This week we are kicking off a brand-new teaching series for the summer. When Jesus invited people into God’s kingdom, He didn’t stop there. For those who were interested, He gave them a clear and compelling vision of what life in His kingdom would look like. While we get bits and pieces of this grand vision in various places throughout the Gospels, the apostle Matthew gathers the largest and most comprehensive presentation of it in one place in the Sermon on the Mount. For the next few weeks, we are going to be exploring the Sermon on the Mount together in order to see what life in God’s kingdom is really like. Thanks for joining me on this journey.

The Blessings Flow Out

I went to college at a really interesting time. I landed at our Baptist Student Union in a season with a whole bunch of really forward-thinking student leaders and an incredible campus minister. One of the ministries that was created during this season was a seeker-oriented service on Thursday nights called Damascus Road, that was designed specifically for non-believers. It was aimed at getting them interested in the Gospel. Now, I know that we are several years’ removed from the height of the seeker-sensitive church model, and I am well aware of some of its most pressing weaknesses including inviting people into a watered-down version of the faith. With this in mind, we actually created a second service on Tuesday nights called Fuel, that was unapologetically Chrisitan in its framing. It was just a worship service. We used Damascus Road to serve as a funnel to Fuel, and saw several people come to faith by that approach over the four years I was there.

Something like this approach is what we see Jesus using in the Gospels. He presented His invitations into God’s kingdom in ways that were incredibly culturally engaging at the time. He used language and images that easily resonated with His audiences. He had a knack for telling stories that were instantly memorable, and which have continued to be reused and recounted by the church to draw people to His kingdom ever since. But Jesus didn’t stop there. Once He had people engaged, He went on from there to offer them a vision for what life in God’s kingdom would be like when it came. This vision repelled some, but it drew others in. And the ones it drew in, and who allowed their lives to be transformed by it, went on to transform the world many times over. We are still the heirs of what they unleashed when they took Jesus seriously and began putting His kingdom vision into action. 

We see Jesus articulating this kingdom vision in several places throughout the Gospels, but the apostle Matthew did us the great service of assembling a significant breadth of it all in one place in what we call the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount is easily Jesus’ most famous teaching block in all of the Gospels. Its impact on the world—and not just the Christian world—is quite literally impossible to overstate. And while there is no reason to doubt that Jesus presented it all in one place and at one time just like Matthew presents it (and up on a mountain…which is why it’s called the Sermon on the Mount), we should not imagine this was the only time and place in which Jesus said all of these things. These were some of Jesus’ greatest hits that He undoubtedly presented many other times and in many other places.

Yet while we have dipped our toe in the Sermon on the Mount at times over the years, what we have not done is dive all the way into it all at once. This summer, we are going to fix that. Starting today and unfolding over the course of the next few weeks, we are going to walk through this most famous of Jesus’ sermons in a brand-new teaching series simply called, A Kingdom Vision. The goal for these few weeks is to unpack what Jesus has to say here, of course, but even more than that, it is to help us see this incredible content as more than just a bunch of isolated passages that are all really good in their own right. I want to help you see this as one grand, coherent effort by Jesus to cast a vision of what life in God’s kingdom looks like. Put all together like this, it’s a pretty compelling picture. 

So, if you have your copy of the Scriptures handy, join me in Matthew 5 this morning, and let’s see how this all begins to unfold starting with a picture of what the kind of person who has been shaped by God’s kingdom looks like. Before that, though, let’s make sure we have our bearings. From the way Matthew presents the scene here, this sermon wasn’t some sort of a pre-planned event like The Chosen series presents it as, but rather something entirely more organic than that. 

Jesus’ ministry started small. Well, that’s sort of true. His ministry started as an off-shoot of John the Baptist’s much larger ministry near the Jordan River east of Jerusalem, but His own impact started to get big enough that it was causing friction between John’s disciples and Jesus’ disciples. Rather than risking either of their ministries getting beset by needless conflict, Jesus left Judea and went back home to Galilee. There He went back to being a nobody. He didn’t stay that way for long, though. Once He started teaching and preaching and healing—especially the healing—He began to attract an enormous following. Most of them came for the miracles, but they still came. And once they were there, Jesus could teach them about God’s kingdom which was His real goal. The miracles were just a means to an end. 

Matthew summarizes things like this at the end of chapter 4: “Now Jesus began to go all over Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. Then the news about him spread throughout Syria [basically, all over the region]. So they brought to him all those who were afflicted, those suffering from various diseases and intense pains, the demon-possessed, the epileptics, and the paralytics. And he healed them. Large crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and beyond the Jordan.” 

Now, that’s a summary statement, so we shouldn’t necessarily imagine that as an exact description of Jesus’ ministry, but it gives us a better picture of what was going on. Jesus’ name and fame were spreading and quickly. People were coming from all over in search of a miracle or to hear the powerful preaching and teaching of this remarkable rabbi. And “when he saw the crowds, [Jesus] went up on the mountain, and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to teach them, saying…” 

Sometimes it takes some effort on our part to get people’s attention to be able to share the Gospel with them. Doing things like Trunk or Treat or Vacation Bible School takes an enormous amount of effort. Some of you are still recovering from this past week when we had one of our largest Vacation Bible Schools in a very long time. But that’s effort worth giving if it opens the doors for us to share a vision of God’s kingdom with them. When Jesus had their attention, and people started coming to Him for more than just a show, He began to share that vision with them. 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” Jesus opens the Sermon on the Mount talking about people who are blessed. Blessed are, blessed are, blessed are, He says. We throw the word blessing around a lot today. I mean, it has its own hashtag. But we don’t always really understand what it means. When Jesus uses the word here, He is describing a state of being perfectly happy. Everything is right with the world. Things are going just how you want them to go. Nothing is going to disturb the sense of contentment you carry. This kind of state is a gift from God. Specifically, it is a gift given to those who are willing to dwell in His kingdom. 

Thinking from the standpoint of the world, we can imagine all sorts of different scenarios in which we might describe ourselves as blessed. When we find that front row parking spot at Walmart…in December…we are blessed. When our social media post goes viral, we are blessed. When our kids are all behaving like the perfect little angels they are (when they are in somebody else’s care; when we have them they are…well, I won’t say “devils” since we’re in church but…you know) we are blessed. When we close a major account we are blessed. When our tax refund comes in we are blessed. When everybody likes us and everything is going well we are blessed. 

With that kind of thinking rumbling around in the back of our minds, what Jesus says here is shocking right out of the gate. Look at the first one of these descriptions of kingdom blessing again: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” The poor in spirit? Shouldn’t we be blessed if we are rich in spirit? Or maybe rich in the Spirit? Not so fast. If we feel like we have plenty of spirit on our own, do you know whose Spirit we are not going to be reaching out for or leaning into? God’s, right? But for those people who recognize just how insufficient they really are to the task of…life…such that they are constantly reaching out for and leaning into God for provision and direction, those are the people who are set to receive all the blessings of His kingdom. God’s kingdom is only for those who are willing to rely on Him, not themselves. 

The next couple of descriptions of kingdom blessing Jesus gives flow from this same basic concept. “Blessed are those who mourn.” That is, blessed are those who recognize that the world around them is changing in ways that are keeping them from experiencing the fullness of life as they desire it. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” They will receive the reminder and reassurance that God will take care of them and their needs. 

In the same way, “blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth.” Those who are willing to be totally honest about who God is and who they are in light of that are the ones who will receive access to the full breadth of what the world has to offer. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” If you earnestly desire God and His righteousness, you will find your desires being fulfilled. 

The next three blessings after this shift gears to focus more on the outworking of the previous four. When we are leaning into God out of our recognition that this world isn’t what it should be, and humbly seeking His kingdom before our own, His character is going to begin manifesting itself in and through us, deepening and enriching the blessings of His kingdom we are experiencing. 

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” When we extend the compassionate patience God has shown us to those around us, God is going to keep showing us that compassionate patience. The standard by which we judge others will be the standard used to judge us. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” When we want nothing but God and go to Him without any ulterior motives of any kind, that’s when we’ll find Him. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons [and daughters] of God.” Our God is a God of peace. When we seek to bring His peace into the situations and relationships around us, people will recognize us as His children. 

If all of these different channels to blessing are a surprise, though, the final two Jesus mentions seem to come entirely out of left field. Look at v. 10 now. “Blessed are those who are…” Now, before we read that next part, let’s just acknowledge how many different things we could come up with to fill in that blank. And they’re all good things. Happy, wealthy, healthy, in stable relationships, walking in step with the Spirit, studying the Scriptures regularly, generous with others, and so on and so forth. But what does Jesus actually say? “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.” 

Wait…we’re blessed when we’re persecuted?!? But that’s not a good thing. That’s a bad thing. Who wants to be persecuted? No one, of course, but when we’re walking in step with the Spirit of God in the midst of a culture that hates that sort of thing, the likelihood that it is going to happen is really high. And that’s what we can’t miss here. Like we talked about a couple of weeks ago, if we are dealing with hard times because we’ve done something wrong, that’s on us. But when we face persecution because of our commitment to pursuing the righteousness of Christ, that’s when the blessing comes. And the blessing is that when the world persecutes us “because of righteousness,” as Jesus puts it here, the reason is that it can’t tell the difference between us and Him. And when the world can’t tell the difference, God doesn’t distinguish between us and Him either in terms of the rewards we will receive for our efforts. When we are set to receive the kinds of rewards God has for His beloved Son, that is indeed a blessing. 

But just in case we wonder exactly what all Jesus means here, in the next couple of verses He gets uncomfortably more specific. “You are blessed when they insult you and persecute you and falsely say every kind of evil against you because of me.” When that happens, don’t pout or rage or start plotting your revenge. Instead, “be glad and rejoice, because your reward is great in heaven.” Okay, but what does a reward in heaven benefit us now? Not much other than hope, but hope is powerful stuff. When we know that there is an end to this world, and that when that end arrives we are finally going to receive all the blessings we have stored up for ourselves in God’s kingdom by our faithful, patience pursuit of that kingdom through every obstacle and trial the world has to set before us, we can endure an awful lot with gladness and rejoicing. 

Plus, when this day arrives, we’ll know we’re in good company. Everyone who has served God faithfully down through history and whose faithfulness we now celebrate has been treated like this. “For that is how they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Persecution is precisely how we know we’re on track with receiving and enjoying the blessings of God’s kingdom. It’s the one guaranteed way—beyond the direct affirmation of the Holy Spirit—that we know we are living in line with Jesus’ vision for God’s kingdom. If you want to know beyond a shadow of doubt that you are on track with the life God has called us to in Jesus Christ, then ask this simple question: Am I living so consistently with the character of Christ that there are people who are hating me because of it? Now, that’s not perhaps a very fun way to think about it, but we can live our lives almost there and yet woefully short of the full blessings that God has available for us in His kingdom. Persecution because of righteousness is a good tipoff that we’re on the right track. 

There’s a temptation, though, to stop here in our study through the Sermon on the Mount and treat this section as independent of the next one. This is an entirely understandable temptation because the two sections are nicely bracketed off from each other in pretty much every edition of the Bible published nowadays. The section we have just been in is labeled “The Beatitudes,” and the next four verses are labeled something like, “Salt and Light.” Well, what do the blessings of God’s kingdom have to do with our being salt and light in the world? In a word: everything. 

Remember that what we are trying to do in this series is see the Sermon on the Mount as more than just a collection of loosely connected passages that are held together by a common label. We are working to see these three chapters as one coherent reflection on how life in God’s kingdom works. Living in God’s kingdom is a blessing, although those blessings look differently and are the result of different triggers than the world imagines they should be. But when you receive the blessings and the love of God, is that love or those blessings ever intended to be just for you? Jesus didn’t die on a cross and rise again in order to tell us to follow Him and enjoy a nice, quiet life to ourselves. He told us to follow Him on His mission to extend those blessings to everyone else. The love of God, the blessings of God always flow out. They are always intended for the other. 

It should come as exactly no surprise, then, that the first place Jesus goes after describing the blessings of God’s kingdom is to how those who have received those blessings are intended by design to help extend those blessings to the world around them. With that in mind, listen to these verses that you’ve probably heard before. 

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.” Do you see it? We could go deep into all the cultural uses for salt in that day and how they are all different metaphors for the role of the Christian in the world—it’s a preservative, it’s a seasoning, it’s a means of highlighting the flavor or beauty of something, and so on—but the bigger point when we take these verses fully in context is not simply that we should be those things (and indeed we should), but that we should be those things because we have received the blessings of God’s kingdom. If you are a follower of Jesus, you are to be salt in the world not just because Jesus said so, but because Jesus has blessed you with the blessings of His kingdom. Those blessings weren’t just for you. The blessings of living God’s way aren’t just for us. They are for the world around us. 

“You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket , but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are in the house.” Here it is again. And we could do the same thing here. We could talk about light and its remarkable properties and how that applies to the Christian life. I preached a sermon once in which I spent about a third of the message on that very thing. We could talk about the archeology of ancient Israel and their lamps and how they were used in a home. We went to the Museum of the Bible while we were gone last week and they had some archeologically accurate houses from ancient Israel on display, and it was really neat to see that very thing in practice. It was really neat seeing the little lamps set high on the wall so the light shined through the room. But all of that, while it makes for great sermon material, is subsequent to this one key point: the blessings of living God’s way aren’t just for us. 

If you have received the blessings of God’s kingdom through Jesus then you are indeed the light of the world—a light that is meant to be shared. If you aren’t sharing it, then it’s an open question of whether or not you have really received it because God’s blessings, God’s love always flow out. The blessings of living God’s way aren’t just for us. “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” 

As we are preparing to get into the real depths of the Sermon on the Mount, it is right and proper that Jesus would start here. Above and before everything else that we are going to talk about should sit this one overriding concept. The blessings of living God’s way aren’t just for us. They are intended to flow through us into the world around us. You’ve got friends and neighbors and family members who haven’t experienced the blessings of being a part of God’s kingdom yet. God has placed them in your sphere of influence specifically so you can share those blessings with them by being Gospel salt and light for them. And if they happen to hate on you in response to your efforts, just smile in knowing that you are on the right track and keep extending the blessings of love and kindness and gentleness and compassion and mercy and patience and justice and more that are part and parcel with God’s advancing kingdom. The blessings of living God’s way aren’t just for us. 

But if the thought of going out to share the blessings of God’s kingdom seems a bit overwhelming to you, number one, we need to talk about that because God has plans for you to do that very thing. Number two, though, how about we talk about what’s going on right here in our midst. The work that God is doing in this church right now isn’t just for us. If you have connected here, God has a role for you to play in the blessings He is unleashing here. And, I’ll be honest: for many of you—and more than are currently involved in it—that role is going to involve pouring the Gospel into the ever-increasing number of kids and youth who are here. If you are not already involved in our kids or youth ministries (including the nursery), unless God has specifically told you that’s not where you need to be serving, you probably need to be serving there. We need you to be serving there. They need you to be serving there. You have received blessings from being a part of God’s kingdom that were not intended to be just for you. The blessings of living God’s way aren’t just for us. 

Should I be even more specific than that in case you aren’t sure what this could look like for you? Right now we have one big group for the youth, and two groups for the kids. We need at least two groups for the youth and at least three groups for the kids. Have you tried to get 14 preschoolers crammed in a small room to stay focused for more than about five minutes…on anything? I experienced some of that this past week for maybe the first time ever. I’ve always taught the older kids at VBS and they gave me the 4-year-olds this week. And they told me there were 14 of them, but I’m pretty sure they were lying to me. I think there were about a thousand of them in there. And we had a blast. But with a group of less than ten, I could have probably gotten through a bunch more of the material I had prepared for them. Listen: Last Sunday did you realize there were 14 kids in each children’s church group? That really needs to be less than 10 in a group. We can make that happen by either driving half of them away, or adding another group. I vote for the latter, which means we need you in the teaching rotation if you aren’t already. We’re going to need the same thing on Wednesday nights come August because I’m not turning away any kids. The blessings of living God’s way aren’t just for us. So, let’s make sure we don’t keep them to ourselves. 

We are experiencing the growth of God’s kingdom in real time here at First Baptist Oakboro right now. We are collectively tasting and seeing the goodness of our God. We are encountering the blessings of His presence everywhere we look. When I planned on this series for this summer last July, I didn’t have any idea what things were going to look like by the time we got here. I didn’t have any idea just how much we were going to need a clear and compelling vision of God’s kingdom to further shape and direct our efforts to share in its blessings with every single person here and all the people around us who aren’t. But God did. He knew just where we were going to be with our ministries, with our kids and youth programs, and with our building process. He knew who was going to be here and what blessings of His kingdom they were going to need to experience. And He wanted us to know that the blessings of living God’s way aren’t just for us. They’re for everyone. That’s what being a part of growing His kingdom means. So, let’s live into it together. Let’s commit together to continue to share them so that He will keep right on pouring them. Let’s commit to living out the truth that the blessings of living God’s way aren’t just for us and share them accordingly.