Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them,for this is the Law and the Prophets - Jesus (Matt. 7:12)
The Golden Rule is effective because we are already
excellent at half of it.
The first half. Not the second.
Since the day we were born we have been meditating on
“whatever you wish that others would do to you.” It starts as a natural,
God-given ability to take care of ourselves (cf. Eph. 5:28-29), and then,
because sin corrupts the core of every part of us, it grows into selfishness.
We become obsessed with loving ourselves and knowing all our favorite this-and-that's.
Our heart’s motto becomes “Treat Yourself How You Want to Be Treated.” (Burger
King’s “Have It Your Way” is so unoriginal).
So we are good at the first half of the Golden Rule. And
oblivious to the second.
Then Jesus comes.
He sees this not-so-hidden talent in us, this power within
us to love ourselves, and he turns it into love with the wisdom of the Golden
Rule, by the power of the His Holy Spirit, made possible by His death and
resurrection. He now teaches us to put ourselves in another person’s shoes and take
out our excellent self-loving skills, and to consider how they would want to be
treated. Then Jesus calls us to love them in that way, to take action and care
for them with as great a care and consideration as we would for ourselves.
Jesus changes our heart’s motto into “Treat Others
How You Want To Be Treated!”
So the Golden Rule is actually a rebuke that we are very good at being selfish and a call to freedom through repentance and love.
What does the command "Judge not" actually mean? (vv.1-4)
How does this command apply in the church? (v.5)
How does this command apply outside the church? (v.6)
Summary:
Matthew 7 is sort of an extended conclusion where Jesus explains how Christians are to relate to a variety of people: to those inside and outside the church (vv.1-6), to God (vv.7-11), to all people (vv.12-14), to false teachers (vv.15-20) and to Jesus himself (vv.21-27). Beginning in vv.1-4, Jesus forbids applying a judgment to others that is without mercy. That is, He strictly forbids a harshly critical, nitpicking, fault-finding, judgmental spirit that is devoid of mercy and hope. In v.5, Jesus shows us that there is a type of "judgment" that starts with "log removal" and proceeds to offer merciful and hopeful help to other brothers and sisters within the church. Then, in v.6, the principle is applied to those outside the church, particularly unbelievers who are exceptionally hard-hearted and who continually reject the gospel. Spirit-sharpened discernment is needed in order to know when enough is enough, when one should pack up the gospel pearl, knock the dust of our feet, and focus our labors elsewhere.
Discussion Questions:
What is the typical misunderstanding of the command "Judge not"?
What does the command "Judge not" actually mean? (cf. James 2:12-13; 4:11-12)
What point is Jesus seeking to illustrate by using the log and speck analogy?
Is it wrong to take the speck out of another person's eye? Explain.
If we understand and apply the command "Judge not" in light of v.5, what beautiful effects might this have in the church?
To whom does "dogs" and "pigs" refer?
What is it that is holy and of great value (13:45-46)?
What does v.6 mean and how will we know when it is to be applied? (cf. 10:5-15)
Application Questions:
What sin in my life may be obstructing my ability to sensitively address the sins of others?
Is there anyone in my life whose sins or character flaws or weaknesses I am keenly aware of?
If people were to notice the same things in me, how would I want to be treated by them?
How would I want them to feel toward me?
How would I want to be thought about and talked about?
How would I be most loved and helped in the face of my sin and weakness?
Prayer Points:
Ask the Holy Spirit to expose any sin and hypocrisy in your own life
Confess your sins to God and perhaps to another believer (1 Jn. 1:9; James 5:16)
Thank Jesus for the mercy shown you at the cross & the hope opened to you in the resurrection
Ask the Holy Spirit to grow your ability to help others see and deal with their sin in a way that is fueled by mercy and seasoned with hope.
Summary:
In Matt. 6:19-24, Jesus calls his followers to a life of single-minded devotion to God. In order to make His point, Jesus utilizes three couplets: two treasures, two visions, two masters. In this sermon we considered all three couplets but focused primarily on the two visions and the two masters. Jesus wants us to see that where we put our heart dramatically effects our spiritual lives. To put it negatively, if we accumulate money and possessions in this short life, that is, if our spiritual eye is fixed on material treasures, then we will lose spiritual vision and find ourselves serving money, not God. But, more positively, if we seek to be rich toward God in this life by piling up good works done out of pure motives, then we will enjoy clear spiritual vision and find ourselves serving God, not money.
Discussion Questions:
Review: what are material treasures and spiritual treasures?
How do Jesus' commands in vv.19-20 show his care and love toward us?
What is the relationship/connection between the two treasures and the two visions?
What does it mean that they eye is the lamp of the body in physical terms?
What does it mean that they eye is the lamp of the body in spiritual terms? (cf. 5:29;7:3)
Reflect on this statement: "obedience clarifies, sin clouds."
How does having dim vision effect our relationship with God?
How does having dim vision effect our witness in the world? (cf.Luke 11:33-36)
What is the meaning of the term "master"? Why is it impossible to serve two masters?
Reflect on this statement: "Duel devotion is a mirage"
Reflect on this statement: “we will either use money to serve God or use God to serve money."
If spiritual vision is cloudy, what does that say about our treasure and our loyalty?
What has personally challenged you most in the past two sermons on Christian simplicity?
Application Questions:
Am I currently enjoying clear spiritual vision (i.e. Do i have purpose, drive, holy ambition, passion to love God and others, etc.)? If not, what might this say about what I'm treasuring and where my loyalty actually is?
What changes is God calling me to make in order to live a life of single-minded devotion?
Prayer Points:
Confess ways your heart has been in the wrong place leading to dim vision and disloyalty.
Praise Jesus for living a life of perfect loyalty to the Father and for dying on a cross so that you might become a His loyal and faithful servant!
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to put and keep your heart in the right place, to maintain clear spiritual vision, and to lean more fully what it means to serve Christ as Master.
As we've been studying Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, we've learned that Jesus is teaching the law how it was always to be taught.
He isn't abolishing the law.
Or contradicting the law.
Or adding to the law.
Or even teaching "hidden" things from the law.
Jesus taught the true "heart of the law." The Pharisees missed it completely. They focused on external obedience to rules and in doing so they misunderstood most important part of the law: the heart.
It really isn't difficult to see that the law focuses on the heart primarily. For instance, a quick word search for "heart" in Deuteronomy shows it's mentioned 43 times!
God has required complete obedience of our hearts to Him. His word is to be hidden in our hearts, loved completely, and fully obeyed with joy.
But our hearts have a severe problem. Our hearts are stubborn and hard and fearful and unloving and prideful and wayward and worship other gods. We need a changed heart.
The solution? God promises that by His sovereign power He will change our hearts so that we can fully obey and love Him!
Deuteronomy gives us the good news of the promise of changed hearts, and Jesus fulfills this by being the man with the perfect heart that loved God and obeyed God fully. By His death for our sins He now changes our sinful hearts by giving us His heart, His Holy Spirit, and now we can live as the law always intended: out of genuine obedience from the heart.
Summary: Since Jesus came to fulfill the OT, we can and should excel in our obedience to the OT in such a way that exceeds the surface "obedience" of the scribes and pharisees (5:20). Jesus gives a second example of the type of heart-obedience he desires by explaining and applying the law "You shall not commit adultery." The scribes and pharisees taught people that purity was achieved by merely avoiding adultery, but Jesus brings us back to the heart of this law, teaching us that true purity will not just avoid the physical act of adultery but also the internal condition of lust that produces it. Jesus teaches that an adulterous heart is just as damning as an adulterous act. Therefore, to avoid adultery we must deal with the heart issue of lust by ruthlessly removing stumbling blocks from our lives (vv.29-30).
Discussion Questions:
What misunderstanding of "you shall not commit adultery" is Jesus correcting in vv.27-28?
What is the proper understanding of this law and how should this shape our view of the Law?
What is the relationship between adultery and lust?
When does a natural sexual desire turn into lust?
"A adulterous heart is just as damning as an adulterous act." How can this be?
How does Jesus teach us to deal with the heart issue of lust vv.28-29?
How should we understand and apply the strong and intense language of vv.29-30?
What does it mean to be sexually pure in marriage? In singleness?
How would you confront this lie: "my lust only effects me"?
The heart is the high ground of the soul. If we win the heart, we win the war. What are some strategies for fighting lust that will help us win the high ground of the heart?
Application Questions:
Do I tend to focus on surface obedience or heart obedience when it comes to sexual purity?
What objects am I beholding (eyes), activities am I participating in (hand), or places am I going (feet) that tend to cause me to stumble into lust?
How might I deal severely with these stumbling blocks and thus win the battle for the heart?
What factors most shape and influence my sexual desires?
What would it look like for love, not lust, to shape my relationships with others?
What strategies might be wise to add to my "battle plan" for pursuing sexual purity?
Prayer Points:
Confess any lust you have in your heart and sinful actions that have stemmed from those lusts.
Praise God for sending Jesus to live a pure life so that He could purify you with his blood
Praise God that the deepest stains from your sexual history are cleansed by the blood of Jesus
Ask God to help you to, by the Spirit, fight the sin of lust and win the high ground of the heart.
Ask God to give you wise strategies to fight lust and a heart to help others fight lust.
Summary: Jesus guides us on the narrow and hard path of righteousness that leads right into the Father's heart. When the children of God embody the character qualities commended in the Beatitudes, they experience showers of blessing along the way and oceans of blessing when they reach their destination. From the beatitude currently under study, we learn that such blessing comes to the pure in heart, those who have been washed clean through faith in Christ and now work hard in Christ's strength to stay clean.
Discussion Questions:
In what ways do you feel the God-ordained tension of living in the already and not yet?
What is the heart and how does it relate to behavior (cf. Mark 7:21-23; Lk. 6:45; Prov. 4:23)?
According to a Christ-centered reading of Psalm 24, how do we get pure hearts?
Ponder this: There is a river of gospel grace that mirrors the narrow path at every turn.
How should Christians seek to maintain their purity (1 Jn. 1:9; 2 Tim. 2:20-22)?
Exercise: Apply these principles of purification to heart issues such as gossip, lust, greed, etc.
What is the relationship between pursuing purity of heart and seeing God (1 Jn. 3:2-3)?
Application Questions:
What areas of impurity do you see in your life?
Take time to deal with these impurities by...
Understanding what impure thoughts, emotions, and desires they come out of and what wholesome thoughts, emotions, and desires should replace them.
Confessing and washing them in the river of gospel grace (1 Jn. 1:9; 2 Tim. 2:20-21)
Making a plan as to how you can flee from them in the future (2 Tim. 2:22)
Making a plan as to how you can pursue purity of heart (2 Tim. 2:22)
Prayer Points:
Confess to God any impurity you see in your life.
Thank God for sending His Son to shed His blood so that those impurities can be washed away.
Praise Jesus, the Pure One who has made it possible to see God by washing us by His blood and by leading us in triumphant procession into the presence of His Father.
Ask God to help you work hard at fleeing impurity and pursuing purity of heart.
Summary: The Beatitudes are invitations from Jesus to experience more of God's blessing, joy, and favor in our lives (Matt. 5:3-12). Each Beatitude is a pointed description of Christian character, that is, what everyChristian's character should be like. And these character qualities attract the blessing of God and, as we shall see, also enhance our witness in the world (Matt. 5:13-16). The second Beatitude ("Blessed are those who mourn") flows naturally from the first ("Blessed are the poor in spirit"), for it is only after we recognize our need for God that we will begin to feel as we ought to feel. Those who mourn are those who are grieved by what grieves God. This godly grief attracts the blessing of God, especially in the form of comfort (some comfort in this life and complete comfort in the life to come).
Discussion Questions:
Review: Define "blessed." Beatitudes are invitations, invitations to what?
What is the meaning of mourning? [Hint: look at it through a narrow lens and a broad lens].
How do we learn to mourn? [Hint: Analogy: a child watching daddy's tears]
Thought experiment: what are some things that grieve the heart of God?
Reflect on this phrase: sometimes "weeping is our worship"
Can you think of a godly person in your life who is often grieved by what grieves God?
In what sense is the promise of comfort a present and a future reality?
Look up these cross-references and consider the comfort that we get to experience in part now and in full later: Isa. 61:1-2; Jn. 16:20-21; Ps. 30:5; 126:5-6; 45:15; Rev. 21:4.
Comfort is only promised to "those who mourn." How does the gospel make it possible to be one who mourns?
Application Questions:
How often do you grieve over things that grieve the heart of God?
What sins in your live should you be mourning over?
When it comes to your response to the sins of others and the brokenness of society, are you more marked by frustration, irritability, impatience, a critical spirit, etc or by godly grief?
What would it look like for you to mourn over the sins of others and the brokenness of society?
What hinders you from grieving over things that grieve the heart of God?
Why do you think "those who mourn" attract the blessing and favor of God?
Prayer points:
Confess any of your ungodly responses to the sins of others and the brokenness of society.
Mourn any sin in your own life.
Praise God that He mourned our sin and sent His Son to die to pay the penalty for our sin
Praise God that you have the very Spirit of the Man of Sorrows within you, that you now have the capacity to be grieved by what grieves God. This is a miracle of God's grace!
2. See the Imputed Righteousness of Christ on Believers (Zech. 3:2-5)
3. Live Gospel Cycles (Zech. 3:6-10)
Summary:
During the return from exile, around 520 BC, a vision of a heavenly courtroom and three prophecies are given to the prophet Zechariah. This vision is of Joshua the high priest standing with filthy garments before the angel of the LORD and with Satan at his right hand accusing him. The LORD disregards Satan's accusations, though they are accusations of true guilt, and instead takes off his filthy clothes, representing his sin, and puts clean garments on him, representing purity, innocence, and righteousness. The LORD then gives three promises connected to the vision of Joshua: 1) that he will send his servant the Branch, who is Jesus, 2) he will remove all iniquity from the land in a single day, which was the day Jesus died, and 3) because the sin is removed, every one of his people will be at peace with one another.
Discussion Questions:
What is Satan's role in the courtroom? What's his goal in tempting people?
Define imputed righteousness (See 2 Cor. 5:21). If I were to look at a brother or sister in Christ as if they were fully righteous before God, what would they look like? WHO would they look like?
What ultimate reality are clothes a mere shadow of? How do clothes remind us of God's mercy?
What is a Gospel Cycle? Why is it called that? What are the five stages in the cycle and how does each stage correspond to the story of the Bible?
Application Questions:
Am I harboring any bitterness toward a brother or sister in Christ? Am I siding with Satan in the heavenly courtroom in any way when I think about that person or talk to them?
Do I avoid conflict or do I often start it/engage it? What do I need to do (or not do) to make sure I do a full gospel cycle with other believers?
Have I been praying for the other saint when I get in conflict with them? How can I integrate prayer into conflict? How can I grow in confidence that prayer is powerful?
Prayer Points:
Praise God that He has freely taken away your sin and given you Christ's glorious righteousness!
Praise God that God will complete the work he started in the believers around you to perfectly sanctify them (Phil. 1:6)!
Ask God to prompt you to pray when you get in a conflict or start to think about someone you're in conflict with.
Ask God to bring the conflict through a whole gospel cycle in order to strengthen the relationship and glorify God.
Don’t belittle prayer, when conflict strikes,
first picture your brother with Christ’s righteousness, shining as bright as
the sun, and pray, “Lord, get them there soon! Sanctify them through this, I
want to see them glorified! Help me be patient with them, God! I praise you
that you began a good work in them and you will surely complete it! Forgive me
for being unforgiving.”
Worship:
"Not What My Hands" by Aaron Keyes:
"Oh How Good It Is" by Keith and Kristyn Getty:
(Providentially the first song on my Spotify playlist when I went for a jog Sunday morning before preaching! God is so encouraging!)
Three “Secrets” to Running with Endurance the
Race Set Before Us
1.Run Light (v.1)
2.Run for Joy (v.2)
3.Run Together (vv.1-2)
Summary: Like a stadium filled with cheering fans, we
are surrounded by a great multitude, vast “cloud of witnesses” whose legacies
testify of the faith it takes to run the race that is set before us (12:1, cf. Ch.11). The stage is set and
the follower of Christ gets one shot to run this race.In order to run this race well, the disciple
must learn three “secrets” to endurance:
run light, run for joy, and run together.First, we must run
light, that is, we must lay aside anything that would tend to slow us
down.Weight and sin bog the
Christian down and make running the Christian life a miserable experience.Second, we must run for joy just as Jesus did,
peering through our present pain and trial and difficulty to an unspeakably
glorious finish line ahead.Third,
we must run together, thinking of
this as our race not merely as my race.We run this race with an eye to the rest of our brothers and
sisters, doing all that we can to help them endure to the end.
Discussion Questions:
What is the therefore
there for in v.1 (Hint: the “Hall of Faith” in ch.11)?What is the significance of being
surrounded by a “great cloud of witnesses”?
What are sins of omission and sins of commission?How do these unconfessed sins affect Christians
as they seek to run their race?Are their any sins in your life that remain unconfessed (cf. 1 John 1:9)?
How is weight
different from sin? What question
do you tend to ask: “is ____ sin” or “does
____ help me run”? On a scale of 1-10, (1 being not very seriously and 10 being
extremely seriously), how seriously do you consider the need to lay aside not just
sin but also weight in your life? Are their any weights in your life that are
hindering you from running well?
What does it mean that Jesus is the Pioneer
and Perfecter of our faith?
How did your Master run His race?What is the joy set before you?How is joy designed to help you endure
your race?
Reflect on this statement: “this is our race not merely my race.”Do you genuinely
appreciate the fact that we are not meant to run the Christian race alone?In what ways are you currently making
an intentional effort to be helped and to
help others run the race?
Prayer Points:
Pray that God would bring to mind anyunconfessed
sin in your life that you need to lay aside by confessing it (cf. 1 John
1:9).Take time to listen.
Pray that God would bring to mind any unnecessary
weight in your life and ask God for the strength to lay it aside so that
you can run faster. Take time to listen.
Ask God to help you to be a serious and passionate runner, one who is faithfully asking
the question: “Does ______ help me run or does it slow me down?”
Ask God to show
you more of the glory and joy of what is to come, to help you run for joy, to look beyond your present
difficulties to the breathtaking joy that awaits you.
Thank God that there is a finish line and that Jesus has paved the way.
Thank God for
the brothers and sisters that He is allowing you to run this race with.
Ask God for wisdom
as to how you can intentionally encourageothers as they seek to run their race.
