Transcript
Tim Keller (0:03)
Welcome to Gospel and Life. This month on the podcast, we're featuring a series on the Sermon on the Mount, a collection of teachings where Jesus outlines what it really means to live the Christian life. In the series, Tim Keller explores a striking idea that Christianity is not just different from the world, it's also radically different from religion.
Narrator (0:29)
Now, we've been going through the Sermon on the Mount all spring, and we come to the end of the Sermon on the Mount. This is a summarizing passage. It's this summary. It's the end of the sermon, and therefore Jesus is pulling together everything he's been saying. And because it's a summarizing passage for the whole sermon, it therefore is also a summarizing sermon for the whole series, in fact, the whole year. But we're going to be able to pull together everything we've been saying about the Sermon on the Mount all this year. And I. Therefore, I want to congratulate those of you who are just visiting today. If this is your first time at Redeemer, if it's the only time you've been at Redeemer in a long time, I just want to congratulate you for being very clever, because it's the best possible. You see, all these other poor people have been spending hours and weeks trying to figure out the Sermon on the Mount, and you're going to get it in a nutshell. It was very, very smart of you. Let me. Let me read you Matthew 7, verses 15 and 29, the end of the sermon. Watch out. Jesus said, watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from the thorn bushes or figs from the thistles? Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit, you will recognize them. Not everyone who says to me, lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? And then I will tell them plainly, I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers. Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, yet it did not fall because it had its foundations on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the sun rose, the streams rose, and the wind blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash. And when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching because he taught as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law. Okay, this is God's word. The trouble with the Sermon on the Mount is it's so familiar. It's some of the most familiar material in the English language or in history, in the whole world. The Beatitudes, you know, turn the other cheek, love your neighbor, and all that. And because it's so familiar, almost nobody listens to it. Almost nobody really knows what it's saying. Now, how do we know that? Because here at the very end, the very, very end of this sermon, Matthew says something that almost is a throwaway. It almost tend to go right by and say, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's actually extremely important because it's a test. It's the way you know whether you've actually heard what Jesus is saying in the Sermon on the mount. Look, verse 28. Here's the test. Here's how you know. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching. Now this, it doesn't mean it's not like, wow, amazed is a very strong Greek word. It means thunderstruck. It means shocked. And it's, interestingly enough, I was one. Several commentators that I read were saying, on top of that, you also have an imperfect Greek tense, and that's unusual. In other words, this means the people were thunderstruck. They were shocked out of their senses. And the more they thought about it, they went on getting more and more astounded all the time, they were astounded. And not just a few people, the crowds. This is the prevailing way people responded when Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. Now, have you been astounded? Are you shocked by it? But you say, well, I know it, I know it. That's interesting. I know it. I know all about it. If you're not astounded, you haven't listened to it. So let's listen to it. There's basically three great things Jesus says that are utterly astounding. And my guess is you yourself have probably not heard as familiar as you may be with the Sermon on the Mount three things. They have to do with the fact that Jesus here, at the very end of the sermon, says there are two ways. There are two basic options spiritually. Two ways that I want you to distinguish, two ways that I want you to see and make sure you choose the right one and not the wrong one. Two ways. So first of all, he says there's two ways. And secondly, he says, at the end of those two ways, there's a judge. And then he says, at the end of that judgment, there's a sentence. There's two ways at the end of the judge, sentence the ways. There's the judgment. At the end of the judgment, there's the sentence. And he says something very astounding about all three very. And here's what they are. First, the first thing he says, he says something about the two ways that are astounding. What are the two ways? Notice, actually, we start the sermon here in verse 15. If he would start at verse 13, which I didn't, in writing this out for you in the bulletin. That. Where. That's where it says there's two paths, one to life, one to death. And then here it says there's two trees, one with good fruit, one with bad fruit. And then you get down to verse 24, there's two houses, one built on a rock, one built on the sand. So Jesus is saying there are these two spiritual approaches, two ways, and I want you to be able to distinguish between them and choose the right one. But the most. One of the most important things, One of the most interesting things about these two ways is that they're hard to discern from one another. They're hard. Notice, for example, it doesn't say there's two trees. There's a tree with fruit and a tree without fruit. I said it doesn't take much discernment. If you walk into an orchard in June, and up there are leaves. Here's a bunch of trees, and they have leaves on them, and they have fruit on them. What kind of tree has fruit in June? But anyway, there's. Well, they have leaves on them, they have fruit on them. And right next is a tree with no leaves, no fruit. Okay, rocket scientist, put on your thinking cap. Which one's alive and which one's dead, I wonder. But see, it doesn't take any discernment. But that's not what Jesus says. Jesus does not say these two ways or two paths. In one, you have tree without fruit. One tree with fruit. No, look, verse 16. By their fruit you will recognize them. Verse 18, a good tree cannot bear bad fruit. A bad tree cannot bear good fruit. And so what we're talking about is a tree. Two trees, they both bear fruit, but one, the word bad means poison. Doesn't mean shriveled, it means poison. So two trees, they look exactly alike. One of the sets of fruit is poisonous. Or the two houses, they look exactly alike to the visible. To the naked eye, what's visible looks the same. It's only what's hidden that makes a difference. Now, what are these two paths? What are these two ways? And everybody thinks they know. In fact, I used to think I knew because I preached on this before, wrongly. Because here's what almost everybody thinks. They say, well, it's very simple what Jesus is saying. He's saying, this is the good people and the bad people. This is the way of obeying God and the way of disobeying God. Here's the Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon on the Mount tells you how to be good. The Sermon on the Mount tells you, in chapter five, love your neighbor. In chapter six, it says, give to the poor. It says, pray the Lord's Prayer. So love your neighbor and give to the poor and pray. It's telling you how to live a good life. And here at the end, Jesus says, here are the two paths, here are the two trees, here are the two houses. You can either follow the servant on the Mount, you can live a good life, or you can live a wicked and selfish and licentious life. But is that what he's saying? I mean, how much. How much discernment does it take to tell the difference in a person who prays and goes to church and who doesn't. Doesn't take any discernment? It's easy. Here's a person who prays and goes to church. Here's a person who doesn't. Here's a person who's courteous to his neighbor, and here's a person who beats and stabs his neighbor. I mean, how. How much discernment does that take? And would Jesus Christ be likening these two ways to trees or houses or ways that look exactly alike on the outside? No. Jesus is not talking about good people and about bad people. And if you want to see, you can partly see it here when he says he gives two examples, two human examples of bad trees. First he says, watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're ferocious wolves. Now, see, sheep, it's a universal term. In the Old New Testament, the sheep is the people of God, The Lord is my shepherd, I'm a sheep. And so what it's saying is here, these are prophets, which means they're speakers, they're teachers, but they're sheep, at least as far as the eye can see. These aren't skeptics, these aren't atheists, these aren't licentious people. These aren't immoral people. On the outside, they look like religious and moral paragons because they're prophets, virtuous people. But now, if you want to really see it clear, and if you really want to have your teeth rattle a little bit, I'm going to try is look at the second example of a bad fruit of bad trees. He says, on that day, many will say, lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? Did we not. Did we not in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles? Now, who are these people? First of all, they call Jesus Lord. And all commentators agree on this one. And that means this person who's saying this to Jesus is saying, you're God, you're divine. This particular word, Lord, Kurios, actually was a word that in the Greek Old Testament, that means the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint, wherever the divine name Yahweh came along. Kurios translated that. And it's very clear that this person is coming to Jesus and saying, you're the Son of God. I believe the doctrine. I believe the hypostatic union. I believe in the two natures of Christ. I believe that you're the Son of God. I believe you're deity. I believe all the doctrine. So here's an orthodox believing person subscribes to all the doctrines. Secondly, he doesn't just say Lord. He says, Lord, Lord. And that's a Semitic instruction construction to talk about or to convey intensity of emotion. And it's if you're going to really have emotion, you don't just say Absalom, you say absalom, Absalom. You say, Mary, Mary, Martha, Martha, my God, My God. In other words, it's intensity of emotion. And here's this person coming up and not just saying, I believe you're God. He doesn't say just Lord, he says Lord, Lord. Which means he's emotionally engaged, he's excited about Jesus. It gets worse and worse. And then he says, we're told that this is the person. He says, I prophesied in your name. That's got to mean at least teach the Bible or teach the message of Jesus. And then it says, I've also been deeply involved in people's lives. And I've done miracles. And I think we take this literally. I've done miracles. I've been able to get into people's lives and liberate them and help them and see healing. So this person is deeply involved in ministry. And Jesus turns and says to him, what? I never knew you. Not like, hey, I used to know you. You used to be a Christian. What happened to you? Mm, mm. Not like I don't know who you are. There's never been a spiritual connection between us. There's never been a personal relationship between us. And this is the tree with the bad fruit. Now you starting to figure this out. The two ways are not good people and bad people. Oh, no. Because if you go back into the Sermon on the Mount, you'll see Jesus is always contrasting two groups of people, but they're not people who pray and who don't pray. What was he saying? He says, don't pray like them. Pray like this. Remember, both groups are praying or he doesn't say, they don't give to the poor. You should know. He says, they give to the poor, but don't give like they do give to the poor like this. Both groups are following the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not murder. Remember, everybody, they shall not murder. So they're both groups are living nonviolently. But remember says you've heard it says, thou shalt not murder. But I say to you, Jesus says, if you're a Christian, you won't even look at people your heart and say, you fool. Now, what he's talking about, we put it in a nutshell. Jesus is not saying the real, real spiritual trick, you might say the real spiritual test, the real discernment, the real place you can be really stuck, is really screwed up, is to mistake the good path or the bad path. No, the good life for an evil life. No, he is not contrasting good and bad people. He's contrasting religious people and Christians. They're both behaviorally and their behavioral standards similar. They're both praying, they're both giving to the poor. They're both obeying the ten Commandments. You see, they're both being kind to their neighbor. On the outside, they're both sheep, but on the inside, there's utterly different reasons that they're obeying the Ten Commandments and with utterly different character results. That's amazing. And you see why don't you see why he says you're. Anybody can see the difference between moral behavior and immoral behavior, between living A good life and living a bad life. But we could be what people can't see. And what people? Both people inside the church and outside the church. People inside the church and outside the church are being smothered. In fact, they're dying spiritually because they can't tell the difference between religion and Christianity. Jesus is saying these two groups of people and they both are doing similar kinds of things but for utterly different reasons on the inside. Motivation and spirit and with utterly different results in their character. And what are the different reasons? Well, think of that this way. Let's take a look at the religious person. What is the reason? The religious person gives the poor and prays and does all. What are the reasons? Well, again, I told you, this is a summarizing sermon. Some of you are very smart. You only came today and now you're going to get the whole nine yards. You go back and you see. For example, it says in chapter six, verse two, it says religious people give to the poor, but why do they give to the poor? For the poor. See, they help the poor, but why do they help the poor? Do they help the poor for the poor? No. Chapter six, verse two says they do it to get honor from men. Well, you say. Doesn't everybody want a little pat on the back? Now listen, listen, listen. The word honor is literally the word glory. It's the word doxa. Did you like our doxology today? You know, that's our doxology, which literally means the glory word, giving God glory, you know, we sing it every week, you know, praise God from whom all blessings flow, you know, and all that. And it's to the tomb of the old hundred first we say, all ye who are of tender heart forgiving others, take your part. Praise, praise the Father, praise the Son and praise the Spirit. What is that? And especially today with the brass and the boy, glory. We're saying to God, you're glorious. And yet this is what it's saying. Religious people are people inside who have no sense of their own glory, no sense of their own weight. They have no sense of their own thereness. They have no sense of their own value. They have no sense of their own worth. They have no sense of their of their own self. And you know, it says that in verse 15, it says on the outside they're sheep, but on the inside the old translation used to say. The old King James used to say they're ravening wolves. The niv says ferocious, but that doesn't really get at it, and here's why. One thing that's one of the. You can see why it's hard to be a translator of the Bible. This particular word that they translate, ferocious. If you look it up every other place, it's used in the New Testament. Every other place. This Greek word has a very specific meaning. It means to blackmail somebody or to extort, extortion or blackmail. Now, you can imagine if you're a transitor, you're coming along and you see what Jesus says here. How can you write it down? You know, it says, okay, watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're blackmailing. What, inward, black? What is that? I mean, that would be nonsense, that they can't write it down. But it's not nonsense. If you go back through and you think about this, why do they give to the poor? Why do they do what they do? Because inside, they desperately need. They desperately need. We desperately need to assure ourselves that there's something worthwhile about us. There's something significant, that there's something weighty, there's something lasting, there's something valuable about us. And what we're going to do is we're going to go out there and we're going to do good things and we're going to be good and we're going to. We're going to help people and we're going to counsel people. We're going to help the poor. We're going to rehab houses, we're going to do all that stuff. Why? Because we're going to make the world give us what we need. We're going to make people think I'm a good person. See, I'm. Inwardly, I'm incredibly empty. Which means everything I do as a religious person, everything I do, I'm trying so hard to be an artist. I'm trying so hard to be a singer. I'm trying so hard to have a decent career. I really want someone to fall in love with me, and I want to have this great family. Why are you doing your art? For you. Yes. See, are you falling in love? Are you getting into friendships? What are you doing this for? Jesus says, because on the inside, we lack this inner honor, we lack this inner glory. As a result, everything we do is not about that. The. The art's not about art. Your friendships are not about friendship. It's about you. You're out there and you're saying, I'm going to be good and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that, and I'm going to get from the world. I'm going to make them give me what I most need, a sense that I'm worth something.