Christmas: The Person of Christ and His truth.Sunday December 18, 2022
How many throughout the world are celebrating Christmas, but do not know Jesus Christ hardly at all? What child is this? In other words, who is this? And when you answer that, not only do you fall down and worship Him, you will find yourself longing to obey His truth. He is more than His truth. The truth without His worship is just being busy, and eventually, frustrated. We receive the truth, and while keeping it, move on to the greater – walking through life with Him.
The last two verses of Matthew’s version of the Sermon on the Mount tell us something very valuable.
Mat 7:28-29 When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; 29 for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.
The red letters in your Bible end (Jesus stops teaching) and this seems almost like an afterthought, of which we tend to do a kind of fly by.
These two verses are by no means an idle or useless kind of epilogue, but are of great importance. Matthew is led by the Holy Spirit to inform us of the effect that the sermon had on the crowd because it directs us to the preacher rather than the sermon.
We are asked, as it were, having considered the sermon, to look at the One who delivered it and preached it.
There is much teaching in this sermon and as the Lord finishes, He informs us that it is no good debating the teaching or even admiring it, but that it has to be performed in obedience or the result will be that your life will be on very shaky ground (house on the sand).
Here He gave us a very serious warning about self-deception, for when He said that:
Mat 7:26-27 "Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 "The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell — and great was its fall."
The self-deception we are warned of is merely admiring the teaching and commending certain things.
When we admire doctrine and don’t do it, we are failing to realize that unless we are practicing it, we are acting outside of the kingdom of God; meaning its ways and laws. All believers are members of the kingdom of God, but not all live and act in its way. If we don’t live the way of God’s kingdom then we are living in the way of the world’s kingdom.
After trying to handle the many commandments and ways of behavior in the Sermon on the Mount, we will likely be taken back by some or much of it. Love our enemies, don’t even look at a woman to lust for her, judge no one, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are you when you are persecuted for His sake, be extraordinary (meaning life of the heavens), and more. And then we are faced with the warning in His final words that unless we hear them and do them our lives will be crushed under the weight of the world’s problems.
Why should we heed it? And, for example, concerning our own focus the last two weeks, why should we consistently pray as He taught us? The real reason is found in these last two verses that describe the response of the people.
Why should we obey the Sermon? The reason is the Person Himself, the Person who uttered these sayings.
“He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”
We must not concentrate only upon the beauty of the teaching and its principles, its perfect structure, its striking illustrations, its perfect images (the log in your own eye), its extraordinary balance, but we must more so concentrate on the Person who spoke it.
If we have laws and truths to follow, but we care not, or in fact, don’t love and worship the Person who gave them, then we’re just doing things for the sake of doing them. For example: If anyone tries to follow even the golden rule in the Sermon – do unto others as you would have them do to you – that person would live a fairly good life if his needs were met. But would that rule sustain him against the fierce storms and winds that bash against everyone eventually? No.
When we consider this teaching and all the teaching of the New Testament, we are never to stop even with the moral, ethical, and spiritual teaching, but we are to go on to the Person Himself while keeping all the teaching.
The authority of the NT doctrines derives from the Teacher. With all other teachers that the world has ever known, the important thing is the teaching; but here is a case in which the Teacher is more important that what He taught.
We rightly say that God is truth. The Lord said ego eimi he aletheia (I am the truth). Such “I ams” are not equivalents because God is more than truth. God is greater and more important than the truth, and so we receive the truth, and without letting it go, we move on to the Person, the Lord Jesus Christ who was given to us.
So, why should I heed and put into practice all that is in this sermon? The answer is the Person who taught it.
We might want to initially respond, “No kidding.” But ask yourself first why you don’t keep it. (I can say that confidently because no one of us keeps it perfectly) Some Christians (if they are so) hardly keep it at all. Those who strive to keep it, still struggle at times, and we all therefore depend every day on the petition, “Forgive us our debts and we forgive our debtors.”
If we are in doubt about the Lord’s uniqueness, about His absolute authority, about Him being the only source of life to mankind, if we do not fear Him; then the words of His teaching are undermined in our soul and we call them good and admirable, but are not serious about them or committed to them.
When we are tempted to argue or debate about any one of the teachings He gave, we forget that the One who gave them is the Son of God.
Joh 7:14-18 But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach. 15 The Jews then were astonished, saying, "How has this man become learned, having never been educated?" 16 So Jesus answered them and said, "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 "If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of God or whether I speak from Myself. 18 "He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who is seeking the glory of the One who sent Him, He is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
During this time of the Feast of Booths, Jesus taught that whoever believed in Him would from his innermost being flow rivers of living water, meaning that he would receive the Holy Spirit (Joh 7:37-39). Now it takes absolute authority to teach something like that.
The reason we will find our joyful obedience is because we truly see the Lord Jesus for all that He is.
The chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to arrest Him, but the officers returned without Him.
Joh 7:46 The officers answered, "Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks."
Luk 2:8-20 In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; 11 for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 "This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." 13 And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."
15 When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us." 16 So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger. 17 When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. 19 But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. 20 The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them.
We see a lot of great joy and praising and wonder and awe in everyone in this scene (including angels), but it is not because of a message given by the Savior. It is for the fact that He is here.
The angels call Him Savior. The Greek word soter was used a lot for other gods and people in both myth and history who saved people from situations of danger or from war, but who was ever able to save people from their sins and deliver them from death? There is only one soter, and when He grew up, He started a ministry and began to teach. The truths that He spoke were passed on to the other writers of scripture who expanded upon them while maintaining their principle truths. They are all called the mind of Christ. We will long to obey them and find joy in our obedience when we know the Person who has this mind.
Jesus said, “Blessed are you when you are persecuted for My sake.” Not for anyone else’s or for any nation or people, but for His sake. Not even for the teaching’s sake is in view.
The people must have asked, “Who is the man who asks us to suffer for him?”
Things of this caliber continue.
Jesus said in the Sermon, “I came to fulfill the Law.” He doesn’t say “I was born for this or that, but that He had come, meaning as the prophets foretold.
Psa 40:6-8 Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; My ears You have opened; Burnt offering and sin offering You have not required. 7 Then I said, “Behold, I come; In the scroll of the book it is written of me. 8 I delight to do Your will, O my God; Your Law is within my heart.”
This is quoted in Heb 10:5-7.
He is not of this world. He is different from all of us. But He was born into this world to defeat our great enemies and save us for Himself. This is no mere human teacher, but the Son of God who has taken on humanity.
Concerning murder, adultery, divorce, vows, revenge, and love; Jesus said, “You have heard it said, but I say to you…”
Concerning giving, prayer, and fasting, if we were doing so to be noticed, Jesus said, “I say to you, you have your reward in full, but when you …”
Jesus said, “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life …
Jesus said, “Yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these (lilies).”
Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Not “Rabbi, Rabbi,” but “Lord, Lord …to me.” This is the man standing on the hill calling Himself Lord, and in fact, judge. Can we imagine what the people thought when they heard this, even His disciples.
Then, at the end, He says, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them,…”
The Sermon is not words about Him or simply from Him, they are His words because He is Lord of all.
Application: Our ultimate joy should be rooted in beholding Him. He is the only Savior and Lord and Teacher. He is love and joy and peace. If we do not find our greatest joy in beholding Him then we love something more than Him and we need to deal with that through study and prayer and reflection.
Our ultimate joy should be rooted in beholding Him.
How many throughout the world are celebrating Christmas but who do not know Jesus Christ very well? You can tell them that the day is about Him and not all the other stuff, but if they do not know Him, what are they to look upon? They’ll nod and consent, and then go right back to presents and lights and trees.
All of the doctrines, all of the Bible, all of the churches and what they do (hopefully teach truth from Scripture more than anything else) are designed for one reason: to draw us into the full knowledge of Christ, a personal relationship with Christ, and to become like Him in thinking, conduct, speech, and behavior.
Remember, when Jesus taught the Sermon, He was, in the eyes of the crowd, a young man from a small, nowhere place called Nazareth, an artisan, a simple carpenter, who was not trained in any of the schools that produced rabbis or scribes or Pharisees.
But the crowd said that He didn’t teach like the scribes, but like one having authority. The scribes were not so much experts at the law as they were experts at the many interpretations of the law. They knew a lot about what other learned men said about the law, but they didn’t know it themselves. We must all be able to say, “The Scripture says this…,” rather than, “Pastor So-and-so says this…” The scribes quote other authorities, while Jesus speaks with authority because of who He is.
The scribes were always arguing amongst one another. This is something that Paul warns us against. We are to know the truth, and if we don’t know, that’s okay as long as we are in pursuit. The three greatest words in theology is “I don’t know.” They are humble. If some truths contain mysteries, of which God has yet pulled back the curtain, let’s not try and fill them in and rejoice that there is less to know.
But none of us could ever speak with the confidence of the Lord, though we should always seek for it. Right from the start He says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” That is pure confidence and authority. Who could ever be handing out stock in the kingdom of heaven?
[emphasize below – sum up the middle] So then, in the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord revealed Himself while He revealed the spiritual content of the Law. The Pharisees and scribes made the Law entirely physical. If they didn’t commit adultery then they were in the clear, but Christ told them they were not. Who could keep the Law? Who could keep all that Christ taught that dwarfed the Law? We have all come short of the glory of God. All of our strivings will never make us righteous, or fit us to stand in the presence of God.
He came to give us a new life and then He gave us the full law of that new life, not altered by those who do not know it, and not like those who lessen it and then claim to know it.
He gave the law of the life that He in fact is, and He made us alive to follow it. We follow it, not because of the law itself, as much as because of Him who gave it. He is the beautiful Savior, the beautiful life, the strong hero and the gracious and fair poet. We follow Him.
We cannot live a life like this as we are by nature; we must be made brand new. By His teaching He is also saying that He has come to give us new life. He told us that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world (not like them or having them, but them), and we wouldn’t be that unless He had made us new.
He didn’t come to give a new teaching, but to give a life that makes the teaching a living reality.
He gives the Holy Spirit to the new people for help and comfort (parakletos).
He doesn’t make us perfect in behavior. He makes us new in His image while continuing to have the stain of the flesh, but the power to follow and overcome in our newness of spirit. We have the power to steer our ships in His direction, at times having gotten off course, but not lost. He is there, on the horizon, turn the ship aright and catch up at full speed. We have always as our desire to be right on His stern, following with eyes on Him.
He has come to start a new humanity. He is the firstborn among many brethren. He is the last Adam; He is God’s new man, and all who belong to Him are going to be like Him.
1Jo 3:2 We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.
1Jo 3:1-3 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
And despite the fact that the Lord has not been here for two thousand years and despite the uncertainty of many things in our world (as well as within ourselves) that challenge and threaten us, we know the One who came into the world, the one in whom we believed, as Paul wrote:
2Ti 1:12-14 For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. 13 Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard, through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted to you.
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