AM I A “SERMON ON THE MOUNT” CHRISTIAN?
REVIEW SOM 5-7, PART 1
SELF-EVALUATION OF MY BIBLICAL WISDOM
INTRODUCTION:
600-300 BCE has been called “the axial age” (when people in remote and apparently unrelated lands achieved major spiritual and intellectual breakthroughs) in human history, Mankind’s intense search for meaning during that period produced Confucius, Buddha, Zoraster, the prophets of Israel and the philosophers in Greece.
The core question they all asked: “What does a righteous, right-living, person look like? How should we live?” Job states the question clearly, “How can a mortal be righteous before God?” (Job 9:2)
When the 70 Jewish translators of the Old Testament into Greek (The Septuagint) came to the word “righteousness” they used the Greek term that Plato’s Republic used for right living and translated righteousness as dikaiosune {dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay}. A good, modern day translation of righteousness: “true inner goodness” or “moral excellence.”
Dikaiosune is the very word used in the Sermon on the Mount for righteousness. It is as if Jesus was answering the question asked by Confucius, Buddha, Zoraster, the prophets of Israel and the Greek philosophers.
For I tell you that unless your righteousness (dikaiosune) surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, (and the Confucians, Buddhists, Zorastrians, Greek Philosophers) you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. (5:20)
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness (dikaiosune), and all these things will be given to you as well (6:33).
For four years we have been studying our Lord’s description of a righteous person. He has been telling us what true inner goodness, moral excellence looks like.
TABLE ACTIVITY: Read through the 15 statements carefully. Write CL in front of the statement if you feel clarification of the statement would be helpful. Write CH in front of the statement that you feel is the most challenging.
Put me on trial, Lord, and cross-examine me. Test my motives and my heart. . . . Examine me, God, from head to foot, order your battery of tests. Make sure I’m fit inside and out (Psalms 26:2, NLT, The Message)
Examine your motives, test your heart (thoroughly), come to this meal in holy awe. (I Cor. 11:28, The Message, Amplified)
(Examine, evaluate and) test yourselves to make sure you are solid in the faith (that your faith is genuine). Don’t drift along taking everything for granted. Give yourselves regular checkups. You need firsthand evidence, not mere hearsay, that Jesus Christ is in you. Test it out. If you fail the test, do something about it. (II Cor. 13:5, The Message, Amplified, NLT)
Never (0) Rarely (1) Sometimes (3) Generally (5) Always (7)
1. I initially came to God as a spiritual beggar, destitute of personal righteousness, mourning over my sins, humbly accepting His free offer of salvation. (5:3-5)
“The Beatitudes do not come at the end, they come at the beginning of the Sermon, and I do not hesitate to say that unless we are perfectly clear about them we should go no further. We have no right to go further.” (MLJ, 23)
He said to them, “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because MANY, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to” (Luke 13:24).
QUESTION: Why won’t ‘many’ be able to enter, why won’t they be able to get into the kingdom of God?
The ones that do find it can’t get in because they are not small enough or “empty” enough. The key to getting through is being a worm. This is why “worm theology” is so important.
If even the moon is not bright and the stars are not pure in his eyes, how much less man, who is but a maggot—a son of man, who is only a worm!” (Job 25:5-6).
“Blessedness indicates the smile of God or, as Max Lucado has so beautifully put it, The Applause of Heaven.” (Hughes, 18).
We could translate the first beatitude, “God applauds the shrinking, cowering, beggarly poor in spirit, the spiritual zeroes who realize they are empty before God, spiritually bankrupt for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
2. When I sin it breaks my heart and I feel true and deep sorrow for grieving God’s loving heart. (5:4)
ILL: Charles Colson, in his brilliant book of essays Who Speaks for God? tells of watching a segment of television’s 60 Minutes in which host Mike Wallace interviewed Auschwitz survivor Yehiel Dinur, a principal witness at the Nuremberg war-crime trials. During the interview, a film clip from Adolph Eichmann’s 1961 trial was viewed that showed Dinur entering the courtroom and coming face to face with Eichmann for the first time since being sent to Auschwitz almost twenty years earlier. Stopped cold, Dinur began to sob uncontrollably and then fainted while the presiding judge pounded his gavel to order. “Was Dinur overcome by hatred? Fear? Horrid memories?” asks Colson, who then answers: No; it was none of these. Rather, as Dinur explained to Wallace, all at once he realized Eichmann was not the godlike army officer who had sent so many to their deaths. This Eichmann was an ordinary man. “I was afraid about myself,” said Dinur. “I saw that I am capable to do this. I am … exactly like he.” Wallace’s subsequent summation of Dinur’s terrible discovery – “Eichmann is in all of us” – – is a horrifying statement; but it indeed captures the central truth about man’s nature. For as a result of the Fall, sin is in each of us – – not just the susceptibility to sin, but sin itself.” (Hughes, 25)
3. I truly hunger and thirst for personal righteousness. (5:6)
We are not to hunger and thirst for blessedness, happiness, security, long life, wealth, health, power, beauty, knowledge. Our supreme goal as Christians is righteousness, true inner goodness, moral excellence!
“Hungering and thirsting” means a consciousness of our need, of our desperate need, even to the point of pain. It is a pain that stays with us until it is satisfied. This is not a passing feeling or desire. It is not something that passes as a morning cloud. It is as actual and as real as physical hunger and thirst. It becomes the controlling passion of our lives to satisfy this hunger and thirst. .
4. I exhibit a merciful spirit, am sympathetic with people and avoid being harsh. (5:7)
“A popular Roman philosopher called mercy ‘the disease of the soul.’ It was the supreme sign of weakness. Mercy was a sign that you did not have what it takes to be a real man and especially a real Roman. . . . They looked down on mercy, because mercy to them was weakness, and weakness was despised above all other human limitations.”(MacArthur, 188)
John Piper writes: “You get the power to show mercy from the real feeling in your heart that you owe everything you are and have to divine mercy.”
When we stand before God He will not ask for “Time Charts” to see what we have done. He will ask for “Medical Reports” to see what has been done in us? Though He expects us to show mercy the key to showing mercy is having received the mercy of God as revealed in Christ.
5. I keep my heart and my mind free from impure thoughts (5:8)
Hebrews 12:14 says, “Without holiness no man will see the Lord.”
“Holiness (purity of heart) deals with the thoughts and intents, the purposes, the aims, the objects, the motives of men. Morality but does skim the surface, holiness goes into the very caverns of the deep; Holiness requires that the heart shall be set on God, and it shall beat with love for Him” (Holiness Demanded, Spurgeon).
“Only God can cleanse your heart from impurities. David knew this and prayed, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me” (Ps. 51:10). God does that for all who believe on Jesus Christ. He does it judicially in the moment of our belief. He does in practically during the moments of our earthly life as we yield to the gentle urging of his Holy Spirit. He will do it finally and completely in the moment of our death as we are then purified from all evil and brought without spot into his presence (Boice, 47).
06. I aggressively seek to heal relationships, help those in conflict to live in peace. (5:9)
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. (Mt. 7:24)
It almost seems like this would be a good parable to put in the center of Proverbs. Proverbs is the center-piece of what Bible scholars refer to as Wisdom literature – Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon.
“How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding than silver!” (Proverbs 16:16)
“He who gets wisdom loves his own soul; he who cherishes understanding prospers.” (Proverbs 19:8)
In the Jewish tradition a wise person was one who obeyed the Torah. It seems that Jesus launches his application on that principle and says that a wise person is one who obeys His teaching. You are considered a “wise” person if you practice the ethical precepts taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.
Again, we come to the question. We have studied not the wisdom of Solomon, but the wisdom of Jesus, an analysis of true inner goodness, moral excellence, Biblical righteousness. We have set at the feet of Jesus, the expert, telling us how we ought to live. Will we live right? Will we make every effort to put into practice the words of Jesus?
07. My peacemaking involves sharing the Gospel and participating in the spread of the Gospel message around the world. (5:9)
The Bible states plainly that mankind is at war with God, is an enemy of God:
“For, if when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son ….” (Rom. 5:10).
“For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col. 1:19-20).
Thus the greatest peacemakers in the world are evangelists and witnesses who seek to help the enemies of God, the human race, reconcile with God.
In Ephesians Paul talks about the Christians armor and says: “and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” The KJV reads, “And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.”
“To bring a person to saving knowledge of Jesus Christ is the most peacemaking act a human being can perform. It is beyond what any diplomat or statesman can accomplish.” (MacArthur, 216)
08. When society and government take positions that oppose my faith and mock my values I becoming bitter and keep a positive attitude. (5:10-11)
Persecution that is applauded by heaven is persecution “because of righteousness” and “because of me (Christ).”
We will be persecuted for the righteousness hungered after in vs. 6 and described as merciful, pure and peace loving in verses 7-9.
“The greatest reason there is so little persecution is that the church has become like the world. If you want to get along, the formula is simple. Approve of the world’s morals and ethics – at least outwardly. Live like the world lives. Laugh at its humor. Immerse yourself in its entertainment. Smile benignly when God is mocked. Act as if all religions converge on the same road. Don’t mention hell. Draw no moral judgments. Take no stand on moral/political issues. Above all, do no share your faith. Follow this formula and it will be smooth sailing.” (Hughes, 74)
“We are not to retaliate like an unbeliever, nor to sulk like a child, nor to lick our wounds in self-pity like a dog, nor just to grin and bear it like a Stoic, still less to pretend we enjoy it like a masochist. What then? We are to rejoice.” (Stott, 52)
09. I avoid imbibing non-Biblical values and a secular, naturalistic life-style in order to maintain a true Christian life-preserving influence on my community. (5:13)
The individual Christian, in being Christian influences society. The real question, is to what extent do I influence society?
Wikipedia: “Salt itself, sodium chloride, is extremely stable and cannot lose its flavor, so salt that has lost its flavor cannot every literally refer to actual salt. The most common explanation for this is that salt in the era was impure, not only due to extraction methods, but also due to unscrupulous merchants mixing it with other substances.”
The 8 ingredients of Christian salt are listed in the 8 Beatitudes: Poor in spirit, mourn, meekness, hunger and thirst for righteousness, merciful heart, purity, peacemaker and are persecuted because of them. This saltiness is just another word for Christlikness.
The consensus of the scholars on the phrase “salt loses its saltiness” is simply the adulteration or dilution of the Christian’s testimony (Hughes 81).
The real question of the verse is this, “Is our saltiness, our Christlikeness penetrating the world and changing it or is the world counter-penetrating us and adulterating our testimony?”
10. By my acts of kindness (good deeds) my light (testimony) shines out to a dark world. (5:14)
For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves (Col. 1:13).
ILL: How dark? Someone said that the world is as dark and men are as blind as a blind man in a pitch black room with black walls chasing a black cat that was not there.
If you want to break down the various characteristics of light you will need to study the Beatitudes. The various qualities that make up this light are found there as well as in Christ
Martin Lloyd-Jones writes, “There is obviously no light at all in this world apart from the light that is provided by Christian people and the Christian faith.” (MLJ, 162)
When we live godly lives, when we do acts of compassion, when we share our testimony, our light is shining.
11. I possess a positional righteousness in Christ that makes me a member of the Kingdom of God. (5:20)
Christ fulfilled the OT moral, ceremonial and civil law and especially the penalty of the law. He exalted the OT as inerrant and permanent and rewards those who teach and obey its moral precepts.
Jesus, by suffering on the cross, fulfilled the law’s penalty for sin.
“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.” (5:17)
“What was happening upon the cross was that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was enduring in His own holy body the penalty prescribed by the holy law of God for the sin of man. … One of the ways in which the law has to be fulfilled is that its punishment of sin must be carried out. This punishment is death, and that was why Christ died. The law must be fulfilled. … In respect of its punishment of sin God’s law has been fulfilled absolutely, because He has punished sin in the holy, spotless, blameless body of His own Son there upon the cross.” (Martin Lloyd-Jones, 192-3).
God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (II Cor. 5:21)
In Christ alone who took on flesh,
Fullness of God in helpless babe.
This gift of God and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save.
‘Til on that cross where Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live.
12. I continually focus on having a blameless heart before God, an inner person that is always right and pleasing to Him. (5:20)
“Our Lord sets it down here as a postulate that the righteousness of the Christian, the very least Christian, must exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees” . . . He is emphasizing the practical carrying out of the law. That is the whole purpose of the paragraph.” (MLJ, 202, 208).
Targeting the internal and not the external!
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness (Mt. 23:25-28).
QUESTION: In what ways do we tend to focus on the external and not the internal?
When I live day by day with enmity towards a friend, an unresolved conflict, a lie that I have told and not confessed, looking at pornography, a root of bitterness in my heart, an arrogant attitude etc even though outwardly I am an outstanding Christian doing all of the right Christian things I fall into this trap.
The … basic charge against them (the Pharisees) is that their religion was entirely external and formal instead of being a religion of the heart. He turned to them one day and said, ‘Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God’ (Luke 16:15) (MLJ, 203).
SO WHAT??? – If we fail to deal with the sins of the heart, motives and intents we will never surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees.
13. I avoid harboring long-smoldering, slow burning anger in my heart towards another person (5:21-22)
(1) Prohibition against murder – Warning against anger.
(2) Prohibition against adultery – Warning against lustful thoughts.
(3) Regularization of divorce – Permanence of the marriage
(4) Oaths = of truth telling – Integrity = truth telling.
(5) Retaliation — Reconciliation through creative suffering.
(6) Hating one’s enemy – Loving ones enemy
“These six antitheses are more than simply a contrast between external and internal righteousness, or false interpretations of the Law and correct ones, although those are part of what he is discussing. These antitheses are about what it means to follow Jesus, about what it means to live like a true kingdom person. (Danny Hall, quoted from the Internet). …. About what “true moral excellence looks like.”
FLIP CHART: Go over again the externals of a beautiful wedding over the internal need for true love in order for the wedding to be meaningful.
ILL: You could say that Form is the spoon and Content is the food on the spoon. Or you could say that a glass is the Form and the milk in the glass is Content. A needle is the Form, the Content is the anti-biotic.
Defining Unrighteous Anger: “The verb here used for anger is orgizesthai. . . . There is orge, long-lived anger; it is the anger of the man who nurses his wrath to keep it warm; it is the anger over which a person broods, and which the will not allow to die” (Barclay, 138).
ILL: Illustrating Anger – “News of the Weird.”
Rawle Trotman, 21, of Simcoe, Ontario, was charged with stabbing a fellow fisherman in an argument… over a worm.
An unidentified ”big blond” female customer was sought by Oakland, Mich., police in December for allegedly punching out a 55-year-old female clerk at a Hudson’s department store when the clerk rolled her eyes at the customer’s request for a price check on a dress. ”Don’t you ever roll your eyes at me,” were the last words the clerk recalled before being decked.
William Fagyas, 82, was charged with stabbing his wife, Eleanor, 84, in the chest in Crown Point, Ind., in December… because, according to police, she ”was not in the Christmas spirit.” (Pikeville News Express, Friday, February 12, 1999)
We may never do anything like the above but have we ever said, “He made me so angry I could have killed him.”
What causes anger like that above? “Anger is an emotional bi-product of or reaction to a threat or hurt or disappointment or frustration or injustice in our lives. We wanted something and we didn’t get it. We didn’t want something and did get it. A person or thing just keeps frustrating us. Our honor is offended.” (From the internet)
Civil laws do not outlaw anger. How could they? They can only outlaw the result of anger …. And sometimes anger results in murder.
The problem is that absence of murder does not reveal a deep spirituality. If you avoid murder but harbor anger in your heart you are not owning the righteousness / moral excellence / true moral goodness that Jesus is talking about in the sermon on the mount.
14. I avoid holding anyone in contempt, treat them with disgust. (5:21-22)
QUESTION: If the Sermon on the Mount is not primarily about providing us with heavier rules and more exact interpretation of the Old Testament law, what is it about?
Ill: Did the law or a policeman ever instill in you a love for driving the speed limit?
What does “Raca” mean?
“Raca” describes a tone of voice with an accent on contempt. To call a man Raca was to call him a brainless idiot, a silly fool, an empty-headed blunderer. It is the word of one who despises another with an arrogant contempt.” (Barclay, 139). Other synonyms = nitwit, blockhead, numskull, bonehead, bird brain.
What does “Fool” mean?
The Greek term here is moros (from which we get moron) and means a moral fool. It refers to a wicked and reprobate individual, an apostate. It is not a judgment of one’s head but of his moral condition. By using such terms the angry person was acting as a judge and consigning the individual to hell. It would be similar to saying, “You brainless idiot and moron, go to hell.”
READ: Dr. John Gottman, University of Washington’s Psychology Laboratory: “… they assign a SPAFF code to every second of a couple’s interaction, so that a fifteen minute conflict discussion ends up being translated into a row of eighteen hundred numbers. … On the basis of these calculations Gottman has proven that if he analyzes an hour of a husband and wife talking, he can predict with 95 percent accuracy whether that couple will still be married fifteen years later. …. Gottman has published a 500 page book titled The Mathamatics of Divorce. … One of Gottman’s finds is that for a marriage to survive, the ratio of positive to negative emotion in a given encounter has to be at least five to one … A central argument in Gottman’s work is that all marriages have a distinctive pattern, a kind of marital DNA, that surfaces in any kind of meaningful interaction … Gottman has found out that he can find out much of what he needs to know just by focusing on what he calls the Four Horsemen: defensiveness, stonewalling, contempt and criticisim.” (Blink, pages 21-32).
“Gottman has found, in fact, that the presence of contempt in a marriage can even predict such things as how many colds a husband or a wife gets; in other words, having someone you love express contempt toward you is so stressful that it begins to affect the functioning of your immune system” (Blink, 33).
QUESTION: What are some of the words we use to show contempt?
Moron, loser, sap, mousy, rat, louse, pond scum, ape, pig, dog, snake, skunk, reptile, beast …. animal names.
Contempt is communicated by more than words e.g. by a sneer, a rolling of the eyes, a wagging of the head, gestures etc. Contemptuous anger makes a person an “incipient murderer.”
15. I search my heart and reconcile with anyone who has something against me with whom I have not tried to reconcile. (5:23-24)
“The axial verse in SOM is 5:20 – “For 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.”
The “therefore” is obviously tied to the two preceding verses.
QUESTION: What is the “therefore” there for?
Those verses talked about anger towards another person, calling a person an empty headed dimwit, a mental and moral idiot. That is treating another person with disdain, contempt and doing so in anger. In other words a heated conflict filled with demeaning name-calling. ….. here Jesus is talking about that individual that has something against you, maybe because you talked to him like that.
The offense felt by the other person might be real or it might be a perception on his part with no ill intent on your part. Whether fancied or real, we need to deal with in.
This need to reconcile with a person we have offended takes us back to the 7th Beatitude in Matthew 5:9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the sons of God.”
ILL: John Piper, quoting this verse while seeking to raise $1.1 million from his congregation through a “Freeing the Future” fund raising drive, said to his congregation on a Sunday morning before the big offering: “If you have anger and contempt for another person in your heart and have not reconciled with them you just can’t happily come to worship next Sunday with your “Freeing the Future” pledge. It just will not be acceptable to God if some contempt and anger is in your heart.
To seek to worship God while we harboring disdain and contempt for another person or group of people is meaningless. Worship devoid of moral life is useless.
APPLICATION: It is amazing how we complain about the worship service, the music etc and are concerned about improving it and fail to realize that the most important way to improve the worship service is to confess and deal with angry contempt and make every effort first to reconcile with an offended brother.