Tag: Grace

The Good News About High Standards

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Last week, as we continued our summer teaching series, A Kingdom Vision, we started working through the second half of Matthew 5. We often look at these verses as a series of only loosely connected blocks of teaching from Jesus. What we came to discover, though, is that in this section Jesus is doing something really important. He is helping us see and understand the self-righteousness is not the way into God’s kingdom. That’s not how God’s kingdom works. His kingdom is a kingdom of grace. After establishing this fact, Jesus gives us six examples to prove His point. Let’s work through those today as we finish up the rest of Matthew 5 together.

The Good News About High Standards

We have been watching a series on the Angel Studios streaming service called Guarded lately. It’s a basic romantic-drama. One of the main characters is the billionaire owner of a tech company, and one of the prominent plotlines so far revolves around his relationship with his father. No matter what he does, no matter how successful he becomes, his father is only ever critical. He seems to almost delight in pointing out every flaw he has or mistake he makes. His character hasn’t said it out loud, but you can tell that he feels like no matter how hard he tries, he’s never going to be good enough for his dad. 

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An Elevated Standard

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This week we are continue our summer teaching series, A Kingdom Vision. The rest of Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount continues a series of seemingly disconnected blocks of teaching from Jesus. Well, they share a stylistic connection, but beyond that, they seem independent of one another. But something Jesus says at the beginning (and which we are going to talk about today) and the end, tie them all together in a way that is as unexpected as it is difficult to hear. Brace yourself for what comes next because it is going to challenge some of your most fundamental operating code. Let’s talk about how we don’t get into God’s kingdom and why that matters so much.

An Elevated Standard

Let me start out of the gate here by saying something you have probably never heard a preacher say in a sermon, and definitely not as his opening statement. Are you ready for this? Here goes: My goal this morning is to make you feel discouraged and depressed. Aren’t you glad you came today? But that’s okay, next week…I’m going to make it even worse! I’ll bet you can’t wait to hear that now. (But you definitely want to be here, because we have a special gift for guys next week about which I am personally very excited.) 

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Mural showing a contrast between justice with a masked figure and scales, and forgiveness with two hands clasped

The Hard Way of the Gospel

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“Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, ‘Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay,’ says the Lord. But ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head.'” (Romans 12:19-20 CSB – Read the chapter)

Everybody loves the idea of love. We love the good feelings we associate with it. We love the idea of doing good things for someone we really care about. We love having someone support us and express their concern for us. And that’s a good thing because those are good things. But real love, the love of Christ, is bigger than that. It is harder than that. Being committed to someone else’s good sometimes means doing the hard thing to help them get back on the track of that good even when they have drifted from that path. Sometimes it even means actively taking steps to stop them from doing evil. This requires commitment on the part of the one who is doing the loving; commitment to the point of sacrifice. After all, to express the ultimate love for us, Jesus sacrificed His own life on the cross so that we might live. Marvel’s most recent small screen offering, the second season of Daredevil: Born Again, puts all of this on display in a really powerful way. Let’s talk about it.

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Morning Musing: Luke 23:33-34

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“When they arrived at the place called The Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, because they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided his clothes and cast lots.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

My boys are all at or nearly in their teenage years. One thing teenage boys like to do is play. And one of the games we tend to play most around my house is to see who can hit each other with something last. One will hit the other with something – not hard, but playfully – and the other responds in kind. Then the first hits him back, and this continues back and forth until someone wins. How does someone win exactly? Well, in most cases the winner is whoever managed to get the last hit in before Mom or Dad finally tells them to knock it off. If it’s me they’ve picked a fight with, though, I win because I just respond with such overwhelming force that they don’t have a chance. If they start it, I make sure I finish it. Around the house this kind of thing is just playful and fun. It’s teenage boys being teenage boys. But there’s something deeper here worth considering. This desire to get someone back when they’ve offended us is natural. It is natural, but if we don’t control it, it can quickly lead to far more hurt than whatever the original offense was. Unfortunately, we can’t control it. But there is a power that can help. This power was put on display rather poignantly recently. Let’s talk about Erika Kirk and Gospel forgiveness.

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Morning Musing: Romans 11:17-18

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“Now if some of the branches were broken off,  and you, though a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and have come to share in the rich root of the cultivated olive tree, do not boast that you are better than those branches. But if you do boast—you do not sustain the root, but the root sustains you.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

The relationship between Christians and Jews over the last 2,000 years has been complicated. While at least a sizable percentage of evangelical Christians today are very supportive of the nation of Israel, professed followers of Jesus have at other times been the chief persecutors of Jewish people. Such behavior and prejudice finds no support in the Scriptures at all, but Paul seemed to anticipate at least a belittling attitude toward his genetic people on behalf of his spiritual people. Let’s take the next few days and walk through his argument against such thinking starting with the illogical nature of spiritual arrogance.

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