Scripture: Matthew 5:1-2; 7:21-23
Illustration: Tax Form
It is that time of year – time to begin preparing our taxes.
Optional: There was a man who computed his taxes for 1997 and found that he owed $3400. He packaged up his payment and included this letter: Dear IRS: Enclosed is my 1997 Tax Return & payment. Please take note of the attached article from the USA Today newspaper. In the article, you will see that the Pentagon paid $171 for a hammer and NASA has paid $600.00 for a toilet seat. Please find enclosed four toilet seats (value $2400) and six hammers (value $1026). This brings my total payment to $3426.00. Please note the overpayment of $26.00 and apply it to the 'Presidential Election Fund.'
At the time Christ had been born, Israel had been under Roman control for 60 years. One of the worst things about Roman control was taxes. (How many of us like taxes? Israel didn’t like it either.)
The Romans had their own IRS – System: The Roman government would set up a fixed rate to be collected from the people under their control. There were Roman senators or leaders who would pay the roman government to let them collect taxes in a given region.
These senators were only responsible to pay the Roman government the fixed tax rate, but they were allowed to collect whatever they wanted from the people for their own profit.
These senators hired people in towns to collect the taxes called tax collectors. These tax collectors were only responsible to pay the senators what they wanted, but they also were allowed to collect whatever amount they wanted from the people for profit.
Are you getting the picture? Romans charged a tax, the senators collected more than that for profit, and now the tax collectors charged even more to make profit. These tax collectors could charge whatever they wanted and get away with it because they knew they were backed by the roman authority, by the roman military, by the Roman IRS.
To make matters worse, these hired tax collectors were citizens among their own people. So guess what people thought of these tax collectors. They were hated by their own people. They were thought of as traitors and were ranked with the lowest of society – sinners, prostitutes, gentiles or people who were not Jews. Oh, how the Jews longed to be free from this kind of control. How they longed to be free from the Roman rule. How they longed for a leader to rescue them from the Romans.
For the Jews, the Old Testament that they memorized and read every Sabbath, promised the coming of a great leader, a great King, a Messiah who would rule with righteousness, wisdom, power, and authority to reign over Israel and the entire earth. It spoke of a leader who would free them from bondage.
New Testament - The Book of Matthew
So we come to the New Testament, the fifth chapter of the first book of the New Testament – the book called Matthew - an account of the life of Jesus written interestingly enough by Matthew who was a tax collector. He was an outcast in his society yet Jesus chose him to be one of his 12 disciples. How Matthew must have felt that Jesus chose him.
Matthew 5
So here we are in Matthew 5, a Scripture that is referred to as the “The Sermon on the Mount.” This is a message from Jesus that has influenced people concerning morals and ethics from all backgrounds and traditions for 2000 years.
In the last century, Gandhi was incredibly influenced by this Sermon as he established India’s freedom through a nonviolent revolution. Martin Luther King Jr., legendary civil rights leader, strove to make the teachings of this address the basis of his political program and his commitment to nonviolence.
Matthew 5:1 – One day Jesus saw the crowds gathering…
Now understand that Jesus has already started his ministry. Matthew 4 tells us that He has been teaching and preaching, healing people who had every kind of sickness and disease. News about Him was spreading. Large crowds were gathering to check him out – the sick, hungry, financially poor, the politically oppressed, the uneducated. Jesus attracted them, and they were starting to wonder if Jesus was the one they were searching for. Is Jesus the one the Scriptures and the prophets of the Old Testament had talked about? Was Jesus the leader, the Messiah, a King that would free them from bondage and deliver them from Rome?
Is Jesus the leader who can get me out of my circumstance so that I can be happy? He sure seems to have some leadership skills. He doesn’t speak like the other rabbis. He speaks and even demons obey. He speaks and people are healed. So many are calling out the name of Jesus, and jumping on the bandwagon. Some even want to declare Jesus king and leader.
Matthew 5:1 – Jesus went up on mountainside and gathered His disciples… Picture: PowerPoint (Mountainside – really a large hill along the Sea of Galilee. It was a hillside that was not being farmed because of the terrain, and a great place for a large crowd to gather. It was a place where the people could see and hear Jesus.)
Jesus pulls his disciples, the ones who are committed to Him, together yet the crowd is still there.
Matthew 5:1 – Jesus sits down to teach them Sitting down is the typical position from which a teacher in Jewish culture taught. When a teacher, rabbi sat down, this meant that what was about to be said was official, authoritative. If the rabbi spoke while standing or walking, what he said was considered to be informal and unofficial. This is different than our culture where the teacher often sits for casual conversation and stands when teaching.
So Jesus sits down, the crowd probably quiets down, and prepares to listen.
Can you imagine? What was Jesus going to say? This is a very important time. Like a state of the union address by the President. This is the address of the person who many were starting to believe would be a military and political leader that would free them from Roman control and establish a Jewish kingdom that would lead the world.
Matthew is about to record this great public address of Jesus, and what we are about to find is that for many Jews, the reality Jesus speaks of in His Kingdom didn’t match what they believed to be reality. It didn’t match the way they thought they could find true happiness. Sure Jesus talked about being blessed, but His Kingdom wasn’t about warm, fuzzy, happy feelings. He even talked about how to treat your enemies, but it wasn’t about getting even or defeating them. Jesus talked about loving your enemies. Sure Jesus talked about being free from your circumstances and worries, but it wasn’t about taking matters into your own hands or pursuing happiness. It was about pursuing God and trusting Him.
Jesus spoke about a way of living that countered what the Jews believed to be reality. The same is true today. The message that Jesus gives doesn’t fit what many people believe to be reality. It doesn’t fit the way many believe you can find true happiness. For many, life’s reality is something like this:
Video: The Apprentice
During its first season, “The Apprentice” was the #1 new show of the television season among adults 18-49. “The Apprentice” was the top-rated new series on any network in five years in adults 18-49.
This year "The Apprentice" is recorded in Southern California where two teams of people are trying to outthink and outshine each other so that they can avoid getting fired and one of them can win the dream job of a lifetime to work for Donald Trump and a nice six figure salary.
Each week contestants can also earn the right to live like Donald Trump in a luxurious mansion or if their team loses they have to sleep outdoors in the backyard with tents, showers, and port-a-potties. An experiment of haves and have nots Is how it is described.
*Refer to metaphor.
This is the reality in a very real sense that many people feel like we live in. A world of the haves and have nots where it is all about trying to outthink and outshine other people, trying to do everything to get ahead, trying to make the money, hoping to find the dream job, afraid of hearing those dreaded words, “You’re fired.” - A world where people are trying to get the nice house and car, and wanting to just be happy.
A world where many people are struggling to get by. Plenty of people who feel like failures, wondering how they are going to make it, how are they going to pay their bills, hurting, wanting to give up, longing for something more, thinking that if they could just be free from their bondage, their circumstance, if they could just be rich and successful they could be happy.
Some of these people even believe that if we would just get a new leader/President things would be better. If we could just have a better economy. If we could just have Republican values. If we could just have the democrats running things.
The reality is that many of the Jews were having the same kinds of feelings. So here we are starting in Matthew 5 – 7. Jesus is about to address the Jews, but He also wants to address us today. He wants to address you concerning the state of His Kingdom, the reality of what it really means to follow Christ.
He wants to give you a new standard, a new hope, a new way of living that can transform your life.
Just to show you how important it is for you to hear and apply what Jesus is about to say, we want to begin with the end in mine this week.
Matthew 7:21– Jesus has come to the end of his address. He is making His closing remarks concerning His Kingdom and He says…
Matthew 7:21 – “Not everyone who calls out to me “Lord, Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
If you are going to follow me, it is more than empty words and an empty heart. (Being a Christ follower is more than empty words and an empty heart.) It is more than lip service.
It is more that being a part of the crowd or saying the right things. There were plenty of people following Jesus. Plenty of people seeking Him. Plenty of people listening to what He had to say. There were plenty of people who would verbally commit to Jesus, people who were even pretty smart when it came to religious teaching but it was all with empty words and an empty heart.
There were plenty of people following the right person, Jesus, but they were following Him for the wrong reason. They were following him to just get them out of their circumstance.
The same is true today. There is more to following Jesus than saying “Jesus make me happy and get me into heaven.”
Following Jesus involves more than saying you are a Christ follower. It is more than raising a hand, or saying a prayer.
I remember growing up in a small church in KY and WVA and at the end of each service there would be these altar calls, sometime drawn out. If you would just walk down the aisle you can be “saved.” Jesus is saying that following Him involves more than walking down the aisle.
It is more than attending church, hearing sermons, singing songs, reading the Bible, joining a small group – religious activity. It is more than confessing your sins and going on with life as usual. It is more than thinking that the good things in your life balance out the bad things.
So what does following Christ involve? 
1. Being a Christ Follower involves your entire being.
Jesus says…“Not everyone who calls out to me “Lord, Lord!” will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter His Kingdom.” 
2. Being a Christ follower involves doing God’s will.
It is more than empty words or empty hearts.
The issue is obedience to God’s Word. Are you living what Jesus is teaching?
William Barclay writes: “It is possible to be a follower of Jesus without being a disciple: to be a camp-follower without being a soldier of the king; to be a hanger-on in some great work without pulling one’s weight. Once someone was talking to a great scholar about a younger man. He said, ‘So and so tells me that he was one of your students.’ The teacher answered devastatingly, ‘He may have attended my lectures, but he was not one of my students.’ There is a world of difference between attending lectures and being a student. It is one of the supreme handicaps of the Church that in the Church there are so many distant followers of Jesus and so few real disciples.”
Being a Christ follower involves more than just following Jesus. It involves being a student of Jesus. It involves spending time with Jesus, listening to His teaching and applying it to your life.
Matthew 7:21 – “Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter His Kingdom.”
How do you know what His Father’s will is? How do you know God’s will?
Personal Illustration: Even now there are things, or decisions, or areas in my life, where I am asking “What is God’s will?” I want to think that there is going to be some direct revelation or answer to my questions or something that will get me out of my circumstance. But so often in my life I have found that God’s will is less complicated than I make it out to be. It is not about an answer to my question. It is not about freedom from my circumstance.
It is about you and me pursuing God and living out what God has called us to be.
Illustration: A few years ago, as a youth pastor, I took a group of teens to Pioneer Waterland up near Cleveland. It was a waterpark complete with slides, a lazy river, and an incredibly large pool that even had shallow water where you could play volleyball. We got two teams together and started to play. Others in the pool joined our group. We had played more than one game. We were in the middle of another game, and I was serving the ball at the time. Just as I was getting ready to serve again, I looked down at my left hand and my heart shifted into “panic mode.” I noticed something was missing. My wedding ring was gone. Thankfully my wife wasn’t there that day. Stop the game. Everyone started looking for that ring. The teens and adults that had traveled with me were looking. People I didn’t even know started looking. We lined up in rows to sweep the pool. I was determined to find that ring. We looked and we looked and did everything we could until we finally found that ring.
Do you want to know what God’s will is for your life? God’s will is that you and I would be determined to passionately pursue Him and live out what He has called us to be. 
3. Being a Christ Follower involves passionately pursuing God and living out what God has called us to be.
God’s will is that you would place your trust in Him, that you would have such a faith in Him that you passionately pursue Him. That you spend time with Him and His Word, that you would know Him intimately. That you would be the person He desires you to be. That your life would be a witness to the very transforming power of His Word and work.
Our Mission: Leading people into a growing relationship with Christ. - If you are not seeking God and living for Him, than you are not growing.
Passionately pursuing God and living for Him doesn’t mean you have it all together. The 12 disciples didn’t have it all together, but they had a hunger and thirst for God that ultimately transformed their lives.
What Kingdom are you living for? Jesus invites you to be part of new Kingdom. Jesus says, pursue God, pursue me with your entire being and live a transformed life and you will find TRUE happiness.
As we close, it is not about an emotional moment right now. It is not about an altar call or you walking down and kneeling at a step to pray. To passionately pursue God and live a transformed life is a decision you have to make in your heart and with your life. It is not a one time decision. It is an intentional everyday decision.
Prayer:
Song: Knowing You
Send Out: “Quest for Faith”
Next Sunday we begin a series called “The Quest for Faith.” It is a series about having a faith that passionately pursues God and lives a transformed life. It is a series about applying what Jesus is going to talk about in His Kingdom address in Matthew 5-7. In fact, we have placed an insert in your worship folder containing these chapters. Take time to read this Scripture this week and begin the journey with us on this Quest for Faith.