Kingdom Living (Part 2) Sermon on the Mount
Matthew 3:1-2 “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”
We have been aware that Kingdom Living is not just about after this life when we get to Heaven. We learned that The Kingdom of Heave is indeed at hand and to practice Kingdom Living we must understand that Jesus is LORD now, as well as forever. Kingdom Living is surrendering our will to His and being His servant. We learned that in order to move further into Kingdom Living, we must first submit to GOD, seeking His righteousness above all else, so that we can be a kingdom of priests and minister to the world telling them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2)
Handout: Kingdom Living (Part 2) Sermon on the Mount
Jesus commanded us in Mark 16…
Mark 16:15-16 And He said unto them, Go ye unto all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved; and he that does not believe shall be damned.
We understand by these scriptures that we are to tell the world about Jesus Christ. We know that He came here to live and be our example how we should serve The Father…and we can follow His example. Let’s turn to Matthew chapter 5.
Matthew 5:1-12 “And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain: and when He was set, His disciples came unto Him: And He opened His mouth, and taught them saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see GOD. Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of GOD. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are ye when me shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in Heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.”
Going back to the first verse, And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain: and when we was set….He sat down. That would have been the way He taught them. Him sitting and they would have been gathered around Him. That is such an intimate way of teaching. Just noticing how the scriptures say that He was, it is beautiful the compassion and love Jesus showed in everything He did. Praise the LORD, He lowered Himself to our level…He was high and lifted up, and He knew that we were sinners and we could not rise up to meet Him, so in His great love, He came down to earth and He sat down, down to our level to show us how to live. What a Savior! He is worthy!!! Worthy is the Lamb! That blesses my heart more than I could say with words and I praise with all my heart in thanksgiving that when I could not reach up, He came down!!!
This message that Jesus was teaching them, was wonderful! We who are in Him, are a blessed people. Blessed are ye! No matter what situation may arise in this uncertain life…blessed are ye! We are a blessed people.
2 Corinthians 4:7-10 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of GOD, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the LORD JESUS, that the life also of JESUS might be made manifest in our body.”
We have the Holy Spirit living in us…we are blessed. The main point He was making was that no matter what is going on in the earthly realm, if we have Him, we are blessed. That is joyful!!! The GOOD news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now in order to understand the full message and image of what was happening here on this mountain we first have to go back in the scriptures and see what had just happened prior to Jesus going up to the mountain. Why were the multitude following Him?
Matthew chapter 3 tells us that John the Baptist had come telling them that The Messiah had come. In reading the whole chapter of Matthew 4 we see that Jesus was led to the wilderness to be tempted of satan…He had fasted forty days and nights, and He had just called the disciples to follow Him. He was beginning His ministry and the disciples were just beginning their training!
Matthew 4:23-25 “And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and He healed them. And there followed Him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.
So Jesus has begun His ministry to the people and His fame has spread throughout the land. They had heard that this man could heal and had great power. So they had brought all the sick people to Him to be touched and healed of Him.
Isn’t that what we are called to do? To reach out to the sin sick; the poor and needy and minister to them, first telling them about the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ? Yes it is!
Now we have to understand that in those days, people were raised to believe that people who were sick, had diseases, or disabilities were being punished because of some sin that they or their parents had committed. They did not understand that sometimes bad things happen to people who are not living in sin. Remember the account recorded in John 9?
John 9:1-3 “ 1And as Jesus passed by, He saw a man which was blind from his birth. 2And His disciples asked Him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or His parents, that He was born blind? 3Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
Now you have to go in your minds eye, and think about what the disciples have just witnessed after just following The LORD for the first time. Here they were, in the midst of all these sick and diseased people. Going back to Matthew 24:4 we read that they were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and He had healed them.
In your mind picture that. Place yourself in that place, where over to your left maybe there were people who had terrible diseases and over to your right maybe someone was having a seizure, behind you people were paralyzed and could not move, and in front of you, as you looked at the faces of people in terrible pain, you can see the grimace of that suffering. The disciples were “knee deep” in suffering people! Aren’t we like that now? In the world today, filled with sin and the chaos that the devil and his angels has created. The havoc he has wreaked on this old sinful world. We are in it. It is all around us. While we are here, we are in the world of sin sickness but we do not have to be of it! That’s how Jesus and His disciples were here, they were in the midst of all this sickness but they were not of it, they were there to help and to heal.
I wonder just what was going on in the minds of the disciples, being plunged suddenly into all this sickness and suffering. Watching Jesus reach down and heal with compassion and love. They had been taught to believe, blessed are the ones who have not sinned.
So they have witnessed all this suffering and they have witness the healing power of Jesus and so Jesus went up into the mountain to teach them. He knew that all the suffering they had just witnessed was a hard thing to see, and He knew the joy they must have felt seeing Him at work and healing. I tend to believe they were just overwhelmed and a bit confused! Jesus took them up there to explain what had just happened and to teach them about ministry and Kingdom Living!
So the first thing He said was…Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. He knew they had been taught that those who were blessed were those who had it all together. Jesus was saying, no, blessed are those who are poor in spirit, because I have come that they might be rich, that they might believe and inherit The Kingdom and eternal life through me! He was teaching them that the good news of the gospel was not just for those who were “good”, it was for everyone.
Praise HIS name I’m so thankful that He isn’t just for good, beautiful, wonderful people!!! He is for everyone, come as you are…He waits for you. Jesus said that those who are not sick are not in need of a physician in Mark chapter 2 when the scribes and Pharisees were whispering about Him dwelling among publicans and sinners.
I don’t know about you but I never had it all together, Jesus came to me in my mess, in my pain, and He healed me…and He continues to heal me from the effects of this sinful world everyday. He is so lovely, so worthy, so beautiful. I love Him so, because He first loved me!
Blessed are the poor in spirit, He was indeed telling them, blessed are you if you have me! If you have The Son of GOD, You have GOD! If you have GOD, you are in need of nothing else! He was teaching them that He was for everyone and that ministry is not a neat tidy job. It is messy! We are going to have to stoop down in the ditches and the mud of sin, not becoming part of it, but reaching down and lifting those out of it through the gospel of Jesus so that He can heal their lives. Blessed are you if you know you need HIM! This is our purpose in life, to show others their need for Christ.
There are so many Christians do not realize that today and satan has lied to them and they have listened believing that they do not have purpose. The devil knows that a human heart, void of purpose, he can destroy. A person can live with pain, a lot easier than he/she can live without purpose. Beloved, you are not an accident, you were designed by The one and only Almighty GOD! The Kingdom of Heaven has a place and purpose for you! Blessed are you if you know you need The LORD…know that yourself and go tell others, this is Kingdom Living!
We will stop here for this week and move on next week in this series. Be much in prayer for me and for this ministry that we can continue to reach all nations of the world telling them about Jesus Christ, Their Savior that wants to heal their spirit and give them The Kingdom of Heaven, if they will only believe and receive and call out to Him.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of The LORD, shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)
Dear Gracious, Heavenly Father…
I bow in front of You once again, just thanking You for Your healing power in my life. Father I thank You that when I am a mess, You, in love, pity, and compassion come down to me to restore me and bring me to where You are. You are life and You are beautiful. LORD, I love You and I worship You today and always because You are the lifter up of our heads. I thank You that when we were poor in spirit, You brought the good news of Your gospel, and helped us to understand that above all else we need You, and therefore we were blessed. Blessed to call upon You and blessed to receive You. Help us to spread this message and get it planted in the hearts of all that hear and read that they are in need of You JESUS and that You are our help and our healer. Thank You once again for coming down to us when we could not come up to You. I love You JESUS. In Your Sweet, Holy name I pray.
~*Cindygirl*~
May 20, 2018