I was browsing through the third chapter of John again this week.  It’s is one of those chapters that, no matter how many times you have studied it, you always know it contains so much more than you understand.  But one thing was evident to me as I read the words of Jesus again as he spoke to Nicodemus.  We should never underestimate the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer and in the Kingdom of God.  When you say it, it sounds trite – as if everyone knows that.  My experience, however, is that most believers don’t know that because they treat the Spirit as a minor player in the Godhead.  He gets an honorable mention on Sundays as one who, perhaps, played a significant role 2000 years ago but since then has been rather tame.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  I am reminded of that when Jesus cuts to the chase with Nicodemus.  Nic was a Pharisee as well as a member of the Sanhedrin.  But to his credit he was a truth seeker, although he still cared a great deal about his position and what other members of the  “good old boys” club thought of him.  He came at night so that he would not be seen with this “questionable” Rabbi. He represented another group within the Pharisees or the ruling council who were not quite ready to condemn Jesus because Nicodemus said, “We know you are a teacher who has come from God…” He came with a list of questions representing this little group.

We must speculate on where he was going with his questions because Jesus sidetracked his dialogue and began to speak about his own agenda.  However,  I feel confident that Nic was going to ask a series of questions about the Messiah and about the nature of miracles and so forth. That would have been an amazing discussion to hear and a spiritual discussion at that.  However, Jesus knew it would have been a futile discussion because this brilliant theologian and descendant of Abraham would not get it.

Jesus simply said. “No one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” Clearly, for Nicodemus, that must have seemed like a hard left turn that, perhaps, was leading to nowhere.  What an enigmatic statement that seemed to just come out of left field.  Nic tried to track with Jesus a bit and so protested that a man could not be born again when he is old. Then Jesus added to the confusion by saying that no one could even enter the kingdom unless he was born not only of water but of the Spirit. Here was a man who all his life had been taught that knowledge of the Torah, love for the word of God, and good works would gain him entrance into the kingdom. Jesus simply said that entrance was not based on anything we could do but solely on the basis of what the Spirit would do.

When Jesus said that a man could not see the kingdom,  he meant that a man could not understand, perceive, or experience the kingdom without being born again.  An equally valid translation would be that he could not see the kingdom unless he was “born from above.”  That birth from above was by the Holy Spirit.  In the same way that Jesus was born by the Holy Spirit coming on Mary, we can only be born again by the Holy Spirit coming on us and we cannot see, perceive, understand, or experience the kingdom without the work of the Holy Spirit. If our initial realization of the kingdom comes only by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, then all other experiences and insight into the kingdom can come only by the Spirit as well.

If we place limits on the Spirit, we place limits on our understanding and experience of the kingdom.  In an effort to make God understandable, we miss out on understanding.  In our efforts to keep the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts from being abused, we abuse our own experiences with God.  In order to enter the kingdom, we must be born from above.  In other words, it is not just an intellectual exercise of acknowledging who Jesus is, but God has to do something to us. A new creation (2 Cor.5:17) means that suddenly, we are different and distinctive from the rest of creation. I believe that someday science will be able to measure a shift in brain function, DNA, or genetics that occurs the moment someone is born again.

I do not believe that being born again, being born from above, or being born of the Spirit is simply a metaphor for us as we somehow take on a new philosophy of life. When the Spirit comes power is imparted.  Radical transformation is initiated. Positions shift in the heavenlies as we are seated with Christ. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is rumbling around in us waiting to get out.  All of that begins with the Spirit of God and continues with him until the Spirit himself raises us from the dead. The Spirit is immeasurable power and wisdom and can only be capped or quenched by us.

In too many places, the church still quenches the Spirit in the name of doing everything “decently and in order.”  In my Bible, when the Holy Spirit showed up, fire erupted, people spoke in tongues, people went out and preached in the streets, buildings shook, everyone had a revelation or a tongue or a prophecy, people got healed, and demons got cast out. Some even dropped dead in church for lying to the Spirit.  All that doesn’t seem to fit our definition of  “decently and in order.” Many of our churches could benefit from a little disorder orchestrated by the Spirit.

We have even elevated intellect over spiritual gifts and spirituality.  If you don’t think so, check out the classifieds in a Christian journal where churches are looking for staff members and pastors. The qualifications are rarely based on spiritual gifts, spiritual maturity, intimacy with Jesus, or how many people a person has led to the Lord.  They are most often based on degrees earned in an accredited university or business experience in the corporate world. Jesus himself nor his apostles should even bother to apply. They would not meet the qualifications.

Although the Spirit points us to Jesus, Jesus points us to the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is God along with the Father and the Son.  We should pursue Him with as much passion as we do the other members of the Trinity.  If we fail to do so, we may enter the kingdom as a newborn, but we will remain in that same condition for years to come.  Our problem is not that we don’t know enough scripture, but that we haven’t experienced God enough.  That experience comes through the Holy Spirit.  Maybe we should make a real effort to get to know him.

This is our 7^thand final installment of the Beattitudestaken out of the beginning of Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.  Again, these are important teachings because most scholars believe that Jesus taught the principles and commands in the Sermon (Matthew 5-7) over and over during his ministry.  Repetition suggests that he thought these were not elementary, but rather essential teachings for every follower of Jesus, so it is wise for us to revisit these teachings from time to time.

The last two beatitudes are in an interesting juxtaposition.  Blessed are the peacemakers and blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. The positioning almost suggests that peacemakers can anticipate persecution.  That is the bad news.  The good news is that they are in good company.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons or children of God.  A son or child of God is one who has the character of God.  “Like father, like son” is the old expression.  A peace maker is one who has a heart for peace, harmony, reconciliation, and unity.  A peacemaker is not a pacifist in the sense of avoiding conflict at all cost. Jesus is the Prince of Peace but he had numerous confrontations with the Pharisees. He is also pictured in Revelation as the commander of the armies of heaven going out to war.  The idea is that this person’s first desire is peace. He or she will endure a personal wrong and not insist on his or her rights in order to maintain a relationship. This person will be forgiving, longsuffering, and patient in order to maintain peace.  He or she will constantly work toward reconciliation as long as there is the possibility and even sacrifice for the restoration of a relationship.  That is also the heart of God who gave his only Son so that the world might be to reconciled to himself.

The reason peace making often invites persecution is because peacemaking often appears to the world as weakness.  When you turn the other cheek, bless those who curse you, and do good to those who despise you…those whose hearts are hard and self-centered will see you as timid or a pushover and will often move quickly to take advantage of your willingness to be wronged without striking back.

I have noticed that, for the most part, when we obey Jesus, we are put in vulnerable situations in which people can “use us” or take advantage of us.  Jesus taught that if someone sues us for our coat we should give him our cloak as well.  If we are compelled to carry something one mile, carry it two. Our vulnerability requires us to depend on the Lord for protection, provision, and vindication. Paul knew the risk better than anyone but pointed to peacemaking as long as it was possible.  “Do not repay anyone evil for evil…If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  Do not take revenge my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written, ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Rom.12:17-19).

The peacemaker must trust God, perhaps more than anyone, because they will be vulnerable in many situations. Note that Paul said to be at peace as much as is possible.  Even for the peacemaker, there is a time to go to war when all avenues of peacemaking have been exhausted and evil will prevail if not confronted. Remember, we are to resist the devil and seek justice for the weak.  We are to care for the widow and the orphan.  Jesus sternly confronted the Pharisees because their legalistic perversion of God’s Law was keeping men and women from a relationship with the Father. Paul often confronted sin and wrongs in the churches he had planted because the toleration of such things would eventually infect the church and put the salvation of other believers at risk. He did so after an extended time of pleading with patience for those in sin or those tolerating sin to repent. He would rarely oppose evil on his own behalf but would certainly “go to war” on behalf of the church or the weak when his attempts to make peace were rejected.

Peacemaking will eventually invite persecution or, at least, will put us in a position to be taken advantage of. Our desire for peace and reconciliation reflect the heart of God so that we can be counted as his children, but remember that the world hated Jesus and will eventually hate those who carry his image. The “up side” is that vulnerability and persecution force us to maintain a true dependence on God which then draws his presence to us.  The presence of God reveals the glory of God and his glory reveals his goodness. His goodness always blesses. There is clearly a price to be paid for his presence, but it is s always worth the cost.

Jesus gave us a list of things that create a state of blessedness for his people.  They are clearly counter-cultural but the kingdom always is. We all want to be blessed but blessing often comes with risk…of not being like everyone else or of placing ourselves in vulnerable positions.  My problem is that I want to be at peace with the world while I am at peace with heaven as well.  Biblically, I can’t pull that off. The world and the kingdom are at odds. I must choose one and if I want to live under a state of blessedness, I must choose the kingdom.  If you search through the Sermon on the Mount, the message of choosing is imbedded in the texts.  Our challenge is to choose Jesus everyday and then trust the rest to him.

We are looking at the “beatitudes” of Jesus that are presented in Matthew 5, the beginning of what we call the Sermon on the Mount.  Jesus declared that a number of attitudes will bring a state of blessedness to our lives. As we reflect on the passage, we realize that these, like the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5, are attributes of God that he wants to see reflected in his children.

In Matthew 5:8, Jesus declares, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  The word translated as pure is the Greek word katharos. It means clean, unblemished, unsoiled, and so forth.  At its root, it means unadulterated or unmixed – like !00% pure olive oil. It is comprised of a single substance with no additives.  God longs for our hearts to be unmixed and to be fully set on him.  In Psalm 119, this theme comes up over and over.

         Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.(Ps. 119:2).

         I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. (Ps. 119:10)

         You are my portion, O Lord; … I have sought your face with all my heart. (Ps. 119:57-58).

This theme of seeking God or serving God with all of our hearts or wholeheartedlycomes up over and over in scripture.  It stands opposite the idea of serving him half-heartedly. James refers to as being double-minded and says that a “double-minded msn” should not expect an answer to prayer.  I was a minister to single adults back in the day.  It wasn’t unusual to see a guy “sort of breakup” with a girl while he pursued another woman that he thought might “be the one.”  At the same time, he didn’t exactly finish the relationship with the first girl in case this second relationship didn’t work out.  He kept the first girl on a string as his backup plan. He was double-minded or half-hearted in both relationships and usually ended up loosing both girls.

Sometimes we treat God that way. We declare our hunger and love for him while still keeping one foot planted firmly in the world in case the world offers us something we think might be better than what God can offer.  How many times do believers compromise their faith for a relationship?  They do that because they believe the relationship offers more love, happiness, and security than God. How often do believers pursue career, wealth, fame or power so that their service to God and even their family is neglected?  It’s because they believe wealth or fame or career offers more for their security and happiness than God does.  While doing that, we still proclaim our love for God as we give him only the leftovers of our time and energy.

I ran across a valuable paradigm at a conference in Chicago one time.  It was the paradigm of aspirationalvalues versus actualvalues.  Aspirational values are those we aspire to have because we know we should hold and serve those values.  Actual values are the ones we actually pursue and they show up in what we do – how we actually spend our time and money or in the ways we treat other people.  The deception is in believing that our aspirational values are our actual values when they are not.  We can convince ourselves that we are loving God with all of our heart while we offer him our leftovers or keep him as our “backup” relationship in case our romance  with the world doesn’t work out.

The psalmist is clear that we will only see God’s face when we pursue him wholeheartedly with an unmixed, undiluted, or pure heart. Our wholehearted pursuit of God is what produces an unstained heart or a morally pure heart that God also desires. If we truly want to see God, then an assessment of our priorities is in order and probably some repentance.  We need to sort out our actual values over our aspirational values and make them the same thing. If we could stand back and think about what other people would assume our highest values are, based on the way we invest our time, our money, and our emotions, what would they say?  What if we asked the people who know us best what they think we actually value most based on our behaviors, what would they say if they were brutally honest? They would probably be right and most of us could stand to make some adjustments…myself included.  Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

We are continuing to work through the “beatitudes” of Christ as presented in Matthew 5.  We’re doing so because Jesus taught these things over and over as essential qualities in the life of a believer.  These qualities are really fruits of the Spirit that increase our intimacy with God which, in turn, increases our authority and anointing for ministry.  The declarations of Jesus that I want to consider this week is…

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

 We need to notice that blessedness comes from developing qualities that belong first to the Father and making them our own. Mercyis one of those qualities that is almost wholly assigned to the Father in the Old Testament.  “For the Lord your God is a merciful God” (Dt. 4:31). Mercy carries with it the idea of having empathy for the plight of a person and not requiring perfection in order to continue a relationship.  Related to mercy is the realization that men are but flesh and blood and will all stumble at times – even the best. Because we are imperfect we cannot require perfection of others.  That constitutes judgment rather than mercy. Righteous judgment sees to it that s person gets what he or she deserves.  It is the opposite of grace through which we receive underserved favor. I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t want to get what I deserve but rather grace and mercy that overlooks my great imperfections and failings. Jesus is saying that God will extend mercy to us in the same proportion we extended it to others.

A definitive illustration of mercy is found in Matthew 18. You know the story.  Jesus tells of a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. These were servants to whom he had entrusted money for investment or to whom he had loaned money. One of his servants owed the king ten thousand talents and, when the time came, was unable to repay the king. The king ordered that the servant, his wife, and his children to all be sold as bond servants to pay off part of the debt. The text says, “The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the enormous debt, and let him go.”

The king recognized the servant’s inability to keep his financial commitment and that he would never be able to pay back the debt with his own earnings. The servant had taken the money, promised to pay it back, and then had made foolish or even unethical decisions that caused him to loose much. If not all,  of the money. The king had every right to jail him or sell him into slavery but decided to forgive the servant for his immense shortcomings. The twist comes when the forgiven servant goes out immediately and demands that another servant, who owes him a small amount, pay him immediately.  When the servant couldn’t pay, the forgiven servant had him jailed.  When the king discovered what had happened, he called the forgiven servant, and rebuked him saying, “You wicked servant…I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.  Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?”  He then revoked the mercy he had originally shown and turned the man over to the “tormentors” until he could repay the debt. Jesus went on to say that that is how God will treat us if we do not forgive others from our hearts – not just the words but sincerely.  The story illustrates the connection between forgiveness and mercy.

The parable reveals that forgiveness flows out of the mercy we extend to the imperfections of others.  We are to extend mercy to others because God has had great mercy on us.  The psalmist said, “The Lordis compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love…he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities…As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lordhas compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust” (Psm.103:8-14).

We tend to reserve our mercy, our forgiveness, our charity, or our empathy for those that we believe ”deserve it.”  James tells us that mercy triumphs over judgment (Ja.2:14).  The truth is that when we withhold mercy, we  have judged another person as unworthy of our care and concern.   Jesus warns us when he says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Mt.7:1-2). Mercy triumphs over judgment because when we show mercy, God withholds judgment from us.  There are two aspects of God that must always be satisfied – holiness and love.  Judgment relates to his holiness that demands payment for wrongs.  Mercy relates to love and is considered a higher virtue than even righteous judgment because the greatest of qualities is love.  The cross has satisfied judgment so that I;n love he can extend mercy.  He fully expects us to do the same.

There is a true blessedness when we give up the role of judge and release all of that to the Father for his perfect judgment. When we judge others we always fall into the trap of comparisons.  We judge that we are more righteous, more deserving, smarter, etc. so that we somehow have the right to condemn or point out faults that we presumably don’t share. As we do, we will always be measuring ourselves against others and either feel “less than” or we will have to justify our shortcomings in order to judge another. Both of those options leave us in a bad place with God. Blessedness comes from our freedom from comparison, judging, and justifying.  We simply extend mercy because God extends it to us and there is a blessedness and peace in knowing that we live under the grace and mercy of our Heavenly Father who does not treat us as our sins deserve. Jesus has covered our weaknesses and failings. Like the forgiven servant in Matthew 18, we should be quick to extend that mercy to all who cross our paths.