Welcome To The Kingdom Of Heaven

Scripture: Matthew 4:23-5:11

Theme: This Is Who We Are

Title: Welcome to the Kingdom of Heaven

INTRO:

Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Have you ever thought what you would have written down for others to read had:

+You been a follower of Jesus for the 3 ½ years of His earthly ministry.

+Had you seen the need for the Early Church to have a detailed written report about Jesus, His Ministry and Mission.

In other words, have you ever thought if you had been Matthew, Mark, Luke or John and felt the leading of the Holy Spirit to write one of the Gospels?

Where would you have started –

+Would you have started like Matthew with a genealogy setting the stage to enjoy and share not only Jesus’ divinity but also His humanity?

+Or been more like Mark who just seemed to rush into telling the Greatest Story ever told?

+Would you have been like Luke who told his readers that he had spent a great deal of time investigating the story with the intention that the reader would either be led to defend those who believed in Jesus or come to faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord of all?

+Or would you have joined John in telling the Story of Jesus within the larger context of God and Creation?

Each one of the Gospels shares the same story but from different vantage points.

Our story this morning comes from the heart, mind and soul of St. Matthew. It comes from a man who knew what it meant to work in government. It comes from a man who was well acquainted with the importance of keeping accurate records. A man who was a mathematician at heart. A man who saw things logically and concretely.

By the time we get to the end of chapter four and are getting ready to read chapter five which starts with the Sermon on the Mount a great deal of time has already taken place in Jesus’ ministry.

+He had already been preaching all over Galilee. He had been the guest speaker in numerous synagogues. He was already known as a healer and a deliverer. Great crowds of people were already gathering to hear Jesus’ words and for Him to transform their lives.

All of this set up for Matthew the opportunity to put together a compendium of Jesus’ basic teachings.

The Sermon on the Mount is more than a sermon – it is the Magna Charter of what it means to follow Jesus. It could be called the “Manifesto of the Messiah” or even “What Life looks like under King Jesus.”

The whole Sermon on the Mount can be read in under twenty minutes.

However, it takes a great deal more time to absorb all of Jesus’ words. There is more than enough material in these 111 verses for us to spend a lifetime understanding, assimilating, and putting them into practice.

This morning even taking the passage that we have read – Matthew 5:1-11 would require us to spend several sermons or class sessions to fully comprehend. Each little word and phrase can open us up for us a whole new way of looking at life.

This morning, I would like for us to look at those 11 verses in perhaps a new light.

For what Matthew shares with us is not:

1. A New Set of Laws or Rules – Jesus is not replacing the Law of Moses or the Prophets with a New Law of Jesus. In fact, as you know Jesus more than once told us that His mission was to fulfill the Law and the Prophets not to abolish or replace them.

I believe what Matthew wants us to see and absorb is what it concretely means to be a follower of Jesus.

In other words, what it means to actively live out a life as a follower of Jesus in the here and now.

These first 11 verses reveal to us the people that Jesus is

+ Inviting to be a part of the Kingdom of Heaven and Earth in the here and now.

+Who we (as His followers) are to be inviting and welcoming into the King of Heaven in the here and now.

If there is one thing that we know about the ancient Israelites is that they loved to think in concrete terms. It doesn’t mean that they couldn’t think in other ways like the Greeks and the Egyptians, but the ancient Jews were an earthy people, they were mostly interested in what could be experienced in real life.

Their DNA was forged in the dirt so to speak. They were an agricultural people. They knew what it meant to farm, to raise animals and to live off the land. They knew what it meant to survive off their wits. While they could theorize and pontificate with the finest of the Egyptians and the Greek, they were at their best when they were living in the present.