Christian Unity

Colossians 3:11
Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

God calls his church to unity. The church is one body of Christ with one purpose, and that purpose is to be a reflection Jesus Christ.

We all have different DNA. We are all individuals that God has made in a unique way. We are sort of like snowflakes, no two people are the same.

We all have different talents. I am a graphic artists. Others are skilled at music or building or administration, etc.

 As Christians, we all have different gifts. The Bible says that when we receive Jesus Christ into our lives, we receive his Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives gifts to each and every believer in order to be used to build and build up God’s church; that is his people.

So, while God has a unique purpose for each, we are still one. This is because Jesus Christ is all, and in all. In order to realize this we must first come to understand three things about Jesus. We must understand who he is, what he did and where he lives.

Who He is.

The man Jesus who walked this earth 2,000 years ago was not merely a man, though he was fully man. Jesus was the Son of God. This means that he is God himself. He is Yahweh. He is the great I AM that spoke to Moses from a burning bush. He is the same God of the Old Testament who walks among his people in the New Testament. He is the son of His heavenly Father (distinct), yet every bit of the same God as was his Father (one). As God, the Bible says that Jesus created all things. This includes you and I. He also sustains all of creation. At his word, all of creation would cease to exist. So he made all and sustains all.

Understand what He did.

Jesus was punished by his heavenly Father while dying for your sins and for mine. Then Jesus defeated death by being raised from the dead. He saves all who believe upon him and when he returns will raise them from the dead as well. Jesus saves all who believe.

Understand where He lives.

He dwells in everyone who believes. As stated earlier, Jesus works in his people by the working of the Holy Spirit. This is what the Bible refers to as being born again. Jesus is in all who believe.

But Christ is one. 
It is the same Christ who created each of us, who sustains each of us, who saves us and who works in us. His church is being made into his image, the one who is all and in all.  Therefore as the people of God there no distinction of race, gender, class, or otherwise.
 There is only Christian.

So Do We Fear God or Not?

Moses said to the people, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin." - Exodus 20:20

Often I have ran into people who misunderstand the fear of the Lord. On one hand, we see that God loves us and we don't understand why He would tell us that fearing Him is the beginning of wisdom. Why would God want even believers to be scared of Him? The other extreme is to suppose that fear means to respect God, sort of like I respect a loved one, pastor or role model. The fear of the Lord seems to be an important theme throughout the Bible and a key principle to understanding the fear of God, so it would be 'wise' to seek a proper understanding of what the fear of the Lord means.

In Exodus 20:20 when Moses addresses Israel, He uses the word 'fear' twice. The first time he says to not fear God because He hadn't come to bring evil against them but rather to test them. Then he says the reason for the test is that Israel would fear the Lord so that they wouldn't sin. So which is it?

I'm so glad that God gave us the difference in one passage so that we can understand what it means to fear the Lord. First, those who understand that God loves His people are exactly right in the sense that we shouldn't fear that God would bring any sort of malicious evil against His children; especially in light of our faith in the great intercessor Jesus Christ. This is what is communicated in the first part of Exodus 20:20. However, we see God's goal is that mankind 'would' fear Him as seen in the latter part of the passage.

You see, a person that has no fear of God is foolish. They either deny His existence or they are apathetic toward the acknowledgment that He does exist. I fear for such individuals. God is GOD! He is not our earthly father, our earthly pastor or simply a role model. He is the Lord of all creation; the great I AM; the self existent One! He deserves much more than just our respect. He deserves our devotion, worship and adoration! He is the God that came upon Mount Sinai in a thick cloud of thunder and lightning causing the earth to tremble! Even at a glimpse of God's glory we would all fall to our faces.

But we are not at Mount Sinai. Christ changed that and God came to dwell in the believer at Pentecost. The believer now has total peace with our Heavenly Father. Grace and mercy will follow the believer forever! What a blessing! But just because we have been reconciled back to God as followers of Christ does not mean that God is a different God than the One who descended upon Mount Sinai. We just have peace with that same Holy God through the blood of Jesus Christ and now God is able and willing to walk with us once again. He also loves us just as He loved the people of Israel that Moses spoke to.

God is awesome and as believers we should all stand before Him, not just in respect, but in awe! He is Holy, Holy, Holy! That God, the great I AM, loves you Christian! Doesn't that truth floor you? When you grasp that, then you grasp what the fear of the Lord is and why it is the beginning of wisdom. When we grasp that, we desire not the things of this world, not the sin in this world, but we desire God and His commandment to walk in love toward Him and others.

The fear of the Lord however is not something we can bring about in ourselves. It is the work of the Holy Spirit. If you desire this passion for God, He is already beginning to work. Ask Him to fill you with the fear of the Lord. Ask Him to fill you with love and awe. That is a prayer that He will definitely answer (Luke 11:13).

You see, unbelievers would be wise to fear God, for without Him all one can expect is judgment. However for the believer, though there is no fear of judgment, our source of wisdom comes from the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 9:10).

Are You Spiritually Inauthentic: Five Warning Signs

The following was adapted from John Ortberg’s “Surprised by Change: The Goal of Spiritual Life”. It’s based on the idea that Christians can often look to superficial distinctions between themselves and non-believers instead of real transformation brought about by the Holy Spirit. The religious people did it in Jesus’ day so we would be wise to at least consider the possibility that we may have fallen into the same trap. Ortberg uses Jesus’ rebuke of these religious folk in Matthew 23 as the basis of his five warning signs.

Pseudo-Transformation Warning Signs

1.    Am I spiritually “inauthentic”?

Matthew 23:25-28

²⁵ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence. ²⁶ Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also.
²⁷ “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. ²⁸ Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.

Inauthenticity involves a preoccupation with appearing to be spiritual. We try to say the right things and do the right things in front of others. Yet we hide our sin and work harder at making people think we’re a loving person than we actually do at loving them.

 “The meaning of true authenticity is this: that my exterior truly reflects my interior.”

- David Augsburger

Question: What are some things that keep you from being truly authentic?

2.    Am I becoming judgmental or exclusive or proud?

Matthew 23:6

⁶ They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,

Pride is a potential problem for anyone who takes spiritual growth seriously. As soon as we start to pursue virtue, we begin to wonder why others aren’t as virtuous as we are.

Question: Do you tend to rate people in comparison to yourself? When and where does this tend to happen most frequently for you?

3.    Am I becoming more approachable, or less?

Matthew 23:7

(They love) ⁷ greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’

Question: Do you ever feel that you’re too busy or too important for someone?

Question: Which of the three previous questions hits home with you the most?

4.    Am I growing weary of pursuing spiritual growth?

Matthew 23:4

For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

The pursuit of righteousness is always an exhausting pursuit when it seeks a distorted goal.

Question: Have you been weary and burdened by trying to live up to a certain standard? Who’s standard is it? There’s GOOD NEWS! Jesus said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

5.    Am I measuring my spiritual life in superficial ways?

Matthew 23:24

²⁴ Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!

“Suppose someone were to ask you, ‘How is your spiritual life going these days?’ Quick – what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? For many years I thought about this only in terms of a few special activities. If someone asked me how my spiritual life was going, my first thought would be how I was doing at having a quiet time – praying and reading the Bible each day. If I had prayed and read the Bible for several consecutive prior days, I was likely to say that my spiritual life was going well. If not, I was likely to feel guilty and downcast. So prayer and Bible study became the gauge of my spiritual condition. As long as I did those two things I could go through the day confident of God’s approval.”

Question: How do you tend to measure your spiritual life? What is your response to the questions discussing above?

“I suspect that if someone had asked the apostle Paul or the apostle John about his spiritual life, his first question would have been, ‘Am I growing in love for God and people?’ The real issue is what kind of people we are becoming.”

“Practices such as reading Scripture and praying are important – not because they prove how spiritual we are – but because God can use them to lead us into life.”

Who is This Man They Call Jesus?

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." – Matthew 16:13-14

When I was a child, I was always concerned about what others thought. Ok, ok I’m still concerned about what others think. I’m sure you’ve told your kids or had heard your parents say at one time, “If all of your friends jumped off a cliff, would you?”

“Everybody’s doing it!” That’s the phrase that frustrated my dad to no end. He of course wanted me to think for myself. The same goes for God. He wants to know who you say Jesus is? That He is the Son of God, the Messiah/Christ, and the anointed Savior of the world has always been the controversial answer. It is much more sane and safe to say that He is simply a good teacher or just another mislead historical figure who meant well. After all, that’s what many others are saying.

However, Jesus is not interested in what others tell you about Him. He wants to know what you say about Him. What is your inner spirit speaking to you? Do you feel as if something is telling you that He is much more than that? Jesus doesn’t care what others tell you about Himself, but rather what God is revealing to you about Jesus. Your decision is how God has built His kingdom for the last 2,000 years. If Jesus is just another man, life goes on as usual. If your heart cries out that He is the Son of God though, your life will never be the same.

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. – Matthew 16:15-20

Trouble in Big "D" (and I don't mean Dallas)

The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached Part XIII

Reflections on the Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5-7

(Commentary by Guy Glass and Scott Hescht)

Matthew 5:31-32 "It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Scott: Jesus takes marriage extremely serious.

On an another occasion He answered the religious officials by saying,

"Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."

They said to him, "Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?"

He said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery."

(Matthew 19:3-9)

Divorce is rampant in our culture. Celebrities wear spouses like hats and many in America have followed suit. What has happened?

One of the big issues is a lack of understanding of what love really is. Couples are saying vows everyday in wedding ceremonies but not truly grasping the idea of commitment. Young people are learning more about love from rock ballads and prime time television than they are from Scripture. Couples “fall in and out of love” because their skewed view of love is based on selfish emotion.

The Bible says that husbands are to love their wives just as Jesus Christ loved the church. He died for the church and lives to work through the imperfections of the church for the good of the church. That is sacrificial love. It looks out not for self, but loves the other as one’s self (Ephesians 5:22-33).

Love is a conscious choice to be committed to your spouse for better or for worse. In my home, divorce is not an option. That is not something that I commanded of my wife, but rather a commitment we made to God and to each other on our wedding day. What reward there is in working through problems instead of running from them! Jesus allows for divorce in the most extreme of circumstances (sexual immorality or abandonment of the believer [1 Corinthians 7:14]) but reconciliation is always preferred if possible.

Maybe you have already been through a painful divorce. Now what? Is there any hope? Of course there is! We serve a merciful God who is ready to forgive those who seek it. However, the issue may be whether or not you have sought it. Have you justified what God has called sin or have you humbly bowed your knee in repentance seeking God's forgiveness?

Maybe you are now in another marriage and you have a hard time reconciling your current happiness with regret over a prior divorce. What are you to do? First of all, realize that we serve a God that can even work evil for our own good (Genesis 50:20; Romans 8:28). God is not asking you to compound a wrong with another wrong by divorcing your current spouse to marry a prior one.

However, if there is not a recognition of the sin of an unwarranted divorce, that sin still has a grip on your life. There is no way to walk in the intimate relationship that God wants with you if there is unconfessed sin hidden in your heart. Maybe you are a believer and you recognize that your sins were forgiven 2,000 years ago on the cross, however unconfessed sin can cause a great deal of pain in your life and rob you of spiritual blessings. A spiritually numb state is not the place to be and that is exactly what sin can do to a professing Christian.

Trust me. I carried the heavy burden of unconfessed sin for years. It is imprisonment, and there is nothing like the freedom of a clear conscience.

Breaking the Law

The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached Part X

Reflections on the Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5-7

(Commentary by Guy Glass and Scott Hescht)

Matthew 5:17-18 Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. 19Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Guy: Jesus makes it clear that though the Son of Man (a bold Messianic label from Daniel 7:13 by which He referred to Himself) has come into the world, He is not telling people to scratch the words of the Law or prophets. Instead, He points people to the Law and Prophets. He proclaims that He is the fulfillment of the types. He is the fulfillment of the prophecies spoken about the deliverer to come. He is Israel’s redeemer and the light to the Gentiles. Jesus embodies all the promises in the Law and from the Prophets. All who trust in Jesus Christ will receive Him as their enduring treasure and those promises, as well as life, will be theirs for all eternity.

He is also the only human (fully God and fully man) to ever fulfill, or live up to, the Law of God. Along with being the only Son of God, the reason Jesus could be our substitute on the cross and be an acceptable atoning sacrifice is because He had the means wherewith to pay the debt that we owe. It was because He fulfilled the Law when no other man or woman could that gave Him the ability to say to the Father, “I’ll pay their debt. I have the means to pay it; I’ve fulfilled Your Law. Judge them by the life I lived, not theirs.”

Above, in verse eighteen, He says, “Until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.” In John 10:35, Jesus says that the Scripture can not be broken. Jesus is establishing the inerrancy of all of Scripture. He is establishing the infallibility of the Bible. When He mentions the iota and dot, He is saying that things as small as our apostrophes and accent marks in the writing of Scripture are the words of God and they will come to pass.

The Gospel of John begins like this: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:1-4).

It is appropriate that Jesus, the Word of God (the Logos), fulfills the Word of God and in Him, who created the world, life and light is found. His light shines into the darkness of creation and illumines it and gives hope to mankind and He will not be overcome by anything. Let’s run to Him, out of the darkness and into the loving arms of the Life and Light.

Scott: Jesus is about to turn up the heat. He makes it clear that He isn’t some rebel who rode into town to change or abolish God’s law. In fact He upholds God’s law and the bar is set high. “Don’t break the commandments of God.”

The law itself is good. The reason the world needed a savior, however, was because obedience to the law could not save a person. In fact it is impossible to be obedient to the law because of sin. Jesus Christ came to fulfill the law and thus make a way by faith through Him. Jesus Christ is the end of many of the ceremonial laws found in the Old Testament, however, the moral code of God stands forever.
The Apostle Paul confers, “For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law... Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law (Romans 3:28,31).

Jesus goes on to say that our righteousness must exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees. To the many outcasts that He was preaching to, this must have been devastating at face value. The scribes and Pharisees were the religious elite, but Jesus saw through their fraudulence. "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people's bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness” (Matthew 23:27-28).

God isn’t looking simply for external religion. He doesn’t want somebody who looks good on the outside, but inside isn’t sincere. He wants people that are full of love and faith, trusting in His righteousness and not their own. Man sees outwardly, but God knows a person’s true heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

R. C. Sproul illustrates the point that looks can be deceiving:

A man and his wife returned home from church and enjoyed a Sunday supper. After dinner they decided to go for a ride in the country. During their leisurely tour the husband was startled to see a pig with a wooden leg in a pasture by the road. “Look at that!” he said to his wife. “There is a pig with a wooden leg!”

The man ‘was amazed that a farmer would be so humane as to provide a ‘wooden leg for his wounded pig. He insisted that they stop at the farmhouse and inquire about the circumstances that led to his porcine prosthesis. He knocked at the farmer‘s door and introduced himself to the farmer.

“I’m sorry to bother you, sir, but I am intrigued about the pig you have with a wooden leg. Would you mind telling me how it came about?”
Not at all,” said the farmer. “A few months back my grandchildren were here for a visit. One afternoon they wandered into a pasture where our bull was grazing. The bull charged them in fury. The pig noticed the danger and put himself between the children and the bull and headed the bull off. That pig saved my grandchildren’s lives. The very next day one of the children fell in the farm pond and was drowning. That pig dove into the water and saved her life.
“So you see,” said the farmer, “the pig is almost like family to us. That’s why it has a wooden leg. I just couldn’t bring myself to eat that pig all at one time!”[1]

---

[1] R.C. Sproul, Pleasing God (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, 1994), 51-52.

When the Going gets Tough...

The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached Part VIII
Reflections on the Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 5-7

(Commentary by Guy Glass and Scott Hescht)

Matthew 5:10-12 "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Guy: In the upper room, on the last night of His life, Jesus sat with His disciples and gave them His last words. He had instituted the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, so that His disciples would remember His body which was broken and His blood which was shed. He had washed their feet and demonstrated to them how they should serve one another. He also told them, recorded in John 15:20, these sobering words, “Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”

He had begun His ministry three years earlier with the same words; those recorded from the Sermon on the Mount as verses ten through twelve of Matthew chapter five. Let’s attempt to stand among those hungry souls on that mountain side in Judea. Remember, it was His disciples, in verse one that came to Him. It was people who were followers of Christ for whom He opened his mouth and taught; to whom He gave such promises.

Let’s stand among them, gazing up at the man who is seated, not on a throne where He belongs, but on a craggy slope. His still small voice we are straining to hear above the whipping wind and shuffling crowds, and whose appearance lacks something to be desired, whose visage seems too average to be a king. We are following this man without the blessing of our religious leaders. We know that they have set themselves against Him. But, He speaks as one having authority. No one has ever spoken like this man.

We have forsaken and sacrificed much in order to follow this man. Some of us have had friends turn their backs on us. Some of us have had our families disown us. We have been expelled from the Temple, the center of our religion, by the Sanhedrin because we have refused to renounce Jesus. We are reviled, persecuted and have had evil lies spread about us, all because we are following this man of sorrows who also is well acquainted with grief being reviled, persecuted and rejected, without so much as a place to lay His head.

He’s telling us that we are blessed. He tells us to be happy about it. He says we should rejoice and be glad. Why should these people be glad about their persecution? How can they rejoice in it? Today, in our current century and culture, as Jesus’ disciples, should we expect persecution also? If so, can we rejoice and be glad in persecution? Paul wrote to Timothy, in 2 Timothy 3:12, “Indeed, all who desire to live a Godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” So, yes, if we are living a Christian life we will definitely suffer persecution.

So many people come to Jesus for the wrong reasons. They have been led to believe that Jesus will give them the desires of their heart if only they will give Him a chance. They are told that their problems will fade away and they will be bubbling with joy and happiness. They can have health, wealth and prosperity if they will invite Him into their heart and when life is over they get to go to heaven. This is biblically inaccurate and it produces false converts.

We should run to Jesus when we discover:

1. We are in bondage to our sin.
2. We are enemies of God and we will experience His fierce wrath for eternity because of our sin.
3. God loved us enough to make a way of escape if we will trust in His Son’s atoning sacrifice for us and ask Him to save us.

The Bible teaches that people love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. So Christ’s disciples will be persecuted as He was because we have become children of light. We, as His sermon will later state, are the light of the world. If we are making the stand for Christ that we are called to make and shine the light that Jesus has commanded us to shine, those who are in love with their own sins will reject that light.

We are reminded in verse twelve that the prophets were persecuted in the same way. We know that our Lord and Savior was persecuted. We are not alone in this. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, of all the precious saints who have lived before us. 1 Peter 4:16 says, “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.” If you have experienced persecution for loving Jesus, don’t feel ashamed. It is the lot of those who have gone before you. Do what they did, glorify God for it.

In Romans 8:17, Paul reminds of another benefit to persecution. He says, “If we are children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Paul is telling us that our suffering on account of Christ is evidence that we are God’s children and heirs with Jesus. It reassures us that we will be glorified with Him.

If we are going to carry the banner of ‘Christian’ and reign with Him in His everlasting kingdom then we must embrace Philippians 1:29 which states, “For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake.” With believing on Jesus for salvation comes suffering for His sake.

2 Corinthians 1:5 says, “For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.” Paul tells the Philippian Church of his desire to know the Lord more intimately: to share in the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death. There is a certain comfort in knowing that the Lord and Savior, in whom we are being persecuted on account of, became a man and suffered the same persecutions, heartaches, trials and temptations that we suffer; yet without sin.

We can have fellowship with our Friend and Treasure, Jesus, when we are reviled and rejected by unrepentant men. When we are hated (not us but when the Spirit of Jesus within us is hated) we can feel a little of what He felt. We can experience a little of what He experienced when He was walking this earth as we are now 2000 years later.

What joys are found in seeking the approval of God rather than the approval of men. What peace we find in the comforting embrace of our Lord as He hides us in the cleft of the rock and gives us relief from the struggles of this world. This life is but a vapor. Compared to history, our life span barley makes a blip on the radar. Compared to eternity future, so much hangs in the balance of this short life. There is a great reward in heaven awaiting those of us who will just be faithful. The Lord is asking us the same question He did His disciples in Matthew 26:40, “Can you watch with Me for one hour?”

Are You Hungry?

The Greatest Sermon Ever Preached Part IV

Reflections on the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5-7

(Commentary by Guy Glass and Scott Hescht)

Matthew 5:6 "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."

Scott: Understand that the Sermon on the Mount is just that; a sermon. Though it may seem at first glance to be a collection of various wise proverbs and commandments, it is much more that, centering around a central idea as does any other speech given by an intelligent man or woman purposefully conveying a message. What is this message? As one reads through the Sermon on the Mount, it becomes clear that Jesus is calling those who would follow Him to a higher standard.

Barack Obama recognized this in referring to Christ’s teaching as “radical”; and the truth is, they are radical in comparison to the social norm. Not much has changed in the nature of man. There is a part of mankind that recognizes some good, but screams, “Now wait a minute!” when challenged to love like Jesus loved. Some read the Sermon on the Mount and eventually walk away disappointed much like the rich young ruler did when Jesus beckoned him to a higher calling (Mark 10:17-22). There was a part of the young man who wanted to follow the Messiah, but in seeking his own righteousness he came up short.

Before judging the poor lad for walking away, we must first look at ourselves. Do you seek after righteousness? If the answer is yes then ask yourself from where this righteousness comes? If it is found in an attempt to follow the rules without the Author of them, then you too will sadly be disappointed and eventually find yourself unable to do so, walking away as did the rich young man. Even in an attempt to layout the Sermon on the Mount before us as a blue print to satisfaction, we will be empty. This too is self righteousness, and truth be know, there is no such thing as self righteousness. We will waste away in our own futile attempts to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect.

So is the Sermon on the Mount a wash, or on the other hand, is it an attempt to show us the impossibility of following the Son of God? Absolutely not. Remember that those whom Jesus spoke to were those to whom the Kingdom of God had come. They are those who were the poor in spirit and had placed their faith in the living Christ; Jesus the Righteous One. They knew they lacked and that is exactly why they sought the mercy of the living God. It is His righteousness that they hungered for. Those who hunger for His righteousness will be satisfied.

Therefore the Sermon on the Mount is not an outline to righteousness. It is the fruit of an individual living in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This most famous sermon can be summed up as “The life in Christ”. Those who are “born again” in His righteousness will be satisfied. Not only does His grace cover where we have fallen short, but He gives us a new heart that desires righteousness. These commands of his become less radical and more of an outflow of our love for God and our love for people through the power of Jesus Christ. He makes the impossible possible. So hunger and you will be fed. Thirst and you will be refreshed. He makes all things new; and all things He will set right. In Him alone we are satisfied.

To the self righteous, this sermon will indeed be out of the realm of possibility. Many will be turned away. Others will be turned off. To those who have placed their trust in the Righteous One, they will receive His teaching and high calling of love for God and other people with joy and thanksgiving.

Envy

In his book Charity and Its Fruits, Jonathan Edwards contrasts the spirit of envy with that of Christian love (or charity).

It is pride that is the great root and source of envy. It is because of the pride of men's hearts that they have such a burning desire to be distinguished, and to be superior to all others in honour and prosperity, and which makes them so uneasy and dissatisfied in seeing others above them. (Edwards, 121)

The great King Solomon wisely stated that all work done in envy is vanity. It is meaningless and a "striving after wind". (Ecclesiastes 4:4)

Edwards says that this spirit of envy stands in direct contrast to the spirit of Christian love. He explains that whenever the Christian "perceives its (envious) emotions rising within him on any occasion, or toward any person, so far as he is influenced by a Christian spirit, he will be alarmed by it, and will fight against it, and will not allow its exercise for a moment." (Edwards, 115)

The key for the Christian as the Apostle Paul puts it is to learn that in whatever situation they are in to be content. (Philippians 4:11)

Envy unfortunately is a sinful mind-set that is not only found in the world's system, but also in that of the church. This is nothing new. Even Paul exclaimed that many in his day preached Christ from envy and rivalry (Philippians 1:15). Christian lay people as well as vocational ministers must continually have an attitude of humility as they search their hearts for this deadly attitude. Why it is not spoken against more often in the church is a travesty.

In measure, envy may be second only to pride as it is the root of various other sins. It was the envious heart of Satan that could not stand God's blessing on mankind, thus he sought to uproot it. Indeed his heart was and still is that mankind should fall. For one to allow room for any sort of envy into his or her life is to share in the heart of Satan. The heart of Christian love however, wishes not to step on anyone's toes, but would rather in humble servanthood wash that person's feet.

Edwards, Jonathan. Charity and Its Fruits. Carlisle, PA: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1852.

- Scott Hescht

Worldly Chrisian?

What does the Bible say about the Christian's position in the world? Should we have lost friends? Should we listen to secular music or watch secular TV or read secular books? Should we steer clear of the world altogether or attempt to integrate Christian culture in to the world's culture?

The problem with many extreme views is that they are often developed as a reaction opposing another extreme. The separatist (totally separated from the world) and synthetic (blending with the world) approaches to the Christian life are a perfect example of this problem. Both ideas, when taken in context, are Biblical. However, when taken to the extreme they can become quite destructive to our spiritual lives. The Bible does call for us to be in the world. In fact, that has to happen in order for the great commission to take place. Jesus commissioned His followers to go and make disciples, not to stand still. Many sit in the church building waiting for the lost to come in out of sheer curiosity. No wonder the world is growing more secular. However, others spend their time integrating with the world attempting to prove to the lost that Christians can "have fun too!". They may have good intentions but often find themselves in compromising positions stumbling under the foot of the world's temptations. No wonder the world claims that Christians are hypocrites.

While praying for His disciples in John 17, Jesus acknowledged that they have been sent into the world but also exclaimed that they were not were not of the world. The disciples proved just that as the early church went in to the worlds and quickly spread throughout the Roman Empire. We read about these Christians reaching out to the lost, but as Paul's letters suggest, they stood by their convictions and condemned any compromise in holiness.

The problem with many Christians today is the lack of wisdom in decision making. They're either too black and white, shutting out any opportunities for witness, or they compromise because they have failed to guard their hearts in Christ. In summary, we as Christians must purposely go into the world as ambassadors for our Lord while seeking purity in all things knowing that if you walk in slippery places, you are sure to fall (2 Corinthians 5:20). This takes wisdom and that can only come when we truly and humbly seek the face of God in our daily choices and actions.

- Scott Hescht

Why You Do What You Do?

No Root, No Fruit

Have you ever wondered why you do what you do?

One former Navy pilot tells how he was living a wilder life than he knew he should live. He decided his problem was that he was being led astray by his friends in flight training. So he arranged to finish his work in the program early and be transferred to another field nearby. Yet, it wasn't long, he said, before he was back in the same old bars, with the same girls, just with different friends. One night out-on-the-town he wondered, "Why do I do this?" And he realized, "Because I like to."

Before a person becomes a Christian—I mean a real Christian, not just someone who says he is—his "want-to" is broken. He is not interested in God. He is bored by church and by reading his Bible. He cannot "make" himself "want to" do right and he cannot "make" himself "want not" to do wrong. When a person is born again, God repairs his "want-to." Even though he still feels the pull of temptation, he will have a new set of desires. He will love God and want to talk to God in prayer and see what God has to say to him in His Word, the Bible. He wants to be around other people who love God; church attendance becomes meaningful. There is a new desire to obey God.

Why do we do what we do? The answer is simple: we do what we do because of what we are. It's like fruit trees. Apple trees bear apples, pear trees produce pears, peach trees grow peaches. The fruit is the natural result of the nature of the tree. I suppose you could tie apples to a peach tree, but that would not make it an apple tree. In the same way, adding religious activities to one's schedule doesn't make one a Christian. Just as the fruit of the tree naturally flows from the nature of the tree, even so the attitudes, words, and actions of our lives reveal the true nature of ourselves.

Jesus said, "Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit…. Therefore, by their fruits you will know them" (Matt. 7:17, 20).(copied--author unknown)