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What does it look like to be the kind of people God is forming in the Kingdom? It has so much to do with how we treat those around us.
Message Notes 03/06/2024
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6
Righteousness means to be in right standing with God or to be on the side of justice. To be righteous is to be free from guilt or sin.
We cannot be righteous on our own "All have fallen short" (Rom 3:23) The only way to be righteous is through faith in Jesus. If we believe we can work to earn righteousness we begin to become self-righteous. Self-righteousness is when someone thinks of themselves as morally superior to someone else, which we can easily get to through our efforts.
We only become righteous by accepting that we are unrighteous and therefore need God to clothe us in His righteousness.
When we are righteous, we receive righteousness as a gift and begin reflecting the image of God who is righteous.
The world system tends towards self-effort which leads to self-righteousness or where there is no hunger for God’s ways/
Unrighteousness means devouring each other.
Jesus is the standard of righteousness, to be righteous is to be like Jesus Himself.
Hunger for righteousness… when you are hungry, you are aware that you are hungry, you know that you are lacking. So, to hunger and thirst after righteousness means to live in a constant state of awareness that you lack any righteousness by yourself and are completely reliant on God to supply you with the way to be in right standing with Him.
We all want to die like the righteous, meaning we all want to be found worthy to enter heaven when we die… but in reality, we should all want to live like the righteous- meaning become more like Jesus by dying to ourselves and being raised to life with the power of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis.
Our hearts are restless until they rest in God – Saint Augustine.
Psalm 11:7 For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteous deeds. The upright will see His face.
It’s for free, so, Be: - Righteous. We are righteous through faith, there is nothing we need to do to earn our righteousness.
It’s for me, so, Do: - Because we are righteous, we want to do right by God AND by others.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Matthew 5:7
Hesed: love, generosity, loyalty, treat me like family, mercy, lovingkindness, mercy in action…
This Hesed is the very essence of who God is. His hesed lovingkindness, grace, forgiveness, mercy is what lead Jesus to the cross. This hesed-ness of God is the very thing that makes it possible for us to call ourselves followers or disciples of Jesus in the first place.
Like the previous point, we cannot fully extend mercy or hesed before we have received it for ourselves. When we have received this kind of mercy, we can call ourselves Christians and once we have received Hesed, we start to feel a sense of sorrow for those who are enslaved to sin our only response should then be to give it away freely to others.
Mercy, forgiveness, Hesed, lovingkindness this is the whole gospel!
Mercy is unearned, undeserved, and not owed, it’s a free gift to be received and then shared.
In Matthew 18 Peter ask Jesus how many times we should forgive someone. Jesus tells the parable of the man whose large debt was forgiven, but who refused to go on and forgive someone else the debt that he was owed. How often are our hearts like that. We want to be forgiven, but we don’t want to forgive.
Unforgiveness or withholding mercy is a trap. It’s like slowly sipping on poison and hoping the offender will die. We can finally be free when we can receive forgiveness and give it away without payment or punishment.
There is no future for the human race without forgiveness – Desmond Tutu
The refusal to forgive is a form of pride. It’s not the kingdom way. Even as Jesus hung on the cross, abused, he said of his abusers, Father forgive them, they know not what they have done.”
If someone has wronged you in horrible ways and is unrepentant, you do not have to forgive and make up. Forgiveness doesn’t always have to lead to reconciliation. For your safety or the safety of others, sometimes it’s better to stay away from certain people.
Forgiveness doesn’t need proximity.
If this pain is gripping you today and you feel like nobody would understand, I want to remind you that this pain, your pain is what drove Jesus to give up his life so that you can have freedom from that pain. He made a way for you to find forgiveness for yourself, and to be able to release forgiveness to others.
The mystery of forgiveness is God’s ultimate entry into powerlessness. When we realise we are powerless to save ourselves, to forgive ourselves and to forgive others, we realise that we freely receive and can freely give mercy, forgiveness, hesed loving-kindness, grace, love…
Are you able/willing to receive forgiveness?
Are you able/willing to forgive others?
Are you able/willing to forgive yourself?
It’s for free - Be: - Hesed by receiving mercy/ forgiveness/ hesed loving-kindness as a free gift through the finished work of Jesus on the cross.
It’s for me - Do: - Hesed by Extend forgiveness/ mercy/ hesed lovingkindness out of a response to the knowing that you are free because you have been forgiven.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God Matthew 5:8
How’s your heart?
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?”
Jeremaih 17:9 NIV
Heart = our mind, will, and emotions. – it’s who you are!
Pure in heart:
without hypocrisy.
cleansed
Like Jesus
Our heart can be like a stream. A pure heart is a crystal-clear steam, it’s refreshing, it’s full of life! But along the way litter and rubbish is picked up and begins to pollute the stream. So, Jesus is reminding us here that we can live with a pure heart, we get to go in and clear up that litter with the help of the Holy Spirit who can lead us.
We often get it so wrong; we try to fix the outside (hypocrisy), but God is interested in our heart.
In our culture today we put a large emphasis on intellect, so we run a course or do a study, maybe watch a TED talk, and then we get frustrated when we are unable to change.
The key is not in behavior modification but in heart purification. God is about character development does not habit staking.
God is more interested in your heart's motivations than in your outward actions.
We can’t change what we won’t confront.
How do we get a pure heart? By recognizing that our hearts are sick and that the only way to healing is through Jesus. When we accept Jesus as our lord and saviour He gives us a new heart. We are transformed.
The journey we go on after the moment of salvation is to learn what it looks like to walk in the ways of Christ and keep our hearts pure through loving God enough to continue turning back to Him in repentance to find grace and love so that we can walk in it. Keep turning back… repentance. Receive love.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ Mark 12:30
Loving God is the way to a pure heart.
It’s for free - Be: - Loved by God, saved through Jesus and transformed by Him.
It’s for me - Do: - allow your heart to be transformed through love, so that you can love God, love yourself and love others well. As we receive the unconditional love of God, our hearts are made pure and become pure.
All 3 of these verses, show us that we cannot achieve the standard Jesus describes on our own. That we first receive fully from Jesus through His finished work of salvation. Only once we have received can we act accordingly.
All 3 also show that God is not only interested in our right standing or our relationship with Him, But, also in how we relate to others - our mandate is to love God and to love others.
The good life is for those who freely receive Righteousness, mercy and a pure heart so that they can freely extend righteousness & mercy, with a pure heart to others.
There’s a scripture in Micah that sums these 3 Beatitudes up so well.
Love Justice, do mercy, walk humbly. – Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. NIV
Three possible responses:
1) Righteousness. If you are not right with God, today you have the opportunity to make that decision and receive the free gift of salvation.
2) Mercy. Who do you need to forgive? Maybe the person you need to forgive is yourself.
3) Pure heart. How is your heart towards God and others. Are there some thoughts, emotions, or actions that are tainting the purity of your heart, Surrender those to God today.
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