Jesus Uncensored: Review of the Kingdom

INTRO> This past weekend I had the privilege to officiate a wedding of a young couple who has just joined our church. Courtnee got to go with me. We flew out of Memphis International airport and it was 28* and when we landed in Destin FL, it was 64* and Sunny. It was so strange going from one environment to another. Seeing Christmas trees with snow on them to palm trees with lights in them.

CONTEXT> I say that to tell you, that’s why the Sermon on the Mount is like. It’s a total change in environment, it’s a different way of life. Jesus is the King and he is initiating the kingdom of God.

• • The kingdom of God is the reign of God through the people of God for the Glory of God. (*Andie Grace and Jo Jo Siwa)

CONTEXT> But there is a great misconception when it comes to “the kingdom of God” or the kingdom of heaven as Matthew mentions it in his Gospel. Often times when you here the Gospel preached its almost like what Jesus is offering, comes to you when you die. Which is true but that’s not all Jesus is saying. Our goal in this series is to let Jesus speak uncensored:

Big Idea > The kingdom of God is not just a place that I am going but a life that I am living.

“Your kingdom come your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”

APP> So what we are going to do is take an overview of what we have looked at but with an emphasis on what Jesus’ emphasis is on, the kingdom of God. We see an invitation, a challenge and a change.

1. A kingdom call. 5:1-11

• • • “Blessed are those” We learned that this word is better translated congratulations. It’s really a shocking invitation, especially to Jesus first hearers.
    • Look at the type of people that Jesus is congratulating. The broken, the poor the marginalized. This is good news for us.

*ILL> Do you remember Charles Schultz (pic) He is the creator of the famous “peanuts” cartoons and the creator behind the star, Charlie Brown himself. Schultz wrote the cartoons reflecting on his own life. He always loved the underdogs. “Charlie Brown’s baseball idol, Joe Shlabotnik, was the worst player in the pros—came the corollary, losing at love. Every major character has an unrequited love—Charlie Brown and the little red-haired girl, Lucy and Schroeder, Linus and Miss Othmar. Even Snoopy got dumped at the altar. Happiness may be a warm puppy, but as Schulz once said, “Happiness is not very funny.” Schulz infused the strips with his lifelong feelings of depression and insecurity—he had his heart broken by a real-life red-haired girl—and they showed, Camus-like, how one could feel lonely even in a crowd. Schultz was a lover of losers.” source: James Poniewozik,The Good and the Grief; Time (12-27-99)

APP> Jesus is a lover of losers

2) A kingdom challenge. 5:48

• • • “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect.” Wow, I love that Jesus is doing here.

APP> Jesus comes to us just as we are but he loves us to much to keep us there.

“ The key thing was that the inbreaking kingdom Jesus was announcing created a new world, a new context, and he was challenging his hearers to become the new people that this new context demanded, the citizens of this new world. He was offering a challenge to his contemporaries to a way of life, a way of forgiveness and prayer, a way of jubileee, which they could practice in their own villages, right where they were.” – N.T. Wright, The Challenge of Jesus, pg46

APP> I ran across on article on the Gospel Coalition website that was very good and challenging to me about being a Christian that adapted from Brett McCracken’s new book, Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community

8 Signs your Christianity is too comfortable:

1. There is absolutely no friction between your Christianity and your politics.
2. There are no paradoxes, tensions or unresolved questions.
3. Your friends and coworkers are surprised that you are a Christian.
4. You never think about or never remember the Sunday’s sermon.
5. No one at your church annoys you.
6. You never feel challenged, only affirmed.
7. You’ve never had a “truth in love” conversation with a friend.
8. None in your church could comment on any area of growth that they have seen in your life.

(Source : https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/8-signs-your-christianity-is-too-comfortable/ )

APP> Healthy things grow. Are you growing? Where?

3) A kingdom change.

• There are 3 primary areas that Jesus tells us that change when the kingdom of God breaks into our lives in the here and now.

1. Our identity. “You are the salt of the earth..” 5:13 You see change happens from the inside out, not the outside in. What we believe determines how we behave.

1. Our activity. We see the kingdom changes us as to how we deal with Anger, Sex, Marriage, Integrity, Retaliation, Money. All of those things. APP> Our identity changes our activity, not the other way around. In my relationship with Jesus what I do isn’t as important as why I do it.
2. Our community. “Our Father who art in heaven..” Remember, Jesus is giving this sermon to his disciples… a community of people, who are to live a certain way, a new way.

Big Idea > The kingdom of God is not just a place that I am going but a life that I am living.

Close> But again, what is so different about this kingdom and this king? Remember, it’s not just a list of to-do’s, Jesus in’t just our example, he is our savior.

“When you see Jesus caring for the poor, forgiving his enemies without bitterness, sacrificing his life for others, living a perfectly loving and perfectly sinless life, you say, “I can’t do that.” You’re right- you can’t. Jesus Christ only as an example will crush you; you will never be able to live up to it. But Jesus Christ as the Lamb will save you. On the cross, Jesus is getting what we deserved so we can get what he deserves. When you see this great reversal is for you, when you see that he gave up all his cosmic wealth and came into our poverty so that you could be spiritually rich, it changes you.” Tim Keller, The King’s Cross, pg191