Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Grace and Justification
this morning we are going to start a new series in the bible you may have heard about it if you've got one of our summer 2021 uh here's where we're headed guides it's called summer on the mount which is a play on words for a the most probably the most famous the most impactful and the most foundational sermon that jesus preaches to his disciples and if it's the most foundational sermon jesus preaches it is the most foundational sermon of all time which makes the time that we have in this word um somewhat daunting because there is so much to draw out of this it's can be a little intimidating to try to explain all of it and teach all of it within the course of three months but we're gonna we're gonna do this and the heart behind it is that the sermon on the mount is the foundation for what it means to live as disciples in the kingdom of god or the kingdom of heaven as it says and as we pray through the day that we live in the such a time as this moment that all of us find ourselves in with the cultural tension that we live in and the political divides that we live in and the church sometimes confusion that we live in it is so essential that we remember who we are not according to our ideals or what we want from church but what does jesus say it looks like to be one of his disciples he'll use this teaching to say this is how you become a light to the world to be separate and set apart so that the people of god stand out in the time and the circumstances and the boundaries of the dwellings that god has placed them in so i find that to be an invitation that is very timely for who we are and where we are as a people and i hope that we can use these next few months to be founded and grounded in the teachings of christ in this way and to be cultivated for a new and fresh work that god wants to do with his people that our good works would shine before men to his glory and that some of us in going through this would be people who go from maybe just interested in christ or learning and kind of discovering who christ is to becoming a disciple so that's what's on the menu i hope that you can stay with us in the in the ever-changing schedule of summer break and the mountains that are calling i hope that we can as a church really meditate and learn what jesus says to his disciples then and to us now about the importance of knowing what it means to belong to his kingdom and how to live in that so this morning we'll serve as a bit of an and we will cover a few verses in what are called the beatitudes or the blessings of the disciples of christ so that's where we're headed um next week we're actually going to have brent harrell share in this passage of scripture as well and then we'll do a third week in the beatitudes as we continue in our journey through summer on the mount so something about starting a new series that just i ask you to join me as we present our offerings to the lord not just in time and resources but also lord we want to hear from you during these months these are these are not random months in the calendar this word will speak to us and it will come alive as your holy spirit makes it alive and as he does that i pray that we would have ears to hear because i really am convinced that there is a sea changing the sea change coming for god's people and the way that we are ambassadors of the gospel so we need to prepare our hearts we need to be ready for what god is doing in our generation and what better way than to go through the foundations of the kingdom so let's pray for that and then we'll get right into it god thank you for your word it is always yes and amen your promise is always true in christ and you promised this morning you deliver for us unlock these unique blessings that come to those who are called your disciples your followers the people that you set apart and mark that belong to you and so god i pray for those of us who have a relationship with you that would be made more rich it would be made more impactful for those around us and i pray also for those that you've drawn into this place that they would hear the amazing plan that you have for anyone that you call to yourself and they would they would hear as an invitation to follow you the lord we just lay before you these summer months in all of the ways that we are that we're seeking you and you send us in and out of the valley this summer i pray that we would be ignited to be lights in this world reflections of your glory disciples that have a set apart nature to them so help us lord to have ears to hear as you speak to us through your word this morning in your name we pray amen well as said we're going to use a portion of this sermon as a way of just to set the scene and to really kind of lay out where jesus is as he calls people to himself and who those people are and then what it is that he's going to be offering them in the call to discipleship through the sermon on the mount it says in chapter 5 verse 1 and seeing the multitudes he went up on a mountain and he was seated his disciples came to him so in verse one we find the stage being set very clearly uh it starts by saying and seeing the multitude so the context of matthew chapter five up until this point we're starting to see the ministry of jesus unfold he's been anointed by the power of the holy spirit to begin the earthly ministry he's been tempted in the desert overcoming the three temptations of satan with the word of god and now he is going to display the power of god in and through him through his teachings and healings and as is the case throughout the gospel as jesus shows up on the scene there is a natural gravity towards him there are people that just swarm to him because he is offering real healing he's offering real soul care to the people and where that happens people are drawn to it and there are multitudes that come to see him and as one of the themes of the bible what you'll find very often is that when the multitudes come and when you see the crowds of people surrounding jesus very often he will find a way to depart from them get alone and then call out from the crowd disciples and that's worth pointing out to us this morning as we journey our way through this passage of scripture that there is within every crowd seeking jesus and seeking the benefits of the lord a mixed bag there are those within the crowd that are there for reasons that are not simply to follow him and to know him and to be called one of his disciples so he takes the crowd and he departs into the mountain and he calls the disciples who follow him and so we listen to the audience now in that in that observation of what this verse presents to us that away from the multitudes he calls the disciples and you've already heard in my prayer that some of you this morning are disciples of christ you've made an acknowledgment of christ as your savior and your lord and you desire to hear his word as the authority of your life and others of you are not it's just the reality of a crowd this size and the message this morning is in fact for disciples but i love the fact that it's on a mountain that jesus was born in a manger and he brings his message to the mountain it shows the nature of our god that as it says in acts chapter 7 does not dwell in temples made by human hands but he comes to the people lowly and he comes initially outside of a palace which was shocking to think of the king of the world the christ that came to save being born amongst the animals to the poor and then he comes not only in a manger but he also comes to the mountain not to the temple so may you be encouraged this morning that our god meets us that he calls us to a place that is accessible and he calls us this morning as disciples to listen to the authority of his word into what it means to be blessed that will be the what of the offering this morning but he does it within the earshot of anyone who can hear and the disciples will come and i pray that the disciples have ears to hear and i pray that those who are with earshot to hear this morning will listen to this message as an invitation to become one that the offer is for those of us who know christ to be more blessed in knowing him and for those of us who don't know him to hear the invitation to have a blessed life what does that mean and that's what we'll discuss because it says then he opened his mouth and taught them saying he's going to get into a teaching as he has drawn his disciples to himself notice it says that when he was seated his disciples came to him that was the tradition of the day by the way is that the rabbi in these moments would sit and the people would stand maybe we should do that to reverse the order maybe it would be a way to just help you stay attentive and me to be someone who could you know have the energy to talk longer and you guys are like no we're good as is but you get the picture christ sitting as teacher as rabbi as disciples come to him he now opens his mouth an interesting uh an interesting picture of how he is teaching that there are times that he teaches through the power and the display of miracles there's times that he's teaching the power and display of his own life and now he teaches with the authority to open his mouth and reveal the will of god and as he is going to offer what is often called the beatitudes or the blessings of his kingdom we notice another reason to lay out an of the mountain because there is a biblical theme in the mountain when it comes to the revelation of the will of god for the people of god and we find now a fuller picture of a previous mountain scene that we had in the old testament remember the person of moses who was the he was the leader of god's people he was the deliverer of god's commands and how did he get them he came to find a revelation of god on top of mount sinai where he found the law of god through that revelation that he would deliver to the people and now this is one of those ways that jesus will be the greater picture of a theme that was offered to us in the old testament as moses was a picture of the leader coming to the mountains to get the revelation of the will of god for his people we now have the greater moses the one that moses prophesied would come after him who now ascends to a mountain to reveal not just the commandments but now the blessings the fuller law of god the deeper revelation of the heart of god for his people and that is what we find for us as disciples that we now have what is often called the constitution of the kingdom and i'm so grateful for the ways that totally apart from my own design and planning where we are in the scripture that we align sometimes with the cultural calendar that we live in and as you heard through the prayer of noah we find ourselves memorial day weekend often times the kickoff to summer and it's a in memory of those who have died who have gone before us to protect to withhold and to establish the constitution that we stand on and so it's with that picture that we find ourselves in a version of that in a much more uh real way which is the constitution of the kingdom of god and there is one that goes before us who dies to give it to us that we now stand in memory of this morning and in relationship to as he says here's what it means to live in my kingdom so just as we have soldiers who have gone before us to say here's what it means to live in america with your freedoms and your rights and the joy and the pursuit of life liberty and happiness now we have jesus saying here is what my constitution says and that's what we're going to examine today so for the purposes of this morning i'd like to read all of the beatitudes so verses 3 through 10 and then we're really going to just look at the first two giving ourselves two more weeks to study the rest of them it says in verse 3 blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is present tense the kingdom of heaven blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be filled blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see god blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of god and blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven now i read all of these because as we look at this as marks of disciple we realize that these are not given to us like a buffet table and you can choose or you can ask god to bless you according to which spiritual gift he's given you to walk in and some of you will walk in meekness and some of you will be peacemakers and some of you will go through persecution the idea is that these come to us as a complete package that is total for the life of those who follow christ to walk in and it is not that he gives some to one and some to the others but he takes us through a journey with him in maturing us in our trust of him that will take us through the whole gamut because in the end it says that jesus promises disciples in this world you'll have much trouble they hated me they're also going to hate you but don't worry i've overcome there's an encouragement for all of us to realize you live in a fallen world and as a disciple of christ as you grow in your maturity and as you grow in your closeness to him you will grow in your relationship to the world that he had which the world despised him rejected him hated him and the student's not greater than the master so we can't avoid the end of the blessing as those who are persecuted can somehow rejoice but what we do is we start where it starts and many people read this as a progression that happens almost like a ladder and you read that we rejoice in persecution you think i can't do that it's like not yet but you can start where he starts you can start with the very first blessing which is to be poor in spirit and until you're poor in spirit it's unlikely that you'll ever experience any of the other blessings without being poor in spirit it will be very difficult for you to mourn to the place of comfort it will be difficult for you to be meek in the circumstances that god gives you to exercise gentleness and meekness to his glory to hunger and thirst for his righteousness it all starts with this primary desire that we are supposed to have as disciples of christ to be poor in spirit and in our poverty of spirit it says throughout all of these each one of these beatitudes it says you will be blessed moses came and said thou shall not and jesus now the deeper revelation of the will of god for his people is thou shall be blessed but how do we do that and what does that mean i was having uh dinner with my family and you know we're dinner out and we are a collective of various ages that are challenging from seven and under and so i sometimes feel like people are watching us like they're at the zoo like wow look at that's hard and someone came up to us as they were leaving and said hey man you're doing a great job may god bless you and i thought absolutely as i consider the blessings of god he is absolutely giving me the desire for him to be my everything because as a father i feel very impoverished do we often think of when someone says god bless you do our minds go to the be attitudes or sometimes we think god bless you and you're thinking i hope so i've been waiting and i'm hoping because there's a difference between the blessings of the beatitudes and the nature of them that seem so counter counterintuitive to us blessed rejoice in persecution to what the world says would be the pursuit of happiness and yet the best way we can understand the blessings of god is to consider our joy in him it's similar to happiness but it's different in this the pursuit of happiness is circumstantial and temporary it comes with good grades and it leaves with bad ones the stock market goes up and then it goes down the relationship is solid and then it's and then it's not but this is all things that happen in the present moment as a way to surround your life in the blessings of god that you would be content and satisfied in him and that whether you're a current disciple or whether you're here as an examiner of what we believe there is something inside every single one of us that longs for the answers to the question of how to be blessed how do i maintain satisfaction for life because i feel like the stock market it goes up and it goes down and the pursuit of happiness sometimes is going well and sometimes going very difficult and as we find ourselves in relation to the cultural calendar the it's not only memorial day but many of you may know or you may not but it's also the month of may is mental health awareness which is something that we are being more and more aware of because there's more and more reason to try to understand mental health we live in a world and in a culture in a country in the pursuit of happiness that seems to be going in the opposite direction and so in my awareness of mental health awareness it came in the form of a banner ad so i took the i took the interwebs bait and i was like what is it make me aware what's going on in our culture how are we doing in our pursuit of content satisfaction and joy and so i just share with you what i discovered recently as the current state of the pursuit of happiness and in sharing this of course speaking to a audience that lives in the culture i'm sharing this with you in real time many of you because you come with heavy hearts you come with racing minds and you come with a need to understand your own state of mental awareness but as we consider the data it doesn't look good it doesn't look like we're going in the right direction says that 74 70 of youth in the juvenile justice system have been diagnosed with a mental illness something broken in the minds of our young people and we're identifying it as a problem in their minds but it's giving them the school of hard knocks they're landing in very difficult circumstances as we consider memorials that memorial day and we consider and we clap and we pray for those who have gone before us we realize that 41 of veterans have been diagnosed with a mental illness or substance abuse problem and again real time we care for you we're glad that you're here to hear that this is not something that is lost on the side of god but it does give us a measurement as to where we're going what's our direction most troubling stat if you paid attention at all during the last year and a half you know this is growing suicide is the second leading cause of death among people age 10 through 34. we live in a time where there is a absolute pandemic of loneliness and depression and there does not seem to be a way out so what do we do and how are we disciples of christ set apart how are we marked not by doom and gloom and pessimism and confusion and depression but we're marked by what jesus says in my kingdom there is a marking of blessing to be totally content in the will of god for your life to somehow come here this morning with an overflow of thanksgiving and joy to leave here with the satisfaction that peace can dwell in your heart and that in the world of darkness that is waiting on people's minds and hearts there is a people of god that is rising up as lights in the dark because they look different because they represent not just the pursuit of happiness but they represent the present state of blessing but how well jesus says it starts step one on the staircase that in some ways we picture a staircase going up but it's almost like this is a staircase coming down the heart of god to humanity blessed are the poor in spirits theirs is the kingdom of heaven joy and satisfaction and blessing when we understand what it means to have poverty of spirit okay what does that mean jesus let me give you some preacher definitions to help us understand where we're going with our attempt to listen to the teachings of christ and cultivate it in our church and our families in our heart to be poor in spirit to be devoid of spiritual arrogance meaning we come here and we think we're pretty good on our own in fact i'm doing pretty well internally and i come here representing a lot of good stuff about me and god receives my praise because in some ways he's happy i'm here it's like i've been waiting for you man this church was going down and then you showed up it's like well i'm glad i'm here uh maybe a better definition that cuts a little bit harder to us and i hope we can hear it and i don't think it was a mistake that scott cunningham led us in the song that he wrote specifically maybe just for us as a church because i'm singing that and i'm thinking lord this is the heart cry of someone who is impoverished without you spiritually here's the here's the definition total dependence on god poor in spirit i have nothing without you so what does god sing to us surround me with your love and the treasures of your peace in the ordinary the stationary and the sanctuary in every aspect of my life surround me with your love god and that should cut to the heart because how we doing with that what does it look like for us to come here and to not just make it a an hour dedication that our family commits to going to church because it's good for the health of our children it's good for the health of my marriage and then i go about and hopefully i walk in a way that god will bless me out the door but we come here once again to say god if i don't have you i have nothing because your word says that you're the vine and i'm the branch and apart from you i can do nothing so let's try to understand how we don't just read this but how we cultivate it in our hearts let me share with you a tension that is brought up in andrew murray's book on humility which is maybe another way for us to understand poor in spirit he says this humility is the place of entire dependence on god and it is the first duty and the highest virtue of the creature and the root of every virtue he could be preaching about the sermon on the mount right now to be lowly to be poor in spirit to be totally dependent on god to have humility before him is the root virtue that will unlock all of the others it is the gateway virtue to actually know that you need god but then he says as a contrast and so pride or the loss of humility is the root of every sin and evil so now we have attention where jesus says be poor in spirit he is calling you to a spiritual discipline a spiritual life in him and wherever there is a spiritual discipline or a spiritual growth in you there is a temptation for a fleshly weakness we see it in prayer jesus calls his disciples he says pray with me my hours come pray with me and what do they do they fall asleep it's like you guys are sleeping the spirit is willing the flesh is weak and he says to us poor in spirit be poor in spirit so i can bless you so i can give you what you need so you open your hands i can fill them and we're sleeping we're watching all the other ways that we could be enriched by the world because the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak and where the flesh is weak in the poverty of the spirit it's filled up with pride the opposite of being dependent on god is being dependent on yourself and it is the tension of our lives it is the root of all sin as we went through the book of genesis chapter three it comes in with the offer of pride be dependent on yourself did god really say that you should not eat of that fruit maybe you would be actually like him and you'd be better off without him so pride is the first sin that enters into the fall and it is the first sin that is rejected from our lives as we are revived in the spirit of god so this
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.