The Kingdom of Heaven Includes You!
Matthew 5:1-12
Pastor Jim Luthy
I hold in my hand a crisp $100 bill. Would you be excited if I said I want one of you to have it? Let me see if you qualify…
Everyone please stand. If you were not born in the state of Oregon, you can have a seat. You do not qualify. Remain standing only if you are a man, if you were raised in a Christian home, married and never divorced, with children, AND you have a college degree or are currently working on a college degree.
For those of you already seated, I want to encourage you to come back next week. I’ll have another $100 to give away. All you have to do is become more like the one(s) still standing. Simple as that—you become more like them, and you might enjoy what they might enjoy. You want my $100? Then look like Scott. Dress like Scott. Be born into Scott’s family. Be educated like Scott.
For those of you still standing, let me ask you a series of questions, and if you can answer affirmatively to all of these questions, I will give you this $100. For your sake, I will ask you to remain standing until I have asked all of these questions, because I don’t want you to have to show which question knocked you out. After all the questions have been asked, you may be seated if you cannot answer affirmatively to them all.
Have you memorized all of the books of the Bible?
Read your Bible every day for the past month?
Given 10% of all your paychecks in the last year?
Taken a Sabbath day of rest every week for the past year?
Never had sex outside of marriage?
Never been drunk or consumed illegal drugs?
Never listened to Rock N’ Roll music?
Never watched an R-rated movie?
And do you drive a mini-van?
If you’re still standing, here’s your $100.
This was the religious order of Jesus’ day. It wasn’t $100 bills, but there were certain privileges and status given to those who were men born in the right place to the right family of the right tribe who had all the religious education and practiced all the religious practices. People who qualified would wear special headgear and robes and other adornments meant to help them be easily recognized as those who were with it.
But what about those who didn’t qualify? How did it make you feel to be so easily disqualified from my $100 prize? For example: Ladies, did it bother you that I had decided that only men could have my prize? What about whatever qualification or qualifications that knocked you out of the running? Did it discourage you? And what if I said that I would be back next week with another $100 to give away to one who qualifies? Would you show? I sincerely doubt you would. Sooner or later you would feel that $100 is not meant for you.
As Jesus arrived on the scene, most people felt like you did only compounded with eternal ramifications. The common people—people like you and me—were, for the most part, left out. Try as they may, they couldn’t find approval from the religious leaders and couldn’t find power in any other god. What would happen to your belief if that were how you felt? Would you be discouraged? Hopeless? Ready to give up? Sooner or later you would think all the promises of God were not meant for you.
Then Jesus comes on the scene and starts preaching about a new kingdom. Not only was he preaching about a new kingdom, he was demonstrating the power of the new kingdom:
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed, and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him. – Matthew 4:23-25.
Jesus wasn’t exactly handing out $100 bills. He was handing out hope. He wasn’t just coming to reward those who arrived. He was healing the common folk. He was healing the grubby people. He was proclaiming the availability of his new kingdom to the people on welfare, the folks who drove 1980-something Datsuns, the laborers who worked the land or were hired by the people who had arrived, the down-and-out, the dropouts, the drugged out, and even to those who spent a day or two in the Psych ward. Jesus was touching the people like you and me and they were being healed. “Oh, a new kingdom” you think to yourself. “Wouldn’t that be nice? Maybe I can go live in this new kingdom.”
So crowds of people came from all around, like people traveling from Washington and Idaho and even Canada, to listen to Jesus and to be healed. Matthew records what his typical message was like in what we now often refer to as the Sermon on the Mount. The message covers three chapters of Matthew’s gospel, beginning with chapter 5 and concluding at the end of chapter 7. Picture the setting as I read Matthew 5:1.
Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him, and he began to teach them…
I get the sense that this must have been like a routine for Jesus as he traveled around Galilee. He and his disciples would be mingling among the crowd, some asking "which one is Jesus?" while others talked about what they saw him do in the last town. Then Jesus gets off to a quiet place, either a synagogue or an outdoor classroom, and sits down. The disciples would say to one another, “the Master is about to teach.” Dropping their conversations, just as they had once dropped their nets to follow him, they came to his side so he could teach them.
But look at Matthew’s commentary at the end of chapter 7 (verse 28):
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching…
Jesus sat down to teach, and the disciples came around him to listen. As he taught, all the curious people came around to listen until what started as “his disciples” was best described as “the crowds.”
This says a lot to me about Jesus and his message, and a lot about the church too. When we come together for Celebration and Worship or in our small groups, the message or the lesson is intended for us. But there is value in the message of the kingdom for those who draw near and overhear. When I stand to proclaim to you the message of Jesus, or when your TLC Group discusses the good news and the values of the kingdom as he first proclaimed them to us—those who hear will be amazed. We need to bring them near. We need to come as eagerly as the disciples dropped their conversations with the crowd to sit at Jesus’ feet. But how do you think the crowd got there?
I can imagine any one of the disciples, shaking the hand and greeting one of the locals, asking him about his family and about the kind of work he does. When he looks up on the mountainside, he sees Jesus sitting down. “The Rabbi is about to teach. Come. You won’t want to miss it!” And I’m sure he would take the arm of the man and lead him to the side of that hill to hear the good news he had been hearing since he left everything to follow Jesus.
Friends, are you just as eager to come and hear from the Master? Are you eager to bring those people you greet each week to church gatherings, whether they be small groups or the larger Celebration service, so they can hear the good news of the kingdom?
Dallas Willard, in his excellent book, The Divine Conspiracy, writes about what the church would look like if we were as inclusive as this band of believers that Jesus led:
“If I, as a recovering sinner myself, accept Jesus’ good news, I can go to the mass murderer and say, ‘You can be blessed in the kingdom of the heavens. There is forgiveness that knows no limits.’ To the pederast and the perpetrator of incest. To the worshiper of Satan. To those who rob the aged and weak. To the cheat and the liar, the bloodsucker and the vengeful: Blessed! Blessed! Blessed! As they flee into the arms of the Kingdom Among Us.
“These are God’s grubby people. In their midst a Corrie Ten Boom takes the hand of the Nazi who killed her family members. The scene is strictly not of this earth. Any spiritually healthy congregation of believers in Jesus will more or less look like these ‘brands plucked from the burning.’ If the group is totally nice, that is a sure sign something has gone wrong. For here are the foolish, weak, lowly, and despised of this world, whom God has chosen to cancel out the humanly great.”
So here is Jesus, sitting on a mountainside with his disciples and a gathering crowd of “grubby people.” This is how he begins his message:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
(Matt 5:3-12, NIV)
Jesus’ message is both inclusive and exclusive. It is inclusive in relation to the qualifications of the kingdom. “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus says, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Note that he also says, “Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” From the poor in spirit to those who are so full in the spirit that they even endure persecution for the righteousness that is in them—blessed are they! From the “spiritual zeros” (as Willard puts it) to the spiritual heroes, theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The good news of the kingdom is that it doesn’t matter where you are today, whether devoid of any spiritual background whatsoever or a martyr who would rather die than compromise his or her faith, the kingdom belongs to you. Jesus came to make it available to you.
Can you imagine what good news that must have been to the “grubby people” on the hillside? After being shut out and cast aside for so long, how wonderful must the good news have been to them? To those of you who sat down in our opening exercise—in other words, to all of you who, like me, just can’t seem to measure up—the kingdom belongs to you.
The mystery of this gospel is this: The inclusive kingdom is an exclusive kingdom. While the qualifications of this kingdom are inclusive, the characteristics of this kingdom are exclusive. No other kingdom promises what the kingdom of heaven promises. Jesus has the exclusive claim of ushering in a kingdom far beyond what the “grubby people” on the hillside ever imagined.
In this kingdom that includes everyone from the spiritually bankrupt to the spiritually mature, those who mourn will be comforted. Those who have taken their losses and are holding their pain will no longer be ignored. They will be comforted.
In this kingdom, those meek little mouse-like people who could never assert themselves to find a place in the community will inherit the earth.
In this kingdom, those who want to be righteous really badly do not have to run up against a firing squad to do so. They will be filled.
In this kingdom, those who are merciful will not be labeled as weak or compromising. They will be shown mercy. They will not receive what they really deserve for the wickedness that exists in them.
In this kingdom, the pure in heart, not the pure in deeds, will see God. “It won’t be what’s on the outside,” Jesus is saying, “but what is happening inside of you that brings God near.”
And in this kingdom, those who make peace with God and facilitate peace between men will be considered part of the family of God.
You see, the kingdom of heaven is not what you see around you. It’s not this building or these books or the traditions or the budget or the policies and procedures of this church or that church. The kingdom of heaven is the life that is saved from the self-rule and is operating under the goodness and lordship of a loving God. It is an eternal kingdom that is available to us today. It is an inclusive kingdom in that it is available to us all. But it is an exclusive kingdom in that there is no kingdom like it in the world.
Jesus came to deliver you from the kingdom of this world, which is ruled by the principalities and dark forces of this evil age, and into the kingdom of heaven. When we talk about being saved, we’re talking about being rescued from this kingdom and operating in this kingdom of heaven under the rule of Jesus, the King of Kings.
In one of Jesus’ later teaching opportunities, someone asked Jesus, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. (Luke 13:23-24, NIV)
Jesus makes a very inclusive invitation to all men to come into this exclusive kingdom. But there is only one way in—through the cross. We cannot come to God unless we give up our rights to live under the authority of this world and choose to live under the authority of Jesus. Jesus is that narrow door. Until we believe that his death alone is the price paid for our sins—no matter how “grubby” we’ve come, we will never experience his exclusive kingdom.
That would be a shame, because the kingdom of heaven is for you.
