The Kingdom

  In Matthew 5:1-16, Jesus talks about the kingdom of heaven when he gives the beatitudes. The beatitudes are overall taking our religion further from outward expressions of laws, to an inward expression of the heart. Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who realize their spiritual poverty and are persecuted for righteousness sake. Christ shares that the path to the kingdom of heaven will be challenging and we will be persecuted and rejected because of our faith, yet we will be blessed through this. Jesus also says that we will have a great reward waiting for us in heaven if we do these things.

            In this section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ philosophy is first of all that we are going to be insulted and hurt by people, and second that we are to be the light of the earth. I think that as I shared before, a major point Christ is trying to share with us is that we are going to get persecuted, but the problem is that when we get knocked down we just lay there. We feel sorry for ourselves, we mope around, we ask God, "why did you do this too me?" instead of getting back up again. Some of the lyrics to one of my favorite songs says, " We lose our way, we get back up again It's never too late to get back up again, One day you gonna shine again, you may be knocked down, But not out forever.” We are not going to grow closer to God unless we get back up again and trust Him. You will get knocked down; I don't have a doubt in my mind that whoever is reading this will get knocked down. But we need to have a relentless mindset. Jesus was relentlessly focused on his goal when he came to earth, and we need to follow after Him. By following after Him, we will become the light of the earth. One way some people are best at sharing Christianity, is through their actions. We need to show Christ through the way that we live. If you strive to walk the way Jesus walked, talk the way Jesus talked, love the way Jesus loved, Matthew tells us that you will be praising your Father in Heaven.

Jesus’ kingdom and the kingdom and philosophy of the scribes and Pharisees had some differences. The Pharisees and scribes of this time believed that you had to follow the strict law. By following this law, you would please God and that is how you would get to heaven. They believed that you had to do the right thing and follow the law at all times. The book of Deuteronomy in the Old Testament is all about the rules that they followed; God had Moses write this book to help people remember God. God knows the human tendency to quickly forget experiences and this is why Deuteronomy was written. While the Pharisees and scribes continued living this way, Christ came to the earth. He came he proclaimed that, “no one comes to the Father except through [him]” (John 14:6).  This was a huge difference in philosophies and views of the kingdom. All this time these people had been taught that they had to follow the law to get to heaven, but now Jesus came to earth and is telling them that all they need a personal relationship with Him and His Father.

            Jesus’ kingdom is also much different than the culture and society of today. Before Jesus came, there was a period of time where “every man did as he saw fit” (Judges 21:25). I think that is how our world is becoming today. In this passage, Jesus is calling us to be the salt and light of the earth. He calls us to be examples to others. Isaiah 58:10 says that if we feed the hungry and take care of the troubled, our light will shine in the darkness. Our world is so filled with darkness and this is the time that Christians need to be stepping up the most, however it is actually the time when Christians are being called the hypocrites. We live in a world where we are all so rich and the Bible says it’s easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. We are being called hypocrites because we are choosing to serve the master of worldly riches, and Matthew 6 tells us that we can’t serve two masters. Our world is in desperate need of this light that Jesus talks about in Matthew 5. We are always wearing the name of Jesus Christ in everything that we do, how will you make him look?