 21, one day the kingdom of heaven/God will be established as a physical yet spiritual kingdom when the new heaven and the new heaven come about.
Christ states three things in the Sermon on the Mount:
1) Whenever He introduces any teaching, He likes to use this phrase: “You
have heard, but now I tell you.” In other words, He is trying to give us the
correct understanding of what the Law of God is all about. Why? Because the
priests, the Pharisees and the scribes have been teaching on the outward,
external appearances. They’re talking about legalistic observations of the Law
and failing to understand the spirit of the Law.
2) Do not be so caught up with the legalistic views of people concerning
what the law is about. But rather, we must understand the heart of God so that
in doing the will of God, understanding the mind of God and feeling the heart
of God, that is the true observance of the Law.
3) When we do that, we will then be lights. Ultimately what distinguishes a
disciple from everybody else is that he is the light to the world. The world
dwells in darkness. They approach God through a whole system of religion that
emphasises the observance of the Law of God. But Jesus came to set us free from
that mentality. He said that what is important is the Spirit, and not the
letter of the Law.
We deal with four (of eight) beatitudes (or beautiful attitudes) this morning. They are the keys to enter the kingdom of heaven.
The Bible says blessed is the man when he is in a position or in an attitude with God whereby he has a sense of being right in the middle of God’s will, protected by God and living the life as God designs him to be. The Bible teaches us that happiness depends on what you are, and not what you have.
Sin alienates God from man. And sin becomes a barrier.
Unless that sin is paid for and dealt with, man can never be in communion with
God ever. It is your right to pay for your sins. But if you pay for your sins,
how are you ever going to be reunited back with God? That is why God gave His
Son, the Lord Jesus, to save us. And in so doing, He gave us this salvation out
of His own grace. All He needed from us is that we come to Him with this
attitude that we are poor in spirit and that we are in need of salvation.
In order to be saved, we need actual repentance. When
we come to God with true repentance, we start on our journey to salvation. We
are delivered from the power and penalty of sin but we are not delivered from
the presence of sin. Salvation is a process. One day, sometime in the future,
God will recreate heaven and earth and we will be delivered from the presence
of sin. In the meantime, as disciples, Sermon on the Mount is how we live our
lives.
Jesus encourages us to be in a state of mourning, not only for ourselves but also for the conditions of the world. When we understand that we are spiritually bankrupt and salvation is given to us as a gift. Salvation is through repentance—coming to God and receiving Christ.
We are joyous people. But mourn means that when we look at ourselves, we understand the frailties and the weaknesses of the human heart and the human mind. We are still imperfect and we still need the sanctifying process that the Holy Spirit works within us.
In so doing, when we have this sense of mourning over this, we will have this correct attitude of how to approach God in prayer and how we will then allow the Spirit to slowly control us and enable us to live the life worthy of the calling to which God has called us.
The other aspect of mourning is to mourn for the world. Salvation is also for the whole world at large. 2020 has been a terrible year. From the political shenanigans to the American elections and to all the so-called prophets being proven wrong to the climax of it all, the pandemic itself, it has been a terrible year. How does it affect you and I? Do we mourn and tell God, is there anything that I can do to better it? Is there anything You want me to do to change some of these things? Are we concerned for the people at large or are we so happy and satisfied for the little niche that we have created for ourselves in our little comfortable life that we can pass a lot of judgments from the comfort of our chair and actually care very little of what is going around in this world?
We equate comfort to being cajoled and lovingly handled with kids gloves. God’s idea of comfort can be very different. Christ is the hope of our salvation. That assures us of our future. No matter how bad things are, Jesus has sorted it all out and will sort it out. We have an advocate who will fight for us at all times.
Over and above that, Jesus encourages us about suffering. There is comfort in suffering. When you are suffering for Christ, you are actually walking in His will and you are being blessed. Suffering is part and parcel of our lives here on earth. We will have to go through that because Christ went through all that and He has given an example for us to follow in His steps. It is through this suffering that we draw closer to God and that we understand God even better and we understand ourselves even more. This is the comfort that we will be able to endure and in the same way we are able to be dependent on Him, and we will then help others with what we have gone through.
This comfort that we receive, the Spirit helps us because we do not know how we ought to pray but the Spirit intercedes for us through wordless groans and He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. Sometimes when we are going through agony and suffering, we go to God and we don’t even know how to pray and we are even at a loss for words. As we mourn over the conditions of the world, the conditions of our friends, the frailties of our systems and the weaknesses of the flesh and of the heart, that’s when the Spirit of God takes over and prays through us with groans and utterances even we cannot understand. But because the Spirit understands, the Spirit is able to bring that message through to God and that comfort will be there in your heart when you know that God hears the groanings of the Spirit and therefore, you are well taken care of.
The world as we know it despises the weak. And in so
doing, they also despise the meek. The world equates meekness with weakness but
not so where Jesus is concerned. Jesus did not give in to the temptation of
turning the stones to bread because then He would be catering to His own flesh.
If He catered to His own flesh whenever He was suffering because He’s able to
do so, when the time comes for Him to go to the cross, He will also resort to
the same actions and therefore the cross would not come about. That is why
Jesus refused to turn the stones to bread.
As disciples, there are many things in life that is within our power to do and within our power to achieve. But if we give in to our basic instincts to do these things, we may end up missing the best of God’s will for us.
Sometimes we do things because we are greedy. Sometimes we hit back at people because we are vengeful. Or sometimes out of sheer malice, we want to hurt somebody.
Meekness dictates that we don’t do it. Meekness doesn’t mean that you are weak and are unable to do it. True meekness means that you are able to control yourself so that you respond in a gentle manner, totally submitting to God and understanding that God has got your back. God’s got your back; you don’t have to do it for yourself. God has far more better things for you. Let go! Forgive! Act—but do not react!
Meekness:
1) Diffuses anger or a situation
2) Disarms critics
3) Is persuasive and convincing
4) Is attractive
5) Communicates love
6) Earns respect and trust
7) Makes friends
8) Makes you like Jesus
Eg.
Jesus (John 19:11)
Paul (Acts 16:35-40)
The freewill of man gives him the ability to harm you. Sometimes God intervenes, sometimes God goes around a long way. But God’s ultimately got your back. He knows how to handle the situation. He and His Will will always be done.
The age to come in Revelation 21 tells us the whole earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. One day you will see what God is going to do. And that time, you will reign with God and you will be able to enjoy the goodness of God in God’s kingdom.
To hunger and thirst for righteousness and to care for
people is one of the prerequisite attitudes that every disciple must have.
To hunger for righteousness means to be driven to pray for it so much so that when you see the injustices of this world, God will satisfy your heart that He has everything under control despite what the critics and commentators say about the future of this country or the vaccines that are around or the pandemic that is going to take over the whole world or the coming of the antichrist or the trade war between China and America and the impending economic catastrophe that is going to befall all of us. As you are driven to pray and commune with God, the Spirit of God will minister to you and comfort and assure you that He has got your back. His Will will be done.
There is also a future fulfillment. Sometimes certain things do not happen immediately just because we want it so badly. But trust God. It may not happen now but it will happen in the future.
Apart from the fact that there is present assurances and future fulfillment, the real satisfaction when you hunger and thirst for righteousness is the communion that you have with God when God tells you it will be all right. It is not for us to dictate to God how, what, when and why. It is for us to be driven to prayer and in prayer, God will reveal whether He wants to fulfill it now and what He wants us to do now, then we will do it. But if God says no, I will do it in the future like He said to Baruch, in future it will be. The minute when you are driven to prayer, the minute you commune with God and the minute the Spirit of God answers, you will be filled and you will understand why God is doing this.
These four beatitudes are keys to the kingdom of God. It gives us a better understanding of what life as a disciple is like. If we have not engaged in deeper thought about this, it is time for us to think seriously and examine ourselves. The acid test to always examining ourselves and asking to what extent are we practicing these in the kingdom presently. Or are we so disturbed by what is going on around us so much so that we have forgotten the principles and the precepts that God has taught and we are no more lights.
As disciples, let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
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