All Saints Day Matthew 5: 1-12 What a Friend We Have in Jesus
Isaiah 26:1-21, Revelation 21:9-11, 22-27, Matthew 5:1-12
What does the world consider to be blessings? Well, just watch a TV ad and you will get the picture. The world wants the Good Life and the good life consists of whatever basic cultural values are trendy at the moment. So you have to keep up with what the world considers to be fashionable and trendy. But all of these cultural values still want you to have the same basic traits:
Be proud.
Be happy, and if you are not, work harder at being happy; whatever it takes.
Assert yourself. Don’t let others interfere with your pride and happiness.
Stay flexible; compromise when necessary in order to maintain your popularity.
Don’t get taken or allow yourself to be manipulated. Don’t contribute to the dependency of others.
Try to keep everyone happy, riding the fence as long as possible.
Relish the battles and win the war; always remember, nothing is worth losing everything.
This life will lead to the final goal; as the bumper sticker says, “He who dies with the most toys wins.”
But Jesus tells His disciples and the crowds that these are not the true ways that lead to blessedness. And the final goal does not end when your life ends here on earth. The final goal that Jesus promises lasts for all eternity and begins with blessings from God Himself. Those beatitudes, those blessings that Jesus teaches are pretty much quite the opposite of what the world teaches. After all, how can the world sell their product if they are telling you, “Be poor in spirit, be mournful over sins, be gentle and kind. Show mercy to those who oppose you and work hard to do what is right in God’s eyes.
Be pure in heart and be willing to suffer for the sake of Jesus and His kingdom.” As Christians we are not called to sell anyone faith, rather it is our calling to witness our faith in Christ through our words and deeds according to the teachings of Jesus Himself. Let me give you an example of what I mean.
There was once a man named Ike who by the world’s standards had made a pretty good life for himself. Ike was pretty much an average guy who wanted to be happy, healthy and wealthy. One day Ike won two round trip tickets to Las Vegas. Feeling lucky, he asked his best friend Mike to go along with him and although Mike did not gamble, he agreed to go. In the weeks leading up to the trip, Ike studied books about blackjack. The more he studied and practiced, the better he became and after a while Ike was sure he had worked out a system that would guarantee he would walk away from the gambling tables as a big winner. But his system required a great deal of cash and Ike was not entirely sure how much he needed.
Ike was so sure that his system would work that he sold all of his possessions--his house, his car and everything of value. Then he maxed out all of his credit cards with cash advances. When the day of their departure came, Ike had a small fortune with him. Mike was worried about him carrying all that cash, but Ike was not worried. He was feeling mighty lucky, and being in high spirits, and he was not going to let his cautious friend bring him down.
When they arrived at the Las Vegas airport Ike hired a big limousine to take them to the casino. Once there he tipped the driver with a hundred dollar bill. Mike said. “Don’t you think you should go a little easy on your money?” The man just laughed and said he had plenty and soon he would have even more. Once inside, Ike headed straight for the blackjack table. Mike tagged along beside him but worried about him placing such big bets. Soon Ike told his friend to leave because he was being a party pooper.
So Mike left him alone and went to enjoy the meals and entertainment that the casinos offered.
But he could not help but worry about Ike, and he was saddened that his friend might lose everything. So Mike went back to the Blackjack table. Ike was still there trying to beat the house at their own game. Sometimes Ike would win, but most of the time he was losing. But each time Ike would win, he thought his luck was changing and he would bet even more money. By then a big crowd of newfound friends had formed around Ike and he was having the time of his life.
Ike did not see that his big stack of money was quickly becoming smaller and smaller. But Mike did. Mike pleaded with Ike to stop, but Ike continued. Finally Ike cursed his friend Mike. He argued with him and when security came, Ike told the guys in uniform that this man was bothering him. Ike even denied knowing Mike and when the security guards escorted Mike out of the casino, Ike did not act like he cared one bit. While Mike went to a hotel and spent the evening worrying about His best friend Ike continued to party and gamble.
Now, nowhere in the Bible does it say that gambling is a sin. But it does say “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” (1 Timothy 6:10) And misplaced love of any kind can lead to sin. When it comes to sin, there is a little bit of Ike in all of us. Every sin has it consequences no matter how small and innocuous your misdeeds appear to be at the time. But each time you are tempted to sin you gamble that you will neither get hurt nor cause any harm to those around you.
And in our sinful state we develop our own system of right and wrong and although we sometimes feel like we are winning, our system eventually does not work. You can never be sure when you have done enough or paid enough to make up for the sins you have committed. When we live for today without regard for future consequences caused by our actions, our lives are shallow, and unsatisfying. When you are in a sinful state of mind, you tend not to see the damage that sin does in your lives and in the lives of others. And to make matters worse as a result of your blindness, you resent those who are trying to help.
Laughter may be there in the evening but the painful hangover comes in the morning. Paul speaks about those who live such a life as unbelievers. He says, “If the dead are not raised, “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” Paul goes on to say, “Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning!” To put it into more modern terms, ‘When you gamble your salvation with sin and your own works, the house of condemnation and death always wins.’ When we reject Jesus Christ and live and play by our own rules, we end up broken and in debt like Ike.
The next morning when Mike went back to the casino and Ike was standing outside. Ike had lost all of his money and when his money ran out, so did all of his newfound friends. But Mike did not leave him. Mike hailed a taxi to take them back to the airport. But Ike said, “Mike, I appreciate what you have done for me, but I have no home to go to. I quit my job, sold everything and lost all my money. Now all I have is a pile of debt which I can never repay.”
We all know people that are like Ike to one degree or another. As a matter of fact, there are many more people like Ike in this world than like Mike. The Ike’s are like the crowds that surround Jesus and His disciples. And you are the disciples, the Mike’s that Jesus is talking to. Jesus wants you, as His disciples to be far different than the crowds. He wants you to be more like Mike, to be patient, upright and honest, to be the ones that look out for those around them, to be there for them when they fall even though they do not always appreciate your help.
Mike treated Ike like a friend, even when Ike rejected him. You need to gently remind those around you who are not faithful to Christ that they will lose everything if they continue to follow the crowd rather than their Savior. And they may respond in the same way manner that Ike did.
Many times, people need to fall down completely before they will let someone pick them up. But like Mike, when your friends or family need help, you need to be there for them. Please know that you are not alone when you are mistreated for you faith and offers of kindness.
All of the prophets before Jesus and many of the apostles died at the hands of hateful men for their love of God. And you know how terribly the crowds treated Jesus.
The crowds cried out for Jesus to be crucified. They beat Him, spit upon Him and taunted Our Lord as He was led to Calvary. They nailed His hands and feet to the cross and hung Him there to die. Jesus out of His love that passes all of our understanding died at the hands of the very people He had come to save. And through all of this abuse, out of His love for us, Jesus remained our friend. What a friend we have in Jesus! What a friend indeed.
As disciples of Jesus, you too will mourn and be persecuted for your faith, sometimes even by those who are closest to you. But for all of your efforts, you will be blessed not necessarily with worldly blessings but rather with eternal blessings.
True happiness, true blessedness comes only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Only by knowing deep down in your heart that there is an eternal life waiting for all who believe in the work of Jesus Christ can you find true peace.
The blessedness that Jesus is talking about is not about the superficial happiness that this world treasures. His blessing has to do with eternity and in this world His blessing gives you integrity, and character. It is necessary to the happiness of all Christians that they be faithful to God and to be honest and faithful to themselves. Christian character is not a sudden act but a slow process, not a sudden creation but a development. Character and integrity grows and bears fruit like a tree and it requires patient care and tireless cultivation.
Today, we honor those who have that Christian character and have gone before us to their eternal home. They have been true and faithful to God and to themselves. Those whom we call saints were not perfect; they too had some of Ike in them as we do. But their faith in Christ was accounted to them as righteousness.
And through their faith, they continued to be friends to those who were not always cordial to their witness of Jesus Christ. Their faith gave them the ability to appear meek to the world, when in reality they were strong in Christ, strong enough to face the persecutions, lies and rejections they encountered with patient endurance.
Remember when Ike thought he had lost everything? Mike came to him and gave him hope, because Mike held on to those round trip airline tickets that would fly them back home regardless of their failures. When your friends are down and out, when your friends realize that everything in this life is of little value when compared to the riches of heaven, you can remind them of their ticket of salvation.
That ticket was bought and paid for by Jesus and is offered freely to all through the Holy Spirit. And nothing can be more blessed than to know that with all your heart. In Jesus name. Amen.