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 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire. So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. –Matthew 5:21-24
You’re probably not going to like this sermon. If you’re thinking you’ve got it all in the bag, I’m going to walk all over your toes. I’m sorry. Kind of. But the Gospel is never for those who are satisfied with themselves and who think they’ve got it all together. Christ and His Gospel always set our lives on edge and turn our worlds upside down. If you’ve learned anything from the Beatitudes I hope you’ve seen just that. Christ calls us to a life of counter-intuition. You want to be happy, He says, “Here, have some persecution.” You long for security, He says, “Here, let me take away everything you hold dear.” On an emotional, idealistic level, Jesus is not what you would expect, but He is exactly what you need.
In this passage He goes against our grain yet again by telling us just the opposite of what we practice. What we do is if we know that Mrs. Ophelia Offended has something against us, we just avoid Ophelia. If a mutual acquaintance of ours asks us about it, we reply with eyebrows arched, “I don’t have anything against her. If she has something against me, she should let me know.” We believe it’s our responsibility to pursue someone if we have a problem with them, but if they have something against us, we think it’s their deal. This is not what Christ teaches here. He says that if you suspect someone has something against you, you should pursue them because that’s how non-murderers live.
I’d venture that the reason this hits us as so counter-intuitive is because we have bought into the world’s view of peace. We think that tolerating conflict is just as good as resolving conflict. Ophelia doesn’t like me, and so I won’t bother with her. In our culture, tolerance is a virtue.
But I’m here to remind you that Jesus didn’t come into the world to tolerate sinners. He didn’t look at us and say, “You are the vilest sinner on earth, yet I’ll put up with you.” No. He saw our brokenness, our bondage to sin, and in love He pursued us. He didn’t need to pursue us, He has everything He needs. Out of His overflowing love He pursues and reconciles us to Himself. For God shows His love for us in that while we were still rank, deplorable, offensive sinners, that’s when Christ died for us. That’s when He pursued us to His own peril, hurt, reputation, and life. What wondrous love is this!
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
All Creatures of Our God and King
It is Well with My Soul
Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. –Matthew 5:20
The Jews had a saying that went, “If only two men were allowed to enter Heaven, one would be a teacher of the law and the other a Pharisee.” They didn’t even consider anyone else a candidate for admission! You see, the law contains about 248 regulations and 365 prohibitions. Step back, amateurs! Consider the tiny print at the bottom that reads, “Salvation: For Professionals Only.!” So, in the minds of the Jews only a scribe or a Pharisee had the kind of righteousness that Matthew 5:20 demands.
Yet Jesus steps in with this heavy insult, “You’re going to hell unless your righteousness exceeds the Pharisees!” What? Not even their super righteousness earns them a free admission into heaven ticket? That’s pretty severe.
So, what did Jesus mean? We have talked about how man enters heaven only by God giving him righteousness, is Jesus now whistling a different tune and telling us, “Well, actually what I mean is that you have to be even more righteous than the Scribes and Pharisees. You have to earn it and not receive it?” Is He switching things up on us now? Certainly not!
The subsequent verses illustrate what Jesus meant when He addresses the skin-deep-righteousness of the Pharisees. (You have heard that it was said to those of old, ’You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”—vv. 22-23) God intends that our obedience should be far more than external and ceremonial, He desires that it be real and spiritual. True disciples should long for a righteousness that penetrates all the way to the heart.
So you see, this distinction between outer conformity to the law and the actual state of the heart sets Jesus’ disciples apart from the law keepers. Christ’s disciples understand that the law is spiritual (Romans 7:14), and respond to its demands by the power of the Spirit who cleanses and renews their hearts. Jesus warns us against doing what comes naturally to us (doing it on our own strength) because that is the defining characteristic of a self-justified Pharisee. The law is not the basis by which we earn our salvation, it is the basis by which our salvation has been earned by Christ.
Brothers and sisters, God does demand a righteousness that exceeds that of the Pharisees, and it is Christ’s! No one else’s righteousness even qualifies for consideration, for there is none righteous besides Him (Rom. 3:9-11). You will find salvation no where else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
I Sing the Mighty Power of God
Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine!
Let Us Love and Sing and Wonder
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven”. –Matthew 5:13-16
Have you ever heard someone described as the “salt of the earth type”? This has come to be a colloquialism that describes a down-to-earth, reliable, resourceful, generous person. How does our common understanding of “salt of the earth types” compare to who Christ addresses as the salt of the earth?
First He told us that they are the poor in spirit who find themselves standing spiritually empty before God. The fact that they have nothing to offer God grieves them and causes them to abandon all their attempts at justifying themselves and in meekness yield their cause to God. In turn, they yearn for Him to bestow righteousness on them for they know they can’t contrive any on their own. Jesus goes on to explain that these people who have received mercy will, consequentially, be merciful. In a like way, the fact that they’ve received purity makes them pure in heart. Christ assures us that these will be the sons of God, for God has made peace for them.
These spirit-poor, mourning, meek, righteousness-hungry, merciful, pure, peacemakers don’t sound like what we think of as “salt of the earth”. Particularly when you consider that in verse ten, He clarifies that these are, by the way, ones who are happy to be persecuted for wanting those things and being that way. Yet Jesus says that these folks have their hearts so much in heaven that they fear no man. They are the radically free and joyful: the salt of the earth and the light of the world.
Much has been said about what it means to be the salt of the earth or light of the world. Many a pastor has preached a sermon enjoining his parishioners to be saltier or lightier. And many of us sang in Sunday School, “Hide it under a bushel? No! I’m gonna let it shine.” But you can never go about doing something without first being something. Think of a butterfly, it will never fly unti it has become a butterfly. And the first eight verses of the beatitudes describe who the salt and light are. What the salt and light do (bringing flavor, preservation, illumination in darkness, direction, and warmth) are effects of the work Christ has done in making us children of God.
So, let’s, as the writer to the Hebrews says, consider Christ. Surely no one has been poorer in spirit than Jesus, no one has mourned more than the Man of Sorrows, no one else hung on a cross for the sins of the world and meekly prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” No one else hungered and thirsted to embody righteousness (and succeeded). Mercy from everlasting to everlasting. Purity in every word, thought, and action since before time began. And in the greatest persecution conceivable, Jesus Christ earned peace with God. What unspeakable grace and mercy!
Let us wonder, grace and justice
Join and point to mercy’s store
When through grace in Christ our trust is
Justice smiles and asks no more
He Who washed us with His blood
Has secured our way to God
–John Newton
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
O Father, You Are Sovereign
What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Be Thou My Vision
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
–Matthew 5:7-10
Persecution can take many forms, and in Luke 16 when Jesus told the Pharisees that they couldn’t serve God and money, they reacted by ridiculing (persecuting) Him.
“ ‘No servant can serve two masters; for 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.’ The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him.”
I don’t think Jesus set out to antagonize these men. I think that their duplicity (serving two masters) just struck Him as really wrong. Really impossible. It would be similar to a five year old telling you that his cat had just recited the Apostles Creed. It’s just wrong. It can’t happen. Nevertheless, the Pharisees took Christ’s words as though he had just thrown down the gauntlet. Why?
You see, persecution grows out of an improper love; a love for something evil or false. In the Pharisees’ case, their improper love was money. Once an improper love has taken root in our souls, we sometimes resort to persecuting whatever or whomever we perceive as a threat in order to protect our idol. So, when Christ put his finger on the Pharisees’ love of money, they reacted as if they were under attack. Sound the alarms! Make ready the artillery!
In verses eleven and twelve of the Sermon on the Mount, Christ says, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”
Is Jesus trying reverse psychology here? Surely He can’t be commanding us to find comfort and happiness in being hated, mocked, slandered, tortured, and killed! Can you imagine spending $60 for a half hour session with a reputable counselor to confide that you’re mocked, derided, and tortured only to have him reply, “Rejoice and be glad!”?
I daresay that only Jesus Christ can say, “Rejoice and be glad!” to the suffering and hurting. Only Christ Jesus has tasted the reward that His persecution earned for His own. Christ has passed beyond the veil and knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the eternal weight of glory will far outweigh all our temporal earthly suffering for righteousness’ sake.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Come, Thou Almighty King
The Beatitudes
Holy, Holy, Holy!
COMMUNITY LUNCH
We will have our Community Lunch this Sunday, June 19, following the service in Watchorn Hall. The church will provide the main course and volunteers will bring sides. Everyone is invited.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. –Matthew 5:9
Our world hungers for peace. We see the word peace plastered on bumper stickers; world leaders convene to discuss how to achieve peace; and countries stockpile weapons bigger than their enemies’ to insure peace. But we have to wonder if peace consists of curbing people’s violence by threatening them with your faster, bigger gun.
Contrast the world’s idea with the words of Isaac Watts:
Blest are the men of peaceful life,
Who quench the coals of growing strife.
They shall be called the heirs of bliss,
The sons of God, the sons of peace.
Watts has highlighted the distinction Jesus made between peacekeepers and peacemakers. Peacemaking, quenching the coals of growing strife, is not a task many run to with alacrity. Peacemaking presupposes strife, and to end conflict, someone has to pay the price; someone has to sacrifice; someone has to get hurt.
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. –Romans 5:8-11
See, while we were in conflict with God our creator, Jesus Christ made peace by suffering the blows of His Father’s wrath that we had earned. As a matter of fact, when Jonathan Edwards preached on this passage, he entitled the sermon, “Men are naturally God’s enemies.”
Yet the good news is this: Christ has turned the world upside down. He didn’t come as a peace keeper, someone to keep bickering nations from tearing each other part. Neither did He take on human flesh to keep God from beating you up. Jesus Christ’s perfect life and sacrificial death earned peace with God for the sons of God. His blood has made peace between you and God so that you can stand before Him as an heir of bliss, a son of peace.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Rejoice, the Lord is King
Come, Holy Spirit, Heavenly Dove
Spirit of the Living God
I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord
COMMUNITY LUNCH
Our next all-church lunch will be Sunday, June 19 following the service in Watchorn Hall. The church will provide the main course and volunteers will bring sides. Everyone is invited.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.
Nothing like an extremely exclusive statement to remind us that Jesus isn’t into sugar coatings. I mean, let’s take a second to tally up the people that fall into this “pure in heart” category. Adam? Um…well….no. How about Abraham? Moses? David? Isaiah? None of those. Well, what about someone who had both the testaments? Maybe that would help out? What about Augustine or Calvin? Still no? Let me give you a hint, if you came up with any number greater than one, you’re off. Jesus Christ is the only one who can wear the medal for Pure in Heart. He is the only one whose exterior behavior completely coincides with who He is on the inside.
So, given the fact that Jesus knew the impurity of our hearts, why would he then say that only the pure in heart would see the Father? That’s shocking. That’s horrible. That just excluded you, me, and the rest of the entire world. Hold on!
In case you think I might be miscategorizing Jesus, check out this passage from Matthew 23:23-28:
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel!
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
He just denounced the conservative religious leaders. And what does He hold against them? Their zeal in presenting a shiny exterior all the while neglecting the weightier inner matters. Do you think they’d get a bit testy about these insults? After all, He was dining with tax collectors and sinners and pronouncing maledictions on the scribes and Pharisees (the cultural equivalent of some today’s denominational and presbytery leaders). I’m sure the leaders thought Jesus had it all wrong. Does He have it backwards? Why would He show concern for the poor, the tax collectors, and the prostitutes? Doesn’t it seem like He likes the wrong type?
Exactly. Christ does. Christ loves the broken, those bereft of hope in their own merit, those whose impurity of heart has cast them on a desolate shore where only Christ and His righteousness shine as a beacon. These people make no attempts to masquerade as righteous; they abandoned those reindeer games long ago.
You see, the Pharisees and scribes didn’t hunger and thirst for a righteousness not their own for one simple reason: they thought they had a righteousness of their own! They had no need for Jesus. If this is you, Friend, Jesus has a word for you. Woe. Woe to you.
Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
Weak and wounded, sick and sore;
Jesus ready stands to save you,
Full of pity, love and power.
Come, ye thirsty, come, and welcome,
God’s free bounty glorify;
True belief and true repentance,
Every grace that brings you nigh.
Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
Lost and ruined by the fall;
If you tarry till you’re better,
You will never come at all.
View Him prostrate in the garden;
On the ground your Maker lies.
On the bloody tree behold Him;
Sinner, will this not suffice?
Lo! th’incarnate God ascended,
Pleads the merit of His blood:
Venture on Him, venture wholly,
Let no other trust intrude.
Let not conscience make you linger,
Not of fitness fondly dream;
All the fitness He requireth
Is to feel your need of Him.
–Joseph Hart (1712-1768)
If you stand before Jesus pleading, “Jesus, I have nothing. If I have to be good and pure in heart in order to see God, I’ll never see Him;” Jesus will satisfy your hunger for righteousness. He stands ready to lay His holiness upon you so that you can stand before your Father, pure in heart.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name!
There is a Fountain Filled with Blood
Rejoice, Ye Pure in Heart!
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Matthew 9:9-13
As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
No doubt your Sunday School teacher told you that Matthew was a tax collector. What she might not have told you is that this meant that Matthew, a Jew, worked for the Romans. If you work for the people who are oppressing your people, what does that make you? Well, it makes you a traitor and rather unpopular. Realize that due to his occupation, Matthew would have been excommunicated from the synagogue. For all we know Matthew cheated and lied like the other tax collectors. Judging by the company he kept, he had to be a bit shady. This is the Matthew that Jesus sees manning his tax booth. This is the man Jesus pursues.
And true to form, whenever Jesus utters the command, “Follow me,” Matthew rises and follows. Throughout Scripture we see this pattern: Jesus utters a direct call, the person follows. (Conversely, those who come to Jesus asking what they need to do to enter the Kingdom end up finding other things that need to be attended to.)
We don’t know all the details, but apparently Jesus and his disciples accepted an invitation to Matthew’s house for a dinner party with him and his pals. Evidently, the Pharisees spy through the windows or something to figure out what’s going on and that precipitates their grilling the disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” See them glaring snidely down their long noses? Hear the tone in their voices charged with all the righteousness they have tucked in their back pocket. Their question is a surreptitious, “We are good and holy, and Matthew and his friends are really bad sinners.” Not only that, but Jesus is hanging around with them. Careful the sin might rub off!
Jesus, never one to mince words, knocks their socks off with his reply, “The healthy don’t need a physician; the sick do.” Then he adds, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I deserve mercy and not sacrifice.’ For the Pharisees this is a bit like the state’s best litigation lawyer getting shown up by some geek who likes to read John Grisham’s law novels. He answers the lightly veiled accusation with a command to study a portion of Hosea they ignore (or don’t comprehend). He’s pointing them to the fact that if they understood the sixth chapter of Hosea, this question would have never sprung up in their hearts.
The Pharisees are right (well, kind of), the people at Matthew’s dinner party did have a problem, but it wasn’t the disregard for religion that the Pharisees were trying to pin on them; ultimately, their problem is that sin had had its way with them. And Jesus comes in compassion to show them mercy; He did, after all, come to save sinners.
But if you are a Pharisee the “mercy option” does not compute. All they saw was that he was hanging out with tax collectors and sinners which could only mean one of two things: that he’d either be sullied by their sin or that he was a sinner like them and condoning their behavior. Why could the Pharisees not see any other option? Why would the outlandish proposition of extending mercy to tax collectors and sinners never occur to them?
It’s simple really. If you have never experienced mercy, you cannot show mercy. The complexity grows out of what we talked about last week in the second question of the Heidelberg, you can’t experience mercy yourself, unless you’ve felt a need for mercy. This is what distinguished Matthew from the Pharisees; Christ would show him his need for mercy. The Pharisees? Mercy? Why would we need mercy? We keep the law. We’re righteous.
So, Jesus proclaims the truth that the merciful are blessed, for they shall receive mercy. And, brothers and sisters, the greatest mercy we receive is the one that Christ begged for and did not get in the Garden of Gethsemane when He asked to be spared from His Father’s just wrath. He received justice, so we might receive mercy. Blessed are we.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
Psalm 146, Hallelujah, Praise Jehovah, O My Soul
Great is Thy Faithfulness
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 Matthew 5:2-6
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
Have you noticed how all the ads and commercials bombard us with enticements to get rich, comfortable, and satisfied? (Granted the satisfaction is short-lived because their ultimate goal is to keep us dissatisfied, but that’s a fact you’re supposed to stay asleep to.) Try imagining an advertisement that claimed their product would help you be poorer in spirit!
“Do you need more mourning in your life? Try the Y Factor, guaranteed to make you poorer in spirit in three easy applications. Are you dissatisfied with your hunger and thirst for a righteousness not your own, well, you need the Y Factor.”
Ridiculous, I know, but I hope it helps you to see how the world measures blessedness (happiness); it’s the polar opposite of the ruler Christ uses when he teaches us in Matthew 5. As a matter of fact, the beatitudes should sound preposterous because of their dissonance with the world. I’m afraid that too often the “Blessed are the poor, meek, and mourning” strike us as symbolic poetry for an unrealistic utopia. In our heart of hearts we harbor thoughts, “Does anyone really believe that? Come on. You believe you’re blessed (as in happy) for mourning?”
I maintain that we should believe the beatitudes. They should be the foundation of our reality, the structure on which we construct dreams and hope. The promises publicized day and night by manufacturers and marketers are flimsy and brittle imitations. They market a happiness that “we deserve.” But, we know that our happiness originates out of our knowledge of who we are and who God is. The writers of the Heidelberg Catechism framed it this way.
Question: What is your only comfort in life and death?
Answer: That I am not my own, but belong with body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.
Doubtless, that is comforting, but the next question asks what we “need to know in order to live and die rejoicing in this comfort.” You see it’s not just a matter of repeating that catechism answer over and over again like a mystic mantra. In order to find joy in that comfort, we have to know “how great our sins and misery are.” It is in knowing that when you stand before God, you are a pauper, a beggar, someone who is confident in only one thing: their utter inability to please a Holy and Perfect Creator. When you have mourned your desperate plight before God, have meekly handed your need for righteousness over to Him, and pant for the righteousness only Christ can provide, then you can experience the joy and lasting satisfaction of the belonging to your faithful Savior Jesus Christ.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Christ is Alive!
Fairest Lord Jesus
My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.
–Matthew 5:2-5
When Dallas Willard, a respected evangelical philosopher and apologist, was asked why Jesus’ audience heard the gospel as good news, he replied,
“Mainly he [Jesus] was offering them the resources to live as they believed they should, not just in terms of what they ought to do…but also because he offered them the resources for sustaining life that would allow you to live with joy and peace no matter what your circumstances were. And that is the message that in a period of years swept the Mediterranean area and moved out across the world. It is that the resources for living now with joy, peace, strength to accomplish what life should be was given in the fellowship of the Kingdom of God.”
If I’m not mistaken Dr. Willard is saying we are to believe that when Jesus opened his mouth and taught the poor in the spirit, the mourning, and the meek that they would have taken away the “resources for living now with joy, peace, and strength?” Hmmm….interesting.
I’d go out on a limb and say that no one who responded to the message of the Kingdom heard Christ talking about “resources for living now”. They heard the good news that those who do not have their best life now are precisely the ones who will have their best life in the Kingdom of God. They will be the ones to inherit everything: the whole earth and the comforts of the Kingdom of Heaven itself.
When you’re having a difficult time, a resource is there for you to dispose of however you deem right. The Gospel is not a resource. The Gospel is the Good News of the Kingdom of God coming to the poor in spirit, to those who mourn over their spiritual poverty and who in meekness have handed their cause over to God. Neither is Jesus Christ a resource, He’s the source. He’s not someone that you turn to when things are bad so that you can live through your “now” with joy, peace, and strength. He’s the redeemer, the source of salvation, regeneration, and glorification.
The fundamental difference between turning to Christ as a resource and turning to him as the source is who ends up doing the work and who ends up being served. Christ didn’t die on the cross to equip you with the resources to live your best life now, He came to give His life as the source of all your hope for salvation, redemption, and peace with God.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
The Day of Resurrection!
The King of Love My Shepherd Is
Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (on the nation of Israel in scripture) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. –Matthew 4:23, 24
In C.S. Lewis’s, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, the White Witch tempts the wayward brother, Edmund, with enchanted Turkish Delight. Bewitched by the superficial sweetness and beauty of sin, Edmund loses his way.
The remaining three siblings meet Aslan who asks them where their brother is. The beaver answers for them, “He has tried to betray them and joined the White Witch, O Aslan.”
“And Aslan said nothing either to excuse Peter or blame him but merely stood looking at him with his great unchanging eyes. And it seemed to all of them there was nothing to be said.”
“Please—Aslan,” said Lucy, “can anything be done to save Edmund?”
“All shall be done,” said Aslan.
All shall be done. This is the message of the gospel that Christ comes preaching. All shall be done.
In Matthew 4, we read that Jesus went through all Galilee teaching and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom. That doesn’t surprise us. That’s what He came to do. What is surprising is that he also comes healing every disease and affliction among the people. Matthew provides us an abbreviated list of afflictions that flock to Christ for healing. This list admonishes us to understand that no disease, malady, brokenness, so-called character flaw, or dysfunction escapes the power of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
Brothers and sisters, hear this Good News of God’s Kingdom: All shall be done to strengthen your frailty, to fix your brokenness, to erase your guilt, to restore to you all that you were before sin damaged you. You shall be whole. You shall be healed. You shall not only be forgiven, you shall be righteous.
And this Gospel that we cling to is only here because the King is here. Jesus doesn’t simply urge us to believe in an impersonal forgiveness. He teaches us that we’re forgiven because He was condemned. We are restored because He did the restoring. You see, it’s not “all about grace” like the cross-stitch says, it’s all about the Gospel incarnate in the person of Christ Jesus.
And that’s the gospel! Come hear it preached and enacted in baptism and the supper with Jesus this Sunday.
The related hymns we’ll sing are:
Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Baptized in Water
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken
BAPTISM THIS SUNDAY
Noah, son of Joel and Sherri Bussey, has found grace in the eyes of the Lord and willvbe baptized this Sunday, the day after his 9th birthday.
MEN’S PRAYER BREAKFAST
The Men’s Prayer Breakfast will not meet this Saturday since we just had the Spring Bible Conference. The next meeting is Saturday, June 4.
SPRING BIBLE CONFERENCE
Audio of Dr. Kaiser’s lectures and sermon can be found on the church website.
SUNDAY SCHOOL
Sunday school for children (in Joshua) and adults (in 1 Peter) continues. Coffee and other treats are served at 9:15, teaching begins at 9:30, and we break to get ready for worship at 10:15.
Visitors are always welcome!
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