Jeremiah 23

The prophets in Jeremiah's time are not prophesying God's message but running with their own message. They want to say what everybody wants to hear. That way they will be accepted and liked and even paid for it. Are we tempted to say only what people want to hear? It is so easy to fall into. We want to be nice. We want people to feel good about themselves. We want to feel good about our country or our church and not look at its flaws.

The prophets are also not living righteously. Our message is blunted when we do not live right. We cannot sin sexually be avaricious to cheat others in business or gossip and speak meanly about others and then turn around and expect people to respect our opinions of God or be encouraged by our good works. We must be above reproach so that God can be glorified. God can then send his Holy Spirit to anoint our works.

There will be grace in all this. When we do sin we can return to God and repent and be forgiven. And God can bless the works of a sinner. But it is depending purely on grace and we cannot force it on God. He knows best and has a plan.

ES mentioned that few people go through Jeremiah like this. Let me tell you it is hard to do. I feel buffeted. If I am going to enter into the text I am going to think about my sin, the sins of our culture, the sins of my family, and so on. It's is hard to come back to the next chapter.

Jeremiah 21

In this chapter the enemy is at the gates. The king is desperate. So desperate that he asks Jeremiah for a word from God. The king must have more respect now since his former words are coming true.

Zedekiah is retold of God's judgment. "There will be pestilence." Undoubtedly the sickness will be due to starvation caused by a siege. Those who do not die by illness will die by the sword, the edge of the sword. The leaders will be deported.

Jeremiah adds there is one way out. They must give themselves up, go through the wall and go out to the enemy troops. This is pretty risky. The troops might just kill you. But Jeremiah says they won't. He who goes out to the Chaldeans "will have his own life as booty". He will be a slave but he will be alive.

The Hebrew blessing oft quoted is turned around on them (v.10). "I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good."

He then tells those of the king's administration to administer justice every morning. Those who are robbing must be judged and those who are being robbed must be delivered and the situation set to right.

Perhaps God will still relent (v.12) if the people repent of their evil deeds (v.14). There is an implied hint that God might still relent. But even if he doesn't you owe God good works of justice.

Those who have the responsibility to do justice should do it.

The Place of Prayer - 2

The major point of MP's sermon last Sunday (I think) was "The goal of prayer is not bliss, but new creation."

I suppose I was startled because some of what he said seemed to contradict some of the things I have said on this blog recently. But perhaps not or not too much. But he said it in a way that startled me. This is a good thing.

My reaction has to do with a sort of corollary of this main point which is: God is not most glorified by our being happy or joyful. God is most glorified by what we do, by the life we are leading for him. I suppose I have been most interested in the joy (blessing) I get in God getting the glory out of my feeble efforts.

So prayer is not about blessing but about transformation. Transformation and new creation are two aspects of the same thing. MP used them interchangeably. I see it's true. I love that it is true. But to me it means expecting the new, the unknown. I don't like surprises much.

We'd like prayer to be about us. But it's not. It's about God.

Now what I struggle with is when God asks me to do something I do not want to do. I want to be excited and eager and hopeful. Even if I know I am not capable (see last week's sermon) I want to have hope that God will come through.

I am not sure MP meant all this. I am speaking of my reaction.

I totally agree that prayer is not about me in any way. It's about God doing what he wants. We pray in the name of God. We pray for the things God wants. If we are right with God we will have God's mind on things. We are partners.

Now obviously we will not have God's perfect mind. We will not see things perfectly whether by prejudice or wrong teaching or simply by our selfishness which gets in the way. We want to have God's mind but we don't attain it.

Jesus tells us we are his friends. He tells us all that God the Father tells him. What a wonderful, marvelous thing. But Jesus says we are his friends as we do what He tells us. But when we are off, we may miss some of God's revelation.

I think I am talking muddled. But I think I am getting there. Those who read may have to add their own understanding.

The Place of Prayer

My wife thought a blog on MP's sermon would be appropriate. Our other LG leader called to say how excited she was about the sermon. I was not as excited but yes it was a good sermon.

I suppose that the reason you get away from praying is that you have been praying and you get used to God answering and you take it for granted, then you get out of the habit, somehow thinking God will keep acting even though you are not praying. You can call it like entropy or that Satan is trying to keep us from praying but we have to often get ourselves back on track. We have to actively work to make sure we are praying. It will not happen naturally. We have to work at it.

MP did mention that God sometimes acts even though there is not prayer involved. He mentioned God's sovereign act to intervene in the life of Saul (who became Paul). Direct prayer for Saul is not mentioned. But we do not know that Christians had not been praying for Saul. Perhaps they had been praying curses on Saul and God chose to answer those prayers in his own way.

I remember a testimony of a woman working in a government job. She had just become a Christian. She was so excited but all her co-workers were annoying her big time. So she prayed they would all be fired or transferred. Instead God converted all or most of them and they got to be fast friends. God has best in mind and he can answer prayers in ways different than we have the faith for.

So I suspect many Christians had Saul, the leader of a pretty fanatical group trying to stamp out the fledgling Christian sect, in their prayers. Some may have had faith for conversion. But most just probably prayed that his actions would be thwarted somehow.

MP mentioned liturgical prayer, that some of the Jewish prayers of that time would be specific, often memorized, prayers spoken at set hours of the day. I thought of my evening service where a time is set aside for prayer. SJD has been influenced by charismatic elements and is comfortable with extemporaneous prayer. They leave pauses for people to speak prayers out loud. I always say the names of the many missionaries I know. I also speak out those I know who are sick and who have recently died. Not loud, in a whisper maybe the guy next to me can hear. This week I mentioned Dottie as one who is "sick". Well she is sick of being pregnant, hehe.

We were at a niece's confirmation Saturday. At that Episcopal church it seems all prayers must be out of the book. Everything prayed was pre-written. So I thought of that when MP mentioned that the Jews would also have prescribed prayers for certain times.

the life of a prophet

The other day my wife said that prophesy runs in our family. It comes out in funny ways because we, like most people bent this way, try to hide it. It's a gift few people like. People don't like prophets. It makes people uncomfortable when truth is spoken. Often people blatantly deny it.

Another word for prophet is JERK. Now not all jerks are prophets (but a sizable percentage are) but all prophets are jerks. They make people mad. They annoy people. They say things no one wants to hear but they say them anyway. That makes them jerks. Often they do it confidently which makes them look arrogant.

In Jeremiah 20, Jeremiah has prophesied. So he is thought of as a jerk. One of those leading priests that heard him prophesy (Chapter 19) responded by having him whipped and put in the stocks. I remember the stocks from stories about the Puritans. I'd forgotten about them. Jeremiah was kept in the stocks for a day and then released. I can imagine people coming by and mocking him, maybe spitting on him. He was helpless to do anything about it.

When Jeremiah is released by this same priest he responds by telling him of his future. He will see his friends killed and he will die an exile in another land.

Then Chapter 20 becomes poetry and the viewpoint is changed. From history we now read of Jeremiah's personal anguish at being a prophet. He can do nothing but prophesy and it gets him into trouble. But if he tries to stop it just builds up inside and he cannot hold it in (v.9).

He hears all the whispers against him. Yet God has promised to protect him and he is aware of that protection.

There are some famous verses in this lament. In verses 14-18 he goes on lamenting that he was ever born. That is real depression when you feel sorry that you were ever born. People steal this idea for books and movies. Remember "It's a Wonderful Life"? That is the whole premise of the movie. The hero is sorry he was ever born so an angel gives him an opportunity to see what it would have been like.

Do we ever lament that we were born? Surely God has a plan for each of our lives, as he did for Jeremiah. That does not mean that we will not go through hard times like Jeremiah did. They could be really hard involving health issues. We might endure rejection, even failure. Yet if we are following his leading God will be our comforter, our constant companion and protector. We can trust in that, as Jeremiah did.

Jeremiah 19

As city dwellers we learn to tune out background noise that we do not want to hear. Some think that this increases chances of mental illness or even cancer, all those sound waves and light waves flowing through the air.

Lord help us not to tune you out. Be our guide and our helper.

In Jeremiah 19 here is the first time, that I recall, that Jeremiah is shown interacting with a group, prophesying directly out loud. He must have done it before. But the book records his messages, not how he delivered them. Could he have delivered them in writing?

Here he is told by God to take some of the elders and some of the leading priests to the valley of Ben-himmon. I guess this must be a part of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is filled with hills and valleys. It is not flat. God also told him to buy a pot and bring it along.

There Jeremiah gives them the message he has been telling them all along. He notes their disobedience in worshiping other gods and being dishonest in their dealings. (That is how I interpret "filled this place with the blood of the innocent".) He mentions very openly that they have been sacrificing their children to idols. This is just one of their many sins but to us this is so awful we hate to even think about it. Perhaps that is what Jeremiah means by "filled this place with the blood of innocents". But as they cheat the poor, mentioned elsewhere, they also perhaps mortally harm innocent people.

Then Jeremiah pronounces their doom. He predicts they will again sacrifice their children when they get hungry enough during a siege. That too is awful, impossible to really imagine.

They he smashes the pot before them. I can imagine him throwing it down and watching it shatter. He says, "As the pot that cannot be mended is broken in pieces so shall you be broken declares the LORD." So God declares that they are beyond help, beyond repair.

Then Jeremiah moves from the valley to the temple and then pronounces disaster on the city and surrounding towns and the people in them. God will do this because they refuse to hear and have stiffened their necks. They have tuned God out.

There is a play on words here: "disaster" that describes what God will do is the same word used to describe the "evil" which the people are doing.

I trust that you have sent us your Holy Spirit to be our guide and to keep us tuned in to your voice. Amen.

Do It First part 2

(3) What is one thing God is asking you to attempt to do today?

(4) Michael's quote stated "Do unto others as you would have God do unto you". What does this mean in your life?

Do It First

I really think MP hit a home run last Sunday in his sermon. You know MP could stand for "my pastor" but it doesn't. hehe

MP spoke of faith meaning RISK. He spoke of courage. He spoke of living a life with God meant some failure. He gave it a 50% failure rate.

Life group leaders were given some questions to answer. Since Life Group meets on Tuesday I never get these notes on time.

The first two questions are:

(1) In what ways are you doing what you are capable of? How do you feel about that?

The truth is I am doing a lot of things I am not capable of. I feel overwhelmed by this. I try to go from one job to the next in order to not feel overwhelmed. So my faith is not what it should be. And I feel maxed out in the courage department. In many way I try to avoid facing it.
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(2) In your past, what is one example where you attempted to do what you "could not" and God (in response) gave you "what you didn't have"?

A good example might help my faith right now. Often when singing anthems on Sunday nights I feel like that. But I do not get a lot of feedback. I have to trust it went well. Last week was a good example. Usually the bass section leader drowns out my untrained voice. But this week it did not. I could hear myself over the group. That might be because I was closest. That might mean I am singing too loud. In practice I was having trouble. Like many times I ask God to help me. I think he did. I think I hit the notes. That was God, really. But I do wonder if I was too loud. That might be a type of failure. But the congregation did clap for our effort. I should take that as positive feedback. But I remain insecure.

the "how much more" comparisons in Hebrews

I put these down as a memory help for me.

1. The glory of Moses pales to the glory of Jesus the great high priest

2. Melchizedek as compared to the Son of God, both "without beginning or end of life"
(Melchizedek has no beginning or end due to omission really as opposed to one who lives forever because God raised him from the dead.)

3. OT sacrifices for outward cleansing as opposed to a new sacrifice which cleanses the conscious and renews us within

4. An earthly man made sanctuary versus a heavenly one

5. Blood of animals for sin, repeated annually versus the body of Christ done once and effective forever

6. Assembly at Mt. Sinai versus the heavenly Jerusalem

7. God who warns and shakes the earth versus God who shakes both heaven and earth.

God in his plans for Jesus brought on a greater and better atonement for our sins.

Thank you God!

hermeneutical spiral by Grant Osborne

I am going to go through this large book, probably rather slowly:

I like this on the first page: "We take a three person approach to studying the Bible."

First is the third person approach, asking what the Bible meant originally (exegesis).

Then we take a first person approach, asking what it means to me right now in my life (devotional).

Then we take a second person approach, asking how I can share with you what it means in the terms of a message. This can mean sharing what it means to me. But it can go beyond that to what I think it means to you (meddling?). This is sort of a sermonic approach.

All three levels are important in studying the Bible, even if you never give sermons. It is still very helpful to think about how you would share what you have found out with others. Very important.

no Bible comments today

I went up and went to a leaders' training at Vineyard this morning. I feel quite conflicted about this whole thing. I am a reluctant leader. MP spoke to that in several ways. The chief being courage. I have little innate courage. It's all I can do to get any at all. I tell myself I do not want to be a leader but really it is because leading takes courage. It is in short supply with me. A lot of what I do in life is the work to increase my courage.

The second chief problem is why anyone would want to follow me, take me as any kind of guide? The main answer to that is my firm belief that it is not about me, it is about God. The more I can be like Paul said, strong in my weakness the better God gets the glory. I do not want to be a distraction to get in God's way. I think it often works.

I am studying John 15:1-8. The concluding verse says that God gets the glory in our doing good work and being his disciples. God calls us to do good works and that involves leading. Whether I like it or not God calls us to lead, to be courageous.

MP quoted some pithy stuff. One that I have used a lot is to the effect that anything worth doing is worth doing badly. In my words, if I feel the need is great so much so that I will do it, no matter how badly I do it, it is better than it not being done at all. Was it Spurgeon, who upon being criticized by a lady in her church about how badly he evangelized, responded, "Better how badly I do it than to how you do not do it at all."?

Another way to put it is I am OK with trying and failing or trying and not doing it perfectly. To wait until I get it together would be never to do it at all. My Kegan's Marriage Alpha classes are like that. We are actually getting proficient at it.

Now that is funny that I say that. We thought this last one went so well only to find after the last class there were some serious problems. It seems we were not on the alert like we should have and the prisoners did some illegal stuff. So pride goes before the fall. I have to not take things for granted. Prison rules are very serious and these guys are pretty devious.

But one of the things I felt God telling me was that I should take Tuesday off from Life Group and go use my ticket to watch baseball. I'm sure no one will agree that is what God is saying. Is is courage or simple bullheadedness? heh

Jeremiah 15

Frederick Buechner is a great source of pithy sayings: "There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it; always hidden, always leaving room to recognize or not to recognize him."

Jeremiah 15 continues God's condemnation of his people and the prophesy of their destruction. Some are making life hard on Jeremiah (v.15). But some seem to be listening (v.19).

God says do not encourage them. If they ask "where shall we go?" (v.2) you tell them there are four destinies: (1) death, (2) sword, (3) famine, and (4) captivity. Only one of four brings life and that a life of slavery in a different land. Jeremiah has no encouragement for them.

We begin to see asides that show Jeremiah's suffering. He does not like his position (v.10, 15). God does not relent from his awful calling. But he tells him he will support him (v.20). They will eventually take you seriously (v.11), no doubt when it is too late.

It is interesting to note that this is encouraging reading after it has all occurred to those who find themselves in the lands of their deportation. They are the survivors, in captivity. But this will show them, those who believe, that God is after all in control. This has not happened because of the strength of the Babylonian gods.

So when God promises them they will return back to the promised land they can have hope. They have basis to believe and hope. Some did believe and eventually went back to become God's chosen again. But many got comfortable in the new land, adopted the culture of their overlords, and lost their identity of God's people. That is sad.

But even when God punishes us it is good to know He is in charge.

Are you listening?

Jeremiah speaks so long because they are not listening. I have heard of preachers who said they would preach the same thing until his people finally listened.

Chapter 14 opens with the mention of drought. Sound familiar? Drought should bring us back to God. We beseech God for rain. Do you ever think to look to see if you have anything to repent of? Was it John (maybe James) who said we ask and we do not receive because our hearts are not right? Our prayers c an be blocked because of our unrighteous behavior.

verse 7: "Although our sins testify against us, O LORD act for your name's sake."

Let us come humbly before God. We got a very small shower yesterday. Today they are predicting a big storm. We need a good half inch of rain. And then we need more next week.

Jeremiah prophesies sword and famine for the people of Israel all the while the other prophets are prophesying eternal peace and rain in abundance (13).

We think in this nation could never be invaded like that. But plenty of other nations have thought the same thing throughout history. Can we be destroyed by sword or famine?

Jeremiah was praying for Judah. But then God says do not pray for them, I will not listen (11).

God would have to clearly speak before I would take that as applicable to me. In fact I believe the whole Bible speaks of God's great mercy. I believe that other examples, such as the story of the book of Jonah, show that God would have relented even now if the people would have repented. Just as God repented from the evil he meant to do to the people of Nineveh he would have now done for Judah if they only repented.

But we should not presume on the grace of God. Rather let us endeavor to praise, love and obey God in all we do.

Life Group - First John

We are going through First John in Life Group.

In the context of John's exhortation to rethink their relationship to God I was thinking about how selfish I was as a boy/young man. I never put myself in any one else's position. I only thought about myself. I rationalized it that I was insecure or some other psychobabble. But that's just another way of saying I am only looking out for myself. I was afraid of doing anything that might get me laughed at.

That is probably why I never understood dramatic novels. Action books I could get. But I never got Hardy or Dreiser and so on. It's probably a good bit of why I never understood girls/young women. I never tried to see things from anyone else's position. I was all about getting my own needs met.

Anyway. I was thinking, why did God bring up in my mind some old instances of my hurting people because of my insensitivity in the far past? I realized God wanted me to see I am not far from that younger selfish person. I am still a selfish person.

John says we know we are with God if we love one another. How do we know we love one another? When we do good things. If our conscious bothers us we can look at the good things we have done and ignore our conscious. God is greater than our conscious. He knows all things.

If we see our brother in need and do not help him how does God's love live in us? We cannot see our brother's need if we do not step out of ourselves and put ourselves in his place. Someone can walk right by us. If we are too busy thinking about the next thing we are going to do to pay attention to what is going on around us we can miss the obvious.

John is thinking mostly about physical need. But it can be emotional or psychological. I would not try to impose myself into someone's emotional stuff without being asked. But if God shows me things I can take the time to pray, to intercede for them. This gets me out of my selfishness and closer to God.

Jeremiah

When was the last time I read through Jeremiah? I cannot remember when. This book is so depressing. It is hard to read it straight through and not start not paying attention.

Right now I'm in chapter 13. Fortunately this is one chapter a day.

Prophets tend to use illustrations. They tend to be weird and unusual.

Here God tells Jeremiah to buy a cloth girdle (or belt). Then he is told to go the Euphrates (kinda far away) and bury it. Later he goes and digs it up and finds it ruined (duh!!).

This a garment worn close to the body. God was close to his people. Yet now they are worthless, just like this garment.

Then he describes an image with many wine jugs. The jugs describe the people of Judah. Then he smashes them against each other, like he says they will have their heads smashed after they get drunk.

Can Ethiopians change the color of their skin or leopards change their spots? Can you do good when you're taught to do wrong?

God is saying they are confirmed in sin and will not repent.

Jeremiah is told to tell them their sin has been seen by God. God will not have grace this time.

Jeremiah is unrelenting in his images of the destruction that is about to happen to God's people. I guess no one took him seriously at the time. But it is hard to read.

Prophesy

As I am reading Jeremiah thinking about prophesy I remembered a cherished hero of mine David Wilkerson. Wilkerson thought of himself as a prophet in his last couple of decades. That makes a lot of people uncomfortable.

David Wilkerson died suddenly, tragically, well if you can call dying at age 79 tragic. But he did not die of old age diseases. He died in an auto accident. He was driving without his seat belt on. His wife was with him and had her seat belt on. She survived with few injuries. This has got to be hard on her, survivor's guilt. I guess this is his first wife, the one that survived advanced cancer more than once. Surely everyone thought he would survive her.

Prophets make people uncomfortable. I have talked to two church leaders who made faces when I mentioned how much I admired Wilkerson.

James Dobson, Jim Wallis, and Chuck Colson are three other major Christian leaders who have entered into the prophetic realm.

I wondered about the wisdom of Dobson getting into the arena because his ministry to families would be affected. I think it was affected but he obviously felt the risk was worth it.

Wallis always makes me uncomfortable. Yes i admit to avoiding him. I guess you could add Jesse Jackson into Christian leaders who work to be prophetic voice in the political arena.

All these people get criticized and ridiculed. If you feel called to be a prophet it comes with the territory. But we should avoid listening solely to the critics and see what they say and judge for ourselves. It makes us uncomfortable but it is the only way we really have the right to say anything.

Having said that this country needs honest God fearing, God obeying Christians to speak out prophetically about our nation, our culture, our political leadership, and so on. And we need to listen. I think church leaders feel uncomfortable because they also might be the object of prophetic statements. Just as Jesus spoke out against the hypocrisy of religious leaders so to our present leaders may deserve criticism.

Jeremiah too spoke with dangerous honesty. There were other prophets and clerics trying to shout him down, assuring people that all was well and God was with them. Jeremiah worked to get them to repent because he said God would punish them if they did not. We still know what Jeremiah said because he turned out to be right. The others turned out to be false so their prophecies have been forgotten.

Prophesies today do not have the strength of scripture. Some may be correct. Others, as someone mentioned last night may no mean what the original speaker thought they meant. Usually they will only partially be fulfilled in our time, like the prophets of the Old Testament. They had partially fulfillment at the time but many were also about the Christ to come, centuries later.

But we should listen to current prophets, those who say things we like and those that make us uncomfortable. It can help us to remain humble. We need to allow it to correct us. Of course the Holy Spirit has to confirm in our hearts what we hear or read. We need to be careful to not go with every wind of doctrine.

I probably need to read and listen to our modern prophets myself.

Identity in Christ

Identity of a Christian
Who we are and how we should live. Christians have little idea of who they are supposed to be.
We are called not to be self centered nor seek after honor.
Mat 18:1-5 About this time the disciples came to Jesus and asked him who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (2) Jesus called a child over and had the child stand near him. (3) Then he said: I promise you this. If you don't change and become like a child, you will never get into the kingdom of heaven. (4) But if you are as humble as this child, you are the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (5) And when you welcome one of these children because of me, you welcome me.

Mat 20:20-28 Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee, with her sons, doing homage, and asking something of him. (21) And he said to her, What wilt thou? She says to him, Speak the word that these my two sons may sit, one on thy right hand and one on thy left in thy kingdom. (22) And Jesus answering said, Ye know not what ye ask. Can ye drink the cup which *I* am about to drink? They say to him, We are able. (23) And he says to them, Ye shall drink indeed my cup, but to sit on my right hand and on my left, is not mine to give, but to those for whom it is prepared of my Father. (24) And the ten, having heard of it , were indignant about the two brothers. (25) But Jesus having called them to him , said, Ye know that the rulers of the nations exercise lordship over them, and the great exercise authority over them. (26) It shall not be thus amongst you, but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your servant; (27) and whosoever will be first among you, let him be your bondman; (28) as indeed the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Much of the focus on Jesus’ identity is explicit.

Mar 8:27-29 Jesus and his disciples went to the villages near the town of Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he asked them, "What do people say about me?" (28) The disciples answered, "Some say you are John the Baptist or maybe Elijah. Others say you are one of the prophets." (29) Then Jesus asked them, "But who do you say I am?" "You are the Messiah!" Peter replied.

Mar 15:39 A Roman army officer was standing in front of Jesus. When the officer saw how Jesus died, he said, "This man really was the Son of God!"

The primary witness of Jesus identity is not that of humans but of the Father.

Joh 5:30-40 I cannot do anything of myself; as I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous, because I do not seek my will, but the will of him that has sent me.
(31) If I bear witness concerning myself, my witness is not true. (32) It is another who bears witness concerning me, and I know that the witness which he bears concerning me is true. (33) Ye have sent unto John, and he has borne witness to the truth. (34) But I do not receive witness from man, but I say this that *ye* might be saved. (35) *He* was the burning and shining lamp, and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. (36) But I have the witness that is greater than that of John; for the works which the Father has given me that I should complete them, the works themselves which I do, bear witness concerning me that the Father has sent me. (37) And the Father who has sent me himself has borne witness concerning me. Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor have seen his shape, (38) and ye have not his word abiding in you; for whom *he* hath sent, him ye do not believe. (39) Ye search the scriptures, for ye think that in them ye have life eternal, and they it is which bear witness concerning me; (40) and ye will not come to me that ye might have life.

Joh 7:28-29 As Jesus was teaching in the temple, he shouted, "Do you really think you know me and where I came from? I didn't come on my own! The one who sent me is truthful, and you don't know him. (29) But I know the one who sent me, because I came from him."

Identity is a major theme throughout the sermon on the mount.

Blessed are the poor and blessed are the meek both have to do with the rejection of arrogance and the understanding of our need for God. The first beatitude, “Blessed are the poor in spirit is an allusion to Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
The third speaks of the meek. And seems to allude to Psalm 37:11
Psa 37:11 But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.
Two different Greek words are used here but in the original Hebrew these are the same word. This word is often used as a title for God’s people. We are those who need God’s intervention and we know it. Our identity in Christ means that when things are not perfect the first thing we do is come to God in prayer. “Help!” is a very good prayer. When things are good the first thing we do is give thanks to God for the good times.
The other beatitudes deal with our attitude and behavior. “Hungering and thirsting for righteousness” “merciful” “pure in our hearts” “peacemaker”. In the deepest part of our heart their must be honesty, good will and desire for good relations both with God and with people. We are not to be deceiving, malicious, and violating boundaries.
These are lofty goals. We are to desire to achieve them. Can we achieve them? I think Jesus expected us to try. But he did not expect us to do it alone.
How do we make these changes in ourselves? We are going to deceive ourselves into thinking we are doing better than we really are. We can rationalize self aggrandizement. We are the ones in control on the change. So we deceive ourselves. We mean well but we let ourselves off the hook when doing these things seems to hard. Blaise Pascal put it, “Our own interest is again a marvelous instrument for nicely putting out our eyes.”
The Sermon on the Mount is not legalism. The sermon tells people who they are and what they are to do.
Later in the sermon he called them salt of the earth and a light to the world. This is our identity fellow saints as we follow Jesus’ challenge.
Let us seek to understand it and live it.
I’m not sure what to think of this but some philosophers said it was easier to live a virtuous life than to live a vice filled life. Seneca, a Roman philosopher who lived at the time of Christ said, “The road to the happy life is an easy one, The maintenance of all virtues is easy, but it is costly to cultivate the vices.” Was he right?
We are to take on the character of God. He loved his enemies. Are we to do less? We take our identity from God. After all we were made in his image.
The sermon on the mount tells people who they are and what they are to do. Identifying ourselves as Christians is more than believing the right things.
The call to discipleship is clearly a call to a new identity.
Mat 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples: If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow me.
The gospel of John focuses on identity perhaps even more than the other three. John uses the word “remain” throughout and it has multiple meanings. John saw the Spirit of God descending and remaining on Jesus. When the to disciples of John asked Jesus where he was staying, what they said literally means, “Where are you remaining?” He remained and they remained with him. Jesus remained in the Samaritan village for two extra days. Jesus remained with his Father and we his disciples are to remain with him too.
Joh 6:27 Don't work for food that spoils. Work for food that gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give you this food, because God the Father has given him the right to do so."
This is the food that remains.
Joh 8:31-32 Jesus therefore said to the Jews who believed him, If ye abide in my word, ye are truly my disciples; (32) and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

By remaining they find freedom. Jesus’ word remains in them they become disciples, know the truth, and the truth sets them free.