Morning everyone.
I'd like to rest assure those that are visiting that I am not the normal preacher, so please come back and listen to a better preacher take a stab at it next week.
We are gonna be in Matthew chapter five for most of the lesson today, if you'd like to turn there.
In Matthew chapter five, we see Jesus delivering the first part of the Sermon on the Mount.
And there is some context that I didn't really think about.
Usually when I read this passage through most of my life, um it seemed more intimate to me, like a smaller setting.
But just a few pages later, we see Jesus feeding 5,000.
And this passage starts out in chapter four talking about Jesus' ministry in Galilee and how dramatic it was for the region.
In verse 23, and Jesus was going about in all Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, healing every kind of disease and every kind of
sickness amongst the people.
And the news about him went out into all of Syria, and they brought him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics, he healed them.
And a great multitude followed him from Galilee and Decapolis and Jerusalem and Judea and from beyond Jordan.
And when he saw the multitudes, he went up in the mountain.
And after he sat down, his disciples came to him, and opening his mouth, he began to teach them,
This is a large crowd of people.
If we were to put it in today's context, this is like stadium concerts, the equivalent that Jesus is delivering this lesson to.
And there's people in the audience who have questions about Jesus.
There's people in the audience who are suffering, suffering greatly.
large crowd filled with poor people, filled with people who had not only been oppressed by the Romans and were currently being oppressed by the Romans, but they were oppressed by
their own people.
If you look at how the Pharisees and the scribes and the Sadducees treated people, they treated people as beneath them.
So this was a people that was oppressed by all of their rulers.
And he begins his sermon in verse 3.
And I want to frame this up because when we translated this, we did a bad job.
This word blessed, although accurate, doesn't imply the meaning that was delivered when it was delivered in Aramaic.
Replace the word blessed in your mind with how great it is.
Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn.
for they shall be comforted, blessed are the gentle, for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God.
Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when men cast insults at you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on account of me.
Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Remember the people he's talking to here.
These are a people who are being persecuted actively by the Romans.
These are a people who are humble in their thoughts, who are humbled forcefully by those who are ruling over them.
These are also a people who grew up in God's Word.
These are people who spent their childhood studying and memorizing, often set to song the Psalms, the whole of the Torah.
They lived in the Word of God.
That doesn't mean they were great at practicing the law of God, but it does mean they all knew the Word of God.
They were familiar with the prophet Isaiah.
They were very familiar with the Psalms of David.
They sang some of the marching Psalms that are towards the end of the Psalms as they would travel from city to city on foot to keep track of their pace.
This was part of their daily life.
to live in the word of God.
And then after Jesus spends the time reframing the mindset of those in front of him, that it's great to live a life of sorrow, a life of weakness, as long as you live that life in
service to God.
He explains what the coming kingdom is gonna be like.
When I read verse 13 through 16, it brought to mind a type of poetry.
The type of poetry that we're all familiar with, I think.
It's a poetry that carries a lot more meaning than we as English speaking.
understand.
It's Japanese poetry.
It's called a haiku.
think most of us are familiar with the concept of a haiku.
That's five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables.
But the deeper meaning of a haiku is that you introduce a topic with the first five syllables.
You expand on that topic with the next seven syllables and then you complete the thought.
or complete the, or make the whole of those first two sentences greater by the third sentence.
Stand, or line?
Line I think is the word I'm looking for.
So my favorite haiku is haikus can be fun, but they don't always make sense.
Refrigerator.
It perfectly follows the theme of the haiku that it's a, that this is a silly haiku.
But it expands on that thought.
Jesus frames up the coming kingdom in these next few verses in a very similar manner.
He explains what it's going to be like.
Then through those people who are in front of him who live in the Word of God, he uses references to the book of Isaiah that they're going to take away and they're going to
think about as they meditate on the scripture.
as they meditate on the words of Jesus, they're going to think about later what it means to be salt and light.
So in Matthew chapter five, verse 13, you are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again?
It is good for nothing anymore except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
You are the light of the world, the city set on the hill cannot be hidden.
Nor do men light a lamp and put it under the peck measure.
but on the lamp stand and give light to all who are in the house.
Let your light shine before men in such a way that they see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
So let's talk about salt for a minute.
Salt is a substance we're all familiar with.
Some of us are advised by our doctors to use less of it.
ah You're advised by every chef to use more of it, along with butter.
um But it is something that we are very familiar with.
But the power of salt is something I think we uh as a society that goes to the fridge every day to get a snack, that keeps everything preserved by using cool air, we've
forgotten how powerful salt is.
The one thing.
Salt was required when we sacrificed, when the Israelites sacrificed to God.
Doesn't make sense if you're going to just burn meat to put salt on it, but salt was a sign of the covenant.
It was part of the sacrificial rites.
Salt is a preservative.
For all of human history, we have used salt to store meat.
Whether it's fish or whether it is beef, whatever it is, we pack it in salt so that we can have meat three days later and further out.
We dry it out, we use smoke to preserve, but usually we put salt on it, even if we're using smoke to preserve it.
The idea of sharing salt is something that we don't commonly use today, but that was the term used for friendship.
I'm going to share salt with you.
It's also used for purifying and cleaning.
ah If you have an ingrained cutting board, the best way to clean it is to pour salt on it and use half a lemon to scrub it.
ah It completely removes all bacteria and kills all fall bacteria.
It's what we use to pickle things because a certain level of salinity in the water prevents bacteria from growing.
But if salt has no taste, is it even salt anymore?
It's dirt at that point.
So that's what Jesus describes here.
It's nonsense that Jesus is using to prove a point.
He is telling these people gathered in front of them.
that the reason you're in this situation is because you have lost your taste.
You are no longer the salt of the earth.
You are as worthless as dirt, and that's why you are living in this situation.
Then we get to the light, or a city on a hill.
Light is an interesting concept.
in the fact that it exists at all.
So the thing that is similar about this term salt and the term light is something that we didn't understand for thousands of years after this.
In fact, we didn't even understand till last century because we didn't understand how important it was when God created the very first thing he created, which was on the first
day, light.
This idea of light threads through the entire Bible.
This idea of a city set on a hill that's visible starts all the way with the, all the way back with the garden, with all the rivers flowing out of it, flowing down from the garden.
And so this idea of light that God established first,
Light is how we define our relationship to time.
mathematically speaking, the rate at which time flows is based on our relationship with the speed of light.
So it's something that we didn't even understand for thousands of years, but it was hinted at it in the very use of the words.
The Hebrew word for light is or.
And this idea of light is in the concept of the Torah.
Oftentimes if you look for the way words rhyme in Hebrew or the way they use the same letters to represent a concept, every time you see J-E, God is in that name.
Jehovah, Jeheshua, all of them are referencing Jehovah, Yahweh.
When you see or, it's referencing light.
So when you talk about the law, it's literally saying the light of God.
the Torah.
And when you're teaching the law, you are Yorah.
You are sharing the light of God.
So if we look back at Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 2.
we see this concept being put together.
Read Isaiah two, one through five.
The word which Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of God will be established as chief of the mountains and it will be raised above the hill and all the
nations will stream to it.
And many people will come and say, come let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of God of Jacob, that he may teach us concerning his ways, that we may walk in his
path, for the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and he will judge between the nations and will
render decisions for many people, and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nations will not lift up the sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.
Come, House of Judah, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.
This is what Jesus is telling these people that are gathered in front of him.
that this is what the kingdom can bring.
It's a beautiful picture, right?
Strife has been eliminated.
War is no more.
We work to help each other.
We live in the Word of God.
It lights our path.
So when we see this picture being painted in Isaiah, when we see Jesus reference that city on the hill raised up above all others, the light coming from it, he's talking about what
Isaiah was talking about here.
He's making reference all the way back to the prophet Isaiah.
And then remember, oh
He.
Reference salt first.
So as these people who probably, this might have been the start, this was gonna be towards the start of one of the scrolls, very similar to the way Psalm 22 is referenced by Jesus
on the cross by referencing the first line, he's referencing the concepts that are existing here.
And as they think through it, they're gonna think through the next few verses that come after this.
Thou hast abandoned thy people the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east.
They are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they strike bargains with the children of foreigners.
Their land has been filled with silver and gold.
There is no end to their treasure.
Their land has also been filled with horses.
There is no end to their chariot.
Their land has also been filled with idols.
They worship the work of their hands, which their fingers have made.
So the common man has been humbled.
The man of unimportance has been abased, but do not forgive them.
Enter the rock, hide in the dust, for the terror of the Lord, from the splendor of His Majesty.
The proud look of man will be abased, the loftiness of man will be humbled, and the Lord will be exalted in that day.
Here we see Isaiah talking about the people who have been abandoned.
And Jesus and Matthew use the salt without taste is as worthless as dirt.
And the way the people are described here is they are to enter the rock and hide in the dust.
So as Jesus expands on this idea, as this idea is being contemplated by the people in front of him, there's another reference to a little further on in Isaiah.
In Isaiah chapter 42.
and Isaiah 42.
Verse one through seven.
He's gonna get to another point in just a minute when he expands a little further on the sermon and starts introducing the idea of the kingdom.
So in Isaiah 42, behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights, I have put my spirit upon him.
He will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry out or raise his voice, nor make his voice heard in the street.
A bruised reed he will not break, a dimly burning wick he will not be extinguished.
He will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not be disheartened or crushed until he's established his justice on the earth and the coastlands will wait expectantly for his law.
Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out and who spread out on the earth in its offspring, who gives breath to the peoples on it and spirit to those
who walk in it.
I am the Lord.
I have called you in righteousness.
I will also hold you by the hand and watch over you.
I will appoint you as a covenant to the people.
as a light to the nation, to open blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out from the dungeons and those who dwell in darkness from the prison.
talking about Jesus here.
And Jesus is about to refer back to this passage as he continues through this sermon.
So as he continues through the sermon.
These people who have questions have heard the teachings of Jesus and they're strange.
They're very different from the teachings of the Pharisees.
who teach that you should hold to the letter of the law, that the Torah there is to be strict guidelines.
But Jesus is going to point out that they've missed the whole point of the law by living in the letter of the law and not in the spirit and truth of the law.
So Jesus starts again.
Do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets.
I did not come to abolish but fulfill.
He's here to further explain what the law of God should mean to these people.
These people, these poor, these ill, these destitute people, he's here to further expand on and explain what God meant when he gave them the law.
For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth will pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the law until all is accommodated." He's explaining that the
law is pure, that God is not going to allow it to be destroyed.
He's going to let it be fulfilled.
And that's what we see coming.
because Jesus also further expands, whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, or so teaches others, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.
But whoever keeps them and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
So Jesus is here explaining that if you invalidate any tiny little bit of the law,
It makes you worthless in the kingdom.
It makes you so that you are not important.
And that is what the scribes and the Pharisees were doing.
Sadducees annulled the spirit side.
They didn't believe in heaven or the afterlife.
The Pharisees destroyed the morality of the law.
by making it rigid legal structure.
So he finishes by saying, for I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
So we must take the law, we must meditate on it, we must apply it to our heart.
And by doing so, we start to understand that the law is so much greater than the Pharisees would have you believe, than those who are trying to make sure that everybody holds to the
letter of the law, that the law is so much greater than that.
And he spends the next, the rest of the chapter, m
comparing what the letter of the law and the spirit of the law mean.
He says that murder is the equivalent of anger.
Being angry at someone is just as bad as murdering them.
Lust, thoughts in that regard are just as bad as adultery.
Divorce is adultery.
Oaths are not needed because we as a people should be so honest.
that our word should be taken as truth.
Vengeance should be responded to by with generosity.
And if we look at our enemies, we should be looking for how we can be gracious to them and pray for them.
It's a new mindset that Jesus is introducing here that the law of God was not meant to be controlled by man.
the law of God was meant to be lived by man.
So now, if we go back to these Beatitudes, that we commonly call them, we go back there and we see how great it is to be so destitute that you can't catch your breath.
That's what this idea of poor in spirit is.
How wonderful to live your life that way.
because you know the kingdom of heaven is yours.
how wonderful it is to be sad and to mourn.
because you know that God will comfort you.
how wonderful it is to be powerless.
because you shall inherit the land.
How wonderful it is to desire the word of God so strongly that it feels like the pangs of hunger are the parchnest of a dry throat.
How wonderful it is to be merciful, because if you're merciful, you will also receive mercy.
How wonderful it is to be pure in heart.
because God will call you his son.
He will adopt you as his child.
how wonderful it is to be persecuted.
Once again, these people are persecuted people.
It's something they live every day.
because you're gonna get the kingdom of heaven.
This is Jesus framing up what it would be like to live in the true kingdom of God.
If every person on this earth lived in God's word, there would be no strife.
Just like it calls out in Isaiah chapter two.
There would be no reason for us not to trust each other.
There would be no reason for us to worry about tomorrow, for us to worry about today, because we know by living the Word of God, He is going to provide for us.
He just spent months walking around Galilee, healing people, teaching people, having people crowd him almost out of a house with a crowd so thick that they had to lower
somebody through the ceiling to get in to him.
Dealing with the scribes who didn't believe in the afterlife.
Dealing with the Pharisees who only believed in control.
Dealing with teachers
who were so slow to understand
that he had to explain what he meant by being born again.
Dealing with people who are hurting.
Dealing with people who lived terrible lives.
Dealing with Romans.
but dealing with all of it through love.
You can see the love he has for his apostles and his relationship with John and his relationship with Peter, two very opposite people, one of which was very difficult to get
along with sometimes, I think.
But you see Jesus' love for his people in the way he related to the people around him.
You see his love for the people in this sermon.
where he explains to them that this life is very short.
that you should take comfort and joy in knowing that God is going to take care of you through whatever miserable thing is happening to you in life, through whatever joyous
thing is happening to you in life, that God is going to provide for you if you live in the Word.
So we see.
Jesus in this passage in Matthew chapter 5, establishing what he means when he says the kingdom is coming.
He means
a people who live in the Word, not by the Word, they are the living Word.
He calls them the salt and the light, and He expects us to be that.
He expects us to live in the Word so much that it shines before men in such a way that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father who is in heaven.
That's what he wants from us.
So how do we get there?
We get there by living in God's Word.
We always provide the opportunity for anybody who is struggling.
Who is one of these destitute and desperate in spirit?
Who is one?
who's powerless, who is one who wants to return to God.
We always provide that opportunity every time we meet, or any time we aren't meeting.
That opportunity is always there.
We also provide the opportunity for anybody who wants to become a member of the kingdom to come forward and have your sins washed clean.
Have your...
life.
ended and reawakened as a new creature.
So if you would like prayers or if you would like to be baptized, please come forward as we stand and sing.