August 17 2025
Matthew 5:11-12, 2 Corinthians 4:5-5:5
I have been amazed at the extent of the damage that was done by the drought we had last year. I lost a number of landscaping plants around the house which I needed to replace. Yet where I witnessed the worst damage is in the acre of woods that I walk in every day. There are at least four or five old trees that showed no signs of life this spring. One of these was an old sassafras tree. This tree has rot all through it’s trunk and the woodpeckers have worked on it, punching holes in it as big as your fist into its bark. So yes, this tree is absolutely dead. Or is it? You see, after we had that rainy season this spring, I noticed something different about that sassafras tree. There, up about ten feet, was a little green shoot with leaves that had popped out of that most certainly dead tree. So we have to conclude that beyond what is so evident on the outside of this tree there is a power within this tree that must be called life.
I want to keep the image of this tree in mind as we come to the end of these messages called, “The Taste of Blessing. These messages are about what is called the fruit of the Spirit, you know, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness faithfulness, gentleness and today, what is often called self-control. Now as I have studied the fruit of the Spirit throughout my life, I just could not wrap my head around this part of the fruit of the Spirit. I mean, throughout the New Testament, we are taught that we are to be controlled by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, you know that whole dying to self, living for Jesus kind of thing.To suddenly have this one apparent exception to what is written everywhere else in scripture just seems to be a bit off. To claim that we now have a way to be in control of our life seems to be awfully close to sounding like a self-help book. This is why I believe that instead of, “self-control”, we should say we have an “inner strength”. This inner strength is demonstrated in much the same way that the sassafras tree revealed that it had an inner strength, through our witnessing to the life within us that appears even in the midst of death.
You see, when we realize that the fruit of the Spirit is what the world witnesses in us because of the work of the Holy Spirit, then our life demonstrating that we have an inner source of strength seems to be the right place to end up. The Holy Spirit, as we have seen, works through the blessing of our life. The very first teachings of Jesus ask us to consider what a life blessed through the Holy Spirit might look like. It is the Spirit who as Jesus tells us, convinces the hearers of the good news that God truly does desire to give us his kingdom even if we have absolutely nothing to give in return to such an act of love except love. This is how the Spirit works in us so that now the world witnesses that our life now loves others. Love is the fruit, the result of the working of Holy Spirit in us. Likewise, through the comfort of the Holy Spirit assuring us of life beyond death we are rightly, joyful people. The Holy Spirit is also the Spirit of adoption who assures us that we are indeed children of God. So, knowing God as our Father gives our life a profound peace. Likewise, we have become people who are patient, through the Spirit who is our freedom, the one who freely offers us as an offering of love to our Heavenly Father. This is why we are willing to wait to be fully satisfied until Jesus returns. We also come to know the Holy Spirit as being the very Spirit of unity, the one who draws us together through the creation of kindness. This kindness is what others experience every time we offer mercy to them. Then in prayer, the Spirit of holiness assures us that we now are able to come before a holy God whose love and joy for us radiates over his face. Alone with God, in secret, we become in synch with God, pure in our devotion for God, from one degree of glory to another. As we go from being with God to go and serve him in the world, the Spirit of truth leads us to live in the truth that Jesus has made peace a reality for all people through his death on the cross. It is when we follow the leading of the Spirit and go and make peace this is when we become faith filled. We should not be surprised, then, that when we overflow with the goodness of God that we will encounter opposition from the evil in this world. In these times, we are called to be open to the Spirit, the living water, and allow his power to flow through us. Through the Spirit we speak the words that bring glory to our Father. So what the world witnesses in us is the gentleness of a flowing stream which pours forth from our life, gliding past what is in his way, to search for a heart that will be open to the flowing of this river of life that we call the Holy Spirit.
You see, all of these are experiences with the Holy Spirit which give to us a first-hand knowledge of the goodness of God; this is the whole reason why God blesses us, to know him and to be known by him. We are to be people who can say, I know God to be a God of love, not because this is I read one time in the fourth chapter of the first letter of John. No, I know God as a God of love because when I had nothing, God gave me everything. If this does not describe love then I must not know what love really is. The importance of our knowing God is what Paul writes about in the fourth and fifth chapters of the second letter to the church at Corinth. There we find in the original wording that in Second Corinthians 4, verse six, Paul writes, “For God, who said,’Let light shine out of the darkness’, has flooded our hearts with the light of glory-knowing the God seen in the face of Christ”. This word we know as, “glory”, comes from the root word meaning to have an opinion. So when Paul writes, “The light of glory”, he is telling us that what God has overwhelmingly shown us should be, in our opinion, held to be worth everything to us. In other words, we should be absolutely certain, that to know God, to know the God we gaze upon as we look at the face of our Messiah-King, this is worth everything to us The way that we can know Jesus is through being obedient to the teachings of Jesus. You see, Jesus is the goodness of God that lives a flesh and blood existence. So through his teachings about how we are blessed by the Holy Spirit, Jesus is calling us to come and join him. We are to be those who, like Jesus. show the goodness of God in our own flesh and blood existence. This is the very the goodness which is a result, or fruit of the Spirit. Paul tells us that this goodness of God given to us through the Holy Spirit is to be our greatest treasure, what we have decided is worth everything, what we call glory. Paul calls us to conclude that this unchanging, uncommon, goodness of God as seen in the face of Jesus, simply must be our highest glory.
Now, this has to cause us to wonder just why did Paul place such a high value on this goodness of God received through the blessing of the Holy Spirit? The reason Paul gives to us is that to know God’s unchanging, uncommon goodness gives us a surprising power. Listen to what Paul witnesses about how different a life is that it is now lived knowing God and his goodness: “We are under pressure in every way, but we are not crushed. We are may wonder which way to go but we also know that we are never with out a way. We are hunted down by those who wish to silence us but we know that we are not forsaken. We are struck down but look, we are not destroyed…” The treasure inside this common, clay jar which was the life of Paul, what he could say made all the difference when persecution came upon him, is knowing God and his uncommon, unchanging goodness. Paul appears to consider that a life that knows God and has this knowledge of his goodness is like taking a fragile clay jar and filling it full of concrete. Where once a person could would take a swing at this clay jar and shatter it to pieces now their hits are met with a surprise for this clay jar simply refuses to break. Paul is telling us that when we have received the fullness of the blessing given to us by the Holy Spirit we are to be like clay pots who simply refuse to crack and break when the world comes calling. When we have received the fullness of the Spirit’s blessing, we keep getting up, we refuse to go down, and this is what the world is to see when they put the pressure on. What an honor when they look at us and ask, “Just what has gotten into you?”. Our answer is life. We have taken the world’s advice to get a life and we have indeed gotten a life, and this life is a life knowing God and his uncommon goodness. This is the power within us that keeps us from losing our hope, the glory we know is worth everything. This is why Jesus can say to us, ‘You are blessed when others revile you, hunt you down to silence you, and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account…” Can we just just pause here for a moment to consider how this teaching of Jesus goes against every fiber of common sense that most of us have? What Jesus describes is a situation of sheer terror and fear, yet even here, of all places, a touch of the Holy Spirit is waiting for us. You see, it is only when the pressure comes that we realize the strength of what we have received through being blessed by the Holy Spirit. Only then can we say with confidence that greater is the one who is within us then the one who is in the world. So of course, we overflow with joy, for here we discover that all that we know about God is indeed true. God indeed loves as a Father who shields our life from death so that we can live with him forever. So let the world do its worst, for we know God always does his best, so not only do we have joy but we shout and jump with shouts of joy, because we know God and God knows us.
Paul tells us that when we rejoice when under pressure from the world we will join the good company of the prophets who came before us. This mention of the prophets by Jesus helps us to understand just why are we bing persecuted in the first place. In the eighteenth chapter of Deuteronomy we learn about those called to be a prophet of God. These were simply those that God raised up from among the people of Israel in order that they might be his mouthpiece to speak his words to his people. In the Old Testament, the prophets were much more seen and heard during the reigns of the kings of Israel. The reason for this is that God called the prophets to the go and speak to the kings who sat on the throne. The kings were called to remember that while they may be king of Israel, there was indeed a greater king who ruled over all the world, this one known as their God. So the prophets were a constant reminder to the kings and the rest of Israel to just don’t forget who is boss. Of course, the kings wanted nothing more than to silence these who would dare stand up and question their authority. The kings, like the world today, wondered just what had gotten into these people of God. You see, before God, everyone, including all kings and rulers, are equals in his sight. This is the message of the cross which made this truth a reality. Through the cross of Christ we are now all equals who make up one new humanity.This is the very scandal of the cross which even in our day, thousands of years later, causes others to scoff at such an idea. I mean, can you hear how outrageous these words of Paul are that are found at the end of the third chapter of Galatians, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male or female, for we are all one in Christ Jesus.” Such an ideal as this is reviled in our world is by those who seek to rule the world. The reason for being against this equality is found in what Jesus teaches us in the tenth chapter of Mark, “You know that the rulers of the nations lord over their subjects and their great ones exercise authority over them.” You see, it is the kings of old and the rulers of today who must hold that they are superior and thus worthy to lord over others. They simply refuse to acknowledge that there is a true king who rules over all whose name is Jesus. So imagine what happens when those in power encounter those who appear to be living by a greater power, a life which calls into question these rulers claims of authority. This is the problem of being those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because for there to be righteousness there also must be equality; there simply cannot be two sets of rules for people to live by. As Christians, this talk of us all being equals is terrific news especially for those who find themselves among the least of these. Yet if we take this idea of equality to its logical conclusion then it will at last call into question the very way that we govern ourselves for Jesus teaches us, in this, again in the tenth chapter of Mark, that as his followers we are to lead but in a very different manner than we find in the world. Jesus says to us that this lording over others shall not be found among the followers of Jesus. No, instead, whoever would be great among us must be the servant of all. Whoever desires to be first must be willing to be last. For even the Son of Man, this one called Jesus, came to serve others not to have others serve him. He is the one who gave his life as a ransom for many. This is the goodness of God that we have come to know through the touch of the Holy Spirit. You see, the root meaning of what someone does when they bless another person’s life is, “to kneel”. You see, for God to bless you means that our God and king has knelt before us and has given us a gift of great worth. Kneeling is the action which comes before any gift is given, and act of humility and service. These are the actions of the true king whose name is above every other name, above every ruler or authority, because he alone displays his greatness by becoming the servant of all people. When the world sees in us that we now know a king named Jesus, and this king has kneeled before us and has given to us his very goodness, then rightfully, the world has its very claims called into question. When Paul states in the tenth verse of Second Corinthians that we always carry in our bodies the death of Jesus, he speaks to the very reason that Jesus had to be crucified, silenced forever, for he refused to stop telling the truth that his was the way of true greatness. So we might say, that these blessings received through the Holy Spirit and kept within our life, give us a knowledge about God which is a two-edged sword. To the world such a different way to achieve greatness by doing acts of sacrificial service, this upsets the proverbial apple cart. The very authority of the so-called authorities is no longer as certain as it used to be. Just what might happen if one day, the world would suddenly be found under the rule of king Jesus and this upside down way to greatness would become the norm? So such nonsense must be silenced and ridiculed as being just another ideal for the disillusioned. Yet, not only does the death of Jesus live in us, but his life lives in us as well. Just what is it that we know about God through his blessing us? We know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will one day raise us also with Jesus and bring us all to live eternally before the face of God. This is why Paul reminds us, we do not lose heart. Outwardly, our lives witness to being beat up up by a world where everyone wants to be king. Inwardly, though we know the one true king for his very life is the life that lives in us. Jesus is the one who makes us new day by day. So, when people ask, what has gotten into you? We can reply, “Jesus has gotten into me, and, that has made all the difference! Amen!
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