I am a Jesus pusher!!! Each teaching in the Sermon on the Mount flows from the instruction preceding it. Each beatitude logically follows the one before it, giving it content and meaning. In the Beatitudes, we are instructed on “The Formation of the Kingdom” (Matthew 5:3-12). In an intimate relationship with Jesus’ abiding presence, we become the Kingdom. This Kingdom of relationship influences the world around it. It is “The Function of the Kingdom” (Matthew 5:13-16). If we do not experience being the Kingdom, we do not experience this function. The function is an influence derived from His presence. All of this rests on a foundation, “The Foundation of the Kingdom” (Matthew 5:17-20).
“The Foundation of the Kingdom” is the heart of the Beatitudes’ inner qualities. These qualities derive from the relationship with Jesus. “The Function of the Kingdom,” salt and light, rests upon this foundation. The qualities are a flow of His Spirit through us; the influence in our world is because Jesus sources us. One would think that the foundation would be the person of Jesus! But in this next section, the Function of the Kingdom, the focus is on the Word of God. But Jesus is the Word of God! He is the Living Word demonstrating the Written Word. In fact, as He fills us in merger, we become shaped by His Written Word. Jesus lived by the presence of the Spirit within Him; but that Presence used the Written Word to shape everything Jesus did. It is the interaction of the Living and Written Word that fulfills our lives. The Scripture is fulfilled in the living of the Kingdom person. Jesus living in us is speaking to us through His Word. What a relationship! I am a Jesus pusher!!!