Living In The Kingdom Part 2
Scripture: Matthew 5:3-12; Galatians 5:23; Numbers 12:1-2
This is part two of my current series “Living in the Kingdom”, which comes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This week we will continue with the beatitudes looking at verses five and six of Matthew chapter five.
In Matthew 5:5, Jesus said, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Some people hear the word meek and they immediately think of someone who is weak. This is far from the meaning of this word. Meekness is the opposite of being out of control. It is not a weakness, but supreme self-control empowered by the Spirit of God dwelling within us. Meekness is patience in the presence of being wronged. It is neither meanness, nor a surrender of our rights, nor cowardice; but it is the opposite of sudden anger, of malice, of long-harbored vengeance. Meekness is receiving the wrongs done to us with a belief that God will vindicate us. Romans 12:19 says, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.’” If you are constantly losing control or seeking vengeance against those who have wronged you, then not only are you not meek, you are not allowing the Holy Spirit to operate through you in those circumstances. Paul wrote to the Galatians, “Meekness, self-control: against such there is no law.” (Galatians 5:23) The word translated as meek (or gentle) in this verse carries the meaning of someone with a good blend of spiritual poise and strength; it is the gentleness of strength. This verse is talking about having a sense of humility as you walk in your spiritual strength. It is referring primarily to our attitude towards God which, in turn, is reflected in how we treat people. A good example of someone demonstrating this trait was Moses. Moses walked and talked with God just as we walk and talk with one another but he never thought of himself as anyone special based on his relationship with God. With everything Moses experienced while in the presence of God he never lorded his authority over the people. He was always meek even as he angrily addressed the Children of Israel’s rebellion. This was proven when Moses’ brother and sister rose up against him because he chose to marry an Ethiopian woman who was not an Israelite. This story was recorded in Numbers the twelfth chapter. Turn there as I want you to witness the gentleness of Moses.
Let’s begin reading at verse one. “And Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married: for he had married an Ethiopian woman. 2And they said, ‘Has the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? Has He not spoken also by us? And the LORD heard it.” (Numbers 12:1-2) Since Miriam’s name appears first, it seems she was the leader of this rebellion and Aaron followed her lead. We need to be careful how we complain about one another. When you consider what Miriam says in her complaint, jealousy was the real reason they had a problem with the woman Moses chose to marry. Maybe they didn’t like the fact that she was Ethiopian and not an Israelite, but the complaint itself is saturated in jealousy. This is proven when they said, “Has the LORD indeed spoken only by Moses? Has He not spoken also by us?” These words signify the jealousy that was in their hearts and they used this opportunity to level charges against Moses. Not wanting to expose themselves as being jealous of their younger brother and possibly his success, they hid behind this complaint of whom he chose to marry. They felt that they were just as important as Moses was as it related to the leadership of the people - but that was not how God felt. God heard their complaints. Now look at verse three.
“Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.” (Vs. 3) In God’s eyes, there not a man on earth more humble than Moses. Even though Miriam and Aaron came against him, Moses did not answer their charges or lash out against them. He did not defend his action nor did he try to fight with them over the leadership of the people. (Isn’t it interesting that when Jesus faced all of the accusations from the religious leaders He also did not respond them?) From all accounts, he said nothing. This verse records that Moses was very humble, the most humble man on the earth. Now we do not have time to read all of what happen, but when you have time, go back and read it. Because Moses was who he was; God defended him. God called a meeting and invited Miriam and Aaron to attend with Moses. How would you like to be called into a private meeting with God so that He can set you straight about something or someone you’ve been complaining about? This is what happened with Miriam and Aaron. You can read the story to find out the rest of it. And what happened to Miriam as a result was not pretty. She got leprosy. And guess who went to God to plead for her deliverance? Moses.
My point with this is that Moses was a very humble man who walked in the strength of God’s anointing. He stood before kings in battle and won; yet he remained humble. At his hands God performed many miracles; yet Moses remained humble. Through the leading of God he accomplished the impossible, delivering the Children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; and still he remained humble. Moses understood that everything he did was through the grace and power of God and through that understanding he could be humble regardless of what he accomplished for God. If some of us had done a fraction of what Moses had done we would have our own talk show; book signings; podcasts; social media presence with a huge following – we would be an “influencer”; and be on tour as a motivational speaker about how God can use anyone (of course we would be getting paid!) We would be following all of the news articles and broadcasts as they replayed our accomplishments. We would even start to believe the press clippings about ourselves. But this was not who Moses was and because the world praises this mentality of recognition, we struggle to be meek.
Jesus said the following in Matthew 11:27-30: “All things are delivered unto Me of My Father: and no man knows the Son, but the Father; neither knows any man the Father, except the Son, and he to whomever the Son will reveal Him. 28Come unto Me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. 30For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.” In these verses the word “knows” means more than just a cursory knowledge of someone. It implies an intimate relationship. The communion between God the Father and Jesus His Son is the core of their relationship and for anyone else to know God in such a manner God must reveal Himself to that individual. So we are blessed that He has done so through His Son Jesus who has revealed God to us. Jesus says that He is meek and lowly in heart (humble) and we should come to Him and take His yoke upon us. We can find our way to becoming gentle and humble when we trade off the yokes of the world that we’re currently carrying and take on Christ’s yoke. We can take off the stress of living; the trials of living righteously; the worries of the job; and everything else that takes our focus off of Christ. When we bring all of those things to Christ and trade them in for His yoke, we find the peace that we so desperately seek and upon receiving the peace that we can only get from Him, it changes how we see ourselves in relation to Him and others. Through Him we can become meek because we finally come to the realization that we are nothing without Him.
Jesus said “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” This might have been translated the land. During this time the Jews often referred to great blessings as “inheriting the land.” It was promised to them that they should inherit the land of Canaan. For a long time the patriarchs looked forward to this and they regarded it as a great blessing. It was spoken of for forty years in their journey in the wilderness; and their hopes were crowned when they took possession of the Promised Land. In the time of Jesus, the Jews habitually used the Old Testament, where this promise perpetually occurs, as a proverbial expression to denote any great blessing, possibly as the sum of all blessings. Our Lord and Savior used it in this sense. He was not saying that the meek should own great property or have many lands, but that they should possess unusual blessings. The Jews also considered the land of Canaan as a type of heaven, and of the blessings under the Messiah. To inherit the land became, therefore, an expression denoting those blessings. When Jesus promises it here, He is saying that the meek shall be received into His kingdom, and partake of its blessings here on earth, and of the glories of the heavenly Canaan hereafter.
Living in God’s kingdom means that we must develop this character trait. If we fail to develop meekness, we will hinder the Spirit of God from fully operating within our lives because of our pride and conceit. When we begin to see the manifestation of the Spirit of God in our lives we will get confused and begin thinking that what we are accomplishing is about us – that we are something special. If you do not believe me just turn on your television and watch the news. There are many celebrities who have achieved some status and it changed them. They began to believe the press releases. They began to believe it is about them. How many of you know when we start thinking we are the source the real source lets us be and then we see what failing is all about spiritually? There are many Christian leaders who have been established by God and have fallen because of their success as they began to believe it was about them. Whenever we begin to think that what we are doing for God is about us we start going down a slow ride of separation from Him. By remaining humble through every experience we are able to give God the credit for what He is doing through us as you choose to ignore the praise of people. Let’s look at verse six.
Matthew 5:6 says, “Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” In this verse, hunger and thirst are expressive of a very strong desire. There is nothing that would better express the strong desire which we all should feel towards obtaining righteousness, than hunger and thirst. Every one of us knows what it feels like to be hungry and thirsty and to have both needs satisfied. Every day hunger and thirst occurs; and when they have gone on for a long period of time, as in case of someone shipwrecked or stranded, nothing is more distressing. In Scripture, a fervent desire for anything is often represented by hunger and thirst. David wrote in Psalm 63:1, “O God, you are my God; early will I seek You: my soul thirsts for You, my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is.”
Jesus turns one of the most essential human instincts to spiritual use. The word “righteousness” in this verse according to the Greek means “whatever is right or just in itself that conforms to the revealed will of God; whatever has been appointed by God to be acknowledged and obeyed by man.” There is happiness when we seek to understand God’s will and then begin to thirst and hunger for its completion in our lives. Everyone, at some point in their life, became hungry and thirsty; for food; water; love; and God. This phrase that Jesus used is interpreted as a passionate hunger and thirst for goodness; for holiness. This is not your average desire to see some good in the world; it is the desire you would have for food if you had not eaten for days. It is the way you search for something to drink when you have been out in the hot sun working in the yard. There is a difference when you’re thirsty while in the house under the air conditioner versus when you’ve been working in the yard without anything to drink. This hunger and thirst that Jesus is referencing is about intensity – you’ve got to have it; you’re longing for it; you desperately need it.
Jesus said that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled. Imagine going to your favorite restaurant or having your favorite meal at your home. This meal had been planned for several days and you have been so looking forward to it. As the meal is being prepared, you imagine sitting down at the table and having that first bite. You imagine that there will be plenty and you will have more than enough to get filled. And you eat until there is no more room for food. This is the anticipation that Jesus is talking about as it relates to our hunger and thirst for righteousness. Hungering and thirsting after righteousness again conflicts with the world. The world will have us pursuing our personal needs and ensuring they are fulfilled even though many of our “person needs” have nothing at all to do with righteousness. As a matter of documented fact, many of our personal needs lead us into sin because we continue to be in a spiritual battle with our flesh. Our fleshly desires want what it wants when it wants it. When we thirst and hunger after righteousness it requires us to drastically shift our desires. Just imagine, if you will, of being a meat and potatoes person all your life and this is the food you crave. Your doctor tells you that you must give it up for your health and eat vegetables only. Your comfort foods; the foods that make you feel good; the foods that takes you back to the days of old are being taken away so that you might live longer. The initial transition is extremely difficult, but over time you adjust and you begin to identify new foods that you can enjoy as much as what you gave up. Eventually you begin to look forward to the new foods as much as you did your old unhealthy foods. This is the transition that will take place when we make the mental decision to begin thirsting and hungering after righteousness.
Paul, in his thirst and hunger after righteousness wrote the following in Philippians 3:7-11: “But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but rubbish, that I may win Christ. 9And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. 10That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death. 11If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”
Paul was very established in the Jewish community. He had natural pride in his Jewish attainments and was the star of hope for Gamaliel and the Sanhedrin. He was the rising star at the time but after encountering Christ, he walked away from it all. You see, when he began to hunger and thirst for true righteousness, everything he had learned and attained to became rubbish (some use the phrase dung or trash.) Paul was never satisfied with his knowledge of Christ and always craved to have more fellowship with Him. Think about being in a new relationship with someone. You crave to spend time with them and to learn everything you can about them. This learning continues for years as both you and the person continues to evolve. Because of your love for the person, you continue to crave time with them even though you may have been married for many years.
In verse ten Paul speaks of knowing Christ and the power of His resurrection. There again is the word “know.” He is speaking of an intimate relationship and knowledge of Christ and the resurrection. This again carries a much deeper understanding of the person. When he speaks of the power of the resurrection he was speaking of the assurance believers have in immortality and our triumph over sin. When he talks of the fellowship of Christ suffering, Paul considered it a prize to even be able to share in Christ’s suffering. This was a major shift in his thinking because before as he worked for the Sanhedrin he was one of the causes of suffering for those who followed Christ. When Paul wrote this, he was a changed man. He now had a hunger and a thirst for true righteousness which could only be found in Christ and that could not be quenched by what he had already accomplished in his life.
When Jesus chose His disciples He chose them because He knew that they had a willingness to follow Him. They believed and would walk with Him even though they did not understand everything that was happening around them. They did not meet man’s expectations of men who would change the world, but they met Christ’s. Every one of us can have an impact on this world if we are willing – regardless of our current age. Our impact may not be the same as someone else’s but it will leave a lasting mark. Even though some of us may be thinking that we cannot do certain things because we do not know what others may know, I am telling you that we have the same opportunity to learn and experience the fullness of the Spirit of God. Jesus has made the Holy Spirit available to all of us; not just certain individuals. If we are willing, then He is willing. I want to close with something Jesus said in John 16:5-11 about the Holy Spirit. This is something we need to remember as it applies directly to you; me; and everyone else that claim to be a Christian.
John 16:5-11 records the following: “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.”
I want us to understand something very clearly. The Holy Spirit convicts us and as we choose to listen, we can come to know Jesus Christ. I have talked to people who consider themselves intellectuals and do not accept the Bible as written. They also struggle with the concept of Christ because intellectually He does not make sense to them. In their mind if Christ was truly who He claimed to be then all denominations that claimed to serve Christ would believe the same things and practice their faith the same way. Because this is not the case, intellectually they cannot accept it. For these intellectuals the Bible has way too many holes that cannot be filled. Faith for them has nothing to do with it because if you rely on faith for everything you cannot explain it and then that represents a cop out to reality. While I think I understand their reality and the foundation for their conclusion, I fundamentally believe that they are wrong. I choose to believe, by faith, what the Bible says. In verse eleven Jesus says that the “ruler of this world has been judged.” Jesus was talking about Satan. The Greek tense of this phrase show that Satan stands condemned. Although the sinful world was in his grip, he would be cast out. When Jesus rose from the dead He proclaimed that all power had been given to Him in heaven and in the earth. Satan was stripped of His power.
In order for us to begin hungering and thirsting after righteousness, we must believe that Christ rules and Satan has been stripped of his power. We must believe that even though we live in this world, as disciples of Christ we are not bound by the values of this world. We must believe, despite all of the craziness going on around us that righteousness will prevail within those who will seek it. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.” If we truly hunger and thirst for righteousness then it is a guarantee that we will be filled. I will continue next week.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(We are once again conducting live services on Sunday morning beginning at 9:15 a.m. We will continue to broadcast live on Facebook Live at 10:00 a.m.. Please tune in to "New Light Christian Fellowship Church" and like our page if you wish to watch our broadcast and be notified when we go live. If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. We also have Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. via Zoom that you are also welcome to attend – please email me for the link. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. If you would like to donate to our ministry you may do so through our website: newlightchristianfellowship.org by clicking on the PayPal or Cash App buttons. May God bless and keep you.)
