so what is the gospel the gospel is you can trust Jesus that's it that's the simplest form of the Gospel but not something he said about social evils not something he did to secure your forgiveness that's all in there but those are not the gospel the gospel is Jesus his availability put your confidence in him come under the rule of God God at work in your life I see all of us have this in bits and pieces at least but there is a coherent hole here of finding our life in the kingdom of God and uh we've talked about Matthew 4:17 we' talked about Matthew 6:33 haven't said much about Romans 8 1-14 there is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walked not after the flesh but after the spirit for what the law could not do and that was weak through the flesh God did by sending his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and showed up sin for what it was right and the result of that is those who walk not after the flesh but after after the spirit see they have Deliverance over sin that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit now then you have to settle in your thinking is that imputed righteousness or is it also imparted righteousness the rary way of setting it up is that's imputed we fulfill the law because we trust Jesus who died to pay off our sins and we owe nothing to the law that's the way that's read you read it that way you can't make any sense of what follows in Romans 8 because Romans 8 is not talking about forgiveness of sins it's talking about life it goes on to say it goes on to contrast the life of the Flesh and the life of the spirit they that live in terms of the flesh it's hard to translate prepositions like Kata but it I think if you put it in terms of they that live in terms of the flesh verse five those who are according to the flesh my version says but who live in terms of the the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh that is to say that's what they think in terms of Flesh here is what you can do in your natural human abilities you individually and you socially that would mean that you would look in your planning in your of your churches and uh your own life you would simply expect things from natural sources and that would be all those who are who live in terms of the spirit cutter they mind the things of the spirit if your mind is set on the flesh the outcome is death the Mind Set On the spirit life and peace and he goes on to develop that you see he talking about life John 3 is not a forgiveness passage John 3:16 is not about forgiveness it includes forgiveness but about life from above this is one of the most shocking things that I often say to people is because they've always thought in terms of John 3:16 meaning forgiveness God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever put their confidence in him would not perish go to hell but have eternal life go to heaven right now if you read the passage you'll see it's not about forgiveness it's about life from above that means that John 3:16 is not just about what happens after you die but what happens while you're alive the life you lead will be an eternal one that means that the things that you do go tied in with the Romans passage will be of the spirit and therefore will not be perishing will not be death the mind of the flesh is death why because it puts its focus on it involves its life enti with uh the things that are natural and so we often wonder if God didn't exist would our church be any different and if it's simply a human operation the answer is it wouldn't because people would do the things that are needed so I just invite you to take these kinds of verses I mean you just pile them up and inductive Bible study is what you need to do you take the words you're focusing on you study them through the scripture you get the context so now here's here's what salvation is on this View and since that's that's the really big deal uh try this on try it on in your life in your ministry history and above all in your study of scripture salvation is participating now in the Life which Jesus is now living on Earth of course that involves forgiveness and Heaven afterwards it's not a question of omitting those it's a question of making that the whole deal see so now do hang on that Colossians 1 Colossians 3 1-4 if you then be risen with Christ see that means participating now in the life that Jesus is now living on Earth if you then be risen with Christ seek those things that are above so you don't become passive you become active seek those things that are above now above doesn't mean beyond the Moon it me means where God is acting in the first heaven and beyond that of course where Jesus is on the right hand of the father now he manages to do that and be here as well right seek those things above where Christ is Seated on the right hand of the father set your affections on things above not on things on the earth because you are dead and your life is hid with Christ and God see that's now so now you have to bring that together with the theme of the Divine conspiracy because this is a hidden life now go back to John 3 what did Jesus say about those that are born of the spirit precisely that they have a hidden life which is the real thing that's going on in them now that hidden life will manifest itself in great Transformations not just of character but uh if you like signs and wonders language it'll certainly show up there too now the onlooker will not know what's going on that's what Jesus said to Nicodemus wasn't it the wind blows where it lists you hear the sound you don't see it you you see its effects you perceive its effects and that will also be true but now here's here's the crucial point for the understanding the Divine conspiracy a person who wants to explain them in some other way will do that to their satisfaction and that is a part of what God has in mind with the whole process of things here on Earth is to allow people who wish to go another way to go another way but to allow people who wish to know him to find him because the promise as you recall in Jeremiah is that you will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart right so God is present God is present in you he's present in the people of Christ The Salvation that is running that we're a part of now is one that actually is there for anyone who wishes to seek and to find it wonderful man named Bill Craig I don't know if you know him but he's and Bill is from a more reformed position and at one point he got worked up about John Wimber and thought he should but Bill is a wonderful loving man and while he can disagree with someone he can also be open and he he had this is many years ago 1988 bill sent out a prayer letter and we're on uh we received them and he's talking about power evangelism and power healing and he has theological disagreements with John Wimber and that's okay John whimber would have never been troubled about that at all he the man of incredible irenic and Christlike spirit and he would understand but here's now here's here's what happened Bill Craig he's writing this from Belgium I think it was even if we do not have the gifts of healing because he's one who had trouble with the idea of gifts we can pray for the sick interestingly that's of course also true of John MacArthur who has trouble with gifts but still Believes In Miracles and in prayer uh um bill says when I returned from our first conference back in November my thoughts kept turning to a young woman in our church here in Belgium named Sue Cooper who had recently been stricken with multiple sclerosis it was a terrible tragedy and the question kept forcing itself why don't you to Bill why don't you lay hands on Su Cooper and pray for her healing when I shared about the conference with my Sunday school class Sue who was in the class said why don't you pray for me so I did something I wouldn't have done before that is before reading uh wimber's books and hearing him teach I invited Sue to stand in the center of the room and the others in the class to lay hands on her and pray pray for her healing nothing extraordinarily H extraordinary happened but Sue was grateful and we continued with the lesson after a couple of months the Coopers moved back to the United States and Sue was pretty resigned to the fact that she wouldn't be healed but now we've re received word from her that her doctors can find no trace of Ms in her body at all and the doctor said that she should no longer say that she has multiple sclerosis well what do you know what do you know see that we are participating in a life that really moves with us and us with it and that's what we're learning as disciples faith in Jesus means that we have confidence in him for everything it doesn't mean that we have confidence in his social teachings or that he hates people in power or who rich and wants to cut them down send them to hell I've heard people say that right cursed be ye Rich isn't that pretty strong didn't Jesus say that didn't Jesus say that the rich are cursed well looks like that Luke 6 let see if you got your mind on something you can find a place in the scripture to support it not just something he did even suffering for us that isn't discipleship faith in Jesus the whole person I have confidence in him for everything everything that he said about life and death is right everything he commanded us to do is what is good for us not not something that's supposed to make us miserable it's good for us discipleship is not bad news oh someone says I understand that Jesus says if you're going to be a disciple of his you have to give up everything you have to hate your mother and your father and your brothers and sisters and your own life also sounds awful doesn't it but you have to remember that's the other side of the Parables of the pearl of great price those go together you have to count the cost to be a disciple yes you do that doesn't mean you just look at what you pay you also look at what you get if you go to buy a new car you have to count the cost that doesn't mean you just count the money you have to pay that means you have to count what will happen if you don't buy the car how do you like being stuck on the freeway well you see you get a car that runs that you don't have to worry about that so much right so you have to look at what you get and what you pay and that's what Jesus is talking about when he talks about counting the cost but when he comes down then we have a book written wonderful book by the way on the cost of discipleship see no one knows the cost of discipleship who does not understand the cost of nonis discipleship right so how about you writing a book on the cost of non discipleship could you do that you preach on that what it cost you not to be a disciple of Jesus whe you spend the rest of your life being dominated by hatred and lust how's that that sound good well of course if you're far enough gone it could sound good but if you have your wits about you you'll realize hey that's worth getting rid of how about living a life full of love and joy and hope and peace confidence in God is that worth something well that's the cost of non-discipline making any sense to you please say yes or no okay all right good thank you you see now um I didn't leave that up there long enough for you to look at but see that's what faith in in Christ means so now just to rehearse it say what are we saying what is the gospel the good news that we can live now in the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ faith in Jesus Christ means I have confidence in him for everything I want to be as close to him as possible and learn from him everything I can I want to believe and I do believe that all of his Commandments are for my benefit so anything he tells me to do is for my good and I will be much better off when I do it it'll be much better off now you can only understand that if you get the background of the Kingdom if you don't get that you don't get it now uh here if I had time I would go back to these questions that I put up last night oh okay uh these great questions you see that I put up last night the great questions that Jesus answers and we could talk about how he answers them when we come in this way see what is reality who is well off who is a good person how do you get to be a good person and see this is a framework for genuine witnessing for Christ you want to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ you bring those questions to the minds of people and I've never seen a person who I use these questions in my classes at USC because that's what all the philosophers and all the thinkers have tried to answer Through the Ages and that's what we want to keep before the people we teach the people in our fellowships that's what we want to bring to to people who are not in our fellowships but the but our people that we're trying to bring the witness of the Kingdom to this these are the questions question s that we have to press so now we want to Bear down just a little more on um uh the disci what discipleship the content of discipleship is and why the Gospel of Jesus that he preached is omitted because uh this becomes a serious problem why don't we why isn't why don't we hear the gospel of the Kingdom I um included again in Chapter 2 here of the Divine conspiracy some interesting statements by U Peter Wagner and some other people about the gospel of the Kingdom here's what Peter says Peter Wagner says this um he says it is the unanimous opinion of modern scholar ship that the kingdom of God was the message of Jesus now it's not quite right the what the message of Jesus was the availability of the kingdom of God not just the kingdom of God this is on page 59 of the book Divine conspiracy now he says I cannot help wondering out loud why I haven't heard more about it in the 30 years I've been a Christian I certainly read about it enough in the Bible but I honestly cannot remember any Pastor whose Ministry I have been under actually preaching a sermon on the kingdom of God as I rumage through my own sermon Barrel I now realize that I myself have never preached a sermon on it where has the kingdom been well now again I don't want to be legalistic about this you can preach the kingdom without using the word on the other hand the words are pretty obvious in the scripture and raise the question perhaps we should use them and at least raise the question do we have a better way of putting it and I'm not saying we we can't and I I believe actually that it has been done without the wording Through the Ages repeatedly by people who had other language for it but as I said earlier this morning there's always the simple fact that there is an emphasis on whole life involvement with Jesus as Lord and if you can get that in the manner of kezic talk or Franciscan talk or Benedictine talk or Quaker talk or Baptist talk or Catholic talk or whatever kind of talk if you get that that's okay that's fine but you have to have that regardless of the language you use well there's some other references in that part of the Divine cons conspiracy on this issue of of U not preaching now let's look at these three areas there because we have to develop these later now so in being a disciple there are three areas that we need to uh think about one is just learning to do the things that Jesus said and I say again and we from now on I'm going to be repeating this don't get legalistic about this doing the things that Jesus said is not a matter of trying to do the things that Jesus said it's a matter of becoming the kind of person who would naturally do them and that's where we go back to our circle diagram the focus is on changing the stuff that's in those circles you change the stuff that's in the circles and the behavior will change so to stick with our simple case you know blessing those who curse you you don't want to try to bless those who curse you if you do you'll fail that's all you do and see the the problem is that the stuff that's in the circles pops out before you have time to think about what you're doing or not doing that's why the Pharisee always fails and winds up in hypocrisies because they aim at the action not at the change in the person but still the things that Jesus explicitly said to do are guidelines and we need to have in mind becoming the kind of person who does that so now we have a lot to say about that later that's just the general point the second thing is how to live life in areas where there is no explicit command no explicit command how do you live most of the stuff that we do God Jesus didn't say anything about there's nothing about it in the Bible he didn't say anything about automobiles for example what kind you drive how you drive it and that sort of thing you know but still there is a way he would do that and so now here this is a combination of learning how to do the things he explicitly talked about but also how to do stuff that that we have to have Guidance with and we have to be spoken to about that are particular and not in general terms they're particular and here we have to learn to hear the voice of Christ to listen for it to learn to follow and this might involve everything this is where our investment bankers and lawyers and others everyone needs to be able to listen and learn how to do the particular kind of work they do with Jesus at their side and to hear his promptings and his directions so that life as a whole is lived in the kingdom and not just the explicitly religious kinds of things or the moral Commandments only this includes areas of prudence as well as morality what is the wise thing to do Colossians 3:16 I quoted it to you the other night let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom speaking and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with Grace in your heart unto the Lord see that's that's a whole life kind of the wisdom of Christ is what we need here I think we ought to include for example our our business decisions uh issues about our family's Financial welfare and all kinds of concerns that have to do with ordinary life that we might not think about uh if we just looked at the Bible alone so we have to take care and then the final category of here is how to act with power in the Kingdom I said I think earlier that prayer and giving are the two baby steps in learning King kingom life if I didn't I'll say that later that prayer and giving are the two ways that we take Tiny Steps we're learning how to act with the power of God in the Kingdom the letter from Bill Craig is an illustration of this he didn't know how to what to do with that and so then now he heard some teaching and it impressed him and he had theological problems with it but given all the theological iCal problems to still when at the moment he was prepared to do something that he had never done before and he observed the result see that's learning under the third category here now go back to our earlier statement that we ought always being we ought always be undertaking to do things that we can't right that is the that's built into our nature because we're meant to live in the kingdom of God under the direction of God so that means we would always be undertaking to do things that we can't do that's learning to act and live in the power of God and that would cover everything from teaching Sunday school to a little child and talking to them about Jesus about life and death and Heaven righteousness and all that so you talk to a little child you're counting on God to do a work there if it's leading a big meeting or writing a book or uh if it's starting a business and so on all the all in the same area as we want to be acting in the power of of God now why is it that the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus is omitted uh I'm going to have to limit myself here and again I'm saying carefully study five minutes uh carefully study the scripture on this uh read carefully the New Testament the Old Testament to see what is the gospel there's one issue in particular that comes up over and over both on the left and the right theologically and that is the idea that Jesus preached one gospel and Paul preached another and you have to face that out uh on the basis of your understanding scripture I want to tell you that there is no such difference and uh the gospel that Jesus preached and the gospel that Paul preached are the same uh if you if you have time at some point and I had thought I might have time here but I won't to walk through the book of Acts and watch how the gospel of the Kingdom and The Gospel of Jesus come together and you will see them separate at the beginning and together at at the end and this was a this was a matter of putting a face to the kingdom and a kingdom to the face so you have to understand that people did not know what Jesus was talking about when he talked about the kingdom of God and I've already mentioned that in Acts one when they go out he's getting ready to leave and they're still asking the question in the wrong terms but Jesus is still talking about the kingdom of God look at Acts 1:3 in the 40 days that he was with them in and out with them he spoke of things pertaining to the kingdom of God that's what he spoke about there are very crucial passages such as acts 8 where Phillip is ministering in Samaria you remember they had had a big meeting up there before and Philip went back and now he's preaching look at what U the good news is about in verse 12 of Acts 8 it it's worth your time to mark this verse you may not have seen it and Philip and and we read here in verse 12 but when they believed Phillip preaching the Good News now stop there a moment and register good news what's the good news about it's about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus now now let me ask you you what do you suppose that name of Jesus stuff is about what was the good news about the name of Jesus think what was authority authority and I'm going to translate that down as meaning that in the name of Jesus you can invoke the action of the Kingdom see that's the key that's what they had to learn now in the early chapters in the book of Acts and you'll notice how that issue of the name of Jesus comes up over and over in the first chapters of the book of Acts now by the time they get here they have learned that when you ask and act in the name of Jesus the kingdom comes into action so now then I've quoted repeatedly Colossians 3:17 whatever you do in word or deed do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that's why that name stuff is important is because it ties into Kingdom and you I'm going to have to leave it to you to do your inductive Bible study take a walk through the book of Acts and watch the kingdom and Jesus come together so that by the time you get to the end of that and you're now living in the area where the letters were written and the church was emerging as a separate uh kind of entity in the world you get to the end of that you will see the face has been put on the kingdom it's the face of Jesus and a kingdom is presented in terms of the king who is Jesus but a king always brings a kingdom with them so they come together and that's the way it was understood in the New Testament I started way up in the middle of the air you know like ezekiel's wheels and uh you have I believe you have to do that and that if you don't start there things will not clear up and when you get down to the more specific level and I think we can illustrate that in what we're going to be talking about now you will invariably wind up in legalism so here's a saying for you spirituality without ontology produces legalism ontology is the theory of being it's the understanding of reality though that's why we have to go there and it applies not just to God but it also applies to us as human beings what really matters in US is the hidden aspect the sources of our behavior and we have to understand that we Are Spiritual Beings that's ontology and what when we get the ontology right and we get the right in the person uh then we're able to escape legalism spirituality without ontology produces legalism and that will be phariseeism and that's why religious people often are so angry and can be very mean is because they're focusing on behavior on faith and practice and they're judging themselves and everyone else in terms of that and it produces mean Christians and contemptuous Christians I and just think of the things that Christians have done to one another and where does that come from well it comes from the insistence on behavior and on specific beliefs and right and wrong and so the Inquisition and all the religious wars and all of those things and you say how could that happen it's because that they uh try to understand spirituality in terms of explicit Behavior or faith and practice or explicit kinds of belief so now if we come to Jesus we have to have beliefs about him you can't come to him any other way but the significance of the beliefs is not so we will be identified as having the right answers see very often salvation in terms of going to heaven is presented in terms of you being a kind of like a drive test you know here in California if you miss three you have to take it over except in this situation you don't get to take it over you just have to go to the bad place because you didn't get the right answers and the significance of faith is not having the right answers the significance of faith is being IM mesed in reality in the way that Accords with truth and when you do that then your life is different uh take something that in past Generations have been huge battles over virgin birth of Christ what's the significance of that to believe the Virgin birth of Christ well it isn't getting the right answer it's that if you believe that Christ was born of a virgin you got a different world than one in which he was not so now you're going to be relating to him in a different way I mean you hear now of course constant discussions among Christians about was Divine well one way of thinking about it is if I say that then I pass the test God will let me in because I got the right answer now I'm hoping that you are thinking that surely isn't the way it matters you see if I believe that Jesus is the son of God that he was uniquely Divine I relate to him differently than if I write relate to him just as a nice man who was had a historical significance and we ought to be like him or something of that sort you know so my belief is designed to inter integrate my action with reality and that's why that's why it really matters so we seek the kingdom in Jesus we come to him we begin to listen to him uh if the Holy Spirit and the word Works faith in our heart then we begin to say this is the Son of God this is equal with God and now then we have a different kind of person that we're relating to and hopefully all that we've been saying spells that out so we we come to seek the kingdom in Jesus we live out the righteousness the peace and the joy that is of the Holy Spirit uh and we live in uncompromising obedience we're learning to do that now do we have to be perfect well no obviously not why we're not accepted on the basis of perfection or performing we accepted because of our relationship to Jesus when I go to heaven the place of God they're not going to check the computer to see if all of my sins have been paid for they will see another friend of coming that's what they will see a disciple may be very green and very imperfect what characterizes the disciple is not the level of their perfection what characterizes a disciple is that they are learning that they are progressing and before very long they're very different in how they behave because their inner being has been transformed now um we want to look at the way the form that Jesus's teachings of the Kingdom uh begins to take as he opens up his main teachings and uh running through all of his teachings is the principle that again it's not a new principle but it is the principle of the inversion of the two kingdoms the two kingdoms in question here now are the well actually there what what the New Testament calls the world you remember that there are three things that the early Christians when you confess faith in Christ you took a stand against you disowned and that was the World the Flesh and the devil you disowned those three things the World the Flesh and the devil now think of the world the world is socially organized historically developing flesh it is superintended by the prince of this world who is Satan and the primary job that he has is to direct the ideas of this world in such a way that people are controlled by a false system of belief and that false system of belief has as its one of its primary con components the way people are ranked and you may have noticed that in human beings it's called sometimes pecking order because among chickens there is an order in which chicken gets to come and Peck uh this is a silly brutal kind of thing but it has to do with a ranking of people in terms of who is up and who is down and um it is a a pitiful thing you watch little children for example suffer from it very very heartbreaking to see it you watch a group of children on a playground and among the most brutal scenes on Earth are playgrounds and schools where little children suffer all these things and get involved in these rankings and it hurts you just to even think about it of course it goes on as you grow up as you grow up you you get hardened to it and both both in terms of engaging in it sometimes and in terms of how you get ranked and of course this is where contempt comes in because uh contempt is tied to the rankings and who is worth and who is not worth and Jesus is very conscious of this and he's especially conscious of how that's tied to the Theology and how human rankings are identified with God's rankings do that make sense because now this is the key idea that we have to talk about now as Central to Jesus's proclamation of the kingdom is the inversion of human ideas about Rank and the insistence that God has a different ranking he ranks people in different ways so now that is why you have the statement of Jesus that shows up over and over the first shall be last and the last shall be first sometimes it's worded different many who are first shall be last many who are last shall be first but he's always referring to those two orders of ranking what human beings regard as good as respectable as decent as to be applauded and striven for and the people who wind up in those places as being as as being well off as being good to be respected and then the tacit idea here is that if you're in those good rankings that means God's on side right so and one of the biggest things in this in this respect to God being on your side was wealth and social influence and uh having the right uh qualifications qualifications very important let me show you something about Paul Paul I said the other day Paul was really the first one who got it and uh uh if you look at Philippians with me for just a minute uh you'll see what I mean by that I think Paul is talking about his qualifications in Philippians 3 um finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord to write the same things again is no trouble for me and it is a safeguard for you you beware of dogs beware of evil workers beware of false circumcision and then he talks about the true circumcision and the false circumcision was a circumcision of the flesh it was a mark of propriety in those circles you were in if you were circumcised and you were not if you were out if you were not you were out you were a a heathen look at verse four although I myself might have confidence in the flesh if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh I far more so here's what it was circumcised The Eighth Day of the nation of Israel of The Tribe of benjin Benjamin a Hebrew of the Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee now you understand these are regarded as good things Paul was in terms of the first be ude in Matthew 5 Paul was someone who rich in spirit he was rich in spiritual things as to Zeal a persecutor of the church as to the righteousness which is in the law blameless that's that's the upside in the scale of blessedness of God's favor now here's what Paul says about it whatever things were gained to me those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ more than that I count all those things now all those things he's referring to are the things that he listed his education his attainments his family now if you don't have that sort of stuff you're what we call today a nobody you ever know a nobody you're a nobody that's a fascinating language you don't exist what does that mean that means in that order of that pecking order you don't pick you're out of it now Paul says all those things that put me up on the upscale of the pecking order I count as loss these are these are as loss what does he mean he means they are drawbacks the drawbacks I've have suffered the loss of all things and I count them but rubbish my new American Standard a very nice translation so some words it can't translate rubbish it ain't rubbish it's much worse than rubbish it's what you step in when you walk across the y lawn where the dogs have been running isn't that a nice way of putting it now the old version has a nice dung that's okay you can say dung I don't say that other word we're nice but being nice we don't get to it I mean that's what Paul's attitude these were the upscale things now what Paul knew was what he' learned from Christ was you can have all of those things and not be blessed and you can be blessed and have none of those things right the first shall be last and the last shall be first two kingdoms the things that are thought to be up on the human kingdom do not guarantee blessedness rather what guarantees blessedness is life in the kingdom of God so look at Luke 6 I'm not going to have time to go over all these verses but I do encourage you to understand that this is a general principle now that you'll see over and over I've listed some of the great inversion passages the song of Miriam Hannah's celebration these Psalms do the same thing Mary does in the in magnificant uh you see the same thing Paul does the same thing in First Corinthians but I won't have time to go over those I just encourage you to read them uh to see the teaching there as a part of the whole scriptural teaching that opposes the one Kingdom to the other there let's do look at Luke 6 now this is um apparently another version of the Matthew passage preached in a different place possibly and using it uses interestingly different formulations Matthew 6:20 turning his Gaze on his disciples he began to say blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God now what's the Assumption the assumption is if you're poor God isn't for you you remember the Rich Young Ruler you remember how Jesus told him that he had to get rid of his possessions and how he couldn't do that and how he turned away you see that question that came out of that Jesus said how hard it is for those who are rich to enter the kingdom of God and this just hit his followers in the teeth because they had the understanding that if you were Rich it was so only because God had blessed you so you in special favor if you're rich otherwise you wouldn't be rich you see how the reasoning goes this passage has confused many people because riches and poverty are such a big issue for people Jesus didn't say it was easier for poor people to get in he didn't say you couldn't get in if you had riches what he did was he he had on confronted the teaching that if you are rich you're in God so now he says blessed are the poor for yours is the kingdom of God he's looking at poor people blessed are the poor because yours is the kingdom of God blessed are those who are hungry blessed are those when men hate you oo ostracize you cast insults at you and spurn your name as evil for the sake of the son of man so are those good things no they are things that are regarded as bad by human beings and if you're in those positions you're not blessed but Jesus is saying no if you're in the kingdom of God you're blessed even though you are in positions and you're equally blessed you don't suffer by comparison now is he saying that everyone who is poor is saved and going to heaven when they die no of course he's not saying that anyone who's known poor people know that they can be just as wicked as rich people actually poor people can be more hung up on wealth than people who have it because they dream that he would do things that he cannot do they trust it more sometimes than people who are rich because people who are rich have found how little it can get you as well as what it can get you he's not saying that everyone who's poor is saved and I have heard people preach that if you don't do what the Beatitudes say you will not be saved and I'm not going to mention the names of these people because they're well-known names and names that we've already used in our discussions here I've heard them get going and just say you have to be poor in spirit you have to mourn you have to and they think of ways of suggesting how you can do that and they miss the whole point of the Beatitudes which is the inversion of Kingdoms and the availability of the Kingdom to people who are not up in the world's system and the unavailability of the Kingdom to some who are are up in world in in human estimation but I've heard people say that if you are rich you'll go to hell now you see if you are obsessed with the issue of going to heaven or hell you're going to have a hard time reading the Bible because it isn't always talking about that so if you read blessed oh that means saved it doesn't mean that got something to do with it but that's not what it means look at the other side here because you get wo bees in this version verse 24 woe to you who are rich isn't that pretty plain if you're rich you're in trouble now I've worked on this material at Great length in a book called The Spirit of the disciplines there's a chapter in the is poverty spiritual and there's a discussion of the back and forth over all this issue and if you find it something that you'd like to read then I invite you to read it because this is a huge tangle in contemporary thought and life and you do have huge segments of the church visible that believes that richness riches are a sign of decadence and you couldn't Poss possibly be rich or powerful and be right with God that God is in favor of poor people over rich people all sorts of confusions and in a large measure they do derive from misunderstanding these teachings the Beatitudes don't tell you to do anything they announcements about the reality of the kingdom of God in relationship to the kingdom of men in order to understand them you have to understand how Jesus teaches and um looking at these passages can help us with that uh Jesus does not teach generally by laying out General truths but by contradicting prevailing assumptions and allow and causing you to think about that you have to remember that they didn't have uh computers they didn't have ballpoint pins and pads to write on they didn't have recorders so they came with nothing and they listened so if you're going to teach in such a way that they get it you can't lay out systematically a body of Doctrine you have to find ways of putting Stingers into what they already believe and so jarring them that they will not have a problem remembering it did you hear what that man said and he teaches that way he teaches by questioning prevailing assumptions and practices and when you look at the Beatitudes you have to understand that's what he's doing so when he says blessed are the poor he's not saying all poor people are blessed he's saying your assumption that the rich are blessed is false because there are poor people who are blessed too and they are blessed because they're in the if your assumption is that rich people are all well off sorry because there are rich people who are in real trouble now I hope that this is not too difficult for you to get Luke 14 is a good place to see it because Luke 14 you have to understand how he teaches if you're going to get what what he says otherwise you'll turn it into legalisms and wind up where people do who who uh discover for example that Jesus wants you to hate your mother and father right he said that didn't he well if you don't understand how he teaches and that teaching that that you should hate your mother and father you think he's making a generalization whereas what he's doing is contradicting a generalization the generalization that your mother and father should determine life and that if you rece respect and love them you'll let you'll do what they say so imagine how zebede felt standing in the boat with his kids taking off down the coast with Jesus you remember that you could imagine Zebedee would say these children must hate me they left me here to deal with all this business and they're going after Jesus they must hate me Jesus of course is not teaching anyone to hate anyone he never taught that but he did realize that the interpretation of loving which meant that you would simply do what your parents said even after you had grown up had to be corrected because parents often misdirect you and you have to have a place to stand in the kingdom of God to redeem family relations well in Luke 14 here you have him going to a dinner and verse 7 he starts teaching he was invited by who and he says he watches people as they take the places of around the table if you wish and he says in verse 8 of Luke 11 when you are invited by someone to a wedding Feast do not take the place of honor lest someone more distinguished than you may have been invented invited by him and he who invited him you both will come and say to you you get up now and you move down there cuz I want this man to sit up here by me and you in disgrace get up and slink down to the last place in the table now you think Jesus was actually concerned about that about you being embarrassed I think he's actually concerned about that and when you're invited go down to the last place sit down to the last place that when the one who has invited you comes he'll say where's where's Joe oh Joe's way down there Joe come on up here I want you to sit by me friend move up higher and then you'll have honor in the sight of all who are at the table with you now do you do that then you're disobedient to Jesus he told you to do it didn't he look at the next verse 12 when you give a lunch or a dinner do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives and some people might say I've really been looking for this verse or your Rich neighbors lest they inv invite you in return and repayment come to you but when you give a reception invite the poor the crippled the lame the Blind and you'll be blessed since they do not have the means to repay you and you'll be repaid in the resurrection so now does that actually say you should never have your relatives over for dinner no it's addressing a general practice and Jesus teaches in this way when he's down at the very concrete level he addresses a general practice and he addresses it by putting a particular case before you so with reference to the Beatitudes um he's not saying that only those who are poor in spirit or poor in money are blessed he's saying contrary to the expectation the poor are often blessed because the kingdom of God belongs to them and the rich are not blessed because they're not in the kingdom of God it's all relativized uh to the kingdom so the meaning of the Beatitudes uh is uh uh to be understood in the light of this great inversion they are primarily proclamation of the availability of the Kingdom what are the Beatitudes the Beatitudes don't tell you to do a thing and if you just look at the grammar you'll see that that's certainly seems to be what he's doing he doesn't tell you to do anything it's proclamation of the Kingdom the availability of the Kingdom it's not guarantees of blessedness or of un blessedness and you will see that when you understand how he teaches and you realize what he's doing there are two great questions that we've mentioned that have to be answered and Jesus answers in the sermon on the mound who is well off and who is a good person and he answers who is well off in the first section up through Matthew 5:17 and he answers the question who was well off in such a way that it is shocking and revolutionary and he has to say to the people who are listening do not think that I have come to destroy the law when do you say that kind of thing to a group you say that kind of thing to a group when you know they're thinking that don't you right now why were they thinking that they were thinking of that because of the shocking Proclamation that he had just made about well-being or blessedness he had just announced that people who were on the list of unbless bles in the human order can be blessed and their blessing lies in the kingdom and then in Luke of course he adds the Wes the list of people who are thought to be have it made in the human order in the kingdom of God can be totally left out so now what's the essential message the essential message is in this in the familiar words whosoever will may come whosoever will may come it doesn't matter the human distinctions that may be drawn now then go back to the verse about that I gave you earlier about Matthew 11 11 and 12 and Luke 16:16 where it talks about since John the Baptist people are violently taking the kingdom and take see that's that the Beatitudes are about that the Beatitudes are saying now then tie that in with Jesus's practice what was Jesus constantly in trouble over associating with the wrong people associating with the wrong people listen to this Luke 15 now all the tax gatherers and the Sinners were coming near to him to listen to him those the wrong folks see they're like lepers and they should be going the other way and both the Pharisees and the scribes begin to Grumble that's a feature of Pharisees and scribes they Grumble a lot and here's what they said this man receives Sinners and to top it off he eats with them he eats with them and he told them a parable about the lost sheep and about the Lost coin and about the lost son you see the meaning of the Beatitudes is the openness of the Kingdom to all who trust in Jesus that's the story of the gospels now you have this in mind you go through read the story what do you see person after person coming to Jesus you see the remarkable generosity of Jesus in the kingdom of God he's comfortable with all of them because he is solidly situated in the kingdom of God so he can be with anyone he can be anywhere that isn't necessarily always true of us and we have to grow as his disciples before we can enter into that kind of thing but we ought to have in mind that we can like him be anywhere with anyone and perfectly safe and perfectly strong in the kingdom of God now just a final word the prophecy of Daniel why does this upset people so much why do we constantly try to go back civilize the Beatitudes why do you have people invest such efforts into how mourning will save you and how being poor in spirit is really a matter of thinking that you're poor it's so amusing to watch people try to translate these in ways that will fit into the legalistic mindset of human beings and there they are disgraceful they are they they like the prodical Son and the elder brother is standing there looking with reproach you see this is actually the announcement of the Kingdom that is cut out without hands the the stone that is cut out without hands in Daniel that comes and crushes human order and fills the whole earth and that's the eventual outcome of the kingdom of God it shakes the foundations in Hagi so that the things that remain will remain and those that um are not Eternal will disappear it is the kingdoms of the world have become that of our Lord and of his Christ and that's what puts the Hallelujah in the Hallelujah course isn't it well now I know I've raised a lot of questions and we're going to have time uh later on to talk about those so keep these things in mind about the meaning of the Beatitudes uh and what it means for the poor in spirit to be blessed and for the rich to be W Beed and uh we'll come back to those but this is a very essential part of the Gospel of the kingdom of God because that gospel inverts the natural human orders or the human orders that we see about us in the wisdom of the world and in our fellowships of disciples we will not respect the human order the human pecking order of values