1997 issue 3 - sermon on luke 6:17-49 - the setting of the sermon on the mount - counsel of...
TRANSCRIPT
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8/12/2019 1997 Issue 3 - Sermon on Luke 6:17-49 - The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount - Counsel of Chalcedon
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Exposition: Immediately after doing this he And when He saw the multitudes,
(6:17-20a) The Setting o the meets a great
multitude
of He
went up
on
the
mountain; and
Sermon on the Mount people:6:17, coming up
the after
He sat down, His disciples
mountain
to
hear Him and to be came to
Him.
These two verses
The Setting
o
the healed by Him.
At
this point He do not contradict each other.
Gospel
o
Luke
ga
thers the multitude around Both are true. Luke sends Jesus
In chapters four and
fi
ve Luke Himself and He preaches to up the mountain in v. 12, and
has been establishing the them the Sermon on the
Mount.
He
now
comes
down only .
far
progressive Messianic When He had completed all His enough
to
reach a level place so
self-revelation and the discourse in the hearing of the that
all
this
gr
eat
of
p
eo
ple
sovereignty of Jesus Christ
for
people, He
went to
Capernaum: can hear him. On aspot that
His non-Jewish readers. In the
7:
1, where He healed the
was
raised a bit so that
all
might
Sermon on the Mount the centurion's slave , 7:2f. see
Him
He sat down
Messianic self-revelation (Matthew). - Lenski
continues to proceed
The Location
majestically, for in
it
He acts Jesus descended with
The Audience
with absolute authority as them ,6:17, i.e., He be
ga
n
His
As Jesus and
His
apostles
Announcer of 'the
laws
of the descent off the mountain with made their
way
off the
kingdom.' He mountain;
proclaims this they
were
not on the met by a
ground of great
someone else's
multitude
of
authority, and His disciples,
does not even and a
great
say
as
the
throng
of
prophets of people from
the Old
all Judea
and
Testament
Jerusalem
and
did: Thus tne
coastal
saith the
region
of
1
re
Lord.' No, in
and Sidon,
a way in
oe
Mn ov
,.lit
.
who
had
come
which no man . : j j j 3 L J ' - ' - - - , - = ~ ~ _ - - ' - _ - - - : ' - - - - - _ ~ = . c - . = . c . : . . D
to hear Him
,
ever spokebefote He speaks His twelve apostles, when he was and
to
be
healed
of their diseases;
Y{ith a final, personal, divine met on a level spot below the
and
those
who were
troubled
with
authority .He is one with the summit of the mountain, ( a level unclean
spirits
were
being
cured.
Father and therefore He d
ecla
res
plac
e ) ,
by
a large multitude of And all the
multitude were
trying
o
. that the weal or woe of human people. He probably met them touch Him ,
for
power
was coming
life
in the last analy
sis
depends on level ground near the foot of from Him and
healing them all.
on the attitude adopted toward the mountain, because it would And
turning
His
gaze
on His
Himself and
His
words
- be more likely that multitudes
d
I H
b
to
T,
1
Isap
es,
e
egan
say....
W.
1:3.
Lenski ' .
The Kingdo'/ll Life
of
ContinuoUs Emptying
and Filling
t
is
not as
though these gifts
now
the attitude of
the
beggarly so that this . erm nO
'ionger describes them.
~ ~
The
case is this: as long
Ii as we live
in
this world
PRESENT POSSESSION as wen
as a CERTAIN
FUTI,JRE
CERTAlN'ty, Those who are
poor in
spirit are recipients of
the saving kingdom of God and
Christ here
and now in
this
world, as well as in the future
after
the
Return of Christ. The
kingdom of God centers
in Lhe
King,
jesus
Christ,
and in
the
powers of grace, might
and
glory
that go out from Him. Where
He
is; there
the kingdom
is
because there is His exercise of
grace
and
power. The rich and
the proud in spirit resist that
exercise as it would work in and
over them
in
salvation. The
poor cry out for that exercise of
saving grace
and
help. It is
impossible that the King should
let them go on crying; He fills
of sin and in spite of all
grace 'sin daily , so long
our poor hands are
stretched out to God's
grace
in
Christ, daily
receiving grace
forgra
.ce.
And the flow
of o d ' s
rich grace goes out
and
.
can
go
out to
us
only
as
we keep that
attitude.to which God Himself
has
brought
us and
in which
His
grace works to keep us. Thus
the kingdom is ours now
, and
,
being ours, it will bring
us all
that God still has laid up for .
us. - Lenski
'The Meaningof
the Kingdom of God'
The kingdom of
God
the
manifestation of the,sovereign
rule of God
in
power
and
grace
which established a
new
order '
(civilization) of righteousness
and blessedness in history
in
.and
through Jesus Christ in
fulfillment of.God's covenant
promises; and which order will
triumphantly progress through
8 THE COUNSEL ofChaIcedoD MaichJApril,.
1997
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8/12/2019 1997 Issue 3 - Sermon on Luke 6:17-49 - The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount - Counsel of Chalcedon
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history until it is perfected at the
Second Coming of Christ.
(Lh. 6:21a) The Second
Beatitude: Blessed are you
who hunger now,foryou
shall be satisfied.
Luke draws from Matthew as
a resource,
but
he does
not
slaviShly follow his order of the
beatitudes. He choses the four
from Matthew's eight. which '
seems to
him
to
best fit the
purposes of His Gospel, and he
even abbreviates these.
The Constancy of this ~ u n g r
In
this particular beatitude,
Jesus declares Blessed
those who
hunger now,
using the present participle
to make his point that this
hungering is present and
CONSTANT. In fact, this
hunger
not
only continues,
it increases as it is being
satisfied. Hungering and
thirsting are used figuratively in
the Bible to signify strong
spiritual desires and needs.
The O/1ject of this Hunger
Matthew records this
beatitude more fully---Biessed
are
those who
htlnger
and thirst
FOR
RIGHrEOUSNESS,
for
they
shall
be
satisfied.
A Christian
does not hunger and thirst
after happiness,
but
after
righteousness.
According to the
Bible, happiness is not
something that should be sought
directly; it is always spmething
that results from seeking
righteousness.
When
a person
puts happiness before
righteousness, he is dooming
himself to misery.
The desire for righteousness,
the act of hungering and
thirsting for it, means ultimately
the desire to be free from sin
in
all its fonns and in its evelY
manifestation. --- It means a
desire to be free from sin,
because sin separates from God.
Therefore, positively, it means a
desire
to
be right with God.
-
Lloyd-Jones, pg. 77. But, along
with this desire to be FREE
FROM THE GUILT
OF
SIN , it is
also a desire to
be FREE
FROM
THE POWER OF SIN. But,
deeper still,
it
is a desire to be
FREE
FROM THE VERY DESIRE
FOR SIN, which he knows still
pollutes him. Perhaps we can
sum
it al\
up
like this.
To
...
i l hunger
and thirst for
righteousness is lhe longing to
be holy, even
li our Father
in
H
ea'i'en
is holy.
hunger and thirst after
righteousness is to desire to be
free from self in all its horrible
manifestations, in all its forms. -
Lloyd-Jones, pg. 78.
t
is the
desire for true meekness, i.e.,
freedom from self-concem,
pride, boasting, self-protection,
sensitiveness, always imagining
people are against him, a desire
to protect self
and
glorify self.
Lloyd-Jones, pg. 79.
In other words, to hunger
and
thirst for righteousness is the
longing to be holy, even as our
Father in Heaven is holy. The
person who hungers for
righteousness is the person who
longs
to
manifest the Beatitudes
in his everyday life. He is the
person who wants to manifest
the fruit of the Spirit
in
his every
thought and action. It means
that one's supreme desire in life
is to
know God
and to
be in
fellowship
with
Him, to walk
with God the Father,
the
Son
and the Holy Spirit in the light.
--- To
be in
fellowship with God
means
to
be walking with God
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit
in the light, in that blessed
pUrity
and
holiness. The
man
who hungers and thirst after
righteousness is the man who
longs for that above everything
else. And in the end that is
nothing bu a longing
and
desire
to be like the Lord Jesus Christ
H i r n s e \ f L l o y d J o n e s ~ pg. 79.
The Nature of this Hunger
This hunger
and
thirst
for righteousness indicates
that we
know
Wi cannot
chieve righteousness by
our
own efforts.
We
hunger, because
poverty-stricken, for that
which must be given to us
by Another, if we are to be filled.
Hungering means
a
consciousness of
our
need, of
our deep need. I
go
further, it .
means a corisciousness of our
desperate need;
it means
a deep
consciousness of our great need
even to the point of pain. It
means something that )
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8/12/2019 1997 Issue 3 - Sermon on Luke 6:17-49 - The Setting of the Sermon on the Mount - Counsel of Chalcedon
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they are separated he is not at
rest until they are together again.
--- Let me
quote
some words of
the
great].N,
Darby which I
think put this exceedingly well.
He
sa
ys, 'To
be
hungry is
not
enough; I must
be
really starving
to
know what
is
in
His heart
towards
me
.
-- When
the
prodigal
son
was
hungry he
went
to
feed UpOI).
husks,
but
when he
was, starving; he turned to his
father.' - UoydcJones, pgs. SOr.
"As the hart panteth after the water
brooks,
so panteth my
soul
after
Thee, God. My soul thirsteth for
God, for the liying God. -Ps. 42:1.
The
Satisfactio1
.
o
thisHu1 ger
As
we
have said; the hunger
increases the more it is satisfied, .
and the satisfaction continues
only as
long
as their is hunger:
"'We daily cry for forgiveness,
and daily God satisfies us by
richly and daily forgiving us our
sins. -- The verb chortadzo is
strong, it is
used
with reference
to
feeding and fattening cattle
with fodder arid graIn
and
feeding men with great
abundance. - Lenski
Those
who hunger and
thirst
for righteousness, holiness, and
Christ-likeI).ess, shall be given
what they desire as a gift of
God's free grace.
No
one will
ever fill themselves with
righteousness or find blessedness
apart from Christ. To obtain
this, 'all the fitness He tequireth,
is to see your need of Him,'
nothing
more. When you and I
\mow our 'need, t h i ~ h u n g e r and
starvation, this death that is
within us, then God will fill us ,
He will give us this blessed gift.
Uoyd-Jones, .pg. S1.
This "hunger" is satisfied
IMMEDIATELY The moment
we
hunger
for Christ and His
righteousness, we are justified by
God, His righteousness is
credited
to
us, and the barrier
of
sin and guilt between us and
God is removed. Furthermore,
the
satisfaction
of
this hunger is
a CONTINUING PROCESS.
The Holy Spirit begins within us
His
work
of delivering us from
the
power
and pollution
of
sin,
and
continues this work
throughout
our lives. As we
keep on hungering for
righteousness in
our
lives, He
works in us to keep us desiring
"to
will and to do His good
pleasure." And, finally; this
soul hunger wilLbe.satisfied
PERFECTLYAND A&SOLUTELY
IN ETERNITY: Some.day we will .
stilJ;id in the presence of c i ~
totally perfect in body and soul,.
withoui entire being filled
With
complete righteousness received
from Jesus Christ.
The Christian is one who at
one and the same time is
hungering and thirsting, and yet
he is filled. And the more
he
is
filled the more he hungers and .
thirsts. That is the blessedness
of this Christian life. It goes on.
The Evidence
o
Hungering and Thirsting
for Righteousness
FIRST, we see through all our
own false righteousness.
SECOND, we have a deep .
awareness
of
our need
of
a
Savior. THIRD, we avoid
everything that is opposed
to
such a righteousness. FOURTH,
we
not
only avoid those things
we know to be evil, we also
avoid those things that tend
to
dull or take the edge off
our.
spiritual appetities.
""
1
COUNSEL ofChalcedon March/April, i997
Uoyd-Jones; pg. 90. FIFTH, we
continually remind ourselves of
this righteousness. We shall so
discipline.