Matthew 4:18-5:4 - Skip Heitzig

[Music] welcome to expound our weekly worship and verse by verse study of the Bible our goal is to expand your knowledge of the truth of God by explaining the Word of God in a way that is interactive enjoyable and congregational we call this a textual community let's rejoice and learn God's Word in an interactive and enjoyable new way and Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee saw two brothers Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen that he said to them follow me I will make you fishers of men they immediately left their nets and followed him tonight Pastor skip will begin to expound the Beatitudes often referred to as the Sermon on the Mount Jesus taught his followers from a hill situated on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee today a beautiful chapel sits atop the traditional site of Jesus sermon funded in part incidentally by the Italian dictator Mussolini as we study the scripture tonight we will hear Jesus give us Kingdom lessons lessons they pertain to every aspect of the Christian life welcome to expound and the book of Matthew father thank you for the flock we're your flock you're our Shepherd as David boasted the Lord is my shepherd because of that Lord does nothing that we need there's nothing that we want we're not in lack of anything you have provided perfectly totally Lord thank you for the life of Jesus that we're able to study a little more rapidly than on Sunday morning and father I thank you for a hungry flock who will take the truth that they learned tonight that we learn and go out and share it with others and their lives will be transformed their families this community will be changed because of the truth that you will impart tonight we'd love that the Word of God will never return void we believe it and I pray Lord that you administered everyone who has come just exactly in the situation that we are in you know what we need you know who we are and so we come seeking you and seeking first your kingdom knowing that everything else will be added to us even as the Sermon on the Mount so beautifully proclaims in Jesus name Amen I want to read a little article that I found written some time back it says it's a bedrock belief of Christianity not a topic for debate until now a venerable Protestant denomination at the behest of some of its conservative members is preparing to vote next month on a measure declaring that Jesus Christ is the Lord and making it mandatory for clergy to accept his divinity it may seem like a slam dunk but delegates for and it names this large mainline denomination may reject the resolution several pastors who aren't delegates to the convention said they expect the measure to fail now what this mainline denomination was and is arguing over and I'm not mentioning them on purpose the disciples are experiencing and have come to the decision that Jesus Christ is their Lord they're about to make a lifetime decision of following him in chapter 4 we read through it last week we didn't really have time to expound on it as is the name of this whole endeavor on Wednesday nights and we want to expound a little bit on the disciples and their following of Christ they knew Jesus they were acquainted with him far before Jesus called them in Matthew chapter 4 John's Gospel indicates that they were acquainted with him they had asked about him they hung around him down south at the baptism where John the Baptist was at the Jordan River and Jesus came and was baptized but now Jesus calls them into ministry in chapter 4 and we're gonna begin at verse 18 of Matthew chapter 4 now a word about these disciples and where they're at all they have known in their life their whole world is the Sea of Galilee a lake their whole world was a countryside lake it was confined to this agrarian fishermen lifestyle it's all they knew it's all they expected now it's called the Sea of Galilee you ought to know that the Hebrews were fond of calling Lakes by the term seas if someone who has seen huge bodies of water comes to see the lake of galilee they would say why is this thing called the Sea of Galilee any body of water was given that name even the Inland Sea called the Dead Sea that the jordan river connects from the upper sea of galilee down to the Dead Sea the Sea of Galilee is a lake that is below sea level it's about 12 to 13 miles long and about nine miles wide it's called Galilee because that's the district it's in the area of Galilee the northern district of the land if you have a map in the back of your Bible it's good to look at it because you're gonna notice something as you look at the map of the Galilee region go to that northern region and find the Sea of Galilee now that Sea of Galilee that's how we typically know it goes by other names in the scripture but it's the same body of water the lake of Gannett it's called that in the Gospel of Luke janessa Rhett because this flat agricultural plane on the northwestern shore is named after the city of Gannett surrett and the plane of Gannett surrett is connected with the city where the fields were located and so the lake which fed that area was also called the lake of Gannett syrup if you are reading the Old Testament you won't find the lake of Gannett you won't find the Sea of Galilee you'll find when the land is apportioned out in the Old Testament under Joshua that is called the lake of Kinneret and that is the present Jewish name in Israel today the canary lake why is it called canary it comes from the Hebrew word keen or and Kannur is a harp and if you now look at the map in the back of your Bible and look at the lake of galilee you notice that it is shaped like an ancient hebrew Kannur or harp so they called it harp like canary organ s earth if you like to name it after the plane or galilee if you want to name it after that Northern District or here's another title mentioned in the New Testament named after a city on the south western shore built by Herod the lake of Tiberias named after Tiberius Caesar and that city is still in existence today it's really the main city that is there it was a hellenized kommen city and if you've been with us to Israel or if you plan on coming next year we're gonna put you on a boat in Tiberias and take it all the way to where Jesus hung out and had his headquarters the area of Capernaum and that's something to be on the sea of galilee in a boat and then to stop the boat in the middle of the lake and to just worship the lord and to pray there and then to have the captain of that boat take out a net that is modeled after an ancient net and toss it out in a circular fashion and so you see how they cast nets from the boats something that we're gonna read about tonight that's just a little bit about what these disciples knew there were nine towns on the western lake board I was going to say seaboard of the lake of Galilee on canary and these were fishing towns and that was its principal industry it was a freshwater inland lake that was very very deep and had many species of fish and it was the livelihood of many people who lived in that area now verse 18 we get the call of the disciples not all of them but four of Myr mentioned here and Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee saw two brothers Simon called Peter Shimon means God here's Peter is the name Jesus gives him later on Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea for they were fishermen and then he jesus said to them follow me and I will make you fishers of men now that is a command he's giving them not really an invitation it's in the imperative it's a command hey you guys drop everything now come follow me as I mentioned they knew Jesus before they were with John the Baptist and they inquired about this Jesus and John pointed to Jesus look behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world so they already knew Jesus from that event they had gone back to Galilee they started resuming their chores as fishermen and working again which was which was common and now Jesus gives them a command to drop everything and go full-time the reason this was unusual is because disciples of rabbis were expected to carry on their normal jobs in life they would stay employed they would stay doing what they were doing and they would be able to work for themselves and supply their own way and often as I mentioned Sunday would pay the mentor for his services of training them and disciple in him but here Jesus not only calls them which was against the Rabbinical style the students that Talmud eeeem in Hebrew would choose the master Jesus chooses them but he calls them now to full-time work to leave everything to drop everything to leave their profession he said follow me and I will make you fishers of men notice the command he doesn't say go to a class on evangelism and I will make you fishers of men I have nothing against classes on evangelism by the way so no notes okay he didn't say hey there's a really good book you've got to read once you read that then I'll make you fishers of men or go to this really awesome seminar he just said simply follow me hang out with me spend time with me in my presence that will so totally change you you will be different people that you'll develop the same heart that I have for people and you'll be out fishing for the souls of men just like I am I love that one follows the other hang out with me be in my presence you're gonna start doing what I'm doing you're gonna start loving what I love so the commandment and so verse 20 they immediately left there nets and followed him Jesus commandment to them was a verse of scripture that the Lord impressed upon my heart many years ago it was one of the it is one of the reasons I'm I'm here actually when I came out here I didn't really know what to expect other than I was newly married and I knew that I would have to adjust to being married and to a location that I had never really lived in before leaving Southern California about three days after I was married in an old truck that was burning oil I had landed a job I found an apartment we moved here we looked at each other like huh we're married aren't we this is a brand-new life we don't know anybody in this town but we know each other and we know the Lord and we know the Lord brought us here and when we started the Bible study not far from here at the Lakes apartments over on San Mateo we started it and I remember telling the Lord based on this verse Lord I'm a Fisher of men that's what you've called me to do I'm happy to do it and this is the fishing hole that you put me in I'm gonna fish here for a year after a year if I don't catch any fish I'm not I mean I if you're a fisherman you love this sport you love the activity for you it's enough to just get out there and do it but if you really want to catch fish and you don't catch any in that fishing hole for a year you're gonna go somewhere where the fish are bitin right that's how I was thinking Lord I'll be here a year if I don't catch any fish I'm out of here I didn't really make it past six months I was just homesick my parents were there Lenny's parents were there our friends were there and I didn't really see a whole lot of fruit although you know I just been there a few months I don't know what I was expecting but I remember telling Lenny one day said Lynn yeah I've never started a church I really don't know what I'm doing maybe I should get some help first maybe somebody that I know would be gracious enough to put me on staff for a while and teach me what I ought to do so I said it was wintertime at the time and for a Southern Californian though Albuquerque's considered pretty mild for people if you're from Michigan that's where my wife is from so yeah this is mild for me it was extraordinarily harsh there was this translucent white stuff on the ground in the wintertime I didn't know what it was and my wife had to say honey that's just frost don't worry about it you'll make it just fine and as I was encouraging her honey we're just gonna go somewhere else the Lord spoke to my heart and said you owe me six months and reminded me of the little conversation that we had Lord you called me to be a Fisher of men and I'm gonna give it a year and I know that you know and all that stuff the Lord just said you owe me six months I talked it over with my elders at the time when we were starting our little study and they said give it six months I would obey the Lord on this one boy am I glad that I waited in the fishing hole another six months and saw the Lord move like he has moved I wasn't as compliant as these disciples they immediately left their nets and they followed him now just think for a moment the journey that they were about to embark on all they have known is this countryside lake all they have known is casting out the nets and cleaning the fish and selling the fish and knowing friends and family around the lake that's all they knew okay they probably had been to Jerusalem a few times for the festivals but that's all they knew within a few years this fisherman named Peter will be standing in Jerusalem casting out a spiritual net and after one of his sermons 3,000 fish will be caught 3,000 souls we'll come into the kingdom I'm sure Peter went man am I glad I left that day man am I glad that I immediately left everything and followed this Jesus this is exciting of course it wasn't always that exciting he died a martyr's death but I'm sure he was happy to do it for his Lord's sake then there was John he's also mentioned in the next few verses John a fisherman with his brother James and their dad they had the Zebedee fishing business around Galilee John will become a pastor in Ephesus Asia Minor modern-day turkey he's gonna go all the way from that lake all the way toward one of the principal cities of the Empire Ephesus and he'll pastor there and then he'll be exiled to an island in the middle of the sea the Patmos Island a prison colony he's probably sitting there going I don't know man this I didn't expect this when I said yes to Jesus but it was there that John will be given a vision of the end of the world the end of times the kingdom age the New Jerusalem the new heavens and the new earth just think of the journey in saying yes to Jesus and what it would mean for us and what excitement it would mean for them as they left everything well let's look at these two brothers verse 21 then going on from there he saw two other brothers James the son of Zebedee and John his brother now they were in the boat with Zebedee their father mending their nets he called them and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him now they're sitting in the boat with dad and they get up and they leave dad holding the net see ya dad we're out of here hey wait where are you kids going you're on the clock you just can't leave see it we're out of here we're not coming home for dinner and they were gone now James is mentioned this is James the son of John or the brother of John but I just want to throw this in so you don't get thrown off later on there are two men who are Jesus apostles who are named James this James and another guy named James the son of Alphaeus he's called James the less this guy here is known as James the greater because James is in the inner circle with Jesus then there's another James later on who is the half-brother of Jesus one of the sons of Mary and Joseph who is a non-believer enduring Jesus ministry who will become a believer after the resurrection and will become in charge of the church at Jerusalem so there's three James you have to keep in your mind as you go through this narrative this is James the fisherman the brother of John John who wrote the Gospel of John 1st 2nd 3rd John and the book of Revelation those are the Zebedee boys now do you remember the nickname that Jesus is going to give to James and John sons of thunder because these two boys now I don't know how you picture John and James who might picture them very meek I don't picture them that way at all I pictured them sort of rowdy because after all he called them sons of thunder because they were going through a town in Samaria the Samaritans had a different worldview and didn't really believe in the Jewish Messiah and they didn't receive Jesus as Messiah and they really didn't like Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem and these Samaritans hated Jerusalem so James and John suggested to Jesus that they call fire down from heaven and destroy all the Samaritans as if they had the power to do so I think they were asking permission Lord could you give us the power to nuke them I don't picture them as meek and mild I picture them as like the New Testament skinheads you know the Goths their robes were black leather they were the tough kids on the block now they get change as they follow Jesus but Jesus humorously nicknamed them sons of thunder now here's the good news they get transformed from sons of thunder to sons of wonder Jesus does a wonderful work in their lives John's writings are some of the most gracious beautiful Christ's exalting literature in all of the Bible he's a changed man because Jesus gets ahold of him and so I love that he takes us the way we are with our personalities as rough and rugged as we are but he's in the process of changing you I don't know how far he's gotten in your life he's got a ways to go on me but a lot of changes have happened nonetheless and so it is with these men now John is gonna give himself a name Jesus will call him sons of thunder remember what John calls himself yes he calls himself I'm the disciple that Jesus loved now you might hear that go gosh that's kind of prideful no I think it's beautiful because you know what I consider myself the disciple that Jesus loved and I hope you consider yourself the one that Jesus loves it's so personal to John and he felt so close to Jesus he felt that love so distinctly that he said yeah I'm the one Jesus loved that's how he calls himself by that name in his gospel what would have happened if John would have sat in that boat with his brother looked at his brother and said I don't know should we do it I don't know it's a big risk we got a good job here you know when dad's dead it could be soon we're gonna have the business it's ours man it's part of the inheritance we're the kids and we've worked long and hard on this lake we built up a reputation I think it's safer you know just to uh well we can support this whole messianic thing send a check every now and then but let's just stay put too risky nope they immediately left everything including dad and I know they were glad they made that choice is there some area a further service ministry that God is calling some of you too but you've been wrestling anything boy risky to leave my comfort zone to go to another country or to another place to another city to to another group of people whatever the case might be if it's the prompting of the Lord listen to that surrender to that don't move too quickly don't move ahead of the Lord but don't dig your heels in either if it's the Lord's call immediately they left the boat and their father and they followed him now verse 23 is a summary we're getting into the Sermon on the Mount you can tell I'm going slow don't think I'm gonna finish chapter 5 if we finish the Beatitudes tonight we'll be blessed by God but this is important material here and here's what Matthew is doing Matthew's focus is going to be on what Jesus said the sermons Jesus gave five discourses that he gives are highlighted in the Gospel of Matthew the first one is coming up in chapter 5 6 and 7 we call it the Sermon on the Mount so what what Matthew does before he gets there to that first great discourse that first great message this gives us a little resume a little summary here's the summary of Jesus ministry activity and geography this is what he was doing and he just sums it up neatly in a verse or two Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in the synagogues preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease among the people let me just frame something for you so you understand the impact of that statement I talked about Galilee the northern district the lake the area of Galilee come prai's 28,000 square miles it was 40 miles wide by 70 miles tall if you look at it on a map according to josephus there were 204 towns cities villages in the area of galilee 204 and Josephus said each of those had no less than 15,000 people so that makes the population of Galilee around 3 million people at the time of Jesus now I'll be fair there is some dispute about that a lot of scholars reckon 3 Millions a little high for Galilee and it might be so and here's their reasoning when Josephus wrote that which was around 60 66 AD he was the governor of Galilee he was the head political official and it is thought that Josephus wanted to sort of give the impression that he was the governor over a larger group of people so he embellished the numbers a little bit Josephus isn't a biblical writer he's a historian so it could be that there were 350,000 people but at a zero to it and makes it more impressive on the books especially for the Romans and he was friends with the Romans we can't be certain that's just what he writes but it was a sizable populated area also known as we mentioned last time the Galilee of the Gentiles because many Gentiles made war there and settled around that area so he sums it up and he was in Galilee and noticed the three activities Jesus did preaching the gospel of the kingdom or first of all teaching in the synagogue's second preaching the gospel of the kingdom and third healing all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease now please notice the order of those activities because when ancient historians wrote they put the thing most importance as number one number one I believe to Jesus as seen in the Gospel of Matthew we'll get into a chapter five his teaching he taught people he expounded the scripture he's doing what what we're doing taking precepts and principles then he was preaching the gospel of the kingdom to unbelievers unbelievers need the preaching of the gospel believers don't really need the preaching of the gospel they're saved they need the teaching of the word to grow and then third he was healing now some people would have reversed the order and said Jesus was healing he had a healing ministry yes he did but that was subservient to preaching which was subservient to teaching number one on his list was teaching precept upon precept helping people understand the truths of God I do believe that many ministries are out of balance many so called healing ministries or even so-called preaching ministries because there's no teaching it's filled with exhortation you ought to be doing this you ought to love more you want to evangelize more you ought to do this that's that's great that's exhortation or proclamation but when you keep telling people every week you ought to be doing this you have to be doing that if you don't tell them how to do it if you don't teach them how to do it it's very frustrating so why all preaching and all exhortation is very frustrating to sit under it's like you're constantly getting kicked and kicked and kicked and patted and prodded and the people are poor people are crying out just teach me how to do this what you're telling me the teaching is so important and Jesus did that then his fame went throughout all of Syria and they brought to him all the sick people who were afflicted with various diseases and torments and those who were demon-possessed epileptics paralytics and He healed them Jesus popularity went up north to Syria not to a Galilean they didn't think of Syria in the nation of Syria properly but anything north of Galilee to a Galilean was Syria to them they didn't think much about the other geography above and beyond that just whatever's north of us that's Syria so Jesus popularity went far up north and what excited people and what drew the crowds no doubt was the excitement over his healing miracles I understand that if you've had a friend who's been blind your whole life and suddenly he can see or somebody who can't walk walking down the street carrying his mat that'll get your attention and these were bonafide healings it's not like oh yes my friend had a cold and now he's healed or a sore throat and touch of the flu I mean these were incurable diseases instantly they were made whole that got people's attention and what really got their attention is the first words out of Jesus mouth then accompanied by the signs and miracles was this message repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand you know every Jewish person hearing that their mind went all the way back to Isaiah 11 all the way back to Isaiah 35 those great messianic Kingdom Age prophecies so they're naturally thinking the kingdom age is upon us the what we would call the millennial kingdom we know that is the Millennium from a New Testament perspective when we put all the scriptures together we see those as being fulfilled during the thousand years when Jesus reigns on earth that's still to come to the disciples and to the Jewish audience back then when Jesus preached the kingdom and authenticated who he was with miracles they thought this is it we're about to enter that great messianic epoch the era of the Messiah because that will be a time marked with the freedom of disease the absence of pain the absence of sorrow like Revelation tells us no crying no sickness no sorrow no death they thought it was here and now brings up a question what does Jesus mean when he says the kingdom of heaven is at hand now they interpreted that to mean the Messianic era the kingdom age is upon us it doesn't mean it's about to be fulfilled as much as the kingdom of God in the presence of the person of the king is here with you I am the king of the kingdom and the king has come to you and wherever the king is and whom Oh ever the king rules over that is his kingdom and he will even say that later on my kingdom is not from this earth my kingdom is from above it's not of this world now there will come a day in the future when his kingdom will be a worldwide earthly powerful Kingdom but since two thousand years up till now it's not but the king resides in us and rules over those that will give him that free reign verse 25 great multitudes followed him from Galilee from Decapolis Jerusalem Judea and beyond Jordan he's drawn a huge circle I mentioned last 100 mile circle he's drunk this is how widespread Jesus ministry has become they see the word Decapolis it's really easy what it means just cut it in half deca polis ten cities that's what Decapolis mean ten cities because the Decapolis was a ring of ten greco-roman cities from Damascus down to Galilee mostly on the eastern side of the Jordan east of the Sea of Galilee in present-day Jordan where the Romans sought to have a Roman influence in that far eastern part of the Roman Empire so they called it the Decapolis they had Roman Baths they had the Roman Road systems they had the beautiful temples and much of that is in existence in some of these places today if you come with us to Israel coming up this year we'll take you down to the capital of the Decapolis which was known as skiffle or the Old Testament name bet shean and you will see some of the buildings the Roman greco-roman buildings from this time and the streets that are many of them pretty intact amazingly so even though the city was destroyed with an earthquake a lot of it is still intact Jerusalem Judea and beyond the Jordan verse 1 Matthew five and seeing the multitudes he went up on a mountain and when he was seated his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and he taught them saying let's read through this a little bit 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 meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are those who hunger and thirst after 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 blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven when I was a baby Christian my first Bible was a paperback it was the TeV today's English version it was called on the front cover good news for modern man just a new testament and the first book that I read was the first book under the cover of the Gospel of Matthew wasn't Genesis it was the New Testament so all I knew the first my first I cut my teeth on Matthew I started reading it I thought wow this is powerful then I decided because I started getting into chapter 1 2 3 4 and then the Beatitudes and my life started really changing I was 2 weeks in the Lord and I'm reading the Beatitudes I decided or somebody told me I needed to get a real Bible like a whole Bible so I went down to the Bible bookstore and I bought a red-letter Edition that genuine fake leather cardboard binding old a New Testament and it said red-letter and I didn't know what that read letter what is read letter and then it said Oh words of Christ in red so I went back and I started in Matthew chapter one two three and four and I thought boy if the words of Christ are in red he did he didn't have a lot to say there's a lot of black words here not a lot of red words then I came to chapter five and I went oh goodness there's a lot on his mind because chapter five six and seven it's all Jesus talking to all red letters as I started reading through the Sermon on the Mount and found what was on Jesus mind a lot of it was very comforting to me a lot of it was bothersome to me because I was convicted by what I read I saw there's a whole different standard of living that up to that point I I hadn't been living in now it's called we call it the Sermon on the Mount right that's what your Bible says mine says the Sermon on the Mount in a little paragraph heading I don't like that title first of all because well once you see the little rolling Hill where Jesus preached this it's hardly a mount and we're used to a mountain of ten thousand plus feet right outside our door and you'll see this little lake lump and they'll say this is the Mount where the Sermon on the Mount was preached and you're gonna go really that's it it sort of takes the steam away the thunder away so it's not accurate second there's no information in the title the Sermon on the Mount that's like if I said Sunday morning the name of my sermon this morning is called the sermon from the pulpit doesn't introduce you to any theme it just tells you where I'm preaching it from and what's in front of me so I don't like calling it it's really not the Sermon on the Mount it's a mountain of a sermon it's the here's a better title the sermon of the monarch it's the king giving the manifesto of the kingdom that's what it is this is kingdom living this is someone whose life is under the authority of King Jesus this is what their life will be like this is how they entered the kingdom this is how they walk in the kingdom etc the Sermon on the Mount is the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest person who ever lived how's that and when he was done preaching it the people went Wow you go really I've never read that I never read Wow well that's the nsv that's the new skip version translating look at Matthew chapter 7 verse 28 so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings that the people were astonished at his teaching I translate that as wow I was awesome Jesus for he taught them as one having Authority and not as the scribes it was a riveting sermon as a powerful sermon showing their relationship to the law their relationship to the kingdom and three incredible chapters it's a mountain of a sermon it's a sermon of the monarch now in verse 1 it says seeing the multitudes he went up on a mountain and look at this when he was seated his disciples came to him he opened his mouth and he taught them saying Jesus didn't stand for this sermon he didn't stand in front of a pulpit for this sermon that's a really a Western idea we stand and you sit in those days it was reversed the pupils would stand the teacher would sit the rabbi often taught his disciples in a number of ways if he wanted to teach them sort of casually he would walk with him but that was considered informal unofficial if the rabbi wanted to give an official teaching to demonstrate Authority he would be seated now if you are familiar with the university system you've heard this statement that professor has a chair in the university we call it that means it's a position of honor and authority he's a chaired professor he's speaking from a seated position or authoritative position it comes from this practice if you are Roman Catholic you're familiar with the term ex cathedra I remember hearing that term as a child the Pope has spoken ex cathedra that means from the chair seated upon the chair and st. Peters he's giving church dogma and if he says that ex cathedra they consider it as good as Scripture unfortunately but it's a position of authority so Jesus as the rabbi was seated now notice something he's not teaching the crowds he allows them to eavesdrop it says his disciples came to him and he taught them saying he saw the multitudes he sat down his disciples came to him and he taught them that is the disciples it's a very important key here because a lot of people say well you know the Sermon on the Mount is the standard of salvation if you want to be saved you need to practice and do these things in the Sermon on the Mount and you can get to heaven oh good luck you think the ten commandments are hard why we're get through this puppy others say well this is a Charter of Nations and I've read work authors have encouraged heads of state to employ the Sermon on the Mount to bring peace on earth goodwill toward men listen telling an unbeliever to act like a Christian is idiocy there's no transformation there's no new birth yet they need a new birth Jesus has to change the earth the king has to reside in there the kingdom of God hasn't come yet to that person no this is the king giving the manifest though of the kingdom that is enabled and it'll show you how to enter the kingdom how to walk with the King how to grow with the king he'll show you that whole transformation process but this is not telling an unbeliever how to be saved so Jesus sat down the disciples came to him verse 2 he opened his mouth and he taught them saying now I just can't resist saying this because it's right here a modern church strategist would have read this and oh no why'd he do that I mean he's got a crowd out there beyond these few disciples he's got a crowd of very interested people who have seen miracles these are unbelievers they're unconverted they're religious but they're unconverted the disciples are already part of the kingdom this isn't time to do Church this is time to hold a crusade Jesus should have been preaching how to get saved and telling them that whole repentance message and going in depth why teach the disciples because that's the disciples job again I can't resist and what do we care if we finish chapter 5 this week or next week or the week after so turn with me to chapter 9 Matthew chapter 9 I'll breeze through it yeah right Matthew 9 watch this watch the pattern just so you understand Jesus thinking and how he's doing things Matthew 9 verse 35 Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness every disease among the people very similar to what we read but when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion for them because they were weary and scattered like sheep having no Shepherd now listen to what Jesus he didn't say hold on boys bring him here let me say a few words to them he said to his disciples the harvest is truly wonderful but the laborers are few therefore pray that the Lord of the harvest send out laborers into his harvest see where he's thinking here he's thinking we need more helpers out here there's a big field so when he had called his twelve disciples to them he gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease their names are given verse five these twelve Jesus set out and commanded them saying do not go into the way of the Gentiles do not enter a city of the Samaritans but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and as you go preach saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand do you see the pattern of Jesus he's gonna teach his disciples truth and then he's going to turn the disciples loose that's Jesus method teach them truths turn him loose teach the disciples get them to preach and let them go out and do it so he said pray to the Lord of the harvest now probably I don't know but could it be between chapter 9 and 10 they started praying hey did you what Jesus said today said we had a pray for four more laborers so Peter you go ahead you're you're you're the guy everybody mentions first so why don't you lead us in prayer Peter lord I pray that you just sent a whole lot more people in to let harvest field to do the work like Jesus said amen then you get to chapter 10 and Jesus has boys your prayers been answered go I'm answering your prayer by sending you into the harvest field so do you understand why teaching equipping Saints is so important because it's God's people who will go out into the community you know a lot of people get saved at this church a lot of people come to Christ Wednesday nights Saturday night Sunday mornings it's not because I'm some great preacher it's because you're obedient to Christ you're well taught you're well-fed you go out you do evangelism you invite them to church I'll just throw out the net from time to time and all of your work in cooperation with the Spirit of God they get caught in the net and we all rejoice together so Jesus trains the disciples and dispatches them into the world and they go out so back to Matthew five wow we made it to two verses he opened his mouth and he taught them saying blessed that's a word you find in every one of these Beatitudes that's why they're called Beatitudes because it begins with the word blessed now these are Beatitudes it's been often said it tells us who a Christian is it's our character it's not what we do it's who we are they're not called do attitudes or called Beatitudes this is what you are and I am to be by the grace of God begins with the word blessed macario's in greek a better term blissful happy contented not a surface temporary joy but something deep and abiding oh how happy to be envied oh how blissful he says are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven this is how you enter the kingdom to enter the kingdom of heaven you have to come humbly you don't come proud you don't come puffed up and saying well I'm this and I'm that and I've earned you come poor in spirit the word poor is the work word tokus and it literally means threadbare poverty-stricken it speaks of abject poverty destitute would be a better term bankrupt would be another term in classical Greek it described a person who had one hand over his face not to be recognized by the crowd or one hand out for a handout but he put one like don't look at me that's poor in spirit I'm so poor I'm so bankrupt I have no resources in and of myself that's how you enter the kingdom nobody is in the kingdom of God who was entered as a proud self asserting a person who's earned it but someone who recognizes I'm bankrupt nothing in my hand I bring is that old hymn Rock of Ages goes nothing in my hand I bring simply to that cross I claim I'm bankrupt before God if you send a sinner to school he'll be you'll have an educated sinner if you send a sinner to a psychiatrist you'll have a well-adjusted sinner give a sinner money and you'll have a wealthy sinner give a sinner religion have them sign a pledge card and join a church and you'll have a religious sinner but send a sinner repentant of this sin to the cross and you'll have a forgiven sinner so the idea is I recognize my I'm broke before God I'm poverty-stricken I can't make it on my own that's how I enter lowly poor bankrupt then verse 4 blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted because I realize I am bankrupt I come number 1 humbly I come number 2 sorrowfully I'm mourning over my sin o God forgive me forgive me now notice it doesn't say blessed are those who moan this isn't a scripture like oh I can complain it's right there in the Bible it's my favorite verse I can line them doesn't say blessed are the whiners whiners aren't blessed and anybody around them is not either morning is different than moaning oh by the way in the first beatitude it doesn't say blessed are the poor I've heard this mistranslated bless it in spirit are the poor didn't say that there's nothing there's nothing that's a spiritual blessing about being poor it's a spiritual condition blessed are the poor and spirit poverty-stricken in spirit that is spiritually I have nothing with which I could ever approach God in and of myself that's being poor in spirit that causes number two that I mourn over my sin sorrowful over my sin blessed are those who mourn they shall be comforted now this sounds like an oxymoron blessed or oh how happy are those who mourn one translation says happy are the sad see that doesn't compute to us that doesn't make any sense because in America in in in the West here we think that the way to happiness is to avoid sadness to avoid pain to avoid ministry a ministry minute misery no that wasn't a Freudian slip ministries pure joy but the avoidance of bad things brings happiness happy are the sad that's the Phillips translation it doesn't compute it's an oxymoron it sounds like a self contradictory statement but it's it's blessed because I'm going to get comforted because I realize ended up myself I have nothing I come to God in that condition I'm mourning over my sin and I'm comforted because of the forgiveness that comes because of it wish we had time to go through it but we don't but right in the margin of your Bible or look it up later Luke chapter 18 Jesus gives a parable about two people approaching God one of them is a Pharisee and he prays out loud God I thank you that I'm not like other people I'm not like that person or that person I'm really cool and I'm really awesome and I have fast and I tithe it's I've taken a little bit of libera and translating it but then there was someone else a tax collector now everybody hated tax collectors in this tax collector had the right idea he knew that he was bankrupt before God and he wouldn't even lift his eyes up toward heaven that's poor in spirit he looked down and he beat his breast that's morning except God be merciful to me a sinner right remember the story there's a man who is poor in spirit and there's a man who is mourning over his poverty of spirit and Jesus said that man went away justified the first man didn't go away justified he went away proud he was a religious prideful person god I thank you that I'm not like a lot of these other creeps around here hallelujah praise God Jesus said he's not justified if you're not poor in spirit you don't mourn over your sin if you know mourn over your sin you are not justified before God if you're poor in spirit you will mourn over your sin when you mourn over your sin it brings you into the state of justification that's called repentance that's called repentance and it's lacking in modern preaching and it's lacking in modern Christianity and it's a hallmark of the New Testament and Jesus said that's how you enter the kingdom recognizing your bankrupt mourning over your sins and that turns you into a person who is meek verse five blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth well finish it up there next week from there I'll give you a little bit of teaser for next week I'll explain what meekness is but here's a here's a sort of a shortcut just take the word meek and cut it in two and you'll get the idea me yeah [Applause] that should help you see the first beatitude comes from seeing who God is and it's seeing who God is and seeing how amazingly pure God is it makes you realize I'm bankrupt spiritually he's amazing it caused you to mourn and as you mourned part of that mourning as you are now seeing yourself in light of who God is and it creates this powerful transformation of meekness and I'll explain in more detail next week father in heaven thank you for the ministry that happened around Galilee and Jerusalem and how the gospel has gone forth from Jerusalem through Judea into Samaria and then to the uttermost parts of the earth and one of those outermost parts is our little town here and our little lives here and how the good news has reached us and as you called those disciples to follow you you've called us to follow you and some of us have a capacity of what has been called full-time ministry but in reality all of us are called to follow you and serve you full-time no matter what is our paycheck from or our means of living we're followers of Christ were disciples Lord show us how we can fish for men and women's souls and Lord I would pray for anyone who's here tonight who's not a part of the kingdom the King King Jesus is not reigning in their hearts he's not ruling in their lives they never asked him to sit upon the throne of their heart up to this point they've been very content to rule their own lives it could be father I don't know but it's probable that some lately have seen the fallacy in that the emptiness and self-rule and the need to be ruled by Christ Lord we want to give you an opportunity to speak and to bring men or women into that gospel net tonight as it has cast once again and we trust that your spirit Lord would do that work of convincing and convicting drawing and ultimately saving as we're praying right now and we're about to close in a song could it be that some of you tonight are not believers it's not personal to you you're not really following Jesus you never made a conscious personal decision to make Jesus Christ your savior in your Lord you've never asked him to forgive your sins and to become your Savior and your master and maybe you are experiencing right now that drawing work of the Spirit of God he's telling you come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden I will give you rest come to me broken as you are acknowledging your imperfection in your sin and I'll forgive you just as you are maybe you're hearing that clear voice to come to Jesus tonight it could be that some others still made some decision when they were younger but that was sidelined who was the emotion of a moment it was a good feeling for a few months but you're not walking with the Lord tonight and Jesus is speaking to you and saying come home and father we thank you for our time together thank you for the blessings that we've gleaned as we have studied through this short little section of Matthew and his testimony in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Calvary Church with Skip Heitzig

Views: 5,869

Rating: 4.8518519 out of 5

Keywords: Calvary, Albuquerque, Skip, Heitzig, Sermon, Matthew, Calvary Church, disciples, apostles, Sermon on the Mount, beatitudes

Id: jiPhrzPvIdE

Length: 61min 30sec (3690 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 11 2018