Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Series: Sermon on the Mount

  • Prayer in Dire Straits

    Prayer in Dire Straits

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 11, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Prayer is in dire straits in the modern church, and the crisis runs deeper than neglect. Two principles answer it. Christ’s new day makes praying without ceasing possible, and boasting about how long or how often one prays is a danger to guard against.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning our scripture is Matthew 6, beginning at verse 5, and we will read through verse 15. This is Matthew 6, beginning with verse 5. Hear the word of God. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men.

    Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, Use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him. After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

    Thy kingdom come. thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, Neither will your father forgive your trespasses. Let’s pray together.

    O Lord, how our desire is not simply for ourselves, that the word would be precious to us and have its full impact upon us. We think of congregations that we know and love, those throughout this presbytery, those that may well be of other denominations where the gospel is proclaimed. And we plead, Lord, with you on their behalf for the servants that you have raised up to stand in pulpits and proclaim the word of grace that your people may be encouraged, that sinners may be convicted, that those who do not believe might believe, having been brought to believe by the effectual work of your Holy Spirit. We do plead with you on behalf, then, of these ministries that you would be pleased, our God, to build up courage and confidence and assurance in and through those activities. We pray, our God, nothing less for ourselves, for we would turn to you, for surely there is no one else to whom we can turn. and we do turn our God through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

    Amen. prayer, the activity of prayer. Prayer itself is in desperate straits. I have reference to the activity of individuals. I have reference to the corporate enterprise of the church. Is prayer the lost dimension of devotion? Has it been eaten away from the life of the believer, from the life of the Church, because of pressing demand?

    A pastor that I know stops praying. because he finds invariably that that experience of prayer only mercilessly compounds his frustration. So compounding his frustration that he feels worse after he’s prayed than when he had begun. Now, not that his feelings are to the measure of anything really, but Why subject himself to that torment, that torture regularly?

    I know of a steel worker. In his forties, battered by his responsibilities at work, his struggle for and with his family, who confided in a close friend, I stopped praying. I don’t even bother. I know a housewife who once wondered out loud to her shocked husband.

    Why should I pray anyway? God knows everything doesn’t he? There’s a teenager shedding the coil of her dependence upon her parents, who now in these mature years thinks that prayer is simply a sentimental superstitious habit of childhood. She is now more comfortable spending her time with her fantasies than praying.

    There are the complications for prayer. You simply don’t know my schedule. You don’t know how things are at my house. When am I going to get any time to pray or There simply isn’t any place in my house where I can pray. Prayer. Prayer experiencing then. This kind of pressure. prayer looked upon increasingly as something that is unnecessary. Something that is a formality possibly.

    But something that is not essential to the well-being of the life of the believer and the well-being of the church. is the prayer meeting, for instance, something that within the next twenty years will die, will die uniformly in the churches in this country. Now many of you came out of churches, mainline churches, that were of the habit of paying their ministers Exorbitant salaries for conducting one service a week, that’s Sunday morning. And many of you left those churches because you perceived that there was a deadness there that simply was not going to be corrected. And one of the evidences of that deadness According to you and your assessment was the fact that the people did not engage in any meaningful prayer activity. The midweek prayer service was something that was long gone, long forgotten. We observe things a little closer to home then. I can ask the question about Grace Church. Will the prayer meeting of Grace Church survive? Not the next twenty years, but the next year! Yes, this is an advertisement. This is a promotional appeal. And really, I shouldn’t laugh about it.

    What about our Protestant and Reformed churches? At one time, those churches passionately committed themselves to prayer. An installation service of pastor or officers within a church could not pass without a concerted effort of prayer, a season of prayer in which the congregation gave itself to prayer. Not just for five minutes, not for ten, not even for an hour, but for an entire week. Can you believe it? There was once a time in the life of the church, Protestant, Reformed, Calvinistic congregations, in which you could point to a number of individuals in that church who had given themselves to a life of prayer. Modern day Anna, if you will.

    That was their habit of life. We hear the stories of pastors and people who gave themselves to prayer. Was it Martin Luther who said, I don’t think I can live a day unless I begin it with three hours of prayer? We’re worn out by that, I think. getting through the day, a matter of having it grounded in three hours of prayer. We have difficulty concentrating for ten minutes.

    After all, we’ve been convinced of what now has been called the balanced life. The balanced life includes no extremes. You don’t want to give yourself too much to any one thing. And in this approach to the Christian life, prayer has become merely the salt and pepper, the seasoning for a diet of severe activism, extreme activism. Prayer, after all, must fit into our schedule. It must be part of the program or a program in order to be judged worthwhile by us.

    More and more, the noise that comes forth from congregations is not the noise of praise and prayer from the people of God, pleading with God, imploring Him, making their requests known unto Him. Rather, the noise that increasingly is coming forth from churches, from congregations, is the noise of committee meetings, socials, and planning sessions for the next campaign or enterprise. In the church setting, prayer becomes a reflex. Well, of course, we always begin and close our meetings with prayer.

    Simply perfunctory. Or it becomes a useful and even superstitious reaction. Well, There’s always the possibility that things won’t go well, so let’s pray and baptize our efforts with prayer. And on top of all of this, we find ourselves in a world particularly unsuited to prayer.

    For instance, We have known leaders of the church who are of a liberal stripe or whom prayer has been some sort of romantic exercise, inspirational exercise. We know those who have adopted a style of life in which prayer plays no part at all. I had the dubious opportunity to sit in a classroom of Princeton Theological Seminary a few years ago and listen to one of the most prestigious ministers of the churches in New York City. And he informed that class of worshipful students that he never prayed. And he informed them of that boastingly. He said, after all, my life is my prayer. And if God isn’t satisfied with that, well, then that’s too bad for God. I guess that was the next line.

    Now, before we get too hard on the liberals and the pastor from New York City, I would remind you of a little survey that I took a few years ago in prayer meeting right here in this building. The question was, apart from prayers at mealtime, apart from prayers where you are part of a group such as church, do you regularly pray? Could I have a show of hands? This is an Orthodox Presbyterian church. There were officers of the church present at that prayer meeting that night, and not one hand, not one hand went up. Now how is it with you? Now, I can’t be too hard on you. If I’m not praying at the offices of the church, I’m praying, what can we expect of you? You would do well to set a good example for us and get us back on track.

    Have we lost our confidence in prayer? Have we lost our motivation for it? Do we no longer understand it? as it becomes something that is utterly ordinary and perfunctory for us, a mere formality, something we hardly think about, let alone practice. But here we are considering Jesus’ words in Matthew 6.

    And as we introduce ourselves to these words by Jesus, I would like to put before you two principles. And I hope that these two principles will be very helpful for you in focusing your life with regard to prayer. In fact, I’m hoping that these principles might put before you the proper ground for your own prayer life and motivation for you in prayer. Out of that arising a confidence and assurance in your prayers. The first principle is this.

    The coming of Jesus Christ brings to us an entirely new day of prayer. The coming of Jesus Christ brings to us an entirely new day of prayer, with its own motivation and its own constraints, its own glory. Think now of the reflex that we find in the New Testament after Christ has completed his ministry, after he has died and been raised again.

    We get a statement like this from the Apostle Paul, 1 Thessalonians 5.17, you know it, a very short verse, pray without ceasing. Pray without ceasing.

    Now I want to ask you a question, do you hear any statement like that out of the Old Testament. Now, please understand, I do not mean to suggest to you that the people of the Old Testament were not afraid that they didn’t pray. They did pray, but you don’t have any prescription that approaches that one that Paul gives you in First Thessalonians five pray without. Now, you might ask yourself the question, How in the world is Paul come to this statement? How does he arrive at this statement? He arrives at it because he is reflecting on prayer in light of the work of Jesus Christ. He is reflecting on prayer in light of the coming of Jesus Christ and what that coming has meant. That admonition by Paul is like unto one given by Christ himself.

    You have the statement by Jesus in the garden to his disciples, Matthew 26, verse 41. Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. Those two statements, they’re now possible, you see, as Christ himself is speaking about a perpetual, continual posture for Christian living. Our disposition is always to be one that is ready to and engaged in prayer. I have said to you that this first principle, then. Places before us the significance of the coming of Christ for an entirely new day of prayer. That statement by Jesus in the garden. then comes to his disciples as an instruction to them as how they might meet the press of circumstances which they face as those who have been united to him. The constraint upon them now to pray is because they are united to the one who, while he was making his progress towards the cross and to the fulfillment and consummation of his ministry, he prayed without ceasing.

    This is the missing dynamic for prayer, and this is the missing motivation for you in your praying, you see. If you lose sight of the fact that you are united to Christ in this new day of prayer, That motivation, that ground, that foundation is obscured and lost. You do not see it, and your prayers might as well come out of a Buddhist temple somewhere, a Jewish synagogue, as be in a Christian church or in a Christian environment. It is specifically that union with Christ that makes prayer utterly distinct now, and in light of the fulfillment of his ministry on your behalf.

    For your praying as you watch against temptation is merely an entering into the praying of that Christ who has prayed in that way as he faced temptation himself. But the Christian life is not just a matter of watching and praying, as we would then make our way, as Christ did, towards the culmination of our lives. Our praying is also informed by the fulfillment of Christ’s ministry in the resurrection.

    What stands behind Paul’s statement in 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, pray without ceasing? Once more, it’s this whole matter of union with Christ. Don’t you understand? The One to whom you are united not only prayed while He was facing the cross, but now in heaven, He prays without ceasing for you. The reason why you can’t persist in your praying, the reason why the foundation crumbles, why you lose your way, is because you do not have clearly before you your union with Christ. You are joined to Him.

    A new day has come. And it’s not a matter of you being sustained by your own efforts, as if we were reintroducing some principle of worth righteousness here for you. You have to struggle all over again in order to gain approval with God through your prayers. Not at all. You see what’s happening.

    The gift of grace to you is Christ himself. He has been perfectly successful in watching and praying as he made his way towards the cross. and that perfection of prayer is at your disposal. You enter into his prayers. You enter into his praying activity. It’s not as if you stand out here, separated from him. It is as if you have been brought right into him, and the power of his prayer life has become the power of your own. You are united to him, nothing less than that is taking place now with regard to the heavenly session of Christ. Have you not been told by the word that he makes continual intercession for you?

    Your union with him draws you within the circumference of his prayer life now. That is where the drive for prayer comes. You want to hear it from the Apostle Paul? He’s writing to some Colossian Christians and to some Laodicean Christians. You can read all about it in Colossians chapter 2, the first verse.

    These people have never even seen his face, yet he pours himself out continually for them. He prays for them without ceasing. Where in the world does this guy get the energy, the motivation to pray for people that he’s never seen? Why I have a difficult time praying for those. I know. I have a difficult enough time praying for you. And here’s a guy who’s praying for people that have never seen his face.

    He’s doing that continually, The only ground for activity and devotion like that is union with Christ. So you see there’s another one whose face the Colossians and Laodiceans have never seen. And it’s Christ. And the very pattern and power of the Apostle’s prayer line is that of Christ’s. So real is that union to the Apostle that the Apostle can’t help but be like Christ.

    And that’s the first principle that I want to put before you, and I won’t speak extensively on the second, but just pointed out for you here. Not only does the coming of Christ bring an entirely new day of prayer. But this new day brings with it. That exposure commensurate with the kingdom of heaven.

    That makes it plain that there is a practice of righteousness, a piety that has nothing to do with what Jesus is talking about. There is a practice of piety within Christian circles that is out of touch with the significance of the coming of Christ, as that coming has heralded a new day of prayer. There is a practice of piety that is eminently self-centered.

    Don’t tell me how long you pray. I had to sit and listen to a minister one in which he told his congregation that he had finally achieved what he thought was unachievable. He had been able to pray for the entire night. There is a piety, you see, that parades There’s a piety that is meant for applause. There’s a piety that calls attention to itself and knows nothing. Of that motivation. That undergirds the experience of the Apostle Paul in his prayer. That union between him. And to say. which has as its objective no reward in this world but the pleasure of the God who is above and presently unseen.

    These principles then for you as you think about prayer and in the weeks to come we will be reviewing Jesus statements here more specifically. But hold on to the coming of Christ brings an entirely new day of prayer. And there is a practice of piety that has nothing nothing to do whatsoever with what Jesus is talking.

    O Lord, we ask that we might precede then even our approach to you with that affirmation of our union with Christ, that we might see ourselves as united to the one who prayed perpetually as he faced the ordeal that would conclude his life and ministry. And may we also see ourselves united to that one who is raised, who even now makes continual intercession for us. And out of this, O Lord, may it be plain and clear that the power for our prayers and our power to pray does not arise from ourselves, but it is found in Him, who is that sufficient and adequate Savior, whose name we bless. We pray these things

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Cross in Marriage

    The Cross in Marriage

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 20, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Malachi 2:16 says bluntly that God hates divorce, and the church can take a real stand against divorce only by turning to Christ. In Matthew 19 Christ replaces Moses’ concession on divorce. The cross has to live inside a marriage day by day, long after the wedding.

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    Sermon transcript

    Our scripture reading this morning is, first of all, from Matthew chapter nineteen verses one through twelve, and then we’ll be backing up into the Sermon on the Mount. This is Matthew nineteen verses one through twelve. Hear the word of God. And it came to pass that when Jesus had finished these sayings, He departed from Galilee and came into the coasts of Judea beyond Jordan, and great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there.

    The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cost? And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read? that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female and said for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and they twain shall be one flesh wherefore they are no more twain but one flesh what therefore God hath joined together let not man put asunder they say unto him Why did Moses then command to give up writing of divorcement and to put her away? He saith unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, suffered you to put away your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

    And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery. And whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. His disciples say unto him, If the case of a man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry. But he said unto them, All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given.

    For there are some eunuchs which are so, which were so born from their mother’s womb. And there were some eunuchs which were made eunuchs of men. And there be eunuchs which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it. And then from Matthew chapter five, verses thirty one and thirty two. It happens that whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of this divorce. But I say unto you that whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, cause of her to commit adultery and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced, committed adultery.

    We come in our hunger, O God, to be fed. And though our lives are oftentimes desperate, especially before the scrutinizing of your word, we pray that we may come, come to that feast that is prepared for us found in your word, and there partaking, be satisfied, but also made to be willing, willing in our obedience to you, our King. Through Christ we pray. Amen.

    I have to preach this sermon. Now I realize that you were expecting me to go on with Matthew 6 and so was I. But I have to back up into Matthew 5 and preach this sermon. Now for some of you this is not an immediate concern. Some of you consider yourselves too young to think about it. But it is a pressing issue. And it is a pressing issue for this congregation. Now I don’t intend to go after this subject with kid gloves on. We are faced with an epidemic, an epidemic that is ravaging the land and ravaging the Church.

    It is not extraordinary for an alumnus of a Christian college in these days to pick the latest alumni news. And find as they read through the items that talk about the various classes. Mention of someone that they know, but it seems that that person is no longer hooked up with someone else that they know. The partners have been changed somewhere along the line.

    We are faced with an epidemic that is ravaging the land and ravaging the church. And how powerfully this was brought home to me this last week. Friday morning, phone rings. A call from a friend of the family. a Christian woman. She had an appointment to see my wife later in the day, but she was obviously distressed. When my wife inquired, her words were, my husband is filed for divorce. This is a Christian couple. The husband a believer, the wife a believer. Her words, my husband has filed for divorce.

    Now that experience of Friday morning was accented by what had taken place this past Tuesday night. I was sitting in some friend’s home in Philadelphia. I innocently asked about a young mother, Christian, who had risen to the top of the reformed world through her stance with regard to women their place in the church, their place in society, who they are, what they are all about. I was informed, I was informed that she had left her husband. And as she was walking out, her explanation was, I just don’t love you anymore. It brought back a flood of memories. Me sitting in a car outside of a house in that same city years ago, arguing painfully with a family member, pleading with her with regard to her family, with regard to her marriage. She had walked out And as she had walked out, she did so with this excuse, God wants me to be happy.

    We are facing an epidemic. More than that, we are facing a wholesale collapse. The question is, where can you look for help? You’re not going to find it in the legal system of this country. The legal system of this country has already capitulated. It has already adopted the mindset whatever you want. In divorce, so our courts tell us there are no guilty parties. That’s what we call no fault divorce. What about the counseling establishment? Can we turn to them?

    They have surrendered to what you might call arbitration. That means that we parcel out the blame if blame is to be assigned at all. If you will accept 20%, if you will accept 30% of the blame, how about 50? We begin to negotiate in terms of percentages of the blame.

    If that approach is used at all, but more often than not, the approach of the establishment of the counseling establishment is precisely that of the legal system. Whatever you want. You don’t want to be married anymore. Fine, let’s work this thing out. Well at least there’s the church. Oh yeah? Tell me about it.

    The church turns its back. It doesn’t want to know. It doesn’t want to know. It doesn’t want to deal with It wants to plead ignorance if the issue is important at all. There are certain edicts of the word that you have to come to grips. That the church has to come to grips.

    For it seems in our time the church is conveniently forgetting Malachi 2.16. The Lord says, I hate divorce. I hate divorce. It has to come to grips with passages like what we find here in Matthew 5 and again in Matthew 19. the severity of the circumstance scrutinized by Christ himself, and the language which he uses.

    Now there’s a good side to all of this, believe it or not. There’s a good side to it. For you see, the person stripped of society’s supports, the person stripped of the support of the legal system, the person stripped of the support of the counseling establishment, the individual stripped even of the support and understanding and integrity of the Church, will have to learn how to stand, if he’s going to stand at all, before the all-surveying eye of God. The character is going to have to be constructed. It’s going to have to be established from within you. And from this vantage point, you see, even the disaster that is coming upon us in society and in the church can be seen as a blessing if it isn’t in you, if that character is not there. Well, the opportunity is now afforded you. What are you going to do with the text?

    The Church might forget them. The establishments may deny them, countermand them, but what are you going to do with them? There is also the blessing here for the Church that’s trying. It’s not an easy easy task for the church in our time, but there are churches that are trying. Believe me, they are trying. They are not especially popular. They are not ordinarily drawing the crowd, but there are some that are trying. They increasingly realizing the cost of their attempt. the loss of popularity, the strains within the congregations, what are the effects, what are the ripple effects? We’ve heard all about ripple effects.

    What if, what if it’s the son of an elder in the congregation? The church tries to take action against the son, the elder himself becomes missed. He takes his whole family with him in train as they march out the door. Is the church willing to stand its ground?

    Insist upon the truth. regardless of the cost. Well, surviving, whether it be the individual or the church, surviving in this chaotic circumstance in which we find ourselves is no easy, easy task. But wonderfully, though there is this positive note to be heard, even as the society in effect is collapsing around us, yet even more, there is power and perspective to be found in the words, in the posture of Christ, and that is what is being supplied us here by Him as He comes to address this very, very serious issue. The individual stripped of society’s props, the individual stripped even by the Church, disappointed in the Church and the Church’s attitude to where will that individual turn? That individual yet can turn, must turn to Christ. Where will the church turn? In the midst of that opposition and hatred thrown at her because of her stance. She will turn to her Lord and there find the strength that she needs, not the strength merely, but the perspective from which she is to view this very, very important issue. What is Jesus’ message?

    Two words. No divorce. in the case of infidelity, breach of bond, violation of the covenant. Now we can talk about that for a long time. We can talk about just how pervasive that exception clause is that is given by Jesus But rather than going in that direction, I want to try and latch hold of the perspective that Jesus is bringing to bear on the whole issue. I’ve already let you in on the secret.

    The secret of the Sermon on the Mount. and the two things which you must always keep in view as you read this message by Jesus, regardless of where you find yourself in it. And that is this. First of all, you must remember heaven, and secondly, you must remember the cross. And even these two things, rather these two things, even have their impact upon an issue as central to our life as important as marriage and divorce.

    I have suggested to you that there is this transposition of environments taking place in this sermon. Jesus is letting one environment go, and he’s asserting another. He’s telling you that the reality of heaven has now come. It is asserting itself in the world, and the assertion of that reality into our world changes everything. It changes even the way you look at marriage and divorce. How so? How so? Because behind This relationship between a man and a woman is the relationship between God and his people. Think of that.

    How is God bound to his people? Will he break covenant with his people? He will not, except for the case of apostasy. Manifest infidelity. You see, the reality of heaven is asserting itself here. The pattern found in God himself is forcing itself upon the people of the kingdom. Just as it is with God, so it is with the people.

    This is something new. You may not want to think so. You might want to think that this is the way that it was always to be, and even was under the administration of the law. Not so. The provision made by the law is here, and I will use the word displaced. Under Moses, you could write the bills of divorcement, and they multiplied. Of course, they were abused. and the prophets spoke out against that abuse. But now we’ve even gone further. It’s no mere adjustment with regard to that Old Testament law. No, it is a displacement. And how radical the displacement.

    You were permitted to put your wife away in the Old Testament. You could write that Bill of Divorcement. It was within the law. You suffered nothing for it. Now, if you put your wife away and you put her away for reasons that are contrary to the one articulated here by Jesus Christ, you have committed an executable offense.

    In the Old Testament, they executed adulterers. Divorce considered willy-nilly, resorted to as just one more way in which to live out our days in this world without any seriousness whatsoever We’ll bring upon you the eternal wrath and judgment of God.

    Our society and the church is playing with hellfire. They are playing with hellfire. I have spoken also of the cross. There has been that displacement of environments as the world itself gives way to heaven and the realities of heaven now begin to assert themselves upon the people of the kingdom. But I said that the cross is also to be found here.

    What is it that lies behind the marriage relationship? We’ve already said it’s the relationship between God and his people and that as it is expressed between husband and wife, a relationship between Christ and his church. that already asserting itself here in these texts, which we’ve read this morning.

    What becomes operative if you adopt that model? Nothing less than this, for the sake of my partner in this covenant of marriage, I will die for them. Now, if you’ve already settled that question, If you’ve gone into the relationship and said, I will die for this person, you can put up with a lot of grief. You can put up with a lot of annoyances, a lot of distress, a lot of simple aggravations, because the weightier issue has always been the silence. What’s the tragedy of the first marriage?

    You think of it. Genesis 3. Here you have Eve seduced by Satan. She partakes. But there’s this gap. There’s this gap between the time in which Eve partakes and Adam partakes. Here comes Adam. He sees the circumstance, the situation. He still has that clairvoyance of his innocency.

    What decision does he make? What’s the seriousness of the fall in which he’s complicated? implicated. The decision of Adam is this, I won’t die for her. I won’t go to God and plead for her, and I will not die for her. What’s the significance of the stories of Abraham? He goes down into Egypt. He’s also involved with the Philistine king. Each time, each instance, He makes a decision. It’s better to live than to die. I won’t die for Sarah. But there is one who did die for his crime. And you see, now you cannot look at marriage any other way.

    It’s a beautiful story about a couple in South Jersey a few years ago, Christian family, experiencing real trauma in their home, husband and wife at each other’s throats continually. In came the pastor, one of the most godly men I’ve ever known, marvelously Christlike in all of his attitudes and words and disposition imprinted with Jesus Christ. It wasn’t so much what he said as how he conducted himself and healing was affected the confession of the husband afterwards was it occurred to me that you loved my wife more than I did because you seemed willing to die for her heaven, the pattern found in the Father, the cross, the pattern found in Christ. These as our therapy, as the resolution to the problems, the difficulties that we find, around marriage and divorce. Let’s pray.

    Father, it is true that we cannot look at anything the same as if we were those who stood before the coming of Christ. For what has come with him but the kingdom of heaven? And how do we see the marvelous and superlative righteousness of that kingdom manifest but through the cross? And in each respect, heaven and the cross, now we being transformed so that our attitudes are transformed themselves.

    Surely in our relationships, one with another, this wonderfully obvious. So now our God. to your glory and for our benefit, let us live. Through Jesus Christ. To the glory of our God. And father, we pray. We pray for the marriages of this congregation. We pray also for those who have been battered. Who have been wasted in marriage relationships those who are delivered by you and that righteous life would you bless the families and those individuals with the wonder and mercy of your presence so as to confirm them in their life with you We pray.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Seeking Approval, Giving It Up

    Seeking Approval, Giving It Up

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, November 13, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Matthew 5 leads into chapter 6, where human approval counts for little in heaven’s accounting. Christ gave himself for others, and giving ourselves away in the same way is the real alternative to seeking approval. Chapters 5 and 6 make one continuous argument.

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    Sermon transcript

    the Word of God. Take heed that ye do not practice your righteousness before men, to be seen of them. Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which is in heaven. Therefore when thou doest thine own, Do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth, that thine alms may be in secret. and by father, which he is in secret himself shall reward the open.

    And when they’ll pray. Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are. For they love to pray, standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets that they may be seen of men. Verily, I say unto you, they have their But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them, For your father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. After this manner, therefore, pray ye.

    Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

    For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. And if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Moreover, when ye fast, be not as the hypocrites of a sad countenance. that they disfigure their faces that they may appear of the men facts early. I think you may have their word. The bow and bow back. I had washed my face, but I’ll hear not of the men the fact that under my father, which is in secret and by father, which see it in secret, shall report the open.

    Let’s pray together, briefly. Our Father, we would not turn away from our responsibility to the Word. Your Word is given us for our nourishment and growth comes to us as life. And Father, we would not turn away from our responsibility in terms of the support that is owed to the Word. And that is to the ends of the earth. That in our prayers and with our gifts, we would be concentrating upon the advance of that word and its increase. Surely our God. The nations are hearing. And your elect are turning. And they are being gathered unto you. We praise you, our father. For our part. in this ministry. But now we give our attention to your word. May we be helped in hearing it and in understanding it.

    For Jesus’ sake, amen. that we are about to launch into new territory this morning, and it will be Matthew 6. We’re moving along in the Sermon on the Mount, and this is new territory for me, and therefore, if you find me halting a bit as I move along through it, you will understand. We’ll gain our bearings, and as time goes by, I’m sure clarity will come. Not only for you, but for me also. So, here we go. We’re launching into new territory. Matthew 6.

    Before we do that, however, it is well for us to keep in mind the outline of the Sermon on the Mount Gemmell. And it’s good for you to have that ready to mind as we make progress through this sermon. So, the outline of the sermon as a whole, and that will provide us, then, our foundation for the consideration of this new section. And this, indeed, is a new section with the beginning of the sixth chapter.

    All right, we have, then, Jesus on the Mount. We’ve talked about that The separation between multitudes and disciples, we know about the dual consideration of the audience in view. We also know about the significance of the mountain itself. Yes, a geographical point there in Galilee somewhere, it’s not named, it’s only called the mountain. It has then symbolic significance, it has representational significance, more than just a mountain of this world, this creation.

    This mountain is to direct our attention above, to glorious self, so that when Jesus sits down on that mountain, you see a premonition of the coming session of Christ at the Father’s right hand. Indeed, as Jesus sits down at the Father’s right hand in glory, just as He did here on this mountain, So, he teaches, he teaches his people from his seat in glory.

    And what does he say? Well, he says what you read here. There is no mystery as to what Jesus is saying now. He is saying the very same thing now from heaven that he said then from that mount in Galilee. All right, those considerations as we move into the sermon itself. Now the outline of the Sermon on the Mount and will go through this one more time, and as we take up new sections will review the outline, so that you have it well in mind as we make progress in the sermon as a whole. All right, we said first three beginning of the attitudes. There were three in chapter five through verse sixteen of that initial chapter in the Sermon on the Mount. What do we have here?

    We have the blessing of the king the blessing of the kingdom of heaven, those conferred presently upon through the cycle of the kingdom. It’s not a matter of you waiting for something yet to arrive. It’s a matter of something already appear something already making its appearance, and that is the blessing of the kingdom of heavenly blessing now being superimposed upon one’s present life. That’s what happened there is Jesus speaks that all great. So it isn’t a matter of us waiting for the apostle Paul to find out about great. Here in the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus even before his crucifixion and resurrection. He is speaking to us a message that assumes the great. that shall flow forth from his death and resurrection.

    The blessedness of heaven is a present reality being conferred. All right. We have the last of them running through verse nine. There are seventy attitudes. That’s my contention. I think I am good. Good rounder asserting that there are seventy attitudes.

    Seven lessons, three through nine, then commentary, ten through sixteen. Jesus then gives us an inspired commentary, it’s inspiring too, but it’s an inspired commentary on the blessings. If you have any question as to what Jesus is saying in the Beatitudes, then you read verses ten through sixteen. It tells you right there what he has in mind.

    That’s three through sixteen of chapter five. We move on to the main section of the third. And this main section, beginning in verse seventeen, runs on to the seventh chapter, the twenty-third verse. Flip over a couple of pages and you can see them. The conclusion of that main section of the sermon. He’s not going to leave you, then, merely with the blessings and commentary upon them, a declaration of the grace that has come to you because the kingdom of heaven has, in fact, now appeared in the world. He’s going to go on and talk to you about responsibility, obligation, duty in the kingdom of heaven which has come with regard to it. The main section of this sermon, then running from five seventeen to seven twenty three could be entitled this way.

    There are many ways and there are many ways to fight, but this will suffice us. The fulfillment of the law and the profits. The fulfillment of the law and the profits with the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven found nowhere else but in Jesus Christ. That’s a long, long time. But I think you can understand the progression of the fulfillment of the law and the prophets and the superlative righteousness through and in Jesus Christ. OK. Now, there is something that is well for us to remember as we move through this main section, and that is how What Jesus is saying reflects upon the law and the profits. You know how he starts in verse seventeen of chapter five. Don’t think that I came to abolish the law or the profits. I didn’t come to abolish, but to fulfill. That’s a catchphrase for us as we move through this main section, the law and the profits. That’s going to focus our attention.

    Lo and behold, we move over to chapter seven and we look at verse twelve. and the so-called golden rule, and what do we find there but this catchphrase again, therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them, for this is the law and the prophets.

    You see how it all holds together, from verse 17 in chapter 5 over to verse 12 of chapter 7, the law and the prophets being at the center of Jesus’ consideration. The theme of righteousness is also there laid out for us in that chapter that is apparent to us as we look at first twenty of chapter five. For I say to you that unless you were right to surpass your superlative righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. So the fulfillment of the law and the prophets in the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven through and in Jesus Christ, that being the heading of his main section to the sermon on the Mount.

    Well, now you have the subsection to the main and let’s look at those for a minute. It’s all organized very nicely. If you’re into literary criticism, you’ll be able to pick it up rather quickly. You can just look at recurring phrases as you go down through the sermon, and you’ll see how all of these various things are grouped their group away around certain key phrases.

    We have been this main section, then, of the Sermon on the Mount verses seventeen through twenty of chapter five provides us an introduction, an introduction to this main section, and we’ve already quoted two verses from this section, and you know what is being said there by Jesus, an affirmation of law and prophets. Jesus is not abolishing Jesus is not an antinomian is not against the law is not against the Old Testament. He is not a despiser of Moses. He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament and of all the law and the prophets had to say that this fulfillment Fulfillment areas carries us on to the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, and that is what is to be expounded for you have the introduction to this main section verses seventeen through twenty and then the first really main section of this second part of the third. That was from verse twenty one to verse forty eight of that chapter clear to the end of the fifth chapter.

    Now, I mentioned something about literary criticism and literary analysis. You will notice the sayings of Jesus that are grouped here. Notice how they are constructed for you. In the first instance, you have Jesus saying this. You have heard that the ancients were told.

    You were heard that was said to them of old time. that in verse twenty one, and successively throughout the section, then there’s followed in verse twenty two, but I say unto you now that combination of you have heard that it was said, but I say unto you is repeated six times through verses twenty one through forty eight six times, and that groups them that section for you have here the you have heard that it was said section.

    Now, we come into the chapter and the first eighteen verses. This also is a subsection of the Sermon on the Mount, and here you have Jesus taking up three specific aspects of piety, almsgiving, prayer, and fasting, but he introduces each of these three the same way. He he tells you verse two when therefore you give your own verse five when you therefore pray for sixteen when you therefore each section each consideration is presented to you with the same kind of language again in a literary way grouping this these things by Jesus together as a whole. They comprise the unit there to be taken. altogether. All right, well, that brings us then up to verse nineteen, verse nineteen of chapter six, and that will take us through verse six of chapter seven, six, nineteen through seven, six. And here you have Jesus introducing us to various statements of his various sayings that are given us with the language of prohibition.

    Verse nineteen, for instance, do not do not lay up yourself treasures of honor. You have been a verse twenty five. For this reason, I say, do not be anxious. You have also verse thirty one. Do not be anxious there again, and verse thirty four. Therefore, do not be anxious repetition with regard to anxiety of Jesus. is saying anything in this section, emphasizing it certainly seems to be with regard to anxiety. Don’t be anxious. Well, certainly a message that we need to hurt here.

    Verse verse one of chapter seven. Another do not do not judge lest you be judged yourselves. Verse six of chapter seven. Do not give what is holy to dogs. So you have the do nots. of that section group together again in terms of literary considerations. Then you come to verse seven of chapter seven and after some do not use what would you expect would expect some dudes. And that’s what we want some imperative. That’s what given up. See not for seven.

    That’s what that the root of verse twelve, the famous golden rule. Whatever you want others to do for you do for them. This is the law of the prophets. Here are the dunes. Verse thirteen. There’s another to enter, enter by the narrow gate. Verse fifteen. Another do beware, beware of the false prophets.

    So this carries you down to verse twenty three. and ends that main section of the Sermon on the Mount as a whole. All of that accessible to you from a plain reading, a simple and direct reading of the text. All you have to do is note the recurring words, phrases, structure, and you can outline the sermon for yourself. You have it all there. That brings us to the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount, which is a parting parable, if you will. It’s the famous one. We all learned to sing about it when we were kids. The wise man built his house upon the rock.

    All right, well, that’s verses twenty four through twenty seven, and Jesus there impresses upon his audience the seriousness, the utter seriousness of what is being placed before them. So there you have it. As I’ve mentioned to you before, this is a three points are really. You have a blessing in commentary than the main section of the fulfillment of the law and the prophets and the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven through Jesus Christ alone, and then the concluding parable of the wise and foolish men who build their houses upon rock and sand. That’s the well.

    Here we are then with chapter Chapter six, one through eighteen. Now, I know that some of you may have. Some of you may feel cheated that I only considered verses twenty one through twenty six of chapter five, and then I jumped here to chapter six, and I am doing that deliberately. In the interest of time, I know that they’re very important matters to be considered in verses twenty seven to forty eight.

    I hope that you will take what I said to you before with regard to the nature of righteousness and the centrality of the cross. And as you read through twenty seven to forty eight, which will do a little work on your own and apply what I said with regard to those things, to what you find there in those verses.

    The cross is there. The cross is there when Jesus speaks about adultery and about love when he speaks about divorce and remarriage when he talks about swearing. Profaning your profaning God through false swearing when he speaks about the eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth when he speaks about loving your enemy as well as those who are close to you your friends. The cross is there and also that superlative righteousness of which we have been speaking.

    Now I hope that I have made that point with you. The point being that there has been a transposition of environments to the disciples and kingdom of heaven. It will take a great deal of energy on your part to begin to think differently from what you have thought before. It will take a great deal of energy on your part and concentration for you to think in ways that are other than Jewish. Now I mean that with all seriousness, because what Jesus has done with his coming, he’s brought about a transposition in environments before The venue was the earth And the Jewish understanding of the kingdom was very realistic in terms of the matters and aspects of this creation But what Jesus has done He is now interjected into the consideration of his disciples the priority the preeminence of heaven Now, it’s not that you’re just to think about heaven. You see, the righteousness that belongs to you as disciples of his is the righteousness of heaven. So every circumstance you meet in life is translated now in terms of the realities of heaven.

    See, that’s why it’s not adequate simply to say thou shalt not kill. You understand, it’s the force of this coming through. It’s not adequate just to say, Thou shalt not kill. In heaven, there’s no hatred. That’s why it’s not adequate to say, Thou shalt not commit adultery. In heaven, there’s no lust.

    See what Jesus is doing. He’s bringing to bear upon his disciples the reality of the righteousness of heaven. Well, I hope that you can make some of those applications yourself. I hope that you can see clearly enough into what Jesus is saying here to go through these verses and begin to discern the significance of the righteousness that he is preaching and also how the cross of Christ is expounded in these verses. The very love of God expressed in Christ that he gives himself for the sake of others.

    All right. But we come then to the sixth chapter along these lines with these considerations. It’s obvious that there has been something of a transition that has been affected here as we pass from the fifth chapter to the sixth chapter. We might say that we we pass from this is a little bit difficult, but hang with me here.

    We pass from general considerations of righteousness to specific aspects of righteousness as they pertain to what we might call expected to churchly duties. We’ve moved from considerations of general morality and considerations of our life generally conceived in terms of our relationship to the world, and now we are focusing more on those aspects of piety that are ordinarily attached more to our relationship to the church. and the piety that is expected of us in relationship to those things, and I don’t think that it’s without reason, and the Jesus in this context mentions the synagogue mentions it specifically in this section. All right, well, there is this transition and a narrowing and focusing of Jesus attention and our attention as well. Attitudes of life here giving way to a much narrower view a more concentrated view with regard to our piety actually the three pillars of Jewish piety are under review. All giving prayer and fasting the three pillars of Jewish piety come under Jesus review and our view through him.

    We move then in this way from the fifth chapter into the six under the theme of the practice of your righteousness, and that’s specifically related to these tasks that are ordinary responsibilities and duties for those would be called the children of God.

    As we have moved. And that movement is playing, I believe. As there has been this transition, the message, however, the message, however, remains the same. We still have Jesus prosecuting. In terms of the same message. That message that he has been pressing upon his disciples there from Chapter five for this section. in chapter six is under the same heading as were those verses in chapter five so while there is a discontinuity in the tradition transition there is also the continuity and we are to be mindful of that Jesus is saying the same thing and what is. Well he’s going to press again on. He’s going to press again on. that transposition of environments.

    How much do you care what others think of you? How much is that at the center of your life? I mean right at the center. We’re talking here. About a war. About a general. And serious and significant. Between. Two environments. To set. Those settings are.

    What is considered important in the year seems to matter. Isn’t that what we see here from the opening verse beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them. as if you had your ear trained to the applause meter. Recognition from men.

    Why else do we live? Let me ask you, what is the psychology now operative in child development? Why, it’s the philosophy of positive reinforcement. Every child lives for applause, and not only do they live for it, we are going to make sure that they continue to live for it, because we will reinforce that in them now, as not only a way of life for children, meted out by all-knowing adults, but the transferral of all the adults to the children, because as the adults live for approval, so will the children. That’s the way of the world. Is there an alternative in education? Is there an alternative in child rearing? Is there an alternative for the people of God? What have we become?

    I understand now that there is actually a meeting in the winter of the year where a group of evangelicals get together in Washington, D.C., and they have found out an award to the Christian of the year. Now, I gather that those of you who aren’t smiling or those of you without her overall actually expecting that one day you might be in line for that work. Why else do we live. If we live for the approval. The approval of people.

    But what is on. in heaven is not honored among men. What is honored in the world is disregarded by heaven. There has been, then, this displacement effected by none other than Jesus. The world is giving way. Are we not told that it is passing away? And in its place is now being asserted. Heaven. Heaven. And you can, says Jesus, live in terms of heaven now.

    Not man’s approval. But God’s. and so consumed by your desire for the approval of God that the approval of men seems utterly insignificant by comparison. I think there’s a verse that says, if God before us Who can be against. What does it matter who they are. If we have God’s approval. And approval.

    Now there’s more here of course to be developed but I just want to call your attention to one of the things that is how it all centers in the cross. You see, it is the person who is concerned about the attitude of God, who then gives himself away with abandonment. I have God’s approval, and therefore, in the circumstances of life, when those pressures come, when those temptations arise, when those strains develop, I will stand with my God. And not only that, when I have the opportunity to express myself in terms of the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, I do so in a way in which I give myself away with not as much as a thought for myself.

    But then I pause, and I understand that that is exactly what Jesus did. That’s exactly what Jesus did. He gives himself away. Now I’m not leaving you in a position that is powerless. You backing off and you saying now, well that’s Jesus. He was the son of God, what do you expect of me? You see! The reality of the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven has come to you, so it’s not a matter of you being without something. It’s a matter of you having something, and you have Jesus, and the righteousness now that you are to perform is to be performed in and through him. It is a possibility. The cross and its expression is a possibility for you, and it becomes the discipline in your life.

    You always reacting, drawing back. It’s enough, Lord. I’ve done my part. Let somebody else do it. I thought about these people long enough. I don’t want to be bothered with them anymore. Let’s suppose that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. Few aggravating people across the path. He draws back and says, enough, Lord! I’ve had enough! I’m not going to go! He didn’t say that at all.

    Because he had respect unto the reward. And the reward came from God. And it is meted out in the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven. And that, my dear friends, is where you live, in the Kingdom of Heaven. And the standard of your life, operative in you, is the cross. And you no longer say, how much more do I have to give? Rather you say, I give my all as Christ has given his all. That’s right.

    Our Lord, we are thankful to you that this righteousness of the kingdom of heaven comes to us as a gift, displayed well and effected in Christ your Son, available to us a whole new world into which we have been introduced, in which we can live. Lord, we pray that as this righteousness with its cross works upon us, that increasingly it would be said of us that we are conformed to the image of our Savior. And therefore, with regard to all of the aspects of piety that there may be in this world, may our disposition be such that we see first of all, foremostly, our God, His reward, turning our back then upon the flaws of man, considerations of this world, for His sake, We do pray these things through Jesus Christ our Lord.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Pursuing Our Enemies

    Pursuing Our Enemies

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 23, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Matthew’s Gospel keeps returning to one claim, that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us, and so the church enters both his suffering and his exaltation into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:21-26 on anger and reconciliation requires believers to pursue their enemies actively. Emmanuel is anything but a comfortable doctrine.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning we are reading from Matthew chapter 5, and we will begin with verse 21. We are reading through verse 26. This is Jesus speaking. He had heard that it was said by them of old time, thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment.

    But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his brother Raka shall be in danger of the counsel, but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of hellfire.

    Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. Agree with thine adversary quickly, whilst thou art in the way with him. lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou shalt be cast into prison. Verily I say unto you, thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost pardon. Pray with me now briefly.

    Our Father today, there are servants of yours who are preaching the word in every land amongst all the tribes of the earth. And we are rejoicing our God in the fullness of that mission which has been before the church, which in fact our God, we are seeing fulfilled. But hear us on behalf of your servants, that they would be conscious of their office, conscious of that position which they have, that you welcome them to that side from which then the word is declared to your people. for your people’s good. And not only that, it is a word of salvation that goes forth to those who are strangers yet to the blessings of your covenant. By that word today, draw your elect, that they might delight in all of the fruits that are given them of the Spirit and at your table.

    We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen. Every time I try this, I do so with shaking, with trepidation, with a great deal of fear, apprehension, launching into these verses in Matthew 5. I have done it before, and some of you weathered that storm with me, but here we are again as we make our way towards Matthew chapter 6 and our consideration of what Jesus has to say there. These are not easy verses. These are truly as difficult, as difficult verses as you will find in the scripture.

    So there is then this formidable task of addressing ourselves to these words of our Savior as we make our way towards the consideration of Matthew chapter 6. If we have before us here, as we look at verse twenty, a consideration of that righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. That, in fact, is what Jesus is going to be speaking about as we make our way through the fifth chapter, and even beyond. For the main body of this sermon on the mount has to do with that surpassing righteousness or if you will the superlative righteousness which is found in and through Jesus Christ alone.

    So that’s. That sets the tone establishes our direction. But I do want to come at all of this in a bit of a novel way. I want to ask you a question. And from the answer to that question, I want to build to our consideration of these verses specifically so that you might understand something more of the atmosphere that Jesus is declaring. as he speaks, as he does. Here’s the question.

    What would you say is the most outstanding feature of Matthew’s Gospels? Now, I know that you’re rattling through in your mind all 28 chapters here. a computer agent upon us, and we’re all starting to work like little IBMs, right? OK. Racing through the entirety of that gospel, I’ll ask the question again. What is the most outstanding feature of Matthew’s gospel? Now, you might come up with a different one than I do. But this is what I say. We’ll see if we agree. Chapter 28.

    I want you to note specifically what is missing as you come to the end of this gospel. You have the directions of the risen Christ to his disciples. They are to meet him at a certain place in Galilee. They come to this mountain that Christ has designated, and Jesus speaks to them after they have fallen down and worshiped him. Now, you know the passage, you know what Jesus says, but is there anything strange at all about the way in which this gospel concludes?

    Well, if you compare it with the gospel of Luke, or if you compare it with the story which Luke has felt compelled by the Spirit to go on and complete with his treatment of the life of the church in the Book of Acts, you realize what’s missing. Why, this gospel doesn’t have any account of the ascension. of the gospel end, in fact, with this… remarkable statement by Jesus. Now, I know how we usually approach these verses. We’re very much interested in the missionary mandate for the church, but that twentieth verse and the last part of that twentieth verse are so important to the gospel of Matthew, because if you catch hold of what Matthew is doing here, you have a handle on the entirety of the gospel. You see, there’s no ascension, and the final words of this gospel by Jesus are, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Well, what’s the impact of that?

    Jesus never leaves. Jesus never leaves. He is with us yet. Let’s make it very poignant. He is with you yet. Now, the final words which he gives you are merely a tying up. of what has been at the center of our consideration of Jesus throughout the entire gospel of Matthew, for you see, at the heart of the gospel of Matthew is the identification of Jesus as Emmanuel, which means, well, you know, God with us. The treatment of the person of Jesus by Matthew, then, so wonderfully fits in with and harmonizes with the conclusion of the gospel. This is what Matthew has been trying to tell the church through his gospel. The one who is called Emmanuel says at the conclusion, Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world. He is with us, yet He continues. Are you conscious of Him? Are you conscious of His presence with you this morning?

    Well, we have here, then, at least what I consider to be that outstanding feature of the Gospel of Matthew. And it certainly focuses our understanding of Jesus, that one who is given the title Immanuel, but it does something else as well. For if this one who has said to us he is with us to the end of the world is, as he says, or as he has demonstrated himself to be throughout this gospel, truly Immanuel God with us, that means that in his person the reality, the truth, the very substance of heaven has come into the environment of the world. this world in which you live. The stuff of heaven has come into the world. Now, there is a phrase that is used by Matthew throughout his gospel to bring that home to you, and that phrase is, the kingdom of heaven. The reality of the kingdom of heaven, the stuff of that kingdom has now intruded into the world, and that, in the person Jesus Christ, the Emmanuel God, with us. Again, I ask you, are you conscious of that? Are you conscious of the fact that the stuff, the reality of heaven has intruded upon this world, has intruded into your life?

    Those things which are above, those things which are unseen. Those things which are commonly, ordinarily doubted. Those things that are forgotten, obscured, pushed aside. Those things which in the end are of ultimate importance. Those things which are of eternal value. the reality of the kingdom of heaven has intruded upon the earth, in that the one from heaven has come into the world and lived in it.

    Alright, the answer to that question then, have that laid out for us. And this distinctive feature of Matthew’s gospel. Then helps us to understand. Helps us to understand the person of Jesus and also our own persons or. His people or the church. In their deepest significance. Let’s think about.

    This one who is called Emmanuel, God with us, he comes into the world, yet he doesn’t appear to be a God at all. His glory is obscured, his life seems to be overlaid with the strain and temptation, struggle itself. There is the suffering which he endures. This God in the world undergoes rejection by men and is brought to the point where he must endure the cross. Suffering is shame.

    But the magnificent thing about all of this is that his life of humility and his mission, his mission accomplished through suffering, have superimposed upon them that radiating glory of the kingdom of heaven which is embodied in him. So though you look at him and you see that which might offend, you look at him and you see that which might not impress. Yet overlaid upon him is the magnificence of that radiating glory of the kingdom of heaven, because he is, after all, Immanuel. Laid over the humility, the indignity, the suffering, the death—laid over all of that is a glory that is to be perceived by those who are initiated. by the Holy Spirit. It is an uncommon message, an unlikely gospel. This one in the earth, humble and poor, ultimately stricken, ultimately crucified, is the Lord But that’s precisely the point, you see, that Matthew wants you to see.

    That as it was with the Lord, so it is for his people. They are like him. They are joined to him. He is, after all, God with us. That union of God with man. So that now, while the church is in this world, while his people are here, they too will suffer shame, undergo humiliation, experience suffering, but in all of that there is superimposed upon their experience the reality of that glory of the transcendent kingdom of heaven. Our life has superimposed upon it then. The magnificence of that radiating glory of the kingdom, that is a thought. As it was for the one who is called God, with us it is so for those who follow him.

    Isn’t this really the point in the Beatitudes? Here in the Beatitudes, the disciples of Christ are called poor, poor in spirit. They are called the mourners. They are called the meek or the humiliated. They are called those who hunger and thirst, and yet superimposed upon all of those realities is the magnificence of the opening word by Jesus, blessed.

    Why? Because the blessedness of the kingdom of heaven is being experienced by them even though they are the deprived, the weepers, the humiliated, and the hungry and the thirsty. even though they are the persecuted. For the sake. Of the kingdom of heaven for righteousness for the sake of the cross. Extended to them is blessings like that which was extended under the prophets of. The very realities of heaven. Being their glory.

    Well what does all of this have to do with Matthew five twenty one. Twenty six. What we have been saying. Not only takes us to the heart of our consideration of Jesus and of the church illuminating for us more deeply the significance of Christ in his person and the truth concerning our lives as those who belong to him, but it as well illuminates our obedience, the obedience which we owe to our God and which Jesus Christ himself has performed before us. I know the way in which the passages here have been ordinarily approached. They have been approached as if Jesus means nothing more here than to reiterate for us, republish the law from Sinai. He quotes the Old Testament to again reassert it in its proper form into the life of the nation of Israel.

    Not so. Not so. This one who has appeared has come from heaven, and the very landscape has been transformed by his appearance. The kingdom of heaven has intruded upon the earth, and you can’t even assess righteousness the same way anymore. You can’t even look at the law the same way. You can’t treat the commandments the way you used to treat them. It’s not adequate. Who’s going to try you? I asked you the question.

    What court of law, be it Jewish or Gentile, is going to try you for hatred? The court of heaven will. The court of heaven will. What court on earth, be it Jewish or Gentile, is going to try you for lust? The court of heaven will. You see what’s happening? Heaven has intruded upon Earth in the coming of Jesus Christ, and the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven has itself intruded, and that becomes the standard for righteousness. Nothing else will do. I put it to you. Can you conceive of heaven? as a place in which hatred exists. You see you can’t can you? And that’s the law for the people of God. The law is living in an environment and promoting that environment in which hatred is an utter impossibility.

    And as you work your way through the passage and the illustrations that Jesus gives here in this particular text, You realize what’s coming to play. If you therefore are presenting your offering at the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you. You leave your gift, you go to your brother and you reconcile with him first. Let’s translate that in terms of the kingdom of heaven. Let’s make the brother who has something against you God. Well, let’s suggest that in the activities of this world in which we find ourselves at variance with others, we are compelled by the reality of the Kingdom of Heaven to treat our brother as if he were God. For I abandon the altar and I go to my brother as if he were the altar, where I meet God, and there I am reconciled. The intrusion of the kingdom of heaven into your life completely radically transforms all of your human relationships. You cannot treat people the same way anymore. You say, well, I at least won’t treat my brothers the same way anymore.

    But surely there is adequate excuse when it comes to my enemies. And Jesus goes on. He goes on. Verse 25, make friends with your enemies quickly while you’re in the way. I am compelled even to treat my enemies in a similar fashion, being reconciled to them as well.

    But I have told you all along that as we approach this whole matter of the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, we cannot do so without looking intently at the cross of Jesus Christ. For it is in the cross of Jesus Christ that we perceive that God has in fact performed all of the actions. All of the actions which are necessary for our reconciliation to him. What if we are the offended brother in verse 23? What if we are the one who is the opponent?

    You see, here we are. We’re the offended one sitting over here, but the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, how it works itself out is this. The example before us out of heaven is God himself. He was the offended party, but he didn’t sit around wringing his hands or sitting upon them waiting for us to do so. He went out and pursued us. You get the picture. Here I am racing after the one who is The offended party, the one to whom I am to be reconciled, but I find that he is a brother, is also constrained by the kingdom of heaven and the example of God to us, that God, though offended, pursues us. We were the enemies, weren’t we? We need him as he’s coming towards us.

    How wonderful it would be now, you see, for the reality of the righteousness of the kingdom to be asserting itself in the life of the Church. As those who think they are innocent and yet realize that somebody is offended by them are pursuing that individual that the other side of the coin is, but they equally are pursuing and they are meeting under the banner of the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven which is manifest in the activity of God towards his people. Why it’s a veritable heaven on earth. Before the cross of Christ we have no excuses left. What offense is as great as your offense to God? And yet He pursued you and saved you. He so loves you. That’s heaven. That’s great.

    Our God, it is no mere republication of the law of Moses, but now there is revealed a superlative righteousness that is commensurate with the manifestation of Christ, your Son, out of glory. And Lord, we would delight in that and appropriate it to the full as the very righteousness of heaven is manifest in us. Though surely the impetus for our behavior, the motivation that is given us by you, is the truth that we know about you, shown to us through your pursuit of us in the work, ministry, death, resurrection of our Savior. Do encourage us, our God. that we would understand the environment into which we have been translated by your marvelous work of grace.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Neither Culture’s Handmaiden

    Neither Culture’s Handmaiden

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, October 16, 1988.

    About this sermon

    The gospel loses its force the moment it becomes culture’s handmaiden and follows whatever society already values, and Matthew 5:17-20 guards against that drift. Jesus reaffirms the law and, in a real sense, reinvents it in the same breath. He also communicates two things subtly here that reward close reading.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning, our scripture reading is from the fifth chapter of Matthew, and we are reading from verse seventeen through verse twenty. This is Matthew’s gospel from the Sermon on the Mount, the fifth chapter, beginning with the seventeenth verse. Hear the word of God.

    Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

    Ten years ago, a young student from America made his way to Switzerland. He was going to Basel to study under Marcus Barth, the son of the great Swiss theologian Karl Barth. He was surprised at what he found. He was intent on doing doctoral work there. And as he discussed the prospect of his dissertation with Dr. Bart, he was informed that he had no choice as to what the topic would be. He was told that he would have to write on the question of the law. Now the student was taken back. Somewhat shocked. Because he felt he thought. He had imagined. That the subject of the law was a long forgotten issue. In theological circles a long forgotten issue especially to the mind of the liberal. And Marcus Barth, with his father, was a liberal.

    Besides, in this modern era, had not Europe been blessed with the likes of Rudolf Bultmann, a man who had set faith in an absolutist consideration over against every form of constraint, every form of legalism. Had he not told us in his monumental essay, Kerygma and Myth, that the day had now come for the perfection of a life of faith over against a life of constraint, a life of rules. And have not his student, another theologian by the name of Ernst Casimir, written his monumental book? Jesus means freedom, so said Casimir. making the point, freedom stands over against constraint, order, law. Therefore the student was taken back.

    Hardly the environment in which he had thought to find an interest in and emphasis upon the law. But you see, there was a new spirit at work in Europe after the Second World War. How much theology is the handmaiden of culture? Prior to the war and during it, every effort was being made to set the gospel as it was being conceived in Europe over against anything that smacked of Judaism. And thus the absolute antithesis between law and gospel. But the events of the century had convicted Europe seemingly And how did they seek to make amends? Would they, for instance, make amends by returning to the genius of the Reformation in order to understand the relationship between law and gospel?

    Or would they then again prove to be merely the handmaiden of culture? for that which had been persecuted prior to and during the war had now become a major force in the emerging culture. For the Church, in order to make her way in this New Europe, she had to make peace with No more anti-law, but pro-law.

    No more is the Jew considered on the other side, but a brother in a common quest. No longer the object of an evangel, the gospel. that one who understands the message of God’s love in his own particular way, which we do well to appreciate and appropriate, since we too are building on the foundations of Judas. Ah, but the student doesn’t stay in Europe. he comes home to America.

    And what should he find here as he returns at the beginning of the eighties? He discovers that here in the United States there is also an emphasis, an unprecedented emphasis, upon but it’s not coming from liberals, it’s coming from conservatives. Again, he observes that theology is the handmaiden of culture, for the society itself seems to be on the brink of dissolution, for institutions in question. And the watchword of a campaign run in 1980 is nothing less than law and order.

    In theological circles in the church itself, we had come through an era of spiritual antinomianism. in which the spontaneity of response to God in the spirit was put over against all forms of restraint, as if duty, or doing something in response to duty, was somehow inferior. There were the ravages of so-called dispensationalism. the theology of Hal Lindsey, for instance, and his book, The Late Great Planet Earth. This, too, taking its toll. And more than anything else, it seemed, there was a cultural barbarism, a society out of control.

    And into this chaos, then, there walked some of strong, conservative, and even reformed conviction who were intent upon reasserting the claim of the law, the law in all of its fullness. This, in fact, being at the root of what has been called the Theonomic Movement. Now, there’s an irony to all of this.

    Maybe you’ve picked it up already. So it doesn’t matter whether the student is operating in his European context with a bunch of liberals or he’s operating in his American context with a bunch of conservatives. The question that arises is the same as he faces in both directions. And that question is this.

    With this turn towards law, be it by the liberal in his attempt to appeal to the Jew, or be it on the part of the conservative in his attempt to assert the claims of the Old Testament, how in the world are you as a Christian different from a Jew? You tell me what progress has been made. What is the significance, then, of the coming of Jesus Christ? Thus enters Matthew 5, 17-20. The calling card of both movements European and American. Especially in the American version that we have become acquainted with now. We are being told.

    That all that is intended by this passage is a mere republication of the law by Jesus. All that is intended by him is a reassertion of that mosaic understanding of things that now, through and by Jesus, we have the proper interpretation and the appropriate application of that law.

    Well, I must admit, from a cursory reading of this text, it would seem that those who suggested this approach to these verses are correct. After all, we have that 18th verse that speaks about the job and the title. We have that 19th verse that tells us about commandments, great and small, and their importance to us. But in reading it, and in assessing it within the context of the Sermon on the Mount, can we say, in the end, that the appearance of Jesus Christ has made no impact upon and brought no alteration to the law. Are we just Jews with better insight into the nature of the law? Or has something actually occurred here, transpired, that puts everything in a much different light?

    There are two things that are obvious in the text, first of all, that convince us that we cannot approach this passage as if we were simply Jews who have come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah. There is a distinctiveness that is obvious on the face of things in two respects. First of all. This text makes sense only within the context of the coming of Christ himself. It is Christ’s coming that creates a crisis a crisis for the understanding the typical ordinary understanding of the law and that’s why he has to say in verse seventeen I came I came to I came not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill.

    The second thing that is obvious from the text is the assertion of his authority. Not only has he come, but he is one who is able to say that his word is now that vantage point from which we ought to view even those words that have been previously uttered. Truly, I say in the language that is reiterated throughout the sermon. Repeatedly calling attention to the Supreme Authority of Jesus Christ, that authority which is exercising even here. But the distinctiveness of the Christian position is also presented to us. focused for us by some subtle factors laying beneath the surface of the test. This morning, I will mention two. First of all, the unspoken question.

    What is it, for instance, that compels Jesus to move from that sixteen birth where he’s talking about light shining before men in such a way that they may see good works and glorify the father was in heaven. What is it that drives him from that sixteen birth to the seventeen to immediately afterwards in that seventeen birth bring up this issue of the law on the profits.

    The ordinary answer to that question has been Jesus, here, is anticipating those attacks that will be brought against him and against his church. He is anticipating the attacks of the detractors who are interested in pitting Christ over against the Law and the Prophets, as if he were here responding to his enemies. But I ask you to consider if Jesus here speaking to his enemies, is he anticipating their response to his message, or is he speaking to his own, speaking to them directly?

    Those who have come to him on the mount are in fact his disciples, and it is to them that he addresses his comments, and it is they who are raising the question that stands behind these verses. What then of the law and the prophets, and if they are raising that question, you see the question must arise out of what has preceded in verses three through sixteen out of the Beatitudes and Jesus commentary on them. What in those Beatitudes, what in that commentary would compel the disciples of Jesus to ask the question, what then of the law and the prophets? Well, it’s this, their expectation with regard to the kingdom was precisely the scenario in which the Messiah would appear and he would bring everything to a consummation, but the way in which Jesus speaks when he gives to his disciples those the attitudes and then he gives them his commentary upon those the attitudes he is therefore saying to them that what they had expected will not in fact take place.

    Actually, what is going to happen is life is going to go on and isn’t going to be all that pleasant. And the immediate response, the question in the mind of his disciples is, what of the law and the prophets? What have we been believing in all of these years? What have we been giving our lives to? If, in fact, this is what you’ve come to do, what of the law and the prophets? So Jesus is there for telling.

    Nothing of the law of the prophets is lost, rather the law of the prophets will be fulfilled, but you see, there’s something else here on intruding, and this is the second factor, the second subtle factor that is impinging upon this passage. For there’s not only an unspoken question, there is also an unspoken assumption. You see, Jesus never speaks as one. who is not considering fully and completely, at the time he speaks, the end, the completion, the fulfillment of his ministry. So even here, before the fulfillment and completion of that ministry, Jesus is speaking as one who has in full view that ministry’s conclusion and end. He speaks in light of the cross that is going to come. And when you ask the question about verse twenty concerning the passing righteousness, that righteousness that surpasses even the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, a superlative righteousness, I quote. When you ask a question as to what might be the content of that righteousness, you cannot express the content of that righteousness without speaking about the problem.

    Jesus came not to abolish but to fulfill. How does he fulfill? He fulfills the law and the prophets in his work upon the cross. You ask, how is that accomplished on the cross? How are the law and the prophets accomplished by Jesus, fulfilled by Jesus on the cross?

    How is righteousness manifest there? Not so much that righteousness of God, but that righteousness that is required of us and is communicated to us by Christ, a superlative righteousness, a righteousness that is revealed from heaven itself. If you think that you can keep the observed or place before you the commandments of God without taking into consideration the cross of Christ, you are greatly mistaken. And it is that cross that makes Christian gospel utterly distinct and unique and separates it in fact from Judaism.

    For what will be the fulfillment of the law? Is it not this? That there came one among us who sought not to be served, but to serve and to give his life. a ransom for many. Jesus is saying that is the fulfillment of the law and the promise. And as that has been manifested by our Savior on the cross, which is now the superlative righteousness that is to be manifest in your life. The one who is first becoming last, the exalted one becoming the slave, the one who has privilege becoming the servant, forsaking advantage that others might be preferred before him. not the saving of life, but the giving of life away. All that the law and the prophets were saying is summed up in the cross. And you obey God and you keep his commandments when the law of Christ is fulfilled in you. And according to Paul, when you bear one another’s burdens.

    The tragedy is That those liberals in Europe and the conservatives in America will continue to exegete the Sermon on the Mount as if the cross is fully, completely human. And not really a consideration at this point in Jesus’ ministry. You know that. You know that.

    As you think about that cross, and you think about your own obedience and the superlative righteousness that is yours, you come to the table, which memorializes, commemorates the death of our Savior for us. Our Lord, we would not be those who would bind ourselves in the law of the void of Christ, but we would have ourselves placed there as you sovereignly have done in that law, that obedience, that command. filled full with Christ, and the significance of His cross. Let us know for certain, Lord, that this is what is pleasing in your sight, as that superlative righteousness is manifest in us, and that in conformity to our Savior who is gone before us. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Cross From the Beginning

    The Cross From the Beginning

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 25, 1988.

    About this sermon

    The cross stands in view from the first verse of the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew groups things in sevens, and there are seven Beatitudes, verses 3-9; verses 10-16 serve as their commentary. The two halves match across the page: the persecuted are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Those who belong to Christ remain merciful, pure in heart and peacemakers even when the world reviles them, because the blessed life follows the path of the cross.

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    Sermon transcript

    Our scripture reading this morning is from Matthew chapter 5. We start with verse 1 and we read through verse 16. And seeing the multitudes, he went up into the mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

    Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

    Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they, the prophets which were before you. Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt has lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under the foot of men.

    Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father, which is in heaven.

    Pray with me briefly now. Our souls are famished. Our hunger is a reality which we dare not deny before you, our God. We would be filled. We know nowhere else to go, but to you. You have through Christ. given the words of eternal life. So Lord, now. Let us be filled and be satisfied. We pray it in Christ’s name.

    Our goal is Matthew six. We are moving towards Matthew six by way of some introductory messages. We have outlined for you the Gospel of Matthew. We have also considered the setting and structure of this grandest of the sermon. This morning we are looking at the first part of the. with their commentary. That is, verses three through sixteen.

    Now, to give you an idea of where I am going with this message, lest you get bogged down in the detail. Our approach to this message from Christ must be in keeping with the fullness of that revelation that has come to us in Christ. Therefore, we need we dare not delay our consideration of the death and exaltation of Christ till the end of the gospel.

    If you do not and cannot understand this. And that is the fatal mistake. Almost uniformly of commentators. If you postpone consideration of the cross to the end of Matthew’s gospel, you do not stand a chance of understanding what Jesus is saying here. Now, I am contending to you that that is true, not only for this introductory section of the blessings and its commentary and their commentary, but also the next section that begins with verse seventeen and the consideration of the fulfillment of the law or the fulfillment of the law and the promise. I’m sorry. But most Christians read the Sermon on the Mount as if Jesus was just a good Jew. What they end up with is moralism. They don’t end up with redemption. And they don’t end up with a Savior. All right, here we go. Verses three through sixteen.

    We have that question that I asked you last week. I’ll ask you that question again. How many the attitudes are. If we answer this question, all right, we are a long way down the road to understanding what Jesus is doing here. How many the attitudes are there? Well, there are some who say all you have to do is count up the blessings. How many do you get? Well, if you count them all, you get nine.

    That sounds like an unlikely number. Well, you look at verses ten and eleven, the last two of the blessed and you you realize that that last one, the ninth one is is near extension of the previous one, so they go together almost as if they are one in the same. So we back off from the number nine. Some suggest eight. They say the last blessed is in verse ten and. contending that they have suggested to us, in fact, that those last two verses ten and eleven must be blended as one. So there are eight. Well, are there eight?

    Consider that can first look at its conclusion. the blessing articulated there by Jesus. The word for there is the kingdom of sound familiar. Yes, of course, that’s where he just began in verse three. That’s the same ending as we find at the end of the first beatitude. Blessed are the poor in spirit. So, obviously, there is a connection between verses 3 and 10. They go together. Well, to what end? Does Jesus reiterate the closing of that third verse to wrap things up? Or, more likely, is he going back to the beginning and starting over again?

    Now, if it’s the latter, the answer to our question, how many Beatitudes are there is seven. That’s a better number, isn’t it? If you know something about the Jewish mind, you know something about biblical numerics, the number seven sounds better, and it sounds better, especially from a gospel written by Matthew. You remember the opening of the Gospel of Matthew. He has the three-tiered genealogy moving from Abraham to David, from David to the exile, from the exile to the birth of Christ.

    Each of those catalogs of names is made up of fourteen names, double seven. You turn to Matthew six, and you start counting petitions in the Lord’s Prayer. How many you get? I count seven there. Some accounts. I believe there are seven. You turn to Matthew eight and nine, and you start counting the miracles of Christ recorded there in those chapters. How many do you find? Seven. You turn to Matthew thirteen, the chapter of the parables. You count the parables. How many are there? There are other instances of this in Matthew’s Gospel.

    His grouping of things together in seven, using the number seven as a base. Why? Why? The number seven is the number of completion. Well, why should the number of seven be the number of completion? Because when God made the world, there were seven complete days in which that whole affair took place. The number seven is the number of homeless completion, if you will, perfection. What does this mean for the attitudes, the It means, if there are in fact seven of them, as I am contending, you have laid before you the perfect, the complete, the whole of the blessing of God for his people, as they live their lives in this world as children of the Father, citizens of the kingdom of heaven. seven as the number of the lesson. Returning to that tenth verse, if in fact we are correct.

    Jesus here is not recapitulating, he’s not simply going back to the beginning, rather he is saying again what he has said previously, he is starting all over again. to say once more what he has said previously, only in different words. That means that if this holds true, verses ten through sixteen is a commentary on verses three through nine. So if you have a piece of paper or if you are taking notes, you can actually take or if you have some scissors and you want to cut out cut out the beatitudes and put them on the left side of the page, and then cut out verses ten through sixteen. You can put them on the other side of the page, the three through nine paralleling the ten through sixteen. In other words, you have an inspired commentary on the beatitudes given you, and if you are in a quandary as to what the beatitudes mean, all you have to do is look at the commentary.

    And you can’t argue with the commentary. because Jesus is the one who gave. All right. You’ve got your parallel columns now. You’ve got them set out. Three through nine, then through sixteen. But now you look at the commentary. It’s familiar territory for all of us. We’ve been through this quite a number of times in one form or another. The famous verses left it are those who have been persecuted. Rejoice, be exceedingly glad you are the father of the earth, you’re the light of the world with your light shine before men that they might glorify your father in heaven. These familiar words for us, but as we move down through that commentary versus ten through sixteen, we notice something. We notice that there is a shift, there is a different tone that intrudes at a particular point in that commentary.

    We read down from verse ten through verse twelve, all of that hanging together, having to do with persecution. Blessed are those who are persecuted. Verse ten, verse eleven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you. Rejoice, be exceedingly glad, etc. That all hangs together. Then you come to verse thirteen. You are the salt of the earth. The tone changes. A very definite shift. So, it seems that we can divide the commentary. The first part, 10 through 12. The second part, 13 through 16. The commentary comes in installments. There’s a shift in it.

    But then, we ask ourselves the question, if there is this shift in the commentary, might we find the shift in the text? In the blessings? In the attitudes themselves? So we turn back to verses 3 through 9, and we look at them, looking for a similar phenomenon. And what do we find? We do in fact find a shift.

    It may not be apparent to us right away, for the structure seems uniform, and we run right through those Beatitudes as if they are said in one breath, all along the same line. But we do know something of a shift when we are talking about things like poverty of spirit, mourning or weeping, meekness or humiliation, hungering and thirsting. And then with verse seven, we enter into something that seems a little bit different. Mercy, purity of heart, peacemaking. Yes, there is a shift in the original, in the Beatitudes. There’s a shift there, as well as in the commentary. A shift that occurs between verses six and seven.

    So again, as we have our passage now set up for us on a page by itself. We have verses three through nine of the lessons on the left side of the page. We have verses ten through sixteen on the other, but on that side that has ten through sixteen. We’ve already divided the passage ten through twelve, thirteen through sixteen. We go back to the other side with the Beatitudes themselves, and we say that we have three through six and seven through nine, and across the page they match up.

    This is how you come to understand what Jesus means. Specifically, when he says, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they that mourn, blessed are the meek, blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness. You see what Jesus is doing? You understand the significance of the shift that takes place in both the Beatitudes and in the commentary? How would we describe that shift? Looking at the commentary.

    Verses 10 through 12. In you there is what is done to you because you belong. to Jesus. In view in verses 10 through 12 is what the world does to you because you belong to Jesus. Verses 13 through 16, what you do in the world in spite of the fact that you are persecuted by it. Now let’s go back to the Beatitudes. If these passages match up. Verses 3-6, the first four Beatitudes parallel, verses 10-12. which means that you have to read them in the same way, and I dare tell you that they are not often read.

    Now, I don’t say this to make light of those who have seriously considered the Beatitudes along a certain line. For they are serious and honest Bible students. My only contention is that they have missed the point. When Jesus says, for instance, blessed are the poor in spirit, he is not speaking there about those who are spiritually bankrupt, who have no currency to commend themselves to God. He is not there essentially speaking about a positive Christian virtue of Christian humility. The posture that one takes because he is sinful, and convicted by his. No. What Jesus means by poverty of spirit is understood when we contrasted with those who are rich in spirit.

    And those who are rich in spirit have been described for us this morning in Psalm seventeen. They are the ones that have everything. They are never exhausted, and they pursue their with all the energy, seemingly, that could possibly be at their disposal. The poor in spirit, then, are those who are exhausted because they love God. They are exhausted because they are the victims of those who are rich in spirit and have all the energy possible at their disposal to persecute, in fact, the righteous of God.

    We have misunderstood the second beatitude, those who mourn. Traditionally, we have understood it in terms of mourning for our sins. No, we are weeping because we are the victims of those who oppose righteousness and oppose Christ. Those first four beatitudes, then, are expressing to us our condition in the world. as the world opposes us because we belong to Christ.

    The meekness of the third beatitude, the hungering and thirsting for righteousness of the fourth beatitude. It’s not so much a hungering and thirsting after righteousness in the sense of sanctification that’s in view there, personal holiness. It’s a hungering and thirsting for the righteous rule of God. the righteous reign of God, his kingdom in all of its might and power and significance. In lieu of the fact that there are those in this world who seemingly don’t hunger and thirst at all. since all power belongs to them, in the here and now. That brings us to the latter three Beatitudes, verses 7-9. You see the beauty of it now, the power of it, the overwhelming magnitude and glory of it?

    If the world treats you this way, how are you going to live in that world? What is your reflex? How do you respond? Are you determined to get I am determined to bear this grudge. I am determined to exact vengeance and reap revenge on all of those who have done their damnedest to me. I am determined. So what does Jesus say? Though the world treats you this way, you are to persist in being merciful. You are to persist in purity of heart. What’s the temptation?

    It doesn’t get me anything, so I might as well act like the world. Why am I behaving this way? Why am I denying myself things? They don’t deny themselves anything. They go after the world with abandon. They sin, and sin repeatedly, without conscience, seemingly. Why then do I restrain myself? If all that I get for belonging to Jesus is persecution and abuse, why bother? Why not live it up?

    Those who belong to the Christ are to have a different answer. Yes, in the midst of that world in which they are persecuted and abused, they are to continue to be merciful, and they are to continue to be pure in heart, and they are to persist in making peace.

    You see, that’s what it means when Jesus says, You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. for remember. Verses seven through nine parallel versus thirteen. All right. Remember. At the beginning, I ask you to keep in mind where we’re going with this message. and that’s the point at which we find ourselves now.

    So what have we done by expounding the Beatitudes in this way? What have we done? Does it sound familiar to you, the progression through them? the world’s abuse, and then, in light of that abuse, a spirit that persists in mercy, in purity of heart, and in the making of peace. Does it sound familiar to you?

    Jesus, in expounding the blessings of the kingdom of heaven, is also expounding the king of that kingdom, the one who has come from heaven. He has expounded how he himself will behave in the world. For who is the one poor in spirit, par excellence? Jesus Christ. He is the one who is persecuted, abused. Who is he that weeps and mourns before a world that taunts him and derides? Jesus Christ. Who is the one who is meek, hungry, and thirsty for the righteousness of the kingdom? It is Jesus Christ. And what does he do when the world releases its fury against him? He persists in demonstrating mercy. He continues to be pure in heart. He is always, forever, the peacemaker.

    The Beatitudes are not there giving you some sort of analog on how to be safe or how to be happy. The Be Happy Attitudes, as I’ve heard them called lately. This is kingdom life. It’s life and death, friend. It is virtually the life of Jesus Christ. Which now you are welcome to. As a citizen of the kingdom over which he is. But I don’t want you to fear. It looks quite severe.

    And extreme. because you see the one who speaks is Emmanuel God with us so that even if in the world we are abused and opposed and rejected and hated in the midst of it God is with us and that’s the blessing of the beatitude God has come. He has come to his poor ones, to his mourning ones, to his meek and lowly ones, to his hungry and thirsty ones. And his presence means their endurance and perseverance. His presence means a power in them to be merciful, pure in heart and appeasing.

    It all fits. It all wonderfully, beautifully fits. Let’s pray. Finally, in the cross, our Christ. You are abused. Opposed, rejected. You are made to suffer. And yet, Lord. The marvels of that which shines forth. Your focus upon those things which are above. and your persistence in mercy even towards those who hate you.

    Oh Lord, we who are here described by the blessings with the commentary would live as you have prescribed in the very power that you supply. for we know that your presence means God is with us to sanctify to us all of our distresses and confirm upon us all the comforts of the kingdom of heaven we pray now these things through your name our savior Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit unto the Father Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • An Outline for the Whole Sermon

    An Outline for the Whole Sermon

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 18, 1988.

    About this sermon

    A working outline of the whole Sermon on the Mount traces three themes woven through it from start to finish. Wherever righteousness appears in Christ’s teaching there, it comes through the cross. The rest of the series keeps returning to this outline as its map.

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    Sermon transcript

    First of all, Matthew five, one through nine, then seventeen through twenty. Then chapter seven versus seven through twelve and twenty four through twenty seven. And seeing the multitude, he went up into the mountain. And when he was set, his disciples came unto him.

    And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.”

    Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall not, shall in no wise pass from the law till all shall be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

    Chapter seven, verse seven. Ask and it shall be given you. See, and ye shall find not, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. For what man is there of you? whom, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone, or if he ask him a fish, will give him a serpent. If he then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” for this is the law and the profit. And then there is twenty four through twenty seven.

    Therefore, whosoever hears these things of mine and do with them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, and it fell. was the fall of.

    Let’s pray together briefly. Father, your word is given for our life, and now your word is held up before the nations. Today, your servants proclaim that word, and we ask, Father, that strength be given to them and clarity. We are asking to Father, that it would be evident to all who hear that the Spirit of God is with them and that that word indeed comes from you. For ourselves, we would ask that we would receive your word gladly, that we would store it up in our hearts and live by it. For surely we know your word is true. For Jesus’ sake now, Amen.

    We are engaged in an activity this morning that most of us, either presently because we are in school or because we were in school, hated. The activity is outlining. You were told, of course, that there was nothing easier, but you found out the truth. The truth is that your teacher doesn’t always tell you the truth. Outlining is difficult, arduous work. very hard. Indeed. And you who are applying yourself to it in some form or another know just how difficult it is. And if you can think back to your school years, those of you who are older, you can remember something of the horror that faced you with an assignment outlying this chapter.

    When we turned our outlines in, or as we are turning them in, we oftentimes find out that we don’t even know how to outline. You know, the subpoints are supposed to arrange themselves in certain orders. You’re supposed to have at least two under a major heading. Did you know that? Remember that principle of outlining?

    Well, what we’re going to do this morning is outline the sermon. Now, like your teacher who lied to you, I’m going to tell you my own lie. The outline is really very simple. But getting there, arriving at that simple outline, that very helpful and convenient outline, has been very difficult for the Church.

    I hope that you brought your pencil with you. It would help if you brought your Bible. And if you don’t have anything to write on, please, please, don’t think that this Bible is so sacred that you can’t write in it. Write in the margin, make your own notes, carry them around with you as you carry your Bible. There’s nothing wrong with that. You are not defacing the word. All that I ask is, if you’ve picked up a Pew Bible, please don’t write in it. So if you’re going to write in a Bible, make sure it’s your own.

    Outlining again the The actual process of arriving at a subtle outline can be very, very difficult. But I dare say that the effort can be wonderfully rewarding. And in this case, I am hopeful that it will be very rewarding to you, in that, like our outline of the Gospel of Matthew as a whole, which I’m sure you all remember now, you will have this outline of the Sermon on the Mount in tow, well in hand, and you are able then to produce it at a moment’s notice. Alright, the structure of the Sermon on the Mount. And all we’re going to do today is look for similarities in the text that help us organize the various sections. This will be something of an outline along a literary scheme. Just looking for the recurring literary features that are there deliberately. And as we group them, we will see just how wonderfully the whole sermon fits together.

    Would you believe? I’m almost embarrassed to say this. My aunt is sitting here and I know that this has been a discussion that we have had for quite some time. She being a speech teacher and something of a connoisseur of sermons Would you believe that the Sermon on the Mount has three points?

    Three points! Or three major divisions. Now, that’s also helpful to us and is easily remembered, because if we remember our outline of the Gospel of Matthew, we recall that there were three major divisions for the Gospel. So, we come to the sermon, and we find out there are three major divisions in the sermon. This is working out beautifully, isn’t it?

    If you can’t remember the number three, all you have to do is remember the Trinity. All these mental tricks. Let’s start out with what is the obvious grouping. This first section, literally, I hardly need to say. You run down through those opening verses and you run into all of these lessons. All right. Well, that’s very helpful. We’ve got at least the first part of our outlaw.

    But the section actually runs beyond the blessed themselves. The first section of the sermon is from verse three that first blessed through verse sixteen. Now, I have a wonderful on the structure of the first sixteen verses, and I’d love to give it to you this morning. But if I gave you that sermon, we wouldn’t be able to finish our outline, so we’ll save that.

    But let me just suggest to you here, there are seven Beatitudes. There are seven Beatitudes. If you have a New American Standard version of the Bible, I don’t know how many of you are using that Bible these days, but if you happen to have a new American Standard Bible version of the Bible, it is that Bible that divides this section appropriately correct. There are seven Beatitudes and the last Beatitude proper is found in verse nine. with the peacemakers, and that’s why I stopped my reading.

    You’ll note that there are some lessons that go on from there. Verse ten has one verse eleven has one, but it is my contention, and I can develop this at length sometime for you and have done so in the past. It is my contention that verse ten is a reflex. It is not a new beatitude. It is a return to the original beatitude, because you’ll note that the ending of the first beatitude and that the attitude that appears in verse ten is exactly the same. What Jesus does is he goes back to the beginning. OK, can you see that the promise given in each of those beatitudes is for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That’s how the beatitude in each of those cases ends.

    Verse three, verse ten. got that you see that. So what Jesus is doing is he’s going back to the beginning, and he’s starting over, and it’s beautiful what happens then, because verses ten through sixteen provide you an inspired commentary on the Beatitudes themselves. If you have any question as to what Jesus means by those seven Beatitudes, all you have to do is read, understand what Jesus is saying in verses ten through sixteen. So, the first section of the sermon is verses three through sixteen. We could call it the blessed and commentary. The blessed and commentary.

    And I love this. I love this. This place, this point, Scripture. Because it doesn’t seem to me that in any other place in the Bible, we have such so clearly inspired commentary on what has been said. It’s magnificent. So there we are first first point, the blessings and commentary three through sixteen chapter And then we come to the major section of the sermon.

    And this major section has always given people fits, not just because of its content, but because of its organization. But if you will move through it in a literary way, you will see how wonderfully it is organized. It’s not haphazard, as many have contended. Its organization is very deliberate, and it works out so beautifully, wonderfully before our eyes.

    All right. The main section of the sermon. Chapter five, verse seventeen, all the way through chapter seven, verse twenty three. We’re almost to the end. Almost to the end. Now, you will note. You will note what takes precedence. In this section, what, in fact, supplies us. The theme for the section is a whole. Verse 17 through 20 of that fifth chapter. Provides us with a heading for it, a sort of introduction to it. And we can say that out of these verses, there are wise for us. A title. For the section of the whole. And that title would be this or something comparable to. The fulfillment of the law and the problem.

    With the surpassing righteousness of the kingdom. OK, let’s. Have that one more time. The fulfillment of the law and the prophets with the surpassing righteousness of the kingdom of heaven. You might want to substitute for that word surpassing. I sort of lifted that out of verse 20, the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, the superlative righteousness of the kingdom. Now, now, note, note, as you move through. This entire section and call to mind things that you know about this section of the sermon.

    How important that matter of righteousness is. It is spoken of directly in verse 20. Your righteousness must surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, or you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. And then we have an explication of that superlative righteousness that is part and parcel of the revelation of the kingdom of heaven that comes only through Jesus Christ.

    Righteousness is mentioned once more in one of those strategic passages. in the third, you could give it to me from memory. I’m sure it’s the thirty-third verse of the sixth chapter. But first, his kingdom and his righteousness and all these other things will be added on to you. Certainly one of those gems but also tying together the whole of the section. The theme then being this righteousness, this superlative righteousness, this righteousness that is found with God, this righteousness that is found in the kingdom of heaven, which Jesus alone can bring and does bring. But notice well, again in a literary way, how the whole hangs together that seventeen birth of the fifth chapter moving back to it.

    You have mentioned there the law and the profits very important, because you’ll note that that phrase recur. It recurs in a section that we read this morning. You turn to the seventh chapter, the twelfth verse, and there you have, well, the proverbial Golden Rule, which has as its appendix.

    These words for this is the law and the prophets, tying together the whole is then what Jesus has to say concerning the law and the prophets, law and the prophets, superlative righteousness, all of that held together then for us in this major section the second section of the sermon on the moving from five seventeen through chapter seven verse twenty three.

    I was just run down through the various points in the second main section. We have already spoken about the head and the heading is you’re going to have a little a underneath or however you’re doing this. You have heading underneath verses seventeen through twenty. That’s a section in itself, and that sets the tone for the entirety of this section of the sermon. Then we have the next major subdivision, and it is set off for us wonderfully in a literary way.

    Each of these sections is introduced to us When Jesus said, You have heard that it was said to them in ancient times, but I say unto you. And you have there in verses twenty one through forty three or forty eight. Of this fifth chapter, a grouping together of six statements by Jesus that are introduced with that language.

    So that section holds together. For verse twenty one to verse forty eight. That all holds together under that heading. The you have heard that it was said section. All right then we move into chapter six. Verses one through eighteen and again you can look at this in a literary way, everything that Jesus says here in this section is introduced to you with words like these, and when you and when you perform your own, and when you pray, and when you fast. This is the and when you section. So we have twenty one through forty eight of chapter five verse one through verse eighteen of chapter six. Then, verse nineteen. Verse nineteen begins another section, another subdivision under this main heading, and it moves through the seventh chapter, the sixth verse. This is the do not the do not section. Notice how many do not there are here. I do not lay up for yourself Frazier’s upon her.

    Okay, first twenty five for this reason, I say, and you do not be anxious for your life. Verse thirty one do not be anxious than saying, What shall we eat? And finally, verse thirty four. Therefore, do not be anxious for tomorrow for tomorrow will be anxious enough or so.

    You have, I’m sorry, that’s not the last one. That’s the last one in Chapter six, but you go on to Chapter seven. Do not judge, let you yourself be judged. And the final one, then, is verse six. Do not give what is holy to God. You have, then, the do not section. So, so far in the second main section, we have run through the heading. We have had. You were heard that it was said you had the do not. And now for the final part of the second main section, which is the ask, enter, beware section.

    There is from together here for us a number of imperative given by Jesus that are organized around the idea of invitation and caution. Invitation and warning. This is verse 7 through verse 23. Jesus gives his invitation. Verse 7. Ask and it shall be given to you. ye shall find not it shall be open to you. That’s the first in the imperatives, an invitation to be sure. Then verse thirteen, enter, enter, enter by the narrow gate. And here warning is issued that leads on to the last of these imperatives, which is in verse fifteen.

    Beware, beware of the false prophets. there you have the second main section and you run down through that if you’re looking for a thread that goes through all of these all of the pearls. It would be something along the line of what I suggested is a title for this section, the fulfillment of the law and the profits with the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven, and then we come to the third point for the clothes, the clothes of the sermon, which is an appropriate parable, the parable of the wise and foolish men who build respectively upon the rock, which is the word of Christ, or the sand, which is their own word, some other authority. That’s the sermon. The blessings with commentary. Chapter five verse three through sixteen. The fulfillment of the law of the prophets in the superlative righteousness of the kingdom of heaven five seventeen through seven twenty three and finally the closing parable chapter seven verses twenty four through twenty seven. Now, for all that is potentially muddling in this sermon, if we can keep this outline in view as we go through the sermon, we will be greatly helped. We will be greatly helped.

    Let me say, finally this morning, something about the themes themselves that you find in the third, and I’ll be very brief. I want to develop these in the course of our messages, but I just want to point them out to you here this morning so that you’ll understand my orientation. You’re not going to understand me unless you grasp this, and I believe that you will not understand the sermon in its deepest sense unless you grasp this.

    This sermon is possible only because the kingdom of heaven has dawned in Christ. You’ve got to keep that in mind. Jesus is not a religious philosopher. He’s not a fellow with a bright new idea, who appears on a mountainside in Galilee and begins to spin his philosophy in a fractal cycle to himself. No. His coming means that the kingdom of heaven has dawned, that it has appeared, that it has intruded into the earth. It is the reality.

    You don’t make it happen. Not even your faith brings the kingdom of heaven. It is an act of God, and you cannot make it not a fact. You cannot make it not a fact. Let me tell you something about your own faith. Some of you think that your faith actually constructs the realities of the blessings that God has to give you. That’s not true.

    The blessings are there, faith only appropriates. People wear themselves out in worship and in religious service because they think that, really, faith depends upon all of the energies that they can muster and direct towards some sort of goal or object. Look, you don’t bring the kingdom of heaven by your faith. God gives the kingdom of heaven as it gives.

    And the only thing you can do is to receive it. The Sermon on the Mount is possible because something has happened. No one spoke like this before, not even Moses. Not even the best that Israel had to offer could speak in this way. Because something has happened. What has happened? has descended into the earth in the person of Jesus Christ. The kingdom of heaven has dawned. Now, let that grip you. Let that grip you. The impact of the kingdom of heaven. You have that phrase used repeatedly through the sermon, the kingdom of heaven.

    Secondly, the revelation of the Father. In the Old Testament, you don’t find God spoken of as Father like you find here, like you find in the Sermon on the Mount or in the Gospels. You don’t find him spoken of as the Father, because you see, the revelation of God as Father must await the coming of the Son. And you never see the Father clearly until you see the Son clearly.

    So, a theme that is going to run throughout this entire sermon is your father who is in heaven. You can see how the themes are interwoven. Heaven, kingdom of heaven. Father, our father who is in heaven. Okay, theme two. Theme three. We’ve already spoken about it. And when you say that, say it a little differently, so that it takes you a little while to get through the words. If you do that, you might think about it. Be a little affective when you say it.

    Not righteousness. Say righteousness. Righteousness. Give it a different quality. Because you see, it has been given a different quality. In the exposition of Christ. It’s no common righteousness. It’s not even what righteousness might be congratulated in Israel. By fellow Jews. It is a. It is a superlative and an uncommon righteousness. You see how the themes are interwoven.

    Kingdom of heaven, Father who is in heaven, righteousness that is from heaven. No righteousness of the world. I haven’t committed adultery, I’m fine. I haven’t performed the act, I’m innocent. That’s the righteousness of the world. In some sense, now here, in some sense, that is the righteousness of Israel, even at the first. But there is a superlative righteousness that is now being revealed. And that becomes the arena for your life and existence. The kingdom of heaven is gone. Where do you live? You live in the reality of the kingdom of heaven. Now, how are you going to live? How are you going to behave? Let me ask you, is there lust in heaven? Let me ask you, is there lust in heaven? Is there hatred in heaven? Is there lying and false swearing in heaven?

    No. And the superlative righteousness that is found only in and through Christ is asserting itself now in the life of all those who join themselves to Him by faith. That is the discipline that is introduced into your life. You start thinking like you were already in heaven. You start thinking like you were already in heaven. Well, we have to stop.

    And as we expound these things and go through the Sermon on the Mount in the weeks to come. I want you to keep hold of one more truth as it pertains to this righteousness of which we have spoken. This righteousness and its power and its glory are manifest through the cross of Christ. Hold on to that and we’ll talk more about that Let’s pray together.

    Now, our Lord. Encourage us with this sermon, which could be called the sermon. The sermon for us. Appropriate, applicable, meaningful to us today. with all the power and significance intended by you as your son delivered it so many years ago. May we delight in it as we hear it, as we study it, as we lay it up in our hearts. For Jesus’ sake, amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Mountain and the Heavenly Office

    The Mountain and the Heavenly Office

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 11, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Matthew’s insistence on ‘the’ mountain, rather than just any mountain, in 5:1 draws on a string of Old Testament references that give the location real theological weight. Christ ascending, sitting down, and teaching his own disciples is read as already prophetic of his heavenly office, more than simply a rabbi’s typical posture. The scene itself is doing more theological work than its plain narration might suggest.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning we are reading from Matthew chapter four. We are beginning with verse seventeen. We will read through the opening verses of the fifth chapter. Hear the word of God. Beginning with verse seventeen then of Matthew four. From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

    And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, and they were fishers. And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw two other brethren, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets. And he called them, and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him.

    And Jesus went about all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And His fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto Him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic and those that were sick of the palsy and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee and from the capitalists and from Jerusalem and from Judea and from beyond the Jordan. And seeing the multitude. He went up into the mountain. And when he was set. His disciples came unto him. And he opened his mouth and talked to them.

    Pray with me briefly now. Our Father, if the word simply lay there, does it not remain a dead letter? So Lord, as is your Spirit’s intent, And as your spirit himself has been the author of the word, so may this word come to us well mixed with the spirit in our hearts that we might be found to be willing listeners and ready and obedient servants. May this be true, yes, for us. but may it be true as well for your people with whom we are bound in this common faith throughout this wide world. Amen. Our goal is Matthew 6.

    And we are intending to get there in a week or two. But we have been concerning ourselves with some preliminaries. We have considered, first of all, the structure and the intent of Matthew’s gospel as a whole. And I would remind you, those of you who heard that sermon, The test will come on a morning you’re not expecting. In order to get out of this church, you will have to tell me the outline of the Gospel of Matthew. But we won’t delay with that this morning. We have since moved on to consider the setting of the Sermon on the Mount. We will next week take up the structure of this sermon, but this morning we are finishing our messages on the setting of the sermon.

    Last week we spoke about that setting as it pertains to the audience. We noticed the importance of the multitudes, for instance. how those multitudes are brought before us at the end of Matthew four spoken again of at the beginning of Matthew five, and then even at the conclusion of the sermon on the Mount as a whole in Matthew seven. The multitude then are very important.

    We also saw how Jesus distinguishes his disciples from the multitudes at large. And that’s how we move into the fifth chapter. And when he saw the multitudes, he in effect withdrew himself into the mountain. After he sat down, his disciples, as distinguished from the multitudes, came to him.

    So, last week, the setting with regard to the multitude and the disciples, specifically with regard to the audience that heard the sermon. This morning, the setting with regard to the geography. Before us today, then, is specifically the mountain. Now I want you to know the peculiarity of Matthew at this point. If you have a King James version, and we read from the King James in our scripture reading this morning, but you might have noted that I fudged a bit. If you read that first verse of the fifth chapter from the King James, you will note there that there is an indefinite article before mountain. So that in the King James, it reads a mountain. He went up on a mountain.

    If you have a New American Standard version, however, you will note that the reading there abandons the indefinite article for the definite article. So it is not a mountain. but the mountain. Now that’s odd. Let me say, by way of confirmation of the New American Standard Version’s rendering here, that the Greek does have the definite article.

    It is not a mountain Rather, in the Greek, it is THE mountain. Well, it’s odd, of course, that Matthew writes this way, because we don’t know, as the readers, what specific mountain this is. THE mountain? Well, what mountain? What mountain are you talking about?

    Now, I might point out further to you that this is not simply a simple occurrence, a single occurrence of this phenomenon in Matthew’s gospel. For instance, if you were to turn to the fourteenth chapter of Matthew, and look at verse twenty-three. This is the chapter that tells you about the feeding of the five thousand, certainly a familiar story. But then you come down to verse twenty three and certain features of this passage parallel what we read in Matthew five one and after he had sent the multitude away there, the multitude of the mentioned again, you will note he went up to There it is again for you, not a mountain, but the mountain. He went up to the mountain by himself to pray. And when it was evening, he was there alone. Well, turn the page. Matthew 15.

    And here you have the story of the feeding of the four thousand. And the mountain, this time, is worked right into the story of the feeding of the multitude that gathered that day to Christ. The fifteenth chapter, the twenty-ninth verse. And departing from there, Jesus went along by the Sea of Galilee, and having gone up to the mountain, he was sitting there, and great multitudes came to him, bringing with them those that were lame crippled, blind, dumb, and many others, and they laid them down at his feet, and he healed them. And then you go on to the story of the feeding of four thousand. Not a mountain, but Zena. And you might note, for instance, how the Gospel ends.

    Matthew 28. Here, Matthew, in describing the scene, is a little bit more specific, but the same terminology is used. Verse 16 of that 28th chapter. But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain, and there somewhat parenthetically, which Jesus had designated. There you have Matthew’s treatment of the mountain in his gospel. To what end? Why does Matthew speak this way, using that definite article, the mountain, as he communicates to us concerning Jesus’ activities?

    Well. There’s something going on here. That. Is beneath the surface of the mere words or the consideration of a mountain. Of this creation. Now please understand. Matthew is very much interested in the historical events, the actuality of those events, the reality of them, as he records them in his gospel. But as he reflects upon those events, he is also endeavoring to communicate to us the significance of Christ’s action. and specifically the significance of those actions, as now they pertain to this mountain, the mountain which he has designated in his gospel. The mountain is a theme, then. It’s a thread that runs throughout. And Matthew here wants us to see something specific, something very special, as we read of Jesus’ ascent of the mountain. How are we to understand the mountain in Matthew?

    You might recall passages or events from the Old Testament. You might remember mountains that are important in the history of the people of God. You may recall the mountain in the story of Noah. You may recall the mountain in the story of Abraham. You might recall most definitely the mountain in the story of Moses and the importance of it. You might recall the mountain in the story of Elijah, for instance, and the importance of it. You might recall the imagery that is woven throughout the Old Testament that is especially important to the Psalms and very important to the prophets. the mountain becoming, if you will, a symbol of something beyond simply a pile of stones, a geographical phenomenon of this world.

    The city of God is set upon a mountain. The city of Zion brings to mind all kinds of images, all kinds of thoughts. We think of the hill of the Lord, which the righteous are to ascend. We think of that mountain that is unshakable, to which God himself is compared. We think of the mountain that was mentioned in Psalm 48 this morning at the beginning.

    We think of Psalm 87, a beautiful psalm that speaks about the mountain and the hill hills of the Lord and the city of God positioned there, unto which then all of the nations are streaming, because there and there alone God is revealing His glory and salvation is being unveiled. But nowhere in the Old Testament is the mountain so important as it is in the prophecies of Isaiah.

    And you may want to turn to those prophecies, for instance, to the second chapter of Isaiah and read there what Isaiah has to say concerning the mountain of God in the last days. Verse two of that second chapter in the last day, the mountain of the house of the Lord will be established as the chief of the mountains and will be raised above the hills and all the nations. shall stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, Come, let us go to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us concerning his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For the instruction will go forth from Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

    The mountain of God in the vision of Isaiah. And then, in the twenty-fifth chapter of that prophecy, one of those incomparable declarations by the prophet, one that moves you to tears as you read it. The twenty-fifth chapter, the sixth verse, and the Lord of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all people upon this mountain. a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow refined and aged wine, and on this mountain he will cover up, he will swallow up rather the covering which is over all the peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all the nations, and he will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord God will wipe tears away from all faces, and he will remove the reproach of his people from all the earth, the Lord hath spoken.”

    The mountain. The mountain of God. And what about Isaiah fifty seven? Rather, Isaiah fifty six. Verses six through eight. Also, the strangers, the foreigners. Who join themselves to the Lord to minister to him and to love the name of the Lord To be his servants, everyone who keeps from profaning the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant, even though I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their bird offerings and their sacrifices will be acceptable on my off on my altar and my house will be called a house of prayer for all the people. the Lord God who gathers the dispersed of Israel declares, yet others I will gather to them, to those already gathered.” That’s the background of demount. Amen. The mountain is a scene of glory and wonder in which all of those things spoken of in the Old Testament, in the Psalms, in the Prophets are coming to their culmination, their fulfillment.

    So when Jesus goes up on the mountain, it is deliberately that he goes and there is greatest significance to that action in and of itself because he takes that mountain of this creation and literally transforms it into something even more glorious and wonderful.

    Note how the glory then is revealed from the mountain. At the end of the Gospel, you remember the 28th chapter, the disciples go up and it is on the mountain that then Jesus declares that all power and authority have been given unto him in heaven and on earth. It is from there that he dispenses his disciples to the ends of the earth that they might then disciple the nation. Remember all of the language about the nations in the prophecies that we read from Isaiah. The nations themselves will be gathered, and they are coming up into the hill of God, the mountain of the Lord. The glory, the glory of the great mountain is being revealed in this activity by Christ.

    Think, also, of that fifteenth chapter and the story of the feeding of the four thousand. As Jesus withdraws into the mountain, and all of those who are distressed and perplexed, the great multitudes come unto Him and make of Him their request. They offer to Him their prayer. In the fourteenth chapter, after the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus withdraws. He goes up into the mountain to do what? To pray, to intercede, a scene of glory, not one of desolation, a scene of glory.

    And thus you come back then, working our ways, our way backward to chapter five. And what do you read there? You read there simply, well, Jesus went up into the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him, he opened his mouth, and he began to speak. Is that all you see there now? No. You see the ascent of Christ.

    He ascends up into the mountain. What did Jesus do when he had ascended into the mountain of God? He sat down at the right hand of God the Father. And what does he do from the right hand of the Father? He teaches, he instructs his own. Every scene of the mountain in Matthew’s gospel then, conveys to you the reality of what Jesus Christ is doing presently in heaven. Did you wonder what Jesus was doing in heaven these days?

    Why he’s sending out his emissaries under the banner of his power and authority to the ends of the earth, that his elect may be gathered unto the hill of God why he’s bringing to himself those who are distressed, those who are overcome by the affairs of life, those who are distressed to the point of giving up completely, they come unto him and they pray of him that he hear them. And does he hear them? Matthew 15, from glory, from heaven, he hears and he answers. That not only is this one the one to whom others come in prayer, he himself prays. Matthew fourteen, what is Jesus doing on the mountain?

    He is interceding prayer for whom himself. each one of you that is what he is doing now do you realize that right now Jesus is alive and praying for you Do you need the saints to pray for you? But what about the Virgin Mary? We have the Great Mediator and the Great Intercessor. None other than Christ Jesus. And specifically, this one is not only answering our prayers and praying for us. Those are things that make us feel good and even make us feel very warm inside.

    But you see, there’s something else that this Jesus does on the mountain. He teaches. he instructs, he commands. What is the Sermon on the Mount? It’s the message from heaven to all the sons of the kingdom about their life here until their Lord returns. You know, the beautiful thing about this sermon on the mountain.

    Do you have any question about what Jesus is, in fact, teaching from his throne? Are you in a quandary about the will of God? Are you asking yourself, well, what did he really say or do we know? Jesus is saying the same thing now from glory as he said on the mountain in the very first century.

    Well, there’s the mountain. Glory. telling you what Jesus in heaven does now and does for you. But there is one last dimension to all of this. Hang with me. You see, when Jesus goes up into the mountain, that mountain is changed. Now, it may not look like it, but you see, there is a point here in this world that has been transformed by the activity of Jesus, so that glory is superimposed upon it. It’s ordinary, it’s mundane, it’s like any other hill, but, you know, this mountain now has been transformed, changed, altered. because glory, the transcendent glory of God and of heaven has now revealed itself, manifested itself there. Well, let’s move along with that thought. Just one more step. Your life, the ordinary, the mundane, Nothing unique about you, right? Just like everyone else, basically.

    This one who has ascended the mountain and thus transformed it has also descended to be with you, and to be with you in a most intimate fashion, so that He is bound to you and with you, thus transforming you, so that in you the very reality of the Kingdom of Heaven is unserved.

    That’s the significance of the title which Jesus bears in the Gospel of Matthew, Emmanuel, God with us. See how it all ties together. God with you. God with you. not just mountains then, men, women, children transformed so that in them there is now seen the reality of the glorious kingdom of heaven. All of this is in one verse in Matthew 5.

    For your benefit, instruction, certainly your consolation and encouragement. Let’s pray. If our thoughts ascend, Lord, if they are set upon that mountain, will we not there perceive the glory and realize those things that our Savior does for us even now? And Lord, also remind us that the one who has ascended has also descended, that the imprint of the glory of that kingdom he proclaims, that glory which is embodied in him may be manifest in us, sons and daughters of that eternal kingdom. May we love you, your son, and this message which we have about him and his glory. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Multitudes, Elect and Betrayers

    The Multitudes, Elect and Betrayers

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, September 4, 1988.

    About this sermon

    Matthew watches ‘the multitudes’ with a double edge, since Christ sees in them both his elect people and the crowd that will betray him. God’s sovereign election, already implicit in the ascent up the mountain in 5:1, separates the two. The multitude was never one uniform group.

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    Sermon transcript

    Our Scripture reading this morning begins with Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four. We’re starting at verse twelve and we will read to or through verse one of chapter five. Hear the word of God. Now, when Jesus had heard that John had been cast into prison, he departed into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zebulon and Naphthalene. That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying, The land of Zebulon and the land of Naphthalene By the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which sat in darkness saw great light, and to them which sat in the region in shadow of death, light is sprung up.” From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

    And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he said unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him. And going on from thence, he saw two other brethren, James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, in a ship with Zebedee, their father, mending their nets.

    And he called them, and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those who had the palsy, and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee and from the couple and from Jerusalem and from Judea and from beyond the Jordan. And seeing the multitude, he went up into a mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him.

    Pray with me briefly. Our Father, your church assembles throughout the world. Your servants are raised up. The word comes. The great company of the preachers proclaim the message of eternal life. The dead are turned and they are brought to life. Those that are recalcitrant shed their rebellion and become servants of the living God, and those that are weak are made strong, and those who live by faith continue in that faith with all humility. Bless, then, your servants. And also, Father, as is right, we plead on behalf of governments and leaders Surely we plead, Lord, for peace, that in fact your word may go forth unharassed. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    Our goal is Matthew 6, and we are working in that direction. We are in some preliminary messages in order to build our way to that goal. We talked, first of all, about the structure and intent of Matthew and his gospel. An extensive message on the gospel of Matthew as a whole.

    And in that message we gave you that brief outline, and I I don’t know whether I told you, but I’m certainly intending to give you an exam someday at the door, to see if you can remember that brief, very succinct, compact outline for the book of Matthew.

    It is quite simple. Maybe you recall. Three parts. Introduction. First chapter, first verse. through chapter four, verse sixteen. Did you know that? Then comes that phrase that divides the book. From that time, Jesus. Okay, that’s the phrase. Verse seventeen, chapter four. You have the introduction, then the first main section. Chapter four, verse seventeen, and we then run through appropriately. Part of that sixteen chapter. Now you know about the sixteen chapter of Matthew don’t you don’t you. The confession by Peter. That Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God. and that climaxes the first major section of Matthew’s Gospel.

    So we run from 417 to chapter 16, verse 20. And then in the 21st verse of that 16th chapter, that telltale phrase once more from that time, Jesus, and now his eyes directed towards Jerusalem and the things that will be accomplished there. to the end of the book. Twenty eight point. Very simple. Very simple.

    Now, the Sermon on the Mount appears in this first main section at the beginning. And I tried to give you something of a handle for that first main section. so that you might understand what Matthew, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is endeavoring to communicate to us, what we are to learn from this section of the gospel. This, then, is the heading that I would give to that first main section. The ministry of Jesus Christ, Son of God, to Israel, in which Jesus proclaims and demonstrates the blessedness and power of the kingdom of heaven. There, from chapter four to chapter sixteen, the ministry of Jesus Christ, Son of God, Emmanuel, to Israel, in which Jesus proclaims and demonstrates the blessedness and the power of the kingdom of heaven.

    Here we are then, in that section, an introduction to the Sermon on the Mount in terms of a broad consideration of the literary structure of the gospel. But now we have to narrow things down, working from the larger picture to the smaller. And we come to the Sermon on the Mount itself. Here, I intend to give a few messages on the setting and the structure of the Sermon on the Mount. And from that point, we will then move on into the sixth chapter. The setting and the structure of the Sermon on the Mount. The greatest sermon ever preached.

    The setting, first of all. I would like to consider with you two features of the setting. the first this morning and the second next week. The first has to do with the audience, those who heard. The second will be the geography, the topography, the mountain itself. The audience I always feel a bit self-conscious when I launch into my messages and discussions about the multitudes. It can be said that pastors of small churches only rail against large churches because of their inferiority complex and their green eye.

    Well let’s take up the large crowds and the way in which Jesus treated the multitudes this morning. Now it’s important that we do this because it’s obviously Matthew’s intention. Do you see what he’s done? He leads you into this sermon by specifically mentioning the multitudes.

    You note the conclusion of the fourth chapter, verses 23 through 25. The mention of the multitudes, specifically that term being used expressly in verse 25, the multitudes again mentioned in verse one of chapter five. But that’s not all. Do you remember how things end with the Sermon on the Mount? After Jesus has completed his words, you have this statement by Matthew 7, verse 28. The result was that when Jesus had finished these words, the multitudes were amazed at his teaching. for he was teaching them as one having authority and not as their scribes. You can even go into the first verse of the next chapter, chapter 8. And when he had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.

    So, you have the multitudes specifically mentioned at the beginning, you have them specifically mentioned at the end. Obviously, we’re supposed to derive something from that. the treatment then of the multitudes. Now when I look at our contemporary setting and situation, how things are going presently and how there are ministries that are flourishing and great crowds gathering with particular pastors and teachers and so on and so forth, it is not so much the crowd that are the worry, the multitudes so much in themselves. The thing that is oftentimes so distressing is the utter lack of discernment with regard to those crowds and those huge multitudes that congregate. And it is specifically this issue of discernment that is not lacking in Matthew’s treatment of the multitudes, as that is built upon the treatment of Jesus Christ himself.

    The crowds come. Now, how do you see them and what do you do with them? That is the issue. It is important for us to understand that the light that shines upon the multitudes in Matthew’s gospel is a two-fold light. On the one hand, the multitudes are seen in a very complementary way. On the other hand, they are seen in a most uncomplementary way. Interestingly, they are seen both ways. If we have eyes to perceive it, they are seen both ways here at the opening of the Sermon on the Mount.

    The discernment of which I have been speaking is itself to be discerned here. All right. The multitudes Then, in that positive light, the pattern being established. If Jesus, then Matthew, then, for heaven’s sake, all of God’s servants that would follow after.

    A discipline here being exerted so that we might know how to treat, how to approach the crowd. the best of lights. Oh, how wonderfully that light shines, so that Jesus appreciates these crowds better than they even appreciate themselves. He sees them in a better light than they seem capable of seeing themselves. He treats them as if glory was shining in them, and from them.

    Notice the development. Notice the development. In verse 25, we are told that the great multitude followed Jesus. The word there followed Deliberately used by Matthew. It harks back to the verb that he has been using with regard to the disciples that have been called specifically by Jesus. You will note verse 19. You will note verse 20. And again, you will note verse 22. Peter and Andrew are called to follow Jesus, and we are told they do that. James and John are called to follow Jesus, and they do that.

    This is language that pertains to discipleship, and now that language is used with regard to the vast multitude that follows after Jesus. The multitude here is being positively assessed. They are being described as disciples. Not would-be disciples, not potential disciples, but as disciples. They followed him. Jesus here then treating them better than they deserve to be treated. And seeing them in a light that seems far removed from the kind of consideration that they have made of themselves. But then we notice something else.

    It’s not just the fact that they are described in terms that suggest to us that they are disciples. But note that Matthew goes to length to tell you from where they came. He tells you, for instance, that they came, verse 24, out of all Syria. Wait a minute, Matthew. Wait a minute. Syria isn’t Jewish territory, that’s Gentile territory. And then you note in verse 25, from Galilee, that’s deliberate. Remember what we read from the prophecy of Isaiah above? Chapter nine being quoted there out of Isaiah and verses fifteen and sixteen of Matthew four.

    Land of Zebulon, land of Naphtali, by way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. And then he goes on to speak of Decapolis. Decapolis was a Gentile city, or a Gentile region, more accurately. Jerusalem and Judea are specifically mentioned, but he also goes on to mention beyond the Jordan. That’s to the east, friends, and that again is not Jewish territory.

    Now, why has Matthew done this? He has done this so that you might see you might see the glory with which Christ appreciated the multitudes that were coming. For these multitudes signal the great host that shall come as a result of the finished accomplished work of Christ. That already being telegraphed before Jesus accomplishes his full mission. There isn’t a better light in which to see this crowd. disciples, the nations gathered, the elect coming from the four corners of the earth, coming to Christ, devoted to Him, the very best light possible.

    And how this is accented as we move through the Gospel of Matthew. wonderfully positive light that shines upon and then from the multitude’s turn to the end of Matthew nine. This is thirty five to the end. And you will see it again. This is a passage that parallels very closely the end of Matthew four. verse thirty five, and Jesus was going about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Now, verse thirty six, and seeing the multitude, he felt compassion for them because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. a premonition of the nation’s gathering, but also the objects of the compassion of Christ. How wonderfully. And this flesh out for us, as it were, in the fourteenth and fifteenth chapters of Matthew.

    There you have the stories of the feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand, respectively. The multitudes gather. Jesus, out of his compassion, feeds them. And the feeding there is to drive you to the conclusion that there are more important things than bread and fish.

    Believe me. The Word of God. Alright, positive view of the multitudes, so that Jesus is giving himself to them, and he will give himself to them, extend himself toward them with selflessness, and that inconsistency, that being consistent with his mission and the method of his mission, namely, that before him there comes that cross as the supreme demonstration of the sacrifice that he shall offer. It is not without reason that John the Baptist, in the gospel of John, says of Jesus when he sees him coming, Behold the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the multitude of the world. That’s the good life.

    But there’s a flip side, and it isn’t pretty at all. If you turn, for instance, to the 27th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, you see the multitudes in a completely different way. For here they become tools in the hands of their leaders so that they, with the leaders, conspire for the execution of Christ. You can’t imagine a more stark contrast. They become those who cry out for his execution. Now we’re going to run backward through the gospel. Chapter 26 in the most startling of passages.

    We see that the multitudes have actually come out with Judas. They are specifically mentioned there. It’s the same word that’s used in Matthew 4 and Matthew 5. The multitudes have come out with Judas. This is verse 47. And they are specifically implemented in the arrest of Christ. They arrest Jesus.

    Verse 55. It is suggested here that the multitudes are to be charged with cowardice and hostility towards Christ. As negative a comment as can be made. Backing up, chapter 21, verse 11. The multitudes as Jesus enters into the city of Jerusalem. The beginning of that passion week. In the midst of it all, the multitude, when questioned, are hesitant. Well, who is this one who has come? Well, all they seem willing to ascribe to Christ is that he is a great prophet. For that’s all they can see. The ambivalence. The ambivalence that we discern in them, the flip side, yes, the glorious light, but also that hideous light, that very uncomplimentary light.

    We read in Matthew 13, Jesus dealing with the multitudes and with his disciples there, as if they were two groups. The multitudes are mentioned in verse 2 of that 13th chapter. But in everything that follows in that chapter, it is obvious that Jesus is making a deliberate distinction between the multitudes and his disciples. Indeed, many are called, but few are chosen. and there is that most telling of verses Matthew eight verse eighteen. Here the multitudes are assembled, but they have become the reason for caution on Christ’s part, and a reason for his deliberate withdrawal. When he sees the multitudes, that’s the When he sees the multitudes, he orders his disciples to get out of there. To cross the Sea of Galilee in order to escape.

    Now it is this Matthew 8.18 passage that is useful for us as we back our way into Matthew 4 and 5. For here we have said, at the end of chapter four, the beginning of chapter five, there is placed before us both that positive approach to the multitudes and the negative. We have spoken already about the positive. What about the negative?

    When Jesus sees the multitudes, we are told, verse one of chapter five, he, like he does later in chapter eight, retreats. He withdraws himself into the mountain. And I defy anyone to come up with any other explanation for that than that Jesus here is involved in a deliberate discriminating activity. I know the evangelical messages. I’ve heard. I’ve sat on. And every time I sat under them, I want to spit.

    Because what they tell me when they come to a verse like this is, well, Jesus needed a little R&R. He needed to get away. The crowds were pressing a bit too much, and he was weary and tired. And that’s the reason why he withdrew himself into the night. He needed to be by himself with his little band of disciples, so he could discuss things with them infinitely.

    Hogwash. Hogwash. Now, the reason why evangelicals have to explain this passage this way is because they cannot, for the life of them, understand why Jesus would leave the multitudes for any other reason than to get a little R&R. You don’t flee from the crowds, you chase them. You don’t withdraw yourself deliberately from them for anything else than to just get a little bit of rest.

    The divine plan is at work here. We’re talking about election. We’re talking about the deep doctrines that Calvin and others have held dear. How hard-hearted, how cold-hearted may well be your response. But if that is your response, then you must attribute that to Christ and to his Father. For that is exactly what is happening here. A deliberate act of discrimination. Many are calling. Few. are chosen. The many are the multitude. The disciples are the few.

    And the instruction that is given here on the mount is meant specifically for them. For Jesus in the sermon on the mount will describe their life. the life of a disciple. But what about the multitude can’t you can’t you end on a positive note here this morning. As far as the masses of humanity are concerned, I most certainly can’t.

    For Jesus preaches within earshot of the multitude. And they hear him as he points out the disciple and the disciple’s life. And that message, where it is appreciated and where it grabs the heart, will turn someone who is just part of the multitude into a true, honest-to-goodness, 100% disciple of Jesus Christ. Well, your love, as it was for your Savior, directed towards those multitudes to be sure.

    Your compassion cultivated so that you, by the grace of God, are able to see them in a light that they can’t even appreciate themselves. that you also, like your Savior, exercising discernment, wisdom, not being fooled, just because there is a large crowd with great potential out there in front of you. It is a discipline. And it comes as a discipline especially to a small congregation. A discipline that you would remember the multitudes that in the end it will be an innumerable host from every tribe, tongue, and nation.

    It shall assemble itself before the throne of Christ in glory. There with you to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Our Father, we beseech you for the discerning eye, the eye that certainly was in Christ, the eye that was given by grace to Matthew as he wrote the gospel, certainly an eye that is to be had by all who are disciples indeed. We pray that we will not follow after the crowd, nor determined within ourselves to be crowd-pleasers. Instead, may we treat them in terms of the glory that is broadcast in your word, and also, Lord, with that discernment that is given us truly as a gift from you. We pray our God that you will forgive us where we have betrayed ourselves, where we have lusted for importance and for the large audience without any kind of discernment at all. We pray too, Lord, that we would have a heart for the multitudes, that from the vast population of this world there would come forth those then be elect from the east, west, north and south, congregating at the table set for them in the kingdom of heaven at the end. We plead with you, Lord, that we might be found to be disciples that have learned well the lessons of the kingdom and of the one who has brought

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Jesus in Gethsemane

    Jesus in Gethsemane

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Sermon on the Mount” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 28, 1988.

    About this sermon

    In Gethsemane, the oil press outside Jerusalem, Christ endured a real and terrible night of sorrow. While Peter, James and John slept, he watched and prayed as their representative, so that as God’s will came to completion in him, it might come to completion in them. “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” The disciples’ failure to keep watch mirrors how easily believers neglect prayer. What Christ faced alone in the garden makes the life of the Sermon on the Mount possible, and he is sufficient for every crushing trial.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning, our scripture reading is found in Matthew chapter twenty six. And we were reading from verse thirty to verse forty six. Hear the word of God. And when they had sung in him, They went out into the Mount of Olives. Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.

    But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, that this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet I will not deny thee, yet will I not deny thee.

    Likewise also said all the disciples. Then cometh Jesus with them into a place called Gethsemane. And saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.

    Carry ye here and watch with me. And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be possible Let this cup pass from me nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, couldst thou not watch with me one hour? Watch, and pray, that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my father, if this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy will be done. And he came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. And he left them and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest.

    Behold, the hour is at hand and the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us be going! Behold, he is at hand that doth betray me. It was a lovely place the loveliest of places around Jerusalem To the east, about a half a mile, three quarters of a mile, down from the city gates, opposite the temple, down into the valley of Kidron, across the brook, up the other side as you began to ascend the Mount of Olives. December. The guard. The loveliest spot. Around Jerusalem.

    It was a garden. Well kept. The gracious hand of man and God every. and orchard, the figs, the olives, the pomegranates, growing there, the wonderful scent, the peace, the wonderful tranquility of that garden. Here was a testimony to the indomitable spirit of the race fighting back against the curse keeping the thorns and the thistles down and out altogether the weeds conquered Creation as it was meant to have been. So wonderful. So wonderful a spot. Even a little bit of Eden surviving in this cursed world. Gethsemane, a garden. But that was not all that Gethsemane was.

    The name itself means oil press. And what comes to mind are the large rock-like basins into which the olives were placed. And then they were rolled over with huge stones, boulders, and crushed in order to yield the oil for use in the land. Even that oil press viewed as a blessing, as an implement, a tool for man’s indomitable spirit, useful in his conquest, that he might triumph in the world. But now this night, this special night, there comes into this paradise, there intrudes into this Eden, a brutal, brutal reminder and a twisting of that name, Gethsemane, so that it will never, never again merely be understood as a pleasant garden site outside the city walls of Jerusalem. An oil press to be sure, as there enters then these representatives of the race, and they come into this oil press to be pressed themselves. and yield a precious ointment, an affirmation of service to God, unconsidered even for God. There is then the oil press of God himself.

    For into the garden there does come this reminder, a brutal reminder, of God’s perpetual wrath against sin, and his perpetual hostility to a race gone astray. A testimony, to be sure, of the consequences of what had happened in a garden so many centuries and millennia ago. An incalculable tragedy. Despite gardens, well manicured lawns, beautiful structures, wonderful operations business, governments, palaces. And there is that oil press for the spirit of the race. For will that spirit be constrained by the will of God? in the face of all that which is revealed by that God to be true and right and whole.

    Well, there are those representatives of the race that come into the garden that night into the oil press But there’s only one that understands. There is only one that realizes what is taking place. The others see only the garden. The others see only that which is pleasant there. The others see only that which is a testimony to the strength, the ingenuity, the power and the cleverness of man in overcoming the curse or keeping it at bay. They will there rest.

    But the one comes to pray and to be crushed. This one is grieved and heavy-hearted. And he does not leave his grief and distress unexpressed. For he tells those who are with him that he is feeling in distress that is unlike anything that he has experienced in his life before. that they’re there to sleep. He retires from them to pray, to wrestle with himself in this oil press, to experience the weight of that rock, that stone that rolls upon him, and they sleep.

    They don’t understand that he perceives. He perceives all. And such is his perception that he realizes that he is not there for his own sake, but for the sake of those who seem so oblivious and so unconcerned. those who seem to lack comprehension and understanding.

    For their sake, He is there. He is bound to them. Therefore, He goes with them into the oil press. They don’t know what awaits. He does. He leads the way. He is there for them. And while they sleep, completely oblivious to what is going on around them. He intercedes, he prays, and in his intercession and in his prayer, he acts as their representative, so that in him, as the will of God is perfected and accomplished, it might be as well in them.

    For indeed, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak, as he says. So weak the flesh, so willing the spirit, that in that willing spirit, one of them will say, I’ll never deny you. No, before the cock crows three times, you will deny me. And as if in answer to that threefold denial, or a weakness that is pervasive in all of those that are gathered in that garden that night, Jesus goes three times to pray, to intercede, as if giving the answer, the solution, to that denial, even before it takes place.

    They might not understand, but He does. They don’t comprehend, but He comprehends. He understands the oil press perfectly. For their sake, He is there. And now, in that oil press, He is tried, if not crushed, for their sakes. He had brought them with Him, not only because He is leader for them, not only because He is bound to them, but He would look to them for comfort. Watch with me, He pleads. Keep watch while I pray.

    Be here as a source of comfort for me, for I am here as a source of comfort for you. But they prove in that circumstance to be without any strength, either of comprehension or of power. They are not comforters at all. This one then comes as that one through whom comfort alone is achieved. Triumph that is evident in him is one that now extends comfort to all those who must wait and pray while they do.

    Watch and pray that ye may not enter into temptation. Words like that have significance far beyond the events of that evening so many years ago. For words like that are as much relevant in our circumstance as they were in the circumstance in which Jesus originally spoke.

    But how, how might I watch and pray if someone like Peter, John and James has slept away? What do you expect of me? What do you want from me? I have enough trouble keeping awake during morning worship and that’s only one hour. The power to stay awake is found in the one who stayed awake. The power to keep watch and pray is found in the one who kept watch and prayed. It is his very power which is operative in you.

    As he makes plain to you the significance of the winepress into which you have been brought. the Gethsemane into which you have been born. For after all, this is not Christ’s Gethsemane, it is your Gethsemane. Gethsemane then that lovely garden, Gethsemane also that oil press. But now, Gethsemane transformed.

    Yes, the oil press still, but in the oil press, the one who has been pressed and crushed for us that we, through all of the crushing experiences that come upon us, may in fact endure in Him. And that for the sake of the gospel. Well, how sufficient then this Savior that is ours. A sufficiency that’s found simply as we look at the cross, or a sufficiency that’s also found as we do battle with the will of God. As we do battle in the matters that pertain to prayer and keeping alert and on the watch. Yes, a sufficiency there as well, a full sufficiency in our Savior, that it may be apparent to you that your life can only be unto the glory of God if it is in Him.

    That, then, is what is coming to expression through you, in you. This Christ, who is absolutely sufficient, perfectly adequate. There are the delights of life, the gardens that seem well kept, testimony to the spirit of the race, fighting back the effects of the curse. But those strides into the midst of it, that brutal reminder. That brutal reminder of the truth of the situation. We are not to be deceived.

    Then the oil press, which is life. your life is to be found in Christ who was crushed for you that you in the experience that you face may in fact triumph as he did. Oh Lord, we pray for a reminder, a reminder that this account of Christ in Gethsemane would give us concerning the truth of the circumstances of life itself. And Lord, may we also understand that our power to persevere is not found within ourselves, for we have failed and have failed miserably, just as the disciples did before us. But there is one who is sufficient, who for our sakes enters the oil press, that we, in our disseminating, may in fact endure. And endure for the sake of the gospel. We pray, Lord, that our life may be understood as being found in him and in him alone. We pray it through his name. Amen.

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