By Brother Michel Lankford
Let's imagine for a moment that you were offered your absolute dream job, with work and responsibility that was perfectly suited to your emotional wiring, skills and talents. The salary, compensation, and benefits were significantly higher than anything you imagined you would ever get. You decide that you really want the job, but you find out that the job is located in another country, with a different language, laws, and customs. If you want the job enough, you are going to have to make a permanent move. Let's say you decide to take the job. Now, if you wanted to be happy, productive and have a peaceful and profitable transition into your new life and your new job, which would be wiser and more beneficial for you to do? Would it be more beneficial for you to try to move in there and try to forcibly Americanize their entire culture, or if you wanted to get along and succeed, would you learn their language, their laws, their customs, and adapt to them if you decided that you are going to live there permanently?
Whether we realize it or not, that is literally the circumstance in which every person that has made a commitment to follow God and Jesus Christ truly finds himself or herself.
Every person who has made a commitment to God and Jesus Christ, and who truly accepts Him as Lord and Savior has in reality made a personal commitment to become a citizen of the Kingdom of God. After becoming born-again and receiving Christ, our entire lives are supposed to be a preparation and a rehearsal to spend the rest of our eternal lives in God's Eternal Kingdom.
The thing that we often forget is that God's Eternal Kingdom is NOT a democracy. It's A Theocracy. God is in charge. Popular opinions and personal preferences and desires might be taken into consideration (only because everyone who lives there will be transformed by His Love and righteousness or they won't live there), but our opinions will NOT be the ultimate deciding factor up there, which is fine, because God is perfect love and perfect righteousness, but the point is that the Laws, values and customs in Almighty God's Eternal Kingdom, are vastly different than what is considered commonplace and acceptable in the sinful world. The Eternal Kingdom of Almighty God values different things than the sinful world does. God's Kingdom honors different things than the sinful world. God's Kingdom thinks and operates MUCH differently than the sinful world does.
I've said it before and I will say it again, authentic Christian discipleship is about allowing God to transform us so that we think, agree with and do what God says is pleasing to Him, if not I'm not expecting God to adjust and adapt Himself according to our own personal preferences.
Here's the kicker. Either we will cooperate with God and allow Him to change us so that we will progressively agree with, desire and DO what He says is good, or we will simply not be allowed to remain in God's household. That's not my opinion, it's Jesus Christ’s, and He ought to know:
John 8:34-36 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed (ESV). If you are truly free from something, you don't keep indulging in it and living in it, otherwise you're not free, but still in bondage.
The proof that I am authentically born-again is the fact that I do cooperate with God, that I earnestly seek Him and cooperate with Him to make those critical changes in me. If I discover that I have a desire, an attitude, or behavior, that His Word clearly says He does not like, I don't want to keep it. I want to get rid of it, and I want to cooperate with God until it is gone, and replaced with what God says pleases Him. That's what it means to be born-again into being His Child (Matthew 12:48-50; cf. Isaiah 56:1-7; Ezekiel 36:25-27). God's children prefer and choose what God desires. That's what identifies us as one of His children. Do not deceive yourself.
The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7) is one of my favorite resources for teaching discipleship, because it describes how God's Kingdom thinks desires and functions. We live in an age where political and social norms are influencing the church much faster than the church is impacting the world. Why is this? I believe it is because for decades the church has worked harder to peacefully coexist with the world rather than to influence it. I believe that for decades the church in America has been more interested in survival than true Holy Spirit led Biblical Spiritual expansion. It is estimated that about 50 percent of church growth in America are believers moving from one church to another. We live in an era where about 50 percent of professing believers do not think that the Bible is relevant to their lives personally. I think the Sermon on the Mount is very critical for the following reasons.
1. It is the first public sermon Jesus preached after the Baptism, His anointing by the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3: 13-17) and his temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11) the significance of this is that usually the first public works God accomplishes after he anoints someone are usually the most powerful and they set the tone for the rest of the ministry.
2. The second reason why the Sermon on the Mount is so critical is the sheer scope of its reach. Jesus manages to cover so much ground. In this sermon, Jesus covers no less than 20 distinctive topics, from our inward heart attitude to how we manage our money in about 108 statements spanning 3 chapters.
3. The third reason that this Sermon on the Mount is so critical is that what religion and traditions of men take away, pervert or disfigure from the pure Law of God, Jesus deliberately and painstakingly restores. Throughout this sermon you will see words like, "You have heard that it was said...But I say to you....” Jesus was raising the standard to where it should have been all along. This was necessary because the longer a nation goes without a revival; the more that Scriptural standards get watered-down. It had been almost 400 years since there had been a genuine prophet of God in Israel by the time Jesus came on the scene. What happens between genuine revivals is that traditions and expedience begin to take a larger place in the lives of God's people. These two factors begin to work together to render the word of God almost impotent. (E.g. Matthew 15:4-8). For our part, it has been more than 100 years since our last great national revival. In that time, we certainly have seen our nation change for the worse.
Restoration Begins in God's House
Scripture makes some very interesting promises, not the least of which is to give us some clear insight into how restoration actually occurs:Proverbs 29:18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint;
But happy is he who keeps the law.
The word "REVELATION," here (Hebrews Strong's #2606) literally means a communication from God (sometimes but not always visually). The point being is that when people are not receptive to hearing God's voice, or to receiving His Guidance, what will be the result? Well, once one stops being willing to hear God's Instructions, then the natural consequence of that is that people will then much more easily cast off all restraint, and become even more lawless.
"But happy is he who keeps the Law." Notice the word “but” there? Almighty God is making a direct contrast between those who have no revelation; those who refuse to hear God's Instructions, and He is contrasting them with their exact opposite; those who KEEP God's Laws, Commandments and Instructions.
Interestingly enough, Jesus the Messiah makes some key parallel statements:
“My sheep HEAR My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;” (John 10:27; cf. Matthew 7:21, NASB95 - emphasis added)
“They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” (John 14:21, NRSV)
Did you notice how the Messiah repeated the exact same sentiment as the writer of Proverbs? Did you notice how Messiah links receiving revelation and understanding of God directly with obeying His Commandments? I believe that anyone using objective eyes can see, and if they are honest they must admit that our culture definitely suffers from an almost complete lack of restraint, and we are lacking restraint both in and outside of "the church." If you don't believe that the church is throwing off all restraint, you need look no further than the emergent church movement, and the seeker sensitive movement within Christianity, and if you have any spiritual wisdom in all, it's clearly visible. So why is our culture both in church and in the world losing all restraint so rapidly? Well we are losing restraint because God is not as rapidly revealing Himself to people. Revelation knowledge and understanding of Almighty God and His precepts is not looming as large, not coming as quickly and not settling in people's hearts as quickly or as deeply as it once was. That's evident. All you have to do is read almost any George Barna survey, and it's abundantly obvious; but why is that happening?
Jesus the Messiah makes it very clear that God ONLY grants revelation of Himself to those who Love Him, and the way that we show we love God, is when we HAVE and we KEEP the Commandments of Almighty God and Jesus Christ (John 14:21; John 15:14 1 John 2:3-4). The fact is that if we claim to know God and Jesus Christ, and yet we do not keep His Commandments, we have no true revelation or knowledge of Him, and we are lying when we say we do. I don't want to be a liar, so the very best I can say is that, “I am growing to love Him, and I am in the process of getting to know Him.”
A Prayer of Repentance
This is not all there is to repentance, but it is a beginning. Consider praying something like this with me:Almighty God who made heaven and earth and who is perfect love and righteousness; the God of Isaac Abraham and Jacob, Who graciously sent Jesus Christ the Messiah, and Who saves us through Him; have mercy upon us. As I look at our churches in our society at large, I see an Overwhelmingly evident lack of restraint. The reason we are rapidly losing restraint and self-control is because we lack clear revelation from You into our hearts, and the reason that we lack clear revelation about You into our hearts, is because we who claim to know You have either put away, or disobeyed Your Laws Commandments and Instructions. LORD, have mercy upon us, and give us grace to truly repent.
For myself, I confess that I have often violated Your Laws Commandments and Instructions. Please forgive me. Please cleanse me, save me, and deliver me. Please transform me by Your Holy Spirit into one of Your True sheep, one who truly hears Your Voice, and truly FOLLOWS YOU. Mercifully remove from my heart, my desires and appetites everything and anything that causes me to wonder from Your strait and narrow path, which leads to life. Help me to choose life, and to successfully walk that choice, so that I may have a true revelation of You, so that I may truly know You, and enjoy everlasting life (John 17:3). LORD, in Your mercy, through Yeshua, mercifully hear and grant my prayer. Amen.
4. The fourth reason that I consider this Sermon on the Mount so critical is because of the great promise that it contains. Look at the following verses
The fact is, every one of us will go through storms and difficult times in our lives, but we have a guarantee from the Son of God and Creator of the universe Himself that if we hear His words and put them into practice, we will survive the storms of life and remain intact. For me, that is reason enough to study these words and seek to diligently apply them to my life. Personally, I try to make a point to intently review this sermon every year of my Christian walk, and this year is no different. It is that critical.Matt 7:24-27 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. "And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. "The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall." (New American Standard Bible)
Summary Review
1. Christ's first sermon, or the sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7) is a foundational lesson plan for any person who considers himself or herself a citizen of the eternal kingdom of God, all of which we will discuss in the coming days:a. It identifies the mindset of its citizens (Matthew 5:3-12).
b. It identifies the value of its citizens, and their impact in a dark world (Matthew 5:13-16).
c. It identifies the loyalty of the Messiah to God's Laws, and by extension our own responsibility to it as well (Matthew 5:17-20).
d. It identifies the radical heart changes which a true citizen of God's eternal kingdom MUST undergo (Matthew 5:21-48).
e. As those heart changes truly take hold within, it will change how a citizen of God's Kingdom gives (Matthew 6:1-4).
f. As those heart changes truly take hold within our hearts, it will change how a citizen of God's Kingdom prays (Matthew 6:5-13)
g. As those heart changes truly take hold within our hearts, it will change how a citizen of God's Kingdom repays offenses (Matthew 6:14-15).
h. As those heart changes truly take hold within our hearts it will radically change a Kingdom's citizen perceptions and priorities, and how they offer sacrifices to God (Matthew 6:16-18).
i. As those heart changes truly take hold within, it will change how a citizen of God's Kingdom values and uses the resources that God provides us (Matthew 6:19-24).
j. As those heart changes truly take hold within, it will change how a citizen of God's Kingdom deals with uncertainty or anxiety (Matthew 6:25-34).
k. As those heart changes truly take hold within, it will change how a citizen of God's Kingdom evaluates people (Matthew 7:1-6)
l. As those heart changes truly take hold within, it will change how a citizen of God's Kingdom relates to and approaches God as our Father and Provider (Matthew 7:7-11).
m. Our Father's generosity should also dramatically impact how we treat others (Matthew 7:12).
n. As those heart changes truly take hold within our hearts, it will change how a citizen of God's Kingdom chooses to walk (Matthew 7:13-14).
o. As those heart changes truly take hold within, it will radically alter how we discern and evaluate truth (Matthew 7:15-20)
p. The True Citizens of God's Kingdom are loyal to and obey the rule of the King, and the Prince (Matthew 7:21-27).
Join us for future blogs on these topics, by God's grace, we have great stuff upcoming.
Brother R. Michel Lankford.
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