Matthew records Jesus teachings about the characteristics of those who belong to the kingdom of heaven, the distinguishing marks of those who follow him, the things that make them stand out from the world as a result of experiencing salvation. So far we’ve seen at four of them; God approves of those who, saved by grace, recognise there is nothing they contribute to their salvation, have a right perspective on sin, are focused on edification not self justification and have a growing longing for righteousness.

Tonight (7-9)we are looking at 3 more marks of God’s people, three more ways in which our actions are to stand out and be counter cultural as a result of being saved by grace and living with Jesus as King.

The king’s people are marked by an:1. Active compassion(7)
Did you ever play the games as a child where you locked hands with a friend and hand wrestled them until one of you cried out mercy. **What was the other person then supposed to do? Release your hands.

What does the word mercy mean? The Greek word denotes a compassionate response to people in need. It means looking at those in pain, misery or distress - all the results of sin - and being compelled to act to alleviate that suffering. Mercy is different from pity - pity sees the problem and says ‘ah!’ Mercy sees the problem and does what it can to lift the sufferer from suffering.

One of the fascinating things about the beatitudes is that God asks his people to be like him. Deuteronomy comforts Israel with this promise "For the LORD your God is a merciful God." Or Psalm 78 as Israel’s history is rehearsed with all its failings "Yet he was merciful; he forgave them their iniquities and did not destroy them...Time after time he restrained his anger and did not stir up his full wrath."

And God’s people were meant to reflect God’s character and rule to the world that’s why time and again the prophets call Israel to be merciful. Micah 6:8 "And what does the LORD require of you?" In other words how should God’s loved and redeemed covenant people live? "To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Remember the context of the beatitudes - who is Jesus teaching? Disciples - those in the kingdom. It isn’t a way to earn salvation but a response to experiencing salvation; having put your trust in the king to save you it is how that trust affects your living. Being merciful to others shows that we understand we are only in the kingdom because of God’s mercy in Jesus and that our only certainty about the future is that "we will be shown mercy." That future reality impacts our immediate action.

Am I actively compassionate? Do I show mercy to those in need? It is counter cultural, the world isn’t compassionate. You might say what about Comic Relief, or Children in Need, people give loads of money. Is that compassion? Or do we give because we’ve been entertained, or because of guilt. You can give and never feel compassion.

Compassion means we will invite the lonely into our homes and share our family life with them, that we may sell something we have to give to someone in need. It means giving time to sit and talk to someone despite feeling there is little we can do to solve their problems.

But what about compassion fatigue? Imagine for a minute if someone had sidled up to God and raised the issue of compassion fatigue, what if God had looked at his creation and been overwhelmed by its sin and need. There would have been no salvation. God doesn’t hold back - "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son."

We do not have God’s infinite resources but there is a cost to God’s active compassion he feels the cost of showing mercy. It is not an easy price to pay.

We need to be called back to mercy, to remember we deserve judgement and by God’s grace and mercy are saved from wrath and shown mercy and brought into the kingdom with the certainty that God will show me mercy. How can we not be like God!

The king’s people are marked by a:2. Holy Focus(8)
What does the heart stand for in our culture? What about in the Bible? It’s a Bible word with Bible meaning - it is the centre of the person - thoughts, emotions, desire, and focus.

This verse says the disciple will be marked by purity of heart - pure means unsullied, unblemished. It’s like the scene that greets you as you pull back the curtains first thing in the morning after a night of heavy snow and the world is blanketed in white. Nothing blemishing it, unspotted, untouched, unmarked. God approves of those who are unsullied, unblemished, unmarked in heart, in short who are holy. In fact such purity is vital; Psalm 24:3-4 The Psalm promises those who have a clean hand and a pure heart that they will know God. We are made pure in Christ but we are also called to purity.

It is a purity on two levels; both in terms of focus and action. The disciples’ allegiance is to God alone, he is who they live for and they won’t allow anything to deflect or divert them from that purpose. But it is also a purity that worked itself out in action - since they live for God they live to please God - not to earn salvation but because as God’s children they long to please their Father.

I’m not a big ‘Friends’ fan but in one episode Joey tells Phoebe that there is no such thing as a selfless good deed - Phoebe’s challenge is then to find one.

We can be just like that can’t we often we do good things but for wrong motives. Later in Matthew Jesus battles with the Pharisees who do good things - who look like they are pure in heart - but who are not, because they do things for wrong motives. They behave a certain way to earn salvation, or to look good, or for the praise of men.

Here are some questions to ask yourself that will help us see the state of our hearts; what do I think about when my mind’s in neutral? What do I long for more than anything else? To what do I give my allegiance and how is that seen? What prompts me to serve others?

As I examine my heart I am amazed God set his love on me, grateful that I am made right by Jesus, and I mourn my heart’s mixed motives and focus and cry out Father God change me.

The great promise is that we are viewed by God as pure in heart in Christ, and that while we battle now to become more pure in heart by the Spirit and his word, we will one day know God in all his holiness.

The king’s people are marked by being:3. Reconciled Reconcilers(8) We live in a world of conflict, be it in Afghanistan, or Iraq, or warring neighbours, or racial tensions, or the couple going through a bitter divorce, or even just the arguments at work or home, or among the children. How do most of those conflicts end? They don’t end in peace - relationships are not restored, made new - but in appeasement, or settlement, or grudging acceptance.

The Kingdom of heaven is different; it is peopled by peacemakers, by those who have experienced reconciliation - broken relationship made new - and who therefore live as reconcilers.

If you look at the second part of the verse - they live out the family values. That little phrase children of God means sons of God. A son in the sense of being one of a type or a class. God approves of, he favours, those who having experienced reconciliation with God live to reconcile others.

Isaiah 9 describes the coming Messiah as the "Prince of Peace", God’s king it says is coming to establish a kingdom where peace rules not just where conflict ends, but where completeness, wholeness, restoration rules. Jesus’ coming sees a kingdom established now but to be fully realised at his second coming where everything is restored, where the curse is undone, where conflict is no more and every broken relationship is repaired.

Later in Isaiah 52 writes "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" The news that God saves, that his lost people can be restored to a right relationship with him with all enmity, with God’s wrath, dealt with is good news. And it is bound up in the figure of the suffering servant - Jesus marred beyond human likeness.

What are Jesus’ words as, resurrected, he meets his disciples in the upper room; "Peace be with you!" His death and resurrection are what enables him to say those words - he has made peace between God and man.

Fundamentally every threat to peace stems from our broken relationship with God. Jesus is the message of the peacemaker. The reconciled proclaim reconciliation, they call others to come and experience what they have experienced, they call others to join the kingdom of the Prince of Peace. Because they know one day they will be recognised as children of God, as being like their Father.

They will look to bring peace as they reconcile relationships but aware that ultimately only the gospel will bring peace, enable grace and forgiveness, and repair relationships.

The danger is that we look at the beatitudes and feel crushed with guilt - that we try to do this ourselves and fail. Jesus teaches disciples those who have put their trust in him. It is not a way to live to earn salvation, but we don’t have to Jesus does it for us, and we have to trust in him.

But the other danger is that we conclude it’s all done for us we can do nothing. The gospel changes us, our hearts, motives, desires, loves, dislikes - it makes us children of God who should long to please him. The gospel must change us or we have never understood it.

The antidote to both is the cross which shows me the cost God paid to bring me peace, to pay for my failure to be pure in heart, and shows me God’s compassion and calls me to change.

Lighthouse