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KINGDOM MINDED
1. Upside Down
Today we begin a series about being Kingdom Minded. Last week in Connection I talked about Jesus on the hillside by Lake Galilee introduce us to the Kingdom of God concept. The kingdom is a realm of a king’s authority. So the Kingdom of God is really life lived under God’s rule.
It’s refers to a coming thing, when one day God will rule everything, but that rule starts now in individuals hearts by faith in Messiah.
So when Jesus talked like this, people wanted to know:
- what’s it like in the Kingdom? And:
- if I’m a member of the Kingdom how should I think and live?
This series we’re going to look to Matthew’s account to answer those questions. In Matthew 5:3 Jesus exposes the first thing we need to know about being Kingdom Minded:
BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN SPIRIT
First thing to know about the Kingdom is that it’s upside down.
- The poor are rich, the rich are poor.
- The strong are weak and the weak are strong.
- The road to up is down.
- The one who is the greatest is the least and the least is the greatest.
- Humility is greatness, servanthood is leadership.
- And the insiders are outsiders and the outsiders are insiders.
OUTSIDERS ARE INSIDERS
Like when Jesus hears of the faith of a Gentile, Roman centurion, here’s what he says to the crowd of Jews who would consider themselves the spiritual elites of planet earth:
Matt 8:10-12 "I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom [coming thing]. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
Imagine what it was like to hear that. It would be like me coming to a church and saying, all the Muslims and Buddhists are going to heaven, but all of you Christians are going to hell. That would be the impact it would have on them.
What is Jesus trying to tell them? That spiritual pedigree and good works are not tickets into the Kingdom of God. So what is the ticket?
LIKE A CHILD
Well, another time Jesus was asked, "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" And he took a little kid, maybe 3 years old and had him stand inside the circle of the crowd. And he said:
Matt 18:2 "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom
He’s saying entry into the Kingdom is all about humble faith, childlike trust. That’s upside down! Why? Because it makes everything dependant on God not us; his mercy, not our own goodness.
EVERYONE GETS IN THE SAME WAY
As he illustrated in another parable about the Kingdom in Matt 20:1-16: A landowner hires men in the morning to work in his vineyard. But then, at noon he hires more – but for the same wage. And again almost at quitting time, he hires more guys, for the same wage.
Why weren’t they working? “Because no one has hired us.” No one wanted them. But the landowner wanted them.
So at the end of the day everyone of the workers was paid the same. And some were upset. They worked longer, they did more good, they should be paid more! But the landowner said,
Wait a minute. I gave you a fair wage. So isn’t it my prerogative to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?'
So what’s Jesus saying? God is generous with those who don’t deserve it. He saying the Kingdom is upside down:
"So the last will be first, and the first will be last."
PROSTITUTES AND TAX COLLECTORS FIRST
And latter, he would drive the point home when he looked at the spiritual elites and said, in Matt 21:32
"I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you.”
Now, friends all true Christians in this room understand this about the Kingdom. It is an upside down Kingdom. You entered it the day you confessed, got real with your sin, turned from it and trusted Christ alone for mercy. But are we living this out – every day? How?
- Do you have broken hearted humility over our own sin… or are will still full of pride against our neighbor?
- Do we live a transparent, confessional lifestyle… or are we still hiding our sin from God and others because we’re afraid of what they’ll think.
- Do we live in acceptance of the prostitute and tax collectors among us… or are we full of judgment of those whose pasts are a broken mess or who aren’t being put back together as quickly as we think they should be?
Friends, confession and repentance are NOT just what you do at the beginning of the Christian life. They are a lifestyle of those who inhabit and who are destined to inherit the upside down Kingdom of God.
So before we come to communion today, rather than repeat my message last week, I thought we would be served by doing what Jesus did to teach the Kingdom… tell stories.
- First I’m going to tell the story of AC3’er who just vividly writes about her own bankruptcy of spirit.
- Then after communion we’re going to see a video of another story that illustrates the promise of blessing for the poor in spirit.
EYES
Go ahead; ask me any bit of celebrity trivia. I know who was married to the actress that was in that movie, and who she was married to before that. My husband has a strange kind of awe for my gift of knowing the Who’s Who of Hollywood. To be honest, I’m not sure where I get all this stuff. Sure, I buy the occasional People magazine and hear the odd bit of news on TV, but I’m not really a Hollywood ogler or anything.
When my husband and I sit down to watch a movie, I can barely resist whispering all the personal data on the actors as they emerge, as if I was reading the back of a baseball card. I must admit he’s a patient man, my husband.
I used to be the same way about the news on TV. Hardly a local or international story would air than I was all over it. I learned all the details. But, something has happened in the past few years or so. I can barely make it through a newscast anymore. I’m not sure what happened.
It started with this horrible story about a teenaged boy shooting his parents and then going to school and shooting at classmates. He was arrested before he had the nerve to turn the gun on himself. I watched a special report that showed the police interrogation of this little boy, which is really what he was. It was horrifying to see him go through this …the sobbing and despair overtakes him. I cannot get it out of my mind and cannot face it either. Just writing this down and having to remember it is almost beyond me. It is such a dark, dark place.
The terrific awfulness of it is that I KNOW this could be any of us at different times. I used to think that the kind of person who could kill another was someone I could never be. They had to be mentally ill to take another life, and it is beyond what is in me. Watching that boy, I knew if he could do it, we all could. Sure there was something inherently wrong with him, but it seemed as though he had just desensitized himself so much by living in a fantasy world, that he could carry out such an act. Being jolted into reality and the finality of it was a shocking surprise to him.
Don’t we all do that to some degree? Isn’t that how affairs happen? We just live with a thought, a bad thought, and then we go to sleep with it and rise with it. It becomes part of our own reality. A man may fantasize about having an affair so long that it is a very short step to actually doing it. When he gets caught and sees the pain, suffering and damage it causes, he is shocked into the reality of what he has done. I know this is in all of us.
They are me and I am them. I cannot shake it and I think of the pain I, myself, have caused. I have not killed anyone nor had an affair, but I live in my own version of fantasies sometimes. How could these people have gone so far down that road? They are ill, yes, but aren’t we all? We are diseased from this fallen world and our own terrible natures.
Perhaps this is where confession comes in. It keeps us from going too far down that road, from thinking our thought world is the real world. Or…maybe it is the real world and our actions betray us sometimes. If we are confessing not just our sins to each other, but our fears, thoughts and fantasies, we cannot get too far without someone reining us back in. When we say it out loud, we hear it for what it is.
I have neglected this form of accountability to real life. Even to God. I have already been forgiven all, right? The past, the future. Confession sometimes seems unnecessary. God knows and I know, so what’s the point? He knows when I regret things. But am I honest enough to let him turn me?
I confess, I do not confess. It’s a start. It is vitally important, I am realizing. I must be vulnerable and I must be completely honest, or it is nothing. I think how I could confess things that really make me come out good underneath. Like,
- “I confess I sometimes work so hard that I neglect the important things.” Really, I’m just such a diligent worker and not at all lazy.
- “I confess I sometimes put others’ needs before God.” Aren’t I just too caring?
o I know this is not what God is looking for.
He wants the ugly, because He knows it is there. I know it is there. If I confess this to Him and to others, I cannot go too far down the road of my secret life. I will expose myself and risk a lot. If I do not confess, I risk all. God is saying, “I see.” He sees the all of us.
It is amazing that He will take those parts of us and make them clean. I cannot believe He sees the righteousness of Christ when He looks at me. The least I can do is not to pretend it’s my own. The least I can do is confess what He already sees.
It’s time now for communion. It’s time to be Kingdom Minded. Blessed are the POOR in SPIRIT. Come, to this table, poor in spirit.
Isa 1:18
Come now, let us reason together,"
says the LORD.
"Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.
