Written Into the Will--Sermon on the Mount Series

            I’ve always enjoyed the scene in the movie “Cast Away” when Tom Hanks’ character learns to make fire after getting stranded on a deserted island. He dances around his bonfire a bit, then sticks out his chest and says, “I have made fire!!” I can just picture myself doing the same thing.

            Fire has all kinds of beneficial uses. We can cook with it, heat our homes with it, sanitize things with it, even use it to clear land. Of course, it can also be very destructive. It can burn down our homes or run wild across the prairie. So what’s the difference? The fire is exactly the same whether its heating my home or burning it down! The difference is whether it is under control. When we use fire for good things, we harness its power by keeping it in proper boundaries. We channel its heat and energy for a specific purpose. Fire only becomes destructive when it breaks out of those proper boundaries and channels.

            In our study of the Beatitudes today, Jesus is going to praise a character trait called “meekness,” which we can describe as strength of character, properly channeled. The Lord pronounces God’s approval upon meekness in Matthew 5:5, which says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” Here is yet another statement from Christ which turns the wisdom of our age upside down.

I saw that very clearly in a moment during my early teenage years—it’s a moment I wish I could do over. I was over at a friend’s house around the 4^th of July. They had some other family friends over, and somehow the conversation got around to the fact that I was a Christian. Once that became known, a middle-aged man looked at me and said, “Do you really believe all that stuff about the meek inheriting the earth?” Now at that point in my life, I probably hadn’t spent five seconds thinking about that verse, so I had no idea what to say. I wish I had said something like, “I’ll have to look into that one some more,” but instead I just grinned, hung my head a little bit, and said, “Nah, I guess not.”

            I never found out why that man mentioned that particular verse, but the fact that he did illustrates just how crazy Jesus’ words sound to people who don’t believe the Bible. What do you mean the meek are going to inherit the earth? Plenty of people have tried to conquer the whole world, and no one has done it yet. Do you mean that the meek are going to do something that the mighty have never been able to do? Well, we shall see what Jesus means.

In this Beatitude, Jesus begins to talk about the way that we interact with other people. In the first Beatitude, He spoke of the way that we think about ourselves with respect to God; in the second, He spoke of the way that we respond to our sins. Now, Jesus starts to mention the way that we interact with other people. This observation is a great reminder that each part of my life should be tied to every other part of my life. That’s truly what it means to have integrity—your life is a unified whole; you have the same way of thinking and the same way of acting whether you’re at church or home or school or work. The Beatitudes remind us of this. The way that I think about God and my condition before Him is directly tied to the way that I treat other people.

Let’s discuss the two halves of this verse.

“BLESSED ARE THE MEEK…”

            If you can remember the last time you used the word “meek,” you have a better memory than I do. I fill out character references for people every so often, and none of them ever ask me to rate how meek a person is! This is a word that people rarely use any more, so why do Bible translators use it—especially in a very recent translation like the English Standard Version that I use?

            Here’s a good lesson to remember about Bible translations: translators tend to stick to the dictionary much more closely than we do. When we speak to each other, we don’t stand there with dictionaries in our hands! We have a basic idea of what words mean, and for the most part we just rely on the context of the conversation to understand each other. But the people who make Bible translations can’t have a face-to-face conversation with everyone who reads them, so when they do their work, they rely on the dictionary definition of words because we all have access to a dictionary.

            In other words, Bible translators expect us to do a little homework in order to understand the Bible—and that’s exactly what they should expect of us! So, let’s take a look at the dictionary definition of “meekness.” In my dictionary, there were two possible meanings: 1) showing patience and humility; and 2) easily imposed on. The second definition is what most people think of when they hear this word. They think of someone who is a doormat; someone who is spineless; someone who never ruffles any feathers or stands up against anything. They think of Neville Chamberlain as opposed to Winston Churchill, or they think of last year’s Kansas City Chiefs—easily run over.

            But that second definition is certainly not what Jesus is talking about! He has something like the first definition in mind, and we know this because Jesus elsewhere uses this word to describe Himself. In Matthew 11:29, Jesus tells His followers, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.” That word translated “gentle” is the same Greek word that is translated “meek” in Matthew 5:5.

            So Jesus is saying, “Blessed are those who are like me!” Now what was Jesus like? Was He a doormat? Was He spineless? Certainly not! Jesus became angry with people who showed no compassion to others, and He was willing to correct people who were doing wrong and to issue stern warnings to people who heard Him. On two occasions, He chased people out of the Temple with a whip after they had violated God’s intentions for that holy place.

            And yet, Jesus must have had a very approachable demeanor. Little children were not afraid to come to Him; lepers and beggars were confident that Jesus would not turn up His nose at them. The fact that He came to Earth at all speaks of love and humility. Jesus had strength of character, properly channeled.

            Scripture also gives us other examples of people who fit this description. Numbers 12:3 says, “Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.” Moses twice held incredible power in palm of his hand, yet did not abuse it. The first occasion came as he was growing up in Pharaoh’s household. He may have been in line to become the Pharaoh himself, but he chose to take up the cause of his oppressed relatives, and he had to flee for his life for many years.

            The second occasion came after God used him to free the children of Israel from their slavery in Egypt. God performed incredible miracles through Moses. He could have easily declared himself king of his people, but he never did. In fact, when his father-in-law suggested that he share some of his judging responsibilities because he was getting worn out, Moses willingly agreed. He did not jealousy cling to every ounce of power that he could get his hands on.

            Yet Moses also acted decisively in the name of God when it was necessary. I think about the incident with the golden calf. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai after receiving the Ten Commandments from God, he found the people worshipping an idol that they had made. The text says that he melted the idol down, ground up the gold into dust, scattered it onto a source of water and made the people drink it. Moses had strength of character, properly channeled.

            I also think of Abigail in 1 Samuel. Abigail was married to a fool; her husband was Nabal, which literally means “fool.” Yet 1 Samuel 25 says that she was discerning and had an obvious faith in God. She was apparently a good wife to her husband, even though he was a fool. One day, Nabal foolishly insulted David, and David foolishly decided to pick a fight with him. But Abigail diffused the situation by giving David a generous gift to smooth over her husband’s insult, and she undoubtedly saved many lives. Abigail had strength of character, properly channeled.

            So meekness is clearly an honorable trait. It must be so if the Lord Jesus referred to Himself as “meek” (or “gentle” as your translation might read). And so Jesus called the meek “blessed” because of what they have to look forward to.

“…FOR THEY SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH.”

            It is easy and common for people to misread this statement. They read it as if Jesus had said the meek shall conquer the earth, but that’s not what He said. He said the meek shall inherit the earth. What is an inheritance? Its something you receive from the person who owns it. Let’s read the verse with that idea placed in it—“Blessed are the meek, for they shall receive the earth from the person who owns it.” And who owns the Earth? God, of course; more specifically, we could say that Jesus owns the Earth, and that will become obvious to everyone when He returns one day to set up His kingdom in this world.

            I think this phrase is saying the same thing as verse 3. We learned that when Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” He was saying that the poor in spirit would share in a piece of His authority over His kingdom. A portion of it would belong to them, and they would be its caretakers for the Lord. I think Jesus is saying the same thing in in v. 5, but now He simply uses the language of receiving an inheritance.

            Most children eventually receive some kind of inheritance from their parents. Since we are children of God, we can expect to receive an inheritance from Him. When the New Testament talks about our inheritance from God, it speaks of it in two aspects. The first is a guaranteed inheritance, which will be ours simply because we are children of God. This part of our inheritance is described very well in 1 Peter 1:3-5 [READ 1 Peter 1:3-5]. Notice how Peter emphasizes the unchanging nature of this inheritance—it is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. This, I think, would refer to our future home with God. It is guaranteed to us as His children.

            But the New Testament also speaks of an inheritance that is conditional. It is not guaranteed to us, but it is available to us based on our faithful service to Christ. This is what we’re referring to when we talk about receiving rewards at the judgment seat of Christ. This conditional inheritance is expressed well in Romans 8:16-17—“The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”

            These verses talk about both aspects of our inheritance—we are heirs of God, and we can be fellow heirs with Christ, but notice that there is a condition we have to meet to be a fellow heir with Christ. We must suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. You might remember the statement from Jesus to the Apostles that we read a couple of weeks ago. He said to them in Luke 22:28-30—“You are those who have stayed with me in my trials [that sounds like suffering with Christ, doesn’t it? And how does Christ continue?] and I assign to you, as my Father assigned to me, a kingdom [in other words, “this is my inheritance from the Father—a kingdom, and now I assign to you a kingdom] that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”

            The Apostles will be fellow heirs with Christ, and why is that? As Jesus said, they stayed with Him in His trials. He wasn’t talking about His legal trials before Pontius Pilate because those hadn’t happened yet. He was saying that the Apostles had stuck with Him through thick and thin. We know the Apostles weren’t perfect—you barely have to read one page in the Gospels to find that out!—but despite all of their failings, they just kept following Jesus.

            There is an incident recorded in John 6 that illustrates this well. A huge crowd had come to find Jesus because the text says they wanted to make Him their king, but Jesus said some hard things to them because they were not spiritually ready to submit to Jesus as their king. At the end of the chapter, virtually the whole crowd walked away from Jesus, and Jesus turned to the Apostles and said, “Do you want to leave, too?” Peter piped up for all of them and said, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.”

            The Apostles weren’t perfect followers of Christ, but they just kept following Him! That’s what the Lord wants to see from us—He’s looking for us to keep following Him, even if its like a little child following her daddy. He wants us to say, “Lord, my steps forward may be small steps, and you may have to turn around often and say, ‘Come on, keep going this way,’ and I may get distracted by a dandelion now and then, and I may fall down and skin-up my hands and bloody-up my knees, but I’m just going to keep following you!”

            That’s the attitude the Lord wants to see, and that’s the attitude that He will reward. Its not hard to see how meekness ties into that attitude. We need to have our energy properly channeled, don’t we? We need to have our decisions properly channeled to keep us going in the right direction. We need to be like Moses; we need to be like Abigail; we need to be like Jesus! He is our spiritual “big brother,” and we will live with Him someday. And if we live our lives like He lived His life, we will share in a little bit of His inheritance from the Father—He will give us the right to serve as lords and ladies in His kingdom.

The Darkness Shall Turn to Dawning--Sermon on the Mount Series

            If we had the opportunity to never again feel physical pain, I imagine we would all be tempted to take advantage of that opportunity. Just imagine—never having to deal with aches and pains again. No more sore muscles, no more creaky joints. That sounds great at first—doesn’t it?—but in reality, not being able to feel physical pain is a dangerous situation.

            There is actually a very rare medical condition known as CIPA, which describes people who were born without the ability to feel pain. Again, that might sound nice, but think about how dangerous that is. You could sustain a serious injury and not realize it because you couldn’t feel the pain. You know how you can sometimes get a small cut and not realize it until you see yourself bleeding? Imagine that on a much larger scale. Imagine if you couldn’t feel a deep, serious cut. Imagine if you touched something hot and left your hand there because you couldn’t feel the pain. While it might sound nice to feel no pain, pain actually plays a very important role for our bodies.

            In the same way that pain plays an important role for the body, grief and mourning play an important role for the soul. These emotions arrest our attention and force us to deal with things that we would not naturally choose to deal with, but just as physical pain tells us that there is a problem and drives us to deal with it, grief and mourning do the same.

            Our text for today is the second Beatitude, which you’ll find in Matthew 5:4—“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” This is another statement from Jesus that turns worldly wisdom on its head, but it has such an important lesson to teach us. Let’s take a look at the two halves of this verse.

“BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO MOURN…”

            We often hear this verse at funerals, but that’s not exactly the kind of mourning that Jesus is talking about here. Don’t get me wrong—God is the source of our comfort when we lose a loved one, that’s just not what this particular verse is talking about. In all of the Beatitudes, Jesus is talking about our spiritual condition and spiritual character traits. Jesus must be talking about mourning over something in our spiritual condition, and that naturally brings up the idea of sin. So Jesus is apparently talking about mourning over sin, and I think we could say that such mourning would include our own sins and the sins of others that we see all around us.

            So, blessed are those who mourn over sin. That is the proper response when we become aware of sin within ourselves or within the people around us. What a challenging and humbling thought this is! An awareness of sin should produce within us a response that may be likened to the grief of losing a loved one. This word for mourning is also the normal word in the Bible for mourning someone’s death.

            This is no light or casual response to sin. This is not, “the devil made me do it.” This is not, “Its no big deal—I’m already forgiven.” This is not “boys will be boys” or “everyone makes mistakes” or “that’s why pencils have erasers.” This is a sense of loss, a sense of brokenness and disruption and dysfunction in the way that things are supposed to be. According to Jesus, this is the kind of response to sin that God approves of.

            Now I will be the first one to raise my hand and admit that I do not always respond to sin this way, and I’ll go out on a limb and say that I’m probably not the only person in this room who needs to admit that! So why do we have this other response to sin? Why do we tell ourselves, “it was no big deal?” Well, the major reason of course is our sin nature. We are attracted to sin the same way that magnets are attracted to your refrigerator, so when we sin that part of us certainly doesn’t feel like anything is wrong or broken.

            Our sin nature is certainly the over-arching reason why we may not mourn over sin, but there are some other factors that are less obvious but still play a big role. Let’s spend some time thinking about them.

WHAT FACTORS MAY DISCOURAGE US FROM MOURNING OVER SIN?

1. Cultural Factors

            a. Heritage

            Many of us in this room can trace our heritage back to Europe—more specifically, to northern Europe; countries like Germany, England, Norway, and Sweden. Within this cultural heritage there has often been disapproval of strong emotions. They have sometimes been seen as signs of weakness and thus have been discouraged. That’s very different from the Middle Eastern culture in which Jesus walked and talked. That’s not to say that mourning over sin would have been natural for His audience, but they didn’t have this cultural barrier that many of us have in our background.

            b. Contemporary Factors

                        1) Fear and disapproval of grief and sadness

            Our culture fears and disapproves of mourning in virtually all its forms. The psychiatric community literally wants to treat grief like the common cold—its okay if it hangs around for a few days, but after that we better start to medicate it! Just last year, the official handbook for American psychiatrists revised its guidelines so that now you could be diagnosed with a mental illness if you grieve the loss of a loved one for longer than two weeks! A number of psychiatrists correctly protested that change, but nevertheless it is now enshrined in the “Bible” of American psychiatry.

            Our society struggles to see how any good can come out of grief, especially something like grief over sin. We are so concerned about having a positive self-image that grieving over our actions sounds dysfunctional and harmful. Yet it is precisely the response that Jesus encourages us to have. Considering that the Devil is active in our world today, it should not surprise us that society points us in a different direction than Jesus does.

2. Factors Within the Church

            a. Misunderstandings about Happiness and Joy

            Within our church and with our church friends, we can feel a lot of pressure to appear happy all the time, but this pressure stems from a misunderstanding about happiness and joy. As we discussed last week, happiness is a good feeling that you get when you like what is happening around you, but joy is more of an attitude that we can choose to embrace. It is an attitude of optimism in light of what God has done and what He has promised to do.

            That is an attitude that we can adopt at all times, but it doesn’t mean that we will always feel happy. For example, in Philippians 4:4, Paul writes, “Rejoice always,” and in the same letter, he tells the Philippian believers that he is writing to them with tears! So was Paul breaking his own command? No, and that’s because happiness and joy are not exactly the same thing.

            I think the pressure to appear happy is also reinforced by some of the songs that we sing. For example, consider the refrain of the hymn, “At the Cross:”

At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light,

And the burden of my heart rolled away

It was there by faith, I received my sight

And now I am happy all the day.

Have you ever sung that song even though you felt like you weren’t being totally honest? I’m not always happy all the day, and if I confuse happiness and joy in my mind, it is easy to feel like something is wrong with me. In reality, there are times when I most certainly should not be happy, like when I become aware that I made a sinful choice. I can still have an underlying optimism because of God’s grace, but I should grieve over the dysfunction of my heart.

            b. A sense of pressure to put on a good face for those who don’t attend church

            We want to present our church in an attractive light to people in the community, but in our efforts to do this we can feel pressure to exude a fake happiness that is just a show. Sometimes we compound this with our outreach efforts. I can remember times when I have invited someone to church by saying, “You should come sometime. I think you’ll enjoy it.”

Now, what kind of pressure does that create if the person comes to a service? Well, I’m going to feel pressure to make sure things are enjoyable for them. After all, that’s what I told them they would find, so now I want to deliver! As part of that, I certainly don’t want them to see me grieving over sin, because that doesn’t seem very enjoyable.

These days, when I invite someone to church, I just try to say, “Why don’t you come sometime? We’d love to have you.” I feel like I can say that with total honesty, and I’m not promising them anything more than perhaps a friendly reception.

So how can we overcome these factors that discourage us from mourning over sin? Let’s talk about a few ways to cultivate this response.

HOW DO WE CULTIVATE THIS RESPONSE?

1. Make the effort to reflect on your life

            We cannot mourn over our sins if we’re not aware of them. Some of our sinful choices are very obvious to us, but perhaps many of them are not, and sinful attitudes can be even more difficult to diagnose. Therefore, we must learn the Word of God and allow it to point out our sins so that we can then respond to them properly.

            Reflecting on our lives is a crucial step for Christian maturity, and I dare to say that this step cannot be fully taken in just a short devotional time each day. We must build a structure into our lives that brings the Word of God back to mind and that allows some time for reflection. With the schedules that we so often sign up for, we cannot afford to have our hearts and minds arrested by grief over sin. We have to keep going on to the next thing and the next thing, and our attention has to be given to the next project. Where are the quiet moments that allow for reflection? We must make an effort to create those moments.

2. Pray for sensitivity toward sin

            I think King David’s prayer in Psalm 139 is a model prayer for us all: “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” David’s prayer acknowledges the deceitfulness of sin. Sinful attitudes in particular do not just announce their presence in our lives, and even when we suspect that we may have sinned, it is easy to justify our actions. So we must pray for God to point out our sins and lead us down the proper paths.

3. Reflect on the sacrifice that was necessary for your sins to be forgiven

            When Jesus was in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before He was crucified, He prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me…if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done (Matt 26:39-42).” Jesus was talking about God’s wrath toward sin, and He received a clear answer to His prayer the next day—it was not possible for sin to be forgiven except through Christ’s sacrificial death. If any other means of forgiveness were possible, surely God would have chosen it, but there was no other way. Christ’s sacrifice reveals how serious God considers sin to be, and reflecting on His sacrifice can help us avoid a flippant or non-chalant attitude toward our sins.

“…FOR THEY SHALL BE COMFORTED.”

            We must also remember that mourning was not the final word in this Beatitude. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.” How would this comfort come? Well, first it would come through the Holy Spirit. When Jesus spoke those words, the Holy Spirit did not yet live in the hearts of men and women, but when Jesus taught the apostles about the coming of the Holy Spirit, He called Him “the Comforter.” That title comes from the same Greek word that Jesus uses in this Beatitude.

            Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” The Holy Spirit confirms in our hearts the truth of the Gospel—that we are forgiven by trusting in the crucified and risen Lord. This is why joy can remain even as we grieve over our sins. “Though sorrow may last for a night, joy comes in the morning!”

            And yet, the fullness of this comfort will not come until the kingdom of Christ is established on this Earth. Any comfort we receive today can be nothing more than a ray of sunshine breaking through an otherwise dark sky. We are comforted by the forgiveness of our sins, but we will continue to struggle with its temptation. We rejoice to see kindness in our world, but we will continue to see senseless acts of terror. But one day, “the darkness shall turn to dawning, and the dawning to noon-day bright, and Christ’s great kingdom shall come to Earth, the kingdom of love and light!” Then, we will see the fullness of this comfort, as the Prince of Peace reigns on His throne!

The Beginning of Blessings--Sermon on the Mount Series

            We’re getting very close to the start of graduation season, and if you attend many graduations this year, you’ll probably hear some of the regurgitated slogans that capture the wisdom of our age—favorites like:

• ·         “Follow your heart; it will never lead you astray”
• ·         “If its meant to be, its up to me”
• ·         “Realize your own potential for greatness”
• ·         “I am the master of my fate; I am the captain of my soul.”

I started to wonder the other day how Jesus might be received as a graduation speaker today. I’m sure a school would have a packed house if they could announce that Jesus was their graduation speaker, but how would people react if Jesus walked to the podium and said, “The first thing you need to understand is your complete lack of anything that might allow you to lay claim to God’s favor.” I wonder if Jesus would get invited back the next year.

      Today, we’re going to hear basically that message from Jesus as we start to look at the Sermon on the Mount. This will be merely the beginning of a complete overhaul of much of the so-called “wisdom” that we hear in our culture today. You can expect to receive a new outlook on life as we learn to see it from Jesus’ point of view.

      Our study will take us first of all into a collection of verses known as The Beatitudes. Let me make a couple of comments about these verses in general before we study the first one today. First, as we read The Beatitudes, we should not read these statements as a list of things to do in order to be born again, or in order to receive forgiveness of our sins. Nor should we read these verses as a checklist to use in order to measure whether you have been born again; or in other words, to find assurance of salvation.

The best commentary on The Beatitudes comes in Matthew 5:19, where Jesus states that we will not all have the same status in His kingdom on Earth. He says that some will be called least in the kingdom of Heaven, and some will be called great in the kingdom of Heaven. The Beatitudes, then, are a description of the kind of person who will be called great in the kingdom of Heaven. I think this is confirmed by v. 12, which says that the person described in The Beatitudes will have great reward in Heaven. These verses tell us how to live in order to hear that statement of approval from Jesus, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

      Second, in all of these verses, we will read that the person being described is called “blessed.” Let’s talk about what that word means. When you hear this word, don’t equate it with the word “happy.” As you’ve probably heard at some point, happiness is simply an emotional response to what’s going on around you. In fact, the word “happiness” is related to the word “happening,” as in what’s happening around you. So happiness is simply a good feeling that you get when you like what’s happening around you.

            But this word “blessed” is not talking about a feeling that just comes and goes in your life. Blessedness is the status of being approved by God. It is a status that we can enjoy now as we live out these attitudes and actions, and it is a status that will one day be made obvious to everyone in Christ’s kingdom because of the rewards that the “blessed” person will receive. So blessedness goes beyond a mere feeling of happiness, and it remains even if your circumstances make you feel unhappy—it is a wonderful thing, indeed!

With these points in mind, we are ready to look at the first Beatitude which is found in v. 3: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

“THE POOR IN SPIRIT…”

            Right away, we learn that Jesus would not do very well as a modern-day self-help speaker. Instead of telling us to realize our inner potential and power, He tells us to realize our inner poverty! When Jesus says, “poor in spirit,” he’s talking about the way that we view ourselves with respect to God. Do I see myself as having credit in my spiritual bank account (so to speak) that I could use to bargain with God, or do I see myself as having nothing with which I could purchase or gain His approval and favor?

            Its very important for us to understand the word “poor” that Jesus uses here. When we hear the word “poor,” we probably think of those who are financially poor in our country. Now, in our country in particular, it is possible for people to be financially poor, yet have a fair number of things. They may not have much, its true, but they often do have something. But Jesus is not saying, “Blessed is the man who can say, ‘I may not have much credit built up with God, but at least I have some!”

            The word that Jesus uses is the Greek word ptoxos. It’s the word that’s used to describe Lazarus in the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, where we’re told that Lazarus would lay at the gate of the rich man’s property and long to eat anything that fell from his table. Lazarus was a beggar, and he was totally at the mercy of the rich man.

            So Jesus is saying, “Blessed are those who realize that they are totally at the mercy of God, who understand that they have nothing with which to gain His approval or favor.” We would normally use the word “humility” to describe this attitude, and it is perfectly portrayed in Jesus’ story about the Pharisee and the tax collector. Let’s take a look at that story in Luke 18. (If you’re not familiar with this, tax collectors were seen as traitors by the Jewish people of Jesus’ day because they worked for a foreign government. Jesus is not putting down anyone who works at the IRS!) [READ Luke 18:9-12]. Notice that this Pharisee felt like he had some credit in his spiritual bank account; he thought he had some airline miles on his spiritual credit card because he regularly performed religious activities, and he thought that God must have been impressed by that. Now, let’s read about the tax collector [READ vv. 13-14]. The tax collector is a perfect example of someone who is poor in spirit. He realized that he was totally at the mercy of God; he had nothing that would impress God and no way to bargain with Him. He could do nothing but ask for mercy, and Jesus said that’s exactly what God was looking for.

            Now its very important to remember that we’re supposed to have this attitude not only when we accept Christ and are converted, but throughout our lives as well. It is easy to allow a particular idea to quietly take root in our minds—the idea that we do start to accumulate spiritual “credit” with God after we are converted. We realize we have no credit before God when we’re converted, but we might think that from that point forward, we start to build up credit with God like fuel points at Dillons, and then we can cash in that credit when we want God to heal us from cancer or get our kids out of a bad relationship or something like that.

This attitude can produce bitterness and anger within us when hard times inevitably come in our lives. We may find ourselves saying, “God, how can you allow this to happen to ME? I go to church; I gave money to that missionary whenever he came through town; I took food to that sick person that one time; I invited over those neighbors of mine who are hard to get along with.” We get angry with God because we feel like we had somehow built up credit with Him that was supposed to bring only good things and not bad things.

In reality, we do not build up credit with God at any time. There is never a moment when we can say, “I deserve this or that from God.” Now, we can recall the things that God has promised to do in His grace, but that is different from saying, “I deserve this or that.” Jesus drives home this point with a short story in Luke 17:7-10 [READ Luke 17:7-10]. So what’s the most that I can say for myself when I’ve done all—ALL!—that God commands? “I am an unworthy servant; I have only done what was my duty.”

Now, as we’ll see, it is true that God promises to reward those who obey Him, but even those rewards are a sheer act of God’s grace. We will not receive them because we deserve them; we will receive them because God is incredibly, amazingly, unfathomably gracious!

“THEIRS IS THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN”

            Looking again at Matthew 5:3, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for (or we could also translate this “because”) theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” This is why Jesus called them blessed—not because life will be all sunshine and rainbows for them in the here-and-now, but because of their relationship to the kingdom of heaven.

            Now when you hear this phrase “theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” don’t simply think “they will live in heaven with God after they die.” That is true, but Jesus is talking about more than that. It is so important for us to remember that part of our future destiny is to live again on this planet with Jesus when He returns to reign as king over the Earth. Even if we die today, we will return to this planet with Jesus in our resurrected bodies to live with Him in His kingdom.

            You may remember that last week, we read that the basic message of Jesus’ very first sermons was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt 4:17).” Jesus was talking about the worldwide kingdom of peace that was promised in the Old Testament. When Jesus came into world the first time, He was prepared to establish that kingdom, but the people were not spiritually prepared for it—that’s why He first called them to repent. But when the people almost unanimously rejected His call to repent, God delayed the establishment of that kingdom, and it has been delayed now for almost 2,000 years as God has sent the message of the Gospel far and wide throughout the Earth.

            But when Jesus mentioned the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 5:3, that’s what He was referring to—the worldwide kingdom of peace that Jesus will one day establish in this world. And notice that Jesus says of the poor in spirit that the kingdom is theirs. I think this is a little different than simply saying that the poor in spirit will live in that kingdom—which is true—but I believe Jesus is saying that the poor in spirit will have a piece of ownership in that kingdom.

            Let me clarify what I mean by pointing you to a conversation between Jesus and the Apostles in Luke 22 [READ Luke 22:24-30]. Don’t miss what Jesus is doing—He is giving the Apostles a role in His administration, so to speak. This is similar to what our president does when he comes into office. There are certain jobs that the president can give to anyone he wants—Chief of Staff, Senior Advisor, Press Secretary. And who does he give those positions to? To the people who were working closely with him during his campaign. Their positions are a reward of sorts for the work they did for the president.

            This is Christ’s reward for those who serve Him—for those who grow and display the kind of character traits He desires, for those who faithfully stand with Him. He gives them an honored position of service to Him in His kingdom. I believe this is what Jesus means when He says of the poor in spirit, “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” They will share in Christ’s authority to reign.

            This idea fits perfectly with the mission that God gave to mankind way back in Genesis 1. God said of mankind, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them rule over the earth (Gen 1:26).” When Christ sets up His kingdom in this world, He will fulfill God’s original intention for mankind, and we will serve with Him in that task to a greater or lesser degree based on our faithfulness to Him today.

            As I noted earlier from Matthew 5:19, some will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, and some will be called great. How do we pursue that greatness in the kingdom of Christ? Not in the way that the wisdom of our age would tell us. The frame of mind that puts us on the right track is to remember our utter spiritual poverty before God. At no point do we possess anything on our own that would allow us to gain God’s approval or favor. As Lazarus was completely at the mercy of the rich man when he laid there at his gate, so we are completely at the mercy of God for all things. This is the attitude that is called “blessed” by Jesus, and it is the attitude that will help us willingly receive the rest of the words that He will speak in this sermon.

A Mountain-Top View of The Sermon on the Mount--Sermon on the Mount Series

            According to a 2012 report, Coca-Cola is the most recognized brand name on the planet. You can go to pretty much any corner of the world and find a Coke. Their brand is more widely recognized than Apple, McDonalds, Google, Microsoft, and Disney. That’s pretty impressive for a company that sells sugared water!

            Today, we’re going to begin a study of a message from Jesus known as The Sermon on the Mount. I mean no disrespect when I say this, but we could say that The Sermon on the Mount is the “Coca-Cola” of sermons. It is easily the most widely-recognized collection of words in the English-speaking world, and perhaps even beyond that. It contains several of the most recognizable statements in all of Scripture, such as:

• ·         “Turn the other cheek.”
• ·         “Go the extra mile.”
• ·         “Love your enemies.”
• ·         “Judge not, that you be not judged.”
• ·         “Do not throw your pearls before swine.”
• ·         “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
• ·         Last but not least, The Lord’s Prayer, which is recited every Sunday in quite a few churches.

Those statements a very widely known, but several of them are just as widely misunderstood. When we hear a statement frequently, its easy to think that you know what it means even if you’ve never looked it up in its original context. Its like the children’s game “Telephone”—the further away you get from the source of the message, the easier it is for the message to get mixed up.

So over the next several months, we’re going to go back to the source—we’re going to go verse-by-verse through The Sermon on the Mount. But today, we’re going to take a “big picture” look at the sermon as a whole to look at its overall message. Every photographer knows that if you zoom in too closely on one object, it will be hard to see things clearly, but if you zoom out or step back, you can gain the clarity that you’re looking for.

Let’s begin with some basic facts about this sermon…

When did Jesus preach this sermon?

            We can see in Matthew’s Gospel that Jesus preached this sermon at the beginning of his public ministry. In fact, we might call it Jesus’ “inaugural address.” In the same way that our presidents make a speech at their inauguration to set the tone for their years in office, this sermon serves to set the tone for Jesus’ ministry.

            Now Jesus had been preaching publicly already, and a summary of His preaching is given in Matthew 4:17—“From that time, Jesus began to preach, saying, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” That is undoubtedly a summary of the basic message that Jesus taught, but we’re not told anything more about it. That is the same message that was attributed to John the Baptist, so we can assume that Jesus’ sermons had been very similar to those of John—they were basically a declaration that God had sent His chosen servant into the world and was ready to set up the kingdom on earth that He had promised in the Old Testament, but the people would first have to repent of their sins if they wanted to be allowed to live in that kingdom. The Sermon on the Mount, then, is going to be an elaboration on that idea.

Where did Jesus preach this sermon?

            Chapter 4 says that Jesus was in Galilee at the time, which is the region where He grew up. Then Matthew 5:1 says, “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.” That’s why this sermon is called The Sermon on the Mount, because Jesus was on a mountain when He preached it. Now when you hear “mountain,” don’t picture Jesus in rock climbing gear on a snow-capped peak in the Rocky Mountains! Picture an area a little more like the Ozark Mountains, and that will give you a better picture.

            Now why did Jesus go up on a mountain to speak? Its quite possible that he was looking for a place that could serve as a natural amphitheater so that all the people could hear him. Think about it—how would you speak to a large group of people outdoors without the help of a PA system? You would need “stadium seating,” so to speak, so that people could be seated above you rather than being pushed back away from you by the size of the crowd.

To whom did Jesus preach this sermon?

            Chapter 4 states that large crowds had come to find Jesus because they had heard about His power to heal people. To re-visit Matthew 5:1, that verse says, “Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.” Now the word “disciple” would simply refer to anyone who desired to learn from Jesus. It is not precisely equivalent to the 12 Apostles, whom we read about through most of the Gospel. This group would surely include people who had already made a commitment of faith to Christ. But among the crowds, some people may have been hearing Christ for the very first time, because at the end of the sermon, Matthew states that the crowds were amazed at the authority with which Jesus taught.

            So what we have here is an audience made up of some people who had already accepted Christ by faith and some people who had not. That will be important to remember as we study the sermon, because we’ll see a few statements that are more applicable to one group rather than the other.

So what’s the basic message of this sermon? I’ve summarized it in a couple of sentences, and I want to walk through that summary now.

“There are blessings and a rewarding task to be found by accepting my message (5:1-16)…”

            Jesus opens His sermon on a very encouraging note, probably to tell the people, “You’ve made the right choice by seeking me out.” He states that they will find blessings by becoming like Him, although as we’ll see, some of those blessings would not come immediately. He also declares that He is giving them a rewarding task, which is something that all people truly desire in their hearts. We all want to know that our lives are counting for something—that we are pursuing a worthwhile goal that gives us a sense of purpose and fulfillment, and that is what Jesus offers.

So He opens on an encouraging note, but then He sets out to correct their current mindset.

“…but don’t think these things can be found by following the path of the Pharisees. They have relaxed God’s standards (5:19-20) and promoted a misunderstanding of them (5:21-7:12).”

            The Pharisees were basically the pastors of the Jewish people at that time, and the people could not imagine anyone who could be godlier than the Pharisees appeared to be. You may know that the Pharisees had attempted to carefully interpret the commands for living that God had given to Moses in the Old Testament. In so doing, they tried to clarify what it looked like to keep those commands.

            For example, God had commanded the people to rest from their work on the Sabbath day, which was the last day of the week. So the Pharisees established guidelines by which to measure whether they had worked or not. For one thing, they declared how far you could walk on the Sabbath day before your walking turned into work. Obviously, their standard was totally arbitrary, but it gave them something they could measure.

            I think the Pharisees had good intentions for their interpretation project, but what they actually did was relax God’s standards by making them something that only addressed external behavior. That’s why Jesus repeatedly told the Pharisees that they looked great on the outside, but they were rotten on the inside. Thus, they promoted a misunderstanding of what God really wanted to see from His people.

            So Jesus spends the bulk of His sermon correcting this misunderstanding. If you’ve ever experienced a radical change in the way that you think about some issue, you know that such a change can be very difficult, and it can take a lot of convincing. I think that’s why Jesus spent so much of this sermon correcting the people’s misunderstanding.

The Lord then goes on to issue a challenge to the people.

“So now, don’t simply follow the crowd (7:13-14), and beware of those who teach lies in God’s name (7:15-23).”

            Here we find Jesus’ famous statement about the narrow gate and the wide gate, or the narrow path and the wide path. In 7:13-14, Jesus says, “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”

            Jesus is warning His audience that in order to find life, they will have to make a choice that will set them apart from many of the people around them. A choice like that always has been and always will be a hard choice, and as we’ll see, back in chapter 5 Jesus told the people that such a choice might result in persecution for them.

            So Jesus is very honest with His audience—finding life will require a difficult choice, and it will require them to beware of those who teach lies in God’s name. Jesus is talking about false prophets, the kind of people who were such a stumbling block for the Jewish people in the Old Testament. A false prophet is someone who claims to speak a message from God, when in reality their message is nothing of the sort. Jesus said that such people would come in sheep’s clothing—meaning that they look good on the outside—but inwardly they are ravenous wolves.

            This warning emphasizes the importance of being careful about whom you choose to listen to to teach you about the things of God. Today, we can easily access unbiblical teaching on the TV or the Internet—or even in a Christian bookstore! One sad but true reality for Christian bookstores is that they have to sell a wide variety of books in order to stay in business. They literally cannot afford to be too selective with their merchandise because they have to pay the bills. So we cannot assume that everything that wears the label “Christian” gives us accurate teaching about the message of Jesus.

So Jesus concludes His message with this challenge…

“Rather, listen to me and obey my words, and you will find a solid foundation for your life (7:24-27).”

            This challenge comes through the familiar parable about the wise and foolish builders. Let’s read it as we wrap up our time this morning [READ 7:24-27].

            As we prepare to look closely at this sermon in the coming months, let’s accept Jesus’ challenge up front—let’s make it our intention to hear His words and obey them as we learn more about them.

Jesus Through the Eyes of Pontius Pilate--First-Person Sermon for Easter

(This sermon is a first-person sermon, which I like to do at Christmas and Easter. A first-person sermon is one in which I speak as if I were one of the characters in the story.)

            Good morning, my name is Pontius Pilate. I think most of you know about me from my role in Jesus’ death. I must admit, it is rather awkward for me to speak to you today because I did play a part in crucifying the man whom you worship as God. But I’m not afraid to be here, because I have always received an unusual kindness from Christians that I really don’t understand. Even the men who wrote the Gospels in your Bible were very careful to point out that I believed Jesus was innocent and did not want to sentence him to death. So why did I allow it to happen? That’s what I’m here to explain.

            During the last years of Jesus’ life, I was the governor of Israel for the Roman Empire. Our Empire had conquered the entire area around the Mediterranean Sea, and each time we conquered new territory, we tried to maintain a delicate balance between local government and oversight by the Emperor. We weren’t very interested in spreading culture like the Greeks did, so we allowed people to keep their local customs and some form of local government. As long as they paid taxes to us and remained loyal to the Emperor, well, that was good enough for us!

I had been appointed as the governor of Israel after a successful career in the Roman military. As far as governorships were concerned, it was not exactly a glamorous position. For one thing, I was off in the far corner of the Empire, and I believe you have a saying that sums it up well—“out of sight, out of mind.”

Also, the Jews were a notoriously difficult people for the Roman Empire to govern. They had their peculiar religion that only allowed them to worship one God, and the way we honored our Emperor was far too close to “worship” for their liking. They also had a strong hatred of statues and pictures of gods—“idols” they called them—and this caused me no end of headaches when my soldiers would display their shields with images on them to honor the Emperor. The Jews also had these “prophecies” in their holy books about a king who would one day come from among them to rule over the whole world. You can imagine what kind of conflicts that lead to when people would speak up from time to time, claiming to be that king!

I tried to keep the peace with these people, but honestly, I never did understand their ways. One time, I made some significant improvements to the aqueducts that brought water into the city of Jerusalem, but they were mad at me because I used money from their Temple treasury to do it! I also tried to be a fair and impartial judge, but as you can imagine they didn’t always agree with my rulings. So, as a gesture of goodwill, I made it a custom to release one of their prisoners to them during their Passover Feast.

All in all, I felt that I was very generous to the Jewish people, but they didn’t see it that way, so, on several occasions, I had to maintain law and order with the sword. The Jewish people remember me in a very negative light because of it, but please believe me when I say that I just wanted to maintain peace for the Empire.

Well, I know you’ve been thinking about Jesus’ death this last week, so let’s get to the details surrounding that incident. It happened at the time of the Jewish Passover Feast, when they celebrated their escape from slavery in Egypt. During this feast, all of the Jewish people would congregate in the area around Jerusalem. Normally, I lived north of there in the town of Caesarea, but I always made sure I was in Jerusalem during the feast because there were so many people there. The possibility of a riot or a rebellion taking place was just too great to ignore, so we always increased our troop presence, and I made sure that I was on hand to give orders.

The feast lasted for seven days, and on one day toward the beginning of the feast, the Jewish leaders came to my palace very early in the morning to ask me to hold a trial for a prisoner who was in their custody. Normally, I would have conducted the trial inside the palace, but the Jewish leaders thought they would become “unclean” by coming into my home, so I went out to speak to them in the courtyard. I knew that I wanted no part of this trial when I asked for the charges against the man (who was Jesus, of course) and they said, “If this man were not an evildoer, we would not have brought him to you.” I thought they must have had some kind of conflict about their customs, so I said, “Take him yourself and judge him according to your own law.”

But the situation took a more serious turn when they mentioned that they wanted to seek the death penalty against Jesus. In Roman law, we did not allow conquered peoples to administer that punishment, so if they sought that penalty, I would have to be involved. So I asked again for the charges, and this time they said, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.”

Obviously, that statement got my attention, so I asked Jesus, “Are you the King the Jews?” To my surprise, he said nothing in His defense. He just calmly said, “It is as you say.” As you might suspect, this was very unusual behavior for a man who was facing the death penalty. He was strangely calm, and he did not possess any of the arrogance or defiance that you might expect from a man who wanted to lead a rebellion.

The Jewish leaders began to press me for an immediate verdict, but I needed to hear more from this man, so since the leaders would not come into my palace, I ordered that Jesus be brought inside so I could speak to him alone. As I suspected, He was willing to speak freely once we were alone. I asked Him again, “Are you the King of the Jews?” and to my surprise, He began to question me! He asked, “Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?” I thought He was about to put me on trial!

I replied, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?” I expected Him to talk about some dispute over their religion, but instead He said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.”

I will admit that I was a little confused about His statement, but He made one point loud and clear—if He were leading an armed rebellion, His servants would have been fighting to save Him. But they weren’t, so I had to agree that He seemed to pose no threat to Rome.

I still don’t know what to make of His words about His kingdom, so I simply said, “So you are a king?” He replied, “You say that I am. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”

I was taken aback by that reply, too. This trial was quickly becoming the most unusual case that I had ever heard. I could tell that Jesus was a man of lofty ideals and convictions and that He was willing to hold to His convictions even though the leaders of His own people were calling for His execution! I confess, part of me was envious of His courage. In my world of politics, it seemed that principles were easily set aside for whatever felt “practical.” “Truth” normally meant whatever I needed it to mean at the moment to keep my head! I admit that this had fostered some cynicism within me, so I simply said to Jesus, “What is truth?”

I don’t know why the religious leaders hated Him so much, but I could tell Jesus was not guilty of treason, so I announced to them that I found no guilt in Him. This decision did not sit well with them, and they began to accuse Him again, saying that Jesus was stirring up trouble all over Judea and Galilee. When they mentioned Galilee, I thought I had found a way to wash my hands of the whole ordeal. Galilee was under the jurisdiction of the Jewish king Herod Antipas, and I knew he was in Jerusalem at that time, so I ordered them to take the case to Herod. This was a perfect solution! Herod knew more about their customs, anyway, so he was in a better position to hear this case.

I was just beginning to move on to the rest of the day’s business when I received word that Herod was sending Jesus back to me—and worst of all, he’d done nothing to settle the case! Now it was back in my lap, and the whole ordeal seemed more foolish than ever. Neither Herod nor myself were very interested in the religious leaders’ case, so I just told them again that I found no guilt in Jesus.

But the leaders would not be pacified, and they became more vehement than ever. In the midst of their accusations, I overheard some others in the courtyard calling out to me about my custom of releasing a prisoner at the feast. Aha! That was the perfect way to get all of them out of my sight. I decided to offer Jesus as one of the prisoners for release, and to tip the scales in His favor, I chose a notorious criminal named Barabbas as the other option. Why I hadn’t I thought of that before? I could dismiss the charges against Jesus and make it look like it was the people’s own doing!

But what happened next was something that I did not bargain for. The religious leaders started to encourage the people to ask for Barabbas! What had possessed these men? They would not give up until they saw this man’s blood, so I decided that I might be able to pacify them by having Jesus flogged. Surely the sight of Him after that would be enough for them.

But when I brought Jesus out to them again, the situation just spiraled out of control. They demanded that He be crucified, saying that He had portrayed Himself to be the Son of God. That statement struck fear into my heart, because my wife had already told me that she had suffered in a dream because of Jesus and that He was a righteous man. Who was this man?

I took Jesus into my private quarters again and asked Him, “Where are you from?”, but He wouldn’t answer me. This whole situation was trying my patience. I was trying to help Him, and now He wouldn’t even speak to me! I lost my composure and shouted, “Don’t you know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” Then Jesus calmly looked at me and said, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”

The greater sin? Now this man was claiming to have the right to judge the severity of sins! I can’t tell you who this man was, but I knew that I didn’t want to have anything to do with condemning Him. I went out to the leaders again and announced my intention to release Him on the basis of the flogging He had already received. But the leaders shouted, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar!”

I had just asked Jesus, “What is truth?” Well, here was my truth—I had to stay in Caesar’s good graces. Just a few years earlier, a friend of mine in the Emperor’s bodyguard at Rome had been executed on suspicion of treason against the Empire. I had to think that the Emperor was keeping a close eye on me, so if I released Jesus, how could I explain that I released a man who was brought before me on charges of rebellion?

What is truth? Here was my truth—it had come down to Jesus’ life or perhaps my own. I’m not proud of it, but I chose for Jesus to take the fall. But I wanted everyone to know that I did not approve of this travesty, so I called for a wash basin, washed my hands, and said, “Take Him yourself and crucify Him.”

With that, I went back into the palace, feeling defeated. I may have kept myself out of trouble with the Emperor, but at what cost? This man had spoken about sin on the part of those who arrested Him—what did that make my actions? And just who was this man? I couldn’t get that question out of my mind.

A few hours later, a man who was prominent among the Jewish leaders came to the palace to ask if he could have Jesus’ body to bury it. I was surprised to hear that Jesus may have been dead so soon. It wasn’t unusual for a crucifixion to last an entire day, so I asked a soldier to confirm for me that Jesus was dead. Now, let me say something briefly at this point. I’ve been told that some people in your world today have claimed that Jesus didn’t actually die on the cross—instead, He just passed out, and then He revived in the tomb, which made it look like He came back to life. You modern people must think that we were a big collection of buffoons! Do you think I would allow a man to be taken down from a cross without making sure he was dead?

The soldier told me that Jesus had already died, but just to make sure, one of the soldiers on guard had thrust a spear into His heart. I can tell you for certain that Jesus was dead, so I allowed Him to be taken down and buried. After that, I thought I was finally done with the whole ordeal, but the religious leaders came to me again and said that Jesus had made certain predictions about His death and said that He would come back to life. They wanted me to post soldiers at His tomb to ensure that His followers didn’t steal His body and claim that His predictions had come true!

That kind of story was the last thing I wanted! I was ready to put that whole memory behind me, so I sent some soldiers to guard the tomb. As for what happened next, well—you’ll have to make up your own mind about that! I began to hear reports that something strange had happened at the tomb. I summoned the soldiers to ask them what had happened, but the religious leaders came instead to speak on their behalf. They begged me to excuse the soldiers because they had fallen asleep at the tomb, and while they were sleeping Jesus’ disciples came and stole His body.

I don’t know how dumb the Jewish leaders thought I was! If my soldiers were asleep, HOW DID THEY KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?? Besides, I was a military man myself; our soldiers would not have allowed that to happen. I never did get a good explanation of what happened at the tomb, so I can’t tell you what took place. You’ll have to check out the facts for yourself. But I can tell you this—Jesus was an innocent man who did not deserve what happened to Him. There was no reason that He should have been crucified—He was an innocent man! And yet, He wouldn’t defend His innocence. It was as if He were giving His life—willingly! Why He did it is beyond me, but I know His disciples have written about it extensively in the Bible. You’ll have to examine the facts about Jesus for yourself, and as you do, take this word of encouragement from me—don’t compromise what you find to be true for anything! I knew Jesus was innocent, but I let Him be crucified. Don’t make the same kind of mistake; don’t be cynical about the truth like I was. Find out what is true, and cling to it no matter what!