Five Pillars Sermon

Five Pillars of Matthew

The Kingdom of God has four stages: (1) the Fuzzy (Providential) Kingdom (from Creation to Babel); (2) the Visible Kingdom (OT Israel, from Abraham to Christ); (3) the Spiritual Kingdom (NT Church, from Christ to the Second Coming), and (4) the Full Kingdom (Millennium). The Book of Daniel dealt with the rise, fall and the promised restoration of the Visible Kingdom. The Five Pillars of Matthew introduces the Spiritual Kingdom to the world.

Introduction to the Spiritual Kingdom of God

As the Spiritual Israel expanded into the Gentiles and become the Christian Church, the Fleshly Israel remained as the Jewish people under Rabbinic Judaism, which is Pharisaism. It turned from the Torah (Written Law) to the Mishnah (Oral Law); from the Bible (Tanak/OT, Theism) to Talmud (Racist Humanism) and Kabbala (Babylonian Mysticism, Neo-Platonism). Only the Karaites follow Tanak. The bloodline thinned to 90% proselytes (Edomite, Berber, and Khazarean). The Visible Kingdom of God really needs an upgrade. Jesus offered a Spiritual Kingdom (Kingdom of Heaven) in the Five Pillars of Matthew, as Moses offered the Visible Kingdom in the Five Books of Torah.

The Condition for Entering the Spiritual Kingdom (Beatitude 1)

Men are made of the dust and a breath of God. Understanding the spiritual truth is hard for men, unless illustrated by physical object lessons. The Visible Kingdom (Israel) is an object lesson on the inability of the physical in understanding and becoming spiritual. Therefore, humility realizing being “poor in spirit” is the prerequisite for entering the Spiritual Kingdom (Church). Pharisaic Judaism has a blazing pride, and none of the.

The True Standard of Righteousness (Beatitude 2)

The Decalogue is in an outline of the Law of Moses. It corresponds to ten groups of cases laws and reveals ten “Spirits/Ethos of the Law”, five on the vertical/religious dimension, and five on the horizontal/social dimension. The latter is based on respecting three social values: Life, Marriage, and Property. The Pharisees greatly lowered the standard, but Jesus elevated it to include the attitudes in the heart.

Why Should We Live with a Grateful Heart? (Beatitude 3)

The Church was chosen before the foundation of the world; Israel was chosen in time. The Church was chosen for heaven; Israel was chosen for the earth. Both provisions have been essentially realized. The grateful receivers will be obedient. Believers who know their identity in the household of God, that they will inherit the earth, will be able to be meek, i.e. taking a loss for God’s sake. It is first sign of salvation.

Why Should We Seek for Perfection? (Beatitude 4)

The first four Beatitudes describe how God crack through the hard shell of a sinner’s soul, to inject the new spiritual life of an elect. The first beatitude creates a seeker; the second creates a repentant believer; the third creates the proof of salvation; and the fourth a seeker of perfection. Having become sons of God, Christians want to be like our Father, who is perfect.

Why Should We Be Merciful? (Beatitude 5)

Being merciful is first of the second four Beatitudes; it is the elevation of the humility in the first of all Beatitudes. When we are humble to know that we do not deserve heaven, heaven opened its gate. The saved seeking for perfection, but cannot reach it in this world. If we are still humble and realistic, we will know that we still need mercy, not to maintain salvation, but to restore fellowship with God; not for going to heaven, but for not receiving the full consequence of our sins on earth. There is a condition to receive the continuing mercy: Be merciful to others.

How Can We Have a Pure Heart? (Beatitude 6)

A pure heart is having the right motive for life and service. Christ explained in the accompanying sermonette: (1) Do not give services (like fasting) for fame; (2) Do not heap wealth on earth, dim the eyes, or serve two masters; (3) Do not worry for provisions (food or clothing); (4) Seek after God’s kingdom and live in today (not past or future). A pure heart puts God’s value over self’s. It makes possible for the presence of God in believer’s life and ministry, thus “seeing God.”

How Can We Become Peacemakers? (Beatitude 7)

The service for God is becoming peacemakers: Leading people to have peace with God and one another. Christ illustrated how to do it: (1) Judge self before judging others; (2) Know the limit of our power in outreach; (3) Have faith in our Father; and (4) Live by the Golden Rule. If we do our Father’s ministry, people will recognize us as the sons of God.

The Guaranty of Going to Heaven (Beatitude 8)

When believers are significantly transformed, they will be persecuted for the sake of righteousness. They are fit for heaven, but not for this world. Jesus listed four kinds of people by evaluating with orthodoxy and orthopraxy: (1) right belief and right act (fruitful believers); (2) wrong belief and wrong act (false prophets); (3) wrong belief and right act (false believers); and (4) right belief and wrong acts (unfruitful believers).

The Listing of the Twelve (Matt 10, Pt. 1)

After Giving the Blueprint for New Humanity in Matt 3-5, Jesus assembled the Twelve Apostles to memorize the Sermon on the Mount and go to preach it around Israel. It was not an easy task, for among the Twelve, five are Jesus’ cousins or step cousins. They were thinking of a Davidic Dynasty more than a Spiritual Kingdom of God.

Preaching the Unwelcomed Kingdom (Matt 10, Pt. 2)

Jesus told the Twelve Apostles to (1) go to the houses of Israel first, (1) live by faith in a God who is here, (2) giving the blessing of peace, (3) condemn the houses that rejected the gospel, (4) expect persecutions, (5) trusting in God’s spiritual provision, and (6) expect the unwelcomed kingdom to divide humanity. People for or against Christ fight war against each other, even within families.

Trusting in the Power of Truth (Matt 10, Pt. 3)

Jesus did not know at that time when will be his second coming, so he projected into the Tribulation period. He told the Apostles to (1) expect a short Tribulation period; (2) expect being treated in the same way as Jesus was; (3) make the hidden public; (4) know that souls are more important than bodies, and we are precious to God; and (5) choose a public standing either for or against Christ. Then he announce the principles on how to reach peach with God: (1) Christ divides humanity; (2) he is either all or nothing; (3) man must receive the ambassadors of Christ; and (4) even receiving the latest (“little ones” during the Tribulation) makes qualitative difference.

The Parable of the Sower (Matt 13, Pt. 1)

When Jesus’s message of the Spiritual Kingdom was rejected by Israel, he began to preach publicly only in parables, but explained to the disciples. In the first “Kingdom Parable” (of the Sower/Soils), he told of the four kinds of responses for the same seed (the gospel) which he sowed: (1) On the Road (nonbelievers); (2) Among the Rocks (false believers); (3) Among the Thorns (Unfruitful Believers); and (4) Good Soil (fruitful believers). It described the situation of the Apostolic Period, the first of a long Church Age.

The Parable of the Tares (Matt 13, Pt. 2)

In the Second Kingdom Parable (of the Tares), Jesus changed the meaning of the seed from the gospel message to the righteous/redeemed people, while the tares mean the lost/wicked who pose at the saved in the Church. Jesus forbade his servants from pulling out the tares, lest it might hurt the wheat. This patience of God gives believers time to grow out of the phase of life when they have not demonstrated difference from the worldly unsaved people. For this mercy of God, we should really be thankful. For honestly we all have that time of unproven life.

The 5 Enigmatic Kingdom Parables (Matt 13, Pt. 3)

Jesus gave five more Kingdom Parables in a brief and enigmatic fashion. A “Flat Interpretation” sees them speaking about various aspect of the Church: the second and the third parables are about the growth of the Church; the fourth and the fifth are about the value of the faith; the seventh is about the completeness of the Kingdom. We see a “Dynamic Interpretation,” that the seven parables are prophecies about the seven stages of the Church history. The pattern fits, as future proves the past.

Kingdom Life and the Beatitudes (Matt 18)

After Peter acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah and the Son of God in Matthew 16, Jesus began to teach the Kingdom Life Discourse (Matt 18-20) to the disciples. We found five sections in Matt 18 corresponding to the first five blessings in the Beatitudes (Matt 5:3-10), and we are expecting to find all eight blessings in the whole discourse. It is not a surprise, for Kingdom Life is to live out the Design of the Kingdom by God in the Sermon on the Mount (esp. the Beatitudes).

“Parables” for the Pure Heart (Matt 19)

The sixth Beatitude is a blessing for the pure in heart. Matthew 19 has three sections (not exactly parables). They form a triad, teaching how to keep a pure heart against the temptations of lust, pride, and greed, which are exactly “the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16). The arrangement of the teachings makes this chapter the parables for the pure heart.

Stumbling Blocks for Peacemaking (Matt 20)

Not surprisingly, we find in Matt 20 two “parables” (a real one by Jesus, and a quasi-parable by Matthew) that correspond to the seventh and the eighth Beatitude. The main reason for losing peace is in an undefinable concept of “fairness;” and the major block to peacemaking is pride. Jesus is the gate into Heaven, and those who have simple faith in him can see the true reality.

How to Get Yourself Killed and Live Forever? (Matt 23)

On Wednesday of the Passion Week, Jesus gave a scathing denunciation of Pharisaism. He pronounced 8 Woes to the Pharisees and sages, the opposite to the 8 Blessings of the Beatitudes. By criticizing the leaders of the society of his time, Jesus successfully got himself killed (as he planned); and because he stood for the eternal value of God, he lives forever, not only spiritually, but also bodily because of the resurrection.

The Olivet Discourse in Layers (Matt 24:1-31)

In the evening of “Spy Wednesday” (the day when Judas made the deal of selling Jesus), our Lord gave the “Olivet Discourse” on Mt Olive to four disciples. The talk started when the disciples were amazed at the beauty of the temple edifice, and Jesus predicted that it would be totally destroyed. The disciples asked Jesus three questions, and he answered in the reverse order. The layered Q & A formed a chiastic structure. We will delineated Jesus first answer, to the third question: “What are the signs of the end of the world and your coming?” There are four versions in Hebrew and Greek Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21. They all correspond to the six seals in Rev 6.

The Sign for the Beginning of the End Time (Matt 24:32-33)

The second question that the disciples asked Jesus was in effect this way: “What is the sign for the beginning of the end-time?” Jesus mentioned the “Parable of the Fig Tree,” which he gave to the disciples in the third years of his public ministry (A.D.32), recorded only in Luke 13:1-9. He just put that parable into practice by cursing a fig tree that had leaves but no fruit. Now he predicts that when the dead fig tree is alive again, it will near the time of his second coming. Biblical evidences suggest that the fig tree represents the human centered religions, in which salvation is by human works; it is associated the Judaism, Israelites, and the state of Israel.

The Preterist Option and Judaic Zionism (Matt 24:34)

The third answer Jesus gave to his disciples was about the first question: “When will these things happen”, i.e. the time of the fall of the first temple. Jesus’ prediction was “within one generation.” According to the biblical evidences, one generation is forty years; and the first century Jews apparently acted upon it. This historical fact provided the “Preterist Option” for the interpreters of Daniel and Revelation. However, the correspondence between Math 24 and Re 6 seems to support the “Futurist Option;” and the Jews never stopped producing Jewish Messiahs (50 since then) in order to cause a literal fulfilment.

How Much Are We Allowed to Know? (Matt 24:35-36)

Jesus told the disciples precisely that the “day and hour” of the time when “heaven and earth will pass away” is prohibited to the humans and the angels. It did not prohibit the “year and month,” nor did the Hebrew Matthew say that it was hidden from the Son. The Jews, the apostles, and the church fathers all made their efforts of calculating the time of the Messiah. Are we foolish to join them? If we avoid the mistake of using the “one generation” in the end time, does the Bible give us permission and information to derive the time of the rapture?

What Were Noah’s Days Like? (Matt 24:37-39)

Jesus mentioned that the end time would be like the Days of Noah. HIs main point was that the people would be unaware of the pending disaster until it is too late. A hinted message is perhaps the presence of the Nephilim (“Fallen Ones”), fallen angel (demons) who took a body. The Bible says that Nephilim were present “then and afterward.” The Nephilim today could be the so-called “aliens/extraterrestrials.” If so, the Bible explained their origin and nature, and equipped us with the defense against bullying and deceptions.

Why Is the Rapture a Biblical Concept? (Matt 24:40-41)

After commenting that the last days of the Church Age is like Noah’s days, Jesus mentioned a scenario of the Rapture. Some have questioned whether Jesus was referencing the Second Coming for being “taken” could mean being killed by the sword (word) from the mouth of Christ in Glory. But the Hebrew Matthew made it clear that those being taken are the righteous, not the evil. So He must be taking about the Rapture of the Church. Biblical reason for the Pretribulational Rapture is presented.

Why Must People Be Prepared? (Matt 24:42-45)

Jesus gave his first address to the “servants” (Jews?), warning that they must be prepared for the return of the master at a surprising day. According to the Hebrew Bible, those who are faithful in feeding the “children” (unbelieving humans?) will be placed over the children (being the 144,000 during the Tribulation?). These are probably the nontrinitarian Messianic Jews; the Trinitarian ones are part of the church and have been raptured already. The doctrine of immanency is discussed in the context of the first century and the end time. It is not abandoned but refined (from considering not only the Possibility, but also the Probability). This parable seems to fit the beginning event of the Tribulation (the Rapture).

What Is the Key of Being Prepared? (Matt 25:1-13)

The Parable of the Ten Virgins is highly controversial in the identification of correspondences. Jewish wedding tradition has great parallelism with the relationship of Christ and the Church, but the ten virgins in the parable cannot be identified with the Church, who is the bride, not the guests at the party. Many identify the oil as the Holy Spirit, but all have oil in their lamps, and the wise had extra. So the identification has to remain general. Let God be God in choosing the time and manner of Christ’s second coming. Be ready to be surprise by God, but trust that He is for our good. This parable seems to fit the first half of Tribulation, when it seems to be an “easy time.”

Judgments for the Servants at the Second Coming (Matt 25:14-0)

Jesus gave the Parable of the Talents to reveal the standard of judging the servants (Jews during the Tribulation): If one is entrusted by God with talents (gifts, abilities), he must use it to the maximum. Those who don’t do so have a relationship problem with their lord: They not love their lord, but think that he is unfair. This parable seems to fit the second half of the Tribulation, when the two great witnesses in Revelation 11 serve for 3 ½ years until their death by persecution.

Judgment for the Served at the Second Coming (Matt 25:31-46)

Jesus give the Parable of the Sheep and Goats to shoe the standard of judge the served (nations during the Tribulation). The 144000 Jewish evangelists are the “least of the brothers” because they are the latest ordained servants, as Paul was the least of the apostles because he was the latest ordained one. Receiving these evangelists means accepting their message. So the people from the nations are still saved by faith, not works. If one does not read the parable “dispensational,” they easily would be led to the false doctrine of work salvation. This parable seems to fit the context of the end event of the Tribulation (the Second Coming).