This Man

There is this man - who is too scared of failing. So scared that he did not fail in the thing that he was afraid to fail in - he never did want to try it anymore. He was used to fail in it, now he decided that he wanted to fail no more.

The reason he no longer wants to fail - is that he understands that every single event that happens in life will trigger a series of other events which will lead to more events, he also understands that nobody ever represents only themselves - everybody always represent to some extent their family, their beliefs, and their upbringing.

Yet this man also thinks that since one thing leads on to the other - who knows his failure might turn out for good. This man is not stupid, he learns that the chances are slim and the stakes are high. This man lives in his private world with his private philosophies in life - his thinks his thoughts are private and that nobody shares it, but he knows deep in his heart everybody shares the same philosophy about themselves - insecurity.

Yet this man reasons that "insecurity" is too shallow a word to describe the painful experiences, and the potential loss, and the risk that has crossed his mind - and he believes - many others. And so, there is very little room left for this man. He can run away for now - but not forever. He can fake it. He thought perhaps "facing it" might be the right thing to do... but he does not know how.

For the good of himself, and for the good of society - he runs. He runs and hope that he can live out other areas of life fully - perhaps the goodness of other parts will somehow compensate for this area of failure. Yet this man knows himself too well that this is a lie. If a man's stomach is empty, he can eat. If a man's heart is sad, can tasty food satisfy him?

This man has little reasonings left to comfort him. He finds little pleasure in the things of this world. He is timid, he is shocked - he is bewildered at his own weakness, and wickedness while people around him think highly of him. Perhaps, even this thought is a product of his imagination and insecurity. Everywhere he turns, he is tempted to do evil - everything he does, it reveals his insecurity.

He dreads the day - he knows one day of living is one day of sinning. He would so rather die today - but he know he is not meant to do so. It is not because this man knows killing is wrong, but he knows that this life does not belong to him - but God the Creator.

Therefore, this man's hope is in his Creator - his hope of security, his hope of purity, his hope of joy, his hope of love. This man has disappointed himself once too many, not to mention that his dillusions has made him expect unreasonable things from others - this man has no more regard for his philosophy. He has given up - He has given in to God.

Wisdom means something new to this man. He thinks of God's Word as wisdom. Figuring out the world and himself on his own is a pile of confusion. Therefore, this man clings to God's Wisdom. Belonging also means something new to this man. He no longer belongs to this world. When he is deprived and despaired of meaningful relationship in this world, he rejoices in the fact that heaven is his home... and the present pains are a reminder to his temporal stay on earth.

This man is an escapist. But not the common escapist. He delays his escape. He escapes when he dies - but while on this earth, he will stand firm. God will enable him to stand. One day, when the pain in this body becomes too great that it gives way, the spirit of this man will rejoice and find himself at home with God. Yet, even this very moment, the spirit of this man suffers and endures much pain that the body faces.

Living day by day with his body, this spirit learns of God - as the spirit learns to endure pain in this world - this spirit learns that God must have endured much more pain. As the spirit learns to expect the man to be sinning tomorrow in one way or the other, this spirit also learns of God's grace that forgives the sin that this man will commit in the future. When the spirit of this man starves for the comfort that this man failed to provide, rather than feeling God's love immediately, the spirit of this man learns that he is not alone, and that even God has experienced such things.

This man recalls that Jesus became a man to identify Himself with man. And through this spirit in the man - he realize that he is made alive to be identified with Jesus. This spirit will learn the footsteps of Jesus through obedience, love and suffering - and this spirit will get a new friend, the Holy Spirit of God, who will empower and encourage this spirit to follow Jesus.

This man's body is dying. But his spirit grows day by day. One day, when his heart fails and fail to give him life in this body - he will then obtain a new heart, a new life - one that is free from stain.

This man will be a man who is joyful, and will live in peace forever. This man looks to heaven with hope.

This man is me.

Without and Within

A thousand wars without I can fight, yet who can stop my own hand against myself?
Fights so intense I can stand, but when the heart is troubled... How can I stand.
An enemy I can overcome, a friend - I can't, I can only give in.

What are wars? What are fights? What are enemies? NOTHING. They are all easy prey.

But I cannot stop my hand...
My heart is the source of the trouble - how can a heart be solved?
I am my friend who have been living with me since forever...

If I don't stand up for myself... Who will?

Supposedly someone else's knight in shining armour - I am now my damsel in distress. Can I be my own knight?

This side of heaven, things go unexplained. My soul groans for the pain - heart and mind.

Heaven, how I long for you. I know... good stories never end with the damsel failing... but Jesus, my knight in shining armour will one day appear in power - and carry me back to where I belong.

Called home to be with The Lord... should be a colourful advertisement... not grayscale.

Time Passes Slowly

This season of my life, is so familiar. It looks just like half a decade ago.

5 years ago, I thought I was matured. But honestly, I was really childish and stupid. God brought me through that season, and I emerged as a slightly more matured person, a thinker and a feeler in a richer sense - I think more, and I felt more. I became more human, I became a little more like Jesus, though the idea of similarity is still far fetched. After that 5 years ago, I could no longer communicate well with the peers of my time. I grew, but I also grew into a journey which is more lonely.

5 years later - today. It feels like a mini series replaying. I think I am pretty matured now. But I know I am up for some enlightenment to know that it must have been proud of me to think in such a manner. I know, because I am a Christian... I know that I will emerge again as a slightly more matured person, a thinker and a feeler in a richer sense - I will think more, I will feel more... I will become more human, I will grow to be more like Jesus.

I know this is one price that I will pay reluctantly, because there isn't anything better around to spend my life on. What I have experienced through the years - what I think is a gift from God... is this:

God gave me many things. Timely things. Things that are worth for a season and no more.
Yet through the giving and taking away of temporal things, God gave me things that nobody can ever take away. God gave me experience. God gave me a life story. God filled up my history. Should one day my life be read as a book, they will see God's traces, God's fingerprints, God's poem.

I have not learnt to amass. God didn't teach me to amass anything. The things God gave me is unseen. It was not talents, neither is it intelligence - He gave me a mind and a heart. A mind and a heart that would continually grow to learn that He is trustworthy, and one that will know that this season is a season of growing up - and not a season to ask: Why God? Why now? Why me?

I have been growing up in various ways for the past 6 years or so. Every time it has to do with my self esteem - I learn that neither high nor low self esteem is the way to go - but one that is a clear evaluation of who I am; for self esteem is not one thing that is supposed to bring me up or pull me down, as though it is a tool that works like pep talk... but self esteem is to know that I am nothing before God, yet God cares for my life, and my very heart - self esteem teaches me gratefulness, contentment, humility, quietness, stability, calmness.

Every time it has to do with relationships. I learn that relationships make or break a person. Things don't make or break a person... people do. The people that can hurt us the most, is the one that we imagine to have a good relationship with. But I learn that in the midst of hurt, though I feel alone, yet I am not lonely. When I hurt, I share the fate of millions - when I am high and happy, I only know the true feelings of a few people. Relationships are relationships, they are not always a source of confidence, not always a source of dependence - but relationships are things that define a person. I am a child of God, I am a child of man. I have a Father in heaven, I have a father on earth. I have siblings in the heavenly realms, I have siblings in the earthly realms. I was once among those who are lost, now I am with those who are found. In relationships, I find a reason to grow - growth is to know God more, trust God more, and enjoy God more. Other than that, I find no reason in producing excellent work, nor much reason to continue in a seemingly endless toil on earth.

Every time, time feels like a big factor. I find myself asking - when will this ever end? History repeats over and over. The message is singular. I learn that I can't learn heart lessons too many times. The night is darkest before dawn - As much as hope is in the end, time is a big part of the lesson. I learn that I don't just turn happy because God did something, but that God did something over time, and He did it many times, and I know He will do it again and again. Faithfulness is one thing only time can tell. God is faithful - He is 5 years ago, He is since I was born, He is since 2000 years ago - when He fulfilled a promise since the days of Adam and Eve.

Time passes slowly. In the quietness of the night, my thoughts become calm. Conflict and strivings melt into a frozen state, I seem to have ample time to think - in a lonely and quiet night alone, I enter into another world. I enter into a new type of reality. In this reality, the rubber doesn't hit the road, things are dully ideal - i explore this compartment of my philosophy that executes thoughts without much pressure from the daily demands in life. Since I am alone, I can let my thoughts flow - nobody is waiting for an answer from my lips, I have no responsibility to "make everyone at the dinner table talk to one another" - it is like, I don't even feel God is in my room. There are few situations in my life where I make biggest decisions in life:

When I am alone this way.
or when I am alone with God.

This year, is a turning point in my life. One way will lead on to the other. And for a long long time, the words written here will have very little meaning until I reach my next turning point in life. These words have little meaning, but these words will chart out the course until I reach the next turning point.

Echo

God, what I prayed to You 4 Christmas ago... I pray again...

" God, if you can take back rubbish... please take me back "

A Time for Test

The time of testing has come again, and whether I pass this day, depends on whether I passed yesterday. If I was not responsible yesterday, todays load will be heavier.

A test for the heart. It is a hard test. It is not a test of time - but a test to trust God's goodness. To acknowledge that the truth is true, that God is good.

Oh God, I have never been good at this. I feel like I am like a weakling in this whole matter, I don't feel like a champion at all. Every time this comes, you will show me that I am not ready. How I wish that I am ready... but my continual wish for readiness is a sign that I am not mature enough. How ironic.

I want to be ready. I don't want to "want to be ready". Because I know as long as I want, I have never let it go yet. Let it go Joel, if it is yours, it will come back.

Such is life. Let it go. If it is yours, it will come...
If it isn't - and you don't let go now, you will lose it anyway.

God, You have taught me. I owe you my life. I wish that I would be a robot for this area of my life - incapable of making my own decisions but mindlessly and emotionlessly sweep through it... then I would not have to suffer such pain. But surely, Your plan is not so.

Your ways are not my ways, your thoughts are higher than mine. You desire to see Jesus formed in me. I desire insanity. Such God, are the struggles in my heart. God - I know of two things to do when I struggle...

Give in.
Grow up.

I want the latter. But the former is easier. Such is life, the better thing is always the harder thing to do. Why did Eve want to be like God? Wasn't she already like God - made in the likeness of God?

Why? I am not really wanting to know why. It is just hard God. I just want to assure myself that You know. I'm sure you know. I just doubt that I am assured of that.

Dear God, today I learn that You ought to be the rightful and loving ruler who is supposed to rule over my life - my failure to comply is sin. And truly so...

The good news and the sad news is that it is the same news.

Dear God, I know You will bring me through all this. Please, please, please grant me strength that I may endure this... that I may honour You... even if nobody ever understands anything.

The Little I Know About Marriage

As you read this post, it would be responsible for me to say first that the following words are from The Bible... Marriage from the Book. It is not a moral guide - though one may derive from it... but it is about God's Marriage - not so much about our marriage, but Jesus' Marriage.

Before the beginning of the world, the Heavenly Father was preparing a marriage for His Son - Jesus. It was not proper that Jesus doesn't have a bride - so God planned out an epic story where Jesus Christ will have to save the bride, save the day, and wed her one day. This is the marriage that will last throughout eternity.

And so, begins the creation of the world. God created mankind - but little did humans know they one day, many of them would join together as one body called church... and this body of people is called the Bride of Christ (Jesus). And so the saga begins...

God created Adam - then God said... It is not good for man to be alone - I will create for Adam a suitable (and equal) helper... and God created Eve. For this reason, a man shall leave his father (and mother) and be joined to his wife as one flesh. God then joined Adam and Eve together in marriage.

And so, this was the first trace of the marriage that will one day happen in heaven - but before that, man will take thousands of years to learn the purpose of the universe...

Some point in time, Adam and Eve rebelled against God and chose to dethroned God in their hearts. God as the Judge sentenced them to death, so that one day man will breathe his final breath and return to dust.

For that matter, the best marriages on earth will never last. Nothing may do them apart, but 'till death do us part' - it is an unwilling parting, since marriage was meant to last.

Rebelling against God (sin) and falling into God's Judgement, humans have nothing to save them. Yet, through the years, God reveals His Laws to show that mankind have turned away from God and have walked the paths that leads to death; meanwhile, God shows mercy on people and showers them with His love... God was preparing His Son the Hero to save these people.

And so, the hero who was waiting since eternity, Jesus came into the scene. He came to save His bride from the masses of humanity. Jesus came to show the full measure of God's Love, to lead His people back to God in repentance, to wash His Bride clean of the filth that has stuck to her as a result of her fornication...and to one day... be one flesh with His people-His Bride, to be so joined together...one flesh.

As Jesus came to this world in the form of a man 2000 years ago, some of the people rejected Him and hung Him on the cross, some of them entrusted their lives to God. Jesus had to die... His death was the payment for the sins of the world. What was meant to be God's Judgement on us, Jesus took our place and suffered the death for us - so that whoever believes in Him has passed God's Judgement.

For if Jesus did not die in saving us, we will be lost and there will be no Bride. And to those who believed Jesus, they became a part of the church which will one day be the Bride of Christ.

While we (Christians) wait on earth, even trials come upon us - so that we may be purified when we have endured the test... God Himself being our strength to overcome, so that one day, we will be a clean and pure Bride on our wedding day.

And so, the creation of the universe is this - that God may prepare for His Son a Bride... which will rule over a New Creation that God has prepared since forever. In this new world, The Father being the God of all, and the Son Jesus Christ ruling the world with His Bride and enjoying all Creation throughout eternity.

His Bride is the church/(are the Christians) then (not just those who call themselves Christians, but those who are truly Christians in heart)- who will also enjoy fellowship with one another as long as eternity goes.

Marriage is not a human invention. Marriage is designed to last. Marriage is designed to join. Marriage is designed for faithfulness.

Yes, today's world, those who are divorced is of the same number with those who are married. And not many people are truly happily married. The world is a twisted place, many things ought not to be the way it was in the beginning. But this is not the end of the story.

For us who are single, we look forward to the true marriage in Heaven. For those who are married, we strive - by God's help, to be a pattern of the one true marriage we will see one day in Heaven.

God has designed us for Lasting Relationships that will never break, True Security that will remain faithful... Assurance that will bring Joy and Peace to the heart; so that while we wait on earth and are despaired by the things happening - we look toward heaven and remain hopeful and steadfast in this world, yearning to be who we are really meant to be.

This is the meaning of life.

Shitting in toilets

This post is typed on my laptop... while I am sitting in the comfort of my toilet bowl.

You know the times when you shit - because you had enough fibre, your shit does not come out like a machine gun or fireworks... but it comes out as a whole piece....

"DOSH!"

the shit goes down, but water comes up!

It is one of the most irritating thing that can ever happen in the toilet! Especially if you peed already!

Solution:
Put about 6 pieces of tissue paper into the toilet bowl first. This will provide cushion for the shit so it wont go down with a "DOSH" and send water up.

End of story.

P.S. If you think this method is wasting toilet paper, chances are that you will be using the same amount of tissue paper to wipe of the pee-shit-water in the end anyway. If if you insist that this method wastes paper, please ignore the advice given.

The Lust For The World

He who loves the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Do we murder? Do we hate?
Do we commit adultery? Do we lust?
Do we sin? Do we invite ourselves into temptation?
Do we steal? What about piracy?
Do we lie? Are we faithful?
Do we please God? Do we please ourselves?
Do we live for God? Do we live for ourselves?
Do we spend in a godly way? Do we waste God's money?
Do we love our neighbours? Are we selfish?
Do we hate God? Do we love God half-heartedly?
Do we save time? Do we waste God's life?
Do we work hard? Are we lazy?
Do we work for our selfish ambitions? Do we work to give others?
Do we bear good fruit? Do we bear bad fruit?
Do we walk the broad path? Do we walk the narrow path?
Do we hope in our works? Do we depend on Christ?
Are we the good tree? Are we the bad tree?
Are we filled with the Holy Spirit? Are we filled with alcohol?
Are our minds filled with God's Word? Are our minds filled with vulgarity?
Is our confidence in ourselves? Is our confidence in Christ?
Do we study God's Word? Do we read God's Word?
Do we give ourselves excuses? Do we justify ourselves?
Are we Jesus' friends? Are we the world's friends?
Do we worship God? Do we worship our boyfriends/girlfriends?

Where the treasure is, there will be the heart also.

Where is your treasure?

Not everyone who says to me "Lord, Lord" will enter the Kingdom of God...only those who do the will of My Father in heaven...

A Study of the Sermon on the Mount

True Righteousness Part 1 (5:1-20)
The Truly Blessed Man
Summary: Jesus idea of "True Blessedness" is closely related if not equal to "True Righteousness along with the Consequences and Fruits" of it. True Blessedness is not the way the world views it. True Blessedness is not a set of acts, but a person will be truly blessed - true blessedness belongs to a person, not something obtainable on our part without God's prior deposit.

In Matthew 5:3-10, one might have the inkling that these blessedness stuff is something that we do in order to obtain something. For example, one might think: If I will be poor in spirit, I will have the kingdom of heaven. Or again: If I will be merciful and forgive that person which I ought to forgive, I will obtain mercy from God.

Yet, I have an inkling that 5:3-10 (and 11) is not something about doing, but something about being. It is blessed are those who are merciful, not blessed are those who shows mercy. It is blessed are the peacemakers - it shows that there is a blessedness about this person.

Before moving further, I would like to define what this "blessed" word mean, or at least what is implied when the word is used - divine favour. Some would define it as "God looking our direction and is pleased".

With that, I would like to continue by saying from 5:11-14 - You are the salt of the earth, light of the world. Not so much you can "do the things that makes you behave like salt or light" - but that you are.

One might say, how can one be "salt and light" except by doing things that presents himself as "salt and light"? Surely, "salt" is marked by saltiness and "light" is marked by brightness - but Scripture does not support that we can "do" the blessed things and therefore be blessed.

Therefore, to a very large extent, we can only verify if we are "salt and light" whether we are "blessed" or not. Are we poor in spirit? are we those who mourn? are we meek? Do we thirst and hunger for righteousness?

Note this, a living person - going without food for a while - he will be hungry. Suppose there is a person who needs not food, can the person be made hungry? He has to be made a "normal" person, and he will feel hunger after a while.

Likewise, we are either hungering and thirsting for righteousness or we are not. Are we merciful? Are we pure in heart?

The more interesting question is this -

Are we persecuted because of righteousness? A thing to be careful here, a "righteous man" in the sight of man will probably be well liked - but a man that God consider's righteous, the world will persecute that man, like the way they did to Jesus and the prophets who speak the truth. If we are not righteous, we would find no cause to be persecuted! We can't just find ways to be persecuted for righteousness.

If you become a member of the opposition party and stick your head too far out for your party (for some cause of the party), you may be persecuted - but you are not persecuted for righteousness in God's terms. You may be insulted and false things may be said about you - for the sake of your party, not Jesus.

What I am trying to get at is this - I am reinforcing the point that a person is either this "blessed man" or he is not - it is not within our domain to try to be that man. As we will soon see, it is up to God to reveal to us truth, and as God opens our eyes and we realize it, we will become the blessed man.

What we can do on our part is this: Pay attention to God's Word, God's Word points to Jesus, Jesus is the image of God. The Bible defines eternal life as knowing God. If you know Jesus, you know God, you have eternal life. If knowing Jesus means knowing God, then we better find out what it means to know Jesus.

As for now, we will keep reading from 5:13 onwards in a chronological manner. The argument is quite simple, if a salt is no longer salty (we know that cannot be the case, but suppose there is such a case), it is no longer qualified to be called salt. Whatever that new substance is called, as far as the purpose of giving flavour is concerned, it is very useless, except to be thrown away. Jesus adds something which I think is pretty wierd here, it is not only that the salt is thrown away, but it is to be trampled over by men.

Why trampled by men? If trampled by men means anything, it would mean something that is not only useless, but somethig quite harsh and bad. The closest thing I can think of is an image of some form of judgement. I dare not thread further into allegorizing Jesus sermon. To add the phrase "trampled by men" is then to suppose that the disciples who were hearing this sermon (5:1) to some extent that they are called to be the salt and light - but also verse 11 onwards when the disciples will be persecuted for Jesus' sake.

Also note that 5:3-10 is a "blessed are those", but 5:11 onwards, it is Jesus speaking to the disciples - "blessed are you when..." I am led to think that Jesus thought it important to create a framework of what is true "blessedness" - then only to identify His disciples into this "blessedness" circle from 5:11 onwards.

The reason for such an argument is 5:3 and 5:10 gives an idea that 5:3-5:10 is one section by itself - but we also see that 5:10 and 5:11 is quite the same thing. 5:10 does not mention Jesus, 5:11 does; 5:10 seems to be somebody else, 5:11 is Jesus' disciples. Look at 5:12, this would probably confirm that observation, Jesus compares his disciples (who will suffer persecution for His name) to the prophets of the old (i.e. 5:11 is compared to 5:10).

With that in place, Jesus indentifies his disciples as the blessed people which is only useful as long as they posses that quality that makes them blessed. Just as salt is only defined as salt when it is salty - the blessed man is only defined as the blessed man when he fits the criterias by which Jesus call that man blessed.

Note again, salt IS salty, salt doesn't BECOME salty. We will learn, spiritually dead people doesn't BECOME living people, but Jesus makes us a NEW Creation. We learn words like new birth, new creation - because we don't somehow "improve" from dead people into living people. God gives us life, we have life. "Dead Person Version 1.2" is still dead person.

In verse 14, Jesus introduces some pretty interesting idea though. Salt is salty just as light is bright. But there can be such a way that the bright light is hidden under a basket. The bright light is not dimmed, but it is hidden. Jesus continues that the disciples are to let their light shine that the world may see their good works and glorify our Father in heaven.

This is not to say the disciples blow their own trumpet shouting "I have done a good deed, come praise God!" - for this Jesus rebukes this idea in the next chapter - "Be careful not to do your deeds of righteousness before men, TO BE SEEN BY THEM".

5:14-15 in simple sense means: Let light be light and serve its purpose by being light - light is meant to show and reveal, hidden light is no light(to hide light is not the right thing to do). God's good deeds is meant to be done by His blessed people who will be doing it simply by staying the "blessed man"(salt) they are called to be(good deeds will flow from blessed people), they will be one that "gives light to everyone in the house".

Note: In Matthew 7:15 later, we will also see that a tree is characterized by its fruit. A good tree will naturally bear good fruit. In the same way, the blessed people will produce good fruit.

The next part 5:17 onwards troubles me, why does Jesus suddenly say "Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets". Was it something Jesus said that might have implied this idea? Or is it something that Jesus will say that will imply the idea that He is going to abolish the law or the prophets? How does this "blessed man" idea destroy the law and the prophets?

The answer is this: Jesus is about to say something that will (to the eyes of His hearers), abolish the Law and the Prophets. I believe Jesus is somewhat like saying "Be patient, what you are about to hear is almost like blasphemy(what is more blasphemous than to abolish God's Law and deny His Words?) - but it is not, not only it is NOT abolishing, it is FULFILLING". Jesus says His arrival is to fulfill the Law and the Prophets - Jesus promises the fulfillment of everything by saying NOT THE LEAST shall disappear from the Law.

The Law and the Prophets are the Old Testament. Jesus comes to fulfill not only the prophets like some of us think - Some of us think Old Testament is pretty pointless since it is suppose to just predict Jesus' coming. Old Testament does a million things more than just predicting Jesus coming - Old Testament is a shadow of the thing to come(which has already come) - JESUS!

If we know anything about shadows, there is a measure of resemblence between the shadow and the object, certain things look the same - but the shadow is not to be mistaken as the real thing.

A very brief examples of waht shadows are in Old Testament:
Adam as Son of God who rules the earth - Jesus as Son of God who rules the earth
Adam and Eve's marriage - Christ and the Church's marriage
Mighty prophet of God who delivers God's people from slavery: Moses as a type of Jesus
Kings of Israel to rule over God's people: Jesus the true King
Sacrifices that costs blood of lambs and bulls: Jesus the Perfect Sacrifice
High priest as the mediator between God and man: Jesus the True High Priest
Prophets who suffered for righteousness: Jesus who suffered for righteousness

There are tons of other things within the Old Testament which teaches us who Christ is. If we know not the Old Testament, we will have this prevalent Christianity in the world today - the Christianity which we learn of popular songs, Christianity in the form of cliches. If we know not what Jesus came to fulfill (giving meaning to the shadows and fulfilling predictions and more), I fear that our view of God will be a very little one. Nowadays, when a Christian mention that Jesus is great(or God is great), they are saying:

God gave me good grades in class
God gave me lots of money
God gave me a place in heaven
God saved me from that disaster
God gave me a happy day

WHAT?! Whatever happened to the definition of blessedness a few verses before?

Christians rejoice in "being in power" and not those who suffer for persecution
Christians rejoice in material gains but not in being poor in spirit

What happened to being meek? pure in heart?

Listen! Jesus came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. A great deal of that meant being:

The TRULY rejected man of God ( as the older prophets were rejected)
The PERFECT Sacrifice
The TRULY persecuted man
The TRUE definition of man
The TRUE definition of God

If a Christian should desire to be like anybody - we shoudl desire to be like Christ. Did Christ not ask his disciples to rejoice (5:12) because they can come into the "blessed" category which Christ who suffered is part of?

Moving on - Jesus says raises the standard of righteousness. Jesus says unless our righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees (which the people of their day would reckon as the HIGHEST possible level), we will all be doomed. Now consider this, if the Pharisees as attained the highest level, and Jesus says unless we attain higher - we are doomed. We are left with very few options:

1) This man speaks truth - it is impossible to enter God's Kingdom
2) This man is blaspheming, i.e. abolishing the Law and the Prophets

The first one is not the one that is favourable to us. The second option sounds better. This gives us reason to see why Jesus has to do some beforehand explaination. Since nobody objected Jesus between 5:20 and 5:21, we suppose that Jesus calling them to "not jump into conclusions but listen to my explaination" phrase in 5:17-19 did work!

Now verse 21 onwards, Jesus will explain His Words. Now that we know 5:1-20, we get an idea of where Jesus is getting at. A quick recap:

Jesus defines the blessed man and true blessedness
Jesus gives an inclusion of his disciples
Jesus calls the disciples to stay distinctly blessed

BUT, a big BUT:
Jesus disagrees with the traditional method of entering the Kingdom of God - or at least the way the most "righteous" people in the community think they can enter heaven. Jesus calls for righteousness that surpasses that of the Pharisees: So afterall, Jesus calls for righteousness! but Jesus calls for MORE righteousness! So... what is this MORE righteousness?

Before we move on, we are reminded Jesus says He did not come to abolish - He also says that the least of the commandments will be obeyed and taught. What are some examples of these commandments - what it means to be more righteous, or TRULY righteous?

5:21-22 Jesus reiterates the traditional way by which the hearers would have done things. Its wrong to murder, but the intentions of anger and hatred) is not so bad. But Jesus says the person will be subjected to judgement because of his intention. Traditionally, hateful speech is subjected to some form of judgement in their religious court; but Jesus says hateful speech is a matter of hellfires.

Reading on 5:23, Jesus says if we are to worship God, we are to be reconciled to our brother first. Taking a step back, what do we see? 5:23 is saying if we want to be reconciled to God, let us be reconciled to our brother first.

Should Jesus not say this, the people would still think that it is perfectly okay to hate and be seperated froma brother (murder) and be joined (reconciled) with God! Jesus raises the bar - NOT! Jesus didn't raise the bar, Jesus was merely revealing hypocrisy. Anyone who reads the Gospel will know the Pharisees are hypocrites (just like us). With this in mind, we go a few verses back up - what is this more righteousness that Pharisee?

Jesus is plainly saying this: One has to be righteous to enter the Kingdom of God. The hypocritical standard of righteousness that these Pharisees has is not going to make it.

In other words, knowing we are naturally hypocrites, we have no better hope than the Pharisees! One thing we could glean from here is also related to Jesus statement of coming to fulfill the Law and the Prophets. By Jesus admitting that He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament, He is saying:

You want to know what the whole Old Testament is about? Me
You want to know what those Laws are about? Me
You want to know what Old Testament is pointing to? Me

There are a million rules in Old Testament. Collectively speaking, all the laws (all laws) reveal a few things about God:

God is particular about how we worship Him (laws concerning temple building, what sacrifices to offer, etc)
God is Holy (Different admission levels within the Temple/Tabernacle, no mixing different seeds and different textiles in one clothing)
God is concerned with every area of our life (laws that concern from animals to harvest to festivals to politics)
Perhaps even more that I know not of -

But Jesus, being the revelation of God - is also a revelation of God's intentions. If we want to know what God's love is - look at Jesus on the Cross. If we want to know what God thinks of our sin - look at Jesus on the Cross. We want to know what is a blessed man is - look at Jesus on the Cross.

True Righteousness Part 2 (5:21-37)
Self Invented Righteousness - minimizing God's Law at the cost of Hellfire
Summary: Don't make the checkbox for righteousness so small so you can tick it of thinking you have fulfilled the minimum requirement of God's Law. That very act itself is not based on true righteousness - continuing in such attitude will land you into Judgement. Jesus explains that true righteousness is not merely one of outward appearance, but one of shunning evil in the heart. This self invented tiny checkbox (well, I didn't kill people, I pass the test of God's Laws), is more explicitly proved to be one without power - shown in 5:33-37... it is God's Law that has the power, and God's Law looks at the heart - not mere outward appearances. the "looking at the heart" idea was not only from the "murder" and "adultery" examples, but "integrity and faithful speech" example.

When Jesus speaks of anger and hatred being equivalent to murder - He is simply saying: God is not fooled by you, God is a God who looks at the heart and intentions. There is no such thing as a superficial righteousness. You might have the entry "superficial righteousness" in your dictionary, but there is no such semi-righteous level in God's eyes. You want to be reconciled with God? Reconcile with your brother - or else you fool yourself into thinking that God approves your hypocrisy.

Then Jesus gives a challenge here. Settle it now while you have time. The same way that you try to settle your case with your adversary before you reach the Sanhedrin (the court), you better settle your case before you meet God in the court. The same way that you will not get out from the human court until you pay the last penny, what makes you think you can get out of God's court until you pay the last penny.

Jesus was speaking to a whole group of hypocrites - which we would do well and honest as we identify ourselves with them. Notice as Jesus speaks 5:25-26, my assumption is that Jesus assumed that the people ought to understand the previous verses the way I explained it (which i hope you agree that it is only logical). If Jesus did not make that assumption, 5:25-26 would be out of place - a wierd verse in the middle of nowhere (where many popular pastors like to use to preach whatever they like). Let us be clear with this, Jesus did not make that assumption. JESUS knew what was in the people's heart.

Many times we read the Bible as though it was talking about some person somewhere - but we ought to realize as much as Jesus is really not talking to us... Jesus could be equally talking to us! It is God's Living Word we are reading, and God speaks to us through His Word. It is not as though God "somewhat" speaks to us through His Word... but God's voice that we "hear" is the REAL Word. Here is the bottom line, the Bible is God's Word spoken to us 100% of the time, the voice we claim to hear is subjected to the Bible.

Bottom line, Jesus sees our heart - 5:25-26, Jesus calls us to settle it before we meet God in the heavenly courts, where hellfire is an option ( not ours, but the Judge's). Do we have any intentions that are unrighteous? Confess it to God, confesses to the person you offended. You either settle it here and now, or you settle it in heaven. I am not speaking of legalistic righteousness, for the salvation that Jesus gave is not the superficial salvation - but Jesus clearly says that intention is important. If you are too proud to confess to the person, what is the difference between you and the person in 5:23-24?

If you mourn in repentance now, Jesus says in 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. But if you choose to remain in error and stay in comfort now, God will make sure that justice is done and nobody will escape the last penny they ought to pay. True righteousness and integrity goes hand in hand - Hypocritical righteousness is no righteousness... and righteousness matters to the point of heaven and hell.

5:27-30, Jesus continues on with the pattern : You have heard it was said; but I tell you. The hearers hardened hearts recognizes not the truth of God - Jesus equates lust with adultery. Lust is the intention, adultery is the deed. Jesus could have equally said your intention to commit adultery is already adultery. But we have to be careful not to just take the next 2 verses to mean something merely for adultery. If any part of your body causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away - if there could be such a thing: it is better to enter heaven blind rather than having both eyes and go to hell.

A few things to note here. A few more issues such as divorce, untruthfulness, revenge, and love is covered by Jesus as the chapter goes on - but this is definitely not an indication that Jesus is only concerned about these few areas as though it was an exhaustive list. What the text hammers in is this - righteousness matters even if it costs you an arm and a leg.

How often have we allowed ourselves to indulge in the object of temptation thinking that we are strong enough to not sin - only to find ourselves weak every time? In our idleness, we sit at a quiet place fantasizing about people in ways we ought not to be thinking about them - as we think more and more intently, our minds become pornography, but we still let our minds go on. Even though we knew that we should have stopped much earlier, we continue thinking to a point where we feel too guilty to continue - and we stop and say things like "Oh, I didn't (did) realize I sinned!"

Why do we even sound surprised? We could have spent our time for godly thinks and fill our minds with godly thoughts but we love sin. For all of us, we could have taken steps to prevent it, but we do not - since it will cost us too much. Quoting the previous post:

When I first heard this sermon preached (this is a summary of his sermon), the pastor speaking to a group of University students said this was addressing the issue that we face with Internet Pornography - the convenience of it and how we can easily delete our browsing history after that. Many of us struggle with the sin yet we are not willing to let it go.

He said:

" C'mon guys, you know this. If you need to, you can just throw your computer out of the window - you can always use the university computer labs to do your assignment. How much is your computer? 2000 dollars? 3000 thousand? What is a more important? 3000 dollars or righteousness before God?"

The issue of adultery (from the passage) continues on up till 5:32. There were people who lusted for the wives of others - yet in their self-invented righteousness did not want others to know that they were already committing adultery in their hearts. Its quite simple, the man and the woman gets divorced, and marry each other.

See - God is not as stupid as us. When we want something bad enough, we find it easy to fool ourselves. God is not fooled by our apparent obedience to the Law, when in our hearts - we are schemers and adulterers. Jesus continues to speak on True Righteousness, and the people could not say anything against it (but they all heard with amazement, for Jesus taught as one having authority)... Jesus exposed their hypocrisy, He spoke the truth - our "appear good religion" is torn down by the one who judges without partiality, the one who sees through our heart and know that we are wicked to the core.

After adultery, Jesus uses another illustration to show our shrewdness. Sometimes we hear people say: "I swear to God I am telling the truth". Do you have less responsibility to tell the truth then if you don't swear to God? What is this standard you are using which permits you to speak half the truth all the time except if you swear by God?

Or we hear (an say): "I swear that I am telling the truth or else I will die being struck by lightning" - really? Jesus says "You can't even make one hair black or white", "and you want to swear by heaven, by God's throne"? Let your "Yes" mean "Yes" and "No" mean "No" - have some integrity! Can righteousness be without integrity?

Want to see some examples of having no integrity?

Don't murder, but hate. Don't commit adultery, but lust. Don't lie, just don't tell the truth. At the end of this all, please do feel good about yourself - because you appear to be pretty righteous in the sight of everyone else.

NO! Jesus says: You hate? You are a murderer. You lust? You are an adulterer. You speak lies, you speak like the devil. In all this, unless you repent, you are in danger of hellfire.

True Righteousness Part 3 (5:38-48)
Why The Raise of Standard?
Jesus does not claim to raise the standard of true righteousness(as in righteous acts), but Jesus does claim that to live with self-invented righteousness and to merely play things "fair" is not quite who God really is. God is the one who turns the other cheek when He was struck, walks the extra mile to calvary, had himself robbed of his clothes, loved his enemies and died for them, prayed for those who persecuted Him to the point of death - was that not EVERYTHING Jesus did?

Jesus says, "Be perfect - as your Heavenly Father is perfect". How do we become perfect like the Heavenly Father? We have not seen Him; But the Bible says Jesus is the image of God, Jesus told Phillip that the person who has seen Jesus has seen the Father! Do Christians not say we ought to grow to become like Jesus more and more; Yes, that statement is a direct reference to Jesus. We have to be careful not to think of the whole "Sermon on the Mount" as a "Sermon of Good Suggestions". As much as Jesus is preaching to the people, we learn through His preaching that Jesus is one who embodies what He preaches.

A hypocrite seldom think they sin (if ever) - I believe many hypocrites in denial would somehow qualify themselves as righteous from 5:21-48. After you, you my dear Christian friend, and yes, myself - How often do we read the Sermon on The Mount thinking that Jesus is speaking to... SOMEBODY ELSE? Well, Jesus haven't explicitly stated that yet, though very soon we will see Jesus telling the people - YOU THINK I AM TALKING ABOUT SOMEBODY ELSE SINCE JUST NOW? I AM TALKING ABOUT YOU!


False Riches vs True Riches, False Security vs True Security
Summary: The climax is coming, but before that - Jesus now speaks something that is closer to the hearts of the hearers. By the way, please note:Much of church preaching have painted Pharisees in a bad light, they are the self-declared "self-righteous hypocrites", and in speaking so, much of the congregation feels better, since there is somebody who is worse off than them. This thought - thinking that we are better because there is somebody worse... is exactly the kind of hypocrites that lived during Jesus time and have been staying alive until today.

Now Jesus will speak of the things we so commonly do...

When was the last time we did a good deed and we wondered... "Hmm, I wonder if anyone will see this and think good of me?" That probably wasn't too long ago, unless you never did any good deed at all.

This is what the hypocrites are doing. They give so that others may know that they are generous. Just to pull of from the previous section, these are some words Christians use to justify themselves:

"I blow a trumpet when I give... so that other people may know that I am a generous person, so they will know Christians are generous people, and they will glorify God"

See, our hypocrisy runs so deep, it is so in our blood that we actually think that God is like that. 6:7 "and when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words"

If you are a hypocrite, Jesus seeks to persuade you otherwise with this argument:

The up side (of hypocrisy) is this, you will receive your reward from men.
The down side is this, God will having nothing to do with you.

God doesn't care what you give.

God doesn't care what you pray.

God doesn't care about your devotion.

Afterall, if God cared about this pretense - then how can He be just? How can he be fair? God will regard and reward the person who does it in secret - this person lives with God as his audience, not men. Jesus says "The Father who sees it in secret will reward you". If you ever wonder who saw you doing that good deed again, God did. God will reward you.

*The Lord's Prayer is left out intentionally. There are tons of other materials writtn on that prayer alone. Our focus here is to get the whole idea of the sermon, so we shall move on.

"Rewards" is one of those catchy words - whatmore "Rewards from God"! How thrilling can that be - Christians today are so happy to hear words like "God's Blessing" and "God's gift".

Hear Jesus words: Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

What is God's gift? God's rewards? God's Blessing? God's Treasures? We would like to think of it as a string of titles after our names, a bank account that overflows, a comfortable life, and distinguished position in society - for me I would like to think of it as good grades in university, a stable risk-free life, and one day a wonderful wife. Different people might have different "wants" in life, but really, it is quite similar in nature.

Surely, God can give us all the luxuries of life as mentioned above - but Jesus cautions us that what He meant by rewards is not the rewards that we are thinking about. If we are to take the apostles as an example: We can be quite sure that their rewards doesn't quite fit our idea of rewards. Jesus calls us to store up our treasures in heaven - not on earth. One thing I know for sure: Jesus is NOT talking about earthly and material rewards.

A few verses down, Jesus promises that God will provide for our needs - but here, Jesus is not talking about earthly rewards, He made it explicit that the rewards are heavenly in nature. Jesus continues on to say that if we set our eyes on that which is good - our lives will be illuminated (which I believe to be a figurative way of saying goodness). Yet if we set our eyes on that which is dark (which I believe to be a figurative way of saying badness), our lives will be dimmed and doomed. What is it that the eye is the lamp of the body?

Does it mean our physical eyes? If we watch violent movies our thoughts will be filled with violence - and if we watch too much wickedness, we will be influenced towards evil? Perhaps so - this is a very sound and logical argument.

Yet I do not think that it properly fits the context of Jesus words. 6:22-23 is smack in the middle 6:19-21 and 6:24 - surely Jesus suddenly remembered something He didn't say, went off topic for a while and then continues his sermon on rewards? What I think would fit the context is this.

We are not to set our expectations wrongly. We expected rewards on earth in terms of material things - Jesus calls us to be careful of what we set our expectations on. If we set our eyes on true rewards - that is if we expect true rewards which Jesus promised, we are on the right track. But if we set our eyes on the earthly rewards (which is contrasted in the verse before and after - materialism vs God), we will be filled with darkness. This might possibly mean we have misunderstood it all, we will be confused as to why "things are not as I expected", we will be darkened in our understanding, etc - whatever it may be - these false expectations will fill our souls with darkness, and we know darkness is not the preferred condition.

Jesus goes on: We can only have one Lord. Not God and Money. It is God or Money. Not both, but either one. We cannot have a divided heart that serves two Lords. Jesus says we will either Love serving God and hate serving money, or that we will love serving money and hate serving God. It is contrary. Many of us have ambitions to "be some great person" someday and we would be more than happy if being "that great person" means getting a "great salary".

Jesus warning is this - you cannot serve God and money at the same time. Is this not true? If we desire to serve God - we will shape our education, manage our time, spend our money, and even choose our spouses so that we can serve God best.

Otherwise, this is what we will do. Find the course that will enables to give us the highest pay when we start working. We slave our lives to obain the promotion. We constantly spend money to decorate ourselves, add accesories, and buy bigger and newer things. Our spouses? Choose the hottest girl you can get! Who do we serve? God? Give me a break.

Before we move on. Get this straight. You are either serving GOD or MONEY. It is a mutually exclusive category if you know what that means. That means: If you find out now that you are serving MONEY, it means you are NOT serving GOD. You are not to believe that "I am serving money in this scope of my life, and I serve God in the other scope of my life". If Money is your god on monday, it means that money is your god everyday - God is not the God of sundays and church evangelistic events. The God of the Bible is the God of everyday and every area. Money is not the only limit isn't it? Money paints a whole picture of materialism - which ties in well with a verses on top.

This question which I challenge you with, I challenge myself too.
Joel, is there an area in your life that you are not letting God be God? Is there an area in your life where you would just say "God, thanks but no thanks, I will take care of this area in my life and I will do things my way"? If God is not God of every area in my life - I have very good reasons to believe that I only serve God whenever it is convenient to me. My convenience is my God - not the God of the Bible then. Going to church is convenient, forking out time on Friday isn't that difficult too - how hard can singing Christian songs be? Be careful - we might just be serving our convenience. Such a person cannot endure trials. When trials come, we will see who is God in their life - and we know the man who serves his own convenience would just conclude:

"Truly truly, Jesus is not in my heart"

Careful, we might just be living in self-deception now. We have cheated ourselves once and justified our evil motives before God., and it is not surprising if we can do it again and again. Practice makes perfect. Do it more and you might just never recognize truth again even if it is right before your eyes.

The next few verses 6:25-34 are only relevant if the previous paragraphs have caused you are considering to live for Jesus. It is not "decided", but considering. If you are not even considering, it is my personal recommendation that you do not read the next few verses as you will probably misunderstand the whole thing. Of course, this is just my personal recommendation, neither Jesus nor the evangelist tells you "DO NOT READ THE BIBLE, YOU MIGHT JUST LOSE ALL YOU OWN". But if you are interested in knowing God's promises for those who follow Him, do read on - but know that you have been warned.

Jesus says: Don't worry. God takes care of the birds even. God feeds the birds, THEREFORE God will also feed you. God clothes the lilies, THEREFORE God will also feed you. Why does the first statement (God feeds the birds) imply the second statement (God will feed you)? Jesus answers: because you are of much more worth than the birds. In Jesus' classical gentleness, He questions their unfounded ideas (about God's provision, or for that matter... non-provision) useless worries (who of you can add a single hour to life by worrying?)

We have to note this. I really think that Jesus is speaking to people who are actually considering to follow Him. If they followed Jesus - what are they going ot wear? What are they going to eat? Jesus was a rabbi in his days - and if you know anything about that profession, it isn't a 9-5 job that has a fixed amoiunt of salary with a pension fund when you are 55 years old. In some sense, the fears and worries of these people are reasonable, following Jesus could mean losing all these security - to what extent? To the extent that you won't really know what you will be eating tomorrow.

A few lines later Jesus says - do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble on its own. It must have been a real hard life Jesus lived. To follow Him is to find security (food, clothing, shelter, whatever other daily needs labeled as "all these things" in 6:33) in God alone.

The logic flows this way if they are to follow Jesus:

Tomorrow I will have food on my table, not so much because I have extra money in my bank account... but because the God who feed the birds will somehow feed me.
Tomorrow I will have clothing (protection and perhaps shelter), not so much because I have extra money in my bank... but because God who clothes the lilies will somehow clothe me.
The reason the above logic must make sense is because I am worth more than mere birds.
We ought not to worry, not so much because I have extra money in my bank account, but because God knows all these things and He has taken care of it.

Take God out of the picture - they are hopeless. No food, no clothing, no shelter and EVERYTHING to worry about. In our life today, we might think of them as standing on thin ice.

But Jesus counters that notion. Jesus says that we who hope in earthly treasures are the ones standing on thin ice. Moth and rust will destroy, thieves will steal. To Jesus, God's security is not the best security... it is the ONLY security.

If we remembered about Jesus temptation in by Satan - Jesus quotes the Old Testament. Maybe Jesus was quoting for Satan - but maybe Jesus was quoting Old Testament to remind Himself (being also fully human) of God's Word. In my personal opinion, the way Jesus phrase the words gives me a feeling that the words Jesus speaks to the hearers... are also the words He speak to Himself.

Jesus knows what it meant by "tomorrow will worry about itself. Today have enough troubles of its own".

Today Jesus is baptised, tomorrow He will fast for 40 days - and at the end He will be tempted by Satan.
Today Jesus hears Peter say "You are the Christ, Son of the Living God!" The very next moment, Jesus will have to tell Peter "Get behind me Satan".
Tonight Jesus eats with his 12 disciples, tonight He will be betrayed by Judas, tomorrow He will be crucified.

That is just my guess - but what is of more importance to us is the irony of these few verses.

The people that Jesus speaks to worry about their - what we call "basic necessities". What do we worry about when we consider the question "Will I follow Jesus?". Take some time to recall your worries. If you don't remember worrying, you are either:

a) So trusting in God that worrying is a rare thing for you
b) You have an imaginary Jesus that is rather convenient to follow

I think (b) would be what most people choose.

But if you are anything like me, I would have some worries.
I don't worry about having no food - but I do worry about not having the most delicious meal all the time.
I don't worry about having no clothes - but I do worry about having not so branded clothes.
I worry about driving a smaller car, living in a smaller house...
I worry about....

Ah, it is starting to sound idiotic isn't it? There in the Bible the peopl are fearing for their survival, here am I fearing that I will be less than comfortable. They worry about having no clothes, we worry about having less branded clothes.

The similarity of people 2000 years ago and people today is this:
Humans worry and are self-lovers

The difference is this:
We are much worse than them.

The thing that never did change for 2000 years is this:
Jesus

Jesus words which spoke to them 2000 years ago, speaks to us also. Consider it carefully.

I am talking about you! Decide!

Worship in New Testament

Foreword:
This sermon is originally preached by Paul Grimmond (former UNSW Chaplain, director of Campus Bible Study) - I have attempted to rewrite as much as I can remember from this sermon and have added my own words in different areas. All quotations are taken from NIV.

In light of Christians identifying that our life exists for worship, and that worship is a lifestyle and not mere random events in our life (singing, helping the poor, going church - but worship as Paul said: Glorify God even in our eating and drinking) - What we are getting at is indeed important since if we can glorify and honour God in our daily activities in seemingly trivial things such as eating and drinking, this leaves us a lot of room for dishonouring God when we limit our definition of worship to mere songs and church activities.

Before we talk about giving God our heart (within the church context of singing songs of praise), we learn from the Bible that God makes no such distinction - when God demands His people to give Him their hearts, God always expected a turn in actions. For example the passage in Isaiah about true fasting - surely we know that fasting as we understand both in the Old Testament does mean abstaining from food and such, but one thing we see more striking throughout the passages was the fact that God stresses on righteousness in their daily lives, not so much their abstinence.

Many times during the Old Testament when the people of God strayed away from God, the sacrificial system was still "kind of there" and in place - meaning the priests continually bring the offerings, the songs are continually played - but the heart of the people is already far (the priests were corrupt, the people sang to God today and worship Baals and idols tomorrow), whatever God called them to do was only done mechanically.

The sad truth is this, in the midst of "church activities" ... the definition of worship was lost. It was true for the Old Testament, and we would do well to acknowledge that we are vulnerable to such a thing in our modern times.

What does the book of Joel say?

Joel 2:13
Rend your heart and not your garments, return to The Lord your God...

If worship is a lifestyle (and we know that it is not a particular chapter and verse that explicitly states that "worship is a lifestyle", but as we study the Scripture, we learn that worship is indeed a lifestyle) - we would be most familiar with the famous Sermon about a lifestyle of worship - Yes, it is none other than the Sermon on The Mount - by Jesus.

What we tend to do when we want to find out about worship - is to look up the concordance and find out wherever the word "worship" is found in the whole Bible (i.e.John 4:21, Romans 12:1-2, etc) - tie them up together, summarize all the verses into One Gigantic Principle and preach a 5 point sermon. But as we will soon see, if we actually think of worship as merely that, we will lose the most important sermon in the whole Bible out - lets turn to Matthew 5

Links to Bible Passages online:
Matthew 5

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205&version=31

Matthew 6
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206;&version=31

Matthew 7
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%207;&version=31

One thing before we start, let us look at the context of this BIG SERMON.

Matt 5:1 Now when he saw the crowds, he went up to a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to Him, and he began to teach them, saying...

If we just look a few verses up, we read

Matt 4:23
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.

Jesus is getting famous! Miracles are being done - the crowds are following Him - but what does Jesus do?

WHEN JESUS SAW THE CROWDS... (Matt 5:1), Jesus started teaching his disciples.

It is easy for us to desire a BIG BLAST in church, a MEGA CONCERT that would draw BIG NUMBERS! and many a times, we think that Jesus would do the same. If you would like to look at another part of the Bible about what Jesus thinks about mere crowds - John 2:24. Jesus knows what crowds are - are they not also the CROWD that hung Jesus on the cross? In the midst of all the hype, all the rah rah... Jesus sets out the important things (it is as though Matthew does not want the reader (us) to misunderstand what is important - in the midst of fame, Jesus puts the first thing first)

If Jesus gave any instruction to the disciples, the sermon on the mount was definitely the longest.
If Jesus gave a model for lifestyle, the sermon on the mount is the lifestyle.
If Paul or Peter or John wrote anything on a worshipful lifestyle, is it not derived from the sermon on the mount (or a summary of it)?
If we learn anything about the Lord's prayer, isn't it Jesus' own words from his sermon?

SECTION 1 - The Blessed Man, Read Matthew 5:1-16

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;
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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 say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven...

Firstly, this blessed man is probably not talking about different persons but one same person. We see the same description for the blessed man in verse 3, we see the same thing for verse 10 - theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And is there a righteous man who thirst for righteousness (v6) but one that is proud(v5)? Or can there be a blessed man who is merciful (v7) but one who is a peace-hater(v9)? Jesus might be also quoting the Old Testament, one example is Matt 5:5, where Jesus quotes the psalm

Psalm 37:12
But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace.

Psalm 37:29
the righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever.

The meek will inherit the land, the righteous will inherit the land. Such a blessed man's character and attitude is definitely one that is distinct from the world. Therefore Jesus moves on the salt and light. Is not salt distinct from anything that has no flavour? Is not light distinct from darkness? When salt loses its flavour, it is no longer distinct. The world is a dark and wicked place, one righteous man will shine distinctly and will be killed simply because he is righteous (v11-12) But what does Jesus exhort? Be righteous (and distinct) ANYWAY! We are called to be Christians, and we are called to holiness, shall we shrink back? Shall we be like the lamp hidden under the basket?

Jesus takes one more step to say that we not only should be unhidden, but we are meant to "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven". Did not Jesus (God) die as a righteous Man who did God's will? But we are reminded - They persecute the righteous, like the prophets of God who were persecuted - and Jesus the one who was most persecuted unjustly! but great is their reward in heaven!

BRIDGE TO SECTION 2
As Jesus talks more about the righteous man and righteousness - Jesus points us back to the Old Testament. Jesus introduces no new morality except the one that was God given back in the Old Testament. In section 2, we will see how the Pharisees (and many of us) treat God's standard of righteousness.

SECTION 2 - Minimizing Our Sins, Maximizing Our Righteousness - NOT THE RIGHTEOUS MAN

Minimizing Our Sins - God is not Fooled (Part 1) Read Matthew 5:17-48

From Matt 5:17 - 20, Jesus reinforces the law. Not the tiniest bit of the law is meant to be broken. A great thing to do is to obey and teach others God's Law, and bad thing to do is break the commands and teach others the same. Then Jesus moves to the Pharisees. There are some important things we should know about Pharisees:

We read the Bible so much (hopefully we do) that we are very accustomed to the idea that Pharisees are the worst guys around - That is true to a very large extent. But in those times, we also have to know that the Pharisees are considered the most righteous people around - if anyone obeyed God's Law, the Pharisees obeyed it. They made SURE they obeyed it. Jesus says in

Matthew 23:23

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

Imagine going home today, and give God 10% of your groceries. Cut a tenth of your carrot, bring to church on sunday and put in the offering box. That is what Pharisees do - not to mention that sometimes we don't even tithe! The truth is that, if anybody was righteous, the Pharisees were considered the most righteous around by the society! If we are not MORE RIGHTEOUS than Pharisees, we are doomed - we have no Kingdom of Heaven waiting for us (which is what verse 20 plainly says) - let us see what is this righteousness that Jesus describes.

From verse 21-48 ( it would be good if you can read it first)...

Here, Jesus talks about one thing we do most commonly in life... is that we try to make a check list of "righteous things to do", and when we successfully accomplish one, we tick the box saying "Yes, I have done a deed of righteousness!". We make the checkbox (requirement) for righteousness small enough so we can easily tick it - and this thing we do for almost everything in our life. Lets try some familiar ones -

Even if I don't go to CG, AT LEAST I TRY to go church on sundays.
If I don't meet up with other Christians (which the Bible commands), at least I try to read my Bible at home.
If I don't go to church on sundays, at least I pop in Hillsongs and worship God at home.
Although as a student/worker/whatever I am not faithful to God, but at least I don't steal and kill.
I'm not lusting for another woman, I'm just appreciating God's creation.
I'm not lying, I just don't want to hurt my reputation as a leader.

And much of such things we say in our heart - to make us more righteous in our sight. There is some very flawed theology about that habit - flawed is an understatement. Let us look at the Jesus definition of adultery.

Jesus says... "But I tell you anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already commited adultery with her in his heart"!

Instead of making the check box smaller, Jesus makes the checkbox the size it really is. Is Jesus making the checkbox too big? No, Jesus is just making the checkbox the size it should be - any smaller than that and we are like the Pharisees (and we usually are), makign the checkbox small enough to fit our whims and fancies, deceiving ourselves that we are righteous when we are acting wickedly.

What does Jesus say?
If your right eye causes you to sin, PLUCK IT OFF! It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

When I first heard this sermon preached (this is a summary of his sermon), the pastor speaking to a group of University students said this was addressing the issue that we face with Internet Pornography - the convenience of it and how we can easily delete our browsing history after that. Many of us struggle with the sin yet we are not willing to let it go.

" C'mon guys, you know this. If you need to, you can just throw your computer out of the window - you can always use the university computer labs to do your assignment. How much is your computer? 2000 dollars? 3000 thousand? What is a more important? 3000 dollars or righteousness before God?"

If we think that pastor was going overboard, Jesus has got to be crazy since we should not only be throwing our computers out of the window but plucking our eyes out! - and we know Jesus is talking in perfect sense. The question rings true - What is more important, our eye or righteousness before God? That is a question we would do well answering it.

There are quite a few areas that Jesus did talk about in verse 21-48, and for the lack of time, we will only look at verse 33-37 and briefly run through the others.

Speaking about oaths, these few verses are something we can identify with. In our world today, mobile phones are so convenient aren't they? We can tell our friends that we will meet them at 10 a.m., but if we come late, we can just call them by 9:45a.m. and tell them we will be 30 minutes late.

This is our culture. In court, witnesses have to swear by their Scriptures and tell the truth. The question is this -

Why can't we just tell the truth always? If we always tell the truth ( our 'Yes' being 'Yes' and 'No' being 'No" ), we won't have to say things like - I swear to God this time I am telling the truth! What do we mean? If we don't swear by God then we are entitled to tell a lie?

We are deep in a culture of unfaithfulness - where truth telling is not the best thing to do! Enough about the world - what about us as Christians? Are we like that? Some of us may not openly lie, but are our answers misleading to others? Do we practice unfaithfulness in our speech to others? Are we the people who tells God " God, I will do this and that", but when the time for action comes... we tell God "Maybe the next time". Jesus idea of righteousness definitely isn't the one that we are familiar with.

Reading through verse 21-48, we see the same pattern - different ways we humans try to minimize God's righteousness so we can pass the test. We say we don't commit murder, but do we secretly harbor hatred against our brother? An eye for an eye? Do we try to get equal with others in the name of justice - what about Jesus who turns the other cheek?

What does Jesus say about these things we do?

BRIDGE TO Section 2 (Part 2) Read Matthew 6:1-18

Now that Jesus exposes the wicked things we do and corrects our views, there is also another part of hypocrisy in trying to maximize our righteousness in the sight of others. Previously it was minimizing our sins so that we will appear NOT SINFUL, now we will see with what sort of righteousness is God pleased with.

SECTION 2 (Part 2) - Maximizing Our Righteousness - God is not pleased

As we read, Jesus says - don't do your good deeds FOR others to see. Don't blow your own trumpet...Don't let your left hand know what your right hand does.

The question to us is this:
When was the last time you did a good deed, and you start wondering...

"I wonder if anybody saw me doing this good deed - it would be such a waste if this good deed goes unnoticed! Nobody would have known I am such and such a good guy!"

It wasn't too long ago was it? Or when was it the last conversation when everybody is chatting happily... and you JUST HAD TO SOMEHOW mention that you donated a few hundred dollars for the.... earthquake fund in China.... or you SOMEHOW mentioned that you were visiting the orphanage last week...

The list goes on. And it is wickedly amazing the many ways we try to make ourselves look good in the eyes of others. How we choose to pray lengthy and eloquent prayers when we are called to pray in front of many people - when we neglect prayer behind closed doors.

Read through 6:5 - 13 again.

Sure, when we pray well in front of all, all men think highly of us. But who is the truly righteous man who is righteous in God's eyes? It is the one who knows that "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man" and goes behind closed doors and directs his prayer to God and not to man. Likewise with fasting as we see the same pattern from Matthew 6:16-18.

A True Perspective on Righteousness - Read Matthew 6:19 - 7:27

The wicked man is consumed with the here and now and he stores up treasures on earth - he lives in his delusions, not knowing that treasures on earth will be destroyed. Just a few paragraphs ago, we see how the wicked man makes himself feel righteous, then we see how he tries to make other people think that he is righteous - altogether forsaking the true righteousness that comes from God!

Even as Christians, we know that do such wicked things and continue in them at times.

We think we can serve our fleshly desires and we can serve God.
We think we can serve materialism and we can serve God.
We think we can worship the mirror and we can worship God.

What does Jesus say?
No one can serve to masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and Money.

If we think we came up with a genius idea that we can somehow serve God and Money - the truth is that you are not serving God and you are serving money. The Bible cancels the possibility of serving 2 masters. Some of us might say -

After I finish my studies, I will serve God.
After I finish my work, I will serve God.
After I get married, I will serve God.

That is a truckload of self-deception. What makes you think that you will serve God after you serve your studies when you don't even serve God now? Honestly speaking, how many of us are using the statement "being a faithful Christian student" but are inwardly having selfish ambitions desiring to prestigious careers more than we want to serve God? Is it possible to sincerely say I am not serving God now, but I will serve God later - with integrity?

In fact, by using the phrase "more than we want to serve God" implies as though God comes first, then something else is second. But what does Jesus say? Seek first the Kingdom of God - seek second your career? No! Seek first the Kingdom of God. Full stop. Seek second? The Kingdom of God. Seek third? The Kingdom of God!

Let us take a look at 6:31-33. Many of us seem to find comfort in here when Jesus says God will provide. "Why worry about what you will eat or drink or wear?" Perhaps it was comforting to the people back then, but I doubt that it would be equally comforting for us.

The fact is this. Because of our wickedness - and the wickedness of this generation - what we ought to find comfort in is really a BIG INSULT to us today. Why? Let us read again 6:25-32. These early disciples that desire to follow Jesus are worried about their very own lives, their food, - the things we call BASIC NECESSITIES. Yes, the people were afraid following Jesus meant that they would lose such security - the security of basic necessities, but Jesus comforts them and says " Don't worry, God will take care of that"

What are we in our world today? What are we worried about? Some of us fear, if we truly become a Christian and therefore OBLIGED to be generous:

We will drive a smaller car!
We will live in a smaller house!
We will not be as dignified as we want to be!

WHAT?!

These early followers fear for lack of food on the table - so much so that Jesus uses the illustration of the worth of sparrows and comfort them. What are we in this generation? We fear that we live in a smaller house? The people back then feared that they had no FOOD. We fear we will be wearing non-branded clothes? The people back then feared they would have no clothes!

Honestly, so what if we don't wear Levis? So what if we don't wear some Nike or Adidas shirt? So what if we don't drive a big car? Look at Jesus! He doesn't even have a donkey! He had to borrow a donkey to enter Jerusalem as King! It is a worrisome thing about the prosperity gospel that we hear in the world these days - that if we love God enough He will give us worldly riches! Heresy! We wildly claim promises. In our greed, we want to claim Abraham's promise of having many lands. In our greed, we claim promises that God gave David, or Solomon. In our greed, we claim promises like "I will be the head and not the tail" - Truly, In Jesus Christ where God's promises are yes and Amen, we are already the head and not the tail in Jesus! But we interpret being the head and not the tail to mean getting Number 1 in class, being the upper class of society, being more beautiful looking than others. It is high time we repent of using Scripture for our greed!

If you want God's promises, these are some of the promises that Jesus gave: In James, God will give wisdom to those who are not double minded over the issue. In the Gospels, Jesus promises to be with us by His Spirit, and Jesus promises His friends (hopefully we fit in this category) trials persecutions in this world, and that Jesus has made room for us in heaven. Of course, Jesus promises that He will come again!

Not to be dragged to far fromt the central topic: After Jesus corrects our view that God is generous 7:7-12, Jesus continues in 7:13 that the way that leads to life is a narrow one. It is hard, it is narrow, it isn't the highway (the popular way that majority people go through), it isn't the easyway - and few find it.

A tree is recognized by its fruit. A Christian is known by the fruits he produce. Are the fruits of the Spirit evident in our lives? Or do we deceive ourselves into believing that a Christian is known by church attendance and church activities? or similarly worse - a Christian is known by the fact that they are people who are not as wicked as the person next to them...

The warning is grave. Jesus gave the warning.

Matthew 7:21-23

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

In the last day, who do we fool when we don't worship God in all that we do? Who is the man that is frantically recounting his "good deeds" before Jesus to only hear Jesus' rejection? If performing miracles cannot pass the test, what more empty Christian songs that does not reflect our lives?

Does Jesus owe us salvation because we publicized Him? So what if we yell out to Gods that we love Him and we desire to give Him our hearts in concerts and on Sundays? God owes us nothing, God doesn't need our publicity - Jesus knows what publicity does, and what publicity doesn't do. Jesus has an idea of righteousness that is true according to God.

Our ideas of minimizing our own sin and maximizing our righteousness, our folly of serving things of this world is not a new idea - Jesus has critisized it 2000 years ago.

CONCLUSION

So, what to make out of the Sermon on the Mount?

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

Let us pray.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one
For yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Amen