Live the Kingdom Life!
1. A Call to Obedience
And now Jesus ends his sermon by calling us again to obedience. It is as if Jesus is saying, “You believed, by grace you have been saved. I gave you new, eternal life. This is how the new life looks like. Now, go and live this life. Bear the good kingdom fruit. Do the will of my father. Put my words into practice. Obey, and you will build your house, your kingdom life, on rock, and it will stand against the storms of this life. It will stand through the final judgment. And you will enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus ends his sermon with some very hard and clear words, no compromises, no buts. “Wide is the gate and broad the road that leads to destruction … Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire … Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven … I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers … 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 … and it fell with a great crash.” (Mt 7:13-27)
Many people are confused by these words, and many people have confused these words. They tried to rationalize, explain away, and soften Jesus’ hard words. Let’s be very clear — Jesus is not teaching that we are saved by works or obedience. Jesus is not explaining the way to salvation, but how to live out the salvation, the kingdom life, we have already received by grace through faith. We are saved only by Jesus Christ.
What Jesus teaches is that authentic faith is expressed and lived out through active obedience. Authentic faith is expressed through kingdom living. When there is no obedience, no kingdom fruit, no kingdom living, there is no true faith. And that is why Jesus can say that such people will not enter the kingdom. Even though they say they believe, they do not believe with their whole heart, mind, soul, and spirit.
2. A Barcode Faith?
This is an age-old problem, which Dallas Willard calls a barcode faith. A barcode identifies an object and gives us all kinds of information about that object. When you check in to fly somewhere, your luggage is tagged with a barcode that identifies you as the owner, the flight, and its destination. You receive a boarding pass with a barcode identifying you, your flight, and your seat number. Without that barcode you cannot enter the plane and take your seat.
Many people treat the Christian faith like a barcode. The verbal confession of faith is seen as a magical formula. Just say it, and zap, I have my faith barcode, my ticket to heaven. I have taken out my insurance policy against hell, and I have my retirement policy for heaven. Now I can get on with my life, do my will, and live life my way. I may even go to church and do some ministries to renew my barcode and ensure it remains active. But for the rest, I continue with my old life.
A barcode faith is like the false prophets and false disciples who claim they believe, but they deceive, lie, and destroy. A barcode faith is saying with our mouths that we believe, but then we do not do the will of our Father. A barcode faith is saying with our mouths and minds that we believe. We know the Bible. We do ministries in the Lord’s Name, but these are all for show and self-serving. A barcode faith hears the words of Jesus but does not do them. A barcode faith is he who has not counted the cost of discipleship, has not died to self, is not taking up his cross daily, is not abiding in Christ, is not walking in step with the Holy Spirit. A barcode faith builds his life house on sand, and it falls.
With a barcode faith our hearts do not believe. Our hearts have not been changed. Outside the church, in our personal and public lives, at work, school, and in our homes, Jesus is not our Lord. We love with words or speech but not with actions and in truth (1 Jn 3:18). Note the last words, in truth.
Jesus is very clear. A verbal declaration of faith, even a show of faith, without a believing and changed heart, without a changed life, without obedience, without kingdom fruit, is not true, authentic faith. When someone persists to walk in the ways of the world, when someone intentionally, willfully persist to disobey, to persist in not doing the Father’s will and Jesus’ words, in not living the kingdom life, then their faith is not genuine, truthful, and they will not enter the kingdom.
3. Do the Father’s Will and Jesus’ Words
Authentic faith is expressed through obedience. The Holy Spirit gave us new kingdom hearts, and out of our kingdom hearts flow obedience. We live the kingdom life by doing the Father’s will, by hearing and doing, putting into practice, the words of Jesus. Why is obedience so important?
First, because we have a God-given, God-ordained calling in this life, in this world. Every one of us, everyone, is called to be the salt and light of the world, to be our Lord’s witnesses, to make disciples of others. We are part of God’s mission to show the kingdom to the world, and to call them into the kingdom. We are called to be a blessing to the world. Isn’t that exciting? We have experienced the wonder and joy of the kingdom life. We want to share that good news, to show the world there is a way. There is hope. There is salvation. That’s why we obey and live the kingdom life.
Second, and perhaps the most important reason. Do you love Jesus, really, truly love Jesus? Then obey our Lord and live the kingdom love out of love for him. In Jesus Christ we have encountered God the Father. We have experienced his love, grace, mercy, and forgiveness. Having been forgiven much by Christ, we love him much. We believed and declared, “Jesus is Lord!” Therefore, out of reverence for Christ our Lord, we obey. We obey out of love. We want to please our Lord. We obey out of awe. Our obedience, living the kingdom life, is an act of worship — a living sacrifice that is pleasing to God because we are doing his will.
4. Build Your Kingdom Life on Rock
Authentic faith is expressed in kingdom living. When we do the will of our Father and put the words of Jesus into practice, we are building our houses on rock, and it will remain standing no matter what. But how can we obey and live the kingdom life?
Jesus gives the answers in his sermon. Pray, fast, give. Practice the spiritual disciplines. Prayer is the lifeblood of the Christian, the Kingdom life. Pray with persistence and confidence and our Father will give us all we need to obey and live the kingdom life. In prayer, we discover God’s will. In prayer, we have intimate fellowship with God. We abide in Christ. Fasting is a very important spiritual discipline, but sadly much neglected these days. We fast to grow deeper in our relationship with God. We fast to seek his will, and to express our trust and dependence on God. In giving, sharing and serving others we learn and practice to live the kingdom life.
Very important — We can only obey and build our houses on rock when we are rooted in God’s Word. That’s our foundation. Faith and obedience. Both are grace because the Holy Spirit creates both faith and obedience in us through the Word of God. Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ (Ro 10:17). The Holy Spirit opens our hearts and minds. We hear the Word. We believe. The Holy Spirit, our Teacher, teaches us the will of the Father through the Word. “… the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you” (Jn 14:25).
So we must read, study, memorize and meditate on the Bible. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Mt 4:4). Do you have a hard time to obey and live the kingdom life? Perhaps that is because you are malnourished in God’s Word, and overfed on the world.
The spiritual disciplines are essential because they are the only way we can abide in Christ. “Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:4-5). The Kingdom life is possible because nothing is impossible with God. When we abide in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, the heart and mind of Christ are cultivated in us, and enable us to live the kingdom life. But here is the thing, we must yield to the Holy Spirit, allow the Spirit to make us more like Jesus in what we do and say, in what we think, in what we desire. We allow Jesus to be our Lord of all of our lives as we yield, submit to his presence and power in us, the Holy Spirit. Do you have a hard time to obey and live the kingdom life? Perhaps you are not yielding your heart to Christ our Lord through the Holy Spirit?
Yes, we are far from perfection. We are walking in the kingdom way. Sometimes we will slip and slide back, often we will stumble and fall, and disobey our Lord. But because we are poor in spirit, meek and humble, we will mourn, repent, and turn back to our Lord. He will come next to us, take our hands, pick us up, clean us from all dirt, give us new clothes, and with him, we continue on the kingdom way.
The Sermon on the Mount, these are the words of our Lord Jesus. Let us obey our Lord. Let us live the Kingdom life. Then we are building our houses, our lives, on rock. We will be able to stand against and through the storms of life — our selfish desires, temptations, suffering, pain, hurt, and persecution. Not only will we remain standing through the storms of life, but we will also be able to stand in the final judgment one day. And on that day our good works, our obedience, our kingdom life we lived, will show that our faith was authentic, that by grace we truly believe and followed Jesus, and Jesus will tell us, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter my kingdom.”