Appetites & Attitudes of Kingdom Citizens

Jesus promises here in his sermon that the world will turn their name into something evil. The Christian in China today is called a threat. The Christian today in North Korea is considered treasonous to their great leader. A Christian in a Muslim world is called an infidel. But even in our own culture today, the Christian is being redefined as intolerant, unloving, hateful.

Have you ever had someone try to make you think that a task or a job was easier than it really was? Maybe they overemphasized the good parts and downplayed the hard parts. Today you're going to see that Jesus didn't do that. As Jesus called his followers and as he prepared them for ministry, he didn't sugarcoat the realities of what it meant to follow him. He didn't exaggerate the benefits of the Christian life while ignoring the potential hardships. He was honest about what following him would mean.

Here's the truth. Our commitment to declare Jesus as Lord comes with both earthly trials and eternal rewards. Stephen Davey is calling this message, Epitites and Attitudes for Christian Citizens. One of the most famous musicians of the last century was an African American named Marian Anderson, a woman who was a committed Christian, born in 1897 to believing parents who raised her and her siblings in Philadelphia. She would grow up to sing professionally everything from opera to gospel. She performed at the Metropolitan Opera and on stage throughout Europe to sell out crowds during her rather incredible career. She sang before Congress and heads of state.

Toscanini, the world-renowned conductor, said that hers was the finest voice of the 20th century. Later in life, a reporter asked Marian what was the greatest moment in her life. Now you suspected it might have been the concert she gave to the King and Queen in Buckingham Palace or perhaps singing at the inauguration of President Eisenhower or being the very first recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, maybe receiving the Grammy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1991, two years before her death.

She didn't speak of any of those. She quietly responded that her greatest moment in life was that day many years earlier when she went home and told her mother she would not need to take in washing anymore. Her mother would not need to do the laundry of neighbors in order to help the family eat. How do you define greatness? What would you say as you look back over your shoulder is the greatest moment? A great day. That was a great event in your life.

And over time that's going to change, no doubt. In fact, just a couple of months ago Marcia and I went to Charlotte for a few hours to celebrate our grandson's birthday. We sponsored an afternoon of fun and games at Dave and Buster's. If you've never been, it's crazy, it's loud, noisy, but it has a restaurant attached to it with really good food for adults who are in the process of losing their hearing and a lot of money.

Later that night he went on a scavenger hunt with clues that had been designed by Marcia known to him as Gigi. Later on that night when he climbed into bed he said to his mother this was the greatest day of my whole life. Well Jesus is about to tell us that really the greatest things in life aren't about money or metals. He's going to turn everything upside down.

It's going to be disturbing to his audience and to this day it is unwelcomed. So go back with me to Luke's gospel in chapter 6. Jesus has been demonstrating his credentials as the true king not only of Israel but every nation really. He's healing by his very presence which was prophesied of the true Messiah. He's demonstrating his irresistible, unstoppable authority over the demonic world also prophesied in the Old Testament of the Messiah.

He's setting the captives free. Now he begins preaching on the subject of what really makes you happy. What it means to be blessed.

The word is Macarius. What it means to be genuinely discovering the favor of God that leads to happiness. True happiness. This is what it likes though in the more narrow context of what it means to belong to the king. What it means to be a citizen of his coming kingdom.

What does that look like? Well let me tell you this up front again. If you're new to our study, Jesus is going to reveal to them the harsh realities of life now but the heavenly realities of the kingdom coming. But the first thing we've got to do is redefine in our minds and hearts what it means to have the blessing of the king in our lives. Now sort of get a running start on our last session we notice the first redefinition of being truly blessed verse 20. Blessed are you who are poor for yours is the kingdom of God. And we said this is much more than financial destitution.

This is spiritual desperation. Blessed are those who depend entirely upon the king in order to get into the kingdom. You could paraphrase this to read happy are the helpless who come to Christ and trust in him alone. This is the person who gets a reservation in that kingdom.

The person who enjoys here and now what it means to have their security and their assurance in belonging to him because we're not depending on ourselves. Well I had a good week I guess I'm in. You know I haven't missed church for four weeks in a row.

I'm probably in. I haven't missed emotions for four days running. I'm good. Now we are helpless. We are spiritually destitute. The key is we are connected to the king and we trust in him alone. Now secondly Jesus informs us that truly happy people have an appetite. First part of verse 21 blessed are you who are hungry now for you shall be satisfied in Matthew's parallel account he had some helpful words. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be satisfied. First blessed are the spiritually spiritually helpless. Now blessed are the spiritually hungry. So you demonstrate your citizenship in the kingdom of God by evidencing an appetite for kingdom food the glory of God the word of God the character of God described here by righteousness. This is subjective righteousness in hungering for whatever is right whatever is right is righteous. The apostle Paul writes it this way finally brothers whatever is true whatever is honorable whatever is just whatever is pure whatever is lovely whatever is commendable worth repeating if there is any excellence if there is anything worthy of praise think on these things let your mind be saturated be fed upon these things here's your menu for a righteous life feed on these things now the word Jesus uses here and you shall be satisfied is a word that comes directly from the farm it's a word that prayer primarily means to feed the cattle cortado filling them up with feed they're satisfied they're well-fed Jesus hints at this paradox you're satisfied with something that fills you up then you're hungry again for that which satisfies you and you're hungry again you feast on his word his glory his nature his attributes his creative handiwork everything about him everything that's right and excellent and pure and all that's righteous and and you get filled up and hungry again this is the psalmist saying my soul is consumed with longing hungering after your word he satisfies the longing soul and fills the hungry soul with goodness so here's the paradox you're hungry for that which satisfies you feast on it and then you're hungry all over again it's kind of reminded me when i studied this of thanksgiving you pull up to the table like hungry cattle and you feast beyond that which is reasonable and then a couple of hours later what are you doing you're in a kitchen getting a piece of pumpkin pie or making a sandwich what does that prove proves there's life a deceased body doesn't have an appetite a living body gets hungry it's filled gets hungry it's filled gets hungry it's filled this is true physically and spiritually you're longing for the word and the will and the way and the work of god and you never really reach the point where okay that does that you never get past this sense of dissatisfaction do you seems like you're never going to get over your spiritual need all over again you know why because you're spiritually alive happy are the helpless happy are the hungry not jesus turns everything upside down again in this third beatitude we could paraphrase it to read happy are the hurting notice the last part of verse 21 blessed are you who weep now for you shall laugh again in context jesus is describing citizens of the kingdom of god living down here for a little while and there's a lot of weeping a lot of things to weep about this is i think specifically in relation to that spiritual destitution these are tears of repentance and humility this is what one author calls the emotional breakdown that follows true recognition of spiritual bankruptcy tears of sorrow that lead later to the laughter without sorrow jesus's description of judgment is that weeping will never end his description of heaven is what those tears will be wiped away one more beatitude here one more beatitude here he doesn't pull any punches look at verse 22 blessed are you when people hate you when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the son of man notice here that jesus doesn't say blessed are you if people hate you but when they hate you not if they exclude you but when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name the lord uses four verbs here to describe what they could expect they will be hated that verb means to be detested literally to be pursued with hatred they just aren't going to leave the disciples alone maybe you're there you're wondering why don't they just leave me alone they might hate you why they may never be able to put their finger on it secondly they will be excluded he writes this means being disowned ostracized by family and friends perhaps you've experienced something similar we have people in our church family from other nations that are much more restrictive who were disowned disherited disinherited i remember when i gave my life to christ at the age of 17 i lost all my friends started from scratch because i had a different appetite and you can understand that i'm sure can't you as a believer excluded early church history records that jewish converts to christ had their names scrubbed from the rolls of the synagogue essentially effectively no longer related to the jewish nation they were disowned they were disinherited it's as if they were dead thirdly jesus promises his disciples that they will be reviled this means disparaged run down denounced criticized cut down mocked but then perhaps for many of them jesus has his fourth verb here when the world will spurn your name as evil this means to be defamed in other words the world takes this final step in ruining a believer's reputation and turning their good name into something evil when the believer did nothing but good they make sure it's because we're doing good but benefit the bible says if you're reviled by doing evil depending on where you live and when this will rise and fall ebb and flow it didn't take the roman empire long to turn the name christian which they were first called at anyot into something evil if you read if you read uh early church history which i love to read they accused the christians of being cannibals they twisted the meaning of the lord's table they're eating flesh and drinking blood they're cannibals oh people believed it they accused christians of holding weekly orgies misunderstanding the phrase love feast and the command to love one another they said oh they're they're they're perverted when they gather together one historian i read noted that above everything else christians were accused get this of hating humanity they were called haters of humanity and for a number of reasons they refused to enter into social activities attending the festivals of their guilds because they were related to idolatry and so they were called anti-social you just don't like people they were called treasonous because they refused to call caesar lord which every good citizen did they they refused they would claim only that christ was lord they're treason they're treasonous for that believers who actually love their neighbors and love their world for the sake of christ were called haters of humanity jesus promises here in a sermon that the world will turn their name into something evil the christian in china today is called a threat the christian today in north korea is considered treasonous to their great leader a baptized believer in japan is considered disloyal to his ancestors a christian in a muslim world is called an infidel we can go on but even in our own culture today the christian is being redefined as intolerant unloving homophobic backward judgmental and yes hateful jesus promises that the followers of christ are going to be in some measure detested disowned and denounced and defamed and what's the real reason for all of this jesus tells them here again in verse 22 on account of the son of man they they they hated me before they ever hated you jesus said there's a spiritual undertone here there there is this hatred of the kingdom of darkness against the king over the kingdom of light in other words then the name is spurn the christians name and reputation why because you believe that that jesus alone is lord i i mean how dogmatic is that because of our belief in in the biblical gospel of heaven and hell sin and salvation how judgmental is is that because of our belief in the moral claims of creator god regarding gender and sexual relationships how backward can you be because of our belief in god's design for marriage well you're just unloving our belief that jesus is god incarnate jehovah in the flesh the only way truth and life nobody gets to the father except through him how narrow can you be you must hate people that's what we believe so it isn't because you hate humanity because you're backward or unloving or narrow we simply believe the word of god period it's not up for a vote we don't determine what we believe by the courts denominational councils we simply hold to the word of god you believe all of that you're heading into a storm that perhaps may grow now keep this in mind when jesus is saying this at this particular moment he's sounding really strange to his disciples they are surrounded by thousands of adoring people who are clamoring to see jesus and and hear jesus just get near to him i mean what do you mean we're going to be hated and excluded and reviled and and defamed because we're associating with you everybody i mean look around lord they love you you're famous they can't get enough of you you're the greatest later on the rejection of jesus begins to pick up steam and sometime after this sermon we're told in john's gospel that many of his disciples left him and would no longer walk with him we're not going to walk in the footsteps of jesus what do you do what are you going to do if they take your name and twist it into something evil what are you going to do if following jesus doesn't win friends it loses friends it costs friends what are you going to do when you get ridiculed or maybe even fired from your job because of your moral beliefs what are you going to do and that professor mocks christianity and you stand for it and you're ridiculed and then on your way home from class you get a flat tire on top of everything jesus isn't paying off we will leave him and no longer walk with him it's too much trouble jesus is saying early on even when he's surrounded by thousands of adoring fans wait wait and see what jesus wants his disciples to do is take a longer look at life notice verse 23 rejoice in that day and leap for joy really jump for joy why look behold your reward is great in heaven look further down the road for so their fathers did to prophets in other words you're going to be treated much like the prophets were treated by this nation what they do they killed them they told the truth to their generation but just take a little longer look wouldn't you like to have the reward of an isaiah a jeremiah a daniel he's also implying that the generation of the prophets did not have the last word god did so remember this coming day and that'll give you joy as you work through the realities of being a disciple of jesus christ don't let your perspective get stuck down here by what you see around you i read recently of an interesting event i tucked in my files years ago came to mind as i studied dug around found it this perspective the lord wants us to have that it was illustrated so well by this i'll read it on a balmy october afternoon in 1982 badger stadium in madison wisconsin was packed more than 60 000 die-hard university of law university of wisconsin fans were there to cheer on their football team they were cheering against michigan but what seemed odd however as the score became more and more lopsided was the fact that michigan had a better team that year but even while wisconsin was getting just literally creamed there were these bursts of applause and shouts of joy from the wisconsin fans who were losing how could they cheer when their team was being beaten so badly on the field well it turns out that 70 miles away another wisconsin team the milwaukee brewers were playing the st louis cardinals in game three of the world series and the brewers were winning most of the fans at this college football game were listening on their portable radios and they were responding with joy to something other than that which was happening on the field in front of them imagine the other team scores a touchdown yay jump for joy here why how how do you do that don't just look at what's happening on the field in front of you jesus reminds him that that's not all there is the apostle paul put it this way the apostle paul put it this way so we do not lose heart why you got every reason to well think about this this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison as we look not to the things that are seen on the field in front of us but to the things that are unseen the coming kingdom the things that are seen are temporary but the things that are unseen are eternal so make sure you're tuned in to the kingdom station don't let the signal get overpowered or or or distorted by the static of the kingdoms of earth don't get all bent out of shape it's temporary you belong to the king his kingdom is coming it happens to be your inheritance so stay tuned thanks for joining us today for this message from luke six it's called appetites and attitudes for kingdom citizens this is wisdom for the heart we are the bible teaching ministry of stephen davie if you have a comment a question or would like more information you can send an email if you info at wisdom online dot org we have a place on our website where stephen answers questions that have come in from listeners like you go there and read through all of the other questions that have already been answered those are all posted 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