REVOLUTIONARY LIVING

 

 

Message One:

How To Respond to the Sermon on the Mount

Matthew 5:1-2; James 1:19-25

 

Matthew 5:1-2

 

Today begins a new sermon series on The Sermon on the Mount.  I will preaching under the title, Revolutionary Living.  I have chosen that title because I think it best summarizes The Sermon on the Mount. The word “revolutionary” is defined as “constituting or bringing about a major or fundamental change.”  That’s exactly what Jesus was intending to do through His preaching and teaching.  His purpose was to bring about a fundamental change in the way people lived for God.  In this sermon, to quote one commentator, Jesus “. . . made a fundamental change without altering God’s standards.  He dealt with the attitudes and intents of the heart and not simply with the external actions.  The Pharisees said that righteousness consisted of performing certain actions, but Jesus said it centered in the attitudes of the heart” (Warren Wiersbe).

 

As I read through this amazing sermon, three words came to my mind — Pointed, Practical and Powerful.

 

This sermon is Pointed. That is, it is very direct and to the point.  Jesus does not pull any punches.  The temptation that any pastor will face in this day and age when presenting the truths of this sermon will be to “soften” what Jesus had to say in order to make His words more palatable — more easy to swallow — less offensive.  I covet your prayers, as the great apostle Paul coveted the prayers of the Ephesians.  Here was Paul’s prayer request, “. . . that I may open my mouth boldly . . . that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak” (Ephesians 6:19-20).

 

This sermon is Practical.  What Jesus offers in this sermon is a Step-By-Step plan for living the Christian life.  On that day, as Jesus viewed the multitudes, He saw a group of people who needed to hear a fresh word from God.  They, like many today, were hungry for something which would speak life to their hearts.  They were tired of the opinions of people and the abstract theological ramblings of the religious leaders.  They wanted a relevant message they could apply to their lives now, and that would be what they would get. 

 

As we study what has been referred to as “the greatest sermon ever preached,” Jesus is going to teach us how to be effective witnesses, how to pray, how to fast, how to act toward our brothers and sisters, how to act toward our enemies, how to have the proper perspective when it comes to material things, and a host of other life-changing truths.

 

This sermon is Powerful.  This is seen by the people’s response at the close (Matthew 7:28-29).

 

As we prepare to hear the words of Christ, we must recognize that it is possible to hear the greatest sermon ever preached and go away unchanged by it.  Unless the ground of our hearts is prepared to receive the seed of God’s Word, the seed will never penetrate that ground, and consequently, will never take root and bear fruit.  That’s why I’ve chosen to begin this series with a sermon on How To Respond to the Sermon on the Mount, and perhaps no one addresses this issue better than James in James 1:19-25.

 

A doctor, a lawyer, and a pastor all went deer hunting, and as fate would have it, they all chose the same area to hunt in.  After a rather slow start to their morning, an enormous 12-point buck caught all of them by surprise.  In their excitement, each of them quickly grabbed their rifle and sighted in on the deer.  Amazingly, they all pulled the trigger at the same time and the animal went down.  Immediately they began debating as to who actually killed the deer.  The attorney jumped into a long discourse on how the evidence pointed to his success at felling the buck.  When he finished, the doctor offered to use his medical expertise to determine which shot was the fatal blow.  He climbed down from the stand, walked over to the animal, and conducted a thorough exam.  When he returned, the doctor emphatically declared that the trophy buck belonged to the preacher.  He said, “There’s no question it’s the preacher’s because the bullet went in one ear and out the other.”

 

I trust that what the Lord has to say to us over the course of the next few months will not “go in one ear and out the other.”  My prayer is that every word will find lodging in our hearts and serve to revolutionize the way we live our lives for Christ.

 

If we are going to properly respond to The Sermon on the Mount, or any sermon for that matter, we must do three things.

 

 

I.                    RESIGN OURSELVES TO THE WORD

When I say we must resign ourselves to the Word, I mean that we must accept the Scriptures as the sole authority in our life.  In doing that we must be “swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.”   I don’t know that I have ever looked at James 1:19 in connection with James 1:18, but that is exactly where it fits within the context.

 

In verse 18 James tells us that we have been saved by the Word of God, wherefore, or consequently, we ought to approach it in the manner mentioned in verse 19.  

 

            When we resign ourselves to the Word of God, we will:

A.                 Be Ready to Accept It

1.                  James says we’ll be “swift to hear.”

2.                  When we are responding to the Word of God properly, we will be ready to accept what it has to say.

3.                  When we are responding to the Word of God properly, we will be ready to accept it as the Thessalonians did.  Paul said of them, that they “. . . received the word of God . . . as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

4.                  Our attitude will be that of the psalmist, “Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way” (Psalm 119:128). 

5.                  His prayer will be ours as well, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law” (Psalm 119:18).

B.                 Refuse to Argue With It

1.                  Even if we don’t like what God is saying, and even if it doesn’t fit our preferences, if we’re wise, we will be “slow to speak.”

2.                  Solomon cautions us in Ecclesiastes 5:2 with these words, “Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth:  therefore let thy words be few.”

3.                  When we resign ourselves to the Word, we will be reluctant to argue with it.

 

C.                 React Appropriately to It

1.                  We react appropriately to the truth of God’s Word by being “slow to wrath.”  Why?  Because “. . . the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”

2.                  When someone is angered by the truth, their response will never result in righteousness.

3.                  “Well, I don’t like what that preacher said.”  Did that preacher speak the truth?  Did he use the Bible?  If he did, your argument is not with the preacher, it’s with God.

4.                  If we are going to become mature Christians, we must be willing to accept the Scriptures when it’s convenient and when it’s inconvenient.

 

 

II.                 RECEIVE THE WORD

            Verse 21

 

            In this verse, James addresses three things in respect to receiving the Word.

A.                 Elimination

1.                  We are to “lay apart” or put away or cast off everything that is sinful and harmful.

2.                  We can’t receive the Word of God if our heart and life are cluttered with sin.

3.                  1 Peter 2:1-2

4.                  The weeds of sin do nothing but impede our spiritual growth.

5.                  The gospels speak of the cares and riches and pleasures of this life “choking” out the influence of God’s Word in our lives.  That’s why we have to eliminate sin.

B.                 Appreciation

1.                  James speaks of receiving the “engrafted Word.”

2.                  When James speaks of the “engrafted Word,” he’s speaking of something that has already been implanted within the heart of a believer.

3.                  I think what James is telling us here is that we need to learn to appreciate what the Word of God can do for us — what it can produce in us.

4.                  Good farmers learn to appreciate what a well cultivated and cared for field of wheat can produce for them.  When that bumper crop comes, because they appreciate it, they receive it, they grasp it, they take hold of it!

5.                  That’s what God wants us to do with His Word.  He wants us to appreciate what it can do for us spiritually and He wants us to receive it — grasp it — take hold of it!

C.                 Preservation

1.                  James used the word “save” in the sense of preservation.

2.                  The Word of God preserves us from destruction, defeat, danger, deception, delinquency,  and many other hurtful and harmful things.

3.                  Psalm 119:2-3 - “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.

                                    They also do no iniquity: they walk in his ways.”   

4.                  Psalm 119:9, 11 - “Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.  Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.”

5.                  Psalm 119:59 - “I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy testimonies.”

6.                  Psalm 119:133 - “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”

 

   

 

 

III.               REFLECT ON THE WORD

When I speak of reflecting on the Word, I’m talking about meditating on it — pondering it in our hearts — giving it due consideration.  Because when we do, it will result in:

A.                 Personal Participation

1.                  Verse 22

2.                  There once was a famous inventor who unveiled a new invention.  He traveled around the country showing it off.  He sold booklets explaining how it was built.  Then one day a reporter asked:  “What does it do?”  The inventor replied, “Do?  Why it doesn’t do anything –– but isn’t it beautiful doing it!”

3.                  Contrary to what many people think, it is not enough to hear and know the Word of God, we must live and do the Word of God.

4.                  Our listening and learning alone do not make us acceptable to God.  We are only deceiving ourselves if we think we can be pleasing to the Lord without obedience.

5.                  Just because you know what the Bible says about tithing, for example, doesn’t make you pleasing to God.  You only please God when you tithe.  The same holds true for praying or witnessing or living holy or anything else God addresses in His Word.

6.                  In March of 1986, a twenty-five-year-old man named Roger Moore was given a traffic ticket for not having his toddler secured in a car seat.  The young man grumbled about the ticket and fastened his son into the appropriate restraint.  The ticket was begrudgingly stuffed in the glove compartment.  Nineteen minutes later, Mr. Moore and his young son were involved in an accident.  The little toddler sustained a few minor injuries but was protected by the restraints of his car seat.  Unfortunately, the father was killed. 

 

Although he heeded the warning to fasten his son’s seat belt, Moore never buckled his own.  If you would allow me to paraphrase James’ words, “For if any be a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like unto a man . . . who died in Bel Air, Maryland, in 1986.”

7.                  How often do we sit through a sermon thinking about how well it applies to our spouse or our children or someone else we know who “really needs it.” 

8.                  As we approach The Sermon on the Mount together, it will do us well to concentrate on what the Lord is saying to us not them.  We will be well served if our concern is more about how do I need to change rather than how to they need to change.

B.                 Ethical Examination

1.                  Verse 23-24

2.                  There is something very interesting here.  Notice the word “man” in verse 23, “he is like unto a man.”

3.                  The Greek word for “man” is not the word that is used in reference to mankind as a whole.  That word is anthropos.  The word used here refers to “an individual male.”  James is speaking here of men and mirrors.

4.                  Let me show you something about men and mirrors.  All the men who have brought a mirror to church with them, please stand up.  All the women who brought mirrors to church with them please stand up.

5.                  The reason James specifies males here  is because men have little use for mirrors, and even when we do use them we only glance.  Women gaze.

6.                  “Don’t rush me!”  How many of you men have ever heard that?  Do you know why?  Because your wife isn’t about to leave the house without making sure everything is like it’s supposed to be. 

7.                  A man can just give it a glance and go on.  Not a woman.

 

 

8.                  James is encouraging us here to spend some time in front of the mirror of God’s Word and honestly examine ourselves.  He wants us to see what’s out of place.  He wants us to see what’s messed up.  He wants us to see the stains. 

9.                  Andras Tamas is the name officials gave a certain man decades ago in a Russian psychiatric hospital.  He’d been drafted into the army, but the authorities had mistaken his native Hungarian language for the gibberish of a lunatic and had him committed.  Then, they forgot about him . . . for 53 years.

Finally, a psychiatrist at the hospital began to realize what had happened and helped Tamas recover the memories of who he was and where he came from.  He then returned home to Budapest as a war hero, “the last prisoner of World War II.”

 

Not only had this man forgotten his real name, he hadn’t even seen his own face in five decades.  So, according to one news account, “For hours, the old man studies the face in a mirror.  The deep-set eyes.  The gray stubble on the chin.  The furrows of the brow.  It is his face, but it is a startling revelation.”

10.              Sometimes, when we gaze into the mirror of God’s Word it can be a “startling revelation” because it shows us exactly what we look like at any given moment.  And sometimes, what we see isn’t too pretty.

11.              I promise you that as we study the Lord’s greatest sermon together, there are going to be some “startling revelations.”  I promise you that each of us are going to discover some “ugly” facts about sin in our lives, but pretty or not, we are to accept it and do something about it.