The Sermon on the Mount III

Subtitle: Jesus Opens the Door to the Kingdom II, also

Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God

Matthew 5:13-16, 17-20.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 17, 2023.

We are continuing our look at Jesus, King Messiah, who was also The Prophet like Moses.  He is giving the good news to the poor and misfortunate of Israel that the door to the Kingdom of Heaven is in front of them.  They only need to enter by faith in Jesus as its king.

This sermon will finish the introduction of Jesus.  Thus, I have titled this first part “Jesus Opens the Door to the Kingdom.”  Verse 17 will begin the main body of the message Jesus is giving.  I have titled it as “Fulfilling the Torah and the Prophets of God.”

Let’s look at this first part.

Jesus Opens the Door to the Kingdom (5:3-12, 13-16)

Verses 3 through 12 are called the beatitudes, and they answer the questions of who God is planning to bless and how.  The surprise twist in these beatitudes show that God values things very different than we do.  None of these people would have thought of themselves as blessed, but rather cursed.  Jesus is not in the temple talking to the elite religionists of his day.  He is in the wilderness on a mountainside with the poor and afflicted of Israel surrounding him.  He tells them that they are blessed because God is opening up the Kingdom of Heaven to them.

We also pointed out last week that the beatitudes do more than tell them they are blessed.  They also create a composite sketch of Jesus himself.  Jesus is the ultimate poor and afflicted one whom God values, more, whom God loves.  Jesus is the ultimate person who is blessed of God to the ultimate degree.

This is exactly what Isaiah is prophesying in Isaiah 53:3-4.  Here is the text.  “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.  And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.”

Notice the intention is to show that our value system would be so messed up that we would think Messiah, the Servant of the LORD, was essentially cursed of God.  These people listening to Jesus would have been told by society (and believed it) that they were not blessed of God, otherwise their life wouldn’t be so filled with sickness and poverty.  Yet, Messiah would appear to be the most cursed of God, while all the time being the most blessed of God.  This is why Jesus not only puzzled people in the first century, but continues to puzzle them to this day.

Starting in verse 13, Jesus gives three metaphors that represent the purpose behind why God is blessing these unfortunates.  In other words, the blessings mentioned in the first part has a purpose that goes beyond those people.  Do you remember Abraham?  God blessed him above all others in his day.  Yet, that blessing was intended to be a blessing to all of the nations (Genesis 18:18; 22:18; and 26:4).

This is a principle with God.  His blessing to anyone is never intended to be only for their sake.  If you picture a reservoir behind a dam, then you will get the point.  We can be so fearful of the lack of future blessing that we dam it up and hold it to ourselves.  Yet, God has a purpose in blessing us that intends for us to find ways to release it to others in a good way.  He wants to bless others through the blessings that He gives to you, and He wants to bless you through blessings that He gives to others.  May God help us to understand this way of God so that we can be truly blessed.

The first purpose in our blessing is pictured by salt.  Those who enter the Kingdom of Heaven through Jesus are intended to be the salt of the earth.  Jesus doesn’t tell us what the salt represents, but he does give us a hint by emphasizing the flavor of the salt.  Through the years, two aspects have been pointed out about salt.  It makes things taste better, and it preserves things from rotting.

So what is the flavor?  Are we making the world taste better for God?  Or, are we to be making this life taste better for the lost, so that they will see God?  This is not explained.

A good principle to remember is to let Scripture interpret Scripture.  We can look for other places where the Bible talks about salt and see if it is used as a metaphor for anything.  You are going to find about 42 places in the Bible where it uses the word “salt.”  It almost always simply means salt.  However, there are a couple of references that are interesting. 

In Leviticus 2:13, we see that a grain offering was required to be salted, even referring to it as the “salt of the covenant.”  So whatever the salt represented, it was important to God.  We should also put on the back burner of our thoughts that Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt.  Jesus tells us to remember her.  The most helpful verse is given to us by the Apostle Paul in Colossians 4:6.  It reads, “Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.”  From this verse, it appears that the salt most likely represents grace in Matthew 5.

Does this make sense in the story of Lot’s wife?  Notice that she had been the recipient of a lot of God’s grace, particularly being saved from the destruction of Sodom.  Being turned into a pillar of salt may represent the sad reality of her perishing over the top of all the grace that God had given her.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus, who is the ultimate grace of God, graciously opens the door of the kingdom to the poor and afflicted of Israel.  Yet, such grace in their lives, is intended to be spread, salted, on others in Israel, and even to the Gentiles, by extension.  This grace of God is what not only makes this life that He has given us flavorful.  Yet, for the lost, we become the flavor of God by being His grace to them.  Only some will like the taste, but it is God’s intention for us nonetheless.

If the salt loses its flavor, its grace, there is something missing.  Essentially, we are missing Jesus.  We are then not helpful for the purposes of God.  We will simply be trampled upon by men.  In this world, there will be trampling.  The trampling itself does not mean that you have lost your flavor.  Rather, if we have lost our flavor, that is the only thing that we would be good for.  Don’t miss that point.  In Jesus, any trampling that happens to His people will accomplish the work of God because we have the flavor of God in us, essentially Jesus.  They trample us over the top of being the grace of God.  This will open the eyes of some as they see that something is wrong.  On the other hand, the trampling of those who do not have the grace of Jesus only seems fitting to the world.

Jesus then gives two metaphors back to back because they essentially point to the same thing.  Believers are to be the light of the world and a city on a hill.  These are both about visibility.  Light enables people to see things that they couldn’t see before, and elevation helps whatever is on it to be seen as well.  Of course, Jesus is the light of the world, but because he is in us, we become the light of the world (like a lamp). 

We have no light in and of ourselves.  Rather, we become a container of light that is supposed to be made visible to the world around us.  A good metaphor for this is the earth, the moon, and the sun.  Only the sun makes light in and of itself.  However, the moon can reflect light to the earth because of its relationship to the sun relative to the earth.  Jesus is not on the earth, but our relationship with him makes us able to give light to them, i.e., information about God, His character, and His purpose.

God’s intention is that the truth, about who Jesus is and what he has done for those who will believe, will be made known to everyone.  If this is hidden, it is not done by God.  If our light is under a basket, it is because we are not cooperating with His intention for whatever reason.  In fact, a city on a hill has no say about it.  It will be visible.

The principle given in verse 16 is that we are to do good works, live out the righteousness of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, in such a way that those good works point them to our Father in Heaven.  God wants them to see true righteousness born of the Spirit and out of relationship with Jesus.

This will set up a later tension in the Sermon on the Mount between things that should be visible to others and things that should not be. The flesh tends to make things public that it shouldn’t and keep private what should be public.  In more simple terms, the flesh makes public what should be private, and private what should be public.  How do we know which should be?  We know through the word of God and relationship with Jesus by the Holy Spirit.  He leads us.  Nothing can replace true spiritual relationship with Jesus.

Fulfilling the Torah and Prophets of God (5:17-20)

In verse 17, we come to the main body of Jesus’ teaching.  It is going to come across as something totally new, as if Jesus was adding to the Torah, or even changing it.  Thus, Jesus begins by clarifying exactly what he is doing.

Jesus knows that his teaching will be misconstrued by some, whether purposefully or ignorantly, as anti-Law.  Paul had this same problem.  In fact, even in the Church, there are some pastors who basically tell their people that they don’t need to know the Old Testament.  It isn’t for Christians.  However, instead of destroying or abolishing the Law (the instructions of God given at Sinai), Jesus had come to fulfill it. 

This is Matthew’s 7^th use of the word “fulfill.”  It is easiest to see this with the prophets.  They often pointed to future things that God was promising to do in order to encourage the faith of people before they were fulfilled.  You might picture this as an empty glass, or a glass that is not completely full.  The presence of the cup, or rather many cups of prophecy, gives us hope that God will keep His word.  Past fulfillments encourage waiting for future fulfillments.  The Law also has aspects that need to be fulfilled, like an cup that is only partially filled.  An example of this would be the sacrificial system.  It begs the question of just how does the blood of an animal remove my sin from me.  The work of Jesus on the cross and at the resurrection becomes a fulfillment of the sacrificial system.  We now understand what it was trying to teach us.  And, herein lies the problem.  We too often think of the Law as a list of infractions and penalties.  However, it’s true purpose is to teach us about righteousness, sin, judgment, and the loving grace of God.

We should be careful of just thinking of Jesus as fulfilling some of the prophecies.  He is what all the Law and Prophets were pointing us towards.  Their whole purpose is so that we would recognize, embrace, and follow Jesus.

Paul explains this in Galatians 3:23-25 by comparing the Law to a tutor or a schoolmaster.  Israel was like a child who is under the rule of a governor or governess.  When the child becomes an adult, the job of the governor will be over, and the young adult enters into the next phase of life.  Jesus was too valuable of a gift to simply send.  God took precious time training and teaching Israel through the Law so that they could recognize Jesus for what he was, the ultimate servant of the LORD.

Jesus is coming forth as the Messiah to lead Israel into the Kingdom of spiritual adulthood.  “The Kingdom is here; it is time to step up, son!”

In verse 18, Jesus speaks to the certainty that every bit of the Law and the Prophets would be fulfilled.  To do this, he refers to the durability of heaven and earth.  This heaven and earth are not eternal.  They are destined to be transformed (melted down and reformed) into a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 20).  How are we going to survive that?  The answer is only by Jesus! 

Jesus explains that before the heavens pass away, i.e., the Revelation 20 event comes, every bit of the Law and the Prophets will be fulfilled.  In order to emphasize both the certainty and the attention to detail of its fulfillment, Jesus mentions two words that are strange to English ears.  The KJV and NKJV have the words “jot” and “tittle.”  The ESV has the words “iota” and “dot.”  The NIV doesn’t even try to come up with a word for them.  It has “smallest letter and least stroke of the pen.”  What is he talking about?

If you were in our church when I preached this, I walked us through the Hebrew letters and what these words are referring to.  In a shortened form for this article, the word “jot” or “iota” is a reference to the Hebrew letter “yod.”  It looks like an apostrophe but is a consonant that has the sound of /y/.  It is the smallest letter in Hebrew (at least half the size of the others).  The “tittle” or “dot” refers to a small protrusion on a letter that distinguishes it from another letter.  This is the case between the Hebrew letters Resh and Dalet.  The Dalet is not rounded like the Resh, having a protrusion on the upper right-hand side of the letter.  This small stroke on the letter is important to distinguish the letter.

Notice what this means.  It makes sense that God is going to fulfill all of the statements and promises that He made in the Bible.  However, this takes it deeper.  He is not only going to fulfill the statements, He is going to fulfill the words, the letters, down to the small distinctions between letters.  The detail to which God is fulfilling the Law and the Prophets will go to a level that we can’t even comprehend looking forward.  It is similar to the disciples after the cross.  Beforehand, they had trouble getting what Jesus was saying.  It seemed so contradictory to the Scriptures.  However, after the cross and after the explanations of Jesus, they look back at the Old Testament and it suddenly explodes with meaning that they did not see before.  They had been trained not to see it.

Verse 19 then moves to underline the importance of the commands and their fulfillment.  Jesus didn’t come to break the commandments, but some would.  Some would even teach others to break the commandments.  Breaking the commands is parallel with the earlier destroying the Law.

Now, if you read what Jesus is saying like a Pharisee, then you will think that we should still be doing sacrifices, and that the Apostle Paul really was a heretic misleading early Christians.  However, this is an uninformed application.  The Church does not teach that the Law has been destroyed so Christians can eat pork if they want, go to church on Sunday if they want, and skip doing sacrifices.  Rather, we teach that Jesus is King Messiah who sets up a new covenant in which we now fulfill the Law and the Prophets by obedience to him and the instructions that he brought down from God the Father (like Moses).  Jesus teaches us to accomplish the whole purpose of the Law.

This is what Jeremiah was getting at in 31:31-34 of his book.  The new covenant was not taking away the Law, but putting the Law (the Torah, instructions of God) in their minds and writing them on their hearts.  The new is absolutely connected to the old because the old was pointing to the new all along.  Israel was by and large stuck on the superficial aspects of the law but not understanding the deeper truths that it was pointing towards.

It would be similar to parents giving their children a bed-time.  They go to bed at a specific time, not because it is the inherently moral time to go to bed.  Rather, the bed-time teaches a discipline and greater lesson that there is a time to go to bed and a time to wake up.  All responsible adults who do not live like children, understand this and respect it in their lives, regardless of when exactly they go to bed.  Yes, some laws are inherently moral.  “You shall not murder.”  But, the sacrificial laws, dietary laws, and feast days, were illustrative, even prophetic, of things that they only typified.  They were training wheels to help us understand what Jesus was, and is, doing.  Through Jeremiah, God basically says that their penchant to focus on the superficial aspects of the Law had kept it from getting into their hearts and minds.

Yet, God was going to fix that.  How?  Verse 34 tells us that God would forgive their iniquity and their sin.  It is important to understand the power of God’s forgiveness of our iniquity.  Jeremiah doesn’t explain the mechanism that God would use to make it possible for Him to forgive our iniquity.  However, Isaiah 53 does.  When you are given forgiveness undeservedly, it can have a powerful transformative affect upon your heart.  It is not guaranteed.  Some are not seeking forgiveness and don’t believe that they have done anything wrong.  But, forgiveness powerfully affects the repentant heart that desires restoration of relationship.  This is what John the Baptist meant when he said, “Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29). 

Jesus is instituting a new covenant, a covenant of the adult-children of God who are no longer under the tutor of the Law, but for whom the lessons of the Law point us to the ultimate fulfillment that God intended in it.

Lest we be arrogant towards Israel, let us remember that no one gets to adulthood without first going through childhood.  Don’t think of it as God loving one more than another.  Rather, it is God doing what is necessary to save humans.  In fact, the kingdom is first offered to Israel, and a remnant of Israel entered into the Kingdom, becoming adult-children of God.  The Church is founded upon the faithful work of Jewish men and women who took the Gospel of the Kingdom to the ends of the earth, bringing Gentiles into the saving work of Jesus.

Christians do not throw off the Old Testament.  Rather, we fulfill it in our lives through faithfully following the instructions of King Jesus.

To slam this point home even further, Jesus gives a serious, even severe, warning.  Those who misunderstand his teaching here will be the least in the Kingdom as opposed to the greatest.  This is not a time to be humble.  Jesus is speaking about a judgment by God as to our service.  We can be saved by believing in Jesus, but still misconstrue some of the finer points of what he is doing.    It appears that a person can be in the Kingdom, but become hampered in our ability to truly serve Him.  The key is to stay humble, stay in the Scriptures, and keep prayerfully seeking the help of the Holy Spirit.

Yet, verse 20 gives us a more powerful warning.  Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven.  The idea of being shut out of the Kingdom is a fearful one.  All of Israel saw the Kingdom as the apex of God’s promises to us.  The Kingdom is perfect relationship into eternity.  To be shut out of the Kingdom is to be shut out of all that will come for those who are in relationship with Yahweh.

It is only the righteousness of Christ that saves us.  Yet, Christ wants to impact us by His Holy Spirit to live out that righteousness on this earth through a real relationship with our Maker, and Redeemer.

If we think of this warning in superficial terms, then we will be exasperated at the idea of doing more righteousness than the Pharisees.  However, we need to understand the heart element here.  A Pharisee may do a ton of things that he believes to be righteous because of the traditions of men.  His righteousness could amount to filthy rags before God.  But, one sinner who believes on Jesus and has even an ounce of Christ working in his heart can produce more righteousness, more true righteousness, than the other.  It is quantity, but quantity that first survives a hurdle of quality.

May God help us to be a people fulfilling with Jesus all that the Law and the Prophets are pointing towards!

SOTM3

The Sermon on the Mount II

Subtitle: Jesus Opens the Door to the Kingdom

Matthew 4:23-5:12.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 10, 2023.

We talked last we about Jesus as King Messiah delivering the teaching in our passage.  We also talked about Jesus as the Greater Moses, the greater prophet, delivering the instructions of Yahweh to God’s people.

This is how we need to see this passage from chapter 4 through the end of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 7.  Through Jesus, the promise of Abraham was even now breaking forth upon Israel.  Furthermore, it will not stop until it has inundated the whole earth.

Let’s look at our passage.

The setting (4:23 to 5:1)

Chapter four has Jesus calling the four fishermen to follow him.  However, Matthew records his own call in chapter nine.  The emphasis is more on his teaching and ministry to the people than it is on The Twelve who will follow him. 

I mention this because Jesus is speaking to “his disciples” in Matthew 5:1.  It is easy to immediately think of the 12, but Matthew purposefully puts this before mentioning any other of the twelve being called.  I do not believe that Matthew means the 12, or even the 4 that we know are called at this point.  I believe it refers to the larger group of those who wanted to hear what Jesus was teaching.

Notice that the ministry of Jesus leading up to this has been to the desperate multitudes that had followed him.  Of course, they came to him because they were sick, lame, needy, and some even demon-possessed.  However, Jesus was setting them free.  Imagine if experiencing such a thing.  The man is healing people, but he is also teaching and preaching about the “Gospel of the Kingdom” (4:23).

These people are not just seeing a power that was greater than any prophet before, and had not been seen in Israel for centuries.  They are also hearing a different kind of teaching.  It is not completely different.  It talks of the kingdom as the rabbis of their day did.  However, Jesus interacted with the sick and hurting different than they did.

I think this can be summed up in the rebuke of Jesus in Matthew 23:13.  “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you  allow those who are entering to go in.”

Jesus is going to talk about “the narrow gate” in Matthew 7:13.  He is also going to refer to himself as the door in John 10:1-10.  The religious leaders of Israel were keeping people from coming into the Kingdom, but Jesus, who is the very door and gate into the Kingdom, is calling to them to come in.  He is healing them and telling them that the Kingdom belongs to them.  This was a very different approach from a religious leader, and it shocked them.

The image of a scary, ferocious dog comes to mind.  The religious leaders were hypocrites because it was their job to help the people towards God and His Kingdom.  However, spiritually they were keeping people from entering it.  They wouldn’t go in and they were intimidating people not to go in.

More than that, their view of those who were sick, infirm, and demon-possessed caused them treat the people in that condition as sub-class, as if God had cursed them and didn’t care for them.  The attitude projected the idea that if people were more like them, then they wouldn’t have the problems that they do.  They had no problem moving on and leaving the poor and oppressed behind.  However, Jesus said that they were not entering the kingdom.  So, where were they progressing to?  They were leaving the oppressed behind, but they were only progressing towards an imaginary kingdom of their own making.

They had a system that had been developed, and many of them had risen through the ranks of it.  It was a system of theology and thinking that told them that they were God’s best and blessed.  It patted them on the back and told them that they were doing good in God’s eyes.  They had the right credentials hanging on their walls, and they had the right people patting them on the back.  Their lives were relatively good, and so they must be God’s favorites.  They could look at a person with a horrible sickness, or disability, and rejoice that God loved them more.  They didn’t have a demon-possessed child, even more proof.

The problem is that, when it is your child who is sick or demon-possessed, you don’t have the luxury of just moving on.  Of course, there are some people out there who disown family because they “didn’t sign up for this.”  But, many a loved one suffered through with family members without knowing why this was happening to them, and yet being told by the religious leaders that they were cursed of God.

Life has a way of challenging us in ways that we didn’t ask for.  Do you think any sick person wanted to be sick, or that they all somehow deserved it?  What about congenital stuff that is in the DNA?

There is a certain “accident” of nature in the DNA of a man and the DNA of a woman coming together and producing a third combination.  Though we can talk about the process of this, there is still a mystery in how certain genes are picked versus others.  Does God completely control that?  Is any of it left up to the lower natural laws that He has created, and just becomes what it will be?  We must confess that there is much mystery here that we are not given the answers to. 

So, life tests us.  What is our choice?  Do I come alongside a person in compassion, or tells myself that there is something spiritually wrong with them, or it wouldn’t have happened.  Do I isolate myself because I don’t want to get it too?  Who wants a leper in the Kingdom?

A surprising definition of the blessed (5:3-12)

This is how I believe Matthew is presenting Jesus as he gives his address, which starts with the “beatitudes.”  They are called the beatitudes because “beati” is Latin for “blessed” and the ending “tude” simply means “thing.”  These are the blessed things or blessings that Jesus declared to the people.  We see this throughout the Bible.  However, each of these blessings give a surprising definition to just who are the blessed in Israel that day.  Let me give you a hint.  None of the people in that crowd thought of themselves as the blessed, except for the fact that Jesus had just healed them.  Everything else told them that they were cursed.

This surprise twist is opening the door for them to enter the Kingdom.  Notice the formula first.  It states that “blessed are,” and then it states a condition of life, or experience, or even a particular kind of activity.  It then follows that up with a reason why they are blessed.  In essence, they are things that God has planned for the people who fit the first category.  They are not so much blessed by the first category, but they are blessed by what God intends and plans for those in that category.  Again, they all have a surprising twist to them.

Before we look at each of them, it is important to recognize that we have a message regarding just who is blessed and it is being given by the Messiah.  This is interesting because the Psalms are put in a 5 different collections that use the Covenant of David and the Promised Messiah as a call to Israel for faithful trust in Yahweh’s plan.  The first two psalms give a sort of introduction to the whole collection.

The focus of Psalm 1 is on defining for Israel both the proper way to follow Yahweh and the blessing that Yahweh will dispense to them.  Psalm 2 may seem to drastically change the subject as it presents the nations rejecting and conspiring against Yahweh and His Anointed One.  The Psalm ends with another statement of blessing, which clearly ties back to the blessed person of Psalm 1.  There are other literary ties between Psalm 1 and 2.  Thus, they are intended to function together.  They picture a person who does not follow the wicked, sinners, and mockers of their age.  Instead, they meditate on the instruction of the LORD night and day.  This causes them to become a fruitful tree, rather than chaff.

The word for blessed essentially speaks to the effect of a relationship with God.  It is sometimes translated as happy, but that falls short.  It speaks to the good effects in our life, and in every kind of way, because we are faithfully trusting God.  This person will be able to recognize Messiah and quickly embrace him in trust, in faith (Ps 2:12).

Yet, the connection goes deeper than this.  The Messiah, Jesus, is the perfect example, exemplar, of the Psalm 1 blessed person.  He is the ultimate tree of life in which all the righteous are able to be fruitful.  Every one of the beatitudes are exampled perfectly by Jesus throughout the Gospel of Matthew.  God is not just saying that He has a plan for us and we should trust Him.  Even more, He has joined us in those difficult situations and promises to lead us to that blessing that God plans for us.  Jesus is not just identifying intellectually with these people, with us.  He is identifying by immersing himself in the same situations.

Each one of these situations have an aspect to them that our flesh doesn’t like.  Because of this, we are tempted to run from them or do what we can to avoid them.  We can spend so much energy in avoiding them that we lose sight of a blessing that God is trying to give us through them. 

Our flesh, the world, and the devil, can pile on when these situations are present.  “If you really had God then this wouldn’t happen.”  Or, “If God really loved you, was really on your side, then…”  They do not appear to be blessings.  In fact, notice that the condition, i.e., poor in spirit or mourning, are not themselves the blessing.  They are like a present that is wrapped up and yet leads to a good thing.  The blessing is the thing that God plans to do or give for those in that tough situation.

When we end up on a sick bed it is not a good thing.  Yet, if we trust God and wait upon Him, He has a blessing, a good plan through it.  We must be careful of letting fear cause us to flee from the very things in which God is trying to give us a blessing.  I’m not saying that God purposefully causes these bad things, but that He allows them because He can overcome it and use it for the good.

The blessings (v. 3-12)

We will talk about the structure of the Sermon on the Mount later, but this introductory message about being blessed by God comes in three sets of three.  Threes play a big part in the structure of this sermon, so I am going to look at these in sets of three.

Let’s get into them.

The poor in spirit (v. 3) is using wealth terminology, but applies it to a person’s spirit.  It is speaking of being humble as opposed to proud.  Yet, it is not just talking about a moral ethic.  Of course, it is good to be humble and not good to be proud.  However, in our context, these are people who have been ground down by their condition of life.  They have been politically dominated by successive empires.  They have been religiously dominated by an uncaring know-it-all class.  On top of this, they had things going on physically and spiritually in their life that brought them to very humble, very low, circumstances.

As we go through this list, we should recognize that some of them present things that we should ethically try to do.  However, underneath of that idea, there is the bigger issue of not even having a choice.  You are humble because everything in life has ground out any pride you may ever have had.

Let’s look at the second blessing.  Jesus speaks to those who mourn.  Again, Jesus isn’t telling his followers that they should never be happy, but always mourning.  Rather, it is about speaking to people whose life has descended into something difficult over which they mourn.  This is definitely one of those things that we try to avoid in life.  Yet, here is Jesus saying that God sees us when we mourn, and He has a blessing for us.

The third  situation is the meek.  It is sometimes translated “lowly.”  We see this in Zechariah 9:9.  “Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey…”  This is the same word for “meek” in our passage.  This word is also applied to Moses in Numbers 12:3.  “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth.”  Again, this is the same word.

In some ways, the word meek has the concept of lowly and unimportant.  However, notice that we cannot say that Moses and, even more, Messiah are not important.  The word is not about your role and purpose in society.  It is a word of how you carry yourself towards others.  It is a person who is not seeking a position even when it is given to them.  They are not desperate for everyone to see them as something great.  Instead, they are lowly, humble, meek of spirit.

When I think about Moses, I believe that he is lowly because he knows that he can’t deliver Israel at all.  He has no power and is no one.  If it wasn’t for God, he could do nothing.  When Korah, Dathan, and Abiram complained against Moses, it wasn’t Moses who rebuked them.  It was God Himself who stood up for Moses and rebuked the rebels.

It is similar with Jesus, but not in the same way.  Jesus is perfect and has no sin, unlike Moses.  However, Jesus does not fight against his detractors.  He humbly and meekly trusts in the Father to be his defense, even to the point of crucifixion.

Now look at the blessing side of these three.  For those who are poor in spirit, we are told “theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Similarly for the meek, “they shall inherit the earth.”  This is Kingdom terminology.  Israel had been waiting for Messiah to come and set up the kingdom, and here he is, talking with broken people and telling them how blessed they are.  The Kingdom has been brought near to them and it is there for them to enter.

Yet, notice the blessing for those who mourn.  It simply lets them know that they are blessed because they are going to be comforted.  He is not talking about someone in this life comforting them.  He is talking about God the Father.  He has a plan to comfort them for the things that cause them to mourn.  Instead of tying it to the Kingdom, it is simply tied to trusting God, period.  In the end, God is the only true source of blessing, and if He is blessing us, then it doesn’t matter whether it is in the Kingdom or outside.  It is blessed because God is with us.

The second group of three begin with those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Hunger and thirst are things that come to us because food and water are lacking.  Of course, this world clearly lacks righteousness.  It pictures a person with pains and panting for just a bite and a sip of righteousness in this life. 

This begs the question.  What am I thirsty for?   There is a commercial that has the line, “Stay thirsty…”  Yeah, we should stay thirsty, but we had better be careful what we are thirsting for.  In a world thirsting for righteousness, it is easy for us to develop and accept worldly substitutes instead of true righteousness.  Messiah is the true righteousness.  However, we can be so full of eating at the trough of false righteousness that he is not palatable to us.  Instead of redefining righteousness and creating a system of traditions that pats you on the back, telling you that you are righteous, (a righteousness that our flesh likes) we come to God and seek His righteousness, and wait upon Him.

Next we have those who are merciful.  The merciful are generally those who have been in tough times themselves.  We should seek to be a merciful person as a matter of ethics.  However, the truth is that life teaches us mercy by the difficult things that we experience.  We gain empathy through the things that happen to us.  It slows us down and enables us to see people that we used to walk on past without a thought.  The more we flee environments where we need mercy, the less we are able to hear the hurting heart of those who do.

Then, we have those who are pure in heart.  We can make this more complicated then it needs to be.  It is not about never making a mistake or sinning.  It speaks to a singleness of purpose.  I may fall into sin because of my flesh, but my heart simply, purely, wants to be right with God.  For Israel, singleness of purpose meant honoring God and following His instructions.  Guess what, it means the same thing for us.

I find it interesting that, in this central group of three, the blessings do not mention the Kingdom.  We can put so much emphasis on ruling in a Kingdom with Messiah that we can lose sight of what is most important, and that is a relationship with God that is good.  Can I be satisfied in this life before, or without, the Kingdom?  Can I be merciful?  Jesus was all of these things even though his life was tough, and he laid the throne of Israel and the world on the altar before God and allowed it to be burned to powder at the cross.  God’s people being free from their sins and truly knowing God the Father was more important than a thousand years of ruling on this earth.

Thus, the hungry and thirsty will be satisfied by God.  When, LORD, when will you do this?  This cry of our heart can overwhelm God’s promise that He will satisfy us, both in helping us to be righteous and in making this world a righteous place one day.  The merciful will be shown mercy by God.  Imagine crying out for righteousness and then standing before God and finding out that you yourself were not righteous, were not merciful.  Imagine hearing the words, “Depart from Me.  I never knew you.”  The pure in heart, those who keep singularly focused on God’s purpose and will, will find a day when they see God.  This is not just talking about judgment day, but beyond.  We will one day dwell in His presence never to be separated again!

It has been said that God whispers to us in our pleasures, but He shouts to us in our pain (C.S.Lewis).  Can I hear what God is saying over the din of my own heart, the world, and the devil?  May God help us to trust Him.  None of these central blessings mention the Kingdom because the Kingdom is just a part of God’s plan of blessing for us.  Even now, He has a blessing for us in the midst of our difficulties.

This is why Job could give the cry of faith in Job 19:25-26.  “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at the last [day] on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God!”  Wow, what a statement of faith in the midst of difficulty.  His only hope is to simply see God and be received.

The final three begin with the peacemakers.  There is no more thankless job than getting in the middle of two people who are angry with each other.  If you really care about reconciling them, you may find both of them turning their proverbial guns upon you.  In fact, even Christians can do this.  When we are offended, we can demand that the people around us pick our side, or die.  You have to agree with me to be right.  The heart of a peacemaker cares about both people and both sides of the issue.  In general, both sides will have something to work on. 

The ultimate peacemaking is to mediate between God and the lost.  Very few people will thank you for trying to reconcile them to God, unless they actually are reconciled to God.  Jesus says that the peacemakers are blessed because they will be called the sons of God.  Who is going to call them that?  It won’t be the world.  It will be God who calls us the sons of God.

It may not be manifest to the world that we are the sons of God.  In fact, they may accuse us of being the sons of the devil.  But, it will be manifested one day.  It won’t be an in-your-face celebration because that isn’t the heart of Jesus for the lost.  He is the ultimate peacemaker, and he did so by laying down his life.  He suffered that we might be able to reconcile with God.  No, we will have tears of joy that God has fulfilled His promise, and tears of sorrow for those who never believed.

The last two blessings are sometimes looked at as the same.  They are both about being persecuted, but the difference is why you are persecuted.

Those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness (doing/trying to do the right thing) are first in view.  We can notice that the tight formula that Jesus has been using opens up to greater commentary, even instruction, by him.  This is interesting because persecution has a way of breaking down our formulaic approaches to life, and gets us real with people and God very quickly.  These are blessed because “theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  This is the same blessing as the first beatitude and points to the kingdom again.

The Kingdom is important to God, and there will be a literal rule of Jesus physically on this earth.  God is not a liar.  He will keep His promises to the saints.  However, keep that in mind as we go to the next blessing.

Those who are persecuted for the sake of Jesus are the last we see.  This is parallel with the Old Testament saints who were persecuted because they were faithful to Yahweh (sometimes even by apostate Israelites).  Such are blessed because their reward is reserved for them in heaven.  This does not just mean heaven itself is the reward.  It is a recognition that your reward cannot be touched by anything in this world.  It is held firm, reserved, secure in heaven for you.

If you truly understood God’s heart for you in the midst of the difficult things you are going through, then you would rejoice and be exceedingly glad.  Perhaps, Jesus is laying it on a little thick?  Listen, this is the One who went to the cross, into the grave, and trusted God to overrule His treatment in this life.  He trusted the Father to be the only source of blessing that He would cling to.  Like Jacob wrestling with the Lord, Jesus becomes the ultimate Israel, “One who has Power with God!”

May God help us to also keep our eyes upon Jesus.  If we are persecuted for doing the right thing, and especially for trusting Jesus, then we can rejoice that we are taking our place among the many saints in the Bible, and the countless saints throughout all of time.  Let us follow Jesus, the ultimate blessed one, and learn of him the path of blessing.

SotM 2 audio

The Sermon on the Mount I

Subtitle: Behold Your King!

Matthew 1-5.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on December 3, 2023.

As we embark on our look at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 through 7, we want to take time to adjust just how we see this scene.

The word “sermon” sounds as if Jesus is simply a preacher, and everyone that day was simply going to church.  As we will see, Matthew sees something far greater than a teacher exhorting us to live for God.

As an introduction to this series, I have picked the subtitle, “Behold Your King!”  These words are used in Zechariah 9:9 to point Israel to Messiah who would come to them as lowly, and riding on a donkey.  Both Matthew and John quote Zechariah 9:9 to Jesus, particularly the Triumphal entry before his crucifixion.

The early church understood that Jesus was presenting himself as king.  Even after his rejection and crucifixion, he is still King Messiah.  God had made him king, and God was not taking nominations for the position.  He wasn’t looking for our input on who it is going to be.  We see this in Psalm 2.

Matthew’s gospel is not just a diary that tells us what happened each day of the life of Jesus.  It does roughly follow his life, but it is presented, or packaged, in a way to help us see who Jesus really is.  Some of the crafting of this message is done by Jesus himself, particularly when we are reading his words.  However, in the chapters leading up to the sermon on the mount, Matthew is purposefully arranging things so that we will understand what he understood about Jesus.  In fact, the whole book of Matthew is clearly packaged in a way to highlight things about Jesus.  There are 5 large collections of the teachings of Jesus in Matthew with the Sermon on the Mount being the first.  Another one that we see is the Parables of the Kingdom.  It is believed that Matthew puts it in these 5 collections to map or to picture the five books of the law.  A similar thing is done with the five collections, or books, of the Psalms.

I say all of this because I want us to pay attention to how Matthew presents the very Jesus who gives the sermon on the mount starting at Matthew 5:3.  There are two main pictures that lay behind who Jesus is.  Let’s look at those.

Jesus is the greater David

In the very first verse (1:1), Matthew signals something important about Jesus.  He is descended from David, “the son of David.”  He is also descended from Abraham.  Matthew will go on to give the data of the genealogy of Jesus.  However, this is the most important connections.  Why? 

He does so because King Messiah would come from the lineage of David.  Matthew is ultimately presenting Jesus as the Messiah of God, sent to rule Israel and the nations.   He is also presenting Jesus as the ultimate fulfillment of The Promise to Abraham.  Through Jesus, all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

Yet, Messiah is not just a son of David.  Messiah, Jesus, is greater than his ancestor David.  David gives us a template of a righteous king versus King Saul, a template of a wicked king.  David was righteous, but not like Jesus.

If you think that I am making this up, then look at 1:18.  Matthew writes, “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows…”  For us, the word “Christ” almost comes off as a last name.  However, it is the Hebrew word for Messiah, and all of the prophecies in the Old Testament make it clear that Messiah is a king.  You can particularly go to Psalm 2 to verify that.

Yet, the king references given by Matthew continue.   In Matthew 2:2, the Magi come from the East and ask Herod a question.  “Where is He who has been born King of the Jews?”  They are looking for a king, which is disturbing to Herod (isn’t he the king? Who is this king they are looking for?).  In 2:4, Herod inquires from his religious experts where “the Christ was to be born.”  Notice that Herod and his religious leaders make the connection from a king of Israel, that Gentiles would be looking for, to the Messiah, Christ.  The chief priests then respond by using Micah 5:2.  Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and would become the “Ruler,” and the “Shepherd” of Israel.

All of this harkens back to the Davidic covenant given in 2 Samuel 7 (also in 1 Chronicles 17).  There God tells David that one will come from his line who will be a son to God and that God would be a father to him.  This special son would reign as king forever.  This king would be directly anointed by God’s Spirit to fix and rule over Israel and the nations.

This is most likely why the exile (“captivity”) is mentioned by Matthew in his genealogy of Jesus, 1:17.  The captivity was a great crisis among the people of Israel.  The line of David was cast down, Jerusalem destroyed, and the temple gone.  What was God doing?  Was He done with Israel?  We will look more at this later.

In Matthew 4:17 and 23, the main thing that Jesus is proclaiming is “The Kingdom,” which is connected to King Messiah.  Jesus is not just a man from the house of David trying to be king.  He is being presented as the Messiah who brings in a special time of heaven’s administration on earth called “The Kingdom,” or “the Kingdom of Heaven.”   In the sermon on the mount alone, Jesus references “kingdom” nine times (five times in chapter five, three times in chapter six, and 1 time in chapter seven).  The Kingdom is important for Jesus.

Jesus tells them in Matthew 4 to repent for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.  They need to get things right with God, but they specifically need to listen to the one whom God was sending, Jesus.  He would show them how to fix everything in Israel and the nations.

The sermon on the mount becomes a king who is announcing his arrival, and declaring the terms of his kingdom.  Yet, this is not the only image that Matthew is projecting to us.

Jesus is the greater Moses for a new exodus

Jesus is not just giving Israel the word of the Lord.  He is the Word of the Lord.  Similarly, Jesus is not just another prophet in a long series of prophets.  He is The Prophet.  In fact, Moses prophesied that God would send another prophet like him in Deuteronomy 18.  Israel would need to listen to this prophet. This is important because Moses was not just another prophet.  The writer of the book of Hebrews in chapter three of his letter makes the connection between Jesus and Moses.  Moses was faithful as a servant in order to set up the House of Israel for Yahweh.  All the prophets that came after him were different in that they pointed Israel back to the writings of Moses.  They were not instituting a new thing, but maintaining what Moses helped set up.  Even the prophecies they gave of the future Messiah were in light of Israel. 

Jesus would similarly build a new house.  However, Jesus is greater than Moses.  He is not just building a house for God, but He is building a house as a son.  This is a marriage picture.  The son builds onto the house of his father to make room for him and his bride.  Jesus is The Prophet who is like Moses, and yet, who is also greater.

Matthew’s 5 large collections of the teachings of Jesus are presenting him in this light.  We can notice on top of this that Jesus goes up  in Matthew 5:1 “on the mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him.”  “The mountain” is sometimes translated as “a mountain” simply because it is not defined in the passage.  Yet, the definite article is there.  Matthew is using language connected to the days of Moses, and the mountain they went to in order to receive the instruction of Yahweh. 

This may not be expected for us, but the Hebrews understood from the prophet Isaiah that God was going to do a New Exodus in order to solve the problem created by Israel’s sin.  Isaiah ends chapter 39 with the revelation that God was going to judge Judah and send her into exile in Babylon.  Yet, the next chapter opens with God telling the prophet to comfort His people.  God would send a servant that would bring Israel back from the captivity and enable the work of God to prosper in his hands.  This servant would set up the promised Kingdom of Messiah.  From chapter 40 to 66, the imagery of the Exodus is promoted as God’s template for saving Israel again.  The same God who saved them from Egypt would save them from Babylon, and even more than that.

Yes, it looked like Israel was done, and that the line of David was done.  However, through Isaiah, God says that He is not done!  When the enemy tells you, “It’s over,” and “There is no recovery from that,” don’t listen to him.  Whether it comes to mind about yourself, another person, or a certain Republic you know and love, it doesn’t matter if it is dead, the meat is completely rotted off of the corpse, and the bones are completely dry.  God is able to bring back from the dead in order to keep His promises.  This new exodus would be on a greater scale, and such an impact would require a greater Moses.

Christ would be the end of the captivity of not just Israel, but also of the nations.

Yet, Jesus is greater than simply being the greater Moses.  In Matthew 2, we see the child Jesus going down to Egypt in order to escape Herod’s attempt to kill the kids under two years old.  Isn’t it strange that we have a king killing babies, and Jesus going to Egypt?  There is purposefulness to this.  Jesus is even the greater Israel.  Everything that Israel went through and failed, Jesus will walk through and succeed, without sin.  He will be the perfect Israel, the perfect servant of the Lord, following the leading of Yahweh even through the desert.

Israel’s time in the wilderness was supposed to be an intimate time of God’s supernatural care and provision.  Yet, they fell to sin by grumbling and complaining.  They created a golden calf to serve, rebelled against Moses, and even committed sexual immorality at Baal Peor.  Yet, Jesus goes into the wilderness and is tempted at all points by the devil, only to come out of it having passed the test with flying colors.

All the promises to Israel fall upon the One who is the ultimate Israelite.  We should even note that the name Israel was not given to the nation.  It was given to an individual, Jacob.  Jacob had wrestled with God and is given a blessing of a new name.  It is often translated as “Prince with God,” which is fair.  However, it might be more impactful to think of it as “One who has power with God.”  Jacob had touched God, and God helped him.  He had power with God, not a power of control, but a power of relationship.  God cared for him.  Jesus is the greater Jacob, the greater Israel, the greater One who has power with God!  God listens to him.

Listen, God is not done with Israel even today.  Romans chapters nine to eleven show this.  Just as God did not throw off the gentiles forever, but used Israel to reach them, so too, God has not thrown off the nation of Israel forever, but will use the nations to bring Israel to a place where they will recognize Jesus as Messiah and repent before the Lord.

In Matthew 2:15, he quotes Hosea 11:1 “out of Egypt I called my son.”  When you look at the context of Hosea 11, you may think that they are misquoting.  It is clearly speaking of Israel as a nation.  Yet, when you see Israel as a prophetic, image in contrast, then you see how Matthew makes the connection.  Just as God called Israel out of Egypt, so Messiah would be brought out of Egypt.  Messiah is the ultimate Israel.

This connection of Jesus with King David and with The Prophet Moses will later be rounded out with The Great High Priest.  Jesus is presented as all of these roles all wrapped up into one.  He sits on the mountain and gives the Torah, the instructions of Yahweh for His people.   This is what Matthew is presenting.

So, when we read the sermon on the mount, we are not just hearing a nice sermon.  Jesus is setting up his kingdom, and we would do well to heed his instructions.  He is the prophet of god who we need to listen to so that we don’t perish in the wilderness (Exodus).  And, he is the king established by God that we need to submit to so that we don’t perish in the way when his wrath raises up just a little (Ps 2, Messiah).  Lastly, he is the High Priest who we need to remove our sins from us, to reconcile us to God so that we do not miss out on our inheritance.

Thus, Jesus tells us in the sermon on the mount, 5:17-18, that he did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it.  He is all that the Law was pointing towards.  He is the ultimate fulfillment of what the Law was showing us.  Hallelujah!

Behold King audio

The Acts of the Apostles 65

Subtitle: A Quick Release

Acts 16:35-40.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on November 26, 2023.

Paul and Silas were in prison when an earthquake (God) opened their doors and loosed their chains.  We then saw how they led the Philippian Jailer to believe on Jesus.  A lot of things happened that morning from midnight to daybreak: they preached to the household, they baptized the jailer and his household, and their wounds were treated.

We don’t know the exact content of their prayers earlier that evening.  However, it seems likely that they asked God for favor to be released and things on that level.

We often pray for God’s help in different matters.  Sometimes, we have our heart and sights set on a particular answer, or a particular way for it to be done.  However, God in His power has a multitude of ways by which He can help us.  We, however, are not unlimited in power.  It is hard for us to trust, to believe, that God can answer the same prayer in a 1,000 different ways.  We tend to pray specifically for one way.  If we don’t see anything in the natural realm heading in that direction, we feel like God is not answering, or saying, “No.”  It is possible that God has already done everything, and things are simply falling into place.  We can fret needlessly when we neglect to trust God and wait upon Him in peace.

Think about the cross of Jesus.  It was not what any of the righteous in society were praying for.  When it happened, they all felt that it meant he had failed.  That was all they could see.  Yet, God’s power would bring Jesus even through death into victory.  In fact, his death itself was a victory over sin itself.

This is only in regard to God’s power.  Now, think about God’s wisdom.  In His wisdom, He may choose a way that we don’t understand, or take us in a different direction than we hoped for.  When God led Israel out of Egypt, He took them through the wilderness.  Part of it was to cut down on the number of enemies that they would have to fight.  Yet, part of it was to show Israel how He could powerfully care for them and loved them.  It was to be a time of intimacy.

The test for all of us is to know that, between God’s power and wisdom, our puny minds are  not going to figure out exactly what God is going to do beforehand.  We should pray, ask for help, and then trust Him to respond in His timing and in His way.

In our story today, God had Paul and Silas released from prison in less than 24 hours.  That is a quick release, a miraculous release, and it is all because of the help of God.  However, they didn’t know that when they were praying and singing hymns to God.  May God help us to grow in our patience and learn to trust our heavenly Father.

Let’s look at our passage.

Paul and Silas are released from prison (35-40)

Though Paul and Silas are taken to the warden’s house in the middle of the night, they are technically under his charge as prisoners.  He simply is responsible for producing them whenever the magistrates summon the prisoners.

Whether they go back to the jail or not is not clear from the passage and is really irrelevant for our purposes.  In the end, word will come to let them go.

Before we get into that, I want to deal with this aspect of singing and praising God in the midst of persecution.   I imagine that several hymns, psalms, came to mind as they prayed to God.  It is clear that even David’s psalms began as prayers to God.  At some point, he crafted them into a poetic prayerful song to God.  Songs are a powerful way of ensuring that we remember milestones of spiritual wrestling with God.  Some things are worth remembering, are worth building an altar over and giving thanks to God.

Paul and Silas prayed in physical agony before God, and by the night’s end, God had answered their prayer powerfully, even having the jailer wash and tend their wounds.

At dawn, the magistrates send word to the warden that Paul and Silas are to be released and told to leave town.  We do not know exactly why they made this decision.  It is possible that they believe that Paul and Silas will leave town quickly and everything will be over.  There had been such a raging mob the previous day, that they didn’t want to have such a volatile situation.  They had already beaten the men, and so perhaps they feel this will get rid of the opportunity for more mayhem, and for their ability to control the city to be questioned by Caesar.

It is also possible that the earthquake in the middle of the night after such a strange day was interpreted by them as a bad omen.  “The gods must be angry.”  Either way, they want them to leave and never come back.

You might be wondering why God would send an earthquake when He would know that they would be released the next day.  Of course, why would he let them be beaten when He knows they are innocent?  These kind of question can never truly be answered because we are asking about what exactly God was thinking.  Good luck with solving that.  Yet, we now know that the freedom of Paul and Silas is not due to the good graces of the magistrates.  It is at the good graces of God.  The earthquake and consequent freeing of the prisoners would stand as a witness to believers that God was powerfully working in Philippi.  They could know that God was with them, no matter what happened ahead.

When Paul and Silas are told that they can leave, Paul refuses to go quietly.  We should note that he is not above sneaking out of town, which we saw in Acts 9.  There, he was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall of Damascus.

Paul doesn’t have a principle of never sneaking out of town.  There is something else going on here.  We need to listen to the Holy Spirit and seek His wisdom in moments like this.  Instead of a principle of always doing such and such, there is a real flexibility, a liberty, of the Spirit of God for what needs to happen.

Paul tells the warden that they are Roman citizens.  Why did he wait until now to bring it up?  It is possible that he was unable to do so in the pandemonium and anger of the city.  They simply wouldn’t let them speak.  There was no reason to assume that these Jews had Roman citizenship, but it would have been a wise thing to determine before beating them without trial.

Roman citizens had certain rights.  In this case, they should have been tried in a court with the ability to speak in their defense.  To punish them without trial was a grievous offense.

Paul doesn’t usually make an issue of his Roman citizenship.  Yet, he does here.  I do not believe this is an ego-driven decision.  Paul couldn’t care less about Roman citizenship.  He was more concerned about his citizenship in the kingdom of heaven.  Yet, the reputation of the Gospel of Jesus was at stake here.  And, it was clear that God was working in this situation.  God would use this abuse of rights to turn the tables on the magistrates.

It is important to understand that, though we have natural rights as humans and as citizens of the United States of America, as a citizen of heaven, we can waive them for Christ if need be.  The decision is not about my rights, but about what is helpful to the Gospel.  Paul’s Roman citizenship is subservient to his heavenly citizenship.

Men had put Paul in prison unjustly.  Of course, Paul did not want to be stuck there.  Yet, it is not up to the men who put him there, or my own rights.  It really is about God’s will.  They knew that God had more things for them to do.  And, they knew that God was making a point here in Philippi with the exorcism followed by an earthquake, and the salvation of two households in Philippi.

When word is sent back to the magistrates that they were Romans, we are told in verse 38 that “they were afraid.”  Paul could sue them, and they knew that he had them over a barrel.  They went from having their way with Paul and Silas to being afraid of what they will do.

Paul wants the magistrates to come down and release them.  This is the difference between, we magnanimously let you go and admitting fault publicly.   A quiet release and departure would allow them to play up that they had taught Paul and Silas a lesson.  An official setting of them free as Roman citizens would demonstrate the gross negligence that they had exercised the day before.

It is interesting that part of their fear has to do with what Paul and Silas will do.  Wicked people are always afraid that others will be just like them.  These guys don’t know Paul, but they are sure that they are about to be called on the carpet by the power of Caesar, if they don’t appease these guys.

Yet, notice that their fear is about the power Paul and Silas have as Roman citizens.  They are afraid of the Roman system and their own breach of its rules.  They are not, however, afraid of the God of Israel and His Messiah, Jesus.  They are not afraid of mistreating the ambassadors of Jesus, but of citizens of Rome. 

We could give them some slack since the Gospel is relatively new.  How are we doing today, twenty centuries later?  If we are to fear any power structure, it should be that of Jesus, and the God of heaven.  What is our excuse today?  I know of no country that is making its decisions based upon a fear of God and His Anointed King, Jesus.

A confrontation is always going on between the power of Jesus and the power of the world.  It is not just at the natural level with governments and human authorities, but against wickedness in the spiritual realm.  Do you know that you are a part of that confrontation, just as much as Paul and Silas were?  When you come into the life of an unbeliever, there are spirits who have invested a lot of time in trapping that person in sin.  When you speak into that, you are stirring up a spiritual hornets’ nest, poking the nest.

Though this calls for sobriety, we should not forget that the retaliation of those spirits is a poking of the Lion of Judah, who is on our side.  We are the apple of God’s eye.  And though that does not call for arrogance, it doesn’t call for fear and weakness either.  God has a plan for you to assist in plundering these spiritual powers.  It starts with your own life and then moves out from there.  He is committed to you entering into glory with Him.  May we go forth boldly with His help!

We also see here that God sometimes uses the world’s systems against the devil.  I am sure that the devil does not want Paul and Silas released.  Yet, even when he has control of the whole Roman system, we see God using it against him.  You can see why there is a push in our world to coalesce the powers and systems of this world into one system controlled by one man, or very few men.  Such a global system will be achieve if only for a few years (see Revelation 13). 

This can give us some understanding to the judgment following the Tower of Babel.  Nimrod had led the world into a rebellion against the plan and purpose of God.  The judgment came in the form of confusing their languages.  They then separated because they couldn’t understand each other.  This barrier would take time to be overcome.  By then, different cultures and different ways of thinking would be entrenched.  Though this sounds bad from a sense of powerfully “fixing” problems in this world, it really is also a grace.  Often, God’s judgments have an element of grace within them.  These barriers to “global unity” would slow down and confound the devil’s ability to do anything that he wants, even when he has all of them under his influence.

The magistrates show up and “pleaded with them,” “brought them out,” and “asked them to depart from the city.”  God doesn’t determine what men will do, but every power and authority on earth is at the mercy of God’s decision, Roman empire or not.”  If we truly believed this, we would be far more careful in our lives, and we would be far more concerned for America.  Religion without relationship is not enough.  We are either serving God and His purposes, or we are resisting and rebelling against the Spirit of God.

Paul refuses to leave without saying goodbye to the new believers.  Thus he goes to Lydia’s house and encourages the brethren (believers) there.  Added to them now is the Philippian jailer and his house hold.  On top of this, we can hold out hope that the fortune-telling slave who was freed from the pythonic spirit would join the church as well.  Perhaps, she was on the auction block that next day, and either Lydia or the jailer, could purchase her freedom and attach her to their households.  Who knows?

These three people represent very different flavors of God’s grace.  Lydia was technically a believer.  However, once Messiah Jesus had come forth, she would need to put her faith in Messiah to demonstrate her faith in Yahweh, the God of Israel.  The Philippian jailer was no doubt an idol-worshipper.   The demon possessed girl who was now free had quite a different story.  Ultimately, it is not about how amazing your testimony is.  It may be wiser for us to think of it as God’s testimony in our life.  All three of these people needed Jesus just as much.  No matter how different the story, they were all in the same boat without Jesus.

Paul and Silas would leave, but not as whipped felons with their tail between their legs.  They would walk out of that city with their heads high, and rejoicing in what God was only beginning to do in this city.  May we too march forth into our cities and into our families so that God can use us to accomplish great spiritual work for His kingdom.

A Quick Release audio