Let's get it's right! Jesus Christ died, was buried and was raised!

How you view yourself changes everything. If you think you are evil, you will try and be coherent, and do evil. If you think you are good you will try to do good!

If you say you are a Christian, depending on how you define Christian you will act differently!

Definitions I've heard:

• anyone who claims to be/ wants to be a christian
• someone who believes in Jesus
• someone who receives Christian Baptism (I promise! that's the first thing i found in google!)
• the answer is not clear, even among Christian circles, so their probably is no correct answer.

But what is just amazing is that Christians act completely differently, depending on how they define what a Christian is! I want to define a Christian based on what the Gospel is. 

If we look at the Bible as a whole:

• God created everything Good
• God created man Good, but man sinned, which separated him from God
• The Whole Bible is about God's rescue mission for mankind. 

The Bible shows us how God as worked through different men to build a nation for Himself - Abraham, Jacob, Moses, then Judges, then Prophets, they all led to Jesus and his crucifixion, who were foretold throughout the Bible. Jesus came proclaiming the Gospel, that he was the fulfillment of all the scriptures. His ministry was about fulfilling the prophesies, and showing the who followed him who he truly was, and what he was about to do for mankind - saving them from their sins!

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul defines the Gospel very clearly: 

Now I would remind you, brothers,1 of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.11 Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed. 

A clear definition of the Gospel: 1 Cor 15:3,4  that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

To the his disciples the great commission Jesus gave them in Mat 28

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in2 the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Those who want to follow Jesus call them Christians if you want must be making disciples! Or wanting to make disciples! Training them to make their own Jesus disciples! (Mat 28), because Jesus died for our sins, was buried and was raised on the third day. (1 Cor 15).

These two go together Mat 28 and 1 Cor 15. You cannot be a Christian if you don't believe Jesus Christ, died for your sins, was buried, and then was raised. And you cannot be a Christian if this gospel, good news does not move you to be in the "creating disciples" process, which can look so different to different people!

Having said that - 3 things:
1. I feel like if you don't believe the Gospel, you just CAN't Be a Christian! SORRY! And you might argue that in the Gospels none of the disciples believed! My reply, DUH! Jesus did not die yet! When he gave the great commissions they all believed alright! And we see in the Book of Acts what great things they did because of their faith!

2. I'm not trying to be the "Jesus Police" trying to tell people who's a Christian and who's not so that I can feel good about myself, by saying I know better than anyone. But false security, is not good! So we must all be honest with ourselves, and test ourselves with the scriptures! (2 Cor 13:5).

3. At the risk of sounding legalistic! It's all about having your heart in the right place! Maybe you've been far from God for a while, but truly acknowledge the Christ is Lord! That he died, and was buried, and then was raised! And have not ever done anything about it, but see it as something you must work on, then I think you are a Christian! If on the other hand, you tell me you believe but it has not changed you one bit. You still live as you did before believing and deny the importance of being involved somehow in discipling (whatever that looks like!) to see people's lives change, then I would strongly recommend that you would test yourselves with the scriptures!


The Gospel is what defines Christianity, without it we are just moral people.

Message on Matthew 5:5 Blessed are the Meek for they shall inherit the earth (28/7/2013 @ A50)

Preparation – Pride vs Humility – Welcome to all!

I have a big confession to make, often when I read the Bible, whenever I get to a passage that discourages some behaviors, names tend to come to mind, and I think about all these people who do the wrong thing, and then on the other hand, when they are positive passages, then I think of myself! And I know that is all wrong, so I need to be intentional to avoid such thinking! While preparing for the message God revealed so many things that I need to change or work on in my life, but I'm hoping if you are not a Christian, that you could see that as an invitation if you are not perfect, to feel welcomed with us, as flawed as we may be!



Let's go through the Beatitudes together:

2 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5 “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

6 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7 “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

9 “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons1 of God.

10 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12 Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

The Kingdom – Already but not yet

Matthew never claims to give us an orderly account of the events in Jesus' life (not like Luke) so we can't be sure when this sermon was pronounced. But it seems to clarify to people what he was all about. Jesus is saying to the people, if you want to follow me this is what I'm looking for this is what I value. And Blessed/ or fortunate are those I approve of!
Each time he mentions an attitude, he gives a reason why they are blessed. But there is still a problem, we still mourn, we are still persecuted, we are blessed today, but there is still more to come in heaven. For today's verse, has anyone received any Land for being meek?
Jesus Christ has come, today we have his spirit, and the Church is God's body, and so there we see some manifestations of the Kingdom – as God rules the Church and in our hearts. But there is also a not yet – As we are waiting for Christ to come back, and we will rule with Him on the earth, and there will be a literal Kingdom on this earth – where all the blessings will be seen in their complete fulfillment – Rev 21:4.

The Message – Theme of humility – Misconception / Truth

The main theme today will be humility, but I'd also like to talk about misconceptions we have about what it takes to approved by God, and how if we take the the Bible as a whole, it's like of course this sermon on the mount makes perfect sense, so that instead of frowning when he hear “Blessed are the Meek”; we cry out Of Course! And Praise God!

The Misconception of how to get right with God

Evangelism Story – People's misconception

Setting – about the survey – and the final question

A few years ago, in France, I had probably just been a Christian for about a year, with a few people from the church we hit the streets, to do some surveys which is always interresting, to meet new people, see where they are at in the journey we call life! To guide the conversation we asked about their religious background, what religion meant to them, was it relevant to them in 2013? what they thought about Jesus? The last question, and most important was: If you died today, and appeared before God, and He asked you why should I let you into heaven, What would you reply!? Have you ever thought of this question? What would you say? Would that not be a good final exam to study for?!

Misconceptions

I'm a good person so I will go to heaven

I will not guarantee the answer you will get, but I will just speak from my own experience, they will always say, I should go to heaven because I am a good person.

But what I hear by that reply is:

• God owes this to me, he owes me heaven! I deserve it!

And some of us have really been through horrible, terrible terrible things. We feel that because we've already been through hell, we deserve Heaven when we die, we deserve to be compensated! God owes it to us because of what we've lived.

We compare ourselves to others

Then you might hear, well yeah, you know I've done some bad things, but compared to THAT GUY, I'm not that bad. We will pick some character in world history, who's done terrible things, and be like well at least I did not kill as many people. And then we feel good about ourselves by setting ourselves apart by our deeds. BUT, is that what God is going to do? Is he going to compare us to mass murderers?

Misconception of the scales – Good works outweigh our Bad works

One other things we do is - We seem to think God will take a scale and see if our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds. And we seem to have a point system, where if you kill someone well that is probably worth 20 years worth of good deeds, lying's ... well everyone does it, so it's not really a sin.

Right?! And maybe that's where you're at now! I've just spoken your thoughts! And before reading the Bible that's what I thought too!

Misconception about how to find truth

But since when are we able to come up with our own truth? What happens when two people come up with two alternative truth? They can't both be right! Sometimes you can when it is a matter of perspective. But somethings, like 1+1=2 don't change whether you agree with it or not!

If the Bible is God's word to mankind, let's wrestle with the text to see, what God has for us.

Transition – Misconceptions & the Bible – Mat 5, Luke 18

I think the Bible deals with the statement – God will let me into heaven because I am a good person. And I think we have a hint of how to deal with this answer in the Beatitudes:

Matthew 5:

3 “God blesses those who are poor and realize their need for him,[a]
    for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs.
4 God blesses those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
5 God blesses those who are humble,
    for they will inherit the whole earth.

So far there is nothing about doing Good Works. And okay, I think Good Works are good by definition! And are very important in the Kingdom, but we must remember that they are not what gets us in!

If I have to summarize the Gospel to someone who's not familiar with it, Luke 18 is where I go:

Bible and our misconception – Luke 18

Luke 18, // Beatitudes

9 Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else:

If you would tell God, heaven is for you because of your good works, this is for you -

10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer[b]: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
This text is just perfect for the first beatitudes – v. 3 The Poor in Spirit (Not the proud in Spirit) in the temple, this was a holy place at the time, the tax collector stands at a distance he does not dare come any closer than he is. He can't even lift his eyes. He feels so far from God, poor in Spirit. Instead he beats his chest he realizes that it is not his works that will get him right by God, it causes him to mourn, and instead of being proud about it, he humbles himself, and seek help, relies on God's mercy.

Transition – Misconception in our day and Jesus' day

There is a misconception among us! And even though we've heard message like these over and over, we still live like we are saving our saves with our Good works – But I want to go to the text, and suggest that the audience in Jesus' day – properly had the same misconceptions we had today.

Misconception in Jesus' day – Sermon on the Mount “Shocking”

Introduction of Matthew – Presents a KING/MESSIAH/SON OF GOD

When we read the Sermon on the Mount, we must realize that to the hearers just as much as it is today, it was a shocking message! Maybe I've read Matthew 5 so often that it loses its effect, but try going out in the streets saying: “Blessed are the poor, those who mourn, Fortunate is another word, oh fortunate are the small, the meek, the humble!”. This is not at all what the people wanted to hear at all. The First four chapters of Matthew introduce us the one who is a King, and then the son of God. So anyway we can expect something BIG! Which was perfect given the time period:

Shock among the Zealites – Political Activists

Politically - the land was occupied by the Romans. The Jews wanted to be freed. No longer having to pay taxes to Rome. The Zealites one of the Jewish groups were waiting for a warrior Messiah who would really kick some Roman Butt!! How do you think they felt when they heard Jesus talking about poverty, mourning and smallness?

Shock among the Religious - Pharisees

Religiously – If you are religious you go to Church every Sunday, you like to dress up with your best suite (and that's cool if you wanna rock up in a suit that's not a problem – as long a church does turn into a fancy dress party and being about clothes). And you also always pray before bedtime, you give a big part of your money to the A50... These kind of religious people existed too back then, they were called the Pharisees. They added on lots of rules to the Laws of Moses and imposed them on everyone. What they expected from the Messiah was something like this – Blessed are the religious who perform all their duties, and who know how to pray in public, and know when the right time is to live their hands up in the songs! They wanted to be congratulated, praised, invited right into the Kingdom! But to their great surprise, Jesus is not describing that at all! And if you like dressing fancy please keep doing it, if you give to the church keep doing it, if you like lifting your hands during the worship please keep doing it! Personally I love all those things. But not one of those things makes you right by God.

Contrast in the Bible Between Pride and Humility

Psalm 37

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”

What is Meekness and why do the meek inherit the earth?

Probably what Jesus was quoting Psalm 37

Let's go to Psalm 37: we will not read it, but quickly look at this with me:

37 Fret not yourself because of evildoers;
    be not envious of wrongdoers!
2 For they will soon fade like the grass
    and wither like the green herb.
3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;
    dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord,
    and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;
    trust in him, and he will act.
6 He will bring forth your righteousness as the light,
    and your justice as the noonday.
7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him;
    fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way,
    over the man who carries out evil devices!
8 Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath!
    Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
9 For the evildoers shall be cut off,
    but those who wait for the Lord shall inherit the land.
10 In just a little while, the wicked will be no more;
    though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
11 But the meek shall inherit the land
    and delight themselves in abundant peace.

Contrast between pride and humility

David contrasts two kinds of people:

• the wicked who will fade away
• Those who trust in the Lord and do good, who are faithful, who delight in Him, who commit their way unto the Lord, those who wait for him – how it will show is that they are slow to anger.

Verse 10: The wicked will disappear, and the lowly will possess the land.

Definition of humility

I want to suggest here the a sign of lowliness is acknowledging that between relying on yourself, so the good works that you've done and God, you've acknowledged your need for God, his mercy, and grace.

So I stole this definition from Neil T. Anderson – I'm paraphrasing - “Humility is not self-abasement, this is condemned in Colossians 2:18, but rather, humility is confidence properly placed”. Compared to God, you are small, you need to rub it in! No matter how successful, how rich compared to God, we are very small. Humility – is seeing the truth correctly acknowledging God is Huge, and compared to Him we are small.

False humility

Denying complements, instead of praising God

Humility does not mean when people compliment you, you contradicting them every time.

Imagine Lesley's dad, buys her a Ferrari, one of her friends says – wow your car is awesome! And she's like “no it's not”, how would her father feel?

The Same way, God has given her musical talents, dunno how many instruments she plays, but imagine I tell her how wonderful her playing is, and then she's like no it's not!

Imagine God's given you a real talent to be musician if I compliment her for being awesome, and and you say no I'm not. What if God made you awesome, and you had just denied him that joy or that glory that he feels when we are satisfied in the gifts that he has given us. Again let's place our confidence in God! I want to encourage all of us, when you are complemented to praise God for it. From the passage just read, humility seems to be about trusting in the Lord, delighting in Him.

False Humility and most modernism

No absolute truths – Intollerance if you have the truth

We live in an age – where there are no absolute truths. Claiming you have the truth is seen as arrogant. People are okay when you say that you are a Christian. It's your right! But once you say Jesus is the way the truth and the life, No body comes to the father except through Jesus. Then you are being intolerant! Brothers and Sister, this is when we can remind them the true definition of tolerance, which implies disagreement. I disagree with you, but I love you anyway. I think I hold the truth, and I think you are wrong, but I respect you, and I really want to know what you believe. We must keep that humility is confidence properly placed in God. If we are scared to offend somebody, and say well Christianity works for me and it's my truth, and you can have your own truth. We are no longer placing our confidence in God, we may think it is the humble, but we are not we pride ourselves in our humility and acceptance, but we've just denied God, and His Word! I don't want to offend people, I don't but sometimes the truth hurts. And I believe I am a sinner, we are sinners, and I rejoice because the creator of the Universe has done something about it! (This is when you say hallelujah!)

And YES Jesus' statement about himself being the only way is very arrogant indeed. Except if it is true! And if it is true, the most loving, humble thing we can do is let people know about it! And pray that the world stops depending on itself, but humbly relies on the God Saves!

Transition

This conflict between pride and Humility is found throughout the Bible -

So quickly looking at some passages in the Bible I would know like to show how we can go from hearing the sermon on the mount thinking, it is shocking to, of course given the context of the Bible, obviously, who else but the meek to inherit the land!

Across the Bible

Pride - the Fall of Man (Genesis)

Let me summarize the Bible for you in a few sentences: God created Man good, Man sinned! Separating himself from the perfect God. And the whole message of the Bible is God's rescue mission, how can God reconcile Man to himself.

In the Garden, Adam and Eve were both innocent. What sin was committed in the Garden?

In Gen 2:15-17 Adam is given a direct command: “You may freely eat the fruit of every fruit in the Garden, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”.

In Gen 3, after the snake convinced Eve that it would be a good idea to take the fruit – she wanted the wisdom the fruit would give her. Then Adam has some too.

Remember how Psalm 37 defines Humility?

• Those who trust in the Lord and do good, who are faithful, who delight in Him, who commit their way unto the Lord, those who wait for him

They didn't do any of these things here. What they really did was tell God, that maybe he could keep his commandments for himself because they were ready to do their own thing! I don't need you God, I know best what is best for me. And now I will be about to know as much as you do!

This is one of the most important moments in History!

Rom 5:12 When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned!

Isaiah 59:2 Says it is our sins that cut us off from God.

The consequence of this Pride – God had created everything Good, because of man's sin, everything has become terrible. Right from birth our hearts are bent towards evil right from childhood.

We always want to do what we want, when we want, and how we want! And today we've defined that as Freedom! What it really is, is Destruction! God is Love, the Bible is about his love for Mankind, but he cannot force you do not anything, that's what love does, it give you the choice. It breaks God's heart, but destruction is one of your choices.

So that's how the problem started in the Bible, with Pride, and I believe this problem, of pride, is in all of us!

Humility – the Redemption of Man

God doesn't judge like we do, he looks right to the heart – 1 Sam 16:7
He has been so consistent – at picking one kind of people, those who would trust him. Properly place their confidence in Him:

Abraham

We've just finished studying all about his faith – He trusted the Lord so much that he was willing to give up his only Son, even though he had to wait until he was 100 years old to get him. God doesn't get any glory, from our power or might, but in our meekness, when we rely I him, we can glorify Him.

Moses –

Does anyone know what is said about Moses and meek?

David

– 1 Sam 16:7 – God was not happy with the currant King, and wants to replace him, he sends Samuel, into a family – straight Samuel sees one of the sons, and he's like Oh this is the guy, the Lord said – Don't judge by the appearance or height, the Lord does not see things like people see them, they judge by outward appearance but the lord looks at the heart.” The Lord could have picked any of the Sons of Jesse, but he chose the youngest, and even though he was an adulterer and a murderer, he depended on the Lord, and was a man after God's heart.



I'm going to skip right to Jesus now!

Fulfillment in Jesus

Jesus the Servant

Christianity is the ONLY RELIGION that has its central event being the HUMILIATION OF GOD!

Mark 10:45

Tells us that Jesus did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.

John 13

Shows God made flesh, washing feet!



And then I have to finish with

Philippians 2

5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

6 Though he was God,[a]
    he did not think of equality with God
    as something to cling to.
7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges[b];
    he took the humble position of a slave[c]
    and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,[d]
8     he humbled himself in obedience to God
    and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
    and gave him the name above all other names,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
    in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
    to the glory of God the Father.

Our Response

How do we respond to this?

To be included in God's redemptive history we must humble ourselves

Are we ready to be part of this kingdom, that looks like Jesus? Are we ready to bow down before his name and confess that he is the Lord of your life!
And Maybe we've already believed, we have humbled ourselves, and have accepted God's gift in Christ for our sins.

All religions will tell you that you need to do this this and that, they are all based on performance everyone of them – And you will never know if that is enough or not. You can work and work and work, and there is more work to be done.

The Bible teaches, that it is impossible for a man to do enough good things.

Rom 3:23 says that we have all sinned – every one of us.

Rom 6:23 says that the punishment for sin is death – that is what we all deserve – not my words, the Bible's.

2 Cor 5:21 God made Jesus, him who knew no sin, to become sin so that we could be the righteousness of God. (Christ died so that we would not be punished for our sins).

And that is how God saved the world!

And Maybe we've already believed, we have humbled ourselves, and have accepted God's gift in Christ for our sins.

And we must humble ourselves everyday

But following Jesus is a decision we make everyday when we wake up. Let us have the same mind that Jesus

look at other people's needs

– Let us look to other people's needs, we are to count them as important, and even more important than our own. Humility is one of those things that can never be reached when you look for it. It happens through service!

Serve, slow to anger, quick to listen

The more you serve others, the more you invest in other people's lives, the lease you think about yourself, and the more you realize that it's not about you but about God. When we stop thinking we are at the center of the universe, in changes our while perspective on things, Psalm 37 spoke about being slow to anger! When we live for God, we no longer get angry at the little things that don't go our way, because it's not about us! We are all about God. And God is Sovereign over everything. When we care for others, we are more interested in listening to them, than monopolizing the conversation, because we genuinely care, and value the other person's opinion! (James 1 – be quick to listen and slow to speak). Let us do this together. How else are we to know how we can help our brothers and sisters, if don't listen to them, and gain their trust, for them to trully share what they need.

Imitate Christ

We serve like Jesus, we love sacrificially like Jesus, we live to share the good news, that more people could come to the knowledge of God's saving grace, may properly place their confidence in God, and no longer in themselves, and partake in the inexplicable joy, of knowing that the good news about Jesus Christ is not that if you do good things you go to heaven after you die, but because he has died for you today you can have eternal life!

Conclusion

Beatitudes

Blessed are the poor in Spirit – like the Tax Collector – they are aware of their uncleanness when they realize how Holy God is.

It causes them to mourn. This Godly sorrow leads them to Repentance.

Humbling – asking forgiveness for that self-centeredness, which is what separated Adam and Eve from God, and Separates all those who have yet to be reconciled to God!

Blessed are the Meek for they shall inherit the earth, they are part of the body of Christ, the church today,, and will be part of the Kingdom when Christ Returns.