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

Such Love-Part 1

Subtitle: He Became One of Us

John 1:14-18; Philippians 2:5-11.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on Palm Sunday, April 2, 2023.

Today we begin a 6-part series about God's love, and how we should respond to it.

Love is a matter of call and response, or action and response.  In a way, God is always the initiator of love because of His eternal nature.  We are always the responders.

I want to refresh our memories of just how much God loved us in the coming of the one we know as Jesus, or in Hebrew, Yeshua.  On top of His love 2,000 years ago, we have His great love for us today, for you, and for others.  Do you not realize that God's amazing love will be embracing you even unto your last breath?  His amazing love will even be with humanity to the end of this age, and into eternity.

Let's look at our passage today, and remind ourselves of God's great love.

The Word became flesh (John 1:14)

In this chapter, John speaks of the One called "the Word" who is identified in verse 17 as Jesus Christ.  The Word becoming flesh points back to that moment in time when Mary first conceived.

The miracle of the incarnation is often doubted.  It is believed that Mary clearly made up the story.  However, does this square with all of the evidence?

Let's just go with the cynic on this one and assume that Mary did make it up.  Her pregnancy would have either been by Joseph, or some other man that she is unwilling to name.  Modern man may scoff that they didn't know science like we do today.  Thus, the people of Nazareth were easily duped.

Of course, this is not what happened and is very snobbish towards that generation.  They knew exactly how a woman became pregnant.  No one believed Mary's story at first, not even Joseph.  He was going to put her away silently.  However, Joseph changed his mind and married Mary.  They lived their lives with the stigma hanging over their heads that they had not waited for the proper moment to be intimate.  No one would have bought their story.

Here is the rub.  If Mary was lying, then Jesus should have fallen within the range of the Judeans of his day.  He might be a little smarter or not, but we would not expect him to stick out among the greats of Israel, much less all mankind.  The miracles of Jesus, his death and resurrection, are not explainable by a natural conception.  Of course, the skeptic continues to deny everything.  None of the miracles happened.  The resurrection didn't happen.  Over the top of all the eye witness testimony, the skeptic's biases reign supreme.   There is just too much evidence that something strange was going on with this Jesus of Nazareth.

In the opening verses of this chapter, it is clear that John is using language from Genesis chapter 1, "In the beginning..."  The apostles of Jesus had come to see the reality of who Jesus really was.  He is the Son of the Most High God, but not in the way that humans would understand sonship.  Even before anything was created, the eternal Son existed as the eternal Word of God.  How does John come up with the idea that there was a "Word" of God in the Genesis 1?  Well, primarily he doesn't "come up with it."  He understands it by the revelation of Jesus and the Spirit of God.  However, it is important to see that Genesis 1 describes the Father saying, "Let there be light,"  When we speak, words go forth from us.  Of course, God is not flesh and blood and there is no air around Him to propagate sound waves.  However, something greater is being revealed.  The One who created man, with the ability to speak and send powerful ideas out into the world around him, is able to "speak" and send forth "word" in a greater way.  What is not made clear in the text of Genesis 1 is explained in John 1.  The eternal Word was the eternal Son who went forth to accomplish what the Father desired.  John is also probably looking at Proverbs 8, in which wisdom is personified and depicted as working with God at Creation.  In a sense, John is saying that Proverbs 8 is not just poetry.  It is revelation that is not clear until the Wisdom of God, the Word of God, took on flesh.

This is the amazing part.  This One who has eternally existed not only with God, but as divine, became human.  This speaks to the depths that God was willing to go in order to save us, to show His love for us.  Yes, God is good and therefore He will do good things, but He doesn't have to be that good!  This call and response of love cannot be broken down into "laws."  Anyone who says, "This is what you have to do in order to love me," has something wrong in their heart.  They are not speaking with love themselves.  Love must be free to act and to respond.  Love must not be controlled and manipulated; true love will not dictate to other how they "must" show love.

This brings us to Philippians 2:5-11.  It uses language from Genesis 1 as well (verse 26).  In Genesis, man is made in the "likeness" of God.  He is not God, but is like Him enough that a personal relationship can develop between them.  We see this in Genesis 3 when it tells us that God would come down in the cool of the day to meet with Adam and Eve.  In Philippians, something is happening in the opposite direction.  Though man is made in God's likeness, through Jesus, God has taken on the nature and form of a man.  The Word didn't just become like a man.  Rather, He became a man.

This begs the question, "What was He thinking?"  The context of Philippians 2 is the kind of mind that Christians need to have.  Thus, Paul points back to the incarnation, taking on of flesh, of the Word of God in Jesus.  We need the same kind of mind that Jesus had when he agreed to such a plan.

Of course, becoming human is nothing to us because we are human.  Jesus was divine and the creator of all mankind.  Taking on the nature of a human is a big deal.  In fact, Paul parallels the act of Jesus taking on the likeness of humans with him taking on the form of a slave.  He didn't just become human.  He became a human slave for God the Father. 

Again, what was the eternal Son thinking?  What is this love of God that would go to such lengths, to such depths, in order to save us?  As humbling as becoming human is for God, this was not the depths of his love.

The Philippians passage uses three verbal phrases to describe the depths of God's love for us.

First, he "emptied himself."  It doesn't say exactly what he emptied himself of.  In the context, the mind of Christ is in view.  Thus, we might ask ourselves this question.  What would I have to empty myself of in order to do something like that?  Of course, Jesus is not proud and arrogant.  However, he did create all things, and has dwelled in eternal glory with the Father.  He would have to empty himself of all the reasons and thinking that would object to such a plan of salvation.  It would be an attitude that says, "I am this (a glorious God); I shouldn't have to do that (become human, etc.). 

As humans, we are altogether too familiar with that attitude.  It is not an attitude of love.  This is why Paul is pointing us back to the incarnation.  We need to first understand just how amazing it is that the Word would do this for us, and then make the leap to the fact that we should do the same for others.

Second, Philippians 2 tells us that Jesus "humbled himself."  At its root this word speaks of a lowering of position.  The eternal Son abased himself in taking on human flesh.  Yet, as a man, we see him washing the feet of his disciples.  He wasn't just becoming a great king of the earth that everyone would serve.  Instead, he was a slave of God to serve us.  He lived without purpose and will of his own, and instead, lived out only the will and purpose of the Father in heaven.  Since the men whose feet he washed were his disciples, they would then have to figure out how to lower themselves even lower than their master.  How is that possible?  Only by the grace and help of God's Holy Spirit; that's how.

Palm Sunday is all about the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem.  It represents all that we want in the natural.  Jesus presents himself to Jerusalem as her awaited Anointed King from God.  We do not object to God coming down and becoming human in order to conquer our foes and lay them at our feet.  However, we do balk because we do not know what our true enemy is.  One day we are saying yeah for team Jesus, and then he does something we don't understand and we are ready to crucify him.

Just as Israel was looking for Messiah to show up and conquer the Romans, so we do today.  The Ukrainians hope for God to show up and crush the Russians.  Americans may complain that if God would just show up and destroy those who are taxing us to death, then we would be good.  Really?  The truth is that Israel's problem was not actually the Romans, and the problem for American's is not your tax-happy State capital, or Washington D.C.  Our problem is sin that is entrenched in our own hearts.  We will point out every sin, but our own.  This is our greatest problem: we are in bondage to sin.

The Word dwelt among us

Back in John 1:14, we are told that the Word became flesh and then dwelt among us.  John again uses language from the Old Testament, this time from Exodus 25-40.  The word for "dwelt" connects back to the animal skins of the tent, or tabernacle, God had Israel build in the desert.  This verb could be translated as "and tented among us."

Yeshua is literally God,  Yahweh, tenting among us.  Remember, the whole purpose of the tabernacle was to create a place that God could dwell in among the people of Israel.  As they camped in the wilderness, the tabernacle was there in the center of their camp.  The presence of God was visible in a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.

This visible presence of the Lord had become a thing of the past by the first century.  However, it is important to understand this picture of God dwelling among His people within a structure of animal skins.

This brings up the age old contention between Christians and Judaism, the idea of the Messiah being divine.  Is this just a Christian perversion?  Are Christians teaching things that are not in the Old Testament, either because they don't understand Hebrew, or they are purposefully twisting the Scriptures?

The presence of God was always understood to be a mystery in ancient Israelite worship.  If one pays careful attention to the text, you might accuse the writer of contradicting themselves.  On one hand, the Scriptures pound home the idea that mortal humans cannot see God without dying, and yet God is able to reveal Himself in lesser, or mediated forms.  The bush that Moses sees is somehow Yahweh, and yet it is not fully Yahweh.  The fire and smoke on Mt. Sinai is somehow Yahweh, and yet not fully Yahweh.  The same scary manifestation of fire and smoke on the mountain, then moves to the tabernacle as a less scary pillar of cloud (a somewhat different manifestation, yet of the same).  We see Moses speaking with God in the tabernacle, but at the same time he asks God to look down from heaven (Deuteronomy 26:15).  Moses was not contradicting himself.  He simply knew that God was capable of manifesting in a mediated form on the earth, while still being God in heaven.

This is the mystery of the presence of God.  It is never fully explained.  It is simply revealed and discovered by Moses and Israel.  Even the New Testament does not completely demystify this mystery of the person and presence of God.  Yet, Moses had no problem accepting that God could be "tenting" among His people within animal skins (the tabernacle) while still being resident in heaven.  Thus, before the first century, rabbis would speak of the Invisible Yahweh and the Visible Yahweh (a mediated form of the invisible God).  God is One, and yet He can somehow localize without leaving heaven.

This comes to a head in Exodus 33 to 34.  There Moses is talking with God.  He is asking God to go with them, even though Israel has been sinful and rebellious.  God promises to send His Presence with them.  At this point, Moses asks God to see His glory.  God agrees to let him see His receding glory, that is, not its fullness, because Moses could not handle it. 

The even is described in chapter 33, but happens in chapter 34.  God tells Moses to stand on a certain rock.  God would then come down and pass before Moses.  God's hand would simultaneously place Moses in a cleft of the rock, and shield him from seeing God's face.  Yet, as God passes by, He removes His hand so that Moses can see His back as He goes away from him.  Meanwhile, God is "declaring" the name of the Lord.  I will come back to this declaration of the name of the Lord in a moment.

Notice that in this passage God is spoken of in human terms: face, hand, and back.  This is a mediated human form, yet not a human.  Thus, we can see that there is no great leap to understand that just as Yahweh could tent among His people in animal skins, appear to Moses in human form, all while being resident in the heavens, so in Jesus, Yahweh could tent among His people in human skin, while still being resident in the heavens.

Why would He do this?  What love is this?

We beheld His glory

Finally, John 1:14 tells us that they beheld his glory.  Just as Israel saw God's glory come down upon the mountain, then onto the tabernacle, so God's glory was made visible in the person and work of Jesus.

I would like to point out that God's glory is not just one thing in the Old Testament.  There are many different expressions, forms, and even layers to the manifest glory of God.  No human has ever seen the unmitigated glory of God.  We cannot handle it.  Then, we see the powerful glory that scares people like at Mt. Sinai: smoking fire, Loud voice, trumpet blasts, shakings, etcetera. 

Then, there is the kind of glory that Moses saw that is a human like figure.  This connects with the Angel of Yahweh passages as well.  This Angel is more than a created spiritual messenger for God.  God's Name is somehow in Him, and he forgives sins (Exodus 23:21).  Moses saw this human form of God's glory declaring the "Name of the Lord."  What was the declaration?  Exodus 34:6-7, "And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”  God's glory is displayed in God allowing Moses to glimpse what He could of Him, but it is also wrapped up in the truth about God's nature.  He is Mercy, Grace, Patience, Goodness, Truth, Forgiveness, and the fear of the guilty.  Thus, John alludes to this passage as well when he says of Jesus in John 1:14 that Jesus is full of grace and truth.  In Jesus, Israel receives a greater glimpse of what Moses saw on the mountain. 

Of course, some of Israel saw a greater glory in Jesus than the others similar to Moses seeing God's glory greater than Israel did.  The disciples saw Jesus do things that others didn't, like walk on water and calm a storm with just the words, "Peace, be still."  However, James, John, and Peter saw the Lord's face transfigured into a glorious brightness that the other nine did not see.

Yet, the miracles and such demonstrations were probably not the greatest glory that Jesus expressed.  A case can be made that his death on the cross was the greatest display of the glory of God.  On that day, he fully revealed the heart and nature of God the Father, not only to Israel, but also to the Gentiles.  The heart of God is full of Grace, and yet also full of Truth.  He will bend over backwards to save us, even to the point of dying for us, but we must turn to Him in truth.

Today, I want us to understand what it says about the love of God that He would even come down and take on the nature of a human.  The heart of God has always been about relationship with us, and to dwell with us.  Revelation ends with us dwelling with God and the statement, "They shall see His face."  We will have been fitted to not only dwell in His presence, but also to look into the face of the full glory of God without dying!  This relationship has always been His goal.  It was there in the Garden of Eden until the serpent and sin broke that fellowship.  It was there with Israel in the wilderness, until sin and rebellion broke it.

All humanity is full of rebellion against God, and against His Anointed King, Jesus.  Yet, even now He holds out His hand in an offer of peace.  He offers the joy of dwelling with Him throughout eternity.  This is the love of God.  How can I say no to such love?

Such Love 1 audio

The Savior of Humble Beginnings

Luke 2:10-12; Micah 5:2. December 19, 2021.  This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner. 

Here are some great quotes on humility.  Sir J.M. Barrie, “Life is a long lesson in humility.”  C.S. Lewis, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less.”  It has been also said somewhere that “Pride is about my glory; humility is about God’s glory.”

Today, we are going to take a deeper dive into the idea that God requires humility from us, not in order to keep us down (i.e., that is beneath Him), but rather so that He can lift us up.  In short, God is not proud; He never has been, period.  Therefore, Jesus the Son of God did not begin to be humble at the incarnation.  Don’t get me wrong.  It is an incredibly humble act, and yet, he chose it.  Only a humble person chooses a truly humble action.  Jesus has been eternally humble just as the Father.

This may sound like a small point at first.  However, it is huge.  It is the context of our hearts, minds, and the hearts and minds of the world around us that gets us all mixed up on pride.  It just doesn’t sink to us that the only being in the universe that “deserves” to be proud isn’t.

This world needs a Savior and the good news is that God has already sent us one.  The reality is that the world is still looking around for someone to save us, or some group.  “Yeah, we’ve heard of Jesus, but he just doesn’t cut it for us,” is the attitude that this world has, and many Christians as well.

Let’s look at the birth of Jesus and focus on the humble nature of it all.

O little town of Bethlehem

Everything in the natural about the birth of Jesus smacks of humility.  God did not pick the great Roman Empire, nor even the greatest city in Israel.  This would be the equivalent of God ignoring the united States of America today.  We might even say that He had to use Israel because they had been given the prophecies.  Yes, but that is exactly the point.  God overlooked all the great countries that existed and created a new country out of one man, Abraham.  God spoke to this small people in ways He didn’t with far greater empires.  Why would God do this?  Of course, He has a purpose, but it also goes to the heart of God’s own nature.  He is the kind of Being that is neither drawn towards our great prideful works, nor willing to draw near to those things. 

Jesus is born in Bethlehem.  Bethlehem was a small town that was 6 miles south of Jerusalem.  We don’t have population figures from that time, but scholars believe it to be from 500 to 1,000 at the most.  Even its name is quite humble.  It means “House of Bread.” 

If there is any distinction for Bethlehem, it is that it was the hometown of King David.  Of course, the only town that cares about things like that is the hometown, especially a small one.  People from small towns who go on to do great things, almost always do those great things somewhere else, often in the great cities of the world.

Bethlehem was also a place of humble occupation, which David had learned as well, shepherding.  Just as David come from humble origins, so too would the Savior of Israel, and the Savior of the world.  Being so close to Jerusalem, Bethlehem was a place that supplied sheep for the temple sacrifices.  This is an honorable thing, and yet, I am sure that no one in Jerusalem were thinking that this made Bethlehem something great.  Bethlehem was a humble place with humble people.  However, it had a calling upon it; a calling that was from God. 

Let us always remember that our greatness does not come in the scope of the things that we do.  It comes from the God who calls us to live according to His purposes.  Anything done in response to the calling of God is great because He is great.  We must never forget this.

So, what about Bethlehem’s calling?  The prophet Micah prophesied in Micah 5:2, “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me The One to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting.”

It is unclear whether Ephrathah is an older name of this town to distinguish it from another Bethlehem in Israel, or if it is the name of the area that Bethlehem was in.  Regardless, God showed Micah that the Messiah would come out of Bethlehem.  This verse is the main reason that the priests and teachers of the law pointed to Bethlehem when the Magi asked about the birthplace of the King of Israel.  Though Bethlehem was small, a great ruler for Israel would come from it.

The phrase “whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting,” has a double meaning.  First, the prophecies about this anointed king went back even before Israel.  From the very beginning in Genesis 3:15, we see the promise that one from the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head.  However, knowing what we know about Jesus now, these words also point to his pre-existence.  These prophecies did not point ahead to someone who would exist in the future, but looked ahead to the intersection of The One who was with the Father in the beginning and a particular time when God would help Israel, and all the nations.  God loves to call the small and humble to big things!

Enough about the city in which Jesus chose to enter the world.  Let’s look at Jesus the child.

O little child of Bethlehem

The shepherds are told that they would find a baby in swaddling clothes.  This is not an intimidating picture for a Messiah to save Israel.  The Magi coming out of the desert with soldiers and their entourage would have been impressive.  These were not actually kings, but rather king makers.  They came from the Parthian Empire, which Rome was unable to subdue.  Yes, Jesus coming out of the desert as a mature man with angelic armies, that would be intimidating.  Or perhaps, Jesus could have descended on a cloud with the angelic armies during one of Israel’s feasts and touched down in the temple compound.  Yet, God did not choose such for his entry.  If He didn’t, then can we not see that it is because He is humble and not proud?  Those are the kind of things that we gravitate towards and desire.  Our politicians have signs the size of a school bus with their name and the music blasts as they come on the stage.  This was not the way of our Lord.  He is not proud and neither will he play to our pride.

This baby would also be lying in a manger.  This was not normal even for those days.  God knew there would be no room in the inn.  Why didn’t He fix that?  Maybe He did “fix it.”  Perhaps, we wouldn’t know a fix if it slapped us in the face.  In fact, that is part of our problem.  Our need for pride is like a junkie needing a fix.  Our cries for God to fix things are often just the cries of junkies wanting another “fix” from the Lord, wanting something that we think will get us right, but God know is just slavery.  He has a better vision for us than eternal junkies begging Him for another fix.  It was more fitting that Bethlehem would have no room for its most famous child to be born because that is our problem.  We just don’t have room in our proud lives for the humility of God.

There are many things that God doesn’t “fix” because our definitions are selfish.  Maybe God has fixed you life; maybe the things you want rid of are the very things that are necessary to bring you to see the truth.  Can you trust Him?

Something that we often overlook is that the multitude of the Heavenly Host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the Highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men,” happened somewhere else in the fields, not at the manger.  It is not like the angels wouldn’t have done that if commanded to do so, but that was not the command.  This was a journey that Jesus had to take without them.  They reveal the news to shepherd and then send them to attend the baby Jesus.  Yes, shepherds are what every new mother wants right after they have given birth.  Jesus didn’t need the fanfare and sycophantic mob crying out his praises.  He is a humble savior who is looking for some humble repentant people, who will wait for the proper time of exaltation.

Think about it.  God resists the proud, and gives grace to the humble.  He puts down the proud and lifts up the humble.  How much clearer must He be?  Let us join the Lord in this time of humility (I mean that in the sense of being humble).  If we suffer with Him than we will doubtless be glorified with Him and be exalted in the proper time.

Humble Beginnings audio

The Things that God Hates 2: Arrogant Eyes

Proverbs 6:16-17; Psalm 18:27; Proverbs 18:12; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; Psalm 62:9-12; Psalm 131; 1 Peter 5:5-7.

This sermon was preached by Pastor Marty Bonner on August 15, 2021.

Today, we will look at the first thing that is hated by God, arrogant eyes.  Arrogance is usually obvious to us when we see it in others.  However, there are times when it becomes infectious, or endemic, to a group of people, a nation, or even a whole world.

When the Titanic set out on her maiden voyage back in 1912, the world touted it as unsinkable.  Of course, they would not think they were being arrogant because they felt that they were just following the science.  The Titanic never finished that voyage and still lies at the bottom of the Atlantic to this day.  An iceberg flow that they were warned about became their date with destiny, a place where pride runs into reality and is cast down.

Since Proverbs 6 only lists the things that God hates, we will be looking at a number of other passages, but let’s start in Proverbs 6.

God hates arrogant eyes

The NKJV describes this first thing as “a proud look.”  Other versions use the word “haughty,” or “arrogant.”  The word that is being translated is a verb that would literally mean “exalting,” or “rising up.”  Secondly, it is literally talking about our eyes.  God hates exalting eyes, or eyes that are rising up.  It is understandable that the English translation has chosen understanding over being literal.  Of course, to have arrogant, or haughty eyes, one first has a pride problem that is going on inside their heart.  Before we get too deep into talking about pride and arrogance, there is one more aspect of this list of hated things that we should recognize.

The list involves parts of the body that are used in our sin.  It begins with the eyes and works down the body to the feet for the first five.  Things six and seven then point to things that actively extend from us towards others.  This will make more sense when we get there, but it involves the things we speak and the things we sow among others.

We could just treat this as a device to enable memorizing, or simply an artistic flourish of the writer, but we must not overlook the truth that God hates it when we use the body that He has given us for sinful things.  Our pride doesn’t stay in the heart.  If it is not humbled by us, then it will worm its way to the surface, and it will show itself on our face, and in our countenance.

Let’s look at some other passages on this issue.

“For You will save the humble people, but will bring down haughty looks.”  Psalm 18:27

“Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor is humility.” Proverbs 18:12

“Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”  Proverbs 16:18

In these verses, the arrogance of the proud is brought down and destroyed in contrast to the salvation and honor of those who are humble.  Of course, many proud people seem to avoid destruction in this life, and the humble often seem to know nothing, but it.  It is not always evident in life that God hates pride and will judge it.

Yet, if you were to look into the life of a proud person in the way that God can see, you would see countless ways that God has been rebuking their pride.  Like warning signs on a road, or messages about icebergs ahead, they double down on their pride and cruise on past it.  Proverbs pictures pride as an essential element to the destruction of anyone.  You can be poor and have nothing, and yet, still be proud.  Ultimately, all of us will face God one day after our death.  Remember, He hates arrogant eyes.  Many proud and pompous people will stand before God after their death.  It will not go well for them in that day.  You do not want to go into eternity as a person who rejected the rebukes of God concerning their pride.

Now, let’s look at 2 Timothy 3:1-5.  Here, we are warned that pride and arrogance will be prevalent in the last days.  Most of these phrases either list an aspect of pride, or something that is dripping with it: Lovers of themselves, boasters, proud, blasphemers, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, headstrong, haughty.  Wow, what a list!

These are the battlegrounds of our hearts today.  They are also part of what makes these last days so perilous and difficult.  We are a generation that loves to talk of love, but in our heart and actions, there is all manner of pride and arrogance against one another.  It is too little to say that God is not pleased.  Can we hear the Scripture warning us that God hates these things, and that our judgment is even now piling up, higher and higher?  It will reach heaven one day, and God will say, “Enough!”  He will send judgment upon this arrogant world, and many will be caught in the trap of destruction.

O friend, don’t be enamored and idolize the proud.  Don’t work to be like them.  Rather, choose to pick up your cross and become like the lowly Jesus, who is loved of God.  Such a person may suffer peril on this earth, but they will receive the wonderful welcome of God, His salvation and Life Eternal!

If God hates pride, then we should take some time to focus on what He loves, humility.

God loves humility

The flip side of all of these hated things, is that there are things that God loves, and the flipside of pride is humility.  Psalm 62:9-12 counsels us to put our trust in God and not in the things of this world.  It reminds us that God has mercy in quantities and in quality that this world can never understand, or give.

We can spend our whole life trying “to be something,” to the detriment of our own soul.  What do I mean?  Our psalm makes it clear that God only saves the lowly.  He does not save the proud; He brings them down in judgment.  Yet, the lowly receive His mercy.

Psalm 62 tells us something that we either don’t know, or too easily forget.  There is no difference between a person of low degree (as judged by this world) and a person of high degree (according to the world).  It tells us that the lowly person is just a vapor, here today, gone tomorrow.  When it says that the highborn are a lie, it is emphasizing that they are no different than the lowly person.  They too are but a vapor, here today, gone tomorrow.  So then, why be so proud over and against the lowly?  Or worse, why try to be one of the high and mighty?

The truth is that every human being on earth is lowly, and it is the most logical thing for us to be humble.  However, we use our minds and hearts to rationalize that we are better, smarter, more valuable than others.  Remember that God renders to each one according to his work.  If you have spent your whole life in arrogant judgment against others, rejecting God’s rebukes all along the way, then prepare for such from God when you get there.  He only saves the lowly.

Psalm 131 is a short psalm that I like to think of as the prayer of humility.  The humble person recognizes that there are things in life that are too great and difficult for us to solve, or figure out.  In such cases, we are faced with a choice.  Will I let arrogance and pride push me further into things that I am ill-equipped to face without God?  Or, will I remain humble and trust that God will help me through it even though I don’t understand it all?

The picture of trust in this passage is that of a weaned child.  The weaned child has grown up enough that it has learned to depend upon the mother’s care.  The weaned child is no longer dependent upon the mother as it once was.  As an infant, it screamed and cried until she nursed it, but now it has learned that it doesn’t have to scream and cry in order to get food.  Mom has been faithful in looking out for it.  The weaned child is still a child.  It cannot face life alone, but it doesn’t have to, and it knows it.  Such a child can face a big world, and big problems, with a calm and quieted soul, peace.  Peace like a gently flowing river can flood our souls when we learn to put our hope and trust in God.  I would say that this is a great prayer to pray each day, as we wake up to face the day.  Even better is to do what it says; trust Him!

Our last passage will be 1 Peter 5:5-7.  If you want the grace of God, then humble yourself in the sight of God, and the people around you.  Peter explains that part of the grace of God for the lowly is that He has a proper time of exaltation for them.  Of course, for us, the best time for exaltation is now!

We all have some measure of exaltation in this life, even if it is just maturing into an adult with abilities that no infant can have.  However, the true “proper time” of our exaltation is after we have shed these mortal bodies at the Resurrection.  Our mortal, and sinful flesh, is really bad at handling exaltation, which is proven every day.  As it is said, “Power corrupts, and absolute power absolutely corrupts.”  Can I live this life trusting God knows the amount of exaltation that I can handle without losing my soul?  And, can I trust that He holds in reserve for me an exaltation that I cannot begin to fathom?

Let me close by warning us of the trap of the proud.  Not all exaltation is duly deserved, and it is always a test of our character and choices.  When you are exalted in any way, you must work even harder to remain humble.  I am reminded of the warning that James gives to those who want to be teachers.  You will have a stricter judgment.  So, let us hear the warning to those who desire exaltation.  You will have a harder time wrestling with pride, and thus facing a tougher judgment.  Of course, someone has to lead, but let them not rejoice in that day.  The proud think that they are being exalted because that is their proper place (over the lesser others), but in truth, they are being exalted, like Pharaoh of old, so that God can make an example out of them.  The higher they rise the greater the fall. 

The end times will fall with a great crash as Jesus returns.  God help us to be a people who are feeding upon the humility and lowliness of Jesus, instead of the arrogance and pride of the spirit of this world.

Arrogant Eyes audio