03.27.2011 Sermon on the Mount Finale - Time to Live it!

03.27.2011 Grace Summit Sermon - Sermon on the Mount - the Challenge to LIVE IT! from Grace Summit on Vimeo.

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We are finishing the Sermon on the Mount.
Matt. 7: 13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. 14 "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it. 15 "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn [bushes,] nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 "Even so, every good tree bears good fruit; but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 "So then, you will know them by their fruits. 21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. 22 "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.' 24 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock. 25 "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and [yet] it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock. 26 "And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. 27 "And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall." 28 The result was that when Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as [one] having authority, and not as their scribes.
Let’s pray:
Lord, we ask You to help us as we work through this difficult passage. We ask that You would give us hearts that are able to respond to what You would say to us – You have a message for us – You’ve drawn us together for a purpose – and we want You to talk to us – touch what needs to be touched – we depend on You – We have needs and You are the only one to meet them. Strengthen, comfort and encourage our hearts today. Amen.
There is no more instruction or ethical teaching in these three paragraphs – He has already done that. Now there is a call to respond to what He has said. Jesus is not satisfied with just giving the message – He expects people to respond. Close it off with a call to action. The Christian life isn’t good enough simply to know – yes, we need to know, but we also need to act with what we know! The other thing He does – He gives a serious warning. To be honest – for me – I think – why do I need to do this. It would be really easy to cut it off at do unto others and Kum ba yah! But we are going to do this – this passage can be a little confusing – and it can also be a little disturbing. Three questions come to mind:
It may cause us to question our own security and salvation – Lord, Lord, and I never knew you! Maybe you are concerned for someone else – who at one point – said, Yeah, I’m a Christian – but may be questioning.
It could appear that a person gets to heaven based on how good they are – by their good deeds and not by God’s grace.
Third – and this might be the hardest – Narrow/small/few – seems unfair of God. The majority are going to destruction?
Now, this next sentence, I spent a lot of time writing.
I will attempt to do my best – to address two of these questions! Because these are difficult – and I am not going to whitewash it – but I’ll do my best – it may not be a perfect answer – but it should be the beginning of understanding what Jesus is saying here.
First – who is He talking to? That is question 1 –
Matt. 5:1 And when He saw the multitudes, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. 2 And opening His mouth He [began] to teach them, saying, 3 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for …
He is speaking to His disciples. What does that mean? John, James, Bartholomew, Ringo…? We don’t know the exact chronology – even in Matthew, Matthew isn’t called until chapter 8 – and we know this is the beginning of Jesus’ ministry – there were probably people there who were considering being His disciple. There were people who were curious – look at all these people – thousands listening to this guy – anytime there is a crowd – rush to see what it is about. Like rubberneckers!
There were probably people there expecting a miracle – This is better than live television!
I’m sure for those of us here – we’d have been like the ones who left everything to follow Jesus. But maybe you know someone who goes to church just to give God his hour on Sunday morning – or there are some of you here – I mean – out in the world – who are here because their spouse or parents make them!
As we get into this passage – what Jesus is doing – one of the main points – He is attempting to sift out the true followers from those who aren’t! Who will be with me when this is over? If someone were to cast out demons and do miracles today – it would draw a crowd. And if it were a church, the attitude would be to keep it up – but Jesus is trying to sift them out. Even at one point – everyone left – and Jesus said – Will you leave too?
It is important to understand, as we look at this – to know who He is talking to.
Matt. 7: 13 "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it. 14 "For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.
First – it seems a little confusing – for those who grew up there – they knew their Old Testament Bible well. Jewish boys had to have the first five books memorized by the age of 12. They had to have it memorized in Hebrew! Knowing English – that must have been hard!
This concept of there being two ways – and only two ways – that is what they grew up with. In our pluralistic society – to say there are two ways to live – you are looking for an argument! There are two ways to live – the right way and the wrong way and I have the right way! That would sound arrogant. But for those who understood the Old Testament – they understood this.
Deut. 30 15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Life and Death – Blessing and curse – Choose life –
They would have gotten this – there is God’s way – and every other way – just two ways. Now – where the Jewish people messed up – they interpreted The Narrow Way incorrectly – sometimes they got it – but most of the time – they had a wrong understanding of what the narrow way was. For the majority of the time – they believed that they were on the narrow way – Why? Because they were Jewish! We were the correct ones –t he chosen ones – and as long as we are a part of that, we are okay. They believed that the narrow way would work out – the Messiah would come and He would give them military/political victory, power and prosperity – and when Jesus came – their hopes were going up – but then when He says that the narrow way is the way of difficulty and persecution – with great cost – but in the end there is great reward – and they weren’t expecting that. They wanted their troubles to be over – and He is saying – I am going to give you some more.
We believed we were the select people and this is not the way it is supposed to be! But Jesus is asking – Are you on the narrow way? And He is asking us that too – are you on the narrow way? That is a scary question. Jesus gives the metaphor of the gates – and then the trees –
He warns against false teachers – people who declare things that are not true to try to draw a crowd – but underlying beneath this – Jesus is saying – He is the true prophet – it is a contrast to the false prophets. They don’t get that yet – they will miss this time and time again – and at His death, they miss it – and after the resurrection – they still miss it – and not until Pentecost do they understand it. We have to get in the shoes of those hearing this – changing their perspective of what they have always thought – and there are things He has to do with us – things we have always held to that are not in the Bible – Where did you get that? The Bible is true - I may not be! And I probably don’t agree with 20% of what I say when I watch it years later! But God is true – Jesus is God’s prophet and He is true – He is not just giving instructions – but is revealing Himself.
You are the light of the world! He is the light of the world!
Blessed are the poor/etc. – That is HIM!
The guys on the road to Emmaus – they don’t get it and then their eyes are opened up. A lot of times, that happens with us. God has to open our eyes to get it – it is about Jesus – not about us.
He talks about the trees – bearing good and bad fruit.
Apple trees do what? Bear apples! What do maple trees do? Bear helicopters that mess up your gutters and get water in your basement and there is no bitterness here.
All through your life- it will show what type of tree you are.
21 "Not everyone who says to me, `Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
IT is not what you say – but how you live. 70-75% of people surveyed say they are Christians – but does the fruit show what you are?
When I was in college ministry – we would accost people with this! People would be sitting in the oval – and we would ask this question – If you were to die tonight and stand before God – what would you say to him? Does it work today? Yes, they tell me! It is a good question – but no one is going to be asked that question – You know why? It is already determined before they get there. You decide now what goes on then! And the reality is – we don’t want to give anyone the impression that if they SAY Jesus died for my sins, that they are all good – while that is true – Jesus is asking – where is the fruit? Is it seen in the way you live? It doesn’t mean that you get there by living right – you have to believe right – if you say you have faith but don’t have works, James asks, what good is that?! Over time – there should be this reality that things are changing – for some – it will be slow – for others, will be very fast.
Sometimes it takes years for a tree to bear fruit! Other things – the fruit comes right away – and the same is true for those who trust Christ. It may take longer for some – but it is changing over time.
Prophesy – perform miracles – this is not a cut on charismatic Christianity – Prophets were a real thing – Jesus was actually doing these things! But what He is saying – you can have all the trappings of being a Christian – and not have it be genuine in the heart.
He goes to a third metaphor:
24 "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. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
We have all seen the videos of the tsunami in Japan picking up houses and cars and it is unbelievable – but Jesus is saying – there is a great tsunami coming to you – The Jews had been 5-700 years of living under the rule of other people – being conquered by other nations – 3 different nations – and the prophets were saying – a Messiah is coming who will change everything – and there is promise after promise after promise – and Jesus is saying – NO – you have it wrong – there is a storm coming and how have you built your house? Jerusalem will be destroyed – the Messiah will be persecuted – insulted – and nailed to a cross –and He will die – Are you ready for the storm.
DA Carson – famous New Testament scholar – Only the storm can reveal the quality of the work of the two builders –
And it is no different for us – only the storm can reveal the quality of our work – where the quality and type of people we are is made evident to all.
In closing – instead of being scared – He is calling His disciples – some of whom are curious – to obedience – It is not enough to just show up – make a decision.
It is a warning – examine where you stand. What is your house like? Check your faith! Is it genuine? James calls for that – Paul calls for that! Is it your faith, or are you just trying to impress someone else. When the storm comes, you are not going to make it on someone else’s faith. You can only make it on genuine faith.
Third, and most important – Jesus is declaring to everyone WHO HE IS. When He talks about the prophet/the Law/ the light of the world – He is all these things. Go by the narrow gate! I AM the narrow gate! I am the door – the only gate – the only way! And the most important thing – He is revealing WHO HE IS to people who aren’t getting it – they aren’t catching it. He goes to the cross and dies on the cross – get ready for the storm – but Sunday’s a coming! It ends with this hope!
Over the next 3 weeks, we will be doing EMHE – The hope we have as Christians – the Hope we have in Christ. My burden is light –I am gentle and humble of heart – you will find rest for your souls.
It all takes place in what Jesus accomplishes for us in this Easter holiday. You can’t live this way on your own – You must be perfect as my Father is perfect? Who does that?
The hope that Christ offers in THIS life – it is not just the future! There is hope for being a Christian today and living this life. We can’t be like the disciples and get it all backwards thinking it is political or materialistic hope.
The second hope we’ll look at is in community – where we find this hope – and how we become that type of community –
And finally – the final part in two parts – Palm Sunday and Easter – hope for the future – understating what comes after this life – and that is so important in how we live this life. We often get it wrong.
Each of these messages will give the opportunity to hear the hope of what Christ has done for us – and if you have someone you would like to see come to Christ – this would be an excellent opportunity to hear how to do that.
I heard on the news – some pastor – the church gave away 1000 on Easter – like, a door prize – and their attendance doubled! We are not going to do that here – but the point I want to make – a lot of people are thinking about going back to church – and as people do that – they need to hear what it means what Jesus did for them – we need to be a community that helps to reveal that.
It is impossible for us to make it - You have made it for us – You have brought it about. By Your grace – we know it is possible because of what You have done for us – in Your name we pray – Amen.