Kingdom People with a Kingdom Purpose

Kingdom People with a Kingdom Purpose

Brothers and sisters, we have made the incredible journey through the greatest sermon ever preached! Though I’ve read through it many times, it’s always refreshing, eye-opening, and convicting to go through it again and again. We were able to break it down to 16 sermons in the series and honestly that did not do it justice. We could camp out there for quite a while. In fact, I plan on and encourage you to regularly read through these chapters (Matt. 5-7) for your own edification and spiritual growth. I wanted to take this pastor’s blog moment to recap some of the highlights of the series.

All About the Kingdom
The biggest theme throughout the Sermon on the Mount, in my opinion, is the theme of God’s Kingdom beginning with the first coming of Christ and reaching its complete fulfillment at His second coming. I like to refer to this as the “Already-Not Yet” Kingdom. It has already begun under the Kingship of Christ and will be fully recognized when every knee will bow and tongue confess that He is Lord. Obviously, this hasn’t happened yet but His church should recognize His Kingship now and live in light of that.

If you take the SM (short for Sermon on the Mount) as a whole, you’ll see that Jesus is inaugurating a completely new way of life and practice of faith totally different than what had come before. He points out the culture of the Kingdom (Beatitudes). He points out the way that the Kingdom is noticeably different than the world in which it exists (Salt & Light). In perhaps what is the crux of the Kingdom, Christ acknowledges that those within the Kingdom live in light of Christ’s fulfillment of God’s Law and demands. Because of this, Kingdom people have no need to practice their faith in order to attain their own self-righteousness, like the scribes and the Pharisees. Rather, they can carry out their faith as an expression of love and faith toward their savior that freely gives them His righteousness and as a way to glorify their Father in Heaven.

One last characteristic of the Kingdom as portrayed by Christ in the SM is that it impacts every aspect of a kingdom person’s life. It is their heavenly Father that gives them their daily bread, their clothing, and their treasures. They’ve no need to worry over the things that the rest of the world worries about. A Kingdom person lives to trust His Father that ALWAYS gives good gifts because goodness is part of God’s very nature. So, if you get nothing else from this series, know that if you are Christ’s disciple, you must live your life in light of His present and future Kingdom. It is through this lens that we should approach every facet of our lives. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Living in Secret
One of my favorite features that popped out for me personally this time was the idea of my Father who sees in secret. On the one hand, this is comforting. It reminds us that our heavenly Father sees even those good deeds and thoughts that others don’t. On the other hand, it is convicting and scary knowing that even when we look good for others, our offerings of worship may be distasteful to Him. It’s all about the heart.

Christ really drives home the point that the Lord told Samuel in 1 Samuel 16:7, “For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” As Kingdom people, there is certainly a public aspect to our faith. Jesus even says in Matt. 5:16, “Let your light shine so that others may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” So, our faith is expressed publically but it is those motives that no one else can see that impact the quality of such good works.

This is the issue that Jesus took with the scribes’ and Pharisees’ practices. They certainly did good work. They prayed, fasted, gave to the poor, cast out demons, prophesied, and did many miracles in His name but they did all of these good things for their own glory rather than their heavenly Father’s. They chose to display their secret place rather than perform for an audience of One. It is a stark reminder that we should always keep our motivations in check when living life within the Kingdom. We must constantly ask ourselves, for whose glory am I doing this? Our secret place must remain just that, our secret place where only our Father who sees in secret can weigh the motives of our actions.

The Hard Road Ahead
Perhaps the characteristic that the American church needs to hear most is that persecution and hardships are supposed to come with the territory. If you look at church history or even the book of Acts and you see what the early believers had to endure, I’m saddened to think that many professing believers today in America would abandon the faith under such conditions. When trivial things like a TV show mocking Christianity or a celebrity or politician jokes about the Christian faith, it prompts many “believers” to become keyboard warriors and return similar mockery at the offending party. We cry out for boycotts and demand they be “canceled.” It’s funny how many have taken on the same tactics that they so heavily criticize like cancel culture at the slightest hint of insult.

The other extreme approach I see the church taking, which is perhaps even more destructive, is they begin to compromise on long-held orthodox beliefs and theology. As a way of surviving such attacks on their faith, many Christians choose to change and adapt their faith to a more worldly tolerable stance. Issues such as approaches to the LGBTQ community, qualifications for the office of pastor/elder, abortion, or even heaven and hell, and who will go where, are beginning to be questioned and adapted by believers in order to be more tolerable to the world. The weight of persecution is causing the faith of many Christians to crumble and compromise.

But Jesus, in the SM, cuts right to the chase and calls us blessed when we are persecuted. We are to live as a blessed people, not grumblers and complainers whenever the world attacks us. We cannot compromise simply because the road we are called to gets hard or, heaven forbid, causes us to confront and denounce our sinful nature rather than embrace it. As I quoted in one of my sermons of commentator John Stott, “the gate leading to the easy way is wide, for it is a simple matter to get onto the easy road. There is evidently no limit to the luggage we can take with us. We need leave nothing behind, not even our sins, self-righteousness, or pride. The gate leading to the hard way, on the other hand, is narrow. One has to look for it to find it. It is easy to miss. As Jesus said in another connection, it is as narrow as a needle’s eye. Further, in order to enter it, we must leave everything behind—sin, selfish ambition, covetousness, and even if necessary family and friends. For no one can follow Christ who has not first denied himself,” (Stott, Message of the Sermon on the Mount 194-195).

The Kingdom road is going to be a hard road. We need to embrace that. We also need to embrace the hope and truth that Jesus promises us that it is all worth it. The narrow and difficult road, when endured, leads to life! When we are attacked, let us learn to both hold firm to our faith and turn the other cheek. When we do this, the world will see our good works and give glory to our Father in Heaven.

Coming Up
I hope that the series has been as encouraging to you as it has been for me. I hope it has changed your perspective on how you are approaching the things of your life and encouraged you to live your faith in light of the Kingdom to which you belong. I hope it has convicted on sins no one else sees but yourself. It has certainly done that for me.

The next series we will begin in two weeks is over the Letter to the Ephesians. This letter ties in well with the Sermon on the Mount. It beautifully covers the story of the gospel and the impact that this good news has on our lives both individually and corporately. There will be a brief break in there as we will do an advent series starting at the end of November through the rest of the year. I’m excited to see how God will speak to us through His Word in the coming weeks. Know that I love you and am praying for you.

For His Kingdom,
Pastor Trenton